001so I will open it up thank you uh and we'll start with student enrollment projections first thing we wanted to yes we look at these every year at this time and um this year I added a document into Bard dos and there are two different projections so the first one isan p join the meeting sorry had to get used to that um the first box on this sheet or page one has the cohort survival method and that's the method that this District's used for a really long time a lot of school districts too and so what that one does is it looks at the last five years of enr moment data and averages it out and then carries it forward using a survival method and this is the head count of students so it's the
002actual students that we have in seats and so just kind of like we've talked about for several years now we are looking at declining enrollment this shows declining enrollment each year um I think the interesting thing to to look at here is that yeah the graduating classes are getting smaller generally there's a little bit of up and down there generally they're going down and generally our younger classes like kindergarten are getting a little bit smaller over time with a few variations up and down again so we usually see a bump in 9th grade so from 8th to nth grade and this method keeps that which I think is good even though it's declining you still see that there are bumps in the ninth grade in the projections moving forward so anyway this is just a
003tool I mean we're dealing with people and people can do what they want they can move in they can move out but it's kind of our best guess and this first one is what we're using in the forecast model I included the other one just to show kind of how they turn out differently so this is another option that a lot of districts use and it's just called the cast forward method and it literally just takes one grade and moves it to the next grade all the way through and that shows us declining at a much faster rate I personally think the other one is probably a little closer to Accurate just because it does um account for our increase in the ninth grade and um just looks I think it adds a few students
004back in which we typically see like some kids move out some kids move in and then I included here at the bottom just a note that these both are dealing with the headcount and the headcounts what we're reporting to DPI twice a year but it is not the number that is used to uh determine the revenue limit that is a me it's called membership and the the formula for that is also on the sheet um are there any questions on this this was just for you know FYI type stuff but you any question um uh Sarah your screen is not actually sharing the content that you're talking about and also the video that you're sharing is completely blurred out um if you're able to that I think that's just like an accidental screen blur thing
005um the actual video of the boardroom um but yeah then the video You're sharing is not the uh growth projection and student enrollment projection content it's a looks like uh the dashboard for the boardroom Center sharing thing yeah that's what Tyler helped me set up here I don't know that I can share here be F you zoom up yeah I do I have zoom up but it doesn't oop it's like a sharely and a share we'll give it just a minute here see if we can get the technical difficulties iron not oops Yeah I don't know why it won't let me share through Zoom I got a hammer in the truck if you think it will help oh maybe now it will yeah it's now it's sharing the uh the agenda screen that you have
006there that works are you guys okay if it's not on baby yeah no I got it on my because that's where we go wrong then it kicks me out again um okay so Sam I'll pull that up just so you can see it here for a minute I also included in here that rawers report that we got um a while back as a part of that demographic study just to kind of look at and see too that does not go year by year it gives it in chunks um but it also showing that projection um of declining enrollment at least until 2035 but so this first one is the cohort survival method and this is the headcount of students and then on the second page is the cast forward method um hey Sarah this is
007David and uh after the last meeting I think on Monday I Craig I still can't find the raise my hand icon on my screen but I Googled it and if you hit alt y it will raise your hand so uh I just raised my hand because I knew how I could so I'm gonna now alt Y and take my hand down but um that being said um Sarah these projections are I'll say entirely academic right I mean I know that we had some um demographic information that might have been factored into it but the cohort survival as well as this is mostly I'll call it macro data and and here's my next question along with it um last Wednesday I was at a a presentation where the mayor uh I believe the number was 600
008new housing units you know what do you want to call doors not NE uh pillows but doors um that were in the works being considered uh uh underdevelopment in the city over the next two to three years and uh I'm not counting eggs before it they hatch but is anything of that nature factored into this as far as how 600 new units if they all come to fruition might possibly impact our projections yeah that's a really good question it is not in this table it is in the Rafer report so Rafer had a formula of like single family homes multi family homes um apartment complexes there's the mathematical equation of how many students that's likely to give the district and so they have that all in that report and it wasn't as big of a
009number as maybe I would think that it would be and it also they don't think it's going to start giving us an increase even if all the housing comes to fruition the way that it's being planned right now they don't think it's going to result in an increase in net enrollment until about 2035 so they're they are projecting we keep declining until then and then we should start to see a slow increase at the elementary level specifically um hopefully into the 2040s but even at that if you look at the Rafer report which I don't know if I can pull that up here but um there was a nice table on there and even at that it shows in 2040 there's some student growth we're still significantly fewer students than we were in like 20189
010so it's just going to take a really long time even if we were to get a lot of new housing to come back to any sort of numbers that we were um even 10 years ago I guess is what I'm getting at okay so that the the general answer is then it it it is partially factored in and when it factors in it doesn't factor in and uh any appreciable impact within the next three to five years not not statistically but again it's so hard to say because we're dealing with people and people are so unpredictable I mean maybe there's 600 houses and all those people have three more three new kids I mean it's just it's hard to say but okay no thanks I just didn't know if it was just uh taking General
