001A1 to discuss the potential appointment of of Canyon Valley. So moved. Thank you, Miss Humphre. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Miss Murray. Uh all those in favor of moving into executive session, uh say I I into executive session in this conference room back here. Thank you. Good evening. We'd like to welcome everybody to tonight's work study. We'll call this meeting to order and we will jump right into our agenda. We'll start out with agenda item number three, presentation and discussion topics 3.01. 01 uh fiscal. First of all, I don't know if I said it. Welcome everybody. Everybody that's uh that's here uh in person and also everybody that's uh could be watching online. Welcome and thank you for for coming. 3.01 fiscal year 2024 district spending report. Dr. McCord. Thank you, Mr. Thompson.
002Governing board members. Uh both of our items tonight on the work study are uh business services related. all finances and it's that time of year uh when we talk a lot about spending and get ready for next year. So I'll turn it over to Miss Betts and her team and they will roll through these presentations. Uh thank you. Good evening governing board members, President Thompson, um Dr. McCord, very happy to introduce uh Miss Jackie Maten, the director of finance. She will do the heavy lifting on this uh district spending report this evening. and of course Lauren Torska who provides a great deal of support in uh putting together all these presentations. So I just wanted to share that this will be the very last presentation we make about last year. So moving forward we will
003be talking about the current year and next year. So just so you're aware and I'll go ahead and drive for you Jackie. Great. Thank you. Thank you Miss Betts. All right. Well tonight we'll talk about the FY2024 district spending report. This is a report that is put forth by the auditor general's office. It is based on spend from the district's annual financial reports. So today we will uh look at GPS spending and operational area local districts or neighboring district spending comparison to us peer group spending comparison and then also FY2024 average teacher salary. So this pie is from our um ACT for our annual comprehensive financial report. This we receive earlier. Uh this was presented to you in December I believe. Um and so this is typically um indicative of what the district spending report
004will look like although there are it's slightly different. There are different funds included here. So the instruction piece of this pie is typically lower than what we see in the district spending report. Next up is the Gilbert public schools district spending report for FY2024 spending by operational area. So you can see classroom spending at 73.2 that includes instruction at 58.9 and that is um anything in a 1000 function in our account code string and that includes teachers and pair of professionals um instructional supplies instructional capital and then student support is 9.6% 6% also included in that classroom spending um that is student support so counselors social workers um health office OTP SLP and then instructional support is 4.7 and that is um libraries assessments um our coaches and academic coaches and then non-classroom spending administration
005uh is 8.2% 2% that is at the district level and at the schools plant operations is um operations and security. So that's important to note. That's anything in the in the U account code structure that has a 2600 function food service and transportation. And here's quick sorry of course these last two pie charts what's what's the difference between them like so instructions 57 on one and then 589 on the other. Yes. This f the first one is from our ACTUER. So they use a governmentwide funding basis for to create this pie. um it's not necessarily using the same data as the district spending report from the auditor general from the auditor general. So So what's included or not included? What what's is that too detailed of a question? Is that a answer? So the the
006biggest the biggest example of this so you look at this is interest on long-term debt. So that means it's at the full acrual basis of Gilbert public schools in total to include all those assets, depreciations, everything. Um we only share it because when it comes to the percent to instruction, it gives us an idea of what our um annual financial report from the auditor general will result in. So, it kind of if that ever dropped precipitously, we might be concerned about how the dollars in the classroom comes out um when that comes out usually in the spring. So, that's the biggest I hope I answered enough. Okay, great. You bet. You can have you can keep this one. You'll need it. Okay. Yeah, maybe. So before we get off this slide, this is um something
007that was highlighted in the audit committee uh meeting that we had, but this is just something that I want to draw a highlight to is the instruction, the classroom spending and the instruction that we have almost 60% of our budget um of our spending going in the classroom to instruction and that can you just I mean do Do do you have any statistics or any insight on how that compares to surrounding districts or how that compares to schools nationally? Uh I don't have anything nationally, but we do have slides in here that compare our neighboring districts. And then we also have a similar chart um based on your recommendation actually from the audit committee that compares our peer group, okay, of districts of very large districts. Okay, I'm excited to get to that. Okay. So,
008this is our five-year spending history from these same from this same report. So, you can see we've been steady in instruction, very steady in classroom dollars, u steady actually across the board here. Any questions on that before we move on? And then this is a graphical representation um of dollars in the classroom, non-classroom, and administration. Um, we just kind of wanted to show that it's just again very flat. We don't we're not seeing any any peaks or valleys. I I do want to point out that administration is only 8.2%. Yes, we're very very low in administration. Very low. And sometimes I hear, oh, if we just get all that money out of administration. Well, there just isn't that money in administration. And and I appreciate having good leaders. They are worthwhile. Great segue into this
