001ask Pete just uh let me know. Okay, >> sure. Well, thank you Rich. >> That being said, according to the agenda, we've got few items on the agenda. First item would be to discuss the financial statements for the period ending September 30th. Uh Mike, I'll turn that over to you. Sure. Uh and if you wouldn't mind just uh pulling those up. Uh this is the the uh summary um that we typically have. Uh general fund uh expenditures for the month are uh we're at 13.6 million. Um and this is compared to 13.5 for the same period in the um prior year. So we're we're right along um where we thought we would be. Um I'll go into the summary page. uh shortly after uh for the fiscal uh year to date, we're at 19.1 million
002and we have $113 million encumbered. Um at this point, we are uh starting the the uh fight fiscal year, sorry, in July. So we have July, August, and now September. So we're still in the process. This is very similar to last year if you remember of getting all of the things that we need to get encumbered encumbered um as they come across. So you will see some uh large positive balances. Uh this is very similar to last year as we begin to uh encumber things. The one thing that that is fully encumbered is the the salary portion. So if a person is uh on payroll uh their salary for the entire year, including that big balloon payment at the end of the year is already encumbered. Um you will see there's uh still items to
003be encumbered in benefits and in professional services, but we'll get to that in a moment. Um Ken, if you would just to the next page. So, here is our month-to-ate actual uh we're at that 13.6 million for the for the month. You'll see the the budget number now is reflective of the new budget that we have adopted. That's the 172 million. Uh and I don't want to forget the $1,00063. Uh year-to- date expenditures, as we said before, totaled 19 million. Uh again, most of that being salaries and benefits. And then the next column over you see our incumbrances. So this is what we have encumbered so far, 113.3 in incumbrances. And that gives us a balance as of the end of September of 39 million unencumbered. Um most of that is salaries and benefits as
004well as like I said other purchase services. Um the the title that we give other purchase services I I must sound like a broken record but it's other purchase services transportation there is many accounts that go into that it's not just transportation. Um, one of the things in the in the following reports when we dig in the details really behind the salaries and and benefits is we just submitted I should say Cara just submitted the alliance grant. Uh and the alliance grant is one of our uh largest it is the largest grant that the district has and um it got kicked back on a on a technicality dealing with how we tag certain uh certain initiatives. So she's currently uh she's not able to join us today, but she's currently going through um the very
005tedious task of rettagging everything so that it could be submitted um and and approved. We have no reason to believe it wouldn't be approved as is. It's just that tagging issue. Um once that's completed, that's kind of step uh one of a two-step process. The other step is human the human resources department uh goes through a task every year of uh reporting to the state who exactly of our staff works uh where. And once those two, the alliance and that staffing report are completed, we kind of like lock our our staffing down and it's at that point we can begin the process of going through the alliance grant same as we did last year and ensuring that any new people that are be that are in alliance are actually being charged to alliance and not
006the general fund and vice versa. anyone that's currently being charged to Alliance that shouldn't be will be moved out into uh into the general fund. So the $4.1 million balance in salaries um is will change when uh Angela and I and um Juanita who's in charge of our grants um re rebalance uh the staffing and the benefits will follow. >> Mike Could you you sort of jumped ahead? Could you go to the next page? Um the detail page. Exactly. Um you the the alliance is a couple of schedules down and I just want to make sure I understand something in in going through the salary. I I've noticed when you're looking at the the last column, the itate budget balance for throughout the report uh and particularly on in this particular category of salaries, there
007are a huge amount of numbers that at this point in time show negative balances, some small, some extremely large. What's what's creating that at this at this point here? Yeah. So the the column all the way to the left where it says general ledger number, that's where um we physically I guess put you could say the positions and we budget based upon where people were for the largest part last year. Um but they don't as we hire new people sometimes the coding for the individuals should be one thing and it gets entered in as another. So every year we go through this once everyone's locked down and we make sure that everyone is in uh the the correct place. So you may see um you know someone that on here that is a physical therapist
008and that's how they're in our code is a 51037 but in actuality they should be an occupational therapist which is a 51035. So um that happens as we um as we download or upload I should say all the information into the budget. It's you know hundreds and hundreds of lines. Sometimes those lines get crossed over. So, um once we lock everyone down, we go back through and make sure that they're in the correct codes, which should fix this. >> Okay? Because, you know, when you look at lines like counseling, you've got a negative balance of close to a million dollars. You've got a million dollars plus media specialists. You've got close to $3 million on teaching ESL bilingual bilingual. Are you saying that a lot of it that many of this the the negative balances
