001It's so funny. So, they went out for a drink. Hello. Okay, I'm calling this meeting to order now at 6:02 p.m. Um, that being said, I'm going to turn this over to Mike Weaver. Uh but before I start, I just want to thank all of our guests that are here, uh the staff from the cabinet as well as Miss Joanne Sturk, who I really appreciate all the work that you've done for us and working with Mike and and being here tonight. So, thank you very much. So tonight we're going to be presenting the financials uh for the period ending 4:30 2025. supporting document. Supporting document. Yeah. Okay, I think we all have it uh in in paper here, right? Um so for the month, general funding expenditures were uh 15.2 million. Uh it's slightly higher
002JC um this year as this month uh in comparison to previous months. As we begin to close out the year, people will be putting their purchases in. Um we're also very well aware of the fact that um previously um the timing of purchases although mostly in the grants fund but that the purchases have to be recorded um in the period where the goods or services were received. So instead of trying to pre purchase things for the following year which then get uh moved and cause a surplus, we're purchasing the things that we need now. Um so that's uh part of the reason of the the higher expenses. Um for for the year to date um a total of 115.4 million and there's an additional $43.2 million encumbered. Um and as I mentioned a couple of
003times and we'll see again uh in a later slide we're going through the incumbrances now. Um, now I'm down to doing it on a weekly basis, but um looking at each of the incumbrances uh especially for the general fund and making sure that they are legitimate incumbrances and then any estimates that were made um for the incumbrances are uh are still being uh held true so that the number looks like it's going to be um as accurate as possible. Uh, and that's against a general fund budget of 160 million. Um, down I just wanted to uh point out one other thing down down where it says other items. Um, we've been reclassing folks in and out of, for example, the alliance grant, the title grants to make sure that people are being charged where they
004where they should be. Um it is a a very tedious uh process, but um Angelo Walsh and I have uh kind of been tag teaming that. Um just that briefly, the way the process works is that once we identify someone who's incorrectly coded in the system, um Angela will run a report of everyone um that that that change pertains to and she will go in and change their coding in their personnel file. that then causes a journal entry to be put into Q for me to review. Um and that will move their um expense year to date as well as all their future incumbrances. So um then I go in and I review the journal entry make to make sure it's correct. It's um almost 100% of the time it's correct um because it is
005system uh system generated. Um I then post the entries and then we go back and review each of the lines to see where the people came out of and where they went to just to make sure that um it went through correctly. So it is a little bit of a task. Each person that we move um creates its own journal entry. Um so this month I think uh Angel wrong. We did about 300 about 300 uh separate journal entries. So you'll see that people are moving for um on a on a regular basis in and out. That process is continuing. The most recent change that we made um is in the PAR educators. Some of the PAR educators were being charged salaries which is correct their W2 employees. Some of the PAR educators were charged
006to the 53,000 accounts which are are purchase services. um which I I had always thought was odd because they're are W2 employees. They should be in the salary line. Um so we uh we undertook that. We had to go into each and every single location and find every par educator that was charged and or encumbered to a 53,000 line uh and then made the journal entry to move them. So we uh we did do that and we'll discuss that a little bit in the future. But um as we um as we move along and notice that that people are either incorrectly coded or incorrectly charged, we are moving them. But we do have a vast majority of them done um after we've moved all of them in and out of alliance, the titles and now
007uh the big move with the par educators being moved to the salary line. Mike, I just want to clarify um that some some of these folks are being moved out of the general fund into grant funds and some being moved out of grant funds and into the general fund. Is that right? And and in addition, some people in the grants fund are staying in the grants fund, but they're being moved to either a different grant or or a different line um and same in general fund. Some of them are staying inside general fund, but they're um either moving their location was incorrect or perhaps um someone that we noticed was a school counselor, they were coded as a teacher. Um so some of them are are even interformed as well. Okay. Thank you. I've got
008a question before I do. Michelle, welcome. Um, normally on the committees we would have non-committee members ask questions later, but since very few here, just raise your hand and just incorporate it as as a subject. And so, Teresa, let me ask a question, then I'll get to you. The the work you're doing currently, Mike, and that you've just explained is part of the the cleanup process for the prior years as well as for the current year that we were in. And according to you, you still continue come July 1st when a new budget is prepared. Is that going to necess necessitate again looking at different individuals or all the individuals and finding out where you're going to have to put them in order to accommodate the budget that you're going to create for for next
009year? Yeah, that's a good question and I wish the answer was once we did this um that was it. But um the fact is, you know, sometimes um folks will move from one location to another or perhaps they take a different assignment. Um and I I think that they'll be few and far between. It'll be nothing as drastic as these. Um but in you know in reviewing this and seeing that part of the reason this happened is due to when the implementation was done um the the district was forced to give uh Tyler Technologies a list of everyone and what their codes were and I think that it was probably during a crunch time in COVID they didn't have enough time to make sure that everything was accurate. So a lot of them went in
010initially inaccurate. Um and then as people were added they were added um that um they were not added accurately. Um so I think that's the majority of it. Um but in addition, one thing that wasn't happening that we're going to do um going forward is after each payroll is produce a list uh we call it the labor distribution. And it's a list of each employee um by name um and where they're being charged. And since we built this out um to the best of our ability by location, I can then take that report and give it to the individuals in charge of that location and they can look and say, "Yes, this person is mine." Correct. Correct. Correct. I'm hopeful that next year with all of the work and as what you just said that
011the next year's statements would be more reflective of current statements and not out of a backlog as we have in the past three years of cleaning up of stuff. Uh Teresa, well I wanted to ask in the um this type of uh assigning uh positions and grants uh doesn't this uh um maneuver continue on as grants expire and they have to be moved into other areas. So it's like a neverending battle. Yeah, it it is. But I I think um a majority of uh of the reclasses that we're going to do on the whole, if you look at the number we're doing this year versus what we're going to have to do just to maintain it once it's correct, uh I I think it'll probably be maybe a tenth of the entries, I'm assuming. Thank
012you, Mike. The other question I have is in your narrative there's an occasion about the sign rebate. Can you explain that? Because to my knowledge, I've never heard about this before and as much as it is a very pleasant surprise and the amount of money is extraordinary uh as a surprise that I do want to ask you more about what it is and if it's happened before and if it has happened before, is there a way that we could find out sign or if you have the information on this at least for the last 5 years what the amounts have been um you know I'm not saying I know everything but you know this is a big number and what I'm going to suggest is and the reason they asked for the last 5 years
013is in the preparation of next year's budget I would like to see depending on what your answer is to to the last 5 years this is just a shut deal but if it's something that continues uh that there be some sort of a placeholder in budget line so that with the change in board members possibly happening um you know they would be alert alerted to the fact that this money may be coming in it won't be such a you know a surprise to them as well. So, I I think the more that we learn as a result of your cleanups, uh the the better off we are trying to incorporate these into our financial statements so that they have more meetings to us. So, we explain what this is and how it comes about. Yes,
