Corvallis School Board Budget Meeting (May 15th, 2025)

001Okay, the um the meeting is called to order. Oh, hold on one second. Okay, we're fixing. Nope, there's much feedback. Okay. Nope. Excuse our technical difficulties. Hello. Nope. Hello. That's okay. test. No, still going. I wonder if it's you know how sometime it does sound like a like a announcement system. Hello. No, that's going to make the meeting really long if we leave that on y'all. So, we're trying to turn it off. Hello. Thanks for your patience everybody. Yes. Sorry. Luckily, we're only a couple minutes behind right now. Hello. It's a feedback. Yeah. Is it off No. Yeah, we're good. Okay. Yes, there's only one of me. No. Okay. Um the meeting, thank you for your patience, everyone. The meeting is called to order at 6:35 p.m. Um the first item on the agenda is

002nomination and election of officers. Uh we do not need a motion, just names of the people you would like to nominate for the position. It's not on here. We are missing Judah and Meredith though. That's it for in case people are wondering who is um but everybody else is here. Um so we do not need a motion just the names of people you would like to nominate for the position of budget committee chair. Does anyone wish to make a nomination? I mean, I feel like it's a little tacky to nominate myself, but if nobody else will, sure, I'll nominate myself. Andrew Freeborg. I'm used to not being able to nominate people. So, I don't know if I was supposed to. Is there anybody else that would like to make a nomination? I will also nominate

003Andrew so that it feels a little less tacky for you. Thanks, Theres. Okay. Hearing no objections or further nominations, the nominations are closed. Um Oh, I assume you accepted your nomination. Yes. Okay. Um the nominations are now closed and um we can appoint through via unanimous consent which I think would be the way to go this evening. Um and so congratulations on um your role of chair of the budget committee for this year. I am now turning the meeting over to you. Thank you very much. And now we got to do all that again for a vice chair. Uh once again, do not need a motion, just the name of the people that you would like to nominate for the position of budget committee vice chair. Reminder that the vice chair pretty much only has

004to take over my duties should I not show up or be incapacitated in any way. So you probably won't really have to do anything. So don't be afraid. Chair, I would just like to note that traditionally it has been a budget committee. Yes, I was supposed to say it is usually a citizen member. Uh it's not required, but that is uh custom. Um, any volunteers? Again, you you there is a 99.9% chance you will not have to do a darn thing. Okay, with that, uh, I will go ahead and nominate Tony Vaneir for vice chair. And, and are there any objections or any other names that wish to be thrown into the hat? All right. Uh, with that, the nomination is closed. I will, uh, once again, uh, seek unanimous consent to approve Tony as

005vice chair. Okay. Congratulations. All right. So, at this point, I would like to invite uh, Superintendent Nos to present the budget message. All right. Well, um, as I get ready to share my budget message with all of you, I just want to take a moment to thank you, um, particularly our citizen members for being willing to, um, be on our budget committee. There are years when we are able to make additions to our um programs and there are difficult years like this where that's not the case and at the same time I know that that brings other um emotions and feelings and that responsibility as members of our community. So I really do appreciate your willingness to help and participate. Um we need that um support and we need um community to be involved. So,

006thank you for doing it um in this difficult and challenging budget season. Now, I'll go ahead and start my message. I submit for your consideration the proposed budget for the Crell School District for the fiscal year beginning July 1st, 2025 and ending June 30th, 2026 and provide context for the challenging fiscal landscape in the years beyond. While this budget includes reductions, we continue to prioritize specials at our elementary schools so all our students have music, art, library, and or physical education every day. Over 35 honors, AP and dual credit courses in math, language arts, social studies, science, world language, and career and technical education or CTE. CTE programs including automotives, culinary, health sciences, engineering, carpentry, digital arts and design, computer science, child development, and studio arts. ensuring all students learn to read using high-quality instruction

007grounded in the science of reading. A dual language program gates grades K through 12 and a well-rounded education thanks to diverse opportunities like theater, outdoor school, orchestra clubs, STEM and math nights, art shows, and athletics. The this budget reflects our commitment to cultivating a district where all students belong and are supported to thrive, engage in learning in the community, and be prepared for success. It invests in provided rigorous, relevant, and engaging learning experiences that honor unique identities and lead to future goals while also fostering the wellness of students, families, and staff. Assessing the current climate and budgetary constraints. Despite successfully addressing an 8.2 2 million million deficit in the 24-25 budget. The upcoming budget cycle forces ongoing financial pressures resulting in a new shortfall of 2.98 million. Strong fiscal reserves coupled with state and federal

008funding including high school success, student investment account, idea, and title funds have enabled us to enhance student services and expand our team in recent years to address growing academic and social emotional needs. Despite these efforts, declining enrollment and insufficient state funding to cover rising operating costs present ongoing obstacles. The costs of doing business go up every year due to inflation with the majority of our funds going to payroll and benefits. Furthermore, the critical needs of our students persist even as the resources to meet them diminish. The 2526 proposed budget strategically utilizes of our available resources to directly address these challenges. Excuse me. State funding in Oregon. The issue of inadequate state funding and public education continues to pose significant challenges. The state school fund, a combination of state and local funds makes up about 85%

009of our general fund revenue. It includes local property taxes, some county and state grants, and a 70% reimbursement for home to school transportation. The state school fund is appropriated bianally by the Oregon legislature. At the time of the proposed budget, the allocation for the next bianium 25 to 27 is undetermined. While the proposed state school fund increases, it will leave us approximately 2.8 million short of what we need to maintain our current service level. To adequately address our budgetary needs in our current declining enrollment situation, we would need a state school fund allocation of approximately 12.2 billion, which is about 800 million short of what we anticipate receiving. Over the last decade, the state of Oregon has seen an increase of 72% um 13.5 billion in general fund revenues, and the proportion of those dollars

010invested into education has decreased by 9%. Schools are tasked with supporting a wide range of students and family needs beyond core education such as medical care, mental health supports, and addressing food and housing in security, but are not funded to provide these services. Federal funding. Federal funds make up about 6% of our overall budget, totaling about 10 million annually. These funds are critical and support programs such as title one for high poverty elementary schools, professional development, language instruction, student support in enrichment, Indian education, child nutrition programs, services for students with disabilities, and Medicaid billing for services that take place in our schools. All federal funds, with the exception of Title Six, are passed through the state or another state agency. There is uncertainty about if and how these federal programs will be funded in the

011future and any changes would be impactful to our overall budget. Our operating expenditures, our expenditures are continually outpacing our revenues with the most significant impact to increasing yearly operation expenditures being staffing, which makes up over 80% of our budget. We strive to offer competitive pay slightly above the average of comparative districts to attract and retain high-quality staff. Another significant cost is the public employee retirement system or PERS which imposes significant budget constraints due to escalating required contribution rates. Additionally, inflation impacts the cost of operating our schools much like it impacts the cost of living for families. Enrollment. Declining enrollment is a significant factor impacting our budget. As the largest funding source, the state school fund is distributed on a per student basis. Based on recent birth rates, statistics, and a high housing cost in Corvalis,

012we believe this trend will continue for several more years. Our enrollment for the 24 2526 school year is projected to be 5,661 students, which is 237 fewer than the current year. We are seeing much smaller kindergarten cohorts, 303 projected for 2526, compared to the 12th grade cohort, 572 projected for 2526 that are graduating out of the system. Decreasing birth rates are not unique to our district, mirroring trends observed across Oregon and the United States. Student enrollment is projected to decrease from 676 in the 2324 school year to 5,140 by 2829. This decline is expected to stabilize around the 2829 school year as larger student cohorts graduate. While there is movement of students to and from private schools with the within the district boundary and a smaller net transfer out to um other public districts, less

013than 1% of total enrollment in the current year. The primary driver of declining enrollment are the declines in birth rates and housing housing. The housing crisis in our community is a pressing issue that requires urgent attention. The high cost of living makes it difficult for families with children to move to or remain in Corvalis. Based on a 23 report, about 72% of families were unlikely to find a single family home to purchase in their price range within Corvalis. In addition, a significant portion of families cannot afford two 24% or threebedroom apartments 37%. The production of single family homes has not recovered from um from the 2008 recession, exacerbating the supply and demand issues and driving up prices. A recent demographic report indicates that for every four single family homes built between 2019 and 2023, the

014Kurvala school district gained one student. Similarly, similarly, the district gained one student for every five multifamily units constructed. Here's a summary of the proposed budget. The budget proposal includes a total investment of 182.6 million for the 2526 school year, a slight increase from the previous year's budget. The general fund represents 63% of the 2526 proposed budget for all funds and accounts for most of the district's operating activities except those required to be accounted for in another fund. General fund revenues come from two main sources. Local property taxes and the state school fund. Budgeted gain budgeted general fund current resources total 115.1 million, an increase of 2.6 million or 2.3% from 2425. The majority of the increase in general fund resources is due to typical increases in property taxes and an increase in state funding per

015pupil due to statewide enrollment declines. In addition, the district has implemented several savings strategies in the current and previous fiscal year in preparation for the projected budget deficit. Budget general fund current requirements total 115.1 million, an increase of 2.6 million or 2.3% from 2425. The general fund includes 10.8 8 million that funds approximately 66 FTE provided by the local option levy which voters renewed in May of 22. Based on the local option levy, our students experiencing smaller class sizes and receive specialized instruction in physical education, music, and art. The local option levy also provides students with more access to counseling and social work services, vocational and technical education programs, and extracurricular activities. Schoolboard policy DA provides guidance regarding the financial objectives for managing general fund reserves. Those objectives include establishing a sustaining sustainable level of

016programs, protecting the district from unnecessary borrowing to meet cash flow needs, providing prudent reserves to meet unexpected emergencies, protecting against catastrophic events, and meeting the uncertainties of state and federal funding. As outlined in the policy, all general fund contingency and reserve accounts are budgeted to achieve the minimum level required. In conclusion, the proposed budget for 2526 and the projections for subsequent years reflect the significant financial challenges facing our district due to declining enrollment, inadequate state funding, uncertain federal funding, and rising operating costs. Despite facing substantial projected deficits requiring corrective action, our district remains dedicated to prior priorit prioritizing student success and well-being and providing exceptional educational experiences. To address these challenges, the district is actively engaged in longreach planning. We are currently conducting a demographic study to analyze enrollment trends and projections and a facilities

017assessment to evaluate the capacity and future of our schools. This data will be presented to the school board in August of 2025 to inform future decisions as all options regarding potential redist redistriction, consolidation or school closure will be considered at that time. We want to assure the community that all current schools will remain open for the 2526 school year. Together with the support of the budget committee and the Crealis community, we will remain firmly committed to our mission to cultivate a thriving educational environment where every student has the opportunity to thrive. Thank you for your consideration and support as we work towards a brighter future for our students in our community. Thank you. Thank you, Superintendent Nos. Uh at this point, uh would like to invite Finance Director Lauren Wolf to present the budget highlights.

018So, good news is here's our agenda and we've already hit items one and two, so we're on our way. Um, I will be giving a presentation of the um overall budget. We will have um time for public comment. There will be time for deliberation and uh questions, requests for more information um and then potentially committee action if you see fit. Um, I want to bring up the meeting norms again just to center us before we get started. Um, we are agreeing to focus use of meeting time, orderly procedure, um, consideration for district staff capacity and resources, and respectful deliberation and conversation. Again, um this is a slide you've seen at least three three times now. Um but wanted to remind you of your budget committee roles and responsibilities. Um the key responsibilities of the budget

019committee are to hear the budget message, which we just did from Superintendent Nos. Um hear and consider public comment, which we will do in a little bit. Um discuss and revise the budget as needed. It's a bit of a technical process. So, if you've um are wanting to do that, I can walk you through the steps when we get to that point. Um and then eventually approve the budget and approve the tax rate and levy amount, which um those two factors play into uh the assumptions for the budget. And you do have um a sheet that has the language for that if you see fit. Um, the committee does not set salaries, benefits or contract terms, set staffing levels or organizational structure, decide if a program or service will be funded, or make or alter

020district goals or policies. Those are all either operational in nature, which happens um from the superintendent or from the school district side on that policy and goal setting. Okay, now to the budget summary. So, we're looking at here um the budget at a glance for all of our funds. Um as you can see, the general fund is where the the majority of our operations take place. We also have the 200 level, the special revenues funds, which make up our grants. Um the 300, which is our debt service. We have two um current large debt obligations which are for the general obligation bonds in 2018 and 2020. Um as well as our PERS um unfunded actual liability um debt service which we have a couple more years to pay off which will be great when that's

021no longer on the books. Um you can see that the capital projects fund has completely that orange you're not seeing any orange. We don't have a budget there. you will see the um data presented in the budget document as we do present three years worth of um actuals and so that is there you can see that that was a huge portion of our budget back in 2122 um as we went through the bond project but as those funds were spent um that fund diminished. Then lastly is our 600 internal services fund um which you can see there. So for our major assumptions and trends on the resources side um we have the state school fund at 11.4 billion. Um as mentioned in uh the soup's message we do not have a committed allocation from the

022state. Um, and that is fairly normal every other year. So, this budget is assuming 11.4 based on the governor's recommended budget. Um, and then the budget that the co-chairs came out with. Um, and I'm sure one of you will ask me a question about that later. Um, but we did receive a state economic forecast um that came out yesterday um that was less than promising. So, that's our assumption. um that doesn't mean that that's what we're going to get. We are assuming an enrollment um based on our data of 5,898 students. That turns into an extended ADMW, which is the factor that state uh the state school fund uses to calculate our portion of 6,997.93. Um and that is really based on um average daily membership, which is why we we get that decimal point.

023We obviously we don't have a 0.93 of a student. So, um, that's how that works. Um, and they actually take your highest, um, ADMW from the current year and the year prior, which is where we get to that extended ADMW. Um, so we will be operating off of this current year's number. Um, versus the actual number for 2526. Property taxes um, up about 2.9%. That's fairly stable in Benton County. Um and the local option levy above um up 3%. Student investment account allocation at 6.7 million. Again, not feeling super um confident in that number after the the revenue forecastes. That's largely funded by lottery funds. Um and that fund was down at the state as well, but that is what this is based on. Um and then a beginning fund balance of 25.6 million. Um

024and I do think it's important to note that that is not all general fund. We are talking about all funds. Um and so 16.8 of that is general fund. There's a couple million dollars in special revenues. Um and then a lot the remaining of that in the um insurance reserve fund for both uh classified and certified as well as our risk management internal services fund. Federal funding. I promised I would um bring those assumptions out separately at this meeting. Um, I wanted to just re um restate that we don't have allocations yet. We have heard um that the state did receive their title one allocation last week. So that's promising or I think this week we intend to have it next week. Um and we are assuming fairly flat funding on that. Um, for this

025budget proposal, the assumption is a 25% cut to federal grant programs, which is just under a million dollars with the elimination of title two. Um, we have the federal funds, the federal calendar is different than our state calendar. So, they go October 1st um through September 30th, whereas we go July 1 through uh June 30th. And we do have um a percent carryover that we are allowed to carry over yeartoyear um which we typically do because of the variability of the funding. Um and so we anticipate next year with all of our awards combined to have a carryover around 770,000. Um, so if you look at the overall budget impact next year for federal funds, um, it's it's only $200,000. Um, but that will be much more significant if we lose those federal dollars for

0262526. So it's not like the conversation is over. Um, it's just that there will be a a bit of a year um, in transition where we can smooth that trend. Great. So now um this is an overall again all funds summary of resources. You can see 50% of our resources are our local funds and that's primarily those um uh those tax revenues um both uh to keep in mind that that's dollars coming in from property taxes um from the local option levy and then as well as the the bond for the general obligation um capital improvements. We also have our um intermediate sources which is really small. That's some county sources. Um our state sources is 31% largely the state school fund um plus student investment account, high school success um and some other smaller

027grants. Our federal sources there um at six around 6 million and then our other sources which is primarily um fund balance that's being brought forward from the prior year in all funds. I did note the major variances there. Um and again just to tie this back to the document um you will see that on page 59 um notated for the um the variances by major source. So intermediate we we say um our major variances we generally note um at either a million dollars or um 10% but I have listed them for the the sources there on the requirements side um these are our major assumptions and trends for all funds um step increases for all employees that is align in alignment with the contracts that we have. Um we have cost of living adjustments um

028for all employee groups certified 4% classified 5% and 4% um for our non-rep group. We have insurance contributions of an additional $50 per month for all employees. Payroll expenses anywhere from 38.5 to 43.2%. That number is variable based on if we have uh tier one or tier one, tier two employees versus an OPSURP employee. And I suppose I could have put a lower number on there as well for our retirees. Um but that's a very low number of our um actual staff uh that go into that category. And then I put um the consumer price index uh inflationary rate of 2.6% 6% on all other um expenses, not based on necessarily the budget, but our projections for where we anticipate to end up um in this current year. And then how that plays out um

029in the budget is here. You can see that our salaries and associated payroll costs make up over half of our budget. Um the next largest category is our other objects and that's generally because of that's where we pay for our insurance premiums which is about $21 million um for health insurance for employees um as well as the um the other objects for just our regular general liability property liability um those sort of things. So that is a large category. And then the purchase services is the next one at about 10% of our overall budget, just over $18 million. Um, and then you can see the other small categories there as well. Just like on the resources, I've noted the major variances there. That is on page uh 67 in the way that I presented it.

