001six o'clock we will go ahead and get started. Thank you all for coming tonight. Again, budget meeting number two. Um Randy and I both have children that are performing in the chorus concert down the hall this evening. So you may see us pop out and pop in, but that's an important night for our families. So we need to do that. Um turn it over to Amy for the agenda. >> Sure. Uh we can pop right in. Welcome back everyone. Uh we'll always start off with updates from our town reps. So Lisa, we'll start with you because I don't think we even heard from you last week. >> A little prepared. >> Awesome. Great. What's going on in the town of Poland? >> So the um if you can just move that microphone because sometimes it's
002a little bit better for the um the recording. Know you love the microphone. The net taxes to be raised will be it's anticipated to be 1.35%. >> Did you say 1.3? That's it. >> Yep. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Do you have any other questions? >> Committee have any other questions for Lisa in the town of >> Is that what we don't know what the county yet? Um the county >> I have it here somewhere. >> Um actually give me a hot second and I'll find it. Pop over to Mary. Uh we haven't met again. Um, I did share the information that is in the packet tonight related to the question I asked about EPS. So, I have shared that with our council members. So, I thank you for that. >> Welcome, Lisa. How' town meeting
003go? >> Well, town meeting was pretty quick. We were done in what, two hours and 15 minutes. Um, >> we passed everything, so we'll be looking at about a 7% increase, but our budget's pretty small, so 7% isn't that much. I think our I think we're increasing like a total of $300,000 and you know that's still 7%. Yeah. And our increase for the for the county was an additional 40 from last year. So I was going to be quite quite a lot more than that. >> 40,000. >> Yeah, that's that's what ours was. Yeah. >> Um so I found Poland and um our Androska County tax is going to increase by 6.25% 25% and that's an increase of $89,128 over last year. So, um the proposed budget for FY27 is1,514,188. All right. Any other questions
004for Lisa, Lisa, or Mary? All right. Thank you. All right. So we will pop into agenda item number three which is background information. So that is on the next page in your packet and that is all of the enrollment. So usually that's a question that's always out there. Wanted to give you that one pager for you to be able to bring back or have handy for you. Uh so that first one you can see is that stacked bar graph and um we can just look at the last two years. So we take our enrollment and this is uh based upon our October uh one counts which actually are taken on October 15th through the state and NEO and that's what our our numbers are used for and the ED279. So the state money so that's
005how they figure it out in their uh funding formula. So if you were interested in uh that October 24 our total population was 1,669 students and we are down in as of October in 2025 that total is uh 1,608 students and just um looking at the schools um it's not like it's all concentrated in one school uh you at uh the orange there PCS uh from year to year they're down 17 students. Uh the Green Minet is down was that 10 students. Elm Street uh is uh was down uh 36 students. Whittier down 15 and then you got PRS up 17 students. And we do have that bubble class two classes coming through uh uh in the at the high school right now. So, if you look at those, it's a it's a it's a
006decrease of 161 students. Yes, did I do that math right? No, 61 students. Sorry. 61 students from um last year to this year with our October counts. And so, we fared pretty well with uh our 279s because that was a a nervous part for me that I mentioned to the board of like our enrollments down. That's just going to be less subsidy, which if you remember, we did get um $220,000 more in state subsidy. So it means those demographics of those kids could be free and reduced lunch. It could be uh prek students are weighted heavier could be our our ML students. So depending upon some dem demographics there. So that is looking at that first chart and then the next one is the Poland mechanic falls and minet enrollment. And this is just something
007we've been monitoring especially since we went through the whole the cost sharing formula change last year. And it's again it's the same the same documents. I want to make sure that we keep looking at the same same pieces of information and how they change. And you can definitely see uh declining enrollment. And that kind of just goes with what we said from the ones above of if you look at Poland and this is all students have a Poland address. That that question comes up is like are these kids are just at Poland schools? Uh no, it's kids that have a Poland address. Uh so our our Poland kids are down from last year 21 students. Our mechanic Falls address kids are down 47.5 students. might be going, well, how do you have a 0.5 student?
008It's because uh we have students that are homeschooled that can enroll in courses. And so that would be that half student would be they would be enrolled for half their day. And then mine is up six and a half kids. So some some interesting numbers there. Uh I was geeking out. I won't you know go any further if you guess you want to have a conversation about it, but I was looking back at the cost sharing and looking uh documents and one of them was the birth rates. I don't know if if you remember that if you were on the cost sharing committee and just kind of like comparing like you know is there a birth rate you know decrease and uh there was it's it was interesting to see that there was a there
009was a 2022 was a high birth rate year for Minet and then 2017 was the other high birth rate year. So it's like does that translate into just why Minet has uh that extra six and a half kids? Uh I don't know. So, um, some interesting conversations there for, um, our our enrollment. Any questions on the enrollment graphs here? And of course, you'll see those again in our budget booklet, which we will have printed and available. Um, definitely it'll be sort of the grand reveal at our budget forum in April. Uh, next up on our agenda is one of the action items was to bring back the EPS percentages. Um, Mary asked a question about are we over and what does that mean and what does that look like? So, that's when you need to
010turn to the spreadsheet that has some blue and green on it. So when the state does their funding formula for formula, they they look at education and they set ratios and it looks at enrollment of our students, not necessarily how many schools our kids are spread out across, just your enrollment. And so then they set some ratios. And you might be like, well, what are those ratios set by the funding formula? Well, that's on the next page, which if you want to pull apart your packet that does say staffing ratios and these ratios, any guesses from what year the funding formula was implemented? 2004 was the year that these staffing ratios uh were implemented and are still used today. And those were what were considered the basic needs during that time in 2004. did look
011up gas was a $159 in 2004 as eggs were a$157 just for a fun fact. Um so so when they're deciding about how much funding our schools get they look at valuation and they look at student enrollment and so then you can look at those again they plug those numbers into this ratio table and again they don't look at the fact that we have three elementary schools in three different towns. So that that spits out how many that the funding formula determines we should have. So EPS says that if you go back up to that that spreadsheet and you look at EPS uh EPS says that we should have 99 teachers and we have 114 teachers. EPS says we should have 5.2 guidance and we have eight guidance counselors. Uh EPS says we should have
