001First, um, we have the pledge that will be, uh, recited by Mason Woodward. All right. We need a motion to approve the open session agenda for February 19th, 2026 as presented. >> Motion. >> Second. >> Any discussion? All those in favor? I. >> Any opposed? >> Motion carries. Now you can. Nope, you can't. Yes, you can. Mr. Bishop is very excited for tonight's recognition. [laughter] Um, Holt High School students Lance Calvin and Finn Young and North Point High School student Mason Woodward earned the highest possible ACT composite score of 36. On average, only around one quarter of 1% of students who take the ACT earn a top score. Congratulations. Next, we have public comment period. We have two speakers this evening. The first is Christine Almond. Okay, is that better? Okay. Good evening. My name
002is Christine Almond and I am the mother of Maddie Almond. Maddie began her journey in the Windsville School District. Sorry. At the age of three in this very building from the very start, she loved school. learning the friendships and the community. Four years ago, she began her journey at Timberland High School. By that time, Maddie was facing extraordinary challenges. She suffered a rare genetic disorder and required extensive support. She had lost the ability to walk, care for herself, speak clearly, or even function cognitively. Maddie experienced frequent and critical medical crisis that required immediate intervention and strict adherence to a complex emergency plan to keep her alive. Through it all, the team here, teachers, support staff, nurses, therapists, and administrators went above and beyond to ensure her safety, emotional well-being, and educational needs were met. Her
003classmates welcomed her, included her, and made her feel like she truly belonged. Maddiey's journey became nothing short of a miracle. She regained the ability to walk, speak, and learn at grade level in part due to the dedicated staff here determined to meet her where she was and encourage her along the way. But beyond her medical recovery, Maddie inspired everyone around her. with joy, determination, and the courage to live fully even on the darkest days. The dedication of this district was nothing short of inspirational. Her teacher and instructional assistant met her every need. When she was too ill to attend school, homebound services were immediately engaged. Maddie was determined to graduate, and this district was determined to ensure she stayed on track to meet that goal. This past year, Maddiey's senior year at Timberland. She was
004most looking forward to walking at graduation. In October, when her condition worsened, I texted her teacher. This is bad. She's not going to make it. Within hours, her teacher and the team came together and made sure Maddie graduated from her hospital bed. Through Zoom, teachers, administrators, support staff, and nurses, all who loved her, celebrated Maddie, showing her that she mattered. Even while sedated and on a ventilator, a tear ran down her cheek, proving she heard every word. That moment was more than a cap and a gown. It was about honoring Maddiey's courage and the impact she had on all of us. And this district didn't stop there. Timberland continues to keep Maddie's memory alive. Just last week, as you may have seen on Fox 2, the district came together again to hold a fundraiser in
005her honor. And Jeff and I are proud to be given the opportunity to give back by establishing a scholarship in Mattiey's memory for a classmate pursuing a medical career. What this district has done sets an example seen worldwide of humanity, compassion, and the extraordinary power of a community coming together. Mattiey's graduation video on Tik Tok has touched millions across the globe. And it all started here in this community. To the board, administrators, teachers, staff, and students, thank you. Thank you for Matt for valuing Maddie, for walking beside her, for setting an example of compassion for all students to follow, and for showing what a school district can truly be. Your work, your care, and your humanity have made a lasting difference far beyond the walls of this district. Not just for Maddie, but for all
006worldwide who are lucky enough to witness it. You should be extremely proud of yourselves. Thank you. The next speaker, Rebecca Messi. Good evening. Um, tonight you'll have the opportunity to vote on the proposed changes to the WNA master agreement for certified staff. I wanted to first take the time to thank Alex Schaper, Jen Roland, Ale Ashley Colgen, Jeremy Morannan, and Tiffany for serving on our negotiations team for our certified staff along with the district leadership that met with us. The hours that you spent preparing and deliberating for our contract does not go unnoticed and our membership appreciates you. The Winzville NEA is constantly striving to make the WSD a better place to work and to learn. Working collaboratively with the district team this year, we were able to increase educator salaries and the hourly rate
