001it still says it's trying we're good sure okay so before we get to the presentation we had some update um yesterday from Robert W be who handles all of our financial um advising and they have what's called a budget forecast model and the biggest part of that is money from the state and so I'm gonna have Jesse talk a little bit about enrollment because resident and then I'll talk more about the the finances tied with those but you can if you just want to talk a little bit wherever you whatever you'd like I'll just sit here that's fine okay so a lot of people don't know that each year all public schools in the district or in the state of Wisconsin have to do what we call puple counts we do those twice a year
002it's always the third Friday of September it's always the second Friday of January so the first count date um it's an important day for public school districts budgets throughout the State because the membership count is a significant variable in determining a school district's budget for the following year so the pupil count is then converted into full-time equivalencies and it's used in calculation of a District's Revenue limit and Equalization Aid Heather stuff um so this year we reported a total of 626 students for our membership count in September but the fund doesn't stop there we do it again in January on the second Friday as I already mentioned with the added fund bonus of having to reconcile the data so we have to make sense of all the students that moved into the district moved out
003of the district had a residency change um a lot of different things come in to factor for that but that ending number will also affect the budget for the next school year as well so as I mentioned in September we calculated 626 FTE students for our membership count in January we reported 600 137 so on paper that looks great that's 11 students in a positive to our school district for funding but it's important to remember those numbers are really fluid um it's all based on school families moving in and moving out so this year we had a positive 11 last year we had a deficit of four so it's used largely in the school budgeting factoring but it's very fluid so that's just a little bit of what membership does and so and we use
004membership um basically whatever our third Friday count is that's what we put in for the next five years knowing that it's never going to be 603 again she said 626 by the time so that factors in summer school um and 4K kids account for6 FTE not one full-time FD and the 603 is the threeyear rolling average right the other part is you don't get paid if we have 626 kids this year we don't get State people am for all those it's based on three-year Ro on average so schools that are having declining enrollment don't get a big hit in one year it's tied over those three years so uh we do put those numbers in though the second January count as soon as um Jesse uploads those they go to the state they get it
005certified and then it goes to Beed and then they put it in our our budget forecasting model so that helped can I ask a question yep so last week it was six new students was the number was given y so that didn't count the students who left though so we really are not gaining 26 not gaining we're gaining I'm just going off the conversation so we are literally looking at just 11 additional not 26 additional correct so it's that's why it's fluid you we always have I understand fluid I just the numbers in my head we're basing the time okay yeah and that number I shared last week was just at the elementary school so it didn't account for any students who had left had left okay all right so those are some things that
006we think are just important for our conversation tonight but let's talk about what we're here tonight is to say what are we going to do next so first of all if the referendum is successful in April 1 which looking at the audience I think everybody in here probably thinks yes this is this is a preferred outcome so referendum is successful what does that do that brings back technology hardware and software budget uh so we can keep um one toone initiative live bring back early childhood through 12th grade curriculum resource team and cycle that's in there bring back field trips for students bring back teacher and um Department Supply budgets work with teachers on developing a competitive predictable and sustainable salary schedule work uh or without major changes in public school funding go back to the
007um operating referendum in 2030 and 31 this is important to know remember we went with a nonrecurring referendum which means at the end of the five years we will have to go back or you'd be looking at $2 million budget cuts but we had talked about that just want to make sure everybody knows yes if this passes in five years we'll have to go back baring nothing changes baring nothing changes in state yeah corre okay in state finances so this is the successful five-year referendum we look at a few different lines the the Surplus or deficit that's what we're looking at all black numbers not red numbers we want to have a fund balance that's always around 22% so you see it goes to 22.08.2012 3.53 and 21.86 so it's always around that 22 and
008then um with this change in enrollment the biggest change is looking at the mill rate and what that did to the mill rate okay so if you look at last year's mill rate it was 977 okay this year we had a failed referendum it dropped down to 932 if it passes next year the mill mates at or the mill rate will be at 970 so it's seven cents less than it was last year remember the board you guys made a conscious decision to phase in that referendum so bring back some things in year one some additional things in year two to make it easier for the taxpayers so it's a bigger hit in fact if it passes it will be seven cents less than last year then it goes from 970 up to 1051 and
009then it's it's a little closer to 73 you get out to year four and five it's hard to predict that we have $11 1125 um so those are the the mill rates for those next years so those are the things that we really look at and again this is using 603 but we did put in the numbers from January we can't see that up here because that's just how the summary page works this is only showing that 603 is only the SE September FTE count and the other thing I just want to mention in January um when we have the January um Friday ft count the model that was presented for a successful referendum was showing $107 for a mill rate so the mill rate just that I I just want everyone understand just by
010just that one change it dropped 37 cents off the mill rate for taxpayers yeah there's an extra slide in our packet that you didn't show there continue all program and services that we Curr provide this one I must have hit it twice yes yes sorry I must have hit double that's an important one that are here so going back um other things the referendum does be able to maintain current class sizes continue all programs and services that we currently provide and then bring back one teacher and a support staff member each of the first two years from the cuts that were made last April and then meet fund band's po policy and be financially stable for the next five years as that's what our current model shows so those are all the things that happen
