001Um before we call move to order like you all know we have executive sessions for uh professional personal and uh legal advice. That being said it is holding the order and checking I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you very much. Diana can Dan here. Ryan Davis here. Jen Goldhan here. Ruth Murphy here. Mary Kluff here. Chad Malard here. Matt Nelson here. Neil T here. Ro here. Dr. Brad Sterner here. Dr. Sha Myers here. Justin Pierce here. Welcome to our meeting. All right. That brings us to hearing of federal audition. We have none. Next on agenda is public comment. If any public comment, it's the time to come up. Please
002just sign the board. We have your name and where you're cons. Uh second, the first one up letter A is the budgetation. do all the screens again. That was Yeah. Okay. uh uh as we've started the journey back in January um with the budget discussions um we've reached the point where tonight is the final budget and everything uh with minor things that I'll I'll share throughout this presentation has stayed pretty much steady. Um, no changes for the most part, but like I said, I'll get into some of the things that minor changes that we had. Uh, but um, this is the time tonight we get to in the agenda where you will be voting on what you feel is the best budget for the district. Um my hope is that I've provided enough information to
003along the way that getting you the information you need makes the important decision that's part of. So with that I'll go ahead and get started. Um so the budget changes since May um with our I've had max lease amounts um this needed to be increased based upon um inventory that was looked through more accurately um and in order to get uh everything that we needed um in the investment for the four years. Uh we needed to increase that amount uh for the it was for the MacBooks and I've had both. Um majority these had to deal with the Mac parts that are in the uh schools. They were not part of the initial quarter. U but Apple has allowed us to combine both into one payment. So this is the amount of the additional order
004that we had to place to get everything covered so that everything is refreshed and on the same cycle. So from May till now there's a $31,676 increase in that line. uh what has come to be actually yesterday um and that's why it's not updated here in this because I've already shared this presentation but this is more informative for you as a board um the ninth gen iPads that are being sent to the elementary school. Okay. Um so they were both from the middle school and the ninth graders from the high school. because they the newest iPads we have and this is something we've already shared with the board. Um the plan that was that they were going to the elementary school because the elementary schools had the oldest iPads. those uh covers that I've had
005covers um once they've been collected have been used and abused and are pretty in dire need of repair. Okay. with knowing that we are doing this for a four-year commitment. Um we needed to uh look at what the best how to keep that investment safe throughout the entire war process. So in discussion with Dr. Turner and our tech team. Um, we've determined that the best thing to do is to get new cases for the night gyms. Okay. Um, Apple, the new the new covers for the lease that we're cursing, the brand new ones, they're in our lease. they no longer Apple does not go beyond uh the 10th and 11th generation iPads these like I said n so what we need to do is we need to purchase these new covers for the ninth gen
006on our we can't that into these um what we were able to do uh is work with uh a third party company to the same protection that we had, but we're getting brand new cases. Um, then the the good thing is elementary those iPads do not go wrong. Okay, so they'll be in school the entire time. Um so what we are planning to do uh is to utilize current year 2425 funding um to pay for the is 600 um iPad covers. Okay. Um it's the estimate that we were given was $54,000. So where that can come out of um is the estimates that I've shared that they were about 84,000 to the good um the 54,000. So that's going to put us more right and even um which doesn't affect 25 26 budget at all.
