001um good evening we'd like to welcome you to the cedar falls community school district board of education meeting on this monday march 8th if you are joining us from home you can find the agenda on our website under the board it will be on the right side and click down on the menu and you can follow along and all the materials that we'll be discussing this evening can also be found there before i begin i have to read a brief statement because we continue to meet in a hybrid fashion but this states that a government body may conduct a meeting by electronic means only in circumstances where such a meeting in person is impossible or impractical and only if the governmental body proves provides public access to the conversation of the meeting to the extent
002reasonably possible the place of the meeting is the place in which the communication originates and the minutes of the meeting shall include a statement explaining why the meeting in person was impossible or impractical as pursuant to iowa code 21.8 and of course we continue to meet in hybrid fashion due to the ongoing pandemic so calling a meeting now to order we will move into the first order of business is a public hearing for the 2021-2022 school year calendar and i have in my possession an affidavit of publication showing that the notice of time in place of hearing for the 2021-22 cedar falls uh school calendar was published in the waterloo courier waterloo cedar falls courier on february 26 2021 the board will now hold a hearing so is there anyone who would like to make
003a comment in regards to the school calendar for next year seeing none we will close that hearing moving now to the next item on the agenda it is a public hearing for the proposed issuance of approximately 32.9 million dollars in school infrastructure sales services and use tax revenue bonds and i have in my possession an affidavit of publication showing that the notice of time in place of hearing for the issuance of sales tax bonds was published in the waterloo cedar falls courier on february 23 2021 the board will now hold a hearing so if there's anyone who would like to speak in regards to the issuance of those sales tax bonds please indicate now all right seeing no comment this hearing is now closed we'll move on now to the consent agenda item d which
004do i have a motion to approve the consent agenda so moved thank you alan is there a second second thank you susie second any comments from any board members seeing none all those in favor say aye aye opposed same sign motion carries moving now to the public comment section we have two speakers here this evening i just want to remind of course our speakers that all comments should remain professional in nature and not be specific to any one individual to maintain everyone's privacy and also ask that they be germane to the cedar to the school district uh and the business of educating our our students and so i think one thing that's always helpful too as well so for our two speakers it's always helpful for the board and anyone watching if you could also
005indicate what your relationship is with the school district to put it in perspective for everyone listening including board members so with that i will start by recognizing joyce livingston choice go ahead can everyone hear me okay yes go ahead okay yeah my name is joyce levinson and not that i have to do this but um i'm a parent to three children in the cedar falls school district so um and have one graduate so tonight i just wanted to talk about some challenges that i've personally faced while trying to advocate for my child so the purpose of me doing this is so we can really talk about how parental participation is sometimes received within the district so i had a lack of support once i started exploring options that the school didn't suggest with my child
006so the school suggested like a whole bunch of um different things like i take my child to the doctor or maybe my child has adhd or needs medication like ritalin that was very much pushed up on me listening to the folks at the school who um i felt comfortable working with so i definitely was trying to take into consideration their thoughts as well but then they suggested that he'd be isolated from other students and he's now in fifth grade and he's really just learning how to socialize because that was stripped from him from the very beginning of him starting school the staff at the school created labels for my son by talking about him in the teacher lounge and amongst each other i grew up in the cedar falls school district and in cedar falls
007and so i have friends a lot of friends who actually teach in the schools and um felt bad and guilty enough to come and tell me that this was happening about my son which made it almost impossible for him to make friends because people basically were scared of him i just thought he was like a bad kid also once i asked to put race on the table i received a lot of fragility from the staff so i shared many many resources that i'm guessing went untouched or unread they refused to acknowledge that racism even existed within the school and that my son was the problem so finally um they found a way for us to be pushed out of the school by not allowing any communication between me and my teacher and my son's teacher
008even though knowing that he was in special education and daily communication was necessary with me and my son and his teacher once i brought up race we were quickly pushed out of the school my son now attends a new school in the district that accepts him as being a young black boy we dissect issues related to race they listen and they're willing to learn from me and my team that i'm lucky to have for my son this is how i know that one racism exists in the school to that it can be addressed appropriately but it needs to be happening at every school not just a select few i would advise the committee to also take a look at the number of minority students who are being forced into special education because of the way
009they are and act are not familiar to your educators thank you for your comments joyce i would like to recognize now catherine mahoney are you connected catherine yes i am all right go ahead okay i would like to um give you all a resource there's a facebook group called anti-racist education now and i've been joined and followed that and also posted in another group i'm a part of called women's march iowa and so they dissect the race issues and so a woman who's in that group and contributes wrote this and this is from nehu soti and she posted let's take a moment to acknowledge that meetings about anti-racism among educators can actually perpetuate racism and so she writes i've been really grappling with this time when anti-racism has become trendy and now everyone wants to
010be facilitating the work meaning white people want to facilitate this work when they have not done the work themselves in many ways i think anti-racist work has been stolen from black indigenous people of color and is in the process appropriated by white people and whitewashed by us so she suggests if you are a white person in these meetings number one make sure you don't speak about all black indigenous people of color or students of color as one blog if you mean black students say black students don't use coded language to make yourself feel better three don't center your feelings and how hard it is for you four don't talk about the paying of black indigenous people of color and students quote unquote out there or in your personal life when there are black indigenous people
011of color in your actual meeting that's very offensive five keep it personal how are you or for me and i look at this quite often how am i perpetuating racism every moment every day and how am i going to change that it's something we as white people all need to look at how am i going to change that then um six talk about actions you will undertake from now on to dismantle the racial racial power structure that we are currently benefiting from and constantly benefiting from she says seven finally talk about r meaning black people's joy and brilliance and i think that's so important and so i i saw that i hope you guys look at that facebook page because it's really really helpful to us as we unpack these things we need to do
012thank you for your comments catherine we'll move now to the communications session hello we'll bring the presentation up real quick and have a few things we'll cover first thing we'll mention is the boys basketball made it to state and they played their first game this wednesday at noon down at wells fargo arena there is of course limitations in regards to the numbers of people that can attend and mask wearing and things like that so we really encourage everyone to follow the booster club on facebook and twitter to keep updated on all of those precautions and things they need to be aware of and then the missouri valley conference just announced also that landon wolfe was named athlete of the year coach schultz coach of the year and then we had two athletes on the first
013team and two athletes on the second team so looking forward to an exciting week for them and wish them the best i also wanted to mention the high school jazz one was selected to perform at the 94th annual iowa band masters association conference this coming may they recorded three selections and it was part of a blind audition process that they were then chosen for and they will perform a statewide live stream as part of that event the committee only accepts one high school jazz band to perform and this is the third time that they've been invited to perform at the iowa band masters association previously it was in 2015 and 2018. so congratulations to mr ingleheart and then all of those students as well this is really exciting this came from kenton swartly he actually
014nominated this student and she was actually just found out that she was awarded a national center for women in information information technology aspirations and computing award she was selected from over 4 200 applicants and is the only student from iowa that was selected for the recognition at the national level and then one of seven students selected as a winner of the iowa award as well and kenton said that she's very deserving of the award and been an invaluable member of the first robotics competition team zoe has been a key member of our programming team and instrumental in coding our robots as well as helping to train younger team members and then within the website there's this great little profile of her that shows a little bit of her background she got involved in first in
015seventh grade and then since then has kind of worked her way up within the team and was part of the team that was part of the world championships and then she will be moving on to study at oh rose holman institute of technology to study software engineering and robotics so big congratulations to zoe she's a senior at the high school and of course to kenton as well for we know it takes some effort and energy to make nominations for students and write the recommendation letters so we're just really glad that we have teachers that are willing to put in that extra effort for the students we are officially announcing what our groundbreaking is going to be for the new high school due to all of the covid restrictions we are just going to have this
