001Okay. Got the thumbs up already. Hey, good morning. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome, as I call to order the June 30th meeting of Escami County Public Schools Leasing Corporation. We'll begin with the adoption of the agenda. Do I have a motion to adopt the agenda? So moved. I'll second. It's been moved and second. Is there any discussion? Yes. Oh, Miss Burgosh, can you hear me? Yes, I can hear you. Fine. Thank you. Thank you. No discussion. Please vote. Yes. Approve 5 to zero. Thank you. Our only item is a resolution regarding the lease schedule. Is there a motion for the lease schedule? I'll move the item. I'll second. Moved and second. Is there any discussion? No discussion. Please vote. Yes. Approved five to zero. Thank you very much. This concludes the meeting of the
002lease incorporation. Do we have now Miss ODM? We have to wait till 10:00 to start the next meeting. Are you okay with that, Miss Burgos? Yes, I am. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Williams. Yes. May I introduce some guests who will work in this deal for us? Uh Will Reed is our longtime financial uh advisor for all of our debt issues with Ford and Associates. C can I make a suggestion? Can we reconvene the meeting of the leasing corporation? So, if the board wants to ask questions and have any discussions dur So, all of this is officially on the record of the leasing corporation meeting. Do I need to adjurnn the meeting and then I I I would recommend that you reconvene the leasing corporation. Okay. Do we need a motion for that? It wouldn't hurt.
003Okay. I make a motion or I second it. Okay. All right. So, now we're back in accordance here with the leasing corporation. Mr. Saints here. Okay. Like I say, Will Reed, Ford and Associates, our longtime financial adviserss on all of our debt issues. Uh George Smith, our bond council. He's been with us for last at least four time, probably last four issues. And then uh John Eichelberger representing Raymond James who are the who is the underwriter. Uh John is a proud graduate of Myrtle Grove Elementary and the as he told me to say the Escambia High School. So I want to let you know that. So, we've got we've got some vested interest here. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, sir. We can ask questions now, right? All right. With the
004Federal Reserve Board, Okay. I know they they've been reluctant about rate cuts. Do you foresee the interest rates being more favorable in the future for bond issues or less favorable? Uh the short answer is yes. Um it's as we've seen it is it's it can be uncertain what will go through and and occur and out of the federal uh the the the move in the federal space will go through and impact the municipal space. Often times those have have moved in lock step. That isn't always the case. Um, I know the president wants 1% right now, but he's not going to get that far with the Federal Reserve Board. I don't think if I could predict what was going to happen with rates, I'd be a very wealthy man sitting on an island somewhere. Um,
005you know, I we're I think the chairman's got six months more, right? Or so something like that. I think so. Yeah. Um, but he'll be gone just as soon as that date comes. I John, I don't know if you have any one right cut. Okay, and before this meeting, what's what's average? ran the numbers on the last uh la based on interest rates of last week and the allin true interest. Okay, right at 10ear rates sitting right there 10 year rate. This uh this transaction I think went out to 2045 uh 20-year transaction. So 4 and a.5% is pretty attractive. I was telling Terry that the if you look at all the debt the sales tax issue and the two outstanding certificates of participation uh those were funded when rates were historically low. So when
006you sort of do a dollar cost averaging of all your transactions together the school districts benefited from a very low cost of funding. Okay. All right. Hopefully, it'll drop before we do do all those bonds. I hope it's hard to say. You know, the the Fed funds rate is is an overnight rate, so it kind of anchors the yield curve, and I would expect us to benefit a little bit. Short-term rates are higher than average. A little bit higher than average. So, I think we would benefit in the first few years. I don't think we're starting to advertise this loan until 2028, 2029. So, um, uh, I don't know how much benefit we derive from that, but definitely the the president's in favor of of lowering interest rates. That's for sure. John mentioned the amortization
007here is going to start a little bit later. The goal there is to to wrap this around your existing debt. So, you're not going through and having uh outsized increased payments in those first couple years. we're we're going through looking to try to level that as much as we can. Um so again, as as as John mentioned, the those overnight rates, while they do have a bearing on the short term, the the long-term side where most of the principle that we're going through and advertising here is going to be isn't directly tied to that. Any other questions? Yes. Let me clarify what uh Will just said. We have a series 2016 which built uh Bula Middle School tied directly to sales tax referendum which sunsets 2027 December. That debt is will be gone. Also we
008have the uh Pleasant Grove Elementary School that is directly tied to our sales tax referendum. also 2027. So those two issues will be off the books when the when we start advertising and start paying principle. We'll pay interest, but we'll start paying principal on this new deal after that occurs. So it's not we're not getting the full effect of what it might have been. So that that helps us out quite a bit. Mr. Chair, yes. I have a question. Thank you, Mr. Adams, for bringing that information. I when I was looking through the leasing information, I didn't see an interest rate and just wanted to clarify that may have answered already with you mentioned 4 and a half%, but that does fluctuate with the market. Correct. Correct. the the resolution that will be in front
009of you for the school board meeting does have not to exceed parameters. Uh the okay the purpose for that is that when we go through and enter the market once the the certificates are sold Raymond James will make an offer to go through and and purchase the certificates at that point. Okay. And um just help me understand is there a cap to the interest rate that's not going to go any higher than XYZ? What is that? There is in the in the resolution there are parameters that that set boundaries around what the the issue can be that has a a maximum par amount of the issue uh which I believe is 75 million there. We're expecting that to be uh a fair amount less, but that's to go through and provide protection should the structure
010look to be a a discount structure. We're really looking at the the trying to to drive the all-in cost as low as possible. And it's looking to see what the investors are willing to go through and pay you the most for. Uh so there's protection built in there. uh the not to exceed uh true interest cost and the resolution is I believe 575 based on the the last uh numbers runs that we've been going through and looking at at M as Mr. Eckleberger said are in the 4 and a half range we expect that to be uh roughly where we're going to go through and end up here. So the okay there are guidelines you said 575 is that 5.75 is that what that means? Yes. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Mr. Chair, just a followup.
