001All right. The May 27th, 2025 school board special meeting and workshop is called to order. Miss Tresy, will you please call the role? Mr. Cherry, present. Mr. Link present. Miss Quintana Miss Trigg here. Miss Watkins, Dr. Jameson, Mrs. Apal here. The board appreciates those joining us in person this evening at the William B. Robertson Administration Building. We also welcome those who are viewing the meeting via live stream on the division's YouTube page. So, moving on to the approval of the agenda. Is there a motion and a second to approve the revised agenda as amended? Please note that a closed session was removed. So, second moved by Miss Trigg, seconded by Mr. Cherry. Is there any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor, please say I. I. I. Any I. Any opposed? Okay. And the agenda
002passes. Moving on to the personnel list. Is there a motion and a second to approve the personnel list as presented? So moved. Second. Moved by Mr. Cherry, seconded by Miss Trigg. Is there any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? And the personnel list is approved. So Dr. White. Do you have any announcements? I do. And good evening, Madame Vice Chair, members of the school board, members of the public. It is my pleasure to introduce to you Mrs. Leslie Joerger, who has been recommended for and has accepted the position of principal of Monterey Elementary School. Thank you. Mrs. Jagger will start officially on July 1st, 2025. Currently, she serves as the assistant principal at Fishburn Park Elementary School. Mrs. Jagger holds a bachelor of arts in mass communications from Francis
003Marian University and a master in education and administration and supervision from Liberty University. Prior to serving as the assistant principal at Fishburn Park Elementary School, Mrs. Joerger served in the following roles. Assistant principal at James Madison Middle School. Assistant principal at Lucy Addison Middle School. Science teacher at Glenn and William Bird high schools in Reno County Public Schools. Special education case manager and science teacher at Patrick Henry High School. Science teacher and girls athletic coordinator at Ulis Junior High School and Hurst Ulis Bedford in uh Bedford Independent School District in Ulis, Texas. uh instructional aid at Hurst Junior High School in Hurst Ulis Bedford Independent School District in Hurst, Texas. All of these opportunities provided Mrs. Joerger with administrative leadership and teaching experience which make her a great fit for this position. Congratulations. Thank you.
004Thank you all. Good evening, Madam Chair, Dr. Jameson, Vice Chair, Mrs. Ael, members of the board, student representatives, and Dr. White. Thank you for the opportunity to serve as principal of Monterey Elementary School. I look forward to working with the students, parents, community, and all stakeholders to ensure that we focus on utilizing our resources to provide effective first instruction for all students. This school already has a strong heart, and I am honored to become a part of it. At the elementary level, we have the unique privilege of shaping the very beginning of a child's educational journey. These are the years when curiosity blooms, confidence takes root, and character begins to grow. This role I bring with me a deep belief in the power of the school community to shape the lives of those we serve.
005I have always believed that schools should be places where students feel seen, heard, and valued, where learning is rigorous, relationships are strong, and every child is given the opportunity to thrive every single day. At Monterey, my goal is to continue to build upon a culture where teachers are supported and empowered, where families are our true partners and teammates, and where students are inspired to not only meet expectations, but exceed them academically, socially, and personally. At Monterey, we will continue to keep our students at the center of every decision we make. To the staff, families, and especially the students, thank you for welcoming welcoming me into your school family. My door will always be open and I look forward to being inspired by each of you as we work side by side to continue to make
006Monterey Elementary School the very best place it can be. We will work together to continue to create rich, engaging classrooms filled with opportunities for students to grow. I am truly honored and excited to accept the role of principal at Monterey Elementary. I look forward to writing the next great chapter of Monterey School story. Thank you again for this incredible opportunity and for trusting me in this role. I look forward to a year of limitless possibilities. Thank you all again very much. I appreciate it. Congratulations. Thank you, Madam Vice Chair. All right, moving into the superintendent reports. Dr. White, please provide your updates. All right, very good. Good evening again. So this evening, we're bringing forward items for your information, including an update on the strategic plan and an update on the fiscal year 26 budget.
007But before we get to our agenda items, I would like to highlight a few items for the board and for the public's information. Registration is now open for our staying safe by staying connected camp and for community builders. Uh and so keep in mind what those you know programs are keeping kids safe through athletics programs, arts, and then community builders. Those are middle school kids as well. So just stay tuned to that and um check that out because I'm sure that that's something that you may want your kids to be um uh to to be connected to this this summer. This year, our staying safe by staying connected camp will be held for one week in July and will feature athletics, career exploration, and fine arts. This provides the opportunity for current fifth through 8th
008graders to try out various sports including football, soccer, volleyball, and more, as well as learn about other life skills. Now, our community builders program, which will start its second year of a two-year pilot, is for rising eighth graders and is a month-long camp focused on leadership, career exploration, and academics. So, participants will also be able to continue programming throughout the school year at their middle schools. So, registration information, as I said before, is available on the RCPS website in the orange bar. Now, auditions have closed for this summer's Staying Safe by Staying Connected Summer Stock Academy, and the cast list will be shared next week. I'm so pleased to announce that this year we had more than 70 students submit auditions to be a part of The Little Mermaid Junior. So, congratulations on that number
009of students who audition for it. Performances will be on June 26th and 27th, so mark your calendars for that. So, I encourage everyone uh to come out for those performances. We know that they're going to be fabulous. They always always are. As a reminder, schools will dismiss two hours early on the last day of school next Thursday. I can't believe we're there already. Uh June 5th. Um and in addition, William Fleming's graduation will be held at 10:00 a.m. on June 5th, and Patrick Henry's graduation will be held at 10:00 a.m. on June 6th. Both will be held at the Bergland Center. The ceremonies will also be streamed live on our YouTube YouTube channel and additional details are available on our website and on social media. We can't wait to celebrate our seniors and I hope
010that everyone has a safe and restful uh summer break this summer. Now, last week and this afternoon, I had the privilege of attending the pinning and stole ceremony for our AVID seniors. Now, as a reminder, AVID stands for advancement via individual determination and it is a program that that I brought here to Ron City and that we started four years ago and to equip our stu our students with the skills that they need to be successful in college and in career. Um, it it teaches things like how to take Cornell notes and the difference between studying and doing homework, right? As as high school students, we we remember that we did our homework, but when you get to college, you realize, okay, I have to do my homework, but I also have to, you know,
011I have to to learn how to how to buckle down and study for long periods of time. It teaches them how to build a resume, how to apply for scholarships, how to make sure that they um show up on time and and and sit in the front of the classroom. All of those things uh that make a difference in the success uh in college and in the workforce quite frankly. And so we're just so proud and I am so proud of our seniors who have completed the program and I'm thankful to Mrs. Desper and to Miss Harrington for leading these initiatives at each of our high schools. Now, uh, we had students who gave kind of their testimony, if you will, at each high school stole ceremony. And so, we we kind of staged one
012of the speeches uh from one of our students, uh, Zamayra Thomas. And Mr. Freeman, I think you have a copy, right? You read what I'd like for you to read what she shared today. It was really pretty powerful. Good evening, Madam Vice Chair, members of the board, Superintendent Dr. White. Um, just a few things. I know Dr. why I mentioned the names Maria, but um she had another engagement she had to go to tonight. But Ria Sherman also delivered a speech and that's the one that she sent to me. Um says, "Good afternoon, friends, friends, visitors, students, and staff. Allow me a moment of vulnerability with you all. Throughout my four years at William Fleming High School, I never felt like I truly fit in the atmosphere. For three years, I felt like there was
013no one to hold on to, rely, or fall back on. friends, teachers, and coaches came and gone with the win. For three years, I felt like just another student on a roster. But then I was given a chance to be a part of the AVID program, the AVID family, if you will. AVID wasn't just another class on my schedule. It became a beacon of light and hope. A place where I wasn't just a name and a number on paper. I was seen, heard, and valued. It was a room where we weren't afraid to talk about our ambitions, no matter how far off they seemed. AVID was a safe space where we picked each other up when life got hard and senior writers started to bite. In the center of all that was our Miss Truly,
014Mrs. Harrington. Miss Harrington, you didn't just teach us how to write a resume or apply to college. You spoke life into us and taught us how to believe in ourselves even we weren't sure we could. You saw potential in all of us, not just as students, but as people with stories, struggles, and goals. You've shown me what it means to be passionate, persistent, and to lead with heart. Your words, your patience, and your unwavering support are etched into who I am now. Because of AVID, I stand here proud of what I've accomplished and hopeful for what comes next. So, thank you to Miss Harrington and the team here at Daytech for giving me a home in your classroom and for reminding every reminding me every single day that I belong. The people say home is
015where the heart is and my heart now forever lies within the four walls of Day room 207 AVID. Thank you. I'm a senior and will be attending Virginia State University in the fall. All right. As you can imagine, there was hardly a dry eye in the room. So, you know, again, I just want to thank the school board for your support of AVID and all of our other college and career readiness, workforce readiness programs to uh to support our our students. And so, I know you're looking forward to graduation just like I am. It's our Super Bowl. And so, we're just looking forward to that and looking forward to celebrating all of our seniors as well as our avid seniors. So, to begin our report this evening, I will ask Dr. Jonathan Schulz, executive director
