001detection audit deliberate a matter regarding a student or student discipline deliberation regarding real property and consultation with an attorney. So at this time, board of trustees, the Burlington Independent School District will adjourn to close session. the board of trustees of the Berles Independent School District will reconvene into open session at 6:37 p.m. We have one item to take care of from the closed session. I recommend that the board of trustees grant the board president the authority to approve new hires between now and the next regular meeting in July. The board will consider ratifying those hires at the next meeting. I need a motion. Okay. Uh Stacy second. Sean. All in favor? Seeing none opposed. Motion passes. Now, let's all stand for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States
002of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all the flag and indivisible. Okay. Next, um I recommend that the board of trustees adopt the order of items for the June 23rd, 2025 agenda as presented. I need a motion. Mike second Dallas. All in favor? None opposed? Motion passes. Now it's time for special recognitions with Dr. Hill. Good evening everyone. Tonight we have four items on our special recognition agenda. Beginning with our special Olympians and I'd like to bring up Miss Monetta Smith. Thank you so very much for having us here this evening. We are honored and we appreciate your support, continued support throughout the years. Um we had 12 athletes who went to state games in Melissa um in May. We got rained
003out one day, didn't we? Yeah, we got rained out one day, but we came back the next day and we hustled and worked hard and we got a lot of medals. So, um we've got well, okay, let me edit that. It was actually 13 athletes because we had someone come and participate in something we've not done before called fundamental sports. It's for the students who may not be able to handle the stress of a regular competition, but they have something set aside for them. So, you'll you'll meet that young lady in just a moment. But, um, what we have here tonight are nine of those 13 athletes. Now, we've got a couple that went on vacation. They thought this was a good time of year for it or whatever. But, we also have two that
004are missing tonight. And I want to mention why they're missing. Um, this is another thing with the school board supporting us and and all of administration supporting us and and everyone throughout the district. We have two of our special athletes who are not here because they have moved on to their post-secary goals. They have enrolled at Texas A&M. They are Yes. For the summer, they're doing a six-week program called HOPS. I mean, I'm sorry, Waco. I get them mixed up. Waco, which is work and college opportunities program. And it's a chance for them to go. They live in the dorms. They function independently. Um, everything they do is just like a regular college student. As a matter of fact, one of the moms is here and she can tell you that they got them there
005and kind of said, "Okay, parents, bye." So, it's it's a it's a very independent program for them. And um, they are learning how to go to college. They're also doing paid work experiences, so they're learning job skills, making money, all these good kind of things while living independently from their parents. In the fall, they start a two semester program. And I the names are so hard to remember, I have to look. But it's it's called hops and it is the horiculture options in plant sciences. Makes sense for&m, doesn't it? Um they are going to work on career exploration, work-based learning, job readiness and self- advocacy and they have uh areas of careers that they are working towards which include uh different areas in floral design, landscape management and greenhouse nursery. So today was their first
006day starting their new jobs so we couldn't tear them away. So I just wanted to let you know there's a really good reason they're not here but it's this is exciting. people with special needs, people with disabilities getting the opportunity to go to college. And we are honored to have, you know, been a part of what college was it? Uh, I believe something down in College Station Texas A&M. Anyway, so um now we would like to recognize our our athletes who are here and I would like for our head coach, our head track and field coach Karen Pointer, excuse me, to do the introductions. Um here thank you for having us here. No. First, I'll uh mention the two that are away at um Texas A&M. We have Ryland Severs and he uh won first
007he won fourth place in the 100 uh gold in the relay and uh gold in his standing lung jump. And then we have Ashton Wyatt and he won uh he was our Patlon athlete and he won gold in the uh 4x1. He won also um play he competed in um running long jump um shot put high jump and the 800. He won gold in all of them. Um he did excellent. And um now we're going to go on to our athletes that are here. We have Haley Han and she won um bronze in the 100 and silver in the standing long jump. We have Travis Long. He got fifth in the 50 meter dash and fourth in the softball throw. [Applause] We have uh we have Jake Pascowski. He's not here today, but he won
008uh seventh in the 50 and sorry uh bronze in the softball throw. And then we have PJ. He won bronze in the 50 and silver in the uh softball throw. And we have Alexa. She won gold in a soft throw. We have Ethan Rogers. He won seventh in the 100 meter dash. and bronze in the javelin. [Applause] We have Hunter Klein. He won sixth place in the 100 meter dash. Gold in the 2x 50 and gold in the softball throw. [Applause] We have Jordan. He won uh fifth in the 100 meter dash, gold in the 2 by 50, and gold in the standing long jump. We got Charlie Lane, gold in the 100 meter dash, gold in the 4x1, and gold in a standing long running long jump. We have uh Demarcus that's on vacation
009as well. He got si six sixth place in the 100 meter dash and gold in a 4x1 and bronze in the javelin and then um we already did right you already did and that is it Lizzy oh I'm sorry and we have Lizzy Han and she participated in our um in our functional sports [Applause] Okay, just get it arranged for a picture. Y'all may have to step back. There we go. All right. Everybody look right here. One, two, three. Parents, parents, and their parents and family. Would y'all these athletes, would you please stand and be recognized, too? [Applause] you all being there. Appreciate you supporting these athletes. And athletes, congratulations. Well done. [Applause] All right. Well, hi, good evening. Um, like you said, my name is Alison Denellki. I am the art teacher at Hughes
010Middle School. Um we are Thank you guys for letting us do this today in honoring our uh students that have worked so hard to be here. So these are the students that had placed and we took them to Junior Vase. That's basically the middle school's definition of the like state competition to where so we enter our students and they go and it's not a competition against each other. It's a competition against yourself to get a scoring between one and four. Four being the being the best score you can get for this um competition. and then they rejudge them again and you can earn a rank of platinum which is the top 5% of the entire show. So we rank under region 11 south and there was around it's somewhere between 1,000 to 1100 entries for
011this event and from my school we had two of our students placed platinum for that which is a super big accomplishment because that puts them in the top 5% of our region to think about wherever region 11 is that's how they ranked and I could not be more proud to tell you about my babies as well as we have some from sorry I say that all the time about them um we also have some from Steam as well. Um, Ella Durren is their teacher, but she's unfortunately not here today. But from, uh, Hughes Middle School, we have Jenna Adair. This is her work. Stop here, baby. You can show them. This is hers at rings platinum. Go ahead and show them. And then next from our school is also she's a seventh grader at Hugh.
