NHCS Board of Ed. Budget Work Session | Feb. 25, 2026

001All right. >> Like to call this uh budget workshop to order. Uh Miss Buoie, would you please would you call the Sorry. Would you call the role, please? >> Pete Wilder, >> present. >> Melissa Mason >> here. >> Josie Barnhard. >> Pat Bradford, >> I am present. >> Judy Justice >> here. >> Tim Merrick. David Perry >> here. All right, board members, I'm glad you are here and uh we I think the rest of the board is on their way. I've gotten some messages. Um I would uh entertain a motion to approve the agenda. >> So moved. >> Okay. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Okay. Uh any discussion? Okay. All in favor signify by saying I. >> I. All oppose like sign. That passes one to five. Five to zero. Uh, next we'll

002have the pledge. And it looks like I'll be leading it. >> I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Okay. We're here for a very important reason uh to talk about our budget. And at this point, I would look I'll turn it over to Miss Sutton. So, everyone should have a packet that's printed straight from assembly. So, all of the handouts are going to be in the packet. So, if we just kind of go in order, um, keep up with where we are in the meeting, then you should shouldn't have any trouble hopefully finding the documents that we'll be referring to. >> Yes, >> this may seem like a okay, simple question,

003but everything that we're going to go over is in this packet. Do we even need our computers if we want to write on our I'm just being straight here because um many >> You shouldn't need your computers. Everything should be in the packet. I will say that there are some minor like notes that were added to the PowerPoint slide after this was printed, but it's just notes. It's not changing the meaning of any of the slides. It's just additional notes were added. So, you might see that on the slideshows that we're um showing on the screen versus in the packet. >> All right. Well, thank you. >> And I'll try to point those out too when we get to those. >> Thank you. >> Yes. I appreciate. >> Okay. So, a lot of these slides,

004if um you went to the listening tours or listening budget meetings that we've had, um some of these slides will be familiar. And then we've added some additional slides to give you an update on where we are with this budget um this actual school year. So starting with um our priorities. So as we um went into this year, these were things that we were talking about um things that we wanted to prioritize um as far as straightening our culture and improving transparency. Um, you know, we've had a lot of staff reductions over the years due to lo loss in federal funding, loss in average daily membership or student enrollment. And so um we were trying to stabilize those um positions um and then also looking at um just up updating our strategic plan and we'll

005have a slide that goes talks about that towards the end. And so these were just some of the priorities for the year as we were getting started and you know the big focus on the culture shift when we were building the budget last year we did identify some strategic initiatives that had been our focus for this year. Um and as we're going through I'll talk through those just a little bit. Um attendance being the first. So we we were prioritizing or our focus I guess was to reduce the number of students who are chronically absent um category by 10% annually. Um we were also looking to reduce the number of students who were in the warning category for chronically absent by 5% annually. when we were looking at safe and civil schools, you know, we

006that was an additional budget request from the county last year um to implement that and you know that was going to be implemented or has been implemented to reduce student disruption and office referrals. Um and by doing that, that would allow us to maximize our instructional time with those students. Our other focus was high school math that we've talked about a lot. Um increase in proficiency in high high school math one to 40% by the end of 2027. Graduation rate um increase by 2% annually. Third grade reading increasing our proficiency in third grade to 58% by the end of 2027. And then also um transparency and accountability were also focuses for us for this um budget cycle this school year. And then we also wanted to take just a moment to brag. So we got

007a couple brag slides in here. Um so as you can see here, these are some accountability highlights for last year's data. Um, and I'm not going to read all these to you, but we wanted to share that once again with you and with the public that may be watching our session, our budget session here. Um, also wanted to highlight we're um, some of the same things as last year. We're 12th largest school district in the state. Just to make sure that um, the public's kind of aware of some of these things too as we're talking through. Um, our teacher supplement is sixth in the state. Um, our per pupil spending is ninth. We have 3,200 approximately employees. We're the second largest employer in New Hover County. And then we also wanted to highlight a couple

008of additional things. Um, 30 schools meet or exceed growth expectations. I'm not going to read everything here um but just a couple of things to point out. Um we rank 18th in the state with EOGs and COC's EOCC's combined also these are the data we received. >> Good point. >> So now I wanted to share some information for our student enrollment. So, um, ADM, average daily membership. You'll sometimes I'll use those interchangeably. Um, New Hor County Schools. Here you can see our enrollment changes over the past five years. Um, that does include this year's enrollment as of um the second month of school because that is the number that DPI uses funding us for the upcoming year. So, I wanted to make sure you had that number there. So we have seen um some decreases

009over the past three years including this year. Um and then we're we'll talk about um that loss of 839 students further along in the presentation and certainly at our next board work sessions we'll be talking about that. We um like to share also in addition to our enrollment, we like to share charter school, homeschool, private school enrollment. And these were slides that were included in the budget listening tour as well. Um because we wanted to see are our students going to are they choosing a different um option for their education versus New Hor County schools. And so as you can see here, um, these options have been fairly level. Um, we're not seeing big shifts, um, as far as students making a different choice versus New Hver County schools over the past two years. >>

010I think what's an important qualifier to remember in this as well, a lot of our charter and private schools are also still building. So they're adding a grade level each year as they go. So even with the addition of grade levels, you're not really seeing a shift dramatically away from public schools. Now, I know that people have talked about uh the voucher program and the all those things, but what they discovered, I think the most recent report I read said that 92% of the people who were utilizing vouchers were already not in the public school already. So to that extent, you're not seeing that create the kind of shift I think what you're seeing are the two things that we've discussed. One is the birth rate which is affecting schools across the state and two

011is the cost of living in New Hover County specifically. Even with the property tax being low, the average cost of a home in New Hover County is $100,000 more than the state average. >> Whoa. >> But you aren't seeing Yeah. you aren't seeing the the decline necessarily as much in Pender and Brunswick because I think the bleed is sort of happening in that direction if that makes sense. >> Right. I agree. >> Excuse me. Um do do we have any numbers on the number of school age children comparatively in our county? Has it gone up down? About the same? >> Yep. That number there of the total enrollment plus our enrollment is what they would consider the number of students in New Hmer County. >> Right. >> So going >> Yeah. So if you add

012um >> 243 >> and 7, 768, that's generally the number of students, >> the number of school age children in the county. >> So are we diminish? >> Yes. So it's so if you if you're looking at if you want to look at 2025 enrollment information which that's the number the DPI used to fund us this school year the 24599 plus the 7 um 7768 you see here for 2025 that equals 32,367. So that that's the total number of students in New Hver County. And so we're going down slightly but not much. >> Right? When you're looking at these other educational options, you're seeing slight changes there. So our decrease that we're seeing um here on this slide is not related to um it does not appear to be related to parents making different options,

013selecting different educational options. But what it is likely related to is the fact that every year we've been graduating about 2,000 seniors and bringing in about 1,700 kindergarteners. Right? >> So you see a net loss every year of the number of students the county has. >> Plus if they're not going to charter school or private school or home school, >> that number of increase of what it is, there's 58 less kids in other options than there were the year before. But if we have 800 less kids, the only other result would be either people moving out or students not moving in. >> Right. >> Miss Justice, >> well, yesterday we I think we talked about the fact that, you know, just birth declining overall nationally. >> Yes. >> How much would that be factoring into

014this? Have you figured that? >> I think that is going to be a systemic issue as we go. Mhm. >> I think you're always going to see that 300 or so kids less every year just because there are less fivey year olds, right? Until until sort of those five year olds we've had over the last two or three years get to be middle and high schoolers and that number stays the same, then we'll balance itself, right? Because once if we're the last three years we brought in 1,700 kids instead of 2,000 in kindergarten. Once those kids get up into middle and high school, if the number stays static, then we'll balance. But until the bubble moves through, there's no telling. >> And the prediction is that our population is going to be by 2050 108,000

015108,000 more people in this county. >> Yeah. But that doesn't mean they're bringing or having children. >> But I mean, it's still the fact is we're growing. >> Yeah. >> Big time. >> Yeah. >> Not necessarily children. Actually, Miss Justice and I were in the curriculum meeting and Dr. Barnes explained that Monday, whenever that was, and I wanted him to explain it, but he just did. So, that was that was because everyone's asking, "How can you be down 839 kids when it's booming in New Hover County?" So, we get that question a lot, and I wanted an answer from him. >> I don't know. Apparently, I have late breaking information. >> Merrick, that everything's there is in your packet. Yeah, it's also >> Yeah, you can do the packing several things back and forth. >>

016And then we also like to provide a breakdown by um level of our enrollment. I think that's helpful to have uh we have 45 schools and using the 24,599 um student um ADM. You can see the breakdown there. And then we've also got our preschool students included in that ADM number for that total 25,139. >> Question Ashley. >> Yes. >> It says three preK centers. Those are our standalone centers. That's not counting all our pre-K classrooms, right? >> That's correct. >> The elementary number. >> That's correct. But there's a prek at elementary, the 144. So those are the ones that are at our elementary schools currently. >> Thanks. Yep. What's up? >> And here we have a breakdown for you of our total budget for this year. Um 368 million. And we have um we