030There's also another variance page on page 73 that breaks it down by um more detailed function level um if you would like to see that as well. Okay. And then the next piece um is and again we this was a a question that came up um from Sammy but also that we had talked about in the orientation is how are we um aligning our resources to our goals and our that strategic plan. And as I mentioned, I hope to have this be um a larger section in our document where we can um put some more information in the future, but based on um the current budget software and and how that all worked, it we it wasn't something that we could pull off this year. But I did want to bring it up um in

031this format to talk about that. So, for our first goal, um, goal one of excellent learning experience. And just to state again, it's stated in the board goals, but these are not in priority order. They're just in an order. Um, and so excellent learning experience. There's several different examples on those. Um, we have our data teams, our MTSS, which is multi-tered support systems or systems of support, either way, SNS. Um, and then if you see in parentheses where there's the numbers, those are the function codes. So you can tie that back to where it is in the budget document so that you can see that not all of them um I can pull out separately because they're uh coded at a more detailed level than function and object which is how the budget's presented. So

032um if you don't see it that is why we have assessment tools. I put an example of amplify. Um I know we have others but I can't name them all. Um we have instructional staff development. You'll see the functions listed there. special education programming. Um, our 21st century programming, which is pages and pahas. Um, I think it was probably two board meetings ago, they did a presentation. It's a super cool afterchool program that's really moving the dial for kids. So, if you missed that, that's um, it's on a YouTube. You can go back and learn some more about that. Um, we have the science of reading, which is professional learning for teachers. Um, we have curriculum. We have a math professional learning. We have a math TOSA and an early literacy TOSA. And both of

033those um individuals provide high quality in-house um professional learning in those two areas so that we're not um having to pay like an outside entity necessarily to do those. Um and those are two positions that are helping um really move the dial in both of those areas. So for equitable systems, um we have a list of things here. our dean of students um especially at elementary um play a large role in I think that for for our kids um and helping support them so that they're able to be at school um and do their best. We have the youth truth survey that we just um completed about a month ago probably. So we have that. We have interpretation and translation services um to make to an attempt to to make things more accessible for all

034of our families. Um we have school equity toas and equity teams and I should have said TOSA we talk in a lot of acronyms but TOSA is teacher on special assignment. Um that is what that stands for. So that is a licensed certified teacher in that role. Um we have school pride club advisors. We have students advocating for equity. That's our safe teams, um, coaches and mentors. We have Delta, DEDI, and other advisory groups as well that fit within that category. For goal three, um, is relevant and engaging learning, alternative education, instructional media, our career technical education programs. Um, I think we have about 14 of those, I want to say. Um, right now I cannot list them off as quickly as Nikki can, but we do have a lot. Um, our dual language immersion,

035uh, TOSA, we have advisor program and major clarity, which is helping getting students ready for, um, life after high school. We have summer programming, we have DI programs, we have elementary enrichment, music, art, and PE. We have green team leaders, and our sustainability specialist. And then for the last goal of healthy communities, we have our social socio emotional learning curriculum, health services, um, which includes several different positions within that. We have our mental health program, um, again with that interpretation and translation. Some of these things obviously fit into more than one category. Um, so I did not, uh, repeat them unintentionally. um our athletics and extracurriculars. We have community gatherings for Delta and DEDI. We have um our student support teams, SST, which is another acronym that we use. You'll see um and school counselors.

036We have attendance and our social workers. We have staff services. Um we have our youth troop family workshops, which I think happened yesterday. That was an example of that. um as well as our student and family advocates that are working very hard in our schools every day. So those are some examples um for those goal categories and I hope to expand upon that uh in future years on how we can document that actually in the budget but work in progress. Okay. So we do have um next is public comment. So we can if anyone has questions specific to the data presented um if you want to ask but we also have time for public comment or we have discussion after public comment. So this is strictly questions. Go ahead Sammy. Thank you. Thank you Lauren

037for the last few slides about the alignment of the uh schoolboard goals and the budget and I want you to maybe highlight the percentages for each goal based on the listening and learning. what those percentages are. What's the what is its out of what's Oh, um on the slides. So, when we did the listening and learning um survey, one of the questions was um how how well do you think the um district's resources are aligned to their goals? And so these percentages are based on that. So 78% alignment on excellent learning experience, 91% alignment on equitable systems, um 77% alignment on relevant engaging learning, and 87% alignment on healthy communities. So I don't believe that we currently have um metrics that we could use to compare, but I we have to start somewhere. So, this

038would be some baseline data that we can then check next year um to see how our investments are working for students and families. Thank you. Okay, I'm not seeing anybody else with a immediate clarifying question. Uh which is good because I was going to be like, let's maybe try and hold off on a lot of those since we have a lot of people here. Uh how many people signed up for comment? We have four. Four. Okay. Well, then let's get on to that. Let me read a little bit here first. So, we will now open the public comment period. We value the lived experiences of students, families, staff, and community. And we welcome public comment as necessary and important part of the work that this committee does. The complete guidelines for public comment are available

039on the registration table at the back of the back of the room and are electronically attached to the agenda for this meeting. But there are a couple important points. When it is your turn to speak, please come forward, have a seat right there, and direct your comments to the committee. Before you start your comments, please state your name for the record and state whether or not you reside within the Corvalis School District boundary. You will have 3 minutes to make your comments. Uh, I will alert you when you have 30 seconds left. And when your time is up, the lights on the counter there in front of you will turn from green to yellow. At the 30 second mark and from yellow to red at the end of your 3 minutes, I will give you

040a little bit of time to wrap up. If you are in the middle of a sentence, I won't cut you off in the middle of a sentence. But I would ask you then at that point to wrap up your thoughts quickly out of respect for everybody's time. Following your comments, the committee will have three minutes to ask clarifying questions, but we are not able to engage in conversation or debate. If committee members would like to revisit a topic or issue brought up during public comment, they may do so at the appropriate time in the agenda. Please recall that the role of the budget committee is different than that of the school board. Specifically, the budget committee cannot set salaries, benefits, or contract terms, cannot set staffing levels or change the district's organizational structure, make decisions

041regarding programs or services offered or funded, or make or alter district goals or policy. Please additionally note that the uh proposed budget is balanced as required by state law. So if you are commenting regarding a request for an increase or a decrease to budget expenditures, it would be helpful if you could also identify a corresponding decrease and vice versa. And with that, who's up first? There we go. All right. Well, thank you. It's been a long time. Uh good to see everybody here. Um just here to speak to some of the newer members of the budget committee. Just um just provide some experience from when I was sitting in the exact same place as you are. considering the the lean nature of the budget this year, the um unstable fiscal environment that we're in, and

042considering we had a very lean budget forecast yesterday up at up in Salem. But essentially what I wanted to speak to for the newer members is just remember your your authority here um is granted to you by the statutes of the state of Oregon. It's not derived from the district. It's not derived from the school board. that all of your decisions regarding the budget document that's been presented already here today. Keep everything related strictly to funding. You do have the power to make decisions. You do have the power to ask questions. Don't wait be like I was my my few years not asking questions and remaining silent. That stakes are too high for this particular budget to uh just provide. It's already been provided by chairman Freeborg as far as the parameters surrounding what this

043committee can and can't do, but um you'll find that you get a lot more done if you frame the questions correctly. So if you come in and you are looking at the budget, you don't feel that it meets the shared vision values of the schoolboard district and the community, you do have the ability to ask for increases or decreases in funding. um framing a question like let's just use one of the issues that's up right now is music for elementary school students framing the question to the district. What additional funding would be necessary to um in the 2025 2026 budget cycle so that the service levels could be maintained as they were in the 2024 2025 budget cycle. Always keep your questions related directly to the funding. You'll find the conversations will go much easier.

044you won't get as much push back from the district or maybe some other sitting board members. Um, but go with what's in your gut. Go with how you're viewing the goals. Go with what you think is right. Don't let anybody back you down from what you think needs to be done. Persist. Be persistent. And if at the end of the deliberations um within the next couple of meetings, if you don't feel this budget document accurately reflects the shared vision, values of the district, the board, and the community, vote no. You don't have to provide a yes vote and you don't have to um rubber stamp the document that's been presented today. Make sure that you are active and vocal during these deliberation periods. You're You've been provided an awesome amount of authority granted to you

045through the statutes. Is that me blinking saying I'm done? All right. Very good. Just remember um you do have a lot of authority and that authority is provided to you through the state of Oregon, not through the board or the district. Thank you. Oh, hold up. First, could you again state your name for the record? Arnold, you live in the district. My name's Richard Arnold and I've lived within the district since 2006. Perfect. Uh do any members of the board have questions for Mr. Arnold? No. Oh, just a point of order. I uh while I am really uh encouraged by the applause, I believe my understanding of uh public comments if we would allow applause, we would apply allow booze for example or we would ask the audience to refrain from either. I just want

046to be respectful of every other person who wants to provide comments uh how the chair would like to proceed. Um, while I do appreciate the applause uh for that, I think it is fair that in the interest of that way in case somebody provides testimony that may not be the same as the prevailing opinions in the room that we for the sake of decorum keep the applause to a minimum, please. Sounds good. Right. And thank you, Mr. Arnold. No, thank you, Mr. Freebour. All right. Who's next? Molly Burch. All right. And once again, please make sure to state your name for the record and whether or not you live in the boundary. Okay. My name is Molly and I do live in the boundary. And um my school is doing a musical this year and

047I got Grace and Annie. And I'd just like to say that if you cut like music like if this happened next year, you probably wouldn't we probably wouldn't be able to do the musical because we wouldn't have enough enough time to practice it. Thank you. Thank Thank you. And again, please keep the applause hold. Um but just a second. Does anybody have any questions for her? Oh, sure. Grace, which school do you go to? I think Sammy had one first and then Shauna. I'm not sure if I captured the grade. Which grade are you in? Awesome. Thank you. Yeah. I was going to ask when your musical is performing and if the community can come and see it. Thank you. Okay. Yeah. And uh again, for the record, please do not leave the seat and

048the microphone until the questions have been asked, so that way we can all hear and everybody who's watching on YouTube can hear as well. Thank you. Oh, sure. I just wanted to mention too that it's a public meeting law now in Oregon that things are when it's like this, that's why we ask you to stay at the mic, too. It's not Yeah. It's not to be intimidating or anything. We just want to make sure that we follow everything and everybody hears your voice too online. And next up, I brought props. It's on. Hello, I'm Chris Blacker. Good evening. Um, we've lost hundreds of students in Corvalis and somehow we are still not talking about it. Uh, we hear a lot about housing prices and birth rates and yes, those do affect enrollment but slowly over

049decades. What's happening right now is different. It's immediate and it's preventable. Given the past five over the past 5 years, excuse me, enrollment in our schools is down about 724 students. That's the red line going down. But the number of school age kids in Corvalis not attending our schools is up to 751. Let me say that again. We've lost more students from our own city than we've dropped in enrollment. These families didn't leave due to housing costs, and the kids are still here. They're just choosing to go somewhere else. And that is not a guess. This is data from the Oregon Department of Education's Office of Finance and Administration, the same data we use for funding calculations and title one allocations. This is a federal census data and verified state enrollment figures. This is our

050data. And how do we compare to other districts? Well, a lot of folks have mentioned the comps. We're dead last compared to all of our comps. We have the greatest rate of loss of students among all of them. And it's going to get worse with the new data. We'll be at minus 10%. How about compared to the rest of the state? And for dramatic effect, you'll see here, here's all the cities that are growing all the way to the ones that start decreasing. And I have to do this to get to Corvalis. We're in the bottom 10% of all 94 districts in the state. Number 85 out of 94. All the same data, all calculated the same way. And what was our response? Did we close the school responsibly? Do we go back to our

051good math program or do we double down on a program that has failed us? Cut more, shrink more, raise class sizes, reduce access to libraries, limit art, now slash music and raise classes by another 20%. And then act shocked when more families leave. Doing the same thing over and over and over again three years in a row is not sustainability. It is not equity. It is insanity. So here's what we can do. We can stop the cuts, reject this budget, demand we adjust the budget responsibly, demand if needed we use the reserves and pay back over three years of the savings from a school that we've just announced we're probably going to be closing. Bethl School District did this last year. It worked and they're only 45 minutes away. If we don't know how to

052do it and the new PTA of Leticia Carson and treasurer of the PTA, excuse me, and uh we approve a a a uh meal. We'll actually pay for you to go down and have lunch with Bethl and you can talk to them and figure out how did they do this? How were they able to not cut services, not raise class sizes, and close a school, pay it back over three years? They did deficit spending for two or three years at $1.4 million. We're asking for about 3 million, 2.8, I guess, out of the 6.6 rainy day fund. We can easily pay that back with earmarked 1 million from the savings. And I just don't want to hear any more excuses that we can't we can't because we didn't uh read it once, read it twice,

053and and uh do the merrygoround. We can do this. Other districts can do this. If we cut this much more, we will lose more families and this problem will just become that much worse. This is a death spiral that we're engaging. We must stop. So please, no more excuses. It is time to act. The data is clear. The public is engaged. Now is your last opportunity to try to fix this. So please, I ask you, I beg you, please consider using the reserves. Do not cut these services and keep our families in our town in the district. Thank applause. Please keep it to a minimum. Again, I I appreciate that everybody appreciates his comments, but in the interest of maintaining decorum, we do need to keep that to a minimum. Uh does any members of

054the board have any questions for Hi Chris. Um thank you for your coming here tonight with your comments. I was getting a little bit lost on like the graph that you held. Was that population? So this is the rate of loss of students. So you can notice that sisters is killing it. Okay. I don't need the I don't need the I just was exactly because you went through a bunch of numbers really fast. That way it was really clear. I only had three minutes and last time I got cut off so I wanted to run. So that's why I was like um and you've been you said right now like closing a school like Bethl, how does that immediately save money and how where would the staff go? It doesn't immediately. That's why you have

055to use the reserves. So you use the reserves to cover. It's kind of like a step down system. Right now we're just going straight down the hill. Every year we just keep sliding and sliding and every year we're losing more and more parents. Instead you maintain a base level of services. Keeps class sizes where they were or try to lower them. Keep art, music and all those things where they I would say even bring back art and library for the elementary schools. A lot of parents left because of that. And you keep the services. Then you close a school like next year we will close a school like Bethl for example announced Clear Lake Elementary was closing a year in advance and say we're going to use reserves to cover that and then when we

056close the school we earmark a million dollars each year to pay back what we've spent. It takes three years I believe for our superintendent's plan. So that you know if if we get so an example would be like just pick a school doesn't matter which one but let's I won't even know the name. It's 3.8 million that we spend on that school plus all of the funds from support services. That's a big thing right now. We spend 71 million in this new budget on support services instead of 64 million on instruction. I looked at like 12 other budgets doing all this data and there is almost no other district that's that upside down. Most spend 90 100 million on on instruction and maybe 30 on support services and that support services is buildings. It's maintenance,

057insurance and transportation and all the associated costs. If you close one school you will lower those big three line items in the support services budget by 5 10%. So that's where you save. Well that's where I was asking where the staff would go. Staff will be redistributed. you don't have to cut a single staff. So like you know the estimates from the the folks I've talked to one to one and a half million maybe up to two million depending on the school. So I would recommend take the year evaluate every single school from a financial standpoint. How much do we save if we close it? And also what can we do with it? Can we release it to out like like Clear Lake Elementary became Clear Lake Community Center? Can we a lot of folks

058think that uh the hospital would buy it because they need an elderly center. And so I think there's lots and lots of options like that. Do that full analysis give it to the public and say what's the best decision. Okay. Thank you. So I would I just want to make sure I caught it because again we have short amount of time a lot of um things. It wouldn't do anything now. It would be in the future and we don't it would do something for you. Let me I can be clear. It you could put it on as like like from a budgetary standpoint it would be future revenues that you would know from those aren't but those aren't guaranteed. Those are they are because they come right from the three direct support services line items.