011And Carissa, that's kind of what I was asking them because I was thinking the other way where if if we get locked in at a higher rate and it does go down because we federal reserve chairman, you know, a huge amount of money that we could save if it goes down a couple even basis points. You just a a couple of points. Correct. And that's correct. We are and that's that's part of the reason that we've recommended going with a negotiated sale because we're working with you. John is is is the face of a of a large organization that has a number of economists and sales folks and the underwriters that are going through identifying when the the most advantageous point is to to enter the market to drive the rates as as low as
012possible. Um so that that is something that we are absolutely going through and looking at. Uh as with all of your other issues, this will have the ability to be uh refinanced uh starting in 10 years. Uh the the municipal market has has Yes, we can hear you. Go ahead, man. You had a question with Barash. Um, but we will have the ability to go through and look to refinance this at the at the 10-year point and and on. So, that's something that we do continue to to go through and look at and uh try to take advantage of of any interest rate savings as they as they may occur. Anything else? Anyone? Thank you very much. There's nothing else. This concludes the meeting on the lease and cooperation. [Music] Hey, the time is 10:00
013a.m. and we're now ready to start our budget workshop. I now call to order the budget workshop. Mr. Superintendent Budget Outlet Outlook, excuse me. Yes, sir. Thank you for this opportunity. I'm going turn it over to Mr. Saint Seir. Got some handouts that we'll get to all of you to help us go through. Miss St. Se before you start. Miss Miss Burgosh, can you hear us? Miss Burgosh. Okay. Okay. All right. Thank you. Okay. She's uh passing out the PowerPoint now. So, I'll wait till you get it and then we'll just go over. We'll try to go kind of quick through this. You've seen some of it before. You've heard some of it. So, I'm going to start where I usually start and that's with uh our FTE for school. This slide here is the
014I still don't have the fourth FEFP calculation which will finish out this current year, but based on the third calculation versus the uh first calculation based on projections for the new year. So, 20253rd against the 2026 first FEFP calculation. I've got the split of all the school types. Traditional schools also includes achieve and accelerationmies. Uh traditional schools we are looking at about a 536 decrease projected from current year 2025 into the new year about 536. Virtual schools flat. Ju DJJ flat. uh charter schools. We're seeing a little bit of an increase in charters. I think um PSC has included some grade levels. Believe that's where that's at. Pensacola State Charter has included some grade levels, added some grade levels. And then family empowerment scholarships. All of this, look out to the far right on the
015variance column. uh family empowerment scholarships increase over the current year uh about right at 950 unweighted FTE. So as you look at the total far right bottom 505.28 increase that's very deceiving number because family empowerment has increased by 950 and the traditional schools have decreased projection-wise about 536. So, uh, we're looking at a total unweighted FTE comes through the FFP calculation. Uh, in current year, we'll wind up with 40,993.95. That includes 5,47 scholarship students. They keep the FTE in the calculation. However, the um the revenue is pulled out. It's adjusted out of the FP. So it starts out the calculation includes the FEFP or the uh family empowerment scholarships and then there's an adjustment page and it pulls out the uh the scholarships and then we get to the net. Okay. So, uh, if you
016look at the FTE on any data, it's typically going to show, uh, Escambia and all the districts, including family empowerment scholarships. And, u, like I said, it's just such a deceptive way of doing it. you know, the legislature, they there were I can't remember if was the House or Senate uh wanted to exclude scholarships, but it wound up including the scholarships. Okay. All right. The next page, you've seen this before. This is our uh overtime tracking. So traditional schools over time since the shutdown year 37989.82 we lost right at 1600 between the shutdown 2020 summer of 2020 up with 40,993.95 that includes 5,047 got some AI stuff. Uh no I think Mrs. Mrs. forgosh. Um could you um mute your phone, please? Uh we're getting some feedback of Mr. um Mr. St. Sears's voice. Yes,
017ma'am. Thank you. All right. So, uh over the 2020 to 21,600 unweighted never came back to the school district. And then on down to 2024, 1,200 negative, about 550 60 of those are Warrington Middle School when we uh when we lost that school to charter. So, uh, the, uh, average we're looking at, you know, over third over 300 and something students. When you pull out the, uh, shutdown year and the, uh, charter school conver uh, transfer, we're we're averaging about 300 or more, uh, decline in enrollment from the traditional schools. And so uh look at the total down at the bottom and the scholarships right above that. The increase in scholarships corresponding increase in total FTE about 1,860 over time through into the new year but negative 4158 in traditional. Okay. So, that's how that
