001I pledge allegiance 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. Mr. Lego, could you take roll call, please? Yes, sir. Mr. President, Mrs. Essing, here. Dr. Klein, present. Mr. Kassic here. Dr. Kosjo here. Mr. Leonard here. Mr. Matarazzo here. Mr. Neck here. Mr. Trusy here. Mr. Stovar here. You have a qu Mr. President. Thank you, Mr. Lego. You're welcome. Um, I call you. Oh, you can't. Special reports. Okay. Special reports. Uh, Mr. Leonard. Thank you, Mr. President. I will start off with the CWCTC care tech meeting held on May the 1st, 2025 at which time we had executive session from 6 to approximately 7 served uh at which they serve a delicious meal. I can't
002do this. Half pound cheeseburgers, macaroni salad, homemade potato chips, iced tea and lemonade and dessert, cupcakes, vanilla with chocolate icing and chocolate with vanilla icing both with sprinkles plus very tasty baked cookies with a cute little smiley face on each one. We And they were all made by the kids here at school, too, by the way. So important. We discussed personnel and legal matters. Uh at the executive session, nothing of which I can talk a lot about. Regular meeting called to to order at approximately seven. At the regular meeting, the board reviewed and or approved some of the following items. Some potential program changes within which included some possible program eliminations and changes. Uh we approved a minutes from the April 3rd meeting. The executive director presented his monthly report. A new treasurer was approved
003for the 2025 26 school terms. Board treasurer. Financial reports and treasures reports were approved. The agreement with WI purchasing consortium for the purchase of paper products was approved. Under contracted services, the busing contract was approved with Quest Transit for the 2526 school year, which is all subject to final review and approval by the solicitor. We approved five conferences to be attended by various administrative and other staff members. Two new employees were hired, a workforce education for co coordinator and a first aid uh first aid nurse substitute and one FMLA leave was approved. This include concludes that report intermediate unit for the month of April intermediate unit beehive of activity up there. So I'll I was up there quite a few times as the board president had a very busy month as part of the as
004part of the executive cabinet team. I am involved in reviewing all contracts and agreements, reviews, negotiations. This month we worked on reviewing the financial director's agreement which we did finally get an approval for. The human resource director is under review but on slight hold due to uh the directors currently on the meeting. The team is currently working with the uh negotiation with the pair of professional groups. At the regular meeting held on April 22nd the board conducted the following visits. Executive session from approximately 6:00 to 7. We discussed personnel legal and student matters. Regular meeting started at approximately 7. Standard visits was conducted such as tiring of personnel, approving of resignation leaves and retirements as well as as some new hires. The board also reviewed and discussed procedures for handling of policies. Uh, and we
005did actually were able to approve a um not not a policy but a paper that outlines how we're going to handle that. That was a grueling process unfortunately. And on a sad note, fellow board member Mr. Joseph Bella, the Ligonier school board representative, passed away on April 29th and will be sadly missed by all. This concludes my report. Uh the board agenda and a and minutes with further detail, very great detail. It's available every month on the WIU website and I believe 157 send somewhere out to it. It's it's usually very concise but it hits mostly I can never get everything in these notes. Thank you. Thank you Mr. Leonard. Um do we this a this evening we held an executive session prior to the board meeting where we discussed personnel confidential student matters legal
006matters and collective bargaining. Um now we'll turn to Dr. Harris. Sure. Um I wanted to start off by saying tonight it was um great to um afterward and before the board meeting I got to see the unified track team compete and you remember um last year we started the unified botchi club and this year was our first year of doing the unified track team. They had team um teams from Mount Pleasant, Bel Vernon, Henfield and Pent Trafford compete in the track and field events. um the track relays, javelin, shot put and long jump. So it was kind of it was great to watch all the kids and a lot of the visitors showed up to support the kids as well. And then I went to the softball and as we know they are already won
007the section. So today's game might not have mattered win or lose, but I had to leave cuz the lightning went off about 4:30. So we had to clear the field, but at that time our batter was off. The bases were loaded and so we was I was wondering what she was going to do. So I'll fill you in next week because if I waited you had to wait 30 minutes and by the time 30 minutes would have been I would have had to come in here anyhow. So I came inside. So kind of anxious to see but they won 3-2. I wonder if she got softball. Well baseball went too and I know baseball might not have won the section but I know they made the playoffs. So, tomorrow night if you wanted chance to
008see the volleyball game and Wednesday we have lacrosse as well as our scholarship night with a lot of students getting scholarships and I can't so busy week the last three weeks of school. I have to tell you sometimes I always enjoy that first couple the first month of September always right before Christmas and I love that last month of school. It is just such a unique experience that you get to experience every year with the kids, with the seniors, with the community. It's nice. Dr. Har, you have an idea how many kids went to the prom? Um, I actually don't. You said about 600. About 600. How many? 600. It's fantastic. How many couples are 100 kids? 600 kids. And remember, not everyone always takes a day. So sometimes kids go singles. So it's hard
009to tell like how many couples there were, how many kids. That's why so many people people. Yeah, it's good. So, it was a nice turnout. Um the also I wanted to say that the quiz bowl they finished fourth in the state. It was nice to see the very first round of all the students. They finished third. They got to go into the nine semi-finalists and then from there um not so well in the first game. So, they they got eliminated but they um gave them a score for course it was a lot of fun to watch and it was nice cuz that was one of my son's only events he's done during high school that I got to see. So it was kind of interesting. So it was got to compete and that is all
010I have before and unless I have just this one budget report see pass out to you that Brett and I are going to do together. You ready? Yep, I am ready. Okay. All right. This actually might be rest last. This very well could be my last one. Make it a good one. Oh boy. I'm not going out on top. I'll tell you that. [Music] Do you prefer the Is the lights on okay with everybody? So far. Okay. Can they see it on TV? Is it better for TV if it was off? What is the Mr. Can you kill this B? You guys are in a peanut gallery over there. We're booing from here. Yeah, I get I'm going to get like in stereo. Where are the tomatoes at? Yeah. Figured you'd throw tomatoes for sure.
