001Okay, we're live. Good evening everybody. Thank you for joining us. This evening's presentation is not a formal board meeting. It is a budget hearing. That said, I would like to acknowledge a couple of our board members who are here with us tonight and those of you who chose to join us. Um, I see a lot of faces that we've seen over the course of the budget development. So, I will share with you that what you hear tonight probably will not be new information. It's really just that one last opportunity before the vote next week for us to share with you what's included on the ballot. Um there's not a formal uh public comment section. That said, when we get done, if folks have questions or comments they would like to make, be certain about. So,
002I will turn it over to Colleen. Here are our projected revenues for 2526. Um, as with the other slide shows, I left a couple areas highlighted. Those are more risky areas of our projections that could go up and down. Interest rates are volatile right now. We never know exactly what our Medicaid reimbursement will be and our gross refund is dependent on our usage of services and the amount of salaries that are included in those. So there are some numbers up there. We tried to stretch everything as far as we could to get the best revenue picture to run this budget. You'll see at the very top, I can't forget to mention we have a 3.5 tax levy which will require a 60% voter approval. So, our budget number is 26,266,000 and that is a $740,000
003increase over the prior year, which represents actually 2.89 increase over the prior year. Our deficit still sits at 1.6 million. And here is how we intend to close that deficit. We will be picking up about 30,000 from workers comp reserve. We'll be picking up about 40,000 from unemployment reserve and will be able to appropriate more should we receive higher unemployment bills. We are appropriating 560,000 from ERS. and then have the 1 million inappropriated fund balance that is still um available to us from the 2425 budget and we'll roll that over to run the next budget. Those reserves I mentioned last time but I'll mention again they don't get touched unless we spend that much of the budget and then we decide which place is the best to take from first. So when we appropriated funds
004for the 24 and 25 budget, as of yet we haven't hit a number that actually uses any of those reserves, and we hope that happens again. So here's our 3.5% levy with some numbers to sort of envision your household costs. Again, these are not um actualized for the individual town rates. So 2278 per thousand assessed value compared to a $2249 per thousand assessed value which is a difference of 29 cents per thousand. We've heard a lot of questions about the size of our budget and the increases and what leads to some of the reductions we had to make. We had very high insurance across the region and probably across the nation this year. Our liability insurance is going to go up 20 to 25%. We still have not given our rates. Our B OS has
005some increases due to increases in OSE's cost, but also choices that we're making to deal with retirements and other services that we can't offer inhouse or can't cover in house with all of our staffing. We have portions of annual salaries and distance learning services that were included still in those CO grants that now need to return to the general fund because they are completely unavailable. are completely expended those co funds and will not come back. That's about 120,000 that needed to come back into the budget. We also have some salaries returning to the general fund from the IDA grants. We are identified this year and we need to have a 15% set aside that will go directly to serving the populations identified as underserved in that grant and that's required. Our title funds are also
006currently under review and we have set aside another 45,000 back into the general fund. We know there will be some corrective actions there. So, we're preparing some space for that. Our retirey benefits are over $1 million. So, our total budget increase was 2.89. The inflation factor is 2.95. And despite that 400,000 you see in our health increases, we have it below the inflation value. So what happens if we do not achieve the 60% supermajority? We have three choices. The board has three choices to resubmit the same budget for a revote in June to come up with a new budget and submit that for a revote in June or to immediately adopt a contingency budget. Our estimated contingency number is up there. It is a reduction by the amount of taxes we would collect that 3.5%.
007You can collect no more taxes than the current year if you were to go into a contingency budget. And then because there are some things that have dependency on revenue like our distance learning, we'll bring in some revenue for the teacher salaries but we'll also pay some expenses. So if we take distance learning out expenses, but we also lose some revenue. So situations like that drive our reduction, our estimated reduction up to 477,000. Some of the things I mentioned already, no tax increase over the prior year. The capital outlay, we hope to get back under the uh cycle with that, making $100,000 repairs each year. This is a particularly good year to get back on board because the emergency project aid returning will only be a $7,000 impact to tax taxpayers. Any non-essential equipment will
008be removed. So, we have a couple items in here like a floor scrubber and a plow truck. Those will come out immediately. Limited use of facilities for outside groups. We have to make sure anyone who is not involved in a student organization uh pays whatever it costs to run the school. So if there are custodians doing overtime, we have to estimate, you know, any electric overusage. We have to come up with a formula to make sure the school is not taking on additional expenses. There will be restrictions on administrative budget. That's really just making sure that whatever reductions you made make in the program, you also make by equal share in administrative budget. They have to be proportional reductions. Technology is limited to the state aid dollar amount. So that is equipment. But if you
009did not spend your state aid, you would not get state aid the next year. So for that reason, the state allows you to continue to buy technology equipment. And then we'd have to produce any items which are not required to maintain a minimum education program to preserve property and to assure the health and safety of people and staff. So we have some work to do. This is again our long range forecast that you've seen a number of times. A multi-year plan to address our deficits needs to happen. So this year we will have a little increase in the tax base but it's not enough to catch up with what we're carrying so far in our reserves. So we have some planning to do and some work to do. We hope you are part of that.
