Cedar Falls Board of Education Meeting, April 14, 2025

001Good evening and welcome to the Cedar Falls Board of Education meeting. It's Wednesday, sorry, Monday, April 14th. Um, thanks for tuning in and being in attendance, everyone that is here. Uh, we do have a fairly full agenda tonight. Uh, and there is all city band tonight at 7 p.m. which, uh, Denny will cut this feed and go to the all city band feed at 7 p.m., which will be a lot nicer to hear than us. So, if we are still in session at that time, uh we will be cut off, but I I don't think we will be. So, I would like to call this meeting to order. Uh the first uh item on our agenda tonight is a public hearing for the 2025 summer roofing projects. I have in my possession an affidavit of

002publication showing that the notice of time and place of hearing for the 2025 roofing projects. This notice was published in the Waterl Cedar Falls Courier on April 1st, 2025. The board will now hold a hearing. Is there anyone here that would like to comment on the 2025 roofing projects? Okay. Hearing none, this uh hearing is closed. And the next item on our agenda is another public hearing uh for propo proposed property tax notice. I have in my possession an affidavit of publication showing that the notice of time and place of hearing for the proposed property tax levy notice for fiscal year 2025 through 2026. This notice was published in the Waterl Cedar Falls Courier on March 27th, 2025. The board will now hold a hearing. Is there anyone in the audience that would like to

003uh comment on the proposed property tax levy notice? Okay. Hearing none, uh, this hearing is closed. We'll move on now to our consent agenda, which is a very standard agenda. No special topics tonight. Uh, approval of our agenda tonight, as well as approval of board meeting minutes from last meeting, approval of accounts payable, our open enrollment report, and HR report. Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda? So move. Is there a second? Second. Okay. All in favor say I. I. I. All oppose say nay. Motion carries. We will now move to uh item E on our agenda which is public comment. Um so just for awareness uh we hold this on every board meeting that we have. It's a place for um anyone in the community to come and offer uh public comment

004to the board. Uh we did have one person reach out. Is she here tonight? Okay. Um so we will close public comment then and move on to item F of our agenda which is our communications section. So, uh, Miss Schmidtaki from the high school is not here tonight for our student board representative. Uh, but we do have some special guests from our elementary buildings. Um, so just to remind everyone, we're we're on a monthly cadence to try to bring people in from our school community to share about some of the things going on in our community. We feel this is a good way to sort of tell the story of Cedar Falls schools um and be able to just celebrate with some of the really cool things that are happening in the district. So we

005have Kelly Cota and uh Savannah Sesca here to uh give a report on our CKLA curriculum. So welcome tonight. All right. Thank you so much for having us. Our goal tonight is to just share with you some of the updates and some of the really great work that's been happening in our elementary since the implementation of our CQLA, which is our ELA, our English language um arts curricular materials that we began adopting two years ago. And I'd like to just start by saying thank you for your support. It was a financial investment uh for this adoption. And so hopefully you can get a little lens into what it's looking like in our classrooms tonight. The goal is to just sort of share a little bit about teacher learning and execution as well as highlight some

006of the student experience and hopefully share with you some outcomes that it's had on student learning. Um, one of the things that's been pivotal in this particular material and also one of the reasons why it was selected is uh the research behind teaching foundational skills. We knew our kids needed to have a researchbased systematic and explicit way to understand how to learn learn the reading process. And so in our K through 2 grade classrooms, this is a very common structure by which kids are learning how to read. They're often learning about and hearing sounds, how to manipulate different parts of words, starting with there are words and sentences. There are syllables and words. Each word has sound parts and each of them are then represented by phone names or graphimmes if you're talking about them

007in print. And so you'll see this routine often in our K2 classrooms of kids listening to words, saying words, reading words, and writing words. And there's a lot of um cypical work that happens around hear it, say it, read it, write it, write it, read it, say it, read it. Um and so there's a lot of connections to that in our lower grades. In kindergarten through 2 grade, our kids have two different 60inute blocks of time every day that they're working in the CLA materials. 60 minutes are contributed to what we call the skills block where they're doing this this work of hear it, say it, read it, write it with both sounds, letters, and words and then putting that into application in an actual what we call decodable text. So it's a controlled passage,

008controlled story that is practicing the exact phonics patterns that they're learning during that skills block. So it's just in time application and practice of the skills that they're they're learning in the whole group setting. Another 60-minute portion of their day is called the knowledge block and kids call it that as well. We love knowledge. Um and that is the time where they're using content specific topics to help kids build vocabulary, listen to great stories, learn content knowledge through topics that are of high interest. Um it it practices speaking and listening skills. Kids are turning and talking to one another about the text that's being read aloud to them. um and so that they're building their comprehension of topics that you would be really surprised to hear um that kids are learning about in some of

009our primary grades. The time spent on ELA really shifts beginning in third grade all the way through sixth grade. And in those grade levels, they spend 75 to 120 minutes per day in CKLA. And kids often refer to it as ELA and their schedule. Now, we've learned all of the foundational skills for reading and we're putting them together. Kids now beginning in third grade have the skills for being able to decode any of the words that they can encounter and they're reading some pretty hefty text to learn a lot of really cool things. So, starting in third grade, they spend a lot of time doing the actual reading themselves of intense text and they're building knowledge again of those high interest topic areas. They're building vocabulary that's connected to that topic area. They're reasoning. They're

010writing about what they're reading. They're learning how to fold in text evidence uh to understand what what an author is talking about um and how they're actually putting those things together uh to both read about interesting content, write about interesting content, making compare and contrast, and using lots of evidence across multiple texts to um justify what they've learned and um to do a lot of comparison. This is often referred to what's called Scarbor's rope. It is a visual used in a lot of research around the science of reading. This particularly was taken from CKLA. This is the visual they use to sort of show the work that goes between both of these areas. In the blue, you see all of those skills, the sounds, the letters, and the words that our K2 kids are learning

011in a 60-minute skills block. In the orange and the yellow, you see all of the the skills that are taught during the knowledge block in all of our grades. And the more that we expose kids to both of those things, they become very tightly weaved together to the point where you see skilled reading. And so, um, while kids become increasingly strategic, they also become increasingly automatic in being able to do that with less and less scaffold, less and less support, more and more independent until that rope is very tightly woven together. And you have both a very skilled reader who can attack text on their own without support and they can make great meaning of the text. And now we're le they're we're they're learning how to read to learn brand new information. A little

012bit about our student experience. At the very end of many of our knowledge units, our teachers have gotten very creative and innovative around celebrating learning. And what you see here are just some pictures from classrooms across our elementary buildings. first grade they had they spent an entire unit on the human body and our first graders had a surgery day with donations from Mercy 1 who is a partner in education with us. Fifth grade just finished a Shakespeare unit and they all got to perform. Kids who also play an orchestra brought in their instruments to um fold that talent into their presentation after they collaborated on some of those durable skills um as a culminating activity at the end of their unit. Our kindergarten um has a knowledge unit on kings and queens. A lot of

013history learned in that unit and many of our buildings celebrated at the end of that with getting to dress up like kings and queens having a tea party that particular day. And the picture on the other side is um of an astronomy unit and students inside of a star lab. Um astronomy shows up as a content topic in both first and third grade. Uh, so kids getting to experience constellations after they've learned about them inside the star lab that actually came to Orchard Hill. Next, you're going to get to hear just a few stories from kids um about their experience and their perception of CKLA. My name is Maddie and my favorite knowledge is learning about kings and queens and I like dressing up as a queen for the day. My name is Memphis and

