001Mr. Mr. Director. >> Hello. >> How are you? I'm >> wonderful. How are you? uh everyone uh here and uh watching uh to the uh boards. It is on at least the lights on. We never quite know. Uh welcome everyone to the uh Cincinnati School Board's uh budget finance and growth committee. Uh we meet once a month uh as do our other standing committees and uh we will go around the room and introduce the folks that are here and and hopefully the role that they play. I mean just kind of title not necessarily everything and then we'll uh get started. Uh, madame president, if you'll start. >> Um, Emily Bell with local 2022. >> Isaac, internal audit supervisor. >> Cory Roberts, chief executive. >> Nan Hood, state and federal programs manager. >> Jessica Young, HR
002payroll software systems manager. >> Good morning. Cody Hutchkins, contract analyst. Uh, Josh Harden, director of athletics. >> Brandy Craig, board member. >> Eve Bolton, board member. Jim Crosset, board member. >> Michael Dustin, >> Kevin Ashley, director of financial reporting. >> Yolanda Johnson, purchasing contracts administrator. >> Evans, purchasing director, >> Davis, the board administrator. >> Rob Wilson, technician. And if you'd like to speak during the hearing of the public session, please click the hand icon. We'll ask you about your name and school association of the district, and we'll invite you to um join us at the end of the meeting. Thank you. >> Thank you, Rob. And thank you everyone for being here. We appreciate it. Uh we'll um since we don't have any special requests for timing, uh we'll work our way through uh the
003uh agenda as written, which is also unusual for us. Um at any rate, uh we'll start with old business and want to talk about some of that. And treasurer, you want to kind of start us there if there's something we want to share? This is the Hamilton County Educational Service Center. uh and the issue of competitive proposals and what have you. Who have we got? >> Um slide 32 Rob >> 32 >> under the >> forgot to give Mr. Wilson to where >> the cliff's notes too is for they give that to the board. >> Exactly. Yeah. So just just wanted to follow up on our discussion last month about um Hamilton County Educational Service Center as HCSC and um educational service centers in general. So we had a robust discussion last last month about
004that. One of the request or one of the things that can happen is there is what's called a request for non-competitive proposals that ESC's are allowed under Ohio law. um if the district if the district kind of signs off on it that they that they can enter into contracts without having to go through the normal competitive proposal thing. So so normally for example like a $100,000 contract we would have to do an RFP for those services. Um there is a way that education service centers can kind of can go can have to participate in that and there are some rules around it. So we had discussion about that last month. Just wanted to come back for a little a couple updates and I think we can kind of kind of move on from this discussion.
005So, so one question if you go to the next slide Rob was how much we send we spend with Hamilton County ESC and Mr. Hutchkins did a good job of compiling this data for us. So, we did we did kind of a three-year so FY24 spend FY25 as of August. So, we are as you've know still paying off some last invoices for fiscal year 25. We'll do that through the end of this month and then that'll be close. So these aren't complete final numbers but they're pretty close. And then the FY26 investments are the new contracts that have been entered. This is also not a complete number. Uh we know we know a good number of their contracts are title one and a lot of the schools are still in the process of getting those
006contracts in and their school their school level. So I mean you can't see you just can't see reduction uh time over time of course and and you can kind of see an idea of the services they provide there. A little bit of everything from kind of staff augmentation um coaching services um ELLL services you know PD those are kind of the big ones kind of the big buckets if you look at that. Uh the other question that came up in our conversation, if we go to the next slide, Rob, is is what do our peers do with their local ESC's? Um and so and so I reached out to to kind of my my standing group is Cleveland Columbus Toledo. We we meet weekly. We chat weekly with the treasures for that group. So so
007talk through it. Um and kind of similar stuff. Cleveland uses professional development and curriculum development. Columbus does a little bit of contract staff. um and then some direct staff. And they actually have a transportation consortium up there as part of their ESC, which is a really interesting idea that that I wish more areas were thinking about to let to let ESC's do some of the more difficult transportation, you know, and provide that service out to districts to kind of hit little little but again, every ESC is is different, you know, every one of them has kind of different in scope and size. So that's I mean that's kind of the updates. Do you I would just say questions or comments. >> Mr. Crosset, >> is it is that the reduction in our spend for FY26
008just related to our financial condition primarily? >> I think some of it is yeah some of the contract services were reduced um just budget-wise. The other thing is, and I don't know if Nan will talk about this, in the grants thing is um we used to have a lot of grant money and what was called non-competitive school improvement grants. Those were based on being a lower ranked school. The good and that's went away because our schools have moved up. So, so that's good problem to have like like we we've our schools have gotten better performance-wise, which we love, but then you don't get the same amount of money and and as that money's dried up, we have seen some contracts go away. N did you have something to add to that? >> No, it it
009just was a pretty, you know, remarkable drop from last year. So, we went from 15 schools last year to four schools this year. So, that was a lot. >> Wait a minute >> of the data. >> There's headlines. >> It's it's a big deal. >> It's amazing. But then again, it's, you know, it's it's a double-edged sword, like I said, because as soon as you perform because of all of these activities that are being supported by these funds, the funds go away and you have to, you know, maintain the effort and the improvement without the extra funds um to continue all the activities. So, it it's you know, it is really just the way it works. So, in fiscal year um 27, they'll pick new schools in January and so it's always on a you
010know, two or three year lag. So in January, they'll review their processes and determine their own cut off points and give us a list of new schools for next year. So they can change the bar of who gets the money and things like that. But um a lot of that money did go to data coaches, for example. Mhm. Oh, I was say the treasur does bring up a good point if we can um for the Hamilton County ESC um because it will allow kind of purchasing to have standard standardized scope of works so we can better track and see how schools are uh using those contracts um and have the master service agreements that we're currently working on with Hamilton county and kind of reduce the number of contracts that we currently have, but we
011can get those standardized scope of works per buckets. Um, then we can better help the schools to make sure that they're using the scope of work and those services correctly >> which kind of plays back into the dialogue from last month. >> Mr. Greg, >> yeah, I I think two things in mind with this. So, one is I think part of the point of that a lot of this spinning for the uh county is is title spending. So like in theory, if we do not spend it, we in theory have to spend it on something else that may produce some of these same benefits or results if not something else that would fit within the title one description. And the other thing along that line though is also that we are looking at a potential
012change in how uh the federal government thinks about title one dollars and so things will be included into or be merged into title one that historically hasn't been. And that's going to also present some issues with regards to how do we do these services and what contracts are needed and that type of deal. And I think that's something certainly for us to have a bigger discussion about. I I do think from my lens in this the second point is that I think we also have to kind of ask what does our ESSE provide and I think that's one of the struggles with this is that every ESC does different and they also in some ways do based on what the need is being asked of. And I think if we were to say like okay
013well we want services for our um ELLL students for instance hey we say sure we'll do it what quality of product would we get by not doing it in a competitive process versus what are the competitive vendors who might otherwise provide those same services able to do is the concern that I have in some ways is not so much that we say oh great we can get rid of this group so we'll do something different or that we can save a few dollars. So now we have these other dollars to do something with. We we still have to use those dollars. Question becomes how effective is this particular service they're providing? And I think that's the part that I think we have done a lot more on ROI and done a lot more on improving
014that information and tracking that and the KPIs. I just don't know that we have a straight answer as to whether or not the services that are provided are the most effective method andor have if we got someone else would we still get the same quality of product for the same price and that's maybe the question I think would be like a helpful answer to some folks on the board as well like >> to better understand what we're getting from the value. >> Yeah. So if if I may, so two two two things to >> so so so one thing and I think it's important for Monday's treasures report. One of the things in our spending is it also includes a nonpublic. So a lot of the non-public schools in our area also use the ESC.
015You'll see there are a series of contracts for approval in the Treasury that are all non-publiclix to all HCSC which we you know we're a fiscal agent but we really don't control what they do. Um, but to to your other point, Mr. Craig, I think I think but that's I think that's an important thing to think about the default. So, so if you do the non-competitive proposals, there are some rules about it, but the default is if we don't do that, then we go back to our normal procurement rules. I'm sure I'm sure the purchasing department can tell you, but most of the services are now RFPs. And so now the RFP process I think is a stricter way of evaluating multiple people who could provide the same service and making sure that we get
016the best bang for our buck across all across the entire range of whether it's an ESC or a private company or even could be an ESC not in our area you know it could be some >> yeah definitely it is um across the specifically the one for OD that we're doing is Hamilton County. Um, but we do have the ability to do that same process across multiple ESC's, but that is always the struggle is is Hamilton County providing the best qualified um staff to provide the services. So when we look at that then we have to make a determination is if we use that they have to provide documentation they have to say if we are utilizing uh professional development what qualifications does your staff have to provide those services and both we both have
017to agree to what those are and that the staff CPS staff is also making sure that they are following that and report back through KPI information. Are they meeting those standards? Because if they're not, we don't want to get into personality. Yes, we like this person. They've been doing it for the past 5 years, but is there improvement? And we have to kind of have that balance between those. If I could add one thought onto that and I think that's why for me when we start the budget process I think that is why we have to have these KPI conversations in a more real manner because there are a lot of providers for instance within those ESCs that might be really good people >> and they might be really dedicated to CPS and really want
018to make a difference but if we as a as a district aren't using those services or not seeing the results be mimicked in there maybe there's something else that we could be doing with those funds or with those services that might be more effective. I think about this. We we had a large conversation around data coaches and in some ways maybe the data coach model isn't necessarily the most effective way to improve opportunities as opposed to for instance like an innovation coach which might be thinking of what are the innovative ways to teach a subject matter. what are the new ways that are being out there that bring those ideas to the table in a way that maybe a data coach doesn't always do in a classroom or something. You know, and again, I'm not
019trying to put out any one idea or another, but I think that's where we have to from a budget standpoint, and I think that's what we've been talking about a lot lately is, okay, what's the most effective way to get the best results? And that's why we're sometimes we just say this is the line item for ES for you know Hamilton County because it's what we've always done and that's the only thing we were asking them anyway. So that's all they're going to provide right like the the non-competitive nature of the model is is fine. I think if we were in a competitive nature we would actually probably be sitting down and making a better assessment of what is what is it that we're needing before we went out and did a bid or a
020request for bids, right? like we might actually sit down and say, is this what we actually want right now or is it was good for three years ago, four years ago, but this year we need to transition to here. And that's not something I don't think that comes from the treasur's office. I think that's something that's in partnership with the administration to kind of say what works and what doesn't. Um, but that's what I'm I was kind of hinting at there is I do think there may be a benefit to a non-competit or a competitive thought model to the non-competitive process of assessing what are the needs of the programming and what are the what do the teachers need? What are they actually going to utilize to the best of their abilities as opposed to
021just simply saying this is what we're going to ask of them. >> Mr. Cross any question? you know, >> I I I'm I'm of the of the mind that the competitive approach makes more sense uh for us right now after what we've lived through, especially the last two years regarding the budget. And I think as we get ready to start the next budget, uh I think that's something to put in the in the margins to be thinking about. I think I've said enough times publicly how I I'm not a big fan of data coaches because I believe professional people that are educators can read their own darn data. Um, and I don't understand why they can't. And I think it's a holdover from those days even all the way back to the elementary initiative all
022the way back to kind of looking at at school improvement in a very different way. It's a it's a remedial approach to learning and teaching instead of what I think is very beneficial and this is again my own personal preference uh is I I believe uh that the instructional coaches the instructional coaches or as you might be calling innovative opportunities they I think have and are able to show some results uh in their areas of interest. So there are other ways to spend the money and bureaucratically Hamilton County Service Center depends upon Cincinnati public >> for its life's blood. And I worry that um part of that if we can go more to the competitive piece and we look at it more centralized uh as one contract I I worry that the that that partnership
023or vendorship if you will gets played building by building by building by building kind of the selling of the wares and I don't know that that's the best opportunity. I like decentralized decisionm but um I don't know that we're we're able to do that at this time. So I think we need to keep working on this. I would also hope that uh since our superintendent said leadership Cincinnati is why she's not here. If you'll be able to report to her kind of this conversation that would be great. >> Um comments uh treasure. Now just just so to be clear, we will not move forward with the non-competitive for the at this point for HCSC which will then they'll have they'll be part of the competitive process that we use for every other bidder. So that's
024I think I feel that's the that's the will of the of the finance committee and probably the will of the larger board. >> I might say I might say that not necessarily that we don't move forward with them, but I think what we have to do is first establish >> what we need. Like I think instead of first moving forward with ES with the ESC and saying this is the services we're going to do if we haven't done any evaluation of what services are needed or what's that part of it feels to me like that part doesn't get done. >> Mhm. >> Right. So like until we've done that I don't know like it just feels like we just do it because we've done it every year. >> And so if we say that these
025are the services that we actually need and some of these things are things that we need >> I don't say we get rid of all of what we're doing with Hamilton County >> just because some parts of it you're not saying that. No, no, >> I just say we may need to differentiate what are the things that we still need to be done. >> What are things that we might need to go through a different process with or ask them >> what can they do to provide these services and then we certainly can go outside if we decide that we don't like their answer. >> Great. Um, but I think that that's it. To me, it's a more ongoing conversation than a probably a simple >> go or not go. >> This this conver like
026that is definitely a superintendent instructional team kind of conversation. This conversation really is really is all very much procedural. You know, you know, if we decide we need a thing and they're a vendor, can we just can we just grab them or do we have to follow the proc the standard process? You know, this is this is this this conversation is very much, you know, how that procedure gets done, you know, from from inception of here's the idea of what I need to here's a here's an executed contract. >> So, so let's see if we have sort of a consensus. Yeah, I think that I think if we if they provide a service that again the superintendent and her team finds is the model that we would want to use. >> I think there's no
027problem with saying we would go with them for that particular service. I think that's maybe where the >> getting into the procedure is probably the other part too we have to figure out as to what are the things that we're going to ask them to do if if anything. >> Right. Is it is it fair to say that that we would want the instructional leadership to determine the what is needed >> and they'll know what is offered by Hamilton County? >> They will. Uh and then is it a is there a consensus within the committee that we at least explore the possibility that this is not going to be a non-competitive necessarily, but we want to explore the competitive approach and that's a dialogue between treasurer and superintendent. Is that cool? >> If if that's
028enough of a marching Mr. Cross. >> Yeah, I I agree. Uh this should just be an ongoing conversation. I I'm glad that we're taking a little closer look at all this is basically what we're going to do and I think that's important. >> I'm too and I'm very interested in your exploration of other uh service centers too. >> I I I'm a big believer if you put somebody else in the lineup uh it's kind of a threat or it's interesting uh comp competition gets a little bit better. >> Um >> yes. Oh man. That's okay. Um the purchasing department work closely with the competitiveness of all contracts. So whenever they come through on the business plus side, we look at them. We make sure and our contract administrator make sure that we are not at
029risk >> and we do speak with those department to make sure they're making the best decision. And because we have been looking at these different these same contracts almost every year, we understand exactly what's needed. Yolanda have does a great job with that. So in the response to what um the treasurer is talking about just we actually do do a good job at making sure that the competitiveness is there even when we do curriculum and curriculum is actually some of their stuff is state b um they have to do things from the state right but they do a great job at the competitiveness of bringing in the teachers bringing in all the principles and they do a great job with that and they work with us to make sure because we have to follow the
030process that we put in place when it's over $100,000. And so they give us all that documentation. We look it over. So it's pretty much being competitive. So we do the same thing with ESC. We would do the same thing. So I understand your you know your thoughts and stuff, but I would love like treasure is saying to go forward with this because we will also be helping with making sure that what you're saying is actually being looked over on our side of the house cuz that's what we do in purchasing. Yeah. And I think again my stress is more about probably on the instructional side of the process as to >> there are certain things we have to do because the state makes us do it >> right like those are absolutely stuff that
031like if that's what we have to do it is probably best go through ESC get these things done in the way we can. There are other things that are being done that we've done them and yes, once they're brought into the process, we make sure that they go through the process correctly, but is this the best use of the dollar before that decision to do it? Is this the best use of the dollar or are there other things that we could do that might produce a better result even though this might be doing very good? And then when it comes into the process, I think you all can do the the right processes to review it, to make sure it's being done correctly, and make sure they've put in the right indicators, the right needs.
