001Thank you so much um board member Naba McKenna. Um we appreciate the opportunity um to come before the board today as part of our budget and finance committee meeting to share with you um our proposed um FY26 um operating budget. So at this time I will turn it over to our chief financial officer uh Jorge Robles to walk us through the presentation. Thank you. Thank you Dr. Battle um chair Naval Mckini members of the board um good afternoon and I'm happy to be here um to having this conversation on a personal note this is you know it's been a year so you know it's good to start another cycle with all of you um so the overview that I will share with you today describes the funding needs that we have identified through our budgeting
002process uh to continue to support the students and schools so that they can continue to achieve the amazing results that they have been doing so for the past few years. And that's where I want to start. It's um on the with the why of the budget priorities and and and the needs that we have identified. Um know that you have seen many of this information, but it's always good to see it again and connected with the resources that we're planning for next year and how having the appropriate funding has been a key ingredient to achieve this results. Um, as you know, um, the students in our Emmy-winning, uh, school district have had an amazing result, achieving level five and advancing district designations three years in a row. And our students increased proficiency across every grade
003level and in every content area, uh, which is absolutely remarkable. And more students are graduating than ever before. um which is um historical. But not only um MNPS outpaced the state uh growth in both math and reading at the national level, MNPS is the only district that has ranked in the top 10 on both math and reading for the for two years in a row which is also um there's a lot to celebrate. So these are amazing and historical results. So I wanted to take a moment to you know thank the sport our teachers, our school leaders, support hub teams and our families for the very important role that everyone has played in supporting our students achieve this incredible results and our budget work um through our budget work. We want to ensure that we
004can continue to provide those resources and supports so that our students can continue to thrive. Um and so we're grateful for know to this board and to the mayor and metro city council for the continued support uh over the past few years with the funding and something that we hope um to continue. So um I wanted to start by talking a little bit about this fiscal year FY25 our current year. Um the approved budget prioritized key investments in our students and team members. Uh this year's budget as you know um had critical investments through the one-time funding of the ESRB bridge which had allow us to continue uh key programs funding key programs such as nurses in every school um our scholars portfolio uh program safety ambassadors etc. And also we had another key one-time
005funding that allow us to secure uh funding for the adoption of high quality curriculum for next year um adoptions that are state required. And this year we were able to were able to actually acquire the um curriculum the year prior so that it is ready for our students when they come back in August. Um, additionally, um, we, um, well, I say we'll talk about why these two one-time investments, um, that we have this year as a bridge and the and the, um, textbook is something that we are prioritizing to make part of our continuity of operations uh, so that we can have um the consistency of those investments year-over-year. Um, additionally this year, uh, we were also able to invest in our team members through the 4% call approved by Metro City Council and the
006step increase that is now part of our operating budget. And we also invested in critical professional development for our educators and in keeping up with inflation and um, all the contractually obligated um, increases. So, this board um last month approved uh the FY26 budget priorities that have guided our planning efforts and um you should see this reflected on um the needs that I identified um that I'll share with you. Um the board established four priorities uh three of which are a continuation of this year. So that is continuity of operations, continuing the strategic investment and this is actually to make ESER part of our operating fund and strategic employment employee compensation and there is a new um priority that was set by you which is a comprehensive safety and security planning that we'll talk about.