016be a facebook live event it's going to be on thursday march 25th at noon and logistics wise we will be in communication with board members to make sure you're all able to be there and then have some representatives a few students as well as administration and it's from the architecture and then story construction as well we're lucky enough channel 15 is going to be there to record it and then be able to do some apparent university and some other things that will be able to show it as well and of course we'll have media invited but make sure to watch the district facebook page for that event and then it'll be on march 25th actual things happening could be before that but this is going to be the day that we're kicking it off i
017also wanted to congratulate the girls basketball team they unfortunately came up short in the quarterfinals but we're still very proud of their whole efforts this last year and then also the missouri valley announced their all-division selections for wrestling so you can see we had quite a few athletes that were part of that list this year so congratulations to all of them and also just for everyone's kind of awareness as well the waterloo warriors is actually we have student athletes that participate in that as part of a club program and it's a hockey and they were actually in the state championship game match game i maybe may have said it incorrectly there i'm not not huge hockey in my life but we wanted to recognize those athletes they came up short in that state championship game
018but they have a great presence on twitter and social media and wanted to acknowledge those students we are having at the end of the month also on the 25th so it'll be a day you can attend a lot of things for the district virtually this is going to be host virtual screening and then panel hosted on that thursday march 25th starting at 6. the event is free and open to the public and you can register right from the home page cfschools.org you'll just click on the image of the movie uh like there it'll be across the homepage and then you can go right into an assume an event that you can register for and then you'll get the link for when that'll be live on the 25th i really want to mention julie rausch she's
019a school counselor at holmes junior high and she's been a big force behind getting this organized and then getting the panels put together as well so we really hope lots of people will take advantage of this because it's definitely on the topics of social media and it affects on our brain especially for teenagers and it's really important for all of our parents and our students to be a part of i also wanted to mention on our equity resources page and then within our e-newsletter we're sharing lots of things this was just shared last week in our e-newsletter this is some local events and activities that are happening the 1619 project is a discussion that's being hosted by the waterloo human rights commission cedar falls human rights commission in embrace and you can go on to
020that facebook event and then be part of that conversation and then also uni has a quest toward racial equity cultivating justice a quest toward racial equity that they've opened up to cedar valley residents and you can sign up online so these are just a few of the great resources we have throughout the cedar valley that we think are important for our families our parents and even our students able to participate in and learn more and a quick reminder we have almost made it to spring break no school this friday because it's conferences week and then no school next week due to spring break of course make sure to follow us on all of our social media channels and now i'm going to turn it over to tara quick unless there's any questions from the board
021for me um i just have a quick question about some of the virtual events are people outside of the district able to register and watch if they choose like the the like uh filming yes it is open to anyone in the public yeah anybody anywhere can really register for that and be part of that conversation great thank you yeah hello i am here just to give a quick equity update for you today last time that the board meet uh met on the 22nd our team came and um gave a pretty well we didn't come we came virtually and and we're able to to give you an update with all of our equity work and so today is just a quick follow-up on the 22nd we received a statement and concerns at that board meeting so
022following that on the 25th we convened with our equity committee and we really reviewed those each statement took those seriously and that committee discussed areas that we've already met within our plan and then we also discussed areas that we could improve additional trainings additional things that we could do better as a reminder our action plan is really centered around four groups our students our staff our system and our community so what are we doing within each of those areas to make improvement so we really believe that we're better together the more that we know the better that we're going to do and i think our goal next would be to be able to sit down with those people and have a conversation about the statements and and the concerns further i think we're all committed
023to the same goal which is making it a great place for our kids so that's just a quick update that we have met as a committee looking at each one of those statements and diving in to see how it meets our action plan and how we may need to improve in some areas there questions there any updates on thank you very much for reporting any updates on the impact or the usage of our new calling reporting system i guess is what i would yeah absolutely and janelle might want to be able to give that a little bit thank you yeah the really great thing about that platform is that it can we can just literally pull lots of data from it so i can definitely give maybe some more specifics at our next board meeting
024as far as the numbers that have been submitted i would say we've had a wide scope of the kinds of alerts and definitely secondary buildings have more alerts than elementary but we've definitely seen good usage of it i believe and it's fulfilling the the needs that we we had hoped but i can definitely bring some more specifics about the numbers and kind of breakdowns of that as for the next meeting yeah that those are important but i also think your sense of how it's serving its intended need and and how folks who are and in the follow up process you know it's that that's a big part of it is that you feel like that somebody heard them and listen to them and follow through with them and so i mean numbers is one thing
025but i think how it's how it's resolving yeah i think we can definitely talk about that too um just real quick when the alert comes in i'm the first one that gets the notification of it and then i work directly with if it's a student or a staff concern with adrian ortera and then we take it to then that building or the appropriate people within that building to focus on that being addressed and of course our school resource officer is involved in many of those things as well i would say we have had we had multiple alerts on the concerns we've had recently so in the sense of people being comfortable using it i feel like that's going to that has definitely happened in some ways but it's also continuing to spread the word about
026it for our students and our school counselors are doing a great job especially through um registration um i can't remember exactly when we had just talked about this but i think the school counselors are mentioning it directly to each student when they have their registration this spring so they're kind of having a much more um focused discussion about that that tool is there for them yeah so yeah we can definitely talk more about that than in the next board meeting and how we're using it thank you i think our intention with with starting that was really for for every anybody to feel comfortable uh sharing a report or a concern that may maybe they didn't feel comfortable or safe sharing in person and so that was the intent and it's getting used which is which
027is exactly what we wanted other questions okay thank you thank you to both of you thank you uh moving now to item g which is to discuss a resolution for the issuance of the bonds uh dr pedi would like to introduce the subject yeah so this is the resolution supporting the issuance of approximately 32.9 million dollars in school infrastructure sales service and use tax revenue bonds this is uh to move forward with the school district's i guess promise that we would use some of our future revenues from the the once in sales tax as we went through the general obligation bond process we have already issued 10 million dollars in bonds and we said we would issue roughly 43 million dollars in bonds to be able to use those funds to offset the overall impact
028on property taxes this resolution does not impact the tax levy rate or local property taxes it is one cent sales tax revenue that is given to each district according to the uh statewide calculation so just as a reminder that this is a resolution at the next meeting we'll have maggie burger that will attend this starts the process for us to go and solicit bids and solicit people to provide the the issuance so we can come back have that discussion and potentially approve the who is going to receive that issuance and and how that money will be received all right thank you i'd ask for a res the resolution in a second and then we can answer any questions i move that the cedar falls board of education adopt the resolution supporting the proposed issuance of
029approximately thirty two million nine hundred thousand dollars of school infrastructure sales service and use tax revenue bonds as presented thank you is there a second second second from nate very good thank you any questions or comments um just uh so uh follow-up so we've already issued 10 million so all of this comes against sales tax revenue so and i know it's very muffled but if anyone wants to help us they can go buy something and pay sales tax and and and it will help um but so we've we've issued 10 million dollars this would be an additional 32.9 million dollars that we approximately that we would issue how how much of our bonding capacity will we have used once do we have any bonding capacity left after this is after this is issued so we'd
030have to specifically look at that when we're going through the process using the current estimates of enrollment and and the from two years ago with the general obligation bond we we had a certain band of dollars i wanted to say it was like 20 million dollars 30 million dollars that we could actually go above and beyond if you look at the overall coverage rates that you have to acquire obviously since then our enrollment's increased as well as the estimated amount of dollars for save per student so we would have to recalculate that and i don't think we have here recently it's only gone up but it hasn't decreased okay okay so is it the intention that they're beyond this i forget in the grand scheme of things will this will this finalize the bonds that
031we're issuing against that revenue stream of sales tax and then um next will be the the the other bonds that were authorized by our community correct okay i was just going to mention too we also take a look at the current bonds that we currently have which is our series 2013 and at our next meeting we'll be having those discussions and regards as they're callable and so we'll be making some of those people in order to allow us to continue with um with our sales tax revenue bonds as well to to ensure that coverage as well too okay all right and again this is just a resolution to start the process for us to then get a get a presentation and then books week right all right and again this is not increasing in tax