012two librarians and we have zero. I will just put a side note there. Typically that number is one. Um Julie Party, our our long-term librarian librarian did pass away last summer and we were did not fill her position. So that is still in the budget and will be filled next year. So that will return to its usual one. Health, which is nurses, EPS says we should have two, we have four. Ed text the EPS funding formula says we should have 9.3 in regular ed and we have 13. Uh clerical says we should have eight. We have 6.5 and school administration says we should have five um but we have eight. I don't know if you uh want me to blow some more information at you but uh I have a lot of curiosity. I think
013you know so I went back 10 years and looked at our actuals 10 years ago. So I went back to fiscal year 17 and and because I think there's this this perception that we are we've grown so much and we've added so much and we have added a lot like but we haven't added the actual people like so let's go to fiscal year 17 we had 121 teachers we're at 114 in fiscal year 17 we had 6.5 guidance counselors we're at eight. Now, fiscal year 17, we had the one librarian. We'll return to that next year. And nurses in fiscal year 17, we had five. And those are RNs are counted under this one. We do have one LPN. Those aren't counted under those counts. Edex, we had 16 and we have 13 now. Library
014tech, it's three in two in 2017 and it's three now. uh clerical, so our admin assistants 8.5 and we're at 6.5 now. And then school administrators, uh we had seven in 2017 and again we're at eight now. So I think that's an important part for all of you who are talking to your stakeholders to say, "Hey, wait a minute, time out." Like if you compare 2017 to 2027, um we're actually we have less staff than we did um back in 2017 when we look at those those positions. Would we be able to add this that to this chart in a way that would make sense or would that just >> Yeah. Yep. I have added it >> because I feel like that's important. >> Yeah, absolutely. >> And then just for you because I know
015like we sometimes talk about things like are we so like out of whack with our eight school administrators. And the answer to that is is is no. Uh because you can look across and see and again that's the the the number that EPS uses. and we're very similar to all of the other districts and I just we really prioritize our small schools and it does take people to be able to run them. And so Mary asked last week for a uh just a written statement and that's what she talked about like I've sent these to Mary because I didn't know when the Mechanic Falls board meeting town council meeting was and I wanted you to make sure you had them. >> I have seen it. So there is a written narrative there and I'll just
016point out a couple of pieces. So it does it's on the other side of your staff ratios. Couple of the highlights. Um again like the EPS funding formula is something like one way to think about it in easy terms is for a school district your size, you probably need about this many people to help your students. Like that's like saying it in the most simplest terms as possible. Then if you drop down to where our logo is and then it says how RSU16 thinks about staffing across the five schools. I'll remind you again the funding formula is from 2004. In my opinion, it's very outdated. Students are very different from uh from 2004 to 2026. And then the key parts for you to remember are each school needs key people. They need a principal, a
017nurse, office staff, and support. and the state funding formula spreads those across the whole district not keeping in mind how many schools you have and that the fact that we are all committed to running those smoothly and safely. Uh students needs drive our drive our staffing and to support students the district sometimes needs to staff above that EPS funding formula. That's why we have more teachers because we can't have 30 students in a classroom at minus and grade one. you have to have two teachers at that grade one and that does result in smaller class sizes which is great. Um small schools create inefficiencies. We know that but we fight to overcome those. So we have five separate buildings. I know you might be saying well the middle school high schools one but they still
018function as two separate buildings. So again you need that administration in each building. You need those daily health services and the offices have to remain open to serve the families. Um and then because of this you'll see again just reiterating that um multiple schools appear to be over uh even when the staffing is very reasonable and that's what I believe is our staffing is very reasonable. We don't have any extras. Um we got John doing three jobs. We got Stacy doing multiple jobs. We got Shelley doing multiple jobs. Um, and so, um, we are not out of alignment with other schools. And so, that is just another piece for you to be able to have as to like, uh, Mary asked the question direct to be able to report back to Mechanic Falls. Um, but
019it's also just another, you know, document for you to have in your your packet of information to be like, hey, try out. I can talk I can talk you through that. Do I have any questions about uh that's a lot of like numbers and looks, but I I just hope that you really look at that what the EPS funding is saying you should have to run your school safely and and we are over in some spots, but it's not we're not grossly over. Amy, do you have any information on what they're talking about now, the changes in EPS and whether it would benefit us in terms of the disadvantaged students being a part of that? >> Um, I do uh I wanted to spend some more time looking it over. Uh, my first glance is
020they're looking at uh some some income levels of your of your taxpayers in your town. Another funding model is looking at the special ed special ed students and I was speaking about that before is uh before our meeting officially started is there's some concern from our superintendent group because our ours is western Maine so we're all the rural I mean we do have Lewis and Auburn but we still consider them you know to be part of our group. Uh and so we were concerned about uh special ed uh like some of our wealthier districts that are what we call minimum receivers. They don't receive a lot of state money. So like a Falmouth or Yarmouth are minimum receivers receive very very little state money. Um would now receive more. They would receive more because they
021do have special education students there. So there's some concern from our group that that would now draw from the pot of money and leave potentially less for others to be able to unless unless they decide to add more to that pot of money. There are some simulations that have are run out there and in one scenario uh we receive$10,000 $20,000 more and in the other scenario we're actually losers. We would actually receive less less money. >> And it's not a lot again. It's like a $20,000 reduction. It is a lot like that's a you know >> but this person >> it's not the kind of money we need. >> No no no. So I want to dive into that a little bit more and and see see what that actually entails and then we can
