001the 19th of November. It's the finance committee meeting. Mike and Angela, I'm going to turn it over to you. We can get started. State the meeting. The general fund expenses for the month of October have totaled uh 19.4 million as compared to 13.2 2 million. >> Yeah. Is there a way to show put it on the screen or >> Oh, Ken, can you put that up? Thank you. It would be the second page. Thank you. Um, as compared to 13.2 to for the same period last year. A significant portion of the difference is due to the pending adjustment to benefits um that would be October actuals that need to be booked and we will be booking November as well. In addition, October salary expenses contain three full pay periods this fiscal year. Compared to last
002year, we had two full pay periods. Uh general fund expenses for the fiscal year to date total 38.5 million with an additional 100.9 million encumbered. The annual operating budget for the general fund is 172 million, which leaves a fund balance of 33 million and equates to 19% of the budget. As the year progresses, we anticipate additional items that become encumbered and drive balance downward toward toward a break even point. There will also be additional expenses that the district will incur and will not be encumbered. Therefore, the uh will lower the balance fund. So in October uh we move staff who were assigned to the alliance grant from the general fund to the grant. And we did this because the grant was approved and that was the time for us to start moving um staff members.
003Outsourcing of professional services are offset by the parrot and sped unfilled positions and the outsourcing we do is stepping stone in the nurses network. the incumbrances are being um entered for transportation for the school year. That would be STA. Um we just received the November invoice. So we will be encumbering the balance December through June. Um and the McKini Vento uh transportation has been already um encumbered. Reclasses will continue to be made for items miscoded and POS are being looked at and adjusted to be more in line with the actuals. Um for other professional services, pupil transportation, uh SDA requisitions will be entered in the system and this is done in November. We also reviewed the PO for under um public liability insurance which was for the BOE lab payment and it was determined that
004the information given out was a little too aggressive. So we've decreased it to bring it in line with the actuals uh purchase services. We requested a rental invoice that was coded to the wrong account and moved it back into the rental account. Under supplies, gasoline, uh the PO was reduced to be in line with the district charges. other supplies. We have an account that is not budgeted and that is due to the fact that there were other supplies we needed to order for the cafeteria at DH West and these purchases could not be paid out of the school lunch account because DH West is a new building. So, the general fund had to pay for these expenses. And again I say they were non-budgeted items. [snorts] Um so if we go on to page two,
005we have been um adjusting many of the accounts. Um, so we're still working on the negative balances and next month you will see the adjustments we made. If we look at media specialists, these media specialists were just recoded to the 7.7 grant, the ARPA grant. Um also coaches were reclassed to that account as well. Um we've also reclassed some items out of uh professional services. We have an a temp that's in working with us. CLA Twin Lakes. These items have been uh reclassed to the Alliance grant because they were written in the grant. Um let's see. We will be reclassing title one when the uh grant is approved. There's a few uh salaries there that need to be moved over to the grant. So there's nothing else to discuss on salaries. >> Andrew, let me
006ask you a question. >> Sure. >> On the $2 million negative variant on the line teaching ESL >> teaching. Oh, ESL bilingual. >> Right. And the line above that >> and we have regular and then special ed. >> Yeah. The eight, right? $8 million avail that that would be reclassified next month to the ARP for money. I'm still going to look at that one. >> Okay. >> To make sure um that the right people are in there because of the title ESL bilingual and should not be anywhere else. So that's on a list to be uh looked at >> and in general so that we understand the the expenses that we have you know charged to the general fund. Um this point here let's specifically say on the alliance have not all been moved out
007because the grant has just been approved. Am I correct? >> Yeah, it's uh Rich, it's kind of um unfortunate the timing of the um of the grants happened, you know, after we set the budget, >> right? >> Um >> Mike, I could speak I could speak a little bit to that. Hi, this is Cara everybody. I'm still commuting to my house here. Um the the grants, you know, all go through the state approval process. So you know what the uh general overall number is the programming of the grants and the acceptance of the strategies um are are state approved. And so it's a it's a um it's a you know chicken or the egg which comes first. And so we we try to um you know position ourselves so that we know generally how much
008we will be putting in in salaries. Um but sometimes the state will come back and ask you to revise or say something is not approved. So, uh, we usually wait until, uh, we get final approval. Um, and then then we we'll have as part of the packet tonight, I believe the alliances in there. So, you could see the categories, uh, and the line items. But, um, the grants come in, you know, sometimes late summer. In this case, title one uh, was was very very late as you recall with the state. Um, so a lot of our title grants come late. And so, um, it's an ongoing process for us. um IDA sometimes is is in the middle of the school year. So things happen mid year. So we're always we'll always be in a process
