001is myself Eddie John Michelle Terry and Kate all right I don't see anything on my end Eddie all right hi Michelle how you doing Mr Austin hi Kate hi Michelle happy Wednesday all right on the agenda we'd like to reconcile the finances for 20 January 2023 John it's all yours sir if you like take it away or heaven with as you like to make an opening statement I'll do the same thing you just did Mr Russo and say John take it away yeah well and it'll give you the uh the details from the line items and things like that um I I would say um it's uh the same pretty much the same story as uh a month ago things have been pretty steady as we've gone through the winter so Ed why don't you
002take us through the line items we lose Ed there you are you can you hear me Ed it or Ed can you hear us okay all right sounds like you're muted we can't hear you yeah you're on twice you're not coming through ready Julie hello everybody and you're shown up twice oh me oh me can you see me now that's good this is good now you can hear me okay um do you see my shared screen I share the agenda with all the backup information you guys see that yes you can see that okay thank you uh good afternoon everyone sorry technology right I have two screens open looks like um so we're uh we're speaking about January 31st our financials for January um as you can see uh with the school year halfway 89
003of our budget has been um spent or unencumbered in this point or encumbered in our line items um we continue to see unfilled vacancy positions um which as we get through the reports you'll see there's um a possible um Surplus in there because of these on unfilled vacancy positions um we are continue recruiting as we're hearing Across the Nation um it's it's it continues to be tough um we're praying for the best as the year comes to an end uh the next line is um we brought up last month about requesting to the board about a board a budget transfer of two million dollars of unspend funds to cover uh student computers and uh replacing some of the printing copiers equipment here in the District so that's something that we plan on bringing to the
004board this coming um probably for next month um and then we're keeping a close eye on our energy expenses um as we all know it's you know I think on Sunday we had 60 something degrees and then you know the day after it was like in the 20s so uh we're seeing some Savings in there possibly um hopefully that continues so I'll jump into the backup of all the information in regards to the line items first page is really you know we're working with a budget currently of 141 million as mentioned before what's uh expended what's encumbered and then that 14 million dollars is really what's unencumbered um a lot of it is health insurance and also as I mentioned earlier unfilled vacancy positions foreign just like any other month here's our uh our summary
005report of our general funds from our salaries to benefits to Professional Service down to our supplies in our total amount what's remaining uh and the same thing for the grants and as I mentioned before the 14 million is really what's unencumbered at this point a lot of it is as I mentioned just a few minutes ago is a health insurance and really um the unfilled vacancies and as we go through um just like any other month it's just our reports you'll see some in the positives some in the negatives that's normal just very similar to a year ago this point um as long as the bottom line comes to a positive number or in the Plus um so as I scroll through and then there are grants same thing you'll see some areas where there
006may not be a budget amount that's because uh some of these grants we receive funding after whether it's from the state or local funding from for example Educational Services that budget goes in throughout the year or Medicaid or the funding refunds come in reimbursement coming after there's your total in regards to what grants are that total amount is includes s or that's the majority of it is our s or funds for sr3 which um we still have a year and a half left of it uh and sr2 which expires as of this uh June 30th of this year are there any questions Teresa the RL I think you're on mute um the the two million I thought was going to go to the new reading program reading program the the reading program um that was
007part of uh the Esser funding from sr2 that's something that um we have submitted to the state correct me if I'm wrong John we had to um submit to the state a new app a revised application explaining this is what we wanted to do and that has been done calculated gotten everything ready I want casimiro to look at it one more time before it goes up to the state so it goes up to the state okay in a matter of days in a matter of days and it's correct it would be that yes or two funding source so I thought everything was going to be everything was rolled into into that Esser function foreign [Music] the two million um that we are anticipating we will have fully before this year ends is because of the
008unfilled positions and as part of our strategy for the 23-24 school year we're looking to buy down on some of those items that we need for next year so that that's the two million dollar strategy the reading program that um you're referring to is the SO2 monies um that we also have extra from because we don't have a many of the things that we committed to whether that's Staffing or whether those are strategies like um strategies like the Brookfield site we want to use that money to buy down on the reading program so we're as part of our adjustment with the state we've looking to include that in the adjustment and assuming that is approved we will have a way to pay for the reading programs without using our general fund Monies so um the
009the replacement will be of the computers and copiers uh phase one so to speak yes for the uh computers yes just for this year um to get us through um John can speak you know a little bit more in detail just in terms of The copier lease package um and then also the computers but for year one um I think we estimated a million dollar cost for next year all right John uh you're on mute um so so we'd like to put both of these things on five year five to seven year replacement Cycles um one of the advantages and disadvantages of the pandemic is we're now uh what we'll call a one-to-one district or one uh Chromebook for every student but they don't last uh forever they're great it's not the kind of thing
