001and justice for all. Honor the Texas flag. I aliance to the Texas one state under God. One and indivisible. [Music] Texas. All [Music] righty. Start off with budget workshop. Okay. Just uh let me just say a few things first. Uh I one I appreciate you meeting on short notice. Uh feel like it's important to kind of give you some information. I know we've sent some stuff out in the last couple of uh or last few days uh and it's ever changing. Uh but we do want to get a little direction from you guys as we move forward uh in the next few weeks to kind of see uh you know what some areas that y'all are good with and so we can kind of move forward. Uh we've got some things we want to present
002to you guys tonight. Uh you know let you know kind of where we're at with the deficit budget. Uh what uh some areas that we have already kind of looked at absorbing and and what that amount is. uh we want to provide you the amount that uh we feel like we need to get to or as close as we can uh and then also look at next year what that looks like. So um this is an everchanging uh you know situation but uh you know we we feel like it's important for y'all you guys to hear what we're what we're looking at and uh again thank you for for taking time out of your schedule to be here and so with that I'm going to let Mr. Stoner uh kind of give you a quick
003budget uh information for 2526 and then also talk into what next year will look at look like provided uh if we do certain things you know what what our budget will look like next year. So I'll just start trying to be as efficient as possible. Uh when we spoke last time at our board meeting we gave you kind of two scenarios. We gave you what the House Bill 2 version was, which was was pretty good news, and then what current law was, which was not so great news. Uh, since that meeting, uh, the Senate is said, uh, hold my beer, watch this, and came up with something where it's actually worse than than what current law is. So, uh, I wanted to make sure that in the event that you ever get stopped or asked
004or, you know, what's going on that you guys have some actual, uh, data, information that you can speak to, uh, so you can you answer those questions potentially. We've gone to each car, we've gone, we have started going to each campus to have these kind of discussions. So, the the the information is sort of getting out there. So we just wanted to make sure that you guys are aware of the theuh challenges that we're seeing to date. So next slide. So as Mr. Web said, we were trying to uh inform you guys the current situation and public education legislation uh what it looks like for 2526 and then what it looks like beyond uh 2526. If we did nothing, if we said we're going to ride this thing out, everything will be fine in 2526.
005We could have as much as a $1.4 million deficit and be able to pay the bills and it would be fine. However, that cliff gets really steep in 2627 where we start dancing with potentially not making payroll and and having all sorts of problems. So, the strategy uh is to sort of how how smoothly can we land this plane? Legislative session is uh talking about giving anywhere between 89 billion dollars. if that sort of revenue starts streaming towards schools, uh we won't see any additional revenue until 2030. So, uh the time is now to really see if we can get this thing balanced in the next couple years because we won't see any new additional revenue from the state for for quite some time. Next slide. So, just to give you give you a recap,
006the basic law in the last change in 2019 2020. Uh since then, to date, it's generated about $2.5 million of additional revenue. We've gone out for a couple of golden pennies since then and those golden pennies have generated another $2 million. So we've seen an additional revenue in the last five to six years of about $4.5 million. Since 2019 2020, our payroll costs have increased about $4 million. We've added about 50 new staff members from uh since then. And our starting salary in 2019 2020 was about $44,000. Now it's starting at $50,000. Uh so without really any new additional revenue except for that what I explained we've been really sort of uh trying to bolster our starting salaries and our compensation schedules to to compete with our neighboring districts. On top of that our inflationary
007costs have really been pretty significant over the last uh since the base clot was last changed. Inflationary costs have gone up about $1.4 million in that time frame. As I mentioned before, property and casualty went from $77,000 in 1920 to budgeting is $600,000 in 2526. Utilities, transportation, all that stuff is has gone up quite a bit. Currently, our budget's got another 100,000 or so in 2526 and inflationary costs. So, so you know, we're we're looking for some relief. Next slide. So, if you just kind of did the basics on there, $4.5 million in new revenue, $5.5 million in new expenses. That sort of explains the current deficit budget we're operating under. The Senate substitute that was was talked about uh I guess Tuesday night of last week, uh adds about $1.1 million of additional revenue
008to our schools, which sounds great, but it's mandated with another $1.3 million of expenses. Uh so, we're upside down. money, we're going to tell you how to spend it, right? And and we're not going to give you as much as we're telling you to spend. So that sense substitutes 5.6 million new revenue, but $6.7 million of of new expenses. So that puts us in a situation where we're figuring out how to manage this best, right? So that's the the the uh the situation that we're in. Just kind of historically, you've you guys have seen this slide similar to this before. They have not touched the basic aotment since 2019 2020. It's the longest period of time the basic aotment existed where it hasn't been touched. We felt pretty confident last year that the under the
