001e e good evening welcome to the budget work session of The Rose Tree Media School Board now this is a a special work session in addition to our regular work session that will still occur next week the uh on the six I'm sorry the 13th on Thursday at 6:30 pm this work session is dedicated to the school budget the school board holds monthly work sessions to carry out its responsibilities in public as dictated by the Sunshine Law at these meetings the board standing committees conduct the work of the board through discussion with the administration standing committees function as Committees of the whole with all board members serving on all standing committees with one member acting as chair we welcome the public to these meetings and depending on the length of the agenda we may be
002able to entertain public comment if we're not able to address comments we encourage emails to either committee chairs or the administration as a as a reminder to where our conversation should focus the students are the center of the rtmsd Learning Community our mission states that all students will reach their intellectual emotional social and physical potential in a safe environment that celebrates diversity individual talents and efforts and promotes collaboration caring respect and Leadership students will be well prepared to create meaningful and productive lives in a global Society all right so we will begin with the [Laughter] budget all right Dr nabson Williams thank you all for being here tonight um we have uh a number of slides to share with the board and with the community and then uh for the proposed 2026 um fiscal year
003for us so I'm excited about the budget this has gone through as you know um a lot of discussion we actually start the building of the budget in October each year um as the discussions begin then with building principles with central office staff talk about where we are what we're looking at and then it continues to progress into November December January uh until where we are this evening this is the first public look this is the first look that the board is having um you know to uh to see what we are proposing um as the administrative team came together to make some final decisions for the recommendation uh our goal is to put together a budget that not just maintains the quality of the education that we provide for the children in Ros tree
004media but enhances the experiences enhances the opportunities for the children to be successful and does so in a way that's fiscally responsible because we know that um you know one of the big areas of focus for the board uh is about being good stewards uh of the money so I'm excited for this and I'm going to we're GNA start with Heather Hogan you do the first slide yes so presting tonight will be Heather Hogan who's the assistant business manager Dr Vanessa Scott will chime into Times uh Mr Bill do our assistant superintendent Miss Christa Hine um technology assessment and curriculum and instruction um we'll all be weighing in at different times uh as we go through so board members as we're doing it if you have questions don't hesitate to stop ask for clarification uh
005we are happy to go through all right Miss Hogan the first thing we're GNA look at tonight is the timeline if you notice on the end of the first um column we are here tonight on our special work session for fin and operations to do our look at the budget we will come together again at the work session of April 10th to review where we are at that time and then all of the other dates are pte requirements they say we have to you know um do some things 10 days before 20 days before so our hope is on 4:24 at our legislative meeting we will adopt the 2526 proposed final budget and then on 52 we'll make it available for public inspection our final budget there could still be changes on 512 we will
006offer our public notice of intent to adopt the final 2526 budget and hopefully on May 22nd at our legislative meeting we will be adopting our 2526 general fund final budget any questions on the timeline this next slide list board budget priorities uh so something new that we introduced this year was asked to the board asked the board to weigh in individually on what did they see as the priorities that we should incorporate and focus upon uh as we were building the budget um some of these things you know historically are things that have been understood things that have been discussed um at meetings wanted to get a little bit of a better idea and a stronger idea directly in the voice uh of each of the board members and asking them to complete the form
007uh so as we went through all of the information and I appreciate all of the board members responded uh and shared P shared perspective um and and as we broke down the information put together this is what we came up with as the top four things that we saw across the nine members of the board of school directors um first focus on safety and wellness for students and staff including mental health teaching and learning including special education needs to minimize the tax increase and to focus on facilities and infrastructure these were the four key things um that as we put all the information from the board together we came away with so this we used in mind in our minds as we made some decisions about what to include in the budget so this is
008a critical page here staffing needs um and this ties directly into what was indicated um you know by the board as to be the priorities and we agree with what those priorities are so I want to go through this list um and I need you to know too as we PLL the principles and we talked to the schools and we talked to um maintenance and custodial um there were probably in round numbers 40 45 positions that were requested for next year um this is not encompassing of what everybody asked for all right this is what we believe are the critical positions to meet the needs where we are as a school district and to uphold uh those priorities so first two additional teachers uh classroom teachers at Indian Lane um these are Necessities the students
009are there um the class sizes are large in order to maintain class size as we have done and have that uh in some level of relative parity across our four elementary schools we definitely need to hire two more teachers at Indian Lane we need to hire an additional special ed teacher at all four of the elementary schools Glennwood Ros tree media and Indian Lane so that's four FTE uh and again these are for children who are already there we have um teachers of special ed who are maintaining very high case loads which then cuts down on the individualized attention that can be provided and the communicative ability that they have um with parents an additional instructional coach in cni teaching and learning is our business again we want to continue to improve what's going on