009slide. So, this is our local district. So, we're comparing our neighboring districts here. Uh, this is the FY2024 district spending report information from all of these other districts. So, we have Chandler, Higgley, Mesa, Queen Creek, and Scottsdale. Um, dollars instruction, you can see that we are the highest in instruction. Um, also dollars in the classroom, very low in administration, which is where we want to be. um tied with Mesa and plant operations. Again, um lowest on the grid, food service and transportation. So, we do want to celebrate Gilbert's result in comparison to our local districts. Um we are higher where we want to be and a little bit lower where we where we want to be. And I wanted to point out to I wanted to point out too that um to compare ourselves with
010administrative spend with Mesa. Keep in mind that the larger you are really generally you should see uh economies of scale. So your administration spend should be less on a per student basis. So or on a percentage basis. It's really quite remarkable that Mesa is nearly double our size and we're matching pretty closely with that 8.2% to administration which is something to celebrate for sure. So, our our admin does twice the work. Is that what we're saying, right? For the same pay. Yes. Thank you for that. Yes. Thank you. And then again, this is uh the local district spending um dollars instruction, classroom, and administration. This grid also shows the ADM and the override percentage at 15% for all six districts. So our intent here by including this is to just make sure that you're all
011aware from a funding level because all of these school districts have the 15% override. We all have on a percentage basis the same amount of money which makes it kind of notable. Um, so that's why the comparison we thought was was a good one as well with our local school districts. I had a question on the previous previous one. So, um, and correct me if I'm wrong, but I read the general's report and they said our transportation was kind of above average for our district size. Um, what do you attribute that to? Do we have a lot of commuters? And I know it's not that different from the other districts, but I saw that in the report. You want me to take that? Mhm. Please. Yeah, it's a really good question and we had one
012of our audit committee members ask the same same question as well. Um so we have been looking into that since the question was posed at the audit committee meeting and uh one thing that we discovered by accident I think um is that the accounting for student transportation is a function 2700 and um and what's been happening is that all of our white fleet though all the expenses associated with uh tires and and maintenance of the vehicles and stuff like that has been also erroneously charged 2700 00. So we have immediately fixed that. So we expect that in 2025 this should reflect that. So some of it is not accurately um providing the Yeah. Not actually accounting for the the spend. So thank you. Yeah, you bet. What is the what is the white fleet? Is
013that everything except buses? Um right. So, um, so we would include our special education vans and McKini Vento vans as student transportation, but we have, um, the activity buses that transport athletes. We have, um, all of Albert's area, all the operation, uh, vehicles, the security vehicles. We have a special education program in which they uh, transport kids once they get to school. They transport kids to various uh, programs. um that's also considered a white fleet. So really those charges should be charged to um the special education program. Now what's important to note is that that it's just an accounting issue, right? The dollars are still there in transportation. It's just that those dollars are going to move into the right function to be able to pay all those charges. So So that's what we attribute
014most of the issue with because we have spent a fair amount of effort over the last five years getting as efficient as we can in transportation. So, well, that's a very helpful insight cuz I was wondering about that. I remember when I looked at the report and I know we've really worked to streamline our bus services and make sure that we're very efficient. So, knowing that I mean it's that's transportation. You would think all those go into that pot, but of course it doesn't. It's very complex. We're very appreciative of people who understand the complexity and explain it to us. Right. Uh this slide is um new this year. We added our peer groups um to compare to GPS spending by operational area. We felt that this um based on the recommendations from the audit
015committee uh better represents um kind of apples to apples because they're the same. They're considered very large districts 15,000 or more. Uh so you can see that Gilbert is still higher in instruction. Dr. Hatman has the fly in overhead. Um and then just Yeah. Um just just note before we do this next um fly in, but for for Gilbert to show an instruction percentage of um over 3% higher than our peer average is really quite remarkable knowing that we're the same size and that whole conversation about economies of scale, etc. So, we're pretty proud of that in comparison. And our administration is lower. And our administration is lower as well. That's right. And this is the big deal. Yeah. Bonnie loves the animations. I love the animations. Yes. Yes. So tell us who some of
016those 11 districts are that we're comparing ourselves to. Chandler, Deer Valley, Daart, Glendale, Mesa. I actually had them memorized. Paradise Valley, Peoria, Phoenix, Union, Scottsdale, and Tucson. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. So, our peer classroom spend is 72 and we are above that at 73.2. So, I begged Jackie to let me have these next few slides and she reluctantly gave it to me. I really wanted to explain this um because the auditor general's report has a lot of um credibility and is often cited by legislature legislators um in the state of Arizona. And so I wanted to bring your attention to the fact that the class the classroom or the district spending report now includes a calculation for average salary across all school districts in the state of Arizona. So I asked Jackie to put
017this particular grid in and you can see this grid is was new last year asking districts throughout the state to input the data by all of these particular functions. So in our account code string we have functions that indicates what the money is is doing. So is it is it in the classroom? Is it supporting students? Is it in operations? That's what the function does. And so prior to um the current year which is 2025 there were no requirements regarding um the account coding for these particular buckets. So in 2023 and in 2024, school districts were asked to just do the best they can to input this data and because the requirements from the USFR, the uniform system of financial records was not mandated until the current year. And so remember this is 2024 data.