011macro data from the state um or or if it was factoring in actual boots on the ground uh uh building permits so I'd say somewhere in between I would agree yes Sam do you have any questions uh no I would say that you know having looked over the material that's being presented here which I always greatly appreciate uh you know trying to provide us with with as much data as possible it does seem like there's a pretty um significant blind spot I guess I would call it um this focuses a lot on declining birth rates uh as reason for enrollment but I think that you know one of the things that we've seen happening consistently since really around 2020 and really 2022 is uh decline in people's trust for institutions and you know I mean
012a Gallup poll just came out I think uh I think it was yesterday or just in the last few days um talking about how there is a continued Decline and there is not an improvement in the way that people feel about the public school system it's still sitting like around 26% of the population feels that way so I mean you know I hear a lot of this all the time from people in town and you know there's a real issue with people saying I'm just not comfortable with sending my kids to public school and I think that's really something that we're going to need to address if we want enrollment to look good in the future I think that you can build all the houses you want but ultimately people are trying to look for
013other places to send their kids and unless we build trust in the in the public school system I don't think that's going to happen um I think that that's a fair point and I do think if you look at rers they did look at um Private School enrollment and home school and you will see private schools in general like as an aggregate in our district are also seeing declining enrollment but homeschooling has gone up like percentage wise significantly numbers Wise It's still small compared to the total but I do think that that's a fair point and I think the state overall and actually the whole country has seen an increase in homeschooling um and that's just the numbers that we know not even including students that start as homeschooled students those are only students that
014we know of because they were enrolled and then they move out to home school yeah um oh yeah absolutely I noticed that as well um I did see that they didn't really take into account the closure of PL private schools and if you take into into account the closure of private schools uh in our area I think the number of private school School enrollment declining or whatever I'm sorry I'm getting lost in that sentence the number of the number of people that the private school enrollments is declining by is actually a lot Slimmer than that because a a huge portion of the number that they have in that report is reliant on those closures so former enrollment positions that no longer exist because the schools themselves don't exist um but yeah that's that's just kind
015of a comment I had on there thanks Sam Greg you yeah yeah I was just going to make the same kind of point that I mean uh with the exception of one at least one particular school that Clos all of the others well I mean some some schools had some minor decreases in enrollment others actually experienced some significant growth um so uh there's that trend on some of those schools is probably likely to continue um but it's an interesting point all right thank you uh we're going to move into the five-year Financial projection we looked at this a couple months ago and um to date not a whole lot of things have changed um as far as uh what we know for sure for next year's budget we do know that the CPI amount is
016um set at 2.95% which is just a little less than what was originally in the projection I had 3% and um we have I have included now in the updated forecast the reduction of $1.5 million over three years so um if we look at the Assumption sheet okay that is the sheet that we also looked at a couple months ago and I've made some updates in here so the first section all stayed the same I did not change anything with the state um the enrollment is the cast forward method that we just looked at no other changes there our big unknowns for next year are going to mainly be on the revenue side of things so the state is going to have a new biannual budget just last night Governor iers presented that so I
017do know some of the things that he's proposing um the big things in there actually there were a lot of big proposals in there and so if any one of the things that he is um putting forth in his budget past it would be impactful on the district so there were several large things um one was of course increasing the special education reimbursement rate which we've talked about before for at meetings is that they say 33% right now they are requesting moving it to 60% and making it a some sufficient amount and so that's why I say they stay 33% what we really see happening is in the 20s because it's a pot of money right now that's getting distributed and so from my experience we've never had the full percentage that they say it
018always really runs more like 27 28% not 33 so if they really did change it to 60 and then that was a guaranteed amount that would be a huge impact for the district there's also a revenue limit per pupil increase in there and I did quick math on that that if that worked out that would be about a million dollars for the district there's an increase to the per pupil categorical Aid which hasn't changed for several years that's a smaller number probably more like $190,000 and then there's also a proposal to increase the low Revenue again and that's where we have seen some some like pretty decent increases because this district is always at the low Revenue saing so if that got bumped to $122,000 after it was bumped to 11 that would be a
019big impact and that that would probably be about $2 million for us so it's still obviously early days we have no idea what part's going to get approved and what's not but any one of those things would make a difference for us in the upcoming years Sarah yes uh when it comes to that particular situation where they bump it bump the uh to change the low Revenue ceiling uh is that an automatic thing or does that is that a does the board have to approve a to Levy up to that it it would be it's an automatic thing so what they're saying is that's the lowest amount that a school district can get per student okay um it was $99,000 for several years it got bumped to 10,000 when that happened Watertown got bumped to
