001for us to learn about um just all the school sites and everything that's going on there and so much data to look at. Does anybody have any questions, comments? Um I think my only question was why isn't TK >> on those report cards on discussion? >> Yes, sir. S >> when it says like enrollment by grade level, >> it starts with K, right? >> It starts with K. Yeah. >> Could it be because of that DTS didn't know to populate the TK because last year was the first year that we had them separated. >> So there's a it's like right here. There's a reason. Can I get back to you? >> Yeah. I'm sorry. I should have sent that to you ahead of time. >> I think I know, but I don't want to misspeak.
002Yeah. So, >> it's okay. It's more a curiosity um just because there's so much other data in here. I was surprised to not see >> TK and some of the data mentions TK too. >> Yeah. I'm like I feel like I stretch on there. Yeah. >> You're like curriculum. >> Oh, like when they talk about the um the curriculum. Yeah. >> Like in the description of like our curriculum for certain grade levels. Mhm. >> Um, but that's so like a lot of this document is populated by like the state, >> right? The numbers and then principles and type in things like what Terra was talking about with the curricula. >> So, I need to find out why the state isn't populating like when they show like a number of students in a class with, you
003know, 1 to 20 students. Um, why TK isn't all there? I think that's your question, right? Like why it isn't >> Yeah. It's not it's not very reflected in the enrollment rate. So numbers understand that. >> May I have a moment? >> Of course you can turn on your mic turn on your mic. >> Oh, is it on a little bit? Okay. So, I'm going to refer to the OCI one as a uh an example, but but I I noticed right in the right up front in there, it it just said that they have 186 students enrolled. And now, when you go to each of the of the charts, we find um on one chart there's 187 students that you're breaking up into categories. And then on page 14, you have 210 enrolled students. And
004then on page 14, there's 191 students. Everything changes in every chart. >> It's different years though. There's a heading on them. Some of them are different years, but I'm not sure. >> How do you survey more students than you have for these things? >> Well, it refers to different years and different u data there. >> So, it's probably looking at had different years. Did you see that the there's data for 2022 23 >> having a hard time with >> the changing enrollments. >> Yeah. And the blue header it has what year it is. So there this report usually covers up to three or four different years. >> So it's a different number of enrollments depending on the school year. >> Okay. All right. Hang on. Maybe that's all there is. >> Does anyone else have
005any questions or comments? >> 2425. Okay. Like there's there's one on on page nine. If you go look at the uh the the the total number total enrollment is showing at 190 and that is for um what year is it now? >> 2425. Now it's 25 page n >> that should be that's the 2425. >> Um yeah >> right right in that big chart where it says all students total enrollment 190. Yeah, that's for last year for 24 25. >> This year it's 25 26. >> Yeah, >> the report is usually on previous year's data. >> Oh, so now >> Oh, OES is the one you're looking >> Yeah. >> I guess I'm trying to trying to read that. And then in the on the next on page 10 it now goes to 191 for
006the same year 2425 >> total. It pulls the data from >> but it's different on everyone. That's that's the only >> could it be that that sometimes No, this is totally >> And then on 2425 on page 14, this was last year, we now have 210 students. So, but that number changes even though it's showing the same year in each chart >> and most of those are pulled in by um the state it's uploaded automatically. >> So, Stephen, is this about the test results? Is that what you're >> But also also chronic absenteeism. They all have a different >> No, >> it says cumulative enrollment. What does that mean? >> It might fluctuate throughout the year. all all of everyone in >> enrolled at one time. >> Even if they left, they would count as
007a enroller. >> But I don't know because it we don't populate those cells. >> But I guess my point is that number should be the same in every chart that lists 24 25 >> No, not necessarily the CASP because not every student takes the CASP. So that number could >> I'm just a numbers guy and I >> I understand that just for the testing portion of that, not all students test. So that that could be accounting for some of the >> disc but it says it says total enrollment and then the next column says cast number tested. >> But it could be that like perhaps maybe one because one is for the ELA scores and one is for the math scores. I wonder if one of the students wasn't enrolled for math or actually it
008would have been one not enrolled for ELA where one was enrolled for math. I don't know why that would be. >> And then the absenteeism data would be different because that's not the testing data. >> I have a note to see if I can get some information on some of these questions that you asked on maybe some maybe on a future agenda we can look into understanding the SR >> for a little workshop >> a little more. Yeah. >> Yeah. um in getting the information from I can probably contact ETSS >> to see if they can give us a better explanation of probably the very complicated and convoluted formulas they use >> but at least to give us a little bit of a better understanding >> so that um when we have these wonderings you
009can feel better about them. >> They need to load the data correctly. >> Yeah. I did have a question. I noticed on um when I was looking at the number of days dedicated to staff development that um OES and Wasuma had five each year for 23 24 25 26 >> but OCI only had four days the last two years. Does that seem accurate? should be the total of four three prior >> very last page. >> Yeah, very last page of all of the reports. So 19 um on OCS. Anyway, I just kind of thought that we would see it would be the same throughout the whole district. So if there is a difference >> why OCI has one less, then I want to know why. And if they need another day, I want to get
010it for >> smart. They just need Yeah, they're already professionals. >> Okay. >> Questions. >> That's why because Taran and I calculated the early release Mondays as an A. >> Oh, >> and I didn't. >> And he did not. >> Oh, >> so you like took all of the Mondays and it equated to like a day like >> very rough. Very roughly. It's 180. >> One at the end, three at the beginning. >> Yeah. There's four days. >> I just want to count on that. >> That makes sense. >> Okay. Thank you. >> This number of chronic absenteeism is is really concerning. It's very, very high across the board. But I do thank you, Michelle, for putting out that notice on parent square. Every child counts or every day counts. So maybe we could do
011that up that more. I'm putting I'm put I'm putting one out like that out once a month from the district and then the school sites are using that attendance plus that we've talked about where they're messaging out parents like twice a month like every other week um to reach out and I talk a little bit more about that in my superintendent report and I did mention that last month that we're reaching out to families of students who are chronically absent to ask how we can like come alongside them and be supportive. >> Um, so we are doing that and then I talk about another tool that we're getting ready to launch in my superintendent report. So we definitely are aware and trying different things to um get the message out and how important that is
012for students to be at school. >> Okay. So, is there any other discussion on the SAR reports? I'm going to ask for a roll call vote, please. >> Stephen, >> roll call. >> I I >> I thank you. All right. Action item 7B, consideration of update and adoption of board policy and administrative regulations. Do I have a motion? >> I'll move approval. >> I'll second. >> Yes. Okay. Is there any discussion on 9B? >> I didn't have anything any questions. >> I like those. >> Do you Sorry, he's getting me set up for the presentation. Um, the reason we brought this typically we bring a whole group of board policies and administrative regulations to you guys. We um I we decided that we wanted to bring these specific ones on interd district introd because we
013wanted to move the date um when the request is due. So it was January and we wanted to align with our neighbors and also give families a little bit more time but still a reasonable enough time for the district to like figure out where we are for the upcoming year. And so that's why we wanted to put it on here for and also to hopefully adopt it because then that way it's like we're kind of like in that time frame and so then that way we can change that on our forms um for the date. And then it's important for you guys to know that typically we adopt board policies and ARs together. Um but the one for so you'll see that there's the board policy and the administrative regulation for the intra district. So
014that's students who want to move from one school within our district to another transfer. And then the enter is if they want to leave or come from the their district of residence which is not costly. And so when I was reviewing these policies there was language in regards to school of choice which I can give a little bit of description of that if you like but we are not the school of choice and I'll explain the difference between those. We wanted to remove the language um so that there just wasn't any confusion, but that's going to take a little bit more time to get that onto the AR. So that's why the AR isn't on here. The most important thing for like now I felt like was changing the date of when the transfer requests
015are due. >> Okay, >> so that gives you a little bit of history on there. Um the quick the quick um summary I guess if um the difference between um regular interd district transfers and school of choice is a regular interd district transfer requires like the district of residents to release the student before they can request to go somewhere else and a school a school of choice does not. And so we want to be able to have just like a traditional inter district. >> Um because if we were school of choice, the the parent or guardian requesting would not be obligated to give a reason >> um if it was school of choice. And um you know, it's important to know that like revenue follows students, right? And so we haven't been in a situation
016that we're currently in, which is also on this agenda. But uh we do need to start being mindful of making sure that if we need to have, you know, consider not releasing a student, which in my time here, that has not ever been something that we've had to pay attention to. But looking down the road thinking that we might need to I felt like it was important to take that language out of that AR. So I'm working on that and that so that will come next time. But that's an explanation of why they're not together. >> Mhm. >> Yeah. I I liked it because it it spelled out and answered a lot of the vagaries that have caused our problems in our over the last several months. It's a good good solution. >> All right.