009deficit budget that we're operating under in 2425 we would see some relief in 2526. Uh currently the house bill substitute has $55 on the basic aotment. And uh it's actually not any new money because they've capped the amount of money that we can generate on our golden pennies. So we were going to get that $55 anyways from our golden pennies, but they've put a ceiling on golden pennies and just shifted that over to the basic aotment. So it's actually no new money in in the basic allotment 25. So real quick 2019 now. Yeah. And that's the longest period of time. Yep. that. Yeah, we're all aware between those days vouchers will flush. So to me high gap for the purpose vouchers. So I just wanted to be clear on that. Yeah. So uh provided I
010think this slide to you before. Uh a lot of folks uh may say well our fund balance is great. Your first report is wonderful. You know our fund balance has $8.2 million in there. It's over 90 days of operating. You guys can cover this deficit with your fund balance. You guys recall fund balance is a number on an audit. It's not necessarily the amount of cash that we have on hand at at any point. So as people pay their taxes in December, January, and February, our bank accounts look great. But when they don't pay taxes or their taxes through that the rest of the year, that number is depleted month over month over month. And and the cash flow looks kind of like this green line that you see here. in August, uh, that big
011steep drop is when we pay our our 8 million plus in recapture. And so from August until November, we're we're we're scraping by, right? Uh, the blue line on that is is an average of our monthly expenses. So, as long as that green line's over that blue line, we're in a shape where we could pay that next month in the event something goes haywire and we don't get any additional money. If you extrapolate this out based on uh this the House Bill substitute, next slide, we see this and this is what's got folks kind of in in a bit of a situation across the state, but in particular here, the blue line there is the monthly expenditures. The red line is zero. That is no money in the bank. So if you go out 18
01219 months from now in November of 26, we were to ask to implement uh the the mandates that the substitute has and do nothing, then we're in a situation in November of 26 where we we're may be looking to to take a loan out. So that drives this conversation of what to do, how to do it. It's uh and and this is relatively, you know, a new situation for us. Uh you know, our like I said before, we're we're really strong financial standing as a school district. So, and we want to stay that way. So, it requires us to figure out how to best land this plane. So, we avoid situations uh in, you know, a year and a half where we're we're looking to figure out where we're going to get money to pay
013payroll. Just as a point of reference, if you look at the next slide, if the original version was passed, we would be in much stronger financial position. Yes, we're still looking at, hey, how we manage this situation, but we're not taking loans out at that point, right? we would be able to more smoothly land the plane uh and and make uh reductions in our budget through attrition or through some some smart movement of of people so that we would be okay. uh it would still require some action for sure, but but it would be much more palatable. But under the current situation, feel like it was super important for you guys to be aware so that when or if you're asked about the situation that the school district's dealing with, you have some background information
014on on uh how to talk through that. I did have a couple of people ask me, I'm sorry to interrupt you. uh even just the basic things like there's I've had a couple of people ask me why don't we go out for a bond and that there certain they don't understand that that's bond because I think it's important that we make that as well bonds can be yeah we could generate more uh M revenues through adopting copper pennies uh but copper pennies there's there's nine of those that we could potentially go out for a bond and and get those rolled into our tax role however 70% % of that money is going back to the state and recapture. We only we only keep 30 cents to the dollar on on those copper pennies. So, we
015already said it, but they saw 2019 what I saw is we needed $1,400. Um the last we discuss or the last discussion on the table was $400. Then it was at $55. Where are we right now? Zero. Zero. Well, it it's $55, but it's a wash because they go Well, the they just released an hour ago, right? There's been some changes. Yes. Since today at 12:00, just in the last 2 hours, probably. Yeah. Of creating a new aotment called a fixed cost aotment. It's $108, but having nothing on the basic aotment. So the 55 will give us 108 but tied to certain things. Well, and that would be in part to cover the TRS portion of the dis. So the district pays 8.25% on all um compensation TRS compensation like the employee pays 8.25, we
016pay 8.25. So we're talking, you know, it would take about half of that. So So yeah. So we're back down to Yes. Yes. basically negative maybe less than it's fluid say right like but no matter what happens it doesn't change the conversation of what we need to do to do that so if if the original house bill passed we would be able to land this plane we wouldn't have this meeting you guys would be none the wiser for the most part but since that board meeting on Monday uh it went from bad to worse with with the substitute We just need to be prepared. It hasn't gone completely, but we do need to be prepared. I agree. Prepared. My question is what is legally allowed for us to be proactive? So everything you're talking about,
