001I wish Yeah. We will call to order the special school board workshop meeting of Monday, May 4th. Um, first thing we'll do is pledge of allegiance and a moment of silence. Let's will we please keep coach and his family in our party. Pledge of Algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the stands one nation under God, indivisible, liberty and justice for all. We're ready for roll call. >> Mrs. >> here. >> Mrs. Gry >> here. Mrs. Walker >> here. >> Mr. Claire >> here. >> Mr. Marinara >> here. >> Mr. Sens >> here. >> Dr. Katon >> here. >> Mr. Linder >> here. >> Mr. Great. The [clears throat] May 4th school board workshop meeting is open to the public and it's also being streamed virtually. Um, can I get
002an approval of the May 4th, 206 school board workshop agenda? >> Motion. >> Second. >> I have a motion and a second. All in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion passes. I assume we don't have any visitors that are here to speak. We'll move right to the superintendent. >> Okay. My report includes Mrs. Martin sharing budget presentation. >> All right. Uh first we're going to start off with the projection for the current year. the the protections. It's getting a little better each time I I [laughter] work on it. Um, which is good. We are we're still in a deficit of $988,000. Um, but as you can see on the the revenue, the revenue is doing a little better. Um, we're about $531,000 projecting. We're projected have $11,000 higher than our budget. Most
003of that money is um we had a delinquent property that was delinquent um for a couple years and they they did a sheriff's sale this year. So we finally got that delinquent money from that property. Our EIT is trending trending a little higher than budget and we did get some additional transfer tax dollars um in the current year that we weren't anticipating. >> So correct me. We were at like around5 was our projection deficit. >> One yeah 13. Okay. >> Yeah. Yeah, actually here 1328. >> 1328. There we go. >> Y >> um the expenses are a little higher than budget, but there's there's not any real surprises. Things all we anticipated additional special education enrollment. Um the cyber school that the enrollment's a little higher than we thought. Um some of the utilities are
004trending higher just because of the cold winter. We had some additional repairs that were unanticipated. Um so the projections looking looking better. Then we take that projection and put that into our fund balance analysis. Um, if all rings true, we should end the year around $18 million fund balance. Um, we started the year around 19.21 19.3 million. So a million around a million dollar deficit. Um, and then then we look at the 2627 budget. Um, right now we are showing a $ 1.7 million deficit. That that includes pretty much everything we've been talking about since January. All the special education changes, the staffing changes, the the audit that we did over the summer. A lot of those savings are all pretty much everything is incorporated in that number that you see there um right. And
005if that would ring true, that would um and we would end the year with a $16.6 million fund balance. So moving um budget history I just like to include this um as you can see on the revenue side the um increase from the projection from 2526 to 2627 is a 2.39% increase. You know, we do have the 3.5% real real estate tax increase in here, but um as I I think I've mentioned before, that the transfer taxes, the delinquent, those those numbers, even EIT, are a little hard to predict predict each year. So, we budget very conservatively for them because we're not sure how much how many um you know, sales in real estate there'll be that year, who's going to pay their delinquent. So that's that's why that doesn't reflect a total 3.5% increase
006because we have to take into account some some of those unknowns that in the other local revenue expenses if you you look at the percentage increase over the the projection it's a 3.32. So it's not with inflation that's pretty a pretty um doable number. I I guess you know an expected number um with salary increases, health insurance increases. Um so it's it's not like we have any extravagant expenses in in this budget that we're presenting. >> Just before we move on. >> Sure. If you go back 2425 has the big deficit due to the yield expansion that we did, right? >> Yeah. Well, and that Yeah, that was when we transferred the $7 million fund balance over and we also did um we transferred some money to food service and to our health insurance fund.
