10-6-2025 Wawasee Board Work Session

001I don't need this thing. All right, welcome everyone. My name is Andy Kripe. I am uh I like it better when Don's here to do this for us, but this is our first uh work session that I don't know if we've ever had, but it's the first we've had in my timeline or memory. Um, I'm supposed to make some comments. I've had all these guys give me all their notes of what they want me to say, and I'm probably not going to say many of them, but I'll try. Uh, first want to say welcome. Um, this is meant to kind of let you guys see the information that we get, the um, thoughts that go into some of our deliberations and decisions. Um, some of the laws that guide or limit our decisions. Um, if

002this were to be every single piece of information and dialogue we have, this meeting would last till Christmas. So the meeting is going to be well it's not going to go on forever and there's going to be a point in time and I don't know how many hours that is where I'm just going to you know walk out and you guys can too if it gets really long. So I want us to be mindful of everyone's time. Um it's going to be imperfect. We're willing we're going to change and navigate through this so it's productive for everybody. Um and I'm probably going to be redundant here as I get into the notes specifically but there's just some things to remember. If a dialogue is getting long and there's a back and forth, and I mean

003a a good back and forth, don't be offended if we say, you know what, that's let's take that offline. Let's let's dig in further on that. What I don't want to do is go down a rabbit hole that deserves a 30 or 40 minute conversation, but can't hijack the entire work session because this work session is prep is meant to prepare us for what is to come the following week at the board meeting, right? uh it doesn't mean some stuff we have a it could be such that the work session topic comes up and we said you know what we should pause on that and that's that's fine too that's what it's for but I'm only saying if we say hey hang on a minute we we don't have all those answers those are great

004questions can we either have a meeting or pick it up you know at the next work session but just be mindful that it's not an intent to shut you down or quiet you to further to make sure we're giving the dialogue what it what it deserves the topic, the dialogue that it deserves. So anyway, um as you guys know, the past few months really have been pretty intense with some, you know, public comments and things in board meetings and um while I don't love how it happened, it happened and it caused us to get to this spot, which I think is probably good. Um these are meant to, like I said, I never felt that I'm just This is going off script, guys, and I'm sorry. This is for us to be overtly transparent to

005show you exactly what the thinkings and the and the thoughts are that go into our decisions. It does not mean that presented with the same set of facts that you would come to the same decision. Sometimes our decisions internally I am a 55 45 in my own brain. I am my own skeptic on some of these decisions. But you come no action is not an answer. So, you have to land the plane and we want to show you how and where we got to landing the plane. We also want to discuss, we want you guys to understand um why there's always a five to nothing vote. It's the exact same reason a prosecutor doesn't bring a case that he can't win. There's no reason to not be united and for some posturing self-sabotage a plan

006that the majority agreed to. So, there's things like that that we just want to make clear and let you guys see. So, anyway, we recognize that this is important. We want you to see how we get to stuff. Um, we want you to understand some of the things that we're facing. Um, so to give you some a bit of a timeline prior to this point, uh, back in the on the 19th of September, we had a and well, we scheduled it, but a a non-standard meeting with the board to talk about some of these things. Um, it was six hours. Um, it was not meant to be secret. It was just meant to happen fast. And, um, we made some decisions. One of the decisions is this right here. There's other other other things that

007we're looking to do. Everything just it's a question of leaning into dialogue, transparency, um things on the website that are more clearly um how do I say it? Just because something's presented doesn't mean it's meaningful and it makes any sense. Um I'm a wildly disorganized person, so I didn't even really pay attention to that stuff and I just assumed everything was going according to plan. But we're going to do better with that. It was never an intent to hide anything. There's been no decision I've ever made that I wouldn't tell you how I got there. And I think the same goes with these guys or for these guys. So, I'm embarrassed right now because for six hours, I'm not saying I'm not We just talked about a lot of things and it was it was

008a culture conversation. And it was a I mean a lot of it revolved around how this should be structured what I mean what day what should be in it what the meeting looks like from when this happens how does it change the meeting you know all those sorts of things point being is we are listening we've had in addition to that we collectively have had a whole bunch of meetings and conversations with a lot of people in this room um and that brings me to another point there's a lot of information and emails and conversations that we have one-on-one outside of just these meetings. There's simply too much information to be able to always have a meeting like this. We'd be meeting daily. I mean it. So, uh, we're going to try and catch you

009guys up on on, you know, we're going to try and reference, hey, do you remember that email I sent where it had that document and then, you know, and share that stuff. We're going to be imperfect. Uh, but we're going to get better and better at um displaying the the information and research that we use to get to our decisions. So, I should have my glasses here. Uh, again, so I think those conversations have been productive even if we haven't always agreed. Um, which I think is healthy, too. I think it's good to get to a place to say, "I don't agree with you, but I appreciate how you got here." Um, I think it's good to hopefully for some of you folks that I've talked to to say, "All right, I I'm not sure

010I would have landed there, but okay, that that's some new information." So, those dialogues have been really good. Um, in addition, we we have sought out uh we haven't just received we haven't just had meetings that we were requested of us. We've reached out to have some meetings to get a whole bunch of different perspectives from people that never said a word that we thought, hey, I'd like to hear what this person in this building has to say. And um just I think we've done a we've been pretty busy trying to get a lot of information about many topics. Um again, this meeting is the biggest the biggest first step that we're going to have going forward. The way we would like it to work is you see the agenda. We're going to have the

011meeting. Um, we're going to open it beginning with public comments. Um, I don't know exactly how that's going to I don't think that means if something's brought up in the public comment that isn't on the agenda, I don't know that we're going to put it on the agenda. Um, we're going to have to just you're going to have to let let us learn. Okay. Um, if we have some answers right then and there, we'll go and respond. And this is going to be a little bit more dialogue is the way I envision it or dream it to be after that first public comment section. We're going to get into it. And for example, let's say, you know, it's grouped that, you know, uh there's a whole four A through H and it's financial stuff. Well,

012if that's a natural pause or a break for us to say, "Hey, let's Does anybody have any comments on that topic that the financial stuff, we may just add lib and pause and see if there's any questions and conversations there and then kind of go on to the next because there's if there's a natural break, we may just add lib and and open it up. But at a minimum, there's going to be public comment at the beginning and public comment at the end at a minimum. All right. Um, that's kind of the structure of it. We also are hoping to get the business I'm saying it wrong. We're hoping that all of the the convers the decision-m kind of is happening here so that the we anticipate the board meeting being far shorter. I'm not

013we're still going to have comments at the public board meeting on Tuesdays. I'm just saying that. But after that, we anticipate the board meeting frankly being shorter because we've already talked about it. we're we've discussed it and frankly if it's going to the board meeting it means we probably think it it's something we want to do otherwise we wouldn't take it to the meeting. So you're going to see those board meetings be um much shorter probably and uh procedural and just to do votes as they legally have to happen. So that's kind of how we envision it. We've been talking to some other schools that do the work session situation like this and we're trying to learn from them. Um, and maybe we'll even figure out how to do it better, but we're trying and

014it it's going to be evolving. Okay. Um, we're going to do the reports, you know, the learning report, superintendent report, financial report will will be happening in these meetings. We're not going to do them in both. Uh, we're going to have them here, which I think is kind of cool. Well, that means if you have a question about a report or something that comes up, you can you can address it. We can talk about it here. It'll be a little more timely um because the way the others are structured, we've already had the public comments and if something comes up, you can't really say anything about it. So, it gives you a form to do that. Um which I think is good. >> Yeah. Finance report. >> Um typically the screen that Dr. Penrod has

015put up that has the balances and the appropriation that will occur at the regular board meeting. >> Okay? >> Because uh month end stuff typically can't be done and summarized in time for this meeting uh to happen. So we need a little bit more time. But all the other reports will come um in this meeting and anything that's outside of of that kind of monthly finance report. >> Okay. >> That's related to finances will also happen here. So wanted to clarify that. >> Thank you. Did not know that. Does that make sense? Just because of the month and balances. Okay. Uh, all right. Just bear with me here. I got some points they wanted me to make sure I covered. Um, like I said, I want to reiterate, we we'd like to ask you to

016allow us to kind of adhere to the time limit on the talking points, not to shut anybody down, but simply because we want we want to cover the items that we need to cover for the the weeks following meeting. And we are going to be available to have further conversations. Um, we'll try like crazy to address stuff as it comes up in the meeting. I'm not saying that. But if it gets long and it's kind of derailing us from the the stuff we got to get to, please allow us. I guess we're asking for the benefit of the doubt that that's not trying to quiet you or hide something or be a lack of transparency. It's simply there is a there is things that got to get accomplished in these work sessions as well. All

017right. Um so I guess in wrapping up, we really do took take it serious. you guys heard me that were here at the last board meeting where I kind of got offended and I shouldn't have taken it personal. That was that was immature really. But nonetheless, I'm just, you know, I'm a guy who this is not the best way to spend time, you know, doing all this stuff. So, I am doing this and I know these guys are too because we're we're trying to do something that we think matters. We really are trying to make the right decisions for the kids and for the community. Um, so this is an effort for you to see how we get to those decisions and at least maybe we can start to come alongside one another instead of

018coming at one another, which is kind of is how it's felt. And that's not an accusation. I mean, I've pushed back pretty hard, too, and I've been a bit adversarial, and I'm going to work on that. So, I hope this, trust me, we're we argue. We're still going to argue. We're still going to have battles and disagreements, but at least I want it to come from a place of we understand where the other, you know, the the counterpoint is coming from and and we can make it a I disagree with your assessment, not you're hiding something or or or um just I I want us to try and get past the assumption that there's that that we're trying to be anything but a lack of transparency. Okay. It does not mean that we're going to

019agree on everything. It just doesn't. There's just no way. I mean, I look back at some of our decisions and I wonder about some of them as well, but you know, you're you're presented with a set of facts. You move forward. So, um I really appreciate you guys being here. Um I I wanted to add one thing. I'm open. We are open to to ideas. I mean, if if there's some ideas that can make this work better, flow better, let's let's have them. I mean, we're learning and uh like I said, we've been talking to other schools, but I don't really care. I mean, I care how they do it because we can learn from them, but maybe we can get it better than they they're doing it and have more productivity out of it.

020Another thing is, um, not every, as you see, we're missing one board member. Um, I don't want you guys to think there's there's family stuff that comes up. So, if a board member isn't here, please don't read anything into that. It's just it happens. Um, Don has cool family stuff going on that he's being a grandpa. So, so he's he's making the right decision there. Um, I just don't want anybody to to read into that. Also, if uh commitments come up where somebody's got to leave early or something, feel free. We're not going to judge. This is this is not in some ways it's more important than the board meeting, but procedurally it's not, if that makes any sense. So, happy you're here. I'm excited to see how this thing goes. And uh yeah, that's

021that's I don't know how to wrap this thing, but I'm done. You guys good? You got anything? Okay, thank you. Sorry, so long. Patron comments are happening now. >> Well, we can talk about that. We had come to that decision. I just came to say thank you. And again, I'm just going to read right from my notes. My name is Lisa Crawl. I live in Milford. I have a senior at Wawasi High School. Thank you to the school board for taking a meaningful step toward greater transparency by deciding to implement public work sessions. I recognize the that standing um changing a longstanding system, especially one shaped by years and years of having it what was referred to locally as an old boy club takes long-term effort and commitment. I want to acknowledge the step and

022encourage the board to keep moving in this direction. In today's world, people expect information in a timely, clear to be timely, clear, and accessible. That means stronger documentation, consistent recordkeeping, and transparency about how our tax dollars are being spent. When the public sees where their money is going, it builds trust and support. Accountability isn't a threat. It's a foundation for healthy public institutions. The school corporation plays a unique role as the one thing that truly unites all three of our school, our distinct communities. that gives it both the power and the responsibility to lead with openness and humility. It's vital that the board sees the public not as an adversary but as a partner. Parents, students, staff, and residents care deeply about our corporation and want it to thrive. They bring valuable perspectives that can

023strengthen decision-making, but civic engagement is a shared responsibility. Just as I asked the board to be transparent and inclusive, the community also needs to step up to attend meetings, listen, ask questions, and stay informed. Sometimes having to discuss issues that can be uncomfortable. Democracy works best when both sides, the inst institution, and the public show up, stay engaged, and hold each other accountable. I myself am looking forward to seeing the state required capital projects plan updated with actual possible projects and accurate um estimated prices. I especially look forward to seeing an updated state required bus replacement plan. I hope you have had enough time to consult with the transportation department to figure out the the discrepancies about what was planned, budgeted, and purchased over the last four years and into the next four years. Their

024original 2026 plan showed the corporation will be purchasing buses in 2026 that according to previous plans should have been planned, budgeted, and purchased already. So, did we in fact purchase new buses or and the 20 2026 plan is not accurate or if you never purchase those buses previously, what happened to those allocated funds? Again, tonight is an important first step. I hope the board continues building on this momentum with openness, collaboration, and integrity. And I hope we can move forward not as a not as separate sides but as a shared community working together in good faith. Thank you. >> Thank you. Anybody else? Okay. We good? Okay. Did I just We just did do one, two, and three, right? Okay. So, now we are on to the financial budget report, and you're going to do

025that. Oh, you're right here. I didn't see you there. >> Good evening. Thank you. Um going to start out uh just going kind of down the agenda. The one thing I would ask is if we could move the letter D, the bond resolutions uh down to the end just because they're not exactly related to the budget. Everything else is budget related. So, okay, if you don't care, we can uh move those and we'll address the the bond resolutions at the end. >> Okay. So, we're moving D to the end. >> Yeah. Okay. Uh so, first of all, the uh bus replacement capital projects plans. Um uh kind of want to um I actually we met with Mrs. crawl um last week and I do I apologize to her and I appreciate her calling me out

026on that because regardless of why it happened, it did happen and so that was my mistake for not uh putting that on the website. So I um want to acknowledge that. But we are working with transportation to get that more accurate. Uh the bus replacement plans in the past um have been 12-year-old buses. However, if uh if we either can't afford bus the number of buses we said or if we the transportation director didn't need the amount of buses we said based on declining enrollment, declining ridership, that kind of stuff, then we would not purchase all the buses we would need to just because they they were on the plan. And so then we just kind of pushed them off and push them off. And so I'm not saying that did or didn't happen. That's

027what we're trying to figure out with transportation department. As you know, we've gone through uh this is our third transportation director in less than a year. So, um, uh, counting the one that came back, but still the three transitions. And so, we're working on that. We'll have that, uh, available, um, and ready to go. And then the hearing will take place on the, uh, 14th at the at the October meeting >> before moving on to B. Any questions there? >> Yeah. So, because I want to put the this one to bed. I mean, we got to get again, I never even really looked at it like I should have. Mhm. >> So, thank you, Lisa. Um, like rock solid answers. >> Yeah. >> I mean, >> let's do a forensic deal on this, whatever it

028means to get >> clarify. I I almost brought you something tonight, but I'm not real confident in it. So, I want another day or so with the transportation director to make sure that it's it's solid. Is there any chance we can get that uh out with as much time as possible prior to that meeting? >> Yeah, >> next week. >> Yeah, >> let's try that. >> Yeah, definitely. >> Okay. Uh 2026 budget resolution. Um the uh this is also called form four in your uh when you see it, it's on Gateway. Um it's what gets form three gets posted on gateway as the advertisement for the hearing. Then we had the hearing in September. And then form four is what actually gets signed. And this will tell uh this will tell the uh the or

029this will list for the board what the uh tax rates are that they're being asked to adopt, the tax levy that they're being asked to adopt and the budget for 2026 for the four tax funds being the rainy day fund, operations fund, debt service, and uh education. And so um in the past the uh school board has asked to um to manage to a tax rate. Uh that's a little more difficult now with Senate rolled act one. So this uh so we you know might have to as we've discussed kind of change some strategy but for now uh we've we've looked at rate. Um keep that in mind when we get down to uh letter H when we talk about appropriation reduction resolution. But for now, this budget resolution, again, form four or an ordinance

030is uh is the levies, rates, and budgets that we'll ask you to adopt on uh the 14th. >> That was excuse me, that was prior to the assess. >> Yeah. Well, so yes, to a certain extent, we had to we had to advertise prior to the assessed value being uh being released by the county. And then once we advertise, we really can't change the the levies and the budgets. And so, uh, by default, it was done without the AV being finalized. However, um, the DGF recommends that we use 85% of the current year assessed value. And so if if we're in 2025, which we are, take that current year assessed value, which I think is around four billion, and uh take 85% of that, when we lower that AV for advertising purposes, it's going to

