001Good afternoon. I'm Jennifer Prebble. I'm the school board chair and we are here this afternoon to do our school budget review. If you would um when you have a moment, please join me for the pledge of allegiance. flags under God, indivisible with liberty, justice for all. All right. And I believe Superintendent Ray is setting up his technology for our budget presentation. this afternoon. Okay. Good afternoon everybody. We're here just to generally we're not taking any action tonight. None of those pieces will happen. This is more about just review ability to ask questions, make sure that uh we're starting the process. Um, if you remember from the last school committee meeting, we did a budget draft overview, which was this document that we all had at the last school committee meeting. Um, that talked about where
002we where we're starting, what what's our starting point. And so, I just want to review um very quickly a couple of those slides with us uh at the end. And starting with revenue. So one of the toughest pieces for our budget here is that we start off a little bit in the hole from 0.1 because we know that we had a reduction of over $260,000 in state subsidy from the formula. So you're starting from a catchup point in that. When we look at our expenses, we know that our expenses throughout the district are up 4.3%. And there's a list of the items of where that will be from each school to tuition to technology to curriculum and all of the cost centers that make up in to that $2 million. That doesn't mean that we're
003necessarily buying $2 million worth of stuff. We know that a majority of that is salaries, benefits, utilities. And what we've put together um for you guys tonight is something that's very simple because this is a budget process and a budget that I guess somebody who lives this every single day. A very simple budget for us to understand where the costs are coming from. And we will have our principles come up and it will give you an opportunity to ask questions. you've had an opportunity to look at the detailed budget either on paper form or online. But as you can see on this sheet that you'll ask that our budget is salaries, benefits, and tuition. Um, and so when you look at a total increase of a prek budget of $80,000, knowing that 58,000 of that
00480 is salaries and health insurance, there's very little left that is actually controlled by the school. And so I'd like to start off with welcoming preK, young, and Fairfield school leaders to come up to the table. We can go to the other document now. And please feel free to ask them any questions throughout this piece. But Wendy, I'd like you to start. You're you're a new principal here. So, we're going to put the new principal on the hot seat. Okay. Um, and Wendy, can you just talk a little bit about the process that you used as you put through the budget um, together, what you did in your schools, how the review process went, and um, then really we'll talk with all of you about what's in your budgets. We'll go down through the line.
005Um, so Wendy, thank you, Jeremy. Welcome. Um, so we started the budget process with reviewing the budget from last year and then teachers also create a budget of what they need for um the next instructional year. We start that in November. Those are all um compiled and reviewed by me and then we we sort of piece the budget together. But I feel like as my first experience with this, it's very fluid. Um, so we didn't really have other than consumables, teachers don't really have to add much to their to their budget each year. Um, from that process, I feel like I learned a lot about every single line in this budget. Um, and so just reviewing that with other administrators and going over it to present to Mr. Ray and um, just to make sure
006that every line is accounted for. And we didn't really add anything I said, like I said, other than consumables. Um, and I I think that's it. And and here we are. and we're hope hoping that it all goes through and we can have everything that we've had before and and proceed till the next school year. So when we take a situation like Fairfield School um and again some of this stuff not I know that you have this paper in front of you but part of this is to inform the public of the process that we go through is that when you look at the increase of Fairfield school and the operating expense and that includes technology pieces that are in there that includes maintenance that is in there that includes special education salaries benefits all
007of those pieces that go up, you'll see that Fairfield Schools uh overall budget increased $116,000 and you say, "Okay, $116,000, that's a fair amount of change." But then you go down and you look at negotiated wages, health insurance, taxes you pay on your employees that are there, your main state retirement costs. And you see that it's really 117. The entire piece is made up just by salaries and benefits. The entire increase. So in order to have it be that low, maintenance and utilities cost went up $28,000. So, in essence, when you look at the purchased items, the things that Wendy and her staff have control over, we're actually have a budget that is down $31,000 in that building from the things that we really don't have control over. Now, when you look at maintenance and
008utilities cost, you say, "Oh, Jeremy, that that seems like a lot for one building, 28,000. Did fuel really go up that much?" It's important for you to understand that items like the payment for the new doors that we have for uh revolving renovations that we had last year, that payment's hitting the books in that line. So, the picture that you will hear a million times here tonight and the public will hear at home is that these costs are salary and benefits. I would say that also um one of the things as we kind of worked on last year's budget with that truthfully being my first experience full experience in the SACO budget because the first year it kind of came on a little bit late and we used a a much different process last year
009is that we are starting to be able to refine some of the budgeting pieces that we have a little bit more history uh and we have some more comfort level on. So, I'd like to just go down the line with Jeff and then J just talking a little bit briefly about their budget and and what's there. Uh, and then I'd really like it to open it up to any questions from you folks to the principles. Hi everybody. Hope you guys got a chance to over take a look at the budget. Um, you know, like Wendy said, we, you know, went through a process together. Um we in my second year just looking back I really wanted to look at what are our needs you know did we overspend anywhere from the year before um and
