001I'd like to call the Lancaster Central School District budget session to order. In the unlikely event of an emergency, please note the fire exits. At this time, I would like everybody to please stand for the pledge of allegiance. Yeah. All right. Um, thanks everybody for being here. I will turn over the meeting to Miss Phillips. >> Well, thank you. Thank you for everybody's flexibility. Um, obviously this board this work session was scheduled for January 26th, um, but po postponed until today due to us having a snow day. So, thank you for making it here earlier than normal. Um, today is our first work session out of three that we have scheduled for the 2627 budget. Uh, I have Mike Barkski here, our director of facilities to assist me with um, some of the presentation. Uh
002Judy Feldmeer was also uh scheduled to be here for transportation um but is not feeling well. So I gave her a pardon from the meeting. Um so just a couple of things about our budget work sessions and I'll remind you probably at every work session. Um at this point any numbers that we're presenting to you are still estimates. Um what we do starting in December is start to put a budget together based on um estimates we get from various um you know people that we do business with. Um we're working on calculating salaries. We're getting um input from the buildings and the departments on requests that they have. We have staffing requests. Um, so until we get to that point midappril where we're asking you to approve a final budget, everything that we present is
003still a work in progress. So anything tonight is not first of all final in the budget and it is also not um the numbers might not be finalized. We may get for utilities for example. Um we've gotten a budget from our consortium but there they also said based on market conditions those budgets could change on a daily basis. So they'll give us another budget towards the end of February to use to help us shore up our numbers. Our health insurance plan um usually they come up with suggested premiums um based on about 18 months of data. So if we wait a couple more months, we have a better 18 months of data to use to help more accurately determine what the uh cost and premiums need to be for the following year. So, those are
004just a couple examples of it always just being a work in progress really up until when we're asking you to finalize and approve a final proposed budget. Um, the second thing is salaries. Um, we have every one of our collective bargaining unit agreements is expiring after this school year. So, normally what we're able to say is we've budgeted the salaries that that were negotiated for next year. At this point, we don't know what those are for any of the bargaining units. So, what we have done, and we may be able to change this as we progress through negotiations and the budget process, is we have used the uh negotiated rates for this current year as our numbers for next year also. So, all of those are also subject to change depending on where we're at
005with negotiations and how that progresses um as we go through the budget season. Um so, with all of that being said, uh tonight we are going to discuss a few portions of the budget. the buildings and grounds section, um the transportation section, the employee benefits section, and the debt service and inner fund transfers section. [clears throat] Feel free to ask questions as we go along. This is very casual. Um so the first section that we have is operations and maintenance, which is Mr. Barkski's section of the budget. I will turn it over to Mike to uh discuss a little bit about his department with you. Good evening everyone. Uh, as we begin the budget process for this upcoming fiscal year, I just wanted to provide a brief overview of the scale and scope of the
006buildings and grounds department for the district. The budget we're discussing tonight supports a team of 97 employees who are responsible for the daily operation and long-term preservation of 12 buildings totaling over 1 million square feet and 332 acres of district property. Our funding is directed towards six core areas that are essential to the district's operation and they are facility maintenance. This is our proactive approach to infrastructure. We manage the HVAC, plumbing and electrical systems. A wellunded maintenance budget allows us to address small repairs now before they become costly emergency capital projects later. Custodial services. This covers the daily cleaning of every classroom and office as well as waste management. It also provides the labor needed to facilitate the vast number of athletic events, meetings, and community activities that occur on our campuses throughout the year.
