Austin ISD Board of Trustees Public Hearing: June 18, 2026

001Good evening. Thank you for being with us. In compliance with chapter 551 open meetings of the Texas Government Code, I call to order a public hearing of the board of trustees of the Austin Independent School District for Thursday, June 18th, 2026 at 5:13 p.m. A quorum of the board is physically present at the Austin ISD central office to conduct this meeting. This meeting is being broadcast on cable channel 22 through Spectrum Estound Broadband and on channel 99 through AT&T Universe. Close captioning in English is available on these platforms for individuals who are deaf or heart of hearing. Welcome and thank you for joining us. Uh we'll start with an opportunity for the public to share comments with the board. This time allows speakers to comment publicly pertaining to the fiscal year 2026 27 budget. Members

002of the public wishing to participate in the public testimony portion of our meeting called a dedicated AISD phone line ahead of the meeting to sign up to speak in person or to audio record their remarks. This is an opportunity for the board to take part in listening to our community. And while we wish we could respond to each topic raised, the Texas Open Meetings Act does not authorize a board to engage in deliberation or take action on comments or complaints from members of the public if the subject is not on the meeting agenda. For comments related to posted agenda items, we will engage in deliberations or ask follow-up questions during the presentation of that item on our agenda. Tonight, we have nine people who signed up to speak in person and eight who left a

003recorded message. We'll begin with our in-person testimony to provide as many opportunities for input as possible. Each speaker will be allotted one minute and no substitutions or yielding of time to others is permitted. Callers who signed up to speak in person will be invited to come to the microphone when their name is called. As you come to the microphone, you'll see a button. Please press that button to turn it on. And when the buzzer sounds, please make a final thought in one sentence. Whether you come to give a complaint or praise, please reference any staff member by position or abbreviated last name. And we ask that all audience members, whether speaking or not, please show respect for others at all times. Uh our in-person speakers tonight, I'll call the first four, Kenya Benegas, Eric Ramos,

004Emily Aguilar, and Britney C. All right. Good evening. My name is Eric Ramos and I I'm speaking to you tonight basically to express my frustration. I understand a lot of work has gone into this process and I don't want to diminish that. But the timeliness of all the details that we have been getting, I am not happy with. We have not had enough time to look through this to give you the feedback that you as a board need to know how it's going to impact those of us in the schools. you have to vote tonight without being fully informed. And I just want to say that I we did get a lot of documents today. I still haven't even had time to look at all of them, which makes it hard for us to tell

005you what unintended consequences come from some of these cuts. So, all I ask is that y'all be prepared come this fall to whether it be through budget amendments or other actions to start be ready to correct some of these unintended consequences and to look at what areas are most hardly hit in these cuts and next time you make cuts, let's protect those people first. Thank you. Hello. Can you hear me? My name is Britney and I'm a parent that's in the program communities and schools. Communities and schools is not just a program. They are people that are dedicated to helping our children. They are a liaison. When we cannot get a hold of anybody in the school, they help us. They don't just financially help us. They mentally help us. I know I'm called millions

006times where I was going through um a hard time and they were just somebody that I can talk to. And to take this program away from the children while they're in school is just not right. I don't see it. I think it's a big resourceful um place for kids to go to. And they have group meetings to help them learn like social skills and any problems they may have. They have that because kids cannot use their phones in school and cannot call parents. They have their CIS worker to talk to when they are feeling like they're under pressure, under stress. So, I stress you guys to please take that in consideration before you decide um to let this program go. Thank you. And I called two more people in this round. We have Kenya Bengus

007or Emily Aguilar here. Okay, we'll move on. Uh, Belle C, Erica Hoffman, and Mara Masters. >> When you're ready, we'll go in the order people come up. >> Okay. I am Mara Masters, a teacher and ballet folklorical director at Austin High School and a member of at Austin. While this was a state manufactured budget crisis, the district has not done a fair job of averting a major equity crisis. Staff from sped the sped department and some librarians who we know directly serve students have been cut as has CIS programs uh in that serve many vulnerable families. late activity buses that allow many of my students who live in the trailer park communities of Oak Hill, which are not served by CAT Metro to stay after school for tutoring and to participate in extracurricular programs like

008the Ballet Folklorico, have been cut. Meanwhile, top management faced none of these drastic cuts at Austin got details of the plan just a week ago, allowing no time for meaningful consultation. Will an executive director come and have a personal conversation with each kid who's shut out from a program that was the center of their world? No. It's going to fall on those of us who are left on the front lines. Thank you. Do we have BLC or Erica Hoffman? Okay. Next to the last two inerson speakers are Evelyn W. and Von Suit. >> Good evening. My name is Evelyn Watson. I stand before you today to ask Austin ISD board to continue supporting communities in school. CIS is more than a program. It is a lifeline for students and families who face challenges both inside

009and outside the classroom. Every day, CIS helps students overcome barriers such as food insecurities, mental health struggles, attendance issues, and family hardships. When students have someone in their corner advocating for them, they are more than likely to stay in school, succeed academically, and graduate. Removing CIS will mean taking away critical support from students who need it the most. At a time when our children are facing insecurities, social and emotional challenges, we should be investing in the program and helping them thrive and not eliminating them. Austin ISD's mission is to ensure every student has the opportunity to succeed. CIS helps makes this mission a reality. I urge you to keep CIS in Austin ISD to continue investing in success, well-being, and the future of our children. Thank you and have a great rest of your evening.

010Good evening, trustees. My name is Vonfoot and I live in Crispy Station. The district faces difficult choices driven by a structural deficit and declining enrollment. If excess capacity is the problem, then school consolidation should be seriously considered. Moving students from one campus to another may change attendance numbers, but it does not solve excess capacity. Families choose schools, neighborhoods, and walking routes based on the expectation of stability. Every time the district disrupt those ties, trust in the district is weakened and more families consider leaving. I urge the board to address the structural deficit with a long-term plan that tackles the root cause while preserving strong neighborhoods and school communities whenever possible. Thank you. >> Thank you. I just want to call our other in-person speakers one more time before we go to our recorded messages. Knea

011Bengus, Emily Aguilar, Belc, or Erica Hoffman. Okay, thank you. If more people come in, I'll make a call after our uh recorded messages. Um, all right. We're ready for the recorded messages for public testimony. Thank you. >> Hi, my name is Minda Anderson. I'm an AISD graduate and 15-year employee of the district. I'm calling about the cut that the board is voting on tonight. And I understand the tough situation that we are in that the state has put us in. And if the board votes to cut or reduce librarian positions, my hope is that this will only be temporary. I also want to point out, as Trusty Kintana asked a couple weeks ago, that the majority of the campuses being affected by reduced librarian positions are title one campuses. 16 out of the 23 campuses

012and that is concerning. I also want to point out that we are losing experienced certified librarians to other districts and who are leaving the field not because they want to they want to be in Austin serving our students but because of the concerns of the future of libraries in Austin ISD. Being part of CIS has made a huge difference for my family. Uh through school events, communication, and resources, we built relationships that make us feel supported both inside and outside the classroom at Zala. Knowing that there are people who generally care about my children's success and well-being gives me peace of mind. A strong school community doesn't just help students grow academically. It helps families grow together and feel connected. I am very grateful for the support, friendships and opportunities that my son and not

013only my son but our school community has provided for my family. Thank you. >> Good evening members of the board. My name is Porsche, mom of two children in the SPE program in Austin ISD. I'm asking you not to take away communities and schools. For my family, CIS is a partner that helps my children succeed both inside and outside the classroom. My daughter is being promoted to middle school from Dawson Elementary and CIS has worked alongside me to help prepare her for this transition. They gathered information about district resources, answered questions, and hosted a one-day camp where incoming middle school students could experience what their days would look like before school even started. That preparation erased anxiety for both of us. As part as parents without a car, the transport the transportation CIS provides to

014d to dances, school events, and activities is not a luxury. It is a lifeline. My children are on the autism spectrum and struggle to make friends. CIS creates a safe space in our community where they can socialize, get homework help, create projects, and simply decompress after a long day of school. The power of CIS is in its name. It impacts re re Its impact reaches far beyond the classroom. It touches families and communities it serve. Please do not take away that from those children like mine. >> My name is Sharon Behill and I serve as the CEO of CIS. I am calling on behalf of the 122 CIS staff members who dedicate their lives every day to serving AISD students alongside of you tonight. I am not asking you to believe me. I am asking

015you to believe the students and parents who stood at that podium in front of you and trusted you with some of the most personal moments of their lives. You have the data and now you have the stories. You know this work changes lives. So tonight is no longer about evidence. It is about leadership. Leadership is measured by whether we have the courage to protect what we know is working specifically for the students who need it most, especially when times are difficult. As you cast your vote tonight, I ask you to look beyond what can be cut and focus on what must be protected. Protect what is working. Protect all CIS services at current campuses, but at the minimum, protect CIS and every band one school. Honor the courage of the families who stood before you

016over the last four weeks. >> Hi, my name is Kona B and I'm a single parent and participant of CIS or Precon Springs Elementary. My daughter is six years old and she is now going to second grade. Um for the first year that she was at Pan Springs, I needed a little bit of financial assistance um in between the benefits that I did receive. And um I was working and also looking for work and CIS helps financially. They help with bus passes. They help with flight bill assistance. They help with utilities. Um and they help with a plethora of things. they even have access to a food pantry. So things like that when you're going from check to check or if you're not employed but you're looking and actively searching for work and you just

017don't have much of an income. This is what we need and I really don't feel like it should be taken away from us. Um the single parents and lowincome families, we need this. We need this program to be able to take care of our kids, give them what they need, provide for them in between checks or to even give us a little bit of help until we find an income for those who are actively looking for work. So, please do not take this. >> Hi, this is Julie Hatfield. I'm the mom of Grant Hatfield and we are parents um at Lamar Middle School and I was calling because I wanted to ask the board to please protect fine arts programs um at Lamar and of course other other uh schools too. But I really feel

018that this is an important program for our youth, for my son and others, and it's such an amazing environment and it helps their brain and it would be a really horrible shame to cut the fine arts program specifically banned at Lamar Middle School. Um, so please consider that. I know you have a lot of things to think about, but fine arts is one of the last things we have that really helps um kids, you know, feel a part of a group, and I think it's super important. Thank you very much. Bye-bye. >> My name is Sullivan. I'm a rising sophomore in the advanced classical guitar class at Anderson High School. Our guitar teacher may not be returning next year due to the budget cuts. I'm asking you please reconsider this decision. Our guitar teacher wasn't

019just our teacher. He's the reason our program was successful. Under his direction, our class earned sweep stakes at a varsity level competition. Some students advanced to UIL State. We worked really hard and we achieved a lot. Our program is also one of the most accessible in the school district. Guitar costs about $30 while other music programs like band costs 500. For some students, this is the only way they can be a part of music at all. We already have the guitars, so the material investment has already been made. Guitar is the best part of my day. Gives me something to look forward to and to help me stay motivated in this school. Please keep our guitar teacher so we can keep learning, improving, and representing our school. Thank you. >> My name is Miso Yang.