032That part of it, I don't I don't have to worry about that part as much as >> we're talking about certain things that we've said for two or three years haven't necessarily been >> produced results that we can see. >> They've met the numbers >> for their KPIs, but we don't see the results in the students performance. Yeah, I I would I would second that. And we're not concerned about what it is that you all are doing. It's not part of that conversation. I think I think part of this is the the um we've become too comfortable. Uh and this particular vendor is and partner is spending uh we're spending a lot of money with them and they more than almost any of our other vendors partners whatever you want to call them have an
033impact on instruction and personnel more so than almost anybody else. And so as we we try to uh you know seize the moment and keep improving um it's let's uh get a little less comfortable uh and and and make some a little bit more challenging to uh to move forward. The other piece is that whatever that was about the grants that you were talking about the number of schools >> uh please uh find a a way I don't know how that works into uh I don't know if that's a memo or if that's current or contemporary when did that happen um when does the new review start? That might be something to share even publicly because that's a that's a win if we had a whole bunch of schools that that met that and we
034may have another b another another bunch when they to complete their next review. But the idea that whatever that first bunch was and it's fewer I I think it's I think we should make sure that the board knows that list and and is >> this might be a good time since report cards just came out. >> Absolutely. And that, you know, that's all part of it. >> Even though that's not the state in the report card, it's a way of being assessed. >> Mhm. For sure. >> I'm I'm liking it. Plus, to Mr. Craig's point a few minutes ago, and he does this almost every other meeting or so, what do we what are we going to do when we don't have the grant money? What's what's the what's the hammer? And that will help
035the get the board prepared for that hammer. if we can see those >> schools and understand that. So, if you can find a way you you make that pres not presentation but share that information or have the superintendent, >> but we're depending upon you to talk with the superintendent about that. >> Sounds good. >> Any other items for the good of the order for that one topic? Do you have enough information? Yes, Mr. Treasur. >> Very clear. >> All right. >> Okay. Next item. Fiveyear forecast. >> Well, >> not yet more. the contract. There's one more slide in the contract if you >> Oh, my bad. >> But but I mean a lot it's very it's very linked. >> Rob, if you'll go down to slide I don't know what is that 37 >> Rob
036loves me. Um so again just >> I like that you have it all in one packet even though we have to go back and forth and stuff. That's a this helps me when at the end of the meeting too. The the other thing >> girl >> the other thing I will say just for the public is that >> you know yeah you're starting at the end of the packet going back but but starting starting last month Mr. Ashley >> has started putting the reports part of this thing on our district website as its own separate thing just the reports >> um and so we're just continuing to add more and more information to our website. All right. So, contract activities. We talked about this last month. I don't know that I broached the topic very
037well, so apologize if I created a bit of confusion. >> No problem. >> Um, so I mean the the point is and I think I'm glad purchasing's here because >> especially like like Miss Johnson, she reads every single word in every single contract we have. God bless her. Um I you know I now that I now that I have to sign them as treasure, now I get to see the see the pages and pages. So, so I have a I have a brand new appreciation for Mr. Yandandy Johnson, but um really just what we're looking for here um is just just kind of to say, you know, we have activity measures and CA and key performance indicators and Cody has done a great job working with folks to get your key performance indicators and and
038that's really the measure of change, right? So, so we're going to take something that's here and we're going to move it to here. Um and th those have been very clear in the contracts. We've done a good job of getting those into the treasures report. So, so the board can see them before the contracts are approved. You know, ask questions. We we track people down. I had a conversation with vendor yesterday just like making sure we had we had it down. That's very nice. Activity measures have traditionally been kind of buried in the contract. I think that was that was purchasing's point is it's buried in the details >> and we just want to surface that a little bit more. And and that's really like like measuring the work you've done. You know, how many
039hours have you put in? How many days have you done? how many things you delivered. So to bring that to the top of the contracts and also make sure it matches in in the invoices the vendors provide. You know, we put some examples out there where the the invoices were like March services. Okay, what is March services? Is that one day of work? Is that 20 days of work? Is that those sort of things? I don't like it's not that the work is not being done now. It's just we're not documenting it in a way that's really like front and center. And I think for for our financial transparency um for for our for our data collection, just just pushing those things to the front and the invoices in the contract language makes it really
040clear for everyone what's happening. And I think as we move into ROI conversations, we start to get that nuance, right? So, so an example I use example I use is like test prep. You know, we have we have several vendors who help kids work on their ACT prep. You know, it's a big deal. you know, we have everyone taking their ACT now, you know, it's a bit, you know, and it's really it's really that bridge to college, you know, ACT, a lot of colleges give a lot of money based on ACT scores. So, >> it's an important thing, you know, and you could have two contracts the same amount of money. They could they could both take kids, you know, pre- and test scores up by five points, that's great. But if one but if
041one's working with seven kids and one's working with 30 kids, then we want to invest in the one that's working with 30 kids and getting the same benefit. So it gives it gives that it gives a little more context to the KPI if that makes sense. >> Mr. Craig, >> I think that's a I think it's an important point also. We talked about it last time that having that information on there also prevents things like where folks are invoicing stuff that wasn't actually done andor invoicing that should never been like that already been invoiced. So now we know there's some question of whether or not the invoice is valid invoice if you're having to document more information about what you've done. Um but I also think it holds our schools and staff who are using
042those services accountable to the work because if we've invested so much effort into X and then we see that something's not occurring. I think it's also fair to say we've done this step. we've already done put these things in place and now the question becomes you know what do we do for that person or that thing to change the results and I think that's a it's a helpful thing to be both accountable to the contract but then also accountable to the students who we are dedicated to providing a better education for right so we're providing ACT services and the vendor's charging us $150 a child you got another service who's charging us $12 a child >> and they're getting the same results. I mean, maybe we should ask the question of what's the $150 getting
043that >> what else are they getting for the $150 that the $12 is not getting and whether or not that's still, you know, valuable thing to do. Um, so I I appreciate the work you guys did in helping explain this a little bit more clear. >> Mr. Crosset, >> I think the activity measures is very good because it'll help with the matching. I think that's very important and help with the scope of what they deliver. So I think it's a good thing to bring to the top. So thank you. >> So if there's an interest in moving forward as that conversation was started last month, >> what how do you move forward now and what what would we be looking for? >> So Rob, if you'll pop next. Yes. So, um, this is this is
044really just a probably a vendor level conversation and and a and a kind of a school school level school and kind of department head level conversation. So, we'll we'll start doing a lot of training. We'll start soft. Um, you know, but we'll do some outreach just kind of here's what we're looking at, you know, not be punitive, but we'll start soft with a lot of outreach, some mentoring, you know, we'll probably pull in obviously the purchasing team will be a big help with that. And again, a lot of this stuff is in the contract already. It's just buried in it's buried in it's buried in, you know, appendix three, page 12, right? And we just want we just want what's entered in the system to have that right there. We just want the invoices. So,
045so, so we'll just we'll work through it. It's mostly internal work um and just just you know some letters to the vendor, some communication probably like u some office hours for people have questions and and we'll just slowly raise that standard. >> So for me since I was concerned >> right you know uh now I'm going to sound overly anxious. So so what's your timeline? So, so I think I think November 1st contracts will be where we'll start. >> Okay. >> And that gives us that gives us, you know, end of this month and next month to do training and do and do outreach and stuff and then we'll start really really looking at it hardcore for the ones that start. >> Are you going to try it districtwide or or >> districtwide? Okay. We
046we are, you know, honestly, we we've hit the big contract surge. So, you know, we we do Cody can probably tell you we probably do what 60% between July and September 1st, >> you know, and so and so it does slow down a little so we're not not setting ourselves up to get overwhelmed. >> Place to start then. Yes, that makes sense. You had your hand up. Sorry. bring that information up for the meeting so everyone is aware of what the expectations are, but then we also need to kind of keep in mind that we need to also have that same information on our purchase order. So when the vendors get the purchase order, they see that data there. When um accounts payable gets the invoice, they see it on that purchase order. So we
047have that cycle of everyone the same data multiple times so we can get that ingrained into yes this is the process this is what we need to move forward with to vendor submitting on our invoice and us paying that so yeah I think that would be a good move forward any other questions comments you have enough to move ahead >> yes >> great thank you >> thank you >> and and I was that was not fraudian that I skipped over that. Bad new glasses. Um, okay. Now we're ready. >> Star of the show, Mr. Kevin. >> Yes. Let's turn it over to the star of a show and Rob. It's the separate presentation. >> Sorry, friend. >> All right. So, the new the new ODW title is budget and three-year forecast. U so current year
048budget and three-year forecast. So there was a little discussion about um how closely the budget should tie to the appropriation. Um I guess that's something they're looking at. One of the challenges is the carryover encumbrances and how they're shown on the forecast. So we'll work through that. We might have to change some numbers based on that but shouldn't be significant. Um so just a few slides kind of give you an overview. Um the forecast is mostly done. Um except we are researching a few things and and there probably will be some new information come out between now and that first board meeting in October when we have to do the approval. So the first slide is new factors since the May forecast. >> Just Yeah. So just just to set the stage I see so
049it is we have to have it submitted and filed by October 15th. That's new for this year and so so the only board meeting for the last board meeting before that would be the 6th. So we'll have to put this on the agenda for the 6th of approval. >> And we will tell Miss Davis that. >> Yes. >> Um >> and we will send I think we >> there won't be another finance meeting before. >> Right. So, we had discussed last meeting sending out um a memo to the to the finance because because you know it's been a really it's really been a really good pattern that you know you know this committee sees it and they get your questions out and then you can advocate to the to the full board and and give
050them some extra understanding. So >> that would be good and we did talk about that and we do want to keep that even in this new timeline >> and next year let's build that into whatever is a work plan with these big changes. >> Yes. Next year it gets even earlier. >> Yeah. Really be doing it in July. >> End of August. >> The end of August. Yes. Yes. So so we so we may we may have to have that July fi you know that July finance committee that we've often skipped. We may we may need that to talk forecast. That's the end of August. So, >> okay. So, >> as long as we meet in August, we should be good. >> As long as Kevin keeps us up to date, we'll be all right.