007So um the way that I'm going to share the information around our budgetary needs identified for FY26 is grouped by the priorities that you have um set to us. And so we'll start with our continuity of operations. And um the um continuity of operations actually includes the investments that we need to ensure there is no disruption to the resources and supports we provide our schools directly or through support hub teams. Some of the main investments that we have identified um in this category for FY26 include as you would expect inflationary and contractual rate increases. Um this includes things like um you know uh increase in negotiated contracts um increase to uh cost of utilities um that go up um every year these days and um any other essential services. Um we also estimated the increase
008to uh cost of goods uh that we have to purchase to actually um leverage across the district. We also have included um the investments on support for our exceptional education and English language learner students. The number on both populations have in has increased significantly over the past few years and is expected to continue to increase. And this requires us to deploy the supports to meet the students needs. Um to give you an idea uh the population um of our students um with uh disabilities has increased approximately 4% this year. Um so we serve a total of 11,800 students and um this is happening at the same time that um IDA funding allocations continue to decrease. Um, so we have both things um going on at the same time. Um, our English language learners population grew
009um about 1 percentage point uh this past year. We're serving about 22,000 students um that need that additional support. And so the fundings that we've identified are are um to support the growth in those student populations and their unique needs. Um we've also added a small amount that is needed to um get our classroom associate strategy fully implemented and make sure that we continue to capitalize on all the great benefits um that our classroom associates um classroom associate strategy provides to the schools and the students. As I mentioned um we are including the textbook adoption in the uh continuity of operation. That's what we're um prioritizing. The amount that we're including is calculated based on a six-year average of all the curriculum adoption needs that the state requires. And as I said, um, by budgeting
010it this year in FY26, it allows us to then purchase the FY27 adoptions and, you know, have the purchases done, um, during the um, spring so that they're ready uh, as soon as the process is completed, the curriculum is selected by the committees, then we are able to move to purchase and have that ready for when students come in August. Um we also have the step increase which is something that was moved to the continuity of operations as a priority to invest in our um educators as part of our continuity of operations. And then we um um have a number of um smaller projects and programs um that are bucketed in one category. about half of this is um funding for um the school-based budgeting um that supports an increase in our base weight that
011is mirrors what the TISA funding best weight uh increased. So it mirrors it mirrors that that increase. Um the second priority which is around um the uh investments on the ESRE bridge and moving those to the operating budget. Um as I mentioned we want to continue those critical investments and the uh programs that have been so essential to the support that we provided our students and schools and that have um enabled um many of the results that students have been able to achieve. Um the um the programs and funders funded funds listed here um are a continuation of what we have been doing. So you should be familiar with them. Not going to go one by one at this point in the interest of time. Um but gladly you know we'll answer questions um at
012the end and the priority of strategic employment compensation. Um there has been a lot of work over the years to invest in our educators and is one of the priorities that you have set out also for this upcoming year. Um and it is a priority um for us to make sure that um that we invest on our educators and teachers so that um the support that our students need um is done by the best talent that we can um you know retain and recruit. as a reference um I mean these um investments are not yet established. This is part of the work that we'll engage with metro government around cola um as well as the you know the um the pension investments and and insurance. Um but as a reference uh the cost of a
0131% coal increase about $7.1 million and um part of this is the cost of the step increase which are is already part of our continuity of operations. The the rest of the investments will be um established as we work with metro government on the final budget and the appropriations are set. The last but not least priority around safety and security. Um this is the new priority that the board established for FY26. Um and um you know as we evaluate and continue to evaluate the next set of um focus and work to continue to strengthen all the security processes and technology that the district has in place. Um we're actively working on our um high school safety and security measures, specifically the implementation of the weapons detection system. um that we have discussed uh with this
014board uh in the past um which is about $1.2 million. Um as a reference here are um the investments that would be required uh for us to actually expand uh that into middle school, elementary schools and support hubs as well as additional um investments that would be um important to have in place as we um deploy this support. So, um those are investments that um we would only be able to pursue if the fund becomes available for us to uh to do um in the future. Right now, we're working on on the high school. Um as always, you know, we um have a number of investments that are connected to the needs that we ident that are identified by our team or the communities that we serve and we continue to monitor and and recognize