017we are the recipient of decisions made in Austin by other representatives that were not in the conversation. Right. Some of us may be quoted on Texas. I mean, we are some of us maybe on the test. You heard that. I heard it. It's great. I mean we have the doctor in the loft part that's um and my question is we have the discussion is in session right now right and yes we have representatives proxler and others right who are there supposed to be representing this but we can wait around or can we legally send an email out to all the constituents that we serve letting them know what's going on tell them to pick up the phone hit their keyboards not on Facebook to complain about something. Go to the people that can actually make
018a difference and tell them what we want at the top. Are we allowed to do that? Districts are doing that. We can we can do that. We should do it tomorrow. Okay. What I don't know, and this is where I need to lean on you, is what do we want to tell them to say? Like what is it that we would expect like we should tell them point blank things go the way they're going, district's going to be bankrupt in November of 2026. And at best, they're going to have to raise taxes to make that. Okay. when I asked we visited with two campuses already about this and and the information that you received on Friday I think was that's what that's and so I asked the teachers since you know not all of them
019understand school finance and they're trying to figure it out I said you know getting something out to the public would that two pager really help the general public understand they said yes they said we felt like that gave us good information it kind of opened our to what we're going to be facing. Now, we could certainly change some of the message to it. I think it's kind of wordy for people that potentially need to reduce it. If you're just Joe taxpayer and you want to know what the heck's going on and maybe you don't even have a kid, but you're definitely not a teacher. I think we need something that attracts that person. Graphics tend to help. Yeah. You're appreciate you educating the staff, right? The staff's going to see that and go, "My job's
020at risk." Yeah. At least the ones that can. That's what I was saying that they paid attention. The There's two constituents. One has kids in the district and one that doesn't. The one that has kids in the district are aligning more generally to teacher to student ratio, all the things, programs, etc. the ones that don't have, and I'm just being black and white for illustrators, what what's going on with my taxes? We we have, if I'm not mistaken, the lowest rate legally allowed in the state of Texas. We can't, if I if we walked in next year and said, "Let's cut our tax rate in half." We can't do that legally. The only we can do to solve this problem is to raise taxes. That might get the attention of some other, right? So, like,
021we got to fight fire with fire. I think they we have a sounding board, you should use it. Okay. To and to your point, the the message is what do they say or what do they do? It's support house bill 2 as originally presented, right? What what the house came up with is something that was doable. That's that right. Not not spectacular by any stretch. That's good though. Do you want your taxes raised? If not, bam. But it's in deficit and not right. and and it's in deficit but with a strategy to get us balanced in the next two years. Yeah, Kevin, I'm in lock step with everything you're saying. But and then I think we should do it, but I think we should manage to set the expectation that the boat has already been
022bought. We know what's going to happen and it has been bought. I will I will say this, people have been hammering all the lawmakers about this. They have listened because and I'm not saying I agree with it but they have changed things and they said that this this other a lotment that they're putting is for uh fixed cost. So they've heard the people complain about inflationary cost but what they're doing they're putting the streams to the dollars and say you can only use it for this this and this. Not as we see as we do. There's no local control. Still better than that unless it still needs to pay attention without eating mandates. The vote has been bought like it is whatever% was 400. Huh? Wasn't 1400 was it? No, it was 3005. We need
0231400 in order to be able which inflationarily if if it were I don't know if that's a word but I used it. If if if the base a lotment was to be moved with inflationary costs, then it would be $1,400, but it it's $39. But I we have the lowest tax rate. We're able to collect well more than we could possibly that we need for this school district. We essentially get no funding in Texas. They take our money and then tell us what we can keep. And they're not telling us we can keep it. Right. when I visit, which is what I mean just when I visit Campbell's office and uh central bank office, I told him, I said, you know, we're adopting a deficit budget and we're looking to have to absorb positions, possibly
024cut positions over the next two years. And but yet you're taking $8 million away from us. You give us 8 million, you won't hear from us, you know, and of course it just Yes, sir. Mr. Well, I'll I'll let our, you know, senator know this and who knows, you know, toward any of this, senator. So, just to put a ball, I don't, you know, I don't want to to labor this, but I wanted you guys to have some ammunition to in the event that you get stopped or asked that you have some sort of some dialogue that you can share with your constituents to uh illustrate where we are as a as a school district. So Kevin, I we'll we'll get something out this week, end of this week. When are this was the I
