001Everybody ready? Conversation. >> Yeah, we can pick up fantasy football later. >> All right. >> Okay. We'll go ahead and call this meeting to order. Our work study and brief board business meeting. Today is Tuesday, October 14th. like to welcome everybody who's here, those that are presenting and those that are here for uh by requirement or for support. Welcome. Uh we will jump right into a presentation uh 2.01 fiscal year 2025 annual financial report and school level reporting presentation. Dr. McCord. >> Thank you, Mr. President, governing board members. Good evening, everyone. Uh tonight on our agenda for uh this work study is actually just all consuming from uh business services and operations. And so you'll hear from Bonnie and her crews crews tonight. Uh the first one is the 2025 annual financial report and school
002level reporting presentation. And just know that there's an action item related to this after uh the consent agenda. Miss Betts. So, good evening, governing board members. Dr. McChord, President um Thompson, President Thompson. Thank you. Um I'm going to hand the presentation over to Jackie Metan and I will be driving and offering the color commentary commentary. Um I also wanted to make sure that everyone's aware that uh both Kalia Edwards is with us today. She's our new finance analyst. And then Amber Morgan is with us today and she's our new uh budget manager taking over for Lauren Torska. Both of which along with Jackie of course had a great deal to do with creating the annual financial report. So with that I'm going to hand it over to Miss Mattin. >> Thank you Miss Betts. So
003again FY2025 annual financial report. This is an unodudited report of our spend from last fiscal year. And before we jump in, um I just want to echo Miss Bett's um comments about um Amber and Kalia. They were it was a heavy heavy lift for them. This is a a massive report. Um a lot of data to pull out and so I just want to um thank them both publicly. So today's report will include um M and unrestricted capital details, revenue and expenditures, some classroom site fund information, average teacher salary, and food service AFR. So, the unrestricted and uh M and unrestricted capital revenue by source year-over-year, we did decrease by $3 million. Um, and when we presented the adopted budget in the summer of 2024, we did anticipate that the budget capacity would be about
004$3.6 million less. We're right on target there. M and unrestricted capital expense comparison year-over-year. The spend overall increased by $4.3 million in operating and unrestricted capital. Salaries and benefits decreased, however, by about $6.5 million in M. However, they increased um $10 million in classroom site fund. So, if an an employee is classroom site fund eligible, 100% of their compensation increase is funded from classroom site fund. So although it looks like the the salaries and benefits have decreased, they have an M but they have increased by $10 million in classroom site fund. >> So what would what would be an example of an employee that we could then use class classroom site funds for? uh all classroom teachers, uh ties, tech, um technology integrated integration educators, um librarians, social workers, now psychologists, speech language pathologists, there
005are quite a few. >> Okay, thank you. >> Mhm. And then we wanted to share a little bit of detail with classroom site fund. You can see the fluctuation year-over-year. Although we've had a pretty steady increase, uh we it is subject to um sales tax. So, we uh monitor this very closely. And then the $10 million spend increase year-over-year between 24 and 25. Also wanted to note that we did spend down uh fund balance um by about $1.8 million. And then FY2025 M spend notes. So, like I said, the operating expenses did increase from 25 over 24. Um this was due to utilities, uh special education tuition by about $1.7 million, inflationary increases. Um overall sped increased by about $2.5 million. Salary and benefits did decrease $6.5 million, but conversely they increased uh $10 million
006in classroom site fund. Any questions before we move on to capital? >> Did I did I miss? So, back to slide number five. >> Uhoh. [Music] >> So, salaries are lower in 2025 and I assume that's because we had people retiring, some high compensated individuals retiring and then naturally benefits would go down. But operating and unrestricted both went up. Operating went up 4 million and unrestricted went up >> 6.8. >> So what was the what's the what's what do we attribute that increase to in those two categories? >> The operating like I said it's utilities went up quite a bit about a million dollars. Um inflationary increases overall. Uh the sped tuition went up almost $1.9 million. So, it's it's a lot of different categories, but those are the those are the big ones. And
007then the unrestricted capital, we'll talk about that um in just a slide or two and go through those details. >> And the the special education tuition, >> why would that go up so dramatically? >> Because of the the the number of students requiring those services has increased. Um and also the >> Okay. Mhm. And the cost for those for those private day schools have uh increased considerably. >> Okay. >> Over the past two years. >> All right. Thank you. >> You're welcome. And here is unrestricted capital expenditure by category. So that is a pie that shows the various categories technology building improvement and then the next slide uh shows spend by category. So, some of the high-f flyers here that increased um districtwide technology increased quite a bit. Um uh let's see, >> copers, >>
008the copers increased, um technology hardware and the curriculum increased in FY2025 by um about $5 million. >> And I just want to note for people online, if they pulled this off of board docs, this slide is it didn't transfer well. So, that'll be updated tomorrow. You guys have you guys have what look like numbers. I have Sanscript, I think. I'm not sure. So, >> not today. >> And and just some clarity on the uh on the district-wide technology. Please know that that $6.7 million does include the technology refresh that we handle annually. And so, we are on a cycle. Some years it's a little bit less, three and a half to four million. In other years it's a little bit higher depending upon whether we're refreshing the seventh grade um or not that particular year.