051>> Sorry, Kevin. >> That's fine. And then February will be the next deadline instead of May. So, >> um so just wanted to highlight a couple changes since May, new information we have. Um there's two slides related to that. The first one relates a little bit to uh real estate property taxes and public utility personal property. Um, in the last couple weeks, we received the second half settlement from Hamilton County, which showed us um some information that's a little concerning in terms of tax revenue. uh real estate um so the a and real est or real property residential help me residential um did see an increase which we expected the class two which is commercial and industrial we actually saw a pretty good decrease there uh so we're kind of working with the county I
052think a lot of it relates to board of revision issues where um one property I looked at in particular was um an office building downtown. Uh they were valued in the $40 million range. The building had sold in the $20 million range and board of revisions approved about $29 million value. So there's at least a $10 million value loss on that one parcel. So we're reaching out to get some more information um to see how that's going to impact going forward. Um, another thing I'll say related to all of that is um, there is a trienal update that will happen in 26 which will impact um, amounts collected for calendar year 27. So half of 27 FY27 for us and half of FY28 for us. Um, obviously the trienal update will not be as significant
053as the most recent full reappraisal. Um, the other piece of that is the public utilities. Um, countywide, we've heard from other treasurers that Duke Energy has contested their values. Um, and as a result, while that's being appealed or contested, they can pay based on the old values until those are resolved. So once resolved, if they don't get a break, then those will become delinquent. You know, they will be assessed the full values. So we're it's kind of a guessing game just kind of giving you, but that's kind of the lay of the land based on because so when we do the forecasting, it's pretty much values times rates. Here's what we should here's what's build to the taxpayers, but then these factors reduce that amount. So, and we always build in a collection rate because
054we don't get 100% collection and we we anticipate that. >> But again, this particular fact, these two factors cause that collection percentage to be lower. So, we'll get some more clarity on that and um go from there. >> But the the downtown less value this office buildings basically. >> Yes. >> It's happening everywhere. >> Yes. And okay, >> and it's such large amounts for us. You know, sub suburban districts probably don't have that right >> that much of a of a change or a factor. Uh the next slide relates to state budget. Obviously, when we did the May forecast, we were still in the state budget building process. Um, and consistent with other of with our peers, we pretty much use the House version. >> Mhm. >> Knowing that might be a little bit rosy.
055Um, so since now the budget has been approved, um, some factors that negatively impact our forecast a little bit are, and we've talked about these, but just to reiterate, the base cost inputs were not updated. So it fails to recognize inflationary factors as the inputs remained at the FY22 levels. Um the on the flip side, local capacity factors were updated. So property values were updated uh which make the district appear wealthier which impacts and lowers our state funding. So those two are negative impacts for us. They did increase the phase ends um for the fair school funding plan which has a little bit of impact around the edges and but that was a positive impact. Uh state foundation and bounce to date and this is consistent with every year are currently based on prior enrollment
056numbers. Um, ODW will start reporting FY26 enrolled ADM at the end of October and that will reset the calculations more so based on current year enrollment. >> So, this is one of the fun things about making the forecast so early >> is that you're using last year's enrollment numbers for your state foundation. So, you you haven't you don't have a chance to see what current year numbers are going to give you. And it's always an estimate uh at this point even with OD once we see the October numbers >> there still will be >> data cleanup data you know new enrollments other changes by the time we get to the end of the fiscal year but we try to build those in >> well and somewhere along the line in some of the budget presentations
057the issue was we had to hit hit a certain number in enrollment in order to to make uh enough money or whatever and revenue and I don't I'm not sure about all the enrollment situation where we are right now. >> Yeah, we did well to end the year. I mean that was that was definitely part of the budget. The way we got to to this year's budget is we saw an increase our increase in students kind of made up for the cuts from from the foring formula. So that so that was good. Um, and I and I don't I don't have the enrollment numbers off the top of my right now, but >> but I I know I know there's still I mean I do know anecdotally you can see there's less people less people
058in the lobby every day. So I think we've I think we've gotten through the through the through the enrollment. So >> yeah, >> so we'll start to work through that. >> Okay. >> I did do something. >> Mr. Craig, >> I was just going to say I think the centralizing the enrollment process is also one of those things that the goal of it was to get more accurate numbers earlier. Um, and this is probably going to be a reason why we need more accurate numbers earlier is because if they're moving up >> when we have to do these processes. >> Good point. um if we know in August 1 at least an idea of what our enrollment will look like. If we see that there's a already at that point there's an increase then some
059of these projections that we'd have to downdo for August there may be able to be at least planned for the February >> one might be higher so we can give that guidance to the board as opposed to like when you have no idea what the numbers will look like you're stuck with what we had the end of last year as the basis point. So, I do think again I think that's a goal of what the centralizing enrollment was supposed to do is to get those numbers more accurate earlier. Um, and so maybe next year we'll also have that process smoothed out a little bit more so that once we can make those decisions uh or we can get that information that it helps the team be able to make some of those uh estimates or
060projections a little bit uh more accurately. >> Yeah, we'll be one year more into this big reorganization that took place. >> Yeah. So, one more thing on the enrollment piece. Obviously, um students in different the categoricals like special education, if they're identified as category six, obviously that's a higher state funding share. I did do a regular education student calculation and I didn't really share this with Mike yet, but um >> great. The change in one student, right? >> I was thinking this was more for the formal presentation, but the change in one student is really about $1,000. So, if you add a hundred kids, you end up with $100,000. So, I mean, it really doesn't, just anecdotally, it doesn't cover all of the costs associated with adding students. Certainly, we want to provide education to
061as many students as we can. And so, that's, you know, something we deal with. But in terms of if we were to add, you know, a thousand kids, um, what would that be? A million dollars if I do my math right. >> But the cost of educating a thousand kids >> greater than a million >> because that doesn't in fact impact our property taxes because that those are set. Uh, it would only impact our state revenue. >> Okay. >> Um, next slide is just kind of a preview of the forecast. So taking all those factors, what we showed here, which is kind of hard to see, I understand um where we at in terms of revenue categories at the May forecast and then if you recall u July the second at a board meeting, um
062the treasur and former treasurer u provided an update based on what we knew at that point related to the state budget. Uh obviously some things have still changed. Uh and then kind of where we were at where we're at today in terms of preview. So you can see in the change comparing the July numbers to the current numbers. Um we tried to impact or tried to model what the impact of those changes in value would result in. And so potentially about $3.8 million less in tax revenue, approximately 3.1 million less in state revenue based on those calculations. Um, in terms of other revenue, we do show a little bit of an increase there. Uh, and that's kind of related to timing of Medicare re Medicaid reimbursements, >> which scares me, >> which could be less
063going forward. But, um, so that's really the the main driver of that change. Um, in terms of the other items, the revenue items in the middle there, um, we do anticipate with the pending TIFF agreement that we will receive about 5 million a year additional. We noted that in July. We're, you know, still continuing to expect that. Also, sale of property, real property proceeds, which would be a one-time. We're looking at about a million and a half related to that. So it gives you a total revenue um target of 628. Um actually we updated this slide a little bit but the um reserve for cash balance last we originally were projecting about a half a million dollars u to reserve. We just kind of changed that to to be determined. It just didn't make it
064to this slide. >> Oh, you're looking at the next slide. >> Was it the next slide? Oh, I'm in the wrong >> you're in current year. Sorry. >> Sorry about that. This is 26. Okay. Okay. So for 26 act, you said 628 revenue. >> Yes. Uh and then we are anticipating um prior year preschool levy funds that were carried over. So about 2.2 million that we're budgeting an expense that is not going to be revenue, but it's eating that prior cash. So that gives you a new target of 6297. Um what we've approved in terms of appropriations, the the board's target is 6347. So there's potentially a $5 million gap this year um based on what we know at this point. Can it change? Hopefully to the positive, but um just kind of making sure
065everyone's aware of what that looks like right now. >> Okay. It's a gap between what and what? It's a gap between what we are projecting in new revenue total revenue >> versus what we've appropriated >> for this school year for this fiscal year one and the same right now. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Now obviously we do have a a small cash balance that would cover that but you know our goal is not to have to eat into that. Our goal is actually to increase that. So, >> and this just makes the case again and again that the accountability is the more important word than even accounting. I mean, it's um >> Yeah. >> And it talks about you what you talked about, Mike, about monitoring what we're doing more closely. >> This is Yeah.
066This is why we monitor. So, I mean, our our next steps even be before this forecast gets finalized. And now we've reached out to the county auditors to get to do kind of a deep dive into those border revision cases for that. Um, yeah, unfortunately, like we won't really have our first real our first real enrollmentbased um state foundation until after the forecast is filed. So, that's fun. Um, I mean, >> I mean, it's Yeah, I mean, it's concerning, but this is not like panic time. This is like this is like just we just got to keep a super close eye on things, >> you know, over the next couple months and and see where the trends lie. And obviously, I know I know we're still working on the TIFF agreement. I think >> think
067legal council Hoy will have an update for that soon. >> So, I I I mean, I know there's activ I'm not going to scoop him, but I know there's activities going on >> currently with that. Craig, >> just in thinking about just kind of what you described and I don't want to get ahead of because I know the 27 one we're about to do as well, but in future years in this new cycle that we're doing where it's August, February instead of October, November, May or you know instead of November, May potentially you could get revenue after the February one that would create a increase like a increase in revenue. that you would not have accounted for in your forecast until your August first forecast, right? >> You could. Yes. I It's It's It's weird.
068It's hard. I don't want to be super critical of this, but it makes no sense to me because like when I think of forecasting, like as we go through this, it's it kind of tick off like what do we know, right? So every every every two weeks we do a payroll, okay, we know that number. Every week we do a we do a check run, we know that expense number. we get the tax settlements from the county that goes from a projection to a known >> and and yeah, Feb February and October and August aren't even aren't they're not they're not lined up with that. I think what to answer your question, I think what you'll see more districts doing and probably us >> is you can you can do and approve a revised forecast.
069So we may we haven't done it before but but we we may do our norm our official you know the one we have to do in February and and we may come back to you in May and say hey now that we have the tax settlement now that we have these reimbursements now that rates paid you know we would like to go ahead and file a revised forecast based on the new the new actual numbers we have >> I and I guess what I can my thought on this though and the reason I asked that question is in part you you know, essentially the August forecast becomes a cleanup of what you did not what you weren't able to do in February because then you're saying essentially we have these new revenues that were not
070accounted for that are part of your revenue for your next fiscal year, which is not exactly what it is, right? Like it's it's it's actually not correct to say it that way. >> Or you end up forecasting that you're going to get more revenue than what you uh know to be true. and you're both your August and February, which again, if you fall short now, you look like you're in a worse position. I mean, I think it's it's not good for it to be a forecast because you're not having any you're not having the accurate information available, but then you also potentially could put yourselves in position either where you're under forecasting, which makes you look like you have less >> or you're over forecasting because you expect to get this revenue increase that you've
071seen each year based on all these other factors. And so I guess I'm wondering in some ways have we have the has the state minimized the usefulness of the forecast by moving it to where it is? >> Of course they have. >> And you know like whether or not we is like how do we use it as a district tool? >> Yes. The answer to that question is yes. my my personal commentary. I I believe part of the date movement is >> is because of the way the tax calendar works. And so if they want to use your forecast to say you have too much cash, >> then they need to do that like in January when the budget hearings happen. >> So there's even that kind of >> not to be cynical or critical,
072but >> just to be accurate. Probably >> I think that >> it's all part of a plan. probably part of the part of the claim. Yes. >> Um but we'll deal again the the the biggest user of the forecast obviously it's a big user for us in terms of determining budget target. Um but ODW does look for those trigger points uh stress points that hey this district is headed towards you know fiscal emergency or fiscal caution so that they're the primary user and so sometimes when I've seen revisions or updates it's been they were projecting going off the cliff and now they've passed a levy or they found some other revenue source and so now it doesn't look as dire and so they'll reate it for that but otherwise it's it's you know we're the
073users of of the forecast primarily. Um so now okay go to the next slide which is FY27. Um Mike just kind of wanted to give an update here of you know what that target may look like since we're starting that budget process. Yep. >> Um I think based on obviously we've updated the revenue a little bit. Um and part of that is so taxes we do show an increase there and that's primarily related to trienal update and what we're projecting for that. Uh we're still showing a reduction in state aid of about 4 million. Um just another some other minor things. So potentially comparing re this is this is projected 26 to projected 27 approximately a 6 million increase. Um we're taking the tiff one time or or I'm sorry we're leaving the tiff $5
074million projection in there for 27. We took off the personal or the real estate sale of real estate proceeds. Um this is where the reserve for cash balance to be determined as part of the budget process. Uh we anticipate preschool levy carryover will be a declining balance. So maybe a million dollars in in eating into the little bit of cash that they have built up which would give you a new budget target of which is is relatively consistent with our current year. Obviously we know our expenses are going to go up. Um, we have other things to build in there, but just that's a preview of what we what this forecast would project for FY27. >> Any questions? >> Um, just kind of looking back at FY26 where we have this $5 million uh shortfall.