011Okay, so uh here's our proposed budget for the upcoming school year 2526. Uh it's been a challenge this year, probably more so than the last several years. Uh things keep getting more and more difficult. So, uh what you're going to see when you go through the numbers is that of course salaries and benefits, which is 80% of our budget continue to increase. You know, our contracts are very generous. Our benefits are very generous and they continue to be the bulk of the increases that we see year-over-year. Before you move on to the next slide, if you don't mind, basically increase half%. Yes. What is it? 2%. Well, in our case, it's usually between 2 and 3%. Now, keep in mind, we always get one of the lowest increases in the state. This is ultra low.
012This is the lowest I can remember, quite honestly, since a freeze back when Tom Ridge was governor. I don't think we've ever seen anything close to this low. So, uh, again, healthc care has been really high. This is the third consecutive year of of close to 10%. I think two years two years ago was 10%, last year 12%, this year 9%. And that's $600,000 or or or the equivalent of two mills right there. Uh we did add a new uh central office position to help uh you know, support our students. So that in increased our cost as uh Mr. Kassic just said, basic subsidy only up a a half a percent, which is very difficult to overcome. In our case, one mill brings in $314,000. And if we raise one mill, the cost to the
013average taxpayer, and when I say the average taxpayer, that's what the average assessed value would be, would be $28 a year. Uh, but keep in mind, in light of all this, we're in the top 4% of student achievement in the state, but in the bottom 4% of spending. And Brad, that's why I always like to jump in. I'm going to be bringing that up again at a later point in time tonight. PT has always finished in the top 4% of the state. The last 10 years we perform strong academically and we always are one of the lowest costs per pupil spending. I tell you this every year when we look at all the other schools that are RSI performing um right around with us that they have sometimes 304 $50 million more than us. Do
014I believe we need that much more? No. But I am finding it very hard to compete with those schools based on the budget we have. So, do I believe we need 40 million? No. But I do believe we need more money. We need more funds to compete because if we don't have those funds, it's going to be very hard for us to maintain that great performance we do with our students. And another thing I wanted you to talk about in the slide, we didn't really mention it, is the last few years we have been relying on our budget from our fund balance. And that is something that we cannot do um any longer. Can you explain why, Brett? Well, you can see last year uh we had projected a a deficit of almost $800,000. So,
015we used pulled $800,000 worth of fund balance last year. There was nothing to make that up this year. And looking at the current budget, we're at $68 million in uh revenue and expenditures are up to $70 million. So that fund balance deficit has gone up from $800,000 to uh close to $1.4 million. So even though revenues are up $900,000, expenditures up 1.5, that that deficit added to the prior deficit of $800,000 is where we're at $1.4 million. So you just can't keep sustaining that pattern of having the expenditures exceed the revenues eating into the fund balance because eventually there won't be any fund balance left and uh if that gap continues to spread between the revenues and expenditures you're going to be in a serious serious financial situation. What what is our fund balance at
016the end of this year going to be? It should be approximately $4 million. Okay. And what was it maybe three to four years ago? Well, during the COVID period, we were somewhere $8 million. So, we've been Now, granted, we used a portion of that to buy the administration building because the fund balance was healthy. Uh, but now it's been decreasing for the last several years. So, Brad, what percent of our budget is the fund balance? 5.7. 5.7. And what does the state recommend? The recommended is between five and 8%. Five on the low, eight on the high. But in reality, you know, a lot of districts like to maintain closer to 10% where they'll they'll take the excess and they'll put it in a special fund that doesn't count against the fund balance. So, most
017places are probably closer to 10%. Okay. And we were in those kind of numbers at one point. We were Yeah, we were a few years back. we were. But this is what my worry was about balancing a budget with the fund balance, right? You keep doing that, you're not going to be where you're supposed to be and then you're not going to have the numbers. We can't just keep that because eventually our fund balance is going to be gone. And that's why this budget that I'm presenting doesn't rely on the fund balance. And unfortunately, again, when you talk about the the revenue from the state, you know, if if they're going to keep giving us one or two percent, uh it just there's no way for us to bridge that gap between the revenues and