007that teachers are paid for training outside of their workday. We also made strides towards balancing the teacher workload and by working out the logistics of our early release time and making plan time a priority. We hope that you will vote to approve the changes as they are presented to you this evening. Thank you. All right, thank you to our speakers. Next is district comments. >> Uh, first, thank you to Miss Alman for sharing Maddiey's story and and making everybody aware of that. And for everything she did for the community as well. She truly her presence is missed at Timberland and and yeah, um, thanks to Becca for talking about the master agreement. uh district happenings. >> Sorry. >> Uh the Reach Adaptive Learning Center students and staff celebrated the first pep assembly in their new
008building last month. A huge thank you goes out to North Point High School band and North Point Middle School cheer and dance teams for stopping by to welcome their new neighbors with some grizzly spirit. Students from all four school or all four middle schools gathered at North Point Middle School for the first time ever. WSD Middle School Chess Tournament. Uh, congrats to the winners and thank you to our chess club sponsors for coordinating this amazing event. We had on Tuesday our community partners breakfast. Thank you to all the community partners who joined us to learn about the important happenings going on in our district. We're grateful for your ongoing partnership. It's also time for prek enrollment for the 2627 school year at both Barfield and Samuelson. Enrollment opened on February 9th for returning prek families
009and WSD employees and then on February 23rd for all school district residents. So be ready 4 days from now. You need to make sure you enroll. >> Oh, and they left. But what an amazing accomplishment for the the students that scored a 36 on an ACT. I don't know how you do that, but holy cow. So kudos to them and their parents who aren't going to have to pay college. >> All right. Thank you. Next we have um consent agenda. We need a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented. >> Motion. >> Second. >> Any discussion? All those in favor? >> I. Any opposed? >> Motion carries. Moving to old business. We need a motion to approve the revisions to policy 2760, students in foster care, as presented. >> Motion. >> Any discussion? >>
010All right. All those in favor? >> I I >> Any opposed? Motion carries. Moving to new business. We had a couple of things pulled here. We need a motion to approve the personnel recommendations and resignations from February 2026 as presented. >> Motion. >> Any discussion? Will roll call, please. >> President Scott. >> I. >> Vice President Walsh. >> Abstain. >> Director Hanky. >> I. >> Secretary. >> I. >> Dr. Olson, >> Dr. We >> Director Lewis, >> hi. >> Motion carries. >> We need a motion to approve the personnel addendum of February 2026 as presented. >> Wasn't that all just in one? >> Did that Did that count as one? Okay, never mind. That we're good. Next, we are moving to 13.2, the AP bill list item, Raptor Technologies. Motion >> second. >> Any discussion?
011Okay. Uh, roll call, please. >> President Scott, >> I. >> Vice President Walsh, >> I. >> Dr. Hanky, >> nay. >> Secretary Bisenthal, >> I. >> Dr. Olsen, >> nay. >> Dr. We >> Dr. I >> motion carries. >> All right. Next up is the legislation funding presentation. Okay, good evening. I uh am going to share some updates with you on a couple of pieces of uh legislation that have been passed and are in in in place uh and talk about a couple other things possibly affecting some uh funding on the local and state level. So, uh, first of all, first off on this SB190, the senior citizens tax credit. We've talked about this a couple different times already. Uh, we actually have our our full impact for this year. So, uh, again, just to
012review, um, to be eligible for this, you must be 62 or older. It does not apply to our fund three rates for bonded indebtedness. Uh, and it only applies to residential real property. So the residence uh of of the senior citizen uh does not apply to additions or improvements. So if you make additions to your home once the credit is in place then that amount is added on top. Um and basically what happens is your tax amount the dollar amount that you owe uh for personal for for real property will not change. So that amount that you pay will remain consistent from the year that you qualify. Uh and then the taxing district continues to count that revenue in our tax calculations. So that's also important. So when we do our our calculations for the
013Hancock amendment calculations, as we set our tax rate, we are counting that revenue as received even though it's not being received. So it continues to act like we are receiving that revenue which will in turn drive down our rate like it has in the past even though we're not actually receiving that revenue. Um so again this is the first tax year it was in in effect for the previous year. Uh there was no impact the previous year because it was not a reassessment year. So really this this really you see an impact in reassessment year. So, our actual number uh for this tax year was just under $800,000 that we did not collect that we would have collected had it not been in place. Okay. Uh so, projections going forward, um you know, my original
