001We can start the meeting in front because we got to start. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. >> Hello, Mr. Billine. Okay. >> Hello, Mr. Biline. >> All right. Call to order and pledge of allegiance. At this time, we are opening our public hearing for the final budget for 2025 2026 school year. Reviewed school district number one. Public portions of this board meeting are being recorded in accordance with district policy 1420 and section 2-3-214 MCA. By remaining in this meeting, all participants and attendees acknowledge they may appear on the recording which will be placed on the school district website for a minimum of one year from the date of the
002meeting. At this time, we will entertain any proponents for the final budget. >> We will now have a public hearing for any opponents of the final budget for the 2025 school year 2026. Nobody here. >> Okay. >> All right. At the end of the public hearing, approval of adoption of the final budget for 2025 2026 in the fixing of tax levies, Mr. Kevin Patrick. >> All right. Welcome everybody. Back the house again for the budget meeting. >> Jim's here. >> All right. So, let's see. We've got um I sent this out earlier. I don't know if everybody got it. >> They have it on their screen over here. >> Okay, perfect. >> So, this here is just the um this comes from the main pairs report. Um these are all our budgeted funds. And then
003we have this column here is what our mills are going to be. And then this is uh the amount that the district property taxes would be. So this year um our meals are going to be we have 113.46 in these budgeted funds and our debt service is going to be 28.34 and then this is just a compare this just shows uh change in mills on this slide here. So, uh, mills are going to be going up 14.47, but the thing to look at is, um, the amount of money that we're asking for is only going to be 638, uh, dollars from last year. And the reason for that is our taxable values went down. So, that causes us to have to ask for more mills. And then this is just uh graph comparing the two
004years of uh levy dollars. Um this is just the graph showing what it is uh comparison to mills. And then this is um just some historic data. And you can see uh like in 2022 um our taxable value was almost 64 million which equates to about 64,000 per mill and then it went up and we're at 83 million last year. Then it's dropped back to 75. Um, and then kind of another, this one just shows what our adopted budget for the year is. And our adopted budget is our highest amount um without a vote. We're going to we're adopting the 24,228. Um, we talked about this earlier this year kind of around election time and we could have went out for a mill levy of 139,000, but by the time we ran an election for
005no reason, spent $60,000, we decided just we'll wait till next year to do that. Any questions on that slide? Um then here just kind of a graph of uh given what the trend is for that elementary general fund. Um here's our our A and B going back to 2010. So this isn't this is not like enrollment numbers. This is uh A and B just calculated this how we calculate uh for the budget. So in pro and you can either be um like a three-year average or it can be what you had um what the greater amount is for a three-year average or what you have in that year. Right now we're we're going on three year we're using a three-year average because we get a bigger A and B. So that gets our budget up.
006Um but yeah, it's kind of interesting to see what what the enrollment has been. Um and then this is uh these are the different funding sources that make up our budget. Um so direct state aid um special education payments. So they all have their different names and then uh we have our attached bear is the base levy and then the overbase levy. Um and then one thing to highlight is uh we talked about this is the stars act. So with the stars act um and with negotiations we were able to uh meet the requirement for that. So you can see the quality educator payment. So we received double the quality educator payment. So it's a pretty big jump. Last year it was we got received almost a little over 800,000. Um this year we got
0071.6 million. So the stars act um was really good as far as giving us some some more money. Any questions on that? >> Kevin, this is Tom. Can you hear me? >> Yes. >> So just quickly, so we have to be at 62% of the district's total average salary and then by 2029 70%. So, and you may have provided this previously, but so where are we as as a district within that? I mean, obviously 62%. >> Yeah. So, this year, um, we are at the 70%. >> Oh, okay. >> So, um, we decided, you know, we might as well get to that number now while we have the money. Um, and so we are meeting the requirement of the 70%. So depending on uh I mean it's kind of a targeted number but I think
008we will we'll meet we'll have meeted met that um the next few years too. I don't really see that changing too much. So yeah we we are we're at the 70%. >> Thank you. >> And that was Judy's and Kevin's aim throughout negotiations to make sure that we get that 70% the first year. Um and then this here is just uh kind of shows um the three different categories that is how we get to what our adopted budget is. So they're made up of a fund balance reappropriated. So that's money from uh last year that we didn't spend that we're allowed to bring forward. Some of it goes to um increase your budget and then there's some funds where a portion of it might go to decrease uh the levy amount in that budget. And
