001on paper are accurate. So I look at what happened last year when there was a need for additional appropriation and once again I just have to express myself because when I look at form nine and I look at what the receipts were from for the Gary Community School Corporation when I look at a period from January 1st 2025 to June 30th 2025 the receipt balance was 49,32 $22,6081. And then when I look at the expenditures at that time, the number for that on form 9 is 42,723,531.39. So from looking at form nine and looking at what's coming into the district and what's going out, it actually looks like there's a period where there's a surplus of 6,598,52912. So when we get to the end of the year and then we start hearing things that the
002numbers were inadequate, additional appropriations have to be made. I would ask that this board to really look at why do we have to be in this position as a community member as a resident of Terry? Am I being am I being given the right numbers the complete numbers? Because one thing that's for certain we don't ever want to be in a situation where our district isn't solvable. And so when I look at the handout that was given and it gives future financial keys and it talks about December debt payments will go out. But then I look at the fund balances from 2024 a listed amount of 1,128,562. So what I'm asking for and I appreciate everybody who works in education, everybody who's helping our children because in the end we're here to support them and
003make sure that in America they get the best education possible. What are the numbers? If the debt is listed on one sheet as a fund balance of 1 million and now we have to appropriate 3 million, what what are we doing? And when we look at other community school corporations and we look at their budgets, one thing with numbers, numbers will tell their own story. And that's where acralbased accounting is important because if I have a cashbased system, let's say for a household, your bills are $50,000 a year. So you're going to track that when you get the money you're going to pay. There's an opportunity you could pay somebody and you shouldn't have paid. But with an acralbased accounting system, I know, okay, NIPCO is this amount. NIPO comes the tenth of each month.
004So, as a resident, I get to exercise oversight because I know the date of that bill. I know the operating expenses. I'm not looking at a cash system to just wait on you to tell me when you're spending the money. I actually know when the money is due. And so I just think these budget hearings put us at a disadvantage as a community because now we're at the mercy of the CFO and what reporting and what number she wants to give us. And so what I would ask is that we look at changing the way we budget because it is unfair for me as a community member. If you say, "Well, this is what the state requires. All I need to do, I got to type this up and send it to the state." That
005can be all well and good. that as somebody who lives in Gary, we want more than what the state requires. What the state requires is that good enough for me to determine are these dollars being spent the best way for our children's education. And then the other concern I had when I looked at the capital plan, one thing we talked about, we talked about field houses, we talked about swimming pools, we talked about all these dreams and aspirations of what we want for our children. But then when I look at the capital projects plan, I don't see a swimming pool. I don't see the swimming plan. I don't see the plan. Because the reality in government, if it's not written down, there's no way you're going to get it funded. And we live in the
006state of Indiana where we know they have a surplus. And when parents when we advocated, we needed the football fields kicked. We needed money to come in. And there was legislation that was able to address it. But the only way we got to that legislation is because we had it somewhere written down. So when we go to Indianapolis, is that us talking on emotions this real issues. You have to fix the roof. You have to fix the plumbing. You have to make these buildings the best for our children. And from what I'm seeing, I don't see that. So I'm here to talk to our board members, talk to our superintendent, talk to our CFO, and ask that you all please do the math. And don't do the math in a way that, oh, I just
007want to pay the bills. do the math in a way that there's a sense of urgency to educate each child in the Gary Community School Corporation. So these numbers have to mean something. They have to mean something to these children who walk through those doors, these children who are future doctors, our lawyers, our plumbers, our scientists. And I'm just concerned because I'm not And lastly, I would just add, please put more information on the website. Other communities, they have a strategic plan because in the end, you're fighting for every single school. You're fighting for every child. So as a community member, whether I have a child at McCulla, whether I have a child at Williams, I want to know what's going on. I live in Gary. I love the children who attend a school corporation
008and I want to have a level of oversight whether I attend a meeting or not. So I would just ask the board to send this report back. There comes a point, with all due respect, don't just keep giving us spreadsheets. I need more than a spreadsheet. Our children need more than a spreadsheet because the spreadsheets aren't getting us to where we need to be. And so, something's wrong. But in the end, we're all on the same team. Every dollar that comes into the Gary Community School Corporation has a job to do. And I want to make sure that all of you make sure that these dollars do the job that they're meant to do to help educate our children. And I just hope that you all hold this superintendent accountable, hold her staff account to