022start our campaign to maybe go with the one that is is more beneficial for us as a district. But that was my initial sort of look through. But I will put out some information once I have some time to digest that and maybe have my hand look it over to. All right. I'm going to propose that we move uh article 16, which is adult education, up and jump ahead of John. So then we can just end with John's four articles. Is everyone okay with that? >> John suggested it. >> Thank you. >> All right. So adult ed is article 16 and that's way in the back of your packet. So it is two pages. So um Stacy Adult Ed's budget is really all about numbers and how to explain them in a way that's easy
023and accessible. And Stacy is the expert in that area. Shelley is our adult dead director. And if you have any contextual questions or how does adult dead look, what you know, students, your number of serving, then she is your woman for that. So, it's a it's a tag team tonight. So, uh, Stace, I'll turn adult education over to you. All right. Thank you. The first thing you might notice is that we This is not in balance yet. Oh, I'm sorry. Yep. If you look in the middle of the first page where it says grand total revenue, you'll see $37,000, but at the end on the last page, the total expenses are 268,759. We have not finished the salaries and benefits yet for adult ed. And so once we plug those in, we will have this
024this section in balance. You will also notice that the revenue show in parentheses that is the way our old software system differentiates between revenue and expenditures. So it doesn't mean that it's less. It's just if the top parts in parenthesis is because it's a revenue number. So when you look at the grand total revenues of $39,218 that's actually more for next year than less on the revenue side for adult ed. And the main thing is just the 130,000 that we request local dollars. That has been the same for several years now. So just pointing out on lines five and six, the program has a healthy fund balance forward of 30,000 and an increase in the 16 through 20 money of 9,67. That's the money we talked about last time that used to come through our
025state subsidy and would would go into the high school budget and then we would just transfer it to adult ed going forward. The state has pulled that out and that money will come directly to adult ed just like the state subsidy for adult ed comes in. So once we finish working on the salaries we'll have that all in balance for you. >> Stacy are these employees not part of the negotiations that because we put a lot into contingency last week is my question. >> Right. This budget is separate and so that contingency is just in the general fund. But these employees as well have a work agreement that has not been settled yet for next year. >> Okay. But that money is in here as a placeholder. >> That's why it's out of balance. >>
026Okay. >> It's out of balance by like 30 something thousand. So we have that to work with with salaries and benefits. And if Shelley needs some more and supply lines and book lines for her program, that's where that will be. >> Okay. >> Yeah. So my recommendation is for your consideration to approve article 16 um as we've presented that it's uh the local increase is still uh sorry the the local share is at $130,000 and then the rest is revenue through the the state. I'll make the motion, but do I have to add all that about the 130,000 or can I just say as presented? Okay. I make motion that we accept or TA um article 16 adult education as written. >> Seconded >> discussion. I have a question. So, we don't have a final
027amount though. We really is that 268. So the final amount would be the in the revenue section the 307,000 >> that's it $87 that would be the proposed budget and then we will we will balance out the expenditures to that as well but when you see the article at the district budget meeting it it asked to raise 130,000 >> and that's it. >> Yes. >> Okay. Thank you. All right then I will second that motion. >> Actually I'm sorry I didn't hear you. My apologies I I >> Thank you. had a discussion. I think it would be helpful to know how many years it's been at 130. I'm I'm fine with it for now, but just as a point in case anybody asks where we've done so many reductions everywhere else like it is been
028this amount. We use it. It's very popular. It's very effective. But just to know it's been 20 years or >> Yeah, I'd say about four years. >> I'd say yeah, I was going to say four or five too because it used to be 80. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Got Shelley saying yes. I agree with you, Jess. All right, I'll call the vote. All those in favor. All right, thank you. Unanimous. All right, and Shel will dismiss you so you can make the trek back to your car, wherever that is. And if you have to stop at McDonald's for a Shamrock Shake, there's no shame in that. So long. >> And so now we'll flip back to the front with John. And John, I'd like for you to uh walk through uh at the beginning of
029the packet there. It says RSU16 building sites transportation information. You shared with this with me. I'm like, I love this. I can imagine especially uh Jess and I was thinking Jess and Randy as you know ops former ops chair and ops chair would love this too. So, I'm like, I'm including this. And so, I'd love for you just to hit some highlights in the documents because I think it's a really good overview, too. Like, as we talk about our buildings, it's easy to think of just a school and it being this tiny little thing or whatever your perception is, but we have a lot of >> square footage. >> Yes. >> Um, essentially, I can't remember every little thing about all of our buildings and our grounds. The details are just astronomical. So, I had
030a cheat sheet that Amy wanted to share with you, but because it was not in a formal formatted, I had to restructure and redesign. And so now you see my cheat sheets. >> Um, but essentially, um, I think the one thing that I want to point out that I think a lot of people forget is the actual age of our buildings. Um, and it's not it's not just the age of our building. It's that our buildings were constructed in sections. So, the oldest part of Elm Street School is 1956 and then there was an addition in 1962 and then there was another edition in 1984 and then we did another edition in the late 90 uh 1999 2000. PCS is the same way you know built in the early 50s. an addition in the 60s,
031addition in the 80s, mine it the same way. And so because I have a hard time remembering which section was built when, of course, I made my own cheat sheet so that when you look at the buildings, you can see when they were actually constructed and then just particular details about each building that, you know, I often get asked about, but I don't always remember off the top of my head. Um and then at the very beginning um one thing that just kind of the nerd in me that just kind of keeps track of is you know our utility statistics you know when we look at you know what we're using for water and electricity every year it's an astronomical number. So you know that's where we generate you know what it costs us you
032know for our electric budget what our waters you know is and you know our heating fuels. Um and then there are there is a sheet on transportation that gives you um statistics. This actually is a new cheat sheet that I had created this past year. Um and uh eventually I will expand on this because what I would also like to include is you know how many gallons of fuel we use every year, how many miles are we traveling, you know what the ages of our buses are and I have all that information but they're all in separate documents and you know I just want to eventually bring them all together. So you know somebody ever asked I can just give them my nice report now and say page such and such. >> This is awesome.
