001It is 6:00 and I'm going to call this meeting to order. Under the provisions of the public meeting law of the state of Missouri, the board must adopt a roll call vote and agenda that includes the time, the date, place, and tenative agenda for the meeting. A copy of that notice and the agenda for this meeting was posted on Monday, July 21st, 2025 at the administration building located at 8855 Dun Road, Hazlewood, Missouri online. and also sent to local newspapers. May I have a motion to accept the agenda as adopted? >> Some moved. >> Call for the vote, please. >> Mr. Bailey. >> Dr. Graves. >> Yes. Dr. Martin. >> Miss Mansery. >> Yes. >> Mr. Tyson, >> yes. >> Secretary votes yes. Madame President. >> Yes. Thank you. First of all, I want to
002say thank you for coming out. Those of you who are here today, um those of you who are online, um we are we are very appreciative of of your attendance and your concern about our fiscal um position that we're in at this at this time. So, thank you so so much for coming. I really appreciate it. I want to also point out that our mayor is here, Mayor Ella Jones, and want to say hi to the mayor in the back. Thank you so much. Um, we were at a meeting last night with Ella in her um Ferguson civil civil Ferguson council's council meeting. Yes, last night, but we're so happy that you're here. Okay, we're going to go into the consent agenda. Our adopted rules of parliamentary uh procedure. Robert's rules provide for a consent
003agenda list listing several items for approval of the board by a single motion. Most of the items listed under the consent agenda have undergone board uh subcommittee review and received recommendations. Documentation concerning these items has been provided to all board members and the public in advance to assure thorough a review. Items may be removed from the consent agenda at the request of any board member. May I have a motion to accept? So move Dr. Graves, >> yes. >> Dr. Martin, Miss Manserie, >> yes. >> Mr. Bailey, >> yes. >> Secretary votes, sorry, Secretary Votes, yes. Mr. Tyson, >> Madame President, >> yes. Thank you. So, we're going to get right into our financial work session and I'm going to call Tony Chant who is our new CFO. Um, if you would like to take it
004from here. >> Sure. Thank you very much. Um, so, okay. First of all, um, before we begin, I'd like to recognize some individuals and organizations. The Ferguson Forson School District has engaged for assistance with financial matters. Um, first is Moazbo and Petty Bad but Patty Bedboro who has helped the district over the past few months. And in addition, um, the district is consulting with MSBA and we have with us tonight Pam Frasier, the director of school finance for U. Next, just a little bit of background about myself very briefly. Um, I have uh been a business owner uh in Florescent in the distant past for 11 years. started in about 1993 just a business off of North Lindberg a couple months um after that um I served 18 years in education finance um I've been
005the lead finance administrator in six different schools uh four public private and uh within those positions I've overseen uh finance and oper Okay. Uh, we need to recognize the mission and vision of the school district. The mission of the Ferguson Florison School District is to provide highquality instruction to every student in every neighborhood while prioritizing equity and compassionate relationships. Vision of the school district is for the Ferguson Thoren School District is to is for all learners to graduate believing that anything is possible and prepared to realize those possibilities. Okay. The intent of tonight's workshop is to convey a highle look at finance financial information. Uh we will be discussing public school finance And in addition, we will be examining some financial aspects specific to Ferguson for school district. Uh the first bucket of revenues that
006um most school districts throughout the state have are um these right here. the current uh real estate property taxes that are levied, uh delinquent real estate property taxes, and then uh Prop C, the 1-cent sales tax for the state. Um this is uh a tax that was passed by the state legislature in 1982, is a 1-centent statewide sales tax dedicated to funding schools and highways. Uh these funds are distributed to schools on a per pupil basis. Next is Eminem also called commercial sale sir tax. Um this is the tax on commercial real property in the district. Uh it's distributed to taxing authorities in the same manner as real estate taxes. And then the last bucket local revenues is interest. and other local. The next category is uh county revenues. Um first is fines, SES and
007overl. Um S cheats refers to unclaimed property and overl is surplus or excess amount of generate uh amount generated from foreclosures or tax sales of real estate. The next grouping is state assessed railroad and utility tax. So railroad and utility tax properties are state assessed, meaning that the value of the tax property is determined at the state level by the Missouri state tax commission. Uh companies subject to this tax utilize an average school tax rate determined at the county level to establish their tax liab liability for school districts. This calcula calculation takes into account consideration of the miles of lines each company has within the county and its various taxing jurisdictions. Railroad and utility companies are required to report their real and tangible personal property to the state tax commission and county clerks by April
00815th of each year based on ownership as of January 1st. And then there's domestic tax insurance, which this is where insurance companies organized under Missouri tax law are subject to state tax that is levied on direct premiums they receive from policyh holders within the state. Okay. In state revenues, we have our basic formula. We have the classroom trust fund which is a portion of the foundation formula that represents money collected for from state gaming. Then we have transportation aid. We have early childhood special education, early childhood uh parents as teachers program and Missouri career education uh which provides academic and occupational skills training to prepare students for future. And then we have other state revenue. Uh as for federal funding, we have our grouping of title funds. Uh title 1A is to provide supplementary education