011if the referendum does pass which we all hope it does that's one we just talked about so what we're here tonight for is what if it doesn't we really have two options we can continue to make cuts each year or we continue to can can just not make Cuts you're wondering how that is possible let's talk about it so option one make cuts each year so advantages disadvantages is really kind of the pros and cons this keeps the school open longer this is changed due to increase enrollment which we talked about it's based on your fund balance where is your fund balance how long can you continue to not make Maj your cuts and still use your fund balance okay the disadvantages of making cuts each year it decreases programs increase class sizes and services
012for students uh raises the risk of losing highly qualified staff and it could reverse our positive open enrollment Trend we were talking about this today at our admin meeting and we get a lot from open enrollment and one of the questions that both Jason and and Chris are getting a lot is what do you think is GNA happen this next referendum are we going to lose any programs that that we might be coming here especially for uh and so that that's a concern that we have is open enrollment we've turned that this into a place where people want to be and by cutting programs and cutting services we're less likely to have those people say that's a district that I want to be at so that's one option the other one do not make Cuts
013if the referendum does not pass and we say you know what we're going to keep all of our programs and services for students how can we do that by using fund balance and there might be some years where we can do that but remember the fund balance once you deplete that then you don't have any left so like how much can we go disadvantages without making cuts the fund balance would eventually run out I think everybody knows that uh this approach would cause short-term borrowing at some point if we used to have a policy that says around 20% of our fund balance and we got op coose to having to use short-term borrowing so if we go this route just know that we that would have to come back to the board and you'd have
014to allow us to use short-term borrowing and we have to pay some interest on that um and eventually if you run out of your fund balance this is what mtin was looking at it's called disillusion um when we look at our um our updated information that is much farther down the road than it was last week based on new information so this is if the referendum failed some other things are still using 603 as a as our resident number okay um looking at this the deficit for next year we're expect this this also does not have any this just says what we did this year we're doing next year so this does not have salary increases at all either for for any staff so this says right now we're expecting a deficit of 114,000 for
015next year with our fund balance a little over $2 million that's something the board at this point can look at and say okay is this something that if the referendum does fail do we want to use fund balance for a year and go for another 12 months and try to have pass another referendum in April of 2026 because I think from board conversations from teachers conversations from admin meetings I think those three entities staff admin board we're not going to give up on our kids we're going to keep coming back to referendum because we need it and the cuts that we're looking at are not good for kids and and I'm taken that based on all of our conversations at the board you heard from our from our teachers I don't think our community is
016going to give up on our kids so what does that do to our fund balance okay we go from 22.3 at the end of next year with this it would be 20 .05 okay um now looking at this same can you really offer staff a 0% pay increase two years in a row that's a gamble because that that's not a normal thing in education so um we have looked at this and said okay for about every half a percentage Point okay so if we wanted to give a 1% pay raise for every half percentage point would be about $30,000 roughly we don't have a model built on that that's just our our napkin math says it's that's about how much it would be so if we had a 1% raise it would be add 60,000
017onto that 114 that's not a decision we have to make tonight it's just I wanted you to know the information for the rest of the conversation so fund balance at the end of year two would be 20.05 fund balance at the end of year three actually would be year one at the end end of next year would be 20.05 then it goes down to 15.48% 9.48 1.71 and then we get in the negative during 29 and 30 again those are based on our current enrollment that was updated yesterday so Aon that's the numbers if we don't make any cuts and we deplete the fund balance correct okay yep what if I mean you're getting to this I'm trying to get ahead of myself so what how long if we have to make Cuts Like can
018we making Cuts do you know what I eventually we can't make any more cuts you get like option one is make cuts each year like I don't I don't think any of us look at that list of budget cuts right now that that we'll get to and think oh this is an easy one right EV everyone is going to impact kids everyone is going to have other people coming in and say if you had this program maybe we consider it but maybe we go somewhere else and the other thing is this is what communities do our cities and our Villages Keeler dickyville Cuba City they're heavily investing in residential growth and in Keeler that started a long time ago right so there are 80 or so lots up there and now what's happening we're seeing
019some increase enrollment okay probably some families moving in there with kids we're going to have a lot more enrollment so the communities are doing their thing now we've got to be able to say yes come here move and live here and we'll provide a quality education and and we're not going to have a quality education by continuing to make cuts and I don't think I don't think anybody up there wants to quit I know nobody back here wants to quit in our kids we're going to keep going I know some districts have said that we're not we're gonna you know referendum fatigue in in our community we're gonna take a cycle off well if that harms our kids for a year I don't think a lot of us want to do that so um I
020think that's really important to know but ities do this they're the community has invested they want to grow they have all this infrastructure put in and now we've got to be able to match that we've got to do our part provide the best quality education for those people so what do we want to do tonight first of all I think the easiest option is to pass the referendum financially speaking okay bring back important student services provide Financial stability for five years knowing that we will have to come back in five years because once you get in that non-recurring cycle like Benton did that as well the school district of Benton is every three or four years they go back and they they pass those or do we want or not or but if it fails
021we want to make Cuts we'll look at the financial aspects of that or not make cuts and it's really based on where the fund balance will be looking at it here I would say every year when we copy the budget over from last year to this year and then kind of make some make the increases almost every year we have to cut somewhere around2 $250,000 now some of that is oh we bought this this year we don't have that was a capital item we don't have to buy that buy that um we don't need that service this year you know we could reduce some of those things but remember that's going to be a little tougher next year because we've already made a million dollars worth of cuts so it's going to be a little
