001So I have a motion to approve the agenda. >> So move. >> Second. I would like to amend the agenda by removing 5D or approval of B5 because I happen to know that that policy has been revised in the last week. So no point in passing. We'll have to pass again. All in favor including the amendment. I >> will be >> Carol's gonna be on. All right. um board presentations whoever >> where is best for me to stand. Okay, you can sit right at the end. You don't have to stand. Okay. If you want to be comfortable and take a picture. >> Sure. I can be >> Mickey. That's close. So each year, um, I come before you to speak a little bit about the career center and then also to give you a a
002preview of what the annual tuition rate will be and, um, what we're going to put out for the warming for the budget. And because I never know who's going to be in the audience each year because we have a lot of boards turn over and we have new student members and all kinds of things, I take just a few minutes to talk about the career center before we get into the meat um, and potatoes of the actual budget. So, um this is David Roberts who is our operations director and also um budget and spreadsheet and warning guru. So, he's here to help us with and if you have very technical questions I might lob them that way but um otherwise we'll go ahead and get into it. So, I just want to set the you
003know set the stage for today. I'm going to talk about our work and our students um the context that's shaping CTE right now and then the factors that inform our budget and then um what our actual budget and tuition rates are. So just starting off just about us we were formed in 1971 and we serve both adult learners and high school students. Most of we have served I'll get into the details but we serve about 300 350. Right now we've got 377 um students each year in ninth grades 9 through 12 in our three campuses and then we serve hundreds of adult learners each year um with adult classes largely in the medical professions but we've been very much branching out there. We have three facilities. One of them is right here. We have our
004main campus where we we serve the bulk of our students. Then we have a north campus out in Mbury which serves our diesel, our auto and our agriculture programs. And then as you know we have uh embedded programs here in Virginia's high school. So I do like to talk just a minute about why CTE is so important. So as you know the context in Vermont is that we have a very aging population. The new data actually has changed just a little bit by two 2031 and three ver Vermonters will be over 65 now. So, we know that we have people retiring out of the trades faster than we're able to bring new young uh people into the trades to take their places. And any of us who have ever tried to get any work done
005on our house or get any help know that it's very challenging to find trades people these days. And especially in those uh the high-flying construction, um electron electricians, um plumbing, all of those, it's very challenging to find people to help you out. We also try to set the stage that our students when students are going coming to us they are as well as graduating from high school they're earning industry credentials they are earning college credits in most cases and that they also are getting real world experience. So should they choose to go to high to college or should they choose to go to the world of work they are well prepared to be um sort of launched into those fields and and well ahead of their peers. So CTE is good for students, for communities,
006and definitely for Vermont. CTE is also having a moment. It has been building for the last couple of years, but we are seeing CTE um interest in CTE growing in not only young like high school students, but in college age students as well and people changing careers. our community colleges, our CTE centers, and our two-year colleges, our four-year colleges offering CTE programming are all seeing strong increases in enrollment in those programs. We think that um kids are smart, young people are smart, and they're seeing they're starting to really weigh the cost benefit ratio of the the cost of college versus going into a career and and learning as you go. And part of what is re required of us in Vermont um and in all CTE programs across the United States is that we align
007our programming to our region. We are really region-based or state-based so that we are aligning our programs to whatever our state needs most. And we're pretty happy every year you may have seen the Mccclure Foundation puts out Vermont's most promising jobs and we really um do match very well with Vermont's most promising jobs. For example, these are four of the programs that we offer right now. And you can see that those beginning wages are are pretty good, those median wages. And it does, you know, it we have programs everything from being able to walk out the door to starting high uh starting your career to programs that need bachelor's degrees or doctorates. Um we have a program for any kind of learner with any kind of career path. I also like to kind of set
008the stage because when we get to the part about what our tuition rate is sometimes it's like oh but I do like to set the context that in in all of Addison County we have um just over 1100 high school students and we serve about 300 between 325 and 370 of those students each year just depending on the year. So we serve one and three of all of the high school students in all of Addison County, but we account for less than 5% of the overall cost of public education. So when you add um Addison Northwest, um Addison Central, Lincoln, and Mount Abe school districts and us up, our share of that pie is um four was last year was 4.45%. And it depends on what everybody's budgets are this year, but it'll be something
009very similar to that. and our student health outcomes in partnership with your high school, with Mbury High, with Mount Abe High, with um Otter Valley, in partnership with our sending schools. We work really hard to help you help kids be successful. Our graduation um percentage last year was 98%. So 98% of the kids that come to us do walk across that stage when at the end of their four years. And we're really proud of that because we think that um finding connecting a kid to a passion really makes that difference for being engaged in school. And so this is that just on a graph. And the other piece is as we're looking for how are we going to sort of change the tables of Vermont and the economic development in Vermont and how are we
010going to allow students to be able to stay in Vermont. Many of our students want to stay in Vermont, but the housing costs and the ability to actually get a house and the wages that we offer in Vermont, especially when compared to the states that are contiguous to us are not not um very competitive. So, one of the things that we really lean into is that we have students already here who want to be in Vermont, who love Vermont, who have family and ties to Vermont. So, how do we give them those high wage, high skill, high demand jobs so that they can stay here in Vermont and be happy and and live their lives and have a wage that makes makes it all work. So, who do we serve? So, we serve um students
011in Addison County and beyond. We are our center is open to any student in the state of Vermont. Anybody can go to any CTE center in the state of Vermont. The limitation is obviously transportation for students who are coming from out of out of our area. We serve 9th and tth graders mostly in our pre-technical programs. We'll talk just a little bit about those which are more of a survey course where students are are learning about the trades and then our 11th and 12th grade programs are called technical courses where students are really immersed in a particular field. We also serve hundreds of adult learners and we work very closely with our industry partners and again CTE is all about high wage, high skill, high demand careers. So the other piece which we feel really
012proud about is that um even though uh we have a very high graduation rate. Last year it was 98% we also know that 40% of the learners in our centers are on either an IEP or a 504. So we have students that have had less success in the traditional high school setting oftentimes who come to our center and um are able to graduate on time with everything that they need and go into into careers. When if you look across the state of Vermont, about 20% in the state of Vermont of students are on an IEP or a 504 and in our standing school districts at least about 22% of the students are on those. So we have just under double the number of students that are that have some sort of plan to help them
013learn and our students are graduating at a very high rate. So what are our programs? So in your hand you have hot off the press. We're really excited about this. This is our new program of studies. Um, it's been a two-year labor of love from a whole bunch of people to ensure that we have accurately detailed all of our programs and in each program, what students earn as far as credentials, as far as college credits, as far as graduation requirements. And it also talks about what a student might want to think about before they take u before they sign up for the program and what they're going to learn in the program. And this document will be um updated each year and it's also live online. So, one thing about CTE that is really exciting
014and also sometimes a little frustrating is that it changes all the time by design. CTE is meant to align with industry. So, each year there are changes to all of our programs and um in our industry credentials. So, we have to make sure that this is a living document so that it always accurately reflects what we're doing. So, our pre-technical programs, those are the ones that are generally nth and tth graders, although 11th graders are also able to take pre-technical programs. The one on the ones on the top row there are available to all of the high schools in Addison County and the ones on the bottom row are only available to Virginia. Then our technical programs all 11th and 12th graders are available. These are available for all 11th and 12th graders and any
01510th grader that is on track to graduate. And that's news to a lot of people. So I like to really um emphasize that that 10th graders are also welcome in our technical programs. We also just just got approved for electrical. So we will have a brand new electrical program next year that we are working on right now. Um standing it all up and getting it ready for kids. The piece that really um kids get very excited about is when they get to do their work-based learning. So they go into their program, they learn their skill, they get their college credits, they get their industry recognized credentials, they get their graduation requirements, and then they get to go out in the real world and do the real thing with real professionals. And many of our students