033It is awesome. Yeah. Thank you. >> Really, really cool. >> It's gonna be Ry's favorite. That's what I thought of. Randy and you. I love this. >> All right, John. So, are you ready to dive into the transportation is article 8 is the first one? So, just for um procedure, just a reminder, um you do have uh the line details. So, does any anything that's over $1,500 uh is on the table. And so, John will take you through line by line. Uh you're going to hear some repetitive things, especially when we get to the facilities because we have all of those buildings. And surprise, surprise, the delivery rate for electricity is up in every single one of those buildings. So, uh, John will probably, uh, move through those, some of those quicker than others. Uh,
034so you may want to split apart your packet, but it's also in there. Then you have the actual financial, um, which has the fiscal year 26 budget and then the proposed fiscal year 27 and then the difference on that right-handed column. Um, before we get started, the transportation is uh, a work agreement and that work agreement has not been settled yet. So, uh, you'll see that that's that's kind of follows the same piece as everything all the other other groups that we've talked about last week is they're still in in in the works. So, John, we'll let you take transportation away. >> Okay. So, um, starting out right on line number nine, we have our contracted services. Um, it is no secret that we have struggled with a bus driver shortage this year. I am
035currently down three full-time positions. Um, and we do frequently have to rely on a private service to come in and do work for us. Um, and what is causing uh even more struggle for us now is that private contracted service that we've been relying on is also short staffed and cannot provide us. So, if you haven't already heard, this week has really probably been our worst week um with bus cancellations because not only have I been three drivers down um three full-time regular drivers down, but we were also down three drivers. The other day we were down two drivers today. Um I've got another driver that just went out on maternity for the next couple weeks. Um so we're I we need the additional money when we can get somebody else to do the transportation
036for us. And so that's what that line is. It also takes care of some of our special needs transportation. Now you'll see that we have the contracted services line up there and then line 23 is purchase transportation special. The difference between the two is that we have a legal obligation to transport all of our students. So even if they are special ed, um if we put them on a bus, they are our students and they fall under general transportation. Special uh special ed uh specific transportation is when we have to take a student that has severe special needs and requires a specialized service. We take we transport them out of district. Um, and those can become very costly and we fully rely on private contracted services to do those. Um, any questions on the contracted
037services line? >> Does that happen a lot? Do we have somebody Do we have people that are >> out of district? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Um, so the out of district kids that um require the specialized transportation um there's three or four of those. Like um one of the services we have to use is United Ambulance. Um and um you know that's >> really like daily we have >> ambulance. Yeah. Um Yep. From Poland to Brunswick to and return. >> Um and and these are kids that we just can't provide services for with a district. >> Yeah. >> But it it does fall under our tab. We have a responsibility for them. So we have to cover that expense. >> Wow. Okay. John, are you expecting our contracted services companies to increase like or add a
038fuel search charge based on fuel prices right now and the the future increases? >> I it's it's ironic because Lisa was just telling me that her parents work for Legender, which is the Hudson bus service that provides the contracted service to the city of Lewon. And she was just telling me that her her dad is getting a significant raise. Um, which congratulations. You cannot pay bus drivers enough. But that creates a problem for us on the other end because when an outfit like Ledger and Hudson starts going up on their rates, they start poaching drivers from me, you know, and um we try to remain competitive with our wages and our benefits. Um I think we have a generous package that we offer and a lot of our drivers have been with us for a
039long time, >> but I do have some drivers that go where the dollar amount is and you know that may be a consequence to us. Um, we were also advised that the city of Auburn, um, their starting rate next school year for an entry- level bus driver is $29 an hour, the big bus. Um, my, um, my senior rate this year is 28, you know, so, you know, that's somebody that comes in with 13 or more years experience. So, it's tough for us to compete with that. Um, and then the fuel. Yes, the the fuel. The nice thing about the fuel um and you'll you'll see that I haven't really done anything with fuel and transportation is we tend to pad that um each year just to be on the safe side because we never
040know from one year to the next what's going to happen. So it's not a number that you know we take and look at the number of miles we drove last year and we figure out you know a bus gets six miles to the gallon and we it's just we can't go to that exact science. We've got to leave that buffer because as we're experiencing now, we're at war and you know the cost of fuel has gone through the roof. Fortunately for us, we are prepared for that and we're going to do okay. Um as well as what I have predicted into the next year. So um our repairs and maintenance to equipment. Um I have bumped up this line uh to 143. Bumped it up by 143. Um, but what you I don't know if
041you do you see the supplies line. So the supply the the offset is coming out of the supplies line. Yeah. >> And the reason why I'm bumping it up is not necessarily because we're increasing that. It's a move of money from one line to the next because um a lot of things that are being coded in the supplies line really could be classified as repairs and maintenance. They're not technically supplies. They really should go into this line. So, we're trying to educate those who do billing uh do our coding for our billing to make sure that they're properly um putting those in the right line. Um our finance department does a really good job of balancing that at the end of the year. Um but I like to start the year knowing roughly what my
042numbers are. Uh insurance, that's something we don't have any control over. Um it's just a cost of doing business. um our technology related software. Um a couple years ago um we subscribed to the bus right system and the bus right is our student accountability um routing software. U we put a tablet in each one of our buses. Um and this has been just a lifesaver for us because it allows us to put a subd driver into a bus turns on the tablet and he knows turn by turn, student by student where to go. Um, and so, you know, I it's not perfect, but it gets the job done. And it's far better than, you know, having six sheets of paper on the side of the drivers and he's flipping through it while he's driving along
043>> or the kids telling you. >> Well, there's a funny story. Let me tell you a funny story about the kids. >> So, one afternoon I had to do a route at PCS and I um I picked up the kids. They all get on the bus and one kid gets on and he's all excited and he says, "Hey, can I help you with the route?" And I said, 'Absolutely. sit right behind me. We leave PCS. We get two houses down past the uh the St. Mary's clinic, put the lights on for the first stop. The kid gets up and he goes to get off the bus and I said, "Where you going?" He said, "Well, this is my stall. I kid you not. We could we could write a book with the funny stories." So
044um but the increased uh for the technology related software as we now have included those into all of our vans for the next year and that's the in increased annual subscriptions subscription cost for the tablets and the software. Um we don't actually own the tablets. It's part of the annual um subscription. Uh and the benefit to that is when a tablet goes down or we break one which we haven't in two years it just gets replaced. They send us a new one and it's part of the equipment backage. uh dues and fees. These are just um national and state membership organizations that we um the administrators for transportation happen to belong to. Um we are proposing um new bus purchases for next year. And of course um that will drive up the u the five-year