009So just to give you an idea. >> Okay. >> Average teacher salary >> and average teacher salary. This was taken off of the FY2025 revised budget number four. We will update that this uh for 26 in our next budget revision. and the food service AFR. Uh the column to the right shows the FY2024 beginning balance revenue and spend with a uh ending balance which is now the beginning fund balance for FY2025. Any other comments with this? >> So we actually did increase our ending fund balance in nutrition services. If you if you recall, you did approve a um small increase in food prices for the 2025 school 2024 2025 school year. Uh and as well as the fact that since universal free uh breakfast and lunch, the um the nutrition services department has been working
010very hard to rightsize their labor cost associate associated with the not serving as many meals because we're no longer in universal free lunch and breakfast. In addition, 2025 was the first year in which Harris was identified as being able to serve 100% of their students for free breakfast and free lunch. So that contributed to the positive revenue situation for food service also. Okay, here is an action item 6.01. Your signatures are also required. So, appreciate you hanging around. >> And any questions? >> Well, thank you very much. >> You're welcome. Very much. >> All right. >> Thank you. >> Appreciate that presentation and all of your hard work in putting that together for us. that helps us a lot. Thank you very much. Uh 2.02 budget and override report. Dr. McCord. >> Thank you, Mr.
011Thompson. Governing board members. Next up, we have Bonnie and our director of transportation as well as our director of operations here. and they're going to go through you uh different things like what we've committed for for our uh M overrides, bonds, and whatnot and take you up to date on the progress that we've made and where we're at and maybe where we're going. >> Great. Y >> all to you, Bonnie. >> Thank you very much. Um, I'll do the beginning parts and then, uh, Trace has some information to share about, um, a new bus that we just received. And then, of course, Albert has information to share regarding some of the facility renovations we were able to complete during the 2025 school year. So, to begin, there's a lot of information in here. Um, I
012added a lot of slides just to provide context to those who might want to read it later or talk about later. I'm not going to go through all the details with you. Um, but just wanted to to share that there's a lot of information in here. Gonna zoom through it until you guys stop me. Um, uh, and if you have any questions, please feel free to ask as we go. Uh, this report is required by statute. However, we're very happy to present information to you because we're really proud of the work that we've done um, here in Gilbert public schools during the 2025 school year. So our override, so a little bit different this year on the override. So uh initially the 15% was approved in November of 2019. If you remember at that point
013in time we were um working with a 10% override and the 2019 override request was to increase that to 15%. Um, the 2025 school year was the last year associated with that 2019 approval. As you know, last November, we went out again, November of 2024, and we have reaffirmed that 15% override. Um but this is the last year in which you will see some of the details because we did uh change our priorities slightly when we requested approval of the 15% override in November of 2024. Okay. So, um, so this this override that we're in, uh, that will be in effect for the current fiscal year, not the one we're talking about, but for 2026, uh, it is effective through fiscal year 2033, uh, but phases down by one-third each year starting in fiscal year
0142030, just to give you an idea of the time frame. Uh, we generated uh, just over $36 million during the 2025 school year. Please, I I want to stop you. I just wanted to ask. So, um if it starts to phase down in 2030, um to continue that full override, we would have to get it renewed by 2029. Is that >> we'd have uh Yes. Yes. Y Okay. >> Y because it's 5 years full funding, >> correct? >> And then the last two years that phases down. >> That's correct. >> All right. Thank you. Um so, let's see. And then another reminder, remember that the M override is calculated based upon prior year student counts. So generally speaking, we do have a um a pretty good idea what our M override dollar amount will be
015when we adopt the budget in the summer. However, we do have a statewide recalc that happens in July that changes that weighted student count and so we recalculate the override for the the next budget revision. So it does fluctuate slightly during the school year because the uh recalculation results usually in more um average daily membership than less. Okay. So this was the commitment from the 10% override. So this will be the last year in which you will see these commitments. We're not keeping track of these anymore, but we have not eliminated any of these programs. We are continuing with all of these programs. the 15% override commitments. I decided to go ahead and put these into two separate columns. The first one showing what we committed to in 2019 and then the slight modifications we
016made in 2024. Uh three things are really very very consistent. However, the fact that we have um priority of attracting uh retaining and attracting high-quality personnel. So really focusing on um salary increases that we really are concerned about the the mental and and physical safety of our students and staff in our buildings and that we will maintain that $2 million class size reduction that we are utilizing every year to um hit the most um the most high needs areas whether it's in high school or in elementary school. So this is just a grid showing the total dollar amount. You can see that in 2025 the amount of money generated by the override was 36 million. You can see the math difficult whenever we make a pay increase because when we had the 15% override in
017November of 2019, that infusion of new money is one time. So we don't get to add those pay increases every single year. So we have to use other resources in order to provide pay increases. But just wanted to show that detail to you in this slide. So this is our GPS override amounts. Again, there's that just over $36 million. You can see next to it that we adopted a budget with about 36.1 million in override dollars. This is just showing the relationship between the revenue control limit and the override um amounts. So the revenue control limit is using current year um information um but uh but it's not direct because the revenue control limit in the current year is based upon current year student counts and the revenue control limit for person purposes of the