012She'll be going to eighth grade next year. And then from our art three, we had Fabola Seas Martinez and she'll be going to BHS next year. But for eighth grade, she placed this as platinum, which is obviously a really big deal, like I said. And then from Steam, we have Lillian Cantrell with her work. Is yours a digital? Uh, yes. Also, this one coming up. So, um, Jenna's was done in ink pens. So, she did those with pins. I mean, I can probably speak for them as well as they were doing them like on their lunch, anytime they could come in and do extra work when they were done with their other classes. Um, Fabula's is done as a 3D because she put a lot of different works in a different mediums to build her
013piece. Um, Lillian's walking. She did hers as a um, oh my goodness, that was what I was saying. It's a photograph. So, she photographed that for her work. And then we also from Steam have Ella Nut. What did you do? A painting and a photograph. She entered two. You have one as a painting. It was acrylic. Yeah. Is acrylic painting. And then one is also a photograph. So, in order to also enter these, they had to take these photos themselves. They can't steal other people's works. You can't use them from Google. You can't use Photoshop. It is their complete work on their own. We also have one that couldn't be here today from Steam. Her name is Madison Kelly. She also ranked that uh thing of four for the platinum as well. And that's for
014the middle school. And then I'm also going to turn it over now to the rep for the high school which is going to be Adam Palmer. Yes, please. Great. in the audience. Stand up. [Applause] Great kids, talented kids, and we appreciate your support of them. And well done. Love that you're pursuing your passion and your talent. That's fantastic. Thank you all for being here. We are so thankful for you as parents, too, because this was a Saturday they had to do this. Their parents had to either put them on the bus and trust me to get them there. Obviously, I did not drive the bus. Um, we're very lost for the driver of the bus, but they um had to come out there with them and supported them and waited in the hours in the
015cafeteria while they went by themselves, the judges, and spoke one-on-one, but it's a writing part, a presentation part, and their artwork they have to do. So, judges, them all like around. They had to write about their pieces, use the correct terminology, and then their parents support them, get them advice on that. Thank you so much for supporting your babies and let them do this and be a part of our program. I really appreciate [Applause] Hello, my name is Adam Palmer. I'm an art teacher at Centennial High School. I'm also representing Jana Jackson. She couldn't be here. She just left Scotland and she's heading toward Liverpool. So, I'm extremely jealous. But vacation, she deserves a vacation. She's a hard worker. She deserves a vacation. I told her to say hi to Paul McCartney and Ringo in
016Liverpool if you seen them. So, um, our vase is very similar. In the state of Texas, there was 32,000 entries, and you can imagine that's the cream of the crop from every high school in Texas. Um, same judging system, one to four. If you make a four, you're in the running to go to state. Um, if you make it to state, there's only 2,300 that make it to state out of the 32,000. Then once you go to state, you get judged again from a one to a four. And that's the student I'm representing today. We have another student named Taylor Kilpatrick who's made state three times actually. Uh she could not be here. She's graduated. Um we have our rookie of the year though, Kendall Schmaltz. Um that was Janna's student last year and I'm
017blessed that Kendall will be my student next year as an AP art student. So you want to show your work? I was going to say I saw that on on the post now. And what in this piece of art? What what was it? It won it won a four at state. Four at state. Absolutely. Which is I don't know the how many people made a four state, but it's a small number. It is. It is a very small percentage. Awesome. Wonderful. Congratulations. That is awesome. Perfect. So basically this is our all state art. That is awesome. [Applause] Thank you for supporting the passion. Yes, that's awesome. Congratulations and thank you for being here. [Applause] Oh, I'm sorry. Go ahead. You're good. Uh, how you doing? I'm Carlton Bryant. Um, if you know me, most kids
018or people call me CB. Um, I'm the head track girls track coach at Burlington High School. Uh, I'm recognizing one of my senior runners. Uh, she's graduating. Uh, Miss Katherine Evans. Um, she's been running for me for the last four years easily. Um, hold on. Cather, come on up. Oh, okay. I was going to call. Yeah, there you go. Uh, okay. Well, go back. This is Katherine Evans. Uh, if y'all know who she doesn't know who she is, again, she has a twin sister as well. She's been here at Burlston forever. I mean, she's native from Burlston. She's not a move in. She's one of our kids. Uh, she's a Burlston kid. Um she we had again I had a luxury coach for the last four years. Uh she made it to state the last
019four years as well as a freshman coming out being my she's only won as a freshman for my girl side to no and the 4x4. So she made an eight and 4x4 as a freshman. Uh single in eight. She end up getting eighth place as a freshman. Uh 4x4 I think we end up getting sixth that year as a freshman. Uh she was one of those few girls uh then had the luxury of making the state the last four years. Um as a sophomore she made the state in the 4x4. Yeah. 4x4. As a junior she made the state as or as a junior she ended up just making the state in the 4x4 and and junior 4x4 and the eight. And then as a senior in the eight as well. Uh again placing top
020place in the 800 was fifth place. Uh we end up topping her, making the state, and then getting third place as a sophomore. Correct. Uh in the 4x4, um we set the again, she holds multiple records at our high school. Um this as a junior junior, she as a sophomore, we went 349 in the 4x4. So that's holding her record. She's one of those record holders. Uh also, she's a record holder in the 4x2 that we made in regionals. And we got first place, guys. Long story. end up getting first place at regionals. Um just slightly mistake. Uh got DQed. Uh actually ran our record as well in the 4x2 as well. So uh end up placing third in the 4x4 and at a state again. So those accomplishments she made um if you didn't
