001e e grow committee uh and we'll be going around the table e Bolton board member shaa Murphy superintendent Cody Hutchins contract analyst Nan hagard state and federal programs manager Yen suer I'm a public affairs consultant Rob Wilson technician um Kevin Ashley director of financial reporting and transparency good morning Jen I'm sorry pH Davis the board's administrative assistant Jennifer Wagner treasur and Chief Financial Officer Michael Gustin assistant treasur Jim CrossFit board member just arriving excuse me good morning Lauren Roberts she executive thank you all very much more arrivals there's two seats there and when you uh get a time to sit down we'll uh have you introduce yourselves Federation of teachers Li hzman with intern with the Cincinnati Federation of teachers you see welcome everyone thank you for being here uh member Craig and I uh
002last meeting uh elected uh to be and were elected to be co-chairs since that time um I've spoken with general counsel and also uh immediately properly so Mr Craig spoke with general counsel and kind of in the interest of unity um we wanted to do the co-chair thing but it also present some additional uh concerns or risks and would probably change some of the way we do a little bit of the business especially when we meet with uh the treasurer and and superintendent about the planning of the agenda so um I think he and I have said that maybe it's just go ahead and choose one and and and keep in mind the spirit that we had when we tried to do it the other way the unity among the three members of uh Finance
003because as we Face these big Financial questions and issues um I think the board and certainly the administration going to really depend very heavily on whatever finance committee uh starts to think about and and put forward so uh with that in mind we're going to not we're going to kind of undo the co-chair thing and today uh open for nominations is good um who would like be chair and then we'll vote Mr Craig so I would nominate myself to be chair of the budget and finance committee um chair last year and thought we had a really good year so be happy to to take on the task again thank you Mr Craig I would nominate myself uh from the emphasis that I place on what we face not only the financial crisis but also the
004public involvement that's going to be required in the next year year and two years and would like to return as chair of Finance which I left uh to um last year and it was in great hands no question about it Mr I I would like to not nominate myself oh come on we were gonna go around the table again but so then we'll um uh speaking on the nominations um we'll go down the line C so I will say I think one of the focuses this last year on budget and finance has really been to look at the things that have making the district work more efficiently and effectively and I think that's been a huge Focus that we tried to do to cut down our agendas to make sure that we are really focused
005on the important work that is going to get us into alignment with our budget as much as possible um that was my focus go that would be my focus for this year again is to really do that especially as we transition from uh the esteemed leadership of our current treasur and into the what will soon be a uh great leadership from our soon to be new Treasurer and so uh but I also think that there's a scope of the work that we've done especially again with the a committee with the financial Town Halls that I've worked very hard on for the last year um that I think is part of the role of what this committee needs to have done we have a huge budget crisis that are being fa that are being faced by
006a lot of school districts it's not just us and the fact that we haven't completed a budget on time for the last two years means we have a lot of work to do to get it done on time going forward in the future as well and those are things that I've placed as a priority for the last year and would do so as again as what as as a budget finance committee chair so was my thoughts thank you Mr Craig there's no question that last year was a great year for finance committee and indeed the emphasis has been on uh the op izing our operations which is part of our strategic plan and also finding ways to align our budget to the work that we do and focusing on results and Improvement of processes uh
007and certainly we would want to continue that and would expect with this array of folks and experts that we have will do that also I think this is a big year as uh member Craig mentions the transition from uh veteran treasure to new Treasurer I think that's crucial and obviously I know that the new treasur and and the veteran Treasurer are going to be looking to this committee uh as a platform to work their wonders uh on behalf of the district I think of uh certainly we need to commit to a a budget on time if possible and also a budget that reflects the crisis that we're in I think two what's different maybe this year is that this year is one in which the public and the politicians and the pundits are going to
008play a big part in what we do and what we're able to do and how we can defend the district uh and maintain local control and I think finance will be at the at the center of that uh fight and of that effort and I would like as a relatively experienced member of the board and and member of the political group of people that are involved with this local town and and have the contacts needed the state I would like to serve well Julie come on just make me on the Comm so therefore then we'll well you're gonna have to introduce yourself in just a second so let's vote right I vote for me vote for myself um thank you for putting me in this wonderful position um I I first of all it is
009an honor to serve on this committee with two very distinguished people and uh I think that I'm looking forward to a a good year a collaborative year and we we do have uh a big some big challenges in front of us so um I appreciate all all of those um concerns and comments it is the first time as a finance person that I I'm not even considered chair of a finance committee but but uh just wait but anyway I I do think that um I'm looking forward to to some good collaboration working together on this committee um I I um appreciate the work that U board member Craig has done in the past I I do uh uh vote for Eve Bolton because of her long institutional knowledge and I think in this upcoming year
010the institutional knowledge will be our best help we've got some big challenges with uh the governor and bills that are being passed and I also think that as we pass the Baton from a veteran to a new treasure that having uh as much experience on the committee helping lead our way will be the best benefit hopefully to give us the best student outcomes we can possibly get so those are my comments then and I well I don't want um Brandon didn't take it personal I I have a lot of respect for Brandon and and um hopefully we can all work together thanks thanks a lot have to have to well therefore that's uh concluded uh and we'll look at the agenda uh that's ahead of us there's a number of items on the agenda that
011we might spend a little bit less time than we normally do uh today uh because uh even though we face this great National crisis and state crisis and local B rights we have a serious basketball game uh up 75 uh and we're going to try to conclude today's meeting as best we can as close to 11:30 as possible uh and the treasure has been formed of that and is kind of manipulating parts of the agenda in order to get there I looked it up it doesn't have the dark in the financial World it does this yeah we better think about that just revised the agenda well let's uh get started if it works for you ministration uh if you want to go through the stuff that we kind of planned that would be needed to
012be done but be expedited how's that work sure um so do you want to go to the budget next so um just a quick update on the process of the budget um we've met with the senior leadership team and the central Administration is starting with a state minimums kind of budget and then um we're looking at State minimums and then like critical operations based on board policy or um maybe Collective Bing agreement and then Mike and I are trying to work out a a decision Matrix on how to then add from there so after you do the state minimums like for example High School transportation is not a state requirement so that's off the table for now right at the beginning so when you get to the state minimums and if you have X amount
013of dollars left what do you add back first and how do you make that decision because it be tends to be a very emotional decision based on um people's roles it's hard to distinguish yourself your you know your own value to that decision and so we're trying to figure out a like a numeric way to do that so it's fair and Equitable across the central office so um you know things like does it impact student um safety versus student academics versus um you know Financial compliance or something like that so and there has to be some kind of a waiting to it so you know we welcome any feedback um before we finalize and then share it with SLT but so they're they're supposed to be giving us the state minimums and the critical operations
014and U by April 1 and then um who say senior leadership team and the budget manage Central bu managers we're going to collect it and analyze it and then we'll share it back we have a series of long meetings scheduled through the month of April to um come up with some recommendations to bring to the board what's what's coloring all that is the impact of the state budget Bill we we're hearing rumors on the house revision um so if you recall House Bill 96 that the governor's version left us at 2020 to base cost values um um it did keep the guarantee um and the um phase in thank you but it did not fund the special education study that they spent four years doing and because it cost a billion dollars they don't want