007Grounds maintenance. This supports the upkeep of all 332 acres, including our athletic fields and playgrounds. It also funds our winter response, ensuring we have the equipment and materials needed to keep our parking lots and walkways safe and open. Uh safety and compliance. These funds are dedicated to life safety. We manage the testing and certification of fire alarms, sprinklers, and extinguishers alongside the district security cameras and building access controls, equipment, and fleet management. To work efficiently, we must maintain a specialized fleet of vehicles and machinery. This portion of the budget ensures our tools are safe, functional, and reaching their full expected service life. And finally, emergency response. Uh the budget allows for 24/7 readiness. When a water leak or weather emergency occurs, we have the resources in place to respond immediately and minimize any disruption to
008instructional time. So, in summary, the buildings and grounds budget is an investment in the safety of our students and the protection of the district's physical assets. Our goal is to ensure the facilities remain a source of pride for the community and a safe, welcoming place for your students, for our students to learn. So, I wanted to thank uh the board for its continued support of of the buildings and grounds project. All right. With all that being said, I'm happy to report that uh this section of the budget does not have as big of a change as it sounds like it should have with how much that it accomplishes. Um the two codes that are within the facilities department is 1620, which is operations, and that um section of the budget is really about the daily
009operations within the school buildings. Um, and then 1621, which is maintenance. And that section of the budget is about site and other district-wide operations that aren't specific to a school building. Um, what we typically do is discuss the codes that are changing. Um, but certainly if you have any questions on any of the codes that we don't discuss, uh, speak up. So in both of these sections 1620 and 1621 the first few budget codes are related to salaries. So as I noted earlier we have budgeted for the um salary increases according to the um salary schedule. So we have incre uh we have increased salaries here by 3.5%. Now going through the other codes, um is for equipment and we are um expecting that to be reduced by $3,000. U Mike if you'd like to
010elaborate on what equipment's there. Of course. Uh it's basically um custodial this budget is our custodial equipment line. So, in in this line, we we basically either replace um any floor uh scrubbers um anything that's that's dedicated to the upkeep and maintenance of the of the school's facilities inside for the custodians. So, for this year's budget, we're looking basically hoping to um purchase a new um rider scrubber, uh a discato scrubber, um a number of vacuums to replace aging vacuum cleaners that are that are on their way out, uh carpet extractors, um a squeegee machine, um and a and a little small nanoge scrubber that one of the buildings had requested. So again, these are things that are for the for the upkeep of the buildings themselves. >> Thanks, Mike. Um 162400, which is our
011contractual expenses, uh Mike is estimating that that can be reduced by $2,500, uh based on what our current expenditures are and contracts are within that code. Um the next part, which is a big part of the change, um for the buildings and grounds budget, is utilities. This is something that we have an initial estimate on for both uh natural gas and electricity. Um but it will be everchanging. Um probably pretty close right up until we're approving the final budget. So um I think utilities is one of those like party topics that you avoid these days. Kind of like politics. Uh utilities I think everyone has something to say about them. Um for our natural gas, we're expect uh estimating a reduction of just under $86,000. Um for gas, the supply rates are down and the
012utility rates are down. So uh we are expecting to see a decrease in our budget there. And then for electricity, we are expecting to see an increase of $152,000. Uh for electricity, our supply rates are up by 9%. the utility rates are actually down. Um, our consortium is expect is estimating a 4% increase over our current rates. However, our current rates are much higher than what we actually budgeted for last year. So, that's where you're seeing the the biggest increase. So, um, between gas and electric, there's a little bit of those utility costs also factored into the transportation uh, budget for that line um, for that department and that location. But other than that, um, we're seeing the between the natural gas and electricity budget, u increase of a total of $72,000 when you combine
013the increase and the decrease for 162500 materials and supplies. We're estimating an increase of $40,000. Um, and that is really just related to consumption and current pricing. Skipping down to 1621200 equipment. Uh Mike has um put in equipment requests totaling $218,000 which is a $27,000 reduction um in this from this current year. I will let Mike elaborate on those. Uh for this budget year, we're we're hoping to purchase uh a new 18 ft box truck to replace uh one of our aging uh box trucks uh trucks T71 from 2016 as part of the vehicle replacement program that we've been uh implementing for a number of years now. Um we're also looking to purchase a new F250 plow truck to add to the fleet. um a 35- ft portable boom lift to help us maintain the
