001Susan Hall Dotson, To have go to the work session and I guess we're going to start off with Dr Hutchings and and I don't know if yes, I think that's what we'll do well. Dr. Michael Gomez- Thank you, Madam chair now Susan are you going to present the presentation is that how that works I can't hear you Susan no I can't. Susan Hall Dotson, If you're serving your mute set on season, but then I couldn't hear you when you're speaking. Sorry, I'm on my phone, so I have to mute two things. Sorry. Actually, Dominic or Robert can run the presentation. So if they're able to do that, they should pull up their PowerPoint version of the document. Okay. So I'm going to see if Dominic or... Dominic, do you have electricity today? Oh, yeah. Penco
002is treating me well today. Great. Are you going to be able to bring up the PowerPoint for me? Yeah, I'm going to share my screen right now. Thanks. Give me a thumbs up if you can see it, everybody. Yes, we can see it. You can just put it into that presentation format. Yeah. All right, so let's go ahead and dive right into this because I think it is important for us to kind of get an overview of where we were in February and where we are today, which, you know, as you all know, these are definitely unprecedented times for all of us. And we would have never thought that we would be sitting here revising and doing reductions in a budget that we were so excited about just a few months ago. that we really
003did a great job on. So if you can go to the next slide, Dominic, I want to get right into the presentation. So this right here gives the board, as well as any of our viewers, an overview of where our FY21 budget was in February in regards to what the proposed budget is now. And, you know, our budget and a lot of times people in our community, they don't understand, well, what is the combined funds budget? And we tried to share, you know, some information and educate our community on that our combined funds budget, it consists of. three different budgets. You know, one is operating, one is our school nutrition, and the other is grants and special projects. And it's important for us to lay that out this way so you can see the impact
004that this pandemic is having on us. over these past couple of months. So if you look at the first section, you'll see our operating fund. And back in February, the board approved a budget of a little over $297 million. And we, as you all know, had a deficit of a little over $11.7 million. And that is a combination of the city appropriations, our state, as well as our local. dollars that had an impact on our budget. And then you'll see here the $1.2 million. These are funds that we are requesting to come from our CIP and being transferred in from our CIP into our combined funds budget. And I'm going to talk a little bit more about those positions later on today. And then that's how you see in the operating budget right now, our
005proposed recommendation. We're at 286 or a little over $286 million in regards to our operating. When you shift over and look at the next column, you'll see our nutrition budget. At this time, we're not really seeing a change in regards to our school nutrition funding. We hope that will remain the same. As you all know, it's important that we're able to feed our young people, even during this pandemic. And our school nutrition services, they have been doing a remarkable job, as well as everyone else assisting with that, from security officers to our transportation. department to many of our essential workers who are helping with those meal distribution sites and mobile sites that we're doing. And then the third column, this or third section, this deals with our grants in our special projects. And you'll see
006that in the in the approved budget back in February, we were a little over $6 million. You'll see this $3.6 million, which comes from the CARES Act, and we have included that into our grants and special projects because that is where those dollars come from. These are federal dollars, one-time dollars that have guidelines that we will have to use in order to ensure that we are addressing some of the concerns and some of the challenges that COVID-19 has brought to us and I'm going to be able to talk a little bit more about that later as well, which brings our grant and our special projects actually an increase from our previous budget in February to now a little over $20 million in this revised budget, including those CARE Act funds. So if overall you can
007see in the final column, this is the combined funds when you combine all three of these funds. This is why they're called combined. You will see with the deficit of a little over $11 million and the increase of over $3 million, $3.6 million, you'll see we have an overall deficit in our combined funds of about $8 million. from the February budget to the current budget that we are proposing. And then you will also see the transfer of the $1.2 million from CIP into the combined funds budget, which gets our FY21 revised approved budget at 317,000, I'm sorry, 317 million, .7, $317.7 million, excuse me. Can we keep going? You know, a part of this pandemic, it not only impacted our combined funds budget, but it also had, you know, a slight impact on our CIP
008budget as well. Fortunately, with the city's approval of the most recent budget that they have approved, there's only one impact to our CIP that's different from the CIP budget we approved this past fall. And that is moving. the high school high school project construction dollars from fy 21 out to fy 23. you will notice in this column for fy 22 that we are requesting for the city to provide 30 million dollars of the high school construction project dollars in fy 22 so that we can keep our high school project on schedule meaning having a building open in September of 2024. So you'll notice that we're asking for the city to provide us with that 30 million dollars in FY22 and then the remainder of the high school project construction in FY23 to keep this project
009on target so we can have a building opening in FY24. Keep going. none of the other areas changed and that's why I'm not going to go through those items from the last budget that was approved. I want to dig a little deeper on the CIP. transfer into our combined funds. Specifically, we had these discussions back in the fall in regards to trying to ensure that we have the appropriate staffing for different projects that we are conducting. As you all know, at this point, we are going to be doing CIP projects for the next at least 10 years and possibly more than that because we are a growing population. We have aging buildings and we want to make sure that we are getting these projects done appropriately and accurately. This CIP transfer, and this is something
010our team had talked about a couple of years ago and introduced this to the board this past fall, is making sure that when we have different projects, CIP projects, that we're able to staff those employees through ACPS during the duration of that project. The goal is not to have these employees on forever. These employees are designated to specific projects. So if you look here, you... see a high school project manager, that individual will be able to only work on the high school project on the high school project during this duration. Once the high school project is completed, that position is no longer a part of our employment here in Alexandria City Public Schools. So this is an annual salary benefits that are included in these amounts that you will see. But these are positions that
011are needed to manage all of the new projects that are coming about. Douglas MacArthur, our educational design team, our construction engineer for both Douglas MacArthur and the high school project, a system-wide architect, because we have a lot of different projects that are happening. And in lieu of us having to go out and outsource a consultant which can be extremely expensive when you're doing one-ups with architects it is actually uh least expensive for us to hire our own um and have our own architect on site for our school-wide projects um and having school-wide or division-wide uh project managers um as well to just ensure that all of our projects that we're that are going on are being managed appropriately and that we are making sure that they are focused on specific items and not trying to
012know, well, this is what we did on this particular project and bringing up information from three other projects because you don't really have a focus. And we talked about this over the past year and just ensuring that we are remaining focused on these major projects that are moving forward. And then also communications. And that is a specific area that's going to be important for us. And this is in addition to our own communications office. As you know, we have so many CIP projects that are happening. You know, it's going to be important for us to keep, you know, websites updated to make sure the community is informed about how dollars are being spent, to make sure we're giving status reports to the community, to make sure that we're getting information from our community. That is
013going to require someone to be able to provide those services. throughout not only the system-wide projects, but also specifically for the high school project and our Douglas MacArthur project. And then our procurement specialists, as you all understand, because you get to get all of the board briefs and memos when we're dealing with our procurement. We have, in addition to just our typical procurement that happens to run a school division, we have our CIP procurements that need to occur. And we're going to have to have a specialist that is solely responsible just for our CIP projects. We are in a very unique situation in the city of Alexandria because we're growing and a lot of other cities, they are not. And we're trying to stay true to our growth and trying to build. as well as