014projection on this was about a million dollars. So, we were a little better than that, but it's it's it's hard to guess, you know, where that goes. using a 10% increase, assuming 10% more people qualify next year, we could see an additional um loss in revenue. And then the following year, once you go to a reassessment, it it doubles that VA value again. So that's where you start seeing that dollar amount begin to increase what you're what you're losing because in effect, you have two reassessment years for some of those folks that you are not capturing that growth on. Um, so you four-year cumulative loss of of just over $5 million uh for the district. So, the big one that's that is coming up that came from uh the special session in June, uh this
015was added on to uh the incentive package to try to keep the Chiefs and Ram or Chiefs Rams, man. Uh flashback, I guess. I don't know. PTSD. Uh the Chiefs and Royals in Missouri. Uh and so this is similar to SB190 se similar to the senior tax credit, but it's there's no age restrictions on it. So it's all residents. Um this would be approved by county voter is to be voted on by county voters at the April 20 26 election. Okay. So it's on the ballot. It's called Prop RT. Uh there are 22. Now the unique thing about this is it impacts counties across the state much differently. So there's 22 counties across the state including St. Charles County that would allow 0% growth just like Senate Bill 190 does. So everybody's rate would be
016capped at what they paid in 2024. So actually less than what we received this year. it would go back to 2024 amount that was paid. Um there are 75 counties that cap the growth at 5%. So they're allowed to grow up to 5% annually. Uh neighboring Lincoln County is is a 5% county if they pass it at the county level. Um and then there's 17 counties including St. Louis County and city that are not impacted. Okay. Now, you may ask yourself, how did that how did that how do we get to choose or how did how was that chosen? Uh, my understanding is it was chosen through the legislative process and senators basically got to choose what they wanted their county to be. So, that was just part of the deal making process that happened.
017Uh, there's really no rhyme or reason um that has been explained to me that I've seen anywhere on that on why you have some counties that are and some counties that aren't. So, uh, so what's the impact? Again, these are projections. I ask you that you not hold me to these numbers. Um, but this is this is where our our best guess is at today because there's a lot of variables that go into this calculation. You know, we've got to we've got to figure out what percentage of our real property is actually someone's residence, right? That's what what we're really after. It's not total real property. uh because you can have other things in there that's residential property that's not your primary home. Okay. So, so that's one of the things that we have to
018determine. And then how many people are going to be eligible, what what it's going to be, what that value is. So, projections based on on um you know where we're at. My best the best information we have at available uh just under $4 million uh the district would not collect next tax year. So next year about $4 million and then you can see that just grows exponentially every year after that. Uh so for a three-year total loss of about just under $21 million in revenue that we would not uh be able to collect. Um so how does that how does that fit into our our budget picture? Um, so the top line here is is uh starting out with where we're at for uh projections for this year. The white line is total expenditures. So
019that's our budget for this year. And then I forecast out the next three years. Uh, and you can see my assumptions down at the bottom. Uh, I'm assuming a a 3% yearly increase for salaries, purchase, service, and supplies. So kind of inflationary cost. And then a 5% yearly increase for benefits. As we know, health insurance is is not slowing down at any any manner. So that's why that that amount is is increased. So we're not really talking about even doing adding anything. We're just looking at covering our inflationary cost on the expense side. Um so you can see what those those numbers do. We're adding 8 to10 million a year just in inflationary cost in expenses. Um so the the first line there is is kind of theoretical that's without Senate Bill 190 or Senate
020Bill 3 in place. All right. So really 202526 Senate Bill 3 is already in place. So that just shows you the loss uh that we had this year. Uh the second line is if the se if only the senior tax credit was was in uh in place. So um obviously green means we're running out of surplus. Red means we we ran in the deficit. So with just the senior tax credit in place, you know, I feel comfortable uh we're looking three or four years out before we have any any kind of deficit issues. And again, there's a lot of assumptions that go into to that when we're talking four years out. So things, you know, it's it's it's an impact. It's not a huge impact on us. It's something that we can we can manage.
