001All right, it's 5 o' and we do have a >> initially it said 5:30 and then I they did this to me once before so I checked. >> Yeah, I figured but I I like I said aware >> probably not you get busy and the the first time you guys did this it was only by chance I caught it. >> All right well we'll get started. Um, first thing on the agenda, we have our purchases over $20,000. Tonight we have three. The first one is the copy paper for the district. We order that as one um, bulk purchase each year. There is a document or a spreadsheet in here that shows the three different bids that we got. Um, we are recommending going with O'Brien, which was the mid bid. what we actually ended up
002purchasing for um this year will probably be a little bit less than what that bin shows just because we didn't use everything that we had last year. Um but we are recommending O'Brien because they keep the paper on site. We purchase it and then they just send it to us as we need it and they keep it in a temperature controlled environment which has worked really well. >> Less waste. And then we did have I mean we've had times where the paper absorbs moisture and then it doesn't go through the machines. >> That's what I meant by less waste. >> Yeah. Right. >> Well, and less fixing of the machines once that jams. >> Exactly. >> So, I don't know if anyone has any questions about that one. >> Okay. Um the second one is
003a contract for physical therapy services. uh friends. So um we are looking for a physical therapist at an 80% um rate FTE, not 100% to meet the needs of our students who have um some physical limitations and have an IEP to meet those needs. We went out to bid. Um I also called Watertown Hospital. They weren't able to assist. I called the doctors of physical therapy down the road. Um, and they are able to provide people to do direct services, but not all of the paperwork and not in an educational setting and they didn't have a lot of experience with children as you wouldn't in that type of setting, right? This is really specific to schools meeting the needs of kids. >> So, we went out went out to bid with some companies that always
004cold call us and say, "Hey, you know, are you looking for somebody?" And my first question is always, "How much is it?" Right? Um, and so we were able to come up with three. Um, one is, as you can see, over $100,000. One is, um, it's not calculated there, but it's 76,850. And then one comes down to about 55,000 um, per year, which is the Anna Grim. She has her own company um, and she would carry, of course, her own liability insurance. We have our liability insurance too, but this is someone that is known to us as well and is known to the students. And so I'm asking um for us to go with the bid from Dr. Anna Grim PT. Um it's it's a it's a good deal for the district um financially, but
005it is also um it's also very comforting knowing that the students know her and the team knows her and she knows our systems. >> How Sarah, how do they know her? because she was our PT in watermelon. Okay. >> Okay. And just to verify that was the low bid as well. >> It is the low campus. >> That's a no-brainer. >> Yeah. >> Proposed project budget $72 an hour. >> That is correct. >> For looking to change your career. >> What? >> Did you see the other ones? Okay. >> I saw the other one. >> Yeah. So, there's that. So, that one will move to resolution. The third one on here is a contract for HBAC systems maintenance. And I know Kevin SO was planning on being here to talk a little bit about this
006and I'm wondering right now if he knew the meeting got moved up, which might not. Um, we can look through the documents if you want now and um maybe I can answer any questions. But the district has used NAMI for a number of years. Um, they are they've been a good partner. He does have a um a document in here. I think it's the last one. Yeah, right here where he gave a summary of why he's recommending going with Nanny. Um I don't know if anyone had a chance to read this in advance, but >> yeah. >> Well, it seemed to me to make sense that they have experience with our buildings and our mechanicals. And based on what I read in here, they talk very very knowledgeably about it. Wouldn't take much to know
007more than I do about that. But um I I like the fact that they have that background and it didn't seem to me that their increase was out of line. >> Yeah, I agree. They people that know your equipment are really ahead of the game for you. It's it's acceptable to me. >> Okay. All right. So, that one will move to resolution as well. That brings us to probably the bigger agenda item, which is budget and referendum planning. I put an updated budget notes document in here and I just added a couple of things. Um, some of this we talked about last month. So, we talk a little bit about how we ended up running at a deficit. Um, part of that is because we did have an operational referendum that sunseted with the 2022
00823 school year and so we're receiving 3.9 million less in revenue from that. And then when we have um declining enrollment, we see less revenue each year as well. So even when we've gotten the $325 per pupil on the revenue limit, it's kept our revenue flat at best. So revenue has been staying pretty flat for the last three to five years, but expenses have been increasing um largely due to inflation. So we've give the CPI increases to staff. We've seen increases in our health insurance for staff. Transportation is tied to CPI. Utilities have gone up. Pretty much all expenses have gone up. Food expenses. Um and we see it in our own personal lives as well. So because revenue is flat, we've got less revenue because of the operating referendum falling off and increased prices
009that's brought us to deficit spending. Um so we've had a deficit in 2023 24 and 202425 and we are projecting one for 2026. So what we can do about that really we have two options. we reduce costs um or we ask the community for more operating funds through the referendum process or a combination of those two things. So, I updated um the forecast model and I didn't put a lot. I didn't do like I normally do with a whole bunch of scenarios, but the scenario that I included in this budget notes, this is the base scenario. And this includes now the updated state budget number. So, we know special education reimbursement is going up, which did make a difference for us. That was that was a really good thing. Um and that the $325 per
010student on the revenue limit is staying in the formula. So all of those things are accounted for in this forecast, as well as the reductions we made for this year, which ended up being about $1.2 million. So those things all brought those projected deficits down from where we were seeing them, which is also definitely a good thing. So even next year, we see that the fund balance still, if we ran that size of a deficit, would still be running at about 30%. Which is good. But that said, it still is almost a $4.5 million budget deficit. And then we talked a little last month just about what's inside the revenue limit, what's outside, um, and what the two types of referendums are. I don't know if anybody has any questions about that after last month.