018So this is last year. So before we get into the actual data, I wanted to make sure that that was clear to all of you. So if we look at 2023 again, this was the first year that that grid I just showed you was on the annual financial report on the AFR. You can see that Gilbert, we reported an average teacher salary of 67,000, but the Auditor General calculated 63,000. So again, we were pretty good about how we input the data because the 67,000 on our reporting included stipens and we we did that to make sure that everyone was aware how much our teachers could earn on an average basis. But if you look at Chandler, they reported 65,000, but the district spending report resulted in 71,000. So from a logic standpoint, um if it
019were me, I wouldn't under report on the AFR if my actual data would reflect a 71,000 average teacher salary. So we believe that because there was no requirement on the um the accounting for these particular categories that the data is not accurate and we don't believe it will be accurate until the current year. So when we're here a year from now, we'll be able to share with you what we believe to be more accurate because every single school district in the state was now required to adopt the account code structure so that all the data would be really looking at apples to apples. I just wanted to share that with you because what's been reported is that Gilbert Public School's average salary is $6,000 less than the average in our peer group. We just don't
020believe it. we just don't believe it. So, and so we believe that the data at this point in time is not clean. And so, I just wanted to share with you to just to be careful about how the uh classroom spending report is being used. And that really when it comes to average teacher salary, there's more validity in what all the school districts are reporting than in what the data is showing at at least at this point in time. another indicator of the importance of the how how clean the data is, how accurate the data is because you can draw erroneous conclusions if you're just taking a number. So, just wanted to share that. So, in 2024, um we felt like this was a really good indicator for Gilbert. So, if you look on our
021average teacher salary that we reported on the annual financial report, we reported 67,000. But if you take out the stipens and just have our base salary, it's 64,000. When you look at the district spending report, it's 63. We're within $1,000, which we think is probably closer to being accurate because when we also defined average teacher salary, we use the classroom site fund definition. Classroom site fund definition indicates that you can you would use your instructional specialists, you would use your teachers, you would use librarians, you would use counselors, all of them would be included in that average teacher salary. So that's what we adopted when we started reporting on our annual financial report in our on our budget. But in the district spending report, it's clearly only the teachers that are in the classroom. It's
022only function 1000. So, I just wanted to make sure that all of you were aware of that as well. So, if you look at Mesa, Mesa reports a 74,000 then a 72,000 for average salary and their district spending report shows 69,000. That makes sense to us. I mean, it's logically makes sense because they may have done what we did and they included everyone that was classroom site fund eligible at that time to determine what the average teacher salary is. What looks odd is that Higgley, as an example, reports 64,000, but the calculation results in 67,000. Again, the same idea. If you're going to report it, you'd want to report it as accurately and as high as possible. So, it just seems it it seems very very likely that at least at this point in time,
023the data that's being pulled out is not accurate. So again, just another indicator of as we draw conclusions from some of these summaries um that we take it with a grain of salt and make sure that we understand the story behind it. So again, we will be sharing this again a year from now where we will have more confidence that the the data that's put into those buckets is more accurate because every prior to this, every district can do it however they think is right. include stipens or not include stipens, include um other things or or not include those and and so it was their own formula and our formula might not be the same as somebody else's. That's correct. Wasn't mandated by the state. That's correct. Okay. So, I'm just not saying it's incorrect.
024I'm just saying it's suspicious. It's not, you know, it's likely not totally accurate. I would feel much more comfortable a year from now when we're presenting to you. Like if if I was measuring my height in inches and somebody else was using centimeters or something and we compared them, somebody might look a lot taller even if they were the same. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Because then you're looking at just numbers, right? That's true. That's true. Anyway, that's all I wanted to share. Are there any other questions? I have like a side question. Sure. Um which I know we're statutoily required to have the average teacher salary on a website. Which one do we have to post on that website? we are required to report it on our budget and then we have been very consistent. So
025generally we estimate what our average teacher salary will be on the proposed and the adapted budget and then when we do the first revision we use the October data because that's when the school district employee report is due. So that's a point in time that we believe our staffing is um is accurate on an FTE basis and then we pull and calculate the average teacher salary and then we keep that the same for all the budget revisions and then also report that on the AFR. So that's what what's required to be put on our website. So this is obviously published you know the auditor general is publishing it the um but we we are not required to use that average teacher salary. All right. Thank you. Okay. Yeah, you bet. So on our website, we
026can post We don't have to post the DSR. The DSR is available because available for people that want to go to the state, right, look at it, but on our website, if we post it, we can post the AFR. Right. Right. That's what the obligation was. Yep. The other thing I wanted to point out, remember that the data is coming from the annual financial report. So when we're sharing our average teacher salary, we're calculating it at a point in time that we believe it most represented represents a stability in our teacher population at that point in time. When we're talking about the annual financial report, we're putting in the cumulative of as teachers come and go, you know, we're putting in the total amount that reflects the end ofear total of all of these buckets.
