001All right. Now we will be moving on to public comment. First up is Jamie Heberline. Yay. Can you hit your mic button so we can hear you? Sorry. There you go. Is it working now? Yes, now it does. All right. All right. My name is Jamie Heberline, a resident of Wentzville. With me tonight is Linda Bolen, the St. Charles chapter leader of Love on a Leash, and Gary Heberline, another representative from Love on a Leash. Love on a Leash is a national nonprofit made up of entirely volunteers who provide certified therapy dog visits to our communities. Our dogs are specially trained to offer comfort, emotional support, and positive interaction in places like schools, libraries, and hospitals. In schools, these visits have a real impact. Therapy dogs help students feel calmer, reduce stress and anxiety, and
002create a more welcoming environment for learning. At Fort Zumwalt East High School, staff shared that these visits have been a game-changer, noting that students are more calm, engaged, and emotionally supported, especially those who struggle with anxiety or social situations. We have full quotes printed that we can provide you supporting our efforts after our conversation today. And Linda and I volunteer because we've seen these benefits first-hand. These visits build confidence, improve well-being, and bring moments of joy to students who really need it. However, we recently encountered a concern we'd like to bring to your attention. We were asked to sign a vendor contract to continue scheduling visits in the Wentzville School District. While we understand the need for proper procedures, Love on a Leash teams are not permitted to sign vendor contracts or accept payment. We
003are strictly volunteers. Um signing a vendor contract implies a business relationship, and it could invalidate our liability insurance, which only applies when we operate as volunteers, not as vendors. I also have a copy of that certificate to leave with you tonight as well. So, but for that reason, Love on a Leash teams cannot enter into a vendor agreement. But, while we've been able to continue visiting other school districts in our county without this requirement, we would really love the opportunity to do the same with the Wentzville School District. As one Wentzville librarian shared, "Losing this program significantly impacted the students. We have students who continue to ask when the dogs are coming back." And we also would love to go back cuz that was Liberty High School, and it's a great high school. We've had
004lots of meaningful interactions with those students. So, tonight we respectfully ask the board to allow Love on a Leash therapy dog teams to continue visiting as volunteer community partners without requiring a vendor contract. Our goal is simple. We want to continue bringing comfort, encouragement, and a little bit of joy to your students and your staff. So, we thank you for your time, and if I can if leave that certificate of insurance for a conversation for after, that would be great. Perfect. Thank you. Thank you. All right, next is Sarah Paraman. Yes, hit the button again. There you go. Okay. Um hello. I am nervous, but I'm motivated to advocate for the AP US History class at one of our high schools. My goal is to inform you of the situation and request policy be reviewed
005so the situation does not happen again. I would like to address two things in this short time. The lack of instruction for an AP class for over half of the semester, and lack of communication from the school. Since January, this advanced class, designed to prepare the AP prepare students for the AP exam, has been without a teacher, and has put been put into a supported teacher status. Meaning a teacher is supporting the class on top of an already full class load. Worksheets and exams have been provided to the class and administered by substitute teachers without AP certifications. The typical week for the student involves spending Monday Monday through Wednesday reading 30 to 60 pages of AP textbook, doing worksheets, and then testing on Friday, as they don't have this class on Thursday. Um to see
006what to see what they got wrong on an exam, they have to fill out a tribe time request form, as tests are not reviewed during class, and all worksheets have been collected. How are students supposed to learn from their mistakes if they don't see the exams to know what they got wrong? How are they supposed to prepare for a final exam or an AP exam if all the notes, worksheets, and quizzes have been taken from them? On to my second point, lack of communication from the school. In January, a student reached out requesting assistance. No response. In February, a parent sent an email requesting assistance. No response. The next week, that parent emailed the school administration. No response. A few days later, the parent called and found out that her email went to the junk
007folder, and the concerns were discussed. There was not any follow-up as was agreed upon. An in-person meeting was conducted and followed up was uh A follow-up was agreed upon for early the next week. The next week, follow-up information was requested. No response. That week, which was actually last week, an email was sent to the WSD administration with concerns about this class. A detailed email was received back within a few hours of steps that were being taken and implemented. A reply was sent with information showing that many of those steps had in fact not been implemented, and that students were continuing to take tests with no instruction, and provided information on how the typical class week was conducted. That day, parents and students received an email with information on what was going on, what steps were
008being taken, and what options they had moving forward. This was 9 weeks from the beginning of the situation. In every industry, we have failures. I hope that a clear path is designed and implemented to correct this issue and provide the students with the tools that they need to be successful in this class and on the AP exam. I also hope you might help with putting measures in place that not that do not allow a single point of failure failure like this in the future. The absence of a teacher and a proper instruction in this class will affect these students for the next few months, more than likely their high school throughout high school, and ultimately into their college years, depending on how the AP exam goes. Your time is up. [clears throat] Sorry. The I
009was My last statement was just thank you. Okay. Thank you. So, thank you for your time. And the final speaker is Amy Benninghoff. I apologize it's not uh showing up on the screen, but I've got the timer going for you. So, we're trying to get the Wi-Fi to connect. >> Okay. Thank you. But, yeah. Sorry about that. Just tell me when to shut up. Hello. It's been a while. Um I just wanted to come and say thank you specifically to David and Jen and Renee. Um I know that their time on the board, especially in the beginning, was pretty hard, and there there was a lot of obstacles. But, I do think it's important for a Board of Education to be the checks and balances to the school district. That is the job of the
010board. And I think that you guys have done a good job of that. And so, I just wanted to really come and say thank you. I know it's not been easy, but there are a lot of parents out there that maybe you don't hear from, and teachers, I'm sure, um that appreciate you guys and what you've done here. Um I just also want to say Sorry, I always get nervous no matter what. Uh no matter how many times I've been up here spoke. Um I think it's important to have different views shared at on any board. I think when you have all the same opinions and voices, people get lost. And important things aren't brought up. And I think it's a shame that after you guys were elected, the next year, the NEA felt the
011need to pour in a ton of money into the races here in Missouri, specifically, to beat out those opposing views. So, now the board will most likely be a bunch of yes-men to the administration instead of a little bit of opposition, which I think is good. And like I said, different opinions. Um it's a shame. Because there's parents like me out there that don't always agree with what, you know, is happening in the district, and decisions that are made, specifically devices, technology devices for K through fifth grade. I am so against that. I think it's such a terrible idea and I think that you will all see in the long run it's a detriment to their education. I think our kids should be playing games with one another. You guys talk a lot about social
012emotional um stuff, but how do kids learn social emotional stuff without being social and playing games with one another? You know, they then they get into fights and they don't know how to to regulate because they're not taught that's part of learning. That's part of that interaction that they need to be having while they're at school and not just sitting at their desk on computers or iPads, whatever, instead of playing with each other and learning that way. You know, these are the types of types of opinions that I think these three have shared and voices like mine have shared and they just fall on deaf ears. And instead we're now looking at buying more iPads and getting rid of the Chromebooks. Anyways, I have so much to say, but thank you. Okay, moving to district
013comments. Thank you to all three of our speakers for participating in the board meeting and sharing your input with us. Um today we have the distinct pleasure of announcing Jessica Carpenter, who's a division secretary at Discovery Ridge Elementary School as the 2025-26 district support staff employee of the year. Jessica was described as the school's primary ambassador of kindness. She's a terrific person if you had a chance to meet her. She does a great job of welcoming everybody to Discovery Ridge. And a big congratulations to Jessica. Uh in the packet you'll see SP or prop SP3 or prop RT. You can find additional information on our website as informational purposes. More than 43% of the WSD's operating revenue comes from just property tax. Um proposition RT in April would cost the district about a $3 million