016of accountability and strategic initiatives to present an update on the strategic plan revision process. So, Dr. Schulz, my slides just start. There we go. Okay. Sorry, I'm not used to the new place yet. Um, good evening, uh, Madam Vice Chair, members of the board, Superintendent White. Um, here, uh, kind of culminating the end of this monthlong process. as we're coming to the finish line in terms of the uh strategic plan revision. So, just wanted to remind you of a few key things. We look at the timeline. We remember that the work started back in October. Um right now we're in coming to the end of May. So, we are looking at the um kind of the end of our public feedback gathering section. Um be coming back to you in at the June meeting for
017uh final approval of the plan. And at that point, we'll get started working on the uh website, which we hope to have up and running in July. Thinking about the um different public feedback that we've uh reached out to try to get over the past couple months, you can see a list of the different um groups that we've worked with um including our two big public sessions that we had uh at Patrick Henry and William Fleming. Tonight, you're also going to have in front of you a sneak peek at the pretty version or the final version that will be coming to you. So each of you has a large uh you know you've seen it in many different uh pieces and crosswalks and different chunks, but now you can get a pretty good uh idea
018in front of you of what it's going to look like. Um and you'll have an opportunity through the rest of this week if you um take a look at the plan and you have any any suggestions or final edits or things suggestions for improvements or things that you want to see changed. Um, if you can get those to us by the end of the week, by the end of the day on Friday, that'll give us enough time to go back to the graphic designer and have everything in your board packet for June 5th. In addition, tonight, one of the things we want to do is talk about some of the feedback that we've been receiving from uh the public and identify a couple of key themes that of things that we've been hearing about and
019just point out to you some highlights of where they are being addressed in the plan. and that'll give you a chance to also uh give you a reason to kind of go through the go through the document as well. So, u sorry let me just mention what a couple of those key ones were. So, um essentially the themes for the feedback flow pretty nicely with the pathways, right? So, addressing and assessing student needs and expanding access to uh advanced courses in CTE fits very well with pathway one. um um preventing bullying and uh student staff relationships and strengthen those relationships fits well with pathway two and then the uh staff ones fit well with pathway 4 in terms of recruitment and retention. So the uh first piece that we heard about was you know heard
020some multiple comments related to making sure that we we know our kids and that we are are matching our resources to the kids. So, um I feel uh I one of the things I like about the plan is I feel like we do a nice job of sticking to Dr. White's message of knowing that students by uh name, need, and strength. And so, you can see some of the strategies that we have in our closing the achievement gap strategy related to trying to come up with personalized plans for students and also making sure that we're matching the resources to the need. In addition, if we're going to be able to address uh a student needs, we need to be able to assess those needs. And so as part of our nurturing environment, we have the
021we are specifically seeking for the opportunity for students to pro provide input and so we can hear their voices and we know what what those needs are. Uh we have several of those structures in place like our board representatives and our student uh superintendent uh student advisory uh council, but we also want to look for more opportunities along those lines. And then uh to kind of tie that back together along with our objective for well-rounded students, we don't just want to know about their strengths academically, but we also want to personalize um our our opportunities for them for the whole student, including their uh you know, the things that they're interested in outside of um just the straight academic side of things. As I mentioned, we um had uh feedback from m we had multiple
022pieces of feedback that said that we wanted to make sure that we were continuing to expand our advanced course offerings and uh our CTE offerings. But we had what I think are some uh important distinctions and and that is when you look at our strategies, it is not just about trying to get more kids in the classes. It is trying to make sure that more kids are ready to be successful in those classes. So, making sure that we are developing um student centered supports that um make sure that we increase the awareness of those opportunities that we um have helped kids plan so that they've taken the courses they need to to have access to those courses and then support them while they're uh enrolled in those courses to ultimately increase the student success. And
023that we want to make sure we're attacking that in both the advanced the uh advanced placement uh dual enrollment courses, but uh CTE as well. uh one of the big things that we heard about was uh making sure that uh we are uh preventing and responding to bullying. So we have two specific ways that we want to talk I want to talk about tonight in terms of the uh that aspect in pathway two which is our well-being and sense of overall well-being and sense of community pathway. And so under our nurturing uh environment uh goal, we have um specific pieces of u making sure that we called out um our provision of comprehensive mental health services for students, but also that we are providing opportunities for students to talk about and and get feed, you
024know, share their concerns, have an adult that they can talk to, making sure they have that strong adult connection uh in in the school uh that they know who to go to uh for help in those situations. On the other side of addressing bullying, we also want to make sure that we are uh you know on the sense of community side that we want to uh you know have specific strategies in place to address bullying um and internal conflict about how we're teaching students how we're how we're uh teaching them to interact and resolve those conflicts and how we address that. And ultimately that comes back to how we handle bullying and uh as through our discipline pieces, right? So we want to make sure that we uh are investing in uh proactive positive discipline
025um having alternatives just to suspensions and uh you know investing in things like restorative pro uh programming uh and multi-tered systems of support or a system of supports. And then uh just to tie tie the bow together to go from you know making sure we have those strong staff relationships and we're addressing bullying by making sure the students are feeling connected that we want to have specific counseling uh efforts related to um you know making sure that we are providing you know career counseling but also extracurricular and connection counseling for students to say know that they have are aware of and have ways to stay connected to the school. And we also want to make sure that we are celebrating uh student achievements, not just academics and athletics, but all of the other great things
026that we have uh going on uh for that well-rounded student. And then um in in addition, we are aware that uh if we want to build strong relationships with students between students and the school, it's also about building partnerships with the families, right? It's not just the kid at the school having the relationship with that that that positive adult, but it's also that overall relationship. And so that's why under our achievement gap um our goal related to um closing the achievement gap, we we have actually uh targeted a strategy not just an academic strategy but uh a strategy related to building strong connections to uh the families, our students families. And then the last section um of feedback was uh focused on uh on the HR side basically making sure that we have strong communication
027between uh staff and administration. Um and so we have put that specifically as a strategy to make sure that we have those those uh regular channels in place. Um, so you know, we currently have um the uh constituent services office um but we also want to make sure that we we want to make sure everybody knows about that and uses it, but we also want to make sure that we um explore other opportunities there as well to make sure that um staff knows that they're being heard and that they're valued. And then the fi uh final piece related to um making sure that we are uh recognizing our employees. U you know that that benefits and pay are important but um finding ways to highlight people for the great work that they do is is
028a key piece of of retention and we want to make sure that that that stays front and center. And then finally, the last piece is that we do want to make sure, you know, we are, you know, demonstrating that commitment to competitive salaries and benefits. And by making sure that we have specific strategies in our strategic plan to uh analyze the market, make sure that we know where we are relative to other divisions. And alo also make sure that we know what our employees want and need in their in in their packages. What are what are the things that they're looking for? and that that we're we're using that to to shape our our uh uh compensation and benefits uh packages. So, those are um that's just a quick run through of um some of
029the key types of uh feedback that we've received. Um I know that what happened to me when I got the pretty copy in front of me was that I you I ended up rabbit holeing very quickly just kind of there's a lot to look at. There's a lot to pay attention to. Um Dr. White um clearly had spent a lot of time with the plan. We had lots of detailed feedback. So um I hope that you uh we try to give you a nice big version um and some you know some time so that you can you can dig in. I hope that you um have a chance to look at it. I I'm proud of the work that our team has done. Um I think we've uh you know if our goal was clarity
030and alignment um and accountability I think that we have taken some good steps in that direction. Um, so I hope that you um, you know, can take some time over the rest of this week. Um, and if you have any suggestions or other feedback, please make sure that you, um, can get it to me. We can certainly take any questions or comments that you have at this time, but we also want to give you time um, before we asking you to take action on it the next time. You know, we try not to ask you to take action the same night that we're presenting it. So, we wanted to give you a hard copy of the draft tonight as well as the presentation so that you can see what kind of feedback we've gotten and
031how we've incorporated that feedback. Um, so that you have time to read through it and you have time to formulate any other questions or suggestions that you might have for us prior to us um asking for your vote at the next meeting. But any um Miss Trig, we'll start with you if you have any comments or questions. Uh so far from what I've looked at and gathered, it looks very good. Your team is doing a very good job. I think it's very considerate of looking at some of the different aspects especially with what's going on with the bullying. So I do like that we have an approach put in place for that. Thank you, Miss Watkins. Questions? Thank you so much. This is super comprehensive. Mr. Link, I was just going to say sorry. Um,