009are caugh because of coding issues and and shortly they'll be corrected. >> Yes. Correct. >> Okay. All right. Uh again, we've gone through, you know, last year you worked hard. We went through a good part of the year with you and Angela and other staff members cleaning up the coding, you know, as to where it was u in terms of the payroll system and the accounting system. I I would hope that as we progress and hopefully by next month, I don't know what your timetable is, is that we get this cleaned up because don't take this the wrong way. The numbers here with all these variances, negative variances don't really give a a a good picture and you know, it it took us a long time last year until they got cleaned up to finally
010understand what's happening. And I don't want to repeat, you know, that timetable of us having, you know, the bad information. So, do you have an idea when a good part of this coding will be done? >> Um, it should be following. I I I would hate to do it to rush through it and get it done and say, "Okay, well, we'll get it done for next month." If we only then are going to get Alliance approved and then have to go back and redo it a second time. So, I'm kind of waiting for that two-step process before we start uh shuffling stuff around. I think the human resources report. Um Angela, I don't know if you have a better idea of when it is, but I believe it's now. It's middle of October due. Um
011and we expect Alliance to be approved shortly after. >> I think you're right. >> Yeah. So, I I I would say probably Rich within about 30 days. >> Okay. And if I understand the the the alliance grant when we get to it, I'll hold off until we get to I'll hold off until we get to to uh the grant. Um there are some items on on here that we don't have um budget items for and yet we have incumbrances against them. Is there a trying to I'll pick one up here. It's called district software and licenses. Um it it's under supplies supplies continued. Um you've got month-to- date actual 185,000. You don't have a year-to-day budget, but you've got an actual of 1 million $1.2 million and you got a negative variance of 1.2, you
012know, $1.2 million. Why isn't there a budget for that? >> Uh, it was probably budgeted somewhere else, Rich, uh, in the previous year. Um, so when someone puts a requisition in, that number sticks with that expense. So again, that would just be um that would just be a reclassification of actuals to where the where the budget belongs. >> So like I said, in about 30 days, most of that stuff should all be cleaned up. >> Okay. You know, it sounds to me that don't think of the wrong way. I'm just trying to phrase it. The right hand in terms of a system doesn't know what the left hand is doing. And and it just requires a tremendous amount of manual labor for you to constantly do this stuff. I mean, last year you spent so
013much time cleaning things up and now we're at the same same stage again. I hate to see your time and agile time and your staff's time done on stuff that is unproductive from a point of view of of, you know, moving ahead and that we could actually figure out where we are financially, you know, without having >> Yeah. >> I'm so sorry to interrupt. I I actually have a question along these lines I wonder if I might ask. >> Oh, go ahead. >> Is that okay? Okay. Um and also just want to let you know Wanita is uh in the meeting as well. Okay. >> Okay. Hi Wanita. >> Go ahead Kate. >> Trying to understand I guess is when we talk about these reclassifications you know is this complicated at all? I'm sure by
014the fact that the alliance grant, for example, has to be written out every year and we don't necessarily know what we can get covered because they're they're sort of changing the parameters of what you can use the funding for. >> Is is that correct? >> Definitely part of it, Kate. Um, you know, we we submit this budget and, you know, we get it approved way before we get Alliance or any of the titles approved. So, it's it's kind of I don't want to say a guessing game because we know about where it's going to where it's going to land, but we don't know exactly. um in in respect to um the I guess the reclassification that Angela and I are doing, I I think the missing piece for you, Rich, is that the process that
015we we use inside the the Tyler system, our accounting system, is that someone puts a requisition in and the requisition then gets routed to me with all of the the detail behind it. um you know we we may get you know only 10 a day but you know there are days when we certainly you know 50 of them can pop in. So there is a mechanism inside of Tyler where I can read through the requisition determine what it's for and ask where it's being charged to and then check the budget and see if the the budgeted uh the requested amount is within the budget. In other words, it would prevent negative balances. The, you know, the e the easier thing to do, I think, is to approve it, especially if it's something that's uh like
016for the new high school where it's timesensitive and we need to get this to a vendor, which believe it or not happens uh more often than not where things are needed to be paid, you know, immediately. Um, in the event that there isn't a budget for it, I have the ability to deny it and send it back to the original requisitioner with a note and say, you know, the budget isn't here. Um, which would then necessitate an email back of, well, where is the budget? Um, I'll I'll resubmit the requisition for where the budget is. And since I don't have, you know, every single item that we have budgeted memorized, I would then have to turn back to my budget files, go through it, find out where it is, and then respond back and then
017repeat that process again. So either way, it's uh quite a bit of work. >> Yeah, it is. It's I'm not looking for you to do, you know, certainly extra work on that. It just seems like the the system or the process is awkward, requiring a lot of manual intervention to to make sure that you know that the numbers match. I I I I don't expect that somebody making a requisition would really care where it's budgeted. All that person's looking to do is is to get the requisition approved and the accounting for it is somebody else's responsibility, you know, essentially yours. But my my point being as we move ahead and I just sent Tara and I copied it I don't know if I copied you on it a note that I was hoping that at