007But that way then we are protecting our investment for the entire four-year process because some of the the majority of the covers on the iPads that we collected that are going into elementary school are pretty rough sheet. Um so in order to those iPads last for the entire four year period I think it's money very well spent. So those are the two changes that have happened since May. Okay. Um so any questions related to either the iPad base increase based on the Mac parts or the nits were in the they're the oldest ones we have. that are the newest we have. Okay. So, they're the newest ones and they're going to last we think another four years will last for support or anything like that. I'll tell you the oldest generation that we have currently
008in our elementary schools. The newest generation is not perfect, but the oldest generation we have is all the way down. They can't deal with anymore. Um, so that that's why and again the ninth generation like it's not that I want be fair. It's not that their students didn't take care of their device. It's a device that's going home. Um and the cases they did or die but they've been going home for years a child and it's we're going to be putting them in the hands of our elementary students and they need they need as they're falling apart and they they did their job. It's just we have a very expensive device and we need to protect it for the next four years. And Apple actually when we looked into it, we looked at doing an
009entire refresh, but Apple actually told us not to do that because that wouldn't be cost effective because the ninth generation is more than capable of handling the next 40 years. So it wasn't until we started getting the iPads back from our students that we saw a piece of work. Um and again I I don't know that they abused it by any means. It's just for a couple years it purpose be any question. I just have one more thing that too um that Justin brought up too as far as like the addition for the chair. So, one thing we did is when they allow us for laptop perks, we really took them down and set them down, meaning that we had multiple laptop perks that we really down. Um, and we met with teachers that were
010using them to understand why they were using them. We had Mr. Oil um of technology with the teachers as well to make sure that what they were using them for the iPads weren't capable of doing and they're not. Um, so like our tech classes, um, there were some things that we're doing in our English classes that the iPads aren't able to do. Um, so we were able to take those iPads or I'm sorry, those laptops, but we significantly condemn students because we didn't use that. So that's where that additional charge should. Okay, so the next slide here shows you a historical look at the act one index compared to our actual tax increase. So this goes back to the implementation of act one back in 2006. So I'm not going to read through every single
011one there, but you can see what the act one index that we did go to compared to what our actual tax increase has been. Um, so as you know in what I've been sharing since January is currently the act index 5.4% um tonight I can fill in what the actual tax increase is um once it's decided on you. um you've seen this in the past uh but I think it's just very informative so that we don't lose track of what u a lot of our costs that we have zero control over is uh this is our teachers rate and again remember this is certified by feers and we have zero choice related to what that rate is so currently the certified rate for 2526 like I've already shared is 34% % flat. Um, and then
012you can see the projections there, uh, for 29 and 30 is supposed to go up to 36.49, but that all be determined upon how investments things that they they invest in do throughout those years. So, but that's just showing the scale of where it's been and where it's headed. Okay. Um, this charter and cyber school false analysis. This is another uh you've seen this multiple times throughout the six months, but this is just showing what we're looking at. Um there's a 8year uh time period here. Um showing in eight years we're just over $12 million in charter school cost. Um we'll see what happens with this year's state budget if anything comes to be. Um really heard much related to this as to what potentially might happen. Uh but there's obviously a lot of proposals
013whether it's a flat regular ed rate. Um that you can imagine if it would be a flat rate, we're already close to 14 just under $14,000 for regular ed this current year. Uh so there could be significant savings if that goes that's that's been something that's been proposed for a number of years. um but hasn't made it to the finish line yet. So um so again with the changes that we've already discussed, this is what the budget looks like. Our expenditures 387, our revenue 375 and that that fund balance usage is going just under 1.2 two to give you the balanced budget and this does include what the preliminary budget was passed at at the 5 million 4%. Okay. Um this is the same information that you've seen from the preliminary budget um of the
014summary of revenues. So our local revenues are just shy of um 58 and a half percent. Um the state revenue is just over 40% and then the federal revenue is right around that 1.1%. Okay. Um the only change related here is to the 700s is where the iPad increase is. So that's the only dollar amount that's changed uh from the preliminary budget. But I mean just to highlight we're at about 65% like we always are with salary and benefits. So that's the guts of our majority of our expenditure budget. So nothing else has changed here. So this is what the summary and the same four options that I've uh presented. So option A if you remember since January has always been the Mac one index which is 5.4%. Option B again is the 3.6%. Option
015C is the 1.8% and option D is the 0% tax increase. And as you can see it ranges from the act one index of the 1 just shy of 1.2 2 million deficit to the 3.6 is just shy of the 1.5 million de deficit. 1.8 is right around 1.7 million deficit and the 0% tax increase is just shy of a $2 million deficit. This slide has been shown every month um like I promised. Um, this is showing you how much taxes tax dollars are generated from each option. So the 797, $361 is what was generated from the act one index. And as you go down, you go to the left, you're losing $265,787 each option. Okay. Um, so as you can see the option C then would be less than 531 and option D he
016leaves all the tax increase to the 787 and then the corresponding amount of what a monthly tax increase on an average assessed property is for each one of those options. So this is looking at the fund balance summary of the different options. So as you can see here um option A which is the act one index would be you would have an estimated ending fund balance at the end of next school year of just over 5.4 million. Option B you would be just over 5.1. Option C you would be right around 4.9 and option D would be about 4.6. And then this is summarizing everything into one slide for the three-year budget summary. Um so as you can see here uh for the 20 so this is for 26 27 27 28 28 29 um