032to to the tax owners um it is utilizing that once that we have available through the state okay excellent all right so we've moved and seconded any further questions or comments seeing none to a vote all those in favor say aye aye aye oh same sign motion carries moving now to approval of the construction testing contract yeah so that is me as well um on the screen you'll see that there is a just a summary it did not come across well in the board packet so i apologize for that so we created a little snippet to show the overall estimates and and the bids that were received so within the line item of construction costs within our overall budget for the new high school there was an estimation of two hundred thousand dollars for testing
033services uh part of the testing services are for soil testing as we remove the top layer of soil bring that back in as well as compaction and concrete testing grout testing to make sure that all of our welds are appropriate and can withstand the bolts and and different fireproofing mechanisms across the the building and within the pack you can see just the breakdown of where all the that time comes from where all the testing comes from and again we estimated as we went through the budget that this would be roughly a 200 000 expenditure or a line item for that budget we did have three bids that came back uh the low bid was for 141 366 which was team services the next lowest was cvt at 146 396. you can see where terra con
034and braun inter-tech came in at as well so we're very pleased this is just part of that process of making sure that the end product of of a building that we know and and certainly will be a source of pride in our community for decades to come is built and tested and meets our needs from day one all right in a similar fashion it asks for a motion second and then we'll move to discussion i move to accept the recommendation from story construction for construction testing and inspection services from team services ames iowa in the amount of 141 as presented thank you is there a second second thank you jeff questions or comments from board members uh looking at the items that are on here this looks to be more about the the structural soundness
035of the material that we're building on so it doesn't really have anything to do with perhaps contamination of the soil or anything like that i assume that we're out of some other through some other means yeah so we've already had some soil sampling and soil testing of the site so this is more to ensure that there's the the right compaction as we dig down you know well over in some cases 20 feet down that they're doing the soil sampling to make sure that the foundations and the footers have the right level of stability as well as in the back fill as it gets backfilled so maybe just a follow-up question just from uh so we've different players that we've contracted obviously to help us with the construction of the high school so we have obviously
036story construction which is our construction manager and then we awarded a i'm going to call it an oversight entity to make sure the windows don't leak and the operation the functional operational type of thing and then this is so and then this is a how i guess that other group that's testing the opera operability if you will of the of the building and this group uh i guess just to just so people are clear because i'm i'm where are the lines drawn like between those two groups that are testing to make sure everything is to specifications yeah so there'll be some overlap with that not significant overlap but some overlap and they have to work together so we will have our construction managers who are on site to ensure that things are constructed that the
037timelines are set that they're working with all of the contractors and subcontractors we have our testing services that'll come in and test at certain points certain levels to make sure that things are of sound i guess construction as far as the services provided so with the concrete or the grout they'll have crush tests and and cube tests to make sure that they are good quality materials and then we have the service and again i've drawn a blank on the name of the the service that we approved about a month and a half ago that really ensures that things are operating at the efficiency that they are intended to do then provide the training on those efficiencies for our staff so it deals with some of the hvac systems but also ensuring that there's no leakage
038with windows that there's you know the roof membranes and roofing is doesn't have leaks so they do testing not of the i guess core construction but testing of the components that are going to be in the operability of the building okay thank you any other questions or comments seeing none will move to a vote all those in favor say aye aye aye opposed same sign motion carries moving now to item i on the agenda uh the approval of the uh high school elevator bids so as everybody recalls we we had to re-bid the elevator bids for the new high school project that was re-bid bids were received and you can see that that was bid package 14-1 two bidders did submit bids the the low bidder and the recommendation is o'keeffe elevators for two hundred
039and eighty one thousand three hundred ninety eight dollars uh that was actually forty nine thousand six hundred and ten dollars below the estimate so you can see that the overall project uh within the board packet is uh below budgets uh with all of our bid packages in there still you know several variables but about ninety one thousand little over ninety 91 000 under budget at this time so uh very pleased and happy where the the bids came in for those elevator bids and um certainly uh looking forward to the fact that that was under budget and under what we thought would be the line item for that excellent can i have a motion i move to accept the recommendation from story construction for bid package 14-1 new high school elevators as presented today march 8th
0402021 thank you is there a second second thank you jeff questions or comments regarding the elevator bids all right seeing none we'll move to a vote all those in favor say aye aye aye opposed same sign motion carries uh moving now to approval of custodial bids yes this is our annual request for custodial bids and it's in regards to our proprietary as well as our miscellaneous custodial bids and within your board packet you'll see that those two particular bids that were received one for the proprietary was for martin brothers with the recommendation and that would be for those items that require those specif specific services that we have available and for hand soap paper towels and toilet tissue as we were doing the bids we did find that there has been an increase in cost
041and so that this year there is a difference compared to last year one of the items specifically for the proprietary items was the foaming hand soap obviously our kiddos and our staff members have been utilizing the recommendations of the cdc and we haven't had to increase the purchase of that that usage of the foaming hand soap the cost is the same but the the increase from last year is due to the numbers of of items in which we have to purchase also taking a look then at those remainder custodial items with those specific vendors you'll see the recommendations based on the lowest bids or with the exceptions of those particular items but those are anywhere from cash excuse me can liners to gloves to bleach and some of those items again we've seen a significant
042change from last year at this time some examples last year at this time the bleach was nine dollars and sixty cents a case this year it's twelve dollars and ten cents um the k liners were ten dollars and eighty five cents uh they are now 13 and 20 cents and and the large one that we discovered was the gloves the extra large gloves this this was a significant change last year prior to the pandemic it was 18.75 cents a case this year it's and 21 cents and so obviously you will see a a difference within those supplies that we've received but we do have those recommendations for martin brothers at the sixty two thousand two hundred and eighty dollars and then those remaining custodial supplies at sixty thousand nine hundred and eight dollars all right
043thank you uh can i get a motion and second and then we'll discuss i move to accept the custodial proper proprietary supply bids from martin brothers distributing in the amount of sixty two thousand two hundred and eighty dollars in the remaining custodial supply bids in the amount of sixty thousand nine hundred and eight dollars and eighteen cents as presented thank you is there a second second thank you susie questions or comments are we able to use oh sorry oh you go okay are we able to use some of the covid monies to offset the increased expense of these items yes that is the intent to be able to use some of those dollars we know that some of these are annual expenditures but there's also those increases that we can use to be able to
044help fill some of those added costs do we anticipate something like the increase in the extra-large gloves you know that massive increase we expect that does that market fluctuations or do you think maybe that will come down in subsequent years or is that a do we think that might be a permanent level we're optimistic they'll come down in the future but uh we don't fully know when sometimes some of those prices will go up and they'll stay inflated above what had been kind of the market price but we don't anticipate that they'll remain at that level all right excellent seeing no further questions or comments we'll move to a vote all those in favor say aye aye aye opposed same sign motion carries moving now to the school the next year's school budget uh proposal
045and public hearing absolutely as uh janelle pulls up the powerpoint for this evening we'll be taking a look at the 21-22 budget and again this is a a longer presentation so i ask that you hold on to your hats but feel free to ask questions as we go through it definitely is a longer one so but as we move through it you know every topic every slide although it's not stated revolves around these particular purposes and that's meeting the funds of the cedar falls students funding the educational proprietaries of the district as well as then understanding how the iowa school finance helps to meet those funding needs for that student so as we take a look this evening we're going to take a look at the school funding formula and how it works give an
046overview of that as well as then are key factors in comparison of data and that would be local districts as well as districts similar to our size we'll take a look at the levy rates the projected property tax for a residential commercial and multi-residential as well as then we do need to take a look at the current certified budget for the 2021 school year and then we'll wrap up so this slide looks familiar i'm sure to most of you have i've shown this previously and and we take a look at this because as a reminder this is our funding uh fund accounting and there are three separate silos that i like to take a look at and that's our governmental proprietary and our fiduciary fund normally we review each of these particular ones and just
