001Josh, ready? I mean, give me a script and I'll talk for hours, but All right. So this is um the Corval school district budget committee meeting uh for is still more than enough for a quorum. Uh so at this point we will open it up for committee discussion, questions and any requests for more information from staff. And with that do any members of this committee have any further questions for staff other than what has already been asked and answered? Janna, thank you. And thank you, Lauren, for your continual answering of questions, sending those questions back, posting them out to the community. I spent time reading through all of the updated FAQs today to make sure that the questions that I was bringing um hadn't been answered somewhere. But I had a question as I was
002going back through I'm on page um 71 and 72 just looking at the requirements by reporting function for all funds and I was looking at the contingencies the unappropriated ending fund balance and I was just trying to match that up with the different pieces that go into the reserves. So I know the reserves have the contingency reserves rainy day and unappropriated ending fund. Um, so I was wondering if it seems like 7,000 is the unappropriated ending fund. Is that correct? And then in the contingencies and then the five in the reserves um and the unappropriated ending fund balance we cannot legally touch um in in a fiscal year. So it has to roll forward. Um and the other two can be moved with uh but I would have to come to the board or or
003Ryan um and ask for that and that would have to be done in a resolution. Right. The other the other two are those rolled up in that combined together. Yeah. Contingency line. Okay. Thank you. I just wanted to clarify. I was going through and calculating numbers and percentages and based on things were it's based on operating revenues which does not include beginning fund balance. So, if you're trying to calculate and you're like, why doesn't this add up? It's because you have to remove the beginning fund balance from that. Okay. Because I I was calculating with the number that was in there right now with the requirements total that those two numbers come out to 10% where the total requirement was 12 and a half%. And so there you said that then from that total we
004would remove you have to take away the um fund balance. Okay. And just just so that we're clear, we're on page 71 and 72, which is all funds. And what we're talking about is actually only applicable to the general fund. So there is a um there would be more for all funds in there. I wouldn't calculate based on this page because that's not going to give you the right numbers. So it's only calculated off of the general fund total. Yes, the reserves are. Okay. Thank you, Lauren. So, real quick, can you elaborate a little bit more on why we can't do anything with the unallocated funds? Um, that is state law. Um, and the definition of unappropriated um ending fund balance, so it's not appropriated. Um, and so, and it's not accessible. There's some there's
005a few if you read the local budget manual, there's a very few instances where you could do that through action. Um, but it's not anything that's applicable to what we're talking about now. Okay. And then I have one other question that came in to me from a community member this afternoon. I'm not 100% sure it is relevant to the budget committee, but they asked and the rest of the school board is here, so I'll ask too. um want they wanted to know why do we have a s sustainability specialist for the district? Is this a state mandate? Did the district set the expectation and is it really needed when we're cutting significantly and there is frustration with high administration costs? That is, you know, not my personal question, but that is a verbatim question I
006got from a member of the community. So, I've told them I would ask it tonight. That is some a position that's been built into the budget. um for a number of years we had um a person who just left the position and so we re refilled the position at initially it was a full FTE position and now it's a half FTE position so we made that reduction um in the last budget or or two years ago but we've we've made that reduction go ahead um I was just going to add in too that there's been feedback from part of the community around sustainability and ecoiteracy and that was like a very strong inut when we were developing our board goals. So, I would assume that that position aligns with that. And so, I think that
007there's obviously there's multiple um needs in the community and ask. And so, it's there's everybody may not think that one position should be there versus other ones. And that is speaking to one of the very specific board goals that we received a lot of community input on. Um over the course of it was over about a year and a half we spent developing the board goals in communication with several communities members. Yeah, that's what I figured but as I said I was asked so I figured I'd bring it up. Thank you. Okay. Does anybody else have any questions? Bernie. Yeah, just a quick followup on the rainy day fund contingency fund. Is that um amount invested or is it just sitting uh as a unused portion of the budget? No, we do invest excess um
008dollars. Like for example, we've talked about I think previously is we receive the majority of our tax revenue in November. we get like a big lump sum of money um and then we don't actually need it all in November or December, right? And so we create an investment plan throughout the year that matches with our cash flow. Um that money isn't necessar I can't say this dollar was invested and this one wasn't. Like we have one uh pool of money and I don't really separate it out that way. Um we have to have that as a a fund balance at the end of the year. So it has to be accessible um as cash. So um yes, I mean in theory, yes, that's invested and we do make over a million dollars on our investments.
009Um obviously stock market dependent just like it is in personal finance. Um we have a lot more restrictions on what we can invest in because um it is public dollars. So there's just a lot of regulations around that. So, we're not investing in anything that's super risky. Um, we we have guaranteed returns on all of our investments. So, we're always making money. Uh, the guaranteed returns, are they reflected in this budget or what has it been? There's a line item. Um, it's 1,500. So, you'll see that within um on the resources page. [Music] Um, trying to find it. Sorry. Okay. If you check page 57 and there's under uh 1500 earnings on investment, you'll see we have a proposed amount of $1.8 million. It's um it's in the first section on page 57. The 100
0101000 level is all resources from local and so 1500 earnings on investment 1.82 million budgeted revenues for next year. Um I have a question about the reserves as well. I think um that folk have been talking about using terminology, but we're all talking about like rainy day um contingency reserves and there's just so it's clear for folk there's like three different sections right under the contingency fence. Yeah. So that's what you were talking about earlier. The third one we can't touch because of state law. So that Yeah, I have it actually pulled up just because it's legal language that I don't have in here. Um it's voluntary conversion, civil disturbance or natural disaster. Thank you. Those are the only ways we can touch unappropriated. And then the other two um it doesn't make sense to
011use because it can't really go to staff costs, right? Yeah. The way the policy reads is that should not be used on um on recurring expenditures, only onetime expenses. So staffing the way I mean we would have recurring costs with the staffing because everyone's under a contract. Um and if we were to terminate the contracts early related to the language in the contract then we still have liability through unemployment um and other aspects. So it's not staffing really can never be a one-time cost. Right. That's how I read it last year too. Maybe we'll keep you, maybe we won't next year. It's feels it doesn't feel good to me. No. Whenever we go into um a staff member that may be on for a year, it's very clearly defined in their contract as temporary. Um
012and we have to follow all of the agreements specifically to um OEA and CA. Yeah. My other um question has to do with the several asks that we have about reallocating a specific line item in the reserves into um staff lines. And that's why I'm asking this question these questions because um those would be considered recurring costs. So we can't really move reserve funds into recurring cost lines. Correct. And um is so that's what it sounds like you just answered that one. And the other part is, and maybe this is a Ryan question, but if we requested the reallocation of reserve funds, um, which we actually can't due to our policy, even if we could reallocate them into staffing lines, that does not guarantee specific staff would remain. Correct. Correct. Correct. Thank you. I just
013wanted to make sure that was really clear to the community that no matter what is this what is um recommended by the budget committee um that wouldn't guarantee specific staff our programs would continue necessarily. It's not a guarantee is what I'm trying to say. Go ahead. So just clarifying I think what we're saying here is that the budget committee does not get to decide who the district is going to hire or keep. that's beyond our purview. Even if we do move money, it would still be a decision that's beyond this group. Is that right? Correct. And we would need to follow the language in our contracts. So, we have agreements with our certified union as well as our classified union. And within those many page documents, it specifically describes how we must go through a
014layoff and recall process. So really, if we were just to circumvent that process, that then opens the district up to other liability for employment claims. So yes, we we have to follow our agreements. Um and the budget committee has to stay within their operating realm. And even within that, um, to not work with in consultation with unions doesn't sound like a good move either. No, I mean, we we spend a lot of time coming to those agreements with our unions, and so going against what is in the contract, I mean, you could ask them specifically, but my guess is is they probably wouldn't think that um, we were to shift money. This is a hypothetical. We were to shift money out of the rainy day funds. How would we what is the mechanism for replenishing
015it in the out years? Yeah. The superintendent has three years um and they have to present their plan when you consider um that and they have to replenish the amount within three years. So further on in on the hypothetical, if the the resources continue to go down for us, that means we have to to to um replenish that with additional cuts elsewhere to to make that work as part of the plan, right? It creates a compounding effect. And I I want to be clear that I'm not necessarily projecting that our resources are going to go down. The problem is is our resources like the line is fairly flat. a little little bit and our expenditures are like this. They're not in alignment. And so we have to reduce expenditures to um be at the same
016level as our revenues. And we are not a business that generates revenues. That's not what we're here to do. Um goods is continually going up. We rarely see those costs going down, right? And so if we know that, we know that staffing costs are going up, we actually have committed agreements um with our our union groups on contracts, I don't see how we could present to you a reasonable plan to replenish a reserve in three years. Judah, so um the rainy day fund represents a percent of our budgets. That's correct. Operating revenues of general fund. If our um total operating revenue reduces, how um what would happen to that percentage in the rainy day fund? Would we remove funds from the rainy day fund and allocate them elsewhere? How would that hypothetically work? Yeah. So,
017it's set it's set in the budget and then it also is set on actuals, right? So, we know that actuals never came come in the same as a budget number. Um, and so at I'm tracking all year long to make sure that we're going to meet that target. And if I was to think we weren't going to meet that target, then that's when I uh Ryan and I would be coming to the board to talk to you about that. Um, and so it's it's always in motion. It's never like just because this uh was calculated when we did the budget, that's not necessarily my target. So if there if our actual revenues go up, then the reserve goes up. If our actual revenues go down, then the reserve requirement goes down. So, it's constantly in
018flux with what our actuals are. Did that answer your question? And I guess um let's say if our the amount in the rain fund needs to go down, where does that money go? Like where is it going to? We're spending it. I mean on costs. Um or I mean we can carry forward more than the 12 and a half% that we're not restricted. There's no top. Um, but what we have to constantly balance is like, are we spending enough of that on students that are in our buildings now? Um, because that's what we're we're here to serve students here now. And we have to balance that with like this operational um continuity piece where yeah, we want to be here to serve kids in 10 years. So, decisions we make now could impact 10 years
019down the road. And so it's this like tricky balancing um of how much do we hold to make sure that we can continue to operate um and also how much can we spend so we make sure that we are serving our kids that are here now. Thank you. Go ahead Cassandra. So, in line with a lot of the questions that others have brought up around contingency funds and rainy day, you talked about on our um an um some funds that are unaccessible may and why we can't use them and what they could be used for. What about when we think of the rainy day fund, what are some of the things that that has actually been used for effectively? Because I think that's what the community is pointing at, like why aren't we using it?