015them. that these are not part of the priorities that we've set out for FY26. So I am not going to go through them right now, but I just want to know that um if funds become available, there's a lot more many things important things that we would love to do um and and willing to do if if we have the resources available. So I'm going to shift gears a little bit to to revenue. um on the revenue front um which will define essentially what will be available to us um um on the budget front. Um Metro has communicated that it's expecting a flat revenue year. Um but we're also waiting to see what u may happen with the um property tax after the reappraisal is completed and this could potentially represent additional revenue. Um overall
016there is uncertainty um currently in the economy and uh and in the markets and this could introduce um challenges through inflationary pressure um and also potential impact to our federal funding due to the current political priorities at the federal level um at the state level. So specifically TISA um our current estimates are that we could expect the revenue to continue to at a similar level than this year. Um there is definitely a we expect a decrease on the TISA funding due to the new voucher bill that that that has been passed as well as um the growth on the enrollment for state charter schools and new schools approved uh state charter schools approved. um and that that decrease in the funding would be um somewhat offset um by an increase in the base weight um
017that was passed in TISA as well as a um a whole harmless on the number of economically disadvantaged students counts um about se they will hold harmless 75% of our economically disadvantaged student population so that count has been consistently going down and that will help increase the revenue. What we don't know is the fiscal capacity factor um which determines how much local revenue is responsible for the overall funding versus the state. Um if that um fiscal capacity factor increases then definitely the revenue that we'll receive from the state will decrease um putting more pressure on local funding. Um, and this is federal program is not something that we generally um, talk to at this point of the process. Um, but I know that is definitely in our minds and on most people's minds. Um, so
018I just want to give you an idea that um, this year's funding is um, about $147 million. That includes the SR3. So the last u allocation of ESRE funds. Um next year we're projecting close to 100 million in federal funding. That the difference is mostly driven by the uh sunset of the ESER funds. Um there's a lot of speculation out there uh about different scenarios of how this could change. Right now um we're planning based on what we know. Um this is what we know and obviously standing ready to and prepare for um any potential shifts that may happen. And last, I just want to remind us of the timeline. So um as we're having this conversation today with you, tomorrow we will share this information uh and in a committee meeting um with the
019community and uh subsequently in April we'll be um circling back uh after the conversations with Metro are taking place um leading up to uh the mayor presenting his budget to um Metro City Council and then ultimately having all that um approved and finalized. sometime in June, latter half of June. So that concludes well the information that I have for today and I'll entertain any questions that you may have and thank you. All right. Thank you. Uh Chief Robas Boaki, we will turn it back over to you to field any questions that might be outstanding. Thank you Dr. Battle and Chief Robas. Uh we'll now open the floor to questions. Board member Young. Thank you, Madam Chair. Looking at the uh aspirational budget slide and included all of those, are these items that are included in
020the budget that we're considering or are these aspirational items that we are just for future? Okay. This is also a communication tool and so they're not baked into continuity of operations, bridge or any of the budget priorities. Um they are outstanding aspirational for the most part outstanding oper operational aspirational budget items um from years past with some updates um to current needs. Well something I would aspire to do is to greatly impact the lives of probably about 900 staff members by bringing custodial staff back in house. And so I would love to see that as an aspiration in the future. Um especially as we're using this as a communication tool to the mayor's office and to the metro council so they can be reminded of what that number is because many times when they talk
021to us, they try and share with us, hey, why haven't you done that? Why haven't you done that? Well, why haven't you given us money to do it? Um, so I think that would be a great way for us to try and start communicating that to them just so it's another way of reminding them and rubbing that number in their face because I know it would be a very very very large number on this list. But um I'm all about rubbing some numbers in their in their face in a nice way of course. Um in the number of our projected federal funding which is about 97 million is that for instructional dollars or does that include school lunch money as well? um that includes that excludes child nutrition funds. This is only the U formula
022funding. Okay, good. Yeah, because I feel like when we talk about or we hear the stuff from DC right now, they're only talking about the in I don't know the instructional is the word, but the nonfood non-nutritional items. Uh okay, that that was all I had, I believe. Yes. Thank you, Board Member Tyler. Um yeah, so there's been some discussion about um with city council how they had an outside person come in, an outside group come in and and give recommendations for things. And one of the recommendations that they were looking at um is tying pay to similarized cities and not using cola. And um I just wanted to see what our thoughts were since we're a separate body and we make our own funding decisions. Um, are we committing to continue to do cola