047like corns and beans these funds can't mix they're specifically for specific reasons tonight we are only going to take a look at the governmental fund so but within that we'll take a look at the general fund that operational fund we'll take a look at that special revenue fund the capital project which is our save and our pebble and then obviously our debt service so as we take a look at the certified budget we also want to take a look at the foundation formula and this is set by the legislature and the ideal purpose is is listed on the screen but the the ones that i like to take a look at is is the equity and expenditures as well it's it's the purpose of property tax relief we also know that it is pupil driven
048and it provides local discretion and incentives the large one is that establishes the maximum spending control control but it also is the same formula that is used by all districts um k-12 public districts as well as aeas so when we take a look at that uh the funding formula within the funding formula is the aid and levy budget worksheet this is a very complex worksheet we definitely will not have time nor do you want to go through that entire worksheet but you will see throughout the presentation some of those images from the aiden levy but the purpose of the aiden levy is it implements the school foundation as well as then it calculates the spending authority it determines the total maximum spending authority and then a determined state aid versus property tax so as we
049move forward with the funding formula there are four key factors and these probably look familiar to those on the board as well as those in the community as we've spoken to these uh quite frequently and that's enrollment equalization uh supplemental state aid and balance and we'll briefly review each of those as we continue here this evening so as we take a look at enrollment enrollment has determined the majority of the funding received um for the school districts and that is based on october one count and so for fiscal 22 the account in which we review is the october 1st of 2020. and so the enrollment we have our certified enrollment take that times the cost per student is 75 percent of your total general fund resources or your spending authority the other thing you want
050to take a look at with enrollment is open enrolled in and open and rolled out because those dollars do follow those students to that uh specific district if they are open rolled out but we want to take a look at certified enrollment versus served enrollment there is a difference and so when we take a look at certified enrollment you'll see that for excuse me for october 1st of 2020 the district did increase enrollment of 85 students the red bar indicates the number of cedar falls students currently attending cedar falls schools and then the gold bar are those cedar full students that are attending other districts for a total uh certified enrollment of 5456.4 students and again that was an increase from the prior year of 85 students can i ask a quick question absolutely i
051noticed in our open enrollment form this month that we have some virtual school open enroll students how does that impact this formula those that are actually attending our virtual school will impact this formula as open enrolled students into our as well as if they're attending another district for virtual it would be open and rolled out so those dollars follow those kiddos based on those needs yep great question so as i had indicated earlier we do like to take it uh take a look at comparisons and this is a three-year cumulative change for certified enrollment and this is similar size schools and this is based on enrollment so we have five districts that are larger than cedar falls schools and five districts that are smaller and you'll see for the three-year change cedar falls schools um
052had a cumulative change of 218.8 students uh prevail excuse me pleasant valley had 207.5 all the other districts unfortunately had a lower change within those certified enrollment numbers for the last three years specific to schools similar to our size and this is based on october of 18 19 and 20 certified enrollment counts we also want to take a look at special education and and the reason we want to take a look at this particular screen is because the special education is a large portion of our budget and in in looking at this historically you can see where the numbers have have fallen for october 1st of 2020 we have seen an increase in our special education level funding level one and level two and level three uh specifically for the number of students attending cedar
053falls schools but when we take a look at this you have to look it indicates a potential for a larger sped at cost and excess of revenues and so we want to continue to to review these particular numbers as we move forward as well when we're looking at certified enrollment so the second key factor is equalization and this backs goes back to the 1970s where the legislation established a law that cost per student across the state will be nearly equal it doesn't state it's equal it says nearly equal and the cost per student for fiscal 22 is 7 227 and you'll see that of that 190 schools are at that cost per pupil of and 720 seven dollars but there is then those school districts that receive additional and the maximum of seven thousand three
054hundred and seventy two dollars or a difference of seventy five excuse me 145 dollars and those districts as you'll see here based on a chart from fiscal 21 you'll see the difference of the 197 currently receiving the cost per pupil but then there are those additional 130 districts that are receiving additional funds now the legislature is currently working towards closing that gap again in fiscal 22 they did utilize an additional 10 dollars to decrease that gap over the last three years they have decreased that gap by 25 just to put in perspective so they continue to work on that but it is slowly but you will see the the difference in regards to the funding and equalization for those districts we also take a look at the supplemental state aid and again this is set
055by the legislature and governor and the supplemental state aid is as we look at the current supplemental state aid of seven thousand forty eight dollars for fiscal 21. as we are aware that the governor did sign the 2.4 increase for supplemental state aid which is 169 that's added to that seven thousand forty eight dollars and then an additional ten dollars based on the equity so the new supplemental state aid is seven thousand two hundred and twenty seven dollars i like this chart because it shows the difference between district a and district b and how they are utilized and what they receive for their district cost per pupil you'll see that district a based on the district cost per people will receive 169 dollars plus the 10 for equity um making that seven thousand two hundred
056and twenty seven dollars but district b who was already receiving those dollars will only receive that increase of a hundred and sixty nine dollars so there is still that gap of fifty dollars based on district a and district b so the state foundation formula sets the expenditure of ceiling for each school district a total of spending authority and tells the school district how to fund its spending authority so as we move on we'll take a look at the supplemental state aid and you'll see that on the chart um the solid red line is that of cedar falls schools and the dotted line is that of the governor and legislature a supplemental state aid except for fiscal 19 the district has run higher and what i call new money and that's based on our open or
057excuse me our increased enrollment over the past few years and so this year for fiscal 22 the district is to receive a little over four percent um specifically to supplemental state aid so as i mentioned we do like to take a look at the comparisons of similar schools size schools the district cedar falls district is ranked number 16 based on enrollment count you'll see that for fiscal 22 the estimated amount to receive again as i mentioned is a little over four percent or 1.5 million dollars which is again an increase of 85 students the majority on this screen and you'll see and this is based on enrollment count 5 above and 5 below had a loss of enrollment for fiscal 22 which then impacts the dollar growth as well as potential for uh budget guarantee
058which then is passed along to the local property tax so we are very fortunate as we continue to grow with our open enrollment or with our enrollment that we continue to grow as this as with our district and then we take a look at the similar size schools the average and again this is just another way to uh to review but the last three years on an average increase for cedar falls schools based on similar size schools is approximately 1.5 million dollars for for the average and then the last and final of of the four is our balance and the balance is the ratio of property tax and state aid supporting the district's budget and the property rich districts will see receive less in state aid but all districts are required to levy the five
059dollars and forty cents per one thousand assessed valuation the state comes in and backfills up to that eighty seven and a half percent we have our supplemental state aid which covers the property tax increase and then we have our additional levies so that takes care of the four four foundations but we do want to take at the assessed like take a look at the assessed value when we're talking about property taxes and what the rates may look like next year and the dollars that it will generate so the red bar shows the regular assessed valuation and the gold bar shows the tif valuation overall the district excuse me the assessed valuation increased 3.2 percent but you will note that the tif did increase um compared to prior years and the red bar again the regular
060stayed rather flat for fiscal 22. when we take a look at the tif then we want to take a look at those financial financing basics and again it's used by cities and counties and community colleges and the city and counties adopt an urban renewal plan and particularly for this tif identification this was for the cedar falls downtown street revitalization project that has currently been occurring and it establishes a base valuation at the prior year's taxable valuation levels the revenues on base valuation goes to all taxing authorities and then the revenue on incremental valuation goes to the tif projects so what does this all mean we're taking a look at the assessed valuation per student and you'll see that again the red line indicates the cedar falls assessed valuation per student and the gold line indicates
061the state average and for the first time the state average did increase larger than the assessed valuation for cedar falls schools but the one thing to remember in regards to that is enrollment increases significantly don't always keep up with the valuations and so it is very common to see a fluctuation into this and so that is one item in which you want to uh keep in the back of your mind regarding assessed valuations per student because of we have significantly increased enrollment over the last several years so just a just a question on it so the numerator is number of pupils and the denominator is total assessed valuation correct so that line tells me that our valuation is increasing faster than our students number of students or the other way around the other way around