009of um some level of staff movement. Although I think um you know after this year given that we're not going to see any large adjustments in in alliance for instance uh this year we went up $9 million. there was a sizable increase that causes a tremendous amount of back-end movement um in our financial system to and then positioning juxtaposing those against title one title two bilingual um so there's an ongoing um effort to to keep up with that process I do think it'll be less um ARPA for instance the the onetime money from the city um there are salaries associated with that that'll be charged off to that one-time funds um that money once So staff are moved over to that grant which is happening right now. That money uh then is is freed up
010in the general fund. And so um you know all of that movement um needs to be reanalyzed again. We have a you know pretty good sense of where it's going to land. Um, but as you know, Mike and Angela and I have met, you know, there's going to be a need uh with all the movement with the with the grants and the one-time funds to probably uh re re um allocate some of the budget. So whereas we have some negative variances and we have more money in maybe perhaps salaries and or benefits to redistribute um so that we can uh appropriately spend um down the money in areas of of need uh and make sure that things are on the correct uh the correct line >> of the closing of October and the preparation of
011the October statement was the alliance branch approved moved in. I'm assuming that all of the adjustments have not been made relative to taking it out of the alliance fund or from alliance to general fun way you have to go. I I'm assuming that that's still a work in progress. >> Yes, that is. >> Is that correct? Okay. >> And also, >> sorry, >> it's okay. >> Right. Okay. So, you've answered my question. >> Uh, two things. I just want to let you know, um, Julia is on the call with us. Um, and then I just want to ask a quick follow-up question about the media specialists and coaches, which, um, Angela, you mentioned or reclassed to the ARPA fund uh, grant. Um, Dr. Casemiro, as far as those >> uh, those positions are concerned, obviously
012those are onetime funds. So, do you expect we're going to be able to move them back to the general fund next year or perhaps within the alliance grant? >> I I I do. So, so what happens with this, you know, I for as appreciative of as we are as any one-time fund, you know, we have to keep the lights on and and keep things going. It does it does create a conundrum for us because as as you know, we do have to move. It creates a one-time It'll create a one-time um amount of money that's available to us right now because as we move these staff out into ARPA that those funds come back into general funds. So, I'll have some one-time funds that are a set aside for salary, but I can't spend it
013on permanent people uh because I I would either have to um you know reduce by whoever we hired or the folks that moved into um the one-time fund column. So, we want to make sure that we're um not over hiring if if you will. So, we will we should be okay with the staff that are in in that grant. Um it it really all depends on um you know other factors at at budget time um and as we plan for and project out our needs for let's say opening up the last phase of the academy and so on and so forth. So right now I you know I I I think we're okay. We just have to be um mindful of um once all of these movements, these changes are done um you know to
014to project out appropriately um you know what do we have for one time that we can spend this year um and and and do that efficiently before the end of the fiscal year and then you know leave a make sure that we have a pocket left to absorb the staff that are have slid over into that onetime fund. There's there's more than just the media specialists and the coaches. Um there was a couple million dollars worth of um if you if you looked in the budget book you'll see like DHS enrollment and so we have a couple million dollars of Danbury High School staff in there as well. So there's there's a sizable amount of of funds uh that are that are that we'll need to account for in the in the next year's budget.
015Um, one of the things that we're advocating quite aggressively for right now is, and we'll talk about this in the next board meeting, is the need to, um, have cost of living andor inflationary increases in alliance in that ECS pocket because, um, you know, we we're all going to feel feel that heat again this time next year when that grant does not continue to grow with us as it has been for the last five or six years. >> Thank you. Can I ask one followup, Mr. Jay? >> Go ahead, please. Thank you. Um uh Dr. Kazmiro, are there restrictions for the use of the ARPA funds? >> So the ARPA funds um there there are restrictions. Yep, there are definitely restrictions. Um we we have to spend them in in the way that they were
016in the way that that we have written them. So we can't change what was written at the time that um you know we we laid that that grant was the foundation for that grant was laid. Um, so we have technology and infrastructure for students that's in there. We'll have we'll have no problem spending that and we've already or have started working on that. And then the other component was was staffing. And so, you know, the the ARPO had to be spent over the course of two years, the expiration. um we were able to um withstand uh and not use um a good portion of it last year and we tried to you know not knowing how much thesemies were going to cost to open and how much we were going to get from the city.
