0011.1 call to order of our study session. The study session is called to order at 5:01 p.m. Item 1.2 is budget and special for special revenue debt service internal service revenue. [snorts] And I'm going to turn time over to our associate superintendent Chris Herman. board colleagues and those in the audience tonight. We have several different fund groups that we're going to talk about on the revenue side. So, um we'll start to unpack each one of these as we go through it, but I do want to just start with some slides that I always like to put in there in our study sessions that as we go through in case someone hasn't um been able to to see all those. And really just starting with this this slide to direct anybody who has questions about our
002budget to really start here. It really helps our community know our commitment to transparency and accountability. And this report really contains any and all financial information about Kyne as well as other information about our district. So, it's really a good place to start if people have questions about our budget or want to know more. This again is something we've shared before. It's a timeline that shows many of the different activities that are still being worked on simultaneously right now in the month of April, which is why we try to bring our budget information to the board as soon as that information is known throughout the entire spring uh timeline. And the goal is to bring that back uh for the entire picture to the board in the month of June and ultimately voting on the
003proposed budget on June 23rd and the adopted budget on July the 11th. And then finally, won't go through the details of this slide. We've addressed it before, but for those who haven't watched all of the study sessions, it just simply explains that the format that we use in our spring presentations follow the format and cate categories of funds that are defined by the uniform system of financial reports, which aligns with our reporting requirements and structures that are used for school districts and for governmental reporting. So tonight in the study session, we're going to focus on the revenue assumptions for three different fund types. The first being special revenue funds, then debt service, and then internal service funds. And although there are a multitude of individ individual funds uh that fall under these three areas, in
004total, they are relatively small compared to the general fund, which we spoke about in our last study session. and the general fund is about 60% of all of our total governmental fund revenues. By comparison, the special revenue funds are about 21 um 1% of the total. Debt service is about 13% of what we have to report for revenues. And then um uh I feel like I missed one uh no 13% sorry for government or for debt service and 21% for special revenue funds. So tonight we're also going to cover internal service funds that you'll see listed which are actually part of the proprietary funds category but these amounts are not included in the governmental toll funds category. So typically proprietary funds are not shown or included in the consolidated financial schedules for Kyne and school
005districts because the principal operating revenues for proprietary funds are typically charges for things like healthc care benefits or other charges to district departments for goods and services. And this really means that the revenues and expenditures related to internal service funds have already been accounted for in the other other governmental funds areas. Later in the spring, um, when we aggregate the total district revenues and expenditures, I'll only bring back the total governmental fund amounts and account for those and we'll show those in our financial summaries. And that really prevents the duplication of revenues and expenditures. And that practice um, of just only focusing on governmental funds is similar in the methodology that's used in developing our financial statements that are used for our annual comprehensive financial report. So, first we'll cover special revenue funds, which um
006the definition of that category means there are funds that account for and report for proceeds of revenue sources that are restricted or committed to expenditures for specific purposes. And you'll see 15 individual funds that we'll kind of walk through quickly um just to give you some idea of what's included in here. So there's a lot of funds in this category, but um on the next two slides, we'll just do a brief description and those areas include auxiliary operations that relates to our athletics or any other extracurricular activities. The civic center fund is related to the rental of school facilities. Classroom site fund is also referred to as Prop 301. uh you'll hear that term as well and involves um or it involves the revenue collected from the portion of Arizona state sales taxes for educational
007purposes. The community school fund is a combination of our community education fund and also our preschool tuition fund. The extracurricular activities and tax credits amount um reflects the amounts collected for um or from public tax credits. Federal projects are a group of funds used to account for the revenues and expenditures from federally funded areas and projects. The finger uh print funds are designated uh and designed to handle the activities related to fingerprinting of employees. And then on the next page are the remaining funds uh which starts with food service that relates to the uh financial operations of our s serving of meals and snacks uh throughout the day for school functions. Gifts and donations include any non- capital gift or donation to Kyne. And it's important to just distinguish that uh any capital related gift
008or donation would be included in a separate capital funds type. And we'll talk about that during the May 12th study session. There's grants and gifts to teachers. That relates to any gifts or grants that might be under $1,500 from private sources that are designated uh and designed for the use u by a teacher for instructional purposes. The instructional improvement fund accounts for money received from gaming revenues in Arizona. You'll see state projects. That's a group of funds used to account for the revenues and expenditures from state funded grants or project areas. Structured English immersion is funding specifically provided for English language learners. And the student activities fund is now included as a special revenue fund. Um that changed with some some um what we call governmental accounting standards boards proclamations and and regulations a couple
009years ago. So um we include those in special revenue funds. And then finally, the textbook fund relates to money received to repair or replace lost or damaged textbooks or library books. So the funds that make up the largest proportion in next year's budget for special revenue funds would be the classroom site fund, the community school, food service, federal projects, and state projects. And these five individual funds make up almost 92% of the budgeted revenues within this category. And I'll have some some numbers that'll show that later in the presentation. So you'll be able to see those amounts. And uh but but before we get to that, I wanted to take a deeper dive to cover some of the revenue assumptions for these indiv some of the individual funds that are more significant in more detail.
