001I am announcing that we actually have a quorum tonight. I would like to call the April 23rd budget committee meeting to to order. I don't do it as loud as um I'm Vice Chair Morin Miltonberger. Uh, director Lacatur is not able to make it tonight. Um, we have a mission statement that I would like to read motivating and preparing all students to reach their greatest potential. I'd like to welcome the public. So many people here tonight and all the people out in uh out there um and patrons and press and all those people. Welcome. Could everyone please stand for the pledge of allegiance? I pledge allegiance to the flag. Okay. Could we please have the attendance? Chair Lacatur. Vice Chair Milenberger present. Director Barnett present. Director Cole present. Director Habberly present. Director Pimlot. Student Representative
002Malli Laid, Student Representative M. Sheamus Burke, present. Now to the budget committee members. Jasmine Lewis, budget chair. Lisa Wal Walter Sedic, budget vice chair, here. Ron Priestley, budget member here. Jennifer Wagner, budget member. Here. Shelby Ericson, budget member here. Okay, thank you. Next, we have public comment. Do we have anyone signed up for public comment at this time? Seeing none, seeing none. Okay, we're going to move right into budget discussion and I'm going to turn it over to our budget vice chair. This is vice chairman's night, people. I'm going to turn it over to Lisa Walder. No, we're good. We're good. Yeah. Okay. I'd like to open the budget meeting and at this point we're going to be doing questions and answers. And so let's move right into that. I was thinking we could go.
003Do you want to go around and like that or have uh what would be the best? Jennifer Wagner had sent some questions in and um they've been answered and that might be a great starting point or my free can you put those up on the screens please? I think one of the first questions was about what um was asked by the learning lessons the the staff budget input. Did you want to would we like to go over that and discuss what we feel got done and maybe what's been incorporated from this year? Sure, that'd be great. Okay. Yeah. Okay. So, within the document that you have on your screen and also up on the big screen, uh the 2425 staff budget input notes um are linked on the website. Um and uh there's a complete
004list there. It's about 30 pages worth of suggestions. Uh but within that we have fulfilled the following items uh from late last year and into early this year. um along the list. Um uh again, so you've got your fulfilled suggestions or requests, district mental health counselor, um increased credit recovery of certified FTE, uh middle school Alex subscription, uh elementary math manipulatives and career and curriculum supplies, uh privacy screens for health rooms at uh elementary and high school. um placing uh stools in the uh science labs, multiple rooms at the high school. Uh CT budget for the natural resources program. Uh general supply increase for life skills high school. Uh CT budget increase for culinary art supplies high school. Uh digital clocks for gym at high school. Uh we have middle school general increase in art
005supply. A specific $5,000 increase was requested. Um, new PE equipment for middle school is requested. Can I jump in real quick? Yeah, I don't think you have to go through the list. I think the primary point of the question was what comes of those meetings that we have with those teachers, with those staff members because it felt like I've been doing, for example, I've been doing this for two years and I've gone to multiple of those meetings. Unfortunately, this year I did miss some because of my workload, but it felt like those meetings weren't going anywhere. What do we do to follow up from those meetings and present to those staff members what we heard, what we can do, what we can't do, and what we're working on. That's the I think that's the point
006of the question. Okay. Well, uh, very simply is that the link that's on the website, uh, that the staff were given after the after the list was completed. Every single item has a green check markation. No, it is communicated in their staff meetings as well or at least should have been. Should have been, but we know for sure. I think No, I do not know for sure. I think that's just where the follow-up comes from because one of the main questions that I get asked, especially when I signed up to do something like this, is what are we truly doing for our schools? What are we doing for our staff members? And it feels like a rubber stamp process. And that's where that's where I just want clarity if I want to do this again,
007if it's really going to go anywhere. Um, I mean it just like I understand we put something on the website, but how are we getting back to the teachers and saying we heard you and here's what we're doing because that's not that's not true communication with your employees. Um, if I can interject for a second. Sure. Um, some of these items I purchase and I contact the person individually and let them know that it's on its way. Especially, um, part of it was part of a grant that we received from Free Rivers Grant and so I contacted each individual person um, and did that. So if it's a product that's being purchased, um the flexible tables, um the librarian was fully aware of that podcasting, all of that stuff. So basically, I would contact you,
