001Good evening and welcome to the board of education finance committee meeting. Today is Tuesday, March 18th, 2026 and the time is 6 p.m. Joining me tonight are members Diana Carpio, Marcus Haime, and Garrett Oliver will be with us shortly. Also with us tonight is MPS CFO Mr. Linda Osmani and budget director Miss Christian Carsman. First, I will entertain a motion to approve the February 11, 2026 minutes. Are there any revisions or amendments? If a motion by Diana Karpio and a second by Marcus Hammy. So, those minutes are um passed. Next on the agenda, we will get a budget transfer report by Miss Cars. Good evening. How are you? Can you hear me? Oh, something happened to the screen. Oh. There we go. Can everyone see that? So, here are the budget transfers for the last
002month. Um, we have one, two, three, four complete transfers. Most of them are to cover the food service deficit. As you know, we had been running during the year. Uh the first one listed here is the we had a grant that had um some additional funding where we were able to charge a piece of a nurse to that and we were able to transfer 66,000 to cover the food service deficit for the 910 account. The second one we see here is for a reserve teacher. So, we took funding of 35,000 out of the reserve teacher holding account and we transferred it to a BCBA salary. What this has to do with is a this is a pipeline position. It's a new thing we're trying out to hire um certain special education positions into. It's kind
003of a transient position. We'll hire the correct people in there and then they'll be transferred to um the appropriate spots. So then we're not having, you know, uh makeup services later. So that will help us do that. That's 35,000. So it's a portion of the salaries. The next one on here has to do with shifting funds again to the food service deficit. And what this has to do with is a one of the maintenance vacancies. Um had a vac it was vacant for some point. We're hiring the person now. So we're just scooping up the money that was sitting there from having that vacancy. It's 31,000 from the salary and 3,000 from the travel account. And then the last piece here is also moving $216,000 to cover the food service deficit. This has to do
004with five line items. The first one is for testing. Um the college board software, it's all coming from 733. They had discounted the software cost to us one time. That was worth 30,000. PR communications instructional software. This had to do with parent square savings and there was a module or a piece of the software that we didn't need to purchase that was $11,000. The third piece here was for planning and research other professional services. This was uh a cleaning environmental study that we had budgeted for, but Afinino, which is now Pritchard, had uh picked this up on a one-time basis for us, and that was 35,000. And then the last two line items had to do with Sono. We had savings for electricity and gas of 70,000 each because we had budgeted for full occupancy,
005but really we only needed the building 50% of the time. So all of that racks up to 351,000. 316,000 of that was transferred to cover the food service deficit. We have 367,000 more to go and we anticipate that hopefully we'll be able to do that. Any questions? >> Yeah, that's great. Oh, >> that is great. No questions, but that was great that we were able to save all that money to help with the food deficit. Great. >> And it looks like I mean I don't know the food deficit is probably going to continue though, right? Because I'm thinking that we're having some challenges with that. I mean uh as we move forward that >> I mean for next year. >> Yeah. Right. Yeah. >> Yep. Yeah. >> Same thing unless we make a few changes.
