001Then welcome everyone. Um, thank you for being here um for our Monday, July 28th uh general school board meeting. I call the July 28th, 2025 schoolboard meeting to order. It is 7:37 p.m. We are in conference room C of the Fiser Administration Building at 12121 West North Avenue. Miss Summers, please call the role. >> Miss Preszinski >> here. >> Mr. Bower >> here. >> Miss Faul >> here. >> Mr. Morris >> here. >> Miss Himmer Rand >> here. Dr. Worley >> here. >> Mr. Wadier >> here. >> Okay. So, we begin our meeting with the next the next agenda item is public comment. um many um folks who are from the public are here um did hear it, but I so I'm not going to read um 0167.3 in its entirety a second time. Um
002but I just want to give a couple of reminders that we welcome public comment um both in the room and online. Um if you're in the room, you signify that by coming to the microphone that you're interested in giving public comment. If you're online, you raise your hand. Um we take public comment on agenda and non-aggenda items um at this board meeting tonight. Um and uh the public comment period um will not exceed 30 minutes unless extended by the presiding officer of the board. If you um would like to make a public comment, we ask you to limit your comments to three minutes. the you will get a 30 second um warning and then we ask you to wrap up. Um and uh we ask that you direct your public comment to the presiding officer,
003which is me, not to other members um of the um staff um administration or board. Um and because many times public comment does not um is about things that are not on the agenda, um we um if we're not agendaized, we can't talk about it at this meeting. But please know that your comments are very important to us and we welcome um public comment both at meetings and um via email um in between meetings as well. So opening public comment for um our general board meeting this evening on agendaized and non-aggendaized items. If anyone would like to make comment, please come to the microphone, tell us your name and what you would like us to hear. >> Hi there. Um I just have a followup from >> say your name. Oh sure. Um so there
004was a commenter who talked about I think it was one of the June meetings where the board approved the contracts for administration and in the past I've seen dollar amounts you know so you know how much we're paying administrators and the percentage amount. So, I'm curious, did the board know that before you approved um the contracts? And if so, could that be made transparent to the public? If you didn't know that, have you just handed an open checkbook? Is that any amount of money can be put on these contracts? So, that is a bit of of a concern. Um, then I have a question about the CDBG funds that the city of Wawaossa approved for the school district. I didn't see that in the budget book. Um, and I'm assuming that's going to be in
005the 2026 funds because it was approved a couple maybe a couple months ago that the district asked for that money. So, I'm wondering where that is. Um, and it was supposed to go to the recck department. And then I'm also curious um, you know, happy 30th anniversary of the ADA. That was just on Saturday. If you recall, um it was two years ago that there was intense advocacy about the lease space for the recck department. Uh there was two reports provided to the board and the administration showing that there were ADA non-compliance issues. There was an ask for a pause um before approving it, but sadly the administration and board um and I know it's not the newer people um approved it anyway. So there the work has started. Um I was the citizen that
006read the lease agreement and notified the district that we have now taken on responsibility for 100% of compliance with federal law which includes the Americans with Disabilities Act. The district went back and renegotiated that for 5050. So I'm wondering how much how much did we end up having to spend to do ADA upgrades on a building we do not own? Um, so that's a question I have. Um, so thank you. Thank you. I don't see any hands online. I don't see I might see public comment in the room. We'll take another public comment. Thank you. >> Hi, I'm Rita Wasneski. I wasn't planning to talk, but I wanted to shed some positivity on all the public comment side. Um, I have a graduate from 2019 who graduated from Ripen and had had almost a 4.0
007there and she's doing well. I have a 2019 grad finishing his work at WCTC going into welding and he's doing fantastic. He's a supervisor at UPS um and has been for quite a while. Um, I have a freshman at Tossa West who's gotten straight A's and she's had an IEP since elementary school to help her with her fluency and now we'll probably looking to switch her down to a 504. She's just excelled with all of the support and the teachers and I see the curriculum changes that we've made in the district and it's truly pushing the kids to be more engaged and to talk more and to think more and to problem solve and um pushing them to learn. Um, I also have a niece who's in sixth grade and she has had some struggles
008in her um, life, but um, the staff and the teachers at Whitman have truly um, supported her in her journey and she ended the year with straight A's as well. So, um, I think it people there are a lot of great kids doing a lot of great things in TOSA. I see it through the Wawaossa West newsletter, the Whitman newsletter. Those are the two schools I'm closest with, but I know that it's out there on Facebook and it's out there other places. Um, and I want to continue and you can look back to past recordings from Dr. Marble and Luke opinion about all of the great achievements the district has made in academics um changes in curriculum um and decreases in behavior issues that you know have really excelled. So I just encourage people to
009look back at those things as well. Um thank you. >> Thank you. I'm seeing one hand online. >> BJ, you can talk now. >> Thank you very much. Uh this is BJ Herman and I have noticed in this meeting the previous meeting and others that I've attended that there are very good questions that are asked and I am familiar with the policy that the public comment is not a time for conversations but I would ask the board to consider what can be done to document some of the excellent or all of the excellent questions that are asked and post answers to them perhaps uh in a frequently asked questions. Um especially since the message that I've been hearing is that people have lost a lot of trust in the board and the administration and it
010would help be more transparent. Um perhaps the answers will address questions people didn't know that they had. But having those questions respected by giving an answer uh in whatever way, shape or form, no time limit um uh I would be much appreciated. Thank you very much. >> Yeah. Did you want Okay, please come forward. We have another comment in the room. My name's Kathy Campbell. I just want to second what BJ said because I was going to come up and say the same thing that there's been a lot of questions over the years that that I've started getting involved um two years ago with a lot of different meetings I've attended not only here but Madison where we talked about closing schools things like that um again I dove into some of the financials and
011um just would like to have some answers I think that's all people are asking for and that would a wonderful way to start building trust with people who have lost that trust in the school district period. Um, so I would appreciate that. And I'm going to go back to the budget. You know, I I'm reading here the last action is to approve the prelim budget for next year. Um, and again, I just have a lot of concerns that how can you even approve a prelim when I just feel like it hasn't been talked about? Again, I'm going to go back to I don't understand why a budget hearing doesn't talk more about the budget and that is a question I have myself. I'm just baffled by that and would like to know I must have
012missed when the next finance meeting is. So, thank you. >> Thank you. Does a member of the finance committee want to share the date of the next meeting? They are also recorded. Just so you know that it's >> August 13th at 11:00 a.m. >> August 13th, 11:00 a.m. >> Typically, >> it's typically the third Wednesday from 10 to noon, but we have to change it for this. >> But do note also we the as Mr. Watt said earlier, like to have people come, but we also record it. Um, and remember there's also a public comment opportunity 247. um electronically. Uh and thank you for the suggestions this evening um about how to um communicate with um with residents and district families. Um we will move on to seeing no other public comment to see to
013our next agenda item. We appreciate everyone that is here. Um next agenda item is our consent um agenda. And I want to ask first um before we uh move forward, are there any items on the consent agenda which a board member would like to remove for separate discussion and action? Okay, seeing none, may I have a motion to approve the consent agenda? >> It is recommended that the school board approve the consent agenda and I so move. >> May I have a second? >> Second. I'll give that to Mr. Morris. Thank you. Miss Summers, please call the RO. >> Miss Bzinski, >> yes. >> Mr. Bower, >> yes. >> Miss Faul, >> yes. >> Mr. Morris, >> yes. >> Miss him Rand, >> yes. >> Dr. Worley, >> yes. >> Mr. Wier, >> yes. >>
014The motion carries. Thank you. We'll move to item four. I can find the right page. Um, item four, strategic goal operations, the monthly financial report. Mr. Eker, thank you for being here tonight to share this with us. >> Let me get this pulled up. >> So that's it. So, so those who are following along, this is letter A, monthly financial report. Um, and they're paying for. >> Okay. So, um, a few minutes ago we were talking about the 2526 budget and we will be again few minutes from now, but right now we're turning the clock back in time to, uh, close out 2425. So, we're looking at our June financials and essentially our pre- audit year end at this point. So, we just started our our preliminary audit. So, our auditors were in last week.
015Uh, they'll be working over the next several months and the board will receive an audit report uh, in generally in December. It could be as early as November, but that's the usual time frame. Um, right now our financials are pre- audit, so we're going to have some um more ins and some more outs, but um generally we're complete with a year. Uh, we know we still have some lagging expenses uh with our self-funded health insurance. Uh, so we're um [Music] not the expenses themselves aren't lagging. we know about what they are, but but sometimes we overestimate how many bills are still outstanding and sometimes we underestimate. Um so there's going to be some ins and outs there, but we're generally uh pretty secure in the end of year. So, um not to bury that the
016I don't want to bury the headline. The headline is we're ending better than budget. Um, I do want to emphasize that we aren't finishing um, we we did have a budgeted deficit. So, I don't want anyone leaving thinking that we're putting money into fund balance, but we're taking out less than what the board approved as a budget. So, we're ending better um than we uh had budgeted for and better than we anticipated even a month ago. Um part of that is due to some additional state income that came in uh relative to some shift from um some people services staff away from things like guidance and towards social workers. So we got additional funding from the state for that change. Um on the expense side, I I've pointed out every month how our purchase services
017are going. We knew that was going to end over budget. Uh I am happy to report that one of the things we were concerned about as far back as December, our substitute budget, which is a big driver of our purchase services. Um we we knew we were going to we were on trend to overspend. Um but because of the changes we put in place in December and January, we didn't end up any further over budget than than we were at that time. So the the things that that we implemented um and it was interesting because we got push back on on on some of those changes um and people saying this is one of the spots when it's difficult for me as a CFO because we'll hear cut the budget and then generally um everyone
018has opinion on what should be cut. So, this is one of those spots where um we made some changes, we saved some money and and implemented those midyear and have yielded those results. So, uh we anticipate uh ending about $700,000 better than budget. I think it could actually get a little higher than that. I don't anticipate any lower than that. If there's going to be a surprise this year, it's going to be on the good side of this, not the bad side. So through today, uh, like I said, we're about $638,000 638,000, not million, uh, better than budget. Um, I mentioned our our health insurance, purchase services. Um, I also want to kind of just rewind in time a little bit because at this time last year, there were there was the surprise was, hey,
019we ended up way worse than budget. We ended up with a deficit last year of over $15 million. Um when I came into around a year ago at this time um re-evaluated the budget uh the board had us put items in place so that we could um end up where the board had uh near where the board had approved in May. So we made we implemented lots of changes and cuts in August of last year that got us to where we are now. So that was a lot of work to get here. Um and now we have I think you know in cooperation with the community who who um voted for the operational referendum um we we're now turning that around so we have a budgeted surplus for 2526. So purposely rebuilding that fund balance.
