001Mhm. >> Mhm. >> Okay, good good evening everyone. The May 14th meeting of the Corvallis School District Budget Committee is now called to order uh 6:34 p.m. Tonight's agenda, board packet, and a link to the district's YouTube channel are available on the school board page of the district website. All public meetings are live streamed on YouTube and recordings are typically posted the following day. Um tonight we have all board members in attendance in person. And um Oh, Steph is on per cell. Okay. We have um oh, it's the all the budget committee members are uh in attendance in person except for Steph and There we go. I said it correctly now. Um and before we moved on to the next part of the agenda, I wanted to point out a couple of logistic things that
002um we didn't quite go over last time at our meeting, especially for folk who usually are not sitting on this part of the board uh meetings. We have the um Robert's Rules um place mats for you all on the desk if you have not seen them before or if you're not as familiar, please take a look at that. Um some of the most important things to keep in mind is to wait until you're called on um and if whoever is chairing the meeting is talking um not to interrupt them or anybody for that matter. We don't do cross talk a lot. We like calling each other whoever is going to be chairing the meeting as the budget committee um chair, I just wanted to share that tip for whoever that may be. And um the
003other thing too is um I don't have a computer for um the agendas and stuff like that cuz I like the space to be open while as I'm chairing meetings and I have agendas usually and stuff on my cell phone. Um I'm wanted to share with folk why I have that out in case other folk have their phones out, it's not to get messages for other folk from other folk at this time unless there's a break. And we should also not be receiving messages from friends um asking questions directly about the meeting that we also ask our relatives or colleagues. So, I just wanted to make sure that was pretty clear cuz we didn't go over these things last time and I just wanted to make sure before I hand it over to whoever the
004budget committee chair is, um that they understand that part, too, as far as um cell phone use during board meetings and stuff that it's not how they're used. Um okay. With that being said, thanks for letting me explain that for folk. And the next item on the agenda is nomination and election of officers. Uh we do not need a motion, just names of people you would like to nominate for the position of budget committee chair. Does anyone wish to make a nomination? Therese? I would like to nominate Jesse to serve as uh budget committee chair. Do you accept that nomination? I accept. Is there any other I have to ask if there's any other nominations? Okay. Um if there are no other nominations, then uh the nominations are closed. And your duties take place immediately.
005So, um you get to do the vice chair. Is there any Can we do um there was a nomination, there was not a motion. That's why I didn't call for Okay. I'm sorry. It's I don't have it on here very well, so sorry. Um It Yeah, it doesn't say it on here, but If only one in take a vote. Okay. Would you all like to appoint through um unanimous consent or would you like to individually vote? I consent. There was only There was only one name, so we could we can appoint via unanimous consent. So, if there's no objections, then I'm going to hand it over. Thank you. No objections? Okay. Handing it over to you, Jesse. Okay. I'm Jesse. Um we do not need a motion, just the names of people you would like
006to nominate for the position of budget committee vice chair. Does anyone wish to make a nomination? Yes, Teresa. I would like to nominate Kevin Riley to serve as vice chair. Uh do you consent? I accept and consent. Oh, right. Me. Okay. Um Are there any further nominations or um objections? Hearing no objections or further nominations, the nominations are closed. Um so we can take a vote or um appoint via unanimous consent. Is there unanimous consent? Okay. Um The new vice chair's duties are effective immediately. Um I would like to now like would now like to invite Superintendent Noss to present the budget message. Dear budget committee, colleagues, and Corvallis community, I submit for your consideration the proposed budget for the Corvallis School District for the fiscal year beginning July 1st, 2026 and ending June 30th,
0072027. This year represents a profound organizational transition for our district. While the difficult decisions made over the past year have required significant adjustment for our staff, students, and families, this budget reflects a stabilized financial outlook that will ensure operational continuity. As we launch our new educational model and then implement the Corvallis Promise, we continue to prioritize strong foundational skills and specials, PE, music, art, steam, and library in our newly structured K-6 elementary schools and K-8 at Mountain View. Deepened academic rigor, specialized teachers, and exploration in our seventh and eighth junior high model at the newly renamed Corvallis Junior High. Over 52 honors, AP, and dual credit courses alongside robust career and technical school education CTE programs in our high schools. Ensuring all students learn to read using high-quality instruction grounded in the science of reading.