020Maybe you can tell us what it's there for. I don't have context for that because it's never been used since I've been here. So, do you The policy was um updated um in the midst of the period of time where the schools um districts received three different budgets during one school year because of the recession and many school districts around the state went into furlow days. um see this district did not have to do that in the same dramatic way as other districts. And so as a result of that, the board at that time, which does predate me, um spent a lot of time at looking at policy DA. They had conversations about should it be dollar amounts or should it be percentages. Um we've had multiple conversations over the years about what is what
021do you deem to be an emergency? And most years we bring policy DA forward in the middle of the year um just to make sure that we're sort of trueing it up and making sure we all feel the board feels comfortable with it being maintained the way it is. Um and so that's how um that's the time it was used in terms of trying to avoid furlow days which are days that everyone's off, no one's paid and no one comes to school. And that's what happened during the recession. Uh, I know in my time on the board, we have um had a couple of times where we've needed to fund a request that probably did predate you. Um, that were large onetime expenses that were time-sensitive and there wasn't really an opportunity to not we
022we had we had to do the repair. There was a boiler. Um, I think this was like my first week ever on the board. um we had to call a special meeting in the summer because the boiler failed and it was a hundreds of thousands of dollars repair that was not in our budget that did have to come out of that fund. And so we do have sometimes one-time costs that if we don't meet them will disrupt services and if we do meet them um will allow us to keep our doors open and keep going. I can give some examples to it. Last year, you remember, I don't remember what month it was, maybe January or February, we had um ice storm issues which caused some pretty significant damage um at Shuttle and Middle School.
023And in that situation, um yes, we have insurance that covers those things. And if anyone here has had to file an insurance claim before, it's not like they just turn over the money to you, especially in the tune of multiple millions of dollars in one like just call them and say, "Hey, can I have a couple million dollars?" It doesn't usually go that way. Um, and so that's a scenario where if I wasn't able to work through that process with them within the fiscal year, I would have had to come to you and say, "Hey, like we're going to need this money." And my replenishment plan would be when we get the insurance payment like sports practices where they could their schedule for PE like all of those different things to me that would fit
024within that and based on timing I didn't have to ask it just we just did the thing and and took care of itself. But that's an example of where and how that might like play out. Sammy, yeah, I just want to build on this discussion. Uh I want to highlight what Ryan mentioned. And I believe it is within the bienium around or shortly after 2011 and uh just imagine now we're hoping for 11 or forecasting 11.4 billion from the state. The situation was you get that promise that the budget is passed and within the bienium within the two years the state says we're revising how much you're going to get. So school this year you could have a decision from the state where uh you won't get them the funds and that is the best
025analogy I can think of it is selling your fire extinguishers or uh the beams from your seismic uh up uh structures uh seismic resiliency structures of your school in order to be able to operate one extra day uh or even keep your days operational on the same level that they are. Uh so that's really our insurance policy to make sure we can keep the lights open uh shall an adverse event happens and as uh Lauren mentioned uh uh just to make sure I'm not sure the boiler maybe we allocated funds immediately and then we got reimbursed through PACE by the end of the year so we have the property and casualty insurance uh nevertheless to make sure we are able to ramp up immediately uh the reserves that we have are at a level that
026barely touches two months of uh operations and just one month a little over one month a little bit a little bit more than bills paying the bills paying salaries. So um it's not not common standard. Every district has a different level of reserves and uh we have a commitment with the community that the school board passes this as a policy that happens in a very deliberate manner. Uh because that's a decision not for one year. It is a decision truly for probably a decade or decades uh whether you have reserves that will help you to stay afloat if there is an adverse event or not. Um and just to to draw analogy of how significant something needs to happen, I don't believe we drew on the uh reserves or rainy day funds during co uh
027because the state had some level of resiliency that allowed us to operate uh our budget uh granted in a very flexible and different manner for our schools but we were able to operate with the resiliency of the state. So think about something even more adverse like a recession. Uh that's that's really impacts us not being able to offer cash flow. A couple more things on that too. What things you said Sammy is another thing about reserves is it's supposed to be used for for unexpected events. This is not unexpected. We've been talking about this for several years. Um and and secondly, you mentioned that districts have all sorts of policies. Um, obviously that's a lot of work of what the board does is um to review those policies and work with u Melissa and on
028those and other staff. But the interesting thing is is it's not required. A reserve is not required. You can go and look at most people's board policies online. Um, and there's all you'll see all sorts of different things, right? And I think people are are saying they're comparing and saying, "Well, we have the highest reserve um out of anybody in the state or or whatever the example may be. Um, from what I can tell, we have the policy that has the highest amount. What that looks like in practice is not the same. I mean, we we went around and round on this last year, and there's districts that are carrying over a 30% ending fund balance. So that is them oper like that is them deciding what is that dollar amount that they feel comfortable
029with um to save and use forward for previous years. So when you actually look at our comparator districts and look of at what's actually happening in practice, um they're all the way um I think that the average me look real quick here. Um the average in the comparison group is 18.2%. Okay, the low is 13.16 and the high is 33.98. So that's in practice. And how do they get to those numbers without showing it in the budget like we do? They pad other areas of their budget with large numbers. I budget to actual projections and keep we budget everything down to that amount. Do we recognize a savings? Yeah, typically we do because we know our biggest expense is salaries. Um, and we don't have 100% of positions filled 100% of the time. So I
030I do feel like this methodology is much more transparent um than putting extra money. This is actual salary costs with attached to actual FTE attached to actual people. Um and so we're building our budget based on that. And so it's just different. Everybody uses a different methodology. I can tell you in my last district when I budgeted, I didn't well I was also a baby budgeter but I didn't have um I didn't know a lot about like the different methodologies that people were using and I just put additional dollars and different line items that yeah, we might spend that but I wanted to budget down to the very dollar as opposed to having like set reserves. And so just because it's not in someone's policy doesn't mean they're not doing it in practice. Go ahead,
031John. Uh thank you uh Lauren for introducing the methodology that the school district has adopted. So I assume this methodology is being used uh um by the district over time, right? Like uh already in the past five or three years, right? So now I'm I'm wondering if you have the number to show the difference between the planned budget and actual cost because the the report just shows just shows the actual numbers right for the previous year. So do you have such numbers uh to share? You'll actually I don't have them in my mind but it's actually something that is notated in our audits every year. Um and so that is one of the line items that you would find in that document which are also available on our website. um we in the last few
032years I would say we've sat between about 15 and 18% um of carryover which is like what happens in actuality um and that a lot of that is is related to the savings I would say specifically during and and immediately following COVID we had a really difficult time hiring and so our fund balance grew we also during COVID didn't need as many staff um and our buildings weren't being used. So, um, staff that left, we didn't necessarily refill positions, um, when kids weren't in our buildings. Um, and so that during that period, our fund balance, uh, grew and then we've been continually in the last few years operating um, with a deficit, which then buys that back down. So, it's not a it it just kind of es and flows depending on other things that
033are happening as well. And obviously no one could have predicted COVID. So everything from that situation um makes looking at trends a little bit difficult. Thank you. Okay. Okay, I have another question about um if the budget does not get submitted to the state um like just say the budget committee doesn't pass like a budget to recommend to the board and it gets pushed into like we have to have a session in July or August like what would happen? I can't spend any money until there's an appropriation. So we wouldn't have we wouldn't be able to pay people for example. Is that what you mean? Correct. We wouldn't be able to pay people. We wouldn't be able to pay specific power. We wouldn't be able to pay anything. I cannot cannot issue a payment um
034without the authorization to do so from the board. Okay. Um thank you. I think there's a misconception that um that we don't need to have an approved budget by a deadline. Yeah. Thank you. It's just the same as any other governmental organization. Yeah. And I looked up the OS on that earlier too and it looked like pretty clear in there that it says that the funds don't get allocated without a budget presented to the state and so I was confused. I just was um wanting to help clarify that for the community that may be watching. Yeah, I'm unsure. I'd have to check. I do know that if we don't have our audits completed um by the deadline, which is always the first business day in January for the prior fiscal year, then the state withholds
035state school fund until we um get that in. So, that can be pretty significant for districts. Um I am unsure there's there's districts that definitely do have that happen on an annual basis. Um I am unsure if that the same thing applies to um the budget. What I do know is that technically it's not like anyone takes over our bank accounts or anything. Um but what happens is is if I was to make a payment and allocate funds that weren't authorized for expenditures after July 1, then that would become a finding in our next round of audits. And while the audit is a very technical process and document um when we do need money, when we do go out for bonds or refinancing or any of that, that's all looked at by the investors that
036are considering us. Um, and what they will see, I mean, if you've heard about um, like our bond rating, for example, when we went through that process, what you will see is that we become a liability that they're not willing um, to purchase our bonds. Um, therefore, we kind of get in the stuck place and that's going to significantly impact our rating. I do not know of any districts where that has happened, at least not in the last 10ish years. Um, I can tell you that there's several that got very very close last year and I mean I think some a few that adopted, you know, on June 30 and we're having meetings every single day for weeks. Okay. Thank you. Okay. I have another kind of two-prong question going back to building off of
037what Bernie and Judah and Theres were saying. Um, again, this is hypothetical. If we were for whatever reason to request that money be taken out of the contingency fund to fund something else and then next year the amount we allocated we were allocated from the state would bring the required number of dollars into the contingency fund down to what we just took out of it. So let's say you know right now we're having $13.3 million going into the contingency fund and let's say we took out 500,000 bring us down to 12.8 8 and then next year $12.8 million is the percentage of the revenue that is needed for uh to put in the contingency fund. Would we then still need to replenish it? And then the second part of the question is just to make
038sure that I'm clarified if we do scrge money from wherever and ask it to be put in say teacher salaries uh from what I'm understanding per union contracts there's no guarantee that it would go to whatever department we're hoping it would go to. Uh it could be like well due to seniority that has to go to this math teacher and then this science teacher. Is that more or less correct? The second question is shorter to answer, so I'm going to go backwards. The answer is yes to that. We you can't direct the funds. Um on the first question, so the budget committee themselves can um increase the appropriation on the on that line on that 6,000 line. But you're also going to have to give me a revenue to match that or decrease an expenditure
039elsewhere because um the budget committee themselves doesn't actually have the authority um to approve that that we access the rainy day. you could make the recommendation that when the board sees it um that that's what you would like them to consider at that time, but the budget committee themselves doesn't um have the authority to do that. So, you would need to give me your corresponding revenue to balance the budget. Second of all, we don't even know what our state allocation is going to be for this year. So based on the process, I could not and Ryan could not reasonably come to you and tell you that that's our replenishment plan because we don't even have the information we need for next year. Thank you. You're welcome. So just to make sure I'm understanding, because we
040don't actually have an actual final budget, we don't actually know if we have enough money even for what you've proposed. We think we do. We hope based on what they've told us that we do. But if what they come back with turns out to be different, then is that a situation in which we could say, "Oh, we're it's October and our school year is underway now, so we need to use money from our contingency to continue out this year because we've already because we're in the year." Um, is that is that an example of a of a potential correction to a budget where we would need that contingency? We could use that to keep the plan that you have made going. Yes, you could consider that. I mean, it's based on the um an economic
