001like to welcome everyone to the August 4th, 2025 meeting. Uh we will start with the recognition of delegations. Anyone wishing to be recognized to speak on any agenda item or to be heard as part of the section on the agenda dealing with delegations or citizens comments are to identify themselves by name in the point on the agenda where they wish to be recognized. Perfect. Yeah. All right. Moving on to Refine Matters. We can take both matter at the same time. We have presented you with uh the minutes from the July 21st MO uh meeting and we also have enclosed vouchers and electronic transfers. Is there a motion to approve the minutes of the July 21st 2025 meeting as prepared or as corrected? And also a motion to authorize payment of payroll checks 401-984 through 402291,
002voucher checks 146314 through 146395, and electronic transfers ET 3261 through ET3270 as recommended. Voided payroll and voucher checks not listed on the voucher listing in the above sequences are not approved for payment by this action. So >> moved. Second. >> Motion was made by Mr. Williams, seconded by Miss Butler. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Those nay. Motion is passed. Moving on to the new business. We have um several resignations to present today. Jerry Kilgore, food services at the high school. Nola Lane, assistant coach, boys and girls swimming, which was a quarter of a stipen. Kennedy Meyer, assistant coach for girls basketball at the junior high. Alyssa M. McIntyre, teachers assistant at the special ed at for special education at the junior high. Alyssa Mittner, assistant coach for the volleyball
003at the high school level. Roger Robertson, bus driver, which will be effective August 12th, 2025. Tammy Schneider, unified track. Riley Snuggrass, head coach for boys at the high school. Mara Spencer, food services. William Trout, bus driver. and Courtney York, special education department chair at the junior high. >> We have a motion to accept the resignation effective immediately unless otherwise indicated from the list above. So move >> second. >> Motion was made by Mr. Isaac, seconded by Mr. Williams. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. >> I post nay. >> Motion is passed. Moving on to employment recommendations. We have a slew of recommendations to make. Jenna Bell, teacher assistant at the junior high. Addie Elliot, teacher assistant for special special education at West. Trevor Lang, teacher assistant, special education at the high school. Whitney
004Martins, science department chair at the high school. Alyssa Mittner, assistant coach for volleyball at the junior high. Dustin Murray, elementary junior high athletic director. Mackenzie Nuland, assistant coach for the volleyball half stipen at the junior high. Jessica Pascal, chemistry teacher at the high school. Mary Paul, teacher teacher assistant for the special education department at West. Rachel Price, teacher assistant at the high school. Evelyn Richardson, bus attendant, and Sophia Shrader, teacher assistant for special education at the high school. We have a motion to confirm the employment from the list above. >> Second. >> Motion was made by Mr. Oath, seconded by Mr. Isaac. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Oppos? Nay. Motion has passed. Moving on to retirements. We have two retirements. Brenda Canada, the teachers assistant in the OC, which
005was will be have been effective July 25th. She leaves us after 19 years of service. And Steven Rising, um he was our HVAC technician. He uh his retirement was effective July 21st and he leaves us after 18 years of service. Do >> we have a motion to accept the intent to retire from the list above? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Motion was made by Miss Butler. Seconded by Mr. Isaac. Any discussion? >> All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Opposed? Nay. Motion is passed. >> Moving on to non-paid leave of absence. >> We have one request from John Stratton. He's our district carpenter and he's requesting non-paid leave um August 1st through September 9th of this year. We have a motion to grant John Daniel Stratton a non-paid leave of absence from
006August 1st of 2025 through September 9th of 2025 as requested. >> So second >> motion was made by Mr. Oath, second by Mr. Williams. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. I >> oppose. Nay. Motion has passed. Information and proposals. Lois. >> Yes. Mhm. Mhm. Okay, good night. 35. 35. Okay. Three. Can I come? Now, >> we're we're waiting to still get more information from the state with we hope to have some more clarification on some of the terminology that's been used. Um, I think there's a couple ways to look at it, too. There's a lot of opportunity for teachers, for some teachers, and that it's up to 20%. It's not necessarily 20% guaranteed. Um, we've talked to Courtney and NEA. Um, >> and you hate to not allow the opportunity for your awesome