007Got it. >> So, those were all fun. There was I think it was $ 8.5 million in fund transfers. So, if we if we were to back that out, what would that uh >> that I don't I have it on a future slide, but I think it's around 4.5% increase that we have in expenses this year over 2425. Is that what you were >> Well, no. I was just trying to look at how we performed in 2425. Did we >> end in uh would it have been a surplus if we would not have >> we had a surplus? net we had actually a $357,000 deficit which was right around what um I think was projected Brian had projected this time last year >> at the end it ended up being up >> yeah there was
008some additional IU costs in um >> probably end of June type thing that came in >> yeah yes so our operating >> Thank you. Yeah, no problem. Um, so here again is all the different u millage rate increases with the current budget that we have. Like I said, I still have 3.5% in there, but um and it's around $420,000 for each 1% of millage increase. And then to just to dig deeper into the budget, this this gives you um the expenses by function. function tells us where where the money is being spent. So the 1100s is your regular program, 1,200's your special pro special education programs and you can see there that's where a lot of our increases are. Um the 1300s is the vocational ed and that is where the CTC money was. And
009if you remember way back when we approved that budget, our enrollment is down for the CTC. So that's what that decrease is in that that line. Um some of the other big increases the 2100s um you see a 10% increase in that line that is where your school psychologist um the new one that we're adding that's where that increase would go and also our special ed consultant um would be in that line too. So those two new positions that we had approved are in there. Um and just your normal increases in the other lines. Then if you look at it by object, object tells you where we're spending the money. So salaries, benefits, um professional services. So our salaries and benefits, both those lines are about a five 5% increase. Um professional services is also
010a 5% increase. And that the majority of the 300 object code is our IU cost for most of our special education comes out of there. And then our substitutes are also in that point item. our teacher substitutes. Um some of And then some of the others are just small decreases just based on employee salaries and something. Oh, here was where um you can see from 2425 to 2526 if you take out um the $ 8.5 million that increase as around 4.5%. And then again we have a 3.32% increase from 25 26 projection to 2627. This is all by object. And just to kind of show you a diff different way to look at it. Um the this graph of course shows you it's all the expenses by object. But the one thing I w I
011wanted to point out just because I've been in school business for years and it was one thing that's that struck me when I look at this graph is um salaries and benefits. If [clears throat] we go back 10 15 years used to be about 75% of your school district budget. It was a huge part of your budget. But as you can see here, professional services is now a bigger chunk of that. And in that prof professional services is where we will have our special education tuition. Excuse [clears throat] me. Our special education tuition, our cyber tuition, and our transportation all lies in this blue area, the professional services. So, you can see that's a bigger part of the pie. And then professional services down here. Again, that is where a lot of your IU cost,
012your and your special education IU cost and your teacher substitutes and um any other professional services for um the instructional side are in that gray area. And then our debt service is about 11% 11.6% up the pie. But it it's definitely changed over the years the trajectory of school expenses um just because we have more mandates, more you know inflation increases and um >> still people, it's just people in >> Right. Exactly. Just has just changed a little bit over the years. And then here we had the Baron $100 bill um that Brian had created. [laughter] Um I brought that back. That just shows you again the um the where we're spending the money. And you can see 57% of our budget is on the instructional. And then also student and staff services is about
0137%. So those two are kind of the direct contact with the kids. Your your student staff services is your nurses, your librarians, your psychologists. And then the debt service, facilities, transportation are are some of the other pieces. The extra extracurricular costs are athletics, but the the majority of this this um pie is the instructional. Here's a little more detail on salary and benefits. Um the the big increase in salary and benefits is your professional staff and that the majority of that is our um that we had added those extra positions in the special ed department. um some small increases in support staff and and administrative. Um some of the the support staff increases is a little smaller than you'd anticipate because in the 2526 projection, we did have a bunch of open positions this year.
014It took us a little while to to fill some custodial positions, some food service, um uh some of our other aids and and whatnot. So that's included in the projection. Whereas when we budget for salaries and b benefits, we budget as if we are full staffed because of course we we want to be full staffed. So um so that's where you see a little bit of difference in those percentage percentages when you compare it to your projection versus budget to budget. And then on the benefit side, the biggest increase is health insurance like we talked about last time. Um that and some of our other insurance benefits too, but the majority of that is your health insurance increases there. And then the one thing that I I did lower the budget for our tuition um
015tuition costs you can see in the past if you look over the years we had um generally over spent over at least over $350,000 on tuition costs but the last two years the la the well last year and this current year the tuition costs seem to be down a little bit. So I did reduce that budget just a little bit but we'll keep an eye on that to see to see where that's going. Um that's that's a hard thing to predict too because you're never sure how you know what kind of classes the teachers will be taking. Um the majority of that is our professional staff. And then another big expense is our cyber charter. Not much has changed here. We still have an average enrollment this year of around 131 students. And again, I
016I've kept it relatively flat just because um we had reform. We had some cyber charter reform in 2526. So there was some savings. Unfortunately, that savings got eaten up by um by the higher enrollment. So that saved relatively flat for 2526. And I I've heard that they're still planning on doing some additional deductions to the our tuition formula. There's a formula that we calculate that the cyber schools use um per student and there's supposed to be some additional deductions. So, I'm hoping it'll be some more savings even though we have a higher enrollment that I'm hoping that number will stay relatively flat, but I am going to keep an eye on that between now and June when we approve the final budget just to make sure we have that accurate. Um, and then special education.
