001Okay, it is 12:03. Uh, we have a quorum of the board. This meeting is now in session. We didn't have anybody sign up for uh public comments, so we're going to go directly into our budget workshop. Just going to turn it over to Mr. Gillantine so he can introduce everybody. >> Yeah, thank you. Uh, thank you all for joining us today. Admin, thank you all for being here. Um, as you can see, we've got the cabinet up here uh with the board today. Um, you know, I've heard of of these summer board meetings, special meetings. All my career, I've heard of them as budget workshops, uh, budget workshops in the summer. And, uh, I just want to be sure that we we honored that process. And, uh, this is really just uh, the first of
002a series of budget workshops for this summer um, for us to all kind of learn together. Um, some of this today might be um repetitive or old news for some of you, but we're setting the stage for everybody. Uh, not just the board and my cabinet and administrators here. Um, but you know, we've got the media here, of course, and we're live streamed and we want to be sure everybody understands the uh the budget workshop process as we roll into making some real decisions in July and August. It's uh one of the major functions of the board is to um adopt the compensation package and um the budget that it directly affects. Um and before you make those decisions, I want to be sure that you are as informed as as possible. So I uh
003count ourselves very lucky and fortunate to be where we are today uh with some of the decisions we get to make. It was only a couple of years ago and I know all of you are very aware of this that uh this this process looked much more doom and gloom, didn't it? It was uh it was it was tough times uh for all of us uh financially speaking. Uh it's the work of this room and the community uh folks that you uh you work with and represent that has completely turned that uh that situation around. And I'm I'm so proud to say that uh you know our our budget is on a great uh trajectory and um and it it should be exciting that you get to make some of the decisions you get to
004make this summer in comparison to uh the the the last couple of prior years. So with that, I'm going to ask uh Brook Tran, chief of communications, to open us up today, uh set the stage for the learning that's going to take place. And then we've got our region six guests that um I'll ask uh Brooke to introduce as she sort of concludes um and they'll walk us through uh some of the the the financial decisions that will be made this summer. Brooke. >> Hello. So, um welcome everyone for today's budget workshop. So, um, as Clay kind of mentioned, a lot of the things, um, that we'll be reviewing today are standards for the state when adopting a budget. Um, but we also want to look at what that looks like for Burnhamd. As we
005see, um, a lot of media headlines about what other districts are do doing, even though we're adopting a fiscal budget for this school year, we've been very strategic as um, an organization looking at how the decisions we're making each budget cycle are affecting our long-term goals. Um, as Clay alluded to, this has been a long journey. So, we don't just look at this as like a stop and finish point. This is kind of a a long uh cruise, as you will, like we're seeing improvement. We're hitting different milestones. Um, but we have to be very strategic and thoughtful um on the different buckets that we look at and how each of them impact the budget for this fiscal year, but also um long term for the district. Um we've done a lot of a lot
006of strategic staffing over the years um with reductions and slowly adding that back. We know that we've had uh budget deficits in prior years and that we need a healthy fund balance and we've been making um concerted efforts to get that back up. Um and then obviously staying competitive with pay and raises and staff uh compensation. So those are kind of the three overarching buckets to simplify the big areas that we'll look at. Um but we have some uh experts here today from the region uh that are going to be um kind of giving us an overview of the guard wells if you will and so everybody has the same baseline and standard um before we really get into the weeds as we work through budget throughout the summer. So, um, we have, uh, Steve
007Pierce who's going to be leading us and, uh, running through the presentation. So, >> Robbie Westbrook, >> yes, Steve Pierce, Robbie Westbrook, both here from the region center. Uh, so glad to have these guys with us and, uh, it's a pleasure of working with them all year round as I need them. Uh, they, uh, they've just been the really the greatest region center I've ever worked with. So, appreciate you guys being here today. and uh you've got a presentation you're going to take us through. Let me say one more thing too. I I had emailed this to the board. Uh remember that today there's no decision- making to be made, right? You make those tough decisions uh later on in the summer. Again, this is the first of several budget workshops. I say that to
008say uh some of you are on a lunch break and uh I asked in email that we try to make a hard stop at one. Of course, that's you as a board. That's your decision. Uh but if it pleases the board, I I would like for us to try to wrap up by one. And so people can get back to uh to work. >> Okay. Is is is red good? >> Yeah. Okay. Sometimes it's green, sometimes it's red. I've never Thank you for reminding me of that. It's our it's our honor to be here today. Like I said, my good friend Robbie Westbrook is here. Robbie and I do a lot of work across region six for school finance. Um, we don't know everything. Expert may be a little bit strong, Brooke, but I appreciate
009that. Uh, yeah, we're going to walk you through today just kind of some things to think about. And as a board, I'll say this, and I'm not saying it because we're streaming or we've got people in the audience. This is one of the most important things you're going to do as a board member is to approve a budget and set a tax rate because it impacts everything you do here. No spending can occur until that budget is approved by the board starting September 1. Uh and when you set a tax rate, you guys are taxpayers. So, not only are you impacting yourself, you're impacting everybody across the school district. So, uh it's very important and I don't want you to take it light. I don't want it to be a thing we do in August
010where we just check it off and we move on. Uh, and I think the more information you have getting to that board meeting in August to approve the tax rate and to approve the budget, uh, the better decisions you can make, not only for your community, but for these guys behind us and your most importantly your students in Renom ISD. So, uh, yeah, we're going to walk you through and I would like to say this at any time if you have questions, please ask, please talk about it. Robbie and I are going to kind of team on this. So, um there's there's no perfect presentation for this. I will say every district in the state does budget process differently, but they all get to the same point. They all approve a budget and they all
011set a tax rate. Uh so, uh with that being said, we'll kind of kick this off. Any questions before we start? >> I just want to say one thing as you start. I I so want this to be conversational. That's why I've got the room set up like it is. Uh for those that can't see us, uh we've got board members and and cabinet members sitting along each uh next to each other in a horse horseshoe style room. Um you know, just really want this to be conversational. So, please please ask any questions you may have as we work through the next hour. Okay. >> Sure. And I tried to be mindful of how proud you guys are of your school colors. And so, uh your handout doesn't reflect that. I did give you a
012handout. I I made it pretty generic, but the the pretty one I made pretty for your school colors. I also al appreciate when your teachers and staff come to region six, I can pick them out as soon as they get out of the vehicle because they have their green on. So, uh they're very proud to be from Brennham as well. So, let's jump into this real quick since we're kind of limited for time today. So, I want you to start thinking about your role as a board member and as a team of eight in the budget process and the financial management of this district. not just representing a couple of people here or there, but representing everybody in this in this district, representing all community members, representing all your staff, all your administration, and most
