001Good afternoon and welcome to the Tuesday, January 20th, 2026 Matthews County School Board budget work session. We are called to order. Item 1.2 roll call. Miss Lao, may we have the roll call. >> Stewart >> here. >> Mr. >> Present. >> Here. >> Present. Thank you. Item two, we're going to have a review of the 2026 2027 division budget draft number one from Dr. Daniel. >> I usually watch it. I'm try to go through some of the stuff [clears throat] on the numbers. >> Oh, that sounds like we're rocking and rolling now. Okay. So, this budget is based on 725 students in grades K through 12. So, we don't get SOQ funding for preK students. Um, we do get some VPI money for our um preK students, but that's not part of the um um
002SODM calculation. So, we're basing this budget on 725. Um, this budget includes um an increase of 2% plus a step to the current salary scale. Our steps, as a reminder, are 1%. So, that would be a basically a 3% um pay increase, but just to clarify, it's 2% plus a um plus a step for eligible staff. Um, another assumption is this then, um, so the 2% plus step does not include teacher assistance. Uh, we're trying to work on the teacher assistant pay. So it this budget includes a 6% plus a step for TAS. Um, our we don't have definitive costs yet for health insurance. So Miss Hunley factored in a 10% increase to employer health insurance costs. Um, we should get the actual numbers in February. Um, we're anticipating an increase, but 10% right now
003is a placeholder. Um, we can hope for less. Um, but it it may be more than that. Um, the budget also includes a placeholder for our portion of the grant match for two school resource officers. It doesn't include salaries. It's not benefits. It's our portion of the grant match that the sheriff's office um has applied to um and will continue to apply for in in years to come. The budget includes an a full-time kind of athletic trainer position. Uh the current budget we're in right now has a placeholder for contracting for athletic training services. We've not been able to fill that contract. Um, so we're again attempting to, and we put it in last year, um, so we're attempting again to have a paid athletic trainer position in the budget that is a Matthews County
004Public Schools employee. And finally, this budget also assumes like a state funding model, a state funding and local funding model. So in some conversations with the board of supervisors, we were talking about if our local composite index um as determined by the state is 6637 then our state funding. So that local composite is basically saying that's the portion that's a locality's ability to pay. Then the state then funds the remaining portion. So if what we're getting in state costs is then 33.63% of what it would cost to run the school division, we're then using some math to figure out, okay, what then is 66.37. So that's the placeholder in the budget for local operating contribution. Okay. So, that's how we came up with that number. How Miss Hunley sort of came up with that number.
005And that number sort of grew out of our joint leadership conversation um with some with some of the um leadership at the board of supervisors. So, each year again some more highlights. Each year we um the request is okay is what does a 1% look like? What does 2% look like? What does 5% in terms of salary increase? what do those numbers look like? So, we can have some conversations about what amount of um salary increase we're able, you know, what what is the impact on the budget. So, 1% right now is about $144,000. 3% is about $360,000. 5% increase in salaries is about $527,000. So, those are kind of some and that's with existing staff or Okay. So, with the fund with the staffing that we anticipate going into FY27 and then I just
006want to cover one um some historic um budget budget pieces. So, we've gotten some questions um recently and probably maybe for the last year about projections from what did we receive in revenue based on our projections. So, that the row across the top is kind of the revenue year. So, FY23 through our current FY26. In parentheses is what the budget was based on. And then below that is the actual ADM or average daily membership. So in 23 FY23 the budget was based on 890 students. Our actual ADM that year was 86508 and that is in that column is then what we received in other local funding. That's that's like rents and that kind of stuff. That's other local. Then below that is state revenue, federal revenue, and then local operating is the amount of money
007that was allocated from the county. For our total overall revenue that year of 18.1 million FY24, the budget was based on 875. Our ADM that year was 782.44. So we were off by almost 100 students. And then so the in that column those numbers are based on not what was budgeted but the actual revenue that we received that year. Um again 785 and FY25 um the actual um 743. This current year that we're working under FY26 we budgeted for 725. We're still around the 743 range. So, we're we've held right now in terms of our enrollment. Historically though, when we go back and look, we've dropped about 25 students over the course of a year. So, that's why we and we base the budget a little bit lower than what our ADM um what we're
