FCPS Board Budget Workshop - March 11, 2026

001traffic is crazy. Get settled here. What was that? >> Yes. Thank you. Okay. I'm assuming everyone's ready. Are we ready back there? Very good. Good evening everyone. Pursuant to Kas Chapter 61, notice hereby given that the chair of the Fate County Board of Education called a special meeting of the board for March 11th, 2026 at 5:00 p.m. or thereabouts. This notice serves to advise the community and media that this is a special meeting for the board of education's budget workshop and thus there will be not be an opportunity for public comment only observation room 150 the John D. Price Administration building at 450 Parkplace. The purpose of this meeting is to discuss the 2026 2027 tentative budget. At this time, I'll turn the agenda over to Miss Jackson to please take our role. >> Good

002evening. >> Thank you. >> Amanda Ferguson, >> present. >> Amy Green, >> present. >> Tyler Murphy, >> present. >> Penny Christian, >> present. >> Monica Mundy, >> present. >> Thank you. >> Uh, thank you, Miss Jackson. And as uh I shared, this is a uh our budget workshop is a very preliminary and tentative review of our discussions as we look ahead to the 2627 uh budget. And as you can see, we have a very detailed agenda laid out. Um, and the purpose uh tonight is for the board to uh to learn, to ask questions, um to hear directly from our staff um as they prepare to put together the proposed budget. So with that, uh, I'll turn the agenda over to Superintendent Ligins with the awareness again that today is, um, very much a the

003early steps in the process. Uh, this space is not a space where final decisions certainly uh, will be made, but it's to begin an important conversation. So, Dr. Ligins. >> Good evening, everyone. Can you guys hear me? Okay. in the control room. Turn it up. Testing. Is that better? All righty. Um, thank you for everyone who is attending in person and who will be listening to the recording thereafter. Um, we'll be going over quite a few items for you this evening. We will discuss quite a few things that will require um board discussion and to really give the um the staff, myself and my staff some direction on where we would like to where you would like as a board for us to go. It does require um um some not necessarily any particular votes,

004but it certainly will require some consensus and some sense of where we're going. Um, we want to make sure that when we do continue to bring items to you that we're going in the right direction and that all starts with this evening with us taking the time to discuss things, how it will impact um the district moving forward and ultimately how it will um impact um student outcomes. Again, a our budget is a roadmap to where we're trying to go and certainly um everything is focused on our students and our outcomes and to ensure that we are creating a budget where our students will be successful and that we are um able to um provide all of the services that are necessary for that to be the case um while also maintaining fiscal responsibility. There's

005um as with as you can imagine with a budget of this magnitude, there's lots of um things to discuss and lots of moving parts. So, we have quite a few staff members here this evening that will take on various roles and discuss various things that are important. Um should you have questions um very similar to how this was done last year, we will keep a running list of Q&A of questions that you've asked. So, not only will you have access to the questions, but our community and families will also have access to those questions and those answers. And as we continue throughout this process, as you know, we will bring a budget to you, a tenative budget in May and then again a final working budget in September. And so this is the beginning if

006you will um to ensure that we are starting with feedback from uh this body who is ultimately in charge of our budget. So we will start out with really just talking about where we are currently um the successes that we're currently experiencing in our current budget and um then move on about it. This is intended to be a conversation. So, um, please chime in. Um, different, although we have different speakers are signed for certain things, um, others may have things to add to it, the board may have things to add. And so, we really want this to be a casual conversation about our budget and, um, really giving us some direction as to what's next. All right, with no further ado, Mr. Dr. Barber. >> Good evening, uh, Chair Murphy and board members and also

007Dr. Ligins. Glad to be here this evening. Um before we move into the fiscal discussion tonight, I just want to take a few moments to ground our conversation in something that I believe and and we believe is equally important for this board and community to remember. Um you know, Faget County Public Schools continues to make meaningful and measurable progress for our students and families we serve. And so over the past several years, this board has adopted a strategic framework designed to move our district forward with clarity and purpose. And that framework focused on our work which is around five key priorities. Student achievement, unity, belonging and student efficacy, highly effective culturally responsive workforce, outreach and engagement and organizational health and effectiveness. And so these priorities were not intended to simply exist in a document or

008on a dashboard, but they were designed to guide our work in every happening in every classroom, every school, and every department across the district. And so, you know, the strategy is working. And so, one of the things I want to say is across Kucky's accountability system, FCPS continues to outperform state averages across multiple academic indicators at the elementary, middle, and high school levels, and our students are achieving higher levels of proficiency in both math and reading. We are still seeing continued growth in overall performance across the district. Um, one of the things to note is that three out of every four schools in Faget County is now achieving medium, high, or very high performance ratings with nearly twothirds of our schools improve their overall accountability scores to compared to to previous years. And so this

009level of progress is important, especially as we work into our fiscal discussions. And it tells us a few things that are happening across Fate County Public Schools that it's systemwide. And so, for example, as you've seen before, we met our goal for combined reading and mathematics, exceed our targets in social studies, um, science and writing, exceed our goals for English learner progress, exceed our targets related to school safety and climate, exceed our goals for post-secondary readiness, exceed our goals for graduation rates. So, taken together, these results represent something significant. And of course, our post readiness or post-secary readiness reached a rate of about 95% significantly exceeding our district goal and demonstrating that more students are graduating prepared for college and careers. That said, we have more than 6,300 students enrolled in dual credit coursework and

010more. And 19 students last year earned associates degree before graduating high school. and more than 7,000 students uh successfully pass industry certification assessments which prepares them for high demand career pathways. We had over a thousand students completed end of year program career pathway assessments demonstrating readiness to the workforce. And so while these numbers represent thousands of students um we're preparing them for the futures and beyond. And so, you know, for our consecutive consecutive year, County Public Schools has achieved something that never occurred before in our district's history. No schools in our district have been identified by the state for low achievement among African-American students or economically disadvantaged students, which is simply powerful. Um these milestones reflect years of focused work, dedicated fiscal responsibility in these areas and for our school leaders and district teams to

011ensure that every student has access to opportunity and success. So it reflects the work of this board and what you've put into the resources for our students. So, as you think about these outcomes and we build towards the momentum of the success, it's it's important to pause and recognize the people that are responsible for that progress, the teachers that show up every day, the principles who lead their schools with clarity, the staff across the district who support our schools and this board who has dedicated and provided leadership to students, focused on students to guide a direction for Faget County Public Schools. So, we're having these conversations because it's for a position of strength. So, as you know, our schools are improving, our students are succeeding, our strategic plan is producing results. The financial decisions ahead

012are important and they require careful leadership, but they don't change the fundamental truth about County Public Schools because we're grounded in the strategic plan. So that said, um I remain confident that as we work through this conversation this evening and work on disciplined decision- making, there will be an unwavering focus for students. So thank you. >> Good evening. It's my pleasure to give you tonight highlights related to the June January um month end. I presented this to you in February. So in summary, our first takeaway is related to fund balance was 158.3 million which is roughly 22 million higher than last year. Even with slight increases in inflation and salaries, the district can spend exactly 38% of the budget. Comparative, we collected 24.5 million more in revenue compared to January of last year. If we

013move the beginning balance, it's 390.3 million for last this year and 350.8 million for this year with $39.5 million more in revenue. Israel general fund review. Um our year today total operating revenue excuse me is 418.6 million which represents 59% of the board's working budget. Related to expenses total general fund expenditures said roughly 260.2 million which accounts for 37% of the budget. Construction is the largest single expenditure category. But if you consider scope and scale of the 44 million, the utilization of approximately 33 31% of his allocated budget with over $125.4 million spent related safety tax, we have approximately 9.28 million of 19.5 million budget. the larger allocation of the safety tax for mental health professionals and nurses which is roughly 5.34 million 40% of the $1 million budget as of January the period 7

014fiscal year 26 employees on less than 12 months were issued 11 of 24 checks employees on 12 months will issue 14 of 24 checks we're using predictive analysis utilizing these percentages to see where people should be related to their pay and salaries to make sure we don't catch any surprises at year So the less than year round staff which should be about 48% 45.8% and year round should be 58.3 instruction in that function is 45.83 which consists of employees on less than 12 month contracts whereas business support services function is 12 month contracts 58.33. The percentage of buds and function with combined should be about 52% and that's how we track it going forward. details about specific expenses and categories presented to you during the work regular board meeting in February. And you'll receive a

015similar update checkpoint presentation through February at the March regular meeting. >> Thank you, Mr. D. >> Okay. The next section is on staffing trends and I'd like to share a few points with you today. Over the past five years, we have seen a trend and an increase of staff in all in all of our employee groups with the largest being with our team members that are in our classified roles, roles that do not have to hold a certificate from the educational standards board in order to um serve in those particular roles. Um, one of the areas that we've talked about over the past few months is the um average years of experience by our certified staff. And with the retention efforts and the support of the board in many of our initiatives, we have seen

016a a growth in retention and in our experience levels. Um about 31% of our certified staff have 20 plus years of experience and are serving our students with those years of experience, which is incredible and we're very proud of that. One of the areas that is notable, especially when talking about budgets, is our spe our staff that serve special education students, students that receive special education services. It is notable that um these services are identified throughout the year when our staff and families and work with our students to identify those needs. That's not always something that is able to be predicted at during this time frame as about 250 of our students are identified to receive special education services throughout the year. So when we look at our staffing trends, we have seen a very

017large increase in our staff, particularly in our par educators that provide services in the area of special education. A 43% increase in the past five years of our special education paras. So that is very notable. Um a similar trend is with our special teachers that are serving in the special education area and an increase in those. So those were two large areas and again I think it's important to say that that happens throughout the year. and we um can't always predict that during this particular budget cycle. So those were some of the notable uh trends that I wanted to share with you all this evening. >> Thank you very much. >> I want to give you an update on seek. I have some great information to share with you. Our final seek is greater than

018was anticipated by approximately $3.9 million. This increase was from the transportation additive. So we estimate to approximately $18 million this and going to 25 2627 excuse me we conserve using a 4.5% increase in property assessments which will be about 48 billion and approximately 1% increase in ADA up to 38 to 55 u and per pupil guaranteed base at this point is predicted to go up $40 if house bill 500 holds as presented date. >> And if I may just to clarify, you know, so the increase for fiscal year 26 in seek was attributed to transportation, but my understanding as it's currently contemplated um we would not see that same transportation level of transportation funding in the upcoming budget cycle. Is that correct? >> Well, we didn't anticipate this either. Okay. Thank you. >> Good evening

019uh board. My name is Steve Hill and um my role in tonight's discussion is to provide an overview of anticipated enrollment trends over the next five years. As you're aware, enrollment impacts staffing, facility usage, and long-term capital planning. Um, I'd like to cover about four or five details to give you a general overview of of um where we are and where we're going as far as enrollment in our district. Uh, MGT, formerly known as Davis Demographics. You probably recognize that name. Uh, is our third party contracted demographer um, and they have assisted since approximately 2015 2016 with with um, enrollment projections. The most recent uh report provide provided shows that Fate County is is in what they call an enrollment trough. Um but they do not consider Fate County to be in a long-term decline.

020We are currently 800 students less than we were from this time last year. So that's important to note. Um there are some factors that are impacting student enrollment currently. Uh one, birth rates have slowed but they do remain steady. Um back in 2015 we had 3,988 births. Now that that obviously goes eb and flow with how a community grows. We we have for the last five or six years hovered around 3650 to 3700 births. Um a positive in this factory is we've maintained our capture rate meaning the kids that we come to us in public schools. That's around this year it went up uh to 79% from last year at 78%. So it's all relative and that's and I'll speak to that um as one of our challenges later uh today or in the in

021this session. Um another factor we current uh high interest rates challenge the house housing market. So um their projection may may come six months later than what they projected depending on on interest rates. And then there's geopolitical factors that have hit us as well, which and immigration patterns. And honestly, I think that's probably our biggest factor in growth at this point. But here's the positive. Over the next 5 years from current enrollment, MGT projected has projected Fate County to experience a 2% growth. Um they project us to they forecast us for 67 active or planned housing projects which will yield 7,400 units over the next 5 years. This alone will help uh grow Fate County in the future. Um and I'm I'll answer questions I guess later. I had that as my last statement but

022I don't know if we're doing that right now. So >> no I'm sorry. I I um am breaking the rules. So >> Okay. One thing I will is though while we're looking at this data is I think it's interesting to note um and this is relevant to the conversations around right sizing and about redistricting as we bring in uh Greenell tentatively um uh thinking about how uneven that growth is expected to be and that I I that's what stood out to me from the the report of um Davis Demographics >> is that you know we have these key housing corridors where we're seeing uneven growth and that's something that the district's going to have to respond to. >> Exactly. >> Um and you know Mary Britain that area is leading the way according to the

023report in growth. So it's not it was intentionally designed not to be at capacity the first year but it's going to it looks like from the trends that it could very well be at capacity in the near future. >> Agreed. And and one it will be and that I'm glad you brought that up. So, I mean, we're going to have another full cohort of sixth graders coming through and in about 3 years, that area is four years, 5 years is going to be that building will be utilized nearly at capacity. Um, not full capacity, but nearly. Um, one thing I'm glad you mentioned this, Mr. Murphy, because um part of the growth that we're experiencing, I believe, is is a lot of apartments. If you just drive around the norththeast end of town off Letown,

024there's tons going in and those typically yield less students. So, and that's one thing you'll see in the Davis demographic information. So, or excuse me, MGT. So, um that's something just to monitor. Even though it's 7,400 units, it may not yield as many students as it would if it were single uh home dwellings. So, >> yes, sir. >> Mine. >> Thank you, Chair Murphy. Um, I appreciated the breakdown also on the outlooks based on the school levels and you know I I'm excited to see that enrollment at the middle schools is projected to increase by what 5.5%. And then the high schools interesting again talking about where the population growth is coming. It's going to hit three of our high or two of our high schools really hard and then the south side of town

025not as much. And um as I read that then I went to the final recommendation which I I just wanted to note. that says from a planning perspective the D the district may benefit from maintaining boundary stability. So can you speak more to that statement? >> Well I that was just more of overall statement of um >> because as Mr. who suggested we have pockets of major growth so it's maintain the stability and that might requiring >> um I don't know if we're and in and talking with MGT our partners there um as of today they they don't see a full necessary reasonzoning for the district >> okay >> but certainly we need to look at pockets that we need to fix >> yeah forward >> well I appreciate all of this information so thank

026you >> thank you >> oh >> yes Um, speaking of enrollment, I did have a question. Um, and so we I know we have enrollment, um, I don't out of area, >> correct, >> opportunities for all grade levels. And so I just wondered, do we see a lot of is that something that we're anticipating more requests because of the this potential growth in some spaces? And then are we responding to it the same at all school levels or different levels of schooling like elementary, middle, and high have different responses? >> Yeah. So, we have currently uh six, and I will get them wrong if I try to recite them all, but they're on our website. I mean, I could probably do it, but I don't want to mess it up. Um, six requests. It's usually

027sibling approval if there was a sibling. In other words, a child was going to a program school, but the younger sibling wasn't. We always want to try to keep families together so that, you know, things like that to accommodate families. Um we have been very limited on out of area part of uh as far as just opening it up. Um but it is a we we did this year um expand some high school and middle school options and that is a strategy we could use to balance um enrollments, right? So, you know, we we know schools that are under capacity and those that are over capacity. And we can allow uh certain options for kiddos to want to if parents can take their kiddos to the uh the schools that are under capacity. We we

028would um for whatever reason, in other words, that would be a a technique to possibly balance those uh enrollments. >> Just a followup on that. If that were to become something, would that make an instability in planning for staff if it allowed for more fluctuation? Did it follow like the prescribed reasons? >> Yeah. And that's that is the challenge. I mean, and and projections come out of my office. So it's it's whenever we allow a lot of movement it's and you have to put measures of start start and stop it helps to you know to prevent uh on day 10 finding that we have 50 more students in one school because we allowed that to go in there. So um those are things that we in house can can manage that. Um but yeah you

029have to be careful on on just allowing it to change mid mid projection season. Yeah. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Thank you. Thanks. Well, I had a question about that just since it sort of came up. >> Sure. >> You said we allowed certain schools to accept out of area. I mean, that I was going to ask about that because I've seen >> Yeah. >> a lot of schools almost advertising and and not just >> Yeah. >> special programs like Dunbar or not necessarily for MSTP, but come join our fire or other schools saying we offer a great visit. I mean, how was that decided or how is that being managed or monitored? >> So, I can I can say that. So, one of one of the things we really >> does open