032it sounds like you got a significant amount of public feedback, which I'm glad to hear we got. Are you comfortable with the amount of public feedback that we got on the document? We would always like to hear more, right? Um, I think based on the fact that we were in a, you know, kind of a mid-plan revision, which was not necessarily the full roll out to, you know, that everything that was in the plan was already approved with with major community feedback in in 2022. Um, so we'd always like to have more, but in general, I think we got some very thoughtful feedback that, you know, often you you get feedback and sometimes it's it's it's takes a while to sort of unpack it and figure out how to get it in the plan. And
033instead in in this case, we had some multiple very specific things. The CTE uh advanced placement one was was perfect of just saying, "Hey, I'm not I'm not sure." The feedback basically said, you know, we're not sure that just enrolling increasing enrollment is the goal. The goal is increasing the success rate. And so that led directly into a very detailed uh statement. So yeah, overall, I think we got very helpful feedback. And and I just like I would like to thank other kind of entities that let us kind of um crash their party. Uh so that so when we had some of the um parent feedback or or just community feedback sessions and we realized that those meetings were lighter than we expected then PTA central council PTA again they allowed us to um become
034a part of their agenda and our um stack you know our teacher advisory council allowed us to um present the plan to them. So, I just I'm so appreciative of the other kinds of uh groups that allowed us to get before them because we wanted to make sure that we got the plan in front of as many parents, teachers, um students as we could um so that we could incorporate their feedback. So, where we might have been light on one side, we tried to incorporate other opportunities on the other side. So, many thanks to those groups. Link, anything else? No, ma'am. Thank you, Mr. Cherry. Yeah. So, awesome job. Very um awesome work in pivoting and being intentional. The word I see a lot in this uh strategic plan is community. So, I really love
035that from overall well-being and sense of community to community engagement. Uh so, I I really I I love that ending on it takes a community. Uh I like that overall theme there. um just appreciative of everybody who spoke up from the public and then us being able to listen and uh make the necessary adjustments. So, this is great work and I'm excited about um seeing this vision come to pass. Um yes and um I really did note the that not just noting enrollment increase in the AP and dual enrollment and CT classes but providing the support so that you're ensuring success because that's what we want is the diploma and the resume as they walk out the door. Um I also appreciated the multiple feedback mechanisms that um Dr. White mentioned. Um it's a theme
036that you know as a division we work hard to gather feedback and I think we continue to see that with over 1,800 submissions for the calendar survey for example or um when people when there is an opportunity to speak at our meetings. People come and they they give us information that's just good for us to hear. Um and so I appreciate all of that. And so again I encourage make sure board members that we take a look because this is going to help direct our next three years. um by Friday, you said May 30th and we just submit possible straight to you. That'd be great in whatever format is convenient for you. Wonderful. So um but good work to the team and thank you very much and many thanks to to you Dr. Schultz and
037to your team and especially to make sure that when we have received the feedback that you've been able to synthesize it in a way where parents, teachers, students can actually see um those changes and so that they're incorporated in the plan. And I know that this has been a very long, very tedious uh process. But many thanks not only to your team, but to our entire team because it takes the entire division to come through and to say, "All right, are we up to date? Are we current? Uh does the plan still make sense? And do we need to make adjustments?" So thanks to you. Thank you, Dr. Schultz. All right. So, tonight also um Madame Vice Chair, we're going to move on to the next item, which is the um FY26 budget update. So,
038tonight um chief financial officer Kathleen Jackson will present an update on our fisc year 26 budget process. And what you will hear Mrs. Jackson u present tonight will involve a discussion about the use of your uh fund balance and um and as of as you know these are temporary um one-time funds that we're proposing to to use to provide us with more time uh to plan long term particularly given the the ongoing budget process discussions. Before we get to that Mrs. Apel and Mr. Sherry as representatives of our schoolboard budget committee um have been working to create a history of the fund balance to better understand why and how the fund balance was first created and how it has been used over the years. So before Mrs. Jackson presents, I'd first like to turn it
039over to Mrs. Apel and to Mr. Cherry um so that we can hear about the history of the fund balance. Thank you very much, Dr. White. Mr. Cherry. Yes. So again, good afternoon, good evening to everybody. Today we are going to take a journey through the history of the Rono City Public Schools fund balance, how it has evolved over time, what it's been used for, and how it's been positioned or how it's positioned us for the future. And I do want to thank um our vice chair, Dr. White and Miss Kathleen Jackson for uh your incredible hard work and ongoing conversations in regard to this because it is a hot topic and just wanted to prepare this report as a means of transparency and just given a little bit of backstory and context tonight. So,
040thank you very much. So basically we're going to start at 2000 as a just a a good place to start to get our bearing for our modern um fund balance history. So um in in the year 2000 you can see that we had a fund balance we carried a fund balance of about 1.6 6 million and there were a number of uses designated uses for this fund balance at that time and that include things like reserve for un incumbrances, designated for work workers compensation, designated for capital equipment, designated for uninsured claims. So there were dollar amounts that were earmarked for use and that's what the fund balance was reserved for. Now, what we're going to do as we go through this history is try to provide some historical context for those of us who are
041newer to the board. Um, 2000 was before I was even married, let alone had ch was had children or lived in Rowan Oak. So, um, this will help us all have a good working understanding of what the fund balance is, how it has been used, and how it got us to here. So, what we're going to do, uh, Mr. Cherry and I will will highlight particular years of note where things may have changed um or evolved in a certain way of note for um for all of us and for the public um and discuss those as we go. Great. So in 2009, which you mentioned 2000, 2009 is the year I graduated high school. All right. 2009 is kind of the introduction for our undesated fund uh balance. So by 2009 you started to see
042a shift if you can go previously. All right, that fund balance was 1.6 1,645,765 and then reserved for the incumbrances was $824,718. So in 2009 fund balance is $9,21,07 reserved for incumbrances zero undesated 1,816,550. All right. So um even in that year there was still designations for workers comp capital equipment uninsured claims but now op stands for other post-employment benefits which was added in 2008. All right so what we saw in 2009 was the first year we saw an undesated balance. So that question becomes why where did it come from? the division discontinued its reserve for incumbrances and we also saw slightly higher than expected revenues but the economy was starting to decline around that time. So we all remember what 2009 kind of looked like 2008 and the state support for education uh began
043to become weak. All right. I should have skipped ahead for you. Oh, you're good. So we come to 2010 to 2012, which we like to kind of consider the meals tax era, which is something that has been um mentioned in the past. Um so you can see here how the fund balance during those years grew. Now additionally the undesated line item in the fund balance also grew. Um, now of note too is that just because we stopped you as a as a division stopped identifying things or earmarking things as reserved for encumbrances, it does not mean that the system that the division wasn't still encumbering costs that were to be expected in future years. We were just we had just changed some policies and procedures about how the accounting for that was done. And um
044Miss Jackson could speak to that just a little bit. This would be a good time. Sure. Sure. Thank you. So So yeah, really that that does identify um kind a strategic change um and our administrative leadership at the time um to move away from carrying forward uh incumbrances across fiscal years and really to have a hard stop at June 30 um to to close the expenditures in one year and start fresh in another year. So, so to to some extent we're still doing the same thing. It it was just the the choice of how we um we reflect those costs and have kind of a clean break from one fiscal year to the next. So rather than um reflect some incumbrances and and basically what that is referring to is that let's say in June
045um we begin a purchase that is not going to we're not going to be done with that project until July or August. um that those funds are encumbered when we enter into that contract or we uh issue a purchase order to a vendor. Um those funds are encumbered. And so if we were to carry forward those incumbrances across fiscal years, then you would have a uh funds reserved for those incumbrances at year end in the current year and then you would continue to spend those funds uh in the the subsequent fiscal year as that project is completed. Um that was the point when our our financial leaders at that time decided that we wanted to kind of have a clean break. So we would close any incumbrances that were still open at June 30. If
046if the project still needed to go on, we would start fresh with a new purchase order in the new fiscal year. Um and and any encumbered funds would therefore be released and become part of that unassigned fund balance for then the school board to make a determination if we're going to keep moving with that project. um it would it would those funds would potentially be available to help um complete that project in the subsequent year. And also a point of clarification um the term unassigned fund balance and undesated fund balance we're basically using synonymously in this case. Correct. Yes. Yeah. In our audited financial statements, you'll see unassigned or assigned. Um so so those are sort of the official terms of um when our auditors look at those dollars and determine um you know whether
047the school board has taken action to assign them for a particular purpose or whether that has not happened and therefore um there's more flexibility with those funds but so that is what that means. Yes. Wonderful. Thank you. So to continue with that, so you'll note that between 2010 and 2012, there were additional designated uses, changes, and notable line items in the fund balance that was carried to include capital equipment, textbook adoption, and un and then of course the undesated line item. So as Miss Jackson was referring to, the school board would have taken action to say we're going to designate funds for textbook adoption. It's not a free-for-all. It's not funds that are used for nimble purposes. They were actually earmarked for a specific purpose during that year, but we did carry a fund balance.