017Uh this this is always [clears throat] an interesting chart when you look at it. Um the the dark blue and the light blue um the dark blue is your special education labor and benefits expense and the the light blue is our special education operating costs. And as you can see over the years this goes from 1617 to 2627 that there's a definite increase. You know sometimes it's different depending on the students. Sometimes we need more staff. Sometimes we have more operating costs. But in general, those costs have increased significantly over the years. But then when you look at the green line on here, the green line is our special education subsidy. You can see that has not increased significantly over the years. One of those things I know that we have always brought up to
018our politicians. It's just not not anything that they've chose to address. Um the red line is the net cost. So if you take our expense less the special education subsidy, this is what comes out of our pocket. So it is it has started around if you go back to 1617 around a $5 million net cost all the way up to we're projecting an 11 million 11.5 million net cost coming out of our budget. And then majority of that comes out of our local funds because that's that's what we have control over. So just it's just um significant to look over the years how much that has changed but the state hasn't kept up with with our expenses. transportation. Um, just wanted to give you an idea too again of how that that has slowly increased
019over the years also just a lot with the inflation pressures of you know gas, diesel, this the salaries um and also um as we have more special education students and and a homeless population, we are required to transport most all those individuals. So that that um adds some increased cost to our transportation cost just because a lot of times if a homeless student is living out of the district, it's one van, one driver taking one student and that that adds significant cost, but unfortunately that again is a mandated cost, a mandated procedure for us. We do have to transport those kids. So that that adds to your transportation costs. And then I just wanted to give you an idea. This is just kind of future look at our debt service. Um, as you can see
020for this current year, uh, 26 27 and 27 28 is where it hits its peak. We're we're going to have around $ 8.5 million coming out of the budget for debt service. And then it does drop off a little bit um for the next five or six years until we get to 3435 is when we'll see more of a significant drop. Um, we do have one issue that the call date was actually just May 1st, but the um the the Fed hasn't lowered the rates anymore. I don't know if any of you saw that. The the rates have stayed the same. They they just met last week. So, at the current time, there there's really not not any good opportunities for us to refund any of our bonds, but it's definitely something we'll we'll keep
021our eye on over the years. And you know, we may see some savings, but like we did last year, we saw about a $500,000 savings in our debt. So, we will definitely keep an eye on it. But we have some really good rates on our bonds. >> And these are all fixed rate, >> right? >> Yeah. >> Yes. Yeah. So, adjust with funding is some of >> And then if we move on to revenue, um this these are our top revenue sources. So not so low mostly although all of them are local and state and they these these um top revenue sources make up about 93% of our budget. Of course the biggest one is your your real estate tax revenue. The biggest one is your real estate taxes and that includes your delinquent, your
022interim and your current real estate taxes and that makes up 60% of our budget of our total revenue budget. The basic ed subsidy comes in second around 13% earned income taxes and then the pasers reimbursement. Um the one that I I have highlighted here because as we we get further um through the the fair funding formula the ready tolearn adequacy. Um I I have that money in our budget. Um the governor proposed it and um and it is based part of the whole fair for funding formula. That would be an additional $478,000. But if we do get that those dollars, then you can see this line becomes more significant in our budget than it has been in the past. >> Do you have that extra 400 built into the [clears throat] correction right now? >>
023Yes. >> Otherwise, the forecast um >> I don't in the the main one, but I do have a second slide to show you what that'll do to it if it's in there. It's hard to say because there's no depth in it. It has to be approved every year. So, it's one of those things you're just you're afraid to count on it. >> Yeah. >> Until they they make some definite decisions. But I do have a slide for that. >> Okay. >> And here's a look at our local revenue. Again, local revenue is 69% of our total budget. Um the real real estate taxes um like I said before are um around 59% of the of our total budget and 85% of our local budget. Um the significant ones are your real estate taxes, your EIT.