018the time the board approves the at the finance meeting when we approve the the reports and we make a motion that we send it to the board for approval that that particular document during the board packet. The financials are included get sent to the the legislative assistant which then gets would get distributed to the council people so that we could keep them a breast of our finances and make them more aware as to what's happening as we progress and try to present our budget so that they have a better understanding as to what we're doing. If we're presenting them. So, let's say we, you know, we present them these numbers and we have a conversation where they come back to us, the first question's going to be, why are we having all these numbers? And
019then you've got to state your what it is. So, they sort of scratch, you know, if I were on their side, scratch my head and say, well, you know, come back to me when you've got things more lined up. So, that's that that's the problem that that I face. I understand the burden it's putting on you, but from a managerial point of view in terms of utilizing these statements and trying to to make sense out of them and have an understanding, um it's it's the process is making things awkward. Uh and again I I won't get to repeat last year's you know timetables spending so much time you know making and and adjusting adjusting numbers that that you know it take up so much of your time. So it it it it's frustrating and if
020you say within the next 30 days you can pretty much get a handle on it you know certainly live with that. I mean that that's that's the problem I was you know foreseeing at at this particular point thinking we'd moved ahead and we could educate people that we look to support us as to what our finances are without that having them make some you know negative or derogatory comments on the statements that that's basically where it's coming from. Hi Rich. Can I ask a question? >> Nita, go ahead. >> Um, so for um, Michael and Angela, is this the I think what Rich is saying is we want to present um, a document that shows us in our best light. Um, so is this what you're telling us that we might see the deficits on
021a monthly basis like this or is this something that you guys have to go back and do manually month after month to get um certain requisitions in the right under the right classification? >> Yeah. So like um we can do one of two things. We can either recclass the expenses um at at month end as part of the close process um or we can kick the requisitions back to the requisitioner to have them re-enter it in uh using the correct accounting code. I think for so long there hasn't been um a sense of budget of ownership by the by the budget owners themselves. So the they don't know or they they haven't in the past been accustomed to knowing okay well I'm going to make a software purchase for let's just say Apple and I
022know that that's in my budget and I know that belongs in account 55001 just say that that um hasn't been the case in the past and I I think it's just going to take some time and until that's more part of the norm. So, in the in the first quarter, I'll say we're going to be doing uh these reclasses. Yeah. And as as far as specifically to staff, it gets a little complicated because there are so many people that um that enter the staff and the positions where they lay. So, as people move around throughout the year or as new hires come on, we're or as you know, in May, usually May 1, we do a grant revision, we we constantly move people around. It's a um it's just a moving a moving target. >>
023Yeah. I I think with the um staff positions that that could be a discussion and people would understand that but later on in um different areas um yeah there there might be a lot of questions. You know, Mike, I I think you've got to figure out the best way that you feel the process should be handled, you know, without you having to go in and if possible, you know, approve or send a hundred emails to to to get things to get things done. I mean, it it it's mindboggling to me where your time is so valuable. it is spent on clerical minutia, but yet that clerical minutiae is so very important because it's the basis of of our conversation. So I I I'll leave that up to to you. Another point I have to go
024on to the next page I I think it's under professional services. We have two lines that professional services um that that are are printed. One one is um in the middle of the page and the other is is it's on the bottom of that that category. >> Which page is that? Rich, can you just >> under under professional services on page four of the print out that I have? Are are you asking why they have the the same title? >> Yeah, exactly. >> Yeah, I I that goes back to when Tyler was set up. I think that was in 2020. Uh each of these accounts, the numbers had to be given a name. And for some reason, um, I forget the individual's name who set it up, but they named both accounts professional services. Well,
025maybe you could change the description to to convey, you know, what the difference are between them. >> If they're if they're the same thing, there's no sense in duplicating. Just roll the numbers together. >> Yeah. Typically in general ledgers, I've seen professional services usually has the professional services listed out and then there's one that kind of is for all else and it's other professional services. >> Right. Right. >> I think that was probably her intent and just didn't have the experience to to word it any differently. Mhm. >> I I don't like other professional services because I feel like that then becomes a dumping ground. You know, it's other other >> Yeah. I mean, if you have professional services, legal, that's one category and professional services all other, you know, it makes some sort of
026a stipulation. I am not, you know, and of course since we got this pilot system and the more that since you've been on board I would throw it out and start over again with a new system. It's really a piece of garbage. But >> I would be I would be lying if I said I didn't suggest that. Um >> it's insane. the manh hours that you and Angela and your staff and whomever you had coming in to to correct all this garbage, you know, adds up to probably coming in with, you know, the the cost of a new system that makes it almost, you know, hands-free and that integrates with a payroll system. I don't know whether you could upload Excel work papers and and create journal entries from that. I don't know whether your
