NPSD School Board - Finance Committee Meeting 2-3-26

001I choose. Okay. 15 minutes. I think we can do this in 15 minutes. >> Are you serious? >> I'm We're good. We're good to go. >> Good evening everyone. Uh welcome to today's finance committee meeting. We will start with our pledge. I aliance 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. >> Awesome. >> Thank you. So, can I start with um approving the minutes of the last finance meeting? >> So, moved. >> Second. And with that, minutes are approved. >> We have to take a vote. >> Yes. >> All right. Can I get a vote? >> I >> No. Minutes approved. Thank you very much. All right. And I can hand over to >> Yep.

002>> Miss Hower. Thank you, Miss Hower. >> So, thank you. Um, I have my Kathleen Turner voice tonight with my coal. So, um, the first item that I have to go to work s or to the action meeting, we are not having a work session. So, these will all be on the action meeting on the 19th, um, is the 2025 tax leans. For those of you that are new to the board, every year, you have until December 31st to pay your property taxes. If you do not pay your property taxes in full by the December 31st, um, your tax bills are turned over to the county tax claims office. Um and then you have to settle up with the county. Um so if they had paid if they had started a payment plan, didn't complete

003it or didn't make any payments at all, the properties are leaned and they are sent to the county. Um so these lists are um the interims and the regular taxes for uh the 2025 tax year. [snorts] And I believe we got everyone in. We were waiting on a couple of the tax collectors. I believe at this point we have everyone in. You may see more on the action meeting if I'm missing one or two. [snorts] And we need a motion. >> And I have a motion. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Okay. We have a motion by Mr. Rash, second by Mr. Bell. All right. Now >> comments, questions. >> Comments or questions? >> Seeing none. [clears throat] >> Okay. Seeing none, can I get a vote? Hi. >> Hi. >> Any nays? >> Um,

004I'm going to do B by itself and then I'm going to take C, D, E, and F together. Um, B was a taxpayer initiated assessment uh appeal and we agreed that we will reduce their taxes by 9,000 um and by basically it's an I believe it's an empty bank. It's the TD Bank and it's empty at this point. Um, so we're reducing the assessment and then so then we are refunding them $9,400 in taxes. >> All right. For item B, can I get a motion? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Motion by McBain, second by Mr. Kaiser. Any questions or comments on this one? Seeing none. >> Can I get a vote? >> I >> Any nays? >> Oh, no. >> Motion passes. Thank you. >> Um I'm sorry. I need to amend that. I

005there just so you're all aware and you can approve it at the at the action committee meeting that the 9400 was for just that one property. It's 27 and 12 and 94. So it's going to be a total of approximately 40 around 50,000. But it's for all three of the TD banks. My apologies. >> So, Oh, okay. The dollar amount. >> The dollar amount. Yeah. All of them are attached. >> So, they are I just The summary didn't have didn't add the three locations together. It was just the last parcel. >> So, the public comment is accurate. >> Yes. >> All of the assessments are accurate. Correct. The recommended re excuse me, [clears throat] recommended action is accurate. Correct. Just the dollar amount. >> The dollar amount in the header is incorrect. Yes. >> Oh,

006good. We can make [snorts] that change. So that will be the 27, the 12, and the 9th. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Okay. >> Yep. >> All right. Thank you. >> Yep. Um items C, D, E, and F were all school district initiated appeals. These properties have either changed hands um or they've been developed for some reason, and we felt that the assessments were too low. We have um we challenged the assessment and we were successful. So all of those together will be going up in up in value. Um, so we will be collecting more taxes. If you're comfortable taking them together, I'd like to do that just easier. >> Okay. So for items C, D, E, >> and F. Can I have a motion? >> Second. >> Motion by Mr. McBain, second by Miss Ramage.

007Any questions or comments? I'd just like to make sure real quick just so the community is clear, these are all properties that are uh valued and assessed rather over a million dollars at this point. >> Yes. >> So we had a policy previously where we would be looking at uh assessments that had difference of over I want to say >> I think it was over I think the if it was a change of 50,000 or 500,000 I I forget the exact number. >> 500,000. Yeah. >> All right. Just want to make sure that everybody knew like what we were looking at and and uh and why. Thanks. Mhm. And actually at the March 3rd finance committee meeting, Mr. Glassman's going to be coming to talk specifically about our assessment, our reassessment policy, when we challenge,

008when we don't challenge, um, when we, you know, if a taxpayer files an appeal, when we challenge that appeal, and all that and all that kind of good stuff. >> Yeah. Thank you. Because I think that was one of my questions, too, was like there has to be a routine to how it's done and how it's evaluated. >> Yeah. And he was originally going to come tonight, but he had court today, so he he was unable to come tonight, so he's going to come March 3rd. >> Thank you. >> Yep. >> Thank you. >> Yep. >> No, we have to >> Oh, we have to vote. >> Yeah. [laughter] >> That thing. >> Well, you know what? Better you than me, you know. [laughter] >> All right. Can I get a vote? Uh, everybody. >>

009All right, then. >> Any nays? No. Okay. Motion passes. Um, letter G is the annual um I kind of call it your dues to the MCIU. It's the the the uh membership services budget. Um, this year they're looking at an increase for us of 4.38%. Um, I believe the overall increase of the budget was 4.5, but based on our proportional share, it changed a little bit. So, we're we're going our our proportional share is going up 4.38% or about $9,500. >> [snorts] >> I get a motion. >> Could I get a motion, please? >> Motion. >> A second, Mr. Bell. And then second by Miss >> Coin. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. >> I was going to call save Miss Christine. [laughter] >> All right. Um, excellent. Any comments or questions? I'll just share

010with uh the board as a whole that this was reviewed with the superintendents uh across the county and we actually get a motion and we vote on it as well and the vote among the superintendents was unanimous. So >> thanks >> and I think in the as the board's rep to the MCIU board I the description is very helpful in that it does cover what this covers. So the MCIU budget is incredibly complex with federal and state grants and other things. And so this really does serve as a way of supporting some of their base services that are not grant funded like prek counts and other things. Um and also you will see additional MCIU expense on the general fund budget for those of you that are new [snorts] that are for services that we

011purchase from the IU. So this is this is the component of their budget for us to just participate as a member of the district. And then if we what services we get, transportation, special ed services, those kinds of things. Um we will pay extra for those and they would be built into our general fund budget later in the year. [snorts] >> And uh just because it's a familiar face for many of you who have been on the board for a few years, we had Mr. Zack Trump who was in the position that Mary White is currently in as an interim. Uh, Zach is the director of finance. I don't know what their title is, a business administrator at the IU. So, this is his first budget. Um, so Zach was here for a few months,

012presented to this board several times. So, it's been neat seeing Zach in his new role at the IU. >> Additional questions? I thought we had one. And just to clarify, it was again 4 point it was um the contribution overall is 4.5%. >> Our no our increase is 4.38. The district increase is 4.3 but their budget increase was 4.5%. >> Correct. >> Okay. Excellent. Thank you. [snorts] All right. Can I get a vote? >> All in favor? >> Any opposed? Seeing none, motion passes. Um the next item is letter H. Uh we did in accordance with um board policy 3660 went out for an RFP for a new insurance broker for the next 5 years. Um the successful candidate was Meyers Insurance out of Allentown, Pennsylvania. Um their uh their presentation and their service level.