018M override is calculated based upon prior year counts which just adds complexity to the calculation but it's not um it's not really important but it just shows you the relationship between the revenue control limit and the override amounts. So let's talk about teacher beginning salary and the fact that we have met our commitment to uh retain and attract high-quality personnel and um constantly adding salary increases when possible. So in the 1920 in the 2019 2020 school year, our average teacher beginning salary was $43,533. Fast forward to the beginning of the current fiscal year 2026. The beginning salary is now $54,65. So since the 15% override, the beginning teacher salary has increased by over $10,500 per teacher. So talking about class sizes, just we know that the focus um is heavy on class sizes. Our families
019care very much about making sure that their students are in a classroom in which there they would get quality high quality time with their teacher. So, but we do have planning ratios. You can see them in the gold column to the left. And then you can see the 2025 actual averages. This is elementary. And you and I I just threw in the 2024 actuals as well, just for comparison purposes. So, generally speaking, we did actually improve our average teacher salary year-over-year between 2024 and 2025. You can see though that the actuals are quite a bit less than our planning teacher ratios. Couple of details. Please know that these student teacher ratios are classroom teachers only. They do not include librarians. They do not include all of our specialists that are often certified. Uh they do
020not include professional development. And then they're not including our special education classrooms because those classroom class sizes are generally either um 10 per teacher or 12 per teacher which would inappropriately lower the average teacher salaries. So we exclude them as well. Okay. >> So you you said maybe maybe you misspoke. You said uh we improve the average teacher salary. I'm sorry. The average teacher pupil I'm sorry. average pupil teacher ratio. I'm so sorry. Sure, I understand. I'm so sorry. Yes, I'm Yes, sir. Thank you for the correction. I appreciate that. >> Um, looking at the average class sizes, um, has there been any talk about how we can look at the budget with some of those class sizes that are really far from those numbers? Because I know that there's some that are not 24.2
021two or 20.9. >> It's an average. Yeah. So, um what we try to do whenever we have large class sizes, what happens especially at the elementary is uh Dr. Martin and Mr. Macintosh will get together with the principal and depending on what time of the year it is, we'll offer up splitting that class to reduce the class size amongst everybody within that grade level. Uh depending on what threshold they get to. If not, we offer a pair of professional time. And so to help a pair of professional to help the classrooms where a pair professional will go in uh to either one classroom, all classrooms just depending on where the need is. And um but we look at these numbers. We roll them up each year and before we delegate what our contract, >> sorry,
022I was still speaking loud though, wasn't I? >> Yeah, we could hear you. >> Did you Did you want me to sing now? on. >> See, I know we were just having a great conversation. Um, at any rate, um, we'll look at those numbers that they roll up yeartoear and we'll either add or delete from a classroom in in terms of a a class size or a section depending on what that number is going to look like for the beginning of next year. And then at the beginning of the school year, we're on constant watch. uh because maybe an average size was coming in at let's say at kindergarten uh 24 in this there's three kindergartens over at Meridian and let's say average size was 24 right and I didn't mean to just because it's
023close to home but um the um if they if all of a sudden at the beginning of the school year the end of summer we just start getting people and kids registering we'll split as soon as possible Um but as you all know it's hard to find people once school year starts. So sometimes uh principles will elect to take the paraprofessional time because all of a sudden if it's I don't know midepptember and all those relationships have been formed uh with the teacher and the kids. You know a lot of teachers don't want to split those classes anymore. So we try to give them another adult in there for extra set of hands. So, we're constantly watching this and rarely do, I'll be real honest with you, when principles come to us, rarely we do
024we say no. I mean, they know when to ask. They know what the thresholds are and uh we're probably already right there with them because like I said, those two at the elementary level are constantly going over those numbers as we go through. So, >> I think the other thing that does happen sometimes is there might be a case in which we would move a teacher from one school to another depending upon the population. That happens also. So, um, at the secondary, uh, at both junior highs and high schools, you can see the junior highs. Again, this is just an average to your point, um, Shaina, 27, um, in the current year compared to 25.2 last year, but in the high school down 24.4 from 24.6 in the prior year. Um again remember that the
025whole situation in the class sizes are very different at the junior high and high schools where you have very very high numbers depending upon whether you're in physical education or in band or orchestra whatever the case may be. So just a an average is an average across all all classroom teachers which includes PE and music. Uh so this is our class size reduction targets grid. um every year. To answer your question a little bit too, Shaina, we did um based upon our 2019 request to the voter did decide, let's go ahead and allocate a dollar amount towards class size reduction so we can address some of those very very high class sizes once we really know that they truly exist. And so these these are how the FTE has been allocated out during the 2025
026school year. You can see a little bit of the detail regarding the teacher grade level, the content area. Um, but we had one uh $2 million allocated and we spent 1.8 million. But keep in mind that we did make a decision about four years ago to keep sightbased subs uh on all of our campuses to be able to facilitate when a teacher for a variety of reasons may leave midyear. um we're able to move a teacher that at least is familiar with the school and with the students right into a classroom and so some of that cost is in here as well. So, okay, I'm going on to the bond authority now if there's any questions about the M override. Okay, great. Thank you. So, >> I do want to say >> sorry, little advertisement.