014I um did eight sounds in a sentence and um I love doing beats and sounding out words for um math and stuff. My name is M. My name is Daxton and I'm in second grade. My favorite and my favorite knowledge unit is the Civil War because I like how they got rid of slavery. My name's Jocelyn and I'm in second grade. My favorite knowledge lesson was tell tales and fairy tales because I like hearing make believe stories. Right now we're learning about immigration and we just finished the human body. Hi, my name is Marbel and I'm in sixth grade. And one thing I really enjoyed about ELA is the writing. Uh, I especially enjoyed learning about citations, like the quotes. Like, you can't have the quote be too long or too short, and you have

015to put the author's number and the paragraph number. And since we learned all about that, my writing has gradually improved. Hi, I'm Izzy Davis and I'm in sixth grade. My favorite unit in ELA is the summer of the Mariposas because we get to compare and contrast that from other units. Thank you. So, um yeah, as the students were sharing right there, we do a lot of crosscontent work. Um, and so it it makes for a really nice blend into our science, social studies, mathematics, and we really are trying to build common skills across all content areas. Um, I am Kelly Cota, by the way. I am the associate director of curriculum and instruction in Cedar Falls, and I'm new this year, so I'm excited to be here. Um, so yeah, as you can see, like

016we work on farms and seasons and light and sound and geology and exploration and presidents and um and nights and all the good stuff, medieval times, and the kids really do love it and engage as you could see in that previous video. So, some of our district-wide evidence here um to just share. As I'm sure you all know, you don't just um purchase a large set of materials as we did without proper learning and planning and preparation for our educators. And so that has taken some major partnerships to ensure that that happens. Just getting materials and having them in your on your shelf doesn't mean high quality instruction happens, right? It's not automatic. So we had um a continued partnership which has been extremely positive with Amplify um very responsive group of people that have

017supported us with use of materials and more of that uh content questions as as they come up. In addition, um we as a school district are partnering with Iowa Reading Research Center um to support our work and continue this learning um and making sure as Savannah mentioned um that that our educators have a full understanding of science of reading practices um when delivering using the CQLA materials. We also have a more uh localized support through our A.E.A. um we have reading consultants that that come in to help our reading teachers. um again embedding these practices. So we have alignment between the classroom and what our students are receiving through title reading supports um and our instructional coaches. So again alignment across all entities um with the material and with best practice in literacy instruction. Um

018we also had um teachers through our state level who had the option to be trained in letters. Um and to date we've trained over 50 um elementary teachers in in letters training which is science of reading. You can see that acronym stands for language essentials for teachers of reading and spelling. So just some big moves that um that have to come alongside any curricular adoption. This our current data. So, as you can see, um, the fall of 20 2023 would have been baseline. So, it's kind of where we started. Um, and and what this is is screening data. So, screening data is designed to cast a wide net. So, it gives us a a warning of students that may be at risk for not meeting an endofear benchmark or meeting um a benchmark um on

019a on a summitive assessment. It just it's really intended to catch more. So you're going to see that these scores may be a tad bit lower than than for instance our ISASP scores because that's more of a standardsbased assessment. It's does a different job. So we started at 75. Um you can see we we went up there in the winter, went down again in spring. It's very common with implementation to kind of bounce around until you kind of get that all of that support and learning in place for teachers. Implementation is in place. super common that you do what what is called an implementation dip. Um but as you can see fall of this year a little bit of also what you've probably heard of summer slide does occur and um we started our fall

020at 74% but had a nice rebound this winter at 77 and look forward to our spring uh screening that's coming up here in the beginning of May. So that will be a little more recent recent screening data for us. To put that into perspective, we serve about three around 3,000 um students. Um one percentage point would be a difference of about 30 kids. So gaining so as you can see from fall to winter, that would have been a jump of about 90 kids that started the year not at benchmark that then were at benchmark by uh winter. And then just another piece of data here for you to for you to look at. Um this verse on the side you can see like this is our district-wide so CF that's us um at 76% this

021would have been pre-adoption data um and then the AEA percentage and the Iowa percentage so well above those two um indicators there and then you can see our K6 again screening data so a little different measure um and then you can see that was that was prior to our adoption. And then this was our most current screening. So you can kind of see what happened there across our grade levels. Um with a with a major celebration with our kindergarten um starting to see kind of the impacts of this science of reading that we have 85% of our kindergarteners in the winter that were indeed at benchmark. um the expectations of that screening do change moving into first grade. Um and so we do also often see a dip at the beginning of first grade just

022due to new expectations of the screening assessment. Um but then just to show you um to let you kind of track that. So the kids in 2023 that were kindergarteners are now current second graders. So you can kind of see where that data tracks to. um similar jumps around um and a little bit higher up in our at our sixth grade level. So can kind of see how that movement has occurred over time. Any questions about our implementation of CKLA? How has it been managing the roll out? Yeah, that has been an eb and a flow. Uh, obviously it felt like a very large lift right out of the gate. It's been a lot of sidebyside conversations with teachers, lots of coaching and lots of learning as we go. Um, I think every teacher is

023in a little bit of a different place on the journey when it comes to literacy instruction. some who are well veteran teachers who've been in teaching for a long time and it feels as if I'm having to sort of push pause and maybe the way I've always done it to take a little bit of a shift and so we've been intentional in professional development to come alongside staff um through that transition and I think we've done also tried to have a lot of common learning across buildings and districtwide uh to support that but um especially year two always feels better than year one and now that we're coming to the spring side of that I I think staff are in um a comfortable place feeling familiar with the materials and able to um really restore

024the art of teaching, having a guide and also letting their craft um also propel them with their kids to continue making fun and learning engaging experiences for kids while still having a road map on how to get there. Yeah. Is there anything that uh our families can do to help support some of this training? Yeah, I I know that reading always with your child is a is a great thing that anyone can do, directly. Yeah, beyond that, absolutely. It's a great question and we love we love when parents ask that question. So often the thing that families know how to do best is practice math facts and spelling words and so that's what we were accustomed to and that's what we feel most skilled to do. A lot of parents asking about what kinds of

025books can we be reading at home. I hear the kinds of books that they're reading at school might be different than what we're finding at the library. And that is true. This the books that kids are reading as they're learning some of these foundational skills um are called decodable and they're very p they're very um skillbased and they're very well controlled on purpose to include the patterns and phonics skills that they've learned to this point but nothing more than in order to not create confusion or frustration to decode words that they have not yet been taught the patterns for. And so, um, more than trying to find the right book at the library is just still enjoying good stories together. Uh, lots of good pictures and reading to kids at home talking about the things

026that are happening in stories. We're always adding to those conversations of vocabulary and reasoning and character development uh, that we still want kids to develop while they're on their journey of learning how to read those stories themselves. Yeah. Another question over here. You kind of just touched on a little bit with the math and spelling. Yeah. One question I still get quite a bit is about spelling. Can you maybe speak to because I think I've asked this question in the past about the new curriculum and how that kind of helps address that. Sure. Yeah. Um so many of the words that show up there is there are spelling words that show up in CQLA. Um many of them are tied to sometimes the patterns that are learned in the skills block for our K2 kids.