013importantly, all your students. And so, we're going to frame that around two ideas. And and these are what I call two really big rocks. Uh, as a board member, you've been to training and probably every training you go to, they talk about governance, right? Uh, governance is what you do. There are only a few things that you as a board can only do really about 25. So there's more than a few. But the big one is making sure that you get that budget approved and that tax rate set in August. And then the second thing is you may not be quite so familiar with this term, I hope you are, is stewardship. So somebody tell me what when you think of governance, what what comes to mind? What are some things you've talked about as
014a board as far as your governance role? Well, just think about governance. I mean, what does that mean to you when you think about governance? >> Oversight. >> Yeah. Oversight. So, you're you're not really boots on the ground, but you're oversight. You're making sure that the work is getting done. And so, that's that's really uh something I want you to think about today, what that looks like from a board view. And then the second one is financial stewardship. So when you think about the word steward of this district, because you are a steward of this district, what does that look like to you? What does it sound like? What does it feel like? >> We're trusted with something that we have to guide and we have to make sure it's done right. >> Yeah. So
015you're entrusted with this district. You're entrusted with every aspect of this district. And I'll say this, there's no one more accountable in this district than you seven board members. You guys are the most accountable people in this district. You were elected by people across this district and you make decisions and vote on decisions that only you can do. Now, you can listen, you can take input, but when it comes down to it, you make the vote and that's what makes the policies for this district. So, think about those two those two rocks, governance and stewardship as we go through this. Okay, that's your anchor. That's what I want you anchor to today. So a little more information about governance. Uh you know when you're a governing body you set the direction and you do that
016usually through a vision and you also do it through goals. Uh you establish policy. There is policy that comes at you that is state. Everybody does that. But then you have local policy that you can craft that looks like Brennham ISD because Brennham ISD is different than Navasota ID. Brennham ISD is different than Burton ISD. Brennham is different than Montgomery. Just naming people around you here. You all kind of do the same things, but you have a special way that you do things at Brennham. And that's where local policy can come into play. You also pro provide oversight. Your oversight for this superintendent, your oversight for the other board members, and your oversight for administration, staff, and students. So, when you look at board governance, what you're really trying to do is work as an
017organization to achieve the goals that you set for the year. Uh, and and sometimes those goals are not yearly. they can be three to five years out. And so what we're what I'm what I'm really wanting you to focus on governance, strategic leadership, long range, not just making decisions, not just to get us to August, but what are we going to look like financially three to five years from now? What are we going to look like? Some of you will be on the board 10 years from now. What is that going to look like? Uh and so we have to start thinking a little bit long range. Uh so think about a vision. What is your vision? Your vision is what you want to attain or strive to be in the future. what we want
018to reach for. Uh I'm foot 5' n. I can't dunk a basketball, but I could certainly jump up high enough to try to lay it in the hoop, right? And that's what your vision is. It's something that's attainable, but you're reaching for the future. Uh you guys also make rules, and you make those rules through policy. Uh and then you you have management uh that takes care of the day-to-day operations of the district. You hire a superintendent. uh you give him marching orders and then he works with his administrative staff and they work with their teachers which in turn work with the students. So everyone has a clear defined role and clear defined responsibilities that they're responsible for. Any any comments questions on that? So what does this look like from a financial standpoint? Obviously
019it's going to be approving budgets and you have three budgets that you are required as a board to approve. You have the general fund which is the 199. You have the child nutrition which is your 240 budget and then you have your debt service which is your 599. Uh those are the three that you need to have a revenue side for and it needs to have an expenditure side. Sometimes those are balanced. Sometimes they can be maybe a little bit more revenue than you're going to expend. That's very rare these days. And then in some cases uh for certain reasons some districts adopt deficit budgets. Uh my board would never allow us to adopt a deficit budget. Uh and some boards that's just a hard fast rule. We're not adopting a deficit budget. Sometimes if
020you have fund balance that you have designated to spend on a certain project, you can possibly adopt a deficit budget and then uh pull fund balance to pay for that. So you set a tax rate and you set two tax rates. First tax rate is your M tax rate. That's your general fund 199. and your second is your ins or your debt tax rate to pay for your bonds. With that, you set a total tax rate. I'll say for your M tax rate, the state pretty much tells you how to set that now because your your district Daryl will submit your property values to the state and they will turn around and give him an M tax rate. You guys approved a Vader, a voter approved tax rate election last year. So, this year you're
021going to be able to add three more golden pennies to your M tax rate, which that's going to generate more revenue for you. Real quick, uh, school finance lesson. So, who has a bottle of water? Does anybody have a bottle of water with them? Chris, you do. So, just real quick, you think of this bottle of water as your total funding for school finance this coming year. What the state looks at is your tax rate that you side and see how much local taxes you could fill this bottle with and then the state money drops in on the top side. Your friends down the road, Burton, they collect so much taxes, their water comes up to the top and spills over. So they actually have to give money back to the state and they get
022very little state funding. The reason I tell you that is I would be careful about when you hear news about this district is doing this for teacher payraises or this district is doing this because everybody's funed differently. Everybody's bottle is filled differently. So, just wanted to make sure that you understand that. Any questions on that? >> I I did have a question. Do we have to compress again? >> I know we're getting to three golden pennies, but are we shrinking again? >> That will depend the compression depends on our property value growth from last year to this year and it will also depend on the states that there's a minimum compression anyway. And so those two together and I'm hoping shortly that TEA will be releasing their template to give a preliminary MCR. I've already
023looked for it. They don't have it out yet. So I suspect there won't be much compression. Usually the second year of the bienium, which is what we're coming up to for 2627, there's not a lot of compression. It could theoretically stay exactly the same, but I figure it'll probably go down a penny or two. >> Well, we don't have a lot of room to compress anyway. I mean, we're still top 10 lowest tax rate in the state. >> Well, on the INS side, yes, definitely. But, uh, but for the M, we're we always have a floor and a ceiling, uh, a range that TEA allows. And we've been, I believe we've been at the four >> or pretty close to the floor now the last couple years. So, I don't think we're going we can't
024go down much more, but the floor can be lowered as well. And so, that if if they lower the floor, then we could drop another penny or two. That's what I'm expecting again. >> Yeah, the state keeps everyone within 10%. So you've got a floor, which is the lowest compression you go to, and then the ceiling would be the highest compression you go to, and then you add those pennies back. So for you guys, you will be the compression plus eight pennies will be your tax rate. So if you just stayed the same this year as you were last year, you would just have that same tax rate plus those three additional pennies. Okay, that's a great question. Thank you for asking. Uh, another thing as a board you you you provide governance over is