014definitely. Um Rich, I think before you continue carrying ahead. Um yeah, it was basically to the a point to the other question that the point that Teresa raised was that part of the um the habit that that reeks that gets re in our budget stems from the fact that we do have a lot of grants. We live heavily on the grants and grants come and go. They change those amounts are they change but also um the funding. So over the last couple of years we've had erratic shifts in funding COVID funding um one time funding ARPA. So that requires moving all the people every time those fundings shift. Those folks need a new home. They need a new location. Um and there's about three or four different places that you have to get right. You
015have to put them in the grant system in one way. you have to make sure that they're in a certain location that the fund that the funding source is being charged um and that all their all the things that go with that person are either coming out of the grant or coming out of another source. So there's a lot to it. I just wanted to add that part of the the difficulty is is the shifting funding sources for us. Uh so um this year um in talks with Gallagher who just for a refresher is our our third party um team that helps us with our benefits administration. Um there they mentioned a a rebate and last year there was a rebate uh it was much smaller. It was about 800,000 um and it's a pharmacy
016rebate is is uh what it's called. And uh essentially they they are engaging in certain um cost-saving programs through pharmacy and that results in a rebate to us. Uh last year I said it was it was around 800,000. I don't know Joanne if you remember the number. I know you booked the entry. Um this year um was a little bit of a a surprise. It was uh doubled 1.6. And on our phone call with Gallagher, they said that Gallagher was able to negotiate with Sigma to get us 100% of the rebate. Um whereas previously it wasn't. So last year the rebate was about 800,000. This year was um 1.6 because we got the the full amount of uh of the rebate. the the is this something that throughout the year we can get an assessment
017from Signner as to where the rebate stands or is it something that's just an annual annual number? Uh my point being last year, you know, prior to the the the unforeseen, you know, uh situation that developed, we were led down a path that, you know, things were going to be maybe negative or break even. And yet there is $800,000 that came in that we didn't know anything about a revenue about. But uh going forward, is this something that we can monitor on a quarterly basis or is it something that's only known on an annual basis? It's uh it's a one time uh once per year. Um but we do know about um about it ahead of time. So I I have the approximate number for uh or if I don't I should shortly have the
018approximate number for 2026 by now. Um and that's it's it is not guaranteed. Um I I did ask if it was a contractual guarantee that we get at least a certain amount. Um it is it is not a guarantee. Um but the way they said is you can um you can expect something. Um and I I believe that the guarantee the the number that was floated for 2425 was 1.8 and it came in at 1.6. I think it's also based on utilization. So the the more pharmacy that's used the bigger the rebate can potentially be. So you would have some basis to put in some sort of a placeholder based on actual information. Yeah, that will alleviate that situation. And as I said, I've never heard of it before. I don't know whether any other
019board members have, but it's certainly a pleasant surprise uh and and I wish in my personal life I got a nice check for this amount of money uh to receive. Where is that money? Is does it go in our general fund or does it go I mean is that part of the 1.4 million? Yeah. So if you balance Yep. If you want to uh flip the page uh to the summary uh what we did is uh we had to wait until we saw it come into bank the bank account. Uh and once once we did um Angela did a journal entry and she um credited our expense. So you'll see that in the second line down um that employee benefits and again I'm going to say this every time I have to read this. It
020says employee benefits social security but it's actually more than just social security. Uh the budget is uh 30.8 uh million. Uh we've yearto date spent 20.1 with an additional 6.2 encumbered. Uh so we have a favorable favorable balance of 4.488. Um and then there's a little one at the end of that. And if you go down to the notes, you'll see it that is reflecting the 1.6 million. So the number is actually sitting in um the employee benefits line as a credit against the expense. So Mike, with the positive balance of see of 1.4, if we didn't have the 16, then we'd be negative $200,000. Correct? That doesn't and two months ago doesn't leave us in a very comfortable position. certainly contrary to the way the last two years have been. Um that being said,
021I'm glad it's a 1.4 positive, but are there do do you foresee a lot more entries in the year 20 in the current year that that you're working on that has to be done to clean things up? Change these numbers significantly. That that is a very good point. Um if we did have the 1.6, six, there would be a negative balance. And before um Andrew did the entry, it was indeed a negative $200,000. And I uh I'm sorry, $200,000. And I want to explain where that comes from and why that's um not so concerning to me. Um and we're going to see another addendum um later on uh on the ARPA funds and what the plans were for the 7.5, which then turned to 7.7 um in ARPA. But um so the the first line
022um salaries you'll see there salaries are over $1.26 million um and in addition there's also another big number down here enrollment impact is a negative 1.8. So, we had uh as part of the $7.5 million ARPA, we had um plans to spend um money those ARPA funds uh to resto restore positions. uh those positions. Um Cara and I said that we were going to until we really had our hands around um the the ARPA funds. We were going to leave them in general fund to the extent that we can absorb the expense here um and then move them over um as we need them. And the thought process there was we have two years to spend um that $7.7 million. So strategically whe whether we use it now or whether we use it next year
023um it's it's still the same amount. So we have uh the ARPA salaries which were for the um media center which were the the librarians um as well as coaches um staff in DHS um west and uh additional staff at DHS. So there there are salary uh salaries in here that we when the budget was done would have been spent uh against that 7.7. So um although we are negative um 1.26 million that that number is essentially sitting in our uh in our grants fund in in the ARPA amount the ARP amount as as we as it stands right now that 7.7 has not been touched. So if I understand you're using in my own terminology the way I put it in my own mind the opera money using as a reserve as a contingency
024reserve to see how things work out come come June 30th allowing these costs to remain in the operation account. Best case scenario, if we don't have to use it, then we have that proper money to spend on something else. Is my thinking correct? That's correct. Um, additionally, and I want to say it, um, I'm just checking now. Um, so the the 7.7 I said none of it has been spent. Um, there are no actual expenses, but we do have $3,700 income, but it's technically not correct there. the small and I thought there was something that was said on the spending of that offer. It was accelerated to we had to spend it by the end of 26 or am I wrong? Was there an acceleration? June 20 that one is June 2026. There are other
025grants that were recently accelerated. This is not okay. Yeah. Um and and in addition uh in a similar manner, there was money in that the $7.5 million spending plan for information technology. The um in order to get uh the money from ARPA, it's reimbursed from the city. What has to happen is we have to give all the documentation and that documentation has to include very specific language and verbiage in the purchase order and requisition. Um in addition the vendors have to uh fill out an an addendum. Everything is very specific. Um once the funds are expended, we then submit them to the city and the city sends them to a legal team and that legal team reviews them to make sure that they are in compliance with uh with ARPA. Uh once they give uh
026their documentation and they give their okay, they tell the city and the city would then release the money um to the to the schools. So we had um approximately 1.0 0 million in IT expense um that we had submitted to the city earlier. Um this the the procurement procedures the city attorneys were not comfortable with. So of the million dollars we submitted, they said we'd be able to be reimbursed for a little over 300,000 of that amount. um that that amount is still in um our general fund financials under this 1.8. Um again, it's although it might not be able to be used now, we're just it's being saved for a later purpose. So, what you're saying there's a lot of red tape before we get the money. Yes. On that, what I'd like to
027recommend is for a couple things. One is more of just a cleanup. you and I had talked about um at some point publishing and maybe for June 30th just make and and going forward make a notation of the statements that the statements are prepared internally you know by by yourself or your your department the the the other question I have is on the health insurance line it's favorable variance of $4 million you and I had had conversations where your findings were previously the reimbursements with for the employees um for the health insurance weren't credited or or applied to the the financials to the statements. Has that been corrected? Is this a net number or is it still grossed up and there's an entry for the uh reimbursements to be made against it? Uh so the