018works. And we've gone over that before, but I just can't emphasize it enough. That's what we're up against in terms of revenue. All right. This is the revenue 2023 actual 2024 current year, third FEFP calculation, and then the new year budgeted column, first FEFP calculation. I'm just going to highlight the change uh row. That change row from 2020 from 2022 to 23 the revenue increased 15,5,526,000. 2024 the change from 23 to 24 was 13.7 million and so on. Look at 2026. That's our total increase in FEFP. $1 million 1.1 roughly. That's a that is a massive uh change in the rate of our FEFP revenue growth 1.37% over the prior year. That's the bottom column bottom row. Look the the uh 2023 24 and 25 averaging around 5%. Next year 1.37% increase. Yeah, Terry. Um
019I I know you're giving us a number to show a trend, but that that would take effect when Warrington went to a charter school these prior years. I mean, we kind of adjusted our footprint as we gone through with this budget cycles every year. But if you look at it in the one that I didn't highlight, the dollars per unweighted FTE, that takes Warrington out of it in terms of the percent change. Okay? So if you look at the unweighted FTE dollars per unweed FTE second to the bottom uh row uh in 2023 the dollars per unweighted was 850 860 that was a 5.49% 49% increase per pupil over prior year. Same and the same concept across the uh the range of time there. I I I agree. I'm just saying we adjust it every
020year for whatever happened in that year. Oh, in terms of how we operate, we have to adjust. We adjust we adjust teaching units. Teaching units facility sold off. All of that as we run it run the FTE through the formula by school. as we take a look at it by school, we are just teaching units. All of those teachers would have been out of the mix. Any questions on that? I mean, that's really an eyeopening stat when you look at the state revenue uh state and FEFP revenue increase over prior year 1.37%. Mr. Saints here this may not be the appropriate time to do it but I I want to ask the question so that in future meetings we might have the answer. Um somewhere in your calculations do you have the numbers per school
021showing those that that are generating enough to pay for themselves and those that aren't and those that are generating more than enough to cover those that aren't. We we have that data and it's in cost report data. So, uh, we can we can look at that, um, at any kind of workshop as we go forward in other workshops. I think that's going to be, um, important information to have. Yes, sir. We'll do that. Absolutely. All right. Um, anything else? I concur with uh, with what Mr. uh, Fetsco was saying. I think that's going to be very, very valuable information for us to look at. And we the I I don't know how the other board members feel, but I would like to see that as soon as possible. Yeah. Well, I'll tell you how that
022works. Currently, we have 2024 cost report. 2025 year has not finished or we haven't finished and closed the books yet. Once we get to AFR time in the summer, late summer, we'll also have cost report data so we can see how 2025 finalized uh in the per in the school revenues. It really what it is is the revenue as a percent as a cost as a percent of revenue and it shows how those schools uh on a percentage basis and in dollar amounts operate based on uh whether or not the revenue covers the cost. The revenue that they generate does it cover the cost? And that's really what it looks at. Any other questions on this slide? All right, here's uh important topic. Teacher teacher salary increase is no longer a categorical in the FFP,
023but DOE still calculates it like it is a categorical. It's just it's in the base FEFP, but we still have a calculation by DOE that we're required to um utilize when we're uh allocating the teacher salary increase to those eligible uh classroom teachers and others who are eligible for this. So, here's the numbers. Since 2023, we had a total teacher salary increase in 23 of 10.1 million. 3.2 million of that is for growth. In other words, that maintenance portion is to maintain what we've done, what happened in the prior year, maintain it in this year, and then also a growth portion to increase the salaries. So for 2023, that was 3.2 2 million to increase salaries all the way across in the current or in the 2026 uh calculation. Very different than it was in
024prior years. 1.2 million 1.3 million prior year last current for current year uh 2.5. So it's half of what it was current year or new year. Next year is half of what we had in the current year for teacher salary increase. Okay. Um percent change 2023 the change over the prior year and teacher salary increase total uh was 42% 41%. We only had about a 9% change new year compared to prior year compared to the current year. Sorry, no question. So this 1 point I'll say 4 million that they calculate now 1.22 million 1.267 million. What that'd be an increase over their pay they're getting now, right? What percentage of the increase would that be? I don't have I didn't make that. I I know what you're talking about. I'm I'm not really worried about
025what happened the prior years because we only can do what we can do with what the state gives us. So that's what I'm math. Is that a 3% increase? You could go 1.3 million. Uh there's around 2600 teachers. Yeah, but I'm talking about what what increase would of pay would that be? Would it be 3% increase? No, it wouldn't be close to 3%. We allocated a 3% minimum last year and current year, but those dollars you see up there, but we'll see that you give us that increase. Added to it. I mean, that was just that was just something we allocate. We we added our total general fund increase in salaries across the board last year. Uh I'll give you the total the teachers. I can't remember probably four or five four and a half