020>> Mr. Americ how much was reduced in August of 2024 from a budgetary standpoint? >> Suspect you might know the exact number. I'm I'm what I'm recalling is somewhere in the neighborhood of two and a half to $3 million. I would ask the board and the community to recognize that for an administrative team and subsequently the staff who had to deal with the the redu redu reduction in resources to cut approximately $2 million in the beginning of a school year is substantial. We constantly hear people say spend less. We can spend less, but it's critical that we back up and we think about the beginning of where this all started. And when I came to the district, there was a clarion call from the community where people said, "We want to compete academically with the
021best school districts in the state of Wisconsin." And when I looked at where we were spending dollars, how we were compensating teachers, where the resources were, we were under spending, that was highlighted in Mr. Ecker's presentation of the budget recently where we were not keeping up with inflationary increases. And so it is clear that we were starving the district with resources. We've made the investment. This board, the pri prior board, I shouldn't say this board, the prior board clearly made the statement that they were proud of making the investment in resources and compensating people and making sure that there was support for teachers um and doing the work that >> took their raise away and charged up significant amounts for their health and >> so we continue to invest resources in spaces where it is
022important for us to become the district that everyone says they want to become that they want Waltosa to be. The slide that Mr. Ecker showed was clear. We were not keeping up with the level of spending that was commensurated with what we want to be as a school system. I just wanted to highlight that I'm proud of the fact that our team and then subsequently everyone in the organization. So I'm not just looking for our administrative team. Everyone took sacrifices here, but to make cuts of $2 million plus in the start of a school year is some is significant. And I just I want to thank everyone in the organization for making that that shift. The last thing I will say and then I'll let Mr. Eer finish his presentation. Our CFO and I have
023worked in school systems that are, let me say it this way, in communities that are fiscally conservative. We've worked in communities that would be considered not fiscally conservative. Mr. Ecker and I can make the budget work however you want us to make it work. If there is a call for budgetary austerity, we can make that happen. But then the community has to level set its expectations for what we want to provide in terms of support for teachers, class sizes, benefit levels. We don't, Mr. Eker and I, we don't need assistance in finding where to cut the budget. We we demonstrated that to you in office. We can cut that. Managing the budget is something that we can we can cut the budget. Ultimately, a budget is about the values of a community and what does
024the community want us to invest in. And what you heard in the budget hearing earlier this evening is there's we have to reconcile what the community wants. I believe that the community spoke clearly in November of we want a certain level of service in terms of studenttoteer ratio, in terms of resources, in terms of where we want our facilities to be. There's also and there will always be in a community there will always be a percentage of the community that will say we don't agree with what the majority of the community has stated. That is democracy at its best. But at the core from a governance standpoint we have to have a true vision for what we want to provide for the school system. We believe that we're executing that. If there is a different
025message that is given to us in terms of how to proceed with the development of our budget, we I just I want to highlight for you. We can act accordingly. But ultimately the community and and when I say the community, I mean everyone the community will ultimately have to continue to let us know. And when I say continue, continue to let us know. We we we have a reprieve for now three and a half years with the operational referendum, but at some point we know that the the the the state aid and Mr. Eer did a great job in showing that as a property-rich community is ultimately a property payers and taxpayers issue and the community will continue to have to tell us what you want. But at this point in time, the way that
026we are going to administrate is we're we're presuming that the the community spoke in November. I mean, there isn't anything more dem democratic and more patriotic than having the entire community have the opportunity to go to the ballot box and to make the decision on where they want spending to happen. That message was delivered to us and we're acting accordingly. I don't know, Mr. if I covered some of the items that you and I discussed earlier, but I thought this was the right time for me to kind of interject. >> Yeah, thank you. Thank you. So, I'll run through these slides really fast because I just like to share them every every month, but you can see um these these are the ones I call our speedometer or dashboard. Um, you know, as you if
027you were as you've been watching these through the months, the uh the little I get my mouse back. This little dial here changes each month uh as as we have um actuals compared to projections. So, we're at the end of the year, right? So, we were expecting everything to be at 100%. Um that's what you'd expect at the end of the year. You can see, as I noted, our revenues have ended up a little bit over. Um, here's the revenue by detail. You can see uh for the general fund and the special education fund, but what we're looking at here is our budget and then the purples where we actually are, right? So, you can see from a scale-wise, very close to budget. Similar on the expenses, you can uh like I said, we might
028still have some lagging um self- insurance to come. I don't I I don't think that's getting up um in a negative way though. Uh so again, we ended slightly over budget on expenses, slightly over budget on revenues net to the better and again our budget to actual really really tight there. Last thing I want to uh highlight is um I mentioned in in May how our expenses are really backend loaded because we we run uh like most school districts you pay out a teachers contract in July and August. So you're running depending on the school district five or six payrolls uh at the very end of the year. So in May our actual expenses were way down here and you can see in June then they go up I don't know what is that a
029third more and that's due to all those payrolls happening. So this is why we need to analyze our budget not as um each 12 months being exactly equal because that's not how our expenditures go. Um so just pointing out our projections throughout the year are because we have this you know big influx of expenses at the end of the year >> anyone ask questions I always have questions um so this is for the 2425 budget what's next for this budget that you were just talking about >> the 2425 budget. Yep. >> Okay. Um so like I said, our auditors are here for the preliminary audit. Um they go through all of our year-end journal entries. So meaning um they're going to look at invoices to make sure that say a bill were received on June
03030th. Should we have paid for that out of 2425 or 2526? Typically they'll find a couple things that they'll say that well you got this service on June 29th so you should have paid it from 2425 or the build didn't come until August so you should have even though the service was done earlier. So there'll be a few things like that. They're usually they're going to be immaterial but they'll find stuff like that. I'm certain. Um we have run all of our payrolls. Um, the only thing I that is potentially material, but I think it's going to end to the good, not the bad, is uh our trailing health insurance costs. So, I overbudgeted for that at the at the year end and have accounted for that. I think it's going to get better, but
031we're just waiting for those final bills to come in. Since we're self-insured, we we pay the providers directly and so we are accounting for essentially the services people used and tracking those, but until we get the final bill, we don't close out the the full year. So, talking through the budget, we're um being asked to vote on the preliminary budget tonight. Um what is next for that budget? So the big steps left for that budget are um we have not um we have budgeted for raises for people. We haven't actually given the raises to people yet. So that we've budgeted um total salary compensation. So uh we're we're waiting on health exact health insurance rates that will drive partially what raises are. Uh it's built into the budget as one lump sum. So that should
032not change the actual dollar amount but will change what's allocated where. The other big drivers um it's possible uh we have some contingencies built in for teachers but there have been years in the past where we had to add staff based on preferred classroom sizes you know between now and September. So there's the possibility for that. Um, if we have to add those beyond contingency, then we'd be coming to the board and saying, "Here's what we recommend and here's the cost." That would be kind of operationally. Uh, from a state standpoint, we're waiting on well, we're not waiting on the third Friday of September. We'll count our students. That's the day everyone in the in the state does it. Um, contrary to what some people believe, the student does not actually have to be here
033on that day. as long as they're here that day or a day before or a day after and are enrolled, they're counted. Um there are school districts that have like pizza parties or something on that day because if they're there that one day and that one day only, they also count. Uh that's not how right if they're enrolled and they're they're a general student, they're they're counted. Then October 15th, the state tells us um now that uh the students drive our revenue cap, the revenue cap is is made up of state aid and property taxes, but we don't know exactly what our state aid will be until October 15th. We've budgeted a 15% decline in state aid. That's the most it can go down. There's a hold harmless uh clause after that. We did that
034because this is the year that our debt payment is taken into account for reduced state aid. So we've built that into the budget, the reduction in state aid. So I wouldn't anticipate much changing from the July 1st estimate. Might have small adjustment to state aid possibly up or down which will impact property taxes slightly up or down. Probably not even enough to impact the mill rate though. And then in uh very end of October, our the board will certify the property tax levy. Then I'll ask the board to approve the final budget and then we'll have these budget reports uh monthly um like we did this year. If there is any u budget amendment or budget change that'll be brought to the board for an official budget amendment and published per DPI statute. >> Thank
035you. Um in addition to your monthly reports both to finance uh committee and here um we also have another way to for people to track how we're going against the budget, right? And how we're tracking throughout the course of the year. >> Yeah. Um so we utilize CISA 5. So CISA is an educa education cooperative. Um there's several of them in the state. Uh we use CISA 5. they have implemented a a budget monitoring tool and they validate our uh essentially I'm doing something monthly and they're validating quarterly for the finance committee and the board uh how we're doing budget to actual. >> Could you talk a little bit about the website as well that you launched beginning of this year? >> Oh, the budget transparency website. >> Yep. Um so we we've actually launched
036a few things now. one um the very first one was essentially just a Google sheet um promising we'd do some things so people can track uh what we said we would do. The next piece of those was uh it's called a budget transparency or fiscal transparency site. Um that compares us uh against oursel and other school districts. Um that's been updated uh for 2526 already. And we launched today our digital budget book. Um, and links to that transparency set are also in the digital budget book, too. >> So, there's multiple ways for people to keep track of how we're doing against the budget throughout the course of the entire year. >> There is more ways here than I am aware of in any school district nationwide. Frankly, >> when does my last question, I swear.