025your external audit. You hire your district hires an auditor. They come in and do an audit during the year and then you hopefully approve that audit and that audit goes to TEA. Another thing you do is you monitor fund balances and we're going to talk about fund balances a little bit later on. Uh, approving major contracts, expenditures, u you know, you have a threshold here that your district can approve and then once that exceeds that threshold, it has to come to the board for approval. Uh most districts right now it's about $50,000. Uh so anything above that would definitely need board approval. Uh calling bond elections. You did that last year and successfully passed a bond. You were one of the districts few districts that I know that passed a Vader and a bond at
026the same time. So congratulations to your leadership. And then finally, what you ensure, and again, think about these things from a governance standpoint, that there's systems in place because superintendent leave, right? Principles leave, board members change. But if you have systems that exist, you don't, that's not walking out the door with those people. Uh, making sure that reporting is accurate, risk are managed, and that spending aligns with priorities. And when I say risk or managed, one of the biggest risks that you have is student decline in enrollment because that dramatically impacts your state funding. So you have to be aware of what your enrollment is and then you have to be aware of what your average daily attendance is because your district is paid on your average daily attendance, not on enrollment. Questions, comments on
027that. So that's what financial governance for you as a board should look like. Let's look at stewardship just real quick. It's similar in some ways, but but for stewardship, really what I want you to think about here is setting your priorities. So, what are your priorities for this upcoming budget? What are your priorities? >> Balanced budget. >> Okay. >> Yeah, balanced budget. And then if we can find some more room to get the teachers more money, I would love it. I mean, that's >> Yeah, that's that's those are my two big things. >> Okay. Anybody else have anything else they want to add? Those are those are two really really important things to think about. So with with that said, what you're doing is you're providing direction for your administrative team to start working on
028that budget. Uh when I say allocate resources wisely, that's that's what we're talking about. Accountability, making sure that that's happening, and then protecting the district's long-term health. Just like your own personal finances, you have to protect your personal financial health. You have to protect the districts. And what that means is not doing things that you know you can't afford. Uh I was on a church committee one time. Uh we had an average enrollment every Sunday of about 35 people and it was brought to us that we were going to build this $3 million gymnasium family life center. Wanted it badly, but the we just couldn't do it because it didn't it did not make sense for us to do that. Thank goodness we didn't because now we average about 17. Uh I go to a
029Methodist church and it's a it's a challenge sometimes to to keep our numbers up. But so as a board you have to think about the same things. While we might want this is it financially uh are we financially able to do it for the financial health of our district. Okay. So let's look at some roles. We we've talked about some different things. Obviously your role in budgeting is governance. We've talked about that. uh you are accountable to taxpayers, to parents, uh to staff, and you're required to be transparent, and you do that by putting information out just like you're doing today. You're streaming this, you're posting the meeting, and then finally, your your ongoing financial oversight. U that's that's looking at expenditures, making sure that those are in line with the budget. What do you
030approve at the budget? You approve the the function and the fund. So the fund would be like for your most of your spending is the general fund the 199. And then within the 199 there are different levels of functions. Your your administrative team can move money around within a function but they can't move it outside the function without a budget amendment. And I'm sure you guys have done a budget amendment or so this year. You'll probably have some coming at you in August. That is the beauty of a budget is that it can be amended. So that I mean when when it starts in August uh when it's approved in August and kicks off in September, it could look different when you get to May, June, and July. So uh we try to foresee or
031forecast, but sometimes we're hit with things that we're just not uh able to see in in September that we can see in May. So some core principles uh you know think about your vision and your priorities your goals um while you handle those things that the superintendent handles the day-to-day operations of the district. Uh we've mentioned some of these the risk tolerance again uh you know one of the things that you could have risk risk tolerance that you need to be aware of is if you have a lot of minerals I know we have uh districts right now that have uh solar farms coming in. We have I think a big plant coming in over somewhere around Iowa. Those things are great for your tax based but at some point those could go away. And
032if you're counting on that revenue and all of a sudden they close shop and go away, those values go away. So that's another part of risk tolerance that you have to be aware of. U you know, making sure that that third one there, uh avoiding micromanagement. You've all heard about that as a board. You probably get tired of somebody talking to you about that. But but I think what it what you have to think about from a micromanagement standpoint, if you step in and start doing the work of the superintendent, how do you hold him accountable to do his job? You see what I'm saying? If he steps in and starts doing principal jobs, then how can he hold them accountable for what goes on in their district? So, everybody has roles and responsibilities and
033everyone needs to be held accountable. And then finally, your oversight. Uh, you know, one of the things that's going to be brought to you is your your ADA assumption. Like right now, uh, they're going to look at past couple years, see what your AD ADA is at, set a number that's realistic, and that's going to be assumption. Another another assumption is going to be what revenue we're going to bring in from the state and from local tax collections. Those have to be realistic. U yours shouldn't change a whole lot this year except for the Vader will change your local collection some uh which will bring you in more money. If your ADA is declining on a little bit of a basis, then you need to set a realistic ADA for that as well. U and
034then expenditures. What what are we looking at expenditure- wise? Do you have any big projects that you're looking at coming up this year that's different from this past year? >> Yeah, a lot. That was that was part of the bond package. Uh that money's allocated to uh maintenance and repair, HVACs, roofs, anything. >> We have a massive list the community helped us with um prioritizing what's going to be most detrimental to the facilities first and then we'll start ticking them off. So, we've got tons and tons of work coming this next year. >> Yeah. So, so what's going to be the beauty of that is that that's going to free up some of your M because normally you pay a lot of your repairs and stuff out of your M, but with you guys getting
035a bond passed, now you can move that over to the INS side and debt service and do that as well. >> I just wanted to say again, thank you to the community for believing in us and passing that bond so that we can free up some of this Money for other projects because that's going to be huge for our budget. So, I mean, if you're listening, again, thank y'all so much for believing in the district and everything we're doing. >> All right. So, what what gives you the authority to provide governance over uh finances? Um, Texas Education Code, your legislators pass laws, then those laws go to the Texas Education Center. U, they help craft these laws. And then so if you look at TEC 1115111, it says the board shall, it doesn't say the
036board may or might. It says shall adopt an annual budget. You have to adopt an annual budget. Uh you have to adopt a tax rate. uh you are you shall monitor district finances and you shall ensure that the district uh f physical accounts are audited annually and then you are required to publish an into your report what you guys do for distribute distribution to the community. Uh, one of the changes that is going to occur for you coming up is that when you start getting a preliminary budget, when you start having budget workshops, you're going to have to have that budget posted on your website and it'll have to be posted with your announcement of your meeting as well. So, that will be coming at you. Any questions on this? So, so this this gives