017wanted to show you by funding source on this slide. Um, so as you would expect, the state makes up 53.5% of the budget with federal coming in at 8.7% which is quite a decrease compared to a couple years ago when we had the COVID funding. >> Yeah. >> And then the county funding making up 31% there. >> Now, we've talked about I'm sorry, actually you can stop me later. >> No, you're good. Good. >> I'll get scolded after this meeting is over. Um there are some schools you see where this the districts where the state bus is larger and the county bus is lower. We do have things like low wealth funding and rural uh what do they call it? >> Um small county >> small county money. Mhm. >> So the in some states

018that county number is significantly le some states some districts the county number is significantly lower because the state number is higher because lowwealth counties can't produce the amount that we do. Is that accurate? >> Yes. That's correct. >> Like if we did this for 100, you're going to see our blue part of the bus is larger than all but nine other counties. >> That is correct. Miss Bradford, >> I was looking actually I keep this school bus on on a on a on my phone, but it looks to me like these numbers have really changed since last year. Um especially with federal and even other because I thought under was 1% and now it's up to 6.8%. >> Yep. So we'll and it depends if you're looking at the operating budget versus the total as

019well. Um, I will say in this county number, we are including um the county appropriation, the prek grant we received from the county and the capital. Um, so that that's where the county number is coming from. And the other number is going to fluctuate. I've got a little note on the bottom there. Um, that other includes grants and donations. Your fines and forfeitures would kind of fluctuate a little bit. capital that's not through the state or the county. Great. Um sometimes we have some funding that comes in or that's flexible where we could use for like small renovation or repair type projects. So that would be included in other um and like community use rentals of our facilities is so those are the kind of things that are included in that other number. Miss Justice

020then >> uh yeah there there was a lot of concern for re good pause about federal funding over the last I'll just say last year. It's my understanding that not only have we received the funding that originally was said that was going to be denied but also we've got a little boost in it. Is that correct? >> I don't know. I think we got a little more in title one but not significantly. But they have sort of sent the message down that our title two, three, and four should be secured for next year as well, >> right? Yes, that's correct. >> Dr. Mayor, >> you know, everybody wants to know about where's that lottery money? >> So, >> yeah, >> you know, when you talk is that is that tucked into others? I know we

021did uh Dr. Oregon, you know, did bring us some uh grants that we were getting through the the lottery or does that is that bundled into the state? >> It's in the state number. >> Mr. Perry, >> um do you have other slides that show this because this includes capital. Do you have other slides show um >> too just just operating expenses? >> Yeah, it's too late. >> Yes. >> Slide 13. >> Okay, great. Thank you. It's a good comparison because that's what I was looking at. >> And so this this is a breakdown using the 608 million total budget and the 24,599 average daily membership or student enrollment to calculate a per pupil. So based on that total budget, our per pupil is 14,968 if you want to round up 15,000. Um, and so

022that gives you the breakdown by the different funding sources, the per pupil. And this is a different bus, um, but kind of the same. This is showing our total operating budget. And so I did add a note. So, this note on the slide is not in the slides that are printed for you because um a question came up um and I was a little late getting this added, but um I wanted to make sure that um we had on the slide what was excluded um that way if you're going back and looking at it later, you'll be able to remember those things. So when we're talking about operating budget, I'm not including capital or child nutrition or sometimes we call that food service um or other restricted and that would be things like grants and

023donations. So um and the reason I'm pulling that out and not including it as the operating budget is because I really don't have flexibility on that. So when I get that money for capital, I have to spend it on those capital projects that have been approved. That's how we can spend those funds. Child nutrition same way when we receive funding for child nutrition it has to be spent on child nutrition and of course grants and donations has to be spent in accordance with those documents. So that was the reason for pulling that out. Um and so when you look at the different breakdown here um for just as at the operating budget you can see the states picking up 50 I'm sorry 60.5% of that budget um the counties to 33.3% and federal's 6.1% with

024just less than 1% coming from other and really that other is fines and forfeitures >> because we pulled all those other things out. Okay. Um, yeah, it's actually actually kind of surprising that the overall budget that included capital was 31% county and its operating expenses was 33. Uh, which I would have figured it was the other way around. I I guess for mostly because the county is responsible for um the capital needs uh as far as buildings, things like that. Uh, That's my understanding. Anyhow, um so but also uh I guess I'm just uh if for instance if we get this $320 million um >> bond uh would we expect then that the county percentage is going to go way up? >> Yes, but it'll it'll show in the year that we're spending it. So

025it wouldn't all show in the county number the first year because you wouldn't get all the money the first year. >> But yes. Also, it's percentage wise, too. So, right, the numbers might not change, but the percentages change based on what the other >> That's exactly right. >> The first bus will change. This bus won't change, >> Miss Pepper. >> Oh, okay. Yeah, because we're excluding capital from this. Yes, you're right. You're right. This is the bus that would change the total budget, not the operating budget. That's true. >> The slide in the middle with the 14,968 for people. I know I've asked you this before, but I can't remember your explanation. If I multiply that 14968 by the 839 less students we have next year. You guys want to guess how much money that

026is? It's 12.6 million. So you said it doesn't exactly figure out that way because of the way the federal state and other is allotted. Explain that part. >> So we'll we'll spend some time at the end of this work session on aotments and then you'll you'll maybe get a better understanding. Um so some things um are provided through position allotment. So um you'll get less positions um and it depends on the average cost what that revenue works out for that. Um but I guess a better example would be like um children with disabilities maybe is a good example. Um depending yes it's going to go down based on you know the I already forgot um what's the percent um yes 13% 13 I was about to say four that's eight that's algae that's >> um

027yeah um the 13% cap um versus how many children with disabilities we have and it's the lesser of the numbers so a lot of the formulas when you look at them it's looking at not just ADM it's looking at specific um categories of students. Um and then it's not always a one for one. It can be capped or a percent or the less or of. And so you really have to go through each program and recalculate to determine what you think the revenue is going to be. >> Also some things like the last several years the county commissioners have not reduced >> our total amount of funding even though we have lost students, right? which if you use that on a per pupil basis actually drives up >> per >> the number because there are

028less students using it. >> So when we had when we lost 400 kids and they didn't reduce the money at all that drives up their per people number >> just I want I'll be clear on these numbers uh just for the public too this 14,000 is that strictly operating expense money and not including capital. >> This is total budget. So this is the 368 million. So its total budget does include capital. >> On the test, >> uh, Dr. Barnes, didn't you bring up the national average? The average, not the highest or the lowest, but the national average. What is the difference between ours and the national average? >> Well, that's where it gets a little bit that takes there's an answer. There's a longer answer to that question. So if you if it pleased the

029court um what uh our state cut right is $8,06. If you look at the state average it's about just a hair under 12,000 I think is the number. >> Huh. The difference for that is things like >> oh small county money, >> disadvantaged student funding, >> things like there's a grant where if you're a lowincome county that they'll match your building project, >> right? >> Things like that kind of mean that the average is different in different like others other districts state per pupil number is different. So the average of the state is about just a hair under 12 grand. The difference between what North Carolina receives in a per pupil funding and the rating of all the other states national in the national average. The national average is about um 17,000. So it's a

030difference of about $5,600 per kid. >> But again, it varies because it's different. Each county gets a different slice of the of the state pie. >> We're pretty healthy. >> So, is it >> Well, we're pretty healthy on the local side. >> On the Yeah, in ways. That's the ways part, >> but it can be extrapolated out to say because we're a high wealth county, we end up having less money per people. Is that true >> from the state? Well, I I think that's a difficult thing because the state so this report that you're referencing, the making the grade report, which I've sent to all of you, it it it looked at three markers, right? It looked at what the per pupil spending was for North Carolina versus the the nation. It looked at how

031well does the state work at dispersing that money in an equitable fashion >> which means to some extent those who need more are addressed in that formula. The state of North Carolina actually does fairly well in that regard of making sure that students who are in greater need receive a greater proportion of the funding. The last thing they did and this is from 2023 2024 I think was the >> it was recent. >> Y >> the third thing they looked at was what percentage of the state's gross domestic product >> goes to education >> versus the nation and so that was lower as well. >> So >> and that's where the wealth of our state comes in. >> That's where the wealth of the state comes in. And it's a it's a question that we

032can debate ad nauseium and we've all done it. Is it the county's responsibility? Is the state's responsibility? Is it the county's responsibility the state doesn't? >> Is it the state's responsibility if the county can't? >> There there is some some version that this group has to do of dad can I go to a party? Ask your mother. Mom, can I go to a party? Ask your father. And then eventually both of you say ask your grandparent which is the feds. So, >> thank you. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Kind of going back to my question about So, this includes capital expenses. How is that calculated? Saying that if you build a brand new school, presumably it's got some it's going to last a long is it depreciated? Presumably, it's going to last 25, 30 years. We