021know it should be known. She didn't announce it until after she graduated. Katherine Eson signed finally finally. Uh yeah. Yeah. It it took it took some time, but again, like I said, can't rush what she wanted. And uh Katherine Everson sign recently signed to Texas State to run track and field. So, one of those announcements. So, uh still waiting on sister, but you know, we'll come back for that one. Uh but again, this is uh so we're here for Katherine Evans. So, we're going to talk about Katherine. So, again, this is one of my runners that again grew up on me well. And I told her before like sh she's she helped me be a better father. So that's going to be a big thing for me and and whenever she calls me I'll be
022here for her. So I've been telling that for four years. So again this is Katherine Evans. [Applause] I don't know about all right. One, two, three. Next person. Coach Banks is next. Hello y'all. I am Coach Banks, um, head girls track coach at Centennial, and I am proud to recognize a great group of student athletes at Centennial that competed at the state meet as well um, in Austin. Um, their hard work, teamwork, and determination on and off the track has brought great pride to Centennial and to the community. So, I first would like to start with Micah Tucker. [Applause] Um she's the youngest and the last from the Tucker family. That family has come through um our program and I was going to say she is the last correct correct she competed in both the
023100 and 200 meter dash um finishing sixth which is an incredible achievement um with such great competition. Um, no doubt she'll be back next year and hopefully she can come and show y'all her medal that she's gonna earn. Yes. Um, next I think is it don't we have a new employee coming on too to work with us too? Is that mom? Oh, yeah. I know. I know it's supposed to be about you, but mom is coming to work with us. Yes. Um, sorry, I didn't mean to take that. Next, we have James Brown. Woo! Dave Brown is a senior. Um, he competed in the 110 meter hurdles, finishing eighth. And he continued our tradition of great sending great hurdlers to the meet. Um, and he's also competing, he'll be competing next year at Langston, which
024is in um, Oklahoma. Um and then finally we have our 4x4 which is um starting with Marley Buck. [Applause] Micah was on there. Hannah Gmerson think you know who that is. and Ella Magayan. [Applause] Um so they earned their spot at state um placing ninth and three of the four members will be back next year um looking to carry on our program success. And what's really special about the group of four girls is two of them um on the end are actually distance runners. So, we had to convert them to sprinters and then we had to have one freshman step into big shoes and she did a great job. And then also Micah just did Micah things. Micah was um so I think they're looking they'll be looking uh forward to breaking some more school
025records um in that event. So, we're so proud of our student athletes. We thank you guys for all your hard work and support. Ella, yes. Was that somewhere where they had winter? Iowa. University of Iowa. Yes, there's the IA. She's also our three-time school record holder. So, we thank y'all. And parents, have parents, please stand. Let's get our picture. Oh, got it. And the parents again, I know There they all are. Thank you. Thank you all for being here. Thank you for being here. Glad you're here, coach. Great season. Congratulations. It's awesome. Congratulations. Fantastic. All right. All right, guys. I know. [Music] Okay, that was fun. Now it's time for comments from individual board members. You have anything anyone would like to share? Well, first off, I want my grandson Centennial in the band, okay?
026And they had their band camp all week. So I went to the end of it of the week to hear and it is phenomenal what those leaders do with those kids, all those freshmen that are there and all and by the end of just five days. It is amazing. We have got and some of those staff that those uh band directors the head ones get paid for it. That's part of their contract, but the others were there just because they wanted to be there for the program. And um and to see all those parents out there that were there to support it. Uh and to see it, we filled up the pretty much filled up the twothirds anyway of the gym at Centennial with spectators and it was just so wonderful to see such support
027among them and among the community. It was really a great thing. The other thing I want to share with you is that after spending three days with uh uh to get my schoolboard training in Fort Worth, we are really good people. I'm telling you, our district is amazing. Uh you know, I mean um I've I've been to these sessions before and uh it is so encouraging to hear these people talk about these wonderful things that they're doing and we've been doing them already. And so I'm just so proud of your of the leadership of the district and on our campuses. Uh kudos um kudos to to us as a districts. Proud of proud proud of us. Thank you. Thanks Pat. Okay. The next item on the agenda is a safety, security, and intruder detection audit
028update with Dr. Jimmerson. um our safety and security personnel are not able to be here tonight. One is actually at a conference and the other one had some u family matters to attend to and uh could not be here tonight and I told them not to worry about it. They take care of what they need to do and I'll try my best to cover which isn't much. But what I will tell you is is we did have our uh reunification exercise, our safety and security reunification exercise last Tuesday, I guess it was and uh Scott Shahhei was the point person who planned it all and that was in conjunction with and I don't know if you had a chance to drive by or see what was happening. I know Mike was there and got to
029witness it, but we had I don't know probably a hundred plus people there that participated. We had the city of Berles that participated, Berles Fire Department, Berles Police Department, our safety and security officers and SRO's and of course safety and security. Not to mention we had administrators, teachers, whole gamut. And uh it was a full-blown uh exercise and uh it was quite an endeavor. It was quite an undertaking. The level of planning just to get this thing up and running was amazing. But uh generally speaking, we thought it went really well. We found out that we do a lot of things well. We also found out that there were a lot of things that we learned. We we learned a lot as only you can learn from actually doing a mock exercise and uh we
030learned a lot. The debrief after uh the event was was powerful. the debrief with with our folks just talking about what they learned, questions to ask, questions we know to be answered to strengthen our plan should heaven forbid we ever have to exercise it. So, uh it was a success because we learned and we learned a lot. When Scott and and Steve uh are back next month, they'll have more to uh a little more detail. Still debriefing, still putting meat on it, still uh you know, fine-tuning the plan, but we will uh be presenting later and uh at how we were able to strengthen it. But it was a it was impressive. It was a I was going to say it was a lot of fun. It wasn't fun, but it was fun to know
