001I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Tony, whenever you're ready, sir. Okay. Remind me to talk to you about some changes for next year. Thank you. All righty. We've been in executive session. Uh tonight is the night that we also reorganized the board. Uh but first we have to finish some old business. So the chair will accept a uh motion for the consent agenda. Motion to approve the consent agenda as presented. We have a motion and a second to approve the consent agenda as presented. Any discussion? Seeing none, all in favor say I. I. All opposed. That passes. Dr. Underwood. Yes, I would like to uh start off and just uh share
002a little um information in regards to our um election results. So pleased to announce that our two incumbents that signed up were both successful in their re-election. So congratulations uh Miss Fletcher and Mr. Miller. Uh yeah, I'm telling you it's uh two for two for two. Yes, my daughter already called me a loser. Thank you. I heard I beat the mayor too. I know nothing. That is true. School district is a little larger. Nonetheless, we also had a positive on our levy transfer and so you'll see results at 68% versus a no of 31%. So we were uh thankful in regards uh to that and celebrate that. In regards we do have um information uh as an attachment so the board can see that at this time uh we would ask for the board to
003approve actually President Miller should do this uh approve the election results. So the administration would ask the board to approve the election results from April 8th, 2025 as presented. So moved. We have a motion and a second to approve the election results uh from this past election in April. Any discussion? Does that one need to be a roll call? Okay. All in favor say I. I. All opposed. That passes. to propose. Okay. Okay. Well, the chair would like to move that we do the 2024 2025 school board sign and that Dr. Under would be appointed as the temporary chairman. Need a second. Second. All right, we have a second. All in favor say I. I. All oppose. Okay. At this time, I'd ask for our newly elected board members uh that I just recently was
004shar results on come forward and do an oath of office. County State to the best of my ability according to that what you want? That's exactly what I want. All right. Speech. Speech. Hearing no speech, we will call the order to the Belton Board of Education by a roll call vote. Uh, Mr. Norman Karky, Senior, yes. Mr. Teresa Cvantes, yes. Mr. Mary Cummings, yes. Mr. Dave Daniels, yes. Miss Karen Fletcher, yes. Mr. Jerry Miller, yes. Mr. Jim Armio, yes. Okay. Now I will take a motion or a nomination for the position of president. Mr. I make a motion that we nominate Jerry Miller for president. Second. I have a motion in a second. Any other nominations? I make a motion nomination cease. Second. I have a motion in a second that nomination cease and that
005Mr. Jerry Miller is president for the Belton Board of Education for the 2025 2026 school year. All those in favor say I. I. Those opposed like sign. Congratulations, Mr. President. Wanted to be or not. All righty. Well, thank you very much. Uh the chair would like to uh make a motion to make Oh, you I needed to be I was going to do it my own way, but Okay. Uh right here. The chair would like to nominate Miss Karen Fletcher for vice president of the school board. Second. We have a motion in a second to ex put Karen as the vice president. Any discussion? Seeing none, I make a motion that nominations cease. All right. All the nominations have been ceased. Anyone? Uh let's see. All in favor of Karen say I. I. All opposed.
006There we go. Let's see. Make a point. Teresa Stalking as a board secretary. Second. We have a motion and a second to put Teresa. I have not called her that in forever. Teresa Stalking as the board secretary. Yeah, you're right. Teresa Sting is the board secretary. We had a motion and a second. Any discussion? Seeing none, all in favor say I. I. I.e. nominations on that one. Okay. Okay. Uh the chair is going to do uh I'll make a motion that we appoint Shauna Leaper for board treasurer. Second. We have a motion second for Shauna Leaper as board pres board treasure. If I can give her a president job. There are days No dis any any discussion? Seeing none, all in favor say I. I. Chair would make a motion to adjourn. Second. We have
007a motion and a second to adjourn the meeting. The sign die. And that's going to be a roll call. Jim, yes. Karen, yes. Dave, yes. Almost Dave. I almost said it. Mary, yes. Teresa, yes. And Norm, yes. We are adjourned on the snee. Thank you all. I can't get to the other one. There it is. Oh, it's going to make me longer. Yeah. It's going to make me go back in. All right. So, the regular meeting now is called to order. Uh we already Yeah, we'll fix we already did a pledge, but let's do one more just for good measure. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance. The army allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and
008justice for all. I make a motion we approve the consent agenda as presented. I was I was I was informed at our flag pole. Se I make a motion we approve the consent agenda as presented. Second. All right. Well, the consent agenda items. Any other discussion? All in favor say I. I. I. All oppose. Do we have a student rep tonight, sir? No, sir. Uh, something has come up. They were planning it but unable to make it. All righty. Tony, I think that died. All righty. So, the report of the superintendent, uh, I believe that is you, young lady. Yes. I'm happy to introduce Becky. And am I saying it correctly? SRK. I want to make sure I get it right. Becky S. Rock with Stifel. She's our financial adviser. We've been working closely with
009her for about a year now and I believe this is her first time in front of the board, but she may have met some of you at various functions. I don't know. But, uh, she's here to talk about saving us some money. So, where's yours? Thank you so much. Uh, Becky with Stiffl. Appreciate the opportunity to be in front of you. Congratulations on the successful election and here with some more good news. So the district has the opportunity to use approximately 5.1 million from the debt service fund which can only be used to pay principal and interest on the district's outstanding bonds. You can use that and invest that those funds and they would be invested at current market rates that are fairly attractive and uh with that they would be those bonds would be
010defeased and off the district's books legally. Um so the next audit you'd have about 5.8 8 million in change, 5,850,000 that would come off the district's books. So 5.1 million invested, um you'd forego $940,000 of interest expense. So that plus the additional, you know, $750,000 that you are investing verse bonds or repaying um is u money that the district is being financially responsible and uh allocating to pay off the debt early. So excited to bring you this opportunity. um been working closely with the district's administration and their uh proactive monitoring that led to this opportunity for the district. Happy to answer any questions you all have. I know you're familiar with the process having done it a couple years back, but um that's the resolution that's before you all. Chair needs a motion. Just look
011at something else. I got a question about want to make a motion. Motion to approve the um bond. I don't ask defeasants as presented. Second. Second. Okay. Any questions? I'm sorry. What are we What are we approving? I know. So in essence, we have uh been able to obtain additional revenues in our I don't know where that came from, but nonetheless. [Music] Oh, okay. And therefore is a limit to what we can keep uh in our fund three and and therefore in essence we're paying down some debt in advance and we are going to save interest. It just be like anyone with a mortgage. If you pay your house off early, you're going to save on interest because we know that obviously interest acrru and therefore can be a lot of the cost upfront versus
012paying on principal. So, we're going to be able to pay down some debt, save us some interest uh with this money. One of the reasons uh we were able to transfer that 30 cents and do our no tax increase levy transfer is because we were able to collect this uh one of the commitments uh in essence that we've done as district and the board uh has felt we've wanted to try to pay down debts. We've had those conversations in year past trying to pay down debts as fast as possible and so therefore we've been able to do that but we do have an opportunity to move that 30 cents to Houston and operating. done that, but we still have this money that we need to utilize in essence to pay that down because we also