008let you know that this item is being purchased. I want to know which item you need and then I can do the quotes and finish that up. So they would know that at the time of the PO. We also gave these budget input notes in a um print out at the actual budget committee meeting that day. So they are contacted individually at least by me and then if it has something to do with um teachers or FTE added that's going to be contacted by their administrator and that was done. So I just wanted to let you know that we follow up on the ones that we can't do or why we can't just to give explanation or Yes. Again especially some of the large ones because again if we can't afford them we let them
009know. Uh again, nothing just kind of dies on the vine. Uh we did also send a follow-up survey because we had additional questions about how to meet some of those demands uh or requests last year um and try to get some clarity and some of those again with the clarity we're able to make it to the list. Um again, Alive is also telling people, hey, your professional development request trip was approved. You're going to PIS for three days with the rest of the elementary crew and there's six or eight people going with you. So, and so this year's the same thing has happened because we just heard those requests and so have you been able to get through all those people and um or start to in have you been able to incorporate those requests
010or deny them with this budget? um as it was presented um we are in a reduction of force um so a lot of the requests and I try to um let them know that it's it's the FTE added isn't going to um be able to be done because in those certain areas um so with that happening with the budget being at a um being lowered because of the reduction in force the FTE would not be something that would be fulfilled and everybody is aware of that. That's been communicated through um the administrators directly to their staff. And of the six things that are listed right now, I've contacted three of those people or three of people individually and I know that the elementary principal has communicated in a staff meeting that their literacy coach is
011being hired for the next two years. Um, both school administration and library staff know about internal cameras at the elementary school and I've communicated directly with the tag director about the increase in allocation for students who attend the Oregon Writing Festival. Could you clarify the term reduction of force? Reduction in force of force. What is that? Reduction in force is cutting a staff personnel. Okay. To meet the budget. Okay. Yes. Okay. So also would you like to go over the PERS question? I would I would just like a PERS overview please would be great. I see it here in multiple pages but just a explanation in layman terms would be fabulous. I think it's good for everybody to be aware how that works. Okay. Uh do you want Well, again, if you want the simplest
012version of PERS, um again, for the last 20 years, uh we've had a rate credit for PERS, uh because we bonded, uh we we again we created a bond within other uh state groups. Uh in essence, we took a loan to sell bonds at roughly about 4%. Um the yield on that investment was about 7%. So that leaves about 2% of that gap that goes into direct credit. The other uh 1% is debt service. That bond is coming to an end um next year. And so we will be paying full rate for PERS uh for all staff retirement costs going forward. Uh we had looked at a potential PERS bond four years ago knowing that this was coming to a close sooner than later. Um the economic conditions weren't right at the time. Um a
013few districts did well. They when they sold out in the summer of 2021, uh one group is unfortunately underwater. Um their overall investment is less than their cost. Um so the board at the time did not pursue any further. Um and right now the worldwide bond market is a bit of a mess. Um and uh our actuarials um have put a a potential PERS bond on hold until the economic forecast changes. Uh because right now again it's a it it's what's called an arbitrage play. You borrow money at one rate, you invest it, hope to make more. Um and again you pay the fees and the difference in the middle and whatever you clear from that is your rate credit. Um, and it buys down our overall PERS cost, which allows us to spend more
014money directly in the classroom. Uh, for us over the last 20 years, our district, that's been about $4.2 million in rate credit, which has employed two teachers a year for the last 20 years. And correct me if I'm wrong, the reduction is mostly based on this pur situation, correct? Yes. Um, again, it was a it was a odd roll out is that in September, um, the governor's office said, uh, they'd be supporting a CSL, current service level roll up, um, and we're going to and was going to commit an extra $600 million to public education in Oregon. Then in October, uh, the PERS board announced that the general shortfall for PERS for schools across the district would be 640 million. So whatever the increase was for current service level was eaten up if not negative
015for most districts at that time. Um and part of the reason that there is this um again I would say kind of systemic problem with PERS is that they only do their valuations in odd years and then the conditions for which they believe those um you know uh growth that growth will occur is done in the previous fall. So every time there is a valuation assessment done, it's really months prior to the actual economic conditions in the state. And so what we received in December of the last two valuations was um PERS did not properly calculate overall uh uh payroll growth for the districts in the state because at that time uh we had extra summer programs, extra afterchool programs with um federal dollars that were adding to not positions but addition And then in
