001Just hoping nothing happens. Okay. [Music] change your approach. [Music] I'll take a picture. [Music] Yeah, we Nature. Ladies and gentlemen, it's 6 pm June the 5th, 2025. At this time, I'll call the meeting to order. And if everybody please rise for the prayer and the pledge. Our heavenly father, we come to you tonight giving thanks that we have to serve on this board for Wharton Independent School District. We ask you to bless the students, the citizens, and the administration uh for the efforts that they make for the betterment of our community. We ask you to watch over and guide us, direct us in all the decisions that we make that they might be pleasing in thy sight. We pray these things in Christ's name. Amen. Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United
002States of America and to the republic for which it stands nation under God indivisible and justice for all of the flag. contract to maintain professionalism. Honor the golden rule and one another give adequate time for open discussion by everyone's division and motto come prepared to focus on the agenda respectful deliverance please. Is there anyone here to make a public appearance? No. If not we will move to the budget workshop item number four of trustees and this please everyone. Um so first um everyone should have the budget workshop paperwork in your packets this evening. Um hopefully everyone's had a chance to review. Um so we'll go over that basic information and then I have some notes to go over as well. Um so at this time our maintenance and operation budget um our estimates for 2526,
003our estimated expenses are $23.4 million and our estimated revenue is $21.65 million. Our estimated deficit for 2526 is $1.75 million. Um our budget is based is built on our average daily attendance of 1594 students. Um that is students in the seat um during second period at attendance. Um our estimated payroll for 2526 is $18.34 million. That is 85% of our revenue projections for 2526. Uh that is a 10% decrease from 20 uh 2425. So from this fiscal year to next fiscal year u it has been decreased by 10%. Um our HB2 uh salary increase at this time is an estimated $1.5 million uh for teachers and the estimated revenue is $2 million. This also includes the state state mandated step increase and an additional revenue of $500,000. Our estimated chapter 313 onetime payment for this
004year is going to be $679,000. Um our payroll estimated reductions for 2526 is $800,000. So we've reduced the payroll by $800,000 for this coming fiscal year. Our operations estimate reduction is uh roughly $200,000. So we have u reduced our operations by $200,000 for 252. So before we move on to the other two budgets, um I'll go over some notes for you guys. Um so uh House Bill Two, we are still in uh lingo with that right now. We're still waiting on a lot of information. So, it's a lot of estimates. Um, so for districts with fewer than 5,000 students, which that would be Wharton ISC, um, they're estimating a $4,000 increase for teachers uh, for 3 to four years of experience, $8,000 for teachers with five plus years of experience. Details on a teacher are
005not yet defined yet. Um, the funding is based on ADA. Wharton ISD figures are based on 2425. The basic aotment per student is increasing from $6,160 to $6,215, which is a $55 increase for ADA. At this point in time, they are saying the teacher retention aotment is permanent. So, we will get that revenue every year moving forward. Um, the House Bill 2 is a rough estimate. There are a lot of details that are not yet defined. There are some small aotments that can be used for non-eing staff and some overhead cost, but those have not been defined yet either on how we would be using those. This bill has been signed by Governor Abbott, but the last step in the process is to ensure that it still becomes law. Uh we expect TEA to release
006more information on the implementation and days and weeks for that. So our basic assumptions for the budget for next year. Uh the budget is based on prior year law and rough estimates of the new law that was signed yesterday. Property values are estimates at this time that we received from the CAP office. They are not certified yet. Budgeted bills on our 2425 average daily attendant. We will have no capital outlay expenditures for next year. onetime payment of chapter 313 $679,000. And then of course we talked before about Mr. Odawali making salary adjustments and removing the positions of roughly $800,000 and maintenance and operation of estimated $200,000 reduction. Do you have any questions on the general subject? Yes, ma'am. Um, as you're aware, the legislative bud budget board report regarding WISD indicated that we were spending
0076.3% of our budget toward administration. How much have we, and I realize we've got till the end of the month before we're going to be able to get it. Yes. board specific, but how much have we been able to reduce that toward 3%. So, administrative at this time, we have reduced it roughly $170,000 this year for next year. Okay. Um I don't have a a percentage at this time because obviously everything right now is still estimates until we adopt the budget. And then even after we adopt the budget, depending on what happens with House Bill 2, we may even have to bring the budget back for an amendment. The other question that I've got is I know that with Mr. photoali and cabinet and your help. We reviewed about 75 contracts that independent school district
008had and identified contracts that either never were utilized but we were paying for or contracts that we could actually cancel and live without. Correct. How much were you all able to project in savings just from that? I believe it was a h 100,000. Mr. Odawali, that's just correct. Yes, 100,000. Of course, that is grant funds that do pay for most of those um things that we cut, but that will open back up those grants to be able to utilize them for different student things now moving forward. Okay, Cheryl, one last thing. of this I believe is our last year utilizing Carnegie. Is that correct? That would be a curriculum and instruction question. Carnegie on the elementary side because we're not going to which one is it that will still be in effect one year. Okay.