011We'll talk more about that at our next meeting, too, I think. So then I put the dates in here because the other thing is the um states is that school districts can only ask two referendum questions in a calendar year. So these are the possible election dates that we could have referendum questions on the ballot. There is two opportunities for 2026 April and November. And if we ask two questions in April and we cannot ask the question in November. I think that's all I had to say about that. I did put the mill rate history in here just because I think that it's helpful to see and it is interesting. The only thing I will say is because property values have been increasing so much in the district, the mill rate doesn't mean quite what
012it used to mean. So this the mill rates dropped off a lot, but our total tax levy hasn't changed a whole lot. So some people probably have not seen their taxes decrease. So you can't just we can't just use the mill rate the way that we used to use it. But I do think I know we talked at a previous meeting that I thought maybe the mill rate would go up for next year. I don't think that's true now once we've got the equalization aid numbers. Um it looks like the mill rate will still go down. >> Does the rise in property taxes affect the mill rate? >> The rise in property taxes. >> Um well the Yeah, because the mill rate drives that for the school district. Yeah. So on the assessments, I'm trying
013to remember, is that an annual? They don't and they don't reassess every year. >> They don't reassess officially, but we just yesterday got the actual numbers for Well, I think it's still an estimate at this point, but it's like a solid estimate, but the property values within the district went up 9.1% again, which is more than what we were kind of projecting or anticipating. That's pretty big jump. And of that, only 6% is new growth. >> So that's why I say even though the mill rate will go down, some people are not going to see a change in what taxes they're paying. >> So when we talk when we get to talking about the scenarios for the referendum that we talked about last time, at some point we can say that this would be x
014number of dollars increase uh per $1,000 of a value of a home, right? based on the 9.1%. >> Exactly. And so that's that actually brings us to the other document that's in here which is under the >> admin that document s I mean she glossed over this but I if you want to pull up the projections again >> um I I need to point this out because I have to say this not only really really really really reflects Sarah's leadership but it reflects a couple of different things. If you were to look at these budget forecasts last year or the year before, we were set to run out of money next year, right? Um we are still going I mean we are still going to be in trouble in another year or so, right? But
015the fact that um Sarah under Sarah's lead, we cut $1.2 million out of the budget, right? and uh from our Senate helping us out with on the special ed uh reimbursement, giving us a little bit more. We've got uh you know some breathing room that if if our if our referendum doesn't pass in April, you know, we're we're not going to be devastated. We will still have a chance to maybe even think about going back again and asking again. Uh but um at some point in time, we're really going to need the support of our community, right? Because it does that doesn't change the path we're on. Like, you know, we still are going to need more revenue or we're going to have to do a lot more budgetary uh constraints than than we've already
016done, right? And um I will tell you it was really difficult, but we did find $1.2 million in the budget. We were aiming for 500,000 when we started, but then we saw how drastic uh important it was to really make some changes. Um especially uh you know in light of we didn't know where the state budget was going or whatever else, right? Uh and so we've been we've been okay to understand that the federal government's still going to this year do the title programming, right? uh and that our state came in with a little bit more aid on special ed. >> Well, depends >> from 27% to 37%. >> Yeah. I mean, we were we were aiming for 60, right? And and they promised twothirds a long time ago. Uh so I I don't get
017me wrong because I I really am happy, right? I'm really happy that they did what they could. And you know, Senator Jaggler will tell you that I I when I approached him, he basically said words ungrateful and I said, "Yes, but you wouldn't expect anything less from somebody who's leading a school district and really telling you like, you know, um I appreciate you, right? But we still need you to continue to step up, right?" And and that's all I'm saying. I I really appreciate u what they've done on both sides of the Senate and the House and working with uh you know Governor Iver to pass that stuff and it's really helped us out. You can see that. So I'm giving them their props. >> I just know that we're still in an unsustainable model.
018>> Oh yeah. And we have been ever since Act 10 and when we've uh moved uh funding away from uh connected to the CPI, right? when the state did that and they haven't kept up on that, that's what you can see the progression, right? That's why all these school districts are going through our front. So I think that I I I asked some questions um of people who were around during act 10 like what was the purpose of what they did and he said basically we need to shift the um the model so that the community and choose to support the local schools >> and um I think that's not bad. We just need to connect with the community and make sure that they understand that, >> right? Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. 100% off my door.
019I >> Yeah. I think >> we could talk all day about it. But um to your point about the $1.2 million cuts, are those such that at some point we could talk about where those cuts were made so that the public knows where those cuts were made? >> Yeah. Yeah. >> What the hell? [Music] >> You're right here next to >> Oh, okay. >> Oh, you lucky dog. You >> Yeah. >> Bet you won't say that later on. >> Should I move further this way? >> No, that's fine. >> Look what you like said. I've been thinking about this. This has to be a selling point. That's why we need to know the details and what I hear out there is they're going to have to cut before I vote for this >> and they
020don't know what the cuts are. >> Well, we need to then that's why the 1.2 million that's impressive. >> It is. >> Yeah. Um and what's the time what's the time frame that you did those cuts? I'm I'm >> Yeah. I mean, so we started planning for them back last October, but we really implemented them since April until most recently, actually. So, um, you know, that that is, uh, you know, we brought I mean, you guys helped us with that, too. Uh, that's why I said leadership has done a great job. I mean, we brought you a staffing plan. We knew that there were some um you know expenditure restraints and those that that led program uh you know supports that were different. um you agreed to that, right? And that that helped us get
021there, you know. So, you know, just together as a group, we really worked hard on those and it was mostly staffing. >> And I think you guys did a really prudent job making them. It's hard to make cuts, >> especially personnel. >> Yeah, I just read a statistic that over 70% of the school districts in Wisconsin are in a declining enrollment situation. And I think that is by far the biggest impact on on these things. And so question for you. I know the special ed funding went up. Where on the forecast does that number show up? >> It's not in this um this piece. It's in like the big detailed spreadsheet. >> I could pull that out if you're interested in seeing it. But I mean I was kind of surprised at what a big
022difference it made in the overall picture. >> Okay. >> And it carries forward. Yes. It helps like in years following. So >> we're looking at >> so um the other thing >> you know that that when when we look at those projections right it it does help us but again we're really still going to have to think about what we're looking at um and and how how far how far we'll get ourselves before our next because you're right we we are um looking at there's nine school districts this probably won't make payroll sometimes come to you, right? Uh because they weren't able to pass refund. I don't think that the the greater state understands or knows that. But you're right, uh it it puts more of the ask on the local community uh uh when