007teachers, too. You know, that's a lot of money to leave on the table. Um, so I would like to find a way to make it work to where we aren't dividing people and we are giving people options to have an opportunity to earn that money. $7,500 for someone is a is and we have teachers worth $7,500 in this district. So, you know, I I think we want to find a way to make it appealing for people to participate, but yet not make it a a burden on them because they already come to work every day and have a huge, you know, amount of of energy to expend on our kids. So, we will have more information soon. I know Courtney and I and um Kevin and Bo come to the table soon to start talking
008about the new the upcoming contract. And I would expect that we'll hopefully receive more information from the state, some clarification, and then make a decision on how we'll proceed forward with that. >> We'll have an opportunity to do it for last year. And so, but that's a very that's a quick turn around time. And the states also changed the evaluation model, too. So we will keep our evaluation model for another year and kind of just talk to teachers and talk to NEA about do we need to change anything or do we want to keep things the way they are but the state has changed the cate categories. So you know there's a lot of moving parts in it right now and I think we need to take our time to make sure that we process
009through and we really have teacher input and any input and principles need to be involved with that too. and the the timeline has changed as well for when that payout is. It won't be in December any longer. It'll be at the in the springtime. We aren't names would have to be given by October though, right? >> Yeah. We went all teachers get it, too. >> Well, I'm just trying to make it as positive as I possibly can at this point. >> Yeah. here. Thank you. >> We are doing the present. We h we will do a presentation but Bo has his budget presentation tonight so we will not do that tonight. They have been released on IDE. They're available to to but I would say maybe the next meeting. Do you have budget again the
010next one? >> Not a presentation. >> Then we can do our do an an overview of data at our next meeting if that's okay with everybody. >> Yeah. >> I actually I have a full folder full of everything and anyone want to know but I wasn't going to share it during the meeting. I was going to >> Everything is online. Yes. But it's also on the IDOE website. Yeah, it's anyway. The only thing we don't have officially back yet are I read the I read data is like the 16th I think they're putting that out. >> Yes, >> we know what our IE data is, but it hasn't been publicized at this point. So, I think I might have that date wrong, but it's coming up in a couple weeks. the IDE will release um
011information on that. >> No, we're very excited about our IE data. Our schools have worked very hard and >> well, I was going to I learn we have peaks and valleys. We we have we know what what work we need to do for next year, but our I think it's our fourth and fifth grade in reading and math. We had some of the highest scores. We we were competitive with other districts. Um we had we outperformed the state, which we pretty much do across the board, but I think we can do better than that. So, but I will have that at hopefully at the next meeting an overview and I can get you all those documents, too. Okay. I have it. >> Well, I have the information and I am ready to talk about it.
012>> Sounds great. Perfect. >> Thank you, Lois. Thanks, Lois. Okay. U moving on to superintendent and staff. We have included the fuel adjustment chart in August menus. Back to menus again for you all in your packet. Okay. No questions of board members. Moving on to future business. Do you want to take us the rest of the way out? Sure. >> We have a meeting coming up on August 18th. We also have a meeting on September 2nd. The next meeting will be on Tuesday, September 16th. because we will be at ISBA for conference. Lois, do you have did you hear that on Tuesday? It will be Tuesday, September 16th. >> Yes. One on the second, one on we have a conference. >> Well, September are on Tuesdays. We have some dates. Um, Tuesday, August 5th, which
013is our back to school um for staff and meeting tomorrow morning. First day for students will be August 6th. We're super excited to see our kids back. And we wanted to go ahead and add that on September 17th, we'll have our first staff development day with early dismissal just so that the public can make uh arrangements for that because we will be releasing early on that day. >> We have and then preview topics budget. >> Yep. >> Oh, you both. >> You guys excited? >> Yep. All right. So, we're going to talk about debt service fund, operations fund, and then just kind of a general overview of our budget levy and tax rate estimates. Um, let's see. Uh, next meeting, as long as you guys are good with that, we'll get permission to advertise our