020I'm an AIC parent and also a soft shoe teacher who sees our classrooms daily realities. I'm deeply concerned that this to revise the budget bridges the financial gaps by degrading the working conditions of our teachers. Reducing planning periods to the state minimum and expanding class sizes asks our teacher to do more with less support. My children to school is a band for campus heavily impacted by these cuts. We're losing five teachers, three retiring staff and two teacher assistants. On top of that, our essential areas are being slashed to 1.5 conditions, forcing teachers to split time between two campuses. This creates immense unsustainable strain. If we squeeze our educators like this, we will see an exodus of talent to neighboring districts, a drop in classroom quality, and families following them out the door. Please protect teacher

021time and support systems. Thank you. Thank you to all of our callers who left recorded messages. Um I saw a few more people come into the room. We have a few people who signed up to speak in person who haven't had the opportunity yet. So I'm going to call the names. Uh and if you're here and wish to make a comment, we would love to hear from you. Uh it's Kenya Benus, Emily Aguilar, Bel, and Erica Hoffman. Okay. Thank you all. Uh so this will conclude our public testimony for the hearing. Uh please feel free to share comments or questions with the board by email at trusteesaustinistd.org. Uh and trustees if you have any questions or comments about non-aggenda topics raised in public comment you're welcome to share them now. I think we have one

022thing on our agenda. So I think we can probably discuss them all when we start discussing the budget. Everyone good with that? >> Okay. Perfect. Um so we will move on to a presentation of the fiscal year uh 2627 proposed general fund food service and debt service budgets. And Mr. Sigura, would you please introduce the item? >> Uh thank you trustees. Um I'd like to invite Katrina Montgomery, our chief financial officer uh to assist me in the um presentation regarding the propo 20 fiscal year 2627 proposed budget. Uh before we get going, um I just want to kind of acknowledge the the the pain, the just the the disruption, the just severe just just kind of um strain that has been within our system for the last many months as we've gone through this process.

023Um it is very very difficult uh to bring forward a budget that is balanced um when there are so many pressures within public education. We heard it from our community. We hear it from other districts. We hear it across the state. Um, we are not as a state properly funding public education and we're at a point where there's very little that we can do to get back to a balanced budget that doesn't create disruption and ultimately reduce the number of staff in Austin ISD. And we didn't get here overnight and we didn't get here by accident. every single person in this organization has a role uh and serves our students and it's not going to um be repaired overnight. It's going to take time as we navigate through the budget and ultimately um have to

024implement um what if it is approved. I also want to um talk briefly about just what's happening um as a organization. There's immense pain within our schools. There's immense pain within our service center. There's immense pain within our transportation department and also within this building. Um I think sometimes when there's that type of pain in a system in a community, um it can feel very kind of isolating. Um but I have spoken and and do spend time with lots of individuals in this organization and it is district-wide, citywide uh and as we go through this presentation, there are things as we've talked about for weeks now um that are painful and uh unfortunately if we do not do this and if we do not bring a budget forward that a is approved and b begins

025to um improve the fund balance we run a real risk um when it comes to our ability to serve our students in a way that aligns with who we are as an organization. Uh it's unfortunate um it's sad. It's disappointing um and it's happening everywhere in the state of Texas. So with that, I'll hand it over to Katrina to take us through um several of the slides. We'll kind of work together through them. Um but just wanted to make that point before we get going. Thank you Katrina. >> Um good afternoon afternoons um President Boswell Trustees Superintendent Sagura. So we're as our superintendent said this is um have been a daunting process. We definitely understand the impact that it has has had on our campuses and our staff. Um, but we're going to continuously talk

026through this and how we can um get through this together. So, this is the proposed budget for adoption. And you can see in the lighter blue it says general fund under public notice. So, what we have to do is when we filed our public notice, this is the budget that we presented. And so, now we have to merge the two. And we're going to spend a little time on this slide talking about why. So the general fund public notice when we originally um did our recommended budget, it was assuming that we would end our FY2526, which is this current fiscal year, at a 15% fund balance. And we presented to the board and the community last week on June 11th that we're projecting that we will not make the 15%. And so what that does

027is there's many reasons why. Some of the reasons are because of the one thing we've talked about is the land sale of Rosedale for $26 million. We're also going to have some slides that are going to talk about how our enrollment has decreased as well as our average daily attendance. And then there's going to be some other slides where we kind of look at how did we get here. And we'll talk about more in depth of how um not making our projection for FY2526 at 15% and has going to impact us for FY2627. So the original um general fund public notice was at be assuming or projecting that we would end 2526 at a 15% fund balance. And so you can see our revenue is $1 bill477 million. We'll talk more in depth about those

028um assumptions that we used. Recapture is $630 million and our operating expenditures is $97 million. And the first thing you can see is something we've talked about is again our operating expenditures and our our recapture expenditures are more than the revenue that we're bringing in. And so this is something we've talked a lot about about having a balanced budget. And so what you see below the line, you see property monetization for $60 million. So the district is putting forth in this um proposed budget four properties for a total of $60 million. And then that gets us to a balanced budget, which means what we're projecting our revenue is less our recapture, less operating expenditures, and also including property monetizations. we will get to a Z um we will balance for FY2627. So let's talk about

0292526. So some of the reasons we didn't make achieve the goal the $26 million of um Rosedale sale the sale for Brooke we originally estimated it at 19 million. It's coming in at 16.9 million. And there were other strategies that we had that we were going to try to achieve and some of them made and some of them did not. Some of them were um the amounts that we thought that they were and some of them were not. And so with along with all of those things is why for FY2526 we're not going to make our 15% goal. And then you see in general fund you see the revenue is still consistent or constant. The recapture is constant, but you now see our operating expenditures are $887 million. And I want us to talk about

030again what happened. You're going to hear me talk about a lot about weaving in 2526 because what we we here like we knew that Rosedale wasn't going to make and why didn't we pivot and one of the reasons we didn't pivot as quickly as we should have is because 88% of our budget is people. And so that makes it very challenging to pivot and move to make up those ch those changes in the system. And so what I'm we're presenting now is that now that we were clear for 2526 we're not going to make the goal. We're pivoting now. And so what that means is we had to come up with an additional $20 million to land us at a 13% fund balance. So, what we went back over this last week since we talked

031to you on June um June 11th is found $20 million more in reductions. And so, we're going to talk in depth about what that is. So, again, you have your net change under general fund, which is a negative $40 million. Even with the additional $20 million reduction, we're our operating expenditures and our recapture is still more than our revenue. So, we're have a negative $40 million. And then we have our property monetization for $60 million. And now that shows that we're contributing $20 million into our fund balance. And so what this is doing is clearly us saying we missed the mark in 2526, but let's not delay it on for 2627 or say that we're going to do it by making have reductions in um slowing spending down. We're saying immediately here that when we

032propose this budget, this budget is going to include the change that we need to make for um not making the goal in 2526. And then you'll see you have your food service fund, you have your debt service fund, and then you have your total governmental funds. This next slide is general fund expenditures by function. And so what this slide shows is all of our expenses in a function code. It shows our FY2526 adopted budget and this 1 bill77 million is our operating expenditures plus recapture. And then again you see our public notice. So we want to make sure that everyone in the community is aware of what is different at public notice versus what we're presenting today. So the public notice is $1 bill536 million. So the change from FY2526 adopted to the 2627 public

033notice is $170 million. So then you can see the change in percentage. And then to the far right now we have a proposed which is $1 bill516 million and the change in the public notice and the change in what we're proposing today is $20 million. So you can see there's a total between, if you look at the change adoption, the $170 million and the $20 million. So we'll talk about the $190 million in a second. When we talk about our unassigned percentage and how do we calculate it, it is our unassigned fund balance um over our operating expenditures. And so we want to spend some time today making sure that our community, our board, and our staff are going along with us about the changes that have been made over the last week. So FY2526,

034again, we were projecting that we would land at a 15%. So that meant we would start off 2627 with a 15% fund balance. Our operating expenditures was 900 around approximately $97 million. our unassigned fund balance and that would leave us with the unassigned fund balance of 15.5. And so that was the original um proposal preliminary information that you received from us. And so now in the middle you have a 10% projection showing that if we end the year at 2526 at a 10% fund balance, our operating expenditures are 96 million. That would make our unassigned fund balance 96.4 million and 10.6%. So what this middle slide is showing is if we made no additional cuts, if we just stopped at the 185 million and we ended the 2526 fiscal year at 10% and did nothing

035else, it would have our fund balance projected for FY2627 at 10.6%. And then in the far right, this is the budget that we're proposing today. You have FY2526 saying that we're going to end the year at a 10%. And then now you could see the $886 million that you saw that we've reduced the $20 million. That will increase our fund balance to $116 million and that will land us with 13%. So again, the far left hand column is where we originally um did the um where we originally proposed or we originally did our recommended budget for FY2627. The second the middle box is if we did if we na made no further corrections because we want our community and board to know where unassigned fund balance percentage would land. And then to the far right