026four five million for teachers total was about 8 point 8.5 million to 9 million total uh cost in general total general fund cost for salary increases current year roughly 8.5 to 9 million for teachers that 1.3 uh 1.3 million would probably it would be less than 1% but I I can't give you the D number be a little over $500 per teacher. So, we'll we'll make that calculation and we'll bring that next time. So, we're up against a pretty good uh hurdle current year. Remember, we're only getting a million more than we got in the prior year. 1.3 1.2 of that teacher salary increase. I think it's going to be really really important for all of us when we have to communicate out there in the public because when you look at what our total
027revenue would be based upon what the legislation legislature has approved because they keep those 1,500 scholarship or vouchers within our mix. It looks like we got a pretty good increase when really only got $1.3 million more. Me, this might be the perfect year to do what Malcolm Thomas did in the past. We went around in every department 5% or whatever you that's what we may have to look at this year plus right sizing the district on his facilities. Okay, any more questions on that? Give you a couple few more issues that we're dealing with in the current year. Retirement rate, slight increase in retirement rate for from 13.63 on the uh uh regular class. That of course is uh 90 something% of the total uh workforce is regular class. 13.63 63 goes up to 14
028a little over 14% on the retirement rate. That'll cost the district around 900 around around 900,000. But we always have to remember these are kind of hidden costs that nobody wants to think about, but retirement rate is a very real thing year to year. All right, here's some things that we've talked about here and upstairs uh in the superintendent's conference room uh many times. Uh new FFP revenue is flat, going to be flat to negative depending on how it really goes in the new year according to how many students we actually wind up having. and a retirement rate increase. Teacher salary allocation half of what it was in the prior year. Uh other personnel trying to get something squeezed out. Remember even spending about 9 million n 8 and a half to nine million general
029uh the district is not going to break even this year. So just thinking next year traditional school enrollment is our uh priority trying to keep the students in the tra uh traditional schools. Uh that is just a massive priority trying to keep the students that we have uh employee benefits trust fund. We have to be careful. The trust fund uh is getting better than it was six months ago. Um, we hope that it continues that way. It looks like it may, but the rate increases that we had uh to start the new year, it's gone positive in the last several months. And then the cost of health insurance overall as we do our renewals and the district always has a 74% portion of that roughly uh district pays about 74% of that total cost. So
030if it goes up then again well it will go up or at least it'll be actuarily it will it will be a recommendation to increase health insurance. We ignored that for two three years in a row and we got oursel in a bind. So we need to be careful about health insurance and funding it properly. Okay. Any questions on pressure point type items? There may be some you're thinking of that I didn't really think of. Um, adalorum taxes. I got the certified tax ro the other day. Middle column certified tax row 34.1 billion. It's um 35.8 for the new year, I'm sorry. And then 30 2025 was 34.1 billion uh for a change of 1.7. That's the change in tax ro at 5% tax change. That's that's what we were thinking. It's been kind of
031like that last year or so, two years. Uh first calculation require local effort in the in the FFP that we've looked at. The required local effort was 3.099. 3.099. It'll change as we get to the second calculation. It'll change a little bit. Um discretionary portion 748. That never changes unless they did something in the legislature. And then I'm giving you the full 1.5 um allowable statutoily for a total operating of 5.347 that would generate at 96% that would generate 183.8 uh million vast majority of that would go into general to support the local portion of the FEFP. Okay. So, FEFP is made up of state and local require local effort is set for us by the state and then on a per pupil basis what it doesn't generate the state then is on the uh
032generates the balance of it the per pupil funding. So, it's a kind of a inverse relation or direct relationship uh for that. uh 2025 current year our require local effort was 3.095. We levied 1.004 to hit the roll back rate. The only place we have to go to generate a to uh levy uh the roll back rate as we've done much of the time over the last several year good number of years is capital because the state's not budging on their portion. So it winds up in the lap of the local districts and so we have to deal with it. Well, what happens is we've pretty much ratcheted down capital so much that we've gotten into a bind, a little bit of a bind there because the revenue is not producing. Uh total operating for
033current year is um 4.847. The change from the prior year uh just under half a mill. uh you'll see the change in the revenue uh at the full column one is the full allowable until we get to second calculation. Second calculation will set the required local effort for us. That'll happen in July. That'll be the second FBFP calculation in July. Okay. I'm going to give you a quick overview of the debt that we have outstanding long-term debt. We're currently in the last uh what year and a half or so of the uh sales tax uh uh sales tax revenue bond series 2016 built Bula Middle School. The balance at last June last June 18.2 2 million 100% sales tax as a sales tax revenue bond. Final payoff is September 1, 2027. Bond proceeds there was