013Um I just think that they will be a very good asset to the district going forward. [snorts] Okay. Um, can I get a motion? >> Second. >> All right. Motion by Mr. Bell, second by Mr. McBain. Um, comments, questions. >> Just a curiosity. Uh, in looking at the evaluation, it does seem like they were, uh, fairly close aligned. What was the driver uh that really made this broker stand out? >> Um I think both so Willis Towers and Gallagher are both very large firms. Um and I was just looking for something that had a little more attentiveness to it. Um I I will say Gallagher has over they have almost 200 in some school districts in their portfolio. And while that comes with some depth of things available, it I just was concerned that we

014would get lost in the shuffle. Um, and given our size, I wanted to make sure that we had somebody that was very attentive. Um, in fairness, I've worked with all three of those brokerage firms in the past in various parts of my career. Um, I respect the gentleman that pre presented in all three. Um, I just think where we are right now as a district. Um, you know, some of the things that we're going to do with the safety committee. I know they have, um, Myers has a really good safety guy that can come in and walk through our buildings with us and really provide some of that service. Um, his name's Brian and um, I've worked with them closely before and I just I think they'll be able to serve us very well. >>

015Thank you very much. >> Yep. Um, just for clarity purposes as well, um, I know you're sharing that how how you felt about it, but from what I'm seeing, it was it was a group that deci made this decision. And it wasn't made in a you know like it it was a >> so we had um the interview committee were three members from the business office myself, Miss White and our procurement supervisor. And then we also had representatives from transportation and operations who are our biggest claims folks, you know, because we have auto claims and and property claims are our two big claims. Um along with things that come out of legal representation that comes out of the business office. So, um, those were the folks that interact the most often with the broker and

016that's who we had on the committee. [snorts] >> Yep. >> Thank you for that clarification, Miss Cohen. That's very helpful. >> Yeah. Um, and then just do again for the community, this is a fiveyear >> um >> fiveyear agreement. >> Agreement, right? Okay. Y excellent. All right. With that, I will take a vote. All in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? >> All right. I'll show that. >> Okay. >> And every agreement we sign is a fiveyear um agreement and we review those uh agreements every five years. And uh is that right? >> For those for those five for those five professional services that are listed in policy 3660. Yes. Um >> yeah, there are specific services professional services outlined in that policy. Those are five-year deals. Not every agreement we signed is five years,

017but >> correct. >> Okay. >> Yep. [snorts] >> Yep. >> Um letter I is a um uniform agreement with uh Adidas um through SV Sports, gold medal part, gold medal partnership. Um so it's administered by SV Sports and then it's Adidas branded. Um you can see the the items there. we get when we order at to a certain point, we start accumulating discounts as we go through. Um, we had previously had a Nike agreement. This one's a little bit better. There's a little more guarantees. There's more money um that we can use generally throughout the athletic department um than the Nike agreement had. Um, this does not mean that our kids can only wear Adidas and they have to wear like, you know, we're not an NFL team. So, you know, if you have your,

018you know, lacrosse player needs New Bal New Balance cleats, they can get them. Um, so, and then, you know, our swimmers can get tech suits from Speedo and not Adidas. So, um, there are exceptions, but for the most part, we'll be able to get our team apparel at a at a pretty good discount through the program. >> Yeah, [snorts] Miss Hower was very helpful with me today because I had some of those same questions. uh because the language in the contract reads as pretty restrictive, but it's about the things that we are purchasing. So, for example, if we get lacrosse uniforms, you can't have from Adidas, we can't have a player on the team wear Nike lacrosse uniform. They all have to wear that Adidas uniform. But cleats, mouthguards, hair ties, lacrosse sticks, they don't

019all need to be Adidas. It's just the uniforms is what we're talking about here. >> So, this only applies to the uniforms that the district purchases for athletes, but the things that the athlete may supply. >> Correct. Correct. their choice. >> Okay? >> Like when you when I was in college, I was played a sport in college at Bucknell and we had to wear a brand in everything we wore. It is not that for our high school athletes. So, just to be clear, >> you have a motion. >> Um, and it it is worth noting too that, you know, and I'm going to reach out to Mr. once we have this approved, reach out to Mr. Hustler or Mr. Burgler Burger because if we do the if we do other spiritware through this contract, we

020also accumulate points. So, if teams and and clubs and whatnot want to get t-shirts made and that kind of thing, we're going to try to drive them in this direction because the more we spend, the more discounts we get and you know, that's always helpful. [snorts] >> Well, I have a comment on that, but I'll wait. So, okay. >> Um, can I have a motion? >> All right. Motion by Mr. Kaiser, second by Mr. McBain. [snorts] And now we can have some discussion. Dr. VA and Mrs. Ramage and you guys are the most experienced ones. >> All right. Um >> so just actually to that very last point you know um to the point that it is economical for the booster clubs etc to do so because you know sometimes it is more economical to

021go to our local mom and pop right funnel through uh this contract with the day I would think. Well, so the the company that we're actually going to purchase stuff from is SP Sports. So, and then they will provide us with Adidas branded materials. So, they have other non-branded things um just plain that's what the the Agron and Sarinac products at the bottom. So, those are like, you know, I don't know, store brand um store brand items that we could order for like t-shirts and just gym shorts and that kind of thing. >> [snorts] >> Okay, >> great. Thank you. >> Yep. >> All right. Um, can I >> I just have one question, too. [clears throat] >> The um the bottom part of that it says that there's an exclusionary items. Are they the

022outside the scope of this or >> So, there's some of the items that are just more expensive like like heavy duty parkas and that kind of thing that they wouldn't they wouldn't discount as much as other >> because it says swim and dive uniforms, water polo. They're outside the >> correct. Okay. Y All right. >> All right. All right, that's all. >> Sorry about that. >> Yeah, so those are the the sports specific things like because Adidas doesn't make tech suits. So [snorts] >> I don't think maybe they do now. >> I don't know. >> Any additional questions? All right, I will take a vote. All in favor? I >> Any opposed? Motion passes. >> Um, next item is just our monthly budget transfers. >> [snorts] >> Um, can I get a motion? >> Second.

023>> Motion by Mr. Kaiser, second by uh Mr. Bell. >> All right, any questions, comments on this. This is budget transfers. All right, we'll take a vote. >> Sorry. No. Again, just since I'm new, if you could just help me walk through what some of the just as an example, the the last one perhaps, like I know these happen from time to time. They're happening each month. I I guess I guess what would like to know like the the reasonings behind and what what we prepare for as we transfer with the budgets. Um, so in general when we do the general fund budget at the beginning of the year, it's our best guess, right? So the only thing you know about a budget is that it's wrong the day it's published. So you know [laughter]

024um it's just how wrong. Um and so what we're doing here is a reallocation of of expenses from one line item to another. Um so we're not overspending, we're not under spending, we're just reallocating funds. So in this case in the item that you're talking about um they had set aside 16,000 for staff development. Um they did not need to spend that on on people's time for the staff development. Um so they moved it over to books and periodicals and they bought some general science supplies with that money instead. Um so it was just a it's just moving from one to another. There's a couple on here that um you know we're doing things the way they've always done them in North Penn. I had always done them if you were moving within an object

025or within a major function um that you don't need to put it on a bud on a as a budget transfer because it's in the same place essentially the same place. Um it looks like here we've always done it. We've always showed them regardless of the line item. Um so it's just basically balancing a department. It's usually within a department and [snorts] then they know that they have about they need to spend about this much money and they'll move it around during the course of the year. So just for myself, just for viewers, it's expected. We see this happen all the time. >> All the time. >> Um and if anything, we're we're reporting it to the nth degree. >> Yeah. >> Gotcha. >> Thanks [snorts] for that clarification. And for the example that you

026just gave, is it also and to the point you made um what we're not showing here is what particular school or um the specifics of is it just by the code that if you could you could by so most of these >> Yeah, we don't have the full code on there but it it is we know in the background what school it's coming from into. Yeah, most of these are happening inside the same department. Um, yeah, they're all inside the same department. They're not moving across schools. We don't generally move across schools and departments unless it's coming out of the business office or curriculum because we're applying it. We're a district-wide office. So, [snorts] >> thank you for that clarification. >> Yep. >> All right, we will take a vote. All in favor? Any opposed?

