001Alrighty, I got the gavl. We should get this going. All right, we've been in executive session and just waiting for 7 o'clock. So, welcome to everybody. And if we'll stand for the pledge, uh want to introduce Ben Grunkkey from Warren Company. He will presenting information regarding our uh audit. >> Is that echoing? >> Thank you. think >> it's up to you guys. I can present with it out not up there or go for it. All right. Like uh Torrent said, my name is Ben Grunkkey. I am with Mar Company. I'm one of the external auditors there. Had the uh privilege to work with Torrance and Amy and others on the audit this year. um here tonight just to give you all a rundown of how that went. Um there's three main components of the audit.
002There is the financial statement uh opinion, the opinion on the federal award schedule of federal awards and then the state compliance piece. Um so I'll start with the financial statements. Um the goal of the financial statement audit is just to u make sure that the financial statements are free um stated free and clear. there's no errors due to fraud and um misappropriation of assets um things like that. And our goal is to obtain reasonable assurance that that is the case. Um and you guys got an unmodified opinion which is a clean opinion. It's the best opinion that you guys can get. Um there were no uh adjustments or no nothing we found broad errors anything related to that matter. So, um the second piece is that um you're required to have a single audit when
003you have expenditures of federal awards greater than $750,000. Um so that was for fiscal year 2025. Next year in fiscal year 2026, that'll be required if you expend over a million in federal awards. Um so we go through a process and we identify major programs. There's thresholds that determine those major programs. The two there were two major programs this year. They were title one and the child nutrition cluster. And if the audit was up there, um you'll see that on I believe it's different on the PDF if you're looking at it. But if you're looking at the page numbers, I believe it's for page 45 in the audit. It outlines um the major programs and if there were any findings due to material weaknesses or deficiencies, which there were no findings. So again, the best
004thing that can happen for the audit. And then just lastly, um the last piece is the opinion on state compliance. Um there were some things the state changed this year and uh in regards to what was required to be reported for state compliance. Um in the past they've always required that we have a table for September membership and it outlines that. This year they also required the January membership to be in the report. So there was a slight change there. Um it was always tracked in the past. The state just never required it to be in the audit report. So um outside of that there were no findings related to the state compliance piece of that as well. Um we go through and we test transportation and attendance and as long as you guys are
005meeting certain metrics for um which is outlined in the back for all those findings and if it goes through true and false and if it's a false it would be a finding for the state. True answers um don't relate to findings and everything in the back is true. So which is also good. So um again three major things the financial statements schedule of uh federal expenditures and then state compliance and we didn't have any findings related to any of the three. Um so best case scenario for you all. Is there any questions that you all have for how the audit went? Um general questions for me. >> Anyone? >> No. Nope. We're good. Thank you, Mr. >> Um, we audit, I believe, 15 schools is the number. >> And so, and our students may or
006may not know, but annual audits of school districts every year, all districts across the state. Correct. >> Correct. They are they are required. Yes. Yes. As far as um findings versus no findings, what do you typically find? Obviously, we have a clean audit. We're super thankful for that. >> Correct. Yeah. >> And then your process for deciding on what areas you look at because it's not like we get a scorecard ahead of time that says, "Hey, we're going to look at certain aspects." >> No. Yeah. So, um I can it makes more sense for like the state compliance piece. We look at the transportation, the attendance, which is all outlined by the state, what is required to be reported on. And in terms of recordkeeping, so buses and transportation companies are required to keep um
007daily logs of students being going back and forth and whatnot. And that's required to be reported on to get then federal awards at the end of the year. Um, in terms of you guys, you guys are one of the cleaner schools I've seen in districts with the transportation um, documentation, which is really good. Otherwise, usually that's where we find the biggest findings is that documentation is not good. And so then we have findings related to that. >> Um, yeah. >> No, that's that's that's why you're a teacher. >> Oh, that's good. >> Any other questions for me? Thank you. >> Thank you so much. >> Awesome. Thank you guys. Um, thank you for having me. Happy holidays, everyone. >> Chair will accept a motion. >> Motion to approve the 2025 audit as presented. >> Second.