015to implement it so um and then there was all the language about the sale of buildings that's very concerning to us so the rumors that came out yesterday or the last two days are that they're going to update the base cost to 23 you know thank you it's 25 um they're not going to do the phase in funding and so we don't really know numerically yet how that's going to impact our values um because remember that when they adopted the state funding formula did a six-year phase in right so they were supposed to phase it in at 83% on 26 and 100% at 27 and they're taking that off the table so um because of all these things kind of counterbalance each other I don't we don't really know what our revenues are going to
016look like right now but um then we have setti Bill 66 that wants to move the fix sum millage into the 20 mil for calculation that'll cost us about 30 six million something like that um and then um we learned just yesterday about House Bill 42 which talks about funding for undocumented students and and not just undocumented students you could be a a citizen living with an undocumented person and you still don't get funding so that that could be quite devastating to the district because it will not only affect general fund but our title funds in a big way because they're based on brain R you know the um economics of the families and if they're discounting undocumented students our economics are going to change but it's all relative to what's happening across the state
017right our economics are index to the state averages or the 40th District um and so it just depends on how it all balances out so it's really hard to predict but right now based on the information that we know we know we know um we're looking at a $51 million budget reduction from what we're currently spending now and the add-ons that we've already adopted you know like the crossing guards the lab school the ABC Foundation or I'm sorry the CPS Foundation um and then step increases because they're already negotiated in the collective burning agreement so um it's it's a big number um it's painful it's going to be a painful process but um superintendent and I are strong partners and we'll get it done we'll bring um I'm kind of anticipating maybe two different versions
018to bring to the board that'll have different versions of reductions um instead of doing any kind of line item or topical rotes questions for members will this still en are we still enable to get the budget done on time with all these variables well we'll probably have to have a plant week can it people won't be happy I mean I could do a budget right now right there a lot of us won't be happy but um but you could recommend a budget yes I could recommend a balance budget right now thank you for correction that um but so we can we can get it done if um they're not going to vote until the final budget Bill until the end of June so we may have to have a plan B for things that we
019know about and just as information leaks out um you know the signing yesterday we don't know what the impact we is going to have on our federal funds I don't everything I've read says they're just Illuminating the bureaucracy that they're not changing the the money but how that's going to flow to the state and how much control the state has on that decision is of concern so um we'll just keep the finance committee updated as we know it part of that late on a budget too is not our internal issues but also this unknowing any number of years now from the state there by right we may have to adopt a budget and just say if if our revenues go down we'll have to revise have a a list of things that we're ready to
020reduce I just have a followup question to your opening comments that you two board me two board meetings ago you kind of presented with superintendent three options and had a particular percentage cut at the schools particular percentage cut at Central and then the third was going back to State minimums going back to if I recall collective bargaining uh agreement minimums uh and there was a third one in there with it might have been federal grants or something but but going back to basic so the three options were cuts for everybody to share in right and then there was Cuts if only the central office shared in not the school cut versus a central cut okay and then the third option was the minimums the critical the crital critical minimums so everybody cut by 16% if
021I something close to that no it was 14 and then 30 but it's now more like 10 um so um what we heard from the board was go with the state minimums option Mike and I are working both we looked at what the what would happen with the treasurer's office in each of those scenarios and it's pretty ugly um so and that state minimums and in that presentation it also was Collective parment minimums yeah we can't we can't not do or collect bargaining I think that was all part of that yeah third option so okay uh so you're we're going with the third option that you presented to the board and you're working through that yes and you said you might be able to present something to the board some options or whatever uh as
022this plays when do you think that date would be that uh would that be early May uh seem to be us in April and we have a couple of board meetings and finance yeah I have it outlined in a I started drafting a like a working backwards timeline yes that Dr mof asked to do that to make sure things are on the agenda at the right time um and so probably it it'll probably be better to wait until we get the forecast done out and that because that'll be a little bit better solidified before we go public with a holistic kind of draft of a budget we can keep you updated along the way I think that's crucial for the board to be updated instead of yeah one big night where there's here it is
023or not or here's a or here's yeah that was my intent sorry if I that would be helpful any other comments Mr Craig I will be quick on this I just want to note though that the reason we haven't passed budgets the last two years on time is not because they haven't brought us budgets to review it's because the board hasn't voted and I think if this is earnest on the board to step up and give direction quicker and a vote earlier so that we get these things solidified because this has been the problem it hasn't been the administration that's been the problem it's been the board and I think that at the end of the day is how we will get to a board budget passed a budget passed by the board is when
024the board takes the job of giving direction and giving follow through seriously and we last two years didn't so at the end of the day passing a budget has not been the administration nor the Treasures Office fault it's been the boards thank you any other comments great well we look to the administration to bring us uh opportunities and uh options uh to continue to serve the kids in the in the community um let's go to the next uh part of the agenda and we'll come back to budget as we need to a little bit later it's the committee work plan that's the treasure submitted changes uh updated changes and uh we have those changes did members uh I think the only thing I suggested the last time we met uh was to um do a
025lot more emphasis on growth uh in in live up to our title as a committee and that is going to be such an important Focus for this coming year um had before you regarding the the changes uh there were dates that needed to be changed and um topics that needed to be changed I wasn't really sure that we needed that I think uh the page two that uh kind of did a a whole layout of our goals in guard rails and the uh percentage monitoring it doesn't really apply to us right uh I thought that page could be cut looking back at it after the last meeting um and uh and if those dates have been changed so we updated the financial transaction page um we updated the Roi List schedule now that's being modified
026a little bit but um simply because we're delaying todays to go to April and so um and I think we just tweaked some other things but there was a whole lot of changes so for us yeah my my big thing was trying to see if there was ways to work grow in it doesn't have to be necessarily in the work plan as much as it has the it lives in our title I just think we have to be cognizant of even our financial Outlook talking in terms of the kind of grow that we're going through so trying to that's what I was going to comment on um rumors from the so Kevin Went to the forecasting seminar yesterday and rumors are happening that they're going to try to put a um attendance instead of but
027instead of um enrollment funding enrollment funding attendance that's one thing and two he was saying something about on the guarantee that one student losses so he's going to work through that modeling and and we'll work it through but um the point is we can't lose enrollment we have we have to grow and so um in terms of funding I would just comment that I sure that the people in Columbus will come up with even greater horror stories as ways to destroy public education and this is where we are living now in a war zone against public education we need this feedback and our community needs to know these things uh every day um we appreciate the support that the union folks and our colleagues around the county are giving us and our and our folks
028at OS VA Kevin uh you're going to be a bearer of bad Tidings if that's the job you got to to report back of course that would be awful for us but it does make the point now there's always been some discussion among board members is growth good or growth bad it's part of the survival at this point in time so I want to go on public record at saying this so I don't think they're thinking of the unintended consequences of what they're doing because if all these things go to fruition there are going to be some schools that don't survive some districts that don't survive they're going to go bankrupt um we don't there's no plan for what happens to those children because there's not enough Community Schools there's not enough voucher seats out
029there to absorb all those public educated kids so um so that's one and two the challenge of growth financially is we get $3,000 per child today but we're spending more like 14,000 per child and so only the revenue the state revenue goes up $33,000 but property taxes don't increase with enrollment right so the property taxes get spread even thinner and so it's um we need enough growth in Pockets to actually help with funding appreciate that comment especially whether there's intended consequences or not we can just just we can agree to disagree on whether or not there are intended consequences but you're right it's just with the 22 districts in the county there are already at least four districts as I understand that are contemplating not existing in two years uh and that's just based upon