027Motion passes. >> Um and then the last item that we have this evening and we also have a presentation with our lovely Miss Jackie O'Brien from extended school care. Um we are the uh Jackie is going to present about uh our rate increases for our extended care which is the before and afterare. [snorts] Do >> a motion. >> Oh, do we want a do you do the >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Yes. as I say confidently like I knew that [laughter] >> you did totally. So moved. >> Can I So who can I have a mo can I have a motion? >> So moved. >> Second. >> All right, Mrs. Ramage and Mr. Kaiser. Thank you. >> Good evening, Dr. Ourn. >> Good evening. How's everybody today? It's nice to see some all your faces

028today. Um, we're going to today I'm going to do our extended school care proposal for the 2627 school year. We can flip flip the screen page down. >> I think you arrow down on that one >> or you can scroll down. [laughter] >> So, our just a little bit of information about our child care program. We do run extended school care out of all 13 of our elementary schools. Um we are regulated by the Department of Human Services, also known as DHS, and the Office of Child Development and Early Learning, also known as Octel. We follow under the the PA code 55 under chapter 3270. So all of our procedures and practices are all following that code. We offer child care from 2 to 5 days of before and after school care for families. They

029could choose before, after or both. And then we offer we also offer half day in services on some uh well all half days but on some of our full days. Um parents also have the ability to purchase additional days. If something happens with their schedule, they can always contact us and add a day that week or an evening. [snorts] Next page. So there are some regulations that we do follow. We have specific staffto child ratios. So unlike in our typical um classrooms where our numbers can go up to much higher than this. Um when we're in kindergarten through third grade, our staff have to be at a one staff person to 12 child ratio. And then when we have our fourth to sixth graders, then we can move to a 1:15 ratio. Whenever we start

030mixing those age groups, we have to go down to the lowest ratio of 12 to1. So we do try and keep our groups separated so we can have the most children with the least number of staff that for that that um to meet those ratios. We are required to have two people on staff at each building at all times. Um and we cannot have any more than 50% of our staff be at the assistant level. So they all do need to have um years of service or um some some college education or a degree in many cases. uh for our group supervisors, all of them are required to have a college degree. And whenever there's 45 or more students enrolled in a program, we need to have for every 45 students, we need to have

031one group supervisor on site. And then also getting into that site director, whenever we go over that 45, we are required to have a site director on site. So all of our sites are over that. So there is a site director at all locations. So there's also much training that goes into our for our staff annually. They have to participate in fire safety, 12 hours of professional development training. And then any new staff members that are hired, they're required to do a state health and safety training. It is a 10-hour train training that they must do in addition to all this other training that they have to do. So, it's really making sure as we bring new staff in that they're well trained and they're prepared to um work with children. And then every year,

032oh, I'm sorry. They also have to do CPR um within the first 90 days of hire. I didn't want to leave that out. First aid and CPR. Every two years, they must renew that through a Pquas um certified trainer. And that just means that they're a Pennsylvania quality assurance. They're within that system there for them. And then every five years we must redo our redo our child abuse training. So some information about our 2526 program. Um we began the year with 819 students uh registering at the beginning of the school year. Um and as of the uh end of January, we actually had 818 students. So we tend to see some fluctuation um this time of the year and then at the end of the school year. We see people drop off right before Christmas

033and then they come back um afterwards and then towards we get towards the end of the year. The greatest part about this is I am reporting to you that we have no waiting list for the first time in three years. So it's really exciting. So we are on a rolling admission. As parents register we are able to enroll in and you know get the information out and enroll them. And that's thanks to the little bit of flexibility of we do have some extra staff um at certain locations so we were prepared when our numbers hit to move that staff person over. >> Dr. O'Burn, if I could interrupt. Yes. >> Um I am not kidding when I say that registration for some of these programs used to look like a game at um Cameron Indoor

034Stadium at Duke where people would camp out for days. We would literally come to the ESC and there would be a line of people with lawn chairs at 6:00 a.m. waiting to sign up because there were weight lists. Um, and we would get some of you who have been here for a while would get a barrage of emails complaining for kids who couldn't get in. Um, and Dr. Oern has only been with us for a few short years and it's incredible that we have no weight list at this point. So, I just wanted to thank you because I'm not exaggerating that there there was a line through the parking lot with lawn chairs to sign up. So, great job. Thank you very much. So, one of our partners that we partner with is the Early

035Learning Resource Center. I don't know if you're familiar with them, but they are in every county. Um, and they provide some subsidy supports, various supports, but for what we use for them is actually subsidy um for low-income families. So, they help pay a portion of our lowincome families subsidy or their child care um expenses. [snorts] This year we're up to having families from Montgomery County, Philadelphia, Burks, and Bucks County. So that means if someone lived in one of those counties and moved into our district, they're still funding them here with us because they don't want to lose they don't have to lose their um subsidy. It it hasn't transferred with them yet here to Montgomery County because there might not be an open seat yet for them. So we're getting it from four. It's actually

036five because Philadelphia has two different ones, but from all of those counties. Um when I began here we had 42 students in our subsidy program. We have continued to grow over the years and this year we are at an even 100 students in enrolled in our program that use subsidy from the county. So that's also another thing that I really um am proud of that that that fact there. I think it's really important that we bring services to our [snorts] underserved families. before before you move on from that just to make sure that I am clear. Um, so we have, and I know we've talked about this in the past, so I I'm just going to try and remember. >> So this is that for example, this year we have 100 students. Uh, so 12%

037of our enrollment, 12% of our enrollment is getting or subsidized and let's say they move from Philadelphia mid year, >> right? they can be in our extended school program to the end of the year and they that that subsidy travels with them and if they need it for the following year it just transfers to which county it is that >> so once the money is available in Montgomery County and there's additional resources then they are able to transfer that but they don't remove an existing family from getting subsidy when they're coming from an outside county. >> Okay. Okay. How do we how do we um inform the families that these subsidies are available for them for child care? >> Great question. So, we do have that on our district website and then as families enroll,

038they go through an enrollment process and then we share that information with them. A lot of times family when they hear our rates, the first thing that triggers me and they're like, "Oh, you know, maybe that seems a little higher. I can't pay for that." And then we refer them to the resource and referral line. >> Okay. Thank you. Here we go. [snorts] So, this year, currently, this year that we're in, we have um 31 full-time building-based staff, and we have four staff who work within the office to run the daily operations. Um there are 33 part-time staff, 14 substitute staff, and seasonal staff. And then in the summer, we employ 28 full-time staff members. um we continue to advertise and to interview um so that we know we have people that we're looking at

039for future if our enrollment goes up to making sure we're prepared. [snorts] Another program that we um participate in is Keystone Stars. This is also through that same um basic per early learning center. It's just another subdivision of them. But in here they have a program. It's called STARS on the left there. I kind of gave the what it stands for. So, it's a standards, training and professional development, assessment, resources, and support. And they're all the things that STARS offers to us as a um educational facility. One [snorts] of the bene there's many benefits from it. So, there's first there's grant opportunities. So, there's an opportunity for continuous quality improvement grants and recruitment and retention grants. This year we did get approved for a continuous quality improvement um grant of $13,000 because all of our

040schools moved to a star two and then a retention and recruitment grant of a little over $22,000. They offer professional development for us at no charge. They offer this the CC um the childcare works which is that higher CCW thing that's ELRC that we talked to. Um, and once you hit a star two, your tier reimbursement rate is higher. And then when you move to star three, they give you even more money for those families. And then again for star four. [snorts] Um, they also do some workforce development with us. So they provide coaching so that we can work with our staff to get them professional professional development and trained. They do technical assistance with them to help them and work with our students. And as well there's um some tuition support through two different