014lighting fixtures and anything else that's uh you know at a higher height. Right now what we do is we have to rent this equipment throughout the year. So it would be beneficial if we actually had it on hand on site. And uh lastly we're we're looking for a 20ft enclosed landscape trailer to help safely transport the landscape equipment to and from the various district buildings. for the board members that weren't here, um, which is none of you at that time, but when I first started working here, um, we c we had the board look at a vehicle replacement plan cuz we had, uh, almost all of our fleet was the same age and that age was old. Um, and as you can imagine with the salting and some of the work that those vehicles do,
015rust is a real problem. Erosion in those vehicles is a real problem. So we created a plan of you know gradually gradual annual replacements to try to put it on a cycle so we weren't in need of replacing our entire fleet at one time every you know 6 7 8 years. So we have um stuck to that. So we appreciate the board's foresight and committing to that. Uh but also as things get added in our district so you know we created a new transportation facility site. Um we have had to as we've done construction at our buildings create um lanes, emergency lanes um going around the entire district as we add sidewalks and curbs and parking lots and driveways as we have additions as we move the district office. the needs with um in terms
016of custodial support on the inside and facilities support on the outside and equipment and mostly for snow removal to be able to support those are also going to be evolving. So while we als while while we had the vehicle replacement plan, we've also added vehicles throughout um on top of what we already had to be able to um properly accomplish what we need to do to have school open every day. Uh the remaining things for this budget is increases in the contractual budget um between health and safety, beautifification of the grounds, um and other services for HVAC, um a lot of the software systems that run the buildings. All in all, that is a total of $31,000 um in increases. And that's just based on um thing our current expenditures um and our current contracts
017that we have. So overall between the two codes 1620 and 1621 uh we are estimating at this point just under a $300,000 budgettobudget increase and that would be 3.28%. Does anybody have any questions about this section of the budget or for Mike? >> Um yeah, just uh just a couple of comments. um you know in education we we talk a lot about curriculum and you know teachers and you know taking care of students but um this is really important thing you know stuff that you're you're talking about here um I really want to commend the you know the vehicle replacement program and you know you Mike you said earlier you we want to avoid those costly repairs right so a really sound budget that looks at these things on a year-to-year basis and not a
018you know an emergency mergency situation every you know seventh year where we have to increase taxes you know in a crazy way and you know I really commend the work that you know both of you are doing to to make this you know you know just a stable entity >> thanks Mike we certainly have enough in a daily basis to be reactionary to so it is nice where when when we can uh control certain things that we um don't need to be reactionary to um I will scroll Hold on. We'll move on to the transportation section of the budget. >> Can I give Mike a shout out real quick? >> Sure. >> So, it t the season a little bit. I just want to give Mr. Barkski, buildings and grounds just a little shout out.
019This time of year has been taxing and tough on everybody, transportation included, but uh Mr. Barkski and his crew have done a wonderful job keeping our parking lots, our walkways, our our our lanes clear and ready for access for our students. So, while the weather hasn't been uh necessarily uh cooperating, uh they do a fantastic job. We talked about the other day getting up early 3:00 in the morning to make sure things are where they need to be for our students, faculty, staff, parents to arrive. So, I just wanted to publicly say that to Mr. Barkski uh to pass along to his crew. >> They take a lot of pride in school not having to be closed because of them, [laughter] and that's never the reason. All right, so on to transportation. I'll give you
020some of the transportation department statistics in Judy's absence. Um, this year we are transporting 5,892 students to and from school um each day. 448 of these students attend private or prochial schools within and outside of the district's boundaries and we transport to those. We have 65 students transported by Western New York bus to 21 different locations. We have 326 routes and that those routes are accomplished by a total of 65 buses. Um these include AM and PM routes, midday and late runs, work study, uh late arrival routes for the high school, and also special education routes. Um, last year our buses traveled just over 1 million miles in the school year. 65 buses for context. We used to be at some >> Yeah, for context. Uh, Dr. Google just asked 65 buses. What did we
021used to be at? Um, in the 80s. So, uh, we could still be in the 80s if we had the personnel. So, I'll use this time as a shameless plug. We are hiring uh school bus drivers and school bus attendants. Lancaster schools is and has always been uh the number one wage for its support staff and that includes bus drivers. You're not going to get a better rate than Lancaster Central School District. Um we are doing paid training um and we'll happily welcome any applicant as soon as they would apply. Thank you. So Judy's budget is uh in three sections. 5510 which is for transportation of students uh 5530 which is the expenses related to operating the bus garage and 5540 which is contract transportation which is that 65 students that I mentioned that we
