2026-27 CSD Budget Meeting

001I only have one. >> We're good. >> All right. Well, let's uh let's get started. Sorry for the delay due to technology a little bit, everyone. Um, but I'll call the meeting to order and then we will rise and salute the flag. Please stand alsisible with liberty and justice and >> right and also if uh anybody doesn't mind putting cell phones on silent I would appreciate that as well. And we have the first order of business is to approve the last week's two weeks ago uh minutes. Do we have does anybody review those? Does anybody look forward a motion to approve those? >> Move to approve the minutes as presented >> and seconded. So all those in favor of approving the minutes raise your right hand and say I. All those opposed raise your left

002hand and say. >> All right. Minutes are approved as presented with >> um and I think I will turn it over to well before before I turn it over to Dr. We're going to go through a presentation and then there will be committee budget committee questions and then the public comments will be for that. Um because I think some of the questions may partially or partly be addressed during the presentation. So that was our game plan. So with that I will turn it over to Dr. Kavista. >> Yeah. So uh thanks uh for everyone being here tonight. We're going to just quickly go through a couple of items. We, as we've shared before, we're going to give you uh the 2026 budget, both overview and general fund. Um we're going to talk about the different

003uh funds that we have because we haven't shown you the special revenue yet. As uh Pete said, we'll go into the question and answer from the committee members. We'll do public comment. And then that will be after that public comment will be the time for you all to deliberate um any potential actions that you have and then again obviously the conclusion either vote to approve or we'll continue to move meeting into uh next week. So couple of uh things we want to just um start with and go forward. One of the things that was asked um prior to um this meeting is talking about um just as we remind everyone that we continue to have defining enrollment and so on it's really slide four what we put together is this revenue obviously you shared is

004based on enrollment and we start the budgeting process way back in December um but we really start working with buildings in January and February as we start to get uh solid numbers of funds etc that are coming in as we've shared with you all those come in estimates we don't get final projections till in uh March and so couple of things I just want to point out when we started this process with the buildings you can see the projected enrollment which we were going off of February 9th so that um when we had them start to look at uh different things both in state and federal grants as well as in their actual buildings and all departments and programs. Looking at that, uh these were the enrollment numbers that we were looking at. And again,

005what this does is it rolls up every class, removes 12th graders. We use we look at a three-year trend of uh kindergarteners coming in. looking at that trend, we're we're expecting or hope to expect at least 210 um for this upcoming 2627 school year. So, as I rolled numbers this morning based off of what our current enrollment is as of today, and just to show you again how much enrollment we are losing since February, we have lost an additional 56 students times $11,000, that's a half a million dollar loss of um enrollment. So, again, I again, we're going to continue to share. We have seen a massive decrease in our enrollment this year specifically as we've shared with the budget committee and and will continue to share out with everyone. Um administration has been involved

006in all of these processes. Uh again, unions have been involved where they need to be specifically with some of the things that we've had to do over the last month and a half as it relates to uh different cuts and we're going to get into a little bit more of that as we go forward. But I think it's really important as we start this meeting again to give you real numbers of where we are and what our enrollment is. Our enrollment as of today is 2862. That is down an additional seven from two weeks ago. So we continue to decline and some of that is expected as I shared with you before and we expect that for the next three years uh based off our uh analysis from flow analytics. I was wondering like um

007what's the kind of is this too complicated the breakdown for each one of the schools at the elementary schools and then the high school and the um you know middle school. >> Yep. That's what that is by building. So Ash Creek I'm sorry. >> Yep. So Ash Creek in February is 425. They're right now projected 419. >> Okay. high school as an example uh was projected 944 with their rollup numbers they're expected to be 917. So you can just see the differences of from those two periods and again we built our bid budgets off of um projected end of February. Okay. So again I just want to we're going to go go through these and then um we'll get to the question and answer part. I'm assuming that's what we want to do. And in

008deliberation, if there's other questions, unless you want to take questions as we go through this, >> let's keep going. >> Yeah, let's maybe Yeah, let's not let's hold questions. Just jot them down. Um just so we we've got a lot of material to get through. So, >> let's um save up all your good questions. We'll have we'll have question Q&A session. >> It it we so go ahead. So um couple things that you in the next slide you can see our uh the June economic forecast uh that we wanted to share. So you can see uh overall generally across the state uh and general fund and lottery that's where some of our money comes from that is down 798 million since the forecast. We also corporate activity tax which feeds into the student success act

009and again remember general fund is our largest fund. The next largest fund really is our student investment account. Um that was down about 44 million. Not a ton but but a little bit. That's going to uh do that. So again what does that mean? That's pressure on on the systems. Um and so again that funding is starting to because enrollment is also going down um across the the state you're going to see that impact and you're seeing that in many districts as we're everyone's going through their budget process right now. So um in your packet that you receive uh there is the sort of a budget narrative overview. Um and as I refer to pages here in this next section they'll be down at the bottom our budget document page 20 to 22. So before

010we get to there, um just give you a slight overview updates. Um and we'll discuss this as we go through some slight changes to the general fund thing that you saw in the last meeting. Um a reminder that union negotiations are still ongoing. We did not happen to settle them since the last meeting. So all the numbers here are still based on uh the district's offer and any changes to that will result in additional cuts to staff or programs to make up for those um additional benefits and pay to staff. Um we will talk through those special revenue funds. Again, those are our state grants, federal grants, food service, um things like that. And then um also debt service and the capital project budgets are included here tonight. Uh we wanted to talk a little

011bit about the positions that have been eliminated. We mentioned cuts to staffing. We mentioned that most of those were from retirements or resignations. Um but so only really a handful have resulted in either people bumping into a different position or actual layoffs. Um and so you can see here we've eliminated uh five potentially six still looking at some grant funding um districtwide positions from the district office or other district services. >> What page is that on? Uh this is actually on this page page one of your of the handout that was emailed to you and that is included here included looks like this. So again, I think this is an uh important starting point again as we started this process and we saw in December that enrollment was continuing to go down. We made that

012decision as uh principles came back and and department heads came back in January. I sent an email out districtwide that says we are in a hiring freeze and please know that every position will get looked at. Um we were at times slow on our um getting open positions up because we were taking a a look at each one of them seeing do we really need to move forward with that. Um you can see we've eliminated some positions that we are concerned about but at this point uh to balance the budget and do what we need to do um those positions are are being eliminated. Um we still have to distribute the work. The work doesn't change. So, um, I think that's some of the things that we'll have to continue to work through once we

013get through this process. Then the next process will be looking at the organizational chart and who's doing what as we move forward. Again, some of those conversations are starting. So, I think that we just wanted to make that clear of most of the positions outside of, you know, some of the big big things we've had to bring to you all um over the last few weeks because of what we are working through with from the enrollment and um our goal was hopefully to have to just do this through the freezing process and not having positions filled, but obviously with with what we're dealing with that's not the case anymore. So this shows uh seven positions at the elementary level. These are a mix of general fund and grant funded positions. Um and then at the

014secondary level and there's actually another position grant funded position at the secondary level that is not listed here and that is a wellness coordinator at the high school. So there were a total of five there, seven elementary and then five or six in districtwide defer and we are still working through this as positions or people leave or resign and we are looking at things of can we do it without those positions so we can uh you know keep continue to balance the budget with what we're working with. And then uh one of the last things we'll discuss for your ability to kind of help uh help review this is the stress test is what we've been calling it since last year, which is when we do make cuts, what what are what is the cost

015of something? What is the cost of a position, of a program, um of a day? And so that is attached here as well. you'll get a chance to look with that over. A reminder that really the only two that are listed there are the general fund and the student investment account. The reason for that, those two are um first of all, they are both based on enrollment. So sustainability is will be an ongoing concern for us, but they are the most funible. So stuff can move in and out of them without penalty. lots of our grant funds. If we took something out of that grantf funded um grant fund, we could never put it back. So, we have to be very very careful about how certain positions are moved and funded. These two, the general

016fund and the student investment account are fun fungeible. They're also flexible. they can cover a really um unrestricted type of um fun of programs or staffing. The student investment account does have objectives and we we are must meet those objectives to go into the student investment account but it's still fair. And just as a reminder like as an example, high school success can only be used for high school, right? It cannot be used in the elementaryaries. It cannot be used in the middle school. So again, a small portion as we transition those eighth graders to to ninth grade, we can and we do a little bit of that, but it's not you're talking $15,000, maybe a little bit more than that from that perspective. So again, as we've talked about the student investment account and

017the general state school fund are our most flexible. Everything else we have supplanting rules and different things that we have to to work through. >> And then do you want to talk about cost to debate? >> Yeah. So, as I've shared and many of you have probably read, there's an executive order um tied to instructional time that um has changed uh some of our tactics as we were working through what we might be able to do moving forward. The we central school district has always met required hours as defined by the state and that is you have to have at least 900 hours in ele uh really K through 8 and then 990 for your uh 9th through 11th graders and 9966 hours for your seniors. So we have met that. I after we got

018out of COVID, I started collecting all that. Again, that was my third year. We have spreadsheets that we've been putting together since that time to make sure that we're meeting that. Um the governor came out about a month and a half ago with a new executive order that has caused us some flexibility issues. Um however, there is a caveat in there that the board could make a choice, not the school district. the board could guide us to potentially um move forward of looking at for example a furlow day but that cannot be driven by myself. I would have to be given a directive by the board. Um the budget committee cannot do that. Um only the board has the ability to make that. So you are going to see even though right now I can't

019do it. Um I cannot declare any type of furlow day. know also anytime that we have that conversation, we're going to have to have conversations with union leadership. They're a big part of those conversations um both on our licensed and classified side. So, um I just think it's an important piece. Uh we have 171 student instructional contact days. I think the state average is about 165 or less. Uh we have worked really hard to get those instructional days up uh since I've been here. Um I'm appreciative of both unions and and working with us because again we want to have a lot of um good instructional time in front of of students. But um we are above the amount either way you put it. Um so that is a strategy but can cannot come from

020us. Uh that would have to be directed by the board to us. So >> what is the cost of a day? >> It's in a stress test um which is class. We'll get to that because we uh so you have that but that's why we did put that in there. >> So in your packet and the next pages pages 3 through 19 are the budget summary. Um this goes into quite a bit of detail about the assumptions. You've all heard our assumption. You've heard where we think enrollment is, where we uh believe that federal funds are coming and going. the kinds of factors in our expenditure decisions. For example, 80% of our um expenditures are staffing and we don't have a clear salary schedule for them next year. So, uh there are a lot of

021details about that and typically I might read sections of this to you. Um I'm not going to do that tonight. So if you had any notes or questions about that, feel free to ask them. But it it is we have really been there's nothing here that we haven't really been talking about the entire budget process. So that gets us to page 20 and page 20 which is the entire budget starting with the revenue page. We will look at [clears throat] at the numbers. So the total budget for all funds is presented this year at 68,667,744. That does represent an increase. Um and that is basically because across multiple funds there's a slight increase in some contingency and reserve funds. Um but it is also an increase in the expenditure and debt service because we have

022one bond series we are paying off this year. They always bump that last payment up a little bit. Um, the general fund represents 50,616,000 of that. There's no zero on the slides. Sorry about that. Uh, this is an increase and we've mentioned this before. The operating revenue without the money we're bringing in from this year is only a 086 increase. That's all we have to work with. Um, [clears throat] we do have a an increase in the beginning fund balance. I mentioned to you last time when we talked about the general fund. Our uh people have been incredibly um careful this year in spending and we have a larger carryover next year because of it. um that will help us right as we go into next year because otherwise we would be looking at 86%