028these numbers are um our actuals. So what was um what happens since we're uh self-unded is each employee based upon their benefits election gets an amount that we deduct from their check. Um most of our staff is paid throughout 20 pay periods although there are 26. Um it's just how the the contracts are set up. So a little bit of uh a fraction of the benefits are taken out each pay period. um at the end of that um happens during payroll and then after the payroll is happening. What I think the intention was in prior years was to look at what Sigma actually charges us from their monthly invoices as well as their um weekly uh debits to the to the bank and book the actuals and reverse out um the the placeholders that are
029created when uh payroll posts and at um last year and the year before possibly the year before I don't know that that short was happening. on a regular basis. Um but it is it is now um we are up to date as of um April. We didn't we didn't post March yet. So these numbers are um reflecting the actuals through uh through the end of April. When you say actuals, is that a net or a net? A net that is net of the the employee contribution that's that's taken out or is it the actual expenditure for the the claims? Yeah, I I think if what you're asking is this this gross or a net number? The 4.4 is um is largely driven by the fact that the the gross number is what's being budgeted. um
030but the the actuals that are being charged um are not that it doesn't include that employee portion which causes a favorable variance at the end of the year. So when does that correction get made? Uh so for this year for fiscal 25 um I'm requesting the ability to reclass that amount because it looks like although the the total amount of the budget of 160 um might have been a good number it just looks like it was incorrectly budgeted disproportionately into benefits. So in 26 we're not going to repeat that mistake. We're going to we're going to take in account the rebates as well as the employee withhold. to bring that budgeted number down and there'll be um that amount will be offset in in the other buckets. Okay. So with regard to the budgeting in
031the future, my comment would be the same as as I had with the with the rebate that in the insurance lines the health insurance and you can broadly do it. I don't care about dental or or the other, but you have the actual expenditure which is a an expenditure a debit call that then have another placeholder in there for an anticipated amount that would be the the reimbursement. So when you look at these numbers, you can see on a budget line as well as an expenditure when you do the actual you can actually see what the gross number is that you're paying for the claims plus what the reimbursements are. so that somebody looking at the statements will be able to see you know the can see what the information is and doesn't really have
032to guess and ask questions whether it's a gross or net number. These numbers are big and it goes to but again for the last 3 years we haven't been able to use the financial statements because of things that you're finding out now. So all I'm trying to do is to say going ahead what we've learned currently is to just you know do things put things in place so it it makes things more transparent if I can use that word to to uh to somebody reading the statements. Yeah. And and to your point we are um we are trying our best to book um on a on a monthly basis uh the the entries that weren't previously being booked. So the the deposits to the bank um as we're getting caught up in the bank reconciliations
033um you know crediting the the expenditures here as as we get the rebates in. So these numbers are far far more accurate. However, they are unuded you know so this number isn't final per se even though we might call it like the the monthly you know final financials until we really go through the audit and make all those um audit adjustments. No, I understand it now. My appreciation to to you, to Angela, to Joey and the rest of the staff for getting us to this point. You know, we've gone through 23, you got through 24 and 25. Hopefully 26 would be a lot easier and we can get to manage business, you know, based on reading statements and having to go back and and correct statements, you know, for a long period. So that was
034one of the cover. Um that being said, as far as I'm concerned on the operational statements, what I'd like to see also is come the end of the year, any major change that you do that such as the the one you noted with the with the rebate, just be footnoted. If you you know as a case in point when you were talking about the salaries or any opera money just be footnoted on the statement so it's reflected uh there in the footnote so that it it stays there as a matter of history and again I ask for that just as a matter of transparency because although it's set at this meeting you know this meeting is is is attended by you know a dozen people and anybody else looking at it looking at the statements
035is not going to be aware as to what we're talking about. Y thank you. comments and as far as I'm concerned the how much you have in the other I just have one other Richard and the details the details the grants the details are are behind here if you want to look at it but I just wanted to point out one other uh number that pops off the page here at the um and it's other purchase services uh transportation uh you'll see that number as at a negative 800 and 40 840,000 That's so uh again it's kind of a misnomer. It says transportation but it's it is much more than than just transportation. But um when last year's numbers uh were being done, we had noticed that there was an increase or a need to
036increase the budget for um special education um specifically special education tuition. Um I think the number that that was asked to increase was about 500,000. Um the there was an adjustment made but it was 500,000 being taken away not added in. So if you take the money away from the budget 500,000 instead of adding the 500,000 you get about a million. Um and if you turn to page five you'll see tuition sped private is935,000. You know, of course, that is offset by the other tuitions in there, but um that number doesn't surprise me um given the given the um opposite swing and that is what's driving the 840,000 negative uh variance. Are there entries that would be made to this correctly or is there just a footnote that would explain? I think this would be
037a footnote. these are actual expenses that we're seeing for uh private placements and uh and private tuitions as well as public. So to the extent that that's been the frustration that we've had is our inability to to be able to explain variances because we didn't have the in-depth knowledge that you're finding out now. So with that knowledge, if we could footnote that again, it makes a statement, you know, a better document so that when somebody looks at that number, at least we can say, okay, we've identified a reason for that particular variance. I I don't think that's going to be the case in fiscal year 26. I I agree. I'm just saying current, you know, currently I I'm hoping that 26 we get back to a normal type of situation since it's yours, Dr. Kamera's
038budgets, you know what's in there, you know what's being applied, and you'll be able to explain variances because you're, you know, it's part of your product. Yeah. And and this year I I had the opportunity to sit down with Kelly several times and under understand the pro the special education program a lot better. um its needs and how the the money goes in and out, what what it's used for. So, I think um the budget that for 2026 in regard to special education is far more accurate than it was. Um it's concerning we're down to 1.4 million and we have May two left. Do you expect um anything at home that's not public? Um so the these are again are as of uh 4:30 the statements and stuff has happened since 4:30 being that we're
0393/4 of the way through May. Um, one one of them that you'll see in the statements um, next month, uh, hopefully next month if it hits the bank is again, um, another credit from the health insurance company. Um, we have a policy, a stop-loss policy in place so that we only pay up to a certain amount for an individual. Once they hit that amount, the insurance policy kicks in. Um, of course, we pay a premium for that which is built in there. Um but they will be giving us a credit for anything over that that that we may have been charged. Um we were recently notified as early as this week that there is um just shy of $600,000 credit coming back. Um so this number will will go from 14 um it'll increase about
040600,000. Um there there will be unexpected costs between now and then things that are not um not necessarily encumbered. Um you the the classic example that we use is a lot of stuff for graduation um is not encumbered. Um some of the uh sports are not encumbered for the refs and stuff. Over time yeah overtime those numbers are relatively small. The the big number that's going to come between now and 6:30 um is the last payroll. um because as I'm sure you know the last payroll several uh many of our employees have the ability in their contracts to get um a lump sum payout. Um but that number is already encumbered. So that that number is already kind of counted for in that $26.9 million uh incumbrance. So you're saying for example the coaches is