027And starting in third grade, those words are very content specific. So if we have a unit about astronomy, some of those spelling words are content specific. Are we hoping that kids 100% always master the correct spelling of that word? We'd love for them to be able to apply some of those um syllable types, sound patterns that they've learned during their skill block um in the primary grades to practicing how to spell those. We'd also love to make meaning of those as we're learning them and we're tying them into content. So the goal is that um students would have the access to um be exposed to those spelling words. We'd be developing some vocabulary routines in the classroom to acquire those into their oral vocabulary as we make meaning of them through reading. Um and also

028be practicing our encoding, that's a fancy word for writing. Are we writing those words with accuracy? Um with the patterns that we've learned intentionally as we go. Um, if I run into a really big word like constellation, could I clap the syllables to know how many syllables are in that word? That would tell me how many vowels will be in that word. If I break it down syllable by syllable, what do I hear? That tells me what syllable type it is, which tells me what letter correspondence I would use to spell that. So, it's kind of a super involved process. It's incredible when you can watch kids do it after they've learned how to. Um, and we're using some of those writing techniques in the content words that kids are learning that are are the

029spelling list. They're a little less uh traditional when it comes to them being tied to um a pattern specifically. They are very contentbased starting in third grade. I think a big piece of that is that like Savannah said, we're using the words in context rather than just a list that's memorized, reproduced, and then kind of forgotten about and moved on. It's a lot of practice with that word. Um, yeah, it's the whole see it, say it right. It's like we're doing all the things with with the words and then it's connected to some of the learning that they're doing in the knowledge block as well. So, it's way more connected than just like here's your list for the week. I guess lot intentionality. Sure. And the hope would be that it's infolded into instruction too.

030We can guarantee the practice opportunities for everyone during the school day. We can't guarantee them outside of the school day. So that that sometimes um feels different in the practice at home too. Uh always encourage that but also want to give kids the exposure during the day. If I remember correctly, this is a little bit more phonics-based than the prior curriculum. Right. Correct. So that probably helps with spelling too. Absolutely. And as we build that foundationally from kindergarten moving forward, the hope is um it's stronger from the beginning of their literacy journey and there's less remediation on spelling down the road. might take us a few years to feel that impact, but that's certainly the hope. Thank you. Yeah. Any other? Well, I think several of us board members have elementary students, so uh I

031think we see the the impact and the just the interest in learning that comes from the the knowledge content too, which is really cool. Absolutely. Thank you so much for your support. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, Janelle is here to give us our uh district update. Welcome Janelle. Yeah, good evening everyone. We will start out with presentation, talk about some big highlights and celebrations. Um, one of the favorite days of the entire year has to be when we go in and surprise our gold star teachers was last Thursday. Um, through the Mroy Trust, they take in the nominations beginning in January. I think it was 700 nominations of teachers um were given this year and we were lucky enough to have three selected in our district and were they were all surprised and

032seemed to be very surprised on Thursday. Uh uh Corey Cantrell, English at Pete Junior High, Mindy Fischer, special education at Hansen Elementary, and Deep Summer Raccoon who is second grade at Lincoln Elementary. And be watching I have we have surprise videos we'll be sharing of all of them when they were actually um notified that they were chosen and their families. Uh the Malroy does a great job. They notify the principal. The principal sneakily lets the families know so the families can come and then help surprise those teachers. Um, there will be an event in May at the Gallagher Blue Dorn to celebrate all of the gold star teachers that were awarded 10 teachers. So, be watching for that information. Also, just wanted to mention real quick, this is the Waterlue Warriors. This is the hockey

033team that is the high school level that students from Cedar Falls participate in as part of one of the activities, non-sanctioned, but still one of the activities are able to participate in. And they were named, they competed and then were national champions. It was, I believe, a couple weeks ago. So we have um Cedar Falls student athletes Brock Hess Carter Tomkins, Jagger Raie, Justin Green, Owen Dinger, Sean Wetloffer, and Tristan Reie. Congratulations to those students. Also wanted to mention the high school science team. They competed in the Iowa Science Olympiad in 23 events, came home with medals in 12 of them, and placed second overall. this time of year there's a lot of these kinds of competitions and different things happening. So we're having lots of celebration and it's happening across um many of the

034grade levels and also wanted to mention this is a really um special one as well the 2024 heroes among us which is put on by Mercy 1. This is again something they take nominations for. We had three district representatives that were awarded this. Jim Larson as the 2024 community service hero. He is a volunteer at Lincoln Elementary. Laura Catz, the workplace hero for Cedar Heights Elementary, and then Bailey Miller, the Good Samaritan Youth Hero, and she's a student at Cedar Falls High School. So, congratulations to those three. Also wanted to mention the Allstate individual speech. These students all received the highest level um nomination and then actually performed at the Allstate um competition that was held at Uni a couple weeks ago as well. So, congratulations to all of those students. It's the highest level

035you can um get when you're participating in individual speech. And then this is the physics team. They competed in the state physics competition at uni. Competed in five events and they made it to the finals in the mousetrap car and then placed second out of 30 teams in the firmy question event. So congratulations to those students. Also wanted to highlight this seventh grader. This is Jasmine who's a student at Holmes Junior High and she won the if I were mayor essay contest for district 2. So she was able to come to a city council meeting and be awarded with that. She's seen there with her teacher Elaine Stagger and then I believe will also be then um moved on to a state competition since she won in the district. So congratulations to Jasmine. Also wanted

036to highlight this is the CAPS um construction is the wrong word. Caps industries industries thank you sorry this is a transformation they did at plum tech which is one of the partners you can see the progression they there they did there in that team space so they basically took it all down and then rebuilt it into what be becomes their team space that they're able to use in plum tech also wanted to mention this is Mrs. Long. She is a family consumer science teacher at the high school. She actually took the took the foods, three students on a field trip to Montage. They were able to learn directly from those chefs and then actually were able to enjoy some of the um uh food that they were able to make. So, another great community partnership

037and great experience for those students. And then this just highlights at Pete Junior High, they received a grant from the Cedar Falls Schools Foundation. If you recall last summer, there was a group that put on the rock and roll re review during Surgis Falls and raised money for the Cedar Falls Schools Foundation and the Excellence Grants. And that grant then was able to use to then purchase these guitars that are used at Peak Junior High as part of their guitar club. And we're still enjoying that great new facility of the new high school. had our first track and field meet at the stadium at the end of March and continue to have um lots of junior high and high school track meets happening up there. So, make sure you can follow along on everything happening

038on the Bound app. And then this is Kale Moore. He's part of the CF fishing team. He's the first high school all-American from the state of Iowa. He was awarded at that um mid-March. And this fishing team is now currently in their season and they've actually expanded their program to um have third graders as low as third graders participating in their fishing program. Also have our uh student art show up at the Hurst Center. Um it open on April 5th all the way through May 18th. So we encourage everyone to stop by and see some of the wonderful artwork from our students K through 12 in the district. And then looking ahead to events, April 23rd is going to be the innovation celebration for Cedar Valley Caps. So we have CAPS programs from across the

039Cedar Valley as well of course our own Cedar Valley Caps will be held at the Diamond Event Center again April 23rd 5:30 to 7. And this is where all the students and the CAPS associates will be presenting um and talking about their CAPS projects that they worked on during their CAPS experiences. and follow along on bound for all the athletics and activities and on social media as well with everything end of school year happening which will be continue to be a lot. Any questions? Okay, thank you so much Janelle for keeping us up to date and sharing with the community. We will now move on to item G of our agenda which is our February financial reports. So, and March. So, um items G and H uh for February and March financial reports. So, Miss

040Conorman, I'll let you update us. Absolutely. It's it's been a little bit since we've reviewed the financial reports and we had an earlier meeting in March and so therefore, we're going to be reviewing both February and March at this period of time. Um I'll go through them rather quickly just for the fact that um I do have a longer presentation this evening with the budget. So, uh, keep this brief, but definitely ask questions as you might have them. Uh, you'll see, uh, from month to month, they're ratherly, uh, very similar, and but, uh, you'll see the activity associated to both of them. In our general fund, you'll see revenues of $4.8 million with expenditures of a little over 6.5 for total cash investments of 14,765,244. our management fund. Uh little activity within that because the

