BOE Work Session 2025.09.02

001Y'all want to go ahead and get started? I know people I know someone needs to leave a little bit early. So, I'm going to hand out two separate sets of papers. So, the first set because they look alike, I'm going to hand them out at different times. So, there's no like there's lack of confusion. So, every month I give you all this packet. There's a lot more in it than there is here. One thing I wanted to point out that I'm sure you realize, but I don't think I've ever pointed it out, is this information is this information. It's exactly the same. It's just presented in different ways. So, if you look at the pages that have color on them, if you look at the bottom on the back page, it will show you that

002we went over our revenue, $816,000. And if you look on the front page of this packet, you will see we went over $816,02. So, I'm off on my um rounding somewhere. So, I just wanted to show you all that this this is the exact same information. This is in the report that you all are see and look at the most is in big buckets, whereas this one is much more detailed than this one, but it does contain the exact same information. um wrapping up last year and just looking at different things. Um we pretty much hit the nail on the head with the local with the revenue. Um we came within $122,000 of what we had projected. Now, it didn't come in like we thought like we thought it was going to come in. Um,

003I have never seen delinquent taxes over $2 million before in my life. And so that was interesting. But that made up the difference that we didn't get in the fall. So that makes sense. Of course, they didn't pay it in the fall. It was late. So they paid it delinquently. Um, we did qu get quite a bit more interest than we had um intended and that was in or that we had budgeted for. And that was because of our intentional um shopping around for better rates on CDs and putting more money into CDs that got a better rate of return for us. And so that's that's become very lucrative for us. And so that's that's exciting. Um our student growth did not come in where we thought it would, but we got a couple of

004grants we didn't know we were going to get. So it it all kind of evened out in the end. Mr. Patrick, do you want to add anything to that? >> No, I think uh and we'll talk about this later on, but this I told uh Terry that this interest on investments that we've got some ideas about that moving forward that uh I think can help grow us in more money. >> So, we'll talk about that when we look at this next year's budget. information look at it >> that move forward. >> I was pretty pleased. Terry's >> Terry's right. And as most of you know, if you can get that close on your projected revenue, that's pretty dang soft uh to get that close in a budget as big as ours. So, I was pretty

005pleased with that. And that 114 slash 328 year to date on that interest on investments, that's everything combined. CD all of our investments combined, right? Okay. Yeah, >> that was what we budgeted, but we actually made 328,000. >> Okay. >> So, we basically almost >> close to tripled that money. >> Oh, I see what you're saying now. Yeah. Yeah. So, we budgeted to make 114,000, but we actually made 328,000. >> Okay. >> On on that, >> was that because the payments were delayed? You were able to some of those payments. >> So, the money that we've got invested on those CDs are invested in those CDs. We don't touch it. >> It's just a rainy day. Like, if we had to go get it in emergency, okay? >> It's just money we got put up

006drawing interest. The other thing is is we also get a percentage on all of our PECARD purchases the bank pays us back. So that's a Is that not in that group? I apologize. I thought that was in that same >> that goes directly back to the expenditure. >> Oh, you're right. You explain that to me. We actually if we spend $50 on something and they give us $2 back, it actually goes back to where we >> originally originally spent it. So it goes back into that account. So it's distributed. You spend money twice as much as possible and we get rebates back from sales tax. So that money goes back into the pot that originally spent it. So we get to double spend money. >> Pretty cool. >> Yeah. >> Um but our interest um

007>> interest was all on those CDs. >> Mhm. >> Yeah. That's pretty good. >> I was actually shocked. Yeah. >> I mean and I watched it all year round all and I was like, "Wow. So, uh, just moving on and I'm going through this because this this is line by line and so but it correlates with this just in a different. So, when you start looking at salaries and benefits, we came within $82,000 of what we had projected to spend for salaries. We projected 28 million. So, it's pretty close. Now, where we got off a little bit was on benefits and why you get off on benefits. Well, it has to do with people leave and they quit and they retire and they get on different insurance plans and there could be any number of

008reasons why. Um, it's a formula that is calculated and it is just pushed into this um section here. But last year we spent 70% of our budget on salary and benefit >> 70%. This year we have budgeted now in that 70% contained a bonus. So that's including a bonus. Um, as we come on down through purchase, professional and technical services, this is how the state groups these expenses. This is not how Terry would group these expenses, but I work with it and I roll with it. And so this this is what we're doing. Um nothing extraordinary, you know, standing there except for you can see we didn't spend as much on um professional purchase services as we thought we would. And let me I think those were um TDT costs. Um those were for our

009nonsped students that need um day treatment out of out of our district and we just didn't need as much of it or they didn't have as many spaces as we needed last year. So um we had budgeted based on what we had done the previous year. So that's we didn't have to spend all of that. Going on down to purchase property services. Of course, that's our water, our sewer, and our dumpsters. Custodial, um lawn care, that's chemicals, that's that's not labor for lawn care, but that's maintenance on our tractors and all of that great stuff that goes along with it. One of the bigger costs that you will see, and it sounds crazy, but it what it is, are our copier costs, which are listed as rental of electronics. You can see we budgeted $166,000

010and we spent $164,000 on copers and copies. That is the cost of making copies and the rental of the equipment. Um our temporary rentals, those are things like renting out the stadium for graduation. We help with JBU so that we can use their facilities at a lower rate, their equipment and stuff to exercise. Our staff can use them. And then we also rent the golf course. >> Jack, can you think of anything else that >> uh that's that's really it. It's most of that is gra So, it's graduation. It's it's graduation. It's JVU pool. Mhm. >> It's JBU uh basketball courts, volleyball courts, and then it's uh the golf course. That's literally all basically the things we rent. >> Other purchase services are just what you think they are. insurance, um, telephone postage, advertising, certified

011and classified mileage, um, services purchased locally. The services purchased locally, you see it's budgeted for 190 191. Those are the services that we that the co-op provides to all of our special needs prek children at the co-op. That's the money that used to go straight to the co-op, but now comes to us and then it's a simple wash. It comes in and we simply write a check to them. So, I don't I don't know why they started sending it to the school districts instead of straight to the co-op, but that's what that is and that's all that is. And then our AD Medicaid match is when you um agree to bill for Medicaid, they charge you. You have to pay a certain percentage of what you send in, what you submit. Um the higher that

012goes, that means that's more of Medicaid that we turned in that we were able to turn in. So it's very correlated to that. You know, it's one of those things where it's just kind of like catastrophic. You know, we do a good job getting our catastrophic money, as much of it back as we can because of our documentation process that we we do. But remember, the higher the that number is, that means the higher things cost us. So, it's same, it's kind of the same way Medicaid, the higher that number is, that's the more money we collected in Medicaid reimbursements for our different therapies and stuff. see advertising on here. >> Was that is that some of the push? >> Um what might be some I know we have seen the billboard. >> We had

013some radio ads. >> Radio billboard. >> Okay. Probably some social media boosted ads or something like that. >> We're starting that this year. >> Okay. >> She did a flyer though that we mailed home. >> Okay. >> Yeah. All the mailboxes. >> Do we feel like that's been is there any opinion on whether that's been effective? Well, we're up what I think and this is I'm basing what a lot of it on what's going on uh locally in other areas. We don't feel like we get enough of it. We need to spend more money to see the benefit where people are spending 10 times what we're spending and they're seeing the benefit. It's like I told was telling Paige in our budget meeting with her, we need to think about every time if we get

014if we spend let's I'm g a round number. If we spend $100,000 in advertising, all it takes is to get 11 kids to move to our district out of that and we get to make that money back, you know. So, I'm not saying that's but that's the way we have to look at it. The reason we're advertising is we want to attract people to stay and and be in our district and that kind of stuff. >> Supplies and materials are exactly what it sounds like. Supplies and materials. And it looks like we really really overbudgeted for general supplies. But you have to remember that's every single department. That's every single teacher. That's every building. That's everything. That's the entire district. So there was I couldn't look and say, "Well, intermediate didn't spend, you know, there's

015not one big pot to look at to say, oh my gosh, you over, you know, you overbudgeted for that." Um, so it's just that's just our staff, our employees being good stewards of our money that we actually had that much in excess. So you don't really want to slap anybody's hand for that, you know, for saving us money. Um, I expect that to look a little bit differently this next year now that we're buying all of the supplies, school supplies for our younger kids. So, that will look a little different this year. Um, your guess is as good as mine on the utilities, natural gas, gasoline. I mean, some years is great and some years not so great. Um, >> I do want to say this like because I I don't guess I you think

016I would know this, but with full disclosure, I went and asked the other day like how often do we did fuel and we did fuel every two weeks. So, we don't we don't have a source that we get it from and we just get it from call and we need some more brand. Kenny uh calls and gets bids from every single distributor in our area. every two weeks when we need it and we buy it from the cheapest. So, I thought that's a pretty that doesn't h that's not required by law. That's just something he's always done since he's been in our transportation department. >> Um, we were able to save money on textbooks because which ones did we not adopt last year and fifth grade didn't adopt >> social studies. social studies, geography, >>