009and related services to students attending elementary and secondary schools with relatively high concentrations of children from lower income families. Title 2A is federal funding uh to support professional learning for educators and leaders at the school district level. Title three is funding that provides assistance to English language learners and immigrant students. And title 4A provides resources to improve access to a well-rounded education, create positive school conditions, and integrate technology for improved learning. Uh next we have Medicaid, have ROC, we have federal career and technical education, early childhood special education. Then we have our grouping of federal meal programs, lunch, breakfast, and snack. And then there's Perkins, uh which supports career and technical education programs at the secondary level. And then we have CTE, career and technical education. This supports the development and imple implementation of CTE
010programs providing financial assistance for various costs associated with these programs. And the final revenue category is other revenue. Um for us specifically at Ferguson Florescent, um we have transportation fees that are two other districts. This pertains to the billing of McKenna Vento transportation to and from other districts. And then we have insurance recovery. Um once in a while there's insurance premium refunds school district will receive this. This doesn't happen. So this is I wanted to have a visual repres representation of the distribution of where Uh the revenues are for first good forces. As you see, our main revenue stream comes from local taxes, which is almost 60% of all of our revenues. And we have county, which is a very small piece. State's a good size, almost uh 30% of our revenue. Federal is just
011under 10%. And the other category is onetenth of 1%. So for expenditures um they are in these uh six buckets here. Salaries, benefits, purchase services, supplies, capital outlay and debt service and other other expenditures. So um I wanted to show also another graphic representation of how the expenditures are distributed for third floor. So as you can see salaries and benefits um make up the lion share overall expenditures. It's 77.7% almost 78% of the overall budget for the school district. And you have purchase services at roughly 11% supplies at a little over 5% capital outlay at 3% that service and other so um we all see with the ASBR know about the operating fund balancers talk about that quite a bit But um I wanted to explain a little bit about what it is. What does
012that percentage actually represent? So the calculation for the operating fund balance percentage is the operating ending fund balance which is fund one fund two general fund and the teachers divided by um general fund special fund expenditures for those two funds. When you do that you get a percentage. So for instance I'm just throwing out a number. you have 20% um that is actually a representation of how much funding how much revenue you have on hand that will cover you in a year's time span. So 20% of uh of an ending fund balance will essentially represent 24 uh months that in the absence of any other revenue coming into the district. That's what the district has on and that u and this fund balance percentage is always calculated on ASBR which is the financial that goes
013to desi at the end. Okay. Now, we'd like to get into just a little bit more depth about finances that affect the school district. So, the school district financial timelines. Um here, um we have three uh of the four are actually statutory deadlines. are mandated by state law. So first is um the ASBR which is due to desi by date of August 15th each year. Uh next is um the tax rate. The board meeting to set the tax levy is usually the last Wednesday of the month of September with an October 1 deadline for submittal to the county. And thirdly, uh the end of year audit is statutoily dictated to be December 31st. Has to be Um the budget timeline here is the is a chart that shows the framework for significant district financial and
014budgetary planning. This actually is part of the overall budget book. So you can see some of the specific financial thresholds that we have for the school district throughout the month. So, here this is a um chart that shows the 5-year history of past financials by object with projected fiscal year 2025 since we haven't actually finalized the 2020 25 financials yet. and then also the 2526 budget passed just back in June. Um, this particular comparison includes all of the district funds 1 through 4. If you take a look at the 2526 budget column, you can see that it shows a projected deficit of 5.4 million. Next we have uh comparison of the years past operational revenues and expenditures. So this chart shows a five-year history of past financials by object alongside the 202526 budget. The numbers
015only include comparisons of the operational funds, funds one and two, the general fund and the teachers fund. If you compare the revenues and expenditures of the 202526 budget, it shows a projected deficit of $8 million. Uh ESSER funds that were s sustained the budget from 22 uh fiscal year 22 through fiscal year 24. So if you look at the federal uh line for revenue, you'll see that there are very high numbers in fiscal year 22, 23, 24. And as we approach 24, 25, and 26, those go back down to normal levels that we would see our federal funding. And down at the very bottom, you'll see the uh ending fund balance percentages that we talked about earlier. Over the past few years, 202425, we haven't completely finalized the financial information for for that particular fiscal
016year. So, we're still calculating what the ending fund balance is there. then that will actually pull over into um the 202526 budget as the beginning uh fund balance and then uh at that point in time once we complete 2425 we'll have a better idea of what our projected in fund fiscal year 2026. So this is um an analysis of our revenues and expenditures. So this is a visual res representation uh over the last 15 years. Uh the years where there's a blue bar that's taller than the orange, this is a year that the district had a surplus. And the opposite um is that when the orange bar is actually taller than the blue, that's a year that deficit budget. So this is a enrollment history. Uh the chart shows the enrollment over the past five
017years and the projected enrollment for fiscal year 206. Uh these enrollment numbers come from desi core data September membership counts. So the projected enrollment for this current fiscal year 2026 is 87. So these two charts show the district tax rate history by property category and by fund. So the property category is all the property categories that go into the calculation of the the tax levy each year. And then over here on the right side are the distribution of the tax levy within the funds operating funds for the school district. Okay, this is a um a chart of the assessed values for the district over the last several years. You can see that um the where the reassessment years kind of are where there's a larger than normal increase in the percentage of the assessed values.