008>> We have a motion and a second to approve the audit for 2025 as presented. Any discussion? Seeing none, all in favor say I. >> I. All opposed. passes APR. Who's on APR this this year? Congratulations. Well, that can't be good. And just Dr. Mock, do you care to share with the board what our timeline is as far as our plan for district versus the buildings? >> Speak to that. So, our APR for the districts from that and then each building also has their own and those will be shared um next board meeting I think in January February >> January so we will have each will be different this year is um we'll have all the buildings come present at once. So, you'll actually get to see um preschool. We'll have Grace come still as
009well. They'll be presenting on their own um assessment data and a little bit about what's going on with their CIP and then we'll also go all the way up to the high school including Scott Educational Foundation. Yeah. Education. >> And do you think we can get them all in one night? Yes, we have a little for different format, but we've condensed it. >> All righty. >> Yeah, it's going to be great. >> Is that not working? >> Okay. All right. Tonight I have the pleasure of sharing an overview of our last school year's annual performance report, also known as APR. And I will be giving um an a highlevel overview. I'll cover strengths areas for improvement and we'll go over some of the data. Uh as a reminder, our APR score reflects performance from multiple
010areas. It is academic achievement, graduation, college and career readiness and other district processes. And this is a part of the Missouri school improvement programs um accreditation process. All right. Okay. So on this slide you will see our last four years of annual performance report data. So, you'll notice we've made steady progress over the last four years, and this past year's APR score is the highest we've seen at 83%. Um, that puts us in the fully accredited category. And at the bottom there, you'll see our composite score. And that composite score factors in data from multiple years. it's multiple years worth of data that give you that score um to kind of give a picture of how districts are doing over a period of time instead of just that that one measure um from a given
011school year. All right, so this slide has a lot of information on it and it includes our performance data. You'll see two um categories at the top, performance and continuous improvement. And to go over a few reminders before we really dig in on this performance slide, which is what's on here, um you're going to see the terms all students, and that includes everyone in the district who falls in that group. So the first one where you see um all students would be English language arts academic achievement status. So that's every kiddo in our district who participated in a an English language arts assessment. And then below that you'll see student group. And that student group is comprised of students who fall in um categories that have historically been underperforming in our state. And those five
012categories include students with disabilities, English learners, um students who are economically disadvantaged, and students from our black and Hispanic groups. So that's um those are the groups that comprise the student group that you'll see throughout this performance page. Um, you'll also see status, the word status up there. That's at that top, academic achievement status. And then, um, those are the first four rows. Below that, you'll see academic achievement growth. So, before we move forward, the difference between status and growth is status is how students performed. It's that overall academic achievement compared to those grade level standards on the MAP or EOCC assessment. Growth is how the students performed compared to their baseline. So once they take the MAP test in third grade, students are they have that initial baseline score. And so we get this
013growth measure by being able to track how individual students perform against their own baseline score. So maybe they're not yet meeting those grade level expectations which are represented in the academic achievement categories, but they might still be making really great progress or growth. Yes. >> Does a ba does a baseline change each year? So you said third year third grade baseline as they go grades higher does a baseline go to the fourth grade and the fifth grade and the sixth grade? >> Yeah. So students um they have uh their their numbers in the state of Missouri, those Moses ID numbers and so students are tracked through um the the University of Missouri does the data for um the state the department of education and they're tracking. So once a a third grade student has an
014ELA and a math MAP score, then they can take that same student and see how they did as a fourth grader. And then once they have those fourth grade scores, they can take those scores. And once they're in fifth grade, they can see how much progress or regression those individual students made. And that's how you get that growth measure. So you've got again um because it it can be a little cumbersome um but the status is how they performed overall and then the growth is how much progress the students made. So any other questions about that? Okay. So, as we look at um this performance page, you'll notice some of our strengths would be our status in math for both all students and for our student group increased and we also increased in our growth