041majority of that activity does occur in July uh when those premiums are due. Uh you'll see that uh total cash available balance of a little over 1,198,746. We do still have our capital projects which is our high school. As we continue to approve those uh bid packages, uh you'll still see um expenditures do occur. Uh this does intend to be expended by the end of June. So you'll see that as zero as we move forward. Uh but you'll see that available balance as of February of $3,799,565. We do then have our save and ple. Those are for construction projects, remodels, different activities. Uh you'll see our PPE. Uh there is activity obviously with the natiatorum currently. uh you'll see those revenues and expenditures associated to that with the total cash investments for our PEP of

042uh 11,457,045 within our debt service as well. Those revenues and expenditures again those expenditures do occur twice a month or excuse me twice a year. Uh you will be seeing those here rather shortly in May as we continue to uh finish this fiscal year. But we do have cash of uh total cash investments for debt service of $5,70,571. As we move forward, then we do have those remaining funds as our student activity, which is our activities uh to include our sports and uh all of the other wonderful activities such as yearbook and other things like that. We did have revenues associated to that of $82,469. Again, we did have expenditures occur uh during the month of February for a total cash investments of $892,34. We do have our agency funds, but then also our enterprise

043funds, which is our nutrition program. Uh you'll note that revenue of $355,377. We did have expenditures of $343,539 for total cash investments of $3,583,378. We do have our coffee shop that does uh has great activity out at the high school. Uh our staff and our students do appreciate that. Uh you'll see that uh minimal activity associated to the revenues and then expenditures with that as well. And then our River Hills Consortium which is our program that um surrounding districts do have available. We are the flowthrough for that uh for that program. So we had revenues of 893,000 expenditures associated that of 228,000 for total cash investments of $893,835. These next two slides do then show uh where we are at based on our certified budget um if we are over or if we are under

044or we are at where we should be based on the months um that we have remaining within uh the school year in this uh fiscal year. And that does show both of those associated to the activity for February. Any questions on February before I move into March? Well, we'll go ahead and pull up March, too. Um, I can tell you that the activity looks pretty similar as it does in February. Uh, those expenditures do keep on coming as did the revenues associated to that. Again, you'll see our revenues and our expenditures are pretty similar uh for the general fund for the month of March uh with our total cash investments with that balance remaining about 14,748,46. Again, general fund for those that are in the audience and are watching. Uh that's mainly used for our

045salaries and benefits as well as over overall operations of the district such as utilities and and um different items with that, supplies and needs. We do have our management fund. You'll see there's a little bit of activity there with that balance remaining. As you can see from March or excuse me, from February to March, our capital projects as we are continuing and finalizing that project that balance has decreased. Again, that will decrease um to zero as of June, but you'll see that available balance of $1.9 million. We have our save. Uh the item uh to note on our save is uh that uh transfer to our debt service. We do that on a monthly basis. you'll see that transfer of 361,000 uh transfer out uh and that's in order to pay for that debt service

046associated as we as a transfer in. And then we do have our PPE. Again, we continue to have that activity at our nitorium with also um other items associated to our PPE such as technology um and other equipment needs uh throughout the district. And then we do have our debt service associated to that with a little bit of uh increase from the prior month to a balance of 5,578,766. And then those last remaining uh funds associated to the district. We do have our student activity. You'll see that activity based on as track uh starts and different things. You'll see gates associated to that with our revenues, with the expenditures associated as well. We do have our enterprise fund. We continue with those kiddos um as well as those expenditures associated to the food and supply

047and the salaries associated to um our nutrition fund for a balance of $3,716,475. And then those two remaining funds of our student coffee shop and our River Hills. Um at the end of the year or end of the uh fiscal year, that River Hills balance is at a zero based on um those flowthrough dollars. And then again, these are just the end ofear balances associated to where we sit based on our certified budget at this time last year, which is hard to believe. Uh we're already at that conversation again. So, um we're sitting very favorably. Uh you'll know when we have that discussion in um regarding our budget. We will meet need to make a few budget adjustments, but is not a tax implication for that. It's just utilizing the resources that we have. So,

048any questions in regards to February or March? Okay. Hearing none, uh, we will move. So, the budget is actually a few items down on the agenda. Uh we have a few other items to get to first, but um we'll move to item I of the agenda, which is uh approval of final acceptance and completion for high school bid package 26-1. Miss Conorman, I'll let you uh explain this one first. Yeah, absolutely. We are getting very close to having final acceptance for our high school project. Uh we have two remaining bid packages. Uh this is one of the two that we have this evening that is um suggested for final acceptance and completion. It's bid package 26-1 which is community electric. Uh you'll note uh this is uh was awarded again on December 21st of 2020.

049That original contract sum was 9,26,265 um as of today's date. Uh there were um some change orders associated to that. And just to remind the board and those watching uh that the district did have a contingency plan in regards to change orders associated to the high school and um and then there were also some other items associated to the change orders that were required with changes in requirements with the city and and those those those items. So the change orders associated to this are $235,735 for total expenditures of of this particular bid package of 9,442,064. It is recommended to move forward with approval of the final completion and we do anticipate the last and final one. Uh we are waiting for the grass to grow. So we are hoping that that happens here soon so

050we can move forward with that final completion. Um, but this this particular one was the electrical of the um the district itself. So, any questions on this bid package? We're almost there out of the 30 bid packages that we had. So, all right, hearing no questions, I'll ask for a motion to approve. I move that the Cedar Falls Community School District Board of Education accept as complete the following bid packages for the construction of the new high school 2701 West 27th Street for the following contractors and bid package 26-1. All claims for materials furnished, labor performed and/or services provided for these contracts must be filed per Iowa code. Okay. Is there a second? Second. Okay. All in favor say I. I. All oppose say nay. And we have one abstaining. So motion carries. We will

051now move to item J uh which is an approval of our first contract this year. So Miss Young Bloodood, I'll let you uh go over this one. Tenative agreement was reached on April 2nd, 2025 on a contract to cover a one-year period July 1, 2025 to June 30th, 2026. This tenative agreement has been ratified by the teamsters members. Uh the increases are as follows. There is a base wage increase for all classifications of 40 cents per hour. A wage increase for all returning employees at all classifications of 50 cents per hour with a total dollar increase in base wages FICA and IPERS at 2.63%. We will be changing the delivery driver grounds crew classification from class 3 to class 4 and adjusting building checks at the senior high to two hours and the natiatorum to

0521 hour. that time allocation for the natiatorum will be established during the lifetime of the agreement. We recommend acceptance of this tenative agreement. Okay. Any questions from the board? Okay. I move that the Cedar Falls Community School District Board of Education approve the 202526 Teamster collective bargain contract as presented. Is there a second? Second. Orvis. All right. All in favor say I. I. I. All oppose say nay. Hearing none. Motion carries. Contract is approved. We will now move to item K of the agenda which is our uh school year budget proposal for next fiscal year. Um so I will let you cover that one. Absolutely. This is one of the longer ones. So those uh in the audience please bear with me. Um board members if you have questions uh please feel free to interrupt

053as we move forward. Um, one of the things that I really want to state and uh, start off with was um, the proposed property tax notice that was re received by our community as well as um, currently uh, indicated within the article um, unfortunately provides a false estimate of where the district currently is at. Um, we are currently indicated based on um, the document that is provided as a requirement by the legislation. Um it does indicate that there is a 10% increase in assessed valuation. Um we are in a nonassessed valuation year. Therefore the document provided has false estimates and therefore um in reality um our district is um one is is less than 1% increase associated to this particular year. So, I'll go through that, but just wanted to make sure that that document

054unfortunately is is a requirement of the legislation as a requirement of Iowa code. Um, but it does at the time in which you are provided to it, not all information is accurate because we don't know some of it as well. Um, we didn't know what SSA was going to be when we had to provide that information. Um, but it also in indicates also some of the uh implications that can be false to our community. So, I'll go through this document. So, I'll go through the the uh the uh board presentation, but if you have questions, just let me know. So, Danell, you mentioned we're not in a assessment year. Do you know when that next one would be? It's every Yep. It's It's next year. Okay. Mhm. Yep. Great question. So, we'll go ahead and