031drive up the uh the rate and andor the and in this case, the levy as well. So then during um during this entire project we're or process we're asking the board to uh to adopt increased levies and increased rates which are artificially high because the AV was artificially low. Uh I should note also even if the AV had been released the DGF generally says that we should not use the 26 AV that's been released. We should use 85% just for advertising purposes of the 25 AV. And so once that once that EV is out then um you know we'll ask you to to adopt it we'll upload everything to gateway the DGF then takes takes our forms and quote unquote works the budget and so they take u I don't know six weeks maybe eight

032weeks sometime in early December we get it back sometimes mid December and once that's done um they send back to us here's what we think your budget should look like if you don't if you don't respond this is what becomes your final budget so you've got 10 days to respond it's called a 1782 period. And so during that 1782 period, we can um if we disagree with something that they put in there, we can uh push back on that, say, please, you know, please use our actual expenditures for uh 2025 instead of um instead of our estimated expenditures. And the reason that's important is because when you're doing estimated expenditures, you're looking, I mean, this is happening in, you know, mid to late July, early August to get these estimated expenditures, trying to estimate four

033and a half, five months, five and a half months of expenditures. And what the DGF form does is automatically takes into account what that you're going to spend every dollar, which may or may not be true. So, if you have a, say, just for round numbers, you have a $10 million uh fund um budget and you spend $4 million, the DGF um the uh the form automatically assumes you're going to spend $6 million the second half of the year. Common sense to me would say if you only spend $4 million the first part of the year, you're probably not going to spend six the second part of the year. Probably going to spend four, maybe four and a half, but in that ballpark. However, the DGF form puts six million in there. So then you

034do all of your budget, send it away, and they say, "Hey, we're not going to approve this because you don't have enough money to fund 2026." So then we say, "Well, why don't we lower or please lower our our I'm sorry, please use our actual expenditures instead of our estimated expenditures. Those are now $4 million, which in effect gives us $2 million back." Right? The difference between 6 million and four million gives us $2 million back, which funds the 2026 or the next year's budget. And so those are the kind of responses we'll do during that 1782 period. And um and that's exactly what the DGF expects just because they know you're estimating four, five, five and a half months of expenses back in when you first start this process. And when you get toward

035the end of December, you're really estimating like maybe one more payroll maybe because you've already got claims done for the year. Um so the estimates get a little bit tighter in in December. I'm wondering if when I first went through this explain to me I mean we ask for more because it's on a falsely reduced AV >> correct >> can you explain the mechanism how we make sure we true it up to manage to that flat tax rate >> yeah so the one in particular that the the uh >> let me let me back up what is the risk that I was always scared that we we asked for this inflated because what if is there a way that it could get missed and boom >> we're asking I mean explain to me explain to

036>> because to me you're going you're asking for this number that's a tax increase >> but we're saying trust me we're not going to do it >> right >> and the only proof of that is is we've done this for four the four straight years I've been on it but I still frankly don't really get the mechanism of we ask for more than because they have reduced the AV from what it really is and then explain how does the true up happen to get to back to 0 5399. So, uh, the process I just said is kind of how it works, but in more detail, I would say this. The operations fund is pretty much is pretty stable, right? You've got, uh, we've talked about this before, the MLGQ, the maximum levy growth quotient. And

037so, that is uh, capped at 4%. And so, uh, whatever we put on the levy line for capital or for operations, uh, the most it's going to grow is 4% from last year. So, um, we can put, you know, we can put whatever number we want there and it's only going to be 4%. So, that one's that one kind of takes care of itself when the AV the AV is a function or the rate is a function of the AV and the and the levy. And so, you've got a an AV that comes out, multiply it by the rate and divide it and then you're going to get a levy, right? Or you can or or any combination if you you could do uh AV divided by levy to get a rate, right? And so

038any of those combinations. So in this case, the operations fund is pretty easy to do because you've got a lower AV that we advertise with based on state guidance. When the AV when the AV raises back up, we get our 4% back which lowers the rate down to where that portion of the total rate. So you mentioned the 0 5399. That 5399 makes up is made up of two different rates inside of that. One is operations and one's debt service. And so the um generally the operations uh rate decreases because AV increases faster than print but the maximum levy is only allowed to grow 4% the rate for just the inside of that just the operations fund would decrease because the AV is outpacing the growth of the of the levy. And so that one's

039pretty cut and dry. Once you once you increase the levy or the AV back up, the levy levy stays what it is and the rate's going to come back down. And so the one you've got a lot of control over is the debt service fund. And so on the debt service fund, we um you know, as as as you know, we're in the process of doing a bond, a small bond for some deferred maintenance. And so that bond is not sold yet, won't be sold until um later this month, early next month, depending on when market conditions look right and that kind of thing. And so once that's sold, um then we know the the payback schedule so we can kind of get kind of get a a better idea of what's good for the

040school if we if we put um put a bunch of money up front because we got uh maybe a higher interest rate or spread it out because we got a lower interest rate. So we talked about those maximum parameters of the of the uh of the payback, maximum parameters parameters of the payment, maximum parameters of the interest rate, that kind of thing. So when you're budgeting for debt service, you in you you put in an anticipated payment. All of our other debt is is is already settled, right? Not settled in the meaning paid off, but settled. It's known. And so you've got uh x number of bond issues out, x number of payments, one every or two every year, one every six months for each one of those. And you know from now until the

041end of whenever it's paid off, what you're paying each six months. Okay? The one you don't know that with is the anticipated debt, which is what we're in the middle of. And so generally put a big number in there, a very large number in there to make sure that we cover the school and and and make sure the the school's covered so we can pay back what's what's best for the school. So we're we're looking at uh I think this year I want to say we put like a $3 million payment in there. Under no circumstance I expect that to actually be $3 million. But it allow it allows the flexibility for the school. If the if the repayment schedule could be uh modified or or set at option A that would take say a

042$2 million payment, then we're still able to do that. If it's option B that would take a $1.5 million payment, then we're able to do that. And so whatever is more advantageous at the time of the sale is what this is what the the underwriter will do. And that's how the bond um that's how the bond uh amortization schedule is set. And that's how we know from now until that bond's paid off what we're paying every June and what we're paying every December. Now we got that done. Okay. So now we know the payment. So let's say it was 3 million on this anticipated debt, but it really is only a million. So now we know it's a million dollars. So now we can go into the 1782 period during that response time because the

043DGF likely has said, uh, you know, we don't like your debt service fund. You've got too much debt payment there. Okay. Yeah, fair enough. We knew that was we knew that going in. So we take we say, "Okay, well then that that payment is really not $3 million. It's only $1 million." So that million dollars then gets calculated. And then by by lowering that budget, we can lower the levy, which lowers the rate. And then or you could do it a different way by if our cash balance was getting too high in the debt service fund, which it has in the past here. Uh we um you know through talking to the board, the board's never felt like the school is a bank. never felt like we should just be banking money just to just

044to say we have a high cash balance. And so we've actually felt like in the past that the uh that the school's cash balance in the debt service fund was getting too high and asked the board to approve us to lower the cash balance there just to give that in effect give that money back to the taxpayer because what you're doing is lowering cash balance which effectively lowers the levy which means that the taxpayer is not paying into the debt service fund what the school could be charging because there's really no reason to. Right? You need some money to make sure you can pay your bills, but you don't need to have $8 million in your debt service fund just because you can say, "I got $8 million." I would suggest if you have $8

045million in your debt service fund, you're charging your taxpayers too much. And so through conversations with the board, we've we've gone through that and made sure that we either spent cash balance, lowered that payment, or a combination of both to get back to the rate inside that point 5399, which combined with the operations fund makes the point 5399, which I think you're right. I think we've been at four years in a row now. Um, >> and that'll be that will be tougher because of Senate rolled act one. It'll be it'll be harder to do in the future like we've discussed. But um but for four years now, that's kind of how and and regardless of the rate the outcome of the rate, that concept is going to be the same. That that that process will

046be the same. >> Anything there? >> Okay. Uh the next what ends up being the next two C and E. Uh we talked about the uh we talked about both these a little bit already. Have a hearing on the 14th. The resolutions will just ask you to um to approve both of those. The 26 through 28 capital projects plan uh dialed in here pretty quickly um to get up on the or to get in the out to the community. >> I'm going to be put you on the spot here in the future. I want that's the kind of stuff I want to be able to show >> like these things. >> Okay. >> I mean, >> yeah, I get it. Y >> cuz I want to see it. >> Yeah. >> In detail. >> Yeah.

047>> Right. So, is is is C and E going to come to a vote at the meeting? >> The resolution is um the plan is what you want to see at the meeting. The resolution actually we do have the resolution. If you want to see the resolution, we do have that. We don't have a plan. >> I want to see the plan. >> Yeah. The plan is what you want. That's what I'm working on with with transportation. >> Okay. So, are we Here's what I'm saying. I'm not I mean, we're not gonna I wouldn't vote on Tell me I'm not You're not asking me to vote on a plan without me seeing the plan. >> No, you'll see the plan. >> When? Like, is that coming up at the meeting on Tuesday? >> Yeah. >>

048So, when am I going to see the plan? >> Uh the plan is tomorrow. Just I just I was like I said, >> I'm not I don't mean just the bus plan. I mean, I I think I know most of the items, but I I'm not trying to listen. This is what this is for >> Friday. Okay. Well, part of the reason for this thing is so that plan can be seen today in anticipation. I mean, I'm not trying to shoot myself in the foot here because I'm kicking my own butt, but I might as well. Um, you guys get what I'm We're learning. Okay. And I don't know if we could >> I'd really like Those are the exact things I wanted to see at this work session. >> And I I know you're

049working on the bus plan. I'm not I think you're doing a great job. I'm going to say that. I don't I'm not This is different. We're doing something new. >> But the plans that we're being asked to approve, A, I want to see before, you know, Friday, and B, I want them to see them. If that if this work session has the meaning it's supposed to have, then that's I'm right. I mean, I would have All right. So, let me these are the discussions we'd normally have, guys. So just um if we because we also have timings and rules from the state and calendar dates to hit and everything else. If if I push us to say if I push these guys to go with me on this and we say we want the plan

050seen, especially the bus replacement plan, I think you're going to rectify and get I I believe if we can get that turned around quick that we can get everybody to see that. And I just think that was bad bookkeeping. I don't think anything weird happened, but we'll see. >> I'm an people to see the capital projects plan and understand what we're looking at. A lot of it's stuff you got to do or else it's going to break and cost a hell of a lot more later. Um, but if we don't what what tell me what that puts us behind or does it mean not be certain state? I don't know what I'm asking but if we have to kick that can down the road one month, what's it do to us? >> Uh, it just

051needs to be passed by November 1st. So be a special meeting sometime before November 1st. >> Are we missing any timelines for projects like uh softball and baseball needs dirt and it's got to happen in the fall? I mean, I'm making that up, but some things are >> No, no, it wouldn't it wouldn't miss any actual any actual uh practice of anything like >> I mean, we're not missing. Is there anything from a state or from reality has is time sensitive that 30 days? >> Uh the plan needs to both plans need to be approved by November for >> So that's the hard date. But the uh the the reality of it is that if the stuff is going to take place in 2026, the actual stuff is going to take place in 26, then

052it won't it won't be delayed. >> So we can't kick it a month, >> not a month. >> It's after meeting The whole reason >> how I mean can we produce that plan? >> Like I said I >> the capital plan >> I have something >> I know >> today but it's not real rock solid. So I'd like to give >> regarding the bus. >> I'd like to give it to you tomorrow. >> The bus plan or both? >> Both. >> Okay. Can I go off script a little bit here? I wish Donna is here right now. >> Um, can we is there a way is there a place we can post it? I mean, >> it'll be on the internet on the website. >> Would you guys be open to looking at it, seeing

053it if something is wacko, maybe asking some questions? I'd like to not I'd like to try not to plan another if we have to plan a meeting. If we can get that posted quickly, look at it, see what you think, reach out, ask questions. Um, and then if if if it's clear we I think it'll be apparent if we have to have >> a special meeting. >> Yeah. >> But I I mean I don't know what else to do. I can't. The whole reason for these meetings, if we don't require that, then we're not doing we might as well not have this meeting. >> The work session might as well will not happen. >> I know, >> Brandon. You had you posted something on the web, right? >> Yeah, there's something posted on Well, I'm

054not I'm not even this just >> what is posted on the on the web right now. >> What's post on the web is uh whatever was posted the la the day after the last board meeting. And so that's what that's what there's some question about because if the plan exists or when the plan exists it exists but it doesn't mean you have to do everything on there. So for instance if we said last year we were going to replace four buses and we only replace two because the transportation director either didn't think we needed four or maybe we couldn't afford four. That kind of thing. And so those those two buses then would get rolled into 2026. And then we may or may not replace all those. they get rolled into 2027. I'm not saying

055that is or is not what happened. Generally, the way that's worked is I I put a number together, tell the transportation director, this is what you've got, >> and he orders he or she orders buses and then I don't really get involved in it after that. I just give the number and that's what kind of happens. Um, so that's why I don't know if the bus actually got replaced or not get replaced because I'm just I'm just looking for a number to give the transportation department. >> Understand? So when I when I work with the transportation department, I'm trying to get what's actually been purchased, what we actually have. I mean, I know what we actually have as far as the what he gave me today, but um what's actually been purchased in the past

056x number of years so we can make it more accurate as we move forward. >> I get the bus replacement plan. I'm more focused on >> the capital projects. Um and >> and and the reason why is that even if the plan is this the discussion I want to have is kind of the discussion we have with um Lisa and Alex where we we'll cast a net wide not to be sneaky but to say it just came up you know if something comes in under budget we have enough money to put lights on the softball and baseball field we'll go ahead and do it so we'll put that on there Right. Correct. >> Uh and there may be a whole smattering of things knowing good and well we can't do them all. >> But then

057we prioritize it and and I want to have a discussion is why are we why why are there so many things on that? Why does this cover that many things? Well, because in that time frame we don't know if a generator is going to break down. >> You know, we're doing it because this is for preventive maintenance stuff, resurfacing fields, just things that that have to happen. So you you cast it really broad, but at least from a when we have a plan, we can have them shoot holes in it and say, "Why are you doing that?" And we can be honestly, we're not sure what all on this list is going to actually get done. >> But the uh the capital projects plan um the format of the capital projects plan here has always

058been what what's been shown. So for the past three, four, five years, what's been shown is just um obviously high school, x number of dollars. What backs up that plan is the spreadsheet that we've got that shows what needs to be done at Wallace High School. That needs >> that's available out there, too. >> Uh I think that's the backup. >> It's not. Okay. >> Okay. >> It's not available publicly, but that's something that we talked about on Thursday. Yeah. We can make available in some capacity. We just have to be able to format that and post it on the web. >> But we did show >> the group that was together on Thursday. >> Yeah. you scroll down through there and obviously that's been something that the board has had available to them. We

059just have not that hasn't been a public document. That's been an internal document that we've used with some broad estimates on what things cost and we can find a way to make that more public and >> I think it needs to be available for this for sure. >> Sure. >> I mean do you have can you do you have an example of it that we showed them on Thursday? >> Give me just a second. Let me >> All right. just so you guys can see what we're talking about. Yeah. >> But if you have this deadline, what happens if you guys have a bunch of questions? >> Then we got to call emergency meeting. And then you're still going to on the urg? >> It depends on if I I mean, like I said, I'm

060going to tell you how we got to a decision. And if you don't agree, then we might not agree, but we're going to tell you how we got to it. I I would hope I think you'd be surprised that we may agree more than you think. But yeah, I mean, we're not I'm not not going to make a decision. I mean, it may be yes, it may be no, but if it's yes and and you think it should be no, then we I'm not saying I never promised total agreement. I just promised show you the process but >> when you guys work sessions people are taking time out of their day just like >> yeah I know I'm here as well but then it's not given ample time to digest it >> we didn't plan

061the November 1st thing to happen on November 1st right after this all this stuff happened if we if all this would have happened six months ago then we wouldn't be at the number of first thing but I can't what I can't do is we can go as fast as we can go. >> Also, I want to reiterate that this isn't this isn't approval of these projects happening. This is approval of a plan looking forward and as those things come up, then the board will approve the projects or not approve the projects as they come up. So, this could be something that we're looking at in 26. And when we go to approve, let's say, motion sensor lights, which I don't know that that would necessarily need approval because of the small value, but let me

