001I didn't have to worry about it at work. You know, it's just joking. >> Watching them play against this fun. [Music] >> This is weird. start. >> So, you got options. That's good. >> I did. >> You were a couple. >> No, >> we all got a little blue thing. They just brought it for warm warm and it'll be freezing in here. >> You didn't get the blue memo. >> No, I got the >> ready. All right, we'll go ahead and get started. >> So, we'll start the word of prayer, then the pledge of allegiance. So, if you'd bow your head. Dear God, we as we begin this new school year. We humbly seek your guidance and wisdom. Bless our students, teachers, administrators, and and support staff with strength, patient, and understanding. Grant them the
002grace to navigate the challenges and embrace the opportunities that lie ahead. May this school year be filled with growth, learning, and a clear sense of community. We ask for your protection and provisions for all members of our school family. In your name we pray. Amen. >> I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> All right, we have the agenda for tonight. There are no changes to the agenda for this evening. >> Make a motion to approve the agenda as stated. >> Second. >> Any questions? All in favor? Unanimous. Approval of minutes. I'll make a motion to approve the minutes from the July 15th regular and executive meeting. >> I'll second. >> Any
003questions? All in favor? Unanimous. Opportunity for public comment. There's no one. Up to the reports. Treasures report first. As we go see on the report, our fund balance to end the month was 20 million78,630. And as a reminder, a good portion of that is the bond funds that can only be used for construction. Uh CDs and investments that we have total 3,55,837. The interest that we received from the bank for the month total 76,674.78. Uh Totals with the CDs was $24,35,93. The payroll claims being submitted for your approval total 1,56,4353. I will note that July like 10 months out of the year is two pays. There each year is two months where we have three pays and we usually see a reduction in our funds as a result of that. We are in the midst
004of one of our prepay months that is August. We've had two. We'll have a third here uh next week. Uh and we'll go over kind of the impact of that obviously next month. Uh last thing is the vendor claims being submitted for your approval. Total 1,772,4982. Uh some other things to to mention, open enrollment, something that we've talked about in the past, closed the week before last. Uh our medical rates did come in right as we were having to open open enrollment. They got into us late this year. Uh they were four and a half% increase across the board. Uh a little bit higher than you'd like to see, but it's also the lowest that we've had since I've been here. So we'll we'll celebrate that. There's been no change to the board contribution at
005this time. This is usually a discussion point during uh negotiations. Over the last couple years, the WA has asked us to split the difference. Again, obviously something we'll discuss in more detail with them as we get into the collective bargaining season. I'll also give a quick update on Red Rover. We are what I'll call full implementation. As of right now, uh the good news is we are seeing our sub rate uh be very high. We're actually having subs complain about not being able to find open jobs as it's become more competitive because it's instantaneous on the jobs that open up. And we've done a a good job, and I say we, but the finance office staff has done a really good job at increasing our sub pool. Now, we've told the subs there'll be more
006openings as we get into the school year and teachers have more things that come up and we get into cold se cold and flu season. That will obviously have an impact as well. Uh the last thing I'll I'll mention has been another thing that we have kind of continually come back to and it's probably going to increase over the next month and that is our SEA1 understanding and planning. I think we kind of turned a corner this last month month and a half where our discussions our understanding shifted from our how does this impact the state as a whole? what are the trends that we're going to see throughout the state to how are we Western school corporation going to be impacted because not every school is going to be impacted the same and as
007our understanding shifts to that we need to have more discussions with you so that you have some understanding on some of the decisions that you're going to have to make and to kind of frontload your ability to absorb and understand some of this information I'm going to give you right now four key points that I think most of what you hear will attach to one or more of these key points. Uh some of what I'll go over today during the budget presentation, you'll be able to attach to again one or more of these key things during our session next week where we're bringing in some of our financial financial advisors. Again, I think you'll be able to say, "All right, what he or she is talking about really speaks to this of those four points
008that again I'll give you now." The first of those four is SEA provides a number of increasing taxpayer deductions over the next six years that will decrease our net AV and in turn the growth of our operations revenue significantly and we'll go over what those numbers are actually being projected but they are significant unfortunately. Uh the second point is our tax rate must go up in order to bring in our planned rates of revenue i.e. levies. However, just because the tax rate goes up does not necessarily mean taxpayers are paying more especially within this first year. Number three, we must shift strategies away from managing to a tax rate to managing to a revenue revenue amount i.e. i.e. a levy. And then fourth and final, our debt service tax rate will likely go above the
00970 cent threshold at some point in time. Right now, we're looking at 2029 is the projected year. When that happens, we cannot go to the community for any more money to purchase bonds without a referendum. And that's something that we'll have to uh plan for and kind of plan around a little bit. I won't go any more detail on it right now. Again, we'll have some more later on during the budget presentation, but I think those four points as I increase my own understanding of it, uh, is where you can link on some of the information that you're going to be getting now and over the coming weeks. >> So, what we can do is we can have Kyle send those out to you, those four points so you can kind of ingest that over
010the next couple weeks. And then, like he said, on the 28th, we'll have our meeting with Mr. Quack Bush and and Stiffel to take a little bit deeper dive into that. Um, so those will start becoming our talking points that we'll be building things around as we start navigating the challenges um that we're going to be facing. >> You received my supporting documentation. Any questions? I'm more than happy to answer. Otherwise, I submit for your approval. >> I'll make a motion to um accept uh the treasures report. >> I'll second. Any questions for Kyle? Thank you. All in favor? All right. Directors of exceptional learning. >> See, thank you, sir. Um, you've had the opportunity to look at my report. Um, this this last few weeks has really consumed um my time with the power
011school special programs through your state um system. um just sitting in a lot of webinars, working with our North Central Round Table um coordinators, trying to get the most up-to-date information on changes and how they are um rolling those out um and working with our teachers to get those to them as quickly as I can. Um but we're still working on that. Seems to be every day there are new new changes to it, new updates. Um we've had when I made my report, um we had 22 movein IEP students. I think we're up to 25 now. Um, and I think we had four or five that came from ABA facilities. So, no, not necessarily having services yet. Um, so just something to think about kind of moving forward. They haven't had those school services. So,
012just new to the school. Um, and then as far as title and grants, um, just working on getting everything submitted, the title budget, I'm working on that. That's due towards the middle um, of September. Um, just working through all the little hiccups along the way. Any questions on my report? How's the interview going? >> Um, you know, it's been better. Um, we've had a better response to um, pair of professionals. Um, I think we have maybe a couple more spots that we need to fill. Um, but we've had we've hired some really good good good people for those positions so far. >> Lindsay. >> Yes. >> Um, on the title three uh, guidance by the state, >> was there anything new in that? No, nothing new. Um, but that just supports our English language learners.