014renovate several of our buildings over the next 10 years. And it is going to require us to have specialists who are specifically focused on those areas. But this gives an idea of where that $1.2 million that comes out of the CIP that was already a part of the budget is now giving you specifically how it's being used or allocated in the combined funds budget. Getting shifting back into some of our compensation conversations, as well as some of our deficits that not only Alexandria is experiencing, but many of our surrounding divisions are also experiencing. This is just an overview of how the budget adjustments are occurring or what specific areas other jurisdictions are looking at to conduct productions. And as you can see, every surrounding division is being hit in some. former fashion. The dollar amounts
015are different. As I look at our reductions, I think that we are better off than many of our surrounding divisions, which is a plus for now. I hope that we can continue to have that same trajectory. But this is just providing the board as well as our community with an overview of how other jurisdictions are balancing their budgets during this global pandemic. You can go to the next slide. These are the, you all are already familiar with these, but these are the combined funds budget co-sponsorships that occurred that we're going to be able to talk about today. I think it is important for us to talk through each one of these because they all have different implications that, you know, that we provided to the board, but we're hoping we'll be in more detail. or
016have a deeper discussion around these specific items. I just wanted to make sure that we revisited and reminded, you know, that was our purpose in this add delete session today. And I hope we'll be able to get into these more deeply. Keep going. I wanted to provide just some overview because there were questions around the targeted market rate adjustments that were in the budget and remained in the budget in the revised budget that I presented a couple of weeks ago. I wanted to take us back to the fall. because in the fall we did conduct a preliminary internal compensation analysis. And this is something that we do every year and something that we have to continue to do each year. And during that analysis of all of our internal compensation, we were able to find
017at that time that our teachers, we were looking specifically at master's degrees because it's majority of our workforce who have masters. who are teachers first step we're looking at first in our in our top steps and you know our teachers right now with master's degrees they're in the top tier in regards um to the market um And we knew that from that time that that was not going to be a specific area that we were going to focus on for a compensation study due to our internal analysis. And that's why we didn't have our teacher employee group within our employee compensation study. But what we did discover in our internal compensation analysis is that bus drivers, that they were in the lower tier. in regards to the first step and the top step. Our elementary
018principals were also in a lower tier, as well as our senior leaders. And because we identified these particular groups in our lower tier was why we hired Segal to come in and conduct the employee compensation study. We wanted to have a third party consultant come in to do a deeper dive because our analysis was really just looking at the market and what, you know, different salaries were in our different jurisdictions. And this employee compensation study, it just takes a deeper dive and it looks at benefits and it looks at leave and it looks at, you know, trends that are happening in this area. And it provides us with a deeper analysis so that we can make a better informed. decision around what we need to do to have more competitive salaries in the city of
019Alexandria. And from that compensation study was the targeted market rate adjustments that was proposed in the initial budget and approved back in February. And that was also kept in this revised budget so that we can try to keep these employee groups on a trajectory of at least getting into the average range. You know, our goal is not to be number one. You know, it would be nice to be number one, but that's not what we're striving to be. But we would like to be at least in the top tier in regards to our salaries. And we're going to have to look at different employee groups every year. And there will be different employee groups over time that we will have to make some adjustments in regards to market rate adjustments to keep them competitive. Keep
020going. This slide is important because, you know, as you all know, our operating right now is uncertain in regards to our future. I said it in our last session. I said it in the session before. I'm going to say it again today. You know, I hope that we don't have to revisit our budget and make more reductions moving forward, but it is still possible. You know, our doors of all of our businesses and organizations have not opened, including the doors of our schools have still not opened. we may continue to see some financial impact on the school division as well as on the city over a period of time and we just have to be prepared for that but I wanted to just bring just highlight a couple of things that we are going to
021have to continue to keep monitoring and watching and one is you know fortunately the VDOE has provided us with some flexibility and The governor, he understands that we are in a pandemic. He's made some shifts in some of his recommendations previously, especially in regards to our standards of quality that would impact our schools, such as our counselors and our counselor-student ratio and things of that nature. So there has been some flexibility, which has helped us tremendously with our budget expectations. The CARES Act funding, which is huge for us. I wish it was a lot more, but I'm grateful that we are having $3.6 million or a little bit less. little over $3.6 million that will be allocated to the school division if we meet the criteria and the guidelines for the expenditures that relate to
022COVID-19. And what our team is focusing on right now is four specific areas with this CARES Act funding. We're looking at our distance learning because we know that that is something that we had not planned forever, having all of our students on a computer or... doing learning packets from home. That was not something that was in our list of things to do. It wasn't a part of our strategic plan. The other is technology because we are going to have to be able to provide the necessary supports and services to be able to deliver our distance learning. So we want to make sure our CARES Act funding is focusing on that because we did not budget to have the types of technology experiences that we are now offering our students. Meal distribution is another area. We
023want to be able to continue our meals. in order to feed all kids. You know, that does require additional effort, additional workforce, additional food to make that possible. And the more our businesses and things are closed, the more our families are being laid off, we are going to see more students who need food and meals that we did not see previously. So we want to make sure that we are prepared and able to absorb that additional support that will be needed. And then finally, our educational facilities. As you all know, when we open our doors, we're going to still need to have PPE for students and staff. We can't expect for them to bring their own. We're going to have to have some type of screening stations for students and staff before they enter our
024buildings, holding stations for students and staff who may feel ill or sick so that they are not in the same area with others. We're going to have to make some accommodations to be able to practice social distancing and social gathering guidelines within our schools. We're going to have to have shields, you know, plastic shields, as you may see right now in our grocery stores and things to try to prevent, you know, the passing of droplets from one person to another. So there are a number of facilities. things that have not been, even things we talked about. I know I didn't talk about these items as a superintendent, PPE and plastic shields, things like that. It wasn't something that I went to school to learn about, but it is now our new normal. And we're going
025to have to have our buildings equipped for that if we're welcoming students and staff back into the building. So when we talk about all of these items, the $3.6 million, it doesn't look like a whole lot anymore because those items that we're referring to. are very expensive to be able to resolve, especially for 19 schools, potentially. The other item I want to bring to your attention, if you're already not aware, with the Heroes Act, it was passed through the House, but may have some difficulty making it all the way through to come to fruition. But this will be a $3 trillion stimulus bill, and roughly $90 billion will actually go to education, which could help our schools tremendously if it was passed. There are many obstacles that still remain. So I'm not sure if it's
