001Lor whenever you're ready give him the thumbs up and okay so he can that was a thumbs up to Matt for combing his hair um you can have a thumbs up now too I call to order the asgo community Unit School District 308 Board of Education meeting can I have a roll call please Mr Bowman here Mrs Dole here Mrs croner here Mr Lightfoot present Miss Morgan here Mrs moer here Mrs Swanson here please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance i al to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivis andice as we have no public comment we'll go to item 5.1 board member comments um who would like to [Music] begin Tony um I just want to say say that you
002know some of the comments I've gotten from people in the community is that we need to communicate more about things so I wish I could be more specific but I think in general it's just there's anything that we know about that's going on that we could express at a board meeting that we should express it at a board meeting so it could be anything from our committee work to bigger issues that are going on in the district as far as we can comment on those things and um kind of a renewal to elucidate things because we're board members and because we know that people in the community want might want to know about them and I think that's a good valid concern that I've heard in a couple letters and in a couple other places
003so I think that all of us just have to take that on and say there's anything that we haven't been talking about that we run across and we're going through all of our board business we should bring it up and talk about it and do it at the right time either board comments or when that particular subject comes across the agenda no Brent I'll go I got a good one for you uh remind your children that there are 10 days of school left 11 if you count that last day right which I don't know if that's a half day or not I'm gonna just not say that but um I did because I also teach and I also have received my first two please help save me emails because that happens so I think first
004of all parents you should remind your kids that their grade counts it it does count the governor's not going to forgive your semester your grade is your grade right the school district the school board I don't think any of us have even had the conversation about forgiving any so make sure that you keep an eye on your studies and then secondly um contact your teachers right so parents of yeah I have a Junior High kid who I don't always contact teachers although I did today because I got so many emails but um so just remember to contact your teachers unless you're in high school and if you're in high school kids you this is a really good chance for you to take some ownership and to contact your own teachers and for you to say
005hey you know what I screwed up or I had to work or there's all kinds of situations that we don't understand right now some of the kids are struggling mentally some of them are families are struggling so I think it was a wakeup call to me that teachers at the very beginning of this um we asked the community for Grace so I think we need to remember to do that when we're talking to these kids 10 days out nothing for me no I I'll just tag on to that a little bit so I I've gotten a couple of messages from from folks in the community one was sending I don't know if anybody else just saw it there was an article talking about um a school district I think in in the state of Arizona
006where something like 30% of the kids were getting failing grades and in a typical year it was 8% I don't think that's the case in our district I hope I hope it sure is not but to to tag on to what Ally is saying you know um when I hear kids issuing frustrations my response is always have you talked to your teacher have you emailed your teacher um so hopefully that's happening at the parent level at the student level and we're making do as best we can we also get we all get notes from members of the community that are you know demanding we return to school tomorrow um we all know we have a plan in place we have a goal in place and we will get there as soon as we can no
007member of this board or the board collectively cannot W wave a magic wand and make it happen tomorrow as much as we want it to um but I think we all see some light at the end of the tunnel and uh I know this is the last meeting of the year so um I I'm I think I I speak for everyone when I say say we're looking forward to 2021 I I'll piggy back on what Brent said in and I truly believe that every person in this room every teacher every administrator every person at the District administration we all want our students and teachers to be back in the classroom I I don't think that there is anyone who believes that virtual learning is ideal learning environment for the vast majority of students and but
008at the same time we have to abide by the restrictions that are put upon us right now and follow the guidelines from the state and federal governments and as much as we maybe don't want to do that it's not about what we want to do it's what we have to do right now so I too am very very hopeful that the new calendar year will bring our be able to bring our students back into the classroom I know that's where my kids want to be I don't think they ever thought that they would say I want to go to school um but they do so God bless all these teachers and administrators who are working really hard to make the best of this situation and from what I have seen and heard throughout the community
009the vast majority of them are doing a fantastic job and have really adapted well and um are doing their best to help kids to learn and it's not perfect but I think they're doing a great job Heather Matt anything to add Matt so I will just add in that we were able to have um at the end of last week uh we were invited to uh go to Village Hall to meet with the asigo mayor and our village administrator in asigo and they wanted to share with us that there is development that's occurring and so I wanted to thank them for taking that opportunity we're going to have um an opportunity to invite some of our various Village administrators and City administrators to come talk about this in the new year I know it seems
010a little off topic when we're talking about covid but the reality is building is still happening um homes are still being built and sold and um this is one of the things that that we will have an opportunity to look at so that was the one part the second part was that I I want to kind of piggyback also off of what Ally had been saying about having some Grace for the kids this is this is really hard for us as adults this is really really hard for the kids to to accept the reality of of grades meaning something and I I guess I would just say to all of our parents and all of our kids that you're doing fine you're you're doing you're doing the best that you can at least I hope
011you are and that the grades they count but please reach out there are a lot of people that are there to help you there is nothing to be ashamed of in asking for help even if you're not someone who's ever had to ask for help before that's okay it's it's there it's there for you if you need it parents there is help for you if if you're struggling with what to do or just how to get through the next Christmas break please reach out to your schools we are here to help the kids we are here to help you as parents and also to our staff the same this is not easier on on you to watch all these kids and and to see the struggles and not be able to help and if you're