03460 551 million to build that school. Here's 2028. Last June 30th, the balance was 18.3 million. This one is split between sales tax and millillage. Sales tax portion is 42%. The millillage portion was 58% that built Pleasant Grove Elementary School. split occurred due to student station caps and we won't go into that um right now, but it'll be done at the end of the current referendum. Uh series 2023A, the last issue that we um did, Myrtle Grove Elementary School, 100% millillage. That one extends out to uh 2043 TOPS proceeds. There we have uh 41459 [Music] 41,459 [Music] were the total proceeds on that debt on that bond on that cop's issue. Now here's proposed and my numbers are not accurate on the original balance. Uh these are changing fluctuating and then in the referendum I
035mean in the resolution you'll see a for the series 2025A a not to exceed of 75 million. Uh we don't anticipate it being that much. The projects themselves were roughly just under 60 million. uh but giving us room to maneuver. We're issuing uh the resolution at 75 million not to exceed. All right. So that's the series 2025A. See if I can rattle off the projects. Um Escambia High School performing arts. Um Tate High School performing arts. Um, Pine Forest Auditorium, new auditorium. Is it new, Sean? And the new gym and the renovation of the auditorium, right? So, that and then we threw in uh just around three and a half$4 million of classroom additions at various schools. I think most of that is elementary schools, right? So, uh that's the projects there. 2027 we're anticipating
036the Bula Intermediate um 40 million I believe we had projected there right around 40 million we have uh various other projects and phases of uh classroom additions so that project phase two of our current project 2025 and 2027 I'm call them. Phase one is 2025. Phase two is 2027. Um we're going to hit up in the 45 to $50 million range total here. The um now could bond money be used to make those K8s that we've been talking about. We're including new wings so we can get the uh two extra grades or yeah specify both we did not specify schools. So it'll be wherever we end up determining is meeting the needs. So, or questions concerning the uh 2027 or 2025. Okay. All right. I believe that's Mr. Sincere. Yes, sir. Mr. Chair, may I
037ask? Yes, sir. May I have a question follow up to you, Mr. Um, I'm wondering about the level of indebtedness that our district has. I'm I've heard you say before and I want you to clarify this. Our indebtedness for bond issues is very low compared to other districts. Is that not correct? Yeah, it is. And it's intentionally structured. I'm going to see if if John might want to uh add anything to what I'm saying. We have structured the principal payments to start on the new 2025 after Everything's been done on the 2016 and the 2020. So when those they're directly tied to the referendum which ends at December 2027 and then the 2025 after that the principal payments will start there. Uh we do have the 2020 uh a issue which goes out 20 years
038starting in 2020 and um uh let me think of what our total do you have the schedule John let's let's look at the schedule of our indebtedness our debt service requirements uh John has worked that up for us Um, we'll give you some real numbers compared to other districts. Uh, uh, what I hear you saying is that we're in very good shape. I mean, we're, uh, our indebtedness is very small percentage compared to other districts comparable to our size. Would that be an accurate statement? I think it is. Um, I'm a bond underwriter and uh it saddens me to say that Eskeemia Schools does have a lower debt ratio than a lot of our other clients. Um, but it makes the five of us happy. It's it's a catch 22. you know, spending cash for
039projects that you have the ability to fund on a tax exempt basis can sometimes catch up with you. Um, Escambia is in not a unique position, but it's different than a lot of the faster growing uh districts. Um, Escambia's uh experiencing a shifting in population, which is oftentimes a challenge. Um, but I would say yes to answer your question, you you guys do have the luxury of having a very low debt ratio and the way that the debt is structured, it's it's downward sloping. So, you've been in a very aggressive payback uh pattern. So, I I would say that your debt outstanding is not your uh one of your bigger challenges. Thank you. What What is our bond rating currently? A1. A1. Okay. And and my question was just clarification. It was just for going
040back to the family empowerment um piece and that's for students with special abilities. It's for it includes those. Mhm. There's a portion of family empowerment that's for um ESC students. Special uh unique abilities is what it's called. And then there's the UR um none non. Okay. How many and I think you mentioned a number. How many students was that? Was that 5,000? Did I hear right? Total fees was for new year is going to be just at 6,000 unweighted FTE. Okay. I can give you the split if you're interested in the unique ability versus the the regular student. I'd appreciate that. And current year, our um family empowerment scholarship is uh uh just short of um 51. Let's see. All right. Right here. Uh second column from the right. Scholarships 5,047. That's current year, 047.