031that today how much better we will be should that ever happen. So, generally, that's uh that's what we did last Tuesday. They are on a well they're on break now taking care of some other things and uh they'll be back next month to uh to update you even further. So, All right. Okay. Uh, next we will discuss proposed revisions to local policy FNG and Dr. Jimmerson will speak to us about this. Again, this is the uh the time of year for vacation. Ordinarily, our policy wonk and local standup uh standup comedian would be here. It's a it's a simple uh proposal. What we are uh uh presenting to the board and asking uh to adopt is a change to local policy FNG which deals with uh the the proper place for appeals and for gre
032grievances and complaints. What we're asking is is that uh under the proposed procision on page one, there is a list of items that addresses different complaints or um different complaints or grievances that are filed and the process for appeal. And under there you'll see there's 14 going on 15 different appeal processes. We are asking that the appeal process for complaints concerning placement in the uh discipline alternative education program D be submitted in accordance with policy FOC. So, a move policy FOC and the student code of conduct that the appeals process will be listed and enumerated in the student code of conduct. And uh we're asking that that change be made in policy to move the appeals process to the student code of conduct and FOC. Okay. Thank you very much. Okay. Okay. The board members
033now uh have received the consent agenda in your packets and I need a motion to approve tonight's consent agenda as presented. Pat, I need a second. Dallas, all in favor? See none opposed. Motion passes. Now it's time for our monthly financials with Brenda Mai. I'm noting who's here, so whose budgets to cut. We'll know which ones will be easy. So, thank you for being here. You made the right choice. Um, starting first, let me go through the April financials before we get to the actual budget. So, let me get started here. So, for general fund, if you'll see right now, we're at 97.7 million. It's about 3.6 up from last year in April. Um, the difference will be in our tax revenue and our state program. um the funding that we received from the state.
034And then expenditures are at 91.8 million. For food service, uh revenues are at 6.4 million. We're up about 300,000 from last year. And then our expenditures are up about 80,000 at 5.9 million. Debt service, uh you'll see on here revenues at 39 million and then expenditures at 21.7. That's our payment that we make in February and August for special revenue funds. Um we're at uh year-to- date 6.3 million 54.8%. You'll see on here some of these end um on April of 2025. So through this month and so we'll do some re uh organ organizing on there organization on there and journal entries. Um April's team will work on that and then the rest go through uh September of 2025. Child care revenues are at 764. They're up 41,000 from last year and their expenditures at
035766,000. uh capital projects, which is oil and gas. If you'll see on here, uh revenues are similar to last year. We're at 84,000. Uh expenditures at 542. So, we started the mound gym and we're starting to uh get some payments in for that. Uh beginning balance 14.6 million. When you add the 804 and then take out the 542, we're at 14.8 8 million uh for capital which is our oil and gas funds payments over 10,000. Uh it's in your packet the full list excuse me if you'll see the majority out of 199 uh we do have 240 which is our food service and then some activity funds and then our workers comp payment and then the tax report April collections are at 687,000 uh 414 in M and then 272 out of our debt service.
036So, our total year-to- date is 86.4 million. And then construction update, we have the clinic. Um, I think you guys have seen some progress. It's pretty exciting over there. Uh, they painted the outside and so I'm excited to see the inside. Um, but our payments are about halfway through and then the mound project, like I mentioned before, we're getting started with that. So, that is it for regular financials. if you have any questions. Okay, I guess not. So, next we are going to open what? Next, we're going to open the public hearing for the 2025 2026 budget and proposed tax rate at 7:13 p.m. Yes. Okay. So, my favorite part. Um, so as it says on here for the public hearing, we have the proposed tax rate. We duly noted it in the paper and
037I and we made our publication. We use the current tax rate that we're at right now. Uh, simply because we don't know what that tax rate is. So I will come back in August and September and we will adopt that. This TEA gets involved. It's the MCR, the maximum compressed rate. Um, they're still going to calculate that. I'll get to that in the presentation. So um, also on the the hearing that we published, it's it was current law at the time. So siny die hadn't happened. So we have it posted at current law. But now I've gone to a class and we have learned some new things and everything has passed. So we'll make some changes as the year goes on. But that has been posted as necessary. So starting with 202526 moving on to
038the new year. If you look wrapping up um our total revenues are at about 130.8 million. Um the big change that you'll see is a little bit more state funding that we've received. And then and that's the hold harmless that they gave us at the very end of the year. they've decided to um add old harmless for um our tax rate. And then our federal has changed quite a bit. So SHARS has been one of the things that has been through some turmoil in the last year or two years. They're still working through that. Uh they were going to have they had a House Bill 500. It did not pass. So they're not going to address that. But we're still involved in SHs. We just did not get any funding this year for that. Um
039expenses, you'll see the biggest one is our payroll. Um of course it's the 107.7 million. That does include the one times that the board um honored for our staff and so it's a little bit higher than we had originally budgeted for, but our total is at 129.4 million. So with that, if you'll see our fund balance is at 37.5 million currently. Uh the excess that we have um I'm going to ask the board, we talked to the finance committee about this is doing a resolution to move that over to capital projects. Uh the reason for that is the 37.5 million that we have currently um is about 27.4% of our predicted budget. So we're required to have 25% and we know that uh and 25% is about 34.5 million. So we're in excess of that.