022tighter so if you decide to not make Cuts what would likely happen is we would present a non-balanced budget we would just know that we're going to be using some fund balance but we would be able to keep all the same programs and all the same services for one year the next year remember it it it jumped up to 300 and some thousand dollar that would be more difficult but we'd have another cycle uh where we're not going to give up on the kids and and we would go for another referendum having been faced with this a number of years ago prior to your Administration um we had asked Administration you know but going to an operating referendum what would we cut and the list sort of looked like what you've got here um things
023that we really didn't want to cut and at that point in time we did make the decision that we said we would cut those if it failed I wouldn't want to go there again because I don't want to risk what you just said is saying if you don't pass a referendum we're going to do this because that's going to destroy the education I guess quality that I like to retain so to me there's there's no doubt we proceed with the referendum hope it pass and if it doesn't we don't make Cuts we use the the uh fund balance and uh and we figure out what kind of pay increase we we could give because we have to give something so I had a couple have a couple questions so looking at the potential budgetary cut
024considerations um clearly they're concerning because those go away kids will go away I pretty much can guarantee that um these considerations I'm sure we've talked about different times I feel like again I know those are in considerations right that we need to also come back and maybe look at this again because I really want want to really really look into are there cuts that we have not considered or made that are not directly impacting the students and my gut tells me there might be some conversations that could happen because these here 100% like not secondarily or not indirectly affect the students they are the students what the students go we're talking classes so um I'm again we might not even go that route I'm hoping we don't I hope we have whatever direction we go
025but if we are going to look at Cuts I want to really as a board come back together and really look at these Cuts because one question I had and Aon you don't have to answer this now but as we talk about different things and services we're utilizing I hear Beed being utilized for financial pieces and I know we've got two very skilled people in those POs in you know between you and Heather so my question is what are we paying Beed and why are we paying Beed you know so things like that I just want to make sure that we have have all that around the table so I can answer that 100000 that's it and he does the financial it's Beed is the company so Beed that $4,000 it gives us access to
026the bottle and then and then we have some um Consulting hours but that's it it's $4,000 for this model okay so if we take that $4,000 away I guess I would ask the question what what am I using to forecast the financials of the district I feel like $4,000 is very very inexpensive if you look at our entire budget that's very very minimal cost appreciate the feedback I just wanted to understand what it was we be and we talk about financials and we talk about getting information from be and we're getting numbers from be what does that mean and what does that so they they just send me an email they don't actually update I have to update the model so they just send an email saying to all of their clients saying here's here's
027what you need to do you can do this or you can do this there's multiple different ways you can make updates so that you just have to follow their instructions and make the updates perfectly that's what I needed to know because those kind of questions are going to continously come up and we can make sure we can address them and you've touched on sorry um you've touched on this before but there's a significant amount of school districts throughout the state that use those school districts use barer approximately half in the other one uses I think is it PMI PMI yeah some acronym it's basically a program model it's not a consulting firm that we bring in that does all of our decision making for us like that's done with you guys no we like we
028might consult with them to say like equalize evaluation let's just talk about that one we talked about that one today in NA meeting um they I I asked them like hey our equalized evaluation has it's normally before inflation normally are averaging 6% the last few years it's been like 10 12% if you look at these models that's where it's been at they will say do not use even six% we budget very conservatively for a reason and so they were like be between two and four so like that's the kind of they UT in question talk we have like we we still make the decisions um but we just like bounce ideas so to like off of them I'm talking louder I'm sorry but people sudden I gota talk louder in theing so no problem no
029problem feel like I'm like my voice yeah problem good question so some some things we talked about is um at our last meeting you said okay let's what are the things that have been cons considered already um that's athletic equipment supplies pair professional hour reduction Middle School not middle school music department consolidation Library specialist consolidation art education consolidation fitness center director position District cell phones required event workers and CTE program that's business egg family consumer education technical education those have been considered before exactly what you guys said before the a program means that's not around anymore and then we're going to lose kids in open enrollment to kids who enjoy that um other cuts that other schools that have run referendum just have used uh cut cut freshman Sports at high school limit the number
030of JB and varsity non-conference games for all Athletics discontinue in Town transportation for first through third graders discontinu Cuban Care on Friday discontinu communitybased 4K Kindergarten um so those are just things that we've seen on other that other schools have considered or things that maybe that we could look at are there any specific items though that you guys if if you want to make cuts and you say yep I want to see kind of the numbers on these three things or you guys might say I see the numbers we're going to go ahead without making Cuts but um but maybe here are some things that you just want us to look into so that's what the rest of the meeting is today there was one of uh that's that's this part of it because we've
031got other discussion items on there but that this is the main part of that so are there any other board suggestions that things that you w to add to this list or any of these like these these were just ideas that other schools have used are there any that you want to see numbers on on Thursday knowing that Thursday doesn't give us a lot of time but we'll we'll do our best to get these numbers that's more of a clarifying question because I don't want to see any of these happen but I know we've had a lot of conversations around the community based 4K I think that's a wonderful partnership for us but part of that conversation was also the potential to go back to half day options I can you kind of just refresh