027system does that, but it it seems to me that >> there are two there are two popular systems um that uh the uh Connecticut districts use. One is Tyler uh which is the one that we're using and the other one is um einance. Um it's it's very they're very similar. Uh there are ve very many uh nuances inside Tyler where you have to ensure that you know there are thousands of check boxes and when you roll the year over that the correct ones are checked and the incorrect ones are not checked. Um and it's it's very very easy to uh overlook one of those. Um the issue that we ran into when I made the suggestion of why don't we either a do a reboot and have another Tyler the Tyler system run parallel with
028this and just implement it correctly or to scrap it and go with e einance. And when we looked at it Tyler is not only our general ledger system um it's also our payroll system. >> Yeah. >> And it's our human resources system. And inside human resources, we've paid over the years other companies to write scripts so that it would interface with Tyler. So doing that would, you know, changing the accounting system wouldn't just change this. >> It would affect payroll and human resources and recruiting and retention. And >> I understand it's a, you know, it's a simple statement, but an impractical solution. >> Yeah. Mike, if you go to page six, the under the bucket supplies, mid in that category, halfway down, you have something that's called district software and licenses, you have no budget,
029but yet you have a $1.2 million actually spent against that showing a negative variance. I I don't know what that is off the top of my head, but I know that um last year we were given uh about $7.7 million uh that's sitting in our grants fund as part of the ARPA money. And it looked at at the time where when we ended last year that we were going to be able to absorb all of the costs that were going to be associated with that year. and we chose to roll that forward um that whole 7.7 so that we could use it this year. Um and I believe that this is one of those costs where it's sitting in the um the general ledger of the of the general fund until we can physically move
030it over into uh into that 7.7 in in the grants. >> I see. Okay. So again, it's part of a a clean cleanup for coding problem. All right, >> Rich, may I ask a quick question, please? >> Go ahead. >> Um, Mike, I just wanted to just follow up on the health insurance piece because that's such a a large uh portion of our fluctuations. Um, we looks like we spent we had $2.6 million in claims in September. Um and is that in alignment with what you expect to see on a monthly spending? >> Uh we have right now our actual expense um is uh is different. So we have to actually go through a journal entry process where we back out the payroll withholdings and book the difference between what we are actually seeing um
031as far as the the actual expense. uh we get uh in EFT uh de uh an electronic debit to our account every week for actual claims and we also pay through accounts payable um in invoice of about 289,000 per month and that's for Sigma for our um honor to have sign adjudicate our claims as well as the stop loss those uh AP P invoices are uh typical. They're in line at at about 289,000. Our um debits that come every week have been lower than usual. Um or I shouldn't say lower than usual, they're lower than they are throughout the rest of the year. And the reason is that our benefits package starts, although our fiscal year starts 71, our benefits package starts in September 1. And the reason that is is because um we start
032it when the teachers actually come back. So that it coincides with open enrollment when the when the teachers are back. And in September and October, we typically see lower expenses being taken out of the account because people are still uh at in the process of reaching their deductibles. So the the weekly amounts have been a little bit lower. um our third party consultant Gallagher is always eager to point out how well we're doing um so early in the year and I always remind them yes well that's because people are still paying into their deductibles but once the deductibles are met uh it's a different story. The the the side piece to that is I get notifications as people start entering claims that are very large. So the there's a large claim report. I believe we
033ended last year with about uh 10 to 12 people on that high claims and it looks to be around that amount. It's going to be around that amount this year again. So I I'm thinking that uh utilization is probably the same. We just may see an increase in um the actual expense uh just because healthcare is getting increasingly expensive. Um I think most notably because of our special our cancer drugs and also the specialty drugs. I think there is some creep with the the new ompics and the GLP1 um agonists coming uh coming to market. So I I do think that we're going to have a little bit of a of an increase over last year. Um I don't know if it's going to be that whole 19% that Gallagher predicted. Um and the the
034other portion is that we budget our benefits based upon the positions that we have in the budget. So if there are individuals that we are budgeting for that aren't currently on staff, we still budget for those benefits because we do believe that we're going to hire them and we want to have the budget. Uh right now we have still a lot of open positions. Um, and every every month that goes by with an open position is not only uh a small savings in the salary line, but it's also a savings in the in the benefit line. >> Mike, to continue on the subject of benefits, did you when you made the budget include the rebates that we get you did? Okay. Thank you. >> Yep. That that's fine. I appreciate it. A side question apart