048But there are other things that as a division, as we'll talk about when we look at our budget update, where we keep in mind that there are expenses that are coming, but we haven't necessarily taken a board action to earmark those funds for that specific purpose as we go. Um, and you'll also notice here we've only highlighted the overall fund balance and the undesated fund balance line items. But you'll see there is a discrepancy and that discrepancy is accounted for by the designated expenses that were already outlined there including capital equipment or OPEB as Mr. Cherry previously mentioned. So as we look at context it might look on the face of it that oh the fund balance is growing so much but in the broader context this is not our overall general budget as a
049system. The overall general budget of the system was experiencing a drawdown of state support for education overall um as far as that budget goes. In as part of that, the school division was trying to contract its budget and its expenditures to include, you know, this is around when Ruffner and Raleigh Court Elementary School closed in 2009. Um, in order to help buffer those losses from the state side with regards to support, city council implemented a meals tax increase known as the two for two um, initiative or the eat for education campaign where they were increasing the meals tax from 5% to 7%. And those proceeds then went to specifically build the undesated line item for the fund balance. And it also makes sense in that context that it would be undesated because the school division
050at that time needed the flexibility with regards to their funds because of the uncertainty of the funds or the lack of funds or the significant draw down of the funds from the state level. Um so additionally while the fund balance grew as a result of the meals tax the hope was only to cover half of the deficit of the budget from the state. So it wasn't to help make us whole. It was just to help keep us afloat. Um now so there was an emphasis by city council for us to build up that fund balance. Also keeping in mind and there are multiple references to this during our joint city council school board meeting minutes from this era of do do the schools have a plan for when the meals tax increase would sunset and
051indeed it in indeed it did sunset. Um, also to give context during this time that would also impact the amount of fund balance that was able to be built up was the the revision of the funding formula for the schools to what was the longstanding 40% that has been referenced to up to this year. Um so then in 2013 we see that the fund balance has been built up to 35 million um and some change and the undesated line item has been built up to about 26 million. Now, there were additional designated uses during that time that were added to our fund balance to include um designated for employee compensation increases. Now, this is something that again was noted by I believe it was the assistant superintendent at the time that this is not a
052sustainable use of fund balance, but it was something to help us during this time when we had been able to build up fund balance and to deal with things like teacher shortages and the draw down on the state um financial support in the budget. So it was always a conversation about how to draw down on these funds and how to use them responsibil responsibly between council and the board. So other context in 2013 we have the meals tax increase was sunset and this is the peak value of our undesated fund balance through the years um even to present time around this time is also when RCPS plus that summer program began um we also if you you can go look in board docs yourself and you can go back and see at our monthly school
053board meetings Miss Jackson presents um of fund balance status in our financial statements and around 2013 is where we start to see these on a very on a regular monthly basis. And of note also is that as we budget and it's been noted that since at least 2000 which was just a good starting point we've carried a fund balance and it's been used in our budgets. So the fund balance use is included as a line item in our annual budgets just as we'll see tonight when we discuss what are what are we choosing with our flexibility if offered. What are we choosing to use the fund balance to cover versus state funds, federal funds, local funds. Um so and that is submitted with our budgets to city council. And also at this time you can
054go back and historically see that RCPS expected to draw down approximately 26 million out of the fund balance by the end of fiscal year 20 2014 15. So they basically expected to draw down a lot of this in those couple years. So now there's a lot of further context that can be that you can go back and you can see okay year by year just like we do as Miss Jackson reports monthly on where are we with our fund balance use if we were projected to use four million have we used at all are we going to need more are we do we need less and some of the things that impacted that we didn't draw down as much as expected was there were teacher shortages so there just wasn't as much needed in the
055budget to compensate employees. So, um, and when we talk about other things, there's always other factors that go into what your actual expenses are versus your projected. Oh, so then in 2017, you can see that the fund balance is now drawn down to 22 million. Um, we still have the undesated line item, but in 2017, an additional designated use was that the minimum fund balance required by the school board of $10 million was added. So, and that is technically undesated, but now it's a required um reserve. So at that time, the school board looked into implementing this new policy requiring a minimum balance that would be kept just like if you had a minimum balance in say your checking or savings account. There were cash flow trends that were examined during those past the past
056fiscal years that noted swings in our cash flow um of up to $21 million in the negative just from you know having to pay out grants before you get reimbursed, payroll, debt servicing, things like that. So just the normal cash flow even though your expenses and your revenues will line up by the end of the year that doesn't mean that they line up at every point during the year. Um in fact that sometimes required the use of a line of credit for the schools depending on the balance in our general fund. Also around this time, for context, there was a significant increase in the cost of just maintaining an unsecured line of credit from $5,000 to $60,000, which also helped prompt the board at the time to say, is there a better, more responsible way
057for us to um to deal with these cash flow issues? Um best practices were researched in comparison to other divisions. And it was also noted that not all divisions carry fund balances for various reasons in their localities. Um so as a result uh policy DBA which is our schoolboard policy that requires a minimum fund balance was passed in 2017. Right? So that brings us to 2020 to 2022 which we call it the COVID era. All right. And quite simply the pandemic changed everything for us as a division. All right. So there were key uses during this time between 2020 and 2022. Uh funds were restricted for SNAP performance agreements in 2020 and 2021. Uh committed funds went toward purchasing and renovating the AOC building. This COVID era, this pandemic era also marked the equity and
058action destination 2030 project launch. uh a re-imagined capital development plan requested by city council and then most notably and most importantly in 21 and 22 uh the the division created a new capital fund. All right and the question becomes around this time why did we create a capital fund? Simply this to reduce reliance on city bond funding. All right so federal pandemic grants drove a significant increase in the fund balance. All right, I think I need to say that again. All right, federal pandemic grants drove a significant increase in our fund balance. So, we were at 27 million in 21, up from 13.8 million the previous years with schools only being partially open. All right. Operating costs dropped, allowing funds to be preserved. All right. So these reserves, they allowed the division to commit to
059uh year 22 teacher raises early and attract and retain educators amid staffing shortages. All right. So that'll bring us to 24. You want me to go ahead? I'll go ahead. Okay. So Okay. All right. So continued strategic use in 24 the minimum fund balance was adjusted. All right. Funds were committed for transitional costs. Major facility updates were completed including Breen Ridge and Morningside additions and the opening of Daytech. All right. So looking ahead, we did all of this and by 2025 what we're now in sitting in this building, we're literally sitting and witnessing the fruit of long-term strategy. All right. So that's over three years of a functioning capital fund. Uh the William B. Robinson building has opened. We're sitting in it. The Community Empowerment Center is set to open soon. Preston Park Elementary School
060is in the middle of mid construction. That's something that our superintendent loves to say and I agree. Promises made, promises kept. Okay. So, uh we have additional projects that are currently in motion as we speak. roofs, HVAC systems, paving, playgrounds, flooring, and uh security upgrades. So, uh what I would like to do in conclusion, are you good, Franny? Okay, so in conclusion, I want to end with this. The RCPS fund balance has evolved from a static reserve into a dynamic financial tool, helping us weather downturns, respond to crisis, and invest in our future. From meals taxes to minimum reserves and from COVID recovery to capital projects, this history shows the power of strategic financial planning in supporting education for generations to come. All right. This kind of strategic plan uh planning requires synergy between both
061school board and city council. All right. So, while we understand hard decisions have to be made on the city side, let it be known that council has always been transparent, upfront, and communicative regarding funding. So, uh I just wanted to end on that note because Franny, I think you hit the nail on the head from previous joint board minutes that there has always been an overwhelming sense of support from city council when it comes to uh our school division. So, just wanted to give a history and a context uh when it comes to our fund balance history. And I hope uh this has been somewhat helpful tonight. [Applause] So, oh I didn't think about questions. Are there any questions? We can start at Mr. Link this side. No, thank you. Um, Miss Trigg question is