013do not want to become a savings and loan and to have too much money sitting in our our bank account instead of utilizing the funds that can help us and save us money down the road. Yeah. Sorry to ramble. Nope, that's perfect. Happy to answer any other questions about Norm. You had a question. I just noticed in here there's Sorry, I just noticed in here an agreement with UNMB bank. I'm gonna vote. I'm gonna be abstaining. Oh, okay. Yeah. UNMB bank will serve as the escrow agent for the district. So, they will purchase the securities for the escrow under the direction of Steel and then they hold that and they pay the bond holders back. So, uh that's their role as trustee. My wife's an offic. Absolutely. They're a party. Any other questions, Dave? I'm
014good. Anyone? All righty. All right then. All in favor of the I'm going to screw that word up. Bond defecence. Close enough. Defecence say I I all uh how about an abstension? Abstain. That passes. Thank you. Did I already sign that? I can say I can call a radar now. This is why. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All righty. Okay. Well, since we reorganized, we need to uh make some uh committee assignments. Um so, the chair would like to um nominate uh Mary Cummings as the MSBA delegate. Second. So, all in favor of Mary being the MSBA delegate say I. I. I. All opposed. Okay. The chair would like to nominate Jim Armio as the backup. Second. Didn't tell you Jim. Sorry. Been there, done that. Been there, done that. So, all in favor
015is Jim being the MSBA delegate backup. Say I. I. I. All righty. Let's see. The chair would like to uh nominate Teresa Cervantes as the Belton Educational Foundation representative. Second. Second. We have a motion and a second on Teresa. Any discussion? All in favor say I. I. I. All righty. the city of Belton representatives. The chair would like to nominate uh Dave and Jim as the city of Belton representatives. Second. Second. We have a motion and a second to approve Jim and Dave as the city of Belton rep as the board education city Belton representatives. Any discussion? Seeing none, all in favor say I. I. I. And yes, do we need an abstension? Yeah. Oh, I'm sorry. I was thinking that. Yeah, abstain. Sorry. Abstain. Yes. Thank you. All right. Now, the chair does not
016have somebody for belt and cares. Anybody would like to do the belt and cares? Teresa just put her finger. I nominate Traes. Listen to me. Listen to me. Well, second. Well, now I'm taking it back. Okay. What? What? Okay. All right. We'll make it work. Jim will do it. Jen. Yeah. Okay. Okay. So, will you take your uh your your nomination back? Your motion. I send resend my nomination to nominate Jim Ormilio. Second. You know, this is a good organization. I don't know why we're struggling. Anyway, so we we are nominating Jim to be the Belton Cares representative. Any discussion? Seeing none, all in favor say I before he changes his mind. Okay. Belton Cares and so does Jim. Yeah, there we go. Who second that? Um Oh, I know. I think I did. Let's
017just say I think I did. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Are there any committees that we missed? Okay. Remind me at the end of the meeting to go over a couple things with you, Dr. Underwood. I All right. Program evaluation repres uh wellness. Yes. Excuse me. I would like to introduce Jeff Milton. He is our wellness coordinator for the district and he has um sent a survey out and prepared a wonderful presentation for you to kind of summarize the wellness program and tell you all about um what we do with that. So Jeeoff, I'll hand that over to you. Thank you Jill. As Jill said, my name is Jeff Milton and I serve as a wellness coordinator here and I just want to say thank you for having me. I appreciate your time and attention
018and the opportunity to be here tonight. So the um wellness program uh exists to um educate uh educate, empower and equip employees in their professional and uh personal lives so that they can uh better impact the uh mission of Belton in terms of helping ensure personal excellence for each student. And we do this through three main uh pathways. The first is the incentive design program. So this is uh free on-site biometric screenings uh available to all employees and a health risk assessment. The second prong is community engagement and wellness offerings. So this uh as challenges that we offer uh to the uh to employees as well as classes on site. We have um available for free to each employee is the fit pros wellness uh employee app. Um, this offers virtual live or recorded classes
019that individuals can participate in. Everything from highintensity interval training to kickboxing to guided meditation to yoga at your desk. We have the on-site fitness center which is housed in the high school and that is available for employees to use um during non- studentent hours. So before school, after school or after practice and then we have um wellness champions and our communication efforts. So each building in the district um has a designated wellness champion who is a representative of the wellness program for that building. And then finally we have our um curl link employee assistance program um often referred to as the EAP. And this is an offering that um provides mental health support um financial consultation, legal consultation for employees um either through a digital model or an in-person model depending on the employees um
020desired method of care and whatever it might be that they um are needing assistance with. So with that said, let's dig into the uh evaluation. Um the first thing I want to highlight is we had 84 responses, which is a tremendous uh turnout. When Jill and Rebecca and I met, um, we were thinking, okay, this is going out in the spring. That's a busy season. There's a lot of evaluations and assessments. Um, so we weren't sure, um, what kind of turnout we would get. So, to get 84 responses, I think, is uh, fantastic. And as you can see in this chart, the majority of, um, feedback was good, very good, or excellent. So, the overall program was rated as good, very good, or excellent. And then, uh, let's dig into some a little bit more
021of what that evaluation looks like. Um again we had strong support favorable opinion of the program. So 73% um rate the program as good, very good or excellent. 72% agree or strongly agree that this program aligns with the district's mission. 75% agree or strongly agree that um leadership is effective. And then 70% agree or strongly agree that the student uh that students benefit from this program. So employees are able to um recognize that healthier teachers, healthier staff, healthier administration provides a more uh safe and positive learning environment for our students. Um the main area for improvement or a concern to address would be communication. So nearly half believe that communication to staff um needs improvement and this mainly falls into the category of kind of confusion on what the the who the program is designed
022for. So um some individuals mentioned students and staff, you know, is this program designed for students? Is it for staff? Is it for both? I've had individuals ask me if um the wellness program is just for employees on the uh district's insurance plan or is it for all employees regardless of um insurance status. And so clarifying the the the mission of the um program, who it's designed for and its offerings is uh an important thing to work on. Um while I have you here, there's a few things I would like to celebrate um in my uh 18 months of being here. Uh the first is in 2024 we had an 88% completion for the biometric screenings and that health risk assessment and uh according to blue cross and blue shield the average is between 70
023and 80% so we are excelling there. Uh cure link which is that employee assistance program we had a 33% annual program utilization in 2024. What this means is that 33% of the employee population um used the EAP, the employee assistance program in some form or fashion in 2024. So whether that was meeting with a counselor um working through an online worksheet, watching an educational video or doing some like text coaching um they used that that program and according to Curlink their book of business is between 20 and 30%. So again we are above uh average there. uh community engagement and wellness activities. Uh this past December, we had over 200 employees participate in the 12 days of wellness bingo. In the spring, we had 24 million steps logged in our stepping into spring uh steps