023increase in operating funds would mean only a 86% increase in expenses but we're going to spend down that beginning fund balance to balance the budget but we do have a little more to work with. So if you look at page 21 again, this is all of the funds by expense type. Um we did review the general fund last time and this is includes a summary of our fund the 200 funds. The second column those are all of our special revenue funds. Uh the third column is our debt service and the fourth column is capital projects. The special revenue funds you will um see that that overall segment of funds is down 616,000 from last year mostly from different federal grants. Some we are not projecting any revenue for some we're projecting um slightly less. We

024also have typically ended up our fiscal year with some carryover because the federal budget year goes from October through September. Our fiscal year goes July to June. So we typically have a lot of carryover. This year we do not have carryover. We have been spending down those funds. And so that represents $600,000 less in those special revenue funds. Part of that is a projection for food service funds to go down because we have lower enrollment. We're feeding fewer students. um that service I mentioned in the capital projects we've talked about a little bit that is based on our construction excise tax and although there might be a lot of dirt turning in our community uh this doesn't generate funds to the school district until they start putting something upright on that dirt. So, um, we

025have less than we're budgeting $75,000 in revenue. Uh, we didn't have hit that mark yet this year. So, that could continue depending on interest rates uh to be keeping that fund very flat. So that pages 21 and 22 show those exact same dollar broken up different. 21 is by expense type salaries associated payroll cost purchases. 22 is by program type what we call our functions. And so you will see again almost all the activity is in obviously our general fund fund 100 and our special loan. But this does show you how that same uh 68,667,744 is divided up to be spent. Um, we wanted to talk about FTE and in what was just handed to you under your slides, uh, there are a couple of documents [clears throat] that we prepared. So, there are two

026documents. One is just an overall pie chart showing our total FTE budgeted FTE staffing by classification. So that is actually uh shows you that [clears throat] all almost exactly 50% of our staff um are actually our um licensed folks. No. Yeah. And [clears throat] uh 44% are classified. Now this is FTE not bodies. So those numbers there um represent and for example many of our classified folks do not work at a 1.0 FTE they work at a 0.88 or some work less hours. So this actually is FTE. So if I have a 0.5 FTE that person works part-time but is still a body but it's not when you look at numbers it's not equal right. So a 0.5 FTE is halftime employee that is a full body but they only work half time. So again

027just we do have several positions within the school district that are like that. And then the administrative um is obviously all of our building administrators as well as district office administrators uh which in the coming year there are four of us. um the quiet and then the confidential supervisory those are folks um who are in HR or they are our department managers who supervise other staff. So we have six of those folks. The next breakdown two pages is what appears in our budget book every year. So you've seen this before and this gives you some history of our staffing. The first section is all general fund only by building. The second section is general fund only for our districtwide departments. Um and that continues on. And then um on the back side are all of

028those special designs. So you might see gee uh at the elementary level we know we have two administrators. We have a principal and an assistant principal. And if you look at the very first section general fund by building you'll only see one administrator at each elementary school. That's because the assistant principles at the elementary level are funded by the student investment account. So their their FTE actually shows up on the second page, but this shows some some of the history. Um, if you look at the actual column, please note that is a snapshot in time. So, we may have had more filled positions during the school year, but when I pull this typically around the first week in May, we may have had some open positions, right? We may have had folks who have left.

029So, that's just a snapshot. And it so it can look drastically smaller sometimes or or if we have folks out on long-term leads, they might not show in. So that that one uh is hard to reconcile sometimes when you look at it, but that is just literally a snapshot of who is a considered an employee at that. >> I think it's important to note, right? We do, as I've shared with this group before, we do enrollment as school starts pretty much every week all the way through October. Then we we sort of take it every few weeks and then as we get back into March, we're doing it pretty much every two weeks. We don't do that as consistently there, but we are taking during throughout the year a snapshot in time. Again, we know

030what openings we have. Some we've held off on on posting, but just again about a week and a half ago approved a very large amount of positions that we were holding because as we go through this process to be able to say, can we fund this? Um, and so some of those have have been posted. And again, this is FTE. So that's why you see all the weird decimal points. This is not individual. So that's the information about um of FTE at this. Um general fund update is next in your packet. It's your familiar alert columns. This looks a little different. The budget has two orange columns. One is what was presented to you at the last meeting on the 8th and the second column is tonight. We're we are always making these small adjustments.

031Um and this actually changed the total as well. But on the revenue side, the total has changed by the beginning of fund balance. So, so as I mentioned, I'm always looking at that after we do every payroll, after we pay every pack of bills, I stop and project how much are we going to end up with. We are on a cash basis. So, whatever the dollars are in the bank on June 30, that's our beginning fund balance for the following. So on the revenue side on page 23 there are some additional dollars in uh the next and last line R5400 restatement is still being projected at what we presented last >> and again remember down at the bottom where it says revenue op revenue that is again as C said that 86 so from last

032year to this year our revenue has only increased 86 >> other than the function map is like a little bit of a girl. Uh so on pages 24 and 25 the same thing those expenditures sort of what we gave you last time compared this time. Um as we go through this process and particularly as we were looking at our grant funds to present to you tonight folks may move in and out or partial funding may move in and out. So you'll see some changes um on those first two lines, licensed salaries and classified salaries, just because as we're as we're balancing things, we're moving folks um in and out a little bit. That trickles down, it affects the entire next section, uh which is the 200s, which are all of our patches and benefits. Um,

033and so that part has changed some. If you go down to the uh 300 section, there's a slight difference in the 310s. That again is our uh classroombased substitutes that we have a placeholder budget for and some other professional services that we purchase um that are direct student contact. So that we had a couple of line items change there. Um not much there. And then because we are hopefully continuing to save money this year, I did add a couple of small contingency lines. So at the bottom of page 25, you'll see um some additional money set aside potentially curriculum and maybe some for capital repair, >> a couple of HVAC units. I hope we kind of far out this year >> and again we are in the midst of and the board you will hear

034this on Monday of our adoption processes for health science and um social social sciences. So again that will be coming to the board. So little bit of money set aside that we can do for that with what we have budgeted also. >> So that's the general fund. Um, I added something in this packup we talked about a little bit with you, but I had not shared in detail before. And on page 26, you'll actually see how we spend the money at Melan SD. We talked about this um shown you the history of this. So, I just wanted to give you this is our plan for 2627. And the first uh column lists each of the services that we purchase that the ESD offers. The resolution column that means we are telling them we will purchase

035your services. Basically it's their employee for example and we just pay them but their employee comes to work in our district. The second column contract we actually have to pay that money. So the resolution is the pot of money that they have there for us to spend. The contract amount is what additionally services we need. We have to find a way to fund them and those funding sources are on the right hand side. So for example, we have software systems and um they run that for us. They are our um software provider and they provide support and we resolve to pay them that. We we have another contract with them, a survey study comparative um survey they were doing and we're paying for that out of the general fund, $750. So, as you go through,

036you will see each section, each type of service that we purchased from them, how much of that we are um using the dollars they have on hand for us, and how much we're contributing for. The next page then is that same information, but it is historical. We've talked about this a little bit before that um if you look back um how much we used to spend at the Miami ESD we used to in 201819 we spent 1.3 million and we're up to 2.8 8 almost 2.9 million. >> But again, if you look at the first page, you can see where our funds are, right? The majority of them fall into that programs for children with special needs, right? So, I think it's an important um area that again we continue to have that conversation. We

037talked about high cost disability. We'll talk a little bit more about that tonight. But again, I think you still are having costs of the um requirements for us to make sure we are supporting the students that come through our doors. And then in the second box, we've talked about this the how how we fund those services. The resolution line, it has continued to grow. We have continued to get additional money from them >> but this is also based on law. So as enrollment declines we will get less to spend at wees. Um the contract services and um you can see that contract services took a big jump between 2425 and 2526. Um and that really is uh combining a large number of slots at the W career Academy. So that school improvement services line is

038where the WA career academy slots are. We purchased those and if you look at the previous page almost almost all of those slots are funded out of high school success because high school success is about providing career teched. It's about providing um things that help high school students um prevent dropouts and assisting graduation. So that means several of those criteria. Most of that money is spent out of high school. But yeah, just a reminder of that sort of intermediate service we get from. So that brings us to our special revenue funds. We don't go over them in detail. In fact, there's just a summary page here on page uh 28 that includes food service. Um and if you look at the nutrition services line, uh you will see that we are budgeting over $300,000 to

039be transferred from the general fund in order to balance and sustain their operations. they are not allowed to uh be operate at a loss and that money will is budgeted to be transferred the students investment account if you look at the second column one thing there that's interesting to note in the bottom under the requirement section 96% of our SIA money is in support services so that is um significant. We are using some to offer electives additional electives uh to our students across the district but uh primarily that is now um in support services. Our debts service amounts are there but uh the next page page 29 is mostly mumbo jumbo right [laughter] but the important thing I kind of uh made a little bold a little larger and that is our projected levy rate

040so next year our projected levy rate is $2.57 to30 per $1,000 of assessed value again that a little bit higher. Last year we projected it at 2.0068 but we are paying off that one bond for this year. And then the capital projects we don't have anything specified. We budget the money so in case a we have an opportunity that the board says hey yeah let's go for that or b we have an impact and um so the money is the expenditures budgeted but not plan and then the last page uh page and you'll see other talk right um on the left side under it says general And it says cut days. So Melanie, that's what it costs per day >> in the general fund. So there would also be savings obviously in all of our

041funds, food service, all the grants. We would all staff would be furoughed. Uh but where we split that significantly is the jump. >> Could be slightly higher than that. Maybe a little under 200,000 total, maybe a little bit more. >> Not much. I don't know if you want us to go through these. Um, >> and again, we started this last year. This was um, you know, looking at again, at that point, we were worried about more of the federal funds and would we have any federal funding. Um, again, backing out if we were to not have any federal funding, you're talking almost $2 million of loss revenue that we would have to to backfill. And so again, as we said last year, these are the areas um that we again talking with building princip I

042want to be clear, no one wants to do do this. This is not a fun list to put together. But after and when we started uh working through some of the federal funding last year um and working with you all, uh we have kept this up to date. we continue to add things to it. Um because again, if we're getting to a point where we can only pay for academic core things, >> some of this on this list is not that. Now, are these vital to the success of kids? You bet they are. But as budget gets to those point, we have to work with and make those decisions. Um as a school district, as a community, these are not easy, right? again, counselors or high school athletics, right? So, we're going to you all

043can have that discussion and if there's a an avenue you would like us to to look at, that is partly why you are all here in the end. we have done our side of the house in putting that uh together and again not easy in the choices that we're having to make but uh we will put this and continue to put this in front of you as we have these conversations hopefully getting to a final budget either tonight or hopefully early next week if we need to do that. >> I had to note one other thing we added this year um and that is about partway down on the general fund side and that is to reduce our operating contingency. We have a board policy which sets that contingency at 70%. Um if the board

044wanted to reduce that felt that there uh that we could manage with less than that in the event of a >> catastrophic change in state funding for example. Um the the value of that is $225,000 for every half percent that we would cut. Budget committee can't decide that. That's a board decision because they would have to vote to suspend their policy for a year if it's it's been done. I I'm worried some low to me, but we haven't cut it. um the units um column. Could you explain that? >> Sure. So, yeah. And it's per year or 3.0 per year. >> Yeah. It's kind of it's kind of a mix unfortunately. So, the um for example, athletics is that's cutting all athletic costs. That's cutting coaches, referees having no sports at all. It's about $660,000

045per year. If we just cut the coaching stipens, as you can see, that's in other words, you have volunteer coaches, but the district covers everything else. Um, that's something. When you get down to 3.0, the elementary music, for example, we have three elementary schools, three music teachers, but their total cost is 427,000. Not each. Not each elementary teacher combined. >> Well, yeah. So 2.0 for example uh FFA if we cut the FFA program it wouldn't affect classes but if we said we will not fund the additional pay that those teachers get there are two of those teachers their total additional pay. So that's that's and then per year is just for these other either special stipens or uh flat mats. So on the uh SIA side under the PK county mental health uh contract we've