014loss of revenue the initial year and and as the tax credits begin and the shortfall could grow to nearly 10 million annually within five. I have had a number of inquiries asking me why the school district does not ask voters to shift its funding source to sales tax. The answer to that is the Missouri Constitution and the state statutes do not grant school districts the authority to level their levy their own school taxes. So we're not allowed by law to be able to do that. Um if you look in the packet, you'll see a chart that shows the projected impact of RT would have on the WSD and WSD homeowners from a yearly standpoint. I'd encourage you to take a look at that. Uh it's been updated from the last month based on our updated
015information we've gotten. And finally, it is Missouri School Board Appreciation Week as we said or month as we said earlier, and I'd like to recognize our seven school board directors for their volunteer leadership, dedication, and service to public education. These people put in a great deal of time and effort for the Winfield School District community. Thank you to Julie, Brad, David B, Renee, David L, Jen, and Jeremy. We greatly appreciate you guys. A big thank Somebody Oh, your bottle. I thought somebody was clapping. It was Jeremy's bottle. Uh There you go. There's your claps. A big thank you to Mrs. Freeze's Essential Skills classroom Liberty High School for the Board of Education gifts and the Wabash release the Quackens for tonight's entertainment. Also a big thank you to Jordan McNulty, who's a kindergarten teacher at
016BTE and the owner of Sign Gypsies. She donated that wonderful yard sign recognizing all of you guys outside the the board today or the building today. Uh and then I would also like to piggyback a little bit what Ms. Beninghaus had This is the last full full board meeting for Renee, David L, and Jen. I'd really like to thank them for their three years of service to the district and their continued support and everything they've done to make the Winfield School District grow and be a success. And last but not least, tomorrow's the last day before spring break. Don't forget it's an early release day, two-hour early release. We wish everyone a fun and safe spring break. All right. Next we need a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented. Motion. Second. All of
017those in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Moving to new business, the fiscal year 27 preliminary budget and projected tax rate. Okay, good evening. We will start with uh some information on budget projections for next fiscal year. Uh again, want to stress that everything that we're talking about tonight is preliminary and will change before the final budget is adopted in June. This is kind of where we're at today, what we're thinking today. New information is continually coming out. Um and so we as that happens, we will update and and make changes and uh get the budget ready for presentation in June. So first part of budgeting is is trying to project where we think we're going to end this fiscal year. Uh right now our projections show that to be somewhere in the two to
0184% uh positive favorable to budget, uh which is which is good. We're we're you know, like we've talked about before, we don't want to run in the negative. Um so that gives us a little cushion and and we'll apply that as you'll see going into uh next year. Uh this chart shows um where our revenue sources come from. As Mr. Bishop said, property taxes 43% of our operating revenue. And the uh state foundation formula 32%. So those main two pieces of the pie are 75% of our uh operating revenue. And then we have some uh smaller pieces in in prop C sales tax. And then just other state, federal, and local sources make up around 16%. So we'll we'll talk about the big pieces first. Um property taxes. This is a non-reassessment year, okay? So
019we will not see a a large taxpayers won't see a large increase in their bill. You know, reassessments happen in odd years. So even year, non-reassessment year. We've received preliminary information from the county assessor uh projecting about a 3% overall increase in our assessed value from new construction. Okay? So that puts us at our preliminary assessed value as of uh now is about $3.8 billion. Uh which is a a projected revenue increase of about 5.6. 3.9 of that roughly is operating. Uh we are looking at uh you know, we're not sure on the senior tax credit. We assume there will be some more uh people that qualify. So we're budgeting right now a 10% growth in that um tax credit. Uh the foundation formula, this one gets a little trickier and and information is coming
020out uh currently on on some challenges we're seeing there. Um Just basic info on the foundation formula, there's two main variables and that's your weighted average daily attendance and your weighted average membership. So basically your student count uh and it's multiplied by the state act adequacy target. So those are the two main variables. Uh we are actually seeing a decrease somewhat in enrollment. Um our membership count, our October membership count, is down about 200 students from our October membership is down 200 students from last year's October membership. So uh that's something that we're see um not really affecting this much yet, but that will be something to consider in the future. Uh we are projecting that to increase slightly and some of that's due to the way it's weighted. Uh this year though the weighted
021average daily attendance is 90% and the membership is is 10%. Next year that's switching to 80% attendance and 20% membership. So that automatically increases everybody throughout the state as you shift more to membership. Um The governor's budget proposal does not fully fund the SAT of 7145. Um it's it's proposes funding level with what we have this year. Okay? There are some built-in um increases in the formula calculation that happen. And when that happens, that drives up the total cost. And the only way the state has to decrease the amount that they're sending out is by lowering the SAT. Okay? And so what that does is that only affects schools that are on the formula. It doesn't affect um schools that are hold harmless, uh charter schools, or uh it also keeps SAT is in in
022effect for the uh uh scholarships, the SS scholarships. So uh we are projecting some loss of revenue. Uh when we look at that, I've got those numbers up there. If if the SAT is at 7,000, uh that's about a $1.3 million. 6900, you can see it goes up about 1.8 to 1.9 for each $100 in decreased SAT. We just received information recently from the state that uh there's a chance that the SAT may not get to 7145 this year. Uh they're projecting right now that it could be at 6900. So, that is primarily due to a lack of gaming, lottery, and tobacco funds that are coming into the state. That's a That's a funding stream that funds the formula, and those funds aren't there. Uh so, they're projecting that they that may be short this
023year. If that's short this year, that puts next year even shorter because we have the same amount budgeted. The the number of students is going to go up due to that change in uh the 80/20 uh membership and and uh or attendance and membership. So, if we ended at 6900 this year, there's a chance that that could be 68 6700 next year. We don't know yet. This information is just coming out through the state. I heard it for the first time last last week. So, lots of information to to uh consider there. So, if you think about that, and we go back to 3.9 million in operating revenue increase from from new construction, uh that can quickly be wiped out by not fully funding the SAT. So, that's a that's something that we're we're monitoring
024and we'll continue to to uh pay attention to. Um Prop C, 1% statewide sales tax. That's projected remain relatively flat, and part of that is due to our decrease in um in enrollment. So, our de- you know, that's going to go down a little bit because that's based on this year's attendance uh is what our next year's payment is going to go off of. So, with the formula, you have a couple years that you can choose from and get the best of those three, but with Prop C, it's it's prior year. So, uh we're projecting the overall amount to go up, but our amount's probably going to stay about the same because of some decrease in membership. Um and then transportation, the government governor's recommendation for transportation is not projected to fully fund uh what
025is required. So, it will the costs are still going up, and the costs across the state are still going up. So, if they fund the same amount they're doing this year, that reduces everybody's allocation for next year. So, we're projecting some decrease in that. Uh most of our other revenue sources are are to remain at or near current year level. So, you know, overall, we're probably looking at trying to kind of stay revenue neutral to where we're at this year. Expenses. So, here's a here's a chart of where we're at with expenses. Uh of course, certified and non-certified salaries. Salary's about 60% of our overall operating expenses with benefits about eight uh 23 for a total of 83% of our operating revenue or expenses go towards our people. Um So, salaries overall in negotiations, we
026overall we're looking at about a 3% increase. There has been some adjustments uh in that, but but that's kind of overall what we're looking at. Uh health insurance has been a little bit of a bright spot for us this year. I don't want to talk too much about it in the fear of jinxing it. Um But, we had a 5% premium increase for this plan year. Our plan year is 10/1 is when it starts, so 10/1 to 9/30. Uh since for this plan year, October to February, we brought in about $16 million in premiums and rebates, and paid out about $13.5 million in claims and fees. So, that has been a bright spot. And again, for us, being fully insured and having a healthy fund balance in our uh health insurance account, if we're running
027even in that account, we're doing really good. That's that's kind of what we want to target for. We don't need to be uh adding to that fund balance. We have a healthy fund balance, so we're shooting to break even on that uh account. So, uh running that much to the positive is a good thing, and and if that trend continues, that should lead to good things for our rates for next year. Again, that change that changes every week, right? We get claim draws every week. You uh you see those, so uh that could change at any time, but so far we have had uh a pretty good pretty good success with that this year. So, we'll continue to monitor. Uh other costs, we're really just expecting kind of inflationary cost increases in supplies and services.