062scroll down. Um, the air handler replacement up there at the top for $30,000. That would come to the board for approval at the time that we were ready to do that work. Not I mean yes we can talk about a plan looking forward and and I don't think any of us have any issue sharing something like this in some capacity but but this isn't the final approval like this this this and this are going to happen in like for sure in the next year. >> Okay. I got a question but go ahead Shane. budget because we do this on townships, towns, county, you won't have that money there. This is a wish that you all wish >> I haven't >> Lisa that meeting we had on Thursdays. That's that's what this is. We're trying to

063address that. But that's what the problem is. It's not your items. We understand that wish we need it. Yes. But it's not there. I mean, but this doesn't they're going to do it. That's the whole thing we realize. This is just a wish list for the next three years. >> Thank >> And there may be other things that come up. >> Yeah, there may be things that aren't on there that we didn't anticipate. Uh question then, this is me being naive. What Okay, you're right. We we would we would vote for those individual items. I get that. But what So then if we move this forward, what am I voting on on November by November 1st? Then what? So we understand what do we if I'm voting on Sure. Sure, I'm fine with this wish

064list, but it means nothing. Then I'll go ahead and say I would love to have lights on I've been saying lights on baseball field for I'd love that. It'd be cool. >> The uh yeah, the resolution is just adopting the each plan. So you've got a bus replacement plan that has the five years of of bus replacement uh schedule. And so your resolution would say yes, this is what we plan to do. However, um if when I talked to the G DGF rep, I said, "What if we can't afford four buses or eight buses or whatever or what if we don't need that because we we've lost ridership?" And the DGF said, "Well, the best laid plans, you know, they don't don't always go to go don't always go to plan and so or stay,

065you know, stay true." And so, you can plan and adopt to to buy six buses. And if we have four buses that are cra are are really really bad and the other two are okay, then the transportation director might say, you know what, we only need four. Let's not waste our money and keep these other two. And so I think you'd have a hard time going to seven if you approve six. But you can do anything less than six on the capital projects. uh you're the capital projects in the form that it's in is the way uh and I'm not saying this is right believe me but um WAC's done that since prior to me doing the budget and so I just kind of kept the same format and so if u if you're approving

066that on a resolution you're approving the that particular plan where it says high school whatever $50,000 or $100,000 whatever it is this is just the backup like Dr. Troyer said the internal document that says whatever that number is, here's how we're going to spend it with these with these priorities and these uh individual items. But yeah, so kind of a wish list. And again, if salaries and benefits were too high and we can't afford half of this wish list, then that's okay, too. But the the the the document is kind of what's backing up the plan. >> So, I guess to use Shane's word, we're approving this. Well, I it's kind of a wish list, but some of it's got to happen as well. >> Yeah, it probably does. >> It's preventive maintenance stuff that

067if ignored is bad. Um, if we say we just go right forward and we approve the resolution for the plan, we still have to approve each the expenditures within that plan. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Well, I'm not saying we're not going to get it out there for you guys to see the detail behind it, but maybe that gives you some comfort that it's not a we just didn't vote to spend the money. We voted to approve a plan. Is that properly stated? >> All right, we got to keep moving. >> Okay. F is uh the appropriations transfer resolution. So, the >> the DGF uh asked for this resolution as well. Uh this resolution is uh something that and state board of accounts I believe looks at this as well during audits but uh this is

068something that where if one line is overspent like say we've got a an elementary line that's overspent for elementary teacher salaries but the uh middle school salary line is underspent. This just allows for uh the transfer between those two within that same fund. So, um, so what that would look like is the education fund, uh, has spent, you know, $19 million at the end of the year. We're going to transfer appropriation only, the authority to spend only from high school or middle school line to elementary line, but the the bottom line is that the uh the the education fund is still spent that same 19 million just transferring within the appropriation. >> Okay. The next one is the education operations fund transfer. Uh, as you know, we're allowed to spend uh 15 up to 15%

069out of the education fund into the operations fund via transfer. Uh, in the past, we've we've done two uh 750,000. Uh, we started doing $250,000 this year from ED to ops. And um the even the 750 was obviously nowhere close to the 15%. So now we're quite a bit under that. The last uh um the uh last year we did 750. This year, like I said, we backed it off to 250 because some some of the uh worries about the education fund. And so, this resolution just allows us to do an a transfer or monthly transfers to equal $250,000 um in the uh from the education to the operations fund. >> Okay. And then finally, the appropriation reduction resolution. Uh remember I was talking about how um during the 1782 uh response period, the DGF

070will ask you to either reduce uh either cut your 26 budget, cut your 25 budget, or uh you can modify cash balance as what I mentioned with the uh with the uh debt service fund. And so in this uh appropriation resol reduction resolution, it allows for the appropriation reduction of 25. So, like again, if we if we see that we're only going to spend in my previous example, $4 million when they said we were going to spend six, we would reduce that appropriation by $2 million to spend four and then keep the other two on our books. If that's for 25 appropriation, for 26 appropriation, if they say, "Hey, you can't fund your budget. You know, we know you advertised high. You advertised too high. You need to cut something." We could also cut 26

071appropriation. Meaning, if we knew if we advertised debt service at say 15 million, but we knew it was going to be 13 million, we could cut that $2 million from the 26 appropriation. And then finally, we can we can, like I mentioned before, lower the cash balance, which in effect lowers the levy, which means that you're not taking as much from the taxpayer to make sure that we're not overt taxing people. Can you explain the education operations? What that is? >> Yeah. So, uh, do you mind if I face this? So the education operations fund is um back in 20 prior to 2018 the uh the state had a general fund and a capital projects fund a bus replacement fund and a um transportation fund. So, anything that was you probably heard people talk about

072silos um siloed money educa or general fund did I say general fund general fund can't move to operations fund operations fund can't move to the general fund to pay teachers um transportation fund can't move to the operations fund all that stuff so in 2019 um I want to say it was like hous 108 um in 2019 they started um with with two different funds so they they made the general fund, the education fund. They combined the uh capital projects, bus replacement, and transportation into one operations fund and said basically you can you can spend what you need to out of the operations fund. And that's what uh you've got a little more control. Like again, bus replacement, bus replacement had to be tax neutral back then, tax rate neutral back then. And so you would

073um you would you would ask for say four or five buses and then drop that rate if that was going to cost 5 cents on your tax rate. You would drop that 5 cents um or you could drop that 5 cents from uh from bus replacement, put it in what was called pension debt. There's a bunch of confusing stuff. All right? So I won't get into that. I'm not trying to confuse you. So anyway, bus replacement um goes into the operations fund. Transportation goes into the operations fund. and then capital projects in the operations fund. So then um a good example is a is a custodial custodial salary or wages. Custodial wages were in u in the the general fund before 2019. So whatever that custodian made, say $40,000 all came out of the general

074fund. When that switched the general fund became the education fund, the state said a custodial salary or wages is not part of the education fund. that's not an educational expense. The only thing we want in there are things that directly impact uh impact uh student learning. So the common stuff, teacher salaries, principles, that kind of thing. So the the expense had to move from what used to be the general fund, now the education fund into what is now the operations fund. And so when the legislature did that, they realized that the expense moved, but the revenue didn't move because the state was still funding the general fund or was funding the general fund. And now they're funding the education fund. And so when they're funding that education fund just through that tuition support that we

075talk about that's going into the ed fund, but they realized that among others, the custodial salary moved to the operations fund. And so when that happened, they said, "Okay, well, how are we going to how are we going to make it sure that schools can pay the custodial salary out of the fund we want them to pay it from without without, you know, without the revenue going into that fund." So they allowed this 15%. I don't know how they got to 15%. I don't know how they settled on 15%. But they allowed this 15% to be taken from ED fund revenue into the operations fund for revenue. And that's the kind of the genesis or the history of that transfer. Um, some schools are 15% every single year no matter what, no questions asked. Uh,

076some schools I've heard are 0%. Like they just they can live on their ed fund and live on their hops fund and they don't do anything. And so obviously most schools are in between there. But and WAC included and WA is one of the lower ones at the 250. Even at the 750 was pretty low. But that's kind of the genesis of the history of how that that became that transfer even became a thing because prior to that no no chance you were transferring anywhere except for any day you could transfer anything. >> Soon are you taking an x amount of dollars? Yeah, that's good. >> Yeah, good question. So, we look we we kind of watch cash balance and make sure that uh we can pay, you know, pay our bills out of both

077funds. So, that's how we arrive at that number. Uh the 750 honestly has been um again was in place prior to when I started doing your budget. So the 750 was there. Uh we kind of kept watching watching uh operations fund, kept watching education fund and as long as the balances were in that same ballpark, you know, maybe up 10 20,000, maybe down 10 to 20,000, we didn't mess with that. We didn't mess with that that uh transfer. The reason we messed with it this year is because we saw the education fund was going to was going to decrease quite a bit based on our current expenses. So, we lowered that to put to keep an extra $500,000 in the education fund, knowing that the operations fund likely couldn't sustain that hit forever, but it

078was in better shape than what the education fund was based on a percentage um the cash balance as a percentage of the budget. So, for instance, if the budget is um uh we had at the beginning of this year, the Wallace had a five I think 5.1 maybe 5.125 million uh cash balance in the operations fund and uh three something in the education fund. And so as a percentage that $5 million is a bigger percentage of the budget in operations than the education fund uh cash balance was of a as a percentage of the budget in education. And so um so to your to your point uh we do have spreadsheets that show salaries of every custodian, every employee, every teacher, every every everything. But in this particular case, we backed off of that basically

079to to buy some time for the education fund and the operations fund was in uh better shape from a cash balance standpoint. Anyway, >> every year 750 out of 750 is not looking to cover the short. >> Yeah. >> I think I know what you're saying. So we look at uh we look at cash balance um specifically and so when uh like in the case of the of the education or the operations fund if it was um you know if it stays around that if it's around $5 million in 2022 23 24 and now 25 then or 24 I would say that you know our our transfer of 750 is appropriate because we're keeping our outgoing expenses similar to if not you a little little above a little below our revenue coming in including the

080750 this year because we didn't transfer half a million dollars that we had in the past. I would suspect and we'll see in three months but I would I've got kind of planned that the revenue or the cash balance in the operations fund would drop quite a bit because we didn't transfer that extra 500. But again, the only reason I refer back to the percentage is just because um that's kind of a benchmark you use to kind of look at the health of the fund. If you've got um if you have 40 50% cash balance on a on a budget of any particular fund, that would suggest that that's pretty healthy and can afford to lose half a million dollars or $400,000 or whatever that number is once or twice, not forever, but to buy

081some time to make corrections in the ED fund. And so, um I hope I I hope that answered your question. I don't know that it did really, but >> not really. I'm looking for more specific. Here's a specific one. >> 750,000 over >> Let me let me help a little bit. >> Yeah. >> When he got here, let's say there was $500,000 in a fund. All he's saying is you move the 750 for four straight years. that fund balance, the cash balance hasn't grown, which means if it was growing 750 every year basically, let's be let's just back up. Both funds are I mean, we should be getting a lot more per student from the state regardless. That fixes a lot. But we shouldn't did we just did what we've been doing for years. I

082don't know how many years they've been doing that, but I do know that the balance hasn't grown. Now, if it was growing 750 every year, which it's not. It's staying flat. Then that would be then then what you're inferring would be happening, but it's not. So now what we're going to watch is that cash balance is going to drop, which means it wasn't just being stacked up and growing. It had been popping 750, 750, 750. It wasn't. It was staying flat. So now we're probably going to drop 500, which is fine. But there's there's a there's going to be a question at some point. But um we are looking at it much more intently now. That's why it's not 750 and that's why it's 250. That's why it changed 500 grand because we're going we

083got to we got to shift this. We can afford it for a bit but both funds are running to a bad spot in every school. It's just the case. And you know a lot of other expenses besides just salaries come out of operations wildly. escalating utility bills come out of there. I mean, it sounds silly, but it's outpacing the rate at which the state is funding. So, almost every single input we have, just like your business, the state isn't keeping pace with how fast the inputs costs are going. So it we are going to come to a weird we're not there today >> because we have a balance that is that has stayed healthy and we can transfer some of it but I'm terrified it's going to be really really weird and it's going to

084it's going to there's a squeeze on funding going to public education that nobody's fault it's just it's coming from this from Indie man and it's it's going to be some tough stuff but we are trying to look at it more instead of just going. We do 750. We've done 750 for 10 years. We We switched this year. So, I hope that gives you some >> I might follow up with one thing, too. I've been uh I've been kind of, for lack of a better word, directed to uh you know, make sure that fund lives within its means. So, I I think maybe what what I heard was like if we're $100,000 short, can we just take some and put it over there in December? And what I've been what I've been told to do uh

085is not is not that. What I've been told is it's going to be 250. Make that work. It can't be 350. You can't get to December and be like, "Oh, shoot. I need $100,000. Let's transfer that real quick." It's going to be 250 and that's going to be it. Live within live within your means for that particular fund. >> Right. >> I would also add too that for the first two to three years, and Brandon this is just going off memory. I don't have the data in front of me, but we grew cash balance in the education fund. whereas that same cash balance wasn't necessarily growing in the operations fund. So, while we were bringing in more revenue, growing a little bit more cash, it wasn't a wild amount of cash, but we've talked about

086in previous years that our cash balance increased from December 31 as compared to January 1st of that same year. This was the first year that we saw a dip in cash balance in the education fund. So we had to make adjustments on the fly in terms of what we were doing regarding a transfer. The one thing that's a particular hot topic right now is what's looming on the horizon with the Senate enrolled act one changes and the possibility that that we're going to have big reductions north of six $700,000 in operations in the next calendar year. And so, yes, we do have a healthy cash balance on on the operation side, but how quickly does that cash balance get chewed up if we're going to lose 700,000 in a year and our expenses aren't going

087down to your point, Mr. KE, um, you know, utilities, property and casualty insurance, like this stuff is not growing at 4% like the MLGQ is growing at. The, you know, insurance may be growing at 10 or 15 or 20%. We're having to to account for that. We're having to account for lost revenue while also looking at the transfer. We realize if we could keep every dollar in education fund that and not have to transfer anything, that would be great. But there's other stuff that exists on the operation side of the ledger. That's not to say that it's going to be that way forever. But I think it's important to be reactive in the moment, but also looking down the road at what's coming before we make a determination on transfers. Y >> uh it takes

088the majority only only by a a function of um of the way operations is allowed to grow and and was capped back like 50 years ago when they capped the when they capped where they were. Um but it does take the majority of the debt service and like I said earlier the the rate in operations goes lower but the overall rate stays the same at that 5399. No way. >> No. Because the uh MLGQ the the maximum levy growth quotient which is a formula that used to um I'll say this in tongue and cheek. The formula used to matter. It doesn't so much anymore because they just set this legislature just sets it at 4%. And so if the debt service wasn't the debt service, it's not like, you know, that say three million of

089that comes over to the operations fund. It just means that $3 million doesn't go into debt service. So it's the operations fund is going to be what it's going to be as far as property taxes go because it's allowed to grow 4%. So if we if we u just in round numbers if it's not but if it was a million dollar levy last year the most it's going to be this year is a million40,000 and we could put down a million 2 million or 8 million the most it's going to be is 1 million40,000 because that's a 4% increase >> correct yeah also I don't there there's a significant difference, but the I don't I wouldn't describe the difference as massive. Our total debt rate or excuse me, our total tax rate is 5399. Our

090total debt rate is 3360 and our operations rate is 2039. So those two 3360 and 2039 add up to our total rate of 5399. There definitely is a difference. I'm not I'm not saying there isn't. Yeah, >> the state. It would be great if we could take that property tax and use it how we wanted because then we wouldn't be having this conversation about transferring anything probably. But they go 4% that's it. So I I don't understand the logic that the state employed there. But >> yeah, I don't either. I might go a step further though on the on the operations and debt service. Uh because operations is capped and because things are getting more expensive and that kind of stuff, many schools are using these small geo bonds or general obligation bonds to cover

091deferred maintenance which used which used to live in the operations fund like you you know maybe uh a parking lot that's $100,000. You might be able to do that operations because operations funds only allow to grow at 4%. And some of the stuff that has to pay that it has to pay for is outpacing that 4%. Property casualty insurance, utilities, construction costs, that kind of stuff. A lot of schools are kind of bare bones in the operations fund and then using their debt service fund to issue small geo bonds to pay for those bigger ticket items like asphalt roofs um you know masons if you're you know if your break on your school is bad or just those bigger ticket items that maybe can't be that aren't be able to be afforded in the operations