059So you could say this is how much we spend on maintenance at Mountain View, Laticia Carson, wherever. This is how much we spend on technology services. This is how much we spend on transportation on insurance. Yeah, we're not supposed to debate. I was just asking I was trying to ask you a question to clarify, so I didn't get to do that because it's not we're not supposed to debate. So, my apologies. Very new to this. I wish I could have asked the remaining part of that question. All right. I'm happy to extend time if if you want to ask more questions. We're not allowed to. Unfortunately, we we do have to keep moving. Okay. Um, we did have one person who wasn't called, but let's see if they're here now. All right. Since I don't

060think you were in the room earlier, uh please state your name, uh for the record and whether or not you live in the boundary and your three minutes begins now. Hi, I'm Vib Javali. I'm a junior at Crescent Valley. I live in Corbalis. Um and yeah, I live in the boundaries. Um good evening. I'm Vib Javali. I'm a junior at Cresant Valley High School. Um I actually have the AP physics exam tomorrow at 8 a.m. It's the hardest AP exam to pass nationwide. Um, but instead of studying for it tonight, I'm here fighting for my school, my teachers, and my peers. Having lived in Corvalis for the past eight years, I can attest to the strengths of the school district. My journey started at Mountain View in fourth grade, then at Sheldon. Finally, I'm now

061at Crescent Valley. I sit here to urge every single member of the board to reject this budget. More cuts means bigger class sizes, overworked teachers, and fewer opportunities. This will only drive more families away. In the past 5 years, we've already lost 10% of our students, pushing Corvalis into the bottom 20% of all Oregon districts. And in the bottom 10% among districts in our size, that trend is neither normal nor should it be acceptable. I sit here as a junior with no incentive for this change to occur. My time has already passed. By this time next year, I would be close to graduating. So, I ask you, please, please, please reject this budget. Or if not, just spend more time scrutinizing it. No more excuses, no more committees about committees, no more consultants charging us

062while our students are actively losing out. The community, the same one that you want to calm down, is begging you to protect our kids. We aren't naive. We see through the admin cuts that are occurring. The repackaging the same sham rhetoric that gets passed around town within hours is quite frankly eerily resemblant of the rhetoric of the alarming administration that we're under. I urge you to reject this budget. represent the values and the needs of your electors and keep our administrators accountable. I ask this from the bottom of my heart. Not for me, not for the high schoolers, not even for the community, but for the 303 kindergarteners who are going to join our district next year. They deserve better. Thank you. All right. Uh please please remain seated just in case. Do any members

063of the committee have any questions? Sammy. Uh thank you Vivhav uh for the eloquent speech and uh comments. I appreciate it. I have a couple questions. The first one is uh you mentioned that Corval school districts at the certain bottom uh in the bottom order. Is that in terms of performance or cuts or population? when when we compare so okay our school district quite frankly when compared to other school districts our size when we compared to other school districts across the state isn't even facing the same type of crisis we're actually doing much better except for some reason we seem to be making more cuts increasing salaries in places where we shouldn't be and taking away more services than other districts that are facing huge problems thank you so that you what you're saying is

064uh we are at a certain at the bottom of the districts in terms of the magnitude of cuts. Is that what you're sharing? Sure. Yeah. Thank you. Um the second question I have is um as you saw there in the presentation of alignments between community values and uh the schoolboard goals and appropriation, there were some examples of alignments and you mentioned uh your request to scrutinize the budget uh in order to avoid the cuts. Is there certain investments that you believe uh needs to be cut in order to compensate for existing cuts? Sammy, quite frankly, you know, every year we talk about this community alignment that happens, but it's clear that the community is upset. I simply ask you to spend more time looking deeper and deeper into what we can do to protect our

065kids. First, try everything possible, please. We are begging you. We have been begging you. This is what our community wants and this is what we want you to represent. Thank you, Mr. Javali. No, no further questions. Anyone else? Sure. Uh I know that you know this from um being participating with the board when it gets to the time in June if we're not to an agreement on the budget. Like if we don't pass it, what do you think we should do? like if that makes sense cuz you're asking us to scrutinize it. But how long would how long should we do that if we that that is a benefit and a cost that you have to weigh yourself. Do our kids matter enough to you to take that time? That's a question. Yeah. The reason

066I'm asking is because when they were presenting earlier if we we won't have funding next year if we don't present it. And so that's that was why I was asking it wasn't people people are getting harmed right now. And I'm just asking you to to look at what our community is asking. We've been asking. Thank you. I can't we can't debate, but I just want to say thank you. Thank you. All right. Thank you so much. Thank you. Okay. And that is all we had for people uh signing up for uh comment. Uh so at this point the public hearing is now closed and we will open it back up for committee discussion, questions and requests of staff for more information. So who would like to go first? Really? Nobody has any questions. I was

067say that would be a first. Go ahead, Sammy. I I I will ask some questions in a random order of priority. However, uh Lauren, I would like to ask you in terms of cuts. I heard from Portland there, uh approximately 300 uh layoffs planned, uh 200 teachers. Um do you have a gauge on the proportionality of course uh uh between Corvalis and its comparators or Corvalis across the state if we would normalize on ADMW or anywhere are we cutting more than other school districts or are we consistent in what we're projecting and I know everybody's presenting their budget right now. Um no I don't I have not looked at the comparator districts and how much they're cutting um and compared that. I not sure how relevant that is. Um what I do know is that

068we um districts across the state are in a similar situation. I met with um ESD finance directors, everybody in within our um Lynn Benton and Lincoln County today and everyone's in um the same boat. Um we also know that there are districts that still have not announced their layoffs. Um timing is different by contracts. So I right now to be honest I'm focusing on what's happening in our district and how we move forward. Um and so no I don't have a prepared list of comparators but I do know this is not specific to us. Thank you Lauren Shell. The budget committee uh discuss appropriation of funds to avoid cuts using the reserves. policy DA mandates that a plan to replenish the reserves should be in place when the reserves are tapped into and also uh

069it does require it does prevent us from doing uh an investment in ongoing in uh expenditures of course for that purpose u so I'm wondering if you have comments around could the budget committee have any discretion on tapping into the reserves and is there any guidelines for us as we engage in a discussion that could discuss the reserves. We can engage in the discussion about it. The budget committee doesn't have authority to tap into the reserves. They can provide that recommendation to the board who then could authorize that um if we if the district uh leadership came and asked for that. Um I will say the same thing as I said last year is that tapping into the reserves um creates a compounded issue further down the road. What I would also say is our

070reserves don't cover one month of our expenditures and I don't I understand that that number looks large because it would be large if it was in our own personal bank account. um it does not cover one month of our expenditures. And when we are talking about uncertainty at the federal government, which then flows through to our state, um I'm really concerned about our cash flow and when we may be able um to bring in funds. And so that that makes me feel really concerned if we were to do that. That's not my decision. Um, and I will implement what needs to be implemented, but I would, um, approach that subject with an abundance of caution. Thank you. Um, my next question, I believe it's education. Can I can I make one more comment about that?

071Um, two districts in our state ran into cash flow issues within the last couple of years. Um, Silverton and Newberg. And in both cases, they had to make substantial mid-year corrections um which um impacted the overall structure of that of those districts um for a long period of time. One of the things that we are coaching new superintendents on alongside business managers is the importance of making sure that you have the cash flow to make the payments um towards your employees. Um, and so that is a a a caution that I would provide is that we have seen that play out in multiple districts in Oregon over the last couple of years when cash flow becomes an issue. Thank you. Which then requires further borrowing which I don't know any instances where you can borrow

072money without having to pay interest back. Um, so again compounding issue. Yeah. Thank you. Um, next question. I believe I want to acknowledge first of all the district's decision and commitment not to do any uh boundary or redistricting or closure next year and emphasize that. So it is not an appropriation or decision probably the budget committee uh or the board is considering. However, as an educational um understanding for us as we embark for following years, shall the longrange facility planning uh committee provides any decisions? Could you provide us with insights? Does school closures that is associated with declining enrollment save any costs? It does eventually. Um, interestingly enough, we've actually talked with Bethl several times and had lunch with them um to talk about their plans um and how they've gone about the system and

073learned from their experience as well as learning from other districts. Um and it really does take um about three years to see much of an impact on the cost savings. Um in the first year it actually for most has cost um more money to do the redistricting um and consolidation and closure on the front end. Um, so knowing that it's still it's still something that needs to be on the table for sure. Um, because we know that we need about that three-year runway um, and able to and to really recognize the savings that would happen from that. Um that being said, I think we we there are things that we can do in order to um start consolidating which we have done but not necessarily at the schools. You'll see that happening more at the

074district right now where we're collapsing departments into um each other in order to consolidate at this level as well. Um, so I'm not sure if I answered your question, but it's it's not um super cut and dry for a year one savings and is not the answer um for a short in the short term. Thank you. Yes. Um so when we did meet with Craig and his team um there were some things that he shared with us that I think are important um contextually like one example is um the board making a decision about um a the closure at CL Lake and then not making sure that there's like a care room staff at the school the next day because of the impact that has on staff um as they're making those kinds of decisions.

075So we've um so we've been um really thoughtful in all those aspects that we that he's been learning through his process. Um the the length of time between the um decision being made and the changes happening. Um that timeline is an important factor as well. So there are a lot of things that um we've learned um from him. And then also there are other districts that are in similar situations right now across the state. this isn't this isn't uniquely Corvalis. Um so we've also talked about um bringing together a group of superintendents who are going through this and figuring out um sort of learning from one another as we go through it. Um and that's also just not an Oregon thing. Um there are um other states where districts are in similar situations and learning

076from them as they go through the process as well. So um we are um as I've said um a couple of times we have looked at demographics um we have looked at um capacity and we've looked at the um the the um overall quality of our buildings and that will be again on Wednesday not what next Wednesday the following Wednesday at Linus Pauling will give people a chance to look at that data and then when you return in August as board members for your retreat we will then come forward I'll come forward to you based on that work of the committee to talk about next steps. So thank you. That's the 28th at 6:30 at Lionus Pauling in the cafeteria. Uh just I think Lou you had question. Oh okay. So followup question about your

077your discussions with Bethl one. I'm just not that smart. If if you close a school down, there's no savings for that first year. But then also the connection to the testimony we did get from from Mr. Blacker about that was turned into a a a community hub and generated some some revenue. So So can you get kind of clear that up for me how how that could not happen in our situation? Yeah. So ultimately um depending I mean there's many different scenarios that you could go when you close a school um it's not just as simple as closing one school and then they just go somewhere else. Um we still would apply the formulas for um enrollment in order for class sizes. So ultimately most of those teachers are probably going to go um and

078follow the kids. There will there would potentially be some savings um for certain positions like um school building administrators, health room, front office staff, things of that nature. Um but we also do staff those based on a per student um formula and need. So there's that. Closing a building isn't as simple as just locking the doors. Um there's a lot of things that would need to take place and those things um generally cost money. um in order to do something with all of the different systems in the building. Um there is some legal aspects of it um that we would have to take care of there. Um there's just a lot. And so until we actually redistribute those students, redistribute the staff and then start adjusting back down um based on the new configurations based

079on the numbers for that I've seen um the savings in a year is pretty minimal and it's offset by just the increase in cost in that next year anyways. Um because we know that the data shows that costs do not stay the same year-over-year. Um and so it's not it's not like this bucket of money that then becomes freed up um that we're able to to do a significant um program of change with. But over time um that does make sense um and you ultimately end up ducing a savings because what happens is if you stay with these really underenrolled um buildings, you're just sort of furthering the problem. Um, and so you have to consolidate at a certain point and but it's not in one year that that just gets solved. Do you have

080any else? I think you've you've covered it. At least until we get new questions. Okay. Thanks, Vice Chair. So, thank you. So, so so but but the followup uh were you able to discuss with them how the school that they did target to close down became a community hub? Sorry, we didn't um I I got that one. Yeah, you. So, um I've actually just in the last couple of weeks, um I was I was talking to him again about it and he they are some partner um organizations that we're looking for space there. That building, Clear Lake, is placed um in a in a um kind of in the middle of an area of town that um that is easy easily accessible for folks. So, they have some partnerships with um Lane County. they have

081some connections with NAACP. They have a couple of other groups that are also using the space. One of the challenges that he's finding is that um that takes a coordinated position to oversee those organizations using this space. And so he's at least when I spoke to him last, he wasn't sure how to pull that off um long term. So he's still because he's still working through the details of that. Um, and so, um, while there are some people who are, um, utilizing space, um, I don't think he sees it as a gain financially as much as he sees it as a community asset being used by community. And I think there's a distinction between those two things. Yes. And I did have a I'll just I'll Sure. Otherwise, I'll get lost. Um, I don't know

082if any of you were here back in the day when we closed Harding School, but we did. And um I would like to see if there's any way we can look at the history of that of how many families we lost um that went to either private school or whatever because they lost their home school um because that was really upsetting to a lot of families and it was I was at the school where the kids came to and um it just it took a lot of work and a lot of energy and there was a lot of loss. So, I would like to see if there's any way we can look at history about what we what families we lost during that time and what um some of the numbers were around that and