028So, not a lot. We're we're working with the departments right now, uh going through those and and working through those. So, nothing is jumping out as of yet. Um The other piece of this is projected tax rate. So, political subdivisions in counties with charter form of government, uh which St. Charles is a cha- charter form of government, um we're required to submit an estimated non-binding property tax rate to the county clerk's office by April 8th every year. So, we always present that to the board, let you know where we're at. Again, this is non-binding, um but it gives an estimate of where we're at. And a reassessment year is pretty it's usually pretty straightforward. Um so, just overall how the entire process works, revenue growth due to reassessment is limited to CPI for the most
029recent year, which is 2.7% for 2025. Again, no reassessment this year. Uh tax rate must be rolled back if reassessment growth is larger than the CPI. Uh again, no reassessment, so our tax rate is projected to remain at 4.5359, which is the lowest rate since 2009, and this is the rate that we will report to the county to meet the statutory deadline. Um Just the the chart that shows the bars are assessed value. The line is uh tax rate. And you can see it's we've we've gone down about 70 cents in the last uh from 2000 to 2005, the the tax rate has went down 70 cents as assessed value continues to to increase. So, um and then here's here's where we're at currently in this this should be the same for next year. Seen
030this chart a lot. One thing I did add, those top two funds, that's real uh fund one fund two, that's really what funds expenses for student and teachers. And then fund three and four, that is facilities and equipment. So, that's kind of how you you want to think about these uh different pieces of the levy. Funds one and two is for general and teachers, so that's students and teachers. And then funds three and four, that's how we pay for facilities and equipment, uh larger purchases ongoing. Any questions? I have a question. Yeah. And maybe this isn't where we ask this one or I'm just putting it in your ear for now. What is our long-term plan if all tax um attempts fail? Like if if everything works against us. Like if if the um property
031tax thing passes, and we go out for a bond, and it gets rejected. Like what is the long-term plan if we have no more money coming in in that direction? Short-term plan we I didn't turn it off. Uh the short-term plan for for next year would be we could operate a little bit of a deficit probably, and be all right. And then we'd have to evaluate all expenses. What What are we doing? All positions, uh the services that we offer. I mean, that's that's how you're going to make cuts is by reducing the services that you offer. Or the people that you Statutorily, we have to offer services, right? Statutorily. You have to offer some services. We you don't have to offer everything that we have. But the ones that are required statutorily, some uh
032some of those are supplemented by the state government and the federal government? Uh some are. I mean, there's there's certain things that you have to to meet certain standards, but what I'm asking is if if they're requiring us to do it, and we have if there's funding here to do those things, like kids in the classroom, or special education, um those are the things that we cannot stop doing even if we don't have money for it, or is the state Is there like a That's what I'm saying. Is there the funding coming from the state if we are required to do X, Y, and Z? We are still required to do it. You know, there's things like class sizes that you could do to you could increase class sizes, so you're offering the same services,
033but you uh you know, are more efficient using your dollars, you know, but it's also comes at a cost, right? What's the cost? Well, instead of being an elementary class size of 20, then you're at an elementary class size of 23, 24, 25. There's a there's a trade-off there. So, that's the things that we would have to look at is is how what positions uh do we keep? How do we evaluate and everything would be on the table to be evaluated. Yes, we have to offer the basic services, but there are ways that you can adjust within those basic services that there's potential, you know, to eliminate positions or or do just different things and just considering all options as we're going into that. I I'll piggyback cuz I'm not sure if he's going completely
034where you want him to go. The reality is it sounds to me like you're asking, do we have an idea of where a different revenue source would come from? That and do we have a plan if that revenue source does does not exist? Yeah. So, additional revenue if everything goes away and no state statute change, assuming that, let's just assume it's all the same. The only other avenue that a school district can do is try to ask for increased property tax to a level that would meet it to where you needed to go. So, you go to the voters and say, we need to increase property tax by X percentage. And you know, I don't know what that number would be. Like, we'd have to look at that. So, Tim talked about our short-term plan.
035The long-term plan, quite honestly, is and yes, we've started looking at it. Yes, we have. So, you have to start looking at what programs and services are you going to offer? So, when you talked about what is the state mandate, those are the programs we know we have to keep. Um the gains we've made with classroom sizes would go away. Uh bus service would be an area that we would probably look at extending out to 3 miles instead of a 1-mile radius. I mean, those are just ways that you can save money right there. Um transporting extracurriculars would probably go away. Pay-to-play, like legitimate pay-to-play, like when you play on a club team right now would probably be the way the district would go. And again, we're talking 3, 4, 5, 6 years down the
036road if we're to a point where there's no additional revenue source that's come forward. Um and ultimately, in in much like other school districts or any quote business, if you can't find a revenue stream, you can't exist. That's just the reality of it. If you can't find the revenue, you can't exist. So, you know, we would we would cut cut cut cut until you just were the bare bones that you could be and eventually, you'd either get taken over by the state cuz you no longer have the surplus that you're supposed to have, the fund balance you're supposed to have, or I don't know. I mean, that's that's just the reality. That's the cold, hard truth of where we're at. So. Anybody else have questions? I have some, too. So, I will I'll let you
037go first. No, no. Dr. T, on the slide that has other revenue sources, I've always been confused cuz universally, we all hear that school districts can't do prop or sales tax. Isn't Prop C a sales tax? It is a statewide sales tax. Don't we get that money from that sales tax? We get the same amount that every school district in Missouri. It's a per student amount. St. Charles County actually sends out more sales tax than what it receives back. If you look at what our sales collection is in St. Charles County and you look at the amount that comes back to the school districts here, there's more going out to the state in that 1% sales tax than's coming back to our students. I guess what I'm trying to understand, we say there's no options
038for statewide sales tax, but under Prop C, there is. Cuz that was passed by the voters through a constitutional amendment. Yeah, we >> to understand. But that that we don't have that option. That was a state set that. And that was a state constitutional amendment So, that's why it's legislated >> Yes. >> state. Well, the Wentzville School District can't ask for it. We can't go say, "Hey, we're going to ask for a sales tax at the local level." We we can't do that. If it wants to be at the state, it's got to be the legislator who does that. It's not the individual school districts. So, when we say we can't get sales tax, that's what we mean. So, like fire, ambulance, and all them going for their increase, they're allowed constitutionally to do it.
