001was for the flex PD day. >> Okay. >> So, that's gone. So, we've we've only had one other one. So, >> don't you have to make up the hours that were like ear late start or Oh, I was thought that you had to do those. If you had like three of those that >> Well, three two-hour days or three >> We have enough hours. You got to be over 10,000 1,000 10,000 10,000 hours. 1,080 hours and we're at >> to start the year 1,156. >> So every Yeah, we we don't get to count those hours. I track that, but that takes a lot of early outs and late starts to >> get to that point. >> Drop you 60 hours. I mean, you know what I mean? >> So, did you say in one day
002>> Keegan and Mark senior year? >> That was like 13 snow days. >> It did happen that year. >> Yeah, that was a lot. >> That was bad. Yeah. Mhm. >> Was that Was that three years ago? >> 2023. Yeah. >> Yeah. The spring of 202 got we talked about what extending the day like 15 minutes or >> Yeah. We did we didn't do early out PDs anymore. We tried to do that in house just to gain some hours back. >> But wasn't that the one they were like out cuz of snow days before Christmas break and then supposed to come back and then it was like three more snow days. Like that was >> January 2nd. There's another one. >> Yes. >> Yeah. >> Good. Good. Perfect. Thank you. I won't check. But when
003you say one, so then we got to go one more day past what were are originally scheduled out day. >> I will eventually bring that okay >> to the board to decide. No, I mean I'm you we could elect to forgive it. We could make it up. >> Gotcha. >> I always tell the staff not all days are made equal because >> by March or May 20, whatever. >> Yeah. >> Like >> anyways, >> it depends how many you have. You know what? One. >> Yeah. >> Because then you got to come back after Memorial Day versus if you had four. >> Yeah. >> There's a lot. You know what I mean? So, >> that's why I told the staff no decisions been made yet because it depends how many >> More we have without
004trying to jinx us. >> Hopefully not, but spend this year. >> Who knows? >> All right. I got 5:30. We'll call the uh certified budget public hearing number one to order. Uh first item of business is sorry. >> See if there's anyone here to speak. Okay. >> I don't have anything to say. >> They're all to track me. >> Yeah, there is no one. >> There's a lot of people there. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Okay. So, there's no one here to speak. >> All right. So, first item on the on the agenda is certify budget setting tax rates. All right. So, um thank you guys for being here tonight. This is our required tax hearing one since no one's here to speak. This is the not that I'll reference it a lot. I'll talk about
005in the presentation, but this is the tax notice that was generated through the Department of Management system that I'll talk about later that got published in the paper and and some numbers on here. Not all of them are actually up to date, which I'll explain during the presentation. And I I do have this on there. So, I'm hoping to give you guys a little bit of insight, the public that watch this to to learn um just about school finance and how we get the budget and everything like that. And um yeah, I'll leave it at that. Please ask questions as we go if you need to. So, so our budget presentation for this would be for next year's budget FY27. Since we're in 26, that'll be starting July 1st of this summer through June 30
006of the following year. So, two things with this to establish the property tax rate. That's ultimately what comes out of this that people want to know, right? for the most part for the next school year FY27 and to show the um estimated expenditures. That's what we're required to do. School finance is unique though. It's not just Stain and Kendra creating a budget and saying we need to go up 200,000 here. Much of our budget is pupil and formula driven. Um and I'm I'll get into that a little bit more as we go to try and explain that a little bit more. Um, this is one that I've used from I got some slides and information from ISF. Pretty similar to what I did in the past, but I tried to tailor it a little bit
007more to kind of explain the two halves of our budget and how we get there. Okay. The big thing that drives our budget is enrollment. And we're going to start looking at that first. Two things to know with enrollment. First, our headcount enrollment, which is key. And I'm hoping when we get into that number that it'll look familiar. Not that you have our enrollment numbers memorized, but our headcount enrollment or people will say resident students, resident enrollment or certified enrollment. The number that we had last fall in October drives our budget for next year. Okay. That drives a lot of our funding. Okay. Also, a big part of it is which we don't talk about as much as and we don't really have control over is our special education waitings and some of the other
008supplemental waitings. And I'll give a brief explanation of that when we get there as our count which I put in in quotations there. But that goes into the formula as well. And those are two big pieces that supplemental specifically special ed and then just our headcount enrollment is a big piece of our enrollment. Okay. Supplemental weightings when I what I mean by that is other things that add additional students. Okay. Some examples of this outside of special ed, not talking about that is English language learners, there's a formula depending on how many the level they're at and ELLL students, we get some additional money for that. Operational sharing, those that have been on the board for a while, we've talked about that, but there's certain positions that we get extra students for when we share
009those positions. We share transportation and HR, Christy Arian's position, Amos' position, and then we get some additional students. So, so that's what operational sharing. And then a third way you can get is reorganizational. That doesn't really impact us. So that's not part of it, but that's how you can get that. Our preschool budget is separate from this, but I've added a few components of that just to show. Preschoolers are counted different because they go half days. So they count as half a student basically. So when you see an enrollment of 40, it doesn't mean you have 40 preschoolers. You really have >> 20 >> 80 or 80 in. >> Yes. Because they're each a half. Yep. Yep. So we'll look at that in turn. So, this should at least look familiar. Not that you have
010it, but for the current year, our enrollment was 669. That headcount or certified enrollment last fall was 623. That's what our the enrollment we'll use for our budget for next year, 623. We've talked about that being down 45 students. Not that I'm saying this number isn't shocking, but it shouldn't be a shock to you because we've mentioned it before, okay? Being down 6.8 students. And this is just kind of going back to and fitting it in a graph that at least looks somewhat just showing what our enrollment trend is. You can see from 16 to 19 held relatively flat down a few. Okay. And then kind of took a dip and flat, but you know through from FY24 now to FY27, you go in there down 60 plus students in there. So kind of based
011I don't have all the numbers for this, but based on the last meeting, I think Arthur you asked this question. I don't remember for sure, but just what does that compare like trends to the state and nationally? >> Um I don't have a nice graph for nationally, but it did show that was down maybe not as steep. >> Okay. >> But we do have for the state. So I just went back this far because took a while to dig up the data, but going through FY20. Um why do you think there was a big Now why do you think there was a big drop between FY20 to FY21? >> Well, okay. took a while to adjust from that, but that was when COVID happened, right? And you have a lot of people that didn't return