010instructionally within the school district um the greatest asset that we have in our school district are the human beings that work here we have an incredibly talented Cadre of teachers in all six of our buildings but what we are asking teachers to do is different today than it ever has been before having the opportunity to provide additional dedicated coaching time to the teachers in their classrooms and in their buildings will make a difference in the instructional outcomes an additional special education teacher here at the middle school at springton Lake it's a teacher for emotional support those children are here it's not that those children are coming those children are here an additional reading specialist at springton Lake again to meet the needs of the children who are currently enrolled as well as the children who
011will be rising from fifth grade to sixth grade and the reading needs that have been identified a math teacher at pencrest one of the changes in putting in the block schedule where it provides additional choice for children to be able to make and through their schedules has demonstrated a need for an additional math teacher which I think is a really good need for them to demonstrate uh over at the high school that we have children that want to take additional math courses than what they would have been able to take in a traditional eight period day an additional school psychologist we expect that the school psychologist Position will focus the majority of the work at the elementary level again based on the number of children that are coming into the district the demonstrable needs by
012the children that are coming out The Early Intervention Program through the IU when they arrive and the needs that are demonstrated and what we have to provide for the kids here on a daily basis the number of psychologists that we have is not enough we definitely need one more and I will tell you that a request for school psychologist has been on the list for the last number of years uh a a registered Behavior technician and RBT to focus specifically at pencrest five additional special education AIDS and again based on the needs of where of what's happening with our children to provide support for the children to provide um the opportunity for children who are struggling to be able to maintain within a classroom to be able to have an opportunity to separate at times
013to go to another space or to another spot and then an instructional coach specifically focused on special education now there there is a star in here that this is it's not a new position what we mean by it's not a new position is we currently have what we're referring to as a teacher on assignment um and the teacher on assignment position is a special ed position that position will extinguish um and we will incorporate a teacher an instructional coach teacher on assignment instructional coach classroom teacher those are all budgeted in the same way they're part of the same collective bargaining group um and they are all matched in terms of what goes on so there is no difference um in financially what that will end up being but we do want to highlight that on
014here again as we move into this instructional coach model of what we are trying to do Provide support for teachers one of the biggest areas we need additional support are for those children who are having difficulty maintaining what would be uh expected classroom Behavior the opportunity to be engaged and be involved in the classroom all the time to provide this support for teachers directly to say try this can you do this let's work on this but to provide that across the schools and focus specifically on special education so this brings up to a total of brand new positions of 17 ft e and just a little thing at the bottom FTE is a full-time equivalent go ahead Rob yes it's a good question Rob I will tell you that that we continue to have an
015increase in the number of children who are classified right and and the needs of children there's been a difference in the types of supports that are needed for for children and and from the elementary all the way up through the high school that is significantly different post pandemic than it was pre pandemic um the struggles in um again being able to um be maintained in a classroom you know in a full-time um emotional outputs and the emotional support um that's needed for children that we did not necessarily see and certainly did not address in the same manner um I'm going to tell you that it's a it's more of an evolution of how we provide services to children as education goes through um periodically um the needs are definitely there the frustration is there frustration
016among parents frustration among staff frustration among kids it's hard um you know for what kids are experiencing in a classroom on a daily basis um so with additional supports additional tools uh in order to try to provide teachers with additional things in their quiver of arrows um we believe that we can better address and better meet the the the needs of the children um which improves the environment and the improving the environment uh also improves the academic outcomes for the kids goe Carl oh I'm sorry go ahead Krista sure the garden so those students who are already identified they have been greater post pandemic than we have ever had in the district previously they usually are identified through the IU so whether that's a speech need or you know a variety of you know disabilities
017or whatever they the need is but so the kiddos coming to us has have increased um are the AIDS designated to a specific building I don't believe they are at this time carlen what good question like what how will we know where they're going I guess uh Mr doy yeah so we have we have a staffing meeting each spring where we review and identify the needs of individual students at each schools and then we match after we see the student needs then we match the supports with the needs at each School is five enough ni so looking at round numbers where with where we are now we believe as we go into this yes I just had a question you said a few times when you were starting that you kept stressing that the children