041impact. There's language in there around the economic impact. So, I would say yes, the state giving us less money than they came out with um could definitely be contributed to that. But what I would say is that's not necessarily we would still want to request that of you. Um, and there's other options that we would consider as well to re to to live within our means essentially um, if that dollar amount changes. Okay. Thanks. I think mostly I just wanted to make sure that the community can hear that we have the ability to say we we're going to preserve a service in light of a budget reduction for this year because we feel better about preserving the service than we do about having a mid-year change. And that would be something that the district could
042decide. We have the the board has the authority to say yes, that's something that we would approve. I Yes. I also think it's important to keep in mind though that we're budgeted on a bienial basis from the state. So if we receive less money that we than we planned for 2425 that also means that our assumptions for 2526 are also too high because those two years are attached together in funding. So then again I would go back to can we reasonably within three years refill that amount. I have two questions. I'm also happy to do one at a time to give others a chance to come back. Um Lauren, thank you so much for all your responses so far. I wanted to build on what Lou was asking earlier in terms of just the the
043result of if if a budget doesn't pass in a certain timeline and how harmful that could be and not being able to to pay bills essentially and to pay people who we want to make sure and also just want to acknowledge that this this moment in time with the budget feels especially critical because this is the one time of year that the budget is so clearly and beautifully laid out. We know you have access and the board gets to see budget to actuals throughout the year as well, but for the community to be able to really see the budget is laid out in detail to be able to go through line by line and the pervasive belief and I think I also hold this to some degree is that this is the one moment where
044if anyone has any say or any opportunity to make a change or to advocate for something, it feels like this is the only moment in time for that. And I also recognize that given all that you've shared, the budget changes throughout the year continually and that there are continual changes. And so I think that there is a trying to put my words together in a a more eloquent way, but this this tension between feeling like and I think both on on the board and for members of the budget community perhaps as well as the community that this is the one moment in time where things are set and determined right now versus throughout the year. things can change and things could either continue to be cut if we have a the forecast um goes down
045and the actual numbers go down um but perhaps could also grow if they went up or there was a resurgence of funds or something came up. So, I'm wondering with all of that in mind through that ramble if you or Ryan or Melissa could give examples of how the budget changes over the year or what are things that people might see over the year that reflect that this isn't just the one moment in time where all the decisions about the budget are made. Yeah, there's lots of examples. Um, so again going back to how the state school fund operates, it's student enrollment dependent, right? And so, um, say our student enrollment number comes in higher and now we're paid on a different extended ADMW that is higher than what I have in my assumptions here.
046Um, we would assume that if we have more students, then since most of our staffing is uh ratio based, then we would then increase staffing um as as the need arises. We've done that several times this year. We've had classrooms where or certain grades that there's like this bubble that we weren't expecting based on prior enrollment trends. Um and so we have deployed an additional you know.5 FTE um to take you know small split that classroom into smaller groups for different periods of the day maybe for like lit instruction or math instruction. Um that would be an example. Um there's things that come up all year long like I would not I'm not being dramatic when I say um sometimes on a daily basis but for sure on a weekly basis where we're constantly considering
047how um all the the pieces are moving and how we can um support that. So I mean the another tricky one is we have um this group of kinders that are coming in and we don't know all the things about them. Um, and some of them, you know, have been receiving maybe early intervention services and so they're kind of on this like little bit different of a transition pathway, but there's also kids that show up and we don't know what they need. Um, and so then when they arrive and we can assess what we they need, then we provide those services. Um, another one like I mean to maybe the IEP and 504 example that we were talking about before is there may be medical needs like a student um either new medical needs or
048they have medical needs that need some sort of support, nursing or a delegation of a nurse. Um, an example there is that we have a lot of um diabetic students that are at the especially at the elementary level that are learning to self-manage. Um, but in order to keep them safe while they're learning that, there needs to be some delegation of support. So, another adult who is trained in their specific needs um and and that is helping them do that with, you know, the goal that hopefully as they get older and maybe as they um have they can have more autonomy over their own care. But there those are some examples where that's where we would change priority. Um we also have I mean for example as um our team has done a really good
049job of building out the bridges program there's different needs like as they're working through designing that curriculum. So they need different maybe tools or spaces like they're working on creating a garden. So what do we need to to to do that and that's now connected with the curriculum and so how do how are we supporting that in that building something breaks I don't like there's so many things on a regular basis and we have to choose what are we prioritizing um and making sure that again we're being responsible for long-term and serving the students we have in our building to the best of our ability over the last um year and a half we of um when a position becomes vacant um we um principles make a request that we review. We decide if it's
050going to be a temporary position for the remainder of the school year, if we're going to post the position, if we can get by without the position, and those requests are reviewed on a weekly basis. Thank you for those examples. So, it sounds like a lot of the the ways that budget does change throughout the year are based on need that comes up, based on staffing needs, EA support, um add additional support that comes in, but probably less likely in terms of a full program returning or shifts to major schedule, um things like that that yeah, we okay, we would avoid doing anything that would be super disruptive like after the school year already starts. So like for example, we've had um schools that don't meet their like their enrollment estimate and maybe are significantly
051below, but those children have already been assigned to that classroom have started to build relationships with those teachers. Um and those teachers have been doing a whole bunch of planning in order to get ready for those kiddos. And so, um, like completely wiping out a classroom would in a school would probably be pretty disruptive to both staff and to kids. So, it goes both ways. Like, there's sometimes where we have to weigh like what's the how is how might that actually harm kids by doing something midyear. Staff as well. I mean, I don't I don't think probably any staff would love to hear a, you know, after they've spent all their time uh their two weeks prior to school, you know, prepping and they're all excited and have their classroom set up and say, "Oh,
052actually, like we don't have enough kids that showed up for your grade. Now you're going to go across town to another school and start over." Thank you. Appreciate that. Can I ask my second question or do you want to turn to others first, Andrew? Let's let Tony go and then we can come back to you. So, couple questions back on page 72. Uh 6,000 and 7,000. Uh the there's three years that aren't aren't represented there. So, and I apologize if this has already been covered and I I didn't catch it. So, wondering where where the information is on those three years. And then the second question is for this year the 13,35,000 is is that generated from board policy and you're just simply calculating or is that was there a decision made that that's that
053was the level? Uh so the three years we're required to show three years of actuals. So we did not utilize the contingency or unappropriated ending fund balance. So those are zeros because this is expenditures, right? So we had no expenditures booked in those categories. If you were to go back and look at the budget books, you would have seen the budgeted amount, but once it turns to actuals, you're only going to see um something in there if there was actual spend related to that category. Um so like you'll see for the current year 2425, it's not over yet. So I can't say that we won't use it. I don't anticipate that we will and hopefully I would anticipate that by this point of the year. Um, but that's why you're not seeing it there. And
054you're and yes, so the fund remember that in this section you're looking at all funds and really it's probably more accurate to look at general fund only um because the policy is for general fund. And so that corresponding page for that would be on page 105. And it's actually uh broken out into the two different categories. We split them apart. Okay. So and in the in the year where you see the planned um reserve sometimes we do targeted reserves for something like if for example if we are um deep in a negotiation for contracts and we don't know like we don't feel like we're going to settle by the time we need to adopt a budget. You might put an assumption there, but anything there would be explained. Sha, you can go ahead and ask
055your second one then. Oh, okay. Anybody else have one while we're waiting? Sure. Yeah. I just have one a small question um from the document that you shared this afternoon or this morning but it's about uh the Bernie asked a question if uh and you know uh if the rene fund is you know to use for restoring the cut program the budget the deficit would be exa exacerbated by keeping this program so right so I'm just curious how serious could this situation could be if we want to keep this cutting program. So if we fund it because there's a bunch of different factors that go into that, but ultimately we are very certain that our enrollment is going to keep declining based on the data that we have. So we know enrollment declines, we are
056going to receive less money. Like that's how the system works. Um, and so we know again that every year costs go up. And so if we um use those rainy day funds and to uh reinstate something, then we know the next year the cost of that something goes up quite a bit and our revenue is either going to stay the same um or maybe go up a little bit. And what then what we know is everything else happening. Sorry I don't know why I'm using my hand so much today. Um everything else around expenses around that are also increasing at the same time. So and to bring it back again is that this budget represents an increase from last year yet we are reducing more staff because the the cost is going up exponentially quicker
057than the revenues. So that's how it becomes compounding because you're keeping something that you can afford with the obligation of doing it again in the next year where you know that that cost will increase again in the next year. So it just becomes this multiplying factor. Yeah. Thank you. But I'm um I'm thinking um I'm not sure whether the committee members and board members you know actually the city of Kovalis has built affordable affordable housing um and so for you know the people come who would come come to the city to live here right so also I think the OICO is uh building is a AI center and it will be open uh in the near future. So I think both projects would bring more people uh in um you know in the koalis and
058live here and choose public education for their kids. So whether I'm just I'm curious whether school district is considering this kind of positive change to the student enrollment. Yes. So as a part of um our long range facilities planning which is happening outside of this committee but um a part of that we did um have a formal demographic study done um and and the information that we received from that is all taken into consideration. So we looked at we they pulled all of the permits that have been submitted to the city or the county within our boundaries. They looked at um as units have been being built uh how many students are coming after those units are being built. So for example when a single family is it takes four single family homes to bring
059in one student to the Corvalis school district. Um is it five? Yeah for multifamily. So the multif family units which are largely what are being produced in corvalis at this time that takes five students or five units for one student to enter the system. So, and I would provide the example that the um the uh multifamily housing that was um for um I don't know what the restrictions on it were exactly, but the multiple multifamily housing that was done in Lincoln last year, um there was a lot of conversation about, well, your assumptions are too low for enrollment because we have these units going in right across the street from the district and so that should bring in more kids and just like we saw when big units went up um like the Wam Hill
060area like out in by in Bessie Coleman neighborhoods that doesn't ring true and we saw it happen again with Lincoln. So yes, we have that information. Yes, we're considering that and what the data is saying is that doesn't actually come to fruition. And there's also this big gap between housing um that's low income and the step right above that. And so that's an area too that hasn't really been addressed. All right. Thank you. Yeah. Judah. So just to clarify the new the ribbon cutting which I there's an article in the Gazette there was 164 units at that new development. We could anticipate that there would be something like 33 students spread out across all age groups coming from that one development. Yeah, that's what the data um has shown over the last three years of
061um residential development and how many students um are actually living in those homes. Um, this is a question that I don't expect you to have the answer to, but has anyone compared the um ratio of the number of units that bring in the number of kids that come in per unit when the housing is low-income housing? Yes, I have that information not in my memory bank, but I have it um and can give it to you. Well, and I guess I'm just going to use this as a moment to plug and say that low-income housing will bring more youth because families tend to qualify for low-income housing. And so, Corvalis, hear this. We build low-income housing, we will get families. We will also be giving families quality housing, which is also a very good thing.