033have to buy build another one. Um, so >> I'm I'm the math is a lot more basic than that. All I'm doing is saying the budget's 368 million divided by 24,599 students to get a per pupil. That's that's really all I'm doing there. And if you would like to see it a different way, like if you would prefer to see a per pupil on the operating budget instead, I could do that. Um the other thing to keep in mind with this with these numbers if you just take totals the other thing is um if well this is probably the other thing in addition to capital that's included here is prek so prek is in that number too even though that's prek is not in my 80. So this is a little skewed I will say

034that but when you're seeing per pupil other places this is what they're doing. I was just trying to be consistent with what other people were providing. >> Yeah. I mean, the only point I was trying to make is for inance, yes, we get the bond next year and even if you divy it out based off years spent, you know, you your per pupil is going to go up >> even though and then presumably it would go down after the 10-year bond is paid for. Something like that. Well, if you average 320 million over a lot of years, it's not that much. It's not going to show. >> And a lot of kids. Yeah. >> Can you go back to one more slide forward for a second? >> I want you guys to do me a

035quick favor. >> No, go forward. >> The operating. Okay. >> Um, I want you guys to grab your phone or your calculator on your computer, whatever you like, and put in 310.5 million. So 310 five and then six zeros. Got that? >> Multiply that by 083. >> That number you receive is what? >> 771500 >> 257 two 257 million of our operating budget is people. H. >> Oh, so these are all our people. >> That is the cost of salary, benefits, and retirement. >> Well, that's where most of our money goes. >> Understand? Yeah. But understand when you have to lose money. I think you're going to hit this in a slide or two. You'll >> lose people. >> When we've lost when we've lost, we're down to $310 million in operating. It's five million

036less we had last year, and it's millions less we've had before. The only real place to find that revenue is people, which I think is the challenging part for all of us as a board. So >> yeah, that next slide is really scary. >> Oh, sorry. Jump ahead. Go to the next slide. >> Look, here we go. See, >> look at 14. 14's really scary. >> So this this slide shows you some of the same information that you saw on those bus slides. It's just um a different format. So you can see um the previous two years and the current year that revenue source um the dollar amounts versus just the percentages and you can see that decline over the past two years. >> Wow. >> Um of course with the US government that federal

037row you see that decline um is related to those co COVID funds ending the last piece of those being spent. Um, >> and again, notice that New Hover County, the commissioners have increased >> by four or five million dollars every year over the last three years, right? >> And the state went down last year >> a significant amount of number, but nothing nothing is nothing can minimize the damage of $30 million from the government. >> That's co. >> Yeah. Um, >> that's it. >> So, okay. >> Shoot. It just went right out of my head. I got the word co just made my brain crazy. Um, it'll come back. >> Happened to a lot of people. >> We'll be here all night. >> Okay. >> There was something about it, too. I'm trying to >>

038So, actually on the 2526 other no US government. Okay. We know the COVID money is missing, but were we around 19 or 20 precoid? What was our pre-COVID number? >> Oh, I know. >> Sorry. >> Oh, I don't have that slide in there, do I? >> Okay. >> Oh, I didn't have it in there. Um, >> you didn't go far back. >> Is there there's also a radical drop in other radical. >> Yeah. So in other um we were using fund balance for a while to balance our budget and that would have been included in other >> that's terrible. >> And then we also um >> Oh yeah >> this is this is operating budget. Um and so in the previous years you would have had the red light camera funding included in other um

039you're not seeing um we sold Johnson right to kind of help us for one year with the red light money going away but the um sale of Johnson is not here because it it is like a other restricted fund and that it's in the same category like a um >> yeah, it's one of those funds that we exclude for operating um even though it is somewhat flexible. Um >> in case people are listening, you didn't tell Johnson, did you? >> Oh, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. Yes, some some of the property. >> Sorry. I'm so sorry. Lots of comments on that. Some of the property right here. >> Thank you, Mr. >> Thank you so much. I appreciate that. What did I say? >> And I'm going to encourage you to to >> We're

040going to power through this, folks. We're only about halfway through. >> Okay. All right. Um and then we'd like to provide Oh, I'm sorry. >> I did. I remember the question. The endowment, does that go in the county funds, >> the the funding that the endowment's given us some money? >> We include it with grants and donations. So, it's included in the total to operating budget, but I'm I'm sorry, the total budget, but not the operating budget because it's a grant. >> Okay. >> And it's restricted by its use and function, right? >> I'm just trying to figure out what things are. >> Oops. And um I done >> Okay, there we go. There we go. Okay. Um we wanted to provide a slide um to show the changes. We always like to show this

041every year because >> as Dr. Barnes has mentioned, raises and increases in benefits that really has a big impact on our budget with 83% of our budget being related to salaries and benefits. And so, as you can see here, the de the increases um over the past five years. Um, I do have a little star on this year's line, um, because I just wanted to make sure you guys know. Um, there was a 3% increase, but remember, not everyone got that. So, um, we did originally budget for a 3% for everyone, but only our certified staff um, who were going into the next band salary band received that along with assistant principles. >> Sorry, Mr. Chairman. Um, with the vagaries of the state budget, >> are we still I thought that's what that aspect was

042going to be. It's like we still don't know exactly who's getting a raise and who isn't and how much it'll be. >> So, they know they had the mini budget. >> They did a mini budget to be able to allow for this raise to happen. Um, I will say this is the first year that I can ever remember not having a budget in the first year of the bianual. And maybe that's h I don't remember that ever happening. >> Oh, I've been here forever. I don't even remember >> usually it's the second year and it's almost just like a continuation of that two-year budget, but um but yes, we don't and I don't anticipate a budget for this year other than the mini budget we've already received from the state. >> But that has clarified

043these these salary numbers that we can count on. >> The mini budget clarifies and we are sure what that is going to be. >> That's correct. For this year, that's correct. Yep. >> The likelihood that when they do maybe ever pass a budget, it's not going to change the mini budget. >> Um, that's true. I'm gonna say that's true. Um, I mean, they could do, you know, what they like, but um I I do not anticipate receiving anything else from the state because they're getting ready to come back and start next year's budget. So, I mean, I could be wrong, but I don't I'm not anticipating anything else coming from the state for this year. Um, >> I just want to make a comment if people are listening. What a lot of people don't realize

044is we pay, this looks healthy that we're supporting our staff, but the staff as as public educators, they pay in their share too equal and that takes a big chunk out of their paychecks every month. And then this is just the basic insurance if they want families and things and that that >> this is just the employer portion, >> right, >> of the retirement and health insurance. >> Yeah. The employee pays 6% of their salary into their retirement. We pay 20 almost 25%. >> But the health insurance we have to pay that hospitalization fee of 8,500. >> But again, you are also paying into your insurance as well. >> Not cheap. >> And in a year where a lot of folks didn't get a raise and saw an increase in their health premiums, >> that

045is a factor to consider. >> And this is a healthy increase in their share of insurance. >> Yes. Correct. a lot >> and no no indication that that's not stopping quite frankly. >> And just in case I think everybody knows, but just in case you don't know, we switched uh carriers as a state and I actually called the state because I was like, "What in the world?" And they said, "We didn't do it. It was a treasurer that did it." So I'm like, "Oh, there you go." That's what they told me anyway. >> Yeah. Exactly. >> You name me. >> Exactly. Okay. So, um I also wanted to give you guys, we talked about this a little bit when our external auditor presented our financial statements, but I wanted to kind of circle back around

046to this um before we go into the budget process to talk about where we are with fund balance. And so, um as you can see the line in blue at the top, our total general fund fund balance is right at 3.9 million. Um, however, a lot of that has to be set aside. There, um, general statutes that require that those funds not be spent. And then one of those, as you you'll remember, we have set aside. So, um, I thought it might be helpful. So, this time I put what non-spendable represents, what restricted represents. So, you have it there. So, that non-spendable line is inventory and prepaid expenses. So, it's not cash that we could turn around. I mean, we could sell inventory and then have cash, but that's the reason that line's restricted because

047it's not readily available to be spent. Um, and then >> thousand boxes of paper in the warehouse as schools need them. >> That's considered inventory, but it's not money. >> That's right. That's right. So, I'm just trying to provide an explanation as to why. So, yes, help me if I say anything that's not clear or um if you have questions, please. Restricted would be accounts receivable where we're we are waiting to be reimbured for something is normally what that would represent. And then committed is the funding that we've set aside that 500,000 in case we have some type of disaster or hurricane um so that we can go ahead and start working getting things in place and then go to the county for any additional funding that what we might need until insurance is provided

048for reimbursement. uh before we were told that we needed to spend down to thumb down balance or for I can't even remember get get positions or whatever. Uh how much was it because I remember it was really healthy and that's one thing we've been very proud of when I was on the board previously because of hurricanes and stuff when that popped up we we could take care of ourselves. How much was that amount that we were told to spend down? >> Was it around seven million? >> Oh, more than that. It was like 18 million. >> What? >> Are you serious? You and I calculated a few days ago before >> I want to say before I stepped in the seat. >> Ashley and I >> last school year in this school year committed to