018are already here these are for children who are already here in my understanding all these positions that relate to children they're already here am I right or is there any here that are for projected outcomes so really honestly Susan the the only one that's on here um that is more of a projection is the math teacher at pest that's based on the course selection that's already been completed over there uh Mr Ryme shle who you all met who's the new assistant principal that started last summer uh he's been managing um course selection and the course guide and all that kind of stuff um but is was able to go through and show us exactly the numbers and what it will look like in the master schedule um that's the only thing that the projection is
019there um the rest of these that are all on here um the kids are in the building in larger classes um in tighter spaces uh and not getting the again the type of of individualized attention or the type of attention that we would like all the teachers to be able to provide to every child as they could if we start to expand the number of people who are working with them okay and so just to make sure I'm clear on this and then I obviously let someone else out of the 40 odd requests that you received these Physicians here they there's a demonstrated absolute need as of now for children who are here in order so that they can get the best education that they should in our district yes the these are Necessities thank
020you this is not a well we'd like to try this out you know or we want to add something that's that's new in terms of courses or things like that we did not put those forward because of the numbers with what we're looking at these are absolute Necessities to meet the needs of the children in our community who are here in the in the past we've had discussions about the state's contribution to our um special education costs and how while the state is obligated to provide 50% of these costs the state in the past had not provided their portion of it um has there been any Improvement in the state's contribution to these costs Dr Scott I know that that we go into the revenue a little bit later do is there can you address
021that so the with the governor's budget that he put out in February the addition to specialized sub subsidies for our district was less than 1% couple couple of questions the the math teacher at pen Crest does discovering that need relate at all to the block schedule yeah absolutely it's with uh putting the block schedule in and allowing um it it opens up choice for the kids and the big one of the big areas of choice has been to take additional math classes gotcha and with two additional classroom teachers at Indian Lane do we have classrooms for them we do have classrooms for them yes so and nothing is being sacrificed terms uh nothing's being displaced Miss Constantine I think we're some shifting yes there might be some shifting okay and how does this uh request
022for 17 FTE compared to the last couple of years of approved question so the total from last year I'm not sure but it's in the ballpark like we've the past couple of years we've been adding a good amount of positions to the budget I just off the top of my head I don't remember how many we did last year and the focus is a little different this year because of special ad so last year it was definitely like there were administrative positions there were teacher positions counselors rbts when we started the RBT process this year definitely more teachers then just some pictures that we always think it's right catch our breath for a second we think it's a a good a good that's right a good reminder of we do this because there are children
023that are in our buildings on a daily basis just some uh some updated pictures from this year different kids at different levels doing different things um including performing out in the community so all right um Miss conine and Mr doy I think you all are going to jump into the Strategic plan goal number one talk about academics um and then kind of carries through and I do want to apologize for the green line it is a combination of zoom and PowerPoint but it is not on the live stream so I do apologize for that we're we learned that tonight it's like the first down marker I apologize but it's not on the live stream okay so the board had asked us really several years ago to align our positions with our strategic goals so some
024of what I'll say will be a repeat of of what you heard Dr malash say but um we organized it in a way to again align with specific goals so related to achievement growth and rigor obviously we spoke about the Elementary classroom teachers due to enrollment secondary math teacher again that is a pest high school and again due to the block scheduling students have chosen to take additional math courses um reading specialist at the middle school based on student need and our particular numbers right now um the instructional coach this instructional coach will be come become part of our coaching team that we've grown over the past couple of years that'll be um and again that will also help support the block scheduling at the high school as well as other instructional needs um a
025new Ela program k to8 um as you've heard from Christa conting throughout the year um we're finished with the pilot and then we're ready to purchase a program and and exploration of a new science curriculum so next year we will be piloting science curriculums for the Middle School um you know I always say like in the old days these companies used to allow you to pilot materials for free but that is no longer the case so we will have to um purchase materials to Pilot for next year models of teach teaching and learning um some things that are very highlighted um this year are organization and publication of all curriculum documents we've worked really hard with the teachers um to get their ubd documents complete and all our curriculum and we're ready to have those
026published um in an organized way so that all Community Family anyone is able to go online and see those in a very organized manner so that is part of our budget I'm so sorry but I know I know what you is but perhaps so our the way we design our curriculum documents understanding by Design um just is the way that we we write our documents um and I want to say a huge thank you for that because the way the curriculum documents were written in the past you know the the Legacy old style way was very difficult to understand so this is a huge step forward thank you um updating teacher and student devices are teacher devices are end of life um so they will be replaced moving um with consistency K12 with our student