041that for one month or for the whole year that charge it it um I think they do it bianually. uh for it comes a couple times a year and then we get usually get a bill in the spring. Um but also, you know, we are now never used to be budgeted fully for. It's budgeted now, but any teams that go into extended season play, they make the playoffs, they need more buses and transportation, uh which you need more referee fees and and uh custodians to support the games. um security staff, those bills can come in that are um not unusual but not necessarily budgeted. That's pretty typical this time. The the only um item that I can think of that would be of significant uh dollar value. Um again, we it's not encumbered, but we
042have no way to predict it um is any placements that happen for special ed. Um they they do happen. Um but that would um I I'm I'm fairly certain it would be more than absorbed by the um surplus we have now. So I think Teresa what he's saying and correcting me if I'm wrong Mike is that he doesn't foresee any unexpected large charges that is going into Yeah. I mean to the best of its ability there's small there's small stuff that'll come in coaches were out things because that number goes down awfully quick. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, exactly. You know, when you look at it, two or three months ago, I think we were at I forget the month, but we're would be in April. Couple couple of months ago, I think it was maybe
043January, February, we're at $9 million. And then the very next month, we were down to I maybe two or 3 million because you made entries. And now, you know, we're talking, you know, hadn't we had in6 a negative -2. So those are big fluctuations in the normal situation. You know, in a normal situation, you'd say, "Wow, you know what happened? We didn't plan for this." But but you know, we had planned for the cleanup either. So, as we're getting toward this, you know, we're trying to get to a point where at least Mike is making a statement that to the best of his knowledge, you know, he's got things that that he's he's encumbered or acrewed and and the unforeseen other stuff relative to its materiality is small. Yeah. But, you know, it's nice that
044we keep getting these windfall credits. It's it's very helpful. Um on the Does anybody have any more questions on on the grant schedule? My only question there is one quick is that health credit a repetitive one as well a yearly one that we typically receive. Um I it's the first that I know about. I've been here for two years, so I can't say it's um I have too much history, but um it's the first one that we've had this year certainly. Um and I don't know um we've had it before. I remember the other one. Yeah. Yeah. You remember one? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Well, interesting. I find you I've never heard of that. So, but that's interesting. um winter because it's one of those things you can't totally count on it. So it's No,
045no, I understand and I wasn't here at the time so I wasn't you know to what was coming in but it it was interesting that that you know I was surprised pleasantly surprised. My question on the grants is those that expire June 30th and balances do you have to spend those or do you have a leeway after that? So, so anything that expires June 30th, the grants end at all different kind of times. The grants are tough because they they are restricted funds. So, once you have a a grant plan, if something doesn't go to plan, um sometimes it's hard to spend every single dollar. We certainly make a grand effort to to to maximize every grant that we have, but it's not always possible. Um but for the most part, um you know, we
046stay on top of the revision process. There's deadlines for revisions. Um, and then you have you have to expend the money usually. Now, the way the state does it, they really switched the way that we do the grants, everything's on a reimbursement basis now. So, it made everything way more complicated. So, uh, you have to spend the money first and then you put in for the reimbursement. So, it kind of doubles the work on everything. Um, and you have to have everything encumbered, all your expenses encumbered by by mid June. So, then you can kind of draw down on on the grant, get final reimbursement. So, um there are there are some grants that just can't be spent. We we often have um you know things in in in obscure line items that are hard
047to spend. If something's in an instructional supply line, for example, that's very easy to spend because we can order things for the schools that do those very quickly. But when something is like in a tuition line or uh sometimes purchase services, it's a little harder to spend um depending on the grant rules and constraints. So, for the most part, we do a pretty good job spending that down. Um, but I tell you, this year was the first time we could really see very clearly on the back end of how things are being spent. There's a tremendous amount of coordination with the finance office, special ed, and my office, CRC, so that we're we don't leave any dollars on the table. We we spend those to the best of our ability um given the constraints that
048we have. But again, it's not perfect, but I this year I feel pretty good about that we had a pretty good plan and process. spent a lot of time looking at every dollar and every brand. So, we're preluded from just any excess to apply it against utilities and the operation%. It's very tricky and which is, you know, again what makes things a little bit more challenging for us is when you don't anything that's not in the general fund is it's like 10 times harder to spend that money. I this has nothing to do with anything on on the the statements, but I do recall hearing that there's a there was something that was in the works when you say legislatively that had to do with the excess cost of special education that may be coming
049back to districts. Is is am I correct on that? Or could you speak to that? Because what I'm getting at if if that is something that would affect us, you know, when would it affect us? What kind of money are we talking about? I'm trying to find the amount. Like was it three or 400,000? It was just under 400. Just under 400,000. We don't know exactly when we're going to get it, but that was part of the legislative process where um everyone was trying to get more back for the excess cost. And um I didn't I don't think we're maybe going to get it this year, but we are going to get an aotment this year. Danbury's a lotment was in that three to $400,000 range. Um we're supposed to get it before June 30th.
050So that's another Yeah. Whether or not it hits the account by then, I would have What is it? Did it come in? 385 334. Did you get it? No, I checked your email. Oh, thank you. I don't have any If I could just add Sorry. It goes all of our excess cost goes to the city. So we we write we get excess cost and we have gotten it every single year it goes to the city. Um and then the city uh can allocate it back to us or put it in our general fund allocation. So I think that is not a direct to the to the board that goes directly to the city. That's a good point. Thank you for clarifying that. So the when you say it goes direct to the the city is
051there do we know that we would get that in its entirety uh that it would be like acting as a pass through or to you know you know because that's always been a question that has come up in the past is you know how do we know we get the excess cost and stuff like that. It's it's um I mean that would be that would have to be worked out with the city. It is it is my hope that we would be you know that was expense that we incurred out of our budget that we get back but you know some sometimes there are situations where school districts um you know need to go to the city to cover some additional costs because they were unanticipated and in that case I would see that the
052money would come back and stay with the city. But I would you know again this is my first round of of of this. Kelly certainly more familiar with the excess cost formulas and all of that. She does a lot of work in that area and actually does a lot of work to help recoup those costs. How those come to us is um a little more elusive. Whether or not they say, "Well, we'll give it to you, you know, next year or that was part of your allocation. I don't know. That's something we'll have to work out with the city." So it's nothing that we can to your point Teresa what you're getting at is nothing that we could you know basically re you know it's nice to think it's something that may happen in the
053future but it's questionable whether it would actually come in you know for for user Kelly go ahead the city has always taken the stance that our excess cost is given to us through our general budget our general allocations. Many other places it is a separate funding source that is meant for excess cost of special ed. So those unanticipated placements that Mike is referring to potentially you might have litigation things of that nature. You might have a contracted service. Um we have over time been um talking more heavily in the last handful of years uh with the city and and acknowledge there's been some change in administration um about changing the way in which that happens because whether we've gotten $700,000 or $1.3 million, it comes back to the to the board in our general allocation.