02010,000 and two years ago it got bumped to 11,000 and when that happened we got bumped to 11,000 is that that's a state aid thing or is that a um is that a local ly that's literally when we talk about the revenue limit and what the state says we can have for Revenue that's what that is okay um so it's the levy and the aid so they say okay the maximum or the minimum amount you can have per student is $111,000 then that goes into the revenue limit formula and all those other factors come into play to see how much of that is stateid and how much of that is property tax okay okay so if if they they increase that amount that just takes it just takes effect regardless of any any involvement that
021we have right that's a good question any other questions that was a good question thanks for that um sure um Mike Sarah um I I scann through these assumptions nothing in there about Act 10 repeal yeah we haven't I haven't really factored in Act 10 yet I listened to an update again today there is a stay on that right now and it just seems really unknown still what exactly is going to happen with that and who it really is going to impact so I haven't I haven't really put that in here but that is a good point I mean that could change things in upcoming years for sure particularly with benefits like that yeah I was just uh speaking to lack of a better word a political I don't want to call it an operative
022but somebody who pays attention and his comment was is if uh Shimmel wins the Supreme Court seat then it stays re it stays Act 10 if Crawford wins then it likely gets repealed the question is is how much does col of bargaining affect us in your assumptions should act 10 get repealed and I don't know if that just affects the the CPI and the the raises or if it affects the insurance and we have to go back to whoever that was weak or whatever it was um and and of course what the timeline is and it's entirely based on well I shouldn't say based on the person I was talking to said well you know what can and can't happen based on who gets elected it doesn't matter doesn't mean that it will and of
023course we don't know how it will impact us even if it does change but um I I didn't know how you were reading the tea leaves um I I try to just stay calm on this one there are some people that are not but you know stay calm I like that um it really it really could potentially be impactful for sure but in my view what it does is it changes what levers the district has over the budget if that makes sense so yeah we might we might have to bargain more things we may have to pay more we may have to pay more benefits and then that probably will have to come from someplace else if that makes sense so that's the way that I look at it I'm not I'm not really um
024concerned about it I guess I would say at this point I'm well they always say worry is the most useless emotion in which case no I can appreciate you're not worried because it is what it is and we'll deal with it when it comes I just didn't know if there was any uh what do you want to call factoring uh or or hedging of bets um in included in your budgeting so far I've just been including up to the CPI and then trying to project forward on that um and then we know our health insurance increases are going to be bigger no matter what so I've been putting those projections in um as far as like wrs I haven't done anything to change that I'm just keeping that rate like what we're expecting it to
025be I haven't like doubled that or anything like that but I mean that yeah that would be hugely impactful if that were to happen okay yeah I I just got my health renewal at 6.9% and I was actually celebrating yeah that's good but to to expone on that I I I think my my logical question would be that regardless of whether or not act 10 uh is repealed or stays in place that doesn't necessarily change the fact that the district only has a set amount of Revenue and that's not going to change um in that equation according to the state correct that's correct yes okay so those are those are the things that so potentially as a district um one could bargain for more um benefits or whatever the case may be that that number
026could could change our expense column could go up but the revenue column is still the same so that usually means that in order to trade off for those [Music] expenses something else has to give so I don't know we'll have to see it's a really really interesting year I mean it's always a guessing game to a certain exent like what the revenue is going to be but now the like the federal revenue is also um a question which I've never experienced before so it's hard to say what will happen with that like title one we get $600,000 title two we get H 100,000 and we've heard even before the election that those two could potentially go away so that would be a big deal for us um idea we get over $1.2 million for um
027title four is 50,000 I don't believe Food Service is going to be impacted this is what I've heard anyway no matter what happens but that's like a significant amount of money for the district too so those federal funds being a question for the upcoming years that's a new unknown for me and then I'm hoping that if that were to happen we are going to get some offset from the state so hopefully when of these things at the state level does happen but it really is it there's a lot of Uncharted Territory right now and a lot of things that we just don't know and it's probably all going to go through the court system for a long time so we might not really know for a long time yeah I think that's a clear assumption
028in itself um any other questions specific to uh the Assumption Financial projections yeah the assumptions are are the projection itself the the fiveyear projections um I I I guess I guess my question would be why don't we is there a particular reason why we don't try to project with the um with the fund balance amounts that it as a as a fixed fixed variable then that it's not supposed to dip below 15% um because that that would be board policy that would strive to maintain a fund balance of 15% well that yeah that's a good a good question so this forecast shows no referendum passing no increased funding from the state federal revenues stay the same Act 10 is not really a factor um we have declining enrollment and we're reducing by 1.5 million this
029is what we would be looking at roughly and also keep in mind these are not this is a forecast so it's it's a tool it's helpful it comes in close typically as a district we've been coming in um not quite to the deficits that we project out which is good so that's a good thing but um this is without doing anything else so if you if we wanted to keep our fund balance at 15% yeah we would need to pass a referendum number one if a referendum does not pass there would be other things things that would need to happen I I disagree with some of what you're saying in the sense that um when we project out um we if we're trying to maintain a fund balance of 15% um that would imply that