025mean get start working on it tomorrow and finally I heard about 30 minutes ago that it's going to head to conference committee. So this has to be hashed out. I mean June 2nd's the really end, but I mean May 30th is, you know, they've still got to get votes, right? So conference committee is five members from each chamber appointed by U speaker and the lieutenant governor. Um I mean they've done a lot of things without people really knowing what's happening anyway, you know, and so there may already be a conference committee, you know, uh but I mean we're a few days out from what happens next, you know, um it still needs to go to a Senate vote. So you feel confident about that. So we will get something we'll start working on that you
026get that message out. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I mean less is more at least I think in terms of because so much of this is changing, you know. So I think real basic information of like here's what we need. We're not getting it. If you're not happy about that, here's a number to call. Yeah. Cuz right now the members of this community that turn on KX are hearing that funding is going Oh, historic funding. Historic funding. Yeah. And so they're great and then they're like, "What the hell are these board members doing when they see we're in a negative or deficit budget?" Okay, we just need to crank draw to the line and connect the dots. All right. Um so just to let you know, you know, kind of just move moving forward. Uh we met
027with the principles uh last week to, you know, let them know kind of what we're looking at. uh to their credit uh we all sat down as a group and started looking at uh different areas that we could absorb uh as positions leave. You know, can we move this person over here, absorb this position, move this one over there? And so the principal really stepped up uh and they're still looking uh you know, we have uh we have absorbed uh a lot of salaries right now, a lot of money. Uh we're right now we're at about uh $600,000 that we've found ways that we can absorb through attrition and and you know reorganizing some uh some different areas. Um and you know through reduction of coaching stipens, coaching uh positions uh you know if if
028a office staff leaves, we we're going to rearrange what that looks like to absorb that position. And so we've absorbed about right at $600,000 um to get where we feel like we can have a good spot for this year and but next year's deficit be manageable. We need about another 100,000 and you know and and people are still you know we still have a few people that may resign and if certain people resign then we will look to absorb those positions. So if we can get close to that 2 and a half% then that makes next year a lot easier. But the good thing about next year is we have a full year to look at programs to look at what are the areas that we can reduce uh without really affecting uh the instruction
029or or you know the instruction side uh you know make sure that's a priority. But it does give us a year uh you know runway to change those uh make those decisions for for the 206 27 school year. So uh the other thing that we you know I want to get some direction on or we do u is you know salaries uh you know as of noon today only teachers were getting the pay raise. Okay, it was a $10,000 raise from five to 30 and then from three to five was getting a $5,000 raise and 0 to two was getting zero. So, but now that's changed to where it's 8 and five, I mean 8 8 and three. Uh, at noon today, uh, counselors and nurses who typically are on the teacher pay scale are
030not included in that raise. So, they would not get a raise. All of our support staff, hourly folks, administrators, uh, front office staff, they would not be getting a raise in this new bill. Uh, and so we want some direction is do do we want to try to provide all of our staff raises this year because next year we don't know if we're going to be able to afford and the staff is not covered in whatever bill passes, right? Okay. What is the dollar impact for that? I I will say well Jason support staff for support staff if we gave a support about $20,000 for every 25 cents on support staff on and and this number correct me if I'm wrong includes uh salary increases for everybody as of right now. So what the budget
031that you're seeing right now, the deficit that you're the step one has has to raise for everybody in there at a certain and they won't get the step one because of what the state is putting in that we will have hard time especially for next year you know increase its salary. So even doing a step next year that's what we're saying to frontload it to then have to keep everything state's giving him this money. You figure if you cut 700 this year and 700 next year like you're, you know, like you're leaving yourself less wiggle room to make cuts. So that would be one that would be easy to take off the list, right? God bless. The salary increases is included in this number, right? But to your to your question to provide a step
032raise, I'm in the new situation would be about $140,000 for the teaching staff. So for next year 2627 we didn't provide that would be a cost savings of $145,000 for teachers in 2627 but they'll be $10,000 richer a year from this year whatever comes in to be right for a round number for my brain today. Yeah. And so and then we may walk away with no bill. There's that's still always a possibility, right? Still got listening to it. So, you know, like in the event that that happens, you know, like just know. So, we just want direction. Do do we keep the pay raise in the budget as is right now and move forward with that or is that something we want to to look at? Well, we I don't think that we can make
033a decision till we know exactly what the bill is going to be passed or not passed. Very straight. Yeah. Are y'all good with us keeping the rage in there until further notice? Yes. Yes. Yes. Okay. That's the intent. Was that That's the intent, right? Yeah. Until the bill passes, we don't know. I mean, we're all kind of in limbo right now. This is more about what we know we can do in the event that it's the worst case scenario in my mind. That's how I'm looking at it. So that when it happens, we've already planned for worst case scenario, right? And I'm not going to feel bad about I mean, the state's going to potentially give them something. So us not giving them step raises, they're getting something. the state, but I would I personally