062very thorough. I love it. Miss Watkins. Um, I just wanted to thank everyone involved in doing the research. This is a lot of research. I've been here for six years of it and it's, you know, all very accurate, sound. Um, I was, um, in some of those conversations and those joint meetings. Um I was on the um budget committee for a time and um you guys just did you did a lot of work summarizing a lot of collaboration between the um city and school board. A lot of a lot of work on both sides. A lot of communicating and and collaborating, advocating on both sides for our city and for our families and students, teachers or staff. Thank anything you wanted to add? Yes, there is something I want to add. I stayed up every
063night past my bedtime. Those that know I go to bed early. I've been going to bed past 10 and 11:00 working on this. And I thank Franny and Dr. White and Kathleen again and our team for how we've collaborated and partnered to make sure we get uh this thorough information out. So again, thank you all again. Um and just to close, I also um appreciated this the chance to delve into and really, you know, discover how far back the a robust collaborative um relationship um between council and board, the school board goes and and also to see that things evolve over time and we lose historical or institutional knowledge as people turn over. That's just how that is just the nature of time passing. Um but it also means you know as the board as
064good fiscal stewards if we need to have further discussions about how our our about how we deal with our fund balance like for example do we want to reinstitute putting in a line item that's where it's designated reserved for incumbrances. Do we want to break down further that undesated line item? It will that help with transparency or planning in these times? These are things that we discuss as a board so that we can help move the school division forward to meet the goals of our strategic plan as outlined tonight and then the next one that comes after that and the one that comes after that. So, um, so I appreciate everybody's time tonight. Um, and we will now turn it over to our active budget update. Oh. Before that, Mr. Link, one other thing. I
065did come up with a question. Okay. Um, so based on the notes we had on the screen, in 2017, we were seeing fiscal swings as high as $21 million in in in a budget year. Yes. And a quick inflation, sorry, inflation calculation brings that to 27 million in 2025. Um, was was the $21 million value, you know, adjusted for modern dollars or whatever a high point or was that typical of most years? Should we be concerned that our fund balance is not high enough to cover our fiscal swings? Well, I will note that from previous um minutes that it was also requested of the finance department to try to minimize the swings. Okay, that 21 million was the highest. Okay. About the highest that had happened therein. However, yes, Miss Jackson, do you want to
066speak to the logistics of cash flow during the year? And I will say and that and that is something that we've looked at um recently as as there's been discussion of of what our fund balance might look like and might change. Um that we have taken a look at at what our more recent swings have been. And I would say I I don't I don't have those exact numbers um off the top of my head, but I think about 21 million u might have been as much as 23 million was about the biggest that we saw in the last couple of years um in modern in modern dollar in correct in modern dollars and and even the most recent years um we had we were able to get it down a little smaller than that.
067I will say to some extent I am I believe that you know some of our bigger swings in the last few years we had a large influx of federal pandemic relief dollars. All of that has to be spent up front before you can request reimbursement. So I I believe that would account for a lot of that that variance. Now those funds are are are gone. That time period is over. And so um we have seen that the the largest variance we've experienced in the fiscal year um in the last um year or so I I believe was closer to maybe about 15 million. But but still that that I think your point is very well taken that that is something we have to keep an eye on. Um in terms of our required reserve at
068this point um is is just over 12 million and based on our projections for next year's budget that would only go up to about 13.3. Um, so should we be talking about increasing our minimum fund balance? That that is something just I believe I saw around 6.7 or 6.9% or something was you know it's been debated between like do we do it out of a percent. I know the first year it actually there wasn't actually enough in the fund to go by a percent. So that's why they went a dollar amount of 10 million. Okay. Um but yes there's been a conversation about that. Right. and and that's when the policy changed and can't remember your date was that 2017 maybe um where where we did take that into consideration for a few years there
069it was 10 million it was always 10 million and then um the school board at that time said hey wait a minute after a while this is 10 million doesn't get you as much as it as it did when we first adopted this policy so that's when we put that additional piece into that policy where we would look at inflation and enrollment and make adjustments on an annual basis so and I believe in I think in this presentation it has 13.3 as the reserve would be the required reserve for this year um already adjusted. Yes. And if the fund balance were insufficient to cover a swing flow we were to have what would the procedure then be to make sure that we're meeting our obligations? Um I mean I think that goes uh to to
070be managed in two ways. So, as as we we was shared earlier, um you know, part of it is making sure that there's enough money in the bank to cover, but also for for my team to take responsibility for how we manage that that cash flow in terms of when money goes out and that sort of thing. So, I I think there are certainly um levers that we can pull. Right now, um for example, we try to make sure that we get grant reimbursements done on a quarterly basis. um you know that that seems to work well for us that we want to make sure that we're kind of uh have a have a steady flow in in requesting reimbursement. We could certainly move that up um and try to do that say monthly if
071we had to. So there are some things but if we certainly were in um just a dire situation where all of those levers would not be enough then then that would be a conversation for us to have with city finance and the treasurer's office. Okay. Okay. to make sure that we don't have anything catastrophic happen like a bounce check. Okay. Right. And well and um of note with a line of credit we you know it was discussed historically that the cost went up that was just of holding the line of credit not actually the interest on the credit that had to be used while you were waiting to be paid back for funds you knew you were getting. Yes. So yeah because that was an unsecured line. So there was a cost to that because
072we don't have assets that we could put up for collateral. our our buildings are the property of the city, not schools. So So that was kind of the issue there that I think I I don't remember the exact specifics, but I'm not sure if there was a banking change or just a philosophy change with the bank that um they were not willing or able to kind of put that up without us providing some kind of of funding to support that since it was would have been an unsecured loan. Um, so that was a obviously a good conversation that maybe that's not a good use of taxpayer dollars to just be paying for the the line of credit on the off chance that we might need it. Sure. Any other questions or comments? I'll just chime
073in just to say that again. Thank you um Mrs. Apel, Mr. Cherry, as well as um for serving on the the the school board's budget committee first of all and for giving uh this this lesson. I want to thank the entire school board for kind of diving in deeply to to this very important topic because tonight in particular we're going to again I'll just um re-emphasize the fact that tonight Mrs. Jackson is going to take us through. You're going to discuss tonight and we are going to discuss um a significant use of fund balance. But I think it's important for us to keep in mind and it was important for us to have this lesson because you know you can hear how the definitions how um at one point in time we were saying kind
074of reserved for incumbrances and you know sometimes it's called unassigned, sometimes it's called undesated but we're using those terms interchangeably. But whatever we're calling it, right, it's one-time funding. And so we're talking about temporary kind of a temporary fix for ongoing expenses, which is not our typical practice. But this we're we're going to present this tonight to give us um some time really for for planning and for uh making sure that we're being able to continue some of the key projects and programs that we have in place. Um, but I I do want to keep uh to just keep at everyone's the forefront of your mind that whatever we're discussing tonight that we're going to ask for your approval on um come June 10th, we do need to keep all of that in mind for
075the next fiscal season and beyond uh because there will be a cliff effect when it comes to the fund balance. And so I just want to to thank you for that kind of history lesson especially as we approach the the next report which is the update on the board. Um and thank you also for providing the context because we can see year overyear there's a rhyme or reason right so um just because it says that it's unassigned or undesated doesn't mean that those funds aren't earmarked um for other kind of purposes. So Mrs. Jackson, why don't you come on up and um we'll Yes, there's the clicker. And uh we will we're talk about finalizing the 2526 budget. And so for that, Mrs. Jackson, I'll turn it back over to you. All right. Thank you.