008projecting the ADM to be. Any questions thus far on Okay. >> Actually, I I do have a question. >> Sure. >> Back up to the health u the anticipated 10% or the um estimated [snorts] 10% the guessing 10%. Do we have a dollar figure for that? What that uh increase represents? If that were to transpire. >> Okay. >> Yeah. So I think the this highlight has us absorbing that 10%. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> So is it is the thinking then if it's over 10% then um the employee would have to what you're proposing >> possibly. >> Okay. I think I think it depends on where we I mean the other major unknown is the state budget and right we have really not much has come out from the spamburger administration about what their plans
009are for the budget. So I think [snorts] what we receive in basic aid and per pupil allocation and rebenchmarking and a lot of the things that go into this the K12 budget um we just we don't know yet. So all of this is based off of Governor Ynan's budget that was released I think December 17th. So, we're we're doing a lot of work on a budget that is probably going to be significantly changed and we I'm hoping we would have some highlights honestly by now. Um, we may get some insights in the next couple weeks. Honestly, if this snows well I think the general assembly still meets even if it snows because they're on they're on a time crunch in terms of their number of days and most of them kind of stay in Richmond
010anyway. So, We'll we'll see. So, if we get more state money per student, we may then have more flexibility in the budget to cover more of those anticipated healthcare costs. It just sort of depends. >> They're going to want you to speak into the microphone so the people at home can hear. >> So, for the increase, the 10% is 134,64. >> Thank you. Okay, this slide shows the anticipated differences between fiscal year 26 and fiscal year 27. Um, as you can see, as far as the operating for the the total revenue is pretty much flat. Um, and that is because the state funding decreased 364,000 and we're only picked the local share based on the 6637 that we assumed is picking up 258. So technically we're going with the same amount of revenue um next
011fiscal year as we are this fiscal year. Um and then at the bottom where we thrifty spot, we no longer have Thrifty Spot. So that um that revenue goes away and school food and textbook um as you can see textbook fund has increased a lot because we're doing a textbook adoption next year. So we need that to for the textbook adoption is for um math and science. Um, and that's pretty much what we anticipate the revenue to look like for next fiscal year. But again, that's based on um the governor's budget that was put out in December. And most likely, again, this is going to change. Is there any questions on the revenue side? All right. for expenditure side um it's broken down into functions. So you have instruction, you have your admin, attendance, health,
012transportation, operations, maintenance, the transfer and technology. Um as you can see the for oper for the instruction it was a increase of 135,000 and that's a combination of a lot of things in the budget. It consists of um like for instance um summer school wasn't budgeted in fiscal year 26 so is now budgeted in fiscal year 27. You also have your athletic trainer that's in that line. Um and the increase for the substitute of ESSR who we contract out for our substitutes for instruction for um admin attendance and health is a difference of 66,231. And that's basically um that's basically my position as far as the difference between my salary and the um salary from fiscal year 26. Um and also it also has a little bit of purchase services in there that's increased also
013in that line. Um and for transportation it's a difference of and that is for um and just aligning the daily driver rate to what has been actually um expended through the last couple of years. As you saw in a detailed budget, I also include what was actuals for fiscal year 25 so that you can see the differences for what we actually had for fiscal 25, what we budgeted for fiscal 266 and what we proposed to budget for fiscal year 27. So you can have some type of historical data. Um and also with um transportation it's a fluctuation with fuel because I mean that's like that fluctuates up and down. So it's just again aligning it to previous um expenditures from last fiscal year 25 for operations and maintenance. It was an increase of 154523. That
014is basically a combination of the um the school resource officer that we budgeted for that and also the increase in the custodial contract um that we have with um HS >> security grant would be in um >> yeah but that's not that's that was pretty much a >> I'll just stop interrupting. >> Okay. And um the next one is technology. You see that's a decrease in 72 and that's because um it was budgeting that and she just um retired. So the the attrition from that is that $72,000. Um going to food service, it's a negative 32,000 and that's basically aligning it to the projected um expenditures for from 25 and 26. And again, textbook has gone up 191 because we anticipate um a textbook adoption for math and science. and um the community fund that