012after that. Okay. The one thing that's different to compare here, FY27, I have a number in there because that cuz that's a budget number. That was our enrollment this year. Okay? But FY27's number came from this year. The state's enrollment isn't on a budget. It's what's done annually. So that's why they don't have anything for FY21. So they're really like a year off. Does that make sense? Our budget FY27 is like the enrollment here. But you can see the last handful of years even statewide the numbers going down. >> And I said, you know, this past year when the the state said, and this is K12 public students, you know, um, and depending on when you look because their numbers change throughout the year, but when you look, they're down that roughly 7 to 8,000
013students statewide. So just some numbers because I know you guys asked that before and so I thought I'd throw this in here a minute. I don't have anything for nationwide, but that was that neat because it was kind of all over the place here. But >> back up one. >> Yeah. Whoops. Sorry. Statist Good grief. Statistics show nationwide we're down slightly enrollment as well. >> Okay. Got it. >> Yep. Okay. I'll come back to this, but special ed waitings were up. Okay. This is special ed waitings. This doesn't mean we have 90.1 special ed students and last year we had 83.7. Okay, special ed students in general at they're a part of our count. They're one student like anyone else. But when they qualify for special ed, we get some additional funding and that's what
014this is talking about and it's funded per student. Okay, so that 8,000 and change number we get per student. Okay, what the waitings are. I don't have this memorized, so I put this on the bottom here. So, there's three different levels that they're qualified for on IEPs. Level one, two, or three. So, a level one student gets a waiting of 1.72. So, for someone your traditional special ed student, we get about 72 of a student's additional funding. For someone who's a level two, the funding level is 2.21. So, we're getting really 1.21 additional. Okay? The first person I'm talking is because that's part of their account, right? You see what I'm saying? and then someone who's a level three, we get 2.74 additional students worth of funding. That's where that's coming from. So when you
015factor that in for all our students, as of the certified count day in October, we're having about 90.1 additional students worth of funding for special ed purposes. Okay. Now, how does that compare the last handful of years? Okay, I think our staff would agree with this, but as our student enrollment has gone down, our special ed waiting has gone up. So, if you just had to make a glancing notice at this, what what do you get from that? >> Mhm. >> Yeah, we're we're having more kids in special ed. >> Okay, but I mean, pretty obvious. It doesn't mean that it's gone up by 30 kids, but it's 30 students worth of waiting, right? Some of it could be some students were maybe level one, moved to a level two, right? More students identified. Um,
016statistics would show usually, not hard and fast, but usually as your free and reduced or your socioeconomic status goes up, the higher your free and reduced rate, more than likely the higher special ed count you'll have as well. That's pretty common. Okay, supplemental waitings. We're down about a student and I and I'll show for that in a second here. No cause for concern or anything. Primarily driver of this is operational sharing and our e funding. Really overall if you look back to FY22 to now you're like oh we're down roughly three students. Actually we're probably up in FY22 and FY23. We were we were sharing um head maintenance with GLR and it was decided we don't do that anymore. So we don't have that position shared anymore. That was four students. >> So if we
017continued to do that, add four students on this year and we'd be at 35. So my point with that is we've been we've held pace or even maybe slightly gone up in our ELLL population and the operate or and excuse me and the additional sharing that comes from that because at that point we had 12 students worth of shared um shared positions and now we're at eight. So if you'd add that four back on here, really our operational sharing here and supplemental sharing, excuse me, has gone up. Okay. So overall, our total weighted enrollment is 744. This is a report that'll go to state. We don't use this number anywhere. There's no dollar amount that's multiplied by that. I don't know why in some forms the state recognizes that, but it's a number >> because
018really the important thing is our certified enrollment, which we'll talk about, we've talked about in the past. We take that times our, you know, cost per student. We'll come back to our special education waiting, if you kind of remember, that's at 90. And our supplemental waiting is at 31 and change. And how do we have 08 of a special ed student? No, remember the waiting is fractional. It's not like we have just someone's foot in special ed or something like that, right? You know, or how do you get 0.195? It's fractional. Um, there's a formula and I don't I couldn't even tell you what it is, but it's a component based on the number of kids you have in ELLL, the scores they have on their ELPA testing, and the services they receive. There's a
019formula the state determines that. That's how much additional funding you get. Okay, so over the last handful of years, okay, overall this total weighted enrollment has gone down, but it hasn't gone down at the same rate that our certified enrollment has because we've talked about our special ed weightings have gone up and even our supplemental and operational sharing waitings have gone up. So that's why that hasn't gone down in a like rate of decline. >> You could almost say percentage- wise it's gone up. Okay, preschool enrollment. Preschool has some some funding that's shared, but some that's separate. So, just to show that for this current year, FY26, our preschool enrollment's at 16 and a half. For um for next year, based on this year's count, it's at 17. So, once again, we don't have half
020a student, but they they count for funding as half a student. So you could say last year for this year's funding we had 32 33 students and then this year on count day we had 34, right? Because each one counts as.5. >> Okay. >> Is preschool required? >> No, it is not. >> Kid can go right to kindergarten. >> They they would not have to do preschool first. They could. Okay. >> Yep. >> Um in terms of compulsory attendance, once you're at age I think it's seven or six, you have to attend. Preschool is not compulsory until you once you attend then we have to take attendance and if you don't attend you comply by those laws but it's your choice whether to send them or not. >> Some may some might. They might go
021a different preschool option. >> Yep. >> It's called the statewide voluntary preschool SWVP. >> And do you have to have a certified preschool teacher to count those kids to? >> Yep. >> All right. >> Yep. you um and what you're thinking of what we didn't why we didn't have that is some of the flow through through head start. Oh, >> because we that flows through. That's where that happened when they didn't have that one year. Some additional students that way, right? >> Maybe you explain that to them with >> how that works. Or maybe you don't want >> What was this? We didn't have a teacher that was certified, so we could >> in Head Start. So, there's some funding that they get through us and that goes in part of our enrollment. That's not