009make sure that they do right by our children. Thank you. with every single me I didn't mess every single it was one part of my but I've been there every school meeting B and I first of all want to commend the board teachers the community everybody's been involved with the school board uh one of the things I see right now Gary has money and when we didn't have money we complain when we do have money we complain my issue right now deal with budgets, you know, you deal with the income dollars coming in real simple expenses going out. Sometimes there's unexpected expenses. There's contingencies, things that you have to plan for. One of the things I saw this year, teachers got raises in here. There was a uh negotiation and people are getting their normal
010salary. That's number one. I haven't heard of any hungry students in the Gary school system right now. Uh I've heard some good stories uh from the students. They're doing some successful things, debating all kind of things in the community, but when you're dealing with a new budget, we basically started up a new corporation. That other corporation is gone. That boy, that take over, I hear that all the time. That's gone. It's behind you. Gary has his own school system now, and that's us. And if we want to concern about budget, about swimming pools, about upgrades, we got to speak loudly. You know, when we act and when we fight, we get what we want. We haven't had to fight. We've been working together. So, the key thing I want to make sure this budget thing
011goes in, we don't delay nothing and all that because it affects the students. We got to keep moving forward. We got to have some trust in our superintendent, our school board, and everybody representative. That's something that we got that's an integrity. We need to deal with those individuals, but we have to have that trust because it's about the students and about the teachers and it's about our kids being successful in the future. So, if this is a budget hearing, I know what the money was. Last Monday said it was we plus 6 million. Now what we prioritize and spend our money on is is the citizens need to get involved and say we want I mean you can do things and say you know you want a swimming pool or you want a baseball field
012where the budget says we can set that priority but right [clears throat] now we need to be doing the right thing as far as moving this process along. I agree with the lady before y'all. We may have to tweak some processes, but we really don't have enough history on this particular budget because I we haven't seen a full couple years. Right now, what I saw is they were paying for old bills that was there in the past and cleaning all that mess up and cleaning up from when you transition from one group to the other. So, all I'm asking community and I'm a community citizen 1771 Marshall. My name is Bruce Curry. Give the group a chance to get the budget so we understand the city and we gonna get the thing we want. Nobody's
013going to take money cuz they look everybody looking at Gary all over the nation. So nobody's going to ever do that. We going we going to make sure that's not going to happen. So all I'm saying I have a trust in the board to do the right thing. I trust in the faculty, the students, the administrators and everybody. We got new services. I think food services and all that. So all I'm asking the citizens, I'm not everybody's got the right to speak the way they want, but I'm speaking from fact because I've been at every meeting. I've seen what's going on. I've seen when that transition happened. Some people I see some new faces in the room. I had seen it meets, but I won't be there every time. If you if you're here every
014day, you understand the challenges this group has had to face. And it's been major. It's been major. And now we're in a period of we got money in Gary and now we mad. This is a happy season for me. I want us to do the right thing with that money and do the budget right, but let's do the right thing and keep moving with positive energy. That's all I'm asking. Thank you. >> Any additional public comments? Let's move on to um additional presentation from Mowski, please. >> While Miss Zabarowski is coming up, um I do want to have her as she's coming up, please, if you will share why school districts ask for additional appropriations. I don't want there to be a misunderstanding that we just spend money without getting boards approval. And typically that
015when we set a budget, we set a budget for what we know at that time. But things such as what you have on the screen come up and we have to ratchet activate those back to the contract starts. So please explain why we ask for additional appropriations in schools in Indiana because we don't just spend money without asking for it. >> We do not. And one thing I want to point out is that almost every school district has to request at this point in the season request additional appropriations because as Mr. Curry stated, there are things that happen throughout the year that we cannot I I I would never imagine could happen. For example, a tornado. I would have never budgeted for a tornado. But we had one and in November I actually spent about