030a hold. >> No, no, I agree. I agree. >> Yeah. We really want to try to keep out of area um monitored at a at a district level. I think that's healthy for us to do by allowing schools to do that independently is is not preferable. So, we've we've made made sure that that's the case. Um what we looked at was um our schools that had capacity um or they weren't in growth areas. For example, Mary Britain has capacity, but we know they're in a growth area and within a couple years, if we start committing to out of area, now we're putting ourselves behind a tough situation to open that up. But schools that are under capacity, we we allowed them to um to, you know, take requests um at the at the middle and

031high school level. And typically honestly at the elementary level u our our students are most people want their kids to be with their kiddos that live in the same neighborhood want to go to that school and we we we really don't get very many requests even u comparatively. So yeah >> so so there were certain schools that were allowed I guess to do that. Yes ma'am. >> Can we get >> a list of that? Sure. Who's who's requesting for what? >> If I'm going to try to recite it and Mr. Dr. Bradford you can help me if you if I miss it. So, Lex Middle School. Um, >> you don't have to do it right now. >> Oh, okay. I'm sorry. But >> I was going to do that for you, >> but I was

032just curious. I mean, yeah, because it's under capacity. Yes, ma'am. Right. Yeah. >> And they are they are listed on the website >> on they are listed on the website on the out of area page. >> Yeah. If anybody um if if anybody just searches out of area, it'll take them to the application and they can they can see the schools that are available for that and and request that. And one of the primary Oh, I'm sorry. >> I was gonna say, so that corresponds to I mean, I'm talking about on social media, I guess, and I've been asked questions about, well, how come that school's getting to recruit? >> Yeah, I've been asked that question, too. >> I mean, I'll let Dr. Ligs answer this one. >> Athletics. I mean, I don't >> uh

033it's really our our number one target is to get our homeschool and our private school kids back into um or let them know that they have options to come to their public schools. We have 1,400 homeschool kids. Yes, sir. >> And how many private schools? >> Uh we're 5,000. >> 5,000 private schools. So, um >> and we have seen we have seen uh private school come back from this list that honestly it really hasn't been that many kids that requested I didn't mean to cut you off guard. >> Oh, no. This is a conversation. >> We haven't um we haven't seen that many that have requested it. And it may be because of information that's not out there, but but um but we have off that list. There's several that are private. So that's that's

034one benefit of it. Yeah. >> And so that's so my understanding I think there may be a misunderstanding that some of the um some of the targeting is to there's a cannibalization going on but the targeting is to kids who aren't currently enrolled in the public schools to say hey these are the options that are available. And one trend we have seen historically um in this district is kind of that trough at middle school where we have families who they'll do public in uh elementary then they'll pull out for private or homeschooling in middle and they'll return to public in high school. And so that's that's a trend that uh that we've noticed. >> Yeah. So if we provide an option um that would keep them with us then we're hopeful that that will that

035will be a positive. >> Yeah. And I think I mean I think those are good ideas to do that to say, you know, we do a lot of things well. We do all of these things well and we have a lot of these options. And I guess it's just more the competition between schools or, you know, they're stealing our students or they're trying to do, you know. >> Yeah. I I fully understand what you're and I I don't disagree. I I it I think part of it is um just giving options for our fa pay faith county families and and keeping them with us. >> Fourthcoming list is mine. Thank you. >> I can get that for you. Thank you. >> All righty. Now, we'd like if you can take someone's seat. >> This is

036Michael George. Uh this is uh the board's financial advisor with Compass. >> Good evening. Um so what I have for you all tonight is just an update on uh the debt and capital funding side which is uh our role with the district uh to fund the various facilities uh and also to uh update you all on refunding opportunities and to talk about the activity within uh your uh broadly within your building funds. And so we have prepared uh an update for you all uh on that front. Uh, and so I'll go through that. At the end of this, um, presentation, I've got a refunding, a bond refunding opportunity that I want to talk to you all about, uh, which I believe is going to be, uh, an action item, uh, at your April board meeting

037via a bond resolution. And so, uh, I'm going to go through the the debt and capital funding piece first and then talk about, uh, the bond funding. And if you all have questions, I'm not sure what the protocol is, but I'm happy to answer questions throughout this presentation. Uh, and so on the first page uh of what I provided you all, uh, this is just a summary of the existing debt that the school district has on all of their facilities. Um, on this report, we've highlighted four separate bond issues. The 2014A, 2014b, 2018A, and 2019 bonds. Those are the refunding candidates that I alluded to earlier. Uh and I will touch on uh at the end of this presentation. Uh but again, this is just a snapshot of your existing debt, how much debt you

038have outstanding, when that debt matures, what interest rates you're paying on it, uh and just kind of a broad summary that you would expect to see uh in your audit. Uh the second page of this presentation is just a graphical illustration of uh your all debt service. And so this is broken down by each individual bond issue that you have. Uh and then if you flip to page three, that is the uh corresponding debt service payments behind that graph. And so on page three under columns B through S, we list each one of the bond issues you have outstanding and the payments that you make on those bond issues with the total in column T. And so you'll see in the highlighted fiscal year, current fiscal year, your all's debt service payments are um just

039over 55 million. That goes up to 56.2 million next year as the full payment on the Henry Clay bonds kicks in. And then it actually goes down in the subsequent years after that. And so as it sits today, your debt service obligations are about $55 million per year. If you flip to page four, uh this is a report that summarizes the uh building and capital funds that you all have available to support debt service and to pay for capital expenses on a payo basis. And so, um, if you look on this report in columns C through columns E, that represents the, uh, building fund taxes or building fund nickels that you have to support facilities. Um, you'll see that um, under CDNE that we've got 1% listed at the top. And so, what we're doing

040is we're assuming that those figures grow by 1% each year as your assessments grow. Uh this is a very conservative figure. Um you all have grown over 7% um on average over the last three years and over 4% on average over 10 years. And so we want to take a very conservative approach in mapping out these future revenues that flow into uh your building funds. And then under columns F and G, I want to point out um that based on the new funding formula, you all should receive equalization on two of those nickels uh next year. And so uh every bianium when the state releases the new equalization numbers uh typically those go up and a lot of times districts like yourself that historically not received equalization will receive equalization uh for a year or

041two and then you'll kind of grow yourself out of it. And so if you look under these two columns, you'll notice you didn't get equalization this fiscal year, but you should qualify next year. And then those amounts actually go down in the subsequent years. And the reason why those amounts go down in the subsequent years is that we're assuming as your assessments grow that you will grow out of that equalization formula. And so um it's good that you get equalization. Uh the bad thing is it's that you're likely going to grow out of it. And so as you grow, some of that growth is offset by a reduction in those equalization funds. >> Board member Green, did you have a question? >> I did. It was kind of um it just made me understand. So

042back when we were talking about the SE trends, it said where there was an estimate of 4.5% increase on property assessments. And so that's based on the 10-year trend. Is that correct? >> No, that's being conservative so we don't overestimate. >> Right. No, I appreciate that. I just wanted to clarify the connection. Thank you. And so if you all look under column H, we've just aggregated those uh those funds. Uh and so uh in this fiscal year, we're estimating um those building funds at about 67.7 million and then that increases to 73.2 million next year as your assessments grow and as the equalization grows. And so as we get into this discussion on your uh funding ability on the building fund side, you'll notice that there's a large jump between what we reported last fall

043versus what we're reporting today. And so that is a direct uh reflection of a the increase in assessments and you all taking the 4% and b the fact that we uh anticipate you all getting equalization next year and in the subsequent years. Um the fifth page of our report is just the uh capital uh outlay allocation that you all get from the state which is based on uh average daily attendance. Um we're assuming that you all are not going to use this money for bonding. It's going to be used for kind of general maintenance and pay as you go expenses. Uh and so we we show those calculations on page five. And then on page six, this is where we get into uh the bonding analysis. And so if you take a step back and

044think about, you know, what is your ability to fund projects, um it's it's actually a pretty simple formula. We look at the building funds, the funds that are restricted for debt service and for kind of general capital expenses less what you're paying in debt service. And the difference between those two, that surplus is what you all can effectively bond against. And so when we reported this number to you all last fall, that number was about $200 million in immediate bonding. Uh and you could fund up to 300 million over a five-year period. And so because of the increase in the assessments and because of the equalization, that new bonding number is 322 million. And so that is effectively the current number and the number that you can do in the next several years. And so

045if you look at this over a five-year period, you have about a 20 million uh dollar jump in bonding potential um which you can now access today. And so that's where things sit today. Um, I want to um remind you all that you all do have some flexibilities within these funds in the next two fiscal years as a result of House Bill 678 and the extension uh under House Bill 727 and the 2024 regular session. And so you all have flexibility in how you can spend some of these monies uh on uh more maintenance uh and and kind of smaller capital expenses and technology expenses. And so broadly speaking, I know you all have a lot of large-scale projects going on. Now you do have this window in the next two years where you've got

046flexibility to use some of this money for some technology and other expenses that help can help shore up uh some some items that may normally have been spent out of the general fund. And so from a bonding perspective, that's where you all sit right now. Um the last few pages of this I want to focus on the refunding, but I'll stop right here. Do you all have any questions on the debt and the bonding side? >> I noticed. Oh, go ahead. Board first. >> Well, I was just going to ask in general if you could comment how the recent Moody's rating might affect our bonding capacity going forward and interest rates going forward. >> Sure. >> I mean, if it does and >> by how much? >> It it's a great question and I was

047actually going to touch on that as I go through the refunding, but I think now is a good time to address that. And so um you all currently have um two what's called an underlying bond rating. So your own bond rating. So you are rated A2 for Moody's. That was the recent downgrade. You are rated double A minus from S&P Global. And then your bonds also carry a double A3 rating which is the state intercept rating. And that's the rating that the state is essentially going to backs stop your debt and and all of their school district debt in the state. And so those are the bond ratings that you all carry. The recent change from Moody's to go from double A3 on your rating to A2. Uh we estimate that that is uh about

048a 10 basis point move in terms of your cost of capital. And so from a uh kind of a more layman's terms, let's say you were to borrow at 20 years today that rate may be 4.1, whereas before the the rating change, it would have been 4% even. And so when we talk about basis points, that's the difference between the two. And so from a cost of capital perspective, that 10 basis points equates to about $125,000 in interest cost on every $10 million borrowed over 20 years. And so it's a little technical, but if you think about it, in increments of $10 million, it's about $125,000 in interest cost. Um, but that's only on new debt. All of the debt that you all have now on all of your existing debt is fixed rate. those

049payments will not change and so this is only on new debt going forward and so that's the impact and I will say that um if you all have uh a structurally sound uh budget to end this fiscal year and you have uh two uh subsequent years of solid surpluses we think that there's an opportunity that that rating will get uh upgraded back to potentially A1 or double A3 but We think it's going to require uh at least one year of a structurally balanced budget and then two years of surpluses in order to get back up. >> Thank you. And I mean that was my other question is is everything we have fixed rate. I mean have we ever done variable rate for >> not to my knowledge. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> Before you

050move on, you have a footnote here about the um the SFCC. Can you speak to what the status of that is? Is there is that a ticking clock or >> So, you all were awarded um an offer of assistance from the SFCC, which is in this budget uh for $2.5 million. And so, that allows you all to cover $2.5 million of a project that's a priority one or priority two project. Assuming that that carries forward in the budget, uh you would have eight years uh to utilize that offer. So at any time in the next eight years, if you all fund a priority one or priority two project, you can utilize that money. >> We don't we don't anticipate, >> you know, knock on wood, that that's going to be pulled out of the budget.

051um that's those historically have been kind of allocated and then outside of the the uh last second shifts we see typically in state budget. >> Thank you. >> Warmer Christian >> if you could give you mentioned uh HB 678. >> Could you give a quick a quick normal person's overview of HB 678? >> Sure. So, House Bill 678 was originally passed in the 2022 regular session and um the goal of 678 was to kind of expedite the building process for schools because schools were facing rising construction cost and you know quite frankly the KD process is very burdensome and so they streamlined the process. They also allowed you all or gave you all flexibility in how you utilize some of those building funds which allows you all to use those for computers and other maintenance

052expenses. And so that original bill was in the 2022 regular session. It expired in June 30th of 2024. Uh but House Bill 727 in 2024 extended that through June 30th of 2027. And so you all effectively have um another 15 or 16 months where you can take advantage of that in terms of a quicker approval process on building projects and some more flexibility within how you use those building funds. >> Thank you. Okay, there no further questions. you can go into the refunding portion. >> And so the final thing that we have tonight is a potential bond refunding opportunity. Um and so we've outlined this on pages seven and eight. Um and so we've seen really unprecedented volatility in the bond markets the last couple weeks with everything going on in the Middle East. And

053so we've seen really long-term rates have gone up in the last couple weeks, but over the last month and a half, we've actually seen short-term rates go down primarily because the Fed has been cutting interest rates. And so while it may be more expensive for you all to borrow long-term, we're actually seeing it uh rates go down on the short term. And so what this typically means is it provides potential refunding opportunities because if you think about a bond issue, it's typically 20 or 25 years. Well, after 10 years, 12 years, you're really talking about issuing another 10-year bond to refund it. And so you all can take advantage of the drop in short-term rates uh with some potential refunding opportunities. And so, as you all know, you all went through this last year and

054we refunded some prior debt from 2014 and 2015. You now have some additional opportunities this year, which we're highlighting here on page eight. And so, there are four bond issues that currently generate savings, meaning that if we were to refund those, your debt service payments would go down. And that is the 2014 A and B and the 2018 and 2019 bonds. And so on this report on page eight, we're just showing you which bonds uh generate savings if the SFCC participates, the total amount of savings under column E. Uh and then column G and H represents um whether or not they meet the refunding threshold set forth by KDE. Um and then column H is our recommendation. And so just real quickly, you all have four bond issues that generate savings as of today. Three

055of those bond issues exceed the KDE recommendation. And so we recommend moving forward with those bonds contingent upon you meeting that savings threshold. There is a fourth bond issue that 2014A that we can refund for savings, but it doesn't have enough savings to meet the KDE requirement. And so if you look under column H, we've got board approval, we have recommended. And so we recommend you all approving refunding all of these bond issues. And then if we get to the point of issuing the debt and that one bond issue that doesn't meet the savings threshold does, we would include it in the refunding. If it doesn't, we won't do anything. And so our recommendation for you all at next month's board meeting is to approve the refunding. And if you uh the refunding of all

056four of those issues. And if you turn to page nine, we've just aggregated the savings on those bond issues. And so the left side of page eight represents what you're paying now. The right side under the red column would represent what you would be saving if we refunded these issues based on current rates with the total savings shown in green uh at just above $2 million. And so at the um April board meeting, we would recommend you all approving that. >> Um I know that you all are also potentially looking at some potential repair and small maintenance projects uh as well. Uh and so uh if you all are going to go forward with those projects, we would recommend also including that in the bond resolution so that if you go to market, we go

057one time uh instead of twice and then that way you get some economies of scale and save on the transactional cost. >> And so that would be our recommendation. The bond resolution itself will give you all flexibility to do this separately if you want, but if the timing aligns, we would recommend it doing it at one time for some efficiencies. Thank you. Um, and what to what extent would any savings yielded from a bond refunding um, would it have a measurable impact on overall bonding capacity? >> So, it will be dollar for dollar. So, you're at 322 now. If this if we went forward and saved 2 million, you'd be at 324. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Any further questions? Board members, >> chair Murphy, I just want to say thank you for the information.