008A well-rounded education with diverse opportunities in athletics, theater, and clubs across our new grade level bands. This budget reflects our commitment to cultivating a district where all students belong, are supported to thrive, and are prepared for their futures. Assessing the current climate and budgetary constraints. Last year we faced a stark reality. Long-term declines in student enrollment paired with escalating operational costs created an anticipated $4 million budget shortfall for the 26-27 school year. To address this structural deficit, the school board approved a comprehensive school consolidation plan. At the end of the 25-26 school year, we will close Cheldelin Middle School and Letitia Carson Elementary School. We have subsequently reached an agreement to lease the Letitia Carson building to the Linn-Benton-Lincoln Education Service District to house their early childhood special education programs and Head Start classrooms, ensuring
009the building continues to serve local children. This con- consolidation has allowed us to align our staffing and infrastructure with our current current student population, shifting us from a trajectory of persistent budget deficits to a more stabilized outlook. State funding. The State School Fund, SSF, including local property risk tax receipts, remains the foundation of our long-range projections, accounting for roughly 84% of our total operating revenue. SSF revenue is distributed based on our weighted student count, ADMW. Over the past decade, while Oregon has experienced a significant 72% or 13.5 billion increase in general fund revenues, the relative investment in education has concurrently declined by 9% 9%. Our schools are highly Our schools are increasingly called upon to provide essential services that extend far beyond academic instruction, including medical care, mental health support, and addressing food and housing
010insecurities. Yet, state funding levels have not been adjusted to reflect these expanding responsibilities. For the 2026-2027 school year, we project our SSF formula revenue to be approximately 85.6 million. Federal funding. Federal funds remain a critical component of our budget, supporting programs such as Title 1 for our high-poverty schools, special education services, IDEA, language instruction, and child nutrition. These funds are passed through the state and are essential for providing targeted interventions and enrichment for our most valu- vulnerable students. Any future uncertainties in federal allocations would directly impact our ability to maintain these critical supplementary services. Offer operating expenditures. Personnel costs dominate our budget accounting for 78 to 80% of our general fund expenditure. While the school consolidation allowed us to initiate a planned workforce reduction to offset declining enrollment, the cost per individual employee continues to
011rise. Mandatory fixed costs, particularly the public employee retirement system or PERS, are projected to climb to over 14.9 million in 26-27 due to rising employer contribution rates. Furthermore, we continue to grapple with inflationary pressures on non compensation spending including utilities, property services, and student transportation. Enrollment. A persistent long-term decline in student enrollment was the driving force behind the school consolidation for the 26-27 school year. Since reaching a peak of 6,738 students in 17-18, we have lost approximately 1,100 students. For the 26-27 total enrollment is projected to be 5,573 students. We continue to see much smaller incoming kindergarten cohorts projecting at just 333 students for 26-27 compared to the larger cohort cohorts graduating out of our high schools. This decline is expected to continue steadily largely due to falling local birth rates and regional demographic shifts.