032me on where we would that be a part of this conversation as well to go back to a half a half day or a part-time 4K and what that impact might look like the transportation transportation is really the part that makes it not not as financially advantageous as you think because you're gonna have two other you're gonna have those morning routes to pick kids up and then to take take them home in the middle of the day and those routes are pretty expensive so it negates a lot of that so Aaron are you are you asking if you're are you asking that if we're going to talk about potential Cuts or should we first decide if we're even going to be going this direction what do the board want which dire clarification with that because
033it seems like if we're not going to go to cuts and I really don't want to sit around and talk a lot about I'm in agreement with that and I'm in agreement with what Gary said to me personally I I think we need to go the way to to make no more Cuts go with the fund balance problem and just advise us to budget and see there I think we would cross that bridge Tangie if it doesn't pass and you know that's why guess in another day but I guess you rais a good question tonight you know is the board just by a you know a nod a show of hand or are you in support of not making cuts and proceeding with the referendum that would you know postpone hopefully um possible discussion on
034further Cuts another wrench I can throw in there to make it more difficult to you um we might get to a point before our annual meeting this summer where we we have some preliminary budget numbers and we share those and we might get to the point where you're like okay maybe we're at 180,000 and and you guys say at that point okay Aaron we want to present a budget that doesn't go over 125,000 so try to try to present a budget that goes there without making Personnel Cuts or things like that just you know tightening some of those so that is an option too if we wanted to trim a little bit it is going to be harder like when you already lost 10% of your budget to make some of those but you know
035those are decisions that we make throughout the summer and get leading up to the annual meeting too so we can have some direction there so if that helps you make today decision know that that's an optional so right now based on the forecast model we could we we will be able to sustain if we're all saying big if because we do not want this to happen if the referendum does not pass so we don't necessarily have to make any decisions to make any cuts for the 25 26 school year if we're okay using around 200,000 of that fund balance I'm asking the board I so our fund balance would drop to 20% if not a little a little lower probably if you're gonna give salary increases if you lower than that so the board would
036likely we would if it drops 18% we would have to do shortterm borrowing is short-term borrowing required at that point or would we still be able to utili to avoid the short-term borrowing at that point we would't be able to make payroll likely in December at in maybe November in maybe November can you just say that one more time loudly we likely would not be able to make payroll in December for sure at 18% and likely not in November and potentially a month or two in the spring at not at 18% and that's based on when the state pays us when fund balance drops to 18% Yeah well yeah like so this option one that you guys are seeing that's at 114,000 that's without salary increases and is already at 20% so if we if
037salary increases are added to that that fund balance percentage is going to go down um and we would the board would have to approve short-term borrowing pretty early in the summer we can't just it's not something like you can throw like I can't just call the bank and say hey we we need money it has to be approved by the board so we would have to do it early summer yeah I think the tough thing to I think that's tough for me little Alan everyone else is $2 million sounds like a lot you know maybe to some people why do you even have to go to referendum well the problem is correct me if I'm wrong um we don't get our money except for a couple times a year and when she's referring to December
038and Ence our money our fund balance looks more like zero than two million so we'd have to borrow to make the payroll she might get her money in January to replenish and be able to pay back that short-term borrow but uh that's that's what we're talking about we get a large check from we get some state aid in December but it's not like you get it December 5th every single year you get it early December we have a December 1 um payroll plus then we have weekly check runs so I could instead of doing weekly check runs this coming December I probably will have to hold checks and only pay like our officials and we might even have to like retirement that's a very large bill every month and it's the November retirement due in
039the month of December so I might be able to we would incur a fee it would be a small Fe but we would incur a fee if we didn't pay the that retirement until January but then in January we have checks coming in from the municipalities with their taxes um so we I could I could just delay paying some of our vendors most vendors we don't incer late Fe most of them we don't but retirement Visa um and there's a handful of other ones that you do incur a fee after 30 days and I know just you might have these numbers and that's still fine but do are other districts I mean is do they make it an 18% fund balance or is that kind of every District's going to be different it depends on
040your expenses okay that's what drives so if you do any sort of research on like fund balance or if you were to ask someone from d like what percentage should be be at there's no right it's not the same it's not cookie cutter it's not the same percent for every single School District um it's different because it depends on what's your what are all your expenses what revenues are you bringing in and then again it's um some districts don't pay have weekly check runs some only have monthly check runs so it just depends on like the cash flow I just I guess back to I think Erin's question or Angie's question um where are we at are we feeling comfortable proceeding with uh the referendum and if uh fails we would use S guance I'm
041a little uneasy with the comment of not being able to make Peril in December and spending more money on being able to do that when we're already struggling I think about everybody's own finances you know you want to have to have that little Nest Egg like I don't want to intentionally struggle and then it's going to cost more in the long run I know the purpose of tonight's meeting is to determine what we're going to cut but I I do think we should maybe comb through and see if we can find something I know it's not easy I know it's we've already done it a million times but it makes me very uneasy tonight what we want to say are we making any program or Personnel Cuts you know if it's okay we're going to
042continue each month looking at different parts of the budget that are non-personnel related we can do that every month and that's not a problem but like we've got to give people adequate notice you know if it's a if it's a person I will mimic Sarah's concern and my thought would be to move forward as Sarah stated but we're still looking for keeping our fund balanced I'm going to say 20% and keeping it at that level so we're going to have to find some Cuts but I don't think program cuts are the answer right now I don't think student I think I agree with Angie that there's cuts that we can find that are not going to affect our students directly and it might hurt for a year but it's hurt already in different areas so