023when they um did those budgetary uh you know expenditure restrictions at state level and uh took it away from CPI, right? and they were they were saying uh we have to do this because uh the the load on public education right um has been really a bigger drain and a bigger drain on the state budget. So they so they took care of that then right fast forward though um they've also added some things back in right that put some of those uh back in and they haven't necessarily um gone into the public school. >> What did they add back in? added the expansion on the vouchers, right? And you guys know that I'm I'm a school choice advocate. So, I'm not saying that that I'm not saying that >> some people watching might think that
024I'm blaming the state for adding something in and not helping our schools. That's not what I'm saying at all. I'm saying they added it back in, right? Um but that's that's a load on schools, right? >> Well, yeah. the cost of the voucher is um >> less than what the cost of of educating a student in within >> That's correct is >> but we lose that state portion of the funding. Correct. >> No, I that's where I'm careful. Right. >> Okay. >> Because one would say that funding never went to the public school anyway. >> Right. It was never designed for going to the public school. Well, we we lose the right >> it's a reduction in state aid, >> right? >> And then it goes on to the property tax levy. >> Exactly. >>
025Yes. >> Primarily built on the fact that you lost the students, >> right? That's that's the main thing. >> Um not necessarily. >> No. Um many of our and especially here in Watertown, right? Uh many many of our private schools still have a list of students that they had or families that they've had that they haven't been able to serve that they already had. Right. So it it hasn't necessarily been this big uh you know move from public ed to private ed. Um it's it was also taking private ed students who didn't who didn't have a support and funding from the state giving those families a support and funding. so that they can remain in the private school, right? >> But they're there for a reason. I mean, they're there because they think that's the
026best choice for their children. >> Sure. >> And I gota I got to believe it affected at the high school with all the schools that only go through 8th grade. >> Um I got to believe that 9th through 12th, the student population was impacted by those vouchers. Uh well again that's why that's why I >> I very carefully say like in water town right we haven't seen as much impact because >> okay >> most all those students would come to us to the high school anyway. Okay >> right and we didn't see that shift of a lot lower high school and all of a sudden we get them back again once they go back to the public school. >> Um it it hasn't had that >> that shift for us. So, but and we're getting
027a little bit more off track from from what we wanted to, but I just wanted to highlight like we are in a little bit better spot right now, but that's because all of us in this room did a lot of work uh to to cut 1.2 million over the last year and the state helped us out a little bit, right? And so that that that has put us in a little bit better spot, but I still want to highlight the fact that um like Sarah said, within just a couple of years, we're we're going to be with some of these other school districts who aren't coming payroll by the end of the year, >> right? The financial landscape can change pretty quickly, right? >> We've seen some districts where that's happened where they might have
028a really strong fund balance and three years later they're at, you know, seven%. And when you get that low, it is a lot tougher to come back because you do have to start borrowing and then paying interest on that and it's kind of a cycle. >> But if I'm reading your chart right, um, on the surplus deficit line on your forecast, even if we did a $6 million revenue or excuse me, referendum that was for five years that after three the third year, we're still in a deficit. >> Right? And so that's why I always say when we look at this, we will always, no matter what, have to make tweaks along the way. Like each year look at it and see how do we balance the budget and what do we want to do
029to balance the budget. And then again, we'll be in a new state budget in two years. And so that might change it a little bit. Um, but you're right, like $6 million from looking at this right now does not cover the deficit each year. Okay, >> I have a quick question. Uh, as uh as time goes on, do do we also take into consideration then you know the other inflationary costs uh for instance uh you know um of of wages and benefits and things of that nature. >> Yes, that's a great question and this model allows for that. So we can put in a percentage increase for wages for what we think benefits will look like and anything else. So um like as a baseline I usually use 3% for wages and we know that'll
030change a little bit each year depending on what CPI is depending on what the board decides to do but that gives us at least something in there. So yeah, there there are escalating um costs that we're hoping are something close to what the actual increases would be. >> Thank you. >> Any other questions about that? So, I just wanted to make sure you know a that I highlighted Sarah's good leadership in that area, but also just to take you a little bit closer into that forecasting so you know what we're looking at as we're looking at operational uh type referenda in the future and you know things that we're looking at. >> Well, I can't speak for everybody on the committee obviously, but speaking here myself, I think the case has been made that we
031have to do something. >> The question is at this point, what do we do? How do we talk about it? How do we be as transparent as possible? As um and I'll use another word s as a synonym, but forthcoming on the information and um and we're as appropriately frugal as we need to be. You know, I think what the community doesn't want is they don't want to feel like and and I don't use that word feel very often because I think prefer to be more rational than emotional based, but um I think they they get this sense that there hasn't been enough done to re in expenses. And so when they see a a referendum like we had in April that looked like it was going to run in perpetuity then and I believe
032that was that was 9 million >> 7 million. Okay. $7 million in perpetuity. I think they just said, "No, we're done." So, I think we can do, and again, I'm not speaking for the whole committee, but I I think that um I appreciate the detail. I appreciate the $1.2 million cuts. I'd love I'm anxious to see where they were. So, we can talk about, but obviously, we need to do something. Sarah, what would be practical as far as a timeline for an operational referendum? And um as far as the the amount like I'm looking here at like 7 million for three years, but you have more experience with operational referendums. What would you recommend? When I look at this, I think it depends. Really, it's a choice of two things like do we want to
033ask for enough that we continue operating the way we are right now? Do we want to ask for less and make reductions with it? Um, we ran based on the scenarios that the committee gave last time. We have numbers for what a $6 million referendum would look like. So, what that mill impact would be, which is in that other document under the administrative section. Um, and because of the way the debt is, it is quite a bit more than what we asked last time. So, the mill impact for that would be a $147. Um, so that just gives you an idea of like I think the question is what do we think the community would approve of? $6 million would pretty much cover our deficits. That would put us in a pretty comfortable position. Um,
034I do think we could probably ask for less and then combine that with some um reductions if we did like a step up referendum the way that the district did the last time. So the last successful operating referendum was for five years and it increased as those five years went on. So that is another um opportunity. >> So what do you mean increase? So like for example for 26 27 we could say four and a half million and then you could do five or five and a half million the following year and step it up by whatever increments for those five years. >> Okay. And as the property values go up our mill rate should stabilize because property values go up. Right? If our expenditures go up then the mill rate will still hover a
035little bit because property values went up. >> Right. Right. as a way to kind of stabilize the impact on the community and the homeowners. >> Yeah. Right. >> Yeah. >> You said five years, right? >> So, just so um in this meeting we we don't get too deep, I want to remind you that after this meeting, we're going to have some workshopping opportunities during our P facilities discussion to talk about just referendum planning in general through that through that. Um um you know so Sarah is right when she says listen um 6 million is probably a good ask and that that will help us defay those things. If we ask for less we're going to have to do some expenditure restraint um maybe some closing of buildings, right? Uh recontributing our footprint a little. Um