010Some of the reductions in this budget are sort of right sizing our classes due to decreased enrollment. So the 2526 budget class section sizes have been adjusted to reflect the current enrollment that also led to some staff reductions which you see up here four elementary teachers one of which resigned a math teacher a CSEA positions to be assigned still and an English teacher. Other reductions that occurred are OC's PR services, Huddle software for uh filming or wide streaming of athletics, IR a student assessment software, model schools is a a bookie service that comes in helps our teachers implement technology. Our employee um assistance program had very low low employee access. So that was not as painful. Our driver's ed program is cut and there are miscellaneous other usage based services reduced in this budget. Um
011curriculum planning, if we're doing hours over the summer during the school year, that has to be run entirely through grants. Title funds are an appropriate way to do that. They're intended to improve teaching so curriculum development can go there, but nothing more than we have available in those grants will be able to be spent. We have frozen or reduced our supplies and materials. And that kind of goes along with what you see in red there. We've reduced allowances for unexpected expenses. That means there's less flexibility for changes and challenges that arise. So when you see those percentage changes in the budget newsletter, some of that is because you have more contingency in your programmatic side. Should a teacher go on leave and things? We cut that down to the bare minimum. So that means we
012need to be very careful in this budget. There is less money for the things that just happened. So we'll have to run a very tight budget additions. So we have a halftime maintenance worker. Right now we're changing the position to a full-time position. We are looking at potential for adding two building zones which we'll continue to have conversations on. We're looking to move our IT management to NEARK which is a Bose service. We have a retirement in that department and we have another pending retirement in one to two years. We have picked up or continued I should say distance learning. Uh there is a plow truck in this budget to hopefully bring the plowing in house. We'll continue to have conversations on that to make sure everyone's on board and supportive. We have a floor
013rubber in this budget and a capital outlay budget. We've gone over this a few times, so I won't say too much about it, but it is a full service IT management. So, they will um come in and do all of our computer repairs, all our setup. They'll support the one IT staff that we have in this entire district. They'll uh send technicians on the ground five days a week. and then we'll have access to all of their expertise that's back in Bosey's offices. They'll help us with our purchasing plans. Uh many many things involved in this service. So we'll also receive 42% estimated OC's aid in the following year making the net impact a positive $7,000. There were some questions along the way about distance learning. So I'll leave this here for anyone who wants
014to read it again. But the basic is that this is not the distance learning of co. This is our teachers in our classroom teaching our students but also if our students let's say we have five students enrolled that teacher will be broadcasting to other schools in the region. And if those other schools have students who would like to attend our class through distance learning will receive revenue back for them. And just the same, our students sitting here at Berlin could say, "Well, we have no teachers teaching this class, but I can do it on my own by computer with some help from a teacher from another school and from the staff here at Berlin. Here are some numbers to show our historical usage, the classes we've run, and some of the revenue that we return.