022have Western New York bus transport to various locations throughout Western New York. Um I already discussed salaries with you guys and that 3.5% there. Um for equipment 5510200 the estimate is a 1300 almost $1,400 reduction and the equipment that the department would like to purchase is a shredder for documents. Um and then that also includes camera replacements. Um, for the school buses, we have a sm a slight reduction in repairs and contracts. Um, just I guess reduction of $97 to reduce it by $97, which I can appreciate. Uh, for the bus garage 553,200 equipment, there is almost $20,000 reduction there. Um, what the department would like to purchase is a scrubber for the garage and then also a lift table to assist the mechanics. um with their bus repairs. We also have utilities here uh
023which I think I talked enough about in the in the facilities part of the budget, but similar trend uh reduction of $7,000 in the natural gas section and a increase of 13,500 for the electricity utility. And then for contract transportation, um we estimate at this point to have a similar number of students that were having Western New York bus um transport. We would be on year two of a potential 5-year contract with Western New York bus. And every year the that contract, the daily rate is allowed to increase uh by the CPI. So we are estimating just based on that CPI increase of the daily rate for the students uh to be an increase of hundred just about $107,000. So overall um one of our big cost drivers in this department other than salaries is
024uh fuel for the buses. Um we are wi well within that budget currently. We don't see a re a need to increase that for the following year. Um so overall the transportation budget is comes slight increase comes slightly under the facilities uh budget of $284,420 which is 3.22%. Does anybody have any questions on the transportation section? Um one thing I did forget to mention on the these are the exp this is the expense side. On the revenue side, we do receive transportation aid from New York State. So, just about all of these expenses are aidable at a percentage of 67 and a half%. So, um what we actually spend this year, we will get aid on for next year. So, you'll see on the revenue side, the transportation revenue, it's not based off of this
025budget, but it's based on what we're actually spending um this year. The next thing we have for transportation is the bus proposition, which would be typically proposition number two on the ballot. Uh we are proposing to purchase 565 full-size passenger buses at a cost of 919,150 plus legal fees if needed. The proposition would uh that we're we would propose to you is for $926,150. Um we have a bus purchase reserve and there is money in that reserve to cover this purchase. Um so if approved it would be at zero tax impact. Um this would be the last year unless waiverss are granted um for us to purchase fuelpowered vehicles. Um so this would be the last harrah. Um we typically get a 10 to 12 use year useful life out of all of our bus
026purchases. Um, if the legislation remains the same on the electric vehicles, we're going to need to keep uh this we're going to need to be fully electric in 2035. So, that would give us 9 years out of um these school buses. Um, any questions on that? All right, on to employee benefits. Um, this is probably the section that does evolve the most uh throughout the budget process for us, but these are some initial figures that we have. Um, please note that even since from January 26th when these documents were prepared for this meeting to today, um, some of these figures have already changed, but I've stuck with what was provided for the meeting on the 26th. So, I could already save some money on this, which is great news. Um, so in the employee benefits
027section is the employ the benefits for all of our employees. So, just under a thousand regular employees plus substitutes. The first two codes are the uh district's contribution to the pension system. Those are related. Those are percentages uh based on the salaries that we pay. So um social security as we all that's something we all get taken out of our paychecks. Payroll tax 7.65%. Um any change there the percentage hasn't changed. It's just as salary increases obviously um the amounts needed to pay the social the payroll taxes has to increase. Um for the two pension systems we've received estimates from New York State um for 9010 which is the employer ease retirement system the support staff uh this year's rate was 16.5% um and their estimate for next year is 17.6%. So this budget figure
028is increasing based on that increase in the percentage uh but also increasing based on the increases and salaries that we have throughout the rest of the budget. And 902800 is the teachers retirement system and that is where all the teachers and administrators fall under. Um this year's contribution rate is 9.59% and they're estimating a range between 8.25 and 8.75%. So, we budgeted for the 8.75%. So, um even with the increasing salaries, um the reduction in the contribution rate is leading to about an $80,000 reduction uh budget to budget for workers compensation. That is based off of our safety group and the New York State Insurance Fund. So, they've provided an estimate of next year's premium of just over $500,000, which is a $75,000 reduction. For context, about eight years ago, we were at a over
029a million dollars in premium there. We've worked really hard to improve our safety programs um in the district. And then obviously um claims and things like that help with lower lowering our experience rating and therefore our premium. Uh the other big change in this section is our hospital and medical insurance. Uh we are at this point estimating a 20% increase um in the budget um which is just over $3 million. We are a self-funded plan. So all of the expenses that are incurred by our employees and all of their dependents are direct expenses to the school district. Um and the premium needs to reflect um enough to cover to cover all of those expenses. So, it's pretty um industry specific here of 20%, most most places are seeing 10 to 20% increases in their premiums.