062yes yes i am so thankful we have a mathematician that is a correct statement yes and a little bit of the challenge with this too as enrollment decreased across the state the evaluations in many parts of the state stayed the same so we have some smaller districts across the state that might have really a assessed valuation per student that is not anywhere close to to what the average would be it'd be much higher than that so this is it's good to have this as contextual it just shows that again as we continue to increase enrollment uh as we look at the overall assessed valuations that's you have to keep that in mind okay you said um 3.2 percent i think was the for the regular increase right i'm trying to remember what would the previous
063years have been relative to the 3.2 kind of on the same lines with regards to the increase in property values so i i've been involved with some of these different conversations for for several years there's been some years where it's been you know five percent six percent there's other years as you can't just see by the differentiation where it's been that two to three percent um i think one of the aspects of this year is the the gold bar because the red bar is what we are able to generate for local property taxes and that gold section increased which means we don't we aren't able to within our uniform levy or our you know the extra levy to be able to utilize those funds in the orange bar so the red bar from last year
064to this year is pretty flat and andy i'm trying to remember from my meetings with the board of supervisors i think covet impacted that because i don't believe they were able to get out and do a value assessed evaluations last year so i think they are anticipating going out in the community so i do believe those they do their anticipating increases for that so that should work toward favor it should exactly this is such a unique year that we anticipate those changing we think additional construction projects that might have been delayed because of of the previous 12 months will become you know re-engaged and reactivated so we we anticipate that that will um swing upwards and again our our uh city leaders have been very thoughtful to approach over the last 20 years as far
065as where and how growth will occur and infrastructure in place so we we're very comfortable that's trending in the right direction okay as we move on then we also do take a look at the evaluation per student in our area school comparison and we take a look at those listed on the screen which is like new hartford hudson jeans phil waterloo and waverly shell rock and again cedar falls continues to sit rather favorably in regards to the valuations per student and then this is just a three year comparison with those local 4 19 20 and 21 valuations as we continue then we do take a look at the similar size schools again with the five larger based on enrollment in the five smaller with the exception of west des moines and ames you'll see that
066cedar falls continues to sit rather favorably within that comparison for those similar size school districts and then again with the three year comparison for the 1920 and 21 fiscal years so really to get into the thick of things and taking a look at the fiscal 22 combined district cost as i had indicated earlier it is two hundred and twenty seven dollars per student now um as i had indicated that we are required or each district in the state of iowa is required to levy the five dollars and forty cents per one thousand assessed valuation which makes up about one thousand seven hundred and sixty six dollars of that seven thousand two hundred and twenty seven dollars the state comes in and backfills that remaining portion it's about sixty eight percent or four thousand eight hundred
067and eighty two which then leaves that remainder of 579 dollars based on the district needs and really in short the state contributes about 68 percent and the local districts contribute um 32 of that two hundred and twenty seven dollars we'll take a look then at the history of the cost per pupil and you see you will see that it has increased over the years again for fiscal 22 it did increase the 169 dollars which was the 2.4 percent as assigned by the governor as well as that additional 10 in equity and then again this just refers back to that combined district cost mixture of uh the 68 on state aid and then that local district property tax of 32 percent as mentioned earlier and that's relatively consistent throughout the past few years as we move
068forward then as i had indicated earlier we were going to take a look at the aid and levy worksheet and these are a few slides that indicate the cost associated to that breakdown of that complex worksheet and with that five dollars and forty cents the dollars that are generated based on that is eleven million two hundred and thirty three thousand nine hundred and fifty eight dollars the district does not qualify for the budget guarantee as we had uh increased enrollment uh therefore no additional property tax based on our local property owners and then that final state foundation aid of regular program of 37 million and again that includes our teachers salary supplement on the professional development teacher leader compensation early intervention and then the property tax replacement payment which is also known as as peter
069and then there's that additional levy as i had mentioned earlier which is the backfill and that calculation is on the screen with a net additional levy of five million six hundred and forty nine thousand six hundred twenty five dollars of a property tax of two dollars and seventy one cents so bringing that all together you'll see the uniform and additional levy at eight dollars and 11 cents again that 101 guarantee we have the dropout prevention which was approved by the by the board on january 11th and to remind the board and our our viewers that is for our at-risk and drop-out program that we utilize throughout the district of a property tax rate of 46 cents for a total of 17 million 845 000 one dollar or a property tax rate of eight dollars and
07057 cents and again this is just a tax comparison within our local districts and you'll see uh based on that for fiscal 21 excuse me the district consent considers to continue to be rather favorable with the 8.49 and then similar school districts our size you can see again the exception of west des moines and ames we continue to be right in that pact of the lower amounts for combined district cost and then this just indicates the property total property revenue um specific to the combined district cost and those dollars associated to that and our dropout and again uh the combined district cost for fiscal 22 is a little over 16 million again the district did not qualify for the budget guarantee and then the dropout of a little over 900 000 and then this is
071the rates that are associated to that property tax for fiscal 22 and previous fiscal years and again they're rather consistent based on the usage of that combined district cost and dropout rates so one item that we also do take a look at is an instructional support levy and that is a part of our general fund reporting that is a 10-year levy approved by the the voters for our district and that was through that is through fiscal 22 it is 10 of the regular district program cost which is 3.9 million there is the last isl state aid of a million dollars and that is for the support the instructional support of 2.9 million for a property tax rate of 1.27 just to remind the board and our viewers this is utilized for our kindergarten teachers as
072well as our counselors as well as our technology equipment throughout the district these funds are utilized for that particular programs and so when we take a look at that you'll see the dollars generated specifically to the property tax revenue again for fiscal 22 of approximately 2.93 million dollars within that property tax rate again of 1.27 which has been rather consistent over the past few years within a penny or two for the tax rates for our isl again a part of our aid in levy is our cash reserve levy and there are two parts specifically to our cash reserve lobby and that is the school board review committee approved request and those requests are specifically for the increased enrollment open enrollment or lep cost and you'll see on the screen those particular amounts that were approved
073by the board on those dates board meeting dates as well as then our special education and that is excess cost above the revenues that we would have received and that's 1.2 million dollars and again board approved on october 12 2020. so the total sbr r1 excuse me sbrc number one approved request is nine hundred and forty eight thousand two hundred and forty four dollars as i indicated also there are two parts of this and the cash reserve is a second part and um in past discussions while reviewing our district financials we had conversations in regards to our solvency ratio and the need to ensure that we continue to have our cash balances available to one issue payments to as needed but also to have cash on hand and for this fiscal year you'll note uh
074the recommendation would be to add an additional 200 000 for those cash flow needs for fiscal 22. so in taking a look at that we have our sbrc-1 and sbrc2 with our total cash reserves of 2 million 148 for a total property tax of a dollar three specific for our cash reserves and again this is the history in regards to the cash reserve levies now these will fluctuate and that's based on increased enrollment as well as our special education deficit as well as our cash flow needs for our solvency ratio so you will see that the sbrc request will fluctuate as will the cash flow as well as then you'll also see the tax levy rates fluctuate based on those needs as well for the past few years but again for fiscal 22 you'll see
075that the cash flow is approximately nine cents with the sbrc one at 93 cents so what does this look like for the general fund uh for the total request for our general fund with the combined district cost again minus the budget guarantee the dropout prevention which is utilized for our at risk and drop out program our instructional support which we utilize for salaries and benefits and for our technology equipment and then our cash reserve for a total of 22 million 922 358 or a combined district cost or excuse me a general fund is 10.88 again this is just the review of the total operating revenues received specific to that and again for fiscal 22 is approximately 23 million dollars as well as in the tax rates that follow for operating revenue or general fund for
076fiscal 22 is 10.89 we also take a look at the commercial industrial or cni state replacement estimate and beginning in 15 c i property valuations are being reduced through rollback and rollback is one of the items we will take a look at up to 90 percent and 15 and then beginning in 18 the cni replacement payments paid to the state become limited to the total payments for 17. so the district is estimating an 87 per rated payment and when we take a look at that the calculation is on on the screen for you an overall calculation and the estimate for the general fund cni replacement is 880 with the instructional support cni replacement of seventy six thousand nine hundred and two dollars and then the general fund revenues and i apologize that unfortunately did not
077pop up the accurate amount in regards to the categories uh specifically to federal but the state you'll see that it is um 38 million 700 732 dollars at approximately 57 percent and then we have our federal which is a little over 2.8 million or 4.23 percent and that includes our medicaid it includes our title dollars it also includes head start and it also includes our recent funds of our esser funds of the sr1 and sr2 dollars and then we have our local which is the combination of local property tax and other revenue and that would be our open enrollment tuition as well as facilities and rentals and then miscellaneous fees and associated to our general fund for fiscal 22. that takes care of the general fund as you recall we are only reviewing that first