017geography. >> That's what I know. I was going social studies. >> Yeah, it's something it's geography. >> Um, and so we had intended on adopting that, but we did not. So, there was some savings there. Um, but nothing hardware Todd, Mr. Cross was able to get another year value out of our laptops and iPads and everything else. So, we did not have to replace as many as we had thought we were going to, and that's always a good thing. Um, down on the vehicles, we had budgeted for an additional, was it a maintenance truck that we did not need? We decided we did not need it. So, we did not purchase that. Um, so in the end when you look, we always budget down to zero. We don't want to make any money. We don't

018want to lose any money. We actually went a little bit into the negative this year. And that is because we did move more money into the building fund than we had originally planned. That was to meet help meet that requirement that you all set for us last year to try to get our carryover balance down to 12%. Well, we got it down to 14 this year. So, we put additional money into the building fund knowing that we're going to have to build an elementary or, you know, knowing what's coming up in the future. So that's why we went in the negative a little bit is we were trying to come to that 12% that you all were trying to get us to. But Mr. Patrick allowed me to go just please can't we ease into

019the 12%. So we didn't take it all at one time. But that is the goal is to continue to get that spin down. So when we talked about this uh moving that amount of money, we looked at so we had originally the board had originally approved in the original bud budget was 664,000 >> $64,000 to put in from the budget into there. We were actually able to do that plus the 2 >> 2.5 more into the building fund at the end of this year. Not this is all about the year we just ended. So uh when she says we ended in the negative. We're not really in the negative. >> It's just we're allocated >> we're allocate we move that out. We move that money into the building fund. Right. And uh one of the

020things I think super important is that we continue to build that building fund back up after the projects we've done over the last several years, we've kind of depleted that money. And we need to build that back up so that we can show uh our patrons that at some point when we have to ask for a millage increase that we're trying to do everything we can to lower uh that cost of whatever that'll be by saving money when we can. but still taking care of our kids and taking care of our employees. That makes sense. >> Do you all have any questions about how we did the final how we ended the year last year? >> I'm super happy with the this frugality of words. >> Yeah. you guys think before I >> It is

021now. My goodness. Yes, it is. >> I feel like that everyone was extremely frugal in that and I I appreciate it. I appreciate some of those stories, you know, talking about um getting bids on fuel, you know, appreciate things like that. I think we probably should, even though sometimes we're a little probably tend to be a little bit more on the humble side, I think it's good to to really tell people that we do that. So, and and it does make a lot more sense. You know, you get to the end of this and you go um you know, we spent more, but Shane, to your point, I think that's that's the great conclusion is that well, we are uh allocating more towards this building fund because we don't want to put everything on the

022shoulders because you you've shared some stories of some other districts who spend everything they have and then ask ask for the whole thing a whole lot of from uh on a millage or taxpayers. So, so yeah, I appreciate that. I I think that's the kind of stuff that we should really brag on ourselves for that we're doing. So, great job there. >> Okay. So, I handed you another set of documents. This is for this this year, the 2526 school year. And if you will notice, the column on the left is what we actually spent in 2425. So, it matches exactly with how this one ended. And then I simply put in how we are proposing to budget this coming year. Um, at any time if you have questions, I'm going to try to explain them

023before they get asked and Mr. Patrick's going to help me. Um, I've made some notes. There are a couple of extra little worksheety things in there and we'll get to those because that's going to help direct us on how you foresee us spending our monies this year in some areas. Um, starting out with local revenues. Um, in property tax, we have budgeted $2.16 million more than we received last year. And that's because our assessments are up so high. Um, and this year we're going to have income from the daycare. We've never had a daycare. Um, we have several students in our um, prek that are able to pay, so they are paying. And we are looking at receiving almost $200,000 in insurance rebates. They're not all insurance rebates, but we got a little over 30,000

024back from the hail damage done to our fleet um our suburban fleet. And then um we've almost been guaranteed a refund of $165,000 that we spent two years ago on playground equipment for our special needs kids. So specifically where that money comes from, that's that money that's been tied up from the from the federal government when they put a halt to all federal spending for school on the schools that we had talked about. That's that money that we should have been re we've already spent. It was supposed to be reimbured and it got everything frozen. Well, now we're this the Greg Rogers at the state who is overall finance for education in the state has told me he sees no reason why that will not be coming through. It's just honestly they're just waiting on

025the federal government to release the money and then we'll get it. But it's kind of been a fight for two years to get this money. And it wasn't all about that federal. There was some other stuff that happened at the state that was not necessarily our fault that I had too when I took over as superintendent. Uh I just basically had to go sit down with Greg. It's like Greg, you're going to have to help us out. We can't not we can't lose $164 million or $164,000 because of a clerical error here that wasn't even our fault. And so he helped me work that. We almost had it and then the federal spending got >> got cut, >> got stopped. But now that it's back, they're just waiting for the federal government to send the

026money. We should end up with money. So, I asked Terry to go ahead and budget that money as if we are going to get it, but just know upfront that even though I've been told we're going to like I don't have anything in writing and and so if it doesn't come through, we could end up being that could be a place where it could be short, but in the grand scheme of things, I mean, it's a lot of money. I don't want to negate that, but in the grand scheme of things of 50 plus million dollars, it's not that much money. Um coming on down into our state revenue. Um you can see there's very little increase in our foundation funding even though the amount went up quite a bit but we're down students. So

027that kind of offsets any big gain that we were looking at. And so when you look at that 98% of UR that means that 25 everybody's looking at me like yeah what does that mean? So remember the state guarantees 98% of the first 25 meals. Historically we've received 96% of the first 25. So that's 2% that the state had to pay up to us because we didn't hit that for the first 25 meals. I have simply extrapolated that into this year's numbers and it came out to 1935. Some years we have to send money back to the state because we actually collect more than 98%. Last year was not one of them. The year before that was not one of them. It's been a while since we've had to send money back, but we do

028occasionally have to send money back. So, speaking of declining enrollment, you'll notice that there's nothing budgeted for student growth. Sad. So sad. I've had to do it one other time where we budgeted for declining enrollment and then we made back more money in growth funds that year. So, I actually had to write a check back to the state for the declining growth before they would release all of the funds for the uh student growth, declining balance, declining enrollment. They wouldn't just offset it. I literally had to send them back a check. And I was like, "Okay, okay." Um, teacher salary equalization is going to be the same until the end of time when they stop giving us that. We're never going to get any more. We're never going to get any less unless we get

029zero. Same thing with the I just labeled it the Learns Act and that was when the Learns Act had us raise everybody's salaries up to 50 or teachers up to 50,000 and this is what they funded us. It's never going to change. It's going to be the same every year. merit teacher incentive. That is the new thing that the state does where it awards certain teachers for having growth. Um they get different amounts of money and a and an incentive a bonus and we have no idea what that is until June of every year. >> It's a straight pass through. Whatever we qualif whatever our teachers earn, they send us a check and we turn around and send it straight back to the teachers. >> So I for the previous year, right? It's not even

030the end of that. >> No, it's this year. >> Is it? >> It is the current year. >> Yeah. So, I just budgeted what we got last year because the year before we got 60 60,000. This last year we only got 49, but they changed the requirements, too. So, anyway, I'm going to be quiet. Same thing with the computer science bonus. Um, some years they give that, some years they don't. I don't quite understand what's the difference, but we have one teacher that gets it. So, that's that's what she got last year. Um, you will notice that I did not budget anything for the professional learning grant, and that's because they gave it all to us up front. So, we will get no more of that grant, but we will finish spending that grant in

031this year, and you will see that in our expenses in a little bit. um sped director extended school year. Um those stay pretty flat and it's a three-year average or your best guess. There's no magic formula to it. The state won't release it. So, you just do the best you can on those. I do want to point out that the early childhood Medicaid match, again, that is the funding that we get from the state that goes directly to the co-op. So, it's a complete wash. So, it's it's a zero effect on our bottom line, but I have to budget for it. >> Where's that head again, Terry? >> Um, it's 32 350. It's called early childhood. It's 143,000. >> Yeah. >> So, why did it go up? >> More kids have more needs. >> So,

032so we don't actually budget that. It's >> Oh, we have to budget it. >> Yeah, budget it. We don't it's not coming out the local revenues. The state sends it to us and then we pass it through just like we talked about on that that other >> so the state >> that's the one that come up with 143. Okay, that's where I go. >> And the same thing with the EIDT. It's it's the same monies. It comes out of three different pots, three different grants funds the co-op. So they send us the money and we send it straight to the co-op. So you have to list it because you're touching it. >> Yes. >> Correct. >> Yes. >> But there are the same amount of expenses as there are revenue. So it's a zero effect.