037you your marching orders right here. Um so when you look at your financial responsibilities the core duties uh you know to act in the interest of the district uh to try to refrain from prioritizing public interest or political gain and that's tough because you guys are elected officials and you do have people that get in your ear and talk to you about stuff. I realize that whether it's at Walmart or if it's at the ball game or at church. So you you constantly get that, but you have to you have to craft it from a governance standpoint and say, "I'm a team of eight. We make decisions together. I have no authority outside of this boardroom. The only time I have authority is when I vote on whatever we're doing." And and if you can
038keep that mindset, it keeps you a little cleaner as far as not getting pulled in to discussions that maybe are unproductive for you. Uh financial oversight, uh safeguarding taxpayer dollars. Uh that's that's a legal requirement that you have to do and then efficiently using the funds that you bring in. Uh sounds like you already have a good plan for that. Ethical conduct. Unfortunately, we see stories all the time in public schools about unethical conduct toward finances. And you know, making sure that there are processes in place for cash handling procedures, making sure that we have several people looking at payroll, not just one person is responsible for payroll. uh anything to to try to limit or avoid fraud. And then finally, uh you know, the confidence of your public. Obviously, I'm preaching the choir here
039because your public voted for a Vader and a bond. So, obviously, they have a lot of of confidence in you. >> All right. So, let's talk about adopting a budget. Uh so, you you're you're going to adopt the budget before you set the tax rate. So, as your administration starts bringing things to you as far as your financial uh financials, you're going to adopt those three budgets. The general fund, the 199, you're going to adopt the um child nutrition, which is your 240, and you're going to adopt your debt service. So, when you start thinking about those, uh you've already said that you want a balanced budget. So, you've already given your administration some clear guidance there. So, what are the biggest costs that you have when you're looking at a budget? What what's probably
040well what is the biggest cost of your budget? >> Payroll >> personnel. >> Payroll personnel. Most districts will tell you it's about 80% >> 83% roughly is the is what goes >> that's our budget. So >> yeah. So you think about that. You think about your your own yearly budget and if you had to take 83% of that and pay employees that were working for you doing something that only leaves you 17%. So there's not a lot of money left to do other things. But because personnel is the large one, we have to be very mindful of how we handle uh payroll because it's not only just the money that we pay them. There's also a lot of benefits that go with that as far as what you do for insurance contributions, uh what you
041do for all the federal requirements, what you have to match on their retirement, all of those things. So there's there's a lot that goes with that. And then some other things you have, transportation is a big cost for you. insurance as we know is going up. Uh facility expenses which again you've kind of taken care of that through the bond. So that's again excellent decision there. So those big cost drivers Clay. >> Yeah. No, I just wanted you to speak a little bit more to that. So if if 80ish% is personnel, the other 20ish percent, could you speak to what those things are for people that may be listening? Because so much of that, whether you're talking about the lights on above our heads or the air conditioning running, it's it is what it is
042with some of those costs. >> Well, if you think about if we just kind of go back to the reason we're here, which is instruction, uh we we spend money obviously uh to buy supplies, we spend money on classrooms, we spend money on desk, all those things. We send money training our teachers. Uh it's not cheap to train teachers. So instructionally, we want the best people in front of our kids. We want the best administrators guiding our teachers. And so that's part of it. Um you have other things like security, which is a big part of it. Uh just your day-to-day operations, your electricity, your water, which right now you're going to probably be able to have a little bit of relief for some of that, but when school starts back, uh going to be
043a lot of commodes flushing every day. There's going to be a lot of showers taken every day. um turf or grass, I'm not sure. Turf. So, not not as much watering there, but that can be as expensive as well. Um just the cost of insurance to ensure these buildings and make sure that they're properly insured. Um West ISD several years ago had a fertilizer plant explode and tore up some of their buildings and they found out real quick they were underinsured quite a bit and so making sure that that's that's taken care of. U transportation again is a big one. Um, Robbie, what am I missing? >> Not much. >> All right. >> Let me um There's certain things the board has done that may not seem like a big ideal at the time, but
044then after we get the numbers coming in like transportation, you you said for one of them, you know, we took everything in house. We ended up saving I think it was 500 or 500,000 last year. >> Yeah. I >> a significant amount. I can I can say that it uh costs us to run our our transportation department less than our lowest bidder uh bid uh you know for for us to run through them. And in that we we've actually purchased our own own buses. So >> and who who was a company we partnered with for the HVAC uh to make sure we >> Ideal Impact. >> Yeah, Ideal Impact which is another small decision the board. So, it's these little things that end up adding up to nickels and dimes and dollars that we make
045little bitty little bitty changes to help with our AC efficiency, LED lights, bringing transportation in house. And so, just want to make sure the community hears that, you know, may not seem, but all these things add up and all that goes right back into our M, which we're able to do more projects with. And >> and like you said earlier, so you're only talking about 17% of whatever the total number is. So, you have to be very mindful of of being being able to look at competitive bids or or looking at anything to to make sure you're getting the most bang for your buck. Uh so, when you look at the next part of your budget, obviously transparency is a big thing. Uh you're going to have to have a a meeting of the public
046whenever you talk about your proposed budget. And then you're going to have another meeting whenever you actually bring the budget to the board for approval. And that way taxpayers can come in and talk about if they have concerns or if they whatever support that they have for for the budget. And so u transparency is important putting it on your website. You also get a financial integrity rating from Texas uh which is basically the health of your finances in your district and your budget is a big part of that and how you set that budget and how closely you stay aligned to that budget as a year moves forward. And then finally, uh, just a clear plan. You know, what is the plan for the budget? What what are we trying to do? It's really pretty
047simple. 80 83% is staffing. Where that gets a little difficult though is what are we going to do for that compensation plan? Or are we going to, you know, last year, uh, thankfully for our teachers, the state has over the last three legislative sessions really put things in place to help funding for teachers. your teachers here in Brennham, if they had five years or more experience, got $8,000 from the state. And if they had three or four years of experience, they got 4,000. And then I believe your district uh probably added some money to other people that were below that. So, the reason I'm getting to this, there's not as many people going into education as we saw some time ago. And so teachers, it's it's a competition. And then when you add the teacher
048incentive aotment into it, uh that's another funding mechanism for teachers. My wife is a teacher. She gets a teacher incentive a lotment and it adds about $20,000 to her salary every year, which is huge. She's at a small rural district that um most districts start out their starting pay is more than what she's made after 33 years of teaching. But with that, then that that definitely helps bring that in line. Just uh I want to real quick since since we teed that up, Sarah, can you talk about where we are in the TIA process? >> So this is our first year we're in data capture year. So we submitted our application last spring 2025 and then it was approved the summer of 2025. And so this year we've done our first year of data capture.