018expenditures without raising it locally. And you know, earned income is only going to go up so much every year. You know, investment earnings have been good the last several years, but interest rates are starting to come down, so that number will start to dip a little bit. Uh the real estate transfers had cooled off a little bit, so we didn't get much as much there. So the only, you know, when you get through everything else, there's one number left to plug and that's the millage number. And uh that's kind of what we need to do. Excuse me. Just for definition, what does a fund balance mean in case someone doesn't know? What is a fund? Basically fund balance is how much money you have in a bank or savings account. Your savings account. Yeah. So
019Lou, go back a couple slides. Yeah. Right there. So when you look at revenues, there was a percentage- wise a decent increase in special ed subsidy, but it's not a large number. So, dollar-wise, it wasn't uh that significant, but we're happy to see that at least they put some more money in the special ed subsidy. Uh earned income continues to increase steadily. Not, you know, it's not a huge increase year-over-year, but it's a nice steady increase. Uh there was a significant increase in the ready tolearn grant that was proposed by the governor. You know, we hope that that number doesn't get changed and and get decreased, but until the final state budgets passed, we don't ever know. the homestead exemption. Uh actually it's gone up again this year for the second consecutive year. So as
020opposed last year was $200 per household. This year it looks like it's going to be closer to $230 per household. So it doesn't help our bottom line, but it helps our taxpayers dollar bottom line. Quick question, Brett. Yes, sir. On the sore subject for me, basic subsidy subsidy increase 45. It's been a while since I saw a tally sheet of what our peers are getting. I We're lower than most. Are we in this area? Are we still as low as we used to be as far as what our our general area people are getting? We're the lowest in West Morland County. Yes. That's what I always saw and we're still there. What's the reason for that? You'd have to talk to the people in Harrisburg. There's people listening. I don't know if the way it
021was, but that that's always why is it like I the formula never works in our favor. And you know they they tweak it from year to year but it never gets tweaked in our favor. Never gets tweaked. You know all of the new money that goes into the basic ed subsidy at the state level is formula driven and the factors in that formula we don't qualify for any of them. So all this new money we don't get any. Well I've heard a huge percent goes to Philadelphia and Alagany and such. Uh it eats up a whole big chunk of it. Well, because they build the factors that favor them. That's probably the best reason why. That's No, you're good. Just So again, 55% of our re revenue comes from local sources, 44% from the state,
022and we get less than 1% from the federal government. So, under our expenditures, um instruction, which is our classroom expenses, is actually pretty pretty level. uh we you know we eliminated some positions through attrition so that helped keep that line in order uh had a couple of retirements so not a big increase actually a slight decrease in instruction uh and we did see a slight decrease in tuition that goes out to other schools and cyber schools so that also helped keep bring that number down uh support big increase there um part of that has to do with our ongoing negotiation with the SEIU and some changes that may happen to that contract that we're trying to allow for. Uh we added a new central office position as I stated earlier and just overall increases in
023salaries and benefits across the board. Um transportation has increased that's that was a significant number in there as well. So those would be the factors that really drove that big increase under our support. So ask one question Mr. Lego or Dr. Harris. How much money do we out of our budget goes to students that don't attend our school? Meaning they go to cyber schools technically whatever they're nonPT in our brick and mortar. How much money do we spend? It's about $2 million. So about $2 million out of our budget goes to non- students at our schools. Thank you. And I just want to point out when you have the the summary there and we talked about um what we have now what we're going this already reflects some of our losses we took and mentioned
024that through attrition we had three classroom teachers and we also lost money we in educational programs we went through and we cut a lot of different programs this year as well and there's also already reflect some cuts we made security athletics some transportation even though it went higher but we also cut cut some back support staff and building and ground. So, we already did and that's also reflected in what you see already. And that's important to notice for when we get to the point about what I'm going to be asking you for this year. Brett, does each cyber school charge the same amount per student? Each cyber school, each school district pays each cyber school the same rate. So, Pentra pays every cyber school the same rate. Penn Hills pays every cyber school a different
025rate, but they pay them. So, it's a really strange formula that it's based on your expenditures. So, fortunately, since our expenditures are rather low, the tuition that we give to those schools would be less than a high-cost district like Fox Chapel or Penn Hills. It it really is senseless because you would assume that it would take the same amount of money to educate each kid regardless of what school district it came from. And I know there are proposals out there to set a standard rate for cyber students that would be the same for every student across the the the Commonwealth, but because of a lot of political pressure, that's movement all seems to get stalled. So hopefully this year there's some momentum to get it done. Uh our our talking about a number anywhere between