076And before I get into that, if I could sort of echo Dr. White and just thank Mrs. Apel and Mr. Cherry. I know um our school board clerk Kim Trusky was very involved in a whole lot of research. Um, I worked for the schools for 19 years, not always in this exact role, but um, I I learned a lot in what you shared as well. I mean, I really appreciate you digging into um, that history to give us that background and and context. So, um, that was very, very useful and beneficial to all of us. Thank you. So, as Dr. White said, we'll now sort of jump ahead. We've had a lot of, uh, history and up to present day. And so now we'll kind of turn our attention to um the coming budget that
077um approval date for which is fast approaching. So um looking into kind of where we stand on our development of the 2526 um budget. And I just wanted to start with kind of where we are in terms of authorization and that sort of thing. Um at at the May 12th city council meeting, the city council did approve the city's budget for next year, which included appropriating funds for school use. um 275 million for general school operations and 13.5 million for the school food service operations. So um just as a reminder, we cannot exceed those amounts. Um that would require additional action on on the part of council and it would require money that we don't have. Um, so I just put that out there that those are um some numbers that I'm sure that you've
078heard and and that um we are certainly grateful for the city council for taking that action to allow us to then move forward with final approval of the schoolboard budget. Um so as as Dr. White said, um, we have the the use of fund balance or what basically onetime money kind of money and savings u prior year savings that is necessary to meet our expenditure needs for the coming year. Um, and and we're really looking that as sort of buying us some time to uh make some longer term decisions about um how we move forward with this the changes in in school funding that were implemented this year. Um, but as just to reiterate, as Dr. White said that's that's kind of a one-time fix. Once those monies are spent, they they don't come back.
079Um so that is something that um will allow us this time in the coming year to make some changes. Um so just want to put that um in on everyone's radar and and also make a note about capital funding. Um we did uh request and get approval from the city council on May 19th to reappropriate some of those carryover or prior year funds um that were specifically intended to be used for capital projects um as Mrs. Apel uh shared to reduce our reliance on on borrowing so much funding that would then require some uh interest payments and that sort of thing. Um, I have noted here that we'll need to request reappropriation once the new fiscal year comes on the the portion of those appropriated funds that are are have not been spent by June
08030. Uh, I actually might be wrong about that. Just before this meeting, so I acknowledge that um just before this meeting that was pointed out to me by one of my colleagues, that portion of state code um was added this this year. And um so we had some internal debate about whether that needed to happen annually or whether just the one-time appropriations. So certainly um we will get clarification uh from legal counsel on making sure that we do that correctly. So, I don't know if that will be needed, but um but I just that that's a possibility that depending on where we are in terms of these these ongoing projects that that won't be completed at June 30, uh making sure that we have the the ongoing uh authorization to continue to use those funds
081to finish the projects. So, all right. So, looking ahead at where we are in terms of expenditures, um I I'm I'm going to bring you two options. I have sort of an option A and an option B. And option A, we've talked about um at prior meetings. Uh there's only one one change from what I presented to you two uh two weeks ago with what is included versus what is excluded from where we stand currently. Um and that's highlighted in green. And we have um added in four previously grant funded student support specialist positions. There were seven total if you remember that have been grant funded where those grant dollars are coming to an end. We have been able to find um existing positions that three of those individuals could move into. So we only
082had to add the cost of seven excuse me of four additional positions and we have done that. So um we have maintained those staff positions um by adding those four to our our budgeted expenditures for next year. So we do have a lot of new um in this budget which um you know it's difficult to talk about adding things when you're talking about having a tight budget but um most of this we are required to do. So the 40 English learner teachers as we've talked about quite a bit is a revision to the state standards of quality. Um so that's based on our student numbers and their um their proficiency levels. Um I will note that um updated information on WEDA scores um does indicate that number might be a little bit smaller than that.
083Maybe um might be able to reduce that by about five positions. However, um we are anticipating that our special education needs um may use those additional positions. So, I'm leaving it at 40 because um we may have other areas um based on on student needs in other ways that we would need those additional positions. Um enrollment is another driver. So, that's why you see the 22 additional uh teacher positions and instructional assistance. That's based on staffing meetings that our HR team holds annually with each of our schools looking at the enrollment projections for for each school um to see what needs might be there. Um we do have a two and a half% raise um an average raise for um all of our staff included. So I'm I'm glad to be able to include that
084um in no small part because we are receiving partial funding uh for that for part of our positions from the state. So we certainly wouldn't want to leave any state funding on the table. So by doing that we do meet the the requirements for accessing those state dollars. So that's certainly important. um things that are not included in option A um our 13 elementary Spanish teachers um we've talked a lot about um uh putting that that pos that program aside so that we can make use of those employees to fill some of these the significant number of new positions that we have to fill. Um we do have um currently a an increase in cost to our employees for health insurance by increasing the deductible for our HA uh health insurance plan. That's something we've
085discussed going from a $2,000 per individual deductible to uh $3,000 or $4,000 per family to $6,000 for that deductible for those plans. So that is something that is currently included in this option A. Um eliminating afterchool activity buses is included a 10% reduction in our facility maintenance budget. Um reducing our our use of individualized um private transportation services and special circumstances. And then we've had a lot of conversation about the um enrollment at both of our high schools exceeding capacity there. We do not have any funds um in this option for adding modular units u learning cottages at the high school. So um all of these ins and outs would require just over $9.1 million use of fund balance. Um so adding local funding, state funding, and about 9.1 million out of fund balance would
086allow us to do the things that are listed in this option. So just kind of to to give you the numbers visually, this is kind of what this is what our revenue would look like. Um I had the the required use of fund balance there based on option A. So um overall looking at our state and local funding um we'd be looking about a 4.2% revenue increase. Um and then making up that difference that would be required um out of fund balance. And then the expenditure side, you see by category um just kind of what what we would be looking at in terms of a year-over-year comparison to the adopted budget for the current year. Um almost the highest increase by category in instruction, not surprisingly, the the highest year-over-year increases in debt service. That's
087just dependent on um when our bond payments are due. Um and so that's a by category the the biggest change but um no surprise that the close second there is our biggest category which is in instruction. Um so now let me run let me go on to option B. So, I know we've had a lot of conversation, including at the most recent um schoolboard meeting two weeks ago, and have heard um schoolboard members feelings and um things that are important to our community that you're hearing from your constituents, etc. So, we've gone back and and looked at sort of a a plan B, an option for um trying not to cut quite so much. again buying us some time to evaluate um our resources. So I'll just highlight here what has changed from what we
088just discussed on option A. Um we are proposing with option B not to change the deductible in our HA uh employee plan. So that would that would keep that um at the current level um at least for another well another year and a half honestly because our our health insurance plans follow a calendar year. Um so that change if we were to do it would take effect January 1 of 2026. So this would um not count on that for savings um for the coming year. Um we propose in this option putting the activity buses back. Now, I will say I know our uh transportation team is looking at ways that we can keep our activity buses but maybe uh maybe change how we do those routes to to save a little bit of money to
089keep it going but cut some cost. So, we certainly are looking at every every avenue that that might be available to us to make that that resource available if there is a way to do so um perhaps at at a lower cost than that 125. Um and lastly, we've put back in the 10% of um facility maintenance budgeted costs that were requested. So um I some points were were made by um schoolboard members and others that you know we can look at those as sort of one-time needs usually when something breaks or um we need to fix that. Now now those things do happen every year. It might be something different. So that is why that's something it's important for us to budget for every year. But, uh, point well taken in terms of if