024Um are we know we're still doing pretty good with interest and dividends as long as that, you know, the rates haven't dropped and we we do have our you know our fund balance that we invest that sits in the bank. So, um, we're still doing, um, pretty good with that as we go on, too. Oh, there it is. Yeah. So, proposed revenue from real estate taxes is about 85% of our local revenue, 60% as I said before, of the total budget. And for our state revenue, um, again, I don't think there's any way they're going to have the budget passed on time. So, we're we just have in there what the governor proposed, which the main increase in that is the adequacy dollars and a small increase in basic ed funding and a small increase
025in special ed funds. Um, and if you basic ed and special ed funding do make up 50% of just our state revenue budget and federal, there's there's really not much to talk about there. Um I I still don't have any definitive numbers on what we're going to get for our title funds next year. I did hear there could be a possible decrease. Um but um I so I just have that budget flat, but it's about a million dollars of our revenue budget, 1% of the total budget. And then here it gets into the the assessed value and the millage growth over the years. This number right here, the 2 bill485 million is our current assessed value that I got from the county uh last week. That is only a.13% over last year. I have a
026little bit of a growth in there because we have those couple of properties that we know are pretty much almost done and we're hoping to see those on the books here very soon. Um so that that's included in our budget, but this just kind of gives you an idea of the growth over the years. Um and then down here is uh different millage increases um different percentages just as I had shown shown you before what what that does for the real estate taxes. And then it here's here it is in graph form. Um this kind of the blue line on this graph is your your act one index. Um and then the the maroon line is our tax increases and the green line is the assessment growth. Um, and I just did a did a
027quick calculation of our tax increases over the last 10 years. Now, this was back to 1011, so it it spans more time, but just over the last 10 years, our total our average tax increase was 2.3%. Um, which the average ACT act one index is 3.2%. So, we on average have always um raised the taxes less than the index. You can see it's kind of I mean all over the board. Some years we've gone to index, some years we've had zero, some years we've been in the middle. So it just all depend on depends on the situation at that time. And then I pulled out the assessment value growth um separately over the years because I just wanted to point out in the past up to like 1819 we had some significant assessed value growth
028that we could count on each year which really did help help our revenue budget. And that is one of those things that that has definitely decreased since 1819 over the years. And we just don't see those significant dollars like we used to. Now we have a lot of properties that we're waiting for in the works. So we hope maybe that will be turned around here. We'll submit some of those new property, but that's just the the trend that we have seen over the last 20 years. And then here gives you the uh gives you the effect for the millillage increase for the taxpayers. The top chart is um jet it that is without any homestead farmstead reduction. So this would just be their their total the total tax bill would increase by these amounts based
029on assessed value. The median homestead value for this year I just received that from the county is $199,500. So that's our median whole value. Um, so I have that on the chart here. Um, and some other just assessed values just to give you an idea of what what the effect would be on the taxpayer at the different mill increases. Um, we got our t uh state property tax allocation May 1st and that is not increasing this year. So I do have that figured in here. And then I also did get the number of homestead farmstead properties from the county on May 1st which that has had that dropped um significantly from last year. I was surprised that's about 40 40 50 properties that it has dropped. So taking the the the flat property tax allocation
030plus the carryover from last year because we keep whatever we had we didn't use last year for homestead farmstead and carry it over each year. It's just a small increase to those taxpayers of um a small savings I should say of $3.27 27 uh tw $327 excuse me um for the homestead farmstead properties and then again I had showed this before um we are the 11th lowest millage rate these these numbers are for 2526 so this is this is last year that you approved in June we're at the and the 11th lowest millage rate of the 16 school districts in the county I did do some um research arch just to kind of see out there like what the other districts are doing. I was just curious just how we compared and um of the
031some of the schools that I found, you know, I found articles in the paper. I was looking at their websites just seeing what they were asking for. There is a lot of the districts I found about uh 10 districts that they're all um planning on raising their real estate taxes and the average of all these districts right now is around 3.45%. So, we're we're not alone in what we're seeing this year. And there is quite a few districts that are asking about asking for the 3.5% increase. Um, which I I'm assuming most of them that's probably their index amount, too. And a couple of districts that have gone over the index. Like I said, that you know, none none of that is final right now, but we're all the local districts are dealing with the