021But when we look at at what happens with Senate Bill 190, um, and then that puts us in the red immediately, uh, we're not able to, uh, cover our inflationary costs there. So, uh, the cost the revenues are are lower than the uh expenses. So, uh, it puts us in a bad bad spot for future future, um, growth. And again, that's just covering inflationary cost. Um, another piece that's happening at the same time is the, uh, state foundation formula. This is one of our primary funders from the state level. Um there's been an executive order by governor creating a task force to study the foundation formula and make recommendations to modernize the formula. In that executive order, just for your information, um the governor called for a modernization of the formula using the same amount
022of money that's allocated for the formula now. Right? So we're gonna take the pi. We have the pi the amount that's in the formula now and we want to slice it differently. We're going to give we're going to redistribute that basically. Um so that would be bad for us. We benefit from the formula because of some growth that we've seen from the way when the formula was implemented. So any change to the current formula without putting additional dollars in the pot is going to be bad for the Wville school district. We will not be helped by that at all. we will there will be some loss in revenue. So that's another thing that's that's coming down the pipe. Um the recommendations for that aren't due until December 1st of 2026. And uh so any legislation
023coming from that would not happen until next year, the next legislative session. And so then uh you know that would would take place for the potentially the following school year. So that's something to really watch and um keep an eye on because like I said it it is something uh you know and this chart shows it a little bit compared to our neighbors in St. Charles County, we receive a higher portion of state revenue than uh either Fort Zumal or Francis. How shows you how we benefit from the current formula compared to our neighbors. And that's primarily due to the growth that we've seen since uh the formula was adopted in in 2025 or 20 2005. >> I'm going to piggyback on that, Tim. So when when we were talking about Prop RT that impact
024it obviously you saw the financial impact it will impact the other school districts more because we are more dependent on state funds that come from the foundation formula. So that that's the importance of this document. So when you're looking at this and the main reason I asked him to do this is we're starting planning for next school year and as we plan for next school year we have to plan for the unaccounted things that are here. And so as we're setting a budget, if you see different things coming forward, that's what this is in in reflection to, we're adjusting budgets based on on projections and things like that when we project them out. So that's that was the reason to ask Tim to come and present this to kind of give everybody an update on
025where we're at and what's going on within the district from a financial standpoint. questions. >> Oh, go ahead, David. >> Oh, that's okay. I just was curious. There has been no um I guess from the legislative um aspect, any discussion about making up those funds in any other way. Correct. Like no reallocation of money in any other ways. Okay. No. U so this this also impacts fire districts and ambulance districts. Uh those are the two big entities that rely on property tax. They do have the ability to do sales tax that school districts don't. And so that's why you're starting to see more of those sales tax uh initiatives on the ballot from those entities because they can recoup that uh they can issue levy a sales tax where school districts don't have the statutory
026authority to levy a sales tax. Okay. If you go up a few slides to the SB impact, you talked about from 26 to 27 the cost doubled. I mean, my property tax as high as it is doesn't double every two years. So, how do you rationalize a doubling number? Um, part of it's just a calculation and there's a potential that some of that money would actually happen in 28, but I spread that out the way I calculated because it's it's hard to to calculate the uh project how much your tax rate is going to go down right on reassessment year. So, I kept my tax rate it when I was doing this calculation to try to simplify, I spread that out over the three years instead of having it all come down into that reassessment
027year because of the way my tax rate is. And you just can't you can't guess what your tax rate's going to go down to based on growth and reassessment. So you know that that amount may come down into the next year but it would be so if it did then that would make the 2028 number 13 million right so if if we would say 2027 would be uh 3.9 basically stay the same then 2028 would go to 13 because of growth because you're losing that growth from the prior year then you're also O adding on top of that another year of reassessment growth. So it's more than double. >> Okay. Does the numbers that you're listing here down on slide uh with the green and red how do I want to ask this? >> Yeah,