040We're at about 27.4%. So moving that uh the excess funds from this year over to capital gives us the opportunity to do some facility upgrades that are necessary. Um and then like HBAC anything that we need um those funds are available immediately for that and for technology. So we have a lot of technology needs um and so those funds and the capital project just gives us that flexibility. So um speaking to the finance committee they thought that was something that we could do um as a board for that. Um so our fund balance will remain at 37.5 million is what what would happen. So that 1.4 4 million is an estimate. Once it all um comes to the end and we have our finals, then we'll know that exact number and that will be the
041number that'll be transferred. A tax rate trend. So, if you see for 2425, we're at 1.2552. That was posted in our legal notice. Um in 2526, it'll change. They thought that it would go down um maybe a couple pennies, but now that we think that the 140,000 exemption, homestead exemption, I'm feel very confident will pass in November. That will change. And so what will happen is every school district in the state of Texas will report in July our certified values. We'll send that to TEA. They'll take that information and then they will send us what our new tax rate will be. So, um as I mentioned earlier, we'll come to the board. Just to be clear, what she's talking about is as you know, they passed the the property tax relief, but actually what has
042to happen, even though it did pass, it passed to go because I believe it's a constitutional amendment to adjust that, which means the voting public in the state of Texas has to vote to approve that. Having said that, I don't know of anybody that's going to vote not to lower their property taxes. So, I'm pretty sure we're going to get that done, but it won't be till November. Is that correct? But it will be retroactive, will it not? That's correct. So, it will be retroactive for the whole I believe it's for the whole tax year, isn't it? Yes. I think it is, right? They have to. Yes, it will be. It'll be for the whole tax year, but it won't actually go into effect till November. And of course, by the time the next tax
043bill comes. So, is that correct? That's correct. Okay. I what they'll do is I believe they'll assume it at 140,000 because we feel like that's what will pass. As Dr. Jameson said, most people will vote yes. If that doesn't pass and they will retro and send out a new bill and so I can't imagine what that would look like in the state of Texas. I don't think that's I don't think it is either. They're placing their bets on on doing the one. Well, I saw somebody was like, you know, I pay taxes here, too, and it's hard for me to not vote for a tax, you know, property taxes. So, thank God and thank you uh appreciate our taxpayers that you know what, some relief is on the way. So I think that's a win-win
044and I do think that's a good thing on behalf of the state legislature they were able to accomplish. So yes and over 65 and disabled I think they've increased that from 10 to 60 I believe. So that's an yeah the ceiling the ceiling their cap you should see some difference. So all that to say I don't know the tax rate but I will come back in August and September and present one to you for adoption a property value trend. This is um our May preliminary. I know every year I tell you this is very early in the year for them to give us this number. Yes, this is Tarant County and Johnson County and this is at the 100,000. So I it 7.2 billion is the number right now. I don't know that it's worth
045much right now but it's a little bit higher than it was last year just if you were to take the preliminary but um once the actual values come out at the new exemption then we'll use those for our tax um anticipated tax revenue enrollment. I just want to share with you. So, typically at snapshot this year, we're at 12,713. Um, which we were excited about because we thought it would just remain stable. Um, we did end at 12,373. So, we had a decrease a little bit larger than we have in the past. Um, we're tracking it. It's just students that leave, transfer, things of that nature, whether they do home school, go to a different school district, whatever it may be. Uh, so I'm conservative with our enrollment coming into the next year just to
046make sure that we can budget for it and then we'll just see what happens. And hopefully we'll be surprised and pleasantly surprised that students come here. If not, we'll be prepared for it. I was going to say because we we budget, as you all know, very conservatively just in case and then, you know, hope that it comes out ahead, but we're planning. Uh, okay. House Bill Two. So, just a little recap. So, if we remember the ADA legislature, which met in 2023, gave us nothing. So that whole time they met and they talked about it and it was the vouchers against school public school and it all came out and we received zero. So that was painful. And then they met this year. So they came up to an agreement to House Bill 2 with
047some strings attached. So I'm going to share those with you um and we will follow those. The first one is the compensation. So, and this is an 8.5 billion dollar uh passage that they have, which is a lot of money, and it's kind of sad because at the same time, you feel like that would solve all of our problems, and it's probably not going to, but um it's a lot of money that they they've given to school districts, but we're going to follow the rules that go with the that money. First one is compensation. Uh so we are over 5,000 in enrollment and so teachers uh mandated it's called a teacher retention aotment and if you have over 5,000 students a teacher with three to four years of experience will receive a onetime $2,500 and
048teachers with five plus years will receive $5,000. So that is given to us through the state. So the state's going to say here's your money. This is the teacher A. This is their name. This is how much money they're going to receive. And so it'll come to us almost like teacher incentive aotment. they will give us those whole dollars in our summary of finance. Um that for us is about 3.6 million um right now depending on new teachers that we come in and their years of service. Um with that also there's this other staff raises and it's $45 per adjusted ADA. We're not actually exactly sure what those adjustments are, but they kind of change. They don't do the full ADA. They just do a smaller portion of it. Um and that is for other
049staff other than campus or central administrators. So that dollar that we will use is for our other staff that's not administrators. Uh and then they're also doing a teacher incentive aotment expansion and I'll let Amarie talk to you about that another day, but that's going to come out too that they're going to increase that uh for teachers. So that is mandated. That's absolutely what we're going to receive and we will um have those funds. Uh number two is a new aotment. It's called the ABC allotment. It's $106 per enrolled student for these aotment for basic costs and they can be used on what's listed here, transportation, utilities, uh, insurance, um, health insurance and other benefits, TRS contributions, payroll taxes, and rehiring retirees. So, one of the things is this mandate that they send us for
050these teachers to give them the 2500 and the 5,000. Um, anything that's paid over the state minimum, the school district will pay the TRS for them. So that's a an expense that falls on us. And so one of the things we fought for was we said you can give this to teachers, but if you don't give us any more money, it will cost us for you to give these teachers this funding, which is great. We love that. But there's also an expense for the school district. So that's part of the unfunded part of that, which is what we asked for. Yeah. So this is this is what they have there. I can tell you I feel like the first three bullets will probably take you a whole six aotment, but but we will we will
051spend the money accordingly. And these are some of the reasons that they have. Remember, inflation has not been kind to us. And this is the first infusion of new money that we've received in years. And despite all of that, we were able to make to make it work, thankfully. So now we have this. However, when they give this us this money, they direct us into pots or direct money into pots in which we have to spend at local control. Not nearly as much. So one has to go to those two classes of employees. Number two, all of that money has to go to one of those others expenses. Correct? And we'll report it and they'll ask us about it. We'll be glad to share that information. Uh bullet number three. Um hard to see what
052that read. School safety. So they have increased the ADA from $10 to $20 and then the campus aotment from 15 to 33 33,540. So that's about 387,000 for us. We have already implemented safety. the board had decided that right from the beginning. So now they're just kind of catching up and saying, "Oh, we realize that you guys are paying a lot of money for SRO, SSOs, things of that nature." So they're just adding a little bit more to that. It still doesn't come close to covering all of our costs and the mandates that came out of Austin, including employing, which we were already doing. But when they required by law that we have a an armed security at every campus, there's $25. What was it? 20 25,000 per campus. $10 per day. It was $15,000.