062And if they have quality housing, they will come into our classrooms potentially less need burdened. So, there's no downside to building low-income housing in our community. There's only an upside. So, can we please do that? Let's do that. You ready for your next question, Shauna? I am. And I had more information now given some of the other questions that came in. I'll wait for Lauren though. I know she might be looking for I was just looking at market rate versus income restricted. Um and it is correct that we do um generate quite a bit more students from the income restricted um than the market rate which it's still pretty low though for being in the um like in our the kind of town that Corvalis is. It was interesting when talking with the demographers is
063that our um children generation rate that's tied to housing is much more comparable to cities like San Francisco um Seattle New York because this is not necessarily um it there's a lot of costs and other factors that are coming into it but it I'm not saying that Corvalis is not familyfriendly because it that's not what I'm trying to say but they make it difficult for families to live here? I would say it's not family welcoming. Okay. In my opinion, as a parent who can't buy shoes or socks for my child, I Yes. So, yeah. Or underwear. But, um, so, oh, sorry. I'm sure she appreciates that. Sorry, I had to chime in there because that's it's a huge pet peeve of mine that families are not able to do these things and it signals who
064belongs in our city. I get really passionate about it. I have a question about um because there's been an ask about um the budget impacts on classroom sizes and I didn't see in the budget document that there were significant increases to classroom sizes because of the budget proposal. So I was wondering if you minded sharing anything about either you or Ryan whoever wants. Yes. So we did a different methodology for kindergarten or for elementary. So because what we know um is that the littles especially ones that maybe haven't had any sort of coordinated um education um need a little bit more a little lower adult to student ratio. Um and so we tried to kind of look at what the needs are of the age group and also looking at that in alignment with our
065board goals, right? And so we have a board goal of um third grade reading. So how are we going to make that happen? And so we have different targets for different um groups. So, kindergarten and first grade, uh, 22 students, second and third, 24 and fourth and fifth, 27, um, which averages out when I actually take the full enrollment, um, to 24 students, um, per staff member. And so that is the same as it is this year. It's just a different methodology and should um, help. Our goal really from feedback from staff and principles is that blends are really hard um to teach. And so we tried to take that feedback and figure out how to better do it because we know that kids aren't a formula, right? But we have to have something to
066to start our allocations from. So then we looked at like how that's actually playing out. And so in some cases that would have allocated an additional staff member because of that. Um so that one's the same. Middle school and high school are up one student from this current year. Thank you. And those periods I would say too is that we round elementary like elementary has to have a full classroom teacher, right? You can't have like a.3 classroom teacher. The classroom is all the time. Um and so for middle school and high school, we round to the closest period. So, it's a little it's a little bit different of a formula, but we round up to the closest periods, which means that that will look a little bit different at that level. Thank you. Okay, I'm
067going back to a contingency question now that I had time to just rerun some numbers in reminding myself and and thank you for the reminder that the reserves really come out of the general fund or are calculated as a percentage of the general funds. So it looks like on page I have page 72 and 105 open so that I'm comparing that contingencies line both relative to the general fund where contingencies under planned reserved is at 7.369 million and on 72 when we look at it relative to the to all funds there's a larger number there in contingencies. I know you've talked about in the past having some additional fund or thinking about funds in case there's a change in federal dollars for instance. Is that where those dollars are? No. What what is reflected in
068that difference because it looks like a $4.6 million difference. So we have two major debts. We have our PERS debt and we have our bond obligation. So I definitely don't want to get down to a zero dollar in those funds every year. So we budget our expense in those funds which you'll see within the 300s. Um the 300s are for debt service and that starts on page 133. So you'll see that the expenditures are what actually matches within our debt schedule. Um and we have a fund balance that we carry forward every year. Um and so that amount then becomes the reserve and those funds. I cannot access that for anything else. Um, in addition, we operate internal services funds which are in the 600s, which should be a little bit down the road after
069that. Um, and so within those two, there's two major funds, which is the classified insurance reserve fund and the certified insurance reserve fund. And so we commit to our two um union groups to pay a certain dollar amount every month per employee. you know, maybe pro, some are prrated, some are scale, different things. But so that amount of money we take from wherever that staff is funded and we put it into their fund every single month as a automated process of our payroll. Um, and so those dollars sit there and then the two union groups have the authority um to decide how to use those related to employee benefits every year. So like this point in the year, I'm talking with the insurance committees to decide what do they want to do with their additional
070dollars. Again, those are their dollars that we've agreed to in contract and I'm holding it and it's sitting over there. So that's those are sitting in the contingency line or in all funds. That's why I wanted to point you to actual general fund because it's not as much as represented in the all funds and the 300s and 600s are extremely restricted. Okay. Thank you. that helps because I just looking in terms of are there funds at different places that you know are above and beyond the reserve that actually can in some way be tapped into and it sounds like those really are restricted. Those are actually very specific funds and so they're appearing in that line but they are not a reserve that we would have access to. Correct. It also inflates on the revenue
071side the beginning fund balance that we're projecting for the um year forward. So, if you're looking at the all funds page, that's going to look different and higher than the other. Thank you for clarifying. Yeah, and just as a reminder, I mean, with those funds, those represent about $40 million. So, they're not it's not a small amount um in those funds. And so, yes, it does make all funds look a bit inflated, but it is a large amount um that we are committed to every year. Okay, Sammy. Generally speaking, whether investments from this year or years past, what could have contributed to the increase from about 38% of reading, third grade reading to 50%, it was like double digit jump. And could you describe those investments and are those investments continuing where we may see
072continued uh recovery in third grade reading? So, a couple of things that we've been doing is that um we have been providing or supporting teachers who've gone through professional development around the science of reading. Um Lauren's made an adjustment around class size for K3 for the upcoming year. Um we have had a curriculum that's been in place for a while but was strongly supported with good professional development. Um when I visit schools, I see them looking at um student data um intently and making decisions day in and day out about what supports kids need. Um the some of our intervention materials come from the same curriculum. So there's better alignment. Um when I was a special education teacher, there was not always that alignment and supporting kids development and reading um in such kind of
073that clear way. So I think there's a lot of different things that are going on. Um we're also further from the pandemic. Um and that's a significant piece of this as well, but we are um seeing marked improvements and um feeling positive about those and wanting to continue to do what we can to see those continue to improve. Thank you. Um Lauren, I I know you put lots of work on the documents, especially uh answered so many questions between last week and this week, and I want to be mindful of everybody's time. Usually we would read the reports. We would read and we're ready to deliberate. I would like to ask you maybe if you can go for the record and for the community to really have an idea of the breadth uh of topics
074that we were discussed. If you can just highlight what was asked uh on a very high level from the document I really would appreciate that for the community members who may have asked actually questions of us or thinking are we considering those things. Sure. Um just of note, the document is posted on um the agenda for today. So it's linked there. Um you can read all of the questions and who asked it from um the budget committee questions that were asked offline. So I'm I'm taking in emails throughout the week. Um and so that's all represented here. I've also incorporated the questions maybe a little different wording exactly um in the uh budget FAQ document as well and that is posted on our website I would say. Um there was questions about the reserve um
075how the committee's role uh how are we supporting students um on IEPs and 504s um are how the budgeting dollars work um being a part of the ESD um let's see budget assumptions s state revenue forecast challenges and what that might impact. Um how like federal I mean the state and federal I guess impacts um different questions about employee groups substitutes um and how we come to contract agreements. So again, all of that is posted online and you can read the detailed responses. Thank you. I just wanted to follow up with that and let folk know that that's like a five and a half page document um single space. So if it seems like the budget committee is just not asking a lot of questions, we are asking a lot of questions both here in
076the meetings and that's not why we're continuing to ask questions. We're trying to determine what's going on as well. But there's also a lot of questions I get asked outside of the meeting with Lauren. And I appreciate how detailed your answers are in there. And I just wanted to say that. Um, and I did want to highlight that question about the um the relationship with the ESD because that's been a question that came up supporting special education. So, I really encourage folk who don't know how that works to look at it at the document because um it has some pretty detailed information of what is covered in that relationship with the ESD and that those are that's what determines the staff allocation from them through our service level with them, not because the district decides
077a certain amount of staff from the ESD and stuff. So, I just really wanted to point that out really quick because it is it was a question of that has come up um from community about like how our budget supports um special education both IEPs and 504 forms. So, our 504 plans. So, um, my other question, because that was on my list, too, is, um, if you don't mind, Lauren, chatting about for a moment, that'd be helpful to know. I don't know if we asked you where you redirected funds from in the budget be like in other areas and preparing it um, and in consultation with the admin at the schools and everything like that that you all do. um before looking at staff rejections like what are some of the other areas that got
078reallocated that we didn't see ahead of time perhaps? Well, the very first thing we do is do our enrollment projection which um starts that process starts really in like October. So, I'm going to do it again here soon. Um but we start with that and then we look at our ratios for our classroom sizes and generally the first step we do is just bring forward what do we have in the current year. Um and then in a declining enrollment situation that's automatically we have less staff um because we have less kids for classroom teachers. So that's the first step. Um and that's really we didn't do a whole lot in addition to that. We did a ton last year that was really significant. And I think last year and I hope I said I think
079I said this a lot but sometimes I'm unsure that I think last year was our right sizing. We have to adjust. I showed a lot of um uh graphs of how our staffing has changed over the last 10 years as well as how our student enrollment has changed. Our staffing has increased again a lot and not in to the same degree as that our students. So our students are going down and we were hiring more staff. Not to say that the new need needs of students hasn't changed um but we had to realign those two things especially as we were uh spending out the rest of the um Esser relief dollars related to COVID. So after we adjusted staffing, um the other only change was the music change, which we've talked about. Um and so
