00157 board meetings at order. First thing we'll do is item B, the revenue revenue neutral rate hearing. Here to conduct the hearing and recommend adoption of the resolution to exceed the revenue neutral rate tax rate. Jessica Noin, chief financial officer. Okay. >> Okay. So, I just kind of briefly put uh summarized what we talked about at the last board meeting on the revenue neutral rate. Um, as you can see, uh, fiscal year 25, we proposed the 49.561. It actually ended up being the 51.071 and uh, to say RNR, it was 48.203. So asking for approval to exceed that 48.203 um and the proposed budget is at 49.940. So um still a decrease from last year from the 51 to 49. So decreasing the overall mill levy for USC457. Um with that being said, the revenue
002um the mill the value of the mill is increasing 278. So that that will help also increase revenue for the district. Um exactly what it means is uh general fund will increase uh 557,000 capital outlay 230 lo 26,000 and bond and interest will actually decrease 72,000 uh because the reduction is mainly hit from the 51 to the 49 is uh mainly hitting the bond and interest fund. So overall, it's going to generate uh 956,000, but only 169,000 of that will be um a burden to the local taxpayers. Um and so here is what was published in the Garden City Telegram and just uh lays out the 20 bills for general fund, 16.033 for LO, 8 for capital, and 5.907 for bonded interest. totaling that 49.940. So that's all I have. I can answer questions if
003you have any. If not, I'll let you >> um I declare the hearing for the 25 26. >> Mr. President, we've got a >> got take action. >> We've got to open it up to patrons, too. >> Yeah, that's what I was doing. >> Oh, I'm sorry. >> That's what I was doing. I was going to Um, are there any patrons who wish to address the board? >> I'll take that as a note. All right. Are there any board members who wish to speak? I will say I wish we were at revenue neutral. I have that conversation with Jessica and others. really was hoping that would be the case this year, especially with the values increasing and whatnot. I understand why we're where we're at, but I still wish we were there. That's my two
004cents worth. >> Yeah, I agree. You know, I I they've worked really hard. Even though it is an increase, it's actually a decrease. Um, so I do appreciate the efforts to at least do your best to try to lower it some than than what it was. So, I do appreciate everybody's hard work on that. Nothing else. I'd entertain a motion to adopt the resolution to exceed the revenue neutral tax rate for the 2526 school year. >> Mr. President, I move that the board of education adopt the resolution to exceed the revenue neutral tax rate for the 2026 school year. I have a motion. Is there a second? >> Second. >> It's been motioned and seconded. Is there any further discussion? >> Jenning. We'll take a roll call vote. >> Nathan P. >> I Robin Bamp.
005Hi Rston. Hi. Johny. >> Hi. >> I'm Mark Andy Bmer and >> Okay. I'd entertain a motion to close the revenue neutral rate hearing. >> Mr. President, I move that the revenue neutral rate hearing for the 2025 2026 budget be closed. >> Second. All those in favor raise your hand. Oppose. Same. Motion carries. That is adjourned. Sorry. Take up more your space. Okay. I will call to order the budget hearing for the 2526 district budget. >> All right. Again, I just summarized what uh we had what I presented um at the last board meeting. So, um, some of this information, I guess, feeds into the the RNR, but, uh, state statute says that we need to to consider the building needs assessment and state assessment scores into into the budget. And so, these are the
006things that the committee that was put together uh, decided was most important. So, when building the budget, I took all of these things into consideration. recruitment and retention, including PTO, benefits, negotiations, and college fairs, absenteeism, and how we can help cut back on our chronic absenteeism, which is 10 absences or more or 10% or more. Um, and then the ESL needs of the district where we have implemented where the district pays for all the the two ESL courses. Um, and they addition to their license um and the practice exam. Um, we also took in uh I took into consideration social emotional needs including all of our SEAL curriculum. Uh, professional development was u a big one that we discussed and not only what PD we're offering our staff but focusing more on the implementation. And
007so um just today we had a meeting and about our PD at the end of September and sending out surveys to our staff after that not only saying did you like this PD but how are you going to implement it um in with your students. Um state assessments just um providing the staff and the resources needed to keep our state assessment uh scores increasing and then boundaries and the effects of force transfers. Um, so took all of that into consideration on kind of where I allocated money within the the budget for this year. Uh, a look at our enrollment. We we got figures from technology about 430. So these are all updated. Right now we're looking at a loss of 120 and that's headcount. So if you look at last year the average student for