027So they're never going to match is my point. Um but but we've been trying to do it with fidelity and you can see that at Gilbert we are at least explaining how we're calculating um and what what's included or not included. So um I have a question. So from a learning standpoint for me, I've been looking at these reports now, you know, what four or five months. And I was just wondering, is there a way that we could get kind of a one-page wonder sheet of whatever line items and we could sit down and talk about it because I know it's going to be a lot. But ideally, what I would like to be able to see is trending over the last 8 to 10 years of teacher salary, how much we're spending per kid
028for the classroom, administration, um, buildings, classrooms being utilized, classrooms that are un not utilized, transportation, all of it. Because if we're looking at it over the course of 8 to 10 years, it will help get a snapshot of kind of just overall how we're doing. because for me looking at it like in this vacuum it's really hard for me to get a really big picture. Does that make sense? Um that that absolutely does. Um that's what we're trying to do with these trends. We are trying to do that with these trends. So these are large buckets um that are based upon function like what they're used for. Um so um and that's what the transportation too. We we've provided the transportation over time. That's the percentage. So on a per student basis, it that kind
029of estimates the on a per student basis because it's a percentage. So sort of a like for every dollar that's created for a student, there's a percentage that goes to transportation. That's sort of the analysis. The hard part is that there's numerous funds in all of this. And so that's that's the the difficult part, but but we we're very happy to do it however you think is is appropriate. Um but but we'd have to be it'll take some time depending upon exactly what you're asking. Oh yeah. I'm I'm aware it's a it's a big ask, but I feel like it's a necessity at this point just because there is so much to look at and it's hard to see, you know, we're doing a lot of great things, but as just someone coming in looking
030at all of these data points, it would make a lot more sense to be able to look at something over an 8 to 10 year period and kind of see the graph that way than rather just looking at this part over here, snapshot 3 to four years, this part over here, snapshot 3 to four years. Um, and I'm more than happy to sit down and, you know, go over the details of it with you, but you bet. Um, I just feel like it would be beneficial for all of us because then we can look at it as a collective group and say, okay, you know, what are we what are we really rocking it at? What are we doing great? Where is there an area that maybe we've missed or an area that we can
031I just for my brain being able to see it like that, I feel like I would be able to make better, more educated decisions. That's all. So your um your average teach your average teacher salary question is is a good one. That one would be very easy to pull. Um my suggestion again too would be to look at how we've grown the beginning teacher salary because remember with averages are tricky because we have every year we're going to increase somebody's salary but at the end of the year we have a lot of retirees and stuff and so therefore the average is going to go down. So, we're going to anticipate like a 3% pay increase and we're going to take the average salary and increase it by 3%. And then we actually do the analysis
032the following year and it's less than that. So, it'd be important to see both. What is our average salary versus our beginning teacher salary just as an example? Yeah. In terms of the data. Oh, no. I understand. And and that's the stuff I want to see, but I want to see it for everything. I want to be able to see all of that stuff. So, you're going to have to give us an idea of what everything is. Yeah. Like the big ones for me are the administration, the building, the uh empty classrooms, teacher salary for sure, amount spent per student, things like that. Those are kind of the major ones. Like what's in that pie chart, but yet expanded in in that sense of explain what's included in that. Yeah. But like over, you know,
033look at it from 2018 to now. How are we doing back then over the trends? Look at it through COVID, you know, how are we coming out through CO now? That kind of a thing. I' I'd almost go back to 2015 or 2016 because that was when our district was in a very difficult financial situation. So, you could really see how much better off we are now if you go back that far 2018 and we had an override in place and and we had uh bonds and so that made us in a much better position. Um so, if you really want to see what a difference that makes, I'd go back to 2015 or 16. Yeah. Sure. So I can tell you that um even in my experience in Colorado, we did comparable analyses as
034this one and the the bogey or the goal generally is to try to get that dollars in the classroom at 60% or higher. That's always been the goal. Um, so this this has been a very credible report and so I'm actually very very proud of this result on the uh the classroom spending report. So um this does really give it does give a pretty good idea of how we're allocating out the dollars on a per school basis though it's very very different. Um but some of that data is available on the AFR. It would be great if we could have a a schedule a meeting. I'd love to meet with you and I'll go through what I what I know and then we can pull out what you think would be relevant that I think
035we can do in a timely way. Absolutely. And I 100% agree. I love looking at the fact that we're at 59.8% in instruction in the classroom because obviously right that's for the kids that's what's most important. So I'm not saying I'm looking at this going, "Oh my gosh, what are we doing?" I'm just for me looking at it in a linear way like that will just kind of really help me wrap my head around exactly what's going on and then I can I can kind of move forward from there. you see a bigger story in the whole story. Yeah. Yeah. I do better working down and then moving smaller rather than trying to expand out. I guess that's kind of what I'm saying. And that's why I think going back to where we really probably
0362015 where we didn't have an override and we didn't have bonds, you would really see the change. So that's kind of where I'd put it. Cool. Yes. Appreciate it. Thank you guys. Are there any other questions for our distinguished panel? Okay. Then uh let's move on to 3.02 fiscal year 2026 preliminary budget presentation with 2% pay increase recommendation as well as gifted and ELLL teacher FTE increases. Dr. McCord. Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Governing board members, again, I'll turn this over. This is will highlight uh what we're looking and we're proposing for salary increases, but uh there's a little bit bigger story to that to tell you how we got to where we came up with the the percentage. Great. Okay. Thank you. Um so again, just to remind you, we're in 2025 and so this
037is our preliminary budget. we're anticipating in 2026 and the legislature is nowhere near being complete with the budget conversation. Um, however, the govern we do have the governor's um budget and we do have what we think is a pretty good projection of what we think our student count will be for next year. So, we felt like we had enough information that we could make a recommendation to you tonight. Okay. So um student count projections the GPS M budget projection we are specific to maintenance and operations today uh not discussing unrestricted capital uh the uh two fiscal year 2026 classroom site fund allocation which is playing a large role in balancing the budget increases in costs and expected savings the recommended pay increases. Then we got to balance the budget with all these moving parts. And
038then finally the budget risks and opportunities associated with how we're going to move forward over the next two months, two and a half months I guess. So student count projections. So over the last three months um we have been working pretty closely with our student accounting data team and technology services constantly having them check what does the cohort movement look like i.e. when kindergarteners are going into first grade, first grade going into second grade, what is our enrollment loss today versus what we might expect in the future using um um Mr. Brammer's uh demographic report to try to make a a good estimate on what we think our student counts will be next year. So, based upon the most recent information, we believe that um anticipating a student loss of 1,300 ADM has enough conservatism
