001[music] like to call the meeting to order. Roll call. Miss Kratz >> here. >> Miss Diamond. Mr. Brad Upgrove here. Mr. Roger Upgrove >> here. >> Dr. Weir here. Dr. Wy >> here. >> Mr. Brophie. >> Miss Connor >> here. >> Mr. Penello here. Seven members present. Okay, let's rise for the pledge of allegiance and a moment of silence. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Okay, there's no one signed up for public com period number one. So, budget update. Okay, Mr. Lent. Just waiting for it to come up. Um so coming back to the finance committee to give an update on budget also what ties to what our budget looks like
002as we're developing it for next year is uh where we are with wrapping up the audit for the previous year because that determines our uh planning for transfers to um other funds outside of the general funds such as capital projects, technology and debt service. So, we'll start with updating you on the budget for um 2026 to 2027. So, at this point still, uh we're looking at a 2% property tax increase. Um we did learn uh of the governor's proposed budget, although nothing that's in that budget is guaranteed. Um so at this point um as more information becomes clearer during the legislative process uh we will um adjust numbers um relative to uh what seems to be um most probable to receive but definitely is not a 100% number um and in particular for Boyertown based
003upon the adequacy funding um that is um an additional um factor with our with our revenues for for the uncertainty um Just again a reminder that with this year's um development of the 26 27 budget, we've aligned our local revenues to the trends that we're seeing. So that's a one-time adjustment that we make to the budget, which is important to note because that's one of the reasons that when we look at the numbers that we are um projecting um that they look better than the actual trends. So, I say that because um when we look at local revenues um you're gaining more local revenues with earned income tax, interest income um and real estate transfer tax because we're adjusting to what has been the trend for receipts in the budget rather than underbudgeting those amounts
004and utilizing um any additional revenues to offset um expenditures um within the budget. So again, when we look at our overall budget projections, we go from 148 million.8 uh of total revenue to 158.3 in total revenue. And that's again driven not only by the 2% tax increase, but also by aligning revenues. If you look at the top, you'll see that earned income taxes for 2526 were budgeted at 8.5 million as an example. We're looking at a $10 million budget that reflects the actual trend, but also is a conservative trend. Uh we don't want to overestimate revenues and have that be an impact. Um but we can reasonably look at our consistent trend over the past uh three to five years as we've done in previous finance committee meetings to determine um what's the most reasonable
005revenue we are are receiving there. Um again as you go through the budget um we'll adjust you know state revenues accordingly um to what we see that's not yet been done in this version um of the presentation uh review of our budget cost drivers. So um in planning a multi-year budget from a strategic standpoint uh we as a district um have looked to incorporate the capacity um to support full day kindergarten. So, in our 2526 budget, we have two full-time equivalents that are in that budget already. Um, we'll be carrying over those as a budget into 2627. And that's just a different concept than adding a position because essentially we've added the expenditures for those full-time positions, but we won't have them until we actually move forward with the the program. So, they do continue
006to get carried within the budget. Um, there's no actual to those. um and we just adjust based upon um assumptions related to salary. [snorts] The 2627 budget um includes an assumption for uh five full t full-time equivalents for full day kindergarten in the budget. And again, um those uh won't necessarily be filled during the year, but they will be budgeted so that we have the capacity at the point in time we decide um to move forward with full day kindergarten uh to add those positions uh without having a significant tax increase or um other changes within our budget. Four full-time additions are going to be seen next year. Um they are budgeted for an ELLL position professional at the high school. uh two MA intervention positions at the elementary level and an intervention position at
007the middle school. Um these positions not only have been identified related to our current needs uh but also are part of our plan uh to support full day kindergarten um at the point in time that that would um be coming to fruition. Uh we have six coaching positions and then the overall budget that we have for the district um is based upon our professional staffing for the district um as well as the uh salary schedule that's already been approved um in the contract. Non-professional staff are budgeted at a 3% increase and funding for market adjustments which is a concept we've spoken about before but on the next slide I'm going to give more detail and Mr. Han will also um be able to speak to uh what we're proposing with regards to um adjustments for