033>> Catastrophic. The last couple of years we have been able to recoup quite a bit of money for our catastrophic um kids. And um that's that's a three-year average. So I just budgeted a three-year average. Some years are higher, some years are lower, but and then next year we could only get 173, we might get 500,000. I mean, it's just it's all over the board. Um, everything else is pretty much straightforward. Our ABC funds are based on the number of seats we have available in our preK. Um, our school-based health center, you will notice, went up quite a bit. and Miss Peyton and Tiffany Canson were able to write a grant to help fund for some more mental health um stuff. So, we've hired another mental health therapist and um that's so we have some

034extra money this year, but that's mostly going towards training and salary and benefits. Right, Michelle? Um school safety grant. We were awarded a grant in 2425 and we have until the end of this month to spend it all. So we're going to spend $182,572 in the month of September that we haven't already. >> You'll remember we were able to put that that whole grant was able to go towards the entrance intermediate to pull that cost down. >> So that we're all we were able to use all that. So as soon as we get build for cost, we pay it, submit it to the state, and then on a Saturday, they'll just refund us the money through that. That's how that works. >> And then on the next page, we just have our federal revenue where

035we get that little dab of money from the federal forest forest reserve. Um, I did read because today I was like, how do they calculate that? Well, it depends on how many acres is in your school district, but the government feds actually give money to municipalities and counties and everything. And three4s of it goes to the school and 1/4 of it goes to building new roads. So, if we're getting $4,500, the countyy's not getting a whole lot for maintaining the national forest dips into our school district. So that's what makes up the increase. Do y'all have any questions or comments? >> I do. Okay. >> This broadband rental I know we've talked about the broadband. Are we renting it to someone? >> Yes. >> We It's the backup through Ozark Go. >> Yeah. >> It's

036our backup with state. We have broadband through the state. >> Yep. But we have to have a backup broadband system and Ozark go was the one that I want to say it's like it's less than 500 a month if I remember. It's you and then we also have some revenue though that's not doesn't show here. I don't think it's is it in here where we get that uh where we own that broadband. >> That's the one I was talking about. >> That's the one you're talking about. >> Yes. >> Broadband rental on the front page. $35,000 >> and we just >> what we expect to get. >> Yeah. But we did get a letter that there was some court ruling or we think we're going to get more than >> but they won't tell us

037how much. >> But they didn't tell us how much. So we think that's going to go up >> and it's still we still think it's in our best interest to keep it. >> Oh, absolutely. It's uh like I think >> passive >> the last the last time somebody offered Jody something it >> it was like a couple hundred,000 for it. >> Okay. >> And then we and we're making this much. We just This is just I hate to say it but it's free money. >> Sure. >> And we don't do anything with it. It is literally just let them use. >> They send us a check every month. >> Yeah. >> Sounds like it's a almost like a cell tower type. It is. That's exactly what it is. to that. >> Okay. >> All right.

038Thank you. That's the only one I had. >> Oh, okay. Coming on down. Salaries. You all know we had many, many, many discussions and talks about salary schedules and raises and all of that and what kind of impact that was going to have on us going forward. We wanted to be sure that we had the base, the property tax base and everything to cover all of that that we did last year. And if you will look, you see that our salaries went up about $500 $400,000. Well, we haven't hired back some of our staff that we determined we did not need. So, we have saved some positions. Um, last year's figure contains a bonus. If you look, I have it highlighted yellow because we haven't budgeted for a bonus. There is a small bonus in

039there and that has to do with that merit teacher raise. I have to budget it and so it has to go there. But as far as a um holiday bonus, Christmas bonus, whatever you all want to call it, end of the year, let's have fun bonus, that has not been determined. But we'll look at that at the end when you see how much wiggle room we still have. Okay? But remember, last year contains the bonus. So, and this year we have budgeted um 72% of our salaries and benefits makes up all of our expenditures. And that's without a bonus. So if we add a bonus to it, that that percentage will go up. >> Now I will I will remind the board that like pretty average is in the mid70s for school districts. They stayed

040pretty comfortable. You should be spending somewhere between 70 75 76% of your budget should be on salaries. So we were actually last year on the low end. But one of the thing we need to remember, one of the reasons we were on the low end on some of that on the actual expenditures is we had some teaching positions and some different positions that never got filled. We just couldn't find anybody. So, we just I took as as a superintendent, I told our team, it's better to have nobody and fill in with the good people that we have and rework some things than it is to hire somebody that can't do the job and fix the mess that they cause. And they always cause a mess when you do that. So, we did have some positions

041that ended up saving the district money, I guess you could say. But the reality of it is we needed those people and other people had to work extra to cover them. But fortunately for us, they agreed to do it. And we still have a few open positions that haven't been I haven't placed into this budget. Um we're going to get a final calculation before the board meeting so I can get them in the budget. But it's not going to make or break, you know, this it's not going to have that much of an effect on this discussion that we have today. >> And I have told our team, we scrutinize every position when it comes openings. We will we're not we don't just hire people just because we've had one in the past. So, we're

042just going to go hire again. We scrutinize every single position. If we need it, great. And you know, we made the decision when we moved Dr. McClung up that we didn't replace his position. He left. We just redistributed. We also did not uh we had an admin assistant here at the district offices that when she retired, we decided not to replace her. We just absorbed that and did move that around. And we've done that in a lot of places, especially now where we're losing students in in the lower elementary. We've not we don't hire those people till the law says we have to add another teacher based on teacher classroom size. So, we're trying to we're trying to make sure it's the biggest thing we spend our money on is our people. And that's where

043pe that's where districts get in trouble financially is they overstaff and they don't ever try to correct it. And that's what I told Terry. I said we will not get overstaffed and when we get overstaffed we will get un overstaffed as soon as possible. >> Ton over >> and then I I I totally appreciate that. Can is it a good good time to ask a question? >> Yeah, sure. >> Okay. So, um if last year was about 70%. >> This year we're guessing at 72. >> We're down in enrollment. We haven't filled positions. Where's that? Where's that? Is that two that two can't be just coming from the bonus, right? Or is it? >> No. Um, we added to the base and we added steps across the board and I mean we we changed some

044indexes and so this this is all of that stuff shaking out this year. >> So, but our salary base is going up. >> Sure. >> Which is great. >> And we also added level 26. Did we do that? We did 26 step 26 across the board and our my my hope so I told Terry when we're looking at the next year my hope is that we will add go ahead and just bite the bullet do 27 and 28 28 28 years it's pretty common because 28 years is when you can retire with full benefits from the state. So you get a little bit of a step each year. And that's that's the crazy thing about when in personnel is because we're all on a education plus experience, salary schedule. So let's say we had a

045secondyear teacher leave us and we want to go hire the best teacher and we get a 10 year with a master's degree. Well, that same position just cost us way more money. But in theory, you hope you're getting a better teacher than you had. That doesn't always doesn't always play out like that. >> We had quite a few >> that is the system. That is so, but if you have a >> We had quite a few seasoned teachers that retired last year. It was quite I mean the most I've seen that were seasoned. And so you're not going to have one that's got 30 years of experience. >> Somebody with 30 years of experience, they're going to retire, too. And so we were able to replace some of those positions with less seasoned. >> I

046just don't want to get into, unless the board tells us to, I don't want to get into a situation where I know a big neighboring district, they just put down a rule. You do not hire anybody that's got more than 15 years experience. I I want to hire the best people we can hire when the job comes open. But I think our kids deserve it. And if we have somebody that has got 20 years experience and wants to work 10 or 15 more years and is a great p great person and good fit, we need to hire the best person we can and we just pay them what it cost us. Even if that one position might have cost us an extra five or $6,000 versus the person that's left. Does that make sense? >>

047Okay. >> Dr. Okay. And again, the benefits, it's just some random. Anyway, the computer is um moving on to the purchase professional technical services. >> Hey, I do need to say this about benefits. So, one thing that you will see is with the legislative change starting Jul uh January 1, we will have to now start paying $350 a month per employee who takes the insurance. We have been play paying 203450 >> 23450 and now starting January 1, we got to pay 350. that will go through the rest of the school year and then they're going to totally change how they do that. They're not even going to sit they're going to pull that money out of the matrix the funding formula and they're going to pay it directly which benefits us. And the reason I

048say that is in the current formulas they pay so much per kid to pay for benefits. Well, that works great if they could calculate exactly how many employees took B took the insurance. What happens here? We have more people than average take the insurance out, which we don't want to discourage that, but the reality of it is that cost us more money because now we have to pitch in our local dollars to cover that insurance rate. Whereas there are districts who have a really low uh employees, number of employees who take it. Well, they get to keep their money. So, they're actually making more money than they're getting. We just happen, we're have a high rate of usage, so we have to pay more. But by next year, by them taking it out and just

049paying it and not giving us anything, we will actually come out to the benefit because we won't have to take any more local revenue to pay for benefits. The state will just pay it. Now, something else the state has not told us is they're they're increasing what the districts have to give to the state towards the premium. They won't tell us if it's going to lower the premiums for our employees. >> I don't It's not going to lower it, I don't think. >> I don't think it is either, but >> but at least they're not I don't think they're going to have to pay anymore this year. >> So, this will start January 1 and I assume go through June 30. >> Okay. >> It's seven months of payments is what it comes out to

050be. It ends up being seven >> because we pay a month ahead. So, we pull the premiums in December for January's insurance. >> Um, moving on to the purchase professional and technical services. The big one that you will see has your name on it, the board of education services. $100,000. And you guys are going, we've never spent $100,000. What the board, what do we do? We eat every now and then and we go to school. That's about it. So, I'm going to >> They're getting expensive, huh? >> Oh, they are. So, I'm going to have Mr. Patrick talk about what that covers. >> So, one of the things that I think super important is that we are coding things where they need to be coded and not just coding things in in this in einance

051where they've always been coded. >> This is the transition plan, >> huh? >> This money is just transition. I know, but I'm just talking about it all. >> So, so there's going to you're going to see some stuff have moved around. It's like one budget may be a little higher or a little lower, but it's because when we sit down and go through everything, I was like, why is like you'll get to it in a minute. There's a superintendent budget. You'll see it have gone way down. >> Broken out, >> huh? >> It's not broken out. >> Well, I want to talk about because I think it's important. >> Okay. But we're paying we've been paying for some stuff in there that's has nothing to do with the superintendent's office. It was like yellow folder.