034would want to compensate the ones that aren't being included in that. We talked about that zero, one, and two. Yeah. Because I don't I mean, this district runs on people who they're the blue. I mean, yes. Yeah. That's my personal opinion, but So, with us having pay raises in the budget, I mean, the teachers, I'm making an assumption here that they understand. It's just like they don't get like if we've got 3% in there, they don't get that on top of Right. Right. from the state. Yeah. We talked about structuring in our pay scale to be clear that it's 89th legislature. So, we're not going to bump the entire pay scale that amount because it's it's subject to future appropriation. So, you are really potentially putting yourself in a pretty bad situation if you actually
035build it in. So putting having our pay scale and then a 89th legislative appropriation tag next to it. Yeah, that's a good idea. Protect the district for next legis because they could approve it but then in three four five years they can save money and then if it's in your schedule districts are stuck to it. So you don't want to get you don't get you don't get that infusion of money you know. So yes, which is a million 1.1 1. Yeah. So it' be 1.2 million. We would have to find the year that they did. So So uh so let me ask a really stupid question because I have to wrap my brain around it. Regardless of whatever bill passes, does it is it going to is that what you're asking is does it need
036to immediately affect the budget that's in place right now or are we talking about the one for the next year? Right now the 25. So if they say we're giving them $10,000 that we need to take $10,000 out the step raises out right of the existing budget and put the 89th legislature in there for 2526 but I mean but the question would be like what about hourly do we still want to try to maintain I think we looks like everybody's nodding everybody is not interested in not giving people unless y'all leave it in there until you have to take that's what I'm saying I just ask if it affects this budget that we need to make that adjustment right now or it's the next cuz those trend line things show that's that's all with the
037current proposed increases in there right now. Yeah. Yeah. That's what I mean you could you could I mean I did say it was a stupid question. So making sure I understand. You know we're we're you know about $100,000 short right now. you know, if we want to meet that two and a half percent, uh, which gives us a a real good shot of making those cuts for next year to be balanced and so we can have payroll on November. You know, if you notice, November 26 is when we could have negative no money to pay our employees. Yeah. So, even though we're giving $8 million, does that as far as reserves? Does that mean our reserves go to zero? Zero. Okay. So based on that, I know we are obligated to hold X amount to
038cover for X amount of days. What does that look like? What's the impact? And are we held accountable for that? Is there first ratings will still be a 10 because it's at the end of the year end number because once collection starts coming back in, they start going back up. Okay. See, we don't we don't really receive hardly any tax money. What? August or I guess September, October, November. So, we're not going to be dinged on reserves because of timing is what I'm hearing. Is that correct? You have to have over 60 and you would have uh 75.57, but not in money in the bank. Of course. Yeah. There's going to be numbers up there. Yeah. Yeah. That's the idea of the audit, right? like a fund balance is the number one audit that generates
039these days in terms of actual cash flow. So we're talking worst case when things go south and since it is just on paper not bank another co happens are we dead are we dead in the water we have no you know what I'm saying we wouldn't be in good shape we talked about that I mean some big expense you know like it definitely doesn't leave us well well let's just say hailtorm hits I mean our deduction is one 1% You had to have done it% probably. There's a reason why they have an obligation for us to hold X amount. So, we're not the only ones in this situation. No, not at all. Everybody's and and you know, and that's what I've asked our our senator's office. can you provide me the number of school districts
040that you've talked to that does not support hospital 2 and they couldn't go. Now I would think if I'm representing group I'm going to call each one of them say hey how does this affect you guys and they and they the the aid could not give me one if they had contacted everybody or what they had said. So when I spoke to Senator Campbell's office, I got the impression it didn't matter. Yeah. I mean, that's me. That's my takeway. The conversation I had with the staffer that I had. Yeah. They It's like the senator doesn't know what she's going how she's going to vote on it. But I got the impression it didn't matter what I said or what the impact it was going to be on our district had no relevance. Y and the
041person I spoke with. And then here's the other thing that we've talked about. You know, over the last several years, we have given raises every year and not put a lot in the fund balance because I'm a believer if you're putting million dollars back, you're not really providing the kids what they they need. And so we've been putting one year what $66,000 back. One year it was 285. I think there was one year that when the ESSER came in, we put back about $600,000, but a lot of that was ESSER money. But over the last three or four, five years, we had put back a lot of money. And so, we could have hoarded that money, a million dollars a year, and had a $14 million fund balance, and we wouldn't be in as bad
