001Hi, I'm Sarah Clawson, public relations and marketing specialist with the Talison Union High School District. Today I am with governing board president Steven Chapman and our superintendent, Jeremy Kais. Tomorrow we have a governing board meeting. Mr. Chapman, you have an announcement. >> Uh yeah. Uh tomorrow evening our governing board meeting will be in the district office governing board meetings uh governing boardroom starting at 6 p.m. >> 6 pm. And so today we wanted to take some time to just go over the agenda, talk about how meetings are run um and some of the key items that we'll be discussing tomorrow. So at the beginning of every meeting it's called to order by the board president and um there's just a general list of things that you do every every meeting. Pledge of allegiance, the land
002acknowledgement. Um is there anything else that I'm missing? >> Yeah. No. Uh yeah, we just kind of get the meeting going. Uh do our roll call uh those items. Uh this meeting there's a uh public hearing on there. So the start of this meeting will be a little bit different uh where we'll do a presentation on a budget revision um as well as having comments from or questions from uh the public. Uh superintendent, you want to kind of address like why we do those things? >> Absolutely. So when it comes to the budget, um the budget cycle begins in usually around the June time frame. Um we have two statutory dates, July 5th and July 15th. So July 5th is when we have to have a proposed budget done and July 15th we have to
003have an adopted budget done and there has to be 10 days gap between proposed and adopted budget. So those are required. We normally like to get that process started at our second meeting in June. Um in some cases we've even done it in the first meeting in June. So that's to get your budget adopted for the year. But after you have your budget adopted there's two required revisions. Um, one of them is December 15th and and that is only if you've been notified that it's a required divi revision. If you haven't been notified by the Department of Education that you have a required revision, then it's optional for the district. A lot of times we like to go ahead and do the December 15th revision even if it's not required. And the reason for that
004is when we start the year, so around the June time frame, we're projecting what we think the student enrollment is going to be for the upcoming year because we're on current year funding. So we have to project what we think the student count is going to be before the first student is actually set foot on campus. And so that's never going to be a perfect science. And so we normally like to do that update on December 15th. And we like to error high on that projection. So, we'll we'll go higher than what we think the student counts going to actually be. We'll go higher than what we think the overrides are going to actually be. And the reason for that is tax rates get set off of that adopted budget. If if you go with
005a number that is too low, you are risking that you will lose funding that you cannot recover. Um, but if you go too high, then you just go ahead and scale back at your first revision, which is typically what we'll do. We'll go a little high and then we'll scale it back down in December. The next required revision will be May 15th. That is the final revision for the year. So on May 15th, we'll come back, we'll revise once more, and that'll be our final endofear revision to set the budget at a level that is equal to what we've seen for our average daily membership. The board is always free to do additional revisions throughout the year. There's no limit on how often we can revise the budget, but really those are the three main
006times that you'll you'll go ahead and revise your budget. you adopt, then you'll do the revision in December, and then you'll do a final revision in May. >> And this budget is not our current budget. This is for the 2627 school year. >> No, it is it is in fact our our current budget. So, the year that we're going through um revising for the 2526 year um how much budget capacity we have. So, how much funding is available to us to spend because we are funded on the current year as our student count changes through the year. So as new students enroll or as the students withdraw, it is instantly impacting our budget and we have to keep our budget current to what's happening in our schools. >> Okay. And there is an opportunity for
007the public to have comment and question during this time. >> Sure. Yeah. So, we'll have uh I think the last meeting we had forms available for people that wanted to um either provide comments or ask questions. Um after I believe there's a short presentation on the the number updates um and then members of the public will be able to ask questions, provide comments. Um we'll have our team standing by for um any questions that might be asked just to make sure the folks are walking away knowing uh what we're doing with the budget revision before u later in the meeting when we do the adoption >> for this public comment portion. Is the public limited to so many minutes like they are in a regular public participation part? >> Um not exactly the same. Um
008you know usually folks you know um have only been up there for you know a few minutes worth of questions. Um our staff provides uh timely responses. Um yeah, we generally try to structure in such a way to make sure that you know enough people where everyone has an opportunity to um you know ask any questions or provide any comments that they want to. >> And that um information is located now on our board docs, our website. So if somebody wants to look over the budget, they can have that information available to them now. Okay. So that is just the public hearing portion of the meeting and then we will open the regular meeting. >> So that will be a call to order approval of the regular agenda. Um anything special to those items? >>
009Nope. Uh just calling the meeting to order and we have to approve our agenda before we uh start taking action on it. >> Great. And then tomorrow we have a celebration. Um our VFW post4 will be announcing teacher of the year and voice of democracy essay contest winners. So they'll be there for a presentation. Yes. And and uh we'll typically have, you know, one, two, maybe three celebrations each board meeting. Uh when we get past the beginning of the year, you'll see us focus on celebrating each one of our campuses. The principles will be able to come forward and give a presentation, but when we're on the first semester, it'll be mostly department celebrations or other celebrations that that we need to recognize. And so for this particular meeting, it is the VFW that we
