001Welcome everyone to the meeting of the Canyon's Board of Education. Today is August 5th, 2025 and we're meeting at the district office located at 936 South 300 East. The first item on the agenda is to approve the agenda for tonight. So, can I have a motion to approve the agenda? I approve. I make a motion to approve the agenda tonight. Okay, great. Is there a second to that motion? I'll second. Okay, any questions or discussion? I will call for a vote. All in favor say I. Any opposed? Okay, that motion to approve the agenda passes. Okay, the next item on the agenda is the consent agenda. And could I have someone make a motion and read each item individually, please? I'll move to make a motion to approve the consent agenda. Item A, approval of
002minutes for June 17, 2025. Item B, approval of hire and termination reports. Item C, approval of student overnight travel with removing Brighton cross country. Item D, approval of purchasing bids. Item E, approval of June financial reports. And item F, approval, approval of annual fraud risk assessment required by the office of the state auditor. Okay. Thank you. We have a motion to approve the consent agenda. Is there a second to that? I'll second that. Okay. Karen seconded first. Um, is there any discussion to any of those items? Okay. Seeing none, I'll call for a vote. All in favor to approve the consent agenda. Say I. I. That motion passes unanimously. And then we're on to item five which is update on transition from board docks to diligent community and Leon Wilox Wilcox business administrator and Sydney
003Classen administrative assistant will be presenting this. So yeah thank you president Shill like all things rel regarding technology there's always improvements uh updates you should say. Hope this is an improvement. Uh so you know we're iPhone remember the original iPhone came out. We're up to 16 or whatever. Uh board docks. We started with Boardocks when we Mr. created in 2009 carried over from Jordan. Uh and basically the same version it's been used last 16 plus years. So, uh, board docs is now moving to a new system they call diligent. So, it's still under the board docs name, still owned by them, but it's now called diligent, if you will, similar to Skyward moving to a system called accumulative. Uh, so Cindy has been diligently a little bit punished. Uh, attending online classes on this new
004system. So, I'll turn it over to her to update you. Uh the current board docs will still be used next board meeting, okay, the 19th and also on September 2nd. On September 8th though, which is not a board meeting date, but September 8th, that will be going away. Okay? So you can still access it as I will use the term readonly type access but at that time we will now then be officially transition to diligent. So uh with that with that I'll let Cindy give you more details. Okay. Um, I put a little timeline in your folders so you don't have to remember all things. But like you said, Diligent will go live on website on September 2nd. Um, on that day, you guys will receive two emails. The first email is going to give
005you um information and a link on how to create a username and get yourself set up for Diligent Community. And The second email that you'll receive, which will be se separate, will um have two videos um on how to get started. So, they're pretty short, less than 10 videos um kind of give you an idea of an overview and so forth of what the platform looks like. Um and then like Leon said September 8th board docs will be inactivated and that means that we will have transferred everything over from board docs at that point to diligent. So we won't lose anything. We'll still have all of the information that we've had on board docs including the audio which I'll skip down here real quick. Um unfortunately diligent community doesn't um doesn't MP3 audio files. So,
006we will be changing that a little bit temporarily. I have a request in for them to change it. We'll see if they will because I'm like, we can't be the only ones that are using MP3 files. That's not an outdated file. But for the short term, until something changes. Um, what we will be doing is on the main um page, you will see a link whether it's live or just to our web page. it will take us to it'll take the public or us um administration whoever's using it will go to the web page and then we will have something on the web page whether it's the live stream or whether it's the audio recording um I talked to Justin he's ahead Justin if you so we talked a little bit about making breaking them
007out to maybe chapters so that I know that we are um a little bit used to having those audio files broken out into small segments. And so we're going to try and make it so that those are still broken into small segments, but just on the website when it takes you to the link. Just to clarify, the chapters will be on YouTube. So the CCTV stream, okay, I didn't know how that worked, but um and then um I did ask to make sure, but all of the audio from board docs will be transferred because They'll be formatted differently, but still connected to the board docs from the past. We just going forward can't add MP3s. I wanted to talk just a little bit about the way the agendas are set up on the platform. They're
008a little bit different than what we're used to. There's actually going to be two different agendas. So, we will have a public agenda that only the public will see. It'll have everything public. Then, there will be a member agenda. The member agenda will have everything that the public would see except for if we have closed information then you guys will see the closed information and you only those who are authorized to see that member agenda will see that member agenda. Um so on the on the public side it will it will look blocked but when you go into your member agenda it will be open. It looks a little different, feels a little different, but I think we'll get used to it and um as questions come up, obviously call me and I'll through it.