017We really held tight to say if we can kick this off to the next year uh if we need it that would be probably better or more needed the following year and that would be this you know the year that we're in now. So, um, yeah, we're, you know, we're we're actively, um, have to spend it in line with how we've written it. So, DHS enrollment, um, we had media specials in there by name. Um, name as in category, meaning media specialists, not individual names, and then instructional coaches. So, there's flexibility with which staff at DHS, those types of things. Um, but we had to spend it on on the staffing as it was outlined in the in the application. Thank you very much. >> Yeah. And there there's some incremental uh incidental things in
018there. There was a little bit of money for the audit. There was a little bit of money for a few other smaller things there, but the bulk of it was the salaries. Is is it possible, Mike, in Angela that within the next two reporting cycles that I'm assuming a good part of your adjustments for the reclasses will be made that in addition to the regular schedules that are presented that we're looking at here, can you present a schedule indicating the proper fund so we know how much is in there and by category so we have an idea of the expenditures that are in there to those points >> in ARPA um Mr. Did you know you're talking about in the in the upper grant? >> Right. So if we could have like a supplemental, you
019know, accounting a supplemental accounting, a supplemental statement saying, okay, this is offer X number of dollars, whatever the balance is and the the expenditures that we have for anticipate to use is X number of dollars for salaries, transportation, etc., etc. So that we, you know, we have some understanding as to where the the line numbers and the expenses are for for that. And then as the year moves on, you know, you can determine at that point where there may be a fall short, you know, in terms of expenses. this onetime funding and perhaps we use this in terms of a reoccurring expense that we're going to have to absorb this the following year. But what I would like to see in in summary is statement for the utilization of the offer money. >> Okay. But
020the the other point I want to make clear, would I be correct in saying within the next two cycles, the reporting cycles that a good part of your adjustment will be made so that we have a better understanding at that point where we are to to then drill in and discuss. um any variances without having to say well this particular line number is is still under consideration because we we believe it should be charged here. What I'm trying to do is eliminate all of that so that you know we prevent this moving moving target so to say of of the workload you have to make this adjustment. so that we're pretty much finalized at a point knowing that it'll never be finalized. But if we get to a 95% situation, then we can look at
021the statement and start to drill down and say, "All right, this is where we are, you know, what concerns do we have, etc." Is that reasonable to to say that within the next two financial periods that it's November and December that this could be completed? Yes, that's that's why >> all right it makes it it makes it awkward to to go through and and to comprehend where we're I mean I find it where we are because of pending you know pending adjustments um detailed detailed enough and complicated enough when it's you know when correct much less be convoluted with adjustments that have to be made. It it just wastes a lot of time and creates issues as to where we may have particular issues in terms of overspending or underspending because the reporting is not
022clean. only not clean due to the adjustments you got to make to put stuff on the ground. >> Okay. >> Are there any other categories other than salary that you feel we should go through that? But let me put it this way throughout the statement that that's presented here. I I'm sure the explanation of adjustments are going to apply to almost every every category being some item within that category being adjusted to to some branch or something something else. what I'm getting at at this point here. Based on your day-to-day working knowledge, are there any issues that you can foresee right now that would raise a red flag to us indicating that we have a potential problem in terms of maybe not budgeting enough relative to the way you see the expenses coming in or
023you know is it possible that we have a large excess that we owe for budget and you know we can utilize some something else. So at this particular point are there any red flag positive or negative that you could speak to uh that we should be concerned about? uh to um to be honest, I'm I'm always worried about um special education just because some of the placements that come in uh can be kind of costly and are very difficult to determine kind of until they happen. Um I know we had one last year that we were able to absorb, but it was still a substantial amount. I think it was 5 500,000 or so. Um so I always keep my eye on that. Right. As you mentioned last year when we had that you highlighted
024that just to say that with this particular addition there could be additional expenditure. So you know I understand you don't have a crystal ball and and that's always a moving target of uncertainty. So, >> Richard, if if I may if I may just jump in, just one thing we also started to talk about is, you know, while we are in better shape with um having our classroom staffed this year than we were last year, we had a hard time getting even agency staff to fill. Um we are still heavy agency staffing. And so what that means is we budget for health insurance for for all staff expected to be hired. However, we're you know the the contract for instance with the paras are very um you know while we while we're not hemorrhaging uh we're
025not losing paras as we were before uh where it was kind of a a vicious cycle there of of losing people and having a difficult time hiring um we're not losing as many folks but we're not we're we're still not attracting as many um because the rates got better but they're still you know not as competitive but we're getting better but we still have a lot of agency staff as a result of of of that that still issue with persistent vacancies in key areas. So, um you know, we are going to have to analyze. We're a couple months in, but you know, there does need to be an analysis on the actuals that we're spending on on health and for folks that we are going to make a determination. It's that they're not likely to
026be hired from, you know, this year. Um how do we readjust and reallocate um some of that potential money um on the health side? um because we're going to need to, you know, appropriately um have a plan to to spend that money or to redistribute to other areas of need. Um so we just we do need to be reactive to that and that's work that's ongoing. I you know and to your point you've explained you know an example to what I was talking about the case of analyzing the potential needs on the staffing the contra expenses would be the the benefit portion of it but as time goes on you still have to fill those positions you know on a day-to-day basis. So it may be that the actual expense relative to the benefits are