036but if we do that um we could do less of an ask. We just have to be forthright with the community to say we we're doing less than ask but it's going to come with these expenditure restraints right uh that we that we need to put in place um you know um and and uh the the the less we ask for the more uh types of programming will have to change right and how we how we provide that programming. So those are some things for us to continue to think about. But by the end of tonight, the end of the next meeting with P, your goal is to have three uh scenarios that we will survey the public on. Okay. So that's why we wanted to make sure that in fiscal you have all of
037the information about like budgetarily where we are uh how much uh certain questions might that you gave us right you gave us seven scenarios to cost out Sarah's soon going to go through those really soon anyway and then um you'll have all that information going into some of the facilities planning asks that you asked the P to look at right uh and they'll tell you how much those are going to cost. And in the end, we'll have to come up with two or at the most three questions that we may want to survey the public on their support of before we utilize one of those, the one with the most support to do some kind of referendum around if that's the direction you guys want. >> So that that's kind of what our whole night's
038going to look like at two different meetings, right? >> Thanks for the clarification. >> Yeah. So I guess scenario number one if we did nothing to me is this forecast that that would be what we would be looking at and that would be what we would be using to try and balance the budget. So if we were wanting to balance the budget in 2627 we would be looking at roughly $4.5 million of reductions. Um the next scenarios, there's six others are all in the um document under administrative content and it goes through um each one in detail. And so there's a whole chart in here because it shows exactly how um the equalization aid would be impacted by a referendum. And then when the debt questions are in here and shows how um those would
039be financed out to make this work. And then each one of these scenarios also utilizes the um paying off of the rest of our debt. So we after this next year, we will have no more debt payments for fund 39. So it uses that kind of gap that um is created by us not having to levy to pay that debt anymore. So the very first does that make sense? Okay. Um the very first scenario then was the $6 million operational um we put in for five years for this one and the mill impact for that would be $147. Um the second one was the $6 million fiveyear operational plus an $18 million capital referendum and the impact of that would be a $181. Um, that next one was 45 million capital only and I think
040that that one was we were kind of talking about doing that as maybe a second question in November. The impact of that alone would be 80 cents. >> Sorry, can I just stop there just a quick bit? I think if board members if you're having a hard time accessing the content that's in administrative, you may have to go out of board docs and reauthenticate because you'll only catch it if you are logged in, right? Otherwise, you're in the public site and you won't see everything. >> That's why. >> So, so I I just, you know, sometimes when we when we can't see the stuff that's in the um admin, that's what happens. So, um just wanted >> Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. I'm going to think of that. >> Um scenario number four was a $2.5
041million three-year operational and the impact of that is 45 cents. And then we had the $4.5 million fiveyear operational plus the $50 million of capital which brought us to a two $2 mil impact. And then there's two more that are capital only. The $18 million um capital only the impact is 34 cents and then the $50 million capital only was 97. And so the only thing that makes this just a little complicated is like we want to just add things together and it's not quite that straightforward. So if if we need brand new numbers, I can get brand new numbers. But you can it's it's not as straightforward is saying, well, what is a $6 million operational plus a $50 million capital and I'll add those two together. It's a little bit more nuance to
042get like a final number, but it gives us an estimate to add those two together. But we can't double use that debt that I was talking about, if that makes sense. So, it's probably a little bit higher than adding two numbers together. The final number, >> you can't use like the 18 million on capital for 34 cents and add it to the 6 million >> because they are both using that previous debt run off is what she's saying. So, those two numbers will not add up. It'll be something similar, but it'll be a little bit more a little bit higher. >> Yes. Uh, so I don't know if you want me to go into any more detail on any of those or if you have any other questions about those. I think um what we
043had talked about last month was are we thinking operational only or are we thinking operational plus a capital and if so what kind of capital which I know we're going to talk about more in the next meeting. So >> I'm thinking operational only for April. I that's that's a good start to start this conversation with the voters >> because um we didn't communicate well >> during the last referendum and um there's a lot of us here and things are changing as you guys do cuts and uh people need to know all this information to be able to make a good decision. Um, and so doing an operational referendum in April is just straightforward. It it gives us time to help people digest the information that that's available for operations right now. Um, so I think
044that's a good first step. The feedback I got from people was that asking for two things last time was not the way to do it. And uh but the person friend of mine who told me this point blank said I haven't voted for a referendum in 10 15 years. I just refused to go vote after act 10 and I saw it and I'm not going to vote for that. He said I think I was wrong. but he he wanted to see one one thing, not two. So, what I'm saying is based on his thoughts that he's a he's a financial person. Um I think that others out there when they see the cuts and so forth, they're going to be looking at one, not two, and be more apt to vote. It's kind of the
045feedback I'm getting. And uh whether it should be in April or other time, I don't know. But they need to see the cuts already. They need to see what you've done, which is a great job and where where it's taking place, what the bottom line is, and I can sense that there's people going to be changing their vote. They've not voted for our Brendan if we communicate like you mentioned. That's my take on. >> Um I am concerned about the oper the capital side of things though. So I I I guess in one sense it makes sense to run a single operational referendum in April and then look at November. Um that's a big one midterm gubernatorial. Um lots going on. There'll be a referendum on the ballot for amending the constitution. It's going to
046be probably fairly contentious. So it's going to drive a lot of people to the polls. Um, I think that we have to address this these building issues. >> Yeah. Well, I I think that it it's good to have an idea of where you guys are right now, like what your gut's telling you. Um, but the the great thing about where we are in our timeline, and P will go over our timeline again with you, is that you have some ability to put together your best ideas. like I said, two or three of them and then survey out to the public. You can also ask the public a survey question about, you know, um you when uh they think the best time for like if they're going to do two if you're going to do operational
047and capital, would they like to see them on the same ballot or would they like to see them staggered by uh sometime April to April or April to fall? You what does that look like? I mean, so we could we could put some dates out and do some right questioning, but it's good to hear a little bit where you guys are starting, but I also think that we should do what two or three of our best guess work, right, as to what we think we is important and put it out there and see where the community falls on a survey. >> Oh, I'm not saying we shouldn't. I think that's a great idea. >> I think that's that's why I'm not sure where to put this yet because I want to want to get the
048feedback in survey. Yeah. >> Yeah. Surveys are excellent. >> I understand that the reference operational without saying and we have to do something and we have to do it soon. But that doesn't mean that we can't work on a further plan in the meantime. And of course there's I think I saw on so that's three five of us that are here. Seven of us of the nine. Um we need to make sure by >> Can I say can I mention something here by chance? Um, so I guess the way that I I guess I would try to encourage uh the board to consider one other thought on this. Um, six a $6 million reoccurring referendum ask is to maintain the status quo and as far as the existing programming and the existing building configuration as
