001All right. Good evening everyone. Uh we'd like to go ahead and call this special meeting of the Darti Unified School District Board of Education to order at 5:38. Uh we'll go ahead and do a quick roll call. Board member Diaz >> here. >> Board member Finlay here. here. Board member Hoggin >> here. >> Board member Hasso >> here. >> And board member Reyes is absent this evening. Uh we'll go ahead and have our flag salute. Uh Mr. Crosby, our birthday man. >> I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right. Uh then we will go ahead. Uh are there any uh public comments, Mercedes? Oh, sorry. We need to adopt the agenda.
002Thank you very much. You should follow the instructions here. Uh so adoption of the agenda. Um so um yes. So, Dr. Madrono, did you want to announce something about this? >> Yes, correct. >> Good evening, uh, President Finlay. Yes. I would like to announce that we will be pulling item number 11, the resolution, uh, 092526 from the agenda. So, as we adopt this agenda, that will be without that item. >> All right. Thank you very much, Dr. Madano. So, with that board, do I have a motion to approve the or adopt the agenda with the omission of that resolution? >> So, move. Second >> motion by board member Diaz, second by board member Hasso. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor say I. >> I. That passes 4. Uh, all right. And then is
003there any public communication? Mercedes. >> There is none. All right. We can now go ahead and recess to close session. All righty. We are back from close session and no action was taken during that session. Uh so Mercedes, do we have any requests to address the board? All righty. So, we will now go ahead then and move on to uh or I guess Dr. Madano, do you want to go ahead and introduce our uh presenter this evening? >> Yes. Thank you, President Finlay. Um Finley, I would like to introduce our uh assistant superintendent of business services, Miss Tiffany Bell, will be presenting our first interim report this evening for the 2526 school year. Miss Bell. >> Thank you, Dr. Madrono. Good evening board. Tonight I will give you our first interim report. Um budget preparation
004timeline will be the next slide. This preparation timeline provides um the year in review for you so you know where we are when it's time to present each interim or the adopted budget. We are here in December the first interim. This will be from the time period July 1 through October 31st. Next slide please. So what I'd like to do so that you have an idea regarding how we are where we're standing um I provide a slide for you for the adopted budget versus the first interim. The adopted budget was given in June and the first interim is now given in December. The middle column will show you the difference between the adopted budget and first interim. What we like to also make sure that you understand is the budget is fluid. It is ever
005changing. And so understanding that the adopted budget are are preliminary assumptions of where we think we will go in fiscal year 2526. First interim is a place and time. And so you will notice differences between the adopted budget and first interim. So reading across and we will leave the differences out until we read over to the right hand side. You see your revenues at adopted budget were about $52 million. Your expenses $56 million. At first interim the revenues were $56 million and you will notice the expenses were approximately $65 million. You will look down at your initial surplus and deficit and in your restricted funds you will see that there's a $12 million deficit. In this $12 million you will notice that partial of that is your sped special education funding and at least $2
006million in other programs. On the right hand side in first interim you'll notice that our restricted budget is approximately $2 million which le I'm sorry $10 million which leaves a total of about $9 million. the difference of about $5 million. So, I want you to look at the difference on your expenses. The difference in expenses in unrestricted about $7.3 million. Um, I believe it was in June, we discussed a settlement with OFY. The settlement was $7 million. So, this is your unrestricted the $7 million here. And the $7 million will go throughout this whole entire um presentation, but I want to make sure that you notice the $7 million because it will find itself again. And you will notice that the deficit continues to increase. If you look at your total deficit at $9 million
007on the right hand side on first interim, it takes into account the $7 million. But once you take the $7 million out, you notice that we're back to where we always said we were about $3 million. You go down to transfers in and out. There are none. Contributions. The contributions are on the unrestricted side and it what it does is it's like a wash in wash out. It's $10 million. A part of that $10 million is $8 million for sped and at least $2 million for routine maintenance allowance. That's what we pay of what our maintenance cost. So if you look at this number and then you go over to the first interim, you'll notice it again washes out about $10 million. and then it's $10 million and restricted is zero. So what happens is
008if you go back up to the surplus deficit, you'll see that our deficit is mainly about $10 million. So the deficit comes down to the contribution. So it's basically sped and RMA for the most part in your deficit and then it goes to your contribution which is paid out that way. the total deficit surplus at the bottom. If you look at adopted budget, if your total is about $3 million, and this is where I said we would go back to about $3 million. If you look at it going across to first interim, you'll see the $9 million because again, that $7 million is trailing behind you. Beginning balance is where we start the year off at. And the beginning balance for the adopted budget is approximately $18 million. That adopted budget. That's what we believed
009it to be. If you go over to first interim, you will see the beginning balance is approximately $29 million. Again, it's your $10 million. Your your $7 million following you trying to catch up to where we were. Your ending balance is where we end the year with and then it becomes your next year's beginning balance. So, if you look at your beginning balance total and your adopted budget, we said it could possibly about $14 million. There's a correction on this slide on the first interim um and ending balance. It says it's the same as the beginning balance. That number is incorrect. The number should be 19 million843278. The corrected ending balance for first interim should be 19 million 843278. My apologies. your third your 3% total expense would be your total expenses 3% of that.
