001So what the public is different? >> Yes. >> Yeah. It's kind of blurry. You must have your background. Check and see if we have any You decide the title. >> Yeah. [Music] word. [Music] >> Are you guys ready to start down there? Good. Okay, if we could stand for the pledge of allegiance. >> I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> We did not have any public comments today. We do have a special budget presentation. Kimberly, if you're ready. If no one objects, I'm going to stay right here for it. That'll be easier for me, but I do have slides on the screen for you all. So, this is just our initial
002budget numbers as of right now. Um, I will start by saying these might change by the time we get to September. Um, and I'll explain that as we go through our 2026 budget. We do need board approval for the following funds which we appropriate which would be our education fund, our operations fund, the rainy day fund, and our debt service fund. We have some budget assump assumptions that we're working with. So until our October um official count date for this school year, we are getting state funding based on 1092, which would have been what we um ended or had landed on for our February count date. Um, our 2022 demographic study series B, that was our midline results, um, projected that we would be at 1053 for this school year. I am very happy to
003say that enrollment as of this morning was 11:05. Now, we know we'll still have some fluctuation there before official count date again in October, but this is very promising news for us. Um, our certified net assessed value for our taxing districts has also increased very nicely in 2026 to $710,288,660. For budget purposes, um, it is recommended widely to use 85% of this number to kind of guard against downward fluctuations. I was just on the phone with um Baker Tilly, our financial adviserss, and this was this was a a very nice increase for us CNAV wise, and we should not expect to see this again with um kind of the property tax cuts that we have coming our way and the caps for um especially farming properties. Uh this is probably going to be the highest
004that we'll see for several years. Uh some one other promising thing though is that we do have some housing that has been approved. Um so that could help us as well. Okay. So we'll get into actual budget numbers. Um again we're being funded on 1092 until October. I am basing budget numbers on 1091. I'm being um I'm just being a little cautious at this point. I don't want to go all the way up to that 11:05. Again, we'll still see some movement, but that budget number could change a little bit as we get to our September board meeting and I feel a little bit more comfortable with our enrollment number. Um, you will see kind of our our biggest factor there is our basic tuition or our per pupil tuition that we get from the
005state. We have some other things factored in um for a total based on the 1091 of 9,233,653.79. I have put on every slide um what we would have budgeted for last year. So for FY2025 you'll see that we did base that on 1102 um and we were that budget number was um higher than what we see. Now I will say our per pupil amount that we're going to get this year in 2026 will increase from what we saw in 2025 and that is largely because the state has now factored in those curricular materials per student. Um, so that's rolled into our basic tuition support. It's not going to be a separate payment that we see once a year. Uh, I will not go through all of these, but this is just a reminder of what
006our allowable expenses are from our education fund. Um, largely this is compensation for employees, teachers, care professionals, things like that. our operations fund. So we are maxed for our um maximum levy growth quotient at 4%. So our property tax levy can only go up 4%. So what you see there for property taxes is the max that we would be able to levy for this year. We have some other miscellaneous revenue that the county has officially um put out for us. this um we do need to be cautious with this because even though we see these numbers, we're not guaranteed the amount that you see up there on the screen. Um I will say that property tax cap impact normally we don't see that number very high here for Central Noble. Um but that is factoring
007in the changes the homestead credits and changes that they do expect us to see um from the changes from Senate Bill 1. So you'll see our total for this 2026 budget is a 3,942 and48. Um that's down from over 4 million for our 2025 budget. So we've kind of been saying our operations is where we're going to feel it the most and I'm definitely seeing that in our budget numbers. Again, I won't go through all of this, but this is our allowable operations fund expenditures, um, transportation, central office staff, insurance, things like that. Our rainy day fund, we do always appropriate a a couple hundred,000. We do 200,000 utilities, 300,000 personnel services. These are things like retirement, severance packages, things like that that it's hard for us to plan for year-to-year. So, we give ourselves
008a little bit of flexibility. We hardly ever spend up to that 400,000. Um, but it we just kind of keep it the same. So that's the same as what we would have seen last year. And then debt services. This is the only place we're going to see an increase to our budget. So we will have some new debt this fall and I will briefly go over general obligation bond um information here in a moment. Um, so we we are going to have some debt fall off in December. So, to keep our tax rate relatively stable, we're going to have to take on some more debt. We're looking at a geo bond. Um, I will say that I just wanted to give a reminder that bond funds can only be used for capital projects in nature.