046we were given three well four one of them's only slightly different um staffing options from PK county. So we currently have five mental health support staff, one at each building, plus we have what uh we pay towards, we don't pay the full salary of a supervisor who can come in and assist with their highest level cases. Um they the cost for that this year again they this is all in uh we would contract that would be 620 almost $623,000. >> Is this all only elementary? >> No, this is all five buildings. So three elementary one middle school one and the high school. >> Okay. >> They did give us options for just partial. So then we've got an option for three bilingual elementary counselors plus still having this supervisor available but nothing at the middle

047school and high school. Um and that's the $427,000 option. And then three of the elementary schools having two bilingual, one nonilingual um and u not having the supervisor available to us for high needs cases and that's the lowest cost option. We were hope our budget hoped to include the 622,000 but we will not. That's the amount of the hole we had to fill. >> So, in order to restore, for example, all five, we would have to find $623,000 in savings somewhere else on this list. We could move between the general fund and SIA. Remember, that's fungeible. So, we could cut something in the general fund, put the mental health associates and counselors there, or we could move funds around between these. That's why they're both listed here side by side. So, that's for example, the

048kinds of choices we looked at. We're now making them available for you. >> Yeah. Go ahead. >> I have two questions. When you're looking at FTE, you mentioned that some are at 0.5. Does that include in like do you have insurance ratio some? So people who are below 0.5, do you don't have to pay insurance? >> I'm going to have I want to make sure I answer this correctly. Brian, you want to come up here real quickly and just answer insurance pieces for me, please, so I don't say it incorrectly. So full-time employees, full-time insurance, >> right? But a parttime >> part, >> it depends on the contract. So you're talking about classified or >> just give a high level of both if you wouldn't mind. Just generally >> I don't want to misquote. Give

049me one second. >> Yeah. >> Sorry. No. Do >> you want to go on to the next question? >> Yeah. We got another question over here. Going back to the mental health contract and I sent I think the full county letter out to the committee. Um so just to make sure >> the letter that was sent by Brent Demo was sent to the board directly. I forwarded that on to the >> just [clears throat] there is no mental health contract in the proposed budget. >> Correct. Correct. >> Okay. And so to restore it would be the >> one of those options. >> And we again currently if you look up top we have guidance counselors at both the middle school and the high school. So again we put all three options. Again the 60 623,000

050would be um what we currently have and then the other two are just different versions >> and the different versions only at the elementary. So we've had me these mental health folks in the elementary schools for 27 years. >> So before my time when we were able to get additional funding we actually had a part-time a person part-time at the high school and parttime at the middle school. When we got the SIA funding we went to full-time at the middle school and full-time at the high school. So since 19 2019 um we've had full-time at all this. Do you happen to know how much of a guidance counselor's time at a high school is purely academic in terms of you need these kinds of classes to graduate, you have this many credits. I mean that's

051there's that's a lot of work. Yes, I think they do a Yes, they do. >> They do. They also do emotional counseling. >> They do. They do. >> Do you know any proportion of anyone talking about how much is academic? How much would be actual emotional guidance? >> I have not asked that that question. I would say it's probably at times 5050. I think when we're forecasting it's more probably 8020. So I think throughout the year I think you're going to have different snapshots of that. Um, I think as people, you know, beginning of the year when we're looking at schedules and kids are wanting to move things around that first month that we're having those conversations. So, it's focused on academics and getting kids in classes and, you know, those requests of, hey, I

052don't I thought I wanted >> music, but I don't really want to do that now. I'd rather be in PE. Those types of things. All those conversations take place throughout the year. >> And the Pulk County counselors have different certifications than the guidance counselors at the high school, right? they're more trained to deal with emotional aspects. >> I would say our counselors have that background. I want to be clear, it's just not academic when you have a counseling degree. It is a combination of all. Um but >> yes, that's part the pulp county specifically is for just mental health supports for our our students. And at times >> at the elementary level, they are mental health associate bachelor's degrees. Okay? And at the secondary level, we have had actual mental health counselors with masters. >>

053Okay, >> this so again either of the two lower amounts would be bachelor's level. >> And I would also say there's some we have mental health at the health center. So there is still county behavioral health that kids can go and get an intake and get through central health and wellness. We also have a whole county mental health center in Monmouth where where where families can go and do that. You know, again, every family has insurance that can be part of that. Again, I think we have always wanted to have this in the buildings. Again, I'm going to say it again. These are not easy choices we are having to make right now. again that we have been staring at this list and now new versions of it since January and and trying to really

054work through that with with buildings and different things and giving different um examples and those types of things. And so again, um I can't do certain things. The board can, right? I think that's the hard part also about some of this. There can be guidance that comes from this committee to the board as we've shared before. Um but but again, these are I I want to make clear to this group and the public. This is going to be for the next several years. are we are expecting our enrollment to continue to decline for the next two to three years and then potentially see another uptick again >> based on literally just word rates >> yeah can I go ahead and please >> yes >> um so we'll start with license so licensed um employees if

055they're halftime or more they're eligible for insurance breakdown though for licensed employees is that if they're 0.5 to 74 then they receive half the district contribution insurance. If they're 75 to 1.0 then they receive the full district amount. In addition to that it um there may be additional funds that come based on the pool allocation. So that's a conversation that happens between um the licensed insurance group talks about that. So there's members and there's folks from the district that discuss that and so there could be some additional funds but in general that's the amount for the license. So, as I'm licensed, and this is why I didn't want to tell you off the top of my head because >> the numbers really matter here. On um on the uh classified part-time employees, that' be 3

056and a half hours to 5.99 hours a day receive contributions equal to 75% of the total contribution. So, if they're above 5.99, then they receive full-time benefits. is that it's and the same thing applies to them is that if there's pool amounts of money that we're looking at, there may be some additional funds that they would receive, but it's for both of the groups. It's kind of a distribution among all employees typically to some extent that too. >> Any other questions about insurance? >> I have another question about something else. >> Another question about insurance something else. I'll wait my turn. We'll go >> over here and then I'll come back. Okay. Can you remind me when um the actual payout is for the how many kids are in our district? Like does that h

057happen the end of the year, beginning of year, I can't remember. It happens a certain time and I can't remember when >> when we receive state school funding. >> Yeah. It's based off of our numbers at a specific point in time for the state school funding like our enrollment number. >> It it changes three times per year. Yeah. >> And then there's a look back the following year that either adds money or takes money away. And you're saying that we're at a um higher rate of less kids because overall in the state there's less kids in in public schools. >> And so you're saying that we're at a higher rate. >> Correct. >> Um >> and and we are adjusting. So when as we have looked at enrollment, we have the ability to go in

058because what we don't want to happen and we have neighbors that are happening to them right now that they have to give back $800,000 right off the top because they did not adjust their enrollment. When CE talks about this look back in a two-year period, if you choose not to adjust it, you could have to pay back the state a significant amount of money. When I learned that coming in here, I was like, absolutely not. That will never happen because that not only takes you're taking more money and then we have to cut even more of that. You don't want to have when this adjustment comes, >> okay, $40,000 that's fine, but you cannot have you should not have $400 to $800,000 swings. >> So, when we start to see enrollment is declining, we pause,

059we look, we adjust. That means less money will come in that we don't have to pay back. >> I think that's a really important piece that people do not understand. We have to do that over a two per two twoyear period for those look back. >> But you're not losing anything because if you underestimated you get a little >> we could get a little bit more but it is more of the other side. If you do not adjust and you get that money on the front end, then you have to in that adjustment, you will have to get it back. >> And the and the bigger problem being no matter what's happening to us, we're also trying to figure out what's happening to the other 192 school districts. And as Shannon mentioned, so that's why

060there's those adjustments throughout the year. And as you mentioned, ours is declining, the state's declining, but ours is declining at such a more dramatic rate that our piece of the pie gets small. >> So that leads to my question. Do we know why do we do an exit interview or like not exit interview but like a survey or something as to why kids are leaving like 56 from February to June like so we can adjust for the future? Again, there's choice and I'm >> we are not I'm not going to force families to stay in this school district. There's a law that says uh we only need to have 3% of kid 3% of our students once we get above that on online schools. I can choose a superintendent to not allow anybody else out

061of this school district. No superintendent will do that. That's why would you want to keep families that don't want to be here? That's just not good for anyone. uh are online. So just as of today um and again I talked with you all about when we did the flow analytics as an example you take all 100% of our kids that could come to central school district about 80% on average come to public school the other 20% go to choose other choices so we have 27 as of today uh 200 and I just want to acknowledge Jill Love who is part of our data and does our student information system. She updates our data for us pretty much every few weeks. So, we have a total of 276 students that have left to go to online

062school. That's up about 13% since um March. We have uh 161 in homeschool. Not much difference um there than what we've had in the past. And then we have uh those that transfer out to different school school districts. So inner district transfers out that's 87 and then we have um 68 that are not accounted for >> back over here. >> So my question when we're talking about enrollment declines as well are there certain types of dollars attached to certain classifications of kids? So I know that we have high numbers of high needs fed students. Do we get more dollars for them and do the numbers adjust specifically for students or it's just a >> So when they're calculating our our enrollment and average daily membership on any given day, how many students are enrolled? That's

063a body. In addition to that, we actually get paid on our weighted mentorship and the weights are those extra credit for students with of very population. So for example, students experiencing disabilities, we actually get a whole extra week. uh students who are emerging bilingual, we get an extra half a weight for those. If we have teen uh parent parenting and pregnant teens, we get an additional weight for those. So yes, and poverty, we get an additional weight. >> And do those change as the formulas fluctuate or the weights totaled at the beginning of the year? So say I guess my question is say I start the year with a certain number of students at these weights right >> and what I have leave the school doesn't align with those weights does my budget adjust or

064say I have students move in who are higher weights but I'm only getting general fund does it adjust like that or >> so from now we will get our first 2627 school year payment in July it is based on our estimate of the number of the students not only individual [clears throat] students but special populations how many will we have in September we they're going on July August September and October they are going 100% on our estimates and the estimates of every other district that it's we can adjust those any time so basically in October we see a dramatic shift one way or another We can report that our estimate, we'd like to change our estimate, but they will only rebalance the whole pie three times a year. So in December, they'll rebalance based on

065what they see. They then take in March, they they get the poverty data. They get some of the other reporting data on students with special needs. they will rebalance the whole pot again based on by then actual data schools opened. So starting in March, it's not our estimate anymore. It's based on data we are submitting through the OD system. And then in May they can stop and adjust it again. >> And then I'm going to reference you all back to as a reminder page 12 high cost disability. Remember, >> yeah, >> we get $11,000 per student. >> If they cost more than 30,000, we pay the first 30,000. You can see how much our costs continue to go up. And even three years ago, we reimbured 56 cents and we are expecting that reimbursement to

066be 22 cents. So again, I think it's something like we had a total of almost $6 million of which we had a I think it was 3.4 4 million that we could get reimbursed for, but in the end, we'll only get $950,000. So, again, I think that plays also into some of that costs um that we're having to work through. >> How many days do we have at the elementary level? Just two. >> Just one in each. So, two >> as only one assistant principal at each school. Yeah. There you go. Two administrators against >> because I was looking at the uh cost. >> Yeah. >> Is that correct? $630,000 for two people. >> Just three people. >> 183 elementary. >> We have >> three elementaryaries. Ash Creek, Independence, and Long. >> But the classes

067are insurance and everything combined, not just >> benefits. It's not annoying. It's a bad episode. >> All right, we got a question down here. >> Yeah, I just I want to make sure. So on this part on page one where we're where it talks about the positions not filled or eliminated this year like it lists 18 plus. That's not including like any programmatic positions that were eliminated. So, I think one of the things that I'm cons I have a concern about I mean I know there's lots of concerns. Uh but is is this going to be every year for the next three years >> that we sit in this room and talk about 23 positions that we're cutting? >> And I I'm struggling because I think I think the phrase like weathering the storm has

068been like thrown out there. But I am concerned that we're gonna show up with like an empty boat. Oh, sorry. >> And here's what I'll tell you. That's one of the thing. So, as a reminder to who you are, right? This is part of the reason even in this short session, we as superintendent, pretty much all of us. We don't we do tons of stuff during the short the the short session, but we were even right now advocating because we still didn't know what federal funds were going to be. I'm going to remind everybody we have two special funds in this state. One is a rainy day fund that has about $1.4 billion. >> There's also an educational stability fund that's $2.2 billion. Now, as I've shared with this committee, Medicaid, we don't know, right?