039We're not. So, it's like they have better better Lobbyists. >> Lobbyists. Interesting. Um I'm trying to understand, Tim, the the tax rate slide down on uh uh the historical tax rate, you know, with the bar graph in the Mhm. So, in in '23, that's when me personally, the sales tax on my house jumped $1,000 a year. So, that's why the tax rate went down cuz school district collected so much more money in taxes. I understand that and my my question is, if if we're not collecting more from if RT passes and these other ones pass, um the tax rate will go down, but can you not just take it up? No. It's restricted by Hancock Amendment. >> Hancock. So, that goes back to to this. Uh reassessment, you know, and we look at it we
040have to make this calculation in in the aggregate. So, our entire assessed valuation pool. All right? So, what's that mean? You may have increased by 15%. Others may have increased by 1%, but overall, we're saying it's a 2.7% increase. And so, that's what our rate is based on. When you in the individual, yours increased by 15%. Well, if if in the aggregate, we're looking at a 2.7 and we're adjusting our rate based on that 2.7, if you had an increase of 15%, then yes, you're going to pay more than the person who the average would because you were an outlier or your assessed assessment was increased at an outlier level. Uh but that's part of the way the calculation works. It looks at it in the aggregate, not on an individual taxpayer level. Yeah, and
041I would say I would argue that the very fact that in '23 and in in some of these other years when the property tax rate spiked so high, that's why we're going to have the problem we're going to have when RT passes. So, I don't know who's to blame for that, but when you drive property tax up, it impacts for sure. I think the hard part is like when you look at it, I think I bought my house 2005, I think is when we bought it. If you bought my house now, you pay less sales tax than I paid in 2005. The percentage that I paid on take away mortgage insurance and take away assessed valuation, if you bought my house today at the property tax rate that it was in 2005, you would pay
042more less today than you did in 2005. That's the crazy thing when you start talking about property tax. Property tax has gone down. The issue is not the tax rate, it's the assessed value and the mortgage. >> what I've argued for 3 years. >> and that's what I'm saying. Like, so when we talk about our property tax rates, that's the hard part. Like, we're forced to shove them down. They don't we don't get to keep going up. They keep going down, but the assessor keeps raising that assessed value and my P&I PMI keeps going up because of that. >> if it goes up like we were talking about, does that not equate out to the same dollars? The rate if you if your rate goes down, but you get more to charge against the rate.
043Yeah, so you for you or for me? Well, I don't for the For you or the district, I'll rephrase that. For you or the district. For for me, individual. Part of the issue goes back to that siloed tax levies that we talked about last month, too. Um because again, we're looking at all of our assessed valuation. So, we're looking not only at residential, we're looking at commercial, we're looking at our ag in in real estate, right? So, your commercial may not be going up at the same rate that your residential assessments are. Okay? But it also lowers the the total amount, so that that amount is spread over all of those columns instead of just all being directed to residential rates, where that's where the real assessment has happened. All right? So, maybe your assessment
044rates uh your real estate rates are residential rates go up by 7% and your commercial stays flat. Well, that may take your overall rate to being a a 4% 3 or 4% overall assessment, right? So, but the people with the real estate rate are going back to that 4% even though they had a 7% increase in assessment. So, they're not getting the full benefit and that's why I said when you silo those rates, then residential gets that full credit for the 7% reassessment and their rate will lower by that total amount. It's not offset by by grow by non-growth in commercial or non-growth in ag. I know it's it it gets it gets pretty complicated, but >> a longer discussion. I appreciate that, though. Brian, I had one question for you or I don't know,
045question, statement, discussion point. You made the statement, you know, push comes to shove, we have to cut to bare bones. Um At what point in the school district do we cut? I mean, should we wait until that and have to cut a lot, or should we start now and cut a little along the way to make it less painful? So, I I can tell you we're holding positions right now to see what happens with Prop RT. We've already started that process. So, we have additional positions we've identified we need to add, but we haven't done those. We're not there's no reduction in force at this point. It's just it's by attrition. So, we we've either chosen to wait on those or like classroom reduction size, we haven't granted any of those at this point. Um
046we are right now, we are completely cost neutral. We have not added a single spot um has cost extra money and actually we'd be net we'd be lower than that right now if we don't replace. Okay, thanks. Julie, I just have a piggyback. Okay. So, on that on the note of reduction in force um prior to doing that, should we maybe compile a list of like programs that you know, add up and equal multiple salaries that People is the last thing that you would try to cut in. That's the absolute last thing you would do. And again, before you would even talk about people, you'd talk about attrition. So, as somebody leaves, you don't replace them. You don't look to to reduction in force, you look for attrition aspects. And again, hopefully this is all
047for naught. Hopefully we're just having discussions and there's another revenue source that the state decides they want to look at and that maybe they haven't opened up yet. It's just right now the picture we're showing is exactly what's being told to us. This isn't This is what we're being told. And if you look at state statutes, you look at the Missouri Constitution, that's why I was saying it those aren't options for school districts. You're not allowed to do it. And so, that's it's probably why you hear more and more school districts having this discussion now because we're at a critical point. We we are now at to that point where you've got to talk about what are the what are the things you're going to remove that the extra programs you have. That's what you're
048talking about. So, I had a question. When do we know when or to what degree the SAT will decrease for this next budgeting year? So, the state budget is required to be approved by the first Friday in May. First Thursday in May, I think. Um so, that would >> would have to tell you by then what it would be? Uh when that's approved when the state budget is approved, then we get information from DESE because you know, it's not just as simple as the state says we're going to fund this number of SAT. The state says we're going to fund X dollars and then the DESE has to say what does that translate to SAT wise. So, it's sometime in early early to mid-May. Okay, thank you for that clarification. And just so I can
049be clear when we talk about the potential impact of Prop RT on our school district and we're looking over the next few years, 3.6 million, 9 million, 7 million, 10 million that is just the Prop RT money. That is not the potential up to $5 million loss from the um funding. Yeah, the foundation formula. So, that $5 million in a couple of years could actually be 10 million. Is that right? Yes. Okay. Thank you. >> And one thing that is important on the Prop RT the first year rollback it rolls back to the 2024 amount. So, before this reassessment so, it is actually a reduction in what we received this year. Because everyone's amount that they paid will be rolled back to what they paid in before this reassessment. So, I have a question. And
050I probably should know this after 3 years. Do we have a lobbyist? Uh no, we do not have a lobbyist. Is that something we can get? If the the board wants to look at that, I mean >> reason I ask is because the last time that I looked into it, DESE has an astronomical amount of bloat. Their their their operating budget is 50% almost of the entire state budget for education. So if DESE wasn't so bloated or maybe perhaps was a fraction of the size that it is right now, that money would be coming to us. That's a lot of money that would double what we get. Going back to your lobbyist, Springfield Public did hire one 2 months ago um to look at specific we, you know, you can look at do you partner
051with a neighboring school district offset the cost. The problem is let's say we would talk to Fort Zumwalt. Their interest would be different than the Wentzville School District interest. They don't get the same foundation formula. We get much more from that because we're still growing. We're in that growing target. We we're in a little bit of a precarious situation that Tim can talk about. We will take a hit a hard it will hit us hard at both levels. Prop RT will hit us hard in the foundation formula restructure will hit us hard. It will get the double whammy more than maybe some other people will will feel it that way. Yeah, and the other the thing I will defend DESE on um not many things, but one thing uh when when you look at the