008us brought in 8,400. we're looking at over a million dollars of of of a potential loss due to our declining enrollment. And so I think that factors in um to why maybe revenue neutral wasn't feasible this year um and makes that um a little more justifiable. So revenues that um are are not just new money but additional revenue from last year to this year. Uh we reduce five classified staff here at the ESC, three certified staff. We've got 33 long-term subs uh in certified positions, so they cost a little bit less than our certified teachers, so that frees up a little bit of money there. Uh reduction of one and a quarter administrators. Uh the general fund base is increasing $237. So that generates over one and a half million in new money. But what
009I added for this presentation from last is in green less the enrollment loss. So that was uh consider that was like thinking that our enrollment would stay flat. And so since we now know that that is definitely not looking like the case that 1.5 million is going to be less the enrollment loss. Same thing for the lo uh it increased 240 per student but we're going to have to take that enrollment loss into consideration there. So at the bottom, the total additional revenue available was over three million and then that that figure in green is taking off that million dollar loss due to the the declining enrollment. So additional revenue is down to 2.088 million. Some of those notable expense increases we talked about was the property casualty, the ESCO lease purchase payment, the employer
010annuity. Um, and I just want to mention that like all three of those are always budgeted. It's just um last year we didn't have to pay that escrow and that annuity. So it's not really a new expense. It's just something we didn't have last year. It was budgeted last year because we didn't know about the the escrow account having funds for that escol project payment. And so that was just additional funds that I had available at the end of the year to transfer which went into capital outlay. So, um, that does kind of help, um, realizing that we only have 2 million in in new money. These expenses are a lot more than that, 2 million. So, just to like give you comfort that we're not, you know, really not in the whole, we're just
011not going to have a lot of transfers, um, money left to transfer at the end of the year. Um, health insurance only went up two and a half%, so that's great news. Uh and then Growwell will have hopefully offset the cost that it it's taking to implement that program. We've seen a lot of participation in Growwell already. So it's looking promising. And then the ELLL curriculum adoption, it's going to be around a uh one and a half million, but funds are built up in that textbook fund for that. Again, super small, but this is what was published in the Garden City Telegram. And again, just has actual expenditures for 24 and then 25. than what I've proposed for this year. Um, and again totaling that 49.9 uh mills. So that's all I have. Any questions?
012And you guys will take action at the regular meeting. So thank you. Are there any patrons who wish to address the board? >> No. >> Yes. >> Okay. Do do you need she need to do the formative? >> Um, she can say her name while she's speaking. >> Oh, yeah. Please come up. State your name and we'd love to hear what you have to say. >> Maybe not. >> Trust me, I would. >> Um, I'm Candace Camino. A lot of people know me by Candy. I'm here. I'm surprised there aren't more people here because tax thing needs to be addressed. It's It's so sad. So, in 2018 when I bought my house, I paid $3,675.17 in taxes. 2024, I paid $6,276.40 of an increase of $2,6123. Last year, the mill levy went up 8.4 mills.
013Garden City Community College increased 3.958 almost four mills of an increase of 15.6. 67%. USD 457 increased 4.483 males with an increase of 9.62%. I'm not sure why we had the increase so much, but I think it's got to stop somewhere. You guys, the only two the state remained flat. The county increased 0005 mills, which is 0.01% and the city decreased. So, our two expenditures for our taxes are mainly the school district and Garden City Community College. And at some point, you've got, you just have to remember as retirees, which I have several friends that are retired, we're now getting second jobs to pay our taxes. That's not fair to us either. But at some point, you need to consider those before you approve all of these things. And uh I hope you do take
014this into consideration because I know I'm not the only one that feels this way. So can you tell me what percentage you're going to increase this time? Why? >> Well, this is your time for a comment. We really you're not supposed to address. This is just your time to to address us and let us know. If you have questions in that, you can definitely reach out to the the office here and they can definitely answer all your questions you have about that. >> Okay. >> And they will. I promise you. >> Thank you. >> Thanks, Candy. >> Is there anybody else that has any comments? >> Okay. Thank you. Are there any board members who wish to speak? I just would like to say that I appreciate the way you showed the new money and