049We've collected our data and then we will submit it to the state in October. They should let us know by February if we are approved and then can designate teachers that would receive money um August 2026 because that's 27 I always get it right 26. Yes. So the process is um it's like a three-year process as you know but so this was our first year we did collect data on our teachers with our test principles worked incredibly hard to be in classrooms evaluating teacher effectiveness and then collected our student growth measures as well. and we'll get that submitted in October. >> Um, and then I just wanted to add real fast for transparency like on our homepage we have transparency for governance docs or academic docs which does include our financial transparency that has all
050of our audits, all of our adopted budgets, um, all of our tax rates and everything. So, if you want a historical lens that is that is there for anyone. I'm just going to add on that TIA that those funds do get counted in your TRS and you know if you're making an extra 20,000 a year over your five highest years that's a significant bump in your retirement for the rest of your life. So >> I think a big piece that we're working on to understand is it's performance-based compensation. So it's incentive aotment for the direct purpose of if the teacher can get x amount of students right to grow this percent then you are deemed a highly effective educator and then therefore rewarded if the district were to pass data capture you know this incentive.
051So, it's I think that's a culture shift for us a lot going from how we've always done teachers, right? You're paid on a step scale to now saying we actually are trying to distinguish our teachers >> um based upon a student growth number and their test evaluation and then that it's performance-based and that it's from the state. >> So, >> yeah. And another couple of comments I'd like to make about that is that the money actually flows from the state. So, uh it it does uh come from the state. They've guaranteed it for I don't know if infinity is a correct word, but for a while. And and for my wife, I'll go back real quickly just to give you an idea. So, we calculated hers and with her getting the TIA for five years,
052and when she retires, it's going to add about $800 a month to her retirement. So, it's a great great deal for us. >> U real quick on that on the money flowing from the state. Mhm. >> Um, >> we saw this last year with the state flowing the $4 and $8,000 additional. Is the state covering the benefits behind the scenes as well on TIA? Are there benefits associated with TIA? >> No. What what they do though is they allow the district to keep 10% for administrative cost. And what I'm being told right now that it's about 13 or 14% what it's actually costing the district. So, it is going to cost a little bit of money, but it's it's it's going to be fine. I mean, the the benefits for your teachers are going to
053far outweigh any of that. So, it's it's going to be great. >> Yeah. I just want to make sure that we're prepared in our budgeting for that >> because last year when the state, you know, sent the money to the teachers, we had to >> a lot I think kind of behind the scenes for the additional benefits cost, you know, for the additional retirement, you know, you know, matching that we had to cover for their retirement package. So, Daryl did a great job. Um, I just want to make sure that like in the future when TIA does come into play because it's a substantial amount of money. Yes, there is 10% there, but it's going to be another three or 4 percent >> total cost to the district >> uh that we might have to
054be that we might have to cover as as those funds are being paid out to the to the staff. >> Yeah, Justin, that's a great point. And I think what you'll do is on that first capture year, you'll have an x number of teachers and then going from there, you'll kind of know those teachers are going to be in it and you'll be adding teachers every year. So it it will be a progression each year and I think once you get past that first deh first payment year, Daryl will have a really good grasp on what it's going to kind of cost you guys outside of that. >> Yeah. So when we submitted our TIA application, um we did draft a spending plan, a budget plan, and so it designates that out of the aotment
055teachers earn, a portion of it will go to pay their TRS um and those extra costs associated with it. So we should break even on that. >> Oh, that's great. And we were very clear if you look where Brooke mentioned the transparency page and the teacher incentive aotment handbook. We were very strategic to put that up front with the letter that you'll receive if you were if we were to pass data capture and we do have teachers earn a designation that is very spells out for them the percentage that will come from that as we work to calibrate what that will look like for us. One one thing it if if we kind of move on here, I would like you to think about uh like I said earlier that the state has put some
056great things in place for our teachers, but what do we do to maintain our leadership, right? Uh the lead the cost of keeping leadership has been pushed on to the local school districts. Uh there's nothing from the state that has come like for the teacher retention a lotment, the TIA or any of that kind of stuff. So, so what do we do to retain that? uh because as we know the teachers in the classroom are very important but we also have to make sure we have quality leadership around them to provide them support as well. So I'm going to kind of I'm going to kind of move through some of this just a little bit quicker because we're kind of getting to the end. Uh let's look at the legal compliance. Uh so your responsibility
057there is just to make sure that all the actions are within the laws uh and regulations. you you definitely don't want to lose the trust of your community because you have a huge amount of trust right now. Um you want to make sure that anything that's happening is within the Texas Education Code, the Open Meetings Act, the Truth and Taxation laws and grant requests because like Daryl is going to have to put uh a notice in the paper of the budget. He's going to have to put the date and time the budget is meeting. He's going to have to show your community u what percentage increase or decrease in the budget it is. He's going to have to put in there what your uh fund balance looks like at the time for your M fund
058balance and your debt fund balance and and and most of your people will look at that and go okay they they probably won't have a really good understanding of it but you need to make sure that it's accurate. So it's just part of transparency and it's part of the right thing to do. Um, some of this we've hit on. So, let's talk about setting a tax rate. So, so what do you have to do to set a tax rate? First of all, you're going to have to have a tax rate brought to you that supports the M on the compression in the pennies. You cannot exceed that. Uh, by law, you cannot. As far as the debt, how are you going to know what tax rate to set on the debt side? First of all,
059we're going to have to know what our debt payment. point at Daryl. Jared's pointed Daryl. So, that's a good that's a good idea. But what what Daryl what Daryl will bring to you is he will bring to you what your debt payment is going to be for the year, what the principal is going to be, what the interest is going to be, because you do pay interest on that debt, and then you also have some fees that are that go along with that. Uh the law changed this past legislative session. In the past, you were able to add a few more pennies to get some additional funding for your debt. If you do that now, that's going to take board action. So, you're going to have to set your tax rate exactly what it is
060for the principal, the interest, and the fees. Uh, and then if your board wants to exceed that, say you want to pay the bond off early or you want to build your fund balance just a little bit, then you're going to have to have some action for that as well. Question question on it. Uh, we've talked about the different components of it and we've talked about communication. So, I think we've hit that. Let's talk about long-term health. So, how how do you make sure that this district is is financially solvent 5, 10, 15 years from now? These are some things you can look at. Uh the number one thing is maintaining uh a fund balance that protects you in case you have some some hard times. And what I mean by that is we have
061a lot of competition for public schools now, right? We have students that are homeschooled. Uh the state this past legislative session allotted a billion dollars for students to go to private schools. Uh so um and with that being said, um a lot of parents applied for that and a lot of them got in, some of them didn't. We're anticipating that billion dollars is going to increase in the next legislative session. So you have competition. Uh how are you what are you going to do to keep the kids here in Brenham? What are you going to do to provide a quality education? So that's long-term health. uh your debt, just like your debt, your mortgage on your house. You've got to look at that. At what point do you add another bond? You just added a