037Um, when does the 2627 budget process start? >> Uh, approximately December. So, >> thank you Mr. Anyone else? [Music] >> Um, thank you for bringing um your system of sort of transparency and um the board updates to both the finance committee meeting and the full board. Um I like that you show us in many different ways. We have a narrative, we have two different types of graphs and um I think that makes it easier for all of us to understand. Um, and I would just like to point out, um, I think it's very easy to come yell at the board, um, at the beginning of our meetings. I think it's much harder to actually take a look at the budget. Um, and I know you and Jess, our director of finance, have gone line by
038line trying to find um, where maybe uh, things should have been budgeted differently. Um, and so this this next budget for 2526 um is going to more align with what we're actually spending. So a lot of questions that I got about the new budget um were like why was there such big increases in some areas that it may seem like we shouldn't be spending that much more. Um I want to point out that because of your due diligence and Jess's due diligence, we now know as an organization how much we're actually spending on those line items. um which not only helps transparency, it actually helps us budget better because if we budget 1,500 but we know we've been spending 20,000, it doesn't help to budget the 1500 um just to look good on the original
039budget. So, I appreciate that very much. I also wanted to point out that you told us that we um ended better than budget for this year and that for the next year's budget um we are projected to have a surplus and put money back into fund balance. So against the narrative that we're overspending, um we actually did better this year and we'll have a surplus for next year's budget again due to your due diligence, the administrative team's due diligence. I would like to say because of the board's due diligence um in following those things. So I am just very appreciative. I think that any community member who is really uh focused and paying attention and wants to know what is actually happening with our finances can go to any of the resources that Mr. Bower
040mentioned. They can reach out to uh finance committee. They can reach out to you or Dr. Means. Um, I think we're all very available to our community members, especially those who come to us with good faith and actually uh will listen to and respond to factual statements that any of us could actually share with them. So, to that end, thank you very much for all of your hard work. This is much better news um and a much happier budget uh meeting than we had when you first came. So, thank you for uh sticking with us the last 13 months. you've been um an amazing addition to this administrative team. >> Thank you. >> Anyone else comments or questions about the previous year budget? Have another opportunity to ask about the proposed budget when we get
041to that item as well. Okay, seeing none, Mr. Eer, thank you. I think now we move on to uh letter 4B um referendum progress update. As Mr. Lef Fountain and his team are moving up um I please and please make yourselves comfortable and at home. uh we took the feedback from the community from the 2018 referendum that people wanted to track the the spending closely and and closer and they wanted more transparency. And so I I I want to just thank Mr. Lefountain and the team before he starts his presentation on how well this is being laid out compared um to what I've seen in other communities with the referendum. Thank you for that. Good evening. Um, more good news to share. The feedback on meeting >> just move to >> that's why there. >>
042Thank you. Uh, more in keeping the theme of good news, we have more good news to share and I'm uh excited to be here tonight with our our core project uh referendum planning team. Uh, to set the stage, so to speak, on our progress and the members of our team, I'd like to start with introductions first. So to my right, >> uh Kurt Weal House, uh owners representative with Building Solutions, >> Lindseay Schiller with VJS Construction Services. >> Kevin, do you mind if I I'm going to jump in? >> Yeah. >> Would you describe a little a little bit more for anyone that either doesn't know exactly what you do or doesn't remember um what a building's representative is? >> Absolutely. Yes. Uh yeah. So I the easiest explanation I like to give as far
043as an owner's representative is I think of myself as a becoming part of your staff as part of a project. So uh we work on a lot of school referendum projects and we have that expertise of contracts of construction finance construction methods um even some real estate development um and and really lend that expertise to you as a district. So, uh, we're dotting the eyes, crossing the tees, making sure that we're advocating for you throughout the throughout the process. >> Thank you. >> Great. Thank you, Kurt. Uh, also, uh, behind me, I wanted to give an opportunity for other members of our core project team to introduce themselves as well. >> Ryan Steinhagen, senior project manager with BJS. Uh, Doug Kundy, Plunket, Race Architects. I am project manager overseeing the architectural work. And if there
044were more chairs and more table space, they really should be at this table as well because uh Doug and Ryan uh play a really crucial role in both of their respective capacities. Uh I mean helping his team progress forward and get to where we are right now. Um so with that um there are also other professional members of both firms that are not here tonight but there's a lot of action behind the scenes with both firms that uh we have to give credit to as well. Um so over the course of the past six months since we started uh the team has met on a bi-weekly basis. Um and lately it seemed like a weekly basis as things are ramping up. Um with well over 24 meetings uh for at least 3 hours each um
045in addition to all the work that each member of these firms they're doing behind the scenes and in also add on to that all the uh site tours that we do at each building meeting with principles and facility staff. There is a lot of time that has been spent on this to date. Um so we're excited to be here. Um at the start of our work, uh just for a little background, I think one of the first things we recognized was that the scope of work for the eight school facilities, um was really a list of problems but no real solutions. Um so that's a challenge to this team right away is how do we uh align those problems and um move forward align similar problems um in the list gain some scope efficiency uh
046with the ultimate goal of ensuring that we are completing the intent of the problems that are identified in the scope of work. So, with that, Kurt and Lindsay and I are going to walk you guys through each slide um and kind of celebrate and show you uh the progress we made so far. Uh we recognize that this important responsibility um and trust placed in our core team by the board and the community um requires that we establish priorities and a design analysis criteria uh in order to guide our decision-m um the priorities adopted by the team are intended to deliver the best sustainable solution for every need in the referendum scope of work matrix. um on budget, on time, and in a transparent manner. Um with the monthly website updates, uh the quarterly board update
047be this being our first one and more to come in the future. Um and our project progress tracker, uh we will uh we have demonstrated our commitment to transparency of the work. Um, our project progress tracker and the design analysis criteria I mentioned uh will be covered more extensively by Kurt and Lindsay later in the presentation. Um, I did notice today that I think the project tracker is online and live on the referendum page. So, uh, that'll be an exciting uh, uh, piece of information to keep track of. Uh we do know that the work involving the building envelope, HBAC, electrical uh and plumbing remodeling uh do have the greatest opportunity for sustainable solutions. Um, as we look at sustainability and the life cycle costs during our design analysis, we are sensitive to not making
048decisions uh solely on cost of work, but uh decisions that'll make a difference in the buildings and what we deliver and that we're delivering the best long-term solution uh to the district. Um I can say with uh I am assured that this core team is confident um that adhering to our priorities and design criteria uh the combination of projects and project delivery will provide efficiency in our cost of work. Um while it is the intent to complete all the work described in this matrix, the estimated budget amount for each building may be modified to address contingency needs elsewhere as they develop through the course of work. Um this narrative that I stated is also if you recall in the scope of work matrix, it's on that introductory um page before the all the work that
049is identified. Um so in this update we'll share a couple examples of where we combine multiple line items needs into larger projects um in order to hence the solution addressed shifting uh shifting priorities. Uh later slides will demonstrate our examples of alignment to these goals and priorities in the design and preconstruction uh progress to date so far. Uh it represents our initial phases of design including schematic design and design uh development with uh subsequent design documents afterwards. Um upon passing the referendum back in November, our team immediat immediately began on some data gathering and site surveying uh which started with some uh 3D uh virtual tour and aligned floor plan work at all eight facilities. Um this provided the core team with the ability to view each site uh in great detail during our design
050development. Uh so on this page here you'll see that there are some little snippets from that scanning work. We've talked about it at uh finance and resource committee as well. uh it gives you the ability for the team at any point during the pro our pro process that we can uh go to a floor plan go to a part of a particular building uh to discuss a problem that we're working on and see the actual condition of that. We're very excited about that. Um and uh so so far our project our progress to date on the schematic design and scope alignment uh has involve site tours with all the building principles and staff um to verify scope and schematic design um and ensure we understand the current needs and discuss all all potential solutions. Um
051this team's collaboration uh is uh confident that our design will provide the best solution for all the 326 items that I mentioned. Our current work on phase two estimating it and scope reviews uh is on pace to provide uh the best sustainable solution for each building again on budget and on time. Uh if further work in our design and pre-construction progress uh where are we now? Uh phase one uh currently our phase one construction documents are scheduled for bidding in August with a a project kickoff targeted for fall and winter of this year. Uh most of that phase one work includes exterior doors um and other non-invasive work um including some building and site work. Uh the scope of work then was identified and accelerated for phase one uh because the items represented immediate needs
052to improve safety and security um and are aligned to improving accessibility and ADA compliance. Uh they also had clear identifiable solutions that didn't require a lot of stakeholder engagement which again uh aided in our ability to expedite the work prior to uh 2026. In phase two, the schematic design sets and budgeting uh has been submitted and is currently under review. This work will require follow-up meetings uh with principles, building leads, and facility staff uh as we refine designs to align with the budget. I would also like to remind everybody um when you look at the phase 2 work um that work represents very invasive remodeling um specifically to ADA and mechanical and electrical and plumbing work and that nature of work simply cannot be accomplished uh over the course of six or nine months and
053that is why it's targeted for the years of 2026 the summers of 2026 and 27. Uh, I'd like to point that out because I think it's important we understand our our process and how we get to where we are. So, with that, I'll turn it over to Kurt for the next slide. >> Great. Thanks, Kevin. Um, I wanted to take uh uh just a few minutes to highlight the criteria that we used um to address the problems that were listed in in on the website in that referendum matrix. Right. And I think it's important uh there's 326 different items and each one of those items as we go through to address the problem that was identified. Uh we run it through a set of criteria so we have the best solution. That's really what we've
054been doing the last 6 months. Um working through as we've been doing tours, talking with principles, um making observations, relying on the different the architect, construction manager uh to come up with the best solutions. we're filtering them through these criteria that's set and really these criteria are rooted in your board policy. Um so the the first one uh the first two are underneath the facility planning uh policy 7100 uh supports educational programs in response to the community community needs. Right? So we ask ourselves is this the best solution as we come up with various different options to solve the problem or the need that was identified in the matrix. The second one uh under 7100 is closely tied to the following one at 2260 is provide suitable accommodations to carry out the educational program of
055the school including provisions for the disabled pursuant to the law and regulations and then practices to ensure all students have equal access thereto and are not segregated. Are we removing barriers to students and to staff? Right. So they so they so there's not barriers to the education as far as in the physical en environment uh as we improve these facilities. The next criteria is under policy 7410 u under maintenance for energy conservation safety and other environmental factors. Uh is it sustainable is is where where that question relates to and Kevin um talked about that already. Uh in addition to that uh bullet point underneath that underneath the safety side, there's a there was a safety uh audit that was done in 2024, we also using that audit as we look through um and look for
056the solutions uh to make sure we're we're addressing items that were included in that audit as well. And finally, the last uh criteria is under 6220 uh maintain district facilities property. So, is it fiscally responsible and a good long-term solution? So, I'm going to go through three examples um just so you can understand how the the experts, the team that we put together um to to um manage this and come to the the solution uh how we use that criteria to uh to come to the uh decisions of where we're at. And it's important to note as far as where we're at right now in this, we refer to it as the schematic design phase and going into the design development stage uh phase of the project. Uh th those are they're not final designs.
057Phase one is is pretty well final and that's where that's that's being bid out in August. Phase two is just entering that design development phase. So still testing the solutions. We're budgeting. Uh so VJS our construction partners as we come up with those solutions because on budget is the only option we have when we vet out um and so VJS is budgeting solutions so as we solve the problems and come up with solutions we can be assured that we're have the right dollars allocated for it and that's where Kevin indicated in the matrix itself u the budgets may go up or down in certain categories But we cannot exceed overall budget. So first example uh that I'm going to walk through is our thought process um that we use through Eisenhower um sorry Fiser building.
058One of the specific examples um that is on the screen. Actually, this is Eisenhower uh is all the text on the right is representing eight different needs or problems that were what was in that uh matrix. And so as we look for the solution to address address it in this certain area of the building happens to be between the the gym and the cafeteria of Eisenhower, a lot of these areas overlapped with with a lot of needs, right? So rather than just doing each individual item, widening the door, um addressing that one ADA bathroom, um adding office, uh re reconfiguring office space, we've looked at that holist as a holistic um area and and look for the best solution. So you know, going down that that criteria list, what's the best solution for that area?
059um well is let's look at that whole area and address all those needs. Plus when the study was done there wasn't a portable trailer out in the parking lot because you guys ran out of space for offices. So there's a portable trailer in the parking lot that we're trying to address that too. Let's get those offices back into the building. Right. So trying to holistically look for that solution. So, um, with that, um, the second item in that checklist of removing barriers, right? So, we're still taking care of the ADA. We're just looking at that holistically and and and putting a restroom may not be exactly where it was, putting the restroom where it fits, um, in that space. Sustainability, uh, continued with the plan of putting LEDs and updating the fixtures for, uh, efficiency.