041That's all family empowerment scholarships. When I say scholarship, that's uh and then you see in 2000 in the McKay and FES were separate before that and then they absorbed the McKay into it. They were separate through 2022 and then they absorbed uh the McKay into it. But I combined all all scholarships in the in the line item. Do these also include the scholarships that somebody got that went here in the school district or correct? It's all because it all flows through our FEFP. So we don't know exactly on See, we're counting we're counting students that would some were never in our school district until they took the scholarship. I'm being redundant. I'm saying it over and over, but I will continue to say it until we have a mechanism to regain students that we're losing
042to private schools and parochial schools and and that's those K8 models, right? That you know, uh with K8s at three or four sites, we would recoup close to a thousand students. So I think that in terms of budget and in terms of what we need to do for the future that needs to be one of our priorities. I agree with Mr. Fesco also. We're in a situation where we have to give the community what they want and what the community is saying. We want these KA models, you know, and that's that would be good for them. That's what the parents want. that would be good for the district because it brings back many of those students that uh that we've lost in the past to scholarship. So, I think Mr. Fesco is right on target
043there and this is something we need to look very closely at. Yeah. Miss Fesco, do you have any comments? Miss Burger, I'm sorry I gave you Yeah. Yeah. Miss Miss, don't ask Miss Vetsco because I know that she will have Miss Burgos, do you have any questions? No, I do not at this time. Okay, that's all I have. Uh, Mr. Superintendent, do you know when and I probably should just call Tallahassee. We will finally get the fourth calculation. Haven't heard anything on that because that's that's critical as well. You know, here we are preparing admin conference July 22nd. um teachers coming back just a few days after that. School starts August 11th. Um so when you're trying to prepare like you're trying to do, you're going to have to approve approve a budget here fairly
044soon. Uh at least a tenative one and we don't have all the numbers from the year previous. Um just so you know, you've approved for our first K8 standalone K8. uh that will start this coming school year. You know, they'll go their first year in sixth grade at Long Leaf, then they'll have seventh grade, and then they'll have eighth grade. That was a purposeful decision that we made, and y'all agreed with it because, as Mr. Ikeleberger said, "We're not a growing school district as far as student population, but we do have a little bit of a decline in our traditional enrollment, but we have movement and it's, you know, a little bit to the west and a little bit to the north, but it's not a lot. Um, we're going to have to make some
045decisions. You know, me, uh, I'm going to bring you what I think is in the best interest. There will probably be some things that I bring to you that not all of you will be able to stomach and vote yes on, but there will eventually be an agreement as we get there. I want to talk a little bit about uh in broad terms um about right sizing or taking like 10% out of each department. Um, you not you don't I remember in HR when I did it and it was really not a whole lot of money. You may have had to have done it one time and um in CNI, Mr. Fetchco, but it does show that we're all in this game together. We we've done a lot of that. I know in HR they've
046left two if not three positions vacant. In our superintendent's office, we've left one vacant. Now, this will be going on the second year. Um so we're we're all playing a role in that. Be careful when you look at um those costes cost analysis as it re as it reflects each school's spending power, how much they actually make. Um because you have to be careful as you look at that. I'll give you an example. Um what do you think when Mr. Saints here gives it to us. It'll make more sense as to why I use this as an example. So Ernest Ward, beautiful school down to like 520 students. Okay. Uh the elementary school that is three and a half miles from there, Brat, wonderful school. Uh see good academic performance up there, A or B
047each and every year. They're one of our smaller elementary schools. Okay. I can't remember the exact number off the top of my head. And then right down the road from there, you have a high school with about 520 540 kids. But if you're going to provide at least the the most opportunity you can for those 540 students, I don't think you can put a value on what it costs to run that school. And I don't believe they're bringing in enough FTE to actually be a full-time break even break even operation. So when we're trying to make business decisions, and I remember early on telling somebody, I think it was Todd Thompson from the Pensacola Chamber, I said, "Yeah, you know, school district's like a small business." and he he corrected me really quickly and said,
048"No, y'all are a big business." And he's right. There's 336,000 citizens in Escambia County. And each and every day, at least around 27 28% of every citizen is impacted in some small way about what we're doing day in and day out. So, I wanted to make certain you knew we're looking at being able to do things from an academic standpoint, um, from a financial standpoint. And then lastly, which y'all know I have a very competitive spirit. So, if you think for one minute it doesn't burn me on the inside, you would be wrong because I don't know why people don't continue to choose us as the number one option because of all the different things that we provide in our public school system. But I do see the way this voucher uh venture is going.