024challenge, which is a lot of steps. Uh we had 25 participants in the sourdough and atomic habits um book club. This is a new initiative and Dr. Mock is in our atomic habits book club. So, thank you for being in there. Hopefully, you're finding some value in it. Um, and then we had 50 uh employees attend the Cass County 5K for health in uh 2024, which is I want to highlight that because it happens um at at Southwick. It benefits the county and the wellness department reimbures employees uh race registration. So, um if you would like the 2025 is Saturday, May 3rd. So, I encourage you to sign up and the wellness department would be happy to uh reimburse your race registration fee. uh FitPros well-being app 2024 was our first time using um this
025app and our goal was to have 25% uh of the employee population on the app by the end of 2024 and we had 29% so we met that goal continuing to work on getting that number up. 91% of the registered users um participated in a challenge and then we had 250 individual sessions attended. So again, anything from kickboxing to guided meditation uh to chair yoga. And then in my time here, we've had 80 waivers signed for employees to um have access to the uh fitness center. And I've been working with Coach Eric and we have gotten new concept to rowers, Rogue Echo stationary bikes, ski urgs, new boxes, bands, barbells, so that when employees go to that um space, they have safe, up-to-date equipment that will help them in their fitness endeavors. Um so where
026do we go from here? Um we have kind of three main goals for this upcoming year. The first is to continue to clarify and communicate the program's purpose. So this past year I was invited to participate at the admin council. I met with um Gretchen and her team of nurses. Dr. Mockin invited me to lead a um session at a development a professional development day. So continuing to be in front of staff, teachers, administrators. Um reminding individuals of what the program is, who it's for, and its offerings. Um amplify the program's reach. So increased participation and visibility whether that be through uh posters or YouTube videos um and be creative and wellness funds usage. So this past year we were able to have staff outings going to the zoo um escape room art therapy sessions.
027So be creative and how we can utilize those funds to best serve this population and then continue to emphasize um wellness as a tool for teacher student connection. So, um, the more that we can promote health for our staff, the the more we can have a healthy student population as well. So, thank you for, um, your time. I'm happy to answer any questions or address any concerns. I did I hear you not answer the question? Is it for every employee? Is it just for the ones on our insurance? Great question. It is for every employee. Okay. I didn't you're I did not specify which is a goal of mine. It is for every employee. Yes. Okay. Just I was like I I heard him ask the question but I didn't hear an answer. All right.
028Anyone else? Thank you, sir. Great. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. And have a nice evening, sir. You don't have to stay either. We get it. Welcome Steam Academy calendar update. Yes. You will notice that we have two um calendars attached. One is the staff um yearly calendar update and one is the student yearly calendar update. So, a little bit about those. You will you're aware that um Hillrest had two days of electrical outages as in addition to the snow days that were required to make up. So, Hillrest's um last day would be June 2nd, which would make them have 169 days. Their extended days for their 17 extended days would begin on June 3rd. Um they would be out on June 19th, which is Junth, but then return on June 20th, which is the
029Friday after Junth, and then their last day would be June 26th for there's 17 days. So, the administration asks the board to approve the calendar for Wilkins Steam Academy at Hillrest as presented. Are we doing both? One motion. Just one calendar. Okay. Okay. I make a motion we approve the welcome Steam Academy calendar updates as presented. Second. We have a motion and a second to approve the Welcome Steam Academy calendar update. Any discussion? I have a curiosity question. Yes. So, I realized that they're going longer, but was there any thought of letting them have the 20th off and and going to the 27th? I did discuss that with Dr. Pearson and um Dr. Underwood and definitely they well she shared that I think that staff would rather go the 20th and instead of going the
030next Friday on the 27th. I thought maybe they would have liked a 4-day weekend. Right. I think something about vacations and others that they had plans that they were wanting to get out the last days so they could have trips that they had scheduled. We did promise that we were not going to go into July. Um, we got close, but we did not. You might want to check. I'm not sure that Junth is still. Yes. Okay. I thought they killed that with by executive order. Okay. All righty. Just just a thought. Okay. So, we've had a motion and a second. All in favor say I. I. All opposed. Passes. FY25 budget amendment. Yes. And Trees, are you going to put this one up there? Okay. I'm going to go to the one. It's the one
031I handed out that has the colored graphs to it. I'm going to try and go quickly, but I'm going to spend a little more time on this one as we lead in from this into some questions I've gotten on what's going to fall into the FY26 budget. I will need a motion on this one before we move into the next one, though. Okay, so we go to the first page and um current year budget, all that at the top is the same. We have our assess valuation. We knew that that was approved at the last amendment in December. got our tax levy set and our beginning fund balances. Really at this point from December until what I'm asking you to do in April is of to approve all of the accounting changes that have been
032made on the back end that that Sheila um is working on to update where we're at in funds and transfers and the accounting and budgets that we've had to allow go over. So when you see those number changes, the majority of information on the budget year we have um and that accounts for all the changes. So you can see the um adjustments in revenue. Um we're expecting now to grand total of $74,260,377 in revenue. That's up over just a million dollars over what we brought to you in December. So that is good news there. But you're also going to see then on the expenditures piece of it um that we're up by almost that same amount in expenditures. So that's a lot of offsetting in-n-out type money, whether that be grants or in increases in
033expenditures or contracts or that sort of thing. So wanted to have wanted you to have that to look at there. And then as we flip to the next page, um you'll see our transfers that we have to have approved right now. We think we're going to have to transfer just over $9 million from fund one to fund two to zero out that teacher revenue fund. That's where we pay all of our certified staff from. And we we will zero that out at the end of the year. We do that every year. And then we'll make a million dollar $1.2 million transfer into capital projects. And um that again will be zero or close to zero at the end of the year. So right now and and remember these budgets the preliminary until we come to
034you really with the ASBR in the fall. These are worst case scenario. These are if we spend every dollar out of every account. we are traditionally three to 5% better than what is even presented in June. Okay. So this is still a very fluid dark document. We just want to have it approved so we can use it as a building block for FY26. So right now if every dollar was spent out of every account um we would have just over 20 million left in the general fund and 11 million left in debt service. we would take the defeasiance dollars out of that. So that that will all change based on the work that was done tonight. Uh leaving us with a total of 319 overall. Now remember our fund balances are are an equation of