027I just truly want to thank our community for always supporting Gilbert public schools. I mean, these numbers, these ratios in classrooms wouldn't look like that without their support. So, we appreciate it. Thank you. >> For sure. Thank you. >> So, uh this is the the 2019 bond um spend estimates that was included in the pamphlet during the November of 2019. So, if you remember in November of 2024, we opted to just focus on the override. So, at this point in time, we are nearly fully spent on our bonds. You can see the uh circled area there where we've got the 2025 actual and 2025 incumbrances, it's about $5.2 million or so. Um, but you can see that when you total up all of the figures by fiscal year, we did um meet the hundred million
028hundred $100 million of spend. Yes, that was authorized in the 2019 bond request. So, districtwide spend summary, we're going to get into some of the details now. And I just wanted to caution you right now when we ended last year, we had about $5.7 million of unspent bond dollars available to us on June 30. But remember, that's June 30. So we have a bunch of projects that we shared with you a year ago that were we actually had to roll over the incumbrance into July. So some of those costs are now in 2025 when they were intended for 2024. Also because of the of the focus on our capital improvements and the fact that many of our unrestricted capital spend now is also eligible for bond. So Jackie and her team worked very hard to
029identify any expenditure that we that we had in unrestricted capital that really was eligible under bond so that we could spend all of the bond dollars. So you might ask, well why do we need to spend all the bond dollars? So in 2023 and May of 2023 was the last time that we had a bond sale. Um and and from that time then we have um two years to spend down 85% of that and then with three years we need to have 95% spend spent and 100% either spent or encumbered. So we're entering into that third year in 2026. So because we had the eligible spend we went ahead and moved a fair amount of expense out of unrestricted capital into bond to spend it down. So, I'm just cautioning you to be careful about
030focusing on the dollars. The dollars are really relevant to the projects being uh being done uh not necessarily relevant to whether it's bond or unrestricted capital. So, we tried to tie those back in for you throughout this report, but I just wanted to let you know that if you see some inconsistencies, please give us a call and we um we can clarify that for you. Okay. So um so this was the plan spend about $5.54 million. So technology just a little bit of money in technology um did not we will not be sharing much about technology today. Uh transportation uh just under 1.6 million and then operations 3.9 million. So the annual financial report which you have just reviewed um shows a spend of 4.9 million out of bond during uh fiscal 2025. Again just
031a reminder there's still a bunch of projects that are continuing. Um and so and we did move a bunch of expense into that, but that represents the final dollar amount that's available except for an encumbrance for for transportation because we have some outstanding buses four I think that we're still waiting for um to use the rest of the transportation uh allocated bond dollars. Okay. So bond spend transportation details. I'm very happy to uh hand this over to Mr. Trace told me and I'll drive for you. Okay. >> I I do want to compliment the photographer. >> That is a great shot. >> That That was my iPhone at about 5 something in the morning one day. >> Well, it's a great shot of a beautiful Arizona sunrise. >> That that happens a lot. [Laughter] >>
032Good evening everybody. Um just have one bus to report that we've received in. Um, like Bonnie said, we've got four more coming. Uh, should be here this month. Not always crossing my fingers um because of that. But the one that we received is a uh Thomas HDX. It's an 84 passenger general education bus. Um, and it's click click click right there. Looks like that. Um, and it's our general uh package as far as how we normally buy them with luggage compartments for field trips and the best AC that we can get and tented windows and everything else. And it's equipped for our summers because that's where really the rubber meets the road in transportation. Nobody cares about the heat. Everybody cares about the the the cool inside. You know, this bus is kind of special
033uh as far as DPS, the Department of Public Safety regulates school buses and they are the most regulated vehicle on the road. So, we have to live by what their rules and regulations are as every bus does. Um well, if you notice that picture, the bus does not have mirrors on it and that is against regulation. Well, we were able to us get some electronic mirrors and we are the first district in North America to get approved to run a bus with electronic mirrors. Um, kind of a big deal in my world because it's the next wave of technology coming onto school buses and that's kind of what they look like. Basically, there's two TV monitors inside for the driver to see. There's two cameras on the outside where no exterior mirrors. We tear off
034a lot of mirrors in some of our neighborhoods because of the trees. The Morrison Ranch area, stuff like that where they've got the beautiful overhanging trees tear havoc on our buses. Um, and we replace a lot of mirrors just because we can't get in and out of those neighborhoods, you know. So, this solves that, but it also gives you a lot wider field of vision. There's no blind spots for the driver. And driving a 40 foot, 36,000lb vehicle, there's a lot of blind spots. With these cameras, you can literally see from your shoulder all the way back and from your shoulder all the way back. So, it brightens everything up. At night, it looks like you're watching TV where it's bright and clear even though it's dark outside because it brightens those areas. Um, obviously
035in weather, not that we get a lot of weather except for the last couple of days, but the mirrors don't fog up, the mirrors don't get wet. The mo the mirrors always can be visible. Um, especially crucial like in bus lanes where there's kids running up and down and around the buses and stuff like that, you can get a really nice clear view of it. Um, I firmly believe it's the wave of the future that all vehicles will have it. Um, you can see on that slide the bus to the left is our old style of mirrors and they always hang out like this and that's why they get tore up a lot. And on the right you can see that you know the new new configuration. So we're kind of excited to be the
036first. Um I think that it'll be the first of many but Gilbert Schools was the first in North America. So kind of cool. Trace took us uh cabinet members on a ride yesterday morning after our cabinet meeting to show us what this was about. I was like, "Oh, we're going to go on a bus." Like, I rode the bus as a kid. And um you know, just getting on this new bus to begin with. It is very nice. The AC is phenomenal. Everything is brand new, clean, and wonderful. Um but those mirrors were exceptional. I I didn't know what to expect. And just the vision from that, if any of you have a newer vehicle and you can switch your rear view mirror to from regular mirror to camera, it's exactly what that looks like
