001I know >> there's only one person on it. with us in spirit apparently. >> Yeah. >> Maybe he's coming in to make sure you're okay with >> that. I will. >> Well, we can go ahead and record, Beth. That's if you're ready for that. >> I think Dave, let me recording. >> It says yes because it says stop recording. So, still it says stop presenting. So, >> no, you're Yeah, you're recording. >> Recording. >> When you mouse over it, it you can hit the stop to stop recording. >> Yeah, there it is. You're recording. >> Yeah. And transcribing. >> Yeah. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Is 5:30 and this is the Watertown Unified School District's fiscal management committee meeting. Um Carl Schwarzy is the chairman of this, but he's not present today. I was asked to
002do take his place can't take his place but um at least conduct the meeting and I see that we have Dave Handyside and Lori Hoffman here as committee members Samuel as a board member. So we'll dive right in. I don't see anyone here present for public comment. So we will move on with our agenda to item 3A. Our director of business services, Beth Mson, is here. And Beth, the first item of business is the nutrition program overview. And I see Sheila's here. So, >> yep. I will turn it over to Sheila. But as you can see in public comment or content, there is a presentation um for the school nutrition program which I will share and I will turn it over to Sheila now to kind of go over how this all works. >> Well,
003good evening um committee and those in attendance. Um, I really appreciate this opportunity to kind of come in and share a little bit about um the nutrition program um and kind of how we operate the things that um are extremely important to uh operating a program of this magnitude um with all the federal oversight that's required. So, um, with that, I'm going to, uh, start with, um, why school meals matter. But before I do that, I want to just give a little bit of, um, history on the program. Uh, National School Lunch Program was actually started back in 1946 by Harry Truman. Um, with a couple of key reasons, uh, for that program being instituted. uh one was to develop and or develop the program to address malnutrition that was being um seen in young
004men uh throughout the course of World War II. Um a second reason was to support agriculture through the purchase of domestic commodities which is still ongoing as part of that program today. Um yeah. Oh, sorry. I I thought I had a third one. I didn't write it down if I did. Um I think just general uh income or or making sure that there's um the ability to feed children who may not have access to meals because of um poverty in the home um was was the additional third item. Uh school breakfast then followed suit in 1966. So these have been these programs have been around um for a long time and um you know I think serve a really important purpose in our in our schools in promoting um promoting good health and education. So
005um why school meals matter? Again you can see in the top left box impact on learning. Um so school nutrition programs provide nutrition in order to support um student cognitive development and performance. Um if you go down below that uh food insecurity as I mentioned um in the opening uh that food insecurity um you know certainly again has a direct impact on the ability for our students to learn. if they're coming to school hungry, they're not going to be in a position to be fully engaged and um you know focused on on their learning because they you know if you think of the um hierarchy of needs, Maslo Maslo's hierarchy of needs um you know we have to you have to meet those bottom tier and learning is a little bit higher up on that
006um on that that hierarchy. Um I'm going to shift to the right impact on future health. Um so school lunch participation is um correlated with a lower body mass index which is uh an indicator of um overall health and uh better health outcomes. And then if we move up to the top right just better overall nutrition. So um so lunches contain fewer empty calories, more milk, fruit, uh vegetables and fiber fiber than um than meals consumed by their peers. Um one important note that I will add there is that I think sometimes school nutrition programs get a little bit of a wrap um for some of the the things that are um prepared and served to our students. Um, and one really important note about that is that these um, entre and items that we're
007selling in our program or providing as part of the meals are specifically formulated for school nutrition programs. So, it's not the same thing you're buying directly out of the grocery store at all. It takes into account all the required nutrition standards um that are necessary to fit the qualifications for the program. Um you can flip over to the next slide. We'll take a little bit of a look at our pre and reduced data. Um currently our district sitting at 44% of student enrolled students that qualify for school lunch. um at free or reduced price um meals. You can see just under that I have a notation that we're basically right at the state average. I was honestly a little surprised that it was as high as that because I know for like our geographical area
008and especially other districts within our own cooperative purchasing group are water town is higher than than most So I was surprised to see that average. But then if you take into consideration school districts like Milwaukee public schools or um Madison public schools, Kenosha, Rine, um that's driving those p that statewide average up um significantly. Um so I have data here for years 2023 through current year. Um and a couple um of notations and of course I have it broken out by um school. Um the first note that I will bring up is if you look at the district average which is on the bottom between years 2024 to 2025, you're going to see a dip there um of about 4%. Um, and we know that that is related directly to some COA era funding um
009that fell off during that transition year. um there was Medicaid eligibility waiverss that were present until late um that fell off and that's why you'll see that about 4% decline in our our um districtwide average. Um, the other thing I'll just quickly point out is if you look at Endeavor School, there's no data for 2023 and 2024. And that's because prior to that, we were actually coupling um the Endeavor data in with our high school data because they literally they're in the same building, they share the same cafeteria, but then um reporting changes. We started parsing that out and reporting that separately. And then we'll move on to programmer compliance. Um so again our program is is very heavily federally regulated. Um and then the compliance portions of our program are monitored through our state
010education agencies and school nutrition programs are required to go through pretty extensive administrative reviews on a five-year cycle. I think we've got one more year um before we hit our next fiveyear cycle. So I think 2728 school year will be our next go round. Um within that review there are a bunch of items which I have listed that um that are part of that review process. Um free and reduced price meal eligibility. So going in and looking at um our pre- reduced paper applications that are submitted, looking at household income, making sure that those determinations are correct. And then also the secondary piece is the direct certification, which is required to be run at least four times um throughout the school year. We typically run that at least monthly. Um and that that's to our
011benefit to run it more often because if we can pick those kids up sooner that maybe just started receiving um state benefits whether it you know be TANNIF or FIPER or other programs that automatically make them eligible um that that helps our students that helps our district as far as funding goes. um menu certification and meal pattern. We'll discuss a little bit more in detail um some of those things um in a in a pri not a prior but a upcoming slide. Um federal regul federal procurement regulations in um by American provision. So um we have separate um requirements for some of the procurement that goes along with purchasing for school meals programs. And one important aspect of that is um we have um by American which requires all food products purchased within our program
012um to um be domestic in nature. We we can have an exception of a few items. So if you want to think about certain produce, particularly like tropical fruits, those items can be exempt, but we have to literally keep lists of items um that fall out of compliance with by American and the reasons why it is it is exempt and be able to show documentation to to support that. Um some of our juices are our um shelf stable juices will fall into that category because they again it might be a fruit punch or tropical in nature that the supply just doesn't exist domestically um and they do make provisions also for um for items because of cost prohibited prohibitedness um as well uh resource management. So, um, this includes financial audits, looking looking kind of