030there would need to be some steeper cuts that need to happen in order for us to maintain that 15% fund balance so in in essence um to me maintain staff levels at a I mean that we potentially can't afford and then end up having to borrow additional dollars um to to cover our uh short-term obligations at at an expense doesn't make sense to me so why why would we project out uh with with all without that assumption baked in are you projecting are you making the assumption that we're fail the the referendum I mean and that's well I think this is what what that assumes too this is trying to just simply show why we need the referendum more or less this is the point this yeah yeah so yeah well even so even without
031the referendum uh we would strive not to violate board policy so if we're doing that why would we project out something that's not realistic I I guess I don't totally understand the question so you would only want to see a projection that shows cuts to get to be at 15% that wouldn't be a projection of what's Happening that would be a projection of what we were going to do I suppose right right so if the administration's intention is to come to the board and ask for a $1.5 million in reductions this is what they're assuming this is what the administration would be assuming uh I would say that perhaps maybe the administration should make the assumption that we're going to maintain a fund balance of 15% and perhaps maybe uh maybe there's a deeper uh
032reduction that needs to occur over the next if we don't pass a referendum that's exactly what will happen but right now that's what we're trying to do yeah right yeah we've discussed that in the past that if if referendum doesn't Pass based on these projections deeper CLS part definitely happening well well that's what I'm saying you know um this is but you're saying this projection only takes into account the $1.5 million without a referendum passing that's right because that's all we know right now right right and that's really because people have been asking well why are you asking for $7 million it's been a pretty common question and so that's really the point of this is to show well we're we are requesting $7 million because we genuinely need $7 million and that would be
033true even while we're making reductions like as you can see we will need to make more reductions unless things change on the revenue side okay well then my next logical question is how how are you accounting for in your assumptions the additional cost of uh of uh money when it comes to um short-term borrowing I'm not because I don't know that this is going to happen yet we we have to see what happens in April necessarily because the policy does say that if we fall below that 50% it's on the board to make those those changes well I be that's on us we're talking about it now no I understand that but we're not there yet is what I'm saying is that and if we get to that point I mean again to the policy
034it says that the you know if we do fall below that and the policy does say as well District shall strive to maintain this balance right which I think Sarah is doing she's pointing this is what we need to do this is where we are and if you ask Jared he'll say yes I have these other cuts and this is where we are that's striving to maintain it and if we fall below that then that kicks into the um the board shall develop a plan to restore the unassigned fund mounts the board shall do the plan so that comes back to on us if it falls below that I understand Sarah's projections M exp Point these are just projections right and we should go with you know this is the realistic if we don't pass
035this without this this is the numbers we have correct you know and then we have to look that we get to that point we're not fair enough it's certainly not a recommendation of what should happen nobody nobody thinks no I get that but I I guess I would like to I'd be very curious to see what those projections would look like with with maintaining a 15% fund balance what what does the board have to be prepared for when comes to additional uh cuts that have to be made in order to maintain that so are you looking for a number of cuts are you looking for the actual Cuts because if it's a number that we have to hit if it's like we have to have this much dollars in in in reductions that's a Sarah
036question right you know but if it's not if it's where do we make these Cuts that's a Jared question Sarah's not going to make the a decision right right right I understand that if we're if you're saying to hit that 15% and maintain a 15% without the referendum we have to make another additional $7 million $12 million in cods right you know but I think this kind of shows us you know we've got a deficit this is what we'd have to make Cuts in right to to get this above that line I mean this does kind of tell you exactly what you would need to do yeah because I'm looking at this and you know and if we've got 7 million then we get 8 million deficit 10 million def said that's the number we
037got to get back up to on that and I think that's already right there yeah but as far as where we go and how do we get that that's a large discussion we would need Jared for that right right well I mean it it's on the other side of things so too is like making sure that we maintain that particular um fund balance to to reflect what what those expenditures have to be in order for us to maintain that I guess I don't right no I I I agree with what you're saying there but I mean I think we really you know we look at this we got probably a year to have those discussions and I think getting past April elections lets us have a a smarter uh or at least more fact-based instead
038of a guessing what may happen mean we're in the we're in the current year of 2024 2025 we've already approved the next year's budget correct we 24 25 okay this year this year's budget not 25 26 okay so we haven't even I mean we haven't even started down the road yeah that's that's months out before we start looking at at that I mean we have looked at we are there a staffing plan was presented at thehr committee Monday night so that piece is in motion and um that is kind of part one of the budgeting really Jar's already looking at half a million dollars in Cuts or whatever we talked about right for next year's budget already and I'm sure that should the referendum not pass you know he's got more in mind you know
039where we're going to have to we're GNA have to yeah yeah and we did save 500,000 for 25 26 and we have already identified 742 th000 so we did we have gone over that we're the cuts are are starting right and and I think after we get through April I think that's when we can at Le start having deeper discussions and full board or Jared involved and saying hey this is's plan put put on our next level I mean I would prefer to have more of that discussion ahead of time than later sure because I'm not saying by the first week of May we shouldn't be having those discussion I was say if that doesn't pass in April we will be having that discussion before the end of the month yeah so but but first