015stand flat at 20,000 and we use that for tuition reimbursement. >> Any questions on um expenditures? >> Yes, ma'am. >> I have a question on the increase with the ESS >> contract. Uh how are we we're doing that based on actual? >> Yeah, I mean >> how was that budget line item determined? >> It was based on our actual for this year. Um the what we budgeted in fiscal 26 was an average between fiscal year 23 24 and 25 um as far as what we spent in substitutes for those fiscal years and this year is it can be up and it can be down this year we had um a lot of staff that were out for FMLA and then um as far as vacancies so it was um we're spending a little bit higher
016than we anticipated for this year and it would just be um beneficial to have that as a um just for anticipated absences or um anything that comes up that we need a substitute for in fiscal year 27. >> How much cushion do you think you would be planning for there >> that I mean it's not really a cushion. I mean it's based on the projected what we possibly would spend this year. >> Okay. So with [clears throat] a little bit more with every month we get more information that feeds into that number and we can see keep an eye on that. >> Yes. >> Okay. Community foundation >> and also a question about uh MA Meals on Wheels. >> Okay. >> Um that's always a sticky wicket. >> Um what's your question? It's it's in
017our budget >> and yet there's a lot of untangling and um when we're doing the bills, you can really see what has to be uh untangled with the bowl of spaghetti there. Is there is that appropriate in your opinion for that um for Mau to be included in our budget is and it can we address it properly um so that we don't have any vulnerability there. >> From my understanding, we can go to um Mills on Wheels and I guess they have a contract with bait agent as far as how much they are um contract with them for reimbursement. Um we could always go back and say, you know, here's the numbers. Like right now I can say that we're like um as far as we're spending more than what we got in so far
018for Meals on Wheels is like maybe $20,000 like we're um as far as uh expenditures more than our revenue that we received. But that could balance out through the end of the year. But um it was something that we would have to go back to Meals on Wheels and ask you know um if they want to still continue to I guess provide I guess us provide services through the are >> the cafeteria or >> separating into a different account and just peeling off meals meals on wheels all together outside of the the school's >> yes >> account. Is there a way to go to keep it cleaner? >> Not we would have to separate like they would have to >> Yeah, there's no way to do that unless they separate from us as far as
019we would no longer provide our kitchen and um the drivers and everything no longer go through. >> And of course we know the benefit to our community for meals on wheels that is not in question. It's strictly accounting for um the dollars and making sure everything is is perfectly clean. >> Okay. And you review that contract annually, I'm sure. >> Well, um >> I don't think we have we haven't reviewed the contract this year. It comes up I think renewal in the spring. I think Miss Gibbs has ongoing conversations with a on the reimburseable and costs associated with running this program. Miss Gibbs and I had some had some conversations last spring during our budget budget talks as we had some talks about meals on wheels and including them or separate having meals on wheels
020separate from the school division um budget and just again opening those conversations. And so she said they have she and Beijing have that ongoing conversation dialogue about reimbursement rates and things along those lines. >> Okay. I guess as long as we're staying in the loop and all of that. >> Yeah. We'll continue to monitor those rates. I know Miss Gibbs stays on top of that. Yes. >> Pretty closely. So we'll continue to keep an eye on that to make sure it's at least a break even situation. >> Be great. Yes. Any other questions? >> Can we go back to um Meals on Wheels? The use of our of the kitchen, is that an inind donation or is there actual monetary charge that that Bay aging pays pays the schools? I don't think there's a monetary
021um like we don't charge them a fee or a rental fee or a shared use fee or anything along those lines. >> So it's in kind >> I believe so. >> Okay. >> I think there's some reimburse rate for meals. I think it's based on the number of meals served and um costs associated with it's a per meal basis. >> Okay. On that point, it's my understanding I had a friend who was doing this that you pay for your meals according to your income. Is that still correct? I don't know how Meals on Wheels gets their funding through like in terms of um grants and state aid that goes to them and their process for the individuals they serve. >> I only have some familiarity from our end in terms of how Meals on Wheels