015points in math for all students and for that student group. So, those are some big celebrations that we're really proud of. and we received um more we received an increase in the amount of APR points we received in all four of those areas this year as well. Something we are continuing to focus on is our academic progress in all areas. We want all of our students to be scoring at proficient and advanced levels. We want to continue to receive um high awards, high marks in those growth categories. Uh and then ultimately as we continue to make great growth with students, we're going to see improvement in our academic achievement um categories as well. Okay, the next slide is our continuous improvement data. So you saw previously at the top that performance category and the continuous
016improvement category. So this really breaks down what falls under that continuous improvement umbrella. And here you'll notice things such as our graduation rate. This is a huge celebration. We received the maximum number of points in this category this year and that is an increase from last year. Last year we received 15 points or 75% of the points on the table in that graduation category. This year we received 100% of those points. Um, other things to note would be our CTE expansion. That stands for career and technical education. And um, that means we're providing some really robust and amazing opportunities to our students through the academy model at the high school. uh and we get points for continuing to expand the offerings that we're providing to the students in the Belton School District. So, a lot
017of great news on that slide. The only area under the continuous improvement umbrella that we did not receive 100% of the points for would be attendance. We received um two out of the four points in the area of attendance and that is our um area of improvement. That's something that we continue to focus on as a district. And at the building level, we have our attendance action plan that we use with school leaders to give them ideas and resources to continue to um encourage and promote positive attendance at the building level. We know that that is one of the first hurdles getting kids in the classrooms to seeing the dividends in increased academic achievement. So that is something we continue to focus on as a district. All right, this really is just an overview slide
018of all of the things that we just talked about, the celebrations and then the areas of improvement. And these are um very much in alignment with the goals that we have outlined in our district's continuous improvement plan. Okay. In closing, I really just want to thank you, the board, for your leadership and your support of the great initiatives that we have going on. To see that steady progress over time and to be able to maintain that steady progress in our APR score overtime is a positive and we are grateful to you for that. Also, I'd be remissed if I didn't recognize the the work going on in the classrooms every single day and at all levels of our school system, whether it's the bus drivers starting kids days off on a positive note, um the
019cafeteria staff just really connecting with kids, the hard work that our teachers, librarians, counselors put in day in and day out, our administrators. We have so many amazing people in our system who are working together, who are focusing on the right things and who have allowed us to experience the success that we are seeing and we're eager to um continue to make gains in the years to come. What questions might you have? >> Can you go over uh at least for the students what the approaching on track and target? >> Yeah, so there are four designation categories. The lowest of those categories is emerging. You will not see any emerging on our um scorecard if you will. And then after emerging is approaching on target and then um I'm sorry on track and then target.
020Target is that exemplar. You are hitting the mark. That's exactly where you need to be. On track is you are meeting that expectation. And then approaching is you're making gains but you're not quite there yet. And then emerging is that lowest category. >> What other questions? >> So with the ones that are approaching, do we have specific plans to try to improve that? >> Yeah. So um we have approaching in a couple of areas a few areas and there are things that we are doing um in these areas. So these are our core content areas. We are looking at our resources that we're providing to teachers. We are having teachers weigh in on resources. I know that our high school science team just um looked at a new resource last year that they selected. We
021currently have teachers involved in a math and social studies pilot process where they have evaluated multiple different resources um a aside from providing teachers with high quality resources. We're working on professional development. We've done a lot of work with our letters training at the elementary level to and even at the middle and high school level. Now, now that we have people in letters of Aspire to make sure that we are all continuing to grow, we um have started using lab classrooms this year, which has really allowed teachers to tap into their colleagues and to learn and grow from one another. So, we're always working to support all of those core content areas and um we want to see, you know, movement and and if you look at the breakdown on that performance page out of