035our our um funds 1 2 and 4 divided by expenses. So leaving us at 29.44. That is a plan spend down from the start of the year. I fully expect that to be in the 33 34% range by the time the ASBR came comes. Uh we we started this year at 37% but we knew with the federal dollars running out we were going to do this. Okay. So no no alarms there. This is what we've been looking at all along. Um and then the next page shows you where the revenues are coming from. Okay, that pie chart we have now, we've talked about this a lot over the last two or three years, especially since COVID. We are now much more heavily reliant on our local taxes that we are in our state basic formula
036dollars. And then our Prop C is the state sales tax that is levied that we're able that we receive. That's another eight just over eight and a half%. And that federal revenue that we are having a lot of discussions about, we'll go back and I'm going to go back and touch on that later. um that federal revenue runs about 10% of our budgets. Okay, so you can see that um I'm going to drop down to the other circle graph. That's our expenditures um by fund. So certified staff or our teacher or yes, our certified staff accounts the paying them about 48% just over 48% of that budget. And then our fund one expenditures which does include non-certified staff in that as well as supplies purchase services. Our our food service and our um transportation contracts
037are all paid out of out of that fund. That's just over 41%. Our debt services at 7.6 and then fund four, our capital projects fund consumes about 3.1% of our budget. Uh there so you see where that goes. Now, I I really think as we move on into FY26 and into the future, that budget summary chart is really important to be able to look at and say, "All right, out of that money, out of those expenditures, where where is the majority of it going?" And you can see that um we're right at 70% goes to salaries, salaries and benefits is that that's the big driver of this entire budget. um our vending our contracts that we have our contracted services transportation is just under seven and food service is just over five. So those are
038some really big rocks in the jar when you're looking at things um that take a lot of that money. So that's I'm going to leave that there for you to look at um for your perusal. And with that, I'm going to ask the administration to approve the FY25 budget as a budget amendment as presented. Motion to approve the FY25 budget amendment as presented. Second. We have a motion and a second to approve the uh FY25 budget amendment as presented. Any discussion? Can you tell me what off-campus programming is? Off-campus programming. Yes. A lot of that is our virtual um virtual classes. Thank you. Does that include any of those that we're having like um out at North Point some of those classes? I don't think those would be included in that now for off campus.
039Okay. I didn't know. Yeah. Yeah. That the off-campus would be through Kim's office. It's Yeah. Any other discussion? Seeing none, all in favor say I. I. I. All opposed. That passes. All right. And so let's move on to FY26. If you'd keep these charts out for just a second. I want to go back to them because I've been getting a lot of questions of obviously what's going on with the federal government right now, what what's known, what's not known, that sort of thing. So I just I want to point out for you in this budget, this is how the final budget will look, where to find that information in FY26. So, if you go back to and I'll let me flip. Sorry, Teresa to do this to you. Okay, if you go let's go back
040to the revenues by fund. That's that very first page right there. So, we out of that 74 million total, that's 742, we've got debt service, which has that separate levy. If you remember, we have that when we set the tax rate. So, you got to take that money out of there. That leaves us with um 60 65 million 65.9 million almost almost 656 in revenue coming in that we can spend on our various programs. Okay, that doesn't go to pay the mortgage. Of that then of that money what is federal money um is 5,633,988. Okay. And I'll show you where to find that. If you go back then to your um spreadsheets that I never really go over with a lot and I don't even know if you have these up there. Okay. You will
041find three different federal sections. We have a federal section um under fund one which ends on the second page of that. So we have a federal if federal monies deposited into fund one are 3,484,631 federal monies deposited into fund two are 2,70,943 and then there's none of no federal money deposited into fund four. That's the separate levy to pay our debt. And then in fund four you'll see 78,414. So that combining those three funds, that's where we get our federal dollars. Now, the majority of that money, and this is what I start to address in the memo regarding FY26, so you know, comes in three areas. It comes in our special education funding, right? It comes in our title money, which is our Carl Perkins, which is to fund the underserved kids. The majority of
042that money goes to underserved, and then our national school lunch program. So, it's reimbursements on that. To date, I have not heard of any cutting that would affect the district in any of those three funds. So, we are moving forward. We're keep obviously keeping an eye on everything that goes on, but that that's where those funds go to and that's where where they're coming from. So, I just wanted you to have that understanding as you're hearing things in the news and where you can find it here. I wanted I wanted to be able to um be easy for you to see. And please, anytime you have questions, especially on this FY26, don't hesitate to reach out because you may hear something before I do. Um, but on the FY26, I'll go over the memo just
043a little bit for you. And if you remember, right now, we are so early in this budgeting process that I give you um our projections for this year and then the three years prior um for you to take a look at so you can compare. If you have any if you see any changes that you're wondering about, please reach out. I'll bring this to you again in May and then we'll bring it to you for approval again in June. Um we have gotten um of course everyone knows that Sheila is retiring as well. So with Amy Dunn her replacement has started started about a month ago up here. Amy's doing a wonderful job. So Sheila Amy Torrance and myself met with all building principles um directors and assistant superintendents to go over budget requests for
044the following year. So they are fully integrated into into the process are doing a wonderful job. um what you have in front of you, we put together prior to the election last Tuesday night. So, we went ahead and accounted for everyone moving through the salary schedule and accounting for employee benefits. We'll make updates to there. Um and the revenue projections really, especially at the local level right now, are extremely conservative. We didn't do anything with that 30 cent debt increase or the the debt service transfer over to fund one. So, we'll update that. Um this is a reassessment year. um reassessment year, but it's also the first year that Senate Bill 190 is being implemented. So, uh Mr. Mullenorp, county collector, is doing a great job putting information together and getting it to us. As
045soon as he knows it, we're working with the county to try and and make adjustments there. We're going to be pretty conservative in our estimates all the way through. Really, things are looking pretty good in reassessment, too. The numbers, so I'm feeling really good about that. Um I'd just like to share real quick, uh Mr. Mr. Mullenorfp is estimating uh the decrease in amount of revenues we'll receive is probably around $550,000 uh for this next year because of uh Senate Bill 190. So that's the estimate we have right now at this time is a little over half a million. All right. So that's the information you have. Again, as you you hear things or you have ideas, whatever, please don't hesitate to reach out. I'll come back to you again with in May. Um, quite
046honestly, at that point, I probably we probably won't have graphs. They wouldn't be accurate information for you. Those won't come again till June. But we will have had hopefully by the time we close out the numbers to get the budget ready, we will have a state budget for that that'll have been finalized hopefully. And we're all going down to the a bunch of us are going down to the state conference, finance conference at the end of this month. We hear anything there, we'll make adjustments to that. So, I do not need a motion on it, but I take any questions or any anything you have. Well, I appreciate you um being more detailed about the uh the federal. I know that's something that is, you know, you can't turn on the news without hearing this.