030the property tax piece let alone what all this other stuff uh and invariably that's where there is uh that's where we have the significant number of marginally um economic challenges that are very very difficult we have uh the work plan circulating and and then you're ready we can we can move on um good here I have it electronically so okay so the next thing is the uh audit committee members Robert we have our chief is here good morning give us a little bit absolutely so each year the audit committee has the opportunity to evaluate the membership uh we are to not exceed 10 members and at this point we have seven so there is an opportunity and decision made by the audit committee to seek uh applications from the public uh we were pleased to
031share that we received four very qualified applicants so at the last audit committee meeting in February the audit committee discussed those applicants after having interviewed with our chairs and brought forth the three recommended appointments before you and I'm happy to answer any questions you may have and certainly finance committee members and other folks here were a part of those discussions so we could highlight any of those aspects if you would like as well but I think we're very fortunate to have highly qualified and enthusiastic individuals interested in joining not that the audit committee Mr um so I want to first thank uh Dan and kice for their hard work and interviewing the folks who applied um I also want to thank uh Lauren and her team for their hard work um we we were doing
032this also in the process of changing up leadership on the audit committees um with a new Vice chair so um it's been a lot it was a lot of moving parts that went into the process and then also thank the committee itself because we made changes to reflect some of the bylaws and the undergr the underlying um needs on the committee as well so these adding these three members clarifying the role of the community members versus the role of the board members into into getting to that total number um was another part of what we did in that process um so the three folks all presented a lot of great information I think uh the the chair and the vice chair shared uh positive uh thoughts on on all of the all four and so
033these were the three that uh the committee selected and and identifyed and I think it'll be a good addition to the committee yeah I just want to Echo uh board member Craig's comments and also just to U comment that we are so lucky to have uh interested citizens who are willing to volunteer and participate in a very which what is a very good audit committee and a very good audit team so we're we're lucky and we're grateful so thank you great and I would just uh second the fact that the AIT committee and there is a Community Committee go volunteers people with great financial backgrounds uh that's been at least 15 almost uh 17 years of an audit committee if I recall and there's less than a couple of dozen school districts in the whole
034state that have anything even close to the equivalent so uh what is our process now uh do we um say yes to these three and then it will move on to the board and so Miss Davis that's would be part of the agenda for the next board meeting if okay on April 7th these people will be changed is there any protocol changes to the audit committee and then we yes that will be going through policy committee on the 28th I think we agreed as an audit committee since there was so much overlap with our finance folks that we could move forward to bringing the charter which is board policy 68 36 or 35 excuse me and Mr Hy has that I believe on the docket for next week and then hopefully that can move forth
035for full board approval perhaps at the April 7th meeting depending on timing and feedback from the policy committee General Council okay so we'll just do the membership which is most time sensitive right now and then the charter May guess okay thank you thanks for the work everybody and and thanks to the people that had volunteered and and the ones that have been accepted continuing so we're up to we're up to the monthly reporting um Kevin take it away please yes um so I should be able to make this pretty brief if you can go to we're gonna time you Kevin right so one good thing about this slide this is all of our cash and Investments for all the funds uh the orange slice has gotten bigger this month because we did receive significant tax
036advances and we've included those in our star Ohio account uh we probably got about 90% of the tax advances for this half um but just had a communication yesterday they're anticipating the settlement in April at some point so but that'll um we've weathered the low cash flow period And so from now to the end of the year I feel like we'll be in pretty good shape as far as cash flos um let's go back to slide six this shows um the fund balances by category and as you can see the general fund is at 127 again because it is our high point one of our high points during the year um so that's probably the biggest change on that slide the next slide just briefly um we try to do about twice a year an
037investment income update and so this is kind of a summary of that through February uh for general fund and Debt Service fund related to interest uh and there'll be a supplemental report that I'll get uploaded uh as a written report um two more slide slide nine um this is the cash balance for the general fund at the end of February um just pointing out the uh pound sign there um last year we were about 100 million higher and that's because we had received the $75 million tax anticipation note uh was the main reason for that again always timing issues with uh tax advances back in 23 we weren't getting tax advances as regularly so that's why that number looks lower at that point uh we'll go back to slide 11 this is the revenue comparison
038um just showing year-to date rates Medicaid reimbursements are lagging a little bit this year so all of those things we're still anticipating will come in uh go back to slide 13 this is the expenditure comparison uh fiscal year to date the third column is 432.32 um [Music] I think let's skip back to 16 and let Mike touch on that one briefly excellent this is a summary of all the things Kevin just said um our cash our statement of cash flow for the month you can see the effect of property tax advances this is one of the few months where our we have a net increase in cash because of that so that is a good thing and I'll pass it back to Kevin all right and then slide 18 uh is total number of preschool
039students by by funding category um you can see it's up about 22 over the previous month I think February kind of tends to be one of the high points in the year for the number of preschool students um really nothing unusual in the next couple slides um pretty much a continuation of what we've talked about in the previous months so we move on to Grants we have n ha with us this morning she'll Dan good morning and I'll try to go fast nothing too um alarming to report or anything so this is our um monthly average spin chart we are still slightly above our goal of 45% and a little bit ahead of last year when we really started taking this on as a focus of really you know making sure that our funds spend
040out timely as as they're expected and and we're you know quite a bit ahead of of where we started when I took this position a few years ago and the next slide um this is just the percentages um for month eight of our cycle um again we're just slightly ahead of our Target of 45% with a straight line goal nonpublic has been doing a really great job meeting with their schools and getting orders in and spending out their funds as they're at the end of their two-year cycle um this month we spent a lot of time with the principles working on their budgeting for next year planning their Staffing with their Title One funds and getting their non-personnel budgets planned out for next year we've also got several state and federal auditing and monitoring activities
041going on so across the various grants so we've been working with those agencies to make sure we comply with the reporting requirements and and the followup that they're asking for next slide all right this is just our total Grant summary the the grant awards were kind of um settling out out during February with the final carryovers and reallocations generally the state gives everybody their carryover and then they go back and reallocate any existing leftover funds from the sweeps and so this should be the final numbers for the year um nonpublic always has a true up in February as well so this should be how we end the year with our primary grants and you can see non-public ended up at about 12% overall for these um primary entitlement type grants right next slide this is
042our spend summary at the end of February for the most part our primary um grants here are at least at the goal there are a few that are slightly lower and we have been reaching out and working with those managers to try to ensure that we do get these funds spent and that we don't encounter any sweeps for the current year all right and then unfortunately I did add two slides this month but I'll still try to go fast um since we're not talking about eser anymore um I had wanted to kind of highlight title one since it's you know our largest gr at 38 million and also has a lot of interest much in the national news too kind yeah and it's it's really the one that is really like boots on the ground