036is what we're proposing here today. So our general fund assumptions we've talked about this in workshops. How should we land looking at our enrollment? Um our enrollment number projected is 68,329. Our average daily attendance is five 59,717. You have your change in property values of which we've discussed um of 3%. So the 2526 change in ADA and enrollment and again we're showing we're weaving all of this through of how we did not make the projection for 2526. So you can see we have under budget adoption our refined ADA is 64,100 and our enrollment for our budget was adopted at 72,303 and you could see where we are at first 6 weeks our refined ADA versus first six weeks and second six weeks and third six weeks fourth fifth and sixth and you can see our

037enrollment numbers are going down and our ADA numbers are going down and so as this continuously happens it's more it's a challenge because that means we're getting less revenue but we have not reduced our expenses at the same rate that we are reducing our revenue. So when we talk about what we need to do differently for 2627 we need to be really clear as we see these numbers change we need to instantly start making changes and reducing our expenses. So this slide is um a ADA versus an enrollment. It's another one. So you could see refined ADA for FY2425 our budget adoption is 64,100. Um we ended the year at 63,758. It was a difference of 342. So a variance of.5 and then the exact the same um logic for enrollment. What we want to

038point out here for FY2425 is that even though our enrollment had decreased and our average daily attendance had decreased, um we were able to make up these reductions in revenue. And so a 1% re a 1% revenue loss, we were able to make that up. But so that's why we were able to end 2425 um at a more favorable place for FY2526. You could see we did budget adoption at 64,100. And I want to be clear this this refined ADA that we did for budget adoption. Our refined ADA was higher. So when we did the projection, we had already decreased the refined ADA. So our refined ADA was 64,100. Our enrollment number was 72,303. And you could see that our um refined ADA is 61,382 and our enrollment is 69,79. So you could see ADA

039has gone down 2717 and our enrollment has gone down 3,224. So when you look at these percentages, this is one of another reason why it was really hard for us to make the um pivot for 2526 because even though we planned and did the budget adoption conservatively, the our numbers decreased much faster um at our numbers decreased um at a rate that we had not predicted. So here's our implemented budget reduction. So, this shows that originally when you saw this slide last time, it had 185 million and now we're saying it's 205 because we had the 185 and we've added the $20 million that we talked about to get us to the 13%. So, here you have district-wide budget reductions is 28 millions. 28 million property monetizations is 60 million. Campuses is 33 million. Departments

040is 36 million. But remember, we had to go back to our CA to our departments and say that we need additional reductions. So our departments are doing 36 million plus 17, which is a total of 53 million. And then you have district-wide reductions of 31 million for a total of $25 million. So we're going to dive into these numbers a little bit more for more clarification. So reductions to support fund balance at 13%. This is how the additional $20 million um how we um designed the $20 million over this last week. So you have increased class ratios. You have band two no tap campuses and band one no tap campuses. That's for an estimated $1 million. And then you have elementary essential areas ban three only for teachers and TAs totaling $1.44 million. substitute cost

041reductions for $2 million. We still we have a new um chief officer and we've been talking a lot about how can we reduce our substitute cost. He has some great ideas. Stipen cost reduction um alignment to our TA to TASBY study that our stipens are still high. Um how can we u we're contributing $4 million additional dollars in stipens reductions in benefits. So, um, we're looking at ways that we can provide great plans for our staff, um, and how we we have there's multiple options or ways that we could do this, um, but a savings to the district of $3.72 million central leadership attrition. So, that's director and above. Um, $1 million attrition for the district for the months of July through December, 5.34 million. We've worked with talent strategy on this number. This number

042is very low. We wanted to be very conservative. Um but $5.34 million overtime. Um there's some strategies about how we can continuously reduce overtime for $1.5 million. And then we put real estate here as this is another option, but we haven't um we haven't monetized the do we haven't added a dollar amount. So these are all of the reductions to support us getting from 10% to 13% for a total of $20 million. So for FY2526 and 2627 expenditure change. So when I showed it to you when we talked about it previously I said remember the 190.8 right 191 190.8. So you see proposed increases um school improvement investment. Um there was $17 million um invested in our campuses for TAPS um TRS on behalf is an increase of $11 million. teacher incentive aotment, um, HB2

043costs, and then additional HB2 initial costs for staff increases. And then you have proposed decreases, and these are campus adjustments and consolidations because we did campus school um, consolidations this year for a reduction of $20 million. Campus staffing ratios, $31 million. Duty day adjustments are impacts for central office staff who will be losing um um five days worth of pay and but they will it will be offset by five PTO or vacation days. Department force reductions is $17 million here at central department non-staffing is $14 million. Department staffing is 8 million. You have substitute costs of 4 million. We've collapsed vacancies of 15 million. And this is just vacancies at central office. We have not collapsed any vacancies at our campuses. Pending district and leveling attrition 31 million recapture adjustment and reductions to support the

04413% is 20 million. So if you take the total increases the total in um decreases, you could see that's why we have net reductions of 192 million. So our superintendent spoke earlier about the impacts on our campuses and our staff as well as central office. So this is a slide we presented before. We've added a a section at the bottom, but you can see elementary teachers. You can see the number that have been impacted by ratio changes. And I want to be clear this is this is this slide is prior to the information that we just presented for the 20 million. So our elementary teachers have been impacted by 45 and then the talent strategy department has broken it out by that's 36 teachers non non-certified um they 30 teachers have been placed and then

045placements not needed it says 12 and I want to spend some time on this because when I talked to talent strategy today I I wanted us to be clear about what placement not needed is and the additional clarification I received today is that that just meant that the teacher might have found another position at their campus. So, they did not need to be placed by um talent strategy. That does not mean that these are people that are separated from our district. And then you have need placement three. So, you can go down and you can see each one of the lines, elementary teachers, middle, middle school teachers, high school teachers, you can see essential areas. This is an area that um talent strategy is really working on trying to make sure we can figure out

046how to place um they feel confident that we can place as um we get people we get our information throughout the end of the year and our uncertified teachers and once we see how they're impacted you have counselors assistant principles and librarians and then you have departments and this is the new um item here. So there's going to be a slide I think that you're going to see next that shows that there were 84 central office staff impacted. Of those 69 people have been placed or it could be as simple as some people's calendars days change from 216 or 207 to 197 but this may and then placements not needed is 15. So, one of the things I want to we want to be clear with this this slide is we clearly understand that there's

047been lots of disruption to our district, our staff. Um, but we the talent strategy department and everyone is supporting trying to make sure that even with all of these reductions, we're trying to make sure that our staff have somewhere to land. So, even though it's been very disruptive, making sure that our it might be you're no longer in finance, you're in TLLL. I'm making this up. or you might not be at campus A, you're at campus B. But we're doing talent strategy and we're supporting they're doing everything that can they can that even though this is very disruptive that our staff still have homes to attend. And so this is the slide departmental impacted position reductions. So this is general fund only and the field FTE is the 84 that you just saw on the

048previous slide. And this talks about um filled FTEES, how many positions because we we we're hearing how many actual positions, how many actual um positions were actually filled and it's 84. We had vacant um positions of 196 for a total of 280.55. And then you can see the savings is broke out broken out by field 8.53. Vacant is 15.02 O2 for a total savings of $23.54 million. And then central office reductions. And we wanted to talk about this because um our superintendent just clearly stated that this is pain that the district is feeling, our campuses are feeling um but also my peers here at central office. So central office, if you look, it's broken out between non-staffing for a total of 29.64 64 million as well as staffing of 23.54 for a total of $53

049million. Now, I want to be clear that this slide can continuously change. The 17 million that we talked about was force reductions. We forced it out of everyone's non-staffing dollars. So, a leader can come back and say, "I don't want it out of my non-staffing. I want to change it to staffing." So, these numbers can continuously fluctuate, but the total will remain the same. The allocation between non-staffing and staffing can change, but the total should not change. And then here's a change in our organizational budget. So what we look we're looking at here is FY2425. Our adopted budget is $954 million. For FY226, the adopted budget was $991 million. And you could see that's an increase. And then FY2627, our proposed budget is 887 million. So you could see all the work that happened between

0502526 and 2627. You also see adopted FTEES for 2425, 10,298. And then you can see that there's an increase of adopted FTEES um for 2526 for 10,392. And then you see for 2627 our proposed FTE full-time equivalents is 9,744. So you we've talked clearly about a lot of the work that's happened from 2526 to 2627. And then for 2425 to 2526, a lot of that you can see is in staffing. We increased our staffing in a few different departments. One of the departments specifically um you would see here is special education. And special education has increased because what we've done over the years is we've tried to reduce our reliance on contractors. And the special education has been department has been making great waves in reducing our reliance on um on contractors instead of actually

051having staff here at the district. I believe the last time I talked to Dr. Lee or Dr. Baker, they were down to five um contractors. So then this next slide changes in senior leadership. You see for FY2526 we had adopted FTEES of 57.20. So this change in senior leadership is executive director and above. Um and then you can also see proposed FTEES are 50. So there's a change in FTEES are a decrease of 7.20. So FY 2627 our budget stabilization timeline. We presented this last week, but I want us to we want to make sure that we're consistently talking about there's still in FY2627 an additional $31 million that will need to be reduced. And we're we're saying that we're going to do that from July through December of 2026. And it will happen through

052leveling, attrition, and restructure. And then there's an additional $60 million for FY2728, which is the property sales that we will work to reduce from July through January. And we want to make sure that we're keeping present about that. This work is not done. Even though there's a lot of hard work that has happened, there's going to be additional reductions needed for FY20 in the year FY2627. And then when we're planning for the budget for FY2728, we know at the minimum we'll have to reduce the $60 million for the land sales that we're proposing for FY2627. And then we have budget consent of FY2728 budget reductions. Um we're gonna that we have a develop budget development calendar where we're going to present um items to the board in October and November so that we can solidify

053um this is one of the improvements we're going to do this year so that we can solidify with agreement with the board what the reductions are going to be so that we can start notifying our staff earlier and start making decisions earlier sooner rather than later. And then we have our budget adoption in June of 2027. One of the things the superintendent and I worked on um is an updated budget timeline. And I I do want to spend a little time on this slide to talk about um in June 18th what we're doing which is today. The FY 2620 27 we're saying our starting point is 10%. FY 2627 what the additional reductions are for 13% we've talked about is 20 million. If we wanted to get to 15%, that'll be $36 million in reductions.

