001well I'll call the meeting to order I guess already did that with the pledge and Mary Joe hello good to see you again um I'll approval today's agenda look for a motion to approve and a second is there any discussion all right seeing none all those in favor signify by saying I I oppose the same sign all right agenda approved uh no action items so we're right into our study session we got some excited ladies tonight to speak to us come on up okay good evening Schoolboard chair clot superintendent cren principal Larson and I are excited to be here tonight to share a literacy update with you um as you are aware we adopted a K5 English language arts curriculum are and are in our first year of implementation and so we are here to
002present a midyear review um on that literacy um curriculum the contents of our presentation tonight will be an overview of the literacy block what core instruction looks like in our K5 classrooms principal Larsson will share highlights K5 at from haverson elementary and then we will also share some challenges that we're facing in year one of implementation and how we're responding to those challenges to start off uh you heard me speak uh last year relate uh in relation to knowledge building and what a knowledge building curriculum is uh our adoption of the K5 wit and wisdom program is a knowledge building curriculum uh which means it looks at really fostering a deep comprehension and critical thinking skills by really immersing students in Rich content around various subject areas kinder Garden through fifth grade in the wit
003and wisdom curriculum um covers multiple disciplines not just literacy us students are also exposed to social study standards through the content as well as science standards through the content so it really looks at making connections between those different disciplines and really enhancing their ability to synthesize that information not just in their literacy block but when they have uh when they've had that exposure carrying it over to to other content areas throughout their day um and then I've spoken to the content Rich materials and you'll hear principal Larson share about how our students at hson elementary are really becoming engaged and motivated Learners and she's really excited to share some of those highlights the second part of our core instruction is Al is our foundational skills our foundational skills um curricul resource is really great reading
004really great reading um really looks at building those strong literacy foundations in kindergarten through 2 grade um really looking at supporting language development in phonics phonemic awareness vocabulary and fluency focusing on helping our youngest Learners become confident um communicators and readers with within the foundational skills we're working to prevent those learning gaps by mastering foundational skills um early so that we can reduce the risk of reading difficulties later if we're intervening early um it is less likely that they will need remediated support later in their Elementary years or throughout their career educational career specific to wit and wisdom I wanted to just share with you what each of the modules covers and you can see at a quick glance um these are the topics within each of them but you can see how they're tied
005to other content areas in kindergarten the five senses can tie to science standards Once Upon A Farm ties to science standards America then and now in the continent social studies standards so not only do they have the exposure to the um Ela English language arts but again that cross-curricular exposure to other standards with other Minnesota state standards as principal Larson is sharing highlights tonight from each of the modules you'll see some of these standout in what she's sharing this evening our intermediate classrooms third fourth and fifth grade again same theme from the sea and outer space to extreme settings that one you'll see highlights tonight from Hatchet and what does it mean to be in the extreme setting of the Wilderness um the red coats are coming social tied to social studies standards uh and
006then just another highlight this evening for fifth grade is going to be on word play which one which is really tied tight to our English language arts standards each module in Whitten wisdom uh takes about uh depending on the pacing we're looking at 6 to9 weeks in the first year of implementation Whitten and wisdom really encourages schools in year one to get through the first three modules they state that if you get through modules one two and three in your first year or two of implementation you will have addressed all of the Minnesota state standards by hitting those three modules right now we are on track to complete modules 1 through three kindergarten through fifth grade and some grade levels will be able to start module 4 um so we're we're on track with a
007year one implementation pacing um but again uh there's some as you'll see later in the presentation we'll talk um some of the challenges that we're working through in order to hit all four modules but that is typical in your first three years of implementation and I'm going to hand over the next session to principal Larson okay what I do yeah that one okay beautiful okay now that I don't empting hi thank you so much for having me here I am so excited to share with you about wit and wisdom the Curiosity the energy in the building the um increased number of students checking out books the conversations that are happening during the cold weather when we had indoor recess they're asking their teachers if they can please do more Whitten and wisdom like how incredible
008is that they're asking for it when it's not even their time to have it so um it really takes and inspires students to think more than they typically do in our curricular resources that we've had in the past um kindergarten is um having so much fun they just finished a unit and they um highlighted bjingles and they taped quarters to the bottom of their feet and they did a little tap dance parade like around the school so it's doing these extra things that are bringing it to that next level um the students are um writing about what they're doing in class and they get so excited like and to me I just principal lson and I were in classrooms this week that's a kindergartner engaging in indepth writing she's writing a story that involves sequencing