016earn uh end up with working in that field with that profession because they're offered jobs at the conclusions of those at the conclusion of those work-based learning opportunities. And it's one of the most exciting pieces of CTE where kids get to go in the field and do the thing that they just learned how to do. So right now we have uh at the end of last year we had 44 employer partners in 13 career fields and we are growing that past this li past this for this year. We just hired a fantastic new work based employee her name is Jess Danielle and she is knocking it out of the park lining up industry um experiences for kids. So you can see the light blue is last year's numbers um at the end of the year
017and the dark blue is this year's numbers now. So we're not even halfway through the year and we're already exceeding the number of programs that have students in work-based learning and the number of students experiencing workspace learning and we're halfway through the year. So we're really excited about this energy. These are the current community partners. This is where students are right now. Um, and by the end of the year that that will be double the number of logos. So those industry partnerships are really important and we'd like to take just a minute to highlight the one that we have with the Porter Hospital and the University of Vermont Medical Center because it's just so unique. I've been in CTE working with CTE for many many years and it's often really hard to get your foot
018in the door of medical centers because there is so much to think about with young people and HIPPA and you know all the things right all the things you can imagine but because this partnership is so strong and because Porter is so engaged in in making sure that they have a pipeline for their talent and that our students are ready for them at the end of their experience um that they have opened their doors very wide to our students and the experiences that our kids get are amazing. amazing. We've had a a a young person see a baby born. We've had people in the O. We've had um people working with cancer patients in hospice. You name it, they've done it. And that's because of the mutual um benefit that the kids get and that
019we're hospital gets in that program too. Just to highlight it in our medical professions program right now. So, it's a two-year program. If if at the end of the first year, students have their emergency medical responder credential and their licensed nursing assistant credential. Then if they continue into the second year, they get their emergency medical technician credential as well as their phbotomy technician. So they're walking out the door with four very hard to get um industry credentials at no cost to themselves or their parents. So adult education is the piece that sometimes gets overlooked with CTE because we do um work as part of the community force to try to help people either upskill in their current careers or move across careers if they want to change careers or if it's a young person that
020maybe didn't get to have CTE when they were young and now they're all excited about it and they want to do it. So we have all of these healthcare programs that we have again with Porter Hospital and Porter generally pays for anybody who wants to work there to get these credentials. We also have skilled trades like welding and small engine repair. We have a brand new pilot that we're doing of Mbury College. This is we're this is in two weeks. It's our first one. We're really excited where PE uh uh uh culinary people in Mbury College is culinary restaurants are going to come over to the glass onion and learn some skills specifically things like searing steaks and so that they can upskill and move to the next um next ring in their rung in
021their career. And then we're also going to have we believe a food is medicine class and a massage class. So those are all very exciting opportunities. So enrollment and capacity. So last year is it going? So this is where our kids are from. So you can see the number of students and then the percentage of the whole pie for each school. And you'll notice that even for your even though Virginia's is a smaller high school because of the pre-t programs that we have embedded here, you have 100 students that are getting to experience CTE. So this is a really great partnership and we're really excited to be able to continue it. So again, we serve about one in three high school students in our region, but we actually could serve up to 600. We have
022over 200 spots available right now. And it's I'm going to go into a little bit of detail with this because I'm hoping that you might be able to help us and help you with this. We we know that to our north and to our south that the CTE centers there are having to turn away hundreds of kids because they are simply full. They don't want to turn the kids away, but they don't have any more seats. So, um, Stafford, we know last year had 447 applications for only 278 seats. It's even worse in the north. They have over 7,000 high school kids and they only have two CTE centers. So many many kids are getting turned away from CTE because of seats availability. We know that right now in in real time there are 131
023students that are on weight list that were accepted into CTE centers in the north or the south but they didn't get in because there was no seat for them. So 131 students who wanted CTE applied got in and then couldn't go. So this is our enrollment right now by program and um in the state of Vermont the number seven is the magic number. So your program is considered to be a full uh full program if it has seven or more students in it. And right now the um our our programs are doing really well. The one we're concerned about is culinary arts and that's that's an anomaly. So we're hoping that it will change for next year that this will pick up. We're also culinary has been our oney yearlong program and we're actually breaking
024it into two half-day programs next year to see if that might make it easier for students to fit it into their schedule. And then these are our prec programs. So this is a slide that is really I hope interesting to you as it was to us as we did this research. So, we talked earlier about those 131 students sitting on a wait list right now that wanted to go, did all the work to apply, got accepted, but couldn't go. Well, if we if our center could take even half of those students, not even all of them, even half of those students because we have fixed costs and we're just spreading the cost over more students at that point, it would decrease our tuition by $14,000 per kid for full-time students. So, it would make your
025tuition payments that your district pays on behalf of the students go down 34%. And that would be serving students that otherwise wouldn't be served, that desperately want CTE and cannot get into it. And one of the things that causes us to have fixed expenses are the same exact things that it causes you to have fixed expenses. For us, it's the bonds and the boundaries. So, we're going to talk just a little bit about healthcare and um salary in a minute, but for us, our we we remodeled our building because it was built in 1971. Hadn't had any major remodel since that time. And as you can imagine, CTE is kind of hard on facilities. So, we went to the voters and they they supported us and we had an $8 million bond, just over $8
026million bond to update the building. And then we are just now about to pay off our $1.6 $6 million North Campus bond that built the campus for our um diesel, auto, and uh agriculture classes. But those bonds are fixed costs that we pay each year. And that comes out of our tuition rate because in the state of Vermont, there's no no help with those things as as you well know. And when you have a tiny little budget, that kind of a bond payment, $600 or $700,000 a year is a big big chunk out of that. And then the other piece is that boundary constraint we just talked about. So our boundary even though we have room in our center we only have 11,200 resident high schools in all of Addison County whereas the boundary that
027Stafford serves has 21 resident high schools and this boundary in Chhatten County has 7,000 resident high schools. So we have similar size centers but the boundaries that are assigned to us are uh not aligned with the number of students resident high school students. So, we're some some place there's scarcity here. We have availability and students are able to come. Um, they just the problem right now is that they have to get here. But, we actually did all of the math. David did the math and figured out that we could that we are able to transport them. So, now it's a problem of allowing um students to be allowed to come here. So what we're trying to do is kind of is to change the dynamic so that the boundaries are not firm that the boundaries
028are loose so that students can come here and we will go get them in our own buses and bring them to the center. Um we believe that in the south southern part of the Burlington catchment area and the Chipman County catchment area and the northern part of the Rutland catchment area we could probably serve at least 40 or 50 kids that otherwise would not get CTE. We're not interested in poaching. We're not interested in trying to take students away from where their service region is. We're interested in serving kids who otherwise wouldn't be served. So again, the boundaries the boundaries were drawn long before any of us were probably involved in public education. The um they're in old old board rule. And I as part of if nothing else comes of this education transformation, we're
029very very hopeful that these service regions are looked at in light of today's demographics and resident populations. We have we have 700 students that are live near our boundary or are actually in our county that aren't in our boundary. Um so we're hoping that some number of those students that are not otherwise being served will come here. So we feel like we're really positioned for growth. where in in a in a state where capital expense is not probably going to be keeping up with the need anytime real soon where it's probably not going to be that CTE centers can build out to our north and our south. It makes a lot of sense to instead do some transportation to allow kids to go to CTE. So what does this all mean for fiscal year 27