013at how we're, um, handling our budgets and allocating and expensing items. Um, one big portion of that is our non-program foods program. So that includes things like our alle cart program um which requires us to basically document and show that um we are not subsidizing keeping our costs for like all cart reduced if that means like our federal reimbursements are subsidizing us keeping those prices lower for other purposes. So, um, it requires us to make sure all of our costs are covered for alle cart by charging an appropriate price for the sale of those items. Um, food safety plans and HASSIP. Um, I don't know if you're familiar with what HASSIP is, but it stands for hazard analysis critical control points. Um so that is an a requirement for all districts participating in NSLP to
014have programs and they are sight specific. So we and that that is created and customized by school site based on what equipment they have based on the menu that they're serving um based on their staffing um and based on how those meals are prepared. whether they're prepared on site or whether they're prepared and and brought in from from another kitchen. Um professional standards for staff. We have annual training requirements um that that we keep track of for every single employee. Um and then there's there's countless other compliance pieces that go along with that as well. Um next page, menu planning complexities. So, this is where I want to just talk a little bit more about um the specifics of all of the things we have to look at when we're creating and putting our menu
015plans together. Um first is meal pattern requirements. Um so, what this is is if you want to think about um similarly to like dietary guidelines for Americans um that have like the the groups of foods, we use what we call food components. Um, so there are five that are required to be part of every reimburseable meal. There's a a milk, there's fruit, there's vegetable, there's bread grains, and then there's a meat meat alternate or a protein source. Um, so all of those items must be menued every day um at every grade level. Um the serving sizes do vary based on grade or age group um as well. And then um program there are differences between obviously breakfast versus lunch. Uh in addition there's nutrient specific targets. Uh there's minimum and maximum calories. Those vary again
016by greater age groups. Okay. Um there's limits on sodium, sugar, and fat. And then whole grains. Um so with our whole grains has to be 80% of your weekly offerings have to be considered whole grain rich. And the definition for whole grain rich is at least 51% of um 51% must come from a whole grain rich source. So, not like enriched flour, but like whole grain flour. Um, meal pattern and crediting documentation. This is where the stuff gets really fun. Um, there are so products if you think of like a typical school slice of pizza. Um, or maybe it's a whole pizza. Um, and again, I'll go back to the vendors and manufacturers um of our products. uh they provide all of this documentation for us, but it's our responsibility to maintain that data and
017ensure that that data is supporting us being in compliance with how we're crediting it towards the meal. So, if you look at those meal pattern requirements, so for a piece of pizza, typically it's going to give you two 2 ounces equivalent bread grain of a from a whole grainrich source. So um you will literally get like kind of documentation that shows the amount of flour that is present a calculation to how it converts into crediting towards that 2 oz equivalent requirement. Same will go for protein sources whether it be from the cheese or whether it be from like turkey pepperoni or um a sausage product. Um and then special dietary accommodations is um something that we deal a lot with. A lot of student food allergies I would say are biggest typically our milk. Um
018nuts, particularly peanuts, but all nuts. Um and a fair amount of gluten. Gluten-free um I would say are probably our top three. Eggs is probably pretty close in there, too. Um and so for those um with uh the ADA requirements um if it is considered a life-threatening allergy which we require documentation from a physician um we are required to provide a suitable substitute um for those items um in order for that student to take um that meal and and consume it safely. does that sometimes require special menus be created um or against special substituted items. Um and then the other thing I would say we deal a lot with is diabetic students working you know within within the team within our schools. Um whether it be the school nurse, the health aid um who is
019administering insulin for those that require it. um providing those card counts um and just um you know having that close working relationship to ensure that that those students have what they need in order to um to manage their diabetes appropriately. Uh I I I'll say all of these things are super important um and part of the reason that we typically work off cycle menus in our schools. So you will see repetitive um four-week cycles and that um really helps us to ensure that we continue to meet all of these requirements um and to keep a better handle on um our cost controls as well. Um department overview. So, um, I'm having a really hard time reading what I printed out, so I'm gonna have to kind of look here. I might have to get up
020and be able to see this better. Um, sorry. So, our high school performs central meal production. Um, we serve it students not only at our high school, um, but all five of our elementaryaries. so that um those those items are are produced and heated and sent out hot on our transport trucks to our five elementary buildings. In addition, we service three local um private schools um through what we call a joint or vended meal agreement. So they pay us per per meal produced um for not having to do all the procurement and and all of the behind the scenes stuff that goes along with it. So um all of our elementary sites are considered satellite facilities. Um so they have limited equipment in them um and wouldn't be able to do full production from each
021of those individual sites as it is currently. Riverside Middle School is also a full production kitchen. Um they receive their own deliveries and handle all on-site meal production for just the middle school. Um staffing, we have uh five full-time employees, myself, my administrative assistant, um production managers for both the high school and middle school, and then our um cook manager at the high school. And then there are additional 35 part-time employees that are responsible for assisting with production and general um and general assistant activities such as cashiering um uh serving of meals and then some shipping and receiving and the transport of meals um between buildings. Staffing levels are determined by site based on the type of production activities that are happening there. Um enrollment participation in the programs that are being offered at each
022individual site for our district meal programs. Um we are currently uh offering school breakfast. Um I have a little bit of a note under there that um I think is is important. We are considered severe need. So we get additional funding um for all of our sites for breakfast with the exception of Endeavor. And what that um extra funding is based on is 40% or more of lunches in the second preceding year are being currently served as free and reduced. So um that equates to an additional 48 cents um per free and reduced meals served is is the additional funding that we receive for those meals. Uh lunch, I mean, is pretty self-explanatory. We're talking more about lunch than we are anything else here. So, again, that's offered at all of our school locations. Um,
023and that's really the heart of of the program that drives everything else that we do. Uh, we also do summer food service program uh that that occurs um concurrently with our summer school program, but it is open to the community. Um any student or child 18 and under does qualify. They can come in um during our meal service hours and receive um breakfast or lunch at the locations um that that we offer. Uh middle school and high school serve both both breakfast and lunch. Um, our 4K kindergarten, which was Lincoln, but we'll be sure this year, only does like a midm morning, they call it a midm morning st snack, but it's technically still a reimburseable breakfast. Um, and then the other program, if you want to call it that, is just nonprogram. So that