052>> Yeah. Certain software. >> It's software that's been used in the district. And so we're we're just trying to put it where it's supposed to go. >> Now on this 100,000 what this is as we continue to work forward for uh neighborhood school plans there that takes money. We have we have our consultant working with facilities. We have our consultant working with our demographics to do look at school zones. All of those different things that it takes to do that. We needed to create a budget for it so that we knew how to charge it. And because the school board will ultimately be making the decision, that's how we came up. We're putting it in board of education services. >> That's what this money is for us. It's a budget so we can transition to

053neighborhood schools over the next year. I think it would be good to have at some point have that broken out and kind of see what we do spend in a year. I think that's just that's just a number kind of just a placeholder, right? $100,000. We're guessing that's what we estimate. Yes. >> Spent on >> consult the consultant was facility consultants $15,000. The uh Zonda >> 15. It's another 15 plus the second the school zone will be a second bill. So that that right there about 15 there. So we can get that broken down for you and it'll be in the monthly expenditure report as as it goes along. >> But we just kind of shot at the dark and trying to make a budget. We won't spend anything we don't need, but we did

054need to make a budget for that purpose. >> We might need more than this, you know, when it comes down to it. Um, another large change, um, and Mr. Patrick talked about the difference in, you know, you see software maintenance goes up, but it'll go down somewhere else. Um, we have historically labeled software costs under three different expenditure lines, and I do not know why. And so, we're trying to get those into alignment where everybody's charging it to the same budget line. So, that's just going to take a little while. Um, you see certified staff development that is just blown through the ceiling. That's that professional learning grant that is paying for. Help me. Who what all is that paying for? >> It's paying for several things, but one of the things is we we're

055providing uh some direct mentorship for all of our principles uh with an outside uh we not a service. We didn't hire companies. We went and sought out individual uh former educators who are retired who have not been gone very long and is still actively work and and we've hired we've brought them in and going to do some individual stuff and that's where most of that money and then we also have the NIT that is something we have to do for our master and lead teacher stuff that was required by the state. So we paid for it out of that. So that's what we're doing with it. We've really made a big emphasis on growing the capacity of our leaders as well as our adult the rest of the adults in the district. >> You got

056any questions? I see that look on your face. >> No, no, I'm good. I'm good. >> We're cruising on through. Coming on down to purchase property services. Again, that's water, sewer, disposal, and sanitation. Uh you will notice that we expect our custodial cost to go down. That's because we are replacing those floors that don't need wax and so we expect to save quite a bit of money because we won't have to ask them to help us wax those floors. Um repairs repairs are down, but some of the major repairs that we have planned for this upcoming year are our additional flooring to replace that that needs wax every year. We're looking at sealing a third of the brick at the high school and M could talk about that better than >> the exterior of the

057high school in the building of this building. It came we came to realize Mike Spade actually said, "Well, we were talking about the sealant." He said, "Well, you know, like y'all did you do at the high school every 10 years." And I'm like, "What are you talking about?" So, I looked at Randall and he's like, "I don't know anything about it." So, going looking at our warranty documents, we're supposed to reseal that exterior, that high school every 10 years. It's never been done. We can't. We got prices to do it. And that a company wants over a million. They want over a million dollars to redo it. And it's basically just to spray it with a clear sealant. I'm going to say like what's the put on wood, but it's not what it is or

058something. >> It's like Thompson's water seal is what >> basically what it is, but it's not. So, what I've asked Randall to do is let's break it into thirds and do it over a three-year period and get it done so that we can get it but we so we didn't have to pay over a million dollars for one chunk. I just didn't think we could afford to do that all at once. >> Is that because it's that rock? >> It's No, this building will be the It's You're supposed to do it with all brick. >> We're supposed to be doing that with brick. >> I didn't know that myself. >> Your house. >> I do. >> I know. I was thinking about that when they >> I don't know. I don't know that house they

059even do it at all to start with, but it was done that way to start. This one was too. So, it's called waterproofing the brick. >> They did it once, but it hasn't been done since. >> It hasn't been done since. and to keep your like it the regular maintenance is every 10 year cycle you're supposed to do it. So we're going to do it over three years. >> Do I wish we could do it all at once? I just didn't feel like we could spend a million dollars on one project like that. >> So I have been breaking into thirds. >> Um the rental of electronics is going up a little bit. I expect that we will go out for bid our copier lease. It's time to start looking at that, which our principles

060will be thrilled about if we can get newer copy machines because they're never fast enough. They're never large enough. And so it's time. >> Who do you use right now? Copy world. >> Yes, we use Copy World. >> Mhm. >> Um construction services that 182571 that is the grant, the safety grant. as the remainder of the safety grant that's going towards the intermediate school remodel. Um to continue coming down um everything's pretty flat with the exception of advertising and I believe Mr. Patrick talked to that but we can talk to that more if you want more explanation of some of our plans. So, I think we're gonna we're gonna So, we did just a little bit of time on radio last year. Radio seems to be a big big push. Uh, it seems to be

061pretty successful. Also, Paige has done a really good job working with K&WA. And then ironically, I was talking to the student service director at Springdale today and they just did the same thing with K&WA and they're fixing to start doing on their streaming service, not the broadcast, but their streaming services uh ads and they're s like it's crazy how they can target those algorithms work to target the type of people that you're trying to target. So, we're going to look at that kind of stuff. But I think it's important to tell the story of our district about the great things that we do here. And uh if we don't tell our story, somebody else is going to tell it and it's probably not the accurate story. So we need to be telling it every opportunity

062that we get. And so that's why that budget looks like that. We've upped that budget trying to make sure that we didn't even know what to spend last year. And so >> and we still don't we're still learning. We're still learning. Um you will notice another new line and it's called other tuition and that is to cover the costs of our concurrent credit classes that we the state says we are now obligated to purchase for our students. And that's kind of a shot in the dark because we really don't know how many classes anybody's going to. We have a great guess, but that could be higher, it could be lower, but this is pretty close. We feel >> and we're going to do something different next year because I'm not happy with this. There's places

063around the state that universities INWAC hasn't been super easy to work with and for a lot of reasons and they're not flexible at all on their finances. But I have talked to several superintendent. So, there is a concurrent credit scholarship that the state gives and there are lots of d uh districts around the state that are using universities that just take the scholarship, don't charge the school anything. They're taking the scholarship plus 50,000 anyway. So, we're we're going to look at another vendor. Amy's already uh been worked on that and we have several leads, but we were so late in the game when InWack gave us the gave us theou and figured out what it was going to actually cost us that we couldn't get something set up for this year. But next year we'll

064have a different plan and hopefully that that nerve will go away. We still want our kids to get to be able to get college credit for classes, but if there's universities out there that the law says that other state universities have to accept, what why do we we don't send kids in WAC anyway? They're uh we're doing it virtual online classes most of that, isn't it? We have a few. >> So anyway, that that number I hope can be less next year. We can find bigger. >> Um when your cost of professional development goes up, if you keep moving on through, cost of meals, cost of lodging, all of that other stuff also goes up along with it. Um, it's probably a little high, but I mean, everybody has grand plans and wants to send

065everybody to the trainings that they need. And I know that everybody sits down and makes their budget with the full intentions of spending it all and then teacher leaves or you decide it the weather's bad and so you can't make it. And you know, just lots of reasons why you don't wind up spending all of that money. And then again down on the services purchased locally, those are those co-op costs. So we have exactly that same amount of revenue budgeted to cover those costs and they're up because that's what the government said they were going to give us this year to spend. So, um, as you come on down to supplies and materials, I know that looks atrocious, but there's a lot that is going into that. Um, again, it is not just the it's

066not just maintenance, it's not just the business office, it's not just the buildings, it is all over the district. And so, um, we can go, we actually budgeted over, I'm looking at the budget from last year. We budgeted almost 1.1 million last year and we only spent $817. So, again, that's, you know, kudos to our staff for doing such a great job of not overspending and not spending just because they have it. I do believe that we are spending it on the things that we need for our staff and our students. So, yes, that's probably high, but there wasn't a single budget that I could look at and say, "You've overbudgeted. You've overbudget." I mean, >> so we did look at a three-year trend, >> and we were going to make some cuts with some

