001meeting to order of the Yorktown Community School Board of Trustees. And if you'd stand and join me in the pledge of allegiance, please. >> I pledge allegiance 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. >> Thank you. and you may be seated. Okay, this is a special session to prove a couple of different things. We're going to propose our we have our budget uh public hearing. We're also going to talk about our teacher appreciation grant and update on the roof. We're going to approve our CBA with the teachers association as well as recommended um raises for the rest of our our staff including um non-certified and administrative and non-bargaining. So we will start as we
002always do with any public comment. Anyone wish to speak tonight? All right, moving on to item three. Uh 3A is our teacher appreciation grant kind of plan. So we have guidance now from the DOE. It's interesting guidance, but um I don't know if everybody's had a chance to look at at the criteria or not. So, you know, there's three different levels. You know, it talks about eligibility for the recognition level, the exemplary level, and the exemplary plus stipened. Um it's really good money. Um, we had talked before and I think other corporations have talked before about do you opt in or do you opt out. I don't know what your your thoughts are, Dr. Henshaw, but you know, most of the corporations that I'm talking to now are going to try to opt in and
003come up with a plan. >> Yeah. Money on the table. >> That's why this is on here for discussion. we will have to submit a job form to the state before the end of this week to to basically specify our interest in moving forward and several of the associations ISBO ISBA IPSS I think I don't know about ISBA but the other two definitely have come out and very clearly said that they think districts should not turn the money down so I've had multiple conversations with lots of other superintendent and at this point. I think my recommendation would be that we go ahead and indicate to IDOE that we're going to move forward, but that that doesn't mean we have to take the money. I think then we would want to work with YTA and develop
004a plan. That's not required in the statute, but I think that's a good practice. >> Yeah. And one of the concepts that I have seen that I like I read it to say that the first and only required indicator is performance on some kind of an objective assessment of students. And so I think that's the first screen. And what I like beyond that is that you have the flexibility to add some other requirements. And I know a colleague elsewhere in the state who is essentially going to create these positions that people can apply for for some extra duties. And so my concept would be that we we look at the data to determine who would qualify on the assessment side and then we try to have roughly 30 positions available up to 30 positions available.
005That would be for extra duties as a mentor, as a a team leader, a grade level leader, and it wouldn't necessarily be to supplant positions that we already have, but it would be to supplement. And then those positions would be the ones that would qualify. And also, the thing that that I've heard that a lot of people are doing is only attempting to give the lowest level stipen this year until they have more information. So our our goal would be to craft a plan that could be approved that would give 30 stipens at the $3,500 level and that people would know in advance that they were being considered for that rather than retroactively trying to apply it on the basis of data. >> So I don't know if you have opinions or guidance but and
006Dr. Sturgeon and Cara and I have already met and I've got actually got a meeting later this week with a couple of my colleagues in the county to talk about what they're going to do. So, I >> think it makes sense to take it and figure out a plan. So, it >> Okay, what do you think? >> Sounds good to me. >> Sounds good. >> Do we need to we'll just Yeah, we'll you say yes. >> Okay. >> I'm glad that we're looking at a plan and not just >> Yeah. Exactly what this says. >> I mean, it it's roughly $100,000 of >> Yeah. >> new money for us. I don't know if it's new money because we got tagged last year, but additional money. >> So, we'll keep you posted on our plan. >>
007Okay. Item 3B is a roofing update. So, I am still in the process of doing my due diligence on this, but I was contacted by another superintendent that that I know well with a recommendation for a roofing contractor and I ended up making contact with them and um they have actually the manufacturer that they work with has presented a proposal to us, a budget proposal that looks pretty good on paper. Um, it's a materials and labor 25-year warranty. 20 or 25. I think you can buy up to 25. And, uh, it's significantly lower than any other estimate that we have received. So, I have been in contact with multiple other districts that have used both this manufacturer and the installer, and the short version is that the feedback has been mixed. So, I've I've gotten
008some people that are very enthusiastic about this manufacturer and the installer, and I've gotten some other people that have been not as enthusiastic. And so, I'm I'm still waiting through that, but trying to figure out the uh the costbenefit analysis here, the tradeoff of the the dollars and cents versus the warranty. So, I want you to know I'm still in process and hopefully within the next couple weeks, I'll have a plan to present to you. And that's a replacement option, not the >> it's total tear off down to the decking and replacement. So, and it's uh mechanical fasteners and you know, we would take care of all the flashing and >> good. >> So, >> and defer Moran has given us an opinion that then >> So, it's also sold through a cooperative purchasing agreement,
009a different cooperative purchasing agreement than we talked about before. So, I went back, we've talked to SBOA first and then we went back to defer who said, "Yes, this one will comply with the statute, but you'll have to bid the labor." So, I'll keep you posted. I just wanted you to know that I haven't forgotten about the roof. And uh some of it it it almost seems too good to be true, which makes me do even more due diligence to try to say, okay, >> are are we really certain that we're >> Did you tell me that HSC is using them currently now, but the project's not done? >> Correct. Just started with them. >> Okay. >> Yeah. And I've I've talked to half a dozen other districts in the last couple weeks on them.