012struggling please reach out to this to your administrators to your chain of command and ask for help um that's something I think that is becoming more clear conversations with parents over the last couple weeks is that this is a very stressful time in general and this year especially so if you need something that you cannot figure out how to get for yourself and or you just need help please ask please ask the school please don't feel ashamed to reach out so that's all I want to add and Y 2021 is sort of okay so board committee reports 5.2 [Music] which came first Equity or the teaching or last I think alphabetical uh I think we have Equity first on the agenda here okay oh it's alphabetical I do like things in alphabetical order so Tony
013do you want me to fill in and just you can hop fill in with whatever I miss so we had our Equity advisory committee meeting and we had asked them to take a look at the budget cut presentation that we had received as a board and specifically sorry having pronunciation problems asked them to look at those in the light of how that would um affect Equity within our district for our students as well as our teachers and staff and really there there is no choice in there that would not affect equity in one way shape or form um both for students and for staff there were concerns about morale there were concerns about um stress to families if we're cutting activities in buildings there's concern [Music] um with um eliminating Sports and activities how how
014that would be a huge impact emotionally and and especially on those who are maybe economically disadvantaged um but also reduction in staff would have a major impact their concerns were with behavior response um I mean it's just difficult there there is no decision that's easy or quick and I think that was recognized in in a lot of the comments that we received um from our committee and we really appreciated that there's a lot of participation and um a lot of great points that were brought up by a variety of different members of the committee and um I think they all recognize that we're in a difficult position and that you know no matter what we do we're going to have an impact somehow on students and certainly staff um but we appreciated all of their
015comments and input and I'm sure our administrators who were there as well um took all that in did I what you is I think you got it I think that the people that were concerned about the activities and the clubs and things like that that was one of the biggest concerns that I heard heard at the equity meeting that those things mean a lot to them or meant to something to them as people in their past and to student students in the future specifically the thing that came up about buildings was are there buildings where maybe you have a certain demographic but then you also have special ad house there and what's that going to do so people were bringing up very good concerns that were specific about like you have to look at the
016building in all these different ways to make sure that if you closed a building those things would be part of the formula not just what the demographer has to say about all nobody's going in that direction so that was good input and then um you know Staffing in the end nobody wants cuts to anything but I think people understand and you know I have said at every meeting I've been a part of that this is going to be a brutal process because it's a lot of money and we don't have anything left to cut so it's not going to be uh great and so my concern is just like I said about communication we need to let people know this is not going to go well this is not it might go well but it's
017a horrible scenario to have to play through so um being at these meetings like hearing what people are saying it helps put some guidelines on a painful process that's what I would say right and as far as communication goes hopefully the community can can see that we are looking for input on these um proposals from members of the community and we do want to hear right what they have to say and we do want to get their input yeah we don't take any of it genuinely no matter what anybody thinks who might be watching the board does want to hear from the community and we know that that's who we represent and we are listening and we are processing and sometimes the things that you say might not seem like they're getting through but they
018are and people are trying to make that into something positive and as uh as as we want to salvage as much as as possible in this process thank you sounds like a good meeting any kind of thoughts as to where they ended up or are you saving that for when we discussed that a little bit later there were no conclusions as far as which one as far as I could tell there was no solid conclusion as to this or that or that it was just these are the the guidelines or the things you might want to think about if you did this okay thank you I would agree there was no Direction particular necessarily no direction on like yes cut all of it from this it was definitely more of like if you can take
019pieces here and there and kind of balance it out a little bit that would maybe yeah be the best of a bad situation I guess thank you for that report finance and Facilities sure so uh similar to what U diversity and and Equity went through we we went um uh reviewed all of the financial documents that the board had seen uh previous to the meeting um took took the folks through that um answered questions as best we could and then we you know attempted to to PLL and get some insight uh from the members of of the committee and uh I'll I'll jump to the ending first because we got to get there I think the consensus and Ruth chime in here um the consensus was along the lines of what we've just been saying
020don't like it understand it has to happen um it seems like there is a consensus for trying to take uh or realize savings from each of the three buckets although it was interesting I don't know if you noticed this Ruth um there are some members of the community that said or the committee that said well I really don't like this but I think taking some from each of the three buckets probably makes most sense so even folks that you know were were kind of opposed to the idea of of potenti closing a building realized that if we kind of equal things out that's probably better than trying to take all the money from one bucket or two of the buckets is that yeah I would agree it was definitely I felt like um overall I
021remember kind of writing down like a little poll and really there was no person who said take everything from this just do this one thing it was for sure um if you could again if you could spread it out that that would be there was plenty of like I don't like this because we don't like any of it right but I apologize I'm not trying to it was a good meeting though I feel like there was a lot of great questions that were asked and we were able to clarify some things there was concern like it's 10% why is it 10% and able to clarify like it's it's 10 because we asked to see what would 10% look like not because we're cutting the full 10 so we were we able to clarify a few