092fund anymore. Is that what >> uh the go? >> Yeah. >> So that is um so that it sorry I'm all right. So that the five or six million that goes into debt service if it if it's in there as cash you might see that uh you might see that for a day or two in like June and December but shortly after that the the debt payment is p is made and the cash balance returns to a nor a quote unquote normal amount and so on the debt service side of thing I'm glad you asked that this important question or important thing on the debt service side of things um it's a need driven fund meaning that the board has total control whether they believe they need debt or not. Right? And so if you

093uh need if you need to issue debt and it's a uh small amount leg relatively small, not small to you and me, but small to a government agency, uh you issue that general obligation bond and um and that goes through just like we're doing moving along. We've got projects to pay for. No big deal. However, there's all kinds of of protections in place for the taxpayer, right? So, if the board says we need uh four geo bonds for four separate projects, and we're going to do all that this year, okay, the um there's a lot of different a lot of different mechanisms to protect the taxpayer. First off, tax caps. And so, as a as a homeowner, you're subject to a 1% tax cap. uh Senate enrolled act one is going to drastically reduce the

094uh certified net assessed value of your home and so you'll get a homestead credit at uh in by 2031 they'll phase out the homestead credit as it as it is and u phase in what's called the supplemental homestead credit. The homestead credit currently is a flat dollar figure. The supplemental that they're going to phase in over the next six years is a percentage. And so by the time we get to 2031, your house will be your homestead will be taxed at 33% of the AV. So $100,000 house getting taxed on $33,000, right? So that's a pretty large pretty large break, pretty large protection. So that goes for for operations, taxpayers in general, etc., etc. On the debt service side of things, we're allowed to levy. Schools are allowed to levy for uh 50% of the

095ensuing years, uh meaning 2027 in this case. So, we're going to levy for 2026 payment. And then we're allowed to levy for 50% of 2027's payment. If that debt was issued prior to uh June 30 of 2016, if that debt was issued after June 30 of 2016, we're allowed to issue we're allowed to levy for 15% of the 2027 levy in that service fund. And so that's another protection for the taxpayer because if we're allowed to levy for 50, knowing full well we don't need 50 because we're going to make the payment no matter what. Uh the county's not been late with taxes, etc., etc., then there's no reason to levy for 50, right? And so the taxpayers protected by that 15% levy as well. And so, you know, in round numbers, if if we

096were going to levy for uh if we had a million dollar payment in 2027, if it was a old old debt, quote unquote old debt, that'd be a $500,000 levy in addition to what we're levying for 26. If it's new debt, we're levying for $150,000 in addition to what we're levying for 2026. And so that's that in this case that $350,000 would be a a savings or a a non-colction to the taxpayer. And so it kind of goes back to the theory that schools aren't banks. We don't need to make profit. We don't need to tax just um and so that so we're capped at the levy on the operation side at 4%. But we're capped on the levy of need and 15% if it's new debt in the debt service fund. Yeah. So, those

097aren't those are typically not homesteads or a lot of times they're not homesteads. So, uh, those are, um, those are going to be taxed, uh, or I'm sorry, those are still going to be, um, benefited by Senate Enrolled Act One. And I believe they go down over that same course of time where your homestead goes down to 33%. I believe the those properties go down to 67%. >> Yeah. All the cap you're still subject to a uh, that's a two or 3% cap in the Constitution, too. That's a 2% cap. Awesome. decreasing what they got to >> she said she's asking since we've already exceeded the caps >> on the cap >> anyway we even because of our we notice this >> I I don't know >> yeah I think I see what you're saying

098we we'll notice the AV dropping or we should notice the AV dropping here because those those are those are currently those those those types of homes don't currently get this any any real benefit as far as taxes go and so if that's a second home if you've got a mortgage on it a few years ago you got a m mortgage exemption but um they rolled that into the homestead credit now so it's really not even that and since it's not a homestead it doesn't get that credit so now we're going to see those those t those homes that were taxed basically 100% dropped to 67%. >> Well, that one 4% growth on the on the operations levy, 4% growth on the operations levy, but like a $7 million house would be capped at 2% of

099their taxes. So, is that 140,000? So, does that mean we get less than that% from now? >> We will likely get less than 140,000, but they'll still be capped at 2%. >> We may not we they may not have been at the 2% in the first place. There doesn't lose a ton of money to to tax caps. There is a little bit of loss, but not a ton, which tells me that most of the people in the district, first, second, third homes or businesses are not hitting their tax cap. So even though there's a 2% cap, if we're not hitting it, like in your example, $140,000 bill or cap, if they were only paying 100,000 anyway, they never hit the cap. And now they might only pay, I don't know, 80,000. So we'd lose that

10020,000. Those are all theoretical. I'm not saying that's exact, but the concept would be that >> the state hasn't even I mean, we've got accountants and stuff that aren't even sure how this thing's going to be rolled out. So, I mean, I'm not we're kind of eager to see as well. We're speculating worst case. Hopefully, we're wrong, but we're assuming it's we are assuming some worst case scenarios. I'm not cutting you short. You got >> one question. >> Yeah. I want to make sure I heard Mr. Obt. >> Well, go ahead, Rob. >> Go ahead. >> No, I'm not prepared. I got several topics on that, but this is But that's that's half accurate. I'll >> affect our operations. >> How? >> Because when we reduce our debt, we're going to when you reduce debt,

101you have less interest. >> Great. So, we're still capped at the 4% growth. I mean, we can't if we're at that cap. Explain to me that. >> That's correct. We're not all You're 100% right. That's why I said you're half right. We're not going to cut all that debt one year. >> That's going to be a repetitive thing that we need to achieve. >> Okay. So, the cutting the debt, how does that increase my operations spend? >> I used Grock and it didn't give me accurate information either. So, careful >> because it fulfills an argument that you ask. You got to let it know if you're doing research or not. 5399. >> Okay. >> It's it's actually the other way around. We first address the operations side. So operations can grow by 4%. Whatever levy

102is generated from that 4% increase, then that piece of the tax rate goes to cover operations. And then we look at the debt to build a payment structure that allows us to manage to a tax rate. In this case, 5399. That's how it's historically been. If you lower your debt, to Rob's point, you're not going to put any more money into the operations fund because that cannot grow any more than 4%. So even if you wanted to take all that money generated and put it into your operations, if you're already at at 4% growth, you cannot increase that anymore. What would happen is that the tax rate would come down. That's what would happen if you lower the debt and the and the operations is capped out at 4% growth. Then the tax rate would

103come down. >> It would it would come down. Yes. >> What's that? >> The rate is coming down, but you can't put any more of that money in operations. >> So are we operations? because for so long >> state law is 4% nothing to do with anything else >> I get that operation size 12 million years >> I don't know how many maybe 15 years ago we could have been on this I mean well >> I know right now we can grow at 4% %. I mean, right from right now. The other thing is, is there any truth to this? If we give that up, if we let that debt drop and our tax rate drop, operations not being touched because it's at 4%. Do the other municipalities get to pick that up? >> Uh,

104I you hear that a lot and it's possible. I'm not saying that it absolutely will happen, but it is possible, especially in I think it'd be less likely here because of the because there's not a whole lot of cap loss. If there was more cap loss and say the school gave up three cents, okay, and maybe the town picked up three cents, it would be tough to get that back because because of that switch and the cap loss, but because the cap loss is um minimal, I I wouldn't see that as a huge issue here. >> So then if we gave it up, the taxpayer would see it. You think >> if we >> depending on the other entities? Because that you're right, that is a good point. We could if a total tax rate

105if if we're at 5399 and the total tax rate is a dollar. We could give up 3 cents that city picks up three cents. The tax rate is still a dollar in the and the >> I guess I'm only saying that because part of the thing is we've if that would happen the water department isn't going to give it back in three years. So, I will admit that I've been stern on the tax rate saying the same because I don't believe whoever picks it up is going to go, "Sure, man. You can have it back." So, we keep it. So, it is a certain amount of user lose it. We can assume that they're going to magically be really nice and give it back or it makes it all the way to the taxpayer and

106we go, "Hey, the tax rate dropped for five years. Can we have it back and do a tax and bump it back up to what it used to be?" These are big big assumptions that defy human nature or at least admitting how people actually think. So these are some of the discussions that we come to saying, "Sure, we let it fall off and then when we need it, how do we get it back?" And I would love somebody to tell me that my thinking is wrong that they would just go, "Sure, man. We'll go ahead and cut our budget and give it back to you." I just don't see it. >> We do bond resolutions. >> You got to keep moving. These are all great things and these may be some additional meetings, but you

107guys Keep going. >> Yeah, I'll I'll be here on Wednesday if you want to talk. Wednesday morning if you want talk same but um Okay, so on the project or on the bond resolutions uh on on uh Tuesday, there's uh we advertised a project hearing and an additional appropriation hearing. I'm going to read notes to you and I'll kind of uh explain some of the stuff as it gets more technical. But uh before a school corporation finances more than a million dollars to build, repair, alter a school building, it must hold a public hearing at which explanations of the potential value of the project to the community to the school comm corporation and community are given. Uh the hearing obviously is open to public comments and then the additional appropriation hearing. School corporation is funding

108this project through the issuance of general obligation bonds. The proceeds of this from this bond issue must be appropriated prior to being spent on the project. Uh both of these were notified or advertised in the local papers. Uh so taking out the technicalities there. Project hearing is basically just where we're going to hear uh what the project looks like. We kind of heard that in the preliminary type of stuff as we were leading up to it. But uh this particular one will be mostly deferred maintenance, but um the uh but the project hearing will address that. And then the additional appropriation hearing is just simply the uh appropriation process. uh we can have this money sitting in the bank after we um after we get bond proceeds, sell the bond and get get the proceeds,

109but without the additional appropriation, we don't have the authority to spend it or permission to spend it. So appropriation or additional appropriation in this case is just asking for permission to spend the money that's going to come into the bank account later in the later in the calendar year. The uh after that we'll ask you uh the the school will ask you to um uh pass three or consider three resolutions. The project res resolution which is the after the public hearing is closed the board has presented a 1028 or a project resolution uh for consideration. some boards um I've seen the some you definitely have seen these many times and so um the resolution establishes like I said earlier the uh estimated cost of the project the tax impact and the timing of the project

110and so from an estimated cost you'll see the dollar figure the tax impact you'll see a uh a net uh a net net zero on the tax impact on the on the uh rate and the timing of the impact which is um which is for 2026 the additional appropriation resolution. So after the hearing, uh the board uh the school asked the board to approve the appropriation of the bond proceeds to be spent on the project costs before any bond money can be expended. Unlike appropriation of tax dollars, this appropriation of bond proceeds is not required to be approved by DGF, but we do file it with the DGF. And so uh or let them know at least that that's what we're doing. And then finally, the final bond resolution. And so the final bond resolution

111establishes the amount to be borrowed, the maximum term of repayment and the maximum uh interest rate. It also contains details about the bond such as the form of the bond. Uh this resolution also approves the forms of the 14th supplement to the master continuing disclosure undertaking and register and paying agent agreement. The SEC requires that a school corporation enter into a master continuing disclosure undertaking before it issues bonds. The school corporation has entered into this type of agreement previously. basically requires a school to um agree to annually provide certain types of information to the SEC's EMA database and provide notice of certain material events on a timely basis. So let me back up the master continue this 14th supplement of the master continuing disclosure undertaking and registar and paying agent agreement. So so there's a

112the master continuing disclosure undertaking is simply what I said in that last sentence. There are certain things that the school corporation has to report yes or no. So like for instance um has the school corporation ever defaulted on loan? Answer is no but you still have to report that the answer is no. So every six months we have to fill out it's probably 22 questions that schools have to fill out 25 questions that basically just make sure that um that the school that these bonds are still in good shape bond the bond holders can be confident they're still going to get their investment back. Uh some of the other stuff would be like um any uh any change in in u uh paying agent. So like on certain bond issues they use um a paying

113agent as a bank. Here it's regions bank but we just use it on first mortgage bonds. Uh with with uh geo bonds or general obligation bonds it's more of a pass through regions and it comes here. But anyway if we would ever switch to say Huntington Bank or US bank we would answer that question. Yes, we're switching pay registars and paying agents. We're not. So, we're going to answer no. So, again, whether it's a yes or a no, we still we still have to report that every six months. Um, and then, uh, got a script here, and I'll just read certain, uh, certain parts of it. The project resolution, uh, required when a school corporation plan to spend a million dollars, like I said, on given facility or type of work. Contains estimated hard, soft,

114and construction co hard and soft construction costs, cost of issuance, and establishes the total project cost. It also contains estimated tax impact. The uh additional appropriation resolution again provides approval for the corporation to spend the dollars that we that they receive. And then the final bond resolution like I said contains the project cost, maximum interest rate, other financial terms such as the first entrance payment date, maturity dates of the bonds all with respect to the issuance of the general obligation bonds and it also approves like I said the registar and paying agent for those bonds. So uh again happy to answer any questions. I know a lot of that's technical. I'll try to break it down a little bit into more of an everyday type of thing. So, um, but again, be glad to answer

115any questions. >> Okay. So, I would assume somebody's got this question out there. On Tuesday, are you asking us to vote for a bond >> on Tuesday? Yeah. You'll you'll uh do the hearings and then you'll do the uh resolutions. I'm positive that this meeting happening and these folks not seeing what the bond is meant to pay for in detail is problematic. Same and if it's the same thing as that list, you get where I'm going with this? >> I do. So, we help this. >> I do. And that so the way the system is set up and again I'm not saying this is right but the way the legal system set up is that at that at that hearing is when the is when you go over all that stuff. And so in the

116interest of transparency I 100% agree we should we can do that at this meeting in the future. Um the uh the um at the hearing though we'll see or you'll see the uh cost of the project what the project's paying for. Yeah, go ahead. >> As we've been sitting here, uh, I got a text from Mr. Wireball that said he has put this information up on our operations website. So, the current project list broken down by school along with the priority is all listed here. >> That's cool. We we keep our bonds general enough that we can do almost any of this stuff in any given order based upon the available funds that we have for that particular bond. So let's say tomorrow that the Wise Middle School chiller goes down. Um well that may

117not be something we replace immediately but it it probably would be given lead times. Um we'll look at the different bond funds that we have available. we'll figure out, okay, where can we source that from? All right, it fits in this bond. There's enough revenue in there to cover the expenses. And so, boom, that gets taken care of by this bond. So, typically, when we sell a geo bond, like we're getting ready to to ask for your authorization to do, we leave that very general so that we can address any number of these things as they come up in terms of order of importance. If we have something come up as an emergency priority that may supplant some of these things or if we don't and we've just got funds available then we start working

118through our list and trying to determine you know between oursel internally and with you as the board what the priorities are to get taken care of. But this list of things uh Wade has put up here as we've been sitting here and these are um some of the items that would go to uh Mrs. Kroll's desire to see what is it that you would be spending some of those things on. >> Do we have and I I really don't expect this to be a yes on everything, but what would it take to get on the stuff especially that's priority dollars on there just so we can get a sense of >> Yeah. and we have the estimated dollars for a lot of those on our project uh spreadsheet. That's just not necessarily something that we

119put out there. So, new generator at the middle school, we estimate approximately $600,000. That's not on the public facing page. It it potentially could be if that's something you want included on there. Wade would just have to go at it. But those are the projects that we're taking a look at. >> And you had mentioned this. I'm just trying to get clarity around this stuff for everybody. Me, me, too. I mean, what that geo bomb we're talking about is to cover this stuff, right? >> The large likely the larger things on there like the $600,000. >> I'm simply saying some well, right, some of that stuff, maybe not that one, but some of that those items passed prior would have been out of operations fund. I mean, >> this is a super expensive way where

120they're making you pay interest to cover operational costs potentially. Um, >> and some of those items will continue to be covered out of operations. Like if there's a $5,000 item on there, that may come out of one of our operation lines as a maybe a general maintenance item. Okay. >> It also may be something that we purposefully choose to take out of bond revenue so that we can save that $5,000, even though that's a small amount, for other things in operations that we can't use bonds for, like insurance increases or something like that. So to be quite honest, we try and and spend as much of our maintenance and um capital equipment purchases out of bond revenue. So that leaves and frees up our operation dollars for salary benefits and fixed cost, not fixed costs,

121but like those kind of um costs, utilities, etc. that we can't pay for out of bond revenue. That's how we balance, you know, our operations fund not being able to increase more than 4% because we can slide some of that stuff and pay for it out of bonds. Now, that's not the most economical economical way to do that, but we don't have the mechanism from the state that allows for us to just levy for a generator, for example. We have to sell debt in order to buy a generator. So, it ends up that ends up being a cost to the taxpayer because we're paying interest on that debt. If we had a direct way to levy for that, that would that would be a lot better and more efficient way to go about it, but