058It really helped with a lot of clarity. So, thank you >> and we'll keep you all updated. I know there's a lot of stuff in and um there's a lot of provisions in these House bills that uh not only impact the general fund side, but they impact the building fund side which we monitor and to the extent that there are any changes that would materially impact this we will keep you all apprised of that. >> Thank you. >> Not to mention the volatile economic situation globally. >> Fingers crossed. Yes. >> Excellent. Thank you, Mr. >> George. We appreciate your time. Thank you. So, as so that was pretty much a review of this year and where we're at and um and giving you a I guess a foundation, but now we'll get into some of

059the challenges that we're experiencing this year to have a discussion with you all about that as well. >> Good evening. Um we're going to talk a little bit about challenges in relation to personnel cost as well as just thinking forward. And so one of the things that this board will have to think through and leadership is we want to maintain the importance in looking our core mission which is teaching and learning our schools. That said, um you know, we have to be thinking about what we've done for our budget and both um freezing positions and what we may need to think about as we move forward. One other thing is we have a process that we utilize in this district that focuses on evaluation of positions. So, one of the things to think about this

060strategy allows us to really look at how do we reduce costs through natural attrition as opposed to layoffs. Um, something else to think about is looking at our staffing structure, evaluating positions and making sure they're aligned both with the district's most critical um, priorities along with our strategic plan as you guys have worked so diligently on and just making deliberate, thoughtful um, decisions rather than reactive ones. And so, a couple things to think about. We have to evaluate at this point every vacancy that becomes available. non-school-based. And so we have been doing this through various processes and have multiple people at the table. And so moving forward, we just need your recommendations and thoughts on how we will evaluate not just our vacancies, but just evaluating um various positions. And so that includes us looking

061at operational necessity. we have to think about um impact on students and schools and alignment with district priorities again. So that fiscal sustainability is is critical. And so finally just thinking about a couple things. Um, you know, we we continue to conduct detailed review of positions across several district departments and that includes district administration, communications and engagement, technology, human resources, operational support services and we we are asking ourselves internally are these positions necessary whether the responsibilities can be redistributed and so whether efficiencies can be created across departments. So as we balance this budget this year is based on many um frozen positions but we also are still evaluating vacant positions or positions that become vacant. So just as you think about um you know taking this disciplined approach and as we work as kind of

062a team here just think about all the additional pressures that financially we have and so a personnel is our biggest cost. It's where we can really uh utilize our strength of of making sure that we're operate um I would call it just making it more effective and efficient with position management also just maintaining stability across the district but but at the end protecting our instructional core of our schools. So those are things to think about as we move forward. Another challenge we also um find ourselves with and this happens every year and it fluctuates because obviously you can't predict um litigation etc. And so we're finding that even based on historical data it's very difficult to predict where the legal cost will be. Um so on average, you know, we um in 2223 the legal

063cost overall ended up being about 330,000. The following year it was almost 800,000. Then it went down the following year to um about 350 and this year we're on target to be at 700 and something again. And so that's something that we are constantly looking at. It's obviously something that cannot be predicted. um as um and then also um we're going to talk about inflation next, but we also as um inflation occurs and um salaries um for attorneys increase through um their fees go up as well. So um you have that aspect along with um how many legal issues we'll have to deal with throughout the school year. And of course that's um anyone's guess at the beginning of the school year. So a challenge that we have is ensuring that we budget um sufficiently

064but not excessively and um and just going from there. So that that's certainly a challenge that we continue to to deal with as well. >> Dr. Ligan. >> Yes. >> Um in the past Thank you. Sorry, Chair Murphy. Um have there has there been a formula to kind of guess that? Are you guys taking like averages of the past years to help develop what that number would be for the future budget? We do, but if you do an average depending on where we end up that year, like the last four years where we anticipate that average would be about 500,000. >> That wouldn't be >> and this year we would have surpassed that. So it's really um and some years if you do 5,000, it's been below that. And so that that's just a challenge.

065And so um we will probably move forward with overestimating um just to be on the safe side than underestimating. I wonder um districts that are um similar size, know think of the council great city schools, the districts that have similar size and probably similar uh legal docket um what their practice is. That might be something interesting to find out how they um budget that way. >> Yeah. And this um we've looked into that. This seems to be a No, it's a kind of a just an industry. It's just hard to predict litigation. And so, um, and then you have litigation that you guys are aware that may take years that happened five years ago that the board has to make a decision about this year. Um, and so that comes out of this year's budget,

066not so there's all sorts of things that just happen. >> I actually have a question about our last topic. So once we finish legal I just Okay. Sorry I I wasn't quick enough >> asking question >> but go ahead. I'm fine with you going back there >> for um the evaluation of positions. Could you send us or compile after this everything the four items that you listed for consideration for the board? I think there were four that you listed. Um that would be great. And then also in the documents that was provided to the board, there was a list of positions that say evaluation of positions. Could you maybe level set what that exactly is that we're looking at? >> That's a document that we had based on all frozen positions that were compiled for

067the budget to be balanced this year. >> Thank >> I have those um measures. I I can send them to you if you'd like. >> Inflation. >> Okay. >> As we discuss inflation, we want to think about the consumer prices in the US have increased by approximately 25 to 26% since January 2020. Um driven by rapid inflation from 21 to 23. As early as 2026, a $100 purchased in 2020 requires roughly $125$126 to achieve the same purchasing power. In 2020 is between 1.2% and 1.9%. It accelerated over 5% in 2021 and peaked at 8% in 2022 before moderating. As of February this year, the average annual inflation rate since 2020 is approximately 3.88%. There are several key drivers. Um sector highlights such as transportation and food which we are affected by of course have been

068affected. Then there's a thing called the last mile challenge where they're looking at 2026 goods and prices where it drops a little sometimes but rent and insurance remains harder to bring down. Then there's the trade and tariff part of the what's happening with to our prices. We predict global inflation to ease to 3.4% 4% by 2027 and electricity and gas prices to go up by 6.3% to 9.8%. Again, a purchasing power of $1 in January 2020 has equivalent purchasing power of roughly only 9 79 cents today. relates to insurance cost. Um you can see the information but property insurance costs increased approximately 500,000 400,000 and 200,000 each year since 2023. Fleet insurance during the same time has increased 50,000 400,000 then doubled to 800,000 each year since 2023. And general liability insurance has increased 120,000

069went down to 26,000 increase but jumped drastically to 580,000 since 2023. There are several factors that affect that and it's not not just what happens in Kentucky. We can have a forest fire as I told you before in California and depending on who insurance agent we have that can affect our rates here in Kentucky especially with inclement weather tornadoes and so forth. >> Good evening board. Um in regards to federal grants I am very proud of our team. Um, since January of 2023, we have submitted 110 grants, of which 80 of those were awarded. Um, which has resulted in over $30 million for Fyet County Public School. So, really proud of that work. Uh, but this year we faced some unique challenges. Um, grants that we typically are able to apply for. Uh, we have

070not been able to. Uh, for example, the Europe grant, we applied, we found out we had three perfect scores on it, but we weren't awarded based on our census data and falling under a 17% poverty line, uh, we qualified at 16.9%. Uh, so that was a crushing blow to us. Um, the other challenge we faced this year, we had three grants that were either paused or completely canceled by the federal government without any warning. Uh we have been notified we are getting 21st century and magnet back. Uh but the full service community grant even though we had an award for two more years was abruptly halted by the government. So that's been some challenges we are facing in the grants department. >> Thank you. >> So one of the challenges that we Oh, do you

071have a question? Yeah. Go ahead. >> As far as the grants are concerned and those that might um are being paused or are there any budget considerations that we might need to pick up in the general fund as in it's impacting staff or it's going to impact like midyear um learning, you know, students to keep their teachers. >> Could we get um maybe later just an idea of what that looks like and what that number is? >> Absolutely. >> Yes. >> You're welcome. Thank you. professional learning persists as another one of our challenges from this past or current academic school year. Now, before I talk about it from a deficit perspective, I certainly want to recognize the asset. You know, we have leveraged every opportunity to maximize internal resources to the extent possible. Um, I

072hope that you've experienced that with your quarterly board reports throughout the scope of this year with of course more presentations to follow. But the two very distinct challenges that we are facing are certainly fiscal, meaning having the budgetary funding available to engage in additional professional learning and that's a deficit specifically because we became accustomed in Kentucky to state funding specific to professional learning. It was commonly referred to as flex focus um but it was allocated as an additional aotment to school districts and we have lost access to that over the course of time. So any investments in professional learning must come from local available dollars as well as any additional federal or grant dollars that we might have available to us. The other particular um disadvantage that we've had this year with regards to professional

073learning is the restriction on travel. You know, we certainly have um again maintained every opportunity to provide professional learning experiences for teachers locally and really allowed for distinct opportunities to occur out of district. But we do want to be mindful to considerations moving forward that could lead to implementation uh or innovation gaps um failure for us to continue to reach student outcomes as well as the inability for us to know new information or have new networks to be able to collaborate on closing achievement gaps. So as you recognize Bay County Public Schools is in a very unique position in the state of Kentucky. the needs of our learners and the demographic population of the Lexington Bay County urban government is different than our similar peers across the state. So it does become very important for

074us to consider opportunities for professional learning that exist outside of certainly Fate County, but likely also outside of Kentucky so that we can align the very specific learning we need with resources and agencies that can provide us with that very detailed um education to be able to drive forward performance measures. We are in I mentioned this on Monday. We are in our fourth year of a five-year strategic plan. And that plan was so welldeveloped in that it captured our teacher and administrator interests in professional learning. Not just to increase the total number of days per year for professional learning, but actually being able to engage in evidence-based research-based training that will uh be able to provide us with uh skill acquisition with literacy, um numeracy, being able to address English learner need, being able to

075make sure that we can address uh the needs of our students that are entering kindergarten more ready. And so that really has persisted as a challenge this year. We've maintained every opportunity to make it an asset. Um but it certainly is something that we are keeping our mind on next year to be able to allocate available funds to professional learning the extent possible. >> Oh yes, one more question. I'm sorry Dr. Bradford. Um this may not even be doable. um based on the huge number of programs and opportunities we have in Faget County um and based on the fact that we don't expect you know Frankfurt's telling us we have to do certain things and giving us more expectations it would be a disservice to our educators to say you can't attend when say I

076want to become a board certified a nally board certified teacher I need to attend this uh conference. Um say I'm a special ed teacher and you have these new programs that are coming in. What we don't want to do is stifle the growth of our educators. So yes, travel is necessary and in some of these uh programs it's mandated, right? We know that in grants you have to travel in certain situations. So my question is if you could prioritize in some way say maybe five things you think, five programs, five schools, whatever that looks like that we could look at to say we really should consider funding those and letting those letting that entity travel. If you could possibly do that, I would appreciate it. >> Sure. And hopefully you'll accept that as a as

077a follow-up response. >> Yeah. No, right now. No. No. >> Fergus, >> thanks. Um, I mean, I think that's a good request, Penny. I I guess I would also want to know, have we looked at what we're spending to bring people in versus sending our people out? I mean, I think we're we still have some consultants coming in and we're paying them to do training. And it to me if our people even not at the school level you know at a a different level are going and taking that training can they not come back do that kind of training um I mean that's my understanding that that's what a lot of the administrators >> that is entirely valid and absolutely one of our main strategies going into the next academic school year in particular is

078the return on investment. So what I mean by that is for personnel from Fate County Public Schools to have experience out of state to be able to ensure that as they return back they're fitting into our network of professional learning experiences to provide that education to others that could look similar to our PLN networks throughout the scope of the year that could be in our hub formats that occur um at designated com uh time periods of the year. In particular, we did execute under the direction of our superintendent a study of our consultant usage as compared to our outofd district travel. And I certainly um can attest to the fact that moving forward, our number one priority is in focusing on professional learning first to bring back that education to the district and less on

079uh the engagement with professional consultants entering Fate County Public Schools locally. That sounds great to me. I mean, I think sometimes you learn more or learn better when you have to teach it yourself. >> Green. >> Thank you, Chair V. My question really aligns with what um board member Christian had said. I I wrote down really if we could learn more about the the PLS that require traveling that are evidence-based that align with our um HQIRS that align with our practices that we are supporting already through our strategic plan like our PLC's our learning networks things like that so we recognize and that might be a good resource for the board because when the when the professional learnings come through we can then look at that list and say yes this is an evidence-based practice

080yes this is one that aligns with this um strategy and so that kind to help that's a a check not only for the board but for the community to see that this is valid and this is why it is and I know we do that within the request itself but maybe having like a running list that might be helpful. >> Thank you for Monday. >> Thank you chair Murphy and I completely understand the stresses for professional development. It's it's being felt in academia all around. Um to add to that, I would be interested in seeing um as you look and see which phys positions um really PLC's really need that um travel for um continued learning um not just like where it aligns with the strategic plan but also what are some of the impacts

081on um academic achievement and growth and then if you can show us that data in the numbers um because I I know that there are some of our like for instance title one schools that don't have the funding to be able to send um individuals out to do that training, right? And even to be able to bring it back. And so that may be a need that we have. Um but being just not getting the written justification, but also seeing within the data that we have and that could look different. It just doesn't have to be academic. it may be, you know, another staff member or another group that really needs that >> um professional development to bring things back as well. Um so just I think that would be helpful to really see that

082justification as to why and the impact it has in the classroom and any data that's associated with that to be able to see either what that that negative impact has been or what that positive impact could be. And board member money to your point um you you noted the title one schools you know sometimes our non-title one schools are more strapped for funds for professional leave than our title one schools so they don't have that extra funding as well so they are a lot of times in the in the same situation that our our title one schools are in. >> Oh for sure. And I can even see that you know even you know some of our school-based professionals like our mental health specialists may need to be able to do that to bring information

083back or maybe for you know seal. So I think whoever it is, right, just making sure that those justifications are there so we have an understanding and the community has an understanding of the importance and need for that especially as we look at some of the other um topics that we're going to be talking about as far as our general fund is concerned. Um, I think that that will that will help make those decisions um easier to make and knowing that um that outcome right is really going to support our students. And and I will reiterate, you know, at every layer of this conversation, you know, the board has to be um grounded. You mentioned return on investment on um the data and recognizing where intentional investments have made a positive impact. You know, we

084see it. We've talked about the student data. Um but even I'm just thinking about Monday when we looked at the impact survey results. You know, we saw a seven uh percent increase from two years ago in positive ratings about professional learning. And then looking deeper into that data. Um some a couple things that stood out to me. The question on how relevant have your professional development opportunities been to the content that you teach. That's up 11% from two years ago. um how often do your professional development opportunities help you explore new ideas? That's up 8% from two years ago. So, you don't see increases like that and that and that's directly from the voice of our staff. So, you don't see movement in data like that without um there having been an intentional effort. So,

085we want to make sure that we're not backpedaling uh at a point when we're making progress. And so, that's something to keep in mind as we go through this conversation. and and I I would like to make um just to reiterate that these are challenges that we're talking about for this year and this fiscal year. Um, next year we fully anticipate um having um the opportunity for people to um take advantage of necessary um professional learning within the confines of what we've studied to make sure that we are being getting a return on investment and really being as um efficient um as possible. And um when we worked to balance the um the budget after the anticipated 16 million cuz only.1% not even I mean so that's a tenth of a percent of our general

086fund was used on professional learning. And so what occurred was that we took some of the grants and some of the other um funding to make up for other things which caused that to be the challenge for this year. And so but next year um within our our our professional learning plan, we've heard loud and clear from our staff that this is that's why it made it to the strategic plan to begin with. It was something that they valued and felt like they weren't getting previously. And so it's something that we um certainly want to make sure is much more efficient. Um, but also that we're not, and I've I've said this a thousand times to the staff, um, as we're doing all of this work, we certainly don't want to make, we don't want

087to throw the baby out with the bath water. We want to make sure that we're continuing those supports and services that is getting return on investment when it comes to student outcomes. And as it was noted at the very beginning, we we're making historical um, progress there. And so, we certainly want to make sure that we're doing that as well. Um which me leads me to our next topic which is the fund balance. The challenge of the fund balance and obviously that goes into many of the challenges that we've talked about thus far. You know some of the um unanticipated things that come about um through throughout any school year because our budget is so tight this year um it becomes very um um we're looking at every single expenditure um when it looks at

088um going into the fund balance of what's left. you know, whether that be our utility bills or whether that be our um that um I spoke earlier about the um the legal fees or um whether that be other initiatives that weren't um um fully funded that we have to take advantage of. And so that continues to be something that we we continue to look at. And as we are looking at personnel and as we're scrutinizing every position that is um that leaves midyear, that also helps with ensuring that we kind of um take advantage of making sure that we don't necessarily have to um dip into that. Um another one of those challenges that we talked about next is uh is the audits. Uh we've had um an unanticipated audits that have come up. We're

089not sure. The APA is doing an audit to that. We're not sure where the funding for that will come from at this point. That's still up in the air. Uh we've had a um an audit or report. I say audited audits slash reviews I guess. Um we've had some reviews um sanctioned um by the board, some that's been requested by the audit committee and um and others. And so that's those are just things that weren't necessarily anticipated. And so that's a challenge when we're talking about our um fund balance as well to ensure that we um are taking care of those. Um any questions about those before we go into our child nutrition challenge fund 51 which is supposed to be a self-supporting proprietary fund. In recent years we have lost our cash reserve which

090allowed us to cash flow our operations. And so we are depending on the general fund for support and there are several things that have led to this situation. Personal investments in recent years in terms of salary experience or salary schedule increases and uh increases in terms of the the level of experience that can be brought in uh is playing a role into that. Uh we've lost instructional days due to NTI and snow days. This current year we have I guess an increase in paid meal debt. uh our current paid meals are losing money for each paid meal that we're selling. So that is sort of creating a hole for us and and in addition to that the outstanding meal debt for those that are not paying has increased significantly over the years. Uh it's I