090we're going to be using sort of one-time funding, um, that does not feel like an inappropriate way to make use of those. So, all of that in would increase our budgeted use of fund balance to 10.3 million. So, adds a little bit more than a million dollars in terms of use of fund balance. So, just going to let you see kind of the numbers of what that looks like. Again, nothing on this slide changes except for that required use of fund balance um which goes up. I I will note um the total there. You see the total general fund budget um 272.27 million. So, we're still within that that limit that we have to stay under in terms of what was has been authorized by by city council. So we're we're still okay in that
091area even with um looking at adding uh those expenses back that were just just described. So looking at our expenditure categories, how that would change in our our option B. Um so increases in the transportation area a little bit of course um most in our instruction with um health insurance and stuff. That's where the bulk of our employees are. So, um, we see that there um, in terms of changes to the budget. So, let me take a minute and we've talked a lot about fund balance and, um, how we would rely on that of what that would really mean. Um, and and this slide is using that second option, that option B of what that would look like. So, um, our opening balance, uh, for the beginning of this current fiscal year of unassigned fund
092balance, plus we had 5 million assigned to help us with transitioning away from, um, all of that federal pandemic relief funding. So, that adds up to just over 28 million. Um, we do have a portion of that that is not spendable, um, that is assigned for other other purposes, so we can't use that. Um, we budgeted to use just over 1.7 million this year. So if we are to if we need to use that um which safest to assume we will at this point um that would have our projected available fund balance at uh 26 just over 26.1 million at the end of the current year. Now as we discussed we have the current schoolboard policy requiring a portion of that be set aside and not used unless there's uh specific action on the part
093of uh city council excuse me school board to authorize that. So that uh policy requires that amount to be 13.3 million for next year. So that brings our potentially available to spend portion down to 12.8. So we are proposing if the school board uh uh likes option B to use about 10.3 of that. That would leave um just under 2.5 million um in fund balance above and beyond that required reserve. So, um I do have a note on here. Of course, we there's very different um opinions and information coming out of the city about our our availability of fund balance. So, I just wanted to acknowledge that without um any specific changed policies or information about cash flow responsibility and that sort of thing. Um this slide is based on how things have been and
094schoolboard policy as it exists currently, that sort of thing. So just want to acknowledge that. So just kind of a final comparison just to give a summary so that you sort of see the ins and outs um of both plans. So of course a whole lot of it is the same between option A or option B. Um but we do have some reductions in A that we have backed out of B. Um so that's certainly beneficial. Neither plan um has funding available for learning cottages at the high schools at this point. Um and then you see the variance there between those two options of what would be required out of fund balance to move forward with that budget. So I will Oops. I don't know what I did. Can you can you bring that back
095up? I'm sorry that was I don't know what I hit. Um just sort of last kind of what are next steps um to put that on the table. So of course um we will be working over the next few days to finalize our detailed budget for you um with the so we need to have that electronic version available to post with the agenda the middle of next week so that you have plenty of time to be looking at that. We will of course have um hard copies at your seats on the on June 10th for that meeting. And um that detailed budget um if you've received it before, it's it's a pretty big book. It includes a lot of background information um an explanation of our financial processes and policies and um any laws or
096regulations at the state level or local level that kind of govern our timeline and how we build our budget. So, um, so that the the the intent really is to, um, have everything kind of a one-stop shop so that a user can, um, take that one document and understand kind of how did we get here? Um, how do we build our budget? That sort of thing. It will have projected grant funding um, in there. It will have our capital improvement plan, which I know you've already received, but again, just as an attempt to have um, everything that that a user might need all in one place. Um and then some supporting data and information. Um we always have in there to again kind of put things in context and um those are based on best
097uh practice standards that are established by the Association of School Business Officials. Um that we always work to to make sure that we're meeting those standards and um providing uh appropriate detailed information for um the community's use. So, so that is where we are and I will um certainly I'm happy to take any questions but I I need to leave this meeting with some guidance from you um about our two options that are on the table to make sure that I bring you um the budget that you are uh comfortable with for ultimately for your approval. So, I welcome any questions or comments and opinions at this point. Um, and to be clear, we're not voting on which option we're going with. We're just still providing feedback to help guide um, Miss Jackson's team. So,
098just want to make sure that we do when it is time to vote that I'm bringing something that um, that is what the board is expecting. Can you go back to the comparisons from option A and B? Yes. So, I think we'll start with Miss T if you had any comments or questions about where this stands. Yes, I do like um that we are able to consider some of the options that will not cause our staff more out of pocket. Well, not it's not even out of pocket. It's actually the deductible. I keep my mind is all over when it comes to health insurance. I mean depending on the needs of the employee, it certainly could be if that with a higher deductible there. It is my out of pocket. So when I see that
099it's a deductible, I'm like glad I'm healthy. But yes, I'm glad that we are able to not take more out of their pockets and especially with giving less of the raise that we were planning to give more initially. I do love the fact that we're able to try to save this activity buses as well as making for our maintenance because it can cost more later if we push something to the side. So, I do like um the fact that we're looking at some aspects that we're able to keep going at least for this next year. Thank you, Miss Watkins. Um I first I want to thank you very much. Um what people sometimes don't understand is that we have time to ask you additional questions and digest and meet with Dr. white in that's two
100board members at a time to get to gain a clearer understanding. I would just like the public and those viewing and listening to know that we don't make rash instant decisions. We have time to process um items and I know a lot of this came from came out of our 2 by twos where we asked specific questions. We asked you guys to go back and see what can you put in? what do we have? Can we get all the way down to, you know, the penny if we need to to try to save some of our programs um in our in our positions? And so I just want to thank you for that. Um and just share that um I think you did a I think the teams did a really good job with um
101bringing back in some of the things that were on the table to be taken off and um personally I would like to see option B. Thank you. Mr. Link. Yes, ma'am. Thank you for all of your work. This reflects a lot of our conversations earlier this week. Um, as I I if I didn't bring it up in the in the 2 by twos earlier this week, um, I'm most comfortable with option B mostly pivoting on two things. I if our if our constraint if our funding constraints this year are a this year problem, um, scared by reducing our maintenance budget, creating a next year problem in a year. You know, we're creating future problems by solving a this year problem. Um, and and the the by the same token reducing the amount of healthc care
102coverage that we're able to offer the teachers. I I want teachers to feel uh I want them to know that we want them to stay. Um, we want them to stay and continue educating our students. And I'm afraid also by reducing that we're also creating a next year problem in the year after that problem. Um so by those two tokens I am most comfortable with option B. Um should now I mean but we're we're talking of a swing of I mean it's it's not nothing but it's 1.2 million. No matter what we're spending 9 million out of fund balance with either of these options. Um should polic should should pol city policy dictate that fund balances not available to us for this budget? Um do we have some drafts in place for what that would
103look like? Well, I mean at this point I think we're in in goodstead with what we are discussing because the the city council has already appropriated budget for next year for the school board. So, so we're staying within that that level that has been set. So, I I think we're okay with moving forward for the there's not there not a scenario in which we're not going to have the 9 million and now suddenly we're 9 million is on the chopping block that that's included in the total that's been appropriated. So, I I think we're we're moving appropriately um based on what has been authorized at this point. Um but any changes that might be implemented of course going forward might affect how we budget spend more than the 275 that has already not do that.