049and they're trying to make certain that they give the opportunity for parents to take their child wherever they want to, but also say that you get to participate in things within the public school system. That's why we talked to you about those PEP fees that I think we'll be bringing to you this month in July. So that if you do go to if you are homeschooled and you want to participate on the basketball team, well, nope. That's fine and dandy. We'll make sure that opportunity is provided to you, but there is a cost and that would come out of your voucher money uh to be able to participate in that activity. But we work on this at least every Monday and a little bit during the week trying to make sure that we're going to
050give you the best information that we can so you can make good sound judgments that will impact us. Um, so do you have any questions of me uh as it relates to the budget, where we're going to be down the road? Uh, I'm like Mr. Fesco when you ask the question. I I can't tell you for sure, but I think a lot of these voucher students have never been in our school system. And we did slow down um the decline in student loss um or student uh student participation in the public school system, but we haven't been able to get it to where we need to. Um, so I I'll entertain any questions you may have. I had I just wanted to follow up and I I I'm very much aware, Mr. Superintendent and staff
051and everyone, that the fiscal cost of operating any certain school is not going to be a sole reason to look at something different. When the the the three sites that you mentioned, Mr. superintendent. Um the the other biggest factor involved with that is at the north end the distance. Yeah. You know, so are you going to do this and and say I'm going to save x amount of money here, but I'm going to spend 2x transporting or or what whatever. So it it needs to be something that gives us a starting point and a discussion, but there's always going to be some critical things going on with this. But but looking at this process and and having everyone come together and what do we do? We know we're not going to get at least this
052coming year in 2526 and probably 26 27 any additional revenue support from the state. Okay. So the only thing we could do is something internally. Historically that was always done through cuts in personnel. Well the class size reduction act stopped that. So we do have you know things that we could do and and maybe maybe not. But if we have we have classrooms that enrollment is not such that it needs to be then we do need to look at making some changes, some movements, some things that are within reason. We don't need to move students 30 or 40 miles because that would take away from that. But but it gives us a a beginning. the going back to the um the increased number of people taking advantage of the voucher. Yes, it at first there
053were limits that that if you hadn't been in the public schools the year before started or whatever, you weren't eligible. If you Well, all those have been erased. And so people who hereto for who have had their kids in private parochial schools weren't getting that, but now they are and they're taking advantage of it. I say this and gosh, help me. Um, I hope that we're to the point where those schools are at capacity and they can't continue to take more. And I I I think that may be the slowdown to it is that that once they reach that then but the last I heard they don't have class size reduction. So their estimate is, yeah, we could take 30 in a classroom and and so that continues to be a source of things going
054the the and and this isn't the only solution, but but I keep saying it because it's one that that I know we can we can realize some financial effect from is the two current starts to the K8 over at West Pensacola and Cordova Park. We know that if that was a K8, if they were K8s, they would stay those those parents and moving towards the possibility at Scenic Heights or or AK Sudter or whatever. They're on the east side, those those students, those parents have said we would stay, but if there's not a guarantee through 8th grade, we're not going to make that jump. we're not going to do that. So, we're at a point where we need to say, "Okay, this is what we're going to do and what we're not going to do."
055And and and if we're not going to do it, then people have to make their own decisions from there. I I had as as we went and we met with families, and I'm taking way too much time here talking. As we met with families, they said, "Yeah, if you guaranteed us all three years, we'd do it tomorrow." But as it is, we have to leave now in fourth grade in order to get us into that private parochial school because if you don't do it sooner, then you're left out there. And so we're losing them elementary and then those middle years, they come back to us at not well at a good number in high schools. And and again, there's a lot of reason for that. There aren't a lot of opportunities. Although Pensacola State's trying
056to do some things there with high schools and whatever, but again, they don't offer the extracurricular that our traditional high schools do. And that's something we always, you know, can can uh look at or or let people know this is a major difference. And and soies, we we have such wonderful programs, but we need to be looking at what we could do very quickly to stop the loss of students and funding um because people were making other choices. I'm I'm for their choice. As a parent, I wanted to choose and I did choose where my children went. We chose to to send our sons with my wife to some of the poorer performing schools, but they got a great education. That's the fallacy that people don't understand. The grade on a school doesn't mean that
057that there aren't top performing students and teachers in every school whose grade doesn't reflect what's going on dayto day in the classroom. and and and that mindset isn't there and it's hard for people to wrap their minds around it. I I've spoken way too much but but I do understand sir that that yeah there are other parameters other than just fiscal that when we look at things to right size we also don't want to cut off our nose to spite our face Mr. chair. Yes, sir. And and Paul, I agree with you. Absolutely. So, what we're looking at what's going to happen here in the next four years and and to get us the point because we know the K8 model is superior to our middle schools. A lot of our parents don't like it.