054So, we're already taking the 20 million, we'd have to take an additional $16 million reductions for FY2627 if we wanted to get to 15%. Um, recommendations made by superintendent to cover the difference, which we've tal we've talked about. Um, an updated budget calendar vote, which is on the agenda for later this afternoon. And then um on July 20th um the staff is we're going to give a written update of where we're projecting our June 2526 financials will land and also a fund balance update. So, not only are we saying as an administration led by our superintendent that we are going to um monitor the information, we're going to be we're going to present the information more, which means our fund balance, our cash balance, and our expenditures and then also pivot as needed. We receive

055our TCAT certified values for FY2627 on July 25th. So, that's the final numbers. And then on August 13th, we have what we will um that is our presentation to the board. So sustaining fiscal discipline. Um we know that there are some things that we can improve upon. And so here are some of the things that we're going to talk about. Staffing and workflow, updated approval workflow to further control staffing. That's making sure that talent strategy and finance are in the loop. When a position is approved, when a position is increased, that talent strategy and finance are always lock step so that we are aware of how it the impact is for our budget. Resource allocation uphold class size ratios. We talked about this when we met find the finance team. We met with Tracy Ginsburg

056and um Amanda Bronson and one of the things they talked about is almost every school district has class- size ratios, but none of them honor them. And so that was clearly where we were as a district. And so this is something that we've changed and updated our ratios this year. And we need to uphold our ratios. If our ratios state this, we need to uphold it. In the past, we've had project a principal could say, "Oh, I'm going to I'm going to have additional students or that my numbers are going to increase. The enrollment is coming." And so, we would give the additional allocation. So, upholding our class ratios is going to be very important. um continuously reviewing our stipens as well as our substitute costs. Making sure that we're always going through um and

057clearly understanding how we're spending our expenses, our expenditures for staffing, contract management, outcomebased contracting, making sure that we're clear about what the what are we receiving from our vendors? What is the contract? What is the outcome? What are our students getting from it? not just having a contract and doing it again next year and the next year and next year. Um shifting from reactive correction to consistent compliant purchasing practices. One of the things we have quite a few un um um unratified purchases which just means that um people are our staff have been going out signing contracts getting invoices procuring services without following the proper steps. And so, um, Kenneth and I have, I'm sorry, our general counsel and I have a meeting to start talking about how we can improve upon these processes and

058make sure that we're clear with our staff that you just can't go out and purchase something without a purchase order. You can't just go out and legally bind the district um by signing a contract. Budget oversight, yearly department budget reviews. This is something um the superintendent and I are committed to is what we did this year. um to continuously refine with all the work that the team has done, the line by line budgeting. We can't just do it one time and let it stop. We have to continuously move forward with that work and monthly budget updates to the board of trustees, including where our fund balance is, where our expenditures and revenue are, and then also our cash balance. So, I'm going to turn it over to our superintendent to take over the next two

059slides. >> Yes. Uh thank you, Katrina. If you go back a slide, I think there's something here. I um when it comes to oversight and staffing allocations, this is a an area of significant improvement for the district. Making sure that talent strategy and the process that we use to release allocations is locked in with finance. So we've modified our processes and and now right wrong or indifferent um they go all the way up through me um for the time being until the system is is at a point where we have the controls in place that ensure that the allocations are meeting um the needs of our students and and adhering to our our ratios. The other thing I wanted to just quickly touch on is um when Katrina talks about uh staff and and the

060spending uh what often happens is the person who is is spending isn't the person responsible for the budget. Um and and and so the way to to create a control around that is to kind of um be very clear about the expenditures that are approved. making sure that you cannot release a purchase order or even start a procurement process uh unless the funds are available, unless it and also um unless it's been approved by an executive director that aligns with our overall budget because they are the ones who are responsible for it. And so there aren't um contracts being signed by any means, but there are uh lots of requests that go out that aren't necessarily aligned to the budget because the request is coming from someone who doesn't own the budget. Um so as

061we move uh away from the control side, I did want to provide an update regarding the planning around the secondary schools um hubtop planning. Uh there's been lots of questions around this. I'll be really clear. Um we are effectively just wanting to create a system that provides access to all of our students but in a way that uh creates fewer stops. Um right now transportation is the process of conducting site visits to identify the most effective and safe stop locations. Uh there are a variety of different locations. You know, they could be community centers within a neighborhood. Uh it could be Austin libraries, it could be uh ACC, could be our schools. There's lots of things um that we could uh use. Uh and and really the idea here is instead of stopping block by

062block, you create kind of a hub within a neighborhood. Um and there's lots of ways to do it. We'll continue to refine the process throughout the first month uh and then make adjustments. families are going to receive letters um by uh June 25th uh to just provide an update as as to what to expect. Um the there isn't necessarily a true threshold for like distance because all distances are are different relative to the type of thorough affairs in the area. Um but we are being um very thoughtful about our approach. Uh the busfinder um will be updated and available on August 3rd uh so that families can view all of their information. In this process we do every year. Uh so it's it's not uncommon for us to do it. We just are reconfiguring the

063number of stops um and that'll thereby reduce the number of routes which will reduce the number of um uh staff needed to to run those routes. Uh as we go to the last slide, one of the things I just wanted to kind of tie back all together is the alignment of the budget with our scorecard. You know, everything that we do is in service to our students uh to ensure that they are getting um what they need to be successful and um and doing it in a way that aligns with who we are, our values. And you know, for the for the last many many years predates me, predates this board. Uh there have been lots of decisions made uh and we benefited from an everinccreasing property value kind of environment within Austin and we're

064at a point now with the pressures where we have to protect the best of who we are and at the same time continue to support the outcomes which which have been moving. And so um this budget is a a receipt uh it is a document that kind of binds us to you know who we are. Um it is a difficult budget to bring forward to our board. Um it it has been very hard. Uh and it's going to be continue to be hard as we implement. Um but want to extend just all the grace um and appreciation to our staff, to our families, um that unfortunately have to go through this with us. Um there's there there are no good choices at this point. Um, so with that, I'll um hand it over to President

065Boswell and the team and I will answer any questions that the board may have. >> Thank you very much, Miss Montgomery and Superintendent Sigura for this trustees. Who has comments or questions to start? Uh, Vice President Foster um or Secretary Foster. Thank you. >> I I have I have several and I'll um try to group them and I'll try to be um succinct. Um, but to uh just signal where I'm going, I have um and and some of this you we have a consent item on our budget calendaring and I do have questions going forward. So, some of what I'm asking has to do with sort of our our near future, but some of it um acrru to this moment as well. And what I'm really concerned about is forecasting. Um I I'm just kind

066of stymied or confused and uh it feels like the variables there's so many variables coming from so many angles that our capacity to forecast effectively is really low and in a context where we're not really able to forecast well how do we get a budget right so just a couple of the buckets. Um, we said as as one I don't even know if it's low hanging fruit, but we said we want to sell four campuses for $60 million. This isn't the greatest market in the world. And so I have concerns and then also, you know, community speaks up and says, you know, raises concerns, lawsuits, there there's a whole bunch of things that go in that complicate our sales. Now, on the other hand, there's been adaptive reuse that's been really powerful and not really

067talked about like Anita Koi and there's, you know, y'all have done dynamic things with our properties. That said, um, we've got a whole bunch of properties surplused. Is there some flex or flexibility in terms of selling this many properties to get the 60 million? Is 60 million the north star? And so 60 million is the north star with the sale of properties being it. And so it could be a combination things could shift. So that's the first question is tell me about that. >> Yeah. So um great question Trusty Foster. Um I have uh been here in Austin for eight years and have um been a part of lots of different transactions and you're absolutely right. You know we don't always know how the property is going to transact. Is it a capitalized ground lease?

068Is it a fee simple transaction? Um the number that's here is a number that is uh conservative in the sense that um given market conditions, given the entitlements, given the quantity of properties that we have that could be monetized, 60 million is a number that I think we will um be able to achieve with a high probability of certainty. Um I I've been a little anxious about quantifying the number. We put four because I I think it's important to note that I think it'll be um a four. I don't know which combination of four and if needed, you know, it may be a fifth um or or some because there there just lots of different ways that this could get done. Uh but at the end of the day, and there are things that we

069as a system have not put a dollar on, but we know will yield um some value. So, I would say generally speaking, regarding the portfolio and the work that we've done, everything that's been out in the community, um we're confident that $60 million is a a very reasonable executable amount within the fiscal year. Um, yeah. >> So, for me that that logic is sound and I appreciate that. And then on the community side, unfortunately or fortunately, we're we're we're community is going to be weighing in and what we're introducing is some flexibility. That also means that, you know, communities are going to step up and say we're going to have to be ready for those hard conversations with our communities. >> Yeah. and Trusty Foster. I think um this is one of the things that

070I think we've improved upon. Um James Vadez, who's the exe who's our director of real estate, um Jamie Miller, who's our um operations officer. Uh they're now in round two of these uh meetings where we're having conversations with our community regarding surplus. And uh there's uh kind of a description of what the properties will likely become or the kind of the the area that we're going to explore. and that information was used to inform the number that's on the list. >> So, I'm I would be surprised if there was a real surprise if we went a different direction because we are aligned with what we've been saying out in the community and also what we've been hearing back. And so, when you look at the properties that have been discussed for surplus, uh you'll see

071that there are some that have been identified for monetization and there's some that haven't been. And that aligns with this number. >> Okay. And so I I guess what I would say I'd be surprised if we would see the same type of response because we've been pretty clear now with the ranking which ones are likely to be monetized in that way. >> Got it. >> Um and we have been for a little while. But of course we we'll always work with community and and do the best we can to make adjustments. But >> Got it. And side note, it really bums me out to spend this much time talking about this and not talking about our students and our kids. Um but this is what we need to talk about in in this moment. So,