017Can I have a roll call vote, please? >> Roll call vote. Anyone else? Okay. >> I carries. >> Item 8 A, monthly approval of the warrants. >> I'll move approval. >> Second. >> Any discussion on the warrants? Any questions? I have a couple. Um, let's see. The first question I had was on page I looked at it. Oh, here it is. What page? Um, page 14 of 16. I was curious what the Hero of Kindness public records request was under legal services. >> Um, mic please. >> Oh, I'm sorry. >> On page 14 of 16, can you hear me? >> Yes. >> Um, under legal uh hero of kindness public records request. I was curious what that was. >> Yes. Um, this is someone who has social media that is called that and she was
018a substitute teacher in Southern California who had a concern about mold remediation that wasn't addressed. So, she sent public records requests to all the schools in California asking for 25 years of records for environmental health hazards, asbestos, lead, mold. Um, and once someone submits something that says public records request, you have to provide them any records that you have. Um, and it was getting kind of challenging going back and forth with her. So, finally I had um, legal come on and they were like, "You should have had me from the beginning because we're dealing with this with many other districts." But, they had to gather everything and create a report to send to this person. And I wanted to note that on the warrants because we're just a small district. So, imagine every district in
019the state having to deal with this. Um, and and that could be a huge cost of adding up. So, I just kind of wanted to point that out, you know, um and we were happy to provide whatever records we had. We've always um done all the inspections and everything that's been required of our district, but it is challenging um you know, to get that information and then once you have to work with legal, it just adds on to the cost. So, um I was pretty stressed when I saw that bill because I didn't want it, you know, I want to be in compliance and provide what we're supposed to, but at the same time, I didn't want it to cost almost $3,500. So, I just wanted to note that on there because uh there's a
020lot of um districts that they're noting um about the record. So, it works on both sides. >> As soon as Tara reached out to me, they like knew the person by name. They're like, "Oh, yeah, >> we Yeah, we were like, we've had a million other responses for this." And um you know, it's just someone made that their mission. That's great. Um but it's been uh a little challenging going back and forth for like five or six weeks and then finally having legal come on. I was trying to >> and she was crediting you like with lawsuits because she was saying that like our responses weren't correct. >> Yeah. She said there's no way you don't have this or that and like we we have three school sites. We're a small district and you know
021you're coming from a big district in SoCal. We don't have that same level of records and reporting. We don't have those issues. So >> wow. But yeah, if you wanted to research it, I guess you could see how they're they're passionate. I'm good. Um, the other question I or I guess maybe it's a comment. Um, okay. So now I'm on 106 and um is it feral gas at the bottom the propane expenses and it also relates to I did not keep good notes. >> You said page 14 for the other >> uh one of 16 and oh what did I tell you >> 14 PG& >> Oh yeah 14 um and then the PG& cost. So when I was just looking at it, I was noticing that um OES, you know, like for PG for
022instance, and I don't know, is there another like or is this just the monthly expense for each >> there's six meters for OES and those two that you were referencing? Um it didn't have all the meters, the two big meters. If you look earlier on the bill, there are the two big meters, but by the time this report was printed, those other two meters didn't show up on here. >> Okay. So it's not like oh yes isn't like it's like it was like half and I was like wait how are they doing that? >> It's just the timing of the report. Um but then the propane is you are right you pointed out their cost is lower. Um I know they had done some adjustments with thermostat so maybe the heat isn't running as much
023but it we just started into our cold season and being meeting the propane. These are our first propane bills that have been coming in. Um but I I would look into that a little more. But as far as PG, the one you referenced, it just didn't have all. >> Okay. So PG was more consistent. Yes. >> Um and then the feral gas was more, you know, OES had >> because if you look on page two um for PG& it's got the other meters I'm referring to. >> Okay. >> That are um lines four and five there. >> Okay. >> 10,000 and 5,000. So those are the regular charges. So they just hadn't been paid when I >> That was it. I was just like, "Wow, is that school like really insulated?" Well, since it was
024a remoderation, >> I know they did adjust some of the thermostats, so that could help if the heat's not running on the weekends and stuff. >> And then as far as the gas, we just switched over to a new gas company and actually our prices have been way less this year. So, we're already seeing huge savings. >> Okay. Who's that? >> Feral gas. >> What is Feral? >> Yeah. So, we switched over. we're paying less per gallon um and seeing a lot of savings which is good because our electricity is over so it'll kind of balance each other out. >> But if it is a thermostat thing as to why OES is like half of you know their their gas their propane was like half of of Wasuma and OCI um you know maybe we
025can see about >> getting it the same way. Yeah. >> Yeah, that makes sense. >> Anyway, that was my only question. Thank you. >> Does anybody else have any questions or comments on the boards? >> Roll call vote, please. >> Roll call. >> No. Just asking for roll call. >> All right. I >> I All right. Now we're moving on to nine information items. So, a academic achievement report. nothing to report this evening. There there will be subjects. >> Okay. All right. Moving on to B presentation and discussion regarding budget reductions. And we have um Ann that would like to speak. I'm just going to say the the spiel here that I have to say. The public may address the board on any matter pertaining to the school district that is not on the agenda.
026Members of the public may sign up requesting to address the board by filling out a request form and turning it into the board president prior to the start of the meeting unless otherwise determined by the board. Each person is limited to 3 minutes and 20 minutes per topic if multiple people speak. You may also email Lissa Durr prior to 12 p.m. on the date of meeting if you would like to address the board. Your email will be read by a staff member at the meeting up to 3 minutes in length. There will be no board discussion and no action will be taken unless listed on the subsequent agenda. The public may also submit a request to address the board on each of the remaining items on the agenda as those items are taken up by
027specifying the agenda item on the public comment request form unless otherwise determined by the board. Each person is limited to three minutes per item. So please again Quinn. Thank you for allowing me to present. I would like to begin with thanking Michelle for meeting with me representing our teachers every other month. She gives us great time to discuss our concerns. And having seen the budget reduction agenda item, it brought up many concerns among our teachers. Beginning with, will our new teachers be pink slipp? Will the retiring teachers positions be filled? How did the 15.9 average teacher student ratio come to be? We understand with the January updates OES's average is 21, Wasuma 24, OCI 23. So we'd like to understand the 15.9 number. We're hopeful that the goal of the presentation coming up is for
028all of us to creatively find ways to cut costs without cutting teachers. Above all, disregulated behaviors remain a top concern of our teachers. And would you possibly please consider restructuring our special ed department from the top down with input from our special ed teachers. Thank you. Okay, thank you for that. And so now we will turn over to Mrs. Thompson for report and presentation. >> Do I need to put it in presentation mode? >> This is a PDF. So that's why I knew that. >> Do you want anything like >> um >> I think we can we can do that and you can just scroll. >> Yeah, I think that's fine. Can the audience can you guys see that? Okay. >> Yeah, you can just scroll on your computer >> and then I can just
029>> hit the plus at the top. >> Yeah, there you go. >> And then just scroll, right? >> Yeah. Okay. Okay. Thank you, Ann, for that. Okay, I'm going to go ahead and go through this presentation. Um certainly if there's questions along the way, those can be answered. Um might not think of questions until we get to the end. Of course, at the end, the last slide is to to prompt um the bigger discussion around this. Okay. So um this presentation is titled securing a future for our students balancing the budget for a path to sustainability. First slide here talks about the three-year projection reserve. I'm going to hand this slide over to Tara. She's going to go through this for me and then um we'll move on. So most of this data has been
030presented every um time we do an interim uh un audited actuals the new budget just discussing the reserve. So the numbers that are in here are um from the first interim that had just been reported on in December. Um so we projected in our multi-year projections what we needed to meet our required reserve that's there um the the two uh 26 27 and 2728 reserve numbers at the top. and we only meet our reserve and we don't have a deficit for next year and in the following year because of the projected adjustments that were on the NYP which I had um gone over in my presentation before but there was adjustments of salary and benefits um and there was um certain positions with one-time funds that were adjusted as well as supplies and services those
031are always kind of standard adjustments in the NYP that you do to meet the reserve um so if we either don't reduce for backfill staffing and reduce supplies and services. We won't meet our reserve unless we get additional funding. Uh we will also continue to be deficit spending. We're going to go over deficit spending on a further slide, but our funding is already going to be less than what's projected because we have lower enrollment and a lower three-year ADA average. Uh even though right now they're talking about different things increasing in the governor's budget, the funding. So funding if you have less ADA, that's your portion that you're getting of it. And we just turned in our P1 uh ADA number and that was 718. Um but it's funded on a three-year average. So it's
032looking um on the next graph it'll kind of show what that number is that will be funded at. But just important to point out in all the times I've been presenting and talking about the one-time funds and different positions and projections, we've always been discussing what are we going to do when the one-time funds run out. So, we need we won't meet our reserve unless we make some kind of adjustments or um positions um that we don't fill or whatever it is we decide. It's also important to note here that um of course you know this has been something that has been we've been working on this for several months right um knowing based on all of the budget presentations that um Tara has gone through and then of course her and I having discussions
033that all of this information of course um was without what we've been hearing within the last few days from the governor's budget which you know still isn't hasn't been signed but Um, of course, you know, those all will be taken into consideration as we move forward with making decisions. Tara and I will be um in Sacramento next Tuesday um for the presentation on um the governor's budget. And so um I just thought that that was important for the board and the public to know that if they've been watching that and keeping track of those things, this was all generated prior to that information that's basically gone off the press. Can I ask a question? Of course. >> Okay. So, so when we're looking at this, the 39 394,88 the supplies and the services. So, those
034are all three of those are need to to come out of our budget. They need to be reduced unless we were to receive additional funding or other things or reduce you know other areas whether it's supplies or we have contracted services. We've had a lot of legal costs and settlements, uh, AB218. So, there's a bunch of a bunch of different things that are built into those numbers. Um, but when we're doing the pro projections, we just use the best numbers we have at the time. And I try to look at what we're spending currently and have the future years match that for supplies and services, but sometimes I have to make small adjustments there. And then the the positions, it's um the ones we had talked about because there isn't funding, >> right? >> Okay.
035I just wanted to be clear that all three of those numbers are numbers that are in play for you know what we need to reduce. >> Okay. Thank you. The next slide is a visual on enrollment versus ADA, which again we've had lots of conversations about um went as far back as 201819 to um projecting out what next year is projected to look like. And so um our enrollment is the blue, the red is the most important because that's what we're funded on. Um, so you know, we've talked about this before. This kind of ties to the chronic absenteeism. And so, um, of course, this makes it difficult for school districts, right? Because you have to staff what your enrollment is. However, you can't guarantee that, you know, those kids are going to show up
036every day, right? So, that's that's hurting. We've talked about this before. there's a lot of pressure on the legislators to um change that funding model and fund districts on enrollment, but as of now, that's not what's happening. So, um our funding is based on the um average daily attendance, which is the red. >> And the projection for next year is tying I've plugged in our new uh P1 ADA number into the three-year average. So, just that's why it says projection there. just using that lower number each year. Um, you know, enrollment's gone down and our ADA is less. So, when you're using that in the average, it gets lower. But if you thinking, oh, wait, it says 738 because she just said 718. Well, we're not funding on just this year's ADA. It's the average.
037Okay. >> Okay. Next slide. Understanding our funding shortfall, $430,000 in one time funding used for staffing will be exhausted at the end of this current 2526 fiscal year. Currently, we have 241,857 in deficit spending. This means our expenses are 241,857 more than our revenues. Deficit spending cuts into our ending balance and makes our beginning balance less at the start of the new fiscal year. If deficit spending continues, we will not meet our reserve in two years. Our 2526 first budget only certified as positive because the deficit went away due to the reductions from slide two and because those reductions were entered into the multi-year projection. So if we would not have done that and you know plan for like that's going to be reduced then we would not we would be in a qualified budget.