022part of this. Well, the one year they didn't have someone that was certified, so then we couldn't count those students. So, that was an audit adjustment the next year. Basically, >> that's Is that the simple way to say it? >> Yeah, I think so. >> Easiest way. Yeah. >> Not a pro at that one by any means, but Okay. >> All right. It's pretty cool. So, >> that's the basis. We have to have enrollment to drive our budget, right? That's the important thing to remember. Not that you'll have all those numbers memorized, but that's what it is. >> The biggest part that that we're talking about really for our budget is spending authority, okay? Or your authority. And I've used that term before. You know, I'll say the biggest thing in in um education finance
023is your UAV, your unspent authorized balance or your unspent authority. Okay? So, a budget is created by simply generating how much authority you have for that next year. Okay? And we get that through the number of students multiplied by what each student is worth. And that that's a weird phrase, but that's how the assembly puts it. And not that we have a a personal value that this kid's worth more than the next, but worth in terms of budget and dollars, right? The the the um state of Iowa sets that as a dollar amount. And there's different components to our general fund um that are set by the state. And so I'm going to talk that all goes into it. And you're going to you're going to see, okay, Stan, you said X amount, but our
024general fund is this amount. Why is there a difference? So I'll talk about that. These are all the pieces in our general fund that go to authority. The three that you might not know the team's terms, but you should be most familiar with are the top three. Our regular program district cost, which is I've done, we've talked about before. That's taking that um district cost per pupil. This year it's 8,000 and change times your certified enrollment. Okay. The budget guarantee, we've mentioned that and I'll go over that in a second. Those two added together, the third line, at various times, we've maybe talked about some of those other things, but there's not a lot of choice that goes into that. All that added up comes to our final combined district cost. Think of that as
025our total general fund cost or the total authority. And I'll show you how we get there. And I won't go through everything line by line, but we'll get an overview. So I'll kind of start at the end here in a second and work backwards. So I've showed this screen in a different presentation before, but going this is just for line one of the spending authority here. How do we get that? You take that district cost or state cost per pupil, which we know now is 8,148, and you take that multiplied by your certified enrollment from last fall, and that's the base number for our general fund for next year. So that comes to $5,815,81,93. So a little over 5 million. Okay, we'll keep that number in mind there. Now, keep that in change. That's what
026I'm saying. That's the base cost year for our general fund, right? Okay. From the current year to next year, that number's gone down. 5% decline. What's the primary reason that number's gone down? >> Big class going out. >> Yeah. Yeah. However you want to say it. Decrease in enrollment, right? Yep. >> Our certified enrollment this past fall was 45 students less than a year and a half ago, right? because this fall was already half a year ago. So that's the that's the reason for that. It's not stating Kendra saying we want three mil $300,000 less. That's driven by a formula. Okay. The state says you're for the next year you're guaranteed it's called a budget guarantee to at least be that 5.3 million. Okay. So we qualify for the budget guarantee this year. We approved
027that at one of our board meetings the resolution that if we'd qualify we would get that. For the current year, we didn't qualify because we didn't need it. We had a increase in enrollment and funding. For next year, we will have that. Most years, that all comes through property taxes, which I'll talk about in a little bit here. Okay? So, that's why that's a 100% increase because we didn't have the budget guarantee this year. Okay? So, you add those two together to get your regular program district cost. And you're going to notice this current year is 5.346 million. for this coming year FY27 it'll be 5.399 million almost 5.4 4 million, right? That goes up 1%. Well, that makes sense because your budget guarantee says you get 101% of the funding the year before. That's
028why it's an increase of 100. Now, this is where I was going to use that laser, but it's gone here. >> The thing to remember moving forward is, so this will be our number next year, the year after the budget guarantees based off this number. It's before that, right? We don't get 101% of this number. That's one time. We could be on the budget guarantee. I hope not. Again, the following year, but it won't be 101% of that number. It'll be the just this number here. So, keep that in mind. >> Is there a limit to that? When you just say you have >> like >> slightly declining enrollment consistently, you can >> you're you can the budget guarantee you're you're always at >> 101% of your regular program district cost from the year before
029>> regardless of the years. >> The thing is what some people don't realize is it doesn't factor in the budget guarantee. >> So you don't >> No, I get that. But it's not like you're on five years and like >> as of right now, no, there's not a limit on that. Ideally, you would not be on it five or 10 years in a row, but just in theory, it could happen. >> It could. And to >> any Yes. >> And regardless of what they they set as the SSA amount, too. Right. >> Right. >> Yeah. >> Yep. Now, let's say you have a slight decline in enrollment or you held steady or you were down like for us, let's say five students. If they set SSA high enough, even if we're down five students, if
030you increase the funding per student, >> you'd be above it. >> You would be above it. Right. >> Right. So that brings us those are that top three lines. So that comes to 5.4 million. Okay. Before you look at all this, look at the bottom. The overall spending authority for our general fund is going to come to 8.2 million. Now you're like, Stan, you've been preaching all along, those top three numbers there, that our TSS time enrollment is f a little over 5 million plus the budget guarantee. Okay. What are all these other numbers? Okay. A lot of them are formula driven. I won't explain everyone in detail, but some of them. Do you see where it says district cost for supplemental waiting? >> Okay, do you remember our supplemental waiting from last year this
031year was down just slightly? Well, notice that number's down just slightly. Okay, here's how they came up with that. Our supplemental waiting was 31 students and change. If you take that 31 students and change times the 8,14 $8,148, you're going to come up with 254,000. Okay. The next line, special education, last year 668,000, this year 733,000. Where does that number come from? Do you remember our special ed? >> Well, yeah, but you got the 1.2, the 2.4, four and the three point whatever. So just >> they added up to it was a little above 90 90.08. If you take that 90 number times the 8,148 you're going to get 7 733,000. So those are sources of authority for our general fund. Those two added together that supplemental waiting for special ed operational sharing and the