083around the financial piece of that. Um we'll do our best to find the numbers, but I do know a few historians um in our community who were involved in that in one way or another. Um so, um there are folks I can I can get some additional information from. Okay, I have a couple questions. So, I don't know if um I should choose one and are we doing that or how are we doing that? Just go and we'll see. Okay. Um I did have a questiony comment about the consolidation. I know we're going to talk about that next year. So, I kind of it's kind of awkward even talking about that, but um what I'm hearing is we would still lose staff. It just may not be like staff that people may see as much

084because it would be in the classrooms mostly or maybe health rooms, but um I have a lot of I put a lot of value on staff that do what's considered an invisible labor like janitors and food service workers and stuff like that. So, I just wanted to say that like I care about those staff too. And what I heard you all say is that even if they we redistributed staff, we would still lose some. Correct. Okay. And um the a lot of conversations about the community center aspect. We have like more than one in Corvalis already and I'm wondering how that would add if they're overt taxed. So that's just things to think about as we're having those conversations. I didn't want that to get lost around like um would that fill a need and

085stuff like that. So it's not anything to answer right now. Just a note thing. Um the two questions I did have, one is about salaries and one's about um about disabilities. Um so I don't know which one I should start with. Salaries. Salaries. Okay. Either one. Either one. Okay. And I turned off my thing. Oops. Okay. So it's on page 65. There we go. I can start with that. Or page on 62. I noticed that um the number the FTE for licensed and classified did go down, but the um the salaries went up. So then does that mean that it's they're getting paid more, right? Is that what is that what that's translating to? Yeah, the cost uh the cost of the contracts is going up. So that equates to an increase. um as well

086as um that's that's generally what that is and we see that almost every year. Okay. Even when we're reducing. Okay. I was it was just noticeable that the amount that it went up by was a lot and which is good I think and the number of the other question that we've been asked a lot about is about admin and that cost um didn't go down dramatically and there was a small decrease but there's a bigger decrease in the license and classified but the cost went way higher so I was just noticing that trend um and so I just kind of had a question about that which um is also on [Music] um the same. Can I can I say something related to that? Um so regarding the those salaries um the reason why we see

087such a a larger increase in licensed and classified is because their salary schedules include so many steps. So, their salary schedules, I want to say maybe 16, 18ish. I know the experts in the back, but um they're around that level. And so, every on for those employees, they get a step, which is anywhere, I think on the classified it's 2.5% and for certified it's 3.8. Um, and so they're getting a step plus the cola. Um and so that is what equates for that um bigger difference in the growth there. And so for the non-rep salary which is uh applicable to both the manager and administrators there's only seven steps and most of the time by the time you are in an administrative or um managerial role you probably have close to seven years of experience.

088So most of the people on our salary schedule um for both of those two groups of employees are kept um at that step seven. So they're only getting the cola. So, for example, this year, um, the non-rep employees will be recognizing a 4% increase if they're on step seven and for the equivalent step seven. Um, for our certified um, so classified are getting an increase of 7.5% and certified employees will get an increase of uh, 7.8% overall. So, it's not just the cola, it's a cola plus step. That's why those have grown. Um, if you look at the percentage a bit more. Okay. Thanks. Um, I just wanted to make note that I appreciate that they're getting paid well. Yes. I'm not arguing otherwise. I'm just trying to give context for why that looks that

089way. I get that. I It just stood out to me. It's all It was more of a comment of like I think that I appreciate how that stands out. Um and um the question related to this too, it's um when it comes to decreased staffing levels, I know we don't get to decide where salaries go at all. Um and um there's been a lot of questions around in particular. Is it okay if I ask about your sitting in the room? I was like it's it's um awkward and fine. It's awkward and fine. Okay. Um, so like for example like increases to admin, increases in salary. Yeah. How many would that save any of those positions if that was what was done with the money? So are we talking about the $79,000 Ryan increase over X

090amount of No, for one year for next year like um Well, because I didn't see a big increase in the admin at all. So it's Yeah. No, it's less. the increase is less than one certified position. So that would not help at all. No. Okay. Thank you. And then the other question um for I wouldn't clarify that's for all of the employees under the contract not Ryan N. Okay. Yeah. That's a totality of everybody's increase would not be enough for one. Is that what you're saying? Correct. That's a very important point. Thank you. And then um the other one I had is on page um I have a lot of questions. Oh my gosh. Okay, I'm trying to do this fast. Um the on page 71 the I seen a lot of the um numbers

091for instruction for students with disabilities went down and um no I've been doing a lot of state advocacy for the bills around special education and it does not look good. Correct. based on the recent state budget and that's heartbreaking um because we all need those fundings across Oregon and um I'm kind of wondering why that number went down in particular knowing that the what's ahead with the bills and if there's anything we can do that would potentially change that decrease. Yeah, because that stands out to me too. I just realized I forgot my ruler which I usually bring to this meeting. Yeah, because those are double lines. It took me a while too. Um yeah, so for that um that is generally related to the decrease in funding for IDA, which is our um federal

092special education grant. So we're recognizing a decrease in funding there of the 25% um which is what is impacting that number. Was there anywhere else that could have prevented that decrease since it's already a one that like it's a necessary service and we're already not getting reimburseed like we should be from the state. Is there anywhere else that you look to help fill that gap a little bit? Are you talking about in the budget like to fill the staffing gap the the in general the gap around the services for special education? Yes. Yeah. Um well based on the assumption of the budget those um and the current costs that we're expecting this year right so the this budgeted number um for 2425 was the plan a year ago right now um which doesn't mean that

093that is what I'm actually projecting that we will spend on at this point as we are you know most of the way through the year. So the the numbers are based on that. Um, so that doesn't necessarily mean that we're having maybe a decrease in spend from the current year. It's just looking at what we're actually doing, what our needs are for next year. Um, we have rearranged some staffing and are looking at doing things a little bit differently, but we do not have any reductions um in the FTE currently um that I'm aware of in special education. It's just um a sort of adjustment between of actuals. Okay. I think the other the the amount that we're spending is is obviously reflected here, but FTE is not going down. We're holding steady with FTE,

094both certified and classified when it comes to special ed. We've done that two years in a row, including last year's huge cut that we had to take. So, we're holding steady and that's including like services with ESD, too. That would Yeah, that's separate. That's separate, right? That's um that's separate. It's in their the tier one and tier two two budget with the SD, but that's status quo, right? Yeah. So, it's not in this budget, right? No. Exactly. Okay. That's I was just like, yeah, it gets confusing sometimes. One one area of savings that we're anticipating is that we've been able to um bring on more SLPs um in person rather than using a service. Um, so there is some savings that's going to happen there and that's just because we've been fortunate in being able

095to recruit um, SLPs from other districts and we let people know SLP speech and language pathologists. Sorry. And ESD is the education service district. Just so people I just I'm trying to remind myself in Lincoln counties. Yes. I was trying to remind myself and all of us that Yeah, we use our acronyms. Thank you so much and I appreciate that. I'll say my other questions for if there's another round of questions. I would say just as a a note, there's a list of acronyms in the back of the budget document that may be helpful um for further when you're looking at it on your own. Theres, thanks. So, just kind of tagging on to the special education conversation on if you wouldn't mind because hopefully some people out there are watching and listening. um could

096you explain um what you mean by the tier one tier 2 ESD services and what do we not house in inhouse that we contract with them? So I think that it's not always clear to people that we have some services that we are paying for directly and then some that we are getting elsewhere and then and then along those lines too I know we're capped at 11% not sure if everybody understands what that means. So, if you could explain what the 11% cap is and then also could you do you know a number if we weren't capped if we got actually what we really spend how much more would we be have would we have available to us? Um lots of questions. I'm sorry. Let me take the SD1 while you calc that. I can't

097not doing mental math here. You go ahead and All right. Do that. So the way that those um the services work with our education service district is that money comes through the from the state to our ESD and the um ESD serves our ESD serves Lynn, Benton and Lincoln counties and the purpose of an ESD is really to provide services to um districts that can't necessarily hire a position on their own. So, a good example I give is an OGCOM specialist, augmentative communication specialist helping students who are non-verbal um access oftentimes tools around language. And so, a small district like SCIO or LC um doesn't need a full-time position, nor could they recruit and retrain an OGCOM specialist to come work in their district. So the ESD consolidates those resources and provides helps to provide

098that service across the three counties. Um as superintendent we meet um to a vote on a local service plan and the things we all agree on together are put in tier one which means that all districts access those resources. Some examples of those are um our student information system synergy. It's a tier one service that everybody um contributes to. Um after those services are determined by the vote of the superintendent, then there's tier 2 dollars that are sometimes um come to districts in more of a um a choice that districts get to make individually. Um so in some cases, the ESD provides that service. And so we're using our tier 2 uh as creales because we want this service but not everybody else does. So sometimes the ESD provides that off option for us. Um

099like a school psychologist we use some of our tier 2 funds because we need more school psychologist time to do testing for students with disabilities. So that's um an example. Beyond that in tier 2 services if the ESD doesn't have that service then the district can go out and do what is called flow through and utilize those funds to provide that additional service. An example of that is our health navigators. We have three health navigators, one at Garfield, one at Lincoln and one at Linus Pauling. They are bilingual um individuals who are serving the community and connecting them to resources. We have an agreement with the county where the county is paying for half of those positions and we are paying for the other half of those positions. And the reason I can use tier$2

100dollars to pay for that is because a we had money left over out of tier one and b the ESD doesn't provide that service. So I can go look for that service elsewhere and use those flow through dollars. So that is the way that the ESD funds. Um we have other ESDs across our state who have other formulas. The formula that we use at RS ESD has been in place um for eight years because I was um because I was I voted on it um at at that time. Um and there have been some small changes over time around things like occupational therapists and physical therapists. But as a whole, that's how that service works. Yeah. Okay. I might not capture all the questions, but I think I remember some. Um, so our sped cap,

101we're currently the sped cap is 11% based on in the state school fund that's in statute. Um, so there was a lot of active conversations during open session about either removing the cap or increasing the cap. Um, session is not over, but I feel like that's highly unlikely to happen. um based on the forecast that we received yesterday. Um what that means is that we have a percentage of students in our district on IEP and we get paid um the additional weight that you will hear me talk about when we talk about um ADM average daily membership and with the little W that's weighted um and so we receive extra funds for those students. We are capped at 11%. So if you have more than 11% of your students on IP, you're not receiving the

102additional weight for those students um at the same level as you are for the first 11%. Some districts 11% is sufficient. I have not looked at um all district data in in the state um recently, but I would guess that there's very few that that 11% is actually sufficient for at this time. Um I'm sure that data is in within the bill information. The 11% was established um around the same time as measure five. So in the mid90s the 11% was the state average for districts across the state in terms of serving students with disabilities. Those numbers are higher now. Um and those that cap has never changed since the mid9s. And we were hopeful that that would change in this session. and it had a lot of um support from organizations that don't always

103um sign up um on the same side of decisions. However, based on what we learned um on Tuesday related to the state revenue forecast, which is we were hoping it would be flat and it's down um both this revenue forecast and the um additional money we received from the CAT tax and so I I don't anticipate at this point in time that that cap is going to change. Right now, we are advocating for the governor's number that we received back in December because we're concerned about what's happening nationally and how that's impacting the state's um revenues based on taxes. Um as we move into tighter and tighter times um looking more and more like a recession and our actual sped cap or our actual sped percentage right now is around 13%. 16.2 16.2 And so

104can you u ballpark I know you're not going to do mental math but if can anybody um give us a sense with that additional 5% represented to our real cost. What what could we be talking about? What was we were talking about this number months ago and it is not one that has stayed in my head. Do you have that? It's a number we I want to be um clear about so I want to get it to you. Yeah. Okay. I appreciate that and I think largely I don't need it to um decide whether I'm okay with how you've proposed things. I think it's more to make the point that um what we receive to provide services for the students is not commensurate with our expense and that the state has a responsibility. They're not

105meeting on this issue and as a district we have to continue to decide if we're going to meet their needs when the state's not. And I appreciate that this district has continued to meet the needs of those students. um and to prioritize that even though the state is only willing to recognize 11% because the need is higher. So, thank you. I just wanted to add that some districts in our area up to like 21% and so that not getting that extra support doesn't mean that the students don't get served. It means that we have less funding in other areas because we're not getting reimbursed like we should be like the from the state and it's really puts us in a tough situation because students need additional support and that means staff increases that we would

106like to have and programmatic increases. And I'm just taking a little bit of time because this is an area I think that is often overlooked and it's really important for people to understand how these state unfunded state um pieces are affecting our local budget and um it's really frustrating to say it nicely but yeah I may add on to the same conversation uh Lauren could you explain uh some community members may have heard of a waiver or the cap app and the impression is uh there a waiver that we can submit and if we submit it wave that cap on we receive extra funds is that accurate there's any such a thing I don't know anything about a waiver that they just give you extra money because you filled out a form unfamiliar thank you

107clarify So, I've got a couple questions. I am going to take Mr. Arnold's advice and I'm going to ask the question of how much would it take to maintain services uh at their current levels in this next uh bianium? How much more would the Corvalis school district need to receive? That is in the budget message um that Ryan presented. And we would need um about $800 million more in the state school fund to maintain current service levels. I asked how much do we need? How do we Yeah. Not how much does the state need to provide? How much the 2.98? 2.98. Okay. And then my next question is I'm looking on page 65 in section 300 purchased services. In property services there is a huge Yep. dip um from 2324 down to 2425 and then

108back up to 2526 which comes out to on my back of the napkin math just under $2.2 million. And then also travel again went from 838 down to 437 and back up to 8.93 which is more than doubling. What's happening there? Yeah. So um on the property services it's our utilities mainly for that number uh 320 um that was just I made a mistake uh in in the um last we budgeted for that and so if you look at the actual data um for spend on electricity, gas, water, sewer, all of that this year um that number is really in alignment there. So, I did um what I did was take the um estimated spend for all of those line items um this year. Looked at our average monthly expenditure there over the course of

109the year. Um at that point, I think it was through March data um which is a pretty good chunk of the year. Um and then I applied that to get a projection and then I applied a 2.6% increase on those. So, that was just an error on my end last year um of that number. This is much more in alignment um with what we're seeing the So what what would have last numbers what would what should have last last year's number been? I don't have that off the top of my head. It's in my spreadsheet but yeah we're I can tell you what our projection will be for that for property services. Um and then on the travel um that was an interpretation. So we did reduce this year pretty much to eliminate all travel

110um based on the so we have what's called the PBAM which is where all these codes come from which is the program budget manual something or another it's our um accounting manual that we are required to use from the state of Oregon. um we had a disagreement in the interpretation of the code um internally of what where we were billing things and so we had um like for example anything that's related to a PD so that's like the registration and things of that nature all um are supposed to go under that function versus um they were prior under 0640 sort of inconsistently. So, some of the bigger changes and some of these um objects is because I have an amazing accounting manager who's been with us for um just over a year and she like

111totally nerds out on this stuff which is great um because this is not my jam. I don't really love the whole um account code piece of the job. Um and so she's just worked to create some alignment so that our data moving forward is more consistent um with how we're coding things. So, she's been helping to communicate that um with other people in our district that are doing that work so that we do have a bit more consistent data, but it's really just about realigning of where we believe things fit within the short blurb that they give us um within the the manual. Okay. Thank you. Yep. Shauna. So, I have two big sets or types of questions and I'd love to lean into one of those because they build on exactly where you were,