060and then fiscally responsible. Uh part of that, one of those items in that area was to take the old bleachers that were original to the building and update the bleachers. Well, we looked at and ran that through the checklist as well and uh looked back at what we did for new elementary schools a few years back and we didn't put new bleachers in those elementary schools. the solution for when there was a couple times a year for overflow and parents would come in, we use we use chairs. So rather than investing in bleachers, we're looking at chairs and utilizing those for that gym area. Um allowing us to look at the rest of that space holistically and and allocate the budget accordingly um based on that that um shift. Um and so accessibility, bleachers versus
061chairs, um you know, there's a good argument for that. Sustainability, uh fiscal responsibility, um is is another factor for that. So that was an example for Eisenhower. The next example is over at Fiser that we use. Um that area is on the list. There was two restrooms in the work area that identified in the list of updating one of the restrooms uh to be ADA compliant. And so running that down the list, what's the best long-term solution? Well, the building has to get to ADA accessible building. That was a key piece of this referendum was that the building uh becomes ADA accessible. So with P uh doing the analysis uh and looking at the other components that are happening in that school, the building will be ADA accessible by updating other restrooms in that in
062that space. In fact, these two restrooms aren't needed for the project um to be hit minimum restrooms or to be 80 accessible. But it makes sense going down the list of of long-term it makes sense to keep those restrooms. um and update the restrooms with improved fixtures and helping the clearance in those spaces. Um the ADA grab bars uh improving those spaces that and relying on our other the rest of the restrooms and improvements in that space uh to to hit our ADA accessibility. So we are removing the accessibility barriers. Uh sustainability, we're updating the fixtures for water efficiency and for uh LED lighting. and then the fiscal responsibility um as we look at it again as a holistic way of addressing the problems um makes sense fiscally as well. The final example I'm going
063to uh walk through is is both at Roosevelt and at um Washington. Uh if you've been in those schools, you've noticed the the steps going up into the public restrooms. Um the initial thought and how it was uh listed in the in the matrix was to add ramps in that space. Well, again through this analysis, we looked at it and said, "Boy, ramps will work. That'll solve the problem. You're taking a little bit of space from a classroom or you're taking a little bit of space out of the corridor. Is that the best long-term solution?" And through the additional research, we said no, we can take and lower that whole bathroom floor. So there was zero steps and zero ramps. A great solution to those bathrooms. And uh similarly over at the music room in
064Jefferson has a similar situation where ramps going to that space would um take other usable space up. So we're looking at putting a lift lift uh at Jefferson. Um removing the accessibility barriers. Um, I'd rather have a ramp than uh I'd rather not have a ramp, it it solves the a wheelchair access, but not having just having a a smooth transition from the corridor into the bathrooms is a great solution. Uh, sustainability of those restrooms will we'll get new fixtures, we'll get new LED lighting, and then fiscally responsible. Um, again, we're still budgeting all this. We feel pretty confident that that we can do this um with looking holistically at all the projects uh be able to still do this um lower the floor without putting the ramps in and be able to overall match
065our budgets. So um so those are three quick examples of of how we use that criteria to guide us to to our solutions. So, I'll turn it over to Lindsay to uh walk you through the project tracker and communication plan. >> Hi again. I'm Lindsay from BJS Construction and on this project I play the communications role. So, I'm going to be going through two examples um of how we're we're helping with the transparency of these of these projects um as we proceed into further into the design and construction progress. So, I was here back in November when we were hired um to to begin this project and I mentioned that we were going to um deploy a project tracker and it was just deployed today on the website. Um and it looks a lot like
066these two screenshots here. And what we did was we wanted to make it really easy for the the community to understand um where our projects were in the design progress as well as construction progress. Just at a glance easily understand um where we're at in in those terms, but also in the terms of the five categories that we that we're kind of distilling the the large um matrix of projects down into five categories. So, it's it's an easy way for people to understand that we're we're delivering on our promises and, you know, solving all of the problems that were in that matrix. So, as you can see, as it stands today and what it says on the website today is we're at about 35% with safety and security on all of the buildings. Um, and
067then about 25% design progress on the other categories. We're still at zero with construction progress, but um as we mentioned earlier, we'll be starting on that in this fall and winter on phase one projects. And then this is kind of just an update on the referendum communication strategy that we also talked through back in November, but there's several new board members, so we wanted to kind of just mention this again. It's been updated and tweaked a little bit as as we knew it would. Um but we are still tracking the you know the same communication strategy with having quarterly updates communications or um quarterly updates on how the projects are going for the board. Um updating the progress tracker that I just mentioned. We've been meeting as a communications team. I've been meeting with Jesse
068Tuttle, the communications director to make sure that the public is is getting different updates as we proceed into the into the the project. And as you can kind of read further down as well, you know, we're still continuing with this plan as we as we anticipated back in November and we'll continue as long as until the end of these projects in 2027. >> That kind of concludes our presentation for everybody. We could open up for questions. Um any other comments you might have >> or members questions or comments? >> Yes, Mr. B. >> Um you've answered most of my questions I came with. So I only really have one. Um I don't think it was it certainly wasn't this meeting. I think it was a previous meeting that you indicated that it was unusual that
069we approached or that we ran an entire referendum off of a list. Right. we had a list of problems and we had the associated amounts to fix each problem, right? Um, and that was public knowledge going into it. How do most school districts engage that process and how do they come up with, in our case, $60 million in order to do the work that we're doing? What's the normal, I guess, if they don't generate a list and come up with an estimate that way? >> That's a great question. I think we would all have similar answers, but I can touch the surface a little bit. Let let Kurt and Lindsay speak as well. My experience is that you take that list, that assessment, and then you decide as a district, what do we want to
070do and combine those projects. So, kind of the work that we've been doing the past six months, you get that ahead of ahead of time, and then you more or less have uh improvement projects that are clearly defined by building without having the nuance of having to go through a list. So that is typically what I've experienced and I'll let Curtain speak. >> Yeah. When when renovation projects happen, uh you know what the improvements in that area as far as a list of of items. And when you a dollar amount, you have a dollars per square foot historically. And then when that and and when that gets passed then you're working at that level of deal similar and that is similar how we're doing it here is when it gets passed then you're working on
071you know what's that actual flooring looks like what's the actual where's that actual wall happening um and and you know size of the restroom size and all those those level of details and the reason it gets done that way is if you think like we're 6 months into it and the level of detail and the level of time that we've put into it um over the last 6 months, you would never want to spend that much time and money prior to a referendum passing because if it didn't pass, there'd be a lot of dollars um not spent. So, uh that's typically why it is done that way is you you do a level of programming and um and analysis to get you comfortable that the dollars that you're allocating will be will be sufficient based
072on historical. And then you go to the level that we are right now to find the best solution given the the parameter that you have as far as the budget. You can't exceed that. So let's find that best solution uh with dollars you have available. >> Thank you. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you. >> Anyone else? Yes. SP >> um you talked about in phase two that um it was invasive remodeling um that would be done in the summers of 26 and 27. Does that mean you would choose a few projects to do over one summer and then different projects to do the next summer or would you have to like do some work then stop the work for this school year and pick it up again the next summer? I'm just thinking about um minimizing disruptions
073and how that will work. >> Yeah, I will I I'll I'll take a crack at answering that. If our uh partners from VGS, Ryan, senior project manager uh has anything to add, I'll let him add. But uh yeah, I I see that we will uh do the work over the it'll it'll be 2026 summer will be the heaviest summer. the way it's shaking out right now that BGS hasn't put a schedule together yet um because we need the final design to know where everything sits, right? So, there's a number of factors that go into that. Uh one being how do we want to spread the work out so we get the best competition from subcontractors? Uh two being how do we want to minimize disruption to the schools um as possible. So, there's a number
074of variable variables that will go into it. Um 2026 will be the heaviest. Uh some of that work if it works out for the schools like this phase one work, some of that work is planned to happen during the school year. Uh working with principles where we're not disrupting then. So uh as that schedule and the list of projects get outlined, uh it it may extend into school year if we can do it without disrupting learning. Um and it works. And so the detail of which school and how much and which items isn't figured out yet, but that will be uh likely as these plans develop in in late uh late fall, early winter. I would expect BGS would have a more detailed schedule that would say this is the work that's happening in FA
075in in the 2026 summer. this is what's happening in 2020 summer and these other items can happen before or after that summer that answer your question. >> Yes, M. Um my question is more around so with any big project um things can go wrong or things um you think that you you know rebuilt the bathroom perfectly and then 6 months after it's been rebuilt you know you find out that something went wrong. So, what assurance does the district have for these projects? And is that part of uh your role as the owner's representative to make sure that only we're staying on budget, but that there's actually there's um protections for the district if something um does go wrong. >> Yep. No, good question. And you're right. I've never had a problem project not have a
076problem go wrong, right? Uh and and and that's why when you hire a team, that's an important piece is you're hiring a team that can address problems. we know they will come up, right? Surprises. So, a couple ways that we work through those. One is uh there's a contingency that is set up. So, as we budget the project and when we bid it out, if all the numbers come back and we're right on the number, we got a problem because we have to hold dollars in contingency. So, um I would expect on a project like this where it's where there's a lot of little little um relatively speaking compared to a you know a large renovation project um you know your contingency on a project like this could range from 5 to 7%. Right now
077we're carrying 10% a little over 10% but as the design progresses um we'll pull that down. Uh so there will be a contingency uh that will be set aside for you know what's hidden behind the wall. um and and we exposed it when we were demoing. Then as far as my role, when those do come up, right, the the the subcontractor that in covers that um that all this extra work, they would be entitled to a change order. So that's a during the construction, that's a big piece where change orders get sent to me before it's approved. um I'll review it to make sure that the dollars that they're asking for is appropriate, the quantities, um ask questions if I need clarifications, and that's that's a piece that during that uh construction phase, that'll be
078my role to make sure that uh when change orders come up that they are appropriate, >> right, Miss Pinski. >> Okay. Um thank you for all of this information and I appreciate you citing specific board policy and in your decision making. I know that ADA compliance is a big consideration and big point of concern for some of the members of our community should be for all of us. Um we I it looks to me that you are keeping a close eye on ensuring accessibility and that that's all done as need be. I'm looking specifically at now then at slide 10 where you have all these communication opportunities for the community. Um the no the the one with all the checkers and the the months of the year and everything. Um are some of those >>
079in this slide? >> Yeah, the next one. Um are some of in what um which of those are opportunities for community members to also talk with you and ask their questions to you or your team members and to um just be able to have their questions answered as well. Yeah, we do have some opportunities for like meet the construction team and neighborhood nights and we'll we have talked about putting forth different information mailers in the different neighborhoods specifically talking about what's going to be going on and and and we can also encourage, you know, two-way feedback as well. You know, like it's not just us pushing out information, it's also asking for their feedback also. And we can also add to this. This is all always meant to be a work in progress. You know,
080as we move forward, you know, 2026 is still, you know, six months away and, you know, 2027. So, we can also add more as we get feedback from the community that they they want to have more uh more communication with us. We can we can find new opportunities as well and beyond what's already kind of listed on here. >> Okay. So, of the ones that are listed on there, which ones would you say community members could highlight right now to say, "Oh, here are here are things I should look for for my venue for giving feedback." >> Right. I think the meet the construction team and neighborhood nights will be events that, you know, people can come to and and um keep aware of and and voice their opinions at at those opportunities. >> Okay.
081And where do we look for um the the specific dates and locations? Where do we find that information so that we know how to attend those nights? >> Yes, we'll have them on the website and we'll have them in um the monthly district newsletters that go out um and if and on social media as well. >> Okay, great. Thank you. >> Thanks. >> Can I just do a brief follow up on that whole set of questions? So some of our buildings we haven't been able to have meetings in because they don't have the accessibility. So it's kind of almost a conundrum here of having these meetings at the buildings um which makes them closer to those who don't need ADA accessibility but um may make it more difficult. So I don't have a solution for
082that problem but I would put it in front of you about the importance of that kind of communication. Um, you know, one of the things that that has happened is that some people who have um specific needs can ask ahead of time, but will they actually like we had to move a meeting, we've had to move meetings before because there aren't any ADA accessible bathrooms um at a meeting. So, sometimes we've used um access electronically um to try to support that. I just I just follow up on that. It's like not just have the meetings, but let's make sure that they have um the level of access that our community members will need in order to be full participants, >> right? We'll we'll keep that in mind and we can have a a Zoom component.
083Um and also if it's a tour of some sort, we can also try and do a like a video. >> You have existing videos, so that might be a way to help people see that. So, thank you for considering that. >> Yes, Mr. Wier. Um how much exposure on as far as the pro the project worked and the materials um how much exposure are those subject to for ever changing tariffs in today's day and age and if it's a decent number or dependency what's the strategy for minimizing it? Yeah, the in the construction world, tariffs has been a topic of of conversation. Um, so it is a risk that's out there. Um, and with the phase one projects, uh, a way of managing that is to order it as as quick as possible, right? Um,
084um, so get these things out to bid here in August and then get the most of its doors and hardware, get those items ordered and and delivered. So we manage that risk of it. Um the the contingency piece that I indicated before for the unforeseen behind walls um that's also an allocation for if if tariffs um do go up. It's a just it's an unknown and uncertainty on in the in the construction world right now. So being able to manage it by placing orders, getting things under contract, having good contracts, and then if uh if there is an exposure, having a contingency to support it is the two two primary items. >> Yes, Mr. Morris. >> Mr. Leon, in our the assessment of all the buildings, we know we have old buildings here in Russo.