010then what I realized is we if you know maybe control over about four or five% of the budget so we we try to keep it as bare bones as we can and really think about the needs we have um and really um just try to come back come to the point where we're not going to be wasteful you you know, we're we're in charge of a building and taxpayers depend on us to make wise decisions and I'm a taxpayer myself, so I understand like, you know, the responsibility of that. So, we really just wanted to make sure we were coming in giving teachers what they need, but not going um over budget, really thinking about um if there was any waste. So, we did, I think, the best we can. So, I'm hopeful that this
011is, you know, going to be good enough for you guys because I we really put a lot of thought into this and there's a lot of energy there and there's just not much more that I feel like we can take off. So, that's just my thing. Hello everyone. So, like Wendy and Jeff said, um there's a process that we follow starting off by reviewing last year's budget. Um what we did at prek this year was when their teachers put submitted their budgets, they um prioritized everything. So I knew what they really felt they needed that they absolutely had to have to get through the year. Um items that would be nice but weren't wholly necessary. And then they had their wish list items. So I was then able to go through and kind of cull
012the list from there. So, our final product that we put forward is is mostly all of those consumables, those, you know, your markers, your crayons, paper, all of that sort of thing. That is what we um submitted to Jeremy and you today. Thanks. And I think that when you also look at the um costs in J's budget, um when you look at that maintenance and increase cost, that increase cost is because the lease goes up about $6,000 uh for that building. Jason, are we over $300,000 yet on the but 289? So with that scenario, you know, a big portion of that prek budget is $289,000 lease of total in um luckily we're able to recoup about $81,000 of that through um are applying for lease space uh through the state and that comes back through
013the EPS formula. It's important for us to remember that there's a five-year cap on that. Um and we're on year three of getting that money back. So, we've got two more to get at least some of that back through that process. That's 81,000. Um, because they do like $8 a square foot. How many years How many years do we have left on that lease? Two after uh next year and one more. Correct. Yes. This would be year three there on that lease. Um, we can pull it up on there, but I believe there's two years remaining next year and one other and that's all we can pull for the reimbursement anyway. Correct. So, then we're in the pickle of then we'll have to look at the resources that we have in the district. Um, you
014know, I think that we'll have those conversations about what will be the best educationally and what will make sense. Um what will be interesting uh is that we will also hopefully be within a year and a half, two years of opening new buildings. So there's a lot of that will come together over the next two years as we have those as well probably more a year from now um when we really start looking at what the future will hold. Two more. Okay. Questions for for this group of principles. And I I do want to apologize to the board that we have purposely tried to make it as simple as possible because it's literally in this situation this simple about what's kind of in that budget. The only new positions that we have budgeting for uh
015in this budget is the the 2.5 um ELLL teachers that we currently are employing. uh based off the fact that the students from the hotel uh are new neighbors, we have every indication that that's going to continue. So as it relates to that item, the salary and benefit increase line includes that. Correct. Going back to the expenditure list that we had that was in the presentation before that had those field trips and other things. Where where do those items appear? I know that's been kind of squashed into the simplified version you have here, but just trying to reconcile all other items. Correct, Jason? The field trips that we added field trips will be. Okay. all other expenses. So those amounts would be in those all other expenses amounts even those showing a negative because that's
016just the amount the difference from last year. Right. Correct. Right. I personally I think this looks great. I mean, I know there's you're already running on bare bones and then and I think take away a little bit more and when you think about some of the things that was in in in last year's budget, obviously there was when we we can go back to that review list that the superintendent kind of gets before we presented at this level. Um, when you think of some of the things that we may have removed from that other budget is looking at there was some money there for summer school costs. Well, we've been fortunate last a couple last couple of years um and we have every indication that we will again is to be able to apply and
017receive federal title one reallocation dollars. So, we wouldn't need as much uh funded locally. Um looking at supplies and equipment and some of the the items that were there in the budget that we don't need this year. uh when you look at instructional supplies, we had the math program that was in the budget last year that now, you know, we just need to keep up on, but we don't have to buy all of the teacher sets and all the things that we had done last year. So, there are some places throughout there um that just would naturally kind of fell off because of our purchases uh the year before. So, is this sheet here an updated version of the one in the front of the book? Because my numbers don't match. So, this is school