026going to make it, but I'm going to remain hopeful that this HEROES Act is passed so that we can have some additional dollars to provide the necessary services, not only for our students, but also for our staff and the healthy environments that we are going to need to maintain once our doors open back up. And then finally, the state of the economy. I said this before, one thing that I am constantly trying to do is still, because I'm able to buy meals and still order delivery because I'm trying to invest into our economy. If you can, please try to buy something, Amazon, wherever, if you can, because we do benefit from our state sales tax, even when they're online orders, the state sales tax still benefits us in the end. So if you are able,
027please continue to purchase foods and things of that nature. I don't know what happened to the screen. But that was the last slide. We're going to go right into questions. So I will take or give things back to Madam Chair to open the floor for questions. Okay. Dr. Reif has her hand up. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Hutchings, for that overview of the revised budget. I just I wanted to ask two questions about the presentation. The first is around the high school project and that transfer of funds from the CIP to the operating so that we can actually hire some of those individuals versus relying on contractors. I was just what I was interested is that we've had several individuals. school project and, you know, just having concerns about the continuity of that. I was
028wondering if it's going to be the same individuals. Can everyone hear me okay? Say the last part because you went out and came back in. I was just wondering if we are going to be keeping those same individuals that have been working with us since they're familiar with the project already and they have been working with us for the past year. And then my second question was about some type of hazard or emergency response pay. In the school board budget questions that we submitted, one of the answers about that said that you all are working on a plan to provide additional pay for essential employees and As we all know, the school buildings have been closed for two months now and there's only one month remaining in the school year. So I'm just curious what
029is happening with that plan and will it include back pay or will it appear in the FY20 budget, the FY21 budget? So if you could speak about those two things, the high school project managers and other folks that have been working on that project and then the hazard payer. So I'll answer the second question, but I'll have Erica Gulick actually answer the first question regarding our high school project managers as our director of CI, of capital planning programming. an improvement. I got to get your name or your title down, Erica. But Dr. Reif, in regards to your second question, yes, we are. We were working on a plan to provide hazard pay for our staff. We're finalizing that right now. It will not be back pay. We're not going to be able to do the
030back pay because we're using FY20 dollars. We wanted to ensure that we were going to have the funding to be able to do it. That's why we couldn't make that commitment earlier. because there were so many uncertainties around the technology and the meals. And those were the two areas that had the biggest expenses for us that were just. you know, big at a very short period of time, like trying to get the Chromebooks and the Kajeets and all those things. And we wanted to make sure we had all those things squared away prior to making that commitment. So what we're looking at is hazard pay from June 1st through June 30th for our essential staff who are working and we're working through those final plans now. So we'll have more details for the board as
031well as for our staff members next week. Eric, Ms. Gulick, if you can answer the question, the first question regarding our high school project managers and are they the same managers that we currently have in place or are they different? Sure. Good afternoon. And I think in response to that, Dr. Reif will certainly follow up with more information as we are able to do so. But the initial step was to be able to identify the funding and the operating budget so we could pursue the option of making that individual an ACPS employee. But we still have to work through the HR logistics of that. I will say there are a lot of contractors on the high school project we've started two years ago. We're getting ready to put out our RFP for the architect and
032engineer. So some of the contractors that you've seen will change, likely the design firm, but there are some that we are maintaining. In particular, DP Consultants who's done our, helped manage a lot of our community outreach and partnership with communications will stay on the project. So we'll let you know more when we know more, but we still have to work through some of the logistics of that. Okay, just to clarify, at this point, just looking for clarifying questions about the presentation, because then we're going to go on, as Dr. Hutchings mentioned, and do the each individual ad delete one by one. So are there any other clarifying? questions about this presentation. I think the only thing I wanted to ask actually was about the CIP and what is the status of any RFPs that we're
033having and the timing of those right now. Ms. Gulick? So I can speak on the high school projects, architect and engineer RFP, at least. We are hoping, fingers crossed, it will go out next week, by the end of next week. And it will be out for at least 30 days for design firms to respond. Mr. Banks has let us know that we've already received a lot of interest from architects, so we should have some good competition there. That's the one that for my team we have. My colleague, Dr. Alicia Hart, could comment on any major other CIP procurements that she is working on. Thank you, Erica. As Erica alluded to, we have been working closely with Mr. Banks as well on our procurements. I believe we have two or three more that are in the
034pipeline to be completed. But right now, our projects are on schedule from a procurement timeline standpoint. And I believe that Mr. Banks would be able to provide more specifics in terms of which projects will be coming to the board in the coming weeks. Yes, that's fine. I really just wanted to share with the public that we are, you know, that we are actually moving forward. You know, there are things that are going to be happening. You know, so even though there's a little rearranging of the funds for the mini Howard, for the high school project that we are moving forward. So that is good news. So in order to do the add deletes one by one, I'm going to have to ask. if someone can put it back on that slide back on the screen
035so that we can all be seeing the same thing. Okay, great. So I think what we'll do, I guess, is we'll go, the first one is one that Dr. Reif suggested. And I don't know, Dr. Hutchings, do you want to talk to each one and then? have board member clarifying questions or do you want? Yeah, I think it may be good for the board member who made the recommendation to share out about the add, delete, and then we can respond. Right, right. Okay, Dr. E. All right. Well, thank you, everyone. And just if you just I'd appreciate if I could just make a few comments about this. So I just want, you know, our parents and our community community members to know that with this revised budget, ACPS employees are collectively losing about seven million
036dollars that they would have earned in salary and benefits. And so this is really a huge loss and it's one that's going to compound over time because. a step increase, you know, it's not just one year, but it affects your salary for years to come. And also the same with making a contribution to our supplemental retirement. With all of the economic uncertainty right now, you know, this can really impact our ability to meet our future pension obligations if we aren't able to correct this in the future. But, you know, and I just want to say, too, that our teachers and our support staff. are really our frontline workers. You know, they are our essential workers and we can't get our schools back up and running without them. And we've received a lot of emails from
037dozens of teachers about their disappointment with this revised budget. And, you know, unfortunately, under the circumstances, our public comment format isn't the same as it used to be. And I just wanted to read a small section of a letter that we received from that was signed by, again, dozens of teachers, just to kind of share with the public and other, you know, staff who are on the call. who might not have received this information or some of this feedback. They wrote that we are facing an unprecedented time and members of our community are suffering and will continue to suffer for the foreseeable future. We're concerned that the items proposed in this budget will add to that suffering. The budget cuts proposed are not one-time changes. They're changes which will compound year after year and negatively
038impact the very people we are relying on the most right now to hold our educational system together, our teachers. If these changes are made, teachers will not only receive less take-home pay next year as they face new and overwhelming challenges, they will take home less pay, have less in retirement, and continue to pay more for health care over the course of their service with ACPS. As cost of living continues to rise, teachers will take home less. This decision will be felt for years and years to come by the very people we just finished appreciating with hashtags, signs in windows, cards, and emails. If we truly appreciate our teachers and value their work, it must be reflected in the budget. And I just thought that was like a really heartfelt letter that I wanted to share.