022all of those things listed, it was the slide that that looks like this. Rebecca, if you want to go back, you'll notice there are a lot of rows on that slide, and all but the last three directly focus on one of those core content areas, social studies, science, math, and English language arts. And out of all of those rows, including the all students and the student groups, we either stayed the same or went up in the amount of points we received last year with the exception of two of them. And so that's really remarkable when you think about um how many categories there are. >> Yeah. >> Any other questions? >> All righty. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. >> We need a motion on that. No. Okay. BHS proposed new courses. >> Yes,
023I have seven new courses for you to review tonight. The last two years I have been coming to you for um ideas on how to improve our dual credit and we had partnership with MCC this year. It is exciting because the courses that we are offering up for kids next year are classes that are inhouse in our school district. So um at the high school we are upping the Annie. We are really looking at our academy pathways and streamlining those so it fits within um those academy pathways. If you notice we're replacing the first one. um banking and finance is being replaced by entertus and that rationale is because we want to open up a actual bank within our school district or within the high school um and we are going to partner with RG
024Federal Credit Union for that. Moving on, we have mathematics for the trade. So math within electrical, automotive, plumbing. The next one is career English. So we want to provide opportunities for kids non-traditional English class for those kids that might not be um going to college that they can um work on on their communication, banking, housing, building essential workplace success, all of those things that are more life skills for them for the next step in their journey. And then material science. This one is also going to be the next step for those students that have completed biology or honors biology. And then we have the next one. The next actually two are replacing zoology and botany. We have ecology and field biology and that will also be on the pathway through after biology and honor biology
025that they can then get into their specific field through that pathway and then earth space and field sciences will play replace zoology and botney and then the last one is walking wellness and water. I wish I had this one in mind. Yes. And this one is going to be um using um not only fitness but also the pool. So there'll be some um water activities as well and it will be kind of an alternative to the traditional PE courses. So with that, the administration asks the board to approve the BHS courses for 2627 school year. >> Motion to approve the new proposed new courses for 2627 school year as presented. >> Second. >> We have a motion and a second to approve the uh proposed new courses for BHS for 2627. Any discussion? Seeing none,
026all in favor say I. >> I. I. >> All opposed. Passes. 26. Budget amendment. All right. So, last June, Dr. Poza presented a proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year. Uh, as you may recall, uh, our fiscal year run from July uh, to June, July 1 to June 30th. Uh so we don't usually have majority of the information we need to determine our revenues until well after uh his proposal that he provided to you. Uh so if you look at page two there, we'll start with the assessed valuation. This year our assessed valuation came in at uh 554 651. Uh really that was a $62 million increase. uh uh you look at a percentage- wise, it was 11% increase. This was a uh reassessment year for us. And so a large portion of that comes
027from uh personal property and new construction. Then if you recall, we uh approved our tax levy and our ASBR this past August. Uh and so uh with that we had a beginning balance uh in in fund one for 23 uh $23 million and then we uh had left over in debt services $6 million for a grand total of $30,969,71. And so we're going to talk a little bit about revenues by fund. Uh we're showing a little bit over a million dollar increase in our revenue. uh largely due to our um increase in grants and our funds. Uh IDA funds that came in for us uh right uh we had some IDA funds that would have came in on last budget but they rolled over to this year. So it just gave us a little bit
028of a increase in our in our revenue. Our expenditures um you'll see that we have about a million dollars over in expenditures. uh we anticipate, but that's largely due to our payroll and insurance at the beginning of the year. We h we hire the most people uh over the summertime and get them going. And so we rent our first payroll and so we anticipate that being a little bit over. So a little bit over revenue, a little bit over it in our expenditures, but we should be uh pretty good and uh we we feel pretty good about where we're at right now with our numbers. Um, I also do want to mention real quick about uh enrollment. Last year, uh, Bob presented that we had 13 students increase in attendance, uh, which kind of really