054Um so certainly with excess cost being um big in you know at the state level right now as far as trying to get additional funds to districts um I definitely my recommendation would be that we continue those conversations that I know I would love to see a special education fund set up great yeah there should be you know it's unfortunate too they changed the pass through with the alliance that everything goes through you know ECS but Okay, I think anybody else have any questions on the financials? I just want to clarify when we talk about a special education fund, are we talking about something that's under the umbrella of the district or something that's under the umbrella of the municipality? I would recommend it's under the district because you have you know what your special
055ed you know expenditures are. Um certainly there can be protocols about when you need to tap into it. It really is meant for when you have unanticipated uh funds. So the way in which excess cost works is that is for every child that cost four and a half times your per pupil that's considered an exceptional special ed uh cost and you get a percentage reimbursement back on that. Thank you. Thank you. So moving to the item number two on the agenda is the updates for an update here of the 20 23 204 audits and uh as I said earlier I had invited Joanne who the Joan the assistant director of finance of the the city who's been working with Mike for a long period of time. um to to assist, not so much to assist,
056but to explain from her point of view um as to some of the findings that she has has uh discovered in in the cleanup process with with Mike. I I thought it would be good to hear from an independent person. And I do want to say that this is the first time that we've worked so close with the city in in in a uh a relationship that is is really incredibly beneficial to to both parties. I want to thank you for that for that work. Thank you. Mark, why don't you take I was just going to take a minute uh very briefly um to talk about the 2023 audit surplus um I'm sorry when I added this in I didn't realize how small it would be. In the future, you should print these out, but
057some I can't think it with the light, too. It's hard to see. Hit the lights because it's a little faded. I'm sorry. As we try to pull this up, I'll I'll just give a um a brief on this. So, this report, the format you're looking at might look uh familiar to some of the other reports we brought. This is how uh reports that we run directly out of the system look. Um they're they're a little bit cumbersome, but I wanted to come right from the source. Um so, this is the 2023 uh surplus um in our Tyler Technologies uh system. you'll see that that bottom bottom number, the 7.9 um is the surplus that surplus number that we're familiar with. Um there are some pluses and and minuses uh definitely throughout here. Uh again, um
058which is no surprise now that we know what we know that a little bit of this was driven by uh salaries 738,000. I attribute that to um either open positions that that remained open or um positions that uh were vacated throughout the year. But the the main driver of this 7.9 um is really employee benefits. Um employee benefits that that line which again labels incorrectly as social security. Um there is social security in there. There is health insurance. There is um long-term disability and life insurance is another account in there. Uh workers compensation um is an account in there um as well as unemployment insurance and um the dental benefit. Um so all combined th those numbers um lead to the 8.5 million surplus. Mike, what are some of the I I can't see it
059so unfortunately. I'm going to ask you mentioned salaries and health benefits. What are some of the other uh so for purchase professional services there is a favorable balance of 1.36 million. Um the next line down purchase property services relatively small negative 174,000. Uh and then other purchase services uh is a large negative uh 1.21 million. Uh supplies were very close to being on the money favorable 65,000. Um enrollment impact and equipment uh was unfavorable 205 call that 206,000 and then we were favorable on the um dues fees and staff development. Um the other thing I wanted to point out um is that last line und designated um which you probably can't see right now. U we we've seen this in a couple of other um sets of financials. I think it was in the 2024
060number as well. Um that uh that appears to me to be a a plug in the budget to get the total GL budget to equal what the um entitlement of 141 million was. I don't know that that's necessarily tied to anything. So, the vast majority of that negative $1.5 million budget entry uh remained as a negative budget balance. Um to me that that does not make um good financial sense. But nonetheless, that's where we are. Is so first let me ask this. I'd like to see a copy if that's okay. You know that I can have a hard copy. Sure that the other thing as you mentioned I'll bring it with you Teresa the the other thing you mentioned you gave an explanation for the first item salaries where you indicated a lot of it
061had to do with the infield positions what explanation can you give like for for salaries and some of the other items can you generalize as to how this came about? Um, what I'm getting at is it's good to have a schedule, but the schedule itself doesn't says one thing, but to me, it doesn't say how it occurred. What your your comment relative to the salaries made sense. So, I could say, okay, that I I could understand that. But what I'm getting at is should this document then be footnoted with some brief explanations as to the findings as to what created this uh this circus. Um yeah, I can I can try to put something together that would u maybe elaborate on this. Um if you take away the employee benefits um there there are you
062know pluses and minuses. they all almost net out. Um it's almost exclusively driven by the employee benefits. And I I think that those small pluses or minuses I I think are just um due to budget allocations. when we try to when we try to extract the budget to see you know what exactly was budgeted for in those lines as we know with um 2025 there's very sparse information as to oh well um you know utilities were budgeted here um or you know this particular line was supposed to include this but didn't um and I I think that's um like I said I can try to do it by well not you've answered that to the the small stuff that nets out you can just indicate summarizes is the budget budget differences etc. But the other
063two big items being salaries and benefits. If you can identify some of the findings I I think things that you you found to be there, you know, if it you it just says poor poor poor estimating for for the budget. You know, I don't know if that that's the reality. Well, it's kind of misleading. Uh he said the drive the main driver is the employee benefits. He just has social security. But then he did a litany of a list of things and that's that would help be helpful. Have that as a footnote salary un um employed versus the um un vacancies that type of thing. But the employee benefits that social security that gets me. Well, yeah. But it that's a broad terminology, but you can specify that bulk of this has to do with
064health insurance. You know, we're dealing just material numbers. Not I can certainly break that up by why by those four different groups. What you'll see the the little bit of of digging that I I could do is um that 8.5 is almost exclusively health benefits. Yeah. Okay. But I I will nonetheless I'll I'll break it out. Karen and Mike to your point a couple of weeks ago at the council meeting Councilman Kowalo had asked for for this which you said that you had would respond have you given or you know what kind of response or you know have you responded and and how are you going to respond? I remember him saying, you know, don't do an email, but um I just want to make sure that we do the eye and cross the tea
065in responding to to a request, which we indicated we would. Right. So, Mike and I talked about like a memo, just producing a memo, but we wanted to make sure that this this board had, you know, opportunity to have conversation about it first couple month maybe a month couple months ago. I think, you know, Mike did report out on these numbers in a different format, but this is a little bit more detailed. So, we wanted to make sure that the board had the detail first and answer any questions before we put it in a memo. Yeah. And if you do a brief description, I think that would, you know, logically somebody would say, "Okay, you gave me this now, you know, the curse." So, however you come up with that, um, that's 23. Getting on
066to 24. Um uh where do we stand on on 20 24? I'm going to ask Joanne um what kind of a target date had do you anticipate to have the audit completed by I thought you would indicated at August 1st or August 31st. Am I wrong? No, that that is not going to be um a completion date. um our our end result that we need to get to in auditing 25 the 25 audit needs to be um prepared and um completed by February at the very latest um the aim is for January or December right so I don't want to speak on behalf of the our entire office but that is the goal that we need to get to to be considered timely um by the state um if we file 25 by next February
067that is with two monthly extensions on the original deadline of December. Okay. So, the goal of the city um we have findings that come from the audit team that say that we are late um in our audits. It's it's what gets us um all of these extra meetings and explanations and everything. So um if you have those findings more than two years in a row or any um significant finding um then you need to do reporting to MFAC um at the state um which is the committee that oversightes um the municipal finance um so we'd like to right we'd like to move away from that um so we could have more time to actually work on um doing our daily um functions. So if we bring that up, my goal for 24 and it's the
068only goal I've set um is that I need to receive a draft of the ACER by no later than the first week of August. So So we are aggressively um marching um to that date because if we can turn around a draft in early August, we can have the report by August, early September and then start working on the next one. Um any advantage we have in pulling that date up we will we will be doing. Um we've hit a milestone um I would say last week and this week um the planning stage of the audit for 24 is almost complete. Um just give a little statistics on on the DPS side. They started with planning items I think of about 30 items that were requested by the auditors. We're down to five um out
069of that and out of the 30, 27 are already accepted by the audit team. Um the ones that are remaining um have to do with just administrative um issues between um RSM and us. They're confirmation letters and and something called SIDA um which is the software um component of um a new Gazsby that went into place the prior year. Um we have to we have to scrub all of the dispersements um of the city on both sides. um and respond to whether any of those software agreements exceed our threshold or they um are greater than an agreement with the software company of one year. Um and that requires us to book a a special gross up asset and liabilities on the books of the city. So you won't ever see that on Mike's reports though.