010So you would go back up to unrestricted if you're looking at the adopted budget on the left hand side the second row $33 million $33 million 3% of that. If you go back down to 3% is about approximately $1.7 million. you go over to the first interim is about $1.9 million because you took 3% of the $40 million in total expenses. The difference is approximately $269,000. Now, your committed leftover is money that said this is in your unrestricted funds. You'll see the aster says what is committed leftover? It is your unrestricted ending balance. So, if you're on the adopted budget side, you will look at the I'm sorry, your unrestricted ending balance, $9 million. So, this revolving cash is approximately $8,500. It's not on the sheet, but it's in our books. Is about $8,500. It
011hasn't changed since I've been here, minus your economic uncertainties. That's the $8 million. Now, if you go over to first interim, we have $10 million as your committed leftover. So, why is this important? Because we're still deficit spending and we want to make sure we keep this balance and it's committed to make sure there's money put away for us in case of cash flow, fiscal solveny. But I want you to take into account this $10 million there is um to pay a month worth of salaries is $3.8 million. So this $10 million is short of two and a half month salaries if we had to go and get money. This is where we would come to >> next. Sorry misspell the so one month of payroll is how much again? >> Approximately $3.8 million. >>
0123.8. Thank you. >> You're welcome. The next slide is our multi-year pro projection assumptions. This covers 2526, 2627, and 2728. So again, you'll notice that our revenues in 2526, 56 million, and our expenses, the $65 million. If you go over um to 2627, you'll see that we're starting to line back up where we usually are where our our revenue is about 56 million, expense 57 million. 2728 we look at our revenue about 55 million and our expenses at 58 million. So I want you to notice that the consistency of where we are and historically we're always approximately between two and $3 million short overspending in our expenses versus the revenues taken in. So this this just shows you what we showed you in first interim 2526 on the slide below but it also gives you
013a projection for 2627 and remember these are all assumptions as to what we're doing in the 2728. Next slide please. I'm sorry before we go the committed leftover you'll see in 2526 is approximately $10 million. you see that it starts to go down to approximately 9.2 million and in 2728 5.8 million. Again, remember that it takes $3.8 million to run one month of payload. Our next slide is funded ADA and our UP count. Our funded ADA is based upon a three-year average. So this is this means that our actual on the right hand side shows you that this is what we have in ADA say 2,629 students but our funded ADA is based on the average of our actual ADA. So we're actually getting compensated revenues for 2780. Our upp count has was down um
014last year and now we went up by two points um at 65.29% and in 2526 is 67.61%. Remembering that our UP count provides funding for us for supplemental concentration. If we go below 55% we lose our supplemental concentration and that money is approximately $6 million. And Miss Belt, so with the um that 55% is that like a phase out or once you hit 55 you get nothing? >> Once you get 55 you get nothing. The closer you get to 55, you start losing money. But when you get to 55, you lose it. >> So at what at what percent do you start losing money? >> The closer >> I guess I'm wondering, are we getting close at 67? >> We're 67. We're okay. >> Okay. >> Because we used to be around 70. So we're
015still in the 60s. We're good. Okay. >> We'd like to >> I was um I was just going to add that the funding is per pupil. So that's why if as the percentage goes down the money gets less because you get money connected to the number of students. So but once you get the 55 then you lose that additional grant funding the supplemental and concentration right does that make sense? >> That's what so and and part of the question too Dr. Finley is that we mentioned before, I think a couple years ago, it was on one of the slides. I believe it was like 88,000 per percentage point. Now it's $101,000 um per percentage point. So it went up, but we went down. But so it still seems like it balanced more so because we
016were at 72 getting 88,000 and now we're at 67 getting 101,000. So, so we haven't noticed a big decline in it, although the numbers are are a lot lower that we but it increased in the actual compensation that we received. So, our streams of revenue. So, I wanted to make sure that these are potential streams of revenue and things that we've looked at before. So, our developer fees, we went through that before. We there's a lot of building going under. So we receive de developer fees all the time but our developer fees can be used for classrooms not based on salaries or anything like that. It has to be used in the classroom. Um we have grants to subside um subsidize the cost for our projects. So when we do all these bond projects then