013>> Thank you. >> I know uh last week started NWA testing. >> Yes. >> And I I assume that's going on through this week as well. >> Yes. >> How's that going so far? >> Uh it seems to be going really good. I don't think we've had a lot of hiccups with technology with that. Um and everybody seems to be moving forward. Um I know there were some different dates as far middle school started a little bit earlier, everybody else and getting making sure everybody had ads and all the logistics, but so far so good. >> Thank you, Lindsay. >> Greg. >> Yeah, good evening. I'll actually just piggyback off of um off of Lindsay's a little bit. Um in regards to iPads, we did deploy iPads. Everybody got theirs um as of last Wednesday,
014the primary was the last building to deploy. Uh we did a little bit of different this year. We um shifted deployment. It helped with um response responding to issues with um just getting schools started. High school, middle school got theirs first. Intermediate got theirs on that next Monday and then primary got theirs on Tuesday or Wednesday. Um but um that that allowed us to kind of deploy in in phases instead of all at once. All at once is a lot um for for my group to to be able to get everything going. Um I do want to mention that um we um which is a good thing the the enrollment's up this year. That being said um we were short about right now about two cases for students. So we're down two students right now
015um do not have an iPad because of cases which should be coming tomorrow. Um what we've been doing is those who have withdrawn we take we take theirs and and assign them to the a new student. So, new students to the district within the last, you know, couple days. Um, maybe without teachers are are kind of adjusting some of their things right now to be able to uh to balance that out. But tomorrow, I'm hoping the shipment of uh cases come in and we'll be we'll be rolling again at full um full numbers. So, which is a good thing. We have had a couple issues. U we had um with our we got a new MDM this year which manages the iPads. That's been that's been going pretty well. Um, we like that application. We
016did have an issue last week with um, it looked like the internet was an issue, which actually it was our provider changed something on the back end that did not let us know. Um, so Stephen and I fought a battle for hours those first Monday, Tuesday, last week fighting a battle that was actually a different issue that was not on our side. So, caused some issues, but hey, we're we're back up and running. Everything's better on that part, too. Um, and then also the website, it's uh still in progress and uh Natalie and I are still working through uh the details for that and getting that ready to to hopefully release in November. >> So Craig, with our increase in students, how many um iPods do you have back or held back extra or do
017you have >> How many do we have for for spares? >> Um we normally keep about about 20 >> to 30. Not very. We don't want a lot because that's a lot sitting on a shelf. >> Um but I actually bought the exact number of of cases. Well, I buffered about 10 plus cases from last year's numbers. That's where we're shorter the the cases for um 3 through 12 >> on the website. Is it going to be uh like uh smartphone compatible? >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Yes. >> That way it's not distorted or anything. >> Yes. Yep. Yep. >> Anything else? >> Great. Great. >> Yeah. I had someone ask me about um finding the uh schoolboard meeting online. >> Um and they said they had read somewhere that it was going to be
018on our website to go there. Is it >> they couldn't find it? >> Yeah, it's under school board and then live meeting. >> Oh, well that seems pretty easy. >> Yeah, it's just and then Yeah. >> Yeah. >> So yeah, it's underneath there. So right at the top and then it drops down and it'll say live schoolport meeting. >> Okay. or recorded. The record is right below it as well. >> Okay. Yep. >> Thank you. >> Barrett, your turn. >> All right. Thank you, Scott. Appreciate it. Good evening to everybody. Um we've been pretty busy in the uh in the assistant superintendent's office here the last month. Um just an update on safety. Um with within the first 20 days, there's certain uh safety drills that we have to do and um we've completed all
019of those. So, hats off to all four buildings for getting those uh taken care of. Um, also our SRO's this year, we've rolled out kind of a checklist for them to work on um every week while they're here. So, that way we know um kind of what they're checking, what they're doing, and also fits into our strategic plan. So, um they've all been filling those out and we're very appreciative of that. Also, updates on transportation. Um, big thanks to uh Cindy McQuiry, uh Tracy who's our bus mechanic, uh Craig, all of our drivers and staff. Um we we've had a very good start. Um I always kind of gauge that by I'm really not worried how long it takes kids to get home as long as they're safe. Um and we didn't leave any kindergarteners
020on the porch without their parents. So that's always a big win for us. So um hats off to everybody who pitched in on that. So things have been going well. I know um drop off and pick up with our pickup parent line um that's been going very smoothly. So hats off to all the teachers and staff and administrators who've been helping with that. Um that's always a big part and if those aren't working, usually you guys hear about that. So um we we we're really happy that that's going well. Um updates on curriculum to to kind of piggyback a little bit on what Lindsay was saying. um our NWA a lot of the buildings are taking those baseline tests right now and um we'll have some data to share with you guys next meeting along
021with our uh PLC uh data sheets. We'll have that to share with you as well um in September. So uh pending your question that's my board report for all >> I just want to say I've heard a lot of really positive comments about transportation department how helpful >> everyone's been and how smoothly it's going. It's a It's a big undertaking, but yeah, hats off to all the team. >> Mark, thank you. You've had a opportunity to see my report. Just a couple highlights. Um, we're still monitoring class sizes and enrollment coming in. Um, right now we're currently sitting over 200 students. Uh, last year, uh, we were at 2492 at this time, uh, which was about a plus 11 for us. That was the first year that we saw an increase in our enrollment over
022the last like six, seven years. And so hopefully we're going to have two years now of an increased enrollment. Um wanted to thank uh a lot of uh the individuals that were involved with our new teacher orientation to make that a meaningful time for our our new staff. Um, and there was a lot of work that went into that with our finance department, our technology department, Nate, um, our our whole staff came together to put a lunch together, t-shirts, you name it, uh, they did it. So, uh, just really want to show my appreciation for that. Um, also, um, I I met with Senator Donado and Senator Baldwin. Um there was a group of us uh in um Senator Donado's uh region 18 to have a conversation about Senate Bill 1 and the impacts that
023we're seeing in our district. I thought it was a very productive meeting. um there's still a lot of unknowns and I think that's on both ends of uh the the table and so um I go back on Thursday um down to the state house to have continued discussions with a number of uh state leaders there as well with the legislative uh group with the superintendent association. So hopefully we'll start making some headway with those changes and um it's not um it's not a process that's over. I think everybody understands that there's some things that need to change there. Um, also, uh, we've continued having construction updates from Barton Co. Um, right now we're kind of at that phase where we're cleaning up in areas and doing some finishing touches. Um, when it rains, we get
024to figure out where the leaks still are. And so, like the other day, we had some leaks and so those are getting fixed and and patched. Um, we are having coping put around the building. if you've noticed that there's the bronze that's going around the building now. Um so you're going to see some of that. Um there's a little bit of brick work that's still happening. The electrical work is done for this year except for when they come back over fall break. Um so there's just going to be some touchup things. Um, but where we're seeing like roof leaks right now or where they had to stop and and kind of finish things, then they'll reconvene next year and do the rest of the the roof spots that they weren't able to finish this summer.