018Um reassessment occurs in odd number years. So over on the left is those are actually fiscal years. So for instance, you take 2024, that's actually the three 24 school year. So that's the year that reassessment happened and you'll see that there's a large increase due to reassessment. And so these are the collection rates uh over the past four years. Um you'll see that we compare the budget numbers. Um and then we compare to the next row the levied amounts that we did when we set the tax rates. and then the amount actually collected by the district. And then it gives the percentage of what the district actually collected with the levied amount compared to the so you'll see in the last couple of years we've had a dip in the in the collection rate. I
019can surmise that that probably had it was an effect from co So you'll the years before that were very good but in the years following co see that the election rate has dropped off significantly. Uh we are actually taking measures as an administrative team try to do some research and figure out how we can bring those collection rates back to previous levels. So, um, recently there's been a freeze on federal funding. There's been about $6.8 billion in a nationwide freeze for title funds. Two, three, and four. Um, also u there's uh the uh state the sorry the federal legislature um is using what's called the impound empoundment control act of 1974 where president can actually go back freeze uh certain budgetary items um that the legislature passed. So that's what's going on now. And so
020this chart down here is what the district actually received in the 202425 school year. Um and this kind of gives you an idea of the funds that have been frozen for the school district at this particular time. So um in total title 2A, 3A, and 4A all total roughly 9 50,000 that's about $18 per pupil third floor school district. So uh contributing factors uh I just want to preface by saying we will be having more workshops. So, we're not going to get into a lot of detail on these next two slides, but I just wanted to highlight a few of the things that are most important to be looking at. And um so we'll start off with the contributing factors. I believe inflation, an increase in the goods and services nationally have played a significant
021role. Um changes in Missou's funding formula. So there was a the last few years coming out of COVID there was the ability to look back in prior years and able and so that the co years wouldn't affect you moving forward but that ended with the prior year. So 202425 we reverted back to a regular weighted ADA. the way that that's calculated. Um, also the district has um seen increase in staffing levels over the past few years. Uh, there's been enrollment fluctuations um and a decrease in attendance rates across the district. And there's been actually no tax levy increase that the district has passed over the last 15 years at least. So next um what are our next steps? As I mentioned before, we will in future workshops get into more detail about that. But the
022things that are important to the district is stakeholder engagement. really need to include those uh in the community with where we are going to where we're going formed. The creation of a budget and finance committee to gain community input, a re-evaluation of the district staffing, which Dr. Chambers has been doing a lot of work lately and examining the uh de decrease in collection rates as we previously mentioned. So, as I talked about just a bit ago, um we are planning on creating a budget and finance committee. So this QR code will take you to a questionnaire where the community can sign up to participate in an advisory role in the budgetary process. Hope to gain a lot of input from the community where we go from here. That concludes my presentation. So are there any
023questions? Before we get into the questions, I want to say thank you to uh Mr. Chance, also Miss Draper for leading this work. Um making sure that the information that we receive and process and um making sure it's in digestible format as well as information is incred is incredibly important. Um it it speaks to the transparency, but it also speaks to the more complex nature of school and district finances. So, I wanted to start there. Also wanted to thank Miss Frasier for being here. Um, as we understand that, um, some of the challenges that we have um, to be able to be a call, a email, a way for u, individuals that have been doing this work for so long, it it means a tremendous amount not only to myself um, but the entire district
024at hand. So, thank you for that. Also want to thank the board of education. when we talk about coming together for meetings. Um the board has been remarkable in understanding that the sense of urgency to not only understand how we got to this particular point, excuse me, but also to understand that we have to make sure we're being incredibly transparent. And so with this being the first of a few financial workshops, it is very intentional. We want the community to be well aware that we want to talk about finances. We want to show all of the information we have and we want to be transparent with what has contributed to the situation that we're in. And so, um, I do want to harp on one more thing before I turn it over to, um, Madame
025President to facilitate any questions. U, Mr. Chance did speak into contributing factors. And so for those of us that are here now, for those of us that we um hope will join us next meeting, for those of us that are online, that next meeting, we're going to dive into a lot of that information. This is at least a threepart workshop in order for us to understand what exactly is going on, but more importantly, how our community can lock arms with us and help us support our students and the great work that they're doing here. And so again, Mr. Chance, uh, Miss Draper, um, Miss Frasier, I really really appreciate your partnership and also appreciate the board of education as we work together. So, with that, I'll turn it over to, uh, Madame President. >> Thank
026you. And I want to say thank you to you for shining a light on this and making sure that we are, uh, we are focused on getting this budget together and also helping us as board members to understand the the U budget even more. sharing it with the community and with our our staff, our teachers, and um it's really important because this this work that we're doing affects them. And so we want to make sure that everyone understands how we got here and what are we going to do to make things better. So I want to thank I want to also echo thank you to all of you for the work that you do to get us back on track. We really appreciate that. I'm looking forward to uh what we're going to learn from
027these workshops and hopefully you will our community will um make the choice to to be a part of this be a partnership in partnership with us as we learn and also that we can get from maybe we can learn something from you in the community in the comm community if we could be a little bit more um a little bit more on top of our the the stewardship that we have to have over the monies that that we have in our district. So, it is important for the board to know and understand all all of it and for us to do the best that we can do for our kids because the bottom line is is this money goes to support our children and give helping to get them through school and to have a
028good education. Um, and it also reflects too on when people move into school into different neighborhoods, a lot of times they look at the the the school. They're looking at the schools and we want people to want to come to Ferguson Flores and School District. Also, another biggie for me is making sure that our teachers are paid well. Um that is that's an issue for us and we own that. Um so we're hoping that through these all of these um ideas that our Dr. fields and in in conjunction with the board that we're working together will help us to to get these things straightened out. Also, the other part too and and I I guess I'll wait and wait for our questions to come through, but just comments on how we got here. The contri