080that was uh 15 minutes less uh per class per week at elementary. Um at the middle school, let me see, put some notes here on that. Um at the middle school we are reducing one section of music across both and that's so like one period of music across both um actually sorry two sections across both schools. Um but we also are expecting about a 100 less middle school students. So the actual access to the music classes doesn't change at the middle school based on that. um at the high school there's no reductions in music. So those were the only things. Um we looked at things we don't want to do anymore because it doesn't um we don't feel like it's working based on reviewing the data more like software things or how could we be
081more efficient in certain areas. But we didn't really have to do a lot after we continued to align our our student enrollment and our classroom staff. I mean, we considered everything, but after we we did that, we didn't want to cut further than we had to. Okay. Thank you. Um, I think it's helpful to know like that there was a lot of places looked at even like something like when you said software like that wasn't the first thing I thought of because of how reliant we are on tech. So even something where I think that would seem like would it be super necessary maybe it's not and I appreciate that you looked at all of those spaces. Yes. So just to again to go back to process is we are working with our we call
082them levels so elementary, middle and high. So, we're working with those principles who are working with their staff. Um, and then they're kind of looking at each one of their levels because they're very different and how they operate. So, they're looking at things there. And then I don't think we've really talked a lot about of how that works on the department side. So, then um all of the department leaders then are I give them an amount and they have to make their budget fit within that dollar amount. And so they're going through and just as a software example um because technology is so prevalent um and it's easy to have a lot of duplicative things like the two different platforms that do the exact same thing. Um or maybe one that doesn't we're paying for
083it but it works okay but there's actually this better option so we're going to stop doing that because we're actually getting more value out of this thing. And so as they're going through their budgets, they um have to evaluate all of those things. I generally I think I'm trying to think I met with every single one of our department leaders to to talk through their ideas of what they had for their budget. Um so that all is being considered on that end as well. We don't do um what they call a zerobased budget, which is basically you just have as much money as you want. you start at zero and you put in whatever you want. Um we are budgeting from here's your allocation fit within this um and if you can't we'll talk. So
084with meeting all of our different requirements that we have this happens over months of time. So, I know this seems like a short process, but really I'm going to I'm going to be monitoring this budget starting in Augustish once we have the final um staffing and all of that. Like I start monitoring this pretty heavily and then then in two months later I start working on the next and then two months after that we are auditing the year that we're currently in. So we're never we're never not working on it. Thank you. I think that's helpful to clarify that it's not just like a three meeting process that it's in consultation with um level leaders in the schools and in consultation with teachers and staff and maybe not every single person has talked to in
085every single building, but it sounds like there's a lot of conversations happening that even the budget committee doesn't know about. So, I appreciate you clarifying that. Thank you. And I and I'm not doing all of that myself. So, for example, like I will go to each one of the levels and have this sort of like centering conversation and getting them to start thinking about that because you have to remember like our administrators are dealing this is like one piece of the puzzle that they do, right? And so they're dealing with a bunch of other things that probably feel more urgent at the time. And so we kind of have that conversation of like, okay, it's time to circle back to this. And we are talking about planning. Here's some parameters. hear some loose assumptions and
086then from that our levels coordinators probably for I several months um are talking about budget and decisions for next year. So they're care they take that torch and they come back to me when they need me and we're constantly doing that. So it's not um it's not all me and it's not all just like one and done. It's constantly evolving. Same Lauren just want to say with the what you just described as a process you contrasted it with the zero budgeting the process you're mentioning is it what is highlighted in page six in terms of smarter school spending and the framework uh around best practices that government finance officers association recommend uh about uh this collaborative uh centered on comprehensive budget process is that the framework that you're observing and do you want to add
087anything about that. Well, I think in practice it's looks a lot messier than that. Um, there's a lot of different drafts and um iterations of a of a plan. Um, but yes, this is what is is guiding that work. Um, and I I mean, I just want to make it really clear that in my my expertise, I don't know what is best for kids. I can put myself in a parent's shoes um and look at it from that model, but I rely heavily on the student growth and experience team and our principles um who they are experts in that and they've all been boots on the ground working in classrooms working with kids and and so I can't make decisions on instruction because I'm not an expert in that area. So I take what they
088say and translate that in to dollars and we go back and forth and figure out how we can make things work. Okay. Uh thank you Lori. Uh so um and I'm on page 73 of the report as still the question about the physical services. It's like here uh 2520 uh yeah so here we see this this account increases um 14% next year so I'm just wondering is the good district expected to to be exposed to high risks because from this number this number is way high you know we hear that the CPI and other increase in index but why do we have such higher number for this one. Yeah. So again, this is an all funds page and I would encourage you to find the corresponding line in the general fund because that is more
089uh tied to actual operations of the district. Why you see that line increase quite a bit is because what we know to be true is from our insurance agent is we can expect at least a 20% increase for um our property casu casualty liability insurance. So that's a lot of money. Um, we also know our health insurance premiums go up every year. And again, we're paying about $20,000 per employee for health insurance. So, that number also is going up pretty exponentially. Um and if for some wild reason you are following what's happening with um Oregon Employee Benefits Board um this renewal has been extremely rough um and costs are increasing a lot um with less plan benefits for employees. So our insurance which that's our health insurance um consortium of sorts um and so that
090is what that is related to. Um but again if you check the general fund amount there's the variances just vary in alignment with um staffing costs. I actually think I that's my budget my so I do this for the whole thing and then I do my own budget for fiscal services. Um and I think when I budgeted everything out there was like4 or $60,000 that I was like I don't I don't need this. So I just put it back into the general pot for someone who does. Um and so it's actually a reduction but you have to remember staffing costs all of that went up. So that it is going to be an increase. Okay. Thank you. And I have one another question. So um so for um account 2540 and I see and this
091account actually was paused due to the budget constraint of this year right. So uh so I'm wondering if there are any uh programs that has that have to be paused due to um the school district deficit problem next year. I'm just wondering if there is such a problem. No program um um I would say so this year we've pretty much um halted any project that isn't um reactionary, right? Like if a pipe burst we're we're going to fix it. Um, but we are not doing any like deferred maintenance or planned things. Um, and so that has been that's a hard decision to make because we just the community just invested a lot of money in new schools. Um, and so not taking care of them is not being a great uh steward of that investment.
092So that's not a long-term plan, but last year the reductions were deep. um and we made the decision to try to keep that from the classroom as far as possible. So in the departments we cut um over twice as much as what we what we had to do um in the schools and that was intentional. We can't continue that. Um so I would say while there is an increase in that spending, it doesn't cover all of the projects um that are on the list. So the facilities team has to assess all of those and look at really what is the best value. Um what can we wait on? What other potential funding sources may we have um down the road that we could address that thing with? Um also costs are really volatile um in
093that market as well. So, so it wasn't necessarily beneficial for us to do a bunch of um construction related things last year or this year, which in my mind is already last year. So, sorry. Thank you. Okay, Janna. [Music] Thank you. So, I just wanted to give a nod to Molly who came last week and spoke to the board. um Molly who shared that she was in the Bessie Coleman musical tonight. So, just to say break a leg to Molly, sorry that we can't be there since we're here tonight and to other students at Bessie Coleman. Um but wanted to then bring up what she had brought up because that actually is one of the biggest things that I've been hearing from the community is questions around music. Um, the two biggest, I think, sets
094of questions that have come to me through email or just through community conversations or stops at the dog park have been around staffing, which you've talked about in terms of staffing is something that does change throughout the year, especially as numbers change, as enrollment changes either for up or down, that there are are shifts and changes there. Um, one community member asked and I I know this is in the budget document, but just thought I would ask out loud too about what it would take to maintain music FTE at the current levels. So, I just wanted to pose that. I know the answer, but just wanted to pose it so it's shared with community too. Um, there's a dollar amount associated with that, but I just want to be clear that like we talked about
095last meeting that there are other considerations that go into that um, decision. And so it'll it would cost around $550,000 um to reinstate that the minutes and the FTE. Thank you. And I can I keep going a little bit or Teresa if if if you have a question based on that. Go ahead. Yeah, go ahead. Can you just can you clarify the minutes and the FTE? Uh, can you break that down between the the change in the the 60 minutes to 45 minutes versus the reduction based on the enrollment expectations at the middle school? Is that 550,000 covering all of that? Elementary through high. Okay. So then what do you anticipate would be the cost of putting the 15 minutes of elementary instruction time back? That one is um uh over 400,000 to do that
096one piece for Yes. The So the elementary school change represents the majority of the correct budget. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. And why there was staffing changes um that I think are being perceived as reductions in in offerings for music is because of contract language. Um and there's a lot of bumping that happens. Um I don't know if that's a technical term, but that's the one we use, bumpy. Is it okay if I share a little bit more? Yes. Um so I want to also recognize that I know that we as as a board in general as well as the budget committee don't have perview over which programs um are funded or how we move funding. But I just did want to bring up concern because I know that this also links into some of the
097board goals and we have newer board goals this year that we're all looking at how to align with budget. What does this mean? What does this mean as a district? And um this is an area for me I know that's that's very personal. You know, I was a student in Corvalis public schools K through 12. I was in choir, orchestra, and band growing up in different ways participating in those programs and have seen profound impacts. I went on to be a music major actually um and have at various times used those skills both for fun and joy and still do and and to pay the bills at times when I was a music teacher in between other jobs or working at um local art centers and continue to volunteer in the school music program as
098well as in the community in music and I know that we've named in our goals under relevant and engaging learning creating and sustaining strong career technical music and arts education so I want to name arts as part of that too theater as well as other arts and then thinking about healthy communities and supporting staff well-being and retention efforts. And so it's really as I've been thinking about this and I know just given my role as a volunteer in the music programs, I tend to get a lot of connection with music educators, um the impact I'm hearing on them, you know, that 15-minute change on paper isn't a lot, but for children to have two days of music versus one is a really big difference. And it impacts classroom teachers as well as those music educators
