001Good evening everyone. We'll call ourselves to order. Please rise and join me in a moment of silence. 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. Thank you. Please be seated. Call our role. Dr. O'Neal present. And Mr. Heater has indicated he will be here eventually. He is caught in traffic on I69. Um, Dr. Washurn here. Mr. Irvin here. Mr. Low here. Okay. And Mrs. Spartans Griffin is out of state, so we do have a quorum and we'll proceed. Um, Dr. Reynolds, your report. Yeah, I I will I will try to keep it as brief as I can tonight, but uh just wanted to tout our just a tremendous start to the school year. It's been
002um smooth. few typical beginning of the year issues that you work through. Um, buses and schedules and those types of things, but it certainly feels like they are less severe and and less burdensome and fewer in numbers than they have been in the past. And and again, just an um just in to attribute that to the hard work of our leaders and our te teachers, our parents getting online and filling out forms, our students showing up and and doing the things that they're supposed to do. But just just a great start to the year. Uh able to to be in all the buildings over the first few days and um the they just feel feel really terrific. Um well speaking of uh I think part of that is is attributed to the planning of of
003the um the teachers and the leaders to prepare for school to start and and I thought we again saw those successes to um to kick off the year. And um also when you talk about successes, I think I got to mention the marching band and they just had a tremendous tremendous summer season coming up less than a point short of where we had hoped for them to land. But boy, it's um those just an awesome group of kids and adults working hard all summer to um in a wonderful activity. But uh we'll I'm sure that that Mr. Walker, he's our first one to present. We'll we'll probably share more about those folks on his opening day. you don't want to steal too much of his thunder. Um, and then uh just I don't know minutes
004before I came in um to the board meeting, I got an email from Anna Schultz, who is the chief academic officer for the department of education. Um they have a state board meeting tomorrow. Eric and I um and Mr. Walker and Mrs. Pulmeek, we're heading down. Uh Mr. Walker is going to speak about high school redesign. they called and and have been impressed with the work that we're doing on high school redesign and and um the focus on freshmen for the freshman academy and and he's just going to say a few words about that. But in in in Anna's email, she would like to uh recognize us. The I read three scores are going to be officially announced tomorrow at the state board meeting. um and they wanted to recognize the work that we've done
005and specifically the work at Gryom that they're um they're going to be recognized at the state board meeting. So I I don't think we have to prepare any comments, but they would like us there to to recognize us uh for that achievement and then stay for a little bit for just for a reception, a little congratulatory um reception following the state board meeting. So again, the scores are officially released tomorrow, but we've had some pretty tremendous growth and specifically at um at Gresum last school year. Yeah. Anything further? Nope. That's it for me. So are the I read scores um similar to what was sent out previously to us? Yep. I shared our in-house data where we just just did them inhouse by hand. Tomorrow the state will will um officially release all those results.
006Okay. So, we don't know precisely where they are. Right. Okay. Uh well, Miss Charles, congratulations to you and your teachers and staff. Awesome. And to your students. Um would be remiss if I didn't also recognize all of our elementary schools and the work they did. um in this past year in terms of the growth that we've seen uh and you know it's not uh as tangible perhaps as the the what we saw in the i3 scores. I think we saw really really good progress at our middle schools and our high school and people are talking about my community schools. So thank you. Uh, and I know we have another um matter coming up and we'll let you introduce your new assistant in a moment. Um, any but before that, any additional questions for Dr. Reynolds?
007We lost by one point. It was less than a point. Less than a point. Great showing. Great. They were they were terrific. Worked hard all summer. as the first contest they lost in two seasons because they went undefend undefeated last year and a number of students had not lost before. So they're there's lessons to be learned and and maybe not winning. How about that? Um um and they they were tremendous. They they Anderson came out on top and they walked over and congratulated some of the students and the band directors then went back to the band the buses and cried. But they and they kept it together and congratulated those folks and I was I was really proud of them. Absolutely. They should be. Well, they have every right to be very very proud of
008what they've accomplished and will continue to accomplish. Um I didn't look at the score tabulations had I been maybe a little more involved. We we could have seen those and audited them. That's right. Submitted an appeal, an official appeal. Uh well that sends perhaps a wrong message but the uh okay uh no additional questions. Okay. Uh there's no public participation. We'll head to the consent agenda and we have an introduction. Charles, you want to introduce your new assistant principal? I can. I can. So we have a new um assistant principal this year at Gryom Elementary School. It's Jason Bulock. comes to us from Washington Township and I will let him share a little bit with you about his experiences in Washington Township and we're just super excited to bring him to my um strong instructional
009leader which we know is super important. Um lots lots of experiences so we're super excited to have him. Yeah, good evening everyone. I'm uh Jason Bulock. So glad uh to be here. uh 14 years of education uh ranging from gened to special ed um and most recently working as an instructional coach in Washington Township at the district um level, but prior to that at the building level as well. Um instructional coaching is a big part of who I am. Want to coach up our our teacher leaders and making sure that they have the best teaching practices to support all of our learners within our classrooms. Um and I'm a proud graduate of Ball State University. um for my undergrad, did a lot of practicum and my student teaching experience with Muny Community Schools. So, I'm
010really excited and happy to be back within um the MCS family uh as a part of the uh Gryom family as well as the new assistant principal. Well, welcome Jason. Good to have you. Thank you. So, where do you come from? Where'd you go to high school? And so, I went to high school at Noblesville. also graduated in Noblesville High School in 2007 and then Ball State in 2011. Okay. Well, I see you kept your purple shirt. I did. Yeah. I I've worn purple a few times the over the last like week. Uh and a lot of red and blue for Gryom. So So you enjoyed your first few days? Yeah, it's been great. Uh I really love working with Miss Charles and the staff at Gryom. um they've been really wonderful of just helping