037only on a bigger side. And the view that uh the driver gets is is so much more. And speaking to the driver of the bus, he said just that the amenities for a bus driver are so much more on these newer buses. And so, uh, I just appreciate you taking I think there's some things that we take for granted. Uh, and I think transportation and the safety of our kids sometimes is one of them. But we know that you guys over in transportation don't. So, thank you for that. >> Thank you. And I'd like to extend the offer if anybody wants to come over and see it, ride in it, drive it around the parking lot. I actually let Dr. McCord drive once. So, it it's it's okay. We can we can do that. >>
038I am almost a certified bus driver. If you count one lap around Mosqu High's parking lot there, I'm I'm almost there. >> And And Bonnie, too. >> Oh, yeah. Bonnie, too. >> Yeah. >> He wouldn't let us race them, though, so we were a little discouraged. >> So, Trace, with the mirrors being needing to be approved, the screen or the the mirrorless, what do we call the >> electronic mirrors? Yeah, >> electronic mirrors needing to be approved. Is that is this and we're the first ones in North America. >> Is this like a like a trial thing that they're allowing us to try out or >> over the road trucks can use them already? The federal the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has already approved them. >> Just the school bus world runs about 10
039years behind the cars and the trucks in technology. And this is kind of our venture into what they've already had. So, it's not test, it's not testing, it's just getting us up to speed with the rest of the world. >> Do we anticipate retrofitting other buses with this technology? >> Um, ordering new buses with it, yes. And maybe some retrofitting on our newer buses. It wouldn't be cost-effective to do the whole fleet or older buses, >> you know, that are, you know, getting ready to get retired anyway. Yeah. >> Now, when we when we get a new bus, does it does it come directly from Thomas? And is it is it ready to go, ready to operate as soon as we get it, or are there things that we have to do to it like
040a like when a like when a dealership gets a new car, they do their >> you know, they put the tint on and I know you said it comes with a our package, the tint and the AC and things, but are there other things that we have to do to get them ready to operate? It's much like a car dealership where we buy it from a bus dealership. It comes from Thomas to, in this case, Bus West or RWC or whoever we're buying it from. And then it once it gets there, then we need a two-way radio installed. We need our Sovia, our GPS with our scanners on it and stuff like that and those kind of things installed. So, yes, there's a lot of aftermarket stuff we put on them before we take delivery
041just so that when we get it, it's ready to go. Okay. >> DPS has to inspect it at the dealership before we get it. Um, you know, it's got to be plated, got to be registered. >> All of those things have to happen before we actually put kids in it. >> Okay. >> Trace, what's the turn? So, if I if I woke up tomorrow morning and I ordered a bus, that bus, what is the turnaround time for that bus to arrive? It's getting better, but it's about nine months right now. >> Okay. >> Um, one more question. Sorry. I'm just curious. So, it's awesome. My concern is though, what happens if we have any kind of malfunction with the cameras? >> What happens if we break a mirror? >> It just breaks. >> So, we
042don't have right now. If if we're in if we're in Morrison Ranch and we break a mirror, the bus has to stop. we have to bring them a bus, >> okay, >> transfer the kids, go on with the route. Um, and this is no different. If it breaks, it kind of breaks, but it's far less likely to break. >> Okay, >> we asked him that same question yesterday morning cuz you know, when you see technology, I'm with you. All of a sudden, it's great until it isn't, right? The internet is wonderful until it goes down. So, >> well, and if it's new, you know, it it then it just becomes is the turnaround time for a new mirror that much longer. I was just curious. >> And that was part of DPS's evaluation is he
043asked the same question. What happens if it breaks? What happens if a piece of glass breaks? You sweep it up and you start over, you know. So, we're about in the same boat as we were. >> Okay. >> I have one question. Um, how is our fleet like totally as school buses? Are they a lot of them going to have to be replaced soon or you know what's kind of >> We've got a fairly old fleet um here in the last six years. We've been able to um improve it. Uh unfortunately years ago the people that were here bought 40 buses at a time and they'd buy it 40 buses and then wait 10 years and then buy another 40 buses. And that's really hard on fleet management because now I have a whole lot
044of buses that are 40 years old. You know they're not 40 years old, you know, 20 years old that are all going old at the same time. And it's far better if we could establish something to buy six, eight a year and keep the fleet rotating, then you'll never have old buses. >> Right. And then for the um for the electronic mirrors, is this something you think they're going to probably make a standard um with their school buses? I I also serve on the governor's council for student transportation and that's part of our mission is to incorporate new technology in the rules of school buses for Arizona going forward. >> Great. Thank you. >> Thanks. >> I didn't know talking about buses this much could be this exciting. Anybody else have any bus questions? >>
045Makes makes your wheels turn. >> It does. It's really a good one. >> Come drive one. Yeah, I'm trying one. >> Okay, >> thank you, sir. >> Thanks. >> So, uh, now I'm going to hand this over to Albert. I think I might have some introductory things. Let me just see. Nope, this is all him. So, I'm going to hand it right over to him. Go ahead, Albert. It's all yours and I'll drive for you. >> All right. And I'll make it quick. I hope. So, like Bonnie said, uh, leading in, you know, we had a bunch of projects, not only through bond, but as well as, um, some of our capital projects. So, leading into this into the summer, I'm sorry, leading into about a year ago, we had approved, um, the Highland High
046School culinary project, which came out to be about 2.9. And that was not only uh bond funds, but that was also uh supplemented as well with CTE, CTE funding. Um, and again, uh, we're going to show some perimeter fencing as far as, um, our continued efforts to to enhance the safety and security of our campuses. So, here you can see Highland High School's um, original kitchen. It was more of a home style. Uh, their program has exceeded that and has gone into more of a true commercial culinary need. And that's what we gave them. We gave him an eightstation culinary, not only an eightstation true commercial kitchen, um we gave him a scullery, a dishwashing station and as an additional room for um educational or presentation space. >> So this is the demo the room.