027low, but I'm not saying equally offset, but there is a cost offset in another line number being the agency fee and stuff like that until we balance things out. I I understand that and that's and that's what I was talking to in terms of once the statements are a little bit cleaner, you're able to see that and focus in on those particular items because they would stand out, you know, like a sore thumb as opposed to >> you having so many other items stand out as a function of adjustments that are necessary which makes sure complicated >> right and and in addition to that Richard you know we're We're negotiating five contracts right now. Some of which calls for retroactive language. So, you know, dating back to July 1st. So, there's there are some other
028things to, you know, that are that are to be considered as, you know, in terms of other expenses. So, there's a lot a lot of trains that have to pull into the into the station uh at the same time and and and to to get that forecast and that's what that's what's being worked on. But also, you know, we need all that information nailed down so that we can plan an appropriate budget for for 20 for 27 fiscal year. >> One of the thoughts I have consider this is in in the future is to it may be just short term for the future being the two accounting type coming. But in terms of the narrative, Mike Nancha, if you can preface the narrative to say that, you know, we're basically still is a work in
029progress on the adjustments. So many of the variances that you're looking at, you know, and you can site a few examples are a result not necessarily of us being in a over spent position but still has to be transferred to other content. So that at least the reader when they read the narrative and then look at the report can make a relationship to understand why the variances are shown as as they are positive or negative that there still works to be done and it's a work in progress. So, you know, I think that's important to alert the reader up up front and then at this point here that us as a board or a committee just understand what point in time will pretty much come to an end so that we can have [clears throat]
030crucial conversations on where we stand. You know, doesn't do us any good to have May and June when the year is over. I think that's a that's a really good point. Um, and you know, something I I was looking at is looking at these variances is I don't know that we've ever had um a threshold uh for for variance analysis being that we never had a variance analysis uh in depth. Um what what would the board be interested in seeing as a threshold? [snorts] Um for example, any variance over a certain percentage or dollar value? >> You know, I I'm not sure if you know that's something we we can talk about or you could make a recommendation. You're talking about $172 million in terms of a budget. So, you know, what do you find
031as as materials? But, uh, you know, that I I think that's a good point in terms of once you get it and I've been harping on this for a number of years basically discuss the variance and use the terminology, the various analysis. Yeah, you can start with saying anything over a 100,000 or 200,000. Again, I'm picking the number uh that you know you could explain or even make it higher, but that that's a good point. And and I think to me one of the things we've lacked in the past number of years is exactly that we've never had the opportunity to have an understanding as to why these variances were are occurring or were occurring. There was one year when they completely wiped out >> wiped out. So I don't know but you know that
032that's history going forward the point 12 taken you can come up with something which gives the threshold and gives us a point to start at to say okay we want to look at these particular items because they're above a threshold that we feel uh we're uncomfortable putting it that way. >> Rich? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Cooper's on and um Teresa has her hand up. time. Go ahead, Terry. >> Uh, thank you. Uh, I like that idea about thresholds, but because numbers change over the years, maybe we should look at it as a percentage um, as opposed to hard numbers. >> Just a suggestion. >> Yeah, we can it it's you're right. We can look at it both ways. You know, you could look at something that is increased by 90% and you're talking about $100.
033You know what I mean? Uh but it it's uh but your points well taken. It's just a matter of how you want to focus on on what denominator. >> Yeah. What would work? What's the best what would work? >> You can do both. You know, we we can have, you know, over a certain dollar amount and and percentage as well. Yeah. >> But you know, it it's something if we get to the point where we can at least have numbers that are stable, you know, in terms of the the accounting for it and then we could start deciding it and then getting into the actual understanding of the expenses, I think that would be tremendous progress for our make and the quicker we do it, the better off, you know, we are because budget time
034to what this is November, the end of November is around the corner. I mentioned before, we're going to be creating a budget that is going to be telling people, you know, where we want to go, where we want to be. Uh but if you don't know where you are, it's kind of hard to get to that point. So that's why time for the essence is to shore this up so that we can have stable situations and the footing to where we stand today and then protect forward is to why we think we need to be here over there tomorrow. >> Mr. Jay, I just want to um echo your uh concerns about voting discrepancies. Um, I think the challenge that we're experiencing from a board standpoint is that we understand that there are voting discrepancies
035that, you know, you've you guys have inherited and you're working through and and going through, but you're not having a map ourselves as to, you know, what those discrepancies are. Um, we don't have any sense of sort of where you guys are in the process. So, you know, sitting here and having the meeting, I'm I'm seeing, you know, my notes from last month where we talked about the coding issues causing some discrepancies and that you guys expected them to be corrected by the next cycle. I know not everything goes according to plan. I know sometimes we find things that we didn't see before. Um, so I'm not, you know, I'm not uh frustrated about that, but we don't, you know, we're kind of flying in the dark here and we don't have a good sense