032same the same issues we are. And then here for the forecast. Now this forecast does not have the um the adequacy funds in it. Um it just has uh I have the 3.5 for 2627 and 2% real estate tax increases all the way all the way out. And then I also have about a 1% um tax assessed value increase in there. And then just um just normal uh you know inflationary increases for salaries, benefits, operating costs, you know, any salaries and benefits are around three three and a half% operating costs. Some of the the health insurance I did go a little higher for the forecasted amount just because it seems like that's the trend right now. I have our delt debt service schedule built in there. And even with all that, you can see that
033we h we have we are forecasting um deficits all the way out until 3031 just with th those assumptions. Of course, you know, we don't know what the future predicts. So they're just assumptions. >> Can we stay on this slide for a second? So I think this to me this is the biggest thing to look at because >> what we're looking at and projecting right now is not sustainable. So the 1.7 or whatever, but what we need to Not that we don't need to focus on that, but we really need to focus on what we're going to do carrying out because we won't have enough fund balance left to to keep and sustain that deficit increase year-over-year. >> Yeah. >> Now, just to to add a little different u some some variety to the forecast,
034let's say I did do the forecast. I for 26 27 I still kept the 3.5. I didn't change that column. Um but if we change the forecasted real estate revenue increase to 3%. And then also if we would go to the index um that uh act one we get each year from uh the fiscal independent office um who determines the act one index they give us a projection going out about four to five years. So that's what they are projecting the index to be um going out four years. So, just just to see what it would look like, I put in there what would what would it the um deficits be if we went all the way to the index each year. And as you can see, we're we're still in a deficit situation. Now,
035at the bottom here, I added um what would it look like if we get that adequacy money that we are essentially promised with the fair funding formula each year. Um, so that would be an additional $478,000 in in each year's budget for the state revenue. And so you can see that does make some some difference for us going out 2930. Again, we used it I used a millage increase of the 2% 3% and then going to the index each year. And then these numbers at the bottom just would be what the um adequacy funding would be. So, I mean, that's one thing that hope on the horizon if they continue with what they're doing. And then, um, as far as what's what's next, um, I we're going to continue to monitor the budget. I'm going
036to keep looking at the major line items, make sure we have enough money in there, see if there's any additional savings. um monitoring what's going on with the state budget, see if we hear any rumblings of where they're going to settle. Um my guess is we probably won't know much by the time you you won't have to approve the budget. Um I'm going to continue to look at the projections um and see where we're going to end the year at. And then May 18th for the board meeting, we'll bring to you the proposed final budget, which you'll you'll need to approve that. Um and then that goes on um that goes out to the public for 30 days um for inspection and then the final budget is a final budget approval is June 22nd. So
037I guess one of the the discussions um I was hoping to have tonight is for the proposed final budget are we or do you want me to keep the 3.5% increase in there? Are we we thinking something different? Um so that that's one of the big decisions you talk Obviously to me based on where we're at right now, we're going to have to really look at the three and a half. We're show we're projecting a 1.7. I mean, it's always good to give the other numbers and show, but right, >> that's sort of where we need to be at. And like I said before, >> that's one part of it. We have money available to cover that deficit, but we're going to need to change the direction of the boat very quickly. I >> think
038from my perspective, like in my world and that I'm like my generation and I don't get any feedback at all on on budget or tax increases like no no one says anything. The only people I get it from is the retired people that they're in a kind of a set set budget which I understand any feedback from anybody on any of the tax increases that we feel >> and I'm feeling it like yeah like doesn't look good. So what else to do taxes? >> Yeah. If everybody would just realize that we're doing everything we can and the culprit in all this is the state. The state would do their job. We wouldn't be looking at all this. But nobody nobody believes it. You had you had a good day today in Harrisburg, but how far
039are you going to get we're going to get That's a tough part. Kelly, in your projections, did you include assumptions related to the new properties coming online? Um I do have like a 1% um assessed value increase in each year >> that would account for some of the >> targeted. Yes. >> So it's fully >> the the two like I said in the big class I just did a flat 2% just to see what that would look like. >> So there's this is rather well it's not ultraconservative or aggressive your model. Yes. Anybody else have any feedback? >> [clears throat] >> I mean, I think the biggest problem is we can do the three and a half and then kind of kick the can down the road because obviously to do anything else to adjust