041streams which is rising stars and project teach. >> [snorts] >> So, when we start looking at our market rate survey in the area, um the surrounding counties in Montgomery County, their 2025 average cost of care is $58,3.80. And again, I I I did a survey of the the surrounding schools in our county. And their registrate, which I'm sorry, is about 8% higher than what we currently charge. and their registration fees are anywhere from $85 to $100 and they charge extra fees on holidays and in services just like we do. When we [snorts] go a little bit more to that private sector, so that they're around surrounding child care centers, um their their average cost of care is $81475 a month, which is 50% higher than our school district's rates. They charge a registration fee anywhere

042from $100 to $350. They charge for extra extra days just like we do and holiday and inservice care. >> And this is per just it's not on the [clears throat] screen. >> It's what >> the rate is >> Oh, the I'm sorry. It's it's a monthly rate. >> It's a monthly rate. >> Sorry. >> Thank you. >> I do see that. Y >> I apologize for that. So, right here we're looking at um our fund balance information and our year-to- date profit loss statement. This year you can see if you're looking where the far right column is kind of like a orang-ish reddish color. Um that is where our fund balance currently is and we can see some growth from last year. And then if you look at our profit and loss the year-to-day profits

043and profit and loss you can see that we have grown from this time last year and those numbers are from November. >> So if I may Dr. burn. For those that don't know the history here with that fund balance, during the pandemic, the state required that we continue to pay all employees, right? So, when we shut down and students were not in school in the in March of 2020, we had to continue paying all the employees. Well, this is an enterprise fund, so it is not paid with real estate tax dollars. So the school district lent money to the extended school care program so that they could continue paying their employees and they have been paying the school district back. So that's why you're seeing obviously that deficit has reduced um but that that's why

044you're seeing that deficit. Okay. >> So, looking at the cost of living increases for the 2425 year, um, you know, that's that comes into play and when looking at what we want to increase our our tuition by. Um, I got received information or looked up information from consumer prices and it on average everything went up 2.7 to 3% across the board. As always, energy costs are higher than most things. But when you look at school age child care, the cost of school age child care in 2024 was $343 a week, representing a 6.9% increase over the the previous year. So what we're seeing is that the cost of child care is growing much the increase is much more drastic than regular cost of living expenses. Um which is why we chose what we're recommending for

045um the upcoming fiscal year um for the 2025 2026 school year. This current year, our rates went up 3.7%. As I said previous, the rest of the nation went up 6.9%. So we we did have a much lower increase at that point. [snorts] So our recommendations, the the recommendations I'm making for you is to approve our um extended school care fees for the 26 27 and summer camp 5%. Um I did give a little bit of a rationale there for why I think that again that average cost of child care went up last year 6.9%. Which you know we did not go up that high and the increase is the increase was significant right it exceeds our general inflation for child care. The 2526 increase of 3.7 was much lower. So I feel like that

046this will offset the previous increase. And I also think that by doing this, it's a measured and responsible response to help make sure that we're able to provide program sustainability, quality staffing, and regulatory compliance for parents. So that those are my recommendations. >> Yes. >> Hi. Um when we were talking last year about the uh about not not being down to zero uh having people on the waiting list, we talked about the situation where there were two or three kids in in a school, but we didn't want to start a class because we wouldn't be able to fill the class. >> Correct. >> So, how did you solve that problem? I'm just for my general interest. >> Yeah. So, that's that's another great question. So what we did was we have we have a staff

047person. We may have we've hired a staff person at our expectation was we were going to see growth between Oak Park and Bridal Path. They were two places that we were expecting to see some growth and what happened it was actually the opposite of what we thought cuz Bridal Path only is like two staff persons in the morning and we were expecting to see three there. We didn't see it there but we saw it at Oak Park in the morning and then the flip. So, we were able to merge one person into two different positions and then move people around. >> Okay. Wonderful. >> And we do have some spots still available. >> I know when I first started running for the school board, I used to hear that complain all the time. They couldn't

048get the kids in uh in the program, and it's wonderful that we're down to a wait list of zero. >> Yes. >> Uh thank you very much for that. >> You're welcome. >> Do you have any um a discount for multiple children from the same family? >> We do. So, our um our first child has, you know, say if their rate is $100, I'm just throwing a number out there, which is so not realistic. So, $500. Um our second child received 10% discount. If they have a third child, it's an additional 30% off that. >> Okay, great. I wanted to say that um when I was a single dad, this program saved us because of me trying to juggle work and and kid in kindergarten. Um it really helped. So, I it's so important this

049program. So, I just want to say that. Thank you. >> I do. So I think childcare is really important for all of our working families >> and you're certainly sitting among I think many there's many of us at this table who are parent alums of the program and are really appreciative of the service and what it gave to our kids. So the ability to manage work and commuting and still let our kids participate in music programs and after school programs. So there's a huge support I am and I understand the rising cost of sta salaries and other things that go into providing quality care. I also recognize that that is a sector where it's often undervalued underpaid but to see an increase without you know very specific justification is really hard as well because this

050will mean that we'll pass the you know we're passing cost on to our families. So I you know can you tell us a little bit more about the staffing increase? Will there be a per per hour salary increase proposed or is it that you're going to bring on more people to be able to offer expanded spots? Um, and then one follow-up question to that about the ELRC, it is a federalto state pass through program. When there was the state budget impass, do is there when there are hiccups in federal funding or state funding, does that mean a delay in benefit for those families or sometimes those benefits carry through? So, were our families okay during that and just want to anticipate if there are any changes? That was a lot. I'm sorry. >> So, I'm

051going to start with that last question first. So, one of the greatest that's that's a great question for right now as we're looking at right now there's a lot of um backlog due to the um information we've seen in child care out in other states. Um and they put a freeze on that. So, in our state, we have not put a freeze on that. and I do write to our our congressmen and our representatives making sure I'm advoc advocating for child care for school age programming. Um, so there was no cease and funding for us and they don't anticipate any cease and funding for us. >> Okay, great. Thank you. You asked another question about staffing and staffing and rates. I I understand that the general costs around us have gone up, but why specifically

052this amount and that we and just generally concerned that we're passing on that cost to >> So our our extended school care um staff received the same staff increase that the district receives. So whatever we're doing in the district, we're doing it with our staffing. So that that's the first piece of that. We're also looking to bring on some additional staffing so that we don't have the any weight list and we do anticipate like so at at at schools like bridal path we're going to need another staff person over there. There schools that we know are going to need another person at because all those people that were on the wait list we've reached out to some of them and they found other care be for the the school year. So we want to make

053sure we have that spot available for them at the start of the school year so they don't have to switch childc cares. [snorts] >> So just to um mention [clears throat] the staffing costs. So it is not just about salary increases of course you have all the other expenses that come with a collective [snorts] bargaining agreement but when Dr. Dr. Ourn mentioned the increases for our support staff. The all-in cost for the 26 27 school year for support staff is 4.5% increase um as a benchmark there. But then expanding the program, adding staff would obviously have an increased cost as well. So >> I hope that's helpful. >> Yes. >> Any other questions? >> Um myself, um Dr. Burn, thank you so much. very comprehensive presentation um and outlining why the increases where you're coming

054from trying to make up from a previous year etc. And Dr. um Mrs. Ramage President Ramage definitely asked the question that I was going to ask, but I have to say I really appreciate the zero weight list cuz when I my oldest children were [clears throat] in need of that. I I may or may not have been one of the emailers um emailing you about [laughter] I don't know it but it might have been me. Um especially because at that time I think I probably would have qualified for assistance as well. So it was like very important. Um, so I just thrilled to see that it's zero. So, great job. >> Thank you. >> Okay, any additional questions? >> Just a real quick comment from another satisfied customer. Uh, these folks that uh we were