075>> Uh, and that I want just want to be sure. So that that's a a comparison of what was appropriated with what we collect, correct? >> what we anticipate to collect. >> So and I I like the idea if we have to come back with a revised forecast in May, it seems really the prudent thing to do. >> Is there is there some amount of caution that we can take on appropriations to anticipate the small variability in revenue? Is there is there some way to to anticipate that or not? Uh in other words, we had this five million shortfall this year. Was there a way to have anticipated that earlier? I I don't know. I mean, or do we is there should we have a reserve? You know, what's the best way to maybe to
076handle that? >> Yeah. I mean I mean this is why this is one of the reasons why a cash reserve is so important you know that you can you can unant an unanticipated either loss in revenue or inetime increase in expense you know this is this is where your cash reserve comes in I mean I mean we I mean as we monitor this you know we we've done it before where we've we've pulled back budgets midyear of unspent money and said we're going to pull this back or we're going to hold this or we're going to do those sort of things which we which we have gotten pretty pretty good at doing honest quite honestly. So, and there's you know this year was really the last year was really one of the ones where we
077really spent almost everything we budgeted. You know, usually there's usually there's some money at the end of the year that we budget and we just never get to and >> Okay, good answer. Thank you. Thanks. >> Sure. To your point, I would say um I'm glad you brought that up because this target for 27 compared to 26 is based on the current target. If we would have to make adjustments this year, we might anticipate growth for next year compared to that. >> If that makes sense. >> Y >> thank you. >> Okay. Keep going. So the next slide is just um kind of showing a summary and again for 28 or 27 20 or 28 29 and 27 we're we're showing a little bit of growth in revenue in terms of the if you when
078you look at the actual forecast and we're matching the expenditures to that. Um so again slight growth it's hard to tell in this chart but slight growth in revenue, slight growth in expenditures. Um again 29 will be a full reappraisal year. So I don't I guess that won't impact us till 30 which normally 30 would have been in our forecast but now that we we have a new format we've asked 30. So um just so you know we'll have that data but in terms of what will be submitted it'll just be for 29. And again, just to point out on this one, we're we're showing flat growth or flat spending through that period based on the revenue projections. >> Flat spending and flat revenue. >> So, yeah, slight revenue increase and we're allowing in the
079forecast expenditures to grow at the same rate. >> So, one of our challenges is to find out where we're getting new money. >> Correct. >> Absolutely. And like again, all of this anticipates basically that our dollars from our dollars per student that are coming in from the state are roughly going to stay in alignment, which again I think is a hard part in doing this because we have no idea. >> There's not a formula being used in the same way that we once did. And the other potential issue that is what we decide to do for specifically next year um could change our our future uh forecast our future three-year forecast. >> Yeah. uh because if we decide to go for revenue or we decide to do some significant changes, we would have to then
080those potential forecasts will look wy not in alignment with what we what these one with this one it will be right because potentially if we raise revenue or bring in new ways to generate an income to the district or we cut costs in some way that's significant >> um that forecast and I guess I think this is why I'm a little bit bothered provide the three-year forecast in some ways because it doesn't really allow you to put in plans that you might make for the district in in significant ways. >> Do it in spite of it. Yeah. >> And so like you're basically going to have threeear forecasts that look completely different if you make any significant change to revenue or expenditures um that it's not an accurate map out of how the district's going
081to flow. So >> historically and if you look at other districts, they typically show well over spending their revenues and so typically they run into a negative like in year three. Uh and and CPS has done that in the past and historically you know there are things that so they'll forecast to expend a certain amount but they may not appropriate everything for whatever you know reason. So it usually when you get to year three and four, you're not as accurate as you as you hope to be in the first couple years. So again, we've shown it this way with the board's commitment to hold the line and try to build our cash reserves. Well, and I but I will also say, you know, we have elections and there will be a new board even though
082there's only I would assume one new person, right, coming in, but that's that makes a new board and and we'll have to be asking them how they feel about it. And >> um I'm something to keep in mind. I I would also say that this this financial picture is the picture that will uh necessitate us being able or not necessitate might make us able to make the case to the people that we need a major new money request sooner than later. Just like this school year, we'll create the report card that will make asking that money successful or maybe not successful. So there's just an awful lot writing on these 70ome 60ome days that are remaining. Really big stuff. Big stuff. Hope the board is able to rise to the occasion. Yes. Next, >> we're
083done with the five-year forecast review >> and we're ready to >> talk about the budget budget task force. Yes. >> So, just to get started, this is also an agenda item for for Monday. >> Yes. So, so my plan is to take whatever what to take the feedback I get here and we'll update this and then we'll post it back to board doc board docs for for Mondays. >> Yes sir. Thank you. If you'll go to the first slide just start a real a quick recap of the FY26 budget building. So, you know, we should su we should celebrate the fact that we closed the 50 mill $51 million budget gap. That was a lot of hard work for a lot of folks. We funded phase two of the growth plan, including our including all
084of our new middle schools. That was a major success. Uh we had great collaboration with our unions. You know, thank you. Thank you, President Bell over there in the corner. and but but it was it was a really collaborative thing around around cost of living and and the collective baring agreements. Um as we all know state funding was uncertain throughout the entire process. You know up until up until you know the last minute we were we were we were unsure of what state what state revenues would look or what state aid would look like. And then of course our federal funds got withheld for for a good month there. That was >> well add to that slide that we sued their butts. >> We sued their butts. It made them capitulate. >> I mean really
085>> and we're going to use that as our >> the community. What I hear in the community is they like that we're fighting this. >> We're fighting for the our kids to get the money and our taxpayers. We're fighting for our taxpayers to get the money they're sending to Washington back here. >> Yes. I mean, the people are angry about this and it's showing up in a lot of the polling and a lot of the communication if if people that are focused on the financing anyway. But yeah, that we just five school districts >> and the teachers unions. >> I mean, people people should know we will fight for the money that we're >> that that we're obligated to get. >> That's right. >> So, we take that seriously. And then and then finally I
086think one one feedback that you know anytime we get kind of this compressed timeline compressed timeline for decision making it it creates operational issues you know and and you know as as we go through the board votes and decisions and and the deliberations have to happen is there's a lot of operational work that has that has to happen. So, so, so from Monday night when when things are officially approved to to when people can start spending money, there's a lot of work that has to be done. Um, a lot of checks and balances and some of that some of that didn't get done to the level it needed to be done and you know, we're we're cleaning those things up. So, go next, Rob. >> And that's the justification for, as Mr. Craig has emphasized,
087starting so much earlier in all of this. >> Yes. So to start the FY27 budget. So good news is we're in year two of the state buo budget. So we don't have that drama to deal with. That should be pretty pretty level. It's just a matter of us and our it's just a matter of our enrollment. You know, our enrollment is really the driving factor. We're not worried about which version of the formula they're going to want to use or if they're going to phase things in or not. um property tax reform measures and there are more of them than we could fit into the rest of today's uh meeting meeting time but they could impact us in the second half of FY27 depending on depending on what would get passed through the general assembly
088and when that would apply so we that's out there um as you saw in the forecast we got rid of the one-time revenue from sale of property that was a one-time thing so we have to deal with that there was also um a onetime expense reduction in technology leases that we'll have to bring back and we've we've been very transparent about that from from the entire budget process. There's some uncertainty in federal and federal funding. Um it's probably not good. I don't think we're going to be uncertain in the positive, but I mean the last the last information I saw from the appropriations committees because now that we've have to become federal funding geeks and and read all these things was was that they were they were pushing towards initially the first cut of fully
089funding all the title programs >> again the first like Senate version the Senate too which is a problem because the Senate's not really the start but they were looking at fully funding all the federal title programs Now, now once the House gets a hold of that, the Senate is generally a little more generous. >> Yeah. Two weeks ago, I had to go to DC and to for the federal advocacy. >> Mhm. And all 24 hours for both days uh was the feeling from these legislative folks as well as the advocates that it obviously won't be full funding. >> No. >> And the areas the three major areas will be the you know the teaching the professional development anything that's going to be helping teachers zero. uh uh also any English second language it's probably done
090and and then the other piece that they were really talking about was the the poverty piece that there's going to be some kind of reduction the the other thing that they kept saying and these were really kind of interesting to be worried about was -ate and Medicaid reimbursement they said that that's not showing up on all when you're talking about the grants but there there's a a fight to keep the -ate >> amount of money. And it was interesting. They had the people that created that -ate. I didn't know what it was. It was a group nationwide that was formed among public libraries >> and school districts to make sure that there was internet accessibility. I mean, this dates back to that period of time. And these people have now become the the main advocates
091for -ate. And they it's just struggle. uh even even Wi-Fi and uh buses. You've got at least one senator uh in Texas that doesn't want us to have Wi-Fi in our school buses or pay for it uh or have hotspots uh for our kids. Uh so it's just it's awful. But the -ate thing and Medicaid reimbursement is difficult. But uh Congressman Lansman when we met with him he kind of felt that if there if there isn't a government shutdown and he thinks that there will be but if there isn't it will be that the Democrats will make a deal to preserve health stuff >> that they that seems and probably sacrifice everything else which starts to make sense. So you're right, it's it's very difficult and and I think is their point all these folks
092and it was equal number of Republicans and Democrats. So we heard of both sides the this is this is uglier >> this year than than last. Yes sir. >> I was just going to add I I think the rates there is actually somewhat of a bipartisan >> crew around preserving rates. >> Yes. >> In large part because they benefit such the larger part of the rural community more so than the urban community. Right. >> Um, so I mean like it does provide a benefit to urban, but like there are a lot of rural districts that is like the only way folks have access to internet. >> Um, so like like I've heard a lot in the House especially more so than even the Senate that there was more of a bipartisan push on that. >>
093I do think the question though maybe and and again this is us trying to guess what federal government will do on these things. Part of the measuring of taking title one and adding stuff to it is this idea of like well then they'll just be able to more effectively associate out what's title one dollar needs and then make priorities based on that. And I think that's the fallacy of the argument, right? Is that you're taking dollars that already been spent and if you just move more stuff in it that can be spent on doesn't mean you do more. It means you do less >> right >> of something so that you can do this other part, right? And so I think that's the other part for us >> from that 27 budget standpoint is we
094may have a title$1 number. We don't know what that title$1 spend will be on. Right? So in like some ways I think that also makes it harder for us to rebuild the budget. >> Yes, I agree. And the other thing I would say I all everything you said both of you I definitely agree with. The other thing that terrifies me is this idea of giving the state block grants. >> Sure. >> Because I I you know based based on what the state has done with public school funding, >> giving giving them block grants does not give me a warm fuzzy. >> No. it. I mean, we do, I think, have it's a little easier to advocate in Columbus and Washington, but but yeah, I don't have any I don't have any >> actually Columbus is
095has more deaf ears than Washington does right now, >> which is really scary. >> Yes. And then, of course, we're we're inflation still still cranking away around two and a half%. >> Um, >> hope it stays that low, >> man. We'll see. interest rates are I think starting to fall which which that that is that is a conversation that we will probably >> have at some point in this group because as interest rates fall you you know we've made a lot of money as as Kevin will show you on our on our high interest check high interest savings accounts we'll have to start moving those investments and it's also a chance to start looking at um some of our long-term our bonds and some of our long-term in long-term um debt obligations to maybe see
096if there's a refinancing opportunity. So, >> well, you know, I would believe in that. >> Yeah. So, all right. So, if you go to the next slide, timeline to the 27 budget. >> Cool. >> So, I love that. >> No changes to that from what we saw a few months ago or is that the same? >> It's pretty close. >> Okay, cool. >> It's pretty close. Um I tried to put tried to put the big p big and I'll tell you where there are kind of changes. >> Please do. >> Yep. So obviously first one October is a forecast and budget target that got that got pushed for November. So yeah, so I so I pulled the slides we did last year and started moving stuff, right? I'm like, well that's not exist anymore. Um
097November there's the election that'll have a big impact on us obviously. Um salary reopener >> that that's in all the collective bar agreements and then the superintendent and I have some public listening sessions around budget >> that are coming up and we'll advertise those. Those are also you know in early November. Uh December always begins the initial school staffing. That's always something we do there. Uh the change is moving to start central office budgeting there. And that that is one of one of the big feedbacks concerns from from prior years is that we do the schools, we get the schools done, then we start central office and then and it just we need they need to be parallel, right? There needs to be parallel work. Um January is a tax budget still. Um and then