012Housing. The housing crisis in Corvallis remains a pressing issue that severely limits our enrollment growth. The high cost of living coupled with lack of affordable single-family homes and multi-family units make it increasingly difficult for young families choose to or remain in our district boundaries. We will continue to collaborate with the city of Corvallis to address community growth and housing availability. In summary of the proposed budget, because of the proactive and challenging school consolidation decision implemented for the upcoming school year, our financial financial trajectory is balanced. The contribution of facility closures and aligned staffing reductions has effectively closed our structural deficit, securing operational continuity and allowing us to focus our resources directly on student programming. General fund budget, operating revenue for the 2026-2027 general funds are projected at 101.9 million, while operating expenditures are projected at
013103.1 million. With planned transfers to other funds, our total general fund expenditures are budgeted at 117.7 million. Reserves above the required 12.5% will be utilized to balance the budget. A critical piece of our local revenue is the local option levy, which is projected to generate over 11.3 million for the 2026-2027 school year. This voter-approved funding remains essential. It directly allows us to maintain smaller class sizes, offer robust specialized instruction in physical education, music, art, and STEAM, and provide critical counseling and vocational programs. In conclusion, we recognize that the closure of schools carries a significant emotional weight for our community, our dedicated staff, and our families. However, however, these incredibly difficult decisions have paved the way for a sustainable future. By addressing our structural deficits head-on, we have prepared preserved the financial health of the Corvallis
014School District and positioned ourselves to offer rich richer programming and high-quality instruction for our students. Through the implementation of the Corvallis Promise and the dedication of our community, we're we are building innovative, inclusive learning environments where every student is supported to thrive. Thank you to the budget committee, our staff, and the Corvallis community for your enduring partnership as we navigate this transition and shape the future of our schools. Respectfully submitted, Ryan Noss, Superintendent. Thank you, Superintendent Noss. Next, we will hear from Finance Director Lauren Wolf regarding the budget highlights. You can keep going, Kim. Keep going to next slide, please. One more. Okay. Thanks, everyone, for being here. Too many clicks now. Oh, there there we go. Uh thanks, everyone, for being here tonight. Um we will be going over um some high-level uh highlights
015of the budget. Um and just for community that it may be watching online, the budget was released um last week in its entirety and is available on our website uh for your review. Um and we also went over many of the assumptions and sort of um base information for this budget at our meeting that was held last month. Um if you would like to review that as well. Next slide, please. The uh first slide here is uh just our our budget at a glance and looking at how that has changed um over the last 5 years. You can see different composition of um funds there. And I think the the largest piece that stands out is that 22-23 actual amount which that dark gray portion of the bar was was largely related to the the
016funds that we had available due to the sale of bonds for our capital improvements. So, those were spent down in that time frame which is why you now see the the shrinking gray line. We do have a little bit of a resurgence in the capital projects funds in this year as we secured some specific funding from the state to support the rehabilitation of Osborne Aquatic Center. So, those are restricted grant funds that we've received and we will account for those separately in the capital improvements fund. You can see to our overall budget just being under 200 million dollars for the 26-27 proposed budget cycle. Next slide. When you look at the assumptions and again we went over these at the last meeting but our state school fund assumption is that 11.359 billion dollars which was
017set by the legislator um two year for this biennium. So, this is the second year of the funding cycle. We assume a 51% split on that. Our enrollment is 5,576 students and that will will in the state school fund we will be paid on an extended um average daily membership that's a weighted amount of 6,904. Our property tax increase is at about 3.49% um and our beginning fund balance overall is 25.6 million dollars. That includes all funds. The a good chunk of that lives in in the um uh 600 level funds or internal services funds. So, really the the amount in our general fund is the most significant when we're talking about budget um of that 15.37 million. I did You pushing a Do you want to explain why it's extended ADMW? Sure. Um if
018you go back. So, the extended ADMW um as we talked about with the state school fund, you're paid on your highest of your um either the current year or the prior year. We've been paid on our prior year ADMW um since 2017 I 2017-18 school year, I believe. Um when we that was when we sort of peaked on enrollment. So, every year we're getting paid on an ADM that doesn't actually represent the number of students in our building, but that is based on the fact that it's supposed to help um smooth out the trends of enrollments uh either spikes or declines um so that you are able to address those needs more proactively. Mhm. Um I wanted to add this in here just for our resources. Um you won't find this chart necessarily in the