067building budgets, not because we didn't think they needed money or whatever, but over a three-year trend, they weren't spending everything we were giving them, but then we decided to pay for school supplies with it instead. So, expect this to look different. >> It'll look different. And then so if next year after paying for school supplies, if we're still not spending the money, then we may back off of what how much we're allocating so we can allocate that money somewhere else. I mean, that's the thought process behind it because we're in we did the whole we think we know what school supplies are going to run us, but we probably don't know until we get through a year to find out. But we should have plenty of money to cover that. Um, small equipment is up

068quite a bit. That contains $200,000 worth of new cameras on our buses. Those had to be labeled as small equipment and not a general supply. So, we've actually already paid for those. >> Yeah, we So, we had so many issues with I think I talked to the board about this. We had so many issues with that old camera system that every time we needed it to work, it didn't work. Every time it was just constant. So, I just told I told Joe and and uh Steve I won't do cameras on the bus before school starts. And these actually work really better. So, I've actually sat in the over in the bus garage and watched them. You can see the buses come in the bus loop and Tana had the screen up and you can see

069the video populating because as soon as it hits that sensor when it comes through the gate, it Wi-Fi connects and uploads the video. So, you know, every day when the bus rolls in, the camera's working and uh it's a much better system. And so, I thought it was well worth the investment to go ahead and do that. We were just having too many issues of cameras not working. It was an old SD card system, so you had to go out and pull it off the SD card. Well, if somebody put that little, you know, the little switch on it says lock, well, it didn't record or it just didn't work. long trail. >> And the resolution, I guess, is probably a lot better, too. >> 100%. >> See what's going on instead of just a

070bunch of pixels. >> 100%. >> So, our textbook budget's up about $100,000, but it's actually down $100,000 from what we budgeted the year before. So, um I think we are going to adopt everything this year. We hope. the geography has already been purchased. >> Um, our software again, it looks like it's skyhigh, but it's just trying to realign things. Um, just relabeling things. Our hardware is up, but it's down from where we budgeted last year. But we are going to have to replace some Chromebooks and stuff this year. I don't know if Todd could squeeze another year out of the ones, but he also has a replacement rotation. So, he replaces so many x amount every year. Some years we get lucky and don't have to replace as many, but we still have to replace

071them. >> And then I'm going to let Mr. Patrick talk about the increase in the vehicle. >> Okay. So, uh in looking at things that that budget number contains two buses. It contains a new mail truck, y'all. Johnny's old little red car that's been running around here for 800 years. Uh, it's just not worth like we don't >> it'll be for sale. >> We're going to put it on the auction and sell it. And what we're going to do is we're going to we're going to uh get one of those we want to try to get one of those little Maverick trucks that we got that other one for like 28,000 bucks and get it. it'll it'll just last forever around town. We uh we're in desperate need of a free maintenance is in desperate

072need of a freezer truck. So, two reasons. One is we have a lot of old freezers in the district that go out all the time. And when they go out, if we can't get that food transferred to another freezer quickly, and Heath knows this because he's helped us a couple of times, we're constantly having to call Simmons or somebody and we need a reapfer truck. And if we can't get a hold of the person that needs it, we end up losing food. And so this other part of it is we deliver that freezer food across town. instead of putting that box truck where it's hot, we need a place to keep it at temperature. So, uh that's been requested. Also, uh the another big hit in the district has been those Suburbans that y'all allowed

073us to buy a couple years ago. I have uh there's a there's a a vehicle in there for a uh not a Suburban, but a Tahoe that uh they had we found that we can get they're just all they're they're never here. They're always on the road somewhere. So, we felt like there was a need to add one more uh both to transport students and to transport staffs when they go to meetings out out of town. Uh the other thing that's big in there is a band a new van trailer for the semi to pull by the semi. That is something that has been asked for since I got here probably before that. Uh we are constantly working on that semi. It's been stranded three times in the last two years from the trailer itself.

074So, if you'll remember, we bought a new semi or a new to us semi uh two years ago, believe it or >> two years ago, and the trailer now is just constantly the brakes lock up and we've left it in Alma twice and so we just need to get them a new trailer and it's just there's no reason to have that. The thing was donated >> and it wasn't even set up to haul these instruments. I mean it's >> so they've had >> our instruments get damaged. >> So the busher clubs have gone in there and just stick built some stuff in there to hold that kind of stuff. We can order one and be done with it. It'll last us for 15 years or more. And I just feel like it's something that we

075actually put that out for bid. Uh we're getting bids in now. They're expensive, but I think it's worth um the investment in that. So, we're probably talking in the I'm going to give you a rough estim,000 >> probably. Yeah. About 150 155 right now. >> But that's a total different trailer. Now, one thing that doesn't go into that is we might be able to we haven't asked them if we can trade in our trailer. They'll take it, refurbish it, and sell it to somebody else. And if it can't, then we can just sell our We'll see if we can sell our trade. But I'm hoping that they'll let us trade it in and get some money off of that. But our band goes all over. They're one of the staples of our district. Just think

076it's something. So that's what that bit that's that's the biggest part of that in there. Well, that is that that everything I said that is what it is what it comes to. >> So no buses in there. >> Two buses. Two buses. There is two buses. >> The 316, which is what the actual 2024 25 That's just two. Is that just two buses? >> That was two buses and a maintenance truck. >> Okay. >> We didn't have a buy and we think we can >> we think we can get by with it another year. >> Okay. So, it's, you know, it's two buses again >> plus these other things that we talked about. Okay. >> Thank you. um musical instruments. Our band is growing and they need instruments and some of those instruments are older

077than I am. I believe that they are still using. I know. Wow. I know. So, one of the things that some of the some of the instruments parents do buy like the smaller ones, the instruments we're talking about are like the tubas and the and uh >> xylophone >> xylop all that all those other stuff and they're like ridiculous stupid expenses. So, what I asked Terry to do when we looked at this and sat down with Daniel is let's get us a budget that we can live with on a yearly basis so you can get a replacement rotation versus coming to us cuz what's happened we make a budget for him and he says I got to have 10 new tubas and cuz these tubas are worn out. I can't even get them fixed anymore

078and then all of a sudden you say well what's a tuba cost? $13,000 >> and you're like what? That's not even like a high. That's just an average. >> It's pretty crazy. Nothing fancy. Yeah. >> We sit down with Daniel and made his budget to where he can live with it >> and all inclusive and he doesn't have to come ask us for money like every year when something just crazy, you know, an instrument issue comes up. He needs to get a replacement schedule going and he feels pretty confident with it. He can do that. the 36,000 >> a to do that for each year. Now that's like he has to put he has to now we just bought him 10 tubas. We've already done that part. >> So it's like uh this is moving

079forward. He has to get on a replacement. >> He's getting a tuba and a drum set drums and this >> tuba's on the high end. Majority of the instruments are not >> well but >> we're not pumpkin flutes and saxophones and stuff like that. parents pay for those. We're talking about the school on the industry. >> They are there's a lot of I mean just at the middle school I had to move them out of that room to use it for NIT and I bet I moved 100 instruments and that's just the middle school >> that students need from our school district because they can't >> Well, so I'll use my son's example. I we bought he was going to learn trombone and he did and is and I bought him a trombone but then

080they moved him to tuba and I'm not buying a tuba. So he's playing both. So a lot of kids do actually end up playing multiple instruments. So one that they buy themselves and then one that that's provided by the school because the cost. So >> yeah, I'm more concerned about it being not enough. That's too much. He I'm going >> he said it >> he assure he threw me a number of what he could live with in his total budget >> and and we put more money in different places and he can move it as needed. >> Right. It's not just 36 like his budget was 120 total. Like when you take in every single thing his budget's 120,000 which is significantly higher. >> He's been doing it on like 70. Yes, he's been doing

081it se about 70, but he's also raising money and then he'll come to us and say, "Please, can I have some more?" >> Fair to >> and you know, and we'll we've always been able to find him some more money. But I said, "What number can you live with and do it and not have to come ask us for money, but not waste money either." And he said, he said, and what he did is he's smart. He went did his research. He found all the people he competes against for state titles that are our school size and found out what their budgets were and he hit somewhere in the middle. And so that's that's why I felt pretty comfortable with um nothing else is really extraordinary until we get down to building fund. And you'll

082notice there's a big fat yellow spot there. That's where you guys tell us what how much you feel we need to put into the building fund or we plan to put into the building fund. But if you look on the very last page, um you see what our debt payment's going to be this year. It's not much more than it was last year, but right now as it stands with everything we've talked about, told you we have in our budget, we have $2.3 million that's not allocated or dedicated anywhere. So that's what this half of the discussion, the rest of this workshop will be about is, you know, do you want to give a bonus? Do you how much do you want to put into the building fund? And let's talk about what our projects

083are coming up. Um I gave you this. It has a little green blurb on it. This is to tell you what it'll cost for the cost of um bonuses. Um I just wanted you all to have that so you would know and when you started making suggestions, you would know what it was going to cost. And then there's another sheet that just has the building fund on it. And you can see that we have allocated already allocated some money that's left over from last year. Um that 1.5 for the intermediate remodel and the 200,000 that was already set aside the previous year. And so I just rolled that forward. But what else are we going to put on here for construction projects? And how do you want that money allocated? It's not like we can't

084move it around between projects, but whatever we have in the building fund, the state expects us to have a plan for. So, we have to whatever we put in there, we have to dedicate it to something. That doesn't mean we can't change how we dedicate it. We just have to have a plan on how we're going to use it. So, I don't know who wants to start, but I'm I'm done. >> I think it's I think it's important to decide this is Shane's opinion. Do we want to give a bonus and then how then look at how much compare that to how much you want to put in the building fund and it tells you what your bonus can be and be comfortable with. >> Or do you think we're missing something in our budget?