011me just get acclimated at everything and trying to learn everything as quickly as I can to be up to speed um and be able to support all the wonderful work that's happening within our elementary school. Well, thank you and and welcome to Muny Community Schools. We feel, you know, privileged to have you working with us and Gryom is a great place to be. It is. If you and Miss Charles feel like you need anything for the benefit of your students, let us know. All right. Thank you so much. Thank you. Nice to meet you all. Nice to meet you. Good day. Thank you. So, we are in the consent agenda. Uh, I want to thank our donors and I I want to take just a moment and recognize a donation by John Maul, my retired
012law partner. Um, we had um I worked with a colleague named Sam Reid who retired in 2003, I believe, and moved to South Carolina. And Sam uh passed away oh about 10 days ago. And Sam was in addition to other um areas of service, he served as uh school board president for my community schools um I don't know probably what 50 years ago. Wow. 55 years ago. So um and Sam was a fine lawyer and a real servant. So also served some time in the legislature and um he was a a proud Msonian and u so I just wanted to take a moment and recognize Sam and what he meant to the community. Uh anything else in the consent agenda? If there's not entertain a motion move to approve. We have a mo motion to
013approve. Do I hear a second? Second. All those in favor signify by I I post same sign. Okay. Uh we have new business. Um Mr. Derome, you going to do the budget? Yes. Thank you. Uh tonight uh is what we're going to do the permission to advertise meeting of the 2026 budget. Uh we follow the state guidelines and the timelines that we are uh supposed to follow. And we'll have um we'll do the permission to advertise uh is tonight. We'll have a public hearing on the budget for anyone from the public allowed to comment on August 26. And then we'll come back here at another schoolboard meeting September 9th. We'll do the budget adoption. Um just to remind ourselves and the public and the board why we do this. Uh it's a way of looking
014over the next 18 months. We talk about where have we been, where are we now, where do we expect to go. the budget process. You set your appropriations and your your basically your spending amounts for the calendar year of 2026, but you also have to incorporate these last six months of 2025. So that's why it's considered an 18-month uh process. Um I always like to remind ourselves uh what particular funds are we talking about when we talk about the the 2026 budget and the spending amounts. It's in basically the buckets of funding called the education fund, operation fund and debt service. It also includes rainy day. Those first three, education and operation and debt service. Uh those are the ones we talk about the most. Uh the only two supported by taxes or by local
015property taxes are operation fund and the debt service. The education fund is supported by basically your enrollment. It's supported by the school funding formula. And I go ahead and list some of those other funds there um that are were not it's not really part of the budget process. They're not included, but yet uh it's a big part of what we do. The lunch fund, the self- insurance fund, um those are all certainly important. Anytime we sell bonds, um if we sell general obligation bonds, the money comes back on our books under a bond project fund. and any federal and state grants. Um those sit on our books as well, but that's not really talked about tonight. And textbook rental is now rolled into the um education fund uh funding formula. So, and then the the
016next slide, we just kind of talk about what makes up the education fund bucket. Uh really, it's direct instruction in a school building. That's the best way to think about it. If you're in an elementary building or a middle school building or a Muny Central High School, pretty much everything going on in that direct instruction is what goes on goes in the education fund. Teacher salaries, uh, teacher benefits, it includes the principles, their admin assistance, anything related with curriculum, technology, um, is included in education fund. Uh, your main funding source is the funding formula and that's based on your enrollment. So, the more enrollment you have, the more uh state funding formula you will get. Uh I I just put a couple bullet points there. In 25, our state approved education fund budget was 44.1
017million. Uh I'm advertising just a little bit less in 2026. That's primarily because we're not re expected to receive as much money in the textbook rental fund and we basically just uh budget our appropriations not much more than what our revenue is. So that's why that looks slightly damn and um it doesn't count against you in terms of appropriations. I put that last bullet point there. You don't have to have an appropriation to make the transfer from education to operation and we'll do almost 7 million of transfer for that. Just a couple other assumptions uh that I like to include on the education fund. Um, basically our I I want to show the the public and the board where we expect our state funding to be. The state basic grant, we expect it to be
018just 47.8 million. Uh, that's only slightly above what we're getting this year. Calendar year basis, it's almost the same. Um, our total revenue, we're expecting a little over $50 million. We're going to expect to spend a little over $50 million. Um we're still expecting a cash balance uh projected at the end of December of December of 2026, a little over 15 million. And this is all predicated on student enrollment. Um we're expecting student enrollment to be flat. it last year. Um, well, the February count, as we talked about earlier when we had our meeting, uh, we were 4,872. We're kind of just projecting flat for the budget process. Even the state of state of Indiana when they gave us their estimate of the funding formula, I think was 4870. So, they were right pretty much
019right on where we were uh, pro projecting. Also, the next slide is is my big pie chart. Yes. That that gross number right there, the 476. Yes. Or the or the 50.1, right? That is in that is a gross amount that the state fund gets deducted from or is that net of that? What that is that is what we actually receive. So that that um money has already been uh taken out. Okay. So all right. All right. Thank you. Anyway, so that's when we get to the pie chart. We get to the pie chart of the education fund budget. I just even if you can't see the percentages, you can see the big pieces of the pie. Uh the biggest blueberry pie there is uh is your salaries. That's the blue piece. The benefits make
