001meeting at 6:15 Springs public school board meeting order for the date of June 9th. And if you would please rise for me for the pledge of allegiance. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and all. Thank you. We have a local secretary. Yes. Trusty Bowser here. Trusty Patton here. Trusty Lun here. Treasure Gilmore here. Secretary Slagger here. Vice President Schoffner here. President Ree here. Thank you. And we've established a forum for tonight's meeting. That brings us to the adoption of the agenda and I would entertain a motion for as presented. So move support. Any discussion? Vice President Schoffner. Yes. Secretary Slagger. Yes. Treasury Gilmore. Yes. Trusty Van. Yes. Trusty Patton. Yes. Trusty Bowser. Yes. President Reed.
002Yes. Motion carries. That brings us to gratitudes for this portion of our movement. I would open the table, but I'm going to take the liberty of going first. Driving by the high school at night time. The names and the lighting is really magnificent and pretty nice. That was gone. New addition. So, I'm grateful for that. I'm I'm just grateful obviously end of the school year came and just lots of um lots of end of year festivities and activities for our staff and students and and graduation and so just really appreciated everyone's hard work and um and just celebrating the year. I'm going to echo that as well. Just uh thank you to all the staff that put in all the hard work this year. It was it was a good year I think. But yeah,
003thanks a lot. Thank you. Oh, I will say to our softball team, Rockford, that was awesome. It was great. Very grateful. Thank you. It's All right. Um, can I quickly So, last Thursday after the students went home, we had a staff uh celebration uh here in the auditorium. And uh one of the things that I reminded staff was that um you know, summer is an opportunity for you to refresh and and replenish your soul and your body. And so, we thanked staff by giving them a water bottle. Uh and the idea there was just the simple things this you know the most simple liquid water is so incredibly beneficial to your body and so we want to give pass those along to board members as well. Thank you for your efforts and your energy. Um
004it's remarkable between the retirees and all of the uh service award recipients uh we recognized and celebrated over a thousand years of service uh to education to Cedar Springs public schools and that's a that's a remarkable remarkable number. So high school representatives, I think it's spring break. I don't see anybody here. Okay, moving on to our consent items. I would entertain a motion as presented. Vice President Sh. Yes. Secretary Slater. Yes. Gilmore. Yes. Long. Yes. Justin, yes. Bowser, yes. President Reed, yes. Motion carries. Brings us to the discussion items for this evening. First up, we have L429, property tax with All right. So, this is part of the annual process for adopting the L4029, which is the document that allows uh schools to levy uh taxes within the school bound district boundaries. Um so this
005is part of the truth and taxation process. Uh one of the steps that we have to do for the truth and taxation process is we do have to uh publish a formal notice in a local paper in circulation uh giving notice that we will be holding this uh hearing tonight. Um so I placed an ad with m live um as that is you know obviously we don't have a we no longer have a local paper here at Cedar Springs. Um so this is something we do annually. Uh so the truth end taxation deals with the headley roll back. Uh and what that is is it's a law that kind of puts a governor on uh how much an individual property uh how much their property tax uh payments can increase year-over-year. Uh so it your
006your the tax that a property will pay is kind of limited to the lesser of the growth of your property value or inflation. Um so if there's a calculation that is done um and if the factor is one.0 O or higher the millage rate will remain the same. If it is less than one there's a roll back on the millage rates for the uh the 18 ms and the six mills that we levy. This does not impact the 7 mil debt service. The uh the calculation is your tax prior year taxable value less your current year losses divided by uh the current year taxable value less your current year additions times the consumer price index. Now, by holding this truth and taxation hearing, um it allows us to multiply that factor by the CIP. If
007we did not do this hearing, it would be this formula right here. Any questions so far? So for our current year roll back uh our uh we have 1.93 million less uh oops sorry skipped ahead uh less 962,000 times the CIP divided by 209 million less 10 million. So we come with up with a heavily rolled back factor of.9956. So as I mentioned ratio less than one per 1.0 indicates annual growth exceeded the taxable revenue or taxable values have exceeded the rate of inflation. Hence we are going to roll back our miller rates and that calculation is simply your current or your prior year millig rates times that.9956. So by doing this by rolling back the um millage rate on an annual basis the the district is foregoing an additional almost $150,000 of general fund
008revenue that we would otherwise be able to collect. Uh the alter another alternate is we could go to the voters on an annual basis to reset that millage rate back to 18 mills and six mills. Um the district has chosen to do the truth and taxation and roll it back by the uh the factor that as calculated. Um if we didn't do this hearing uh we would be forgoing an additional $111,000 in general fund uh revenue. So without this hearing it would be you know about $260,000 less that the district would have for general operations. Uh we do prepare two L4029s, one for Kent County and then one for NEO County. Uh so the the millage rates are the same for both counties. Our 2025 tax year mill rates uh with the headley roll back
009are calculated at 17.3275 and the for the commercial uh 5.3275 I sorry I misspoke. The 17.325 would be the on the non-homestead and nonqualified ad and all households would pay the 5.3275. That money goes to the state. Uh so tonight we'll be asking the board to take action uh on the L4029s uh after we do the budget hearing for the 202526 school year. Um I can tell you the city and township trustees are anxiously awaiting because they need this information to prepare their tax roles that go out on July 1st. So they have to get those to the printers uh ASAP. Any questions? Right into budget hearing. That is on for action. Yes. All right, rolling right into the 2425 final budget amendments. Uh just some quick highlights for the state aid membership. Our audited
010membership ended up being 2,996 FTEES. So that's what we were received. That's what the state aid per pupil allowance was based off of. Um our initial projections at this time last year were uh 3,000 three FTEES. So we we're about seven off the foundation allowance history. Um, the state ended up maintaining the 23 24 foundation allowance amount and uh kept it at $9,68 per student per FTE. Um you can if you know there was been a pretty significant jump in the last let's say five years uh going back you know more in the early 2010 it was a little bit more of a a flat increase. We do anticipate uh you know this trajectory not continuing at quite as as steep of a incline uh and more leveling out over the next five years. So
011anticipating more like a two uh after this uh coming fiscal year it more being a 2% 2 and a half% increase versus the the 4% that four and a half that we've experienced over the last three to four years. So what what's changed since we did uh budget amendment one? Uh, as you can see, local revenue has increased uh a little over $55,000. Um, that was primarily related to an increase in local taxes. Uh, I did reduce our anticipated interest uh income earnings by 25,000, bringing it down to 475,000. Uh we also received 32,000 in universal service funding that's related to different tech initiatives that we uh receive funds on and the federal government will pay um depending on the project up to 70% of the project. Uh for state aid revenue, uh we had
012a about $380,000 increase uh net. A lot of different variables go into that. A $52,000 decrease to section 22L, which is used for offsetting cost of transportation. uh our proposal a foundation allowance decreased by $32,000 and that kind of goes hand inand with the increase in the local taxes because the state factors in how much a district is receiving via local taxes. If local taxes revenue increases, the amount of funding you receive through state aid from the state decreases because they're shooting your total uh that state a bount per pupil allowance is made up of local taxes and then the state fills in the difference. Um a big one relates to section 147G. So that was a $33,000 increase. Uh that was we knew that that money was going to be coming uh when we
013did budget amendment one, but the state had not uh released our allocation at that time. So we didn't know how much. Uh so I left it off of budget amendment one until we knew how much we would be receiving. It should be noted that that's a uh sec uh similar to the UAL funding that we received. That's an in and an out. Um it relates to if depending on which retirement plan you're in. Some of our uh older staff, more seasoned staff, they are contributing 3% of their salary towards a health care retirement fund. The state decided that they were going to I'm going to say reimburse those staff members that 3%. Um, and when I say reimburse, it's not a full reimbursement because it's not a dollar fordoll reimbursement because if they contributed $100,
014the state may have only given us $95 and we would then take that 95 and pass it on. So, in reality, the the employee did pay $5. Um it's also should be noted that uh the districts are required to pay retirement benefits on that $33,000 and that's came at the cost that was essentially an unfunded mandate by the state. Um so that was an additional cost to the district for incoming transfers and other revenue. uh we increased our GSRP reimbursements from the ISD by 80,000 uh increase of Medicaid reimbursements by 60und almost 200,000 for act 18 revenue and um based on where food service uh landed. I did a $100,000 indirect recovery from the food service. So, Food Service will be transferring a H 100,000 to help offset some of the administrative costs that the