055get started. It's a long presentation, but uh please bear with me. Some of the things that we'll talk about tonight is our key factors and and comparison data. We always take a look at those districts around as well as uh districts similar to our size based on certified enrollment. We'll take a look at our levy rate which uh we um estimate our levy rate will be going down approximately 22 cents this year. We'll also take a look at the estimated property tax and then uh based on my comment earlier the 2425 amended budget we'll take a look at. So this looks probably familiar to everybody. I show this quite often and during my presentation and it really is just a great overview of what all of our funds that we have um within the district

056and that we work with. This is our governmental, proprietary and fiduciary funds. Uh when I talk about our financials, these are the funds that I talk about. Um tonight we'll mainly focus on our governmental funds. We'll not look at those proprietary and fiduciary, but there's a lot of information in that government governmental funds. And just like corns and beans, and I use this all of the time, they don't mix. you have to utilize them for specific purposes and specific reasons. And so that's the the depiction of the silos themselves. So when we take a look at the general fund budget and we want to take a look at the uh the actual how do we determine it? Where does it come from? We take a look at the aid and levy budget worksheet. And that

057aiden levy budget worksheet is extensive. We would be here for a couple hours to go through that and probably much longer than that. But that aid and levy worksheet really does um it implements the school foundation aid formula. It calculates the amount of spending authority and state aid and the property taxes for the school district. It's formula first and determines the ma total maximum of spending authority. So when we take a look at that then how oops sorry how is that determined? How is that budget determined? It's really from four key factors that we take a look at. And those four key factors are enrollment, their equalization, supplemental state aid or SSA, and then balance. And we'll briefly take a look at each one of those to understand how that's incorporated in that fund foundation

058formula. So the very first one is enrollment. And enrollment determines the majority of funding received by the school district. And it's based on the count of as of October 1st. So for fiscal 26 that October 1st is of uh 2024 it's 75% of the total general fund resources and it's enrollment times the cost per student. Uh couple things to note it's based on certified enrollment. So that's students living in your school district. Now we also serve students um outside of our district that attend um and that please note that those funds do follow the student. So, as the students arrive in Cedar Falls schools, the the the funds do um are received from that receiving district as well as if we have students that are uh open and rolled out, those dollars do follow that

059student accordingly. So, we do pay attention to those open enrolled in and open and rolled out numbers as well because again, 75% of your uh total general fund resources is your enrollment. So, what does our enrollment look like? This just depicts over the last several years. Again, this is certified enrollment Cedar Falls Community School District students that are resident students. The red depicts the students that are attending the district. Uh and the the gray or the black line or bar indicates the students that are open and enrolled out of the district. So, uh you'll note for fiscal 26 then our funding is based on 5,464 students um for fiscal 26. So, what does that look like in similarsized schools? As I mentioned earlier, we do take a look at um similar size schools based on

060certified enrollment. This is a three-year commutative change for certified enrollment. I need to spit that word out. Sorry. Um and you'll note this is uh districts that are five larger and five smaller. And you'll note that the majority of those districts have a loss in enrollment. Um this is really no surprise over 22, 20 uh 23 and 24 because the state is down in in in enrollment themselves. And so this is not not a surprise um based on the three-year cumulative change. The second key factor, as I mentioned, there's four of them. Uh the second key factor is equalization. And in 1970, the legislation established a law that costs per student across the state will be nearly equal to ensure every student access to a quality education. Um based on this timing, um SSA, which

061I will get to, um is uh has not been finalized uh by the Senate and the House. It has it has not been signed by the governor. Uh it's estimated at 2%. So for uh fiscal 26 that state cost per pupil is estimated at $7,983. Now that equalization talks about that gap. You'll see that negative uh $140. Um at the time in which this presentation was created that had not passed. Um it is anticipated that that will make a change this year $5 over the last several years. Um they have um made an attempt to decrease that minimum or that gap. So you'll see that the minimum is $7,983. The maximum amount of which a district could receive is $8,123. Of the 325 districts in the state of Iowa, 102 uh districts are above the

062state cost per pupil. We are currently one of those 223 uh districts that receive the minimum of that $7,983. So that is the second key factor is that equalization supplemental state aid I mentioned that that is a third component of of uh our general fund budget and the overlook of that uh supplemental state aid is legislature and governor controlled and it's an annual increase of dollars per student as I mentioned um it is anticipated to be 2% this year uh it's a very simple calculation you take last year's cost per pupil which was $7,826 times that rate of growth, which equates to $157. So, the new cost per pupil is estimated at $7,983. There is an additional $5 associated to that equity gap, which will be received for some of those districts. But this example

063just shows the difference in how that $157 is applied to those district costs per pupil and what that variance is based on those districts. The one thing important to remember is the state foundation formula sets the expenditure ceiling for each school district's total spending authority and tells the school districts how it funds its spending authority. This is just an overview of the supplemental state aid in percentages based on the last several years. Uh you'll note that in red is our supplemental state aid percentages for Cedar Falls schools and then those set by the state and the legislature and you'll see that that fluctuates from year to year. Over the last couple years um in fiscal 24 it was 3% by the state. Um this year it's anticipated it to be 2%. You'll see that fluctuation

064in red and that's because uh if you recall that's based on our certified enrollment and the growth of our students. And so, uh, we would have been above the the line based on growth of our students. Um, therefore, uh, exceeding that, um, supplemental state aid, uh, percentage, um, by the state. You'll note for fiscal 26, the state, uh, state aid is anticipated at 2%. Um, and we are at a 1% growth for fiscal 26. So, what does that look like then for again similarsized schools? You'll know that Cedar Falls Schools is currently uh 16th out of the 325 schools based on certified enrollment. Uh you'll see the calculations for the dollars associated to uh state cost per pupil and those those dollars that are anticipated in dollar growth. The thing to note on this comparison

065is the number of schools that are um have an asterk identified them unfortunately have a loss of students. Therefore, uh the majority of them will be on regular program adjustment or budgeted guarantee because of that loss of funding associated to that um with the decrease of enrollment. Again, this just depicts then a similar size schools that three-year average of increased supplemental state aid. It's pretty familiar from year to year. Um, Cedar Falls Schools for a three-year average has received approximately $874,000. Uh, with the exception of Southeast Poke, um, most of the districts are pretty similar within the amounts in which they are receiving each year. Danella, you might not be able to answer this, but back on that last slide, um, when you have we we lo we were down 60 students approximately. Do we

066have any idea where those students might have gone? Uh yeah, we track that pretty closely and carefully as we we collect data. Um one of the new changes is obviously the the voucher program in the state of Iowa. So I think one of the thoughts would be well that's a natural uh transition where a lot of our students have gone. Um I believe and again I don't have that data in front of me but we have roughly resident students about 250 resident students that take advantage of the voucher program that have state voucher dollars that follow them into uh a private school of those and again not having the data in front of me I think there's about 20 of those students 18 or 19 of those students roughly 20 uh that had actually attended

067Cedar Falls public schools at one time in the last uh prior two years. So there's not a lot of students uh that um are have been in the school system that are utilizing the voucher program. Um so looking at that a little bit more deeply, uh there was u fluctuation in and some moveouts and we had some move out of states that uh contributed mostly to that number. Um and then we had a smaller kindergarten class uh this current school year as well. I I know that we've done studies on just the impact of growth in Cedar Falls. Do you know are we following their projections? Yeah, they recently updated that as well. RSP out of Kansas City that does that work and um yes they we are closely aligned with those trajectories uh within