009so she Drew her picture and now she's writing out the sequence of the story which was so I mean look and look at the smile on her face that was not prompted I just walked around and took pictures um then looking into first grade um writing their conclusion sentence so together as a class they do their topic sentence then they need to find their own evidence and then writing their conclusion to be writing paragraphs Because by the time they're in third grade they'll be writing four paragraphs so that's exciting to see okay now what do I do for this one Darcy will have to click that one for us thanks Darcy oh the video Darcy this is a first grade teacher Ari Anderson um and watch as you watch her teach how she's incorporating more
010vocabulary phonics all these pieces as she her students are so excited to continue to go through um her topic writing you can't hear the student talk but she'll repeat what he is I just wanted to make sure it was up enough no I didn't think so cuz you could hear him a little bit the story that they read was never smile at a monkey but with all these fun titles the fun books the students are just so engaged and excited and are asking for more bummer the it's there she just has to figure out how to get it we starts this fall this school year yeah MH and the teachers as they're working through the lessons initially some of the lessons took 3 days the goal is for two days ultimately to try to get
011down to one day but as they're learning the new curriculum and as the students start learning so as you look through for the older grades they didn't have the previous vocabulary um sentence starters that were used back in kindergarten so it's going to take a little bit longer they're have to do more review until the kids understand next year it'll be fun for the first grade teachers because they would have had it all in kindergarten so they're going to know what to do so that's going to go quicker for our first grade teachers next year and as you become more and more comfortable with teaching it it goes faster so like I said in the fall some took three days like oh I don't know how I'm going to get this down to two but
012they did they all down to two it's just learning something new and different things like first and second graders going on a gallery walk they hadn't ever gone on a gallery walk before so they didn't know what that looked like and sounded like so we had to pre-teach that to them or like a fourth grade classroom having a Socratic seminar beautiful when done effectively but it just took a while for everybody to figure out how to do that so then we have students leading the Socratic seminar which is fun and the teachers have to try really hard not to say anything it's supposed to be run by the students and that's really hard but they're doing a good job so I was at SI this afternoon and I got to sit in on a few
013of the lessons being taught I saw the most exciting math lessons I've seen in a long time I just I'm a former math teacher so uh but I saw two of the classes teaching the reading and discussion in a couple of fifth grade class classes and it was what impressed me the most was the discussion that the teachers guided the students they took a paragraph and uh and really asked a lot of penetrating questions that got the kids talking at a very high level of understanding and that was really a lot of fun to see yeah that high level of understanding that critical thinking is so deeply in added into the curriculum so and at conferences many of the caregivers Shar that too that it's coming home and they're using those vocabulary words at home
014too which is exciting that it's transferring the audio is not working so just have to listen should we skip it therey I can put it in the board update for the board oh there it goes [Music] Po in right poison in [Music] help [Music] might [Music] her away are [Music] I just [Music] love that's [Music] and she highlighted open and close thank you Darcy so did you hear all that great language that was in there the vocabulary bringing in the phonics open syllable closed syllable double trouble for like the double s the double L's the double FS so lots of fun thirsty can you go back to presentation mode for us please thank you and now we're moving into second grade and second grade is really working on their writing pieces um and finding that
015evidence back within the text so they worked on their topic sentence together and then they're finding their own evidence and you can see them there as they have their um working um table and now they're putting it into paragraph form so it's incredible and inspiring to see our second graders writing so much at this level um third grade one giant leap so and this was fun because they had to um really think about what what they really believed in and then they did their Gallery walks this is one of those walks so each group created a um a page with their evidence and then the students had to think hm do I still have my own belief or did they persuade me to think differently based upon their evidence fourth grade um we had a
016I love to read door um decorating contest fourth grade took it to the ultimate level and so they did both doors because we have two sections of fourth grade so how it started with an Hatchet how it ended and then on the student Lockers in between were the summaries of each chapter um so it was fabulous to see that um decorated in the hallway and then they went further at the end of the module they created diaram from each paragraph and then had their summary there in the media center and um caregivers were able to see that over um parent teacher conferences completely inspiring and this gets to our fifth grade um our Royal Banquet so king um huzas is um David enzer and so but the students didn't know that so the students were