010So the first area that I wanted to um walk through is the classroom site fund. And that's actually the largest fund group within the special revenues uh the special revenue fund type I should say. Uh also that term is synonymous with proposition 301. And proposition 301 was created as a result of ARS 15-977 and that specifies that school districts receive funding from a 6% statewide sales tax. Prop 301 was originally set to expire in fiscal year 21, but was extended by the legislature for another 20 years. So now that funding is extended for school districts until June 30th of 2041. The funding for this area is based on a per pupil amount that is provided each year by the state. Uh usually that's reported at the end of March. This per per pupil amount will
011fluctuate every year depending on the amount of sales tax that's generated and that amount is multiplied by the prior year 100th day weight of group A students in order to determine what Kyne's overall allocation amount for the coming year would be. So on a per pupil basis for next year, the classroom site funding is set to be $883 uh per pupil, which is actually per ADM is the way the state calculates that compared to $842, which was the amount last year, and that equates to just over uh $12.2 million in total revenue for the upcoming year. Board members might remember that the legislation for Prop 301 was changed in the spring of 2021 and that now provides more flexibility for how this money can be spent. Prior to that legislative change, only function 1000 expenditures
012which relate to uh just classroom instructional areas. They were the only areas previously eligible to receive any funding from Prop 301. But now that eligibility has been expanded to include function 2100 expenditures as well. And those include things like student support services provided by groups like counselors or behavior intervention teachers and academic and behavior specialists. So additional legislative changes also remove the requirement to have three separate funds within the classroom site fund in order to report revenues and expenditures. However, there is still a specific and limited list of allowed uses for how classroom site fund money can be used and spent. And those things would include class size reduction, teacher compensation, which allows for both base pay and performance pay components, assessment intervention programs, teacher development, dropout prevention programs, or teacher liability insurance premiums. So
013for Kyne, the largest areas where classroom site funds um amounts are spent would be in the teacher base pay, teacher performance pay and also for academic intervention. The next uh fund that I wanted to talk a little bit more about was community education and it's part of our community school category and that's the second largest fund within the special revenue fund types and that accounts for about 98% or I should say the community education piece is about 98% of of the community um school area. So this would include uh programs in areas such as kids club before and after school programs, preschool, summer programs, and youth enrichment programs. And this slide shows the overall financial impact of these programs in terms of both revenue and net income. Although the intent of tonight's presentation is really
014just to focus on the revenues, we do have some preliminary expenditure projections for next year community for next year's community education budget. Um, so what I do want to say about that is, you know, if you only look at the revenue amounts for community education, those figures can be misleading if you don't also include the expenditures as there are significant costs associated with running programs within community education. So on this slide, uh we're showing both the revenue and the overall net profit or in some cases net loss associated with our community education programs in order to show the net overall impact to our budget. Kyne operates one of the largest community educational programs in the state, serving thousands of children each year. And prior to COVID, these programs generated somewhere between two and a half
015and $3 million of profit every year. And that's important to understand from a budgeting perspective because any income that would be generated from our community educational programs would have been reinvested or committed and used to cover any other recurring and ongoing operational expenditures within our district's budget. In fiscal years 20 and 21, you can see the dramatic impact that COVID had on our community education pro education programs and consequently the financial burden that was also placed on the overall district operating budget during that time because there was actually a net loss of $300,000 and $700,000 during those two years. And that was a huge financial swing uh during that time and created a situation where achieving a balanced operating budget during those years was extremely difficult which Kyne was able to do but it did
016mean that other operational funds like maintenance and operations had to be used in order to address the gap that was placed on our overall budget. When you look at the postcoavid years, the profitability results have typ typically been lower than pre-COVID years. That's due to the rising cost to administer programs and lower um program enrollment numbers as Kyne's overall enrollment has declined over that time period as well. Going forward, when you look at um years like 26 and 27, we would expect the revenue and profit numbers to be sustainable and achievable. And again, that money um that would be made to these programs is committed towards our operating budget and covers ongoing operating expenses across the district. So that profit amount that you see for next year's projection of $ 1.9 million is higher than
017what our current uh budget for 20 2526 would be. And the team um in that area has really looked for ways to reduce software and licensing costs and also keep administrative staffing costs low. The community education team is also looking for creative ways to address site level staffing that will hopefully reduce or possibly eliminate any weight lists for the upcoming school year. So changing gears a little bit uh talking about federal projects. So on this slide I've tried to provide some more information about what's in the federal projects area. That's really a grouping of funds used to account for the revenues and expenditures involved with federally funded areas and some grant areas. Federal projects also includes areas such as title funding part B and -ate. And I'm not going to read through everything that's listed
018on this slide, but it does describe the purposes for each of these federal funding areas along with what is allowed according to federal law or any other requirements. What's difficult about budgeting for federal grants is that our state fiscal calendar does not align to the federal fiscal calendar, which ends on September the 30th. So, we make our best estimates at this point because we typically don't know our full grant allocations until the summer or sometimes even into the fall. For state projects uh for next year, there are four individual funds included in next year's budget. The Safe School grant, the First Things First Grant, and then two one-time grants for early literacy and dyslexia. The Safe School grant provides funding across Arizona for counselors, social workers, or school resource officers. And funding for this grant