022things like that like we wanted to what would it look like if we cut all Athletics and activities it's not because we're doing that it's because we need to see what would that look like with from a number standpoint so I think that really help like people were kind of on edge until we were able to clarify that a little bit more as to why we were looking at those numbers is so we can see the big picture to get to where we need to be and and I I do want to take a half second to to really thank Christie um because I felt that the way that some of those numbers were laid out made probably more s and this isn't a criticism just I think it made more sense than some of
023the numbers we' looked at in in years past when we started trying to answer the question what does Sports cost and that elicited at our meeting some questions from parents who have younger children they haven't been exposed uh to the sports programs that we have here in 308 and just helping walk them through well you know why is high school sports a 10 times order of magnitude to Junior High School well because of the types of sports that are off offer the number of kids participating and all these things and on and on on so I I I just wanted to take a minute to to thank Christie because I think it's it makes a lot more sense to folks who are mostly Layman when they're able to see oh this is what salaries are
024this is what the expenses are this is what transportation is in this section that's where the cost is going because I think I think we kind of recall when we raised Sports fees before and there was this incorrect thought in the community that all that money we were raising was going into the classroom and it wasn't really going to sports because they didn't comprehend no fees only cover about a quarter of the cost of the stiens for the coaches so and that was just the stiens yeah right thank you any the consensus there also was try to spread same as the Y okay and teaching and learning so um we had our teaching and learning committee meeting on um November 30th um uh Mrs Tyler did the the presentation for our committee as well which
025I think I'll just Echo what others have said that I think it was um helpful um for it was it was helpful for um our committee members to be able to ask the ask a lot of questions a lot of clarifying questions and get that information um uh shared with them you know much of the discussion wasn't focused so much around the pros and cons of the three areas that we were looking at because similar similarly um you know we know this is really really really tough and none of them are super great options um but more um we did spend more time answering some questions hearing and exploring some considerations that the committee had you know for us um many that would fall into maybe those you know categories that we looked at some
026maybe that didn't um you know there was some discussion around you know looking at um some additional kind of operations Cuts percentages across the board some of that idea of the belt tightening measures um that's something that you know came up for us a lot of talk around the staff cuts um a lot of questions there um very again very similar to why why 10% or why this why this big number um and we were able to give some context around that also though you know that brings up the question well what staff who you must have somebody in mind there must be and we were able to you know again provide that context um around that that it gives us an um it it provides a picture for for all of us um to
027know you know what our costs are and what things kind of look like so um you know some some discussion around you know when you're think when we're thinking about Cuts did this does this take into account some of the attrition that we know we have lower enrollment this year we also know we're just kind of facing some lower enrollment what is the attrition piece look like um so that was you know interesting and Faith was able to share some information with us there um we you know it was a somber it was a very somber tone you know to the meeting um we're talking about some pretty stuff tough stuff um some information was shared I think that morale is pretty low this is hard stuff teaching in a pandemic um managing in a
028pandemic um is hard virtual learning is really hard facing major budget cuts is really really hard so none of these were fabulous you know it wasn't fun to explore a lot of these different things that being said you know we know this is hard and the burden will fall on our teachers and our staff and our kids um and families will feel the impact whatever we can do as a board to keep the tone um positive appropriate hopeful but not like this toxic positivity where everything's going to be okay no matter what we do we know that this is going to have an impact let's be honest about what we know that impact may be and how we can mitigate some of those efforts so that was um definitely a big you know big piece
029as we talked about staff cuts and some of that piece we talked a lot about about um you know recruitment efforts and what this kind of looks like um for um you know for recruiting um staff you know in the future if we're really on such wobbly legs and and how to you know how that's going to impact us so um the meeting certainly ended with a lot of appreciation um for our teachers and our administrators and our staff um because um we have a number of those you know people that sit on our committee we certainly and we had our you know presenters there and um it's clear that a lot of work has gone into um I don't know you know this year this job um and then these discussions so you know
030um a lot of appreciation you know was was shared for for everybody who's doing a really tough work so um again you know we so we didn't end on any poll of what's one way or the other um but um there was a lot of interest in exploring you know how what we can do to you know minimize the impact on our students and on the classroom and um minimize impact on our most vulnerable students um and you know how how we can move forward in that vein Tony yeah I think you know I was waiting for you to get to the vulnerable groups because that was a big point was that as we go through these cuts it should be stting from places where it is either luxury education extra education or things that
031you don't need to graduate and then it goes down from there and and then you go to the end where you're you're targeting kids who either have reading issues kids who are second language Learners kids who are def heart of hearing kids who well they would be special in or kids who are struggling in school that would be the last place that you would touch and anything that relates to that would be the last place that you would touch as as far as budget cuts um and just to let people know because that came up with teaching and learning was that people are thinking that we have like a list of names of who we're cutting or who we're getting rid of and that's not how board work works we don't name names we don't
032pick people what we do as a board is we recommend a certain amount of of financial savings that we're going to have to do or we say a certain percentage right and then from that those decisions are processed by people who are in a position to look at the whole organization and say this is who we might have to let go and I just want people to know too that as we do that we're trying to be courteous to do this as early as possible so that we can send out the notices and things like that and make sure that people know as soon as they are supposed to know by their contract that they are going to be part of that process um I think you know we did a good talk about attrition