015A little bit more information. If we do go ahead and purchase the plow truck, this is how we will fund it. It is part of our revenue budget. So again, if you went to contingency and you cut the cloud truck, not only would snow plowing need to come back in house at a cost about $24,000, those lines of revenue would also be gone because we wouldn't be selling the same amount of equipment. Our capital outlay project is focused on repairs of Erland Elementary School, focused on the watering filtration in the roof seams at our ADA entrance. and we have about a 75% return in building aid in the following year. So we pay out because of the building aid we're receiving this year for the emergency project is a net impact of $7,000 but in
016the coming year essentially we will receive another $75,000 in aid. So it only cost taxpayers $25,000 to do a $100,000 project if we carry that forward each year. There are two additional propositions on the budget. So proposition one is our budget. Proposition two is to sort of codify our student transportation distances and proposition three is the purchase of 266 passenger buses. There were some questions in recent days about how we fund buses. So we get 63.1% state aid. The balance of that does go to taxpayers. New bus payments via the year after purchase, but we have a rolling cycle where the state allows for a five-year return on that money. And as one bus is totally paid off in five years, another is coming on and another's dropping off and another is coming on. So
017that we are cycling our buses and stabilizing our replacement buses for a lower impact over the years. If we did not do that, you would see your taxes go down for one year, but then you might see a very large spike for all the years we did not cycle those buses. And finally, our board candidates. We each have a little bio up there that you can read. and the May 20th books. Short and sweet, really a summary of what you have seen throughout the process. Again, this is an informal time to take one last look before you go to the polls last week or next week. Certainly, if folks have comments or questions, we welcome them. I would ask you just if you have them to come up here to make them or ask them
018so that anybody watching on the live stream can benefit from them as well. I always just I'm a parent and um I just have a question. I'm hoping you can explain further proposition number two the distance thinking because I saw something about 15 miles and like where we live I think we're at 17 within the district. Okay, that made you feel better. Okay, so you know I think we did a lot of work with transportation last year and updated some policies. One of the things and Janette Rick I may ask you to jump in here. One of the things we recognized as we were doing that is in order to go beyond the state limits, which for elementary students is two miles to pick up and for secondary students is three miles to pick up.
019We actually require voter approval to do that. That's not a step the district has ever taken. If you're within the district proper, that 15 miles extends to the furthest distance. Um, but it's really just to codify that kids don't have to walk two miles at elementary school and don't have to walk three miles at at that answer question. Good evening. So, my name is Nikki Day. I'm an alumnest of Berlin and the parent of a future third grader. Eight years ago, when my husband and I were deciding where to settle down and raise our children, I had only one location on my list. I didn't want to go anywhere else because I know what it's like to have a personalized experience at school. Uh my husband is from and he has no idea. He was
020just a number on a list. Nobody would even know his name now. Whereas I still know many of my teachers. Um, and so those class sizes are way too large. Those kids don't get the individual attention that many kids really need to be successful. Overcrowding in the third grade classrooms means that average and gifted students will be disadvantaged as teachers attention will be required to be more focused on our special needs children. This is a problem because there's a high number of students in the district with special needs. Reducing the class of 2035 from three sections down to two really has the potential to be a grade in the state, especially in a grade that will have very first ever mandatory state testing during the 24 25 school year 25 26. I know I'm still
021in class of 20. uh overcrowded classrooms and a teacher that is stretched too thin isn't the way to set these children up for success. As educators and parents, we should always do everything in our power to make sure that their formative years are as fruitful as we can make them. My child is fortunate to have a grandmother and great-g grandandmother that are educators and willing to help her be successful. But not every child has that. Too many have the complete opposite and will struggle in larger classes. And our kids aren't just a statistic. Please don't increase sections. Let's do better with the children of this district. Anybody else? I do have another question. Sorry. Um when you're looking at reducing the sections, are we looking just strictly at numbers? Are you looking at um like
022the number of IEPs and 504 in each class? Yeah, we definitely took into consideration the needs of the kits and the number of co-taught sections. It will still have a co-author section if not two at every grade level and that was done in coordination and consultation with the building principal and the PBS. Yeah. about the bus propositions on the ballot. Does it have much explanation as much as you went into detail? I think a lot of or the second one or the third purchase or the distance? Oh, the um the purchase sorry like the ballot is really just the vote. So in the newsletter there was a little description I know about proposition two. Um, our state aid is public to anyone who likes to look it up, but it does not directly state on
023there what exactly our state. It does shift from year to year. So, it may not be 63.1%. It might be 63.0%. It's usually not a big shift because I feel like a lot of people don't are worried like why should we purchase all this money on a bus when you know we're in trouble or whatever they think. Um, well, that's a good point too and I don't know folks can hear me if they can hear me. Um that's part of why we do it as a separate proposition as well. So if people are torn that way they have that option to vote accordingly. Um but I think one of the things we talked about probably at nauseium this year and again last year was the importance of those replacement cycles across the board, not just