098you know again school staffing and non-personnel will be working through it. Go to the next slide. February we'll update our forecast. Yep. And and and revise our budget target. March will be, you know, finishing out central office budgets. You know, April and May is when we start doing public presentations um at the board meetings. We'll get our um tax settlement in April. that that'll help that'll help kind of solidify what what our revenue look like our our budget target. Um in May we have to accept the tax rates for the future year. It's just just one of those like rubber stamps we do every year as a resolution. We would hope to have staffing complete by May and and I'm happy to dig into that more, but but but the idea at this point is
099is that that's a good time before people leave for the summer to let them know what staffing looks like. It gets it gets and I think you know the HR team would tell you it gets much much harder to do some of these staffing things um once school is out and folks are folks have started moving on. And then we have two meetings in June. So, so June 1st would hopefully be kind of a wrapup of the budget. It's also about when we'll get our federal allocations. Hopefully, if if if we don't if we don't do what we did this year, >> we hired attorney. >> Yes. Or or we'll be back on the attorney level. Um and then June 22nd, I think, is would be the board meeting where we would do the final
100budget approval >> and appropriations resolution. And hopefully we won't need a meeting between the 22nd and the 30th. >> That's what we like to hear. >> But it's always not always a potential, right? >> Good. >> Okay. Um, so if you go to the next slide. So, thank you, Mr. Craig, for this assignment that that and thank you for reminding us of it due date every board meeting. It it does make it easier to get the team together. Um but but we looked at kind of some big things and and thanks obviously for everyone in this committee for their feedback um about about that task force. So big things are looking at additional revenue generation. Um some process improvements on the on the on the budget. So so we talked a lot about you know
101even if we're making tough decisions you know you know do do we have a really solid process to frame those decisions? Um how do we get them done sooner? And then obviously the data to review too. There are there have been some requests to look at very specific data points. Um staffing formulas is one. Building uses is another one that that have come up time and time again in conversations. So if you go next. So so if you look if you think about the timeline the initial timeline from the earlier slides is is this is kind of building pieces in right. So how how do you build those things into the timeline? So we'll have that October forecast and budget. We'll have a February update to the forecast. So there is a there's a chunk
102of months there um where people can work or we can work on additional revenue generation. Yeah. So so we can work on those ideas. We can present those you know as needed. We can we can you know really flesh those things out and see you know what the board's interested in doing. if there's interest in the board in doing these things, some of them will will, I think, be be discussions that will be probably fairly robust discussions um of if this is something that that the district wants to do or not. So, but the idea would be those ideas are explored, they're discussed and and they're either approved or not approved by February. So they get added into the February update or they don't and and then that part that discussion is done and we
103move on. >> Um next slide. >> If you stay at that one slide if you would. >> Yes ma'am. >> Um the box that you're talking in terms of finance and policy and full board. >> Mhm. I I do think it's it's it is important that the board even if it's short updates even if it's just sounding >> mostly mostly finance committee rather than policy committee or you know whatever or having full board soundboard kind of things we update the whole board but I think a lot of the sounding needs to come here because if we find out that and to this point if the finance committee remains involved and unified then it's just it's a much better way to go but please involve the board throughout. Yeah. >> So it's it's not such a
104learning curve for you know six weeks and four meetings or whatever. >> Sure. Yes. I I would anticipate most of the board activity would come through this committee but we may we may land on an idea. >> Absolutely. And you may say, "This is great. Take it to the full board." Or or we might say, "This is great, but we don't there's not a policy for this or or we need to modify a policy to do this." >> The board will appreciate that. >> So, I was I was really about to make the same point. I think there are some ideas that you may come up with that you may take to policy >> to determine whether or not that is something we can adjust our policies to deal with or if a policy would
105work. For instance, facilities use like we may come up with a way that we can use our buildings. >> But then we have to think about okay, what are those implications of using the building >> like what do we charge for what we can charge for? What are the potential liabilities and risk and that being presented as a complete idea? That may be the only thing I would say is if we present it to the board, I think it should come with a more complete standpoint as opposed to like peacemail parts, >> right? um because we will dive way into the peacemail park to make it into a full idea >> as opposed to taking the full idea as a as a whole >> um and on a full board level. And I think a
106good example of that is a couple of years ago where we spent a tremendous amount of time recreating revising I think four or five different transportation policies and actually those policies became the the guideline as to what the administration was doing and revamping transportation efforts. So yeah, it's it just keep the board involved. >> Keep going. >> Okay. All right. So next slide, Rob. So same same and same similar same level of activities I would think for each of these, but but you know December and January is our staffing time. So so so now's the time if if there's a if there's a desire to change any of the staffing formulas, now's the time to do it. you know, get it discussed, model it, see what see what potential impacts are before, you know, I
107I it's hard. It's very hard, I think, to put to put staffing out to schools and say, "Here's your staffing and then go, well, actually, no, never actually we, you know, it's just it's the diss the cognitive dissonance there is very tough." >> Okay. And then if you go to third one, central office budgets, there's been a lot of lot of discussion about about zerobased budgeting. And I I think we tried last year. We were not greatly successful, but it's necessary. It's necessary to do this to get out of some of some of the patterns we've been in. And you know, I think most people in this room have said at some point we have to change the way we work. You know, we can't we can't get to where we want to be doing
108the same things. And so, and so we're going to put a lot of training, effort, and time now early on now in this zerobased discussion. You know, bec it's hard to tell people go create a zerobased budget if you're not from if you haven't come from manufacturing or the corporate world. So, so now is the time for for those of us who've done it to start to start doing professional development, building out templates, having conversations, mentoring, those sort of things to to raise that to raise that skill set level. >> I would just add a couple things. >> Last year through the early part of the process, we did spend time on studentbased budgeting. >> A significant amount of time. as a matter of fact, a group did and um found that student-based budgeting worked
109for our neighborhood schools, but it didn't necessarily work that well for some of our other schools and nobody seemed able to make it work for high schools and maybe we just didn't have enough people at the table. But the board was in we had at a retreat an overview of what student-based budgeting looked like. The other thing is I know the board does not want this weaponized budget uh building or budget effort where you have this is what we spent this year. So let's cut to get to what the new number is. It's sort of like it's weird incremental budgeting that you start with where you spent >> the previous year and this is our gap. I mean it it it's it's just it's not good. >> Yes. >> So yes, to try to build
110a budget if you can get the right people informed enough and and uh um thoughtful enough to try to actually build a budget. For example, we will not have the luxury of zero from our from our uh collective bargaining units. >> No, >> that won't happen again. that was a gift and and and other people were paying for it, you know, if you will, in their own personal background. So, yes, this is great. >> So, if you just hit like one more slide, Rob, and I think this is exactly what you're saying is is the idea of this building upwards. Um, you know, and changing and changing instead of talking about cuts, talk about choices. Like the superintendent and I had a great conversation about just framing the language. It's choices and investments versus cuts
111and and reductions. >> I like that. >> So, so we have So, the good news is our we'll have our target a month earlier than before. Um, we're going to start Central off same time as the schools. Uh, one question for for this for this group and really for the board is can we build can we lock in some early items which which I which I think like we lock like we locked in our fixed cost really early last year and being able to say okay >> people like that >> this this this is now locked in off the table you know move on I don't know I mean I mean it's kind of corny but you know like those fundraisers where you do like the big like thing and you fill the jar or
112whatever you know and someone comes and updates it every week I that's kind of what we're doing here. >> Well, it was sort of that pyramid thing. >> Yeah. Pyramid thing >> visually. >> Sure. And then obviously I think we've talked we need to do some some real reanalysis with federal funds and and bring them in early and not have it as a we can't get done with general fund and then say, "Oh, we pushed all this stuff to federal and then not either not have the federal funds or like it's not fair." Like it's got to be it's got to be holistic. It's it's it's got to be a holistic thing. So, and then >> or make some big choices early on like we talked at least I said something upset people but um
113will we really be able to have summer school at the end of this year. >> Yes. >> Let alone next year. Come on. >> Yeah. That's going to be that that's probably going to be one of the losses of reduction federal funds. >> You're just not going to >> Yeah. >> And you have to prepare people for that. It's it is sad. So next steps which is the next slide. So obviously it's time to expand the budget team. It's been very small and now it's time to get other voices across across the district. Bring in some of our union union partners and some other folks um sub teams with a detailed calendar and I'm talking like Gant chart calendar like project like project plan. So, so once you once you start taking deadlines in, you
114work backwards. But I think it's it's just critical for that. >> That's how you build a rehearsal schedule. Exactly. Start with the >> start start with when the first performances and work backwards. Yep. >> Yep. Um I think some conversation about what default options are. I think this is always an interesting conversation to say if you can't make a decision, you know, I mean I mean one of one of the things you want and is to is to to to force decisions is if there's a default then people can decide if the default is worse or better than what they have. Um and then the then the final one that that I think is probably based on time we'll have to >> after he's done >> the fourth one. Is that the one you're looking
115at Mr. Kra? Yes. No, I said after you're done. >> Okay. I Yeah, we need we need a sustainable classification model of spending. And we we have had for at least the last four years, we have had a different model. We've had the pyramid. We've had the tears. We've had the ice cream cone. If you remember remember when Treasure Widen did the ice cream scoop. Um we've had, you know, we've there's been some discussion with just this year levels based on student interaction. So kind of like circles concentric concentric circles going out from student interaction. We've used strategic plan alignment. We've used goals and guardrails alignment. But I I would like to bring to the board for approval starting here. Like this is a sustainable way to classify spends that we will use this year
116and going forward, right? Because the when changing the model every year means you resocialize it to folks. they have to re reintegrate into their thinking and then you can't really do year over year you know if you said like you know three years ago tier one we spent how much how much doing tier one this year well no we've abandoned that you know and so so I so that's that is a kind of longer term goal >> well I think that would be a great thing for even next month >> for the finance committee and whoever to start to talk about you share with us full-blown what any of those are >> and then we can talk through them. I mean I I the strategic alignment piece is something but um Mr. Craig go ahead.
117I was just going to say uh just two real quick thoughts on this and I think one is the sub teams I think is a really good idea to push the decision- making around some of the questions marks right that we had like how do we use facilities now versus how we used them before and I think that's part of the problem is that we've done budgets for our school buildings based on okay so we spent this is what we had in the building last year so we absolutely need this again this year right and that may not be the reflection of what the school is doing so you know we've in times at classes that we may not have students in or may not be offering in the same way or things like that
118that are part of the instructional makeup of the school. So if we're building a school for K for a seven and eight, six, seven and eight and we've been thinking about it as when they were K through six, how many teachers do they need for everything and how many that like those are not the same models. And so taking the time to develop that model is a really good way to actually build zerobased because you start with what do you do? >> What do you absolutely need to do? >> What's your wish list? What is it that >> what do you do? Um >> no wish list. I think the other part to that even also is deciding what is >> central office versus a central office cost versus a schoolbased cost. >> Thank you.
119>> And I think part of the reason I say this because we have a lot of central office costs that are actually people in school buildings. >> Right. And that we and again getting to your tier model or getting to whatever model we're going to use I guess really the sustainable classification model. We've talked about it in terms of like who's got direct instruction ats. I think Cody had a presentation on that last meeting. So if you have a person who's central office paid comes out of a central office budget but is almost every single day at a school building, is it fair to put them under central office as a way of thinking about what is the cost of that education in that building, right? Because that then makes it look like we're cutting
120central office when in fact what we're doing is cutting services directly to the building. Um and I think that's one of those things that we have to be very careful about. the same note, I think that's why starting central offices so much are so much earlier is really appealing to me because I think we sometimes cut services in places where we actually need people to make sure the folks in the in the building are able to do their work in the building, right? So like if we cut dollars and we say we're cutting them out of security, sounds nice because security is in central office except for until you go to the to the building and say, "Why is there no security guard here?" And it's like we're down from three to two this year.