045lease costs on those buses. And although the term is lease, we don't really lease them. Um we um get subsidy from the state for the buses but we have to front the money and then they put it in part they reimburse us over is it a fiveyear per bus stays? >> Yeah it's a lease purchase and so what we get back is our percentage not 100%. >> Yeah. >> Um and then of course the interest that goes along uh with that and then I already talked about purchased uh transportation special ed. So, I did just come back from um the um school safety and transportation conference over the last couple days, and the one thing I've learned um is, you know, there are some good things that are happening in the transportation world, but there
046are other things that are going to cost us money. Um for example, um right now the state law requires that our bus drivers do 16 hours of training, you know, uh annually, and uh there's a new bill introduced that will increase those to 40 hours. So, of course, that's, you know, an increased cost to our salaries line. Um, that I did not build into this budget. Um, and that's, you know, something that is still being debated at the state level. >> Sorry, John. >> 16 hours to 40 16 to 40 hours. >> Um, >> so a full work weeks of money. Did do they get paid their regular money for training? >> Absolutely. Yeah. Um and there are some new safety features that are going to be required on buses. Um the uh the two
047that are specifically related to the recent tragedies are the crossing arms on the front of the buses. We already have all of our buses outfitted. So um even though the state is going to um fund those to the school departments that don't have them, we're already prepared for that. The other is the anti-pinch or automatically reversing doors they call them. Um and these are doors that are pressure sensitive. So if a student gets something caught in the door, the door um releases or you know it opens uh trigger an alarm. Um this was a new mandate under the transportation rules um for any bus that was built after um 2022 or 23. We only have one of those buses. Um our newest bus does have that technology. The state is going to fund putting those
048in. um they'll pay to install them. But when you look at my fleet of buses, um my oldest bus right now is 2012 and they range 2012 to 2025. And when you put new technology on an old bus, it sounds like a good idea >> and it's great that somebody's else is going to pay for it, but it never goes well. And so there will be additional cost and and it's all well intended. I certainly appreciate what the state is looking to do, but it does I There's no free lunch, you know, it all comes with a price tag. And then of course, you know, the buses coming through in the future, now that those are mandated, it's causing the prices of the buses to go up. So, you know, we're going to feel the
049pinch on this sooner than later. Yeah. Sorry. Any questions on transportation? Right. I will entertain a motion. >> Yes. >> Uh I make a motion that we accept article 9 facilities maintenance as written. >> Seconded. >> Transportation. >> Oh, sorry. Sorry. Uh already went too far ahead. Sorry. >> Yep. Transportation. >> Thank you, Andrea. >> Seconded. Thanks. Any other further discussion? Seeing none, I'll call for the vote. All those thank you. All right, John. On to facilities and maintenance. And I will just say um we were going through uh the the financial part of that is the custodians and the maintenance are part of the support staff contract and that was settled last year. So, we're in year one of a two-year contract with that. So, when you're looking at some of those lines, you'll
050see numbers in there, and that's because that reflects act the actual increase in their salaries, and that's not in contingency. It's actually in the lines. >> Excuse me. May I ask a question? >> Yeah, just to refresh my memory. >> What is the reason that you are kind of in charge of custodians too, right? The maintenance of the buildings and stuff. So why aren't those contracts done together? >> They're part of the support staff. So they have a collective bargaining agreement. So they have joined forces with our our edte and so like they're grouped together. >> All right. >> Transportation falls under a work agreement outside of the support staff contract. >> Yeah. >> Okay. So work separate. >> Yeah. >> There's only two collective bargaining agreements in our district. It's the teachers anyone with
051a teachers contract. their groups together. And then there's the support staff. So custodians, maintenance, ed techs, um librarian >> and what's the difference between a work agreement and a contract? What they're I mean it's all >> a work agreement is just basically what we offer to the the group. >> Oh, and they don't get to answer back, right? Take it or leave it. >> Right. We'll have dialogue back and forth, but for the most part, you'll see that >> the collective bargain agreements mirror the work agreements because they're all of our employees and so we want equity across. So, right, that's what you'll see in most of them. And actually, the the um I don't know the the work agreements look very much like a CBA except with that that CBA language taken out. So,
052>> okay. Thank you for joing my memory. >> Yeah. All right, John. So, facilities and maintenance, you've got the again the table at the bottom of transportation does start facilities and maintenance and it does go on and on. I'm skipping. >> It seems like a lot of information, but we can get through this pretty quickly. >> Yeah. >> So, like Amy said earlier, um what you're looking at is the facilities and maintenance expenses for all of the schools. Okay. And the way the um the lines are set up is that when you look at the last three digits of the account line, the 01 represents PCS, 02 is Elm Street, 03 is Minet, and so on and so forth. But you're going to see that, you know, there's an insurance line for PCS for Elm
053Street for mining. So the justification for the increases for all of them are going to be the same. So, I'm not necessarily going to go down through any of all of, you know, the schools, but certainly if you have any specific questions about any lines because some of them are slightly different from school to school, and I'll try to hit on those as we go along. So, um the first line um is our insurance um insurance for us goes up um every year. Uh there's no escaping that. Um and in fact, insurance for us becomes more and more costly. Um what most people don't know now is that um because of our experience rating um with water damages in the district um we now have a $50,000 deductible per incident for water damages. So um
054the school board's aware that we just recently had a pipe burst over in the middle school and it created some sheetrock and and u ceiling tile damage and the water also went out on the gym floor. Um the estimates now to fix all of that um is going to be pretty close to 50,000, but because of our deductible, we have to eat all of that and um it's going to have to come out of CIP. Uh because we can't claim it because we didn't go over our deductible. Um and unfortunately, it's you know, just nature of the beast. It is >> Why is our deductible so high? >> Because of our experience rating. because we've had so many water damages. >> Oh, okay. So, the more you get, the worse your rating is. Okay. >>
055And really, this isn't this isn't um uncommon um in uh states now that having flooding issues. Um you know, the insurance rates for water um incidents in particular are going up for everybody. Um >> yay, climate change. >> Yeah, another debate. Um, we're just lucky that they continue to ensure us, you know, because I Stacy and I worry about the this all the time that, you know, we're one claim away from being cancelled. >> Oh, wow. >> Yeah. So, um, moving on to our general supplies line. You'll see this in each, uh, the insurance of course is in each individual school. Uh, general supplies is the same, and you'll see an increase for our general supplies for each of our schools. And essentially, I'm not asking for any more supplies. It's just the um uh