112Andrew, on page 65 and then also page 71 that I know Lou had called up. Um, just in looking at really looking at wanting to understand myself and as well as for the community some of these different changes we're seeing, both decreases and increases. um would love to just go through a couple to understand what we're seeing how that plays out in the schools. Um so on this on 65 first there are two areas where I noticed noted a big decrease. One in additional salary and then one also in contractual employee benefits. I assume that those may be linked. Um could you tell us a little bit about what's going on in that additional salary decrease? What positions are in there since that's outside of licensed, classified, non-represented? Are those temporary positions? What are the

113positions represented there that we're seeing? For that category, it's really for um additional salary on top of um their regular duties. So, for example, like we will have stipens for people who I mentioned some of the different things like safe advisors, equity coaches, um things like that. So, these are supplemental positions on top of their regular position. Um, and so I looked at sort of the full picture of what that looked like as well as we do have language in both of our contracts for um some leave payouts. So, personal leave, for example, um or vacation leave payout, depending on the contract, there's language that if it's unused at the end of the year, that would be um a payout that they can employees can take. And so again, I looked at that data from

114what was actually happening and just sort of realigned our projections. Um, by doing that, I would say, so just a little bit of context, we used a software last year or we have used for several years. It was my first time using it and so I was just kind of getting into that software. I really really strongly disliked it um and decided I didn't want want to pay for it and use it. Um and so this year, um the salaries and benefits, we can do that all within the software system we already have. And a lot of the other things I did the old school way, um by just exporting and doing a bunch of data analysis um there. And so by doing that, it actually made me dig into our um you see a

115really rolled up version of the budget. We actually um have I think I don't I don't know we have tens of thousands of account codes and budget lines. Um and so these are rolled up by the fund function and object levels. Um and within those we actually have more detailed lines. So but by doing that I I dug into I'm not going to say every single line out of the tens of thousands but I dug in a lot further than I would have if I was using the software. So some of this is just realignment. um our assumptions since the COVID period have been really tricky um because things have been all over the place and so um yeah it's just it's just a realignment. I'm not taking the budget from last year and just

116making all of my assumptions based on budgeted numbers last year. I'm making applying my assumptions to the projections of what's actually happening in this current year. And I mean as as we stand now um this budget was printed what last Friday. Um and we had to finalize it about a week before that. Many things have changed um in planning since that point and will continue to change all throughout the year. Um and so same goes for last year. That was the plan at that point. Maybe things have changed. Um so you will see decreases and increases in certain areas due to that. And that was a really long-winded answer. I'm sorry. No, that's helpful. Thank you so much for explaining that. Um I have a couple of lines on page 71 if that's all right,

117too. Yep. There are a couple of areas here. Um Lou, I know you already called out the decrease in support for disability services. there are a couple of places where there are increases and I'm wondering if we could hear a little bit about what either if that's you know realignment or readjustment or if it's actually increased services on a couple of things um that might be helpful for a community to know about or for us to know about. Um one is in pre kindergarten programs. It looks like there's a jump of about $40,000 there from 24,000 to 64,000. And I saw you actually provided a very nice code on the next page for some of these that I had questions about. Um, but I was wondering if you could say a little bit about that.

118So, we have some specific funds that are um specifically can only be used on those prek programs. Um, and so it is a little dollar amount, but that's part of the IDA 619 funds where we just have carryover um on those federal funds that we are able to use um in the next year. So, generally for the prek, Melissa Harter would like to tell you what we might do with that dollar amount. We like to use that prek for our kinder academy that happens in the summertime in combination with um um our summer programs for uh elementary students. And there also I think is like some prek kinder home visits and different types of things that happen. Yeah. With kids too. So thank you. Getting them ready. All right. I have a couple more if

119that's okay while we're on this page. Is that all right? All right. Um one is an alternative education. It looked like there was about almost an $800,000 increase. Would love to hear about what's happening there too in terms of support. Yeah. Um so again, this is um in relation to Maria. Uh she was assessing some of the um account codes that we were using for alternative education. some of those were just represented within the 1111 elementary um middle school high school account codes. And so it was just some realignment of how things were coded, not necessarily um a true increase in programming just recognizing where those positions should be coded correctly. Okay. So that was more of a just an organizational shift of it used to appear somewhere else now it appears here. Correct. Mostly.

120Okay. And is that also true for psychological services or are we seeing something else there? It looks like there's an 8 from 835,000 to 1.3 million projected this year. That one is 2140. Yep. Um no, that is generally related um it's an increase of 537,000. So related to the staffing costs um and some of the um contracted services that we have that fit within that category. So and that's largely um the contract that we we have a contract for that and it doesn't um cover that full amount. So does that does that translate into increased services that we'd be seeing for students mental health services or is it maintain maintaining service level? Okay. Yeah, but it's not an increase in services at this time. Okay. No. And then I think I'm almost done with my

121questions. Thank you. Um improvement of instruction services. Looks like there was a jump there. And then also assessment and testing. Those were a couple that I'd circled. [Music] Um you are looking at 2210. Correct. Correct. See, I need my ruler. And it actually looks like there was a pretty big decrease last year from prior years. So I was just wondering if that was a kind of a correction. I know last year there were choices made around curricula and choosing not to make. Yeah, there is um money in there for the curriculum adoptions that we have um planned which you heard about at the last board meeting I think or two, I don't remember. Last one. Um but no, those are just all general cost increases. Okay. And then the assessment and testing. That was my

122last one on this page. It looks like the number doubled from last year to this year. And I'm curious if that 30. Maria tried to prep me on all the things she changed before tonight, but my brain doesn't work as well as hers. Um, so it is, and I'm reading just for the just general knowledge, page 73. We do call out all of the variances by function. So, anything that's above a million or plus or minus a million or uh plus or minus 10%. So, on the on that one, it's related to we're covering college board fees for students. So, um that's in that um category there. And then we also um corrected the coding for positions we had that are data support. So we do have assessment tech and then we do have um

123two district level data specialists that help do all of that work and that is largely um related to they support like our MTSS teams um they provide I mean they compile a ton of data do a ton of the state reporting that we're required to do all of those things it's just correction they're not new positions okay so that's not an actual increase we're just seeing a shift in where that was showing up in the budget. Correct. Okay. Am I And then the college board is um advanced placement tests. Yes, we pay for the the students to take the tests to get those credits. Thank you. And now really my last one and then I'll pass over to others to ask questions and I'll save my others for later. Um on the back page 4120,

124the site acquisition and development services. There's looks like 1.2 million there and I'm curious what that is. Yeah. So that's related to restricted revenue that we receive for construction excise tax. So construction excise tax um is something that we are there's a limit that we are allowed to assess for building permits um within our jurisdiction and so that number increases every year. Um construction excise tax can only be used on those improvements. We don't um I would be surprised if we spend it all. Um, but we do have the appropriation there. So, as a reminder, the budget gives us the authority to spend up to that amount. That doesn't mean that we're actually going to spend that amount. Um, and so those are restricted revenues. Those cannot be used for anything else other than facility

125services. So, um, it's there. I TBD if we spend it. Um, generally we like to keep that there for unexpected things that come up. um or big projects that we have um down the road. One of the most recent was a restroom redesign at um at Crescent Valley. Yeah. Thank you, Lauren. Yep. Bernie. Yeah. Uh just a quick question on object 530. Uh improvements other than buildings is it's a significant increase from previous years. Can you tell me why? Can you tell me what page you're on? I'm sorry. It's uh page 66. I had that same question just to tag on and I I was like, is that for Osborne? But the no that is also related to the construction excise tax as well. The improvements um is in that capital outlay section. So, it's

126just the the funds that we have available doesn't mean we're going to spend them, but they are restricted revenues that we cannot direct towards something like um instruction or support services or something like that. Yeah. But that's not Osborne, right? No, we still the only thing related to Osborne in this budget um is the $100,000 that we com um have committed to give to them to supplement the operations that's built into the budget and you know all of that um process is still ongoing since we were talking about that these the line items that we may not end up having expenditures for could not go towards use that though since it's a facility. I'm just curious, but I know we're trying to figure that because we don't even know how much it's going to cost,

127but we don't um it's not really I don't know why that's not something I haven't considered. I I think we probably could use those dollars um for Osborne because we own the facility, but I would have to check into the specific language um written in statute around construction excise tax. Okay, great. Thank you. Yeah. Okay. Before we continue, um heard a couple people ask if we could take maybe a short recess. Uh so let's take about 10 minutes. Uh I've got 8:25 right now. So come back at 8:35. All right, thank you everybody. Uh, we are back. Uh, but before we continue, Lauren said she wanted to add to a couple of her previous comments. So, not only is Maria um a master at account codes, she's also at home watching this. Um and she

128reminded me that we so the difference between um in the special education coding, some of those are um behavior support specialists which actually have moved to that new function that Shauna you had mentioned, a decrease in one function um and and then a increase in the other and that is related to the change of coding there. She also reminded me um of the number that capital uh improvement other than buildings the 530. I'm looking at page 66. Um we have a anticipated grant coming through the foundation um for Coralis fields for the future. Is that the correct language around that? Um so we have some donors that are um uh fundraising for that project. So that revenue would be restricted specifically to that um project and then and passed through to us from the foundation.

129So it's it's very earmarked for that. Yeah. Wait, Lauren, which one was that one? Um the 530 on page 66, the improvements other than buildings. Okay. So we could not use that for us. No, it's we actually don't have the funds. We're just anticipating the funds. So we have to build in the capacity to use said funds. Um and then I also want to say that when we're looking at objects, objects go underneath functions. So um looking at you may see it presented one way here um on the objects and then so typically objects with the 4,000 starting function also have a uh 500 level object. So those are not um duplicate expenditures. It's the same thing for the most part. So um that's there. And then you also see the the rest of it

130would be that construction excise tax which is also restricted for facilities improvements. Okay. Can and what you just shared about the special education funding. Is that in a general area though now? And it's or is it specifically for special education? uh it's still specifically for special education and it's included in our maintenance of effort um calculation. So we designate everything for special education with we 320 area areas are not represented in the budget document. We don't um show down to that level. Yeah, that makes sense. I just wanted to make sure that it was clear that they didn't get moved somewhere where they could get used some correction of the coding. Thank you. Um, and the term maintenance of effort is a requirement that we spend the same or more in general fund dollars year-over-year

131um, supporting students with disabilities. Okay, Sammy, I'd like to go for a second round, but unless there's another committee member who would like to go first. Anybody who has not yet asked the question who wants to. Thank you, chair. So with that, I would like to bring our attention to pages 170 and 175. And as we go there, uh 170 and 175. Lauren, could you uh correct me if I I heard that the decline in enrollment of students was about 10%. So that's the comments we heard. And what I'm seeing here at least from the ADM uh extended ADMWR, uh the decline is much less than that. So could you highlight what's the percentage of the decline either by student population or uh at EMW? So um we're expecting a decline of 237 students next

132year. Um and just to make sure that we understand um that ADMW is the higher of your current year or the last year. So we are always at this point in a declining enrollment situation being paid off of the last year. And the reason that the state does that is to try to smooth out um any trends plus or minus. What happens generally the biggest impact to that across the state is when a uh school district um adopts I don't know what the right word is but a charter school and sometimes charter schools go back and forth between districts. So maybe in one year this happened between Sanm Canyon and Scio I don't know a handful of years ago um where one year and those are both small districts right and so one year they

133gained like 2,000 students and then three years later they lose 2,000 students and so um that methodology is just used to smooth trends. Okay. Um 237 students next year we are expecting that as a decrease which is the worst case scenario in terms of appropriation. the appropriation will be less of impact than that. It will not change the appropriation because we're going to get paid on this current year. The only way it would change the appropriation through the state school fund is if we receive more kids next year than we currently have in this year. Okay. Thank you. So now with page 170, I'm just going to share rough calculations uh on objects 111 which is uh uh FTEES for or after FTA accounts for licensed staff. Yep. And it looks like the decline from

134this year to next year is about 6.19% classified staff 112 decline is about 4.3 or 4.4%. 4% and administrators they make about 4% of the FTE and the decline is about 3.73% and also we have other non-represented staff. So just want to put that decline in perspective as I go to page 170 and I believe we dis did discuss in page one oh sorry 175 and page 175 we did discuss earlier in another question from a colleague that the salary costs by objects are increasing because of the contractual uh obligations that we have. Yeah. So I'm going just to comment here on my notes for licensed staff is about an increase about 2.6% for classified staff the appropriation and million dollar and millions of dollars is slightly increasing from 16 million to 16.5 million which

135is 3.4% and for administrators it's declining the appropriation is declining slightly about 0.01%. Does that make sense? Yes. So the question is Do does any well as a budget committee we don't make staffing levels decisions. Yeah. But also I'm hearing from the community uh linking to decisions of a board or administration to the budget appropriation. And I wanted to make sure it's clear in this year did we enter any any uh collective bargaining or any renewal of contracts? Because my understanding collective bargaining and renewal of contracts were were already settled for next year even before the beginning of this year. Correct. For uh certified and classified, but the the non-rep agreement um it's not under a union bargaining uh unit. And so that one generally gets renewed every year, but it follows what we do

136with the other contracts. And we do it every year in June, in coming June. correct or before the end of the fiscal year in our last meeting. Yeah, it has to be approved by the end of the fiscal year because a lot of the people actually on that contract work in July. So we in order to be able to pay them. Um I don't know of a scenario where we haven't had a non-rep contract in place because in lie of bargaining it I guess like the process is a little bit quicker. Um but if we didn't have one in place then we would continue uh pay status quo. Thank you. So to highlight and again I really want to uplift community conversations I'm hearing from the community to uplift those questions or wonderings. We're discussing

137potential cuts overall in the budget. However, um our contractual obligations with our uh uh represented groups have been settled before even the beginning of this year. We will in June uh consider renewal of non-rep staff and administration. And to my understanding, most if not all of our administration, our cons contract duration is consistent with our representative group. They're multi-year contracts. So whatever we will do in June is not going to impact next year's because we're extending the last year of the contract with a different appropriation. Is that correct? Yeah, I would say um just a couple things. We So I want to be clear that while we are um this budget represents a decline in FTE, it actually represents an increase in dollar. So in order to have less less FTE actually costs more dollars.