068one or 2% uh they had projected some dips just with graduating classes and things like that class sizes of our graduating seniors uh uh but also uh there should be some enrollment increases uh in the near near future. Okay, good. Thank you. Can you remind me if we have another decrease in enrollment here in the in the fall for certified, what kind of what's the situation that we we'd be looking at budget-wise? Uh it's all dependent as well because the the budget ceiling as uh Dell explained is our um based on our certified enrollment but the other factors is served enrollment. The number of students that we serve within our classrooms and those dollars uh that students might be tuitioned into the district for various reasons or open enrolled into the district. Those dollars follow

069those students. So, um, certified enrollment I don't anticipate going down. It could, uh, you look at your graduating class and those incoming kindergarteners, but we also looked at the total served. Um, budget impact is, uh, just the number of students that might not be within our seats and within our classrooms. Um, knowing and looking at our numbers, I think it's it's all varied. We just don't know. So, I know it would be wrong for me to speculate, but if I was just speculating, would you think that some of the new kindergarteners coming in are cho choosing to go somewhere else? I think that's the unknown because it's hard to to predict what would have been if if there was no voucher program in the state of Iowa. I think that's a fair assessment to say

070that there are some kindergarteners that might have enrolled into the Cedar Falls district prior to the voucher. um program that was passed uh um recently in the legislature. Uh and this year is the the year where everything there there's no limitations as far as uh um income requirements uh andor um income rates of parents for for those vouchers. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, we'll continue to move forward then. Um, we've covered that one. And our last and final one is balance. And balance is the ratio of property tax and state aid supporting a district's budget. And that varies by district. Property rich districts will receive less state aid. So, as if you recall, um, each district in the state of Iowa is required to levy the $5.40, the uniform levy, it's called. Um, in addition,

071then the state foundation uh percentage, it comes and backfills up to 88.4% of that level. Um, we then move forward with that supplemental state which covers that property tax increase as a result of an increase in cost per pupil. And then finally, districts do have additional levies and they do vary from district to district and we will review those levies as we move forward with this presentation. One of the things that we do take a look at during certified budget um, and during the time in which we're reviewing the uh, aid and levy is the history of our assessed valuation. You'll see that that assessed valuation continues to grow minimally um each year. Um for fiscal, you'll note for uh fiscal 26 that gray line or black line indicates a regular uh valuation. And then

072the red obviously the red bar is our tiff. Um for fiscal 26 then that uh total taxable valuation had a change of a little over five almost 5% 5.06% um for this year. And then again, this is the valuation per student in our area schools. We do take a look at that, a three-year comparison. You'll note Cedar Falls continues to grow at a a variable rate um which most of the districts do. There are some districts that do fluctuate from year to year dependent upon the valuation per student in their particular area um within uh our surrounding districts. And then we also take a look at the 2425 valuations per student um with similar size schools with the exception of West De Mo and Ames. You'll see that uh they are very similar throughout the

073state of Iowa. Um again we do not have 2526 valuation numbers because all districts are currently going through this process of certified budget. Therefore we do look at that comparable uh data for 2425 in looking at this So, taking a look at how we come up with a combined district cost of $7,983. Again, um this is just a breakdown showing that those certain percentages and those dollars associated to that. Again, the uniform levy, as I've indicated, all districts are required to levy that $5.40 and that equates to $1,922 of that student or 24% of that for that particular levy. Then again, um, the state comes in and backfills associated to that, which then is the state foundation aid of 5,276 per student or 66% with then those additional levies associated to that for the district.

074And again, that's different for each district. Um, equates to that 7,000 or excuse me, $785 or 9.83%. So in total the state has about 66% within the district having that remaining 34% associated to the combined district cost for each student. So looking at the aid and levy, this is just a snapshot. This is just a little breakdown, a snippet of that information. Again, that $5.40 that I uh referenced just a few minutes ago. Um the tax portion associated to that is a little over $12.9 million. We do have that regular program adjustment which is our budget guarantee for this year for that 1% um and that is associated to a property tax portion of 47,119 or 0.01 um dollars. And then we do have our final state aid foundation and that is the total amount

075associated to regular program of $42,963,78. This does include all of those categoricals. Um I did not mention those during the time in which we looked at those silos, but those categoricals also have certain specific uses um such as our teacher salary supplement, professional development, te teacher leadership compensation, early intervention, and then that property tax replacement payment. So what does that look like then for those additional levies? Those additional levies again vary from school district to school district. You'll see the dollars associated to that. One of those levies um that the board approved in January would be that dropout prevention program. That dropout prevention program is utilized for our SRO's within the district as well as then um overall supporting of our students of need for uh dropout. Um that net additional levy uh accounts for

0765,780,000 um for a total property tax of 2.18 $2.18. So what does that look like al together? combined district cost summary. Again, we have that uh uniform levy and additional levy uh that we just reviewed for a total property tax of $7.58. We have that regular program adjustment of a penny. And then we have that dropout prevention what was approved in January of 2025 which is hard to believe already um of a little over 44 cents for a total property tax portion of 19,312,557 or property tax of $85. So what does that look like compared to last year? Again, this is 2425 comparable uh tax uh tax rates uh for local districts around. You'll note for Cedar Falls schools that was at $8.15. Uh again, I had mentioned that it was a little over $85.

077Therefore, it's a decrease of 10 from the prior year. Uh I don't know what the other districts have in comparable to our district um as again they're working through their process as well. But this just just shows uh where we currently stand as of the prior year. So the state uh foundation aid, what are the re revenue sources for that? Is that sales taxes or income tax? Uh yeah. So a combination, it's the the general fund dollars generated by the state of Iowa. So that is um the the dollars that they generate and that is the backfill to offset property taxes. So it'll be a combination of everything. Okay. And then we also have then the similar size schools comparison for the 2425. And again we sit rather comparable to all of our um larger

078districts five and smaller than us um at that $8. This indicates $8.15. Again this year it's $85. So, what does the history look like over the last several years? You'll see that combined district cost that's in the gray bar at $7.58. Uh we do have that budget guarantee this year as well as then that dropout at 44 cents. You'll see over the years um it's it's very similar throughout the years. It has been decreasing over the last few years, but again that total uh does depict where we where we sit at as for fiscal 26. As I mentioned earlier, there are additional levies associated to um our district. One of those would be that instructional support levy. Um this is a Department of Education board approved um five-year levy. Um this is um examples of

079that that we've utilized this for and we continue to utilize this for is kindergarten teachers. We utilize it for our counselors. We utilize it for technology and equipment throughout the district. And so it's an extremely um important and supportive levy that we utilize in our district. You'll note that it is a five-year board approved. I indicated that it's also has a sir tax of 1% uh income tax of 1%. And that income sir tax uh revenues are based on the amount of state income tax paid by the residents within the school district. And so the school districts do receive the spending authority associated to the entire amount but are funded based on uh the is adjusted ISL dollars. Uh this does depict what those dollars are associated at for a total property rate of a

080dollar um for total spending authority of $3.3 million but total adjusted ISL dollars of $2.6 million. And what does that look like in property tax? You'll note over the last several years it's been very very similar um over o as we move forward the change in fiscal 23 was that implementation of the income sir tax um to lower that property tax associated to that again for fiscal 20 uh 26 we do anticipate that levy rate to be uh the dollar that it's indicated on the screen. And the last and final item associated to uh the general fund um would be our cash reserve levy. And there are two parts associated to that. That's for the first part would be for the increased enrollment open enrollment out leap um excessive cost as well as our special

081education deficit. But then there's also the second part which is for cash cash on hand cash reserves. Uh the district this year is anticipating all of those had been pre-approved during the period of time of review in December and in October. Um, this year the district is recommending moving forward with uh $400,000 for a t property tax rate of 16 cents this year. So what does that look like historically for the cash reserve levy? You'll see that this does fluctuate from year to year and it's really dependent on the needs um of the district at that time. Uh you'll note for fiscal 26 uh we are not reserving for cash but we do have those additional funds associated to the open and rolled out um leap services and things like that and special ed deficit.