025And um, and then ultimately um, you know, this has been a good start of the 2526 school year and so I want to thank all the people that have uh, put in tireless hours. I mean, it takes a lot of time and a lot of energy. I don't think people realize uh the amount of time, you know, when we see people in the transportation department that's here at 3:00 a.m. to make sure that kids are on buses at 7:00 a.m., you know, people don't necessarily see the behind thescenes things. And so that's same thing with custodians and teachers and administrators. And so, um, just very thankful for all the people that put in the hard work, uh, to make, um, the experience for our kids and our families a positive experience here. So, that's, uh,
026a summary. Uh, so if you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer questions. >> Thank you, Mark. To the uh, budget workshop. Wait, you were you going to do the top >> Oh, yeah. I'm sorry. Yeah. Uh, we did we don't have Panther Pride or Mission Moment, but we did get notification from the IHSA that we were a top sportsmanship uh, uh, school um, by scoring a certain amount of points. I believe it was over 100 points to receive that award. So Aaron wanted me to share that with you. Um, and we're really proud of our student athletes and coaches to be able to um, be given credit as uh, showing good sportsmanship in our competitions. >> You said that was like one of 20ome schools that received it, right? >> Um, no, there's
027more than that. >> More athletes feel better. >> Yeah, there's a lot. There's a lot. But you know what? We're going to take that award. We lose or draw, baby. >> All right. Now, we're up to the budget workshop. All right. Budget workshop. Uh purpose of this I think is twofold. number one to inform you the board where the direction of the 26th budget is headed and then second most importantly get your permission to advertise our rate rates and requested appropriations for the budget and then also get permission to advertise for the bus replacement plan and the capital projects plan. And the last thing I'll ask you to do uh upon the conclusion of this presentation is to vote to grant us permission to advertise. Uh, as far as the budget goes, the the simple
028explanation of it is don't spend more than you have. Uh, the complex explanation of it is all the different parts and data points that go into it. And that's that graph that you see there on the right. The state has a number of forms that we complete that kind of feed back and forth into each other that then give us the forms we need to advertise and to approve the budget. So if you start there on the left, the form one is what you probably think of when you think of a budget, what you want to spend and where you want to spend it. The form two has to do with our revenue projections for the remainder of the current 2025 calendar year, but then for the whole of 2026. It however does not include
029property taxes. The current year financial worksheet allows us and DLGF to project out where our cash balances, fund balances will be at the end of the current year. The debt worksheet is how much we will pay in our bond payments for both this year and the next year being 2026. Uh again, the data points from all those feed into the the form 4B form, which then inputs our property taxes and allows us and the DLGF to determine cash balances at the end of 2025 and to advertise our property tax rate uh and levy. The output of that then is the form three which is what we use to advertise. It's our notice to taxpayers. And then the form four is what we'll ask you to adopt. It's the resolution adopting the budget that we'll put
030before you in October. As far as the timeline goes for the budget process, I won't go over under each of these points individually, but I'll point out what I'll say are the the three the three big events. The first of these is the budget workshop permission advertise. That is the here and now. It's what we're doing today. Uh the second is the budget hearing. That's what we'll do in September. And then the third is the actual adoption of the budget. That's what we will do in October. Same information but more along a timeline format. Uh what I'll point out with this is what happens after this meeting. Uh after you give us permission to advertise, uh I will upload the necessary forms onto Gateway as well as work with Craig on posting them on our
031website for our rates and levies and for the bus replacement plan and the capital assets plan. The culmination of all this, if we jump to the end of the timeline, uh, in December, will be us receiving the 1782 notice, uh, which is our approved budgets and our amounts as approved by the DGF. We do have an ability to respond, most schools do, uh, to get the levies and rates exactly kind of pinpointed where they where they want them. the framework of who does what in this process in this timeline. Uh our responsibility is to complete the state prescribed forms I went over three slides ago. Uh we have to advertise our hearing, advertise our capital assets plan, our bus replacement plan. Post those things to the website as well. Uh we need to hold the
032public hearing which again will be in September and then in October we will adopt the budget. uh by statute has to be done by November 1st and then submitted to the DLGF via gateway by November 7th will be way before those dates. As far as what the state's responsibility is, uh they review and modify our budget as needed. They set the final tax rates and they deliver the budget order that is that 1782 notice I previously mentioned. Similar to 2025, we will advertise high the rates and levies that you're going to see. You'll think, well, those seem high. They are intentionally. So, uh, we advertise high and then we wait for the DLGF to work us down as our net AV is certified and then they submit 782 notice which we may further tweak and
033alter down, especially when it comes to debt service to get the exact levy and rates that we want. As far as the funds that we are budgeting for, you you've heard me before call these the the big four funds being the education fund, debt service, rainy day, and the operations fund. That arrow is in the middle to remind you that money can move between the funds. Typically, it takes a resolution and vote by the board, but money can flow between those three funds. Debt service is the exception to that rule. It is more of a locked silo that can be used for one sole purpose and that is to make our bond payments. I will mention with this these aren't our only four funds. That was a surprise a few board meetings ago that we
034have more funds than these four. Uh we actually have 61 funds right now that have money in them. Some of those are clearing accounts. If we cut away the clearing accounts, it's about 53 funds. But these four funds is where most of our money lives and they are and that's why the state has more guidelines on them as far as uh how we get permission to spend and because two of the four are funded through taxpayer money, how we get our levies and tax rates so that that can occur. Going over each of those four funds, starting with the education fund. Uh, as a reminder, this one, and I just stated this again, it is not funded by property taxes. Rather, the revenue we receive from this is from the state. It's based primarily upon
035our student count or ADM. To a lesser extent, things like CTE numbers, special education numbers, honors diploma numbers also play a role, but student ADM is going to be by and far the biggest factor. There are two count dates where the state determines what our student population is. One October 2nd and the other in February. With the revenue that we do receive from the state, we can transfer up to 15% from the education fund to the operations fund. And without that, it'd be hard for the operations fund to remain solvent. Uh fortunately, we are able to stay under that 15%. We're the only school in Howard County that is under that full 15%. We transfer 14%. If we were to tap into that extra 1%, you're looking at a 200 to $250,000 extra transfer that