023and that's not something that we're going to consider removing? Is that a board question or is that a Yeah, I mean I mean it could be a board question because I would like to commit to continue continuing to do cola. Oh, okay. So, but if there is one I'm sure you can answer it for as far as like what the current budget is planning on. So, so the way the current budget is built, thank you for clarifying there. I was like, I know it might be above my decision making process, but um what we um have accounted for here and then if the board wants to discuss it further um is that our steps are included as of course as a part of our continuity of operations budget. That's not always been the case. We
024made this shift a few years ago um as an expectation as a part of the investments needed to maintain um the quality of our educators that we have within our school district. And then you might notice under our strategic employee compensation strategy, we did include information um for um the board for Metro Finance for council to understand the impact um investment needed for every 1% of COLA. So combined for our certificated and our support employees um we have a um estimated um um 7.1 $1 million needed for every 1%. So we've just provided the numbers from an investment perspective if there's a different strategy or approach. Um I'd love for any board member to respond. Okay. Uh also chair play uh player is going to respond to that question as well. Yeah. Um also just
025to put context on member Tyler's um question, uh we attended a um a town hall meeting several of us um here or half more than half of us actually um at uh with SEIU and they mentioned the Mercer study and one of the preliminary uh recommendations of the Mercer study for Metro General was that uh there would be a realignment of compensation but in lie of that there would there will suggest not presenting a cola this here. And so part of the bringing part of that discussion that in the preliminary um findings of the Mercer study, the done the metro government side, that was one of the issues that or one of the concerns that was brought up um with the realigning of the metro government pace metro general for government pay study um for
026um for Metro government employees. Yes. And and to be clear, they have not said that's what they're going to do. It was just a recommendation. They are still having their own discussions. I don't want to make it sound like that's their plan. It's it's still up in the air. I just wanted to make sure we make our own budgetary decisions that are completely separate from Metro government because we're a completely separate um entity. And so I wanted to make sure that we know and that the public in general knows because sometimes they forget that we're two separate groups in in the way that we do our budgeting. Um that uh one the Mercer study was not for us. it was for metro government and two that we still have cola baked into our plan and
027that the intent of this body to my knowledge is to continue that. Um, it would be my preference to always continue that, but I just think sometimes we need to say these things. You're here. Board member Elrod. Thank you. I think to add to that, our COLA is of course what's included inside of all of our pay studies that we had and of course that is what we base the step increase now being a part of the continuation. Um and now COLA that request. So our our pay studies were a long process and thoughtful process. Um so I too would like us to continue to do what we promised to our employees. Um my question is I want to make sure that I heard something correctly as I was trying to quickly type and may
028have mis typed something quite frankly. Um the FY26 budget for revenue is flat and I remember you saying something about TISA. Our estimates are similar level as this year and we expect a decrease in TISA funds because of vouchers and the state-run charters which unfortunately makes sense but that we may think that's offset by something and I did not catch what you said that that might be offset by and so may I have that clarification? Um yes member Rod the offset by two things one is there is an increase it's about 3% to the base weight of the formula. Yeah. So that essentially um increases the the overall revenue times the number of students that you serve. Um but also a key um part of the formula is the count of students uh who are
029classified as economically disadvantaged. That number um has decreased in the count that is used in TISA. not necessarily in reality but um that number has decreased and last year there was a whole harmless count um that helped keep the revenue from for that population um at the same level this year um they are going to hold harmless 75% of that count so that is is going to help keep the low now what I also said which is really important that we don't know yet what the fiscal capacity factor is going to be, right? Uh so that's prefiscical capacity factor that might change what I'm saying and significantly decrease the contribution uh from the state um if that capacity factor goes up. Okay. I was going to also ask what was the 75% again? So I
030appreciate that. Um when do we usually get that fiscal capacity number? probably in May, right? Yeah. End of April. Yeah. End of April. Beginning of May. Okay. Um my understanding of the fiscal capacity number is that the the formula of how it's created is mystical mythical mystical maybe coming up with all the words um at best. And so um we wouldn't be able to even give a strong suggestion to that probably. Um my other quick question was and I'm not sure if this is who this is is inside the aspirational budget um there is classroom associates for 9.3 million and I know that we also are asking for classroom associates being fully implemented in our continuation of operations budget. So I'm trying to figure out what's the difference between those two things in case we