030I fully expect us to be able to fine-tune this a little bit and have it not be so high. Um but really based on pharmacy cost trends, uh we're really everybody's really experiencing these really large increases. So, um, the great news for this section of the budget, it is a $3.5 million budget to budget increase at this point, which is 11.39%. Uh, the great news is a lot of these expenditures are off can be offset in part or in full on the revenue side with some of our reserve funds. We have an ERS reserve, we have a TRS reserve, we have a workers compensation reserve, and we have an unemployment res insurance reserve. So, uh, depending on what we need to offset, whether it be the increase from year to year or just a portion
031of what the actual expense is, we do have revenue streams that assist with some of these um, expenses. Does anybody have any questions on the road benefits? Hold on. All righty. So, the last two sections of expenses that we have to present to you tonight is debt service and inner fund transfers. Normally, we don't talk about inner fund transfers, but we are this year, and I'll get to why. Uh so our debt service is related to all construction project debt that we've had um in the past. Um so as we have uh temporary financing during a project which are bond anticipation notes to when we permanently finance for the period of 15 to 20 years with serial bonds the premium and interest that is due every year um is budgeted here. So this year we
032have a $237,518 increase. Uh these numbers are pretty nailed down at this point because it's a debt schedule. Um the increase in the serial bonds is that our 2018 project um just finished up and we will be permanently financing that. So that goes those go from um vans to bonds. Um, and then the changes in the bond anticipation notes is based off of us starting our next project, our 2024 project and us being in phase one and by the end of this budget year, we'll be in phase two of construction mound project. So, the great news for this section of the budget is we are really pretty fully offset on the revenue side. Uh we receive building aid um based on this con these construction projects. Um and then we also have a debt service
033reserve where we do we make up most of uh the difference between the cost of debt service and building aid and that's how we offset the local share when we're doing capital construction projects. And then the last piece is inner fund transfers. Um this is a budget for money that we need to transfer from our general fund to other funds. So the transfer to special aid fund is directly related to our special education summer school. We have to account for those in the federal fund. Um but the money that we receive back to those for summer programs is an 8020 split. So this is the 20% uh that is the district's responsibility and because the expenses occurred in the federal fund that we have to send our 20% over uh to net out the expenses.