032ELLL. You add those two together right there that's a million bucks >> roughly. Right? I'm rounding. Okay. Just short of the next line. Teacher salary supplement. I haven't called it teacher salary supplement very often. When we've talked about it, I know Jaime's referred to it. We use the acronym. Do you know what the acronym is? >> TSA. >> Yeah. Or TSS. >> TSS. >> Yes. TSS. That's additional funding the state has to fund um teacher salaries. Teacher salary supplement. They provided some additional funding the previous two fiscal years to bring teachers up. If you guys weren't on the board then, but if you remember, they they staggered over two years to get teachers up starting pay to 50,000. Year one was 475, year two was 50 and then veterans up to 62. That's some of
033the funding. Okay, that's that, you know, 838,000. Now, you'll notice that stayed the same from this year into next fiscal year. Okay. The reason is in essence on that we're on the budget guarantee because that's funded per pupil, but our enrollment went down. It would be determined in future years what that number looks like. They haven't fully >> because of enrollment or >> because of enrollment, right? >> Okay. >> Yes. >> It did that have anything to do with their adjustments off of salary? >> No, >> they don't. Once we get the numbers, they don't even factor that in. They gave us the money the first year and then the second year and then after that that's what you have and then it goes according to um the student enrollment you had and then and
034they figured out what that is per student. It's funded per student and so that dollar amount per student is different for every district. >> That's what I was just going to ask. >> Yes. >> And it all goes back when it initially was done. >> Correct. You just figured out in about 10 seconds the whole issue with it. >> Insane. So you could have a district next to you that has a wildly different number than you do. >> Yeah. >> Because maybe you had a lot more veteran staff than they did. >> Yep. >> Who weren't at 62,000. So you needed a lot more funding to bring them there. So therefore, you might have got a lot more funding the first year than they did. Or they might have more than you. >> Mhm. >>
035Yeah. I mean it, don't get me wrong, we want to pay teachers. That's not my statement with this. you just said, >> but it's very could be very different based on a period of time and that's it like correct >> to manage a budget four years out you have no idea >> right exactly and I think moving forward there's unknown ramifications that are going to happen as not at sibly I mean statewide >> not at sibly a cheating excuse me statewide a lot of the other lines are just formula driven we get some additional PD money that's that's a formula driven not something that we set Okay. Um TL teacher leaders supplement that's formula driven but TLC we fund our two instructional coaches Barb Williamson and Katie Schroeder just walked in and then some of
036the um curriculum department heads like Brendan Daryl here the other night they get a little additional stipen to be science department heads that comes through that teacher leadership compensation. There's some AEA funding. The other one I'm going to point out to you that we'll come to later later way on the bottom where it says FY26 SBRC modified supplemental amount dropout. Okay, that's for what's called the dropout and at risk or that we call it ARO at risk dropout prevention. We have to have a yearly plan we approve and then we ask you guys to approve the supplemental amount that's factored as a percentage of your general fund. Okay? If you guys don't approve that at a board meeting, that's 250,000 in funding that we don't get. Okay, that's that's authority that's added in. So, you
037add all those up. So, yes, the base program of 8,148 times our student enrollment is 5 million, but really our overall the combined district cost for our general fund comes to 8.2 million, which is an increase of 135,000 from the year before. There's a few things in that authority in the general fund you can control, but you can really see for the most part there's not a lot of leverage you can control or change. A lot of it's formula driven really. You could say, "Oh, we don't want that at risk money." I don't know why you would >> or do something like that, but most of that is just formula driven already. >> So that excuse me. So that's really what we're looking at for our general fund, right? right there without any other things
038added on to it. Okay, so I just pulled out some things. The TLC that number stayed the same. The reason it did is because our enrollment went down and there's there's a factor or a formula for that and so they kept that the same kind of it's its own version of the budget guarantee guaranteed to stay the same. Okay, our dropout prevention went down slightly. That's because it's a percentage out of the general fund. Well, when our general fund went down, that funding that P and the percentage stays the same, you're going to get slightly less dollars. So, that's why that went down. We have that maxed out, but due to declining enrollment, that went down. That could go up if you had increasing enrollment. Okay. So, overall, that combined district cost that went up
0391.7% compared to the current fiscal year to the proposed one for next year. Adding that all up, that difference was about 135 grand. Okay, so overall this is just a pie chart showing that and we talk about the regular program district cost which is that funding per student multiplied by the cost per student plus the budget guarantee. But you can see that's not the whole piece of the pie for the general fund. All those other pieces contribute to that as well. Okay. Now that brings us here. That's the authority. I haven't talked anything about taxes or how that's funded, >> but that's how we have to start. >> Yep. >> Okay. So, some comments on that authority and then, you know, these are the challenges and I'll have some positives and see if I've confused
040the heck out of you already or not. So, our enrollment trends, here's kind of some of our challenges. Enrollment trends unsteady and we're not unique in this, but it makes it hard to predict future enrollment trends. Not that we want a slow descent down. Ideally, you'd be up or even holding steady, but we've taken some big swings. Down 40, up 20, down 40 just in the last three years. And before that, we've, you know, that just makes it hard to predict what that's going to look like in the future, right? >> Do we have a Yeah. You don't know what's incoming though. Like, so you had a preschool number. >> Yeah. >> What What's that difference to the classes leaving them? >> So, >> if we just took the preschool number. Well, preschool cuz some
041of the kids will continue on the next year for preschool because maybe they qualified >> for two years >> TK >> for Yeah. Well, not even that, but maybe they were um identified special ed, so they're in preschool and then they can go a second year. And then you'll have some kids that go on to TK. We have a section of TK this year to kindergarten. >> Here's what also makes that challenging. We're full day TK. We weren't always that. We've just started that, which is great. But some of the kids in TK will be ready to go on for first grade. But some of the kids in TK will elect to do kindergarten the following year. And you don't always know that. We don't we can't tell them you have to know that by