018by school. Yep. Okay. And there are going to be things that when we get back to a final budget meeting that we are still refining meaning items like still things like ins and like property and casualty insurance numbers that are coming in. We won't know on health insurance. Uh there's a couple of small items that Jason and I have seen that would say, oh, we've got to go up on this or down a little bit on this. We just got the other day, I'd mentioned at the meeting the other night that the night of the presentation, we had just gotten the fuel bid costs that need to be added. So, there are some things that we will have to refine throughout this. Our goal is that it won't create there'll be enough up and downs
019that it'll just balance each other out. Okay. The difference between these numbers though is that the book that's instructional guided health these numbers you're looking at here also include operations it also includes technology it also includes everything that has to do with that one school by department by school. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, cuz I I was like I I read through this whole thing like three times and okay, I was just super confused because these numbers were a lot higher than the spreadsheet on the front. Things like operations, including things like technology, these numbers were budget cover sheet. Those are separated by Okay. And so I had noticed that we were adding um trip transportation trip for each. What was the what was that? Was that part of the Okay. Yep. So, one of the things
020that we did is that we looked at the costs that our PTO's were raising, which doesn't mean they still won't do that, but as we look at the field trips that we have, making sure that there is funding in our budget that doesn't require us asking parents for admission fees or the 10 bucks here or the 15 bucks here. It's about making sure that our trips are funded as an educational experience. um so that there is greater equity across all kids and that there's no kiddo who says you know we don't have it or you know as our kids get older what I worry about is sometimes you don't even want to ask the question at home and so you self- select out of that day of attendance uh to save yourself from the situations
021so I also noticed Um, Mr. Mir, I think this one is you. Um, I also noticed that the computer rented uh equipment leases went down substantially. Um, and I can't seem to find it right here, but I noticed that the printer and fax lease for prek went up. Were those numbers kind of Okay. I was just wondering if those were kind of countering each other. So, the uh lease costs, those go up and down as we get through deployments. Um, we've been uh pretty steady over the course of the years, but this is like a what you would consider like a gap year because we've got a lot of uh money from COVID that we were able to invest into our uh fleet. Um so we didn't have to go out this year and reup
022for another lease because a lot of that money ended up filling that gap. Um as far as the copies are concerned we have a lease payment uh usually due in August u will be in the last I believe the last year of that. Um then we have p u cost per page cost and those types of things. Um for color and black and white copies uh and those fluctuate from year to year uh depending on usage. Yeah. Yeah. We're I I would say, you know, at the elementary level, there's certainly a lot more printing than you might see at like a middle school or or a school that might leverage u more technology. Little kids like to be hands-on. So, Chris will also be working on our copier. We talked the other day, Chris, a
023copy of lease is coming up and uh Chris will be working on a new proposal for that. Okay, why don't we get our next group of individuals to come up? So we will go through the the same piece that we are looking burns uh and SMS and again it's the same story uh that you here and we'll turn this over to the principles a little bit um to talk about the things that were up and down in their budgets. Um so let's go to April. Very similar process. I think we all follow a really similar timeline. In fact, we start in October in our building which um was new for our staff last year. So it became a little easier and more accustomed this year to be thinking, you know, you're just getting to know
024your current population and you're thinking a year out. Um, but it was it was easy to kind of implement this year with the staff because we went through this process last year. Um, and the message that Tom and I give the staff is that you need to be mindful of a year. You need to be a mindful of a year out. Um, and not just put in for $500 in supplies and $1,000 in textbooks that we really wanted to name the items that were necessary. Um, so the staff, you know, really take a true inventory of what their needs are. Um, and and then come back to us. So, uh, that process happens throughout all of a of October. And in November, I have individual meetings with teachers. Some teachers really don't require that meeting
025because I look at the bottom line. I can see what they are. Very minimal. You know, some teachers submitted like $300 worth of supplies and they were pencils and erasers and all of those typical supplies where others might have had newer items in there. So, it was about a meeting and just talking about whether it was a necessity and why. Um, and sometimes we had to take things off the list because it I think um, you know, Wendy talked about or J talked about some of those wishes. And so this isn't the year really for wishes, but is if if it was essential for teaching um, you know, we moved it forward in the budget and presented it to Jeremy. I think the message is really the same from building to building um, from the
026primary right through probably to Marie's school that there isn't really anything new in this budget. there are no new staff. The items would have changed, the titles of books or the kinds of books. Um, you know, we looked at I think one new um book set that's in here is um an intervention program and that's what we did was we took away other items that we would might have typically replaced for students and we're implementing a new intervention um a pilot program for our students who require another layer of intervention in the literacy um room. But essentially, there's nothing new other than the names of items and the kinds of things that are consumable that kids are using all the time and need to be replaced from year to year. But I'm happy to answer