072the next thing um um we we've kind of taken out some payday loans um and those were not anticipated and built in. Well, the interest associated with those which were considerable were not anticipated or considered. So, how many times do we anticipate taking out payday loans in the upcoming year? Um and at what cost? >> Yes, thank you Trusty Foster. So for FY26271 and we're refining the numbers now to see how much because we're going to do exactly what we did last year is to make sure that we're monitoring the spend looking at accounts payable. We're projecting what our payroll is which is going to be kind of consistent. Um and then we met today with our financial advisors for them to start working on it to tell us like what the interest rate would

073be. So, we're starting to plan it out now. >> Got it. And and I I Sorry. >> Well, I I would just I just wanted to um maybe introduce a different term. Uh I I understand payday loan. Um I think the only concern is the payday loan assumes a an egregious interest rate. Um typically, you know, like in the hundreds of percent in many cases. Uh that's not what this is. this is a a interest rate that is in alignment with our bond rating, the cash on hand, the property values to so if if there are community members out there that maybe respond and say, you know, Matias, you can get a better deal than that. That's in fact true. We are, you know, getting as competitive of rates as we can. So, I prefer

074to use maybe like a bridge loan. Um, but I just I just because I had that question come up um already. >> I'm trying so hard not to make snarky jokes. So, >> I know, but I know I know I know. But I just I'm Hey, trust me. I've had I've done a paid element like years ago. I just it's just >> so and uh and and I appreciate I appreciate the nuance question. >> Um I appreciate the nuance and and it is important and I don't mean to be um light with something important. On the other hand, we're not talking about $5,000, tens of thousands. We're talking about hundreds of thousands of dollars in interest. So even if the rate is low, raw numbers, these are impactful, you know. >> That's true. Um, so

075I would love if we >> sadly like we're going to do it. We know we're going to do it. We built it in. >> Not here's a second one that was unanticipated. Here's a third one that was unanticipated. And it goes to the question of this forecasting. So I want to lift up that we're doing this that we are in a position of having to engage this practice, but I'd love for us to account for it, you know, uh, up ahead. Um, >> I'm so sorry you've asked actually answered one of my questions, but I just need a little bit of clarity because my question was, will we still have to borrow money at 13 13.1%. So, we saying yes, >> the 13.1% fund balance. Oh, correct. So, the amount we will have to borrow

076money, Trusty Hunter, >> period, but it won't necessarily be at 13%. I believe last year when we borrowed it, it was like at 4.6%. No, I meant like the fund balance because at 10% we knew, right? At 15% we're good, but we're going to be at 13%. So that Thank you, Kevin. >> Yes. >> Yeah. And and just to put a final point on that, Trusty Hunter, I I'm not so certain at 15% that you would actually not draw down or even at 18%. I mean it really you have to have a significant amount of of cash on hand given the flow in the payroll per month and the way that you know we get revenue from the from the tax appraisal district. So I just I don't want to make make it tied to

077a percent because it could fluctuate >> and this is this is really I think valuable for our community as part of the education process of why the funds balance is so important. It is a healthy fund balance that keeps us from making these tough decisions that cost us more money, right? The low fund balance is what has us have to go out and secure these uh these extra loans. Um so, you know, Trusted Deost who, you know, he will tell us very quickly about what's going on in special ed. And I'm uh uh uh just to to raise something that I know would be on your mind and it's in line with this. The federal government is shifting dramatically in terms of the Department of Ed and sending this office over here and that office

078over there. And so what percentage of our budget comes from the federal government, grants, um reimbursements, etc. um as a first question and then what that directly goes to is do we account for or how do we account for unpredictability which is crazy to say unpredictability from the federal government in terms of them paying us on time or them paying us what they're supposed to etc. >> Yeah. So I'll start I'll start with the second part of the question first. Um it it is very unpredictable. Um I I will say that a year ago I had a very very similar conversation with about a 100 people in this building in a room upstairs because um title dollars were frozen uh for a period of time while the department of education was evaluating whether they were

079in you know where they should be frozen or not or where they should and so that freeze alone uh was a was a significant thing to to navigate and so the way that we're kind of navigating the uncertainty is with extreme clarity and communication with people like you are funded by a funding source that is unstable like that unfortunately that's just where we are. Um not title one so much IDEA not as much but generally you know title four there other title dollars and grants that we get from this federal government that have been unstable the last couple years and I would also say to an extent I mean even revenue that we get or funds we get from the city of Austin I mean those have been somewhat unstable as you know parent support

080specialists have been impacted. So we have to be really clear if there is a a person who's funded with a alternative funding source that's not tied to 199 we are limited in how we can protect the position once that funding source changes. Uh and the reason I say that is because we don't know what's going to happen. Um there it could be even the the transition to block grants or whatever they end up deciding to do. The delay alone could have a significant impact in our ability to cover payroll. Let's say you you delay six to eight weeks, payroll is over $50 million a month. Um you don't have the funding source. Well, now you're you're back in a position. And these are not small swings. Uh so I don't know the specifics as far

081as um I I pick them up as far as the percent of the kind of special education division that's paid for using, you know, IDEIDA versus various titles. Um but I can pull that fairly quickly unless you you probably don't have it on hand, but I can get that. So, if if I could par in on this. Um, >> so I just wanted to clarify because when I'm looking at this, if I'm reading correctly, um, moving y'all are moving positions into idea B, right? >> Yes. some >> so you know I I'm seeing maybe between between three to four and a half million of sped changes and I'm concerned very I mean just as an example among all these other parts but I I fully expect that idea B funding they're going to have to

082transfer it to health and human services like I mean they're affecting that now so I do expect that those grants that that funding is going to get delayed the same as last year's I mean that that's a very real concern for me. You know, I don't think that's all of this 3 to 4.5 million, but it's certainly close to a million maybe. >> Yeah. And >> um those those I mean and those are like evaluation specialists, monolingual uh educational diagnosticians, facilitators, clerks, compliance specialists. I get that we're moving them to the grant to affect space in the general fund, but Well, to yeah, regardless of the language, my concern there is that we're relying on that grant funding coming in for August and and there's a very real chance that that's at the very minimum

083going to be delayed and my recollection last year was the positions that got delayed, it was over a month and we had to reassign all those piece like those positions didn't get recovered. two things. Um the first is idea funding can only pay for certain things, right? I I don't have So if you don't use the funds and you don't assign like expense to them, then you're not able to leverage them in the same way. So it's really important that as we go through this process, we are tying the PI code to the um to the expense. Uh and so as you go through and try to find efficient try to reduce your overall cost anytime you can align an expense that will be fully covered because there are lots of people in this building

084there lots of expenses that just will not be covered with those grants. They don't qualify and so we have to marry up the the ones that qualify kind of fill that grant allocation to the highest possible limit because if not then you potentially lose it. uh and at the same time kind of balance out this real acknowledgement that at the end of the day if there is a fluctuation we have to manage through it. Regarding what happened with title funds, there was a delay. Uh it was multiple weeks. Um we prepared everybody. We had conversations. Um they were unfrozen after a period of time and were able to navigate that within our own system. Uh and that number was probably even north of four million given the number of people that I talked to uh

085in that meeting. I couldn't tell you the exact number. Um but that is that is kind of the challenge and it it's doesn't it happens in many other areas of the system as well. um with our state funding um you know the way that we get funding from the department of agriculture for for food service I mean there are lots and lot that I mean hundreds if not probably over thousands of people that are tied to grants that we have no control over the source but if we don't access them and and and consume them then they aren't going to be there in the same way >> yeah I I I get that part my concern is one is I think the delay is likely so it's not an if, it's, you know, when. >>

086And then two is to Trusty Fosters's, you know, I think the heart of the question is how do we float that when that happens? If it's a month, if it's two months, I mean, they're going to have to flip the whole billing system is going to have to switch to HHS, like the accounting and tracking and all of that. Um, you know, uh, and in line with that, some of the positions we're moving are diagnosticians and we're also reducing the the number of duty days for the diagnosticians. Uh, correct. So, you know, the other element of that change is OCR going to the Department of Justice with the expectation that Department of Justice is going to be much more vigilant about looking at OCR violations. And so there's kind of a double jeopardy there uh

087particularly around the evaluations, the diagnostics, aside from the fact that we want to be on time is, you know, those kind of overlap. And so I understand the reality for the budget changes and as some people had said uh you know some of the comments earlier we can do amendments and and look at how we're progressing you know monthtomonth uh you know from the budgeting calendar but specifically like how are we going to weather any of these bumps because if diagnosticians aren't getting paid and they're not working for a month you know the backlog would would I mean be pretty quick to accumulate. Yeah, I mean that's that's true for unfortunately that's true for lots of different groups. Um you know we have to there's only so far we could go as far as floating

088you know and the last time we did this we I think six weeks was about as far as we could go. Um we were able to extend to some to to six months. Um you know we are very clear that if you're working you're going to get paid and we should we want we want people to get paid. We want we want we need them to continue to work to do exactly what you said. So we don't have evaluations we continue to backlog. Um you know that's a function of cash on hand. It's a function of acquiring lines of credit if you need it. Uh the reality if that happens like every single district in the state of Texas and probably the country. I mean it is not going to be localized to us. I

089mean everybody is going to be reeling. Um, you know, I know it's not the the answer you want to hear that it's like, but it's it's one that we would manage with cash, with um, you know, lending if they had to if we had to continue to to do it that way. >> Yeah. And and perhaps I I should reframe this. I mean, this news just came out the other day. You know, I have been kind of mentioning this a little bit, but I I just bring it up because of the, you know, I want to really be clear on the reality of what is likely in the waters ahead as as, you know, we're navigating forward. I expect the wake of, you know, this disruption. And so, um, I understand we have a limited

090amount of time for this budgeting process, but I do think we need to be aware of that because I mean, you know, those are going to be million-dollar swings coming at us and and this budget is cut so tight, you know, and we still have deficit in front of us. How are we going to manage when we have like a $5 million swing come our way? Um, I'm not looking for an immediate answer. I'm raising the question as as we go forward. Thank you. Let's have a procedural question real fast. I hate to interrupt, but we have at least 20 22 or 23 people waiting to make inerson comments. And I believe that there's a lot more discussion to be had on the budget. Is there any way that we could recess this hearing, start