091think currently at $50,000 year to date. So we're continuing to monitor that. And uh we just uh again want to make sure that we communicate this information to the board because we historically were paying um indirect costs and some other things to the board and now we're sort of being a liability in terms of having the cash flow and utilize the general fund and it's not supposed to be that way. We're supposed to be breaking evening and then so we want to make sure that we're making the right decisions for the program going forward. So, >> uh, one question I have is, you know, there are some logistical hurdles to ensuring that our families are filling out the applications. Um, have there has there been conversations across departments, particularly with family engagement teams or even

092community partners, about how we can better um, engage our families? Because I think in a lot of ways, there's money being left on the table. there are there may be campuses that could get C eligibility uh but for having enough application. So what what work is being done in that regard? >> We have communicated and I think there's always improvements for that work but uh we will definitely take heed to that advice and make sure that we are re doing outreach. I know that our team has done you know pushes to school level campuses trying to work with the administration in terms of getting the word out and sending communications. But uh to your point, I think there's always room for improvement for that, especially for the ones that are so close that we've recently

093lost that if we just sort of work with our as our community engagement partners to get that word out and and even using other external partners, whether it's churches or other uh service organizations in the community just as they work with these people, making sure that they are aware of this opportunity. >> And I can speak to that too, Chair Murphy. Um when we look at our numbers going forward next year, we see a decrease of 585 students who qualified at our title one schools. And as a district, we went from 55.37% to 54.95, which led my team to really question that data. So, we dug down. We have an exact number of forms not filled out as a district, which was about 15,000. Um, we broke that down by schools. So, each school has

094that number. So, it's too late to qualify for next year, but it's developed a plan to be very intentional next year. So, we're working not only with our face team u family community uh friskies and our principles and chiefs moving forward for next year. Um but really being able to drill into that data. Um we're being very intentional with that. We also know some families aren't completing the forms um due to uh immigration status and we know that's a that's a hurdle we need to overcome and be creative on how to get with that too. So those are all things we're working on. >> Very good. Yes. I think there's room because, you know, I remember at the back to school rallies uh this past August, um I thought it was a brilliant idea where

095they brought hotspots and Chromebooks and families signed up for their transportation uh routes and they got the information in real time. We gave them access to Infinite Campus and they signed up on the portal. Um so even something similar for our free and reduced lunch. >> So a huge shout out to Wes Downing, first year principal, something he did and he had like a 98% completion rate on his forms. um he did like a bingo card at his back to school night and if you went to each station and got your car completed, you got a free t-shirt. Um just that intentionality is huge. So I shared that idea with um another school just this week. Um so really thinking forward next year. So that is something we're really on top of. >> Very good.

096Thank you, Dr. Phil. >> And we're certainly open to ideas and like Myron said, we can always do better and try try to get it done. There are I think it's a catch 22 in so many um instances. many of our families um because they it is a C campus decide not to fill it out because their kids going to eat for free anyway and so they choose um they see don't see the reason and also um I don't think we can underestimate the um >> the the immigration yes that that is something that is really impacting a lot of our families they're very uncomfortable with putting down their personal information and as you know that is our fastest growing population in this district at this point And so that is something that we're realizing

097as well. But uh we continue um we do completely realize that just from a teaching and learning standpoint that our needs are going up which is surprising to see that our um economically disadvantaged numbers are going down. So uh we do realize that there's u some miscommunication somewhere that we need that needs certainly to be addressed. And and how about um have we I know we've talked about this before, but have we done any more look into second chance breakfast and those types of opportunities? >> We are working on that. >> In fact, we've implemented at some of our campuses where um >> very good. >> Trying to be as creative as we can. >> Yes. And community partners for that uh lunch debt as well. You know, we've seen in um headlines about medical

098debt relief and so forth. Just kind of along that same vein, I think there might be some opportunities there. >> Certainly, we've had at least two vendors that have been pretty bomb prominent in terms of working with us to pay those off. Appreciate that. >> Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you, >> Chair Murphy. Bo, >> thank you. Um, Dr. Thompson, you had mentioned that the paid meals um you buy one and you're immediately in debt with, you know, with our structure. I think that'd be important information for the board to kind of see those numbers and then where that where it would be equal, right? Okay. And so where we wouldn't be a purchase meal would not create debt what that number is and where we are at today. Um just for information on >> Yes

099ma'am. Absolutely. We will make sure that information is available. >> Thank you. >> And that's a good transition into >> I think board member question. Go ahead. >> I won't be long. >> You need to have a good transition too. Then >> uh Dr. Thompson. Um I think we need to acknowledge that there's a pride issue here in filling out this documentation. Right. Um, and also there's an a feeling of being overwhelmed that first week of school or just before school opens. You have all of these forms. I had three kids in high school at the same time. So I was twitching by the second one. Right? So now I know a lot of this is not hard copy anymore unless you request it. But I think that's two things to consider. It's a pride

100issue about filling out free and reduced lunch even though we tell you you have to fill it out and also being overwhelmed with everything else you have to fill out at the same time. So, what we can do as far as meeting what the federal guidelines say as far as deadlines and dates, what we can do to take some of that pressure off. >> Absolutely. We want to be very um conscious of that and again trying to have numerous touch points where people feel comfortable and getting to that point to where we can sit down and have a conversation and it may not be us. It may be someone else that they're comfortable working with and so we will definitely take that advice. >> All right, y'all. Um, this is a big one. I'm saying

101this because there's been,297 bills filed in um this for this session. 939 in the House and 358 in the Senate. You don't have to worry. I'm not going to cover all those. And the focus of tonight is really about fiscal uh 27 outlook. And the what that means is what the impact of these bills, especially as it relates to education bills that would impact us and our fiscal outlook. I will not be able to cover all of those. I will definitely supply you with enough information for you to review, but I also will request that if you want to um to to sit down and discuss any of these bills, please feel free. We have uh we don't have all night tonight, but we'll have a lot of time in the future. So, really what

102what it comes down to is House Bill 500. Um that is the main bill right now in terms of seek and as it relates to the budget bill, but what I have to think about, what we have to think about is the potential impact on um fiscal year 27. And so this this is the single driver that when we look at the seek formula and how it's going to impact and the key issue is whether the increase is sufficient to keep pace with real district costs. And so that $40 increase is is is not sufficient I would um based on data. But if transportation funding remains flat or constrained, local districts like FCPS will continue absorbing inflationary and service related pressures. And so in practical terms, even a positive seek increase may not fully offset

103the rising costs of of people, services, transportation, and day-to-day operations. When you think about preschool legislation, um you know, there's a there's several things on the table. one of which they were trying to do an all day prek, but there was no funding uh associated with that. And so, you know, current discussions we we always think about uh possible expansion of preschool eligibility, broader early early childhood access, but there's there's a lot of discussion around how this could be funded. And so with the current general assembly, you know, they're looking at eligibility and access proposals and and we just need to pay close attention to that. So potential impact any expansion in preschool eligibility or broader prek access could have immediate implications for SCPS in terms of classroom space, staffing, transportation, programming, coordination with community

104partners such as Head Start. But the district could face implementation expectations before full operational funding and capacity questions are fully resolved. So that's why this is critical to to review. And Rodney, I think you had something about preschool. >> Yes, sir. >> The other thing to consider about preschool is that on average we have about $841,000 related to transportation that we're not recouping. In last year alone, we had 1.7 million. We were very hopeful that um universal prek would pass this year with all the conversations and marketing around that, but so far um feel like it may not materialize and so we just need to understand that there's a significant cost that we're not recouping related to transportation. So in thinking about S and feel free to stop me at any time but Senate Bill

105three, one of the most critical things here is just about school finance and transparency bill and it focuses more on budget processes, reserve requirements, reporting expectations but and public diso disclosure for obligations for districts but it places new emphasis on how districts organize, present, publicly communicate their financial work. um and it has advanced through the Senate and continues to move through the legislative process. The potential impact for us is not necessarily new revenue, but it does create new compliance responsibilities. And so this this affects how the district may structure its budget timeline along with managing reserves expectations, posting financial information. So, just take note that there could be some uh compliance um reviews and Senate Bill 181. I want this actually passed last year, but I want to talk about it because it had an

106impact on us both fiscally and um I would call it operationally. So, so one of the things is that was the um transparency bill. It's called traceable communication policy and it was about clarification on how we interact or staff interact with students. But the most important thing is that there was an accountability for costs and how we were to implement it along with just regulation of it. And so one of the things to think about, they're trying to clean that language up right now. and what they're doing is working through um the legislative process, but they're just trying to make it a little bit easier on districts. So, we do want to encourage that that work to continue. As far as transportation, um this is one of the clearest areas where state policy and local

107fiscal reality intersect. the first when it was first introduced before it got to its um kind of flat funding, we would have lost millions of dollars in transportation costs or transportation revenue. So therefore, um it's important that we continue to advocate for transportation because costs are going up and as you can imagine that's a fuel that's fleet maintenance, routing demands, service expectations and so as much advocacy as we can provide um isn't critical, but then also just ensuring that that that level hopefully goes up maintaining flat you know will handle but going up would even be better And so, you know, it's one of the most visible examples of state funding pressures if we don't um spend time u working through that. And then finally, you know, just a couple bills to think about. Senate

108Bill 41 affects local revenue flexibility um related to tax rate increases and possible recall procedures. Senate Bill 124 addresses um compensation for unused sick leave prior to retirement. I'm going to talk about Senate Bill 9 in just a moment. And Senate Bill 127 is a bill that's especially important because it could shift certain actuary cost to annual leave on to the last employer. Um, House Bill 621 could create staff cost implications by reinforcing requirements tied to exceptional children class sizes. And then also House Bill 652. It's a little more targeted, but it still could create implementation costs related to safety and mapping expectations. Now, I want to talk a little bit about Senate Bill 9. This was passed last year, but the fiscal implementation is moving forward. Bottom line is that um you know, it's

109not just a benefits issue. It's a long-term budget issue. And so, our 10-month employees are generally not the concern. So that includes teachers, um staff in the classrooms typically, but the real fiscal exposure is the 11th month and 12 month employees whose annual leave structures exceeded the 13day state um funded cap. So we have personal day rollover. We have 12 sick days for many of these employees or 11. When you add the three personal, if they keep them, they can roll into sick days. you can only well by state law basically they they want you to cap it at 13. So we need to address that both as um in in Fate County public schools in both policy but in in procedure and so it's very important to think about or we will have a

110a fiscal um impact. So finally, just as you pay attention to the bills that are being reviewed, there's several bills on the table that affect um structures for both taxing um and and one of them being the OOLT. They just brought in the revenue bill in 757 that no school district may exercise building an OOLT tax that hasn't done one, nor will they get to extend that tax. And to that point, there's also conversations we heard from Mr. George about the equalization. There's also concerns about the threat of losing building fund equalization. Is that correct? >> That's correct. >> Any questions, board members? Well, I have the opportunity to uh present the first anticipated additional expense to consider uh for 2627 and that is in relation to Greenale Elementary School and the Rise STEM Academy

111for girls. So each year where we are anticipating opening a new school or a new school program, we uh work with a comprehensive budget um that is helping to open the school for a year ahead. Our school leaders uh and/or the school leadership office for those designated schools or programs develop needs-based budgets based on historical trends that schools that have opened in the last several years have relied on in order to have sufficient materials um and ready preparation for uh readiness to open in in the July time frame. Specifically, we uh convene meetings on a regular basis with the anticipated school leadership of these particular schools and programs as well as uh with districts personnel to be able to address upcoming needs related to operations, transportation, curriculum, resource materials um as well as operational needs

112uh related to the infrastructure of the buildings. So, in thinking about what our work will be uh inclusive of next year, we will be anticipating the opening of a seventh grade program at Rise STEM Academy for Girls for the year that follows, as well as the potential expansion of classrooms in grades K through 5 at that same school site. So, we'll be planning for both of those options next year, and we'll need a budget um to be able to be set aside to be able to prepare for the expansion and and opening of those programs and grade levels. Concurrently, we will also be planning for the opening of the new elementary school on Greenale. And similarly, we develop a budget that is needs-based to begin working through what are the investments that need to be

113made over the course of the year essentially in quarterly installments so that all of those available resources uh are are present on campus for the opening of that school or program or for that school in particular in July. The approximate cost of this particular expenditure for both programs is being estimated at $450,000. And so that is a recommendation of necessity um for next year's budget construction. We discussed earlier um the insurance trends that affects us the last three years. As such, we're working with the COO's office and risk management to look at what our impact could be for 2027 fiscal year and we budget accordingly put it in budget for that projected increase. Also, a cost that we anticipate for uh next year that the board will certainly have to consider and we talked about

114this earlier is the increase in our legal fees. uh that is something that we'll have to discuss and determine um where that actually that threshold is and how much will um be budgeted for that. And in addition to that, we do know that if we continue with our traditional um um step increase, even without a percentage um raise increase, just the steps alone, uh that investment for next year is an additional $6.7 million um for the one year more of experience. um for uh staff. >> Don't tell that figure to our middle schoolers. >> Hello, Carl Hayden here. Good evening, board members. I have Miss Amy John's, director of technology here with me to talk about uh Chromebooks. Uh we've recently had a pause on purchasing Chromebooks, and we need to invest moving forward. We

115tried to anticipate the cost of the Chromebook, but as mentioned several times tonight, between tariffs, inflation, and war, that price fluctuates. It's critical now for our students to be able to have devices, but not only the students, but also the staff and being able to maintain and support our technology ecosystem as well. Uh we want to be able to ensure that Chromebooks are being funded moving forward. Chromebooks is are at a cost of what per year. >> So for student Chromebooks, we're estimating 4.2 million for next year um in order to do a a a four-year um life cycle refresh. So that would purchase about 10,000 devices, we think. Um that price is changing weekly when we get quotes from vendors right now. Uh the current price um that we received on a quote this

116week was $386. Our vendor is telling us that they anticipate that cost could go up as much as $50 to $150 per device um over the next months um through the next year. So it's kind of an unknown. So 4.2 is more than it would cost if we bought them today, but is still conser conservative an estimate of what it may be by the time we're actually making the purchase. And this is also an additional carryover from ESSER as well, correct? >> Yes, we did use yes use esser funds some um during the last when we last purchased Chromebooks, but it's been a bit >> more murphy. Um thank you. I appreciate the documentation you gave us. I think it's important that we see um these technology. This is the foundation for a lot of

117our instruction and other other investments. Uh last year we invested in a substantial amount of money for um educational resources, instructional resources which rely on having access. I also appreciate the note that this is an equity issue to ensure that we are providing access to the education for all students in all spaces. And so I I just wanted to say thank you for really laying all those points out there. I think it's important that we see it's part of our infrastructure um and necessity to maintain that healthy uh refresh cycle. Thank you, board member Graham. I appreciate that and and I agree. I think um it's it's about a lot more than just putting a device in every student's hand. Um since 2020, we really have built our whole um infrastructure. Our whole foundation is

118on the concept that students are going to have devices and some of that has been district decisions and some of that has been decisions from the state um assessments and all those kinds of things. So, it it's not really a a conversation of can we just do without them. It's going to be um very impactful if we don't have good devices in the hands of our kids to be able to do the things that we want to keep getting the academic gains that we have seen in the last few years. And relatedly, can you speak to I mean obviously there's this the sticker price of course of keeping our technology up to date, but then there's also the unspoken cost of like the more outdated our technology gets and that's going to be a further

119burden on our technology staff which will be overstretched or we'll need to increase uh the number of folks who are providing technical services. Is that is that a consideration that we should factor into as well? Not just looking at that bottom line cost. >> Absolutely. And so that 4.2 is really just about the devices. And the longer that we let the our current fleet age. Um, and in some information I provided talked about almost half of our fleet will be out of warranty when we start the school year next year. Uh, and I don't know how many of you have seen what kids do to devices that are four, five, six years old. Um, they don't function real well. And so, uh, it certainly leads to a difficult, um, situation for our students and for

120our teachers. A lot of our students rely on these devices. They do not have access to anything else other than what we provide them. About 50% of our students have reported through student surveys that that is the primary um device access that they have for outside of classroom. So, we're still sending those home at middle and high school. Um but in terms of other expenses, uh we utilize Chromebook contractors. We have um a very small staff that we contract out that are not technically Faget County employees, but that eight hours a day, you know, every day of the week are fixing these devices. Uh we have about 20,000 repairs a year. Some of those are the same device more than once. Um, and the devices that are under warranty, you know, certainly we are able