030budget? So this is our 26 budget. um just like you, the largest part of our salary of our budget is salary and benefits. And for us, that other big chunk is that debt service, which is not going to go away for many years, um but was desperately needed and the students are certainly benefiting it from it now. Then if you look at our fiscal year 27 proposed budget, those wages, salary, benefits, and debt service still the top three for us. um just probably like you, we have negotiated agreements with our staff that have gone up over the last three years and the health care piece we're going to talk about in a minute is just a killer for us as I'm sure it is for you too. So our because our costs are fixed the
031um and really we have to spread the cost of the salary benefit and bonds over the cost of the number of students that we have in our facility. And we're dealing with the same in increasing salaries, rising health insurance, the critical facilities investment, and that bond payment. Um, the budget itself is up 9.95% over those four issues. And the health insurance, I thought we would pull this out in a slide because it might be useful for you and your constituents to talk about, too. This was really informative and David and Austin, who is our business manager, did some work on this and pulled this out for us. So for fiscal year 27 um our insure for this year only our insurance rates only only right went up 7.3%. It's strange to say only 7.3% but
032we were really expecting that doubledigit increase but when you really look at the from fiscal year 24 to 27 it's almost a 50% increase over four years. That is just drop jaw-dropping to me that our benefits are now when we're hiring anybody. It's probably the same for you. We're thinking of if it's a $100,000 salary, for example, 30 another 30,000 for benefits. It's a 30% cost. The Family Gold, which almost all of our employees take, it's the most popular plan probably years two. It's gone from just over $17,000 for a family in fiscal year 18. It's almost $41,000 now for that same exact plan for a family. And that was this year. And it's going to be another what did we say 7% for next year. So those costs rising at that rate is pretty
033staggering. And then our facilities um when one of the things which is maybe a little different about CTE budgets is that each year when we have leftover leftover monies that didn't get spent, we try to roll those over into the next year tuition rate to buy down that tuition rate the the biggest the most that we can. We try to leave a little reserve because a machine might break or something like that. But most of our reserve we roll right back into the next year tuition to buy down that rate for our city and school districts. So when something really big happens like right now our north campus is one of those membrane roofs and it's failing. It is failing quickly. Um we have to replace that and we don't have when you have only
034a little tiny budget your reserve when you're only keeping $40 $50,000 in there not going to cover a brand new roof. So we have to put that as part of our budget when we put it out to the voters. And then that salaries uh staffing and the debt obligation is the other piece. So our preliminary tuition forecast um it was uh 11,021 adopted in 26. It would be 11,507 is what we're asking for this year for an increase of $486. remember that CTE tuition is a little wonky because there's a there's the whole number which is that tuition rate the 34 and 920 and the 388.94 but then the state pays part of that and the district your sinning school district pays part of that and then the part that you pay is half because
035we're a halftime center. So when you get down to all of that, the the rate you would pay per kid is $13,227 per um technical program kid and a fraction of that about half of that for a pre-technical student because they're a fraction of a fraction. So you pay you pay by the minute in CTE, which is one of the very legacy things in Vermont. This I thought might be interesting just because this affects the tuition that you pay because it doesn't pay what we set, but it doesn't change what we set as the tuition rate. But we had this really weird thing that happened last year where the base rate went down even though all of the indicators that should make it have gone up and went down. So we're now trying to catch
036up. Luckily, it didn't go down again this year. So you see that fiscal year 27 is back up, but we're certainly not on the trajectory that we were because we had the anomaly of a unexplained base rate decrease last year. So that is also making it feel like tuition is higher because we're um we we usually we would get a little bit of an increase every single year, but then we went backwards last year. So, one of the things that we've been focusing on and you probably see in our newsletters and if you're follow hopefully you'll follow our social media, it's on the on the back here. Um, you'll see alumni success stories from your schools. So, we focus about once a week we put out an alumni success story about somebody who graduated from
037our center and is now working in the real world using the skills that they learned. Um, and it's a it's a pretty exciting thing. I we have a lady that helps us track all of these students down and she does a really nice job highlighting them. So, thank you. So, at this point, I'm just here to ask answer questions. You go back to that slide just a couple slides ago with that tuition rate. Um and you the one showing that yeah that one with the bar the bar graph >> the base rate >> the the base rate right that one. Um so for fiscal year 22 why is that far so short? Just because that's the gradient that we used on the left. It's it's not 100%. It's it only goes to say 15. You
038can't see that far from here. So >> the bars a of percentage change even though the number above it is a number. >> Oh >> the graph you're seeing it's the percent change. >> I see the percent change from previous year. >> Yeah, it was pretty it was pretty sneaky when they did a backwards uh base rate and didn't didn't say they were going to do that. That wasn't great. >> But why why did fiscal year 26 go down? Yeah, it went down. It went We got less money that year than we got the year before. >> I can't. >> Can you explain that? >> I can't. And we all asked. Um Sheila asked, I asked, all the superintendents asked. Um >> so when you say we got less money, what is who we and
039where's the money coming from? >> So the if you go uh David, can you go to the next slide? So the David may be able to explain this better than me. So I'm gonna actually lob it to him. >> So um tuition is um made up of certain components of the base rate. The base rate is a calculation made uh within the education and I think um economic that based on u economic factors. So um last year was the first year it actually went down. So this year, what that graph before is saying that we're just basically back to where we were two years ago, right? >> Um what the base rate does for our tuition is we take our budget divided by which is the 6.2 million divided by our six semester average FE
040which is 138,000 and that comes up with a tuition of the 38. um a portion of that 80% 87% of the base rate which is the 13227 times 8 80 87% is what we get from the state directory. The rest of it we get from the high school. Um so your tuition uh what we're billing you guys is the per one FTE. Most of your students are are half FTP. So it's um the half of 27 which is 13 135. >> Yeah. Actually most of your students are pretext students and they're even less. There's some fraction of it depends on how many minutes they're in their class but it's like half a path. So, but the because if if the base rate does the base rate essentially saves you that percent that you have to
041pay directly and um so when it went down it was a big problem and it's supposed to be linked to economic indicators and all of the economic indicators that that us and everybody who was complaining to a to AOE could see would have indicated it went up. So, I can't explain it. It was never explained. >> I have two. Um, one is, um, I just want this group to have the benefit of hearing this. Could you talk a little bit about how the proposed statewide graduation requirements might impact career and technical education? >> Yeah, actually, we're really that's one thing that we're excited about. So, right now, if a stu a student in our center um gets depending on what high school they go, they may get very different outcomes on their transcript from what
042we serve them. Some one district may give them a full credit of math, one district may give them a half a credit of math, one district may give them no credits of math. Um so, we can recommend what they should get, but the high schools get to decide. Well, the school board and the superintendent and the high schools get to decide. Um, the other thing is that in the state of Vermont, there is already a law that says that if a student wants to take career technical education and they can't fit it into their schedule, but it is a career path that is of interest to them that the school district is required to wave any graduation requirements above the state minimums so that the student can accomplish that goal. So that let's say um
043I think Virginia's might have a um a technology credit. Let's say that the state of Vermont doesn't end up having a technology requirement. So the state law is that if a student wanted to take, let's say, medical professions, but they couldn't fit it in because of that technology credit, then the then the district would wave the technology credit so that they could take it. But right now, because we don't have any graduation requirements in the state of Vermont because it's all proficiency based grading, many students are not able to access that um that waiver, so they can't fit it into their schedule. And that's less of a problem for a district that maybe has only one or two things above what would be considered a baseline. But in particular, students in in the Middlebury school
044district have almost three and a half extra credits, which makes it very challenging. So, and that kind of repeats itself across the state as different districts have different numbers of graduation requirements and named by name classes that are required for their district. So for us, we feel like it's going to be really well, it depends on what they are because the first draft of the state graduation requirements was not helpful, but we're hoping that the reason will prevail and that when those are finally um adopted, then that will help students be able to access CTE >> more equitably, >> right? >> And the world language requirements, does that concern you or do you think of that more through the lens of a waiver? >> Uh if it was a state requirement, it couldn't be waved.