009Um, so we cannot use those funds for day-to-day expenses or salaries. Um, but if we we're increasing our debt service payments here, which means we'll see more pro or from taxes come our way to help cover these debt service payments. But that's the that's the only but we can't spend those just for everything. That's kind of a hard This one's hard, but that's the only increase we see to our budget because we're taking on more debt. So, this is our kind of initial budget proposals. Um, you'll see our proposed advertised budget. Um, you'll see our anticipated funding. We never want to go fully over that anticipated funding just in case we don't see it. Um, so everything will kind of come in under or right at which is the debt service you'll see. And then
010I did put FY2025 up there. So again, here's where I want to point out that our total proposed advertised budget for FY26 is lower than our 2025, but it doesn't look on the screen up there that much lower. And the the key point there is that our debt service is actually going up from our 2025 debt service. Um, if we did not if we were not taking on more debt this fall, we would have a difference of $31,346 less from last year. Um, so that's where some of these cuts that we have had to make will really come into play so that we can fit within that budget. This is the form three. We will officially put our form three on our website tomorrow for taxpayers to be able to see. Even if if some
011of our numbers do change a little bit, um, those rates are still completely in line with what Baker Tilly um, is thinking as well. I was very appreciative that they looked all of this over for me. We'll also post our capital projects information and our bus replacement plan on our website tomorrow morning after this board meeting. Next steps. Um so again, we'll do some posting tomorrow, September 8th. I do have a meeting with our new DLGF representative. So again, with some guidance from the state, some of this could change before that September 15th meeting. that is where we will conduct the public budget hearing and then octo our October board meeting whatever they that does land on um we'll officially do our 2026 budget adoption. Any questions from the board? Again, this is initial. We
012have more information, but this is just kind of initial where we're landing for now. And that enrollment is the is a key piece that's huge for us. >> Any other questions? >> Okay. Thank you. >> Uh does that include Did you do the next >> if Yep. If you're ready, we'll go right into bond if you would like. >> This one I'm going to be very brief about. Um I did just speak to Baker Tilly and they are willing to come to our September board meeting. So we'll get you more information there. This is just a very quick kind of what we're thinking. So this is our ex existing debt service payments. You'll notice that um after 2025 in December, we do have quite a bit of debt falling off that we will be um
013that we will have paid off. So if we do not bond sometime this fall, our 2026 tax rate would decrease drastically. And it's important for us and our community to keep this stable. Um, so then you know it's not shocking if we if we have to take on some debt or anything like that. We just we keep it stable and we use it for the projects that we need. So if as you can see we've kind of kept it around that 80 82. If we would not take any more debt, our tax rate would drop down to the 7353 um for next year. This with our net assessed value, it kind of gives us with our debt that we have falling off. This is what they're estimating the just under four million to be our
014geo bonding capacity. Um we don't really want to take the full amount. Um, so it it it's going to be less than this, but that is what they're saying our our max would be at this time. We do have some different scenarios that they've given us. And really the only change is the repayment terms. I'll explain that here on the next slide. So if we have um our tax rate with both scenarios would remain stable. So, as long as we um can get this geo bond going and and have it sold sometime this fall, we'll keep it steady at that 80 cents going forward, which is important. Um scenario A, which would be a repayment in 9 years, has higher payments and we wouldn't be able to have any bonding capacity until 2035. Um so
015that's a little bit scary just with the climate that we're in. the longer repayment is not quite as high of payments each year and it would allow us some flexibility. So in 2027 for 2028, we would be able to do some bonding again if needed. Personally, I like to have that flexibility there just because again there's been so many changes. There could still be changes. This gives us, you know, in a couple years if those bus costs keep going up and we have 20 2028 is going to be a high transportation year for us. We have three buses we need to replace. Um, so I could see us needing to bond just for buses alone. That would be my recommendation, but we will this is not the first time you're going to be or this
016is the first time you're hearing about it. It won't be the last time you're hearing about it. Um this is just kind of that graph but in um number form. Um so kind of going through if we have shorter repayments, what our capacity could be, things like that. Um and that's really it for our initial bond information for you all. Um next steps, we'll be working to kind of determine our most needed capital projects. One thing we know is that we need a best garage. Our lease is I think already exhausted. Wasn't it January of this year? >> Yeah. So, Leatherman's um we've leased from them for years now. Um they're kind of wanting to use that building um for some of their business that they're doing. They're in no way, shape, or form kicking