121to get those parts from the company um, to replace those and we send a good number back to the company um, if they're device things that we can't fix here if they're under warranty. The 26,000 devices that will be out of warranty next year, that is going to be totally on us. And so we will see um, you know, an intended cost rise of of repair and parts and all those kinds of things. We also um I have to shout out our school technology coordinators. Um we cannot do this work without them. And those are for the most part classroom teachers who get a very small supplemental duty um on top of um teaching all day long, especially at the elementary school that are having to manage all these. They're not necessarily doing the repairs,

122but um just the daily amount of hand touching of devices that has to happen. you know, every time a student forgets a device, every time a device isn't working in the classroom and has to be switched out, um those are the people that are putting in the tickets that are sending those to us through the courier and we're getting those back and forth to them. And so that's um a very important part of the process that this all really hinges on. So there are other costs beyond just the physical devices. Chair Mor, >> if I can just highlight something that I've seen positive with having the devices in the schools and then the challenges for the quick uh refresh. I've seen the opportunity to expose our students whether it's an internship at the district in

123the summer to help with powerashing and resetting buttons and keys like that and even seeing them as part of a class. You know, I saw one um at Tates Creek as part of their IBIT class that the students sit there and they refresh these um devices. So, thank you for our staff and our our technology coordinators in the school buildings because we're creating a space for our students to learn to become career uh ready as well. And they were all the students that I shared with me a few weeks ago were all very excited that they had these skills and they're able to use these outside of the building. So, I just wanted to say thank you. With a new technology coming in, it's also open and it expands opportunities for our students. So, that's

124that's cool. >> Thank you. More money. >> Thank you. Um I also want to thank you for the wealth and source of information that you provided us. I think that you know one thing that is pretty important into you know delivering the curriculum investments that we've had like um board member Green talked about is having those Chromebooks and I think the equity of having them and being onetoone is pretty darn important. I think it, you know, provides students access of books to read. You know, when we're talking NI days, um them being able to do the work, you know, that they need to do. And I know that we've had to um provide have cut right to technology. And I don't see maintenance on here. I think that'll come, but maintenance as well. And those

125are two areas that um when I look at them, I think it's hard to to make a cut. Um, and I know how hard it is, especially with technology as it ages to try to catch up um, instead of keeping up um, when you're having to take those cuts. But I know we're so reliant on technology for all of our students um, and with their curriculum. And I know we want to get the best, you know, out of I Ready and our new curriculum. And I know we need that technology um, to do it. So I hope that we can um, strengthen that investment that we have. >> Thank you. All righty. Also, um, as we talk about anticipated additional expenditures, we have to consider and, um, Jenny Dyer spoke about this earlier, the fact

126that we have been growing on average about 250 students, um, special needs students per year. Um, last year when we talked about, um, going into the contingency fund, one of the things that the the, um, the audit determined was 8.8 8 million of that um 14 million that was um overspent was in personnel for special education. And so that is something that is certainly um we want to anticipate moving forward, but because of the funding formula quite often we do not know that until after December. And so um those are funds that we want to make sure that we're anticipating moving forward. Also, as we know that the APA is doing a an audit or review, we're not sure exactly when that will be done and what actual how much that will actually be or

127um what fiscal year that will come out of depending on when they are done. And so that is something that we also want to keep in mind or need the board to keep in mind as we're developing a budget. >> Martha? >> Yes, sir. >> I'm sorry. >> May I ask a question? Is there on the IEP um or the special education expenditure is is was there is there a way to is that just a matter of when arcs are occurring and when identification unexpected identification is occurring? Is there any way that we could do structurally to ensure that there are identifications happening earlier that we can get more federal dollars from that or is that just >> Well, it it's a combination of of things. We have students that are brand new to our

128district that come in with an IEP already and then we have new students that are identified. And so it's a little um and then some students you have to go through a process MTSS process before you can identify. So there's um it's not a perfect science where we can say do it before now. And then also depending on the needs of the student that that differs. We could have some students that um we try to have in the least in restrictive environment and then we realize sometime throughout the year after we've collected more data that they require much more intensive services. So that impacts it as well >> and the families a family can request an arc at any time to reassess. >> Exactly. Yeah. So earlier when I spoke about grants and I talked

129about the $31 million, those are all grants that were awarded to us that did not include formula grants. So our formula grants we look for um in terms of budgeting for next year. We only can budget at a hold harmless amount and that's a percentage KDE gives us and for next year that amount for title one is at 85%. So I provided you data with our amount. So that um amount we can budget for next year is $14,938,000. Um title two, title three, and title four while we know is funded next year, it is a flowth through gr grant through the state and we are not provided a hold harmless for that amount. We will not find out how much we get in those grants until mid August. Um we also won't find out our

130full title funding until that date. So it's really hard to determine budgets right now without knowing that number until August. Um if those grants are decreased um which could happen because there is no hold no hold harmless um level for 2, three and four, there are programmings um on two and four that would need to be transferred or eliminated um based on the board's decision. >> Thank you. As stated earlier, um I'm going to speak a little bit about the challenges in and enrollment trends. Um you know, with interest rates, immigration patterns, uh slowing and slowing of birth rates, um that's really what's created our enrollment trough. Um our challenge is um really is on our birth rate is the capture rate. So if we're going to have lower birth rates slightly, then let's really

131work on our capture rate. And here are some things that we've we're really trying to do. We're marketing uh the marketing enrollment windows. We really try to promote out um making enrollment more accessible. We're always looking at our online and the not only what's in our online platform, but um you know having it accessible to families uh just so that we're continually giving them opportunities to enroll um and ensuring our new families are coming because if we're going to be growing with housing units, we want to make sure those new families enroll with us and we believe we have uh the best opportunities uh for our kids in Fate County here with with our county. So um I think it's also important uh second point is to maintain current and re relevant information with our

132city government which we do through MGT by uh our demographer um looking at u housing units are planned enrollment trends from that we can also gather are we losing students from uh one cohort to the next and we did notice that so here's an example of that we we noticed a couple years back fifth to sixth that that we're losing some kids. So, we were intentional about trying to really market opportunities for sixth graders. Um, I think out of area, opening up that was a is an opportunity for uh students to have other options. So, that that's a positive. Um, and then even Lexon Middle School has the performing uh arts, visual and performing arts. So students that either didn't want the o want opportunities at at um our other schools that that do specialize

133in performing arts or ones that just want to expand their skill have opportunities now. So I'm speaking now more towards program opportunities that kids have the more the the more well-rounded options we have. I think that just attracts our students back to our our district. So I think maintaining that is important. Um and uh I think that wraps up what I was going to say. If you have any questions, I'm happy to answer. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. >> Related property tax assessments again looks very conservative. We using 4.5% approximately 48.7 billion. Again, on the trend over the last 5 years has been in six 7% range and the increase is about $2.4 billion a year in assessments. In relation to inflation, the outlook for the next 5 years suggests a slow glide toward stability

134while the immediate peak of inflation is behind us. The path to 2% target remains gradual due to structural the 2.4% um headline inflation in 2026 is a set story for monetary policy, but 25.6 cumulative price increase since 2020 represent a permanent structural change in our cost. Thinking about that, future planning should assume a sticky 2.2% 2% floor rather than return to the 1.5% levels that we saw in the early 2000s, >> which which brings us to the fund balance. Um, one of the things when we talk about obviously all of the unpredictables really lead us to um trying to determine where our fund balance will ultimately end. One of the things that we will be doing differently in there um if we do not end this year with a um with the 6% um in

135our contingency fund, we will also um be putting an actual budget code or amount that will go into the um contingency fund each year. um not only to get to the 6% but just moving forward how we plan to operate to ensure that we are being intentional about raising our contingency fund um for future years as um Mr. Jackson stated months ago that the 6% although it's um according to the AP it's certainly not enough should there be a major issue that occurs. And so that will be um our plan to get that back up is to be very intentional about our um budgeting of that amount to ensure that it is automatically um targeted to go there. Um, as we get into the next when we talk about the uh child nutrition, we really

136need to have a discussion with the board so we can get some direction to go. So my you want to >> certainly Dr. Ligins. Uh, it's been three years since there's been a price increase. So we want to bring to the board the paid lunch equivalent uh formula used and just bring that to your point the modeling just to show kind of how those revenues are flowing. Uh we also want to look at the uh contract days to make sure they're aligned to the school calendar. Uh we will be working uh with HR in terms of how we bet years of experience and things like that. We will be aggressively marketing opportunities for our um free and reduced participation in applications and uh there was one more on here. Um, oh, uh, just looking at

137how we, uh, go about, um, marketing for, uh, second chance, uh, breakfast and things like that. >> And also, as my stated, we stopped charging indirect costs this year in 2026. Um, we budgeted $1 billion in the budget and we have about $1.2 million that is due from that. So, we end up writing it off. That amount could impact our indirect cost revenue we have this year, the way the formulas work through the system. So, I want to make sure everybody was aware of that. Also, board member Green. >> Thank you, Chair Murphy. I just wanted to resend a request because information was in another document that I didn't see. So, thank you. >> Thank you. >> Could Could we have a discussion? Are is the board comfortable with us bringing your proposal to increase

138lunch prices? What? Um, do we have specific figures? Let me see. I We We do not That's kind of Do we want to um get to where we're breaking even? Do we want to get to a point to where there's possibly somewhat of a profit considering some of the other challenges? And so that's kind of the discussion we want to have with you all to give us some direction as to that will determine what figure we will bring. Mhm. Not everyone at once or Marine. >> I'll start. Um, as much as it pains me that we have to charge for the food, we also I believe we have to be fiscally responsible and manage these accounts. Um, and so we haven't we've made causes in the past years when we knew um what was happening

139in the economy outside of the school district was hitting our families very hard. Um, and so I I think that we do need to hear um potential cost increase uh for these to make it balanced. >> And obviously it's a conversation that can be had. I would just it's a conversation with which I would proceed with caution to make sure that it's not a first resort. um that's a last resort and it's a conversation where we um engage our community and it's also a conversation where uh we maintain our commitment because I remember you know there was a time when as a district we practiced the lunch shaming practice right that we no matter what what is settled upon I we still don't want it to be a situation where kids every child will be

140fed, who needs to be fed, and so I think that's where the premise where we need to begin, and then from there, we can have a conversation about shoring up the the food service account. >> Yes, sir. We heard loud and clear from the board that no matter what, kids will be fed, and we work out the financials and the adult issues behind the scenes, but that there's not going to be a kid in this district that will miss a meal in Bay County Schools. or Monday. >> Um I do think that we need to see all the information. So I am fine with kind of taking a look and seeing what that fiscal impact will be um and the broad range of of um prices. I will admit I don't have um I don't

141have an interest in turning a profit at the moment um especially just given with everything that's happening. But I also understand that there could be budgetary constraints and that's where I caution when we look at other aspects of the budget and funding. Um because I do think there are some um everything in the budget is important. I understand that. But I do think that there are some things that we need to prioritize over others. I think one of those are feeding our students. And I think even if we raise those prices um looking at the information we were given and and those balances that are left at the end um given everything the volatility of everything from utility prices to gas prices now um I want to make sure that we're able to support those

142students if they need it. So I think that we need to do our due diligence. We need to take a look. Um, but when I make some of the decisions that I make regarding the budget or what we prioritize, it isn't necessarily because I don't think everything is important, but I do think one, every child should be fed, but also we have to be able to cover that cost. So, so I understand that and so I try to keep those things in mind as we're talking about different >> and we appreciate that and we will bring you a range of options to to choose from. So when I see reduction in students qualifying for free and reduced lunch, is this a perfect storm of decreased enrollment and or kids who whose families have just gotten

143ridiculously wealthy? And I'm I'm only being partly facitious, but are we talking about is there a correlation between that and the 15,000 applications that have not been filled out? Are we talking about a true reduction in the number of kids who need free and reduced lunch or is it just based on the numbers that we on the raw numbers that we're seeing? Because I never want to say charge more, but we may have a huge influx of kids whose families are bringing they're bringing their lunch, right? So we have a massive increase of kids and families who are bringing their lunches to school. Then I would be more okay with increasing Right. >> It is just sort of a trend and and we're evaluating all the the variables and just trying to understand the numbers

144and and where we can trying to shore up uh those participation numbers. >> And it's also important to note um that as families are seeing their food prices increase, so does you know, we're not immune. They don't give us a discount because we're a public school. I mean, it's still the the same amount. Um um board member Ferguson, do you want to add to this conversation? >> Just say again, it's it's hard to choose priorities in the absence of context and and trade off and just things we talked about. I mean, I agree with Dr. Monday that putting the students first and and feeding our kids is more important to me than a lot of things. And and I will add to I mean whatever conversations we have in my opinion I'm speaking into as

145an individual but in my opinion whatever conversations we have about the need to uh maximize revenue and the context of the priorities and the investments we're making in kids. Um we we that conversation needs to be uh broad and deep. So it shouldn't just fall on people purchasing lunches in the district and so and particularly children purchasing lunch in the district. Um so that needs to be a conversation if the concern about the uh food service account which I understand is supposed to be proprietary but that's been short up by the general fund and so the general fund dollars are being diverted to food service. um we have to ask ourselves, okay, if there's a need for revenue, where are the best places to generate that revenue efficiently and effectively and uh equitably? >> Um

146thank you. But I I do think after um let me just reiterate what I think I'm hearing um that no one on the board the board itself is not opposed to um necessarily looking at lunch prices, but you want to see what else is actually being considered to um also within the budget to ensure that we're finding ourselves in a good location. Um I think as we continue throughout this agenda that will give you a little bit more context. And so with that, I appreciate the feedback. Um, Houston, you want to go talk about SEK? >> So, the big thing about SEEK is that the challenge is how it's funded and and if you have a minimal increase, it's going to impact County Public Schools in a different way. And so, for example, one of

147the things you have to think about is that the formula combines two funding sources, state seek funding and local property tax. So, local effort is critical. And this is why this is a challenge because one of the things if if there is $4,626 per student that is mentioned in the first bienium or for this for this coming year the actual FCPA FCPS state seek on average is about 2,821 per student. So you can imagine the formula was designed as a distribution formula and therefore local effort has to pick up. So that that combination, why this matters is that even though we may have a strong uh property tax, if if it's only modestly funded, it doesn't go up enough to cover the cost of inflation, doesn't go up enough to cover the cost of things

148that are happening in the district to fund our personnel, to fund what's happening. And so therefore, you know, when you think about this modest $40 increase, it does not keep place keep pace with with all the things that I've mentioned before, including operational costs. So that said, it's just important to um advocate for higher um base seek. And you know, the difference is about what $1,800 per student on average that we actually receive. And so that's a quite a significant difference. In terms of overtime, uh there's good news and bad news. The good news is that the majority of the departments it's down, but unfortunately 90% of the overtime is captured in transportation. And we are working to try to analyze why this is occurring, but primarily there are two drivers uh leading to this.

149It's basically absentee and sub coverage uh that when people are out, people are having to fill in those positions and then having to fill up and catch up on their regular jobs for doing that and then special trips and events uh on weekends and things like that are contributing to this. So, we continue to evaluate that and we want to try to get that number down as much as possible, but it accounts for roughly 92% of our operational overtime. Moving on to your priorities uh that you've had in recent years. Uh we have some discussion we'd like to have surrounding those and some recommendations as well. >> So I'm going to start us off this evening. Uh and you'll recognize that we are in year two of a pilot implementation of AVID. Um Abbid has

150been piloted at four schools in our district, two middle and two high. It is a rather costly initiative at approximately $850,000. And what we have really found after two years is that insufficient data persists that AVID in and of itself is leading to the outcomes that other priorities that we have invested in curricular resources and personnel are actually helping to achieve. So what we have found is that we have built capacity in the pilot schools that have implemented AVID to date to be able to maintain local implementation at the school level um at the conclusion of when this pilot ends in J in June. And the recommendation that we would have moving into 2627 is that we not fund AVID as a district priority in the next budget cycle. We feel as though those schools

151that have had successes with AVID implementation will likely continue to implement AVID at the local level and those that have built capacity but would like to transfer their AVID um experience into a more local option, a more school personalized option moving forward would be able to have the autonomy to do that as well. And so my our recommendation overall is that AVID be released from the board's priority for next year to be able to allow for additional funding to be considered in other priority areas. >> Green. >> Thank you. Of that 850,000 um how much of that what maybe a rough percentage is staff? >> That is approximately 500,000 >> and then 350 for um programming and materials. That is entirely correct. Okay. And it which would also include resources including professional learning um which

152is of course required as a part of that program implementation. >> Okay. Thank you. >> What would offramping look like and what impact would that have on the students who are currently who have currently been through the process? Well, I would suggest that each of the schools that has implemented to date has truly developed their own personalized implementation approach to AVID programming. While it's a standard model in terms of what the vendor offers as a resource, we each of our teachers has been able to personalize that approach for the distinct needs of the schools that the students um that they're of the students that they're serving. And so what I would suggest is there are opportunities at the pilot schools to maintain AVID as an elective if their school council or advisory council feels as

153though that is one of the priority options that students should have in that building. Beyond that, I think the offramp is likely in the infrastructure of instructional priorities happening at the school. Uh at one of our most recent AVID presentations to the board, we talked about wicker strategies, which is a lot of very intentional focus on students being able to conceptualize their thoughts and then write to demonstrate their learning. Well, that is naturally embedded within our curriculum frameworks regardless. And so we've been able to transfer that specific instructional priority into other mechanisms that merge our HQIR as well as um our student experiences through vibrant learning. Thank you, Borit. >> I app I appreciate this. Um, usually we don't like to uh punt after until at least 3 years, 3 to five, which is great.