121we're down two to one this year. Um, so I appreciate that hard work and I think building the team out makes a lot of sense. The one thing I might add to also that idea of default is what do we do if we cannot do this any longer. So there are some programs or some things that we might say like it's just not sustainable b the way the cost is >> and so rather than default is what's the if we may still need to provide this service what's the minimum way the service can be provided it might be a different default as opposed to if we can't agree right so you know again if if state's requiring us to do a bunch of stuff now that we have to do by law >> um but
122if the state minimum is X maybe that is what your now default is as opposed to if we don't agree on it because I think sometimes what we don't agree with will get to a higher default than if it's what is the minimum we're required to do and then we can associate those conversations above it. >> So the state minimum X we're we're talking about Y and Z but if we can't agree on Y or Z X is what we have to do no matter what. >> Yeah. And I think you may have a default that's above it >> or you may find other ways to def but this is the very minimum we have to budget in. And so you know again I think about that like when we talked about assistant principles and
123principles every school has to have a principal. So that's the default right but actually every school might need a principal and a assistant principal >> might be your default level. And then whether or not you have an additional one to it or whether or not you have a part-time or whatever that can all be part of the discussion. But the only thing they're required to have is the principle. And that's the starting point is if that really will push some folks to maybe be willing to negotiate or willing to think about those things creatively. They know the default is really the minimum >> instead of some arbitrary number that's in between. And and I like just my brain I like that part of what you just said where you have the fixed costs which made
124sense to people but that the state minimums are obvious too. I mean so you're going to start with that and it's fixed cost and the minimums that have to be provided based upon law because that that's non-negotiable. >> Yes. And then everything else, prove it. Return on investment. Prove it on, you know, the superintendent and y'all did like uh eight different major remakes that maybe were personnel or reorganization. I'm not talking about process improvement. Uh no, I'm talking major reorganizations. See how that reorganization is either saving us money or getting us better outcomes or not. Um, so yeah, this is it's very exciting stuff to to be looking at. >> The one other thing I wanted to mention and I think it's helpful because we got director Harden here as well, but we have some
125positions that have now come into the district this year that were not a part of how we budgeted last year at the beginning, >> right? And I do think we need to figure out where those fit into the model because past those were contract services >> and now that they are district staffing that's another part of that zero base that if you say okay we got this position that's at a school now being paid out of school budget that's a different world for them as well. So >> I I would and the whole idea of central law we said this last year and we didn't do it. We said we wanted to make it all one kind of one budget or at least a parallel which is you're trying to do >> years ago. The
126emphasis was to get as much to the schools and be able to show the public that it's actually at the schools because we were trying to overcome the fact that for over 40 years this place was known as heavy central office when they were downtown. There was a huge bureaucracy downtown. And so through the Ronin experience, she was really saying, "Oh, no, no. We got to make sure the public knows we don't have that big bureaucracy anymore." So, we were slashing and whatever all the we could from central office and pushing it out there. Well, now this next chapter is let's do attribute it to schools instead of trying to I mean that's just something to think about >> the the central office versus the schools that's where the people want the money just to
127cross it. >> Yeah. I think maybe just in my mind the way I think about it is what's student facing >> and so if we have central office costs that are student facing they should be allocated out to the schools >> where the children are. also on your um sub teams. I think just maybe you're already planning for it, but those groups might need some uh training. >> Yes. >> And some orientation to if they're new to the budget process or you're bringing in other voices that haven't done it before. I think you talked about it, but I would remember to do that. I think on these uh sustainable classification models, >> whatever model that we end up picking, I it would be nice if you would recommend one that you really want to go
128with. But I think whatever model you pick, there might be some ability to um go look at prior just recast prior years in that model so that there is some year-on-year comparison. You might not have to spend a lot of effort there but some. I think the other thing that might be really helpful to our board would be helpful to me is when you do these sub teams when you do the process of bringing in different voices and maybe uh have some u methodologies that you're using to determine uh ROI and some rationale around the decisions that you the decisions that get made whether it's a default or not. But I think in in able I think it would help our board be able to approve a budget to know a little bit more about
129the background of what your decision-m was so that we don't necessarily have to revisit that or question that as much and if we can anticipate that up front might be helpful. Um so anyway thank you. >> Good. >> Very good. >> Go on. >> Okay. I think that is the I will I will re make a couple tweaks and we will do this on Monday. >> Excellent. Okay. All right. Last I'm sorry we are way >> I know it's all right. >> We did not we did not get faster. Um Rob back in slide 40. I did want to come back to my goals. Um, thank you for a lot of lot of feedback from this group. And so here I'll just I have a couple copies for the for the board members here. So
130I tried to do a version two um based based on yeah a lot of great feedback. So So the big change is and and you can you can read the you can read the text and please give me feedback however you want. Call, email, text, whatnot. But just for for the public to be say it out loud. Um obviously one goal would be to the budget process which we spent quite a bit of time on this morning. Uh a second goal would be to develop a long-term revenue plan proposals. So I think that's it's going to be very big in the next year. Um and then and then the third one is kind of a financial performance index to help us manage internally our resources. So, and then second bullet is community outreach and engagement.
131So, you know, we're working on very quickly, which I want to share soon, but we're working very quickly on the new financial town halls, money matters with Mike. Um, got the had the honor of presenting to districtwide LSDMC, and we'll continue doing those outreach methods. Also want to design a new year-end financial report. So we'll call it, for lack of a better term, our popular annual financial report to publish out at the end of each year that gives people that's a little more accessible than the than the ACFR, you know, the 180 pages that we do there. So this is critical >> critical thing I think publication >> so that everyone everyone in the public can quickly get to our data >> you know and kind of our story and you know wrap wrap our
132financial story around the data so that so that we so that we're telling the story of our finances and not letting other people do so. And then finally, um, onboarding a new assistant treasurer. Yeah. And turning over some of the operational kind of improvements and projects to them and making sure those get done. >> What's the slash controller? >> Controller. >> Actually, the actually the position title is assistant treasurer/controller. It's been that way. >> And what does that mean? >> Controller is basically the person who makes sure the money is where the money is. >> Okay, good. I understand that definition. That's the easiest easiest way to say it is they control the money. How about that? So they control the cash cash in and cash out. >> Cool. Mr. Craig, >> uh, I like
133the goals. I have no problem with the goals. The only thing I would add is if you can give us the timeline when we have to as a board do an evaluation of those goals when you present it to the full board. >> Seriously. Yes. >> Because our timeline for treasurers is a weird timeline. I have asked the president to put on the retreat the evaluation for the treasurer and the other people that we evaluate whether it's a followup or the beginning or what have you. So yeah timeline would be good to have that from Mr. Hoy I guess or from the treasurer. Okay >> so that we actually meet it this year and that would be great. Uh the other thing I'd say about the goals I do think and I don't know to
134have some sim semblance or similarity with the superintendent is to look at the standards >> for Ohio school treasurers. I think there's there's the five uh similar to the superintendent and it's it's published but it's leadership, >> financial management, facilities, property and asset management, uh communication and collaboration and uh professionalism. >> Yes. So I I tried on the do on the documents you have here. Yes. on the doc we have here. I put in there >> I appreciate >> kind of the links to those goals because it it is important for >> um I like these goals. I like everything you've got here. I do think that I just want to be sure that under goal three that there's that that tool uh can integrate with uh HR. I think that there I wouldn't mind
135seeing us the link between finance and HR somehow be more robust. It seems like that's always been an area where got a lot of hiccups >> and I think if we could have some financial tools that help us keep an eye on, you know, whether it's payroll issues or people getting the data into payroll and all those kinds of things that cause problems. Uh also I'm also hoping that this financial tool would also maybe bridge uh working uh the way that you work with the superintendent. You know le just leverage that for working uh with the you know the non the non- finance part of the administration the superintendent and HR just a suggestion. Thank you might be helpful. Cool. All right. That enough feedback. >> That was excellent. Thank you. And and and feel
136feel free to read and read and reply. You know, I know that's it's a pretty dense document. So, >> absolutely love it. Okay. It's hard to imagine, but we're on new business now. Four weeks later, >> I will say a lot of the old business will go away now. >> That's right. >> Like we we we have put we have put some things to bed. Yes, we have put some topics to bed. So, >> I think Phyllis just needed to be told one thing that we know we're coming back to do next uh next month. But uh we'll try to remember what that was. Okay, keep going. Do we want to do uh the monthly financial reports? Is that something that has to be done or it's all been produced and we can skip to?
137Uh, >> it's been produced. Um, >> can you tell us those things that we should look at so we can get to some of the other >> Mr. Since we already had star of the show, he had a good 35 minutes. >> Yeah, just a quick quick update. We talked about >> Go for it. >> We talked about the tax settlement that we received in September. Uh so as of August the settlement doesn't hit the financial reports. >> Okay. >> Where last year it hit in August or yeah in August this year September. So a little bit of timing difference there. We also talk about why the revenue was down. Um the other thing in terms of expenditures salary and benefits um we're about 4.3 million higher at this point versus last year. >> Okay.
138Um, again, we we kind of know what those relate to. The timing of transportation expenses. There was an additional payout this year. So, expenditures are up. Basically, that's the point. Revenues were down, expenditures were up, but a lot of that can be associated with timing. Um, preschool, no real differences there. Um, so I think that is kind of the gist of the report. >> That's pretty good. >> Awesome. Thank you. >> Nan, do you want to say a say a quick thing about state and federal grants? >> Go for it. >> Um, I mean, I'm I'm more than happy to sacrifice my time for the good of the cause. >> Tell us something. >> Happy to yield my time to the gentleman from >> So, we are a lady from >> We're We're really, you
139know, wrapping up fiscal year 25. We've got one more month that we'll be preparing fees that are due on September 30th. So really, you know, we'll have the big story next month once everything's been submitted. Likewise for fiscal year um 26 with all the delays, I really didn't have a lot to present because um all of the delays with the funding and other things >> and the and growth changes, I didn't find, you know, that it was really relevant at this time. So um I did want to if you want to pull up that one other little spreadsheet. Um I was just planning on um giving out some kudos to the the schools and the principles. You know, we always talk about the big picture for grants and not really get into any of the
140lower levels. And so um this is the title one funding at the schools which is you know again the focus of title one, right? And really what matters and as you can see like we are at 100% 98% spending at almost every single love it >> 97% of the schools are well above our goal at this time of the year and so just kudos to everybody involved in that the principles the clerks the you know AP payroll everybody that enabled that to happen for this year to get the money to the kids in the right time period um and you know get things done for for the kids. So that that was my one call out for this this meeting. >> I appreciate that because I know we've sat in this u room. I think
141it was three years ago and then another two years ago and indeed it was where even treasure Wagner had to say we have not we did not spend all of the grant money that we were allotted and the idea is to spend it on the year that you've got it and we had to actually have a couple of community people come in and kind of tell us because they had other knowledge that we hadn't spent. So, this is a big improvement and I I I know I appreciate it greatly. I'm sure we all do. And thanks for the this the kudos. >> Yeah. So, hopefully I'll have more news next month once we wrap. >> I know you do the star of the game next month. >> Kev was this month. >> Okay. Other >>
142think that takes us to KPI updates. >> All righty. Rob, if you want to go back to the monthly slides. I think that is slide 26. start Tom >> to theia. >> My section will be quick as also. >> All righty. So really what I wanted to come today was just to lay the groundwork for the next couple months of the beginning of the KPI review process. Um last year we talked we brought in budget managers had them talk about their contracts and their KPI. So I just kind of wanted to lay some groundwork this year of what that's going to look like. Super >> purpose for doing these reviews um is really ultimately create the best outcomes for our students by making sure that the services that we're that we're contracting out are performing
143in the way that we would like them to perform. Um something we talked about in this meeting and I like that we talked about it. We're cultivating that culture of accountability. So not just accountability with ourselves but with our vendors to perform and vice versa. So >> and also our students. >> Yes ma'am. Yes ma'am. because our report card is really in part about their performance. We are all in this together and all of us have to be held accountable and we're being held accountable and have to perform including our kids. >> Thank you. Also, um as we've talked about a lot about budget and what the next steps in the future look like, using this will help drive our decisions, give us that data that we need to make um our decisions and make
144sure we're making the best decisions possible. And then something else to think about is really mitigation of risk associated with contracting our services. So we're trusting other vendors to teach our kids or to instruct our kids or provide services to our students. >> We want to make sure those are performing. So really we're having these KPIs or having performance measures in place. We're helping mitigate that risk as well. >> I know our audit team would love to hear that word. Um vendor contract review the objectives. So next slide, Mr. Rob. So for the first I'll have a timeline here in just a moment but the first um first focus will be on our high dollar highv value contracts. We start with our over 200,000 as we have in years past um and start with those
145for the first couple months. Also during this process this is leg work that's done on the front end. We also during this process want to make sure that the KPIs are in fact one measurable and two align with district goals. um we don't want any KPIs that aren't being able to be measured that aren't also meeting what the district's trying to do as a whole. And then really during these meetings, the final two steps here are what we want to focus on. So comparing performance data, using vendor reports, using audit reports, using any kind of performance tracking tools that you may have in place, budget managers principles, those kind of tools to track and compare our data um to make sure that we're actually doing what we're say we're doing. And then finding out what