009High school. Yes. All high school excluding probably for one will still be using you are using now the state has not adopted right the blue for secondary education maybe by next year effective probably 26 27 school year then we'll have blue for the high school okay that contract is what 78,000 785,000 for all from kinder to sixth grade and book and we just got delivery of all the books just money. Cheryl, thank you. Any more questions on the general fund? One one question just for background information. When when is uh chapter 3 that'll be credited to our uh January of each year. So we just received the payments in January of 2025 for 2425 and then we will receive the addition the payments for 2526 in January of 2026. So 313 basically follows the same
010formula as property taxes does right in that same correct. They finalize everything in December and they mail us the check in January. We should have it by January 31st. Okay. Yes. Good. Thank you. Any other questions for the general funds? Okay. So, then we'll move over to debt service, which should be your second page there. Um, debt service is pretty basic. Um, it's based on 2425 law at this time. Um, so our expenses for 2526 or $4.4 million. Our estimated revenue at this time is $6.8 million with a positive uh revenue balance of $2.3 million. Now, of course, just remember that that is 2324 I mean 2425 law and there uh that could change moving into 2526 where we would have to lower our debt service rates um because we do not have excess rate
011then unless we're uh unless you're the one that we're paying off you know off top what the percentage is on those not off the top of my head I do not Would you mind checking It was taking out long enough to go that I think this is pretty low and I would like that just in case one of these days our examiners go back and yes I would find that out and get that information. Okay, any question any other questions on that service? Okay, so we'll move on to the food service budget. So for 2526, our estimated food service budget is going to be $1.5 million. Our estimated revenue is $1.4 million. So for food service, there will be an estimated deficit of a little over $86,000, but as you can see, I have an
012asterk there. Food service has a positive fund balance currently and according to TDA guidelines, you must spend the excess fund balance down to three months worth of operating expenses. So we are up well above uh three months in food service. So carrying a deficit next year for food service is what CDA is going to require us to to to spend down that excess fund. So any other questions for food service? Okay. Um any other questions for the budget for 2526 that I may not have answered or that you may have? No. more than just compliment to both you and the administration for incredible efforts in getting these numbers under control. Yes, sir. Well, that will conclude um the budget workshop for today. Uh and now we can move on. That's great. So, um in your
013packet, these are action items, so we will have to vote on each one of these tonight. Um the first one, um is our tag risk management renewal for 2526. Um if you see in your paperwork, um I have listed out all of the expenses for um all of our liability, physical liability, school liability, and privacy information security. Um, this is a total of $925,590. This is a decrease from this school year for 24 for 2526 there was a 0.0764% decrease in the insurance payment. Um, so that's $76,584. So last year we were paying a little over $1 million and so this is a decrease for moving forward to 25.6. Cheryl, I just happen to note this. I know when Daryl came through and we had tremendous damage at the school, especially this high school, um
014I believe FEMA covered a fair amount of that, didn't it? Correct. Yes. Okay. So, what I'm noticing here, all perils except weather perils. have do we count on we have flood insurance um separate yes correct this is this is yeah this is not the flood insurance that will come later in the year we will bring that to the board in August I believe or September any other questions for you ladies and gentlemen at this time I would entertain a motion to um approve approve the renewal of the district risk management all superintendent. You have thoughts. Yes, please. At this time, I recommend that the board approve the renewal of TB insurance as presented. Make the motion to approve the tax. Miss Ward makes the motion second by Mr. Spear. All in favor indicate by saying
015I. I. All opposed. That motion passes unanimously. At this time called president, we're going to go to block head start option manager. Um so tonight I bring back the 2526U for upr um between upbringing headart board and I um I know that at the last board meeting we had some questions about funding. Um we had to go back to meet with um upbringing. We got some more clarification. I met with them a couple more times about funding and um they have uh in the you will see that they have uh made our total allowable reimbursement $157,428. This is going to include 50% of the teacher salaries and their benefits the district pays on their behalf. This will also include 100% of the paraprofessional salary and 100% of their benefits the district pays on their behalf.