019is based on a three-year cycle, meaning that you have to reapply for the grant every three years. And our current 202526 year represents the final year of that three-year grant cycle. So, um, currently that grant provides funding for full-time counselors at all of our locations and SRO SRO officers at each of our middle school locations. And we have already completed our applications for funding for this grant um, for that next three-year grant cycle. However, we won't know what the final outcome of the grant is until the coming months. The first things first, early literacy and dyslexia grants that you see listed here are all relatively small in scope. Um trying to include them just for the sake of transparency and they provide uh support for areas that would impact early childhood programs and literacy as
020well. So athletics is another area that I wanted to highlight and talk a little bit about. um it's part of the auxiliary operations fund and although that may not be one of the largest funds within that special revenue fund type it definitely is an important element for our middle school activities. So I did want to talk about the financial investment that Kyne makes in this area. About two years ago Kyne made a board presentation on athletics and we discussed the financial impact that it had on our overall operating budget. So under our current model, the costs to run, officiate, staff, and administer our athletics program are always higher than the amount of revenue that's collected from the participation fees. And next year really is no different. You can see on this table that the estimated
021revenues for next year are expected to be slightly slightly lower than the previous year at about $525,000 really because we haven't been able to fill all the athletic teams across our middle schools. But the estimated expenditures are just about $760,000, which means that the overall net loss for next year is expected to be about $253,000, which is almost exactly the same, very similar to what the impact was in the previous year. So, because the athletics program is not self-funding from a financial perspective, what that means is that the district has to make up the additional investment or make an additional investment, I should say, of our maintenance and operations dollars in order to make up that gap and that that budget difference. So, these are all the numbers that put a little more context to
022what we just talked about. Um on this slide you can see the total projected revenues for next year's budget on the special revenues funds areas compared against actual amounts for the last two years as well as last year's adopted budget. The amounts that we have for fiscal fiscal year 27. They're still estimates at this time and really could change over the next few months. And if there were any adjustments that would need to be made um between now and we would bring those back to the board, I'll definitely highlight that and make sure the board's aware of any changes um when we consolidate all of our revenues and expenditures in June. You can see um that that the relative size of each fund category as well as the overall revenue for next year is um
023somewhat aligned with previous years, but I'll talk a little bit more about areas that might not be. Um, it's also important to understand that for many of these funds, the revenue amounts do not represent what is available to spend in the form of discretionary money for for our district because there are also direct operating expenditures that must be covered as well. So, an asterisk that you see on this table indicates where there might be significant expenditures associated with administering the programs or activities within that fund. And in many cases, the revenue amounts that are listed here are almost equal to or maybe just enough to cover those expenditures. So, in other words, for fiscal year uh 27, there are $17.3 million of revenues that are marked and highlighted with an asterisk, but the district uh
024does not have and will not have $17.3 million available to spend. However, it chooses because there are direct program expenses and costs uh that will offset most of that revenue amount. The total amount that you see for special revenue funds uh for next year is anticipated to be essentially in line with last year's amount just over $ 38.5 million. However, there are some smaller changes within those individual funds uh that I just want to make sure just to highlight. Uh one of them is about a $1.1 million drop in our food service revenue. That's expected next year due to lower projected overall student enrollment. Kyne does outsource the activities related to school cafeteria cafeteria operations to a third party vendor and has done so for many years. Our contract has a fixed price associated with
025each meal served. So any revenue and also the expenditures that would be generated from food service would be variable and based solely on the number of meals that would be served during the year. There's also a $560,000 increase in federal projects versus last year's budget. That's mostly related to an expected increase in title 6B funding as our population of students that require specialized educational services has been increasing in recent years. The uh state projects change of about $850,000 of a decrease relates to how the safe school grants were awarded last year as an additional grant was awarded uh during last year's uh fiscal year for additional counselor positions. You may also notice if you look backwards in time that um there's a relatively large federal projects amount in the 2023 24 year and that really
026was a result of the funding that was issued um by the federal government to school districts to mitigate the impact from our COVID pandemic. You may have heard that referred to as ESSER funding in other uh years and presentations. Although um it's similar to last year's budget, I do want to point out that the budgeted revenue that you see for structured English immersion for that grant, it's really not known at this time. Um this is a competitive grant and awards are typically not known until the June or July time frame. Um typically right before we bring a budget back to the governing board. So if a different amount is awarded, we would adjust this amount up or down according um accordingly before we would adopt that budget. We've done that almost every year because of
027the timing. And I would say for every other fund that I did not highlight, we would expect the remaining funds uh the remaining revenue from those funds to be similar to previous years. So switching gears a little bit to debt service funds. um those ser or debt service funds those areas um are its own individual fund type and those areas account for and report financial resources that are restricted committed or assigned for bond related principal and interest. There's only one fund included in this fund type. It's also called the debt service fund. Uh and revenues from this fund can only be used to pay for the principal and interest on bonds. and that money cannot be used for any other purpose or program. However, we are required to include these amounts as part of our