036of what those coding discrepancies, you know, how how substantial they are or sort of where we are in the process of correcting them. So any detail or information you can give us about that um is going to help us have a more informed opinion because at some point, you know, the buck is going to stop. And and to Mr. 's point, you know, we're going into the next um budget cycle and I think the challenge is we want to be able to make an educated um vote about uh you know, how how the the the recommendation coming from the superintendent and we're not going to be able to do that unless we know that these coding issues are corrected. I go one step forward. You know, if when you're presenting this to to the city,
037if I were in their their part of their team reviewing this statement, you know, one of the questions I would have is to say, okay, where do you stand currently? Show me your your your statement. And since we show them a statement, and again, this is nothing derogatory relative to this particular month, we understand the issues. But if we were to send a statement out for October, you know, against a projected budget with all of the experiences, you know, they'd be scratching their head and be spending months trying to to justify. So my early point is time for the essence and the day-to-day fires you got to put out don't stand still because of issues like this. So somehow we got to weave laws and together prioritize you know what you know what gets done
038but in essence the faster we get these cleaned up better off you know the better off we are this and this is a constant thing you know it said last year I remember saying it May or June when Mike pretty much completed a lot of his work last year in getting coding I I think it is not the May statement or June statement. I remember saying that come July 1st, all this is going to have to be redone because of the applying it against the the new budget and and and then you know it's the same nonsense starts again. So it's it it's a vicious reoccurring cycle. One of the things that maybe we can look to do is to see how we I don't know if there's system but but how we can cut
039the manhour necessary to to do this because there's a tremendous amount of time that's expended trying to get all this stuff cleaned up. um Mike explained his unhappiness with the system, but yet it's tied into the payroll, but it creates a tremendous amount of manhour to generate a meaningful report that superintendent and the board could understand where the hell they are. But that's something for us to deal with in the future. One of the things we uh talked about internally this week um was um in regards to uh some state reporting we have to report out human resources reports out on um the the various uh locations where people sit which wouldn't necessarily reflect in this port because you can see all the locations are set to to zero. That's just how the system set
040up to summarize the reports. But uh one of the things we talked about was coming up with a date um that we that we uh finance and HR and payroll together agreed to as a lockdown date. So you know after this date there are no more moves. >> Uh >> and I I think um at least conceptually it sounds good. There's a, you know, as I said, we're stuck with this particular software. There may be something that you could overlay on top of it that makes your your life your life easy. I come from a world where there's a piece of software called Salesforce. That's the greatest thing. It's quite fr The power it had was astronomical. the cost was costly, but when you're looking to run your business driven on sales and new customers
041and receive business, the front end of that was so powerful that it was just incredible. But any event getting back to this, are there any other areas here where you feel you want to discuss because as I said there's no sense in just repeating the same issues in in other categories whether it be transportation or professional services. So I'll leave it up to you if you just want to conclude and say that you know this is a work in progress and in that period of time that we agreed it could have been cleaned up and we can have more meaningful conversation. >> I think so. >> Okay. So, why don't we move? One of the things I was happy to see was the issue the the presentation of the alliance money. >> Perhaps Cara can
042talk to to that and it was a nice breakdown the way you thought of it. Yeah, if you could Ken if you could pull that document up for us. >> Yeah. >> Yes, that's it. Yep. Yeah. So um you know when Alliance gets programmed you know there's C categories of of acceptable items and a good bulk uh we've you know have the a good prepoundonderance of our kindergarten teachers for full day K bilingual T-OL teachers to support uh and bolster the services that are required but also a big strategy that has grown in here is uh supporting the development of so we have a lot of uh high school staff that are in here as well and so when we uh open up the academy in particular and and increased that alliance number increased 9
043million a good number of our staff were slid into those into those slots. So you can see the breakout of personal services or salaries is now at 24 million. Uh employee benefits to that uh align with the number of staff in the grant is about 7.4. Purchase professional services um you know we have a lot of our professional learning contracts are in there. um uh any PD that's scheduled for our literacy programs, numeracy program, science, K through 12 um are in there. Other purchase services um would be transportation, uh Kelly ed services. of the money that we spend to for substitutes and then supplies are a myriad of um anything from I Ready to uh Tyler gets paid out of here where our financial software system um and and all of the the schools uh
044textbooks, instructional supplies, uh licenses, anything that we use for students. So there's a a good number uh bolstered under supplies there and then property our computers uh student devices headphones etc. So um you know we have uh to submit the alliance grant in for approval. It goes through a three approval process. Um and then you know it has to we come back and we you know make sure that the board um sees kind of the what what is in here so that you um are are fully transparent and aware of the breakdown. Um the last two years the state um so we had a grand total 39 million478. The state has now required us to take um any staff that are in the grant and then to designate them by location. So the idea of
045location location is uh you know growing uh in how we break it out. It used to be I put all the kindergarten teachers in there 24 kindergarten teachers at such and such salaries add it up and now they want to know where are the kindergarten teachers. So we have to identify each person by the school that they're from. So the state um you know sees the the resources that are are identified for each school. Um but that but it's it's tricky because it doesn't reflect you know one school is not getting more money than another. Um you know for for instance uh King Street Intermediate may not get as much money as King Street Primary mostly because King Street Primary has all the kindergarten teachers and that's what we've chosen to put into the grant.