047>> The demo room. Yes. >> This is the actual >> that's that's the actual lab. And each each range has uh gas stoves and some additional commercial equipment. And this is Scullery in the in the storage area. And so here's a picture of >> So real quick, I I know what a skullery is, but for maybe those that don't, >> what's a scullery? >> I just said it cuz it sounded good. You know, it does sound. So >> I was going to ask if you were in there cooking. >> Pop-Tarts, maybe. Um, basically, I'm just going to call it what it is. It's a dishwashing station, a cleaning station, uh, for them. They got a commercial dishwasher in there as well as a three compartment sink and then um an area to that that houses
048their um washer and dryer for their cloths and aprons. >> That's what I thought. >> That was a good guess. >> I was just going to ask later. >> So this is Mosqu. So, this is Mosqu High School and um again, as you know, Mosqu High had a a somewhat of an open campus on the exterior. Uh again, in order to to create some safety barriers, we added some per perimeter fencing. Uh this is a front entryway and um a side a side shot from the site. Um again, not only did we do that at Mosqu High, we did that at uh Camplever, which were two of our schools who had not received any safety fencing in the past. And this was >> security fencing I should say. >> And this was um purposeful because
049of the um weapon detector deployment to make sure that the students u wereowing >> flowing in the right direction and they couldn't access the building from another location. So >> So it leads us into the 20 25 um mechanical project. So spring of 25 we approved chiller one at Val Vista Lakes. Um at the time both chillers were showing signs of premature failure. Uh this chiller in particular ended up failing prior both both circuits. Uh so we ended up expediting that process. So here's here's a picture of the crane removing the old chiller getting ready to onboard the new one um as well as the space that it that it's going to go into. So current summer projects uh from this past summer um which we're in the middle of the so some of these
050were in the in between stage I should say and then finalization stage with some other ones. Um we had running tracks uh upgrades at Gilbert Highland High School and Mosqu High School. This was a complete tear down um which will now bring us to all five tracks being renewed. There are some safety concerns with the rubberized surface uh that could pose a a threat to runner safety uh as well as just standard traffic. Um we also had some asphalt upgrades at six of our facilities and then a HVAC project to finish off the second chiller at Valve Vista Lakes. >> And is that one done now at Velva? >> That one is in the finalization. We're doing the final commissioning on that chiller. Um it just happened this week and then we're going to do
051the final punch list on Friday. So, the running track, as you can see, this is uh Gilbert High. Actually, this was Highland High, or excuse me, I'm back up. Mosqu High and uh they all look the same. Mosqu High School. Um you can see as that's starting to separate from that is starting to separate from the asphalt, no longer bonded as well as we have large cracking. Again, um that's in the than the running lanes and a lot of these were vertical. So, again, creating a a trip hazard or fall hazard for students. This is the our current state, our current progress right now with our track. So, they're at the they've already been leveled. Um they have their their asphalt coating and now we're just waiting for um rubberization which we backed off and
052we made this a two-phase project because initial phase we weren't going to be able to be complete by the time uh football season started. So, we phased it uh phase one asphalt demo and asphalt and then now as football season comes to an end, we're working with the side athletic directors to to do the finalization of the the rubberized surface. >> Can you talk about this space here, Albert? >> So, this is a this is what they call a Dzone. Obviously, for obviously for obvious reasons, it's it's shaped as a D. Um, so the Dzone in years past didn't occupy the entire space. It was smaller. It's usually used for a high jump uh pit. um maybe possibly some other events. Um so it's kind of wasted space. So what we did here is we
053just filled in the entire Dzone cuz our headache was there was probably depending on what school it was, there could have been a 2 to 4ft space of of grass surface behind it. trying to manage that space and the and and the um rubberized surface was a headache because we just destroyed the rubberized surface because we just dumped water on it. It was hard to contain the water. It just became more of a maintenance nightmare. So, this actually gives them more of an event space, which um Highland High actually took advantage of that and we they chipped in and we added a additional um long jump pit uh long jump triple jump pit to that which will allow them to um bring bring over some invitational meets. So, expand their um use of it. Asphalt
054upgrades. Again, this is parking lot, Ashlin Ranch Elementary. Again, asphalt is another safety concern just because as it deteriorates over time, we have slip, trip hazards, cracks in the asphalt. And again, with a lot of our community traffic, not only student traffic, we always put oursel at at risk um or liable for injury. And again, the majority of our facilities, especially at the elementary level, have asphalt playground surfaces. Um, and that was another big concern, especially at these schools that we designated this past summer because of the high lip and some other cracks and things like that. Uh, loose gravel that starts um as that as that surface deteriorates as far as uh student injury um as well as staff injury. >> We actually did have the conversation and Kevin, if you remember, Shane, where
055we were talking about whether we shouldn't change those spaces to concrete. The cost at this point was was very, very expensive. So, we opted to just upgrade the asphalt at this point in time. So, >> it would have been over double the cost of what we did for the asphalt. >> Yeah. >> No, that's not >> um this is Highland Park and you can see a lot of the surface there in the back um playground area. Again, Highland High or sorry, again, Vista Lakes Chiller. We did chiller 2 this past summer uh with completion coming again this this during fall break. Along with the chillers, we took the opportunity to upgrade the two um primary pumps to feed chill water and push it throughout the facility. >> Okay. Any questions on any of those? >>
056Great work. I mean, that's that's a lot of important work to have a comfortable learning environment and good transportation. So, thank you very much. So then just to uh just to um complete the presentation wanted to share with you um as you know Albert Albert has been working really really hard at updating our asset planner database to make sure that we are updating all of the work that operations has done over time so that we can constantly share with the community and with you the progress that we've made and how that has positively impacted the status of our facilities. So wanted to remind you of facility condition index. This is a metric that's largely known um in the industry for measuring the quality or the um the usability status I guess of a facility overall.