038>> And it's important to note too all these numbers are based on status quo. So if we have extra costs this year like extra legal cost due process services things that we add that the deficit will be greater. So, this is currently what it is, but you know, things that we've been working on these last couple weeks that we've discussed, you know, are going to make that def deficit larger because we don't receive funding to offset any of those extra costs that and we're only halfway through the year. So okay, next slide talks a little bit about the reserve for a district our size. School finance experts recommend the following reserve percentages. So 17% would be considered an excellent or the gold standard for a reserve. 10% 10% is considered good. the safety net 4%
039although it's the state minimum it's considered dangerous and it's the floor. Um it's important to note that um previously we had a board policy requiring a higher reserve which um stated between 14 and 19%. And um like that's not the case >> and then it was reduced to 10 to 14%. and then yeah >> right and then it was reduced down to 10 to 14% um as sort of like um the expectation of the board um but you know things have come up and um like I said the state minimum is the 4% but that's proving to be pretty concerning um right now that would cover that that dollar amount for us would cover about two weeks of pay of payroll two two weeks of expenses So, any questions about that? >> So, um what
040uh I know we've talked about this before. The the reserve should cover us for at least two months. Is that what they recommend? >> Two to three months. >> That's theation. >> I'm sorry. >> That's the recommendation. >> And so, what is that where the um 10 What is that number? 10%. It's probably a lot higher than that because with our payroll and benefits are around a million and then our accounts payable is around 200,000 and that's just right. So >> we the 4% we currently have isn't enough to cover one month of expenses. So it's actually less. But over the last you know several years where we've had to add things that we need and supports and um in terms of our staffing and all of that that's very important. the things that we've
041added and increased but um that with the one-time funding going away um you know our reserve has has been down >> and enrollment >> right next slide. If the budget remains constant, an estimated 14 million, which of course that fluctuates, right? But our total budget is right around there. A little bit more, sometimes it kind of depends. Um, it would take 6 years to grow the reserve from 4% to 10%. By adding 1% of the budget to the reserve each year, the district would need to set aside 140,000 per year based on a $14 million budget. Here's sort of a hypothetical breakdown. So, uh, annual contribution would be 1%, that's 140,000. Um, the reserve on a $14 million budget. So, this isn't our current reserve, right? This is for purposes of an example would be
042560,000. The target reserve at 10% would be the 1.4. And then, um, that leaves the total gap to fill at 840. So, and then I noted at the bottom calculations assume a static budget. Annual contributions would need to be adjusted to maintain exactly 1% if that were to be the goal um of the actual operating budget. And then I just put it's important that I point out that this slide shows an example 4% reserve on a $14 million budget. And then I said I already said this little reenerate our budget fluctuates between 14 and 15 million >> and a little higher when it was co funds we were around 17 >> with the one times and stuff. >> Okay. So um when I went through my training now I'm an expert in finance by the
043way but um what I learned with that the reserve is a percentage of the expenditures not the total budget. Is that am I incorrect in that? >> No that's correct. So, as your expenditures go up, you're required to set more aside for your reserve. So, that's where we've had trouble meeting our reser reserve. And I've had to move stuff to one-time funding in the past because like this last first interim, we were short. So, I had to move a couple parts of couple positions to some one-time funding because our expenses had increased. So, when we made the budget, 4% of our expenses might have been, let's say, 580,000. And then now that we've added things or had things that we had to pay and our our expenses went up, 4% of that expenditure end up
044being 610,000. As the year goes on, that's what's it's like we're um you know, shooting ourselves in the foot because each time we're adding more expenses, it means we have to put more in our reserve, but we have less revenue coming in and it's like we're scrapping trying to figure out how to can we even meet that 4%. >> Okay? Every time we spend more, we'll see in theory having to put more into you should be spending based on your what you're bringing in, right? >> Yes. Yes. >> Yeah. Okay. So, when you put this target reserve at 10% that's of our total budget, >> but the expenses continue to fluctuate, right? Correct. >> Yeah. When we built the budget this year, it was 14 million in revenue, 14 million expenses, and then now it's
045maybe 14241 or whatever, for example. >> Okay, thank you. Okay, so the next several slides um on the summaries it might get a little redundant because at the first part of the summary I reiterate you know that our enrollment is down and in I think all cases or in most cases the um staffing is up right. So what I did is I looked at um the different classifications and I ran data based on our enrollment starting back to 201819 through the current year. And so you'll see the bar graph in gray is student enrollment and then the dots going across in the blue are um full-time equivalents, right? Um, so full-time equivalent is like one 8 hour position, right? So there's a formula that you figure out like as we go on you're going to
046see like FTE is at like 14.63, right? Cuz like some of those um staff don't work, you know, they're not a full-time employee. Um, so this graph shows that um, you know, our enrollment is going down and our staffing is going up. pardon me. Um so that's the graph and then the summary um shows that you know what I just described on the next slide and then the staffing despite the steady decline in students the number of FTE teachers has increased from 44 from the 1819 to 48 and 2526 a net gain of four positions. Um it's important to point out that this is not just classroom. So, so the jobs in this classification are general education classroom teachers, special education teachers, um specials, right? Sometimes people call that. So like programs outside of like
047the the classroom would be like PE music and then um we do have a um virtual case manager which is kind of like a virtual I guess for the best way to describe it would be like a virtual RSP teacher, special education teacher. So those are the positions um that were calculated with this data for the for these graphs. Um and then peak staffing the teaching staff reached a peak of 50.5 in 2223 even as enrollment was trending downward. And then it just said and when it shows the student toteer ratio it it's taking all of those teachers that I like that I just mentioned and just um doing a calculation and averaging across all of those teachers. So, it's not necessarily that like there's only 15 students in a class in a classroom, right?
048It takes into account um the specialist teacher and then the the case manager. So, that's important to understand. That's not the actual number of students in what you would think of as of you know when you walk into like the classroom. >> So, is that what's addressing that one part of the question? >> I hope so. Yeah. Yeah. I hope that helps. >> Yeah. So, and as we go through, I'll like point out things that are important to like consider when we're looking at this at this data. So, that would be obviously one of those things. Any questions on that before I move to the next classification? Um I guess I just want to ask if you can explain because in looking at this and looking at all the numbers as I looked at this
049uh previously you know all the enrollment versus the whether it's instructional support whatever the staffing level was the the teacher or whatever the the classification was went up and the enrollment went down. And do you have any like explanation for why that might have happened over time despite our declining enrollment by why staff increased? >> I'm going to speak to that on where that's um more prevalent in spaces than others. I think if we want to go back to what we just talked about with the teachers um like we got we got the prop 28 was the music grant money, right? So we have special funding for that and that goes towards those teachers, right? So that's why we hire two actual teachers. Um that goes into the calculation. So it's important to understand that
050like you know that they're not a classroom teacher. So that when it when that ratio reduces and it looks like oh we only have 15 students in a class that's not accurate. Um, but that would be like an example of why we would have hired more people even though our enrollment's down is because we got that that extra money for that. And then I'll kind of go through um how that applies to some of these other classifications also. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Um the next one is um classified instructional support. So, I looked at classified employees and I thought that it would be important to separate that them out um to instructional and operational because we have you know we have a lot of classified employees and that's kind of you know and I'll and
051I'll give examples of um the specific jobs. So, this one is um classified instructional support. So um some examples of some of those jobs would be um a classroom paras. So like um a general education para maybe in like a TK or kinder class >> an aid right an instructional aid and then um also all of the instructional aids that are um in our special education classrooms. Um, I'm going to mention just some. I'm not going to give an exhaustive list. Um, but just to kind of get give an idea, we also have library. Our yard names are calculated in here. Um, so those are some examples of instructional support on the classified side of things. Um, some important facts to consider when looking at this slide. Um, one FTE, I mentioned this earlier, does
052not always equal one person. Okay? Many staff members in this classification are not full-time employees. Therefore, one FTE could be accounting for several people. The jump in FTE from 20 to the school year 2122 does not represent only six people. it was more staff than that due to hiring um several part-time positions. Okay. And then also um whenever there's a need in an IEP for extra support for a student, we're legally obligated to fill that position. And so all of those circumstances would also um speak to why the increase because our special education percentage is also fairly high. Also important to understand that an increase in FTE could also be that we didn't necessarily hire another person, but maybe we added hours to somebody um somebody's position. And then this applies to all classifications across
053the district. However, the like what I just explained about the FTEES that applies to to everything. However, these scenarios that I just mentioned are most applicable in this classification when you look at the the increase, right? Because we have the special ed thing to consider. And then um like I said, we could have hired a whole bunch of like part-time like yards. Um so it might not just be like six people. >> Yeah. that in uh 2020 2021 the county uh had all speech services come over to the district so you know we have two slippas >> uh which is the speech pathology assistance so that and that's a full-time FTE so first we had one then we added a second so something like that um the county just gave it back to the districts
054for pathologists and assistants so that could be somewhere where you see an uptick as well >> yeah that's also going to apply for the speech and language pathologist which goes to the certificated support. We'll get to that. Um, but in that year, those services used to be rendered through and I and I talked about that Madera County Office of Educ Mad Madera Superintendent of Schools now. Um, and so they no longer were providing that and they basically let districts know that they needed to hire those positions um within the district. So that's another reason for for an increase in some of those >> ones that require the to fill it as you mentioned before. Mhm. >> because of the IEP, >> right? We have to provide those services um for IEPs. Yeah. So, the next
055slide again is a summary. Um I just put that cuz sometimes like folks prefer it written out and like looking at it on a bar graph. Do you want me to like read through that or >> It's basically saying the same thing just and then it shows the ratios again um for for that classification. Okay, the next one is classified operational support. So examples of these positions would be like are a maintenance operation and transportation secretary, accounts payable, food services, health aids, bus drivers, office managers, office assistants, those types of positions. The next one is certificated staff slash sorry certificated student/ staff support. So examples of these positions would be our speech and language pathologists, our school psychologists. Previously before school psychologists, we had behavior health intervention interventions intervention uh BHIS um our educational program
056specialist and our district nurse. Again, things to consider here. I already mentioned um the speech and language pathologists were given back to districts from Madera County Superintendent of Schools. The district also used to contract with YUSD for nursing services and then when that discontinued um we went we had to hire our own. And then um part of the um uptick in this category is that the district um was focusing on mental health and responding to the increase in the district's special education percentages. The next classification is classified confidential management. So some of these positions are um chief business officer, chief technology officer, superintendent assistant, human resources, M director, T director, those types of those types of positions. Um things to consider. Two of these FTEES are not management. They are confidential positions. Um but they're
057grouped together in this classification. And then um you can see um part part of the uptick on from last year to this year was um we had for a long time we had one like director and then we split that into an M and a team. Okay. The last one is certificated management. So, um those positions are superintendent, principles, uh previously director of special programs and projects and special education and student services director. that's remain inconsistent. And then the last slide I did some calculations on what's called staffing staffing density. Um staffing density is a standard organizational metric used to measure how many employees you have relative to the population they serve. The calculation this calculates the number of staff members available for every 100 students. So you take the total FTE in the category
058or classification. You divide it by student enrollment. You multiply it by 100. Okay. The reason for explaining staffing density is because percentage growth only looks at the staff count. Density looks at the staff to student relationship. Percentage graphs show you, for example, you hire four more teachers, that equals 9%. The density graph, for example, shows that because you have fewer students, the cost of those 48 teachers, I'm just using this as an example, it would apply to everything here on this graph, the cost of those 48 teachers impacts the budget 28% more than the 44 teachers did in 2018. We aren't just paying for more people. we are paying for more people with much less money per person. So I did those calculations and this graph is organized by the largest percentage of density and
059increase by classification to the lowest and then it shows the overall for the district. So that's a lot to take in. I understand that this is not a conversation anybody wants to be having. Unfortunately, it's where we are and we have to have the conversation and the responsibility of the school board trustees is to provide directions for the district and the superintendent. So, we will be having those conversations and I can start now. Okay. All right. So, I'm going to start um because as I was looking at this, I had some questions and I got some clarification from the presentation just now. But um one of the questions that I have is have you examined the case loads of the certificated student and staff support to see what those ratios look like? because we have
060data on these other positions on on what that looks like. But the case loads is kind of in relationship to that I think is an important conversation to have. Yes, I have a table created. Um I sometimes am pretty good with a crystal ball. Been doing this for a while. I um knew that based on this conversation and what's been presented and our the direction that I'll receive tonight um would mean that I would need to know the answers to those questions. And so I have created a table for all of the support staff um to populate with things like let me give you some examples. Um, what is the case load for an RSP teacher currently for all of them? What is the case load currently for each of our speech and language pathologists?