039um to it that that we feel comfortable that that we'd probably beat that. So, the best estimate from our technology data team is that we would be somewhere over 1,200 student loss. So, we're going to be a little bit extra conservative, not knowing what's going to happen during the summer. So note that with that the decrease of 1,300 ADM results in a decrease of 1576 in our weighted students. Blake, did you have a quick question? It looked like you went for your microphone. Yeah, quick quick question. So I I thought I had seen numbers that the current enrollment was like 30,800 something. What's what's the discrepancy between that number and this number? So we are talking about average daily membership which is that 100th day average daily membership and what you're seeing is enrollment which
040is a body count. So that at a point in time this is how many bodies are in those seats but some of those enrollies might not generate even one ADM because they came in after the 100th day. Does that help you? Yes. Okay. Great. Does I I it seems like in the past when we've estimated our ADM loss that we've overshot by a more substantial margin than just a hundred students. I think it was two years ago we anticipated well maybe it was last year we anticipated 800 and we we budgeted for 1,200. Am I is that right? Um let's see. Two years ago when we went into the 2024 school year, we actually estimated a 400 student loss and we actually lost 550. Okay. Um the reason why we didn't have a budget reduction
041is because we had increased in increases in weighted students. So we had more special education that counteracted the loss of students. So when we went and built the budget for the current year, we estimated a 1,200 student loss to be on the conservative side and we lost about 950 at the 40th day, but today we're over a thousand. So funny things been happening over the last few years where we seem to be losing ADM as we go from 40th day to 100th day. that's been new since I've been here, though that's the standard that happens usually in school districts. So, yes, um we did overshoot it um uh in the current year and then we were able to come back with a $2 million increase in budget capacity. So, yeah, it's a question mark, you
042know, I mean, what is the best bogey? Um we we just don't know what we don't know at this point in time and things are fluctuating. planning for the worst and hoping for the best and we've been outperforming our projections which is good but the last two years the last two years but it's it's I would rather over project and then receive some of that money back than to have to give money back if I underp project it I guess so I guess my question is if we're if projections say 1,200 and we're estimating 1300 is that conservative enough. So, um I have the conversation over and over again with the student accounting team. Um and I asked that very question. Uh and they do believe that that's a good estimate. But let's just say,
043you know, we screwed up and we had 1,400 instead. um we still are blessed right now that we have a ample amount of um budget balance carry forward that would help us close that gap in the event that would happen. So yeah, it's a it's kind of like filling out your W4 and for your taxes. How much do you want taken out and then do you want to pay at the end or do you want to get money back? Great analys. [Laughter] All right. So based upon that um we're going to go through the budget capacity the M budget capacity projection. So the the governor's budget she's recommended a 2% increase to the base um as well as the transportation support. So the base level amount is the um the base amount per student that
044we receive. So she's recommending that we increase that by 2%. Um I'm adding the district additional assistance which of course goes to fund in our unrestricted capital. That particular amount was one time for the current year. Um but she's put in her budget that she wants that to be ongoing for next year and well beyond next year. And then there's an increase to the free and reduced um price lunch weight which we have not adopted. We don't know what it is yet. So we have not put it into our budget projections. So that's an advantage that where we if we once we get that our budget capacity we would expect would go up if we did lose the 1300 students um going into next year. So then this is Gilbert public schools budget parameters. So
045we do have the um teacher experience index. So I I think I shared that we use October as our as our recalculation for our average salary. October 15th, is that when it's due? The school district employee report is due. And they use that information to calculate our teacher experience index. And so just a reminder, the teacher experience index compares our teachers years of experience against the average of the state of Arizona, regardless of which school district you're at. So since we're above one, that indicates that our average teacher experience is higher than the state average. They give you the state formula gives a little bit of extra money for that because it directly translates to your salaries. if they have more more experience, generally speaking, they're paid more. So, there's the student count decrease of
0461,3 ADM. We did go ahead and just split that evenly between K8 and 912. Though, information from our student data team again is that probably there will be a greater loss at elementary than at high school. That's important because the elementary weight is less than the high school weight. So there's another level of conservatism you asking about that's in this projection as well. So this is our year-over- year-over-year comparison of MO budget capacity. And we we've stripped out the budget balance carry forward. If you remember when we revised the budget last, we we shared that we're moving um we're moving money out of M and putting it into unrestricted capital to take advantage of any interest earnings that we could possibly get between now and June 30. Um that was messes around with your budget
047balance carry forward. So we just stripped out that and put it aside and we're just looking at the revenue control limit and those ongoing budget parameters that we know are going to occur. And so we're just comparing that year-over-year. So you can see that based upon that in the current year, our revised number two indicates a $273.3 million roughly of our revenue control limit plus override plus Prop 123. And then our projection for next year would be $270.3, about a $3 million loss because we're accounting for that 1,300 ADM loss. Okay? even though we actually increased the base by 2%. Any questions about that before I go on? Okay. So, classroom site fund, we did um we did uh request it requested of our leadership team that if they if they could just let us
048um wait until we have the classroom site fund allocation before we decided on any pay increases. Um, so we did just receive that um early last week and the result is that there is a u $50 per student increase in classroom site fund giving giving us more flexibility for pay increases especially for our teaching staff. And you can see this is kind of what you're talking about from a trend standpoint, right? Yeah. Just to to be able to show for a long period of time how we're doing. We like to share this particular graph because it just shows how classroom site fund is so sporadic or inconsistent over time. Every time you put more money onto salary, you're wondering, okay, what's going to happen next year with the classroom site fund because it's all based
049upon sales tax revenues. Um so that's kind of why we always share it. There's always risks associated with um using more and more of classroom site fund. So any questions on that? Okay, great. So, these are our operating cost increases and our savings. And this is where we talk about the recommended pay increase. So, um, we already had you approve our medical insurance premium increase, that $1.3 million. We included the potential loss of 123. That's still very much a legislative priority, trying to figure out how to handle Prop 123. Um I have some peers that are ignoring it and assuming it's going to be there and so they're not reducing their budget accordingly and I have others that are reducing their budget accordingly. So um what we thought is okay well let's put it here
