001Good evening folks. If you weren't here for the first hour before, we had interviewed three candidates for the vacancy here in the school board directors. Um, it's our intention after public comment to open the floor for nominations, which is a little different than our regular scheduled meeting. So, that's just kind of a little bit of little bit of a road map where we're going to go very early on in our meeting. Having said that, good good evening and welcome. The purpose of this meeting is to conduct the business of the Gettysburg Area School District. Board of directors meetings and committee meetings are open to the public but are not public meetings. All or any school district residents who wish to make public comment should sign in prior to the start of the meeting and request
002to speak during citizens participation. Public comment is welcome and all issues will be referred to the appropriate board committee or administrator. Comments will be summarized in our official board minutes which will be made available by contacting the business office. if you would kindly take a moment to silence your cell phones or any other electronic devices. Um, Mr. Davis is absent. He's excused this evening. Mr. Moore is joining us by telephone and will participate, including voting throughout this meeting. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Notice in communications Dr. turn ao here. Okay, so we start with AYSO. Thank you. Hi, my name is Pamela
003Morsey and I'm a new board member with the AYSO and we will not take a lot of time. We just wanted to say thank you for letting us use the beautiful field again this year and then present the board with a check uh for $5,400. So, thank you again and if you if we need could do anything for the field, you just please let us know. Thank you so much, Jason. there. The uh next portion of our notice in communications is uh it's pretty exciting for some I would hope and on behalf of the board um it's our retirees recognition. On behalf of the board, um it's certainly been an honor to work not only with you, but for you in some capacity. And on behalf of the board, we absolutely wish you a happy
004retirement and thank you for all your years of service, not only to the community, but the students here. Thank you, Jason. Sure. We're going to have uh Morgan uh read names of all retirees, even uh those that aren't present, and then uh we'll uh give them a round of applause um for uh many years of combined service. And uh as we say, each year as folks go out the door, uh you never replace the individuals. You might feel the position, but there's a lot of institutional knowledge that walks out the door when when folks uh when folks retire, but it's certainly welld deserved as they move on to the next uh next phase of uh uh their work, which hopefully is no work, but maybe different for each person, but congratulations. So, at this time,
005if we could have those individuals when your name is called, if you're present with us tonight, to please come up and accept your certificate. So, our retirees, Lisa Augusta for 21 years as part of our food service staff at our middle school, DD Becker for 19 years as one of our par profofessionals at Lincoln Elementary, Bill Bowling for 27 years as our transportation director here at the administration building. Jennifer Buckley for two years as a science teacher at our middle school. Janet Eastman for 31 years as a family and consumer science teacher at our high school. Steven Glassman for 20 years as a science teacher at our high school. Rob Gokenhower for 35 years as a custodian at Franklin Township Elementary. Lisa Gray for 10 years as a teacher at Lincoln Elementary School. Janette Prrenergus
006for 23 years as a food service staff member at Lincoln Elementary and Tracy Settle for 27 years as a custodian at Franklin Township Elementary. [Applause] I was doing the math real quick and it I had to get real quick. Um that's over 190 years worth of service to this district. In fact, I almost it's actually if I did the math accurate 200 years [Applause] citizens participation citizens participation I am being told we do not have any this evening which brings us to uh 5.1 the election of any candidate or the potential election. So, at this time, I would entertain a motion from a board member for a candidate, two candidates, or three candidates. I make a motion, Mr. President, uh, for Miss Pratt. Second, Al. Yep. Do you have do you have do you are
007do you want to bring forth there's a motion on the floor right now for Kathleen Pratt? It's been seconded. Um, I'm going to ask the board if there are any additional motions for any additional candidates. Nope. I'm good. Hearing none, I'll go right to roll call. And actually, no, I'll wait till afterwards. Roll call. Al. Uh, yes. Ryan, yes. Tim, yes. Mike, yes. Alice, yes. Michelle, yes. And I vote yes. I neglect it. By the way, congratulations, Kathleen Pratt, as a new elected school board member. Mr. You might Let's thank our other candidate. Right. So, and I wanted to do this prior to any motion because I wasn't sure which motion, if any, was going to happen. But so I wanted to actually take a moment and um before I entertain the motions, I wanted
008to say publicly that it takes some strong character to come in here and go through the process. And I know that firsthand cuz I did it and I sat outside and waited and I interviewed and was not selected. But however, you know, as fate would have it, I got in through election. So the fact that candidates showed up here is more than lip service. They actually all three of you took the took the time out of your day and and I think you demonstrated every single one of you uh that interviewed are not here for a special interest that you actually believe in the district and you think you could bring something to the district and unfortunately we you know we had one vacancy. Um so the ones that weren't I I can't express my
009appreciation the fact that you came in here this evening um and and you have my my respect completely for that. So, thank you again to all the candidates. Um, and Kathleen Pra, congratul congratulations if you would come forward to be sworn in. And we will give you a seat over here by Michelle Smithers. Swear to office. You have to give me a moment. I have to do my roll call because I wasn't sure what candidate I was going to be calling out to vote tonight. Okay, continuing on. Um just a little bit of a curveball here this evening. When we go to routine approvals, we have I'm going to ask for a motion 6.1 through 6.10. I'm deliberately leaving 6.11 off and I'll explain the reasoning when we get to that. So, may I have