043reaching the kids directly you know for its intent and purpose so I just feel like there's a lot of interest and time and so this slide represents just a very high level look at our year-to-date spend um we're at 16 million almost spent and this really represents kind of um the why of how we're spending this money you know we're spending it on instruction so that students perform better we're spending it on um instructional support So this kind of aspect of it is is the why and you can see that um almost 62% is directly coded to instructional activities as as we would hope and expect um the next slide is it's the same piie but sliced up slightly differently and this is um by object code and the object code really represents the what
044what are we buying and doing to accomplish our goals and and to meet the the goals of the Grant and you can see that it's slightly over 80% of the tital one money spent year to date is on salaries and benefits um so that just kind of reflects that we've got you know people in the buildings working with the kids these are our reading Specialists and our math Specialists um only about 7% is to purchase services that includes really all contracts you know travel field trips anything that's through a service and then about 12% on supplies and I I think this does reflect that we're kind of um adhering to the intent of the Grant and the guidelines that we're getting from the the federal government is as far as what's impactful with spending These
045funds questions I'm done then what do you anticipate to be the we can the carryover if if that's the right term uh the carryover uh from year to year as to how that would impact next year's budget we have you know been making a a really serious Focus um attempt to spend the money in the year that it is awarded because that is really the way these grants work they're supposed to benefit the year of award the kids that you know caused us to earn those funds and so we will have to take that into consideration because we are successfully doing that so obviously the more we spend in the current year the less is going to carry over but the risk of not of doing that is that you know if the state and
046the federal government sees that we don't spend the money their interpretation is that we don't need it and that you know our kids don't need that help and so there's a real risk especially in the current current climate I believe of um not wanting to send that message um and then there's also the danger of sweeps you know we can only carry certain amount so we're trying to take that into consideration very carefully as we go into the 26 budget planning and look at what's really sustainable on our actual annual Awards and even though it doesn't pertain necessarily to the at all to the general budget uh general fund budget what do we anticipate the uh amount of grants that we'll have this coming year and actually the annual amount that we would normally get
047Mike I would say I mean again again there's a lot of news in Washington that's that's happening um I think the latest got we've always budgeted about 95% of what we get this year into next year I think there's been a little advice to be a little more conservative from the state but I but I think we're we're pretty much just going to go with with that 95% number at this point until we learn something new yeah and 90% of what 95% of this year's allocation so if we got about 46 million this year so 90% of that we're in the 40 million range or so and that's less than over the years is that less money than we usually have been getting for Grants it it's been declining every year I mean yeah I
048mean part of what we've done is we've had some huge carryovers so the the the the Esser years you know we spent a lot less of the traditional federal state and federal grants because we had Esser um and so we had some really big carryovers that we've been cutting through so even this year like our budget plan for like title three and title four title two even we planned on burning into the carryover at the beginning of the year normally we don't do that but but we knew we' had to so we knew we had to to avoid to avoid any consequences so right just share the one thought though and I think this is something we talked about when we were talking about Esser but I think it's true of title dollars as well
049is that we have to be very careful yes we want to make sure we spend down those dollars but also strategically as we look at the districts operating needs we can't operate as this year we did this to do these dollars so every year after that we need the same exact thing and I think that's the struggle we're going to run into with title dollars is that if we commit ourselves to doing something with title funds that we can no longer do is the decision going to be to stop doing it you have to or to that point does it come back to the general ledger which is what happened to a bunch of sther stuff that we would say we would do temporarily and when Esser ended we couldn't end it um say Mr
050Craig my biggest fear is actually the idea the Ida money you know because that is directly for students with disabilities so it would be catastrophic to lose title don't don't get me wrong you know but but a lot of that is supplemental by Nature so it would would dramatic Aly decrease the experience the kids get but we could but we could make a decision not to do those things um a loss of the idea money and res students disabilities that's directly coming back to J fund those kids have to have those services and so any do yeah any dollars we lose there you know are coming are coming out of our general fund the the dollars that our secretary of education doesn't know what the actual initial stand for uh but again I think that's
051but that to me is where we do have to make strong wrong commitments to what we're going to do as a district and what the district is going to look like because if we start committing a bunch of stuff and then we get told we don't have these dollars or we can't do this anymore it's going to be very difficult to adjust to some something like idea where we still have the a responsibilities and the obligations without a funding for those mandates and I think we see that the same way some of the state grants and state responsibilities is that there are some dollars that now the governor is saying he wants to give out for things or directives he wants to do but there are not dollars being put behind those per se and
052if we're obligated to do it then it's going to end up being something where long term we won't have uh resources to pay for something that we actually have to do and so you know I'm looking at some of things like he's talking about with um the requiring districts to provide uh training for for driver school and these type of things that he's trying to add in there they sound like great and wonderful but if there's no behind it it just creates more things that come out of the general fund right so like the experience we had with the student wellness Grant you know it was outside the general fund had its own fund number it's $12 million a year when they did the formula they put it inside the formula so now it's now
053subject to the state shair which by the way in the forecast within the 5year period we're going to be down to a 15% State share we're at 36 now 30 next year so um yeah so that when they do those little specialty grants it usually usually hurts us in the end um just curious on on the uh your chart on the uh 80% salaries and benefits in the previous chart I I I see where it's about 70% between instruction and instructional support um so we have to spend that money um we don't want it sitting around or it's a kind of use it or lose it kind of moment do we also have to be responsible for the impact that it makes as well as the spending um yes very much so especially with the
054the a lot there's a lot of newer people in place they've been reconfiguring some of the where really they've completely reconfigured the Department of Education and Workforce and so definitely on these entitlement grants the state is asking for more and more followup on the evidence-based activities on student and adult measures we're seeing that right now especially with the non-competitive state um supplemental Grant and the eoec Grant where they're very involved in and really asking us to account for these funds as they should and so um I think that's going to continue to increase as far as it's not just compliance they really do want to see the impact and know that that you know when we apply for funds and we say we're going to do something that we do it and that we really
055are adhering to the intent and purpose of the funds so we're so we are impactful well have we had how many schools just exited CSI and atsi Status so I you know I'd say things like that that's the exact reason we get the non-competitive supplemental Grant is to identify the schools that need the most help and we have seen you know all but four schools exit those statuses this year so that's an indication that we are impactful because wow good answer yep I think well and that's that's something you publish that's something that we have to make better use of our time to share that kind of uh I think superintendent did a you did a Kudos right on board meeting for those stud school so if anyone's watching online you can go back and
056see the this is a ly year so everybody has to be very how we speak make a note we say we present ourselves okay so the we're gonna skip ahead to slide 45 Rob um the return on investment will go it's there because it was already worked on we're not going to go over today we'll go over it next month okay so turn it over to Michael yes we have three new cras um for the month so I don't know pretty pretty similar to all the other ones guess they have a new commercial Bakery coming so that's exciting um but you can see there the annual revenue anticipate and the total revenue over the 15-year period so if you're approval these will be these will go into the approval for the next board meeting members
057have any issues with any of the C next is the um analysis of exp oh Levy okay so yes so um Mr yen is here to help shape this conversation or at least listen to the conversation we have um a dead we have deadlines that we have to meet in order to get this levy on the the renewal levy on the ballot in November um and so we need a board resolution that's adopted 100 days before the election and then the that's stating the need that resolution goes to Hamilton County Auditor who calculates the millage and the creates a ballot language and then you have to adopt the ballot language in a resolution 90 days before the election um but we need to act quicker than that timeline because we need time to go out