091the general meeting, and then continue with the discussion on budget as a voting item on the on the agenda? >> Uh we'll ask any interest in doing that. What's can can I I mean just >> yeah what what's the kind of best flow of information and and discussion? >> I think first we want to know what the legal flow is. So I think that's a legal question for our council first about whether we have satisfied the requirements for our hearing and could further discuss >> yeah you pull it from the consent agenda >> requirements for your budget hearing many times over. Um I but I don't think un unless this is unless budget is posted on the regular meeting agenda like you need to have your budget discussion now because it's they're posted as separate

092meeting. So if you adjourn this budget meeting you can't come back to the budget unless it's on that agenda as well. >> If it's on that agenda as well then you're fine >> as a voting item. >> I don't want to disrupt the flow. >> If it's a voting item on that on that agenda then you're posted to talk about it. You can talk about it. That's fine. Um you don't have to you've heard from the public on you've had your budget hearing. Yes, you can you can adjourn this and take that up. >> Okay. >> It's just a suggestion. >> Going to look at our agenda to be sure. I mean, I know it's there because I know we're voting on it, but I just want >> There's a lot there. >> Put eyes

093on it. And Christine, can you look at the way it is listed? Um >> there 14.2 the very last item is the budget. So, it is >> as an item for a separate vote. So, >> yeah. There be >> You feel like we're good? Yes. As long as as long as you're fine with that because you you'll have a whole bunch of meeting before you get to >> I think Trusty Coffman. I think that's a very kind suggestion for our community because we do have a lot of people. >> But I do want to recognize Secretary Foster's concern around the flow. So like we're in the midst of a discussion. So >> yeah, >> I just I just want to put it out there. >> I'm a little I'm a little I'm a little torn

094because I' I've kind of want to wrap a discussion all at once. Well, not that it'll be fully resolved, but I don't know. Maybe we should ask for other opinions on the board and what you what the other trustees feel. >> Yeah. Trustees saying, "Do you have thoughts?" >> I'm a little torn, too. Um I think if we could I think I'm I would like to get through the discussion personally, but I'm also perfectly happy if most folks want >> Do we want to give give it 30 minutes? See how we are? >> Yeah. I just I I don't want to be here at 10 o'clock tonight and have our >> and have our speakers. But if >> let's give it 30 minutes. That'll be 7 o'clock. Let's give it that and then see where

095we are. How about that? >> I give that. >> Okay. >> Let me try to to condense and wrap where you know because I had too many more things to to ask. Um, but I guess just to echo the the the the theme for me and the big question for me has to do with both for approving a budget tonight, but also looking forward is this issue of forecasting and our our capacity. Um, I want to kind of note that our proposal because there's been a lot of talk about central admin, um, as there needs to be talk about all of of the district and all of its operations, but the finance shop that's like 42 folk, right? And it's compliance and it's treasury, so managing the funds. It is uh procurement. It is general

096accounting. It is a ton of different things. Payroll. And kind of to Trusty Dioski's point, at some point you have to have somebody who's really on the compliance stuff to make sure that the check that came to us is actually for the right amount. Because sometimes checks come in late and districts don't even notice and they've left $800,000 on the table because the federal government or the state or whoever kind of counted badly. And so our finance that team, y'all serve a really important and complex function. We're taking your shop down from 42 to 26 and still having the expectation of strong forecasting and getting payroll right and doing all this, you know, these things that need to happen. So, I'm experiencing a real tension here. I'm I'm kind of like others of us. I'm

097reminded of days when, you know, the way we paid bills in the house was throw them up and whichever one didn't land, that's what we were going to, you know, pay cuz we were broke. We we're getting to a point where our capacity to do the work excellently enough to actually balance the books is is to me it's under threat and and if I'm being candid, I'm feeling the threat in this very budget process. like the fact that these numbers keep fluctuating. I don't I I offer it's not even grace in this. I feel like we're our system is overwhelmed with the complexity of what's going on and it's it's challenging us. So, I don't understand how we're not going to be even more challenged in our capacity to get the budgeting strong and right

098and forecast well going into the future. um especially with your shop going down by whatever the math is. That's like a third or something like that. So, um I don't know if I can frame that as a question. Uh just something for us to to take note of that the level of specificity and detail work that's required of your shop is is high as we're cutting back on your shop. Uh any thoughts except for to say yeah. I don't know. >> I think I appreciate um that Trusty Foster. I think what you have elaborated is or what you've expressed is true but that's also true for my peers as well. >> Mhm. >> Right. Um so I appreciate highlighting that finance is shrinking. I think when I got here it was 100 people and so

099we are definitely reducing year over year over year right and it does impact the work but that is also the same for my peers that are sitting out here beside me. Well, and it's the same on our campuses. Yes. >> You know, we have teachers and folks desperately wanting to deliver to our kids, and we're taking away pieces >> that help make that possible. >> Yes. >> So, this is something that's felt >> literally everywhere in the organization. Um, >> I I do have other question, but I will stop there. Um, and I appreciate Trusty Hunter and Trusty Derosti kind of rounding out the the conversation as we move forward. >> Thank you. Um, who wants to go next? Trusty Singh, you have anything? >> Um, somebody else wants to go. >> Okay. Trusty Kintana,

100Trusty Coffman. >> Um, okay. I I can go. Um, so I'm sorry. This is obviously a lot and I thank you for your work and your commitment to doing these hard things. Um I I guess I'm just wondering um if there is a difference in this budget around which schools will be affected um by essential area cuts. Are we are we we're adding schools? >> Uh that's correct. Um Trustee Canthana um for essential areas um when we looked at uh the need to increase the reductions um what we explored were things that were already underway and expanding them further opposed to introducing something new that was going to be you know impact staff. And so, um, previously for essential areas, we had limited it to band four only. Um, now what we've said is we're

101going to expand it to band three. And just for for those following along, bands are a way that we in Austin ISD kind of group schools with different needs based on a support and resource index. So, band one, highest need, band two, band three, band four. Um, so yes, it would be uh expanding that. And on slide nine, uh, you can see kind of what that overall impact is. >> Okay. Um, because I know that we still have, you know, a lot of schools in band three that serve a lot of title one students. And so I'm just wondering if that was taken into consideration at all or how we would address that. >> Yeah. So based on organization, um, One of the fundament one of the foundational data points in this in the sequencing

102of the bands is students identified as economically disadvantaged. Um that that's just how it's organized. So SRRI band one um you're going to likely have schools that have very high percentages of students that identify as disadvantaged and high percentage of students who receive special education services and it goes down from there. So three um compared to two in one would I can't say campus by campus but generally speaking as a group would have fewer students as a percent of that are identified um as um economically disadvantaged. One of the things that I did hear from principles today uh was to um and I haven't had a chance to to get into this yet was if there may be some consideration for schools that are on a lip um which is you know there's a lip

103a tap a tip u lips are um tied to AIC we don't submit them to the state but um just kind of going back one more time and saying okay are there campuses that are in a turnaround process they may not be a tap they may not have that any unacceptable accountability ratings, but should there be some consideration and I told the principles that I would definitely look at that. Um, this number um is of the whole, but I think there's room for some adjustment, but I I wouldn't do it just based on students identified as the economics advantage because they're ranked that way. Um, so they're all going to be kind of the same kind of moving towards band two, which will be greater if that makes that's helpful. Um, so the answer is

104yes, we can look at that. Um, is it going to move the number? You know, right now it's it's 1 point, you know, what 344 1.44 million. There may be some adjustment there. Um, but I'm happy to go back and and see if there's, you know, I don't know that impacts the budget here, you know, per se, but um I I have committed the principles that I would go back through and see if there's any that are on lips or taps that need additional consideration. >> Thank you. Um and then were we able to do any sort of creative problem solving around CIS? >> Um creative problem solving, we've been in contact um with CIS, Dr. Maryanne Maxwell, who's in the audience um had conversations today with their leadership team. Uh just to be clear,

105commuting schools isn't vacating Austin ISD. There are still going to be dozens of schools um that are supported. Right now the conversations are around um are there adjustments in kind of what we pay versus the given the number of students in each school. It's kind of based on the flatline kind of you know rate. Um we've been engaged with them for weeks now. Um I don't know Dr. Maryanne Maxwell if you'd like to weigh in on that but uh creative solution as far as making up the hole. Um there there isn't a way for us to find the funds unless I take it from somewhere else to to make it fully whole. But I can tell you we're trying to make every dollar that's remaining get stretched as far as we possibly can. My understanding,

106I don't want to misspe, but that we're probably still going to be over 30 schools. I don't know what the number is final, but I think we were at 51 before. Um, so go ahead. Sorry, Dr. Maxwell. I don't want to steal your >> We were at 55 campuses. Um, and so we're looking at at least 30. And then we're looking at um alternative funding sources to be able to um try to stretch those dollars even more to supplement what the district can pay. Um, and then just again working with them. We've had several meetings a week the last um couple of weeks just to um try and identify campuses and work with campuses as well and and try to find the funding that would would allow us to stretch those dollars as much as

107possible to serve as many schools as possible. And to be clear, Dr. Maxwell, you're you're meeting not campus, you're meeting with the leadership team at CIS. >> Yes. >> Just to be because I know there's been conversations. Just want to be really clear like we are coordinated with them on this. >> Yes. >> Um I appreciate that. I mean, I know that there's a lot of moving parts in this, but I would expect that, you know, if a school relies heavily on CIS might be getting some sort of deduction or decrease in in their resources that hopefully we we might think, you know, how to pivot creatively to partnerships or like you said, looking I mean, God bless you for stretch for stretching the numbers. I wouldn't even Yeah, that's I know it's it's hard

108work, but um I guess I just wanted to make sure that that we are just still thinking about the students who um who depend on a lot of different things in our district, but you know, this specifically um that they're still, you know, that they're not going to be lost in the cracks, I guess, is what I'm trying to say. Um, I think that's it for now for me. >> Thank you, Dr. Maxwell. >> Thank you, Trusty Goffman. Anything? >> Just a few. Um, thank you for pointing out during the presentation around finding places employment for people who are displaced by this. I think it's really important um to highlight that that you're for many of our employees, most of I mean all the certified and and many of the not certified that you're finding