016two of the four years of the last valuations, one year the growth on the uh side account was negative and the other year it did not meet expectation. It was not 7%, it was about 5 a half. And so they had two shortfall years of investment. So that's that's that's unfortunately that's kind of where we're at with PERS. And um we're kind of middle of the pack in terms of overall percentage impact. Uh there are some districts that are way worse. There are some fire districts and cities that um have it. Again, it's a statewide issue. Um the only other thing that's being considered at the Senate level is a potential overall uh pers rate pers rate reduction buy down uh with emergency funds by the state senate. So just to clarifier two rate of
017that 14.41 and the tier or OPSRP rate of 11.57 is that uh rate bargained at your local level or is that a state? It's determined by the state. It is given to us and um and and quite honestly the state takes those that money from us. It's it's called intercept. So that money is intercepted before anything is delivered to the district. So just to clarify, there are three ways that we go through PERS itself for the retirement. So we have our regular just our employees which is our um which is our unfunded portion. So as you know as an employer it's part of your regular payroll. So there's our regular PERS and then we have a 6% pickup that um that needs to be paid for employees. We pick that up for certified um confidential
018administrators. Um so we also pay an additional 6%. And then Andy was speaking about the bond that helps reduce our funds. So that's kind of how it's hit. And then um I included for your paperwork and um everything for PERS um the communications I provided on January 8th. So if you look at it, you can also, you know, take a look at all other rates or school districts as well. And what we do is um every two years prior to the PERS rates being released, the actuary Milleman actually comes in and does all the calculations for you as part of that uh return. And the 6% pickup is something we do uniquely in our district. I mean, does that vary by district or is that That varies by district. Uh when I first started in
019the district, we had the standard 6% pickup and teachers were paying 6% out of pocket um to cover their 6% match. And then I want to say is in 2000 it was negotiated with the district that the district would pick that up in lie of an additional salary increase. And it's been that way for the last 25 years. But again, it's it's uh something negotiated by each union with each different districtly uh differently districtly. That doesn't make any sense. Okay. Um I know there's a question about how we um categorize um student investment account funds. Um and there's a again it's a separate activity budget um that the board approves um each year. Um it's there isn't a specific revenue code for student investment account, high school success. we just have this other revenue and
020it falls into that general account and then we break out these subbudgets um for OD and the and the board so they know specifically what those funds go to. Uh the state senate requires that we do specific presentations to the board for SIA and HSS um at least twice a year. Once we do a we do a windown in September, October with a final presentation in November. Um and then this uh initial SIA activity budget with HSS and a few other items went through the board first in March and then was approved uh April 16th. So just to clarify, it's initially begins as a corporate activities tax. Correct. Yes. And then it be it's called the student success act. That was the legislation that Yes. send it to the district. But then when it comes
021here, it's called the student investment act. Student investment account. Yes. Student investment account. Okay. I just always like to make the connection between it being a corporate activities. Yes. Uh or tax and the fact that now when it gets here, it's called something different because it's a huge sacrifice that businesses are making. So I it's not your fault. I'm not blaming anyone. It's just I feel like it's my duty to bring it up that that's actually the corporate activities tax that's part of the corporate activities tax because the corporate activities tax file some uh also fund some other parts in prek early early education. Again, what we deal with specifically here is a student investment account. Got it. Which is the vast majority of it. Yeah. Okay. Okay. And just to clarify, you know, it's
022very rare that a state would have a gross receipts tax like this where people are actually taxed on the dollars that come in the door. So you can be a business that makes zero profit and you're being taxed on the do total dollars that come in the door and it's just a ridiculous tax. So it's I just think it's a very unstable tax and something that kind of gets buried and yet I like to bring it to the forefront because it's it is cons you know it's renamed by the time it gets here. And I just like to give credit where credit's due and make known that it's it's a really really bad tax for Oregon businesses. So well until we get other taxes is sort of great for the school is the only problem.