024really again is our alle cart, our catering, any additional revenue streams that we have coming in that aren't related to a specific federal program. Um, and then we'll look a little bit closer at our program revenue sources. the you can see by the pie chart uh federal sources makes up the vast majority of our funding. Um and those come through our monthly per meal reimbursements and our USDA commodity allocations that we receive. Um second is our meal sales. Um, and that comes through the meal prices that we charge for our um, paid students and the little amounts that we receive for our reduced price students as well as adult or staff meals. Um, third source is non-program food sales which is about 18.9%. Um, and we talked a little bit about that. And our joint
025defended meals also fall into that non-program uh sales piece as well. Uh, state match is about 1% of our total program revenue sources. And basically that's just a once annual we get a certain um amount per meal for every breakfast and then every lunch that we serve. I think I don't remember what breakfast is. Lunch is like seven cents per meal. So, it's it's it's small, but you know, we'll take any sources we get. Um, and then miscellaneous is 2.4%. And that really are things like rebates or refunds that we receive um for certain volume of products that we use um and also interest income that we receive like off of our 150 balance. meal participation data. Um I'm not going to cover this in too much detail, but you can see based on our
0262425, which is our obviously our last full school district or school year, um the number of lunches we served um the breakfast. And then I will just mention this additional meal equivalents in the bottom lower corner. And I will apologize because I actually updated this number and I don't know why it didn't show on there. Um I had the wrong uh meal equivalent amount. Um so with the adjustment it would really should have been 385 based on 2425 school year data which would bump that meal equivalent total up to 102,47. Um so really when you take all of those sources and add them together um for meals served in 2425 that equates to 464,634 meals served over over the course of the school year. Um you can also see the two other boxes. Sorry I
027didn't point that out. um our participation data uh for lunch and also for breakfast. Um you know, so those are areas I want to focus more on trying to get in particular the free and reduced percentages higher um because that's where we pick up even higher reimbursement rates and you'll see that actually on the next page. Um so you see the meal reimbursement rates in the far right column. Um and I also made a notation with the asterisk of the reimbursements for the reduced breakfast and free breakfast includes that in that total includes the severe need reimbursement which is the additional 48 cents per meal that we receive for each of each free or reduced breakfast that's served. So, you can see, you know, if you look at the free and reduced amounts we receive
028at breakfast and lunch versus what we receive per um paid paid meal, there's a difference. And of course, that's offset by what we're charging those students to a degree, but it's still a higher rate of revenue that we get for those free reduced meals. Um, next, just to highlight uh some of the uh things that came up on the survey that we did last spring um that we're going to we're starting to try and implement and and pull some of these things in um to our menu cycle. And we'll we'll be working more on that over the summer again as well. So um and again, I'm having trouble reading some of this on on my page in black and white. So under elementary um you know it was a little different survey tool that we
029did. Um so it was more like trying to engage students on what are your favorite items and you know um just real real real basic things and what what do you want to see more of? What what didn't you like so much? Um, and then I thought one of the um, interesting things was that they want to see more watermelon. Of course, that's seasonal, but we'll be hitting that now. We we are in um, we do get we can use some of our commodity entitlement dollars towards um, Department of Defense fresh fruits and vegetables. And we we do sink quite a bit of money into that. Um, and that's so we can offer some of these um more seasonal fruits in springtime um and and enhance our menus through the use of those those foods
030um for middle school and high school. And you know, this is probably no surprise. Um these are probably things some of you have even heard. Um they want to see larger portion sizes, 60%. Um they state there's not enough time to eat, said 50 57%. Um they also want to see more variety in fresh produce. Um daily salad bar was one thing that popped up a lot. So um I think we're going to try and find a way to see what we can do to make that happen. Um and then 68% believe school lunch offers healthy options. So I was glad to see that. um parents only about 30% were very familiar with school meal requirements. So that I feel like could be used as kind of a educational tool um doing, you know, maybe
031doing some newsletters and things out to families to keep them apprised kind of of of what the requirements are and why we do what we do. Um 40% agreed that their sizes were appropriate for their child. 33% said they were unsure. Um I'll just point out families were very appreciative of the convenience that the program offers. And then next steps um just really trying to actively engage with our students um more to drive participation improvements and overall participation like I'm thinking student meal advisory group trying to work to um really bring those um those ideas in from the students but also use that as a a teaching tool for what the requirements of the program are and maybe having them help develop menus that fit the requirements. Um providing sampling opportunities for new menu items
032that might be under consider consideration and gathering that feedback and then reviewing current participation data for existing menus and updating updating those cycle menus in in um in accordance with that data. Um next up we have student meal debt. And this is something that, you know, I want to say I'm proud of, but like we do a really good job um of managing our meal debt within our program. I don't know if you can see that based on the bar chart. Um that, you know, we compared to other districts of medium size, similar enrollments, um we we are quite low. Um we're sitting a little under 1,000 in meal debt currently and there are several reasons for that. >> Um the policy um enforcing the policy is is one of those pieces but also like
033just the use of multiple sources to notify families of those low balances is helpful. But I also do think that we have a strong community support for our meals program and we've had some um some very sizable donations in the past several years really since co moving forward we're actually having people reach out to us and hey how can I help you know is there you know can I make a donation towards um you know covering student meal debt. So, we have been the last several years been able to um wipe out student debt at the end of the school year um and still have money in reserve. So, um I'm not saying that'll always be the case, but for now, you know, that's been a real positive for us. Um and then additionally just
034having having the 44% free and reduced especially you know there's a little bit of a debt thing with with reduced but paid students certainly unless they're purchasing all cart they they're not required to have funds to purchase anything. So, um you know, having that higher free and reduced percentage does help support a lower meal debt, um percentage or amount. Um what's next? So, um I anticipate we'll be coming back to you to fiscal I think next month along with student fees to review potential recommendations for meal prices for 2627. Um, we will also be looking to um get approval for some additional equipment upgrades. Um, particularly in looking at middle school currently for um some ovens. Um, possibly a combi oven and or some convection ovens. Um, and likely another large piece of equipment that
035just kind of is not cooperating real well with us the last few months here at the high school. Um and then also again as I mentioned before, you know, based on the student survey data, reviewing uh menus, making updates to the cycle menu, trying to pull in some of some of those um some of that feedback um to strengthen our our menus. Um and then also just to reconvene our district wellness committee looking at probably having to kind of reformulate based on just turnover with with staff and members of that committee. So, um we will be probably looking for a board member that might want to join that um that committee and um working on reviewing the policy uh maybe working on strengthening that and part of that is a trial trienal assessment that's required