010So anyway, >> cautiously optimistic, right? Well, that's great news potentially. Um, okay. Item 4 A is approval of our collective bargaining agreement with the with YTA. >> So, it hasn't changed since the hearing that we had a couple weeks ago and it has been ratified by the teachers association. So, I would ask for approval. >> Motion to approve. >> Second. >> A motion from Mr. Kelly and a second from Mrs. Cassaway. Any further comments or discussion board? >> Way to go Yorktown for having that starting salary. >> Are we higher than Muny? >> I think so. >> Yeah, >> we got into an argument with somebody about that the other day. So, >> okay. I have a motion and a second. All those in favor vote by saying I. >> I. >> Any opposed? >>
011Motion carries 5-0. I hesitate to make uh superlative statements, but I haven't been able to find anybody that has a $55,000 starting salary there. Do you know of any? There may be some out there, but I haven't been able to find anybody. It's higher than We were already higher than IPS last year. >> Yeah. >> So, and we were already higher than several of the Hamilton County districts. Pro maybe all the Hamilton County districts. Pretty close. So, and and I will say, you know, we we got to watch our enrollment trend as we get full and we have this conversation about the general fund funding, the education fund funding, which is enrollment dependent, but we we can do it for this year and we're happy to be able to do it. So, it's good. >>
012Okay. On the heels of that is uh item 4B, which is our administrative and non-bargaining unit uh certified salary increases for 2526. So, there are roughly eight people that you would think are teachers, but they're excluded from the bargaining unit through a long process and as well as all of our administrators. And so, this would be to approve a raise for them. It's a $1,500 raise just as it is for teachers and it's for this uh school year. >> Motion to approve. >> Second. >> Got a motion from Mr. Kelly and a second from Mrs. Gillespie. Any comments on this one? Okay. All those in favor vote by saying I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Carries 5-0 as well. Item 4C is our nonert wage increases for 2526. Dr. Inshaw. >> So the base increase
013here is typically 2% across the board. There are some salaried individuals uh who are non-certified for which the increase is capped at $1,000. And part of the reason for that is those people are already on certified insurance benefits and we did give some additional contributions to teachers for insurance. So that bleeds over to those selected non-certified positions and actually has more cost to the district. So that's kind of to offset that. And there were some other individual cases that were detailed in the memo there that are in in most cases they're more than 2%. Basically, they're market adjustments because as we've looked at comparable positions or trying to differentiate between some job categories, there are a few places where we've increased. So, if there if there are questions, I can answer those. Otherwise, I would
014ask for approval. >> Submit. Got a motion from Mr. Brooks. Can I get a second? A second. Thank you very much, Mrs. Gaway. >> Um, any other comments or questions? All those in favor, vote by saying I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Carries 5-0. All right. Moving on to item 4 D is our agreement with uh policy analytics. Some of you may remember or maybe Ryan and Tom will remember that we hired policy analytics a few years ago to do it was basically a report on TIFF and redevelopment the impact on us as well as just the the breakdown of the abstract of of the assessed valuation and policy analytics. I guess I would call them a boutique firm. They're one of the only organizations in the state that specifically looks at municipal finance at
015the property tax level. And so with the impact of SEA1 and not really having a a clear sense from anywhere, policy analytics will come in and do a specific analysis to Yorktown. The cost is $12,500. Um it would include an initial report and two followups as more data is available. They're also willing to come and make a presentation to the board if that's your wishes. But at this point, um, we we know what we know, but we don't know what we don't know. And I think policy analytics is going to be able to give us a lot better indication of direction. They're not going to be able to give us final numbers, but they're going to give us much better indication of direction, especially as we get our AV, as that first circuit breaker comes
016out in 26 under the new system. And so I would just ask for your approval to engage with them to do that. >> Motion to approve. Second. A motion from Mr. Kelly and a second from Mr. Brooks. Any further discussion board? >> Are they different than like a Baker Tilly or is it the >> Yes. I mean Baker Tilly is a financial advisor in the sense that they're helping you through I would call it more of a macro level. >> Okay. Um whereas policy analytics is more of a micro level. Is that a fair comparison? I'm using econ terms, but I might be misapplying them. >> But it's it's going to be they're looking at specific individual units and I think they're very specific on the property tax side. Would you agree with that? I