046So it's very uh we've got other grants. We've got priority grants where we hold um all of our alternative staff, our AC staffing. So, they're not well reflected in here, but they're in other places. So, um the this the numbers that you see here by school um are just how the staffing that are placed in the grant shook out in terms of location. So, um it's not uh don't panic if you see some schools getting more money than the other. It really just depends on the staffing that were selected for the grant um and and how that accumulated as a total within the within the um within the overall allocation. >> Cara, what's the the the first line where it's by by location? Uh Danbury School District. So um so district could be anytime a
047a staff member doesn't have a a specific uh one building. So for instance um we could have uh you know a staff member like a coach or a student support specialist or an art teacher. Anybody who is considered a a program um department heads uh anybody who services more than one building >> I see >> gets listed under district. So there's a lot of those that people who who are part of more than one building >> and this includes >> supervisors. >> Yeah. This includes salaries, benefits, transportation stuff when you correct. >> Yeah, correct. Yeah. Supervisors, anybody, like I said, anybody who oversees a program beyond one one location. >> Let me ask one other question for clarity. the $39 million is when it's presented or at this particular point is that number best way
048I can say let's take category of salaries and compare it to our actual budget when you make a you forecast your budget any year or as you will be doing you will include in your budget the potential need for certain positions which will increase your budget number. In terms of the alliance money, that's 39 million. Does this include potential hiring or is it actual people that is staffed at this particular point? >> It's a great question. It's a great question. So, um if if right now it there's a little bit of both. So, you can have um you know, we what because we've turn we turn over in the summer. I could have a chemistry teacher. Let's say the chemistry teacher at Danbury High School is named, you know, Jill Smith. Jill Smith leaves us
049over the summer. Right now, I have Jill Smith's salary in Alliance at TBD until we hire a person to backfill and then that person gets entered in. Those are additional changes that need to happen. um in some cases. So if we for instance um if we'd like to hire cadre subs to release teachers so they can work together and we wanted to put you know have hire 10 of these types of uh positions uh as substitutes to come in and help to work with our teachers. They may not be named yet because they haven't been hired uh yet or their or their money goes to a purchase and professional service line because it's a subline. So there can be TVDs in here because the the position someone vacates the position um at the time that
050the grant gets written or shortly after and then we hire someone and slide them back in. Um where the grants get tricky um where we have to keep an eye on things and where we have to do revisions from time to time is if a um you know someone people who leave after the start of the school year after the grant gets gets approved. Um we have to make sure that they get if as we rehire that people get coded properly back into the grant not into general fund. Um but also that those those salaries get um get utilized. So if somebody if we've got you know three, four, five positions in the grant that um are remain persistently vacant then that money we have to respond to that and we have to do a
051revision. So okay well we could take the remainder of that money and and ask the state if we can um buy more computers with it for the students or put it towards professional learning for the teachers and they'll approve it and let us know if we can do those revisions. So those are kind of ongoing monitoring that we have to do kind of on a quarterly basis. the what my I guess the big picture is the $39 million would be a fixed number at this point because I don't believe that number is going to increase anymore. Is that correct? >> That is the fear, >> right? >> Yes. >> Now, that being an assumption going forward to the next year and the following year, we've got $24 million for the schedule to that salary. You
052can say put 4% on top of that. Hypothetically, you know, >> correct >> just is an inflation or situation. >> Where does that money come from? If >> general fund, >> okay, that's what we're getting at. If there is no fact there's no word in this fund to to to utilize or or to carry over to apply against that that cost for next year plus the cost of bringing in another grade level into the school next year. >> I'm not sure maybe I phrase that wrong. the fact that we're going to move in another grade level, would I be correct at saying a good part of the staff would already be existing to move over or would that necessitate an app of new of new >> hires? Yeah. So, I'm working with uh Dan Donovan
053on that now. So he's he's trying to cast out and project and he's going through his open positions uh that he currently has to assess the the need and then accounting for positions that we've had to overage because we had persistent vacancies. And so after we're we do that, we'll project out exactly how many additional new teachers we may need because we're now split campuses. So you lose some economy by have being on two campuses. But where we'll have to add is in more on on the operational side. So, um, if you're opening up another grade level, you know, there's we we may need another, uh, you know, some of the secretarial staff, um, that will need to round out a full-size building, potentially some administrative staff. Um, so there'll be a little bit of
054teaching, a little bit of operation, a little bit of administrative staff that need to go over there. It'll be remains to see be seen about the transportation. that will be dictated by the runs and where the the buses need to go across the city with the new mix of kids. Um I I think you know that should be uh relatively incremental um because you really are moving just moving most of the kids as opposed to um you know adding more students in that are new net new these are students that exist. So there's there will be a reconfiguration of the runs again and there there may be some additional busing that's needed as a result of that. So those are those are ongoing very big meaty conversations that we're having um now. But in terms
055of this grant here um because it's so big and because we're anticipate that we will not get an increase or at least that's the the word on the street is that um I can tell you all the urban superintendents are are beating the street to talk to legislators on this issue right now. we have formed a group and we'll be submitting a letter out um and I'll update the board on on Monday with this information that's on the agenda. Um you know that we are advocating at least for a cost of living or an inflationary formula um to to stay current with this ECS. Uh the this is an ECS formula for us. So it needs to be reflective of the realities um you know in the community. We're holdless on this number. This number
056won't go backwards. um even if we lose students but the our concern is that it won't go it won't increase and the last thing I'll say about it not to not to belabor it is that you know there is some cushion in here I I am anticipating um you know this problem for us and you know some of the extra subtime PLC time things that we're trying to do um that we've built in here to to do some extra additional work with teachers or release time um some extra learning professional learning that we might not have had access have been built in um as sort of a pocket, if you will, of one time um as as opposed to, you know, packing this with more staff um and then having to lay those staff off