027devices next year and then just continuing to support our print and digital resources um to support our teaching and learning um a question about technology on the software side digital native kids not so digital native teachers how do you how do you train uh teachers to keep up with the kids and as AI the coaching model so our instructional coaches um really are effective in best practices and part of that is how do you integrate these tools effectively whether that's part of station rotation individualized learning whatever that might be so our coaches take a huge role in that ongoing and um on the job really professional development as well as designing professional development throughout the year um our Flex um this year that implemented and again we an additional Day next year um we've had
028a lot dedicated to these tools as well and AI in terms of integrating that and having some sort of yeah that's what we are working on right now we're still working with teachers to understand um and move Beyond just plagiarism concerns really yeah um so looking at our 12th and 11th graders to to kind of see where will this fit in with our older Learners um how can we design lessons that some you know we can use Ai and and what would that rubric look like um so that's really where we are we started last year with the coordinators bringing all the coordinators together then we asked the coordinators to bring our friends so we could expand that group um and again just with our coaches being in with the teachers um and their comfort
029level of moving them Beyond just the worry of um fism and cheating yeah right it's such a useful tool in the workplace for summarizing outside information and then you can respond creatively yeah will we be leveraging conmigo at all in this District that I am not I'm not sure I'm not familiar with that cono is the Con Academy AI program for learning um okay um have there been any discussions just maybe in general with some of the colleges about Ai and the uses cuz I know we're struggling trying to still figure it out and it would be nice if the students in high school sort of you know what I mean there's a connection absolutely because um a lot of it is still plagiarism you know what I mean you're getting the paper and it's
030not your paper um so I'm just wondering if that we have not done that but I think with the Partnerships that we have um with DCC and our you know Delaware um now and I think that's a that's a good connection and aside from that um you know the dciu has brought districts together to discuss exactly that and they've also brought in some experts from outside so really the um administrators from across the county we're all pretty much in the same spot in terms of that and I'm sure um some of those connections will be what the dciu helps us with I would strongly encourage us to look at kigo for um assisting our students you know when you really look at what cono does a lot of the the other uh AI programs you
031put in a problem and it fits out the answer kigo does the exact opposite it looks at what you're guessing and coaches you to reconsider this look at that it doesn't give them the answer but it coaches them into learning the answer in a in a way that's efficient because not everybody can have a one-on-one tutor um so when you're thinking about resources for how to to when their kids are working on their homework and they don't understand what was taught in class it's a way for them to stay current with the rest of the students and maybe hear it in a different way that might have been you know said differently in thank you well I have one other back to the the purchasing of the technology equipment um you said I think you
032said um alignment for K to2 devices does this go back to the conversation we had a couple of months ago about perhaps purchasing Chromebooks for elementary is that moving forward and what do that look like we've we've budgeted for that so the move to a one to one Chromebooks for first grade all the way through 12 so our first grade through fifth will be getting new devices Sixth and 9th next year um they will be the touch panel devices um we really tried to look at um how can we continue to be assistive with our technology because that was one thing with with the iPads that um was really helpful so we wanted to make sure those same sort of assist of devices were there they certainly are in the Chromebook but we also looked
033at collaboration so one thing that has really been missing at the elementary level is that ability to be um collaborating on projects and that kind of teamwork on um enrichment um and project-based tasks because the apples just don't lend themselves to that kind of collaboration it's really a single device um and that's something that the expectation as we're moving forward um that students become more efficient at communicating um and kind of creating things that are not traditional um and we just think the Chromebook is better equipped for that um and also then that moving forward with our platforms so students are going to be introduced to things on a consistent way starting in first grade and moving forward um we will keep 12 devices or we budgeted for 12 devices in each kindergarten classroom um
034as opposed to a one-on-one is the same amount they have now and is the cost pretty comparable for the Chromebooks it's significantly cheaper it is okay thank you just one question in relation to that are you are the children going to be taking these Chromebooks home I at the elementary it's really based on instructional need so even with the iPads right now if there is a project they're working on and the teacher feels it's necessary for the iPads to go home then the students take them home home um for the most part they will be kept in the classroom if the iPads are kept in the classroom I just wanted to make sure we're not shifting that mindset as well because we are not we are we absolutely are not so they will be kept