023So um the other thing was the um one thing that maybe you everybody on the budget kid knows but I just found out more information is the both the corporate activity test and the federal forest dollars are um we are part of we don't just get a uh it's a countywide thing. So do you I didn't know that. Do you do you guys all understand how that works? So even if there's more logging, if there's more business here, it's a it's a statewide the one the corporate activities is a statewide and then the but the poorest one is a it's a county. It's a it's averaged over the course of the county there uh with the equalization model that was set with um ballot measure 5. Um there's no windfall taxes anymore in any one
024county. Um, and there's only two districts, I think, in the state that are are not receiving any equalization funds because they're in an area that has um some very unique uh timber sales conditions and they're only funded by local local sales receipts. Yeah. Great. Um, again, we talked about question three, which is PERS. Um uh I went through and redacted out personal emails of budget committee members. So I just realized that I sanitized the links. Um the document that was sent to you in the email yesterday, the links are live. If you want me to resend it again, I can. But um I didn't want anybody to have this as a public document and then just start spamming our community members email. So um when I took those out, it sanitized and stripped the um
025hyperlinks from the other ones. Uh question four, insurance cap increase 4% classified certified. Um uh as part of each year the collective bargaining agreements, uh there's usually uh a percentage or a dollar amount increase for um insurance funds with those uh associations. Um uh and again the cost for family insurance is typically uh again $500 to $600 more than the cap. Um and so like we're at about $1,550 for both associations right now. Next year it'll go up uh by $50 with one group and I want to say $40 in the other. Um, so it's roughly 4% of their overall. Uh, but OEB rates initials look like July one they're going up by 10%. Um, so our staff that are currently paying out of pocket for their insurance coverage um will pay more out of
026pocket. It just they're not paying the whole 10%. They're um again they got a 4% rate increase on it, but again it doesn't outpace what's happening with insurance. insurance is going to go up faster than what we negotiate for them. Uh very few districts have negotiated full interest um or full insurance uh rates uh because again if every member in your association uh took uh family rate insurance, every teacher uh again your cost would go from roughly $1,500 a person to $2,000 a person. Um and again something that we would like to do but just simply can't afford. Um um and that's happening, you know, everywhere that Yeah, that's everywhere too, right? Yeah. And again, we'll Yeah, it doesn't matter if you're again part of OEBB or buying on the general collective, it's going through
027the roof. Um Cece, do you want to talk about ending fund balance and summer rollover? So, we had a question about the beginning fund balance and um it was mentioned in the presentation about paying summer salaries. It's actually actually always there for any anytime we're not receiving our revenue, which we know we have certain times of the year that we see a majority of our revenue. Um the beginning fund balance is a rollover's reserve amount from year to year. Um it h it is adequate um it has been adequate for the cash flow during this time that we do not expect um incoming revenue but it's amount we have to continually review because there are times that shifts in um in costs and everything happen and so that might reduce and it has reduced um
028over the last two years on the reserve but we have to keep constantly reviewing it when it comes to expenses. Um so that's something we do keep an eye on. Um the board of directors has set a minimum threshold of 10% of the general budget um that we hold in reserve and the lowest recommended level is 8% for the professional association. So we're estimating it should be somewhere between around 12% 11 12% currently and that's what we're our pinpointing on that. And there's unfortunately a few districts in the state that are taking bridge loans because they dropped like under 3% and had to take a loan to cover their payroll and then get back on track. Um uh question six is about summer school. Um again like our general fund allocation covers basically um September
029to June. Um and summer school has been funded by the state legislature usually late in the spring um with some money match from the district. Um for summer 26 we have about $48,000 set aside in the student investment account. Um for this year we have about $53,000 set aside. This is primarily for um high school credit recovery and grade retention and graduation retention. Um, and when I started working on the FAQ last week, we had three bills being debated in the legislature that may cover K8 programs because summer allocation has always been a separate piece uh from the state. Um and then last Thursday and Friday, there was a flurry of activity because um the the state legislature passed um one bill that would fund partially fund K8 summer programs uh at a statewide level