036would occur that we have never had to do up to this point in time. Uh in October, when you do approve the budget, we will also uh reapprove the resolution for allowing that transfer to occur up to 15%. Uh as far as what we are seeking approval from for the DLGF uh for our 2026 budget uh total being 20,280,813. >> Something to add to Kyle's note here with the education fund. Some some of the additional dollars that come in through special education or especially CTE are becoming more and more challenging to track to know exactly what we're getting paid because those are changing as well. And so that's just something to be aware of that um what might be a high need um course that students would take this year might not be a high
037need next year. And also they're changing some of the um information uh for us when it comes to funding following your um seals. So the education seal, the employment seal, the enlistment seal. So, some of that's going to be changing as well. >> As far as what we're spending the money on, if it's in the education fund, it's got to be tied to instruction as far as where the appropriations live within the fund. Uh, if you cut out, and these numbers, these percentages do cut out the transfer from education to ops. It includes the smaller transfers we have to make to help fund uh invest and Kasich, but again, the operations transfer is not included. So you're looking at almost 70% of the total money that's appropriated uh is spent on salaries. 20% is benefits.
038So social security, medical insurance, um dental, vision, all those things. Uh 5% is going to be supplies. One thing I'll mention now too is one of the new expenses that this is the first year and when I say this year 2025 2026 will be the second then that we have in the education fund that we haven't before is curriculum before curriculum always had its separate fund what was identified as but as of January 1st of this year the state said we had to transfer those funds so you've got about an additional half million dollar appropriation that we have for curriculum costs that now live in the education fund debt service. What we are seeking approval for uh is 4,869,07. It's exactly what we need to make our bond payments. The maximum estimated funds to be
039raised that we're asking for totals $5,141,288. You may be asking, why are you asking for more money than you plan to spend? Eventually, we won't, but we ask for the max amount. Let the DGF work us down. We may work it down further, relying on some of our cash balances to make our payments to again keep our levy and rate where we want them to. And we have a financial team, specifically, you've heard us mention Stifel, you'll talk to them next week, that we rely very heavily on this to really pinpoint this and get exactly what we we want. They're very good at this process. um been a good addition to our team now for about a year, year and a half. We brought them on board. So, as far as what we're paying for,
040the bonds that you see listed on the mid bottom half of the slide, uh is what we are making payments on. There's a couple of those that within the next year, year and a half will be coming off the books and we'll have to stop making payments or we'll make our final payment. The operations fund, the budget that we are requesting is 8.2 million. The maximum estimated funds to be raised for 2026 is $4,592 and sorry, $4,592,21. Now, as I'll explain moving on, that is not what we'll receive because we are a high circuit breaker district. We have a levy and then the circuit breaker comes out of that and then we receipt something that is much less unfortunately but that is what we will ask for. That's 4% more than what we asked for
041last year. Uh the DGF and state says you're capped at a 4% increase. You can't go beyond that. Uh with this budget, the 8.2 million and this is the same conversation that I didn't mention with the education budget. We're asking for more than what we need. We always ask for more in case some of the variables change and they will and we need more and having that excess appropriation saves us the the hassle of having to go to the DGF and getting an additional appropriation. Uh we will get permission for that budget, but I'll work off an internal budget that's more based on what is the exact projected revenue we expect to receive for that year. And I'll show you this in one of the last slides. uh and we monitor that revenue, projections of
042that revenue uh monthly to see all right, can we increase our budget for operations and maybe spend something that we weren't expecting or do we need to decrease it because our ADM dropped on that second count and that's something that happens a lot of student count drops and we have to decrease the budget as a re result. Uh I'll mention this uh for some of our board members that have been around longer than others. You probably remember the pre209 days where there was an operations budget, but you had separate budgets of capital projects, transportation, and bus replacement. As a reminder, the operations budget is all these former budgets uh combined. Uh we've stated that 15% transfer comes from education to operations. Other significant sources of revenue for operations is going to be primarily property taxes,
043what are called some miscellaneous taxes that I'll show you later. Uh, another significant source of revenue that we've been in from the last couple years, two and a half years maybe, uh, is interest rates have been up. And for that reason, because of our cash balance, we've been able to bring more money into operations. It is expected if you watch the news that starting within this month, maybe next, the interest rate will start to work down, which means that interest rate that we report out each month will also be less. Uh items of note that are included within the operations fund, the capital assets and projects plan. All those expenses live in operations and the bus replacement plan is going to live in operations. Uh and I'm not I was going to turn to Barrett,
044but not yet. One more slide. Uh as far as where the money is being spent, uh you see the pie here percentage wise of where our expenses are. You're looking about 40 41% in salaries, 11% in benefits. uh you've got 4% in purchase services uh 22 23% in supplies and then about five or 6% that is property related. As I did mention uh the bus replacement plan does live within operations. One of the things that we will do in the coming months is get our bus replacement plan approved. And so that you know what we are asking for, I'm going to bring this up and turn it over to Barrett. >> Perfect. Thank you, Kyle. I appreciate it. Um you you'll notice that the buses have gone up. If you've been doing this for a
045while, um we try to forecast about a 10% increase um every couple years. I do know this year in talking with two vendors, which would be International and Bluebird, they've told us uh end of September there will be an 8 to 10% increase on this number. due to what they call tariff increases. So that's going to impact um a lot of things. Um but as you can see these buses are replacing ones that are back from 2008 and also our SPVS. So I in last look about a week ago both of those school buses um have around 158,000 miles on them and the SPB which goes on a lot of trips has uh close to 200,000 miles. So, they've they've done a great job. Um, but it just comes time that we have to replace