031get that question. So the difference is um the one point uh the 1 million that's in continuity of operations is essentially being able to maintain um what we have this year into next year while um leveraging. So the initial investment had a set number of FTEEs. We've actually exceeded that a bit trying to meet the needs of our schools. And so it's offsetting those costs so that we can continue u with a higher ratio moving into next school year because we've seen the demand. The aspirational um would give us an opportunity to further reduce the ratio of classroom associates to school matches um across the district. Okay, got it. And apologies. I don't think I have any additional questions. Thank you. Thank you. Any other board members? All right, we're going to come back to
032board member Tyler. Thank you. Um, there have been a lot of discussions around longevity paper teachers and I would just love I it's not on the current budget overview. It's not included in it and I would love to um hear some if you could address the reasoning behind why it's not been included and what our thoughts are on that. Yes, I'm happy to and Chief Robles or Chief Spencer if I miss anything feel free um to plug in. So um as um laid out on slide 12, we've really been um pretty um innovative um but also successful with regards to rethinking our strategic compensation package um for our employees. um one of the main or driving forces to where we are today was our goal of having the best paid educators um in our school
033district compared to what's happening across the state. Um and so we've been really digging into what would that take in order for us to maintain um that level of compensation for our employees of which I think we all agree they deserve, right? They've been really delivering um positive results um for our students. We've also made a commitment throughout their strategic compensation plan um to think about all of our educators, right? So, we've been very intentional about our certificated staff, our support staff um as well as our leaders across um our organization. And so, we've been um kind of digging into what would it take for us to maintain that best paid. when you back that up to um a single strategy like longevity um pay, it does not um actually have a positive direct impact
034on all employees. We know that that's a smaller portion um of our employees who we value. Um and so we've been doing some comparison data with regards to our strategic compensation strategy. Going back to your original question about COLA um how we might be able to leverage a strategy like that to actually increase beyond u what a longevity single longevity strategy could do for a few employees. So we're thinking about again a comprehensive strategy um that actually values every employee in our organization um in the way that they should be valued and uplifted um in an organization. So, we've been comparing what longevity pay would do um versus what a strategic COLA plan um would do to keep all of our educators as the best paid um in the state of T given that they
035been delivering such um great results on behalf of our students. But I'll look to um Chief Robles or Chief Spencer if there's anything else um you would like to add. Okay. Yeah. So um what what I'm hearing then is that we are looking to do above and beyond absolutely what we would have done ordinarily. So if for example if cola had been recommended at 3% we might do a 4%. So we're looking at doing more. Is that correct? Absolutely. We're looking at some comparisons across our pay scales. Um and what we've done is a deep dive around um again for this very small bucket of employees that were falling in longevity. um what a longevity um kind of stipen if you will would do as opposed to um the overtime impact of increasing their base
036salary. Um and so what we're seeing is based upon the numbers we've been running um is given a range of cola where we might land that we could significantly um increase the kind of compensation um package that our employees actually could realize um for the FY26 budget season. So, we're seeing u a greater investment and take-home pay for our employees leveraging COLA as opposed to a single strategy like longevity pay. Okay. Because I think the the response has been that they thought, well, if we ask for longevity pay, that's not as much. So, would it be an easier ask for us to do? But but we're saying we want to do more than that. We absolutely want to do more. And I it's my understanding um from the board um that the um goal of
037maintaining best paid educators in the state is a priority um for us. And so you we we also have to remember year after year other districts are making investments um in their employees. And if we don't meet or exceed that investment uh we're no longer realizing that on behalf of our employees. And so given that prioritization, um again taking in account some of the feedback around what longevity pay would do, we wanted to make sure that um we're we're actually exceeding uh what that investment would do as opposed to um that single investment but for all employees. And so um that's what we've been studying and that's what I've um understood as a priority for us um as a board. I don't take it lightly um that we've had the investments that we've had to
038get there a few years ago and so maintaining that we'll um really take historic and continued investments. We shared then that that was the first step wasn't the only step we needed to take um to fairly compensate um all of our employees. And so we're thinking um intentionally in the past a strategy like longevity has only um been um realized for a small group of employees type of employees as well. And so we're just thinking bigger, broader, more comprehensively around what should be true for all of our employees. I think I could also liken this to our strategy around step um um increases, right? We had several years where we did not invest in steps and now we've kind of turned the corner with that is an expectation year after year given our continuity strategy.