049well. So, um I would also implore us to look at some other options because is it really fiscally responsible then to maintain the operation of excess seats of all the buildings that we have have currently in this particular configuration. as well as uh knowing that there may not be the funds to take on any other uh repairs within those particular buildings at the end of the $6 million referendum. We still have the same uh deteriorating building infrastructure that we have. is that is that fiscally responsible for us to consider when moving forward with the status quo. So there may be a very good um approach to asking the public via survey what they might want to consider as far as the direction of the district financially. that way. So, I'm assuming, Craig, that what you're
050talking about is whether or not we decide that given um as you put it, classroom vacancies or desk vacancies or whatever you want to call it, lack of students in any given building that we would consider closing down possibly asking the community if they would agree to closing down a school. So what I'm say saying is that if we were to ask for operational only what you'd also have baked into that is maintaining the programming and and the building the current building configuration as it is. and the it's a hard sell that way sometimes to constituents who may look at the excess capacity of our district and and available seats. You know, for instance, if we have one building that can serve 50 students, but we have another building that happens to have, you know,
05160 or 70 seats available, well, what sense does it make to maintain that other building? you know, so the public does see that as well. >> Yeah. I I would have to have more information about and that's one piece of the puzzle I don't feel like I have is what the bu I know I saw some numbers in one of the reports about building capacities versus um enrollment, but I I'm not sure how current it was. I think it was 2024. So, I'm not sure what it looked like current. >> So, Greg, what you're saying is we're going to have to close the school down. Well, I think what P has uh laid out is that we have um quite a bit of capacity in our buildings right now. Um the potentially um could consolidate
052several buildings, >> several? >> No, Craig, I don't think so. based on the information that was given to us in July. >> Say that again. >> We're like our high school, yes, is has 150 students to meet capacity standards, but for all the elementary schools together, we only need 65 more students to be at targeted capacity, not max capacity. >> I'm I'm speaking districtwide. We have we have excess capacity in our district and there there is the potential to be able to consolidate several buildings with the current >> configuration, you know, a picture of uh similar things to what he's saying. >> Let's have it painted. >> You you you'd have to >> let's paint it. >> You'd have to uh do something like uh with the excess capacity of the high school, move uh
053at least one grade, if not two grades up, right? That would give you two grades of space at the middle school, right? And then you consolidate uh two to three other elementarymentaries into the remaining space and the seats available at the elementary and the seats that would be open at the middle school, right? But you would you would not have a middle school model anymore. You would have a junior high high. You would have an intermediate level elementary and a primary level elementary. Different buildings of configuration. This is a model you're talking about adding on to the high school to accommodate at least two grades from the middle school, right? And then turn the middle school into the prime to the kind of the middle grades, right? >> And you you can do that. Uh
054we we have plans that we're working on that we can move seventh and eighth grade out without construction, without reconfiguring. Now, that will that will be not only will it be tight and we would have to change programming, right? Um, but we could we could make that happen. >> What's the cost behind that? >> Well, like I said, we would do it without major construction. So, we would be probably around $700,000. We could do that out of some of the money we have available in in some funds um to um you know put a put an elementary playground at the middle school. We don't have we have to do something like that. Uh we would have to re reconfigure a couple of spaces. Not major reconfiguration. I'm talking very light uh construction. >> We got
055plenty of room at the middle school to put a playground. >> Yeah, I know. Well, I'm saying that we are working on plans to be able to think about what that looks like because if we don't pass a rough run, though, we won't even have a choice. We'll have to do that. >> So, under that scenario, then there would be two elementary schools basically. >> Yeah. >> A former RMS building would be one and one of the existing and the other ones would go away. >> And how much money would you save doing that? >> Um Sarah, do you have that? I don't know that we're done all of this. >> We're not done, but But uh she shared with you that um if if scenario one is no referendum, right? And the amount of
056money we need, you said what was it Sarah again? >> Well, it would be about four and a half million in 2627. >> We'd have to have another $4.5 million worth of budgetary uh constraints that we would have to put in, right? uh we would have to change our footprint, close some buildings and uh change programming a little bit >> if if we don't pass an operational referendum. >> Right. Correct. >> Or if you have an operational referendum that's less, >> we would still have to do some of those budgetary constraint items. >> Right. Yeah. >> And I do think to Craig's point, like, yeah, when we talk about $6 million covering what the current deficits are, that is right now all the buildings are are baked into this projection. So, if we were to
057ask for less, I mean, that does still leave time for planning. Like, I don't think you have to make that decision all for April necessarily. I don't agree with that, but I mean, I think it is it is putting us on a path of needing to do more in the future by asking for less money. >> Exactly. And I think what Craig Craig, aren't you saying that we should ask the community about whether they are ready to take this kind of action? Well, I think it's I think it's something that we have to consider the entire picture in the long term because if if we're moving forward with plans for the district, then the community ought to be able to be part of that process to weigh in on what that looks like. Um, and
058if you're asking for a $6 million referendum, who's to say that that is appropriate ask when when we happen to have some major issues with some of the buildings that we currently have. And that doesn't even address that. That doesn't even touch that. much less those particular buildings, several of them, uh we don't we don't need to operate because we have the capacity to absorb those students within our district, you know, I mean, that's a that's a tough cell to some people. >> Yeah. And so, so what we're going to get into a little bit more detail tonight, right, is all we're going to pull all of these um things together for you, these these ideas, right? For instance, one of the decisions you'll have to make when you're when you're putting your scenarios together
059is if you want to stay in the same footprint, right, that comes with a certain amount of maintenance costs, right? That are future costs that will continue to build no matter what, right? But if we're if we're keeping that many buildings open, our operational ask has to be higher, too, right? So, so you'll be asking for a larger operational referendum. If you want to consolidate our footprint, you can ask for a little bit less of an operational referendum, right? And you can you can just leave it at that, right? We we we consolidate. We ask for a little bit less uh operational referendum, but we still don't fix things. Craig saying you may want to have a scenario that is something where we ask for less operationally as well but we ask for a little
060bit in the capital because we'll have some of those things. I think he's thinking ask for different uh balanced questions so that way when you survey the public you'll get a better idea for what the public wants, right? Do do they do they want you to work on some of those fixes? Do they want to uh restructure if they want to uh consolidate and restructure how we're doing them? To what extent do they want to do that and how much does that look like? But you'll have much more to think about when P comes and they go through some of the facilities uh you ask them to do some facility stuff, right? You'll get your answers on those. But I think between Sarah's fiscal projections and the projections or ideas that the P has come