050so you can see if we thought we were going to lose Prop 123 our total um our total budgetary increases would be about 4.6 million. But we've decided that there's a good chance that somehow the state will fund at least for one year Prop 123. So we won't see that $2.2 million loss for 26. Just wanted to make sure that all of you are aware that that is a real risk. Yes. And they've had 10 years 10 years to figure it out, but they haven't figured it out yet. So, we're going to start with our total cost increase of 2.37 million as part of this budget balancing uh process. So, teacher FTE increases for gifted and English language learners. So, I think it was our last presentation or our last work study where we had
051um we had our it was a board meeting. It was a board meeting. Yes. Where we had the gifted coordinator present to you indicating our plans uh moving forward into 2026. And so um this this recommendation is a direct result of that. In addition, we shared our positive um academic results uh where we still maintained our um a district status. So much of that assessment and accountability work um is dependent upon the success of our English language learners. So that was the source of this recommendation to you all tonight. So about a $1.1 million increase associated with those FTEES. And then the pay increase recommendation. So 2% raise for all employees. Classroom site fund portion. You can see that classroom site fund is taking a large percentage of that pay increase. The enterprise portion. So
052that's our community education program as well as um as well as nutrition services. They're responsible for taking on their own pay increases. And then the M portion. It's not just M though. It's all of our title funds. It's all of our grant funds. We just kind of group them in together. So, I'm probably overstating the $2 million a little bit because there are some other funds that will take off some of those cost increases, but primarily maintenance operations will take the brunt of it. So, I just I just want to point out that when you're talking about the increase for enterprise, the enterprise portion is saying that um nutrition services will pay the increase for their workers and community ed will pay the increase for their workers. Correct. That's correct. Out of out of the
053money that they receive. That's correct. That's correct. And then as part of this um kind of uh a little bit to your question too, Mr. Thompson, we as we did in the current year. Last year, you made a recommend we made a recommendation to you that we would like to award a what was it? Was it 3% increase last year? I can't even remember now. 2% or 3% last year. It was 2% 2% last year. And then if we were successful with the override though, that we would um go ahead and pay a stipend in December and January. So, we were able to do that that stipend in December and January. So, comparable to that, if we can beat that, 1300 um ADM loss, if we only have a,000 or even less than that of
054loss, then we would like to recommend to you today that that we that you award a 1% pay increase on January 1st. It would wouldn't be retro. We would just start it January 1st, but of course, it would be ongoing then because it's a pay increase. And um so then the it would result in a two and a half percent pay increase for next year overall. So and just note that all these values include all the payroll benefits to include social security, Arizona State Retirement, etc. And then um and then on the on the gifted and ELLTE, it all also includes their medical benefit increase as well. So any questions on this? So what happens if let's say we have a a thousand student loss next year and we award this 1% beginning January 1st
055and then the following year we have a greater than anticipated loss. do we take it away um at that point in time and you'll see when we get to the budget balancing thing but note that that we all in leadership team have been working really hard over the last couple of years to rightsize Gilbert public schools so that we have the right number of teachers and the right number of paras and the right number of administrators accounting for the student loss. So if that were to happen and we lost more um then we have to rightsize going into next year. We'd have to reduce more of that FTE. So to date um we haven't had to go through a reduction in force process. We've had natural attrition um that allows us to to be able
056to just um reduce FTE without having to have anybody lose their their jobs that they didn't want to lose. So, um I think that's the best way to I think yeah, I think attrition would be it. And I think um where we're at in our district over time, you're going to see more people retiring because of where we grew uh years ago and and the kind of the boom in Gilbert public schools. Those folks are getting to that 25 30 year mark and they're retiring. And so it is easier to make that mark. When Bonnie comes in and we're budgeting, she's like, I I need I I'm going to need like 40 less teachers or 60 less teachers. And OTM looks at her and says, "Yep, we can we can probably get there." But that's
057more or less from resitations and retirements. And so, uh, this happens every single year. And, um, OTM just kind of cringes when Bonnie comes in saying, "Here's my number." Because OTM at the same time is saying, "We want the biggest pay increase we can get." We all are saying that. And so, um, you know, it it it ends up being that number and and if we're if we do better than what we project, then we try to give as much of that back to our employees as we can. So, thank you. Okay. Okay. So, the budgetary savings, so decrease of personnel due to fewer students. So, in order to to achieve that $4 million savings, um, we need to reduce 44 FTE. And I looked at Missy and Sean and Joyce yesterday and said, "So,
058do I got it?" They said, "Yes." Okay, terrific. And then, uh, vacancy turnover savings. So, because our I think I shared with you that for many of the years in which we've recalculated the average teacher salary, we've seen that it has gone down. the average teacher value has gone down from what we projected from taking the average and increasing it by 2% or 3%. So what that says is that we're calculating the value of the pay increase based upon teachers that are here today and many of those teachers are not returning next year because they're retiring. And so there is a vacancy savings or a turnover savings where we might be replacing some of those teachers but maybe at a$10,000 or $15,000 per year savings because newer teachers are not making the same as our
059more experienced teachers. So we've seen a growth in our budget balance carry forward the last couple of years. And so in speaking with Lauren and with Jackie, we believe that there's probably $1.5 million of that what we consider onetime money that really is ongoing because it really represents the vacancy savings associated with teachers um turning over overtime. So we're putting out $1.5 million on the plus. And then finally, um, and I I shared with with the leadership team yesterday that it and we've achieved almost another half a million dollars of savings because of the decrease in Arizona State Retirement, which is good. So, we're putting all those in the plus column. So, this is our total budgetary increase need to include everything I just shared with you. So, again, we're starting at a deficit budget
060over budget of $3 million. total non-discretionary increases is 2.37. Remember that I am assuming that Prop 123 will be funded at least for next year. Um and then the English language learner and gifted teacher FTE additions 1.1 million, the pay increase recommendation 5.7 million about and then projected projected ongoing savings of just under 6 million. So our total budgetary deficit after all of this is about 6.14 million. So then your next question will be well how are you going to fund that right? How are you going to fund that finance team? How are you going to find that money? We don't find money. We just calculated. Well, how are you going to move the money around to make it work? Um, so, so pay increases, minimum wage increase funded by other funds, that's about $430,000.