122we can't do that at this time. >> What what is the what's the dollar value of the bond we're going to be talking about? Do you know that? >> Uh 6.1 million and change, I believe. >> Okay. >> I think that was the maximum parameter. Um >> what's it going to be when it's all done, you think? Uh, >> I'm not going to hold you to it, but >> based on kind of what the what the the bigger ticket items, we were thinking between five and six, but I think the maximum brand was that was 6.1. >> Okay. Are you at the end of your part? >> Yep. >> Is there any questions on this? Could we maybe now that he's posted that check out that list? See what you think of it. Um, understand

123that 6 million I I'll be honest with you. I when I I've that list has been lingering out there for a long time. Um, well, it amazes me it never ever goes away. There's just always new stuff that's on it. Um, look at it, see what you think. Um, as much as six million is a lot. It It doesn't go as far as you think for five different buildings and all the maintenance and stuff. So, I'll just be honest with you guys. I'm I'm comfortable with that bond for that purpose for for it. It's basically an operations fund to uh well, we saw what the pool costs when we didn't properly preventative maintenance it. And that's a more expensive endeavor than rebuilding it from scratch versus fixing it and never letting it get bad. So,

124that's my thinking on it. If we get a lot of push back uh after you guys look at that list, then we'll just have to make a decision. And what what do you guys >> Didn't some of that list come from the community engagement that we did? some of that did um a a lot of the community engagement stuff and there were people out here that were a part of that process. A lot of that was kind of big big ticket items, but there are definitely items that are on that list that were further down the tiers that we could add in. I think Go ahead. >> I was going to say I remember seeing something like the softball fields, the baseball fields and that stuff was on there was a community saw a need

125and that we needed to do that. >> Yeah. And and I'll be honest, and you guys, I'm sure, get it the same way that every time I go into the community, there's a laundry list of things that we need to address. You know, have you guys looked at this? Are you doing that? We need to address this. And a lot of it's facility related. A lot of it is, you know, aesthetics and how stuff looks. And we can't afford that stuff out of operations. So, it has to go into a geobond for the most part in order to address those needs. and Brent Dodie is here um to talk about the different things athletically that we've addressed over the last couple of years in that fashion and some things also that are on the list

126uh to that are upcoming. But we can't we can't get everything at once. So, we've got to sell these smaller geo bonds in chunks, you know, work through as much as we can get done on that project and then wait for the next one and then we address those things. So, I don't want to I don't want to diminish Lisa's um point. I think it's a great point about the specific stuff that is included, for example, on that capital projects plan. I think it's written the intention of it again not to not be transparent but it's written loosely enough that we can address you know if we designate $400,000 to district maintenance then there's a whole list of things that we could spend that $400,000 on that it's just a matter of what's most important

127the priority what what's screaming at the time what's an emergency at the time that kind of thing so I don't know Lisa that it's in an attempt to to be um um deceitful. It's just let's put it out there to give us as much flexibility as possible as we're doing that. >> I agree. Have you seen this? This is what we see. It doesn't have anything about athletics. It has numbers that are really specific. Dr. Penn explained how he got these numbers, but do you understand that looking at this I have no idea what you're >> That's. >> Yeah, exactly. I just want to make sure you've seen >> you brought I saw that. >> I'm trying to fix that. >> Exactly. But it's like a mix of this which still works. It just needs

128a little throw the baby out. You got a good document. You just need to make it more specific. >> Yeah. And really quick, I think that that's a great point. Um the other day on Thursday when we met, you know, people say, "How did you get to $88,342.75 for capital projects for North Webster Elementary?" When he took over, those dollar figures were round numbers. And then you get to realize that 4% increase. So that 4% increase like you just take those numbers and add the 4% and now all of a sudden you got a wacky looking number. But it started as a round number. And to me that makes sense. Um we we we just want to provide additional clarity uh for our patrons to see what it is that we're thinking and looking forward

129to as we plan. >> Lisa, you're right. I mean, that document says we put it out there. We did the bare minimum. Fair. We're going to do a better job with that. But we can't stop the process. And I'm not going to not have a school that has something broke and we didn't do what we needed to do because I'm afraid to make you guys mad. I mean, we're going to be we're going to keep going forward as much as we we can. We're going to be reasonable. But you're right. That didn't tell you anything. I mean, it's it's a we we checked a box and put it out there and did the I don't I don't even know that's what we were doing. It's my fault, but we probably did the bare minimum there

130and we're going to get better at showing you guys what we're trying to spend the money on. So, we're right in the midst of this thing. I wish this was three months ago. It's not. The calendar's the calendar. We're living on it. Um, but look at that list now that it's I mean that's that's a start. It's better. Um, I don't think I don't really want you to post the spreadsheet you showed because it looks I want it to look fancier, but I don't care. I I'd email it to everybody in this room if you want to look at it. Um, and you >> the dollars, too. >> Oh, the the actual Excel sheet or the Google sheet. Yeah. >> Yeah. I mean, >> there's nothing to hide on there. I mean, there's some numbers

131that make your head fall off that we're getting quoted. >> Um, but >> I I would like to get it. We got to get that out soon so we can keep moving forward or else I'm going to I'm going to push all of us to >> to make things hard. >> If we have estimates even close, we can put those estimates up. There may be some things that we don't have estimates on >> and we're being >> but there are things for sure that we can give at least a general target. I mean, I think some of the prices of generators would be shocking to people >> for sure. >> It's insane. Um, so we're going to close the book on finance stuff just for this meeting. Sorry. I know there's we could do this

132for ever, but can we go? >> I'll add one more point. I I know a number of people that are out here are in our alliance program and we're planning on the meeting that's this Wednesday continuing the conversation on finance. So um some of them can report back to others and um that will continue to be a topic of conversation for the alliance program on Wednesday morning. >> Cool. All right, I'm moving on. Is that all right? Okay. Uh we are on learning report Dr. >> Wilson School Corporation was honored to be highlighted by the Indiana Department of Education in their statewide publication entitled assessment to action redesigning Indiana state assessments for instructional impact. This recognition is a powerful affirmation to the intentional shifts we have made uh and are rooted in teacher empowerment, meaningful

133data use, and instructional alignment. These shifts are having a measurable impact on student learning outcomes. Most notably, North Webster Elementary showed double-digit gains across four iLearn categories in both English, language arts, and math, while Milford Elementary achieved 25 point gain in fourth grade math proficiency. These academic gains are further reinforced by our district high three pass rate of 93.8% reflecting a growing consistency of literacy success across schools. We recognize that this is just one part of a broader journey. We acknowledge that lasting systemwide academic improvement takes time, consistency, and care, and we are committed to doing this work the right way, not the fast way. I've heard critics say that higher test scores mean we're simply teaching to the test. But as we reflect on our purpose, I offer this. I learn and I read

134scores are not our targets. They are lagging indicators of a deeper instructional health. This aligns with Goodart's law which reminds us that when a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure. Our true target is far more ambitious as stated in our vision. Our students are confident, well-rounded citizens who positively impact their communities. The growth we are seeing is not accidental or superficial. It is a reflection of better instruction, stronger systems, and teachers who are trusted to use data as a flashlight, not a hammer. Our staff continues to do exceptional work, and we look forward to continuing this work together with humility, urgency, and a belief in what is possible. You have any questions? >> That's awesome news. Good job. >> I was reading that report. Can you Yeah, I was reading

135that report and it stated that a Wasi Middle School teacher did a one in one and showed that was it was a 3.5% increase at a 10 15% proficiency all the way through. And so my my question, which I'm going to make the assumption that you've already thought this through all the way down, is you know who's that teacher, right? What did he and or she do to to to engage that? I mean, I have a I'm selfish because I have a seventh grader. So, when I see that at middle school, I'm like, way to go, Emiline. But I'm thinking all those students doing that, you know, it it begs the question where, you know, parody is not something that's bad and how does that reflect because I know every teacher is very different and

136how they teach all that, but something worked there. >> Yes. something was really positive. But you know, yeah. So what that's one of the uh powerful impacts that professional learning communities can have in in a district because it's really about teachers sharing uh what is working in their classroom. And so um in in this particular um situation there's a it was a math teacher um started doing data talks with their students and it really created this um sense of ownership uh on the part of the students to be able to u really u for them to to to really look at how their um their their practice as a student can um be be shown and and can be impacted by these assessments. And so um it's you know the PLC process is about sharing

137uh our teachers sharing what works with each other. Um we have uh we're in the middle of our our checkpoint one uh window right now. our eighth grade um English teachers have administered that test and already from what they've learned last year about the checkpoints and what worked from those checkpoints and reflecting on what practices they wanted to change. They've already they've already seen a uh I think it was a 6% increase six to 10% increase from from last year's scores. So, this is about teachers learning from other teachers. It's about uh again, it's about reflecting on what works, what doesn't work, continuing to build on what works, and if it doesn't work, figure out a different way of doing it. >> Yes. >> Yeah. Correct. >> Yes. And um through throughout the checkpoints what

138um what we've also found is that there were students who uh in previous years had never been successful in iLearn they are now maybe they were below and now they became approaching or they were approaching and now they are at or above proficiency. So as students can start seeing um incremental changes in their success as a student, it it empowers them and gives them efficacy to um to um become a a more successful student when it comes to um the state uh state tests. I have been told my my teacher friends that are currently at how what a wonderful job you're doing leading those teachers into doing PLC right not right and I want to thank you because my children go to this school and they deserve to have an amazing education and I believe

139Wall can do that and I think you're leading the teachers and the staff in that right direction so I would thank you for that. Um my question to you is is what was the um we had an ADM October one is the big day last week. What was the ADM last year? What is the ADM this year? And how many not kindergarten students but new students to the to that were in the corporation and have left the corporation? How many new students have returned to this corporation? To answer your ADM question, I don't have these numbers memorized, but I'll get you in the ballpark. 2565 approximately last year, 2532 minus potentially a couple conflicts still for this year at the fall. 253 something uh at the spring. So, uh from spring to fall, we didn't

140basically we didn't fall. I can't remember the exact numbers, but we were in the ballpark within a handful of kids. Um, yeah, that was that part. I don't What was the second part? >> How many students that had left the corporation for one reason or another have returned to our corporation? >> I don't know how many students have left and then returned. I don't know that that's even data that we have uh at the moment. Um, but I do know we had approximately 30 new students to the district that were not enrolled with us last year and were not kindergarteners. >> So what was the increase that last year this year? It was a decrease from fall 24 to fall 25 of approximately 30 something. >> No, I mean the amount >> say that again.

141>> What was our number 25? >> It was approximately 2560 something 65 last year and it's 2532 this year. >> Okay. in the fall count from fall last from fall 24 to spring 25 because we do a spring count we call it spring it's February 1st uh we do a spring count and uh from fall to spring it had dropped from 2565ish to 2535ish um and or 2530 something this year 32 and I I'm being not intentionally vague. There's still a couple conflicts that are hanging out that we have to resolve with other corporations. So, um, the number we speculate the ADM is going to be is 2532, but that may come up or down one or two kids potentially. >> I was just a little confused because I I was uh under the impression

142that our kindergarten class has grown quite a bit compared to our graduating class. So, there's quite a loss there. I was confused about that. Yeah, our kindergarten class did not grow compared to our graduating class, but it was a little bit bigger this year than it was a year ago in kindergarten. So, we're we're about I think nine or 10 kids perhaps uh more this year in kindergarten than we're here last year in kindergarten. Um but we're still under I think we graduated 200 and um I I can't remember 205 maybe. It was low 200s this past year. Uh, and we brought in like 180 something for kindergarten class this year. >> I had that reversed. >> Pardon me. >> I had that flipped. >> Oh, yeah. That's fine. I was >> No, >> I

143thought it was the other. I was super excited. >> No, no, >> my bad. >> I was thinking we graduated 186 last year, so I was >> Maybe we >> It was 19 I >> Maybe it was. I >> think it was exact. I think it was 199. I remember we would just barely >> two years ago it was 220 and we brought in 176 I think last year. So last year's kindergarten class was 176 and the graduating class from the June before that was 220. So there was a big disparity there. I do I do not believe that that dis I know for certain that that disparity wasn't nearly as large for this year in terms of the 25 graduating seniors compared to the 25 incoming kindergarteners. So within your regulation um do you

144the trend then is graduating more than correct? >> Yeah for sure >> that's just the nature of the >> Yes. And that's not just a WAC trend. That's a trend uh pretty much statewide um for for many and obviously that's a kind of a logical thing to assume. But a lot of these districts that are declining in enrollment, which is many districts in Indiana, they're graduating bigger classes than the incoming kindergarten classes. And so there's a change in population. People don't like to hear that, but it it it's actually true. If you look at our current senior or excuse me, current high school classes, they are bigger than almost all of our middle school and elementary classes. So there there was a period of time and I think there's some leveling out because we're not

145continuing to see our kindergarten numbers drop drop. Um, but there was definitely a period of time where we're going from like low 200 sizes to mid uh 180s sizes somewhere in there. But, you know, 15 to 20 plus students a year. And then there's a couple bubble years that are pretty big spread. >> This past year, I think that was the year before. 220 seems big from what I remember. >> I think it was I remember We we'll get you there. What's that? >> Yeah. Yeah. That's the other thing too is that you have to look at the ADM. So I if for example we count the senior class of 220, we may not graduate 220. It may have been a actually I know this. Um, so the class either a year or two ago

146that graduated 220 when they were measured when they were counted as their ADM they were 235. So we had 15 students drop between fall count and make it to graduation if that makes that isn't necessarily a good thing either. It's just the that you can't just look at the graduating class number and compare that to the ADM of the kindergarten class if that makes sense. I also would just like to reiterate there's there's a lot of good things going on the curriculum and we definitely see that as parents I want to thank you for all the hard work you do long hours you put in >> uh I appreciate that. Um, but it really does take a team uh at at central office level and um I couldn't do that without the leadership of Dr.

147Troyer. So I'm just doing my job. >> Um I'm just uh learning report. Are we we good? I'm really not trying to rush. If I am, tell me to stop. Mr. Dodie, >> I do have a question. >> Okay. It's the learning report. How do we I think I read that they were going to be bringing in someone to help kids learn to read better. I don't know the specifics on that. Um what is that based on? Is that based on the scores that or the thing that you just show or what is that decision based on? >> Uh I'm not quite sure like >> I'm not sure what to call it. I just I just read a a brief thing about it. So I'm not really sure what it was called. Um, >> I

148thought I saw someone had made comments maybe at the last meeting about bringing in additional help or bringing in someone to work with kids on improving reading skills, something to that effect. >> I don't know. I'll talk to you after the meeting and and we can I can try to figure out what what you're >> not based on whatever you just showed. >> Um, no, >> I don't I don't think If anybody wants copies of these second >> Yeah, >> it Well, yeah, a couple months. Okay. Uh, first of all, I want to thank the board and Dr. Troyer for asking me to come speak on a couple of these items. Uh, first and foremost, uh, Mr. Kripe asked me back in the summer, uh, when I was doing the athletics report, um, to talk

149a little bit about the community service projects that our teams have that I ask each of our teams to do. Um, so this is not a full comprehensive list, um, but it is a decentsized list of some of the service projects that our, uh, teams have done, uh, in the past, uh, years, uh, leading up to last year. Um, there are some that have currently happened this year as well, um, for the community service project. So, uh, I'm not going to read them all to you, um, but you can take a look there. Uh, some of them include like cleanup days. Um, that's the warrior care day. If you have any questions over the the language in it, I'll be happy to explain some of those things. But food drives, uh cleanup days in the

150community, raising funds for different uh activities. Um some like the cancer care. Uh there are some funds raised for Ashlin and her battle uh this past year. Uh a lot of food packing for meals that go overseas. Uh some teams sponsor families around Christmas or Thanksgiving time. Um, read with a warrior. Uh, that's where our football program went into the elementaryaries, read to the elementary kids. Um, so a lot of these are highlighted on our social media at from time to time when the teams uh go out and do these service projects. Uh, we uh implemented this a while ago. Um, I'm not going to take all the credit for it, but we did this for baseball when I was coaching baseball, the Warrior K Warrior Care Day. Um, so I wanted to keep that

151going as I took over the administrative side of it. So I challenged our teams to go out and support our community um, just like they support us. So um, those are those community service projects that are going on or that have gone on in the past. Um, some this year that have already happened. The boys soccer team did some meal packing along with baseball. Volleyball is holding their pink out on Thursday to raise funds for cancer care. Um, boys golf or I'm sorry, girls golf did some clean up at the course. Uh they also do a cancer care foundation golf outing that they help with. Um so there are some just community service projects that our teens have done. Any questions on those? >> Have you happened to did you get this to the green