061up with for you to think about, you will be in a place by the end of tonight to fashion three good questions together that are test questions for our public in a survey, right? And then once you get the information back from them, you'll be re able to refine it down to one hopefully or two that you survey back out again. like we had some some muddy waters on the last survey. We're going to pick these two now after some refinement and send it out again. Right. So, we'll have some time. We do have some time. But you're right. We have to do it pretty quickly. But that means tonight by the end of the night, you got to come up with three good scenarios that you guys can back, right? Because you don't want
062to put out something that as a group you don't think is important, right? Um, you want to put out something that you guys uh can can probably feel pretty good about putting out to the public, right? You don't want to put it out to them in a survey, find out they really really want it, and go, "Well, I didn't like that at all." Right? You don't want to do that, especially if they liked it. Right? So, those are some of the things you have to think about as we go through the the progression of tonight's >> It feels rushed. So, we have a regular board meeting on the 25th, right? On Monday. Um, I would be more comfortable getting all this information, digesting it over the next couple several days and then coming back and
063putting together something at the regular board meeting on Monday. >> I completely agree. >> And and we'll also see how you feel by the end of the night. Like I'm not pressuring you, but if if you feel like you need more time, by all means, data. That's important stuff, right? But but by the end of the night, you also might feel like, hey, we have at least enough direction. I think we can do this. If you do, then let's do it. If you don't, let's take a little bit more time, digest it, and come back. Right? So, don't feel like remember, we're here as a resource and we're giving you information and we're giving you supports, whatever else. You guys tell us what to do. I'm not telling you what to do, right? I'm not
064telling you you have to tonight and that's it, right? I'm telling you if you want to stay on our timeline you can take some time but not a lot of time right we or we just have to tell everybody we're not going to be ready for April because we want to take more time but if we do that you saw our projections you see them up there right now we're going to get into a tight spot and we're going to miss an opportunity to ask a question >> Sarah I got a question going with further down through this budget We got to the mill rate and it was 8.9 for all those years and all of a sudden it went down and went down went down. Who got the difference of that mill rate? >>
065So the that's where when I was talking earlier about what the total levy is, that's where that comes into play. So the total tax levy for the district hasn't changed a whole lot over those years. It's just that property values have increased quite a lot, like a lot. And >> and we haven't got our share. >> We did because we're still get well we haven't had any increase. >> We haven't had any increase but we haven't actually had a decrease >> except in that we have declining enrollment. >> So that's moneywise >> right? >> That's my problem. If they're ready all those years, they're ready to pay that amount of money percentage-wise out of the total valuation of the community. How come we're getting less? >> But because some people some people's tax or property
066values have increased so much, they are probably still paying about the same amount in taxes. It's just that it's divided out into >> I I completely understand that. I understand paying taxes. I understand the mill rates and everything else, but our percentage has gone down, >> right? I mean, what we're getting, >> what if we bring up that percentage to where we were, we'd be getting more money, right? >> Yes. For sure. And that's that's why when we were talking earlier about one of the aims of act 10, one of the aims of act 10 was to put more local control at the local property taxers level and to ask schools >> I understand that we understand that >> you know and and um >> and we haven't got what we were supposed to get.
067>> Well, we we also um as a school district, right? And I'm I'm going to share like this. I've been in this business for a long time. This school district has not done nearly as many asks as other school districts. They've been super very frugal and conservative and haven't wanted to go out to their local taxpayers. Other school districts, they go almost every year or every couple of years and have been doing that since Act 10. Right. So I want I want to say like that has been a good thing for our community that we haven't that we've been you know making sure that we've done good constraint right I know some people might not feel like that or think that >> but go to other communities and I will tell you they will tell
068you the different story that it was in their community over the last 15 20 years right where >> I understand >> where they've seen more I mean just go to the referendum page and see how many times water town has asked other school districts. >> I half agree with you in that we should be going back and to the community and saying this is our budget. This is what we need. Tell us you support us right and having that regular connection with the community so they know what we're doing and they have input. But you know the last referendum where they asked for the moon suddenly that was not realistic. Uh we need to change that and actually go back to the community and say, "Okay, we have this budget. We've been saving this much.
069This is what we have. Lay those numbers out for the community and let them decide." And that's what we're doing with this the surveying. And so, but I think that we need to start doing this regularly like you said. I agree with that part. I just feel like >> they they held off forever and then they asked for the moon and the community went. Well, I think one of the factors in that too was um our grade our our test scores if you will or our report card we put it that way from DPI. >> Those scores don't help us those percentages and you know that are out there. >> Um but also our history of not being responsive to parents and we're changing that. We we've done quite a bit so far, you know.
070Um, we have put these these meetings online so that we're transparent so people can actually see what we're doing. It's a start. We've changed a lot of of policies as you know as we went through the Neola policies to be more responsive to parents. We did it at our last policy meeting. So, so we're starting to make those changes, but this is the first time we've really had that focus on let's be responsive to parents and families so that they choose water town. Well, and I think what we're talking about is that when we start talking about these options in concrete ways, right, that we realize we have some perception and and realities that are in that are out there that some that may may pose some problems, some I shouldn't say problems, but special
071challenges. You know, it's it's it's gaining trust. >> Yeah. that that we don't have that exactly right now, but we're getting there. Okay. >> And so the way we do this is gonna be really important. I really like what you're doing, the survey concept and getting this together. We're having to educate the community on things that they really don't understand for the most part. And um a better understanding and a better idea of who we are and what we're trying to do, what we've already done will help them go a long way, I think, to understanding this is a needed thing. So, you're doing the right thing. >> The only thing is the community wants their cake and eat it, too. >> Well, they want the cake to taste good, >> right? >> I Everybody
072the community, these are all people who understand budgets. They understand choices and and and they do value their local school. It's just that they haven't had that connection and that transparency. as far as I can remember, as far back as I can remember, we haven't had it for whatever reason, but we have an opportunity to give that to them right now. >> I have no argument with that. I think you're not wrong, Lori, that are uh that communities in general and you know the citizenry in general may have a natural skepticism towards uh the financial ongoings of you know governmental um institutions. And a lot of times some people can draw some generalizations and jump to conclusions about the the uh the fi fiscal responsibility or the level or the lack thereof of an organization.