008support staff positions to current market rates. So this slide demonstrates our current starting and average uh pay per hour for our support staff positions in the district. Um, in the presentation, uh, we also have what is the current Burks County average starting salary and the variance that occurs between our starting salaries and Burk's salaries under the variance of Burk's column. We also benchmark to Montgomery County. um those benchmark salaries have even greater disparity between our salaries and the market rate in Montgomery County. So at this point to make market adjustments um it's proposed that we move to an adjustment aligned to the Burks County rates for um this current study which is 25 26 uh support staff hourly rates. Now based upon this going into the budget um Mr. Han, Dr. David Heiser and I
009have discussed that a way to phase this in is to look at doing 50% of that variance on the rate in 2526 and then the remaining 50% of that variance in uh 2728. Uh so over a two-year period um that would be um incorporated into the budget and in each of those years um those adjustments would be after we would adjust for the 3% for those support staff members that meet uh uh proficient um and um on their evaluations. Um so that would get them to the 2526 market rate in Burks County. And I'm going to pause and see if Mr. Han needs to provide or would like to provide any clarity on his process or the market as he reviewed and studied. >> Thank you, Mr. Lince. So, um, everything that Mr. Lens uh
010expressed is accurate. Uh, Dr. David Dicer asked me to, um, gather data from Burks and Montgomery County, which is what is on the slide. Um you can see that um from a Montgomery County standard uh some of our positions are roughly about $10.50 an hour off um down to a few dollars. We are ahead of of uh that county in one area. Um but the other um areas we are significantly um behind with the Burks rates. Um we are really even with one were six cents an hour ahead but um all the others um are significantly below. Um and the data that was collected obviously is from the forecast 5 data that we received from um either the Burks County IU or the Montgomery County IU. Uh so the idea of uh providing our support
011staff and let me backtrack for for a moment. This is our second largest employee group. Uh there are over 180 support staff members that work within the district ranging from our maintenance staff, grounds, food services, every every position that's represented up on the slide. Um and uh to be able to uh provide a market adjustment over the next two years that would make them whole for 2526. we're still going to be behind because over the next couple years the that that needle is going to move. It's not going to move as drastically but it is going to move. Um but by taking and providing the 50% variance from this year um in 2627 and then the remaining in 2728 we believe that we'll be um fairly competitive in the market. Um we will see some
012significant if you look um there are some positions that would be receiving a significant increase. Um our general maintenance crew um they're roughly um $8 an hour below the the Burks County number. So um over the next two years we would be getting them um to to the the market for 25 26. Um it is key for recruitment. It is also key for retention. Uh we lose a significant number of support staff members um to um local districts. Um I can tell you that since I've been here um we're not losing folks as far uh north in Burks County to Hamburg or to Kutztown or to Skooka Valley uh we're losing support staff members to OJ to Springford um to the neighboring districts. Um, again, we're not going to get to the Montgomery County number
013in this model. Um, but at least we're going to get um a little bit closer. And I believe that this will go a long way um in in showing our support staff that they're valued. um and that we know that we can't run our district obviously with without them each and every day providing supports to students um in and out of the classroom um in and out of the cafeteria making sure that our athletic fields are cut um all the really important roles that keep the the district moving forward um each and every day. So um I can answer any other questions about this slide before Mr. Lent goes to to the next slide. Re real quick question. Um based off of these number or these uh positions, how many are still left unfilled? Um
014you know, maintenance, uh custodial, that kind of stuff. Do and and it doesn't have to be a solid number. If you round it out, >> I can kind of ballpark. Um >> I believe that um in the last board update, I think we were probably about three and a half to four FTEEs in um custodial that were vacant. Um, I know Mrs. Clinton is here. We're almost fully staffed. We have a few positions in food service for positions. Um, and they're part-time roles. Um, so roughly, you know, 160 hours um every two weeks. Um, facilities, we're we're now we hired a plumber, so we're fully staffed there. Um, we probably need some seasonal grounds folks. Um, but overall, um, looking at the list, we're we always struggle with playground aids. Um, so we're short there,