033and how Ken has been giving us very good uh Ken Miller from HR has been giving us really good numbers as far as these are the people who are leaving or these are the people who are close to retirement um we have been doing that for a long time and I think more than ever that I've ever seen in this District we're keeping track of how much are we saving on people who are leaving and how much you know uh do different things cost us that we could maybe save money on you know when when it relates to that huge piece of our expenses which is uh personnel so all of that is something that I'm communicating now because of the things that I've been hearing from people is that they want to understand these
034things and one of the things I just say again to everybody is the board does not micromanage or should not micromanage the board is supposed to be giving General big picture guidance and not you know creating any lists or any detailed uh forms but we can we can look at a lot of those things that people brought up at the meeting and see if there's anything there as far as savings so that the cuts are less painful we can do that thank you 5.3 superintendence report well good evening board I have a few items I'd like to share with you this evening uh this past Friday night we held our second date for hosting the food pantry here in asgo uh this was our first time to do it at the old trer facility I
035had the opportunity to stop by and uh what I saw was a very impressive operation I'm told we provided food to over 200 people that night and everything went very well so I'd like to thank all the workers all the organizers all the volunteers uh that were all over there it was a it's very important work and it was very well done very well done um since our last board meeting i' we've had the opportunity to be working on our plan to mitigate the deficit uh that was presented to you on November 16th the conversations are going well and we do look forward to presenting the board in our plan in January uh We've also been working on our return to in-person learning plan and what that will look like and uh how we'll be
036able to implement that in the second semester and that's an informational item for later uh in this evening so I'll talk more about that then and tonight is our last night of 20 our last meeting of 2020 which means it's our last meeting uh prior to going on winter break um I don't have to tell anybody that 2020 has been a very challenging year a year like no other but what I would like to say is I would like to say thank you to all the teachers the staff our administrators and all their good work this past year everyone has really stepped up to the challenge and I think we' put I think we've provided the best experience that we can for our kids and I'm very proud of our our school district and what
037we've accomplished um and I'd also like to thank you as the board for allowing my team and I the ability to lead and guide the district during these unprecedented times and as we approach the winter break I hope that everyone's able to take some time to relax uh spend time with their family their loved ones and hope everyone has a happy healthy and uh safe holiday season that's my report for this evening thank you item six consent agenda does anyone have any questions can I have a motion to approve please I make a motion to approve all items under consent including 6.1 minutes from the November 16th 2020 Board of Education meeting open and close sessions and 6.2 to acknowledge the foiler request received by the district second Mrs morer I Mr Lightfoot I Mrs
038croner I Mr Bowman hi Mrs Swanson hi Mrs Dole hi Miss Morgan hi motion passes 70 item s information item 7.1 is financial statements does the board have any questions as to what's been presented this [Music] evening hearing none item 7.2 is an update on our return to in-person learning plan so uh tonight I wanted to give the board an update on where we're at with our planning and implementation of a hybrid learning plan for the upcoming future our team has been meeting regularly to put together a new phased in plan for when we are able to start bringing our students back to school in the hybrid model the board has previously approved as we've all witnessed in recent weeks the positivity rate in our area and the number of new cases per 100,000 have
039remained very high on December 2nd Illinois experienced the single highest number of deaths in a single day since the onset of the pandemic and as you all know the governor has issued a statement earlier last week that our state will be staying in tier three mitigation probably throughout the end of this month um the governor's also indicated a widely available vaccine could begin dist distribution in Illinois in the very near future with prioritization beginning with healthcare workers First Responders and long-term facility care uh workers so in the immediate future meaning in January uh we know a vaccine will not help us in regards to bringing our students back in any type of expedited fashion um we all as it was mentioned earlier we all have the same want and same desire to bring our kids
040back to our buildings and but we also need to be cogent of the metrics and continue to follow the science um so with that said we are in the process of finalizing a plan to phase our students back to in-person learning utilizing the hybrid model with the emphasis being placed in our neediest and youngest students first uh before we go on winter break we will be communicating that phase uh in hybrid re-entry plan to staff and students our hybrid implementation plan will start with bringing our general education and special education um Elementary and early childhood programs back in January and followed by our second students just as we had previously planned with the goal of faing all of our students in the hybrid model by the early February the return plan will depend on the
041metrics for our area if our metrics are the same or similar to what they now are currently are now in January uh we will continue in our current remote plan until that changes but if this were to be the case we will allow we will inform parents uh within at least at least a week in advance hopefully more than that as I stated a few minutes ago the row out uh of the phase and plan will be communicated um prior to winter break it's subject to change depending on the metrics at the beginning of January um so with that what questions does the board have for us in regards to this item for this evening know I just said a lot but it was H informational item first I'd like to just highlight one thing
042that I heard you say that I I really appreciate as a parent and I'm I I hope that our parents can at least note that there will be at least one week notice um I know that in several surrounding school districts that hasn't been able to be the case um and I know that that's been a priority of yours is to give parents as much notice as they can to rearrange things so I appreciate you mentioning that um so that we can know to expect at least one week notice very good just just for a little Clarity um I think the last time we discussed this topic um the we were planning for our secondary students Junior High and high school students to return January I think it was the 11th with sixth grade and