039And many of the emails that I've received do express understanding about the loss of the stepping priest. People understand that we don't have the funding to give people a pay increase right now. But what's really upsetting folks is that they will be taking home less pay next year because of the increase in the health care, the health care premium. And, you know, taking home less pay when some employees are receiving pay increases through the market rate adjustments. We don't want to give some people raises at the expense of other people taking home less pay. I think that we can all agree that's an inequity that we don't want to create. And so I'm just thinking about how can we solve this problem? I think, you know, looking at the ad deletes, a lot of my
040colleagues were thinking about that as well. And, you know, I suggested deferring the MRAs and using these funds to cover the employee health care premium increase. Just like my colleagues, I'd like to see these employee groups. receive the MRAs. I'm just not sure that now is the appropriate time when other employees are taking home less pay. And it seems to me that this is also what the city manager was essentially recommending to us with his budget allocation. And it's also the approach the city's been taking with their employees that they're not doing any salary enhancements this year. So again, this was my suggestion of deferring. the MRAs and reallocating those funds so that nobody's seeing in that lost and take home pay. But I'm certainly open to hear what other solutions that my colleagues would
041like to share that they have for how do we solve this problem. So thank you. Okay, Dr. Hutchings, would you like to respond now or listen to other board members' thoughts on it? I think we should go through the board member's thoughts on that. Yep. Yep. Okay. I have Ms. Lorber. Thank you, madam. Thank you, madam chair. Thank you, Dr. Hutchings. Yeah. I am. Can you hear me? Yeah. I see that, you know, it got a little confusing what I co-sponsored and didn't. I'm definitely in favor of. I think the whole board shares the concern that Dr. Reif raised that you can't just say we value teachers. We have to show in some way we value them, even though we are between a rock and a hard place, no question about it. And so that's
042why I saw three of my colleagues propose some sort of way to do something to send a message that we want to compensate in some way, at least if we can figure out a way. that our teachers are not taking home less pay next year and all our staff, I believe. So I wasn't particularly, I am not in favor of deferring the MRAs. I really, I won't go into detail now why I think those are important, but briefly, I think they're important because we've, we paid a lot of money to study the compensation studies, came up with the recommendations and these. the MR years, the employee groups that are getting the MRAs up to a competitive of differing the MRAs. However, I am in favor of figuring out a way, whether it's, I kind of
043liked Ms. Green's suggestion of swapping out the cleaning supplies from the the federal dollars, the $3.6 million, using some of that money for the cleaning supplies and using what we budgeted for cleaning supplies to provide some compensation to teachers. But in any case, I just wanted to say I do not want to eliminate MRAs, but I do want to do something and come up with a way to compensate teachers and make sure no one is losing income next year. Okay, next I have Ms. Nolan. Thank you, Chair Anderson. Thank you so much, Dr. Reeve, for submitting. Adelita and us all trying to figure out how can we best support our teachers during this time. I mean, I think I can't fathom anyone that works for the division or lives in our community or is on
044this board that doesn't want to support teachers. And I think it is a challenge that nationwide, I can't fathom any division is going to be put in a position to provide any raises to well-deserving, hardworking individuals who are on the front line during this time and that deserve high praise for. keeping this country going, keeping our students academically engaged, as it's very scary that, you know, there are going to be students who are not academically engaged for six months. And I'm looking forward to learning from Dr. Hutchings, like what the plan is as we focus on that after this budget process. However, I did want to share and I'll go ahead and just add mine as well. I had a add, delete, and I'll bring up the one I did in terms of this. the
045quality instruction, the three reserve positions. Truly, I wanted just to put that in as a reserved. I wasn't quite married to that decision. It was very challenging. I know this was not expected to have round two of the budget season. So we were all on a very tight timeline and didn't really have the opportunity to really dive into the budget and look to see what was possible. So I just appreciated the conversation. I do think that the reason I am in favor of the MR market rate adjustment, I just want to be clear with the public. This is not a raise or a step increase or anything like that, but instead it's an opportunity or. to support a compensation study that the board itself invested in to see where do we land. And one of
046the challenges in this area in the DC region is that it's an exceptionally competitive area and that we have eight local jurisdictions and that doesn't include others that are still within driving distance. That just includes the eight that were compared to in the study. And the challenge is, is that we are significantly lower. I mean, I think anyone that had a student this year that took a bus to school can safely say that there were challenges this year. We had significant transportation challenges because we could not retain our bus drivers because they were so woefully underpaid. And that disrupted education, that disrupted instruction. So I think there's no misunderstanding as to why that and the paraprofessional, which received such significant support from PTAC and other community members. throughout the budget process. With regards to the
047principal recommendation and the chiefs, I want to note two items. Number one, honestly, if you look at the amount that's being recommended, it's really not a significant amount of money. It's a five-year projection. So unfortunately, even if we were to remove that budget item, it's not going to move the needle for any other item in the budget. So I just want to be clear about that. But the reason I'm so passionate about the MRAs is honestly how much it ties into our teachers. The number one data point in every study that you read both nationally as well as the TEL survey data that we've collected over the years from teachers is the number one contributing factor to success. success in the classroom to happiness and retention is whether or not a teacher feels they have
048a strong principle. And if we do not start as a division investing in retaining and contracting the top talent. As principals and then chiefs who are in supporting roles for teachers, we are not going to be the strong division and provide the academic services that our kids frankly deserve. So it's because of the teachers and my respect for the teaching profession as a former teacher that I am very passionate about us moving forward with this MRA plan because we need to be able to attract strong principals so that we can retain our top talent as teachers. So I just wanted to share that. I do have a question, if you don't mind, Dr. Hutchings. You know, as we've now had time to reflect on the budget, I'm very passionate, as I think the rest of
049the board is. Dr. Reeve, Ms. Lorber just made some suggestions. You can see the amount of co-sponsorships that, like, there is the desire of the board to want to provide some sort of support to teachers, not only to thank them in gratitude, but to also recognize that there is going to unfortunately be... Dr. Potential potential and minor but still negative take home pay for teachers who are participating in the health due to healthcare cost increases. Dr. And so, given the level of uncertainty with this upcoming year and the number of social distancing requirements i'm wondering if there's other opportunities to look into the budget and see what's possible, so I was wondering, Dr hutchings if you could share a little bit one of the. thoughts that came to mind is that I know that you've
050mentioned before, rightly so, that a lot of conferences are going to be canceled. So a lot of the cuts that took place was travel. But I'm also wondering if we could also dig into oftentimes when a teacher is not present in a classroom that does require a substitute in that place. And I'm wondering if that's an area that perhaps we could investigate. Is there any projections about less need of substitutes being there will be less opportunities for teachers to be leaving the classroom given the less amount of professional development being provided due to social distancing guidelines. I'm wondering if perhaps that's an area we could explore in maybe improving the ability to support teachers, which is, as you can see, as a theme of this programmatic impact that that's the desire of the board. So
051do you mind? I don't expect you to be prepared with the direct examples, but is that an area that perhaps we could potentially move and look into versus what I suggest, which was the reserve positions, which rightly so, Sherrod, is not helpful. Yeah. You know, I think it's definitely something that we can take back to the team and talk through. You know, I think we probably need to think about, I don't know if that will cover for like a market rate adjustment for. teachers, but it might be able to cover some type of amount or dollar figure that we can give the teachers. And I don't know if there's something that you might have in mind in regards to a dollar amount or dollar figure that can at least allow us to determine how much
052money we need to try to find. Yeah, and I'm curious to see what the board's thoughts are, but when I read the presentation previously from Dominic, Mr. Turner, the recommendation was it appeared on average that teachers might potentially have a net loss of about $213. So I was wondering, is there a potential that we could offer teachers a one-time only bonus of $200 with the understanding that there's going to be less need, or not need, but... experiences or opportunities for teachers to leave their classroom in order to because I'm assuming there's going to be less professional development offerings again like the social distancing as well as we should also duly recognize that ACPS has provided some really robust and really improved the number of offerings of internal professional development. So I'm just wondering if, given