030about 35 million. Uh hopefully by the end of the week the governor will sign that into law and then the week after next we should know if we're on the eligibility list. Um the prior year at 30 million um we were 114 in the list. They funded 77 programs. Um unless the literacy criteria bumps us up um we may be uh out of the loop on that one. Um and so again you got really I kind of laid out the history from what we have planned um back to uh I think 2021. Uh again for 20 for summer 24 um we paid for summer school with um SSR3 funds. Summer 22 uh again uh district use summer uh ESSER funds. 2022 we did a mix of ESSER and uh state fundings. We were we were
031granted a certain amount of money and then we um had a 25% required match. And then in summer 2021, everybody budgeted um with American Rescue Plan dollars, a mix of what you were were required to match and was allocated from the state. Um so unfortunately, summer dollars always come in late and in a rush. Um we will always have extended school year for our special ed students. Um, and then what we could afford to budget out of the student investment account we did for high school uh, credit recovery and grad graduation retention. So, it's really still happening. It's just going to maybe look different and it's depending on what happens, right? Because what's happening at the K8 level will be a literacy focused and an enrichment program. Um, and again, like I I don't know
032where we'll fall on the list. Um but I think again if I guess we would be in the pack um simply because our um while our elementary literacy scores have come up, they're still not great. And that's that would be one of the criteria which will require the program to run for at least 80 hours in the summer of student contact time. Um so roughly a 4hour day for 22 days gets us there with lunch and other pieces. Uh and when you look at some of the numbers like like we spent a lot of money in summer 2021 because part of our mandate with those with that money was um to provide transportation. So we had so we had buses in 2021. We haven't had buses since. Um and so, um again, that's really where
033that again, if you looked at that, um you know, we had $275,000 total spent on K8. Um but again, half of that's transportation at the time. So, just seems like, you know, at a time when we're still lagging, you know, somehow from COVID with the basics, reading and math, it just seems like so important that we have the summer program to just try to triage. But, yeah, that's just a piece of it. And I and I don't say this to be snarky, but again, like we could run a summer program for about $150,000. Um, and we're kind of in this zero balance budget piece. I mean, the board could elect and just tell CCNI to well, we want to fund summer next year or summer now. Um, reduce another 1.5 positions out of the budget.
034And you said, and again, it's so I'm not saying to be snarky, but again, we're at this if something comes on the plate, something's got to fall off the plate. That's the unfortunate reality we're at. I just want to intersect right here just because I do think because it's so important when we're dealing with still so many kids that are lagging that you know this is an area where I think grants really seem app propo you know rural especially rural type community grants that we're obviously we fit well with you know I talked to one teacher and she said kind of an expert teacher a long-term teacher and she said sometimes I just think we should stop everything and just do math and reading for a little while until we get caught up. So then
035if all of a sudden we don't have summer school, I mean, we're shooting obviously shooting and shooting ourselves in the foot. Not that it's the end all beall, but it obviously is an important piece. And so I just think um even grants or something so that we don't miss this piece. And I know it's probably too late for that now, but just my thought those were my thoughts on that. Uh question seven was about reading special at the reading special at the middle school. Uh unfortunately with the reductions we're making there uh or or again across the board adding additional person right now we cannot afford. Um we are maintaining both reading specialists at the elementary for early intervention. Uh question eight was uh mental health counselor. Um yes we did uh hire mental health
036counselor last year and I wasn't I knew you did and we talked about it. I just wanted to see how's it going. Is it is it meeting and your data here is great. It explains it well. I just uh wanted to check in on that because that was important. So if people want to jump to question 10 or page 10 uh again so far Miss Diting has had 101 referrals. Um some students did not um uh ob get service because again uh consent wasn't obtained from the parent. Um roughly 30% of the referrals are coming from the middle school, 70% or so from total high school population. Um I know what she also left off was some emergency intervention at the elementary school. Um she has 36 students in active management now with four more