052budget there is a lot of federal money that flows through DESE that they have no control over. But it it shows up in their budget because it's money from the federal government that goes to schools that flows through DESE that actually ends up in their budget so we can inflate when you look at the total number it's a huge number just because it flows through there for special education, for uh title one, for uh after school programming. Um so, there's a lot of those things that are in there. Again, I am not going to defend everything that DESE does, but there is some of that that has to be considered when it's not as simple as just saying we can cut everything um there. Just for perspective. Appreciate that. Anything else? Just one kind of
053clarification question, Tim. Um so, you're talking about like the numbers we're looking projecting to lose, correct? If if things pass um are those numbers lost based on current values of expenses? Cuz we all know expenses are going to go up every year. So, even though revenue streams are going to drop, expenses are still going to increase. How much of that is factored into the the potential loss? So, I mean expenditure increase aren't it's not on the revenue side. So, we're we're talking revenue side. We're looking at a decrease in revenue and that's where it goes back to that 2 to 4% increase uh favorable favorable to budget right now. So, that gives us a cushion that we have in there. You know, my hope is right now is our revenue can remain about the same
054and then that 8 to 10 million cushions from our expenditure increases for this year for salary increases and the other things that we had on there and then that covers it and we're about break even. Thank you. All right, anybody else? Thank you, Tim. I think I get to go again. Oh, well, why don't you sit there? >> [laughter] >> Let's talk about facility improvement recommendations. So, I'll kick it to Tim off here. We were asked by the board to make a recommendation after our presentation at the the board work session earlier this month and so, Tim put together some slides here that we'll go through um and walk through step by step what we're thinking and then, you know, the board will provide our recommendation. It'll be up to the board to make a
055motion and determine what they want to do from that standpoint. So, with that, you're up, Tim. Okay, the first couple slides are just reviews of things that we had uh in our our presentation at the work session. But again, uh we're really talking about capital funds and bond funds. That's our two buckets here when we're we're looking at improvements to facilities. Capital funds are the pay as you go annual budget allocations, typically smaller to to medium projects. Uh bond funds are voter approved financing, longer-term borrowing and typically larger-scale projects. So, thinking back to our work session, uh we identified 309 or or Horner has identified 309 million dollars in facility needs. Uh when we look at our 4-year capital fund projection, we're we're sitting in the 42 to 92 million dollars available over the next
0564 years. So, our ability to tackle that 309 million with existing capital funds is extremely limited and we need to look at what our options are to address that those needs. Um again, 309 million dollars of projects in buildings more than 25 years old. Okay, so that's that's part of the consideration here. If we say we're going to take we're going to start with 10 million dollars a year, you know, get by the end time you get to that end of that 300 million 309 million those buildings are extremely old. So, we need to have a way to address those facility needs faster. And then we have 392 million in that mid-range where they're 14 to 25 years old. So, those those buildings are going to be coming up quick and needing some repairs. So,
057when we look at the scenarios that were presented by Stifel, there's really two scenarios I think that that kind of address or give us options, right? It was option one and option two. Option one was uh provides 300 and just under 332 million dollars over 12 years. Okay, it issues 175 million dollars in 2026 and it keeps it within our current payoff date of 2040. Okay, cuz that was one of the things that came up in in discussions is extending debt. Uh it it does that, but it also handcuffs us in future years and only allows us to do about just over 50 million in 2030, 2034, 2038. So, if we looked at a phased approach, that's kind of what we're going off of here is some type of phased approach over a number of
058years to tackle this issue. Um and those would still have to be on 20-year schedules. So, you're really you would be able to fit the one in our current payoff structure, but then everything else you would have to go back out to a 20-year schedule. Uh so, I'm not sure that you really it it gains you enough there in what you're what you're giving up for future flexibility. Option two uh provides approximately 535 million over 12 years. Uh so, this would look at 175 million approved in 2026 on a 20-year schedule and then we could do 120 million in 2030, 2034, 2038 and it would all those would be on 20-year schedules. Okay? One thing I need to note with all of these calculations, we have been extremely conservative in our projections. Okay? We are
059extremely conservative in our assessed value growth. Um this option two, I think provides a roadmap, but it also leaves future boards the flexibility to handle things that may come up that are that we don't see right now. There's flexibility in those schedules if there was a new school that need to be built sometime in the next 4 to 8 years. There's flexibility in there to handle that. Um but it allows us to meet our current needs. Um and again, every year you that our projections are conservative projections, if assessed value grows by more, then that's just future availability in in increases that you could do down the line at one of these funds that could be available. Doesn't have to be, but here's options that we can look at at uh at tackling this item.
060Up. Okay. So, what's that look like? Phase one uh bond funding. I I broke this out into four phases and I've outlay kind of outlay a capital plan for each phase or or start of the capital plan. So, phase one, if we went out in August, we would look at the three uh buildings that were on our our list in April last year, Heritage, Holt, Wentzville Middle. Those would be the top three priorities and we'd also have some security upgrades in there. Okay? So, that would be what we would focus on in the in that bond funding uh for phase one. Again, if we offer if we approve 175 million August, we're not going to issue 175 million dollars worth of bonds in September, right? We're going to spread that out. So, we're going to
061spread that out as funds are available or funds are needed. And so, when you do that, that provides more flexibility later on because we've we spread out that um those issues and those payments. So, every time you do that, it adds a little bit more flexibility for future uh future boards to to have. So, our capital projects, what are we looking at for capital projects over the next 4 years? This is really the only slide that we have because once we get past 4 years, it's hard to really tell what we're going to have available. Um but this is what I see as doing. We're coming to the board with here's our capital plan. Here's the things that we're going to out of our facility needs list, we're going to handle with our capital budget
062uh for upcoming years. So, this summer we're looking at uh Frontier Middle has a full roof replacement. It was just approved in consent. Uh we have Crossroads and Prairie View playground updates. That's out to bid currently. Uh and then we have several other smaller projects that are ongoing there or that have been approved already by the board. I'm just trying to pick out the major ones. Don't want to fill up the slide. Uh next summer, and again, all of these we currently have money to handle these projects listed on here right now. So, there there is money available in our fund to handle these. Next year, we look at Crossroads HVAC and lighting. That's a project that we can handle as a as a piece. So, it takes off some of that remodeling work that
063would needed to happen at Crossroads. And then we're doing some playgrounds, Boone Trail and Barfield. Uh we have the whole turf replacement on there. That's, you know, I think that's something that we should we can and should handle with capital funds. Uh it's getting to the end of its life, so we've budgeted that in there for replacement through capital funds. Um that may change, you know, we have the three schools on there. I'm not going to guarantee that it's going to be whole one year, Timberland, Liberty. Those could be interchangeable, right? Depending on needs and what what that looks like. So, I get nervous about putting things up here and somebody taking a picture of it and said, "You said you're going to do this." This is a plan, all right? This is meant to
064change. This is a starting point. So, don't don't take pictures. But I I I am I I am serious about it. Like this is this is a plan and it's meant to change, right? We we make adjustments on the fly. But it it gives us a roadmap. Uh the following year, South Middle HVAC replacement, couple more playgrounds. Uh and there would be other projects in here, too. We have some other dollars. So, we would continue to do the smaller projects, the asphalt, concrete replacement. And then the the fourth year would Greentree HVAC and lighting and then the Greentree playground. So, that's our that's our highest priority playground list over the 4 years would all be accomplished. Now, again, we get good numbers, something comes favorable, we can move things up and move things around on