053the teacher workdays, that that could be something to offset. So I was thinking in the ballpark of $200 per teacher with the hope that that could offset what is the recommended or not the recommended, excuse me, the estimate of what they potentially might experience as the net loss. Yeah, I think that's something definitely our team can go back. I need to see what other board members are thinking in regards to that, but we could surely go back and take a look at specifically the professional learning piece and the sub funding that comes along with professional learning. Teachers have to be out and we have to bring in a sub and take a look at those dollars. Great. Next, we have Ms. Gentry. I'm not sure if maybe I was muted. I have Ms. Gentry up
054next. Can anyone hear me? I hear you. Okay. Do we lose Ms. Gentry, though? Let me see. Cindy, she's waving. She is. Something's going on with her. Oh, okay. Is it possible the headset microphone has a mute button in the line? Oh, okay. I see her now. I couldn't get her picture up. Maybe while we're waiting, we can go, we can come back to Ms. Gentry or go on to Ms. Alderton. Okay. Can you hear me? Yes. Okay. Um, so I'm going to go in a few different places, but I, um, In terms of what Ms. Nolan said for me, I think there's a lot of ditto, particularly about, you know, I can definitely say I am not for not doing the market rate adjustments. I think we are already behind and it would, if
055we are able to. you know, move on what is essentially really a pretty slow trajectory because we're talking about three years to get some of our support staff at an average place and five years for our chiefs and principals. Like if we can take action, we need to take it now. So I am not for not doing the MRAs. I would definitely support Ms. Nolan's thought about, you know, looking at and again as a board maybe we need to be more specific with Dr. Hutchings but you know some components that we can look at, whether it's professional development, sub pool, et cetera, that we could, you know, have some savings that can go toward the teachers. I would want to remind us, however, though, that we've already made cuts to the substitute pool last year.
056So, you know, I think we'd have to be really careful in a sense, like not overdoing that because even though we have had this plan where you know for central office to step in we are in a very different situation right now um recovery work is going to be a big deal right now and so we may need you know administrative staff really putting uh in a lot of work on that um so that's just a thought i i want to um there was another thought that came up because no one talked about um supporting the the ad that Ms. Green made. And before I get to that though, I do want to address some of the comments that have come from the public, mostly because, you know, I think it's good for them to
057hear our thoughts on what some of their suggestions were. And, you know, I think Ms. Reif brought up, there were some... you know, really important and pertinent comments that people made. But there were some that, you know, even as an educator really bothered me. And, you know, I want to share those because I think what we have to get to is a point of thinking about how we're all in this together. And so some of the things that were suggested that we had gotten suggestions from the board, textbooks are in closets. I think first and foremost, it's important for the public to know that we shifted operating funds for textbooks to the CIP. So that doesn't really apply to our operating budget anymore. But secondly, I don't know about anybody else, but I have a
058real concern constantly hearing about textbooks being in closets. Because... We are not, you know, we're doing good as a division, we're making gains, but we're not doing so great that we shouldn't be using all of the resources that we have in our arsenal. So I don't know what the solution to that is and who that needs to be addressed with, but the textbooks need to come out of the closets. Like if that's really a thing. that cannot be. We are not in a position where that should even be a thing. And, you know, we've heard, you know, parents talk about, like, it would be nice to have a textbook at home, you know? So whatever we need to do with textbooks and utilize the resources that are being given, we need to do that because
059we, again, need to use everything that we have in our arsenal to support our kids and make the gains that we need. So that's just one comment. You know, not sending the June learning packets home for me is just not an option. Again, every resource at this time needs to go where it needs to go for kids. And recovery is going to be a huge issue. So those packets and all the resources that are going along with those packets, for me, it is not optional. And it's almost like a little bit shocking to me that. Any teacher would not want to have those things sent to kids. You know, I'll be very honest. The comment about not paying for movers, I think we all need to be cognizant of the fact that though many of
060our staff are at home, we have support staff who are still working in buildings, and we need to keep them safe because they're out and about. And, you know, having people move in and out of buildings at this time, you know, does not make me feel safe as a board member, not thinking about ways that we can reduce those types of interactions, especially for the people who are in the buildings every day or every other day and not having the opportunity to fully social distance. And so also back to the MRA. I kind of have been, you know, this has been a difficult discussion because, you know, there has been some notion that the principals and chiefs don't deserve an MRA. And I would like to say first, just like Ms. Nolan said, that's not
061what we're seeing at the 50,000 foot level. And quite frankly, it's not true. And I think the data supports that it's not true. This decision is not about individuals. It's about the division as a whole. And so, you know, as a board, I want to always encourage us and encourage the public to understand that we're looking about not just now, but 10 years from now. So. You know, it's not so black and white often as it may seem. And I would just also say, like, this is a time to be kind. Like, we need to be careful what we say, because I think there are some good leaders who've been hurt by those comments. And, you know, there is no us in them. I think good principals and chiefs in theory, and hopefully more, are
062really just master teachers. So we're all, you know. teachers and admin together in this. And, you know, with all of that, so with all that said, it doesn't mean, you know, that as an organization, we don't want to do something for teachers. I think we just need to have some perspective sometimes and be kind and really just have, you know, thoughtful conversations as opposed to creating division. So those are just... My thoughts, you know, having received a lot of public comment. One question that I have, because Ms. Nolan brought up Ms. Green's ad, you know, I supported the ad in the sense that, you know, I think we all want to try to figure out, like Ms. Nolan said, what can we do? One question I have about using CARES Act funding, though, I'd really
063like for Dr. Hutchings and the staff to really... explain the implications for using CARES Act funding for something that we want to sustain. And I say that because, you know, coming from, you know, the special education world and the grants world, when you use grants, you really want to supplement and not supplant. So Is there risk, I guess, in using CARES Act funding to try to compensate for the gap in salaries, given that if it's not something that we get, you know, next year, would we be back in the same place trying to have the same discussion because there's going to be other losses? So does that make sense in terms of my question? Go back to the gaps piece. So, you know, using CARES Act funding, which is what the last ad that a
064lot of people co-sponsored, saying shifting money to use, you know, money that was for the CARES Act to purchase supplies. And then then shift money money to providing the necessary monies needed to not to not have to avoid the step increase. Got it. Yeah. So I. Yeah, so I think some of the concerns that we have in regards to that is as we're looking at the multiple areas that we have to focus on with the CARES Act, the cleaning piece is only one area. We still have technology. We still have distance learning. We still are going to have the meal distribution. And the unfortunate thing is we don't want to run our system too dry in regards to the fact that we don't know. what the fall is going to look like. So for example,
065let's say we're not able to open our buildings this fall. We're going to have to continue to have the meal distribution, we're going to have to continue to provide learning packets, we're going to have to continue to have, you know, this online learning and Kajeets and, you know, all the things. And it may have to increase even more, unfortunately, because some computers are going to stop working soon, you know, because everybody's computer wasn't brand new, or Chromebook that went home was brand new. So we want to make sure that we have the dollars to make the necessary adjustments for whatever the future holds. that we just don't know about right now. And if we allocate those dollars now, then we have nothing when it's time in the fall for something that is uncertain. I don't
066know if that helps with your answer, but Dominic, you may want, or Mr. Turner, you may want to elaborate a little more on that. When it comes to the CARES Act, we don't want to actually supplant our cleaning supplies. As we move into reopening the school, whenever it is in the future, we know that we're going to need probably more cleaning supplies and probably doing it more frequently and perhaps putting up some things that we don't have in schools right now as we start to address our new normal going forward. So if we were to supplant the operating funds. with the CARES Act funding, then this will limit our ability to the, to a degree that we can't perform, you know, the necessary cleaning that we might want to be able to do moving forward.