015general fund incurs when running food service. Any questions so far? For uh general fund expenses, we had an overall increase of $884 $884,000. Um these are by the different kind of functions the basic programming added needs all the way down um as a percentage of our of each type of expenditure by percent basic programming remains our largest uh expenditure at about 42.5%. So that that's kind of your gen education. Um special ed would fall under added needs or any at risk additional work that we do. So those two are really the the main over half of uh where our operating funds go. So basic programmings, we had an increase of almost $314,000. Um, and this is kind of going to be a reoccurring theme. The second one, an increase of $22,000 related to that section
016147G. So that's the the 3% reimbursement that the district is paying out. U again, you'll see that throughout uh the presentation. Um, also budget in budgeted in $73,000 for the retiree sick leave payout. That's part of the CSEA agreement. Um, so that that's related to retirees who retired last year. Then we pay it out in January each year. Um the other big one would be the increased cost for uh edgy staff subs. Added needs also increased about $310,000. Uh again 21,000 for section 147G. uh we increase our net uh payment special ed payments to other districts in the ISD by 45,000 that relates to the um region one special ed programming that we do. So we host uh a number of special ed programming primarily ASD classrooms and then neighboring districts host other special ed
017my mosai uh and it's kind of grade level dependent. Um one major driver of this increase was we had one student at Sparta who in their IEP was determined that they needed um a one-on-one nurse. So that's something that we will have to reimburse Sparta for. Uh career tech and education. This relates to the uh FFA grant that we received. Um that was a $45,000 grant that we received and purchased uh the Gator and spreader that had the uh satellite technology that the FFA uh program is now using. Again, that was that's an in and out. So, we received the funds. I believe we deferred. No, they would have the funds would have hit this year. Um, so, uh, compensatory ed. So, that's kind of the at risk portion. Um, we did some additional positions,
018uh, PBIS and academic interventionists using section 31A at risk funds. So, that was a net increase of 62,000. Uh also you would see an increase of benefits that go along with that. Uh the EXL licensing that we that the board approved maybe in January. Originally I in budget amendment one I had that budgeted as a uh in improvement of instruction but for this one I moved it into added needs. So that's really a recclass right there. from one function to uh the added needs function and you will see an offsetting decrease when we get to uh improvement of instruction. Any questions so far? Just All right. Uh pupil support services, we had a decrease of $156,000. Uh large part of it was a um there was a staff member who we ended up reallocating a
019portion of their salary between uh pupil support services and um the function uh me so I don't misspeak um instructional staff services uh we did have a also a decrease in benefits partially due that to that reclass as well as changes in benefits. So uh open enrollment is annually in November and then changes to en uh benefits occur January 1st. So that was this is catching up to those open enrollment changes. So it might be we had a staff member who went from full family to cash in loo or they might have had a dependent who aged out and they went from full family to single subscriber or double. So that's uh would be the driver of those changes in benefits. instructional staff services increased $94,000 uh primarily driven by the uh that reallocation from
020the previous slide. Uh we also picked up uh professional development wages. So any teacher that if there's a special uh professional development that we want them to take, they will be compensated for it. A big one would be Ely. Um, so once they complete that Ebblely training over the course of the year, they receive a $1,000 stipen. Um, also benefits obviously increase with the increased wages. Uh, and there you can see the uh $111,000 uh net decrease primary related to that being reclassed up into uh compensatory ed uh which is part of added needs. maintenance and operations. I had a $134,000 increase. Uh slight decrease to wages, a salary and wages. Uh increase to purchase services. Uh did a net increase to utilities, materials, and supplies. And then a decrease to capital outlay. uh majority
021of that being related to the security camera project. So this decrease uh due to the timing, you know, this is through June 30th. So we won't be build or have that work completed until probably July August. So it's actually being moved from 2425 into the 2526 school year or fiscal year. Um, back in uh, amendment one, we I originally wanted to try to fund as much of the capital outlay related to bringing plowing back in house. I tried to fund that without increasing the uh maintenance operations budgets, but we just had with the addition of uh two FTEEs there, we just had the capacity to really start knocking out some projects that had been put on the back burner. So, uh that plan did not quite play out as I had hoped. Um, but we
022did accomplish a lot of good work uh in the last three uh 6 months or so. Um, athletics, we had a $75,000 increase primarily related to wages and benefits. Um, you know, I had to update a few of the uh steps that the coaches, new coaches came in at. Uh also we had a few A and B teams at the middle school. So that was if uh you know we have a basketball team at the middle school that has let's say we have 24 student athletes who would like to participate in basketball. Um you know obviously if you carry one team of 24 there's not going to be a lot of playing time for uh the majority of those student athletes. So in those instances, we will split the teams, do an AB team, a
023B team. We'll have 12 and 12 and uh it's a better overall experience for uh our athletes. Um but in that case, we would compensate two coaches. Uh there was also one coaching position that I I missed on the budget amendment one, so I did add them there as well. uh capital outlay. This relates to the high school PA project. Um this was the initial payment to get them started. Um they will be starting, they should be starting this week. Uh the balance will be paid out uh again in 2526, so likely August of this year um once that project is complete. So you'll see the balance of that project on the 2526 budget. So at the end of the day with all those changes, we are projecting an annual surplus of uh just under
024$2,000. Uh that does include a three or $435 thou,000 uh transfer from the general fund to the that newly approved capital improvement fund to fund future capital projects. Uh that leaves us with a healthy fund balance of 30.78%. Um and then this graph just kind of shows the the fund balance over the last uh about 10 years. And this blue line represents our annual surplus. Any questions on general fund before we move into the non- major funds? All right. Community service budget. Um so this is campus campus kids. So, our before and after school care as well as uh tuitionbased preschool. So, right now I am projecting a net loss of about $117,000. So, that's an additional $84,000 of compared to what we initially uh adopted last year. the the primary driver would be uh
025preschool tuition and campus kids tuition is down compared to what we initially budgeted. We we tried something new um and it did not quite play out as anticipated. Uh providing some wraparound care uh for the GSRP students and those GSRP students we have seven or eight classrooms but that program is run by DISD. So we did offer some before and after school care for them but the utilization wasn't quite uh wasn't quite there. Um then we also had some unanticipated unavoidable staffing expenses. We had a few students that were high needs, had some medical issues that we ended up having to staff for. Um so that was kind of added to the uh the deficit. Any questions on community service? uh we still will have a a healthy fund balance of just under 50%. So
026projecting fund balance of $345,000. uh food service. We originally budgeted to be flat um and the final budget amendment has a deficit of $82,000. But um as I mentioned in the general fund, that that $82,000 deficit includes a $100,000 indirect recovery food service transferring money to the general fund. Um, and even with that, our fund balance will remain robust. Um, and we will still have excess fund balance of $74,000 even with that $100,000 uh transfer. Uh, as a reminder, the excess fund balance, the uh, federal government mandates that in a food service program, you only carry three months of your annual expenditures in your fund balance. If your fund balance exceeds that amount, you have to come up with a spend down plan. So that is part and uh indirect cost recovery is an allowable
027spend down um option. So even with all those adjustments we will be at uh $832,000 of fund balance projected fund balance at June 30th. uh student activities. You know, this is the kind of where you know any out extracurricular activity if they do any fundraising, this is where the money is uh recorded and then they use that those fundraising dollars on their intended purposes. Uh so it's really driven by fundraising and what the those entities or groups are doing. Uh right now we're projecting to have uh $25,000 added to fund balance at the end of the year bringing our fund balance to uh 395,000 or 7% fund balance. This is pretty typical for a district our size. Um, and again, it's really, you know, I should remind you that the the expenditures that are, you