015but overall the majority of our of our positions are currently filled. Yeah, >> thank you. >> Yeah, sure. Mr. Katz, I know that you you had your N. >> Okay, schools. >> Thank you, Mr. Han. So, on the next slide, I wanted to do is to give you what this looks like. And again, the numbers next to the positions reference the number of support staff that we're talking um about on staff that are impacted by these adjustments. Uh so uh looking at doing this over a two-year period, um the market adjustments are uh $252,000 per year uh for these um staff positions. Um and is a number that is incorporated into the budget as it's been presented to the board. Um, so that's already in there. Um, again, the overall impact over the two years,
016505,000. And again, to um, make sure everybody's on the same page, staff would receive their, if they're proficient, um, within their roles and satisfactory, they would receive the 3% adjustment and then they would receive the correlated market adjustment that's here for 2627. Any questions on that for Mr. Hutton or anybody? Okay. So, other highlights within the budget not related to salaries. Um, for our contractual costs, one of our largest costs is KRES. Um, Mr. Hans had a meeting with them. Um, that's projected to be at uh 3% of an increase uh to the district. Um, and is also [clears throat] in the number that we are presenting to you tonight. Um, the one number that isn't in here that is not finalized is healthcare. And so I've incorporated a 10% trend for our healthcare rates
017within the budget. Um but that final number is forthcoming a little later this month. Um I'm not anticipating it being more than the 10%. Uh but again any adjustments that would be made to that 10% uh would impact us as a bottom line um with regards to that forecasted expenditure. But that number also can change based upon um enrollment changes throughout the year and rate changes um because the district does bear um the bulk of the cost related to um medical insurance. Um also uh this incorporates that uh we'll be utilizing our technology fund for technology replacement that tie into the next part of the presentation. And as of now, we have a budgeted capital reserve transfer of 2.7 million and a budgetary reserve of 1.5 million. Budgetary reserve is not something that in recent
018times I believe has been identified um because the budget has had um an underbudget of revenues and an overbudget of expenditures and that's kind of been the extra money that has been utilized for appropriate purchases and changes throughout the year. Um I think from a philosophy of a budget, I'd rather say this is our reserve. Um so we all have a common starting point and again if that reserve isn't needed during the year um that would be available to be transferred to an additional fund uh for capital projects. If it's used um it's very clear and transparent what we've used the reserve for which also helps us with budgeting for for future years. So when we look at overall expenditures [snorts] um again um aligning expenditures is what has um helped us with regards to
019the overall um budget. And so you can see that even with the salary adjustments to market for support staff um [clears throat] and other adjustments, overall salaries um are not projecting by a correlated percentage. And that is because um of some of the over budgets that had been um done in the past kind of as that reserve for salaries. Um same piece with regards to benefits. Even though there is a 10% increase in medical um there was um a reserve that was established specifically within medical with overbudgeting um that we're resolving now and taking out. Um so that's why that number looks pretty comparable to um this current year budget. Um otherwise throughout the budget numbers are overall consistent. Um when you come down to the bottom and you see the increase in other uses
020of funds and other objects that is your budgeted budgetary reserve as well as your budgeted transfer for capital projects. And again both of those get made at the end of the fiscal year. So should we have something catastrophic happen during the year um that that is what your um your your ability to react to that um you know within your budget and look at adjusting those transfers um during the year. >> Can you tell me what other purchase services is? >> Sure. So I'll just walk you through all the services because I know they all probably sound sound similar to you, right? So purchase professional and technical services. Uh those are services that we contract with uh through predominantly our intermediate unit. Um that's where those costs um align to. Um purchase property services are
021those services that um relate to um property. Uh so think of things like extermination um various treatment contracts that we have with external parties. Uh those land in that um item. Other purchased services predominantly is your tuition and and that includes charter schools. So that's both tuition that we pay as well as the tuition for charter schools goes there. And there's a whole breakdown of those um with regards to uh associated placement costs, but predominantly charter school costs um land in that category. >> Very good. Thank you. >> I know Mr. Lance won't say this, but uh in putting together this budget for 2627 with Mr. Han and others, I think one of the focus points has been on accuracy. um trying to really be transparent to our to you as a board, to our