029contributing factors. Um, I know we're going to look at this a lot more when we go into our next into our next meeting, but there are factors and there's reasons why we are where we are and we want to again be transparent and share those with with the community and with with um our staff. So, at this point, we're going to go into any questions that the board may have um to Mr. Chance. And I thank you again for your your efforts and and pulling this all together. Are there any questions at this time? Would you all like to start go around? Would you can start with you Dr. Kyle Walker? >> Um I don't I don't think I have a question right now. Um I made a note about title funds, but I think
030you kind of addressed that when you were talking. The question I have is, you know, with that 950,000 or so uh reduction in our funds, I just I'm curious about where that impacts us as a district, like how does that impact students? So, that's something >> I'm wondering about, but then I wondered if it wasn't fair to ask you that. So I that's what I'm wondering about if you know anything about it. >> Well, obviously anytime you take almost a million dollars out of budget, it will have an impact, but I want to clarify that these are not actually stripped out of the budget per se, but they're on they're frozen. So we still have hopes that these will be released sometime in the future. Um, thank you so much for your presentation. I have
031um a couple of different questions, but I think it will come along in the process, but I just wanted to kind of say what my questions were and like if it's going to be covered in part two, part three, part four. Um, I'm okay with you saying that. Um, but these are just kind of some of my thoughts. Um, one of the questions that I had and this I was just kind of going by through by the slides. Are there places where we are not getting funding? Um, where where um where are those places at that we're not getting funding at and are we um collecting all possible revenues? Um, my other one was and then I was just kind of thinking about um those local dollars. what opportunities or support do we need from
032various municipalities um that we serve? And so like what does that work look like with working with Berkeley, working with Ferguson, working with Florison and um just like what would that plan look like of how can the community support um the budget? I would say >> go ahead. >> No, no, no. Go ahead. Well, you are correct that those are basically things that we will cover in uh future discussions. However, I will say that we are currently even though it's been 16 days >> 16 exact >> 16. >> Today is 16, tomorrow is 17. We are we are already making strides >> into correcting some of the things that you just mentioned and I I will be happy to really expound on those when we have future discussions. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Um and so
033then another one was just uh where do we see opportunities for growth? Um definitely in revenue. That's kind of where my thoughts were. Um, in looking at when you were kind of showing all of those different sections in regards to where we get dollars from, what opportunities or what which factors is it that we're going to be like, oh, okay, well, we can have get more federal dollars or we can do more state grants, like something like that. So, just kind of thinking about where where are those opportunities for growth. Um, the the slide where you had on the collections, that really was concerning. So, I'm glad that was on the other sheet in regards to really figuring out why we're only collecting 86%. And so, I was like trying to figure out like what's
034the process? Who was in charge of the collections? Where does that piece fit in? >> That's usually the the county that collects the money and then it's the the constituents who actually pay the taxes. So, it's not really anything that we have direct control over, but we can try to take steps to see if we can get that percentage increase. >> Okay. >> And I think Dr. Fields had uh an answer for your >> Absolutely. Um, great question. Um, Dr. Graves, I think it's a yes. And um, yes, we will be diving into a lot of the things that you brought up more in depth in the next workshop. The second of which is yes, we have been in touch with um St. Louis County. We're on a firstname basis in a lot of regards
035because as you can imagine in 16 days we have had a lot of questions. Um we also believe that there are some other funds that we can tap into. Uh we don't have a figure yet. That is going to be some of the work that we do and we'll be bringing the board as well as the community along as we um have those discussions. Um, yes, we are looking at at the end of the day where are instances where we missed out. Now, I will say speaking with St. Louis County, um, there are hundreds if not thousands of cases that are protested in our assessment years. So, in those odd number years, um, if someone is, um, contesting their um, assessed valuation or what have you, then it has an impact. And so, then we
036have a responsibility to go back and look at some of those dollars. And so again uh when I give the level of kudos to the individuals um before it wasn't just to give kudos it is we are seeing on the back end some of the work that has taken place and I am um beyond excited to share um some of the things that we have learned and what we are continue to learn as we continue throughout the process. >> Thank you. And then I just have two more things. Um then the other thing is um when on the contributing factor sheet I was just kind of looking at and you mentioned the word um control and that's kind of what I was looking at um out of all of the things I kind of put
037beside okay like the inflation we can't control that changes in Missouri funding besides advocating we can't control that but then I was like okay but we can control the increased staffing levels we can control um the building transitions and things like that and so um I looked forward to that discussion on the contributing factors and how we get to play that out in regards to even some of the stuff that we can't control. What does advocacy look like? What does bringing the community along and some of those things? And then the last thing I had, which is kind of concerning to me, is over this last past school year, we made a lot of different changes, a lot of different cuts, and um the budget to me seems worse in regards to um how much
038we're spending. Um, and I would have thought that with some of those changes that we would have saw that in the budget and especially in um, the salaries and um, some of the spending on the purchasing and things like that. And I just didn't see the way we kind of shook the district up this past school year that it doesn't show in the budget. >> Right. There's a lot of factors that go into the budget. Um but uh one of the things that I I didn't mention for is that we're we're coming out of the money got from CO. So that's no longer there and that took away a significant revenues. There's other factors with expenditures as well that we're we're diving into. Um, yeah, we're we're we're working on trying to correct those those
039things that you you stated. >> Mr. Chance, if you don't mind, can you go back to slide U 15 that shows the historical actual to budget comparison. Um, and just something that's small but also that is big that I want to make sure that is uh very important. I think it's the one right before that. So, they're the same. What we'll see in the 2021 school year, you see actual 2122 actual 22 23 actual 23 24 actual the numbers that we see in front of us. So some of those changes are still preliminary as the ASBR will help us know exactly where we ended and then looking at 25 26 is based off the budget. And so until those numbers are actual they are going to flunuate. So that this isn't to say that some