047So, let's just wait and see. That's what I've been telling people. Wait and see. Wait and see. Um I suspect that they'll find a way to get everybody their money. I I also suspect that they'll screw it up at least once and then it'll be fine. So I that's my opinion, but we'll wait and see. So any any questions thus far on the 26 preliminary budget? Nope. Okay. Thank you. Benefits renewal. Yes. Um, we recently met with CBiz and our insurance committee to review um, our benefits renewal. And here in the memo, you can see I've got some um, some changes that I'd like to highlight for you this evening. And I'll just kind of work my way through that. Um, with our medical plan through BlueC Cross Blue Shield, you'll see that due to
048statutory requirements, all HSA plans will be changing from a $3,200 deductible to a 300 $3,300 deductible. That's just due to um statuto requirements. Um you'll see that the employee cost employee only cost rate is $832.80 and that's about a $37.38 um increase difference uh per employee per month. That's an overall increase for the district of $25,889. Just a bit of historical um knowledge there for you. So you'll see there in 2023 we had an initial increase of 16 uh% and we negotiated that down to 11.8% and that was just due to um those prescription drug change um changes on the list. In 2024 we started at 13.5% and negotiated that down to 2.6. Um and if you remember we added that base plan last year that spy care plan. Um, and I I did want
049to update the board on how much uh positive feedback we've received on that. Um, we have not heard one bad thing about Spyra. People have really um been raving about it. We have about 32% of our staff enrolled in that particular plan. And so we look to kind of see that um increase this year during open enrollment just with the positive news that's um been spreading. So we're kind of excited to see how that goes. You'll see this year that we're at 4.7% increase with that statutory change. Our dental program will remain through Delta Dental. Um there's no rate changes this year, but there are some program enhancements. Um one of those would be that with certain conditions, people can get up to four cleanings a year. Um if if you require FE fillings, it's
050no longer just front composits. they can have the whole um mouth done which is an upgrade. Um and they also with that max advantage any preventative care will not count towards their max out of pocket. So those are some nice enhancements uh with the voluntary vision still through vision service plan. Uh again there's no rate increase there but we were able to get some additional enhancements to the plan. Um with the standard plan and the premium plan, the allowance for um frames has gone up a bit. And for name brand fra frames, it's gone up a bit. And for the premium plan, there's a $200 allowance. Uh that for people who don't need glasses in lie of glasses, they can put that $200 towards sunglasses or blue light glasses. So that's a nice little perk
051and upgrade. You'll see there for life insurance still through standard board paid life and voluntary life insurance will remain at the current rate. However, we do want to mention that retirey life insurance is going up from 72 cents to $1.90. That's a lot. Yeah. So, that was quite quite a jump. Um and these rates are guaranteed intel 71 of 27. the employee assistance program through CUR link. There is a 7 cents increase there and that's um a rate guarantee until 71 of 28. Our supplemental voluntary benefits are still through American Fidelity and they'll be hosting our open enrollment. Um and that is May 12th through the 20th. So mark your calendars for that. Uh we'll be pushing out lots of communication and signups will be happening for staff for that. All staff will have to
052participate in open enrollment. Um I do want to highlight we have a new addition to our staff uh Miss Julie Childs and she is our benefit secretary and so she's been working with our building administrators um setting up dates and times. This is something we're doing new this year. She is going to um go to every building and spend time educating staff on our new uh on our plans. Um figuring out um what best fits their needs there for questions. And so look um for administrators to put those dates and times out for their buildings so that staff can take advantage of that. Um and that is the proposal that we bring for you this evening. So the administration recommend uh our health insurance for the 2526 school year as presented. Make a motion we
053accept that proposal. Second. We have a motion and a second to accept the uh proposal for the 2526 healthcare plan as presented. Any questions? I do have one. Will this increase be ours only? Yes. So the base plan will still be 100%. So we will incur that additional 27,000 I believe Miss Brown mentioned people can buy up. There are some increases but it will be that 4.7%. So if they were paying $35 extra it's going to be 5% on top of that. Um they have a chart of it we'll obviously share with our staff in that regard. So uh we did look at a couple other insurance uh plans or companies as well. uh they were above that 4.7% increase. So, it would have incurred us additional cost to even switch and uh as we've
054had conversations obviously if uh there's a cost to switching as well because you're pay you're changing your doctors and other pieces of your plan and so therefore obviously it wasn't advantageous for us and I believe our staff and our insurance committee like Blue Cross Blue Shield and would like for us to stay there and thank goodness Bluec Cross sharpened their pencil and uh industry standard typically they could argue that 10 to 12% could be an increase that they would justify and ours fortunately is 4.7. Okay, any other questions? Seeing none, all in favor say I. I. All opposed? Passes. Architect firm selection. Yes, we went through a process. We did an RFQ. I want to thank Dr. Poel for a lot of time and effort. Uh we did also have other individuals involved with interviewing
055uh different firms. Uh we had I believe was it eight firms that presented or shared proposals and then we interviewed four we interviewed two. Yeah. And so uh yes thank you. Dr. Mock was a part of that as you can tell. So in this regard, so at at the end of the day, uh there can only be one uh and so uh the administration would recommend IDS insight design studio. Um as we look at some of the activities we have coming facility master plan is one of the items that we have talked about. We have not done that in several years. uh felt like they had a robust they have proprietary software as well as some uh 3D visioning in essence that I think can be very beneficial uh to us looking at some of
056our older buildings. Uh obviously it will be comprehensive. They had a fairly detailed uh schedule of events if they were hired that they would start in May. Um, our goal and desire as we talk about and we've talked about this with our strategic plan is that we may be looking to changes for our programming in our buildings in the future for this next year. We feel like that's uh facility plan master plan is a part of that that we need to have that and so from that we'll have uh we're looking for a demographer as well uh to see to gain that information and then hopefully have plans next fall uh to make recommendations in essence of moving forward with programming. I know that we're planning on going around and visiting with some buildings. I