085Do we have any idea or have we taken any surveys of the in that contingency plan of what we're likely to find? We look at we got a building that's 70 to 80 years old. If there's top down water damage, if there's mold, if there's asbestous, all those things that are hidden behind the inside the building that we can't see, but we know we're going to be opening up. Typically, we know when we open something up, there's typically more if we just find it that those products do become bigger. We have a contingency plan for if and when we find those things. So I think you're speaking specifically to like lead B asbestous, that kind of thing. Yes. >> Yeah. So we are working with EMC, our environmental management uh consulting firm that we've had
086a long relationship with. Um they have actually just finished phase one inspection of any potential um hazardous material involved with that. uh we the the district has a very robust inventory of asbestous containing material in all of our buildings and where there is lead paint and associated items like that. Uh so with that inventory we have an EMC's knowledge and the scope of work they're able to fairly accurately anticipate what those costs could be. Um and then we can we can plan for it accordingly and we'll go through the same process on phase two work as well. Um so there's some confidence that we can identify it and plan for it and then like Kurt said that contingency is always there for that little bit remaining that no ball but we should have good handle
087on most of it. And then kind of second part to that in that contingency aside from cost I know that some a large chunk of this is going to take place in the summer. Does that take into consideration anything that does take place during the year if we have those things where students or faculty may be in place where something's being opened up or there's could be potential environmental hazards? >> Yeah, there absolutely would be uh precautions taken uh whether it's through the pavement contractor or our construction manager partner. Uh strict adherence to regulation and the proper containment of those areas would always be followed. Any other questions? Very comprehensive report. Thank you for this opportunity to have this discussion and for being very transparent about um what you're working on and when you're planning
088on working on it. >> Thank you. It's been exciting. I I got to just say in closing this team I've done a lot of project work and planning with various levels of of different firms and so on. I'm excited when we have these meetings. They're engaging. They're positive. Everybody in the room is is geared towards a solution. We push back on each other and challenge each other to find those solutions and it's really been a great process. So I I want to commend the entire uh project core team um for their work and we'll be excited to bring another quarterly update to you. I think I believe in October is the next time. >> Thank you for centering our students, our staff and fiscal responsibility. All very important to our board. You Hey, Mr. Ecker,
089back to the the seat. >> I needed more steps today. >> Yes. Well, um you've done a lot in preparation and now we get the opportunity to have um the discussion that many of us and many of our community members have longed for um to talk a little bit more about questions um comments and concerns that we have um or hopes or or um excitement that we have about um pieces in this budget. So, um, this is an action item. Um, and I just thought we'd start just with a round of questions and then we'll see if we're ready to to put out um the action or if we want to continue. Uh, so asking maybe board members to, you know, put out perhaps maybe two or three questions and um then give your peers
090an opportunity to to ask as well. Um, who would like to start? Could I could I maybe? >> Yeah, sure. If you want to launch it. >> Yeah. So, um what what the board is being asked per state statute is to adopt a budget at at a high level per state statute, >> right? >> Um so, it's at a functional level and a source level. Um and you see that attached and it's attached to the agenda. >> It's not a line item level budget that's posted online, but that's not what you're approving. >> Right. Thank you for clarifying that. >> So, level >> I think some of the questions may still be about processes of of those line items because we want our community to be able to to have that conversation. But yes, and
091and this is as was pointed out by both um community members and you earlier, this is uh and board members a step in a longer process. Um but this helps us do the planning that we need to do at this point. >> The the other thing I would add is um as Mr. Bower mentioned or brought up, this process started last December. So, this this isn't the first and last meeting about this year's budget. Um, we had a preliminary budget discussion several times in the spring dating all the way back to December. So, um, this is another opportunity, not the first opportunity for questions about the budget. And and we should also say that um you've uh exercised a lot of experience um and knowledge to to and working with people to put this together,
092but we still don't have all of the information. But we need to take this step as something that all school districts do at this point is to plan for the coming year even though we don't get the numbers fully until we know how many students. >> Correct. Um, to put it another way, right now we're operating without a budget, um, as most school districts are. The other option is you have a budget hearing, I suppose, in April or May, like our board used to do, and then you have even less information. >> Um, so it's there is no perfect answer. The earlier you do it, the less information you have, the later you do it, the more information you have, but the longer you go operating without an actual budget. >> Thank you. Okay, we'll
093turn to the conversation. Who has questions? Miss Rollins, seeing your hand. >> Um, I guess my first question would be, um, was there anything that you would like to clarify based on like any comments that we heard today from community members? Anything that, and no pressure to answer, but was there anything that you heard that specifically just stood out that you would like to clarify for the broader community? Um I think the the main thing I would like to clarify is there's a there's a couple relative to property taxes there's a couple of things that collided uh in Wawaossa this year. Um my understanding is there's a reassessment of properties and that is colliding with the referendum. And so people that are talking about their taxes going up um they're they're certainly going up due
094to the referendum. If someone's reassessment um came in where it was before, they they won't be seeing an increase in property taxes due to the to the reassessment. Now, the assessment is not something that the school district has any control over. That's purely by the city. Um I'll put it another way. uh if everyone's property were reassessed at exactly the same rate, no one's taxes would change. What's hap what what happens in any community when there's reassessment is someone whose property has been assessed lower than market value in many ways has been getting by paying less taxes. So they've reaped the benefit for years of having a lower assessed value lower than the market value. And we can see that on property tax bills. It will say like percent of market value. So I'm a
095I'm a taxpayer. Um I love it when I see that my assessed value is below my market value because I feel like I won. Um until I'm ready to sell my house. And then I want my market value to be the same as my assessed value so that when someone wants to buy it I can say no look at the assessed value. So I just want to point out that a couple of things are colliding and probably the people that are seeing the the larger increases than our referendum would have projected is because of that collision. >> Thank you for that. Um, I don't have any. I emailed a lot of questions earlier today. So, also the community should know that we as a board received this budget packet like a week and a half
096ago. Um, Jason and I received it at the after the last finance committee meeting. So, we've had more time to kind of digest it and ask um questions of you and other administrators and we'll continue to ask questions like you said throughout the the process. So I don't have any other specific questions though. >> Mr. W and then Mr. Morris. >> Oh, what were you just pointing out as hands up? >> Okay. Um, so from what you are presenting in in this version of the budget, we are looking at a 1.26 million surplus. If everything were to go exactly as planned, perfect. Correct. >> Yeah. I'm I'm gonna say something that my um professors probably would have encouraged me not to say. I think it's going to get better. Um at at the time of
097publication, so you know, we we have to build this budget and have it ready for publication. I mean, I've been we kind of locked down uh what was in our financial system at the beginning of July. We were getting news from the state, you might remember at the end of June, beginning of July when they finalized their budget because they were trying to meet a federal deadline relative to some, I believe it was Medicaid money. So, I have not built in the increase in special special education aid. Um, once we do, we're going to see um even better results. Um they the the state has also uh increased the amount we're going to get for open enrollment students. So that will be built in. So those are two things that um the state giveth. They
098also tookth away um or put back into the revenue cap. And I mentioned this uh I believe at the June meeting um this uh it was like money they gave us for for um they used to call it um it was like computer property and stuff. So they we last year for one time and they're blaming a clerical error which may have been what it was because it went away. Um the state sent all school districts additional money that they said we intended for that to go in the revenue cap. So this year that money is put back in the revenue cap. That is a benefit for taxpayers because it's going to slightly reduce their taxes had it not been there. But it's not new money for us. So the the easy answer is yes,
099we're going to we have a budgeted surplus and it will be better once we sort through everything happening at the state level. >> So uh my other comment was then um Dr. means and said you guys can do whatever the board needs you to do as far as a budget. It's a matter of where where what and does it hurt does it not hurt um some something along those lines. Correct. >> Yeah. I I see my job to is to administer the budget that the board wants via the community. Um I I'll share my opinion uh when when I have those um sometimes it's um well I mean the the easy opinion I think I've shared in the past is the number of elementary schools that we have the community definitely wants. At the same
100time that is not the most efficient way to run a school district. So there there is um a juosition right. So, if I if if if I were the I guess the CFO at a for-profit business and we had um no, we're not factories, but we had more factories than I thought we needed. Um it would I would probably have more control on closing those factories. any school district though it's not up to me to what I can do is say here's the here's the most efficient and least costly way to run it but the board and community are are making the decision about the number of locations we're going to have so yes sir Mr. Ecker and I know how to reduce budgets. We've done it before. We could do it again. That's not
101the message this community has provided us administratively. The message the community has provided to us is that they want nine elementary schools. They want nine neighborhood elementary schools. As Mr. Eer said, that's not the most cost effective way. Someone mentioned the school district to the west of us. that school district had a very about 20 years ago they had a very difficult community conversation. They closed elementary schools and then they they combined their their elementary school model in a way where they have larger elementary they have a larger elementary school model. That's not what Waltosa has said they want. We currently have four secondary schools. As you heard from Mr. of a fountain. We we have a a matrix of items that we know we have to repair in those four secondary schools. The community
102will have to decide, do you want to maintain those four schools and simply simply fix things that are not going to be visible or do you want to significantly improve the learning spaces for children? Those are the types of things we have to come up with and discuss. Our analysis of the community is one in which this community is not ready to have a discussion on reducing programming often. We heard it this evening during the budget hearing. I want to make sure because Dr. Worley tried to say this. We had two meetings tonight. We had a budget hearing and now we're in the regular board meeting. During the budget hearing, there was a lot of discussion around administration. Even if we reduced all of the administration in the district, all of it, there's still a
103a structural deficit and you can see that in one of the slides that Mr. Ecker showed in terms of the fact that the district was not keeping up with the inflationary increases. And so when someone says there's a an 11 when it stated that there's an 11 million structural deficit in our budget, that's not a structural deficit. What it is saying is that the the state isn't giving us the inflationary increase that we should have received. And so as a result, we don't have the same amount of money to continue to fund education the way the community wants us to fund it. So what did we do? We went to the community last year to say if you want to retain the same level of services you currently have, if that's what you want, then
104we will need to have the property payers pay more. So, in many ways, the conversation that occurred during the budget hearing, I'm a little surprised that we had because the community we had that conversation and the the community and and some people will say, well, it didn't pass by a large margin or it did or I I don't know um what margin I I mean, I know the margin, but I guess that's not relevant as long as it passed. and it did pass. And and so my point in making that statement, sir, was to say we have the ability administratively, we don't need assistance from the community to identify where the cuts should be made. We we're the educators, we're the professionals, we know where the cuts should be made. What we need is for
105the community to tell us we want you to make cuts or we want you to sustain the programming. That's the high level direction we need. Since I've been in this role, the board and subsequently the community has said we want to retain all of the programming. We want to retain low class sizes. We want to retain all of our schools. So the the challenge is if that's what the community is stating and that's what the board the governing board is suggesting to me they want, then Mr. Eker and I have to find ways to make that happen. And there's always going to be in a community a percentage of the the constituents who are going to be against that position. And that is fine. That's democracy at its best. That that's good. And and we're
106we are always prudent. And I hope that Mr. Eker has demonstrated over the last 13 months. We are prudent. We have systems now in place where we can track our spending and we're prudent with the funds that are provided to us. We we're very prudent with that. Now, with his assistance and his vision and his his structures, it it is making my job easier. It's making the board's jobs easier. And candidly, it should be making the constituents who want to track if we're efficient with the funds, it should make their jobs easier. But my my the thank you for raising that point because I I think it's an important one. I just wanted to elevate that this is not a decision that the board is making in isolation. This is not a decision that the
107superintendent and the CFO is making in isolation. It is the community speaking and the community has has made its desires known to us. They want us to preserve a certain programming level and that's what we're doing >> and I agree with you. The community has has given that indication. Um my my opinion is I'm looking at this budget. It's a great budget. You you were able to put money back into the fund balance essentially, but this is still not sustainable based on what the community has asked for. I always when I when I used to be in the consulting business, the saying was good, fast or cheap, pick two. If you're trying to get all three, it is not sustainable. And at some point, it's going to catch up with you. And now, whether that