017think they do other stuff, but the last time we hired them, we hired them on the recommendation of Baker >> Tilly, >> who said, "We can't do this work for you, but policy analytics can do it." So, that's how we got them. >> Perfect. >> Oh, yeah. Sorry. >> Okay, we have a motion and a second. Any further questions? >> If not, we'll call for the role. All those in favor by saying I. >> Any opposed? Carries. 5-0. Okay. So, item five. Do I need to open a public hearing for this? Dr. Henshaw. >> Yes. >> All right. In that case, uh this uh I'll go ahead and open up the public hearing um to consider our 2026 proposed budget, our 2026 proposed capital projects plan, and our 2026 proposed bus replacement plan. So, I'll
018open the hearing now. Anyone want to comment prior to us getting started? >> Okay. Dr. Hench, do you want to talk into any specifics about >> Yeah. >> Again, we're not going to uh vote on anything tonight. This is just the hearing. And you have three documents that have to be presented here in the hearing. The form three, which is the notice to taxpayers of the overall budget, the capital projects plan, the bus replacement plan. Um, I'll just say candidly, the capital projects plan is very different than it used to be back before we changed our funds all around and uh they're they're very highle loose estimates. They used to be extremely important and if you didn't have enough money in one part of the plan, you'd have to do an additional appropriation to revertise
019your plan. The bus replacement plan used to you had to have a plan to show replacement of your entire fleet over 12 years. Now, it's a five-year plan, and we do work really hard to try to um demonstrate that we're working to replace our buses on a 12-ear cycle, but it's just not possible with a circuit breaker. The comparison sheet I give you every year, and Dr. Sturgeon's got it pulled up there. What I would say is that we Mine decided not to open, but um see if I can get it the >> mine. No, I can look here. But basically the what I like to show you every year is what we advertised last year against what we're advertising this year. And so you can see that we're actually in terms of our total
020advertised appropriation, we're advertising a slightly lower budget, but our tax rate, we're advertising a slightly higher budget and or a higher tax rate. If we go down to the next the next set of rows, you'll see what the approved budget was and um what the approved tax rate was and you can say well how can you advertise a $161 tax rate and you ended up with a $1.7. If you go back and look at your comparison sheet from 25 down in the explanation, you'll see that we predicted the tax rate to that exact amount down to what would that be? hundredth of a cent there per 100. Um, so what about the anticipated tax rate and the anticipated budget over on the right hand side for 26? Well, the short version is we don't know
021enough to know because we do not have a certified net assessed valuation for payable 26 yet. We didn't have it last year at our hearing. We got it before our adoption. So maybe that'll happen. We're one of eight counties that has not certified net AB of the 92 counties. So, that's a little bit of a limitation on us, but I'm still predicting roughly a 14 cent tax increase. And we can get down in the weeds. And you, the old rule is if you don't advertise for it, you can't get it. >> Yep. And so if you misadvertise and you advertise too low, the DLGF does not go back and give it to you. They say too bad for you. Although I think they're nicer about it than they used to be. Um so you you
022must advertise high in order to ensure that you get everything that you need to cover your your operational expenses going forward. So why do we why do we think? Well, the other thing we always do if we don't have a certified net AV is we use a lower net AV to advertise the next budget because there is the the possibility that your assessed value can decline year-over-year. And I think that is a real possibility this year. If you look at the 84 counties that have approved their certified nets by district, they they are all over everywhere. That's something the policy analytics showed us a couple weeks ago and they're all over everywhere. Some are up, some are down, some are up 10%. I have no idea what that means for us. But if if AV
023is basically flat, then that of course lowers the rate from what you've advertised because you're you're taxing on more assessed dollars. So you don't need as high a rate to get it. And then there are some other factors in here. So, one of the things you go, well, so where did this 14 cents of anticipated increase come from? So, Cara and I looked at that one is the um max levy in the operations fund is allowed to grow by 4%. So, if you didn't have a circuit breaker, you can grow your tax collection in your um operations fund by 4% year year-over-year. That's a statutory amount. Used to fluctuate, it's now set at 4%. So for us that's about 192,000. Well, it takes 2.7 cents of tax to raise 192,000. So that of the 14
024cents of increase from $1.7 to $1.21, almost 3 cents of it is the increase in the operations levy. Then you you have cash balance that you can carry forward from year to year and the state will use your cash balance to fund your budget in addition to anticipated tax collection in the next year. The debt service fund has all kinds of controls on it. And so if you have cash at the beginning of the year, they will use your cash to determine what tax rate you need. And basically you have to dedicate your cash to the budget that you're showing in the subsequent year. Well, what that means is year-over-year you spend that cash and then at the end of you lower your tax rate by spending that cash. Well, then the next year you