028overall and total governmental funds budget. These revenue amounts come from secondary property tax rates that are applied against assessed uh property values across the district. And these funds are collected by Maricopa County when property tax payments are made during the spring and the fall. So, for next year, um, you know, it's money we can't actively do anything with in our operating budget, but that amount for next year is expected to be about $25.3 million. And then another category um that we wanted wanted to talk about was internal service funds. And they are part of the proprietary funds category. And these areas account for activities that provide goods or services to other funds or departments or component units um or to other governmental entities on a cost reimbursement basis. So funds included in this type typically
029include um things like the internal service fund which relates to our internal print shop activities, the self- insurance workers comp area, intergovernmental agreements which represent activities related to our shared legal uh agreements and costs with Tempe Union School District and also the self-insured Kyne Employee Benefits Trust sometimes referred to as KBT. Um I would say that KBT is by far the biggest fund in this overall group of internal service funds and it makes up about 85% of the total revenues um for this category and you'll see that on this next table. So this slide shows uh a little bit more detail on the numbers for the projected revenues in next year's budget compared against two previous year actual amounts as well as last year's adopted budget. And as I me as I mentioned previously some
030of the um areas in fact on this category it's all the areas um these amounts are not part of the governmental funds category um we would typically not include them in our financial schedules again because the revenue and expenditures that are listed have already been accounted for in other governmental funds but in the interest of transparency uh we wanted to show the amounts for next year and again we talked about this asterisk uh for all these funs that are listed indicates that there would be significant expenditures uh direct expenditures with operating each of these funds and the things that these areas would cover. So the revenue that you see here would be used to offset the expenditures that are also required to administer all the programs activities and and costs that would take place. And
031like we discussed also with the special revenue funds, these revenue amounts do not represent what the district has available to spend on a discretionary basis. um because as in many cases the revenue amounts would be almost equal to the overall expenditures. I do want to mention a few things uh kind of walking through here that are significant um and important to understand. The first is that the self- insurance KBT fund by far is the largest fund in this fund type and the estimated revenues for um next year would be about $13.5 million. And that represents the total contributions um into the insurance fund of which about 80% of the overall plan cost contributions are funded by the district versus about 20% of the total contributions coming from employees. These revenues reflect the same premium assumptions
032that were provided uh to the board earlier in the spring regarding our upcoming fiscal year 27 contribution rates. And in addition to the medical and pharmacy cost, this amount of revenue also includes what would be considered pass through amounts as well, which include areas such as dental insurance, vision insurance, or any other additional insurance coverages that are offered by Kyne. These benefits are referred to as pass through because the costs are typically play paid entirely by the employees. But the district acts as the agent to collect the employee contributions and then subsequently pays the vendor for the expenses. So in this matter we are just operating as a pass through entity and really experience no financial impact. You can also see the continued stability in the KBT revenue amounts which really is a reflection of
033the lower health care costs our plan has experienced recently and is also expected to um incur in the upcoming year and I would say given the financial challenges faced by K the KBT fund in the recent past it's very encouraging to see a dramatic reversal in our medical expenses and that has led to far greater financial stability across our district. The internal service fund amount that you see represents the revenues generated from our district's print shop operations. And that would really be expected to be in line with last year's budget amount. And I also wanted to point out that the print shop revenue that you see uh includes both internal and external customers. Um that's been included as a total number here in order to make it more comparable to see year-over-year variances. The next
034line is for the self- insurance or workers comp fund that is used to pay for our district's workers compensation insurance. The amount the amount of $65,000 that you see is an estimate for next year's annual workers compensation insurance bills and that would be funded based on payroll deposits that are made during the upcoming year. Uh typically we don't receive our workers compensation insurance amounts until around June. So, um, if we have any adjustments or or corrections to that number, we'll bring that, uh, forward to the board. Um, because we typically don't get the exact number until right before we're putting the final final touches on the budget. And then finally, the intergovernmental agreements amount that you see listed there, that really reflects shared costs, uh, the shared legal costs, I should say, with Tempe Union.
035the entire bill or the entire uh budget amount is um shown here because Kyne pays for all of those expenditures upfront and then we build Tempe Union half of that amount uh dur during the year uh for their 50% amount. So that's why that that's reflected in the way that it is. So we walked through a lot of funds and a lot of numbers tonight. Um I'm happy to answer any questions that our board members might have. Thank you, Mr. Herman. Do any board members have any questions? Uh, member Davis. Thank you. Thank you again. Very clear, very interesting. Raises a couple of questions for me that I just I'd like to know a little bit more about. I'm correct in that many of these numbers aren't final because we don't have the information yet.
036Right. That's correct. Yes. Okay. But so um slide nine, page nine. Would you please explain to me the blue and the orange what the function is of those? I don't quite understand. Sure. Yeah. Um, so you know, when we talked about revenue assumptions, we we pretty much focused just on the revenue amounts for all of the funds. However, with our community education area, we we do have some pretty good ideas of what the costs would be as well. So, I'm showing both on or I'm showing the impact of both on this slide. The blue bar would represent the revenue amounts that would be generated by running the programs that we have. And that's um that's the blue line that you see versus the orange bar would represent the amount of income or loss that may