009And if I don't know, I'll find out for you. Um one of the new features that's kind of exciting, if you choose to utilize it, um they have a committee agenda. So if committees like our strategic planning committees want to use this agenda platform, they can actually create an agenda just like where we attach documents. The nice thing about this feature is that if you are a board member that's not ser currently serving on that committee, you would be able to have access to still go in and see that information. So that's kind of a nice feature. Um, oh, minutes. They have a minutes feature that looked very cumbersome to me. And so my suggestion or recommendation is that we just continue with the process that we already do with our minutes. Um, unless you
010think down the road you want to do it, it's it's a minute um process where people would have to go in and approve it and there's not really it it just looks really cumbersome. what we have going is really working well. So, I would recommend you stick with that for now. Um, and that's all. Any questions? Questions, Mr. Ed? The policy add-on. You are we getting a policy add-on? It is one of the options to add all the like policies. I know we haven't currently purchased it. It would have to be an add-on. Look at that. a good idea actually. Yeah, the policy feature was pretty neat and our current way of storing policies um is pretty horrible. Uh and then with that, it makes it easier for people to to actually compare policies. So
011whether you're in policy committee or whether the policy is going before the board, it'll actually automatically like line changes for you. Um, and the demo was was pretty cool. Uh, and I think that would just make policy better in every possible aspect. We'll look at that. It's a good idea. Thanks. Any other comments or questions? Thank you, Cindy and Leon. Is that all? Okay, great. Um I will just call this meeting to a close and at seven we will start truth and taxation in the order. So thank you. Okay, we are ready to start. Welcome everyone to the business meeting of the Canyon's Board of Education. Today is August 5th, 2025 and we're meeting at the district office located at 9361 South 300 East in Sandy, Utah. I would like to first excuse Mrs. Amanda
012Oaks from tonight's meeting. She may be joining us on Zoom, so we'll wait to see that. Um, so the first item on the agenda is to approve the agenda for tonight. So, do I have a motion to approve the agenda? I'll make a motion to approve the agenda for tonight. Okay. Thank you. Do we have a second to that? I'll second it. Okay. Thank you. Any discussion to that item? Okay. I will call for a vote. All in favor of approving the agenda for tonight, please say I. I. Any opposed? Okay, that motion passes unanimously. We are now going to have the pledge of allegiance by Jeff Haney, director of communications. Will those in the audience please rise and repeat after me? I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and
013to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Haney. The next item on the agenda is the staff presentation on the proposed tax increase and business administrator Leon Wilcox will present this. Thank you, President Schill. I appreciate the time to present this. I also want to thank those who uh have attended here in person. We know it's a a summer night and lots going on. We appreciate them taking the time out of uh their busy schedules to come with us as well as those who will who are watching on uh on on the YouTube channel as well. We appreciate them taking the time out to to uh to listen to us uh on board docs and if people have questions
014on where to locate this is is online. We can help you with that. But this is our presentation. We'll go over this for a few minutes and turn it back for any patron comments. uh just to go through the process of of our truth and taxation where this started. This actually started way back last fall when we looked at buying when we looked at issuing lease revenue bonds to purchase the innovation center out in West Draper, the former eBay headquarters. Uh when we issued those bonds and to make that debt payment or that loan payment annually, it's going to cost us just under $2.6 million. So that was part of it there and we hel hel held a public hearing that night and then as we went throughout the year we started working on our
015budget. Then on May 6th and May 20th we had uh presentations in our board meeting and look to increase the certified tax rate by I'm going to use round numbers here of about $4.1 million. Uh we then made our budget available for this year back on May 30th. And on June 17th, we held a our budget hearing and we approved our tax rates that we would set what we call the certified rate to exceed that amount by $6.6 million. So that's $6.6 million or 66,633,200. I will use 6.6 going forward. Uh increase our revenues by that amount. and that would be subject to tonight's truth and taxation hearing. We then placed information out on our website. You can see the link that is still out there. Uh Salt Lake County had a put out an