108be in a couple of years when the current referendum expires you and we say, "What do we do now?" Um, you know, that's not that far away. And even if you're putting 1.2 or $2 million back in the fund balance, that's still four or five years worth of doing that before we're even at a break even, maybe more with inflation. So I I just I don't see a realistic way for when people come into a budget hearing to see see and look at all of this and and say we need like I under I understand people aren't fixed incomes. They they may not have agreed with the referendum uh and and they may have uh struggles due to that. But as a community as a whole, we can't keep telling ourselves that we can have
109it all. It's it's we're we're lying to ourselves if we think we can keep this level up. And I just wanted to bring that up as in in general, you know, we're talking about a budget. It's it's good budget. Um but it's not going to fix our problems unless we're willing to wait a long time. >> May I say something provocative? red depends on how you define a problem. So there are some the out out of the 425 school districts in Wisconsin, there are some school districts that run consecutive consecutive referendums, operational referendums. There may be some people in our community who will say what we want to preserve those nine elementary neighborhood elementary schools, the four secondary schools, all the programming there. There are some in our community would say and I'm willing to
110pay for it. We don't know right now. I don't want to presume that that's a problem. The only thing that we can do at this point in time is operate within the context of the current community by virtue of their vote said this is what we want to preserve. When we get to that point in four years that's another community conversation. Again to me that is democracy at its best. I don't know if I describe that as a problem. I I think that is more the context in which we are in now. If we get to that point in four years and the community says no, we don't want to pay for it, then we will I guess that's my that's what I'm trying to express, then Mr. Eker and I will adjust accordingly. And
111and as we said before the referendum in November of 2024, we had a list of reductions we were ready to implement if the community said no. Ultimately, the community will have to say no or yes. If the community says yes, I understand in my role as superintendent, there is a percentage of the community who voted no. I understand it and I'm not discounting their voice, but there was a process and the process laid out that those individuals said that they they that the majority of the community said yes. But I also understand that some said no. That's why in honor of the people who said no, Mr. Eker and I have put in systems and structures and protocols where people can monitor our spending. They can make sure that there's an open process in which
112they can monitor things to make sure that their funds are not being wasted or being frivously spent. and the community does again have a chance to speak with their voice um through the ad hoc committee and people getting involved about the future of of the the secondary buildings and because that that isn't a snap your fingers that it happens that's a it would be a whole another discussion and I just wanted to highlight that now is the time for people to get involved not not year of a year after a referendum is voted on and happens and um I like I'd like to see the community come together and and really work on that and think about long-term um you know some of those whatever the the committee brings up and and recommends it's probably
113going to cost money but that's that's an initial investment that's another uh like like the previous board invested in systems and structures and and everything else that or that decides on that may be investing in in logistics in a building and um that money might say well yeah it's a lot of money right now but it's going to say it's going to theoretically save us tens of millions of dollars year-over-year uh because we've now reduced our footprint or we've done whatever it is that the committee comes up with. So, and I I just want to add two things. Um, just a point of correction. We don't have a structural deficit. We had a structural deficit last year. The the community approved a referendum. We have a surplus. We are we need to prepare ourselves for
114when that referendum ends because then we face having a the three options will be. We have a structural deficit and we ask for another referendum. We cut our budget to offset the deficit and we don't ask for a referendum. We have a referendum and the board and the committee doesn't approve it and we cut our budget. But we don't have an a structural deficit currently. We need to begin planning for what that looks like several years down the road. So, I mean, I'm not going to be surprised when the referendum ends. I don't think the board's going to be surprised. Um, so we need to plan for that, but we don't have a deficit right now. Um, I think, uh, Jason, one of the interesting things that you brought up is saving saving money over
115time by doing something. Um, I'm sure all of us wish that a decade ago or 20 years ago or even four years ago when interest rates were 2%. U, um, this community had wanted to do something significant with with with buildings. because it would have cost less. And I remember going through this in Moskego, it several times referums failed and ult ultimately when they got the new buildings built, they cost way more than it than they would have had the initial referendums passed. So that's the the it's assuming buildings get built someday it's going to cost money and it's going to cost more tomorrow than it would today and two days more etc. >> The last thing I would just share because it came up during the budget hearing there was a there was references
116to performance and student performance. I think it's a double-edged sword that people in the community have to keep in mind. On one hand, we can't say that we want to preserve a a professional work environment and culture that retains teachers yet talk about the the lack of academic performance because the people who who are closest to the children are the teachers. And so if there's a push in the boardroom to increase student achievement, where does that that leaves administration in a position to say, "We're going to support you teachers to do a a more efficient job to teach children." That creates, I believe, a pressure cooker of a culture. So if you, it's like, it's a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you want to point out the if you use a projorative approach to saying here's what
117the district isn't doing, that doesn't hurt administration, that's actually hurting the people that you are you you are claiming you're advocating for because you're then setting up an environment in which the administrators have to go to the people who are closest to the children and say we need to to provide more and and it it's it creates this self-fulfilling proph. prophecy because our job at the district level and in the administrative level is to set the conditions and to provide resources. I used to be a school principal. I am no longer a school principal. I know how to create educator effectiveness as a principal, but as a superintendent, my job is to provide the resources and to set the conditions. And then it's the job of principles to support teachers ensuring that they're effective. And
118then it's the job of the teachers to be effective with the children. That's how a school system is structured. But when we have that pressure being applied, it actually has an adverse impact on the advocacy that people are claiming that they're making. The resources and the conditions that we are putting in the budget is actually in support of creating a better environment for teachers. is actually in support of making sure that there is a professional culture that is supportive. But when you when you temper that with and we want to see results, I've worked with boards who have said to me, I want to see results, that clearly sets a tone in a district that says then the pressure is coming down on the people who are closest to the children. We haven't taken that
119approach yet. that's just coming from a certain segment of the population. I just I want to warn all of us that that actually has the opposite impact on what people want for children. Our job is to put in into the budget resources and set the conditions so that teachers are able to collaborate and to to explore and to become better through professional development investments that we make that we've taken that approach versus the the pressure approach that we heard a little bit this evening. >> I I would like to stay away from the pressure approach. I think uh I think if the community is willing to continue to to fund so that we are not like you said we're not in a negative deficit uh that that is is completely fine. Um it will it
120will be a matter of contention and debate among the community and I agree with you that that is a great form of democracy. We we will figure it out at the ballot box. Uh I I'm simply advocating that uh we get again for the sake of transparency and we're here to review a budget like the budget uh especially where it is initially and um but I'm I'm just wanting to point out that something will have to be done in the community whether it be massive cuts which it sounds like you're you can do if if that was the will of the board or something will have to change with the the revenue sources or something will have to change with the buildings or on and on and on. So, I'm just I want to bring
121up that white elevator in the room and say there there is we're we're fine right now, but there is going to be a point in time where it's going to get close to that pressure cooker scenario and we'll need to fix it. And that's all. Thank you, >> Mr. Morris. >> And there being covered my brief things. One of my third piece in there was was more down in the weeds, but I guess a lot's been there. uh the county PGM uh funds that are in there that we've have been there previously from uh 2024 205 and I guess in the current budget where does that get allocated or or what is that for the community where does that sit >> so is that the representing the county programs revenue >> yes >> um so
122that's specific to Val Phillips um and so we're we're one of the few communities in the state that has a facility like Val Phillips for those that don't know. Um students >> the second largest in the state, isn't it? So >> yeah, it may become the largest. It's expanding. Um and um students that are incarcerated, we they become our residents and we're responsible for uh educating them. Um often times they're uh and and you know these are these are students that they might be there a year, they might be there four days. So there's an inconsistent um our approach is consistent but it's a very different model of educating. Um the state sets aside a pool of money for uh juvenile detention centers and to this point we've been able to recoup our full costs.
123Um that is not written in state law that we always would though. uh because if the state hits the total if the if the bucket gets spent by everyone then they then they allocate on a percent basis uh but the simple answer is that revenue is a direct uh reimbursement essentially for the prior year expenses for val and I think it's important Mr. Morris to know is you I mean if you've driven past that facility it's being expanded >> right now we we have children who uh who are incarcerated who are are sleeping in on the on the floor in some cases. I mean it's it is uh they are exceeding 150 students annually and that they're not they're not set up to have 150 students. We think once this construction project is over, they
124they will have a lot more. Um, and that's why I asked uh I just wanted to remind um the public and the board, our program may be the largest incarceration program that the state has. Uh the only other one that I'm familiar with that's in the metro area, it's it's in the Franklin School District, but it's a fraction of our our Valar Phillips program. Sure. >> Thank you. You've done a lot of work. It shows. I appreciate that. Um, there was several threads in the public comment earlier today and I want to hit on them even though you may have hit on some of them before. Uh, you mentioned earlier that we have a revenue cap of how much we can pull out. Aside from the increase relative to the referendum and aside from the
125increase relative to uh Iver's veto that's 400 years long, are we getting any more money from the city and from the property taxes that is the concurrent justosition of raising property assessments that the city has just gone through? >> I'm not aware of any money we're getting from the city. I I I did hear a comment. I want to follow up on that. Um but our our only access to property tax money is what our board can directly levy. Okay. Um so there's that. Uh we talked a little bit about funding on page 13. uh you compared us to four other uh schools that are spending roughly the same amount and it's $18,739. Um and it comes from funds uh 10 27 38 39. There's a lot of ways to decide how much a district
126is spending on per per student, right? >> Why is this number the correct number? But I'll tell you why I chose this number. Um uh because our operating funds are 10 27 and 38. Those are all uh limited by the revenue cap. So one one could say if we were only going to look at operating funds um our costs would be lower. Uh but we do have debt that it goes towards our buildings. And so I've always just thought it's fair to include the debt cost too. just feel like if we exclude that um we're not really comparing apples to apples and that is the levy. Um thank you. On pages 14 and 15 you talk about the revenue cap compared to inflation. You talk about equalized state aid compared to inflation. Um thank you
127for that. Is how does And you talked a little bit about how the information coming out of the most recently approved uh state budget that hasn't been completely incorporated into your budget because we had to lock things out. How does the budget address revenue cap and how does the budget that was passed at the state level addressed state aid? >> Yeah, good question. Um uh this is something I should have thought of before. So, thank you. um our our revenue cap um we we have a good estimate on it because it's we we know it's going up by we know how many dollars it's going up. The only thing that's outstanding on the cap right now is how many students we have. However, we're also in a declining enrollment situation. So unless we frankly have
128like unless we're off on account by say 500 students, it's not going to change. So our revenue cap is locked for all purposes. Um I mentioned that I anticipated our state aid going down by 15%. That's the maximum that it can go down. Um we're in an interesting position in that um you you might recall or the community might recall that um the legislature did not legislative legislative body did not approve any more money for overall state aid. Um, if we were to look at again on those districts, if we look at say Reedsburg and Spring Valley who are more reliant on state aid than we are, that's going to hurt them. It's an interesting kind of thing the legislature did because um, who is getting penalized with no more state aid are the poor
129districts. We we're we're going to be holdless. They legally couldn't give us anything less than what we're going to get this year. So, we're in a unique situation a because it's the year where we when we have our up and down years, we happen to be in the down year and that happens to be the year they decide not to give anymore. So, it's a um what's the word? What's the analogy I'm looking for? Uh it's it's a slight silver lining for us, I guess. Thank you. Um I really liked page 24 and this goes into the conversation that uh Mr. Roger just had. Um and then Mr. more added to um I really like this page because it showed when this board decided to ignore the fact I guess maybe not ignore the fact
130is the right term but ignore the fact that we weren't getting increases commensurate with inflation and we started spending our own money that we had saved in order to build the systems that we know and has shown through data to improve student outcomes over time. Uh so I wanted to thank previous school boards doing that previous iterations. Um and as my predecessor pointed out as we were heading into the referendum, it is time for this community to figure out what kind of community it was. um and that it showed itself that it showed it showed who it was with the referendum and the passage of the referendum. So, I wanted to make note of that. Um on pages 32 and 34 or 32, 33, and 34, you can build your own budget, right? Here's all
131the information that you need in order to build your own budget. If someone doesn't like what we're spending our money on, >> it could build its own say here's the pot of money that you're having and go from there. If they would like to if they have access to a forensic auditor, there's Voya. You can get all of that data and actually take a look at everything and see what you would want to cut and then see what the reaction is. Um, so I really enjoyed that part of it as I had that random stray off. Um, but to the other point that Mr. Wier pointed out uh, back in several months ago, you talked about the five-year forecast and you talked about it a little bit today. Um, that's not set in stone, right?