035from the the statements. Do you think it's worth having a conversation explaining how health insurance works, the way we charge the employees, the cost that that we incur? >> Yeah, I I think I think it may. Uh and and the reason I say that is because if you look at our $172 million budget um of cost of course salaries are the large majority of that. Um but followed closely by by benefits. I think our total benefit load for last year was something between 35 and 40%. Um, and I think it is uh worth a conversation and the folks at Gallagher have have helped us out during our uh negotiations and they're also more than willing to come speak uh to the board and explain things in greater detail if that's something we're interested in. I'd
036be more than happy to set that up and have them join. I I I think you know at this point my suggestion would be at least now for this particular committee and the fact that we're so close to a change in in personnel on board members that that perhaps in the beginning of the year when you have a new slate of of of members you do put it on because the new members you know should as well as the the the current members should be updated and appointed. with how our insurance system will work. The concept of self insurance since it does make a large portion. So if you know whether I'm here or not, it might be something next year you can put on one of your finance committees uh presentation on on health
037insurance benefits. I I certainly think that would be a good educational, you know, good educational tool. That's a great idea, Rich. I like that. >> Um, I don't have any more questions on the >> I think Miss Cooper has her hand up. >> I just want to make a comment. We're working towards that goal and we're we're looking at sometime in January and and uh not so much to if we're going to look at explaining to members how the budget work and health insurance and and everything else that's entitled into this budget would be bought out at that workshop. And I know Cara and and I had talked about that and she talked about that uh uh today. So, you know, I think that's something that unless you just want to do health insurance all
038by itself >> and we look at we look at a portion of the budget The main thing is to make sure that board members understand the a complete gest of how the budget is started. And my other comment is, you know, these things that we're picking out and we're looking at like uh the one on page six that Mr. Janelli uh professional uh service. If we don't know and if that's put into the budget, we should have a tag somewhere in the budget uh somewhere when we present it to uh the uh board members that this is why this particular item has is left blank and why you can't do anything with that item at that particular time. And you know, I might not make sense, but I think I'm saying what I think I
039believe. So, uh, if we're we're still working together and you know, Mike, I know the superintendent has spoken to you about that, at least putting I call it a round table, not a workshop, a round table to discuss the entire budget. >> It there are two different issues, Mrs. Cooper. One, the general educational part of of the budget, how it's made and stuff is is one thing. Drilling down specifically on large expense items like benefits is is is more detailed and I think should be a a separate meeting because it is complex and there are lots of components to it. So you know there are two >> two two parts to the educational process. the oversight or the the upper level would be as as you were discussing discussing the orientation of the budget process,
040how it's put together. The other thing is is the the drill down to specific items that make up a good part of the budget is to what goes into it and how you know basically how it impacts our employees, how employees are charged, etc. So >> there to me I I think they're two separate >> two separate >> but we can also we can also plan two separate event I'm just I'm just saying that if I look at the budget okay if I'm you know I'm not a budget person and I come and you can bring me some information about health insurance and I'm reading the document and I'm new to the board and I have never seen this at least I have something in my head that when we I come to this workshop
041that I should at least learn more. That's what I'm uh saying. >> Okay. I don't have >> Okay. >> I don't have any objection. >> If if um at this point here, the next section, you know, the next section having to do with the the the actual cash cash payments, I'm not that concerned about at this point. I would prefer in the interest of time just to jump to the the last page number 13 which speaks to grant and I and so one of the things I had a big question on and I think you've answered it Mike is where it came to alliance I was wondering why there are no figures in there so I I I think you've answered that particular Yeah. So am I correct in understanding that at this point >>
042you do oh you do have the charges that that are been charged against the the alliance numbers uh for the actual incumbrances are actual charges that you feel are are at this point um set up against that budget. So, all you have to do is plug in the grant number. Is that correct? >> Yes. Yes. Correct. >> Okay. I'm I'm going to ask also that again for the future, is there a way that once you get the alliance number, okay, and and you get the other and basically the alliance because it's it makes up the the bulk of this. But is there a way we can get a detailed report as to what makes up that particular number the the budget and what you plan to charge against it? So that if the number is
043$39 million and of the $39 million $20 million of salaries, what kind of salaries are in there? Uh benefits, etc., etc. Um >> yeah it it um our our uh alliance in EGMS which is the electronic grants management system that's the system where we are able to see all of our our grants and we submit for reimbursement. the the budget information in there is quite detailed and I'm not sure um if everyone remembers but last year I was able with Angela to extract that data out of EGMS into Excel format and we did a quick presentation just as you're speaking. So, what I was going to do is once uh we got the green the green light that alliances in and approved, I was going to simply um just refresh that um that that spreadsheet.