042the time the budget's in place. Like >> you know what I mean? So >> but basically on your question I think this year's graduating class is in the 50s pretty close. >> I think so if I remember right. I haven't looked at the number I haven't looked at it in a while. >> I think we're getting 34. That was a preschool number. >> That was a preschool number. It's not just curious. Like you said, >> there could be some TK in there though. >> There could be. But you're >> I think the anticipated K, not counting TK, the anticipated kindergarten class next year would be under 40. Kind of similar to this year. >> So without anybody leaving or moving in, you're looking at >> there could be 10 to 15 different >> depending on
043how you look at it. Yep. >> Okay. Now, what's confusing about that is the following, like this year that'll happen too. Let's say all of those kids in kindergarten go on to first grade, but sometimes you'll have some TK kids that do that as well. >> You know what I mean? So then your first grade number is a little higher than your kindergarten number. Just depends what they're ready for, what we have room for. >> Gotcha. >> Those conversations that the preschool and TK teachers and Mr. Dazelle have with families and and so forth because Yeah. It's not it's not the same for every person. >> Yeah. >> So, yeah, that's all part of that's what makes enrollment treads hard, especially a district our size. You just don't know those things. And you can't control,
044>> as much as you want to keep kids here, you can't control when they're coming in because there's a lot of factors that birth rate. >> Yeah. >> Housing that the first five years that we don't see them for, we have no control over, right? So, continued inflation is high. um you know it's in the upper twos or 3%. Um Iowa law requires 3% or whatever consumer price index is at whichever is lower when you have settled. Now we had a great settlement this year, don't get me wrong, but if that continues the last handful of years the inflation rate's been higher than what they've set SSA at. So if you're going to settle just at a minimum of where the consumer price index is at or 3% and SSA's below that, that's going to
045put you dollars behind every year in your budget. And that's and that's that leads in the next thing, the uncertainty with SSA this year was 2% but it was set late, which I'm going to talk about in a little bit. It was set after we had to put in the initial budget numbers this year, which makes things really hard to predict. So when they do that late, it's and you don't know what that's going to look like. That makes setting budgets hard. And then funded and unfunded mandates. There's some mandates when they increase teacher pay that we get some additional funding for. Some of the times there's mandates we don't get any additional funding for. Um I've learned um the our friends from ISF have said anytime the legislation says that this is a funded
046mandate, it generally means it's not funded. They're just saying it's funded through the money you're already getting. So it's never a good comment when you have some additional legislation comes through that said this is a funded mandate because it generally means you won't get new dollars. So those are all challenges that we and many other schools. Some strengths we're still in a strong financial position that allows us to make time. We don't have to make any rash choices. We appreciate that. Um the changes we've made in the past have had an impact on our 5-year projection moving forward from you know 3 years ago to now. So we're looking forward to continue to do that. We have great employees here. I can't stress that enough who are resourceful and made the best of this. Have
047been very receptive as we've been talking through these things. Right now, this won't always be the case, but for a school our size, other than one grade level, we have three sections at all grades in the elementary. Not all schools our size can say that, but we do other than one grade level. And then our budget challenges and the issues that we have honestly are being discussed all over at schools in our air, just in our area with if not the state. This isn't these aren't unique conversations that are just happening at Cibio Cheetah. They're all over. Okay. Questions overall on authority now before I kind of connect that to the money side. >> Makes sense to me. >> Okay. So, we've generated that's the authority. Now, we got to talk how do we get
048the dollars for it, the actual dollars for it, right? Backed up. Okay. And the question that most people have if they were here tonight, property taxes. So funding comes through for each student is through a combination of local property taxes and what we call state aid money that comes from the state. Statewide property taxes make up about onethird of your general funding. That can vary by district, but overall if you look statewide it's about one-third. Okay, which is the general fund which pays for your teachers and instructional programs, right? And then the mix is determined how how does that vary is determined by really what your local property assessments are and that rate compared to your students. Okay? So just because you maybe have lower property assessments than a neighboring district doesn't mean automatically you
049have to pay higher taxes because you don't know how that relates to students. So if all things were equal and you had the same number of teaching staff and students in our district had and the neighboring district had, it would come down to what's the total property assessed value in your district. So I'll give an example. Us and Okaboji, let's pretend we had the same number of students and we have the same number of teaching staff. So in theory the same costs, >> they'll get more money. >> Okay. their property because they have way higher assessments. Their property tax rate will be significantly lower because they have way more assessed value, right? Okay. Now, there's differences because their district's bigger and they have more students, right? But that's an extreme example, but it's an easy
050one because it's local, right? Um overall, we're right in the middle to a higher we're probably above average in our total assessed value per student. There's definitely districts when they say property poor, it doesn't mean all the property in the district is poor, but that's a term they'll use. It just means the rate of the assessed value or the property in the district is lower per student compared to others. I believe Okaboji and Spirit Lake have the two highest assessed property values per student in the entire state. And if I remember right, it's not even close. That's an obvious example. So that goes into that. So for us, there's five points that make up the levy. Okay, you have the uniform levy, which we've talked about, but you might might not remember, and the additional
051levy. I I'll mention that in a second. And then the instructional support levy, which we haven't mentioned, but I'll talk briefly. The bottom two things you're probably like, we've never talked about it, and we haven't because we don't qualify it for it. Our cash reserve is too high, so we can't even cash reserve for additional cash. That might be a conversation we have two, three, four years down the road, but we don't qualify for that now. Okay. So, how that comes is you have to know what your total taxing authority is. That going back to that 8.2 million number. Okay. That's called your combined district cost. So, everyone pays it starts out the uniform levy. Everyone pays $5.40. Okay? All districts, all all assessed taxable property across the state. You figure out, I don't figure