029roughed out to about $1.1 million. Well, this year we we're down uh 66 students. And so while that might you might think that might be a decrease in our in funds, but it's not going to be uh because we get to use our highest number for two years. So for the next two years, we'll be able to use our numbers uh that we that were presented to us. And so we should be in pretty good stable position, but it gives us a chance to prepare for a decrease. And we anticipate hopefully that uh with some of those new bills that are coming that we'll see we'll we'll we'll spike back up in some attendance. uh as you know uh that uh basic formula takes care of a lot of our money. So our estimated funds
030transfer uh we'll we anticipate rolling over $1 million from fund one to fund two for uh teachers and salaries and benefits and then uh $800,000 over into fund four for capital projects. And then, as you know, our fund balance, if we were to spend every single dollar that we had today, uh, which would be worst case scenario, we'd have a fund balance of about, we would have, uh, $21 million in funds, which would put us at about 29. 21% for a fund balance. Um, typically, uh, that number is where we anticipate being there at, but we know that that usually go about 3 4% because we don't really spend all of our budget. So, um, we're we're we're in pretty good shape right now. Uh, if you go to the next page there, our major
031revenues, um, I think you all are familiar with seeing this. Uh 81% of our funds come from basic formula, local taxes and Prop C. Uh so our basic formula is sitting at 26% local taxes sitting at 46%. Um our Prop C is at 8.31%. Uh grants at 11% and our other revenues uh are sitting at 7.52. And if you look at our budget summary over there, salaries make up 70% of our budget. Um, uh, with both, uh, certified and non-certified. Um, and then you also get a pretty good chunk for purchase services, transportation, and food services. They all factor into that um, summary. Our expenditures by fund, teachers, uh, is a big portion of that. And then the general also has our uh it has our noncertified teachers are part of that general and then
032our debt services and capital. And right now I would uh say that that next page right there that you see with our updates, all those numbers there, we use those numbers to make up all of our charts that we have on the first two pages and um which which you'll see our local, state, and federal dollars and how they're broken down. Um and so that's what I have to report at this time. And uh administration as the board approve our uh December budget amendment as presented. >> Motion to approve the FY26 budget amendment as presented. >> Second. >> We have a motion and a second to approve the FY26 budget amendment as presented. Any discussion? Seeing that all >> No, I'm sorry, Jerry. I was looking at him. I'm I'm concerned a little bit that
033we're down 66, what the projection is going to be as the years go on. And I I get that you said we'll we can get prepared for that, but how do we get prepared for the not knowing? I mean, we know now, but we don't know what's going to happen next year or the year after that. as we had conversations. We already know contract number. Right now we're show what happened last year. So also see that also believe that to answer your question. Years ago, 46 out of positive. So I like to don't want to get hold off. One of my favorite examples is I don't raise your utility bill for 10 years and all of a sudden some substantial seven or 10% cut what we hope is that do not affect the kids in
034classroom based on what we're trying to provide. >> Any other questions? All righty. Seeing none, all in favor of the budget amendment say I. >> I. >> All opposed. Passes. Miscellaneous community committee updates. Um, we'll start with MSBA microphone. Thank you. >> You uh January 6th, there's a a webinar that you can register for that's going to talk about Senate Bill 3 on uh property tax conversations in our community. Um you can just go to the portal and and sign up there. Uh March 10th is advocacy day at the capitol. Um, and we can also have student showcases there. So, um, I'm going to throw it out to whomever's in the room that maybe we need to have a student group or two show up for student showcase day in March. And the application is
035on the MSBA website. So, um, March 12th through the 14th is the National Conference at Cosba. Um, the lunch and learn series will start again. Uh, and this year it's going to be about legislative items again like it has in the past. Um, there are five of them and they're at noon on a selected Friday once a month from uh, January through May. You also have to sign up for those and there's a cost. I think it's $25. Yeah. So, um, MSBA started a new thing. It's their podcast. They just rolled it out and it's called Always Bored. B O A R D not boring. That's the name of their podcast. Um so um April uh 22nd through the 24th is the schoolboard safety conference in St. Louis if any of our people from our