010a motion for 6.1 through 6.10? So, moved. Second. Is there a question on the motion 6.1 through 6.10? For the public, it's the it's the agenda. 6.1 6.2 regular schoolboard minutes. 6.3 public budget minutes from May 19th. 64 is a regular board minutes from May 19th. 6.5 is the authorization of a superintendent hiring. Um 66 is authorized year-end budget transfer. 67 approval of depositories and the 6.8 approval of athletic game help rates. 6.9 approval of facility use hourly labor rates. Uh and then 6.10 exor um elected tax collectors. So any questions on that motion? Hearing none. Roll call. Kathleen, yes. Michelle, yes. Alice, yes. Mike, yes. Tim, yes. Ryan, yes. Al, yes. 6.11, I'll ask for a motion. That motion will exclude the uh act 93 portion of it, meaning that act 93 would not
011be a part of this and be moved to the next meeting's agenda as an action item. So when you're approving HR this evening, it is all inclusive with the exception of the act 93. Are there any questions on what the motion is I want to put forth? Hearing that, may I have a motion for so moved? Second. Question on the motion on the floor hearing. None. Roll call. Al, yes. Ryan, yes. Tim, yes. Mike, yes. Alice, yes. Michelle, yes. Kathleen, yes. And I vote yes. [Music] Items for board action 7.1 the ACTI operating budget 20252026. May I have a motion? So moved. Second. Question on the motion on the floor. Mr. Cassinger, is this the time that I can ask a couple of questions? Sure. Thank you, Michelle. Um, I do have a couple of
012questions about the prior year comparison. Do we know why Allied Health does not have dental insurance or health savings account line items, but all of the other do? Yeah. Sean Sean, thank you. Thank you for coming forward. Okay, that's on the detailed line items. Yes, it's on the budget prep prior year comparison by function object and it's page one of 13 allied health. All of the other disciplines do have a dental insurance line item and a health savings account line item. So, I was just curious to know why they don't. Is it because the Okay, Go ahead. I'm sorry. Yes, the Allied health teacher is the wife of the diesel technology teacher, so her insurance is under his line item. Well, thank you very much. I was just worried that, you know, they weren't going
013to have like No, she has dental and Yes. All right. Thank you. You're welcome. Kathleen, do you have additional? I do. I do, actually. Well, thank you for entertaining this. So there are several sections 2360 is one of them um that has got a category line item called 111 for instance but no description of what that is. So if we look at section 2360 yes that's the uh salary of the executive director. Those are salaries. And so is that the same then for instance section 2390 this got a line item 141 but not a description of what 141 is. That's correct. That's the all salaries. All right. Thank you very much. You're welcome. That's all. Thank you. You're welcome. Any additional questions from board members prior to roll call? Sean, I think we're great. Thank
014you again for stepping forward. Yep. You're welcome. Thank you all. Roll call. Kathleen, yes. Michelle, yes. Alice, yes. Mike, yes. Tim, yes. Ryan, yes. Al, yes. And I vote yes. 7.2, the acquisition of lands for school purposes resolution. May I have a motion, please? So moved. Second. Question on a motion. Mr. Hassinger, I do have a question if that's all right. And a part of this is that I totally understand from you for four years. All right. But um so I recognize that there have been failed negotiations with this land owner uh as stated here. Have we explored other options beyond getting to this point of of eminent domain that just were not No, I think that I think that the uh the sale was already approved by the courts and the sale was already
015approved um by the district. I think this is this action was requested by the landowner to help this go through. So the landowner is in support of this? Oh yes. Okay. Thank you. Any additional questions? No. Thank you. Hearing none. Al, yes. Ryan, yes. Tim, yes. Mike, yes. Alice, yes. Michelle, yes. Kathleen, yes. And I vote yes. Items 8.1 Uti uh Unity Park uh Boy Scout Project Would you would you please make sure the mic? Thank you. Thank you very much. Yes. All right. Good evening board. My name is Caleb Sers. I am with the Boy Scout Troop 73 based here in Gettysburg. And I'm going to be giving a brief presentation on a proposed Eagle Scout project that I am required to plan, develop, and lead. That is going to be constructing a band
016down in Unity Park. Now, the band stand is an idea that stems from the fact that the original project was at Unity Park was also an Eagle project which was designed to commemorate and honor the Civil War musicians of the time. My project aims to enhance that idea by providing a dedicated space for non-musical performers and musical performers alike. It is also designed to complement the bell stand that exists in Alumni Park as to more naturally blend in with the space. Now, the design itself is going to be based off of bandstands that were constructed sometime in the 1880s and 1880s and 1870s, which is around the time when Gettysburg began to be memorialized and recognized historically. Here can you can see an example from 1871, that kind of style. Here's a view of what
017the proposed structure might look like across the street from Mr. G's. Here's a different angle from Mr. G's. There we go. Here's a view from the edge of Alumni Park. Here's a long axis view with the statue and tablets from Unity Park in the distance. Another long access view from the hilltop overlooking the space. Another long access view that is from the street corner. And here finally is an aerial view that you can see what it might look like from above. Now the key benefits of this project are going to be that it enhances the appeal and functionality of Unity Park because it is currently quite underutilized. It will encourage community participation through performance and music in general. It will strengthen the community activities at a site that is historically significant and as an Eagle
018project, it will be a lasting legacy, especially for the 250th anniversary of the United States next year. Now, the considerations for the project, the cost is still to to be determined. I am currently speaking with somebody about that. Funding, however, is entirely my responsibility. the board and the school district does not have to worry about that. That is all my doing. However, contributions will be welcomed, but are definitely not required. As for as excuse me, as for the timeline, I expect to start sometime this summer and would like to have this completed by the America's 250th next year or sometime sooner. Uh this entire project however needs to be done by my 18th birthday in order for me to actually achieve the rank of Eagle Scout. So have a bit of time bit of a
019timeline there. Now, as for the construction of the project, I will include scouts from my own troop. Um, as well as work I will be working with the Order of the Arrow network, which is a Boy Scouts of America organization, pretty much the honor role of Boy Scouts, as well as students, friends, colleagues, any volunteers who may be interested in helping with the project. As I said earlier, I have been talking with somebody about the design and the cost of this, Mr. Schneider who runs at ACTI Building Trades is going to be acting as the oops is going to be acting as the chief consultant and quality control officer for the project and as the school district is a beneficiary of this project. Progress updates on it will be provided as it is requested. Now