042a shape as we are. But we have tried to provide teachers with with raises and whatnot. And so by trying to give to our teachers which they deserve and they deserve every penny because teachers don't make enough uh it has made our fund balance not as as big as what could have been. We do get dinged if we have too much in our fund balance as well. So there is still you know I mean there's we're we're in that position where we get 10 out of 10. So financially our ratings are are pretty pretty good but ratings have nothing to do with right with actual money. So, like I said, those are some things, you know, um as we get into next year, there could be some uh programs program changes. Um you know, don't
043know what that will look like. Uh but but some of our programs will have to change in order for us to make that $700,000 mark again next year. So, as of right now, we don't know any program that impacted just because you're going through the analysis phase. Right now, we're still looking at some of those. Uh I know the Susie and Tina's been talking with the principles on what some of those will look like. And um you know, and some could change. Now, the I mean, kids will still be getting the instruction, but what that looks like could change. The model could change. Tina and Susie kind of that should be in that memo. something about we've already had an emergency meeting, but if it doesn't, you know, it was already I think House Bill
0442 as originally proposed was less than optimal, but at least it was a good start and to say that we, you know, would inevitably like many schools have to cut some program. You don't have to say which ones they are, but I think that the people that are going to call around here are going to be the parents um and people that are, you know, active in general. I think I think we're Don't let them make that as something stated. Yeah, we're going to have to make cuts. Well, I think we're at a hard line. I think we should start making statements with potential potentially impacting this program and they mount the I think to Kevin's point open communication lines of communications. We're too late, not that we're too late, we're too late. But we
045need parents to know going into next voting season, whenever that is, understand who your supposed representative representative is to make a decision on how you're going to move forward on that. Yeah, we thought we knew who our choice was to they were going to do right by us. I mean, it's it's not a I mean, just cuz you don't understand school finance doesn't mean you're not a dummy, right? Like it's complex and people see their tax bills go up. Yeah. and they see that number going to LDS and it's the biggest skyrocket. It's the biggest one of the bunch and they're like, man, that's our school district must be swimming. But I I really they just don't get that. We sent millions to hospitals and then what does get sent back to allowed to keep
046is getting more and more uh mandated how we have to spend it and it's not going as fast as inflation has. Now, a couple of examples. Our insurance bill from X to Y from 2012 to today or 2015 to today. People be shocked. Yeah. To see what we spend. There's still a lot of people in this community that remember the last time we had to go through this. The last time the legislature So when that message is going, we tell people how much we're sending back to the state. We can. Yeah. I still think that's worth reminding people. For those that don't have kids in the district. Well, we also give that local op, you know, the low heat that low heat. We could remove that. That's another potential that would but it would be
0472728. Yes. Before we and yeah, I mean that but that is an extra 20%. And you know when I presented that uh in the bond uh uh meetings that I had, there were a few people realized how much that meant on their There's a lot of people that didn't even realize that we did that when they said 20% off the top. Yeah. One I remember one gentleman super he that's huge. It is. Yeah. And again, and I know I'm beating a dead horse, but we are going to be held accountable in the court of public opinion by the decisions people in Austin make, not last. The decisions we make, and anybody listening to the recording, the decisions we make are our tax rate and our budget adoption. Our tax rate is the lowest it's allowed
048to be by law. We can't make it any lower. we can raise it and we're going to be f faced with tough decisions if we have to raise it or let our kids in this district go without going to be a really tough decision for this group do what's right by the kids not by the community by the students and that might mean raising taxes if we can't collect and march not march literally get and to your point the lowest tax rate and we collect in their taxes. $8 million more than we need. Let's call it $7.5 million to keep more than we would need to run the school district without ever talking to us again. But we have to send that all back to the state and and actually it's 8 million. So it's
049that's what created the deficit. It's almost probably for anywhere between 40 and 50 million since 2019. Yeah. Yeah. I just don't know. our teachers would be extremely fairly well, much better compensated, right? Like this is um well, my impression when I spoke with in the senator's office is that they're tired of hearing from us. So, I think this is a good idea. Taxpayers, they want to hear from taxpayers. We are, but we're the ones that are doing all the complaining. I I did see on Senator Kraton's Facebook page two two days ago. He put something out. Let let me know. Let us know option one or option two. I think option two was the house version. Option one was the substitute deal. Wow. It was 296 and I didn't go through all 296 but as