082So again um it is recommended for that 16 cents for the uh tax levy for fiscal 26. So total general fund summary we're almost there I promise we do have a few more funds but total general fund summary. Uh, this just does provide the dollars associated to the tax rate. Um, specific to those items that I've just reviewed, specific for the combined district cost, that regular program adjustment. We do then have that dropout prevention for our program, our instructional support that I just reviewed, and then that cash reserve levy for part one and part two for a total of $22,339,617 or a total tax rate of $922. So, what does that look like then? This is the history of our property tax. Um, over the last several years, you'll see um over the last several

083years, it has continued to decrease, which um we continue to make all those efforts needed to to decrease that tax rate. Again, we anticipate that tax rate for fiscal 26 to be 922 um versus fiscal 25 at that $9.36. That's it for the general fund. I have a few more funds to move forward with um because it does impact obviously that total tax rate. Um and one of those would be our management fund. And our management fund um for those uh watching and in the audience is a restricted fund. It is board of education controlled. Its uses to remind those would be for um the property, the liability, workman comp, um insurance premiums, um property loss deductible, as well as then early severance benefits, which the district does not utilize. Um but the amount requested

084for 2526 is uh 1,980,000 for a tax rate of um 82 cents. Um and the reason for that um is because um over the last several years we've seen increases between 10 to 20% uh insurance increases uh premium increases as well as the district does have a 1% um wind and hail deductible um as well as we have some new facilities. We will be um opening our niatorum very soon as well as then our TPC center will be um insurable as well. So the one thing to note though is um our management fund. This is the history of that and you'll see the the fluctuation of that. You'll note the uh the increase starting in fiscal 23. Um and that was because of the hardening of the market. That's not because of the Cedar Falls

085district claims um or uses of the insurance. It is because of that hardening of the market and the natural disasters that have occurred and the severe weathers that have occurred. Unfortunately, um that those do then get pushed back on the customer which are the customer is Cedar Falls School. So um this year we do anticipate an increase as well to approximately 10 to 15% of our premiums. Therefore that 82 cents um tax rate for fiscal 26. We do have our physical plant and levy equipment that is an additional levy as well. That's restricted funds with two parts. We have a board controlled at 33 cents. Um, and then we have that voter approved renewal at $134 and that's a 10-year levy. Um, some of those uses, as I've mentioned during our uh, financials is uh,

086purchases of improvement of grounds, um, construction and repairing of remodeling of school houses. Um, it is also our um, our onetoone program that we have in our district for our Chromebooks and our staff laptops. So, it's equipment as well and then also uh, leasing and renting of facilities. The other item I know Dr. Pati has mentioned is our 10-year PEP review such as our roofs such as our vehicles um as as well as our busing and our fleet. So, but most recently expenditures associated to that is our nitorium. So, as we review those on a monthly basis, the amount uh requested for 2526 would be that $863,912 for regular. than that voted of a $3.5 million for a total of $4,371,918 for a total tax rate of $167. What does that look like in regards

087to the revenues associated to that? You'll see that that continues to um grow throughout the years. Um but again, that regular is that 33 cents and then we have that voted um in that black bar as well. And finally, our debt service. We're almost there. So, our debt service is one more fund that we do have uh levy property taxes associated to that. Our community so graciously um provided support in our two bonds. Uh one was for the $32 million bond which allowed us to build Aldrich Elementary and remodel North Cedar and Orchard Hill. uh the information associated to the bond is on the screen, but then also then our $69.9 million um that uh was utilized for the construction of our new high school and stadium um again uh bond sold on May of

0882022 with 20 years at 3.9%. um for this year to be able to pay that interest and the principal due associated to that um is 7,386,925 for a total property tax rate of two $2.82. So again, this does depict what those property tax uh revenues are associated to um for this debt service. You'll note in fiscal 23 is when we sold um and began making payments associated to the $69.9 million. Therefore, that increase um in revenues associated to that um previously it was the $32 million. And you will see that this continues to decline as we continue to make those payments associated to the the debt service. So to bring it all together in all of the funds and to include our general fund and our management and pull um and debt service, you'll note

089the combined district cost that I mentioned as well as that program adjustment, the dropout prevention, a cash reserve levy for a total for general fund of $19,712,557. We then do have those additional levies associated to the district and that would be our instructional support levy. um of $2.6 million, our management fund of $1.9 million, our voted PPE and regular PPE, and then our debt service of $7,386,925 for a total of 36,78,960 or a total tax rate of $1453. So, what does that look like? That's what everybody wants to know. What does it look like? So the the this screen depicts a property value of $100,000 from 2425 to 2526. Again, the property tax notice that you received did depict an increase of $10,000 um assessed valuation um which which is uh does not depict where

090we are at right now. We did have a roll back. The roll back is determined by the department of revenue. That is not determined by the district. um the roll back did increase from fiscal 25 to fiscal 26. You'll see that increase. So that means there's there's taxable value prior to the credits did increase from 25 to 26. So you'll see that those numbers associated to 25 is $46,343, but in 26 it's $47,432. We do have the homestead credit listed, which is the $4,850 deduction. So your total taxable value for 25 was $41,493. In 26 it's now $42,582. And that's specifically due to the roll back change. Um unfortunately. So where does our tax rate stand? Our tax rate last year at this time was $14.78 giving us a total net estimate tax of 16

091$614. Our tax rate again did decrease by 22. Um therefore um depicting that $1453 tax rate of an estimated tax increase uh of $619 total. So that is a total change of $5. Again, that is um a change of less than 1% um versus the 10 to 12% that was identified in that proposed tax notice um sent to our constituents in the community. So, this does not include the military credit that some individuals do receive, but this does depict what a $100,000 home may or may not look like for the tax year of fiscal 26. That quick question. Yeah, that $100,000 though, that's just like an example, right? It is an example. This is and it's based on assessed value, correct? Because I know a lot of community members have seen their assessed values go

092up quite a bit. So that that would be based off what their current assessed value is. Correct. Yep. Great question. So what does this look like? We obviously take a look at um the budget this evening. Um there will be a publication of the proposed budget um in the Waterl Courier on April 15th with then a public hearing on the 28th and then the adoption of the budget with then the filing of the budget to the county by April 30th of 2025. So is there any questions? That's a lot of information uh to go through. I do have one more question. Andy, this is for you. And I should asked this when we were kind of talking about it, but uh I know when did we end our online school? How how are those um

093people that's you know went to a different they were in our program and went to a different program. You said you track that pretty closely. How how many of those people did we have? I'm just curious. Um we'd have have to go back and look at that data. It's been about 3 years now since we have not had our full built out online program that we we had. A lot of that is due to offer and teach and and some of the other components that we just didn't have the capacity and the number and the number of students that were enrolled. Um tracking those again it's not a large percentage of students. Um what we're seeing though is uh especially with and it's kind of everything blends together the um requirement for attendance and and

094whether or not you're you're trruent sometimes we are seeing um as we tick up towards the end of the year that some families might choose an online uh opportunity instead of uh not coming to school in person. Uh so we've seen I wouldn't say a large number of that but there's been you know a half a dozen uh individuals that might choose that pathway. Kind of where I was going with this kind of like the employment pool. You know a lot of people that were with a company and they had to go back into the office have chose to go to a different company so they can stay at home and work from home. So I I was just wondering how that might affect things. Yeah it's not a it's not a large percentage for