061Um, how many psychoeducational assessments have our school psychologists completed? Um, how many students are receiving one-to-one counseling? How many students are receiving group counseling? Those are the types of things that will be important to know when making the decisions that are going to be made in the very near future. So the answer is that is ready to be populated. That's getting sent out to those folks this week. That will be populated and that will be examined. I'll just >> the sorry to interrupt the directors involved in that are aware of that graph or of that um it's a it's a Google doc with like a table is the word I'm looking for that that's going to be sent out to folks and they are going to be expected to fill that out um and and
062give it back in a in a you know we're going to give them probably I'll have that information by next week or probably the middle of next week. >> That's going to be helpful. >> A lot of that um can be pulled from safe too. So some of that's going to be very easy to get and others will be a little >> Sorry, can you repeat that? Pulled from where? >> Safe, which is the student information system for um special education students. There's reports. Yeah, there's reports that can be pulled out of there that will be able to populate a good portion of what I've created. Um, okay, I'm going to just keep going my questions. Um, can you quantify the impact of of raises that have been given on the budget since 2018? And
063we've talked about onetime money versus ongoing money is I I know this is coming, you know, all this kind of came a little bit, you know, um just the timing of this this coming to us. So I didn't have a lot of time to give these questions to you in advance, but if if those are conversations that we're going to have, I'm curious because I know we did give a decent raise a couple years ago and I'm not saying that you're funded to the level that you should be as professionals. However, um I know that there was discussion on whether that money was onetime money or whether it was ongoing money. And so, um just trying to figure out the impact of those raises over the years and to our budget and how we're handling
064that. We do need to be careful. There is some information we can share about that, but this is a public meeting open to the public and negotiations are a confidential >> situation. Okay. Um so we need to be careful with um what we say. However, we will say what we know to be true that we can share in this setting. That doesn't mean that some of that could be shared closed. Yeah. But this is a public forum. We need to be mindful of that. >> Okay. >> But all the raises we mostly have done have been ongoing. Okay. And with um having declining enrollment and we haven't recreed increased funding, it's pretty much using our reserve or fund balance each year. >> Okay. And I guess that was a lot of my question was wondering
065if we use that one one time money that's now running out and so then what that's going to look like in the future for those raises that we've already obvious that was going to be an impact moving forward. Yeah, that's been challenging just moving um some positions to onetime funding in order to afford the different things that were negotiated, but we needed to do those as well. Yes. All our great people. So, it's kind of a balancing act, but yeah, we're where the rubber meets the road now where there isn't more onetime funding and we have done, you know, almost, you know, let's say 30% over the last 10 years. >> Okay. All right. Thank you. Does anybody else want to jump in? I have a question. So, someone else go and then I'll ask
066one. >> Go ahead. I'm just >> Okay. I'm sure Stephen has stuff to say. Um, yeah, this I'll talk about it a little bit in my my board comments later, but but you both are going up to this um budget seminar um talk up in Sacramento, right? And so that's that's going to that you're going to learn something up there that's going to help. But you know that it's a situation where um we're talking about how do we stay solvent and build a reserve when revenues are actually declining. And that's it's a it's a tough call and that we're not going to figure it out tonight by any means. You know, it's this is going to take some more review and and some solid numbers and uh hopefully, you know, our our governor will uh
067uh give us a little more more money to work with. >> Yeah. But the the more money is depending on the ADA. So, if our um you know, ADA rate is lower, our piece of the pie is smaller even if there is more. >> So, that's tough. Yeah. >> I hope that's true. >> Um I'm curious. Um and I know you probably you don't have this information right now, but it feels like and I I could be wrong that um special ed costs have been going up every year. Are we having more special ed kids? And then does some of this cuts does it have to do with the department of education being like are we losing money because the special ed funding because of the department of education or are we getting that from
068the state like I don't understand >> when I've gone over that in the past too it's flat so what they fund us at for special ed has been flat but you are right we used to have 8% of our students spent currently we have 18%. So, if we're not receiving any additional funding, but we have more students that have services that they need, that's where it's been my soap box in all my presentations, like we're having to contribute and take that out of all our other funding. Of course, we're not going to not do that. But without the state giving more special ed funding, it's been static. Um, it's really challenging when you go up 10% in, you know, the last eight years, but your funding stays the same. It's also important to note that
069when she says the 18% those percentages like when you go to the California dashboard that doesn't include our um the students were obligated to serve as preschoolers that have special education services. So, not only are we obligated to them, we have I should have the number off the top of my head, but I think it's around >> 13. >> Yeah, I was going to say around 15. And we don't we get very little funding for them, but we're obligated to service them. So, that also, let me give you an example. Many of those one of the services that usually are in those IEPs is speech and language services. And so, um, you know, that that is part of that person's case load, right? Which then means that they have less time. They might not be
070able to carry as many like TK through 8th grade students. So then depending on what those case loads are, then that's maybe why we've had to get pushed into like hiring the virtual case manager because we have to take into consideration that we're obligated to service the um the preschool team. So once students turn three, if they're a special education student, we're obligated to provide services. >> And for around those, well, there are probably is 15 if you include the ones that attend. We don't get ADA preschool students. So if we have 15 of them, we're not receiving any funding for that. And then we do have a special ed prek grant, it's around 48,000. So for 15 students, if they let's say half of them need a one-on-one or half of them need speech,
071um there's all different levels. So the funding doesn't match but we're our hands are tied because we are required to provide the services and of course we want to without additional funding. >> It makes it pretty challenging. That's why we had to get creative and do things like hire a virtual case manager you know to help help with that because all our case loads were so big with everybody else. >> That speaks to your question about like yeah continue to be underfunded. I know that there was a little blur. We'll probably learn about it at our governor's workshop on Tuesday that they are considering funding special ed a little bit higher, but I think the total amount do you remember was like 88 billion. >> No, it's 59 million. >> Oh, >> I dreamt it
072was 8 billion. So like, you know, would you say 590? >> 59 million. You know, they were going to divided all of California's LA, right? So, like good news is they're listening and they're paying attention. >> Yeah, they're going to raise the rate >> throwing us something, but it's it's it's significantly underfunded. So, that's a challenge for sure. More questions. >> Go ahead. All right. So, I wanted to ask in on the supply and services side because that is, you know, one of the numbers that was in here um on the original slide. Um what do you foresee as being a supply or a service that could be reduced? Well, it's a challenging question because for example, with our lottery instructional supply budgets, you're required to spend that every year. You can't roll it over.
073So that's what we use for the main supply budgets at all the sites. There's a lot of these budgets that are you have to use them for that specific program. So you can't use it for people, you know what I mean? You can't use it for something else. So it's a little tricky. But that's usually where I just adjust on the NP so that we can meet the reserve and then um try to make those budgets less for the next year. And then as the year goes on, there's different things we need to purchase, we have to increase. So, we try to find other areas we can reduce. As far as services, that could be anything from utilities. Um, that could also be legal services. That could be right now we have a virtual physical
074therapist for a student. Um, so there's different services that um it changes year to year, so it's kind of hard to plan. We can't say we're not going to have our legal support, right? >> Um, but there are maybe different things like uh applications, which we have reduced. We were spending around 300,000 on applications a few years ago because of the CO funds and now we're spending around 140,000. So, um we've reduced a lot of areas that we can, but we might just have to sit down and look what's in each of those categories. It could even be fuel for the buses. That's not something we can, you know, really reduce. We need to have the bus roads that we have. So, it makes it pretty challenging um looking at those budgets and trying to
075see really what what could be reduced. Um I don't have a good answer for that. >> No, it's okay. I just when if it's in that my right and it's like 337 what over 338,000 that's in the my then you're you're looking ahead and and going to plan for those reductions however they look whether >> and it's also based on a lot of factors like the current budget you know so if there's um less expenditures this year which usually isn't the case but if there's less than our getting balances higher starting next year and maybe the budgets can don't have to be reduced as much. But it's usually the opposite where we spent more and we're having to look at where else we can cut and move things around. Last year a big thing we
076did was move um a lot of our instructional applications like I Ready um and Amplify. We moved them to restricted lottery which you can use for textbooks or digital curriculum. So it's things like that. Okay, take that out of our main budget and put in this restricted bucket and try to get creative in ways that we can reduce things, but sometimes it's um with restricted it's you can only use it for that. So, it is but it is tough. >> Okay. Okay. I guess I'm just saying that you you came up with these numbers, right? Like the 220 and the 117, right? So, you you had what that was, right? No, it was based on meeting the reserve and I have to um adjust each each category by a little bit after um after I
077looked at the positions that were one time. >> Okay. So, this is going to be something that you're going to you're going to pull this stuff out of the closet after we have these discussions and look at everything and go, >> yeah, look at what we're potentially vendor service. >> Okay. >> Try to find savings. do you know we're looking we are lined up right now at PG& to do um there they'll come out and check your energy effic efficiency of your lights and thermostats and they'll do like on bill financing um to change up some things and make them more energy efficient so that your bills go down and we're trying to get creative and look at all different things like I said we switched the gas um we're limited in this area with
078some of the services you know the sewer lines through the county or the um waters through American water so there aren't other options so It's tough when those prices are going. >> Well, yeah, they are those very, >> but I mean, yes, I would have a detailed breakdown of what's in supplies and services and what is locked in there and what maybe we have to look at. Okay. Um, example that I mentioned was the lottery supplies. Maybe the sites don't have as big of a supply budget and you can use unrestricted lottery for something like a healthy or nurse. I already have them there, but you could move you could move some stuff around like that and just have less in another area. But it's kind of like I've already done that to this point.