014budgets and then shortly after that, we'll actually publish the budgets and the plans on on Gateway. So these are both of our property tax based funds. Our debt service fund is um the debt that we take out. The most recent one was 2019 where we did the project which 2017 with the HVAC uh and then our operations fund um is is based on the maximum levy. So we'll take care of the debt service funds one first because that's a pretty straightforward. It doesn't change much from year to year. Uh this is our list. So you can see we are closing in on the end of this project. We've met with uh bond council already and gotten some projected numbers because uh the one thing that we needed to figure out is uh as this rolls
015off, what kind of projects major projects are we wanting to do? Uh how much funding is actually available so that we don't increase the tax rate? Uh, and then there's been some new legisl legislative things um about the tax rate limit to where how much you can actually do on one of these uh lease rental bonds uh without it having to go to referendum. So, we wanted to stay way below that conversation. So, uh and we are thankfully uh is the range that we're we're looking at. So, as you can see, it's 2025 to 2026 is the exact same payments that we'll make. Uh, this is just our estimated uh kind of other funding that comes in. Uh, what's what's interesting, and I need to dig into it a little more. I had a memo
016today. Okay. Uh, is that Let's see if I can get this going. >> It did do this last time. Bill Stein just called. He might have said that he was kicking me off. >> Let's see. >> Probably saying he cares. >> Maybe. >> Don't read my emails. Uh the memo was basically saying that kind of these these other funds uh the fit and I believe the steet for sure doesn't have to be uh deposited into the debt service fund. It can go into oper fund or vice versa. So it's uh I don't know if it really the situation that we're in. I don't know if it benefits us to do that, but it's worth looking into that we have that flexibility to to be able to choose where those funds go into. Um, it would
017basically help offset if we either remove these funds or added more to it, offset the amount of our uh main property tax levy that we're getting that you'll see here. So, this is what we'll advertise. And this one's kind of backwards from our other budgets because you start with the number you want to end with cash balance which would be we're going to advertise 600,000 um and then we work backwards from that. So with a 600,000 ending cash balance projection in 2026, we would need to uh get about $2.3 million in debt service funds from property tax. uh we are not allowed to have 600,000 in that cash balance because there's a cap on it. Uh so that is our max cash that we can have in in that account. So uh in reality this
018is what our projected property tax impact will be. Uh we always advertise higher just in case and then they'll they'll bump it down to where it actually needs to be. Overall debt service is pretty straightforward. same almost the same exact that we had from last year. So, if there's any questions on that or future, you know, like I said, we met we've met with bond council. We've actually met with a couple different companies and architects that are kind of looking at some different ideas and things that we have just to get some estimates on what cost will be. um our kind of general thinking unless we need a larger amount of money is to keep the issuance as short as possible. So instead of doing a 10-year, look at doing a shorter period if we
019don't need the max amount of funds just because as we get into our operations fund presentation, you'll see that uh the funding is going to be kind of chopped over the next couple years. So, in case we need some bond issuance funds for uh some normal projects like roofing and things like that, we want to have that coming off our plate sooner rather than later. >> What's the timeline look like with bond council and so forth that process? So, we would really want to start next year uh 2026 to be to go through all the board stuff so that and really we could start as early as the end of this year. So, that funds could potentially be available in the summer of 2026. That's a really tight timeline. So, looking at early is when
020we'd probably have funding available for for some major projects. And again, the intention is to make sure that it does not increase the tax rate uh with any any new projects to keep that stable >> and maintain what we >> correct. Okay. Operations fund. So, here's kind of some district-wide notable changes. Uh, I added this in before the big uh before the big blow up on Facebook happened. So, I may need to bump that up again. But, uh, we added a marketing coordinator position. Uh, we did increase our utilities based on knowing that water and electric rates were going up. Uh, so we actually we had bumped it up last year about $100,000. And so, going forward, we're going to increase that about another $170,000. um electric bill was pretty high for the school uh