095us. Uh there are some that choose that uh but it's not significant. Okay, that's good to hear. One of my last comments or only comments on this would be we don't control a large part of the school budget and in the levy rate. I think there's less than 12% of things that we can change and tweak. Uh but I know uh not only the board but certainly uh our business office and Denell does a wonderful job looking to maintain and and uh be fiscally responsible to try to decrease the levy rate and certainly a decrease I think Dell said 22 cents uh it's you know 22 to 25 cent decrease from last year which uh is really forward thinking from the business office part because we've really tried to um put the district in a

096financial position to not only be financially stable but also fiscally prudent. So I think that's important to note. The things we don't control are the roll back. Uh it's difficult and and disheartening sometimes when you see that change uh um every other year because that's when they uh the revenue committee ch can change that. And to see that percentage go up uh is a little disheartening especially as we try to decrease our levy rates overall. Well, I think it's very helpful for our community to see kind of this breakdown on a on a uh normalized basis as opposed to the uh estimated 10% increase that went out on all the the tax statements. So, I think that's just a message to the community. Um you know, this is the best uh estimate that we have

097for levy rates. you know, knowing that your assessed value isn't going up 10%. Okay. So, uh we now will move to um set public hearing and uh approve this proposal. So, is there a motion to approve? I move the Cedar Falls Board of Education direct the secretary to publish the budget estimate and notice of public hearing as required by law in the Cedar the Waterlue Cedar Falls Courier and the public hearing for the 2025 2026 proposed budget be held at 5:30 p.m. on Monday, April 28th, 2025 at the city of Cedar Falls, City Hall, 220 Clay Street, Cedar Falls, Iowa, 50613, as presented. Is there a second? Second. Okay. All in favor say I. I. I. All oppose say nay. Hearing none. Motion carries. And now we'll move into budget amendment. Absolutely. This this one

098is definitely not as long. Um I can I can promise you that. Um but this is our time to reflect and determine and review our current expenditures associated to um our current budget. It also uh allows us to understand um there are times that uh expenditures do occur that we did not anticipate. One of those would be moving forward with the TPC center. That's not a part of our original budget. So this is our time based on Iowa code um the allowable expenditures to make those changes to those amendments. um as we need to. So the thing that I do like to note is this does not increase the property tax. This is just utilizing those resources available or other fund balances associated to to the budget itself. So um majority of the schools do

099this at this time. Um they do make those adjustments as needed um because it's very difficult uh to know 18 months ago, 12 months ago what exactly those expenditures may occur as we move forward with the progress of each district. So um taking a look at that amendment this year. There are four categories uh that a district can amend. We are recommending two of those categories this year uh for the 2425 budget. Um that would be our non-instructional program which is our nutritional program. Um this would be amended expenditures from 3.3 million to 3.5 million. Um there there has been increase of of supplies and food costs as well as the district did at a district chef um which has been a phenomenal um addition to our district. They've provided some education to our staff,

100some training as well as um we look forward to being able to work with our students associated to this um but bringing in some new and fresh ideas as well as some great menu ideas and options for our students. So um there was some changes within that as well as then um other expenditures um and that would be the expenditures associated to our construction projects um from 32 million to 39 million. Um again some of this is due to project timing um those uh based on fiscal years and when those anticipated timing was going to occur. Um but then also that change is associated to our Shields Tiger Performance uh center that the um the board approved moving forward with and construction has already begun. And so um there is a public hearing that is

101required um for this as well similar to our original budget. Um but it would be then that same period of time with tonight establishing that budget, moving forward then with that publication and then having that public hearing and adoption of that amendment on the 28th with then that filing accordingly on April 30th um with the county auditor as required by law uh state of state Iowa law. So is there any questions in regards to the change in the budget amendment? So the difference in the TPC that that came out of our ple fund right? So our yes so we are utilizing our ple fund at this point um which it is uh private donations associated to that as we move forward with um the funds that were provided by the foundation and the community continues

102to provide that funding associated with with the TPCs. So, I think that's important to note for the community is like you said, no additional um levies for this. This is just amending the budget, the current budget. And I say this every year, this is a testament to good budgeting practices. um Denell and her team what what you'll see some districts do never do a budget amendment because they every year when they go through the budgeting process they certify their max authorized budget their max spending authority as their budget. What Denell and her team does is I think the right practice they go line by line penny by penny estimating what the costs are going to be for this upcoming school year. uh some of those things fluctuate and change especially over 18 months and that's

103why we have budget adjustments because again we watch expenditures very very carefully and which accounts they come out of. So sometimes at the end of 18 months when we have to set our budget at the timeliness that we do versus a year later when they are uh all paid up we have some adjustments and that's the case here. Well, we and the community certainly appreciate the attention to detail and and the way you manage your team, Denell. So, thank you. Thank you. Okay. Is there a motion to approve the budget amendment? I move that the Cedar Falls Board of Education set 5:30 p.m. Monday, April 28th, 2025 at the City of Cedar Falls City Hall, 220 Clay Street, Cedar Falls, Iowa. as the time, date, and place to hold a public hearing to amend the

104current 2024 2025 school year estimated budget expenditures as presented. Okay, thank you. Is there a second? Second, R.J. All right. All All in favor say I. I. All oppose say nay. Hearing none. Motion carries and we will now move to item M, our superintendent report. Dr. Petite. Yeah, just a couple different items. Uh, next board meeting is April 28th. Uh, it looks like we will have one board meeting needed in May, which would be the May 12th. Um, I think one of the neat uh opportunities for board members is to uh hand out diplomas at commencement. Uh each year we always see if there's at least one if not two um individuals uh from the board that would be willing to be listed in the program and then be on stage as students walk across

105and would certainly uh be open to any volunteers uh now or um hopefully in the next few days as we look to finalize those those opportunities. And that is on May 25th u 2025 uh starting at 2 p.m. and typically lasts a little over an hour. So people usually struggle to volunteer on the spot here. So uh by Wednesday you say or that would be great sometime this week. Please uh let Dr. Pat or myself know if you would like to volunteer in that way. Okay. Uh thank you for that report. And now moving on just uh every meeting we open it up for any questions, comments or concerns from board members. So is there anything that uh board members would like to bring forward? Can you just give a real quick update on the

106natiatorum? I know that's making good progress. And then the TPC, I did see there's dirt moving. So that's awesome. Yeah. So phase two of the niatorum is in full swing. Um, I think I I mentioned a meeting or two ago. Uh, the full completion of that should be this summer. I believe they're saying, uh, July 1st with the water in the pool and everything completed and done. Um, which is really exciting. Uh, they broke ground shortly after spring break for the Shields Tiger Performance Center. Um, dirt being moved. Uh there's some different things that are being done up there over the next few weeks with some uh underground utilities as far as there's a drain field that that had to be readjusted. Um and then they will once students are out for the summer start

107erecting the uh concrete walls uh to the uh east and west of uh in in from the stadium to the building and and then the steel roof structure will be installed as well. So, uh, moving along very quickly and and there might not be a lot of movement movement seen, construction scene in the next, uh, 8 weeks. Uh, but once summer comes, it's going to be moving really really rapidly. Good. Any other topics? I I guess I'll say I'm not sure of the date, but the first week in June, first Friday in June, possibly the second Friday in June, which I think is the 14th, um a group of uh CAPS associates are helping the TPC and we are going to have our first um movies on the field um at the new high school.

108So um more details to come, but we're looking at those two dates and I won't know uh what those are until we meet on Wednesday. So exciting. Good. Well, let us all know. Well, okay. Well, thank you everyone for uh being in attendance tonight. And on the screen, I think you're probably already watching the all city band. And uh can I get a motion to adjurnn tonight? So moved in a second. Second. All in favor say I. I. I. Meeting adjourned. Good evening everyone.