057Um, so when we shared with this governing board, um, wasn't all of you, but when we shared with the governing board back in September of 2023, we shared, uh, DM is a deferred maintenance backlog of $198 million. This was after we had already spent about 120 million, 98 million from the 2015 bond approval and then some of the new approval from 2019. and our FCI was 10.7. So that's the facility condition index. So the higher the facility condition index, the worse your portfolio is. So this always shows a 30-year look back. We don't manage to 30 years. We manage to five. But generally speaking, our consultant, they use a 30-year period because on average, that truly represents the outstanding costs associated with having to maintain your buildings. So, at that point in time, we're at
058an FCI of 10.7. So, since then, October of 2025, I pulled this data last week. Our FCI is down to now 4.6, six, which is in the good range. >> Awesome. >> Our deferred maintenance backlog as of 2025. So that would have been calendar year 2025, which we're coming up to the end of, um, is about $89.6 million. So we shaved off $und00 million worth of backlog in the work that Albert and his teams have done. So the other thing is it's not just the money that we put into the facilities, but it's also the um the scrutiny of the data. One thing that's really important for you all is that you can have confidence in the data that's in that asset planner because we're making decisions now based upon some of this information. So,
059it's really important that we review that data, make sure it's accurately representing the age of a particular element so that when we report out, we're giving you high quality information that you can have confidence in. So, I just wanted to share that with you as well. It's not just the work we're doing, actually the construction work we're doing, but it's also the scrutiny of the data to make sure that we have clean data in our database. So, now let's just take a look at the future here, our next five-year facility needs. We have sort of changed our prioritization schema. Now, we're looking at we we need to make sure that our students and staff are safe, that they are dry, i.e. our roofs are not um are working. And in Arizona, they're cool. If we
060were in Minnesota, we'd be we'd worried about them being warm, right? So, we're prioritizing those three things. So, our total 5-year need based upon um our status today is about $270 million. So, deferred maintenance, and I spelled that wrong. I'm going to have to fix that. Um so, the Shell is $51.8 million of deferred maintenance as of 2025, and then mechanical is 30.5. So, just to remind you, mechanicals, our HVAC equipment, and it's our electrical panels, all that stuff. Um, the shell though in that $51.8 million is our roofs and in addition, it's also our secured entryways, our secured vestibules that are for uh the ones that are outstanding at our elementary schools as well as at our junior high. And that uh dollar figure is in the six to 7 million range. So, just
061that you're aware, these are the types of conversations we'll be having over the next few months. Is that six to seven million dollars per school? >> No, in total. In total. Yep. In total. >> So, that's all we have regarding our facility condition. The last thing is just our outstanding bond debt and our tax rate summary. Um, I've shared with you that our principal and interest payments over time. You can see that by the time we get to 2031, we're nearly um paid off on all of our outstanding debt. As of June 30, 2025, our outstanding debt is just um under $87 million, which is very, very good. So, we're in a really good spot here financially in Gilbert public schools. Um also is an indicator that we have taken advantage of the environment where
062we've gone out earlier to sell bonds that we can use them up quicker, pay them off earlier so that our outstanding debt is decreasing at a higher rate. Um, and then finally, this uh just a reminder that just because of that acceleration, we've been able to uh save the taxpayer over $27 million in interest payments um because we took advantage of the uh economic environment, the really really low interest rates. We had two bond sales of significant dollar amounts in which the interest that was going to go out was less than 1%. Which is really quite remarkable. So, just wanted to share that. And then finally, this is our tax rate levy history. And you can see over time that it's going down um substantially. I've even included the 2026 on this uh grid. So,
063you can see that we continue to trend down in our tax rates. And with that, the report is completed. There are any other questions? I've got a question about the uh deferred maintenance backlog. >> Okay. >> So, between 2023 and 2025, you'd said we reduce the deferred maintenance backlog by it looks like about $110 million. In those two years, did we actually spend $110 million on deferred maintenance or is this a is this something where it's like a a program where we put in what we've done and it calculates a new deferred maintenance? It's partially it's partially that it's partially that it's also that scrutiny that I shared that we are looking at the data very clearly to make sure that >> when we first entered this project we had assessors come out and make
064judgment calls regarding the age of particular elements. So since that time we Albert's team is actually going out and verifying no no that I mean Albert himself even he just knows this stuff so well he'll go out and say no no no that's not that old you know you you might have a 50-year old component that no they're misunderstanding that it was really only 25 years so that's the kind of scrutiny in addition to we probably since 2023 put in about maybe $40 million of actual projects. >> So thank you for the scrutiny Albert. Um, so does that mean that this new deferred maintenance backlog of $89.6 million is is more precise and we can actually rely on that number or can we expect or or is it possible that we spend instead of $89.6