028I know. And I'm I'm trying to go back to my thing my question. We have SB90 impact that for for 26 it's 815,000. We've got an SP3 impact for 26 is 3.9 million. Does 3.9 million include the SP3 impact or those two separate numbers? >> SP3 would be 3.9 the first year. >> Okay. those two numbers include. >> So that doesn't include the SB190 amount. >> Okay? >> If that's what you're asking, right? >> Those are separate charts. >> So, have you figured out what a a reasonable budget cut would need to be in order to cover the red? >> I haven't. No. I mean, that's something that we'll we'll work on. And um but again, all of this is inflationary cost. >> Sure. But it's something that got to get a handle on soon
029so that we can. Yeah. >> Okay. Thanks. Kind of piggybacking off what President Scott asked. Um you mentioned other fire ambulance, they can issue sales tax. So, in essence, even though our property taxes might be frozen, we're still going to be paying for that in other avenues if those if those are passed. Right. >> Correct. >> And then with that, so they have the ability to do that. Do we have anything that we can do or what what would our options possibly look like as far as trying to make up some of this so we don't have to look at cutting things knowing that we're going to continue to grow knowing that we're still going to have more needs? Like again, you said this just counts for basic inflation. Like has there been thoughts of
030what what our options are? >> So our options to increase revenue would be a tax levy increase. That's that's our one lever to pull for increasing revenue. An operating tax increase. >> I have a question with that comment. So if we do get into the red, the idea of the district is to ask for a tax levy, not >> No, that I just said that's our our opportunity to raise revenue. That's the only thing that we can do to increase revenue, >> right? So, we wouldn't look to cut anything. We would look to increase revenue. >> That's not what I No, I'll answer that. No, we're not going to look to it as for a tax levy until it got to a point we couldn't operate even the basics. So, what would happen is the
031service provided by the district would have to it would go down. So, where you've seen a decrease in class sizes, an intentional decrease in class sizes, those class sizes may have to go up again. uh you may have to go to like statemandated transportation zones. So we transport anything within a mile, but the state says you only have to do it within three miles. So you you would start looking at cutting programming like that to balance your budget and until you got to a point to where that's the most you can cut, then you have to go to what's next. So that's that's really you're kind of hitting the nail on the head, which is why I asked for this is we have to start thinking about as a board and a community, what are
032the things we're going to have to as we budget accordingly, there's going to have to be real discussions about prioritizing what the district wants. And that that's really the purpose of this is to start being able to have those discussions um centered around that. And there there's other financial triggers that you can pull or levers that you can pull. I mean, if you want to go out for sports, you got to pay. >> If you want to ride the activity bus, you got to pay. I mean, that's not where we want to go. But those are many states and districts are doing that. >> Yeah. There's lots of So, when I talk about service provided, that would be service provision. You can you can talk about paytoplay. You can talk about different things like that
033for sure. Those are those pay to play would be you want to be an athlete, you pay a fee, kind of like a club fee. Um, and again, we're going way down the rabbit hole, but those would be topics that we would start talking about. Uh, and it's so you're going to look at, again, that's still coming back to the community members, the individual community members who want to participate in things like that. Um, again, this is more to inform people of what's going on. This is just for us to say, here's what's going on. We need to be able to start having these discussions. That that's truly what it comes down to. You'll hear more about this when we do our our March 4th work session where we're going to get a little bit
034more in depth on some of this and what that could mean from a facility standpoint from from everything else. So, we'll we'll have a more in-depth discussion on it then too. Uh when we do that, we'll have our financial analysts from Steve will be here that can answer a lot of questions for long range and the way they see it with investment and stuff like that too. So, um, just kind of to put it in perspective, and I'm just looking, so we're looking at, you know, cost roughly $17,000 to educate a student in WSD right now. Correct? So, I mean, if you're looking at an elementary school, roughly 500 kids, that's $8.5 million to run an elementary school, $20 million for a middle school. you know, you know, if we're going to lose $20 million
035in four years, I mean, you're talking about reducing schools, um, from a from a number, and I know that's not where we're going, but I I'm just putting the numbers in perspective of what it is. The other thing, too, our neighboring county will not have this happening, right? So, they are going to their revenues are going to continue to increase as property values increase. They can offer their teachers, their staff, activities more. That's what we're going to be competing with. You know, we're going to be competing them for everything. That's going to drive their home values up. That would drive our home values down if we can't compete with the county across the river. So, this is very impactful and I don't think people really recognize how big of an impact something like this happened