035we're also looking at charging stations for the Chromebooks um so that they can be kept in the classroom um occasionally they have gone home in the in the last few years but very rarely very really great thank you Chris I'm just going to interrupt here for a second just an update on on number of positions so 17 in this year's proposed budget last spring the proposed 2425 budget had 19.5 positions and the proposed budget the year before 2324 had 17.9 positions and remember and those and and in the last couple years those covered a lot of categories it was custodians trade people um Ed assistance instructional staff administrative staff you know so was a a wider range so as we finish up um looking at our our goals in the Strategic plan and again this
036is kind of um Dr Mage talked about this um but we're really looking at how do we continue to support the whole child um talked about our elementary school psychologist um our emotional support teacher at the middle school our artistic support that's needed our RBT um at the High school which will match the five that we currently have for our elementary and one middle um and then our instructional coach positions to support inclusion and and special education um any question okay okay so we're going to look at our sources of revenue it's comprised of four our local Revenue includes our real estate taxes tuitions earnings on investment and I know we know idea as a federal Source but the state mandates that we code it to a local Source because it's passed through the IU
037um our state revenues include basic Ed special ed Transportation the property tax relief and the 50% reimbursement for Social Security and retirement payments and then our federal funds are Title One funds two and four and access then fun balance is the difference between assets and liabilities and results when revenues are greater than expenditures and transfers out here you see our Revenue numbers our local Revenue um we have at 103,6 11,23 that includes a proposed 3% increase then you see our state and our federal as Vanessa mentioned our governor presented um his budget at the beginning of February and it had some increases in it but the district share of the increase um was very small you can see not quite 74,000 in basic Ed and not quite 20 in special ed we have not included
038those tiny tiny increases in our budget we left state revenue flat there we go um there we go is that number 103 and 22 is that about the same ratio as it's been in the past or we seeing less state revenue it's actually a slight increase which we'll see on a future slide sure and the federal revenue is based on last year's or at this point yeah there's a slight decrease we'll see that on a future all right so this shows our budget for Revenue um in a pie chart and as you see most of it is local and States a small piece of the pie and federal is very tiny and here you can see um the increase in local and state even though we kept it flat it increases slightly due to the
03950% rain urement of Social Security and retirement and then our federal is slightly decreasing because our title funds have been going down again these are just projections on the state and federal side because they haven't passed budgets for next year right and then since local makes up such a large part of our budget we'll look at the assessment by property type most of it is residential commercial only holds a small piece of the pie and if you look at Residential Properties from 2019 to what is projected um we have grown 600 Residential Properties in six years do we have the number of growth and housing units by municipality we should be able to get that we don't have it this shows our 10-year assessment values oh I'm so sorry I did have a question about
040the previous slide and I was just slow um I'm just drawing a blank exempt what like I can understand the commercial where that's coming from and I can understand Farm how are we getting money from exempt or you're saying that that don't right like that's what what that's what that chart is actually showing it's not just a chart showing where we get our money but it's showing what the value would be if they had to pay tax so makes more thank you because where I read it was like normally one of the okay cleanest ones to consider so showing the assessment values of those exempt properties not taxes that we are receiving from those right this this isn't Revenue this is just the assessment those our 10year assessment values the big jump was the county
041reassessment then we take a look at our Act One index versus our District's increase you can see in 1718 we actually went over the index with the peers exemption we went from 30 to 32 and a half% required um the other years we were at or under the index is there and this could be just for a future reference but do you have any of the data about the other neighboring school districts and how it relates I would be interested to see like a comparative barram about how did they do in those particular years with their percent increase is that what sure so just like we see here for example 24 25 you know what we actually raised versus the act one I'd be interested to see about our neighbors and I know we've gone
042over the years at that information but would be informative I think for our community as well if they could look at a chart and just sort of see like where is this in relation to the others yeah we can do some research and I I think while this chart shows that we have generally tried to spare our our our taxpaying community um significant increases and we have been well below the Act One index for several years we we are also significantly below inflation for all of those years so everything costs more but we are raising taxes far less than what inflation was and we are doing more with less so to speak we'll move on to our expenses and we have some challenges are partially funded and unfunded mandates as in charter schools special education
043the paser retirement costs and transportation we also have contractual obligations which make up 72% of our expense budget also with the the contractual obligations you know um we are in the process of negotiating with a couple of our collective bargaining groups uh and then we also have a couple of uh other groups the had one of the ad soup groups um and what's the other one Dr confidential confidential uh secretaries employees so we're working with the assistant right now and in one group negotiation and then custodial transportation and maintenance in another one um has there been any I don't know if anyone knows this maybe Hillary the Charter School tuition has there been any change in the the funding I know it's always an issue and no no change okay the charer governor's budget sorry