043I feel like the hurt just needs to hurt somewhere else I would also I think about you know we've talked about just the trust of us so if we're going to referendum and we don't have to make any Cuts Like what does that look like just from a from a cosmetic we don't want to be the boy that cried wolf because we need help we need help and people aren't seeing the impact yet I don't I don't want to sacrifice anybody to say like Yep this is happen we did make $1 million worth of Cups and we were hoping that that would get us through two years like that that was the initial hope but remember too the reason the numbers have changed is because of the Open Enrollment that we just received part of
044no no new to District district sorry I mean I didn't mean open Roman side but new to District new students which increased and as Jesse said that is fluid like last year it went down four this year it went up 10 but we're hoping that with there's a lot of houses going up we're hoping that that mean that is going to lead to more students and and maybe not in year one or two but you know now that or in year five of the keer subdivision you know maybe a lot of those kids now are School AG kids are there any other um items that that you want us to look into off the top of your head or or but we can also make this a a monthly you know thing in our meetings
045as well what I'm hearing is you you don't want to cut any people or programs right now is that right I think that was impacting yeah a week ago it looked like we might have had to to do that but new numbers and new information have kind of pushed that down the road a little bit so if we're at that point um Aron asked if we would make this either a monthly agenda item that you would revisit and maybe as Heather presented the financial report or or I don't know if it's possible to figure out that you know I know there's a an item there that says if you give uh you know anywhere from 0.5 to 2.5 increase this is the you know the amount that it's going to cost um what would uh
046you know it look like to maintain $20,000 I mean is there a asss what kind 20% 20% have to maintain the 20% fund balance yeah what what figure you know what pay raise could you give and and do that or something related to that so I guess I would want to see a categorical summary somehow of where the expenses are at does that make sense so so just to see how do you want not too detailed but detailed enough that we can identify so no you don't want to see any personel line items right if we're not cutting Personnel would see any salary I think we still need to see that though because I think there's portions that could be affected that are in that portion of that return that report I'm just going to
047say this and I'm going to be as transparent as possible I have had questions about are we going to look at administrative salaries as well are we looking at everything when look at cuts and so if we're going to talk cuts and I think we need to have all the numbers everything custodial Administration everything that's my take because I'm hearing that from the community are you looking at not say that has to happen but are you looking at everything what are you saying cutting salaries I don't just looking at the numbers where are the where is everything going like the full amount like what is the salaries what is everybody's well that's all that's all that can easily be found out are you are you suggesting we cut salaries I'm suggesting that if we're going
048to talk about any cuts that we need to have every Cuts all Cuts later so currently right now on the district website you can see our full budget nothing is like folded up you can see all line items all expenses all revenues um so that is available on the district website you um it's under the business office so you can see four years or five years you can see like the last four or five years line forline revenue expenses you can see all of that information um that is tricky to to read if you're not familiar wither you're probably not going to be able to understand it it's there but that's how the report is run yep you know you have probably have to go look at the it's called the woofer which is the
049manual that basically says which item goes to yes yes y okay so back to Julie so what let me think about this one a second because I wanna because you can probably create it just like which filters yeah yeah I just need to know what what account numbers do you want to see if I can pull any I can p any report I just I just want to make sure I understand what you want to see right now with what we have here failed operating referendum this is no no salary raise we end at a 20.05% fund balance at the end of 2526 so if you were to give a one and a half% raise which I believe this group feels people are due uh that's $25,000 off of that so that would send our
050fund balance to 1,817 th000 which again roughly then is 18% like Heather had talked about so unless we talk about new Cuts elsewhere that's where we're going to be at and if you look at the cuts that were proposed non-personnel Cuts uh athletic equipment six grand cell phones 3,400 event workers 6,400 I mean we're not even 15,000 bucks so there is there really truly is no non-personnel Cuts we can make unless somebody comes right yeah again because 75% of our budget is is bodies and benefits I mean we can beat our heads against the wall we want they're just not there yep that I that I but that doesn't mean that doesn't mean that if somebody has an idea and they send it to us that we can't look into it and then report back
051to it at the next board meeting I agree but but tasking you guys to put some list together of numbers that aren't there I think is a waste of our time I personally would like to use the fund balance as long as it can and God for bid it fails but at least we would get one more year and we could go back again in the following April and and ask again and then that number just if that scenario plays out the referendum number would actually likely be bigger because we'd have to make up for that 200,000 have to refill that number well that's the thing I mean even going for a nonrecurring is not financially advantageous to us as a school district so we've already taken it down a notch to go to nonrecurring
052MH and then you know if we're going to cut other things in addition to the million we're not even thus bringing any of that back and we just heard a month or two ago that those were having negative impacts and I guess so I I I you know there's no perfect answer but I think that just to say you know we need to send a positive message that we we beg we need the referendum to pass for lots of reasons and I'm not a fan of short-term borrowing Heather but if we would borrow 200,000 bucks at 5% for a month I think number can't hardly be a couple thousand bucks it was it's not gonna be it was fairly inexpensive when I um called and asked the bank it was a couple months ago you
053guys had asked like what would it cost um um I don't remember the dollar amount um I just was looking at the sheo the other day but I remember the percent at the time when I asked was 4.74% and it it wasn't even it was you know maybe a thousand dollar again I don't which if we're just going to do it a few times I think it was I think it was like 150,000 is what I was asking or maybe it was even 160 because our payrolls are typically 156 and that's when we're not paying extra Dy so regular payrolls are around $156,000 thank you I make a motion on this no this is all discuss decide to do it because this is just we're just discussing is what I like the plan what the