016advertisement in both the Dez News and the Tribune. The biggest notice is of course the email the tax statements that were sent by the county auditor back on July 10th either through email or the 22nd. Then there's been various uh articles or social media accounts postings. And then we are here tonight for the tax hearing. This is the date this county auditor recommended we hold our hearing was tonight. Uh let me just tell you give you a brief overview what the Utah's certified tax rate system is. uh it has the in Utah they use a certified tax rate system for property tax which generates the same dollar amount of revenue from one year to the next with the allowance of new growth or new properties coming in on the tax rules. So if every year
017want so if you bring in $100 one year you can only bring in $100 the next year. If you want to exceed that $100 you have to go through what is called what we're doing tonight called a truth and taxation hearing. there is no inflationary adjustment for the for the what they call the certified tax rate. So because of that the district is guaranteed that $100 every year. It also depends on who will pay that both whether it's commercial properties or residential properties. As we've seen the last couple years, everybody's home value has increased quite a bit. We have a couple slides on that. It's in up in the mid60s. commercial property has not increased nearly at that pace. We're around 30% more than we were five years ago. That causes more of the tax
018burden to be pushed on to to residential homes. We wish commercial would rebound quicker than it has, but it just hasn't. So, for that reason, you know, local governments, including school districts, have to increase taxes every few years to capture inflation. This is the third time we've had a tax hearing in our 17-year history is is is tonight. Okay. Uh, a couple things out. I put out here a sample of a tax notice that people got in the mail. So, keep in mind, uh, this is for an average home last year in 2024 that was valued at 73,000. That was the district's average that year, last year. This year at 740,000. You can see I will the pointer works here. I will point up to this screen here. You can see we are requesting on
019this average home a $70 increase amount. Roughly $6 a month. You can see what they paid. Had we not done a tax increase, it would have been $1172 or se basically $70 less. These other four lines here are issues that uh we don't control. You know, we two years ago, I mean several years ago, we've passed two bond elections and we're paying off that debt that was voted on by the citizens. You can see that amount increased about $5 on the average home here. The state rate is set by the state. And so that is that same rate is for everybody from Logan to St. George pays that rate. And that on average home in Canyons that went up about $16. I want to emphasize that everybody sees a different increase in their home value.
020And for us, the average increase was 37,000 or 5.3%. I've talked to some people whose home values went up 6 8 10%. And others went up just two or 3%. So just everybody's different on the increase in their home value, but that is as we've tried to show the average that is what it is is that $70 on the average home from one year to the next. Uh one of as I said earlier part of the issue is you know the certified tax rate does not capture inflation. So every few years we have to do go through and recapture that inflation. You can see what inflation was in 2018 versus in 2025. So if you had a bucket of goods you paid $100 for in 20 uh 18 you could only buy 75% 75% of
021that now. And that is where inflation has gone. Keep in mind, I know everybody was aware in two years ago in between 2021 and 2022, you know, inflation was about 8 to 9%. Has since tapered off a little bit, but we still experience that. What we plan on doing with the funds for is again, this is $6.6 million increase. Uh back six years ago in the 2019 2020 school year, our starting teacher salary was 50,000. It's now up to $64,200. That's about a 28% increase. So for this year, we are granted our employees a I'm going to call it a modest increase of 1.5%. And also we have insurance costs. Uh so that 1.5% is for all employees about 4.1 million plus we have insurance costs. So we will use uh you 4.1 million of
022that tax increase for operations to cover help cover that. We also hired 13 new elementary assistant principles. We offset that by some reducing the number of teachers in our high schools and also some of them our instructional coaches to 1.2 2 million. Again, we want to help out with some behavior issues, some instructional supports that our elementaryaries desperately need. So, that's why we're placing those. That's the new standard in the state is to have an elementary principal in each school. And we also have inflationary costs in for utility supplies curriculum of 585,000. And as I mentioned, the bomb payment for the innovation center at 2.6 6 million there. Uh just to show what homes have done over the last six years, 2025, 2020 to and what taxes have done gone since then. So in 2020,