045So it is greatly concerning to us many thinking about >> it feels like that will be very impactful and also sort of counterintuitive if we're really about student centered learning and want to help students pursue pathways that are meaningful >> right >> that feels like an anomaly to me. Um and then the other piece could you talk just a little bit about you mentioned a couple times that there's an application process. Could you talk to us a little bit about what that looks like and you know how daunting that is for students or >> Yeah. So the state of Vermont and this is a Vermont thing. It is not everywhere. Um require students to apply to go to CTE. >> Um so they can't just be assigned into a CT class. They actually have to
046go through an application process. Um they there's an application they write why what they want to take, why they want to take it, what career goals they might have, the kind of questions you would assume that they would answer. Um then they also uh well their high school counselor helps by attaching their um their academic record, their grades and their attendance and things like that. Um we we are a little bit different just because um we many district many CTE districts are in a position where they're having to turn a bunch of kids away. So because of that um their application may weed out some students that um that are on the line academically or on the line with um like attendance or things like that. But we're take we take a really strong stand
047in Addison County that CTE is public education. And while students all do have to apply because that's a state requirement, we generally take all students. Um if a student has anything that presents in their application that might that looks problematic, they miss a lot of school or they did poorly in their ninth grade year or something, then we have the next step which is an interview. And usually they come with their high school counselor and they sit with our um assistant uh director and our counselor and they just talk about what they see and you know how that might affect them in CTE and and the student talks about you know generally gives some reasons and some things that they're going to do the next year and we find in general that students once they
048get engaged with their CTE class really we see a lot of those things fall fall away and students are very successful. So, while we do follow the state law and all students do all of the same things to apply as anywhere else um and unless there's some big issue generally would have to do it if they cannot be safe in the classroom um then then they're going to be invited. >> So, um one thing I know is changing for next year is that the students that will want to enroll in build and cross class also has to go through the application process. So, we're a little anxious about that and I'm trying to be maybe proactive, right, >> so that we don't see any um you know, we're really pleased with that partnership as so
049any any support you >> right >> might be able to provide them to um not have that be a barrier that >> we we found um that we had traditionally let the high school kind of decide that but we were informed that um even though students must apply >> so we will we will still go through the same process But I do not anticipate it will change the outcome of who gets to take a class. Yeah, we were thinking about, you know, do we do we have some, you know, open office hours where we can, you know, help students understand or unpack or, you know, just be there as support if they need it, right? So, we don't that doesn't present as a problem for any, >> right? It's an online application in a Google
050form, so it's pretty friendly. >> Yes. Thank you. >> Other question, >> it's a 9.95% increase here. We're looking at a 2.3% increase. Um, in the presentation, the key drivers uh indicate things like negotiated salary increases, which we also have to contend with, rising healthcare uh insurance costs, which we also have to contend with, bond debt payments, which should stay pretty static over the years, but we also are are dealing with some of that stuff. So um at least the critical facilities investment are we looking at this budget and saying about 7% of that increase is uh is building out new facilities or repairing those facilities. >> Yeah, we aren't we are definitely not building out new facilities right now. Um the the big piece of that is our that north campus roof and the
051HV what they don't call them anymore. they call them in energy re recycling units, energy renewal units now they're called, but in a 20-year-old building um where diesel and auto classes have been for 20 years. Those those two classes in particular are very hard on those units and so they're at the end of their useful life. And they told us that if we're replacing the roof, it doesn't make any sense to put the old ones back on when we were just going to have to tear the old ones off in in no less than two years. So, we're going to do the whole project at the same time, which saves us probably $100,000. Um, so yeah, unfortunately, there is no um reserve that in in a in our budget, in our small budget that would
052be able to cover a million dollars of roof and ADUs, not ADUs. That would be funny. Um, erus. So, so we have to put that out as part of the budget. The other thing I think which is interesting and different with CTE is it doesn't help us to cut teachers because then we lose revenue. So um because the revenue is driven by the teachers who have the students teaching the classes. So it is counterintuitive but cutting positions actually usually hurts rather than helps the budget. Um unless those students would all take a different CTE class, it doesn't actually help us and usually they don't. usually their interest is lying within the 1CTE program. We do anticipate I mean I think the writing is on the wall with how CTE are funded over time. I believe
053that probably CTE will be end up being part of the foundation formula metric whatever ends up happening. So I don't know if in five years if we're going to still be a district or we're going to be part of the something something other district or we're going to be part of the statewide CTE district. I don't know, but it seems unlikely that the funding mechanism that CTPS currently use will be in place in the future. >> Uh, can I back on something? >> Yeah. >> Um, I imagine there was a conversation about whether to add the facility investments into the budget versus asking for a new bond. Can you explain like how you came to the decision to just wrap it into the budget rather than ask the voters for it? >> Well, the the
054bond is it would be a small bond. I mean, we did we talked with I mean, David, maybe you can help me out here. We did talk with usually these kinds of small investments we do through the municipal um what's it called? Yeah, it's it it ends up being about the same cost for interest and um I think the other piece the other metric our board weighed was can you not have a roof? So it you know putting it out as a separate bond is a little bit risky when you're talking about the roof. >> Um because if it didn't pass then then what? >> Yeah. >> All decisions we make here. Yep. Yeah. Um could you help us understand our portion of the budget? So you have three sending schools right now for Jensen's
055Mount A and Mbury. >> And so how do you decide what percentage of the budget we are paying help you helping you with? Is it based on enrollment or is it just an evenly even split? >> Good question. It's in based on enrollment. So for each student that you send us, you pay per literally per minute for the amount of time that they're with us. So a student who is with us um 120 minutes a day, which is what a halftime student, it's half of whatever the um tuition cost is. For the pre classes, it has to be at least 80 minutes. I think it's 80 or 90 but so but sometimes it's a little bit more than that depending on bell schedule it might be 83 minutes or it might be you know 91
056minutes and so we have to do what fraction of that is out of the full FTE so a full FTE would be 240 minutes so what is the 82 minutes out of the 240 minutes and then we charge your district and if it's every other day then you then it's half of that so it's permit literally permitted and we go kid I kid and count them. >> How many students then are are coming or attending Rome? >> 100. >> You have 100 headcount right now. >> And that includes those who are going to a campus and those who are taking classes here. Correct. >> And some number less than 100. Generally a little bit less than half is what the FTE is that you pay for. But in your case, you actually have a lot
057of pre-t kids. So you probably have less than 50, more like I mean 35 or somewhere in there. I bet if I just off the top of my head is a lot the pretext >> close to 35. >> Good guess. >> And has the number from Middlebury increased? Because last time we heard those students weren't able to access your program because of their scheduling. So has that changed at all? >> So the number the total in for Mbury I don't have the graph but it hasn't changed a huge amount over time but what has changed is the outreach the what has changed is the number of students who apply. So what we are finding is we have a lot because we're doing a tremendous amount of marketing, outreach, parental outreach, visits, materials, kids, tours, and
058we're having many more kids apply. When it comes down to making their schedule, we're having many kids have to drop out at that point. One more. >> Uh, do you remember what the increase was from FY25 to 26 or FY 24 to 25? Would you give me an idea of what the what the pattern is here? Because I don't I mean I've been Yeah, I've been here forever. I've been to these presentations each year, but I don't remember the >> I don't have them off the top of my head. >> Yeah. Um, last year was 8.6% increase. The year before that was a larger increase because it was the first year of the bond and it was like 11 and a half or 12% increase if I remember correctly. Um, our increase just like matching
059contract and paying health insurance is 7 and a half%. Just nothing changes. Seven and a half. And it's it's challenging too in a I mean you're a small district. We're a really small district. We don't have um like ancillary staff that I mean we've we've done that. We've cut that. We only have the paras that are required by the law. In CTE once you hit 16 students in a class you're required to have a full a parah in those classes. We don't have nurses. We don't have ISS coordinators. We don't have reading specialists. We don't have we don't have any of that stuff. We have teachers and a business office and a custodian. And so it's a it's a it is a challenging metric and it's in the district of our size. >> Thank you
060very much. the second a little bit. Yeah. BSA on Friday. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Okay. So, not a ton has different here, but we'll walk through again. Um but um here we are. You know, we are here at budget presentation number three. It says the official um it's actually budget draft number four today. Um so you have two meetings left. Um it seems like from talking to Mark, we might be in a position to adopt the budget at the next meeting. So maybe we won't need the budget presentation on January 26, but you will get to be the judge of that after we get through tonight. So um and then after that we will have our annual meeting um and budget information meeting on March 2nd which is the night
061before the vote. So right around the corner. Uh interestingly I was making a connection to this slide when Nicole was presenting because indeed we have 20% of our students on special education. So, I think that's a really remarkable statistic that double that amount of students are accessing our tech center with a high graduation rate like the ones you described. Um, I think that's a real testament to the value of CTE and um I feel really good about our tech center and our students access of it. So, um but we when we do this informational meeting, we'll speak a little bit more to this slide. I think just in general talking about the different demographics and the enrollment um that we see here at our high school at our schools, our educational goals achieved this slide
062just a little bit um to outline that these were the overarching goals uh that guided our budget decision making as we entered into our budget development process this year. Um, we wanted to maintain our high quality instructional programs, including co-curricular and athletic opportunities. We didn't want to reduce or cut any programs. We wanted to um follow our class policy and our enrollment numbers by aligning those resources to uh those levels within um the fiscal constraints that we have in this budget cycle. Um, and then we wanted to meet our obligations with student support needs, special education, and safety while strengthening our MTSS, SEAL, and behavioral supports. I remember when we talked about this slide last time, somebody said, "Well, these are the same goals as last year." Yes, they are the same goals as last
063year. We have a continuous improvement plan that um, you know, we modify every year, but we don't wholesale swap it out. So, we've been working towards these goals, you know, for a while and I expect that we will continue to. So, um I I I think that's the good thing, right? That we are consistent in what we're working towards. When we think about how those things sort of play out when we think about um student learning and opportunity, our budget, how our budget invests in instruction and opportunity. Um we direct our resources to sustain a whole range of academic programs at every grade level. We speak to that a little bit more at our meeting to talk about um what the state board of education outlines as requirements for schools and what we try to
064do sort of beyond that in terms of um honors classes for example or our music program. Um we we go beyond just the minimum requirement and we can see maybe enrollment trends in that. um at our enrollment. Um we invest in cocurricular and athletic opportunities. We can talk about and you'll see in our annual report sort of like the pattern of um engagement in those. We have a high number of students that access athletic programs and co-curricular opportunities in our district. I think that's a real point of pride for us. So I think having some statistics to speak to that to those patterns um would be useful. And then we can talk a little bit about our class size policy um and aligning staffing levels. Uh that kind of explains the decreases in those areas.