009then you have non levy revenue um like for the general fund that's all the state aid. Um transportation that's state aid. Uh retirement fund that's uh the county money that we get. And then uh building reserve is a portion of what the state kicks in on our building reserve fund. Then you we have our local tax dollars. And when you add those three up, it's um gives us what our adopted budget is going to be. And then I just put this uh comparison for the fiscal year 26 compared to fiscal year 25. I have another slide later on that shows that same comparison. And then this here uh is just kind of showing there's three different categories of um like for the budget. We have uh collect tax revenue that voters have approved. Um we've
010got permissive levies that's mandated by law. This one here is the the base budget of the general fund is what that number comes from. And then these are just permissive levies um for transportation, tuition, technology, not technology, sorry. Uh all debt, building reserve, um we don't have to go to the voters for approval by that. You guys can just set the levy amount for those funds. So you can see that's just 65% of it is for voter approved. We have uh 16% that's mandated by taxes and then about 19% of our total budgeted funds is permissive. All right. So that was the elementary budget. Um, after I go through the high school, then I have uh a slide that shows kind of elementary and high school combined together with what the projected mills are going
011to be and what what we're anticipating for taxes. So, any questions on the elementary as of now? >> Can you hear okay out there, Judy? >> Oh, absolutely. We're good. Okay. So, this is the Mayfair's um first page. Uh what was sent out on um on the agenda was uh this was like on the first page for the elementary and high school. And then if you were to scroll through that, you could kind of see the detail of every fund. So, we're looking at 55.67 mills total for the high school. Um this is just change in mills of so it's going to go up 8.92 ms. Um this is a little bit different than the elementary here. We're seeing a $386,000 increase. Um we've got portion of that is overbase transportation uh bus depreciation. Then
012the tuition and the adult band. Uh the bus depreciation, we just we got a bunch of new buses, so we're depreciating them. So that's kind of why that jumped up a little bit. The activity buses in there, too. So that's kicking kicking those amounts up a little bit more than last year. >> Um and then this is just uh a graph of that same thing. This is levy dollars from 26 compared to 25. Um your mills comparison and then again here just on the score data taxable value you can see went down 9%. Um FY22 was at 72 million. Last year we were at 101 million and then it went back down to 91. um kind of something to look at is if you see our budget increase. So it's been you know 2.7 1
0132.2 to almost two and then we have 8.7 this year increase and that's the big reason contributing factors to that is we had the stars act and then we got money for the um charter school. So that's why we see a big influx um that because you can see I think yeah it's not being driven usually uh those budgets are driven by A and B but you can see our AMV is actually down from last year. Um, so our adopted budget in the high school this year is going to be the 12,862190, which is up about a little over a million dollars last year. And then you can see, yeah, this shows that big jump in 2026 here. Um, it's kind of interesting with our A and B. Back in 2016, we're at 1,319 and
014we are 1,318 and then um so yeah, this is just showing all the state funding and then our levy amounts. Um just was noting in here that um a quality educator payment we got 344,000 last year at 710 this year. And then we we received um for the Pathway Academy 364,000 of additional um direct state aid. We can see last year was we're at 4.8 eight when they were about 5.1. So those are the um some key things to look at when you're looking at those. That's the budget kind of increased quite a bit. Any questions on that? Right. Um so then this is just uh same slide. Then you got your fund balance reappropriated non- levy revenue through local dollars and then that generates our adopted budget um to the mills 56.67 uh this
015year and 46.75 last year. Um some that increase is due because of the taxable values decrease and a portion of it is we did increase uh levy dollars about 300,000 and then this is just same thing you have your voter approved taxes permissive that are mandated by law and then our permissive. So we have about 2.4 four of voter approved 1.2 of permissive about one point or 1.2 of the permissive mandated by state law about 1.4 permissive and then this is just this is just a disclaimer for the next slide. So, uh, legislative changed, uh, the way that they are calculating taxes. They changed it to a tiered system. I think anything over 400,000 has a different rate than anything under 400,000. And then also, um, one thing that I think they did that we