027questions about any um changes, you know, fluctuations or questions that you have about the line items at Burns. Excuse me. Could you explain the intervention piece that you just mentioned a minute ago? So students um receive instruction from their mainstream teacher, all students. Some students require additional support in the area of reading or math. That's not specialized services. That's not through an IEP. Um so they might seek out a one of our specialist teachers, a math or a literacy interventionist. So we don't want to just do more of the same in those classrooms. to really want to take a different approach to the um teaching methodologies that take place. So those are really we're looking for more of a um researchbased intervention and so it's a little bit more scripted program. Usually we try to
028determine is a student you know is there are there deficits in phonics or phmic awareness or or comprehension or fluency and so a program that we might implement with that child or a small group of kids would focus specifically on one skill. And um so the only addition and and really it's minor when you look at a whole big budget. It's you know it's a little over $2,000 for that that program that we're going to be using and it really focuses on phonics approach. We're finding that that's where some of our kids have a deficit. We're imagining that's from lack of spelling instruction over the last couple years when we've been hybrid or remote. So that's kind of where we're putting our emphasis on some of our interventions. Yep. Okay, SMS feel like I'm going
029to sound like a broken record here and just repeat what everyone else has already said, but um as they all mentioned, we go through a similar process where teachers take a look at, you know, the absolute necessities for what they need. I think for us, we're very fortunate because we have brand new furniture um in our building and we were able to, you know, make some changes there last year. Um so even before it got to this point there were cuts made like you know like April said meeting with individual teachers you know is that something that you really need in order for instruction to happen. Um so each of the teachers did that. There is a slight um increase in my budget in terms of the online subscriptions were just shifted. So if you
030notice there is quite a few online subscriptions in my budget that um were in another line prior to this year. But those are all things and in fact we did cut some of them back. took a look at, okay, do we need all of these or can we sort of streamline this? Um, so those are something that you you'll see. That's probably new to my budget, but it is um something we've been using for the past few years. Um, and I would say salaries and benefits, like everyone else said, are pretty much where the increases, but I'd be happy to answer any questions that you have about my specific budget. Uh just briefly, the maintenance, utilities, building costs. I'm guessing that that's the improvements with the increase in that department. It's gone up like $100,000.
031I'm looking at all the wrong people. Yeah, if you see the uh districtwide, there's kind of a shift in accounting essentially. So last year we had the increase for tables and painting. uh we we've essentially put it under districtwide um with some of our other uh maintenance expenses. So what we did and you can't really see with the screen but I I will downshift it here in a minute. You'll see that there's a reduction in the maintenance a 405 in district and there's an increase in Somal Middle School. So, we did reduce some of the um painting and supplies that we had, but then we shifted a lot of our district-wide capital and directed it towards SA Middle School because that's where the focus is going to be over the next year or two. I
032um I part of the librarian section quite a few numbers caught my eye as far as supplies, equipment, non-instructional uh AV materials and equipment. I was wondering if you could give me a brief description on those. Yeah. Which line? Which So it's under um the 2220 the librarian section. So, there's supplies, equipment, non-instructional, which is a $30,500 increase. There's uh AV materials, which is a $12,000 number. And then just below that is a $6,000 equipment. What page, Arty? It is 23. That's a 23. I'm sure we've talked about it. I just wanted to recap. Uh because we have a different because we have the full budget. I think he's referring to the the binder on page 23. Yeah, I I got I would have the item right here. There's a really long number in front
033of one of them. I can give you read me that number. That would help me. It's a bunch of zeros. 2230 56 600-040. That's AV materials. So, the the AV cost that you see there, um, several years ago, uh, when we we looked at the middle school, we implemented a three-year plan to put in projectors across essentially three grades of common learning spaces. um with the idea when we went to the new school project several years ago, we'd get to the end of life and we'd, you know, be in a new school. Now we're at a point where that that's well past its like end of life and now we've got another, let's say, four years of possible, you know, where we have to kind of look at things. Um, so, um, the middle school
034were trying to look at phasing in another grade level of of whether it's a projector or interactive board or what have you. So, this is that number you see is that first phase in of some type of equipment. It may be a TV, it may be something, but we I'm going to let the educational leaders of the building decide that. But that's the why we have that year mark of like 12 grand. Do you know Um, what line is it? Uh, general supplies. I'd have to look at the the itemized piece of the budget. Yeah, let me let me look real quick. But the AV line is that would be the AV line for the 12. I don't know what the six would be without checking back on my book. Yeah, like I said, I'm
035just curious because there's no previous numbers on any of those lines. It just says Yep. So there's there's two locations in the building. Um one of the areas we're trying to really ramp up at especially middle school is our security of our building. Um, looking at what I use for my budget piece, there's a 3000 for an extra card reader at um, it's a back entrance probably closer to where the pickle ball court is or the handball court. Um, where we don't currently have a reader. Um, and then the other one uh would be uh putting in a a basically a button. Uh, if you needed to lock all the doors in the district or in the building, you could do that with one click of a button. So, that would be the six grand.