109a place so they're not unemployed or losing their opportunity to earn an income in Austin. Um I know it's not the same when you're displaced from one position to another from one school to another, but it's it's better than that we're doing a mass riff with cutting hundreds of people. So, thank you for highlighting that. Um, I just have a few detail questions. Um, but first I just have an overall question about all the documents that were added subsequently um to when the budget was originally posted. Many of those attachments 5 through 14 are the same that are in attachment 4, the the overall presentation or budget. Are those attachments revisions to what's in attachment 4 or are those just pulling it out so it's a separate document? Yeah, I I understand that there were

110revisions as far as um kind of like when we do a general agenda item, if something changes meaningfully, then we'll add a revision. Um I'm not sure if it's listed that way, but they are revisions. So, I guess it I don't think it's listed that way and I it's I guess I'm very I was perplexed today on how to handle this because I actually prepared for this which I don't always successfully do and then I arrive at you know 5:45 for a grievance hearing and come in for this or 4:45 from work leaving work and then I come here and find on the dis 10 more bud items that I didn't know because they were notified of in an email short but I don't check my email when I'm at my other job or driving

111here or at a hearing. So anyhow, I trying to make sense of how do I make sense of that then because I don't know what's different about all those hundreds of pages than the hundreds of pages I already looked at. >> I I'll have to go back and look at the attachments. Most of the attachments were supposed to be updated because of the adjustment of the 20 $20 million so that we could show the difference between what we originally um um what the recommended budget was versus the um proposed budget. But as soon as I get back to my seat, I'll go back and make sure. We were they we were trying to say like this is attachment one and then as of maybe June 11th and this is the same thing attachment one as

112of June 18th. So I'll go back >> there anyway and and if it is just the 20 million adjustments then that would be helpful just to know that but I also received you know we we received many emails from people who and there's a lot of social media buzz from people who scoured these documents and so helping everyone to understand kind of what's different would be would be helpful for the engagement party. >> Yes. >> Quick thing. So um you mentioned I think attachment four which is like the big document. That one I think is from last week because it still shows the 15.1% fund balance and I think you and I talked earlier today >> saying that that would be updated after the budget is adopted. Okay. So, >> so attachment four is slightly

113outdated, but I think the other attachments the dates are pretty, you know, >> okay, >> reliable. And if it doesn't have a date, um I think that's the latest and greatest. >> Okay. But again, with hundreds of pages, it's hard to figure out what's different. So if there's some way of notating what's >> different, that would be helpful. >> Um specifically on attachment 11, >> the separate document, I was able to go through that sitting up here. Um I just have a few specific questions on that. So uh on attachments 11 it shows that changes at different departments and schools and in terms of employment and it shows that Dolby web and Bernett drops of 20 23 and 18.25 25 staff members 27% 31% and 20% or 20 can't read my own writing um something

114present. What does that mean in terms of support for Dolby Web and Bernett as we transition into this next period of a little uncertainty of what's coming next week as we're transferring ownership or management to TCIS? What does that mean that those numbers of support for our schools that are most in need of support are are dropping? Help me understand what's happening with that. >> Yeah. So um just to be clear the it's changed from allocation to allocation fiscal year to fiscal year. So um the student populations of those schools is different um than it was when we started last year. Right? So the budget it I don't I don't want a trust you trustee um Kaufman to assume that all those allocations were had been implemented and used throughout the entire year because >>

115I'm not assuming I just want to understand it. >> Yeah. So, so we've um updated uh the allocations uh based on uh our enrollment uh projections for these campuses. We've had conversations with our partner, staffing partner to make them aware of what these are. Um we have um I'm trying to think of anything else because we we also just so our trustees are aware whenever there's a turnaround plan um we held multiple things harmless. Um, so I'm I mean I'm I'm not even sure that this is actually what it would be if we would implemented the full methodology. >> Okay. >> Um, I can break it down and and show kind of what the difference is because there have been adjustments um based on what those schools are afforded through the turnaround plans. >> Um,

116but we have been working with uh the partner um through this process. >> Okay. So those drops don't necessarily mean there's a de dis divestment of support for the schools. >> Um well I mean do you want >> Yeah. So we uh adjusted their staffing commensurate with every other middle school uh that are in the same position. Uh but they can buy positions back up to their 1882 summary of finance amount and we're working on that right now. >> Okay. So that those may not be the end staffing numbers once the partner combined that makes it. Okay. Thank you. >> Um also on attachment 11 there's um you know I took two campuses from district 7 that have very similar number you know population of students and one is dropping from 78 students to se

11778 staff or teachers or something staff members to 76 staff members. The other from 81.5 to a 71. So one has a 2.6% 6% and the other a 12.9% drop. What What are some of the variables that might explain why two comparably comparables sized and comparable social economic status schools would have such different drops? >> Um yeah, so I mean I don't know if you want to talk about the schools I can name them. >> So well I mean the two district >> so we staff the language um that's something that that I I don't know the campuses. Um >> Mills and Marino. >> All right, let me I can pull them up. Uh so >> just because I understand the changes because I just want to help understand what is other than like just

118percentages or >> the number of students in each grade level. >> I mean what is driving some of those changes other than specific position cuts that are basically the same at each school? >> Yeah. When it comes to teachers um the the uh teacher ratios were set based on what we shared with our trustees earlier in in the semester sorry in the semester just a couple months ago um and are implemented. So, I don't recall if one is a ban for a school and one's a ban. I need to think through which which band they're in. Um because we we did modify uh our ratios if you recall, Trusty Kaufman, where uh we didn't implement all the way to band one or we protected tap schools. So, I'd have to look and see what band

119they fall in. Uh that's one thing. So, that will you would see variation between similar size schools if they were in different bands. If they're likely in band one or two, um then you would see a change. change of his band four, then that's where he had previously implemented essential areas. So, that would be a change. Um, language also, I'd have to break it down, but there are lots of things that would drive um kind of the teacher allocations, but they're all driven by enrollment numbers. We don't make adjustments unilaterally. They're they're all just kind of driven by those numbers. But if you if you if you want me to, I can break it down. >> Can we just answer on the updated bands for this coming year? What where do Mills and Baron off

120sit? We I don't we haven't up we typically update the bands in the summer once we get updated enrollment because >> the bands that these budgets were based on I thought they were both for >> I should pull my band. >> Thank you. So we did have a a meeting just today about the bands and so that information is being calculated at right now. So these current staffing allocations are based upon the 25 26 bands. >> Okay. So, I have that list somewhere, but I I thought they were both four, but I would have to double check that. >> Clayton could be You said Clayton and Mills. >> Mills and Baronoff. >> Oh, yeah. Baronoff could be three. Mills almost certainly is four, but I I'll definitely I'll look at >> Yeah, just double check.

121Um Okay. And then um I'll skip most of the other questions, but um on attachment six where it's part of the comparison from year to year is the studenttoteer ratio. And I was curious how the studenttoteer ratio is counted because we're we're talking about claim changing average you know class sizes caps to 24 at an elementary school. Um but the student teacher ratios are around you know 12 and 11 and 14 and 12. So I understand it's not you know the student teacher ratio doesn't reflect one to one what the typical home room classroom size is. Um, but I'm just wanted to clarify what's the methodology for calculating those studenttoteer ratios because they are so much lower than what the classroom size cap is and they're also honestly the ones on this list are lower

122than what's on the taper reports also. So it seems like a different calculation than what TEA is uses perhaps unless we've done a lot of cuts since the 2425 taper. >> Yeah. And and so >> I I can give an example real fast that for example on the 202425, right? That's where we're at on the tapers now, right? >> The most recent are 2425. >> Yep. >> So on that tapered there's a school that has 15.9 as the student toteer ratio. But this data shows for 2526 that it was 11.5. So four students less on the ratio. I don't think we've cut that much from a campus since last year. So that's when I want to understand what the methodology is for those numbers just to help understand >> and I think trusty coffin and

123it may have to do with the timing of the report. So um some of that information is provided do on snapshot which is the last day in October and Friday in October and then some of the reporting may have been at another time during the year where that ratio was much lower. So it could have some something. So what's the methodology like when you think teacher students is easy there's how many students are in the school teachers is that who's included in the teacher count for that obviously more than just home room teachers >> like is that just the total number of people who are certified teacher positions on the campus >> so it could have to do with um some of the special programs for instance special education um bilingual services those type of

124of programs as well. So, um, when you look at the staffing ratios, again, one of the the issues with staffing is that where do you add a teacher and at what point do you add a teacher? Um, and so is that at 22, is that at 23, is that 26? So, that will drive some of those variables and variations that you might see in the report and especially between two different campuses as well. >> I can give you the breakdown of which ones are in the numerator, right, which is the teachers, the certifi who who is used to identify a certified teacher. Yeah. some cases we classify, you know. >> Yeah. Great. I got you. >> All right. I will forgo my other questions. Thank you all. >> Thank you. Can I just ask a

125related question to this one? Um, thanks for being here. While we have that, um, going through that campus by campus, there is a an major outlier in my district and I'm trying to figure out if it's a mistake or not. Um Barton Hills when you look at the student teacher ratio um in the doc in the campus bycampus document um Barton Hills has a ratio of 20.88 students per teacher. The next um highest ratio for elementary is 15.26 and the document shows Barton Hills going down from 18.5 elementary teachers to 8.5 for a campus with 285 students. And I'm wondering if that may be mistaken because that just seems very out of gamut with everything else. And it's not going to keep me from voting for the budget, but I do want to ask that

126we get an understanding of whether that's accurate or not because it just seems like a major major outlier. >> Yes, we will, President Boswell. >> Okay. Thank you. I'd love an update about that when you figure it out. Thank you so much. Okay. Um Trustee Deurest, do you have >> We have four minutes till our promised 30 minutes. one of the trustes that hasn't spoken yet. >> Okay, >> I'll do the same. Go. >> You never speak. >> Okay, trustee Hunter. >> The best question. >> Can we take a minute? She gonna tell me if these question >> write it down, Kevin. Okay. Um quickly uh on the technically when I look at the budget it is balanced but only because of this number of 68,51,000 and it's identified um as a one-time financing source