078silo so we do have a few items left to review but they will be rather quick for your review and this is specifically into management fund and management fund is a restricted fund and it is a board of education controlled fund and this is for the purposes of property tax and excuse me property and liability insurance as well as workmen's comp it does have property loss deductible and early severance benefits if applicable for fiscal 22 the request so the recommendation is the 750 000 which is a property tax rate of 36 cents for a thousand assess that valuation now this is the review of the property tax revenue over the past several years you'll see that in fiscal 20 and 21 that remained rather consistent and that was the board had made the decision to
079utilize those fund balances available in order to utilize those dollars but in fiscal 22 we've been notified that there is a hardening in the market and that's because of the natural disasters and the frequency of storms that have been occurring and unfortunately we've been notified that it's roughly 15 to 20 percent increase for next year based on our premiums therefore their request and the recommendation of that 750 000 i mean that is industry-wide that is not locally that that is nationwide and industry-wide so um and then it this reflects then obviously that property tax rate and and that flexibility and that change within that property tax rate based on the needs of the district and based on the industry of notifications i've received so for fiscal 22 the property tax impact is the 36 cents
080we also take a look at the physical plant and equipment levy or a pebble again that is a restricted fund there's two parts to that again there's a board controlled part board of education which is the 33 cents per 1000 and then there's the voter approved and that's the additional dollar 34 and that was approved on december 16 which the levy expires in june of 2028 we utilize these these funds for the purchases and improvements of our grounds as well as any construction and repair you're familiar with our 10-year pebble plan that we present to the board on a yearly basis it also includes any purchases for school buses and vehicles as well as technology for our one-on-one program that we have for our chromebooks and then if there's any leasing and renting of facilities
081that are needed as a reminder this particular fund cannot be utilized just as the management fund cannot be utilized for salaries and benefits or general operating costs specifically for these uses so when we take a look at that the pebble for fiscal 22 is the regular is 756 541 and then we have our voted of three million seventy two thousand seventeen dollars for a property tax rate of dollar sixty seven and again this just reflects the dollars that are generated based on the regular and voted as well as then the property tax associated to that particular levy of regular and voted as well and then we have our debt service our last service in regards to a restricted fund and this is to be used to pay the interest and the principal payments based on
082bonds and this is specific to voter approved bonds and our our community did graciously approve these two specific bonds the 32 million dollars which was approved on april of 2016 which was utilized for the construction of aldrich elementary as well as then the remodeling of north cedar and orchard hill but then they did the community also did approve the 69.9 million dollar bond which will be utilized for the construction of the new high school the district has not bonded for these particular dollars so therefore this year but it is anticipated in fiscal 23 um that uh the the need for those dollars as we continue for the construction so it is anticipated there will be a change in our debt service levy in fiscal 23 so the amount for fiscal 22 is 2 million 371
083300 with the property tax of a dollar three dollar yes excuse me uh this then gives an overview of that property tax revenue and uh since the exception of the inception of the uh the debt levy uh and you'll see again fiscal 22 of that two million three hundred thousand dollars and then again for the history of the property tax rate uh based on the need uh to issue the payment for interest and principal for that 32 million dollar bond so in summary um we we definitely you'll see the general fund based on uh previous slides that we've reviewed of nineteen million nine hundred ninety three thousand two hundred and forty five dollars or nine dollars and sixty one cents adding those additional instructional support levy our management fund the voted pebble and the regular
084pebble as well as our debt service levy total revenues would be twenty nine million eight hundred and seventy two thousand two hundred and sixteen dollars or a total tax rate of thirteen dollars and ninety five cents so when we take a look at this i do like to show this screen specifically um and this would be for every dollar that's received in property tax you'll see that 56 and a half cents of that is is considered combined district cost you'll have eight cents is debt service and then three cents is drop out and so on based on that and that's based on for every dollar that is received as well as i like to show this because this shows um the control and the board control and the availability of control specifically to that tax
085breakdown property tax breakdown again the legislature controls the combined district cost which is 56 and a half percent it comes in then with community and that is the voted people the instructional support and the debt service of 28 so the board actually has control or has review of of the cash reserves the management um the dropout prevention as well as then the regular people and budget guarantee which is approximately of the total property tax breakdown so again as i had mentioned earlier the property tax for fiscal 22 is the 13.95 this show this chart shows in the red the total and then with and without the debt service would be the 12.87 as we continue then we take a look at the similar size schools and again this is based on enrollment five up five
086down and against cedar falls can consider considers as and continues to sit rather favorably throughout those particular districts in reviewing so as we move forward we do take a look at the assessment and valuation of property and that's the rollback and this does really impact the property tax and and we want to keep this in mind when we take a look at that it is based on iowa code 441.21 and it is adjustments and value to comply with the state no more than four percent the rate of adjustment is determined by the iowa department of revenue as well as the rate of adjustment is the same for all counties so it does not change for the different counties so in taking a look at the residential rollback you'll see that there is a fluctuation and
087again as i mentioned um for this upcoming fiscal year it did increase to 56 percent and it has fluctuated over the last several years so when we take a look at that for the projected residential property tax for fiscal 22 on a property valuation of a hundred thousand dollars with the increase of the rollback to 56 percent and the tax rate of 13.95 we had a gross tax of 787 with an estimated homestead of 66.19 for a net tax of 720.89 and again this is a total change of 21.93 so when we take a look at the property tax this is just a visual to show on homes that are assessed at a hundred thousand two hundred and three hundred thousand dollars uh based on fiscal 21 to fiscal 22 and as mentioned that total
088change for that hundred thousand dollar home is twenty one dollars and ninety three and looking at our commercial you'll see again that total change based on properties of three hundred thousand four hundred thousand and five hundred thousand dollars uh and taking a look at fiscal 21 and 22 for the property of three hundred thousand dollars that total change is sixteen dollars and twenty one cents and then we take a look at our multi-residential property tax and again um that is property values of four hundred thousand five hundred thousand and you'll see a total change of a decrease of um for a property valued at three hundred thousand dollars of three hundred dollars and forty four cents so um we come to then obviously uh where we have proposed the budget or recommended that budget uh
089specifically for this evening and then we obviously will publish this proposed budget in the waterloo excuse me waterloo cedar falls courier on march 23rd within that public hearing and adoption on april 12th with the certification final budget and certification to the county auditor on april 15th so that was a lot of information and uh i appreciate you holding on with me so if there's any questions please feel free to let me know why don't we go ahead and get the motion to set the set the hearing and second and then any questions or comments i move the cedar falls board of education direct the secretary to publish the budget estimate and notice a public hearing as required by law in the waterloo cedar falls courier and that the public hearing for the 2021-22 proposed budget
090be held at 5 30 pm on monday april 12 at the city of cedar falls city hall 220 clay street cedar falls iowa thank you for a second second thank you jenny questions or comments lots of information here if i can just make a clarification point within one of the slides if we go back to slides you'll see that multi-residential property is decreased and and that is due to legislative changes the legislature has shifted the way that those properties are taxed so that you will see and it's a fairly large decrease based on where they are at for assessed valuations which then shifts the burden to single property residential parties so that's one of the challenges that happened a few years ago at the legislative level and something that we do not have any control
091over any other questions or comments just with the management fund i think you know we were all kind of wondering what was going to happen with um the insurance rates and of the benefits i mean we all were kind of holding our breath and not really wondering what was going to how this was all going to pan out and so that was a significant jump i think of all the things that you shared tonight that was probably one that stood out for me the most but it's not that that's not surprising and i'm i'm i'm i'm wondering was it going to continue to be like down the road um as i think it's still relatively early on in terms of the overall impact that our country is experiencing so anyway but um thank you for
092the report thank you for the explanation and the way you walk us through this i really appreciate it thank you all right yep thank you very much can i just make one quick quick comment i i didn't know if you were i'm asking but i the um that insurance rate stood out to me too and i think you know the insurance increase uh due to costs from extreme weather events that is a that is a a cost of climate change um and that is something that will continue to show um and i i just am i'm grateful that we are taking that into consideration as we construct this new high school and that we're ensuring that we have mitigation measures built into that high school and the building itself and in the landscape around the