028know, being made with school activity funds, you know, they do have to follow still follow uh district policies regarding purchases and uh and whatnot. So, it's not a it's not a blank check for uh our organizations to do whatever they want. there are guard rails even though they're the ones raising the money. So we currently have uh seven debt service funds. This is where revenue from is based on the seven mills that are collected annually. Uh and then the expenses are all based on the debt service schedules that were issued with the uh when we did the debt issuances. And two of these funds we will be closing out at the end of the year. So they have a little bit of uh fund balance remaining. We're transferring those to uh the other two other
029fund debt service funds to help them in future years. So here's our our final debt service budgets. Uh the all sources are based on tax collections. Uh any interest earnings and then the we did borrow from the state for the via the school bond loan fund. So that comprises all of the um the revenues for our debt service funds. The expenditures are strictly principal and interest and as well as each debt service. There's a $500 administrative fee that we pay to uh at this point is Huntington Bank and they uh kind of administer our debt service payments. So there's a $500 admin fee. So principal, interest, and a $500 admin fee for all uh of those debt services. Uh for capital projects funds we have four funds that currently syncing fund capital improvement and the
030two school building and site bonds uh capital projects the the syncing fund the currently the only revenue that we have recorded or received would be related to interest earnings because we're no longer uh levying a sinking fund mill. Um, we actually have not had any expenditures as of today, but I did just put $10,000 in case something did pop up. I'm not anticipating it, but um I wanted something in there allocated. Uh this is the new capital improvement fund that was approved uh back in February. So as you can see this is the transfer from the general fund for $435,000 and we would have a projected June 30th fund balance of $435,000. for the 2021 bond construction fund. I will be trying to close this one out. Um, know we don't have a whole lot
031left. We earned $76 in interest. We have about $4,000 in the fund remaining and I will be using that to um pay one of the the June payout that we received from Triangle and that will close out that fund for this fiscal year. So you will not see a 2021 bond uh construction fund 2526 budget. Um and then the last one is the 2023 bond construction fund. Uh so revenues are all interest earnings. Uh they're based off of investment earnings through April and then projecting May and June. uh expenditures are based on actual expenditures incurred through May plus the projected cash flows for June. Uh and then we open projects we currently have going on. Obviously beach, the the weight and cheer room addition, the tennis courts and the parking lot improvements, all which are
032scheduled to be completed um in August of 25. But so we will still have all those those are all still included in the 2526 budget as well. Uh when all is said and done, we're done. We're projecting to end this fiscal year with uh just over 11 million remaining in our 2023 school uh school building and site bond fund. So, we'll be asking the board to take action on the final 2425 budget um at the June 23rd board meeting. Um there's still some stuff coming in as we close out the year. If there's anything major, um I will be updating these numbers and I'll present uh present that to you on the 23rd. Any questions on the 2425 final budget? Final budgets. No question. I just really appreciate the detail for the time that Dave's
033pass. It helps us with transparency into the number. So, thank you for that. You're welcome. Thank you for maintaining a healthy fun. Greatly appreciated. Yes, it is. It's important and we'll we'll kind of get that a little bit into that now with the 2526 proposed budgets. All right. So, this is kind of some standard wording related to the uh the 17.3275 mills that we will be uh asking the board to approve that will be levied on the uh properties within the Cedar Springs Public Schools School District. Um again, that 17 those 17 mills would be levied on non-homestead and non-qualified agricultural properties. So non-h homestead would be anybody who has a second home or a vacation home within the district. Uh non-qualified a would be any commercial or businesses other than uh farms and farmland.
034So I I I know I've mentioned the cere in May. Um, and those are the the numbers that the state government uses to uh kind of set the coming budget. Um, oops. Generally, they just have a January and May Creck. Um, but right now due to some economic uncertainties, they are discussing the possibility of having an August C-REC. They did this um five years ago I think in 2020 with COVID. So they they had the January cere was right after CO hit and then they did an August one to adjust those final numbers. Um some key takeaways from the CRC right now the economic data and consumer sentiment are somewhat misaligned. Um they talked about uncertainty probably a hundred times during this presentation. Um they discussed uh tariffs and the economic side of that. So
035but under all that the revenue data is still positive but that f as that first bullet point mentions the sediment doesn't necessarily follow the data. Um, and right now they they increased the revenue for the school aid fund but decreased the projected revenue for the general fund general purpose revenues. So, anytime there's general pressure on the general fund, general purpose dollars, that puts pressure on the school aid fund because they might start, you know, kind of moving some cups around and uh reallocate some money from the school aid fund to fill some gaps in the general fund. So, that's something we'll want to keep an eye on. Uh so based on the the two full budgets that have been released, the uh the executive budget and the Senate budget, we are uh projecting a $10,000
036per pupil foundation allowance, which would be a a $392 per pupil increase. I am projecting state aid membership of 2,942 FTEES. So that would be a 54 FTE decrease from the 2,996 that we had for uh this fiscal year that's ending June 30th. So, here's the the three well two complete budgets that have been released and the House has released a press conference essentially when they were off at the Meno Center. Um, and the House speakers made the statement that they their budget would include a $2,392 uh increase to the foundation allowance, bringing it up to $12,000 per pupil. Um, they did not provide any other detail from for the rest of the budget. Um, so I haven't put too much time into that. uh but some uh you know some folks at the ISD
037have looked at it and based on their calculations right now without cutting some of these other sections there doesn't seem to be enough funding available to do the $12,000 per pupil uh foundation allowance without cutting these other categoricals. So, it sounds like we probably won't really know what the House budget is until August or September. So, we might be waiting a while before it might be two or three months after we pass the budget on the 23rd before we really know what the state aid budget will be. So, I have to emphasize this is our best estimate with the data that we have and the information that we have now. I I had a question. I'm just trying to connect that between this presentation and actually the previous one for the budget, but the increase
038in the staff services that I think was like 39,000 for atrisisk funding, would that come from the section 31A? Yes. Yep. So for our revenue projections, I'm projecting a decrease overall decrease in our revenues of $626,000. Primarily that's driven by a decrease in state aid revenue. And that is there's well a number of factors to that. There's a decrease to um I mentioned that $33,000 of section 147G at the last presentation. Those funds are going away. On the opposite side, those expenses are going away. So, that's a that's a net zero uh change to the budget. Now, we won't have the to pay for the associated benefits. So, that's a positive. Um but kind of going top to bottom, local revenue projected to be up $83,000. Uh that is primarily relates to a $200,000 increase
039to property taxes. That's primarily driven off of existing property tax value. Uh again, that revenue is limited to the growth of the CIP, but then there's also additional new taxable value that's entering the uh within the district. Uh we're showing a $75,000 decrease to interest income, projecting some possible interest rate cuts throughout the year. Um, and then a $45,000 decrease in miscellaneous revenues. Uh, for state revenues, I have that down 318,000. Uh, there are a lot of moving parts to this one. U, the big one relates to section 147 A4 and 147 C2. So previously I mentioned that the state did not increase the per pupil foundation allowance from 23 24 into 2425. What they did was they gave districts this section 147 A4 funding. For us that was $1.2 million. Well, for 2526 section
040147 A4 and 147 C2 are going away. So that's $1.7 million going away. I do have a $160,000 increase to the related to the foundation allowance. Uh an increase to section 31A at risk. Uh part of that includes deferred revenue from 2425 deferring it into 2526. Um this $1 million relates to all of the other section 147 categoricals. So 147 it has to do with retirement costs. Um part of this would be also an in and out. So each year the state gives us funding for the UAL portion of the retirement cost uh expenses. They give us the money and then few days later we give it back. So any increase to that UAL portion of the 147 is it's a wash but it shows up as an increase in our uh revenues and a