079>> Yeah, I hear you. We've done a lot of moving and shaking already. We are looking at a few things like there are some services applications that we currently pay for right now that are like, you know, they're like not a ton of money, but at this point like that that that adds up, right? So some of those things are now available in Google like they're full suite. So, we are looking at um possibly doing away with that and moving over to that because that's a cost savings. So, there are at least two programs that we're taking a really close look at and considering um moving away from for cost savings and that would be you know it would be a decent chunk of change and so we do have those things sort of listed
080out. Um but again like the board this conversation is going to lead towards a a a directive really of like hey pay attention to this look at this and try >> and try it you know so I didn't it was a little premature to do that too in depth before there was a direction right >> plus it's tricky because if we want to adjust things or make changes we don't want our um you know our legal costs to go up But then every year different things come up or we have settlements. So that's sort of stuff that we can't plan for and then it's required like that one that was on the boards. It's the first of the five years that we have to pay. Same thing with the AB218 settlement. >> So >> and
081we're not getting any funding to offset that. So if we you know we have to be careful about what's changed because we don't want to end up with um you know additional legal >> fees because those budgets are the ones usually that year end come in a lot higher. >> Right. We're also taking advantage of the free legal service that we're getting through our JPA insurance. Um they are somewhat limited on what they can help with, but there's a list and anytime I like we go there before we go somewhere else. >> Well, it's tough because a lot of this is based on like I said status quo, but this year when I made the budget, Title One went down by in first interim by 100,000. So things like that, if we keep seeing cuts
082on the um federal side too and we build everything to be right where we need to be to just meet the bare minimum and then it comes in less um it makes it pretty challenging because we can't move like things to restrictive funds you know ELOP after school funding you can't use that for your during the day stuff or you can't use title one for just anybody has to be a specific support program like RTI. So, you can't necessarily just get rid of all that because then what else can you put there? >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> This might be a good time to also just let everybody know like cuz I mean we're looking like we're turning over like every rock, right? So, we are looking at sub costs and those have significantly increased
083>> on both sides. ly because like we have more staff, right? So if you have more staff, probably going to have to be gone and there's going to be an increase in in sub costs, but um those have gone up quite a bit. And so we're looking into, you know, it might not be an initial savings, but maybe we look into some sort of incentive or we just like attendance incentive for like our staff. And also just by letting people know and making them aware of the the significant increase. I mean just quickly in the classified side of things in 1920 our um spending for substitutes was almost 28,000 and last year it was um almost 96,000. Certificated in 1920 was 61,000 and last year was at 192,000. So there's some reasons in there that
084are >> good >> not to be discussed in this like that makes sense. >> No, even like the IEP meetings, there's been more of those. So there's been subs for more of the IEP need for cover. So because our special ed population went up I'd say about half of that could be due to that. >> And then of course, you know, there's other reasons, but still it's it's quite significant. So I think if we just let like we're not going shame on you. Like that's certainly not what I'm trying to convey here. I think it's just we're all in this together. We all understand what's going on. So I think as transparent as we can be and just explain like it is what it is and if people know then, you know, we can all
085work together to um to get through these tough times. >> Um I I wish we weren't here >> and show up and have savings from them, >> right? So happy. >> Well, to kind of go alongside that is when you're looking at the utilities, you know, I go to the high school and they come on the weekends and you hear the air conditioners or the heaters going, no one's at school. So, just even just putting it out there that I mean it costs a lot of money to run those things. When you walk out the door, hit the button. >> Yeah. And that's why I was just speaking to some of those incentives. They were talking about the motion sensor light switches, the thermostats that our MO director could control from his phone. So on
086the weekends and breaks, we've totally changed this year where we're shutting a lot of that stuff off more on the weekends and the breaks and just being more mindful of that. Plus, a lot of our lights are the older lights. So changing out to the LEDs. Um so James and I have been working with PG& and talking about the on financing would be no cost to the district. They just any savings you have that stays on their side and then you pay your bill as is. Um, and then you see savings over time. >> Yeah. >> Because that last year was over budget. >> I know. Like 100 grand, right? >> Yeah. For the electricity. So, and but it's not because maybe we used more. The rates when I first started here were 26 cents
087a kilowatt. Now they are up to, you know, 60 cents. So, >> you're paying more per per use. >> Yeah. >> Um, this is going back to the SAR report and maybe you can look into this um, you know, when you're looking into other stuff. If you go back to like the last page on it, it talks about the fiscal year uh 2324 teacher and administrative salaries and if you look at our district amount and there's you know the column there that talks about the teacher salaries, principles, you know, superintendent and then there's the state average. Um, I don't quite understand why like if you look at like, you know, beginning teacher salary 49, state average 55, you know, and you go through principal 114, state average 133, superintendent 169, state average 155. But when
088you go down to the bottom and it says percentage of budget for teacher salaries, it says ours like is 49%. And the state average is 25%. But they're spending more. Like I don't understand how that pencils out. And then also like percentage for teacher uh for admin staff it says we we do 8%. Whereas state average is 6%. So I mean it says in one hand it says we're spending more but when you look at comparisons we're less. So I don't I don't get that. Like I'm not a math person. So maybe >> comes in from the data comes in from the state. So I'm not sure how that's calculated either. That doesn't make sense. I understand. So maybe >> I think some of it is because of of like you have giant districts that
089are in there like LA Unified that have you know giant budgets and lots of students and enrollment. So it's going to be a less percentage of their budget just because they have a bigger budget. Does that make sense? >> They have San Francisco Unifi is going to be in there. You have all of California. We're very small district. I when I was doing that MIG training, we were the second to smallest district, I mean, everybody had districts that were like 13,000 students, 15,000 students, you know, and we're like three schools and they're comparing one less. >> It's not apples to apples. >> Yeah. So, I think it's just that it's a percentage of our budget because we have a smaller budget and so it's a bigger percentage. >> Okay. and everybody else in that category
090like all other districts. Yeah, >> that's good. >> I was curious if the board had any um preference as far as uh a number that we would like to um direct the superintendent to uh look at in our budget. Um, I'll just offer up kind of what I was thinking. Um, when I hear that our reserve isn't even one month of our expenditures, that's concerning. It has been, but I also know that we've just been trying to like keep legal with our 4%. So, um, I was reminded tonight by Superintendent Townsen that our board policy is 10% 10 to 14%. And so, um, when I'm looking at, um, the numbers that were presented tonight and trying to keep our district fiscally responsible, um, I was thinking that if we just had one month of um,
091expenditures in our reserve that that might be a good place to start. And I just wanted to open this up to discussion. So I do have a I have a question about um so I'm trying to find it on your slide. Oh, okay. So yeah, if we go back to the very beginning on page two, you know, projected reserve and then you said we only meet our reserve in outline years because you deducted this bottom part, right? I just put adjustments on on the multi-year projection. there's a space where you can make adjustments for salary and benefits. And then for the other categories like supplies and services, you'd put in the number of what your budget's going to be. So I just I made it less because I was trying to meet the reserve. Um
092because otherwise when everything was loaded in there as it was, it said no, you're short. So, and then it was the main thing for the salary and benefits was the one-time positions because those were um but that doesn't mean it's that exact position, but the funding for those positions because that funding is going away. So, whether that replaces something else that is going away or what, it's a lot of uh kind of shuffling around to see >> that's why correct me if I'm wrong, but that's why that number is very close to the 430 >> that I mentioned in >> that's the one time. Yeah. which is the onetime fund. >> Mhm. >> Right. Only >> that's because 430 is using 2627 step and call on rates. Yes. >> Yeah. Cuz we project so like
093the number on slide on slide two was what she was >> projecting as what we would what we need to cut right to meet the reserve. And then this 430 is let's just like the like the positions that are currently funded there. If you look at that what their total compensation is with keeping in mind what what would that be for the upcoming year with steps and column increase, right? Like they might that that position is going to make more money next year like because of the salary schedule. So that's why those numbers are off slightly, but that's basically what that category is, right, Tara? That >> Yeah, because on the multi-year projection, I just use the current numbers for the onetime positions. >> Yeah, the current cost is the 394. So um I know
094you're looking for board direction. So again, I'm if I go back to that page two, and again, I'm sorry if I'm confused, but so if we take those, you know, you you put in cuts to get us, you know, to where we're solve it. So, let's just say it's almost, you know, like $700,000. Okay. So then if we work towards that, but then like Julie is saying, if we need to have like at least one month so we can make payroll >> in case deferrals come or in case we don't have like especially I guess in December, there's a couple of times a year where we don't have like the money we need to pay our bills and we would have to borrow money to pay payroll, that kind of thing. So are we saying
095that we need to basically look at like how much we need to like so 700,000 plus like an additional >> if you wanted to get to one month of expenses 1 no 300 >> 300 so it would be like we're talking like >> well then and Michelle was talking about building back the reserve over time too if you And you know, that's a different scenario. Instead of doing it up front, but having a goal of each year of having that much in savings, instead of doing it three or 400,000 all at once, a little bit each year to build that on the reserve. And this is all hypothetical with the multi-year projection because it's all based on the federal revenues and the state revenues that we know of right now. So any of that could
096go down or up. So every year when we do the multi-year projection, I always adjust supplies and services to meet the reserve. Usually the funding that comes in is good for that, but the the main thing is the salary and benefits. With those one-time funds, the funds will be gone. And it's both sides of the house classified and certificated have one-time funded positions. Okay. So, if I if I add up the numbers that you have here, it ends up being 733,357. If you add in 140,000, which would be one year of trying to improve the reserve, we're at 873 357. So, if we started, we have two ways to go here because we could either try to go a little bit higher to try to get the reserve up or we could just go right
097with this number. Say it's like 875,000 and say start there. Or do we say, "Well, let's try to see what it would look like if we tried to find a million dollars, which again sounds impossible with our budget, but start there and then maybe we get to $875, you know, okay, well, that's what we really really need, >> then perhaps, you know, that's what we do." So, I think it's the discussion. Do we try to, you know, increase it to to try to get that reserve up a little bit in the short term or do we say, "Well, let's try to go in the long term with the 140 and and see where we land." This again, it's going to depend on what, you know, we're going to ask you for these numbers, but you're
098going to have to come up with options and then we have to see if they're tolerable because, you know, I went through and looked at our our LCAP goals. So LCAP goal one each and every student will receive highquality instruction and learning opportunities that will prepare them for high school and their post-secary pursuits and the one place by provided by highly qualified professionals in clean caring safe and secure environments. So that's one of our number one goal we have to to try to meet that goal. Second goal, each and every student will receive access to highquality intervention and support programs, services, enrichment activities with an emphasis on individualizing academic and social emotional behavior health and safety challenges and responsibilities and physically, emotionally, and cognitively safe learning environments. If these are our goals, then these are
099the goals that we try to fund. And so we have to look at this and try to keep as much money as we can where those goals are. So so that's the the proposition that we have to try to give to direction to them to look for but keeping these goals in mind. So what do you think the number should be? >> Can I just Yeah. put something out there to think about when you're think cuz like really ultimately the most important is that like 4 around 430 cuz like that money is going away, right? >> Okay. >> I'm I think it's important to say we all know the reality of this. We're going to have to reduce things. That's going to take an adjustment period, right, for everybody, right? our staff, our students, our
100community, our families. Um, so I think that with that in mind, when we're talking about building the reserve back up, I think we need to keep in mind that yes, that's important, right? But we also need to think about that adjustment period and getting used to essentially functioning with less people and services and all the things that we have now, right? You know, it's just like in our in our homes right now, we're all looking at our budgets, right? And we're changing things that um we're used to doing and having, right? And sometimes those things that we reduce are easier to get used to and sometimes they're harder to get used to, right? And um like I I deeply care about our staff and our students and our families. And I think that that's something
101that um needs to be considered because I think that's going to be a very real thing. >> I also I I mean I get that we have to look, you know, I it boggles my mind that we have to project for 3 years when federal and state don't tell us for 3 years, you know, and we're responsible for that. And I understand also that, you know, we've had deferrals in the past and things like that. And so as far as building back up our reserve, I kind of feel like I would like to put that on the back burner. Start with what we've got right now that we know we have to cut. I mean, worst comes to worse, we h we can take a loan and then there's a percentage, which sucks, >> right?