065We have lower enrollment. We're seeing a declining enrollment and we've modified um our staffing numbers to align with that. And then we want to sustain the the fourth bullet is different than the first bullet in that we want to con sustain those consistent access to classes so that students can continue on a pathway that they're on. If they've started in a world language, we want to make sure they can continue in that. Um so so that's really speaking about um sustaining consistent access over time. So when we think about how the budget meet requires any emerging student needs, uh we definitely need to provide required special education services and mandated supports to ensure um a Korean appropriate educational program um for all our students who need it. Um we want to maintain staffing and services
066to address mental health needs, behavioral needs, and social emotional needs. um we're seeing we are seeing an increase in those needs over time. So that's something we've had to look at and adjust. We want to continue to strengthen our MCPS system to support early intervention which helps reduce those required education services, special education services later on. We want to do what we can to reduce escalation um and student behavior early on and get students, you know, keep students in our buildings and um support their learning um to stay with us. And then finally, um thinking about supervision, training and coordination with our external partners to support student safety. We do have a lot of uh we do do a lot of work with for example and they support the work that we do at schools
067and we want to continue to do that. Um talk about this better um manages cost and uh the tax impact. Uh we we we had the goal of keeping for people spending below the excess spending threshold. we met that goal. Uh we want to use some part of our available surplus surplus to reduce peral cost and limit um tax pressure. We want to manage the cost drivers to the best of our ability to minimize tax impact where possible. Um and then you know find that balance between fiscal restraints and investment in those four educational priorities. overtime. Uh Nicole talked a little bit about budget cost drivers. The factors that are contributing to the FY27 cost are um the increases in employee health insurance and cost benefit obligations over time. So yes, it's 7.4. It's still
068a huge as opposed to a double digit increase like we've seen in the past, but it's still a huge u part of our budget that we see increased uh every year. And then uh we will have compensation adjustments resulting from ongoing collective bargaining. We're currently bargaining both contracts to teachers and support staff. Um so we have a bit of an unknown there that we're having to account for in our in our budgeting. Um as I mentioned, we do see a continued growth in special education service needs and those are mandated supports that we need to provide. And then finally, um, inflationary pressures affecting all kinds of plants from utilities, operations, and other contracted services. So, these factors are largely outside of the district's direct control, but we do our best to manage them and take
069them into account as we're um balancing all of the things in our budgeting process. So, we've talked about this uh the budget changes sort of overall from FY26. Um we did have the lower than expectedly high insurance rates at 7.4 actually. Um the impact of it at 7.4%. Um we had a reduction of 10.3 total positions. 7.3 were unfilled positions that we've just finally let go out of the budget and then three three positions based on program needs. We did shift four of our intervention programs from grants to the operating budget due to an anticipated reduction of federal funds. And then we reduced both the technology and athletics budgets by about 2 and a half%. We also uh reduced revenues due to declining enrollments. So I think it's really an important point here to note
070that our staffing reductions were made without eliminating any student program or opportunities. >> A quick question. Um, am I remembering correctly that the maintenance budget was also cut but it's not cut anymore or is that >> it wasn't cut? >> Oh, it was okay. >> I was thinking it was cut by two% but maybe >> um our current uh >> do you prefer to hold to the end for questions? um fair presentation either way. >> Uh just while we're on this page about um total positions, is this budget um fund fewer FTEEs than last year's budget? >> Yes. Technically in terms of >> Yeah. In terms of what we're carrying, I mean, we could call those 7.3 unfilled positions phantom positions. So, they they didn't get filled, but we've been carrying them in the budget
071for a while. So, the FTE is is sitting there as an encumberment in the budget, but there actually isn't a person in the role. So that's why it's you know so technically we are funding fewer positions next year but >> does that make sense but 7.63 of them were not >> our current expenditure budget is 28314,179 a little bit of a moving target. It changes every time. Um we're getting we're getting closer. There were some adjustments made to the tech or rather yeah the tech center tuition. Um >> okay defined then I increase the tuition allowance for support staff and teachers providing the current contract. >> So this is current. Uh so right now we're um like 231479 which is a 2.39% increase. Um in dollar amount the difference is 66179 and um looking at
072last year compared to this year I don't foresee any other uh changes unless negotiations magically get um completed. Uh I mean >> it would be amazing but um unfortunately I don't think it will happen. Um and then this is also uh like she was saying was um also updated with the six month average for some as well. >> Six sorry that's okay. >> Um with um the percentages change but um the overall percentages still are direct instruction at 53.2 two student at 15. >> These two slides sort of go together as you recall. So this is the detail of what each of these categories really represents. And I think that this is an important slide to keep in mind because I think when you're looking at this and say for example administration it it's easy
073to assume we're talking about administrators and that isn't inclusively what falls in that line. And you can see that it's you know legal services, board services, office of the superintendent but also office of the principles and then after school and childcare administration as well. So it's broader than that. Um there's lots of positions in that um line. >> I find this to be very helpful actually as well. His office of the principal include like learning >> you know >> confidential admin assistance >> SDL would be under student support services because that's where counseling services are provided and that person actually operates under a school counseling license. >> Okay. Um, but this is where you can kind of you start to put those puzzle pieces together. >> Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Do >> you happen to know
074the percentage of the office part of the admin out of that total admin? >> The office. Which office? >> The office of the superintendent. >> Oh, no. portion or >> I'm just curious like >> did you >> because that question came up in Hanford we were discussing their admin costs. >> Yeah. >> In the finance committee compared to like other school districts that would >> are you looking just for the office of super or you principal? Um, probably not the principal. The office encompasses all the admin positions like business. >> No, just my position and >> Oh, no. So, the whole um business office is under business, tech, and wellness, which is a different department entirely. You see it on the other side there. So, that is um this little purple sliver here. >> Gotcha.