099who now are learning six or 700 children's names rather than 300 being those teachers who are consistent throughout the time the students are in school. Um so also just want to give a nod to them and how important their roles are and how meaningful the work is that they do. So that's something that's just sat with me in terms of recognizing this is an area that could be a potential strength in our district is really thinking about what does longer term what does a strong music and arts education look like guided by music educators and determining that. And I think right now it's written in our goals and the strength of that plan being in place with input from educators hasn't been developed. Um, so I think for me it's just a moment to pause
100and reflect on, you know, I know a lot of things will will shape out over the year in terms of staffing and staffing shifts, but when we have specials programs, if there's only one point in time in year where those decisions are being made, it feels especially critical to to call those out. And again, I'll just name that I know that that's not in our perview to name which programs need to be funded, but just want to bring that up as as something that I think connects with the board goals and is something that also draws families and has the potential to draw families to the program. And last thing I'll say is I was at a conference recently on child development. I was not going looking for all the music education, but love seeing
101how much was coming out actually across the country. And there was a poster right next to poster that a student of mine was presenting that had looked at participation in music education for high school students and found that participating in more than one music program or just one or more than one actually had a bigger impact on reducing suspension, reducing conduct problems, increasing attendance and increasing graduation rates. So that was pretty stunning in terms of data also standing behind it. So I think it's um through this process it's really easy and sometimes I have to do that internally just to like center myself to have this conversation because it is personal to me too. Um it it's really technical and I hope that it hasn't come off that I don't think that you know that
102we're not valuing and that 15 minutes is just a a little amount of time. Um that's not how I'm trying to portray that. I mean, I'm not suggest I'm not saying that you were suggesting that, but I just want to make it clear to our staff like that we do value you and appreciate you and this is all really hard. Um, and I think for the teachers that teach in those specials, they kind of get pulled out and um are the subject of more conversations and that's hard to balance too through this whole process. So, just I kind of second what you say in recognizing those staff. Um, yeah, this it's been hard. Yeah, thanks, Lauren. And I definitely wasn't directing. I know a lot of questions get directed at you and I'm looking right
103at you and recognize it as more of a district effort of something that really for long-term sustainability um is important. Yes. I just wanted to add on to what Sean is saying, not just our board goals, but um our levy um local option levy promises and um last year I talked a lot about like how important art is too. And like music is a form of art, too. It's all like in the creative arts realm in my mind. And um and I'm hoping that we're still honoring our levy promise. And so I had a question about that. I don't know if you want to answer that Ryan or Lauren does like how we're meeting those expectations of the promises. That's why I asked about the classroom size too because that was also that's in the
104levy promise um as well. And so this is the other part. So maybe so the the levy only funds about half of those things, half of the cost of those things. Um and so yes, without it that would look very different. Um but the fact that the levy doesn't fully supported. I believe that we're we are still meeting our promise to the community. It does look different and that's hard. Um and thinking through like Shauna's suggestion of how can we figure out how to do all of the things um in a meaningful way like that's something that we are I think all committed to working on. Um, but I do I do believe that and I want to come back to like the some of the reasoning behind that that we talked about and Ryan
105put it in a way that was better to um explanation than I have been able to give so far, but we have six and a half hours per day with elementary kids. And so every time we are pulling them out of the classroom, they're getting less um math and lit literacy instruction. And so, um, in this new plan, while music is a loss for sure, not having I I think I hear that the problem maybe that we didn't consider is more about the repetition versus the actual minutes and like the amount of times they have it per week. So, that's feedback that we can use. Um, but with that tradeoff, we are um students will be receiving 120 minutes, I think it is. um of language arts every day and 80 minutes of math instruction
106every day which then goes to support a different board goal. So I think that's important to include in the conversation that we are still I think honoring the intent of the levy and we are also still honoring and working towards our board goals. I think it's really hard to balance all the goals at one time because on the other hand, we have a lot of feedback from the community um about our reading and math levels which I will say once again have gone up and that still need to go up but they have been going up and I appreciate that um as the trend. Um, but there there's almost like competing asks from the community on what should be prioritized. And I think that really needs to be said out loud because it hasn't been
107that there's there is competing asks from the community whether it's around the arts, around music, math, reading, and a budget h it's hard to balance all those through a budget because that work actually happens in the schools. And I just wanted to say I think the teachers are doing an incredible job given the circumstances and helping us move the dial upward from the impact of the pandemic. Um, and I don't know how a budget can answer all of those questions and other than we're showing where the funding is going allocated. And Ryan, you already said something about um some of the shifts in reading and how this is aligning. Lauren, you said that with that part. So I just wanted to name that for the community that part about the all the ask. Yeah. It's
108not really a question. Yeah. So thank you for the information about the cost if we were to restore the elementary education. And I think it's hard to conceptualize um you know the 15 minutes doesn't feel like it should cost that much money and yet you know 15 minutes over seven elementary schools over five days a you know over what over the entire school year in staff time I I see and I appreciate you breaking it down that way. Something that I've been hearing from the community which I think is very much in alignment with what Shauna and Lou have already commented on um around music is um um I think is the is the feeling that um we are undervaluing the capacity for music and art classes to strengthen literacy and math. And what I
109didn't hear in the conversation and what I'm really hoping to hear in the coming year is a more intentionality and creativity around cultivating how math and lit and literacy can be supported by um music and and art rather than creating a false dichotomy of a competition between them because I think that there is not a competition. If we deliberately design and implement a curriculum that brings those together and in a synergistic way, I think we can see that music and art will help us get better literacy and math outcomes. And I didn't hear that part of the conversation. I I heard we need time in this subject and I heard that the sk the block scheduling becomes challenging. Um what I what I'm really hoping to hear going forward as and inviting community to come
110in and talk about is how are we going to raise the bar on what we think is um the floor or how are we going to raise the floor on what we think is essential for music and art because we I don't think we're treating them as core subjects but they're experienced by kids as core subjects. And so that does feel like a miss between what we talk about within the district and what the community is experiencing. And I do think it's an important thing for us to work on on closing. I also felt like there was some misalignment between what was presented around how the building leadership talks about scheduling and what the teachers that reached out to us said about what they feel their kids' needs are or even what their own staff
111needs are. And I think that that even if it just maybe it's just a perception maybe, you know, this is a a handful of people choosing to be vocal. And so it may be that actually there's much greater alignment. If there is greater alignment, we need to elevate that. But if there isn't greater alignment, then I think that needs to become a priority. How do the building leadership and the classroom teachers um and then the rest of the building staff as well, how do they get on the same page about the role of scheduling and um because I didn't I did not hear agreement in that area and and I think that's really an important growth opportunity for us. I know the principles have been working um even this week to start to build those
112schedules for next year realizing they have that additional um opportunity within the day. The other thing that I think um we are making reductions and we are still maintaining that kids are going to have library once a week, they're going to have music once a week, they're going to have art once a week, and they're going to have PE twice a week. So, they're going to have those specials every day. And I know that we're in a place where that um conversation is difficult. And I also want to recognize that we're working really hard to make sure that our kids have that well-rounded education as we made decisions around FTE and time with our music teachers. I recognize that they're in a different situation because there's a lots of first grade teachers or lots of
113primary teachers, but there's not that many music teachers as you start to make reductions. And so we worked really hard to make sure that those folks weren't covering three buildings. We were limiting it to two, even if it meant we had to bump in a little bit more time. So, we're trying to be really intentional about all those things and at the same time um those there are still difficult decisions um and hard conversations to have with folks. I'm just going to jump on to Trace and Shauna since we have so little opportunity to share. Um I was doing some more independent research and also about how this is impacting students with disabilities and how things like choir and in band that the students are co-regulating with each other and that it's also a behavioral
114support and in that way caring for our students emotional well-being is critical and that we're taking this away from elementary school students this time to co-regulate and to um to have space emotionally which is what art and music does and um you know sitting in a place where it's like if I as a board member had the power to put that 15 minutes back in I would have you know I would have done it um because it was um I also remember my time as a as a a tiny little person and I still today play a musical instrument quite poorly. Um that is something that I started in elementary school and I want to to make it clear that I would like to see this treated as this is a core need that is
115um that art and music are one of the few places where so many important things for these kids coalesce. Um, and it's not an extra. Does anybody have any more questions for staff? Um, I just want we've had a lot of conversation and I just wanted to reiterate that the budget committee cannot restore positions. And I think that's really important. No matter what we reallocate, we cannot restore programs or positions. And that's really hard as you've heard from us. It's like it's not that we don't care about these positions or the people because they're not just positions. They're part of our community. They're family members and um their parents too. And so it's that's not what it is. And I feel like sometimes it comes across that way that we're just sitting here like talking
116about people's lives very casually when that's not the case. And um I did have a question attached to this statement. Don't worry. Um, and it has to do with the several emails that we received about line item 6000, the contingency fund. I wanted to go back to that and just triple check that the budget committee cannot request funds out of that themselves. Correct. You can change the budget line item, but that doesn't give me the authority to use it because only the board could give me the authority to use that. Yeah. And that would also not guarantee we would restore any of the positions we just talked about. Correct. Correct. Okay. Thanks. Also, I'm sorry. May I I really need to Oh, I'm so sorry. I was just going to ask if you could clarify
117what you mean when you say change the line item. So you can make sure that's the appropriation here, but what the budget committee would need to do would also be to increase a corresponding revenue line that equates to that same amount that changes my operating revenues. Um, and so then that that doesn't mean necessarily that you impact the policy. So I would still have to follow the policy. So therefore, I'd have to meet the guidelines of the policy unless the board gave me the authority to do differently. Thank you. I just wanted to make sure that was really clear for the community listening too. So just to summarize, we could go for a motion, but the suggestions we heard is half of the proposal, the other half is taking the money from somewhere else. Correct.