036And in this budget, we're really trying to improve the quality of our cameras around the district. Um, just knowing that we've got four or five years left and they are an important tool for us, uh, each and every day. Uh, still have a few spots in the middle school we'd like to have covered a little bit more. Um, and so that's been something Chris has really been working on is trying to make sure that we have an upgraded system. Well, it's the only school we know we're keeping, so I have no problem putting money into it. I just uh has anybody figured out the supply the $30,000 for supplies? Yep. Okay. Okay. I'm making notes. I'm making notes. as we look at the SMS building and I know that maintenance and utilities both sits at
037SMS and as a district-wide cost because you'll see that kind of big negative sitting um on the district-wide cost. We looked at obviously we had purchased a lot of the desks and chairs that the city council had put forward. Um, and the additional painting. Just want to roll through items that we still have a half a million dollars in that uh budget. Uh, actually six, sorry, $600,000 in that budget uh for capital improvements. Uh, and I just want to bring up that list. was the uh principal one on the SMS for the roof. No, that would be for the door project there as well. All right. So when we look at capital spending for next year, we will have the roof done. We are looking at only one section of that roof. As if you
038remember correctly, we have the air handlers that will be going on as as part of the ventilation project. And what we're looking at right now is whether we can set that roof up so that they can install on top of kind of I don't want to say a foundation on the roof, but curbing on the roof so that we don't have to puncture that again. or if it's best to leave this very small section, a couple hundred square foot foot foot intact until next summer after they've installed um and done all of the work on the roof. that's they're working with the engineers um and the ventilation uh kind of contractors because we're talking about a small section, but want to make sure that don't really want to puncture that roof after we've replaced that
039um or reflash any of those places. So, that's the decision that's out there, but that roof piece will be done um after this. We are also looking at the entrance way to the front of that building. One of the things that we're really trying to do is that when you have guests inside the VI, you know, you have to enter the building at SMS to be at the office. Whereas in a lot of the schools like take burn school for example, people can go to the office without kind of walking into the building. So, we're looking at uh a couple of options of how we can install some different doors um kind of just past where the gym there's a set of fire doors if you're on the gym side and ones coming down the
040stairs so that during the school day those could remain locked and that our students would be able to walk around the back half of the office so that they're not necessarily mixing in with uh any of the public during that. And so we have a price set in there for that. Another piece um that we have at the middle school in the budget as part of the $500,000 is new bleachers. Um, currently the bleachers at SMS are the older wood style bleachers that you flip up the bottom and couple of people go on either side if they don't use a machine and you pull those out and those are a high place for workers comp is use um functioning in and out. Those would be original bleachers. And so having um a new set of
041bleachers that you have a warranty on, you have uh maintenance plans on, it would be great to replace those. Uh those would be kind of the push button in and out situation. Uh that's about $130,000. Um that would go to that. Other items that we're looking at at the middle school is, if you can kind of remember our u, for lack of better words, foods and nutritions program. Um, a lot of original equipment is in there. Um, and it's time to upgrade that. Um, looking at some, again, just doorways and entrances, making sure that we're keyed properly, we're secured, that everything is swipe card access. um in those buildings and then just continuing with painting to finish off those interior rooms, not just the hallways. Um all of those pieces that uh need to be
042done. Um so I think that we're the end of a couple of years already. We're going to when that building's still standing, we're going to be in, you know, fairly good shape up there of making sure that we've funneled uh a good amount of capital dollars into that building. So, um it's something that we can look at and say, okay, we have been doing this piece. Um but that does in put a big decrease on the maintenance and utilities in some of the other items. Okay. Any other questions for these folks? Thank you. [Music] So the next piece would be special education transportation and districtwide which would be uh Jess and Jason would be representing those pieces. Uh also in districtwide um would be any techn if you had any more technology questions. This is
043where Chris could come in, but he does flow throughout the school buildings. All right. So, our budget process follows similarly except uh instead of the teacher sending it to a building, um all the district teachers send their documents to me. Um, so I go through line by line every budget request and then go back and forth with teachers to uh really look at how we're combining things to make uh prices a little bit better. Um, a lot of our things are moving to electronics. Um, so we've had a lot of cost savings there. And just when we have the ability to look district-wide at all of the requests, it's enabled us to do a lot of um shifting. Um, I mentioned the curriculum that we're using. um the psychological services all shift online. So, there's