022then reimburses the the school division. >> Okay. >> And I don't I don't I can't speak on to speak to it in depth. Thank you. >> And again, these are just the categories that um we just talked about for instruction. It tells you um the 1,00 as far as the salaries, what salaries are included in 10,000. Um 2,000 is for benefits. Uh 3,000 is for purchase services. Uh 5,000 miscellaneous. Um 6,000 material and supplies and 7,000 is tuition. And it gives you a brief description of what is in those c those um object codes um for instruction. And the same thing for um 662. Um it just gives you a brief desri um description of the different um object codes for that uh category for that function. And it's also going from um 63 for
023transportation and 64 for operations and 68 for technology. just to give you an idea of what is in each section. >> We can spend time on the LCI formula if you really want, but it's basically just there for reference. Um, if you want to go back to to take a look at it in terms of true values over straight values, um, sorry, state true values, etc., etc. Um, but that that's there. Um and so we'll load this up into board docs if it hasn't been loaded up. We are still making some edits um late into today, but um we'll have have all these available. Um just a quick review on the local composite index and as it has risen for Matthews over um really the almost the last decade. Um so going from 05060 to
024where we are now at 6637. So really and again to highlight folks highlight for everyone both board members and community. So we saw a 7 percentage point increase in our local composite index. That's the third highest in the state in terms of increase. Um, and here's a a chart to kind of show you where our composite index ranks in the state. Each blue column is a school division in Virginia. Um, and so Matthews is indicated um on that on that bar chart in the yellow kind of where where we rank in comparison to uh the rest of the state and to our kind of closest comparable peers. Middle Sex at Middle Sex actually went down. They went down to 62. Gloucester at 399. Uh West Point at 0.2524. Um just some overall information about enrollment
025trends. Um this is taken from our September 30 um K12 count. So we have to do a count um March 30 and September 30. That helps drive what our ADM is. So the state adjusts their funding model based on our September 30 ADM and then really again the big one is with our March 30 count. So this looks at and this is publicly available on the DOE website. So that's where I've pulled this for the last several years. So in um so basically September 30 of 03 we were just under 1300 students. Um this year we were at 759. So when we think about projections for our budget and what do we look at? So we continue to kind of look at a declining enrollment. Again, I'm hopeful that we've sort of we've flattened out
026in that declining trend and we're hopefully going to start to increase that. We saw a larger kindergarten class this year. U before you is class size ratios currently for the 2526 school year. Um so when this graph was built we had 63 students in kindergarten um 45 in grade one um 54 50 51 um and then up to 64 in grade five. Um senior class this year at 70. So again, when we're thinking part of that projection is thinking, okay, well, how many trying to guess how many kindergarteners or future kindergarteners may be out there and how that number compares to seniors graduating. Um, we haven't had a 70 student kindergarten in quite some time. So I think to plan and budget for um a small dip in enrollment is probably smart at this point.
027Um but the graphic here gives you an idea of kind of class sizes, average class sizes and number of students in those those core classes. Sometimes when you look on the DOE website, it'll talk about teacher student ratio. That's a different calculation than actual class size. The teacher student ratio is going to factor in your elective teachers and some other staff members into that ratio. So that's not really the same um metric as the number of kids sitting in the seats while students are learning. So what you have before you there is is a rough um kind of projection about what our class sizes are. Um and as we you know you have conversations about well do we drop a teacher here, drop a teacher there. If you think about what that impact is, it's
028a it would in this situation you would be increasing class size by about 50%. So if we go from three teachers to two teachers, you're increasing that class size by 50%. The high schools, because of the number of elective classes that have to be available at the high school, that class size goes down a little bit because you're going to have some um electives and options that we want to be available for students, but we're not necessarily going to be able to put 20 students into those um into those elective classes. So that's where the the program offerings come into play about master schedule and staffing um at the high school. Talking about staffing division staffing levels, giving you um an idea of where we um where we've set up over the last three years.