057because we can't keep up with the with with the increase. So to your point in using your terminology the or cushion or fact once that drops off whatever that number is can be used to apply implicitly against the cost of living if there's no adjustments by the state. >> Correct. It'll it will at least offset it or mitigate it. Correct. >> Right. Right. Okay. So the rest of >> Okay. Sorry to interrupt. >> Yes. >> Uh Wanita has her hand up please. >> Okay. One minute. Oneanita. the rest of the board members. This is a potential problem or something that we should just note in future that we don't want to get stuck with a cost like this where runs away and that cushion or buffer or fat. You know, if it's not there, then
058it has this particular cost center has to be operate uh has to be funded from the general fund. So, and that's the basic reason I brought this this up here. So, makes it clear to go ahead. >> Thank you. Um, for Cara, um, Cara, when the alliance breakdown, I see it by locations. >> Yes. Can you tell me where on these locations we would find ACE or our reach and endeavor? >> Sure. So, so as part of the alliance application, there's a separate component. Um we're also considered a priority school district and one of the priority uh qual one of the priority categories for spending the money that we receive in that grant is for alternative education strategies. And so our alternative uh programming if you will the staffing and and resources are in that
059grant not this particular facing grant for alliance it's in priority. So that's why that's and you know there's some other grants where you know it's it's heavier and certain based on what this the grant can be used for. Uh we program you know kind of divide and conquer and program appropriately which is why you don't see ACE on here because I have them largely squarely in the priority grant. Um and same thing with reach and endeavor. Um a lot of their also considered um alternative and um their instructional supplies but all all schools have instructional supplies in this account. We they we have a a nice sum of the supplies that all schools have access to. Um but the in terms of the staffing and where you see the staffing that's in our priority because
060it's designated for as an al for alternative education supports. >> You know all this brings out is the complexity that goes into the accounting for the district. you know, as you're talking, I'm thinking, gee, if I were a medical student, you know, you'd look at it and say, okay, you know, this is neurology and this is, you know, cardiology and and this is, you know, whatever else it is, the the complexity, as you just reiterated, answered to one, it it's just amazing. and then compounding not only the understanding on a higher level putting in but then the detail to get those costs from a payroll system into these particular cost centers is enormous. So I just want to bring that out to to let the committee members understand how much work is involved to to
061get what we're looking for. I mean It's just mindboggling the tremendous amount of details and transactions you've got to do from a simple payroll as to where to put that particular person. You know, it's like crossing over railroad tracks and crossings. That's unreal. >> It is. >> Mr. J Teresa has her hand up, please. >> Uh uh thank you. um the supply figure. Um I think I mentioned this before. One of the main questions I got, why is the school um asking uh parents to bring supplies in and and and that's a lot of money. There is what $3 million. And how is it allocated? I mean, is it fairly is it one pool? I was thought years ago it was uh a budget went to each school. Um but why are teachers asking for
062for supplies? Well, we got so much money here. >> Yeah. So, so there's a there's school account. So, so in addition to what you see here, each school has a supply a supply line out of the general fund. Can you hear me? Okay. I'm sorry. I was okay. I made some adjustments and I wasn't sure if my volume was still on. Um, and then we a lot of the supplies that that are in Alliance. So, a supply could be anything from a box of folders or paper for the school system. It could be markers, it could be a digital textbook. So, they now that goes in a supply line. So we many many of our texts now AP texts um access to all types of student databases and platforms actually bec when they're individual licenses
063they actually are coded on the supply line because it's an individual student um directed uh material and so uh all kinds of things go in there PSAT testing supplies everything um so so it's not all just you know the folders that the kids need and the the the markers and the and the pencils. It's there's a lot of our uh it supports a lot of our databases, assessment systems, assessment systems go on the supply line surprisingly, right? So, our I Ready assessment systems uh go on there. Um my path assessment systems, our Yeah, it all goes on there. So, um but that said, you know, we have been really really conscientious about taking care of supplies um when requests come in. And so, um, you know, but sometimes and I was a classroom teacher as
064well and you know, we we always had a little classroom contribution, um, to help bolster ongoing supplies because you do go through a lot of them. Um, but you know, if anybody really needs something, they just need to reach out. And, uh, we've been able to really take care of folks and replenish instruments, materials, you name it. Um, so I think I think we've been in the best shape we've ever been with regards to these those items. So um so then the schools don't get a light item supply budget. It comes still through the central office. So it depends on the supplies. So if if for art supplies for the art program for example, it makes a lot more sense for us to buy them wholesale in large quantities and distribute to the schools enough
065to satisfy what the art program calls for, right? um they still get some supplemental things. There's still discretionary funding in those supply lines. Um but they should have enough to implement the program because we do we do take care of that. If people want to go above and beyond and add additional items that you know that that's if the school has some leftover money or student activities, I'm sure that they do that. But um in general, we we we supply the items that are needed for the um for the curriculum. Anything kind of beyond that incidentals. Yeah. Special projects. >> Thank you. >> Yep. Of course. >> You don't spend any of the money in the alliance. Whatever you don't spend, it's that something that you could bank and use it again if you're >>
066No. That's the hard part is that it's use it or lose it. And um you know that's why the kind of the accounting on it. And I and I think in the last two years we've been a lot better on it. But you know, things happen. and you you you know materials don't come in on time before June 30th and you know all of a sudden that money now is you know is kind of left on the books and that happens because we're a large district and there's in you know supply chain interruption and and problems and things like that for for the most part in the last you know two years we've gotten a lot better at uh making sure that the grant is charged appropriately and that it's on time. Do they give
067you a period of time to to adjust for it or is it come at the end of the >> uh I think we have to have we have to submit everything for reimbursement. So if I write in there that we're going to spend money on 600 uh student machine student laptops we have to submit for reimbursement we have to spend the money first and submit for reimbursement. >> Really? Wow. >> Yeah. Which makes things challenging. Yeah. Particular if you have no money to begin with. >> Yeah. >> I guess up the big credit debt to pay it off. >> Yeah. So, you kind of have to be working with a cushion. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. Do you any other committee members? Do you have any I want to thank you first for >> Mrs.