044a lot of ways that we can um put savings together. Um we aren't asking for any new positions. We're actually um looking to figure out where the best places for the teachers are that we have um and making sure that the kids that need the services um are getting the services they need. Uh the consumables uh the supplies and books are just basically as others have referenced as well. It's just things that get updated. Um, our kids usually need a couple workbooks if they're working in a grade level classroom. So, those are the types of things that get um get used every year. And that's the that's the cost you're looking at. I'll start, excuse me, I'll start with transportation next. Uh, transportation, you see that there's a very minimum increase. It's the salary and
045benefits. Uh this budget does reflect five new bus leases in them. Luckily um I'm not sure if anybody remembers about four years ago we were also approved um to basically drill out six um of our buses engines and we were able to get $20,000 off. So we actually had a large lease payment of six buses that are falling off this year. So you will not see an increase to our budget. Kind of worked out perfectly as we have been approved uh for additional six buses for next year. the state. So, we will um be looking to increase our fleet. Uh we will have to add about $35,000 to transportation. We were notified about two weeks ago um with the the new lock in price for diesel and gasoline. Um and then after we calculated how
046many gallons we use on an annual basis for both, it's going to come out to about an additional 35,000 than what we currently have in budget. So, that will be an increase as we move forward. uh speak quickly on the districtwide. It kind of includes it includes your central office. It includes the school board's budget. It includes um your E. So why there's a large salary and benefit increase right there. Those reflect those additional positions. We already talked a little bit about the maintenance reductions and the other expenditures. That was kind of a shift from our capital improvements. We have we have increased uh legal fees. Um trying to think of anything else specific to the districtwide. Mainly the largest increase to that is the uh e positions that we didn't have budgeted. So So
047just for notes, more detailed notes on districtwide. When you think about the amount of money that you have for capital projects districtwide, that first April that we came on, we made changes to the budget. We put a half a million dollars. Last year, city council added another $600,000 to that. What we have remaining in that is $600,000 plus we added some carryover funds. And those carryover funds are 101 uh sorry 131,306. That's our kind of estimated cost of what bleachers by the time you have install maintenance uh debris disposal of the others and we have that offset with a revenue. So in another year, the revenue would go away because we have uh carryover right now and that cost would go away. So essentially we have $600,000 for repairs in this budget to complete the
048roof piece, the doorway system, other items that would come up um in that in that school or the schools around us. So, you're saying that'll clear out that bud that that account, if you will? No, we actually will still have three or $400,000 in our capital account plus any plus any carryover that we would have in this budget. But if you look at the revenue sheet, what he's referring to there too though, it will that 131,000 of additional revenue will be taken off as well as the expense for the following school year. So I was just curious about uh in regards to transportation um there is a 400% increase on the purchase transportation services. I was wondering if you could go over that real quick. Yeah, that's um transportation for our new neighbors for back
049and forth to Portland. Uh also in the um communication part of the office of the superintendent, there is an online software subscription for $19,600. What was that one? So that one is aptagy. Um so let me give you a good example of how uh there's some differences in our software. So right now we have a software that you receive the phone call home and it starts with Chris's great voice telling you to hit one if you want to hear this important message from the school department. The other night when we do school cancellations, it's Meg and myself and I'm handling some. Meg's handling saco. I have ag in Bifford Dayton which allows me to go to a screen, type my message, boom, hit send, it posts to all Facebook, Twitter immediately. It sends the text
050message. It sends the voice call and when I hit send on that within 10 seconds or Dayton school department's text message has already hit my phone andor called. In our situation that we have here, Meg will say just hit send. It was over four minutes for her phone to ring with that call and I was approximately my for my kids another seven minutes getting it on my end from Megs. So when we think about those emergency situations, we want to be instantaneous. And one of the people, you know, people will kind of joke in either district like, "What? You cancel us last or you cancel us first?" Nope. It's all the same time. It's just the technology that we're using. Um, and so this just allows us to to push things to places all at
051one time instead of going on to the SACO Facebook page and putting the message there and then going to Burns or some of those others. Do it all at one time. This will integrate um with our web pages so that we'll have that ability to have Twitter feeds there on the side and all of those things. Um, and it's just speed when we think about having to send communications out and being consistent. Just need that speed. I don't know. I like I have three phones. I like getting Meg's phone call three different times in the course of an hour. It's kind of nice. No. Is that a uh onetime subscription or is that a yearly premium or? So that that amount will go down over time um in that in that because there's a setup