029So, in the 2324 school year, and again, this is a fall calculation, but total full-time and part-time in the 2324 school year was about 224. Um, for the 2526, we're at about 183. Again, going into this year, part of that decline is custodians are no longer, while we still have custodians in the building, they're not MCPS employees. maintenance is also part of that part of that decline. Um so while those staff positions um are still kind of in service, those are services are contracted out. So that's part of that pretty big drop from um last year into this year. But you see kind of an overall declining um staff as we've, you know, had fewer kids. We've tried to have fewer employees, but we also have high needs in a lot of our areas that
030require staff support. Salary comparison. Um I'm providing um salary comparison from 23 and then 24 and then where we are this fall in terms of at zero years experience 10 20 and then 30 and then where that how that differential um plays out. uh we're relatively um relatively competitive at zero years, but the gap widens quite a bit by the time we get to 30 years in terms of compens in terms of the salary scale, I will say. Um again, we've we're still working on finalizing the salary scale study. We're um working on getting the the steps worked out and folks appropriately placed on those steps. Um hopefully with that plan in place over a couple of years we can close those gaps between us and our neighboring school divisions. Yes, ma'am. >> When do
031you plan on having that completed? >> Hopefully um but we need to have it completed um to our final budget conversation because there going to be budgetary impacts. So at least phase one, we may need to do it over a couple years. So, we may need to target one employee group this year, a second employee group, and then a third employee group. We just need to look at the um budget implications as we begin to place people appropriately in those spots because there's a lot of hand entering then about putting them this person needs to be on this this step on this new scale based on their current salaries. because we're um there's a hold harmless impact on doing this. So, we don't want some Oh, sorry. You know, you're at a lower step, so
032you're getting a pay cut. That's not the intent of doing this. It's making sure that we have a transparent and easy to understand salary scale going forward. >> Um I I'm obviously must have misunderstood. I thought one of the things we're going to do with a salary scale study is to re-evaluate rather than just % in our steps to consider maybe doing a 1.25 or something so we can close that gap. Is that still part of >> that is still part of the analysis? Yes. So, how do we how do we spread that out over years? Does it make sense to >> um bump everybody up now and just maintain it or like so there's there's some options and factors that are provided. >> Okay. Thank you. >> You're welcome. [snorts] >> That might be
033the last one. Okay. So that's that would be the last part of the presentation. So I think this is the point where I think we can I guess you don't have a microphone but I can sit down and if y'all have questions about overall kind of budget budget thoughts, budget topics, budget questions that we can help answer and kind of work through other other pieces. >> Yes, Dr. Daniel. Um, do you foresee I know the budget's not in with the state yet, but do you foresee a shortfall for us this year? Overall, [snorts] >> I think it's likely that we are going to receive less money from the state this year than we did last year. Um, some of that is enrollment, but I think based on the the conversations at the superintendence conference in
034January, the impact of Medicaid funding moving from the federal level down to the state level and the state having to absorb those costs, it's removed quite a bit of um funding flexibility, if you will, to provide more money for for K12. Um the governor has stated her intent to try to raise teacher salaries and to do um a lot of to improve schools. That often translates differently governor to governor on how what they want to do to improve schools and how they go about um trying to improve teacher [snorts] salaries. So we'll see. But I'm not I'm not confident at this point that we're going to get more money per pupil um to um provide additional more revenue from the state than what we received last year. >> Thank you. On the heels of that
035LCI, I know we've discussed it and we've discussed it with our representatives and so forth. Is there any advice for us as a board as to what we could do to help improve this high high rate? >> Um, we've had some conversations with board of supervisors members who were trying to who are in contact with our representatives in Richmond. Um I think they're looking at the um one of the pieces on here is like 10% talks about like local taxable retail sales. Well, if you're in a in a locality that has a large retail base, you're garnering a lot of sales tax revenue that's coming back into your locality. And so this formula undervalues that wealth asset in other localities. And so I think our supervisors, I know Mr. Bowen has talked about reaching out
036about is there a way to recalculate or recalibrate the formula to greater to emphasize that sales tax power that some localities have that aren't represented in this. We don't in Matthews, we really don't have a sales tax base per se that provides um additional revenue for our locality to pay off some of these needs, fire trucks, you know, building repairs, etc., etc. So, other localities have that ability that then doesn't get factored into their wealth assessment or their ability to pay. So in terms of advice for you, I would say um continuing to reach out year round um to the legislators about um trying to fix or adjust or tweak um the local composite index and if not then trying to provide the LCI goes into basic aid but there are other incentive pieces that