152and gold the alumni group? >> I have not yet but I can. >> You should vet make sure it's you're not missing anything and then get this get this to them. >> Yep. Absolutely. >> They're the they're the genesis of my request on this thing. >> Yep. I will double check with our coaches and make sure we have them all listed as well. >> They need to know that they got kids. >> Yeah. So, the process for that too is I simply just reached out to our coaches and had them describe specifically what they're doing in these project. I know this is a little uh it's not as detailed as what I have on hand, but I can share that too. Like they give more specifics about what warrior care day means, um what the

153food drive was and that type of thing. I think this is good for for us just to get some visibility, but Yep. >> those guys want to be able to when they're going out and fundraising and stuff to point to things that are happening. >> Yep. Absolutely. >> Okay. Any other questions on service projects? Okay. Uh secondly is discussion on facilities. Um, this is a list I'll pass out in a second. Um, facilities that have been upgraded or updates to some of the facilities over the last couple years. I'll share pass Also on the handout there's a timeline um that I've kind of established on things that have been completed. Um things that are uh have been approved and currently in process uh things that are pending or in other words we've talked about we've

154discussed that just hasn't been action taken on necessarily yet. And then things that are on the horizon that have been discussed or paused along with some just yearly costs. Again this is not a comprehensive list. This is a list that um is kind of outside of the athletics budget and this is something that I would come to Dr. Troyer, Dr. Penrod, the board about purchasing um over the years. So, a couple of those highlights uh going back to new field lights in uh for the turf field for soccer and football. Um new new scores tables for the gym um that benefit volleyball, wrestling, basketball. Um, so our scores table personnel can have a place to complete their tasks. Uh, new, uh, lane lines at Wisey Middle School. Uh, that was a spring of 24. New

155pole vault pits and standards in the spring of 24 as well. Um, that were purchased. I should have note too that we I noted who we purchased these from. Uh, new pool starting blocks at the high school. um that is not that that does not cover every swi one of our uh lanes at the high school, but it does uh provide two starting blocks that are exactly the same at the high school as they are at the middle school. So when our teams have to practice at the high school, they can still practice their starts. New diving boards were purchased as well uh for the middle school back in 2024 as well. Then move into things that were purchased recently. baseball and softball fields were in need of some updates to the infield. Um some

156of the structure and then just uh top soil dirt uh field dirt I should say, not just general top soil. Um so baseball and softball fields had those upgraded uh baseball in the spring and uh softball was coming in in the fall. Softball was a little later because it had more uh pieces to it. They had to put in drainage essentially to help the flow of water coming off the infield to make sure that it wasn't continuing to puddle and pool all over the place. Baseball and softball also got new outdoor batting cages in the spring of 2025. Um cheerleading mats were purchased in the summer of 2025. cross country course. That wasn't necessarily a huge uh financial piece that we've done, but we did relocate the cross country course over to Syracuse Elementary. That

157was a lot of uh donation uh and time, equipment, service from various places or people around the town um to redesign, get our cross country course up this up to shape. Um for because for a couple years we did not have a cross country course. Some of that was due to changes in the pra in the event structure um within the conference and then also we just didn't hold an event any cross country events during that time. So we redesigned it. It's beautiful. It's awesome. We've had a ton of compliments on that. So that's a testament to our our grounds and building staff as long as our coaching staff uh and those people that have donated time and effort into that. So those are all things that have already taken place and been done in

158the last couple years. Two things are currently in the works. Obviously, the middle school pool updates are ongoing uh and moving forward. And then wrestling room uh wall mats, they are awaiting arrival and installation uh hopefully in the next couple months once we get those, we'll get those up as soon as we can and and get them uh protected from the walls and stuff. They just needed to be updated. So again, those are approved and moving forward. Um some of the pending things that we've been discussing, uh resurfacing or rebuilding the tennis courts at the high school and then resurfacing the tracks at both the high school and the middle school, as well as uh repainting or revitalizing the girls pool locker or girls pool locker room, which is also the girls basketball locker room.

159And then on the horizon, things that again have been discussed or paused that we've had conversations about the weight room expansion, wrestling room expansion, and then the athletic facility or fieldhouse that was paused uh previously. Um and then just to note on there again, other things that the corporation is purchasing or paying for that's outside the schools, the athletic budget is yearly resurfacing uh at the high school and the spectator gym uh and then yearly maintenance for the turf field uh by the Mottz group. So, uh, again, if there's any questions on those or anything else that might be on the horizon, feel free to let me know if you have any questions. Yeah, >> I'm gonna defer to Dr. Troyer on this one. I'm over this question. >> Yeah, we can um work at

160getting a more comprehensive update, but they are um we had originally tasked them with being done prior to the girls season opening, which is end of this month. >> End of this month. Yeah. >> And it's a little bit behind schedule. So now I gave them a drop dead date of before the first home competition. Yeah. So whatever I can't remember when the first home competition is. >> Mid November, late November. I'll get I'll get a hard date for you in one second. >> So that was their hey, we've got to have a week prior to that to get the pool balanced and chemical and all that. Um, so I just actually today ran into uh one of the guys from Core Mechanical and they've been working double shifts to um to get things done,

161working on weekends, etc. They he actually told me that they um have made some good progress and so they're they're making progress, but it's a race to get it done before um the end of the end of November or mid November, I guess. >> Yeah. No, November 25th is the first home uh girls meet. So that's >> um I'm sure a number of reasons, but there was some um uh what do you call it? Acquisition like getting some stuff in. Um I think it's been maybe a little bit more challenging of a project than what some of the estimates assumed. Is there a commission? >> I'm sure there is. I don't have the contract >> memorized. >> There there is. They're trying to You can understand this being a builder. They're they're obiscating a lot.

162I mean, they're blaming it on supply chain stuff. And um I I think I I feel like that the job was it was I don't know if they meant to or not, but it was a bigger job than what they their timeline didn't reflect it didn't build in for any >> Yeah. Like for example any lead times on parts. >> This is a stupid thing, but um the people that o over the summer the people that showed up to do the the sand blasting on the roof because we sand blasted the whole roof deck and all of the framing. Um there wasn't time there wasn't nearly enough time built in for that that like they showed up and thought it was going to be three days and the guy said he needed three weeks. So

163just silly stuff like that that probably should have been accounted for, but in the grand scope of a a project like that, um they're just behind. >> So you guys decided you enact that penalty on >> are we're we're trying. I mean, so you got that three weeks and then the guys that were scheduled to be there at the end of the three days, >> they get retasked and then they're not back on the job. So there was a significant amount of time. This has been a frustrating thing for me, too, because I got Vince Beasley chirping at me non-stop. Um, there was just too much time where there wasn't work being done. >> It's also like to be quite honest, the trying to fit this in between the end of the swim season in

164the spring and the beginning of the swim season in the fall, it was going to be a very ambitious target anyway to get that done. and and that's just to try and not disrupt programming that's going on. So, we we tried to get them in as soon as possible and they're going to take every day of that window to try and get it done. >> Our kids are going to lose part of that season. >> Well, they have the high school pool. That's why we're blessed with >> No, it's fair know. Andy, my point is that canled. >> Well, okay, hang on. Hang on. We're trying to get as much money back as we can. >> I mean, my last question. >> If I could I mean, okay. So, we're I don't think they could

165have got it done run perfectly in the time scape in the time time frame that we gave them and then they mismanaged it a bit. So, um, you know, I don't I I'm I'm not I'm not happy with how this has been run. I mean, we're at we're too far committed to them. I mean, it's not as if we can make a switch, but >> I understand you're trying to deal with that. So, looking back on it, what could have been changed during the process that we select the right? I think we should have adjusted our schedule at the beginning of the last season and given the builder more time, but in an effort to try not to interrupt seasons um the dream would have been to have a way to make the high school

166pool handle diving >> and actually have a time frame to be able to do this. >> It's also a pretty specialized project. It's not like you can just go out and get >> 10 people to show up and bid on pool mechanicals. Like there's only a handful of companies in the whole state that >> we we did a lot of work. We called Northridge. We called the guys that did the Elcart Aquatic Center. We we tried to use the same people that they were using. We got a bunch of guidance from these amazing pool facilities. And the big difference was is they were building a second pool facility while they had a functioning pool facility. I I just think we tried to >> we have an option to add to the high school or is

167that >> I don't think it's deep enough. >> It's not deep enough. >> Can we Can we be proactive though because you've already taken one away from my daughter? >> Well, we're proactive and >> can we like start calling around and start saying, "Hey, can you borrow your pool?" It's my understanding that we >> used other schools or contactive right now just in case it's not ready. >> Yeah, I' I've already done that. >> Yeah. No, so so we I've talked to the diving coaches and we've identified Warsaw, Northwood, or Goan as one of the three that we go to. So, it's a simple conversation with uh me talking to their athletic director and identifying times when we can go to their their pool and dive specifically for the divers. >> So, yep. >> Yeah,

168we've we we've done that in the past that that's consistent. I mean, I'll use another example. Diving is this one obviously, but like baseball if or softball field gets rained out for a day, you can easily go to Northwood or go to ocean and play on the turf if they have availability. So, there's a lot of work between between athletic directors to to make that happen. So, yeah. Well, >> will we provide transportation? >> Yeah. >> For that? >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Our coaches are certified mini bus. >> Okay. >> And we'll get them a mini bus to get our divers over there or whatever team or sport that would be. >> Okay. >> Yep. >> Yeah. Because we h our coaches have had that conversation like what happens if it doesn't get

169ready? Obviously, we're going to have to move uh events if we don't meet the November 25th deadline. And then practice time obviously coming up soon as well. Um those conversations are ongoing to get time scheduled for for them to practice and compete. >> Anything else? I will add too that like uh just like the wish list kind of that you were going through from the financial side. Uh we have an athletics wish list too. So Dr. Troyer, Dr. Penrod and myself uh have worked through that as well and that's how we've gotten to this list of completed tasks pending and approved ones. So that list is ongoing as well. So we'll continue to ask for those facility upgrades and updates uh as needed. So >> thank you. >> Yep. No problem. >> Um similar topic

170but it is talking about those resurfacing projects. Um who's >> Yeah, Emily Howard's with us from Garmin Miller. She's sat here for two and a half hours. I >> called her before the meeting and apologized up front. So sorry, Emily. No, no problem. Hi everybody. It's nice to see you again. >> Also, Emily was with another company that we've worked with here recently, so she may be a familiar face, but now with Garmin Miller, >> new shirt, >> same gal. Um, so do you want me to summarize what Okay. Yeah. So, yeah, thanks for having me. I love love being in this district. Um, sidebar, I was a tumbler that was headbutt headunted by the swim coach in high school. So, your daughter is going to love diving. So it was very fun. Um so

171I was asked to take a look at four portions of your athletic facilities. So the resurfacing or the condition of the tennis courts, um the track at the high school and the track at the middle school as well as uh wait room addition. Um and so what you've been provided previously was um survey and geotech uh proposal and fees associated with that that you reviewed and partially approved at the September board meeting. >> Can you can you just focus on the first three kind of bifurcate those first three out from the wait room the the the tracks and the tennis resurfacing please? >> Okay. So you have you currently have 10 tennis courts and there's significant cracking at the tennis courts and so we were asked to make recommendations for what to do with the

172tennis courts because they um need treatment. Um it's our understanding that the previous tennis courts were in the same location and they also had issues. Our recommendation before doing anything with those tennis courts is to do soil borings and you will definitely need surveys as well for designing the replacement. Um it's pretty clear that you will have to do a replacement of the tennis courts not just a resurface because of the condition of them. So the soil borings will help in the recommendation of what type of redesign to do in situ because the the hope is to do the replacement of the tennis courts, complete tear out of the fencing and the slab and everything down to subgrade um in the same exact location barring the the soil borings, the geotech portion of this proposal

173that you received and reviewed and approved in September at the board meeting coming back completely. absurd. Um there is um soil remediation and blankets that can be done if they're really poor quality soils there, but assuming they come back um appropriately, you can put the quartz back with the appropriate design in the same location with the appropriate design because you know what is happening there because you got the soil borings. The survey that you approved is so that the civil engineer can design the appropriate uh elevations in the design of the replacement of the courts. Um the replacement will also include fencing replacement um because you're tearing out the whole courts which includes the fencing. So you need to replace the fencing as well as um the building the storage building there with the observation

174tower will be put back. We have included in the proposal portion for the design fee a building of similar size and similar location. >> So it looks we can't really get to a a number that's all anchored to reality until we understand the ground we're building on. >> I mean is that >> I mean how hard would it be to get a what it doesn't matter. We've already approved the borings, but we'll be able to get a much firmer quote at that point, obviously. >> Yeah. Like for the construction, like the value of the project, >> the project. Yeah. >> So, we have to try um so that we can give you a design fee. We have to take a stab at what we think the project is probably going to come in at because

175that's how we arrive at a fee. >> Okay. Um, so I wouldn't write it down and send it to you, but we did have tennis courts that were completely torn out, including the fencing, just like you're going to do, um, one year ago. And so, um, the bids were came in the summer of 2024. And they came in complete tear out and replacement of asphalt courts, which is what we assume you're doing, not posted concrete or anything like that. Um, I think it was vinyl coated fencing, so pretty standard. And it didn't have a large viewing area in between, but so I mean there's a little bit of discrepancy there, but when you when I did the math, they had six courts of it, it came out to about $110,000 per court times 10, it's

1761.1. Add some asphalt in the middle and a building, maybe one and a half million. >> Okay. So that's we just start there and then assign a fee, a design fee to it. So we have to take a stab at it to try and get you a fee not to exceed. >> Any other questions about the tennis courts? I think it was 185,000. >> What's the reduced cost that we have? And then when you have that, what's the X factor that you're having? So if they have a I'm just throw an example on good ground subend $100,000 to add one foot of subbase grade on top of that going forward. That save is my question. >> What was the 110? I I just made a number up, you know, from 185. What was the what

177was the soil test? >> It was like 30 grand per I mean it was 30 or 40 grand for I mean I think the tennis courts was 30 or 40. >> I have it here. I >> was just asking what that that >> I have it if you want it. What is it? >> Yeah, the geo the geotech portion. So the soil boring for the tennis courts is 13,200 and then the survey portion of it is 11,000. So together it's 24,200 for the survey company that's doing the geotech as well. >> So then there was out of the 185 you only used 30% >> I don't know where the 185 >> it was all of the survey and geotech for all four projects. >> Oh including I just didn't I didn't to me I don't

178remember us doing were there borings for the weight room too. So there we gave you um survey and borings for all four portions. >> I know we we did Tennis and the two tracks >> that was in there too. >> Okay, 185. So all those other boards that you had >> we didn't do them. >> Yeah, I know you didn't asked. I think the 185 number is correct. Is it not? >> What's the last meeting? Yeah, she's got it right here. >> She's got >> It doesn't This doesn't have a total of all of them added together, but the tennis um survey and soil borings is 24,200. Um the high school track, if anybody has a calculator, >> okay, >> is 28,200. >> How much? >> 28,200. >> Okay. >> And that doesn't need a

179surve there's no survey fee on that. >> That's both. Yep. The wait room, and I can go into detail on that, too. The wait room for both is 25,500 >> and the middle school track for both is 28,200. >> 106100. Okay. >> But I don't What? I thought you were going to say you had a magical way to do it for less money. >> No, I I thought the was brought to the last meeting and then your >> Well, yeah, just because I wanted to I just wanted >> So that's I was just trying to figure out what the difference was. >> But if it's 106, not 185. >> Well, the big difference is now I know that the tennis courts are between 1 and 1.5 million. I just wanted to know that number >>

180which sucks but it's also not as bad as I thought it was >> because lately everything's been >> also that 1.5 nothing's been designed not a single design meeting has happened like >> no pencil be great >> so there's I've not drawn anything >> I mean it's not >> yeah Right. >> Does that include the observation? >> Yeah. >> You want to Is there anything specific about the bories on the tracks? >> Yeah. So, on to the high school track. Um the proposal from JPR for the survey and the borings um the survey was 15,000 and the geotech was 132 which I think was the same. Yep. Same situation for the middle school track. Um the survey is only needed if you decide to replace those tracks. If the borings come back such that the