036um per USDA reg um to kind of it's like a scorec card to kind of go through that policy and look at where the strengths are and things that could be improved upon. So that'll all be part of um that reconvening of that wellness policy. Um and I think that is really it. Does anyone have any questions? >> Thank you. >> Yes. Thank you very much. >> After I went through this the other day, I went to the kitchen, got something to eat. I have a couple questions following up on your um they're saying that there's not enough time to eat. How much time do they get? >> Um I think it depends on the building, but I believe middle school and high school both get 30 minutes. Um grade schools is less. I think
037they're generally 15 to 20 minutes, which I find problematic. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And then um how are we doing with the improvements, the salad bar, the timeline wise are how are we doing with that? >> Um I will say we haven't moved as quickly as I hoped. So my plan for this summer is to really dig into that. Um, I've already told um my production managers and my um cook manager that we're going to be planning some summer meetings to sit down and really dig into this data, pull participation, look at the surveys, and try and um develop a plan and and again review and update those um and pull pull that in. So that's my goal for the summer is to really make that the priority. >> U one last question. I know
038that the federal standards changed and were allowed to offer whole milk. Are we doing anything with that? >> We are not currently. Um part of the issue and I know that we're not alone in this is that it only applies to lunch. So you cannot offer it at breakfast. And so part of the challenge for us would be having to switch out our milk coolers, taking that product out at breakfast and replacing it at lunch. I'm not sure if I'm not sure if we have like I haven't had anyone request it. And I'm not saying that we couldn't find that information out and see if it's of interest, but it would be an inventory thing that we would have to make some um adjustments and figure out how to work effectively with with managing >>
039and that's that's really because it only applies to one. >> Yes. Thank you. >> So this question is for Beth. what what is the fund number for the fund 50 >> and just so fund 50 is kind of an interesting fund and when we go through this next month at fiscal I'll give you kind of the background but the food service program operates as a business inside of our school so it's not that any school like levy funds or equalization aids come through and hit the lunch account the launch account is full or the lunch fund is fully self-supported. So, it like runs as a business within the school. >> Any other questions for Sheila on the nutrition services? Very informative. Thank you for that. I appreciate that. >> Good for all of us to
040know how that goes. And >> sorry, I went a little bit long. >> We'll recover. You are not the first one who has done that. >> So, but thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right, >> we'll move on to the next agenda item, which is the bar budget model update post referendum. Beth, >> sure. So, all of you in um your admin context got a little one-page summary of the bar budget model. I am a big fan of giving data early and often so we can plan on it. So what you will notice in that document that you've got is the blue column is the current year. So that blue column if you go to those pink rows that's really showing the fund balance where we are projecting we are going to end this
041year is at about a 36% fund balance. Um, and I'll I'll kind of go to the chart in a second, but then as you move forward, next year is the next column. We are projecting at least very early on budget a tiny little surplus, about a $200,000 surplus. That should take our fund balance up to 37. But then what I want you to pay attention to is those coming years. We have done intentional work as administration and the board to make sure that we are aligning district needs to the resources they have but this is not a one time we are done. So I want to make sure that you are aware that as we move on to those years if there is no future planning going on that we are going to continue to
042do deficit spending and dip into that fund balance and it gets to a scary point. We are in singledigit fund balance without doing anything. So again, sharing this early and often that this referendum and the community support has been great and very thankful for that. But there needs to be planning and intention as we move forward. If you look at this chart on the bottom, this is kind of showing the fund balance as a percent of expenditures and what's happening to fund balance over time. So again, very thankful for our supportive community and what the outcome of that referendum, but then moving forward, we are constantly going to come back and continue to work. >> Yeah. So, so let's go to budget uh to forecast year 2728. Okay. >> Does that take into account the
043closure of Lebanon? And >> so there are certain variables that are coming into this budget. So for example um the 325 revenue limit increase per pupil each year is being taken into account. A 10% health insurance increase every year. Um a 3% CPI increase to salaries and so on. But this is not taking into effect any other reductions. So those reductions that we were very intentional about this year, we're going to have to come back and talk about that. Now those reductions may come in the form of leave and Lincoln and we can look at how much that kind of plays into all of this. But then again, just aligning all district resources to what we have. I mean, I don't ever want us to put us in a bad spot financially. So again just
044preparing that we kind of took this big sigh of relief when this year you know we we did the we did what needed but it's like the work continues and it's constantly continuing. So, um, yes. >> Oh, I think the purple line is eye opening and it always has been when we looked at these models and none of them showed us in a really good place five years out >> and this would be the best one. Well, again, thankful for what happened on April 7th because I would be a little fearful about what this model would look like had we not had a supportive community behind us. So, very thankful for that. But you are absolutely right, Jody. >> It's a we I think we all knew the referendum needed to pass, but it was
045a b it's a band-aid. It buys us time. So any questions of Beth about the scenario? Thank you for keeping that in front of us, Beth. >> Yeah, we know we have to do things during those five years. >> And then it looks like we have a summer work update with our friend Kevin. >> So before I turn it over to Kevin, we met on April 8th and kind of talked about option one, a phase two, cycle three, and all of this stuff. Yes. And it felt very like I wanted Kevin had some work to do to meet with contractors and so on and secure everything. So the board was well aware of the option one and option two which is summer work moving forward. So with that being said, this is all of his
046work and his wheels turning and so on to try to get firm numbers to the board. >> Yep. So we are at a point now where um almost all the numbers that um are going to come into play this summer are at least know what the the charge is going to be. There's still a couple outliers out there. We are still um working with our insurance company to get a cost for the builder's risk insurance that we're going to take on to uh cover ourselves um during the work. And um there's some city review and plan fees that we'll pay for on our side. Um with not doing the hardcapes project outside, that number is significantly reduced. it might actually become zero because most of that stuff is related to like storm water runoff and
047erosion control plan reviews and things like that. So, um for the most part, um this is what we're looking at. We got a hard um number for from JP Cullen for their costs. Uh and we have a contract proposal in front of us that or that was sent to us that we're working with our insurance company to review and make sure that uh uh all the little synchronous fees um for coverage are are in there correctly to their uh appeasement. Um and then we also know that we're paying 7% of the cost um of the entire design. Uh so we have a pretty good number for that or we have a a set number for that that we're paying um P and um yeah so we know that all three of those buckets the way
048that we'll be monitoring tracking those costs uh looks like it'll come to about 960,9668 >> which is significantly below the 1.2 that we had talked about. So, >> and I know when we were talking of April 8th, we were kind of ballparking and saying it should be under a million and again the work that Kevin did that's it's coming in under that million. >> Kevin, if you had to put a a percentage of like are we within 5% of where we'll probably end up? >> Oh, we should be right on if we don't experience some savings um and and end up in a good spot. Um, I've asked everyone as they're creating these that we I don't want the best case scenario guess. I want more of like the worst case scenario guess. Um, especially