040that number, we're talking about making cuts to what? I mean, that's I mean, that's the next conversation. What are what are we willing to do without? Those are really hard conversations. Yeah. Are we going to kick the can? [laughter] >> That's the question. >> Yeah, I think what we talked and in the meantime, if you have questions in between, just make sure you reach out to Kelly. But, you know, like I talked about last time, we did a full audit this past summer. This summer, we want to do a full budget plan tied into Mrs. Martin, and she deserves a lot of credit for where she's going with our capital plan. And in combination with those then we make projections of where we go from here. And if it's we have to make tough decisions
041or if we think that with some moves that we make we can things plateau a little bit once we figure out what's coming in and what we're really getting from the state. But that's the strategic approach we want to take so that you know we did a lot of work this past summer. It bore some fruit as you see. I mean we went 225 last year projected at 1.4 or whatever and came under one with some of that work. So now we need to take that next step. >> When when is uh the barn going to be sold? >> We're hoping this summer. We the first step is >> we have to clean >> gutting it. There's a lot >> keeping what we want to keep. >> Yeah. Figure out what what's been needs to
042be kept. >> Any bodies in there? >> No. We did um Mr. Linder had an idea of possibly online an online sale type of thing instead of an auction. >> So, we're exploring options as the team starts to clean it out. >> It's just going to be a drop in the bucket though. >> Yeah. Even sell >> and I propose putting that in the capital. Yeah, that makes I think [clears throat] >> Yeah, that's not We'll see what happens. >> You said some of the adequacy increases going forward, the hope those numbers would be there, like what kind of stock do we put in that hope? Like what how likely are those increases going forward? Well, we we've gotten it the last two years and the governor's proposed it again this year. And there and
043my thinking is if there is a year we don't get it, then there'll be another lawsuit because it it is to satisfy the it's that commission they created. >> That could just delay it then couple years possibly or >> it could. Yeah. Um it's it's what Yeah. That's it's it's a strange topic because like you said, they have to approve it in the budget each year even though there's the the case out there that says the schools are due this money. >> So yeah. >> Well, for what it's worth, >> we're absolutely not alone in this at all. Like if you look around the county and what we heard today at the capital, every almost I can't even think of another school district that's not operating in the same position we're in. In fact, most
044are worse off, but because of the admin team and because of what we've been doing, we are slightly less poor off. I don't can't think of words. Sorry, it's been a long day. But um it's just extremely frustrating to sit and have conversations about the needs of our students and the needs of our district and and feeling like it's not going to go anywhere. Like we're just going to see this continue for the next few years. That's frustrating. Unless something changes at the top, kind of like what Mike said, we have to do with we have to make that tough decision. Um, I do hear feedback from people in in kind of like my realm after the fact of, you know, oh, taxes are going up, but at the same time, Michelle, you brought up
045a good point. What what's our other option? So, raise taxes so that we can keep going where how we're going or do we start cutting things? And nobody in this room wants to start cutting things. So, that's what we're faced with. I would agree too that I felt like you guys as administrative team have done work to really look at the budget and we appreciate that. >> And I do want to give a shout out to all our administrators because they're all I mean anytime they want to purchase something, they're giving me a call. Is this okay? Can we fit this in the budget? So it's they're all very conservative with their spending. Like there's no I'm not seeing reckless spending in our district. It's just fitting the needs of the kids is where they're
046at. >> If we pick on cyber charter a little bit, are there any other options that we could pursue that would push the hand of state >> cyber charters? bill that Nicole Rivera put forward would be number one. And I feel like any public school person should be speaking out about that. That's the one that says that if we have our own cyber in-house that if you go outside, you would have to pay just like you do for any other private school or anything because that would change the game. And I I mean I bring it up so much. I brought it up today up at Harrisburg again that if we didn't have that part of the bill we'd be in the black and that's just the reality. Um so that would be one thing
047we are hopeful we're seeing a little bit of the um the whole attendance piece where kids if they don't go to school on a regular basis they can't go to cyber. We've had a couple that we've haven't been able to go to cyber because of that. So maybe that will pick up the residency piece where the residency has to be checked every six months. So some of that we feel will help. I don't know how significant that help will be, but you know, right now there's it's under 40 now, but at one point it was 40 families that hadn't responded to either the cyber school or to us about their residency. >> We have about 29 families who are still waiting on, but seven of those students are seniors. So we're thinking those parents just
048don't care. They're just like right >> thinking what my my kid isn't coming next year. So, >> so the state has done a few things, but I think on our end, you know, we need to continue to look at like what we can help push for and encourage uh as far as the the cyber bills and things like that. They know, I mean, as soon as we started talking today, they're nodding their heads already because they know what we're going to say, you know, about frustration with the cyber. So, um, that would be, I think, a big part of it that that we're appropriately and we're sharing all the frustrations that we've had with dealing with some of them and not all of them, you know, because some of them aren't being appropriate with residency