036or has with right now no answers to make up for this loss in revenue. Um because like uh Tim's head uh I believe in April already ambulance fire have a tax increase on that ballot coming. Correct. >> Sales tax. >> Yeah, there's a sales tax. I think the ambulance district has that. >> Yeah. Which we can't we can't do. So, um I think it's important. I I'm glad you guys put this together and I I realize it's an estimate and it's a best guess and it's it's going to be wrong. Yeah. you know, but um you know, it's significant and I I hope people recognize that. >> I want to reiterate a couple things. Under no terms at this point are we talking any at all about tax increases. So that that is not something
037the district's considering. It's not been discussed. I want to make sure we put that out there. Secondly, this I I want to make sure we're not putting like a fear out there either. That's I I appreciate what you're saying, Brad, but at the same time, this is strictlyformational to project out. So to say all these numbers are accurate and everything, be be very careful with that, we're we're giving this because we're getting ready soon to give you the long the budget projection for the next school year. We will have to determine what that projection looks like. And so we're kind of frontloading a little bit like if you see something removed here, this is why it's going to be removed. Those are the discussions we're starting to have. So I I'm asking the board truly
038just to start thinking through in your heads if we get to this point what are we've got to determine priorities and and that's really the essence of it. But again under no uncertain terms are we talking about a tax levy, a tax increase or anything like that. That is absolutely not something we're talking about. We're just talking about how to look at the cost and looking at if we're in the red or if we're in the green. If we're in the red, how do we how do we flatten out that spending? Understanding that inflation's going to always go up and revenue is going to stay flat. Then we have to determine what that's going to look like. >> And just looking at guys, slide six, we're talking about 20 if both SB190 S3, we're estimating
039about a $4 million shortfall from forecast. Is that Am I looking at that right? >> Yeah. again those numbers I know we haven't refined this year's budget to know where we're going and that gives us an idea of where we're going next year. Yes, I did not intend to give the implication that we are going for a tax increase. That is not my that is not my intent uh or anyone's intent has not even been discussed here. So we we are not looking at that. Um but uh you know it it is there is real implications from this. I will tell you there is one thing that is in the legislative process right now is a multi-ax rate. Um St. Louis County is the only county in in Missouri that uses it and each class
040of resident of property has its own tax rate. It makes the Hancock amendment more effective. Um residential rate is different than commercial and agriculture and personal property. that is a a real solution for taxpayers and it doesn't hurt the taxing entities but it does make the Hancock amendment more effective. Uh we can have further discussion about that at another time but that's that's something that is is a real solution for both sides um and makes sense. So Tim can I ask you one question? uh you were talking about levers we could pull but one thing we haven't talked about is if we have more growth does that help us at all get out of some of this possibility of 20 million in the hole. >> So I did figure in growth in my calculations but
041the problem with with growth and it goes back to that um you know that this revenue is still counted on your Hancock amendment calculations. So even with growth, your tax rate continues to go down because the Hancock amendment calculation assumes you're receiving all that revenue. So it continues to push down the tax rate that even new new construction is paying. So in two years after a reassessment, new houses are paying a lower tax rate than you paid two years ago. And Tim, a followup. You mentioned with the foundation formula that recommendation is not going to be solidified until during next school year. >> Is that correct? >> The recommendation is due December 1st of 26. Yes. >> But then that wouldn't take effect until the following year. >> So it would have to go through
042the legislative process in the spring of 27. >> Okay. >> Yes. Next next legislative session. So when you're [clears throat] talking about changing the way we tax classes of property, that would be a county charter amendment. >> No, it's it's state legislative process. >> So the state legislates how each county can tax. >> Mhm. >> Okay. So we would need to speak to the legislators about that. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Tim, is there any room? I've talked about this before, but I mean the the increase in costs that we as a school district are incurring because of growth. Is there any way any ability to tax new homes so that they pay for the costs that they're generating for the district and put a $10,000 tax on a new home? >> Unfortunately, we can't.