034There is an increase here of $300,000 uh because for longer than I've been here. We've always just budgeted $200,000 here. Um and the split is now about $500,000 of our cost. So, we're really just making that uh budget be more reflective of what we're actually needing to transfer. The second one is transfer to school lunch fund. Um, and that is going down by $39,000. Uh, prior to us being able to enact free meals for all. Um, if there was any lunch debt that was unpaid at the end of the year, the general fund had to pay that off. So, we were up to about $40,000 in lunch debt a year. Um, with not being able to refuse meals to people, uh, but then also not really having a lot of recourse in collecting, uh, on
035that, we no longer have that problem. Um, because the meals are free. Um, and so we left $1,000 in there just in case there's some charges that are not supposed to be allowed but still squeak by and we need to pay those off. uh but otherwise able to reduce that by $39,000. Uh the next one I'm going to skip. The last one is our capital outlay project for $100,000. Um those are little construction projects that were able to do through the budget if the budget is approved not to exceed $100,000. They have to be done within the school year. Uh this year we're doing some ceiling lights and soundproofing work in the middle school cafeteria. Um, next year we would be proposing to do some camera replacements and additions across the entire school district. The
036uh environmental review resolution is on your agenda for tonight. So, if approved, that would be what we're planning we're hoping to do for next year. And then the reason why we're adding this section to the review tonight is the transfer to capital in the amount of $16 million. I believe we talked about this at your board retreat. Um, but this is the $16 million that voters approved in 2024 to go towards the next the capital project that we've just started. Um, so while they approved us using this reserve money, um, we now have to have it in the budget because we actually have to make the transfer. Um, so $16 million is there. Just off the bat, regardless of what other increases I've talked about tonight, our budget to budget from this year to next
037year is going to be $16 million increase no matter what based off of this. Um, so I think we're going to have to do some planning and education and making sure we're letting people know what that is about. Um, the great news is in 2728 is that goes back down to zero because we'll have made the transfer and the money will be where it needs to be. So in 2728, our budget without even starting that process is going down by $16 million. Any questions on that? All right. How may I do it on time? >> Oh, plenty. Perfect. All right. The last thing we have to discuss today is state aid. uh the governor's uh budget. She had her state of the state in mid January and about a week later we got our figures
038based on um what her her proposal was. Um so in the governor's budget overall um she's proposing to increase school aid across the state by uh $1.3 billion very similar amount to last year. That is a 3.6% 6% um increase in aid to education. Our foundation, their foundation aid across the state. Um the increase is totals about $780 million. Um and really last year they did some formula changes. This year it is really just based on the current formula and then plus a 1% minimum increase for all districts. Other than that, there's no changes to expense-based aids or any formulas. Uh, one of the other really big things in her budget um is to increase the amount that districts will get for universal pre kindergarten. Um, but that is not part of our general fund
039budget, which I'll elaborate a little bit more on. So, how does it pan out for Lancaster for the governor's budget? Um, we are expecting based on these numbers a 1% increase in foundation aid which is $335,000. Um, our expense-based aids, since the formula didn't change, they're based on our expenses this year and what their estimates are. Um, but as you know, we go through this every year. there's several sets of numbers we need to talk about here and that their estimates aren't always the right estimates to use for our budgeting process. So, just to give you a little bit of the remind you of the lay of the land here, the top half of this page is what our actual aid is this year. I've crossed off all the universal prek and the two areas
040on here because that is not part of our general fund budget. doesn't mean we're not getting it, but it's not something we're talking about as part of the budget process. Um, and then the bottom half of this page is what the governor's estimate is based on their proposal for aid to Lancaster schools. So, all in all, foundation aid, as I said, an increase of $335,000. um our Boseies aid, you recall the project that Boseies is doing on Dick and Walden. Um there are costs associated with that and those costs are not yet included in the in the state aid estimate. Um so I was able to increase that budget uh by about $200,000 based on what we know for from BOSIES. um our expense based aids, excess cost aid, um hardware and technology. We're going
041to take the estimates that they've provided. Um our building aid, sorry, our transportation aid is first. Our transportation aid is always overstated. um context, they usually it's usually about $800,000 to a million dollar overstated than what we actually get. Um so we are going to initially budget for about $6 million instead of $6.8 million. Um, and then our building aid, we're increasing our estimate in the budget uh to $7.35 million as opposed to uh the $7 million that they're proposing. Um, we have a calculation of when our building aid starts on each project. Um, the the database the data and the database that the governor's run uses is from November, but we submitted some final cost reports in December. Um, so we are due aid on those projects. They just don't didn't know about them