023the average home in Canyon School District was 443,000. As I said, this year it's 740,000. That's a $297,000 increase or 67%. All homes are subject to a 45% primary resident homes are subject to a 45% exemption. Secondary homes and businesses are not subject to that exemption. You can see the amounts there. The taxes paid on that home in 2020. Again, just looking at the line that we control, that top line, that certified rate line was $982 in 2020. It's $1242 now, roughly $260 up or 26.5%. So, when you look at what value your home values have increased versus what the taxes paid, you can see it it's less there. Uh we always want to compare ourselves to look at what other districts do. We compete for teachers and other employees and also want to make
024sure we are are comparable in taxes as well. So if you had a $700, $40,000 home, again it's that 1243. You can look at where other districts would be and also their starting teacher salary. We are pleased that we're at least $1,000 ahead of all those listed on here. Uh as as well as having the lower tax rate again. And I should note that those districts, Davis, Alpine, Granite, Till are all holding tax hearings this month. Obviously, we want to make sure we try to, you know, it's our goal to spend tax dollars wisely and get a good return on investment. And the so we have various metrics that we track all the time regarding our student achievement. And one of the most important ones is the ACT test. So you can see students took
025the ACT and high school juniors. You can see where our scores ranked in 2025. Now, we don't have state data yet for the 2025 test as it was just taken in spring, but you can see we did improve in most categories by, you know, a tenth of a point or a little bit, but that is actually a pretty decent improvement from one year to the next because it it doesn't change much over time. You can see what the statewide average was in 2024 and versus our scores from last year from 2024 to the state. Also at this this whole state of Utah looks at students who take the ACT and get an 18 or higher in canyons were 72.3 last year and the statewide average was about 61%. Again, close to 11% higher. Obviously, we're
026something that we we always want to try and improve on in that area. We also like to look and make sure our teachers, our support staff are feel valued. Uh try to have morale. We know we're not going to make everybody happy like any company business out there. But we do survey our teachers and our uh every year as well as our support staff. That would be our bus drivers, custodians, cafeteria workers. Uh 78% of our teachers this past year said they were said they either strongly agree or agree with being satisfied with their jobs. That's 5% higher than it was the previous year. Uh uh 87% of our ESP employees, our bus drivers, our custodians, cafeteria workers as responded the same way. That's an increase of 3%. We also survey all our graduating seniors.
027So, our seniors who graduated in May, uh, 82% said they, uh, agree or strongly agree to the to being overly satisfied with their education at Canyon School District. That's a slight increase. Obviously, we want to reach every student out there. That's our goal. And then 89% uh, said they strongly agree or agree with being provided with the tools, resources, technology to be successful in high school. That's a slight increase as well from the previous year. As we wrap up, a couple things here. We know and I talk to people occasionally who feel like their home is valued higher than it should be or the market value. If you feel like that is the case, please contact the Salt Lake County auditor. Their website is right there. Uh and you can appeal your home value. That
028you need to do though by September 15th. That is the deadline there. Also, there is statutory relief for property taxes. Uh, again, that is you have to go to the state Salt Lake County treasurer, not the auditor, but the treasur's office to get that. Again, you can see the website there. There's uh six different exemptions if you're 66 or older or other areas. And also the senior deferral is similar to a reverse mortgage that came about a couple years ago. So that is new. The deadline for that is we have at Labor Day September 1st is on their website. I believe that actually will be September 2nd, but please make a note of that. Uh that that is coming up very quickly. So with that, President Shaw, we'll send it back to you for any
029public for the public comment. We'd ask that the public comment be limited to those to the tax increase that we're discussing here tonight. Then you can see a possible board motion of adopting the total tax rate of 0.005656 or 6,633,200 revenue increase above the certified rate or that much more money than we brought in last year. uh of from this amount 4,78 400 4,78,200 will be for operations and 2,555,000 will be for capital expenses or for our lease bond payment. So with that I will turn it back to you. Okay. Thank you Mr. Wilcox. We have now come to the patron comment portion of our meeting. The board often designates time in meetings to listen to patrons of the district. Patron comment time is limited to the residents and taxpayers of Canyon's district, students and