093high school that's the direction we have to go if we're going to try to avoid these kinds of increases in the future so anyway just a comment all right seeing no further comments or questions we'll move to a vote to set the hearing uh all those in favor say aye aye aye opposed same sign motion carries now we move back a year and we go to the budget amendment for the current year i promise this is much shorter than the last presentation so if we could pull up the screens in regards to uh the amended budget um this is part of our yearly process as well and and just to remind those that are are reviewing and attending um this is for expenditures that were not expected in the prior year and to remind those
094that are watching in here this budget amendment is specific to it was approved prior to the pandemic our certified budget and therefore there are expectations in regards to the amending of this budget for fiscal 21 and on the screen it just notates the requirements as well as the legal obligations specific to the iowa code sections but i do want to note that it is not an increase in property tax it's just the authority to utilize current revenue sources as well as the authority as to use for reserves as well so and taking a look at this there are four areas of amendment um this year for fiscal 21 the recommendation is to amend three of those four and that is specific to instruction and you'll see that amendment from 47 million to the 48 million
095and again that is specific to the covet 19 mitigation that the district has utilized specifically for fiscal 21 as well as then the anticipated curriculum purchase for the district as well as then our total support services and again that amendment you can see on that screen based on those dollars and again that is based on the code of mitigation expenditures and then finally we have our other expenditures and that is specifically to the construction of our new high school as we move forward with that and and hopefully break ground here very soon as janelle had indicated the groundbreaking here in march with those expenditures amendment of 17 million to 23 million there is a public hearing required just as a certified budget and so this timeline will look very familiar as we've established that proposed
096budget obviously we'll then publish that proposed budget in the waterloo cedar falls courier as well as then hold that public hearing adoption with that final budget amendment with the county auditor on april 15th right thank you can i get a motion in a second i move that the cedar falls board of education set 5 30 pm monday april 12 at the city of cedar falls city hall 2020 clay street cedar falls iowa as the time date and place to hold a public hearing to amend the current 2020-21 school year estimated budget expenditures thank you sir second second thank you nate very good questions or comments i'm not sure that i understood the increase to the high school construction could you explain that uh please absolutely so that's just that's not an increase of um it's
097just based on the timeline and when those expenditures will fall it's not an increase of the budget itself so um there there will be uh more expenditures based on the groundbreaking here shortly in march prior to the end of fiscal year thank you and i say this every year and i think it's important to note the the business office danelle does such a wonderful job that our annual budgets are set again in typically march early april for the following year and we do everything based on line item estimates so we really try to go down to what is the dollar amount going to be expended in each of these different categories where some districts will say well we're just going to set our budget at our max authorized expenditures and what our our max authorized
098budget is we do it in a much more scalpel-like approach which i think is important but it also then lends us to needing to adjust those based on what might happen 14 months after the fact so those other differences i guess i'm just curious if you could just give us a give us a give us a sense for example you know instructional area what what what how did covet impact you know the instructional area we have to hire more people or yeah absolutely so there were obviously supplies that were required in order to continue our services and continue and open up the the uh the district itself so when we had to order our ppe our hand sanitizer our filters different things like that there was an exceptionally amount of increased expenses associated to that
099that were not accounted for previously for our support services as well um as you are aware we've been running our buildings 24 7 based on the needs to ensure airflow and proper safety procedures so those dollars were not advocated and based on those needs for coveted mitigation as well okay do we um i know it's it's nothing is finalized yet as well but potentially um with the the federal dollars pending uh approval in dc there is there is information or there are items for school districts schools states et cetera have you received any uh in terms of reimburse reimbursements for some of these down the road that we haven't yet experienced any any projections or any you know foreshadowing what that might look like well um today we i had a webinar with the de
100that shared potentially what they are calling the sr3 funds estro 1 and 2 are built into our budget and trying to offset some of the expenditures uh that we've had and know we will have into the future especially as we look at you know bridging the learning gap that covet provided i think is is kind of the catch phrase of of the month but that's something we're going to have to do with so with some summer learning some other opportunities uh to make sure that we're filling in what gaps could be there based on covid uh the the sr3 funds um they're still trying to estimate what that could be and could look like but it's a fairly significant bill that's passed out of the senate and now is going to move to the house
101or did move to the house today and they're saying that will be larger than the two previous ones combined and we'll just have to figure out what are the parameters put around that because uh there are still some defining components as far as what is the interpretation of what that can be used for they are saying some 20 setbacks for some summer learning and filling in the the learning gaps that could be be present they're saying some for infrastructure some for other purposes right any with that will that go through the de then um to the d and then just some disseminated however they were the need all the et cetera yeah so it flows through the d e the d e has to disperse 87.5 percent of that to the school districts there are
102some state-level requirements surrounding what they have to put in place with some of the funds and then i believe there are just a couple other parameters as far as what the they need to do to be able to be held accountable for some of those funds so yes it does go through the de it is through the title one formula once again which means there will be districts our size that will receive more money than will we will and and some very different variables that are out there based on that title one funding formula um so last week most of the residents of cedar falls learned of the cost of our extremely cold february in terms of utility cost is there anything that's going to be the anything that we as the district are going
103to be facing in terms of increased utility costs from that that we know of yet yes and cfu worked with us really well through that process communicated with what the spike was going to be i don't remember exactly what the the cost increase was but it was like a 200 or 300 percent spike increase in in natural gas as well as just some of the electrical costs associated for the period when the um now i pushed it from my memory in my mind polar vortex polar vortex thank you and what occurred during that time frame and certainly the impacts it had on some of our southern southern states with the inability to get some of the uh um natural gas and electricity to us here in the midwest so there will be some cost increase
104with that that we did not anticipate so since that's in this current budget year is that going is this budget amendment that we're looking at today already and reflect those increased potential anticipated increased costs for utilities or are we going to have to do this again later no we we haven't anticipated those costs and has included within this amendment thank you all right seeing no further questions or comments we'll take a vote on setting a hearing so all those in favor say aye aye sign motion carries moving now to superintendent report well one item listed april 12th will be the the budget hearings we also as janelle said earlier spring break is coming up and certainly excited about the warmer weather an opportunity to hopefully enjoy more of the outdoors not only with recesses and
105other activities but certainly for for all of our community and adults across cedar falls thank you questions or comments from board members i had a question about the virtual campus enrollment for next year we the virtual families and i assume the rest of the district received the notification about the registration deadline commitment deadline is coming up may 1st and i believe that's based off of open enrollment guidelines currently given that's quite a bit of an early date for a lot of families and because of the uncertainty of how the covid pandemic will continue to play out over the summer for student or families that are in district already is there any possibility of that deadline being extended beyond that april 1st or what's the what's the plan for families who may not have all the
106information yet to be able to make a determination and is that april first date a lock-in date for the virtual campus yeah so we we said april 1st it's not tied to the open enrollment open enrollment is actually march march 1st april 1st we did that for staffing reasons because we need to now start setting schedules for next year as we look at when we set our secondary schedules as well as our class sizes and roster information we start doing that in april so we have to make sure that we don't have wide variations and and fluctuations so all of a sudden we have sections of 12 kids with other sections of 35 kids especially at the elementary level so we're saying april 1st is the time we anticipate that there will be some widespread
107vaccination options certainly by the summer so we we anticipate some mitigation strategies going into next year that will continue but we also hope at that time that there will be a little bit more sense of normalcy than maybe what we have currently can you describe the difference between the process for this year and last year because when we went going into the school year last year the families were families who were looking to enroll in the virtual campus because of covid you know i find my timeline recollection on the timeline is correct it was like um mid to late july with some of those enrollment dates is there what is the difference between you know for families who remember that timeline last year being so late and not necessarily of anyone's fault because of just