017you'd be looking at roughly um having 3.1 million left in the fund balance at the end of 2627 at option A. Um, and then you can work your way over to the left. Um, you see it's 2.6 at option B, 2 million at option C, and 1.5 at option D. Two years out, the 2728 year, the estimate would be just shy of having a fund balance of 386 deficit that goes to 1.2. Option C is 2 million and option D is a deficit of 2.8 and then three years and again I've always said this every month once you get to that third year there's so many unknowns um that I don't really put too much emphasis or value in that but this is just for illustration purposes. Um you'll see us 3 years down here
018to death to the 52 then the 64 7.5 million and then 8.6. Okay. Any questions related to this slide at all with the the uh project. So again, I just I know I said this at the preliminary budget, but I think it's very important to get at the budget as well. As you can see, once we once we get those, but we'll stop we'll start with option A, which again is the 5.4. Okay, each option has number one and number two. Okay, you must vote the same way for both one and two. Okay, you can't have one if you don't have two. Okay, you need the mill rate associated with that option in order to get the revenue. They put it together though, right? Yep. So any questions related to that? So again option A
019is in 5.4 option B is a 3.6 option C 1.8 And I think we need to refuse it to be clear if it passes we don't vote to option B we have a vote that is pass with that I'll open up for any discussion or questions if you may have this What was the homestead farmstead additional rebate this year? $27,925. That's the increase of tax $341. things every you want to talk about it now or discussion options probably I just I know we talk about it again options probably yeah I think that's I have a question about the vote school I'd like to know is there anything more going on with have a um they're still looking at buying land. Um the plan is still to buy land and build. Um there hasn't to my
020knowledge there hasn't been any official movement at this point. I haven't received any information that has but the plan still exists that they are looking to buy land and start building. That's actually one of the considerations for some of the other things that we considered with raising taxes. But I had a bunch of other things that I was going to go into with it. First, I wanted to start by saying that we're underfunded by the state as the 2023 Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court ruled that the state funding system is unconstitutional. We received $362,75 for the last budget in adequacy funding through ready to learn block grant. However, we don't know how much adequacy funding we will be getting, if any at all in this in this budget because state hasn't passed it yet. Second, we are
021required to pay unfunded and underfunded mandates such as Pasers, public school employees retirement system. The rate for the 2025 26 school year just said is 34%. Which was 4.7 million for our district half of which is reimburseed to the district. So our total out is 2.3 million. This mandated expense used to be completely funded by the state. It was about back in the 80s they decided to go back to us fortunately. Next, we have Syber Charter as an unfunded. For the 2526 school year, we are projected to spend 1.9 million with no reimbursement from the state. Last year, we received 5% reimbursement. Currently, there is legislation for an $8,000 per student flat rate reimbursement for cyber charter, which will underfund cyber charter, limiting parents choices for education for their children. Because this is a highly
022partisan issue, we're just going to have to wait and see what happens and how it all shakes out. Special education is another underfunded. We are mandated to provide any and all services to students no matter what their disability is. The district has to pay for evaluation and then provide those services to help the student. All students are worth what it takes to provide them a highquality education they deserve to help them be the best they can be. But this comes at a significant price tag with very little reimbursement. For example, the 202526 school year, we are projected to spend 4.6 million with a reimburse reimbursement budgeted at 1.4 million. an approximate 30% reimbursement leaving 70% to be paid by the local taxpayers. Transportation is another underfunded mandate which we have to provide transportation to and
023from the school with buses and vans. Currently, we are underfunded by a little more than $400,000. In addition to being underfunded and the unfunded units of plan comp, this was formerly an option for school districts to receive some additional reimbursement for construction and other renovation projects. Unfortunately, this reimbursement from the state was frozen. If plan had been reimbursing, we would have received some funds back from the state to the district helping to ease the local pack curve here. To sum up, we are underfunded by 10% at the base level and educate in addition to pasers being underfunded by 2.3 million, transportation $400,000 underfunded, cyber charter unfunded by 1.9 million and special education underfunded by 3.2 million. You add all that up, this district alone is underfunded by our state through unfunded and underfunded mandates for
024a total of $7.8 million. So, it's my hope that there is some significant funding that is provided to our district and I know there are other districts in need as well. So we think is what we need to do for the benefit of our students, our staff, and our community. Gotcha. Thank you. I do have something else. Okay. Um, Social Security this year, we got an increase of 2.5%. Well, along with that 2.5%, they increase Medicare $10 per month, which makes it $120 more. So, that 2.5 increase got decreased by Medicare going up. Okay, we have a lot of elderly people and people on retirement in my district that maybe um I understand all the things that Jen said. However, they can't afford all this. They could lose their house, cost of living with everything,
025the prices, everything's gone up and now, you know, you're saying about the state not doing this. Well, then it's time that the legislators do something about it. We cannot keep taxing our people. They could lose their house. I know everybody in this room probably has enough to go up, but I know a lot of people that are stronger. So therefore, you know, when you're considering raising the taxes to these people, communities that you live in, and consider that. Thank you. the budget presentation.