025have less cash. So you have to have a higher tax rate to backfill for where you don't have cash. Well, this happens to be a year for us where our upfront cash for the 25 budget was um well, it was 255,000 more than what we're showing for the 26 budget. So that means our tax rate has to raise 255,000 more for the debt service fund because it isn't available in cash to fund it. So that's another three and a half cents. And then the rest of it, which is about eight cents, is anticipated debt service for the bonds that you're about to issue for the roof. So if you if if you end up with a higher tax rate, you go, where did that come from? It's those three factors that are contributing that to
026that. Now, the rest of the story, remember, 90% plus of our homeowners are already at circuit breaker. We don't know what this sea 1 does. it is lowering net AV for most home for all homeowners actually I I guess it should unless the market value is more than a 10% increase and so that is a factor out there that you have to kind of reconcile or you have to wrestle with I guess I would say in terms of what that impact is going forward. Um all that to say we don't really know we don't have a good sense of where that's going to be. the the anticipated tax rate may be close. What does that mean in terms of actual collection? We don't know. By law, you're basically obligated to collect everything in your debt
027service fund and you take all your circuit breaker loss from your operations fund. I will I'll throw one more thing out to you just so you know. The max levy in the operations fund is going to be about 5 million. We are also able to transfer about three maybe three up to three and a half million from the education fund to the operations fund. So you go well there's 8.4 million maybe of available revenue to fund the operations fund except wait a minute this year it was a million and a half of circuit breaker loss that all comes out of that fund. So you're dialing it back to below $7 million of available revenue. And DLGF tells us that our anticipated increase in our circuit breaker in 26 is another million. So that the operations
028uh budget being almost 9 million is fiction because you'll have circuit breaker that will come out of there and that could be 2 and a.5 million plus or minus. And I went back and looked and in 204 we spent like 6.1 million. I'm doing this from memory in our operations fund. So, and another side note, not to go too far in the weeds, but I was just at another district. Well, Dave, David and uh Kristen were with me a meeting. We went to another district, super nice facilities, small district, and uh I said, "First thing we're going to do when we get back is we're going to look up their circuit breaker." And their circuit breaker was $19,000 this year. Ours is about 1.5 million. >> And so again, it just it depends on how
029your AV is composed and what other units of government are you're sharing your taxpayers with. And ask yourself, what could you do if you had an extra million million and a half every year in revenue in terms of facilities and staffing and some of that kind of stuff. So what I leave out this is shock >> at this point. I mean it's you're advertising maximums and hopefully we have more information by the time we come back for our budget adoption which we're going to do at our October meeting. >> Another increase in AV though in Mount Pleasant Township if everybody gets dinged again. another goes up 10% for everybody raises the the cap, right? So technically the the pie is get is going to get larger. >> Yes. Except you have the sea one factors
030that are lowering the net AB by these additional homestead credits that are rolling in as well as the fact that then you don't know what other units of government are doing. So the the theory is well if everybody holds the line at the same amount and we raise our rate then yeah we might even be able to increase our revenue but if everybody's raising their rates then we share in the loss proportionally proportional to your your tax rate. So is I'm assuming the the DRY preserve is is is tiff is the new >> four I think but only don't quote me I think three out of the four were operating at the last meeting that I went to >> and the ridge group is isn't it are they being abated as well >> yes but
031it was a different it wasn't a >> who went to that meeting. >> One of you were my representative. >> That was me. >> That was you. Okay. So, >> yeah, >> you would know that one. Sorry. Off the top of my head. I remember it was like they talked about it the month before, but it wasn't going to get finalized and I couldn't go and you were going to be my replacement. So, >> yeah, I can't recall. >> Yeah, >> I think it is, but I'm just I'm not sure of the length or >> Yeah. >> or how long. >> It was a phase. It was a phase. >> Most of them have been 10 10 years. >> I was thinking this was less. I was thinking it was more like five maybe. >>