037waiting to get on the docket. Um she's had 18 students that have been through primary treatment that are in um uh monitoring right now. Um and then there's about 12 students that she'll make appointments with um end of June, middle of July, first part of August to do summer maintenance over the part. Um and again we could always I think use more in this area. Um uh but again like next year we have a full slate of counselors already scheduled to be hired for the elementary school which will take uh some of the pressure off and uh make what everybody's doing more effective. Then just a couple notes on I I just asked her like what are you seeing? And just again general anxiety, depression. Um she does have a few older kids that um
038have some substance abuse issues. Um and then there's been she dealt again about a third of her case load has been around issues of self harm. Uh question nine, uh softball turf. Um again, uh most field turfs to my knowledge are funded by bond as part of bond projects or special projects. Um, we've had some coaches over the years that had varying opinions on on the need for turf. Um, and I I know uh Mr. H has just talked with coach Riggs again, and I think he's he he's kind of uh moved from uh the pitching plate um model up to hopefully maybe just a full infield. Um but again, like it's going to be a a million and a half to do a full field. So, I'm not exactly sure um like well again
039that's not something we do with general fund budget but um uh if the board wanted to look at construction excise tax or again other um ways to balance again I again this again would be another uh swap within general budget um to make that work point to this is just I think we just need to continue to keep it part of the discussion because like my friend that's the executive director at the Cow Creek foundation, Ky Creek Tribe Foundation. She and I spoke about it and they do a lot of things in Lane County, especially for female sports. Okay. Especially for rural communities. And she said, "This would be absolutely up our alley." But she said, "We need to know that your district has skin in the game. We need to have them have a
040line item in their budget. It doesn't have to be 50% even. It just needs to be something that shows this is something they want, that they're serious about." and she said, 'We absolutely the kind of partner that would love this kind of thing. So, if they're saying that, then I know there's a lot of other places that would do that. And so, I just think for us at some point, we've got to have it as a line item and say that it's a priority uh to be able to qualify or even be looked at for some of the grants. There isn't any way that we could use any of that funding that has been set aside for the facility that may not happen because of over because the Yeah. um could go again you could
041designate that money again because again we met with two different architects to get a rough estimate and based it off the Springfield project and you know we again we had a good belief at the time that was again that we could get it under for 350,000 the initial bid came back at 711,000 um and uh again so we've sent it back to the architect after talking with the bidder and say again, if we do just the fieldhouse, just do like can we get that done for under 350? Um, and then again, when we do some sort of renovation or renewal at the high school, then go through and finish out all the wet work and take care of all the irrigation and plumbing. That's probably the best split right now. Um um I question 10
042I really don't have an answer for but I just we just created a list of what we're doing for um like career planning um with kids at the high school and middle school. Um so uh again uh again maybe the familiarity with the terms we use might trigger some of the um memories of the kids. Um but again there's probably more we can do to pinpoint some of them down exactly what they need to do um for college. I know some kids probably need a little more uh kind of side by side. Um well, not necessarily handholding, but again, like you want to be a nurse, here's the here's the 15 nursing programs in the state. Here's the minimum qualifications that you need. Here's what you need to do. Like that some need that more
043than others. Um I kind of think this might be an area where it'd be fun to see what other schools are doing with regard to this with career guidance. um you know, planning. I just think there's schools that probably have been highly successful at this that we and we just could do better and um I've just seen it over and over again with kids and I know we've been doing credit recovery, right? We've been focusing on all these other things, but at some point we can't keep using CO as an excuse. I mean, I do it too. I'm not blaming anyone. But we as a whole, as a society, as a district, as the school board, as a budget committee, have to at some point say, "Okay, what what are our goals?" and it's to