017not in this space at all and this has to do with the menu so this is what the students received with a fun word play and so the students were all in Mrs with Mrs wescot and then she received this phone call and they were talking about it like she's like what who is this is it really the king are you really on the phone and the kids are like what and they fifth graders completely engaged and so excited so then gave Clues to where things were and then had them end up going over to the neighboring room and then there was the king welcoming them in for their Royal Banquet so it was a fun um finale with their fun plan words like synonym rolls instead of cinnamon Half Baked ideas a square meal
018they did a fabulous job but now do you kind of understand why students are asking to have Whitten wisdom during indoor recess because they're so excited and everybody of course wants the next the next um book after Hatchet and so it's fun to see the kids being so inspired um and then here we have the abandoned school so each of the students were able to take on a character and then they needed to roleplay like that character working through problems of what to do it was fun so they had this hanging up in the hallway and then each student has their own and so then of course now all the students are so excited walking on the hallway they all stop and what are they doing they're all reading so that's wonderful so the whole
019school is reading about what was happening in fifth grade every student in fifth grade comp um completed their own slide so 40 plus students in fifth grade um and then they each had their own slide with their own word play of a character from abandoned school so it's was a very um col uh comprehensive project for the students so getting some quotes from students what they say about Whitten and wisdom we get to read a lot of really cool books I like the activities we do I think it's fun to learn so many new words and draw posters to show what we know I'm really good at writing summaries now this helps me with my handwriting when I get older I will know more things and it's fun um it helped me a lot with
020my writing now I can write full essays I've learned more things this school year in reading so far than all my other years of reading combined we've never read novels before besides short story read alouds and now we use them to learn more about reading I love that the books we read are really exciting and make me want to read more and learn more and then now from teacher feedback U my students are engaged in Reading in a way I haven't seen before students are excited for reading time to begin they ask me to keep going when we're reading they're writing paragraphs and summaries and participating in discussions all voices are heard I appreciate the excitement that wit and wisdom has brought to my students that's powerful um another teacher I've seen a strong response
021from my multilingual Learners they are engaged contributing and making connections with the content in ways that feel authentic I and meaningful this year wit and wisdom has made a noticeable difference in how my students engage with Reading Writing and discussion because it builds a knowledge all students regarding regardless of their reading level can access grade level content in a meaningful way even students who are significantly below grade level in Reading are actively participating writing about what we're studying and contributing to discussions about our novels the quality of their writing has grown in ways I have not seen before their depth of thinking the cabulary they're using the enthusiasm for discussion show just how much we're gaining from this approach it's exciting to see all students no matter where they started fully involved in the learning
022process and making real progress so Kim just shared some beautiful testimonials from students and staff in her building um but we would remit be remiss if we did not also say it's not without ch challenges across the district a new implementation faces challenges um and so these are a few of the challenges that we are currently working through um one of them is lack of familiarity being able to adapt to a new instructional approach um a lesson structure for some teachers Socratic seminars are new some teachers maybe a gallery walk is new so depending on the the lesson structures and the activity there may be a new learning learning curve for teachers another shift is moving to the science of reading as we know with the read act we very heavily focused on the science
023of reading and the um literacy professional development tied to that so it is work to shift from any previous methods um to the knowledge building curriculum so it might require some changes in pedagogy or classroom management you might have to think differently about how to establish the structure of your classroom to make this instruction work and so that that's a piece that we're working through um the two biggest ones that are coming up is time um as principal Larson shared uh while we were waiting for the vi video to load uh some of our lessons at the beginning of the year we're taking three days they're really intended for one day 90 minutes right now we're working on about a two-day to get a single lesson in so as we move into year two of
024implementation one of the things that our local literacy team needs to work on is how do we support teachers who are um facing some um pacing and planning constraints but then also how do we uh support our teachers who are maybe facing limited planning time so so we've got a two-fold Time piece that we're working on addressing both time for planning and time for instruction and so our local literacy team will be working a lot on that and then you also heard in the teacher testimonial uh one of the teachers sharing how excited she was that regardless of where a child is in their reading development or reading level they're able to access the content of this material while that's true we are facing some challenges for some students with text complexity so how do