067In addition, you know, we're likely going to need certain PPE as we move forward as well. So we want to make sure that we're providing education facilities with these dollars to be able to do so. And then as it comes to shifting dollars away from non-personnel items to personnel items. That impacts our budgets going forward into the future. So if we grow our personnel base of expenditures, we'd have to continue paying that moving forward. So for instance, if we were to use the 360 to pay for the healthcare premium, that's something that would go forward into 2022 as well. So we'd be, if we're in the same situation in the future, we'd be looking at, you know, having to cut deeper in some other area to be able to offset the increased personnel expenditures that
068we're putting on the table right now. So with the CARES Act funding, we just want to be able to keep those dollars for the four target areas that Dr. Hutchins mentioned earlier. One additional thing I think is important for us to not forget is that we did ask for all schools, all departments to reduce their budgets by 5% for all non-personnel expenditures. So that's already... being done. And I just don't want us to forget that that had an impact on operations. It had an impact on schools. It had an impact, I mean, every department across the board. But I want to, you know, make sure that we understand that those decreases or reductions occurred as well. Okay, next up I have Ms. Gentry. Okay, so first off, can you hear me? Yes. Yay. Oh, that
069is terrifying. Okay, thank you, everyone. Sorry for the technical difficulty earlier. So I'm going to echo but hopefully expand on some of the things that my fellow board members have already said. I think I just want to start off by emphasizing that You know, I think I share, I think I'm speaking for all the board when I say that, you know, when we went into this budget season, we all saw, you know, the step increase as a sort of core fundamental aspect of the budget. And, you know, it really made sense and it held with, you know, the priorities that we had. And I think what everyone should understand is that what we're talking about is that it literally takes a global pandemic. unlike one scene in a hundred years for us to be having
070the kind of discussion that we are having right now. And, you know, it's... I have to say in some ways it feels a little bit frustrating when people are suggesting that us having this conversation is in some way us sending a message of a value judgment about us somehow not valuing teachers. There are millions and millions of people that are not just not getting step increases but are losing their jobs. And they are not losing their jobs because people don't value them or value their work. It is because we are in an absolute crisis situation. So I just think I think that kind of context is important when we when we when we think about this kind of thing. And what we are trying to do is as best we can. you know, support and
071help the teachers because we know they have been doing an incredible job and will continue to do an incredible job for us. The question of, you know, like some of the other board members that have gone on before, you know, I really am not, while I welcome some discussions about some you know some creative ways we might be able to offset some of the health insurance costs i really do not want us to think about this and i feel like some in some of the you know discussions that have happened um that this is turned into an either mra or a step increase and that's simply not the case when we're talking about this targeted mra for these specific groups is a much smaller amount of money which is why it's even possible for it
072to still be on the table and This is part of how we are trying to operate as a school board and as a division. We invest money in audits on departments to identify ways that they can work better, work more efficiently. We do things like compensation studies because we know that that is an important thing for us to understand. And so when we take the time to gather that data and make data-driven decisions, we need to honor that because that is long term what's going to move us forward as a decision as a division and so as as many other you know members have said we will the the the long-term impacts of not adequately compensating positions when when the comp when the competition with our neighboring jurisdictions is so fierce and people can literally
073just turn turn left or turn right, and just slightly adjust their commute and have the same kind of job and get the same kind of reward, same kind of, do the same kind of work that they love, but be better compensated. We have to keep that in mind. I think it's worth keeping in mind also that in this new world, we're potentially looking at many professionals that are going to make it that might make a decision to leave to leave education. Maybe some of our older staff, you know, older leaders that are going to decide they're going to go ahead and retire. And we're going to if we're not able to to show that we're competitive, whether they're in any jurisdictions, that that can be a real problem as we're competing with everybody else that's
074maybe trying to fill principal positions. So. You know, as far as some of the other ideas, I know we'll talk about them later, but I'm just going to kind of fall it in right now. I mean, honestly, while I appreciate the creative thinking, I can't imagine the reaction of us considering cleaning, reducing cleaning supplies in this of all eras. You know, I think we really have to think about where it makes the most sense to make cuts. With that being said. I'm interested to hear if there are potentially some ways that we can offset the healthcare premium increase. with some form of a one-time bonus. We know that average, and again, it will vary because some people are doing the health insurance as individuals and some are doing it as families. So that $200 number
075is... you know just an average and maybe we can't get that 200 number again because of the the the the sort of economic crisis that we're in right now but if we could do 100 or 150 you know uh again i i certainly would be willing to explore those kinds of things but um just wanted to to you know get get those thoughts out there so thank you everyone uh next up i have mr suarez Thank you, Chair Anderson, and thanks to my colleagues for their very thoughtful comments. So I have comments that I kind of put into four categories, so you have to bear with me. And the first category really is just an appreciation. There have really been efforts all around on this budget. The staff has gone to great lengths to try
076to, you know, really make lemons out of this, you know, very difficult, you know, take a really tough situation and just make it better and do the best we can to find every dollar we can for every employee and every person in the division to move the division forward. And as Dr. Hutchings said, we had a great budget. that were originally passed, I think that everyone in the community was excited about. And we're just in a very difficult situation here. And so I just want to appreciate the staff for all the efforts they've made thus far. I want to appreciate everyone in the community who's weighed in on the comments. There's been a lot of... thoughtful comments. I haven't agreed with every comment. A couple of Ms. Alderton's points are well taken regarding some of
077the comments we've heard from the teachers. A lot of the comments I agreed with, some I didn't agree with. But I really appreciate the thought that's gone into that. And I also appreciate the thoughts of my board colleagues who have tried to think about some creative solutions to move forward. because this is a tough situation and we all have to kind of put our heads together to find the best way out of it that is palatable for the community and as positive as we can make a difficult situation. So that kind of brings me to my second theme in my comments, which is, let's not forget that we're all in this together. This situation really takes a village. It really takes a nation. I think we're in a very divisive political environment nationally and in