026maybe 8,500 and $10,000 as opposed to the 14,000 we pay now for a regular ed kid. and close to 20,000 for a special ed kid. So, charter former school would be a huge benefit to the district. 8500. Yeah. Just by comparison, you maybe kind of answered your question, but I'm slow. The the um it's it's about 14,000 for regular ed students who pay for cyber, right? What's our cost for speed for in-house work? Well, that would be what they consider the cost to be. Is that what it is or is that what it is? Well, it there's there's a lot of different ways to calculate that number depending what you want to put in there. Um, so yeah, that's probably pretty accurate when you throw everything into the mix. Yes. Well, how do you think
027they calculate our $70 million budget divided by our population based on all of our students? You think that's what they do it? in a very simplistic form. Yes, there are certain things that come out of there, but basically that's kind of how they do it. They do deduct some things out from your total budget and divide it by your number of students. I'm trying to look at some countywide statistics right now, have been for a while, and I can't make sense of some of the scrambled eggs how they're doing this. And I just attribute that I'm not slow. Maybe it's the way they dish it out. No, they they some of the formulas are very complicated and hard for anybody to really make sense of other than the person putting it together. Press any and
028I'm still gonna keep press I can't press anybody in the court to get the right answer. And I'm not saying you need to or should have all the right answers. You should have someone you can go to give you the answer. Nobody seems to have this right now. No, it's easier said than done for sure. Uh so just to to summarize, you know, 60% of our expenditures go into the classroom, which is where the money should be. You know, support's also very important. So 33% of it goes there. We spend less than 5% on our debt service, which is unheard of throughout the Commonwealth. I mean, our debt load is very, very low. And um our extracurriculars and athletics is only 2.75%. So that's just another summary breaking it down by category. So, where are
029we at with millillage? Well, we're currently at 90.75. Um, I think I I'll let Dr. Harris speak to what what he thinks we should do, but ultimately it's up to you all. Absolutely. And I I told you already when we do the we're the top 4% of the state for academics. We're the bottom 4% for cost per pupil. When you do when you the Pittsburgh Business Times, I showed you where we were last year. It didn't come out this year. It should come out soon. It ranks everybody by spending and performance. All the schools were right next to millions of dollars or more. I already said we might not need $20 million more. We might not need 30. We do need more money though because we can't just keep going at the rate we're doing.
030We can't take from our fund balance. We've already made cuts to classroom teachers, the safety of athletics, building and grounds, support staff, educational programs, transportation. We already did that. If we do not raise more meals, we have a list of items that are going and I had to rank items that are what are going next. We we could potentially lose our tutors, our classroom student learning assistants, our school psychologists to not replace a job coach, the family services of West Warren County, a technology support person, some other academic programs, and some other administration programs. We cannot. We're at the point now where there are no lowhanging fruit. We've cut everything we could cut. You have to look at the fact that we are the high-erforming lowcost spending. So, I'm not coming to you from a
031district that is already spending high cost. I'm coming to you for someone who can't rely on the fund balance anymore because that's budgetary incorrect. I'm coming to you. I have never asked for more a large mill increase prior. I've been here 17 years, 12 as your superintendent doing this budget. This is the first time I'm going to put a high number out there. If you do not raise at least four mills, I think we are not only going to lose a lot of our items this year. We are going to have trouble going forward and doing everything we do to achieve our top 10 status. This is actually I'm appealing to you as someone in charge of the students and the children and the academics of this district. And I realize I represent a small
032part of the whole community because it might only be 20% with parents and kids in the school. But those are the 20% that matter to me each and every day. And that is why I fight. I get up. I have a strong admin team. That's the team. everyone. This is what we do everything for and I would not forgive myself if I didn't ask for a large increase for the first time ever in my career here as superintendent. So, thank you for that consideration. Dr. number deficit that we're in. Even before this deficit, we already cut across number 800,000. So, we already took that out. So, we did take this seriously because I want to present you a number of what we actually need. I'm not giving you what a wish list is. I'm giving