102But I mean, if we got to that point, right, where we couldn't make payroll, we do, we approve that every year that we could take on that, >> you know what I mean? Like, not that we would have to do that, but when was the last time we didn't have enough money to make payroll? I mean, I know we had to >> put some things off recently. >> December was close, but they posted the taxes a little earlier. Thank goodness. >> So, I I I kind of feel like I mean, you know, is it prudent? Can we like maybe take what we have right now with what they're saying, you know, what we know we have to cut and and then maybe in the future, like you say, when we've readjusted, refocused and everything, could
103we then maybe look at building back up our reserve, you know, because we do have an option of borrowing money, but then you have to pay it back with a percentage. And I know that's not frispically rooted, but what is the likelihood of that happening? Like, can we cross our fingers and like I don't know. >> Well, and to build up the reserve, you have to have reductions if you're not going to receive more funding and you're down in enrollment. So, it's it's pretty challenging to solve. Um, you know, because even if we want to set that aside, we if we don't even have um the budget to pay for what we need to pay for, we're not going to have extra to set aside. So, we have to look at in the future, you
104know, what um what could change, what programs are in place, where could we have savings that would attribute to having a reserve building, >> right? I'm just wondering if we can have that like conversation like maybe a little bit later, like have this conversation now, >> just get status quo >> to get and then obviously we have to keep trudging along this year, maybe later. I that's just my thought. So is the 430 sorry but I guess I get a little confused on on these numbers >> is when I add up the numbers from that first item >> 430 is just the salary and benefits of one-time positions for next year the 394 is the current cost of the same salary and benefits >> it's going to go up because next year those people are
105going to get paid >> they step up and there's increase >> oh I see okay so then it's roughly let's And so when when you're saying the the let's call it 430 now with the 117 821 and the 220 728 are those things that have to be reduced in multiple years or you're saying next year this is what what you built into the into the >> in order to meet the reserve. Those are the adjustments I made. >> Yeah. For next year. >> But we usually do that. Yes. In the budget every year and then costs go up as the year goes on. So you start with lower budgets and then costs get added. >> Okay. So Verhonda, I'm understanding you. Then what you're asking for is that we would do try to reduce the
106the onetime money that's running out, the 430,000 plus the supplies and services that Tara has put into that multi-year projection. And you would stop there and then we so we could just meet our so we could just try to >> stay status quo. >> That's what I would like to do right now. I'm just trying to get a number on that would be our reserve for for this year. >> Mhm. >> For next year >> for sorry for next year. And >> the reason I asked that question is because it's also very important to understand that when you're making cuts, there are deadlines on notifying. Okay. So if we push off a conversation about how much money we want to cut because of our reserve, if that decision is made too late, I can't do
107anything about that because there's laws about notifications and you know like there's like labor laws and and then then there's like there's other things that need to like be some of these things will need to be handled at the negotiations taking right. like and there'll be legal. >> Okay. So, personally, what I would like to do is say that we're going to look at the cuts that we need to put in place based on the multi-year projection plus putting in the 140,000 and and put that as the number. But then let's see what that looks like because we don't even know what that looks like. We have no idea. >> And that come up with different scenarios. So then you bring that back to us and then we can see if we can pallet that.
108We can see if our kids can handle it, if our staff and our schools can handle it and then we got to figure it out from there. But I feel like if we go with like a lower number, then we're kind of shooting ourselves in the foot to see if we can actually get ourselves we're in a hole. We got to get out of a hole. So let's try to get out of the hole and see what that looks like and then see if it works. because if it doesn't work, then then now we got to look at something, another scenario. But you're going to give us some options, right? So, you're going to come back to us and say, "Here's option one, option two, option three." And you might look at this and go,
109"We can't even we know we can't do it. You know what we need for these schools." So, you might say, "We can't get to that number, but here's where we can get to that that we can stomach." >> So, that that's what you're saying. Okay. So we give them a little higher number, but then when it comes back to us, we can potentially negotiate it if I mean or not negotiate it, but discuss, you know, what we can handle. And I mean, that makes sense. >> Yeah. Well, we don't want to get in a situation where now we need more money and now we're going back in a in a scenario that now we're under the gun and time and everything. >> Well, we'll have governor's budget. So, and we'll have second inter rooms. will
110have different projections and then maybe we know of any type of people that are retiring or going somewhere else or there's a lot of different factors that are built into that. >> Oh yeah. Did we have So there is an incentive right now for people who are going to retire to let us know by the end of this month. >> So then we might also know what's happening next month. We might have a little bit better visual. >> Can I um can I ask for a bathroom break? >> Yes. Okay. It was getting really close. >> So that you were talking about >> is that you're going to say something. I keep waiting. >> 140 in addition to I mean, I get I get what you're saying. So, we just like this whole thing and
111then we make >> we don't looks like >> Yeah, you're right. You're right. We don't >> It could be something that we go there's no money we can >> rest of your numbers. I have um so the 430,000 >> plus 117,821 >> plus 220,728 >> plus 140. >> Yep. Plus 140,000. >> Okay. >> Oh, was it that much? I don't have >> I might not have hit all clear. Hold on. I cuz I I did it in the old school way. >> Oh my gosh, you're right. >> Okay, thank you. >> I know. That's why it's like Oh. Impossible. >> Yeah, I know. I want to go up against you on the 140. >> What if we What if we cut the 140 in half? Should we turn on our mic so people can hear?
112>> Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah, >> we're still in session. So, >> we're we're we're negotiating numbers over here. >> What's that? That's sorry. >> I'm trying to look at some of these numbers and one of the numbers we're looking at is the the reserve number and because my calculations and I did go to high school was wrong. Um I didn't do it on a device and so um I was off by a lot. So, I don't think that that number is realistic. The number, if you add up the 430,000 plus the supplies, the services, add in $140,000, that's $98,549,000. That feels impossible. So if you cut the 140 in half, now we're at 838549, which still feels impossible, but like she's saying, if we're kicking the can down the road, let's just look at it.