181thickness of the asphalt and the subgrade is favorable to just do a mill and resurface of the tracks, then you don't need the survey because and in fact you don't need me to some degree. um you could do a co-op purchase and go with a um company that you that could do the millinary service and you could directly um contract with them and save a lot of money. I would recommend um you know a couple just for a minimal fee just having Garmin Miller oversee it. um just really minimal if you'd like um just to kind of oversee the the process. We'd swing by and just make sure things are going just so if you'd like. Um but you do the geotech, do the borings on the tracks. So that's the 13,200 in both locations,

182the middle school and the high school just to make sure nothing nefarious is going on underneath there. Um it sounds like your high school is looking looking pretty good. There's no aggressive cracks like the tennis courts, but our team still would not recommend just going out there and milling and resurfaces resurfacing without doing the the soil borings. Everything seemingly comes back looking good. Um, you could start the milling and resurfacing there. Going through a co-op is what I'd recommend since you're not going to do any um extensive relayouts or anything out there. It sounds like um there are a couple other questions we'd want to ask which is why we would recommend still remaining involved. Like we don't you have a turf field, right? >> Um do you have a concrete curb out there or

183is it like a two by nailer? >> There's a concrete curve. >> There's no turf goes right up to the track. >> Okay. So you're gonna you you probably would want to rope us in a little bit for a little design because when you go to replace that turf, they're going to appreciate us designing a concrete curb to tie it into now. So that so okay, you do want a little design in there, but we could take care of that for you. um like that type of stuff. It we want to get out there and look and dig around and ask your friend here some questions. Um but uh like I said, the survey would only need completed if you're going to tear out the track and then replace it. That could be the case

184at the middle school. >> It It's probably It doesn't look like there's even a topper on it. >> No, there's no >> And I'm curious of even how deep that asphalt is. I'm not a sight person, but from from the aerial views, it looks like >> below the >> That one I haven't walked, but it seems like there's not much. >> Yeah, >> that's how I feel. >> I look at it more. That's four, you know, that's four years ago. They don't get better. >> Yep. Oh, for the tracks for like tearing it out. >> Well, let's say the middle school's worst because it'll be whatever that number is. It'll be similar for the high school that doesn't come back. >> So, for the high school, the mill and replace um like I said, I'm

185an architect. I'm not a contractor or um a third party like you know that estimates things. I don't do that either. But um for Mill and Replace, I did take a peek at um a co-op company that sent another school district an eight place mil and replace bid recently. Um I they it was like two weeks ago another district sent me it to like review the um just review it to make sure they didn't miss anything and it was just south of like 220. um the full replacement I'm less familiar with current numbers honestly so I could find out for you but the nice thing is you don't have to worry about it until the borings come back and then you know okay this definitely needs replaced or it needs a mill replaced you know

186>> okay >> go ahead >> but I can get that I can um I can see if anybody else in the office in our site team has more current numbers from a current bid for you >> let's just this is the type of dialogue we would If we're going to have middle school kids running track, which we're gonna, >> I really don't want them to break an ankle. I mean, >> some stuff I don't think is even a decision. It's just a grand bar. >> I think from what I heard, we're the only school that doesn't have a surface on their track that our kids run on. >> Well, that's not >> Is that right, Dodie? >> I think that's correct. Yeah, >> the lanes regulation with >> there's been some question about that too.

187>> That's what our site person >> I don't know I >> that is probably >> because it's going to be hard. It's going to be hard out of the box to say this is what a I can get you a number for a replacement of a tear out replacement. >> We're looking at even the board. We didn't consider we didn't approve the board for that. No, no, >> that's what we need to get started because we know the new kids. >> Yeah, I I just wanted I mean I wanted to hear the tennis number. >> I think we know the research done for the high school. >> I mean, we're getting to a place where if it's a big enough number and we say no, then we're not we're not ever having a home meet

188for track middle school is where we're getting to. And I don't really feel I want to render us that irrelevant. I want to be able to have home track meets. You guys got it. I mean, I'm only saying that that's these are the thinking. If you say, "Why would you do that?" Well, because you have no track or you have a trap. And that's where I feel like we're being painted into because it's hasn't been taken care of long. >> And I can tell you there's no additional cost if you, you know, at your meeting next week if you decide to approve the soil borings at the track and at the middle school and high school. and not the surveys because you want to see if if they're even necessary. There's no additional like revitalization

189fee or anything like that to do to separate them out. So there's no >> Well, if we vote to approve both, but the high school doesn't need it, we're obviously not going to go ahead and do it. >> Yeah, you could you could vote to approve the soil borings and the surveys at both locations as needed. And then that way you don't have to come back and get approval and they just won't do the surveys if you're not going to replace the track. >> Well, so show my hand. When this comes up on Tuesday, you can wonder how we got here. >> You still need the soil borings because you want to know what type of tract to design to go on top of it. And it could be you have to do some kind

190of remediation of the soil before you put the track on top of it. question >> like some kind of stabilization. It could be a fiber stabilization or a chemical remediation of the soil itself. >> Okay. >> Weight room addition. >> Yeah. I mean, just so you guys know, give her some context. We were talking about growing the weight room. Do you guys know where the weight room is now? Everybody, there's two things we were thinking about doing. You know how the kids have to walk outside to get to the um CT some of the CTE programming? We hate that in light of everything that's going on. It's a massive breach. It's just an exposure for safety for the kids walking and for the school. So we kind of thought what if you take that whole

191corner I don't know how it would work but just connect them right and as part of that connection you grow your weight room locker room and of course the super mileage would grow as well is kind of what this was the >> the conversation really started with with >> the high school project had a parking lot that was designed into the original project and we bid it out as an as a uh option, >> right? >> And that parking lot was going to sit where the um alternative learning trailers are. And the the parking lot came back, the bid came back at something approximately $2 million because there had to be there had to be an underground tank that captured the water runoff, the storm runoff. um which was going to elevate the expense by

192a lot. And so the question was posed to Jeff and the high school administration. Would you rather have a parking lot that will need to be used, you know, a handful of times a year or would you rather do something else? And they said, "We'd much rather do something else that's going to have a greater impact on kids." For example, expanding the weight room. And so that started the conversation. At the same time, there was discussion about connecting those two buildings. And so, really, we looked at um a couple different options. it was going to be a tremendous amount of money to connect the two buildings, but the folks from Garmin Miller, Brian Wolf was the guy's name, um felt like we could um kind of in big round numbers get in addition to our

193wait room, which would allow us to do some cool things in there um for about the same money as the parking lot. And so that's really where the conversation started. and it hasn't gone anywhere because there's been other priorities that have come up and things that have taken uh attention and resources, but we wanted to move forward with at least what would that look like um from a project development standpoint and would we be able to afford it um if the big project continues to remain under budget and uh those kind of extra dollars are sitting there and available to do something with. So, just so you guys can kind of see the arguments we have, I love the weight room. I'm a sports guy, but I'm kind of hellbent on finding a way to

194make the kids not have to go outside. So, I don't know where this is going to land necessarily, but that's going to be some money. I think it's worth looking at. Um, and then you go to the next step. Well, if you're going to do that, then you make it look all connected, odd, and added on to. And is there a then you start going down a rabbit hole of craziness? But that's kind of where that corner of the building because I'm still I still want to I mean Super Mileage beats Stanford in India or whatever. I don't know. We should give them more space. So they I mean we could grow that whole STEM engineering super mileage part. I mean we could get a we get a weight room win. We get a safety

195win. we get a educational growth win for Coblins and all his stuff. Anyway, that's kind of what this is. Just so you guys know what we're talking about. We're trying to understand. I don't know. I don't mean if there's a way to do it that isn't insane. >> I don't know also what the implications of connecting the school building with the other facility across the parking lot that wasn't a school building and I think was >> designed to be transportation. Is that what it was? Bus garage at one time. I mean, if it's a walkway anyway. >> Anyway, >> these are our this is what this that's about. And the weight room expansion for me morphed into this whole >> thing and Right. >> Yeah. And I think the the weight room square footage was

196significantly less than the parking lot would be and the parking lot was out there by the road. I'm not sure that there was a >> I think it's because there was no place to put a retention pond. >> Correct. >> So they're going to make a stew >> the under under >> construction gymnastics and you know water flow gymnastics and things. But that shouldn't be an issue here. I just think it's I kept growing the size of that thing cuz like my brain goes, "Well, I'm we're going to put up two more walls and three more walls in a ceiling." It just I'm a bigger roof, right? So, we're building a concern. >> Um, it's a concern. I don't know that um because we have less kids to give them less a lesser facility. I

197don't know if I subscribe to that. >> A bigger facility. >> Well, I mean, we can put CTE in the auxiliary gym and that'll probably cost more than the project. I mean there's using existing facilities has makes sense as well. Um I don't know I I don't like I said we it's a whole different conversation but there's a wildly long conversation about debt and the fear of it and what it really means and how it manifests in a tax break to the taxpayer. And I think we got to have an honest conversation about that. And if we take a massive reduction in what we take and nobody sees one single piece of benefit on their tax bill, somebody else got the money we gave up. And if we don't want to have an honest conversation

198about that, then we're not really serious about. Now, if that's not the case, and then you tell me that when we want it back, we'll get it back. That's a different conversation. But I still come back to that somebody's going to spend that debt and not give it to the taxpayer. I'm one of them, too. So, if that's the case, then what do we what are we asking for us out of I mean, somebody else is going to take that debt up and sell a bond and they're going to pay interest on it. I don't like the system. I just assume be able to take all of the tax money and let us spend it how we want. And I mean, we've even I didn't want to bring one of we we've talked about we've

199we've talked about what if you let something fall off and you need a specific ren referendum for something specific. What if you do that and it doesn't pass? Then you give up, you let the tax rate fall, that money's gone. The referendum you didn't get to get back to the I mean, there's a lot of things that human nature needs to be considered. and the risk that I I I just don't think it's as simple as well just just let it drop off. Okay. Well, then what? And I think that then what I've yet to have hear a compelling answer of the then what? Which is not why you're up here. What else you got on the wait room? Then we can get back to that. I just want to make sure I you know

200since you have the design fee and the um the borings and the survey fees in front of you now together that you don't have any other questions I can help answer so that you can make the decisions you need to at your next board meeting. >> I mean we're not I don't want to do anything with the weight room stuff right now. Even the borings I just want to do the tracks and the uh >> you guys agree >> you guys. You good? >> You you can leave. Thanks for h Thanks for having me. >> Yeah, I mean you don't have to. You can. This is great. >> I might head out. Thanks. >> Did I get your name? >> Having kids participate in CTE. We can make a little money by having kids come

201into CTE into our district. districts and it's something unique to our community that might grow the community as a unique thing and those kids are probably more likely to stay here and then be, you know, good citizens and making decent money within our community. I feel like that whole CTE thing changes the scope of just adding and and we've also talked we've added some technology. There's some things we're thinking about doing with when we're moving some of the uh wrestling stuff around that the maybe the weight room doesn't need to happen and we just do the a corridor for safety. You know, maybe maybe that's the answer. >> It was just a was exploring a wish, right? It was exploring a wish and I'd like to have them quote it and what if we could

202get the entire cake and then not the whole cake. And um I do think um I really did get excited about giving that safety piece and then the uh additional space for the engineering and super mileage. I thought that was kind of cool. So I mean to your M shock I do my eyes get bigger than my stomach on it maybe. But I just want to know the number you know. I think it's >> I want >> Yeah. >> But you know I just don't and I'm guess close to 40 years. I really believe something but it's got to be presented right. I understand >> it can't be like the last you give a full presentation this 80% so back that's just what we do I think that's one of our one of the big

203issues that we're all you know arms transparenc but you know contin create stuff without having awareness of you know still understand that we're losing dollars. I don't have an answer for it. I mean, so I can't answer. >> Well, you you you do. We all do. And this isn't me kicking the can down the road. There's some serious gaps in logic in the legislature that would we'd have a different type of argument probably because somebody would want to suspend it this but holy crap there'd be a lot of uh so but anyway I don't want to get this is getting long um but anyway that's what that the wait room project is that corner of the building is what I just wanted you that's what we're thinking or It's it's exploring. We're not anywhere near

204doing it. It's just what that's what that's about. Okay. Can we keep going? >> Can I just ask one more question? Not saying that I have this in my back or anything, but as a schoolorporation, if I had heard that I want to ask you guys this, um, if there was a company or a major corporation that would come up and say, "Hey, you know what? We want our name on We'll see. Is there any opposition here? >> No. If you have them, tell them to come to our next board meeting. >> Yeah. If any if anybody's saying there there's there's appetite for it. Forget opposition. There's appetite for it. >> Yeah. >> Because I was told that you know, >> we've we've been we've been trying we've been seeking it out. >> We have

205in um in Tara on our new auditorium. >> We would love to have we've we've asked That's a partnership that we entered into two years ago with Entara and it's going to be the Entra Auditorium >> at the Wallace Performing Arts Center. >> I will >> whatever the whatever the name land wherever the name lands >> they can center for the performing arts the intera we'll we'll wear their jerseys at every board meeting. >> So whoever that's I've had some talks with somebody like he >> they're they've talked to somebody who has zero. I mean there's we would we'd be dumb as No, we're we have an appetite for that. I think I came in somebody came and saidion they can't just they just can't you know >> that's been in the conversation >> we've

206actually been trying to figure out the >> that's a whole we're a we have an appetite for it but b we want to do it so the dollar goes further is Emily's gone right okay I don't know what the We if somebody just built the building, like had a private contractor build it, we could probably get double the building and then they just donate the whole freaking thing. But if they give us the cash, we're going to get the we're going to go through all the stuff. And I swear the dollar goes I mean, I'm building a pretty nice thing to replace the marina. It's about 200 and it's a it's really really nice. It's 220 bucks a foot. They're pounding us at 450 bucks a foot. It's insanity, right? So, I think the only

207push back and that wasn't a sponsorship for a a field, but if somebody wanted to build a building like just they had a lot of money and said, "Hey, here's a $15 million project." We're trying to figure out the best way to make that $15 million spend like 15 in real life and not government 15, which is like real life seven or something. I don't even know. But we have an appetite for all that. We just want to do it a legally and b to stretch our dollar as far as or the the do the donated dollar as far as possible. Right. >> But we're open to we got 10 bucks. We'll take it. >> Just saying if you want to. >> I I asked you that prior conversation. So I just want to make

208sure I >> I mean I Yeah, we're we're I don't know if there I should I'm speaking. I don't know if there's rules. there's something that I don't know, but we're we're open to it if it's if if we're allowed to. >> We have board policy pertaining to the naming of um facilities. And I think perhaps some of the conversation that you may be referencing is in relation to the renaming of the football field, which was not a financial partnership, but more of a would you consider this because XYZ? And so definitely at the time there was opposition to that moving forward, but I've not heard any opposition for sure to from this board on a financial partnership with a company that would allow for some funds to be generated to either build or support

209programming. So, and that's what we're seeing with Entra happen over the last couple years, >> right? I mean, that's our posture, right? >> That's it. >> I'll take some free t-shirts. I'll wear >> Okay. Uh, we are on to additional action items. You got to go fast, brother. >> Yeah. So, one of the things that we talked about doing in the work sessions was just providing kind of a look ahead to what we would be asking the board to consider the following week at the regular board meeting. So many of the things that we've um that we plan on being on the agenda for next week, we've already talked about in some capacity, but there were two uh that we haven't. So, the first of those is we'll ask you to consider next week to

210approve Whitley County Consolidated Schools uh withdrawing uh to approve their request to withdraw from our CTE cooperative. They already have plans to do that. um they're joining with uh another couple schools that are around them. Um part of that being some county um I don't want to say pressure, but maybe pressure is the right word uh for them to unite with a couple other districts. Um so they actually requested to do this a year ago. um and they missed some deadlines, so they hung on with us an extra year and now they've submitted to us a formal request to withdraw from our CTE co-op. Now, that being said, um between just the Wallace and um Columbia City point of view, there's very little traveling of students one way or another. So there's a handful that

211go each way and that's it. Um part of that is because Columbia City has built up a pretty significant CTE program at their home base and so um there's a lot of duplicate programs and they're just not sending very many kids here. We're not sending very many kids there. They want to start their own. So we'll ask you to consider that. I'll get you some information in the board packet uh that comes out Friday. Um, basically that information will consist of the request. Actually, did we attach that, Tammy? The request from Tina? Yeah, I think that was included in your board packet for tonight. Um, so that uh is that piece. And then the other thing that we'll ask you to do is consider the Spendbridge subscription agreement. Um, Spendbridge used to be a program