108how the pandemic rolled out but those who remember that timeline and the shortness of the the dates at that point and now they're trying to they're being asked to make the decision you know three or four months earlier than that yep can you just kind of speak to that so those who you know they went through this process last year and now they're seeing that oh i have to make this decision now three months earlier yeah so last year obviously as we build out our return to learn plan that was done and not knowing what the pandemic was going to provide and then the state provided guidance we did that with a need what we felt was a need to be able to provide a balance of in-person learning for those that would wish to
109have that plus a full online version the timeline dictated that we tried to get that done i think by july 10th or 12th but that i think wound up like july 20th or 25th when that hard cut date was established i think going into this sure now we are looking at this not as necessarily necessary component of educational but more of an opportunity that's an enhancement for those families that see this as a learning style that best meets their family situation or their students learning style so it's more of an opportunity as an opt-in option to be able to do this because it meets the needs instead of saying this is something we need to do because we're in the middle of a pandemic and staffing for us is so important last year because of
110our enrollment growth because trying to balance class sizes making sure that we were reducing spaces and and school buildings to try to maximize social distancing were possible we actually pulled back some of our instructional coaches into the classrooms and we want to make sure that we come back to a sense of normalcy because we know how valuable our instructional coaches are to everything we do within our buildings so that's why staffing earlier now is going to be much more important than last year where it was kind of building the plane a little bit as we flew and andy i would say in a way i mean families actually did have this choice before it wouldn't have been with cedar falls it could have been like with the virtual academy so it would have been open
111enrollment so if families did feel that learning style was something that was appealing to their family we're just kind of now taking that role on so it is just an alternative pathway it's not something related necessarily to covid so kind of just looking at it through a different lens yeah and we're excited that i think we can do some different things with dual enrollment now and some other options for students where it's a little bit more blended because in the middle of a pandemic there are some options that were much more challenging than others so it's just there's some uniqueness to this that i think we can really fit some really meet some needs of students in their families to be able to do some exciting learning opportunities how many other school districts are now
112offering this i saw iowa city was actually listed as one as well so i'd have to go to the de website they're listed on the de website i want to say last time i looked there were probably 10 but i i would say it's probably closer to 15 now is the number of approved providers across the state so it's not widespread when you think of 330 school districts but certainly we're in a unique opportunity to provide that and i think we've done it really really well mrs e stepped her leadership with what we've done and it's a testament to our staff for how it's gone throughout the year that it's going to springboard us into next year do you anticipate that if your district offers this can you then choose to go to another district
113for that program or how is that going to be kind of determined by the state yeah yeah they will allow that similar to just open enrollment that you know we offer a comprehensive high school on district day district b offers the conference of high school you can open and roll between a and b so they will see this as just an opportunity or program that families will have the choice to select which one meets their unique needs i guess kind of just to maybe try to get is there is there not going is there going to be flexibility in that date or is it kind of if you're not the families have to decide by april 1st if they are going to be in or not yeah we're thinking for you know families that maybe
114had like a child care situation change and we you know the child care is such a big issue that was a that was um heavily affected by the pandemic that you know and you know just those slots aren't open sometimes so when families had to give them up that maybe aren't going to be able to get back find a child care situation that you know again that's kind of it kind of speaks back to that maybe the some of these families may not have the information they need to make the decision by april 1st and you know again the uncertainty we're planning for trying to return to as much to normal in the fall of 21 as possible but you know there's going to be families that for them the risks may still not you
115know the risks are still too high for them to take on yeah i guess i'm just you know i'm wondering if there's going if that april 1st is a hard fast deadline if there's any possibility later in the summer for them to make another you know flip that decision into a decision or not i guess yeah april 1st is the date that we've set we see that as a firm date there will be a few little small tweaks and changes based on unique circumstances we know that but the great majority of people that we've spoken to there's some that really want to kind of have their their feet in both worlds to make sure that they're kind of covered both ways but most families that have said yes we're in with with the online academy
116is doing doing that for the reasons based on their family circumstances so it's really an option that we're just providing for for families we need to know numbers so we can plan accordingly what we don't want to have happen again is just those wide swings of imbalances with our class loads and we we saw that happen even as we were setting those this summer and that was the need we needed to pull back and do some different things with with some coaches um and and that's what we want to avoid okay thank you yeah could you give us an update on covid and vaccinations among staff yeah and again testament to janelle darst she's really been the lead on vaccinations and and working through all the contact tracing first off our numbers for for extremely
117low district-wide today was the final first round of vaccinations for anybody in our district that wanted to get a vaccination we've also had by the end of this week we'll have about 30 percent of our staff that wanted a vaccination that will have the second vaccination and certainly by the end of march all of our staff based on today being the first of the last vaccinations all staff will have their second vaccination by the end of march which is exciting and a follow-up question to that do you anticipate a review of our protocols as a result of all staff that want the vaccine receiving the vaccine um so we'll work with blackhawk county public health on that and and look at what they're recommending what the best practices are what we're hearing and seeing right
118now just because of contact tracing and how much time that can put students out that is something that we have to review and look at so we don't have students that have to be out of school for like right now it's seven days based on contact tracing i'm looking at janelle to verify that 10 days for contact racing so we've got to make sure we walk through with block county public health on their recommendations versus contact tracing versus time out of the buildings which impacts directly our students and kind of the follow-up to that just thinking about i mean our our buildings have done a tremendous job of being flexible or rearranging lunch schedules and doing all this as far as you know call it the the social distancing aspects the masks uh i mean
119there's there's just just so many things that we've that we've had to adapt uh do is there any anticipation of those types of things uh going back to normal anytime soon with the vaccinations among all staff so there's some some neat things that have come out of kovid really positive unattended consequences that will probably continue but there's also some things that people are very excited to no longer do so yes we'll have to review all those and continue to get feedback we talk and you know and work closely with lockhart county public health as well as other districts just to make sure that we are all doing things with a balance of safety and security but also to balance uh how can we get back to some of those those normalcy we do know that
120there's only what i think last data i saw about 30 percent of adults that have received one vaccination so we are still a ways away from some of those conversations what that looks like but hopefully each day and every day we get a little closer speaking of unintended consequences if if our community is in a reflection of the broader country we have had to have had fewer students and our staff ill with the flu probably as well which which adds to more days in attendance right that was another positive unintended consequence you know with mask wearing with some of the um antibiotic bacterial washing of hands other things that we've done there's been a lot fewer instances of other illnesses be it common colds be it flu be it uh um just a wide pink
121eye i know it was one that pink guy is down quite a bit this year which i'm sure a lot of parents not touching your face so it's been one of those things that we i don't think we would have said last june that was going to happen but it was just a natural outcome of some of the mitigation strategies just a real quick question to go back to the virtual campus students that would enroll in our virtual campus how does that impact extracurriculars so if you are in there's like three different rules that go along with that question if you are open enrolled in and you're within the region uh typically a kind of a contiguous boundary you are considered a resident student you participate in the activities within that district that you're open
122enrolled into for that virtual campus if you are a resident student but you choose the pathway of virtual the virtual academy you are eligible for activities and any athletics at that time we do have some students that are open enrolled from further away so what happens there is they have the opportunity even though they're virtualized to be able to participate in activities in their home district up to two per year then that district actually bills us for there's a formula within the state of iowa code for that amount that then we pay back to them after they send us the open enrollment tuition dollars yeah it gets weird while while we're discussing extracurriculars i understand the iowa high school athletic association and the iowa girls high school athletic association and put a moratorium on practices
123and strength and conditioning for the last week of march that's about all i know about it do you have any more detail on that that's about it and susie might have a little bit more information but yeah there's a moratorium for a week and i think that's great to give kids that jump start and pause for just between seasons between activities and it's just a lack of a better word just an off week the last week of july july july very good thank you for the questions and comments seeing none further i'll ask for a motion to adjourn so moved thank you jeff is there a second all second thanks sasha all those in favor say aye aye aye oh same sign we are adjourned thank you everyone thank you you