118the way that it was presented in the email that Lou is talking about talks about um a two different expenditure lines. So that doesn't work in a balanced budget. So therefore I would need an increase on an expenditure line and a revenue line. Thank you. And the other element of it is tapping into our reserves. we just talked about extensively for one for a continued revenue is exacerbate the problem and puts the entire district that's more vulnerability of honoring its commitments. Correct. That is my strong opinion. Yes. Thank you. about this. We talked about this extensively last year and I just wanted to let the community know that related to the art positions and so I kind of feel a little bit conflicted about requesting we use this for staffing. Not that we can anyways
119because it's against our policy when we did not do the same thing for our staff and um and so it makes it really hard too to think about that and how and that it's not in the budget. And so I'm just like I just want people to understand like that this is not an easy conversation at all. That's very uncomfortable and um there's a lot of reasons why it's uncomfortable and um in looking I have the email p the one of the emails because they're all copies of the same email but um that is requesting to move 3 million from line item 6000 and restore one two three four different instructional um areas. I'm I I'm stuck on that part where that does not ensure that any of these are going to be restored. And
120so that's where I wanted to make sure. Don't worry, it's being YouTube live too. But yeah, that's correct. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I just wanted to thank you for naming that too, Lou. And I was thinking about that too in terms of you know calling out or just naming the importance of music and music education and music educators that recognizing that as we also talk about you know any shifts comes with reductions which could um also come from other staff and so realizing and recognizing that there are a lot of important things and a lot of important people reflected in this. So appreciate you naming that. Okay, Chris. So, just curious um what would you suggest to community members who um have spent a lot of time trying to shift the thinking here in kind of
121a strong armed way. Um what would be another suggestion of how we can improve budgets like in what's another idea like state level, national level like where could they focus? I don't necessarily um want to say that I would completely shift the focus from local. I don't think the methodology of being super combative and um personally targeting employees is probably the best approach to um get your point across, but um we could work in a more collaborative approach for sure and talk and learn about more things. I think I mean myself personally things that you talked about and I think um you talked about as well is like the the research and the data around like how does that the music instruction tie in? That's not something I'm very familiar with. So, I'm like want
122to learn more about that. Um, how we can engage community in different ways so that people are feeling like their voices are are heard throughout the year versus not. I've actually people who have personally emailed me um about community that have personally emailed me about the budget process. I have asked them all for ideas of how um the engagement would go better next year because I I tried some things this year and got um apparently that wasn't the right thing to do. So, I have not had anybody respond to that and give me um actual suggestions, mostly just talking about what we shouldn't do. So, I think there's just a lot more productive ways that we can handle this at the local level. Um, I think as we've mentioned, housing is super important in our
123community. So, um, that makes a big impact to the families coming here and wanting to live here. Like L said, it's not just necessarily housing, but the infrastructure around us that supports families. And so, um, I think there's opportunities for conversations at, um, the city and county level, which are conversations that we are also engaging in. I think there's a perception that we're asking community to go elsewhere and and that we're not doing anything and engaging in those conversations and we are constantly. Um there's also opportunities at the state level. I mean at this point I do think it's probably a little late. I think today was the deadline for the passing the second chamber. Is that correct? Um so most things that are going to happen are um either moving forward or or not.
124So, I'm not sure that there's a bunch that can be changed in the short term, but I think continued conversations with the people that are representing you um at the capital um doesn't hurt. I don't um have any suggestions for how that may work at the federal level, that's its own beast at this point. Um but I think continually speaking to things that are important. Um I mean, there was a federal um vote that happened two days ago. I think that severely decreased um SNAP benefits and and Medicaid. And so those are things that now impact us and um and so making sure that people understand that that is important. Um and at the end of the day, I think sometimes we have people who are pretty vocal about that we should just stick to
125educating kids. Um and we can't educate kids if they don't have their basic needs met. That's um I think a a long-standing piece um of data. So we have we are supporting the whole child so that they can learn. Um and so if we're not we're not able to provide those medical services that we're providing or providing um food at lower cost or free to our kids like there's a trade-off there and all of those things come into play. So, I think continuing to have productive conversations um that are solutionoriented um is what I would suggest the most at our local level. I'm not I I don't want to send people away from having a conversation with the people here. So, um I just want to add a couple of pieces um to what Lauren
126shared. First, um appreciation of Lauren. Um this is her second year in this position. Um, and I hope she wants to continue to to be in it, frankly. Um, and I think that we have really tried this year, we had a community forum that was full of people to talk about budget and talk about what um, what challenges we face as a community and then we get into this time of year and we lose sight of that. Um, I also know that Lauren um, and I had this conversation about opening up that survey where people could ask whatever they wanted to. Um, and we thought long and hard about it because um, that's that's going out there on a limb. Um, and we still decided that we should do it and we started to as
127answers or questions started to come in, we started to think about answers um, right right away. Um, so we have tried um, to make this more transparent um, in in ways that we haven't in the past because we have received that critique year-over-year. Um and so we will continue to work on how do we better communicate and provide opportunities as we move into next year. Um that that is the a part of um a continuous cycle of learning and trying to continue to do better. Um but at the end of the day, Lauren has done more of that than we've seen in any budget process over the last decade. Um and I appreciate the fact that you did that. Okay, Tony. So, I want to express some gratitude uh for for this process being a
128second uh year as a community member on on the committee. Uh committee chair Freeborg, I promise there'll be a a question at the end of this. Okay. It'll probably be rhetorical and it might it might address what Chris was uh talking about as far as what what would he do as far as money. Uh but but I do want to say thank you to Lauren and the incredible work you've done. I I I think Superintendent Nos is pretty pretty fortunate to have great greatly fortunate to have you. Uh but I also uh board chair Whitebear I I appreciate the the questions that you asked uh because they were ways to communicate back to the community uh the things that you heard and I think the things that are still resonant out there. my my earlier
129question about how do we get to that 13.3 million on line item 6000 because my hunch is the community that says we should have moved that money it they know today from from your work that it wasn't it can't happen here and they'll probably come back to the to the school board and say fix that for future years and they'll still probably be uh unhappy with superintendent NS with not doing that earlier because the music is that important for people. So, so I couple comments and I'll probably end up talking out of both sides of my mouth. Um, but but I I hope the school board knows and for the community. I I did work as an administrator in the district office for a time and the average length of a superintendent is around three
130years. And so, this community and this district is really fortunate that superintendent Austin's been around for nine and and hopefully for a few more. uh those I disagree with some of your moves probably aren't going to agree with that. But but the stability that this district has that that both bargaining units uh are are taken care of the the class role the the the student teacher ratio are are are super powerful things. This district will continue to be able to recruit uh good teachers and good educators. Uh but out of the other side of my mouth, I I I do need to say I appreciate uh disturbers in the community and I think our democracy requires us to have those. I I I really do grieve the political partisanship that's come about in the last
131few uh school boards that that that there's partisan politics is is dangerous, I think. And and but I think this community and this board's position to to be able to deal with that. uh in in a healthy way and and hopefully not lose Lauren in the in the meantime. Uh but but I I do think one of the things that didn't get brought up tonight that I I'll I'll beat that uh drum again is are we really doing enough to find out why we don't have all of our kids in our schools. that that that's been another one that's been talked about quite a bit in the community is uh our declining enrollment as it relates to kids that live in town that aren't there and so so my rhetorical question I I don't think
132it needs to be answered it it should be answered in the next year or two is what will we do to engage find out why that's happening and how to reconnect and and I'd probably sandwich that with you do have the staff in this building and and uh that haven't haven't been Kal High for a week uh substituting I you got incredible staff that got great ideas on how to if you do close schools how to do that but also expand offerings and and and I think this is a time for opportunity as well. I I just hope the community does respect that. Technically he had a question. Oh, he said it was rhetorical. I I wanted to address the rhetorical question a little bit. I don't I don't think that um and I think
133that this ties into budget because the numbers affect the budget, right? And um that's been kind of the conversation happening in the community as well. I don't think that we will ever have 100% of the community in public education. It's impossible. Um, and there's a number of reasons why people choose private schools and homeschool, and I respect those reasons. And some of them have to do with perhaps um, they want children to have, uh, more of their religious beliefs embedded into their education. We can't do that in public education. And that's okay. And so I want to say I don't think that that should necessarily be the goal because we can't meet specific needs like that is a very specific need that public education can't touch. And so that's um and there's reasons for that.