212provided um from the state and at no cost and because of budget cuts um that was one of the things that was cut when the state went through some cuts this past spring when they worked on their new budget for the bienium. Um and so we're going to um ask you to consider taking that on. Uh, I did provide the contract in your packet for tonight, so you can take a look at that. Um, I believe when it comes down to it, it's a a $6,000 annual fee for Spendbridge and then another um like eight $6 or $800 uh based upon things that we do with the account. So that it's a it's a um material and product acquisition program that helps facilitate us getting stuff uh especially through cooperative purchasing uh a lot easier

213than if we had to do that on our own. >> That's like a procurement source. >> Yes. Yeah. >> So >> that's the word I was looking for. >> Um the uh CTE thing. This is just for she talked about it. It's at least it's a really valuable thing and I had kicked around. We haven't added a program and you see all these articles about everything from commercial driving to pilots. >> I mean you can get a simulator for 150 grand and get kids really far down the path to pilots's license. And I think we should explore what programs we could add that are serious pathway alternatives to college with serious opportunities for earning. I don't want to chase kids out of here at all, but um if we could I know you got to

214prove to the state that there's a viable need for the program, but if we could have some programs that are unique, I mean, we got to that's the only piece of our business that we can actually focus we we can create a service that everybody wants and attract it and get some revenue. >> Yeah, we can look at that. We we have um added a program with the Polywood program. Oh yeah, that's right. Shane, >> question. >> Yeah, go ahead. >> So, I think the firefighter is there. >> That's a great question. So, firefighter is the one that comes immediately to mind there. Um the teacher prep program was also, but we brought speaking of additions, we brought that program here and um so we do that as well. We've had a couple different conversations

215about a fire program. The the towns of Syracuse and North Webster are really interested in in adding that program. It's a matter of funding it. So we'll have >> Well, I think something like He's talking about with the Whitley separation. >> I think those are the two. >> Okay. >> I think don't quote me on that, but I think that's it. >> Well, okay. Add firefighting to that list. >> I think it is. >> Yeah. >> So, we should we should look at adding that >> or consider whatever. >> Yeah. And and that isn't >> those are cool. I >> that isn't a new conversation. That's been a conversation that Tina and I have actually had over the last year to two years probably. I mean, Tina hasn't been here for forever, but we we

216met with Mickey and we met with the gentleman from North Webster about possibly getting something done. They're they're really interested in doing it because it builds a pipeline of people into the into the fire program. Um, but the problem is where do we get the instructor and and the cost of adding the instructor? The equipment's a little bit easier because, you know, it's easier for us to add cost for equipment um because we've got numerous funding sources, including grants, but the the hard cost of salary benefits is the challenge. So, >> um, yeah, we can talk about it for sure. >> Yeah. And I've talked to I've talked to Goan, too. They have a really cool program that they do that that basically funnels students into their into their operations once they graduate or even

217once they turn 18. Um, >> weren't we going to establish something with Goan? Did that ever happen? Did we? >> We didn't establish anything formal. They send kids to us. >> Okay. >> Um but they have not well the last time we talked about it, they were not interested in joining our co-op because there's some political things that exist with Elcart County and and the whole CTE thing up there. >> Well, >> but they do send kids to us. A decent number. >> Let's uh the fire department and EMT. Let's lean if we're going to p let's really lean into that. Let's let's push that and try and I mean let's give that some energy. And then I I still would like to look and if it's not my pilot commercial driving, let's find some

218unique programs that we know I mean the world's telling us what they need. Let's let's let's make it available. >> So the I the I just want to mention this. It's not an excuse of oh this is why we didn't do it. We our CTE program programs grew very rapidly >> and we got to a point where there was some stabilizing and and we weren't able to to sustain a lot more growth without adding staff, adding costs, etc. So going back to Mr. Everingham and and now even with with Tina um making sure that we have calculated and planned growth is what we're after instead of just add ad add uh programs as we get as we go through there because I think we've seen like I said a stabilization and even a little bit

219of a backing off in enrollment in some programs. There's been some that have remained incredibly popular and the numbers are always going to be through the roof, but we we just want to be careful again as our numbers have fallen a little bit as interest like Columbia City not continuing to be part of the co-op. We won't be careful about that growth. So, >> well, we will explore that for sure, >> but it'd be good just to know >> Yeah. What's the, you know, to go tackle this? It would be this is the upfront and ongoing just to know for sure and then we can, you know, talk about it. Steve, how many additional do you guys get? I know how much school gets based on. >> Yeah, that's a good question. So, we actually

220just talked about this on Thursday as well. So, there's really two funding sources that exist. And I'm distracted while I'm trying to find this uh um file, but to answer your question kind of generically, if you'll allow me to do that, there's two funding sources. There's the students that we have here at Wawac that are that are our students that generate CTE dollars via the funding formula. So, um that that count is typically done in um November. I think it's in it's in the fall. Um and basically we get reimbursement dollars from the state for number of students that are enrolled in programs and those programs are leveled in terms of reimbursement. So there's high funding high funded for uh programs and there's lower funded programs. I think the number there we have like 200

221and some >> this is over the foundation funding right? >> Yes. Correct. >> Yes. >> Yeah. So that number is what happens. >> Yeah. So I I'll try and find that here in just a second. But um the the other category of revenue generated from our CTE program is through um tuition that we generate from from schools that send us students. So I think the number is approximately $4,200 is our tuition rate. So if we have a Fairfield student, for example, that comes here, they send us uh $4,200 per student to be in our programs. Also, we send them tuition dollars to be in their program. So, they house, I think, three programs uh at Fairfield. And so, that exchange of tuition dollars, it I think it comes out to um about 330 340 total

222students in the co-op between what would be the three schools. Um, and then, uh, in terms of revenue generated, it seemed like it was approximately 300,000. It isn't a perfect, um, self- sustaining program, but I think it really could be if we if we really leaned it out. Um, but it goes a long way towards supporting those programs. Andy Shane's point. So if you have an additional 300,000, does that stay in the full CTE program or does that >> that those dollars just go into our education fund as miscellaneous revenue and then those are used to support our program. So in a roundabout way, we pay for our educa we pay for our CTE teachers out of our education fund as well. So essentially those dollars go to support the salary and benefits of those

223teachers teaching those programs. My goal, our goal is to get CTE, this sounds so greedy, to be where it is making a profit to kick back to the fund is to I I believe it's doing that a little bit now. We'd have to do a little more analysis to do all the ins and outs. I don't know that for sure. I think it is, but um we could do that. It' be a good exercise. But anyway, that's Well, no, the first thing is we're giving kids a really cool opportunity. That's the first thing. But if there's an economics to it, that's good, too. >> So, for last year, um the CTE program generated $380,000 in visiting tuition for Wallace. >> That's just the visiting students. >> Yes. So, that money goes into our education fund

224to support those programs. And then we generate additional funds on what we call the form 3A which is the report where in which we report our numbers in CTE programs. So we get 30A reimbursements equaling for last year 275,000 plus. Um, so it the programs definitely generate revenue to support the offerings versus, you know, let's say a nonCT program that is kind of an elective program at at the high school level. Those those classes don't necessarily generate dollars to support the teacher being there. So, you know, we're kind of getting that at a an almost costneutral um, you know, proposition by having that class. We get to offer the class additional offering for our kids and also pretty much f have a way to pay for the teacher to support that class. >> You said

225there was 38 in house kids and the rest were out of district coming here. >> There were hold on the again these are last year's numbers. Uh we had 131 Wawasi students in our programs last year and there were 95 uh visiting students that came to us. >> Yeah. >> So is there an out number attached to that too >> there? Yeah, for sure. There is um there is I don't know that I have that on here but like um um what is it the the hair styling >> what >> cosmetology is at Fairfield. So we send kids to cosmetology and then we pay Fairfield tuition for those kids that are going to that program. >> So was that 380 number was that the net right? I'm assuming that must have been that gross. >>

226The 380 was the uh amount of visiting tuition that those 95 students generated. Is that I don't >> That means it's gross. It's not netted against what we're paying for the other direction. >> He's he's asking what the in the co >> Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's just what we're getting coming our way. That's not subtracting out the number going there. Correct. >> That's just the net income coming our way. >> So, do you have a federal work put out? Uh, I do. I just I don't have it right now. I can get it. >> I just want to make sure we're putting, you know, three in my brain thinks how many take out. So, let's say >> we're we're bringing in a lot more than we're sending out just because of the number of

227kids that we have here in our programs versus the number that we send out. >> That'd be cool to get that for next just just for I'd like to know it, too. >> Okay. Th this particular document that I'm looking at is just the Wawasi financial impact of >> I understand >> of our programs that we house. >> Um okay, we're going to Can we cool? Okay. Um keep rolling, man. >> Okay. Um the Well, were there any questions on the additional action items? Okay. The last thing I feel like I'm gonna be opening myself up for a barrage of of questions and comments. So bear with me. Listen till the very end. Okay. So I want to give you an update on the early learning center. Um Andy had sent Brandon and me a

228text here a couple weeks ago about um a negative balance in our WACI early learning center fund. So I want to address that but then talk a little bit more broadly. um one about why that negative balance exists, but also um what our long-term plan is because I think it's definitely a conversation that that we collectively need to have. Um as you are aware, um Mrs. Phillips uh has indicated her intention to step down from her role as director of special services uh in the coming weeks. um with her departure, we'll need to determine who will provide leadership and oversight to the Wise Early Learning Center program moving forward because that was something that was housed under her umbrella. An obvious starting point um if if nothing else would be um Mrs. Trisha Trimble who

229currently serves as the program coordinator and manages much of the day-to-day operations of that program. uh her familiarity with the program, staff, and families uh positions her well to maintain continuity while we evaluate long-term administrative oversight. At the October board meeting, we will likely need to bring a recommendation for the board to take formal action regarding uh Welk leadership. Um beyond this short-term need, I believe it's time to engage in a broader discussion about the future direction and sustainability of the early learning center. Since its inception, the Welk uh WC early learning center fund has carried a negative balance. It's currently around -160,000, which I realize is a fairly shocking number, but follow along with me because I hope to provide some context. This was um identified in our most recent audit as something that

230they uh flagged as as a finding. Um, and steps were taken last summer to address that. The balance has improved by approximately $100,000 since that time. So, it at that time it was about 250. Um, it's important to note that the negative balance does not mean the district's accounts were overdrawn. We continue to have ample cash to support this and other programs. the deficit simply reflects the way that revenue and expenditures specifically for this program um have historically been recorded. Um so I want the board to understand it's not like the Wise Early Learning Center has its own checking account that exists at our bank and that they're $160,000 overdrawn. They're a part of our funds and are supported by the cash that we have on hand. So, the primary factor behind the deficit is

231that while we receive $189,000 in state funding for prek special education, those dollars have remained in the education fund rather than some of those funds being transferred into Welk fund uh to support the special education work that happens there. The program serves as our prek special education um location in which we provide services to those students. So, anytime a prek student has an IEP, they are entitled to receive services from the school even though they're not in our school district yet if they live in our boundary. Um and we have to provide those services at no cost in our district. We provide those services through our early learning center program. um we have chosen historically to offset expenses uh for this program through grants and other revenue sources rather than shifting the education fund dollars

232into the welk fund. So again, another point of understanding with inside of the state funding formula, there are dollars that are associated with prek special education students and those are um those are um reported when we do our other December um special education count reports to the state and then we receive funding to support those students. That's not to say that all of that 189,000 for example for this year would go to so would go towards the early learning program but certainly a part of it specifically the part that's dedicated to supporting those students. So to put this in perspective last school year we had eight students that received prek special education services through our Welk program for a total cost of $33,300. That's the tuition that we didn't get from their families. um that

233we would have got if they weren't um a special education student. This year that number is five students for a total of $27,750. Again, those are based on our tuition rates that we would charge a u a family to attend our program. That's a total of $61,050 from the past two years that uh really should have been reimbursed from our education fund to cover those special uh prek special education services but wasn't. It's become easy to see how that negative balance has grown over the last 5 years. I will tell you that um this is something that Mrs. Phillips has been um banging on my door about because she feels feels like it's been unfair that that big negative balance has been attributed to her while not having the revenue the full revenue picture to

234support that. Um as we move forward, we need to evaluate whether some portion of the prek special ed uh dollars should be transferred into the Welk fund annually. Doing so could help restore the balance without compromising our broader fiscal position. While we absolutely need to pursue greater financial stability, I want to be clear that I do not believe that this program needs to be or even should be entirely self- sustaining to justify its place in our district. Some programs exist to generate revenue. Others like Welk exist to advance our mission. Welk directly supports the core goals of Wy Community Schools by ensuring children enter kindergarten ready to learn soci socially, emotionally, and academically by supporting early intervention for students with developmental needs. By providing accessible, highquality child care that strengthens staff recruitment and retention. By

235serving as a community anchor that enables parents to work, teach, and contribute to our local economy. by building our future education workforce through pathways, career innovation, student internships, and early childhood education. Currently, 15 of the 50 children enrolled in the um Wallace early learning program are children of Wise employees with four more expected to join in January. Two of the three preschool classrooms and both infant toddler rooms are at full capacity with waiting lists. Uh which demonstrates a strong community demand and the importance of this program to families and staff alike. We're not running well to turn a profit. Instead, we're investing in a program that benefits our schools, staff, and community. And that does have a cost that I believe is both justified and missiondriven. I have asked Mrs. Trimble to prepare a presentation

236for our next board work session to provide a more detailed review of the program's operations, enrollment, and staffing. Uh to also look at financial trends and options for improving sustainability, and to look at long-term considerations for administrative alignment and funding structure. Uh that session will give the board an opportunity to better understand the program's full value and impact while also uh allowing us to set a strategic direction that balances that mission and fiscal responsibility. I'd be happy to answer any questions about this program. Um I'm not the expert. That's why I asked her to come. Um she did provide me some some basic information when I put together this report but um she will be here to give you some some more specific information. So questions >> not in October >> yeah I'm I'm giving

237you a heads up about this because the issue exists also because Mrs. Phillips like we have to do something in terms of oversight if we're going to ask Mrs. Trimble to step up into a director type role. We're probably going to need to look at a compensation adjustment of some sort. That compensation already um you know comes out of our early learning fund. So, we're going to have to figure that out. Um and that may need to happen at our October meeting in terms of consideration. But uh but in terms of the long-term outlook of the program, um that's a conversation for down the road. But I want to prep you for needing to have it. >> Yeah. Well, it's good timing because we're at Patron Comments anyway. >> At one point, Hollywood was part

238of the ELC program. >> Correct. >> They are not any longer. >> They are not an official partner with us any longer. Mostly because um they were having tr trouble fully staffing the room. They started out as like a 20 seat >> somewhere around a 20 seat partnership and there was a period of time where they may have had five or less. >> Um and and so they got to the end of maybe a year or two and said we can't continue to fund this fully. So then they um took a a little bit less uh involved and pay for certain seats. >> Yeah. >> Go ahead, Shel. And um the agreement also um was so that the um the students could be dropped off like at 4:30 in the morning um for their first

239shift. And since they had so few uh students utilizing that, they didn't want to pay for those seats, but yet we would still have to staff it. So, it just didn't work out from a financial uh standpoint for us to to do that. It was also their their their particular classroom was a full year year round classroom where the rest of them were like a school year type of >> arrangement. Although we do have tons of early learning program that happens throughout the summer. >> Yes. >> Um >> that's been an addition over the last couple years. The teachers that are currently working in those classrooms, are they considered teachers with full teacher prek licenses? Do they have a license that they have to get teachers have to get? >> No, they do not. They're

240not they're they are not paid as a certified teacher. Um however I think most of them are going through IVTech to get their early learning certification. Um so many of them have either either have that or they are in the process of getting it. Um also I think one of the other things I'd like to reiterate from what uh Dr. Troyer said is that um our CTE program is now using um using some of those early learning centers uh to um put students in for uh for that. So that's um that's a positive for um for that. I also >> internship >> yeah for the internship and then um um I I also think that um it it hopefully will help get that pipeline of education professionals uh going into um into our potentially back

241into our school system as as professional educators. >> I have a question just because you opened it up Have you looked at seriously trying to staff earlier and later? As a working mom, it was impossible to get the kids there, you know, get me there by six o' sometimes and I worked in the same town as the provider. >> Yeah. Yeah. Um definitely they're always looking at um different ways of of managing that. Um the earlier we start providing child care um it also runs into in weather situations when school is canceled. Um then we have students here and you know there's there's all there's all that. Um a and also our early learning um program um also um provides the staff for our latch key program that's required by the state. Um and so

242when um I think five years ago, four years ago, when uh Baker Youth Club uh pulled out of Wawasi schools to service those students, we had to uh figure out a way to offer after school um child care.