016can't, we don't know is I think there's different rates on primary home and secondary home. So my calculations on the on the next page I'm estimating that uh we'll see a reduction in the tax bill but I don't have all the data to make like before it was just you know pretty easy up front to make but because now there's so many different um factors that are built into that we can't uh as easily and accurately predict that as we could before they change that. So that's my disclaimer. Okay. >> Um so here's the elementary and the high school combined. Um you have our our 26 mil mills or 26 total between the two districts here at the bottom is 197.47. Last year it was 174.08. We're seeing an increase of 23 mills uh.39. Um
017our dollar amount, so um the elementary was just over $600. Then the high school is $386,000. So we're at 386815 in dollar increase that we're asking for. And then so we have FY25. So those all these numbers here are based off of what last year's um assessment values were. And then um 2026, these are based off of what the new rates are. Um not knowing if they're primary houses or whatever. This this is I think basically based on everybody that's everybody's primary. Um, so you can see that even though our taxable value went down and we're asking for more mills because of the way that they are taxing the different um home values that we I'm estimating that um like a $100,000 home would probably see like an $84 decrease in their taxes for the
018year. Um, a $300,000 would see around $184 decrease and then a 600,000 would see around $106 decrease. So, any questions on on that? And then they also like during the legislator they changed a lot. I think remember all the stuff that we used to have was like $100,000 home and a $200,000 home. Now they want us to put a 100,000 300 and uh 600,000. That'll go that'll go to the like when we're running uh we run like a levy election like on the ballot it always used to say 100,000 and 200. Now they're making us do a one three and six. That's a change, too. >> All right. So, that's that's kind of the end of the elementary and general fund budgets. Uh, now I'm just going to go into some of kind of our
019other budgets that we have. Um, just highlight a couple of things. Our tuition fund. So, the 2023 legislature, uh, was House Bill 203. they um so this was the first this is the first year that the doing payments between districts for out of district kits. So um so we had to budget in some money for that. So, we're we're anticipating 65,000 that we will pay um out of the tuition levy for um the elementary district and about 40,000 for the high school in the general fund. So, we'll pay out of here, but then other districts are going to be paying us. So, I think um just off the top of my head, we were anticipating in the elementary district of collecting about $129,000 from other districts and then we have to deposit that into um
020general fund. And then I can't remember what the the high school was and it was like maybe around 60,000. Um, and then we've got we have the tuition we pay for instate treatment or foster care placements. Um, we also get some bills for some of our students that go to detention centers. And then we have um estimated based off of uh our IEPs and um what it costs to uh educate some of these higher need students. Um, we're looking to levy 500,000 in the elementary for that and 400,000 in the high school. Any questions on that? All right. And then so then we have our flexibility fund. So usually the we haven't really seen any revenue go into the flexibility fund for a long time. Um but with the house bill 408 in 2023 um
021they had it where you for this innovative education program account so for advanced opportunity. Um this year we re we received 36,000 in the elementary and 103,000 in the high school. And this was due to uh Judy uh applied for um the innovative education program and put an application with OPI and we were approved. And so any districts that did that are seeing some additional money then it's just um yeah so the advanced opportunity a distribution is what they call it. They can be used for a number of things. Dual credit, exam fees, um let's see the cost of participating for qualifying pupils and out of district enrichment activities. So there's a number of things that we can use that money for, but it is restricted to uh those uses. >> And if you remember
022right, um trustees, it's uh it goes to, you know, we submitted our advanced opportunity strategic plan. So for anything that's listed in that plan, these funds can go towards that funding those that strategic plan and that was you guys approved that a while back. So that was part of the application process. Okay. And then we have our technology fund. Um so in the elementary we uh voted in we passed an election in 2017. We started levying in 2018. There's only one more year left on that levy. So next year we'll be able to collect another $300,000 and then that le that'll expire. So we'll have to decide what we want to do um going forward with that. So, just something to think about um in the back of your mind. Uh the high school has
023no tuition, no technology um levy, so we don't levy any dollars in the high school. Uh our debt service fund. So, this is our bond for yeast. Um I just did a cut out of what um kind of where we're at. So, we're here 2026. We have a few years it's going to start going down quite a bit. Um, but yeah, to date, this is where we're at. Um, you we do receive a debt service assistant reimbursement um because we qualify as a GTB district. So, last year we received $564,000 that um the state kicked in and so we didn't have to uh that would relieve the local taxpayers of that amount. And then the elementary minds money. I just wanted to let you guys um look at this. We're sitting at um 8.6 million