056the cost of goods going up, you know, anticipated in the next year. Electricity, um you'll see there's quite a jump in electricity in most of my buildings. Um we have locked in a kilowatt rate. Um we are in year two of a three-year um contract. Um, so our cost of kilowatts is not going to go up, but that agreement does not impact the delivery and demand charges. So the increases that you're seeing there are specifically for the delivery charges that CMP charges us um and the demand charges that go along with that. Um now you're going to see equipment increases in each one of the schools and the number is going to slightly different from differ from each school. Um we have put off um equipment replacement in all of our schools for a long
057time and we've reached the point now where I've got to start um doing some replacement. I have a floor buffer at mine that electrocutes my employees every time they use it. >> Excellent. I if you think our insurance rating is high, you should see our workers gone. Uh so but that being said is, you know, our guys do a really good job of of maintaining what they have, but we have reached a point now where we've got to start changing out floor buffers, floor strippers, um uh sweeping machines. Um and they're expensive. Um one of those rotating floor buffers is six grand. Uh, and the ones that we have are decades old and my staff can't be efficient. Um, the equipment's no longer safe. So, we're asking for equipment replaces, equipment replacements uh, in the
058next year. And the nice thing about uh, our um, equipment replacement is if I buy something that is a specialized piece of equipment, we have the flexibility of being able to move it from school to school. So, I don't necessarily have to buy four of them, you know, we can buy one and then use it where we need it, but it does increase on the wear and tear. So, um, we've been doing that for years and we're just at that point where I I've got to have some new stuff. Uh, now we're down into the 02s. And you can see again, insurance is going up, electricity is going up, equipment's going up. Um, starting on line 50, we're now into the 030. This is Minet Insurance, general supplies, electricity, equipment. Um, we're getting down to
059line 63 040 is now the middle school. >> No, all this equipment is all brand new equipment. Yep. So, moving into the middle school, you will see that the contracted service line has gone up a little bit. Um, one thing we have learned our lesson over the years is that when we need to fix things, we don't always fix them ourselves anymore. We get them done by a contractor. That way, we have somebody to point the finger at when something goes wrong. And they often times the work comes with, you know, some level of warranty or guarantee. Um and because uh you know our buildings are getting older and uh they require a lot more repairs, uh the contracted services lines are going up. Uh line 69 there again, insurance electricity. Um line 74, the
060wood pellet boiler was down for the last two and a half years and we were not using it and so therefore we weren't buying the wood product that we needed to burn in it. the um uh the bi biomass boiler is up and running now and works runs every day. Um so I have to have fuel for that and you will see in both the middle school and high school lines that I have increased um the amount for uh the the wood chips offset being able to use that. So, because it's been down for three years and I I haven't had a track history, >> I'm sure if I spent some time going back through the books, I could kind of figure it out. I just I don't have the time to do that. So,
061I just have to look at what I know and based on my experiences I've been back. Um, I don't have anything to base it on because it wasn't running. I do anticipate, Randy, that eventually it will offset some of the oil expense. I just don't know what that is. that that come up a few times. >> Yeah. Yeah. So, it probably does cost us a little more to operate, but you have to remember that that is the redundant system for the whole building. >> So, if the oil boiler goes down, which we only have one in this building, you don't have a heat source because when they installed the wood pellet boiler, they took out the second boiler out of the school. And so you have to have it >> and it's got to be
062running and I've got to have fuel supply. Uh the only section of this building that is not heated by the boilers is the new F-way, which is the middle school edition. And um that is heated with um uh a heat pump system that was installed when the building was was constructed. And that had to be added because the additional square footage exceeded the capacity of our existing heating system. There was no way that you could heat that end of the building with the system that we have. You could, but that end of the building would just be a forever cold spot. Uh when you get down to line 77, the professional services security. Um this is actually I meant to ask Amy about this. This is a contracted amount with the sheriff's department. >> Yeah.
063>> Um and this is for the SRO and it falls under operations. I don't have any control over it. Is a contracted amount >> and it's broken into line 77 and line 99. >> Correct. Um and then on line 86, we start um with the 300s. Those are the um high school. Um and one difference you'll see here is line 88. There's a copier lease. And I'm assuming that this is they have probably picked up an additional machine um because that lease rate has stayed pretty much the same uh year after year. Uh and then uh line 106 and 109. Um those are slight increases again for the contracted services. These are professionals that are coming in to do you know plumbing and electrical and um and then the repairs to maintenance buildings. So I
064was a little hesitant with my repairs to maintenance and buildings line about increasing them. And we'll talk about this a little bit more when we get into CIP. My concern is is that our CIP budget has historically been our emergency funds that we use to take care of significant repairs. But when we get into the CIPs, you're going to see why I have some concerns. um the repairs and maintenance lines for all of my buildings. Um I haven't asked for any increases, but we're at the point now where I can no longer rely on the CIP budget to be that emergency fund. So, we're at a crossroads here because of the status of the CIP and the cost that's the what it's costing us to maintain our buildings. One of those two lines is going
065to have to go up next year. It's either we're going to have to look to put more money into our CIP lines or we're going to have to put money into our repairs and maintenance lines because we just can't continue to maintain our buildings with the level of funding that we have had. you know, a thousand dollars. I, you know, it's it's a token amount. You know, when I have a plumber come in and snake a line, it cost me two grand just to get the guy over here. So, I it's up600 and I put it in there because I need it, but it's really it it's not a huge benefit to us. And that wraps up facilities. Any questions on anything? For each of the facilities, there are two lines for general supplies. The
066very first general supplies on the top of each one and then as you go down further >> Oh. Oh, yes. So, general that general supplies line is just classroom furniture. Okay. >> And it's not really my line. It's it falls under my budget, but that is a principal's line and they buy classroom furniture. And that's specifically I don't buy classroom furniture with my general supplies which is the number lower. >> Thank you. >> There questions for John. Good. >> All right. I make a motion that we accept article 9 facilities and maintenance as presented from Kevin. Discussion. So represent that come out. >> It's still part of my budget, but really it's it's a line for the principles. I don't tell them what to buy. Um but I have to sign off on that. So
067I actually do the ordering for the furniture. I shop for they tell me what they need. Um I control the line, but it's really >> the line. >> Yeah. It's really not my line. >> Yeah. >> Uh the amounts are based on trends. So, I just look back at the several last several years um as of what they have needed or what they've expended and um the middle school actually has been very conservative over the last several years, but he's getting to the point now where he's got to start replacing stools and desks and other questions for John. I had a motion from Andrea, a second from Gavin. There's no other questions, so I'll call the vote. All those in favor, unanimous. All right, thank you. And then we'll move on to article 17 and