006But at least for this year, this particular deficit, we're chipping away at it. >> Good. Good. >> So if there are no other questions, I will entertain a motion for the transfers. Motion by Diana Karpio and second by Marcus Hammy. So those uh budget transfers are passed and so now we will get a report year-to- date budget report from Mr. Osmani. Thank you, Miss Carsman. >> Good evening. Um so want to make a quick uh give you a quick update of where we are year to date. These are financials as of February 28th and so we're almost uh through the year. We're almost at the end of the third quarter. So you have the line item information is here. You also have the PowerPoint and in your packet there should also be the budget narrative
007um that goes with this. So a lot of what I'm saying will um you should already have. So the general fund obviously being the main fund of um of the district salaries and benefits account for about 75%. Um this fund right now reflects about a 5.9 increase over the last year largely due to the um contractual agreements with salaries and so forth. So I'll walk you through the individual items and briefly talk about uh what the drivers are. Again you have the details. So salaries include compensation for all of employees. Temporary employees are included in this line item. Right now this accounts for 59% of the overall general fund. Year to date we're at about $85.8 million which is just about 0.3 million less than the prior year. Part of that has to do with
008timing of the payrolls, but also just the positions that are in place today versus positions that were in place this time this time last year. Among the drivers that are driving this is we are seeing a slight dip in the salaries for our unaffiliated employees, supervisory employees, certified hourly and nurses. Again, that just has to do with who is in those roles. Um areas where we're seeing a slight increase are in salaries for our aids, physical therapists, uh role folks that are principles in the schools and other certified staff. But net is is overall decrease over time. But those are some of the key drivers uh that are driving it upwards or downwards. Benefits we've talked about the biggest um item in the benefits category is our um medical health insurance, employee health insurance. There
009are other things in benefits like our payment for social security, our payment for workers workers comp, but by large it is really our medical health benefits. And so what we do here, all of our medical benefits are paid out of our medical fund. So we transfer funds from what we've budgeted from the general fund to the health insurance fund and that's where we pay these expenses. We do these transfers quarterly and therefore this just reflects a quarterly transfer. And so last year we had done about 18.8. This year it's about 20.4. That really has to do with our obviously our health insurance has gone up um year-over-year. So that's really what's um what's driving that increase. There is a slight increase in our unemployment compensation payment to the state as well uh year-over-year. As you
010know this year there is a new the family leave law that was that was that was put in place. We do have to uh make payments towards that and those are coming out of this um benefits account as well. Uh professional and technical services. These are those services that we use uh professionals for that we don't do in-house and we're seeing that year-over-year we are at 6.27 27, which is about all of this represents 3.6% of the budget, but year to date, we're at $6.7 million, which is about an increase of 0.7 or just over half a million uh year-over-year. A lot of this is just the timing of these payments. These are contracts that we pay either monthly or quarterly. And so sometimes depending on when the quarter ends or the month ends, you
011could see that year-over-year uh we may have a slight change. Uh but those are some of the drivers uh for this. Again, in your line item budgets that you have, these would be the 300 categories. All of these objects are in the 300 series and those reflect professional technical services. Property services. These are expenses related to the upkeep of our facilities, things like utilities, and you heard Miss um Kristen talk about them. So, this represents about 4.6% of the overall general fund budget. Year to date, we're at 7.21, which is about a 0.3 million dollars increase year-over-year. Um, among the increase that are driving it are property services, life and safety systems. We do have increases we're seeing in water and sewer rates. Um, as well, again, these are these are contractual. So, these are
012contracts that we have. They go up year-over-year. And so this is just accounting uh for those increases. But based on where we the budget that was approved and where we are with relation to the budget, uh we're typically where we would expect expect to be on this one. Some of the things we're seeing a decline year-over-year are repairs and maintenance, our boiler repairs, electric service, and our elevator servicing is actually a little bit less this year, this time uh this year compared to this time last year. Other student services is by far the largest non-personnel and benefits item. Other student services, this is where we include our um our payments for our out of district tuition, our sped services, our other student services, our transportation services, student transportation is included in this bucket. So outside
013of personal benefits, this is the our the our largest our largest chunk. And so this is an area that we're we're monitoring closely. Um special education is one that's hard to kind of predict and therefore just as you saw us do transfers this earlier on for the food services uh you will also see us making transfers for special education. Uh the fortunate thing we were able to do this year in this year's budget for two years in a row we have had to budget less for uh special education and rely more on transfers and savings throughout the year. This budget year we were able to get a budget that's closer in line to what the actual sped expenses are. So you should see fewer sped transfers happening this year compared to what we did last