046them. So, as you can see in the five-year time period, um, we're replacing school buses after they usually have a life of about 13 or 14 years. Giving you just a perspective, when I first did the bus replacement plan seven years ago, uh SPV was $65,000 and they're $120,000 today. >> So, keep in mind as you see our operations revenue projected to decrease, our expenses and our vendors don't decrease what they're billing us for. Um, side note, uh, going into the capital projects plan now, uh, which is what you see here. Uh, this first tab is our capitals, capital acquis acquisition, excuse me. Uh, a lot of just general lines for supplies, equipment, furniture that lives within the budget uh, both for equipment uh, and for technology broken out among the buildings. We've also got
047some items here at the bottom that in working with John, uh he recognizes that the maintenance department could either use a lot of times for safety purposes or that need replaced that he'd like to see added over the next few years. So, we are trying to find ways to fit those into the budget if not this year, over the next, you know, three to four coming years. As far as capital projects go, uh, as I scroll down this, some of it should look familiar as far as being grouped under roofing among the buildings, electrical, and the envelope. Uh, so this is very much tied to the construction that is going on outside of these walls and these windows, uh, not just now, but in the coming years. There's also some lines for what we budget
048for on general construction and improvement. uh align for specifically athletics as well. Navigating back to the slide, uh exiting the operations fund and moving into the rainy day fund. The requested budget that we're asking for for rainy day is $400,000. Uh we are requesting an appropriation to spend with no intent on spending it. It's there more as a safety to where if something would happen or strategically we think that it would make sense for an expense to go towards this, we have it there and you don't have to go through a lengthy process to request an additional appropriation on the back end. Uh this has been the custom of Western to have this $400,000 sitting there in case we need it. Uh the rainy day fund in general is for again what it's called for
049for the unexpected if and when that occurs. Uh right now our rainy day fund is at a million dollars. Um the revenue from that has all been generated from transfers over the years. We've kind of worked it to that point that we're comfortable with where it's at. Um there's no revenue source that it has uh from property taxes or from the state. It's all from transfers uh usually from operations. As far as our tax rate goes, in this chart you can see an historical timeline of the last four or five years of where our tax rate has been. And we have two separate tax rates. One for debt service, again, how we make our bond payments, and one for operations. Those add or culminate into the total tax rate that we can see where it's
050been over the last four years. Uh Western has been a school corporation that has been tolerant and our community has been tolerant of the tax rate going up and down over the years. However, over the last two years, uh we've had a lot of discussions about all right, let's let's settle on a tax rate that we think is responsible and maintain that tax rate for the foreseeable future. And working with the board, the tax rate that we agreed upon was that $114. and we planned significantly planned and projected to do what we need to do to maintain that. That was in the pre-SEA1 world. We now live in a post sea1 world where as you're going to find that's not going to be possible any longer. And as we look at this chart, one of
051the things you'll notice if you look down here at the bottom is our net AV. And if we even go back farther down the timeline, you'd see that the net AV has consistently grown and that eases when that grows, that eases the tax burden on the taxpayer. What we're seeing as a result of SEA1 is we expect our net AV to actually decrease from 2025 to 2026. Now, I'll mention our net AV has not been certified and communicated to us yet. Typically, I do have this and I can pretty well project out within three decimal points what our tax rates will be because they haven't given to us yet. I can't do that. This right here and working with some of our adviserss, excuse me, is the number that we expect. I have been hearing
052from the counties that have already gotten theirs and it's coming in a little bit higher. So, we're optimistic that could be higher. But before I explain this further, I'll point out what we will advertise and put our notes to our taxpayers are these numbers here from the projected. Again, those should look high. They are intentionally high. We'll let the DLGF work us down as our net AV is officially certified and that will come through in the communication between us and them. If our net AV would come in at this projected amount and our levies would stay the same, which operations isn't going to change, we're capped at that debt service might change a little bit as we have conversations about future planning and working with our financial planners with with Stiffel. Uh but right now,
053if the NetA was that, that's where I would see our total tax rate. Now, to show you how dependent this is on the net, I'm going to go to a spreadsheet where I've built in some scenarios. And I'll make this larger so that you can see it. Same chart here. You see this $800 million. If we change this to what we received last year, the 86 million, watch what happens to our projected tax rate, we go from $1.1742 to $1165 if we just maintain what we had. But usually we go up and working with some of our policy experts prece1 what the NAV was projected to be was 854 million. If that came through watch what happens to our tax rate. We go from $1.17 to $110. So our tax rate is very much governed
054by what this comes in at. if we want to maintain our levies. So what does this mean for the individual taxpayer? Uh for that we've built out three different scen or sorry four different scenarios. Let me get this right sized. Mhm. >> Sorry, I was making some changes here. I did not put it back. All right. So, we see four homes valued from anywhere from $100,000 to $400,000 for their gross AV. And you can see in this first column for each home what their 2025 taxes looked like verse what the 2026 taxes would be projected to look like. Now this holds two very important variables stable. Uh those variables are the gross AV and the local tax rate. Uh for that local tax rate I've just used $2, which if you look at Harrison, Honey
055Creek, and Monroe, they're all right around there. In 2025, we made up of a $114 of that to put it in perspective. But their total tax rate again would have been $2. So if you keep those two variables stable, which they won't be, but just for simplicity sake, if we keep those two variables stable, you see how much less each of the taxpayers would be paying pre and post SCA1. Now those variables are not stable. If we increase our tax rate by 4 cents, which you see the tax rates gone up for 2026, you can see that each of the taxpayers is still paying less in 2026 than they would have in 2025. Now, home one and home two are not paying as much less, but they're still paying less. Home three and four changed