020up the next part part. Uh 56% are salaries, 18% are benefits. you're always you're always running 74 75% of all your spending in the education fund is wages and benefits. That is just typically what you would see. Um and that just kind of shows a split of how the education fund gets split up. Uh the next slide you'll just see uh those are actual education fund cash balances by year. clear on the far right. Those last two columns are the estimates, but that's even if you can't see real well, that's over $15 million is where is where we have basically been on our cash balance uh since about 2022. So, we've been very consistent to stay at that level, which means your cash flow has also been uh a surplus or just above that. So,
021that's how we've added to that balance. And likewise, you can see when we didn't uh c we were not in a cash flow positive uh a number of years ago, but we've certainly um been in a positive state on cash flow the last the last few years. The next chart I'd like to show you is just a visual of the basic grant revenue. Once again, that shows the state revenue based on our enrollment that goes into that fund called the education fund. And you can see that it's gone up. Um it went up big change between 22 and 23 because they actually changed the funding formula to provide more money to schools. That's when they put some of those mandates in to make sure that you're hitting the minimum teacher salary of at that year
02240,000 you had to start hitting and then they've continued to raise raise that up. So that was it was almost counterintuitive where normally you would expect if your enrollment would go down your revenue would go down but in that case you were actually getting some more revenue that of course is flattened out. Now now now the state funding formula is more predictable if you will. Let's switch gears. We'll go to the operation fund next. the operation fund in terms of what what makes up the operation fund, those pieces of the pie and operation fund bucket. Those are the expenses to operate the district. That's uh that's almost everything you'd see in our administration office uh uh or the business office or human resources, the transportation department, operation maintenance of the buildings, uh repairs for the
023buildings, utilities, um repairs and supplies, and even includes our activity buses. We don't have any yellow buses in there, but our activity buses, although we do pay for the yellow buses with our contract with Auxilio, uh comes out of the operation fund. Um it's supported by the local tax rate with local property taxes and also because we can transfer up to 15% of the um education fund into operation that makes up the revenue that goes into the operation fund buck operation fund bucket. I always just like for a sense of a history or trend there. the last few years you can see what we've had approved and basically we spend everything that we've been approved in the in those operation fund budgets. Um and really it was 2022 that was before the tax cap really
024started u uh changing for us and that's when we had to start kind of using rainy day pretty significantly to help us with operation fund spending. Um the very last bullet point there is our tax cap. Uh we're expecting the tax cap to be pretty consistent at 11.1 million uh for next year. Um the state had just released some information last week where they were uh projecting really high numbers of tax caps. Uh I had had used 11.1 million. Our Baker Tilly consultants were also telling me 11.1 and that's what I used. typically um it takes a few years before the state department of local government finance on the budget uh really hones in exactly of what the the tax cap would be. Obviously, there's a lot of uncertainty uh over the next few years
025on the tax cap, but that's not going to directly hit us just yet. Uh I mentioned that just because that's we're trying to be very consistent on what we think uh that will be. And just as a reminder, the when we talk about the tax cap, sometimes it's referred to as a circuit breaker credit. It just basically means the amount of property taxes you're not going to get. So if your local property taxes are 22 million, we're only going to really get about half of that, about 11 or 12 million. That's really what has been happening for Muny for about the last uh nine or nine or 10 years. I mean, we only get about 50% of our local levy. Uh some other uh op uh notes and assumptions on the next slide there uh
026about the operation fund. No longer no longer is the biggest piece of the pie uh the maintenance and facilities and custodians. A year ago that was the largest piece and now transportation is slightly higher at 2.9 million. I know I listed those together. Maintenance custodials is about 2.9 million. Transportation 2.9 million. Utilities are the next largest piece. But those are the various things that make up all the various items. Um security little under 700,000. Uh I probably should have grouped property and casualty insurance and workers comp insurance together. Uh that's a large number. Um we were blessed, if you will, about two years ago when they really jacked up the property and casualty insurance. that was about a $300,000 increase in one year and we were just not able to find an alternative to that.
027So that's pretty much what we are dealing with on property and casualty and workers comp. Um and you can see the breakdown of those other spending items. It all adds up to about 12.3 million. That's what we're advertising that we would like to spend. Um and that's a slight increase from where we were this year at about 11.5 million. Uh I like to advertise high. will make them cut it. So then if you get the appropriation, you're still allowed to spend it and it's always based upon how much revenue that they think you're going to get. So then I put the pie chart up there behind us and um really the biggest piece of the pie slightly was the transportation over maintenance and custodial. And a year ago, like I said, why did that change
028so much? It's because SSC was the biggest chunk of that last year. That contract by itself was almost $4 million and that's the one we're projecting because we're bringing them in house. We brought them in house as of July 1. It's going to save us a million to a million two out of the operation fund in 2026. So, we'll get the full impact next year and I'm so glad we were able to do that. Um, but it's really going to make a difference. Uh, and you can see the rest of those are just split off a lot of other lot of other smaller items that we talked about. Uh the next little bar chart I like to show it's just the trend of total operation fund spending. Um really the punchline for this is if
029you look back 20 clear on the far left 1920 and 21 that kind of showed really what we were spending in operation fund. We weren't we weren't having to spend money on a rainy day to support our operational spending. But that's when the um just the tax cap impact and just how um the reduction of of revenue has forced us to still we're still spending roughly 13 million on operational items. It's just we take a big couple million out of rainy day. So uh it makes it look like wow we've done a really good job cutting operational spending. No. uh starting in 2023 24 25 then 26 we're balancing that with what we're taking out of rainy day. So that's that's why that trend has gone down a bit on spending. Uh the next slide