025we work through student Readiness and differentiation if the text is challenging um so that just adds another layer for us to address as we move into year two of implementation how go ahead to that point is there are there different levels within that text that that if a student is at a different specific level is that the complexity you're talking about that they might not be where you where where the median is yeah wit and wisdom itself within wit and wisdom itself there is not uh differentiated text materials within the core um materials we are starting to implement uh geodes which are available in kindergarten through second grade um geodes are meant for small group instruction that are tied to the content of the core instruction and cover the same uh vocabulary but allows for
026differentiated reading levels another tool that we're looking at is a tool called defit we're currently um using defit in our intervention classrooms and our uh English language arts classroom or English Lang English language learner classrooms um diff it allows teachers to take a level of text enter it into the program and then it provides uh the information at that individual's reading level but including the vocabulary at their at the grade level um so different ways to access grade level content but at the child's reading level um so we're working through a few of those responding to challenges we're really leaning into our coaching models our instructional coaches our mtss coaches all of our instructional coaches uh just wrapped up a 10 session series of a Wht and wisdom professional Learning Network where they met with
027other professionals across the state of Minnesota and Wisconsin specific to Wht and wisdom implementation um they're also continuing to work through research and learning around accelerated instruction and remember when we talk in accelerated instruction we're not talking about learning at a quicker Pace we're talking about um receiving core instruction um at grade level content guided observations for leaders um we're actually embarking on our second series of these tomorrow um in the guided observations for leaders each building has an Implement implementation success coach for a full day so tomorrow Hawthorne will have an implementation success coach for a full day then we go to sibl then we go to Halverson then we go to Lake View um we did one in the fall we're now doing another one um each of those has focused on different
028areas uh the one in the fall really focused on implementation and now this this week we're going to look at lesson preparation and how do we effectively plan um these are really um valuable tools for our leaders so that they can uh support our teachers another piece that we've added in is districtwide collaboration and that's just really opportunities for grade level teams to collab at um across the district so all second grade teachers across the district um and they've really focused on lesson study so the individual lessons within a module an arc I should put that in the other order a lesson is one lesson within a module an arc is a focus question so in a single module you might have four arcs and then the module covers the whole piece so our teachers
029have been able to collaborate around um those protocols with the support of coaches and principles um but really our local literacy team has identified that without those adequate professional development and ongoing support teachers are going to struggle to effectively implement the curriculum with confidence so that group that team is really committed to making sure that we're responding to these challenges do you have anything to add to that I would just say we were even bringing into the plc process on Wednesday mornings we're really focusing on Whitten wisdom and what they can do collaboratively together excellent um and then finally at the front of our presentation this evening I mentioned the foundational skills curriculum this is not new information um we have uh been with a really great reading uh preco so this is a a
030curricular resource that has been in play the only new part of really great reading this year was implementing handwriting um countdown blast and hdw have all been present K2 coming out of covid um as we were looking to address learning gaps we also implemented some of these 3 five depending what our student data set as we've grown further away from covid we've needed to implement um these resources Less in 35 so it's core in our k two classrooms only as needed 35 but it's a lot less than it was the first two years handwriting is in our K1 classrooms um using the really great reading uh curricular resource it's it's explicit systematic instruction um specifically teaching pencil grip spacing and letter formation and these are just some pictures of our wonderful kindergarteners practicing that's what
031the handwriting book looks like in kindergarten one of the challenges that we're facing in foundational skills so with uh the read Act and the requirement for literacy training we are engaging in the letters professional development but what we're finding is that uh really great reading is an amazing curricular resource letters has been excellent professional development training literacy training for our teachers but what we're finding we need to do is how do we bridge the gap between letters which is theoretical and really great reading which is a predesigned resource and so it's really talking through how do we address the variations in scope and sequence and how do do we balance our Fidelity to the really great reading curriculum but being adaptive with the diagnostic approach that letters promotes um so again this is another challenge
032that our our local literacy team is going to have to work on so that we're really um effectively integrating both um in really thoughtfully planning and providing professional development and how to provi um uh apply both principles so that's that's work to be done and I would say we're not there yet uh we've only just had our first cohort of graduates in letters training so our our K3 team will be fully trained by this uh next May of 2026 so we have time as as our teachers get through the letters training but this is a challenge that we need to work through in the next year as more teachers become uh trained in this literacy training anything to add there all right overall our goal is to make sure that our successes outweigh our challenges