075>> So, um principles and superintendent are in administration. Business office is over there. Okay. >> Uh operations and maintenance. So like the administration of facilities would be under operations and maintenance or commission. >> Um >> okay. >> So it's it's spread out a little more. And that's really important to know, right? Because that's kind of the point that I was trying to make over here too. It you know the 8.2 is not administrative fors in the district. They're sort of spread >> Yeah. >> out. Um >> Okay. Never mind. Okay. Yeah. And then this is the investment by cate. >> Yes. Um and you'll see the majority of the percentage which is question the slide 12. >> Okay. Could you um explain the difference in student support services the difference between curriculum and office of
076learning and why aren't they under direct instruction? because the chart of accounts here I don't have a logical I guess because it's uh developing curriculum as a service I think more than anything that supports students right so it's I think it's that um you know I think when we see student support services we think of special education and that's not again what that category is special education in classes under direct instruction because special educators provide direct instruction to students as do our regular teachers but but the office of curriculum provides the service of developing curriculum. So I guess that's the logic behind they're not providing a direct instructional service. They're >> developing a program or developing materials that could be used in direct instruction but not actually providing direct in the office of learning. >>
077That's that's the same thing. >> So should you just >> the chart of accounts tells us what to do here. >> It's a little confusing. >> Uh curriculum could be the cost of um we we have not done it this way but this cost of developing curriculum versus the office that contains the people that oversee the work. So there could be associated costs with developing curriculum. you might pay a curriculum committee to do the work for example. So I think that those are just two separate categories. You would probably break down further one or the other. >> I just wonder if you can combine them. The chart of accounts, >> but people we're not looking at the chart of accounts. We're looking at what our budget's paying for. So >> I I mean it's a
078fine point, but it just seems a little redundant to have break down further. >> If it Yeah, I think everything on here has been >> other questions. >> I I just I really like this. I think that's really helpful. have a tiny tip and that would be to take the the kind of pi graph that's on the previous slide just make it smaller and have that at the center instead of this random python just so that people can more directly tie >> I think we all now know what this is but >> it's like that small I could try it though >> this is so much tech >> the hard thing is the percentages >> yeah it is see that there's no label on this one. Um, it goes away since it says can't fit
079it all on there. >> Can you color color code the text >> to match the color on the pipe? >> The missing label is transportation, by the way. And purple is child nutrition. And this needs to be thicker for those. But we could skip the piraphph al together and just put percentages next to these things >> and change the colors of the words to match the pigraph >> or skip the pigraph. >> I think I think it's great. I just I just think that I wasn't part of a presentation. I wouldn't immediately be able to link to this. >> So if we put it here and it lost its label, but we color coded the things >> to match. Right? So in other words like you know direct instruction we'd have to make sure all
080the colors are different. So direct instruction say is now green and then over here it's the only green right and next to it it says you know 53.2% and here there's a graph in the middle but no labels. >> I mean >> I can play around with it. >> Would it be redundant to just have the giant one and then just shrink it down on the next slide? >> It just like I said the labels would be gone. Yeah, you have to just sort of make make it even more obvious. But yes, you can definitely work on that. That makes good sense. >> It was really hard. I remember when we did this slide last year, it was really hard to as you can see by the fact that the text is not lining up
081across the slide. >> It it you know, it simply can't like cuz some are so hard to see it all on there. But we can play around with it. And then this one is just investments by category and I already spoke to that. Um these are just the many different ways that we look at the very same you know information. So here we have salaries here we have the dollar amount associated with salaries and you know as I think about it doing this over many many years you know we've arrived at this place in this way based on many years of sessions by different people right like so two years ago we added this slide because this slide wasn't you know um informative enough so and then this slide of its own on its own
082wasn't informative enough because people wanted to see the dollar amount of mot. So it's become this sort of you know behemoth of a presentation but we want to go back to the basics and say like doesn't it even make sense like is it still making sense that we present it this way so you all you know you're a good you're a good judge for that being the new member going through all of this. So, I appreciate your your then we're here. So, this is different. I did not include and I hope that you appreciate that I did not include the full task calculation worksheet which is that awful looking thing and instead I just think about a way just to represent that differently. So across the top you see our expenditure budget which is a
0832.39% increase but then in the side by side you see the different models for what surplus is applied. So in the left hand column if we apply 800,000 we get a per pupil spending rate of 15,779 which is a 4.13% increase over last this year. Or if we apply the maximum surplus, which will be slightly different than that amount, by the way, but we'll talk about that in a minute, we we arrive at a 15,579% increase for people cost, which is a 2.81% increase. When we apply, if we were to apply the mass surplus, our union tax rate is literally almost, you know, 0% increase 1,000 of a percent. So that's as close to level tax rate as we're going to get. Whereas even if we decide to only put 800,000 against uh the budget,
084that's still a pretty reasonable tax increase. um at 0232% increase. So either one of these scenarios, the board needs to really be thinking about which direction you want to head so that you know you come with a budget you're ready to kind of vote on next time if that's what you decide you want to do. So we did get some updated PLA information between our last meeting and this meeting. So, this is no longer sort of the hypothetical CLA. Um, with your statewide adjustment, we now have what they've given up. Um you can see the resulting town by town tax rate with 800,000 of surplus applied or is the max surplus applied range in cent increased from 7 cents to 12 cents with 800,000 or from 5 cents to 10 cents with a max of
085five. And this would be a good time to mention that the governor has signaled that they're going to put, you know, $75 million against the budget again this year or they, you know, they they anticipate that they will. It still requires some action on the part of the legislature to do that. But I think because they've already sort of said they they would do that. I'm not clear exactly what that brings down on taxes, but but by a couple of cents anyway. I think it brings down our rates. So, I'm trying to find that number. We had it last year, but I can't find it anywhere on our notes that for every X they put against against the budget at the state level, every tax is down by X. Um, I'll hopefully have that done
086next time more specifically. I think it's okay for us to count on that happening. These are all things, you know, that we never know when we're going into the town meeting. They vote, you know, necessarily where all this lands, where the yield lands, any of the rest of it. You never know. But, um, this gives us a pretty good picture. So, this is where we remind folks that they might be eligible for a property tax deduction and how to access that. Um, this is the this will be filled in correctly when it's time to provide the presentation and you will know what article number this is and it will have the rest of it filled in. And then the reminder of voting and we have the right location for for voting not sending people to
087the fire station which is no shake. >> So b more questions what do you want to talk about here? >> I just this is not about the budget about the presentation. >> Okay. Um, I just wanted to see if all the pictures that show people in them are from our district or >> all but one. >> Yep. >> There was like one or two. >> I'm pretty sure all but one. >> I really want to encourage >> to only use pictures. >> I would love that. And we often don't have enough choices. Yeah, there's two actually that are not our >> Yeah, I I would encourage you to just walk them out with pictures that don't have people or >> Y that that don't have >> pictures of actual real people. >> They're kind of
088easy to pick out. I don't know. >> That's fair. Good pick. >> Sean, will you take some pictures of port? one. Just one good one. Is there anything like on social media? >> I bet Isabelle and I could find a couple pictures to send um to use from different activities. >> There we go. Problem solved. Thank you. >> Um slide number six. um how the budget meets required and emerging student needs. >> Yeah. >> Um can you talk about um the strengthens and ESS systems? Um talk about that line and and what that means in this budget. Uh specifically the part where it was support early intervention. Are we adding staff or staff hours in in this budget to support that work? >> We are not adding staff or staff hours beyond what might be
089unknown at this point just in terms of we don't ever quite know the support staff needs from year to year. Um, so we haven't explicitly budgeted to add more support staff, but depending on how I might be developed or something like that, we can find ourselves in a where we are adding. But I think um you know continuing to strengthen our MTSS is an ongoing part of our consumer improvement plan from year to year and certainly solidifying our um grant funded positions in the regular fund in the general fund supports us um you know from not losing critical staff in that area. you I think you said that the CIP really informed this slide that >> it informs all of our slides. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. >> I just trying to figure out what this slide