057look at Dr. Mock as we're going to talk with some of our staff. We've mentioned and had conversations at staff advisories, at coffee and conversations, but we want to go around and continue those conversations. We will want some staff involved, community involved, business involved as we do our long range facility planning as well to be obviously the board will be asked as well and then we'll have this information hopefully in the fall. U looked at other school districts in which IDS has worked with. They've worked with Braymore Peculiar. They worked with Plaque County. Some of you guys were in the facility at Plaque County in the fall and uh numerous other districts around the metropolitan area. And so therefore, once again, the administration recommends IDS as our architect firm moving forward. Um 2526 school year
058will accept. We have a motion. Second. We have a motion and a second to approve the new architectural firm as presented. Any discussion? Is this Do you sign a contract with these guys and is it like a three-year deal or There's obviously we were with our current architect firm for about 30 years. We're not signing. We could um make changes. We could partner with multiple firms. Uh at this point, we want to do this long range facility master plan. Uh things work well. Obviously, we'd probably look at our next projects uh with them, but if it does not go well, then we would look or go back and consider others uh in that regard. I do believe we had um some type of letter of commitment from them in the proposal as we have the
059RFQ. Uh we looked at uh in essence their fees. Those were presented in each one of them. They're all pretty standard. If you want to share that? Yeah, their their fees were all very comparable and there was a cost for the long range facility planning as well that was spelled out. So that would be people a cost that you guys are anticipating estimated based on yes master facilities plan. I couldn't tell you off the top of my head. Uh I remember looking at it but I did not have it in front of me tonight. Uh I can tell you that the cost as far as percentage and charge is typically around 6% when we're looking at projects. Renovation is a little higher than that uh as far as 6 and a half. But as I
060go back, they were all very similar and I can definitely get you that. I mean, if we want to pause the meeting, you can give me five minutes and I can give you the exact numbers on it. But yeah, as we looked at them and looked at the comparisons, there were no differences. And I apologize for not having that exact number. I think they're comparable to what we've had already. There's no reason to. Yeah. And you'll come back to us with a price for the facility master plan anyways. Correct. Yeah, there there will be a as always the board approves all money that in essence is dispersed in the school district. Any other questions? Seeing none, all in favor say I. I. I. All opposed. Passes. Legislative update. It's been a busy time, but then
061it's not been a busy time. So, um the legislative session has started to heat up in other ways that is more um statewide issues uh that they have. I I don't want to say education has taken a backseat since the spring bake break, excuse me. However, uh some of the big ticket items such as uh House Bill 7-Eleven, which is open enrollment, um has received some time, but then again, they have been more interested in in tax cuts and other u issues in related to finances in the government. Right now, they do have the statutory requirement of having a budget approved by May 9th. So, obviously, that is the one item that they are responsible for. or anything else. Actually, they are not required to, but they do have to have that budget done by
062like 6:00 on May 9th. And so, we are watching that. I think there are some other tax cut bills that they have out there, which also affects the finances. And so, they're looking at that. And oh, by the way, I from what I'm hearing from our representatives that we have some of the legislators that are pushing for a North County possible stadium project or two. And so that has also come to light as you've noticed some of that in the news media the last week or so in that regard between the Missouri Kansas uh fight in regards to so some of those things that um you know heaven forbid us talk about education we got to talk about uh millionaires and billionaires uh throwing balls. So although I do watch them and I do like
063them and they want new stadiums and I don't blame them. And I want them in Missouri. Yes. Thank you, Dr. Boise. Any questions on the legislative update? Okay. Uh, new business MSBA policy first reading. Yes. Uh, the board should have policies 2024D in front of those. A lot of these are statutory requirements uh that you'll see in policy. uh some additions to um sunshine law. Uh I'm trying to think off the top of my head. I do have a list of them here in front of me, but um a lot of it once again I go back to statutory requirements uh that we are required to have uh in place. Uh there's nothing here that's really of major issue. Uh there there in one policy we had a situation where um it is about taxpayers
064that own property at a school district that do not live there. Uh they pay a certain amount of property tax and then they can have up to four children attend that school district. I think it's a rarity if something like that were to happen. But nonetheless there's state statute on it. So therefore it's passed. There is a policy. I was actually waving it at Miss Brown earlier about districts that have hard to fill positions and trying to create some flexibility there. So, if you'll have an opportunity to read and view through that policy as well. And then also uh there's some a policy in regards to family paced education uh to look at in regards to um different options for families and homeschooling um different types of uh expenses that could be occurred. And as
065you know, we have vouchers in the state now that some people can utilize their funds for. So I think it's just a lot of information once again that's uh legislative. And so if they have any questions, be happy to to discuss those. But once again, nothing here that I see that is other than some minor adjustments to our policies that we have currently in place. Okay. Chair will accept a motion. Motion to approve the first reading of policies 2024D as presented. Second. We have a motion second to approve the policies 2024D as presented. First reading. Any discussion? Seeing none, all in favor say I. I. I. All opposed. Passes. Horizontal advancements. Yes. The administration asked the board to approve the following horizontal advancements as presented. Motion to approve the horizontal advancements as presented. Second. Motion
066and a second to approve the horiz horizontal advancements as presented. Any discussion? Seeing none, all in favor say I. I. All opposed. That also passes. Some committee updates. We're also going to take a little minute here to discuss um OSBO for the ones that went. But let's start with uh committee updates. MSBA Mary, anything? Oh, M Oh, okay. MSBA. Um proposals for the fall conference are due April 30th. So, if we have any proposals that we're going to submit April 30th, the conference itself is October 24th and 25th this year at the Sheridan and Weston at Ground Center. Um we discussed part of the summer conference uh earlier. Um Teresa, thank you, has put in for our governance team award. All of those uh uh requirements were met. We've been having the lunch and learns
067one Friday a month and it's been just legislative updates for the most part. Um the uh cooperating school district had a breakfast virtual um last week and Steve Carroll had a lot of things to say about bills we uh are hoping don't pass and some that we hope do without anything being added to them before they do. Um so those are kind of that's just the gist of um MSBA right now. Jerry, I don't know if you've got anything from your executive board meetings. Uh, not yet. Our our next meeting is uh next week. So, I'll have more for you uh after next week's meeting. I know we um some of you may have heard um we're going to be voting for presidentele from the floor uh because the current president-elect lost her local election.