016$450,000 that was not anticipated in the 2025 budget to account for those payments to go out. But I had to make those payments. So that's part of it. The other the other thing is when the budget is created, the budget assumes we assume certain things. Um some things happen throughout the year. We have buildings that HBAC is shut down. Um we have contracts that end. So we have new negotiations for contracts and by statute we have to request the board and the community have a public hearing. We have to publicize it in the paper and then I also now have to go to the department of local government and request these additional expenses in this current budget. So I can't just overspend. Now we do have the cash in our cash balances to support these
017additional appropriations that I am requesting. So with that being said, I would like to just go over a little bit in detail so everybody understands what these additional appropriations will pay for and why we needed them. Um we just uh finished our collective bargaining agreement in November meeting the deadline of November 15th. Um of course it's negotiations. So I would never assume an amount that we were going to provide raises for teachers or any stipens. That is a negotiation piece. So that is one of the reasons the additional appropriation is needed because we settled the collective bargaining agreement. The other thing that we do not account for is if the Indiana Department of Education mandates a certain curriculum or something that aligns with uh curriculum such as the science of reading. Um we had to
018go out and purchase additional curriculum which I believe in one of my other slides will show you. I believe we've spent $650,000 that I did not anticipate because this happened in the middle of the school year. Um the other thing with the operations fund as as I stated we we had a tornado hit. Now I will get reimbursed from the insurance for that but I still have to pay the bills and that was not accounted for in the 2025 budget. Also, we have to take into account the sharing of the property tax with the charter schools. Also, if we do not receive enough property tax money from the community, the only way I can pay debt payments that was established way before we came on board and also the common school loans that we have
019to pay back, if we do not have the funds to support that in the debt fund, I have to transfer move money from the operations fund to the debt fund in order to pay those debt payments. >> So, Linda, if I might. >> Yes. >> Point of privilege. I want to emphasize if we do not collect all of the money that we expect to collect from taxpayers and I think our collection rate is what 52% or something like that. Yes. So, we're not collecting all of the money. We still have to pay those bills. Then the last piece of this is the debt service fund. Um, I believe in a previous meeting I stated that the debt payments were never aligned with the budget. This goes back to probably about 7 years. Um, so when
020you create a budget, you align your debt payments in June and your debt payments in December to be paid within that budget year. The debt payments were not paid within those years based on a few days. So I worked with the Department of Local Government. So this additional appropriation is to account for that extra payment so we can align the debt payments to fall within the budget year that they should. >> Do we have any questions? >> I do have a question. Thank you for >> Sure. Yes. >> overview. And I know you talked about the education fund, the operation fund, the debt service fund. Can you tell us a little bit more about the rainy day fund? So, the rainy day fund, um, of course, I cannot spend any money out of the rainy
021day fund. That is just a a a little an interest account that, um, prior to our administration um, under uh, DWAB's control, they transferred $4 million from the textbook fund into the rainy day fund. If I cannot spend any rainy day money unless it is board approved, it has to be a resolution. So, should I need to use that money, I would have to request it, and that's per statute. >> And currently, we have $4 million in there. >> Thank you. Any additional questions? I know we have a lot of moving parts here, you know, with within the budget and within all of these um obligations that we have to pay. Um we are working very hard at trying to align this budget to our expenses. Linda, if you will please um clarify, we don't
022do budgeting in any way that you choose or I choose. We align with what state statute tells us we have to do for how budgets are run in schools. And budgets are run differently in public schools than they are in maybe government. >> Yes. So if you can talk about that for just a moment. >> Yes. So there I have I have statutes from state board of accounts. I have the IDOE. I have the department of local government. Everything every move I make I align with statutes, policies and procedures. So, I have to align everything I do with all of those regulations. I cannot just spend money how I feel. >> Thank you so much. >> You're welcome. >> Sure. >> Probably not necessarily a question, but >> yes, the state is sitting on $2.5
023billion budget surplus, which is down from about $6 billion before co And then with Senate and Road Act One, they also have cut funding for every county, every township, every city, and every school district in the state. That >> that is a fact. Yes, it is. And um later in my presentation, I wanted to provide an example of one of the effects of Senate Bill One that it will hit Gary. It will hit all municipalities in Erie, but I can talk about that later. >> So, Miss Linda, thank you. I know that you're going to come back during the regular meeting to ask for permission for your presentation. Yes. >> I'm sorry. I had a question. >> Yes. >> Thanks for No, please. >> Oh, okay. Thank you. >> How are you? I'm good. Good.