030just talks about debt service. That's the debt service fund is is what it says it is. It pays for our long-term debts. Um long-term debts of the district totally supported by the local tax rate. not really impacted by uh the tax caps because the de the part department of local government finance wants school districts to pay their long-term debts. So if you have ponds, you have bond debt, uh the tax caps going to hit us in the operation fund, we're going to be able to pay our debts and debt service. Uh in 2025, the year we're in now, our total debt payments are about 8.7 million. We're advertising our debt service budget next year of 10 a.5 million and that includes uh these 2025 bonds which we haven't sold yet but we had to put
031in a projected estimated debt service payment in there uh from the Baker Tilly uh consultants and uh that's why that number is is what it is. Um, the next graph I like to show the bar chart and like I said, even if you can't read it from across the room, it just shows the downward trend to our long-term debt outstanding. Clear on the far right at June of 2025, it says 18.9 million. Um, it is obviously clear on the far left in December of 2018 that was 38.5 million. So, we have we've done a lot of projects if you remember the last three or four years, but we've paid them off uh in one or two-year payment plans. That's how the Baker Tilly Financial Consultants had structured the debt for us. Um so, that's why
032as we got ready to do this next bond debt uh project, we have been able to keep the tax rate uh very stable. Uh Brad, fall down. I think that's something that we should definitely recognize that if you recall the slide that showed cash. Yeah. And the cash that we have and where we were. Yeah. And at the same time how much we owed and what we owe now and and the things we've been able to do. So I think that's that is a big time chart there. And you know, I I think when we we look a little farther and you show the tax rates, um I think it's indicative of the fact that I feel we're doing a really good job of managing the money that we have. And uh so and that
033that direct directly reflects to the to the to the taxpayer and I I think that's that's a great a great story. Well, to your point, we've spent $60 million in capitals, right? Right. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yes. That's a big number. Yeah. and this is going down right and obviously um uh July 1st 2018 um when your board took over and the leadership changed and a lot of uncertainty was still facing us and uh we have done monumental changes since then and a lot of this was still uncertain of how this is going to go and then you flip to the next the next uh chart stop you there just a second I want to remind again what the debt was 2018 we took over 38 million and what it is today yep it is only
034uh 18.9 so it's significant significant change in terms of debt reduction so that's I I want to significant thank the the administration for managing that and doing so in a a way that not only permitted us to reduce the debt but as Mr. blow points out to to do some really much needed improvements to the overall much needed improvements. Um a very much of a group effort with uh the use of funds we had with the the federal esser funds to help us with buildings and and then the three bond projects we were able to do and then certainly with the um being able to spend the geo bonds in 2019 uh for what it was intended for. So, I like to show this next bar chart because it shows the $12 million state loan.
035Um, it's now down to we're bel at at um at the end of June. I didn't break it down that way. It shows the these show December 31st each year, but we're below, you know, we're below 7 million at the end of June. And that's the the loan we got from the state. Uh we pay that back to the state uh each month. That's a little over. We're now paying over $2 million to the state. Uh it's all subtracted from our state basic grant. So, as you can see, it's continuing to go down to zero and it'll be zero on June 30th of 2028. So, um so at the same time that we have done all those other things of tried to manage our money, our cash flow is better, our cash balance has been
036better. Uh this is taken away from us right off the top for the from the education fund, but we're still doing um all the goals and things we want to do for the district as we continue to pay the pay these things back. So and our tax rate as Yes. is still lower than it was right in 2018. Right. The next uh the next couple slides I'd like to talk about the capital project plan and the bus replacement plan. Those are embedded within the operation fund by statute. Even though we no longer have a capital project plan or capital project fund and we no longer have a bus replacement fund, they never took that out of the the legislation the legislation. It's still in so I still have to present a capital project plan and
037a bus replacement plan even though it's within the appropriations of the operation fund because really what we say for our capital project plan is we take our spending out of the operation fund. We really do not have anytime we do a project. It's like I just explained, we do it with the bond money. Okay, this used to be uh school districts would show uh we're going to you have a separate fund for capital project fund. You're going to show what are your 20 projects you're going to do. We just don't we don't show it in that fashion. All our big projects come out of the bond money and that's really what but we still have to go through that. We still have to do this process. The bus replacement plan like to talk about that.
038uh that really represents our white activity buses. Uh several of you have remember when I came to the board saying, "Hey, we want to buy some school buses. Uh we had two-year wait for those a two-year wait to buy the two white activity buses that we received in 2025. And then along the way in late 2024, we bought two used activity buses. So, we've tried really hard to update our six activity buses. Um, and just to remind you those those two buses from 2025, it was 119,000 for the 14 passenger and then the lift bus was about 125,000 and we got those across the border from Canada before the tariffs kicked in. So, that was that was a good thing. Uh, but those are expensive. Those are expensive buses. But uh we have tried hard
039to improve our fleet. I've just got two more to go uh seven and 010. So anyway, but I I never had that situation before to have to come to the school board say, "Well, I'm going to ask permission to buy buses, but it's going to take two years to receive them." So that was that's odd. So, okay, that's that slide there. Um it just shows we advertise high. Uh we know they're going to cut it down. And that's really what that explains. I'm advertising high. It shows the rate. Uh there's no tax rate for education. Uh the actual rate, we're only at a total of a$1.13. That's clear on the far right. And if that's hard for you to read and that's messy and you like to read a spreadsheet, go to the next slide.