033you what is needed. I know there are wants. I know there are needs. What I'm asking you for is what I need. Any other questions? And on that note, we end our budget. I do have a question for Brett. Fred, if the tax increase is voted in, when does it actually hit the taxpayers financial, you know, the tax bills go out? August 1st. This fall. Yeah. The fall. And I I want to share the impact per mill of tax increase for the district. That's something that be interesting for people to know. So, you know, the decision is something the number how much does it cost per person, right? No, no. So the value of the new that doesn't mean anything to anybody. What might they expect to see if we if your if your house
034is at the average assessed value which in the township is $28,000. So half of the people are above that, half the people below that. If you're $28,000, one mill is $28 a year. A year. Make sure that's a year, not a month. A year. Yeah. So it be one meal one 28 two mills twice that. Other words, for anybody listening, I personally I'll speak for myself. I'll pay some extra money to keep things from getting way worse. But um I just I don't know how many people what portion of the fall tax bill actually goes to the school district. That the fall bill is strictly the school district. The spring all goes to who? The county and the township. That's right. Everybody's what their increase with if they have their tax rece. Well, they would
035take their assessed value, whatever that is from their tax bill, and again, they would multiply it by by 0.01% 01% for that's each mill 01. So I think that's 01 in my head. 01 per mill, right? He's asking a question better than I did. That's what I wanted. Let me think about that. 01. I'm sorry. Be 01. I think I need to do my math now. 281. What? Z1. Whatever comes up. Yeah, whatever comes up to $28. I don't have my calculator in my head. That's a big difference. 2,800 times 0.1 would be 2000 or 010001. That's per month. That's per year. So you take your assessed value times 01. But it's per or 02 or 03 or whatever the increase would be to get that total. You're saying 1 mil is 01. Correct. That's
036the definition. Okay. Any other questions? Remember, last year we only raised one bill and the year before that we raised zero. That also kind of comes into the factor where we're here tonight. What else led to the fund balance and the other issues too? One bill last year. zero mill was the year before our seats. So just just on an ending note, you know, this is going to be my last budget and you know I am a taxpayer here and you know everything should tell me that I want to say you shouldn't raise millage at all. But um you know for the health of this district going forward, I really think we need to start addressing that fund balance you fund balance usage and put some sort of increase in for this year so that
037you know the district is uh in a better position going forward. So that's it. So good luck with your decision. Thanks for leaving us this semester. Hey, Phil. When I got here, there was zero fund balance. So, I I think I'm leaving it a little bit better than uh I found it. Sorry. And that is all I have, Mr. Neck. And there's no visitors sign up to speak to you. Yeah. Yeah. That's what we're going to discuss. You want me to go over that? All right. Next meeting we're going to ask you under athletics and extracurricular curricular. There are no items as of now. Um budget and finance. We're going to actually I can turn it back over to you for Mr. Budget and finance. I I need to fill it in. Put any number
038you want. Put in whatever you want. Yeah. Last year we had more than one motion. He just happens to be the guy that motions. It could be anybody. All right. Anyone can make the motion because you won't like what I put in there. So I can start. I want 2.5. I want 2.5 for a total of 92.75. And I don't know. That usually gives us the Yeah, I I have to calc I have to run it through a formula. So I'll do that as soon as whatever the final number is. We'll have to So do you need a second on that at this point? Well, I'd like to offer an alternative. Um, what do we have? 2.5. Can you hear me, Nick? Okay. Can you hear me now? No, I can hear you. Keep in
039mind this is preliminary, though. Yeah, exactly. I'd like to offer uh my thought uh is three and a half mills. And let me break that down for you. Um I know that we're uh uh Brett can confirm this. I think some of our budget line items were over spending in which is causing the problem to get worse. So I'm suggesting one mil uh towards technology, one mil towards security, and one and a half mills toward uh our um our capital fund. That that's where I'm coming with the three and a half. I second that. But 1.5 you said towards one mil toward tech, one mil toward security, one and a half toward the capital fund. I mean, we're still in the process of discussing doing something and I think we're getting toward the end of
040our um current loan debt. So, So, are you basically saying 2 mill toward the budget? Is that I'm not following two mills to the budget and 1.5 will go to signed fund balance. Okay. I He's still got to take from the fund balance. I have I have to ask the the solicitor a question though. So, Mr. Stovar made a Motion for 2.5 mills with no second. I second it. Oh, you did? Yeah, but Phil jumped in on it before. So, you had something. Could you have discussion now on this? So, now they have to vote then. Yeah, we do. We have to vote on the first motion. That was my question. I seconded, but now you have to vote on the 2.5. I didn't hear the If you want more conversations, couldn't they vote no?