058there and market and campaign so um we presented different options um and most of the feedback I received um from board members and from community and Business Leaders um there's not a lot of support to do an increase in November so the current recommendation is to do the $48 million uh renewal um my recommendation would be a 10-year as we followed in the past on the newer resolutions if it's been renewed twice then the third time we try to go 10 years to make space in in that um Slinky slide and thank you I just got your text uh for the update um but it's on my personal phone so I don't I can't project it but um if you do a fiveyear so you have 25 you have a renewal in 28 you have
059the B the possible bond issue to come up in 30 and then you have a levy and 32 so if you do five years you're going to have three levies in in a very small time frame and we're trying to spread that out so um it honestly we don't even really know what's going to happen with there there was some legislation or some talk about eliminating fixum levies um I would hope that they would grant for of what we have and make them continuing when they do that um but we don't know that any of that where that sits right now um but anyway so I wanted to open up the floor for feedback and and guidance on November ly yes will for the renal that we're talking about it's specifically as you said the
06048 million but it is also known in the public as part of the preschool promise initiative preschool expansion expansion initiative um and that 48 million has at least some earmark dollars for preschool 15 million and I like to add it's also made for Quality seats um yes as well as expansion U so uh you're suggesting that what you've heard from some board discussion public discussion and what you've heard regarding some business partners and what have you um some concern members Mr H um I think it's no secret I I mean I gave a presentation last board last committee meeting that I thought going for a lower amount this time around is not going to secure us anything beneficial towards anything in future years I think it in fact just leaves us in a bigger hole
061to fill in our budget um as Kevin expressed at the meeting last time what was 48 million when it was or Mike yeah I can't remember which one I KN uh but what was 48 million before um would now need to be like 65 million to get to the same buying power correct and so I do want us as if we're staying at that 48 million to recognize that what we are also saying is that we got to trim more fat out of our budgets in the future years because that 48 million does not buy the same thing it bought even the last time this uh Levy was renewed um I think the other part to it is then we need to be having more conversation with our preschool promise folks not less as to
062how to Market what it will be a difference in how preschool uh the preschool promise portion of this budget will look like because it is not just a cut from us it's it's also going to be a cut for them and how they do some administrative services and whatnot and I think that's a challenge still so I mean I think if that's the direction that the the the will of the board says to do I I think you know you follow the will of the board but I do think we is a we have an obligation to be more cognizant of the fact that this is going to have some results in things not being able to be done because we don't have the funds to support it so I failed to mentioned when meeting
063with the ends um was it last week we talked about um doing a survey a community survey to get some commun more Community feedback more voices and you want to speak to that what we've done in the past uh yeah I we talked a little bit about the budget survey that was conducted and some of the results that came back from that I haven't seen that the results of that but um in the past the district has conducted Community satisfaction surveys uh to just gauge the general attitude of uh of the district and get community feedback from a a in a scientific format uh from the wide community so this is like all community members within the Cincinnati public District it's like a what you would call like a poll it's a survey but it's
064not asking questions related to you know if you knew this or knew that would you be more or less likely to vote for a levy because that's not the business of the district but the business of the district can be uh asking you know what the general attitudes are and what the priorities of uh the community is towards um towards the the services and programs The District offers so we've done it in the past it's been a number of years since I've I don't know if there's been others done but the last one I saw was going back to 2019 um it's something that districts routinely do and it's it can be very advantageous as the board is making their decision uh for the you know what type of Levy to size not just this
065year but potentially in the future too thank you uh um yeah so I failed to I also failed to mention that um I'm getting conflicting messages from people about the Public's feelings towards an increase so some advisers are saying you know what everybody loves Cincinnati public schools you could do put anything on the ballot and it'll pass and then the other side is no an increase right now because property taxes just went up and people are still upset about that plus I think there's two other measures on their ballots that are increases or they're considering like an earnings tax or um something else I forget what the other one is but um so given that whole picture we just I think probably doing the surveying and measuring the attitude of our voters or our constituents
066is probably a good idea I agree with doing a a poll getting it get a getting a sense of the temperature of things not just for this year but for maybe the next couple of years would be good to know uh I mean just anecdotally I hear now that I've been on the board I hear all the time about how property taxes have gone up and I don't get a sensors an appetite to have a a levy increase but that's pretty anecdotal but so um what we're now thinking about is if we're not going to do an increase in November of 25 we have to be on the ballot November of 26 there no question um and and what I'm kind of working through right now is the the possibility of doing an earnings tax
067continuing earnings tax that would fund the a slower implementation of the facility repair plan um and an increase for operations because it's been what nine years since we asked for new money and we we tend to be on like a eight-year cycle so we've we spread that with being good Financial stewards and eser helped us get through a lot of that but um so that we'll take care of some of this future needs until we can get to the bond Levy year and fund the bigger part of the growth plan I would um like to add a couple things I think uh Craig presented last month long range kind of plan to to facilitate our committee's discussion and board discussion for the next uh several times and I appreciated that um I have I have
068great reservations about expanding uh the ask uh for uh this $48 million even though we desperately need operational money right now uh and I I get that uh my my concern about asking is that I think we're going to have to have a huge ask in 26 and I would like to go to the public and say here's our huge ask that we can easily justify and say listen it's been nine it's been almost 10 years since we've asked for new money for all intents and purposes and I don't think we can have that same message be that um successful if inde we just asked for additional monies I also have issue with the monies that we are spending uh as to how much we can actually afford to keep sharing uh beyond the public
069sector I do think though the board is divided about this I think the board's pretty evenly divided about the preschool uh piece and certainly about the 48 million um my I do believe that should if we ask it should be for 10 years because uh to your point in in that period of time if it's for 10 years we are not uh bunching up a number of requests year after year after year if we can Lea frog or slink across a couple of years on the on the timeline so I think um it'd be great for the board to hear uh uh recommendations from the treasur and from the superintendent about this I mean our core work is K12 uh and I think that's important to keep in mind I also think that um the
070needs that we have are are large and we can't do anything to compromise them I would suggest too that the city is in their Futures uh report and in a number of other Publications I've been seeing uh in part because of being on the Recreation Commission the city is contemplating two different uh income tax earning tax uh uh not not large but I do recall the very first time we tried to do this 48 million first of all nobody else would touch it except cincin public the county wouldn't touch it the city wouldn't touch it you're talking about the preschool side of it yes million you keep telling me not to college as preschool uh so they said oh no no we're not going to do any of that and but my point is this
071uh the greatest resistance was when we said hey the best thing would be an income tax and they said no and so I think there's there's that but I would worry about trying to get the public interested in an income tax in a year and three months versus getting them ready for understanding that as we peel off and pay off and have champagne and and burn the mortgage so to speak of the facilities master plan in 30 31 or so I think but this is things we get to talk about no decisions uh but there is a to to Brandon's point this is you have to look at it in over 10 years because there's going to be a number of asks for those number of years Brandon I just gonna say I I do