085That's hugely important that maybe we need to add. >> And now I do have one conversation that came up. So was anybody at the game Friday night? >> No, heard about it. >> You don't you don't count. >> Oh, okay. >> Okay. So, we've been doing some these are rough numbers. Please don't hold me to this. We're going to try to work on this, but we have a workaround where we have worked around. We think we're going to get through the football season. We had the company out here today. They ran all day. So, basically what's happened is the system's older. I know it doesn't seem like everybody thinks the stadium's brand new, but the stadium's not new and the lights are technologies older and but the system we think we don't know this but

086we think got fried with lighting light which we have created a direct wire system where now it's literally on a light switch where you flip it on and it'll come on and it'll flip. You got to go flip it off manually and turn it off. Uh, we think we can make it through the season, football season. What we probably should have done is we should have done three years ago what I wanted to do. Uh, not just me, Randall. Randall's the one that came to me about it and I agree and we didn't do, but we need to change the system out. Uh, three years ago it cost us $150,000. All in, done, and we'd be rolling right now. Today it's $400,000 for the same exact tech the same basically the same technology. It's just

087that much inflation has hit that market that high. Now I I haven't bid anything. We have we have just gotten phone quote numbers because we were coming to a budget meeting. Now do I think it'll be 400,000? No. But we're going to need to replace that lighting system at the stadium at some point. Whether we do it this year or whether we do it next year, I don't know how much longer we can light. And we're talking about going to the LED lighting. I mean, they don't do the lights like we have. They don't nobody puts those up anymore cuz you know, the system just shut off, but then you wait 20 minutes for the lights cool down, then heat back up before they come on where the LED just is on and off as

088much as you want it to. >> We have an electrician who thinks it was lightning. Oh, we brought the We don't know for sure, but we brought the company in. They were on site today working on everything. They just know that the system is down. I mean, the that whole system of the the controller box system that runs that whole thing. And we actually have one on the baseball softball did the same thing, but they did a direct wired system, which is not necessarily recommended, but it's not dangerous. It's just not the way the system's designed. And uh we can't use our app anymore for sure. So if somebody leaves the lights on, somebody's driving up here and turning the lights off. We're not going to get on the phone and turn it off. But

089>> So is there a possibility that commit insurance claim? >> No, they won't they won't cover lightning. Our insurance company won't cover lightning. >> That's my understanding. >> We have insurance through the state. So, what's the life expectancy of these things >> uh on the new ones? >> The new what would it be? >> No. Did you hear? Did they say I mean I for my little bit of research. >> Is it 5 years or 10 years? >> No, it's it's 12 to 15 uh years. But you got to remember when the stadium was built, we didn't have any of this LED LED stuff. It was still being the old bulbs >> Hogen bulbs. And so that's all changed now. >> Previous district about their system is about eight years old and they're just now

090starting to quote it out to >> what was causing was it a software deal causing them to shut off? What was causing like does the does the manual switch solve this problem of light shutting off? >> Bypassing that whole system. So, it's a software thing, I guess, or >> Well, well, it's a software plus the >> the circuit board that was in there. It's just bypassing all of that. >> Okay. And the downsides of the switch and and I don't want the switch to be longterm at all. But just to kind of know, be realistic about how quick we need to do this. I mean, is the only downside that the app doesn't work? Is there anything else that we >> Well, I don't know that I have enough information today about it because I

091have I wasn't over there with them today and didn't ask wasn't able to ask a bunch of questions about it. But that is that's obviously a downside. >> Guess the turnaround's not fast enough to get in during football season. I'm guessing this >> we would not we there's no way to I mean I would not even suggest us to do it >> before the split between football and and soccer. or we wait till the summer. That's the Or you tell us no, you run it with your light switch and move move forward with that. I mean, it's the new I I I hate to say the newer greatest thing. That's not necessarily always the best thing to go to, but it is going to continue to get it more expensive. That's like there's no cheaper

092time than today to do it. But I don't I don't have a problem running over and turning light switch off. I don't live seven minutes from here if somebody leaves it on. >> That's not reflected in this budget anywhere. >> Nope. I had already printed all of this. >> This is came into my office and if we decide to do it, it's going to come out of this 2.5 that hadn't been budgeted yet. So we can say let's wait until we have a little bit more information. >> Absolutely. Because we can reallocate the budget at any point you guys. >> Well, after you all approve it on the 18th, it's locked in for the year. >> Right. Right. >> So, >> well, I don't care to start. Oh, go ahead. I was just >> Well,

093that's not exactly true because we could pay for it out of building fund. If we put money into the building fund, >> we could pay for it out of the building fund and and it's okay. We rename the project, >> right? >> It still could be a building. >> Yes, it could be a building. >> That's good to know. Okay. >> Yeah, that's okay. Well, that kind of solves my concern there then cuz >> I don't think we need to like I get I don't take this the wrong way. I wasn't trying to get you to say go build put the lights in. Y'all make the decision right now because you don't have enough information. I was just bringing it forward. We're in the budget. We're talking about budget and this is a possibly a

094$400,000 expense >> and we can we can label it as a >> we can label it as a project at some point whether we do it this year or next year. I just and it and I don't know maybe it goes down but I know what it cost because we got a quote a written quote for it three years ago and it was $150,000 and now the voice quote today was four roughly 400 is what Randall told us which I was blown my mind. I thought we're talking about 200,000. >> Is that just one one quote? >> Yeah. No, we're we before we do it we do bids. We would put out the bids. Now, I will tell you the thing about it is is like our system is Techline. It's what the district made

095the decision go to years ago when the stadium was built. So, their technology is going to match up with their old technology. If we go Musco or some other form there, we'll have to see if there's any other cost because the stuff doesn't match >> for sure. >> But there's many different there's several different installers that do Tech Line. So, we may get some different pricing on that. >> Well, yeah. I'm going to hope that I'm going to hope that this is one of those um you know, outliers when we look at like four different bids and we're like, "This guy's insane. He million dollar." >> But, yeah, that's okay. Well, it does make me feel better though if we can just say this could be a building fund option because I think that's at

096the end of I hope we're able to put some money in the building fund. Um >> Oh. I re >> if you're asking me what my recommendation is, we need to budget a minimum of $1 million to go to the building. >> Okay? >> And then depending on the size of bonus that you guys decide you want to do, we'll determine if we need if I think I would recommend more than that. >> I would recommend two, >> but it I know but you're going to you don't want to pay you never want to pay anybody anything. >> It's not true. >> So it's not true. We've already got that. >> What did we do last year? >> We did a $500 bonus. >> We did $500 bonus in December. >> Correct. >> Nope. In

097November. So >> November so they could spend it for Christmas. That's what it was. >> I personally would like to see us do a $750 bonus for the employee this year. Do you want to do it all in one bonus or do you want to do it in two? >> I would prefer to do it one at Christmas, >> but that's just me. >> I mean, I don't It's I'm just throwing out There's options. >> Only me. >> Yeah, there's options. So, you know, we could do half of it at this time and the other half at another time. >> Just one pop. >> Okay. >> And this 660 is literally every employee, including all everybody around. Technically, that's actually more than we have on contract right now. She upped it so that we could

098cover any open positions that we have >> because I don't know how many open positions we have at this moment that aren't accounted for. >> And y'all remember now we go through this every year we've given a bonus since I've been here, which is every year, >> right? >> U the way we've always done this is whoever's working >> on the day that you voted in gets the bonus. So if they go to work the next day, they don't get the bonus. >> if they quit the next day, they get the bonus. >> So they don't have to work all year. It's just when you when you guys vote for it at the board meeting that you vote for it on at that night, whoever's on the roster gets the bonus. And if we hire

099somebody a month later, they do not get a bonus. >> But again, they could resign the very next day and they still get the bonus. It's very few people that apply that. >> That doesn't happen very much, but it does happen. >> Seems like I had some some people complain about that last last year when the bonus came out because somebody got hired the next month and they wanted the bonus and I was trying to explain to them. >> Well, our math teacher quit the bonus. >> Yeah, we had a math teacher got the bonus and then quit. So, it does happen. It's just not But I don't know how you structure it to where any other way. Unless you waited till the end of the year and then you said you complete your contract,