041and then have but the point is there's a motion and a second we need a we need a second two and a half I think two and a half right said two and a half and I said so I'm going to read this and then we'll vote on it you don't like it you say no move to tenatively adopt the preliminary budget for the pener school district for the 2025 2026 school year and the total amount of 70 million 66,860 for advertisement and publication in accordance with district policy and the school uh laws of Pennsylvania. The preliminary budget calls for a 2.5 mil increase in real estate taxes for a total of what would that be? 93.25. 93.25 mills and the rate for Alageney County will be calculated if this is approved. Do I have
042a second? Second. I I have a question. I do have a question. So, Mr. Stovar, uh that's going to make a short no 600 $500,000. What What are you going to cut to balance the budget? You'll cut some uh tutors. I'm just asking. You'll cut some explain to us. Um, if if the SEIU contract goes through, there's money there for medical that I don't believe everybody will take. It's it's estimated high right now. Budget's low right now for the state. I think there need more money from that. So, you can make it up. And if we don't and we sign in on a two and a half% and you're going to be taking the money out of the fund balance again. That's a direct uh um against the recommendation of the business manager. So, I'm
043just letting you know. You had a question. Now, you can do the vote. It wasn't that was my question. We have a motion on the floor. Uh can I have a vote? All in favor say I. All need a roll call. Do the roll. Okay. Mrs. Yes. Dr. Klein. No. Mr. Kassic, no. Dr. Kosjo, yes. Mr. Leonard, no. Mr. Matarazzo, no. Mr. Neik, yes. Mr. Petrus, no. Mr. Stovart, yes. You have five nos and four yeses. The motion does not carry. All right. I'd like to make my motion again. And let me clarify on the one and a half mills. uh that's maintenance for the buildings and or uh capital may I mean can be used for either or as far as I'm concerned. So three and a half mills one mill toward technology which
044we're underfunding 1 mil for security which we're underfunding and one and a half mills toward buildings which we need to address. Can we specify you say how does that solve the problem though? It it I I was just going to ask the question. It it it doesn't um because if if you're if you're dedicating additional millage to those then we're raising the total bottom line. So it it really it it doesn't solve what you're trying to solve, Mr. Kachassic. Well, if you put one if you put one mil toward technology and you're under spending, that money that's left over is going to go back into the general fund. It's the same thing with the security. If we're not spending, you have a line line item budget and if you're not spending up to that budget
045and you have a surplus in that budget, it's going to go into your general fund just like your checkbook would be at home. Or it can be moved around. Yeah. Say I think if you say it can be moved. It's not like you said, you know, it's not like you know, you guys say can't be used for general fun. Yes, that's I'm fine. I'm fine with what you're saying. I understand the tech and security, but it's the 1.5 for capital. It's it's would not that would not that would not go in capital. That's why I clarified it. It could be building m building maintenance. I mean, we put roofs on every single year that we don't have money for. I mean, how how are we going to do this? We can't take money out of
046the the the fund balance anymore. We got to make a responsible decision. Well, we we currently have two mills that goes into capital fund. I know. Um it it gets siphoned off every year on this and that, but um I'm just Hey, you can vote no on it, too. I'm just offering an alternative. Well, do you have to stipulate where you're putting it, though, Phil? Yeah. So, I think keeps me Well, I I have a comment. If you don't, then those then you're going to be underfunding those uh line items forever. I guarantee you if you looked at those now we're under we're spending more than we're actually bringing in for those lines. You're spending more in the technology and security than than the mills we put in place are covering which is adding to
047the problem of uh your shortfall. Question and comment again I I don't have necessarily a problem with the number but I do have a problem with ear barking and not letting I don't know how to run school district. I won't kid you I I fix a to do all building. I don't know how to run school districts, but I think that if we're earmarking these Mr. Chassis, we're telling them the owners that this is all you can spend the money for. And that doesn't allow them to spend your money the way they I don't know. I tried to explain it to you. Yeah, but it's still I I I'm not dumb. I understood your explanation, but I don't necessar I know you can't put Brett on the spot now, but I guarantee you he would
048come up with a number that would surprise you on the shortfall on those two uh line items. So, where are you getting that money from right now? Well, we we we move it from other parts of the budget or we take it from the fund balance. But I I guess again where I'm stuck and and maybe I'm I'm missing the the an easy explanation here. If just say for an example, okay, you you want to dedicate one mill towards security. So, we're at we're at a $70 million budget right now. If we're don't if we're dedicating one mill to security, we're going to be at 70 million $300,000. So, how has that helped us shrink the gap on the fund balance if that's truly the intention? I mean, I get it if you want that
049mill just to go toward All right, let's let's say example right now. The millage that we raised uh for the technology was many many years ago now was 250,000 when we raised it. Yep. What are you spending now? 500 $750,000 on that. I know it is. Yeah. More than that. No, it's it's so where does that difference come from? It's coming from Well, but you know, so if you were if you raised that mill to 500,000 or made that line and buy 500,000 and you were spending 400,000, you're going to have a surplus of 100,000 which goes into your general fund. But but I think Phil, if you if you want to stop that growth, if you put this out there, you have to all that money to what we're sucking out of the fund
050balance every single year to stop that from going. Yeah, but part of that sucking out of the fund balance is you're underfunding certain areas. No, we I I thought if you look back at the budgets and Brett could Well, you can move you can move money around we said these specific things are coming out of the fund balance. I I think what he's saying is you're designated in security. It has to stay within security. No, I'm just saying you got to replace surpluses in there that that all that money goes back into the general balance. But to your example about technology, you're absolutely correct that years ago, we're probably going back almost 20 years. We put $250,000. That was the line item for technology was $250,000. That mill was put on. That expendure was put