019budget document, but the information is there. Um looking at some of our major grant resources in that 200 level special revenues fund. Um these are our our biggest grants. Um and I think the one of the most impactful for next school year is we're expecting a decrease of 13.5% um or or just around $200,000 for Title I, which is unfortunate. Um that is a federal level grant that is no longer being um funded at the same level. We also receive um, dollars for uh, IDEA section 611, which supports um, our students navigating uh, disabilities. And so, that grant is increasing about 1.3% but again, if you look at what that actual dollar amount is, um, while we're seeing an an increase, uh, the the 10 about $10,000 doesn't deal with the increasing cost like that
020we're um, experiencing on the the other side on the expenditure side. So, that's a very similar trend, um, when you look at all of our increases for um, the smaller pieces of the title grants, those are all federally funded. Our outdoor school um, grant, you may have heard a lot that there's um, discussions around the funding for outdoor school and that no longer being funded at the same level. Um, and we just for context, this current in the current school year, um, that grant is about $70,000 short of actually paying for outdoor school now. Um, and so, while our allocation may be a little more next year, uh, which we we don't have the finalized allocations, they're actually changing the full model of how they allocate those to schools. Um, we it doesn't pay for
021what the cost is this year and we anticipate those costs will again go up. Um, our student investment account, um, we'll see a bit of an increase there. Same thing with high school success, those are a part and early lit are all a part of integrated guidance. Um, and those are based on the revenue sources for those grants. Um, we are expecting to receive a little there, too. But, I think overall, um, while there are mostly increases to our um, estimated allocations, they don't keep up with the cost increase mostly of salaries and benefits is the most significant factor here. Next slide, please. >> [snorts] >> If you look at our resources here, our local revenues make up about half of our resources. So, that's largely the property tax collections that you're seeing there. And
022then we have our next biggest bucket is our state revenue for 32.3%. So, when you add those two together, that's really what you're looking at for your state school fund revenue. And there's some other pieces in there as well, but those are our biggest biggest sources. Overall for all funds, we our major variances by source. We define major variance as either an increase of 10% or more or of a million dollars or more. So, our local um variance is only 4%, but it is 3.7 million dollars because that's such a a large chunk of our budget. And so, that's really just related to increase in tax revenue. Some assumptions around revenue increase for rental, which is largely related to the LBL lease agreement for Latisha Carson. And also some restricted donations for capital improvements. So,
023at this time we're working on putting together several different sources of revenue to get Osborne up and going. So, some of those are in that local category. Then as I mentioned previously, a large portion in the state revenue category as well. Um So, that's what you're seeing there. The intermediate is all that's an 86% increase, which sounds quite large, but it's only around 700,000 and that's largely again related to money that we have allocated in the budget to assume to receive from the county as well as the city to combine together to um work on the Osborne project. Um then for the state sources, we have an increase of 5.4 million there and that's again state school fund our largest source and then that grant for for the Osborne rehab project. Lotta Osborne if you
024didn't catch that which is great that we are going to be able to to get that up and and running for the community. Um there's still a lot of work to do to get those funds. Not all of those funds have been secured at this point, but I think it's important to note that while we have those um new revenue streams coming in there, all of those dollars are restricted for that project. Okay, then on the other side, um we're talking about our requirements. Um so our expenditures here and again we went over these more detail in the last meeting, but these are our assumptions around our employment contracts, um our payroll expenses and other services like transportation, substitutes, utilities and property and liability. So um as I mentioned previously, our certified um contract um
025ends at the end of this school year so June 30th and so we're still in um bargaining for where that will actually land. So there's an assumption there whereas with the classified and non-rep agreements, um we do have uh settled contracts there. So those amounts are actual other than for vacancies of positions. We have some assumptions around where we budget um which is detailed in the document. Um and then the other services um are all pretty much trend data, um, that we use to come up with those dollar amounts there. Okay? For a summary, you can see, um, the most important on this pie chart, um, as you can see that the the salaries and payroll cost there over all funds, um, it's only when you look at it from this perspective, it's about half,
026but you have to remember that we have those internal services funds, um, as well as, um, the funds related to the capital projects that sort of skew this information. When you look at the general fund, our salary and benefits is in that 80% range, whereas when you look at all funds, um, it is less, but you can see that here. Our major variances by object, um, we anticipate a 6% increase in our payroll cost, so that's, um, largely connected to the the shift in PERS as well as health insurance contribution, so it's important to remember that PERS costs are a percentage based. So, when your salary goes up, your PERS goes up, um, and those two things are very directly tied. For capital outlay, an increase of 237% because we had about nothing in this