052it out, but formula and people smarter than me do. They figure that out and then they add state supplemental aid in that to get you to 88.4% of your needed dollars. Okay. The remaining 11.6% then comes from that additional levy. That's what I meant here by the additional levy. Okay. So, you can see like in our district getting that additional levy compared to I'll go back to my example. Okabojis is going to look different and that's why rates can vary so much between districts because of that. Okay, going back to Okaboji, the $5.40 levy probably just that brings them pretty close to they probably don't need much state aid because they're generating so many so much in funds through property taxes. I don't know that, but I can make that assumption. Okay, so that's how
053they calculate that. Okay. So, for us, we know for that 8.5 million in change, we need 3.5 million in change in property taxes, which is an increase of 463,000. Now, I'm going to tell you that number is not accurate because of when this was published, the state hadn't finalized everything yet, and I'll explain why in a second. But that number includes the budget guarantee. And the budget guarantee is always all 100% property tax. What's unique is this year the budget guarantee for the next fiscal year is going to be covered by the state, but they didn't have that in place when we sent out the first tax notice. Super confusing. Okay. So, our our general fund or what we have to levy for or ask t property taxes on basically went up 463,000. However, 300
054some thousand of that is from the budget guarantee, which when things are adjusted won't actually come out of property taxes. So that's why that's not accurate, but it's accurate as of when we had to prepare this, which makes things really confusing. What's that? >> So the state's really helping us out here. >> No kidding. I thought we'd have maybe some people asking about that to be honest. Okay, so our levy rate just for the general fund then. So for the current year compared to next year, this is where it's at as and when we publish this, it's not accurate because it's not updated from the legislation from the state. So that bottom 54 that same both years because that's called your uniform levy. Okay, that additional levy is I'm going to go back. What they're
055talking about is that top part, that property tax local levy, and then like any budget guarantee, that additional levy. That's what they're talking about in red. So for this current year, that's $2.50 and change. Next year go up to 301. Okay. Then there's an additional piece, that little green, that's about 36 for the current year, 35 next year. That's called the instructional support levy. That's an additional general fund funding we can get. It's a percentage of your general fund that we have to approve by board resolution. It's an additional tax, but we have to do that once every five years. So, we're about in the middle of that. I haven't talked about it a lot this year because there's no need to renew it. We have it. It's in place. I think it'd be not
056this next year, but the year after we'll probably talk about it and renew it and do the paperwork for that. That's where that comes from. So, that provides us property tax, the funds we need for the general fund. That $8.72 is really worthless though because that's not accurate. But it was when we had to publish this, but >> do you know what it's going to be? >> We have a rough idea. Yes. The overall rate. >> I don't exactly know with the general fund on its own, but I do o overall I do, which I'll get to. >> Okay. Sounds >> I'd tell you on the general fund, but I I don't know. I'd be shooting in the dark. Okay. Now, there's additional levies outside your general fund because you should know our levy this
057past year, our tax rate was not $8.20, right? It was higher than that, right? Okay. So, what are some other funds? That's what we're going to talk about and what's allowed under Iowa code. Okay. Here are some other general funds and some of them are leviable, some of them are not. Management fund. I've mentioned that there's a levy for the management fund. PPE. Hopefully, we all know about PPE. Okay. PEP has a levy. There's something called Pearl. I'll tell you, we don't have it. And if you don't have it, you can't add it. It's being phased out. Only the schools that have it. But it's something about it has to do with playgrounds and taxes for that that you combine with the city. But the we can't get it, but there some districts do have
058a pearl levy. The activity fund, you'll heard us talk about the activity fund. However, there's no levy for it. We don't get any state dollars. The activity fund is solely funded through, do you know what? >> Ticket sales, right? Like activity tickets, things that come in or donations. Those are your two prim, you know. So, when we're talking about like Spirit Club makes donations for the um um uh jersey rotation, like that's important because like we don't get state funds for that and we don't take money from the general fund. It's all through like ticket sales, donations, activity tech, you know, all that stuff. Okay. Capital projects funds. We don't have that. We don't have a general obligation bond. So, we don't have a debt bond. So, we don't have that. The debt service fund,
059there's no levy on it. Ours is kind of decept. It's just money in and money out because that's the fund we have to code it to when we make payments and we have revenue bond payments, right? Okay. The nutrition fund, there's no levy on that. How do we get money in the nutrition fund? I'm guessing every month when we all pay our meal tickets. >> Yep. >> When we get that >> when you get the notice from that your your students um account meal account balances >> get some state for that and then >> technically federal federal funds. Yep. So those that are on free and reduced we get reimbured a full meal >> for that >> and and that goes into the nutrition fund and that's that is one of the primary >> contributors
060to that fund but there's no levy on it. sales or the save fund. There's no levy on that, but we do receive money. How do we get the money in that sales tax fund, which gives it away or the save fund? How do we get money there? >> Sales tax, right? And then and that's >> that's the penny sales tax. >> That's that penny sales tax. >> And is that off your certified enrollment? >> It is. They figure that statewide. >> Yep. >> And then they figure out, okay, you have they'll go back I'll go back to that one screen. How many students there are statewide? This is how many dollars we collected in that pennywide sales tax. So it's so much per student and then here's your share based on your certified enrollment. Okay.
061So for the upcoming fiscal year, we knew they set SSA at 2%. Okay. Um the general fund rate right there overall the change I've talked about the instructional support levy the percentage is the same but the the the levy rate to do that went down slightly because the the cost went down slightly for that with increased assessed values and we had a decrease in enrollment. The management fund I do want you to notice that rate went down but I'm going to point out in a second what we're asking for went up in a second here but notice it went down six cents on on this proposal. Okay. the voted physical plant and equipment levy. So this past year it was at 39 cents and remember we fund some of that through the income sir tax.