056zero. And the reason they change zero is because they've already hit their circuit breaker. The state says that a homeowner can't pay more than 1% of their gross AV. So once you hit that, regardless of what the tax rate increases to, you don't pay anymore. For a farmer, it's 2%. For a business owner, it is 3%. Now, the other variable though is gross AV. And these two homeowners, three and four, are not going to pay more unless their gross AV goes up. And if we look at this chart, I'll make this bigger so you can see it. Over the last four or five years, gross AV has spiked and spiked considerably. And that's been the driving factor of why property taxes have gone up. So if somebody complains, well, the school increased the property tax
057rate and my property taxes went up. If we did, that was a small portion of it. And most of them, because our circuit breaker is so higher, are capped by the circuit breaker. So the reason their taxes went up is because their gross AV went up. And this is why people complain to the legislators that, hey, why am I paying all this property tax money? My GAV keeps sp skyrocketing. So they found ways to increase the net AV by giving homeowners, businesses, and farmers increased tax deductions. So, if we do increase the GAV by, let's just say a very modest 3%. You see what happens? Everybody is paying still less. Not as much less, but they're still paying less. If that increases by 3% to 5%. Again, they're all still paying less, but not as
058much less. If we go to 7%, >> Still paying less. Homeowner one, just six cents less. If we jump to 10%, that's where you're going to see that in almost all the cases, all but one, the homeowner is paying a little bit more in 2026 than they are in 2025. So that goes back to those key points I gave you at the very first during my update of just because our tax rate goes up doesn't necessarily mean taxpayers are paying more. The other part of this >> depends on what home you live in, right? Three, four. >> Does Yeah. The value of your home is going to definitely impact it. Uh another thing that's going to impact it uh is this supplemental homestead credit which is new. There's a reason that number doesn't exist in
0592025. Uh what this says is after you have your net tax bill, then you will reduce it further by the lesser of $300 or 10% of your net property tax bill. And this then is a credit for the homeowner. It is a loss for the taxing unit, i.e. schools. And when you look at our circuit breaker numbers, which are projected to absolutely skyrocket, this is the primary purpose is because this is new this year. There's also some additional uh tax credits. If you're over 65, Harry, you're there, aren't you? You'll get additional credit. Uh if you're disabled, you'll get additional credit. If you're a disabled veteran, you'll get additional credit. That's not shown on this. Obviously, we uh can't go that far into detail on this, but going back to the the slide deck, going
060further into what this is going to mean as it pertains to the circuit breaker. Here you see the historical trends of what our circuit breaker has done since 2019. And you'll see that it has very steadily climbed. In 2025, our levy was that 4.4 4 million, but our circuit breaker loss was the I'll call 1.3 million. Obviously, I'm I'm rounding, but then if we jump up to the projections for 2026, our approved levy went up the max 4%. Our circuit breaker jumps to almost $1.7 million. And the primary reason for that is going to be that tax credit. Now the the other part of this and this is where things get compound complex is part of this tax credit has to be absorbed by the debt service fund at least for this first year. We
061think it's an oversight on the legislature that they'll correct this next session. But for right now about $200,000 additional that's not shown here will hit the debt service fund. Once they make the expected correction then that 1.6 6 million jumps increases by 200,000. So you see how our operations revenues are projected to to go down or one of the reasons why they're projected to go down. So if we look at our operations tax comparison from 2025 to 2026 in that first column you're obviously seeing 2025 again you see that property tax levy of the $4.4 4 million the circuit breaker of the between 1.3 1.4 million and then what we actually expect by the end of the year to bring into our accounts. There's also some miscellaneous taxes that are obviously less that help to
062supplement that revenue. So you see total what we expect to receive for 2025 when we use the DLGF forms to project out what we're going to see in 2026. Yes, the levy increases by 4%. But now the quote normal circuit breaker increases to, you know, it's pushing $1.5 million. The tax credit onto operations is about $189,000. So you see in property taxes alone, we are projecting that we will receive $123 to $124,000 less. Now the the saying of the legislature is with SEA1 they wanted to see a decrease to the increase. They didn't they didn't want schools to get less money. They just didn't want to see the the growth that we had seen the last few years. Uh however there are some schools who actually going to see less in year one. Unfortunately we
063are one of about I think they're projecting 70 schools that will actually see less from 2025 in property taxes to 2026. As far as those miscellaneous taxes go, you can see we're projecting about 17 to $18,000 less. So total with all taxes combined, you're looking about $141,000 less in 2026. Now, the debt service tax credit, I'm sorry, yeah, the debt service hit on the tax credit or because the tax credit is not shown in that. uh if and when that comes into operations that 141,000 would increase by 2002 200 plus thousand dollars. Budget summary uh the advertised numbers the the numbers in the middle column are the numbers that I've gone over. The column at the right is actually what I am projecting our internal budget will go off of. Again, we ask for more
064than we need because variables change and we want to have some cushion there if we are fortunate enough to be able to increase our internal budget. But our internal budget, at least for education operations, uh is tied to what we expect to receive in revenue. And again, we're constantly altering those forecasts and then we alter the budget, tweak the budget as a result. But right now in the education fund, we're looking at an internal budget of about 19.2 2 million debt service is exactly the same advertised and projected because it's exactly what we need to make our bond payments. The operations budget uh we're looking at a little under $7.1 million. That's less than what we were for uh 2025 or are for 2025 for reasons that I think are becoming obvious. Uh the rainy
065day fund, we asked for that $400,000. Our internal budget is is zero. We're not projecting that we use any of that, but it's there in case we need it. Last slide uh that I used as an analogy last year that I'll use again. Uh have a plan, work the plan, plan for the unexpected. Projecting out of where the year goes is kind of like projecting the path of a hurricane. You know, a few months in, you've got a pretty good idea. your cone is pretty small. But as you get farther out and the variables become more volatile, uh there is the opportunity for the the plan to have to make amends or to make modifications to the plan. Uh and that is what we've always done with the budget and what we will continue to
066do. Uh we hope that you don't see that path all the way to the right where you think it'll be here, but then it takes the far right turn. Uh unfortunately though, SCA1 may be taking us in that uh unexpected direction. If you have any questions, I'm more than happy to uh answer. Uh I do ask that if there's no questions or when you're finished asking questions, you do hold a vote that gives me permission to advertise the uh levy rates bus replacement plan and the capital projects plan. >> I'll make a motion to approve that we advertise. >> I'll second it. >> Any questions? Yeah. So, just a great job breaking this down and your graphs are great to show this in simple terms. If we do go above the 14 like that has