062bond, right? And how much was that bond for a clay? >> 39 million. So you just added 39 million uh with a way to pay it, a plan to pay it. Uh probably within the next 5 10 years, you're probably going to be looking at another bond. So So that that's something that'll come at you sooner. >> Yeah. So all those conversations for anyone listening are happening all the time. Uh several strategic planning meetings over the last few months. Um as we get into work with our program manager and our architect. Uh we'll have more and more strategic planning meetings beyond the work that needs to be uh going on because of the last bond. But what what is to come is is it a is it a new campus? If so, what does that
063look like? Etc. etc. So yeah, we're having those conversations. Um, and I know, you know, Archer's been in my ear before about uh, you know, strategic planning. Archer, it's more than just, uh, a campus, right? It's it's the entire district. Not just 5 years, but 10, 15 years. Are we really strategic planning with with all of our our uh, lenses uh, being looked through? you know, >> um I did I just wanted to clarify on that the 39 million that we just passed that was >> we were only really able to do that because we had been so fiscally responsible with our bonds that we had paid them down enough to where we had that gap. So there is nothing that we really have to adjust to pay for that bond. It's all there. So
064I just want to that's when we did it. That's when we made sure the community knew what this is what happens when we become as physically responsible as we were. We had that cushion. So that will not be added to the taxes that's built in. We're not we're not raising anything except for the three extra golden pennies, >> right? Because what happens is as your values increase, those pennies increase. And so sometimes the questions asked, how can you pass a bond and not cost taxpayers any extra thing? It's because your value increases and as as and and in this area your your values I don't see anything but increasing for you guys. U so let's think about some key questions as a trustee you might would want to ask. Um, I think I think when
065you're thinking about the budget, the first question you would ask is, does this budget align with our district goals? Does this budget reflect? Because your budget is I skipped up to slide 19. Um, your your budget basically prioritizes what the values of this district are. And so if you have campuses that maybe need a little more academic support, does that budget support that as far as supplies or materials or uh maybe another personnel unit? Um just what are the values of this district? And I mean you guys have to answer that. Uh the second thing is can we financially sustain it? Uh is this a pie in the sky budget or is this one that has real numbers that are attainable? uh numbers that we can support with revenue. And so um your budget is
066going to be larger uh this coming year because of those three pennies because you are going to generate more money on the local side. So with that then discussion has to be what are we going to do with the extra money? Are we going to try to do some projects along since the bond is picking up some of the work? Are we going to try to increase our fund balance or are we going to try to move some of this into staff payment for compensation plans? So again, questions you guys have to have. And then the last one there is identifying risk and tradeoffs. Um so what are the challenges of a budget? I think the biggest challenge that I see for a budget is just having the revenue to support it. U because we
067can make the numbers match, right? I mean we can put numbers on the expenditure side, numbers on the revenue side and make it match but is it a realistic number and part of what holds you accountable for that is the first rating. Uh the state has put a process in place where your numbers have to be within a certain range to be uh considered to give you a good first rating. Any questions on that? Are there any other questions you would ask going into the budget cycle or the budget season? All right. So, kind of getting here toward the end, kind of wrapping this up, the bottom line. So, I ask you to think about at the beginning of this the two big rocks, which are governance and stewardship. Um, and I would ask you
068going into this budget season to continue to remind yourself that you are governance and that you're thinking about what your vision is, what your goals are, what the long range plans of this district is. uh as you start getting closer to the approval of the budget uh does the budget really meet the needs of the district and does it reflect the values of Brennham ISD and then what are what's in place for you to monitor this budget throughout the year uh there are some things that are in place by law like you have to get a financial statement uh every 3 months uh I'm sure that the district gives you other financials as well u but but think about from that point even thinking about the big picture of it not um I I was
069a business manager for three years in the district and I had a board member one night ask me said Steve why did we spend $250 on these t-shirts and I go you know I run $140,000 a week through accounts payable I don't really remember those t-shirts u so the reason I'm telling you that is think about the big stuff what you know the compensation think about what you're trying to do for fund balance think about what you're trying to do for facilities uh and all that other stuff will work itself out and then finally think about transparency. You know, your your public obviously trusts you and you want to keep that trust. And then being in compliance, being in compliance with setting a correct tax rate. Uh district not too far from here set an
070incorrect tax rate about six or seven years ago and had to end up paying back about $300,000. So, there is some penalty if you set the wrong tax rate on the M side. Your INS tax rate, uh you've had some guardrails put on that now where you have you have to be much more concise on what the what the INS tax rate is. So when I talked to Clay about this, we really talked about three big buckets. We talked about fund balance and kind of what as a board what direction you wanted to go on that. Uh I know for a couple years there when things were pretty bleak, there were positions that were absorbed through attrition. Are are we ready to start bringing back some key personnel? And then what is your compensation package
071look like for 2026? So Jared, as president, is there any are any of those items there that you guys want to have some discussion about or >> Let me say real quick, Jared, before you respond to that. You know, this this board has has asked me through the year to start bringing some positions back. We all felt the pressure and stress of that and we've been actively doing that. Uh but yes, when we had this conversation, it was, you know, if if the the Vader is generating another what, Darl? 2.3 2.4 for >> close to two and a half million. If we feel like um you know some of those uh chillers that we've been I'm going to sarcastically say duct taping together can now uh be be replaced as they should be uh with
072with the bond proceeds. Uh we feel like uh that's going to free up another half million anyway from from the budget. So, operationally, we're talking about approximately $3 million uh difference in in from one fiscal year to the next. Uh to me, board, these are your your big considerations. If you've got, you know, uh an extra $3 million on top of of uh the the previous fiscal year, um how much money can we put back in fund balance, which you all know we we've got to build that back up, and Darl can talk a little bit to those numbers. um how much are we going to allocate towards positions that need to desperately be back? Well, you know, I've actively been bringing those back and bringing those to your attention. And then on top of
073that, that third bucket is how much can you consider in way of a a pay raise. Um, so that's really, you know, that's where we were trying to get to today is for you to recognize that those those if the majority of your your budget is is personnel and and your primary charge as a board is to adopt a budget, uh, the other 20ish% is is for things that are pretty mandatory. Uh, rolling the buses down the road, the fuel it takes to do so, turn on the lights, etc., etc., etc. To me, this is the bulk of your decision making right here on this screen. How much do you want in fund balance? How much can you spend on positions? And then how much uh of a raise can we give those people? Right.