062For this next year it'll be at 72 cents and change. So it went up 33 cents. Why did it go up 33 cents? >> Well, we increased it. >> Yes, that's 100% due to the vote, right? We went from 30 or excuse me 67 cents to a buck. So up 33 cents and right there it is. >> The why it's not exact is it it has to do with the money coming in from the income sir tax and stuff >> to make it equal. >> Y >> right but we're not going above a dollar but it's just the estimates off that. >> The regular physical plant and equipment that stays exactly the same. That's the board approved portion >> and that's all it can be. Okay. We don't have debt service. So when you add
063that up as of this time when we published this and what was in the um department of management budget system we were at 1153 that was going to be an increase of 78 cents. Okay. Now when you look at and you say well our voted plea went up 33 that's not all the 78 cents. The majority of that is due to the budget guarantee and other budget shortfalls just through the formula. Okay. However that was great on that day. That's not an accurate number, but it's what we had as of the first hearing dollars-wise. Okay, this is the dollars that those generate. The additional dollars overall, I'm just pointing out is 651,000. Okay, 300,000 and of and change of that comes from the um uh budget guarantee. Okay, so that's where some of that increase
064comes from. And then 152,000 of that comes from the increase in the voted PEP. You add those two together, that's a majority of what that increase is right there. Okay, so management fund just kind of showing with our dollars there for the next year. Revenues and expenses. Okay, so it looks like we're our expenses are going to exceed our revenues by 400 some thousand how the balance will go down. The last handful of years we've pretty close to what we're going to spend is what we've asked for. We haven't asked for a lot extra and we didn't this year. that could be slightly adjusted. The biggest reason that balance is going down is paying off a projected legal settlement. That's the biggest reason and that's why the balance goes down. Not that we're overspending for
065other reasons, but that's what it's for, which will be talked about at a later date. Physical plant and equipment levy, um revenues and expenditures and then our balance going down. What's the main reason the expenditures are going up? There's no main reason. We just put it in for a budget so that if we end up spending more, we don't have to do an amended budget year before. We tried to put in enough expenditures so at the end of the year, our balance in the PEP would be at about 200,000. That's what it's been the last handful of years. Um, it could end up being more than that. It's always okay if you spend less than what you budgeted expense-wise, but if you go over, then you have to do an amended hearing. So, we didn't
066budget for as many projects this summer because up until March 3, I didn't know if that would pass. Right. >> Right. So, there's no agenda there that that's just what the the budget looks like. >> All right. All >> this is just ple but voted ple and board ple. >> Yes. Yes. Correct. Sorry. Yes. Both both halves together. Correct. Or both parts. It's not a have the voted and the board approved. Yes. activity fund. Honestly, I'm hoping we don't go below that, but our activity fund each year when we've ended is close to zero. Um, that's why like our relationships with some of the other boosters and things and the donations they make because that's I mean it's it's critical and we're right now pretty much spending what we take in in that account. I'm
067not crying or asking for more help. I'm just saying we don't have a high balance in that account and you want your kids to be successful but anytime they are there's always additional costs that you don't factor. So when you have a team make it to state like our girls made it to cross country as an example. Awesome. We want that to happen but there's just always more costs when you go down for that. You know hotel rooms and things like that bus hotel. >> Um right now the vocal jazz >> right >> and then the >> state vocal jazz speech like those things and I'm not complaining about that. I'm just saying those are things that come out of that fund, right? So, there's a lot of expenses in that. So, this was maybe
068a conservative hoping we don't spend more than that and we might end up having to >> have a meeting >> having a meeting about that. Right. >> Was there a time that didn't we have to transfer some money from the general fund to the fund at one point? >> So, we do for safety equipment. >> Yes. >> So, during the year when you buy certain types of safety equipment, you can have the general fund pay for that. Um I can't remember what month we've approved that in. >> Yeah. And during co we could >> and there were some additional things during co but what month is it we usually do that >> or something that say is it June >> because we never know. Yeah. Until >> last. >> Oh June. Okay. Where we've done
069that. I just know we haven't done it in a while that we'll approve that and a lot of times we do that to keep the activity fund flush. >> So debt service. This is strictly money out, money in. Money goes into it from the um save account to pay off the revenue bonds. The reason there's a slight balance at the end is it's strictly from the interest earned from the um u money in our save accounts to go to pay that off. The nutrition fund um I don't this is similar to the activity. I don't literally think it'll go down by this much. We have been the last few years intent intentionally spending it down um because it was flush with cash and probably a little bit higher than it needed to be, but we
070had some equipment. We haven't bought as much this year, but the last two years, Jamie, you'll remember we >> and it was time. We've purchased some new kitchen equipment or replacement equipment and so we've spent that balance down. Um right now there's I don't think there's anything to worry about. We'll probably we'll probably in pretty close where we need to be. Not too worried about that. um sales tax or the save fund. The biggest reason this is going down, just guessing, we knew at the end of this last year coming into this year, our save account was way higher than what we projected it to be because of the timing of bills with the project, right? Because we started that project last fiscal year and finished it in this fiscal year. And then there's still
071some bills because of retainage that we haven't paid yet that we're holding on to. So that's some of the reason that those expenditures would be higher than the revenues going into next year. Just depends on timing of bills, things like that. Um we will always traditionally carry a bigger balance in that moving forward for the next foreseeable future about 15 years. We have to keep a certain percentage of what we had as um that we borrowed in revenue bonds. So it was roughly 6 million. So, we have about $600,000 that we have to keep in a separate save account that's just required as a percentage of the project that will sit there for the next 15 years. We can use the interest, but we can't touch that. So, we should almost always have higher than
072a $600,000 um balance in that account for that very reason. Anything you wanted to add to that that I misspoke on there? Right. So, getting to the end here. So these these are all the non-general fund really out of all those accounts these are only things that add to our general fund rate. So the management account, okay, we did ask for a few more dollars in that on on this version, but due to the increased assessed values and things like that, that rate went down. Voted ple right there. You guys have answered that. It went up from 39 cents to 72 cents because the voters approved going from 67 cents to a buck. And so there's that 33 cents. And then the board approved portion goes into is at 33 cents. There's no other part.
073So when you so when you add that together that's where I got the 1154. Now that's not accurate because not all the numbers were finalized at the moment we had to finalize the budget. The bill had been signed but not approved. We we voted to approve extending voted ple on Tuesday March 3. The budget was due on Thursday, March 5 at 4 PM. And legislation also passed like on Wednesday or Tuesday of that week that they didn't have finalized until March 16 or 17, which was after the taxpayer statements were sent out. So, >> makes it tough. >> Yeah. Right. So, we know the rates not the same. So, getting back to your question. I don't So, the legislature basically here's what I kind of put I stole this from misfist, but they didn't follow
074their own deadline. They're supposed to have it done 30 days after the governor gives her condition of the state speech and then have that set. They didn't. So, thus the department of management system wasn't up to date. We couldn't show the impacts of the legislation without manipulating data, which we weren't intending to do, but you can't do that. So, to be open and honest, we just put where it was at at that point, knowing it wasn't all accurate. So, if anyone's here, we're glad they're here. So it shows that the rates at 1153. It's going to actually be more likely very close to what it was this past year. 1075. >> Holy moly. >> Mhm. >> It's going to be a little lower. We will we can raise levy rates. So coming into the second
075hearing, which we'll talk about in April, we could really use a little more in our management fund. So we added a few thousand into that. But even doing that, we're going to end up within a few pennies. As of right now, pending any other legislative changes. I can't predict that. We're going to be pretty close to 1075 >> even with the pebble. >> Yes. Even with that's factoring the increase in the ple. Yes. Yes. With everything. Yep. >> So, this shows our property tax rate history as of when we published the budget. However, it's not going to be accurate. I we'll adjust it for next year because that rate's going to really be, you know, it might be 1075 or 1078, but I'm saying pretty close to 1075. >> So, there's a second hearing, right?