037have been incurred during those same years. And so um what what you can't see if you just purely focus on the revenue amount is what the overall financial impact is for those areas. So I'm trying to show both what they generated in in revenue and then the profit or the income amount or the loss amount would be the revenue amount minus the expenses for community educational programs. So what is the difference between this is going to sound maybe a little whatever but what is the difference between revenue and income? So revenue would represent the collections that we receive from tuition payments. So when children enroll or parents, maybe parents enroll their students in programs, uh they make contributions and and payments for the programs. That's the revenue. That's the money we collect. And then from
038those um monies we collect, we have to pay our staff. We have to pay for expenses, uh snacks, and sometimes uh other costs associated with running the program. When you subtract the expenses from the revenue, that's what your your profit your income is or your loss. In some years, we've had expenses higher than our revenues. Okay. Okay. Thank you. I think I understand that. And it might also help um I think you said this, Mr. Herman, but what that that the number in orange represents the amount that we have as a district to be able to apply to Do you want to say where we can apply? Yeah, it really I tried to list it on here. I mean, there's state statute that says any additional income, it's the second bullet point, um that you
039make in these programs can be used to cover any expenses that would be eligible for your maintenance and operations area. So, we reinvest that. It could be a variety of areas for personnel or for ongoing costs. It really kind of works the same way as M, but but we're allowed um like Superintendent Tenius mentioned to invest that into our budget. It it helps uh us to do more things than we could do with without being a without running these programs. Okay, good. Uh thank you. Um slide 12 or no no 13, I'm sorry. So, am I correct that you said we contract out our food service? Correct. Those are the people who serve lunch to the kids and stuff like that. Um, why do we do that? Well, there's a there's a variety of reasons
040why you might do that. Um, you can choose to operate any program in a school district. um you would be responsible for the hiring, for the you know the staffing, for the costs associated with that or there's also vendors that perform those activities without us having to you know do the hiring, do the procurement for food storage and things like that. Typically you you you have less cost if you can have a vendor um that will do that. We we performed that analysis before. it's less costly for us to have a third party do it than if we were to maintain that ourselves. Um, that's just a financial reason to do it. There's also other reasons on the personnel side. Um, it's very difficult to staff, you know, and hire. Um, you know, that is
041about I don't know how many people are at each location. It's not our business to run anymore, but you could imagine having several people at 25 locations. That's a lot of staff to to maintain. Um, and you have to have those people there every day, right? So, organizationally, um, I know our talent management team would say they would need to take on more resources to be able to, you know, work through that constant, uh, hiring process. And then you also have an area of ordering food and storing food, right? That's not an expertise we typically would have. So, again, those are other non-financial reasons to do it, but those typically are the considerations that we would look at as far as whether we want to do that work in-house or whether we want to have
042a third party take that on. Okay. Thank you. Um, and let me just add for Mr. Herman, that's not an uncommon practice because in my district, we outsource through Chartwells. So, a lot of districts do that. So, that's not like just Kyne doing it. We do it in my district as well. Okay. But, but it costs less to have an outside group provide the food service than it would cost the school district. In our contract, it does. And I think um when I mentioned earlier that the costs for our program are variable, it basically means we're not responsible like if we had to hire staff, we would be responsible for that staff regardless of how many meals were served, right? By contracting that that that um that risk is passed on to the vendor. So
043they're responsible for staffing no matter how many meals are served. We just get a per amount that per amount that we collect or per amount that we pay. Um, so we don't have to invest our operating budget towards that. That's that's what I was trying to that's where it would come from would be our operating budget. Um, because we outsource it, we don't have to make that investment, right? Because we'll collect money to pay for the number of meals that we serve. It's completely variable. I I only asked because historically um, one of the rules was that the school district, if I remember correctly, that the school and maybe Jordan, Mr. LL could help me with this. I don't know. But um the school district was uh looked frowned upon having an outside entity compete
044in quotes with the school district for food service. The food service was well before before Mr. Lel comments I will say we we outsource several areas and I think school districts you know can choose which areas they they might want to outsource. For instance, our grounds is outsourced and our custodial um cleaning cost or cleaning um is outsourced as well. So it's not just food service that we would have a situation like that. Yeah. So member Davis, so specific to food, there are some additional requirements um if we're serving any food at the district site. Um, by outsourcing it, we avoid some of these issues of competition or making sure that the food meets the health standards that have just been put in place and you know those variable costs. Okay, thank you. That's all
045I have. Thanks. Great presentation again, Vice President. Yes, thank you. I also have a question. Um, you went over very well, you know, why we're seeing a either it's going to stay the same or there's some um some decreases, some some increases, but I was wondering if you could um speak a little bit more on this. It looks to be like a bigger jump. There's a 35% increase. There is one of the items that um I was wondering about. Um the student activities correct if I heard correctly. Is that because of the additional supplements or typically? Yeah, typically. Yeah, typically. So, thank you for the question. Student activities typically represent the clubs um that that schools may form or trips that they may go on, right? And so you did see in some of the
046years recovering from COVID, if if I were to drop a few more years in there, you would see um where where we dipped pretty heavily in a lot of studentbased activity areas, not just um the student activities area, but others participation may have been low or just opportunities um weren't there. And so you've seen a gradual recovery of that. So the increase that you're seeing um is is um over the periods where we've been building back up, but probably is more in line with where we were pre-COVID years. Yeah, I I could I can and I can follow up with that if you'd like to see some of the other other years in there. I had just one question, too. Yes. Um I can't remember the slide number, forgive me. Um but it was about