020the approval process like I said the school district is a beneficiary of this project and it has two. The other one being the community of Gettysburg itself. So I will need first of all the approval from the school district as it is their property and second of all once I get that I will need the approval from the community of Gettysburg and the burrow for to actually build the structure. And then once I have both of those I can take that to the Eagle Scout Border Review Committee to actually continue with my project. To summarize what my request simply is, I'm seeking that the Gettysburg Area School District approve my project so that it can get further down the road towards execution. I am open to any guidance and recommendations that the school district may
021have towards this project as well as any collaboration andor support that they may be willing to give. Again, that is not required, but it is definitely welcome. If there are any questions, I would will take them now. But thank you for your time and consideration and thank you Dr. Matner and uh facilities director Mr. Reynolds for inviting me to come out this evening. I don't have a question, but I just want to make sure you un um because it's anformational item this evening. There was a request to move it to an action item and I'm confident that you have board support. Yes. I just unfortunately because of the way it's structured can't move it this evening from anformational item to an action item because I would I would not then I'm not allowing the public
022input on in public comment. Yes. So uh I don't want you to read into that. I mean certainly this is a fantastic presentation. It's a fantastic idea. So it is the way it will go. I'll make sure it's on next the next meeting's agenda for a vote. Yes. Okay. Thank you sir board. Thank you very much. Appreciate your time. Well, boy oh boy, don't we get a great followup to this 8.2 the 2025 20226 district budget. You notice my enthusiasm, right? I can tell your enthusiasm. Yes. Thank you. Uh so for this evening I have before you um as we get near to the adoption of the general fund budget uh a presentation um for you this evening. Uh so um before you tonight we have two slides this one and the next one. This
023one is recommendation from administration of one and a half percent increase 1% for acti and uh 5% to cover all other expenditures in the budget. Um the the revenues are total 77.5 million with the expenditures being um apologize for the smallness of the slide but um 79.2 2 million and a deficit to be addressed by the general fund budget uh unreserved is 1.6 million. The next slide itself um is just a presentation of 1% what the 1% looks like as a recommendation. So there's two recommendations before the board obviously one point 1 1.5% the administration recommendation and 1% for the ACTI bond funding in of itself. So you may ask what necessarily changed between the two. Um we'll go further on to explain this. On the 1% um budget we have um sorry going off
024of my slides here on the computer as you can see a little easier to read as they get the numbers are smaller. The presentation is on will be available online but for the 1% we have 77.5 million for revenue and 79 million 214 for expenditures using 1.63 million of fund balance. Next slide. We talked a lot about fund balance before um and where was our fund balance over the course of the year and we always typically wait for the audit to determine what the fund balance is moving forward. It's probably the biggest push for our audit to start with simply because we're in a current fiscal year and while we can project the current surroundings, it is very unusual or very it's not recommended to count your fund balance twice to try to balance your
025budget for the following year. So the fund balance as we said here from 1415 we had in the undesated fund balance we started with 11 million as of 2324 audit we have 6.3 million. And why I wanted to show this representation of 6.3 million is because that is the beginning fund balance that we work with with the next year's budget. So as you can see the unassigned fund balance 10-year history um the the decreases over a period of time to the unassigned fund balance with the exception of 23 24 was an influx of federal money that year. So you can see the change in the unassigned any increases or decreases in the fund balance um whether it's uh short on excuse me less expenditures or more revenue rolls right into the fund balance for the
026following year's calculation. Next slide please. So here's the summary approach. Um the 6.3 million of which I talked to you briefly on the previous slide. It's our beginning number. So if you're looking at one and a half% increase or 1% increase, you can see the revenue for each uh 78 million u or 77.5 million uh for the revenues and the expenditures are 79 uh respectively. So the revenues less expenditures 1.6 million that is what our intent to use fund balance is to balance our budget. If you take um the consideration of the 6% fund balance by board policy, we must retain 4.7 million of unreserved fund balance um in our calculations. That 6% fund balance is a percent of expenditures. So in summary, whatever option is selected, it's 6.3 million less 1.6 million, which equals
0274.7 million for your fund balance as the end of the following year. Next slide, please. So, what changed from the proposed budget previously? Yes. So, just to point out then um because the question of fund balance always comes up. So, the slide that showed going from 11.5 million down to six. Uh that's that's from when the district used to keep 8% correct based on policy. Correct. And now we keep the low% the low threshold. Yes. I think there was a commitment to keep 8% at that period of time and then of course over a period of time the reduction down to 6%. Yeah, it was a it was at at that time it was trying to keep a percentage of um the district's uh basically it was a percentage of the property that the district
028owned making sure that we had enough in savings to deal with any significant issues. Correct. Um so from what changed from the previous budget and last meeting that we had there was several um items of discussion that evening um we had since then uh we have been uh we have received information from our property and casualty insurance is a 30-year increase. Um and so we reflected that in this this budget as well as the previous budget presented to you did not have the ACTI tuition. Thank you for Mrs. Myers for reminding me. Um, but all presentations prior did not have that in. This number was new. So, of course, with all the other changes that were occurring up to date, we propose to make those changes uh reflective into the the budget. So, we did