053Yeah. And then the $10 per day. It was 15. And then the $10, which was a drop in the bucket. It did not cover that one employee, not even getting into all of the other safety protocols and measures that we had to put in place on top of it. So, it was a drop in the bucket. I'm funding it. At least this is getting closer to compensating us for our costs. Yes. But you all did it. This board did it. Made the decision years ago that we were going to do it even before it was required. And committed to spending the money to do it. At least now they're trying to catch up a little bit. Um special education. So they they have a new funding system. It's more based on intensity. Um I think
054the commissioner is supposed to do a program for the 2627 school year. So, no change necessarily this year, but they're going to revamp that uh for the 26 27 school year. So, we'll we'll see how that looks in the future. And then they are giving $1,000 per initial full and individual evaluation. So, um I'll work with Alan on that to make sure we get that taken care of. Uh and then the miscellaneous. So, they've given $55 to the increase of the basic aotment. So, our basic a lotments at 6160. They'll add the $55. um a little bit of a shell game I'll tell you because we used to get the golden penny yield and that would increase every year and that's probably close to $55 um that we would have received anyway. Um the golden
055penny was in law. They've changed that and now they are reallocating it to where everybody just is gets an increase in the basic aotment. Um and then additional provisions if you can see here there's like the small and midsize aotment uh teacher preparation and certification programs. So they have made appropriations for these these dollar amounts, but they're for the whole state of Texas. And so I guess once they receive how much students and teachers and whatever they're involved in, then how much will be allocated to um our district individually. We'll see. Uh and then they made some adjustments for prek in their ADA. Um so that's the basic of House Bill 2. Went to a class the other day, 191 slides covering this. Yeah. Well, there's lots of strings, lots of directions, lots of requirements.
056And so, what they told us to tell everybody, they kept saying, you know, make sure you let everybody know that we will have budget amendments because we're just starting the surface of this to see what it looks like. Um, there'll be some changes, there'll be some ads, and there'll be some takeaways. And so, um, I'll come back. I in our board, we're really good about approving budget amendments anyway. It's just there'll probably be a few more this year and some changes to that. But this is amendments will be for classification purposes and moving it around more so. Yeah. So, we'll take care of that. But I just want to let you know I'll come back with more information, but this is just this is only two slides instead of whole. And you're welcome. Yeah. You're
057welcome. So, and it was all CFOs and businesses when we we were tired. It was not party like I normally have here. Um, so for 2526 meeting with the finance committee, uh, the board finance committee. Thank you so much. I always enjoy meeting with you guys in their patience because this year was a unique year because we had to wait till Sunday to actually get some of the information. Um the payroll considerations that we're asking the board tonight is the beginning pay for the teacher matrix to be at 60,000. Uh years one and two. So there was no um mandate from House Bill two for a one or two year teacher. There was no money no money mandate. They did not pay us any money to give to years one and two. So, uh, we
058agreed on a 3% of the midpoint for years one and two, which is, uh, $2,020. And then years three and four is the 2500 that we talked about. And then 5 years plus is the 5,000 one time for those staff members. Nurses, librarians, and SSOs used to be on the teacher matrix. They will fall off. It's just a different business model uh that they're using now. So, we're still going to give them 3% of the midpoint for uh that classification of employees. And then all There's 3% of the midpoint also. And by the way, um they sent the money for the teacher matrix and it was specified for those teachers and teachers only. They sent or earmarked some other dollars for everyone else excluding administrators as nurses, librarians, SSOs, M everyone. and the money that
059they sent did not cover the raises that you see there. We're actually reallocating money to make sure our nurses and our librarians, our SSOs actually get a better raise than what the state's legislature had allocated for them. So kudos to this board and to this finance committee for driving that uh farther. And in fact, we used in addition to instead of the current 3% midpoint, we're moving the scale up to keep track with with the progress over time. And we're using the new midpoint so that we could get them a better So, we went from 1,800 to over 2,000. And then we reallocated and moved money around so that we could pay those folks a better raise because the legislature did not. They prioritized all teachers. I don't regret teachers. But this board in the
060budget and what you want is to prioritize everyone else too to ensure they get a better raise. Perfectly said. Thank you. Um and with that on we've made a few pay scale adjustments. So, Amarie, I can't thank her enough just for keeping me sane. I don't know how many scenarios she had to run. I mean, just probably a million, probably 190 just at the sites. Um, but we did some pay scale adjustments also with that. So, um, for example, like our custodial staff was at 1450. They're now moving to 1475. That's been a goal that we've had for several years is to kind of get to closest to 15 as we can. So, and that's just so that we can reach employment and stay at market and actually compete because those are hard positions to
061fill nowadays. They are. and and we were looking at it's just like a one and a half percent increase but as Amarie was doing all the studies and she was looking she was like if we can get to somewhat a little bit better so we've increased the pay scale slightly and then given them 3% of that new pay scale for all the others um so for 2025 26 proposed if you look at general fund like I said this is really like rough so Ryan like back of the envelope just kind of as best as we can looks like we'll be at about 136.1 million in revenues and then our expenses at 136,47,000. Um so a little bit of excess that will change but that's where we're looking at for right now. The majority of it