090means and why these things are singled out as stuff that this budget supports. >> I think it just to be a little bit more representative of of all of the work that we're doing. So all the areas of our um continuous improvement plan, you know, we speak to student personalization and academic um pieces in our CIP. And then we also speak to safety and uh health and safety of students in our CIP and also strengthening um engagement and belonging. So, I'm just kind of trying to hit the highlights of all of those pillars in one way or another in the program in the presentation. >> This slide suggests to me that these are drivers >> versus your goals. >> Can you say more about that? How are >> like these are new things that we're
091working on versus things that we've been working on. It just When I when I read that like, okay, well, what else are we spending money on to be up each of these individual things? But we I think we've been doing these all along. We help how the budget continues to meet required longevity that I'm fine with this being in here, but I'm just talking about the title. If you just tweak the title a little bit, make it seem like we're not talking about this new program continuation support continuation of the work already done. I I'm not opposed to that. I don't need it either. I I don't I don't I don't see the importance of the slide. >> I like it. >> Yeah. Yeah. I like it. And you know what? I like that you
092said that. Um I I really do like it when I say something and it's not meant with silence because it it indicates to me whether or not other people in the room are feeling the same way that I am. So, thank you, John. I appreciate that. Yeah. I I mean I think that those three slides actually are like very positively worded and they talk about like how we are um you know basically what are our goals, what are we investing in, how are we addressing needs and then you get into like managing costs and like fiscal stewardship. So I I person I mean I'm one and I'm one but I I think that it's a it's a nice way to present like okay what are you doing with this money >> really it was like
093this slide so like you know the educational pieces and then these two slides to kind of unpack them a little bit and then it goes into the what were the fiscal goals right so these are the educational goals and then what were the sort of fiscal goals. We want and we could call it something different besides fiscal stewardship, but we wanted to be below the threshold or surplus, you know, and then kind of like what what was hard about that, you know, what were the things that were maybe a barrier to doing that or what were we having to strategize around? You know, these are the kind of budget cost drivers. So, these two slides kind of go together and then it's like, you know, how is that any different from last year or how,
094you know, what changed from last year? So that was kind of the trajectory of what I was trying to do here. So before we only had this slide, right? And we wanted to talk more about what was on this slide. >> I think I would tack on to that those three slides and especially describing students, how we're meeting student needs are really important to a lot of families. How we're addressing, you know, what you laid out in those slides. I think they're good. So yeah, and so um I appreciate what you say Chris for sure. Um so tacking on these connecting this text with um pa slide 10. I'm wondering and I'm thinking about when I talk to my town and if I'm town meeting and they're all looking at me and wondering, you know,
095what's new and so we can either say we're doing the same thing we always do. It's just that we have these inflationary increases or can we say specifically like in student support services that's the highest increase. Is there something special that we can talk about is happening in in this category that's requiring this increase? Which which >> um student support services slide 10 is >> so like what can we is it basically all the same as before or is there something new that we're >> there's nothing new there's nothing >> that's where the four >> it's not new they shifted from one funding >> source to another so I think that what I think that the important piece of this is we are losing our federal funding And so this is the beginning of that
096and what the impact will be if we, you know, as we continue to meet the needs of our learners, right? We we um and it's a it's to me too a point to celebrate that we're not skipping a beat here, right? We're losing some federal funds and we have a plan for that and so our students will continue to have access to the same things they have now. Um, >> so that seems like the big the headline like we are. >> And so back to slide nine, those four positions have to be put into the operating budget because we've lost those the grants to fund them, >> which and and we haven't, you know, this is precautionary. We haven't heard for certain that title one, title 2, like we haven't heard for certain is gone.
097We're planning according to um you know the information we've been provided. So it's um it's you know so it's a it's really um you know it's a fraction of each of those people too. It's actually not the entirety of 4.0 um staff method salary. a portion of their salary is funded through grants and a portion has always been funded through local but it's easier to talk about it by just saying four positions even though the net difference is not actually board. And then as far as reduced technology and athletic budgets, I mean 2.5%. Is it a lot? But what are students going to see? >> Nothing. >> It's just less machines or less >> uniforms. >> It's what >> it's level funding. So what? So if we think about you know cost of living increases
098to all categories like when we think about what is it going to cost you know next year to do these great same things and we just said okay for level funding we're not going to do an increase in these two lines and I did check with you know Pete who whose budget directly impacts students and um no no changes any athletic program as a result of tweaking on the edges of the things he's already paying for and Tim was actually able to uh purchase ahead last year when we knew there was a surplus some of things. So, it's just distribute distributing that out a little differently than we would have otherwise. >> Question. Sorry to be nitpicky, but back to slide nine. So in blue it says current budget total is 28 million. Does that
099mean is this the proposed budget or is this what it is right now? >> So which current budget do you >> FY27? >> So when you say current budget that sounds like the one we're using right now. >> Okay. >> As opposed to future budget proposed proposed budget. Okay, I just changed it. You good? Awesome. Okay. >> All right. Uh reports announced able um are announced tition to the state on Friday. Um with our declining enrollment um currently with the calculation the elementary area tuition was about 22,68 and secondary was 30,227 compared to last year elementary was 14,450 and then secondary was 23,455. >> So that's a huge increase. Can you just talk about that a little bit? Um when looking at the data it was um the enrollment drop um was large in the
100secondary it went from and this was like as of October data that these are pulled from so last year it was 450 and this year it's 470 470 um and then with the expenditure budget increasing So we graduated a really large class and an incoming fresh class was small. >> That's good to know questions. >> How many tuition and students we have? >> Yeah, they're kind of throwing out there. Um, okay. >> All right. >> I recommend that we maintain our current uh cut points at 15 in and 15 out. Um, currently we have eight out um boards to CDU 3 to Mberry one from Mount A. And right now we don't have any in. Usually we have some in and some out. We don't have any in. But I don't think we should any
101questions there. >> All right. Have a motion to approve. >> Second. >> Favor. >> All right. Item. I have a motion to approve the date for the district vote. >> I'm Oh, you want to read it? >> Oh, you have it. >> You go ahead. >> I move to conduct the Addison Northwest School District's vote on town meeting day, Tuesday, March 3rd, 2026. >> Second. discussion. This is an action item. So, anybody in the public want to talk about the date? >> All in favor? >> I have a date. Do I want to approve the policies as a slate or one by one? >> B5 has been out. All right. I have a motion to approve policies B20, B29, F26, B28, B8, and B23. >> Discussion, public discussion. All in favor? Okay. Budget. No, I
102think Unless people have questions about the budget we just heard. Big question is what we do so far. >> And to be clear, you're officially approving the budget as the meeting where we put that on for action. But this is just to really narrow the scope of where we're focused on the next presentation you see is not one with scenarios, but more so like here it is. You can still make a different decision next time you meet. Um but this is just going to kind of point us in the right direction so we have exactly what we need for taking it. >> Uh finance committee met before this meeting and uh we discussed some of the changes to the budget. We discussed um an updated uh facility stewardship plan that Stephanie um had been working
103on. um she gave us a capital improvement fund number of uh roughly $700,000. Uh and we discussed a little bit about um things that we want to do in the future based on that stewardship plan. And uh we're we're talk we're still talking about doing uh the rest of the roofs which would be if we did them all at once would be uh $550,000. Was that $700,000? And then uh there's a whole bunch of other items on that list like um the clock bell system that's like grand. There's a there's a number of different things to take a look at on that plan. Um but the uh for in good shape um so the finance committee was recommending to this board that we put a million dollars of the 1.13 million surplus towards the budget
104for FY27 >> and that we um I think I think I can say it was also our recommendation that we top off the um educational stabilization,000 >> very small amount and the balance of that we would ask for to set aside for the capital which amounts to about$1,000 and $3,000 roughly those are those are our recommendations. always been talking about the 800 400 talked about all of it and you know one of the issues we've been discussing is the concern that the state will fall back anything that we put into reserves. Um our hope is that even if we put it into the capital improvement fund as long as we have it strictly earmarked we will be vetting this. It'll be harder for them to take it. So we didn't want to have a large
105lump sum sitting there that we might not but we can definitely we have projects on our books that we need that money for. That seemed like a good way. The only concern is that a million dollars in surplus is going to leave us critical next year because we're not going to have we're not planning on having surplus next year the extent we have it now. But >> but you're saying it's better to spend it than let it just sit there >> because we think it's only going to be one more budget cycle before the state shuts off your budget anyway. What would be a stop that year? >> Remember we talked about a fiscal cliff last year. >> Yeah. I mean also from my point of view um I mean it'd be nice to have