154Um, but if you see what you see, you see what you see. Um, I appreciate that AVID is something some of the patterns, some of the programming, just some of the basic organic learning you don't need AVID to do. And we need to be able to see that. I appreciate that we can sit here and say maybe this isn't the best because we talking about 850k and how many kids are we talking? >> Four schools and >> four schools, right? >> Yes. >> So too middle too high. So uh I appreciate that. Um yeah, this is Yeah. And if you don't mind, I wanted to add just one more point, and that is we had a two-year goal for the implementation of AVID. And it was to either make a determination that we would scale

155up at that time or that we would pull back and allow for the maturity of the program to exist in a personalized approach at the school level or extinguish that. And so that's exactly the point that we are at. Scaling up is not reasonable. Uh considering $850,000 for four schools, that would not be a reasonable request of the board to scale up districtwide. Henceforth, uh, we would prefer to move forward in a different direction. >> And I would also Oh, go ahead. >> I was gonna I was gonna say it's it's Morton. >> It is Morton Middle School, Brian Station Middle School, Brian Station High School, and actually it's Henry Clay this year. We transferred that um from You are correct about Lafayette and it went to Henry Clay this past year. >> Couldn't place

156the poll. Thank you. Uh I would say to um you know to the point that board member Christian made about giving an opportunity to get some of that data over the long term. It also hearkens back to our prior conversation about you know making sure efficient use of our resources. the the particular niche that that AVID was serving I think can also be fulfilled in other means as you've pointed out and it links up to some of our professional learning initiatives too. Um so to the extent that there was a service being uh being carried out by AVID that could be replicated in other ways and then the savings generated can also be focused on professional learning to scale it up um in a different way besides just the the programming itself. >> Bo Chair

157Murphy I was actually gonna say your point as well. I agree with my fellow board members and I think we just have some great talent here in FCPS and with our PLC's and professional development and so I I know that support is there and thank you for sharing about the maturity of the program and how things have um progressed and how the schools have that support and that foundation built. Um, >> one more group. >> Thank you. Um, I agree. I think, you know, if we can be intentional, if this is the direction that the board goes, really creating kind of a mapping of this is what provide was inside of AVID and this is what we provide districtwide and this is what our schools provide and maybe that mapping happens at every school. So

158if they choose to keep AVID, they can show that and if it doesn't, we're providing those similar like for example in one of these slides, it talked about the Cornell notes. And so I know that that's a structure in a lot of our AP classes. And just so our community and our families understand that all of these skills are being presented um at excellent levels with fidelity just in a different avenue. >> We we cannot lose what we've already gained. So that's the that's the asset here. Okay, next up is our grow your own program. And as you know, our grow your own program is really a response to some of the persistent critical shortage areas across our nation, not just Faget County public schools. And our pro grow your own program really creates pathways

159and strengthens pathways to develop, support, and retain highly qualified educators right here in our community. Our grow your own program consists of four con comprehensive programs which is our aspiring leaders pro leadership programs supportive mentorship programs our university partnerships and our student apprenticeship and all four are very exciting uh very robust programs that we have gotten some great return on investment that I'd like to share in our aspiring leaders program over 53% of our current sitting leaders have gone through one or more of our aspiring leaders programs Over 46% of the participants have moved into leadership roles in our district or beyond which is showing the uh robustness of these programs and how this quality helps people um continue to have professional growth right here in our district which supports some of the other topics

160that we've talked about today. Our supportive mentorship programs. Over 600 of our employees are currently being mentored by over 450 of our staff members. And so, not only are the mentees receiving the benefit, others are receiving professional growth by being those mentors. And some of that as we grow as leaders are some of the most powerful steps of our our ladders along the way. 70% of the teachers that have participated this are still retained in our district and that continues to grow with our un university partnerships. Over 315 employees have participated in our university programs and have benefited from this through our student apprenticeship programs. Over 261 of our Faget County students have participated in our teach Lexon initiative and that was just brought on in 2425 with 52 graduating seniors committed to the career

161and education and our teacher signing day. So we are looking forward to continuing these programs. The vast majority of it has been able to be funded through our title two uh programs. anything that um is directly related to the adults or the employees. The areas that the general fund must pick up are those things that are related directly to our students that title two that would not qualify for. So, um we hope that those uh dollars are able to continue. Um I know Dr. Jones has spoken to that earlier, but looking into this next year, we hope that we're able to continue and in the future find ways of growing all these programs. >> One more question. Um, Mr. Dire, you may not know this yet, but there's a bill um that's hoping to expand

162access for high school students in terms of pathway uh pathways education, exposing them to more classes, more opportunities early. Do you foresee, let's say this passes, do you foresee a financial impact and what it would what would it be and how would this impact not just grow your own but the district because if they say we have to hire say 10 more teachers and offer three more classes, what is that going to look like and how's it look like on the grow your own? >> I think that's something that we have to monitor and look at. Um the board has been very supportive of cross collaborative programs like the dual credit program. So not only is that helping in all areas that also impacts those that are going into education. So even um in other

163areas that they touch the grow your own program because of the cross collaboration that the board has supported. I think we have to monitor those things looking forward and try to plan as much as we can. Um we're blessed that our our high schools embrace this. They see the need all of our schools. That's what's great about the teach Lex initiative is it goes down all the way to fifth grade. So we start tapping into those students in the fifth grade and help them have those experiences because you know teachers that have locked into that have had a great experience at some point and that keeps that that spark and that brightness alive and wants to keep them in that that career pathway. Thank you for that. >> And I agree. I think that um

164this is certainly a priority because it's literally our future. Um it's how are we're going to sustain this uh this field and you know as as a teacher who walks in the classroom every day um it's I'm not telling anyone anything they don't know it's not an easy time um to be in this profession um and not because of the students uh but because of all of the stuff that we have to deal with. So, um, and of course the environment that we're in where, um, it doesn't help matters. So, to to for our students to see our district being intentional about recruiting them, as you said, from the earliest levels, um, I think it's critical. And to the point that board member Christian made because I've had conversations with folks in Frankfurt about our

165grow your own program, I truly think it's a model. Um, and other districts have have started to emulate it as well. um you know what we the teacher signing is coming up not in just a few weeks so that's always uh a a great experience for our kids as well. So I definitely recognize the value in this >> appreciate board. >> Thank you. I think this is another piece of that holistic investment that we're making not only in our students but on our staff and our community and so I'm really appreciate I know the numbers are there to show the impact is made. I've heard it um from our partners at the universities. I've heard it from the students that are working in the classroom. I've heard it from the parents of the students working

166in the classroom. I mean, they're so they're like, "My kid's a teacher already and they're still a student." Um, and so I am very appreciative for all of these. I appreciate the amount of work it takes to keep them going smoothly. The mentorship means a tremendous amount and like you said, it's a both an opportunity for the mentor and the mentor. Um, and so I just I really appreciate these and I think it's that piece of that holistic support. Thanks. Dual credit was mentioned, so I'm going to carry that forward if that's okay, if you're ready. So, previously the board has invested in has made an initial investment, excuse me, and approximately $800,000 for dual credit. And really, that was inclusive of three particular uh entities. The first is of course access for students at

167the high school level to um take college dual credit coursework. The other was or the other the others are, excuse me, our ninth grade career expo as well as our 12th grade uh college and career expo. And so what we have been able to do this year is really innovate alternative options to offer our 9th and 12th grade students those real life experiences. For example, we relocated the 9th grade um career expo this year to Tates Creek High School. And quite frankly, that setting in my opinion uh was far more intimate and was actually more efficient overall. And by proxy, it was a cost savings. And so as we move forward into the next school year, we are recommending that the board consider dual credit as a priority investment. But the recommendation is going to

168be really at 50% of the cost that you made a commitment to this past year. So approximately $400,000. The reason why we feel as though that would be a sufficient amount to still provide opportunity and access for students is really for two reasons. is number one. By concentrating that $400,000 on true access to college dual credit coursework, we will be able to maximize those dollars on the students themselves and continue to iterate on these event experiences that are still providing reputable um opportunities for students. So simulating a nth grade career expo and simulating a 12th grade college career expo are still our intentions, but we feel as though we can utilize other resources to be able to provide that experience for students. We have an asset in Kentucky that we are currently strategizing to implement.

169I want to be clear, but we aim to be even more strategic next year and that is the advantage for students across the state of Kentucky. So by all means fake county to take advantage of two dual credit scholarships at the state level. The traditional co uh the traditional dual credit scholarship is available for 11th and 12th grade students where students at those grade levels may take upwards of two college dual credit courses each year. So that's really if you max out on that that's four total classes at the conclusion of your high school experience. In addition, and this is particularly true here because of the investment in special programs and uh pathways in Fate County public schools, but there is the um work ready college dual credit scholarship also available in Kentucky to students

170in grades nine through 12 where they may earn upwards of two college dual credit courses each year in a CTE pathway. So, if you think about adding eight onto four, that's upwards of 12 courses. If we have an additional $400,000 in collateral, be able to make up the difference, we feel as though our students will have every opportunity to continue and actually exceed um the statistics that Dr. Barber presented at the initial onset of our meeting today. >> Thank you. Any questions board members? And and I will I will say I I appreciate again this is another response to the data and I as a high school teacher I we're having the same conversation in my building too because um you reach the point bless you. you reach the point of diminishing returns almost. And

171there's also going to be my concern is there'll be a point where colleges will catch on for lack of a better term, right? And so it's often a gamble, right? Will how how much is feasible uh for students to bring into college and then will colleges change their requirements um that would then offset whatever gains we're making at the high school level because that that is tuition is the bread and butter of universities and universities are facing cuts as well. You know UK had did raise their tuition 3% last year. Um so I think that you what you've presented is kind of a middle ground that factors in all of those externalities. while still making sure that students are prepared for college, career, or whatever they might do, which again, that's kind of our our

172loadar there. I would be remiss if I didn't mention that our transition readiness data, our postsecondary readiness data this year was the strongest it has been. And so, this leverage will allow us to continue to exceed um those expectations that we've set year after year in our CW. Great. >> Thank you. So, you feel comfortable at this amount along with making sure we're utilizing the state offered scholarships, we could offer the same or if not more for next year. Is that correct? >> We do at minimum same. >> Okay. All right. Thank you. >> So, my next opportunity Yeah. If that if you're prepared, >> to talk about preschool. And so next year, uh, which is the 2627 school year, marks the fifth in a in a five-year preschool expansion project that the board authorized,

173um, in 2021. And as a part of the continued consideration of expanding preschool next year, we're going to be really excited to open new classrooms at Harrison Elementary School. Again, thanks to your support, the specific request that we would make of the board to consider in developing next year's budget is that of an investment in a full day preschool prek teacher at Harrison Elementary School, which would of course be accompanied by the two parent educators that are standard based on our staffing formula. We're really targeting a full day, a a specific classroom full day experience for residential students at Harrison Elementary School to really build the capacity and readiness in those students to metriculate to kindergarten the year that follows with as many advantages as possible in being kindergarten ready. The total approximate investment in

174this request is $140,000. And we feel as though it would both honor the integrity of the board's five-year preschool expansion plan as well as set us up for success with the opening of these three new classrooms at Harrison. >> And go ahead. >> So just for clarity is the full day would be for the students that live in Harrison's area. So it's almost Yeah. So then they would metriculate into the building. >> You're entirely correct. And then the other classrooms, would they be morning and afternoon the way we treat preschool in the other buildings? >> That is our current intent. That is how we're currently planning. And they could be both residential or they also could be zoned because as you recognize, our preschool programs are distributed throughout the district and have different zoning areas.

175>> Okay. Thank you. >> And building off the conversation we have previously, um the the advantage is is we have the facilities capacity there too. I mean, we've planned for that. So, yeah. Okay. Any further commentary on that issue? Board members. Okay. Supply is related to teachers question. >> Go ahead. No, I was just giving Dr. Barbara or Dr. Bradford a hard time. I was like, are you is this going to be you two? Yeah. >> Um the teacher supply initiative. Um we are this is the second year of that initiative. Um, in 2025, teachers could spend up to 250 on supplies and be reimbursed and it spent about 1/3 of what we budgeted. In 2026, we did a little bit differently to see if we get more participation. 100 per classroom teacher. Schools also

176completed a Google form related to additional needs and supplies were sent directly to the schools. Um, the budget related to this is about $1 million a year. We would need to do this if you want to continue it. Um, I would tell you that as a reminder that we have the second highest starting pay in the state, um, who's have parental leave and $30,000 life insurance that we also offer because I know the question comes up related to recruitment and retention of the other things that we offer. So, I just want to make sure the board was aware of those. Well, >> at one time I remember us having conversations about potentially um again using this maybe as another opportunity to um leverage community partnerships, you know, because we've heard some business partners say, "Hey,

177look, we're willing to pitch in and do what we need." Is that has that conversation been had about as it relates to the supply st? >> Yeah. Well, we did that year one. um we were able to get enough but year two we weren't so lucky. >> And so year two it came which was this current fiscal year it came out of um the general fund and some grant fund. >> Okay. >> Thank you. Murphy, was there been any feedback from the employees? Like you said, there are other benefits that we offer about um this as a benefit if they felt that what their feedback was on it. Have we received any feedback from the classroom teachers or the schools if they felt this was effective or not? >> Um the most feedback I've heard

178was from the principles. uh we sent out a Google form to every school and principles created a wish list per se and we ordered that for those principles and sent it directly to the schools based on what they said they needed. Um so I heard direct feedback on that but not from individual teachers. >> Thank you. Any other commentary board members? Are there savings being generated? Because sometimes schools provide uh supply closet and some of that comes from the schools uh the school level funding. So have in conversations with principles does having the stipen in place then free up schools to spend some of their local dollars on different initiatives or has it had an appreciable impact? I've not had any conversations with schools um directly for that, but I you know I see every

179title one PO that comes through. Um and I'm not seeing a huge amount go towards specific supplies like what we bought. Um I can tell you for what we bought, what schools asked for other than dry erase markers, a lot of Clorox wipes, tissues, um it was stuff like that that was asked for. Um and card stock was a huge request among our schools. I I I don't feel like we've gotten enough closure on this moving forward. Um >> what are your thought? I mean, may I share a statistic? >> Absolutely. Okay. So in the year 2024 when we executed the impact Kentucky survey there was a favorability rate of approx of of of 24%. As it relates to the question how much of your own money do you spend on your classroom in 2026

180that was reported as only 3% more favorable 27. So I would have to claim that the data suggests there hasn't been a marketable impact on the teachers utilizing their own money or not given that we prior did not provide this additional uh asset whereas now we have and so I simply wanted to share that as just a a statistic to consider. >> I I also think it's worth noting and um Mr. Jackson stated as much that there are so many more incentives and positive things about our district that recruit and retain our staff that I don't think considering the impact that it's having and I don't think taking it away would would it's nice to have when you can afford it. I don't think it will be something that is detrimental to us being able

181to recruit the best and brightest. >> Ma, go ahead. >> I just wonder in the implementation of last year where the principles ordered for the school if the teachers felt that the original intention made it them right. And so I've um I wonder that as well and if that cost even rose um that's a consideration and also if to chair Murphy's point about external partnerships if we could create a mechanism or and ask you know so for example when Mr. Adams is out in the community that this is an opportunity if somebody felt that they wanted to and then if it was an extra need in a building they could then go to that space if somebody donated to that line if that makes sense. And I'll share with you that while you're correct, principles