015then like the expenditures and we still get complaints that our teachers aren't making enough money and basically all of the money all of the new money could be directly attributed to the increase in teacher salary. So sometimes we're in a hard position. So I appreciate the way that you laid that out. Um, yeah, I would just say Jessica, I appreciate all the hard work on the budget. I know it's it's never easy. Um, and I know that it's challenging to ask for more money, but our expenses are going up as well. But I do think that one thing that was highlighted in your presentation as as our enrollment continues to decline, we as a board do need to address our facilities. um kind of reopen the conversation that we had last fall where we need
016to be more efficient with our building in our building capacities and uh potentially look at shutting down some buildings to to help uh ease the burden of our taxpayers. >> I'd like to thank Jessica for the work she's done too, the administration to do this. Also like to acknowledge that u we pay I mean I pay taxes too and I understand where you're coming from there. I I do think that we do our best to uh spend our money wisely and and keep the burden of the taxpayers down as much as possible. Uh it's uh and what John just brought up, I think it's something that's going to have to be taken care of here very shortly. Again, we're going have to go back and revisit the boundary, the parade reconfiguration and the the number
017of uh campuses that we have that uh we'll probably be looking at reducing those at some point in time here with the declining enrollment that we have. We just can't keep buildings open that in my opinion, we can't keep buildings open that have 50 60 65% capacity that uh that we're using and have empty classrooms. at some point you got to bite the bullet and do do that. So that's all Mr. I agree with the last two comments about the building usage for sure. We've got to cut somewhere. So, there's some things we can do. So, >> yeah, and I agree. I agree with you completely. I'm a I'm a taxpayer as well. My taxes have went up as much as yours. I I feel the burden as well, and I get it. And we're
018trying to maintain and and keep good employees and and, you know, keep the district nice and keep things running. And unfortunately with declining enrollment, we don't get the funds that from the government, from the state because our enrollment's down per student. Somewhere that money's got to be made up. And and I agree. I think there's there's options out there for us to to address some of these things. And that I do thank you guys and thank you Jessica for the work you've done. And I know it's a challenge to to try to keep in, you know, keeping our staff educated and trained and keeping them up to speed and and paying them what they deserve and what they're worth is is hard to do. So, thank you for that. There's no other discussions. I'd entertain
019a motion to close the budget hearing. >> Mr. President, I move that the budget hearing for the 2025 2026 budget be closed. I second that >> been moved and second. Is there any further discussion? All in favor raise your hand. Oppose same. Motion carries. This hearing is a journey. >> Okay. Now we will move on to the regular scheduled board meeting. Begin with the pledge of allegiance. I aliance 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. Please take a moment for silent reflection. Thank you. >> Okay. Item C, approval of the agenda with following amendments. C1, additional classified personal actions for consideration. Item D3. >> President, I move to approve the meeting agenda as amended.
020Any discussion? All in favor, raise your hand. Second. Oh, I'm sorry. We need a second. Yeah. John second. All right. Now, it's moved and seconded. Now, all in favor, raise your hand. Approve. Same. Motion carries. Item D, consent agenda. >> Mr. President, I move to approve all consent agenda items as amended. >> Move and seconded to approve the consent agenda. Is there any discussion? All in favor, raise your hand. Oppose. Same. Motion carries. Okay. Item E, unfinished business. Item E1, approval of the resolution to adopt a local option budget percentage for the 2526 school year. Yes, CFO. >> And I really don't have anything. Just if you guys have any questions on that. Um, so the resolution for the LOB, you just have to if if we exceed um uh the state average or we're
021going to meet the state average, we have to have the resolution to do that. >> So that's all it is. >> Okay. I'd entertain a motion to approve the resolution to adopt the LB percentage. >> Mr. President, I move that the board of education approve the resolution to adopt the local option budget percentage. >> A second. >> Moved in second. Is there any discussion? There is none. All in favor raise your hand. Oppose. Same. Motion carries. Okay. Item E2, approval of the 2526 budget. I'd entertain a motion to approve the 2025 to 2026 district budget as presented. Mr. President, based on the building needs assessment and state assessments that have that has been presented and considered in developing the budget, I move that the board of education approve the presented 2025 2026 budget with the
022exceeding of the RNR. >> Second. It's been moved and seconded. Is there any further discussion? All in favor raise your hand. Opposed same. Motion carries. Okay. And move on to item F is the next board meeting. The next meeting of the board of education will take place on Monday, September 8th at 6 p.m. in the boardroom here at the educational support center. Item G, adjournment. >> Mr. President, I'll make a motion that we >> second. It's been moved and seconded. All in favor raise your hand. Oppose. Same. Motion carries. Meetings adjourned.