076There >> is a second hearing. Yep. >> And it'll be a correct. >> It'll be correct on that. Yep. The rate will be correct that night. >> We're actually we we're waiting for this to get done. >> Y >> we don't have school Friday. Good Friday, right? So, we'll we'll finalize the stuff for hearing number two, the budget numbers and stuff the next few days cuz then we have to publish that and then turn that into the papers because it has to be in your papers 10 to 20 days before the hearing. >> Gotcha. >> And the papers, our local papers always want that by Friday so that they can publish the next week. So, the hearing notice will be in next week's paper, >> which is the beginning of April already. >> Fun to
077be had. >> Yeah. So this was that notice that I shared at the beginning. So people will see portions of this. It's going to show their rate is 1153 because that's what it was when hearing notice one was published. That's not this is why thanks to the state for this and this is true of every district, not just Sibliochin, but that's not what our rate's going to be, which makes it equally confusing. >> So the state send out another notification with the adjustment. Well, they know. Well, we Well, it'll we don't have to The second hearing notice doesn't have to be sent out to taxpayers, but it'll be published and the published notice will have the correct rate in it. >> Yeah. >> Why would you admit? >> Yeah. >> Why won't they just back
078this up then? Right. I mean, is there a reason to ask me? I mean, we're talking fiscally. >> Why would they have extended their deadline? >> They they missed their deadline. Let's extend back this deadline so you don't >> Wonderful question. jump through these hoops to >> or have misinformation false information >> if they want this deadline and us to have the because they figure out March 15 is the date that everything has to be turned into your county auditor they take the tax hearings notices and send them out and that's for all entities schools counties cities right >> March 5 March 5 >> but March 15 is when she has to have them sent out right >> they have to have them out yeah >> oh I thought you meant we had to have
079>> we have to have it done by March Five. >> Yes, >> correct. Because it has to be done I think it's 10 days before the deadline for the auditor, right? So that's where they go from. So ideally, would the state >> legislators set the budget in time so you would know by that date? But since this has been in place, they haven't done that yet. >> Yeah, I was I kind of forgot about that last year when I was preparing this and looking at the numbers and I was looking at our SSA numbers that I had in the presentation. And I'm like, "These are all wrong." >> Mhm. >> When I was, you know, and I'm like, "Why did I do that?" And I kind of then I remembered, oh, it's because we were
080guessing what it was and they said it after the hearing and I kind of forgot about it when I was starting out here because I was guessing it too and it ended up at like 2.25 or something like that last year. So, why don't they? Great question. I would like to know the answer. A quick question on the on the voted ple the income sir tax portion. >> When is that figured >> like when what do you mean by when is it figured >> like so like you know we we approved a dollar it's at 72 cents right the difference of >> is that income sir tax >> portion change every year. Yeah. Th this one is based off of 2024. >> Yes. So >> it's a behind. >> So like we're paying everybody's doing
081their 25 taxes now. >> Yep. >> It's going off what was paid in 24. >> That's why we're pausing because you got it's confusing because the years behind it's behind and the years do not match up. So for this current year, it was based off of the collected sir taxes from the FY24's or um fiscal um 2024's taxes, right? Am I saying that right? >> Yeah. >> You got to think through it's it's it's a year off. It is confusing. >> So it's based off of 24's taxes, but we get it for 27 FY27. >> Correct. You're more than Yeah. I mean two years off almost. Yes. Okay. Yep. So that's because yeah, going into this too, it's taken me a little bit to figure that because I'm like, how do they know that what
082everyone's going to pay? Because you got to kind of know what everyone's taxes are to have an income s tax off that for us to know what we're collecting, right? >> Yep. >> So that's why it lags so far behind. And I'm sure there's extensions on, you know, income taxes or >> I get >> you're not even f or people that didn't pay it on, you know what I mean? I'm not even factoring that in. What will, one thing to note will be interesting in the future as Iowa has lowered the state income tax rate. Okay, which is great. I'm not saying anything by this other than that means they're going to collect less state income tax, right? M >> that sir tax is a tax on the tax. Right. Right. >> So all other
083things considered if they take in less state individual taxes and we sir tax on that >> your income sir tax dollars coming in is going to be less. >> So that could factor and change your rate in future years. >> Dollars wise it's like I said it's the same but it could mean that >> where come from the property taxes might be a little higher to offset that because you might not you may not be getting as much relief. Now, I've also heard people say, "Well, we think because of the reduced taxes and other things, Ians will be taking in more income." So, even at a lower tax rate that'll be offset, >> who knows? >> Population change could definitely drive that. >> But if you have Yeah. less population, you're going to also take
084in less income. >> Or the other way, >> right? >> Increase in population, you'll take in more income. Absolutely. Which are things you don't know, right? >> And that's not even just our school enrollment. We're just talking in general. Yeah, just people, >> right? Just people. >> Okay. >> Yeah. So, a lot of information there. Tried to make it. But yeah, school budgets are unique. It's not just a dollar. It's you have to you're really working through how much authority you have. >> And once you have the authority, then you're really going back on the other side and figuring out the taxes or the levies to pay for it. It's kind of unique that way and how it's generated. it it you got to do one to do the other. It's, you know, yes, we
085got to have dollars with that, but you first figure out in Iowa, you have to figure out as a school how much authority you have, and then the dollars come after that. They figure out how they're going to fund that authority. Okay? >> Now, during the year, there's been various points that will we qualify for some additional things. Board approves it where we can get some additional authority during the year. So, maybe we overspend. We will overspend on your special ed. So, our budget or our authority is 7 what was it? 730,000. Okay, we're going to overspend that. Okay, I'll tell you right now, we will. Right. So, what happens when you overspend that? You don't get cash, but you can get that authority back because you really don't have a choice to not overspend
086if that was what was called for in a student's IEP or that's what the needs were, as an example. There's other there's other times where we've come and we qualify for additional things and the board approves authority. It doesn't give us cash, but it gives us additional authority. That's a important part of the budget process. Excuse me. That happens each year. So, other questions you guys have. That is all I have. >> Well, thank you. Thanks for the info. >> All right, I'll make a motion to adjourn the special budget meeting. >> Second. >> All right, it's been moved in a second to adjourn the meeting. All those in favor say I. I. I. >> Those opposed? We are adjourned. >> Thank you everyone. Thank you.