138So I just want to be clear about that. Um, and as far you said a few things. I just want to um I'm not sure if I understood correctly, but so our staff, several of our nonrepresented staff, if not all, Jennifer Duval, that rhymed have already been um they their their contracts have been red renewed for next year. I think that's already come to the board. um but is like the staffing position contracts, employment contracts between the school and the individual. The actual agreement that um governs how those employees are paid is what will come to the board for approval. Thank you. So when we consider those discussions just for educational purposes for the community since we don't know how much were appropriated from the state until like even yesterday's revenue forecast is the most

139certain we ever gotten and we still have uncertainty we're dealing with. What does inform the administration school board uh in terms of um having a contract that's a certain amount of dollar for a certain employee? Uh is the market rate for comparative districts? Uh how do we look forward for a year or two from here if we don't know how much money we're getting from the state when we pass the budget months or even a year after settling a contract? It's a good question, Sammy. Um, I mean, that's that is sort of the predicament that every I think every entity that agrees to multi-year contracts is in. Um, at the end of the day, I think that we uh are prioritizing um paying our staff um fair wages and we are going to continue with

140that. I don't anticipate that we would come back um to our bargaining groups and ask them for a freeze or um anything of that nature. Um that's not in I don't think that's the situation that we are in. But when I start budgeting because we have those multi-year contracts, that's the very first thing I have to do, right? like I have to apply whatever that looks like um against our revenue projections. And and because as you saw our staffing and associated payroll costs make up more than half of our um overall expenditures, we that is the biggest um sort of leverage that we have as far as making budget reductions when they're quite large. Um and so it's just It's just how the puzzle pieces fit back together. Um, and it's something that we deal

141with um on a regular basis. So, I I don't know that really answers your question, but it's not something that's super black and white. It's just a part of how school district budgets work. Um, and we work through that on an annual basis. Yeah. Thank you, Lauren. And I'm going to editorialize. really appreciate you answering this in this way because it's really highlights and uplifts the conversations we're having with community members when we see some really serious cuts and uh they're they're really touching important programs. Uh the elements that we're not compromising on is as a district as a whole, we're honoring a multi-year commitment with our staff uh from classified, certified, admin, and everybody in between and making sure that long-term commitments provide stability for the organization and uh frankly competitiveness with other districts

142because almost every district I know of have multi-year contract obligation. However, maybe in the uh general perception of the public, how do you have a commitment like that's multi-year uh and and you don't know how much money you're going to get? Uh so there's a difference between a school district and a small business for example and how we need to plan for it. So really appreciate you highlighting that. I would say that it's not always a negative. I mean, sometimes our um inflation rate like the the general cost of living for the public is a lot higher than what our um what we've agreed to with um in contract. So there are times where it goes both ways. Um and so it also creates stability for our employees so they know what to expect. Um

143and I I think I don't I don't know how we would operate any differently because that that is what um you know OEA and OCA come to expect through these um negotiations. Agreed. Thank you so much. Lou, um, I wanted to just point out on page 59, I am concerned with the negative 37% decline in the federal funds. Um, so it may not be a large amount of money, but I think like this has been something I've commented on like the disinvestment in public education and I think that that graph really shows that as well as a very tiny 5% increase from state. um and with the biggest one coming at 9% increase from local service sources. So I just wanted to just really point that out to anybody watching that that's an important um

144data set I feel like to look at um because it's a trend that has been happening over the years that I've been watching about the investment in public education going down by public funds and I find that disturbing. So, um, my questions is a clarification. Um, one more question about special education, then I swear I have other questions, too. But, um, that is not just for students with IEPs, correct? The special education funding. It's like for, um, special education in general, right? So, there's students that don't have IEPs that fall under special education funding. No, it's all it's all for students with IEPs. Okay. I just wanted to make sure. Yeah, it's for students with IEPs. Okay. Yeah. And there are students who have um qualify under section 504 of the ADA and for those

145students those accommodations are um provided by the general ed teacher in a plan that's developed with the family. Um so that is a diff that would be out of general funds rather than out of special ed funds. Okay, that was just a question just to clarify for folks. Um, and then the one that I had a question on was on um page 65, the food lines. It's on I think 65 and 66. Um, the food budgeted funding went down on the 400-450 and the 3000-3100 and um I was curious why the budgeted funds went down for those services. Can you say the second number that you were looking at? 300-3100. Oh, on the the revenues, they both went down, right? Yeah. So, um part of our food service program is funded by federal funds. So,

146there's that impact there. Um and then the food cost. Um we are just currently working on um better efficiencies within our kitchens and looking at our program as a whole to figure out how we can improve it and also um make it more efficient. So the budget is representative of that. Okay. I was just curious because I know that's a big part of the district commitments is to make sure that um students have food. not changing that we are um feeding not feeding kids. It's just um and we're also looking at some things from the sustainability standpoint of food waste and things like that. So, and it doesn't mean we're feeding lower quality food, right? Okay. I just want to make sure that's super clear because um with our commitments and everything and again the

147the budget numbers are different than what's actually currently happening in the year. um we assumed a I don't remember it off the top of my head but at the time we did the budget um the CPI specifically related to food was super high if you remember you know the whole egg debacle was not that long ago and before that produce and and all the things um and so there was a pretty high CPI applied to food um at that time I don't remember the number off the top of my head and we have been able to come in lower than that okay and Um, eggs are super still expensive, but the I have a friend with chicken, so Okay. I'm unsure. Um, on page 48, too. Sorry to go back and forth on these. And

148that was in your presentation to the budget at a glance. Yeah. The um the amended 2024 and 25 and 25 26 like those there's I know the number went down a little bit. It's not huge, but um I'm just curious about how this is keeping up with it's not keeping up with inflation basically, right? No. And the reason why the um the if you're are you talking about specifically the general fund? I'm just talking Oh, no. The whole graph went up. Sorry. The general fund did go down, but the whole graph piece barely went up. Correct. That's the problem. That's like That's not helpful. No. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. I had a clarifying question around the food service. Does this include are we expecting to continue to qualify for the community eligibility which allows

149for the free and universal free lunch and meals for students? And um so is that accounted for here? Are we concerned about losing that with the changes at the federal level? Yes, we're concerned about losing that with changes at the federal level and no, it's not represented in this budget. Um because that um the president's budget was released after the assumptions were set for this. Um regardless of that, it won't change that we feed kids. We'll figure it out. Do we have any idea on where tradeoffs might come from to make sure that that happens? Um it depends on the impacts of the changes. We always um our general assumption when we put together a budget is a a 2% savings on a budget. Um and largely that comes from the fact that we don't

150have a 100% of the allocated FTE filled for 100% of the contract days. Um and so there's always some savings represented there. Um some things that I didn't point out and I'm sort of surprised that um people have not asked yet um is that we did assume for one thing is we assumed federal funding a decrease of 25%. We're hearing that we may get flat funding so that's kind of TBD but that should represent some um additional funds uh freed up there because we put those positions in the general fund and the general fund is generally unrestricted and so we could use that money um to support the food service. Um, in addition, there was Senate Bill 849, I think it was, related to PERS. Um, and that change I it was I don't know

151exactly where the bill is. I know that it was signed. So, it's happening. Um what I know is that there was um some additional like this side account related to PERS um that had earned better than what they had um calculated into their assumptions. And so there's sort of this one-time pot of money sitting on the side. Um and then a lot of people came to legislature with different ideas of what should we do with that pot of money. Um the idea that one was to apply it to um the uh extreme rate hikes that we were seeing in this next bianium. And so that should they're saying buy down our PERS rates um by 1.68%. Um we do not have recalculated PERS rates yet and it has not been I believe it'll be passed

152through the PERS board at some point in the next two weeks. they have a meeting um which then they will publish new rates. The budget assumes the rates that were released to us um prior because I in my career have not uh received corrected PERS rates. Um that's not a thing that we're used to seeing. Um and so there there should be a slight savings there as well. And so that money um can be shifted to some of those federal priorities that we may lose funding on. on on the subject of PERS. Um I uh was looking at I think it's on page 62 here. Um looking at the PERS um we've got um tier one and tier 2 members and then the OPER members. And so I I know that the some time ago

153we were fortunate to kind of really buy down some of our PERS um expenses and and I was wondering one if you could talk about when that benefit of that is going to y leave us. Um and then what is the um what what is will be the impact as we see tier one and tier two uh employees moving out of the system and opsurp members becoming a larger percentage of the system. Do we expect that that will impact us um favorably or flatly or um who knows? I'm just curious your thoughts. Yeah. Um that's a complicated question. Um, but if you turn to page 166, you will see [Music] um this number. I found another typo. I need my sticky note. Um, this number on October um 2nd of not 2022, it was 2002.

154Um, we issued bonds in order to buy down the rates and we will be done paying those off in 2028. We have three fiscal years to pay those off. We pay those by um taking a portion of the payroll and redirecting it to a reserve fund that then pays that debt service. For this year, it'll be about 5.45%. Um and I anticipate that we may um that that should be the the rate that I am redirecting will decrease over the next um until 20 or 2728 because you can see that the debt service payment is about half in that final year. Um so there's a few things we have a potential recognized savings of 5.45% four or five% of payroll into all the other funds that we um pay employees from which is all from

155100 and 200 funds. So there is anticipated savings there by not having to make a debt service payment. Um but if you track the PERS rates bianium over bianium, what you see is that the cost of OPSERP employees is now starting to um become higher because those employees are now um get either at or being close to eligible to retire. And so we have more um OPSURP employees that are now going to be able to retire as well. Um and so as that number goes up and the more employees that come into the system goes up that are all anybody entering PERS now enters as an OPSERT. So the number of employees there then impacts that program. Um and so what you'll see is we we see the retirees coming from tier one and tier

156two. So that percentage will probably stay stableish. Um and the number on um the obser is going to go up and I can't project what that will look like. Um we rely heavily on um uh Piper Sandler. We have a connection um through them and they do a lot of um estimations for all of the school districts on what that looks like as well as some actuarial services like Millleman who this is their jam. Um and they're really good at it and most of the time we receive all of those services for free from um through either Kosa or Oaso which are are our our organization. So um it's hard to say what's going to happen with PERS. they put more restrictions in place obviously between tier one and tier two and obser that's the

157whole reason for the different categories um there's salary caps and there's some different things but as we have more employees retiring within that um category and there is a large amount of debt on the PERS side they currently don't have enough money to pay the employees that are on the pension receiving a pension um we could see something come out again and and need to uh reissue new bonds um to buy down some of that debt. It's really unknown. Right now is not um an advantageous time to procure bonds. So um I'm not at this point. We wouldn't probably look to do a study um until the market stabilizes a bit. We don't expect that the rates going to go down in this bianium or the next bianium. No. Yeah. So, so question, uh, I'm

158on old people's social media and and so that's where I'm getting the I think the community is hoping music wouldn't be cut. So, the question as we're talking about, yeah, state funding, the projection maybe is not as bleak. We're not going to hold our breath, but but if over the summer the federal cuts aren't as steep as we as projected or there's some other adjustment, is there a possibility that they'd be restored, the music would be restored over the summer? Um, so I can't speak to if that would be the number one priority. Um, just that's not a that's not a me decision. That's like a group conversation. What I can say is um at the high school and middle school level um the allocation of FTE towards music is based on student forecasting data.

159So we um when there's less students there probably would need to be less teachers to teach the same amount of courses. Um and then that's sort of the general idea when you look at um allocating FTE per on a student basis. At the elementary level, there were some other things that were taken into consideration with the music decision. Um and so in the prior year or the current year that we're in um prior budget cycle, we ended up um if you remember, we had the same number of minutes allocated for PE, music, and art. This year those became misaligned. Um we had different minutes for PE which is largely related to the division 22 minutes requirements but in addition um we had less um art time than we did for music. And from a technical

160standpoint um that creates some issues in scheduling um because every single day looks different. And so for for principles to be able to um put together a schedule where all students are able to receive all of the um different specials and their lit time and math time and intervention and lunch and recess and all the different things that became pretty complicated. Um and that was something that um feedback that we got from teachers as well. Um and then the second part of that is um when we what we're seeing is while we really value all of those music, art, PE, library, um all of those additional things, um the more time we carve out specific time for that, the less the less lit instruction um our kids are receiving and the less instruction in math

161our kids are receiving. And ultimately, um, our our goal is that every one of our kids can read and everyone um of our our kids is on track to graduate. And so, in order to do that, they need to receive instruction in those areas. That's not to say that those other specials aren't important, because they are, and we know that they can supplement the learning in math and in um lit, but there are no requirements for minutes on either one of those things. And um that was sort of a a tough thing to have to prioritize, but the the idea behind that was um all kids reading and all kids on track to graduate, which means meeting that math requirement. Um yeah, I have some questions for accounts in page 71. Okay. Um the first

162question is about um 2520 the physical services. Yeah. Uh so from um this year to next year we can see there is a 3 million increase. Yeah. And so are you can you explain a little bit about this one? Yeah. So in fiscal services there's a lot of things um and this is something that again Maria and I were talking about um and we have tagged as a change for next year but within that is all of our insurance premiums. Um and so those numbers have increased quite a bit and so it's not really um reflective of the actual fiscal services staff um which is my team. It's eight people. It does not cost um that much money. Um but it's all of the things that we're paying for like all of the property and

163liability insurance as well as the insurance premiums for employees. Um so that's why it looks that way. and we we have a new function that she has um wanting to to direct those things to next year. So what you can see next year is a new function that went from zero to a large amount um and then this number will go down. So if you look at um page let me find it. If you look at page uh 2520, sorry, no that's the function page 100, sorry. Um you look at 25 uh20 function in the general fund, that's more representative of what's actually happening um there. So you do see the 1.9 related to insurance, but so if you take that off of the top um the other numbers you can see there. Okay. Um,

164another question is about the second and the next one at 2540. So, um, what are the PL services uh, um, provided by the school district here? Yeah. So, that's all of our custodial maintenance, any um, building repairs that are not of a capital nature. Um, any I mean, we have a ton within that department. Um all of all of the supplies for custodial supplies for maintenance um all of the utilities um are represented um under there. So it's a lot of things. Oh thank you. But yeah compared to number of this year the next year's number is not not that bad. But if we compare the number um of you know like of five years ago and um the number of next year we will see the number has you know increased for like three

165about $3 million. Yeah. So as the bond fund went away so the bond fund took care of most of all of the things that were happening other than staffing obviously um in that fund. So all of any repairs to buildings, any improvements to buildings, anything like that um were all covered by the bond funds for uh several years. So as the bond funds went away, that function, the general fund truly is now um having to carry that weight again uh to do those things. Oh, okay. Good. So thank you. And the last question is about the um oh another the one the 2550 next to to the plant services. So now it's we can see actually um yeah in the past five years the transportation services also have increased right but from the students in

166rural numbers actually district had less students. Why does we you know see the increase in the transportation services here? It's not really related to the number of students, it's related to the miles driven and our boundaries haven't changed. So, that's the major driver of that. Also, um the increase in contract cost. We had inflation costs. We've had a a hard time um we contract out with um STA for our transportation services, but we've had a hard time by proxy of STA uh retaining recruiting and retaining drivers. So we've had to inc they've had to increase salary which means our contract price increases. So there's um a lot of things at play there. Um we have one staff member that we fund internally in relating um relation to student transportation services. What's important to note about

167student transportation services um is 70% of that is returned back to us via the state school fund. So we we while we budget for the full 100% of the expense, the true net cost is only 30% of that. Okay, good to know that. Thank you so much. You're welcome. So as we're drawing toward a conclusion, uh as I'm expecting, I want to ask a question that I hope it would be a good a good note or a positive note in a very tough situation. So appreciate the budget, appreciate the work and appreciate prioritizing the kids first and foremost and I want to highlight if I would refer to a certain point in the video or or a list I can compile. I want in non-comprehensive list no matter the amount how big or small. Can

168we list things that went well or is going to go well in terms of here's how we're generating revenue or here's how we're saving costs no matter who's doing this efforts. It could be a classified certified nonREP administration or the school board made a decision and I have a preliminary list to start with if you may expand on it and if you can add to it. So I'm remembering in terms of revenue the outreach to uh dropout students that chronically absentee. absent students that we just heard about an update about for 14 students. That's increasing the revenue for the school district and that also is bringing students back to the school. the Medicaid reimbursements that h we have invested in over the last five years will continue hopefully will continue to provide revenue for the

169district that's helped us um get kids to help the solar panels next door and uh over several schools are providing cost reduction in terms of power consumption uh building energy uh efficiencies. Those are lists I started compiling and I would like to hear from you uh whether you can expand on any of those or any other bright spots that will make the budget next year a little bit better than it would have been because of these things. Yeah, it's an interesting question because we're not in the business of making money. Yes. Um so I don't really think about it from that perspective. Um I think about it more from like savings which you some of the things you noted were related to that. Um but from that perspective things I'm thinking about um is the