047the athletics. What slide was that on? Anybody call? Well, so with that, and I know we I remember we had that conversation before about, you know, basically losing money because of the athletics and with the consolidations. What does that look like for us in the future? Do you think we could possibly break even with that? Am I making sense with my question? It's a It's a great question. I think for next year because our middle schools will look the same um for the most part as far as the number and the structure, the financial will probably look the same as well. Um and I would say anytime um if we would continue the same programs and offerings that we do today into the future, you're probably going to see numbers very similar to this. So
048to break even, you're either going to have to um do one of two things. You would either have to find a way to raise the revenue amount, which would be tuition, right? The tuition that would be paid, or find ways to reduce the expenses, which would be mostly it's things the coaching and and field rentals and and stipens that we give to um personnel that provide um um assistance or um safety. They're they're there to supervision. Thank you. That was the word I was searching for. Supervision. So, we would have to look at ways to either raise that revenue amount, um raise the tuition amount, or find ways to take costs out of the program. Thank you. Uh just a quick question to kind of continue through with the athletics thread. Is it my understanding,
049I know we went through the athletics pre presentation about two years ago when we were reimagining what we're offering and things like that. My understanding is this district even precoid we've kind of always operated at a deficit in this area because uh we're very cognizant we don't want to increase the tuition costs for our families so students can have these really formative experiences. I did have a question. When we talk about expenditures, does that include how we are also transporting our kiddos to and from the different events? That is actually not included. That's not included in here. No, that would be part of our transportation budget. Okay. So, that is something that is completely separate. I just remember the beginning of the year that was kind of an area struggle and I was wondering if
050that that number was represented in here. And so, that would come out of more of our general funding then in the transportation bucket. Correct. Okay. [snorts] Thank you. Um, I really appreciate your your presentation as always. Any other board members have any questions? All right, seeing none, item 1.3 will conclude our study session at 5:54 and we will reconvene our meeting at 6. meeting. Our regular meeting is convened at 6:00 pm. At this time, oh, hi. [laughter] At this time, all blue cards need to be turned into the board secretary if you wish to request to speak to the governing board. Our school board meetings are held in public to conduct the business of the district. Kyne School District believes education is a partnership between schools and home and we not only represent the rights
051of parents and guardians but value their role in our district. Students thrive when we all work together. As always, our board meetings will be livereamed on the internet for those who cannot watch our meetings live. A recording will be made available and posted typically within 48 hours. Board agendas may be obtained from the district office and the Kyne website 24 hours in advance of the board meeting. Our superintendent, Laura Tenyes, and senior leadership are here with us tonight. Item 2.2 is roll call. Would board members state their name for the record? Cedric Collins, Bunny Davis, Kevin Walsh, Amy Sri, Trina Nelson. Let the record show that five board members are present. Item 2.3 is a moment of silence and pledge of allegiance. And I would love it if Delia Lighting, our KA president, could lead
052us in the pledge. to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Item 2.4 is our land acknowledgement. Kyne School District acknowledges that our community of schools is located on the ancestral lands of the Aam and Peosh peoples who have inhabited these lands since time immemorial. With this land acknowledgement, the district formally recognizes that traditional care and keeping of these lands by native peoples allows us to be here today. In item 2.5 is the Kyne promise. We promise to provide welcoming, inclusive learning environments in which every student is honored, valued, and feels a strong sense of belonging and purpose. We promise to provide rigorous, responsive learning environments in which every student is given what they need
053to develop knowledge, skills, confidence, and a passion for learning. We promise to provide vibrant world-class learning environments in which every student believes they are empowered and prepared to make a meaningful impact on a rapidly changing world. Item 3.1 is pre and approval of the agenda. Are there any changes to tonight's agenda? All right, seeing none, may I have a motion to approve tonight's agenda? So move. Is there a second? I second. There's a motion by member Davis and a second by member Collins. All in favor say I. I. Motion passes 5 to zero. Item 4.1 is our superintendent report. Superintendent Tenius. Thank you, President Nelson, governing board members, um staff here this evening, and um family members joining us as well. I am excited to share a few updates of um activities going on around
054the district. So, April 11th through 17th was National Week of the Young Child. A celebration of celebration honors young children, their families, and educators while celebrating the importance of high quality early childhood education with themed interactive daily activities. The Kyne Community Education Preschool team engaged our littlest learners in exciting activities. Students created their own instruments, embraced their artistic sides, decorated birdhouses with their families, and more. So, thank you to our preschool teachers for creating these engaging experiences for our preschoolers and their families. Also, last week we celebrated Kyne Media Center assistance for National Library Week. Our Kyne Media Center assistants show up every day to connect students with the right book, the right resource, and the right encouragement. This incredible group of 25 individuals are dedicated to instilling a love of reading in our students,
055and we are so fortunate to have them on team Kyne. Also excited to share girls on the run a 5K. Students from Kyne Middle School, Kyne Del Norte, Kyne de Las Logos, and Kyne de la Marada participated in the Girls on the Run 5K race on April 20th. We are so proud of our students for their dedication, perseverance, and positive spirit both on and off the track. I was able to participate in one of these many, many years ago, and it's quite a fun event if you have not done so. And also last Thursday, the Kyne School District art show officially launched online and in person at the Chandler Public Library Sunset Branch. Families of students whose artwork was selected for display were invited to a special opening reception organized by our certified art teachers
056and district special areas and electives coordinator Julianne Weissberg. We deeply value the arts education in Kyne and we are so proud to offer certified art instruction for all Kyne kids. I am grateful to all of our certified art educators for their time and dedication to ensuring their students find ways to express themselves, build their self-esteem, and communicate their feelings through creative pursuits. If you have a chance, stop by the Sunset Library now through May 12th to see the show. It is open to the public. You can also view the show online. Also excited to share that we had a special visitor. Um, Arizona Secretary of State Adrienne Fontes joined Miss Nichols class during their Arizona History Project presentations, Dear America, Love Arizona. Students have been diving into all things Arizona, learning about the state bird,