040Uh and that just shows that shows the budget once again and shows the tax rate once again. We were at a $113 this year. We advertised high. They're going to cut it down. And uh our total advertised budget for 26 is a little over 68.2 million. That compares this year about 67.5 and that's only up because of the debt service estimate. We fully expect the debt service to be cut. So we fully expect our 26 budget when it's all said and done to probably be very very close to the 25 budget we have this year. And just another thing for you to note, our actual assessed valuation in Delaware County is over $2 billion there. Two2 billion6 in 2025. So that's the assessed valuation right there uh in Delaware County that represents just the Muny
041district. So that that is what you will hear people talk about in these next few years. That $2 billion of net assessed valuation. Uh that's where people will get that property tax relief uh from their assessed valuation of their property. The next slide is just kind of another summary. I' I've talked about this all along. We advertise our tax rates high because the Department of Local Government Finance has to cut will cut it down because once it's advertised, it can't be raised only cut. So that's the budget process. Budget 101 for superintendents and business managers. That's the way you have to do it. Once a budget is advertised, it cannot be raised, only cut. Uh if assessed values of a property go up in the district, the tax rate would go down. That's because more
042taxpayers are paying whatever the levy is and it's spread out over a a smaller smaller group. If assessed values of property in the district go down, the tax rate has to go up. Um and I like to list that last bullet point about your tax cap. If you hear us talking about tax caps, if you're a residential homeowner, you have a 1% cap. If you have agriculture or other property, it's a 2% cap and a 3% cap for all other property. And that basically some of those items are going to change over the next next few years. Okay? So, the full amount starts kicking in in 28 and 29, but that's for another story about Senate Bill One. Uh the next slide, we're just kind of at the end here a little bit. Just explaining
043we advertise high on the property tax levy. We're not going to get 36.8 million. The actual levy this year is about 22, but we don't get to 22 because we have a tax cap of 11. So we're we're never going to get the full amount. That's because the tax caps we just mentioned and we're estimating the tax cap of about 11 million. So what does that really mean? again on the tax cap. It just means a lot of property owners in Delaware County School District are up against their properties are they can't be assessed much higher. That's really what that means. And I don't know how it is for all you individual folks that own property in Delaware County, but um I I I guess it's supposed to be stable for you. I mean, that's
044what it's supposed to mean. Um the little the next chart I like to put just talks about property taxes and what we have actually collected uh over the last few years. I guess that goes clear back to 2015. Uh most recently on the far right, we're estimating this year collecting about 11.9 million. Last year we collected 12.3 million. And you can see it's just been all over the place a little bit, but it's it's not growing significantly. If anything, we expect it to go go down over the next few years. So that just shows you that's actually what we actually receive. So, we're not receiving 22 million or 23 million. Yep. I got to ask what happened in 2017. I think you asked that every year. I do write it down so I don't have
045to ask. I don't want that year. I know. That was a good year. Uh what he's asking about is why is the spike on $14.6 million? Uh I don't know. I'm not sure um what made it special. Research that. We'll have to research that. Um, that was obviously an outlier. Um, I I just don't know on that one. Um, one of the last next to last slide there, we're almost done. It's just showing once again, it's just restating what we're telling you, telling the public, telling the local government finance, telling the state, this is where we think we're not going to spend any more than this amount uh for these levels, 43.6 million education, 10 a.5 million debt service, 12.3 operation. And what that really means is if I get to the fourth quarter of
0462026 and I need more appropriation, I would come to the school board and ask permission for more spending authority. Uh but for purposes of this budget, this is where I think it looks to me right now. But as as I said, we're 18 months you're 18 months away, you know, from some of these u spending and and items to happen. So we'll we'll see. Um the rainy day fund balance is at 4.8 8 million. I'm only asking to spend a million8 next year. Um just trying to make sure we balance out enough spending for operational expenditures. I am advertising almost as much as I can for the operation fund max levy. What that means is you're only allowed to advertise you're you're only going to get a 4% increase in your operation fund levy every
047year. And they set that statewide has nothing to do with what's going on in Delaware County or Jay County or Blackford County. They set it at the state level. I guess there's quite a formula that goes into that. But so we we we advertise it with a 4% increase of what it was last year. But if you remember, we don't collect 14 million in the operation fund. It's only about 3 million. Okay? Because the tax cap takes 11 million of it. So anyway, so I do advertise as much as I can out of the operation fund. Um the last slide before I ask you the question, is it okay to advertise the budget, which is ultimately what we're doing here, is um I just summarize a few bullet points there. Just because the revenue is
048advertised doesn't mean we expect to get it. if your enrollment tanks or something occurs in your district um just because you thought you're going to get that revenue, you may not get it. The only thing we're telling the public and the board and the state is this is where we we're not going to spend more than this amount of money. We're setting the appropriations. Um we've talked about bus replacement and capital project plan. It's embedded in our operation. Debt service reflects long-term debts. That does include the estimate for our bonds we're going to sell later this year. Um we're going to sell them in the fourth quarter of 2025. And then once we have the final amortization schedule, they they won't approve our budget until they get the final amorization payment. So we're not going
049to get any you don't get any extra windfall of money until you get an actual uh debt service uh amorization schedule. Uh I talked about the $12 million loan. This hard to believe this is the this will be the seventh year for the payback of that $12 million loan. I can remember when we still had to ask for those um uh receiving the money from the state back in uh the first 6 months of 2019. We're now paying it back to the tune of 2.2 million in 2026. It's deducted from the state basic grant. Our loan balance, yeah, under 7 million at the end of June here at 6.8 million. Um, I've mentioned rainy day. We use that to help overflow expenses from operation and we could transfer obviously at the end of this year
050transfer from education to rainy day. Some of our biggest variables are enrollment and I've mentioned that already. So other than that certainly entertain any other questions. Ultimately I'm just asking the board permission to advertise the budget. That would include a asking you for a motion to to make that happen. Okay. Any questions for Mr. Duro? I I have a question, Brett. This is more of a long-term question, I guess, but uh concerned about the interplay between the operations fund and the rainy day fund. Is is there a long-term solution statewide? It It's not a Muny problem necessarily. It's a structural problem. Um those are good questions. What I would say is am I concerned? Well, sure. I mean, um, we're just trying to really one way of looking at it. I was just trying I
051really had a really good plan last year in October, which was we're going to cut spending and operation fund because the lowhanging fruit was what we had in front of us with the uh, SSC. Uh, so we knew that was really going to help us. Uh, the big wild card that's been thrown to us now is the potential impacts of Senate Bill One. Um, so that will come in the next two or three years. I guess what we will do is um is it a concern? Yes, it is a concern for us how we'll continue to maintain that um because it's really difficult to reduce your spending in the operation fund. I mean um because you're paying for utility costs, you're paying for buildings, you're repairing your buildings. Um so we will very good question.