017us out, like they are letting us stay there. But, um I think if the sooner that we can do our own building that's that's meant for buses, um the facility that we have, it it it works, but it's not meant for buses. Um, and so there are some issues that come along with that. So, um, I think having our own bus garage, um, being able to not have that lease payment every month, um, going out will be beneficial to us. Um, and then be able to get whether that's their their building for their business that they So, >> and we have looked at a couple of other places for in terms of leasing the space for a bus garage and it's just not big enough. Yeah, it's not what we need. >> Yeah, we've had
018a couple people come to us saying, "Hey, we have this space if you want to look at it." It's just um it it it's not for buses. Buses take a lot of space and to be able to maneuver them around and get them up in the air to fix them and all that. So, that is why we would be looking at that to do. >> Hey, Robbie, do we have plans to put this on? >> So, we actually have a couple options here still on our campus. Um the one where we've looked at the proposed daycare um before that already has all the soil samples done, all the >> survey done on it. That could be one option and that's where the middle school football team practices just off to softball behind the softball football
019>> out between the baseball and softball fields, right? >> Um no, further back. So, um, where the softball parking lot is, if you're going where the middle school practice field is, not the high school field. >> Okay. So, to the >> housing. >> Yes. >> Yep. So, there or to be back, but there the hill back behind the soccer field presents a challenge. If we were wanting to look at that space, there would be a lot of extra costs of moving dirt for that. So, >> Sure. Yeah. In in my mind, it makes sense to make this building big enough to service the buses. Also make a spot for central office. If we could squeeze the daycare in there or somehow also that would be great, but I know that's probably going to get into
020the financial things too. Yeah. >> But when you're when you're talking large construction projects or you can combine them better as far as mobilizing crews and all that kind of stuff, in the end it'll end up saving us money if we get them all three in one spot. Yeah, we have asked who we work with ABM to give us different options including putting central office in there, not putting it in there, coming back with those numbers. So, those will all be as we get further into items up for discussion. >> Yep. And then we'll have a project hearing at our September 15th. This will kind of just go right in line with our budget. Um and then our October board meeting will um do our adoption uh for the final bond resolution. Just a timeline
021for you all. Any questions from the board? >> Thank you. Thank you. Uh we can move on to consent items. Approval of minutes from the July 21st regular session meeting. Approval of the July 10th and July 25th payroll and claims from July 22nd through August 18th. Personnel acceptance of resignation of Jamie Warman, CN Junior Senior High English teacher. Kylie Hermanson, CN primary first grade teacher. Cheyenne Wormcastle, sped route bus driver. Brandon Wormcastle, sub bus driver. Tanya Chittistister, child care assistant. Peter Rogers, varsity boys tennis coach, Vicky Neper, senior high yearbook sponsor, Matt and Vicky Neper, junior class and prom sponsors. Clint Ferris, cross country head coach. Amanda Mayhoer, librarian, David Breamer, second grade teacher. Recommendation to hire Amy Dalbus, CN Junior Senior High English teacher. Sorry, Lorie Sprag, CN Junior Senior High English Teacher. Morgan
022Kaufman, part-time CNP paraprofessional. Cordell Hoover as part-time grounds maintenance. Brandy Lei as librarian. Bessie Pridemore as junior senior high LD para profofessional. Natasha Rener as junior senior high LD paraprofessional. Samantha Broomball as CN elementary sped paraprofessional. Riley Paris as CN elementary paraprofessional. Dakota Davis as CN elementary parah professional fall coaches Tiffany Marsh as varsity cheer head coach Whitney Berley as seventh grade volleyball head coach Alexandra Berley as varsity boys soccer head coach Ernsburgger as junior high soccer head coach Riley Paris as junior high soccer assistant coach. Please note that the following volunteer coaches were also approved. football, Brad Bab, Riley Bamer, Tyson Deck, Bobby Fish, and Robbie Morgan. Volleyball, Payton Boots. Soccer, Dylan Gaff, Cheer, Sarah Tigner, and Desiree Berdett. Um, may I have a motion? >> I I'll make a motion. >> Second. >>
023I'll second. >> All in favor? >> I >> opposed. Passes. Uh Jared Pipper abstains from the following motion. Recommendation to hire Bob Kipper as part-time grounds maintenance. May I have a motion? >> I'll second. >> All in favor? >> I >> opposed. Passes 40. >> I'll just put in a plug for that one for Corey and for Bob. We got two really good hires that come in part-time to fill that time. Both of them have extensive HVAC, plumbing, electrical um to kind of help fill those gaps. Like Charlie, who is a wizard of all things, they're trying to figure out how to fill that position. Um we're lucky enough to be able to have these two guys with a wealth of knowledge in those areas to come in and fill in part-time, um still keep