113All we can do is examine this for now. >> It's important to understand that this is a directive of like go back and look at this. >> Yeah. Right. Like we know we have to make cuts, right? Like the 430 is like the 430, right? And then we know we need to we need to be paying attention and being start we need to start taking care of our reserve, >> right? >> So you know it you are not taking action on >> go save this, >> right? It's a directive of go back and see where within the classifications what can we cut what does that amount to and then we bring those back and we look at those how on how it ties to priorities >> and goals and the vision of the district >>
114and then we make decisions based around all of that information. I'd like to hear if Diane or Stephen have any comments. It's been a little quiet. >> Stephen, you're a numbers guy. >> Well, I know. So, well, I can't say what I really came up with, but the uh um the the direct answer would be 800 to 850,000. That's a number to work with. >> And how did you come up with that? Well, uh, what we're doing right now is 733,000, but that's that's just an observation point. And if we take 1112th of what we're currently annual budgeted, you get about 11%. And then I looked at what is 14% of that and that's 19. And then I averaged it and got 850. And so that's why I'm thinking a reasonable starting spot might be
115just 800. And then if we can look at that and make it into an 850 later, we'd be right on target. >> That's how I operate personally. So >> yeah, that makes sense. >> I don't like bankruptcy. >> Do not information too, >> right? And like exactly what Tara said, right? Like if if we go back and we look at this and then we have our our conference on Tuesday and then we come back and we say it looks like now remember like it hasn't been signed yet but it it's looking like they're usually pretty accurate, right? That we're going to have a little more funding and this is what it equates to then we can we can talk about that offset. >> Okay. >> Right. >> Yeah. Yes. >> Yeah. That's the best case
116scenario. >> Have a start point. Well, then when we do the second interim in March, we have um three quarters of the year of expenditures. So, we kind of know more where we're at too if things are over budget or under budget. And that kind of helps because that'll change the my adjusted. >> It does. But again, I'm going to go back to the importance of and this is the difficult spot we're put in with when we hear about how we're going to be funded. If we hear news that we're not happy about and we wait, we I my the district's hands will be tied on not being able to make certain cuts if that deadline has passed. And that's why this is so difficult, right? Because we would like to be able to wait
117so we have a better idea. However, if we wait and it's bad news, we're going to continue to be deficit spending. We're going to continue and and then that might put us into the following year is having a qualified budget. So, it's a really intricate dance, right? Because you have to pay attention to the laws around release um and then trying to balance what do we really have. >> Plus, we don't know enrollment either for next year. That's challenging, too. not knowing, you know, are we going to have big groups in TK and K? Um, are more students going to move into the district or students move away? And that's really tough because a lot of these projections are based on the numbers of students and we don't know that when we have to make
118these decisions. Well, what do you do? You want a summary of how would you like to receive your directive? Superintendent Delta, >> why don't you start throwing it out there and if I have clarifying questions, I'll ask them. >> Okay. >> What have you heard us say? Why don't you summarize for us? >> We've been here for three hours. You really want me to summarize it? >> Just the last few minutes. I think in the last few minutes what we've come up with is that we're going to use a number somewhere between $800 and $850,000 that we're going to ask them to go back um to the drawing board pull everything out. I really want you to look at those supplies and services budgets, those things that are away from personnel, children, and and see
119what you can come up with to find money so that we can um we can cut the budget. >> That sounds great. >> And then you you bring it back to us and then we might have to make some tough decisions. And then once you have more information, if things change, you know, we plan for the worst so you can get what you need to do. And then if we have, you know, hopefully things will change and then we can maybe re reress it again. And you know, >> as an additional comment to your summary, we would like for them to keep in mind in addition to keeping it away from personnel and students, but keeping it aligned with our LCAP goals. Correct. >> Correct. >> And is there anything with slide 19? Is there
120one area versus another or you want us to look at all areas in terms of staffing in terms of the onetime funds? >> Because you're not going to find it all in supplies and services, >> right? No, no, I know. I know you're not going to um >> but just kind of looking at all >> Well, yeah, when you were looking at last one. Yeah, with the density. Yeah, I do think you need to look and go from the top down because it looks like that's where we're a little heavy, if you can call it heavy. But yeah, I think you should look from the top down. What do you guys think? Is that >> I think so, too. And I would also like to um draw on Ann's comments earlier about um disregulated behaviors
121and um you know the special ed department is crucial and vital and very important and um occupying a large part of our budget. So, I just want it to be looked at critically to make sure that we are making the best decisions and we're the most efficient without, you know, um overloading the people that don't need to be overloaded, >> right? >> Well said. >> Which we already do. >> Yeah. I say it's tough. We need the supports. >> Double check. That's it. Double check. >> Just double check. >> Triple check. >> Triple again. Double check again. >> Okay. So, do you feel like you have your your direction? >> Yeah. Can I repeat it to you? >> Okay. >> The number is between 800 850,000. Um, take a look at supplies. Stay as far
122away from the students as possible, direct impact to students. u make sure when we're looking at things we're um considering the alignment with the LCAP goals and um our disregulated behaviors and making sure I'm paying attention to the special education department >> and the density >> the density top >> sorry I knew there was something else >> top down >> um yes that Um, >> I will pay very close attention to that to that last slide. >> Okay. >> Report I have to say this just before and report back next month and be extremely thorough and extremely brief. >> I think it's important. I know it's a long meeting and I know we still have things to cover, but this is important to spend time on and to make sure that we're considering everything and
123we're and we're taking the time that it deserves. Um, we're going to have several meetings. We're going to likely need to call a special board meeting um because it's important. And I'm not saying that you're saying that it's unimportant. I just um I I I think that this is going to continue to take some time because it deserves time. >> Yeah. >> Okay. All right. I got it. >> So, I think we're ready to move on. Um so, is that coming to our next meeting then? We're going to have a special board meeting. >> We'll talk about that to that part. >> Okay. >> Um Okay. So 9C is off the table. Um, so the enrollment and ADA reports. >> Sorry, I was doing some calculations. That's okay. >> She must be the CDF. Want
124you to do that. >> Um, oh, so the ADHO enrollment is the one we provide there to look at the attendance percentages compared to enrollment. That hasn't changed much as far as the enrollment goes. Uh the last meeting we had is it 760. Now it's 763. So up a little bit. Um just small changes in each site. A couple more kids were in the list because that was 19 that went up to 23. Oh yeah, the sites each of them some of them went down a little and then that was offset with >> Okay. Um, moving on to 9E. Uh, since our last board meeting, we've had one introdist transfer from Wasuma to OCI. >> That's correct. >> And let's move on to item 10, accomplishments and other reasons to celebrate from throughout the district.
125Wasuma Elementary, Taran Hopkins. Thank you. >> All right. MPR. >> Yeah, you stop it. Let's stop dead. Okay, perfect. All right. Well, we have been very busy and having a lot of fun. So, this um this presentation takes place pretty much from October to December. Left off um from our last one. So in October um we have our elective class called leadership and in leadership it encompasses a few different things. ASP is one of them child development and then students just working on um the leadership skills. So they um came together ASP and leadership and decided we need a unity day. Um so we encouraged everyone to wear orange um and it was just a day to remember that kindness counts. Um and so we had great participation in that. The kids were great at
126promoting it. Um so here are some pictures from it. And then after that came Halloween. Um this was an incredibly fun day. Um the turnout at school was amazing with all the different creative costumes from kindergarten all the way up through 8th grade. Um so we did our um costume parade where our kindergarten through third graders got to walk around and everyone got to look at their costumes. Um, but it was such a fun day that it takes two slides. There were so many people who participated, so it was great. Um, so the staff dressed up as ice cream and as you can see here, our office staff wore the bananas for our banana split. >> so that was really fun. >> Um, and then early November, we um, our PTC sponsored our fall festival.
127Um, it was an amazing event. They did an amazing job planning it and running it. Um, early November was kind of a different thing for us. It was a little bit chilly out by the end of the event, but um, everyone had a great time and we raised a decent amount of money. Okay. And then we had Veterans Day and our, um, cadet core class um, it's our elective got to go down to Fresno and um, march in the Veterans Day parade in downtown Fresno. So that was a really special thing for them. Um so our wonderful PTC sponsored our first assembly um the steam assembly. And so what it was is um they come out and they put up different stations for the kids to go to. So you can kind of see in
128some of those stations um the one with like the baby gate is they're moving a car using um like an iPad and then they have a VR headset. Um the buzzwire thing is trying to get it through without it buzzing. There was a dino day. Um so the kids enjoyed this so much. It was offered a best experience. Um and then our wonderful parents came and helped volunteer and run the different centers. Okay. And then in November, our kindergarten through 2 grade class um classes came together and they did a beautiful performance for their families um and friends. Um our kindergarten through second grade teachers worked extremely hard on this presentation. Um so what they did is they mixed the kids together, kindergarten, first and second. Some of the kids were telling jokes, some were
129reading a poem, some were singing a song, and then they all came together at the end and did one big song. So our teachers worked really really hard on it. It was wonderful performance. Um while they were doing that, our leadership class um they were in the back um cooking everybody breakfast. So they made turkey pancakes um and then served it to our kindergarten through 2 grade families um and friends. Um at the end of November, we made it through trimester 1 and um so in early December, we held our awards um ceremony. Lots of students earned wonderful awards from um honor roll to reading achievement, math achievement. Um so these are just some of the pictures, but every grade level had several kids on stage. It was really awesome to see. Um, and then
130of course, because why not, we celebrated the 67th day of school. Um, so on the 67th day of school, when the kids arrived, there were posters all over reminding them that it was the 67th day of school. Um, staff wore shirts that reminded them that it was the 67th day of school. Um, they use that as an opportunity to do fun math projects and art projects. Um, so that was a really fun experience and I think the number has maybe kind of gone away a little bit. Um, so that was really fun. Uh, in December, early December, our kindergarten through 2 graders went on their first field trip. Um, so they went to the to ochres to the talking bear and they decorated our Wasume tree. Um, so each class got to put on their
131the individual ornaments that they made and then of course our wonderful leadership class again went and helped the kiddos. Um, it's kind of a a management thing with getting the kids safely off the bus back on having them put it on the tree. Um, so those kids, our middle schoolers down at the bottom helped with that. And then up at the top are our wonderful teachers who put all of this together. Um, December was an extremely busy month for us just with all of the fun, you know, festivities. We try to make it a really, really fun month just because they're so excited that we just eat into it. Um, so Mrs. Mack did her annual jingle bell run. Um, so students just walk around the black top um, listening to Christmas music and then
132at the end we were going reward them with some hot cocoa. Um, we also did a spirit week during the month of December with lots of different things. So you can see that there. Um and we had a very special visitor join us um the Elf on the Shelf came one of those days. Um PTC uh PTC sponsored um Santa pancakes for us. So this was just another fun festivity um during the month of December. They make um Santa pancakes for all grade levels, K8. Um so our middle schoolers helped serve um kiddos kindergarten through fifth grade and then um we allowed our fifth graders to kind of step in and get a little taste of what it you know looks like to support and they help serve the middle schoolers. Um our fourth through
133eighth graders have been working on our new history curriculum. So Mrs. Zamati's eighth grade history class. Um this was their first um big history project. So um students looked at different historical figures. Um created presentations and then what they had to do is they essentially had a scavenger hunt where we're out there in the picture. They had to walk around and um answer the questions that were on their paper. And it was a really fun activity. The kids were very engaged um focused on answering the questions. and you can see from their presentations that they did an amazing job. Um, our last fourth season that just ended was girls soccer and boys basketball. They worked really hard all season and um, girls soccer took third place at our tournament and then um, our boys basketball
134team took second. So, they had a really great season. And then, um, at the end of the month, we ended December with our, um, winter showcase. So, um, students, kindergarten through fifth grade, went up together. Um, and so what happened is Mrs. Dench, Mr. Swiggart, and our amazing classroom teachers worked really hard for probably the last few months putting together songs. Um the fourth and fifth graders played their recorders um and put on a very beautiful show for us. Um I can't even It was amazing. The teachers did a fantastic job. Um we also in that picture you can see some of the older girls. We had a middle school group join. Um they put together their own performance and then they were able to show us at the end. So thank you so much.