033and so making sure that we're committed to providing that um through our coaching model through our instructional leadership um and being really intentional about what we're providing to our staff so that they can in turn um provide quality instruction in our classroom for our students I know what questions do you have this may have got past me but so differentiate for me wit and wisdom and really great reading and letters that help me understand great Darcy will you leave that up please really great reading teaches you how to read how to decode what reading is Whitten wisdom teaches all of the ELA standards and then we go into the third one was letters letters is the foundational knowledge for the teachers so a really good reading and and wh and wisdom sound like they fit
034pretty well together then okay yeah and what does letters do again and letters is the foundational knowledge for teachers so it's the theoretical so helping them understand how students learn how their brain processes letters um and they actually do it in a very like creative way where they use symbols and they teach them symbols for each like letter and they tell them to write and then they do the pressures like teacher has like hurry up we have to get to recess now hurry up and they're like getting frazzled but it's great to walk them through that process so they understand what their students are going through how are the literacy coaches trained same um they actually um they are in the first tier of cohorts that went through the training um it's it's important to
035have your coaches and your leaders have that professional development and training before your teachers have it so that as your teachers are going through it you've built that foundational knowledge to support your teachers going through it um all of our administrators have also been through uh letters for admin training and a few of our coaches went through the letters for admin training as well um and then as I stated the wit and wisdom um professional Learning Network um that was a separate opportunity just for coaches um to participate in and it again it was all about um implementation planning uh different professional development supports um and it was really just a community of practice where uh coaches again from um Minnesota and Wisconson came together and sometimes it was problem of practice they would bring
036a problem to the table and that group of individuals would unpack how to solve that um and really talking with colleagues around the area about the best way to approach that problem um and just really staying solution focused yeah one quick question kind of leads into another you touched on a little bit you said K to one you're working on handwriting now I'd like to hear a little bit about that but I'd also like to tie that into the accountability of this handwriting that we're learning about as it progresses through this wit and wisdom program through the fifth great and and how it relates to punctuation spelling heirs so uh as as I've seen as a uh coach I see some older children that don't have great handwriting skills so how does this all come
037together here or doesn't it really no it will those are great questions so uh they have oh my gosh the grammar the the lessons what are those called where they have the grammar lessons within rgr mhm no within wit and wisdom I can't think of the name of it anyway it teaches grammar and mechanics there's a separate um section um throughout each of the module that teaches grammar and mechanics so that's built in um it's interesting that you bring up handwriting Beyond first grade that's recently become a conversation with our coaching coaches uh really great reading has now expanded their handwriting curriculum Beyond first grade and letters the uh the foundational piece that we're learning through letters is research is showing a connection between um the act of cursive handwriting and their comprehension skills and
038the ability to connect um so it's something I know our uh District mtss coach has wanted to dig into a little bit bit more with the literacy team um I also think the act of writing more is improving our handwriting skills as well um they're writing more earlier than they had in the past um what would you have to add yeah I would completely agree and the handwriting that goes with rgr that just started last school year so with the actual formation of doing it and everybody teaching it the exact same way but you're right as students get older and progress sometimes they forget on different things but that's consistently being reminded by teachers or they have to you know redo or try again or whatever that looks like but yeah sometimes they get super
039excited and write really fast and we need to help them with some of those skills but but they're getting there and like I said now like in third grade they're writing four paragraphs that's huge that didn't happen before so hopefully we'll see that shift change as we move forward Mary Joe do you have anything we kind of lost you on our screen there you can turn it off again Dar yeah no all no thanks for the presentation yeah it was good getting the updates thank you thank you all right thank you for your time thank you girl all right um revised budget and then I'll bet you we'll follow up on open enrollment with Mr Durban give me a minute I got hand for spe all right thank you for your patience while I get