043There's no We don't have any authority to do that. And again, with this in place, it's it's kind of hard to think about, but the tax rate will continue to go down. So your tax rate will be X amount and your assessment will be, you know, whatever you paid in 2024, the tax rate for new construction will continue to go down. And so they're going to be paying on a lower amount if everything was equal. Now, your assessment's not changing, right? So your assessment and your tax rate is staying the same. So your amount you pay is staying the same. >> You're talking about the the new homes will pay lesser tax rate, but the values of the home are so much higher that their taxes are going to be more than existing. means that
044whether you're talking from the perspective of school or from the personnel because I mean I've argued that all all through these three years we talk about Hancock brings a rate down yet our taxes go up every year and it's from a school perspective. So the reason that it it does that and that goes back to that multi- rate system over a single rate system because right now what the Hancock amendment does is it it looks at that growth and in assessment and it applies it equally to all categories of of the uh property when really most of that assess assessment increase is coming from residential. So if you have a 15% in in residential that amount is total amount is being spread across all the properties and all the rates are going down instead of
045just residential going down to offset that increase where that that real property increase assessment increase is coming from. >> Are we monitoring any attempts to at abatements? >> So we try but we really have no control over that. We can fight them >> when we know about it. >> Yep. >> They don't always >> have to legally notify us if they're in our taxing district. >> They are supposed to. Yes. >> Yeah. >> I mean, I think that's as much development that's going on. I think that's kind of like a get out of jail free card for some of these people. >> Yeah. I read about a chapter 100 abatement in the paper. That was the first that we heard about it was in in the newspaper. the old fountain sports complex thing. To answer
046your question, yes, we're doing the best we can to monitor all of those things. It's hard to find out about some of them. >> Thank you. Any other discussion or questions? Appreciate you guys putting this on. Thank you. All right, we need a motion to approve the 2026 2027 academic calendar and 2026 2027 reach academic calendar as presented. >> Motion second. >> Any discussion? All right. All those in favor? >> I. Any opposed? >> Motion carries. Next, we need a motion to approve the changes in the WNEA 2024 to 2027 agreement as presented. >> Motion. >> Any discussion? >> All right. >> I have discussion item >> and I don't know if we discussed this last year when this came on the agenda and I kind of picked apart some of the things that were
047in it. Um looking at policy which grants the exclusive and sole bargaining power to the WNA in name, it names them in policy. Uh, one of my main points of contention with this is after several attempts year after year to kind of get a general ballpark of the percentage of total employees in the bargaining unit that actually pay dues to this organization. It's been a brick wall and the only reason for even asking this question is accountability. Does the WNEA represent the majority of their bargaining unit? Um, this shouldn't be a hard question to answer. We know how many people pay dues. We don't need names, just a number. Because if there is another organization within this district or even just a group of teachers that want to organize to become the sole bargaining unit,
048how would they go about that when we have one specific entity named in our policy? I'm just asking that the board look at this policy and possibly amend it going forward to have something in there that that puts a measure in place where you have to prove that you actually do have the voice of the teachers of the bargaining unit and not just their word the word of the leadership of the bar the entity. >> So I will tell you there's not a way to give you a number because dues they don't have to pay dues through payroll deduction. I find it hard to believe that an organization does not know how many members they have. >> Well, they may the NEA may know that. I'm saying as a district, I don't have that information,
049nor am I entitled to that information. They can be a part. >> Are they entitled to be the sole bargaining unit? >> Well, her policy and their agreement. >> That's what I'm saying. like if we if we put it in policy that we would like some sort of verification that they actually do speak for the majority of the staff >> or the bargaining unit, I think that would be a more fair approach to this because what if, and I'm not just picking on the WNA, what if it's any of the other um bargaining entities out there? If they don't actually have the voice of this of the people that they're representing, then it should be open to whoever does. And I'm not a label labor lawyer, so Pat, you may need to jump in here.
050Um, my layman's understanding of law is once a union establishes that they represent, then it would require somebody to come out like within the union and and try to challenge and say we're going to do six 65 whatever 6553. They remember when they went through that the the drivers union, there was a descertification process. Somebody within the union would have to say we want to have a descertification process and that would recall then that that'll trigger mechanisms within the union process. But this is all labor law related, >> right? But it's not labor law that they have to be in our policy named as the sole bargaining unit. We could have some sort of mechanism in there that requires whoever wants to be the sole bargaining unit to come to the table with a number.