052It's it's always a concern for me. Uh we definitely we knew we had a plan a year ago when we could follow through on uh changing SSC to an in-house uh system inhouse employees because we're really trying to get beyond we're really trying to get beyond 2028. That's the big milestone. If we get beyond having to pay back the $12 million state loan because it goes away halfway in 28. we knew that would help free up more money to make those transfers back into uh rainy day or transfer for uh the operation fund. So that was kind of where we were really aiming for when we cut back uh some of the spending for operations uh spending in the operation fund knowing we could get to 2028. So now we have the new wild card
053thrown to us about potential impact of Senate Bill one. So we'll we'll continue to deal with that. we'll deal with it together as a board and administration and team. Um, but we had it for a while. We had the plan, cut back spending. So, as you point out, the squeeze gets progressively tight as we cycle through the next really three years and 2028 is going to be a crunch year. Um the estimated cuts from Senate Bill one at least at the time the legislation was cycling through the state house was or my approximately 3 million in cuts over the next three years with the largest being 2028. So at that point 2028, we will not only at that point be feeling the full impact of Senate Bill One and its cuts to revenue, but also
054the the balloon and final payments on the $12 million. So that's going to be I mean I think we will be able to look I think next spring and determine if those projected cuts are accurate. U to revenue and then we'll have to formulate a plan for dealing with uh the subsequent 24 months. Um a lot of tools on the table that uh can be brought to bear. Uh but doing nothing will not be it's is that's not going to fix it. I don't think we can just wade through it. Um I think there will be absent uh some step by the legislature uh to remedy what I I think are defects with the existing legislation, we'll have to take local steps. And I know for instance, unrelated to schools, there are any number of
055counties who are taking steps right now by passing local option income taxes um the uh including public safety taxes and other things to generate revenue. Yeah. uh to deal with what happened in the state house. So, we'll have to take a hard look at that next spring would be my guess. Brad, is that right accurate? I would say so. And we certainly have some good information coming to us from Baker Tilly to help us with some of these items that you mentioned. Um, but we know we will do it as a team and as a board and as a committee uh to make sure we get the best information together to figure out what what's going to be the goal because we know long term like you said we can't I mean even Baker Tilly
056tells us that we can't continue to sustain what we were doing. Uh we were just trying to get beyond 2028 and um new challenges sometimes come up. So we shall see. Yeah. Well, um I don't unless somebody else sees something up there. I don't see a lot of places that are susceptible of further cuts. Well, well, seven years ago when I sat there in the audience when you did your budget presentation at Muny Central High School and I was just wanting to see how things were going. I wasn't working for Muny schools yet. You can't underell the fact a lot of positive change has happened just like you pointed out with the charts and graphs behind me and what what you were facing at that time. All those things to do things in a positive
057way cash flow-wise and moneywise and trying to take care of money and the operations. We've been able to do that together. Yeah, we'll we'll navigate it. Um but it's it's going to create challenges uh for the for the system. No question. So, another question, I've never asked this, but transportation is a big expense for us. Is that guided by the state, how we how far out we go to pick up, we it's the service we provide for our community, right? It's us. And we're pretty unique in our partnership with MITS that a lot of right a lot of districts don't have that luxury to to to be able to partner to to alleviate some of that already. That's one of the conversations that Leanne and I had last summer or two summers ago with um
058legislators like well what are what are you doing to address these things and we could we could share um what all we've done and that was a unique approach that most folks can't do but um yeah and you know you raised that question and it's my understanding that there have been any number of discussions at the administrative level of various school systems throughout the state about who We do we not do we stop offering transportation, right? Or do we curtail the the geographic range we we provide transportation to? And those are questions those are challenging challenging issues because you know students get hurt, families get hurt. Yeah. Um so it's it's it's certainly not an ideal solution. You know, I I continue to look at our insurance premiums and just go, "Holy cow." Um because
059our our liability coverage in 2022, I believe, was about $300,000. That's correct. And now we're we're bordering just under almost a million. Yeah. And then workers comp has also gone up with some significance. And I unless you guys have a lot of workers comp claims I don't know about well as as part of our process because we knew July 1st we were bringing over employees um that has raised as we knew it would raise it yeah raise raise it some you know that's an interesting you know it's it's a risk certainly but do you selfinsure on workers comp does the statute permit that uh that I don't know about being self-insured there. We're self insurance on we're self-insured on medical uh but we have a fund for that at almost 3 million in our self-
060insurance fund but um yeah I just don't know if the the workers comp statute permit you self insurance um state that's a mandated coverage so I would doubt it um okay any other questions all done okay uh we need a motion to approve approve the advertising of the budget. So moved. Have a motion. Do I hear a second? Second. All those in favor signify by. I oppose. Same sign. Thank you, Mr. Grum, for all that work. Uh we are on to 5.2. And this is an exciting event. Uh Dr. Reynolds, uh who chaired your uh comp committee this year? Um Dave. Dave. Mr. Heater. want to deal with this? Happy to. Uh, first of all, thank uh Brad and Chuck for putting together information and thanks to Jim Low and and Katie for being on
061the committee. Uh, we met with uh to address a recommendation and that you see in front of you today. There are a couple of things I think before we we talk about the detail um of note. First of all, um uh we want to make sure and and and shout out to the teachers for the work that they've done. Um you know, we just heard a budget presentation and we saw, you know, the fiscal health of the school district and and the effectiveness of Brad and team in uh in fiscally managing it. Um but we also at the start of the meeting uh got a little bit of a sense of achievement uh which is really why we do we all do what we do. So I want to thank the teachers make sure that
062they they're recognized for the work they're doing and the fact that our retention rate with teachers this year is about 90%. Uh which is an extraordinary number um from where we were and it's a I I think we could probably stack that up against anybody in the state. I don't know that it's anecdotal, but I I believe Chuck, wouldn't you agree with that? Absolutely. What? So, so congrats to everybody. So, with that, knowing the uh the challenges that Brad mentioned in his budget presentation, um what you have before you today is a recommendation. Uh this recommendation puts our starting teacher pay at $52,000 which is about um it's in the top uh 8% in the state which again is I think critically important as we go out there and try to attract new teachers particularly