069So, that's going to be a huge thing as we go into the long session coming up. But after whatever after 2008 when every state across this country even when I was in a different state um there was not a contingency plan for the really hard times. >> We have two of those funds. >> I'm just telling you those two funds are going to have to we're going to have to advocate to use. >> Right. And I think this goes to my question which is how can we advocate better because I think this is someone on the budget committee and I am sorry I don't feel that upset I just am I am frustrated not >> we just know we've been sitting in those rooms for >> how can we advocate better and I think like

070you see this room is full of people who care >> Jesus Christ. No, we just we know there's 20 times. >> Yeah. You know, and I think this is harnessable and I I think that we need to figure out that capacity and that is where I want to put energy because I uh I don't want to be a part of saying rubber stamping 18 positions every year, 23 that is I want to do something and I think I don't see a path right now where advocacy is happening. I know it is. I know that there's advocacy and work being done at the district level, but from a community level, I don't see a place where parents where um people who want to be involved in the do something side of things has a a way

071to do that. >> And I am curious about like a strategy that we could work on with the board, with district leaders, with school administrators to harness some of this. >> Yeah. >> What one of not me because clearly this should not be in front of anybody else. I but I want there are people that can speak to this and I think there are people that are prepared to spend time and energy speaking to the people that need to be spoken to and I am concerned that that is not happening >> and I'm concerned it's happening now which is too little too late you know what I mean for this moment I want there to be a harnessing of this >> I think that moment is should always be yes so that's again I don't

072me don't and I'm going to speak specifically as a superintendent >> we are constantly I am sitting on a workg group um and I've had to out of other things because of what this work will specifically potentially do for the long session tied to special education, >> right? So, I go every Wednesday, every other week from now through January just to sit on that to make sure that we're advocating. >> Do you need more of us? I think >> so. Here's what I will tell you as a as a jumping off point. You should if you have not, your local legislators are a good place to start. always a really good place to start. That's Senator Patterson and Representative Evans. They're two good people I have that we have had to continue to build good

073relationships with. That's two avenues. The next is the both the Senate and the House Education Committees, right? And that is a representative of across this state that are put onto those committees. So yes, we can do a absolutely >> is there we can do um we've we've worked and tried to do advocacy in different ways. I think we can continue to do that. Okay. >> Um is there groups like with the school board with district and I I understand what I'm asking here is a capacity question that that is hard but I think for some of us we have a passion we have an interest. We don't have all of the special knowledge of how to which door to knock on which window to peek into. That's creepy. We shouldn't be doing that. But that

074idea, we need some guidance there. Is there capacity at a board level? Is there capacity at a district level? >> Things I could say. One is we've tried to do a better job of sending the budget committee communications that go out to the board. Once the legislative session starts or once those policies and the Oregon schoolboard association is one of our main lobbyists, the other is called KOA the central office. coalition administrators. It's really it's our association for superintendent, principles. >> So those two lobbyists work tirelessly for us. >> And >> I would also say that right now with those two other groups is OEA and OCA. So CA is a a portion of OEA. I can tell you all four of those groups are trying to collectively work together where they can to because

075of what we're having to work through, >> right? >> So, we can share out more of this legislative information with the budget committee. That's helpful for somebody who already knows. No, hope when I see that there's a hearing, I know what to do. And if you don't know how to do that, we do have folks who want to do a little legislative traininee. I mean, >> waiting for a hearing. >> I know. Waiting for a hearing is too late. >> We are just a I think we are a perfectlyized. >> So, I want to be clear about that. You don't need a hearing. You don't need >> You can email them every day. >> We are just such a perfectly sized district in my opinion to have flexibility to make good decisions locally for us.

076We we have more flexibility than some of those larger districts where they have to deal with a lot of different things that we don't. I feel like we are really well positioned locationally to Salem to have a group of people that can be interested in this. But I don't think it happens without schoolboard leadership or district leadership who can help us navigate directly where to go for that to help harness and guide uh in a collaborative way. We are parents at all of the local schools. We are connected with administrators at those schools. We're connected with with staff. We have those direct connections and I think can I think we could bring energy to this. I think there is interest. Um I just think there I think we need some guidance and some some harnessing

077there for change making and maybe a strategy shift in in an idea of weathering versus I don't know I want to go serve him like let's figure this out. I want to take control of this. Well, and great great topic. I appreciate it. Um, I'm sure there will be followup on that. But in the interest of time, let's try to get through any other questions and then we'll jump into the public comment section maybe with a quick break before everybody's getting ready for the comments. Um, so do we have any other questions? I think I saw hand over here. >> And also in your packet, um, you know, we you have the link throughout the weekend to look at. We were watching for any questions that came in from you over the weekend. We didn't

078get any till late last night and so we didn't fill those in today. You may not have seen those. Uh that is uh here on a couple of pages that were presented to you, but that has been added to the other uh 19 questions that have been prior to this. Um, >> I had a I have a question. Okay. >> So, on page 30, the top cut days. All right. 159,200 per day. >> Per day. Correct. >> So, if we cut five days, then we could have the um what is it? The three bilingual at elementary and we could pay for that. Is that anything doable? >> So, for example, if if you wanted to keep the current mental health situation, that actually works out to 3.9 days. >> Okay? >> But we we have

079to be careful because >> we can't go below the minimum. So we would not be able to make that all all the any a large amount in furlow days because that actually would impair our ability to meet the minimum instructional time. >> They're probably talking no more than two. >> No more than two. Okay. >> So >> well I think we have to think about when you cut you're cutting into other people's salaries and so we'd have to talk to the unions. We'd have to talk to the teachers. It's not as simple as just saying, >> "No, we would have to negotiate that the number of days they get paid for as part of their contract." >> Sure. Yeah. Okay. >> But I haven't. >> Just to give you some hope, >> there are people

080who go up there all the time um to the capital. I go up there a lot. There were lots of groups of people that were asking to cut into these emergency funds. I went up last year twice to testify and sat in the room that took six hours and never got to because there were enough people. Antonio as a staffer for Deb Patterson, we can organize you all and teach everybody how to go up there. There's a lot that can be done. >> And again, there's many different avenues. Yes, going to one way, but a a nice barrage of emails of everybody saying the same thing can be helpful >> or not. But again, there's a I think there's there's pieces that we can help guide you in that direction. So >> I have waiting.

081>> Okay. So just to clarify one other thing on the cut days >> um that we can't do. >> I cannot but >> um if you do that does it actually cut everyone kind of equally or there some roles that don't get cut when we do that? >> No it would be >> these come off of student contact days. So everybody's contract for example we have days above the student contact days that are professional development right or planning days grading days >> we don't have bus drivers on those days >> okay >> so for example cutting student contact days cuts equally across the administration confidential supervisory class days >> okay and I wanted to ask I know that we're really we love the nurses And we're really happy that we have them. >> Remind me

082when we finally got to the point where we had one in each school. What year was that? >> Three years ago now. >> Three years ago. >> And before that did we have nurses in some of the >> we shared. And what what was that situation like? Remind me. >> Not just trying to understand >> the medical needs of our students. Even just things as basic as diabetic things. we have continued to increase it. So there is a from that perspective the needs of our students and the supports that the nurses give right it's it is a a priority we've got fooding feeding protocols we have just different things that they can help and step in we've got staff to do that but they are experts in that area to help with us >> and

083and that's what I wanted to hear again that's what I thought I remembered from the last few years when we talked about the nurses >> yeah we when we picture school nurses that sit there and wait for kids to come in off the playground knee or be stain that they need their EpiPen. we are talking very high needs now even from non special ed and and so that line item is currently uh part of it is spent at the ESD part of it is spent here at the district um and you'll see that on this on the actual detail page but they're about 160,000 61,000 a year is the cost we pay the list even those nurses >> and I know food service is not on this list but for the stress test. But when

084we were talking about it today and when I was reviewing the materials before, it was my understanding that most of that money, the vast majority of that money was coming from other places, not from the general fund. And is that still correct? >> It is a $2 million budget, $2.2 million of which um it is mostly federal funds. >> Yes. So changing that is >> helping our general fund really. There's it's not >> and and um actually we have a presentation to present to the board where we've done an analysis because the question has come up about the difference between paid lunch if we went back to charging some students for lunch. Um we've got a pretty detailed analysis of how that works out versus being on the community eligibility program. uh we just didn't

085want to present it to tonight to this group, but uh we have done that cost analysis and benefit analysis for the board. >> And one of the other big numbers we talked about tonight had to do with what we're paying to send kids to WAMIC career academy. So that was like 900 and some thousand, right? How many um students is that impacting? >> 34 slots. We have 32 in the um high school success and two in the general fund. >> And again, we can't part of the reason we got out of high school success. We we started that in the general fund. We did two as a starting or jumping off point again moved up to that two years ago with 20 and at that point we put him into the high school success. We

086move we made some adjustments for that. We felt that that was a good choice to support kids in different career and technical education fields um but um with things that we don't have there and that we would not be able to build because that's small niches niche pieces that we want to make sure that kids can go to. But that's only 185,000, right? 900,000. >> There was It was nine something in line items. I think >> on the page 26 it says 185. >> Yeah. And that's what I was >> I thought it was a much bigger number. >> It's 934,000 total paying contract but only 385,000. >> That's what I was looking at. >> Career Academy. >> Right. Exactly. the majority of it nursing which I don't I don't know if that >> what

087we were just talking >> right so that's how you get through that that number that was 800 >> okay great I'm glad >> they're hired through the WSD and not our own staff correct >> correct >> and we pay for part of them at ESD funds and part of them um we have we're because we're our ESD dollars are stretched down we've had to move to paying some of them out of our funds and this year uh two of those are budgeted out of the student investment. >> So I think what we'll do is we'll move into public comments. Um well let's let's while we're getting ready to do that we can take like a three minute break. So if anybody needs to run the restroom so we'll start at uh 7:32. Um, and then

088I've got four four individuals that uh filled out the paperwork. So, I don't know. >> I'll go in the order. >> So, um, so we'll start with Britta. I'm probably butchering the name. Britta Centon will be the first public comment. So, in about three minutes, we'll get started. Do it on that'll be hard with four. Try not to find something. Not for real. But >> it's because let's say Yeah. What do you know about the We're trying to respond with the ones that we I was asking there. >> Yeah. I think that >> I think we only have three other There's no direct All right. I think we are ready to >> Okay. Um, so for the for the public comment, I'm gonna just set a three three minute timer and I'll try to give

089like I'll I'll do like this when you're about 10 seconds left of the three minutes and we'll try to stick with that as close as we can just in fairness to everybody. I think we've got four total comments go through. So, uh, with that, Brenda, go ahead. >> Uh, my name is Brenda Santon. I am a parent of a central student. I've also worked for both the school-based mental health team and the district coordinating the schoolbased mental health team. Um, obviously I'm in support of that team and that contract. I think cutting it in its entirety without collaboration with our partners and families and administrators is completely opposite of our district's strategic goals. Um, we can't pretend student mental health needs won't continue to exist and won't impact classrooms, staff workflow, student safety, student experience,

090enrollment, other places where money comes from. It's really hard to put a dollar amount on the outcomes of prevention, suicide prevention, addiction prevention, dropout prevention. The schoolbased mental health team highly impacts all of those. All of those cost you more money. Um, how much money can you put on the cost of saving one student's life? I bet they save multiple every year. I know I did. It's not something they get to come and tell you the story of. It's confidential. Um, really important question needs to be answered. What are the current needs that that county contract is meeting? What's the plan to meet those needs without the county team? How will it impact students and families? How will it impact our central educators? um what are the students safety risks? What is the liability involved?