127but I can't like it doesn't say what the source is and we said that the four properties or maybe five properties that were 60 million TBD TBD were not in here. So, I'm trying to figure out what this basically I'm gonna round up 60.1 million dollars is. >> Where are you saying what where are you, Trusty Hunter? >> Um, I don't have a line because I pulled it out. I wrote the question down for you, but um it says it's on Do we What? It says 79007000 sources. That's what I wrote. I'm so sorry that I don't have the thing in front of me, but it just says other funding source. Let me go back up real quick. go up all the way to the top. Okay. Um 60.051 million in a one-time financing source

128>> and in attachment four. Oh, that's that includes which one? Far right there. >> Oh, that's 60 60 million 51,000. >> That's what I said. >> Oh, >> that's what I said. >> Yeah. Sorry. I thought you said 60. I thought you said it's a different number. I thought you said 68 million. >> You said 68 million. I I think I I thought that's what I heard. Sorry. That's that's why that would have been off by 8 million. 60 comma 051 million identified as one-time financing source. I just want to know what what is that source? >> 60 million is the property monetization. >> We weren't going to use that. >> Okay, that's time. I I I will ask in the next part more thoroughly about that. But um the play money like enrollment at

12968 329, this very vote tonight going to change that number. I don't know how by how much, but I just we can't bank on things that are I know we have to make some assumptions, but I feel like some of this stuff is ethereal. Like it's good if it happens, but right I where can I cash that? Right. >> So, um Trusty Hunter, Trusty Foster had a question like this and and correct me if if if you heard it. Um >> I did not cuz I was being ill. Oh, >> I'm sorry. Uh I hope that's I'm sorry that's not >> every time I come into this building, I get sick. Uh so one of the things Trusty Foster asked me was uh the real estate assumption that you're using and I've always said and

130we've talked about it I think fairly consistently that we are only going to use real estate in our budget to manage disruption from one year to the next. If I took the $60 million this fiscal year the cuts would be $60 million more and most all of it would come out of payroll. And so the idea as we've talked about we've been pretty consistent. The 60 million is going to be in the budget. Um he asked whether 60 million was too aggressive of a number because we we obviously run into entitlement challenges. Sometimes a community gets activated and they want maybe something different than what is going to yield the number that's in the line item. What I shared with him was that the $60 million or $60 million 51,000 it that we have put

131in here is consistent with what we have been sharing with our community in the surplus um meetings that have been going out uh all across Austin ISD. We're now in the second round. So when we tell committee members that this is the expected use, um that use with the known entitlements with known restrictions going through an an opinion has yielded those numbers and that is still less than what we think it'll be. So I feel like we can execute the 60 million. Um I feel like we can do it within the fiscal year uh with a high probability of confidence and it'll be less than what I think we'll end up at. >> Okay. I will keep my other questions for the next piece. I just I'm not it like why it says other funding

132source and not like this probably going to be buildings >> like if you hadn't told me that I would have like that's not it's a little opaque remember we talked about moving from opaque to transparent okay thank you >> and Christine to clarify if we have questions we really need to do it now >> if you have questions you can >> or do you think we can postpone some of it >> I think you can do it in the context of the voting item but at that point it's you Yeah, you you will have time to ask more questions, but okay. >> Um if there's anything that's like feels like it needs to happen before you're very close to voting, then you should do it now. >> Okay. Um I if we may, I have

133just a couple of things. I'll try to be quick and then is everyone okay with that and then we can take a a brief break, invite our other speakers in and move forward with our next with the meeting, the voting meeting. We good with that? >> Yeah. No, that's fine. I'm going to have a bunch of questions, too, but I will do that during the actual meeting. >> Okay. Well, if we're going to do that, I can wait with mine as well. >> Um, >> keep it pushing. >> Okay, we'll I'll push a bit. Okay. Um, first I just want to really thank our community for sharing input. We have had so much input. Our community engages deeply. Um, and and it makes us better and stronger and um the speed isn't best practice. It's

134not the way we want to do this. I hear that we haven't had time. And I think Trusty Coffman said even the trustees, you know, were were playing catch-up a little bit today. I know the staff was playing catch-up today. And and part of why we have adopted we we plan to adopt a new calendar so we don't find ourselves here again. This isn't the best way to do it. And um we can't vote on the 25th because of a newspaper posting. And if we had posted in time, it would have negated our first posting and made this posting irrelevant or not not acceptable anymore. So, we can't even delay a week until the 25th. We have to pass a budget by the end of the year, the month, and we have to vote on

135a budget tonight. Um, but that does mean, I know one of our callers mentioned amendments. Um, that does mean we can come back and amend as we're we're working toward this. Um, and I I really appreciate any input people have about cuts that have been, you know, late breaking. Um, please continue to share with us, you know, the people who are closest to the work with our students. This is all about serving our students everywhere. Um, can I know you'll continue to let us know what you see that that we need to consider as we move forward in the year ahead. So, thank you. I just want to say thank you and I'm sorry that we're doing it this way. Um, and uh, I also want to just call out um, on page 32 of

136the the big document, the big budget book, um, there's a financial summary of our state a lotments. And it shows what we received from the state for certain programs and what we're spending. And, uh, even with some increases, there are still really big gaps. And I know these are things other districts feel for school safety and security. We're receiving $5.3 million and spending 19.9 for special education services. We're receiving 77.5 and we're spending 188.7. Um we're we have big gaps in a lot of of what we're doing. Dyslexia a lotment. We're receiving 5.7 million and spending 11.1. And so uh it is our job to use every dollar we have as well as we can as a board. Um but we are spending 243% of what we receive for special education and the special education

137aotment on those services and and that matters um a great deal. So I just really want to flag that. Um I'd like to add to the conversation about CIS and kind of the equity the activity buses I think is a really important thing and if we uh I would love to understand what the impact of those buses is on the ability of our students to stay after school for tutoring to stay after school for athletics to stay after school for arts activities for extracurriculars that are are really not extra um they are part of our our educational program and they are not um always academic in the same way but they are opportunities to get to college to get a scholarship to find a passion to become part of a community and uh if getting

138rid of those buses segregates those or takes those opportunities away from a lot of our students I'd really like to understand the impact of that. So I hope we're going to be asking about that because those late buses make participation possible for a lot of students and I I want to be sure we hear that and really consider that. Um, I do have one question about um the pending leveling and attrition and I see that listed at $31 million. I see two specific things called out um 5.34 um I believe from some campuses and a million dollars from um kind of upper level staff at central office or no I think those are both central office numbers. Um and that leaves $25 million. Is that campus leveling after school starts? What does that mean? Leveling

139can mean many things. >> So there's there's the $31 million or several things. We didn't break it out by percent because um that will fluctuate. So um leveling is one. Uh it is campus leveling. That's where it occurs. Um what what has happened I think we won't have as hopefully we don't have as much of it because we're really monitoring allocations before we release. The one thing that isn't in our budget that you've seen in the previous budgets is a vacancy savings percent. Let's be really clear. Every budget that we passed in the last five years has had a percent of total payroll that is tied to vacancies. We do not have that in this number. 2% of a billion dollars is a big number. So in in lie of having these percentages, what we

140said is this is what the actual um item is going to include. uh not um not apply a percent and then kind of just um without really some intentionality. So we decided to break it up and say okay well we could expect this amount of attrition um and collapse positions given what we're forecasting over the course of the year for executive for directors and above. This is what we're going to see um outside of um the uh central administration function but within our non-campus divisions which is the other number. And then lastly, where the majority of our staff is is in our campuses. Um, so it'll be attrition, it'll be restructure at central office, and then leveling and vacancy savings. That those are and those are that's a good amount of money. >> Okay. Thank

141you for that. I appreciate that. And then I have just a couple of comments and then I'm I'm finished with mine. Um, I know that partly we're making some of these deep cuts because we've missed our adopted budget. um and that that makes the cuts we have to make to get where we need to be to be stable and and stay keep the ability to pay our people and pay for the people who serve our students. Um we have to make deeper cuts and so in August I hope um you bring back to us a really clear plan for how we ensure that doesn't happen again this year. We can't it can't happen again. We won't be able to move forward. And so I hope that's something that we you can share with us in

142August is is really just how we we stick to our budget. And I know you've shared a little bit about how we're going to do that. But I a really clear plan. Monitoring more closely as a board on our calendar is part of it. I know we've talked about potentially adding a constraint to our scorecards so we can monitor it um in in through our constraint in our scorecard process. I'd like to consider that together with my colleagues um and perhaps consider a constraint that we can put on the scorecard in August, add that to our vote. Um and add that to our board monitoring calendar. And then um my other question is I'd really like to understand if we get enrollment wrong, if we get our ADA wrong, if we get our property values

143wrong, um I'd like to understand what our plan is for addressing that. that if if the assumptions we've made are not don't hold um how we get ahead of that instead of catching up to it later. So um thank you. >> So um just to provide a quick response on the last part of that series of qu that kind of multi-prong question uh enrollment is is through leveling that that's the hardest thing in the system one of the hardest things to do in the system. We know once the school year starts the number of students that are enrolled in our campuses. We build that up the first weeks we do automatic first after 10 days we do automatic drops then it builds up all the way to snapshot. The challenge in AIST has been for

144the last 10 years ha has been allocating the the individual or the staff person using projections and then not adjusting once the school year started. So the biggest dollar amount out of those three components is going to be leveling. If the students aren't there, we have to level. We just have to do it. Um so that's that's a big part of it. It's not the only thing. >> Okay. Thank you. And I think we can save some of this till August. I know we have a lot of people waiting. If there's something important to share, >> um >> and if not, you can bring it back >> because I know we have a lot of people waiting. >> No, we definitely want to get to comment. >> Okay. Trusty Singh, do you want to ask

145now or wait till later? >> Oh, I'll wait. >> Okay. Okay. So, uh, are we good moving on? Okay, great. Um, okay. Thank you for the conversation. Uh, so at this time, we'll adjourn our public hearing, take a very brief break, and then return to open our regular voting meeting. Uh, Secretary Secretary Foster, do I have a motion to adjourn? I >> move we adjourn. Okay. >> This meeting is adjourned at 7:10 p.m. and we'll be back in about five minutes.