044>> Sorry to interrupt you. Sorry to interrupt you, Rich. I'm sorry. I'm having trouble hearing um what's going on. If we can Yeah, thank if we can. Thank you. I'm sorry. >> The Mike, it it's it's I guess my concern that I wouldn't mind seeing, let me put it this way. I I would suggest that once you get your budget number or your actual number for alliance and get things in order that at some point you do a roll forward for a couple of three years on that. My concern is that in the past we've used alliance as as a a crush to to fill a void or underfunding in in the general fund, but with the anticipation that each year that alliance number was going to go up and we were pretty safe. Now
045that we seem to be at a point where perhaps that's not the case and the the grant is going to be capped or could be capped, I'd like to just make sure that the salaries we have in there, you know, are at least the the increases that we have at a particular point that, you know, we keep enough money in that alliance account to cover those increases so that we don't expend all of the money on the alliance account and then have to take it away from the general fund. You know, we keep robbing from feeder to pay Paul. So we just may have to budget the alliance account and look at it for a couple of three years going ahead to say how much of that how much of that that money is going
046to be utilized all things being equal in terms of the cost of uh that the the the raises that we gave and other type of increases. uh and then see what's left for available you know that's available free that we can use for against the general fund you know what I'm saying I I do and it is a concern of mine uh and it has been since last year that you know we've reached the the alliance cap I guess uh so to speak and so that means that the salaries effectively that are in here um as we roll them forward any contractual increases that those folks get wouldn't be able to be put into alliance. And in a similar manner, you know, any increase in benefits, you know, this year we were projected uh Gallagher
047projected us at a 19% year-over-year increase. If they projected another 19%, we couldn't put that into Alliance because Alliance again is capped out. So, that that is definitely uh in the back of my mind. >> Yeah. And again, >> to those committee members that are not up for reelection, it's it's I I don't want to lose the momentum that we've gained so far over the the hard work and the hardships that we've had the last three years. And so the points that we're bringing up in terms of stuff to look at in in 2026 that you at least keep it in the back of your minds and and if you're on the finance committee, bring it forward. if not just make a recommendation because I I I do think these points, you know, are are
048of concern and we don't want to lose track. Um we don't want to lose track as to where we're, you know, where we're going. We're so tight for money and and we're being kept that we want to be sort of prudent at this point here. And at some point I I also would hope that we get again with good budgeting as Mike's been been doing that you come up with a a a multi-year budget so that strategically you could sit down with the powers to be and the gladis use the word that I've been kicking around for three years as a round table that collectively the powers to be a damber sit with the finance director and the superintendent and and discuss the needs, financial needs that this district needs going out three years saying
049that we are solid on our numbers. What could we do to get more money into the district? Okay. Without putting a complete burden on the the taxpayer and this would mean getting in your legislative reps and and your council people so they could think outside the box and and and try to work with us knowing what we're up against. So that at one point at at some point everybody is working on the same page and they know what number we have to hit and we're all looking to to get revenues for that particular number. Again, I equate it to to like in the business. If you make a budget in business, you come up with a number and you say, "Okay, my number is equal to what my revenues are." And if I want to
050increase my expenditures, then I've got to get my sales force to commit and create a budget and commit that my revenues are going to be larger. And they're going to go out and they're going to work, you know, their tails off to bring in that additional revenue. so that we we have everybody working on the same page that the revenues are in line with our our expenditures. That's the way I look at things and the only way you can be successful is that the polar parties concerned understand what we're trying to do and have the facts in front of them. So it it's again something for next year that hopefully you could put together. We we did a three-year budget a number of years ago and we were pretty pretty good with the number pretty
051close to to what they hit on. Um it's it it's important to have multi-year forecasting because you got to know where you're going. You just can't operate you can't operate any kind of business just on a year-to-year situation and not looking a little bit forward. You know, you don't have a crystal ball, but three to five years is a reasonable timetable where you should know your business, particularly in three years as to where you're going to be, barring any unforeseen situations. >> Mr. Janelli, Kate has a hand up. >> Yep. Okay, Kate, I'm sorry. I can't see names up yet. >> It's It's not pertinent anymore. Thank you. I appreciate it. You >> sure? All right. Anybody have any questions on on the grants? >> And again to Angela, I I thank you for the