061Uh, the classroom site fund contribution. I shared that um that we feel comfortable because our allocation went up by $50 per student, which amounted to what did you calculate, Jackie? In terms about $ 1.5 million increase. So both the both the um the new teachers the English language learner teachers as well as the gifted teachers will be 100% funded out of classroom site fund and then the pay increase for all those that are eligible for classroom site fund will be born by classroom site fund. So the M portion is for all of us as administrators um for any of our transportation operations personnel, technology personnel, all those will be funded um out of M as most of our hourly workers. So um the total of ongoing is 5.13. We do need uh about a million
062dollars of one-time money, budget balance carry forward, possibly the Arizona State Retirement Prepaid that we still have sitting there growing. Um we left it kind of open because we wanted the flexibility to determine the best thing to do. So keep in mind that today, in just a year and a half, we've earned over $2.3 million in interest on that $20 million prepay in Arizona State Retirement. So, at that kind of a rate, we'd like to keep it in there as long as possible to continue to get that. But anyway, we'll we'll be sharing some of the details when we get into the budget proposed and the budget adoption. Well, and also, uh, this group is very good at pinching pennies. So at the end of the year, although we project we might need a million
063dollars from the budget balance carry forward to balance the budget when we close all the books out, it usually is that we don't have to use that money that we've been able to. Well, that's true because even in the current year, partly due to that, but also because we beat the bogey and we actually only lost about a,000 um ADM instead of 1,200. We didn't have to move the $2 million out of district additional assistance into M. So, we were able to fix that as well. So, yeah, but we have to start the year with a balanced budget, right? We can't assume anything and so we're just trying to be as conservative as as possible. Any questions on that? So, we are balanced with this proposal. So risks and opportunities again I've already shared the
064legislature is not done. The aggregate expenditure limit is still looming not for the current year. What has been the practice is as the governor before the governor signs the budget she um requests that the legislature already waves the aggate expenditure limit for this for the current year. So that was done last um last session for the 2025 year. So, we don't have to worry about any cuts looming in the current year, but it's still out there for next year. There hasn't been a permanent fix. Um, we could lose, as you asked, um, Mr. Thompson, we could lose more than 1,300 students. The legislature might not adopt the governor's budget, and so we might see some additional reductions. Um, Proposition 123, I already shared about that. It does expire June 30 of 2025. Inflationary increase to
065the base could be less. statute says that class that um the base shall be increased by the lesser of inflation or 2%. So if inflation comes in at 1.8 or something like that then the the base increase would only be 1 point potentially only 1.8 depending upon what the legislature decides. And then u minimum wage increases more than projected um right now um at a 2 and a half% minimum wage increase. We actually will not have to um increase our wages January, but we did um put in about 300,000 I think as a precaution um in that budget balancing to make sure that we did have available funds if we did have to put in a minimum wage increase. And then uh just with all of the information regarding tariffs and the fear that prices
066are going to skyrocket, there might be some unexpected large inflationary increases as well. But note that the budget does include about um a half million dollars to account for that also. Opportunities there could be increases in student counts from projection which we did realize in the current year. Legislature could approve greater increases in funding. They have done that um the last six years. they have it come back with some significant increases and then costs could absolutely stabilize or decrease depending upon what happens in the world. So um this is just a reminder pay increase recommendation is action item number 7.02. So um and the presentation is also included on that action item. And then um Mr. Macintosh asked me to include this uh employee contract schedule. So, for support staff, the um the notice of
067appointments have not gone out yet. And so, on April 14th, those are going to be launched and with your approval, they will include the 2% pay increase. All the administrator, professional staff, and um teacher contracts have already gone out. So, by May 2nd, we will update all those with an addendum to the contract showing their new salary for next year with a 2% pay increase. if you approve um the recommendation. And that's all that we have. I have one question. Does the 2% increase does that um does that include like the base salary for a teacher going into the public schools? So, that's a great question. So, um, we had a compensation study done, um, that, um, OTM participated with a lot of other of our neighboring school districts back four years ago. Uh, 2017,
068I think it was. It was It was No, it was it was 21 20 19 20. It was 20. It was 2020. It was 2020. Okay. Anyway, the recommendation from the consultant that was hired by this consortium of school districts said that every time you offer a pay increase, you should increase the base by half of it. So, the base salary for our teachers, we're anticipating we will increase by 1%. So, all the bases across will be increased by 1% across the entire gradation scheme, whether it's for teachers or administrators or support staff for the new ones coming. for the new ones coming in partially because we want to avoid compression as well. So we don't want to have somebody being newly hired at the base rate and having a salary at the same or
069a little bit more than somebody who's been here for a while. So we've been pretty consistent about trying to avoid that. Thank you. Yeah. Any other questions? I don't have any questions but fabulous job. Fabulous. I was riveted. I really was. And I really appreciate the 2% increase. That is that is really good news. I feel like we we've really made significant gains. So, thank you. Thank you very much. Uh we will now adjourn our work study portion of our meeting and move on to our brief board business meeting, which I will call to order at this time, and ask Miss Wilson to perform a roll call. You want me to do it for you? Mr. Chad Thompson here. Miss Shaina Murray here. Dr. Blake Robson here. Mr. Jesse Brainer here. Mrs. Jill Humphre here.