014year because we're are more in line with where the budget is. And the budget that you approved for fiscal year 27 that I'll talk about next also has that uh what we call right sizing um of the budget. Uh but again uh special education is by far the biggest driver here both for tuition and for the third party entities that we use to provide these services within uh within the district. Supplies and materials is supplies and materials uh these are things that we use within our buildings for technology, instructional supplies, structural materials, papers, all of those things. Uh this is a relatively in the grand scheme of things it only represents about 4.2% of the overall budget. Uh but year-over-year we are slightly under where we were this time last year but again it is
015consistent uh with with other areas. This does include electricity, natural gas and oil are paid out of they're considered supplies and materials. Uh but again these are consistent with where we would be this time um last year. equipment. We do have some equipment that we pay out of the operating budget, not out of the capital. And so we are slightly under where we were this time last year. Um this includes instructional equipment. Lease payments that we have for like our copers are leased. Uh some of our printers are leased and so those would be paid out of this account. And then we also have some non-instructional equipment that are also used to pay out of this account. So things like um these projectors and these speakers and the audio. So those are part of the
016equipment that's non-instructional but it's used in the course of uh running the district. And then other object are miscellaneous other items primarily other object now we use for our payments to some of these memberships uh cave membership that the board belongs to association of schools that we belong to. So primarily these are payments for associations that provide support either to the board of ed education or to our staff in the course of providing education to our students. So this is um relatively flat year-over-year. It doesn't fluctuate much on a given basis. And then the final one is the transfer to food services. You heard earlier Miss Karmet talk about um some of the savings that we've incurred this year that we will be transferring into food services. So now that you've approved those transfers, they'll
017go to the full board of ed at the next business meeting. Then once those are approved, then we will actually make the transfer. So we'll add about another I think a little over 300,000 to this budget uh for those transfers. As you'll see that in the current year we only budgeted um we actually budgeted 0.6 million for the year to transfer to the food services. We were fortunate at the beginning of the year we did get funding 200,000 from the city for the school meals program and then 200,000 from the McCords. So that allowed us to increase that budget from the 0.6 to the 0.9 million. And so with this additional transfers that we'll be doing, that will bring this to about $1.3 million or so. Um our projection is that we would need about
018$2 million this year to make up to offset the cost this year and from the prior year. You can see there we did not do any transfers in FY25. So we're trying to catch up for two successive years to make that food account whole. Um so that's what you'll see us doing a year over year. So with that that concludes expenses in the general fund. On the grant side uh these are our grant programs as we've shared with you multiple times is we are seeing a decrease in the grants that we have available either through the state or from philanthropy or some of our competitive grants. So year to date we are at $18.3 million whereas last year we were at about $23 million uh this time last year. And then the final slide I
019have for the update is our food services account. As I mentioned, we transfer funds into the food services account, but this is where all the spending occurs. So you'll see that we have a budget of 7.89 million. And so we would need to even out the year, we would need to bring in 7.89 million in revenues. We receive about just about half a million in half a million, $5 million from the various grants. And as a local board, we have to make up about 2 million. So those are the transfers that you see us making to make up to make up that difference. And again, as I mentioned, last year we weren't able to make any local match um to the budget. Um and with that, that is the end of my year-to- date budget.
020Um I'd be happy to answer any questions on this year's budget before I go into where we are with planning. >> Does anybody have any questions? So, >> hi Luna. Um, hey, first of all, um, thank you for sharing this and for being so, um, >> on top of it. You guys, um, are doing a fabulous job, I think, with this budget. I just, as we continue to transfer funds to this food service, um, area, which I see is an area of need. Is there a long-term solution for this food service um, issue? Well, that that's a great question and so that is part of the conversation we're having with the current budget. Um, as a community, uh, you know, last year we talked about the community eligibility provision, which is a cost to feed
021all students, um, as an option. We had discussed what if we started um, charging families, those that can afford to pay for meals to start paying for meals. Um, as you know, last year there was quite a reaction to that. uh families really felt that this is public education and there shouldn't be a need for parents to pay out of pocket. Um so as a result, we've had to make those choices because like you said, these the $2 million that we're transferring into the food services fund for the school meals is $2 million that could have otherwise been allocated to something else. So, I think that is really it has been the board policy to continue to provide meals to all of our students regardless of ability to pay. Uh you you've probably heard that
022this year the governor has put in a proposal to fund breakfast for students and so that will help offset some of the needs for the transfers. Uh but there is a caveat because once you get the breakfast meals, you may or may not be eligible if you're also receiving C. So, we're currently working to calculate what that is, but we'll be presenting to you over the next couple of weeks when we bring you the FY27 budget how we how we options for the board to consider in moving forward with the food services because you do have a couple of options that the board can take in terms of how we move forward with this. >> Thank you. So you talked about some decreases in some of our energy costs, but given the national reality, do