091Liability doesn't only rest in this special ed world. Um what additional costs will be created? We need to look ahead and plan for meeting the needs over time if it can't be done through a contract that big with the county at this time. What can it be? How do we get together and figure it out? Um do we need to ask the county um to figure out billing for some services? Do we need special grants that are really specific? Do we need all the the above? Yes. But we don't have the internal capacity right now to figure that out without the student without the schoolbased mental health team because they're the ones who have the expertise and have the answers in that. um cutting the entire entire contract with no input or collaboration with them

092on how we're going to move forward is irresponsible and it burns bridges to partnerships. We desperately need to ensure we're caring for our kids well. Um there's a responsible way to do it and we have to do it together. This weathering the storm thing cannot keep happening in this district if we keep doing this us versus them thing with whatever it is. You've all felt it. It feels toxic at times. We have to figure out how to do it together and it has to be creative. There's not enough money. Of course, it's impossible. If we just keep doing it in silos apart from each other, the state government, the federal government aren't rescuing us either. Of course, advocate, but we also have to creatively do it together here now for our kids. Thank you. I

093also steal more time, but also some of those questions that were asked about school counselors and that sort of thing. Um, I'm I don't know. I'm happy to answer questions like that. I don't feel like >> Well, they can ask you out if you don't have an opportunity to comment. >> Okay. The answer we're not we're not advocates is what I'll say. >> Thank you. Um, next up is Emily Mcnoli. Yeah. >> And I'll give you 10 seconds left. Also, >> great. Thank you. >> If you're ready, you can go ahead. >> Hello, my name is Emily McNelte and I have two kids in the district and I'd like to start by thanking district leadership and the budget committee for allowing public comment as I know that wasn't originally planned tonight. That said, it is

094disappointing that had information not been shared by concerned community members last week about intended budget cuts, I never would have known about cuts to specific programs that are being considered tonight. [clears throat] I recognize that schools everywhere, not just our own district, are facing unprecedented budget shortfalls, unfunded mandates, and tough decisions must be made to balance the budget. However, I'm here tonight to advocate for two things to be considered while these decisions are being made. Number one, school-based mental health services are essential services and should be funded. And number two, transparency, communication, and community engagement should be a priority for the district leadership team. Mental health is directly tied to a student's ability to learn, engage, and succeed academically. And quite frankly, the school-based mental health team has provided lifesaving resources for many kids in

095our district. I hope that families never need to access these services. However, once a family does, it highlights how important schoolbased mental health experts are for our schools and our students. As a family who has needed these services, I need to share that access to the schoolbased mental health team has been life-changing. And I don't use that term lightly. Our 11-year-old daughter, who gave me permission to share tonight, has been working with Miss Alyssa, the schoolbased mental health associate at MES, and she asked me to share this statement with you. Miss Alyssa is important to students because she helps them when things get hard in their life. Her room is a safe space if you need to take a break and she really listens to me. I'm worried that somebody like her won't be at

096Talage next year to help me when things feel overwhelming and scary. The reality is if this program goes away tomorrow, our family is lucky that we have other pathways to access mental health services. Yet so many of our local families don't have this privilege. One of the most important things about this program is that it ensures equitable access to mental health services for all our kids. And this hopefully hopefully makes teacher jobs a bit easier knowing there's assistance in the school if their students need access to mental health services or resources. Teachers are already doing enough. Don't ask them to also operate as mental health professionals. I recognize the district is being forced to make cuts to core programs and staffing. However, to my second point, there is a lack of transparency, communication, and sharing

097of information in a timely manner with the community about these decisions. Proactive engagement would help the community understand why cuts must happen and how decisions are made. And while there will always be some folks who only see the negative, I believe we also have reasonable and engaged community members who want to know the good, the bad, and the ugly of what is happening in our schools and want to be a part of the process to positively impact our district. even when things seem dire. And to our district leadership team, schoolboard, and budget committee, ultimately I hope a solution is identified to continue to fully fund school-based mental health services. And if that is not possible, then you need to tell families your plan, and you need to tell them soon. And please think innovatively about

098solutions, proactively engage the community and your internal partners, and communicate decisions and next steps clearly and in a timely manner. Thank you for your time and consideration. >> Thank you. >> Next, we've got Aaron. >> Aaron B. >> What is it? >> Okay, go ahead. Whenever you're ready, I'll get the timer started here. >> Uh, hi. Uh, so my name is, uh, Arona. I'm a student at Central in the 11th grade. Uh this is my friend Men. We're both students at Central and uh so during my time at our school, our mental health resources have been crucial and critical to the success of many students, including myself. The operations of our counseling resources at central across our district and our wellness room are also critical to the countless students and those staff who have made

099a lasting meaningful impact on their lives. Many students have heard about cuts being made to these resources, including the loss of many staff in our wellness room. These uh cuts are especially damaging given how much of an impact these staff have on us and also the efficiency of the deal that we have heard about this this uh partnership as others have put it that we as far as we know are losing. Uh we sincerely hope that the district if at all possible reconsiders this uh this path forward because we do not see it in the best interest of our community like me to speak next. >> Um hi my name is uh Venus Martin and I am a junior at Central High School. Um Megan our resource officer has been helping me since my freshman

100year at Central. She gave me a reason to come to school and socialize with my peers. I used to struggle with social anxiety and would have a hard time walking through the halls during the busy times. Um, Megan gave me solutions to help me with my fear and she has also helped me with my personal issues at home. My father is a bit older. He's 55 and sometimes um we have different opinions about certain things. Um Megan has helped me to communicate better with my father and um and to this to this day me and my father still have a very good relationship. Um Megan is an integral integral part of our school system. Um, many people can't afford counseling or simply don't have the time to go and high school um can get very

101stressful. A lot is expected out of us and Megan helps us with that release to just let our emotions out and talk to someone one-on-one without the fear of judgment or getting in trouble. Um, and whatever you talk to Megan with, she can she uh can't tell anybody or anything like that unless there's certain things. But >> thank you. >> Perfect. Thank you so much. >> Um, and then the last public comment is >> Venus. That was both of you then. Okay. Hey, that works great. Well, thank you. I appreciate all the input. That is very nice to hear from the public. So, thank you for that. Um, so we're going to move into many deliberations and action. Um, and so we will need to go through the budget and everything that's been given to

102us, um, and figure out what we're going to do. So, the hard part is ahead of us. If we can get through and assess taxes um, and recommend a budget, we would not need to meet again before next week's board meeting. But if we can't arrive at um a decision tonight, then we will have to meet before the uh board meeting. So >> when's the board? >> Next week. >> Monday. >> Yeah. So we would have to come in. It'd probably be early like get here 5 or 5:30 I would think. Um next Monday. So ideally we could arrive at a recommended budget tonight and a tax assessment tonight but uh but we'll have to deliberate on that. >> So chair Swan maybe I can read to you. So there was a question and the

103questions that came in you haven't had a chance to look at quite yet that might help sort of inform what folks are can or can't maybe discuss in this part. >> Sure. Um so again [clears throat] the we we've said before once the committee's role is to you know participate in this public process recommend to the board approval of a total development and levy the tax. Right? That is that is the given role. Um and then the board takes that from there. they can accept the recommendation of those dollars or they can change that they have the authority to do that um and then appropriate them. So this question comes up about you know how what about adjustments what adjustments can you as the committee make? Um and the way I answered that really is

104that as part of your deliberation process, um if you determine that the total revenue or the total requirements is off, you think we are making a big uh misassion about the total revenue and you think there's more, then your motion would be to up the total by an amount. that would be part of your discussion as far as program staffing other line items that is typically not the whole budget. >> However, what what I would say about that is this. Um, if there is majority agreement that you want us to consider something based on what you've discussed tonight or what you've heard tonight, you could potentially give that to the district in what the legislature and the governor call a budget note saying, "We we think the total is correct. We want the board to

105consider when it goes to appropriating eight something different. That budget note um then would have to be evaluated by the district and the board. And what are some of those steps? I want to let you know what those steps would be. So, first of all, if you came up with a change that did not support the board adopted strategic plan, it kind of might [clears throat] not be taken into consideration. Clearly, they have a strategic plan. It needs to to meet that. Um, it also has to meet legal and procedural requirements. You can't tell us to take money out of the food service fund to hire mental health counselors. We that's a legal requirement we cannot do. Um, it has to be bound by the constraints of grant funding and that's why we talk about

106the student investment count is fairly flexible. The high school success grant is not. All right. That money has to be spent on 9 through 12 with a tiny bit available. Um, it has to have the support of our administrators. They gave priority list. These these none of this was anything they wanted to cut, including staff positions. They fought hard to keep positions that were going to be opened by retirements or by resignations. But they also see the reduced enrollment and they know that we cannot continue to to spend at a level we have with reduced revenue. So we want to make sure go back to them and say this is what what the committee would like us to consider. Um and then the last one is and we've mentioned this there could be things you

107ask for or ask us to do differently that are subject mandatory bargained. we don't have time to do that to adopt the budget by you. So we could say let's you know we we have a total dollar amount. We understand what you would like us to consider um of the changes we've made the positions we've eliminated. We gave you a list of those. We've given you this some of this program um discussion. So if you want to create a budget note and say please try to consider this within the total dollar amount as presented, we we will take that into consideration. We will do everything we can to take your input to to be prepared to present this to the board, but the board has to adopt this on June 22nd. [laughter] Um and so

108there is a shorter time. Again, they're only adopting a total dollar and they're only allocating it by organizational levels as required by law. They don't even say we want to add a science teacher and take away a math teacher and take away this at the middle school and cut this or that. But they can give again the district this is your budget. This isn't our budget, right? And these challen changes are challenged. >> Certainly the hardest thing I've had to do and I've been at it longer than you have here. Um certainly the hardest thing. I I have a list of stuff we've added over the years since I've been here and it's really impressive and half a step backwards is really hard. But these choices weren't made in a vacuum >> and um we

109certainly could try to implement but we we need to understand we want you to understand what trade-offs are and what we'd be giving up and that's that we'll we'll take that input. >> Thank you. That that was a very nice addition. So with that I I'm going to just restate what she said. I'll try to be very very brief, but essentially we can vote tonight if we get get through the deliberations on the total dollar amount. We could raise it, we could lower it, or we could stick with the dollar amount that they have, but we don't really have the authority to go in and make any line adjustments. We don't have like veto power, you know, like line veto power, anything like that. Um, I do like the idea of the note. And so,

110just to kind of get our u creative creative juices flowing, I guess you could say, um, I was going to throw out one option that we could do for a note. So, when I was looking at it, the board's not going to like me too much, but there is a 7% contingency that's based on board the board mandated minimum on this is 7%. And so my math might be totally off, but I divided that by seven. So each percent of contingency fund is about $452,000. So we could make a note that says we recommend the board approve a lower amount, 6%. And take that $452,000, and apply it to the middle mental health option, which is 427,000. So that could be an option where we actually approve the budget, we assess the taxes, but our