106a balance in that capital improvement plan moving forward but when you look at the um facilities stewardship plan there is no big ticket items in the foreseeable future. Um, and this doesn't rule out us in the future asking the taxpayers for a lump sum of money to be put into the capital improvement fund. It just means that this year there's not much of it that comes out of the surplus. Um, but next year if we don't have any surplus, we can still go and ask the taxpayers money for the capital improvement fund. But that would be on top of the cliff. So >> yeah, >> it would and heading into the complete restructuring of the world. >> Chris, when you say that um did I hear you right, there's no big ticket item to spend
107money on? Is that >> other than what we talked about which was the roof for $550,000 which we have $700,000 in the account already. Um, and then the $80,000 for the clock bell system. Yeah. And >> from what I recall from looking down through that uh facilities stewardship plan, all the other stuff was um relatively small number. >> The only thing that comes to mind is the conversation we had with Gary about the food. >> We talked about that as well. could be seems to think that he's going to be able to live that along for a little bit longer than he initially told us. Uh he worked on some structural integrity over the vacation to try to get us further along. >> We all agree that the problem with the bleachers when you when
108you walk in there and you go up to the top um seats, especially on the I'll call it the visitor side. I mean, there's there's problems with those seats. They're they're cracked. Um, but it does not sound like it's an immediate plan that they need right now. And and that's just kind of something that came up in our finance here. >> And and we we'll continue to talk to Gary about that. And there's no decisions being made today. So we can talk to Gary about that in our next meeting next week. >> Yeah. The only other outstanding we don't know the detention but we don't know. >> Yeah. But I mean I think we're fine. I think that's >> aside from bleach. That's the other that's kind of out there. >> But I think we're
109>> relatively small from what I >> Yeah. unknowns. So, it sounds like the finance committee has done its due diligence. I just What happens if we went with the $800,000? What What would happen to the $300,000 that is in surplus? Where I don't even know where that goes. It would go through the surplus and we would use what we need and some of it may just be there as a rainy day like we have right now. There's that 10,000 that we have places to go for. kind of as we need it. We take it the concern is that the state is going to say, "Well, you didn't need that money apparently and we want to take effect." And >> I don't know if that will happen or it's just like an idea that that could
110happen. Um it doesn't, you know, some of the conversation is yes, the voters approve the use of that to, you know, to move it, to shift it. Um voters approved it in the first place. So it seems a little unimaginable that they could call it back, but not not without the possibility going to >> it's definitely what if >> it's just sort of a calculated risk on giving back to the taxpayers while we still have control over it at all. >> And just so that we get the idea behind these decisions in the correct order. I mean if you don't do anything all of the surplus goes towards the budget. So you're not really making a decision on what returns the budget as much as what does not return the budget. >> So our decision
111is to ask the taxpayers to um allocate roughly $103,000 of that $1.13 million surplus to go towards the capital improvement fund for future projects. Um, and so whatever you don't allocate just moves forward with the next budget of that whatever you don't allocate of that surplus just moves forward to the next budget. And so I think your question is not so much. I'm just thinking about it in the in the reverse. Your question is what what if we do $800,000? Really the question is what do you do with $3.13,000 $100,000 and so your decision becomes really the only other place to put it in the capital improvement fund. And I think that I think we're in good shape in that area. >> Yeah. >> Over explanation. And I guess I'm sure we could spend it
112too. You know what I mean? Like there's lots there's a lot of things on that list that >> Sure. >> Yeah. >> $300,000 on this. there was an Hback component on >> there is a lot of talk in Mont failure about capital improvement and and um state money possibly coming along for these kinds of things. So, >> um, while I would never advocate, um, putting off maintenance, >> um, I if there's stuff that that isn't pressing right now, I'm not so sure that I would want to spend it at this point given that it may be advantageous in the future to have something that we need. >> It was here, not done in the 2018 project, but that's still on the list. sighting were taken care of. That's pretty essential. >> We haven't talked about
113that. >> But wasn't there something >> Stephanie when you were going over that with Gary? Is that is that a refresh number? Because I have Yeah, I have not heard that one in a while. Was there something related to the Harrisburg program in terms of upgrading? >> I think that's ventilation. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Okay. >> Cuz I think that was something that was >> I think so because this was the short on the homepage of the stewardship. This is the short. >> So two to five years. Yeah. anger at this >> we're reaching out to EI about a couple of funings because they're back from >> and that's announcing. >> Um so we we talked to them about that and a couple other projects mentioned when next time later in the month that will
114happen for that to come back. We're not making a decision tonight just to throw this out here. >> We still have the full range of options at the next meeting. >> But if we do think that that's a possibility that we're that seems reasonable then have the budget figures we know what the numbers would be right before we decide 21st. >> We meet the 21st and then if we don't make a decision we meet on the 26th. So we have two more chances or two more meetings before we have to pass a budget. But if we feel comfortable next meeting then we don't have to worry about choices. Any other questions comments? Anybody? All right. Uh public comment before speaking please state your name and town of Breton and comments three minutes. I'm John from
115Pan. Um I still don't quite understand the nuances of the current um surplus. either we didn't spend money that we thought we were going to spend and why or we had more revenue that we didn't expect which is good job by finding those revenue sources or um and I guess my question would be why if we had a million dollar surplus why don't we see a million dollar reduction in the budget if we didn't spend it that here. Well, I I don't know going forward, but that's a nuance thing. Um my bigger question I I asked this more as an employee of the district is said that there's three positions that are going to be um my word because of different needs program needs and my fears obviously as a as a a parent and
116an employee is what those are and I that can be answered right now. Um, and how would that be achieved? Um, those are people I don't you know that all right. >> Okay. And that's somebody on Zoom. >> Hi there. My name is Shauna. I am actually a resident of Bristol, but I might not be a district resident, but I am here tonight as an advocate for a family who is. >> I have concerns regarding the implementation of district policies and procedures. Uh the first one I'll speak about is policy B22, public complaints about personnel. Uh B22 lays out a clear step-by-step process for members of the public to raise complaints. In the section titled appeal to the school board, the policy states if the prior steps do not resolve the concern, the complainant may
117request that the board review the superintendent's decisions. It further states that if the board decides to hear the request, it shall invite all parties hold a hearing to present facts and clarify the issue and render a decision in a fair and just manner. The district's administrative policy or I'm sorry, administrative procedure B22R echoes the same process. But when a parent follows this process, when they do exactly what the policy and procedure require, it is reasonable to expect that the district will also follow its own policy. My concern is simple. What is the recourse for parents when they follow the policy, but the policy is not followed by the district? These policies exist to protect all parties. They ensure transparency, fairness, and a meaningful opportunity to be heard. Denying access to the very process that the
118board has adopted does not resolve conflict. It escalates it. When people are denied the opportunity to be heard after following the rules, the system itself becomes the problem. This particular concern is directly connected to an open meeting law issue that I have pre previously raised with the school board chair. Decisions about whether the board will hear an appeal under its own policy are board decisions. And board decisions must be made by the board in a duly worn meeting, not unilaterally and not outside of the public process required by law. Open meeting law notices must be addressed in public within 10 days of being notified. That so far has not happened. I'm not asking for a decision tonight. I'm just asking that board policies be implemented as written. Decisions regarding board review occur transparently, lawfully, and
119in open meetings. Finally, I want to address student safety and accountability, particularly regarding rule 4500 about restraint and seclusion. This rule is specific and it only protects students if its definitions are clearly understood and consistently apply. These measures are last resorts, not behavior management tools, and their use requires strict documentation, parent notification, reporting, and oversight. These definitions matter when there is not a shared understanding of what constitutes restraint or seclusion. Incidents are under reportported, mclassified, or overlooked, and accountability breaks down completely. I urge the board to strengthen its policies and procedures to require clear accountability under rule 4500, including consistent training, accurate classification, timely reporting, and meaningful board level review of the data. Transparency and accountability are essential to student safety, and to maintain public trust. Thank you. >> Thank you. Comment. Okay. Do I
120have motion to go into effective session on a personnel matter under 1BSA 313 A3 >> second? All in >> favor. All right.