027year's budget, um, and so again, large amount, but that's all, um, a large percentage for about 5.8 million dollars, which is all connected to the Osborne, um, capital improvement projects. And then, um, a 16% increase or 6.2 million for, um, other objects, which includes property and casualty insurance, health insurance premiums, um, and an internal services funds, um, expenditures. Our transfers to, um, other funds is down 23% and that is, um about $700,000. So, that is just a decrease related to transfers required to balance other funds. So, for example, um in the past well, we we generally always are um transferring some money to our ex-student extracurricular um special revenues fund um and we use some money from the student investment account to support that so that we have um a reduced or eliminated fees for
028participation there. And then we also have some um dollars from the general fund we shift over there as well. And we have had um in the last several years a need to supplement our food service fund um with general fund revenues as the cost in there has has gone up um pretty quickly and it the revenues that we're receiving in reimbursement from state and federal level programs is not um meeting that um expense need. So, based on where we project this year to end, um we are then assuming their beginning fund balance will be higher than it was in this current year, which then requires us to transfer less at the end of next fiscal year to balance those funds and keep them um in the black. So, other uses um is a decrease of
02923% or about $4.2 million reflecting um the planned use of the internal service fund reserves. So, part of that is a change in budgeting. We um have budgeted some reserve essentially for next year in in the um funds for our certified and classified group cuz we know that they never elect to use all of those funds in a single year, um but we also gave ourselves the full appropriations in case they do. It still carries over. It's just a little bit of a change in how we budget there, as well as we have a 601 fund, which I answered a question about in the questions online if you had a chance to look at those, but we've had a 601 fund that was related to being self-funded for medical, dental, vision, as well as some
030liability other liability insurance premiums. And so, as we moved away from those programs, we have spent down that money over the last 4 years, I think, slowly to address cost rising cost and not create another cliff for ourselves. So, this will be the last year that we will have funds available in that account. So, we are fully allocating to use those. Next slide, please, Kim. Okay. So, next we will talk about our alignment of resources to our goals. And so, this is a new addition to the budget this year. There's two sections in the document. One is if you like pictures. If you're like if you're the words person, it's on page 32. And then, if you are the numbers person, there's the same information page 76. So, this is two ways for two different
031brains, but this is really what the this is what that information shows. And you can read more about the methodology and how we did this, but we can also talk about it um later when we get to the questions section as well. So, you will see, you know, we have the four board goals and what we had talked about previously is the need for sort of a fifth category, which is the responsible stewardship of resources and I can explain more about what is in that function when we get there. Next slide, please. I know these slides have a lot of words and I just wanted to highlight the I think the important thing on these is to understand that there's no singular program that achieves one of these goals and most of the time different
032functions actually work together and address multiple goals within the same function. And so, for our first goal of excellent learning experience, the budget has allocated $39.1 million specifically to that function. A lot of programs that are included in that are instruction, attendance and social work, our improvement of instruction. So, that's working on curriculum, professional development, all of those pieces, assessment and test testing so that we have the data to be able to actually know and identify what those gaps are for our kids so we can address those. Board of Education, you'll see on all of those I we thought it was it was it made sense to sort of split the work of the Board of Education between all four goals since that's what you have tasked us with. Executive Administration and principals also would
033fall under that same sort of they're working on all of those goals. So, some of the positions that you'll see in this category are classroom teachers, obviously that's the heart of what we do and so our classroom teachers there as well as all of the educational assistants that support in in the schools, um our Dean of Students, and our assessment technicians. For the second goal, um equitable systems, an estimated um spend of $32.6 million um in the next year. And again, you'll see a lot of different um programs listed there and some repeats. Um I will just point out some of them. Um but our our high school extracurricular, so as I mentioned, we do use um some student investment account as well as general fund um to remove the barriers for participation um and
034eliminate the fees for students. So, that is a part of achieving that goal. Um that also, I think, in my opinion, fits under healthy communities as well. Um our programs for talented and gifted, special education, Title 1, our after-school programs, speech um pathology, audiology, um our transportation information services, interpretation and translation, um and then those transfers. So, positions you will find um supporting this work are special education teachers, NEAs, um our speech pathologist, audiologist, braillist, um we have a special education data specialist, um equity TOSAs, special education TOSAs, transportation um coordinator, family outreach supervisor, um and our Title IX coordinator. Next slide, please. For relevant and engaging learning, which is goal three, um we have an estimated $17.1 million spend there. The programs largely tied to this are um our elective and CTE courses. So,