030parents of students and current employees of the district. Patrons may provide board members with written documents. These must be submitted to the board secretary at the meeting or emailed to the office of public communications by noon of the day following the board meeting. and our the board secretary is right over there. Tonight, individuals will be given three minutes and those representing groups will be given five minutes. Comments made during patron comment time are part of the public record. It is the board's practice to listen and take notes during patron comments. The board of education does not discuss matters that are not on the meeting's agenda, nor engage in public comment on individual students to protect their privacy or employee issues. If a patron wants to comment on a district employees character, professional competence, or mental
031or physical health, the board requests that those comments be submitted to the board in writing. However, if the patron determines to verbally comment on these p those personnel issues, the comments need to be civil and refrain from personal attacks, insults, defamatory or slanderous comments about an individuals. The board of education values input on all sides of issues. To maintain decorum and respect, we ask that those in attendance refrain from applause or other types of demonstration during the patron comment time as well as throughout the meeting. Public comment should focus only on topics related to truth and taxation. According to board policy 100.06-1, all comments must be relevant to the board's decision-making. Since this is a truth and taxation hearing, comments must pertain to the taxation. Please save other Tom other topics for a future board
032meeting where those specific issues will be addressed. Okay. So the first person we have signed up is Karen Butler and then next we have Robin Lee. So if Karen Okay. Okay. Thank you. Okay. So Robin Lee, you are up. And then there's a buzzer that the secretary has when your time is up. Okay. Okay. I'm just aware that some of the facads on some of the schools are very expensive and lavish and I was just thinking that we need to take some of that money and use it for the teachers and high quality education and programs that help the students prepare for careers. That's all. Okay. Thank you so much. Okay. The next person is Susan Hardman. Hello. Um, I'd like to say that the tax increase is not needed. We the not we the
033district spends way too much money on frivolous items like $10,000 massage chairs for the schools, Chromebooks, iPads every year that the that the kids just do these little tick tock challenges and start them on fire and here we give them another Chromebook. Don't do it again. Um the break rooms get these massage chairs and these massage chairs are very seldom used by the faculty. They just kind of sit there and get dusty. um the ESP folks in the district don't get the luxuries that the teachers do and I feel that the lunch ladies and the custodians should be paid more because of the jobs that they do. They work all year long. Lunch ladies work all year long. I understand that the teachers I yes they get paid $65,000 a year but your custodians and
034your lunch ladies do not and they work very hard. I have been one both and it is not an easy job and we did it year round even summer feed. So let's look at the ESP people versus the teachers. I'm speaking on quite a few people in the in the district that I've done their jobs and it's not easy. But the luxuries they need to halt because $10,000 massage chairs are not necessary in these schools and not being used. That's a a big frivolous expenditure. Um, thank you. Okay, thank you very much. Okay, the next person is Rob Fleen. And if if I if I'm saying that wrong, please come and correct me when you come up. Oh, Flesher. Okay, thank you. Please come up. Hello. Uh, my question actually isn't about the tax. Uh
035it's looking at the debt service to the Jordan school district. Mr. Wilcox said a very important thing said we all voted for this district and you know 16 years ago and when we voted for it we were told that the debt with and it's not even debt. It's taking assets. It was going to end in four years and now we're on year 17 and $400 of everybody in here who owns a home. It ended two years ago and it was $81 and now it's 400. It's quad. It's quintupled. It's five times as much. When is that going to end? Does anybody have an answer for that? That's $400 of our taxes are on our property tax. It was supposed to be four years and now it's 17. When's that end? Does anybody have an answer
036for that? Yeah, our BA is going to come answer some of the questions at the end of patron comments. That's my only question. Okay, that's $500 million we pumped in. And I'm in the lower end of the value of homes. And my brother-in-law lives in Cottonwood Heights and he's part of Canyon School District and his is $100 more a year because he has an $800,000 house. How much is a $10 million house? How much are they paying? We can't even put a number on it. How much money are you taking in? That was supposed to be four years and now it's 17. That's my question. Okay. Thank you. Um, okay. Steve Van Marin. Thank you, Madam Chair. Board. Uh, I was disappointed you didn't wait and do the, uh, a referendum on the bond when