132You mentioned today that we should and we are taking adjustments or making adjustments now to help us then. Can you talk a little bit about how that deficit in 5 years was calculated real quick and then what are some of the things that we are playing with in order to help make that less of a dramatic number? >> Yeah. So, this is kind of in my wheelhouse. You know, the the company I used to work for, we were called Forecast 5 Analytics because we built a tool that did five-year forecasts. Um, and the the clients I had, the school districts I I worked with, um, I always had to emphasize that that a forecast is a snapshot in time of what something's going to look like five years from now. even tomorrow that could be
133different but usually a forecast isn't an operational thing you're updating every day annually is pretty normal. So, um, while things update every day, um, you don't necessarily need to update a 5-year forecast for the fifth year, um, every day. I I I can guarantee you that, um, what was in that forecast last winter is is not going to be exact four years from now. Um, that's the nature of forecasts. My my job I see it is to give the best data I have based on a set of assumptions. And so we talked through with the board what those assumptions were. Things like uh what are we what are we assuming for student enrollment? Um the board had made some um critical um um going to say legislation, that's not the right word, but had made
134some critical choices uh to help me with that. Things like open enrollment, right? that that that that would have been something that I would not have known how to um anticipate, but because u uh the board had indicated the draw down, I could use that as part of the forecast. Um but yes, that's going to be updated because we got new information that that that would not have included the increase in special ed aid, for instance. Um it it would not have included uh the increase in open enrollment dollars that we're getting per student. Um it it included certain assumptions for salaries and benefits. If the board were to decide, hey, we want to give more 3 years from now or less three years from now, um all those things would adjust that forecast. And
135so this winter again I'll be um I think we started with the finance committee and said uh the conversation was do these seem like reasonable I call them assumptions but do these seem like reasonable assumptions. uh we brought them to the board and uh the board approved those as the assumptions for the 5-year forecast and then we delivered the 5-year forecast knowing that in all reality the first two years are the most accurate and the remaining three are for really for information purposes at that point. Thank you. Right now, >> I think I'm good. Thank you. Anyone else? I have a couple, but I want to go ahead and follow tradition of letting others go first. >> Can I ask um Simon Roland, you had talked about at one point examples of items in the
136budget where um maybe in the past the those items weren't reflective quite of what the actual cost was. and some I'm wondering if there were examples that were brought up in comment today that maybe were are exemplars of that or if or could you perhaps give a couple examples of where um we're now perhaps being a bit more honest in our spending. >> Sure. Um so the I think I'll start by highlighting what everyone sees for 2025. Yeah. >> So if if you're looking at page 33 for instance, >> okay, >> the first column is 2024 actual. >> The next column is 2025 budget. Again, at time of printing, we still had a lot of budget happening for 2025. Um in my June financial report, you saw everything that happens at the very end of
137June. Actually, some of that happens in July and we book it back to June. So, um, what you'll get in October is going to be something very similar to this, but that 2025 budget is going to say >> react, uh, pre- audit. And so then when someone is comparing, they'll be able to see what we actually spent versus what we budgeted. That's the difficulty we're having right now is if someone were to look at our substitute budget here, that's the best one I can come up with. what they'll be seeing is what we what we budgeted in we know was under budgeted based on usage the prior years. So one of the first things we did going into this year's budget was was essentially say to ourselves we know what we're going to spend on
138subs. we need to budget that correctly so we don't go over and are coming to the board in January saying, "Hey, we're going to overspend on subs." And the board says, "Well, didn't you know?" I mean, we know that right now. So, we're not we're we're going to rightsize the budget. That's the best example. Um specialed transportation was one uh that had been that way. Honestly, a lot of our revenues hadn't been updated in three or four years. So, even line item revenues. >> Okay. So even like looking at p somebody cited page 49 and a couple people talked about paper as an example um something that is a thousand and a 1,500 cents is that >> yeah so um just I'm going to take some issue with that not with the question but with
139the comment and my issue with the comment is um when we're looking Looking at budgets, materiality is also important. So it it's it I think it's inflammatory to talk about a budget going up a,000%. On a $100 million budget, the dollars is like where is that? What line is that? >> Page 49. >> Um it went up by $19,000. >> Right. And you're talking about I mean you gave that example one time of like keeping the amount of money in in perspective like somebody give with the allowance and right I mean um it's a small amount it's percentage wise it's a large increase but it's a small dollar amount compared to the the magnitude of the entire budget. >> Okay. Yeah. >> Um Okay. But is that still maybe an example of a place where
140what we were budgeting didn't quite reflect what we were actually spending. This one I want to this particular line item I want to circle back on because I do see two years ago we only spent $1,400. So perhaps there's5 or $6,000 room there. I need to see where we actually spend this year because I did go through all 22,000 lines and try and align this year's budget with what we were spending. >> So I I'm not trying to skirt the question. >> No, I'm I'm trying to I I know people did bring up questions. There was also like public comments online. I'm just trying to um bring an opportunity to for people to hear that. I I I um it was interesting a comment uh at the budget hearing because it was it it was
141about paper. Um and I want to go back and look at our >> I think some of our papers getting built to just our general 411s because this seems like way under I can tell you we make about 2 million copies a year. >> Yeah. I was extremely surprised by that because I thought most districts had moved to um we have Chromebooks for every student. We uh and yet we still make two million copies a year. Um I would love to get rid of that. And I'll tell you what would happen. Our teachers love packets. That is sometimes the best way that they believe for students to learn. If I took away copies um it's kind of that juxtaposition Dr. means was talking about is is trying to meet teachers where they need to be
142met or where they like what they would consider best practice and what's the best use of money. >> But that's a great example because if the community and the you know if the community and the board you you decide who says it first tells us to cut we can cut paper. We can and we we we can't I mean that >> we know how to do that administratively. We just everyone in the community then needs to be prepared when the teacher pulls you to the the side on the playground and says I can't do my packets anymore now. We need the entire community to lock arms and say yep that's true because people came to the boardroom and said reduce costs. So >> we also had a theme of people saying we want less screen
143time. >> Right. you know, we want we want to move away from Chromebooks. So, I think I mean I see the dilemma and I think it's worth looking to see because sometimes what's happening in some of these pieces of budget potentially too is that um what your office and you all are doing is making it more transparent in the sense that it's making it clearer and moving it into the right the right lines. So instead of like copies over here and then some copies over here and someone else the principal covers them over here or whatever this is maybe potentially it's worth looking at to to see what's going on and it does stand out a lot but again we're being asked. Um, we also I also will say um as a as a parent
144of of special ed um students that there are some things that are better served um provided on on paper for all students but for their particular students where those needs are. So um it might not be that we want to only spend $1,400 a year on paper. I I just I just the great points. In addition, I just again I'll go back to the statement I made earlier. Mr. Eker and I have served very fiscally conservative communities. And in those fiscally conservative communities, there isn't a there isn't an off-ramp for the employees to then go to the public and say, "Boy, why is that happening?" Because the the community has locked arms and said, "No, this is what we stand for." And so it there's a clear message of this is how we're going to
145operate as an institution. Our community has been very explicit. We want it all. We we want everything. We want we want high morale. We believe that the resources and the conditions that we can create that for high morale for employees is to give teachers salary increases to try to maintain benefit costs at a reasonable level. We want low teacher to student uh class size. We want all the programming. We want to retain as many buildings as possible. fiscally that is challenging but we have found a way at least for the next four years to preserve it and I presume the community will not shift drastically in those four years I presume Mr. Eker and I presume that in the next four years we'll have to have that conversation again and we'll see what happens uh
146in those four years but and I love the way that Mr. tracker said it but for the next four years we don't have a structural deficit that clip that fiscal clip will come to us at the end of the four years but for right now we don't have a we don't have a deficit if someone is but I think the framing we have to always keep in mind how people are framing these conversations and you can frame these conversations in a lot of different ways um and and so I appreciate Mr. you you pointing out if you go to the budget book and we have worked to be very open if you have an alternative option for us to consider there's two ways to have a public discourse one way to have public discourse is
147to say this is what I'm against and then to highlight all the negative of what you're against. There's also an opportunity to have public discourse to say here's what I'm for and and here's how you should change because this is what I'm for. To date, I haven't heard people say so this is what I'm for except for the people who said we want you to preserve everything. And so those people who have said this is what we're for. We are just simply executing what they've told us they would like to see for their public schools and for their children in the community. And in fact, for the referendum, isn't that essentially what we have to do? We we need to spend it. I mean, we also need to be to Mr. W's point, making some,
148you know, going for efficiencies where we can and doing our best work, but we also did commit to providing these things for the referendum. So, we're kind of in that that space of we can't now say, "Oh, but now we're going to save, you know, five million of that a year." um because then we're not keeping our commitment of what we said we would spend. >> Would actually be disrespectful to the people who voted yes and said we want to preserve these things and then not preserve them in the name of efficiency. That that is that's actually that's counterintuitive as well. So yes. So my my follow-up question then in making sense of how looking at this budget on page 34 this bottom line total expenditures the yeah the um there you go I'm reading
149this the proposed budget is million, right? >> And um and some more. >> And that is a an increase. You're in um proposing a budget that is less than two10 of 1% higher than last year's >> correct.14.14. Right. So, so that's a little more than onetenth of 1% higher than what was what the budget was for last year. >> At the same time, we're accurately creating categories or budgeting the funding where the funding is needed. So, there must be some efficiencies that have come into this model as well. I think that's what you're >> it's a similar question I had. is like how did you do all this um better allocating or better estimating of what what we're going to use and we don't end up actually spending barely any more than this last year
150was budgeted. So item by item, sometimes I see these drastic increases of a thousand%. Um, uh, but overall it's coming out at in the full budget just a little bit more, a little bit higher than what we spent this p what it looks like we're going this year. is higher >> precisely >> and we're making a >> debt. I I don't want to be disingenuous though because this is the all funds budget. >> Yeah. >> And we do um use that loophole, >> right? >> So that we have >> we we we play with things. >> Yeah. >> To get the most money we can. So if you look at the general fund budget only >> that is going up about 4%. which is about inflation and equivalent to the package we're giving uh our
151employees. >> Okay. >> So I just giving another way because I don't want someone to tell me later. >> Yeah, that makes sense. >> Yeah. No, and I'm not I'm not asking it to be like >> facicious or you know snarky. I like really want to make sure that I'm reading that >> you are >> accurately. Okay. >> Yes. Oh, and Scott, if I if I remember right, and maybe I don't, so please correct me if I'm wrong, but throughout this last year, you and Jess, as you've gone through all these line items, you've been making sure that the the thing, the object is in its appropriate bucket, and some things may have gotten shifted and moved around because they somebody stuck it in a bucket that maybe it didn't belong in in the past.