049not utilizing the fund balance. Now some of that sounds so noble, but it's because we didn't have one. If you look at the fund balance spent over the five years previous, it was about 5,000 $5 million a year. >> That that was the average, wasn't it? >> Yeah, that's about right when we had looked at it last year. So when this kind of what we're doing now is we're living within our means but we don't have access to that five million a year for sort of emergency >> stuff because it's not there. >> I said it came in real handy during the hurricane. >> Thank you Mr. So I just want to confirm the committed is the 500,000 because the county we have an agreement with the county that if we have at least 500,000

050they will be able to respond to up to $10 million for us in the case of emergency. So that's why that >> that's correct. >> But even though it says 500,000 that gets us potentially $10 million in the case of emergency like a hurricane >> right >> and streamlines the process. So then all the FEMA reimbursement and everything is the county brings and we're good to move. >> Okay. >> Yeah. I just wanted to note that there's good reason why they wanted to suspend that fund balance down because if we don't have one then if we have a fund balance then then we can decide what's an emergency and what isn't and when somebody else can get to decide that then they have control. So, uh, the and if the, um, I don't know where

051the lottery money comes in, but if, you know, at this point, you know, with our very lowly fund balance, if they don't want to give us any money, maybe we should have a a Monte Carlo night or something and make some money for the fun balance. Dr. Mayor, >> I just also want to remind everyone that when we put in our budget last year, we requested that that emergency fund from the county, it would extend beyond a simple hurricane or a storm because there are all manner of emergencies that do show up. >> Foundation collapses. Uh, you know, there are we lose, you know, power and we burst all our heating units or whatever. Um, and the county turned us down on that. So, I just want to kind of put that out there. So,

052that that emergency from the county is only for storms. And you also gota remember you mentioned just yesterday >> we have a leaky we have a possible leaky tank. >> Yeah. >> That was a concern. >> Dr. Morgan is it's at the end of life. It's not currently leaking. >> The underground storage tank. >> Yes. Correct. currently at that. >> If it was leaking, would it be an emergency? >> It's not a hurricane though. >> Maybe it's a hurricane. >> Well, we will push on through. Thank you. Thank you for all the comments because they are all true. >> Okay. And then the next slide. This is a little busy, but I was just trying to give a lot of information on this slide for you because we've had conversations and questions have come up.

053Um, so I wanted you to have something to kind of refer back to. So, we do have a fund called the other restricted fund. A majority of that fund is for grants and donations um and funding that we've set aside for potential things that could come up. So we we have money there like if it's flexible, but a lot of this um is well all of it's restricted or assigned. And so the restricted category is grants and donations. Um and keep in mind that this is where we stood at the end of last year. So, this would have been when the auditor was here. He talked about this a little bit if I don't know if you guys recall that or not, but he he did bring this up as a discussion point. Um, so

054we may have grants that we are anticipating coming in, but we haven't request reimbursement for those grants yet or the next um pot of money related to that grant hadn't fallen yet. So, those things aren't included here. So the things included here would be where we've received the revenue is restricted for some type of purpose or assigned for some type of purpose and it will be spent in future years. And so this just carry carries over from year to year until these funds are spent. And so the restricted number is the 7 million you see there and the assigned is the 15.9 million. And so the signed is for things like EC services. Um if we don't have enough um state and federal revenue, we have um like so we get money from DPI, federal

055and state, but we also get Medicaid money, Medicare money um and that those funds are in this other restricted because it has to be spent on EC services. I can't take that money and spend it for something else. And so whenever we have funding that meets that type of category, we put it in here just to make sure we have it in the right place. And so I've tried to add things together the best I could um to try to explain that to to you guys. Um I will say the the big number you see up there, that 7 million. Um and Dr. Barnes, you might have to help me with this. um he sometimes he can explain a little bit better than I can, but when we were building the budget um two years

056ago and then we did the we use the same process last year. We built our um general fund budget. So the fund two or 20 we built that assume we went ahead and budgeted for any vacancies we thought we were salary vacancies we thought we were going to have for any um funds that we thought would um not be fully spent by different divisions and we went ahead and budgeted so that we could take advantage of every dollar in that pot. But so so this is an estimate of what I thought if we um Okay. So I'm guessing estimating salary vacancies. That's probably the easiest one for me to explain. But if the salary vacancies don't come in at the level that I estimated, I have to have money somewhere to be able to cover

057whatever that difference might be. So that's what that 7 million is. and it's salaries and supplements in case I don't have the turnover. >> I need to make sure I have money to pay for those things. And so, Dr. Barnes, you can do a better job. >> Here's the example. A few years ago, um I was still in Whiteville. I think Columbus County had to go back to the commissioners and ask for enough money to cover the rest of salaries and benefits for their people for May and June because they didn't budget enough. Last night, we did approve the personnel agenda. you saw that we had half the number of residuations and retirements we had a year ago. So this other restrict I'm sorry this um look at the line item says local supplements and

058salaries. It's like $7 million. And my first thought was how can I get that and use it for things I know people need right now today. Here's the thing. I went and got my I went got my back windshield replaced. >> Me, too. The mechanic charged me $1,000. >> Just work with me. >> Wow. Fantastic. >> Folks, that's not the that's not the part of the story. It cost me $1,000 to get my truck back. >> Well, my sister, she owes me $1,000. She said she paid me next week, but I still have to put $1,000 in an envelope over a year in case my sister doesn't pay me so that I can get my car back from the mechanic. This is envelope money. It's money just in case we've calculated wrong. We still have

059to pay our people. >> Everybody with me? >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> It it's it's Ashley smart, which is really smart. >> No, but it's it's it's a part of being fiscally responsible, >> Right. >> There is a district that I've talked to their superintendent a couple weeks ago. He planned for an amount of small county money. the state cut some of it or low wealth money I don't remember which one it was and they are $8 million in the hole and we're in we're almost in March folks and he's struggling to figure out how do I balance the books between now and June we can't get to that place why because we don't have a fund balance >> right >> so we have to be careful and do things like this so I think

060our main thing is I don't want you guys to get this idea that there's money available on the table >> because we're already have budgeted for lap salaries which is not something you normally do and with Geller doing such an amazing job and we're retaining people that number gets less and less as people stay longer their supplements get more expensive >> and they should have to pay for that >> so there you go >> your truck No never mind >> how did that go >> it's side. It's a metaphor, people. It's a metaphor window. >> So, we're going to dive a little bit deeper into this year's budget. Um, so we've talked about the total operating budget of 6 368 million. Um, but I wanted you to kind of get a feel for, you know,

061how are we looking so far this year? And I feel and usually December is a really easy month to look at, right? Because it's halfway through the year. And so, um, at the end of December, we had spent 48% of our budget. So, we're on track. Um, and I apologize, this is revenue. So, we've collected 48% of the revenue we had budgeted to come in this year. So, we're on track where where we should be in December. And then also looking at expenditures the same way. um total budget um versus expenditures were 47% um spent as of the end of December. So we are on track. I feel good that we're going to end the year, you know, in line with the budget that we have in place. looking at that same budget um by

062purpose. Um you can see here as we would expect instruction makes up the largest amount of our budget at 46% and then um systemwide supports coming at in at right at 21%. >> Did you say 46 or 76? >> 76. I may have said 46. 76%. >> We know what you mean. Those are those peoples. >> And then th this is the slide we we like to look at because you can see it broken down um by the object code here. So this is this outlines specific um services or types of expenditures. Um so you can see here the salaries and benefits we had talked about before making up right at 84 >> um percent of the the operating budget here. And then I always like to show a slide that has fixed costs on

063it because yes, salaries and benefits are fixed costs, but we also have some other costs that are fixed that we really don't have any control over such as utilities and insurance other than I mean I guess you can pick different options with insurance, but we have to have insurance. And then we also are mandated to provide the payments to the charter schools based on their enrollment as well. So when you're looking at operating fixed cost, you're at 89% of our operating budget. Miss >> um yeah, you had mentioned a few minutes ago or somebody had about the fact that insurance is going up. Um my goodness, all these different benefits here that our employees get. Um there was another one also. Insurance is going up. Is there something else that's going up? >> Cost of

064retirement benefits. Now that insurance is listed there, employee insurance is listed under employer provide the benefits. Insurance is like our insurance on our vehicles. >> General liability insurance. >> What about utilities? >> That type of insurance. >> Utilities is under utilities. >> I mean, is that going up too? >> Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Just like at our houses, our eating bills are going up, >> right? >> Wow. >> Well, I guess it will. >> I think it's important to those turtles cost us 2.4% of our operating budget, 7.45 7.5 million. We pay out two charter schools out of our budget. People ask about that all the time. It's hard to remember that number. >> And as we've seen, that number is staying fairly static. >> Yes. Right. >> But it's still it's still a dream.