057tree, colors, and flag, exploring the wonders of the Grand Canyon and the Colorado River, and even discovering the uniqueness of the four corners. So, thank you so very much to Secretary Fontes for visiting our um school. Also excited to share that Kyne had lots to celebrate yesterday's at yesterday's council for exceptional children awards ceremony honoring excellence in special education three students were recognized datist from Kyne de lasa keaton case roads from Kyne aima aol and William Tang from Ky Kyne de lasicus several staff members were also recognized for their contributions as Well, including Melissa Belton and Jesse Oats for outstanding collaborative team at Estraa, Finineian McLaren for outstanding general education teacher at Manitus, outstanding instructional assistant Regina Freigha at Espironza, and outstanding special education teacher Algra Peterson at Lis. So, congratulations to all of our
058winners. Here we go. Woo. [applause] And our partners with the Tempe Coalition are inviting parents to join them at the Valley of the Sun YMCA tomorrow night to learn more about nicotine, THC, and teen trends. This parent workshop with presenter Stephanie Ciete will give parents tips on how to talk to their teens and warning signs to look out for when it comes to what teens are exposed to online and how phones connect to substance access. If you have never seen um Stephanie present, I highly recommend you attend this event. She um is quite a powerful speaker and has some very good information to share. Also excited um our final positive parenting presentation of the school year is coming up on May 13th. It is on Zoom from 6:00 to 7. Parents will have the opportunity
059to explore how to support support their child in developing resilience and healthy coping skills in the face of stress, adversity, and social stigma. This course offers practical tools to help families navigate challenges while fostering emotional strength and well-being. And that concludes my superintendent update. Thank you. Uh item 4.2 is board member statements. Do any board members have statements tonight? I have just one brief statement as a thank you to our wonderful athletics team. We are in the middle of golly, what are we doing? We are doing track and boys baseball and I believe I'm sorry what? Girls basketball. Thank you. I knew I was missing one. Um, I had an opportunity to go to one of our track meets last week and just the sea of children is one of our non-cut sports. The absolute
060sea of children and I think the thing that I was really pleased to see is the just the volunteers within the community because when you have teams that have over 150 participants, it t it truly takes a village to pull these things off. Um, and so I know that our athletics departments and our directors at each of the schools really appreciates all the parent volunteers, but the kids have a great time and we have some very fast children was wildly impressed. So, thanks. Um, which leads us to item 5. Oh, yes. Member, thank you. I'm sorry. Um, I see on our screen here that KEA officers 2026 and 2027. Have these just recently been elected? We're actually getting ready to talk about that. So, let's just pivot right into item [laughter] 5.1, which is our
0612026 2027 KE officer team. Superintendent Tenius. Thank you. Um, President Nelson, governing board members, I am so excited as part of our um, annual presentation each year as KA hosts has their elections, um, we'd like to recognize the new officers for the next school year for 2627. So, I'm going to invite them all to come up. I will introduce them and I believe they may have a few words to say and then if you'd like to say something, you may as well. Um, so for the 2627 school year, our KA president will be Miss Delia Lighting. So excited to have her back in that position. [applause] We Do you want to introduce your team or do you want me to do that? Is that part of um You can continue. I'll say a little bit
062about them though. Perfect. Um, and so we're going to have co-vice presidents and that will be Miss Mariah Monson and Katie Webb. So, we're going to hear a little bit more and then our treasurer will be Christina Ooa and our secretary will be Jennifer Puler Lewick. So, before I hand it over, I just want to say how much I appreciate our um working relationship with our KA um our teacher association. It's been a real pleasure of mine to work with um our current board, our previous board and um president and previous president and I just know that we are going to continue that strong relationship and we um have the same vision for what we believe I think is really important for public education and for Kyne and so I'm really excited about that. So
063with that I'll hand it over to Miss Lighting. Thank you so much. Good evening, Superintendent uh Tenz, board president Nelson, board members, district leadership, and our Kyne community. My name is Delia Lighting, and it is my distinct honor to stand here as KA president for another school year. I am also an academic interventionist for math at Kina, soon to be Espironza, and I work as teacher and budsman for our certified staff. Next year will be my fourth year serving as president and I could not have done it without the people you see behind me. Mariah, who is not here today, reelected as our vice president for next year and a middle school science teacher at Altadena. She also serves as our chair for the certified meet and confer team. Katie Webb, first time elected as
064co-chair for vice president. Yay. She also serves on the board of directors for our region with the Arizona Education Association and is chair of our advocacy team. She's a wonderful kindergarten teacher at Kina, soon to be Espironza. Christina O Choa reelected as our treasurer for next year and is an academic behavior specialist at the Kyne Middle School. She is also a member of the guiding coalition. Jennifer Polar Lewick reelected as our secretary for next year and is an art teacher at Paloma. You just saw the wonderful display of what she and the other art teachers put together. Jen has served as an officer of KA longer than any of us and is a wealth of knowledge and it's just unmatched. Just like I have my officer team to support me, we have our executive board
065to support us. That team is made up of off of the officers behind me plus four other full-time teachers. Behind them stands our KA reps totaling about 40 full-time teachers representing the members at our sites. KA has a strong foundation of leadership, member advocacy, relationships, and collaboration in our district. We are looking forward to being a continued voice and presence in the plans to move Kyne forward and make Kyne stronger. Thank you. Do any board members have anything they'd like to Member Davis? First, I want to apologize for stepping on the agenda. I got excited. I I just want to thank all of you very very much. My one of the best parts of being on this board has been getting to know people from KA and uh learn from you and interact with you