043nth graders going back a day or two earlier for some orientation in their buildings that they've never been in before um So currently it is most likely that they will not be going back January 11th correct because we're going to be bringing hopefully our early child and elementary students back at the beginning of January and then phased in means a week or so in between those different grade level groups correct yes okay all right if there are no other questions uh item 7.3 is an update on our five-year projections um so I'm going to let Christie uh go ahead and take us through the uh updated projections thank you excuse me I have for you tonight updated projections with two scenarios when projections were presented in November fiscal year 20 fund balances were not available
044at that time therefore that projection model was pointing to a previous year's fund balance uh since then I have received a draft audit with fiscal year 20 ending fund balances and I'm calling this a draft as the remaining work on the audit centers on the narrative portion not on Final revenue and expense numbers so the fiscal year 20 ending fund balances came in much more favorable than anticipated which is brought forward into future fund balances and I know that's very difficult to see but our ending fiscal year 20 fund balance was uh 20 just about $22.9 million um so that is in excuse me fiscal year 21 the budget column um and I just want to point out the budget column for fiscal year 21 does include that 5 uh two 5.26 million deficit however
045um that was built on the assumption that students would be back in school early November we do expect that deficit to decrease given continued savings uh in PPE supplies Transportation substitute C us uh unfilled vacancies Etc and those are estimated about 400,000 per month so this projection um that's showing here assumes uh evidence-based funding would begin increasing again in fiscal year 23 and does not include any reductions in in the budget so you can see that the deficit does carry into fiscal year 24 with a uh Surplus budget beginning in fiscal year 25 at the end of The Five-Year projection so in fiscal year 26 we would be um our ending fund balance would be estimated to be about 12.56 million chrisy can I just ask a quick question sure as you mentioned that these
046are updated numbers and am I recalling correctly that on the six our November 16th meeting we were projecting a negative overall fund balance by fiscal year I think that was fiscal year 24 24 if we did not make any cuts and so now we're not showing a negative fund balance I mean it's not very far away from no that but okay I just wanted to clarify that can I ask a question too did you say you're assuming evidence-based funding increases in fiscal year 23 beginning in fiscal year 23 so evidence-based funding would be flat again next year so can we run it flat for a couple of years assuming that the impact from covid on the state is going to affect more like I I mean I can appreciate that we are hoping that it
047increases but I think at the point that we're at at a school district I don't think that we can assume any increases I would say for the next four or five years from the state yep I can do that christe for clarification so I think what you just said is with the revised number because of the additional um or a higher yearend balance for 2020 you're now projecting 5.2 but that is through November as far as what we're spending on PP and additional costs so 5.2 is the deficit for this current fiscal year okay in the in the adopted budget the 22 million was the ending fund balance for fiscal year last fiscal year we are expecting that deficit to be lower than 5.2 due to the savings for PPE substitutes and so on did
048you say it was 400,000 per month or you think just around 400,000 yep so because the month of December [Music] were remote should we be adding another or removing another 400,000 from this deficit so at some um my next step will be to put some of those assumptions in now that we will we know we will be closed for at least half a year and then to bring those back so to to kind of fudge the fiscal year 21 budget numbers to be more realistic to what the year is playing out to be does this um I'm sorry you weren't done with your presentation I got lost in the questions I just wanted to make sure I wanted to ask if this changes what your recommendation would be as we're looking at um these budget
049cuts on what we should be looking at as a target number so I think that goes to the next slide so switch over to that one and this is again um assuming evidence-based funding in fiscal year 23 it would increase then but then it also includes a four million reduction $4 million reduction in expenses in fiscal year 22 so therefore with that budget reduction next fiscal year the deficit is 1.8 million so we have one more year of deficit spending and then beginning in fiscal year 23 is when we begin to see Surplus budgets going forward and if we didn't receive evidence-based funding as allly had asked before what I mean these are Surplus budgets but it would be it looks like if we didn't get the increase we might be looking at one further
050year of deficit but then even if we didn't receive the increase it would stay about zero balance baned not Surplus or deficit and then maybe do that so is that am I taking the right understanding from that so if we did not receive um an increase in evidence-based funding in fiscal year 23 and 24 those would be deficit budgets uh depending on what that increase would be and if it began again in 25 that may be a Sur budget however that will impact the bottom yellow line your ending fund balance but I'm seeing this as an ending fund balance projected in five years of 33 million as that's correct yes with with A4 million million cut in fiscal year 22 evidence-based funding returns in fiscal year 23 so I just want to make sure I'm
051really really really getting this how I mean it in my head yep um when you say a 4 million reduction and we're talking about a 4 million reduction in fiscal year 2020 are we talking about a $4 million reduction that year that would be continued each year yes at four million lower or four million and then we could go back to the higher budget no a $4 million reduction that would continue every fiscal year going forward much like the budget reductions the board has done in the past glor I think it's important to carry over what Alli suggested our district has not received funding more often than it has we've only had a few years of positive evidence-based funding I think it would beho us to move forward with the uh projections that it's going
052to be flat funding from the state moving forward I I would even go the full fiveyear projections I think we need to focus on what how bad it could be versus then hopefully in three years it's going to get better um I it's we're we're project five years out we have to project that things are going to be status quo there are a lot of entities a lot of governmental bodies a lot of people who are expecting to get money rescue money from the state when the state doesn't have rescue money to to disperse so I would be really hesitant of looking at a five-year projection that includes any increase from the state of Illinois so assuming that which is a very good point preparing for the worst hoping for the best of course um
053if we did not have that so I'm just looking at the Surplus deficit line okay the increase that you what is the increase that you budget each year right now from for evidence-based funding yeah what increased your budget right around 4.3 million it does decrease every year but if it's if we just don't have it at all is it reasonable to just subtract 4.7 million from that yellow Surplus 4.3 million sorry from that Surplus deficit line yes so in five years instead of 7.7 Surplus assuming all things remain with a $4 million reduction and no increase to evidence-based funding it would be reasonable to say that that would be just roughly 3.3 as a surplus which would help do what we want to do of moving toward increasing our Reserve because will have brought it