049with the GMP. Um, the company is not going to give us their best case. They're going to give us the worst case because once we sign that contract, they're taking on the risk of saying we are going to complete the work for that amount of money. So I feel very very confident um that we will hit our budget goals. Um there are some contingencies included in this estimate. Um one of them is a construction contingency that's managed by JP Colin. Uh it also included a contingency that construction work to be owner held as well. >> Question for Kevin on this. This is Thank you for all the work that went you did to get this pulled together for us. >> Yeah. >> Some firm numbers on it. >> Okay. Wow. >> And then next steps
050will be formalizing our contract with JP Cullen um once we get all the red red lines uh fixed up and stuff like that. And then we are moving. Uh had a meeting with Mr. Whitaker uh up at the high school today where we kind of walked through where all the work is going to be occurring and talked about what exactly that meant. I know that they engaged some of the staff up at the high school last I want to say yesterday actually or earlier this week um about what was going on and answered questions and got more for us to answer >> because you're anticipating starting like right after school, right? >> June 8th. >> So that's right after school. Yep. >> Anything else for Kevin? Did we lose connection on our >> Did I
051do that? >> I get back. >> You just have to reshare. Go back to >> Thank you, Kevin. >> Yes. Thank you, Kevin. >> I know. >> Thank you. >> Not everybody can send it. You're the first person I know. >> You started it. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Next item is did you 3D which is CISA 2 contract and I think Beth's going to take that one. >> I will take that one. Um so the CISA contract is something that you all have and pages one, two and three is really um the um kind of wording of CISA kind of the legal terminology. If you flip to page four, that's really the contract part of it. So the fees that we are paying for internet thing and >> sorry. Yep. And so it's a
052lot of this is a lot of like what CISA provides and so on. Page four is really showing this is what we're signing up for and most of them are based on. So, so my question from my question to I think it's probably to Jason and and to you Beth too because you've experienced so we pay $5,25 just to be a part of C7. Um I guess two questions is is membership mandatory and number two do we get our money's worth? >> I I believe that uh the $5,200 opens the door for those other services to be provided. Yes. And I believe we'd most definitely get a return on our investment for sure. And we I think we um compared to other districts I've worked with, we have really aligned with CISAs that uh provide
053us services. And what I mean by that is CISA 2 Sarah has done a fabulous job of aligning the services. We also work with C6 because they are the the uh really the the the leader in the state of our educator effective. So we've gone to C6 and so we're really matching our need with the CISA 6 kind of uh focus or strength >> and we get CISA 6 as a byproduct of being a member of CISA 2. Is that what you're saying? >> Um >> we pay for that. We pay every district pays some level for educator effectiveness but we have self- selected and use CISA 6 because that is one of their strengths. >> So it's like a oneoff service. So we don't we aren't a member of CISA 6. We don't pay
054that membership but we pay for a service that they provide there. Many districts that I know of could, you know, stay with their CISA by geographical area and I think we do a nice job of aligning the CISA by their strength and our >> So what was that one thing that might not be used again? >> So when I met with Sarah, she said we're not going to check that box because there is no need for us there. We have in the house >> questions. Questions for Beth or Jason. They would be the experts on this. >> Yeah. So, I understand the individual uh opt-in check boxes that you guys are recommending minus school psychology. We've got services for students who are blind and visually impaired. You've got orientation and mobility, educational, aiology, and federal
055consortium. So outside of those specific services, what are what are the things that CISA 2 is providing us with for the base membership? Because I see that obviously there's some material there in the preceding three pages before we get to page four. Are those the things that we are getting from CISA? Are they providing us with professional development pieces? >> Okay, got So there's everything from um some of our paraprofessionals go to some paraprofessional training at their CISA. We've had some CISA training for teacher certifications in the past where CISA 2 has like a teacher certification program rather than going through your university and so on. So there are a lot more opportunities with Seesaw rather than what's in this contract and they are constantly putting on professional developments and different kinds of trainings and
056so on. And because we are a member, we are eligible for that. There is a cost. Usually it's a pretty low cost for those kind of things, but they do a pretty good job of meeting the needs of what their area districts are kind of demanding. And so are these are these trainings something that we request that staff members go to or do staff members pick them and go to them of their own valition and then get approval through the district to get like reimbursement for them? How does that work? >> The latter. >> Okay. So the reason that I ask is because I am concerned about some of the uh some of the ideology that CISA has on their website looking things up. Obviously, I mean, I'm sure I'm not the only person who
057was looking at this documentation and was noticing the their Lyft program or their Lyft initiative where it talks about how it's driving equity and excellence in mathematics. When I go on to their website and I look at some of that, it talks about how really, you know, some of the some of the key points that they're see I think here, this is it. I want to pull it up. The Lyft framework, it talks about how, you know, they're focusing on being culturally responsive, culturally relevant. It's lots of the language and the jargon that we've seen in the past, which depending on how people use it, maybe in a sense may not be, but the difficulty is it's really hard for us to tell. And my concern is that if we just kind of have teachers
058flowing in and out, we potentially start running into problems with what we saw with the uh equity for multilingual learners book. The whole title looks pretty the the pink book that we were talking about a few months ago. And so while I appreciate a lot of the services that CISA can provide for us, I am concerned about opening the door and continuing to have some of those ideas flow into the, you know, the teaching style or into the into kind of the outlook of the staff that we have in the district. That makes sense. So I don't know if there's a good solution for that. if there's a way we can kind of uh find a middle ground or if there's something we can do to alleviate that concern. But I personally would be a
059little uncomfortable voting to continue working with CISA because of that element that CISA provides. >> I guess two things that I think is that any any opportunity for a staff or administrator to engage in one of these professional development go through some approval process. And then the second thing I think about is that those opportunities would also show up on our professional development factor. And so um Jenny has looked at that recently and there's hundreds of entries that at some point we'll bring to the board when we get close to saying that's the end of the school year right but we'll bring that annually to the to look at that data. >> Definitely. Yeah. I think that's something that I would like to look at and we have had discussions about that in the recent
060past. Um I suppose the reason that I bring it up is just this is another opportunity for us to be aware of the fact that there's lots of professional development going on and depending on who provides that professional development there's going to be uh like I said that there can be ideologies that that accompany them. So I think that's something we should be careful about. Absolutely. >> Other than that I think that the uh I think that those uh extra services that they provide are fantastic. Any other input, questions? Thank you, Sam. It's right there. It's right there in front of us. Appreciate that. Okay. So, the next step then with this is that this is taken to the um this is put on the agenda for Monday. That'll be an actions item for us.