065Right. >> Right. Yeah. The other thing about this, if you go one more slide forward, understand as we step into the budget and start talking about budget, you're really talking about only 11%. >> Is choices that we can make >> almost 90% of it is determined. >> Okay. >> A question about the insurance. Um if if our if our insurance on the the schools is going up, is that beca is it based off the valuation of the property that it could be going up because all the all the land around here is getting more expensive and does our building appraisal from the county or whatever. How does that factor into the fact that we're paying more insurance because of our property more worth more? That's not >> and I will have um our third party

066that helps us with um looking for the trying to get the best price for insurance. We'll come be coming and speaking to you guys um in the next couple of months. Um the things that um we've looked at in the past that have caused it to go up are like if you have a hurricane two years in three years in a row, two years in a row um and you have damages related to that. Um it also has to do with um trying to think um back to that conversation. Um can't I can't think right now. um when we've seen I I believe um that we're not going to see as big of increases. I don't have those numbers yet. I'm not anticipating as big of increases in insurance this year as in previous years

067because we're we've had a couple years with no hurricanes and no big lawsuits. And so I think we we might start stabilizing here soon. Um but in the past those were the things big lawsuits and disasters where we've had a lot of damage has caused those rates to go up or other instant incidents. >> So you're saying unlike my home insurance when the value of my property goes up our uh the insurance goes up that's not the case with our schools. um that has not been a driving factor when we've talked about the reasons for insuranceances in the insurance increases in the past. Um but I will certainly um ask that question and um Mr. Zach will be able to answer those questions for us. >> Dr. Merrick, >> just to clarify from the question

068I think that I I heard you ask, we don't have property tax on our on our building. Does government own? We don't have to pay that tax. No, that's correct. >> Yeah, I was about to ask you from an insurance perspective. >> Yeah, just Yeah, >> justice. >> Never mind. That just that that that observation just brought a whole bunch of new thoughts in my head. So, I just let them organize. >> Okay. We're good. So, >> all right. So, now that we've gone through this year and kind of where we are this year, you know, we'll start developing next year's budget um here really soon and we'll use as our base this year's budget. We'll start there and then we'll look at changes for the upcoming year. Um I wanted to take a minute

069to go through this budget timeline with you. So, in December, we started reviewing the budget. Um as some of those slides I showed you, where are we? year with about 50% revenue coming in expenditures. Um we also start looking at our aotments um and identifying budget priorities. So those things are happening in December really through January. Um and as you guys know we've already held a lot of um listening budget priority listening tour type meetings. Um we've met with principles, directors, the teacher advisory group, assistant principles, um and then we also had the town hall for our staff and for um the community at large. And so those were all done in January. Um so we've got that information that we're compiling as we're starting to develop the budget. Um and we've also collected in

070Feb February um re the request for capital the other budget request from the divisions and the schools. And now in looking forward to March um we'll we're having our first budget work session of course today but we'll need to before we leave today schedule our our next budget work session for March. and we need to think about um the possibility of needing two in March. So, normally we have three board work session meetings for the budget. Um and so if we want to go ahead and get those scheduled in March so that we can stay on track >> um because once you get into um April, things are happening really fast. So in the plan, if we stay on track with how we um completed the budget last year and that similar timeline, so March

071the 24th, we would hope to bring superintendent's recommended date, recommended budget to you at agenda review. And that way we have time to talk through and um answer any questions that you have and possibly if needed make adjustments. And then in April, we would be bringing to the April 1st board meeting um a budget recommendation for approval. And then we our goal is to have something to the county manager by April 15th, which was in line how of what we did last year. And then hopefully to hear back from them in June and possibly have a budget resolution to the board um around June 2nd, that that um board meeting in June. Mr. Okay. >> Um, and maybe you'll touch on this later, but just because you're talking about the timeline, um, one of the

072things that we addressed last year was the preK shortage, and one of the things that we decided was is that we need a long-term plan for fund for funding these things. Have has that been under discussion? Will that be part of these uh uh these workshops in April or March rather? Excuse me. So, we have done some analysis on prek and we have looked at some different options. Um, and Dr. Barnes, I don't know if you want to add anything to this, but um, we've looked at private pay and >> we bring that's going to be part of the budget conversation is what our solutions are for prek. >> Great. Thank you. >> Yeah. Well, >> they're not great solutions. I mean, >> well, something's better than nothing, but yes. I mean, >> well, and

073I think you'll you'll see this as we go into the next budget work session. >> I've I've said several times a couple of statements. One, we are at a subsistence level. >> Did I say that right? >> Yes. >> Me, >> we are at the bottom. We can go. >> Yeah, we can. >> And we are now in the process of choosing between essential services. And part of what that conversation means for y'all is we're going to have to have some tough conversations about what do we value and and want to put towards what we need because right now we're not adding stuff, we're trading stuff. >> If we want to solve this problem, we're going to have to either eliminate something else. That's sort of where we are. So I think that preK is

074one of those variables that I think we're going to have a conversation about. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Does that make sense? >> Yes. So, >> and so of course as I'm sorry, question. >> Yeah, I'm sorry. I thought we were going to be talking about potential workarounds with prek today. That's what I That's what I have heard. >> Um, we have one other activity. Um, I really wanted to establish a base first. I can certainly share with you some of those as well if you want. Um, however you guys want to play it. Um, but I haven't communicated that to the public yet. And so I I I get that you want to get your ducks in the row and present it to us, you know, in a meaningful way. I want to be

075able to get it to the public in enough time that we can I don't know how to say this anymore that we can get the county commission to understand what how much pinch we really feel and how it and is prek important or not. And I think, you know, if you look at all the return on investment of helping our kids in prek, I want to get that I want to get that conversation going so that come June, we're not suddenly going, "Oh, well, I guess we can't have, you know, we have to we have to give up some things that are really important." >> Now, I have communicated with the endowment. I've talked with the commissioners specifically about what I would consider our main pressure points which are prek and technology. >> I kind

076of want to go through this whole Just to clarify, you are going to get your prek after this presentation. Correct. >> It's not on the agenda for right now, but I I can certainly tell you. >> We are having two more meetings. Yeah. >> Yeah. So, it would be next month's meeting. I believe what you're concerned about, you'd like to hear more about it today and not wait until >> I I agree with my colleague across the way. We do need to get the foundations in. But if we can have at least some update. >> Sure. >> I'm thinking today that would be >> I can I can certainly give an update at the end is fine. >> Yeah. >> And I can at least give you the direction the sort of the directions we're

077going and this is something I shared with the commissioners when we were together. So >> good. So we can >> Yeah, it's fine. I I just I hadn't communicated entirely with all the principles about some of the plans and so I I don't want to put the card in front of the horse, but there's only seven people watching at home right now, but the word is going to get out. And so I don't like having someone hear something when I haven't been the one to tell them. But as long as everyone understands this is a rough draft theoretical conversation that I'm not going to make moves like that without you guys being on board with, I think we're fine to give you an update. >> Does that make sense? Does that make sense, Miss Sun?

078>> Yes. >> Okay. >> All right. So you're familiar, of course, with our strategic plan. So, we'll definitely be using this as driving our budget development. Um, and we'll discuss that a little bit more a little um later in our work session. So the main things as we're building developing next year's budget, the I guess we would call the big rocks um that we have to be thinking about are the change in our average daily membership of 839 students because that will have a big impact on our state revenue and you know what we're able to do with that reduction um at well 3.5% change there. And then the other things that we're looking at based on um the previous five years, we are developing this budget with um based on the average of the

079last five years. A 3% average salary increase. We're doing that once again for all staff. Um an employer contribution rate increase of that 1% you see there. And then a 5% increase for health insurance premiums based on um the past five years data. All right. So, if we have no more questions on the presentation, um, then we can go into aotment. So, I think we were going to do a little exercise. And so if you go if you've been following along in the handout, um if you go past the allotment formula review page, the first aotment formulas you see is state dollar allotments and it's three pages. It's broken down. The first page um provides the um actual dollar allotment formulas and the second page provides position allotment formulas and the third is showing categorical

080aotment formulas. So we um as you guys may recall we um receive funding um through these diff three different types of formulas. So, dollar allotments, just like it sounds like you're gonna get certain dollar amount and you can pay for whatever you can afford to pay from that dollar amount. Position allotments. And so, getting a certain amount of money, you'll get a certain number of positions. And so, let's say you get a thousand teachers in a position allotment, the state will cover no matter what the cost. If the teachers cost a h 100red,000, they'll cover it. If the teacher costs 50,000, they'll cover it. So, you're looking at positions for for that page. And then categorical is more specific like our limited English proficiency um kids. There's add additional funding for that children with disabilities.