051on. What's in the budget now though is not $250,000. What's in the budget now is $800,000 and some years we go over, some years we don't. But the fact that we designated $250,000 back then, we didn't stay at that number from the expenditure point of view. We tried to keep up as as technology grew. Now textbooks, that's different story. We put a mill on for textbooks all those years ago. It never changed it once. Line item hasn't changed in 20ome years. But in the case of technology and security, the same way we've we've increased the expenditure in the budget to try to keep in line with what we're actually spending. Now, do we always hit it perfectly? No. But we're we're, you know, we're way past what the dedicated mills were when we originally set
052those line items up because we've kept up with the expanded programs. Mr. Question, refresh my feeble memory. We have dipped in the fund balance let's say the last four times. What do you remember without thinking what were those four items? What what do we take out of fun? I think I remember a couple roof. We did a roof. Correct. We bought the admin building. Out of fun out of fund balance. Um did we use it to balance the budget? And we've used it to balance the budget. Last year we used it to balance the budget. Yes. the year prior to the year prior we use it to balance the budget. Yes. And that's what I want to avoid because if you keep doing that, you're not going to have your fund balance for when we
053have the roof for when you have the emergency things. Okay. Brent, in the past five years, approximate uh how often have you go into a fund balance? You recall past five year period? Almost every year. Almost every year. So almost every year we fund balance. I can't remember year we didn't, but I don't know. Yeah. We just can't keep going to fund balance. You can go to the fund balance for reoccurring expenses or you can go to the fund balance for projects. So specify if if you're saying five years, three of those years were a roof something and that's what you use it for. So it's probably two years that we've actually dipped in and used it to balance a budget. Just split those out. He's gone five times, but he's used it for what
054it's intended to three of those years. That's that's that's a fair assessment. I just make sure we understand that. So we got we got to make up the last two years. It's a recurring expense every single year to stop the bleeding. That would be the intent. Okay. Did healthcare alone go up 9% this year? Is that correct? Yes. That's 9%. 600,000 or almost two mills. It was projected to go up 15 at one one time. Yeah. But this is 9% one year. That's what been that it's been 12% the year before and 10% the year before that. That's what I'm saying. Just been tracking it. that that keeps on you got to go to the fund balance and make that up. The fund balance just keeps on deleting. It's okay. So the percentage again for
055the public our fund balance recommend those much wiser than myself is to keep it around 6% that 6% between four and eight between five and eight. Right. And what percentage are we at now? At the end of this year we're going to be at um somewhere around 6% and as I observed in money coming out of the fund balance for right or wrong reason there's still a minimum you like to keep and I agree with what Morgan said he wasn't wrong but now we're at the point where I don't feel comfortable keeping digging into the fund balance I hate raising tax there comes a time when you do things you don't like so I even forot all right let me res since there was not a second on my motion I'm going to resend that
056a motion and open it up for another board member to make another suggestion. I'm going to move being that we're in the bottom 4% in cost per student. We have been very very frugal and we've had a great return on what we've done. So commending this board for keeping and Dr. Harris, you know, Mr. Lego, we've done a great job of keeping the budget down and we have to pay for that. Two years ago, Dr. Last year, Dr. Harris asked for what? Four mills. I did I asked for three. Three asked for three and we gave him one. So we're short. We got to make up for that. We had a teacher contract. We've had other contract. We've had stuff going up. And reality is we have to make that up. And I'm going to
057suggest the number Phil gave. I appreciate 3.5 but without earmarks. So I'm going to move that we have a 3.5% millage increase with no earmarks and trusting our people at the top to make the decisions with board. We look at these things they're spending money on. We can't be blind. So, they're going to let us know the line items and we can say, "Hey, that's not right. This is good. This is bad." So, I'm going to use the 3.5 no ear marks and trust our people. It's not quite what Dr. Harris wants, but I think it's something that' be reasonable and fair for our community. Okay, we have a motion. Is there a second out there? I I have a point of order for discussion. What happened to the motion we didn't vote on? So,
058we send it without a second. Correct. Okay. I didn't know if there was a second. That was the question. Okay. Again, do we have a second on this motion? If I understand the motion 3.5, no ear marks. It's to be used with the highest priority. Correct. Two seconds. Sorry. I second. Okay. Question. Question. Quest being called for Mr. Lego. Could you pull the board? Yes, sir. Mr. President, Mrs. Dr. Klein, no. Dr. Kosjo, no. I'm sorry, Mr. Kachassik. I you Mr. Leonard? Yes. Mr. Matarazzo? Yes. Mr. Neck? No. Mr. Patrusi. I'd just like to add still one one mill put aside for new buildings but this isn't the right time but we got to start wearing future boards. We have some old buildings are going to have to be replaced probably within the next 10
059year period and this building right here is it due for renovation in another 10 year period because every 20 years we do it and the last time we did this was approximately 2015. So, we got some big-time expenses coming up and I will be long gone. But I still think we should bank a millage, but I realize there's nowhere close to might get a additional mill for that. So, I will support the three and a half mills. Mr. Stovar, no. You have four yes and five no. Motion does not carry. Just to throw out there, one was a 3.5, needed needed one more vote. One was a 2.5, needed more votes. Maybe I know I can't bring up a motion myself, but maybe someone can bring up the motion for three and everyone can compromise.