054board would like to do if something were to happen in six months let's say it doesn't pass but we're hoping it's going to pass but and then we have the federal at the federal level we don't there's not you know whatever we don't we we can come back together and we might have to at that time have to have discussions again right I me okay we can always come back and reconvene and be like okay now we're in this position there's one C cop with that if it's dealing with a staff member it's may we have to let them know by May 15 and in order to have all the paperwork and everything done by May 15th you have to have that done early April yeah so anything past May 15 it has to be
055non okay yeah I mean you know obviously we'll have a discussion if it should fail I'm just thinking big picture of like if all of a sudden we don't get some release or something you know then we we'd have to roll that into the April 26 like try to recoup that from that point that's the hard part is you know people keep saying well if it we've said no Twice you're not listening to us well but our our kids' needs didn't go away yeah and so we'll come back with something different but the more we use in our fund balance the higher we're going to need in those first few years of the referendum to replenish that and get us back to where we because if you had to use short-term borrowing even if it's
056$2,000 each each pay period and we have 24 or we have 24 pay periods so now you're talking that's 50 Grand a year in interest that we don't want to be using well I understood though was only a couple times a year is that right if you get in that role where you have to do it though every year it depends how low your your fund balance depleting the fund balance and the timing the year is going to dictate how often you're going to have to use shortterm borrow can I ask a question sure would as a staff member would you rather have a smaller pay increase versus having to talk about cutting a position I think that's hard to ask a selective group of people I mean maybe I just don't know would they
057I don't know what the feeling is is I to maintain where we're at would we yeah we don't want to and we hope it passes but are to consider a half a percent increase versus a 2% just to maintain the level we're at to not go to a point where we're in financial distress I mean the short short-term borrowing distress I don't know I I guess it's just a something to think I think that would be maybe something we work with the CCA on and is that something that we'd be comfortable well and I think that's an option we have to at least consider depending on what our goal is for well our goal is to pass the referendum absolutely give a pay increase of some sort so just just and I have a lot
058of clarification questions so I apologize but if the board decides that we're not going to go to any Cuts then I'm assuming in our Communications we would explain why we don't have to do that right because I can see some of the questions being yep we you know why don't you go to cut we're already writing that in some of our information right now like hey most school districts in especially in South Wisconsin have declining enrollment and we have found that in the last few times looking at okay we're we're having increas inment and that Trend occurs because our communities have done their job in building the infrastructure that's great for schools and that's how communities work together and flourish and so that that's already kind of a that okay and I had a conversation
059a week ago with Jamie utter at CA 3 and he said Cuba City Dodgeville Min Point are the three school districts that are really sitting in a good spot because of the financial and economic situation within those towns he said thore I'm concerned about for instance what were they supposed to say and and he's talking about like the city growth not not so much the school budget he's talking about like the structure they're adding to their communities and you know so I mean again you know he was being positive in terms of you know thinking that you know and and again we're going to have a beautiful school I'd like to have staff and programs to go with it so that's that's what obviously is at stake anything else I mean I think obviously you
060know it's everything's on everybody's mind and depending upon what happens we'll obviously revisit you know you know and basically anybody can have an item added to the agenda just by asking um or if you want to make it a standing item uh just let Aaron know that or just say look into this and put in your report we can do that or if you've got thoughts and ideas that you know things that we really want to seriously take a look at either the cost why you know feeding to Aaron and Heather and have them report back to all of us so I'm looking at Thursday's meeting it was more like if we're gonna make action tonight or take discussion today and have action on Thursday with what you guys just said do we need to
061have them it doesn't sound like we're going to be making any Cuts do you want to meet on Thursday in my mind it was more like okay which cuts are we going to look at because if it's personel people you have to move quickly with these if it's non-personnel related cuts that we're going to be looking at that can be an ongoing thing and I don't know if we need to meet on Thursday but it's it's your meeting okays I just need to do on a few things here you're just chewing on that yeah doing over here do we need a Thursday meeting you want I don't think we do at this point no so everybody's agreeing vum we're not making any personel cut that's what we're all agreeing on no personel Cuts okay so
062anything that we're gonna cut and so there there didn't have to be action on this it was more just discussion but if the discussion is saying we don't need to do that then and we just have to be crystal clear in our Communications moving forward as to why that was able to happen because it was in the air that it was going to and say it everybody come to Cuba City keep keep moving your kids can come to Cuba City okay so that's good the next one on here is referendum communication plan this is just a kind of a list of what we're um what we're working on basically just kind of lays out the month of March you guys have this um administratively we looked at what are some community events that we can
063look at going to when do we want to publish some of our frequently ask question items we're working with a communication team on that as well um more I just wanted to make sure you guys all had that if you're aware of other community events where you think it might be helpful to go to let us know and we'll we'll get that on there so take a look and and see but we might be missing some different things that you think are important so that was more just the FYI if you if you he of something where it might be good to have one of us let us know the next one is addition of school safety items in the referendum with our sorry can I go back communication the last meeting there was talk