024transportation. We're fortunate transportation's ahead of the game and they're already there. Um because as Colleen pointed out earlier too, if we weren't to be on a cyclical bus replacement cycle, then we would find ourselves needing more than two buses, as many as I couldn't tell you how many in one given year. And then you would see that significant spike in single. And I I just feel just listening to the public is that I mean it takes me 10 times to read it for me to understand it or you know all these meetings to finally like oh okay but just a voter who's coming out who you know I just feel like they might be like oh no that's too much money because they don't understand it. And even you know the thing we get in
025the mail I just I don't know. I just worry that people don't get it. So, I don't know if there's a way to still educate everybody because we all get it because we come to meetings, right? But there's so many people that don't that I feel like they're just messing up. But I guess the valid is the valid year. Maybe you could do an estimated calculation of what what tax impact it would be. Huh. Hello, I'm Casey Delucha. I am a second grade parent. Um, I also have a question about producing your staff for third grade next year. What is the plan on how you're going to compromise for those children that are already struggling this year? And like if you reduce your classrooms now you're cramming these kids into that need extra help or
026hey can you explain this to me but they are you know kind of like set back because they don't have the time or the resources to give them the information or even your kids that are already on like a higher they're maxing out their test scores. How are you going to compensate to get them better? I'm trying to think of a word to say it. Right. Right. How are you going to get every kid what they need in a classroom? I went to school at a public school or a private school. My graduating class was eight kids. So I have like everybody was a family and we kind of like catered to every kid, which is hard in a public district. But for these kids that are my Emerson, for example, I always write on
027his papers if he's bored, he's bold. And it's because he is trying to entertain himself or give himself something to do because he is maxing out his test scores and then waiting for something else to do. As my kindergartenner who I've decided to hold back is not ready. He's my struggler. So we're holding him back because why push him along when he's not ready if that makes sense. So, what is the plan to get these kids the actual resources that they need without them struggling and then being like, "Well, I'm just going to give up." Like, what's the point? Like, my graduating class, I felt like a lot of us were just pushed to get them out. They were in trouble because they weren't there. They didn't have the help that they needed to push
028them where they needed to go. So, I'd like to applaud both of our buildings, both bees and uh the middle school and high school this year for their use of data-driven instruction and really taking a look at our kids, like you said, at both ends of the spectrum. And we're doing that utilizing MTSS. We are looking at our kids and their growth over time. We are measuring that three times a year. And then they are taking dedicated time with the teams as teachers working with second graders or third graders or kindergartens to look at that group of kids. Will that group of kids be a little bit bigger? Absolutely it will. But we have all the folks around that table who are going to say this is Emerson. Here's what we're seeing. What does he
029need? How are we going to make this happen? This is a student that might be at the other end of that spectrum. What are their needs? How can we pull together the resources we have that you're right will be limited unfortunately but to make it happen. I have faith in both our building principles and our teachers to come together and make that happen with the resources that we have. I can also add that we did preserve one of our Rosie services in that area in ELA instructional support. I used to also do that work. And what that person does is they come into the classroom and they help teachers differentiate instruction. They help them learn how to manage the class in a way that they can move small groups around. There's always constant improvement to
030do in that area. But I think you can focus on energy certainly on those aspects to engage children. Questions or comments? I'm worried. What about the national statement about going with the life of buses? You know, I mean, I voted for the buses year after year after year and and I I'm still I'm must be still ignorant because I don't know what the what the situation is with that. So I'm a little concerned about electric buses too, especially being in Berlin. Um, not only it's not a Berlin issue, it is an infrastructure issue with the electric that's needed and required. Um, they keep they haven't made it go away. I don't think it's going to go away. They keep pushing it a little bit further down the road. And Janette, correct me if I'm wrong
031here. Part of segueing into that is doing a study within the district to see what our capacity is. There are going to be districts like ours that aren't going to have the capacity for two reasons. The infrastructure not being available and the distances our buses have to travel that an electric bus just can't do, especially in 10 degree weather. Did I get that right? Got it right. Okay. So, I think it is definitely an issue and a topic we are going to continue to grapple with. Fortunately, it's been kicked down the road just a little bit longer. So, we're still going to need our new buses. Anybody else? All right. I recognize not everybody likes to come up and speak on the microphone, so we will certainly hang out. If there's folks who have questions,
032feel free to come on up. Thank you for joining us tonight. Please come out and vote next Tuesday, 12 to 9, Urban Elementary School.