111approval for the budget would be conditioned on making that note >> recommendation to the board. So that's those are the kind of tradeoffs we could look at doing. Um, so I guess I just that's my idea. Are there other brilliant ideas out there that we should also consider as a budget? I mean, yes, sir. >> Yeah. Well, I got to say there's the budget is the budget, the top. So, we can't change that. >> So, we're only changing within the budget and that's not our job. We have to recommend to the board and to the administration. I'm just getting it straight because if there's 50 whatever million dollars, that's it. There is no more money. So everything below that then somebody has to give or take and contingencies are a hard thing to eliminate when

112something comes up and you have no money. I I know we used to be 11%. Now we're clear down to six and seven. So what I'm trying to say is you can't add any more money. What we prove is what they have is all the money they have. It's no different than your paycheck. It's only so much and you got to pay it and we're on a cash basis. We can't borrow to keep the district going. >> we could but it's but it's but it's but it's I mean it's same as it's tough. So I'm just adding I understand what you said there. I think it was a good idea but I'm just the top end is what you said we have and so everything has to be arranged under that top end. Well, probably

113with you because they >> I guess >> um I asked the three questions because I think that we do have more authority in what is said because the statute says as revised and prepared by the budget committee. I haven't had the time to ask the department of revenue who um helps train on budget law. Um but I feel like we can't get in the day-to-day operations. I completely understand that like saying one teacher, one teacher here. But I feel like we can say this line item we think is too much. This line we want you to cut here or move here. I think we do have that kind of authority as a budget committee more than just looking at the rates and the taxes. So I don't I have not had the capacity from last

114night until today to contact revenue, but that is my next step. >> Yeah. Well, and I think you know we can we can approve whatever we want to approve as a budget but ultimately then it's going to go to the board right to get adopted. So I mean we we can try anything we want legal or not but if if what you're saying is correct that we could actually adjust some line items. Did you have a specific recommendation that you'd like to put out there for the budget committee >> again? um the where there's a lot that is being increased. I've asked this and I don't know how to ask it in public, so I'm just going to do it. Um the spe the amount of money that we spent on special education is increasing

115again by $1.2 million this year. And so now we're at almost $6 million for 56 kids. >> No, no, no. >> That's high costs. We have over we have 20 almost 16% of our population is a student experiencing disabilities. So the student the 64 is just those identified as high cost. We have again we're I don't I'm not doing my math today. Um so whatever 16% of 28 62 is is our total population of students that are experiencing a disability. The 64 is just those that cost us more than $30,000 that we can get reimbursed for. >> 457. >> So 450 and 500 kids >> in our district 134. >> So two different things. High cost disability again 64 kids that cost us $30,000 or more. And then you have 450ish again 16% of our

116population is a student experiencing a disability. >> So and and if you look at page 20 I got to have my glasses 26 of 30 um there's the two columns resolution and contract the resolution is what's already wanted for us to the ESD. >> Yeah. >> So those funds we wouldn't have available through us. So the only funds that we can change based on where you were going would be the the contract amount which is 655. >> Is that where you were aiming? >> No. Gen under the general fund if you looked at the um amount allocated by school district um for section this was 11 o'clock last night. Um I was looking at comparison from the 2526 budget to the 2627 budget. So I only have printed the 2526. But if you go by

117program, the structured learning um special education 122x goes up by $1 million and that's in the general fund dollars. So, and a couple of things about that. Uh, that also includes uh staff salaries obviously. So, any of those increases we talked about in taxes of benefits is part of that increase. It's not just purchasing special services. Um but for example this uh on the Wamid SD the Phoenix school tuition is added to the general fund because in the past we were able to um purchase that service with our ESV funds. So, some of those things are um maybe we got the service before but it wasn't in the general fund or a lot of it is our staff and a lot of that staff is paid for it out of the general fund which is

118why that increase is >> and so for those that don't know the when she says referencing both the resolution dollars by WESB. We sometimes have to place kids in other programmatic that's a decision made by a team um that the school district or central school district is not the right environment for them. They need additional supports. Um so we have to throughout the school year have slots for students that go into those types of programmatic pieces. There are several different types of programs throughout not only our county but in other family that we at times contract with. >> I was on page 22 of 30 um in the 100 section 123x structured learning fed is 6.277 in 2025 2026 that amount was 5.3 million. >> Okay. So to follow up then on your idea, were

119you proposing to reduce that line item to yes cover mental health? >> No, I was proposing to put in back in the um the Holt County because that impacts 660 kids. Like that's a big population of our district. It's over a third of it. And so how to come up with $500,000 difference or $600,000 difference? You would that money fee >> you would reduce the 6.418 by the 622 >> to cover the mental the full mental health. >> Yes. >> Okay. Let me write that down. >> I have it. >> You got it. >> Okay. So, what does that number then come out at? It's 641. >> You wouldn't increase it by the whole million. You would do it by the 600. So, it would still be that program at 400,000. to keep the 600,000.

120>> Yeah. 622 912. So that'd bring it down to 5,795. Close to 5.8. >> Okay. Are there any other suggestions? Thank you for that suggestion. I just wanted to boil it down to dollars and cents so we had something we could vote on and see what support we have for it. Are there any other proposals? So we got two two proposals currently. I had said you could reduce contingency to cover the reduce the special needs line items to cover the 622. Are there any other proposals? Can I say if I'm on the board I can >> could you do a combination and only reduce the contingency by.5 >> and then do one furlow day >> but we can only talk about that. Gotcha. >> They can't recommend that. >> Oh, I thought the way you

121explained it before you can't say that that will happen. I'll say that the whole board can make that >> because that just gets less heavy even going >> that that would be >> so and what we could do is we could say we're going to approve this budget contingent on this note going >> would it be a contingent approval or is it a we approve it and here are some things we hope you consider right so it's not contingency approval it would be hey we approved this budget we recognize this is where we're at and here are a couple ideas that we had can the board please consider these things seriously because We while we may have approved this budget, we don't feel great about it and we really think there could be some other

122work done. So not fully contingency approval. >> You could or we could just say hey we're going to approve this budget with this recommendation. >> The budget note is what >> Yeah, that's a budget note. So we don't have to be soft about it. We can just say here's what we're going to do. I mean we're going to vote on right. So we're gonna we're going to come up with with a vote and that's what I like about having some concrete ideas is we can just go through and vote on them. So I feel like you could that way you're not going into one area. I worry about cutting our special education funding that >> is a direct I don't >> we'll vote on all three of >> there's a point it could become illegal

123>> what's the for an increase for this coming year >> for act for students experiencing disabilities there's much more needs of students. So, is there going to be a a change in less acres or that >> we >> if we take >> as we went through this process, uh, special education and transportation were really the only two departments that were not looked at for cuts >> um because of the cost increases in supporting our uh, students. So again, I'm going to remind everybody um of the community that we serve, right? That this is our community. We have a very large amount of of families with students experiencing disabilities. We have a lot of businesses tied to both youth and adult >> students and young adults and adults with disabilities. That is a big part of

124our community. If people didn't know that, again, look at who our top um >> private employers are in in our two communities >> by taking away funds. We're talking about eliminating >> we I want to be clear, we cannot eliminate >> special education staff for what compliancewise what we have to legally do for th those students. So there's there would not be an elimination of staffing as it relates to special education. >> But what I'm hearing is it's an estimate a ballpark of what is going to be spent. It's not a guarantee of what's going to be spent. So it's a an their best guess estimate of what amount is going to be spent. >> So we don't know if that is going to be spent or not for sure. But if you end up

125spending more if you end up spending how much you're required to spend, you're going to end up having to shift that money from elsewhere. >> We will come to you potentially and depending on how much we got to shift, right? We have the ability to shift less than 15%. Correct me if I'm wrong. 10, sorry, 10%. Sorry, different state was 15. I'd like to say I forgot that. But um but if if it's under that, then as we always have, we can can move money. But if it reaches that threshold, then it would have to come back to this group. >> That's good. It could also go the other direction where we could have more students that need these services and we're a public school district that's required to educate children in the district. >>

126Do we worry that by cutting school-based mental health, we may see an increase in other needs? And I want to be fully transparent here and say that I work for PK County and I work in the same office as this program. Uh, and really fully transparent, my best friend runs the program. But the most important thing is that all three of my kids have accessed this program. So, >> I wait, I just want to finish this thought. I'm going to do my best. So, I don't think that should exclude me from speaking. I do think that might exclude me from being able to vote on this budget, and I want to be clear about that. [sighs] Um, but I I am concerned that we are absolutely going to see an increase in sped because the

127work that they do is preventative. And I when I think about sped, I'm not talking about um I'm not talking about people who are born with disabilities or or delays. I'm talking about people who develop mental health disorders that result in then being on IEPs or other um forms of modification that are a result of mental health needs. I am concerned that by cutting school-based mental health, we are going to see continued increase not just in sped, but also in being able to participate in school. >> Yeah, >> I have a current kindergartener who I'm pretty sure is only just figuring out how to keep his hands to himself in the classroom thanks to Amanda Davis and a group that he's in that will not exist next year. I I don't know what to like.

128I know these are hard decisions. I am not trying to just say like, "Hey, fix it." Like, "This is not it. I'm here. I'm engaged. I'm ready to be activated." But I also, this program is preventative of these very things that we're talking about having high needs. I do not see how we're not going to see an increase in these needs, an increase in this funding if we cut this program. >> No. and you're absolutely eligible to be on the budget committee. And we're glad that I just I don't know that I can vote like I don't know that I feel good about a vote for myself personally that doesn't include >> uh services that provide help for my kids to stay in school to navigate emotional >> regulation. I and to I mean my

129son came home the first month of middle school uh with a friend who was participating in self harm. I'm not equipped to navigate that. I no one is except for the schoolbased mental health team. That is the resource for that. That is who he felt safe talking to. I mean who does that fall on without this team? >> Here's what I'll say. We we continue to be in conversation. We are trying to >> I know I know >> I know you know >> I know >> this is important to be said >> and I appreciate that. But I also want to remind the community we are continuing to sit at the table to try and solve this right. These are very hard decisions that we are making. We had a meeting last week. I'm trying

130to get two other meetings this week if not into next week to try and solve these issues. Right. I again, one of our strategic plans is community partnership. Just because we're having this conversation doesn't mean that that part is going to stop in trying to figure out how we do this. >> Um, and I think there are some really good ideas, but again, we were hoping not to have to do this, but again, we have we have continued to see an excessive rate of enrollment decline and we have to adjust and I want to get this community prepared. This is not just this year. It is the next three years you're expected to drop. >> So I don't want >> just continue this conversation. >> I don't want to derail, but I I'm want to

131continue this for reals for realsies outside of this room with action steps because it >> can't I can give you a little bit of a breakdown of sort of the $1.5 million increase if that would be >> just so you know. >> Let's let's table that. Okay. >> If we need to, we can come back to that. >> Okay. >> Um, but I think we've got, if I did my notes correctly, I think we've got four different potential ways that we can go. >> Well, one of them is just budget as presented, right? >> Oh, yes. >> So, that would be number four. >> So, I would like to get what's that? >> I would like to propose one more. >> One more. All right. I would like to propose that um the principles from

132each of the schools, so there's five schools in the district come with a next budget meeting with a $100,000 cut that they would make in their budget for the year to help bring on the because I don't have the answers, but I would like to hear like what would their thoughts be of um coming forward with a $100,000 cut from each of those this bill fund. the county like you want to hear from them like here at the meeting hypothetically. >> Yeah. >> So, and I like know roughly a teacher salary all in mid high range $160,000 a year. So, one teacher per building >> um or a classified person aboutund about $75,000. So, they would be cutting people. they their supplies budgets. The total supply and materials budget for the whole district is 1.1

133million. So you couldn't cut $600,000 of that, for example. So [clears throat] we >> I want to make sure I heard you correctly. So you want every building to cut a h 100,000 >> ratios. That seems off. Yeah. >> Yeah. >> I would again I'm not this is not I'm not asking >> right. I'm asking I want to make sure I have what you are asking. >> So when you say ratio you mean like ratio approach based on their total budget to to arrive at that number >> the middle the middle mental health option the 427 is that what you were targeting? >> No the 600 600 >> how do we get six for four schools five schools >> there's five schools there's three elementary town and a high school and a district office. Okay.