023we see that there may be an increase at some point or are we locked in with contracts with our providers so that that won't impact us? >> So with our utilities, we're actually fortunate. We do this with the city. We actually lock in lock in our rates for like oil and gas. Those rates are locked in and those are the kind of the big ticket ones. But as we go into next year, that could be an impact depending on how the energy prices, you know, you'll be approving a budget for the following year in a couple of weeks. But who knows what those rates would be like by the time that budget actually is in force. Uh but for currently to finish out this year, uh we're good with our utility rates because they have
024been locked in. >> Okay. Thank you, Mr. Osmani. And so now FY27 budget development update, you're on again. >> Sure. Um, and I just have one slide to share with you just to give you it should be on the on the same PowerPoint that you have. It's the very last slide on that same deck. We good? Okay. Um so just to give you an update on where we are with the budget development. Uh the board approved the first column which is the tenative approved budget back in December. It was a total of 263 million and it reflected a 6.5% increase. Uh the mayor came out with a mayor's recommended budget of a 4% increase which totals about 257 million which is about $6 million less than what the board had approved back in December. In
025late February, when the council set their preliminary cap, they did set a cap that would allow for an additional funding to the board of ed that would get us to 4.9%. So, that would get us to 259.3 million, but it does leave us with a 3.8 uh million gap. Um, as you know, the council doesn't necessarily direct where the funding goes. They made the cap so that the BET would have the funding appropriation to give us the 4.9%. Uh but we're in conversation with the BET now. We presented to the BET the first week in March uh what our budget request is. uh there is a public hearing and I believe our hope is that we would be able to get the full 6 and a half% funding so that we don't have to make
026any adjustments to the board request that you approved in December. But as of now we're working on adjusting $3.8 million less than what the what was approved. And 3.8 eight um would include things like how do we manage the school lunch fund because those are all non um they're non-teer um expenses. And so what the superintendent has really directed us and staff is to keep the teachers and those that work in our classrooms whole. And so this year we don't have um any plans to to to touch the classrooms for lack of a better word. Uh but that still leaves us with a 3.8 8. We've presented to you before. We did get news of the teachers health insurance um that they moved to Sigma. That insurance was at 33% increase. We went back to
027them to bargain for a better deal. They came back with a best and final offer of 32%. Um and so and they said there's no more negotiating. So, right now we're negotiating with the teachers union if we could um transition the teachers back to the state plan uh where we're seeing about a 12.5% increase year-over-year. So, if we're able to do that, that would not take away the 3.8 million that we have to reconcile. It just wouldn't add to it because if we don't if we're not able to reach an agreement then we're estimating that the insurance would be at least another three to three and a half million dollars more that we would have to reconcile. So that would take this number from 3.8 to 7 million and then at that point we'd be
028having other conversations. Um but I think at this time our hope is that we can work with the BET make our case to the BET that really at minimum get us to back to the 6 and a half% uh but at least keep us to where the cap was set by the council and not to go back because as you heard from their meetings they have been asking departments to cut their request and not ask for more. So that's where we are and I'd be happy to answer any questions you have on the budget development. No, I just want to say that um just particularly for the new people that when the board of ed um puts together a budget, the city has no line item control. I don't know, maybe you know that, but
029this administration has really done a lot of work in trying to develop that relationship because over time it has been very challenged. And so one could argue that the city really has gotten a lot of information on line item stuff that they typically are not required to have. Um but they have done a lot of that um over the last um few years to create that understanding. So I just wanted to put that out there because it's certainly not it's not required. >> Correct. Can you um state the date of the public meeting for the BET? >> Yes, the BET public meeting would be March 25th at 6 is it 6:30? >> Okay. It will be March 25th. Um it'll be a combination of hybrid and in person and it is scheduled uh for the
030council chambers >> and that's the important meeting also because people need to speak up because you're already saying you know we decided on a 6.5. We were the number given to us is 4.9. Now with the medical insurance it 6.5 can become 7%. >> Correct. like those. >> Yeah. The 6.5 would become almost 8%. Because what we're looking at is about another one and a half%. >> So for the public that's listening, when we have to make decisions on cuts, it's not because we want to, it's because we have to. And unfortunately, I am looking at an empty room right now and there's nobody here. Thank you. Public hearing will be at 6:30 on March 25th. >> And that's all I have. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Simony. Is there anything else? Does anybody
031have any questions, comments? So, if there are none, I will entertain a motion to adjourn. Motion to adjurnn. Garrett Oliver, second by Marcus Hammy. And so, we are adjourned at 6:35. Thank you.