061Everybody's in agreement. Committee, this goes to the full board. Okay. Then we have um Beth has pulled this out for us, which I very much appreciate. The purchases that over $20,000 and I think we're approaching the time of the year. I think we are going to see more of this getting ready for the school year and some of the things that are there. So um the way this is laid out we have four of them in general and then all the supporting documentation was given to us. So Beth um are there any comments you have to make? >> So the first one is something that I believe came to curriculum um >> um it came to Ed services >> ed services um and that's the AVID contract. So, the AVID contract you guys are kind
062of well aware is that um opportunity for middle school, high school kids to really engage in some career, college and life readiness things. And so that avid contract for next year, the total amount is 21,243. So that is just a continuing um contract >> and this was discussed pretty extensively at ed services and I think we all asked questions and got some answers on some things. So everybody okay with the avid one >> there? Okay, >> I'll kind of overview the securely um and then I'll turn any questions over to the tech people in on that side of the room. So securely is really the web filtering tool that is used just for the Y to make sure we are keeping kids and everything safe. So with that being said, that um contract that came
063out much >> $23,332 for the first year. Y >> so let's >> the total is pretty large just because it is they are asking for a threeyear contract but we paying that over the course of three years so for next year 23,000 as Beth said instead of the children piece uh David and technology team but always put together a why what follows as a grounding document and the team with any questions uh David is here for expertise. >> The only thing I'll add is like almost everything that we're seeing um most of our subscriptions are going up between 20 and 30%. This was a 20% increase over our last three-ear contract. >> Wow. >> So, are we are we happy with the service that we're getting uh through securely with SNET? I mean, it's it's
064doing what it's intended to do. It's truly blocking what it needs to block and we're comfortable that >> absolutely absolutely I mean no no company's perfect of course you know right but for the services that we need it to provide and the flexibility that it gives us in the classroom uh it's it's a great product >> I would say that uh in addition I agree with what David's saying in addition our secondary buildings are looking for ways to leverage securely really differently. Think at Ed services we heard Josh Barnett and then Jason Whitaker talked about securely pass and so they're just thinking about additional ways to leverage this and securely flex on top of it with the student scheduling for their ELTs and high school. >> So it's it's it's become a whole ecosystem. >>
065So if we added those components to it, would that increase the cost? Is that an additional component? >> There are comp additions, but those additions we've asked our building leaders to uh use their building budgets to cover. >> Good. >> I think it's fair to say that there's one major competitor. Is that true? >> Yeah. With securely and through this WISNET, I think they do a fabulous job of bringing districts together to lower the cost. So comparatively I think this is the order >> and as for software support I would compare this to we look at skyward the major competitor for Skyward is infinite campus. The amount of hours it would take for us to switch over to that product and the hardship on our staff to do that would be enormous. us switching to
066the competitor even if it was a cheaper price would would take away hundreds and hundreds of hours of setup for the teachers because they set up the classrooms in here. There's there's so much it's because of that ecosystem. Um you know it's not an easy task if you if we were supposed to switch to different companies. >> Okay. >> So I just have one observation and I apologize but these things just leap out at me. Um but on the signature page supervisor it's misspelled and our state our city is misspelled. >> I will make sure that uh they >> I I'm very I'm very conscious of these things in the education world. >> So but more importantly I want to make sure that what we're paying for is actually doing the job. >> Yes. >>
067And that Lori is going to make it. Okay. Yeah, I'm allergic to this building. >> An hour in. Here we go. >> Okay. >> Recommendation is 4:30. >> Yeah. Committee, are we good to say to to Beth and Jason, please put this on the agenda for full board recommendation for Monday? Okay. >> Very good. >> And then Chromebook per purchases. I think three quotes were um so this is a a rotation purchase. So there's kind of that timeline that everything is kind of replaced over that timeline. And so three quotes were gotten and you guys can see all of those quotes. So I will turn it over to the team now. >> I will I'll turn it over to David in one moment. Just a reminder that it's not said this is part of our
068rotation in the fall. Our typical cadence for the teach team is in the fall to bring an update all things technology to ed services and um so that earlier in the fall and part of that presentation is always this rotation. The unfortunate part of the t saying is that prices are going in the absolute wrong direction that we would hope for. Um but we're what we're doing here is executing the rotation that Dave and the team has developed over the last three years. >> If you don't do that rotation then you end up with huge number of computers that need to be replaced all at once and you're constantly fighting against the repair and maintenance of the of the fleet if you will that you have and the rotation is the solution. floor. >> I
069just had a question, not that I'm objecting to any of this, but I'm curious. Uh I've been hearing from my my grandkids that the uh the Chromebooks are not very durable for the younger kids and that the the iPads are quite wonderful in their durability and they're um they're they come in this rain rainistant, water resistant case as opposed to the Chromebooks. So, if you're walking home from school with your Chromebook in your backpack, it better not rain, you know. So, I was kind of curious um what your take is on that. >> Our um our damage for Chromebooks in this district is one is one of the lowest I've seen. Um we're significantly lower on our damage than most of our damage comes from middle school, which if you know anything about middle schoolers,
070that's about right. Um, but our our damage at the elementary level, um, I would be willing to bet that we have probably less than 10 Chromebooks out of all of those that that we've actually had to repair at the elementary level. I can double check, but we have almost no damage at >> Yeah, I have not heard any feedback, so I figured this is a great time to ask a question. >> Right. So, the problem I have with iPads is they're not a production tool. So if we want students to be able to type and write and do things on them that's more than touch the screen then we have to equip them with a Bluetooth keyboard which is an additional cost. They're already more expensive than Chromebooks usually. >> Um the management piece is