024Um just um is it possible that the budgets can be posted on the website? >> Meaning the >> just for the >> the form four and the form three are >> okay. >> They are on the website. >> Um how about the uh other forms? >> Can they be posted also? >> Um I'm not sure what you're talking the 1782 notice. I don't know. >> Okay. I think that I think that's probably what you're talking about. Um that would be up to Dr. Stokes. Normally, districts do not publish that. >> What I would say is the information that that you're required to publish in terms of understanding the budget and not bringing confusion. It's there, but we're more than happy to look at other things that you might think that could assist. We're more than
025happy to maybe look at some things that you think might assist, but we are publishing information and I know Chelsea could speak probably more to that. We put information out in the board dots as well as on the website about our budgetary supports and we do a presentation every board meeting, every single board meeting and even yet today we talk about our finances and where we are pretty much monthto month. >> Um, thank you for that. just saying um on the uh website just for the community and not have to go to board docs. It's kind of hard to use even for me sometimes. Also um the the the capital plan. Is there any thoughts for having a pool at Westside? >> Actually there is. I um I called out an expert from uh Detroit,
026Michigan to come out and we walked to the pool. Um he is he he will be presenting to me um some information um in order for us to make a decision if that is all possible. >> Okay. So I do have it in the works. I So when should we expect an answer to that if it's at all possible? >> Well, um I can call him next week. >> Okay. Um just so just for the next sure meeting so we can inform the community because that's one thing that I know was missing you know that be nice for the children. >> I I am that >> as well as >> that's one thing I want to do is it's that >> okay as well as labs and other things that would of course improve for
027all the children. Um just in terms of the budgeting the budget is done on what type of become method? cash basis. >> Cash basis. So I I heard some of what um the attorney Coleman was saying when we came in here in terms of on a cash basis. Is that something that's mandated by statute or is this it's it's yes we are cashbased. The state board of accounts is a cashbased auditing system as well. >> Okay. So so this is something that's mandated by statute that it has to be on a cash basis. I'm not sure if it's mandated, but it is all schools are cashbased. >> Okay. Um I I'm just I'm not a CPA and I'm not versed. >> You can just in terms of uh what she is saying, would it make
028sense if it was also done perhaps maybe two ways an acral also? >> Um that would probably make it very complicated. >> Very. >> Okay. And just in terms of u being a finance person, um which way do you think is better? [clears throat] >> Well, hold on. >> What does the state require? >> I I I think it's >> I I think she said the state didn't require anything. And I'm just curious as to what her opinion is. >> It's it's not necessarily that the state has a requirement on that. is what school districts throughout the state and what the state board of accounts uh does and it is for auditing purposes. It matches up when you start switching accounting methods. Now your numbers aren't necessarily not match up. >> You say when the
029they're not going to match up with >> Yeah. because you you you've actually and I I don't want to get into accounting but you are actually crediting and debiting at different times based on the accounting method that you're using. >> Okay. Thanks. Just well what's your opinion? Which one do you >> Well, I have always been with a cashbased so that is what I know. >> So you don't know the employees would you say? I do not. I've been in the school system working cashbased for 22 years. >> Okay. And I have no knowledge of it. I'm just curious as when I heard her mention it just in terms of um I know >> how bright and how um dedicated she is. So, I'm just wondering um by what she says that would be something
030that would perhaps work better in terms of um >> I I can tell you the the software with state board of accounts what we upload to is cashbased and then the software the financial software we use is cashbased. >> Okay. >> Are there any additional questions? Just um probably partially comment, partially question, but um would you say that because the majority of the state is on a cash basis that it makes it easier for comparative analysis when you are comparing what this school district does in relationship to other school districts? >> Yes, it does. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. I'll entertain a motion to close the public hearing. So move. May I have a second? >> It's been moved and properly seconded. Any discussion on the motion? Hearing no discussion, all in favor say
031I. >> Any opposition? The public hearing is closed. At this point, I'd like to call