029increase the tuition as well as we took a look at the real estate. Thank you, Mr. Forom for reaching out to the assessment office once again to get any updated assessment changes. So we have increased the assessment allocations based upon the estimates received from the county decreases since the last meeting um in order to get to the 1% which I can briefly explain we also took a look at decreasing the capital funding uh for the budget. So we initially started out in the pre-planning phases of a million dollars funding for capital reserve excuse me capital plan which is the five-year capital plan. The first uh goaround of reductions, we reduced it by 125,000. Last board meeting, the request came, can we reduce the capital plan again in order to get to 1%. In order to
030do that, we're taking an additional $178,000 from there. So, we're going from $1 million to a new funding of $696,000. So, we did decrease the capital plan funding. You will see that reflection in the expenditure between the two columns. there's really the the changes other than the increases are reflected as well as the discussion on the GAF uh funding. Um so that is really the in a summary fashion of what changed from last budget presentation to this budget presentation and uh coming back before the board with two options 1% or one and a half% increase. The next slide please. Can I ask a quick question about that? Just to clarify, um I know I was not present at the last meeting and I know that the prior meeting we had had a um presentation from
031our director of the GAF, the the education foundation about all the ways in which that foundation serves the school district. Um I know there had been conversation about what exactly is the am like how is the amount determined? Did we look at um this I'm reading this slide as that is no longer present in it at all. So, I'm wondering if there is was was there a discussion about potentially offering some form of support there um for this partnership that has existed with that foundation for I can't think of the number off the top of my head, but you know, as a as a member sitting on the board, I know it is providing many things to our students in our school district. And um you know, many of us didn't know about the details
032and ways that it was doing that. Um and then we had this long presentation about it and heard about the ways it impacted even programming at um our many of our elementary schools. So um I I feel a little hesitant taking that completely off the table in the way that that partnership is still very much functional and still very beneficial to our schools. Um perhaps not the full amount of what has existed is what we're looking at here. I don't know if that just to clarify is that taking away all support from the district towards that foundation financially as it stands based upon the previous meeting the district's contribution yes it is removing the the contribution of 25,000 for the director okay I I would encourage the board to to look at ways to include
033some form of support for that foundation um considering if there is not any support given then that is less that that foundation can do for kids Um, that's my two cents on it. I mean, I know we all sat through a meeting kind of hearing about it. So, I just want to state that for the record. I know I'm sure Al would support that. I know he's listening in, but Belinda. Okay. Thanks. So, thank you. Um, so previously, Mr. Moyer had asked about the family navigators. So, I'm providing you information as to what the family navigators could potentially look like. So over the history period of years the first year we operated as paid internships work directly with the college that's no longer an option. Second year 23 24 we had one of the positions
034paid by the homeless grant and the second was funded by the general fund budget. Third year in which we're currently in both positions are known as independent contractors and they're covered as other professional services in the general fund budget. of course um discussion for the 2526 year as to where you want to head for this. Um but I wanted to give you a kind of like a summary synopsis of presently what the independent contractor's cost is currently about 120,000. If we were to bring these employees on several um requirements are needed. One we need to decide on employee category. Now that may sound like what do you mean by that? Well we need to decide if these employees they're independent contractors. We need to determine if they're classified support individuals, which I don't believe that
035they would stay underneath that classification, administrators, adding them to the act 93, or professional employees adding them to the um GAA. And if so, then of course, we would need to terminate the independent contractor agreement with those two. Um, we would need to create job descriptions because we do not have a current job description for those type of individuals. We also would need anou. An MLOU would be specific to GAA, not necessarily act 93. But again, the board would have to make the decision as to how that category would would fall into place. We then would have to post it, applications, interviews. So, it would be a lengthy process in order to change the the uh background or the commitment to the family navigators. And so of course um in looking at bringing employees on
036um underneath assuming it's the GAA contract we're estimating salaries to be 180 with benefits. Uh benefits is relatively low simply because uh one of the employees is married to an individual in the district. So therefore already a part of our insurance um offerings. So, um, benefits are relatively low considering what it could be. So, a total estimation cost, and again, this is estimated because there's no surefire method to say how they'll be placed on the professional contract, but we're looking at $232,82 with a budgetary change of an estimated $112,82 to consider the family navigators as employees of the district. So, I wanted to present this information. Mr. Moyer had asked for it. Um what it would look like, what would need to be done. Um so you know further discussions or guidance on this would
037be helpful because many departments would have to be involved in moving these employees. I should say these these are two individuals as employees. Belinda, because I'm afraid this is going to get lost here. Nothing against the family navigators program and I appreciate you presenting that, but I'm going to look at this from a common sense point of view. We're here trying to pass a budget that's fair not only to the district but to the taxpayers. These individuals are under contract currently. Correct. So there is no loss of service or any damage to anybody within the district with us just leaving them under contract. Correct. That's correct. So my suggestion to this board would be before we would go down a venture of moving them that direction, not and I'm not saying I'm against it, but