044I I honestly I have to look back through my notes the government's budget did have I believe something in there I should have sent it to I'll I'll look and make sure that I I send it out I think there was something in his budget proposed are these four items unfunded mandates part of the contractual obligations they're separate and do do you have a sense of what percentage this adds up to of our so I'm sorry to make sure I understand what you're asking you're saying those top four partially funded and unfunded mandates what portion of our budget do they make up so we can look into what the revenue what those subsidies make up from the revenue so charter school is totally unfunded um special education like we know the increase was less than
0451% but we can get numbers if you want to see like how the funding that we receive well not only the funding that we receive but how much do we have to spend okay yeah we can get that theness just those are like the big chunk items those aren't the small line items that are also partially funded or unfunded as well right I know that takes care of most of it but there are also things that we don't see there that we're responsible for so we do we get the basic Ed subsidy which which um is more substantial than special EDS so that's the largest subsidy we get is this the basic Ed subsidy which goes to towards some but these are the larger expenses so that are not funded that we have to we
046don't have any choice um this might be similar to what Ken was asking for I just want to make sure I got a little confused is there a way to get the number saying okay out of out of your budget pi x percentage you have to spend whether it's because of contractual obligations or because of mandates and then then y percentage is what you have at your discretion it would just make that much cleaner to sure of show with the the community and for all of us like out of all of this this is the small bit that we actually have discretion over and what that is does that make sense Vanessa okay and then the other thing that it's just a small thing that sort of Tri me up initially under P's retirement costs
047um I think it's really powerful that it says that the district is required to contribute 34% of each El employees salary that is important I would just clarify like we are only reimbursed out of that 34% we are only reimbursed half of that it just felt a little chunky when I was reading it took me a second to be like how are we reimburse 50% when we only contribute 34 and it's a small thing but it just stopped me so um basically we we are in the hole for 177% right okay and if we can get the numbers on the charter school and the and more importantly the Cyber Charter School tuition a couple years ago we got that data on how much we were spending it was nearly a million dollars for 33 students
048or 38 students or something crazy like that um that would be helpful I think um you know the Cyber Charter reform because they get the same amount of money that the brick and mortar schools get even though they have no such overhead and all those expenses and I know that there's been a lot of wrangling at the state level to uh change the way that Cyber Charter Schools are funded and it it hasn't hasn't been successful correct it's just keeps going round and round and round and round but perhaps our you know per perhaps some of our taxpayers might be more inclined to write to their Congress people and write to their governor and everyone else if they knew how much money they were actually how much of our taxpayer dollars were going to these
049Cyber Charter Schools for how many kids we currently have 40 kids enrolled in charter schools and eight our special ed so we fill out something called the PD 363 which is actually published on their website which gives our share of the tuition so we have to pay 19398 34 for a regular ed kid and 43,2 2709 for special ed kid so it's still coming in at around a million dollars just shy so our sarber charter schools get a million dollars for educating 38 kids did you say 40 40 kids they're both the same it's the same amount of money we don't don't know the majority but we'll get that number okay yeah as a taxpayer I'm not even happy about the way that the charter schools are funded so I hope that all the other
050taxpayers in our community also are encouraged to take some action so this graph depicts the major cost drivers you can see the pension special ed health care costs and Debt Service and of course the highest line is the pension costs and that just to be clear something we have no control over correct thank you could you provide a little color on why that's risen so much faster last 10 years why so I believe back I can't remember what year but the when they projected pension increases they just kept going up they've slowed down now but they're still increasing so this year was what 0.1% but yeah went up um but yes the Actuarial numbers that piecers and pde the state was projecting that they were going to go up after that 2011 and they've pretty
051much just kept going but and does that pension line reflect the 34% or the 17% 34 that the 34 34 yes okay given it's a 34 wouldn't it make sense to not make the penion look like such a brutal thing I'm a Whisperer given it's the it's only 17% wouldn't it be better just to show it as a 17% cost driver in this case just to make it look less brutal so the 17 is net of the revenue that we get back for it so that's why we present it as to what we actually give out or pay out but the cost to us is only 17 17% it's not the the lovely governmental Accounting Standards boards require that we record all of our revenue and all of our expenses and that's why we don't
052show it net because we're required report to that way okay Sor so if we look at this slide you're going to notice that in 2122 and 2324 the district did not use fund balance in 2324 we took the opportunity to transfer a surplus to Capital funds for critical infrastructure upgrades and repairs when we make a budget we do it for a worst case scenario so you know we budget for lots of snowstorms and new employees at the max family benefit and that's why in some years we do not use as much as presented so then we want to focus on our highlighted blue column and you can see our total revenues um of 126 m297 662 and our total expenditures of 13,796 191 leaves us using a um projected actual oh yeah sorry our budgeted