072think though it the reasons we're saying we cannot ask for more this year will not change next year people are not suddenly going to feel like their tax their the tax rates on their house and their real estate property is going to suddenly go down next year so I mean I think we are in a position where at some point we have to bite the bullet and say to folks we need this for this reason this is a better thing for your kids in your community um and I I just worry that by not doing it early on we're not really giving ourselves a great argument the next year as a starting point now that may be what the will of the board is that maybe what the will of the community is maybe there
073is a lot of stuff going on this year that will not be on next year's ballot I think there is uh a lot of stuff that may be happening in in 20 me6 that could make that ballot year a very interesting High turnout year um so like yes maybe there are some things that make make that easier and better to pass something larger um what I'm cautious about though is us saying that the reason we're not doing it this year is because there's not an appetite for more and then next year coming in and saying but let's do something large because I don't think we're going to get a greater appetite to do something large next year either I think the the truth is that we probably are looking at closer to 30 31 to
074be able to pass something of any substantive size within a bond Levy to do the repairs and the facility needs that we have and that's the other part to it I also think is we have to be very conscious of um what what could potentially happen between those dates that may make us having to spend that money anyway I.E a roof collapse something happens at a building I but it's the reality it is what we have to talk about because that's what we're asking for those for um so I just I wanted to put it out there just make sure that we're not sitting there saying that it's going to be this glorious support next year to do something super expensive without us actually giving a cause or Reason and that's what that was more
075of my point of putting the plan together is that we're not talking about what we're doing in each School we're not talking about how this will benefit every student in the district to have a completed plan then any one year won't pass with the support that it would with a comprehensive plan so um Mike and I yesterday were talking about the possibility of doing a substitute Levy because um the fix some Levy we will just renew it $48 million but a substitute Levy will pick up new construction values so what we need to do is spend some time cost modeling that and costing it out how much more Revenue we would get and that might help bridge us a little bit um the worry about that is it's a different kind of Levy and it
076might be harder to sell to the public they might not understand um so we we'll work on um maybe for April 7th board meeting we can go back over all the different options um and include your option you know your um recommendations and so that the board can have a full discourse over what to do was that how does that sound what's the date that we have to decide August July 15th but politically August is too late right the deadline for ballot placement is like I believe it's like August 5th or somewhere around there so but but to Jen's point there does have to be a resolution prior to that so that's July 15th yeah it's around that time but typically and we do in April or early May is when we do we act
077typically that's what we want to be able to do yes and you know it's again even stupid to put together a budget or a forecast and not really have a long range plan of when we're going to be going to the public at least some some range at any rate uh we will have the president cly I just have um a couple of quick questions or comments um especially around these levies and how much money we're receiving the residential abatements have created people's property taxes to increase because a lot of people are not paying their fair share what the city keeps saying to me is but eventually they will be paying their full share of what they should be paying in taxes right has the district done an analysis for the next few years to
078look at how many of those abatements are going to be rolling off and what those increases will do so that everybody else's property taxes will be readjusted and go down so we um the answer is yes we do have done analysis it's been um a few months maybe six months um we can certainly do it again but for the next couple of years so that we can have a better idea of what is it that's going to you know they they we meet with the T councils every year and they go through all make sure that all the Agreements are in good standing and if not they they'll eliminate their agreement if they're not paying us and do they have any crawl backs on any of those agreements what does that mean crawl back where
079they have not fulfilled their um requirement for the abatement and so they that should be clawed back well so the LI the agreement goes null void so they have to they go back to paying regular taxes but if they're not paying us they're probably not going to they'll probably be more delinquent so I don't know what the city does with that any other comments uh suggestions issues regarding this plan when we're going to be asking but thank you Julie for reminding me about that and is matter of fact we we mentioned the cra's uh General Council when are we uh negotiating with the city regarding C and Billy so we have an open request from the city regarding the C to extend the U actually with respect to the tips that were I think in
0802005 2006 we want them all in the same we need to get back to those negotiations they've offered to they they've asked the board to extend wait minut wait finish the 2005 and 2006 tips were approved under the 1999 got um agreement and they were approved at the lower 28 uh percentage of pilot or or reimbursement to CPS the city has asked to extend those uh for 10 or 15 years and offered in doing that to increase the reimbursement to the district to the rate that we negotiated in the 2020 um agreement with the city which is 33% um was about $3 million the advantage to that is we would be receiving a higher reimbursement rate the disadvantage to that is by extending those tiffs you're keeping the value of those properties for the purpose
081of the Tiff at the um you know 2005 value does that make sense it actually doesn't make sense but I understand what you're saying it's it's there's a significant advantage to those areas of the city because the Tiff is is only um AB baiting or or or ch um the city actually collects the same amount of taxes on a tiff property but it collects it directly and uses it for the purpose of those developments or areas so but it only collects that amount on what's what's been that the increased value of the property from the time the Tiff was enacted if that makes sense so the estimated value big advantage to the city extending because now the Tiff will be collected on all the valued from 2005 going forward as opposed to issuing a new
082Tiff today it would that the value would start at what today's value is I don't know if that I hope that makes sense folks it's very complicated and so from the the treasurer and assisted Treasurer and from that shop the advice to general counsel or to the board to advise general counsel would be what to include the 201 19 19 tips do you remember the 14 that they snuck through in the end of December 15 yes thank you I was saying sound right that group we want we want that group to be up to 33% as well all the all the whole window tips yeah the city just before the renewal of the agreement uh passed 15 new very large tips again at the old rate any uh other uh comments but the the larger
083Master agreement is coming up for Renewal we need to roll all that together indeed yeah so all of that is going to I know we've shared with the board you've shared with the board at least once or twice some of this background when would it be that you would be bringing that to the board for consideration both the general counsel and Treasurer and superintendent having some sort of connection with each other as to what we would want so it's a five-year agreement so it expires at the end of this year it it is in the city's interest to want to extend that so I I I would expect that the city will be approaching us at some point with a proposal to extend if it's not extended at the end of this year those the
084the CRA the ability for the city to use CRA goes away the tiffs would presumably continue that means your board members are going to get or your board meetings are going to get really busy approving agreements they're done that all right so you'll be sharing with the president of the board the kind of timing you are looking at other comments about uh what we just discuss no but the second part of that conversation was about um coordinating our testimonial efforts towards these House Bill and Senate bills um yesterday was it yesterday Miss Murphy or was the day before that we were talking about the letter writing campaign Tuesday Wednesday Wednesday morning it was at the Schoolboard school meeting breakfast so um we wanted to make sure that we're all of our efforts and we're all
085saying the same message um and well I think on the organizational chart I think this is that General Council that's supposed to be coordinating that okay so we have an assignment to coordinate with the uhhuh okay sure got it okay does say that I would make that thank you other items for on the agenda that need to be covered um think we want to do these um sure that' be great sure Rob can you go to the next slide so we had a request to look at some historical spending um in a couple areas so this may be the start of something we do great unre basis so um three areas today three different stories so we'll kind of go through them so the first one is transportation cost and really this is transportation services
086so as you know most of what the district does for transportation is is through third parties um Services you can see this we just did a basically a bar graph of expenses over fiscal year uh tried to break it out by types you know you can see the you know from other services Is Our Big Bus vendors that's the vast majority um of our spend I don't like this graph because I think we've historically had had some issues getting things paid in the right fiscal year I'll say that right so some of the stair step is things that were for one year didn't get paid for the next year so but you can you can definitely see the dip obviously um when we were closed for the pandemic we did remote learning for those times