037often go into the state budget. So, if they're able to provide other funding or hold harmless enrollment caps um for school divisions to make sure that we're not um you know going bankrupt for lack of a better word. >> Thank you. >> Yes. Okay. So, um I one thing I would like to request um is, you know, a master schedule for each school. I think seeing how the different staff members are spread out throughout the day would be helpful um for budgeting purposes. And um I had a few questions about technology items [snorts] um I guess particularly Chromebooks. Um, I've since I've worked in a middle school for over two decades, um, particularly when when Chromebooks came on the scene, um, in both districts, I worked in certain age groups, um, particularly, um, middle schoolers
038as a whole. I'm not saying every middle schooler's hard on Chromebooks, but, you know, the most repairs, replacements, um, you know, have typically come in the, uh, middle school age group. And um it's my understanding that now eighth graders since they've been moved to high school and and the all the other high schoolers on up are personally issued Chromebooks. And so knowing I think how many you know what the cost is per grade level for repairs, replacement rates and you know and I just don't want it's really important to teach children how to use technology. So, I think I'm not, you know, but they they need them in the classrooms. Um, techn is part of our world, but um I've also found them to be quite a distraction at times and I, you know, and
039I don't want taxpayers paying for them in a distracting manner that if kids take them home, you know, maybe they're distracted by them or playing games. That's my my experience. You cannot block all the games that you don't want them to get to during class or otherwise. So, but I I would love knowing that information. Like, >> yeah, I don't know. I'll I'll check with the folks in our IT department to see if we're tracking by by grade level in terms of repair costs or replacement costs. Um the VPSA technology bonds are one of the few things that aren't based per student. They're based per school. So that's the that's the lone area that I can think of where there's some advantage to being small. So, our elementary school gets the same amount of technology
040money as a 1,00 student elementary school. So, we're able to leverage >> the small amount of money that we get for technology um a little a little better than say a larger school division or or a school that has more kids. So, again, that's the that's the one the one piece of that. And going back to the repair cost, one of the reasons we moved away from one to one at all the grades grade levels was because of repair cost. So their classroom sets. Then at the middle school level, I think in grades I think three through um three through seven. Eighth grade, then there's more of the the one to one, you're taking a specific device home each day. So that's part of what we were um doing because we don't have the same
041staffing that we did in the IT department too. So we didn't have the number of people to repair. So we had to figure out a way to kind of reduce the repair needs. >> Okay. >> So um along that same line, is there any way that um we can learn from our technology department how much um h how often students are on playing games? Can they can they track that with, you know, just looking at it? >> If it were super easy to track, it'd be a whole lot easier to block, right? >> Um, so there's just lots of kind of workarounds like the >> my having been that IT director in the past, um, a lot of these rudimentary kind of game sites change their web address constantly and the way you block it
042is you have to put in a specific web address. Um if you don't then the other way around it is every time a teach you either block everything and then approve a few or kind of the inverse of that. So um it's it's not impossible and it but it's a constant um this new address, this new address, this new address. >> Um and it's you know kids kids find the new address and they share it with their friends and then they're playing. I just wish we had a way to really measure how much students [snorts] are using it for games and other things. >> I mean, I think we can kind of our subjective thoughts about it. I just wish we had a better >> I mean, we can go kid by kid and pull
043up every website that, you know, so when we suspect somebody has >> um gone to a site they shouldn't have, we can pull like every site that they've been to um on their Matthews account. I mean, we can do that. But again, that becomes >> somewhat labor intensive. >> It does. >> I'd love to hear from teachers about, you know, this. I felt like it was a battle that I constantly fought last year with with eighth graders, you know, and that unblock games was all over the software that I was constantly like playing whack-a-ole with. >> Yeah. I don't think [laughter] I think it's gotten better than say four years ago when that was very much the um a trend especially with middle school students trying to get on these these random >> and they
044were very basic almost like pong type games that students were getting into. >> Um and so I don't I don't think that's the cool thing to do right now. So I don't think there's as much of that happening. But I'm also a little bit further removed from that. So I may be I may be going off that intel. I as I mentioned I think last month um I threw out 6% for starting for um salary increases and I and I did that because I want Matthews to have the opportunity to have the best teachers um that are that are available and we're competing um with one other school division that consistently ly pays starting pay is above ours. Is there any thought um in central office about how we is can we close that gap?