152>> Yeah. Um, some things are definitely a bucket I didn't belong in and other things are would be different people interpret things differently. So, um, this the state does allow for a paper's a good example. Someone might say, I'm going to coat that just to paper and someone might say, I'm going to put it in general supplies. >> The state doesn't really care which one you put it in. So, it's a combination of both of those things. the the the big ones, the the subs, the transportation, those ones we knew we had to get in the right spots and budgeted correctly. >> Yes. Um when I'm looking at uh page 24 the revenue for 20 26 the revenue budgeted is higher than expenses budgeted. So um then on page 42 you talk about um needing
153to shortterm borrow for cash flow. Is that because some of the revenue will be coming in later in the year and we need to borrow to cover expenses earlier in the year? >> So combination of two things. Um we um again page 24 includes all funds and we can't co-mingle in the bank our debt money with our operating money. So part of that revenue you see from a what we can use for cash flow, we can't we can't use that. So that in combination with when we spend money versus when we get it from the state yields our need to cash flow borrow. I I appreciate the board um giving me page numbers. That's super helpful. >> Okay. I'm going to ask just a couple of um questions. One is looking thematically through some of
154the comments we've had um by email and also um tonight. Um a really strong theme um and I think it's one that actually really aligns well um with the work the board's doing and the the the mission and vision of the district is the focus on studentf facing employees. And I just wanted to give um you and Dr. means an opportunity to talk about how that came into your um budgeting process, how um the kinds of decisions you made, you know, to what extent you were thinking about the where you had to make choices, the priorities um that that we all share, which is it go to the students and student classrooms as much as possible because I I felt like there was a lot of questions like well this budget doesn't prioritize that prioritizes
155all these other things but when I look through I see a lot of support um for student facing um um staff and and the classrooms and and and for the students themselves their needs >> and and I would defer to Miss Elazoski. Thank you for staying sticking in there with us. Based on the analysis of the data that we receive around from the the other metropolitan school districts, we still have the lowest student to teacher ratio or one of the lowest in the metropolitan area. Is that accurate, ma'am? >> The lowest. >> And so when people talk about studentf facing positions, we cannot have the lowest student toteer student toteer ratio is the lowest in the Milwaukee metropolitan area. Have we in have we increased the number of support staff? And I want to be
156very clear, have we increased the level of support staff at the district level? We have. They're not administrators particularly. They're instructional coaches. They're academic specialists. They're curriculum coordinators. Those positions have all been put in place to support teachers because prior to not having curriculum coordinators, we were in essence asking teachers to be their own curriculum coordinators. Prior to having academic specialists, we just didn't have as many people to work with the young people who were in the bottom quartile academically who needed academic assistance. Prior to having instructional coaches, we were either asking principles to be the instructional coaches or teachers just were not being supported. So when we talk about the conditions that we've tried to create, yes, Dr. worldly. We we believe that we have prioritized studentf facing positions by continuing to maintain the
157lowest teacher to student ratio in the metropolitan area. And we believe that we're supportive of staff by continuing to have instructional coaches, curriculum coordinators, and academic specialists. Th those those are all in service of >> the student bas students. Mhm. >> And I I just want to add to to that that also my in looking at the research and when people ask you know what is the most effective or mo one of I mean there's many ways to um improve academic success um and academic rigor and to be able to handle the different levels of students that might be in a classroom and have a classroom be as inclusive as possible. Student to to teacher ratio is a key aspect of answering and addressing all of those goals. So the smaller classrooms give us the
158benefits of trying to um to achieve the points that I keep hearing our community ask for. Um and as was pointed out earlier, it you know it is it's a value. It's it's a worthy investment. I would say it's a high expense. is a worthy investment um and it helps us move our our mission and our vision forward um and to achieve many of the things the community is asking us to do. Um and it's very effective in meeting the needs of of students, but it's not the the most efficient or fiscally affordable way to offer public education. >> No. No. Well, because we see how much of our budget goes to to staff and to then to benefits and we value our staff and we want them to have >> therefore we're facing positions
159that are working with children. The other approach that we've you will pay for it one way or another and you hear you hear this in government work all the time. So maybe three or four years ago there was a call for us to stop the student fighting and violence that were happening in the schools. But we had a we had a strategy and the strategy was and this again is student supportive positions. We didn't believe that it was just simply let's create an alternative school and kick all the kids out of school. That that could have been a strategy. >> Well, we decided >> cost money too which would have cost money. That's what I and that's what I'm trying to get to with the you pay for it one way or another. We decided
160that we would invest in deans of students. we would invest in uh mental health specialists that we would invest in social emotional learning specialists. These are again all forwardfacing positions working with students. So when people say there's been all of this additional staffing they're not administrators. I think for some people are looking at district level people or these support positions and they presume that they're administrators. They're not. They are positions that that when again when we when we arrived and our team came to the district, these were support positions that teachers were saying they went away. And we used to have these positions and they're no longer here or there are no longer people here to support the students who are in the deepest need uh for support. And so that's where we're investing. Actually,
161the the narrative that we're not investing in forward- facing positions with students is inaccurate. We we've actually I think our investment may be one of the most substantial. Again, in the metropolitan area, there's a slide in Mr. Ecker's presentation from the budget hearing that I think is also important to note. I don't remember the the slide number um like the board members remember the page number so I apologize but um the diversity of our school district combined with the property value of our school district is very unique. >> Yeah. >> And so the complexity of all Tulsa is really really just mindboggling when you think about it. So we're in the 20th percentile of one of the the some of one of the wealthiest districts in the state. That typically in most school districts across
162the the state of Wisconsin and nationally would mean that you have a more monolithic >> student homog excuse me excuse me a homogeneous uh uh >> economic structure. >> You you would have a more homogeneous uh structure of students. That's not who we are. were very diverse which makes it much more complex to serve all of those students effectively and so that that is an added layer of >> of work that we have to apply but I don't want to go down too much of a birdw walk the narrative that we've expanded administrative people that's we have increased but the the the larger increases is in mental health specialists, social emotional learning specialists, academic support, uh, people, uh, >> special education assistants, >> special education >> work directly with a student. >> And so when
163people make those statements, you're actually it it's it's the reverse. It's it's not a proper framing of what we're we're doing with our budget. Thank you, Miss Ozki, for that addition. Yes, we've hired a number of special eds. Well, in in educational research, a greater effect size is attributed to to u not uh smaller teach student toteer ratio, but actually teacher efficacy and their beliefs in being a equipped and able to do the job that they're in um asked to do. So, we have these additional people. We have instructional coaches and we have um curricular specialists who provide on the job training so our teachers >> Yeah, good point. >> continue continue to grow as educators and update. We had a parent talking about like updating practices. Um like that's we do that here >>
164and so this is such a good conversation again. So, Miss Bzinski, well, I would also state that when people talk about academic growth, >> yeah, >> there's two pathways that typically a a superintendent would then impose on a school system. The one is to prescribe what teachers are going to do and tell them how they're going to do it. Give them standardized assessments, give them standardized assess or standardized uh curriculum and say just go do it. Another way is to say, let's allow teachers to build their assessments together. Let's build their instructional capacity through professional learning communities. Let's coach them up and and and evolve their their their capacity. We've chosen that pathway versus so so there's this perspective of there's been this top-down >> culture imposed on the district. That's not We've actually taken
165the the more difficult pathway of building teacher efficacy and professionalism. We could have just said, "Here's a prescribed curriculum. Just teach it." What what you've learned, what you're seeing is that Brenda Long or excuse me, Bren Brenda Jones, Brenda Jones, our our ELA uh coordinator, she's teaching teachers how to teach ELA differently. that is a more difficult pathway. >> The angst I think people are feeling within the organization and then subsequently in the community is that there is a there is an expectation that you have to do your work differently and if there's angst around that again I stand on I I am firmly I firmly believe that the board and the community has asked us to do that work. That's your northstar. And so it if when there's community angst around this budget, there
166shouldn't be because that's what the North Star says. That's what the the operational referendum was all about. And so there's there's a um I'm I'm not confused in terms of what the community wants from us. I'm not confused in terms of what the board wants. And I also want to be respectful of there. I I I've been doing this role enough to know that there will always be a percentage of the community that will be vocal in saying that they're they don't they're not aligned. And that is that is when you think about different governmental agencies from a school district all the way up to the federal government. I understand that it is more likely that someone's going to come to their schoolboard meeting versus writing their state their their state senator or their US
167senator. And so I appreciate people voicing this. Mhm. >> I'll summarize by saying, but this budget is the compilation of a CFO and a superintendent and a director of finance looking at where we were 13 months ago, rectifying where things should have been, putting them in place and putting structures in place that the community, the board, the internal staff members can monitor us. We're showing our work. it it may I just hope that our openness is not used against us and and so while we are being open and while we're being as and so when people say they want transparency we have provided it but we're not going to shy away from the openness and transparency because people are then using that same language and creating their own narrative. I just hope that people will
168just embrace the fact that we respect your narrative and if you have an alternative, please let us know what that is. And again, I think on starting on page 32 to through 34, if you have an a different way that you would construct a budget, Mr. Eker and I would love to sit down with people and hear their their perspectives. Maybe there's something that we haven't thought of, but we haven't heard that. what we've heard is more of an oppositional framing of here's what we're against and and that doesn't help elevate the organization for anyone and in particular the kids. >> Any other comments or questions? Okay. Well, um uh Mr. Wier, could we uh turn to um the motion? It is recommended that the school board approves the preliminary school year budget and I
169so move. >> May I have a second? >> Second. >> Thank you, Mr. Bower. >> Miss Summers, please call the role. >> Miss Pzinski, >> yes. >> Mr. Bower, >> yes. >> Miss Bach, >> yes. >> Mr. Morris, >> yes. >> Miss Rand, >> yes. >> Dr. Worley, >> yes. Mr. Wadier, >> yes. And motion carries. Thank you, Mr. Eker, and thank you for your long long time here this evening as well. >> I would be remiss if I didn't thank our finance resource committee as well. I the the finance and resource committee has has this is the work that people maybe the public doesn't see, but they are holding us highly accountable from an administrative standpoint. Um, and we hope that the clarity and the transparency and the openness that you're seeing from our
170team, there's a direct result from our board, finance and resource committee holding us to high standards in in in that structure. So, I just I want to acknowledge that as well. And I think sometimes when you come to a schoolboard meeting, you just assume that that work is happening the board meeting, but there's a lot of other meetings and emails and conversations that are happening that has helped refine the work that you saw in front uh of you this evening. So I want to thank that committee as well. >> Thank you. Okay. So um before we um move to the close session, I just want to say that a reminder to all those who might be watching or watching later that the board doesn't take action in close session. Um we have conversation. There are
171reasons we'll read the reasons for why we're doing this next step in close session. Um for those who have been asking and curious um there the any board action on what is discussed will be a public action and it will be at the next general um board meeting which is August 11th. It will be on that agenda. Okay. So I just wanted to make that that clear because there seem to be some general misunderstanding um about what we intend to do and how we do this work. Um, so Sai, the time is 10:10 p.m. Um, may I have a motion to adjourn into executive closed session? It is recommended that the school board adjourn to close session pursuant of Wisconsin statute 19.85 85 partheses 1 parenthesis F considering financial, medical, social or personal histories or
172disciplinary data of specific persons. Preliminary consideration of specific personnel problems or the investigation of charges against specific persons except where parenthesis B applies, which if discussed in public would be likely to have a substantial adverse effect upon the reputation of any person referred to in such histories or data or involved in such problems or investigations. specifically to discuss a community member's complaint against a school board member and I so move. >> May I have a second? >> Second. >> Mr. Roll and thank you. >> Um, Miss Summers, please call the RO. >> Miss Presinski, >> yes. >> Mr. Bower, >> yes. >> Miss Bach, >> yes. >> Mr. Morris, >> yes. >> Miss Himerand, >> yes. >> Dr. Rley, >> yes. >> Mr. Wadier, >> or yes. Motion passes. Motion carries. Um we move into
173close session. Um we'll take a quick bio break. Um and then when we come back, we'll close the doors. Um and the end of the recording at this point.