070Hello. Everybody's here and I counted four. You're welcome, Gab. Thank you. We have a quorum. Uh agenda item number six, the consent agenda. Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda as it is outlined on tonight's agenda? 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 it is outlined on tonight's agenda, please do so by saying I. I. I. Any opposed? Perfect. Thank you. And moving on to our action items. 7.01, Appointment of Adam Stro as principal of Canyon Valley for the 2025 to 2026 school year. Is there a motion? I moved that we appoint Adam Stro as principal of Canyon Valley for the 2025 2026 school year. Thank you, Miss Humphre. Is there a second? Second. Thank
071you, Miss Murray. Uh is there any discussion? I I just wanted to say um had the chance to to meet and have a conversation with Mr. shock and I'm I'm very excited for Canyon Valley, for Gilbert Public Schools. I came away very impressed and and frankly inspired to be a better board member and a better father, and I think he's going to be wonderful. Thank you, Dr. Robersonson. I know that was sincere. Um, I echo Dr. Robersonson's comments and look forward to uh a productive and successful year at Canyon Valley under your uh leadership. Anyone else? Okay, then we'll call for a vote. All those in favor of appointing Adam Stro as principal of Canyon Valley for the 2025 2026 school year, say I. I. Any opposed? All right. Uh we would like to uh
072yeah we'd like to invite uh Mr. Shrock to come up and say a few words and then afterwards we'll take a brief recess so that uh we can offer our congratulations oh you got to turn it on there's a button there Mr. Mr. President, members of the board, Dr. McCord, superintendency, thank you. I look forward to the new adventure and the new chapter at Canyon Valley, and I look forward to sharing with you the successes of the students and uh the families there. I also would be remiss if I did not say thank you to my wife and my my family back there. Um, as you know, education is not just a job, it's a life, and um I'm thankful they're along for the ride of that life. So, thank you guys. And thank you.
073I hope to make you proud. Congratulations. We are proud of you. [Applause] All right, we'll take a a brief recess. Okay. All right, we're going to go ahead and come back to our meeting. I want to give uh Dr. Accord Dr. Accord. That's okay. Dr. McCord a moment before we jump back in. Just wanted to introduce from our Aspire program, Erica Crowley over here. Wave to everybody. Congratulations. Thanks for being here. All right, that's it. All right. Thank you. and Erica, welcome. Uh, moving on to 7.02, recommendation for a 2% pay increase for fiscal year 2026. Is there a motion? So moved. Thank you, Dr. Robersonson. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Mr. Brainer. Uh, is there any discussion regarding the presentation or the recommendation andor the presentation that we heard tonight? Well, I
074think there's been a lot of work put into this and I'm really proud that we can offer this kind of an increase this year. I mean, we work hard to get there and I wish it could be more, but I'm really happy with this. So, yeah, I would just the the same. We we talked about how great the numbers were from the presentation um earlier in the evening, and it's it's because of all these people, and we really do appreciate it. So, thank you. All right, then I will call for a vote. Uh, all those in favor of approving the recommendation for a 2% pay increase for fiscal year 2026 say I. I. I. Any opposed? And that passes unanimously. Nice work. Uh, we are going to uh in a moment I'll be calling for
075a vote to move or a motion to move into executive session. Um, we have two executive sessions tonight and we will adjourn from from we will adjourn this meeting from our executive session. So there's no need to come back in here uh just to adjurnn. So um all right. So once we adjourn for our executive session, anybody that's not required to stay doesn't have to. Uh I will call for a motion for 8.01 01 uh executive session pursuant to ARS15-843A and ARS 38-431.03 A2 to discuss confidential student discipline information uh and records and to consider the hearing officer's recommendation to expel uh student 2425-421. Should I put both of these on the record and one zero? Sorry. Uh and one zero. Thank you. Uh and 8.02 executive session pursu executive session pursuant to uh Arizona
076Revised Statute 15-843A and Arizona Revised Statute 38-431.0382 03 A2 to discuss confidential student discipline information and records and to consider the hearing officer's recommendation to expel student number 2425-1234. Is there a motion? I moved for executive session for these two um purposes. Thank you, Miss Humphre. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Mr. Briner. Uh all those in favor of moving to executive session say I. I any opposed? All right. And thank you very much.