070Um that's an overlay of the reporting that will be done at the city level. Somebody call my name. Yeah. Can I just ask a question? So at this time do you have everything you need from the board of ed side? That is correct. So that is the that is the uh the milestone. Excuse me. Thank you. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Go ahead. Yeah. So so now I I don't want to say we sit and wait. We move to something called fieldwork. Um and fieldwork is a little bit more intensive. Um we have some stuff we can fulfill already for fieldwork. Fieldwork requests from us. Um cash bank reconciliations. um subsequent um ledger and bank reconciliation. So we have to provide them with July and August of 25. Um that is so that they can test
071um under reported liabilities um of the city. Um I'm trying to think. So so we are ready now that planning stage is over. I'm actually still working to get um the multitude of trial balances from the city um to the auditors. Um schools have been submitted. Um we submitted the entire general fund today which is uh schools are consolidated into that but it might have been yesterday. Um so these are significant milestones. What's going to happen now is the auditors receive this um the general ledger detail reports provide them with what's called population. They sample those populations and then we get hit hard and strong um in about a couple of weeks time where we then uh need to provide them with very detailed procurement bidding um invoice paid payroll records um on that end.
072Um and I will state we're we're almost through um I think within the next week we'll be through with the pension audit um which involved us getting records. Um I've just heard um today that there's been seven or eight samples on the side of the schools. Um so we'll fulfill that maybe you know next week. Um came in with a a total request of 50 records. Um the rest are for the city. Um but you do have um some sampling involved in that. Um and that is from the auditors. Um but we have our third party is preparing the disclosures for all of the um pension plans and the OPED plans and that involves the roll up of your non-pension and your nondb um rate um sorry your nonDC and your non-teer um retirement plan
073employees. Okay. So we are in from what you said much much better position currently to give back where we are than we were when we first started this semester at 23. Yes. But we still do have some um some adjustments to go. Right. We're still working on on things like capital assets uh depreciation items that I would consider to be off books um even for the general fund. Um for 24 as a result of what we went through um we do a complete review of the expenditures um to make sure that everything was placed in the correct year before it goes to the audit team um so that we have less less findings. We minimize our findings. We can't go through the entire year's worth of stuff. And um the adjustments to the general fund
074were very minimal um for 24. They also were very minimal for 23. So, um, so the team is doing an excellent job in getting your expenditures into, um, the reporting year that they need to be in. And let me ask you this. The in in your experience in working with with Mike, I'm sure, and collaborating with him. What can you tell us about some of the I'm going to say findings, material findings or the deficiencies that you've you've come across in in doing the the the cleanup work that perhaps we could improve on going forward or some recommendations that might bring, you know, it might incorporate right in in going forward. I I can state them, but um I will tell you if you have an expert here, um he has about as much almost
075as much financial background as as I do. Um all of his uh recommendations that he on his own is putting into place as exactly what I would have recommended. Um it starts with a um just a checklist. Um we are very fortunate the state is now putting out you know guidelines and and checklists and suggested um things that you can do and how often to reconcile certain accounts right so we know the recommendation is that cash would be reconciled on a monthly basis um so back on track with that but currently using CLA as the consultant um to assist us pretty heavily with that right now um the goal is to get transitioned from that to the team here um at DPS um preparing those wrecks and um clearing any wreck items. Um right now
076um my opinion is they have a separation of duties issue. Um the team is very small. Um so that's going to take Mike getting I think at least one additional person and then um moving some staff work um around so that he can meet those those goals of um independency. And that basically means with cash control, you don't want the same person either paying, approving, reconciling, right? You can see where that would be an issue, right? We do that at home with our own checkbooks, right? Um I have a bill to pay. I I pay it. I reconcile it. Right? There's there's no issues there. It's it's my personal account. Um but for this money right you want to make sure that you have very clearly um you have controls in place so that it's
077not even um questioned that um somebody could be right doing both paying and approving right um that kind of kind of thing. Thank you Christie. Um I'm sorry if I can say one more because I think this was um a huge improvement. Um Angela going to put Angela on the spot here. um student activity funds um have been a point of discussion over the years. Um I have seen um since I came in and um let's use the word assisted collaborated for the 23 audit. Um one of our delays for that 23 audit was the student activities fund in gathering enough information and detail about the expenditures um without using the bank statements, right, which have copies of the checks, right? We really wanted the people that own those accounts to to um to come
078and report to us. Um Angela now has a system in place where she is receiving on a on a regular basis um the um financial reports from each and every student activity fund um that's here in the city and I think that is a huge accomplishment. So thank you uh for that. Um it was actually one of the first things that we closed for this audit for 24. Um so um a huge I I want to say almost like a fivemon improvement in lead time from being a lagger of two to three months to being ahead um of the other information submitted to the auditors by two months at least. So thank you Teresa. Thank you Rich. Um the consultant who pays for the consultant you want to take that or should I? Uh well
079for certain things um I I think all the invoices technically go to the city. Um they're supposed to so your portions will be coming directly to you once we um straight straighten that out. So the first invoice did come to the city. We had to kind of push it down um to DPS for their portion um but only because it's carved out and I think that was the $3,700 we saw that's um charged against the Okay. Okay. The other question is is um do you meet in person or on Zoom with the with the auditors? It's all it's all um is it? I think it's Zoom um with both CLA. We meet we meet weekly with both uh CLA and with RSM. Um the only inerson meeting um is when Joanne comes in plus is
080also her presence. We we do have members from um CLA to get started on efforts that they're doing with us. Um they will come to the office here um for DPS. Um so um at least I can think of at least two or three of their their their folks that have come and met with the team spent um at least a half a day with us um and um to understand what we need them to do for that particular project. And then we will usually continue that um online. Um it's it's very hard to get talent right now in Connecticut and we're we're very grateful. Um two of their local people that can come to us, one of them comes from near the Massachusetts border and the other one is from west I think the
081Hartford area. So so when we do ask them to be on site, right, we're consciously asking for another two hours almost right potentially available time versus being able to do something remote. So I understand uh in the past uh what we experienced um they would ask for certain documents we thought that was it and then it wasn't until 3 4 months down the road well we need these documents uh during co it was awful awful trying to get a handle um through Zoom you know through remote it was just it was just difficult I I think that was a difficult time for everyone one um everyone was adjusting to working remote and um gravitating to as much as you could to a paperless um society. Um I in my past um thing before here, right,
082we struggled also um and getting to the point where you could do a 100% of your business um remote, right? It's it's it's a very difficult transition. Um from an audit program perspective um because I've been on both sides, right? Um, sometimes they will ask for information, you fulfill it and fulfilling it just possibly leads to more questions and and you want to satisfy them. So, um, what could happen is um they could see something um and then decide, oh, we need to see we need to see more of this. They could get something and they could decide we need to sample more. We want to make sure that this particular thing which is a a control uh we want to see that it's executed in multiple places right and then once you make an
083adjustment if there's any audit adjustments that are made which that can be a pretty regular um experience that increases or decreases your population. Okay. So we especially see this on the single audit which reports for the entire city all of our federal and state grant monies that come in. Um, if you have an adjustment to any of those grant expenditure lines, even by a small amount, it can move your entire threshold for a major or minor program which can then drive um a resampling um of the of the information. I'm going to just give the one one example just so you understand. Um, adult education has two pieces to it in the grants fund. I might be getting a little more detail, but I think you guys are asking for more of this kind of