051>> I think it's something we can discuss offline. I do think it's something the board would, as you've said, want to discuss. Any other discussion or questions? All right, let's take a roll. Roll call vote, please. Joanie. >> President Scott. >> I vice president Walsh. >> I. >> Dr. Dr. Hanky >> I. >> Secretary Bisenthaw >> I. >> Dr. Olsen >> I. >> Dr. We >> Director Lewis >> I. >> Motion carries. >> All right. Board member comments. Does any board members have anything they'd like to say this evening? >> David Lewis. >> Well, since you called me. [clears throat] No, just uh just the thought. I mean, I I've been following the legislation and the attempts at the state and a lot of things going on that create a lot of uncertainty, risk, and
052and unknown future things. One of the things that stands out to me that isn't being discussed. Appreciate what what Dr. T has spoke of and the real ramifications of that, but kind of handinhand with that is open enrollment. And I I just we've talked a little bit about the need to get our arms around what we're going to do. Re boundary changes, you know, all the things that are possible there. It seems to me that we need to quickly get our house in order and do realignments. We want to show what our final numbers are for schools because if we don't do that and there open enrollment passes, which I'm assuming it is, it seems like there's energy, but if not, this session next, um, we could have a huge influx of students, take up
053the spare capacity that we had talked about allocating for redistribution of our existing students. >> I'm actually glad you said that. So today was kind of the first of things that I want to start doing, which is just providing information about legislative updates. Open enrollment will absolutely be one that we will talk about in in these type of sessions where we'll here's the information. We're going to include something on our website that literally just says here's the current bills and we we'll determine like if it's if it's in committee, do we want to put it out there? If it's out on the House floor for a vote or the Senate floor for a vote because trying I don't want to overwhelm people. I mean, right now there's 68 specific bills as of December 30th that
054were assigned to the education committee. That's not all that mention education. Those are just the ones that went to the education committee. You know, the way the legislature works, you know, if it's spring break and it hasn't really gotten to the floor, it's probably not going to make it. So, I I want to make sure we're filling in on what the real things, like you said, that have energy are. Um you bring up uh redistricting that's come we're going to talk about in March like that Wednesday board meeting the the work session we're going to have a lot of discussions about everything from where we're at with facilities what we want to do there what we have financially and then where do we need to go with redistricting and I'll kind of have heat maps
055ready to go that are going to show you guys where our population spreads are at from a secondary level and from an elementary level we'll start talking about and know for everybody watching I'm not going to show you like here's proposed boundaries. That's not what I'm saying yet. What I'm doing is giving anformational here's where these heat points at. Here's how you can see and I've got a map that shows every resident within this the community that will have on a big probably on the screen that you'll be able to see where the heat maps at, where the pockets are at and and why the buildings are set up the way they are and then how do you maneuver those and start having that kind of a discussion. So definitely the work session is going
056to be something I think you're going to, you know, be interested in. And then the legislative updates, that's something that you're going to see on our website and we're going to kind of keep hitting just here's the current legislation, here's the impact it would have on schools. There's your information. >> Good. Yeah, I appreciate that because we haven't even talked about property tax, which is a whole another revenue stream that's at risk. There are like 13 different property tax bills between the House and the Senate right now and all have slightly different and a couple of them are identical. They just have different bill names. It's it's it's very interesting to watch kind of what's going on in the legislature. I I didn't realize how much I would be paying attention to that. It's it
057seems like a full-time job. It really is. I watch it a lot. I mean, there's a lot that's going to impact our school district that we need to be aware of. And that's why I really want to do a job of explaining to our community, hey, these are what's coming so you can make an informed decision on what you want. >> Any other comments? >> No. All right. So, we need a motion to adjourn open session. >> Motion. >> Roll call, please. >> President Scott. I. >> Vice President Walsh. I. >> Director Hanky. I. >> Secretary Bezenthal. Hi, >> Dr. Olsen. >> Director Way, >> Director Lewis, >> Motion carries.