068So, she will not It happens. It happens. Um, so that that will change that how that works. So, um, okay, that's all I really have for MSBA. Dr. Underwood, we sent in two for MSBA. We are working on that. We have a deadline of April 30th. Uh, we have one through our human resources uh, utilizing some artificial intelligence with SIMBI and then also we are looking to a presentation as look at Dr. sideman in regards to our brain boost learning opportunities that we have with students we think is somewhat unique as well and since she was the originator and her and Dr. Mock helped to put that all together as we have done it how many times now Dr. Do you have a microphone? We have done brain boost three years. We've done it three
069times over spring break and two times over winter break. So, we think that's something that unique that other school districts might glean something from in regards to. Our conversation obviously has been that we're presenting to boards of education. And to put it that high level uh in regards to overall, I think it's a win-win for staff. It's a win-win for students and families. Uh food insecurity is a piece of that. And then I go back to Simbi. It is a win for new teachers and trying to help them. Is what is our term again, Miss Brown? Retention. Retention is the new recruitment. Thank you. I struggle saying that, but we're trying to retain our new staff through these additional resources. And so, we want to share that out. Artificial intelligence is here to stay and
070uh we can either embrace or we can try to um be against, but same thing of calculators. I think they're still around. Okay. Belton Educational Foundation. Okay. We have um get to my right page here. The glow run that they just recently had uh netted $3,000. Um they just recently received a $5,000 don donation from the uh Belton Raymore Rotary. Um, April 22nd is scholarship night at um the performing arts center um at the high school and there will be several uh scholarships being awarded through Belton Educational Foundation. Uh they made $14,000 on major saver which half of that went back to the schools that earned them. I'm going to say it again. Turkey bowls November 8th is Karen Smiles. And um let's see if I've got all my notes here. Um May 31st is
071coffee and cars at Johnny's Tavern as well as um that's uh Kerry Nation weekend and there'll be an alumni um something. We're going to meet tomorrow to finalize that. October 2nd through the 4th will be the all class reunion weekend with homecoming and parade and lunchon and all the things that go with that. Um so that's kind of where the foundation is right now. Okay. And more to follow when our when you take that over. All righty. Belton cares. You matter. Belton. What was that? Belton cares. I knew you said that. Okay. Welcome. The first thing I'm going to do is I'm going to pass out these little They're a heart with a um comment which is a semicolon. Today is national semicolon day which that is uh representing um raising awareness for um uh
072suicide survivors as well as people who are struggling with mental health issues. So, um I have I don't So, we have those and um then we will have on April 29th, we will have the fentanyl uh candle light vigil u at Peace Park which is right uh next to um Central Bank of the Midwest. Bank of Bank of Alton is how Yeah, that's I struggle because I've been there since it was Bank of Bel. Uh so that uh will be at 6:00 that night. Uh May is mental health awareness month and so we're encouraging you to wear green on Fridays and I also have green ribbons for that. Um you Belton is selling uh t-shirts at their cost uh if you don't have green and they're really cool. Uh when you go downstairs there's a
073a poster on the cabinet. You can hit the QR code and order a t-shirt if you want. They're $15. Um May 31st at uh Carrie Nation Days, you matter Belton will have a dunk tank. Uh Jar Millio will be one of the dunies. I was I I was I can't swim, so I I was told by somebody that I should volunteer. Well, we can volunteer right now. Okay. Okay. So So I'm going to add Jerry to that list with Jim. Um so sessions by the way. Yes he and oh it's challenge now. Yeah he has signed up. Um so those are the things that are going on um with Bel and Cares you matter and the foundation um and of course the Troy Shaw golf tournament is August 9th and um more to report later.