038I think it would be fair, at least from my perspective, to allow a new board that's going to take over next year to make that determination from a budget point of view and what works best for the district. You yourself just told us it's going to be an a long process. So, we're going to pass a budget or we're going to propose to pass a budget with this in mind seems very reckless of me for for us in my opinion cuz we're not losing anything. You're not losing anything. You still continue the independent contractor agreements until otherwise. Um, but it is it is not an easy hey, let's make these employees of the district. It is a a lengthy process and one that I wanted to share with the estimation of cost is because this
039estimation of cost is not in the general fund process. And I think that's fantastic and I and I'm not saying I would even if I was sitting here and I won't be when this gets brought up again in another year. I think that's a great idea for the board to look at that. But I just think in the terms of our budget process this year, if we're not losing anything, it's irresponsible us to j try to jam this down because we're going to have to pass a budget funded and we haven't even done the selection and gone through theus. We don't know any resistance. We don't know where the turnaround comes and it may not happen before the end of this year. Correct. Yeah. Okay. I I I appreciate we're providing you the information. No,
040I understand that. I just I needed to get that out there because I don't want I don't want somebody to think that okay, we don't go that direction that this board doesn't care about this particular family navigators program. It's really just the logistics of it and the timing of it when we're not losing anything. I will share in talking to our administrator, it it is a great program and they are doing great things for having two individuals. Um and it's one that we've had other districts asking how we're operating it simply because the value is there. um and they just wanted to know how they could bring it into their district similar fashion to what we are doing. So, okay, as of right now, ours are independent contractors and we hope to retain that annually.
041Thank you, Belinda. Can I ask um guidance counselors, where are they how are they categorized as employees? Guidance counselors are employees. They are a member of GAA's contract. Um and um family navigators and guidance counselors are two different areas of field. Please don't ask me to explain what those are. No, I was defer to the educators. I think that they work a lot with the counselors and that's why I was like it it would almost make sense if if we were to do this to put them with the counselors. Yes. The counselors are part of the association agreement. Yeah. They they also work really really closely with the uh district social worker. Yes. Yes. So just providing you information. There was no change to the budget. This this was just giving you additional information in
042terms of the the budget process. Uh next slide. Again you've seen this before. This has been our tax increase versus the index increase over the period of years and over the six-year period. Uh this is not new. So we've had even with a one and a half percent increase as proposed for next year it would be a 818% over the last um uh eight years. Just for a point of reference um the act your wealth of the district is one of the factors in measuring the act one index. So it's also referred to as electi. So new basic eds funding formula will not come your way if your elect is relatively wealthy and our elect is relatively wealthy whether or not even though we're given permission to raise 4.8% index um we would not receive
043any new money from the state regardless of um staying where we're at or increasing to the index. We're permitted to go to the index. So, it's just basically the district leaving funds sitting off the table and not being collected by state funding in any way, shape, or form. I just like to point that out because the district is not receiving any additional basic education subsidy simply because the factors going into the basic ed subsidy, one of those is lecter lecti, excuse me. And so, uh, act one is a portion of that lect. Next slide. Again, um with the updated numbers to the revenue and to uh the expenditures as well as taking a look at the county data, um our market assessed value um is the average is 27448 for a district and um at
0441% it would be a $31.20 increase and at 1.5% 4679 increase. However, with the Homestead Farmstead, the um total would be a increase to a reduction of 2926. So, which would bring the homestead farmstead property increase parcel based on one and a half increase to $1744 per year. Next slide is uh just a representation shown the last board meeting well as well as the historical revenue expenditures and the general fund balance. Uh revenue expenditures are shown in the bar graph area whereas the fund balance is shown as the dark green line amount over the period of years. Next slide. Um we talk of again as I mentioned before I just like to bring this home because fund balance is not just this number sitting there not untouchable. It is actual cash that is used until
045we are able to receive tax revenue. Um once the tax parcels the the part the billing goes out and the funds come in um it looks about basic basically saying how many days of cash do you have on hand with the fund balance that you have. Now, of course, this is a projection over even out a 5-year period. If doing nothing other than m raising 1% per year, we can see that our 2025, we would have 17 days of cash on hand with the 6% fund balance that we have presented before. If we put that out to uh three, four more years, you'll see we're a negative status of 15 uh days of having no cash on hand. If we were to, and this is assuming if we were to maintain the exact same percentage
046of expenditure increases that we currently do with no change of inflection and a commitment of 1% tax increase, we will then have our fund balance down below uh 15 days of cash on hand as a representation. Next slide. Just showing April 16th is up for the action in the vote. Um, as we presented this evening, it'll be two options coming before you. It'll be 1 and a.5% and 1%. And, um, that evening is the vote for the final budget. And then, of course, after that, we fall for um, all the appropriate documentation before PTE. Any questions? Al, did you have a question? Yeah, I was just going to make a remark regarding family navigators if that's okay. Yeah, go ahead. Yeah, I I just wanted to say a big thank you to Belinda for uh
047providing the feedback and the information regarding the family navigators. I I do take a little bit of an issue that I do believe after 3 years of these people working with our pupil personnel services and attending the last advisory council meeting. My perception is these people have really become indispensable and I do think the process of a job description and and the other things to uh make them permanent professional employees. I I think they could do that in about five minutes because they've been with the district for three full years at this point. We we either know or we don't know what they're doing. Uh but I I believe they're equivalent to guidance counselors at each of the uh building levels and and I and what the remark was made that we don't we're not