06818, which is capital improvement. And if you remember that is two different articles because we uh have article 17 which we're going to raise and then we have article 18 which is to expend. So uh sometimes our article 18 is more because we use some funds that are are carrying over from year to year. So we'll go on to um CIP but first John do you want to talk about the charts? >> I can. So to try to put a visual on our CIP program, um what I did is I created this chart several several years ago. Um, and this is based on the contracted engineering firms that came in and assessed our buildings and then they went through everything, you know, every nut and bolt and floor tile and they put an estimated life
069expectancy and an estimated cost and we built our CIP plan based on what they recommend and then they put, you know, um, when we should be when we they recommended when we should be replacing specific items. items. And so when you look at 1617 based on those plans that year, we should have done $1.2 million worth of, you know, fixes and repairs. But as you can see, the green number represents how much was budgeted towards the CIP. And then the red number is how much was actually expended that year. Okay? So, when you look at the red and green and you put those together, you can see that we didn't come close to spending the 1.2. What this chart doesn't show you is I really should have taken the unexpended items from 16 and 17
070and then stacked them up onto 17 and 18. But you can know by quickly glancing at that that if I did this, my charts would have been off the page because these are all things that don't get done are still undone. And you know, we've been pecking at with either regular operational budget money um or CIP. Um, >> John, can you just remind everyone where the CIP kind of came from because it wasn't just you putting down projects? You had some help, >> right? Well, the the CIP comes from um uh those engineering firms that came in and did the study on our buildings um to put those statistics on what it would roughly cost us to replace certain items, when we should um replace them. And then I took that report and then I
071built our actual 10-year CIP p plan based on the information that they gave us. And so, for example, last year we had a lot of items that they recommended that we replace. Um, and one of the reasons why that number is so high is because there were a couple of roofs on there. Um, you know, we've already started on the high school roof. Um, there was paving in there. you know, a lot of big ticket items um that happened to just fall on that one particular year. But again, they estimated $7 million worth of work that year and we only did 461,000. And this is what I mean by when I talk about my operational line where repairs and maintenance, you know, we're getting to the point where that repairs and maintenance line is no
072longer satisfactory to keep up with doing the daily repairs that are no longer covered under what should be falling under CIP. >> Question for you. this year in the last two budgetly. >> Yep. So, and at the end of the year, there is always going to be a surplus amount. And the reason there is is because come January, most of the major CIP projects have been done over the summer. When July 1 hits and my money's freed up, I start fixing and fixing. and we get all those done primarily because the buildings are vacant and that's the best time for us to do them. And then come January, I have spent down a lot of my CIP, but I always hang on to a little bit because if I have something else happen in the
073building that I can't cover with my regular budget, this becomes my emergency fund. So I hang on to those amounts and then whatever I have left remaining, we have the option to carry it over into the next year. So even though it didn't get spent in this year, it gets added to next year's total and it does get spent. >> Carry it over. It doesn't go into >> it gets earmarked for CIP. >> It's one of the few things that you can carry over as a designated fund balance. >> Yeah, >> that's why we have to have warn articles at the town at the district budget meeting for that reason so that it can be a designated fund. And that's why a lot of times my CIP number um that I proposed and the CIP
074amount to expend is often higher. So we're asking for 500,000 in this next year, but I may have, you know, 40,000 left over. We're going to ask for CIP of 500,000, but we're going to ask to expend 540. Does that make sense? John, what is the CIP looking like for next year? What what are your projects? >> So, right next uh so next year >> project >> Yeah. So, you'll see that we're proposing $499,900. Um $450 that is already earmarked for the third installation on the high school roof. Um this will be three of four payments. Um and then the remaining amount is for I have um two sets of doors at PCS exterior doors that have to be replaced. I have to put in a um fenced in area for the um prek uh
075playground at Minet. Um and there was one other project that I have to do that has slipped my mind. >> That's a trend, right? What's that? >> Is it the trim? The building trim? >> Yeah, but that's a small that's a small amount. It was something else >> that I don't >> with the roof at 450. I mean, >> yeah, I Yeah, camper, whatever you want to call it. >> Yeah. Where is that? Yeah, the board voted on that on Monday night to include that in the budget. So, that is going to end up being under the PCS operations under the equipment line. >> Okay. So, we just voted on it. We're gonna raise it now. >> Yeah, I guess. Yeah. Yeah. >> So, that's that's >> Yeah, that's probably Yeah, that is not cool.
076>> Um, we could definitely go back to that one and talk about that. We could take that one off the table and bring that back next week if we want to see that actually in the budget. >> So, what does that look like? >> Yeah, we do. We have $300,000 for that. So, yeah, >> but the the plan is to pay over time, right? We're not asking for the full Are we gonna >> I think we need to figure that part out. like is it going to be the full cost at once or do we is there any other way to be able to pay for that? >> John, when I'm looking at your blue sections of the of the amount that you actually need. >> Yep. >> So these are these are projects that
077you know need to be done. >> So these are projects that the engineering firm recommended. This is a schedule they created that should be done >> years ago. Yeah. >> And what we have done though is because we never have enough money in the CIP, I end up having to use my repairs line to do a lot of the things on these lists. And that's why I'm at that crossroad is I can't do both anymore. So, we got two things here. We've got the facilities and maintenance with the modular because Lisa, you are right. that should be included in there so that you're fully aware and being able to see that. So, um I will pull the the TA off the table. Is is that a Yep. an okay from everybody? And then bring that
078back around so you can see that in the actual budget. >> Okay. >> Does that help? >> Yeah. >> Finance. Yeah. Yeah. So we got that that one an action item for that one and then we can come back to the >> CIP. >> So the the plan was it's not a done deal. The plan was to replace it um two halves and then finance it over four years. We have only bid and paid for the first half. This is the next phase. We haven't gone to bidding yet. Um but I have to have the money earmarked before I can go to bid because I I don't have the cash. I can't I can't do it. Um, and you know, this year CIP is not going to have any money left over by the time
079we get to June because as of January 1st, we were we had have already expended $461. And remember, I've got to come up with $45,000 to replace the gym floor and that's going to get me to my 500,000. So, there's not going to be any money that's going to roll over to be available first year for CIP. All right, welcome back Randy and Jess. We're wrapping up CIP. >> Are we ready to make a motion or we still discuss it? Okay. Uh, and also a question. Are we making a motion to include both of them or are we do it one at a time? Because it's 17 and 18. Are we going to TA them together? 18 will be whatever we have left over that carryover amount >> and there's not going to be any.