134>> Okay. >> But a ratio would be okay. >> Oh, yeah. Yeah. >> It's really potentially I'm going to call it six areas, the five buildings, and I'm going to say district office, which includes departments. >> Okay. Yeah. >> Okay. >> But are you wanting to have an elementary school that's 600,000 versus a high school? >> No. based on their budget. >> Yeah, but they're the schools have drastically different enrollments. >> Yeah. Well, and that's what I wanted to get the proposals out there >> and then see what we've got for support because I know there's a couple of couple of the scenarios that have been proposed all very well proposed, but I may not be supportive of them, right? So, we we need to go through as a budget committee and vet out which

135which ones or one has got the most support for it. Um, and I don't think we need a formal vote on it. I was kind of thinking >> we could raise we could maybe narrow it down by how many committee members support which one. >> I mean, we do need a formal vote on which notes notes could be more than one that would be included. And some of these are very drastically different. I'm starting to feel like we are not finishing today. >> We will not agree on today. >> Unfortunately, >> um, today was the last chance to submit a public notice for a meeting next month because we tried, we thought the Statesman Journal, we could do it up until tomorrow and that is not the case. We have no way to submit a

136public notice to a paper of record tomorrow. Um so we would have [laughter] to the the next opportunity would be not next Monday. It would be after next Monday. Um I'm going to >> or deci maybe decides the total and again these notes are going to the board and something will be presented to them on June 22nd for adoption. >> Could the vote be that uh we would potentially vote on sending all limits to the board? >> Could you could I mean I don't think we're limited here. >> Sure. So, uh, but I wanted to just just go around and have people kind of raise their hands based on the different scenarios that we've talked about so that we so I can kind of get a tally of support for each one. Uh, is that

137is that going to be okay with everyone to do that? >> Because >> I just have to hear more about what >> Oh, before we raise their hand if I agree on it or not, I need to know a little more. >> Yeah, I'm going to go through each scenario and try to >> give what my notes say >> so that everybody knows kind of what we're looking to support. Um, so I've got five written down here. The fifth one, uh, would require another meeting. So the first one, um, the first here, my numbering anyway, the first one is the one I threw out there, which is reduce the contingency by 1%. So the contingency would go down to 6%. And then that would fund the middle health scenario, the 427,000. Um, so is there

138any support out there for that one? I like it. One, two, >> I don't mind picking it up. >> We're going to talk about it at the board meeting. That's kind of how I feel about it. >> So, I think I counted five, including myself. >> I just want to be clear. Am I voting to approve this as a budget note, >> or am I just just saying like, "Yeah, I like this. I'm just p I'm just pulling to so I can get a tally on >> so we can kind of narrow it down to which one's going to get the most support then we'll take a formal vote on one two or three >> right >> so I counted >> five >> or as you say you could send them all at this >>

139we could >> we send them all >> but there may be one or two of them it just doesn't get any support so >> Shannon has one more sorry I just I'm just curious is it more of do we want to try and fund the whole 600,000 do we want to try and fund the middle or do we want to try and fund the less than how we do that like in the budget note to the committee >> and that's exactly what we're going to try to arrive at so this first option was funding the middle level but I think everybody's going to be a little bit different on what they want to fund and that's I don't think we're going to come to a perfect >> consensus >> and that's why I'm wondering if

140it's just more broad of like as the committee, we'd we'd want to fund the whole 600,000 or the middle or the left, then a budget note to the committee saying or the budget, I mean the school board and not give a suggestion unless we're really strong on a suggestion of how to do that. >> Well, personally, I think that if we're going to give a footnote to the board, I think that we should have how it's going to happen to you. >> I don't think it's fair to just say, "Oh, we want to fund $622,000 that doesn't exist and we don't know how you're going to do it." I think that it's our responsibility if we come with a problem or we come with a fix that we also have how we're going to get

141that done. So that's just my personal thought. >> I need your problem to >> I do agree with Shannon from getting a group of consensus on if if the group wants to fund this program, how much do what's the will of the the committee as far as how much to fund? Then you'll know how you have to tailor that solution. >> Yeah. And I was kind of approaching it from the opposite direction, which is how how many dollars are we going to free up and then that's going to be how much we're going to support the mental health. So I I think you could work it both directions, but I'm fine with that. Do we want to just take a tally of who wants to fund what level of mental health? >> Yeah. >> Okay.

142Let me uh >> I think that's the simpler first question. >> Sure. >> To answer. >> Let's do that. I'm gonna just give me a second here to draw my notes. See, we have three scenarios. So, we need four. Okay. So, there is going to be a zero, 305, 427, and then a 623. Okay. So, we'll just go. So, we'll start with the budget as presented zero. Is there any support to just cut from anybody just to probably not fair to put you guys on the spot? >> Would you like us to vote like what we would be okay with? Like it so for example like I might raise >> you could do more >> 427 but also you know what I'm saying? You get a tally of most >> because we're just doing so.

143So yeah, you could vote in multiple scenarios. >> Anybody want to cut everything like zero? >> No, no support for that. So the the low level 305,000. Is there any support for that? I could I could get >> No, one 427. I'd be supportive of that. >> One, two, three, four. >> No, it doesn't matter. [laughter] >> Have to go forward. >> You get to have other options. >> 623. Listen. >> Got one, two, three, four, five, six, seven. [laughter] >> I see you guys out there in audience. Appreciate you. But okay, so it does look like funding at the full funding has got the most support. It's seven [clears throat] to five. So any that does help us narrow it down. We want one of the higher two options in our >> I think

144we should take another vote between the [clears throat] >> I mean I I don't want to question anybody's values here but I think it's hard to say oh I don't think anybody on the committee wants to say we don't support mental health. I think we all understand that there is an importance for it and I think what we heard from the public is that it provides essential services to our students and I think >> I think if we're going to send a budget note I think kind of saying we should be specific and I think >> saying oh we like either or is doesn't get at that. So, I think we should vote, >> but it's kind of we're just kind of trying to get narrowed down to how we want to approach this. So,

145I would summarize and say we pretty much unanimously the whole budget committee wants to fund health services at the mid to high levels. And then the other question is how are we going to free up the funds? And so, we're going to so the first one we got five support for reducing the contingency 1%. And then the next one is reducing it by half a percent. So 6 and a half% contingency and reduce a school day. >> That only gives you 384,000. So it doesn't fund, does it? I've heard of it. >> And that's a school day. I mean, you're talking about all kinds of things that get cut. >> So it's not tricky at all about that >> essentially that would only fun. >> Is there any support for that? I mean I this

146is a question in general like because there's still contract negotiations with district employees. So is it even would that even be possible right now to negotiate? That's why we're asked if you can give us multiple options because some of them may not be able to >> cutting 600,000 out of the line item that was identified. For example, 375 of that the increase is for substitutes because our staff in that those jobs tend to end up needing substitute services. So if you ask us to subtract 600,000 from that, we can wipe out the substitute line item, but that won't mean we wouldn't spend. So there are things like that that you would we would be able to take to the board or we'd be able to consider how could we do that. Um for example, 800,000

147of that increase is taxes and benefits for employees. And again, that's based on the current contract offer. All of this is subject to more cuts, >> right? >> And correct me if I'm wrong. Any any resolution we come to is subject to the unknown entities that approach us anyway. This could all get blown up in the middle of the year. >> If if one of the boilers goes down at one of the elementary schools, you we're going to be >> a lot more. And I believe the rule is that if the the budget that we approve as a committee >> 10% if it's more than 10% differing from that then we have to call the budget committee. So there would be a correction of something like >> that's of the total dollars >> and we

148aren't going to have all of the moving parts ironed out because we have to basically approve it now >> and the board has to there aren't options to make sure this will happen. These are recommendations that we can work towards. >> So back to back to the second one. Oh, go ahead. >> Well, we're we're just going for notes. >> Yeah. in a way essentially >> this is how how we're doing because the budget is but what I'm I'm lost because what does $600 and whatever thousand how does that affect everything you haven't said anything this is the first time I've really seen part of this about the cut of the of the mental health and everything else so I guess we need another meeting because what we need is what your input back if

149we cut 420ome thousand for the middle or the top piece. How does it affect everybody? I mean, it's a big money, but how does it affect everybody? Each school, I mean, you were only talking maybe you have to cut a position or two. Maybe we can't shut a school down a day because we're close to our max. We're close to our our days that we have to be in school to get the money. I'm just saying we don't know. Everybody's throwing figures out there, but what does it all come back to? What I'm trying to say is, uh, I don't have enough information. I wouldn't vote on anything right now because I wouldn't know where the cuts were really at. And the people that can really do that are the are setting up there. >>

150Well, and and to your point, one of the options is the budget as presented. >> So with with notes >> with Yeah. with Well, yeah, we could send it with notes, but that would essentially be cutting all mental health as presented. So that is going to be an option. we will for sure vote on that in addition to whether whatever other options we want to send to the board. Um so the the number two is contingency down just half a percent reduce school day and that would not be full health services. That would >> ask the board to reduce a school day. I want to be really clear about that. >> That language is ask the board. I do not have that option. Well, then yeah, we can't send this. >> Well, even changing >>

151asking the board to consider >> we're recommending that that the board has to do. >> So, I agree. Yeah, we don't have we're just making a recommendation in a footnote. Is there >> even if board does make that recommendation, we're still bargaining? >> Yeah. >> And it might not be approved. >> And it's still short of the state of >> Yeah. It doesn't even achieve that. So, I'm thinking that that that I'm not sure we're going to get support for that. Is there anybody that supports that option? >> Like you could say, for example, furlow one day and then reduce the contingency by the difference, the dollar difference, right? Might not be an even >> percentage. So, but I'm not >> we can calculate that, >> but I'm not seeing any support for that. >>

152Right. So, I'm gonna just >> we actually do a poll for that. >> Does anybody support Raise your hand if you support the contingency fund going down? >> Oh, I thought we were talking about the fur days. Yeah, >> it's all it's all built into one center. >> So, yeah, it would be a furlow day contingency fund. It would be filling in the difference to the 427. >> So, it gets at least to the 427. just at least to the 427, but the contingency would be down probably closer to 7% to fill the gap. Is there any support for that? >> I'm one, two, three, four. Okay, we got Melanie raised her hand, too. >> Oh, five. Okay, we need to raise my hand, too. >> Rate those again. >> Raise them again for those

153supporting it. Let's count again at 64, five, six, 7. That's actually a pretty popular one. Okay. Um the next one is your suggestion which is reducing the sped program by 622 while we fund the health services. Um raise your hand for support in that. You you're not even supporting it. >> I'm just throwing out ideas. My best idea >> since we have zero support for that. Let's take that one off the table. Um, budget as presented. Is anybody in here in favor of budget as presented? We can send it with a note, too. Uh, no. Okay, we'll still vote on that just so we have a formal process of voting on the budget that was presented. And then the last one is I think it'd be hard for us to do that because we don't

154have we don't have another meeting because we can't do the public notice, but it would be cutting $100 at the district level at each school. >> The budget note where between now and board adoption, we would go to the buildings and say, are you willing to give up another hundred,000 to fund them? That would be an option that could be considered. Then it would be when it was presented to the board. It's still going to have the same dollar total. It's just going to be the >> Could it be instead of >> what all of >> So you would all reallocate the total >> instead of 100, could it be like each building comes up with how to cover the the position at their building if they wanted to. Where my mind goes is I