063but it filters up through um the rest of our hiring also. Uh and the increase that that uh uh is proposed here of five roughly $52,000 represents about two and a half percent. Correct me if I'm wrong there, Brad, but that's that's about right on. Um so uh it's uh it is u not insignificant um um but we feel appropriate for this year given some of the the uncertainty that we face. So, with that, um the the proposal here is is uh straightforward. Uh we're proposing uh uh that every teacher receive $500 increase, which which uh I think we found out a couple of years ago when we raise minimum teachers pay. Um what we run into sometimes is a little bit of compression with teachers that are already in the system. Um particularly those
064that have been here for two or three years. um that it it compresses the pay between uh what is becoming an experienced teacher with an inexperienced teacher. So, the proposal is to increase all teachers $500 in pay. Uh in addition to that $500, u a highly effective rated teacher from the 2425 academic year would receive an additional 1,500 for a total of 2,000. Uh, all returning teachers that were evaluated as effective would receive $750 in addition to the 500, which is a $1,250 increase. Mentioned the minimum uh pay of u $52,000 for the next school year. Um, and just to remind everybody, uh, that we we are continuing the thousand increase in base salary for those teachers who are recognized as, uh, teachers of the year, um, uh, in their respective schools as well as
065the district teacher of the year. Um, and that is all part of the $52,000 that's proposed here. Um, so on behalf of the compensation committee, did I leave out anything? I y'all I do not want people to forget that when we started in 2018 that base salary was $34,000 and today it's being proposed 52. That's that's impressive. Very impressive. Again, all made possible through the the success of you know the and the hard work in every one of those schools really and then of course the the staff of admin. So um if if thanks for for mentioning that Jim. Um, so with that, on behalf of the the committee, I'd recommend this approval for compensation for teachers for this academic year. Any questions for Mr. Heater? I want to thank the committee for its work.
066I know that requires a few extra meetings and thank Mr. Derome for pulling together the data on which uh the decision is being made. Um I I think it's critically important to uh provide compensation increases uh to our faculty. Um they are the wheels that take us down the road. Absolutely. Um any additional questions, comments? Uh with that, Mr. Heater um has put on the floor a proposal for a motion. Um, do I hear uh a motion to approve those recommendations? Mr. Urban. So moved. Second. Been moved and second. All those in favor signify by I. I post same sign. Okay. Thank you. Uh, thank you again for your work and and uh thank you to our teachers who who do such hard and meaningful work every year. So we are on to um hearing
067public hearing regarding our bond project. Uh and this is uh a lease hearing. Um so uh we have to hold by statute a lease hearing in connection with this proposed project. Uh after the presentation uh there will be an opportunity for any public who wish to make comments about the lease rental to be paid under the lease. At the hearing, uh, we would ask that each person limit their comments to three minutes and that the topic be limited to the lease rental under consideration. Uh, the notion, pardon me, the notice uh for this hearing was published as um legally required and uh Mr. Durham um do we need a motion to approve at this point? Yes, Cindy will keep me straight on this because we're following the script from the attorneys and we do need
068a motion to approve that the proof of the notice was actually presented. Yes. And I I was uh hoping the people out there in in the cyber space would think that we were just you and I. No, we just had this all memorized and working our way through it, but thank you for lifting the veil. No, we've lifted the veil. So, with that, um, I would entertain a motion to approve the the proof of the notices being, um, legally published. Do I have a motion? I have a motion. Do I have a second? Motion, a second. All those in favor signify by I. I. Okay. Motion passes. Uh, pursuant to Indiana code 20-47-3, before a school corporation may enter into a lease with a nonprofit building corporation, the school corporation must conduct a hearing regarding
069the execution of the proposed lease agreement and whether the rental to be paid to the less building corporation under the proposed lease is a fair and reasonable rental for the proposed improvements. At this point, I will turn it over to Mr. Derome uh to outline the proposed projects related to the lease. Mr. Durham, thank you. Um, we've talked about this uh several times over the last few months. We'll just recap that as a brief summary of the work that we're doing for this particular project uh uh for 2025 uh includes such things as the uh my fieldhouse, adding uh replacing the boiler room with a new boiler and also adding air conditioning. We're also looking at roofing projects throughout the district. uh doing some improvement projects throughout the district regarding the track at Muny Southside,
070the tennis courts at Muny Southside, as well as the um bleachers inside the Muny Fieldhouse on the lower arena, the bleachers at North Side Middle School, the chiller at North Side Middle School, and um some improvement projects like that will consume almost Oh, and I can't forget the doors, exterior doors at Muny Central High School, as well as surfaces, floor surfaces at Muny Central High School. Uh the reason and for those proposed projects because uh they're in dire need of replacement. uh whether it's original exterior doors uh at Muny Central or the carpet needing to be replaced or just the general condition uh of the tennis courts and the track as well as just that reminder at the fieldhouse uh we're using a rental uh boiler on a semi-truck which we will again this year
071uh this winter and we knew that uh until we get this project in place. So, that kind of summarizes why we're doing it because really just the general condition of those items and the roofing. It was just ready uh to to continue with this uh project and these needs are included as because of that and that's where we're going to spend the funds. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Durham. Uh we will now open the public hearing. If anyone present would like to speak, uh let us know. State your name and address. limit your comments uh to the proposed rent to be paid under the least and keep any comments to three minutes. Um is anyone present who wishes to speak? Anyone present who wishes to speak regarding the proposed lease? Okay. Using my senses, uh I
072will report that there is no one uh in the audience who wishes to speak at this time. And so uh given that we will proceed to close the hearing and reopen the regular meeting. Okay. At this point, uh Mr. Jerome uh pardon me. Yep. Yeah. We I closed the public session. Yeah. Um, I'm just following that script thing. Yeah, doing a fine job. Yeah, you threw me off there, Cindy. I'm I'm I'm ready to go here. Yeah. And I'm I'm being a little more formal. Right. I know. Uh, Mr. Drum, uh, could you please summarize the resolution authorizing the execution of the lease? As required by Indiana Code 20-47-3, after a lease hearing, the school board must approve the lease agreement and authorize the school board officers to execute such a lease. The lease is
073the agreement whereby the school corporation will levy the required property tax to pay the lease payments throughout the life of the bond issue. The lease payments will be paid to the building corporation and used to pay the bond holders to repay the proposed bonds. Okay. And just so people understand fully in lay person's terms, uh the building corporation is a corporation formed uh for the purpose of receiving the lease payments and remitting uh those payments to those paying the proposed to the bond holders. The building corporation is not compensated. No, they do not receive profit off of this. This is effectively a pass through uh to the bond holders. So with that, could I have a motion and a second to adopt this resolution? Move to approve. Hear a motion. Do I hear a second?