054down I'm sorry in previous years so if you're looking at the Surplus deficit Line This it would be negative in 2023 you would subtract 4.3 basically from all these numbers right so then in 2025 and 2026 it would go correct itself kind of and be positive however we wouldn't be looking at that 33 million because you're looking at the beginning fund balance line no I'm not I'm looking at the Surplus deficit it says 9,532 wait for which year are you looking surus the $4 million reduction so you would take oh I'm sorry I'm on the wrong but what on my screen I'm looking at the wrong oh are you looking at the do nothing okay gotcha there we go Okay so yes you would begin to see a positive a surplus in fiscal year 25
055okay so we would have four years with a $4 million reduction assuming zero evidence-based funding increase we'd be looking at bringing our be uh projected end balance basically so you would down to about 16 million or excuse me that's correct yeah 16 million at the end of 2026 uh one basically cut it in a half but you're running a deficit budget for five oh yeah no I'm not saying that that makes it better I'm just making sure I understand where we're looking at it with four million right so you would reduce the 33.376891 this including this year including this year well we already know this current year we're not there is no increase and I think Matt I think Matt and Ally are right I don't think it's realistic to expect that I think on
056the federal level there might be trouble and I think definitely 100% on the state level there's going to be trouble so I don't see how it helps us when we're in precarious situation to pretend like we're getting $4 million that we're not going to get I think it's I think it's important too that when we start considering cuts and you know everybody's talking about taking a little bit from each pot but I think it's I think it's important to look at a number that doesn't have figures in it where we go oh crap now we got to cut more stuff okay do you know what I mean yep like we know that the states there's nobody's GNA save us easier to add back yeah and I know that we're saying that about the three pots
057being cut evenly I just want to say right up up front I'm not for that and I don't think some people in the community are for that so that's one of the options that yeah it's one of the options that we can entertain as a board but I I'm not going to entertain activities being cut because I went from being a board member who thought that that was a good idea in the early days of being on the board thinking oh they'll figure out how to be on the Travel team or something but I firmly over the experience that I've had in this time I've been on the board feel like that is an essential ingredient of school and so activities and clubs to me have to stay um so it might have to be
058operations staff and uh the closing the school I don't see that as being a long-term solution if we're going to do it and keep it cut I don't see that I don't see that happening I I have a question um so we are asking for these some other projections um assuming you know maybe for the the next five years that we will receive that we will not receive any additional evidence-based funds does that which I think is good and helpful information and probably realistic um but does that change does I'm for for everybody who as we're asking for that are we does that change our number because our next meeting is in January and they're you know they're working I think off of the the five4 to five million that's where I was heading with
059this yes right okay so yeah I think I think it would um is just my thought I don't I guess I while I think that information is helpful and important I I kind of assumed that um a couple weeks ago November 16 you know at our November six 16th meeting I think we all thought well I I thought assuming an increase you know in FY 23 back to you know ebf it was is was not realistic and I mean I know that the number is around 4 million and so I've you know been doing that calculation in my head so I guess um I don't think that this is all I guess I don't think that this is all new information um because we've had we know what ebf is we know that it's unsteady
060so um yeah no I'm interested to hear what the other board members think I I will tell you it doesn't really change my target number because this was kind of what was in my head was the a couple a couple weeks ago but yeah no the four uh the four million what was was it what was what was in your head the F what when I voted on five yeah sorry when I voted on five so what they had presented last time had been what we have now um they've taken out the projection of getting ebf next year right and gone with just that so now some board members are now asking to project that out further without e right so that's the one change the main change here is the audited numbers are better
061than we'd thought by a fair bit yes yeah I understand um so you know if we're going to look at a reduction based on the same parameters that we looked at Last Time 4 million looks to be what would still get us to a healthy balance if we're not going to look at having any increase to ebf it it might be higher than five for some board member if we want to use that as the premise that we're working off of and and and maybe we don't have a majority of board members that want to use that as a premise so I would suggest that what we do first is would we like to be working under the assumption that ebf will not increase at all over the next five years and ask Christie to
062change again this projection to be that um at at some point we need to accept the projection as the best we can do right now we know that anything past two three years is very hard to track here too um so I guess I would just ask that if there's any other changes to the projections we're going to ask for that today be the day that we ask for them because we we didn't ask for this at our last meeting and I just want to make sure that we aren't unfortunately postponing further than necessary we're asking to use and not that it's not good information because it totally is but let's make sure that we give all the asks because when we do come back to discuss this on January 11th we do have some
063hard decisions to make and we want to make sure that we have um no outstanding wishes for what we would like to see on this right so I agree with you Lori I think that we don't really I mean you're free to speak for whether you want those projections or not Al but the idea is if you can just imagine what the difference would be now and then we agree to work with a different number based on knowing or based on most of us thinking that um ebf is not coming then we can start the discussion right if we don't that's kind of where I'm heading with this is I don't want to I don't want to bog down um in projections that may or may not be accurate in six years as they often
064are or not um just depending on what happens but to use that as a tool rather than the end goal and the tool being what we need to have in our heads as board members to decide what number do we as a board want to agree to cut so that when we discuss on January 11th these big decisions and these big Pathways and pots and all the different ways to describe it that we are not beginning from square one again and asking them to then create something else especially in the middle of reopening at the same time and we cannot delay the process because we have things that we need to you know we need to do the cuts and then put out the notices and do all that stuff so it's not as if