058You got small and I'm talking about a community school, not no multi- mega big big facility that's going to cost where we have to get him come back with tell how much bond money we can get. But I'm talking like the facility. Our facilities guy was talking about, you know, adding a wing or adding upstairs a two-story building to get that KA where they they're not leaving us at that fifth after the fifth grade. You got that child from kindergarten to 8th grade in the same facility. PTA remains the whole state's doing it. The whole state's going this pattern because they know how much better that program is to these middle schools. We don't know what's going to happen to Warrington. Okay. Now, I've been speaking about Warrington, the other school, ever since Malcolm Tom
059was here. We got to find a reason for them parents to choice into that community. And we've talked about different things, but we're kind of waiting on the outcome of the one school. But I would tell you, you're it's a target-rich environment to do something south of the interstate, not north of the interstate. It might be some opportunities up there, but the majority of it is with us. And I appreciate I'm getting long leaf, but I think with the warrant and we we we we okay we whatever you all want to use. We are getting long leaf. But anyway, my my constit aren't worried about these semantics on we or I or whatever. But anyway, the um we're getting that K8, but how long before the next one or the next one that Paul's been
060talking about? So that's got the long leaf scenario. Then we got the Bailey Cro um Cro Bailey. have, excuse me, Helen Cairo and Jim Bailey pilot. Um, that's not going to be a 2K8 though, is it? They're not going to share the same attendance zone, right? Uh, it's very similar. It's not the exact same attendance zone because there's more. Um, you have about six schools, but the majority of those students from Cairo do go to Bailey. Um then we've looked at Belleview Belleview to be just like that. We've looked at uh Workman and Home to be able to u co-mingle. Uh, West Pensacola is in the mix as it relates to I can't remember if it's the um tops. Yes, BUA is the intermediate. And then um I want to say in one of the
061cops initiatives we talked about West Pensacola. I can't remember if that's one of That's the KA force control in extension in classrooms. Yeah, could be in that classroom. But that's, you know, that's not quick enough. If if you're talking about doing the there's two issues you got to make certain you haven't, this is what I've got I've gathered from our conversations. Do you want to do it or do you want to do it right? And I always thought we we wanted to do it right. And one of the reasons we've some of you would say I've gone too slow but if we're going to do it then you know we want to make certain like at Long Leaf we know we're going to have band we'll have chorus we have an athletic venue that's in
062very close proximity West Pensacola we wouldn't have that but we want to make certain that we're able to offer those students and Jim Bobbit reminds me of this all the time as they get into seventh grade now you got to make that you've got um biology and then as they get into eighth grade you've got algebra or at least in sixth grade you've got some mechanism to offer accelerated math because if you don't you're setting that school up to not be successful. I was actually talking to Mr. Herold about something similar to this at the prior to the meeting starting. um when you you and I I mean I brought it but we're not going to have time to talk about it um before our next meeting. The school grades and everything they they haven't
063been released. Now all the other data, you know, fast data from ELA, uh from math, science, you know, they didn't do they didn't talk a whole lot about that. Civics, all of that's been released, but the school grade has not been released. And you know, this year's acceleration will count for next year. Last year's acceleration accounted for this year. But we know what the majority of our population is going to look at. They're not going to drill down to all of that data. Was this school an A? Was this school a B? Was this school C? So, what I want to make certain that I convey today, we're going to continue to do what we need to do to compete because that's one of the I feel like that's probably the number one charge you've
064given me. But we also want to make certain that we're giving students opportunities to be successful. And I think once the final grades do come out, in particularly at our middle schools, that's where you've really said we've got to improve. We have. So, I'm hoping that that will give some parents some confidence in what we've been able to to accomplish. I know I'm very proud of what y'all have asked for us to do, but I'm more proud of what our people have done to make that happen. So, this has been a really good conversation heading down that road. Thank you, Mr. William. Thank you. Anything else? This brings us to the public forum. We do not have any um speakers for public forum. If there's no further discussion or further questions, this concludes our budget
065workshop. Dr. Williams, when does it happen? Okay, good morning again. I will now call to order the June 30th special meeting of the Escami County School Board. At this time, we'll move to adoption of the agenda. Do I have a motion to adopt the agenda? I move the adoption of the agenda, sir. I'll second. It's been moved and second. Any discussion? Miss Berg, Miss Burg. Yes. Okay. Uh, please vote. You're fine. You're fine. Anybody see the results? I don't have the results. Show hands. Miss Bard's vote, please. Yes. Five to zero. We'll now begin the agenda, public forum, and there's one item in from the superintendent, item A, resolution approving the lease and land. Can I get a motion, please? I'll move the item. I'll second it. Moved and second. Any discussion? No discussion. Please
066vote. Yes. I know how Mrs. Bgosh voted. Could y'all vote by hand? Vote by hand. Prove five to zero. Uh now it brings us to public forum. No public forms. Anything else before we conclude? This concludes our agenda items. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now be ajourned.