074So those those to me are the big things that you as a board need to be contemplating. >> Yeah, I I couldn't agree with with you more. I mean, we've we've discussed, you know, all the attrition we had that was necessary at the time, and now we're working our way finding that balance on where we need to be. I'm bringing in a director of HR uh just at our last meeting. That's that's huge. That takes a lot off of CJ's plate. And then that just best I mean we're a huge district. We're the biggest or second biggest employee in in Brenham and that position alone is going to be huge for us. But yeah, all these I think the board unanimously says this is this is what we're looking for cuz we went through a
075couple years of doom and gloom and we're doing so well right now and and concentrating on our balance budget and our personnel and trying to compensate them correctly to compete with those schools right down the road from us on 290 corridor and um we're doing a great job and I just I feel this is exactly what we should be focusing. >> Let let me add is this is are there other slides? This is our last slide. Uh, I was just going to hit just I just gave them some information. They can read it about the fund balance just it's kind of some best practices for that. >> That Yeah, that's actually all I was going to ask you to speak to if you would speak to that. They need to have that in mind if
076as they're making these decisions. And Darl, if you could maybe share where we've been historically, uh, you know, where where we need to get to. Remember how Brooke opened us? Uh, you know, guys, we've been right riding this ship for uh, you know, the last last couple of years and, um, you know, I applaud you and applaud you and applaud us, everybody in this room for getting us where we are. Um, we're not there yet, but uh, we're we're we're making our our way in that direction. So, I I say that to say, you know, this isn't going to be fixed as far as what the fund balance needs to look like long term by this next year. uh but we continue uh to make great steps towards it. >> If I can just uh
077interrupt for a second, I want to make a comment on the the previous slide. I absolutely agree that these are the three categories um that we need to be focusing on and and they're obvious. I would just ask that um if you know me, you know well that I don't like to do things fast or quick. I like to take my time and I know we have planned six meetings I believe over the summer and I would just ask that we take maybe two or three of these meetings to have specific conversations about these three categories within what our options are within those three categories. And then also us as board members being able to bring ideas and thoughts about solutions to attack these three categories. And what I'm saying may be obvious and you
078may say, "Well, Archer, that's the whole budget process." But I'm saying this because I think it's really important that we stick our focus to these three categories and not get in the weeds about anything else. If that makes sense. >> Yeah. Abs. Absolutely. Um and it it gives me a chance to say thank you for saying that. Um I want all of you as a board to know anything I bring you or this cabinet brings you is going to be based off of industry standard. So, if we're talking about fund balance and Darl and and Steve, Robbie are about to speak a little bit to what a fund balance should look like, where's where is ours and where is ours headed. Uh when we talk about personnel, um I'm going to give you like-ized districts
079in our region and state and what uh what those departments, what those campuses typically look like as far as support. And uh lastly, when when we talk about compensation, um as you said, Jared, we're one of the largest businesses in town. Uh I've got to offer fair wages. Uh competitive wages, and any recommendation I I make to you is not going to be off of my personal bias, but off of industry standard and uh comparables around us. Okay. Can we talk a little bit about fund balance? uh between Oh, did we have another question? >> I was just going to just jumping off what Archer just said as well. Bringing back key personnel positions and identifying because I think probably there's a lot of representation in this room as well and understanding what that means
080for each school each district and as we said you said earlier some some schools may need a little more of a lift and so that may be very key for them. So I think that that whole process is really important for us to know what is key uh not just on a spreadsheet but in the practical everyday life and you know what you guys are living each and every day at your schools. Um know what that is. So hearing that is is incredibly uh can be very formational for our decisions I believe. Yeah, I can show you. We can show you. I know Christiey's got the data of the positions we've added. Uh again, off of conversation through you with you uh positions we've added and about what that additional cost will be next year.
081Um again, looking also at fund balance uh compensation packages. There's changes maybe in this position or that position. Uh we're going to give you recommendations based again off of the comparables around us and industry standards. Uh Robbie said or I'm uh one of you said earlier um that uh you know one of the challenges has been with the state offering such an aggressive pay raise to the teachers this past year. In this district the average teacher I've been saying 13 uh it was brought to my attention today from Daryl. it was really more about 15% raise the average teacher received um from one fiscal year to the next. The challenge has been in uh some of those admin positions, especially the lower level admin positions, the mid-management, whether you're talking about a counselor or assistant
082principal. And I know some of these principles are shaking their head. Uh Mrs. Wilky, I know you just had a situation where you had a very seasoned teacher taking on a counseling position and I think her daily rate and and her daily rate was going to go down as she stepped up into a supervisory position. And why is that? And I applaud the state for doing it. They gave a big raise to teachers, right? But in that 15% raise that the average teacher received in Brennham ISD, some of them if they step up into a lower level supervisory position as an AP or counselor, their daily rate actually goes down, which is uh you know, you can't give somebody a promotion and more responsibility and and pay them less daily. That that doesn't make sense
083in the world of business, right? So that's something that you're going to have to work through in this compensation package. And when I bring you um ideas, it's not this is what I think. When I bring you data, it's going to be based off the region numbers and the state numbers. Um can we move on to fund balance just a little bit? Okay. >> Okay. I was uh checking this morning actually going back looking at some of our previous audits uh even before I was here and it looks like about five years ago we were sitting at a very good fund balance. uh actually more than the the the target that we're talking about here on Steve's slide being about 17 to 25%. And at the end of the 2021 school year, we were actually
084sitting at over 33%. But as we know, that dwindled pretty quickly over the next three years. And as of the end of 2324 school year, we were down to 7%. So not quite a month. A month would be about 8.3%. So actually less than a month. Fortunately, we're back up a little bit since that since the end of the 2425 year. This past year, we're back up to almost 11%. So, we have made a a noticeable gain, but as y'all know and we've talked about previously, we do need to purposely continue to plan to add money to fund balance for at least the next several years to get back in that that healthy range. >> Let me tile that together. When we talk about strategic planning, Archer, and I know you I've talked a lot