036district want to attend. Summer summit is um June 14th through the 16th and it's at Oage Beach this year, not Branson. Um they have a school finance uh webinar. You can watch it your whenever you want to. And um let's see, fall conference is in Kansas City again October 22nd through the 24th. I think Teresa's been on top all that. We've gotten our invites already for most of that stuff. So anyway, and Jerry, you probably got some stuff from the state level >> actually. We haven't met um since conference. So we'll be meeting it's in January. Um just so this board knows in January. Uh it is my plan to to once again run for region four state uh board of directors. U so we will we will see how that turns out. So that
037is that is upcoming. I'll give you more on the on the board stuff uh in January. Alrighty. Well, that's a lot of good. Um Cosb is going to be in Louisville, correct? Lewisville, Louisville, whatever they want to call it these days. >> Louisville. >> Yes. So >> that's >> any of you that are wanting to go, make sure you get >> March radar. >> Yeah. So all right, I am going and I'll be driving. Thank you. >> I know it's just a gravel road, >> but I control my gravel road and not some guy wearing a blue suit. Alrighty. Uh Belton cares. You matter. Belton. Anybody here for that one? >> Oh, yeah. I can >> you can do that one, too. Tonight's Culver's night. Uh, I don't know what time we're stopping. I keep
038getting updates from the board. I'm I'm at 18 text messages from Bel and Care's board while we've been here, so but I haven't read them yet. Um, we uh uh are going to be having trivia night in February. Teresa's already sent out the invite for that. We got that I think before the last meeting was over when I announced it. Um, and so that's it's kind of slow right now. We're working with um uh the harbor which is going to be a youth uh safe place which will be at the the church in West Belton. And so we've been getting some good donations, some good uh collaboration with the community. We hope to get that open and rolling in January. So that that's a a big push that we've got going on right now. Um
039we donated uh because of Troy Shaw Golf Tournament, we raised funds for different things. We donated um $4,000 to the band at their concert this week. Uh we just recently donated to the Cass County Sheriff and the Belton Police Department. So, we're we're getting those funds out uh out to the the people that we uh have promised them to. So, um that's kind of where we're at right now, but look for more coming. And um and you matter Belton um the it's not an in person this month. It's just uh in the classroom or anchor time. So uh that's where we're at with uh you matter Belton. >> All righty. Uh Miss Cervantes is not here. So gave you an update for educational foundation. All righty. Well, please press share. >> So when I say
040the name Teresa, that would be Cervantes. >> Yeah. >> The th that's why you are radar and she is Teresa. >> Yeah. So, Miss Cervantes says there is still time to sign up for sponsorships, so ask her how. Um, grant day was yesterday and it was a success. Keep an eye out for those highlights on Facebook. Um, also, student scholarship applications are now available. Ask Teresa for the link or any BEF member. Uh, thanks to our partners at Country Club Bank. Over 100 coats were given out. Wilkins Steam Academy, NEHS, and their PTO did a fantastic job with their cookie drive. Families donated a ton of cookie ingredients for our holiday baking kits that we provide via our pirate pantry over winter break. And mark your calendars because major saver card sales is coming up
041February 12th through the 27th. >> All righty. I did attend the uh surprise celebration with the foundation yesterday. Those are always fun to go around and give teachers the the the the surprise what they got coming to them. So that was very good. Um so I haven't attended that in a while. Anything for the city of Bel and Dave? >> Nothing right now. >> All righty. >> Just meeting next week. >> All right. >> They don't have any >> All righty. So far for its board uh signups uh right now we have three three people for three positions. So, as of now, so it's Miss Cervantes, Mrs. Miss Cummings, and uh Rusty Sullivan are the three people that are Yeah, it is. I know it's Rusty, but yeah, there's a a misspell there. So, three
042for three on that one. I know. Uh Ray Pex got six for three. Yeah. So, all righty, some miscellaneous dates for you. December 19th is the end of second quarter. December 22nd is no school through January 2. You probably are all happy about that. Uh January 5th, no school for a staff workday. January 9th through 19th is no school for Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. January 21st is our next board of education meeting. March 12th through the 14th is the COSBA conference and like we stated in Lewisville, Louisville, I'm never going to get that right. Um, any other dates that the chair missed? And there what what's the date of your of the trivia night? >> February 27th. Okay. >> All righty. So, that's anything else for the good of the cause, folks. Chair will
043accept a motion. >> Motion to adjurnn. >> Second. >> We have a motion and a second to adjurnn the meeting. Any discussion? Seeing none. Karen, >> yes. >> Dave, >> yes. >> Mary, >> yes. >> Norm, >> yes. >> And yes. Don't forget to get your whatever you need for your classes. Okay. President Miller.