048losing anything or we're possibly jamming this down the budget at the 11th hour. I I I don't really think that's the case with after three years of being with us. Uh the the risk that we do take a and frankly if I'm Tara or I'm Rachel, I'm keeping my options open when I'm not getting anything towards uh tenure. I'm not getting anything towards my retirement. And uh and I I just I'm I'm not on the same level with the rest of the professional staff. So I I just think after three years it's time that we uh either move forward and make a commitment to them or we decide that maybe it's not where we want to go. So that so I just wanted to say a big thank you to Belinda for the feedback. I
049appreciate that. Thanks. Thank you, Al. Anybody have any additional questions of Belinda? Belinda, you're not getting away. Just real quickly, um I want to follow up because I don't want a misconception. The audit's not in and we talked at the last meeting there would be a surplus of ex in the past of in excess of $800,000. Are we are we in agreement there? We have had excess with our proposed aggregate financial reports. One can assume that we'll have an influx of money. Um but if I were to project that out and again there's so many unknowns at this particular point. I would not want to commit those funds when I do not know if those funds are are 100% accurate. Uh meaning there's a lot of audit adjustments that need to occur. So you could
050consider $500,000 of an increase, but I would also counter that to say next year's budget, we're looking at decreasing the capital funding plan. I would recommend that there be action on the agenda for the close of the audit that if there is any additional funding for the close of the audit to put towards the capital fling plan difference so that our facility and infrastructure is not taking a beat um simply because of the budget as being a um uh offering so to speak during the school budget. So yeah, and I'm and this is not personal or and I know you're not taking it that way, but I am really I'll be honest with you. I'm confused because I I confident the last meeting it was represented at least how I took it that each year
051when this audit comes in that we do not have an opportunity to see and make a judgment that there is an excess of $500,000 that are sitting there and that the 0.5 that the district is asking us for can be offset. So all you're doing is you're not putting the taxpayers at 0.5. You're waiting a couple months until the audit shows that we have that money and then we're supplementing that 0.5 with that and not going to the unfund side unfund sign balance and still having other funds available that we saw as a windfall from the audit that would then supplement the capital fund. See see unless something's moving around on me. It it seems rather simple. You better I mean yeah you better I mean we better have money left over at the end
052because we're using $1.6 million out of savings to balance uh the budget. I think that what Belinda was saying was we don't want to double count money and that's the risk that's the risk you run with double counting double counting uh money. Yeah. And Jason again um and I'm I'm just trying to get my hands around us. Okay. We we're not we're dipping into savings. So the savings is really the unassigned fund balance cuz I can hear what's going to happen tomorrow on my emails. So I want to be crystal clear. Unassigned fine balance that's where we're going to where the board has set 6% every year and your projections here puts us at 6%. Right. Yes. So when the audit comes in in a month from now or two months from now and all
053of a sudden we say, "Oh wow, there's $652,000 in that audit sitting there." What are we doing with that? It goes into unassess fund balance to use to the next budget cycle. Yeah. So next budget cycle that's what'll keep us at 6%. That's what'll keep us at the at the 6% whenever we use another two. You guys you guys do the budget. Does it ever end? Because we passed a resolution that says we're going to be zero. The only way that's going to end is if there's no reliance on fund balance and we're not there. So we've got to rely on fund balance every single year until the fund balance runs out. And so you know like Dr. her parents said and I had said I cannot duplicate money that is unknown if it's going
054to be an increase. I could estimate sure you could estimate higher in revenue but will it truly like I'm getting to the point we are getting closer and closer on our expenditures that I wouldn't want to commit using unknown fund balance this year for next year's budget cycle. Right. And I'm just asking you, is it not possible in the current situation we in financially if you're talking about the 0.5 comes out to $230ome,000, could that not be supplemented with whatever is left over from the audit? And how does that affect because you're not going below 6%, we're staying at 6% by board mandate? Right. The the unfortunate thing is the budget needs to be approved before the audit. I agree. I agree. I agree. Yes. I think also what Belinda, and correct me if I'm
055wrong, you're recommending is underfunding the capital improvement plan. Correct. And then if there's a surplus after we get the audit back, then we'll refund that. Correct. Yeah. Yeah. So, one last question. Sure. So, last year this board raised 1% for dedicated ACTI, correct? This year we're again considering a 1% increase. And I understand the reasoning behind that. Trust me, I get all that. Where's the 1%? Where's it getting parked at? It's going to be parked as a designated fund balance. So, right now, current year is sitting in expenditures. That 1%. We've raised revenue for that and designated 1%. It's sitting in expenditures at year end, we move those expenditures over to a committed fund balance just like piecers that when the bond payments come in and due, we pull from that account to pay for
056those payments. Um once we have the mill in place, there's no more millillage needed to fund the bond payments for ACTI. So really I'm sorry. So I have a question in in terms of that. So ACTI hasn't committed to a property and we don't have an exact dollar amount in mind for that. And we're what we're doing with the 1% increase last year, the proposed 1% increase this year. We're increasing those mills which will perpetually stay increased forever. So, at what point do we determine like even if in in two years or three years ACTI hasn't broken ground, which I hope they do, when do we know when is an appropriate time to stop that increase for compounding purposes? Well, I believe ACTI has had uh the feasibility study done as well as appropriate funding