182did make an overall investment on behalf of their campus, teachers were invited to still spend independent money um from that same pot of funds at the school level. So they still received that invitation for an individual spending allowance. Thank you for that. >> Google form for the principles was in addition to the money allocated to each school. >> Okay, great. Thank you so much. my I guess I'm not comfortable again just speaking individually I I wouldn't be comfortable saying yay or nay tonight dep before we have some more information mainly I'd be curious to get the input of our staff who have utilized this or have not utilized it um to what extent is it front of mind for our staff do they feel like um the current uh or having a process within their

183buildings to provide them with supplies is sufficient or do they feel like this is um this is money that they would otherwise be spending out of pocket? Um and then also seeing how we what kind of conversations we have around the around the salary schedule as well. So I I would like to get a little bit more feedback um from the staff before taking a position one way or the other. Murphy >> um I agree getting some feedback from staff but also I would be interested to know what people were actually requesting so from the schools and from the teachers like is cuz is kind of my thought is are there some items that were pretty consistent that maybe we can order in bulk and get at a cheaper rate or like can we meet

184some of the needs that are on that form not for the million but maybe for a portion of that so that you know schools teachers are still getting the need met that they need and we're still providing that. But I don't feel comfortable saying don't fund it if I don't know what we're funding. I know we're funding the initiative, but what are the supplies and the items that are being ordered? >> So, we'll give you um we'll pull the teachers and the staff members and u give you all the results of that as well as the commonly requested items and ordered through uh Dr. Jones's office. Um, thank you for that, Dr. Bruno. Um, agree in terms of what's being purchased the most. I think what's interesting is, and I, it may sound weird, you

185know how we do the stuff the bus for the kids every year. If there's an initiative where we flat out say we're dedicating another bus or something to staff for those most frequently bought items. Again, not trying to minimize, but even that is showing our staff we're aware. We know what you need. And if we can offset that in any way, maybe something to consider. So, we could consider combining efforts of stuff the bus with classroom supplies um and make that one project for our family and community family and community engagement. And again, that's another avenue to leverage those community partners. I mean, we've we've had we've had folks from the business community stand in this room and say, "Let us know what we can do to support." And so I think this is a

186good opportunity as well that we might be able to uh create a pathway for them to to fulfill that commitment. >> All righty. Am I on? Yes, we will bring back some proposals to you later in as it gets closer. Um going into some of the short-term administrative proposals and some of the things we're going to do. We are currently for next school year we will be cutting we will be we are cutting um $12.5 million from um I don't like this word but from central office and um and so that is both an operational and in um personnel. So that is about $12 million reduction. Um with that what that will res result in is a reorganization and a restructure in order to be most efficient to be most effective. Um what that will

187look like in some instances that you will see is it will you will see positions possibly change um titles. It will ultimately be a cost savings. But for example, if we have um two positions that are being cut and one person is taking a a remaining person is taking on the duties of those two additional people, um then you may see that person um title change to possibly a higher title um and possibly resulting in them receiving let's say a $15,000 raise. I'm just using numbers. um but it's actually cutting to $75,000 um salaries to um get that same amount of work. So, we're doing a lot of that as we're looking at all of the cuts that we're making to be most efficient um and most um and to reach that 12.5 uh million

188overall. But that is something that we um have been working on all um spring so far, spring semester. And um it's Yeah, it's something we're committed to. It's something we're doing and it's something that is uh everyone's rolling up their sleeves in order to make sure that we are uh being efficient in that manner. But I wanted to let you know that that is one of the um the major savings and it is not at all in any way impacting our campuses. our campuses are continuing to receive um their funding as they always have and by day 10 they're all 100% funded for the um the students that they um that are enrolled in their campuses. So >> there are no questions. >> Green. >> Thank you. On that uh reorganization and restructure, do you

189feel that as you do that the efficiencies will still maintain the supports that have been invested specifically in HR and technology, making sure that we're responding to the needs of our employees, you know, that the hiring amount of time, right? It used to be almost 30 days and now it's under two days. those kind of things that we're not throwing the baby out with the bath water as we've said prior. >> That's a great question. That is certainly our intent. Um I I think we've learned from bass best practices. We've learned from um how we can be most efficient. And so we we're certainly that's certainly our intention. We we are not trying to minimize the services we're providing, but everyone does understand that we are going to have to do more with less and

190people will um just be doing more in general. Uh it is certainly um a a an opportunity for us to see how we can operate more efficiently. And then can if I follow up yes >> in a review of the restructure if it's a year or two if there is space where you feel like there is an investment that needs to come back that we feel like we can't execute those services I would just hope that you would bring that to the board and say um this is a space the data is showing we actually do need these these uh investments >> most certainly is there there not a document associated with that part of this I just I don't think that's the overall um budget. I think there's that's a working document right now.

191Jessica, would you say there's probably hundreds of documents that we're working through with that? So there's not one particular one. >> If you have anything that summarizes that just that reorganization, restructure, okay, what is being cut, that would be helpful. >> Okay. Absolutely. Okay, another area that was reviewed um for optimization was work calendars, work calendar alignment and revisions and a recommendation has been uh made that would result in just under $2 million of savings. Um this is there's no recommendation to make any changes to our work calendars for our teachers, our par educators, our counselors and roles such as that. Um this uh would be about 70 a little over 75% of the um total savings would come from the the 12 month work calendar. So our folks that have the longest work calendar.

192None of these would impact instructional days or the professional learning or the staff development days at those locations. >> Any questions? And these these have been conversations going on throughout the year with staff, right? >> Absolutely. There's a cross functional committee that has worked on this that has researched that has brought back um suggestions. So they have taken some off the table and put things back on um as they've looked into this with people >> and part of that feedback came from staff of all levels that that would be impacted. >> Yes, >> that would be impact. >> Correct. There was not just for transparency. There's not a survey that was sent out to all, but the cross functional team does have representation at all levels. >> At all levels. Okay. Thank you. >> And

193we also looked at again talking about the baby and the bathwater. Um we did look at trends and when people were taking off and how and so some of the things for example um we have like during winter break there's like three like between Christmas holiday and the New Year's holiday there's like a couple of days where people were supposed to report back to work um because it was part of um their calendar and most people took that for vacation because there was no need to come back in for a couple of days and then go back um off ificant and so looking at where we're not we're being most efficient with people's time and where they were anyway and so um that is how that came about >> end of fall break was another

194good example that that Thursday Friday of fall break while 12 month employees worked that a whole lot of our staff took that opportunity to have those long weekends and use the acred leave that the board has provided >> and the difference um we the only difference that will be seen with this is uh it would require the district be closed because 12 month employees are the ones that work all days when the district when others aren't working. And so that is five additional days where the district would be closed. But again, those are like two days in winter break and at the end of fall break where there's not much um family and community interaction with us. Anyway, um moving on to um extra scrutiny on um any positions. We will continue even after the

19512 million um 122.5 million um cut, we do continue to look at every single position. Um there's lots with the um there's lots of things that we're looking at to be more um efficient. You know, we have uh technologies that are up and coming. There are things so we're looking at all aspects when a position opens up. We can say is this something that with new technologies another person can take on and not and not require fulltime you know we can't have someone taking on another full-time job with their own but are there technologies that exist? Are there programs that could possibly um be a cost savings and save on personnel um to um best do that? And so that is something that we will continue to do with every single position. There's a diverse

196committee that looks at all of those to determine exactly where we are. Um and again, this is based on the um this is outside of our campuses, not impacting our campuses. We've made very sure sure to um not impact um our campuses and um those people that work most closely with our students. Oh, still me. Um uh we do in order for um us to continue to have a um a balanced budget moving forward. We certainly um would anticipate and all of our um predictions and analytics are based on a 4% additional um revenue um on that. We've uh discussed before how it's compounded once um any year that the 4% is not taken. And so everything is based on that 4% um revenue. If that is um a direction that the board did not

197want to go, um we would certainly need to know that sooner than later so that we can try to convince you otherwise. Um but it is certainly um where we would like to be. Moving on to the safety nickel tax revenue. This is a discussion I'd really like to have. Um, currently we, you know, as you know, we, uh, our community passed the nickel tax for the safety. Um, we currently spend about, um, $6.3 million beyond the safety um, nickel, what the safety nickel um, brings in in revenue. Um, which is about 30% over exactly what it is that um, is collected. Uh there is I wouldn't say it's a proposal per se but it is a discussion to say is that something that the board is continuing abs to absorb continue desiring to continue

198to absorb that through the um the general fund or is it something that you would like for us to consider looking at um to ensure that the safety nickel funds um all safety measures. Um, and so would really like to have a dialogue regarding that. >> I'll yield to go ahead for anything. >> I think when I think about the safety nickel, I want to make sure that first we're doing everything that we should be doing to making sure that our students and our staff are safe. And I my instinct is to start there and say, what do we need to do? Are we doing all of that? is that can that just be covered under the nickel or is this something we need to do versus want to do if that makes sense. >>

199Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. One example I will tell you that and and it's when you're talking about safety I mean it only takes one incident and everyone's saying well you you cut back on you know what you were doing. But one example is we have um our safety ambassadors. Is that their titles? Our safety ambassadors. Those are the ones that have the um the metal detectors where they um we obviously we have an influx of students coming in in the morning every single morning and we have safety ambassadors there. Um but we also at every single one of our campuses we continue to have at least two people sitting there all day being paid for when people come and go. And so um that is an area where obviously it is nice to have that those

200individuals there, but that also is a cost for the district when um we could possibly reimagine how that looks on our different campuses. And so little tweaks like that are um things that um we could look at um or we could not look at. It's really um at the discretion of the board how we would go about doing that. And could you remind me the amount that um is bleeding over into the general fund and the safety tax? >> It is 6.3 million. I mean, I would be fine with considering some of those if like our SO SRO officers and, you know, administration staff, school at the school level say this is something that can take place and, you know, um I know we've had um I don't necessarily remember if it was a committee,

201but um we have one that focuses on school safety. Um yeah. And so I I'm fine with looking at those pieces if that is, you know, the individuals that know the day-to-day details say this is something that we can consider, but I don't want to say let cut it by a specific amount or um without knowing because I I didn't even know that someone sits there all day. And that makes sense because I've gone into schools and there's been someone sitting there, you know, at 2:00 or at 9:00 a.m. So that, you know, um the context matters. Um but I'm fine with looking into it. >> Okay. And you know it this it reminds me of the conversation we had about the although it's a completely different scenario but the conversation we've had about the

202um proprietary um school nutrition account where you have the safety tax which was supposed to essentially be self self-containing so to speak for the safety needs but then we've our needs have grown and so um and the requirements from Frankfurt um in terms of uh SRO's has increased but of course uh that's not funed sufficiently funded as well. So uh it is a balance and that being said it's also worth noting that the safety tax has not been full or the safety plan the 10point safety plan has not been fully implemented. Um, so there still are outstanding expenses that have not yet been. Um, for example, um, the 10-point safety plan required metal detectors at our middle schools and that has not yet happened. Um, not necessarily due to funding. Um, partly due to funding,

203but also um, due to some administrative um, philosophies. mine being most yeah significant. Yeah. >> Any any other thoughts on this topic? >> Bor, >> thank you. Um specifically to the safety ambassadors, I think it would be important to hear about the capacity of the staff in the buildings and what that looks like. You know, I know um the heavy lift is usually when there's a transition to our um our our schools are, you know, where the kids go to the hill or locust trace or where they travel. I know that I've seen the safety ambassadors get ready, put up another um entrance and check those bags. But if there's time spaces that if there's time frames that our our teams internal teams could build the capacity to to handle that and then also the

204liability making sure that it's appropriate for them to handle that entrance um check and those kind of things. I think that's an important consideration as well. And I will tell you that staff previously when when this first came about, I wasn't here, but I've heard that staff objected strongly to doing that themselves. Um, legally, our police officers cannot do it. And so it it wouldn't be an easy transition where folks would just be happy to do it, just so you know. But um it is certainly it's I I visited Jefferson County and their administrators do it. >> So um they also have different technology too. They don't have metal detectors. They have um those devices where they detect >> that you just walk through them. >> You walk through and it shows if there's a

205something that shouldn't be there. >> Yeah. >> We had also we also discussed possibly um reducing the number of hours because our safety ambassadors are third party. They're not our employees. And so um Dr. Thompson, you can back me up on this. Um the concern was if we reduce say two hours in the morning, two hours in the afternoon, getting people that are willing to come and work at those times, it would just reduce the the pool of people that we have to pull from the safety ambassador ambassadors that would be available and be willing to come to work. >> To Dr. to Monday's point about, you know, making sure we're doing the things we have to do. I wonder if it um if there has been kind of like an a review of everything

206that we're using the safety nickel um monies for, including the overflow and being creative about those um decisions there. Has that incur has that happened? >> It has happened. Um, it it's very difficult to put a and I don't I wouldn't ask this board to do it just as I wouldn't want to do it to put a priority on one safety initiative versus another. Um, we've talked about hardening the um the outsides of our school and softening the insides of our school. I don't think we want to determine which of those are most more important um as they're both equally important. >> And so it's it's really looking at ways to tweak it. That's just one example, the safety ambassadors without again um creating a system to where our schools are are less safe. Um

207but also just being um efficient as well. And um well, I appreciate that because it's important that we're like you said, we're making them safe from outside and also safe to the heart and you know to the person on the inside. Um, and so is there any other considerations about the safety tax if like the revenue structure of the safety tax? I wasn't on the board when it was implemented. Is that a single thing or is that something that can be can change? Is that like a single value? >> Yeah, it's just that one nickel that comes in per um 100 valuation. Um, so >> and it also increases as we get the 4%. >> Yeah. Um, I think it's worth a review, some type of a um review of the current safety processes to

208see what could be improved. You know, even switching to I mean, would would it yield a long range savings if we switch I think they're called magnetometers. Is that the correct term? I'm probably not using the correct term, but using the devices that don't require as much of the um staffing from the third party source. Um there would be obviously an initial upfront cost. I don't know u the vendor from which we got the traditional detectors. Is there are we just stuck with them or could we do some type of a swap if we get the new new devices that require less staff? Um so those types of considerations. Okay. You know, would would updating the technology be a long-term savings? uh I would have serious reservations again speaking as an educator I would have

209serious reservations about asking our staff to carry out that role. Um, so I would I would trade cautiously in in that regard. >> And also it it is it runs into for example using that as the one example again that's also if we've had instances where weapons have been missed and gotten onto campuses with their with them being an outside vendor. um we've been able to just simply say that person is not the person that let it slip is no longer allowed to work um on our campuses. Whereas if that were staff, we have laws that are they tenure, are they do they have job rights, all of those things that would also come into play. So it it's not as simple as switching over. Yeah. But it's just so we wanted to put everything

210out there for you guys to um be able to decide and have a discussion around it. Um another discussion we certainly need to have is we have a few surplus um buildings and um really would like to know as we move forward the um the appetite for the uh of this board to um maintain those buildings um put those buildings on the market. Um and so that's just a discussion we wanted to have with this board as well. Any comments board members? >> Chair Murphy. >> Uh yes. So I have a couple. So some of these are listed as they are vacant. Um so I think it would be important to know what the cost of just so we know all the numbers the maintenance of that building. Um the potential if there is potential

211for future build in that built in that site or not, you know. So we know um if it has septic it's not very doesn't have much potential in the future things like that. Just kind of understand what that property looks like um for a potential moving forward right because once propertyy's gone we don't have it. Could you put a building on it based on what KDE says now on that site those different kinds of things just to understand what that if there is an opportunity cost for those buildings. And then we have some here that say they're housing facilities. So, I think we have to understand what the cost of moving um those programs to other spaces and what that would look like. I think that's really important. Um if you move it farther away

212is then there an unintended transportation cost and time cost if you have to move food from one satellite space to another. Um for example, that's one of them. And so, um, the unintended, you know, you sell a property and you get a number, but what are the costs of losing that property, um, for potential growth in the future? Um, the what is that building serving now? And so, I would just like to have more information on those numbers. >> And I just wanted to ask what what were the qualifications for being for being considered excess property? I mean, obviously they're the first two are going to be fake. The other the other two are not. And I guess just as an LPC member and looking at high schools that be renovated, built. Um, the two

213we just did, although I've heard some people say they wouldn't do Tate Creek that way again, but I mean the two that were done, well, Henry Clay being built on the same propert, but just um if something done need to be done with Loft, would that 701 building be or is it in too bad shape? You're sh >> Yeah. No. Um, we cannot have school in 701. Okay. That's been Yeah, we we are you and most of the buildings that are noted here that are not currently vacant um are being utilized so that they won't just sit empty and decay basically. Well, that's what I thought. We had put a lot in the old central office in the 701. >> I wouldn't say a lot. There's 19 people there. Yeah. >> Family connections migrate education.