040we got see what April bring I I also the Part of Me Part of Me doesn't like to see reactionary planning uh so I'd like to know I think I don't think we're there is if you asked Jared he would tell you we're not reactionary he's already playing we you know I mean you got $740,000 in Cuts we're making I mean we're making those steps in that plan and if you ask Jared he will tell you these are the other things that we would need to do um and making those cuts and again it's I I don't want to count I want to go into this next month and a half with the with the feeling of we're going to pass this and these are the cuts we need to make and I you know
041hey I'm I'm uh looking at the the downside of anything type of person but uh at this juncture going in and pulling everything out before that is going to be a waste of time and money because if it passes then all of the work that we've done here that we're doing on that is for not yeah and you're you're you're right Craig we need to have that information we need to have that information ahead of time but I think we've got about halfway there we've got where if you know we've started to with this you know and then we will look at the rest after the referendum passes or otherwise because if we start looking at it aead too far early then we're wasting our time on that just as much as we would if
042we're planning out hey this is automatically go to paths and this is where everything is we're kind of in the middle on this right with projections because Sarah is just looking at the numbers that we actually have it's in the Forefront of all of our minds I mean we talk about it all the time but also we have statuto requirements as far as employment I mean employment decisions have to be made by April for for certified staff so there is no way to change that for 2526 That's the Law well I I know I I understand what you're saying I think that um I think that there that the public deserves to have some sort of an understanding of the significance of that aside from what we mentioned 60 to 80 um positions being cut
043potentially um but know 60 to 80 if you math out comes to that that 8 million hour that we talking you know what I mean right right um so and I think Jared's been having those discussions at his at his briefings and I know others have been talking about it I know I've got phone calls on it saying hey I heard this and yeah that's accurate right well and realistically we're we're a school right Sarah 70 80% of our budget is salary right it's yeah so if you're going to make Cuts it's taking it out of that other 20% not going to make it right right so I mean at the end of the day right there if anybody wants to know if we have to make reductions we have to hit that 15% 80%
044right there that's and that and that's that's letting go about a quarter of the STA well you know I mean or whatever else we can make because the things that about that is you can't just cut there are efficiencies that can be gained you can gain money from other places so that you don't have to have all of those reductions in staff right think about how much money that we've saved over Insurance in the last five years sure you know that saved us positions now is it our position as I don't know committee or whatnot to then recommend to the board um you know that that we just go forward as is with with these projections or do we have more of a comprehensive thought that come April we're we're kind of easing into April
045so that there's potentially a softer blow if if the worst happens or I don't think I don't think we're cushioning the blow on this at all no not even is it is it wise for us to do that to not cushion the blow yeah I think there has to be realistic on it I mean I will tell you this right the last referendum I wanted to us to not cushion the blow and say hey look this is a real realistic what we are I was told that was Scare Tactics we're not there are no Scare Tactics here if it doesn't pass these things will happen right we're not scaring you it's going to happen you know and so it it's it's being honest with people in my opinion you look if you want me to
046tell you that everything's going to be fine and like this I'll tell you that but it's not the truth the truth is if you look at the numbers you look at the last 10 years you look at what the state aid is for the schools you look at our CPI increases there's a huge gap it's it's not going to decrease the state's not going to come back with that we have this deficit it is not one of our making and I can tell you right now this is where we are this is how much money we will be behind we took your referendum from the last one that was supposed to go five years we stretched that out past that we took the money that we got from Co we stretched that out farther than
047we should have we are farther along than we should have been right with what we've had you know people you want to throw around being good stewards your money we're hella good stewards of money we've done everything we were supposed to and more with that but it come to the end of the day that hey look the piggy bank is empty so this is where we are and that too I appreciate the discussion because I just I just want to make sure that you know we're on the same page when it comes to I mean realistically and I think our community all feels Sim similar if my house is on fire I don't want them to say they're having a campfire out back I want to know how much damage there is and and how
048much water is coming you know what I mean uh so I mean it's yeah you know I I don't think cushioning it my opinion it's an opinion um any other questions discussions revolving around our projections uh Greg good good comments well I mean basically we have to make sure we try to memorialize those discussion points because if should the worst happen where a referendum does not pass people are going to come back and look at this and say well why didn't you do this then you know if you thought that this was a possibility and quite frankly you know if that's the way we're going to approach it then it's just the way it is yeah yeah all right um all right now we are going to talk about our debt prepayment summary yes um
049during the tax levy in November so at the budget hearing in October um it was approved to Levy some extra funds for fund 39 so that we could prepay some debt and this document attached lays out how that prepayment would be applied to our current de debt structure um and then it also shows the what's listed here is the hypothetical gross Savings of 126,00 so that that's Savings in interest that the district would be paying on this debt um so this is already the amount that has been levied and this is just showing the proposed prepayment using those funds if this is something that you approve it would be a resolution at the board meeting and it's really a formal resolution so corals drafted this one as well just like they did for a referendum