021this this last month. So uh hopefully that goes down. And then our sports facilities budget um that one just went out based on because we're capped at what we are able to do that. And so that is non-instructional spaces. So if we have to do repairs to like baseball field or or something else, we have that funding available. our bus replacement plan. Um we have a lot of buses, not a lot of bus drivers. So we are uh looking at uh you know whether that's trading in multiple buses to to upgrade update our fleet uh or if it's just selling buses. We're kind of look at the cost benefit analysis of that. But um as of right now, we have one bus on there that we have as being up for replacement. We don't plan
022on replacing that that bus this year, but we do have that on the list because like I said, we have fewer buses that we're sending out from our fleet. Uh, so there's really not a need to rush into buying full-size buses right now because as you can see, for the most part, it it goes the goes down from oldest to newest. So, we have some an updated fleet with the buses that we send out. And this also includes our mini buses and uh it will include our um we have a new uh the it's a mini bus. It's not a special ed bus, but it doesn't require CDL. It's yellow and has a stop arm and it just takes a class that you have to go through. So, kind of a hybrid uh that we'll
023be able to use as well, but we don't have that one yet. >> Is that ordered? >> It is ordered. >> Okay, good. >> Been ordered about eight months ago. >> Thanks. >> Yes. >> So, buses are expensive. Uh but we don't anticipate needing to purchase one in or probably 2027. That's when a lot of them come due. So our facilities and equipment plan. So this is kind of the summary. You can see up top. I don't know when the last time our architects and engineers budget has changed. For the most part, most of these all stay relatively the same. Oh, I see that number didn't update and go all the way through. But, um, the one that does change is our 4B. So, that is our kind of major project. So, what'll be included
024in that is future projects and roofing. So, that one will fluctuate the most out of out of all of our of all of our budgets. We'll start with Farmersville. Um, as you can see, 2026, not a ton anticipated going on there. Uh, we do have four sections of roofing that potentially could need to be uh upgraded in 2027. And again, we are not I mean, we have 2728 up there, but those are just placeholders. Doesn't necessarily mean that we're doing all four sections in that year. um that's just when they come due. We're actually having a company that's been working with us to see which places need to be fully replaced or just repaired or if they're still in actually good shape. So when you see the areas that need to be uh replaced, that's
025just because it's hit its 20 or 30 year maximum life. Uh but some could need to be earlier, some could be in good shape still. Um, hedges is the question that I feel like we talk about all the time. It's uh, you know, do you go all in and make a big investment? If so, we need to bring more of our facilities there. Um, but we have been keeping up with the roofing and replacing. We have a section that we're replacing this this year. Um, for electrical system, uh, we're we want to make sure we're getting our HVAC and our electrical upgrades and things like that, keeping those up to date and functional. Uh, because we do have, um, information systems that that work there and our special ed department and then not to mention
026all the community groups like parks and wreck and uh, all all the different groups, food pantries in there. Uh, so we want to make sure that we're keeping that functional and uh in good shape while we still figure out what we want to do long term with with the building at Mars. Um, we have a a few things that we want to do next year. One of the things that we have listed here, and it's just from my lack of uh technical knowledge, but so it may not it's probably not technically mechanical system upgrade. Uh we need to reinsulate uh the HVAC uh vents uh because they are in need of that. We are doing some other things that will help prevent the condensation and the leaking. Uh but ultimately, those haven't been replaced in
027a long time. So, that'll be a big project to make sure that we're we're wrapping all those and getting those again. And and their roof is in pretty good shape. We just have one one small section that that needs there. And then we've kept this cafeteria floor uh needs replaced. Uh we've had that looked at and it probably it's noted necessarily. It probably needs resurfaced. There's a I think replaced is a misnomer that probably was in there from a while back, but it does need some maintenance eventually. West, uh, we have some roofing areas, um, that we're want to 26. We're doing a small area this year. Um and then a couple of I'd say medium areas uh in 26 and 27. Uh but as far as major projects, those are uh the two that
028we have budgeted in here for our operations fund. Junior high. Uh pretty pretty steady. Um we kind of projects is uh your normal stuff, your carpeting, your classrooms, bleacher repair. There is does need to be some updates done to the front office uh and uh the conference room. There's there's some things that could be touched up, but as far as major renovations, um I think we have the funding in place uh to take care of a lot of those things. Well, what is that? Various athletic complex repairs. Is that their portion, their share? >> Yeah. So, we kind of use this as we built this in a few years ago. Um, whenever if there's a major gym repair that needs to happen. U, a lot of it too was and we've taken care of a