049checks and all those things, >> some of the online companies, >> some of the cyers. >> Yeah. I mean, it's just like someone said it today and they were exactly right. It's like the bad actors in public school give some public schools a bad name. It's just like that with cyers or private school anything. So there are some that are doing it appropriately. >> We when we get like I just got a notice in the mail like what if your intentions of moving things like that right as a parent we there's no way of knowing uh families intentions of where if they're going to send their student to a cyber school ahead of time is there? Other than if they're currently enrolled, you could assume they would continue to enroll. Is that kind of what
050you base your numbers off of? >> Yes. >> Okay. And we wouldn't know that before. We would have to make decisions on the budget anyway. >> No, I'm just Yeah, just keeping an eye on the current enrollment, which is pretty stayed around 131. It's average 131 students for this year. So, I'm using those numbers for my budget. >> Where are are most of them in high school or >> Yes, the majority of them. like in a few years are you think a majority of these people are going to like moving out like >> Yeah, I hope so. Like we do have quite a few seniors this year >> because you think like kindergarteners are not online and two year two second, third, fourth graders eventually they're going to push everything. >> We have a handful
051of elementary students, but the majority of those are >> it's high school >> are high school. So we usually like this year we did start out the year lower around 120 students but then it winds up to 130. I >> think it's convenient once you start it. >> Yeah. >> Whether we get the all these building projects online is going to be a big help. Lots of people would move in there, you know, and there are a lot of people of all the units you can find people, a lot of cars. When do they go on? When did they get [clears throat] >> once again if that if they would do what they were supposed to do, uh we wouldn't be in this situation either. >> Will you share this with us? >> Yes. It
052is out on board doc. I'll send it. >> Oh, okay. >> Yeah, I'll send an email to >> explain to me the timeline again. We we vote on a percentage. >> So, it mean the proposed final budget needs to be voted on in May and then that goes out for inspection for 30 days. Like I have to put an ad in the paper just saying this is our budget so people can can review it. But there was we certainly can make changes before the June June 22nd. >> So we put a number in May and then finalize it in June. >> It has to be done before July. >> She would like us to give her a little bit. >> I just wanted to make sure when I bring that to you next next month
053that or in next couple weeks that >> is where you're at, Matt. You would say 3.5 >> based on the budget. Yeah, that's probably what we're going to need to look at. >> I don't see how we go less than that. Anybody else have concerns about that? >> A big windfall. >> I mean, I agree with what Michelle said. I I have concerns about it. I'm I'm always like a proponent for lowering the the proposed tax increase rate, >> but I don't see I don't I don't want to give up what we would have to give up. It's just really hard. >> But I I mean I agree. I don't think I don't know if there's another option >> to be lower, but I think be fiscally irresponsible. >> You left. >> I agree. >>
054Maybe what we said today had a real huge impact and we're going to wake up tomorrow. [laughter] >> I mean, the one the two things I got away from today is that they're not going to give us any more relief on on cyber. Correct. And they're not going to have the budget passed on time. >> Correct. Yeah. >> And those are two things they're very clear about. But >> and and a lot of them don't understand like when I spelled out to them, >> we've had we've gotten an increase of 300 a little over 300,000 in special ed over the past 10 years. And but our spending and because of mandates and everything is 6 million. >> So that math doesn't work. You know, you can't keep adding mandates and expectations and keep giving us
055basically a flat line of of money with that kind of >> with that kind of rate. And we want to serve our kids. That's the bottom line. We want to serve all of our kids. Well, I still say that what we need to do is we need to find out the few big wigs. I won't mention any names that are up for reelection and wherever they're from. Get everybody else and we defeat them. And there are a couple you're looking at a couple couple people if you can get rid of them because they're they're cyber schools. They're dish and we can't do that either. >> I don't think that would be wise. Mr. >> I had another either. >> So, one thing I did learn that I thought I'd just share with the people who
056weren't there. Apparently, charter schools used to be a line budget item for the state >> and then once it got to be too much and they couldn't they didn't want to fund them anymore, they kicked it down to the school districts. So, they made it our problem because they didn't want to deal with it. So, I thought that was interesting. Not surprising, but it was interesting. >> Another thing that has fallen into our laps. >> It was unfunded. [laughter] What is he going to do? Make the 50 school districts announce that they're going to go under. >> They publicize it. >> Well, I think that I think it's out there now that and Jen kind of talk spoke about it like every district like I shared with every superintendent meeting, it's what we talk about.