078the world right now. And I think that lends itself to, unfortunately, sometimes a zero-sum mentality, sort of an us versus them kind of mentality. And to be clear, I understand where that comes from. And I want to say this very clearly that I want to validate the comments we've heard from teachers. I've had conversations with many of them. I've seen all of the emails. And, you know, teachers have taken offense to the proposed budget. Let's just own that. And I think some of the offense has been because of this perception, you know, that There are employees at the higher end of the pay scale that are getting an increase and the perception that they will effectively, as this is currently proposed, be getting effective take home pay decreased. And in this time of austerity and
079challenges and all of that, I want to validate that feeling is there. And we can't have a situation where anyone feels pitted against the other, which goes back to my point of we're all in this together. And I'll say this. As a former teacher, you know, I share the view of my colleagues that, you know, the principal is the number one instructional leader of the building and the culture of a building rises and falls on the quality of a principal and the effectiveness of instruction and leadership. rises and falls on the principal. Yes, you can have great teachers who are transformative in any classroom and teachers are also the backbone. I say that again as a former teacher, but you need both the principal and the teachers working in harmony and in, you know, common
080vision and excitement and passion. And so what I don't want coming out of this budget cycle is any situation where there's this zero sum mentality or a feeling that the principals are getting something over the teachers or something like that, because the reality is, you know, I don't think any. Given the amount of cuts we're making, I don't think anyone's coming out of this with something that's particularly robust and ideal here, which sort of brings me to the third point, which is sort of you know, a couple of my colleagues have mentioned this, which is the long-term perspective here. You know, as a board, we have a, you know, fiduciary responsibility to the division. We have a responsibility to the long-term success of the division. And, you know, there are things we need to make
081sure continue so that we are the best school division. we can be, right? And so there are a couple areas where, you know, we've had conversations about how that needs to happen. One is the CIP. You know, we've had numerous conversations about deferred maintenance and how that's a problem. That was the number one issue when all of us ran for school board, I think, that was brought up. And some have made suggestions, oh, we defer MacArthur or take some of those things off the table. And we just can't do that. We have to press those things forward because we're so far behind, you know, in those areas. And if we don't stay the course as much as possible under these difficult circumstances, we're really going to set ourselves back. And, you know, the same goes
082for the sort of. issue with the MRAs. This board has had numerous conversations about how we fail and struggle to retain and recruit principals and chiefs and that we do not necessary, we have a hard time with that. And that's a real challenge for our division going forward. And so with regard to This MRA, I also want to put it in context. I think a couple of the board members stated it clearly, which is that this MRA is not some, you know, gigantic increase that people with six figure salaries are getting at the expense of teachers. It is a very small incremental increase that is meant to occur over a five-year period. And I think the total is about $100,000 for this particular budget. The context and the nuance isn't always a sexy thing to
083talk about, but this is a very incremental increase, which is designed to ensure that in the long run, that we're competitive with the surrounding jurisdictions and can recruit and retain quality leadership, which... you know, brings me to the last point, which is, which is, you know, what is the path forward here, right? And so, you know, I see two paths forward. You know, one path could be, you know, removing the MRA for the principals and chiefs. That could be a conversation. And I've, you know, and I do share the view of some that the sort of perception and optics around having the MRA with teachers feeling like they're getting a cut may not send the right message on the one hand. But on the other hand, I think there are really good arguments that I've
084heard from my board colleagues and others that we need to stay the course on this MRA so that we can be competitive in the long run. And I want to validate that too. So that's one sort of approach. The other approach is the approach we've heard from Ms. Nolan, Dr. Reif, Ms. Green's proposal about the CARES Act, which is, okay, well then can we find some... cuts if we want to keep the MRA and allow ourselves to provide something to offset the sort of effective loss and take home pay as a result of the increase in health care benefits that are health care payments. I'm sorry that the teachers are going to have to make. And I think we should do something about that. You know, I think I've been persuaded, you know, that. the
085MRA is worth maintaining. But I, you know, have not been persuaded that it sends the right message that if we keep the MRA for the principals and chiefs, that we should keep the budget as is. I think people have been hurt. I think, unfortunately, the communication around these changes, which, you know, occurred in a very quick timeframe, don't get me wrong, it has made teachers feel hurt by this. And so I think it's important that we do something for them, like a one-time bonus, as Ms. Nolan suggested, to reiterate to the teachers that, you know, this is not a zero-sum game. This is about us all being together. And, you know, let's dig deep to find something that we can do to, you know, provide them with a one-time bonus, whether it's $250 or some
086other amount to just sort of validate what we've heard. Because, you know, we all have to, like I said, we all have to be in this together and we have to move forward excited about the future and being aligned and being. you know, truly invested in this new normal and, and, and, you know, meeting the goals of the strategic plan, which we just had a great conversation about. And, and so we talked a lot about alignment in regard to that and everyone needs to be aligned. So, so I realized that was long winded, but I would sort of implore Dr. Hutchings and the staff who, again, I want to acknowledge have already dug very deep. on this, to find a way to, you know, figure out how we can find some additional funds, you know,
087may not be the cleaning supplies, but maybe it's something with the reserve positions or substitutes or something that we can, you know, show our teachers that, you know, we have the respect for them. And to be clear, we always have had the respect for them. I don't think anyone has not shown the respect, but. You know, we do have to validate the feelings, I think, and we have to find a path forward that is a less bitter pill to swallow. So I'll leave it at that. Okay, next up I have Ms. Thornton. Thank you, Madam Chair, and I truly appreciate hearing all of my colleagues speak today. I'm glad to see that we... share most of the same values when it comes to this and are on the same brainwave, let's say. Budget season is
088always tough. There's always competing priorities and we always joke that we can never make everyone happy. But I think this particular budget season that's been noted is just, we're under extraordinary circumstances. And I think it's important that as a board, we... should always be kind of clear in our decision making, but also too, we need to be adaptable, especially in circumstances like this. And for me, I have always recognized the importance of the MRA. And as previous board members have pointed out, you know, we do invest resources and money into performing compensation studies and audits as a means of staying up to date and making sure that we're the best division that we can be. And I just did want to make sure that I know there's, again, when people are really passionate about something
089in the budget, it's easy to kind of just narrow in on one small part of the issue and forget other parts of it. And so I did just want to point out that what we're talking about with this MRA is about $400,000 in total. More than half of that is actually going towards our transportation staff. And it's been pointed out already that Our bus drivers, you know, they are very much in demand right now regionally. I know one county that's a neighbor of ours was looking for over 100 bus drivers at one point. And so this compensation study and other external factors like that pertaining to our transportation staff is really what drove the board in our initial approved budget in February. to recognize the importance of being competitive regionally. And so I just want