029lot of the pool stuff with the bulkhead. There's still probably some more major upgrades that uh could find its way up. We're always in the back of our mind is the fact that it's a 30-year lifespan on the pool, but we're at year 33 at this point. So, uh, we have some funding available there to at the very le 200,000 isn't going to build you a new pool, but hopefully it's, uh, can help us get through whatever if there's some sort of emergency or urgent thing to to get us to, you know, some bigger funding. >> They're they're all carp. It's be replacement. Yeah. >> Yep. High school again biggest expense is uh the 350,000 for roofing and uh really the high school is probably the one that is I mean it's the biggest school
030so it's got the most area for roofing and so we we have the most need there uh the replacement areas really scare me as I keep typing in new numbers. Uh but uh hopefully they come back and say that it's not not as uh in dire need as it is. But we have that kind >> they go in and like take core samples, look at moisture and all that. >> Yeah. >> So first off is just they'll just walk it and make you know anything that's obvious then they'll they'll mark and note and then if it's questionable then they'll start doing their core samples. >> Yeah. Moisture. >> Yeah. And then at that point it's do you just need a resurfacing? Do you need a patch or is it a total tear down from the
031insulation to you know full replacement? >> My favorite one. We have no plans for for Booker T. >> We have plans but they all cost like3 to5 million. So that's >> no feasible plans. Um, our bus garage, um, just kind of as is. Uh, we do have potentially, uh, I didn't include it in this budget, but our underground storage tanks, they're doing a program right now, uh, they are also at their lifespan. Uh, but the state of Indiana is covering half the cost of removal and like replacements. And so, we're trying to get that done before the end of the year this year. uh is is the plan to take advantage of of that program. And I know Dr. Ciphert's already sent the applications in in order for us to uh be considered for that.
032>> So, it's just a window. >> Yes. Yeah. I I don't think it has an end date yet, but it a set date, but I can't imagine that they'll keep it open >> forever. >> Are their replacements going to be above ground or they >> they so to in order to take advantage of it, it has to be underground as well. So it has to be a like like for like replacement. So because we did look at it would we if we were doing it ourselves we would consider going above ground to to do that. But if they're going to pay for half of it we'll probably do that and get another 30 years out. >> Okay. So, our admin office, um, this is we've in in the past years, this is where kind of
033our district painting has came from. Our bigger paint projects has has come from this $100,000. Um, our district radio upgrade. Uh, that includes our fire alarm uh, alert system that uh, right now it's from all the buildings. It alerts the AO and then it sends a signal out to our first responders. Uh that system, the guy that kind of pieced it together, uh retired and so it worked in its time, but uh we really need something that's more up todate and reliable. Everything is works great, but uh just for looking into the future, I'd rather be ahead of that one before something happens that it's not working. And then security access control. Um this 125,000 part of that will be um our payment for our school resource officer to the city of Mount Vernon. Uh
034we did we have to pay for it out of our funds. Uh but Mr. Hagen applied for a secured school safety grant that hopefully we'll be matching to that. So, uh, we'll have to pay for it won't be 125, but we'll have to pay for that portion out of there. And then hopefully we'll get a match of half of that back. And then future projects, uh, we have our HVAC upgrades at buildings, our district warehouse facility. Uh, these are projects that have been on here for the last four or five years. Uh nothing new there. Um probably the HVAC might have they might have started putting money away after that 2017 project because of how expensive it is. So uh but if there ever comes a time where we start having multiple boilers or chillers
035or all go down uh that that funding is available from there. And then district warehouse facility. Uh going back to Booker T, if we are ever able to do something with that building or if a community group would to were to use it, uh we do need a place to put all of our stuff. So we we would like to have a facility that's on site uh for storage and then turf replacement. Um and then uh and turf that includes both the football field and we bumped it up a little bit for the indoor uh facility as well. And then construction of administrative office, we've really eased back on on that. Um you know, I don't know how much detail really want to go into, but if we were to move our our AO office