134And so I just wanted to mention that and I do appreciate that we need to find out like how to bring perhaps some families back in that have feel like they're um that their thoughts and their needs are disregarded. Um and that has been brought up as well. And so like how can folk feel more heard and seen in the district? Um, so I agree with that part, but I did want to name that because out of respect for the community that do have those needs that we can't meet. So, yeah. Any other questions? Okay. So, that brings us to the next item on the agenda where we actually have to pass. We only have one where we actually have to decide if we're going to pass this thing or not. So, at this point,
135I would be willing to entertain some motions, not everybody all at once. Uh, chair, I move um that the Corvalis School District budget for 2025 26 in the aggregate amount of $182,599,185 for all funds be approved. Do we have a second? I second. Okay. So, uh, Theres Jones has moved and Cassandra Inman has seconded. At this point, it is now open for discussion to the motion on the table. And if anybody wishes to propose an amendment to the budget, now is the time. Theres. Uh, as we um consider whether to vote um for this budget or not, I just want to um first say thank you. This is I've done nine budgets. This is the most transparent budget, the most trans transparent process. So, it might not be perfect, but it is we have made
136huge gains in this and I I think there are many community members who do see um that process. And so, thank you because that has come at um at a a level of effort I can't really even wrap my head around. Um I want to encourage us to think about a couple of things um besides what the parameters of the budget committee are. This is an opportunity for us um as we think about this budget to think creatively about as a district, how we can set goals that go um above and beyond even anything we've really imagined. things like deciding that we're going to treat music or art education as a core subject, that we're going to find a way to measure its outcomes, that we're going to find a way to measure its impact
137on um other subjects as it relates to learning in other more traditionally academic um considered to be academic subjects. I'm excited for the challenge of making that happen because I think the community has issued that challenge that we have to figure out how we're going to do that. and I am excited to be a board member at the time when I think we're going to need to undertake that challenge. So, um I hope you'll think about uh coming into the next year um with how can we get where we all as a community feel like we really want to be um because I know there are opportunities uh for us to do that. Um so I just want to thank you and um and I'll see if any other discussion but those are my thoughts
138about this. this is we have an opportunity to do something here and I I think we have the energy and I think we have the knowhow in our community to figure out how to do it and we need to we need to capitalize on on that. Any other discussion? Anybody wish to propose any Sammy? Thank you chair. So I want to build up on the discussion that we had. I agree this is on my 10th uh budget on the school district. This is the most transparent one, the most engaging among board members and budget committee members and the community. And with transparent and engagement plus dire situation comes discomfort. And I believe the conversations are uncomfortable for obvious reasons because of our care for the children because of the scarce resources and the really um
139important mandates that we have to give every child the best opportunity and to engage them. So for that I really want to thank everyone who have participated in this process. the community members who agreed or disagreed, who engaged, who asked questions. Uh Lauren, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. You have done phenomenal work, not only preparing this budget, shephering it, but engaging with community members and giving every single person the weight that their ideas, their questions are really important to strengthen uh this institution. So really, thank you uh Ryan for your team and Lauren. I will say this another time. One more time. I hope I say it one more time and that's it. Uh this is another Mayday situation. Last year I said it's a Mayday situation. Uh we trust our public schools and
140we ask of our community to step up and continue trusting the school system by engaging by asking the hard questions and by thinking about how can I make sure the children in our household in our neighborhood and also in the entire community are going to get a better opportunity and I don't know what that answer is but I believe the budget in my hands right now is the best case scenario given the questions what we asked, given the scenarios we examined, given the resources that we have the highest confidence that we will receive. And I know there might be worst case scenarios that we need to be prepared for given the federal, state, and even local uncertainty. And with that, I really want to say I am optimistic with the dire situation we're in that
141while the governor and the co-chairs of the ways and means try to balance between different priorities, transportation, education, that they at least give us the 11.4 billion, not less. And if there is any bills that's passed with extra fund, extra funding needs that they fund those needs. Uh I think we need to put that energy there. We need to keep our energy here by asking the tough questions and reminding ourselves about the goals. We do have goals about the music. We have goals about the arts. We have goals about students safety. And we have the goal and the dream that's every school is going to be the castle of hope where no child goes hungry, no child feels unsafe, and every child is engaged and is going to feel that they're growing every day. And
142I know we're not there yet, but we need to continue keeping our goal there. And I think that's the mandates that the school district, the board, the superintendent have in mind and our educators in our schools have in mind every day. And I'm hoping this budget will get us closer there despite that we're putting more resources but for much much higher demands. So it is challenging and I think that's makes it really a wicked problem. It's not an easy problem and I appreciate us uh as a community as a budget committee really wrestling with this uh hard problem and arriving where we are right now. Um, so with that, uh, I am in favor of the motion and I am in favor of us dreaming big, asking the question, what would it look like to
143have more affordable housing that will get rather than one out of five house um, homes uh, with one child will get more children in the community. What would it look like for Crell to be a welcoming community for immigrants and refugees with higher student population? uh that's what populated many communities is being welcoming to refugees and immigrants and also retaining our community members who live in the community and I don't know what that answer look like beyond the budget committee but it is a goal that I hope we can aspire toward and with that I am in favor of the motion and in favor of this continued work that we're doing together. Thank you. Any other discussion on the motion? I just wanted to reiterate that um I remain conflicted about the budget and not
144because of anything that Lauren has prepared just because of the situation that we're in and it's um and I'm just I just remain conflicted and um disappointed in the lack of support that we have um in our budget that we receive from the state and um just processes that are completely out of our control. And I just wanted to say that um it's yeah, it's tough. Thank you, Shauna. [Music] Just wanted to echo some of the gratitude, Lauren. I I hope that you're hearing because you have done so much work and the transparency that you've brought, the extra time and effort you've put in. It's it's a big risk to get up in front of the community and hold a community meeting as you and Ryan and Lou and the public schools foundation did and
145the community really they showed up and they responded and I've heard so much gratitude for folks saying we want more of that and so hopefully that gets reflected back to you too. I did get multiple emails well lots of emails this week but a few that came directly to me that said please tell Lauren thank you that the community is seeing the work that you're doing. So, I hope that you're hearing that, too, because you really are getting a lot directed at you that isn't your fault, and in fact, you're helping us understand it and helping bring clarity and authenticity to it. So, thank you for that. Also, just want to thank other community members who who have stood up and and brought energy and motivation and just that encouragement that I hope that that
146collaborative work continues because we need to do this all together. Um Ryan last year when we were in the midst of as Lou reminded us cuts to arts, to libraries, um to music at that time as well. Um you have a quote that if you're okay with me bringing it forward, I remember the moment you said it stinks. It stinks. And that stuck with me in that moment because I thought, yeah, it does. And that about sums it up. And I very rarely hear you say things to that effect because you are very stoic and wanting to hold everybody else's emotions and really um coming and bringing that patience and that calm in the way that you do through all the ups and downs so that others are able to regulate um in the way
147that you model. And it does stink. And as you you said too, Lou, I'm also disappointed. You're not not in you, Lauren. Not in our district doing it the best that we can in this moment, but in public education being woefully underfunded. And that comes with really hard decisions that I we have a lot of work to do to figure out how do we deal with that and how do we deal with funds going down in a way that actually reflects what students need, what they want, what their families want, what we want, as well as parents and community members. Um, and I appreciated your enthusiasm, Theres, in terms of just leaning into some hope of, okay, we've got work to do and we are the community to do it. And I keep thinking that
148as well that I feel so fortunate to be in this community because I feel like we have the best chance of doing this well and wanting to do it well and we've got to do it together with those of us in the room, community members, students, educators, um everyone else involved and just really appreciate folks being willing to try and do this as authentically and um transparently as possible. So, thank you Cassandra. So, I was thinking about the privilege that I've had to be part of this and I want to say thank you for that and thank you for creating this space for listening and I think that's the most important role that we that that's the way we contribute to the public policy process. I think sometimes the loudest voices are the ones that
149win the day oftentimes, but this process has created space to elevate some of those quieter voices. Um, and yeah, I think that's how we build trust in people. And I want to say thank you for thank you for that. That's on behalf of myself, but for the Corvalis community. Bernie, Lauren, uh, this is my first, uh, budget process, but here as a schoolboard member, but I've participated in government, um, budget processes for decades, and this is by far the most transparent I've ever seen. So, thank you for all your work, and thank you for taking the time to answer my long questions and everything else along the way. Um I think you mentioned earlier uh this is really the starting point. This budget is the starting point. The devil's is in the execution and I
150I really encourage you to continue to to to look through as you're executing the budget to find savings to to to think of ways that we can actually uh reach our goals given some of the constraints we have. We can find savings here and there and and uh as long as we keep u keep our eyes on the ball. So thank you. Any other discussion? Does anybody wish to propose any amendments? I just want to make sure that it is clear that we are giving everybody ample opportunity to propose an amendment should they choose. Okay, with that I'm going to go ahead and close the discussion and bring it to a vote. Uh this is a roll call vote, so we will have to do it one at a time. If the secretary could call
151the role and respond by saying yes or no. Judah I Shauna I Bernie I Sammy I Yan I Chris I Kevin I Lou I'm feeling I I'm gonna abstain. Okay. Andrew a reluctant I Cassie Ires I Tony I Okay so that is let's see we had 12 present so 11 yes one abstension that passes okay so now we have a budget how are we going to pay for it I move that the permanent tax rate of $4.4614 per 10,000 of assessed value be levied for operating purposes. That a local option tax rate of $1.50 per 1,000 of assessed value be levied in support of the general fund. And that a tax amount of $16,928,11 be levied for the service of bonded debt obligations. Do we have a second? A second. Okay. So Judah has moved
152and Teresa has seconded. Is there any discussion? Okay, with that I'll again close the uh discussion and again call the role for voting yes or no. Judah. I Shauna. I Bernie. I Sammy. I John. I Chris. I Kevin. I Lou. I Andrew. I Cassie. I Theres. I And Tony. I by a mo by a 12 to zero. That passes unanimously. Okay. So next uh we have the consolidated action where we uh approve the minutes from the May 30th, 2024, the April 24th, 2025, and May 15th, 2025 meetings. Uh because this one does not need to be a roll call, I'm just going to simply ask for unanimous consent uh for these to be passed. Is there any objection? No. Sweet. Okay, those are uh approved. And now it's my turn to get on my soap
153box. So, first I do want to thank um everybody who has been here, all the me community members that have done this. This is my fifth budget cycle with the district, my seventh overall because I had two with the city of Corvalis beforehand. Um and this has probably been one of the hardest budget cycles that I've ever had to go through. um sounds like it's probably one of the hardest that many if not all of us have and I did struggle with it greatly. Um I want to start also by saying a very specific thank you to Lauren and Ryan and all of their staff that have worked tirelessly and thanklessly over this last year to bring us this budget. And once this is done, what's your reward? You get to do it again for
154next year. It is a herculean and sysophian task that I do not envy. I also want to congratulate the members of the board that won their re-election. And I also want to thank those that ran for board even though they did not win to help drive the conversation and move it in a way that I think was definitely needed. And also, if there are any openings on this committee next year, I invite you to apply. We'd love to have your voices here. We have heard a lot from members of our community, parents, teachers, and students about their concerns about this budget. And so we need to make sure that we understand where that frustration is coming from. We ignore that frustration at our peril. To paraphrase Ryan, this budget stinks. I want to stress though
155that is not the fault of the staff who worked on it. You did the absolute best you could with what you were given. And I'm sure that everyone sitting at this table would not approve these cuts if they felt that they had a choice. Now, we know Janna is a graduate of the Corval school district. I don't know how many other people here are, but I am. I grew up literally right across the street. You stand in the parking lot, you can see the houses I lived in. I went to Adams and I went to Western Be. So, while I do not have a child myself in this district, I have benefited from it. And that is part of why I'm here to help those who come after me have the same and better opportunities
156that I did. So, to those that have spoken out loudly about how this budget does not fully align with our stated values as a community, I want to say that I hear you and your concerns are valid. But I'm going to repeat here what I said last year and I'm speaking to the larger community as a whole. The way that we fund schools in Oregon is broken, and we are not the only ones facing difficult decisions and declining enrollment. Measures five and 50 are in need of significant reform, and they are not working the way that we were promised they would. Everything is also connected. The average sale price of a home in Benton County last year was $617,980. This is information that I got straight from the Benton County assessor's office. that that is
157a mortgage payment of over $3,400 a month at a 6.5% interest rate and a 10% down payment before taxes and insurance. We have seen home values in Benton County continually rise for the last 10 years, which is unheard of. Last year was the second lowest number of new homes delivered in Benton County in the last 10 years with 67 in the entire county, beating only 2023's 51. And the majority of those homes were not inside Corvalis. Corvalis is the most rent burden city in the state and one of the top 10 most rent burden cities in the entire country. What families with young children can afford to live here? So the next time you want to oppose a new housing development, remember this budget. The next time you want to support a policy that increases
158the cost of building and renting housing, remember this budget. I urge you to reach out to your state legislature and ask them what they are doing in Salem to give local communities more control of how their schools are funded. I again urge members of this board to do the same. Without significant structural changes to how Oregon schools are funded and without significant changes to how Corvalis views and approaches growth, this pro this problem will only continue and will only get worse before it gets better. Thank you for indulging me. And with that, I will solicit a motion to adjurnn. So moved. Any seconds? Second. Okay. All those in favor say I. I. I. All those opposed say no. We are adjourned.