042technically. So they're already processed. If you look up the report on building aid, it shows those projects now, but it's not included in that um calculation. So we are able to add about $350,000 to this total uh based on what we know better. Um, so all in all, I'm expecting I'm initially estimating uh based on the governor's proposal 56.8 million in state aid. And that's compared to 56.5 million um this year, which is not really that great of an increase. Just over $300,000. Um, I think I've said the great news like 72 times today, but I have one more time to hit you with the great news. Here's the great news. Last year's budget was at state budget wasn't on time. Um, so they finalized and approved a budget like the second week of May
043and as you know, we have to finalize our budgets for the vote um midappril. Um, so what we used in our budget was less than what we were actually getting. So when you look at actual versus what we're estimating, it does not appear to be that big of a difference. $376,000 if you will. When you compare it to what we budgeted for this year, um, to what I think initially we should be budgeting for next year based on the governor's proposal is actually an increase of $1.2 $2 million. So, that's the great the greatest news that we've talked about today. Um, one other thing that I wanted to mention on the body, you'll see that it's starred. Um, I mentioned the UPK being a big part of the governor's proposal this year. Uh, they are
044proposing to increase the the per pupil amount. So, currently we receive $5,400 per pupil um from New York State with a cap of uh $999,000 is our total maximum grant amount. Um and the governor's proposal has that figure going from 5,400 per student to $10,000 per student. There's some caveats with that. By 28, I believe it is 2829, we would have to offer full day K to everyone in our district that wants it. PreK, sorry, not K. We're already offering full day K. Full day preK to everyone in the district that wants it. So, you know, if we're averaging 450 students per incoming class, uh right now we're serving just under 200 kids. Um, so we we would really need to more than double probably the program. Yeah. Yeah. No half day. It would everyone
045would have to be full. >> Yes. Yeah. 36. >> So this is We haven't had more discussions about this cuz we don't know if this is going to pass. This is one of those things that we're going to obviously need to wait to see what is in the final budget and how that pans out. And then we're going to need to have discussions with our provider um for rates for the next school year and then coming up with a plan if that is the requirement uh to be able to serve more students. Um this prek was created the year after I started my career and it was under the opice that it was the total amount of the grant was going to increase every year. The total amount that you got per student was going
046to increase every year. So they're like every year we're going to give you more money to provide to provide the program to more students and the amount that we give you per student is going to increase. This is the same amount. The amount we're currently getting is the same amount we've gotten that entire time. So 20 years. Uh, so they are finally putting like some things in place to get that aid per pupil to maybe a more reasonable amount per pupil. Um, but it's also very fast with and then it has strings, you know, tied to it. So, we'll see. We'll worry about that um when we need to worry about it, which is when we know what ends up in the final state budget. Um, and like I said, this is not part of
047the general fund budget. Um, so really does not have any impact on the budget proposal that we would be putting out to the community. Um, I think that's all I have. Does anybody have any questions? >> Ju just another comment. Uh Jamie, you know, it is really nice to be able to pretty much know that you've got all of these things not only memorized, but you're strategically thinking about this year after year and 5 years in advance. Um so I really appreciate the the level of work that you do on these budgets uh because it makes uh our job so much easier. >> Thanks. Yeah, I think one one thing to just remember is that we are such a large district, so there's a lot of moving parts that we have in our budget as
048well as just day-to-day operations to try and get kids into school warm and, you know, able to be educated. Um, so especially with us wrapping up one pretty large capital project and then rolling directly into the throws of our largest capital project in history. Um, there's just a lot of moving parts. So, I appreciate the work you've done. Um, I know that as we kind of go through the budget sessions, we wind up getting closer and closer to a final number. I know a lot of things are up in the air right now, but um you know, for the last, you know, decade or so, the the district is in really good financial a really good financial spot and it's it's because of the work that your office does and because everybody um all the
049department heads are willing to be responsible with the money that they do get. So, appreciate it. Does anybody else have any questions or comments? Okay. And the great news is, >> I'm sorry, that's not really my tagline, but apparently it is tonight. Uh, the great news is I have you guys to appreciate the work that I'm doing. So, thank you very much. Um, our next work session will be March 9th, and that is when we talk about most of the budget, the instructional part of the budget. We'll also talk about staffing requests um Boseies expenditures for the year and we will also have a tax cap calculation for you at that meeting. >> Thanks. >> Okay, if nobody else has any other questions, we can adjourn the budget session to prepare for the regular session
050meeting. Can I have a motion to adjurnn? >> All those in favor? Anyone against? Motion carries.