050I was thumbming through it was all go option two. Option two. They had already voted it out by the way. Yeah. He said he wanted to hear from us or hear from after right after. So, but so anyway, well, like I said, I wanted you guys to kind of know where we're at, what we're looking at. Uh, and this is just not a one-year issue. It could be a two, three, or four because what they're going to say in the next legislative session is we gave you the biggest dollar infusion in the history of Texas, and you're wanting more money. you know, how can you want more money when we gave you 8 billion or maybe eight and a half billion dollars into public ed? And so we're like Jason said earlier, we're looking at
051this being a a four-year issue possibly, not just a this year or next year because we really unless things change, you know, if positions are over or if uh incumbents are defeated and you know, something changes, then yeah, it could be come back up. But if the current landscape stays the way it is, then chances are we won't see a lot. It's premandated destruction of the public education system is what it is simply by those that are up there right now. Yeah. Our constituents should be mad as hell. They should there's there's a lot of disinformation though. So we read like biggest infusion of money into public. Well, what's there to be mad about? Mainstream media crap. Yeah. for everything that says Texas not it's combat but it's combating that narrative of and being you
052know like not being inflammatory or you know accusatory just being honest right of like okay maybe you are spending the most you've ever spent but here's our reality right like so both can be true right because you waited 5 years before you gave us a care yeah and to be honest I mean so this is now technically not an increase on the basic a lotment again for another bienium, you know, and so we're we'd be sitting at 6160 from 2019 till 27 28. Yeah. And and I'll kind of add this uh I was reading an article. One superintendent, I said this to the group, and I may have told some of y'all this, that one superintendent says, is is I think his quote was, "Uh, I never dreamed that I'd be in a position to
053have to lay off 10 teachers to implement a $8 billion increase." Yeah. And that is so true. You know, I mean, we're having to absorb positions. even though we're getting a, you know, infusion of money, we're still having a a poor position to to make, you know, to make it work. So, and that's not even a balanced budget. That's the lesson. Well, they made the whole the whole finance equation so complicated that it's hard to to push back on when they just say, "We've given them the most money we've ever given them. That's simple." Mhm. When you try to explain it to somebody in reality, it's like they look at you like they're speaking Chinese. Yeah. How can you How can you be in a deficit? They're spending so much money. There's still quite a
054few number of people out here that don't even understand what Robin Hood is. Not to not to be derogatory. It's just it doesn't they don't know. It doesn't citizens out here. And that's that's not a shock. Just it's so complicated. Yeah. Yeah. And a bill is just something they pay. And then they pay, they pay, they pay. And finally, unless we get the message out, it's going to be Well, when they changed the chapter too, remember they said chapter 41 went away. I read about it. They just changed the chapter number. So guys, is there any other questions or direction or Kevin, we've got your, you know, u agree with you 100%. get something out to the to the taxpayers uh to the parents and and let them know what's going on. Is there any
055other questions or comments that you may have about this? And like say this could, you know, the last board meeting we had on Monday night, you know, we were thinking this was the direction it was going to go. And then I think uh Tuesday night, it changed completely. You know, it went to the uh Senate substitute bill and it it changed our output completely. And so that's why I sent, you know, said, "Hey, I need to at least meet y'all get to know, you know, know what what we're talking about." Also, let the public hear, you know, if anybody's listening on on our uh broadcast. And also want to kind of talk about the raises and um you know, kind of get some direction. So, any other questions or comments? Uh I I would like
056to go into close session just for a few minutes maybe. Um president if we maybe go in. Are you asking me? Cuz if you're asking me again any any other comments or questions? I would just keep looking at various ways to possibly save money. Yeah. And we will and also I would be fighting it because the you know the right consequences aren't. I think it will make a big difference to have community members do it. I do think they're tired of hearing from trustees in school administration. They're for sure tired of hearing from me. Oh, I have no doubt, girls. Yeah. They don't want to talk. They They don't want to talk to somebody that knows what knows what it Yeah. that knows what they're doing because even when we call them, they want to
057come back and say, "We're giving Jake." They've got a card sitting in front of the person that answers the party. Say this. Say this. They get So they get a readout. Senators get a readout every morning of how many phone calls they got in what categories were they yes or no. I mean so you're a number but you know a little higher. Our our teachers we've met with uh middle school and elementary so far with that scheduled and moving forward. They have been very receptive, uh, very, uh, understanding of where we're at and they're also a little bit upset that those other folks aren't getting anything from the states, you know, and they know the paras hourly folks that they're the glue. They they they are a huge part of our success in the district.