065and I don't think you're saying that right Al like you don't need six years of projections in order to no I think at the last meeting we asked to see what it would look like with nothing for this year and I don't think maybe necessarily I wasn't clear that right when I said like I just assume that you wouldn't put them back in and I did not clearly specify so that's on me but I I mean I don't no I just want us all to be working from the same right I mean we're not in a we're not in a climate where we can you know I can imagine what the number is going to be and my guess is probably as good as anybody else's but if I am trying to explain to a
066taxpayer what is happening and why we're having to make Cuts I would like to have some actual like hey look this is you know what I mean without having to say oh by the way just subtract this because we don't think that's going to happen now right and I'm sure I just want to make sure in January we don't ask for anything different so if there's anything else you want to see this is the time I guess what has changed I'm still cut I'm still like where I was last meeting but I all right so um which is five is that what you're I was at yeah I was at five last meeting yeah I mean at first I was at a whole lot more but so let's just go around for the the sake
067of the order and go through clarify where we are at for percentages so that we can provide clear Direction um percentages or can I just say five million uh we were looking at dollar amount thank you okay so five million Brent yeah five I'm still at five yeah I'm still at five I would maybe think if we're thinking no ebf I would maybe think of six just to be safe um five I would say a minimum of five yeah Matt minimum of five and I want to add that we're looking at the fund Bal balances on these projections but we also have to look at what our increased revenues are most of it based on contractual obligations so um minimum of five and I would ask at um also these projections not to be a
068constant pessimist but I I would like to see these numbers as um worst case scenario as possible so that we could plan accordingly not again I don't want to go on a five-year projection with a hope that something is going to happen let's just project the full five years that there's not going to be any increase and this Board needs to do what it needs to do to make sure this District um is sustainable I think that we have some consensus that we would then as we've been talking about like to see this with um income received as we do now at the hold harmless amount which is again subject to State Legislative change they might change that too um but for now what we know is that there is in fact a hold harmless
069Clause where we would not receive less so let's use that dollar amount and obviously we we include in expenditures our regular contractual obligations and the changes that we predict in those based on what we know is there any way to predict any decrease in like Transportation funds and meal reimbursement funds and those kind of things that are affected significantly by not being in person I know you have said we're anticipating changes in that I don't know if there's any way to predict what those might be so we so I did PR estimate what the change in meal um reimbursement would be this year because that would be impacted that Revenue would be impacted in the same fiscal year okay Transportation because we're Transportation has been reduced drastically obviously that impact will in Revenue will be
070next year because the claim is a reimbursement for the previous year right so are is there a way to um for lack of a better term be pessimistic in what we would receive in that I know our categoricals actually have come in yes as fast as that's ever happened so I don't want to jinx things but please don't sorry fiscal year 22 I did include in the projection a decrease in transportation Revenue knowing that this year was going to be light on expenses for so on January 11th you'll be able to present to to us a better picture of what our deficit really looks like now that we know about where we're at at this point for being gone for a half year um and you'll be able to present this which will merely be
071informing the data behind the fact that we are looking as a board at somewhere between five is the number that I'm hearing and then there's some interest in potentially going higher if it's needed but five seems to be the number yep yep we I got it thank [Music] you all right that was our last information item for this evening okay item 8.1 approval of bills for payment any questions can I have a motion please I make a motion to authorize the payment of bills in the amount of 2,1 164,000 $12.74 as presented second Mrs Swanson I Mrs d i Mrs Morgan I Mrs croner hi Mr bman hi Mrs morer hi Mr Lightfoot hi motion passes 70 item 8.2 any questions yes so we haven't really had an uh informational session on this topic which
072is fine um I I guess I'm at a loss for what the goal here is I understand we're we're what do you Che are you talking about 8.2 I'm talking about eight 8.2 okay I just want to make sure before we I listen to what you're saying uh driver head cars I guess I'm not surpris I I read an article last week actually that was talking about how C dealerships right now on average have 25% less inventory than a year ago and that most dealers are running under 60 days worth of inventory that means they have little to no incentive to be handing out deals right now which is good for them right uh but bad for us if we're trying to buy cars versus lease or I don't know if we're just trying to
073see what the difference is I I have some serious concerns about buying uh cars for driver aded um namely because you know we we pretty much have a policy in this in this District where we we don't buy buses anymore we lease them because it's more efficient for us because we don't have the maintenance services and stuff so I I'm I'm kind of curious why we're looking at buying cars when we haven't and we can have this conversation another meeting um and and then the additional cost to run and operate these cars for however long we think we're going to get out of them and handle the maintenance and scheduled maintenance repairs Etc so I'm I'm fine rejecting the bid but I just don't understand how we got here so we did want to bid
074the driver's ed cards to compare a lease to a purchase just for to see what would be the better deal uh currently we have an agreement with jovic Chevrolet to basically rent cars just like you would rent at the airport so it's a daily rental we looked at we started looking at a lease because it is more economical to lease a car for three years than to rent daily um the one of the other reasons for rejecting is not only to because he did not supply a or provide a bid on a true purchase so we do want to compare that but the other thing is he was concerned this dealer and we only had one vendor um submit a bid was concerned about the uh the month because dealers have incentives that are within