057plan mechanism provided to them um to say what different level of contributions each district would need to participate. So once we reach to that level of what whether it's 20 million, 50 million, whatever, whatever our portion would be, we would stop raising mills to that point because we would have the budget ready and prepared to fund that bond payment our portion for ACTI. It would take about uh it'd be four to four to five years we would reach the level uh where they were looking at based on the feasibility studies. So if if the eventual like project ends up being you know less or then that adjustment can be made kind of on the fly at that time. Mr. Dickerson, right now our commitment is over a million dollars. We cannot raise millage in a
058million dollars in one year's time. So that's why we're recommending to do it over a period of years to phase that in so it's not so much of an increase all at one time. It's B basically it's the same uh it's the same funding plan that previous boards uh did with um preparing to do say like you know the high school HVAC re renovation. It's the same just basically stepping up millage over time so that there isn't a big hit to taxpayers in in a one or two year period. So thanks good question. No thank you. Any questions? I know this audit's coming back. I know. But I can't get over that because it's done it every year since I've been here. This is my eighth year. I mean, it has to. No, it's coming
059back and it's going to come back with that surplus. That's what that's what causes me to pause. I understand everything you're saying. But from it's just it's causing me for whatever reason now it's it's it's glowing. It's there. And just the same as the state hasn't have their budget in place and we have our budget in place and if there's if and when there is additional funds from the state it goes right into the fund balance used again for the following year. It's not that that the funny the money is lost and it's not that you know we're not misplacing money or whatever the case may be. It's we're if we receive new money that is non-budgeted we're we are not permitted to spend that money. we ha it has to go into fund balance
060as legislation has ruled that just similar like we're not allowed to overexpend our expenditures once the budget has been set. However, we have in terms of esser dollars because we did not have esser money budgeted for two years and we have expended over um our budget in that term. So there's there's rules that do apply. I know that's not the answer that you're looking for. I don't know that you can give me the answer that I'm looking for. I think I know the answer. The answer is is that each year we end with a surplus and I'm just proposed that instead of that 0.5, I understand the 1% on the ACTI. What I'm having trouble with if we're not going to drop below 6% which is a board mandate, why would we even go 0.5?
061It's a measly 200 and I don't mean it's measly 230 $335,000. And then you're going to show me an audit, not you personally, but the district will get an audit back and hey, let's say $500,000. So, you borrowed from Peter to pay Paul right now. You didn't hurt the taxpayer. We still stayed at 6% and we still were able to refund the uh capital improvement plan and okay, we don't have it for next year. Well, next year is a different budget and the district's and the board's going to do exactly what they do every single year. Where are you going to cut? Where are you going to streamline? You're going to work within your means. And if you have to go f next year because we made a mistake here, so be it. But I
062don't think we're making a mistake. The audit's going to show us that. That's my personal opinion. I I also think though that one of the things we don't want to do is put a board three or four years down the road in a situation where we have an increased structural revenue to a point to keep up with increased people costs um because we are funding um you know new contracts and things that are increasing at greater rates than previous contracts. So, I think that if we don't if we don't increase structural revenues, shoving one-time money into the budget each year to fill gaps is going to put future boards at risk. Not necessarily this one for this budget, but you know, two, three down the two, three years down the road. Thank you, Meinda. Thank
063you, Jason. Sure. Any additional questions for board members? I just Sorry. I just wanted to ask is the act 93 contract that we're working on included in that budget? Yes, it is. Kathleen, yeah, thank you. So, I so I understand this. So, we we approve our budget before we know what the state will actually be giving us. And if the state gives us more than we anticipate by school code, we're not allowed to actually spend that in this budget year. So, it has to go into the unassigned fund balance. Correct. And that's why we often have something like a $500,000 or whatever surplus. Correct. Thank you. It could be federal money as well, like it could be other sources of revenue. It could be an increased money in um the interest rates. you know, we
064we do receive interest on our um on our money as we invest it out. So, it could be a number of things. Um our budget, we do include uh estimations of new properties coming on um and we reached out to the county for those numbers. So, it you know there's there are moving targets. We're making the best estimate of what we have with maintaining fund balance at 6% based by on policy. The board can change the policy if so chooses, but we are preparing a budget and having it available to you based upon the factors that um in the end on a sun fund balance needs to be at 6%. Did we forget somebody else contributes to that fi that money is the taxpayers? Is it not? Okay. I cuz I I heard everything else
065and there's where my question on that is at. It's not just from pot A, pot b. It may be from different pots that we can't predict, but it definitely is coming from a 0.5 or.1.0 tax increase. A majority of our budget comes from local taxpayers because we're considered wealthy statewide. Yeah. Well, within the top I know within the top like 10% or Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. 8.3 is the uh unified indoor uh botchi program. I guess botchi ball is uh so currently we have an allied sports program which consists of uh golf in the fall, bowling in the winter, and track and field in the spring. Um bowling and track and field have a pretty good participant pretty good participant numbers. golf the past two years has had very limited um last school year
066we had two this this school year we had one participant in allied golf um so what I would like to do is move allied bowling to the fall and then offer a bachi program which is really starting to pick up the past five or six years um the special Olympics would provide all the equipment we would need and the uniforms for the kids um the only thing we would need to provide is the stipen that would go from allied golf to bot and transportation for four to five uh matches against teams in the mid pen. Who that would be yet, I'm not quite sure. That would all depend. Um so outside of travel, it's costneutral. Yes. So for the board personally, I've was took part with Allied Bowling when it was down off of Steinwear.