087you can see that's that's a dip in 2020 202 21 and our cost have kind of went back up um from there so I'll be interested to add 2025 to this yes I would be too can you um on this uh 23 24 any explanation for that do you think that is the just the accounting being in the wrong month or financial quarter yeah I kind of what I said before I think I think we traditionally paid a lot of these things in the next fiscal year you know I think I think at least the board members here know there's been a significant am than Nows that have been put through um for those Services it's um hopefully I know I know some of the folks working in that area have really been working hard
088with the vendors on their invoices and and putting a lot more scrutiny into it sometimes that actually delays payment but it's good for us right if the vendor sends an invoice we review it and we say hey these charges aren't correct they res a correct invoice it might push it into the new year so it's not always a bad thing to have this kind of stair stop approach and that 19 yeah yeah so that this has been a historical problem of because it it it it compounds throughout the year so if it if money slips into the new year then you're using New Year money budget money to pay for those and then so you're you don't have enough money to pay for the current year so they were holding invoices until the new year
089so there was always this timing issue we've cleaned it up somewhat um the difference between 23 and 24 is a combination of the transportation reduction you approve for the budget because we made some modifications um and some of those costs were belong into 22 couple couple other things that we did I'm trying to remember if this was this year or last last year we moved the call center inhouse was that this year or last year it was yeah it was last year so that so some of that went from a service to Sal to salaries and benefits and then the other thing is in order to get a real picture um we had to include not only general fund but schoolwide pull and had it and then Esser some of the Esser Transportation money is
090really for summer school you know the summer scholar things but it's hard to pull it out and still give you a real picture because in the last year of Esser we used like 15 million of Esser for transportation services during the school year so I want to make so I didn't want to exclude that because then it really makes the graphic still is cost yes it's a very legitimate cost for now here's another Nuance that I noticed so if you notice the little yellow blocks did you already talk about this I miss it no okay um it's for extracurricular and remember we we bought some buses to do the extracurricular we've always had the Student Activity buses but they're buried in the other costs they weren't called out as extracurricular so wasn't this isn't a
091recent thing it's just a reporting thing how they code it proc so this chart reflects cash flow spending actual spending yes we report on a cash basis yes yes sir when wouldn't uh um but this these dollars get encumbered before we spend them correct yes so would it would it be helpful to see this in terms of encumbered versus spending in terms of knowing what what our obligations are going to be even though we might delay the spending you add a budget you could you could add like a budget column to it to kind of see what was budgeted encumbrances kind of go away as they're done right so so in any given any given moment you have a budget you have encumbrance actuals soon as we do a check run now some of the
092encumbrances go down actuals go but the bar the total stack will stay so I think it'd be good to do a stack of actual versus in with encumbered yeah I might even it out a little bit I mean I mean it's just sort of it's not in the business world we look at expense versus payable right and so this that might be more helpful in understanding what uh what are we're going to hit a wall of Co costs that we haven't paid for yet right other comments Mark did you something else to um that was it for transportation I Mike and I I took a little joy in hearing you say you don't love this bar chart because I don't either but for probably some of the same reasons which is that we're not comparing
093apples to right and in years where we've made decisions to change something example you just gave treasure Wagner with okay so now we have dedicated uh routes or dedicated buses to do extracurriculars so now that looks a little bit different it formulates a little bit different into it we don't budget the same way out so it makes sometimes doing these types of things where we doing it across multiple years where we have differences in how we've planned to use those Services uh but the other thing I think and just be helpful maybe if we're doing this this in the future is to think about when I take the the idea of adding encumbered versus is one but the costs that come that go beyond what was originally budgeted and I think that's part of the
094problem also is that our transportation costs start with a budgeted amount and for other particular reasons or other particular needs or whatever happens throughout the year those things change and expand or uh they rarely ever contract but right the the year end surprises expand and I think that's the other part of this that is more helpful to understand is because if we said an amount we said 40 million is what we're going to spend on Transportation this year we know that 40 million is not what we're gonna end up at the end of the end of the year having spent right and like that's I think the struggle also because then it has to come out of something to pay for that yeah I think the value of the dollar in 2016 versus the value
095of the dollar this year it is apples and and oranges or grapefruits and pineapples or whatever but but I also know board members get so frustrated with the idea that we just keep sending more money and more money and we it appears that we don't have any control over it the very reason that we have made an adjustment and maybe it impacted this bar chart helps the Board understand that what administration and what the board together are doing is having some impact I mean it's not like it's a going straight up and maybe I don't know if it's accounting or what have you but the way I've the way we live through this Transportation decisions that we've been making the last five years I think the board starts to feel almost helpless about what to
096to be done but I don't know that our our information shows that we've been helpless but in some cases helpful um at least the administration's been able to get control of certain things what's uh next one next one is benefits um and very specifically um medical life and health insurance medical dental and health insurance sorry um so this one this one's kind of what you would expect you know cost increase over time um some some weird coding 17 16 and 17 we didn't I think code our expenses very well so you can see you can see the different colors in the graph great yeah the different colors in the graphs kind of show up but I mean this is kind of what you would expect like like everyone you would talk to would say you
097know cost of medical insurance is going up I mean I think you know we've done a decent job of controlling the cost I mean I think one one thing that that we could look at for this graph just in future graphs is look at is look at the percent change you know next to something like the Consumer Price Index so you can see how our change how our change flows with the rest of the world you could do per employee cost too or per yeah I mean that's the other thing you know as you add more employees you're going to pay more for you a health insurance has went up we all know that that's a Nationwide that's an America thing sure you know and as you've added more employees or you add more employees
098on the roles you know that goes up as well so nothing really unexpected there any questions and comments okay third graph I think is kind of it's kind of the best story of the group here so this is our utility spending um electricity gas water sewer others very tiny bit um in here and and what's what's really interesting about this I think and this is I talked to um Chief Operating Officer Burkhart talk to um director Walton as well and Facilities kind of say hey what do you guys think about this and really you can see we kind of hit our peak in 2021 and we've been going down ever since that and really like I think where they contribute that is all of the facilities work we've put in you know and a lot
099of some of lot was Esra funded but you know all the updated HVAC systems all the new chillers all the roofs the windows the doors like all of those things are Ina having an impact on on really how much money we spend in utilities you can see especially electric electric has dropped every year since 2021 um you know gas has went up a gases gas has stayed about the same or what you know water and sewers a little up but you can but there's definitely a overall drop over the last couple years and knowing that utility rates have only went up over those years really good this is really good yeah so we've count we've more than counteracted the increase in rates so the school by school is in your folder it's just too big
100to put on the screen I love that and then there's a here's a summary slide you go to the next slide rob you want to talk with the school by school again um yeah so what I what we what we did is we took the data that um Shaya Snider sent to us and organized it by Elementary secondary combination and preschool so you can see what the average cost per student is what's the lowest and what's the highest um and then the details in that report so we're spending on average $300 per student on utilities question huh Su your grid yeah Mr CR this is 2024 data yes yes because we have a we have we have a full year of ups and downs and Winters and Summers um any other questions yeah so uh