010have a celebration coming forward with the VFW. >> All right. Next on the agenda is the superintendent's update and then also the governing board member updates. >> Yes. And for the superintendent update, that one is, you know, typically our PR team does a great job in helping me stay informed on all the different events and activities that are taking place across the district. And it gives a it gives a time to be able to share um that information with the governing board and with the public so that way we can try to get more acknowledgement, more recognition of all the great work that's taken place in our schools. >> Yeah. And then on the governing board updates, usually a time for uh members of the board to share um if they visited campuses or been
011to community events or or things like that, just kind of keep the public informed on, you know, some of the district events and things like that that we've been to throughout the, you know, in between the meetings or throughout the semester, throughout the school year. >> Great. Next up is the public participation portion. We typically have several people who come up and talk and the it's open for the community. Um what are some guidelines for public participation? >> Uh yeah uh main guidelines pretty much are just that um you know it's all outlined in the board docs. You know what's permissible, what's not permissible. Um we've been setting the you know time limit for that. Um folks fill out the form ahead of time before the meeting starts. Uh give it to our executive assistant
012uh Miss Lupita Goodman before the meeting starts. Um we call folks up one by one. Uh they're able to speak during their time. Um, I think just one of the big pieces there, um, you know, that I've gotten questions about is, you know, they ask [snorts] questions or provide comments and they don't see the board respond to them. Um, during the public comment piece, governing board members are not permitted to respond to the public. Um, unless those items are on the agenda, but then we talk about them during those specific parts on the agenda. We still don't talk about them during the public comment portion. So, that's really just for uh, members of the public and not really for the governing board. I think another good thing to point out is is, you know, there
013are several districts recently who have moved away from allowing uh this section on their agenda or moving this section towards the end of their agenda. Uh we've we've stayed consistent uh throughout this this time. You know, even when we have um you know, some some difficult comments to deal with, we've kept its order in the agenda. We still allow for it. If if anything [snorts] if it's a if it's a meeting where let's say we have 20 30 people showing up who want to make a comment just for the sake of everyone's time our board president manages you know how much how much time to all lot for for each person based on the number of people that are coming forward but we stay pretty consistent with you know keeping this available for our public
014to have an opportunity to give their feedback to the board. >> Okay. Next up uh the consent agenda. This is also on every single agenda for the meetings. Anything special we should know about it? >> Yeah, the and and we could talk about, you know, a few of the items in there. The consent agenda is just one of those things that help the board and the district to um just approve some administerial things, some simple things that don't typically require a lot of conversation. Um you know, typically there's things on there like our, you know, various hirings and stuff like that on personnel, um expense vouchers. So, you know, we approve a budget, you know, at the beginning of every year which authorizes district to um spend money on various school supplies and things like
015that. So, they spend the money and then we receive the receipts and all that. So, that's the accountability piece that we authorized, you know, this amount of dollars for these items. Here's the expense receipt for those items. Um, so it's typically just things like that. Um, I know there's a couple other um, you know, items on here that are just kind of like oneoff >> gifts and donations. >> Travel. Yeah, travel. that's like students going to competitions or staff going to professional development opportunities. Um, so yeah, it's just typically like administrative, you know, kind of things that the board has to approve that typically don't require a lot of conversation and in-depth, you know, discussion on. Um, I don't did you want to speak to theou on there since that's kind of like one of
016those one-off situations? >> Yes. >> For tomorrow's meeting, for Tuesday's meeting? >> Yeah. So, in addition to the regular things that you'll see at every board meeting, yeah, we'll have two or three items that may go on consent that are that are, you know, something that just happens to pop up. So, this particular meeting, we have a we do have anou with Flynn that's uh helping us increase our our civics literacy and get those civic seals up. So, that's that's one extra item that's on this agenda. Um but in the event that we ever do have something on the consent agenda that the administration has deemed um as something that shouldn't take a significant amount of discussion, but we have board members who feel otherwise like no actually we do want to talk about that
017in depth. The board always has the option to to remove those items from the consent agenda and pull them out for a separate discussion. And they've they've exercised that option uh plenty of times in the past. Um, we have annual contract renewals that are on here. You'll see us do contract renewals either in line with our fiscal year is when you'll get the vast majority of our contract renewals, but then we have some that will go on a calendar year. And so, you know, so when we get to the last meeting in in December, it's the last meeting of the the regular calendar year. You'll see us throw a annual contract renewal up there as well. So these are items that that to us in our opinion are items that don't require discussion. Um, sometimes
018it may be that the the board president informs me ahead of time is I know you guys were thinking that it's not going to require a lot of discussion, but it is actually go ahead and move that now. Or sometimes it just happens in the course of the meeting where a board member will say, I actually want to discuss that more detail and they can always do that. But this is to help make the meeting run more efficiently. That when you have all these standard items that you're just running them on one consent agenda so that way it doesn't take a meeting that could have been accomplished in maybe two hours and making it take, you know, six, seven hours. >> Hopefully not. Okay. And then moving on to the action and discussion items. There