064about trying to do something with businesses is that something that we're still GNA like bring in or was there going to be didn't someone say they did like videos or something a Clips on the I don't know we were going to look into some media Outlets or something I wasn't sure where any of that was like at for some reason they were talking about didn't they do something for Wason real estate agent business why it's important to have successful school districts um yeah I just wasn't sure yeah I know Chris you've got a you've got a group that you contact like is it the Chamber of Commerce okay so maybe that's something that we can look at and see if if any of them would be interested in Gan in some of those videos with
065us or you know they're support the okay okay thank you next one is additional school safety items uh recently we had a a school safety concern and that really made us look at all of our policies and procedures Jason and I went to a reunification training a couple weeks ago we do have somebody from the Department of Justice coming this Friday to go through our entire safety plan and and give us some suggestions which we would if those changes are made then we'll bring back to you guys for approval but that just sparked a lot of communication hey when when we went through that process what are some things that might be helpful and we identified some entrances and exits with the hardware need some help um some doors don't properly shut all the time
066with some different weather uh we looked at camera usage those are to the two big ones um also at the reunification like we went to through the reunification a couple weeks ago and each School kind of had a a tote and each one of those totes had some some tools in there that would make it a lot easier if we ever have to do that so there were just some communication things that we thought were important and we looked at the referendum amount and we thought okay there's some things here we could trim this a little bit and trim this a little bit and try to get some of those school safety items in there and we didn't want to put it in there because everything that we put in the referendum we brought to
067you guys you had open discussion on so before we put that in our communication we would like to do that where we're asking that we'll try to find where that fits in the with the referendum dollars are you guys okay with us putting that in there person safety related I would think it's can I ask a clarifying question so with the capital referendum that we have we have that wish list of if we come in under budget we can use that for other things some of those costs not that I want to deprioritize safety but some of the cost shift there as well so it's not cutting 200,000 from something else with the FEMA reduction that's a reality is that we may not have as much money left over for additional things as we once
068thought okay I guess I like that idea um and because we are going to have some and I guess the safety would be you know is important or more important than anything else in terms of of stuff but uh you know if it was possible you could put a I don't know a dollar figure on what that is once you go through that sure and we haven't gotten any any bids like we we've talked with camera people and they've got why don't you guys talk so I I just met yesterday with um some folks regarding the cameras and with technology um updates you know everything with as new as it is um they're actually and I I haven't got the quote back yet but they're able to reuse some of our existing cameras in other
069places and replace where we need to with um full 360 view cameras um so it'll it'll make it nicer but save us some dollars so we'll actually be able to have more coverage you know for our for our money that we're spending I typically say their safety grants but I know that that's not a reality currently I think a lot of that money has been pulled at the I've bet about what about eight years seven or eight years ago there was a lot of money for school safety and that's we upgraded a lot of our cameras but a lot of cameras aren't going to last much longer than seven you know 10 years out there no they we've been working very closely with uh you know Zach and the guys at the police department you
070know they they find money where they can as well so for a team we did have um just out of some Curiosities TC networks worked with me at the elementary school to look at some of those similar things um I kind of prioritized and said here here's the things that are are kind of pressing that we think would be very helpful here are some things that we' like just out of curiosity what would it take they offered um two separate uh quot and I I don't have them with me I want to say they're about $5,000 each just to make some of those same changes that talking about um being able to uh we have some some of our our cameras that are in locations that were areas used for certain purposes in the past
071um in order to relocate those to make them usable it takes the time for a technician to do that to run the wires necessary for it so like that so it's pretty minimal but in order to do it and if you're going to do a little bit of it at a time there are other things that you can do so it's was a matter of well if you upgraded One camera in this spot you could reuse that camera maybe somewhere else you're still having to pay for the cable to get there somebody to run it things like that so um that just a ballpark it certainly wasn't anything extravagant but just some needs that we looked at in in the building to be help so we're just asking for permission to add that in language
072really like one yeah and when you asked me we have been looking at just some of those priority safety things um what could we do and how would we prioritize that just been at that standstill not knowing what those dollars AR GNA be so I'm hearing that's okay to add to the language of of the referend referendum what happens itn't couldn't we use the the uh building referendum money versus the operating referendum money for those items because we were we got money sitting there that can be used is that that's I me I I'm furthering Meg I'd like to know a dollar for I don't know if you're talking about $10,000 or $200,000 and and I don't know I like cameras but I don't know if they make our students any safer I I if
073that's what we're really talking about I don't I'd like to know what we're talking about before I would say yes to to anything I the ref the capital only because we probably get moving sooner safety obviously it's a huge thing right I mean so we could move quicker on that than waiting until April 1 I guess it's that far off um said that loud but I mean it is notan but at least we would know we could do it you regardless I mean if we don't so well but we would have the option of if we put it into the current referendum language and for it should pass then we could have the option of looking into is there reimbursable expenses through the capit the way the referendum language was written that it would fall
074in there okay okay Dan raises a good point because obviously at this point uh you know that the shooting that occurred in my granddaughter's school had nothing to do with cameras now they have a metal detector in one door only and a and a policeman so if that's what you're talking because that's what somebody yes you're going to do that's a whole different ball game yeah these were onetime expenses not uh not ongoing that that we were talking about okay uh the next one the fiscal Outlook through 29:30 we had already covered that in the presentation there so that was discussion item number D and then e is items to research and discuss at the next meeting and we are not going to have a next meeting so that's those are all the five items