081So I just wanted just to take a second to talk through the three different categories. And then on the next page you have New Hover County Schools local formula allotment. So um even though the state has a way that they provide their revenue, we use our local aotment formulas. um to determine our a lotments to the schools. And we're using um state and local funds to be able to um send these a lotments out to the schools. >> All right. So, for this next activity, it probably would serve you best if you went ahead and peeled off the three pages that are state aotments and peel off the three pages that are New Hover County's aotments. Does it make sense? All right. So you can understand some of the difference if you haven't heard me

082talk about we realize that does not provide the minimum of what we consider to be essential for school. >> So we see this every year but there's a we use to This is what we need. So what I feel is an activity for you guys to work through sort of bring this down to a real world school example. We're going to build one of our elements. Make sense? >> Okay. So can we take like a two-minut break? >> Sure. >> Do you guys need a stretch? >> Yeah. >> Stretch. >> And I will tell you that in a perfect will. We have a hard stop about 2:30. A lot of us need to get over to the smart lab ribbon cutting and mail. Okay. So, take a minute and then we'll come back. Take a

083minute. your calendar. That later on And we're back. >> All right. I'm going to pair you up >> with a cabinet member and a board member in the group. >> Since Miss Geller is at ETR workshop today, one of you will probably be a triad. So what you're going to be experiencing is exactly what HR and I actually senior staff has to do to staff each individual school. Part of it is an exercise. So you're just going to get a chance to walk through and play with them a little bit, but also to highlight some of the support that the county provides that doesn't always become evident as you go through the process. So, I've mixed everybody's names up. So, let's see if you can. You'll have to resit somewhere else. I don't care if

084you bring a chair over and I You guys are adults. >> Miss Justice and Ashley. >> You guys are a pair. >> Oh, good. Okay. I'll take you over there. >> You got the AP class, didn't you? >> Yeah. >> Pat Bradford. Jen Geller's not here. >> Pat Bradford and >> All right. >> Okay. David Perry and Julie Bar. >> What material? >> Petemore and Robin Hamilton. >> Come on down. >> Tim and Rob Williams. >> Pretty cool. >> She actually knows it. >> Josie Barnhart and Don Brinson. >> And if you would go with the Robin Hamilton. >> Robert Hamilton >> right here. I will do that >> right here. Come on in. >> Hello. Hey. >> Come join us. Come join us. Come join us. >> Sure. Kick me out. Kick me in

085my warm feet. >> Here you go. >> Move that. Move that. >> I like the mask. >> Keep warm for you. >> Thanks. I'm turning this off. >> Oh, here we go. Now, I was going to >> I was going to do this as well and have me, but there's a lot to do. So, >> it's okay. Somebody has >> All right. So, to open and start with, what you have in front of you is a group of students at an elementary school. I was playing with the Hollyville Beach Elementary. I was trying to decide a name for the school, but that means it may the first thing is you have to say how many teachers is the state going to give you for each of these grade levels. And I will tell you what

086you're seeing when you do it that way is an entire district. The state doesn't give us each school. The state says you get a thousand teachers based on this. But the really tricky part is that I want you to use percentages when you do this. So in this first slide, you're going to see kindergarten a lotment 66 students. And if you go to your allotment formula from the state, >> the state is going to say it gives you one teacher for every >> 18 students. >> So what your calculator or your brain >> and tell me how many kindergarten teachers will the state give Hollyville Beach Elementary School? Okay. 3.6 teachers. So take >> do we get the upper half or the lower half? >> Sir, >> do we get the upper half or the

087lower half of the feature? That's >> good question. I will tell you. >> Okay. >> The state adds them all up and rounds once for the entire district. >> Whichever way it rounds, >> they do not round you by school or by grade level. They will round once for the entire district. So if it becomes a,00 52 they give us 101 not per individual school but just one >> so we have to put down three teachers there >> so you put 3.66 in that spot >> all right >> that make sense >> you put 3.66 >> now what is first grade 69 students >> 4.31 >> 16 Sure. >> All right. Now, do the same thing for second grade, third grade, fourth grade, fifth grade. >> We're doing state 77 / 23 or no 24

088>> numbers. >> Got those numbers. Once you get done numbers and tell me what the total number >> please check. So for the sake of our argument, you're going to add the number of teachers you have. That's why combo class. >> I I used to love combo. >> You love combo? >> Oh, yeah. I had a great teacher. She she had a great TA and >> she >> Oh yeah. >> So let's just look at 68 apparent that we would just say we would have >> what I'm looking for. How many class? 17. We have 17 class and then what happens down here? >> Everybody got that number. >> They're trying to keep us on point. What number are we at? >> 22.3 22 >> or 22.4 >> 22.32 >> got >> okay >> based

089on rounding the state gives you for Hollyville Beach Elementary 22 teachers. Now you saw the way they unlocked that. The number of students individually in each class can be three more than the number they >> after you add to that number. Now you need to figure out how many teachers per grade level and tell me what your class sizes are going to be. >> So we can still do that. >> But how many do you have to >> play with 182? Oh, sorry. >> And then let's just say >> I think we're going to have 66 / 36. >> So 16 there. Now we have four. >> So four six more teachers left. So >> that's going to be 256. >> No, 26. That's it. >> All right. >> Everyone ready? >> Okay. Sorry, Miss

090Jones. You're moving from first grade to fifth grade. Sorry. >> She ended up going to do what? You're going to be a fifth grade teacher. Correct. I do not do everything. So teacher assist. So teacher assistance stay. So grades state gives two TAS for every class we do. and two for >> all right >> about to get >> this was the easy part >> how many people have four classes kindergarten through third >> four >> yes >> what do you have in fourth and fifth grade >> three and three >> okay you do realize made the choice not to have an NPSS coordinator at all, but we'll get back to that. >> Right now, let's do teacher assistance. Now, teacher assistance is going to be super confusing, so you're going to have to listen a

091little bit. >> Okay. the way the state allocates teacher assistance. You have to have a master's degree to get >> just to even understand. >> All right. >> The state says they will give you two teacher assistants for every three kindergartes. That's great. >> If you look at your sheet, how many first grade teachers do you have? >> Four. >> So, how many TAs do you have? >> Four. >> No. One for every 22. >> You said two for every 21. >> Two for every three in kindergarten, one for every two in first and second grade >> and one for every three in third grade. But the problem is is even though they allotted you at 16 kids at a first grade classroom, they only count a full class at 21. >> The state does.

092>> So what you have to do is take the number of kindergarten kids you have. >> The number is 66. >> If you're going to want to have two for every three classes of 21, the first thing you have to do is divide 66 by what? >> By 21. >> So divide 66 by 21. >> 3.14. >> 66 by 21. And what do you get? >> 3.14. >> You get 3.14. >> Yeah. >> Now you get two for every three class. So what does that mean? >> You get two. >> All right. Now do the same thing for the first rate. Take that number and divide it by 21. >> But we can't do 21. >> No, you can't. But the state will only give you a TA for every 21 kids. >> We can

093class. >> No, you still have to go to >> add that together because it's 128. >> I ain't even got to the money part yet, folks. I did not realize that. >> Yes, but still there have to be 21. >> I'm going to >> You have to take that number. No, >> but they say 21 class. >> Okay. 21. >> All right. >> Same thing with second grade. Same thing with third grade. At third grade, you a third, not a half. >> Yeah. Third grade is three classes. What did we say? >> 3.3. >> So that's up number one teacher assistance that number. So you have to divide by 21 and then for first and second grade half it for third grade a third. leto $95. And that's okay. >> That's that helps. >> That

094does actually. >> Okay. >> What number did you get a number of >> T8? >> 6.3. Okay. Six is is pretty high. But here's the trick that the state doesn't give you TAS by position. They give a dollar amount. The challenge with that is what number does the state use for the teacher assistant salary? They use the state >> average and then calculate a dollar amount and send it. Our teacher assistants make an average of a dollar more an hour than the state average. >> So that's six teacher assistants because what the state says afford six teacher assistance, we can only afford five. So you have five teacher assistants. Now you need to lot them for where they're going to be in the building. And that's the slot right there that says teacher assistant schedule.

095>> Where is it? So now decide where they go. >> Five and you have four kindergarten four kindergarten already. >> You have four kindergarten classes five. >> This is the reality. I mean you have to go with your class with the highest number of aces. The biggest behavior is the youngest teacher. Leave that to the principal. >> That's right. Give you two more minutes to do that. Is it worth >> Oh, yeah. All right, >> popcorn around the room just a little bit over here. What did you and for the principal. >> Okay. Well, then >> yeah, not knowing you're a student, by the way. >> Yeah. I mean, I was thinking two, two, and one. >> Two kindergarten, two first, one second. No joke. >> What did you guys do? >> Same thing. >>

096Two in kindergarten, two in first, one in second. >> What you guys do? Right now we've got kindergarten split one in first grade, two in a separate >> that is a separate. >> All right, if we're frustrated with you, you're right in the right space. Now, let's really get angry. Pull up your state a lotment formula real quick. Statement formula for special ed. Okay. It is on the second page. It's on the third page. >> All right. >> We receive for students with disabilities 5,365 per funded child count up to 13%. So we have a school of what? 425. Okay. Why? She'll multiply 425 by that cap, which is what? >> 13%. >> Get that number and multiply it by $5,3659. And someone tell me what that number is. Write it down in >> how

097many students How many students are in your EC program? Let's do that first. >> 425* 13% You have 55 UC students. Now I will tell you >> that eight of those 55 are in a separate setting. >> How many? >> Eight. >> Yes. >> Eight of that 55 are in a separate setting. >> There be two TAS in there if you're going to follow the standard. >> All right. So take your 55 students and multiply that by your 5,000. What's the number? 5,3659 296%. >> So 13% of 425 is what? >> 55 and a quarter. We'll go ahead and they'll go ahead. >> I'm not arguing. I'm just doing math. >> We're going to go with the larger number. What is your number, Rob? >> I don't remember. >> 29621. >> All right. So, put

098in that dollar amount. 296. >> 421. >> Yep. 421. 421.23. >> That is your available EC budget. >> Everybody with me? >> That's your EC budget. >> Now, on this handy page, you've got right here, go to the second page of it. >> And just to help you, >> I provided for you at the bottom of the second page the average cost of a teacher and a TA >> use that $296,000 and one separate set. And so our teachers, 182,00 whatever that number down We have two. >> Now these are only we have >> eight. It says right here. >> So we don't. >> So you have to have one teacher two. >> Oh that's just for them. >> How much is left? Yes. >> Yes. Let me just double check this >> everyone else.