071is significantly harder takes many many more hours to be able to handle thousands of iPads. We we know because we are slowly lowering our iPad fleet because the management and because they're harder to keep updated and so on. Plus, the Chromebooks fit perfectly into the ecosystem with us being a Google school. So, that's that's huge. My philosophy for the last 15 years has been be agnostic. Um, and Chromebooks work perfectly with that because we're cloud-based. As you can see, you are all using Chromebooks because it is the the the same hardware but much cheaper to support than like Windows or Mac OS. Um, so we're able to as a district be much more fiscally responsible by having devices that are just going to the cloud. Um, iPads um are really nice for special ed for
072the specialized apps, but if you're just going out to Chrome and then want to be able to type something, they're actually I feel that they're a much bigger challenge for our kids because unless you put a keyboard on, they're really hard to be able to see and use the use the touchcreen to type. So, they are durable. I'll give you that. But when they do break, they're way much harder to fix. >> Well, thanks for the explanation. I appreciate that. I think it's also important to know that like you did um the model for uh students handling Chromebooks is varied by the grade level, right? And so elementary primarily don't take them to and from school. Um some uh classrooms of the fifth grade uh have students start practicing that, but by and large they're
073at school and that's why I think we see those more numbers. >> That was my question. >> I thought that must be the case. >> Yes. Right. How middle school keep them? We made the decision two years ago, I think, to collect middle school Chromebooks at the end of the year. We found that if they took them home for the summer, the tech team spent the first month of the school year fixing all those. We're adjusting to the needs of the student, right? Then high school keep them for the for the same. But it's kind of a tiered approach of how >> if you look at that, >> right? If you look at the at the number of repairs, we've steadily gone down each year with these. And then we're because we're now we we've
074been in ASUS warranty school for uh for several years, we're finally getting to the point when we start retiring the ASUS machines next year, they'll become parts. And even though we don't spend a whole lot on parts, we'll spend nothing on parts starting next year. So even the repairs only cost us time. >> Okay. >> Very nice. Thank you. >> Sam had his hand up. >> Yeah. So, the only question that I have, and you've talked about this in the past, I'm just clarifying again. How many students in the district ultimately have a a Chromebook in their possession, whether it's just for the day or as a take-home item? Is it every single child? >> Every single student has a Chromebook um assigned to them. >> And are they all like similar to this model?
075>> Uh they're they're smaller. They're 11 in. Um at the kindergarten level, they get touchcreens and then those will stay with them all the way through fourth grade. And then fifth grade, they'll they'll get a with no touch and then they'll keep that through until they're freshman and then freshman they get another one and they'll take them till so they're graduate. >> Very cool. >> Thank you. I appreciate the information. >> No problem. The the only thing I would add is uh as you see the price if you are uh looking at last year's price uh it's 46% increase. Um >> and but I will say that one of the reasons is of course AI and and the cost of memory and chips has skyrocketed. our touchscreen Chromebooks are almost $100 more than they were
076last year. Um the other thing is as we do our rotation, um last year we somehow uh found ourselves $75,000 less on what we had anticipated. So we what made the cut was the chrome boxes that you see that go on the displays. So now we're really forced to purchase them this year because they're going to be out of date. We can't update them for security reasons. So we have no choice but to to buy them this year because we couldn't buy any last year. >> So that's that's why it would normally be probably several thousand less than what it currently. >> And you know you talk about these budget models that we're working on. It's very hard to predict a 46% increase in in our our Chromebook. >> My question do you see this
077happening continually at that level 46% or you see >> I don't think it's going to sustain. I think eventually that um um AI is moving into different models. You can see Elon Musk is building that Tesla Corp. They're they're they're starting to build their own chips. Um Intel is now their stock. If you watch stocks, their stock is is raising the best that it has in 30 years because now they're being uh equipped to be in this GPU TPU market. So, I think it's going to come back. I I do think it's not going to be a permanent thing. Um, these are meant to be almost disposable for a reason. Um, even Google will start putting in their own as they have their own ship that they develop, they'll start putting in those price could
078possibly even come down, >> right? Absolutely. And I I've seen them anywhere from just over 200 bucks to, you know, 300 bucks to now $400. Um, they'll come back down. I I fully believe it. And to your point about buying too many in one time, the reason why you see on this page that we're going to buy 750 for our students, but we're only retiring 375 is because over co we bought,00 in one year. Those are going to retire next year. So if we don't we don't have our we don't have our rotation. And we planned for this, you know, three years ago already. We don't have our rotation every year. If we put it off, we will be out of Chromebooks next year not have enough for kids. So we have to essentially keep
079this rotation going. your question, Dave. What I've seen over the years is there's some some event where prices spike and then they come back down, right? Like the pandemic, we saw prices spike because of heat, right? And then there were different events over the next three years that that spike, right? >> Yeah. The demand I mean, and that's that's thing we're seeing we're seeing orders being cancelled. We're seeing the reason why we're coming to you this month instead of next month is because with your approval um the vendors have agreed that they're going to pull what they already have aside for us and hold them and then still ahead and get them to us. So that's >> I saw that was one reason we accepted the bid. Not only was it the lowest one, but
080they guaranteed delivery. >> Exactly. So So that's something that that we and we're being taken care of. I feel better than a lot of schools are right now with this opportunity and that's why we couldn't wait another month because they're not most of them most of the uh quotes they're not honoring more than two weeks. Um I know one school that they even approved and they came back and and and said that asked for more money like so we are in a really good spot. >> Well speaks to the good management of the IT department. So thank you. >> Thank you Jason both of you. So, um, the recommendation here is that we accept the I think it was Van Vangar quote for the Chromebook purchases. Everybody on the committee okay with moving that to
081the agenda on Monday? >> Okay, thank you. >> And then the library tablet purchases, which is a separate item. I think there are 110 of those or something like that. >> Yes. >> Yeah. >> So, >> I could start us off. I think it really, I don't know if Lori knew it, but was really teeing us up for this conversation because what these tablets are really uh replacing some of the iPads that David said are suns setting and are really uh create a security risk. And so these tablets are uh all the things David said about being equipment agnostic. They check all those boxes and they're used to navigate Steam and STEM programming in our libraries. So there we have iPads now there. We want to get them to these tablets that are more flexible,