017we submit them back to the state and then we can get rebates back. And that's what we're doing now and that's what we've continued to do. And but those monies too have to be put back into the schools some type of way. We can't use that for salaries. Our arts and music um prop 28 we have three years um of about three years of funding for that. Our projected enrollment decreased by 160. We have a new um resource as one-time funds for student support and professional development. We've received about 75% of that grant. um a potential of increase in CS Arts enrollment based upon our sixth graders. The ground lease the future ground lease development um our redevelopment agencies that we talked about before that we still have at least another 12 years and about
018$30,000 for that and that would be with Monrovia and ASUSA our Deward agencies have have been paid out. Our UPP count increase this slide also needs a correction. It is not $15,000. Um that is incorrect. It is the $101,000. Um our international students program is doing very well in spite of what's going on in the world and we have a potential of ADA recovery from our attendance recovery program that we're looking into. Next slide please. So our general fund expenditures, everybody likes to see the dollar. So this is where we are here. You see, uh, people say that's neat, but you know what? I looked at all the CBOS across California. We all use it. So, no one's unique in this. It just seems to be what people seem to like and they get a
019better visual for it. And so, there was a question of our services um or like 23%. again. And the capital and other the second to the last column is that $7 million. It keeps finding us because we paid this out of other and this is where that is and you see it hit there. Um our certificated and classified and benefits about 60% where usually it's about 80% once we get rid of the services and I'm sure we will top back out. But these are the percentages on how our general fund fund one expenditures are utilized. We thought we added a new slide for you because we wanted to make sure that you understood our structural deficit. So on the left hand side that's where that's millions. And so you will see that for the last
020since 2011 we've had a structural deficit. You'll see that during our COVID years, it's bracketed off for you that we were we were doing pretty well. And then after CO went away, we went to went back to where we usually are. The very thin line that you see is our unrestricted fund balance. And so you'll see that the blue line, the very thin trace line is our unrestrict unrestricted fund balance. And at our highest point, we were when we had COVID, we were almost like $23 million in unrestricted funds. And you'll see it now in 25 26 26 27 and you see that it's starting to go down. So I wanted to make sure there's a picture of our structural deficit that this is not something new that this has been going on for at
021least 10 to 15 years. Our next slide is our district reserve requirement. So this information was given to you before regarding what we should hold in our fund balance. I want to make sure that we understand that we're talking about fund balance, not fund 17. That's a different fund. This presentation is only on the general fund, fund one. And so you want to see that our fund balance that we took to board and resolutions that we would like approximately the Gatsby says between 15 to 17%. And we said 17%. And if you look in the middle column, it shows you what percentage that our fund balance is. and what we projected to be um in the in the two out years and we've also put the fourth year >> and um misspelled that um the
022unodudited actuals for 2425 where it was almost 40%. Did that include that $7 million? Yes. Okay. All right. So that's why it looks >> the seven just keeps them like a bad penny, right? >> Yes. Okay. >> Yes. So it's almost over. That 7 million will be like a nightmare. We're almost gone with that. So these are the reserve requirements why it matters. So we want to make sure that I like I explained to you before about the unrestricted funds and the committed balance. We want to make sure that there's money for cash flow, for emergencies, for the multi-year planning, and for employee compensation and benefit. We want to make sure that this is here and we want to make sure if if something were to happen drastic, we could go to a someplace in
023our fund and be able to access this money to support our staff and our students, >> our fund cash balance. >> Oh, sorry. Uh so the I seem to remember um several years ago we forgive me because I don't remember the name of it but there was I guess a loan we get from LEO and because there was like delayed funding coming from the state which then put us in a little bit of a bind so we borrowed money from LEO which we then had to pay back. Um when when we do that because we don't have an adequate fund balance uh do we end up paying interest to LEGO for that? Ah okay. So there there is a real cost to doing something like that. Okay. >> They like us but not that much.