052fee that comes in the first year a couple $5,000 right uh and then that cost will go down. Another subscription that you will see in our budget that is a software subscription is approximately $10,000 in there for what is called share 911. Um, and that will give us the ability to go from our phones automatically and share with people in the district if we need to be in lockdown, students having a health emergency, etc. Um, and those will integrate with police and fire so that if we're having our worst day ever, um, we know that we're not being held up by phone calls or people in the office or, you know, making those calls out. Uh, I tried finding it, but I wasn't enabled. Um, the bus ride app, what was the premium on that
053this year? Uh, Jesus 14 14,000 getting a deal on that or uh yes we actually do get a deal on that because we have bought in with about 60 or 70 other subscriptions so we are paying the lower fee through that. Yep. And let me just make sure because I can. So, excuse me. Bus rate is uh 215. Sorry. With all the buses, it's like uh 17 something. Uh I It's a number per tablet. 600 and something per tablet. Me, I'm going to put you in the hot seat. Do you know happen to know where in here I could find that? Yeah, that'd be under transportation cost. page 374 on the big budget if you're looking online at 3 337. So if you go to the online one 1337 another subscription that uh just as
054we talk about software and pieces talking points um for any of you who've had that that's about a $9,300 charge and that's a software that allows us to communicate um with all families but it gives us that ability to have translation um that would send to by email or phone. Um, that's a pretty important one um to make sure that we have especially with such a large increase in our ELLL population that we have this year that's on that same page already 337 on the big book. I guess next year I'll just ask for the whole book. You want you you want the big book? It is online. It is online RC if you want it. I appreciate the effort. Okay. Lastly, um last uh page that is on there is tuition. Last block is
055tuition. Um, so I do think that we should discuss this one a little bit because obviously that has been an area in the past where making sure that we have enough students planned for is important while also knowing that we have some possible fluctuate uh fluctuation with uh the children, our new neighbors that are in the hotel, which at this point I believe is 23meg the at TA. So keep that number of like 20 students in your mind as well that those necessarily had that those students not been at the hotel those wouldn't have been there. Um we are putting in 890 students which is the same number that we have this year. When we look at um the number of kids, class sizes. So on Each month we get an enrollment update from TA
056and when we started the year we were at 872 on September 1st went to 869 on 101 we went up to 871 on 864 and on March uh 1st we are at 859. So about 10 students different from the October one enrollment. As we look at those pieces and we look at next year's students, that is where we come back with including students from the hotel. We would be right at that 870. And so we have a buffer of less than two of of 2%. I think that's the piece that's a big decision for the board. Do we feel comfortable with that? Do we not? So much can change. um not necessarily a ton of housing stock, but we can be assured that pretty much anytime a home in some of our developments goes up
057for up for sale, those typically are replaced uh with families that are students, I know the other day that I was talking to somebody in town who said, "Oh, yeah, just the house across the street just sold and there's two kids that are moving in from another district to that um to that house and that was a house without kids because their kids had grown and gone off to school or workforce or whatever. So, what do you guys feel about what that buffer should look like? So just from a number standpoint, if we increase that above the number that we have, we're talking about increasing the budget for essentially phantom students at this point in time. Correct. I think it's pretty safe where we are because I do think that that the hotel situation um
058has the ability to put all elementary kids in there. But on the other hand, uh it would have the ability to have students that could attend there. Then it was really as we worked with uh the state and Catholic Charities last year, one of the things that they did do is once kiddos kind of moved in after that September, October, they worked really hard not to add more kids as families moved around throughout the year. But they did Meg, how would they did say the other day that that's going to kind of reset this summer? Yeah, they said essentially as they look to the summer, that's a perfect time for families that have school age children to transfer. So it won't be the same like clean slate x number moving in at once. So that
059will be helpful for us. But as families transition, they don't have any non-schoolage children families to prioritize anymore. They've already placed those. So, as families find permanent housing, it's more likely than it was in the past that those families that transition in would have school age children. So, that's just a that's a a probably call on your end. I think you're fine, but I also I know that that has been a when that has we've estimated low in the past that becomes a a like why did you estimate low um situation? What would a 1% difference change the budget? I know that's a loaded question. $130,000 because it we're talking 2% over right now. Right. Right. So, if you went to 3%, you're gonna you're gonna add another 10 students times the amount at 13