080So it's >> so it's going to be the the 499,900 >> for article 17 and then 18 is whatever we carry forward. >> Okay. No, I'm asking when you make the motion, do you have to make it separately or do I say article 17 and 18? You can do article 17 and then article 18 will be that plus whatever is going to be carrying forward. >> Okay. >> You do it in two. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> I make a motion that we accept article 17 as written. Any other discussion? All those in favor? >> I'm going to abstain. >> Yeah. Okay. >> Randy, are you abstaining, too? >> All right. And then your second. >> I make a motion that we accept article uh when we know the carryover amount. Any discussion? >> All
081right. Call for the vote. >> Abstaining. >> All right. Well, that bring us us to our conclusion of our meeting. Um, so next time we'll bring back the article 9, the facilities and maintenance with the modular in that. So that way you can take a look again at that um total budget with that included in there and we'll hopefully have a better idea of that's just going to be a right out purchase of the 300,000 or if there's another option for us to explore with being able to spread out payments over that because that's that's significant. Um, as that's the only action item I think I have on my list. Is there any other things that I'm missing? Okay. Is there any information that the um John, if you want to start packing up and
082heading out, you can do that. Any information that the budget committee would like me to bring next time? >> I do have a question. I've been like trying to do the math here, but like right now with these two weeks, my math says we're up 3 million. >> How much? >> 3 million or you have 1.9 in? >> Yes. >> And then there's I think 235,000 from the special ed budget and then um 500 in CIP potential 300 for the modular and then John's two line items were 186 and 60. So that's quick. >> So I did a lot of work today on the budget pulling apart the contingency and putting it in the lines where they go. Amy asked me to get that done. >> Yeah. and we were up 1.4 in the general
083fund. That did not include the 300,000 for the modular because that was not put in yet and it would not include the CIP. So, I'm not sure where you're getting three million. >> I've just been going just the the different line items because we don't have anything yet. Just trying to understand >> I do last year um what you were at 1.4 and that was a 5.1%. So I was I was targeting that same amount for this year as my target. So yeah, >> great. Yeah, >> you know how to find me. >> Yeah, I know. It's a lot. It's a lot. I'm glad you're here. It's nice to have some returning people, but then also some new people, too. That's a good It's a good flow to have. >> I think that the handouts
084are fabulous. I really appreciate the effort that goes into putting these together, but just the graphs and the color coding, it just makes it really easy to understand and I appreciate how much time it must take to to do that for us. So, just the handouts have been exceptional. Well, >> it's good to have the same ones now. Like again, it's been my consistency of like our are people that show up can expect the same and like no, you're not relearning. Oh, it's a new graph this year of enrollment. It's how I can remember that maybe from last year and then reusing them, too. So, you'll see it here and you'll see it in the budget booklet. The board will see it at the board meeting. You'll see it at the district budget meeting. So,
085it's like all of those like how can we reuse them? And again to Lisa, Lisa, and Mary, if you ever want any handouts to bring to yours and just shoot me an email and I'll send you a PDF. >> I just have a I guess it's a general process question. I think we all know when it gets really serious is when we start talking about possible tax impact. Um, where does that or does that fit into this discussion? Um because I you know and and I know I'm I don't think any of us are the people that would s should be saying where you need to cut. I see that as an administrative one. >> But I do see this committee as saying what we think our taxpayers can bear in terms of an increase.
086So I I guess my question is just a process one or when when do we get to that point where we can have some of those discussions? >> Yeah. So then that's part of the reason why um talking with Stacy is not wanting to have all of the salaries in contingencies. So, I talked with other superintendents and said, you know, we're in negotiations with everybody except the board staff and I don't want to, you know, be bargaining in bad faith and and we wouldn't be because our board has set a pot of money for our our contract negotiations and then we do set the work agreements. And so I've asked her to to pull those out of contingency and start putting them into the lines because I don't want to get to the budget meeting
087and have like article one be down like $500,000 and and then that's a misperception that we have made those cuts when and then you've got contingency where everything else is. So I want to be as clear and transparent as possible. So, I do hope to get to that tax impact as Stacy's working through pulling those out and putting them into the the actual lines that they are. And I think the other piece we we haven't seen is sort of the the revenue sheet about sort of, you know, what's the revenue to support this budget. I know we've got some increases in um subsidy, but is that offbalanced by increased local share? >> Yeah. >> Um >> yeah. >> So, you know, I think that that we've we've had a lot of information and accurate information
088we need, but what we don't have is sort of that that other information to balance it. made some notes of tax impact, revenue sheet >> and all the legislature activity that's going on right now. None of this is going to happen in time for budget season, right? Like they're in committees, they're having all these grant meetings, they're releasing numbers, it's exciting, and then it's scary, but that is not going to happen for us before our budget meeting, >> right? It won't be for FY27. >> Okay. All right, there's no further questions. Have a good day. >> I guess I guess the my only other one is I'm assuming that the discussions that you're having uh around um the renovation funds and the bond that doesn't need to be part of this budget that that's something
089that would impact the next year. Correct. The only snafu that might run into that is what the board will decide to do because if we if you remember the school revolving renovation graphic there's the 6 million SRF side and then there was the 3.1 million on the right hand side. So it depends upon bond bank and what when we b when we we go to to sale on that and so there may be the first uh interest payment which we ran a sample amorization um uh schedule and it did look like there could be a 50 $50,000 interest payment that could potentially come in and so there's that piece of the finance committee will talk about that on on um March 23rd and then the board will talk about that uh at their at their
090April 9th meeting. So, uh as Stacy's dragging things out of the contingency, I'm like, "Oh, I wonder if I should put that potential first payment for the interest into contingency just to be safe." So, >> feels like a lot of working parts right now. >> Yes, there are. Thank you. >> With the $30 million budget, there it's a lot. All right. Thank you for your time. Thank you so much. See you next week. Yep.