010you want to go backwards on but you know you need to replace so many each year or so that will be a continuing plan and same with the copiers which are really our printers is what we use we print from our computers and uh we haven't replaced any in a long time we think it's uh uh bigger need in we're looking at than if we had done some a few every year we'd have so we want to avoid uh spikes in any one year we have to replace a lot of them and I agree with a smoother bases yeah I agree with you 100 I just want to know where we are on your schedule yeah so this would be the beginning this would be the first year for both thank you um John the
011the uncomfortable amount of 14 million seven eighty two is my understanding it's a lot of it is unfilled uh employment vacancies and benefits I sum that money and benefits money actually at risk to be spent during the rest of the school year is or are those benefit monies uh noted in the 14 million 782 uh in anticipation if you fill all the vacancies so are these are they that money's totally unencumbered if we don't fill the vacancies um no because uh what what we do is you know we're self-insured uh meaning whatever and we do it through Cigna cigna's you know if you went to the doctor you'd fill out a Signa form and they'd be the one writing the check but when you're self-insured instead of just paying a a premium per month to
012in this case Cigna we pay the actual claims that come in that are incurred and we'll get a a bill from them each week and so I think Eddie last time last week was over five hundred thousand dollars five hundred thousand dollars um and then so if there are I don't know uh 18 weeks left that 500 000 there could be you know 9 million in expenses that would come out of that line okay remember all of that is at yeah my point yeah so it is at risk if insurance claims additional insurance claims come through between not the end of the year which yeah and we expect we meet with um our consultant Gallagher um every month and they give us a and actuarials I'm saying that writes um opinion of how claims are
013going and where we think they're going to end up so we're we're getting advised in a in a real-time basis so if something were to changed dramatically for the worse uh we certainly would have that information to to bring back to you and tell you what's going on and why oh thank you further Mr Russo could I ask a question please hey I'm sorry I can't see you that's okay I'm not on screen today I'm not on screen today so I just used my raised hand here um I I just and I know you guys are not the the HR team here so um forgive me if I'm asking a question that really isn't doesn't fall under your purview but when we talk about these positions that are going unfilled um can you give us
014any kind of breakdown as to what we're looking at because I'm looking at obviously this the salaries line and that's sort of how I'm you know trying to get a sense of of what's outstanding um you know in these details below like you could see that we're running um you know a credit on uh an unencumbered balance of 173 000 for assistant superintendents um but we're also running like for regular teachers uh 1.8 million so right and the other one is the the guidance the counselors which is up above that um so it's it's likely that you know much of those monies will remain at the end of the year uh we you know we do have higher substitute costs because those positions are unfilled and of course we need to teach the classes um
015I think we talked to you during the budget process about what we call overloads where a teacher who might have a a six period day uh will enlist them for a seven period day and they'll they'll take on a higher load but you have to pay something for that so there's a cost that goes with having those two lines unused but you're right those are the lines to look at that's where the money's going to come from and and I guess what I'm trying to figure out is like in in assessing those numbers and thank you for pointing out the counseling line because that is obviously very substantial as well um and we've had a lot of conversations about the mental health piece and whether or not we're providing enough services to our students what
016I'm trying to get a sense of is like how many positions are we talking about for example for that counseling line well um I don't think we're we're down as many countries that if you could mute for a minute um one of the things we did during the budget cut last June was move some positions over uh into Esser and some of those were support positions uh like the counselors so Kevin could talk to this but I I think most of our counselor positions are filled it might be a leave or something going on but we'd like more and I think we've asked for some more next year but um most of most of the vacancies are in other areas thanks John and Kate the the vast majority of our vacancies are in the paraprofessional
017group where I think we have upward of 35 to 40 plus um parents who sitting in you know we have vacant in those positions uh remain vacant um I can only think of one guidance Council position that we're down right now um offhand I can't speak to the other people Personnel staff members the positions that were down I I do know that were vacant special ed teachers I don't have an exact number for this conversation um but we can get a little bit more clarity around the positions that are open okay thanks Mr Wilson and I guess a quick follow-up to that if I may uh Mr Russo sir I'm ma'am yes please um my my I guess my follow-up question to that is um you know we have talked about the increased needs for
018um Mental Health Care um and for paraprofessionals uh given that we haven't we're seeing an increased need from our student population um so is this a case where you know we're building we've built our budget around the dollars that have been allotted and so we only a lot certain positions based on that those dollars that we know we're going to be operating with versus being able to at some point decide okay well we know we have this additional need um you know and I understand like I I'm looking at it from a perspective it's probably pretty hard to Pivot mid-year and say okay we have this money that we we didn't expect to have um and try to find somebody Midway through the year but I just want to make sure I understand correctly certain
019mechanics here that we we set the budget at the beginning of the year um based on what we have uh received from the city and from the state and then the number of positions that we allow is based on you know those dollars so we kind of move forward from there and base our open positions you know around what that is versus say the specific need that we have in the population wow right so Kate if I