075that we we had for tonight before we pulled the public comment sheet just knowing we've had a lot of discussion can we give a second like if anyone did want to sign in last and prior there a two-year Outlook that if we didn't change anything it would be shut down two years so the dissolution that you mentioned is that was talking about that that's pushed out to 29 30 would be the negative fund if don't give if we don't change anything operating just like so that's no increases copy and past it for the next and that's no salary for I felt that I I know exactly what this your felt like so thank you can I think it's important for the community to know something you mentioned here that I just didn't even think about
076that it's going to cost like the next time we if it doesn't pass the next time we go to referendum it's going to be a higher ref ref and I think that's a fast easy message like we we have to pass a referendum sometime to keep the school open it's going to keep getting higher fast easy message and that I just didn't think about that thank anyone else I actually we were asked to do a public forum and I left school early or I left school at regular time yesterday and it was we were contacted later that it was on hold and there were some legalities did anything we've already put in a lot of time and we're ready to go we're got things ready to publish did you find out anything I no I
077I didn't get a hold of our attorney today I will come down talk you're the lead right well we're just really as I'm doing all the like should cont you are you okay with the question you okay very good we all right because as long as it's before we have March 12 and we haven't like put out anything but we've already talked to a lot of people so we need to decide and I would kind of wonder what's different than what you did last year and then what we did this year right I I just want to know I want to make sure that you guys know all like when you have a board meeting there are certain things you have to do and and that's not a normal thing for you guys to do
078I want to make sure that we do exactly what we want to in the legal way that we have to run okay that that's really the concern because it is a listening session they don't have to answer any questions they could actually sit in the bleachers and someone people could just go out there but again like if they're all here and it's School related like it has to be prop posted that way and the agenda has to be posted so those are the things we just want to make sure that you guys know like when we run a meeting like that these are all the things that we have to do right certainly appreciate your your help you bet I think it's important that the community has a chance to speak their mind because it
079that's what's going down now is they're not feeling listened to and then when they talk to us it's you know what I mean we just need to make sure they're able to keep their minds and we we have done that a lot I think so I I feel bad when they say they don't feel like they can speak their mind because we've had a lot of public comment sessions and there hasn't been a lot of public comment I know you have it's just yeah yeah I do hope that if you have people coming to you please do feel like you can have them reach out to the forward as well that's that's kind of what I was even thinking even if it it was just we could make a list of the questions and the
080comments and then just present it to you we just want you to hear it without a filter can I just offer a small example um I know Angie just had mentioned um admin salaries and she had been hearing that from the public and all that but then we have decided that's not something that's going to be presented with the information that's the kind of transparency items that I think the public is wanting as far as we've asked but now we're not getting the information so just offering that as just feedback I think again all all information is available all thousands of line items are all available I understand salary of positions and I think that goes back to Andre's question the community is hearing stuff and they're that's what they're telling us so we're telling
081you yes we think that needs to be followed up on it's I know it's nitpicky but I just feel like and we know that he it's EAS it's easier for them to come to us and complaint is to to look it up I guess so if they just want to say it then because all administrative salaries are all in DPI I mean anybody I mean when people started asking me questions I did the research because I wanted to know if it was true or not and um but they don't know how to look that up and that's why I think you just need to put it out there say this is what's happening and it's something they've asked for it's something we should be able to supply without making them go search for it eles
082that's all I'm getting at and then they can put compare it to the districts and they can put compare it to price per student you know what I mean that's what we're coming down to and the number of people that are filling positions it doesn't sound like um that was the last comment that came up well how many people are in that position I'm not getting a lot of double digits back or I'm not getting two for this role and two for that role so I just we just I it goes back to transparency and that's why I'm going to be here just because I love seeing the an action and um and knowing that our board is working for us it was it's been really eye opening for me it's different when it's in
083person and watching online I listen to it online all the time but when you're sitting here and see your faces and your reactions and your Expressions it's a lot different than listening to it when I doing my dishes during the cea board of control meeting last night um the conversation came up about pay raises and especially for administrative staff the comment made by the Dodgeville School Board president who's the head of the board of control he said I did a survey of what the administrators are getting paid and he said Jamie Nutter you're in h last place by a lot and he also then went on to basically say that if we had to replace him and if you guys had to replace your superintendence you're going to pay more than you do today for
084our dist size I for our district size that's where it keeps going back to per student and that's only because it was compared to to um the district I live in and you know that's the only reason I looked it up because I didn't know how much you made but that's that's what comes down to our community is talking and we want even know I hear you but our first and foremost priority is referendum path focal point and our conversations and just people in the community ask questions and we get clarification out to community members just keeping coming back to we really need to focus on this referendum we need to get this pass so we need we need it for our kids and that should really be that's right the conversation all righty if
085there's no other public comment I would uh move to go to close session uh for 19851 f to consider and take action as appropriate personal histories of specific persons which if discussed in public would likely have a substantial adverse effect upon the reputation of such persons specifically reviewing And discussing confidential student information and open conditional enrollment second all right thank you thanks for giving us time to ask questions and comments thank you for coming R Joel