040of those decisions that were made, we won't see some of that level of relief. I just want to put an emphasis on it's it's a uh preliminary in terms of the numbers that we're seeing until it's final and then it's also a budget. So once those are actual, we'll be able to really do some uh analysis to see what the impact was on some of those um decisions that were made last year. So I do want to make sure that's clear. I don't like sitting next to Courtney because she cheated off my question. Um, but the one thing I want to emphasize is back to the collections. Um, when we got $65 million supposed to come into the district and we get 54 million, that's $10 million out there that we can't use to educate
041our children. That is due to the district. So, I mean, when you look at a shortfall, I mean, we were expecting that money to operate on, you know what I mean? But whatever reason, somebody has decided not to pay $10 million in in taxes, which is now forcing us to make drastic decisions that people are complaining about. But would have given the $10 million, we may not have seen such drastic decisions needing to be made. So when we say community, come alongside us, help us. We're saying pay your taxes. Help us because that's how you help the district or support the district is by paying your taxes. Um, yeah. I mean, and I know that might be beating the horse, but it it it I mean, just pay your taxes because that's what helps us.
042And you, I don't know about you, but if you are operating at 80% less than what you're supposed to be getting in your household, guess what's going to happen? You know, something's going to have to give. And that's basically what you're asking the district to do. Operate on 80% less than what's supposed to be coming into to our our our reserves. Thank you. Thank you for the presentation, >> Mr. Tyson, if I may. Um, that's certainly correct and that's one way of looking at it. As you can imagine, the number of conversations we've had, I I look at that number, but I'll take it another step further. It has been since the 20202021 school year, I'm sorry, 2122 school year where when you look at what is budget and what is collected that did not
043occur in 20 2021 2022 2022 2023 or 2023 2024 2024 2025 is not listed because those data are not final. So as we look at this slide, if we break it down, not just with the collection rate, it has been since 2020 2021 school year where what we budgeted and what we collected was at or above that level. And so that's going to have an impact when we talk about the volatile nature of the collection rate. And so again, back to something that uh Dr. Graves shared which is very important. Um there are some things we control and there are some things that we cannot control. And that's something that um myself, Mr. Chance, Mr. Draper, we're going to be looking at as we move forward with the preliminary budget for 2627 school year because
044it may not be wise for us to put a collection rate at even 90% yet alone 92 93. So I don't want to lose that opportunity to capture that after you made the the fascinating point with regards to the collection rate. >> Yeah. Because, you know, I looked at that, too, because across the board, you know, it looks like we've budgeted, come on. We've budgeted less than what the actual levy what was owed us, which is great. I mean, anticipate spending less, but we still didn't even get what we budgeted. You know what I mean? And that but it was owed us. So, that's kind of the point that I'm making. Like if if that $10 million was in our account, then asking this this $25 million loan that we just had to approve would
045not have been $25 million. Um having to close two schools may not have had been on the table if we would have got that. Thank you so much. Um so my question is I'm sure we're going to get into it at a later. I want to know what are we going to do different when it comes to collecting those McKenna Vento payments because last year there was an issue. We were paying other districts but those other districts were not paying us. >> Correct. >> That's something um that I can address. Um as you can imagine we work together as a team and um Dr. I'm Hoff and I as well as the team, we've already had those levels of conversations in terms of what have we done in the past, what do we need to
046keep and what do we need to shift. We do know that we are paying um our bills with respect to other districts and so what does that relationship um need to sound and look like in order for us to receive the funds because obviously it's going to have an impact on our particular fund balance. And so with that um um Dr. Hoff has been amazing with respect to reaching out, following up. His team have been doing the same. But at the end of the day, we have to have some comparison data to see if these newer strategies we're using are rendering a higher level of return on the I won't say an investment, but folks paying their bills essentially. That's what it comes down to. >> All right. Thank you. And other thing is if
047you can keep the QR code for those who are online so that way they're able to view that. >> Certainly. >> And just to be clear on that for the community and I appreciate um that comment uh Miss Manser, we want our community to be part of the team. Um this district has done a spectacular job of making sure we collaborate and a lot of that collaboration has um taken place internally and that's great. However, we have some finance experts and some people who frankly care about this district so much that they are just waiting for the opportunity to be part of u the particular committee. And so, just a fine print piece once you fill it out um you'll see the information that the board is going to look at a number of dynamics
048as we complete membership. So, just because you submit it, excuse me, that does not mean you're on a team. But rest assured, we do want you on a team. That's both internal staff as well as our community because it is going to take a community for us to continue to cultivate the schools that we know our students are capable of navigating. Uh well, I appreciate the presentation. It's more so of I have more so of a comment. Uh I know that we're getting kind of deeper into it. This is surface level and it's all about progression. I mean the pattern showed that it has been a decline um for years and I asked this question um can't remember when it had to be maybe this year and when I first got a board used to
049have Fergus Floren uh youth go from kindergarten all the way up until 12th grade. We don't really have that anymore. We have a lot of more trans um people that come in and out the district. And I think that, you know, that that's that's good that we're highlighting that, but those are things that we need to talk about as as ways to keep people in our district, keep people wanting to um support our district in those ways. I mean, you have people that, you know, used to go in K through 12 and you don't have that anymore. We've been dealing with a decline and we don't talk about that enough that St. Louis as an entire region is dealing with a decline and that plays into the roles of school systems having to shut down
050schools, not having a lot of neighborhood schools and different things like that. So, I thought that needed to be stated. I appreciate the work that you're doing, but it's a regional problem in St. Louis. We third floor, we do have a problem. I acknowledge that, but it's also a regional problem that we have to acknowledge, too. And I think that we can be leaders and thought partners in the region on how to develop school to community partnerships. That's going to be very important in the success of our budget. It's not just numbers. You have to have people that believe that can advocate that can build trust within our district to bring our district to where it needs to be at. And I appreciate you uh and your presentation. I appreciate Dr. Phils and his expertise.