214>> Yeah. >> Board member Green or member Monday. Um, my comments were similar to board member Christian and thinking about like the increased maintenance needs and the almost billion dollar number that we hear. I know we're probably going to get to some of that other stuff um when we get to right size and and we've got some time to figure out what that long-term plan looks like, but one are any of these facilities like again the septic I understand that's probably not worth our while, but can that serve a purpose or um if we sell that property, could that help get some of our maintenance needs for our schools up to snuff? I know we don't have enough to do everything, but like meeting some of those major needs. Can can we do that or

215would that aid in doing that? And I think that that would be helpful to know when thinking about having these properties and um what to do with them. I definitely don't want to get rid of a desirable property knowing that holding on to it might be good in the long run, but I also understand that you know those district facilities needs are the needs and we only have the bonding capacity that we have. Um, so it's if if some of these properties can help aid in that, um, then I think thinking about what to do with them be, you know, in our control might be helpful. Um, but then, you know, I there might not be enough revenue to justify doing that as well. So, I think just looking into that and seeing can we

216um just not the district facilities plan that for sure, but also just the general maintenance that we need to do on some of our schools and some of that general maintenance that isn't going to wait for those like major renovations on the district facilities plan and thinking about how we're going to address some of those issues because I mean these this tough weather doesn't seem to be shaking. I mean this is our second or third year of a of a rough winter and I know it's rough on my home so I can only imagine what it's like on our schools and kind of keeping up with that. Um well >> and I will say you know I would this is one of those areas where I would tread light cautiously because especially in Lexington you

217know land values are increasing. We've talked about our assessments uh you know going up and so you know we want to make sure that we're making a wise decision decision not just in the short term but the long term because anytime you sell property it's a one-time infusion of uh revenue. It's not a sustainable stream. So um and is it going to be something that we regret in the long term? uh because that some of this sits on prime real estate and that if the building itself isn't uh ut can't be utilized right now maybe the property could be of value someday if we you know get rid of the building. So that's something just to keep in mind. >> Uh chair we also consider that if we do sell the property and someone builds

218on it then that will be property tax revenue that we'll gain from that as well. And to for boardman Ferguson's uh point, I from 701, I toured it last week and um it looks a lot different from the last time we had a board meeting there. In fact, you can't you're not even allowed to enter Norworthy anymore. It's too dangerous. So >> Oh, wow. Just an example of when buildings aren't used um they fall into disrepair. more. >> I think to that point, if you can just give more information on the state of all of these the cost of the maintenance to even keep it as a building, you know, that can open a door. Um, and that that would be important to have. And then on the on the golf course specifically, um, interested

219to know about our partnership with the city and Audrey Grievous Center and what that would if there's any implications there with that property. Did you? >> Well, what I'm hearing is you guys aren't opposed to it, but you'd really like to have and I mean anything and you guys are well aware that any property discussions about that can actually be held in close session. And so should we get to that point to where there is a recommendation or there is an offer or there is a something we will certainly um bring that to your attention and then you have every right at that time to discuss the individual property and the um the logistics of that moving forward. But we will share with you um the condition of our current surplus property. And um and

220again, we all know that not only are these financial um decisions that the board has to make, we also realize that there's political implications there as well. And so um from our community, which leads us to our next um topic. >> So So up for discussion is um a topic and issue that deals with not ha it's not about having nurses in our schools. So I just want to make that clear. the the issue is about how we employ them and how we pay for them. Um, one of the things that's become more clear as we've reviewed the numbers over the past several months is that um, the promised uh, Medicaid billing that we were basically when we bid this out that that was supposed to come to life has not come to life. And

221so, for example, we had initially had a contract for about 4.3 million. we upped it to 4.7 thinking that we because of the Medicaid billing that has not come to fruition that $400,000. And so you can imagine um we don't have control over how often we see students. And just to be clear, Medicaid billing for special ed is different than when you see a student who is sick um or may need services um on the spot. And so I just want to make that clear because special ed is often built into IEP structure and requires um you know a definite number of minutes whereas if I see a student it might be just for one minute to build it has to be up to eight. Um so so one of the factors we have to

222think about is um because there are other models out there that where you can have um nurses in your buildings and they just build straight up for um Medicaid themselves and um that would be a global thing and and those type of partnerships may cost little to no cost as opposed to what we're paying. So something to think about, consider and it is a tough discussion because there's all the politics involved >> and before and we this is a very time-sensitive one because we extended the contract with the health department for one year. And so if we're going to go in a different direction, we certainly need to know that sooner than later. and where the cost savings were. As before, um we had the health department had a lower rate because they would get

223the benefit of our um Medicaid. Um they had an incentive at that time for their nurses to see students for at least 8 minutes so that they would get the reimbursement for Medicaid. now that no longer exist. And and so what we're seeing is when they're seeing students now, it's one to two minutes because we were anticipating getting those returns. >> And so they're in and out and so we're not seeing that return yet. We're paying the higher >> um amount for that contract to take on that benefit. In addition to that, um again, as Dr. Barbara stated, there's opportunities um and um possible vendors that will say we will charge the district little to nothing potentially and we will just see students and bill Medicaid in general because if we see them for 8

224minutes, we can um get reimbursed for them. And so it requires us to go through an RFP process or possibly an MOA process um with um companies, but that certainly um would require um the board to um understand that that will take some courageous leadership because we all recall the um the community um response last year. And one other factor is certain vendors can bill for more and that's why the contract would be little to nothing than what the health department can do. That's a fact. >> Any questions on that board members? >> Monday, >> I'll take so and I mentioned this last time and no, I understand we we are here. we got to be fiscally responsible, but I'm not going to sacrifice the care of any of our students. And kind of what

225some of the feedback that I got from the community was that some of the vendors that were on the list that we saw don't offer the same quality of care that we would get from another place. And I know it's hard to put a number on that. Um, but that is something that means quite a bit to me. um is that we are making sure that we're thinking about that continuity of care. I know it's a tough one, right? I know any change is going to bring, you know, the eb and flow, but you know, we're we're talking about some of our students who, you know, need need that care, right? That consistent care. And so, um that's one piece I'd like to see. I'd also like to see the numbers on the difference between

226the Medicaid billing prior and now. Um, I think that would be helpful to see what that difference is. >> I will say just a quick comment, we've requested that information because remember we did not bill for the um spec for nurses um the our partner did. So we we we haven't gotten that full information yet. So I just wanted to be upfront about that. >> And that's fair, right? You can only work with what you have. But I I do think I don't I only speak for myself. I can't speak for all my board members, but I do think that would be for me a board request that we we see that as well. And I know that we're on a time crunch. Um I get that. Um but um I I don't know the

227companies that you speak of, but I would like to know like I don't know if there's like they go through the process and there's a reference process or we get to understand more of the process that they follow versus what you know we're used to when we have now. Um but you know I want and also the um resources or services that are provided from the health department that goes beyond just um the general care that the nurses give and getting a good idea of what that is, how much it costs and if we're going to continue those partnerships as well. Um, and that list may already exist. So, it may be just resharing it and refreshing um my memory. Um, we've gone through other EV and flows since then, so I can't pull that

228out um just yet, but those were some some things that I would like to see. >> And I can't um speak to our community because I think was it 30 years we've been with the health department or was it 20? I think it was 30. Um, but in other communities when this has occurred there, I mean, just like there's a shortage of teachers, there's a shortage of nurses. There's not a surplus of nurses out there. Um, it is essentially the same nurses that are hired by a different company um that take advantage of that opportunity. So, um I do know that there was a narrative put out there last time that our nurses will lose their job, but there's not 70 nurses somewhere waiting for a job to open um anywhere in America. And so,

229um it would certainly if what happens in other communities would happen here, it would essentially be the exact same nurses that are um serving our students. And um another point to that um to kind of build off of that a little bit, I know one of the concerns that I got was that the the benefits would be different and and there would be some differences um as well. Um and I want all of our staff to have health insurance, all the things. I don't know if that would have been different or not, but that's just another consideration that I like to, you know, if we are going to go with another company, are you know those potential nurses still going to have some of those same benefits that they would have? >> One of the

230data points too, just for a recognition for this board is that, you know, we have a subfill rate when we have teachers that are absent absent. Well, we can't control the subfill rate when nurses are absent out of schools. And what we were finding is there and I can send you this data there there was a pretty big gap on the fill rate and so I I'll send that to you all. >> Thanks for agree. >> I think um very in line with Dr. Monday I'd like to see more information and what does it what how does it compare? Um so for example the subfill rate if what is the um policy with our current group that we're with and what would the policy and procedure be with the other group? Would there be more

231continuity of care with a different vendor? Um my concern is that our students have access to nurses. Um and so I know all you know but how does that get delivered? I'm okay to see the different options and to understand, you know, how to best provide that service and also um maximize our investment in that space. >> And I I will um echo that as well because I think obviously the first part is making sure our students have access to care. We know that the reality is that for many of our students and families that their school is their primary care. um goes back to the conversation we had earlier about child nutrition and about everything else about schools providing that front line for our families and students. Uh the other piece is um I

232think a lesson learned and Dr. Lincoln alluded to this is just making sure we're communicating um and that's what it comes down to and we've had that conversation throughout this year um that we're we're being clear the process is clear the reasons um why we're considering the options are clear with the recognition too that we have a legal responsibility to respect the bidding process um and that's the expectation of all parties involved um as well and so and when it comes time uh if it comes time to o open up bidding and have an RFP process that we have a uh a committee reviewing those proposals that's um well representative of our community and the staff as well. I think that would that would go a long way in that communications and transparency piece. >>

233Any other feedback before we move on? Okay. Um, we're rounding home base. Did I say that correctly? >> I did. >> We're in the home stretch. >> Darn it. I thought I had gotten a good sports analogy. >> Ninth inning. You can say ninth inning. >> We're rounding the ninth inning. >> That'll be in >> Never mind. We're almost done. >> That'll be in the Herald. That'll be in the Herald Leader tomorrow. So, all right. >> At least you didn't make a wrong basketball joke. that would have been more devastating in this town. But, >> okay. Um, size bright future and this is more long-term as you guys know. We're evaluating all of our um facilities. The unique situation that we're in and Steve um Mr. Hill spoke to this earlier is that we're in

234a what was the the a trough you said? Yeah. Um and so what we're currently doing as we're building new schools um and we had um two new schools come on this year. We have um in a couple years a couple of more schools coming in. We're building um a high school with a larger capacity, but we're not growing nearly as fast as we are growing. And so even um so we're we're moving kids here and there and everywhere, but we are not getting more revenue. So we're adding buildings, we're adding teachers, we're adding administrations, we're adding square footage, um for cleaning, um we're adding acorage for um cutting and upkeep, but we're not getting additional kids that come with additional revenue. In fact, we've lost 800 kids this year. And so that is something

235that certainly is going to long term that's going to be as we look at potential and but this is also complicated I guess by the fact that we're increasing the amount of special needs students that have intense needs and so although some of our buildings may appear to be at cap um are under capacity based on the um 22 kids for example being in a classroom. some of those um rooms may have three to five kids in there um simply because of the needs of those students. And so it's a very complicated system, excuse me, and um process as we're looking at each of these. But I would like to um um and also when we're looking at and um board member Mundy talked about this earlier when we're looking also at the the facility

236needs of our our our current buildings. And so we we have to take a look at all of that when we're looking at building additional schools, when we're looking at remodeling schools, when we're looking at um our redistricting. And so um and I say long term, I mean it will be in the next couple of years. There's going to have to be some very very big decisions on what we're going to do um and how we're going to do it and how that's going to look. And there's going to be um anyone that's um I know you've been um on the board before, Amanda, where there's when there's a redistricting, it gets I I mean I even saw redistricting for um the middle school, it it gets extremely ugly. Um it gets personal. People purchase

237homes um in certain areas and then you're moving it. people have historical their their um grandparents went to certain schools and they want their children to go in that same pattern. And so you it gets to a point to where it's very personal, very upsetting and very loud. And so I just wanted to take the time to let the board know I don't necessarily want to have a discussion about it this evening, but there will be future discussions to where uh this board's going to have to make some tough decisions and quite frankly um piss off a few people um and while doing so um in order to do what is necessarily fiscally responsible. So, um, that is coming coming up. Um, and it'll be here sooner than than later. And so, I just wanted

238to put that on the record for long-term um, board team discuss. >> It's not quite the bottom of the night in that regards. >> And um, and then with that, I think I mentioned that that would also require us to look at should there be excess properties that come about um, with with the right sizing. It goes back into that discussion we had previously. Are we keeping those on the um books? Are we getting rid of them? What are we doing? And that. So, those are discussions that um for long-term fiscal um um maintenance we'll certainly have to consider. And um finally, we have Jennifer Dyer speaking about discretionary staffing formula adjustments. As this is a long-term project, the discretionary positions in our district are above and beyond the state allocation ratios that we provide

239for classroom instructors. They're often time used for things such as world language, other electives, intervention positions, and they are also based off of a ratio. The ratios are different at elementary, middle, and high school. There's going to be a study of those because there's a lot involved with that. And the idea is that the committee would bring back a recommendation this time next year for possible implementation by the board. And so as as we close out, um that's not my job to close out. That's the chairs, but as administration closes out, um we will get the questions answered and the information that's been requested this evening, we will as we go into continuing into the spring semester, there will be a dedicated amount of time um at our planning meetings to where we will continue

240to discuss the budget. will continue to discuss many of the topics here. And so um there will it will probably be a bit longer than um other um spring meetings simply because we want to dedicate a time to where we can continue to u get direction on an ongoing basis when it comes to our budget and see the direction that the board would like us to go into. >> Board member Monday, >> as we were talking, I thought of a few more questions that we don't have to answer. everybody wants to go, but I just um want to make sure that I get them out there so we can get it on the list. Um as well for the um 5 days that we've talked about um for 12-month employees, are there any implications with

241that reduction and benefit? So, does that reduce um Oh, yep. FMLA or sick time or anything? No. Okay, good to know. No change. It is five days less pay. That's where the savings come from. >> Okay. Yes. Perfect. >> And then about fully funding 10 NI days in the upcoming budget. I understand we have no say um over those how those 10 days are used, but I do want to give district administration the opportunity to use those days. So, I don't know if that's been thought about in adding in that upcoming budget. Like I said, even if they're not going to be used, making sure that money is dedicated because I I can't I don't have anything to do with the weather and it it's it's finicky right now. Um, and then substitutes. I know

242last time we talked about budget, there was lots of talk about the amount that we spent on substitutes and if there's any way to reduce that cost. So, just getting a general update on thoughts there and needs. And then the last one is about revenue generation. And so we talked about a lot of stuff today. I don't know if there's a way to get a list or it might be premature to think about that right now, but the the options for revenue generation. Um, and just being able to see those in one place, but that may be something a little further down the line once we kind of know how things are are going to happen and what some of those options might be or even the amount. But um that is all >> and

243I and a lot of the the to the point of the NTI some of that also will be addressed with the food nutrition or the nutrition proper prop that's too late uh the self-funding account uh for uh school nutrition as well. So and one of the conversations Dr. Hiligans um has had with the board is uh the the importance of having uh of course getting board member questions and also keeping those documented as a reference for the board and for the community. Um kind of like what we did last budget cycle. So questions related to the budget. It's just kind of an ongoing list of a Q&A for lack of a better term, which also allows staff time to gather the information because it's not the board's intention to put anyone on the spot um

244uh here tonight or in in any in the course of any of these conversations um so that we're making decisions with all the available information. So, but uh do you feel that this is at least a sufficient start for your staff to start putting pen to paper and Yes, I I certainly believe so. Two ladies at then, do you all believe so? Good. Okay. Um um we are certainly um yeah, we we want to make sure that everything that we do is seen as extremely transparent, um extremely um uh board involved. And so we don't want to get to the end of this process and there's any surprises from from administration to the board to the board to administration to our community and vice versa. So we um we will certainly as I continue to

245ask if there's questions that come up beyond this evening that you think of please email those to me. Email those to me directly because we'll all be filtering all um questions. We don't want them to get lost by going to different people and they're not getting to the centralized location. Any question you ask, any data you ask for, we want to make sure that everyone has it and every community member has access to it. And so, but this is certainly a great start. Again, it is the first of many conversations we'll have as we um go into the um May tenative budget and the um working budget in September. >> Thank you, Super Ligans. And again, this is just the beginning and um we'll keep we'll keep moving forward. So with that, I'll entertain a

246motion to adjurnn. >> So move. >> Motion by Christian. Is there a second? >> Second by Bor Monday on favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries. 5-0. >> Thank you all, everyone, board and staff.