135Um, we're so excited for what spring's going to bring. Fall is very exciting. >> Thank you, Taran. We appreciate that report. Looks like a lot of amazing things happening. Let's move on to item 11, the superintendent report. Okay, I'll going to go ahead and read this. I will also attach it to the agenda. Um, I just had it attached it because I made some last minute changes before we came over to the meeting. Um, I'm first going to talk about attendance. School sites continue to reach out to families regarding how they can be supportive with students who are chronically absent. Beyond digital notifications, our school sites are continuing to provide direct personalized support to families of students facing chronic absenteeism. To further this partnership, I've been working on a Google form to send out to
136families. The survey asks families to share specific challenges that they are facing regarding attendance so that we can better understand how to support them and remove barriers to getting students into the classroom. Differentiated assistance, alternatives to suspension to um address our suspension rate. We continue to have rich productive conversations within our different differentiated assistance committee and with leadership regarding alternatives to suspension. Our focus remains on reducing suspension rates for all students with a specific lens on our students with disabilities. We are actively discussing preventative measures and restorative practices that keep students in the classroom while maintaining a safe learning environment. Next, I wanted to touch um Tara threw out AB218 a few times um this evening, so I wanted to talk about this a little bit. Um I want to extend a special thank you
137to Tara for her advocacy for our district and many others regarding the significant fiscal impact of AB218. This legislation involves liability claims regarding childhood sexual abuse claims that districts are now responsible for paying even in cases where no claims were ever made against the specific district. This is due to the law dramatically extending the timeline for survivors to file claims, moving the age limit from 26 up to the survivor's 40th birthday, and providing look back windows that revived even older claims. These costs are nondiscretionary, meaning they are legal obligations that must be met. This impacts us directly because we belong to a joint powers attorney, a JPA for insurance. Because the law opened the door for so many more claims across the street, across the street. I did not mean to say that. Across the
138state, there is a much larger pool of liability for JPA members to divide and pay more collectively. Terara's advocacy and expertise were recently featured in the San Francisco Chronicle and the Los Angeles Times, highlighting the intense fiscal pressures these statewide liabilities place on local school districts. I thought it was important that people understand what that is when we mention in meetings. And I also want it to be made aware that in the district office we are constantly trying to look at ways that we can reduce spending and we are fierce advocates when we feel like it's not fair. >> And our assessment just for example was 9,000 and now it's 90,000. And that's not something we receive extra funding for. we're just sharing a portion of the cost of everyone's claims and there's no extra
139funding to offset that increase. So that's been challenging for our budget, but we have to pay it. >> Yeah. So she did a lot of work with um that and um we can if people are interested in the link for those articles, we can get those um to them. So we continue to do that. That's all happening in the background. Transportation safety. Our transportation department is currently developing a new system to ensure that the handoff from school transportation to a parent or guardian is even safer and more effective. This initiative aims to streamline our afternoon drop off procedures and provide peace of mind to our families that our precious cargo is accounted for every step of the way. And then lastly, fiscal reality and district sustainability. I want to acknowledge that our current fiscal reality
140is likely causing some stress and anxiety for our staff and families. Please know that I take the responsibility. Sorry. Please know that I take the responsibility of making these difficult decisions extremely seriously. I am committed to working closely with our school board trustees to explore every possibility for our district's future. It is my promise to handle the sensitivities of this situation with the utmost care, kindness, humanity, and transparency as we work to ensure the long-term fiscal health of BLSD. >> Thank you, Superintendent Townsend. We're going to move on to item 12, board member comments. Um, I wanted to mention that I went to both the OES and Wasuma Winter performances. They were both delightful and I visited OCI. Um, that was last week, right? Yeah, I know. Time flies. Um, had a great visit over
141there. Always great to see all the things that are happening at the campuses. Um and then uh I wanted to mention that we're having a board workshop um later this month and we all are reading the book called Governance 2.0 now which I finished and I think it's um going to really help um guide us as we come together to set the direction for this um you know for our district and making sure that everything's aligned you know our goals versus what we're allocating to our budget and um just making sure that that we are working cohesively as a board and um making good decisions for the district. Um, and with that in mind, knowing that we have um some tough times um ahead, you know, I know I can speak for everyone here that
142no one wants, you know, to make any cuts. Um, I worked in Euse Unified um, in the 2000s, early 2000s when the financial collapse happened and I was a classroom teacher and I was literally on the bubble of getting a pink slip and I didn't get a pink slip but everyone belonged and I know that that terror um because I was the bread winner and um and then the fallout of just losing colleagues, losing aids, everything that comes along with that. I I've lived it and so I will take everything that happens here and I know the board will as well that incredibly seriously when we're making those whatever cuts we have to make we will do them as judiciously as we can and trying to protect the educational integrity of of our district and
143keep that in mind. So thank you. >> I'm going this way now. Yeah. Oh, okay. I'm sorry. We're starting with Stephen. >> Oh, we did. I'm sorry. Um, okay. So, um, on a lighter note, um, I guess mass is starting Friday and, um, so I have volunteered again to, um, go up there and only do A's cuz I really don't know how to ski and the boot room. But um and I know it is a little cost to the district, but they're uh the the mask program itself, the only thing they pay for is the facility and the insurance. All the people that go up there are all volunteer. Um and I did want to give a shout out to Karen. Um I think her last name is Packard. She's from Raies. She was a
144parent and um she's been a volunteer there. And the kids need to have sunglasses when they come up to ski. and you keep, you know, they just lose them. That just happens, right? And there's always a box of extra ones that they could use and it was dwindling down. 2 years ago, well, last year we didn't do mask, but she took it upon herself to go through the community and get donations and she bought enough sunglasses so that we have them for the kids when they lose them. Um, and I just wanted to remind the principles that, um, it's going to be like a wonderful spring day on Friday. It is. I mean, I was surprised like really we're going to go okay. Um, but um I will say from my experience, especially the new
145skiers, they come bundled up with everything and their gloves and their glasses and their beanies and their hat and it's like and they're trying to carry their their skis with their boots on and they're dripping wet because the skis are heavy and they're walking around. just remind parents to layer cuz it like it literally like I I I was the same way too when I went up there the first time. I'm all bundled up and you literally could probably wear a long sleeve shirt because they're on the snow probably like 11 to 2, maybe 11:30 cuz they eat their lunch first and then they're, you know, packing up the bus by 2:00 to get home and it's like you're on the it's just pure sunshine. So just remind them that they need to layer, especially
146the newer ones cuz they they're very cute but very hot. So anyway, um that's starting this Friday. So >> that's all I have to say. >> No comment for me. >> So I just want to share I'm taking a masters in governance course today. I took four hours of setting direction and tomorrow at 8:30 I have another four hours. So looking forward to that. And I think some of the things they're talking about, we're going to cover in the book that we're reading, our governance 2.0. I probably could have saved some money on that. But anyway, uh I'm happy to be helping uh Mrs. Gwyn in in the kindergarten class again this year. And it kind of feels like a grandma where I could go in for an hour and a half and then goodbye
147and enjoy my little kid time. And these kids, it just they're so precious, especially kindergarteners, and so innocent and just renews my passion of why I'm here. Uh, and want to let everybody know here that that we do take the budget reduction discussion very seriously. So, >> you know, listening to everyone's input. It's not my lane, but I do take it very seriously. I think we all do. >> Okay. Well, but I want to live on a end on a high note, but I'm not sure where this is going to go. But anyway, so I listened to an hour and a half on the California School Board Association breaking down Governor Nuomo's idea on money and uh and it wasn't really very terribly encouraging. You know, the whole state is has lost a lot of
148money. We've got um we're about an $8 billion shortfall which falls down downstream to us and but of note is the uh Governor Nome wanted to um basically steal from the future and and manipulate the uh proposition 98 again where we get our 40% which we count on every year and uh really kick that can down the road and the school board association just said, "No, no, no. We're not going to go for that. We can't sneak that through." And so, they're pretty firm on that. They're pretty firm on the cola at 2.41% statewide. And um I was sort of encouraged because I was hearing that small schools were getting an extra um spit of $30.7 million. Well, we're a small school, but the cut off was at 97 kids. It's so none of our
149schools are below 97. So, we're either going to get smaller or bigger, you know, on this one. Anyway, so it was it was educational, but I I know that these two are going to get more out of that going up there in person. And it's still up in the air. They're going to be uh revealing more details on February 1st, I hear. So, we don't know. There's a lot. But but in any case, we still we can't skirt our issues. You know, we've got to we're going to have to tighten the the shoelaces and the budget and everything somewhere along the line. And so anyway, that's my comments. >> All right. Uh number 13, future agenda items. So usually this sorry usually this time of year the audit report is presented at this board meeting
150but this year the auditors and the county we requested an extension because they didn't release the full audit guide to the auditors until very recently. So um that extension was approved by the state for most districts because none of the auditors could finish without all the guidelines they need to audit. So I know you usually expect that at this meeting. Um, our auditor is not available when we have our next meeting to come present, but she can come to the March meeting and present the audit report and I've already cleared this with the county. You have up till March 15th and our meeting is March 11th. So, we'll be fine with that. But, I just wanted to put that out there in case you know, usually, hey, usually we go over the audit report at
151this meeting kind of what's going on. That's why I got pushed back today. I was working on some documents. So, it's almost complete. Um, but it'll be ready to be presented in the future. And if you want to see it before the meeting, I'll have the report probably in a week or two before the March meeting if you want to do that. >> Also coming up um future agenda items, I will make sure we mention the um administrative regulation for the inner district. And then um coming up next month is the uh midyear LCAP report. um need to report on how we're doing towards our goals and our actions um midyear that's due to the state the end of February. So that's typically not this meeting or the February to meet that deadline. So that'll
152be coming up in February also um just off the top of my head things to expect and then um um academic achievement information will be coming as well. Okay, our next meeting date should be this >> February 11th at 5:30. We also have our our board workshop is January 29th, correct? At 3:30. Yes. and we will likely be scheduling a special board meeting. Um, I'd like for Larissa to reach out to you guys regarding that because I have some consulting I need to do. I have some appointments tomorrow on some some of the work that now is going to need to be done and I need to look at um like deadlines and things and so I don't want to accidentally like schedule it like too early or too late but um we're looking at
153probably the second week of February. So be or sorry like that like right before the regular. So maybe the 9th or 10th maybe the end of the week of the second. I'm not quite sure like I said I will have I will have a better idea after a couple meetings that I have tomorrow. So Lissa will reach out to you guys tomorrow. >> Okay. >> And of course that'll be agendaized and put out like all the rules around posting and those those types of things. So people have plenty of notice about when that's going to be. >> Okay. Very good. All right. Um I adjourn this meeting.