041increase in our expenses. Uh I do have federal revenue being down by a little over half a million dollars. Uh primarily related to the uh final esser funding that we expended in 2425 esser there is no esser funds or covid related funds on the 2526 budget. So we are done with that. Uh so that's the primary uh driver of this decrease. Uh I have title funding is decreasing by $71,000. Uh so there is a hold harmless clause related to title one title funding and it's basically you are guaranteed to receive 85% of your prior year allocation. So that's what I budgeted for. So we were receiving $100,000 of title one. I budgeted 85,000 for this coming fiscal year. Uh and then the last large one is uh there was a health resource advocate grant that
042we've recognized $121,000 in 2425. That grant was uh terminated in 2425 and will not be coming back next year. And then finally, some uh transfers and others up $122,000 primarily related to the act 18 and enhancement millage. For our uh expenses, I have a slight decrease of $257,000. uh some key assumptions that are built into the expense side of the budget. Uh we have a CSEA agreement. We are in year one of three. Uh next year will be year two of three. So we have budgeted step plus 2.5% of base for all of our CSEA members. Um we will be based on declining enrollment we do project reducing the number of a few number of sections at the elementary level um support staff and I I should add we are doing that through attrition. We're
043not doing any uh we don't have any projected layoffs at this time. So, somebody's retiring, resigning. We evaluate the position and whether or not uh we're replacing it or do we, you know, shift funding to a different priority. Uh for support staff, we're doing also a step plus 2.5% increase to the hourly rate. Um and that really is kind of the the theme for our non-union admin district office salary and hourly staff. Um, this actually should be 2.5%. Um, healthcare costs, we've discussed the possibility of a pretty significant increase related to the health bill or House Bill 6058. Uh, you know, that could be potentially 10% increase to that hard cap. right now it still sounds like that will not be um going forward in the the legis with the legislators. So I currently have
044the increase to our health insurance cap going up uh 2.9%. uh there was a slight the retirement rates were decreased but they did then increase the uh UAA rate from 10.58% to 15.02 02 again that UAL is the in and the out. So we'll recognize more revenue related to it and our corresponding expenses will also increase. So the impact on the bottom line is zero. uh some non-personnel uh expenditures. We did have a reduction in curriculum supplies, tuition payments, and dual enrollment textbooks. And then a reduction in operation uh capital outlay uh staffing changes. So from an admin district office district level, we're down 0.15. We have three retirements, one resignation, eliminating one position, we're replacing two, and then there's 2.85 new positions. You add that all up, it's a reduction of 0.15. I have
045the CSEA being down by one uh FTE and support staff being down by two FTE. That one is primarily we had some unfilled facility care positions that I I removed after talking to staff, you know, we're currently at a good staffing level. So I I removed those from uh the staffing plan. And again, I here I'm noting that know we have staff being transferred to fill some vacated positions. So sometimes like this negative two, it's really somebody's just shifting to a different position. For basic programming, I have an overall decrease of uh just shy of half a million dollars. Again, that we have a step plus 2.5. Uh and the increase to our medical part cap, that decrease, the primary drivers of that decrease relates to that section 147G. That's $22,000. That's no longer uh
046budgeted for because it's that's no longer a a a thing. Um also we had a $266,000 net decrease to capital outlay. So last year we purchased beach furniture. Um and then we als uh we do have a slight increase to our tech expenditures. The net impact is a $266,000 increase added needs. So this again is our special education and um at risk additional interventions. We have a $90,000 increase here. Uh a $175,000 increase related to salary and wages. Uh 103,000 related to uh associated benefits. There's a $108,000 decrease in purchase services that relates to the LL purchase that we made this year. That's a three-year agreement. So, we no longer have that have to budget for that in this year or the following year. Um, and again, we're not budgeting for a new FFA gator
047for pupil support. So, this is our counselors, occupational therapists, psyches, school social workers, and other non-instructional staff. uh we have a $592,000 increase. This is primarily we obviously have the increase to uh our wages for existing staff, the STEP plus the 2.5, but we are adding uh two new positions, a school social work, elementary level social worker and an elementary counselor position. Uh so that is a $356,000 ad and a associated benefits of $235,000. The school social worker we're charging to section 31A the at risk funding from that we've received from the state and the counselor would will be charged to the section 31A uh state categorical. So that those are the funds that are intended for student and staff mental health um and safety initiatives. Um for instructional staff support we have a net
048decrease of 281,000. Um there was one uh I mentioned earlier we had a position that was kind of split between two categoricals. That position is going away. Um so that contributes to that net decrease. Uh we have net associated decrease in benefits. Um and then also I have not budgeted yet for uh those professional development wages. We are kind of wrapping up a lot of the EBY. A lot majority of our staff have now been through Eley uh training. So we won't be seeing as many of those uh $1,000 stipens as they go through those trainings. um we will incur some professional development expenditures. I just I don't have a a solid number yet, so I haven't included that. Uh for general administration, school administration and business services, uh the general administration's up uh about
049$13,000. School admin is down 25,000 and business services is up roughly 20. Uh this includes obviously the the standard 2 and a half% plus step and changes to benefits. Uh and we did also uh eliminate the K5 dean of student position. Uh that was the position held by Clarence McCoy and he is actually will be coming to the high school to replace uh Mike Duffy as the high school dean of students. So while we're eliminating a position uh we're not laying anyone off. maintenance and operations have a decrease of $146,000 uh increase to salary and benefits. Uh large this decrease is primarily driven by the uh decreasing our capital outlay expenditures for um 25 26. We've, you know, we did uh expend quite a bit last year getting ready for the uh snow snow removal
050and transition. Uh we should be in very good shape and do not anticipate needing to have anywhere near this level of expenditures. I'm not saying there won't be any, but it won't be 300,000. Uh transportation I have going up 88,000. that's primarily related to the dean transportation contract uh that the the daily per DM rate and the variable rate increases annually by uh 2.5%. So factoring in the same number of routes then the um that PDM increase we have a that equates to about an $80,000 overall increase. Obviously, if enrollment does continue to go down, we might be able to go from 26 routes to 25. Um, at which point would impact would relieve some pressure on our transportation expenditures. Uh, community services, we have an increase of 185,000. that is primarily that's all related
051to the that new uh director of extended learning opportunities position. Uh outgoing transfers and other uh that's a decrease of $435,000. I currently do not have any money budgeted to transfer to that capital improvement fund. And then capital outlay, that's an increase of 131,000. That's that remaining balance of the high school PA and clock system project. And again, that that project was funded with third will be funded with 31 AAA funds. So as a percentage of each type of expenditure, you can still see the the about 45% of our uh expenditures relates to salaries. Another 32% are benefits. So, you know, the lion share of what a school district spends their funds on are are the people that make this place go. Uh, so you put it all together, we are currently projecting a a
052deficit of $366,595. uh our bring our fund balance down to 14.4 million with a projected uh fund balance percentage of 30.18%. So still a very very healthy uh fund balance. Any questions on the general fund before we move on to the others? [Music] And just a just a wondering so you said there was forecasted a reduction of dual enrollment textbooks. Is that because we anticipate fewer dual enrollment students or because the format of how they're instructing that requires more online lesson but um fewer participating uh the numbers at the high school are going down and then also we there's also my school at Kent. some of the or other virtual options, but it has been going down year-over-year. All right, community service budget. So, couple highlights for related preschool. So for next school year we
053will be offering so we're no longer offering forests preschool because families can get that for free through GSRP and there GSRP there used to be a eligibility uh criteria it's now universally free if you want if there's a C and there are you can get in it's the same curriculum as what we were offering and there's no tuition so we are saying take the the no cost option. Um and last year we had actually shifted our four staff from Cedar boys to the ISD, but we will continue to offer threes preschool because GSRP is only for four-year-olds. So our offerings will be we'll offer a Monday, Wednesday, Friday AM class, a Tuesday, Thursday AM class, and then Monday through Friday afternoon care. So we do have six families who wanted full day preschool Monday through