065$6 million over the next two years, we spend another 40 million and knock this down to zero. I mean, is that a possibility? I know I know zero. I'm using zero hypothetically, but but is that is that a possibility? Or because Albert has gone through and has been so diligent in checking everything, is this 89.6 now a realistic number that we can rely on? So, regarding the two major components, >> sorry, Bonnie, can you pull the mic over to you? >> Oh, sure. Regarding the two major components, the shell, this pink area here, um, the shell is the pink area. So, that's why I shared the fact that that's roofs and it's also those secured entryways. >> So, that 51.8 million is truly a need. and and we did share with you our unrestricted capital
066plan for the current year for 2026 and there was maybe $6 or $7 million worth of roofs on there. >> Yes. >> That are in that. So remember this is our capital need not necessarily a bond need. So we are allocating out unrestricted capital dollars to meet these needs. In terms of the other portion of the shell, that six or seven million dollars associated with completing all of our secured vestibules, um that that we have now added and cleaned that up, that has added to that. So, as time goes on, we are adding and cleaning up. We're still doing uh data cleanups um as we go. So, um all I'm saying is that as we get better and better, we will be having our data more and more accurate. That gives a true picture of
067what our needs are in the future. Okay, >> thank you. Is there are there any other questions from the board in regards to anything that our panel has discussed tonight? >> No, I just appreciate all the work that's been done. Our buildings look really nice and we definitely have a lot more security features than we did a few years ago and I think that's really important to to families. So, thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. >> All right. Uh before we adjourn, I do want to recognize we've got someone here tonight from our Aspire program. Uh Dr. McCord, would you introduce >> Mr. Clint Treadway, Highland High School. Welcome. >> Do you have anything you want to say? You want to give a speech? You good? >> I think I'm good. >>
068All right. >> We appreciate you being here. Thank you. >> Money. >> Yeah. You you might want to drive a bus, huh? Or >> we've got a job for you. >> Only if it has electronic cameras. >> All right. Thank you every Thank you to everybody that's participated tonight and thank you for the questions. Those were good qu Thank you. Um we will adjourn our work study and move into our brief board business meeting. We'll call this meeting to order and ask Miss Wilson to do roll call. here. >> Here, >> Dr. Ferguson >> here. >> Mr. Jesse Bra >> here. >> And Shane Murray >> here. >> Mr. President, all four members are present. >> Thank you, Miss Wilson. Uh, we will move into our consent agenda. Uh, is there a motion to approve
069our consent agenda as outlined? uh as noted in tonight's outline. >> So moved. >> Thank you, Mr. Brainer. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Thank you, Dr. Robersonson. All those in favor of approving tonight's consent agenda as outlined, say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? >> Thank you very much. Moving on to our action item. 6.01, 01 fiscal year 2025 annual financial report and school level reporting form uh which we heard about during our work study. Is there a motion to approve this agenda item? >> So moved. >> Thank you, Miss Humphre. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Thank you, Dr. Robersonson. Is there any discussion about the fiscal year 2025 annual financial report and school level reporting form? >> I just want to compliment our team for all their hard work because
070we're in a solid position and um I just really appreciate that. So, thank you. >> All right. Anything else? Okay, then I'll call for the vote. All those in favor of approving the fiscal year 2025 annual financial report and school level reporting form say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? And that passes. Thank you. Uh we are uh going to and I'll ask for a motion to move to executive session pursuant to ARS 38-431.03A4 03A4 discussion or consultation for legal advice with its attorney and or to consider its position and instruct its attorney regarding possible superintendent contract terms and the superintendent search process um is there a motion >> to move to executive session? Thank you, Dr. Robersonson. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Thank you, Dr. Whoa. Thank you, Mr. Brainer. >> Okay.
071Um, all those in favor. Well, >> when we move into executive session, we'll go into >> first >> the first floor first floor conference room. And it's my understanding that we could be in there for a a while. Is that right? [Music] >> Okay. Coming from the attorney, I like to hear that. Okay. Okay. Uh then do we want to do we want to come back in here for these action items or do we just want to do this from Okay. Then we will uh we'll vote on these action items. We'll open the door up so the public can come in uh if they'd like to and we'll vote on these last two action items and adjourn from there. Um, and anybody that's not involved in the executive session, if it's uh allowed, you're thank
072you for coming and you're welcome to to head out. So, I'll call for a vote. All those in favor of uh agenda item 7.01, say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? All right. And we are in executive session. Thank you.