099So now we have the rest of that money for 475. Sorry. >> Unbelievable. We just have to keep this moving, folks. Okay. >> What staffing pattern did you guys come up with? So your separate setting has one is everyone have a separate setting with one teacher and two in >> what does that leave for the rest >> leaves one teacher allocation basically for Okay, don't worry. Let's make this more complicated. Let's go on to the next one. >> Instructional support. Pull out your state a lotment formula, please. >> And look at instructional support, which is on the first page. >> Instructional support. One position for every what? >> 41715. 4750th >> No, we're coming back. >> That's what I said. >> Guys, we haven't even got to page two yet. Oh, and by the way,

100>> this is one school, folks. One of our easier, simpler schools to do. You still have to know 44 others. >> so one for students. The state will provide >> 125. >> If you hear me clap once, if you hear me clap twice. Thank you. All right. The state will give you how many instructional support personnel for basically for this school? >> One. One of each. >> What? >> So you got to make choices. >> So right now on your sheet I want you to put down instructional support a lotment is one >> and then I need you to decide what your actual staffing is. And this this line item is for media coordinator, counselor, instructional coach, and social worker. You tell me what your school's going to have. >> You get to have one.

101>> Yeah, >> they do. They can read a book and they can >> attend media center. >> When you have that 15 minute break, you don't have to do that. >> All right. >> So, for right now, I want you down the one thing you get. >> Okay. >> Oh, yeah. >> So, no counselor, no social worker, no >> coach. Thinking about what other counselor >> to the next one because I want you to get to page two, which is where the real fun and prizes start. >> Instructions. Go back to page >> three, two, three. I understand why >> you guys see in the model we got >> you get49259 per AIG student. So take 4% of 425 >> 4% of our >> and multiply that >> Columbus the ocean blue >> when you

102got your chicken PS lost there >> you've never heard that >> in 149 yesterday when he lost 149 should be >> support 179. >> All right. Does anyone have that number? 4% of your population multiplied is what? >> 17,000 >> 25,000 >> 25 375 >> times that by the dollar amount >> 25,374. Go back to this other the sheet you're writing on. Go to page two. >> What's the average cost of a teacher? >> 93,700. >> All right. Does someone do that math? What percentage of AIG teacher you inherit? >> Not very much. >> Our right arm and part of the torso. >> 91. >> What number? >> 276. >> I'm feeling big. Why don't you put 30%. >> So you earn about 30%. >> Does that make sense? >> No. >> Does it is

103it understandable? >> All right, let's go on to the next one. Oh, we skipped the enrichment teacher. We don't want to do that. >> Art mart >> look at your categorical elements again. >> And look for it. >> Noninstructional. >> No, it's >> instruction. You got art. >> I don't see it. No, >> I don't see it. >> Well, I'll tell you what it is. You get one enrichment teacher for elementary school for every 191 students. >> Yeah, >> that's our >> 191. >> You get two. >> Two total. >> So basically, you get two. >> So in that little chart next to it, I want you to pick between art, music, and PD. You get two of them, please. But at the same time foreign languages lesson. >> We're going to have the marching

104band march and that's our >> PE. Okay. >> All right. Next one. >> Let's go ahead and drive this plane right over the edge. >> Excellent. >> Let's drive this car right over the cliff. >> Do you think a school with 425 students needs an assistant principal? >> Yes. >> Your assistant principal ratio is >> one month of an AP >> for every 98.53 students that you have. month for every month. How many kids? >> 425 months. >> We have 4.3 month. >> That was one of those choices. Yeah. So, we have less than half of a >> less than half. >> All right. In the interest of time, I'm going to skip instructions because right now you guys are cleaning the building. >> I want you go to the second page for a minute.

105Okay, >> you'll need to keep your first page, don't get me wrong. >> In that first column, I want you to fill out what the state allocation for each of those categories is. So, general ed teacher, the state, how many? >> 22, right? >> General TA We said 245 >> five. Sorry, you're right. >> Because we paid them afford >> DC teachers, I think you said two, correct? >> Two. >> Okay. ECTAs, you said two. >> Instructional support, the state allocation was what? >> Two. >> Enrichment teacher was what? >> Instructional support was one. >> Was one. Enrichment teacher was >> teacher was.3 >> assistant was4. >> Now here's the part that's going to take you a minute. I now want you to list in the second column what you really need to run this

106building. and tell me the difference in dollar amount between what the state gives you and what you blame them on for what they have to have. >> Julie said earlier that you cannot have 45 kids with one AC teacher. >> Is that correct? >> Yes. >> So, you're going to need another AC teacher. Do you want to have all three enrichments? You're going to need to add one. You want to meet your counsel? You have to add one. >> Every time you add a teacher, I want you to put the amount that you're going to put in that school in that second column >> and then use the numbers at the bottom. I want you to multiply that out by how much money that is. >> If we really teach a value statement, it is

107noncompant. So it is noncompant. We also are required to give our kids a certain amount of PE. That's called an unfunded mandate. >> Oh, that's funny. >> You're right. >> Let's just use that. >> Also, folks, real quick, what's the first thing you hear principal say that they lost they really need in elementary school? >> Adults, >> MTSS coordinator. >> We haven't funded any of them yet. >> There's no instructional coaches or there's no counsel. your kids are wilding out. >> We can't call social worker because they ain't there >> either. >> So in a perfect world, you are going to give a dollar amount of what you need that you don't have for this school. >> Enrichment teachers will start using P. So that would be one and then instructional support which is counselor

108coordinator. So we need to >> work, you know, to kind of back to back. So Julie just said two teachers. So this teacher has eight children. So that leaves us with 47 and she can't do so we have to have at least another half teacher. I'll guarantee you these two TAs is going to be in that are going to be in >> so that this person nobody outs there and the other half TSS. See boys. >> They just said how many So we did two and a half and then the other half comes downs instructional support I guess So right here what I mean truly general >> if y'all want to do anything first day >> everybody's crying nobody can button their pants nobody Nobody can pull their pants down. Nobody can tie their shoe.

109Nobody knows their left or their right. Nobody knows their name. Nobody knows their name. Nobody knows anything. >> And everybody wants >> everybody and the mas are crying. >> Focus. I'm just tell I'm going to ask for two more general FTA after we had that conversation. There's a principal right there. >> I was just asking where >> this is just we didn't ask for any other general ed teach. >> So even if we have the future not to have 251,000. So two is 102, right? So that's >> we've got teacher and just counted as three. We'll go ahead and count. No, just do two and a half. I would count them as a teacher because half of 917 What's the salary for an assistant principal? Uh, >> most people >> said >> how much do

110assistant principles make? >> How much do you >> Well, I need to get back into business. And that's >> I'm going to give you about four or five minutes to finish up and then we have to process a little bit before we have to >> go throughsordined. >> I think it's about that again. So that's >> number really worried. >> Why is it 4 and half hours? Well, >> we don't we got there. We were very conserv Julie happy and that's what >> matters. Julie's going to give us give our final report. >> I think we're pretty much done. All right. How about your initial thoughts? Well, first of all, I want to hear the final number. What you need to know, >> by the way, the winner is the one who has the smallest

111number. >> 639 639 >> 716 650 >> 17 650 >> 716 So 7 >> 825 >> Yeah. >> years ago. But we are not proud of this. We are not proud. We can do nothing for less than all of you. >> No, we didn't say we're actually going to get the job done. >> I can name that song. >> Not much. >> Two and a half%. We blew a million dollar less than 2% of our population that even >> it sounds an awful lot like the number Leandro came up with. We didn't requ >> any one day a teacher is sick. Two teachers are sick. Is this a mess? >> Yeah, you guys did anything else over there, guys. Bill, >> I want to hear from each one of you. What's your initial first thought

112over and over in your head? >> I'm leaving. >> I actually lived in a time where we had this. >> I was an administrator in elementary school that we had these kind of assistance, help I am not happy. I haven't sit down with the principal together a little bit. I think >> true. I always knew what I was doing. An example I gave you the other day. I remember at a high school that's an entire department. So the question then becomes well where can you cut them you can't cut anything from required and so my immediate father was talking when my father I would ask my father for $20 he said $15 what do you want $10 for I'm not going to give you $5 and that is the arcane structure of these a lotments

113where every time they seem oh we'll give him this but keeping it down. Every single the art, you know, the way that this is created is ridiculous. >> They only small an easier way to do this. It's so ridiculously complex. There's got to be an easier way. >> These are the people in this room that are fun this district and it took us over to the smallest. >> It just highlights the need for additional funding sources, whether that's local or whatever. >> And I will say, you know, as you said, impact, that's the biggest word. I still remember the day I died when I was you were at an open house and we had you know everybody oh you meet your new teacher and an hour later I got a call we're taking that teacher