024us under what we work paying, um and actually get a few more man hours out of it. um as they're each up to five hours a day and Charlie was only eight. So about two more man hours a day out of it. So kind of worked out good in our favor. >> Good. >> And we've leaned on Corey's several times in the past. Um anyways, because when we have issues that our maintenance couldn't figure out, he was kind of our go-to. And so now he's in house. So he's been doing it in a different capacity. Um action items. Recommendation to approve amending board meeting dates as follows. Move October 20th to October 13th due to fall break conflicts. Eliminate January 12th due to changes in state law. >> So the October one we talked about
025moving it later. The problem with that became then all the board packet agenda was due during fall break when everyone was gone and so there's no one to do it. So, so we're moving it beforehand so that way we can be able to get the agenda. >> Sense. >> Uh, may I have a motion for that? >> Second. >> I'll second. >> All in favor? >> I >> oppos. Passes 5-0. [Music] Recommendation to approve obsoleting items. Read 180 obsolete curriculum. Go math obsolete materials. May I have a motion? >> Second. >> I'll second. >> All in favor? >> I >> oppose. Passes 5-0. Recommendation to approve adjunct teaching agreement for Martha Hedges Junior Senior High Spanish. May I have a motion? >> I'll second. >> All in favor? >> I >> opposed. Passes 5-0. Jared
026Kipper abstains from the following motion. Recommendation to approve conflict of interest for Jared Kipper, school board member, and Bob Knipper, part-time Browns maintenance. May I have a motion? >> I'll make a motion. >> Second, Ryan. All in favor? I >> I >> oppose. Passes 40. Recommendation to approve out of state overnight field trip for FFA to attend Premier Leadership Training in Trafalgar, Indiana, August 22nd through the 24th. May I have a motion? >> Uh, we'll take Ty. Second, Jason. >> All in favor? I opposed. Passes 5-0. >> I just thought he was voting already. >> I couldn't see his hand. >> Uh, Mr. Morgan, on to superintendent comments. >> Yep. So, um, we talked earlier about some public work sessions coming up for some different things that we're going to have to discuss. Some of
027that includes our upcoming projects. Some of that includes what we look at to do with the primary building. to keep open while we bring everybody over. So, just have some ideas um working that way. So, those were for October and then also November I think um is when Mrs. Lemon was going to come back and talk about her ideas. Um so, we have some of those. Um one of the things that I wanted to talk about today I results were finally um released. Um and I'm happy to report that uh we had about an 18% increase over last year. Um so we're up to 85.5% of our third graders that were passing I read which I believe tied us for tops in our county. Um and for growth in kind of northeastern Indiana put us
028number one. So our teachers students are working really hard. Um, currently last year's second graders were allowed to take the I read uh and of the second graders that were here last year. We only have 19 remaining that need to pass the I read. So these are some of the kids that group of third graders last year was the first group when we started our amplified curriculum. So I think we can see some benefits from that come through. So hopefully we can continue to trend upwards. We have 19 left. We got some work to do, but if we can get all 19 of them to pass, we can I think the 95% that the state has set is a really good shot of us for being able to get. So um but that's been a
029lot of hard work, a lot of effort. Our K through three teachers and all of our teachers put in a lot of work with getting those kids ready for the IRA assessment. So um we're really pleased with that. Um, going back to uh where Kim was talking with some of um our budgeting, just kind of update you on where we're at on our estimated savings, which are estimated that are fairly close. We still have some moving parts that we're trying to get, but of our operations fund, we're at about $115,822.96 that we have managed to save out of our budget. And then our education fund. Um, this one's the one that's going to fluctuate a little because we may need to get u some pair professionals to fill in some some roles, but we're about
030$281,521. So, those two funds. So, uh we're making some headway. Good news with the enrollment um going up. So, hopefully that will hold true to our counts. Um, so we're we're very happy about that. Pass that. I think that's all that I have for my comments. I'll move on to our principles that are here. Mrs. Her, >> we've had a good start. Um, key has been flexibility. You know, with fifth grade coming in, sometimes you don't know what you don't know until it happens. But they've been great about communicating. We've adjusted and um, made those changes and really working well as a team. So, we're reposting ahead. >> What? >> Uh, same with second grade. Uh, it's been a a relatively smooth transition so far. Um, getting to know those kids. Uh, twothirds of our