073Um, and I feel like at least in my observation over the last close observation last six years and taking a look at the past, I I I haven't seen that to be the case that I mean, I feel like our our school district has done a fairly good job of being fiscally responsible in this particular community because the community requires it. And um so I do echo Jared's sentiments on it, you know, and yes, he's been here for uh 3 years now, but um you know, he's still he's still somebody that that has seen what it looks like on the on the other side of that coin as well, may perhaps, you know, with other districts. And he's coming into this with some fairly new uh perspective on where we are as a district. So,
074uh, I think I think if anything I I I don't know that I would characterize the last referendum ask um unreasonable, but I would I would say that maybe there's just a there's a, you know, a disconnect somewhere and uh trying to get to the bottom of that is is what I'm really interested in personally because I feel like there's definitely a need to maintain our buildings. There's definitely a need to um take care of the other inflationary needs of our of our SK school district and there's also a need to plan ahead for the future. >> Sam, you raised your hand. >> Yeah, thanks Sarah. >> Um yeah, I I don't know. I I feel like in this discussion while I'm listening to this, it sounds like a uh it sounds less like a
075financial planning discussion and more of a planning planning discussion. Um, additionally, I think that it I I appreciate all of the input that's being given now, but I do still feel like this is putting the cart before the horse. The purpose of Act 10 and the purpose of the current model that we have is to put the population of the district in the driver's seat of these referendums. And I think that right now the discussion that you're having is how do we convince people to vote for something that we want? And I think that that is absolutely not the attitude that we should have approaching a referendum. I think that if we're approaching a referendum, the attitude we should have should be how do we craft that which the people of the district want? And
076I I really think that we are thinking about this kind of upside down and we should reconsider the way that we're approaching this because all of the money and time and effort that you pour into uh you know going out to referendum like this, if you're doing it for something that you want and not for something that the community wants, you're not going to succeed. And I know I've said this a number of times, but it seems like it keeps on coming back to this same mindset. And I really feel like I need to insist that you guys are going about this incorrectly. No, I think I think we're we're still at the uh very beginning of the discussion phases. Sam, I think they heard me when I said uh you know, you guys are
077going to have to craft some survey questions and then ask the public, you know, of these, you know, what what what uh what do you support? What what what brings true to you? But you all all have um you like you speak about speaking for your constituents all the time. I'm assuming you understand what your constituents want, right? Which will help you craft those questions. Not it's not necessarily what you want. It's you're speaking on behalf of your constituents. I would think uh I mean you have for other things. So I'm assuming that when you're thinking about these referendum questions, you're not thinking about what you want. You're thinking about what they want. >> Yeah, I would I would agree with that. I I appreciate what Sam said. I understand what what he's talking about,
078but I'm not here to do what what I want to do. I'm here to do what the community is thinking and uh what they need for their school. >> Well, but the community works in a bit of a deficit here. Um we are providing more information than they and so it's incumbent upon they elected us to represent them. we stand in a representative positions and so it's incumbent upon us to pull together the information in a way that is understandable and so we're talking about the reason we're talking about this Sam and everyone is because we want to make sure when we go to the community we ask the right questions and we give them the information they want. Um, I'm not sure exactly what Sam was thinking about doing, but we have to lay
079out certain amount of information for them to be able to digest what we're talking about and the gravity of the situation. Not trying to shape it into something that we want, but we're the ones that we have that we have the information. So, um, look, there's just there's so many things that play into this and emotion is very high when you start talking about closing schools. So it mean it runs incredibly high. So it's not wrong for us to talk about some of the things that we are going to be encountering and thinking about because that's our responsibility as an as elected officials in a body of of this nature. So um I'm looking forward to what happens after this to see how we may not happen today. I agree with you. We may have
080to wait till Monday or even beyond, but get those things ready and see what do we think that we can craft that looks like something the community would want to know and would want to consider. Right. >> Yeah. We we want them to be able to understand what the options are and most importantly what the cost and the savings are >> and we do that based on what our constituents are telling us and we formulate based on that. Right. >> And why you're putting the options out there that you are >> right. Sure. >> Right. The the the data that you thought about, the things you considered, the presentations that were made to you from the information you were asking for, all will help inform those things. But you you also need, like Sam said,
081you you need to be sharing that information with them, you know, and getting their feedback on that so that we can craft a final question. >> Right. Absolutely. Yeah. That's why I like what we're doing because we're trying to do that. >> We But we need numbers with each choice because the first thing they're going to ask is, "Well, how much does this choice save us? How much does this choice cost us?" >> And we will have some kind of approximations tonight, >> but you're right when you say, "Well, until I can really make a final determination at this, we might need to have a little bit more final look at the number, right?" And so then right Sarah will I will have Sarah go back and work with people she works with. She's you
082can see that on the sheets she's been working with bar and we will cost out yours. But you're going from seven discussion points that you guys put together, right? Uh you know to now we got to narrow that fun and we got to keep funneling it down, >> right? Um, unless there's some real reason for you to add to the conversation, something that um we we um you know, uh didn't think about, it better be a real good reason because all it's going to do is it's going to delay us and it's going to have us uh do more work and uh and I'm not afraid of work, but what I'm saying is it will take time to do that work to bring it back to you and we may miss a window of an
083ask, right? And so as long as we're still working towards that window that you kind of gave us, which was April, right? Um, and that's that's the timeline that we had uh at our last meeting with P. We said, "Hey, we we see an April ask is a is a is an ask, right? I'm not that's not a window that I'm just making up. That's a window you guys decided." Right? In order to keep you on that pathway, we really do need to keep funneling, right? and and get to um a good survey that we can put out, get some feedback on that, you know, from that and then narrow it some more from that survey response, right? And then decide uh, you know, by November, well, by mid-occtober because Sarah also needs a good
084three to five weeks to work with those to craft a resolution question, right? So by midocctoberish we need to uh really be you know going down the direction of more like one question. >> Yes. And if you change these numbers a little bit that won't take me a long time to get the actual numbers. And I do think like we have such a range in these six scenarios. It gives us a pretty good baseline of what those mill rates would look like. It might not be exactly you know correct yet but it won't take me very long to get. So, so the the reason that I was interested in doing an operational referendum first was you make sure that you're stabilizing your budget first and then you can go back around and ask, you know,