036is not ADA compliant at all. And so going back to the hedges conversation, that is the logical choice for an administrative office to be instead of building something new or doing something like that. Uh so some of that funding uh would go to that, but hopefully that would be a pretty kind of just cosmetic uh changes to to section of that building to accommodate all the AO staff there. Sorry. Capital projects plan. Uh transportation vehicles. We always keep a budget number uh in there just in case we need a a work truck or or something of that nature. Um because right now we're we're using the uh we're using the old mini buses which uh is in my mind is not efficient for driving all around town. And so eventually I'll we'll we'll get to
037the point where we're we move away from the mini buses and go to more of a a work truck vehicle. Um and then our mowing equipment. Um our various district technology upgrades and then band equipment. I did not realize how expensive band equipment was until I till I started here. Some of those instruments are uh crazy expensive. though that expensive enough to land on a capital projects plan. So this is a summary that all those four things that we talked about future projects is this 1,920,000. So whenever we look at the projected uh budget, we don't plan on spending that $ 1.9 million right now. it is it would be available if we needed to. Uh but we plan on on kind of holding back and and saving that. And so our maximum levy this
038year, so this is what it was last year is the 11,986,000. And this year we get a 4% increase in that. So that would take us to 12 million465 which is great. This is what we've seen the last couple years. Um didn't add his slide in there. But looking forward to 2027 it it has already been in legisl that it'll be a 0% increase and then 2028 will be a 1% increase. So this year is kind of the the year that we will be able to take that increase uh because there's not going to be a whole lot in the next couple years. Um the the thing also about that is that you guys know how our tax rates work. uh even if we're not in those future years taking an increase, the way that
039the new uh property tax is laid out could reduce our assessed value for the county, which means that even though we will not get any more money, our tax rate could potentially go up if we're at a 0% and our assessed value goes down. So it's something to be looking for even just the anticipation is that assessed values won't go up a ton in those years and may even decrease. So here's our uh kind of our uh estimated revenue from various sources. This doesn't include property tax. Uh so our license excise tax. Uh what I did was um we had talked about it last meeting or the meeting before. The estimates that they provided I thought were too high and we're not recovering enough. So I just did my own and kind of kind of
040cut those down a little bit. Uh so you can see that uh from other sources we should get about $780,000 and that would be on top of uh that that 12.4 million. So, here's our advertised budget. >> Uh, our cash balance as of January 1st of this year was $10.6 million. Uh, we get our certified levy, uh, excise tax, all that brings us down. And this CPF carryover includes future projects, things that we um may have not spent yet, but was encumbered. uh and then other incumbrances as well. Uh and so if we spent 100% of that and 100% of all of our carryover, it' be leave us with $4.4 million. And then if you run that through and you take all of our revenue from 2026 uh with our uh budget estimate, it would
041leave us with $2.5 million. We are not anywhere near because of all the things that as I was going through, we're not going to spend money on buses uh or plan to the $2 million in future projects. We have no plans on doing that. And then there's another two, well, if you do the math, another probably about $2 million of that $4.5 million that we have encumbered, but that uh if we came into a bind, we could let that go to cash and uh go off. So, that's our advertised what our projected and this is even still a very conservative estimate is because that assumes that we're going to spend all 4.5 million of that future projects leaves us with 7.4 4 million at the end of 2026. Any questions on operations fund or projects
042or you know I didn't talk a lot about salaries or things like that but you know the only position that really we added was the marketing position in the operations fund. Uh we actually took out a couple of bus driver positions. So, those really kind of balanced each other out. And then we have our estimated future future raises and and things like that that in there for salaries. Hey, everybody's favorite topic circuit breaker. So in 2025, this was our total circuit breaker loss. Um it was a lot, $648,000. Uh up from back in just 2023 was at $510,000. So it's been it's been growing steadily. 2021 that handout that I gave you was 461. And then it actually went down a little bit and then it went up a little bit and um just this