060I promise that the money will be put to good use. And I said, like I I asked for three last year and just again I think we get hung up on this is not a final decision. Mr. stove bar is correct in assessment that that the uh the number from the uh SEIU contract might be lower. Um and then that would only benefit you could reduce the amount come uh 30 days from now. Yeah, you're right. Keep in mind that this is not the final number. This is just the preliminary number to get. So the lower you go number is the less wiggle room you're going to have if these numbers don't come in that we're hoping for. Right. Greg another question. This is not the final budget. No, that's right. You're right. Preliminary. You're
061right. What? When will the final budget be here? June. The June. The June meeting. Second June meeting. I might be back. I'm going away. I might be I might be absent and I don't want anybody to say I'm not. Tell me what I think right now. Do it by phone. I have my phone when I was on. Oh, that sometimes works. So, I could try that. But I may be here. I'm not sure. I have my plans are in place right now. But so you're looking for another motion, right? Somebody said three. Oh, we don't have a we don't have a budget. That was Matt's three. I didn't I didn't make I can't make a motion. I'll second Matt's motion for three motion. We have to make that motion, Mr. I'll make a motion for
062unless you need me expand the language on that. I think you know what I mean. We have a We have no more. We have a motion for three mills. Is there a second? Second. Second. Uh, question being called for. I have a question. Uh, if we if the three mills passes, what are you cutting? Um, probably we have to look at counting our tutors and we're going to revisit some of our maybe some numbers of student learning assistance because we still have to come up with $314,000 in cuts. So well and and depending on the outcome of the contract negotiations that could be a big part of our reduction. True. But I do like I said I looked at all the budget and I had to rank everything and I kind of thought what would
063be next and what would come and that might that that's a big part of it. Would you be picking choosing through your different lists there? early. No, I pretty much um when we looked at the admin team and what we needed and I even consulted different things what were I had to prioritize everything because when you do it um pretty much that it was pretty much if we had to rank everything from mustkeep down it's just unfortunate as it is everything had to be signed to rank and if you have to give up something it would have to be tutors and possibly two SLAs's uh Mr. Lego, could you vote? Um, was there a second? The three, but the three would prevent me from going down cutting more SLAs's, which I would appreciate. All right,
064Mrs. Essing, no. Dr. Klein, question. What's the motion here? Three mills. No. Mr. Kassic? Yes. Dr. Costjo? No. Mr. Leonard? Yes. Mr. Matarazzo? Yes. Mr. Neck? Yes, Mr. Petrusy. Yes, Mr. Stovar. No. One, two, three, four, five. I have five yes and four no. Right. That I counter. Okay. Motion carries. Motion carries. Not to call out anybody. That's not my purpose. I really hope that that your uh uh dissenting members will be a critical part in the discussion of what actually is going to be cut uh next is that's some hard decisions are going to have to be made affecting overall scores and everything else inside the building. So please be vocal next week on or in June on on what actually is going to be cut. I'd be glad back to you. All right.
065Thank you. And then next week, um, under a budget of finance, we're also going to ask you to designate a treasurer approve the CWCTC budget. Under buildings and grounds and safety, there will be no items. Under employee relations, negotiations, transportation, there are no items as of now, but we are still um waiting to hear back from the SEIU who was voting on their contract. Um, so we might have a contract um by next week. We might and we might not. Um, food service, there will be no items to approve. Under personnel and curriculum, we're going to ask you to approve the personnel agenda. Authorize administration to issue reasonable assurance of employment notice, approve textbooks, approve early graduation under approved. We're going to ask you to approve terms of employment and approve settlement agreements under policy
066public relations legislative title 2. We're going to ask you to prove the list of graduates of the class of 20125. I will have the number by next week. I'm sorry I don't have it right now. And we're going to ask you um under taxes insurance census there are no items to report. Now, I do for the reasonable reassurance letters that's something that we might have to hold off on to depending on the um June vote. Is that correct, Brad? Yeah. Yes. Okay. Thank you. I think that's correct. Because I don't want to give someone a reasonable insurance letter if the board decides to um not raise the million favor. Hi. Hi. I think it changed. Okay.