055hiring and keeping up with, they're part of the kids school day and it's a very important part at the very beginning to the very end. And uh in my experience, these folks have really helped our students get off on the right foot and wrap up their day, get their homework done, and be ready to go home. So, just a thank you from another satisfied parent. >> Thank you. >> If I could steal one more question. So, thinking about the growth of the program, I I co-sign on all of this. The ability to be able to serve every family that needs this service is incredibly critical for our community. And I would assume that on some level as you bring in more students to the program, you would also see the additional inbound revenue that they

056would bring each. >> How many students when you bring them in offsets the cost of adding that new uh person to be able to run that room? I obviously I'm sure it varies K2 versus 35, but generally speaking, how many students do you think about in your plan uh for this that offsets the >> Sure. So for basically the one staff person we like 12 people it 12 families or 12 students registered usually helps cover that cost of that one person. Um and then allows for us to you know have some some revenue there for expenditures. You know again every time we've get somebody new and we need to buy the materials for all those children as well just like within within their school day. So if we're doing specific curricular type activities with them

057which people might think we don't do but we definitely do. We've got lesson plans, too. But all those pieces are really important. >> So, just thinking with that conceptually, that means that the largest part of this, assuming that you're going to [snorts] continue to max out these class sizes and keep a zero weight list, the majority of this is the four and a half% in terms of staff increases. That last half a point is really not because you're adding human beings because you're planning on this being fully offset. Is that a fair assumption? Generally speaking, >> yes, I'd say so. I think it's worth mentioning too just real quick like we said we are this program isn't covered by PTE it's covered by um Octal and DHS and which is Department of Human Services not

058Homeland Security um somebody asked me that yesterday. So [laughter] um there's an extra level of supervision that we have to cover with these costs as well. So, it's not just the pe the folks the one to we talk about the 1 to12 staffers a lot, but there's also the full-time folks that do have benefits um which they're eligible for our medical benefits. Um that it's not all just part-time people. So, our medical benefits this year, which we'll talk about in a little bit, are going up significantly. Um so, it's, you know, our salary increases per the support union contract this year 37 plus you've got an additional anywhere from 9 to 12. We're supposed to get a second look on medical. We'll talk about that in a little bit um later this week. So um

059you know the 5% is kind of a combined rate as as Dr. Bower pointed out. Um and as well as your part-time and your full-time staff [snorts] and it needs to cover itself. That's because this is not taxpayer funded. is, you know, a technically a little for-profit company inside of a nonprofit school district. >> Thanks. Um, as a uh and probably a prospective uh person, u I can tell you uh with two boys in full-time daycare, I am very much looking forward to pay paying closer to the rates, though I hope that that zero weight list remains for the next couple of years or into perpetuity. Um, I just had a couple of questions, too. I know um uh as Mr. Ramage mentioned, you know, um costs are high as we all are seeing this.

060If there are rate increases, when do you send out the the notices to families for what the the the upcoming year rates will be because I know budgeting is a is going to be a big issue. And then I know also it may be different um that this is like a a a small for-profit, but in terms of your fund balance, do you have a fund balance goal or cap? I know like for us we have a a cap for what we can have in our fund balance before raising rates and things like that. Is there anything similar for this program? >> So first question you asked me can you repeat that? >> No sorry notice for families for the rates upcoming years >> and I was saying something in my head and I was

061like that might not be right. So, um, yeah. So, once the rates are approved, um, by the board, then at that point, I will then notify all of our existing families and any incoming families will go out through kindergarten and regular registration. And then we send that information to our families so that they can then register and then we can get a projection of how many students we're looking at. >> Second question, the cap on the fund balance. >> Yeah, I'll I'll take that one. So, historically, no, there's not been a cap on their fund balance, but they also haven't run much of a fund balance. Um, and and that's been intentional through the rates. Excuse me. They've essentially made sure that the increase in rates basically just covers whatever the increase is that they

062need for the next year. There's there's not been enough fund balance to consider a cap, if that makes sense. It's something we can look at in the future once they finished paying off their fund balance debt to the general fund. >> Appreciate it. Thanks. Thanks for the clarification. >> Oh, I'm sorry. This very just um you have in here that it's a 5% rate increase and you have the comparisons for what other schools and other private institutions are doing. What What's the actual just um the dollar value for what we are what what's our rate currently? Because I think it says I could do the math backwards, but maybe I could. Smart families right now for full-time care before and after they pay $540 a month for five days a month and it's going to

063go to 567 and even with that even if our our the surrounding areas don't increase their rates next year we will still be lower than what they're paying this year. >> Thank you Dr. Oone. Um, I will add on that also, you know, as a nine-year participant of the program, [laughter] I and I have to say, just honestly, you've heard I think you've heard me talk about this before, my daughters were at Montgomery, and recently one of my my kids had the um was featured in North Penn something. And I, you know, as one does, you go back and look at those who are saying, "Well done, Izzy." and I and six of them were from were extended care um yes six of them were her extended care teachers so it was really warming to

064my heart that said uh I think just listening to the comments today and including Mrs. Ramage and and um I I want to see can we reflect on just responding to where we are as um as a community and a lot of the facts that you know we know inflation there's a potential for inflation to be higher than expected. Would you consider just meeting at where at the four and a half which is where the district is going to be from a um increase in pay perspective? >> You looked at [laughter] >> So I I'm looking at Mrs. Is it is does Mrs. Hower have the D? Yeah. [laughter] Um I we can I think just given their their fund balance issue and what they owe the general fund, I don't think 5% this year

065would be out of bounds considering the Aquin index overall is only 35. Um and we will show what that 35 will get us in relation to salaries for next year >> um shortly. Um I I again even at 5% so a 20 23 increase a month um a $23 increase a month still puts us lower than all of the surrounding districts at this year's rate before they increase for next year. Um and it definitely puts us well below all the for-profit entities that are around us. Um I don't we had a long discussion about this. The three of us had a discussion. I I don't think I don't think five is out of the realm. >> Um if you're not comfortable, I understand that. But I don't think that five is out of the realm

066of reasonleness for what we can expect for next year. [snorts] >> So that was 540 to 567. >> Yes. >> Right. That's the >> I believe that I believe 540 was >> five days for five days a week. >> Yes. and >> before and after school care >> four and a half% would be 564. >> Okay, that's helpful. >> Okay. All right. Thank you very much. >> And just I also just want to say so you know as you go lower that that's the highest rate for anybody is the $23 for the month. >> Everybody as you go across the scale and down it gets less. >> Yeah. So, >> okay. >> It does make me feel better that we are clearly the promotion of the the subsidy through ELCR is working and we're seeing

067families and I appreciate the work that your team is doing and I think no matter what that work has to continue and if we need to help promote it, >> that's great. I know that there have been delays and issues with funding in other areas. So, I'm happy to hear that that not is not happening. But that is a subsidy that is that e working families are eligible for. So you can be working you can go to school too you can or working or in school and it is still a program and a service that we might be eligible for. So it is it's it certainly is a worthwhile effort. I think sometimes there can be challenges with the program but I'm happy to hear that that is not the case. Um do you happen

068to recall what the the there is a a federal poverty level >> um range 300%. Okay. >> Okay. Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Can families apply for that? I'm sorry. But uh through the through the Compass app? >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> So they can apply through that or they can reach directly out to the ELRC. >> Okay. Excellent. Thank you. And I and um from the point Mrs. Raich made and you said it already that we will continue to promote for working families to ensure that they do know that this um the subsidies are available and will support them through the application process etc. >> That is correct. >> Yeah. Excellent. I think 100 again 12% of the of our families already leveraging this which is um really impressive. Thank you and we'll