101two two thoughts more or so than questions one is I think is so the hard part in times looking at cost by school on things like utilities is that we pay it whether students are there or not kind of deal I mean it may be a marginal increase or marginal decrease based on the students there um and so I think it may be helpful as we think about it to not think about it so much and the per student but in that per School bases is that you are we our occupancy of the building how we're using the building and how those utilities go towards that use to the building because I think if there are things like for instance we see buildings where we're having very little students present but we're still having high
102utility costs it may say something about how we're using the building more so than whether or not students are getting right the needs are being met um versus a building where we have a low attendance or versus a building we have High attendance and we have low utility costs in comparison may tell us we're using that building really efficiently and so I think that speaks and that's seems to be what those you know the electric costs seem to show that right that that even though we have maintained if not you know dipped a little bit we've seen a significant diff in the uh electrical cost based on the according to my rates are gone up um so iag everyone else's rates are going up but um so I think that's really it's helpful maybe to
103understand the capacity of a building right and whether or not they have a high number of students in high use right so your example is if you compare Walnut Hills 200 they have 2400 students as of March 14th and a per pupil cost of $24 versus Woodward that has $850 but it's a 1,200 school capacity um their cost is $365 per student so yeah so point if you if they were at 12200 which probably would not add significant to the utilities we would have a different number there but I think that's maybe more of looking at which schools have a higher capacity of the building use is one um the other thing I would say and this is the part where I think it's going to be the challenge for us as a district as
104a whole is our preschool buildings are just going to cost us more in general because of the number of students in the room and the space and all the other stuff that that that cost is different and I think that's why we in some ways start with we have to pay certain these cost regardless we just need to know what it is and understand it right right any the comments about this I think this is good I appreciate how did this and give us some ideas to what other would some of the other topics and some of the other uh price points and whatever we'd like to look at okay there comments no but I I do need some direction from the finance committee about slide 57 oh that's that's what I mean by other
105comments not about the same topic we're trying to close out do we still need to cover uh on a timely basis and then there's some things we didn't cover but we have the information yeah submitted in writing right the investment report the insurance report but great we do need direction on this slide because what we did is we took the now that all the fees have been imported into the new system we looked at how much the 12th graders because we're heading into graduation season um so right as of when is it the end of February this data was like last week so it's very very very recent there's 575 00,000 that are owed by grade 12 people the next slide shows you by school so 120 of that is for CP students that are
106no longer attending CPS and so that might be a consideration for waving but um I'm concerned about the the graduates and typically the past has been they don't walk if they owe money uh several years ago it was in the media and then we had um one of supporters paid a lot of money at one school to be thing right so we're really looking at 50,000 um to decide what to do about any any guidance from the finance committee yeah sure I have a question so in years past is this a fair representative number is it always 400,000 approximately we have no idea we've never looked at it before I couldn't tell you so and so we don't know if we how much of this we ever ultimately collect or not I I would say
107this is probably these couple months are prime School collection time where you can do it where where they're sending out letters they're I mean just because and the reason I know this is because as we were doing the conversion and trying to get the conversion right we a lot of the high schools are reaching out to us like come come on I got to get these letters out I want to get this to the parents so they have time to pay so this is probably our Prime collection time I if this is the first year we've had this data the first year we've looked at it I think it's kind of hard for us to give you a lot of Direction I mean maybe next year I don't know well so the question is are
108we going to prevent students from from walking you are the superintendent we as a district yeah so feedback from the superintendent guess you got policy is and the practice is well my experience in collecting um student fees is they do come in these last couple of months and generally speaking there are a very few kids who cannot make it happen we've always had the practice of figuring that out um and so I would imagine that the majority of this could be collected understanding that there may be some exceptions Mr Craig yeah so I think you know when we've talked about this in the past I think there's two also problems with this which is that some of these debts are cumulative so they're not based on their necessary 12th grade year they had suddenly this
109$3,000 a now right U but they maybe have not paid over the years and so there's a question as to whether or not we want to track back but then also to where does that debt to the funds go so even if they do pay it does that go to the high school budget which in some ways is disadvantages of the K through six that they may have attended right um so I do think that's something as a board and as a policy we we should certainly consider as to what we do going forward with that because we are having that situation where folks wait till they get to the senior year and then hope that either they pay it or somebody will come in be a rich benefactor pay it for them um but
110I think the other part to this that I I'm also noting is that the largest percentage of the debt for this coming up year happens to be at one School uh and it's greater than even this currently not enrolled in CBS and so uh I think those are things also where is there a conversation we need to have with regards to participation in activities and other things that need to be addressed throughout the time as we try and encourage people to do better uh because I don't think it's a lack of ability in some ways for some of these deaths that acrew I think sometimes just they don't do it and so uh I appreciate the fact that there are a lot of students in our district who are economically disadvantaged who do not may
111not have the resources to pay I just don't know that the couple of the places that are showing up high amounts are great examples of that um versus some of the other schools that seem to be a lot lower I I would point out there is a waiver process um just students who students who receive free and reduced lunch can have fees waved or reduced so there's a problem we we do have that processes the guidance that we we the committee would want the uh Administration to attempt to collect these fees of these outgoing is the also the idea of the people that are already gone is that going to uh be a waste of time we could attempt to collect anyway I mean we sent a bills but um yeah I I just mainly
112I just didn't I wanted to get out in front of the graduation ceremonies that we can at least be aware of what's Happening um and for the public is is has been mentioned there is a a uh uh an opportunity for a waiver for some of our students and it's practiced but yes collect now okay thank you uh anything else that must be covered today before uh basketball begins uh we better be purple gold and white comment hi I'm Michelle D with CFT I just want to make a couple points very quickly about the discussion of the US Department of Education being dismantled or an attempt for it block granting of federal resources we have seen this happen in the past and there are certainly problems that we can anticipate reduced funding over time disparities
113and assistance across state lines and given we are a tri-state area this could have a real impact on this District risk of political influence I can tell you personally I served on a block grant board for the city for years and the politicization of those dollars is very real uh including waivers that were often happening which diverted those critical dollars away from their um intended um places that they were supposed to be spent so that's something to um watch out for and finally the increase in administrative burden at the state level to manage these um Federal resources is going to be significant so I think it's very um uh prudent to anticipate some significant Cuts in those dollars as um Michael Gustin mentioned uh finally I just want to announce that we are planning a
114community town hall to be hosted here at the ilc on Tuesday May 6th at 6: p.m. we already have some really impressive Heavy Hitters across the state coming down here to talk about the impacts of what was discussed earlier from federal to state to local um budget concerns so we're really excited we have been uh when I say we I'm talking ccin Federation of teachers has been uh working in partnership with superintendent shaa Murphy to plan this community Town Hall it's really an effort to educate the community on these challenges that we've been talking about here in this committee today uh so we'll get more information to you soon on that thank you thank you done did you say May 5th 6th thank you 6 PM there's a board meeting on the 5th that's why
115I asked any other comments that need to be covered today before we ask for the jours all right oh okay so I was like too close uh we will take a motion to a journ second