040my ducks in a row here so chair clot School Board superintendent Ken uh and director Dorman uh virtually thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight on our uh revised budget um I don't think it's going to be as exciting as the presentation on a literacy update there so um this evening we're going to focus on um a snapshot of where our budget for fiscal year 25 is um currently and it is just that it's a current snapshot of where our projected budget is at the time and I am thankful that we're looking at it a little earlier um this school year than we would in a typical year some of the news you're going to hear this evening isn't um the greatest and this gives us a little time to navigate some decisions we
041have uh to make so um this evening the two main funds that we'll see some highlights for will be our general fund which is our main uh fund that the school district operates under and our food service fund uh due to uh a slight change or a pretty significant change with food service um expenditures there the other three funds not to say that there won't be any variances from the projected budget at this time we didn't make revisions um but if we do I'll commit to keeping the board in the Loop uh as we near our final budget um so there are no surprises if there are revisions there so this first slide uh is a snapshot of where our general fund Revenue sources are um this uh breaks down where our funds come from
042so for our general fund um you see about 11% is generated from our local Levy 83% from our our state AIDS about 2.5% from federal um and about 3% from other miscellaneous sources some highlights just a quick question on the federal AIDS is that going to be changing then over time or is that kind of a consistent number we've been seeing for years I don't know if it's in this presentation um but one thing that we did see uh this fiscal year um compared to Prior years and it will be in the um I believe there's a packet for the board members here um titled 2425 revised budget there is a diagram in there that compares fiscal year 24's um Revenue to the adopted budget and the revised budget so you can kind of see
043how this has changed over those three um one thing we did see is a drop from last year when we are done using Esser funds this year so we did have some Esser funds that expired in in September um those programs are now completed so we will see less there and there's also some other Federal uncertainties um and without making predictions this evening um I think it is safe to say that we will see less um Federal AIDS as we move forward just do mainly because we are done with covid funds and Esser funds so uh one other thing to note is you look at um there's one document that is our um I would call it our revised budget I um you should have a copy of this and if not please let me
044know um and director Dorman I will make sure that we follow up promptly with uh these over electronic I'll send an email um after the meeting here um so the one um chart here is that there's there's three new class codes that were added for this fiscal year in the spring when we generated our adopted budget these weren't um in use yet and it's simply just an accounting code we used to track uh restricted funds so uh qm changed from code 461 to 437 so if you're comparing just for your reference as a board last year's budget to this year's budget those code changed on that summary sheet so I wanted to make sure we were transparent from that and then the react uh literacy Aid and react teacher compensation um have uh two assigned
045codes to them as well um and the other last housekeeping item here uh and this is big uh in our um enrollment update last month we noted that one bright spot in our um future might be this year's enrollment before we start forecasting future years as we know uh we're in a decline this year's enrollment is trending in uh upward and in a good place so for the revised budget we did incre increase that enrollment in our uh Revenue projections uh with an increase of ADM the average daily membership of 141 students so with that that leads to these Revenue changes uh for this year's revised budget um so these are the significant changes uh the general education Aid after those uh adms are added to the projections will increase our Revenue this year in
046state aid by 1, 59,4 there is a slight adjustment to basic skills I believe it's uh due to an English language learner uh Revenue which falls into that basic skills category um and unemployment reimbursement will increase special education um and then that leaves all other categories to 265,000 so a total revenue increase um the the important number here is 1, 71157 so about $1.7 million in Revenue increase again uh two items of note in this Revenue increase the general education Aid is simply due to that enrollment increase and then also there are some Grant funds that we added to our revenues uh which um will have a matching expenditure as well so it looks great that our Revenue increased but at the same time our expenditures will increase right along with those so it's a
047wash looking at our expenditure budget for this fiscal year these are broken down by what's called our program codes so you can see the categories Administration support uh instruction vocational special ed um these are the program categories and how our expenditures are broken down as a district so out of our general fund you see just over $60 million in expenditures for our revised budget and to pull some highlights from there some changes from fiscally or the adopted budget to the revised budget here are some important changes administrative costs have increased um 96,4 Elementary secondary instruction 1.1 million approximately instructional support costs increasing pupil support cost increasing inreasing um and all other categories um increasing as well and we know expenditures are increasing overall um total expenditure increase with the revised budget of 2.3 or 2,372
048337 so those are broken down by program another way to look at um expenditures is by objects so that we use a eup fars accounting system so a uniform Financial system to code our expenditures and our revenues and so there's a program code there's also object codes so if we look at these from a different lens looking at them by object codes we can break them down by other categories in this case you see here um our salaries so these are the same revenues or same expenditures we just saw on the previous slide looked at differently so what categories they fall into here salaries and benefits increase just over a million capital expenditures I do want to make a note that I I mentioned that we had some uh Grant funds um that were increasing