114because another school has a bigger need for that teacher and so uh you know everybody met Miss so and so and so happy to be with Miss so and so and you're not with so and so anymore so I mean to talk about our youngest learners are kindergarteners I'm sorry yeah our kindergarteners >> so I was going to say that the biggest takeaway from this is that we cannot meet the current student needs >> with the current allotments and the needs increase but the allotments nor the funding does and I think it's a it's a very important lesson that we've learned here >> I just feel like it's an impossible situation >> I'd reiterate um we cannot meet the students needs and we can't even be compliant in around the requirement to meet student needs

115within the funding. >> Um I mean I think we just kind of kept going back and forth to what are we required to do and what are we trying to do for our students and so that kind of became our conversation. We were like okay the we're good at this level. What's next? And so saying, do we want to cut this opportunity? That's why I remember something because All of our small schools, all of our school, every school has every we have% of our students that are certified before we look at how does this I think I want you guys to be aware of what our principles are staff and we have said we don't have a hard time but We shouldn't have we shouldn't have to choose between a counselor and a media. >>

116I shouldn't have to choose whether or that's really all that we just need more money. You said something very needs and wants different. That is very hard. asking that question. >> How about the question, do we want or need quality education? and however I bring you the I can't bring you a budget that has $500. I just wanted I've done this before, but I feel like you guys have this conversation as we go into powerful. >> Each district has their own qualifier. what they consider, but we still want to turn back over. Any other final thoughts on this? >> Oh, yes. >> I know. I told that I need like a bubble light for my car so I can make it to places like >> What did he say? >> He said no. >> Yeah,

117>> he said no. >> He did say no. >> What Jenny is handing out to you >> ah >> is our six budget priorities. No, sorry. are six strategic initiatives >> and you guys referenced those before. They're attendance, third grade math, high school graduation, math one, safe and civil schools, accountability, transparency, and accessibility. Then this one, >> nope. >> Your job before you disappear, board members, I don't need staff members to do this because we already know. >> Get the pin back. >> I I'm going to ask you guys to order those >> in order from 1 to six or do they have six sheets? What do they have? >> Sheets. >> Thank you. >> So, what I'm going to ask you to do is organize. >> When we bring you back a budget next

118month, I need to make sure that the priorities that I'm putting in are the ones that you think are prime importance. So the question about is it third grade reading or math one if I have to decide if I'm going to add math one teachers or add third grade reading teachers I need to know what you guys think the priority order >> so you want our names on these or just our our ranking >> oh of course it is you're right >> Mr. Chairman. >> Yes. >> Before we go, I'd like to to before we start to splinter, I'd like to have a moment. >> Please do. >> And I I I I came late, so if you did this in the very beginning of the meeting, I I I beg your pardon, but I

119I would like to have the board join me in congratulating Miss Sutton for her award and for for how much she does for our district and how we'd be lost without you. Thank you. absolutely be lost without >> I would have definitely been lost without her today. >> You may want to save that speech. >> I think we all >> absolutely 100%. on top on >> I want for your first >> and while if you are done with that I'm getting ahead and sutton had mentioned two meetings in March is that correct >> so normally we have two in March and I guess if we don't need the second one we wouldn't have to have one but I think having one scheduled that's on everybody's calendar is probably best. All right, I'm gonna throw out

120a day days and see and throw things at me if you got to. >> Uh, I'm gonna say March 12th and 26th. >> Oh, >> what days of the week are those? >> Those are both Thursdays. >> I'm going to look from Julie. >> No. >> And think March 6th. >> March 12th and March 26th. >> What time? >> Uh, 9:00 a.m. So, we have plenty of time. 10 o'clock. >> Jenny, does that interrupt us in in a next meeting for finance? >> Okay. >> We usually have those on Thursday. >> We have one person can't do until afternoon. >> So, why don't we say >> because we need >> 3:00. 3:00. >> I can't do it then. I have a doctor's appointment. >> Okay. >> What day right now? The 12th. Yeah. >> I

121mean, >> well, let let's start with the 12th. You You know, are you good with the 12th at 2? >> No, I can't. I I can't do it that time of day on the 12th at 3 o'clock when you guys out. >> Okay. >> All right. Let's look at how about the 18th. >> How's the 18th look for everybody? >> 18th >> for the next one. >> 18th. >> Hold on >> for the first one. >> 18th at 1:00. >> That's good. >> Only one I we of course don't know Mr. Perry though. >> All right, let's let's schedule the 18th for one o'clock. Um >> uh I do have a >> meeting at the elevator every child also meets that day. >> We were talking earlier. >> Can you do two? Well, 2:30 because

122we have to get three of us on >> 2:30 on the 18th. 2:30 and the 18th. >> Isn't there something else on the 18th? >> There's elevate every child. But >> but there's something else. >> I don't think so. I have nothing on mine. That's why. >> What's the What's What day is the principle of the day? >> 19th. Okay. So, we'll say 2:30 as budget. >> We're not doing 2 o'clock. We're doing 2:30. >> 2:30 because we have to get over from the elevator. >> No, I've got a listening tour at Murray. I'll I'll cancel it. >> And how about the 23rd at 2:30? 2 o'clock. 2 o'clock. >> Can't believe we're doing March. The 23rd at 2 o'clock. >> It's a Monday. >> Is there enough time between the 18th and the 23rd?

123>> Not really. I'm going to ask Sutton. >> That's going to be tight for us. >> And somewhere in there I need a finance committee meeting. >> Uh but the 27th then >> Well, I But when do I have to present it to you guys? In the 24th agenda review. >> Yeah. >> So, we're going to need to do >> Why is the agenda review not the 31st? >> Because we have to have a meeting >> because our board meeting got moved up to April 1st. >> Yeah. because it would have been spring. >> Oh, that's right. That's >> changed it back to April 1. So therefore, agenda review cannot be the day before. It's the week before the 24th. >> So April 1st is a Wednesday >> review. Okay. >> I mean, yeah. >>

124Now, as long as you guys are okay with me bringing the budget to you on April 1st at the board meeting, that could work, wouldn't it, Ashley? >> Yeah. They just wouldn't see it. Normally, we would like for you guys to see it before you have to vote, >> but they'll see it at the 20 They'll see it on the 23rd. >> Yeah. How about 23rd? >> As long as you're so back to a 23rd meeting. >> Okay. So, >> actually, we got to have a finance committee meeting between now and then. >> 2 o'clock. >> Well, but here's the caveat. If you make substantial changes to it on the 23rd, you may have to squeeze in another meeting. >> That's my concern. That's my concern. >> You know what I mean? Like if I'm

125going to present it on the first and you rip it apart if you make substantial changes to it on the 23rd, I won't be able to present it. >> How about How about maybe the Let's go back to the 12th as a possibility at 9:00 a.m. You can't be there. >> I won't be there. >> I I can be there as early as 11th. What time? >> As early as 11:30. >> 11:30. >> 12th is wide open. I can do anytime. >> I guess I couldn't at one for finance. >> Okay. So, let's say what 11 you say? >> 11:30 is 11:30. >> Let's go 11 and then you can just catch up. That's fine. That way they're not 12 and 11:30. >> Yeah. I'll hand off inviting me somehow. >> Yeah. I get a

126date. >> Okay. I know. >> So, I don't have to do this. Okay. Fair enough. >> So, gentlemen, my wife's got a doctor appointment at warn, but I I if I need to, I'll hand the gavl over. >> So, all right. So, let's say at 11:00 >> on the 12th. >> I thought it was >> On the 12th. 11 and 12. >> I thought it was 11:30. Did she say she couldn't be here before? >> She's going to catch. >> Yep. So, okay. So, now, so we are confirmed. >> So, we've got the 12th. We take 18th off. >> no, we can keep the 18th and that'll be our second meeting. >> That six days is enough time >> for for the >> senior staff >> because they were trying to get it for the

127agenda review on the 24th. >> No, I understand. I just want to make sure that that's actually >> Okay. So, what day we put that? >> Okay. So, >> right now we got uh the 11th uh the 12th at 11 >> and the 20 and the 18th at 2:30. We're scheduling these for two hour meetings. >> Sounds good. That that >> twoour. >> Okay. Just to confirm, March 12th at 11:00 and on March 18th at 2:30. >> Correct. >> Okay. All right. >> Actually, we look at the >> We have anything else on our today because my computer went down again. Come on. >> Who's organizing this? send the 26th. >> Okay. So, we've done the initiatives. You got your initiatives all set. >> And we need those before you leave, please. >> Yeah. >>

128Not me. >> You'll never see them again. I've lost so many things that I've collected from this group. >> I believe uh that >> No, it's a bad thing. Is that everything? >> Time for I'm looking here. There's We've done their initiatives. >> We got to go. >> There's a motion to adjurnn. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Any discussion? Hearing none. All in favor of German, please signify by saying I. >> I. >> All oppose. Nay. Okay, there we go. 51. We're out. Thank you.