062going into payroll as we've been mandated with house bill 2 and then meeting our other needs. So this is the beginning of it. Um for debt service uh estimated finish at 39.3 million as our revenues. Um if you remember we had our bond easement. So the expenditures are ending up at 49.7 million. So close to 50 million that bond ament just a reminder because it's really exciting. We had 15 million over 15 million in interest savings by doing that bond. So I certainly appreciate the board moving forward with that. Uh and then next year proposed um so I just have an asterric because I'm not sure what the homestead exemption if they'll give us hold harmless. So when we do the 140,000 and then the um additional maybe 50,000 for those. So that really reduces
063property value. So when we get our INS money on that, we will lose money. And um so like these school districts that just passed bonds facing thinking that they would have this property growth and that their INS tax rate which is not dissimilar to what happened in what year was that? 08910 here is when the property values went down a penny of INS tax did not bring in what it once did. And when you built an entire debt service on that and it doesn't do it, oh my gosh. And that's what we got to deal with for how many years? Too many because of that. So, I didn't even think about that for those that are going out with bonds. That could be devastating. Wow. Threeear appraisals instead of the two-year like all that type
064of stuff played really a big role in these. So, um I think we'll get hold. I don't know for sure. they talked about it, but that's just a couple things that um are out there. So, I just put an aster on there just to saying that's what I think are that was current law, not with the new law. So, we'll see what that number looks like. Yeah, I'll come back to that. Uh and then food service. So, food service this year um ended up as a little bit of a deficit. There were predicting at 7.6 million, expenditures at 8.1. Um Emily and her staff had some capital. They've got new boxes. They got a new dish machine. They did some things which she prepares for. Her fund balance is that 2.1 million which is really
065in food service they don't uh encourage a heavy fund balance. They they like you to use it kind of come out zero. Yeah. And so um she spent some of those funds um and then predicting for next year 8.1 million and then her expenses right out that. So she's still working on that. Some of the staffing that she may work on. Um they may come out with a new you know, every year we put in that formula. They decide how much our lunches should cost. Um, she's focusing on alocarts and those type of things. She just got through an audit this year and it went really well and so congratulations to her and her team. Um, it's pretty intense like you you have to be clean and everything has to be so perfect and they
066come and check all that out. So, she was very busy this year, but this next year she's really working on alocart and trying to get some more things and options out there for kids. Um, and that is it. That's all I have for the budget unless y'all have any questions. It was amazing. You put how many months worth of work? Oh, into how many slides? Yeah. And it was a roller coaster. I mean, one time I went into April's office and that she had talked me off. I was like, well, as you can imagine, it's uh we we were hoping and hoping and hoping and then at the 11th hour, the Senate pulled the rug out from underneath and uh fortunately, we got to a place that we could actually build the budget on and
067make it work. So, as you may recall, the House bill that passed and went through very early on, which would have basically put it all into the uh uh the basic aotment, which means they would have given us the discretion on how to use it. And then the Senate comes back and says, "Nope, it went from almost $400 on the House side to 50 bucks on the Senate side." And that was that was scary. So, anyway, she's ridden the roller coaster. We've all at one point or another talked her off the ledge. I want to thank before we move forward, if it's all right, uh, Madam President, I I just started rambling, but uh, the work that you've put in, I want to thank uh, the rest of the cabinet and other administrators that have
068been so good and uh, at meeting and helping and I know they they've been meeting weekly on this budget, particularly personnel, for weeks on end. Uh lots of it lots of folks have contributed to this and I appreciate the effort. Uh the fact is we we scrutinize every position in what we do to make sure that we manage our overhead as best we can supply the needs or meet the needs of what's needed. manage the overhead so that we are able to provide raises even when the state doesn't provide specific money for that that we still can and will by managing our overhead reallocate to make sure that the people are here are valued and they're shown that value and they get a a decent cost of living adjustment and I appreciate the effort went
069into that. I appreciate the finance committee who has been meeting and gave us direction and their blessing to proceed because we are all in agreement that our people are our most valuable asset. And when you hear people say the words people are our most valuable asset, well then follow the money. Is it true? And if you haven't given raises, is that accurate? Well, this board has been 100% every year providing raises and the best raises that we can every year. And uh kudos to you all for showing that you do value our people. That's important. And uh I'm proud of this budget. I'm proud that we were able to to bring compensation to our folks and still meet the needs of our students. And uh it's still not easy. It's never enough money. There's so
070many things we would love to do, but at least we're going to cover our cost of inflation. At least we're going to be able to get a decent raise to our folks. Not enough. It's never enough. Quite frankly, they should all be making a lot more in one day. I hope we get there, but we're going to do the best we can with what we got. So, thank you for what you've done. Dr. Jamerson, I can't thank you enough for hanging in there with me. I appreciate it. What? So, uh because you keep the main thing the main thing. I mean that it it's hard but at the same time it is our people and that he's never lets me forget that. So he's always just like this is where it goes. This is where
071it goes. And let me say I I remind you this board the vision is one. Our people are our most valuable asset. Whatever the programming, whatever it is, it's the people. They're the magic makers. They are the catalyst. They are the one thing. They are they are it. You want to make a difference in a child's life, it's the teacher. It's the adults making it happen. Take care of them first and foremost, not programs, people. And make sure you have the best and keep the best. And uh appreciate the effort that went into doing that. I wish we could uh have some other stuff going on. Don't get me wrong, I even said that. Man, I'd like to do this, this, this. People are first. Our people are first. Yes, sir. And so that's it