060something,000, right? I mean, it's it's about 10 students times $13,000. It's it's an easy one. So just from the standpoint of not putting not not making a change to the number and staying with it because we feel comfortable with it. What is what typically occurs and I'm asking the question because I I kind of already know the answer but what typically occurs if suddenly we are over by that 10 is it something similar to what occurs with MAT when it goes up in the middle of the year and that we we just you know the expectation is that the amount gets paid correct amount gets paid we make sure that throughout our budget we you know are timing things just like uh you You know, again, we know that we have a a good amount
061for capital improvements in there. I think we would always play it safe and make sure that we're not doing every single one of those and that line be spent by uh you know December when you get that number so that you have a place there. You look at the savings that occur throughout the year is obviously people come and go and and people retire and whatnot and sometimes there's a salary savings there. uh and you continue to refine and what you know I think what people don't always realize is that a lot of your best budgeting is is done right after during that summertime as you look at things and you look at costs and you find deals and um that's where you can make a lot of moves in the summer and September to
062find savings. Um the other piece that we have and this will be something that um school committee and council as we look at the carryover that you have what you choose to do with those carryover funds that is in the positive side meaning Kevin that could be put in a undesated account that could go towards anything or you guys as a school committee could put that into a designated account and say, "Hey, look, this is for um capital improvements or student tuition growth." That that appears uh and know that you have that that sum of money as a safety net. But absent doing something like that where we would be making some midyear or early adjustment of some kind, correct? In September or October when we get a surprise And Jason, we have not gotten
063the estimates on special education yet. Correct. So, special education uh tapes could also be come into play up or down. I think that we feel like we uh budgeted the same amount as last year, which was a little high. And I think that we feel okay about that. So I think one of the questions that we know we have a couple of things coming up. First is we give this we give our presentation to the city council next week and obviously it's a balancing act between city and school of you know thinking about the cost of all municipal and school services on the taxpayers. But I think you know kind of our pieces as we start going through this is thinking about where our own individual com uh comfort level is going to be um
064and matching that with the city and you know beginning to get that feedback and communication with city council about where we are feeling good. Um this is a situation that holds everything where we're at. Um can there be surprises in the summertime? Well, of course, because we had one last summer. Um, but I think that we were able to navigate that piece uh pretty well. Um, but as we start thinking about the setting of that tax and mill rate, that's kind of the comfort level that we need to do so that there is some direction of either Jeremy, go this way and tell us what you think the impact would be or go this way and tell us what the impact would be. Um, we will get the ups and downs of health insurance probably
065at the end of the month. We'll get the it won't be any more than this, which will obviously lead us in one direction. Um, looking at our experience rating though, I I don't think that we're going to see a reduction in health insurance under the 10% that we put in there. I just I don't see it. Um, you know, and if it's a percent percentage point here or there, you're talking percentage points is around the $30,000 range. Um, so if it goes down 1%, you'd be able to save about 30,000ish, 35ish. Um, I don't see that there would be a big reduction there. Uh obviously you could look at the expenditures that we put in there uh for field trips, but I think having greater equity is something that we need to um really think
066about. Um you would have had a bigger savings um had we not had six buses be offered to be paid for by the state or five buses. Um so we kind of just filled that hole, which is a good thing. you don't want to turn away subsidy uh for new buses as we move forward. Um but really unless we want to consider adding things or eliminating things um could we deal with a hundred less thousand say in capital projects? We could. Could we use uh a little bit more of a carryover if we chose to? We could. Um, one item that is there, uh, and you'll notice on your revenue sheet that we have booked revenue for main care at $100,000 lower. Main care rates have changed. Billing has been held back. Uh, until we
067feel more comfortable than on those numbers, I don't feel like we should be at the same level till we see it on paper that we're receiving that much. Um, and those rate increases could help us. Um and then we also know that we will be uh working on a new teachers contract um for salaries and benefits which will start up on Monday. Any other questions for Superintendent Ray? All right. Anything else we need to go over? No. So, I look forward to we have a joint meeting on Monday night. Um hopefully we'll have budget uh and another item on construction on that agenda. Um as we continue to move forward on this piece. Um, I do think that when you when we talk to the public, people will say this, "Well, that wasn't a very
068exciting meeting, and I think that we continue to point them to this one document, which we will add to the presentation and to the slideshow because it really says it all that this is salary and benefits, tuition, and utilities. All right. Well, thank you for reviewing the budget with us and we will look forward to our meeting with the city council. Thank you. Have a good night, everyone. Thank you.