069continue to do so. All right. So, we have a motion of the table. We're going to vote. And we're voting on the 5%. Mrs. Hower, >> I would I would appreciate it. Yes. >> All right. Um, can I get those um four? >> I >> Any against? I see none. It passes. Thank you, Dr. Oan. >> Wonderful job. >> Thank you. >> Um, okay. So that those are all the items that we would be sending to work session for I'm sorry to the action action meeting on the 19th for approval. Um uh with the exception of the treasur's report and the investment report. Uh I'd like to skip overformational items for right now and just touch on the reports and then we'll come back to the the budget update if that's okay with everybody. Um

070okay. So, this month I, as I said in my email to you all this weekend, I've sent out the uh new reports from Frontline for the year-end projection. Um, I think our projection looks pretty good for this year. Um, we are trending, our revenues are trending up and our expenditures are trending down. Um, both in the correct directions for what we would like to see going forward. Um, I think the 7 million might be a little aggressive. Um, we're still working out how you look at this like how the AI that's built into the frontline product anal analyzes our trends over the last three years. Um, it some of the ways that our state funding flows in every other month and then this year when it didn't flow and it came all at December kind

071of confused the model a little bit. So I had to go in and do some tweaking this month. So I think it'll continue to refine as we go through the course of the year. But I you know as far as actuals are concerned the actuals are all correct. Um and you know we are trending ahead in in both revenues and expenditures. So ahead being to the good um in both in both cases. Um so that's good news. So that's our year-end projection which is the first one. Um the general fund reports um again these are also from Frontline. Um, we have, as I discussed with you previously, the monthly balance sheet update. We will not be doing the manual balance sheet anymore. I'm just going to focus on the um the uh P&L for lack

072of a better term. Um, so you can see where we are compared to budget. Um, and then the balance sheet would be something that if you really want to see it, we could do it on a quarterly basis or it would just be part of the year-end package that we do when we do the audit. Um the investment report this month rates are are holding. They're not quite as high. We've come down out of the fives in some of the banks and under four um in several places. Um Unvest is sitting at a comfortable 375 which is where the bulk of our money is. Um the enterprise fund statements again I'm trying to move away from um manual reports. Um, we are working with the programmers at E Finance Plus to create comparative reports right

073out of the system. Um, there's some benefits to that. One, it's less time consuming for sure. Um, less manpower and we can spend more time analyzing than creating. Um, which I think is much more important. Um, as well as we're when you take it out of the system, you have less um, chance for error because the the numbers are what the numbers are. Um, and so we're trying to build out those comparative reports in um, inside of E Finance. It's not a surprisingly it's not a canned report that comes with the pro the product. I would have thought it would be um, it is in other ERP systems that I've had, but E Finance requires you to do that. Um, so we have some uh, we have a Cognos programmer who's going to build those

074reports out for us. Um, the treasures report is there for your review as well. This one does, this one will show up at the um action committee meeting. Uh dispersements for the month uh c I'm sorry, receipts for the month were 15.4 million. Dispersements for the month of December were 36.6 million. Um leaving available funds of 250,463. Um and it's broken down as you can see there between um our CDs and then our cash reserves. Um, uh, yeah, I think I need a motion for the treasur's report, please. >> Yep. >> So, do you have the ability to do you just pull that and then do a spot check? >> Oh, yes. Yes. I'm so sorry. um for the enterprise fund. Um do you I I love the fact that you're getting these more automated

075and you're moving away from manual manual u documents and manual reports. So for example, for the enterprise fund, do you um do a spot check on accuracy? Because I'm what I'm hearing is that you Okay. >> Yes, absolutely. So um you know we >> what I would like to do is run these reports with a comparative >> side by side >> and then you can use the comparative also highlights if something is very skewed. Um so you can see like if last year we were at 10,000 and this year there's zero like what happened to that daycare revenue or extended care revenue. Sorry. Um so the enterprise these enterprise funds are their are our little for-profit businesses. So, our food service, extended care, and um camps and and community education. So, those any those any

076swings in those are directly based on profit and loss. So, we would absolutely look into those. Yeah. >> Okay. >> So, >> great. Thank you. >> Yep. >> All right. And for the treasures report, I need a motion. Oh, did you have a question on that, too? >> I I did have a question. Going back to sort of the year end projections and looking at it, it looks like again it's a great news story on the financial picture of the district. The biggest driver it seems on the expense side is the uh 900 use of other funds uh as the primary driver which doesn't seem to be having a lot of activity versus last year. Um looking at the detail report, what's the biggest uh impactor there? Uh and are we expecting that to swing

077later in the year? Yeah, some of that's going to come out because a lot of that's for the project. Yeah. Um and that's fund fund transfers over into the into the capital projects fund. So, we actually have a meeting with Mr. Slaughter tomorrow to sit down and look at what we've been we've been using out of fund 30 and we're going to have to move funds out of 10 into 30. [snorts] >> We have a projected timetable for when we should see that impact the future year on projections. >> Probably April, May. >> Great. Thank you. >> Yep. Any other questions? >> Any other questions? All right. A motion for the treasures report, please. >> Second. >> All right. Mr. McBain and second by um Mr. Bell. Any questions or comments? >> No. [laughter] >>

078No. >> Yes. As Yes. I'm pray playing favorites then. How about that? All right. Um All right. So, we will vote. All in favor? Oh, >> I >> Any opposed? >> Okay. Um, so after my conversation with uh Julian and Kumbi, I I went back and looked at the schedule. And I think rather than having all of the departments come and present, we're probably going to focus on a couple um mainly the the biggest drivers, which would be operations and special ed. Um, and then kind of have a bigger discussion about salaries and and benefits. Um, because they're our biggest drivers. So, uh, the the size of some of the departments and the size of our budget for the amount of time, you know, I think it might be better suited for a a larger

079budget conversation um to just include them as part of a larger budget conversation. I did, however, just want to look briefly. Today was the budget um was the governor's budget discussion. Um, they did publish some numbers already for what they're hoping to get. um what was published it wasn't unreasonable. It was a 2% increase for us um which um I I'll get to in just a second. So I built that in um and what we're going to look at and I also looked at you know just a comparative to see what um the impact would be on revenues if we did a 1% a 1 mil or or up to the index 35 increase. Um and we'll get to that in just a second. Um, I think, um, I guess my question to you all,

080this is I'm going to make this more of a discussion for just a minute and I'm going to try to keep it under, we're already over an hour, so um, if you all want to the the folks that are new on the board, if you have questions on how the budget is built and you want to have conversations with me rather than in a public com public setting, so you can just kind of ask a question, feel free to give me a call over the next couple of weeks. Um, and I'd love to sit down and either, you know, meet with you individually or have a conversation over the phone. We could do a virtual meeting and I could just kind of walk through some of those pieces. I don't know if we'll have time

081um in the March finance committee by not having the special finance committee meetings um to just explain the process, but I would like for the new folks to understand process. Um, so feel free to I can make time um we can do it in the evenings, we can do it remotely on the e in the evenings as well. Um, [snorts] >> does it make sense to do one special finance committee meeting with prioritizing the schedules of our newest board members and doing it all in one evening being able because there there is so much value in peer learning. Yep. >> Um, there were certainly times when I learned from when Mr. McBain asked a question. Um, and having those presentations were so rich um, in helping us to get to where we are. um being