065this list, but this gives us a a roadmap that we would be looking at. Yes. Just one quick question. >> Yes. The playgrounds on here, is that like cuz things are breaking or It So, our our plan for playgrounds is to create a surface with concrete and uh the rubber tiles that are better accessible than our mulch. We're not going to do the entire playground, but we're going to put it in a system at each playground that has some better accessibility and I don't know, Josh, if you have something to jump in on that, but it an accessible area with some uh equipment on it. Yeah, we're 3,000 for all all The lifespan on that, is that like turf? Yeah, it's I I Josh, probably 10, 15 year. >> 15 year. The benefit of the
066tile is you replace it. You can replace individual tiles if something happens. That's, you know, we've looked at turf, we've looked at pour-in-play, we've looked at the tiles. Um all three have good ratings. We talked more about the tiles cuz it provides that ability to just like a carpet square. You can tear that one up without having to replace the whole thing. So, that that we thought that was the better way to go. And again, we're that's currently out to bid. So, that number, it's a it's an educated guess at this point, right? We'll know more by next month what that actual number is going to be uh and we'll bring that out for approval in in April. Yes, sir. So, you've got through three different school years, the same work in 3 years. Is
067that because of what that's when funding comes available? And my question, the flip side of it is instead of going out individually, go out together to bigger opportunity gives lower margins by the bidders, so you can get more for your money. We did discuss that. Um some of it's a management piece on our side, the amount of work that we have each summer managing it in and there's also you're mobilizing in different spots. So, we question whether you're going to get much of a a gain because you have to mobilize in five separate buildings. So, are you really getting much gain there instead of all mobilizing one time cuz that's really one of the things that you're going to get is the mobilization cost. Uh when they have to start a project. >> really never
068know for sure until you ask. >> Yeah, right. So, I mean, I think about trying to bundle these and get better price points. Just my comment from the peanut section. No, we look at it. I mean, that's absolutely Tim said, we we the three of us sat around in a room quite a while having that very discussion. Are we better off trying to bundle or are we better off trying to bid individual? Um I was probably more where you were at, David, but I'm also not as smart as these two when it comes to those things and they felt like that mobilization side was a bigger issue. But I mean, if that's something we want to approach and look at, we could try to do that, but that was the the the side there that
069I went to. I think we'll have a better idea after doing it this summer and seeing what, you know, and and we can also you get some feedback and you'll know more, you know, and so then we can consider that. Like do we need cuz again, these projects, we currently have funds available for almost everything on here. So, we That it's there. Part of it's just again, what we can get done in the summer, what we can supervise ourselves because we have concrete replacement, we have all the stuff going on. So, uh but it is definitely something we'll look at going going forward. We're we're always in the saving money. So, you made the statement that you're not as smart as these guys, but you also said I'm a lot like you. It's a good
070catch. I apologize. Haha. So >> going to say what I hear real quick is David's willing to volunteer off of the school board to be a PM is what he's telling us. He's going to be an extra project manager. >> I'd be glad to. So looking forward and again, this is 2030. Lots going to change between then and now. None of us may be here at this point, right? We none of us may be in this position. 4 years from now, who knows what's going to happen? We'll have elections, uh retirements, I don't know. Um so there are here's a plan. We could do South Middle, Crossroads, Green Tree, do those full renovations. This is the end of our our uh I don't remember exactly, but this is this is kind of the plan for
071our second phase. Do some continue to do some safety upgrades. Um and then again, I can't predict what's our what we're going to be able to do in the future. So we're going to look at this and evaluate what are the HVAC systems, playgrounds, energy efficiency, roof replacements. Those are the projects that we we can and we should be able to handle some of those out of capital assuming we have funds available, okay? Smaller projects, not the full building renovations. Uh so then phase three, we're probably looking at Timberland uh and and Boone Trail renovation. Again, that's somewhere down the line. And again, you know, that that decision could be made by a future board. That needs to be moved up, right? There's this is this is us sitting here today deciding how future boards
072are going to look to allocate and fix this problem. This is just one option. Um and then uh phase phase four potentially, Frontier Middle, Prairie View, Piney Ridge, Barfield. And then that would get us to the the buildings that we have left are listed down there at the bottom. It's pretty small. Um but the the oldest one is Dwello in was built in 2007. Uh so we're looking at that 2007 to 2012 uh construction date. Um so you know, they're they're getting into be that 30-year-old. Uh so that's that's kind of a roadmap. Again, these numbers will change 100%. So uh this is something that a we have again been been conservative. We feel like we at least have uh some thought process, some reasoning behind it. It will be up to future boards to
073and administrations determine what that looks like when they get to that point. Um so key takeaways. Our facility needs of over $300 million uh far exceeds our available capital funds. We cannot do the do the amount of work that we need out of existing capital funds. Um we have a a maximum bonding capacity of $280 million currently to address these without raising the tax rate. So my point in saying that is we had $309 million worth of needs identified immediately. We can only get to 280. All right? So I wouldn't advise taking that big shot. Right? I wouldn't go for the 280 cuz we can't even do all our needs with that. So we want to piece out a chunk of it, do that, leave flexibility for future uh boards and administration. Multi-phased approach. Uh
074immediately address highest priority needs and leave flexibility to to address future needs. If we did approve this in August, that would allow some work to begin in summer of '27. Uh and the deadline for the August ballot is May 26th of this year. And so our recommendation, we've been asked to provide a recommendation. Our recommendation would be option two, which over the lifespan uh could provide 500 up to over 535 million over 12 years with a continual phased approach to address ongoing facility needs. Uh we think it would be prudent to seek voter approval for a $175 million dollar bond issue at the August 4th, 2026 election on a 20-year schedule with the plan to phase that out in four four three additional uh issues on 20-year schedules. Uh if a motion is made and
075approved, then we would draft ballot language and uh bring that to the board for approval before uh the May 26th deadline. So we went out for 165 last April, correct? Is that the right amount? 135. >> All right, 135. That did not pass and that was in a very favorable election for our school district. August is not favorable um for our school district. Um cuz a lot more people show up. And when people are taxed into oblivion, they're probably not going to support even if it's a no tax increase bond. They're not going to support anything that says tax. Um so I think to increase it to 175 would would be failing before we even get there. Um if they shut down 125 in a favorable election, did I just get the number wrong? 135.
076In a favorable election to go above that in an unfavorable election is I don't think it's going to I don't think it would I think we should do less. Yeah, and I'll piggy I'll I'll talk about that. Mike, I understand that concern. That's another discussion we had for quite a quite a long time before as we've been looking at our long-term plans. The the biggest issue we're going to run into, the cost keeps going up. Like we're at to do the exact same projects we tried to do last year, it's 40 million more now. So they're not the the costs aren't going down and the need isn't going away and I absolutely understand and could we how long would it take? So you know, like we've talked about that. So let's say you said you
077were going to do Heritage first. Let's look at that. And that's a two to three-year build depending on how you do it. If it's a renovation, how you're going to phase it out, anything like that. So do you are you better off going every other year for bond issues? Like if you're saying if you want to do 80 million for Heritage and then we know that's a two to three-year window, that means the next year I'm going to have to come back and we're going to have to say, "Okay, we want to do Holt." And that's going to be at a 60 or 70 or maybe a little bit more inflated that way. And then I so that's that's that's was our rationale when we said why we were going to go in this direction.