084detail. Um, we did we discovered that the piece of adult ed did not need to should not be reported on that single audit. So, you take you take that back away from it. What that does is it changes the entire population of what's being sampled by the auditors, right? So, um, so that's a that's a situation where they we took away from the expenditures, but it it it lowers everything and then just changes the threshold of what you're testing. Um, so it just it drives additional work. Thank you. I understand. It was just the lag time. Oh, it sounds frustrating. It was just so difficult to move ahead. It couldn't move ahead. It was one step forward and 10 step back. That's what it seemed like. But you're much the what we've learned too, you're
085much better organized today than you were before where it's easier to fulfill. Yeah, it's easier. So, it's a different different ball game. Mike, thank you, Joan. I appreciate your commentary. Mike, do you want to add to that any input that you have? No, I'm just very uh thankful that we have uh Joanne and Angela working day in and day out on this. Um before that, it's kind of me trying to do it by myself. um which is you can imagine on top of doing everything else is very difficult. So thank you both very much. Thank you. Moving on to the next subject financial reporting and controls. I put that in there only as a place at this point here based on your observations. Well, let me go back to 24. it. Uh, are you still
086in a process I I probably answer my own question. Are you still in a process of of making entries? 224 and at some point would you report back to us what you feel the the the ending number is so that we have a handle on it before it hits the press. So, you know, if you're still in the process, I don't want to ask you what the number is today because it fluctuates. So, I'm not going to get in that. But if if you you know have a feel for for some sort of a a date where you feel comfortable in saying that I finished my work and this is what I come up with. Yeah. The the 24 um is uh still under audit. I I think I would be um best to make
087that uh level of comfortability after the um financial the uh audit is uh is given. up until then we're going to be uh making changes and um similarly um as we spoke about in the um fiscal year 2025 um as we go through it and we're looking at these financials and we're looking at all the variances um we're starting to notice that there are things that are budgeted that are they're uh don't have requisite expense. Um quick example is we budget salary for our um custodial staff. Uh there are actually two lines. Um one is the actual custodian salaries and the others um you may remember from previous years was custodial overtime. Um the way our system is set up um one of those individuals will have a particular code associated with them and all
088the monies paid to them will go to that code. So, in our financials, we have a line that has a budget and it says custodial overtime, but we don't actually book anything there. Um, in fact, uh, we don't really measure overtime um, at that at that level. So, we're going through a process now in fiscal year 2025 of making um, adjustments to reallocate some of those expenses that maybe weren't allocated um, correctly when the budget was done. um and perhaps reallocating some of that uh benefit expense to other lines so we can um even things out. When you finish 24, can we have some of the summary that you've highlighted for 23 some of your mod so we stay with consistency there? The the next item I had and was the topic of financial reporting
089controls is just to mention that at a future date and I hope in the near future say by June 30th um you could report back to us what some of the changes that you would like to implement implement um whether it be procedural control changes uh such as the list of closings and stuff like that. That would uh would certainly benefit the the the operation being more efficient and give the board members some sort of a an idea as to you know what what is due, what's involved. So that uh any any change in the board members will see that at this particular time of the year this is due at this month that this is due etc. Absolutely. In the future. Are there any questions on that item? So I just wanted to ask
090you mentioned a a deadline or the end of the 2024 audit projected end. Uh I think the draft um we were looking for uh a copy by August August 1st. Yes. So um in order to get the um the report completed I I that's my target. Um but we should have more final numbers um earlier than that because the compilation of the report does take some time. Um so that means we would need to be completed with the audit testing by July sometime. Um I think that's possible. I mean two two full months um but but understanding that um a lot of what the city has to get through right is not it's not stuff you see on this side right so schools kind of has to move with us um and we've got things
091like pension and debt and um you know more complex topics um from a county um disclosure um requirement that we're not going to see the full right the full report and know that we're we're closed down on any adjustments um until we until we get to that stage. So, so about generally the end of August. Yeah, I think August and and maybe um maybe by July. I don't want to commit to that, right? Because it summer's coming up too, right? So, be honest. September or October? No. Um because um we're we're going to be in a different place if it is and we we can't be um in that place, right? We don't want to go back to that. So um so we're trying very hard to um to fulfill everything that the auditors need.
092Um you know we've got project management built in from the city side, the external auditor side, from the consultant side. Um so we're all just um trying to um to really help this. I think a big thing that we looked at was something called we call lead time, right? So on the student activity funds and on the pension, they have the longest lead times. So, what could we do for this 24 audit that wasn't in place for the 23 audit? Um, to reduce that lead time. Um, and confirmations is one of them, right? Confirmations, pensions, um, and um, I I can't think of just my student activity funds was one of them, but it's not anymore. Um, so that was a good improvement, and we've actually gotten a very good handle on the pension census
093data um, as well. Thank you. Welcome. So, one of my objectives is to have a set of financial statements that we can actually rely on, you know, be proud of. Uh, but also in the interest of transparency to make the information that we have is a matter of record. But equally as important is to establish relationships that is with the city itself is to establish a relationship with the city so that we work together so that we understand each other's issues that that we have and work together to meet those challenges. The other thing we we we have to work on is the general public. A lot of the public doesn't understand what our plight is on the financials. And we've got to, you know, with the transparencies and the the better statements we have
094work to make in the general public more aware as to one, us being the custodians of this money, uh, and two, our polite in in terms of the finances. We seem to do this, you know, we do it at our meetings monthly and stuff like that, but there's, you know, as I said, a dozen people that attend this and we do make more of an effort once a year during the budget process to do the presentation. But I I think we have to to get more people involved and and by that I think being more transparent on these statements would would do that. So that that's something that through community relations and finance that that we we could work as as an objective to to bridge some of these gaps that we haven't had in
095the past that would help us work uh work work uh work together. Moving on to the the next topic is the uh except I'm sorry is number four is the 2024 budget is a recommendation that a vote a motion uh be made that the finance committee recommend to the board of education uh to authorize the chief financial officer to make year end by number adjustments uh to the balance of need to make 425 budget. Cara and Mike, if you want to speak to that. Um, sure. So, um, you know, with so many moves that Mike needs to make, we just wanted to make sure that we had board approval, um, to authorize Mike to make those moves. It's not the kind of thing that we could keep coming back to a meeting for each line
096item. Um, there's so much work that goes involved into cleaning up the budget this year. Um but for but to move uh the larger lines around to balance um is something that we wanted to make sure that the board was okay um so we can close the year out correct the books make sure things are in the right state uh places and then u Mike of course would keep a record of those things so if there's any questions on those and he's doing a great job of making notes in in any entry or journal that we have there was u far more recordkeeping and notation going on to leave a a road map for for every move that's made and why as as to why. So, um we're trying to do things procedurally the correct
097way. So, we just want to make sure that the board is okay with Mike making those adjustments to uh to close out the year. I I don't have any problem with that. And you know, Mike has been doing that since day one when he got here. So, it it's just a matter of having it on record and any as Dr. As Mary had said, any information we need relative to what these adjustments are could could be furnished to you. I mean, at this point here, there's got to be hundreds and hundreds of entries that have been made between the 23, 24, and 25, right? There's been a reclassifications happening. Yeah. To move folks around, but this is a little bit different. Mike, do you want to explain some of the things you Yeah. So, so