074Second. Motion and seconded. All those in favor signify. I I oppose. Same sign. Thank you, Mr. Dome. Could you summarize the resolution of assigning bids and contracts? Thank you. Uh this is the process by which uh we assign the bids and contracts for this particular project uh for the building corporation. Um, at the bond closing, the building corporation will own the facilities where some of the renovation work will be completed. The building corporation will also be the issuer of the bonds. As a result, certain contracts may need to be with the building corporation because the building corporation will hold the money to pay the contractors. The school corporation receives the bids and or contracts and awards the bids and or contracts under state law, but then retains the right to assign those bids and or
075contracts to the building corporation for payment at the discretion of the board. I might also mention that I'm usually the lesser representative from the school corporation to the building corporation. So I do have my hands on this process. So correct. And that is a from a formal best practices um standpoint that is wise. Uh that makes sure that folks who've done the work are getting paid and also performing. So with that, could I have a motion and a second to adopt the resolution of signing bids and contracts? So move have a motion. Do I hear a second? Second. Moved in second. All in favor signify by I. Oppos same side. Okay. Thank you. Um Mr. Drum, could you summarize the resolution authorizing the third supplement to the master continuing disclosure undertaking and the issuance of
076the bonds? Yes, thank you. The resolution satisfies the Securities and Exchange Commission requirement that a school corporation enter into a continuing disclosure undertaking agreement if it issues bonds to the public investors. The agreement requires the school corporation agree to timely provide certain financial information and provide notice of certain material events if and when they occur. Thank you, Mr. Jerome. Um, could I have a motion to and a second to adopt the resolution authorizing the third supplement to the master continuing disclosure undertaking and the issuance of the bonds? Move to approve. Motion. Do I hear a second? Second. All those in favor signify by I. I. I. Both same side. Okay. Thank you. Um, at this point, did we get it all, Cindy? Okay, good. Um do we um have to move to close the the
077proceeding? Okay, so um at this point um we are it looks like on our agenda we're moving the public hearing regarding the additional appropriation has been moved to August 26th. Right. And the reason that had to be moved was per the direction of legal counsel um on the way. So we had to revertise. So we'll do an additional appropriation at the August 26th meeting. Okay. Thank you. Uh any questions for Mr. Durham concerning anything that we've covered this evening? We have covered a lot of ground. I want to make certain everybody feels comfortable with the information they have at their disposal. Okay. So, and then I want to just take a moment and note that u I have had probably a half dozen uh teachers um and employees of the school corporation approach me in
078various places around the city and uniformly they have said this has been the smoothest opening to school that they've had in their memory and that the attitudes um of everybody they seem to be very positive and so I I just want to take a moment that doesn't happen accidentally. So, thank you Dr. Reynolds and your team uh Dr. Bell, Mr. Rome, Mr. Grim, and everybody down the line for moving things forward. Just curious, how's the freshman academy starting off? It It's been going really well. um data tells you where you kind of need to put your resources and um to dedicate that to to our freshman academy. I think those resources are well spent and it's it has gone really well. You know, our very best some of some of our very best veteran teachers,
079you know, are are leading, you know, 12 of those folks are leading the freshman academy. And that's usually a right of passage where you get to move on from the freshman and and and teach your senior AP courses. So, um there are talented, tremendous teachers at at the freshman level and it's it's gone really well. Good. Monaster Monasuri is very exciting. It is. It's stressful for me, Eric, and Miss White, when you go out there because um the kids are are just very free and playing and learning um in a very different model than a traditional classroom, but um we we've been out there multiple times and lots of social media posts and it seems like a blast. Okay. Well, keep us advised. Um, have I told you the story about my uh experience at
080Winchester Village in Prairie Township when I started back in 1971? Uh, no. It was open and free and I got in trouble a lot. I spent a lot I spent a lot of time in you you move from learning space to learning space and I I spent a lot of time in the learning spaces. I liked and I'd spent no time in the learning spaces I didn't like and some of the teachers didn't find that to be an appropriate except count me interested in what happens out there. Eric Eric stopped by on Friday and they were in the creek. They were in the creek. Oh lord. With a rope that leads down from the top down. I mean there are three dolphins and all at once. Okay. So, okay. Little shells down there and all
081kinds of things. So, they were Okay. Very good. Well, I'm I'm pleased to hear that. Yeah. Just keep keep us in the loop on how that's going, please. Um, enjoy your time tomorrow at the state house. Yep. Absolutely. Um, and uh if anybody offers to send you back with some money, take it. I'll I'll take a couple extra packages. Uh, anything further before we wind up? Okay. Entertain a motion to adjurnn. Moved and second. All in favor signify by I. I. Post. Same sign. Okay. Thank you. Have a nice evening everyone. Very good. You have a good evening. You too. You too. Yes.