067been our goal in the past. I just want to make sure I understand that's going to fall on the backs of homeowner one and homeowner two, right? Because none of that will impact homeowner three and four. >> So, it's it's not as it's not as simple as that. But if yes, if you've hit your circuit breaker, then the increased tax rate alone is not going to impact them. But if they're gross AV goes up, which it will, they'll pay more. >> Sure. As well, >> AV is two separate things. >> You are correct. >> That's the part that bothers me. If we abandon our dollar4, it's going to hit homeowners one and two. >> I worry about the same. How does our circuit breaker compare to other? >> We're high. >> Very >> we're we're
068very high. >> Got a quick question. I saw in some of the numbers earlier that there might be $3 million differences somewhere, but we might be able to move some from operations to education or vice versa. We might be able to offset some of that number to where they're dropping us. We'll be able to catch it up with some other funds moving things around a little bit. Maybe, >> you know, going back to that that pie of the the four the big four funds, you saw the arrow where funds can move. >> Uh we don't like to do that any more than what's necessary. Um you know, we transfer 14% of the state revenue from education to operations. You know, we've always got the ability to tap into that extra 1%. That's not something that
069we want to do. That's something we will continue to work very hard to avoid because that's less money uh that we can put into salary and benefits for not just teachers but for any position that's tied to instruction. But there are a number of levers I I'll call them that levers that as we face tension on our revenue streams that we can look to uh that we are kind of planning around right now. um as hard as you you see that reduction in revenue from 25 to 26 that's sustainable. Where it gets harder is in the years to come and I think this is what you'll see next week uh with some of our financial planners. 2028 is the big hit. 2028 we get hit and schools around the state. Not just us, but we
070and the other Howard County schools are going to get very hard in 2028. >> Kyle, I appreciate you building our capacity to kind of sort of understand this and I'm wondering too as we go forward how we can help support you because everybody needs to understand this to some extent or have the talking point. So you don't have to know this now, but as you go, how can we help you? You know, I think it's having the understanding that it's it kind of takes a tribe and a team at this point in time and we brought in a team from Stiflel Jeff Quac and Bbush, our bond council, policy analytics is another group that we are working with as of late. Uh these are the experts um that we have to rely upon because they
071have the ability, the tools and the knowhow to drill it down further than what we can to where we can look at it. and I you know very broad they can look at it through a microscope uh and give us a lot more information and detail that allow us to make plans and decisions that result from the numbers you see >> and I think it's also something to know that we all have to have the flexibility to pivot >> as things change as we talked a lot about the planning and ideas that we had prea1 how that kind of got train wrecked. And so having that flexibility to pivot, but then also as we build this capacity with our financial advisors that we create a consistent message that we can share with others, just like
072the four points that Kyle pointed out at the very beginning of of his report, those are the things that we're going to have to consistently be able to share. And then also know that if a rule changes in April that our message may change as well. It's not that we're trying to do something wrong. It's just that the rules of the game change and that's unfortunately and Kyle and I use that term a lot of compound complex because that's exactly what it is. >> And that's something that's been communicated to us is the legislature is is not done. Um, our Asbo director I think put it best when he said if you use the baseball analogy and you think that this property tax reform is a nine inning baseball game. He said we're in inning
073two or three. So there are additional changes coming. So you know we have to plan for what we know but we also to you know look at the the slide. You know we have a plan. We're working that plan. We've also got a plan for the unexpected and as new rules are made as new data comes in as Mark said we need to pivot. This would be a great presentation for lawmakers. >> Exactly. >> Well, they could be watching on >> on live now, right? >> Be great. >> Thanks, Kyle. >> Thanks, G. The advertising. Sorry. >> Need a motion to second. So, >> all in favor? Sorry. Been so long. I back. >> All right. Up to curricular review. Yes, Kyle. >> Yeah, thank you, Kyle. Um, >> so asking for the board's approval
074for a 30-day review on the um high school human sexuality curriculum. This is um actually something that um we are working on and you'll see in the Ola policy is some of the state laws have changed. So, we're putting that out uh for review. I believe the middle schools will probably be next month where we've used uh CPR, which is creating positive relationships for probably a decade or more, but because of this new law, we want to make sure that we still put that out for everybody uh and go through the approval process even though we've been using it for the past 10 years. So, just asking for your approval on a 30-day review. So move to acceptric. >> I'll second it. >> All right. Questions? >> Um, yeah. Who wrote this curriculum? >> This
075was uh worked by uh Mr. Bennington, who is our health teacher at the high school. >> So he wrote that curriculum that we're looking at. >> He's he's been using different resources and I believe there's a bibliography on that. So that's what he's he's used. >> Okay. saw his name. I just didn't know if it came from a state or came from a >> Nope. Those are things that he's publisher. >> Yep. And some of our teachers do that. They create their own curriculum and he's looked through numerous amounts of material and umworked with other health teachers around the state to come up with the material. And I don't know if there's anything else that you'd want to add, Steve, to that because I know you've worked with him last year. So like he was
076blindsided focused on very good network together. >> Okay, thank you. Any other questions? >> All in favor? Unanimous guaranteed energy saving contract. >> Yeah. So, asking for your approval for um let's see here for a guaranteed energy savings contract. So, um, now is it not up there? Okay. Um, I'll just read the, um, the letter here that is, I think some of you probably have in your board. Oh, there it is. Um, the WSC administrative team recommends that the school board of trustees award the guaranteed energy saving contract request for qualifications and request for proposal to Virgy. Uh we've identified through the evaluation process as the most qualified and responsive provider demonstrating the ability to deliver cost savings, energy efficient efficiency improvements, and facility enhancements aligned with the district's long-term goals and needs. Pending board