043afternoon they released this estimate. So it's not in the slideshow uh that's coming soon. Well, it came right before I came to the meeting and their estimate is going up from 648,000 to 1,61,000 for circuit breaker. So, uh, an estimated increase of over $400,000 of loss, and that's mainly due to the reconfiguration of our property taxes in in Indiana. Um, and this was kind of an expected thing because the way everyone everyone is going to local governments will try and capture the increase and have to raise tax rates, which means more people are going to hit their circuit breaker, which means there's going to be more circuit breaker loss. So, uh, this was not unexpected. Um, we were hoping that would we'd have a good surprise, but I'd say that 1,61,000 is kind of right
044in line with what we were hearing and thinking could could happen. Any questions on that before move on from that great news? >> You have more great news. Wow. >> My great news is that we are in a financially good spot as a district. So, >> and we're really trying to be super careful right now because we know we need to be. So, without really feeling a pinch, we can be careful. >> I take the foresight that we've had knowing this was coming. >> Yeah. >> Put us in a very good position. What you can take from it is we're going to get 4% of growth with the maximum growth levy quotient, which is about $400,000, and then we're going to lose about $400,000. So, really, we're at a we're we're steady. So, we're working
045with the same same total bottom line number of dollars. So, uh that's all right. So for our budgets, uh you can see how those have increased. This includes our education fund and our rainy day fund budgets as well. Um that operations fund increase. Again, most of that uh is from increasing the future projects uh because every year we step that up a little bit more. At some point we're either going to have to do something or stop stepping it up because it's uh you know increasing the budget but that you know a budget's a budget doesn't mean we're spending it but uh that that would be account for a lot of that and then just the fluctuations in and roofing prices or roofing projects number of projects that we're doing and our debt service again
046was a zero 0% increase our tax levy this is what we're going to advertise. Um that first budget for the debt service I said we want to end with a $600,000 cash balance and then operations fund. Uh we add the 4% to this number and then just add 500,000 is what Mr. Evans always did in order to make sure that we were above what we were actually going to get. Um, and so that's that's what we will advertise as our uh levies, but in reality, this is more closely what it's going to come back. We know that it probably won't be above that 12.4 million, and we know that it'll knock down that 600,000 to the 300,000. So, that'll be our our levy for there. So you can see the difference in levies from our
047certified 2025 to our 2026 projected is about 440,000 which is that 4% increase in uh operations fund. Um and uh it it should be pretty close to that's that would be pretty close to what our actual numbers are in the projected column. And then tax rate summary. Um, you can see we've hovered pretty gosh darn it. >> Oh no. >> So close. >> We're not going to talk about tax rates. So we have uh really hovered around that 80 cent mark. Maybe a little bit higher, maybe a little bit lower uh each year. I'm gonna get real good at sharing this. So like in uh we'll just take back here 2023 it was 81 cents. 2024 final was 83 cents. It went up a little bit. 2025 back down to 81 cents. Uh we're really
048a lot at the mercy of what our excess value comes in at. Um I'm hopeful that um we're going to be not get hit too hard. I'm hopeful uh because in this range, so we saw a pretty good increase from uh 20 really 22 to 23. Uh and then we only saw a $7 million increase from 23 to 24. uh when really the red most of Indiana saw a massive jump, we kind of stayed stable. So I'm hoping that our rate has stabilized a little bit and then again we saw a big increase in 2025 which was more consistent with the rest of the state. U so if our AV stays the same uh our tax rate would be 84 cents. If it goes our AV goes up, then that number goes down, which is
049a good thing. Um, I pulled up from 2025 all the all the schools and all the tax rates and we're still in the bottom quarter of tax rates. So, we're in a pretty healthy situation and majority and I because there's 292 school districts. uh started going through a a lot of the schools that have lower rates than us are very small schools. Uh so less buildings, less staff. Um so I I think for a district our size and for our enrollment, we're we're at a a very healthy uh tax rate. end on good news, you know, good have a good tax rate. >> Any questions? >> Hope does a good job at it. Appreciate it. >> Yep. Thank you for all you do. >> You're welcome. >> We are ajourned.