100get a bonus. But I'm not sure anybody wants to do that. >> No. >> well, you're really It was 500 last year. >> You're only talking $500 and >> yes, >> they say it's four people. That's, you know, that's nothing. >> It's not much of a scam. No, no, on a million dollar budget that you know that's >> and and this is structured the way it's always been done and I really hate that word or that phrase. This is the way it's always been done, but this is everybody gets the exact same >> bonus. So the crossing guard that might make $6,000 is getting the same >> as the principal at the high school or anybody else. So we >> the thought process just for people we are recording this >> and so it'll be

101public but >> everybody's treated the same. Nobody's more important than anybody else. >> It's the way we think that that rule of you know whoever's employed on the day it gets voted in. You have to you just have to draw the line somewhere. Set it off somewhere. >> Yeah. So I think that's totally justifiable and anyone has complaints about that. I just don't think there's >> and historically we would vote it in at the first of the month and then it would be on that month's pay period. So there's not a whole lot of >> right. >> It's not like you approve it in October and we don't give it until December. If you approve it at the October board meeting, >> most of the time we we get it into that very next pay

102run. >> Yeah. Yeah. October. So, um, there's not a lot of time to quit >> or for the roster to change a lot. >> I'm good with 750. >> I am, too. I think the only reason I said the 750 is because after you take out taxes, then, you know, everybody's still getting over. Yep. >> Okay. >> Two of my household. So, I appreciate it. everyone else. >> Yeah, it's probably justified. So, >> so if you if you go with that >> like 1.7 that is unallocated. >> Okay. >> Yep. >> And again, these aren't necessarily hard and fast numbers right now. Like I said, I've still got to add some salaries in. Um, depending on what all we talk about adjusting, it can fluctuate a couple hundred thousand. And I know that sounds like,

103oh, a lot, but it's really not. But if I have a general idea of we're going to move 1.5, you know, is it are we going to finish out the budget and whatever's left over I move into the we move into the building fund. Do you want to spend down the carryover balance? I can tell you what those balances are going to be. You know, what's our focus is what I'm looking for guidance on. >> I'll throw out the first bid. I say we put 1.5 in there >> at least. >> That leaves us uh you know, if we needed those lights. >> Well, there's already money in there that's not allocated. >> We have $4 million in >> the building fund right now. >> We have only 1.8 8 million designated in. >> So

104she's gonna have to designate. >> I got to designate it. So I've already put the lighting at 400,000 of what's already in there. >> Oh, I see. It's not designated. >> Don't have to spend it and we don't have to actually do it. >> What I would what I would like us to do is I would like us to anything that's not already dedicated is dedicated towards the new elementary school >> and that way it could be changed. But that's really what we're trying to do is trying to save up some money towards a new elementary school. >> Mhm. >> Which is going in the building fund >> in the It's all in the same pot. >> But if we can put the if we can take your the bonus the 750 bonus amount of

105what is that 67 roughly,000 and put into the budget as a bonus. I would recommend then we take whatever's left not budgeted and budget that to go to the building fund and I >> to zero out >> to zero come down to zero >> to zero out and I'm going to tell you why >> because I'll go back to the investment stuff we talked about earlier that Terry and I we know we are at least 10 months away from any new elementary school true expenditure uh at least maybe probably longer. But if you if the board would allow us to take the building fund money or some of our money, carryover money and go put it back in T bills like we did a couple years ago and we made a massive amount of money

106off that. >> We made 300 and some odd thousand $300,000 in a year >> in just that that T bill money. if we could if we could meet with some banks and have the authority to invest that money that's sitting there doing nothing for us but just drawing >> it's sitting in the building fund waiting to be spent right >> so if we could yeah >> that way we could maximize our investment and T bills are all like they're safe you know what I mean that that deal we can't do in a risky as a school district >> play the stock market >> but That's my thought. The more money we have in the building fund, the more interest we're going to make, which is going to create more money for the district as long

107as we have enough money to run the district. I don't want to cut it so short that we're scripping, >> right? >> Scraping to get by. >> Yeah. >> If that makes sense. I mean, I I feel comfortable with that as well because I feel like you you've um that you guys have built in some good maybe better budgeted numbers and you've I've heard case after case of uh they've been asking for this for a while. We're finally going to do it or you know I've heard half a dozen examples of that listening to you all. So, so hopefully that means tell me if I'm wrong about this. It tells me that we are putting some priority towards fixing some of this stuff. we've kind of tried to stretch a little bit farther maybe than

108we would would love to. And if that's true and we're not just setting ourselves up with a super tough day-to-day budget, that tells me that we can be okay putting some more into the fund. I'd love to do that. Um, so just to make sure I understand, we're doing so we've got current 4 million allocated. >> There is currently a balance of $4 million in the building fund. Okay. of that we've allocated about 1.8 to two different projects. One being the intermediate remodel, the other one being the athletic activity facilities. That doesn't have much money allocated to it, but we can also add the lighting. I might put that in there for half million just because I like that number better than 400. >> Yeah, round it up. And then whatever's left over after we

109move money over and whatever the balance is, we could possibly have three or four million going towards a new elementary >> in savings. >> Then out of that, what are you wanting to look at T bills? >> The four million >> all the >> Oh, yeah. >> I would I would put >> anything that we we can spend in the next six months. I would put in >> anything we didn't we knew we didn't have to spend in the next six months. >> I would I would put all I'd maximize our investment to get as much money as we can and we may meet with the banks and the banks go uh no that's not a good deal anymore and we would never put the district in like we're not going to waste our our

110time doing it. But I really think that we we just going and negotiating those CDs >> you see the difference it's made. >> Yeah. And so we can if we can do the same thing with this money and I mean it just makes all every little bit helps when we're when we're doing this. >> So okay and I'm sorry to go over this again but >> currently 4 million >> but we we think we want to spend 1.8 for the intermediate >> project and did you say athletic facilities >> 200 for the athletics? So comes >> but that comes up 1.8 But then we've got we're saying maybe 1.7ish that's not after the bonus and everything and all of our normal budget stuff 1.7. So then that goes in there and almost replaces but doesn't

111quite get to the 1.8. So we are at >> and we still have 2.5 that's not allocated anywhere. >> Oh okay. >> So like right now if I had to set it up we have 2.5 that's not allocated anywhere. I would allocate 500,000 to the lighting project and two million to the to the thing. We move another 1.7 into it that goes straight to the to the new elementary. >> I mean it it that's just how it would get allocated. So >> and remember no matter what we have to put a label on it we put it in there. >> We can move it between the projects or completely get rid of one. We can take it out. >> Like it's not advised, but we can vote. You guys can vote. I We can't do

112it without your vote to take it out of there. >> Okay. It's not forever, >> but if you guys vote, we can take it out. Now, I will tell you that >> it's not advised. No. >> Is it's a red flag for the state that you're pulling from your building fund >> because you're in physical distress because that's not the case. >> Gotcha. and we spend all of this money. Um, you know, I always look at carryover. What's our carryover balance going to look like? You all wanted us to get down to like 12%. So, um, I've done the numbers, so I've like I've already got the board report pretty much done, but anyway, um, it looks like we're going to wind in the year with 9.5 million. That's less than our carryover of 20%,

113which is like 10.5 million. So, it's not like we're not spending everything we need to spend to meet that 20% that's required by the state. We'll be under the 20%. We're nowhere close to the 12% that you all are wanting to work towards. Um 15% would give us a $7.9 million carryover balance for the year, which is comparable to where we ended this year. is still not 12%. >> But are you including carryover is including building fund >> building fund is it own? >> Yeah, building funds its own. So that's that's set aside. That is not in there. >> Okay. I just want to clarify. >> So we are carryover last year >> was 14%. >> And if we spend all of this money >> Yeah. How much is it you for last year? For

114last year, we're carrying over 7.5 million. And that wasn't 12%, that was 14%. >> Oh, there it is. Yeah. Okay. >> So, trying to get it down. >> And so, these might be some discussions we have later in the year. We don't have to make that decision right now, but it could be a discussion we could have in the future of do we want to spend? Are we comfortable where we're at? Do we feel like we need to put more into the building? You know, I'm just working with the operating income from this year. We're not pulling anything from carryover to this this discussion today is pulling nothing over carryover. It is simply dealing with what we project for this year. So, one of the things that that I' I've mentioned to the board before

115is there's a balance in carryover to make sure you have money to meet your needs and then spending the money that you have in the right the the rest of it in the right way. So in my view, we have two things we have to do because our revenue or projected revenue will run the district and take care of all the things that we need to take care of. Next, this school year, we we will have no issues paying our bills and taking care of kids and doing all the things. So, it's a balance of how much money can we continue to build into the building fund versus how much we want to allocate to for raises as we move forward because that's what happens when you if you if you're at the maximum carryover