090folks to understand that, you know, This is a data-driven decision that was initially being proposed, and we never want to put something out there in the community that seems to put more importance of one employee group over the other. And one thing that I have always kind of rallied for on this board is that I am a very process-driven person. I believe in having clear evidence to kind of back up decisions that we're making. And I think it's really important that the public should always be able to expect from us consistency in our decision making and clear justifications for that. And so for me, the MRA is one of those data driven and process oriented decisions that I think we made as a board. But, you know, I keep coming back to the fact also
091in thinking about. well, what type of employer does ACPS want to be, especially under circumstances like this? And so I support the MRA, but I really think that as Mr. Suarez just mentioned, We can dig deep, and I think we really can find a way to mitigate the loss of take-on pay that some of our employees are facing. I know we're under tough circumstances, and there's always going to be competing priorities. I understand that. But, you know, in listening to Dr. Hutchings' kind of explanation, too, about CARES Act funding and why we may not want to utilize some of that right now, you know, it's because of the unknown and what could happen. And as board members, we do have to kind of think ahead, but ultimately too, it's our jobs to kind of just
092make tough decisions, even when we don't have all the answers to the future. And I honestly think that we could find a way to come up with the money that teachers are losing and take home pay from CARES Act funding. That's my non-professional opinion. I'm not a staff member who deals with this, but... I feel like too, in the co-sponsorship process, I haven't seen as much flexibility as I would like in kind of providing alternatives. I recognize that most of the proposals that have been introduced have been faced with not feasible right now, but I really would like to see more input from staff in particular, maybe from Dr. Hutchings on if these ads are not feasible, what other things in the realm of possibility might be feasible? And again, nothing's ever going to be
093perfect. And I recognize that saying that we will have to take from something else. But ultimately, I think the board is really making it clear that we would like to at least try to see if there are alternatives to, you know, lessening the impact that our employees will be facing. And so I would just like to implore my board members and the staff to really, really work through this as best as we can. And I think that's it for now. I'm willing to hear some suggestions on that. Thank you, everybody. We have, I want to apologize to everyone that we've gone over today. I did want to just add my own thoughts to this. And then we'll wrap up because we do have another really budget time to talk about the budget next week. So
094I think there are things that we discussed that could give the staff something to go on and then come back. you know, to us next week with ideas and suggestions. You know, this is, you know, an emotional time with a lot of stressors for everybody. And the unfortunate thing is that we don't even know where it's going from here, which makes it different than the last time, which we were just really coming back from in the last few years when we had an economic downturn. So, You know, because of the emotion, I actually went to the kind of what my younger son told me when I had the unenviable position of being on the redistricting subcommittee the first year on the board is that let the data, you know, look at the data and not
095the emotion. And so for that reason, I just think we are going, you know, we recognize, I recognize several, lots of people recognize years ago that the bus driving salaries were too low. And we let it get to a really very difficult situation that impacted our operations before we really got serious about addressing it. I do not want to do that with. our principals and chiefs, because that is not the way to run a school system or run a business. I think, you know, it's very important, you know, these MRAs are not putting them ahead of other jurisdictions. It's working over several years to get us to the midpoint. So I think I feel very strongly about those. I understand, you know, teachers are really... very important people. And there are great teachers at every
096school, but I think to have a great school, you need a great leader. So, and the support needs to come from central office. And if that's not what people are thinking, that's what our goal should be is to make it so that everybody feels that way rather than, you know, sort of coming to this, you know, point of taking things away because of emotion. So I think. I am also very aware of the pain of having increased insurance, health insurance payments. And that's one of the things I think health insurance is very critical. And so I am. open to suggestions. So I'm hoping that in the next week that we can have some information about potential ways to mitigate the loss. But I do think that we need to do data-driven decisions and think for
097the long term. I mean, the same thing could be said about our facilities. We kept putting it off, kept putting it off. The same thing could be said about our textbooks, which we need to do something. We were cutting them every year. That's the only way we were giving people to giving the teachers, you know, raises for years and years and years. And then we worked to a point where we had trust and support from the from the city. And then, of course, this happened. So but but that's you know, it's not the way to run it either to cut our textbooks. And the textbooks aren't just the textbooks. It's the support. It's everything that has to do with the instruction. It's not just a book that. We do have to get out of the
098closet, but there's more to it than that. One thing that I wanted to just ask really quickly, if I could, about one of the other things that seemed to be misrepresented in some of the letters that we got is what's happening with retirement. Like if to read some of the letters, it would seem like we're not putting anything in anybody's retirement and that the supplemental thing was a big change from last year. So could I get someone to just... clarify that because I think there was some misinformation and then I'm done. So yes, I will ask for Dr. Wilkins just to share out that we do provide a contribution for Virginia retirement and that what was on the reduction list was in regards to our contribution to supplemental retirement. But Dr. Wilkins, if you want
099to add to that or explain that. Dr. Wilkins, I think you're on mute. Hello, Dr. Hodges. Yes, thank you. So again, we contribute both to the VRS and those persons who are eligible and participate in supplemental retirement plan also make contributions thereof. So we have those two systems. The VRS, of course, is a statewide system, while the Supplemental Retirement Program is division-owned. So we have a lot more flexibility, if you will, with respect to how we run our Supplemental Retirement Program. And every year, we go through a process to review the market competitiveness of that fund and its viability, and we make appropriate decisions to sustain the fund accordingly. that figure fluctuates depending on our decisions at the time. With respect to this year, of course, we've accepted not to take on that additional burden
100and we'll see how that plays out for the remainder of that, you know, of that future budget year. Thank you. Thanks. Okay, I don't see anybody else having it. As I say, we're half an hour over, which actually is we kept with, I think we started a half an hour late and now we're half an hour late. So I think if no one has anything else, Dr. Hutchings, do you have anything else? No, I think I'll save the remarks and comments and things for our work session number two, and we'll be able to come back with some clear options and alternatives, as Ms. Thornton mentioned, for the board. Okay, everyone. Thank you for all your thoughts. Very, very good meeting, even though it's long. Thank you for everyone sticking around. Have a nice weekend. Nice
101long weekend. All right. Bye. Thank you. Thanks for joining us. Bye. Bye, guys.