058They keep things running. They they're so valuable. Yeah. I don't think anybody on this board would have No, I agree. But but our teachers have they were really upset when they heard that. And then nurses and counselors. Well, I think that's why we're seeing the change today. I think they underestimated the how teachers feel about their their co-workers, right? They were thinking teachers are going to be satisfied because we're taking care of them. But I think they would they didn't anticipate that teachers would be upset about you not taking care of all of these other people who I couldn't do this without, right? And so that's why the change today. Yeah. Yeah. So we last thing I'll say, we adopted a deficit budget of $950,000 in 2420 2425. We're still dealing with that number. So
059when we're talking about $700,000 worth of cuts, that would put us at $250,000 deficit, you know, $200,000 deficit right now, right? So like we're not out of the woods. And then you have the inflationary cost of 2526 that that come along with this. So in no scenario at this point do I foresee us being balanced in 2526. I I do foresee us having a chance of being balanced in 2627. And it's a lot smoother to land that plane over the course of two years than it is saying let's do nothing now and then we'll have to deal with potentially 1.5.6 $6 million deficit to get off the books because we're not going to see any more money until 2030. So, we got to get this thing taken care of and then that's when it becomes
060disastrous for the kids here. So, I think this is probably the the most fiscally responsible way of doing it and also the least impact that we'll have on kids. So, if we need to start I mean trying to land them like through attrition. Do you take every time that someone's attritted that you're we're looking or may we're looking at right that position. I mean, you know, if you've got if you I'm just going to say math 120 um first graders and you have six teachers with less 20. Let's just say the number the limit was 20 and we lost two. We would still need to hire two back, but we may not have need to hire that seventh one if we got to 21 in each class. We wouldn't hire the seventh one, you know.
061So you can still get waiverss for 5 lines. You can you can and and to be honest like again if you take 700,000 out this year you're looking at like enrichment and supplemental things which means next year 700,000 is going to be really hard to not impact things like class size like offerings you know and that should go in the short letter call to action of class size program cuts. Well, obviously prior in the prioritization, right? Like we want that to be the last, but it can't be guaranteed, right, at this point. Like that cuz that's also like, you know, look at we'll look at program changes, you know, that gives us a year cuz that's a process, right? Like um but at the end of the day to get us across the finish line,
062I mean, what do we say? Like it's going to hurt. We have to figure out where we want it to hurt, right? I mean, there's just no way around that at this point. and we'll look to you to understand when it really starts impacting the core of our quality of education. Right? We know you're going to have to make cuts. We know we're going to have to make cuts. But when is it when we start going in the muscle when we start chopping off limbs and we should, to Kevin's point, we should start propagating that information out so that they're aware of my kids now being impacted quality of education wise because of this. Yeah, when it starts affecting programs that's near and dear to their kids' heart and their hearts, that's when they'll they'll
063really start voicing their concerns. And so, um, but anyway, any any other comments or questions? Like say, I appreciate y'all uh being here. I felt like it was important to get this this information out, get a little get some direction uh give y'all a full understanding and uh and so we will start working on that um that one pager and and get it out to the community uh quick as we can and you know try to let it be uh less is better to some degree. you know, if you make it too long, people, you know, but try to have it short and sweet to the point and and let them know what's happening and then we'll we'll keep monitoring what the, you know, legislative sessions are or lawmakers are doing. So, all right. All
064right. All righty. Uh, I got 653. Except you want to go to close session,