049in revenue and expenditures as well some of those might be salaries and benefits Capital expenditures if you remember a board update um a couple months back we purchased Elementary Furniture across the district that was purchased with Esser funds so in that scenario we saw an increase to the revenue and an increase to our expenditures at that time both reflected here um in this presentation and that makes up a bulk of that capital expenditure of 778 th000 again previous slide looking at expenditures by program code 2,372 337 same looking at it through the lens of object code again same increase in expenditures a quick question Paul back on the um Revenue changes maybe my mass skills are terrible but why doesn't why don't those numbers add up to the bottom number should they or am I
050misunderstanding I believe I highlighted the big changes and didn't include in um let me look if we have a m a typle or something there I can follow up too let me just check the chart so excuse me I think I would like to review that and provide an update I think there must be a typo in that line because all other categories should tie it out to the right value the 1.7 million is the correct overall increase yes okay so um we covered the expenditure increases and it's important to note that some of those increases uh in expenditures were tied to increases in Revenue as well um also within those were um significant increases that we noticed that impact imped this budget um where licensed staff increases um in salary and benefits additional hires
051uh to support schools um we've seen an increase in substitute costs uh in needs for substitutes with um current labor laws there's a lot more opportunity for staff to be absent and uh a stronger need for us to fill Staffing and substitution U or substitute positions behind them um so we're seeing an increase there um ALS Al we've had an increase in non-licensed staff so support positions across the district as well so what's important to note with those main highlights is that our increase in expenditures is significantly outpacing revenues by approximately $66,667 so if we look at that2 2.3 million and the 1.7 million they're the 660,000 that's the the difference there so this means our fund balance will come come up short from our initial budget we'll have a couple more notes about the
052fund balance here as we um progress through the presentation so our food service program uh I do there is an important uh item to note with our our revenue or excuse me our expenditures our Revenue budget did not change with food service um this is something that we will look at for a final budget uh to ensure that the revenues came in as projected um just to look at quick how that's broken down our food service Revenue um we receive Zar from our local Levy about $469,000 comes from state aid Federal source is about uh 71,000 or excuse me 71% or $1.7 million and our pupil sales about 200,000 I think that's more for uh snack cart or Pro parts that are not part of our federal program so we are um a school that
053is uh member of the c community eligibility program it's a federal meal program for free meals uh and it's based off you have to have a lowincome qualifier to be part of the program um so the free meal program now here is a breakdown of our expenditures for food service notice that uh a bulk of that is for supplies and materials um purchased Services Capital expenditures our food service is managed by Chartwells third party vendor so some highlights here with our food service expenditures I noted there's a significant uh note to make we um we have a fund balance in our food service service fund a carryover fund balance is allowable and it's nice to have the concern is if the fund balance exceeds six months operating costs you must enter the department of Ed
054spend down plan um I don't have the exact number off hand but we were getting fairly close with our fund balance it was up over $800,000 to six months operating costs so it is time to spend some of the um of that balance down so um to do that we increased our capital expenditure budget by $415,000 to take uh advantage of that fund balance and uh purchase new cafeteria furniture at the high school and the middle school and some new equipment for the high school that will uh deplete that fund balance um about in half um so here is a slide that depicts um what we've been looking at over the past few years so since Co we've really seen our fun balance grow you see over $600,000 in growth over the last five years
055so our original budget this year the adopted budget had expenditures Capital expenditures um set for 44,000 $44,900 up to 49,93708 to account for those three major purchases in that bottom chart will show what our revised budget uh projected fund balance will still be at the end of this fiscal year of $415 and as noted before there's no significant changes with our community service fund at this time um we will be looking at this as we work towards our our final budget um with some uh revisions and again we'll keep the board in the loop of any changes to our uh funds here uh but our revenues for community service com in at about 1.7 million so this is fund four mostly local revenue and and state aid notice no federal contribution there and then community
056service expenditures broken down by object code again expenditures right in line with the revenues and as any fund the largest uh portion of that pie is salaries and uh benefits so on March 17th the regular board meeting there will be an agenda item asking the board to review or to uh approve our revised budget what you will be approving is this handout or it's also in the board uh in the packet that you've been handed out uh this evening uh you'll be approving the revised budget this table here and what's happened to our fund balance if we see that uh shortfall of 660,000 if you will um the box to the right there our unassigned fund balance and the general fund will be down to 11% at the end of the fiscal year and the