078>> I guess I guess my perspective here is do we want anything at all? Because if if there is a dollar amount that we can get something significant done, something important um I mean, it's all important, but a significant thing on our list. If we can get that checked off with a smaller amount because if we don't get anything in August, that's $0. If we do get a little bit in August and then we come back in April and then maybe the next August, then you could if the community says, "Okay, they're they're doing what they said they're going to do with these bond funds. We're pleased with this. Uh economy gets better. I I don't know." But to go out full swing and ask for a larger amount than failed, I think is is
079a fail before we even get there. It's Um that's all I can think really about that. >> Yeah, I mean, I understand. I I do understand. I think we we had those discussions. I'm not disagreeing with you. Like those are legitimate valid concerns that we talked a great deal about. And you know, we we as an administration team came up with this idea. If the board wants to go a different direction, that's something you guys can talk about. Like that that's an opportunity we can explore. I I just wanted to tell you what our logic was, why we went the direction we went after having those conversations. It it was really how do we figure out how to try to limit the continual inflation we're seeing to the best we can so we're not going
080and then we thought we might run into voter fatigue. Like a point where how many times in a row are you going to keep asking and asking and asking? And so a lot of the things we've done this time were based off strategy or off feedback that came from the last bond election. So it was you guys didn't go we didn't get a third-party um facility needs. So we went and got a third-party facility need. We didn't get a roadmap on exactly how we wanted to utilize that bond funds and here's the projects we were going to do to the extent and then you know, you had 80 million or 40 million or whatever everybody thought was in capital. And so now we're showing like here's where the capital is. This is So that was
081really the rationale behind everything that we did in laying it out the way we laid it out. And if again, in our opinion, that the building's got to get fixed. I mean, that's the community that's got to make that decision and and they're going to have to do it however they choose to do it. I personally and and us as a team believe this is a better avenue as as far as saving a little bit of money. I mean, it just and I know the concern. I mean, I do. But you know, the the proof is what we just dealt with last year. If we pass it last year, it's 135 and we're getting these projects done. If we if we try to go this year, it's 175 to get them done and by all
082accounts, it doesn't look like those prices are going down. Inflation as we all are feeling is going up a lot. Um and and so I think that's the the question that the board's got to look at and decide. So is the is the ballot language going to specifically state what the bond will be paying for? Cuz you were saying something about leave some area for discretion for the board or the administration to spend some of those funds on. I I was talking about the future issues. So, a future bond. Future. The second, third, fourth phase. Which would all be us going out for another bond. >> have to be voted Each of those would have to be voter approved at the time. Yes. Yeah. But in the in specifically in the 175 is that going
083to be detailed what each like what will be done with that bond? Because I know back in 2023 four there was a $250 million bond proposal that was very broad. Like it didn't it just said for the schools. Yeah. I mean, I think you would be as uh specific as you can be with leaving yourself some flexibility to address other needs if projects came in favorable. So, you know, if if our numbers that we have estimated come in lower we still have other needs we need to do as far as HVAC, roofing, those type of projects that we would So, you could roll those into that. So, you you can't be as you you don't necessarily want to be as specific to just say you're going to do X, Y, and Z and not leave
084anything in case because like if we didn't have other projects to do, then we could be very specific. But having the list that we have we have to leave ourselves some room if those projects come in favorable, we know we want to still do some roofing projects or HVAC projects because it's on our list. And what what's that do? It just takes it off the next bond issue and gets it done earlier, which it's going to be cheaper because you're not paying for inflation. You're not So, that would be smart to do that. But be specific on Holt Heritage, Wentzville Middle. Yes. Be very specific on that. And then you add in something that said as other funds are available, complete identi- you know, roofing, HVAC projects throughout the district. Or energy efficiency, something like
085that. So, you could do windows and that type of thing. Do we have the ballot language yet? No. >> No. So, this is just if we wanted to do it. >> We were asked We were asked to Well, we'll make up the ballot language, but we were asked to provide a recommendation. We're not You guys will have to make the determination if you want to make a motion and you want to do this. That's that's not what we were asked to do. We were asked to say, "Here's the recommendation that we as an administration are providing for you guys to have talking points about it." And from there it becomes your decision as a board. Quick uh follow-up question, Tim. So, looking at the there's 309 million and I think I might have asked this,
086so I apologize if I did it at the work session. Of the the buildings that are going to be or are 25 years and older, how close of that 392 that 14 to 25-year buildings, like how close are we to some of those becoming 25 pluses adding to the number that needs to be done. And again, well, I'll I'll leave it at that for right now. I don't have that number in front of me, but obviously every year you go down the road, they get a year closer. So, I mean, and that 25 years just an arbitrary amount. I think Crossroads Josh, do you remember? It was early 2000. Yeah. So, piggyback on that There you can I'm sorry. On there you see the in parentheses you see the years that those buildings are built.
087So, that's phase two. Phase three, that's Timberlands 2000. Boone Trail original building is '89 and the kindergarten is '04. And then '05s '06s, '04s, '05s, '06s. And then down at the bottom that's at 2007 to 2012. So, my piggyback question was if Basically, the reason we need so many different schools fixed at once is because Right, exactly. They're old. They're old, but by no by no fault of anybody sitting at this table it was neglected for a long period of time and not kept up. So, the goal here is to get us to a we're getting caught up with maintenance and and upgrades and and updates and stuff like that. And then we will have the capital to upkeep our buildings on an annual basis or you you know, their rotating schedule of when they
088get their PLC. I'm not going to say that cuz we have a lot of buildings. I mean, and you think about Well, Well, that's why you don't build but that's why you don't go build a bunch of buildings. That's why when I was talking about it at the work session, we've got room for 5,000 more, you don't just immediately react when you see a new subdivision coming in and say we need a new elementary school. That that's why you you may feel a little pinch here, but then you don't outgrow what your community should be. And that's really desperately what I'm trying to do. And I think when we talk about the maintenance, you you hit the nail on the head. I don't know that we can ever say we'll have enough capital, but I
089think you can say we wouldn't need to have massive bond issues like this every time. You know, unless again, you're you're staying on top of it. So, what I think you have to say as a community is understand here's where we're at. Here's what you can do from do something like we're doing right now. Here's what you can do from a capital we've out reached now. We've got too many HVAC units going out again and we need to do a bond issue, but it may not be to the level we're talking about here. Um but somebody else could be sitting here in 20 years and say, "What were those idiots thinking?" I mean, they really could be. Like they did they did they just ignored it. I think when you look at our buildings it's
090easy to point that finger and I and I'm not trying to defend anybody, but what I would say is this. You know, Holt was built in '57 and how many additions has it had to it? And so, there you know, you're adding to it because you're growing. So, even though you may not see the buildings, these additions were were growth avenues where they and and they may have done some adjustments then and fix some things like that. The problem is the bones of it's '57. And so, we're at a point now like in '57 a build a school building was much different than what it needed to be now and in you know, 2000. Yeah, they were and so, I I think that's really what you got to look at like you're going to if
091you have a good scheduled maintenance plan, which I feel very confident and happy with where we've got that right now from a facility needs from knowing I mean, if you get a chance to actually look at the template that Honer put together and each building has like a homepage. And it it's it's got a bunch of placards that you push and you can go find anything that you need about that. And then as soon as we fix something, it's immediately uploaded into there. And so, you've got an actual running list of things that allow you to do a better job of staying on top of your maintenance. Where we didn't necessarily have that. So, Josh and and his team and Honer did a really good job with that. And that's what we really designed everything
092that we're talking about. That that's really where it came from. So, and then that's why we tried to show you what a a bond phasing plan could look like. You know, we threw a five-year just to say it was easy. Really, the better way to look at that is to say phases. You really got to look at the phase. It's a phase one approach. It's a phase two approach. So, you know, if if you're saying we're identifying these large projects and you know, somebody's like, "When is ours coming?" Okay, it's phase two. But every time we don't pass phase one, phase two gets pushed back, too. The the needs don't change. The needs are what the needs are. And that's what's hard for everybody to understand. And and so, you know, Timberland's a great example.