054Friday. We did not have the numbers to support running that. So, we were able to kind of come up with a plan where we could still provide them uh I I think a large part of the reason they wanted the full day is they needed uh coverage for while they were at work. So, we're still able to hopefully meet the needs of those families by offering that uh afternoon care, but it it won't be fully structured curriculum. It'll be it'll be a little bit different, but it'll be a an opportunity for their kids to be with us for the entire day. All salary assumptions are in line with what we previously discussed. Uh for campus kids, we will continue to offer that wraparound care for um RTS RP and preschool students. Um, and then one
055thing we did this year was we did eliminate the full-time director position. Um, the the with GSRP taking away so much of the that shift to GSRP and tuition free, we didn't have the revenues to continue to support a a full-time position. So, with all that said, I am projecting a $10,000 uh surplus for the 2526 school year compared to the uh $100,000 deficit that I'm projecting for the 2425 final budget. Uh that would bring our fund balance projected fund balance to $356,000 or 58% of our expenditures. So one of the things that we're looking at for the 26 27 school year, so two years out is actually pulling the GSRP program inhouse. So rather than utilizing ISD support services for that, um we would use Dan's expertise and the expertise of our team to
056actually be able to run that program inhouse. we would receive those revenues from the state um just as we would for a a K12 student. Um and so that will be a another way to offset some expenses uh on the budget that we've not been able to do up until now. So, we're we're looking we're we're really looking two three years out for some revenue opportunities to help us offset some of the costs that we're currently in uh food service. We do anticipate that the state will continue to offer universally free breakfast and lunch for all students. Um the reimbursement rates have not been released. So we are uh projecting that they will be maintained at the same level. Um you know currently I have the number of meals being served remaining the same but
057with decreasing enrollment it is real a real possibility that the number of meals served will also go down. Um, I do have a another $90,000 of indirect recovery moving uh from food service to general fund. Uh, but even with doing that, we will still have some excess fund balance. So, uh, I am currently budgeting a $68,000 uh deficit. Um but that is intentionally to try to stay ahead of that excess fund balance that we are obligated to spend down. We are starting to uh somewhat run you can only buy you know replace so many uh refrigerators and walk-in coolers. Uh so this is one thing that we haven't done in the past is completely uh allowable but we're trying to get ahead of the excess uh fund balance school activity. Again these are the funds
058generated through building and programming fundraising. Um, we usually anticipate the expenditures are going to be pretty similar to, you know, if you raise the funds, we want you to have an intended purpose to expend them. So, they're usually should be pretty close. Um, so I'm budgeting for a $25,000 uh excess. So, that would bring our fund balance up to a total of just under $420,000. And again, all expenditures have to be made within the district's purchasing uh purchasing policy. Uh our debt service funds uh we're going from I think seven or eight down eight down to six for the next uh fiscal year. Uh so our initial budgets this budget is put together based on a um annual military calculation that is prepared for us by Baker Tilly. This is part of the requirement that
059the state has uh for us to participate in the school bond loan fund. We have to submit that to the state uh by I think August 1st. This budget is put together using that millage reallocation uh that Baker Tilly who is a a public accounting firm also does governmental finance financial advisory. So for our total in total all six funds we have a projected uh revenue of $658,000 in tax and we will be projected to borrow $58,000 from the school bond loan fund and that is what comprises all of the revenues here. Again, the expenditures are straight from our debt service schedule of principal and interest as well as those $500 administrative fees that we will be paying uh Huntington. So, uh $3,000 of this total would be those administrative fees capital projects. So, this
060one I kind of like these two slides were on last year's uh budget presentation kind of conceptual what the wait room and the cheer room could look like. And this is what the wait room and the cheer room looked like as of about two 2 p.m. on last Friday. So, you can kind of see it coming together, the vision coming together. Uh for syncing fund, I currently have budgeted $80,000 of um invest interest earnings. Again, we're not collecting any uh taxes on the syncing fund. Um I put again put $10,000 in expenditures. We don't have anything necessarily earmarked for syncing fund yet, but I do anticipate we will uh run into something throughout the year and we would address that through budget amendment one at that time and anything that is done with syncing fund
061will be doing in conjunction with the remaining bond work. Uh here's the capital improvement fund. Uh as you can see currently do not have any money budgeted to be transferred in. Um and this is again a placeholder in case there is anything that comes up. We do have funds allocated uh in that fund for expenditures. Um nothing this there's nothing uh tied to that number yet. And then the final one would be the uh 2023 school bond, building and site bond. Uh we will not be I don't think we will not be able to fully close this out next fiscal year. There will still be some remaining uh kind of cleanup work in the 26 27th school year. Uh I do anticipate probably about a million dollars worth of work that will then be paid
062in July, August, September of 2026. Uh one thing of note, we really cannot uh lose sight of is I have budgeted $845,000 in arbitrage liability that we will have to pay uh the IRS. So essentially that is the IRS allows governmental entities to earn interest on the bond proceeds but they say you can earn some but not too much and if you earn too much we want our piece of it because we're issuing tax exempt bonds. So they're not getting their money from the bond people purchasing the bonds. So this is a way to get their piece of the pie. So, we are I am budgeting right now based on estimate $845,000 that we will have to pay to the IRS. Again, anything if anything changes, I will uh update the board on June 23rd
063and we will be asking the board to take action uh on the 23rd to adopt the 2526 budgets. Any questions? It's probably a little early to ask the question. I don't know if it would be even a syncing fund or could be where the dollars come from, but we we heard that there may be a capital expense for retirement or or modification to the building. We had we had looked up listing issues. So I guess just the question is if there's work that needs to be done about that whatever work that is what what fund would we see that come out of? We really could take it out of either the the bond fund capital uh improvement fund or the syncing fund or the general fund or the general fund. rather than not you know
064yeah obviously retiring a asset is part of the life cycle of owning that asset so it's not here now I had a recommendation or correct I did not but that's where we live and that's where the chamber yes well done thank you that's a lot of really appreciate it. Thank you. the Michigan high school membership resolution. So Bonnie's portion was the A team, not the B team that's coming in to do the rest. But, you know, it has been a an incredible um body of work that Mati and the business team um have put into creating this vision, this financial vision for the district for the 2526 school year. And the the casting of the vision is uh is a complex dynamic process. Um it there's so many moving parts uh so many variables at
065play. Uh but it just takes careful strategic forecasting to really bring about um having the ability to tell a story that's reasonable um and it does put us in a position where we can have a plan moving forward. Now, we're blessed that we have a fund balance that we can utilize in the event that we have a storm that comes through uh an unforeseen uh expenditure or a change that we didn't anticipate. But the work that the business team uh Barb and Mati and uh Carrie Dutles and William Cox have done uh have been just remarkable. Um, and then working hard with the uh human services team really trying to pinpoint best staffing number, working with our building administrators uh to determine, you know, what positions are essential uh what positions can we uh really
066look at to maximize that return on investment? How can we maximize our student experiences um during a dynamic shifting uh financial uh time? So again, it's been it's been fun to watch uh and greatly appreciate the efforts of those individuals. So thank you so much. Um the next couple of pieces of uh uh items on the agenda are things that we have uh we have seen before. Um so the first item is the Michigan High School Athletic Association membership resolution. And uh that artifact you'll uh note in board book uh you'll see that um the resolution is um the the same basic document that you've seen in years past. The numbers are changed the year changed. But basically what this resolution does that needs to be passed by the board of education is simply says
067that as a district for athletics, Cedar Springs Public Schools uh will abide by the policies and uh requirements of the Michigan High School Athletic Association and that our teams, our coaches, uh our uh athletic program will be in compliance with all of the guidelines and rules associated with Michigan High School athletic contest. tests. And so basically what this resolution is saying is uh Cedar Springs Public Schools for the 2025 2026 school year um wants to participate as an MHSAA sponsored uh program. So any questions on that? And we do have that on for action tonight, but if there are questions, we could pause uh and take action on it in two weeks. But because it was something that we do on an annual basis, uh we did put it on for approval tonight. All right.