057other part of this sheet uh are the other fund balances also outlined here and just for um everybody's um to make sure they're understanding this chart at the beginning of the presentation I mentioned some new fund classes those are highlighted in red off to the left those are all of the different funds or classes that we have in within each fund and the First Column is our audited endof year fund balance for each of those categories notice some of them don't have a fund balance it's likely because they're not allowed to carry over a fund balance I also want to I see it up on the screen now uh class 467 it says maintenance I think the the text got cut off in the Box it's long-term facility maintenance that's your ltfm fund a negative
058fund balance is allowable in that fund if you remember uh just last year we were at negative 750 or approximately 750,000 so we're working that towards uh a neutral balance there um the second column is your revised um revenues so as we um presented the revenues this evening there's your revised budget for the revenues after our enrollment increase ADM adjustment the third column is the revised expenditures so the increased expenditures as a district and then the fourth column where it says transfers that's necessary where you have accounts that you can't carry a fund balance so for example you see safe schools we're transferring about 86,000 to our unassigned uh that impacts our fund balance every year um that is an underfunded category where it doesn't pay for all of our expenditures in that class um
059same with uh for example learning development and then the far right column will show our projected fund balance end of year so some factors that are impacting our school district our enrollment decline as we've seen in past study sessions we know our kindergarten classes are coming in smaller than our graduating senior groups our outgoing senior classes so we can forecast that we're going to see continued decline in enrollment however this year's bright spot hopefully we're seeing a reversal we can't count on that we need to follow our projections and until um we have some better Intel there um we do know that birth rates have declined and it's not just alberly facing that change in enrollment it's uh most schools in the big nine in fact are seeing a reduction in enrollment um there's a
060handful of underfunded mandates uh for example the react uh places a lot of money in restricted pots of uh funds that we can't use for anything outside of those requirements uh food service is another good example of that we may have a fund balance there but we can't use it in other categories so um there are sometimes challenges for people in our community to realize it to explain to people that it it can only be used for certain things um so might look like we're spending a lot of money and it might be wasteful well it one it has to be spent and it can only spent on specifics uh it's mandated or controlled like uh by a by the state so uh other factors there unemployment insurance paid leave programs those are significantly impacting
061our our budgets um there's some uncertainty with compensatory funding the governor has a proposal out there currently the Old Law is still in place we don't know which it will be for future years um time will tell English learner funding is coming in short um our costs there exceed what we receive funding same with special services um and just in general across the board the cost for services for for anything are going up uh at a fairly significant rate so um having a strong or a big impact on the school district so regarding the budget a few next steps um one I ask the Board review what's presented this evening uh the information ask questions call me let's have conversations if there's concerns or if there's um more info that you need um finance committee
062met this evening we talked through um this revised budget we talked through the finance or the fiscal forecast uh a three-year projection I'll provide the board that either in an update or a followup um but also a recommendation for reductions and um we will try to have individual conversations with board members about those U plans um as they come together so um please consider um other directions for um District reductions as we move forward um the Revis budget so this presentation this evening we ask that um the chart so the table that you presented that was separate that will be approved or asked for your approval at the March 17th uh board meeting um I will not be present so um any discussion beforehand please um let's make sure we have I want make sure
063we have all questions answered um but feel free to discuss publicly at the the board meeting um I think it's important um and then the final and the important uh budget is our final f year 27 so our endof year budget and our preliminary our adopted fiscal year 26 budget will be presented in June at a regular meeting um and um that's as I mentioned there might be some other revisions along the way we'll have a clear picture of where our fund balances will be at that point so being this is a study session I think um this would normally be the opportunity for discussion on the revised budget um I did have some enrollment slides ready um I think it might lead to more discussion and maybe answer some other questions uh about the
064budget um would it be appropriate for me just to roll into those next four or five slides before we entertain discussion is that good okay all right so looking at our fiscal forecast um our finance committee met um last month month and we um agreed on some assumptions to plug into a forecasting model um one thing that we don't know for this next school year so this is now talking for fiscal year 26 next school year we don't know what expenditures or salary increases will look like we'll go through negotiations this uh summer and into next school year um and we don't know where those