024There's interest on it. >> All right. No free lunches, huh? >> No. >> Okay. >> So our fund cash balance or is this shows you that all our funds fund one through fund 76 are all positive. And this is a good sign. So board um the certification means that a positive certification means we will meet our financial obligations for the current and two subsequent years. A qualified certification means we may not meet our financial obligation for the current or two subsequent years. And a negative certification means we are unable to meet our financial obligation for those three years. Our recommendation to the board is that we certify positive and because we certify positive we a budget stabilization plan is not necessary and so we will submit this upon your approval to LEGO in the morning
025with the positive certification. Are there any questions? All right, board members, any questions for Miss Bell? I know that that uh most if not all of us had a chance to talk to Miss Bell um about some questions we had. Um but if there's any uh further clarifications or questions that you would like to bring up, now would be a great time to do that. >> I know that we we have the opportunity to speak to Mrs. Well, but I also would like to ask some questions uh since we are recording this this uh session and so we there might be people that will have some questions and they will be able to see it through this. Um can you just uh remind us what happened? When was the last time that we uh were
026in this situation of certification? the positive certification. We have certified positive at the adopted budget. Um and that was in June, second interim and first interim of last year. And then the budget, the adopted budget prior to that we were positive. Second interim the year before that we were qualified, meaning we would not our obligations in the third year out >> and how long it took us to get out of that qualification. I mean I remember that we went through a lot and we had long conversations but I can't remember the frame time that you know >> we were assigned a fiscal expert and you know I don't want to go on the records in the exact date but we were assigned the fiscal expert I believe in February January or February and then we
027did maybe that was first interim and then it was second interum and we had to file qualified We were assigned a fiscal expert and we were assigned that fiscal expert until September of that year, but we worked hard and we turned the budget around and then we filed um positive at the adopted budget. So from second interim, then we did a third interum. Off the top of my head, I believe we did and then we did a positive certification. So it was two reporting periods and then the fiscal expert was released. He was supposed to be released in September, but he was released in June. >> And and the reason that I asked this is because I know that sometimes um the community might think that we do have a lot of millions of dollars
028in in here. But um but also I know that we have gone through tough times. >> Yes, ma'am. and and it was not easy to show the mis I mean to see the mistakes that we had that we had to go through but I remember that was tough to be one and one of the the board members being in front of people from the county and you know and for us to tell us the mistakes that we make and basically I felt like they were saying well you made that wrong decision and so um for me to to have this this um session today is very important because we have the numbers and we have everything that we need to have the information that we need to make the right decisions because at the end
029you go through the whole preparation but it's our respons responsibility as elected officials to represent the community and that's our role to make sure that we have all the information that you provide and go through that in order to us to make the right decisions. >> Yeah. >> So, I I really appreciate that the time that we are that we have today this this session, but I do have um or member Raina, can I I'm guess may I add to that in that that we work to move the budget to the positive that we did have um members of LEO come to speak to the board. We did go through a thick map fiscal analysis and and audit. We did have school services come in and do an audit. We did have a facilities master
030plan done and we did do a demographic study. So all these things were done to ensure that we could produce a positive. >> Right. So a lesson that we learned. Okay. Um I do have in the streams of revenue. I have a question for you like um uh if you can just um give us more uh information about the redevelopment agency funds for the next 12 years. >> Can you elaborate a little bit more in that? >> I can probably get you the exact information, but off the top of my head, this is when we the agencies these were properties in the area. So it was Darty, Marovia and ISUsa and that we could these properties were then moved and then we can get money from those properties. And so because of that the redevelopment
031agencies produce money for us to get for the next 30 years and I produce I've presented it before but I can get the information for you where it shows for Monrovia how much money we get for these how many properties are left in ISU and what we can get. for the dwarty properties in the unincorporate area. We've already exhausted those. >> No. And and and I am sorry that I'm asking this, but I this is one of the my questions that I have. And also about the up count increase for 65 to 67 up to 2.15K. That's exactly the pupil. >> This is the UP. So the up count is the unduplicated um count of students. It's homeless English language learners. So any associate economic >> and so this is where we get when we
032ask for the applications to be completed in your registration packets. And so this is where this is this 15,000 is incorrect. >> It's the 101676 per % is what we get, but we actually get $3,559 per student. >> Thank you. Uh and last the last question that I have the students from CSR the enrollment that we have at the um specifically at Maxwell and Bersley those students are the one that we keep the ADA and the other ones that come straight to CSR we don't Right. >> The sixth through eight. >> The sixth grade. Uhhuh. Right. Those are the ones that are >> six through eight. >> That counts at our ADA. >> Yes. >> But not the high school. >> No, not the high school. >> Perfect. Okay. And that's a question that I