082more conducive to what and and aligned with the Chromebooks. So that's the what I missed. >> No, that's perfect. we are we are just replacing what we already ex existing and these are in that Google environment uh ecosystem versus where iPads are not um again these are managed really easy with our current Google workspace um and the iPads again are not so I don't know maybe I just missed it but when I was reading through your you know why what and how I thought that on the first one that we had a recommendation for the Vanguard but I can't find which one of those bids that we were were recommending >> the ten. >> Yeah. And honestly, I didn't I didn't see that as well. Um I saw when I looked through it, I saw
083Bloom was actually the the lower and then um what is it? Insight was the was the second one. Vanguard was actually the highest one. >> Yeah, this one we just go with the lowest one. >> Yeah, I agree. Yeah, there's le, you know, there might be some delays, but I feel less con less uh sense of urgency with tablets than I do with cobooks. >> Yeah, these aren't as high demand as >> Okay, good. >> Um so with the understanding that we'll accept the lowest bid on those um library tablet purchases, are we good committee moving that to the agenda for Monday? >> Okay, then that brings us to our monthly reports. And um you have Amazon purchases checklisting, credit card detail, and a credit card report. Beth, do you want to make any comments
084on that? No, >> I went the Amazon purchases. I didn't see anything that stood out and I did not receive any comments or questions along the way. But if anybody would like to chat, I can try to punt as best that I can. >> Questions on I don't have any questions for Beth. I do have a request um off of page 14 we have a book called the 57 bus. I want to toss that over to uh head services for >> review top very top >> the true story of two teenagers in the crime of I did some reading on that so this would be a good place to have that discussion >> it's a total shot in the dark Beth and again >> we're asking you right now I'm not looking for a speific
085answer >> do the only question that I have is it's a book or at least It looks like it is one, but it's under tech. Do you have any idea why that would be? >> Oh, yeah. That was >> that was the earlier question, I think. Yeah, I saw. >> So, tech is going to be the purchasing group that it came from. Um, so again, somebody that is in the tech group for Amazon purchasing purchase this. So, but that's all that I can really >> that's but you understand why we're questioning you because it seems very odd for the tech group to be purchasing a singular book. It's it's on a list of speakers and computers and it's not normally seen. >> So, this 57 bus purchase was purchased by the tech group >> right
086on the 20th of March. >> Sure. Um going to write all of this down and try to get to the bottom of it. I'm not sure who purchased it or why it was purchased, but I will shoot an email back to you all tomorrow after I do some digging. And I mean, even if that information just comes to the ED services committee, I mean, that would be probably the best place for that. >> Okay. That's the next time we look at it. >> Nope. No. >> No. I appreciate it. >> Um, >> bubble gum was only $7. >> I went looking for the bubble gum. Yeah, I was kind of looking forward to candy packs this time and I was wondering if Carl would say something about candy, but he's not here. >> Um, just
087so you know, there will be an additional monthly report next month when we restructure fiscal again. That is going to be a fund balance report to all funds and the fund balance of all funds. So whatever still on your >> So are there any questions on the Amazon or the check report or the um credit card reports clear for everybody? >> Okay. I want to shut down any discussion. I went through them and got I did some research on a few things to just check them out. But um I I I will make a comment about these Amazon things and Carl's actions because he really doesn't like the Amazon and I understand why. But I will tell you that I think what it's done is it's afforded and we have to make sure it stays
088within budget. But it has afforded school individual schools to be able to very quickly purchase things that enhance their program. And whereas before you had to go to a teacher store and you can't find a teacher store anymore, Amazon has become the teacher store. And that's just the reality. And so, and I know in the past a lot of people from here would go down to Madison to the teacher store, they would buy stuff, they'd submit their receipts, and you know, the district would pay it. So >> yeah, and I noticed too we we um we renewed our Prime subscription and uh for for people who buy things this much that saves us a boatload of money. We don't have to spend a gas. >> Absolutely. Yeah, good point. And they buy it on credit
089card so we get the points on the credit card. >> Right. So, and one thing we found out I think recently here is that some of these purchases like for candy and things maybe the bubble gum are being sold >> by our our our students and so forth. So, >> or being paid for by by other sources. I was I was learned I learned that too. So, >> so because we don't see the source of the of the payment. So, >> okay. Well, hearing none, we're good with moving all of these things to the agenda for Monday. >> So, just for clarification, action items. I heard securely Chromebooks tablet. Did I Are we okay with moving Avid and CISA 2 as well? >> All of those. Yes. Okay. As well as the Okay. Perfect. and
090making sure that we get the book referred to ED services. So we've got number of things to go to the agenda for Monday >> and we eventually figure out where who bought it where where it's going and we'll do digging tomorrow >> and and I would say though though I have make no pretense of chairing this but even as a member of this committee I deeply appreciate you're setting it up so that Sheila came in and talked to us about nutrition services and if there are other programs like that that we need to know about um that's a that's a really good opportunity for us to understand where how we generate that money where it's going and how it's operating. So we appreciate that the timing is good because again like Sheila had said the
091meal prices next month. So when you understanding what all goes into these meals, what the current prices are, it was kind of a good storyline to continue. >> I I did have a question coming to think of it. I just and I hope it's a real quick answer. Um I noticed in the chart that she showed where the prices for the individual programs with the the reduced lunch was like 40 cents across. Do we determine what that price is? That's it for us by >> that is okay. Thank you. Was a short answer. >> Okay. Okay. Anything else? Uh future agenda planning. anything that anybody has that needs to be put on there now for next month that is burning up for us or the land thing is still in limbo. >> I think the
092property thing is still in limbo. >> The property >> we know one thing that happened. >> Yes. So uh we just know that not still there. >> Okay. Well then, um, committee members, are you in agreement that we can adjourn this meeting of the fiscal committee at, um, item 657? Yep. >> All right. Thank you everyone. >> See everybody Monday. Right. >> Yeah.