022community, and saying, you know, we're going to budget for uh a budgetary reserve because we're expecting that our our revenues and our expenditures are going to be just that, that we come back uh and we're as close to zero as we can at the end of that year. And we've budgeted a reserve in in the in the in the event that we do have some unknowns that may prop up some things where we might have some placements of some students out of district or some other costs that we just can't foresee but we know that they could based on past history and and we've taken a relative look at those. This is really meant to be a budget for this coming uh year that that we hope um you know can can really build that
023trust of being as exact as as we can with a lot of different things. Um the other pieces to this and I think one of the important things that um you know support staff members would want to know so the 3% if if a support staff member is is proficient they would earn a 3% increase at the end of this school year. uh after the 3% increase would be that that additional raise that would that's being recommended which is again split across two different years to make us equivalent and in the market range in Burks County. Some of the things that we want to see over the next two years is what is that recruitment and retention rate look like when it comes to that? Have we now done the things necessary or are we
024still struggling? Because we may need to go down the lens of maybe looking at how does that measure against McGomery County? And we may have to take a look and build a model that might have a build out of two, three or four years of dipping into that to to see if we're um retaining and recruiting the necessary individuals to do the things that we we we need we need done in inside a school district. So, um, this is a first, um, sort of stab at at at that. And we want to evaluate that over the next two years. Then we'll get back to you to to let you know how how we stand with that. And as you ask about fills with positions and things like that, all that will become very very important
025to us. So, >> thank you, Dr. Everheiser. So, again, budget comparison. Again, last year's budget um was proposed um with uh revenues and expenditures that had a $1.7 million deficit. Again, through the the alignment to actual costs um as well as uh the 2% tax increase, uh we are at a balanced budget. Uh again, if everything with regards to the state budget panned out um as proposed by the governor, that on its surface stands to support an additional increase in state funding of $2.3 million. We won't know that at the time that we pass the budget traditionally. Um and also there's a lot of components to those funds. One in particular that impacts us is where the dollars will land. Um if those dollars land on what is our known as our basic ed subsidy
026or our special ed subsidy um those dollars would then stay in place from year to year. If they're through the grant ready tole learn block grant program which is what we've received this year every year those dollars are on the table as to what that final allocation is for the district. Um and uh you know we won't we don't know at the time we pass our budget. >> Mr. Lance, one of the questions that comes up is ade adequacy funding. Where do we what did we budget in in terms of did we budget for our adequacy funding in regards to this particular budget? >> Yep. Great question. So, I've kept the budget the same for adequacy funding as we received for this year um from the from the state. So when the state passed their
027budget, what we received uh but also I did not adjust our basic education or special education funding um at all based upon where the governor is at this point. And I feel like that's a safe place to be without any further direction from the state or identified path for from our legislators um to put appropriate money in that we aren't um you know going back to our local revenue sources to support our budget when there could be money that's coming to us but also to be um you know prudent with the reality that um the legislative budget um won't be realized at the time that we pass our local budget. So I'll now transition to kind of the piece that feeds into this which is uh our audit and where that is for 2425. So
028I anticipate our um local auditors being present to deliver the audit report at our legislative meeting um at the end of the month. Um the audit um has been um you know fairly um normal through date. Um the fact that we're a little later this year than was expected um there was guidance that reg relates to our federal grant audit uh that had not been published by the federal government. And if we think back to what might have seemed a while ago but there was a shutdown so it was not released. So um nearly every school is was delayed because our single audits and single audit relates to our federal dollars we receive which is predominantly the money that supports our food service program as well as title funds and that is a a program
