001So if you look at the 2526 budget column here, approximately 16,573. That's what we budgeted for this year. The actual is slightly different. That number I could get for you. I don't know have it on the top of my head. Um but it's somewhere in that range of 16,500,000. >> Is it >> the actual? I would have to check. Um since we don't have a state budget, we don't know, well, we're barely get necessarily getting for a do you think what's from what you are hearing from people who do the fiscal planning, would we think it would go up or it's just because of the whole kind of what we get is what Correct. So in terms of the expense driven aids, those are always they're never going to be exact, right? We do our
002best projections to figure out what we think we're going to get for expense driven aids. Um that we have a pretty good idea of the foundation aid is the piece that really is at the state level that are making determination of what that percentage increase is going to be. For whole harmless districts in recent years, it has been a minimum increase of 2%. So in our budget developments, that's what we have built in is roughly that 2% increase. If this the final state budget actually has us getting less, we are past that point, right? The web development process has been solidified. This will go out to voters. So these numbers are solidified. If we actually get less from the state, that just means next year we're getting less revenue than we have projected. That is
003something that I would be aware of in terms of how we spend money next year. We would have to be very cautious to make sure that we're now staying within what our new revenue amount is. >> You're welcome. I don't need the mic. I don't think I uh I am not an educator, but I have a family that's full of educators. One thing that I was curious about uh because it's my personal belief that with all of these categories, what really is at the heart of education is the student and the teacher and you talked about student enrollment going down and therefore the number of teachers going down. But do you have a sense of how that ratio looks this year or in the proposed year compared to previous years? So if there's three less
004teachers, does that mean that it's class sizes of 25 going to 27 or any kind of uh metric that might show that change? Did that make sense? It did. So then in terms of class size, you really have to look at it by building. And I don't have all those numbers in front of me. You can find that information in our budget documents from our program proposal or I can pull up and share it with you specifically after tonight's meeting. Um but you really want to look at it by um each building. Is it the elementary school class sections work differently than middle school or differently than high school? um in terms of total like if you just take the total number of students and total number of faculty staff and do a division if
005that's what you're talking about um it's not drastically different because again the enrollment number is going down slightly and we have over the past couple of years not filled some positions each year I will also add to that in terms of total number of um staff positions we added a number of positions during COVID because we received additional funds, co funds. Um, those funds expired a couple of years ago. We held on to some of those positions as long as we could to do the maximum amount of good work with those positions. With that said, looking at next year, the total number of staff were approximately where we were prior to co. So, the way, you know, we added some of these positions, we held on to some of them, but over time, we've also
006had to reduce back to get to the point kind of where we were prior to getting those additional funds. Um, if you want to know specific numbers in terms of ratios, I can certainly pull that for you. I just don't have it in front of you tonight. >> Okay. And you don't need to do that now, obviously. But I'm also just a little bit concerned with the terms tab. Uh, and my concern my concern is about is it staff? Is it classroom staff? I I don't know exactly how to make that differentiation, but to me it always made sense that the critical component is the person in the front of the classroom or maybe now they walk around a whole lot more, okay? And the student. So that's the ratio that really makes sense. And
007if you're saying to yourself, well, what this guy is saying is maybe administration is a little topheavy. I'm not saying that yet, but I think that's something that you always have to watch. Thank you. >> All right. Just a couple of general questions. Uh, do you get any federal aid? >> We do. percent about how much? >> So, federal aid is not factored into the budget that we presented tonight. So, everything that we presented tonight is general fund, meaning the amount that we um set as our budget for the year and then based really on the revenue side, the the taxes and state aid. In terms of federal, we do get title funding. Um that is entitlement grants. The total amount I would have to look up, I don't have that in front of me
008either, but it's under $2 million. It's it's not a huge number. Um the majority of that does go to some of our special ed programming as well as um teaching positions. >> Thank you. You're welcome. >> And another question would be um what generally goes into employee benefits. >> The biggest factor there is as I mentioned before the health insurance um and the prescription cost that goes with it as well. Um there's also Medicare and FICA and social security. Um and then if they're the teacher side it's the teacher retirement system on uh support staff it's the employee retirement system all goes into that number the most significant number there are the health insurance >> and lastly what is pilot p I t >> yep so pilot say it's payment in lie of taxes >>
009what does that mean >> so those are agreements that certain land owners have made with the county um so in place of having their their property assessed at a new higher level and paying taxes on that amount. They do what's called a payment in le of taxes and we get a separate payment that doesn't come through the process of collecting taxes. It's just a straight payment from that landowner to the district and they're usually um they're they're they have a specific time frame to them. >> Thank you. You're welcome. When does this mandate and is there any chance they're going to get? Also a good question. So currently the mandate is still on the books for 2728 meaning that 2627 the proposed budget that we just talked about would be the last year that we