031students are new to the building this year. So, that's been interesting. The teaching procedures. Couple big things for us. Uh, picture day is coming up Thursday, uh, the 21st, which is literally right here. Um, and then the other thing I wanted people to know is, uh, transportation in the back and in the front appears to be going, again, knock on wood, fairly well. We had our last student off campus today by 3:29, uh, down from like 3:45 the first day. Uh, and we're hoping to continue to do that. And I'm I'm in the back. Uh, and I know Miss O'Donnell is usually inside when I get in, so it must be, I'd say, two to three minutes faster in front. So, I wouldn't say it's great, but I would say compared to where we were
032at this point last year, uh, parents are pretty pleased. I think just where we are at this point. So, we welcome 76 kindergarten students and 90 first graders. So, our class sizes are holding pretty strongly where we want them to be. We kind of fluctuated with kindergarten. At one point, we were hitting 80 and then we lost some and gained some. that kind of always happens and we never really know until school starts how many we actually have in seats. But just like Sean and Mary said, we're off to a really good start. Having one less grade level in the building seems a little weird. Um, but it does give us a little more flexibility on how we do things during the day and I think transportation's going well with our littles. We haven't Sean,
033we haven't lost any yet, have we? >> Not yet. >> Okay. We might have gotten into the wrong place, but we have not lost any. So, that's a good thing. No, I think we're off to a really good start. >> Amy is not here for transportation, but transportation is actually, I think this year, been the smoothest that it's been so far. Um, day one was a little after 3:30 that we left. By day two, it was kind of almost within a couple minutes of when we normally would be a long time and we've been out pretty smooth last couple days. So, uh, that seems to be going well. >> How's the walks out? the new walk zone. >> Um we've put out uh several communications asking for them to use the light crossings. So have
034some kids using crossings down. Um we did have one concerned parent come in. Um the problem becomes it's out of our jurisdiction at that point and Mr. Cole can correct me if I'm wrong. Right now, the only people that can put uh crossing guards that can stop traffic would be public border of works, town council, local police department if how their laws allow. So, that that's past ours uh jurisdiction. So, um I think we probably need to have some discussion with the town council on how we could maybe work together because we still have quite a few I'd say 15ish or so kids crossing anywhere from Jefferson to Highland, not coming down to the light. Um and so, um while there are crosswalks there, there's not any like actual crosswalk where you can hit the
035button and go across. So, >> hey Robbie, what age are you for those kids? I'd say it's all like can't move. >> I none of them that I have seen would be like kindergarten first. It would all be like elementary and older. >> Elementary, middle school, high school kids. >> So kids are older. >> Yeah. >> Nobody used to crosswalk. >> Yeah, it's fun. And I mean I get it. If I was a kid, I would probably cross there too because I'm not going to walk another block. But it is there. >> Yeah. We put communications out. So At this point, I'm kind of at a loss for what we can do because legally we can't do anything. >> Can you share what the parents concern? Other than their kids walking by the >> I
036think just there not being a crossing guard at that spot even though Kim was there. Um she can't stop traffic. >> She can't do it. She can't really do anything, right? >> Yep. And so I had actually called our attorney today to talk to him a little bit. he's looking into because technically the school's liability ends when our supervision ends. So, it'll be when they leave our property, but then if we're posting people down there, um he's now got a little concern about where our liability would lie. Um if we have people down there supervising, so he's going to look more into that and get back to us. >> I assume we directed the concerned parent to go to town council with their concern. uh would be sent down to town hall and I don't
037know what came about withations. [Music] >> They sent him back to transportation. So we need to have discussion there. Yeah, we need to get probably to make sure that the lines of responsibility are are well known by all all the town, the schools, the cops, whatever marshals, not the cops, but >> just so question length of bus routes. Are we okay there? Yeah, I don't know that there's anybody that's on the bus longer than >> 45 minutes to an hour >> and it it might have felt longer this first week just with but I don't think that yeah >> get on pick up speed a little more. So the first couple days week or so is always slower just because some new routines but it gets quicker as they go. I think that's more than
038acceptable. I was in high school, I rode the bus for an hour and 10 minutes. From the time I rode the bus to junior high all the way through high school. So >> our son has an hour ride home and I think Wednesday, Thursday was a little longer, but by Friday he was back to his normal time frame. Anything else? Any other board questions? Did we miss anybody at the staff? meeting is adjourned at 5:33 p.m. >> Thank you all. Appreciate the extra effort. >> Thank you. Turn out.