057Um, so I think it's getting out there now that like something's going to have to give at some point. Um, yeah, and I mean today it was spoken to in both venues we were at and with Mr. Cutler, we got a little time with him as well. Um, so I think it is getting out there now and I think it's more concentrated and there's a little bit more awareness. Um, I don't think the community communities quite understand how cyers work. Um, even when you talk to families that have kids in cyber, I don't think they necessarily know how that's funded. Um, and that's I don't think that's a fault of theirs. Uh, but I think it that's also gaining some momentum too that people are understanding that um, it's impacting a lot of us are
058in the same boat that that cyber bill impacts where we stand as in the in the budget and the pressure it puts on the board and our teams. Yeah, unfortunately their advertisements that it's a free education for their kids is incorrect. And yeah, it would be nice if we could refute it with a [laughter] billboard of our own saying, "No, actually it's costing our taxpayers this much money." >> That was brought up today as well. >> Costing you. >> Yeah. >> Is maybe you [clears throat] know if more if we could publicize that a little bit more clearly. um you know that document that was created that we that we gave to um Mindy Fee and Balone. >> Yeah. >> And and I think that's that's as clear as you can get and it would
059be very clear for the public as well um to get to our our like community so that they understand the tax increase is because of X Y and Z. And I I think that if we could publicize that, that would be actually very beneficial. I think you brought that up today, Steve, kind of outlining like where is it going? And if you were to in-house use our in-house cyber school, which cyber school is a great option for a lot of families, they absolutely every every family deserves to have that option. However, are they aware of the trickle down effects of of what their choice is? I don't know how likely that is. If we could get something out, >> we can talk about as a team is like how to put that out there appropriately.
060>> Yeah, of course. >> Have you talked to any of the students that have done the other ones and ours and seen which ones they what they like better? Like is ours competitive with their with or is theirs just so much better? >> I mean, Amy might be able to give a little bit, but like we we don't have that many that are in full soccer for ours. It's it's more of >> kids are doing at first period because they can come in a little later or they have a job so they'll so like the full time um you know I we know some of the differences are live you know they can get a hold of someone live all the time. Um but bigger picture like if that bill would go through then we
061would make adjustments to provide some things and it would still be at a much better rate than we can manage right now. >> We did on two separate occasions um call all of the cyber families cyber charter families and while we didn't speak to the kids in a comparative fashion we did ask you know what are the factors that are keeping you there >> versus being willing to come back. That's different for different families. Whether it was um the flexibility they had in that type of schedule, whether it was the in-person tutors, frustration with a building or a district, there different pieces were different from families, but we we did try looking at it from that perspective as well. >> Yeah. And I would just want to say like collectively, publicly that we're not blaming
062families for looking at other options. like, you know, we understand that there's a lot of options out there, but the way it's handled and the way it's managed is not fair and appropriate for public schools. The way it's h the way it's being handled right now, like Michelle just said, they put that on the public schools locally. And the other thing is we pay different rates than other districts based on our spending formula which is [snorts] that's not right either. So I just want to put it out there. We're not it's not the families that are making those choices. It's how once those choices are made and it's funded is the problem. So, I would just say in the meantime, if people have questions, reach out to Kelly before the 18th. >> Yeah. Does anyone
063else here have any questions? I I have one thing to say, Kelly. Thank you so much. You only showed us 24 slides when normally we had 45. [laughter] >> Great job. >> I also like to say thank you. Great job to you and your team. If anyone has any questions, please reach out to her by May 18th. Um, and our next regularly scheduled schoolboard meeting will be held on May 18th, 2026 at 6:00 pm district office. Does anyone have anything they'd like to add? Good. being a joke.