052layout and the captions and the separation of the >> guys. Amazing job. >> You're welcome. >> The categories. Okay. All right. Let's move ahead to discussion portion. Mike, the next item on the agenda is the the 2024 audit. Do you It should be pretty much finished. Do you know if it's when it's going to be finalized? >> Um Angela, do you have a better date? As far as I know, it's it's the it's still in review. >> Yeah, it's still in review and I believe she said they were on track. So, um by the end of uh October. She didn't Lauren did not give an exact date. >> Okay. Yep. And it it's my understanding, Mike, that once the audit completed and blessed, okay, the certified audit, that with the positive number we had at
053that year, which I I forget whether it's seven or $9 million, eight, whatever it is, that we're entitled to the 2% of the 160. So, it's $3.2 million that comes into that that fund. Correct. >> Right. >> Yeah. When do you get your hands on that? >> Um, well, it's it's currently in our uh it's in our bank now, >> right? Because we get at the end by the end of the year, we get all the allocation and what we don't spend, we should be giving back to the city less that percentage. So >> okay, >> I I believe the correct uh order of operations is that uh when the amount is finalized, I bring that to the committee. The committee would then I make a motion for the board to approve the transfer of
054those funds to the account that uh I already have opened at Union Savings Bank. >> Great. All right. Thank you. And with again the same subject of of that particular account, that account is going to grow. Give or take six months from now. When we're finished with the 2025 audit, we should have another, all things being equal and and and no changes, based on your projection that you you gave us last last month of the June 30th number, we should have another couple of million dollars once the 625 audit is complete coming back uh to us in in terms of that account. My suggestion is as follows. It's that we should have a conversation as to how that money is going to be spent and what it's going to be spent on. I I think
055>> yes, >> the board should have some sort of a say or or work together with the administration to to at least say what the intentions are, what the uses are, etc. on >> I believe um Kate you you may know better but I believe we've already adopted a policy um that says that um I think we did that last year when we opened the account >> it said I think it said that we would have to approve >> uh uses of the money >> yes >> I'll look it up real quick >> and as far as the 625 Mike correct in saying that they're just beginning that audit and starting to, you know, to to get some requests from you. >> Um, we did not start the 625 yet. I believe once the 24
056is done, the city then has to sign an engagement letter with RSM for the following year and then they can begin field work. >> Okay. Does anybody have any questions on the 2425 audit? The next item I had was the impact of the increase and decrease in the funding level. Meaning that there was a summary done several months ago where you put together the difference between the the superintendent's budget and 17 and the city's allocation of $172 million. I wanted Cara to explain what the impact on education. So, let's defer that for another meeting. Is that okay? >> Yeah, I brought that up to her um again yesterday and uh in our cabinet meeting and she said that she was able to do that, but unfortunately she wasn't able to join us tonight. >> That's
057fine. So, we'll just Kate, if that's okay, in a minute, we'll defer that that agenda item for for the next finance meeting. >> Noted. Thank you. And as far as the the goals of the finance committee, the I I think we should have some goals set, you know, whether it it's us or future finance committees. My particular suggestion at at this particular point is very simple. The the primary goal that I'd like to see us accomplish is to restore credibility in our financial statements. I think that's a fairly simple statement and it it's something that I feel absolutely necessary for us to do considering the bad press that we've had in the prior years. I I I truly think that we've got to work hard this year to reinvent ourself and restore the the credibility
058in what we're publishing. Uh so that to me would be one one particular goal that I I'd like to for us to to consider and the second would be essentially transparency that we you know we we always do if I'd like those two items indicated on you know this part of the minutes and then you know if this finance committee agrees to that, you know, I'd like to hear an agreement and then we could add to it uh as as we go ahead. Would would everybody at this point do you agree to those two goals? >> Rich, I apologize. Um I was looking at the for that uh policy we were discussing. Um I just want to confirm that yes, we do have to authorize every expenditure. uh it says that in the policy. Um
059but could you please uh reiterate the two goals you were referring to? >> Yeah. The to to restore our credibility in the presentation of financial statements and and the next one would be transparency. >> Yeah, I think that those are um really good goals. Um I think the one challenge there um is that uh it's going to be hard to um something for which there is no particular standard. Um it doesn't mean I don't support those goals, but I just think it's not giving us anything tangible necessarily. >> I do say not giving us anything tangible, >> right? like a like a um >> definable >> yeah like previous goals we had were you know can we come up with some reporting that we'd like to see from the finance team right or um information