051And it seems like we're moving in the right direction with at least acknowledging the problems that we're having and trying to figure out how to stop the bleeding within our district. >> Okay. You have another question? >> Sure. >> Um, hi Pam. Uh, you had an opportunity to look at spending and our spending habits, things like that. Can do you mind speaking to me or speaking to the public? Uh, I think I know the answer to the question, but because I've heard so much from the public that we're not spending right, that there's some irregular spendings that we're spending money places that we're not supposed to. Do you mind being a outside entity that's come in and looked at our funds and looked at our books? Do you mind tell because I don't know your
052answer. Did you see any irregularities in the way that the Ferguson Forest is spending uh its fun? >> So, first of all, thank you for having me. Um very much enjoy um working with the team that you have here and I would also like to commend them for in their first month having this workshop um to talk about this. Like they said, this is day 16. This is a lot of work putting this together when you're new at a district. So, I commend all of them for their work, their hard work on this. So when you're talking about expenditures, um there's a lot that goes into that and to be quite honest with you, I have not done a deep dive yet. That'll come as we move forward to the next sessions. >> In addition
053to that, I do want to say that if you if the district does remember, if the board does remember, we were working with uh Patty as well. Patty has had an opportunity to look at things in the past. And so uh we have the Avengers in a sense. We do have Patty, we do have Pam, and as we move forward to the next um workshop, some of those more um deeper than surface level questions, we're we're ready to respond. And it's very intentional because when we bring the information to the board, when we bring it to the public, we want to make sure it is 100% accurate. And as we're still going through our research and finding out and dotting eyes and crossing tees, the time is needed in order to give some real responses
054to some of those real questions. Any other questions from the from the board? I'd just like to say this um this was some of these f some of these um this information is really eyeopening especially the revenue and expenditures analysis just I am just I am a visual person and so to look at this and to look at where we started to to go down in terms of our our um where our revenues started to go down or our expenditures were higher than what we um what we um had had in the budget. It was interesting to see that the last three years it it has been above the amount going out is more than what we had. So that visual this visual representation helps me a lot as someone who's not I'm not a
055finance person and I I say this all often I this is not my area of expertise. So this is very helpful to me and going forward what I'd like to say this was helpful to me and what I think would be also helpful to the community is when we we're doing these reports that we make sure that people understand what it is that we are talking about for example when you say purchase services what does that mean you know will our most people know what that means and I know that that's one of the areas that we really struggle That might be a good great idea. A glossery and acronyms. I was going to that one next. Making sure. Yes, I was looking out for you, Terry. So, it would be great to have a
056glossery. Thank you. Thank you. Um where the acronyms are are spelled out and also like for example the title one, two, threes and fours. What comes from title one? What comes from title two? Uh what comes from title three? those kinds of things so that people will understand that and also the difference between a tax levy and a bond issue if if we could get that I think that was oh there was a comment that you made about the collection rates and that again it's very eye openening to me and looking at uh how how it dipped between 2122 and then 22 and 23 and one of the comments you made was that CO may have played a a part in that. We may not need to get into it today, but could you kind
057of dive into that a little bit more too so people can understand and me people being me to understand how co >> played a part in that. just on the the surface. Um we could get into this a little more in future workshops, but essentially if you remember, there were um closures of businesses. Um people weren't really able to go to work like they used to. Um they transitioned home. Um and with businesses closing and um not being able to really do the normal business that they did, um that really took a hard hit on incomes and uh revenue that businesses were being able to take in. So I believe that it kind of reflects that people essentially coming out of co didn't some people didn't have the money that they would normally have had
058um barring the barring the pandemic through because if you remember um the county um the the state um more more so um and other states where there was a a complete lockdown on uh some uh some town, you know, some cities like remember New York City and Chicago and they didn't open up for months if not years. Um Missouri was a little bit more uh they they were a bit looser with that and tried to open and um break lockdowns as much as they could. But still the damage was done and businesses lost u people lost income as a result of businesses having to um really look at their bottom lines and how that affected them that affected people's um employment as well. I think that played a significant role in what they could pay
059in their taxes. >> Thank you for that, Mr. Chance. If you don't mind, can you go back to slide number 11, which is school district expenditure distribution. Um, apologize to go back um I don't want to get accustomed to leaving here before 7:00. So, I figure we can have a further discussion. Um, in addition to that, Madame President, you actually made me think about this with respect to um, things such as purchase services and this is the space that we carved out to make sure we have that level of clarity as well as the sense of urgency. So, if you can go back a few more slides, Tony, uh, Mr. Chance, I'm sorry. >> Backward. >> Um, backwards. >> School district expenditure distribution. And it's a pie chart and it'll show the salaries benefit. >>
060Sure. >> Yes. Right there. So, thank you for that. Um, I had a pleasure of presenting last night at the U. Ferguson City Council U meeting. And one of the things that I wanted to make sure I highlight, number one, anytime we're talking about salaries and benefits, we do bring up the fact that we do have openings. So, if anyone is watching this, the Ferguson Florison School District is in fact hiring. We ask that you go to our website and you we strongly encourage you be part of the team. when we talk about paying your taxes, that's a part of it. But coming to support our students and and helping us with some of those vacancies is part of the process as well. But having said that, Mr. Chance, if you don't mind, because we