032I can't quote it. I'm sorry. But yes, it was there was an abatement on it of some sort. I don't know if it had a a tip though, an abatement. >> Okay. Okay. Um, do you want to talk about the capital project plan? capital projects plan is very different from what it used to be and you essentially have to advertise any any single project that you think that you are going to spend more than $10,000 on in a fiscal year and from the capital projects fund or from the it's the operations fund the capital projects line items and um how do I say this in a in a polite light way. There is no enforcement power of that and there's no there's no process to to say, "Oh, you didn't have that advertised in your
033capital projects fund, therefore you can't spend it." And keep in mind, we do we do spend for a lot of building improvements out of capital projects, but we also we spend most of it from bond proceeds or rainy day money, right? So that's separate from the capital projects plan. >> It feels more even though I know you're plugging in general numbers, it feels more granular than what it used to be because it felt like before we would plug in and say, "Okay, we're going to spend this much on technology and this much on well maintenance." And and it was like two categories. It used to have to be building specific and and uh the state's inter DLG's interpretation and SBOA's interpretation of that I think changed over time, but it was sight specific. So, you
034had to have a high school plan and a Pleasant View plan, right? >> And then you had to break it down by category within the site. And I think you were allowed to balance out within your site, but you could not balance across sites. Am I remembering that correctly? And if so, if you had extra money in this part of the plan over here and a need over here, you could not get it unless you had to go back and readvertise your capital projects plan and have another hearing to do it. and and if and if you didn't have your plan advertised right, the DLGF would zero out your appropriations in those areas when they gave you your budget order. So, this is a much friendlier way to do it. What we try to do
035is, and you notice they're round numbers, but we try to put them in in relative relation to what we could potentially spend based on prior year experience and anticipated additional projects. So, okay. Um, want to talk about bus replacement? Well, again, you're obligated to advertise. It used to be on a 12-year cycle. Buses have gotten very expensive. And um you know again depending on what we learn from policy analytics depending on where our AV comes in depending on how we deal with the real the very real possibility that we're going to have to make reductions in the operations fund will look at it. Typically we advertise for more replacement than we can fund. And again you used to levy a separate tax rate for bus replacement. Now, this is just part of the operations fund.
036And so, we we typically calculate what percentage of our levy we collect and then we use that percentage to determine what percentage of our bus replacement plan we're going to fund each year. So, we've had most years we buy two buses. We might have had one year that we bought three since I've been here. But so and we are currently running is it 38 buses in our fleet. And so you know you think about a 12-year replacement cycle. We should be replacing three or four buses every year. So we're not and it's not illegal to run buses that are more than 12 years old. They have to be inspected twice a year as opposed to once by the state police. So ours are gently used. I've been told Dr. They are they do a good
037job and I mean I I have received compliments more than once from the inspector for the the condition that our buses are in. But okay board any any questions for Dr. Henchaw on either the overall budget the capital projects plan or bus replacement plan? And again no actions required at this point in time. Okay. No further questions. We'll go and close the public hearing. on the budget. And that brings us to item six, adjournment. Anything else you want to share before we wrap it up? >> Board, anything else you want to >> just want to let you guys know we had the most participation. Um, Yorktown had the most participation in Yorktown this year of the entire county. So, and we had the top 4 award also was one of our graduated Yorktown kids received.
038I don't know the exact dollar amount, but lots of scholarship dollars were handed out Sunday night. So, >> that's great. >> Did everybody get a chance to look at the latest uh drone shots of the uh >> the campus over there in the in the building >> starting to take shape? They're hanging basketball goals from the ceiling and and uh >> and the lettering got put on the press box today. >> Oh, it did. I was over there early, so it must have happened. >> Looks really good. Well, in the shot that I saw, they had the roof on the concession building and they had taken It's hard to tell from that. >> They're furring it out currently. I don't know if there's any sighting. There was no sighting on it when I was there
039at 11. >> Yeah, that's what it looked like. So, really starting to plaza is almost done on the inside of the gate. Yeah. So, >> working there'll be a little more surge space Friday night. There was the first game. It's >> looking great. Thank you. >> Yeah. Okay. It is uh 6:33 and we stand adjourned. >> We have to sign anything. >> Yes. >> No.