033know, but I want to make sure to ask because there's some community people that keep asking and so I just want to them to hear from an expert. Thank you. >> All right. Thank you very much, board member Diaz. Any other questions from the board? I I do I do have I guess um more more of a comment. Um, I think as as some people know, uh, the California School Boards Association meeting took place in Sacramento, uh, last week and, uh, we had the opportunity to attend that and, uh, it was not surprising, but it was interesting to hear in talking to schoolboard members throughout the state and administrators throughout the state. Um this this story that we are looking at here in Darti, this budget story is uh it's not a unique one. Um
034it is up and down the state. Um everybody's dealing with this and we're all we're all trying to figure out the best way to to deal with it. And so it's it's a it is a challenge. There there are are things happening hopefully in Sacramento that will help alleviate some of this. Um but it really is it it does seem like in general school funding is based on um school districts that are growing in size and very very few districts in the state are growing. Um and so we're trying to figure out the best way to allocate the limited resources that we that we do have. So um I just wanted to to bring that up so that the community knows that this is this is not a Darty only thing. This is this is
035throughout the state. So, I think that's important to to let people know um that we're all we're all fighting kind of the same fight and um I think we're doing a good job here in Diy. I mean, there's obviously room for improvement. Um but I think we're we are trying to take the bull by the horns as best we can. So, thank you very much for your presentation and this information, Miss Bell. >> May I? >> Yes. I I just want to ask if um do that we have any plans and process to bring international students this we are >> yes >> okay thank you >> um let me add one more thing so because of the two typos in this report we will send out an updated report so you can have the correct
036numbers so I want the community to understand that there's a correction on the ending balance in the first interim that it should read 19 843 3278. And on the streams of revenue slide, it should the 15,000 is incorrect per student. It should read $3,559 per student. >> Well, help me if you can send. Yes, at least however >> Okay. Thank you. that information. Thank Thank you. >> All right. Dr. Madrono, I think you wanted to say something. I just want to thank uh Miss Bell and her team for taking the time to put this together and to also field the questions that came in before the meeting and during the meeting. So, thank you for the the work on this and over the years. So, I'm just happy to be collaborating with you all now
037and moving forward. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Excellent. Thank you. All right. Any other comments from the board? >> Um I just wanted to a comment slashquest. >> I keep looking at you like come on. So I so when we look at our contributions so moving the funds from unrestricted to restricted and you name sped as special education as being kind of one of the heavy hitters in that area >> and you know when we see these the these red numbers on our budget the terminology that gets thrown around a lot is overspending. the district's overspending. But I'd like to just point out for the public, and correct me if I'm wrong, and please add clarification, it's not that we're overspending, it's that we're underfunded on mandated issues. And so special education is legally
038mandated. We have IDA. Students have to have a free and appropriate public education in a least restrictive environment. There's all these parameters that cost dollars. And it's not that we're overspending, it's that we're underfunded. And so I just want the public, the community to um be aware of that. I appreciate that. There's um that is exactly what it is. We're underfunded. Um there's no fund for special ed. Like there's fund one, there's fund for cafeteria, there's fund for, you know, the bonds, there's funds for all these things, but not special ed. And that's a issue in all school districts. And this is where you see all the school districts are bleeding in this spot because there's no specific money set aside for special ed. You're correct. Thank you for that. I had one more question.
039So, when we were looking at the general fund expenditures, um it's obvious that the majority of our funding does go to our staffing. Um and uh sometimes it'll come up that oh well all the money is going to the top all the money is going to the management. So from that certificated salary specifically so the 29.9% could you give us a breakdown of how much of that is going to staff so teachers? >> My pleasure. >> Huh? >> My pleasure. >> Oh okay. Well, staff, but then also administration. So, that would be like site principles and then man managerial uh certificated. So, >> um what does that breakdown look like? >> So, our general fund for DU for teachers is 58.78% 58.78%. >> For CSEA is 30.58%. >> Certificated management is 9.05%. and classified management
040is 1.59%. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> All right. Well, if there's no other questions or comments, uh, Miss Bell, thank you so much for putting that together. And I I did really appreciate uh Laura's comment about overspending and underfunded. Um that that was something I think that really surprised me when uh I learned that the special education funding is I believe from the federal government was supposed to be 40% and the highest it's ever been funded was 11%. So little bit of a shortfall there. So um all right well I think um if we have no other questions then we can go ahead and um thank you very much for the presentation Miss Bell. We can now go ahead and then move on to item number 12 on here. Um is to go
041ahead and vote on accepting the first interim financial report for the period ending in uh ending on October 31st, 2025. So do I have a motion to accept? >> Accepting or approving? >> I I think we are approving. Okay. Thank you. >> Just checking. >> Yes, we are to approve. >> All right. Second. So we have a motion to approve by board member Hasso, second by board member Oin. Is there any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor say I. >> I. >> All right. That is approved. Four to zero. Uh, all right. Then the last item on our agenda is the adjournment. So do I have a motion to adjurnn? >> So move. >> Motion by board member Diaz, second by board member Hginin. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor say I.
042>> I. Thank you very much, board, and thank you everyone for coming this evening.