024in there. We've got um 5 million that's kind of in cash at the county and almost four five in uh investments. the investments or bonds. And then um we received our uh mine metal mines license uh payment that was 521,000 this year. And then we paid out uh 219,000 towards retiree incentives um this year in the elementary. And then this is the high school millines. There's 8.3 in there, about 4.7 in cash, and 3.4 in investments, and then um the metal mines tax money we got was 521,000 in um in there. Then I guess investment income we got was 319,000 in the elementary and 322 high school. And then we have our multi- district agreement fund. So, um, this year we put 300 300,399, um, transferred into there out of high school and then 702
025out of the, um, elementary. So, our balance after doing that, uh, we have 4.6 million in there. So last year's budget was 4.1. Um this is how we had it broken out. These were the expenses. Um budget minus the expenses. We ended up with 3.4. We collected 1.7 in revenue. and then I distributed it based off the 60,000 60% 30 and 10 um to those line items. The one thing that we did add was um in the elementary and the high school we give curriculum a budget for um adoption. And so Judy and I talked about is instead of uh trying to spend that down um we told Ron if he can save it, we'll throw it in here and then come adoption that'll help pay for some of the adoptions because they're just getting
026more expensive and more expensive. So it's hard to on an adoption year to just throw three or 400,000 into the the budget. So >> we put that line item in um so we can carry it to help on an adoption here for curriculum. >> So that's why I see that. >> Um and then so any questions on any of those budgets? So then I just did an a double A comparison and these are uh 2025 budget amounts. the last year's cuz I don't have access to their stuff yet this year. So, it's kind of interesting to see um this is total property taxes that um each district and so but we're at like 15 million. Um Belgrade is the closest behind us at 19. Then it jumps up below 27. You got Missoula at 53,
027Bman 56, and Billings at 67. So, I think you guys are doing a great job of um keeping our taxes down. Um then we have uh just tuition levy because I know last year was maybe it was last year, or was it two years ago, we kind of decided to start permissively levying that. Um, so I kind of wanted to show you guys where other school districts were. Uh, we are last year we were at 721. That's going to bump up um a little bit this year. Got Belgrade at 500,000, Goldman 583. And a lot of the other districts are in the millions. So over two million and cowsville Missoula and Billings is at 7 million. And then these are just A and B numbers compared to the other districts. And then this number doesn't
028really mean anything, but I thought it was kind of interesting and I thought it maybe would show kind of apples to apples. But what I took was the le the levy dollars spent and then divided it by the total A and B to kind of get a a levy dollar per A and B. And so we're we're at 3.4. Uh great positive great positive at 3.4. for um billings even though they they are you know have a lot of levies per student they're really only at three three,941. So um but both men they're they're like $7,319 per suit per student but that those that was just kind of and I think that's it. That's all I have. All right. Unless you guys have any questions. >> Any questions? >> Dealing in millions of dollars. Absolutely.
029Millions of >> And I know I went through that really fast. And then if you guys like if you're looking through the presentation and some and you have a question on any of it, feel free to call me. I can uh talk about whatever your question is. So, all right. >> A lot of information. >> That was a lot of information. >> Thank you, um um Kevin, that was awesome. And I appreciate the work, you know, the work that goes into all of that. And it's um over a whole year. So, thank you so much. And um we're lucky to have him. So, thank you. >> Are you ready for the next step, Mr. Patrick? resolutions. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Next item on our agenda is the approval of the budget resolution for the
030elementary fiscal year 26. Resolution fixing the tax levy for various funds of the B County elementary district number one at a rate which will raise the amount set out in the final budget as the amount necessary to be raised by tax levy for each fund fiscal year 2025 and 2026 and providing for an effective date herein. Be it resolved that the school board of trustees of debut school district number one in section one the tax levy necessary to raise the amount of each fund is set out in the final budget of but county elementary school district and hereby fixed at the following millillage with the total number of mill levies being in the elementary 141.80 80. >> I need a motion from trustees. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> It has been moved
031and seconded. Do trustees have any questions to Mr. Patrick regarding the elementary school board of trustees resolution for budget. Hearing none. All those all those approve. All those who approve, please say I. >> I. >> On both sides. >> All those opposed. Motion passes. Moving on to the next one, which is the school board of trustees resolution for the high school fiscal year 2025 26. A resolution for the fixing of tax levies for the various funds of the B County High School District number one at a rate which will raise the amount set out in the final budget as the amount necessary to be raised by tax levy for each fund for fiscal year 2526 and providing an effective date herein. Be it resolved by the school board of trustees of the B school district