019are two items listed for tomorrow's meeting. Um the first one is discussion or consideration to approve the first revision of the fiscal year. So that's related to the hearing that was held at the beginning of the meeting, >> correct? Yeah. This will be the time for the board to then have, you know, any discussion, ask questions of the administration about the budget revision proposal. Um, we have the budget documents in our board docs. Um, you know, from there there'd be, you know, either a motion to approve uh the budget or motion not to approve the budget. Um, you know, depending on, you know, whatever direction the board wants to take. Um and then from there if there's action on it, it's signed and uh you know delivered to like AD and all the other um
020appropriate groups. >> Okay. And then the second item uh discussion consideration to approve the guaranteed maximum price phase one early procurement and site preparations for our next high school. >> Yeah. So this item is for the construction of the new high school. Um it was almost a year ago today uh that I was down at the school facilities board. President Chapman was there with me. Uh we had our former CFO Ken Hicks was with us as well and we were talking to uh the school facilities oversight board and letting them know that we we desperately needed to begin construction on our new high school that we had been planning for for the last few years. And uh the board originally had us deemed for a denial. We were able to talk to them, convince them
021to approve and told them if you approve us today, we're we're almost ready to break ground tomorrow. Um it's a year later. We're >> not quite >> we're not quite [laughter] breaking ground. We're not quite uh done yet getting a design approved or GMP approved. So the the way the the process works, particularly with new construction, is before we can move forward with new construction, um we we need approval from the school facilities board if we want any state funds to help supplement that project. and and they do that based on our projected student counts in relation to our current capacity. And last year we got that approved because our projected student counts were showing that they would exceed our current capacity. Um our student enrollment has declined this year by almost 500 students. So
022we're not exactly on the trend line that we were expecting to see. There's been plenty of things that have happened out uh in the media and politics and other changes that are that are impacting not just our district but impacting school districts across the board that has led to um some of the reasons why our our enrollment has taken a step back. Um but now that we're approved now we can go ahead and move forward with the project. The state will be providing 130 million towards the cost for building this school. But we also have to pli apply some bond funds towards the the construction of this school and all of that is then covered under the guaranteed maximum price. So that is what the board is being asked to approve tomorrow is the guaranteed
023maximum price saying that the contract for constructing this school will not exceed this number. A lot of times it'll come back under that number. That's money that'll be returned to the district, but they're approving that this is this is the cap. This is the most that you could spend on constructing this new school. We'll have a couple of uh design options, some some new site layouts based on feedback from the prior meeting that we'll be sharing with the board. Um so that way they know what what we're looking at in terms of building the school and and then they'll have to make the decision to go ahead and move forward with building the school. Now, as I said, a year ago, we had plenty of time to hit that August 27, you know, 2027 opening.
024Um, it's cutting close now. It's cutting extremely close. So, we'll we'll have to see how the meeting goes, but we may it may cause a shift in our opening date if um if there's still significant more discussion that needs to take place uh before we go ahead and and get moving forward with the project. Uh, but that's that's what this one does is it sets the guaranteed maximum price so we can actually begin pushing dirt around uh ordering materials and start and start the project. >> Okay. >> Yeah. And and and the cool thing about building a school and the pro, you know, other parts of the process, you know, having gone through this with West Point and now this school is uh we get a lot of uh staff members providing input on how
025their schools are designed and what they'd like to see in a new school. Uh we talk to students to get their feedback because they're walking around every day. Um utilizing the facilities, the cafeteria is too far, there's not enough seating outlets, things like that. Um we get feedback uh focus groups as well from community members, parents. Um it's a very involved process when we're building a school. Um, you know, as far as board meetings goes, we might see four or five like discussion topics, but um, when it comes to like the backend work, there's a lot of people in the district and outside of the district that are working to, um, put together a really efficient design that, you know, focuses on student achievement, um, that's affordable, um, and and meets the needs of not
026just the students that'll be walking in there in 27, but the students that'll be walking in there 10, 15, 20 years from now. Um, and I think that, um, it's just really cool to like watch that process. And we'll hear a little bit more about that tomorrow, too, from some of the folks that have been involved with our stakeholder groups, um, as well. >> Great. I can't wait. I think that's it for tomorrow's agenda. Um, the board has an option to request other items come on to future agendas. And that's it. Anything else? >> Yeah. No. Uh, the request for items, future meeting dates, uh, then we motion to adjurnn. But, uh, yeah. No, I just I think uh this is a going to be a good way for us to start sharing with you
027all um out there whether you come to the meeting or just watch us on YouTube live or the next day on generally what's on the agenda, some of the backend information. Obviously, we share a lot more during the board meeting, but uh you know, for folks that don't always know what's going on right before the meeting, we're just trying to provide some uh information updates before we get there tomorrow so you have an idea of of what we're going to be talking about. And just as a reminder, the meeting is going to be held back at the district office at 6 o'clock.