146those next steps are. Do we need to document these findings? Do we need to act on these findings? Do we need to do we need to reshape our KPI? Um, even taking a step further, are there stakeholders that need to be engaged in some of these contracts to talk about what what KPIs need to be done? So, that's really our objectives. >> And then, Mr. Crosset. >> Yes, sir. I got a question. your $200,000 um mark. >> Mhm. >> Do you know what percentage of the total dollars those contracts cover? >> Off the top of my head, I don't do that. >> Might be interesting. I' I'd just be curious to what kind of coverage you get with your focus. And also, you you might want to look at that coverage not in terms of
147the dollars >> uh that you're that you're covering, but also maybe also look at the number of contracts. In other words, may maybe we've got a thousand contracts and you're only looking at 50 >> or 1,600 or whatever >> 1300, >> but have it be reasonable, but it might be interesting just to be able to report that to us how much coverage you're getting with your focus. >> Absolutely. Thank you for that. >> I would I would add to what Mr. Crosset said, what he said before about the number dollars there. It's which which of these are student facing too. What? >> Man, I like that idea to to prioritize help prioritize which contracts you're really looking at. >> Sir, >> I just want to say I think one of the distinctions and we've talked
148about it before with the over 200 versus under 200 is typically under 200 have more of a direct to school relationship than the over 200. Um, so what we may what you may end up seeing in that is that you know like >> we get a a contract for a particular product that needs to be done at the school or particular service as opposed to like the 200,000 which were like >> the million-doll contracts for something they provide to the whole of the district. >> Um, and I think that may be something that we at some point have to go back and revisit and look again at. Uh, but I think that was one of the distinguishing points that we noticed when we were doing the review of all the contracts a couple years ago
149was, >> you know, like some of these bigger contracts were things that like we just huge services that we needed done and versus the smaller contracts were the, you know, maybe we could combine a couple of these and that type of deal. Maybe there was a lot more of the consolidation around the smaller contracts in the past. >> So, I think that's a helpful point there, I think. >> Yes. Yeah. And and we actually do try to look at that. So every year we kind of do um pick the >> Yes. So we do try to look at that. Every year we do try to look at the services that are being provided districtwide and what schools and departments may be utilizing that services and collectively is that service over $100,000. If so, then we
150kind of bring those stakeholders together and say, can we do a RFP to get the biggest bang and cost savings for our dollars? >> And again, we have way too many contracts to be able to monitor all of them. We really do. And you'd be surprised how few giant contracts we actually have. >> Going. >> Right. Next slide, Mr. Rob. And thank you all for the feedback. Took notes on those. And then this slide here is really just to pose some questions for budget managers, principles, those who own these contracts start asking themselves to be prepared for this meeting. Some of the questions we might want to start seeing answered as we do this review. Um I won't go through all the questions as they are here, but things like how are we tracking the
151data? Um a big question I want to start asking is how did you get your baseline? So a lot of folks are saying I want to increase something by 5%. Well, are we increasing from 95 to 100 or are we increasing from 0 to 5? I think those questions are difficult to answer because it does take a lot of leg work and it does take a lot of communication with the vendor. But I think those are how we those are the important questions we start asking ourselves if we really want to get these KPIs to the next level. And I think it's it's time we start pushing them. Time I start digging a little deeper, doing a little leg work myself. So I think it's just time to start getting these questions answered. Um and
152then ultimately what is the per pupil impact if that if that is available or what is this investment worth it? So we talked about earlier Mike mentioned treasurer Mike mentioned that we might have a vendor that is tutoring seven kids but got the same results as a vendor that's tutoring 30 kids. Well the cost was the same the results were the same. So where is which one is worth the investment? Those are the questions we might be able to start asking ourselves as well. Um, and really just to start prepping to making sure that we're holding this accountability where it needs to be. And then final slide on this one. And this is just a quick overview of the timeline. I did resemble this timeline off the way we did things last year. Um, we
153split the big group. And obviously the as we just talked the over 200,000 that might be a different pool looking at some of the suggestions you guys have just made. Um, but looking at those, breaking those up, those are a little more in depth as those talk do a little bit more talking and data analysis. So, I did set those up for three rounds, whereas the smaller contracts usually go a little quicker. Um, but that's just a rough timeline of where we stand now. And then my final slide, this was a request um for information. So, I just wanted to provide a breakdown of activities beyond the classroom over the last two years. Um, kind of similar to what Mike alluded to earlier with HCESC. Um, you can see the service provided, the 24 spend,
154the FY25 spend as of the end of August. As we mentioned earlier, some grants are still paying out, some invoices are still paying out. So, this these numbers might be updated ever so slightly. And then what we really wanted to look at was the FY26 investment or what I call the encumbered contracts that are encumbered as of the end of August. And these contracts um show you can see a slight decrease over the last few years of how much we're investing with this. So, and that is all I have for my section. >> Mr. Cross. >> Yeah. Um, I just want to make a note that this uh ABC chart that you have here does not is this uh Oh f Oh, it's FY26. Okay. You don't have FY27 in here? >> No. >> Is
155that Are some of those contracts still to be determined? >> I would I I think so. >> We're in 26 >> now. But um Okay, I understand. >> Yeah, that's a little too far out. >> We're a little too far ahead. >> Okay. So for FY26 uh it does not and I know it's I've asked this question before but you don't are able to anticipate the revenue that will come from this but I think that is just make a footnote that there will be revenue to offset this 2.9 [Music] during the year at some point how much it is and whatever is that something in future years that we could budget if we get some confidence level of what they'll might deliver or not or is it just because it's outside the district. >> The
156pro Yeah. I for you start getting into the independence issue, right? To say like like if we budget it as revenue, then we would also want to budget as expense, but at that point if we're budgeting counting as one of our expenses, then we've kind of killed the independence of the foundation. >> I I agree the independence is very important. So I I agree. I mean I I mean I think it's important to state that yeah there there are extra this is just the money that we spend on services. >> There are lots of things that ABC previously and foundation going forward does brings to the table for CPS and for our students that that are well beyond this this spending. But this is a common question that comes up that how much have we
157spent over the last couple years and and you can see obviously as we brought since director Harden's here as we brought the athletic directors in house you know that that contract and has went down um you know some of the other contracts are here are here and there resource coordination has has stayed pretty steady but that that is but again one of the things people tell about resource coordination is we have >> how many lead agencies now 10 11 >> about I think services about 14. >> ABC is our biggest one, but we have 10 or 11 lead agencies all who have the same contract with us. So, so I always say like if we weren't contracting with ABC for this, we would probably be contracting with somebody else, you know. And then and then
158there are the awesome folks at at Clickie who do it for us who do who just do it for us. you should always point them out as a as a as a contributor to to the district. >> Sir, >> and I just want to make one kind of clarifying point like the revenue or the dollars that would come in from any grants or foundation any work the foundation does is a donation to the district, right? It's treated as a donation to the district. >> In the same way we would track other groups that donate products or donate resources or services, right? Um, Mike, Treasure Gustin. >> Yes. >> So, like it would be counted in under like >> what we received as a donation to the district, not so much as a revenue. The district
159can do what it kind of wants to with it. And so, we've seen that before with like groups who've donated facilities, you know, >> equipment, that type of stuff that are high dollar amounts that the district would otherwise have had to pay a lot of money for that comes to us at a benefit. Um, but it comes in as I I know for instance u like the W Hills Foundation donates a lot of resources to the school to allow the school not have to spend their dollars on things and some of our other school foundations have done in the past including like buildings >> that we built that have been solely built off of foundation dollars. Um but they've always come in they always are tracked as a as a donation not um per se
160revenue, >> right? Yeah. I mean I mean it's kind of like why why we have that donation section the treasury report. I mean at the end of the day the great thing is it's all resources that go to our students regardless of whether whether you know we we spend the money or someone else spends the money. >> Yeah. >> You know if we get the the items or the services as a donation >> and there's some tax implications also that for reasons why they would be considered >> donation. But but is that something internal auditor person, chief executive, >> is that something you want to talk about, chief, or not? Because I the the donation piece is is critical. But when we create a foundation, does it is it no longer reported as a donation
161to the district, but it is it is does the foundation serve as the the conduit? How does that work? I mean, >> we don't necessarily see the stuff that the Hills Foundation >> spends in any treasure report. >> I think we see what they give to the school over a certain amount. >> Get like >> but the don the donation to them is the separate their donation to us is what we would see. So like so so someone gave like a million dollars until they spend that million dollars on something for our students we won't see it. Once they do >> well this is important reportage because you know this board will find any number of ways to look a gift horse in the mouth several times an hour uh which we spend an hour
162but but chief >> I was just going to add I think it depends the form in which the donation reaches us. So let's say the foundation, you know, uh, donates something of a like kind. So if it's a service or a asset, I think we would recognize that as a donation. And then the flip side of that is those expenses if they were something we would have otherwise covered would just be excluded from our expenses in our budget entirely. So that would alleviate some of that budgetary uh strain. I think the other side is if it's a a um financial donation and then it would enter our books from a financial side as revenue, we would have to uphold the intent of the donor and then we would in fact recognize the expense. So I
163think it just depends at which point it reaches us in whether it would follow kind of more of an accounting side of things or if it would be more of a recognition of a nonmonetary donation. That would be my take on it. >> That is that is a good distinction. If if someone writes us a check, we're going to recognize that as revenue and you'll see the revenue the expense side out of it. If if if someone works with us and donates an item, you know, so it could be the same way like like like I remember when my kid when my kid when my child was young, you know, we decided to buy iPads for her for, you know, I worked the principal. I was on the PTA for for for like a hot
164second. But um you know you you know you know had had they written a check and said go buy iPads you know we're going to take those revenue we'll we'll spend the money but if they went out and just bought them and then handed them to us then that's going to show up as a donation and we'll track that as equipment you know we'll tag it. It becomes an asset of the district. Well, if it pleases the committee, I would like the the chief and the treasurer and the um general counsel to kind of figure out what that really would be and report back to finance next month if that's possible. Mr. Mr. Craig, >> I just going to add because I think we we were doing a policy update >> with regard to donations.
165We had a kind of conversation around this last year in part because you had folks who were trying to donate to teachers specific >> Uhhuh. >> through foundations. >> Mhm. >> So like like I want to give this phone to this teacher. So I can't do it directly. So the foundation and we're like no they can't do it either. like but I think there was a conversation around like crowd sourcing and that kind of I think was what we were also talking about in that >> well I put that into that whole assignment I think because I've gotten a couple of things of there's somebody crowdsourcing using uh what is it next door >> or something it uh >> raise a lot of questions because it's actual money uh going to somebody particular strange. >>
166And I was just going to add, I think we're well positioned. I think a lot of the foundational work around some of the basics has been really well defined. And I think this is an opportunity to add the definitions we need, look into the tax and the law and all the other implications and make sure we set things up properly from the jump. So, I think that's a great assignment. >> Great. >> We'll do that next month. >> Do the next month. All right. Let's keep going. >> Let's see here. I think we're >> Oh, boy. Not sure how I'm going to do a tip in CR. All right. So, Rob, if you'll go to slide 42. So, the next thing in the agenda is >> the encyclopedia. >> Yes. So, we're going to do
167a lot of submit as written to this, I believe. >> Please. >> There's and honestly, there's a lot of background in this presentation. So, I would re I would recommend >> save it or >> No, we need it. Okay. I I would recommend if you're interested in this, I this is the one meeting that Miss Don is not at and she's usually she's usually the most interested on this. >> Um but there's a lot of background information we won't go through, but if you have questions, please like look at that. Um if we just go ahead and talk about if you go to slide 46, Rob. So just really quickly, CRAAS, that stands for community reinvestment um area and and we talk about this a lot, just the payment process. So So these are these
168are tax abatements that Glad you >> Okay. These are these are tax abatements um property owners get and these are the ones that we actually bill for. So so we maintain the data of this, the parcels, the values, those sort of things and we bill twice a year. So if you go to the next slide, you can see there's two different rates depending on when the contract when the contract was in and this is negotiation between us and the city of Cincinnati. So we have people at the 25% rate and a 33% rate effective in 2021. Um most of the old most of them are still on the 25% rate. So you can see if you go we're down to 361 active CRA contracts. If you go two slides, Rob, interestingly, you know, we are
169not seeing the volume that we did before. It's slowed down a bit. I don't know if that is kind of the overall commercial real estate kind of slowdown hitting us. I think that's part of it. You know, it's trends, but there were a lot of CRAAS that terminated last year. Um, we had 34 that just expired. These are these are for a period of years. We had five that were terminated for non-compliance. Um, and we had 25 that kind of just never got implemented. So, that was a very high number considering and then, you know, we're not replacing them with the new ones that we see. If you go to the next slide, you'll see revenue. Um, in the fiscal year, we build 9.4 million. We collected 8.8. That's about a 93% payment rate. It's
170pretty good. Uh you can see there the outstanding amounts as of the end of the year and we're down from there. So so we're down to about 450 446,000 total outstanding for all CRAAS. Um the night and we're down we we've cut our cut our outstanding AR almost $180,000 year over year. So we we monitor this. We started we've gotten a little more serious about assessing late fees. Good. Uh we added electronic payment option. I think that's helped. You know, a lot of these a lot of these payments are made sort of like your home like like a lot of people's taxes are paid through escros and so it's the same concept. There's kind of escrow companies that do it. So allowing them to pay electronically sometimes gets us a lot of money. So so
171we're working well. Um the city has been supportive. So there is some language that if you miss more than two payments, your CRA can be terminated. So that tends to keep that tends to keep the payments coming in. And then quickly if we can talk tiffs. So if you go to slide 53. Okay. So >> on the CRA and and then the TIFF piece if there's a way to help us. Well, you kind of do it here. It would be important for the board to know the neighborhoods. >> Uh if there's just a geographic kind of way to to to center some of that information. Not now but yes >> in the future it would be helpful based upon where our our facilities are. >> Yes. Yes. Um so so tiffs just high level tiffs