050and um we did this last year too if you remember but the other thing I want to point out is how the debt is getting very very low like we are um coming to the end of our fun 39 debt payments alog together and then the very last page shows fund 38 debt that is debt that doesn't did not need a referendum to be passed and um that was it looks like that was in 2014 that's very very limited now so this kind of debt almost doesn't exist anyway anymore but that also is getting um fairly close I guess this one still has the ways to go we'll have that paid off by 2031 I think it says there the numbers are very tiny but um our fund 39 or referendum debt is getting very
051close to being paid off and this prepayment puts us that much closer to that so we're making a prepayment oh I mean the recommendation would be to make a prepayment for some of the existing debt for um the uh School Improvement B bonds [Music] and the refunding bonds right um where is that money coming from order make so this was part of the tax levy that was approved okay and fund 39 um is referendum approved debt right and so that tax that part of the tax levy is not a part of the revenue limit it's outside of the revenue limit right right um because of that the district's able to Levy a little bit more in that fund and then you can do the prepayment of debt so the district's done this for years and
052years okay yeah it was actually brought to us I was it two years ago or three maybe even where Barett was saying that this is a good idea um yeah and we started doing that for sure then before that was before me but we're prepaying debt but then we're turning around and going to referendum to ask for more money debt fun 39 funds can only be used to pay for debt you cannot use it for anything else okay so we had so fun 39 has a pot of money that is specific for paying debt like this obligations like this these obligations regardless of whether or not they're um fun I mean it's not fun this is specific for this particular purpose and we're working with be to be able to uh strategically decide when to
053pay that debt off so so that it reduces the interest um expense to the district right like paying off your mortgage early yeah right yep yeah only difference would be like why I pay let's say have a $1,500 a month mortgage right and there's many different other instruments made up in that particular amount you know I yeah it's good to know any other discussion around that I mean yeah Mike yeah sorry I'm I'm involved in a conversation like this on a regular basis whether it be the YMCA's debt at $4.5 million at 4.3 or 4.75% or my business note which I was lucky to get at 3% if I'm reading this right 2% and and a comment that I have with other fiscal committee members on other fiscal committees is there's a difference between good
054debt and bad debt in which case it's not so much how you can avoid by paying it off early it's what good are you doing for the organization by you know just continuing to pay it on a regular basis so um my only comment uh to the fiscal committee here is just don't Focus focus on the savings focus on the good that we're able to do by keeping it in our regular fund balance and fund operations and we have to make a decision whether that good is worth the potential Savings of paying it off early I'm not here to argue one way or the other I'm just uh letting you know that this is a common question that organizations have and some people who are fiscal Hawks always want to pay off debt just because
055they don't like the word and if it's credit card debt at 28% damn right however if it's only 2% we might be doing better with using it to pay salaries and other operational needs because that's some pretty damn cheap money and um that that's my my two cents on debt I I hear you and I completely agree the only thing is that with the school district it is different than a business so if we Levy in F39 we can't use it for anything else it has to be kept separate it's subject to Arbitrage and like we we liter it's not part of the cash flow we can't just use it to pay payroll so you can keep it in the fund for a short time but you can't like we couldn't carry it in fund
05639 for for multiple years and you can't use it anything else so thanks for the clarification but if we paid it off early where's the money come from does it come out of our general fund where where does the money come from to pay it off early it comes from the fund 39 Levy so if you look back if we if I was to pull up the um Revenue limit worksheet you would see in the line for the um fund 39 Levy it was a little bit over $4 million yeah right here it's $4.7 million 1.6 was our regularly scheduled debt payment about 68,000 was interest uh plus another 20,000 in interest and then that left us with about $3 million out of that Levy so that's just from this year's money and that's the
057money that we're talking about right now using to prepay this debt so it was part of the tax levy but it was specifically identified as fun 39 does this have any bearing on the mill rate yes okay so we would expect another drop in the mill rate correct um after this gets approved not after this gets approved but once this debts paid off the mill rate will drop okay so um do we have a calculation what what that would be not tonight no no okay prior to 2031 well if we prepaid I mean I would have to think that brings us just rough estimates two years closer is I would say so yeah well I mean if we continue on oh I can't read the tiny numbers on this page but the debt payments themselves
058go down significantly with this prepayment so instead of being $1.4 million they're going to be more like $1 140 or $200,000 going forward which is significant and then this if we paid just what the minimum was each year going forward we will still have this all paid off by 2030 I think it is so in the next few years we could see see that low rate drop I mean it's not significant but it's a drop right and it will either way so basically because you've been paying extra on the debt that is what is making making our current referendum only an additional 70 cents on the mill rate without that debt creating that space in the mill rate it would be $2 this this $7 million referendum would be $2 on the mill rate okay
059it's the debt payments getting lower that's going to give us that space that the jump is only going to be 70 cents rather than $2 does that make sense because we've been able to to do this for for like multiple years yeah but um but these are all fixed these are all fixed rates then to with the um with the bonds and that we have the interest rates yeah okay so like fluctuations in the Fed rate or anything like that the prime Mark the prime rate have nothing to do with this because this is locked in locked in all right good question any other discussion uh I'll be looking for a motion to to bring this to full board motion got a motion second and a second I I'm just going to say does does