067Um, it's just like when you argue ACTI, this program is invaluable for for for our students and it reaches a set of students that can use that assistance and it's just a it's a building block. So, it's it's a very it's a very good program. So, I just want to make it clear we're removing golf and adding botchi. Correct. That's the proposed on the information. Yes. Okay. And funding neutral. So I don't have to ask Binda if this is in the in the budget. Yeah, it's already in it's already in the budget, but it's gone. Yeah. So that will come for an action item at the next meeting. Thank you, Cody. 8.4 the high school sewer pump station rehabilitation. This is also was a question this evening to move to an action item, but unfortunately
068we will not be moving it. It'll be on the next next uh two weeks agenda. Are there any questions on on that particularformational item? hearing none. Board committee reports. Wow. Awesome. Program reports. If I may, before Dr. Parin jumps in, the feasibility study is available on our website underneath the facility um subcommittee of facility and finance. So if you want to see the full report as well as the uh summary, it is posted on the committee. You mean demographic study, right? Yes. What did I say? Feasibility study. I'm sorry. The demographic study. Please have that demographic study available online. Yeah, I'll give you this. We do get questions about that. I'll give you the synopsis without going on and reading it. So, so we did a we did a Zoom call with uh Dr. Steumman
069from Carnegie Melon whenever he sent us the final document. So basically over a 10-year period uh enrollment play enrollment stays uh pretty stable. Um you might see increases and decreases of up to 100 students but that's district-wide through like all you know through all 13 grades. So not much fluctuation there. And he said that um his basically the the prior study that he did for us um what he hit 99% accurate. It was 99% accurate that he did for us. So feel pretty good about his numbers. I see Dave laughing because he sits through a lot of these in different districts. 99's pretty good. Um so uh so it's pretty stable over that 10-year period. and he did share with us um that really the only place if it could ever be wrong, the only
070thing that could be wrong is that we'd end up with more students because of the new housing that's going in. He said that basically we just have to keep an eye on the earlier grades to see if those projections hold true because then we could follow those students uh forward. He said there's very little chance of it going going down. Um only a little bit of a chance of it going up if um and he gave the variable a name but basically what it is is you know percent of new students um as related to new housing uh you know coming into uh the district. So that's kind of a synopsis but you can go read the 60 pages of um sophomore level sophomore level statistics if you'd like. It's on the It's on the
071website. Anything additional? All right. Having said that, I'm sorry. Having said that, um that'll conclude. I'll ask for a motion in a second, but um I want to thank thank everybody and congratulate uh Kathleen Pratt on being not only nominated, but selected and again our two other candidates that came here this evening. Um it's refreshing to have somebody step forward that doesn't not come with criticism but comes with solutions or potential solutions. So thank thanks both of you. I have I have a couple. Okay. I'm sorry. Jason, go ahead. I just wanted to say congratulations to uh all of our seniors and their families that graduated uh recently. And uh best wishes to all of those students as they move on uh to the next the next chapter in their lives. And uh congrats to
072the high school uh team, staff, administration, teachers uh has put on another great uh commencement. There's a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes that makes that night seem seamless in terms of how it runs and they do an excellent job with that. So congrats to the graduates. Congrats to their families and congrats to everybody at the high school that worked on that evening and it didn't rain which is fantastic. And the only other thing is uh this is my last board meeting. So thanks very much. You stole that thunder. That's what I was just going to remind everybody. This is uh Dr. Parin's last board meeting. And on behalf of the board, um it's been an honor to work with you and serve with you. Um Mike and I have some very
073fond memories and we have a lot of uh post-traumatic stress disorder from the COVID years and the countless hours on the phone trying to draft policy to get us through um something we never thought was going to end. So Jason, best of luck um at your new district and um I mean you leave us in very competent hands here uh with both our new superintendent, assistant superintendent, but financially across the board this and educationally this is one of the best districts bar none. Um and I'm quite confident in saying that. So thank you Jason. No, I appreciate it. And I will I will certainly say that um when I came here initially, I really did think um I see Todd over there because he was here whenever I whenever I whenever I came to the
074district that I really thought it would be for kind of four years to see what the superintendent thing entailed because I had done the assistant superintendent thing for about six years and and thought I think I can help in the other role. And uh it's really the people that I'm in year eight still sitting at this table, you know. It's it's the it's the people in the schools. It's really just the people in the community in general um that I chose to make a home here and and stay for 8 years. And uh I'm glad that I did. And uh there are some lifelong friendships that were forged during that time that I'll be ever grateful for. And uh so I I appreciate it and thanks for the opportunity that these uh last 8 years
075uh provided me. [Applause] With that I will entertain entertain a motion to adjurnn and you can gavble us out. So moved.