045How we're going to close that gap? Is there a plan for year down the road? You know, every year we'll catch up a little bit more. I just want to you know, I feel better if we had some kind of plan moving forward. um because I to me it's all integrated in that if we have the opportunity to have the best teachers that I think more um parents would send their children here and possibly move here um if if we could compete at that level. So I just was curious what your thinking is about that. >> I I think it's a a multi-pronged attack. So, I think we're going to attract and be able to retain teachers who look at our facilities and the facilities are working well. So, we've attacked copy machines. So, we're
046working on HVAC systems. We're working on parking lots. And so, there's some of those in intangible sort of things. Do they have the resources that they need to be able to do the job? Part of it also is the work during the day for teachers. So that's classroom management, support from admin on discipline things, support with attendance. Um, so it's it's sort of increasing the the the climate, if you will, in the building. So both tangible and sort of that that intangible climate piece. >> [snorts] >> It's hard to without a an agreement from the funding body on a long-term like commitment to raise salaries um to be able to attack that. The other part of that I think when when we have better looking facilities and I think there's to credit to the supervisors
047I mean they're they're working with us to attack that problem. um that curb appeal is going to bring in more families as well. Then coupled with increased improved academic success, it makes Matthews a more appealing place. But we also need housing for these families to live in. So as we do the things to attract more families, we get more kids in the se in our in our classrooms. our local composite index would then go down because we have more kids. Um part a big part of the reason for our LCI going up is our declining enrollment along with property values going up. But the the biggest impact has been the declining enrollment piece. So if we're able to like have housing, have an environment where um teachers want to work and kids want to be,
048then we enrollment goes up, LCI comes down, we're getting more money from the state that helps then offset some of the the tax base on or the tax burden from our citizens. So it's it's you know, we bump this up over here, do a little bit over here, get some things done over here. Um it's it's a I wish it was hey we got the if we could just get the salary scaled to this point then everything's going to be better but I don't know that um it's I think it's a little bit of that it's a little bit of this it's a little bit of that thing over there. >> So Middle Sex then their LCI went down because they have more students. Is that is that a fair assumption there? because their property
049is certainly >> I would have to look at their I could I could pull up their values like there's some >> I just didn't know if >> I think they're I don't think they're enrollment has increased. Um I think they're relatively flat. I think they had um an especially small kindergarten this year. Um so they're they're somewhat concerned about at least kindergarten. I I don't want to speak too much on Middle Sex and what's happening in another division, but so I know yeah, I think there are there are few divisions within our region that are increasing in enrollment. Most are seeing some sort of decline. >> In the few minutes we have uh remaining members, are there any more questions or comments? >> While you're pondering, I do have one. Um, regarding the federal funds
050on the revenue uh side, page four, we're showing an increase in title one and especially title six um funding. Can is that due to the restructuring? Can you just explain why we would expect that? >> Yes. Um, for title one, it was it was just due to actually aligning it to what the actual funding that we received for title one. like for this year I believe we received that 2011 415 is what is 415 is what we received for fiscal year 26. >> So I mean it's just bringing it up to exactly what we actually are receiving and for 6B um that grant is um I think this year it had 200 I can't remember the exact amount but it's some grant funds left over from the previous year because they have up to u
051certain amount of months to actually spend it. So, it's just combining those totals together. So, it's actually putting it in the budget exactly what the grant um funding is total for that for this fiscal year. That's how we budget for the next one. >> So, we really don't know exactly what grant funding we're going to receive, >> right? >> Um coming up. So, >> okay. Thank you for that clarification explanation. >> Last questions can >> ask. So, um, the furniture that was about $35,000. I'm just curious, is that the bulk of that? Sorry. Is it the bulk of that probably um furniture that students and staff have worn out and it's become unsafe to use? Um, do you know? Um, >> so prior to FY26, there was not a line item for furniture replacement. Mhm.
052>> So it was there was it wasn't planned. There wasn't a replacement plan. It was >> trying to figure out how can we can cover the cost for replacing student desks or bookcases. Um that was actually that that amount was put in this year's budget specifically for library as we merged in needing um library furniture. So, that's where that um line item came from. And we felt like it was smart to at least be able to track that and budget for replacement of desks or bookcases, whether it's teacher desks, student desks, etc. to have some amount of money um to manage that because historically there wasn't a furniture replacement line item. So, that's kind of where that where that came from. So, if we can think through moving like a grade level replacement or upgrading
053of of furniture at a time. We can begin to plan for that and and plan that out over over years. >> And stuff wears out. I've watched chairs break right in front of my eyes. >> Right. Exactly. I [laughter] mean, it just happens. But >> particularly those kind of chairs >> previously there wasn't there wasn't a line item for it and so we were trying to take it out of various funds to to cover a you know student desks are about $200 a piece. >> Okay. >> So like replacing a classroom set is is costly. >> Yes. Okay. Thank you. Well, on that note, and as a way to close out, the line item budget approach has been very, very easy to read, much easier. >> Yes, I should have thanked you for that. >>
054Prior versions, I know the effort that must take, but it is much appreciated, and I'm sure that we can look forward to even untangling even more bits if we need to. Um, and that helps us understand better how this budget process and ultimately what we approve goes to support our school division staff and especially our students. So, thank you for the efforts in presenting this initial draft. Um, if there are no more questions, there being none,