104Correct. Thank you. Um and um before we move to Mr. Cherry, Miss Trig, had you wanted to voice um support for option A or option B? Um or you don't have to. I don't want to tie you in, but I just in case you wanted to or not. Yes, definitely option B in my opinion. I wrote your name down by me. That's how I interpreted. That's what I interpreted too, but I didn't. But I just wanted to give her the chance. You already voted. Not a vote. Not a vote. Not a vote. Mr. Cherry. Oh. So, um I guess with a I'm an operations guy and this we are in the people business and we need proper buildings for the people to work. So, uh, that being said, I think that kind of speaks for
105itself. Um, option B for me is I think what we need to do. We need to make sure we keep, um, you know, we're not doing the best raise, but we're giving them something. I think they'll be extremely grateful for that. But also, I don't want to reduce, uh, cost by increasing a a deductible. So, you know, I just don't feel comfortable with that. And then our maintenance, you know, we have, you look at the history of our buildings, you know, um something's bound to break every 5 minutes, you know, so we do not want to reduce our maintenance budget. I think uh Mr. Perkins does an incredible job with uh maintaining the buildings that we have and improving our facilities. So, yeah, option B. And again, thank you for the hard work. I don't
106think you need to hear that anymore. I think what you're want to hear is, "Hey, I need some guidance tonight." All right, I already know you all are thankful. So, uh, definitely option B. All right. So, that's where I'm at. Um, and I also really appreciate working to put the keeping to keep the deductibles where they are um, for option B because it was a theme even during the strategic plan feedback, you know, about taking care of the student, the whole family, the whole division that includes our staff. Um, and also I know the activity buses were um a a key point um that a lot of people felt like for our students to access things like tutoring or various extracurricular programs um that that's a a necessity that we have that maybe other divisions
107don't. Um I also so I'm also in favor of option B. But I also want to note that just because, you know, we know that this is going to we're going to take a hit on the fund balance. Um that that is what it's there for is in times of need. But that doesn't if on June 10th we approve this. It doesn't mean that you know Miss Jackson's team or Mr. Perkins team or um all the other team you know the departments are going to stop working to explore um options for additional revenue streams. I think some of the things you saw in the histo history history of our fund balances, we ended up with more than expected for capital for capital um expenses because we got the Virginia Scap grants which they were not
108anticipated and that helped with Preston Park and I believe Breen Ridge um and then that allowed us to move forward and and to deal with inflation but stay on pace with Preston Park's construction and things like that and to continue with capital maintenance. So, um, you know, we talked about with activity buses. I'm certain that that that's something that there's a lot of grants that are geared towards after school programs for students or, um, various ones for more. There's still a push, I think, at the state level to get, you know, try to get some various programs for capital expenses across the state. So, um I also know that how our administration works is just us once a vote happens on June 10th, that doesn't mean we stop and say, "Okay, well, we're we're set
109to have to spend that much down." We'll be, you know, looking into efficiencies with the activity buses or transportation or things so that or with um, you know, our ever driven um, contract or things like that so that we can also contract our expenses where we can so we're good fiscal stewards anyway with all the other uh, line items. So, um, I think that's a really good point and and I hate I hate to be the wet blanket, which people like to call me, but but but I will add as as you made me think about um, you know, leaving in the the deductibles at where they are at this at this moment, I I will just give the caveat that increases to health insurance costs are are they make me nervous. So, so I
110I just as we will do everything we can to find cost savings as we go along, sometimes the opposite happens in the middle of the year where something um comes to fruition. If health insurance increases are higher than what we currently have included in the budget, we may need to bring some of these things back to you to discuss in future. But um but that's true any year that you know things things come up mid year and and we do our best to absorb them or or or pivot at that point. But um so I I appreciate that point, but yes, we'll do everything we can to and I'll just chime in there just to say that that is absolutely right and and I just thank you for making that point. I uh because things
111do come up and we just don't know. So keep in mind that the one year where we had quite a few safety concerns and we were able to utilize the fund balance in order to um get those 25 safety recommendations approved by the school board and and implemented. and they are all done uh and completed um because of the use of fund balance and that was an immediate need at that time and we were able to take action because we we had that that access to to funds and so just keep in mind so this is very helpful um to hear this discussion and I just want to thank school board for engaging in this discussion this I mean I know it's been a long budget season And so we are I just appreciate your
112engagement because um this helps us to prepare a budget that we would like to present to you that we know that you can can stand behind. Keep in mind that next year and I know that I keep uh emphasizing the same point. Um we may not have $10 million that we're talking about. there may not be an option A or option B because then we're kind of left with the two million that um that we're that we're reducing it down to by using this for this year. So again um next year's discussion will be quite different than this year's discussion. We're grateful that we can have this discussion this year. Um, and we, from what I'm hearing, we'll go back and prepare the budget um for for you to take action on at the next
113meeting. But I don't want to um take take over the discussion if you had other things that you wanted to ask or bring. And I did wanted to note that two things. One, we are reassigning staff um from that were originally elementary Spanish teachers, correct? Or they had correct positions. Okay. And then also um even though we're moving forward and we're giving guidance, this budget still doesn't necessarily address everything that we need to do with the capacity need. So really just want the public to to know that like we still have a capacity issue. Uh that's still a ongoing study, but you know we did not allocate um to make any moves on that yet and that is a immediate need. So I just wanted to point that out and make that known tonight. I
114think it's important to and thank you for for that reminder. I mean because the let's take elementary Spanish for instance. There are two issues with that. One was kind of a a lenture kind of issue. There's a staffing issue. We have a um we have a need where we have to meet SOQ requirements for our uh English learner teachers. And so um there's an immediate need there. there was a budget um component to that but there was also a staffing component and a lensure component that we have to meet in order for us to meet the new SOQ requirements and then when it comes to all of these other kinds of needs um we are fortunate I always say this is a good problem to have when you have more students than than you expect
115right so um so five years ago we expected kind of declining enrollment we have not seen that we have seen increasing enrollment and so with that increasing enrollment, we've seen it we've seen an increase in need. So the budget that we presented, remember the original budget is where we had already planned to use what was it? 4 million correct out of fund balance from the original budget that we presented um I can't even remember when that was Kathleen some time ago. So because we had more need then than um than what we had in this current year. So we have we're anticipating more need. So even what we have here I mean even thinking about maintenance right this um so even though we're talking about not reducing the maintenance but budget by 10% which is
116good we appreciate that we know that we have more maintenance needs than what we had even um originally budgeted for in the in the original plan. So thank you for pointing that out um because we'll definitely have to keep that in mind as we move forward. Were there any other questions or comments from the board? Thank you very much. Thank you, Mrs. Jackson. Thank you to your team and thank you to our central office staff. And I also want to say thank you always thank you as we're um coming down the homestretch to the school year. I want to say thank you to our teachers and our principles and our staff, our central office staff as well as our school-based staff and our all of our employees um for their incredible the incredible job that
117they've done um all school year long and just so thank you so much. We I do say that we are in a people business because we are and as you could hear from the students comments tonight that there was a connection. Um, it's about relationships and I'm just so proud of our staff for building those relationships with students and for telling us what's needed um each and every day so that we can plan accordingly and thank you for to the school board for that discussion. And so, madame vice chair, that ends my report. Thank you, Dr. White. Um, moving on to um board items, the work of the board. Um, as you see, um, we are continuing on with that work, but a lot of it has been completed for this year, and as we
118enter a new year, we will enter into, uh, new work for the board moving forward. Um, I also want to take a moment here to as well thank our um, school board clerk, Miss Tresy, for her help with a lot of the research going into digging through old minutes and and things. so that um her work there was instrumental um with our history of the fund balance presentation. Um regarding future business, um I the the only thing I have really of note aside from the big dates coming next week, um I haven't gotten I haven't noted if I got a notification is the CT auction over. I keep getting outbid on things. So, um, uh, but is the is the auction over? It ended while we were here. So, I'll let my kids know how
119it went. It ended at ended at seven. Got it. Um, so, so too late. You missed it. Wait till wait for next year. Um, hopefully I got that picnic table I've been eyeing for like 40 years. So, um, any other future business from the board? Uh just one thing I'd like to share um with the group that some of you may know or may not know, but on Friday I'll be um attending the VSBA law conference in Richmond, right? Um I'm using that um for double duty. I'm on a task force for the VSBA for students and schools in challenging environments and I'm on a subcommittee within that group of um workforce development and um CTE programs and I'll be working with my subcommittee um after the conference um in person to share some of
120what we are doing as a um school division um and what we've done in our CT space and how we've helped our uh city and workforce development. Thank you. I'll we'll make sure to um get your report back out, you know, um at a future school board meeting. Absolutely. All right. If there is nothing else, this meeting is adjourned. I'm sorry. Oh, just kidding. Undo that. Can I do that? I don't know if I can do that. I know that we normally do um moments of silence during regular board meetings, but I think it's fitting that um we recognize the loss of our former superintendent, Rita Bishop, during this meeting. Um because our next meeting is, I don't know, two weeks away. Um just to say that, you know, I was able to work with
121Rita. I may be the only one left on the board, me and um Dr. that were able to work with Dr. Bishop and many um in pres present here today have also in the past. Um she contributed so much to this division and so much to our city. She loved um our kids. Um and so I just want to recognize um her uh contributions and accomplishments as the former superintendent of our own city schools. Um, I don't know if we want to do a moment of silence or not. Okay. All right. Thank you. All right. Thank you for that. Um and again we appreciate all of her contributions um that were made um to the division and on behalf of the students and families of and and staff of Reno City Public Schools. And with
122that on that note, this meeting is adjourned.