060anybody oppose that I've going through everything no I think it's a good decision all right looks like that will be going forward on Monday for an action it all right uh referendum update this is really just a a light discussion I don't think much was changed in the last couple weeks that you are very right um I guess the main thing I was just going to talk about is the um Communications that we've been doing around the referendum um so we have the referendum subcommittee that meets we have an internal referendum group that meets every week um mailer one went out we had some how is this not receive it I know that Melissa ly was looking into that trying to make sure that that did not happen with mailer number two which is getting
061cute up and getting close to being ready to go out I don't remember the mail date on that but that's coming up here pretty fast um we have been going all around all around the district um doing informal and formal presentation so different members of central office and principals Jared we've been all over the place um handing out flyers putting them in business Windows um doing the formal presentations we have lots more of those coming up I think everybody has that document so you can sign up if you wish to be at any of those um the bur briefings are still happening we have Community sessions at each one of the school buildings scheduled so every school building we'll have the formal presentation and it's going to be open to parents students community members whoever
062wants to be there we had our focus groups already which was great we got some really good feedback um which we used those were very good and then um there's been a lot of social media I don't know what you would call it like roll out push out um including something that we've been calling a did you know and so um about three times a week Melissa is posting like two or three facts and they're not all referendum related so there are referendum things in there but there's also just information about the district who we are what we do so those are out and then yeah I already mentioned that so I know specifically Melissa she's been amazing with all of this but she's trying to make sure that those um Flyers are in Windows
063all over town so she has been doing a lot of that work and if anybody wants players by all means I talk to Jared I have a couple left in my truck too I can I can share tonight um more than happy to to help hand out if you want right oh yeah I'll take a step great Point yeah and all of the materials have the QR code that'll take people right to the website to get more information and the FAQs are always like we're constantly working on those every time we get something new that we're like yeah we should really put add that in um we're updating and just trying to make sure that we're hitting all the points that people have questions about and then uh the other thing I'd like to point
064out too we all got that email like you you brought it up already um if we want to volunteer to be at any of the spots that are planned by all means reference that email came up from David uh I believe it was from David and uh sign up right and I think that should come to the full board on Monday as well that hey that's that's all let's all sign up where we can I know I got a busy schedule you probably got a busy schedule sign up for uh like where they're going to be all talking at different places it be at bigs or whether it be at zgs or you know just at the library places like that be talking I didn't realize you had to sign up for that I just
065show you don't really have to sign up it's just that there are gaps where if you're interested in putting your name in there if if I may and Sarah's already spoken to this I think adequately but uh at the last referendum planning meeting on on Sunday or excuse me Friday morning uh Jason and Melissa U and the subcommittee uh Fred Mike and and and uh Diana have done a good job of setting a plan for both formal and informal opportunities Brad Clark was at uh Main Street Diner this Tuesday morning or Monday morning and uh in a conversation with Melissa sounds like he had a lot of very engaging conversations I don't know if he shows up and puts a pin on this chest that says ask me about the referendum or if he just
066randomly starts sitting at people's Boo and generating conversations I don't I don't know how he does it but in those inform uh events um you you know we want it's not so much you're putting up a table at Farm and Fleet but it could be that uh at a minimum I would take direction from Melissa uh mainly who's been doing this more often than anybody else and I know Charity's already signed up for one of those time slots uh so if the Board needs guidance on you know what they should bring with them or be prepared to answer certain questions probably go to one with an administrator or Staff first if if you if you're not comfortable uh signing up for one of them on your own um but uh that yeah I I was
067pretty pleased with the administrations and the staff's efforts on that front to inform the public and I figured that it'd be appropriate for the board to chip in and help um also on there uh which wasn't explicitly broken out as being different but there were several neighborhoods that were listed down towards the end of March and uh that's a door door uh wathon uh the weekend before the uh before the referendum so um I think out of the seven or eight neighborhoods that were identified uh only two were filled uh to go door too and drop off uh mailers or postcards what have you so they're not just all hour and a half engagements uh sitting on a a diner stool at zgs some uh might actually require some you know walking and knocking on
068doors and some more one-on-one conversations but uh if you're comfortable doing it and you're able please uh volunteer thanks David uh any questions on any of that yeah I i' love I'd love to know more information about that do you guys have I mean you want me just to give you a call David and or do you want me to I think Melissa is the one I mean I really reach out to Melissa she's really directing the show in this and she can you know yeah I was just a conduit Craig um what I would do is I'd look at that and whatever principal or staff you feel most comfortable with hanging with and if it's Brad Clark then just see maybe what the next time Brad's Clark signed up for one if it's Sarah
069Duncan and whatever she signed up with go to whatever one she's going with and see what the lay of the land is I've never done one so I don't know but it's not uncommon to find me at drafty seller on a Friday afternoon uh just that this Friday I'm going to show up with a bunch of postcards pretty much it when we're going to the businesses so uh I'll be at the high school next week that's going to be the formal presentation um so the ones that are at the school in the evenings those we're going to actually give this slideshow at um otherwise I think a lot of them yeah we're just handing out flyers and we're let whatever the business is comfortable with so if they want us to set up a table