075the month and if we were presenting this for information like the timeline was to prevent for information today and then approve January 7th um that the incentive would change in that time by the time we approve so he did say that it's best to have the the information and approval the bid come in information approve all in the same month so that he can look at those incentives and then hopefully we would get because of that we would get more dealers interested because we did have interests when we just C picked up the phone and asked for quotes we did have a lot of interest so we do want to try to get more than one bid also so the problem with this is that if you have the informational meeting and then a month
076later you have the approval approval right that there's too much time between those two things for the purposes of the dealers the the month changes so the information would be in December and he asked me well can you commit to per you know moving forward I'm like I cannot commit until the board approves in January so so he didn't want to commit to the pricing between months so what I think I'm understanding and I might not but what I think I'm understanding is so in December they have $5,000 cash back and so he would B make his bid price based on that current incentive but if we did not vote on that until January the January incentive might be 2% right and then he would be taking a loss so he doesn't want to necessarily
077commit to that but the other issue is that what the bid was for he did not provide therefore we did not have any valid biders Who provided the information that was requested in the bid provided all the information all the information so if it it had been up for approval we would have had this as an information today rather than an action item to reject I do have one question yes so what is the cost of an asset like a car or some type of major asset what's the cost where it would have to come to the board because I'm thinking back to those buses what's the cost when it has to come to the board for board approval versus when the school district can just decide to blow $50,000 on well the bus leases
078do come to the board we approve those yeah okay I'm just asking what the cost I'm oh what theost I'm asking what what's the what's the threshold I guess the cost the dollar threshold I say for a bid bidding threshold is $25,000 except on conu any major purchase any one item any one item over $25,000 should be bid and should be approved by the board before it's purchased so if something was like 70 thousand doll or something depending there's there's um exceptions thank you to the bidding like what like what um specialized Services computer software um even computer equipment I believe yeah there are and then there's things that you purchase through the state bid and because the state has bid it you you you take advantage of those bidding prices so then you don't
079have to go out for a separate bid I did look to so not necessarily like a new vehicle or something or a tractor or a b or something depending on the price and if you can buy it on the state bid or not yes okay so what happens if it's over 25,000 and it doesn't come to the board well it it should come to the board if it's over 25,000 and that's something we are definitely working whether or not it's subject to the bidding requirements if it's that if that's if it's that great a contract unless it's already very clearly in your budget like you can point to a line item in the budget to say the the board basically already said we can buy this because it's specifically in the budget then you wouldn't
080have to come back to the board I don't oh I see what you're saying but otherwise I it's always my advice if it's any contract of any substantive amount bring it to the board so I have so many more questions about but I think we might might want to have that as a different meeting as an information item to discuss that dollar threshold um and what will warrant a line item in the budget that we would see uh because a lot of times we don't in fact I I think I've specifically had to ask for the line items in the budgets that we're approving so we usually see them at a higher level um so there's there's something we want to take a look at there but um for the purposes of this act action
081item um that's the backstory U that's why we are being asked to reject this bid um so unless there's any further questions that will help you clarify your answer to this question Matt I think I see a hand I it was I I'm really big or I really hope that we could keep things local when we can so based on the description here I'm reading it as none of our local dealers dealerships opted to provide a to the district for this no that's incorrect um so in the bid uh specs we did indicate that the dealership must be within 10 miles of the um asigo high school so we did send it to many local dealerships and like I said they did respond with a quote when we were just C picking up the phone
082and calling but unfortunately only one uh submitted a bid and that was Valley Honda I have a question I guess in regard to that as well Matt brings up a good point in keeping it local is there do we when we're using these driver's ed cars is that an opportunity for these dealerships to advertise their dealerships is that inappropriate is that like I would think that we could say hey they're sponsoring you know as we go high school and as we go East High School like good for you buy I'm going to buy a car from them because they support our schools that these are all great ideas so let's bring this back for an informational item as do we want to have this as what are our options when we look at driver's at
083car I think being broader is what I'm I'm hearing just a lot of General broad questions about which direction to head um so it sounds like we should probably have a discussion for that um I think that what I'm hearing all speaks to the fact that um there's an assumption that we would reject the driver said bid but we just need to yes formally say it okay here we go I make a motion to reject the driver's education bid results as presented second that was close Mrs croner I Mr Lightfoot I Mrs moer I miss Morgan I Mrs Swanson I Mrs Doyle I Mr Bowman I motion passes 70 item 8.3 approval of the Personnel report any questions can I have a motion please I make a motion to approve the Personnel report as presented
084second Mr Lightfoot no Miss Morgan I Mr Bowman I Mrs Moyer I Mrs croner I Mrs Swanson no Mrs Doyle I motion passes 52 can we can I ask one more question when you bring back the information about the shopping local like I'd also like to see that expanded a little bit to some of maybe what our custodial maintenance so we'll we'll add that in at a future meeting um before we make any but so that I don't get told later that I did not be specific I would yeah been specific and feel free to aborate via email so that it can be very specific yep all right so now we are actually going to return to close session so if I can please have a motion to return to close session one moment please
085[Laughter] sure with [Music] you I make a motion to enter Clos session under statutes 5 ilcs 122-2 C1 the appointment employment compensation discipline performance or dismissal of certain employees and individuals five ilcs 122-2 C2 Collective negotiating matters between the public body and its employees or their representatives or deliberations concerning salary schedules for one or more classes of employees five ilcs 12-2 C6 the setting of a price for sale or lease of property owned by the public body second Mrs d i Mrs Swanson hi Mrs Moyer hi Mr Lightfoot hi Mr Bowman Mr Bowman hi Mrs croner hi Miss Morgan hi motion passes