085ask these questions and you're not rushed. Anytime you rush, you have the you have the risk of making mistakes or misunderstandings. And so that was the goal of doing the operational referendum first was to give us some breathing room so that we can take our time to make good choices and really communicate back and forth with the community and really understand what they want. >> But to Sam's point, right, he may say, but that might not be what the community wants. the community might want a combined question >> or the the community might might want a focus on uh uh maintenance and then they'll say hey you know where were where the where was the maintenance part in that question they may not want maintenance they may want uh you know a consolidation plan uh
086and what does that look like and does that have uh stuff to do with one of the things you guys asked for from P which is what would it look like if we had an addition on the high school and brought middle school up. What would that look like? Right. Uh so I don't I don't know what it is, but I I believe that's similar to the point that Sam was trying to make, right? Which >> has >> Yeah, I think that you're getting closer to uh what I'm trying to communicate, Jared. Uh I do appreciate that. Um I agree I do agree quite a bit with Lori as well, of course. Uh I think that focusing on the operational referendum which is uh in in many ways a necessity uh in in many ways
087that a capital referendum is not. It is a necessity that's very important. However, I'm chiefly concerned with the fact that if we are going to go to referendum, we are going to have to vote in two months. Uh this upcoming board meeting, one more board meeting, and then the one after that would really be about the latest we'd be going there. I don't see that dialed in very much. And the reason I don't see that dialed in is because I haven't seen a single outreach uh that's really happened and manifested where we've invited people who voted no on the referendum and asked them why did you vote no and is there a world in which you would vote yes. That is the most important question if you're going to ask people to vote for a
088referendum is finding out what they would vote for. >> You know, I mean I can make I can make a I can make a product and market it all I want with the best marketing possible but if I'm making a product that no one wants it doesn't matter how hard I market it and I don't even think that you should think about them like products but that's the closest comparison >> that is right on and so u when I'm talking about right on I mean later today in our meeting with P right we are going to be discussing towards the end of the meeting uh community engagement opportunities and what you think we still need to engage community with like and how. So bring that up tonight. Uh when that when that part comes to
089the agenda when we talk about community engagement next steps, we want to hear that and we want to hear what do you think uh what what how do we gather the right group? How do we what questions do we want to ask? You know, bring all of that as part of our workg group session tonight. That's that's perfect for tonight's session. Uh when I made my comments earlier, um it sounded like some of the discussion was winding down. My my thought was my intention wasn't to derail the conversation at all, but rather to like cause some realization among the board that there there are some real pros and cons to every single plan so far being proposed and we really need to to try to come up with a with a solution that is communicated
090and understood. So uh but yet we still have um the responsibility to you know the taxpayers who had trusted us in this particular position to uh look after the best the the best well-being of the school district. um not only in all of the other capacities that we fill as a school board member, but also uh in the financial uh aspects for for our school district. And uh so, you know, if if they've entrusted us with with with the buildings and the the assets that that uh we manage as a school board, we have to make sure that we're um doing so responsibly. And if that that that means we have to plan for it their maintenance and upkeep as well as the future of the district. So are there uh any more questions about
091the um the costings that you you put together seven ideas um the the data are there for you to review of what those will cost. Are there any questions for Sarah about those before they move on to the rest of the agenda? Because again, tonight we'll be able to go into deep detail about what all those look like as well as the facilities questions that you asked P to bring you information on. >> Okay. Then our next item is the um contract for D&H Enterprises Transportation. I look at this each year and um we have as a practice renewed this contract with the same increase that um go rightway has. So go rightways contract stipulates how the increase is set for them and then we just match that for D&H. So, the only changes in
092this contract from last year are the dates were all updated and then 4% was added onto all of the pricing. And the 4% is because um Go rightway uses the CPI number. They use June's number which um I have it written down plus an escalator of 1.3%. So June's inflation number was 2.7 plus 1.3 is 4%. Otherwise, this contract hasn't changed. I don't know if we have questions about the contract. I mean there's not really much we can do to do about this >> if you if the contract has worked for the district for you know and we know there are going to be changes in the inflation and changes in price structure and fuel and all this >> D&H has been a great partner to the district. They do a really great job. >>
093Yeah. A huge shout out to Mark and his son Ben um for meeting the needs of of some of our most fragile students and um getting them to school on time. And they are so easy to work with. Um if there's ever something that goes on, he calls me right away. It's it's really a a tremendous service and they're they've been really positive to work with. >> Has everybody read the contract? >> So, we read the contract. We got no problems with the contract. >> That's fine. >> Contract. >> Everybody in favor of contract? >> Very good. Let's get it over with. >> All right. >> Takes care of. >> Then we're on to the monthly reports. These are the same as every year. The um this year because it's so early on in the
094year instead of trying to do um August, which wouldn't show a whole lot yet. Um July is in here and it's the audited numbers. So they haven't they did not change much. We had very little um very little that changed after the audit. I don't if anyone has any questions about any of these reports. I will say so we are playing around Stacy RLES the district accountant and I are trying we're we're trying some new reporting that we're going to pilot here in the next month or two. We'll bring it to you along with the um variance reports like they always are and we can kind of see what you think. It uses a little bit more visuals instead of just just the columns of numbers in the interest of transparency. And then if that's
095something that the committee likes, it's something that we can also put on the website so that the public can access it. >> So that >> will be this is August probably in October we'll see those Um if there's no questions about any of those reports, we're on to our future agenda planning. And so for next month, we're all we are to September. And so the preliminary budget will be on the agenda. Um we'll have the preliminary budget in more detail for 2526 >> um before our budget hearing in October. And then we'll have referendum planning again on the agenda. And that's all I know of so far for September. Um so action items for tonight. We have a resolution for the district copy paper with O'Brien. We have a resolution to approve the um contract
096for physical therapy and a resolution to approve the um agreement with NAMI as well as a resolution to approve the contract with DNH. That was all. Those are all the action items for now. >> Okay. Can I move that we approve all of those? >> Do them separately. >> I think they they'll all be on the board agenda separately. >> All right. >> Ah, that was the end of our business for the evening. >> I got one question with Mr. Suko. That $32,000 contract, you're okay with that? name has been a good partner for us. >> Very good. >> And they understand our systems pretty darn well. >> I think that's pretty cheap, too. >> Don't tell them they don't tell them that. >> We aren't telling them that unless it's an open meeting. >>
097Oh, sorry about that. >> I didn't know with being a good value. No, they they they provide service to us at good value and it's you know I mean I also want to point out it's not the only company we we use local vendors we use other partners for service work this is just for our contract and preventative maintenance. >> I understood it. I read it. Very impressed. Very good job. >> All right. If there's no other questions I guess we can adjourn at 6:22. Thank you. >> How come I wasn't informed that this meeting started at 5? >> That's the email. I >> I I read these emails this morning. >> I I don't know what it changed. I just looked >> When did it change and found out?