082able to incorporate them in. Yeah. So if we had known maybe we would have kept the special committee. Yeah. Could we do maybe one? >> We could and and I don't even >> get it all done there. >> And this might be a question for Mr. Summers. If it's justformational and teaching about what budget structure looks like and we're not talking about dollars and cents for this particular budget. I don't even know. It could just be an could it be in like an educational exec session? is does it need to be immed like I'm just trying to figure out it just needs to advertise and that kind of thing. >> Yeah. Um it could be informational session. >> Okay. >> There can't be any uh discourse or deliberation. Um we can have a a group

083of board members that are less than five because the finance committee is a committee of the whole. So as long as it's less than a quorum yeah >> we could meet and have a discussion. Okay. That's fine. We could have three and two. We in the past we have had meetings with subsets of the board. For example, when we gave tours of the high school, we broke them into three groups so that no group was a quorum. >> We would do three, three, and three. I took a group, Mr. Slaughter took a group, and so forth. >> Um, so we could do that, too. We could just break it down into smaller chunks. Um, we could also make it a work session topic one night. >> Yeah. Um, >> I I'm in favor in order

084of the off those what you offered. I think making it a separate work session topic >> just because I think it is it's it's just so helpful to us for us to all learn together. Yep. So, we can if you want to plan to do that next month. >> Yeah. I March 3rd. >> Is that enough time for >> I think that was the month after. >> I think the March 3rd was planned to be the high school update. >> Okay. >> At work session. Oh. >> For the full board. >> Oh, that's right. You're right. But we could do a a 15 20 minute presentation on the budget process and then move into the Shrader group and CJ. >> I was just talking about process. I'm not talking about the budget itself. >> Yeah.

085Yeah. I I think we could do it both that night. >> Yeah. >> Yep. Sounds good. All right. Um so then just to get to the the a little bit of numbers, just a few numbers for us tonight. Um if you can you want me to drive? I can drive. >> Will you drive? >> Yeah. Pass the mouse around. Um, so what I wanted to Oh, that's really tiny. >> Yes. >> Okay. Um, essentially what this grid is, and I will email I will reattach I'll attach this to the agenda and I'll email it to you all as well. This is just a draft look at what uh what a 3.5% increase looks like to the district. Um, essentially, if we went to the act one index, that would add about 8.3 million to the

086budget. um for the course of the year you get about 213,000 of that is just because the value of our properties has increased. So that's just just for the so if we never change the millillage we would get about a $200,000 extra dollars based on assessment increases for the bulk of the all of the properties across the district. Um which is it truthfully is is pretty basically flat. I mean over seven billion dollars to have a $200,000 increase in assessments is not a whole lot of money. Um so values are ve are fairly stagnant then is what is what that's telling us for right now. Um the increase then would be basically mostly based on millage. Um so about 8.1 8.1 million of the 8.3 million would be based on millage. Um and that number

087is after discounts and after collections. So that's that's our net number gross number. So um like taxes levied would be like 248 million versus the 239 of last year. So that difference is closer to um 9 million um but after you lose some of your collection rate just like you know credit card companies never collect everything. We collect about 96% of the taxes that we levy is what we collect. Um between people taking the the discount by paying in the discount period or not paying one or the other. Um, so just for real estate taxes, none of the other local taxes I'm am I talking about right now, like our our transfer tax, I'm not I haven't even looked at those yet. Um, this is just our real estate taxes. We're looking at about an

0888.3% pickup. Um, if we go to index, so looking at the budget that came out today from um, Governor Shapiro, um, like I said, basic ed funding for our district is going to be pretty flat. It's about 1.9%. special ed funding um will be even flatter at 1.8%. Um the ready tolearn grant had a nice little bump. Um it's a little dis dis um disjointed because it's 17% but it's much much little much much smaller. Um so overall we're looking at about a 2.2% pickup if those numbers hold. Um I'm guess I think that's a reasonable that's not a huge pie in the sky kind of increase. Um I will probably continue to build that into the budget going forward. Um I I do think it's reasonable. Um the biggest disappointing factor right now, I

089am not budgeting anything um for titles 2, three, or four. Um there's just not a lot of good information out there that they're going to continue. Um title two maybe. Um but definitely um the other two probably not. And title one I'm going to leave flat. Um I have not seen any indication that we're going to have increases in title. Um so I'm going to budget um based on some a flat title one and nothing in 2, three, and four. >> Just a real quick note um for our board directors. If you notice there at uh special education funding, the increase of 1.8%. That continues to be woefully insufficient. um the cost of special education, programming, the services provided, all necessary for our students and um you obviously is one of the most important laws

090we have in education. But the underfunding of special education from the day that IDEIDA was adopted until today, um it just continues to fall further and further behind. We've talked about inflation costs and the cost of special ed far exceed inflation and that 1.8 is just not sufficient. So just when we have conversations about the overall budget and salaries and benefits for staff, which is our number one driving cost, special education is up there too, as Miss Hower just said, and it continues to be un underfunded by our state and federal government. So just we say this every year um and it never seems to get better, but 1.8 is not enough in special education. So >> um and just for comparative purposes, I've done this in past districts. So what then I do is

091basically what's our number one expense? Our number one expense is salaries, right? Um, so if I have all of my three biggest pools of funding, my real estate taxes, my state subsidies, and my federal grant funding, if I look at the increases on those three revenues, can I offset my contractually obligated salary increases? That's where I start. That's where I start every one of my budgets. So, I took staffing totally flat. So I just took this year, this is purely a mathematical exercise that I do for myself just to ground myself in the budget every year. And I say, okay, if I break it down by these groups, these are the groups that are in the PTE chart of accounts. Um, if I break salaries down by these groups and I just layer in the

092contractually obligated salary impacts for next year, can I cover what we have to increase before we add a body? All right. Um, and right now the answer is yes. So, our total increases on the our total increases in revenues um are about 8 million and our salary increases will probably sit somewhere around 7 million. So, that leaves me around a half a million dollars, right, for everything else. Now, that's a little it's a little disjointed because we probably will have more funding left over, but not a lot. Um this is where fund balance comes into play. This is where our how our debt service is going to how we're going to juggle our debt service. Again, there are other revenue streams that are not in this number. This is just purely our three our top

093three, right? Our top our top local, state, and federal revenues. Um, so knowing that going into that, the question that we that I then take back to the conversation on salary planning and and revenue planning is can we take less than the act one index? This right here tells me no, we can't take less than the act one index because this doesn't even take into consideration that our first look on our medical benefits was about 12% averaged between medical and and and prescription. So, we don't even have that increase built into this number yet. This is purely salary increases based on the scales um in the in the three our three major agreements with our support union, our teachers union and our act 93 meet discuss group. So the contractually obligated increases already leave us

094at about 600,000 that we need to to that we have to play with. Um so you know that all to be said I kind of was looking what I like to do in these early meetings is are we comfortable at act one? Are there things that you want us to look at going forward? um and that we can carry those into our internal discussions as as we move through um as we move through the the process here over the next couple of months. >> Um question, Miss Hower? >> Yep. >> With with the actin index, >> what I've been reading, we're being told is that the projections for the future, it isn't going to increase. >> No. So there's a challenge with if we ra if we don't raise it high enough we'll be limited

095in future years. >> Correct. Um and that um I have felt the impacts of that in previous places that I have worked um where they've taken h tax tax holidays year after year. Um and while it doesn't affect necessarily the salaries that they're able to pay, it does greatly impact the amount of money that you have to spend on your infrastructure. Um, we know that we are in the middle of doing a feasibility study on all of our facilities outside of the high school. Um, we know that that number is going to come back pretty high and we're going to have some significant spending that we're going to need to do along with, you know, the continued, um, contractual obligations that we have to our employees. Um, so to limit ourselves, um, it's a there