068The uh next item on is the Kent ISD enhancement message. In board book, you'll find that there are three artifacts associated with this agenda item. Uh the first is a presentation that was presented or created by the team at the Kent ISD and also the team from Seaffort uh public relations firm. They're a firm out of Grand Rapids and they help uh districts and uh in communities across the state on campaigns and on public relations uh work related to bonds uh and other municipal projects. Um the uh baseline, the background on this uh item is in 2017, the voters in Kent County, uh the voters in Kent County approved a uh millillage for the Kent ISD to levy across the county uh and distribute funds collected across the county back out to districts at a
069per student basis. So the initial levy um was passed in 2017. It expires at the end of the 2026 school year. So it expires basically a year from now. Uh but what the Kent ISD is uh doing looking to um put this item on the ballot in November of 2025. uh so that way that uh initiative doesn't uh uh expire. Uh because we we do find that oftentimes uh when um school districts go forth to uh their communities and are requesting a levy of uh millillage that um the likelihood of them failing increases significantly uh if it's referred to or viewed as a new uh new initiative. if we can renew it ahead of the expiration date, then it would be a renewal, not a new tax. Um, and so what they're asking uh for
070is uh districts to consider this option. Uh if districts are in support of the uh of the proposal, um then what they would do is as a board you would pass a resolution uh at the June 23rd meeting saying yes, we support this ballot initiative. You're not saying that uh we are voting for it. Um it's that's not what it's about. But the the district, we have to have at least uh 51% of the students in the county represented. We have to have at least 51% of the students in the county, their boards of education have to approve this ballot proposal uh before we can put it forward to the uh voters of the county in November. So uh the uh background the information that's included in the presentation materials from the Kent ISD basically
071for a resident uh homeowner in Cedar Springs if their home market value was uh $330,000. Their taxable value is $165,000. The millage cost uh for this particular um item would be uh $14850 annually. And so a monthly cost for that homeowner would be $12.38. A daily cost for that homeowner would be 41. Um and so that would be the rate. It's a countywide millage. So, if voters in the townships, the voting uh precincts in the Cedar Springs public schools uh community vote it down, if the rest of the county supports it, uh then it's then it passes from a countywide perspective. So, it's not uh a vote that's done district by district. It truly is a vote that's done by the county and then those dollars are reallocated across all districts um uh equitably. One
072of the differences between the uh initiative in 2017 and the new initiative that's um going to hopefully be put before the voters in November of 2025 is that it would include um uh charter school districts. Uh charter schools would also be a part of this. Uh they would also reap the benefits of a of a initiative like this. So, um like Marty talked about with the headley roll back um that uh districts face or that um uh taxing bodies face, uh one of the proposals in the renewal of this uh ballot initiative would be to restore that heavy roll back. So it would put the um uh the renewal would be asking for the restoration of that gap that they've lost uh since 2017 uh due to the Headley uh roll back piece. So that's
073one piece that we're asking that the the ballot initiative would ask for. So then uh for our district uh the proposal we would restore and renew the 0.9 mills that taxpayer taxpayers approved in 2017 to help fund local public schools. The total uh benefit to the Cedar Springs Public Schools District would be just over $1 million. Uh so a proposal based on our current enrollment would be 1,00 or 1 million uh 8,580 or uh $581 of additional revenues that we currently get uh because of this initiative. So if the initiative was to fail um in November, not be renewed and expire in 2026, then this would be a deficit. then we would no longer have this revenue helping to support our program uh moving forward. So, it's something that will be on for uh action
074on the 23rd. Uh but just wondering if you had any questions. I included three uh items for you from the ISD. One was a frequently asked questions document that they put together for us. One was just a general overview document and then of course the slides that they put together. So, any questions on that that either I can tackle or Mati can tackle. Okay. All right. Um, the next item on the agenda is the West Michigan pool resolution authorizing U membership in the pool. So, Cedar Springs Public Schools uh belongs to the West Michigan Health Insurance Pool. Um, it has been a member of the pool uh since before I arrived. Uh, it was one of the early adopters to the West Michigan Health Insurance Pool. the West Michigan Health Insurance Pool came about uh
075because several districts in the Kent County area um were facing uh really daunting cost increases by participating in Mesa for their employee benefits, their employee healthcare. And so the idea was what if we create our own group? What if we create our own pool? Call it the West Michigan Health Insurance Pool. started off just as school districts in Kent County. Uh and basically they partnered, self-funded themselves um to help uh reduce some of the health care costs that they were incurring as districts. Well, the West Michigan Health Insurance pool has grown uh since its inception. Uh we're still members, but so are uh communities across the state. Uh not only is it school districts, but it's also municipalities now that belong to the pool. And it's just a very coste effective way uh for us
076to help provide health benefits to families uh and to employees um in doing it in a way that uh we have some greater control over the costs. Um there it's it's a great for me it's a it's a it's a wonderful alternative. uh I uh serve on the board of directors for the pool. I have an opportunity to serve on two committees. One is a value ad committee and the other committee is the committee that looks at prescription costs and we meet monthly and have detailed engaged conversations with experts from across the country on ways to help keep health care costs down. Um so it is provides direct benefit to our members. Uh and so it truly is a member-driven organization. It's a it's a unique body. Um our uh what the resolution that you're
077being asked to consider is just a resolution uh for our district to continue to participate in the West Michigan Health Insurance pool for a period of the next three years. Um so it's just a a formality uh that we that they ask member districts to go through. So that's all this one is. Uh it's just a resolution saying that we as a public school district um uh want to continue to be a part of the West Michigan Health Insurance pool moving forward. So any questions on that? No cost. I think you said that. No, no, there's no cost to participate. Um yeah, it's it's a fascinating it's a fascinating body of work. Um, some parts are yeah, they make it they really make you think, you know. Um, do you fund certain prescription medications even
078though a specific dose is $750,000 for a single dose and there's no guarantee that that dosage is going to work, you know. So, do you as a as an agency is that do you fund that? you you include that you cover that. Um, and it's it it's difficult. Yeah, there's some I've been in some very difficult conversations uh over the last 14 months. The easy ones were the um the weight loss prescription uh the Zepbound and the GLP1 inhibitors. like that was while that was a little bit of a controversy, it pad in comparison to some of the gen therapy uh treatments that are out there. Um you know there are some big things on the horizon. The medical um the the the medical field is amazing in terms of what is coming. Uh but
079there is also significant expense coming with those treatments um that someone has to pay for. Um, so anyway, that's the West Michigan Health Insurance pool. Just a question. I know we we've been involved in that for a long time, looks like, and I certainly hear the benefit, but the board has to take action. I'm just curious if the board doesn't recommend this, what's the alternative? Um, well, we'd have to go to Mesa or to Priority Health. Okay. And, uh, seek out another another coverage partner or AFLAC. I mean there are different partners but we would have to go go out there and find another provider for our healthcare at the let's say the annual cost is $25,000 for a plan but the cap is that the state has given us that public act 152 cap
080is 22,000 so the employee We we employees have to cover that $3,000 difference that through our that's our cost share. If if you move to a plan that is $30,000 annual or annually the cap still remains $22,000 and now the employee has to pay $8,000. So I know uh there were individuals staff I think we discussed it that that cap last year only went up2%. So the the hard cap only increased 2%. So premiums went up the hard cap barely went up and we had to require our employees employees to cover a larger percentage of their health insurance. Well I know Mesa they're annual uh premiums were significantly higher than what West Michigan health insurance pools were. And I had I just personally had friends from where on Mason like their premiums were going up3
081$400 a paycheck. So yeah, there is great value in the the pool for the boys of the district for sure. Yeah, and part of that is that we have an opportunity and we do invest the time in trying to keep those costs down. Um, so one example is a program through the pool called Hinge Health. So I don't know if any of you have heard of it before, but it's basically a an online provider of uh physical therapy. So you can sign up uh through Hinge Health. It's no cost to uh to the member or to their family members and um you basically uh get your physical therapy uh through your phone or through your computer and there's no cost to that. So rather than going to a service provider locally um you can get
082your PT anytime, anywhere. Um, and again, that's a nocost provision and it's a great way to help keep costs down. Um, that I don't know that that other entities always think about some of those types of things, but we really are a member-driven organization. We want to provide high quality coverage, but there are ways that we can do that um and in in and and do it smarter, you know, by just being thoughtful in terms of how we we seek that care. Yeah. You're welcome. All right. The next item um is a complex one. So, back in uh back in 2019, maybe um I showed you a template that we had put together that was a salary table for administrative uh director level positions. And it was a table that I had created in my
083previous district. Um because when I was there, we didn't have a table uh that we could consult with either. We had a wide variety of positions and we tried to fit those positions to a single um collection of um uh you know options as far as do we include this piece, do we not? What's the salary range? Um, and so we really spent about 18 months looking at the the the the salary um levels, the salary scales for all of our administrative, all of our directive level positions. And one of the things that we found that was most startling is we had individuals with when we looked at the table just from a annual salary perspective, it made sense. an assistant principal at the middle school made less than an elementary principal. That was very