116of 20% which is what the state law is. You have 20% of your budget you're carrying over every year. You're not put like you could put some of that in building fund but you could also pay that to your people to take care of your people. So, it's a balancing act. when you're not trying to raise money for facilities because your facilities are set, more of that can go towards salary. We're in a position where we're going to need to do some things with some buildings, not just one, but possibly three, two, build a new one or whatever, and then replace Southside, North Side who are 74 and se 67 years old. We need to show the public that we're going to save some money along the way to help not just have the burden

117like we thought about this ahead of time. We've been trying to get ready for this. >> I think that's important, but I also think it's important we don't need to forget about our employees >> in a competitive market to keep them. So, we have to balance that >> y >> effect. So, if we're at 14 again, we might need to think about that whatever that 2% is, maybe that needs to go into the salary schedule. That's the way I would look at it down the road. We've already done the salary schedule deal for this year. >> We'll start I'll start working on salary schedule at Thanksgiving. >> So, we'll have we'll have a workshop on in I'm sure. >> T credit, you know, we did I'd call it a big correction this year. >> Oh,

118did >> so, you know, that's t credit and and >> you know, I hope our people appreciate that. Um, what I what I hope we do from now on is more maintenance, you know, more maintenance with our salary. In other words, let's not realize 10 years later that >> oh my gosh, >> we haven't done anything. But but if we're doing small incremental, I don't think it's going to be as painful for us to >> right >> to bear that. >> Um >> I'm I'm a believe I'm a bit of a guy someone else who's a little bit more uh risk intolerant needs to probably buffer this, but I I'm a little bit more like let's go let's uh let's you know go for a big number here. So, I'm going to say let's try

119to put, you know, any money that's just not anything that's just not collecting dust, I say, uh, goes in building. Um, to Shane's point, and I I totally agree with this, that, um, I really want to send a clear message to the public that we've been working hard and being frugal and, um, because I think we are going to have to go to them at some point and and I want to have a good track record. So, but that's just like Chris said, that's just me. I agree with it though. I agree with Shane totally. I do. And I hope that not only going to the public that we've been, hey, we've been really good stewards of this. We've we've seen this coming. We've planned for it to the best of our ability, but also

120their staff knows that, hey, we appreciate you, too. Um, which is really one reason why I I wanted to bump up the bonus a little bit this year. >> That's good. That's a good point. So, do we need to start figuring out a number here? >> I um I've been given guidance. I've got to add in our open positions for salaries. I have to add in this bonus >> and whatever it takes to get us to zero goes into the building. >> But I'd like to hear from if it's all right. I'd like to ask Brian >> because I haven't heard Brian say well his other than the 750. I heard that, but I didn't hear anything else. >> Yeah. I'm just sitting over here mulling. So the carryover, we're going to have carryover 7

121million. >> That's what it is right now. >> Next year it could be 9.5. >> You don't have that anywhere. That's that's my secret number here. >> But remember, it's 20% of your current year revenue. So our revenue is going up. Therefore, our carryover balance can go up. And so, just because we carried over 7 million this year, 9 million next year might be the same percentage depending on what the revenue is that comes in. >> I don't think any of us though are comfortable doing what we were doing for a while in our district and hovering around that 20% carryover. >> Yeah. I don't think that's >> that's good business. No, I agree. >> Oh, I think because we're going to have that and then uh shoot, you can almost push that up to

122a,000 instead of 750. >> It crossed my mind. I thought >> you're only talking $200,000. Remember, if you ever give it one time, >> that's right. >> That was my only to be a pessimist. >> Well, >> I would love to have a $1,000, but let the record show I would love to have a $1,000. >> We cut it back a couple years ago. >> You did. >> But that's because we had all that esser money. >> Oh, yeah. That's true. >> That's what we were given those bonuses with was esser money. The only thing here here's the only thing I'll say about places that have var I've worked at that varied. You're going to have people that complain to think if it comes down next year they're just going to complain. Well, it was

123a thousand last year. >> But I think what's the way I always looked at it, if you give the employees $1,000 this year because you can, then you're doing everything you can. And if next year all you can do is 500 and you give them that and then two years later you can do a 750 or a thousand. Well, you do what you can when you can and it's the best you can do and they have they have >> that's kind of where I was going thinking my thought because we got almost 7 million carryover this year >> and then put all I'm good with putting all the money in the building fund. Okay. and uh doing the lights. But yeah, I'd say go ahead and do thousand since we can. That's me. >> I

124mean, it can be done. It's not going to kill us at all. I guess the question is >> the only thing to consider is I mean saying yes to that just means, you know, the building fund just gets less less funding towards it. >> I mean, you say yes to something, you're saying no to something else. Well, it's just $200,000. >> Well, yeah, but I mean >> in the grand scheme of things. >> Oh, for sure. But, you know, by that logic, you know, why not bump it up to 1,500 or, you know, like we could afford that, too. >> Not necessarily, but >> could afford that, too. Um, so it's not a matter of that can we do or can't we? I guess it's a little bit. The first thing Terry said when she

125This is not an argument not to do it, but it's first thing she said was here's what we did last year. So, we're always gonna, you know, we're gonna get to this time last year and go uh >> we're gonna feel like we're going to want to do it, you know, need to do it again. So, and it's fine. I I'm not saying don't do it. I'm just saying we have to realize what we're saying no to. Spending that money just means we have to say no to something else. But I'm not going to argue against it. If you feel right about it, what you think >> the comments out I'm good with 750. I'm good with,000. Mhm. Either way, >> listen to me. >> I'm not going to argue. I'm just gonna say just

126because of employees I've had, I hate the thought of giving a thousand and then next year saying, "Oh crap, I can't do it this year. I got that's my only my only hesitation. >> But maybe next year we do." >> That's what I I mean, yeah, let's let's set our sights for00 base. Not that not right now, but if you say if we give the 750, the 200,000 it's going to cost could go towards our base salaries to increase it for everyone. And that's a permanent fix. >> That's a thought. >> And we're also trying to add on 2728. And we're I mean we're going to do some we're going to do some work on the salary schedule and we we're going to do some work on we're going to always take a look at

127individual salary schedules that we think are out of line with what and so there may be one group that gets a little more attention. But I think the big thing for next year is we need to do a district-wide like for everybody. If we hit everybody and then take a look at anything out there that's an outlier that maybe has changed. >> We should be getting things pretty much >> well we should but in our same >> but some of our classified now are >> well it never stays the same. It's just like when we gave bus drivers a raise a few years ago was a huge raise we gave them. Well, all of a sudden now our starting pay is lowest in lowest in Northwest Arkansas, >> but none of our mechanics or anything

128like that, they didn't get a very big bump. Our maintenance guys didn't get a very big bump. So, they're steadily falling behind >> and so it's like, okay, >> you're always you're always going to take a look at different groups, but we are making progress. And as long as everybody knows, in my opinion, that you're doing the very best you can to get people. >> Yeah. >> We want I mean, if it was up to me, we'd pay everybody a million dollars a year if I had it. I wouldn't bother me a bit. >> 50 employees. >> Yeah. >> If I was a teacher out there listening to this, I would be encouraged that, hey, I've got a board that wants to make sure we're taken care of. >> Oh, yeah. >> Right. Is that

129Is we coming across that way? I hope. >> Yes. Okay. >> You and Brian for sure are about me. Brian wins. Brian's going to get the most credit. >> Um, no, I I'm fine either way. I appreciate our people. I, you know, a bonus is really I've never had a bonus be something that, you know, that um tells me whether I'm going to stay or leave a company. So, um, but I for sure appreciate it. And >> you know, I feel like >> Yeah, it's it's super nice. So, I I I want to do it for our people. Absolutely. Um but I just, you know, also want to be make sure that we're just being fiscally responsible because it's easy to spend OPM other people's money. You know, we just got to realize that this

130is our uh people in our district's money. So, but no, I'm I'm good with it. If we do 750, I'm fine. If we do a th000, I'm fine. I think it's just matter. It's just taking a big jump. If you go from 500 to a,000, it's just that's a big jump. Let's just let's do the 750. >> Let's just do the 750. Okay. >> and then move the balance into the uh >> building. Sounds a good time, too. Yeah. >> Okay. >> I feel comfortable with >> So, what will happen is Terry will put all this together, do the final calculations, and then in September board meeting, she will present that for you guys to approve and finalize. And 18th. >> It's 18th. >> It's the Thursday after the regular Thursday. >> It is the

13118th. >> It's not this week or next. It's the following. >> And so, uh, she'll she'll present that. We'll get that and then she has to turn that into the state. Uh, and then I think Terry after that, we need them to vote to give us approval to look into the T bills to bring back to them. at that board meeting and then you would still vote to actually make the investment. It wouldn't be a >> we can't you can give us the authority to check it out and research it, but we can't sign it. We can't do it's above our threshold of >> I mean it's kind of a gray area because we did you did do that with the we were able to do that with >> do that with $12 million one

132time, you know. Well, we did it with we did it this last year with the CDs. Like we went Terry and I went, >> but in this case, I think the T bill deal needs to be would need to be voted on by you guys. >> Does anybody have anything else? >> Thanks everyone for being here. Yeah. >> Thank you very much. Appreciate y'all.