068Cooper's hand is up. Sorry, Rich. >> Yeah. You work on it. I think it's very meaningful. Mr. Cooper, go ahead. uh while we're on this uh discussion and I don't want to believe belavor this. I want to know from the superintendent because I've heard it this summer pass if a particular group is raising money say like for Broadview a donation who who presents that or do you know that is happening as superintendent? Well, I should know. So, if so, if a donation is being made, it's if the PTO is fundraising on behalf of the school, then that goes through the student activity and the school. >> Okay. If someone wants to make a outside of that system, if somebody wants to make a donation to the school, right? like similar to the Rogers Park, someone
069is donating $5,000 uh you know outside of a GoFundMe establishment that should come to the board and be appropriately accounted for so that you know we should know what's being donated and who's donating it and who benefits by it. We should that should be transparent to the school system. If that's not happening then, you know, someone needs to give me a little call and we'll we'll make sure that that starts happening in some places. >> Okay. Thank you. and follow up that that will answer my question. If a group wants to uh donate a particular book to uh the schools or you know that should come before you or the boards. >> So the donation isn't the issue. Um I would say what book, why >> what? >> Yeah. And what's in and we'd want
070we'd want to review that. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you, Rich. >> Okay. Um, do any committee members have any or comments relative to the alliance? If not, we can move on to the next schedule which was sent to us this evening. I'm not sure if everybody received it or opened it up, but Mike, do you want to talk to that or Angela? >> That's closing schedule. Mike, >> the the schedule of Yeah. Yeah. Right. So, thank you for preparing this for some time. You know, we've been asking for a schedule so that board members, both new as well as vintage, um, have an idea as to what the requirement for obligations are of of the district. you know, whether it be state, local, federal, or even just monthly to to get closing closing
071schedules done. The reason I thought of that was to avoid the situation of, oh, we forgot an audit for, you know, this particular year or last year. And and so if we had a schedule that shows what the obligations are and the frequency of them at least if at the end of the month the all those obligations that are satisfied in the month when a financial statement is prepared, you know, could be said, you know, the the finance director could just say all of the closing schedules were that you know period and we just put a chapter on that you know rather than do it as we go you know one of the things we could do here to improve it is to just sort this by the timing so there's you know if it's
072monthly or quarterly or annually or or whatever it is so that you can just see what buckets they they fall in you know we can play with the presentation on this I think this is a good beginning and I want to thank you for you know for the that that to me it's important. >> Um, excuse me, Rich. >> Yeah. >> Will we receive a copy of this? I did not get one. >> It was sent out this afternoon late, so it was I think Cara B had included it with um >> Can you have Yeah. Can you have that resent, please? >> Yeah, sure. And I had trouble opening up the links. >> Yeah. I I in terms of let's say next month what we'd look to do is to have once we res
073resort this we'll have this part of the printed package next month. So you'll have a hard copy as well. But in the interim if you didn't get copies I'll just talk to Cara and make sure that she distributes it. Okay. Rich, I also created I don't know if you want me to just uh share really quick. It's a kind of just a blank uh calendar schedule um by by month. So I can take these individual items and drop them in by month. If it's annually, it would be, you know, in there only once. If it was monthly, it would be monthly. So there's actually a calendar we could look at, you know, and it would be closing day one, closing day two, closing day three, >> so on and so forth. you know it's just
074we don't know you know without having a check box here what that I don't want to get into I think it's just you know the part of the statement would be at the end of the month you know all all all closing dates were met in accordance with the schedule or calendar you know provided case in point the end of the year you know Sunday option W2s and all reconciliation u again Um it it's just up to you to alert us that you know the the particular functions were were done. You know I'm not interested in seeing every month that this is checked off. That's your job, not my job. We just want to make sure that, you know, we get a statement that says that we're we're current in terms of our closing so
075that, you know, we don't go back and repeat the situation. We had the audit where nobody knew it was due and nobody knew it was, you know, uh was delinquent. Again, it's new and we can work on approving it, you know, to see how it can have good working. Is that being said, are there any other questions any committee members or non-committee members have regarding this particular meeting? Oh, and also we'll be g to the punch. Do we have to take a motion to or we should take a motion to present these statements to the board for acceptance correct state? >> So moved. >> Okay. Thank you. Teresa, I have a second. >> Second. >> Thank you. Who was that? Kate. >> Julie. >> That was Julie. >> Oh, hi Julie. Thank you. >> Hi.
076>> Good. Um, all right. That being said, Kate, I'm going to ask for a motion to adjourn at 711. And I want to thank everybody for your participation. Appreciate it. >> I want to say thank you everybody. This is my last meeting. >> Happy Thanksgiving. >> I will say it's been a pleasure everyone. >> Happy Thanksgiving. >> Thanksgiving. >> Happy Thanksgiving to everybody. This will be my last minute as well. So enjoy your holidays. Um and I know we'll see you around.