155like I would be curious if they could just send that to the board independently. like if they were like yes this is how I would like to cover that position or no this isn't >> you're bringing the board into operations >> that can't be >> so v uh just raise your hand if you're in favor of that basically it' be it >> before you do that you said we couldn't make a meeting for Monday but why can't we have a meeting Tuesday or Wednesday or another day next week >> I said we couldn't have it Monday we it would have to be >> so we could have another meeting >> so we could have a prop Like the proposal could be come back with another budget with what it would look like to have $427,000

156for the Pulk County or 600,000. Show us the current budget, the 400,000 to 600,000. Where would you estimate these tests to come from? >> And I'm going to point out fact what you're going to get are documents that look almost exactly the same as what you have tonight. >> It will not thoroughly on here. there are like the blue line items that would change and I would be able to show you that. But if if it's part of some of this that has to be negotiated or something like that is still going to be contingent even if you meet next week. >> So you um support for that idea. >> I need more information. >> We need more information. So we got one >> for more information. >> Yeah. I like >> I mean trying

157to I'm we're jumping from one to the other to back. >> I think they're put on the table is the going to the principles. >> Yeah. >> And the district office of finding anywhere between the 427 and 622. So that's the last potential option that was given on the floor uh by our committee >> chair. I think we had three three support for that. Two >> is anybody in support of the principles? One >> two. Okay, that is helpful. So, we know we've narrowed down what we do want to put in a note trying to fund the mental health at the 427 the 622 range. Um the three the three options were where where we were adjusting the contingency is probably going to be the most those had the most support for it. But I

158think what would make sense do we should we be formally voting on the budget as presented even though we had no support for >> the motion is to approve the budget for the total amount of 68,667,74. Um that was the motion that was suggested. If you want to make a change in that motion anyone hears. So, how would you if you wanted to add a note, it has to be part of the motion. >> It has. Yeah, we'd have to add that motion to say with the notes as determined by the committee. and we we've got the record um because what I think we're going to find is that if we vote on two or three different options, I think that we'll have enough support to potentially pass one tonight is what I'm thinking. Um,

159so we can we could either put up three different motions for the three different popular options and just go through a formal vote process on that if you guys would like that. Um, or we could um try to fine-tune it further. Okay, we've got the two contingencies. I think really and maybe just to say what note which is a combination of reducing the contingency and potentially a furlow that sort of covers all these options >> that would work and we would want to see the mental health funded between the 427 and the 622. Can we include >> other adjustments as the board? >> No, we can do >> we can do what we want. >> That's and that's what I'm saying because a combination of of knocking down perhaps special. >> I don't want to

160limit myself to just those two categories. >> That's a recommendation from the budget committee. The board has the option to change any of this up to 10%. >> Yeah. >> Up to 10% less than 1% >> without coming back to correct. I mean, I'm short $100,000. >> It's >> I might be able to find that somewhere else. I don't want to limit those two. Kevin, [clears throat] yeah, >> I that might do it. I mean, that gives us enough flexibility that accomplishes everything we've talked about. Um, I know I could support that. So what we would need then is there's a mo we would need a motion to approve the budget for the total amount of 68,66744 and include a note to the board that targets keeping mental health between the 427 and the 622.

161And to accomplish that, the recommendation would be adjust any combination of a just contingency, potentially look at special education, uh potentially a furlow day, >> and any other ideas, >> any other willing to examine any other, >> you know, picking up treasure in the back lawn. I won't spend any time since >> 10 minutes ago. Um, don't mean to pick on you gentlemen, but you guys were very particular about let's go with solutions. So, I think expanding it out to whatever else the board can find is a little >> um pretty broad. >> They could do that without your motion, but >> you would you would eliminate that piece. I will >> I just want to say though I the board heard the same things from the community that we did and I think it

162is part of the board's duty to act if they see fit. So I don't I don't mind I agree with you. We should have a very clear like here's the things that we think. But I like the call to action to say please board if there's other ways that you see please prioritize this. I think we're all here in the best interests of the students and these are really hard decisions and we don't want to take services away from anyone. Um, so I think that we're all here serving to support our district and our students in this community and we're going to make the decisions that we need to make to support everyone in their best like as as best we can. >> Do you want to make the motion then? >> Yes. I was

163just going to ask >> I can I will make this. >> You got it? Yeah, everyone has it. >> And I'll turn this way so I can >> So, why don't you make that motion and then >> Mr. Chair, I move that the central school district 13J budget committee approve the budget for the 2026 27 fiscal year in the amount of 68,6767,74 in oh gosh including the recommended budget. note to preserve high to mid mental health services. >> Mhm. [clears throat] Let's maybe put in the dollar amount. >> That's the motion I would like to make. >> Okay. >> Because I think we and [clears throat] I will leave it that. >> Okay. So, that doesn't >> high to mid meaning 427,000 to 62 >> to 622,000. Yeah. And would you want to specify that

164that we'd be adjusting furlow days? >> None of that. Okay. Do we have a do we have a second on that motion? >> I second that. >> Okay. >> Can I speak to the motion? >> Um I think it's very important that we keep our mental health services in the schools. I think we heard from the public. I think we understand that mental health services provide great resource. I think we went back and forth and be specific and not be specific, but I think this motion clearly states we care about mental health services and it lets the board know that and they want to find the money. Fantastic. They want to cut if they want to amend the board operating the con contingency policy great. If they want to explore furlow days, fantastic or not

165bad, but that their prerogative, >> right? >> Well, >> and if they don't find it, then they don't find it. So, I think that's why I didn't specify. We went back and forth, but I think I wanted to stress that the committee supports mental health in our schools and please find a way to keep them in the schools. Thank you, Mr. Chair. >> Yeah, thank you for the comments. Do we have a second on that motion? >> We got a second. So, we need to actually vote on >> No, we can have comment. >> No, you can have >> comment on the vote. >> Okay. And I pretty much grieved that we can't we don't know all the figures. They're in this, but what does it really affect? I mean, everybody whenever you cut one

166place, it's have a domino effect. I don't care what you do. So, I'm with him. Uh, we just go ahead and it's high to middle and have the board figure out if they want to do it or don't. And then they figure out how to cut the money to where it is. If it's to cut more people, it's to take from contingency. That's their responsibility, not us. Because we can't, we don't know what happens if you take a million dollars or 600,000 from in special ed, how it affects all the way down the line. That's my own point. I I understand where everybody's going. They're trying to get what they can, but our hands are tied to a point that we're only here to what the information is given. >> No. Well spoken. Any comments?

167>> I just have a comment. Um, I don't I don't mind not being specific, but what concerns me is then going to school days and such. Back to what Byron said, I think you could find 50,000 here or while 600,000 sounds like a lot of money to us in a $66 million budget, it is not as much as my pocket of 600,000, but I think cutting that's why I wanted to hear from the schools of like where can be cut. not even I don't know where 100,000 but I'm just saying like a dollar amounts of here and there of understanding where you can cut certain places and so that is more to the district because we don't have the um information like where I was saying so >> yeah and and his motion did not

168>> include where the tests come from >> it just recommends preserving the 427 to >> and my comment to to his motion is that I think through the discussion the board has been adequately educated on places that we could start to look. So, it's it it satisfies me as a as a >> as a motion that I could get behind and and I'm with you. I'm I'm pretty satisfied with the motion as well. >> Any other negatives, positives, debate before we actually hold a vote on this motion? >> Would you read it again? >> Yeah, let me do that. Um, and Cece, you were taking notes, too, so please correct me if I missed it. But the motion that's been second is I move that the central school district 13J budget committee approve the budget

169for the >> 27 fiscal year in the amount of 68,667,744 with a note to the board to preserve mental health at the mid to high which equates to 427,000 to 623,000. And that's the end of the motion and it was seconded. So if everybody's fine with that, let's let's take a vote on that. Um all those in favor, >> you have to take a roll call vote. The law change. So anything like this requires actually go around >> and record individual votes. Okay. to swing this year with the legislature. >> And do we is it acceptable to have them say I and raise their right hand? >> Yep. >> Okay. Well, we will do what is what's the form of voting? >> Roll call. >> Okay. Well, let's do roll call. We will start with

170um I'm doing Yes. I >> I I just I I >> I >> Nick >> I I >> I >> and I will vote I also did you get that. >> What was the final numbers? >> Uh because there are 13 of you. One day >> 12 to one. So that motion passes. So, we've approved a budget with a note. And then the second part of our duty tonight is actually, I think, going to be a little bit more simple. We need a motion to um assess the taxable, assess the taxes, and there's specific uh amount in here. And then we also need an amount to service to support the debt service fund. So, I would like someone to put a motion out there. I think you guys piled this motion. >> I can move

171to I move that the central school district 13J budget committee approved taxes for the 2026 2027 fiscal year upon the assessed value of all taxable property within the district for tax year 2026 2027 at the permanent tax rate of $488 four cents. I don't know how to read that. >> I spell it out. >> 4.8 8834. Yeah. Oh, you said it. Dollars per thousand of assessed value for operating bonuses. I am literate. Sorry. And in the amount of 5,272,434 to support the debt service fund for the payment of fiscal year 2026 27 principal and interest on general obligation bond series 2013 refunding and 2015 refunding. >> I second. Thank you. And we've got a second. So we will call sir. Oh, how much does that raise it from this year or or to what this

172year? >> So, so this year the rate is 2 my estimated rate which I estimated last year 2.0068. This raises it to 2.5723 >> per thousand. >> That's a difference. that >> I mean I'm looking at what you got here 48834,00 2.5723 last year was 268 a difference of.56 >> back I'm on the tax d of it so you're not going to short me here but the 488 is that what you're sending to the to the assessor's office to taxes per thousand The 488 is our permanent rate to support operations in the general fund. That is not the bonds. So that rate >> So that's the part that we get the tax to pay for the for the schools and that's also for the B and included in both. >> No. So 4.8834 is our

173operating um in the general fund only. It's the property taxes we received in the general fund. That rate was set by measure 47 and 50. And that rate has not changed. That's for general operations. So the other for the bond, we actually ask the tax assessor for a total of dollar value to pay our debts. I give you the estimated levy rate. That is not what we send to the assessor because I don't even know what the assessed value of all the property will be until October. So my estimate of 2 five is literally based on my estimate how much property values will go up >> um to pay our debt service. >> Well, I'm just that's what I'm trying to get because it's the way it's worded. >> Right. >> And the the 5,272,000

174is the debt service. >> It's right. Exactly. That's just the debt service on the VS. Yeah. >> If you Thank you for the clarity. wasn't explained very good in here, but that explained it. >> Yeah. Well, thank you for bringing that up. I >> I was a little unclear on that myself. So, that was perfect. Any other comments before we do a vote on that motion that's been seconded. Okay, let's um do the roll call vote. I'm going to pick on you again, Antonio. Uh just say I and raise your right hand if you support that. I >> I >> That's unanimous. Um well, excellent. We approved the budget and we approved the tax assessment. Our work for the year is done. >> So, um let me get back to the agenda here, but I

175don't get lost. Um So basically then the next steps I we already said this like three times but let's just be clear. The next steps is our approved budget then goes to the board to be adopted. Um it's going to have the footnote with it. I will sign the the official motions that have been approved here and then it'll be up to the board to adopt and implement and do with our note as they will. Um so >> and that adoption is on June 22nd. >> June 26 >> the special board meeting. >> Okay. So that so that basically >> be able as soon as there are options that are being presented to the board, we'll be able to communicate budget committee so you know what's what's going >> perfect. So I think that that

176concludes everything we need to do, right? So we can we can before we adjourn though, I just want to thank everybody that's spent three hours here. Thank you so much. Sure. But it's been very much appreciated and thank you to every each and every one of the budget committee members for volunteering your time to help steer the budget process. I really appreciate that. And with that we will adjourn.