016This will also include uh sub reimbursement. Um, board, I don't know if you're aware of this or not. Uh, the under the previous arrangement, we were getting no reimbursement whatsoever and Molly and Cheryl have arranged now. Sir, you might want to explain it in more detail what the contract entails, but the main thing I wanted to point out is all the expenses we incurred for this past year are going to be paid. We are I have gone in for April of 25 and I have requested reimbursement for all of the subs and um the benefits that are paid on behalf of the district according to the 5100% for teachers and para I will do the same for May. May's invoice is not due until June 10th. So I will do the same for May. I
017will do our normal reimbursement uh our in normal invoice plus adding all of the subs for May and the benefits the district pays on behalf of those employees according to the 5100%. Um we are I am in constant communication with upbringing. Um we are discussing the seven months prior to April because their fiscal year ends in March. Um their fiscal year runs a little different than ours. Theirs is April to March. So theirs ended in March of 25. So I am in communication with them. They are taking that to their board to see if they can they can make some type of amendment to come back to pay those expenses for the last seven months as well. We have not gotten a definite answer yet, but we are working towards trying to get an answer
018and trying to get reimbursement for those seven months. And if the board remembers during the last meeting, the board mandated us to go into a discussion with them. We did meet with the upbringing um um headship and then went into negotiation that all we are saying is that head start will continue but the financial burden on our side as two entities coming together to form a partnership is too heavy and then they agreed and that is how we came up to this. So they're going to reimburse us moving forward when the school new school year starts if Mr. always have sent monthly. Miss Huba will be giving them the reimbursement and invoices and we will be getting our money due to whatever we spend for the solar $157,000 is too much money to deliver on
019the table. So we have to know how it's worth. Um I do have a question. So that's no guarantee until their board approves that we're going to get the reimbursement for the prior seven months. But moving forward we will from this date forward from April and 2025. Moving forward we will. They are just trying to get board approval to go back the prior seven months to reimburse us for this. county. That's not a guaranteed at the last meeting when we were talking to address the general meeting invite to be present so that everybody could speak up on you know whatever their ideas or their situation or whatever it is that they wanted to voice their opinion of them. So, I was wondering if we could tag them so everybody spread it. And just so I
020can give you a little information on that. Um, the reason we brought it back today to the special meeting is because we have six employees who are in that in that area and we needed to get a board approval if we were going to be offering them a contract for next year. So that was six employees who were in lingo because we could not tell them if we were going to offer them a contract for next year or not. Okay. So that's why we brought it back as quick as we could. Um so that way we were able to reach out to those employees and let them know what the board decided on the program. [Music] But we didn't want to leave those six employees just in lingo waiting to know if they had a
021job for next year, but we were trying to get it back as quick as possible um to try to get approval. Okay, I understand. I just uh speak to Mr. O that I was told that we had until June the 27th for them to redo their contract or update their They had until June 27th to get out of their contract. Okay. Well, yeah. Get out. Yeah. Superintendent recommendation. Yes, please. President, board of trustees. I recommend that the board approve the for head start as presented. Is there a motion for approval? I move. Mr. Spear makes motion. I second the motion. All in favor indicate by saying I. I. I. All opposed. Two. Did you put the favor? Uh 32. Motion passes. At this time I go to folks. Um, so we are bringing to the
022board, uh, normally we bring incentives to the board, um, when when they are over $50,000, but with food service, um, when we're making a purchase, we have to get, um, the purchase approved by CDA first and then we have to bring it to the board for approval, um, before we can move forward with those purchases. So in your packet um you have information on a new system for the food for the food service department. Um this is their uh like serving system. It's for inventory. It's for checking in with students. It's for uh reimbursement things like that. Um it's completely web based uh cloud storage. There are no ser server no maintenance required. Um can access anywhere at any time. So if our food service director happens to not be in her office, she happens
023to be on another campus and she needs to access another campus or another system, another part of the system, she can access it from anywhere that she's at because of it being a cloud-based. Um it's easy to navigate. There's no in no internet, no problem. The system will still work and then when the internet comes back up, then it will start sending all the information. Um once the internet returns uh it utilizes our counting and claiming of students uh our menu planning we can use it for menu planning. We can use it for our production records and our warehouse inventory. Um there's 247 technical support and uh my school bucks for parents to add money to their children's accounts. Um and they can set limits to their student spending if they would like um on
024on this program. So, if you only want the student to spend a couple dollars a day, you can set that limit and then they can't spend all their money in in one day. Um, so that's also an option that our current system does not offer. Um, our current system is system designs. I mean, it does not offer near as many things this new system offers. Um, and the the the uh plus on that is the no internet. you know, when we have bad weather and our internet goes down, they can't do anything but handwrite uh the students names down on a paper and then have to go back in and manually enter them all in. I do want to also mention that our presence system that we use uses our server. It's a dedicated server
025for that. So, if we go this, which would be a lot better for for us and it's actually cheaper, but we can use that server for something else instead of having to purchase something. So, it's it's actually a win-win for us and we've done a lot of research on the system. Um, our food service director has done a lot of research on this system um prior to taking and taking it to CDA. The other thing that I hope I'm correctly is legislating budget board had noted the fact that we needed to update and particular thing. So, we'll be checking another box for completion by doing this. So, yes. Any other questions for the food service system? Um the cost on the system is $36,956, but that will be covered under the food service budget. And
026the other thing is it will drop next year because we're not buying the equipment. Correct. I'd like to make the motion to approve [Music] All right. Okay. The motion's been made and second it all in favor indicate by saying I. All opposed. Motion passes. And is there any other business need before the floor? If not, is there a motion for dismissal? on view by all in favor by saying I. All opposed. Please take a look.