066all and uh there have been some highlights and that's been one for me. So I look forward to continuing to work with you all and with the board and just that's my personal statement. Thank you member Walsh. Thank you. I'll echo that and I want to say that strong teachers unions make for strong public schools. And in this day and age, that's more important than ever. And I believe there wouldn't be so many attacks coming after teachers unions in our state if they weren't intimidated by how effective you are. So, please keep up the good and important work of advocating for our kids and our teachers and public schools. And thank you. See, see, that's why I hate going last cuz Oh, no. Member Collins. [laughter] Kevin pretty much said everything that I was going
067to say, but he just said it in a different way. But yes, you know, I don't think people realize how important the association is to the schools cuz as uh member Walsh stated, you know, strong associations make for strong community schools. And trust me when I tell you, if it were not for the associations, you think our teacher shortage is bad now, it would be a lot lot worse. So, um, thank you for doing the thankless work because, you know, people don't realize it's free.99, you know. You know, and where's Katie at? Cuz she's on that board with me, you know. We we have those meetings like all the time and we're doing that for free. Making sure people are treated fairly, making sure students are treated fairly, and they get what they need. So,
068thank you guys. I appreciate the work because I know exactly what it is. Thank you. Um, I just want to say congratulations on your reelections and uh, welcome Miss Webb to the team. That's so awesome. I I've worked with you before, so I know you're going to be a great addition and I'm I'm just so proud of you all. I know what it takes to be a a force in your community and that's what you are. And I congratulate you on that and thank you for everything you do for our schools and our students and our teachers. You're wonderful. Wonderful. Thank you. I agree with everything my fellow board members have said. I just have really enjoyed in my service on the board working with KA um in addition to you know these officers miss
069lighting the team that you've put together uh our board contacts that work with us. I mean the relationship that we have is just I think it allows us to be effective as a board and we aren't as effective as we can be without each one of you. So, thank you very much. Um, item 6.1 is request to speak to the governing board. Per board policy 1- 1-302, the Kyne governing board invites a viewpoint of citizens throughout the district. Uh, if we have any inperson comments, they can be submitted via blue card at the sign-in table. Um, but they may also be submitted electronically through a link set out in governing board notifications. State statute prohibits the governing board from discussing an item that's not on the agenda, but we do listen and we can request
070that the staff follow up with any concerns. Um, Miss Tenus has informed me tonight that we have a total of zero public comments uh submitted this evening. So, uh, we won't have any. Maybe we'll have some electronic comments submitted. Uh so we'll move on to item 7.1 is our consent agenda. Are there any changes to the consent agenda? Seeing none, may I have a motion to approve the consent agenda? I feel so moved. I'm going to say that is a motion by Vice President Sri. Can I get a second? I'll I'll second it. [laughter] I will take that second by member Collins. All in favor say I. Motion passes. 520 item 8.1 is board committee and conference reports. Do any board members have any committee or conference reports? All right, seeing none, we are going
071to move into the policy portion of our evening, which item 9.1, which is policy 1-401, parents/legal guardian rights and education. This is a second read. I'm going to turn it over to Mr. LL. Thank you, President Nelson, members of the board. Um, pursuant to the discussion that we had after the first reading, we have made the revision on page three of the policy to add the um clause, if any, regarding um our health assistance and the requests that we might receive for their certifications. That mirrors the statutory language in 15160.04. And I'm happy to answer any questions. Do any board members have any questions? No, I don't. I didn't have any. All right. Uh, may I have a motion to approve the second read and adopt policy 41-401, parents/legal guardian rights and education? So, second.
072Okay. We have a motion by member Walsh, a second by member Davis. All in favor say I. I motion passes 5 to zero. Item 9.2 is policy 5-201 patriotic exercises and observance days. This is a second read. Mr. Al. Thank you, President Nelson. Members of the board, um you'll see on the bottom of page one, uh regarding the section on Declaration of Independence, uh that we've added language to reflect that a student or the student's parents may object and that retaliation against a student who either objects or their parent objects is prohibited. And we borrowed language from other um statutes regarding that retaliation language. Happy to answer any questions. Any questions for Mr. Al? Seeing none, may I have a motion to approve policy 5-201? I motion. I will Oh, and adopt. I'm so sorry.
073Do you still I still motion to adapt and adopt. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I will go ahead and second that motion. All in favor say I. I. I. Motion passes five to zero. Item 10.1 is items for future consideration. Do any board members have any items they would like to list? I mean, could this be an item for future consideration? I'm just going to throw it out there. But first T Phoenix, the golf [snorts] um academy, they I met a couple of the guys on Saturday while I was out doing another volunteer opportunity and they want to bring uh an academy to the title one schools in the district free of charge for all the students to teach them the game of golf. So um how do I go about you know
074if if that's well right now what you're doing is perfect. Uh, so we can go ahead and list that as an item for future consideration. Um, given what that is, we might learn more about it or get that information. To come in and talk about it if if need be. Yeah. Or connect with superintendent tenius and we can see where who we need to go through in order to like start to vet that and then bring it towards this body. All right. Thanks. Any other items for future consideration? Okay. Item 11.1, our next is meeting dates. Our next regular meeting is scheduled for May 12th. And then item 12.1 is convene into executive session. May I have a motion to convene executive session. So move. Can I get a second? Second. That's a motion by
075member Walsh and a second by member Davis. All in favor say I. I. Motion passes 5 to zero. Are you guys? Oh, you're doing my call. All right. Item 12.3. May I have a motion to conclude executive session? Motion. Can I get a second? Second. Motion by member Collins, second by member Walsh. All in favor say I. I. Motion passes three to zero. Uh [clears throat] and then item 12.4 is conclude the meeting. I'm going to go ahead and make a motion to conclude the meeting. Is there a second? Second. All right. All in favor say I. I. Motion passes 3 to zero. This meeting is adjourned at 7:24. Thank you.