053fund balance of million just all looking at all the numbers just taking it in for the people listening so the what sry I was just GNA so so the the difference number is the proposed 4.4 fund balance usage doesn't take into account the one that million that was approved last year that hasn't been spent so it's really three 365 is that what no am my misunderstanding go ahead well we didn't finish our year yet so I can't really tell you if we're going to use that 1 million yet or not gotcha what is other objects what does that include bottom the bottom um it's our 800 series which are dues and fees um debt interest what is that 4.2 which is larger than it well yeah it's a little bit larger than it's been actually
054that projected fund balance utilization is similar to years past $3 to4 million projected what has come up as actual because we have to budget for worst case scenario so it comes up for actual in in a couple years we haven't used any in 2023 2022 2023 we used 1.15 million of it but we always have to budget for worst case scenario so so and I'm sorry Ken were you talking about the 4.2 and other objects yeah so the conversations that we had with Raymond James and we talked about increasing the debt service for 25 26 for the new school and other capital projects so we felt that we needed to increase it in this budget even though we haven't made those determinations of how we're going forward this is a look of the expenses by
055objects as you can see the salaries and benefits which are ual and we don't have much control over our 72% again we're just taking it in for those listening I know it's dead air any questions about this one what about other uses of funds which is different than other objects so other objects is where your interest for debt would be other uses of funds is where your principle would be so the past couple of years as we are extinguishing debt we've been paying off more principal so that's why it's kind of flipping a little in new debt we would be paying more interest I mean I just want to say thank you for forward looking thinking um about that knowing what's coming I know that's something a couple of us have expressed just wanting to
056make sure that we're you know leaving enough room in the budget to give us options when that conversation comes the moment you've all been waiting for how does it impact you so um this chart depicts the millage impact using an assessed value of 297 540 and then a median assessed value of 385 673 and a higher assessment of half a million but if you look at the median within the district you'll notice the average taxpayer bill will increase $95 with the proposed 3% increase so just to make sure I'm crystal clear on that that it took me a moment with my trusty calculator obviously this is our median and you're saying for if your tax bill is increased by 95 for the year it's just under 8 a month extra what you're paying and that's
057what would include for all of this okay just want to make sure obviously some people fall outside the average but that helps thank you this slide shows the um proposed budget how expenses are higher than revenue and we'll be using some fund balance usage the unassigned fund balance at the end of our June 30th 2024 year was 8,799 which is 6.71% of our current budget for 2425 School Board policy um 620 I think that's important right for people to take note of right states that the district will strive to maintain an unassigned fund balance of not less than 2% but not more than 8% of the budgeted expenditures for that fiscal year do we know and thank you for highlighting that do we know if that policy is it based off of a um PSA
058U Pennsylvania policy so that we can say that we're in best practi saying it is law right for for those who are listening that is something that is out there and recommended by the state of Pennsylvania that what we should do to be fiscally responsible yes it's it's cified at the state level yeah there were there were local school districts who got in a lot of trouble recently for having a much higher balance than that but not us look at us um Vanessa or Heather could you talk through what do we do with our fund balance you know what can we do with it if it gets above that number what do we do with it so what we have done is we have assigned portions of it for capital projects going forward um so
059when we do the audit in November and you see the assignments some of them are assignments for such as this to balance the budget then we have transferred this year we transferred a good amount to capital for capital projects so can assign restrict but we normally assign or commit and correct me if I'm wrong but um while we could be down to 2% that does have an impact on our borrowing interest rates that that is not necessarily considered the healthiest fund balance to be at right at 2% so it's always important for us to keep our fund balance um at a place that allows us to borrow money at the most um financially optimal interest rates correct just want to go back to the previous slide for just a second um you used the median
060assessed value on this slide and then on page 12 you use the average assessment which is different and I know that two different measures but it's a little it's could you explain that a little bit on page 12 the residential average assessment of 424 and then meeting so on this just using the average so literally we're just taking the assessment and dividing it by the properties the amount of properties of each one so I think at least two or three possibly four years ago we were using the average also for on the backslide but then we agreed that the median was more representative of a number rather than this simplistic just dividing it and that's because the average includes some a few number of very high correct yeah and the the med the median controls
061for that correct got it right the meting literally falls in the middle balls in the middle regardless of what the outliers are on the outside that will skew the information because of the size of the value and the other slide as they go through it's just cleaner to be able to do it that way um and just TimeWise not worth the lift to try to get that list and go through and find the exact that's why they use the average in median though we always think it's cleaner just to be able to show this is what the person in the middle in our community I know we have um the the upper one is being 500,000 it would be nice to know what that you know the meting is the 50th percenti but what would