044educate successful kids, which means they need to have a plan, post high school plan. And uh I know there's schools that are great at that. And I think it'd be fun to see what they do and make it our own, but not reinvent the wheel either. So um I just want to really encourage that in this in this group. So we had one additional question come in from the vice chair and we covered that talking about how federal forest funds are receded. So, the last six pages of your package is just the other interial correspondence we had um regarding um questions and the meetings and I don't think there's anything in there that's I just have it listed in there. So, people had it all. So, um okay. So, um I guess the next spot
045is 3.2 on your agenda and we're looking for any potential new questions. So, at this time, we'd love to have any potential new questions. So, um, but does that include the the school board or just the budget committee? Everybody's the budget committee. Everybody. Do we want to go around the room or does anybody want to raise their hand or I think Just a minute. I think Seamus had then we'll do um Ron on a bond. Are they possible coming up because of the interest rates being so high at this point? That yeah where interest rates are currently sitting is a problem. Um and on top of that that's caused a whole bunch of other um kind of construction cost rollup issues. Um nothing is go nothing is going down in cost. Um but we're looking
046at a pretty standard 5% per year increase average for commercial construction. Um so even again going back to what we talked about bondwise in like 2018 um will be an extra $25 million from what we initially bought there. But again, insurance rates, bond rates, um or interest rates and bond rates are going to impact exactly all of that. Um again, it's and again and it's harder to sell that in a community where things are tight and things are unsure on a national level. Um so again, like timing of this will be important. Not ju and not not just the dollar figure, but the timing of it. uh because again typically bonds step down in cost over time because your general tax base increases but if your tax base stays stagnant people don't get that relief
047over time as the general value of the community grows. So Shamus do you have is that does that answer your question sir? Yes. Okay you had a question? So, um, the district provided me with a, excuse me, a list of the software we're currently purchasing, and I just had a few things I would like to ask about. The first one is I noticed that there seems to be a lot of software overlap in terms of math software. That's just something that stood out to me. Um the second one is I noticed that um we were paying a lot for attendance monitoring software and I was wondering why we have to have that separate from Synergy. Okay. I can take the attendance question right off the bat. Um we have a requirement to make notice to
048parents by law and using the service that we do. um we get a bulk rate mail discount and going through that. And so we looked at the time that it takes for the office staff to process those letters individually and it's more than the $20,000 we pay for basic service to get these out. So uh it's it's an economy of scale piece. Um again, it's more efficient to do it this way. uh and it automatically cues in and schedules up parents or calls parents for conferences uh if there's a long-term issue about attendance. Um and so again, it's a weekly reminder um to administrators about who's missed school making contacts with parents and it takes that burden off of the office staff. We would have to hire another person just to process the attendance notices.
049Um, now the math subscriptions, um, we had a very specific request last year, uh, which brought back the Alex math program on top of the math that they currently had as a supplemental. Um, so it's in addition to or remedial piece. Um, is there another part of the math math scrub that you haven't talked about? There's the LL math, but that's for the elementary. That's for the elementary um and that and and math is also an offshoot of um uh some of their uh other remediation software for um uh language arts and literacy. So we again we only have Alex K8. Um and then again math just request and I think it was like $400 for graphing software or something like that. So there's might be one more subscription not on your list that just
050came up. That makes perfect sense especially with regard to the attendance and I understand the math stuff too. Thank you. Okay, great question. Do we have any other questions? So at this point I think the budget discussion is over and um we have options. We can approve the budget tonight or we can uh adopt the budget tonight or we can also if we feel we have more questions and we need more time we can um move it to the next meeting if we need more time. So, I'd like to hear what people would like to do. I actually have a process question. So, before the budget comes to the budget committee, what kind of input or how do you get input from your board on budget or do you not is it not really their
051role? I just don't know how that works. Like the like this year we specifically did like a survey of the board. is like what are your priorities in terms of again maintaining or reducing especially this year. Uh typically it's conversations at regular board meetings, but this year we're very specific because again the board got from me a list of every single program with student population the regular classroom and said like we know that like from the district office side we can consolidate certain positions and there's certain positions that we can absorb by attrition. with that, we still have four other positions to make the budget. Like, of all of these electives and of all of these support programs, what are the four that you would consider um to remove? And so, um there's pretty much