032number one. Tax levy necessary to raise the amount of each fund is set out in the final budget for county high school district number one is hereby fixed at the following rate of millage. Total number of mills for the high school fund is 55.67. Motion from trustees to approval. >> Is there a second? Second. >> It has been moved and seconded. Do trustees have any questions to Mr. Patrick regarding the high school resolution for budget? >> Hearing none. All those in favor, please say I. >> I say I. >> All those opposed. Motion passes. At this time, anyone wishing to speak on any item not on the agenda may step forward now. Please identify yourself before you begin. I must caution anyone wishing to speak. You may not discuss personnel issues, student issues, or pending
033litigation during the time. Due to time constraints, each speaker will be allowed three minutes. Do we have any public comment on items not on the agenda? Seeing none, move to adjourn this first meeting. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Has been moved and second. All those in favor of adjournment for the first meeting, please say I. >> I. >> All those opposed? Motion passes. >> All right. >> Um, I'd like to call to order for our special meeting regarding Montana School Boards Association. Again, the public portions of the board meeting are being recorded in accordance with district policy 1420 and section 2-3-214 MCA. By remaining in this meeting, all participants and attendees knowledge acknowledge they may appear on the recording which will be placed on the school district's website for minion a minimum
034of one year from the date of the meeting. What we have here is uh the 2025 Montana school board's membership electronic vote. Dear members, given our lack of registrations to meet our forum requirements, the 2025 annual meeting in June was cancelled. Therefore, we are conducting the necessary business of the association at this time via electronic means pursuant to MTSBA bylaws. Please cast your votes on behalf of your board of trustees on the following items that come as a seconded motion from the Montana school boards of directors. All right. First one, confirmation of the Montana School Boards Association current principles and guidelines. Let me read number three. Our school district three. I got it. >> Please indicate whether your school district supports or opposes the Montana School Boards Association principles and guidelines as presented. This is
035a yes or a no vote. That's all it is. Okay. Our school district approves the Montana school board principles and guidelines as presented. Our school opposes the Montana principles and guidelines. Our school abstains from voting on this issue. All right. How many people vote for approval? One, two, three. Tom. >> Uh Tom votes to approve you. >> Okay. Michael. >> Yes. >> Sure. That's a yes. All right. Please indicate whether your school supports or opposes the foundational elements of the Montana school boards and so organizational DA DNA as presented. Again, the three approves, opposes, abstainates. How many people approve the foundational elements of Montana School Boards Association? >> Daddy and Kathy Tom. Uh, Tom votes to approve. >> I can't hear. >> We can't hear you. That'll be a little louder. >> Tom votes. Tom
036votes to approve. Sorry. >> Thank you, Michael. >> No. All right. >> Do I have to put numbers? Oh, well, that's a >> Please indicate whether your school district supports or opposes the FY27 Dues revenue estimate. You are not voting on your dues, rather the dues revenue estimate that is calculated pursuant to the member adopted Montana school bylaws. Ian approves, opposes, abstates. Paddyy approved. Kathy approved. Michael, >> no. Okay. And Tom, uh, Tom votes to approve. Okay. Please indicate whether your school district supports or opposes the nomination of Rick Cummings, the region number five director and Cascade trustee as the Montana school boards association presidentelect and unanimously nominated by this Montana school board of directors. Approves, opposes, abstains. Patty approved. Kathy Bond >> approve. Tom goes to approve >> and approve. Michael >> approve. >>
037Thank you. Please indicate whether your school district supports or approves the nomination of Jennifer Hoffman, Montana Municipal Director for Billings Public School is the Montana School Boards Association vice president and again unanimously uh nominated by the board of directors. >> Daddy approve. >> Approve. Kathy, >> yes. Tom votes to approve. Tom votes to approve. >> Thank you, Michael. Thank you. And approve. All right, I put my name on it and we are done. All right, here we go. At this time, I would like to entertain a motion to adjurnn. Addie's moved. Second and moved and seconded. All those in favor of German, please say I. >> I. All those opposed. Motion passes. Thank you, Tom. >> Thank you. >> Thanks, folks. >> Thanks everybody. Such a Wednesday we have for you, right? >> Yeah. Thanks,
038Judy. >> Thank you, everybody. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. >> The internet, you found us.