085about that, when we talk about strategic planning, we're going to recommend some numbers, guys, that will get our fund balance back where it needs to be uh as we long-term plan. That doesn't mean next year the fund balance will be back. Um, you know, that you can't do that and also take care of the other buckets that we had up here on the screen. So, we're going to look at that long-term plan to get that where we should be. uh also give you uh uh our recommendation, our professional recommendation based off the standards of what compensation should look like and competitive raises. Remembering that if you don't um at least give a a just um you know an annual cost of living raise, then you know you could be making less money if we don't
086adjust when you consider insurance uh costs and and etc. I can't really ask you to think about two big rocks today. That was your governance and your leadership. You can see on your sheet that um you really need two to three months of fund balance at any one time because you don't get state funding every month. you you don't get your tax payments until November through January. So when you start the year, um you have to have cash flow. You have to have cash flow to make payroll. You have to have cash flow to have accounts payable go out. So it's it's a lot of things to think about. One thing I'd like to bring to your attention, I don't know if you noticed or not, but on that third to the last bullet, uh
087it does mention your first rating. So that so that the the more fund balance you have, it gives you a stronger first rating. And also what it does is it helps with your bond rating. So when you go out to for bonds, it really gives you a better bond rating as well. U and so what what will happen is you guys will have to think about what you want to do for fund balance and then come back with some type of recommendation or policy on how you want your fund balance to look in the future. One thing I wanted to say real quick, uh, based on what Steve just said about the bond rating and fund balance, that is not just, uh, out there as a generalization. Uh, when Clay and I met with the
088Moody's rating officer back in the spring, last spring, that was one of the first questions. What is your fund balance? We see it's been dropping. What are your plans to bring it up? That is absolutely a very important key factor in our bond rating. >> Yeah. So I we believe Steve uh believes um Pierce our financial advisor and I want to speak for him that that uh you know passing the Vader at the same time uh helped get us um yeah I guess some good looks with the sale of the bond right they can see that we are actively trying to address the the fund balance issue. So again, Darl, you said we're back up to about 11%. That's uh if the recommendation is is 3 months, 11% is is what? >> That's about about
089a month and a third. >> About a month >> or back over a month anyway from a year and a half ago or years ago. >> Okay. So, we'll project um Archer to your question, we'll project out sort of a timeline as an administration, what we make a recommendation to you as a board um in ways of getting back to that that three months while also staying competitive with with races and and positions. Okay. I know it's coming kind of like right here the la at the end of the school year as well um or end of the fiscal calendar for Daryl, but uh as we review this year's budget and the next couple of meetings and I know we'll have our monthly updates, but just kind of if there's any additional projections we can
090do to kind of have a better idea of where we're going to finish this year and kind of wrap up and close on August 3rd. And I know it's incredibly difficult to do that, but I challenge you because I I know you like a little challenge here and there in the middle of everything. He wouldn't. >> But just any any of those predictions that can that can kind of give us an idea of where we're going to finish this year and kind of a a jump off point. >> Hey, he's not going to say it in the meeting because I couldn't even get him to say it to me in my office. It was just uh it was just me, Brooke, and Daryl, nobody else in the office. I said, "I know this makes you
091uncomfortable. Best guess where we at with fund balance." And he wouldn't do it. He wouldn't he wouldn't give me a number. >> And I understand there's a lot of factors there with this the final state payments, you know, coming to the end of the year. I totally understand that. Um, but when we review the monthly financials and we we see it every month, >> my personal opinion, I again, I'm not the expert. It it is trending very favorably for us this year, what I've seen so far, um, just based on his the historicals we've seen this year. >> And so I just just trying to be able to capture that kind of where we're going to finish this year and a good jump on. >> Yeah, absolutely. When I say he wouldn't do it, I
092do want to say we're absolutely trending in a great direction as as we as we have been. He just doesn't want to overcommit to me and I and I understand it, but I know where I think we'll probably land. I wanted to hear it from him, but I'm not going to come out and say it either, Justin. So, >> business school teaches you to say when the auditors give me that number. >> Well, guys, I would like to wrap up by saying thank you. Thank you for your time. Thank you for your dedication to this district. Uh, I appreciate your openness to be able to come in to a forum like this and have good discussion. And I think we set the stage for the next few meetings to come. And again, I'd just like
093for you to think about the your roles, responsibilities, and and really what you can do to provide strategic leadership for this district and great governance. So, Clay, thank you for inviting us out today. >> Yeah, thanks for coming and uh sort of starting off our um series of of budget workshops. Um everybody that's listening, our administrators, our board members, our cabinet, we all know what we're charged with accomplishing this summer. I I want to uh end the meeting as I started it. Uh I I feel very honored and fortunate to be talking about these three buckets, Jared, that we get to talk about how much we want to put in fund balance, how much do we want to give in a way of a raise, how many positions do we want to bring back when
094it doesn't seem so very long ago that we didn't have money for any of those three buckets. Right now, we're talking about how much do we want to give to each one. Uh I want everybody to pat themselves on the back with with that. and uh and it's again it's been been my my privilege and my honor to to help us get to this point. So >> I think we've done a lot in a short amount of time. We weren't always this blessed like we are now. We know we've got a long way to go. But first of all, we we take care of our children. We want everybody to know that that's what we're doing. is not just to talk about money as much as it is about what's best for this community and
095these children, but also I appreciate all of the work that you and the folks at region six have done to help us out, but also uh the community themselves and and it's good to know that uh we we have a plan and we are going to work on that plan and we're excuse me and and we're going to do everything we can to facilitate this so that we have the one of the best school districts in Texas, maybe in the world, who knows? But, uh, thank y'all for helping us and, uh, we look forward to more discussion. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Yeah, that's all I got, Jared. Other than that, if y'all didn't eat lunch, please eat something. Please eat Miss Debbiey's Rice Krispie treats so I don't so I don't so I
096don't eat them. >> I um I just want to say um this board and your cabinet working together to put us in the position we are right now. I mean, it almost makes me want to get off my anxiety meds that I was on when we were passing deficit budgets. But we've worked really hard and I just hope the community knows that. That's that's our goal is to, like she said, make this one of the best districts in Texas. It's already one of the best, but we want to keep it there and we want to make sure that our teachers and everybody that works for BISD feels appreciated and knows that we're working hard for them. So, no. And in saying that, with no further business before the board, this meeting is adjourned at 112.
097Thank you.