084logical to us. Um but when we looked at the table from a pdium perspective, number of days worked and calculated an annual a rate of pay on a daily basis, we had ele uh assistant principles at the middle school making more per day than our elementary principles were. And so uh that really drove us to try and think differently about how we uh create a table, create a a process, a system to align compensation for a very dynamic group of positions. So when I first introduced this to you, we had maybe 20 columns. Uh we now have many more than 20 columns because we never delete a column. uh we always maintain it because that column has a placeholder. We never know if we're going to go back to a position where we might need
085that column in the future and we want to maintain the integrity of the system across the board. Um and so one of the questions came in uh regarding administrator contracts and administrator um salaries for this year and we thought it best uh rather than have this just in consent let's pull it out of consent. Um, I could share it with you, go through some of the basic pieces of a spreadsheet. If you love spreadsheets, this is a good one. uh it's got a lot of calculators working behind the scenes and and it really does make sense when you look at it in a in a big scale. But for me to try and print this uh either a I would have to make the print really small uh which would be really difficult or you'd
086have to have two or three tables because the the number of sheets of paper that you'd need to really look at it would be uh pretty vast. And so, um, we thought we'd share it from an electronic perspective just so you can get in and look around and and maybe make some sense or at least have some questions that you may have that we can address uh at our next meeting on July 23rd. So, this whole body of work really starts um and looks uh at a single number and that single number is this base uh annual salary amount. um that base annual salary amount its origin when we first did it was step 10 uh in the master's degree column in our csea agreement. So that was the initial that was our initial starting
087point and the reason we started there was our thinking was an administrator would likely have uh you know 10 years of experience they would likely have a master's degree uh in in education or in leadership. Um and so we thought that would be a great place to start. Uh and then so there from there uh we started looking at the different positions that we had across the district. So a dean of students position K5 uh compared to a dean of students position at the middle school or the high school. Um an assistant principal at the elementary or middle school is different than an assistant principal at the high school. Um it's different because they have different uh complexities of the job. they have to work more days. There's just a unique dynamic. So that's why
088we have so many columns representing so many different jobs across the district. Um and so you'll see some variables that we look at. Um you know, first and foremost, is is the is there a Michigan Department of Ed certification required for the position? Uh then we factor in the number of weeks worked, the number of days worked. Uh we know that there might be some occasions where individuals have to work beyond their contracted amount. Uh maybe they've got to do special work associated with a bond project or special work associated with um having to move into a new building. So we wanted to have a placeholder at least a way for us to acknowledge um that we couldn't pay we can pay people a little bit more um with limitations. so that in the event
089that we were ever audited um an auditor could come and say why did you pay Marty Sullivan uh three days beyond his contracted amount and then we could go back and say well first it's a provision in the contract we give ourselves a little bit of wiggle room because we do know that at times there are cases where people have to work beyond the number of contracted days uh and so we just tried to think in terms of providing as many windows some as many variables as possible Um but still have it be systematized. That's the key. It's a system. It's not a a random collection of oh I really like that person. So that's why um we included some some of the positions have vacation days, some of them do not have vacation days.
090Some of the positions are year round positions. Uh some of them are 45 week positions. So those individuals would just work 225 days. So, we really tried to be mindful of all of those all of those different variables that we've encountered uh across the the board with the variety of positions. So, then we get into kind of the the the the element of the the table that is makes for some fun um calculations. This is where if you really like spreadsheets, it gets exciting. Uh but we had to we had to figure out a way that we could make sense mathematically of a variety of different positions with a variety of different levels of responsibility. Um and it's not perfect. It's not a perfect scale. It's you can't measure um the value of a middle
091school assistant principal compared to the value of a high school assistant principal. But we do know that if the job is a little bit more complex, that individual should make a little bit more compensation. Um, and this table allows us to do that. So, what you'll see in the multiplier section is um the the factor the multiplier that we if you remember you go back to that base amount. So, for example, the dean of students for the K5 position, um, their multiplier for an entry level dean of students, their multiplier is a one. And so, when we go down to their annual amount, their annual salary, uh, it's 76,590. That's the same amount as our base multiplier, our base amount. Um, and so then if you work your way across, if we went over to
092an elementary principal position, for example, their base multiplier is 1.35%. Um, and so the way we determine their annual rate of pay is it's 1.35% times the base multiplier. So the $7, um, $690. So, the elementary principal year 1 is $13,397. So, then when it gets really fun, um, thank you very much. Um, do you need the shades? Okay, perfect. um where it gets really fun then and and it's that piece where we wanted to make sure that we were thoughtful um position by position and because the different positions all worked different uh amounts of days then we took a look and we we divided the uh annual rate of pay by the number of days that people worked. And so then you'll see that you know an elementary principal step one makes $481 per
093day. Uh, a high school assistant principal makes $463 per day. A middle school assistant or elementary assistant principal makes $448 per day. And so we tried to be thoughtful of those those variables as well. So we look at annual rates of pay, we look at uh PDM amounts, we look at complexities of the job. It's not perfect, but if you do look at the table from left to right and as the positions vary in responsibility and complexity uh and days worked, the amounts of compensation received for those given positions does make sense. Um there's it's a system and we work and we we tweak it on an annual basis. We're always looking at our numbers and we compare them to other similar positions throughout the county. So, the Kent ISD uh their uh human resources
094group does a great job, their business officials group does a great job of providing districts. We share our numbers and then they share the numbers back with us so that we can make sure that our numbers are are aligned with, you know, a high school principal in Cedar Springs, they should make about the same as a high school principal in a similar size district uh or a similar size building. And so, you know, we look at Kenoa, we look at LOL, we look at uh Forest Hills, even though they've got it's a bigger district, they have smaller high schools. And so, we want our numbers to be comparable with that. Um, so it's a complex thing. I know I just gave you a a a link that you could look at. Um, but I just
095wanted to give you an opportunity to get kind of an overview. You can dig into it over the next couple of weeks and and bring back any questions that you have when we meet on the 23rd or um just give me a ring and I'll answer those questions that way as well. So, any questions tonight or at least initially? Jason, I have a question. For these uh contracts that are next or two weeks, uh will we know the steps for each person? Yeah. So, that's a great question. So, what we're trying to do, in the past, we've not done that. In the past, I've given the board um the list of positions and they've approved the employee and the position. Um what I'm doing is reaching out to the other districts in the Kent ISD
096just to see what their practices are and then we'll align our practice with uh with best practice from the districts and and really it's about what the board wants you know what the board needs to make those decisions. Um so that more to come. Do we need to make a motion on whether we add steps to these contracts so we know what dollar amount we're approving? I mean, that's a the board can it's your it's your meeting or you can just let me know this is what we need. So, and we can make it happen. Yeah. As somebody who loves Excel spreadsheets personally, I just want to make and I really do. I just want to make sure. Uh, is this read only or can damage be done? Like I don't when we get poke
097around. Is there lock? You're read only. You can you can't copy it. You can't share with anyone. You can't delete it. Yeah. Good. You're welcome. I want to be able to do it, but I want to make sure I don't accidentally Yeah. No, you're good. I appreciate Yeah. So, one of one of the other issues is is it is confusing because basically they're looking for Scott. It's a formality that when we approve them and that's the other question that Scott's going to be asking the other districts is, you know, is we approve all the teachers contracts too, but looking at all of their, you know, different rates and so we're going to see if what we can find out if there's any different presented, but basically this is Scott's work as the CEO of the
098company and it works into the whole budget. Good piece that Marty just presented tonight. So getting into the dayto day and the nuts and bolts doesn't always serve where our work needs to be, but we're definitely going to take a look. Well, under section seven of the contract, it states that the board approves a certain amount. So under the section seven of that contract, it states the board needs to approve certain amount. Yep. So that would be in the workings of the board. And that's what we're going to look at if that is the appropriate word. Maybe that's something that's just been used year. So, we're going to look at maybe that wording needs to change. So, from what I'm understanding over the years, the board has never ever approved contract the dollar. So, you
099guys approved a blank check. Yeah. And it's not true. The dollar amount going into it. Yeah. We have steps multiplied out in a lump sum. So, we know what the dollar is. because the board understand we have we did see this so you're approving a dollar don't see you're approving a contract on section seven that says that you have to approve the stat and when you approve it you don't have that from you we had the roll up and we had the break and stuff yeah we just don't have like I don't Like I would go in and look at every individual. Your constituents are okay with you approving the dollar that's not there. In your budget, you just shared those correctly, right? That's a budget for the whole entire school, right? Doesn't break down
100contracting the salaries. The salaries that salaries approving an individual contract for these individual people that were put out for recommendations. That contract basically states where dollar amount needs to be well with the with this with the spreadsheets it actually is very easy to figure out. I I mean because the system is there all the steps are there you know I think so that I mean as a board I think that's what's vital and important is we we know there is an there's a very systematic approach and it and it's being followed. No, but this is the first time you've seen the spreadsheet. Correct. When's the last time you seen the spreadsheet? The system we I presented in 2019. I'd have to go back and look to verify the specific date. Right. That's the major concern.