061do have vacancies and when we're not able to fill those vacancies, that has a direct tiein to purchase services. So, can you um expand a little bit or talk about that within the context of purchase services? So um you're you're asking about um how that how purchase services are affected >> contract services and all of that. >> Correct. Yeah. So um essentially there uh if we can't fill um certain positions then we have to find an employment agency or or other businesses that can supply those uh particular um people to fill those positions. So that's actually an an additional cost than it would be over and above um what we would have if we just uh hired a regular employee. So that that did play a significant role in um increasing cost as well when
062we had to use services because they charge um because they're basically a contracted employee. Um, they have charges that are over and above just a salary amount, which includes their insurance and taxes and all that sort of stuff that the um that the business the uh employment agency will charge on top of um what a normal salary would be for the district. So, yeah, that that that's an additional cost. And not to belabor the point, but in the spirit of transparency and making sure we know exactly uh what we're discussing and the data is supporting it. Can you advance to slide three or four because I want to keep the um narrative with what Mr. Chance just shared with respect to purchase services. And while the narrative is great, I want to make sure we're
063looking at the actual um expenditures. When you see expenditures 6,300 and you see purchase services, it's not just us saying that that has an impact. Now, let me be clear. purchase services is more than just making sure we have agencies for those positions. But you begin to see in purchase services, you'll see the 9 million which is actual from 2020 2021. And if you just go across, you begin to see the impact on the fund balance. Again, 2024 2025, those are preliminary numbers and the 2526 is based off the budget. But all of this does have an impact on what we're discussing. And so, um, myself, Mr. Chance, Miss Draper, Miss, um, Frasier, we can talk about this all night and we're excited to because at the end of the day, we want to make
064sure our community is well informed. They understand the sense of urgency, but also the sense of transparency with us diving into each and every one of those dollars um, as we support our students. So, it's it's very complex, but this work is absolutely necessary, and I just wanted to capture that based off of something that you shared, Madame President. >> Okay. I want to go back to something that um Mr. Bailey brought up, and that's uh our transient uh population, and why that's important in terms of our budget. Because when we look at that, we're looking at graduation rates, how that that's affected, and also attendance rates and how that's affected. And that does also um uh play into our budget and and what kind of monies we receive because of attendance and uh uh
065graduation rates. Uh can you all excuse me for just a So, also I want to piggyback on something that Dr. Field said, and that's about being transparent um to our community. You're going to hear that word over and over again because we truly do mean it. And in that vein, one of the things that I wanted to do and I got permission from my my uh vice president and also from the superintendent is to ask the audience. We don't do this. We are getting away from what we usually do. If you have any questions that you I knew your hand was going to go up. Um if you have something that you would like for us to look into um and a question. So, if you have a question, would you come up and uh
066present your question? We may not be able to answer it all, but thank you. Thank you. >> All right. I just have a couple things maybe for you to look into. And thanks. I mean, this is probably the best financial overview of the district that I've heard in being here attending board meetings. Um, one of the concerns I had as I have been analyzing the district's budget over the last 15 years is some of it has to do with the capital projects fund and how capital projects are funded. It seems like our district uses a lot of money that comes out of the um real estate tax levies versus bonds. Some of it's been percentage that has been designated right out of the top to go right into the capital projects fund. And then outside
067of that, we've spent over that and had to pull money out of general operations to do that. So looking at that area because I know some districts try to spend use mostly bond money as much as possible in those areas. Um, the second thing is looking at tiffs and tax abatements. I heard something somebody talk about that maybe 8 10 months ago, but I've seen no analysis since then of where we stand in our communities of those coming off the books and possible gains from there. Um, another one is the lack of long range planning looking at a three to five year kind of budget and where we are projections of income which includes, you know, some of the new laws I believe that gone into place with the capping of assessments for certain demographics
068and how that might impact us. And the the last thing is that most of the school districts in the St. Louis County except for like two um have been in decline and um that's a trajectory that I don't know what the answer is or where that you know changes direction and so we'll look at what are the things that are impacting that in our county as well as how you know our district um things that we might do to attract families into our community which I believe a lot of that deals with the type of educational programs that we have which is just compounded by our financial problems and cutting programs. So those are the challenges and some of the things that I would like to see um at least explored. >> Okay. >> Could
069you state your name? >> Oh, I'm sorry. My name is John Flick. And John, u really quick, thank you so much for you not only sharing that information. Um I think u Mr. Chance know what slide I want to make sure we put up again which is for the finance and budget committee. Um I we essentially said we have experts in the community um that truly love this community to help us get get out of the um situation that we're in. And so you brought up some fascinating points. You can see all of us writing. Um please strongly consider um joining the finance and budget committee. I was going to say the same thing. >> Thank you. >> It's more so another statement. That's something I I've always I keep asking about our capital projects.