096is a compounding effect to the tax increase and that's disappointing to everyone. Um, you know, I wish everything were free as well, but yes, if we didn't, not doing it now means we can't do it later. >> And also, it just help for for viewers and myself. >> Talking through the impact if we if you're not including um um title two, three, and four, how does that impact the rest of the budget if we're not accounting for that? Is that had to be made up elsewhere? So if we are going to continue to offer the programs to our students that are supported through that funding, yes, that would have to come from the someplace else in the general fund budget. So that would need to come from either uh you know, there's been a lot

097of talk about around in the business managers and the in the county, you know, are you looking for grants outside? Are you looking We're all looking for private like not private grants, but p public grants that we can get as a district to try to offset some of the losses. Um, you know, we don't have a big federal component to our budget in in North Penn. Some of the other districts are are in desperate state with losing the federal funding that they're going to lose. But the short answer to your question is yes, we would have to if we're going to continue to continue to have the programs that are supported by those three titles, we would have to find them someplace else in the budget. And and again just for for public knowledge that's

098special needs education, right? That's ESL. Am I thinking correctly here? >> Yes. >> Yeah. >> And there's some I think title two is professional development. It's professional development is teacher development. Yep. >> Ready to learn. We use a lot of our learning coaches and supports. Uh we have some mental health supports in there. So >> So while small smaller impact because our our budget doesn't depend so heavily on federal, it still has an impact. >> Yeah. Right. Um, I will say, and this is for another meeting, but as we've rolled out the high school project and the projections, the budget for that project is about $260 million. Miss Hower has talked about the cost, infrastructure costs in the 10-year capital plan and what's expected to come out of these reports. Um, our modeling with through

099PFM from years ago was us taking Act One for the first X number of years. um because you certainly can't make decisions for future boards, but you also have to understand um you know the commitment that you're making when you renovate a high school that's 550,000 square feet. So I do know that for the first I can give an exact number. I'm going to say six years the thought was the full act one increase. Um the projections at the time had next year's act one at 3.7. It is now at 3.5. So the act one index increase is less than was projected at that time which obviously is concerning to us. So it is trending down as Miss Coin pointed out. Um the average since act one was put into place that is since 2009

100I believe is 2.7%. That's the average from 2009 until today. Um, so we carried that number once we got beyond the taking the full act one index to a certain point just for financial projections. Um, I don't know that it'll level off at 2.7. It will likely go below 2.7 at some points. And when you're talking about 30-year borrowings, it'll probably go above 2.7 over 30 years. Um but just know that our modeling via PFM at the start of this project was taking full act one and I believe in 2012627 the thought was that being 3.7 our limit is 3.5. So I would ask Miss Hower as we go through the budget process we include act one >> yep >> um as one of the options for the board and then whatever increments you are

101comfortable with you can tell us later as we start to build that budget. Maybe it's 3.5, 3.4, 3.3. Maybe those are our conversations. Um, whatever that looks like, but some guidance on what you like to see throughout this process would be good for us. [snorts] >> Well, one thing I like to keep in mind when we talk about the budget is we have a 10-year maintenance plan and it sits at like aundred$185 million right now. Uh so that means that we have to have about $18 million a year just to keep up buildings operating without investing more money or upgrading our buildings. So uh that's another good reason why uh we think we have to raise by act one. Thank you. >> So Mrs. Howard is really early in our process, right? And we appreciate

102um some detail here that helps us dip our toes in the water and and see what things are like financially at the state level especially. And it it's a little cold, but it's good to know. Um in years past, we have uh as a board made resolutions to the community not to exceed the act one index increase. And I'm wondering if that would still be a possibility given our outlook at the moment. So not for the 26 27 budget year because you passed a resolution in October that October and November that you would not exceed act one in the current year. Um right I'm sorry. So this year this this budget year that we're planning for 2627 um we the max that we can do is act one. Right. Um that's not to say in

1032072 28 um a I will been here longer so I will have better handle on your fin finances. Um we will have to probably start looking at exceptions in the future. You may not even qualify for any. You know what I mean? So we we have to do the math and and see if we even qualify for the exceptions that are out there. >> Okay. and which is really for our district really the only one that we would qu probably qualify for is special ed >> right >> so >> okay thank you >> any other questions >> any addition >> I don't think I had anything else after I think that was the last slide that's it >> okay >> that's that's all the sort of good news that's >> thank you Mrs. house. That

104was particularly informative. >> Oh crap. >> And we are moving to >> Okay, I close the agenda. >> That was it. >> No, no, we didn't do theformationals. They're just And we don't have a school rep. >> We don't have any students today. We did go through all the financial reports. I took them out of order. Um, so I believe you're at public comment. >> Okay. So, we have public comment. Let me read my All right. Uh, individuals attending this meeting and intending to speak to the committee should be aware that they are being recorded. In order to meet the requirements of the Pennsylvania Sunshine Law, it is necessary to record the names of all the citizens who speak to the committee during the the meeting. To asssure compliance with this requirement, it is essential

105that those planning to address the committee state their name and municipality. As a reminder, the public comment portion of the meeting is designed to for residents and taxpayers of the district to provide comment and feedback on matters being discussed at tonight's meeting or matters that may come before the finance committee. It is not designed for debate or discussion with members of the committee. When appropriate, committee members may choose to respond to public comments that have been made or request that a member of the administration follow up with the speakers after the meeting. Members of the audience are asked to limit their questions and comments to three minutes and this is in reference to board policy three sorry 903. >> Good evening. >> Uh Jason Ner Lansdale um had a real quick question. Hopefully this can

106be cleared up very quickly. The Adidas rainbow lettering agreement. I looked this up and it means one or two different things. It means a company called rainbow lettering or it means there's an agenda behind it. Which is this? >> Perfect. That's all I wanted to know. That's good. Um, second, uh, I I listened to the the announcement regarding the the I guess pre, uh, before school and after school care, and what strikes me is that they're talking they're they're talking about a 5% increase in how much lower they are compared to private corporations out there that are doing this. And well, that I thought to myself, well, that's not a that's not a fair measure because the outside corporation has to pay things like rent and taxes and uh things that aren't encumbered by the

107private corporation inside the private corporation, which is the school district. So, what would be a better way to drive down the cost? that'd be sort of I mean if we're looking to benefit the community, wouldn't it be beneficial to but that all the daycarees were were less expensive? So maybe reducing their taxes as well because forgive me if I I I don't know this, but do parochial schools can they use the preschool and after school school care or is it just public school kids? I I don't know. I mean this this is this is a valid question. My point is is people who are using private corporations for their their daycare aren't seeing their their rates reduced, but it's not because they're making a lot of profit. It's because their expenses have gone through the

108roof. And the one that works here, the private corporation that works within our public corporation here doesn't see those increases as as much. Sure, they're salary increases, but they're not seeing an increase in rent, are they? I don't do we we cost charge them they aren't paying taxes on the property. So my point is is maybe expand this have additional company. I don't know how the logistics would work but it seems like you're doing a lot of discussion about how to control cost but you're not looking at the main source of cost increase which is what the public is paying in terms of taxes. We have interest rate changing or or you know the the um what do they call it? Re rehypoation of debt is what the federal government does is when they has

109to buy everything in it reduces the value of the money which is causing the inflation. And we're charging lots of taxes to pay things for things that not everybody utilizes. and we're looking at the private corporations and saying, "Well, you guys are more expensive than our subsidized private corporation that's in our school." Just food for thought. I'm wondering if there's a better way to manage all that. Thank you. >> Thank you. Any comments? >> Okay. And I think what uh Mr. Lana was referencing was that surrounding centers are 50% higher than North Penn school district. But also note that we the surrounding school districts are also 8% higher than North Penn school district. So we are continuing to do our our part in lowering in comparison to uh local districts. >> Oh yes. >> Any

110other business? All right. Motion to adjurnn. >> Mr. My green.