101I haven't seen so we know there's a system. Well, I understand system. I just want to make sure there's checks and balances in the system. Yep. And then in the employee um recommendations where new hires what it says exactly how much it's going to be. It is like right there. It show steps in. What step? No, it doesn't show the steps. The steps are in that document. But in the workbook, employee workbook, it states how much we're recruiting for data. It states how much it is for u Mr. Ash for coming on as a basketball which it it states it right there already in our workbook right there. Can you show me offline please? Go right onto your agenda. Okay. Go right into BOE math workbook 7C. Click on that and it'll tell you right
102there resignations, new hired, retirement, unpaid leave, and it tells right there new hire. Look at their names, effective date, pay rate. And what my job is is just to make sure that you as a board have the information you make you need to make great decisions. So, I can easily put together a spreadsheet and we can we can easily make that happen. Yeah. And I think to Jason's point, I think what you was touching on is, you know, the language right now is certainly sounds like yes, the board is very involved in that, but I think while we might look at the wording, essentially we have access to it already if if we, you know, Show me if I'm interested here. I It's right in the agenda under consent items. You have 7 A, 7B,
1037 C, 7 C like so we approved it's approval of personal recommendations right BOE contracts consent items. That's correct. That's not that's new. That is newers, right? contracts that we're doing and we we pulled that out of the consent items or consent agenda. I just want to get clarification that we have went every single time you remove the contracts. We've never seen a dollar on the contract right there. So I just as a fiscal responsibility of the community to not see a dollar amount on the contract you're approving. I don't go buy a house without seeing a dollar amount on the contract. It's right there. But it but it's right there under. Okay. So, I think we need to move on. There's going to be more to come and we have a a piece that
104we'll have more information coming, but what you're trying to discredit is the rest of the board and that's not what we're here to do. So, the numbers would been there. So, we're going to move forward. Perfect. The next item is AP comparative government and policy textbook proposal. Uh that book has been sitting on Barb's desk uh since our May meeting. We don't have it on for action tonight because it wouldn't meet the 30-day requirement for it to be available for people to review. Um so if you have any questions about the book, um I'll do my best to entertain them. Otherwise, uh Ron will be back and we'll be able to entertain those questions at the meeting on the 23rd. The people who have looked at the book uh in district office have said that
105they would like to take the class. Uh, so it is a neat it is a neat resource. Um, have we had any reviewers of the book? I've had two. Okay. And then I built it. So, any questions on that AP textbook? Okay. Perfect. Um, the next uh the last agenda item, the superintendent performance evaluation. It's really setting the table for the work that we're going to do on the 23rd. Uh I included two artifacts that came right off the uh MASB website. The first is a PDF of the 2024 2025 2024 2025 superintendent evaluation tool. Uh and then there's also a live spreadsheet an Excel spreadsheet that you can go in and uh and utilize that if you prefer to do an electronic uh tool. The third artifact is a self assessment that I've included.
106Uh what I need to do is add uh supporting evidence to that document and I'll be punching those uh artifacts in to our agenda for the 23rd. So you'll have a full two weekends to be able to review uh the artifacts that I've included just to help support the self assessment that I've provided. So this is just the groundwork. Uh just a starting point for us. Uh and again Mark Dobage is going to be coming in on the 23rd and just helping to lead that work of of reviewing my performance. It's uh you know we talk about the budget being dynamic. We talk about construction being dynamic. Um you know evaluating performance of a role is also a dynamic body of work. And so it takes some time. Got to be patient. uh ask good
107questions and uh take a look at the evidence that's provided. So, any questions on that? Beautiful. Okay, that's all for uh discussion. Okay. All right. That brings us to the public comment portion of our meeting tonight. This is the time that the school board will hear from the public and we won't necessarily be solving any problems or responding but we'll have our CEO or superintendent Mr. Smith welcome you and I have one person that has registered to speak. So Mr. Smith if you would like Jim Smith you would like to come up my lovely little timer. Appreciate it. Okay. All right. So, thanks for the opportunity to speak with you this evening. Uh, knowing several of you um I know that you to be you you to be focused on creating a school district that
108is exemplary uh and of the highest quality for our students. I'm here tonight to appeal to that desire. Um, as I understand, um, there's a small little change at Sear Trails that has a little less access to the library at the school, and that's not really my concern. My concern more has to do with the arc of access to books in the school district as a whole. Um now um while I think uh visiting the library is important um no m and no matter what the the future of the library trails is um that concern of less books in schools is just what I'm addressing. Um classroom time teaching students how to read is is already decreasingly focused on books. Um students learn to read by reading excerpts of books and other um publications that
109allow them to do the work to perform on test which is important. Um however these exercises lack the experience of reading a piece of work in its entirety so that the reader experiences the fullness of understanding that comes from readable book. Um on top of that um most of our libraries don't have libraries in most of our schools don't have libraries in them currently. um there's not trained librarians to help students um not just to learn to read but to become lifelong learners. Um this happens when professionals get to know readers what what will speak to them. Um I fell in love with books as a young person in school. Um and one of those people who was foundational to that was my fourth grade teacher, Miss A. Um, and so, um, as a kid
110that struggled with dyslexia, Miss Ah, and the school librarian worked hard every week to bring me books that I was excited to try. Um, and that, um, foundational experience led me to work for the last 30 years connecting people to books in an independent bookstore. Um, and I will always owe a lot to Miss Hot at the school library. Um my humble request uh of you and encouragement to you um as a group is to find ways to work libraries back into our schools um in some meaningful way. I'm sure it is super complicated, but you're smart, resourceful people as we've seen tonight. Um other communities close to us have robust libraries and paid librarians. I believe that we could creatively use resources to provide these safe things. it's important and would be valued by
111the community. Lastly, I'm not just here to raise concerns and walk away. I'm here to offer help if you would like it. Um, and if so, my email address is tim.bloves.books352gmail.com, which is also on the form. I know that's long, but when you have a name like Tim Smith, you have to be creative. So, thanks again for your time and for listening. I appreciate it. after you. Thank you. Over there. Thank you. Thank you. Sheets. Anybody else want to speak? With that, we'll close public comment and move to our action items for this evening. And first off for action, we have L4029 property intent. And I would entertain a motion as presented. Any discussion? I had one clarification question. I thought just the language proposes the same thing as last year. Correct. Yes. It's the
112same evaluation and the ability to call texts. I said that right text but the change is 17.441 041 to 7275. Correct. Y that by that 0.99 so I'm technically right that that was written resolution. So I call it as presented. Yes there there's no formal resolution as presented included order. Okay. Yes. Okay. Vote. Vice President Shner. Yes. Secretary. Yes. Treasury Gilmore. Yes. Trusty W. Yes. Trusty Pton. Yes. Trusty Bowser. Yes. President. Yes. Heard. The next action item is the Michigan High School Athletic Association Membership Resolution 2025 through 20 and 2026. And I will entertain a motion for as presented. faith into a resolution that's so entertaining [Music] having none. Vice President yes. Yes. President yes. Yes. Justin Patton. Yes. Yes. President Reed. Yes. Motion carries. That brings us to communication for the board of education.
113um we don't have any outstanding communications from the public that we have that's already been shared with us and then upcoming we will be having super I just want to remind everybody that special so [Music] um with that confidentiality but we're thought it best to give that information because we didn't want to keep those sessions forever and to give consideration nothing new from my table. Okay. So, we have our next meeting on June 23rd graduation. Don't worry about that. Social engagement. So, having said all that, we'll have no more business for us. We'll see the journey at 8 months.