010can purchase a diesel bus. The state over the past year has listened to feedback and certainly has gotten a significant amount of feedback from across the state. So they put out a waiver that districts could apply for and you had to demonstrate that one you were you were working on what it would look like for you as a district to do that. So we went through a study last year um that came to look at Greenville specifically and what it would look like for us as a district to implement EV buses. So part of the waiver you had to show you're actually working towards it um as expected. That paper we submitted sometime at the end of winter, early spring. Um, the state has said they will not be reviewing them until July, so sometime
011this coming summer. My hope is that we would get that waiver. From what I'm hearing from around the state is as long as you're able to show you meet the criteria that you fill out this form, the waiver form, which we did, um, that you would get that waiver. That waiver is good for two years. So, it pushes it out for us for at least two years. There's no guarantee there, but that's the current what the state has put out as an option for districts is the waiver. Yeah. So, Tracy's just reminding me the flip side of that mandate is that um by 2035 you can't be running any diesel buses at all. So right now 2728 is the year that we can't buy more diesel buses and then by 2035 we'd actually have to
012be done with diesel buses altogether and be all electric. Um some of the concern in my role is that while there's been conversation about shifting that starting point there has not been much conversation or talk about what happens on the other end of 2035. So that mandate holds. We also don't want to push off purchasing electric buses so far that then we're in a jam that in 2034 we have to suddenly purchase a huge number and not let that happen. But that is the other constraint that goes along with the topic of buses. >> How many buses do we have? >> Good question. somewhere in that range. So if this mandate does go and we have to buy buses, how many will be dying? >> Yep. >> So how are we going to move forward?
013>> When when we when we readjusted our bus replacement cycle a few years ago when the band came out um with the idea that 2728 was the first year that we would have to buy an electric bus. That replacement cycle currently right now has us buying one or two EV buses in if we were forced to. That's right. If the waiver didn't come through, that was what the original plan was. Um that bus replacement cycle then would have us replacing buses each year between now and 2035 to get to a point where we have all of them by 2035. Um back to Rich's point, hopefully the state has listened to this. The waiver is extending it. Hopefully the state listens to the concerns and makes further adjustments, but right now we're working with the information
014the state has put out to the best of our ability to to project and plan the best that we can. >> Do we know what 11 plus cost? >> We do. They typically cost more than three times what a diesel bus costs. So in the range of $400,000, it's a significant expense with that. They are paidable. So we would still get transportation aid on those purchases. We just still an increased expense. >> So what happens if we decide as a district to ignore that mandate and not purchase the buses or on it? So there's two pieces to this. One is for our facility, our actual physical facility, the campus to be able to do what it needs to for EV buses, we would have to do work with our infrastructure. And that was part of
015the study that I mentioned earlier. Part of that study included what we would have to do for facilities wise. So that's kind of part one because we don't want to if we get to a point where we are following the mandate and we're purchasing an EV bus, we also don't want to purchase an EV bus and bring it to campus and not be able to do what we need to do with it. Right? So part one is that facilities piece. To do that, that would require voter approval, right? The voters would have to approve a referendum that would include capital work to do that facility's work. So, that's one place that voters could put your vote to work and decline that offer or decline that referendum. Um, part two of that would be just like
016you saw in the the budget tonight, there is bus acquisition. So, when we get to the point where if it is an EV bus, that would be communicated. What you're voting on is the purchase of an EV bus. That's another opportunity is that voters have a chance to have their voice heard. Both of those scenarios have been many many times in terms of what happens if and there's still not a clear defined answer to that. Um, one of the answers for districts that maybe did do this and there was a no vote that was not part of the waiver. That was a question on that waiver form. Have you put up a referendum for EV bus infrastructure and it was voted down? If you checked yes, you got a point towards this waiver. Um, so
017in the short term, what that might do is just extend the waiver longer, but we don't know, right? Right now, the waiver is in place, but that doesn't mean it'll be in place in four years from now. We don't know. But in general, if there are other mandates aside from the EV bus mandate and the district decides not to follow a certain mandate, What happens? Do do we get fined? Do we lose out on aid? What what happens? So, it tends to be the threat is that you lose out on aid, whether that's transportation aid or other aid, is that happening now across the state? No. But if you're asking the question, what does the state have the ability to do to us as a district if we do not follow mandates? It is withholding
018aid. That is kind of that concern of what will that look like if they get. So, we have about two minutes. If there's one more question, if not, we will wrap it up. Again, if you have further questions, by all means, you can reach out to me or reach out to Daffhne at district office. We're happy to answer any of your questions. >> On this vote that we're taking seats, who gets the twoear I have that information. I'll be reading it aloud during your >> Oh, perfect. Perfect. >> I'm the moderator for your event and I have that answer to that. I'll be reading it aloud in just a few minutes. >> There's been a lot of conversation about that in the different variables for the different computation sections. Well, thank you