029audit. So that ensures that whatever the objectives for the fundings are was you know appropriate as well as was guided by the specific programmatic principles for that fund. So for example, they confirm that um if an individual is a reading specialist that that is in fact programmatically their assignment that that is programmatically documented. And so until that guidance is there on those programmatic issues predominantly um that audit couldn't take place. And so that's the final piece to bringing you the final audit. um we've worked through um that um between January and today. And then the final piece that is part of the audit um gets um adjusted is um specific allocations related to uh the transfers from within the budget. So historically we've had transfers that take place from the general fund to replenish our
030other funds within the district. Um the primary one being capital reserve funds. um we spend that down. Um this is a a replenishment and again aligned to um the work that we have going on at Bash and Bertown Elementary. That allocation that um can be allocated this year would be 7.5 million. Uh for technology, uh this essentially replaces what we are spending out of that fund. Um that's a $2.5 million number. Um we uh plan between this year and the next fiscal year um to to spend two million. And so that's a number that maintains a balance in that fund um as well as um can plan for years in which we have um more significant projects that that take place. Uh finally, as we look ahead, uh transfer of 5 million to our debt
031service fund. um that will help to continue to prepare for um any additional debt service needs the district may have. Uh we could draw down those funds either to um pay off debt that we currently have and or potentially phase in our payments associated with new debt service. Uh so if you have a new debt service, if you think of like a mortgage, you could use a portion of that to phase in that payment so that the impact to the general fund budget is not as um significant or burdensome um as you know when you take out the debt you land with this payment. You can do that over multiple years um similar to what we're doing with regards to uh full day K. Is this an addition to what's already been budgeted or is
032this the new number for for the budget? >> This is based upon the 2425 budget as it ends. >> Okay. >> And the identification of budgets for capital reserve or budget reserve was not a previous practice. It was always done by you know the CFO you know during the audit to to um make those transfers and adjustments and bring them back to you. Um that's why I'm coming back to you tonight um with an update on what um is proposed and can be done for the 2425 year. >> Very good. [snorts] >> Dr. >> Mr. Lens, do we have uh employee specialist whether reading specialists or intervention specialists that are being paid uh totally through federal funds, title one funds? >> I believe we do have them. um they can only be paid to a
033certain amount based upon factors with our application. Um so I know Miss Horton who I work with here and I'm going to I'm going to I'm going to play the new card um to to confirm if we have anyone who's fully paid through it or um if we have only partials. >> We have some of our rating specialist in our title buildings where their salaries are funded from the title one grants [snorts] >> off. Do you have how many? Um, >> I can tell you at the end of the meeting. I just have to do some quick mental math. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Okay. So, um, these transfers will be executed. they'll be a part of the audit and the auditors will no doubt also reiterate as part of their report and presentation these. So
034when we then look at our next steps for budget um if there is any movement on on state funding or um updates to to be made we would bring those forward in March. In April um would really be our um look at what is a final practically bound budget. Uh with that uh as a version, I plan to update our uh financial forecasts within that budget so we can see how the decisions we're making today would impact our spending in future years with regards to expenditures and revenues from an assumption standpoint. Um in May of 2026 is the required um board approval of the proposed final budget. Um at that point the budget gets advertised um you know fully available in a final form to the public and then approved um at the June legislative
035meeting and submitted to to the department of education and then we begin audit of 25 and 26. So it it is it is a continuous cycle. We're always in multiple budget years always in always in that. And that concludes uh my update on finance. >> That leads us to public com period number two. No one signed up which comes to our updated meetings. Um upcoming meetings are April 14th, 2026 finance committee meeting at 6 PM. Motion to adjurnn. >> Motion. Meeting adjourned. [music]