074Okay. Thank you. City of Beldon. Anything? Nope. Okay. So, let's talk about COSBA for those of us that went and and uh I'll start. I thought it was a a a good conference. I think it was the best COSBA event as of yet. Um third one. It was third one. And I uh I I got I actually got some pretty good things out of it. I got some uh some good thoughts on how we're we can revamp our student representative Um, and so I want to discuss that with Dr. Underwood and Noter, student representative. I want to talk to you about revamping it. You and Dr. Mark, I would like to have that revamped. Um, and we'll we can all discuss that at another date. Norm, what you think? I think it was the best
075one so far. uh a lot more indepth conversation about what's going on. One of them I went to wasn't so good, but the rest of them were. And like I said, the one about student representative, I attended that one and it was an election and it seemed to go very smooth for the school district right there by Atlanta. And they swore by it and it's, you know, they elected two of them to begin with, it's a sophomore and a junior. Then the next year the junior would be the senior and they would be the rep and then the sophomore would be the junior and be the backup. The senior would set up at the dios and the so the junior would set out in the crowd. So and then it was after that they would
076only have one election a year. So right. So then the junior would automatically be it for it's basically a two-year deal if you start it younger. Exactly. Question. Uhhuh. I guess my question would be how um for the candidacy do students run for the position? Yes. Because I think that you know that helps with the Yeah. engagement. I think the first year they had 13. Yeah. It it'll be a they would run for it and maybe that'll get us some more buy in campaign. They for a while. So, we have to come up with a good plan and that's why I'm going to lean to the staff to help us figure out how we're going to do that. But, I think that would help. There's also a uh student um there's a national it's a
077in it it's for student representatives. There's a national organization and there are classes that they can take um through this. A lot of them are virtual and I think Jim you attended that one as well. I did. It's just it's very interesting. Uh a lot of good things come out of that. I think we should uh follow some of the thoughts that we heard. Yeah. And so and I've got the information I'll bring to you on the on the student representative, but there's a there's a it it's like a certification for them. So I thought, you know, that might fall in line with what we're trying to do. Um Dave I agree. It was a great conference. I felt like a lot of the sessions were very relatable and you learn things from them compared
078to some of the ones you've been to before. um you know just things about bridging gaps and you know I went to one called the Iowa Lighthouse Survey which was pretty cool about you know the instructors were pretty like out there like they were like very excited about it but it was it was a good little class to go to about you know how children can learn at a high level and how the board needs to believe that the kids can learn at a high level. some Jim, do you have anything else? Um, there was one um session that I wanted to attend but didn't get a chance to. I I just wonder anybody went to it. I'm right, you're wrong. Shut up. Anybody go to that one? I did. Yeah, I did. It It
079was The guy was The guy was pretty spot on, I thought. You know, high energy, you know, very very spot-on. Was that the last one we went to? Yeah. Yeah, that was a great one. guy that split the room up and Okay. Well, I was curious because that was a different session, but I went to uh went to three on on the 21st and four on the 22nd. Uh talking about financing, school financing, what try to understand better. Uh selecting the right superintendent. I know we hound Dr. Underwood, we go to those every year. But, uh, they had some good points on on making sure they would be very acceptable to the whole board because you may have some people that say, "No, we don't want him, but you still carry the vote." So, it
080might be an issue if you have some dissension there. But overall, I thought it was pretty good. Very good. Uh, and then Miss H, I have one for you as well about going through, it was on South Carolina and it was going through when you name a school, um, doing some type of room or video or something so that the students know who that school is named after down the road. And I thought that was now ours are named after some PE, but it's not the school that did it was the first um uh black high school after the Civil War. And so they they they had made a whole room of that cuz they were tearing down that school or or the naming of that school. So, I'm I'm gonna lean on you on
081some of that because we have like CF Yokum, you know, and some of us may know who that was or not. Uh WO Gladen. Um and so that would be something that I that way the the students would know why we named a school. All of us in this room right now understand um the Wilkins Steam Academy, but and but the the W Gladen to be honest, I don't even know who W Gladen was and I've been in this town couple hundred years. So, um anyway, so I thought that was a good one. So, Radar, anything from you? So, I did attend several of the secretary board secretary um sessions. They you always take away something. Um but overall, I think we all do a great job. So, kudos to you guys for working together
082as well as you do. Um the best part I I liked was we all sat at the first general session and listened to um Missy Tester, the national teacher of the year with um Ali, what was her first name? Ali Muhammad Ali. Leela Ali. Yeah, the the national teacher of the year was better than her. I shouldn't say that out loud, but I mean, she was she was phenomenal. She was. And um man, if if you could hear her speak again, she was she was really good. So, that was my favorite part. Yeah. And I was going to go to the uh third general session, but uh I don't know, something happened and my car started coming north. So, I I I don't know. I I don't know what happened. s Sunday suddenly I found
083myself in Tennessee was home. All righty. Well, thanks for all of those that went to that. I always like us to give an update. Um maybe next year we can have some more and next year it's in Louisville. Louisville. Louisville. If it's not flooded. If it's not flooded. Yeah. Yeah. So anyway, so that's where next year's is. Some miscellaneous dates. Um, April 17th, no school and the service recognition at the uh BHS auxiliary gym 2 o'clock. Uh, April 18th, no school, Good Friday. April 21, school is in session. That's a makeup day. I understand that one. April 23rd is the BHS teacher student directed one acts at 700 p.m. April 24th is student recognition. No, that one's been cancelled. May 1 is the BHS choir pops concert at 7 p.m. May 3rd is Bandorama at
084noon at um 12 p.m. May 9th is graduation at Cable Dmer. Um we need to discuss what we're going to do prior to that or whether we're going to do what we did last year. So please get with Radar with your thoughts on that. May 13th is the BMS choir concert at 7 p.m. May 29th is the last day of school early release. This does not include the welcomes steam academy. Um and I think this is the first meeting after our board of education night or a board of education appreciation. Uh well, we did that night. But anyways, I I wanted to thank Wilkins for uh uh in inviting me over to have uh breakfast with the teachers. I actually enjoyed that very much. Um I did harass some of the staff to answer some
085of their questions. Um but I kind of enjoyed that and I and I think that's not something not a bad idea for us to think about so that you know you're there and they don't have to meet you. So, I just thought that was an interesting thought. Anything else from miscellaneous states that the chair missed? Mr. President, I would like to give a shout out to our choir back on a God bless you. Back on April 9th, uh Belton High School was at uh Kaufman Stadium. Best rendition I have ever heard. Super proud of our kids and how they sounded. And so, a shout out to Mr. Stuck and our our BHS students. Cool. Anyone know how the play went? Uh, I went Oh, it was it was different. It was really cute. It was
086a little interactive, but um it started out with the the playwright told how he made the characters and but you wouldn't he wouldn't tell who the main character was. And so when the play started, he was the main character and then then he got killed and then he got to be the police officer. Uh, so he was in the thing, but it it was kind of a comedy mystery. It wasn't like, you know, gory or anything. So, it was real cute. Um, I enjoyed it. Okay. Very good. Anything else for the good what? Yeah, one more thing. Oh, okay. Um, May 13th is the state of the schools lunchon, right, Dr. Underwood? Yes. For the Chamber of Commerce. Yes. May 13th. May 13th curriculum center. It's at uh I was going to say stadium, but
087yes, at the curriculum center. Yeah, 13th. Yeah. I just thought I'd say that because it's going to be before the next meeting. Okay. Anything else for the good of the cause? Motion to adjurnn. Okay. Chair accept. Motion to adjurnn. Second. We have a motion and a second to adjourn the meeting. Any discussion? Seeing none. Jim, yes. Karen, yes. Birthday boy, yes. Mary, yes. Yes. Teresa and Norm, yes. We are adjourned. Thanks, folks. 11.