170conversations and work that we've done um at we've done at the district office this year to talk I think I mentioned like consolidating some departments um and support for those departments and some positions around that. Um I think that we have um by the the state grants that we well one is federal, one is state um grants that we have and being able to um have our literacy TOSA and our math TOSA. We're saving money on um sending our staff to outside um professional learning opportunities because we send one person who then is able to become the expert in that arena and then able to um help provide um those opportunities. That doesn't mean that we're not spending money on outside professional learning, but that's a part of it. Um those are some things I

171think about. we are constantly looking at things from the sustainability perspective that you mentioned and so um even just looking at our consumption of all of those different utilities. Um I don't know, you know, and Kim is not here for the expert in this arena how many um square footage um of buildings that we're operating on a daily basis, but it's a lot. I understand that number is huge, but I mean I know how much we spend just at my house um on utilities and it's significant. So, um that number there, any savings there is is good. We're constantly evaluating um our contracts. So, that's another thing um that um I rely heavily on uh Maria for as well is to look at our contracts and help me evaluate like is this right? Um we

172provide services to uh a few other school districts. we provide their food service um their meals and so are those programs um at least breaking even um those sort of things that we're constantly looking at and I think we're trying to um just we're constantly evaluating not just doing things the same as we've always done them um because there may be a better way better way for student outcomes and maybe a more efficient way finding financially. There's not a I don't feel like there's a ton that we have control over ultimately. Um, and so we do what we can. Thank you. Thanks. I wanted to bounce back um to um kind of the response to Tony's question about the music and you mentioned something that stood out to me that I have not thought about

173and I was wondering if you could explain a little more. you talked about the alignment of the specials and um that we'd gotten a little bit out of balance. So um first question, what are we doing? What is the standard right now for art in the elementary schools? What has it been for this year? Um we're doing one 60 minute no one 45 minute period of art. And so that's staying the same next year. So all of the specials will be 45 minutes. So and and they'll all be once a week or they'll be PE will be twice a week. Library will be once a week, music will be once a week, and art will be once a week. And those 45 minute chunks, and they'll all be 45 minutes. Not library, but I believe

174that's how it fits into the schedule. Okay. And so, prior to the um the round of budget cuts that adjusted art and library, I can't remember because that was many, many months ago now. Um what had been the art and library access uh prior to those cuts? My assumption is the library was probably not quite aligned across elementary schools. Um, just how it fit into their schedules, but for art and PE and music, it was 40 minutes twice a week, so 80 minutes total. Okay. So I guess um a question slashconern I have around talking about bringing these into alignment is that it when we talk about adjusting music because it's out of alignment with the others it I guess I struggle some because I feel like those cuts were I thought maybe I thought

175they were a little problematic. Like I understand that we needed to do it and I supported the budget. I know we didn't have another choice, but it concerns me a little bit to think about that the way to rectify the misalignment is to cut music more as opposed to talking about what are we going to do to bring the others back so that we've got 40 minutes twice a week for all the things. I realize that this budget does not allow us to do that. I'm not suggesting that you should come back with a budget that does that, right? I'm saying I I don't think I'm comfortable leaning into the idea of saying it's a good idea to cut music because it will address the alignment of these specials when the community was, I think,

176very clear the last time around that they didn't want that to be where we took from. And then they've been extremely clear this time that that's not where they want us to take from. And we are now talking about well, what feels a little bit like a spin to say we're going to get them to line up with each other. So, it's a bad cut, but we're going to make it to all of them, so it's equally bad for everything. That makes me a little bit uncomfortable. But I also understand that the bad the budget has a balance. So, I'm not I wouldn't embrace that rationale. I would lean more on the we don't have enough money to pay for more. Um that said um the we did not see at least I don't remember

177any data prior to the cuts to art and library that art and library or specials were potentially disrupting math and reading. So this feels like new information to me and I'm hoping you can comment on how we came to the conclusion that art that math and reading were potentially in trouble in such a way that pulling from specials we thought would help. So when when we were working back in December as we were starting to develop our budget, we met with our um administrative groups by level and one of the areas that came up from our elementary principles was the concern about making sure that everything fit within this um the six and a half hour day basically. and they have seen that as a challenge for a number of years and they um felt

178like it was important to make sure that kids continue to have specials every day because we want kids to have access to art, we want kids to have access to music, PE twice a week because that's the state law um as well as library and at the same time balancing that within the school day that our kids have. So as we talked with our elementary principles around that that was one of the areas that they said we need we should make an adjustment around. Okay. Thank you. That that context does help. So I am curious what to do with the what feels like the tension between many staff teachers um who have come and expressed concerns about these changes. It seems like we don't have agreement between some of our teaching staff and our leadership

179in our buildings. And I'm curious about what well what are we going to do about that? What can be done about that? It seems like they they don't share the same vision then about what is the best thing to do around the scheduling challenges. I think that means that our principles our principles have additional responsibility for having those conversations with their staff as they're building their master schedule for the upcoming year and as they think about that the day in classrooms to be thinking about if we have this um additional time, how are we making sure that we're utilizing it um well because as you think about an elementary classroom, they're teaching um language arts, they're teaching math, they're teaching science, they're teaching social studies, are teaching health. Um they're teaching all all those components

180of a day and and again it is hard to fit everything in. We've heard this kind of my whole career. We've heard that we can't get through all the content in the school year. Um and so we're trying to find the best way to balance those things and make sure kids still have a well-rounded education. Um and so the the commitment to make sure kids have those access to those programs. And we also continue to address um I've we've had a lot of critique around our reading scores. Um and while we had a significant improvement from last year to this year that um that critique exists and we need to continue to work to address it. I really appreciate your answer and I think it highlights a couple of key things to keep in mind.

181um that all of these things are important and there are six and a half hours and in every classroom teachers are having to make choices about what they have the capacity and the resources to really promote and I think it is um that's just an important perspective for us to hold on to as a community because of course I want our kids to get art and music and all of those things. I don't want them to lose anything and also we can't manufacture time. We do have six and a half hours. And I I think that synopsis that you provided is the best rationale I've heard for why we might have some challenges around how to support all the different components of learning that are important. And we're only keeping our kids there for six

182and a half hours. And at the elementary level, we're asking one teacher to span all of that bandwidth to do that. And if any if co showed well me anything at all, it's that I am not an elementary school teacher. And so and I would be a terrible elementary school teacher. And so I do want to just recognize I I know that that's a lot of lift for them to carry. And I don't I'm going to support this because I think that it is in our best interest for us to go forward with a budget that we know we know we can make work and we continue to put the pressure on other entities to do better with funding. But I think the piece that you're hitting on here with time is something that no

183budget's going to fix for us. And it is important for us to really have a a a deep community conversation about what do we want our kids to be able to do when they leave every day. And we may not have necessarily the same priorities out of that, but we do have the same six and a half hour day. So thank you. Yeah. And I, you know, the last thing I want to say about that is that that's like this is a diff difficult conversation to have because it it it's can sound like um either we are placing a higher priority on one aspect of what happens in school over another and there's folks that are doing both of the responsible for both of those areas. And so I don't want it to I I

184know that that's how it sounds and that's a hard thing to to say and we still want to make sure kids have access to those programs and are ready academically and that's that is the the challenge we face in K12. It does shift the focus of our conversation away from just budgeting and also to thinking about time constraints though and I have not heard that part of the conversation as vocally and I think well why aren't we talking about that part? We need to talk about that piece too. So, thank you for bringing that up. It it does answer the question of um how the district is thinking about it in ways that as a parent, I'm not probably going to think of it that way. So, thank you. No, I just wanted to um

185add on to the conversation and how I had mentioned earlier that there's been a disinvestment in funding for public education. There's also been a devaluing of creative arts and expression by society in general in public education. Um, and I really don't think that we're doing that necessarily in the district on purpose. And it feels more like we should be advocating for that to be included as a necessary part of education because I think it is. Um, and I don't think that's something our budget can fix at all. I think it's something that we need to fix in a larger scale somehow and I know in some conversations I have suggested like what does it look like to request that that becomes a part of the core curriculum in K12 because then we can advocate in

186other ways or that the staff can we can't advocate for positions in general but those we don't even measure the impact of those in state assessments at all even though we know that they're impactful and so those are just things I think as we continue conversations around on this. I think it's important to acknowledge that too that that's not something that has been determined that we can measure even though we know it's really good like because we have experienced it in our community and I don't know how we could address that in a budget committee at all and um that's been the ask of us and I think that's a tough situation to be in. Um but yeah, I just wanted to add that on to theres to what you're saying and for us to

187think about. Can we clap? Probably should. So, so can I add one thing to that? What Lou shared? Um the reason why u we have a mandate or a requirement around the number of minutes that we teach PE is because Peter Courtourtney who was a longtime legislator who has since passed found um that heart health was an important thing to him and that is why that um is in is in the law and that the requirement of school districts at this point in time. Thank you chair. Uh I have one question regarding um the account uh 1920 and page uh 57. So that account uh says um a school district can get the contributions, donations and the general fund raising from private sources and uh from the number of uh for next year actually the

188increase is quite impressive is about uh $1 million um is and so I'm curious um about this account. So would you like to explain a little bit more about that? It directly impacts to that um Corvalis fields for the future. So that the we have to have the revenue for the expenditure and prior we talked about the expenditure related to um that project and so this is the corresponding revenue it comes in under um that account code 1920 because it's coming from the foundation. Oh which foundation? Corvalis public schools foundation. Ah okay. So this account is related to U foundation, right? It's like it's not restricted to the foundation but that's where most of that revenue comes from is from the foundation. Okay. So uh from my understand is like if the community members or

189parents like to donate their money would be um um going to this account directly to help um school the district, right? Um that's the revenue. That's where the revenue would be recognized and um we our preference is for the donations to go through the Corvalis Public Schools Foundation um as they're a large supporter of the district. Okay. So um more question about this one is like if community members or parents like to um have specific program to set up so they can donate their money to this account then to have the negotiation with district. So, and that correct or not? No. Okay. Um, the the district has ultimate authority if they're going to run a a program um under the district umbrella. So, when you donate to the foundation, you can put a they have

190like a a place to notate what you would like the funds to go to. Um, but that doesn't necessarily mean like we're not we don't fund any staffing with money from the foundation. Um, and we wouldn't necessarily start a new program. um especially not if it was fully if it wasn't fully funded. But if you have um questions about like a campaign or anything like that, I would encourage you to reach out to the foundation because um they would be the ones to accept the donations. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. At the risk of losing my my position as vice chair, I'm going to ask a a question that might might is for for Ryan. And and and before I ask the question, I valued the the public commentary. I'm going to reference that a little

191bit. Uh so last year I asked the question about can we get good numbers about declining enrollment based on kids that are living in our district and aren't there. And and I appreciate and this is for Mr. Arnold's. I'm a budget committee member that asked that question, but I also valued I got to continue to ask it over the year and and and dialogue with with you uh on that. Uh however, uh Mr. Mr. Blacker seemed like the the intensity or or maybe the depth of the students we're losing doesn't score up with what's on the FAQ on on the on the p district website. So, I'm hoping and and maybe this goes to next meeting, a conversation about what what do we know about the truth of of students that we we could have

192coming back to our schools? But probably my question is I is and and maybe this is outside of the budget committee uh authority, but but can we have discussions of ways that we do start engaging and get people to return to to our schools? So, initially I'd like to talk about that data set um that was shared today. Um Lauren, I'm going to have her talk to about it because she um reached out to the department of ed today to better understand that data set and where it comes from um in comparison to um our local birth rate data. So, do you want to talk a little bit about what you learned? Sure. Um so the report that that data was uh retrieved from is a report that the Oregon Department of Education publishes on

193an annual basis um in relation to their poverty count. So the data set is relation to poverty count not in relation to enrollment in schools. So I'm a little unclear on why those two things are being correlated. Um but that's fine. Um there that data set is also um the SAPE s a p and it's called I don't know that acronym off the top of my head anybody small something um and so that information comes from um the federal government um it comes from the census bureau and it's the um accumulation of um multiple data sets and if you actually go onto the safe data um and look at that. First of all, the data the last data set they have is from 2023 and I think in that um graphic that was presented the

194data is being uh correlated to the wrong year. So those aren't even tied together. Um but what we know is if you go back and look at that SAP data, it's actually uh quite overstated if you just look at the general population. So if you go back to the original data set on the uh census.gov gov website. Um they're overstating the the Corvalis population within our zip code um by about 10,000 residents. So my assumption would be that if we are overstating the population of Corvalis by 10,000 re uh residents, then we're probably also overstating um the number of individuals ages 5 through 17. You can go on that website again back to the original data set and review their whole methodology. Um, and they have a page that is um quite extensive about um

195the margin of error related to that data set because it's all um estimates based on a bunch of other data sets coming I think from six different federal departments. And really that data set is used um for poverty calculations, not for student enrollment, not for birth rates or any of that information. Um and so then looking at that data set which I I'm familiar with because it is what we use in that um the calculation you'll see the poverty weight on the state school fund. So if you then I took my wanderings from reviewing that and contacted Oregon Department of Education um and talked to I don't know her position um specifically. I can't remember but I talked to her. she works in the um finance um office. And so I kind of walked her

196through um my findings and and she said, "Well, yeah, it's not it's not be to be used for enrollment information. It's used to calculate the poverty weight and to have a clear data set that that creates proportionality across all districts um in the state. So it's the data set they have available to use for that. We used to use some different numbers um but with for related to poverty counts but because of changes in like for example free and reduced lunch where we don't have free and reduced lunch because everyone's on C um that data set then is no longer available and so since when we had some districts in the state on C um some on free and reduced and all these different programs they had to move towards a common data set for

197all of it. So, um I the SAPE data set is a real data set. The the the report coming from Morgan Department of Ed is a real report um used for poverty calculations, not for enrollment and not based on birth rate data. Um and I don't believe that data set applies to enrollment. Um and the way that it's being communicated doesn't feel accurate to me, but that's my opinion. Is it accurate to say she felt like our our methodology was more accurate? Yes. And she sent me um uh sort of a their FAQ page on that and what they're using it for. Um and nowhere in there does it talk anything about enrollment. So um yeah, I mean I don't that's that's about the extent of the information that I have on that. We do

198know that there are kids in Corvalis boundary that do not go to Corvalis schools. We know and have acknowledged that there are kids within Corvalis boundary that go to private schools. We're not refuting that fact. Um but the number is based on using that data is uh quite overstated. Lauren, I I looked up the acronym for SAPE. Thank you. It's just in case others want to look it up, it's small area income and poverty estimates program. So S AI P. And when I just typed in SAPE program census, it popped right up. Okay. Lauren, can you put that a link to that FAQ on the page too to OD? That way it's um she sent me a PDF, but uh I Yes, I can. I will because I know you said it's fine, but it's

199not fine because these are big decisions we're making with numbers. And so what did I say? Oh, because you were like it's fine because how it was presented. I know it was like a statement, but I I don't I just wanted to point out it's not fine to I'm not just saying that you were saying that it was fine literally, but correct. I would like to say I might have some feelings about that but um yeah that it's not fine to misrepresent I don't feel like it's an accurate representation of data. Um I do feel like we are starting to drift a little bit away from budget. Um so first I just need to say I need to step out and go pick up a high schooler. Sure. Um you had a question. I do