070and kind of be out of the way that's fine if we can among the customers and they don't mind that's that's what we're doing so any any thought to reaching out to like any bral schools and and that was actually discussed on Friday yeah and and I think m is going to be uh following through with that because that I think it was David that brought it up that it's very important to have them involved as well well yeah yeah and you also brought up the fact that you know of reaching to the outling communities know to wherever we can outside of just the city of Watertown yeah but yeah Craig I 100% agree I did bring that up on Friday morning along with all the PTO at our elementary schools and I got a
071line with the climbing canners that tells me I can get 70 families but uh I haven't uh exercised that option yet um but uh yeah any any group that is a captive audience that has a vested interest should be as informed as we can possibly make them informed okay and so far with the meetings that we've had what what's the turnout been like it hasn't been high at most of them okay um I think just anecdotally the most people we've hit so far was when Margaret was at I think it was trivia night she got to she got to talk to a lot of people that night she was really excited about that and then we have had some pretty good crowds at the Burke briefings um those have been pretty good and the focus
072groups were really good too we had good turnout for those so but like at the at um the different restaurants and things that we've been at it's been a small crowd okay and and uh is that because I mean I I seem to get um like mixed messages from observing what the community is gathering from from gleaning from these meetings they seem to feel like there's one referendum and so they're conf conflating the April 1 referendum with a potential ask in in the future um so I believe I want to one at at the senior center that J presented and uh that was very much both of them but people seem to I don't know there people seem to think that they're still one it's one ask and it's no if we're going to ask
073for fixing up our buildings that's going to be quite quite a bit more than a $7 million yeah right and we we have that in the FAQs we have a myth versus facts um like one sheet page that's supposed to be coming out and it's addressed in there as well and then we do whenever we present the slide shall we talk about it okay so I mean we are definitely trying to help people to understand that I have heard that too though that people are confused yeah Craig you're uh your your 15 bullet I'll call it Manifesto should be required reading for anybody who goes to one of these things um for those who didn't see it Craig put out a very very nice wellth thought out thorough accurate um I don't want to call
074it rebuttal I don't want to call it response just let's call it a fact sheet onto Facebook um and and that's what I would anticipate Craig people asking every single one of those questions and getting every single one of those bullet points confused because they've either been given misinformation or they choose not to pay attention to real information um so I I don't think it's ever going to be more hostile or nor nor more civil than than what uh you've already attempted to dispel uh personally uh so once again I appreciate your efforts there and uh you were spot on with all your comments and I'm pretty sure that that might be the worst of what you run into at uh you know uh Amad or or Main Street Diner or wherever any other discussion
075all right uh looking at monthly reports um want to give us the highlights or yeah I don't have a whole lot to say we look our um go this is the fun 10 variance report for the most part we are tracking very close to the last two years percentage wise um s the the um increase here for our uh wages so we're at 48% as opposed to 44% last year we are one payroll ahead of where we were last year just because of the way the calendar fell um otherwise pretty much we are we're really close to the same as the last two years which is which is really good um as I mentioned earlier we are obviously projecting a deficit last year we were were also projecting a deficit and we did come in
076a little bit less than what that deficit was so hopefully that is what will happen this year again um I don't think it'll be a huge difference but that is what I am thinking is going to happen and if look at fun 27 it's basically the same thing revenue for fund 27 is kind of not relevant at this point of the year um but yeah the same thing so salaries is a little bit higher than where we were last year because of that extra payroll and otherwise everything is tracking very close to the same all right any discussions questions I didn't see any come through email so I'm assuming there isn't anything that stood out to anybody all right seeing none um we do a motion to to take that forward P type thing or
077just go for do we usually do that I know I just did the same thing I'm having complete brain like we always do a motion or not but it's an action item yeah just to cover us is there a motion we need motion I didn't think so either but okay um fair enough we we'll pay the bills yep uh then future agenda planning we look at the calendar coming up um the only real thing we got in March is referendum planning I mean I think that should be at the top of our our list every meeting from here forward but uh anything else that you guys Min is the dayto DAT that you think we could talk about in March have any big contracts coming up through anything so that was always the I want
078to make sure we got a head out but I could ask Kevin I don't know if he'll be ready to talk about summer projects next month that could be something we could talk about next month yeah but yeah it's a goodidea yeah so last last month I I mentioned uh April we should probably put a operational referendum debrief on there I have that in May but we could do it in oh I'm we could switch I miss that well I guess would be right it would be makes sense to do it in April right because April 1 would be too you can have the initial information on April and then I'm sure be other information is going to come to the fiscal Committee in May right yeah so really because you're going to what two
079weeks after the after the uh ballot for the April one maybe one to two weeks so I mean you're not going to have a lot of time there so it's going to be initial reactions in May at least you'll have a full month to digest and make recommendations MH I mean so there only really one one one more the um um in March to before it goes to referendum yeah or school time now okay all right uh with that being said can we adjourn let's do that at 6:39 then Fred said yes thank you everyone hey car I start that truck again not