077approval, the administration will proceed with the planning and negotiations with Virgy to ensure the best value and outcome for the district um are presented to the board uh at a later date. Uh so thank you for your consideration. >> Motion accept >> Cindy first. Cindy's first. >> Motion we accept Burgie as our guaranteed energy savings. >> I'll second. >> Any questions? >> So we looked at three vendors. >> Yeah. >> Could you tell us who the other two were? >> Yes. Snider Electric. We got to get them right here. There's an acronym on one of them. So Snyder Electric and CMTA along with Verigy with three groups. Any other questions? All in favor? Transportation routes and safety review. All right, Mr. Bates. Thank you, Mr. Duboce. Uh the state requires every year that we review
078our routes and safety. Um what a lot of this is is we might have students who move in and out of the district and there's certain laws and regulations that we have to follow like on state uh highways and interstates. We have to pick up door side. Um so again this is just uh presenting to the board and being in compliance with the state that we have reviewed um our safety for the transportation department. >> I'll make a motion. >> Second, >> Lyn. Any any questions? >> All in favor? >> Asking your approval for the donations that were presented. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Any questions, comments? All in favor? >> Nola policies. So these are nola policies that are updates from uh state or federal law changes that have taken place. We were
079uh given these um in July after or I think actually it was after we submit our board doc. So we are now submitting that to you now. Um it is uh recommended by Niola that we um go over uh this as a first read approval. Uh, so I'm asking for your approval of these NEOA updates. >> How many will we have? >> So Greg Harry, >> any questions >> at this time? Are there changes have need to be made to our handbooks or any other documentation based on these proced policies? Um, from a standpoint of handbooks, um, I don't think we really need to change anything other than these policies for right now. Um, we can obviously the policies supersede our handbooks anyways, but we can comb through any of those changes. Like for example,
080um, the 52 um, 5200, the attendance one, we had already made that change in our handbook with the students. Um but um the um one on um the human sexuality um we don't have like that in our handbook to >> um to our I guess a better question is our curriculum. >> Yeah. And and no there's nothing that I I can see that we would change in our handbook uh from that standpoint other than um you know we'll update our curriculum on the website. Um, we'll have I know they're working on a consent form once that stuff gets approved and so on and so forth. So, those are some of the changes that we're going to be making, but I don't think there's anything that is um immediately needing to be changed in a student
081handbook or a staff handbook at this time. >> How many reads will we have? >> This is typically we do we have up to three, >> right? We've done two, but since these are just all law changes, um they're recommending that we do it in one read. >> So, our motion was to approve it on first read that which is not normal, but that's what we were asked to do and made the motion. >> So, the human sexuality issue is not going to be a problem. That's that's what why we're reviewing that because that's typically that's something that is required now that that specific part of that curriculum is now reviewed and approved by the board. So that's why we brought the high school one. We'll bring the middle school one to you. That's what's
082new in the policy. It's not changing what we actually teach in human sexuality other than um I think uh consent is now a requirement and um the video for um the fetal development is a requirement. So some of those pieces changed in the policy but it's not um anything on um philosophy I guess of um human sexuality. >> That's so my question partly is, you know, the video, the pictures, I mean, >> yeah. And that's why those are really good age appropriate. >> Those are that's why we have them on a 30-day review. >> And so then once that 30-day review comes, then we will vote to approve those. So the material that we provided tonight, as you look through that, as the community looks through that, if there are things that we don't want
083in that or if we think there's a better resource, that's why we'll have that 30-day review for that material. >> Okay. So, even though we have this approval of this read, we're going to be able to adjust it. >> Oh, yeah. We we are this is with the mandatory curriculum is just and in the policy is saying we are going to review human sexuality curriculum >> period. That's that's what the that's what the um policy is. >> Okay. Then as we review the material as a board, we will have those discussions over the next 30 days and then that will get board approved or the board will modify or reject or whatever based off of what what you review. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Any other questions? All in favor? Yes. personnel. >> Asking your
084approval for the U personnel presented in front of you. >> I move to accept the personnel. >> I'll second. >> Any questions? All in favor? Unanimous. Professional development and asking for your approval for the professional development >> presented. Second. >> Any questions? >> All in favor? >> Be quick. >> Yeah, you guys are all right. >> Uh, okay. Uh, board member round table. We'll start with Harry tonight. >> Thank you, Kyle. A tremendous amount of work went into that obviously and has a great impact on our school. So, >> thank you for doing all you can to get it get financially solid. >> Thanks for being here. >> So, thank the staff and everybody that's been involved in starting a school. I mean, it's a great operation and we have got it set in a
085decent place where it runs well every time. That's wonderful. You guys work hard and like you said, the hours that people put in don't realize what it takes to do it. And also, congratulations on the sportsmanship award. That's right, Western. Good job. >> Pretty much what the guys said. Plus, Craig, thank you for letting me help with the iPad distribution. Marine, thank you. >> It was way too much fun. >> You're always welcome to come back and do it. Be glad to. >> What about pickup? >> Yeah. >> I just wanted to say congratulations on the start of a new school year. And selfishly, I'm really excited to complete a full academic year here at Western. >> Okay. Um, I just wanted to say I appreciate Cody De Haven uh get getting up and giving
086his heartfelt remarks. Um, I know when I started out teaching it was I made $17,000 a year, whopping. And I'm also not surprised about those buses. I mean, transportation. We ought to be able to sell our used buses for more now, I would think. >> Yeah. >> Who wants also like to uh say how much I appreciate the donations that came in. It looks like the middle school benefited quite a bit this month from those. Kyle, you gave up being a social studies teacher and a principal to do this job. I don't know why, but thank you. Yes. >> Um, what everyone else said, uh, grateful for another school year. Thank you everyone for all the hard work you guys have put in, not only the last couple weeks, but over the summer as well.
087Um, I know we we had a couple hiccups, I think, with the the pickup line, but I think that next day it was like perfect. So, really want to say thank you. Uh, I know Chris and I got your email about uh proper procedures for pickup. So, thank you for being diligent about that as well. So, I that's always a hot topic for similar reasons. So, I do want to say thank you, Flick. Good to have you back, bud. I'm glad you're had extended vacation. Uh, but it was really cool to see the the kids succeed the way they did and really represent our whole community. So, that's all I got. >> That's all. We need >> make a motion to adjourn. >> Second. >> We are adjourned. Thanks for coming.