039Yes. And for the record, we should always include step increases because we put it out on there as a promise. It is not an entitlement. It is not a an extra above and beyond. It is the promise of if you continue to work here, you get the next step up. And so when we froze that, MNS broke that promise to their teachers. So, I don't I mean, it's wonderful that we're doing that, but I also don't necessarily think we should pat ourselves on the back because I think that should be the basic expectation that that's just the you put step increases in your pay scale. That's the expectation moving forward that you will always fund those step increases. Um, and to me, that's the basic plan. And I'm glad that we are committed to continuing
040to do that and that we are not considering freezing them at any point. Um I just can I just say real quick for for step increases. The reality was however we were making decisions year after year not to invest yes in that. And I think this board is to be commended um for stepping out there and saying we no longer want that practice and we'll you know advocate for and prior prioritize step increases as we're moving forward. So I personally would like to commend the board for that because we know that's not been our reality um every year. So, I know I worked when we were fro when they froze step increases, so I wasn't getting them either. Absolutely. Um, yeah. Um, and I think also the expectation is that we will also be doing
041a COLA of some kind no matter what, whether or not we do longevity pay. So, it's I just want to clarify one more time that with what you're talking about, I think the thought was you would do a COLA and you would do longevity pay. And so you're you're saying that we're doing a COLA, but we're we might be looking at a larger COLA than we would have done otherwise. Is that we're we're we're looking at um numbers COLA to ensure that our teachers are remain the best paid in the state of Tennessee. And it it varies based upon we have to look at it from starting to midpoint to, you know, our um um more tenure um educators. So it varies in that percentage. we're going to be equal, but we want to make
042sure that we're accounting for that regardless of the stage that um our educators are within our system. Okay. Just making sure because I know that some of the push back against this will say, well, we thought you were going to do COLA anyway and we were also asking for longevity pay on top of that. And so this response is to say we want our COLA to be at the higher end to in so that it includes everybody regardless of how many years you've been teaching or you've been a parapro or you've been in nutrition. It doesn't matter. Yeah. Absolutely. Okay. And and I do think that it is important to note that COLA goes to every single employee so that it is across the board for everybody. And I also note the higher you are
043on that scale that percentage is increased. Right? So because it's based upon the salary of that employee and the percentage added to it. Yeah. Yeah. So it changes the base and then that becomes the new continuity of operations. So it changes it moving forward permanently which is a good thing. All right. That's all I have. Thank you board member Blot. I I don't I'm not I'm not trying to get into a back and forth in any way on this when I make this comment. So if you feel like you need to comment back, feel free. But I I think on this conversation, Chief Robel started the presentation with like where we are and our achievement, all the great things that have been happening. And when I think about all of the different investments that we
044make, I want to make sure that they're geared toward a Y. So to me, when we think about things like longevity pay versus increases in pay at the base level versus COLA, whatever it is that we're thinking about, I really would encourage us broadly and I think this is what and Dr. about what I hear you saying to an extent to be thinking what are the things that are going to attract and retain the best quality staff we can like across the board and and I I think over you know over time and with research I've seen and various other things like base pay is going to be a top contender for that and so to the extent that we can continue to increase base pay and that we can continue to increase that over
045time rather than focusing on cuz there are things I'd love to I mean I think the idea that we would give uh 5 days for grief briement leave instead of 4 days for briement leave just makes logical sense to me and at the same time I I have to sort of then take a step back and go okay that's a narrow view on the overall view of what is the purpose of pay and if the purpose of pay is to attract and retain the best quality people we can then I think we have to be continue to be focused on the broad view of let's add at the base level. let's continue to increase those things and and let's not worry too much about like sort of the the littleer things even if I want
046them that you know I I think you're saying the same thing and just talking very specifically about the cola versus the longevity pay and so I understand that I'm think I'm giving a little bit more reason in my mind behind why one or the other is not the goal but the goal is let's have the best paid people period and let's figure out a broad strategy for doing that rather than anything any one narrow element. Yeah. Sorry. So, yeah, long comment. Thank you, board member Elrod. Okay. So, I'm sorry. We're we're going to cut it short because we're we're already past time. So, I want to make sure everybody get theirs in and I'll come back to you. Tyler, I'm sorry. Um, so I as the as the longtimer on this board, uh, I started
047in 2018. Uh we definitely had a board at times before my before that 2018 time and then while I was on the board where we did not um approve as a board step increases and at the time it was typically a conversation of it's step increases or we're getting rid of people and so the feeling was it was the least bad decision that could be made um even though it wasn't a likable decision. So, I have been um particularly proud of us as a board for including our step increases into our continuity of operations budget. Um to that point, I wanted to just add some additional context as we have a fuller house than usual for a budget meeting. So, thank you for being here. Um that I uh really appreciate the thoughtfulness of adding
048our textbook adoptions to the continuity of operations budget. I know that's been a discussion. And I remember that last year um from being chair, but I think it's a really good idea of doing an average of the past six years because we have again from my being the old-timer standpoint, there are also many years where we were not able to purchase um curriculum particularly when it was our ELA or mathematics curriculum or it was science kits because those are the more expensive curriculum pieces. Um, and so I think it's a wise way of having savings and making sure that we're always on top of our curriculum and not behind because we definitely had that issue of not only being behind in curriculum but also having to pay fees for that um because of the state.