052uh a unanimous opinion, unfortunately. Well, fortunately, it's unanimous unfortunately that they have to go right now. Um again we had seven of seven for one elective at the high school, seven of seven for a library services position, seven of seven for tag coordinator position, and six of seven six of seven for tag coordinator position and seven of seven for uh I could look at my email. There was we had a total of four. Um I hate um yes cuz that is one I should again I I'm scheduling meetings with people. Um sorry um tag library high school credit recovery was the other high school credit recovery was the last position uh where there was unanimous decision to reduce position. Well, I'd like to commend the staff for their thorough reading through this was amazing and
053also taking the time to uh go over everything tonight. I'd like to ask the budget committee to um if they would like to consider a motion to approve the budget and the motions are in front of you. motion one to approve. Is there a second? I'll second it. Do we need to read the full motion? Yes. Um, I move that the Suslaw School District 97J budget committee approved the proposed 2025 2026 budget in the amount of 30,82,52 as presented and directs the business manager to reflect any changes therein prior to its presentation to the Suslaw School District 97J board of director. ctors for any further discussion, adjustment, and adoption. It's been moved and seconded. All those in favor say I. I. I. Opposed. The motion carries. And then we have a second motion that we
054need to propose. Do I have a proposal for that? I could do it again. I move for uh motion two. Would you like me to read through it, please? I move that the M Suslaw School District 97J budget committee approved taxes for the 2025 2026 fiscal year as follows. Number one, at the permanent rate of 3.8928 8928 per 1,000 of assessed value for operating purposes in the general fund. Number two, at the rate of 75 cents per 1,000 of assessed value for local option tax for operating purpose in the general fund. It's been moved by Shelby. Do we have a second for the motion number two? Second. Okay. So moved and seconded. All in favor please say I. I. I. Opposed. Motion carries. Okay. So before you move to adjournment, can I ask a process
055question? And this would be for all of again like the first introduction of the budget is done within a regular meeting. Um, and again, it's just meant to be a kind of a procedural piece to make sure everybody has the same documents and can be prepared for the second meeting. Um, and again, like otherwise, I think we would have a 5-hour meeting if we did introduction, orientation, and questions. Do you want to do a mandatory kind of like budget primer for everybody and then schedule a separate budget meeting to launch into discussion at the first official meeting? Um or do we want to do a short introduction and then plan for the second meeting to be the primary discussion meeting because that um everybody was at a different level of preparation for last meeting and
056I know some people wanted to ask a lot of questions but other people weren't there, other people weren't ready. We can either add an interstitial meeting or back the schedule up so we don't overload the main April meeting. That's that's my concern for the board. If we do a full budget meeting at 6 and it goes till 8 and then we do our regular budget meeting, a regular board meeting, then you're here till 10:11. And so either we add an interstitial meeting or we back up the schedule and get a prep meeting beforehand so everybody has everything and then we can do a little more in-depth work. Yeah. Okay. That's where I I was head with that and I think it would give people more time to respond. So in the next regular board meeting
057you'll get a budget schedule that has two options in it. one shows a backed up schedule and one shows an extra interstitial meeting and then you can kind of line item that as you see fit. I just like that the more time that you have to get together someone's questions for sometimes other people's questions even if at the initial meeting we would have had a chance to ask those questions then we could have had some at least initial answers you could have followed up with detail and then that maybe would have even spurred on some other questions from the rest of the group. So I just think that part can be so valuable however that looks Yeah. Well again that's what we're trying to smooth out so the first meeting doesn't feel rushed or truncated.
058Okay. Yeah. Or if you missed the first one. Yeah, I think that was a great point that you brought up. I really appreciate it. And so, okay, we're now at item five, Miss Vice Chair. At this at this time, um I move to adjourn the budget meeting. I don't get confused at all. You just did. That's why I spoke to you.