072for me on that. Well, and thank you, Brenda, and your staff uh for coming back year after year. Uh and I know sometimes it's difficult and thank you, April, for keep keep talking or off the cliff. Yeah. Thank you so much. Do we have any comments or questions from anybody in the audience board? Thank you. Okay. All right, we will close the public hearing for the 2025 budget and proposed tax rate at 7:39 p.m. That brings us to the first financial action item for the evening. First, we have uh consider the budget adoption for 2025 2026 general debt service and food service. And I need a motion of the board of trustees to approve the 2025 budgets for the general fund. The debt service fund food service fund is presented and authorized adjustments in the
073budget when appropriate and consistent with law and policy and authorize the superintendent to review and adjust compensation and positions accordingly. Your motion Mike second Dallas. All in favor? I see none opposed. She passes. That brings us to consider resolution for commitment of fund balance. Yes. So just briefly as I had stated in the one slide, it's about 1.4 million. What'll happen is we're just asking the board to keep the fund balance at 37 million. Um and then any excess, whether that's a little bit more or a little bit less, will go over to the capital fund. Okay. All right. Great. All right. You have a motion. Okay, Pat. Pat, thank you. And Dallas second. All in favor? Seeing none opposed. The motion passes. Jerry, I just like to say that when I was at the
074when I was at the training, I had several people come up to me that I didn't know when they found out I was from Burlesome. They said, "Well, how are you handling the deficit bud budget?" And I said, "We don't have the deficit budget." And I got some really raised eyebrows. So, uh, it was fun to get to. We don't either. I didn't do nanny nanny poo poo, but I wanted to I don't either, Pat. Miss Pat, I don't either. It's funny and, you know, in times of plenty, which honestly I can't remember the last time that was. But in any event, uh you know, people say and then why don't you spend money and why don't you do this and then because when we're in times of not plenty, we can still pay our
075people without going into the hole. So, what do we always say? Balance budget, pay our people, and we're still accomplishing that year in and year out. Awesome. Okay. Uh now we have to consider uh year to date budget amendments in June to share oops sorry too far um the budget. So this is the budget that we have at the beginning of the year and then as the year comes along then we say okay this is what we have in some departments and we do it by function so we can move back and forth and so what I have here is just reclassifying a few things. The big one you'll see is in that function 71 and that's following Gatsby 87 and Gatsby 96, those spidas and those capital leases. So we originally pay for them
076out of function 11 instruction and then as the to follow Gazsby law for the audit we have to move them down into function 71. I know that's a little bit too much for you guys to hear too much about but we have to do follow these uh things. So the expenditures that we have in each function just asking the board to do a budget amendment to make sure that we have plenty of money in there. The other thing in our audit is that Gchedu. They have to make sure that we don't go over and so there's a couple things that are still existing. Our TRS uh for July and August have not been posted obviously. And then we have this Medicare part D which is about 600 to 700,000 that we don't know that number
077and how it'll fall between each function. So we will leave a little bit of funds in there uh to to finish out the rest of the year. So, I'm just asking the board for this reclassification. Okay. And I'm sorry, I'm gonna go. This is general fund food service. Same same type of thing. Just adding a little bit in the revenues. And then um they're uh I'm reducing their total expenditures because they did not do the BHS line. She was thinking that she might be able to do some changes at BHS. She did not. So, we're reducing that. And then for debt service, um just looking at the local and state revenues, um we'll receive a little bit less state revenue, a little bit more local. Um and then the last line you'll see down there
078is the 27.7 million that we paid for that bond easement that we did not plan for at the beginning of the year. But as it came along, then now I'm asking for this budget amendment to make sure we have the correct funds in the right budget. Okay, now I'm done. Sorry. All right, that's great. Thanks, Brenda. Um, I need a motion that the board of trustees approve the budget amendments as presented. Stacy second. Uh, all in favor? I see none opposed. Motion passes. That's it for me. Thank you. Thank you. Next item on the agenda is to consider memorandum of understanding with the educational service center region 11 regarding readingmies with station Dr. Stacy Pierce. Hi good evening uh Dr. Jefferson board I'm here tonight to recommend our partnership with region 11 u to send
079a group of teachers to through readingmies. As you might recall, um we started our big launch in 2021 where we did a large scale in accordance with House Bill 3 and um now we have through attrition and through different teachers moving, we have 11 participants that need to attend. So with your recommendation, we'd like to partner um and send them for this school year. It'll it'll be an 11-month program to region 11. Before we do that, I just have a question real quick. Do teachers have to re I mean after they've had that do they have to be like reertified or Yes. So they'll they'll do their certification and then they can go and with their 150 um continuous hours they can renew it um through the state board. Okay. Okay. Okay, I need a
080motion that the board of trustees approve the memorandum of understanding with region 11 for the readingmies. A motion Pat Dallas second. All in favor, please raise your hand. See none opposed. The motion. Thank you. Each year uh we reorganize the board to elect a president, a vice president, and a secretary. We will begin by receiving nominations for the position of president. In fact, we can do this for all three um nominations for president, vice president, and secretary. Do I hear a motion? I move that we do that we do nominate president also secretary all right so that is to keep the current slate for another year you can second Actually, we really don't need a second for this, which is really interesting, but we will vote and we'll take it because we don't want a
081deficit. So, we're going to take it. Okay. So, all right. Okay. So, uh the nominations were presented by Mike and all in favor. I see none opposed and the motion carries. Okay, that brings us to the end for this evening. This meeting is adjourned at 7:47. Thank you for being here. Is done. Lord have mercy.