200have a question. Um but first thank you. Thanks Kevin. Good night. Thank you, Lauren. I don't know if anybody's officially thanked you for all of this amazing work, all the time you put into it and also um just your ability to answer all our very tough questions and it's just uh I just really want to thank you for that because you are on top of things. You're on fire and I appreciate it. I stay up at night anticipating what you might ask me. Um, it also pays to be at the end here because you've all asked all of my questions almost. So, thank you very much, Tony. That was my big question. So, you took that from me. Um, but I feel like that we've done a pretty good job uh an asking questions in

201which um where we've heard from our community either at the last meeting or we a lot of us have been reading different things on social media about what people are saying and I feel like tonight we did a pretty good job referencing all of those except one and that is on pay freezes. Um people have asked about our um administrative team and our salary our certified classified and I so I have a question um have our administration five years yes during co during co I don't know the exact year but the answer is yes so you did take a freeze before and did has our union taken a pay freeze recently with cuts? No. And has our union asked for our ad admin to take a freeze? Like have they requested that? I don't believe

202so through leadership. Maybe individuals have said that in comment, but I don't believe that that's been a request of union leadership. No. Okay. I just want to kind of clarify all of that because um I also think that when we're hearing about some of these things um on social media and different comments, people aren't comparing um looking at admin pay with contract time. Like they're not comparing apples to apples and comparing by hours. So, I just want to make sure that when we're addressing like contracts and things like that in the budget that we're also making it clear that most of our admin team work, you know, a lot longer, they have a longer contract than the regular correct than certified. Um, I would say just for any community that's watching, I added an explanation

203to that to the FAQ within the last week um to kind of explain how that process goes as far as how we determine contracts amount contract amounts. And I think something that hasn't come up in the past um through this conversation is that um when we continually push for the the freeze or the decrease in pay to be in administrators, what happens very quickly is you you then get people who are supervising other employees that make more money than them. Um, and so it's uh sort of a misalignment between that and then we have to correct that some of and I'm I don't want to discredit any work that any of our other staff are doing. Um, but prior to we had to make a shift last year because um a teacher on the high

204end of the salary schedule was making more money than our assistant principles on an adjusted hourly um basis which adjusted for contract days. And so I would say that there are additional responsibilities that assistant principles have um or any of our um supervisory administrative staff have that are a little bit different. Um and so those are all different factors that piece into this. What we try to do is take the salaries, adjust for different because all the contracts are different, right? So you have to adjust for how many paid holidays does this group have? Adjust that off the salary to make sure that that's even. Um how many calendar days do people work? Um all of those different things to factor in. And then there's additional things like lure, education, um and different pieces like

205that. So when you break it out in that way, um that is what informs the proposals that come forward on the salaries. Yeah. Thank you. And I want to make it clear, I'm not suggesting that anybody take a pay freeze. Um, we did that years ago and it's not just a monthly hit. It's a lifelong hit. Um, it hits everything. So, I am not suggesting that at all. In fact, I really appreciate your comment earlier about how well our district values uh the people that work for us and and teach our children. So, I appreciate that and I just wanted to make that clear. Thank you Sammy. Did you have any um it was just back in the into the discussion of SAPE I found the acronym but also I found the confidence interval. First

206of all is not count it's a statistical model correct and the statistical model appears to have a margin of error that is likely to go between meaning true rate is likely to be between 19.2 and 25.6%. 6%. So I don't know if that's accurate. It it also plainly states on their website that it is not meant to be a proxy for enrollment data. Okay. So I don't I think even they the US Department of Education is even saying this is not an appropriate data set for this question. Okay. Okay. I just want to put that out there. I think that's important for if we're going to look at information. I think if the data set is telling us not to use it for this, we probably shouldn't be using it for that. Thanks. Okay. Yeah.

207Um, I just wanted to add to that because I saw some graphs on social media and one of them used that da d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d da but for the projection for next year they used your projection for enrolled students instead of the projection from the data which was there's a big discrepancy and so if they were using all the enrollment or yeah enrollment data from the other schools that they were comparing to then it would not be accurate use of the data. So just wanted to add that. Thank you. Any other questions on the budget? Shauna. Shauna. I

208wrote some things down just to make sure as the hour gets a little later. Thanks everyone for being here that I was able to express myself clearly. So thank you Lauren. Clearly so much work goes into the budget preparation. And I know from you, your team, and so many others across the district all year round, not just in this moment. And I know you're you're sitting here and just answering our questions, anticipating our questions. And just want to thank you so much for the careful and thoughtful and intentional work that goes into this and also recognizing all the pressure that gets pointed at you and hoping that you get to start sleeping well through the night soon. Also, I think about you tomorrow process. So, um, but just want to also acknowledge to the community

209and sticking to budget that when there isn't enough funding for public education, there are no good decisions. That every decision is a hard decision and every decision is a challenging decision. And I also recognize that these decisions are constrained by state requirements, contract obligations. They're shaped by board goals, as well as community input, hopefully to the degree possible, from students, educators, and families. And one of the things that I've heard, I know I I wasn't physically here last week. I was on a plane, um, but did go back and listen to the public comment that came up, public comment tonight, as well as outreach that we're hearing, um, from community members, whether it's walking around the dog park and having folks come up and say, "Hey, can I ask questions?" Emails, phone calls, um, coffee

210shop meetings, and grocery store run-ins. just really appreciate community stepping forward with thoughts, with ideas, with concerns. And what I'm hearing loudly and clearly from everyone who has stepped into this space is that they want to understand how decisions are made. That they want to be part of a solution. that they are looking for ways to be creative together and to make sure that collectively as a board and a district. We're exploring all possible avenues to to the degree possible to save, preserve, and even to expand if and when possible the programs that matter to them that matter to their students that keep their students coming to school that bring that sense of belonging that help families know that their students are wholly and fully supported. So, I just want to acknowledge how much that

211means to also step back in these really these moments that can sometimes feel contentious as a community of that we're we're battling over really hard decisions to say I really believe as a community we all want the same things and if public education were fully funded we'd all be voting for and and supporting moving forward the same things that we all really care about. Um, so along with that are some concerns that I've heard from the community that their voices don't matter because they don't necessarily see the changes or all of the process that really shows how their input throughout the year gets reflected in the budget document. or something that I've heard over the last couple of weeks and with public testimony is worry that things like a family survey that comes out really

212shortly before the budget document comes out that there wouldn't be sufficient time to really make sure all of that feedback was implemented into the budget. And from serving on the board for a couple of years now, I recognize that there's this difference in this time constraint of at this time of year, we have to pass a balanced budget. And also seeing that that budget actually changes over the year and that there are a lot of decisions that get made over the year that do then carry forward that feedback in different ways. And so for just for transparency and accountability for the community, I have a couple of process questions that I thought would be helpful, I think, for us to hear as well as for the community here. And here's my here's my brief list,

213however this comes out. One, can you share a little bit or anyone districtwide around how the budget does continue to change and evolve throughout the year? We know that there are assumptions that are made and those assumptions change now. how they change midy year, they change all throughout. So there are lots of opportunities where that feedback that's coming in from the community potentially gets used either if those assumptions are made worse or made better. Um thinking about discretionary funding at schools that those decisions continue to be made throughout the year with in input from students, from staff, from community members. Um, how else might that community feedback be used throughout the year? So that you know there is a lot of pressure on this moment to pass a balanced budget and that's not necessarily the

214same as knowing that a budget is going to change throughout the year as there are different needs and as different resources come available. So would just love to hear what are ways that community input is taken into account along the way. What are some of the examples of ways we see budgets shifting and changing throughout the year that integrates that feedback? And then my final piece of that is how can we as a district make sure the community sees that so that they know and also can feel valued in that process um more so than maybe some do now. Yeah. So, I would say um that I'm I'm not being dramatic to say that on a daily basis, we are making decisions around um how we're spending our money. Um and it is a budget

215and like I mentioned earlier, it's already changed since this has been printed. Um and those assumptions were adopted. So, we've we are continually looking at that. Um I know that there was criticism around the survey. There was also criticism last year when I didn't do the survey. Um, I was reading all 443 of those responses on a daily basis. Um, and a large amount of them actually were fairly unkind um, and hard to read. And doing that on a daily basis, I then engaged with um, leaders in our cabinet team to help put together the report, which um, we we tried to do in the most thorough way. Um, and and so there was engagement around that. um we are looking at that information um and implementing as many things as we can. Um when

216I did a a a rough um estimate, we spend over 50% of our available funds on those top five um priorities from that that community gave us. And so I'm not saying that we can't do better um on the community engagement and using that feedback. that's consistently a a work in progress, not just for budget, but just in general. Um, but I do believe that we made um a a genuine effort um to to do better this year, and I will do better again next year. Um, but we use that information at all times. There's other ways that we gain information through youth truth, right? We use that data. Um, the board goals were not developed in isolation. That was the culmination of a lot of community input that then um helped guide what those

217board goals should be. And at the end of the day, that's where we're going to. I mean, we have um you heard at the dinners, the well scorecard dinners now that um that we have with our different levels. You heard how every single thing that they're all every single goal that they have in their building is then aligning back to um the board goals. and those were all informed with community input. Unfortunately, we're not in a situation where we're we're talking very frequently about what things we can add back. Um, and having more money is just not a problem that we've we've had. Um, recently, but I mean, I I still look at that information and when we're having conversations, we meet on a a generally weekly basis with our executive team. We meet in

218our leadership team which includes all of our um building school site administrators and our cabinet team that meets um with all of the district level leadership and we're constantly looking at that information to say like is this decision in alignment with this feedback that we got and I would say um I know I haven't been here very long four years but in this year I have heard more conversations about nope we're not doing that it doesn't align with the input that we received um for our what we should be focused on so we're not doing it and that conversation can be hard, especially if it's something that we've done for a long time. Um, but yeah, I mean, we're we're constantly looking at that information and I it's unfortunate that it felt like it it

219wasn't people weren't heard. That was not my intent. Um, at the end of the day, I am also one individual that was trying um and that was our best best attempt this year at that and it will be better next year too. Thank you, Lauren. And also I thank you for all the things you're doing. I think there has been such a huge shift also this year you said with the community budget meeting with the tremendous amount of time and hours you've put into the community FAQ as well as answering questions for community and I think it's indicative of just our ongoing as a district as a board as individuals in this process not meaning to point it all at you in terms of community continued ask of communication transparency how do we do that

220um collectively as a district So, thank you for all that you're doing to help support that. I would also say that work does make a difference generally led by district office staff and those are the people that that can do that work um in a large scale. So then we also get the opposition of where we should be cutting staff that work here and that makes it really difficult to continue to do that work um at the depth that we would like to do it. So um there's a whole bunch of um opposing thoughts and uh it's hard to balance it all out. Thank you. Any other questions? Well, it's 10 o'clock. We've asked all the questions. There's only couple things left to do and then we can call it. So, at this point, I'd

221be willing to entertain maybe some motions. You have a script if you would like to make a motion and don't um have that language in your head. This is definitely something that I am not allowed to do myself. Somebody else has to do it for me. I mean, nobody here is getting paid. We can stay here all night if nobody wants to make the motion to get all this done. Or I guess we could all then have to come back next Thursday for 20 minutes to get it all done. But even then, I still need motions. Otherwise, we're just going to sit here all night. I guess it's hard to make a motion because there's so much involved in this and I just feel like with community input and all that, um, I'm struggling personally

222to make to make any kind of decision on this. Well, then we can have a motion to adjourn till next Thursday. So we can have a week to sleep on it and think on it and then come back and vote on it then if that's what people would want to do. That's that's just me. Yeah. I mean I'm willing to make a motion, but I just wanted to um let the community know like I make this motion. It's not to um say I don't appreciate comments and I don't appreciate the work that's being done. I just feel like there's a lot to think about still. And um not to say that I don't agree with the budget or anything, but I would like to move that we come back next week. I second. Okay. We

223have a duly made and seconded motion to adjourn for tonight and come back next week to officially pass the budget. Um I don't think I need a roll call for this one. So discussion. Yeah. So, at this point, is there any discussion? Um, I would like just to ask maybe a point of clarification between now and next week if there's further questions uh from the members or further input from the community. How is that going to be channeled between now and next meeting? Uh there's no further opportunity for public comment um at the meeting next week, but if you have questions, you can email me. um as you're wanting to wait until next week, I would like to know what information you need from me in order to feel confident in making a decision um

224before that point. And maybe Lauren, if I may before maybe we address that one, is it okay to procedurally shall community members reach out to board ascoralisk us on a budget matter? uh not as a public comment but as input to the board. Could we disseminate that to the full budget committee if it is related to the budget? Would that be a good way for members to reach out if they would like to? Is that allowed, Kim? You can process. Yes. Um again, it you can they can ask questions next week. I'm assuming this is my first year. Well, I just I don't know what the I don't know the um forwarding the board email to like outside members. I don't know. So, that's a fine thing to do if that's within what I would

225I don't understand what was asked. I'm sorry. What I'm asking is it's two two uh two factors for this motion. If we're going to sleep on it, there might be two factors. Either we did not get enough information that we need to ask and that's what you're asking us that Yeah. If you're not if you're not um wanting to make a motion now, um my assumption means that you don't have enough information in order to make a decision. So, I would like to be able to provide you with that and be prepared for that for next week. Correct. And the second factor is if community members if we would like to hear more from the community beyond what we heard today, that would be another factor that might be motivating the motion uh to have

226an extra week. And if that's the factor, I want to make sure we have uniform access to that input for all budget members. So that's why I want to uplift that in this discussion. I don't know that we would gather everybody's emails and send it out. It's this I would view that as the same as like if somebody is reaching out with questions about the budget like normal. Is it would it be different in this case if there would be questions that came into the board that then board chair you directed um to me to answer related to budget then I would then put that into the I would answer it and put it into the FAQ. Yeah, I was going to say I would think any any questions provided to any member of this

227board from a member of the community could be forwarded to Lauren. If you give me that directive then I can do that. I I so direct. No, not you Lou. Oh yeah. Would that be helpful to direct you to do that? Yeah, maybe. Okay, then. Yeah. Um, I just wanted to also say that it's not that I'm don't feel confident in your work and everything that went into it. It's more around we I have been reached out to a lot and I would like to know if the questions that have been posed to me that as a voted person in the community have been like if it's been answered you know what I mean if that makes sense if it made if I if I ask the questions on behalf of the community in the

228way they expect me to as an elected leader if that makes sense. And so it's not that I'm saying to ask me more questions. It's more um I feel like we're in a really hard place if that makes sense. And I think we've been sitting here for hours and it's I really appreciate your work and I don't want us to just vote on something because it's late and have been sitting for here for hours and don't want to come back to vote on it. I just Does that make sense? Yeah. I think it's just I don't um I need the information of I guess what would change in between this week and next week like that I could provide to you to make you feel more confident and the conversation around budget. I just want

229to be clear too doesn't end just because a budget is approved. Um that should be a constant dialogue that's happening on a like all year round and I'm happy to have those conversations um with whether it's the board or the budget committee or um the community individually as well. So, I mean, whatever feels comfortable to you, but I would like if I need to provide you with more information to help inform your decision. Um, I'm happy to do that. Okay. I don't think I need more information for you to bring back. And I would also just like to add like the motion isn't even approved. Like if people can say no and then they can put a new motion forward. I was just like Andrew's like we need to make a motion and that's the

230one I thought of. So, that felt good to me. So, can I add a point? uh trees first and then you Yeah, I guess I would like to also echo that it's not that I think there's new information that I would be looking for. It's that um you the the team here, they answered very thoroughly a lot of questions and I sat a long time with the budget book and I've sat only for minutes with some of the answers to the questions and so I think I'm looking for some space to be able to process and kind of um catalog some of this information into um a way that makes sense.