062be the 70th fifth percentile so understanding what it would be you know 75% of our residents would have an increase of you know if 500,000 is the 75th percentile of $123 or less per year kind of accounting for that tail at the end of higher assessments so then we saw that 82% of the district's revenue is generated at the local level we're proposing a 3% tax increase which to the median household would be $95 a year and then salaries and benefits compromise 72% of District expenditures um teers will increase to 34% from the current rate of 33.9 District continues to look for ways to improve efficiencies to cut costs while maintaining programs for students can I just make one comment because we looked at the Act One index and we never said it is 4%
063this year and the administration is proposing 3% so we're looking at a percentage point less and the I know you didn't read it but the point about uh rose tree media having one of the lowest millage rates in Delaware uh County um third the third they say one of the lowest year so I'm just reading that um the over the past five years the district has had the third lowest millage rate right fluctu so I mean I think that's important for the the community here to hear in addition to the fact that the Act One index is four and we're talking about three yeah and the other two districts that are lower than us one is only marginally lower like we're talking like Point .2% um or 02 less those two municipalities have Fortune 500
064companies that are headquartered in their districts they have a tax revenue base that we don't have we don't have a lot of corporate homes here we have a lot of independent mom and pop businesses in in our district unlike you know having sap for example up in Marble new town or uh Lincoln Financial and V vwr up in the Radner school districts they get a lot of tax revenue from corporate sources that we don't get so what happens next um in about two days we'll get our second look of retical rates currently this proposed 3% increased budget includes a 13.48% in our medical rates hopefully that will go down um our prescription renewal rates are expected in April the dciu updated contracts and agreements district will continue to analyze expenditures and our professional staff retirements
065are due to HR by March 15 things that could that's why this is a draft first look these are things that could make these numbers fluctuate a little bit next time we look at them yes is there a projection about how many staff may retire or is just maybe a guess it's there really is not right now we're looking at five I believe um or six it it's a hard one um you know 10 days from now we'll definitely have a much better idea I was going to say is it March 15th deadline yeah um yeah it's a it's a hard one so looking over because March 15th is the retirements and then March 5th is the medical rates at the very least we should have those two things done for our next what is
066it April 10th I have to flip to the front here but our next uh our next experience right we should have April 10th finance and operations work session so so we should have even more information by then those two big chunks well the dciu also should be that's sometime in April I don't know when in April though well I don't know it should be at least a draft in March okay yeah I'll hold you accountable you ready for it okay are there any additional questions comments thank you I really want to give a sincere comment this is great so easy to follow I hope that if anybody uh is uh kind of following along at home they feel the same I thought this was really great thank you so much we do have a a
067something from the audience yes well I mean a slew is a lot so maybe maybe two or three two or three okay question from the audience was will this be posted on the website and when and yes it will be posted probably by end of business tomorrow afternoon so it's a good question Miss satini um we we looked at what a 4% increase would be we did not look lower than a 3% we did look to see what would be higher and we felt that it was most fiscally responsible to stay at the 3% and to meet the needs um of where we are at the district but no we did not look lower than that so there's a question about the seven a little over 7% increase in salaries 7.9 is that what it
068was 7.9% increase in salaries um and what how much of that is attributed to the 17 new positions versus other factors um I don't believe that we're going to have that number percentage Miss satini but I'm sure that Dr Scott will follow up with you and okay and the same question about benefits with the increase in benefits how much is that related to new positions that piece okay we'll got it yeah we'll follow up with him Miss satini uh yeah absolutely if you if you have the yeah just send them in the email that'd be great thank you for doing that are there any other questions from the board we all good is that it are we've done are we forgetting I feel like we are too I don't know what but just to be
069clear for anyone listening right this is just for now there's loads of opportunity for absorption and questions yeah but it just well I think part of it is that this process has gone much more smoothly in the past few years due to the way we're doing this and by the fact that we hold this special budget session and not cram it into another work session so thank you to Vanessa and Heather and the whole team for putting this together to make this a much more digestible import an independent part of our whole process I would just add to that also because I completely agree that I think part of this like first look at the budget um the reason that it's not surprising is because you have prepared us again throughout the year um telling
070us that there's an increase in special needs and we need more teachers and we have more children and so you know we get to this point and it shouldn't be surprising and it's not I think it really feels like you're asking for what you need and what we need to do to be responsive to the children so I appreciate that alignment that's a good point Kelly thank you can I ask one more thing be added to the um presentation is the increase in our student population over time because I think that's important for everybody in the community to understand why we need to keep adding all these positions um and then there was another uh question I was going to ask but now I don't remember what it is so if I think of it
071I'll tell you all right um