093That's a big number on Timberland. But it by the time we get to that, it'll be almost 40 years old. I know. So, I mean, but at the you know, at that point it's now an old building. At that point it needs a lot of of renovation. And so, right now it's what we're talking about that we've been doing in all these other buildings. It's band-aids, it's patches, it's temp fixes, and it's things like that. And and those aren't long-term solutions. So, when you fix it long-term and you upkeep it, that's how you that's how you maintain. It's like your house. So, Dr. Tim, on this administrative recommendation slide I'm trying to understand it on the August 26th the talks about 20-year schedule. Is this a approval that you go out in August, November, April,
094whenever? And at at one point you asked for all four No. This is August would approve issuing $175 million worth of bonds. All right. Knowing that there's going to be a phased approach. So, the the 30, 34, and 38 that you list is still subject to voter approval in the future. Second half of that is It looks like a hell of a lot of money there. We going to have bonding capacity. Yeah, we were well within our bonding capacity and the the statutory limit on bonding capacity is 15% and we are well within that. Uh Martin reviewed that at the work session with you. Had the chart that showed and it's in your it's in that packet if you want If you can't find it, let me know. I can send it to you. I'll
095send it to you and it it shows that even with all of these, we are still within our bonding capacity limit. And also we are being extremely conservative in our projections. So even being conservative in our projections, we are still within the bonding capacity and we're still able to meet these needs. Thanks. Tim, can I make a couple comments? First of all, I want to say thank you for putting this together. I really appreciate it. It makes it a lot more clear tonight than even last month and last month was good as well. Um, I also want to ask um Well, before that, I think we really lost I think there's opportunities and we lost an opportunity last April. And because we lost that opportunity, um, you're saying it's it's more money now. And so
096my last, I guess, comment or question is let's say we have the all the money today. Tell me the timeline to build these three schools out. What does that look like? Josh. >> [laughter] >> I'm good. I guess more of a real question. So let's say we go out in August and and it happens. And so we would start building summer of '27. Is that how that would work? Yeah, so the we would start building in summer of the next summer, summer '27. Okay, and so summer of '27 we tackle one of those schools. Would that be a a one-year or a two-year tackle? It would might be more than a two-year tackle. But if we started Holt, for example, that might be a three a three three So we start them all at the
097same time? I mean it It depends on who bids and what it looks like. >> on how the bids come in and how we want to approach that. So even us going in August and everything aligns and everything happens, all of these three schools is somewhere in a three to five-year window. That's if everything lines up. I think all the stars have to align up. Nicely, yes. So if we if we don't push now, then that three to five window is a five to nine window. That is correct. Okay. I I also want to say let's again in complete transparency. The other thing if the board decides to go this way, the next discussion's going to be heritage. So it was easy to say last year it was, you know, we would have saved $20
098million to renovate. Now the projections are it's almost identical cost to rebuild or renovate. And so you've got to have that discussion as a board too. How do you want to proceed? You know, we have plans for renovation already ready to go. But if it's going to be the exact same cost or really near the same cost, do you rebuild the building or do you keep the building? So I think those are Again, if we decide to go, that's the next big discussion that's going to happen because you would want you would want all of our community to know what's the idea here. So, you know, if if we say we're going to go that route, what we'll do next is not only will we have ballot language, we'll have better numbers like on industry.
099Here's what the actual renovation costs are versus here's what the actual new construction cost is. And you guys, if you remember last year this time we were talking about it, I was all about renovate renovate renovate. But if it's more cost-effective to rebuild, then you got to have that discussion. So. But I Jeremy, I I also get yours in that what would be 175 now if we don't move on that, it would probably be more like 225 this time next year or the following. Um, all right. So, um couple things. One, this is great. I love uh you know, we've kind of asked for the direction of what we need to go, how we're going to address these things. And again, understanding that's just a projection. Um, it's great to have a plan understanding that
100things aren't going to get adjusted. Um, I love that we're addressing the um playgrounds. That's something that we've been talking about for a while. Um, so we have all students can use them. So I'm glad that's getting done this summer. Um, you know My frustration that I have right now is that everybody seems resigned that we have to do more with less. And we're here because we're talking about our kids and we want to advocate for our children and we just assume the public's not going to pay for it. I don't believe that because after the last vote we had, we had people that were angry. They What are you going to do? What are you going to do? I don't know that they recognize that if we don't step up as a community, then
101we're going to have to make hard changes. And I have faith in this community that they're going to step up and they're going to want to invest in our children, invest in our schools. And I think >> you at the last election what they thought. Yeah. So I I have faith in the community. That's your opinion. I'm happy to invest in our children and I think everybody else in this community is. I don't need to save $150 on my property tax to take it away from my kids. So I'm a little fired up right now. Um But yeah. Well, I'll piggyback that. Knowing that costs are only going to go up, knowing that our needs are only going to continue to mount. Um, and even though I know the last measure didn't officially pass, it
102still garnered more than 50%. Right? Um, I would like to make an official motion to give administration the guidance to um I guess what it needs to say the develop ballot language to put a put option two um on the August ballot. Or Second. Can you put option two back up? Just to clarify, you're meaning a $175 million issue in August. Yes. Yeah. Cuz we we did say option two was a 535 total. It's 175 in August. That's what we're we're really talking about is 175. I think all discussions about huge cost increase or bonds or anything like that should be left to the new board. When we came in three years ago, there were decisions that were made the month or two before we got in that were very different in the direction that
103we were elected on. And I just think it's not fair to incoming three board members to not have their right to say. Can I make one suggestion then? What if we say go ahead My concern is if the new board wants to do it, trying to get that ballot language ready to go before that May 26th deadline if we wait to April. So if if at minimum Go ahead, Tim. It would still need approval. Yes. From the board. This is just getting the ballot language. That is still going to have to be approved by the board. A resolution to actually place it on the ballot would still have to be approved by the the new board in April. Which by going on and coming up with it now for April, it would give the new
104board a chance to review it in April. If there's any changes that need to be made, it could be brought back in May, which would still meet the timeline, right? Correct. Any other discussion? We have a motion and a second. I'm not I I know I don't vote, but can you clarify? I mean it we're just we're just voting to put the language on the That's what you're voting. >> We're voting to um create the language for the ballot for option two of a $175 million bond issue at the August 4th, 2026 election. All right. Any other discussion before we vote? Let's roll call, please. Vice President Welsh. I. Director Henke. I. Secretary Biesenpal. I. Director Olson. I. Director Way. Director Lewis. Nay. President Scott. I. Motion carries. Okay. Next order of new business is
105the We need a motion to approve the WNEA nurses agreement as presented. Motion. Second. Any discussion? All of those in favor? I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Next, we need a motion to approve the WNEA ESC agreement as presented. Motion. Second. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Okay. All of those in favor? I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries. All right. Next, we need a motion to approve the reemployment of teaching staff for the '26-'27 academic year as presented. Motion. Second. Any discussion? Does that list usually have a dollar amount on the bottom? No. All right. Okay. All right. I'll Okay. All of those in favor? I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Moving on to board member comments. I can look to my right, first. Jeremy, Jen, Renee, anybody. David Lewis, we know
106you got something. You want to close it out? I'll I'll I got I just got one thing. I have nothing to add. No. I just want to say everybody have a great spring break. Okay. Wow. Are you sure? Going once, going twice. All right. We need a motion to adjourn open session. Motion. >> Motion. Second. Roll call, please. Vice President Welsh. Aye. Director Henkey. Aye. Secretary Rosenthal. Aye. Director Olson. Aye. Director Way. Aye. Director Lewis. Aye. President Scott. Motion carries.