035you would find those specifically within the instruction function. They don't have their own separate function, but they would be in 1111 or 1112 or 1113. Um and so it's a combination of all of those pieces, but those are really um those programs there that are providing that. Also, our alternative education program, summer school, um student support services, um educational media services, and technology. Um some of the we have a whole list of available offerings for elective and CTE courses, art band, business education, child development, ceramics, computer science, construction, culinary, our DLI programs, drama, um family and consumer studies, German, French, industrial education, mechanical trades, um music of many different kinds, uh photography, Spanish, steam, urban farm. There's there's quite the list um of opportunities for our students. So, um we also have um our student
036growth and experience director, our tech one support, so those are our school-based staff in technology, and grad coach um TOSA, which helps students make make plans for after graduation. Um our fourth goal of healthy communities, an estimated spend there of $26.7 million. Um that is programs tied to that are our extracurricular um for our junior high and high school kids, um pre-K programs, attendance and social work, guidance services, health services, mental health services, um our information services, staff services, food services, and community services, and then there's that chunk of money as well in there for um Osborne for that capital improvements for that will then go back to the community. So, positions um included there are MTSS specialists, um athletic directors, We have administrative support for attendance and our counselors, social workers, nurses, health room
037assistants, mental health therapists, HR specialists, and food service staff. Um, on the next slide, we have, um, the category that I that we have named, um, responsible stewardship of resources with an estimated spend of 21.1 million. So, these are the structural components, I think, that that hold up, um, the the district. If you look at the table, what do you say? 77? Page 76? Um, you will see these all these line items here, and what you can see is that we do have a large chunk, um, under alternative education, which sort of looks strange. Um, and what that is really is that we are passing, um, through 1.3 million dollars, uh, to Muddy Creek Charter School per our charter agreement, and that's the that's the correct function for that, although it seems sort of odd,
038so I just wanted to point that out that that's just that contractual agreement that we have. Um, it also, um, in this category is my team, the business and fiscal services team. Um, we have our risk management, so all of our premiums for property and liability coverage are things that we have to have, um, in order in order to support the district. We have our operations and maintenance team, um, internal services, the technology services here that we were counting under this category, um, are all of the pieces like our, um, just our basic software platforms that we have, like our filtering platforms, um, Google Workspace, um, our staff that are in charge of the infrastructure of technology, so our network and our systems team, so it's really that like core internal team that you can't
039have anything else operating um technology without those. So, you will see technology listed in several goals and that's why because there's different components of that that are related to our goals. Um you will also see Can I say something about that? Yes. The reason Lauren knows so much about technology these days is because we have not filled our technology director position this year and Byron and Lauren have taken on those responsibilities in addition to all their other work as we've tried to um balance our budget. So, that's why she can now speak um a new a new language and a deeper understanding of technology on top of all of this. I can't really speak their language but I'm trying and they're very patient with me as I work on it. So, um you will also
040see under here our staff services and central support services. So, the central support services is things like um postage, um just like those basic things that that support a business. Um positions myself um Maria, our accounting manager. For those I I don't know if anybody's met Maria but she is like the person who keeps me sane while we do all this together. Um and so I thought it would be nice to have her here tonight as she really has done a large portion of this work with me. So, um What? Okay. Um our accounting specialist, payroll and benefits specialist, um risk specialist, electrician, groundskeeper, maintenance staff. There's a whole bunch of um staff in our maintenance uh group that have a whole bunch of different specialties. Um our facilities manager, director of operation, campus stewards,
041custodians, our courier um the district office tech support that I mentioned and then we have a very few um number of administrative support positions left at the at the district office that also help us do all of this work. Okay. And I wanted to just as we kind of end the conversation talk about bring us back to where we've been this year and the work of the innovation team and all of the work that they have done to put together the Corvallis promise. Byron's like he's like hearing me now. Loves this slide. And so the work that their team that team has done and and what that has enabled us to do and some changes that we have for next