070That's a big issue and I don't see that now that I kind of I'm reading through it. I don't see that kind of listed. We we did a project a long time ago when I first got on board about how the access of our buildings were. So we had we brought somebody in. It was like we got 10 years maybe on the roof on this and I'm just these numbers aren't factual. These are just things that I'm just making up because I don't have the paper in front of me. But that's very important as far as when we looking at budgets and we're looking at kind of the the real access of our building and what's going to be needed as we move forward because we may have a boiler or something that we need
071to fix in that place within our budget because you have to take it out of general fund or whatever it may be. And those things are very important as we move forward and we looking at our budget. And one of the things I wanted to point out was particularly when he spoke about uh what's causing people to move out, flee our district or flee our our communities. And I don't know about most people when they choose a a neighborhood or a community to move into, they look at the schools. Uh but another thing is the crime rate. Another, you know, that's another area where what people look at. So I mean that part of the cause of why people are moving out is not just one It's other factors that we're ultimately taking the back
072end of it because our scholars are leaving, but crime, attractions, businesses, those are all factors that play into why people are leaving community, not just the school. >> The other part too is we have more people, I wouldn't say more people, but a large number of people renting rather than buying. Yes. So that's another contributing uh factor um to our our budget. Are there any other questions from the audience? >> No. >> If I may, uh Madame President, one of the additional things I just want to reiterate, um in 16 days, Mr. chance um his team, his draper, and certainly working with everyone. The amount of work that has been taking place is absolutely phenomenal. I know we continue to speak about two unique dynamics. One of which is the finance workshops that we're going
073to have multiple and we've also spoke in terms of the finance and budget committee. I do want the board to also know that as things come up as part of the superintendent report and or if we need a special presentation, we want to make sure you all are along the ride with us as things come up. And so we heard the finance workshop, that's great. We've heard the finance and budget committee, that's great. But as things come up, this is a priority. Being transparent is a priority and the sense of urgency is a priority. So they will be included in the superintendent report as well. Just wanted to share that. >> So you referring to that we don't have our Wednesdays any anymore. Once again, no more Wednesdays. >> You already >> defer to Madam
074President. >> I'll take it as long as we we are doing something that's going to get get us out of this position that we're in right now. Um we've got a good start. uh we've got people with with great hearts and who are wanting to do this work and I'm excited about it. So I I can't thank you enough and and I say that to the board as well because there's going to be responsibility on our part as we start to uh tame this beast. So thank you in advance. You have something? Uh yeah, Madam President, I just wanted to ask I know that we were live streaming tonight, but we didn't have it set up where the community could ask questions, do we? Next. Okay. I just wanted to make sure we weren't >>
075idea just came to me when we were sitting here and I thought about that too. So, uh we want to have that set up for next time. So, yeah, I just turned to him and him and so yeah, next time. I think that's really important too because it shouldn't Thank you so much for bringing that up, Dr. Pow Walker. >> So, yes, we will do do some of that. Of course, we we will be limited on time and and how many questions we can answer, but I think it's really important for us to have comments from the from our our constituents. So, thank you for that. If there's nothing else, I want to again thank everyone for coming out tonight. Uh those of you in the audience, you didn't have to be here and we're
076asking people even in the community, please come to our next one. We when is our what's the next date? I don't have it in front of me for our next for our finance >> as we continue to uh obtain information. Um the finance department, they're working tirelessly um for the ASBR. So once the ASBR is completed and due to Desi by um um August the 15th, we also have setting the tax rate coming up. And so I'll be working with the team and I'll work with both yourself, Madam President, as well as Vice President Tyson. And we'll know we want to at least do three um and we'll be able to do that. However, it will be dependent upon the information we receive as well as trying to stretch ourselves as um far as we
077can. >> Okay. I I want to say a special thank you to Charlie Moore who's sitting in the audience uh for the work that you do. Um he's his right-hand man, right? and and all of our administrators who are sitting out, our new administrators, our old ones. I mean, uh, not old. I won't say old. >> Oh, he said they had to be here. That's true. But, but we still want to say thank you. We appreciate it. Um, if not, if there's nothing else Oh, I want to I am going to put in a plug. Should I plug? Hi, Bob. My husband's here tonight. I've been on him about being a responsible uh community. >> Madam President, I have a request. >> Lord, >> because you spoke uh about the tireless work of the finance
078department. Can we give him the rest of the day off? >> You uh Yes. Yes, we will. I think that's Should we vote on it? >> Yes. >> Okay. Look, may I have a motion to adjurnn because we're getting a little So move second. All in favor? >> We don't have to vote on this one. Thank you. Thank you all again.