049So I appreciate that work and I think it's wise and smarts strategic as our term um and I appreciate it. Um, I was going to say something similar I think to Aaron of uh the cola is where I would stand on that as our cola increase is for all of our employees and as Dr. Battle mentioned it would better uh help our longevity or uh employees that have had the longest longevity because they had the highest salaries. I was going to ask and if we don't have that number right now it's okay you can email me. I was going to ask what is the number? We know COLA is for all employees. um it would benefit all of our employees. But what would be the number of longevity employees that that would affect if we
050could compare just so we have that conversation if it's going to be something that we discuss. Um but I don't have to have that now if we don't have that. Um just curious about it. Thank you, Board Member Tyler. Yeah, I agree. I I do want to say I don't I think that's a it's a little bit of a false narrative to say that we're choosing between COLA or longevity pay because I don't think that's ever been the discussion that we were going to choose between the two. Um my point was that I agree that I would rather have something that bolsters everybody 100% that everybody across the board's vote gets lifted and that we do stay the best paid teachers all of them. And so to me that is extremely important. And so I
051wanted to make sure also that since um the ask of the teachers on the compensation committee was for longevity pay that we addressed why it wasn't in here. And so that was important to me that we addressed that publicly and that we said it's not included not because we didn't listen to you. It's not included not because we disregarded what you said but because we wanted to do more not just for the long the teachers who have topped out but for everybody and that this is a rising vote. So that to me was really important that we made that a public discussion. Thank you. Any other board members? All right. I just have a couple of questions. Um just to get some clarification if you don't have these answers like right this second if you
052could just email me with this. Um, one question and I think this is a question that we've been asking um, about how do we account for um, and is the state doing anything to account for that economically disadvantaged piece since they change the way in which we identify economically disadvantaged? Has there been any change statewide or locally for us to account for that? Okay. Um secondly [Music] um over the last I guess 5 years um when we look at fiscal capacity have we seen that number go up or go down or has it been yes I can tell you up and up. Thank you. And then currently at what rate or percent does the state contribute to our budget now? Metro Nashville instead of going forward. Let's let's go back and just so so many
053unknowns. Yeah. Huh. Yeah. It's about like I'm trying to do math in my head like one 20 Yeah. 23% 20% between 20 23%. All right. So, so about 20 something% which means that our city is picking up the remainder. Correct. Close to 80%. Minus about 12%. Minus about 10 or 12. Is that the federal contribution? All right. Um, and so we can anticipate since it historically has continued to go up that we are our city is going to have to jump in and do more. Okay. I just wanted to make sure that we had that. Thank you. Um, if if there's no other questions, we are going to conclude this meeting. Oh, I want the community meeting. When is that? It's too late. No. So, um um it's it's March 26. Do we have a
054location where that will be? It will be held at the wellness center at 5:00. Sorry. Um the community stakeholder and community meeting will be held tomorrow, March 26th in the Wellness Center at 5:30 p.m. All right. And we invite all of you to come. Thank you. This will conclude the meeting. Thank you.