098the entries that have been made up to this point um have been on actuals. So, as I see things that are coded incorrectly, perhaps um um like a power educator that's supposed to be charged to salaries is charged to purchase services. Um this is more talking about um the the reclassification of uh the budget line items which I think came up earlier um in the year that it should be um only through board approval that we we make those. Um, so just wanted to make sure that um, if I keep a good record of it that it's um, approved by the board. So to accept this, I mean, I have no problems that we have to take a vote or we just raise our hand and say that yes, we we agree to this and
099and we'll recommend it to the board at the next meeting. I think we make the motion based on what's on the agenda here. And then um just like policy, right? We make a recommendation for a certain action and it will appear on the next board meeting. So basically we can say all in favor of this particular motion say I need to make a motion. Make a motion. Yeah, I'll make a motion. You want a second? Second. All in favor? I Good. Thank you. Next item on the agenda is the exempt salaries for the 256 budget allocation. Turn that over to you. Okay. Thank you, Mike. Um, so this slide represents the salary adjustments uh that we're going to make for the exempt staff. Exempt staff comprises cabinet, extended cabinet, um other exempt members such as
100uh some folks in technology, your director of technology. Uh we have um our HR generalists. We have payroll. Uh we have a wide variety of physicians on the exempt list. In addition, we have some service providers such as our uh PT and OT folks as well as American Sign Language and interpreters that are on that list. Um, and I grouped them into three categories. Um, that kind of came up last year a little bit so folks could break out and see the differences. So on the cabinet side, everyone is a general for the most part 3 and a half% wage increase across the board. Um, with the exception of course of myself which was at 2 and 1/2% that's part of that cabinet number there. Um and then I did have another member at 4.5%
101um to make an adjustment in acceleration for uh market um market rate if you will. Um but the cabinet is uh total comes to about 2.97% non-c cabinet 3 and a half and then OTP BCBAS and American Sign Language um uh interpreters are 3 and a half%. The overall rate is 3.35 as well under the originally budgeted um allocation for salary increases. Um the new positions that are coming in um those don't get an increase. Those are just in the budget for 213 140 and then the restored which includes my former position um and the security security thank you the security coordinator would come back at that at that rate. Um, but those are the positions that would be on this exempt list ne uh next year, which is I wanted you to see those
102here. Um, I will add that 3 and a half% um is barely a cola cost living adjustment across that group. Um, it's a very very modest um bump. And you know, I really struggled with this this year, struggled with it last year, but um you know, only because when we look at some of what's on the exempt list, um there are definitely some positions where we're not keeping up with um what the positions are commanding across Fairfield County, locally, in Connecticut. Um Joanne mentioned that finding talent in Connecticut is extremely hard right now, and that is very true. Um as we head into I think you guys know that my priority is to be competitive um in Dian um we see what has happened with our par educator contract where we lose ground over time
103or surrounding towns are moving more quickly accelerating more quickly than we are we it put us in a really tough position and so what I'd like to do over the next year is to really go through this group and to do a true market analysis and I think it's something that we should do maybe every 3 years to make sure that we're staying on track. For example, we can have someone who's staying in a position for 10 years and they're making $55 or $65,000. They leave us to go somewhere else and this is happening right now. They make an extra 20 or $25,000 a year. Um, so the only way that they can make more money is to leave Danberry. Okay? And then what happens is we post the job for the rate that it
104was currently that that that person left and we get how many applications Mike almost done or if we're getting folks they're not the folks that we would be willing to hire. So we end up having to have meetings to talk about how can we adjust those rates because we're not attracting the proper candidate with the correct skill set. that you end up doing, you end up recor correcting it um you know independently and now you've lost a good person that you spent years training and investing in. So you end up paying some way down the line one way or another. And so we're seeing this in a couple key positions over and over again. I cannot tell you how much time our folks spend trying to hire people, the amount of time behind closed doors
105interviewing, onboarding, training only to lose. and it's something that we're really going to have to take a hard look at. Um I tried my darnest to gather contracts from all the different areas and they were hard to hard to get this year um to get a full a full value of all the different positions that we have there. So I'm going to be doing some work over the course of the next year to put that together so that we have more information about the different groups. Um but it's it's the entire group. It's not just the the folks in the middle. It's the at the folks at the top as well. I know everybody doesn't like uh you know to talk about some of the higher salaries that we have here um you know on
106cabinet but I can tell you that those some of those salaries are not in line with the market and um we are experiencing there's poaching that's happening. We have head hunters that are approaching people on a regular basis and again we need to just take a good look to make sure that we're that we're in line and I don't think we're super horribly out of line with some some of our positions but in some cases we are with others. Um but instead of just uh willy-nilly applying different percentages all over the place, I'd like to have the data and the research to back it up so we can have a discussion. And I do think it should be our practice to take a look at that every 3 years to make sure we're keeping up.
107And then these smaller incrementals in between are more appropriate appropriate. But when we do these smaller incrementals when we're not up to speed, uh it's a painful pill to swallow and it makes people say I don't know if I want to stay here. So it's something I I hope we all take very seriously. I'm taking it very serious. Um and I'll be doing some work in that to bring it to you and u certainly welcome your feedback and participation in that process as well. I think it's very important what you said in terms of you know the the opportunity cost we have when we lose a person it's it's tremendous cost to to replace that person you know with the knowledge that they had and and also the training cost of a new person uh
108coming in. So I I think you're on the right track. It certainly saves us a lot of money in the future and it helps us build our staff and accomplish the the goals that you want. Can I ask you to go back to the first schedule? I had a question on where you had new employees. Sorry, new new positions. Yes. What is that number? Is that new positions for people? That is uh HR director. Oh, okay. So, and I'm draw a second. So, there associate the associate is in the is in the restored. So that's a new So it isn't. It isn't. So it's an assistant, but the title was tweaked a little bit to to up the the the statue of statue of the position. Your old position. That is my old position. As
109a restore with a with a little twist on the title. So your old position is going to be filled as correct. Just a differentiation in the in the level. That's why I said your contract. This is kind of a back door. You had your contract. Which contract? Your superintendent contract. She had assistant superintendent of academics for two years. [Music] That's not what it what the what that was. That was a memo that talk about that. Yeah. And I can I can explain that more to you, but it's a it's a little bit different than how maybe you're thinking about it. That's okay. So, the new positions are new people. that you're anticipating staff staff account was the other one. Thank you. Staff account sorry I was like drawing the blank all the ones of all
110the ones. Yeah. So the staff account and the HR. Thank you. You asked question. Thank you very much. Are there any do we have to I do we have to I pass on the the approval of the presentation that you've given us here or is this a matter of no so the it's right so it's it's the um certainly welcome the discussion but it's not an approval process necessarily right Yeah. And we're, you know, we're looking for other ways to make some of these jobs more attractive. You know, when folks come in, um, you know, there's there's maybe, you know, different work. We're going to try to look at the whole, not just the salary, but all of it, like what do we offer in terms of benefits and packages here for for DPS. So,
111we're going to look look at everything. So, it won't just be on salary. We'll look at we'll look at everything. Great new building over on the west side. Yes. For those who are going there. like just as many people would say that's adding 20 minutes to my commute. So yeah, that's I know Mike's in that boat. I'm in that boat really. But it's going to be a nice building for sure. And this is working out much better that we do this now as we said we were going to do. Yes. In finance have to create the chaos. Talk about the math a little bit. Yeah. So the total the total salary adjustment is 170,000. Gotish. Thank you very much. Yeah. Is there any what does anybody have any questions? Nothing. Okay. I want to thank
112everybody for attending tonight. Uh I found it very informative. Uh and and uh I'll take a motion to adjurnn. Miss Teresa, second by Kate. All in favor? I. And Psyche once