172are a are an economic development thing through through a city or through a city or township and so they so they create a district or area that's a that's a tiff. The the tax abated money goes then to the city and so then they use that to do improvements in that district. So those are those are the kind of improvements you do. We have a bunch of them, you know, all the townships and the city. City is by far our largest our our largest customer for those. Um the nice thing is we don't bill. We they pay us. So when they get their tax settlements from the county auditor, then they write us a check and we just make sure we collect them all from everyone, tick them off and we're good. You can see
173it is a significant source of revenue over the course of a I mean, we're looking at over, you know, last year over 37 million over $37 million in a calendar year. So, that's that's quite the thing. And then if you hit the last slide, this is kind of interesting. I always say the city's our biggest. So, so yeah, the red is the city, then the blue is everybody else. >> Yes. And you can and and you can see this this has been a nice increase. Um, one of the nice things is that as property tax reappraisals happen, you know, not only does it not only does it increase ours, but it also increases these, you know, so they're under the same reappraisals. >> Wow. >> And that is TIFFs and CRAAS in two minutes. >>
174I love it. >> Love it. >> Yeah, let's >> tiffs and CRAs in two minutes. That's not a bad idea. >> All right. I believe we are in the last item on our agenda. >> And he's been so patient. >> It's actually me. >> Oh, it's you. >> Go for it. >> Yeah. So, I'm here to present on our schedule EQI. Um, so we have been I'll start off by saying I pushed us a week earlier on the date on my slide. So, sorry about that. I'm trying to move time faster. But so if we go to the second slide, this is a QI team that we started 5 years ago. This is the fifth school year we've been doing this. Josh is my counterpart. Um Nan was a huge part of this renovation of
175this project as well. Um so we currently consist of a team of the treasures office, athletic department, as well as HR. So those three group groups meet on a bi-weekly basis to kind of just keep up with what we are doing. The next slide will show our key driver diagram, which is things we've worked on, things that we've incorporated and kept into our processes and things that we potentially would like to still do and still work on to make improvements through this process. What this real project is about is the goal was to make our payments for schedule E process on time instead of on a supplemental payment. So that was the whole goal of moving this process. We changed the way we processed it via moving contracts into the business plus system. Um changing
176the way we set up their pay assignments to autopay versus wait for different things. So through this process, the whole goal was to pay people on time and to not do as many supplemental runs. >> Good. >> So the next slide um I have three different run charts to show you. I broke it into three different ways. This one is all of them. So we're when I say all I mean seasonal which would be like coaches sports and then the full year which is like the club activities and things like that would be the full year. So when I'm doing the all which is what we're looking at now that is both of those groups combined. And so you can see the F stands for fall payment, the W is for winter payment and then
177S is for spring. So we pay this out three times a year. And then the different line bar colors are the four different years we've had so far. Um, as you can see, fall is always our lowest number. Uh, the reason for that is going to have to do with the fullear contracts. So, when schools get back in session, the um team doesn't meet until sometime in September. They may not decide on clubs until December. So, because of that, they're always going to miss that November payment, so that fall payment. So, it's going to hold that number down for us in that in that regards. Um, but if we go to the next slide, this is the season contract to kind of look at them individually. You can see here that our fall number actually
178increased for season. So, that means we were paying our sports coaches on time better than we have in the past. And as you can see, winter and spring also increased. So, we've been increasing every year and getting better and better at this process, making little tweaks here and there to make sure that that everyone is getting the money they deserve and are paid in an appropriate time. >> Yeah. And I would just say that uh this this committee really came together uh with former Treasurer Wagner, you know, came to us and said, "We're getting too many calls on coaches and people not being paid, not being paid on time." Sat down one meeting, brought us all together. She said, "Figure it out." And that was the only meeting she attended and and and I think
179that you know these numbers >> executive absolutely absolutely and I think you know these numbers would show that you know it's highly effective. Um we on athletic side have received a lot less calls if if really any you know our secretary would after every pay period receive and field numerous calls that we had to navigate through and that has gone down exponentially. >> Great. The last slide here is the fullear contracts, which will really show you that fall last year that that just means clubs were decided later than normal. So, it's going to hold that down. But if you look at winter and spring, they were above. So, we got it figured out between that fall and winter um for the rest of the year, which just sets us up for for success for the
180rest of the the installments that we process. But I did just want to note that there's just been some continual changes that we are improving on as much as we can um in the hopes of um continuing with a new change that just happened in the HR side that we will continue to improve this process exponentially. And then as well with the athletic directors coming on board to CPS, they now have access into some new reports that they can monitor their stuff on a regular basis and hopefully help us increase these numbers as time goes on. questions, Mr. Craig. >> Um, so one question and like one comment also I think this is tremendous because I remember first year on the board this was like a big issue at a board meeting even where we
181had folks who on schedule E were coming in and you know arguing different parts to it and different debates on it. I do think the payment is the success part. I think where we still are struggling is how do we figure out a better way to allocate or even decide what is schedule E versus what is just something we ask people to do right and I think that's the struggle with schedule E is that we have so many things that we're including in as schedule E payments because on some schools nobody does it and on some schools every year this M does it right and so that's just its own challenge I think maybe the question I would have as we think about the fall payment is there any thought process to when that happens
182that may help improve the efficiency of that payment because I I recognize that some of it won't happen till December or November, but if there's a way for instance to catch more of the folks either earlier in their part, maybe it's communicating to the students earlier about the idea of being a part of the group or if it's a giving a two weekend, three weekend kind of make your ideas or make your choices. Um because I feel like some of the schools will always have these programs and they have people join day one and other schools you may not have it at all. >> Right. And so I I don't know if there's a way to get us making some of those decisions earlier or or at least giving some more of a buffer to
183help the fall number look a little better. >> Yeah. I mean on on our end, I know that the the fall becomes a beast just with the the amount of contracts that we have. So on the athletic side, end of a fall season, you're going to pay that fall coach. I I think that there's opportunities to to look at talk with the schools about those non-athletic contracts that come in. to Jess's point, um they're they're trying to get all these clubs and activities that may not even have started at that point or been started. So, I think that there's certainly opportunities and then there are some uh clubs and activities that just won't even be in that fall mix, right? They they don't they're not even in that payment. They are starting in the winter,
184the ski clubs, uh and those other like end of season activities. I I um if you go to a suburban school and you want to be in chess club, a chess club is up and running the first week of school and they know who their sponsor is. They know who's going to be helping them. They've even got what competition they're going to be competing in that year. So, it seems like it's this is not on you all. It's on the schools. This is on the principles at at the schools that when school year is over those schools need to LSDMC's as I understand or or ILTS make the decision as to what clubs which I think is also an incorrect assignment for them to have that responsibility but they they should be making that decision
185at the end of the year so that they know what the schedule of their activities. I mean, we get a lot of heat unfairly. We're getting it from city council that why aren't these kids doing more things at school. Well, my there's not an urban district that has more activities than we do. But this late start, you want to get you want to get the culture started right away. So, that would also help with this for you all. It seems like somehow I don't know maybe we talked to the superintendent about it that that's an expectation at the end of the year that at the end of the year people in that school building know what starts or what clubs there are. I mean how does this how does this work? >> Yeah. You know
186I think that some of that does happen and you will see year after year same clubs and activities. Uh but you also have to understand that at the start of the year the schools are going to listen to the students voice right. So new new year may come in and there may not be the interest in the chess club. It might now be interest in some Pokemon club, right? Like it it comes and goes from what the student voice brings. And then is there a staff member that is in that school building that can support that particular club? So we do start it at the end of the year uh through the the budget process. The schools are shared at the end of the school year what their budgets would be at that time. Um,
187and they kind of plug up placeholders of what activities they have, what they think they're going to have next year, but then they do, uh, to Jess's point, come back at the start of the year and assess, you know, are we having these same clubs? Are there new clubs? And then to Brandon's point, it's looking at the existing clubs, new clubs, but then also looking at did my budget number adjust, right? We know that you know through some of the uh the the budget issues we were working through the school got a different number at the end of the year that then adjusted because of some cuts that we had to make right >> I understand that and a new club uh there's some aspect of schedule E is in the contract of CTF so
188it's we don't need to do this now but the idea of that somebody can create a new club uh does that get added to the uh the contract >> so the general clubs is just a club advisor, right? So there that's in the contract. It says club advisor. So that is a lot of flexibility on the school level that that uh that stipen can be utilized for any club. But there are some like you said that are listed specifically. >> Right. And this is also where we have the the greatest degree I think of concern about inequity in the schools is what kind of activities the children have or the teenagers have school by school by school. So I this is a great thing to really I'm thrilled that this is getting attention uh and
189uh obviously needs even some more attention at the school level. Yes sir. >> Just a quick question and again I think this may be helpful for us to understand as well. So for instance, if a club is not what it was planned for, it's not started until November, right? Do they the payment would then in theory be why the the percentage would be lowered in fall, right? Because you would in theory have someone who you didn't know that you had to pay until kind of mid semester. So now you're processing everything at a different time frame versus something that starts on September 1. you know it that part. So like if even in that sense like those ones that are September one you know what it is we're probably in that like 98 99 percentile
190of those things and I think the same thing would happen in the second semester right like a program or group starts an activity or something happens that we did not plan for it's probably why we're not at that 100% mark and I think that's just a hard thing to to do. I think what we also might be talking about is whether something should be schedule E or not >> or whether there's any accountability as to >> well but I mean I think like actually happening >> you could pay folks who you know are going to be doing this every year >> as a teacher with this additional pay as opposed to doing schedule >> E >> for things that we don't know that are going to exist or that are not normal employees. >> And
191I think that's one of the things I really been pushing us to think about rethink about in this because I think there's a space for adviserss. Yes, there if you're a faculty member or teacher and you're an adviser, like that's the role that we could pay you to be. And no matter how many clubs you have, you're not incentivized to create a new club so you get this pay essentially. >> Like you're you're incentivized to be there to support the students, but not necessarily to do like we have a club of two people this year, we have a club of 17 next year, like that type of a deal. In the same note, we have other folks who are not regular employees of the district or not performing what there's otherwise their normal function of
192the district that we should be paying for their services. And those folks, I feel like we probably are more accurately getting those things. You know, we know what a we know a sport has a certain, you know, certain timing for when it happens. So, we can probably pay coaches pretty regularly. Performances, we kind of know when theater performances will be. So, we kind of have a better understanding of that pretty early on. But I think it's probably some of these other ones that are the we don't know until we know that probably delay the fall um processes. >> And again, it's the it's the difference between something that's pretty formalized, which is athletics, versus those things that aren't that formalized. And my interest is those things that aren't athletics need to be as formalized as
193possible. Not ever as much as the athletic thing is. Got that? And that's valuable and that's the building block for everything as far as I'm concerned extracurricular. But please this this has to get you guys are doing a good job on the pay part, but I'm I'm worrying about the kids not having the clubs that they need to have at for the tame time and and I think every every school should be able to tell the parents and the kids what clubs they have before the school year starts. Do you have you >> I was just >> comment >> I was just curious the November payments that are late do they generate the phone calls? >> Um somewhat not as much as they would have previously because they kind of know the ads are like
194aware that that that one's not going to make it because of the process we've put in place. Um, but there are some instances where something just got missed in the line of the process and those calls do come in and then we try to figure it out and process it as soon as possible. >> Great. >> And if I'm hearing correctly, we're really looking at uh from your comments focusing on the equity and accountability of the nonathletic activities >> particularly. Yeah. Because we've got such stellar people running the athletic program. >> Oh man. Oh man. All right. But we may need an activities director for full equity. But there we go. >> Heard. >> Yeah. >> All right. Other comments, other items that are still on the agenda or somewhere in outer space. >> Sir,
195tell us what's going to happen. >> We We are done with the agenda, but if I can take a minute. >> Yes, please. >> Um to recognize one of our employees who >> Oh, no. I wanted to do that. >> Okay, you do it. Okay, fine. Go for it. >> We're recognizing Isaac. >> Yes. >> Because as some of us know, >> Isaac has decided to leave us. >> So, yes, unfortunately for us, but probably this is exciting for you. >> What are you going to be doing, young man? >> Yeah. Put on the record. >> That's right. Public record. And we're coming to visit. >> We're documenting Not much is actually changing. I'm going to be continuing to perform audit work for uh government. So, >> assurance and audit work for government >> for
196our government or some other government >> um other governments. Um but I'll be downtown. So, I'll be in Cincinnati. >> Yeah. >> So, is there do they have more money? >> Is that why you're leaving us? >> I am not sure yet. Um, >> no, but I am really grateful for, you know, all of my time. >> Well, we are grateful for you. >> Yes. Thank you. >> And you have served us well and you've served the kids and certainly your team well and um been a great asset. >> Yes. Thank you. I appreciate it. >> Way to represent CPS. So, go tell the rest of these other people what to do. >> Yes. We'll do. Thank you. >> Congratulations. >> Appreciate it. >> Anybody else? All right, I'll entertain a motion. >> Motion to
197adjurnn. >> Second. >> Unanimous. Thank you all. Have a great weekend.