060we'd like to see presented and there's like a you know we can point to that and say here is you know the report um I think that um I think the two goals you're mentioning should always be the focus of of the work we're doing but to me that that's going to be hard to produce something concrete. >> I see where you're going. In my own mind, I look at it that step one, I've taken the the first step, that is to engage the the council people with copies of our financial statements. Now, whether they got them in the past or not, I I I'm not sure, but at this particular point, you know, it it's something that they're going to be given. And then the next step would be is for us to have
061a conversation perhaps quarterly with a body of that group so that we can discuss these particular statements and and thereby by doing that but you know it it gets people a little bit more accustomed and oriented to what we're doing so that come the end of the year they're not inundated with so much details and for the first time they're seeing it that they lose interest or scratch their head or or or you know or just don't make meaningful decisions. So that that was my thought process in terms of the the practicality of having to do it. >> Okay. >> All right. >> I think that's great. I mean certainly the goal of engaging um city council members and state legislation in our >> and to your point if we could add to that you
062know as you accomplish this by doing the following part it's just that >> the way my mind was thinking and sometimes it's not linear >> I appreciate the conversation >> that that being said we pretty much concluded uh the agenda item does anybody have any any further questions? >> Uh Rich, if I could just jump in. I um I know last meeting you asked about a staffing update. Uh and I just wanted to uh let the committee know uh that we have added a full-time secretary to the finance team uh for myself and Angela. Um her name is Jessica Ro. Um she's been with us for a couple weeks now. Um, she acts uh sort of like a David does for Carara uh for myself. So, that that was a staffing addition. So, you may
063or may not see her name um in in emails. >> I'm full support of all. I hope you can get Mike to to certainly reach out and get it. Before I forget, it's not on the agenda, but I kept mentioning it. Can you publish and and perhaps give to us as part of the packet for the next board meeting? It's your closing schedule. You had shared it with me briefly time in the office. I I'd like for us to at least to have some sort of a proformer of that so that the new board members could understand what they they should be looking for and the check marks and and so that we don't fall, you know, astray as to what we did in the past. >> Certainly, I'm very excited to be rolling that
064out this year. It was a big goal of mine. >> Great. Okay. Um, that being said, if there are no other questions, I'll entertain a motion to adjourn. >> Mr. Chanelli, would you >> I just like to Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Kate. >> I'm I'm sorry, Mrs. Cooper. Um, I just wanted to say we have to still recommend the um September 2025 finance report. >> Yeah, I keep forgetting that. So that we could take a motion to recommend the September the three months September 30th, 2025 financial statement to the full board. >> I'll make that motion. >> Okay, I'll second it. And then all in favor? I >> I thank you. Okay, Mrs. Cooper, I'm sorry. Mike, uh, >> a question concerning the 2024 audit, which is still open and I think I heard
065Andrew say is still in progress. Uh, my question would be um, this keep appearing on the agenda. Will it appear on the agenda in December or January? Is this a necessary item that's going to continue to appear on the on the agenda? >> No. Of course, I think come the end of this month, it should be the the audit should be finished and closed, certified and report issued. So, >> so it it will be off the agenda. Okay. Yeah. >> Okay. Thank you, Mike. >> Yeah. >> Yes. The reason I I had it on before because you know Mike had had given us information on it saying that the the audit was moving ahead and there were some I forget um several weeks ago there were some in one of the ad hoc committee meetings
066I think it was brought up eight if I'm not mistaken I think it was at one of the ad hoc audit committee meetings there were some comments made that There were several items that were open. So I I didn't want to get into have any issues where you know like we had last year might >> Right. I understand. I understand. But I think I heard that at part of the meeting. >> This is why I wanted to know that if uh you know once the and I with the understanding I'm not no financial person. I understand that once the uh order is complete then you know we should move on to um the audit for 2025. >> Yep. Yep. >> Yes. >> Yeah. That's the only reason I kept it alive. So >> all right
067ladies, gentlemen, I thank you for your time. I really appreciate it. And >> thank you. >> That's pretty good. I kept it down to an hour. A little bit more than Mrs. Cooper. >> Okay. I'll make a motion to adjurnn. All right, I'll second. >> I'll give that to one. You >> have a good night.