037you purchased the eBay building. I hope the timing was really true that you didn't know about it enough in a time to do a bond last year. Now that it's done, I understand what you did and I think that you know inflation has caught up. It's time to do this. So, thank you for your help. Okay. Thank you. Um, I I just noticed that several people came in late and so I wanted to give you guys the opportunity to come speak if anyone does want to come speak. Yes. Okay. Please come up and then just state your name. Happy to. Madame Chair, board members, Larry Mullen living here. I just had a question. If I understand Mr. Woodox correctly, we're going to add 13 assistant principles at $64,000, which is just about a million dollars
038a year. And that's probably not fully loaded. What exactly was that for? Yeah, he he can answer that at the end. I'd be curious to see what that was for because uh if I understand it quickly, it's for behavioral issues. $1.2 million for behavioral issues for kids that don't want to be in school is a little bit difficult. Um I represent homeowners in the middle range of homes and my taxes for this school district has gone up$200 something dollars last two years. So, I understand the the metrics what you're using and I understand that there's also a need for taxes, but it's impacting me differently than it's impacting other people. So, it's a little bit frustrating. And then also, I'd encourage you to be manic about expenses. We can't continue to spend and keep going
039back to taxpayers every time there's an issue. Any well-run business is very familiar with being manic about expenses. You have to be manic about expenses. That's it. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Um, yes, you can come on up. Hi, thank you. Um, as a parent of stu of children in the school district, um, I've noticed, well, it's not just noticing, but um, in our school, the in our elementary school, the number of students has been decreasing. The numbers are going down. And I can't imagine it's happening just in um just in my school. In fact, there's talk because there are two elementary schools fairly nearby each other um that within the next year or two, one of them is going to be closing. If that's the case and the numbers are decreasing, why are we
040talking about raising these rates? I can tell you as a homeowner uh in one year I had a raise I I had my taxes go up by 1,100 and another year it was 800. This is like in the last five years. Um the and and I realize that this isn't all due to the school but this the schools the schools the ca the school district is taking the lion share of it really. Um, but just having our property taxes raised like this, I mean, it's just it's just not good for it's not good for property or for homeowners. And it's I mean, it's difficult. It's difficult for people that are on fixed incomes. Um, and it's it's just I think I think it's too much. But as far as um this this what I'm noticing
041with schools and the possible closures, I can't see how raising taxes when inflation has been terrible. um our wages aren't keeping up and um I mean you're just seeing cost increases and I feel that the county and the district and the state and everywhere where they're collecting taxes, they're flush with cash, they need to be more responsible and I can't see um raising taxes like like is what is happening. So thank you. Can you please state your name? Oh, Laura Gundry. Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you. Okay. Um, we have one more patron and that's Christa Pippen. Unless there's anyone else. Okay. Thank you. Oh, there's one more right in the back. Do you want to come up? Yeah, you can come up and just please state your name. Deborah Burke. I moved here
042two years ago. My taxes have already gone up $500 a year. And I think this is ridiculous. I think that there needs to be some responsibility in what you're spending the money on. And I don't know how you expect people to keep paying more and more and more in taxes. I'm on a set income. And I guess I I wasn't here for the very start, but I would like to know, is this money going to private schools? I do not think it's fair to raise my school taxes to go to something besides my public schools. And if you are giving some of this money to private schools, that is not right. or to homeschool. That is a choice. And it is not a choice for me to pay or not pay my taxes. So, it's
043not fair to pay for something that I'm being taxed for. That's not really a correct way to tax me. Thank you. Okay. Thank you very much. Okay, then Christa Pippen. Oh, come on up. One more. Yeah. Dana Goff. I have a child at uh Albian and I also am a district registered behavioral therapist for uh the school district. And I love the fact that you guys give all of all of our junior high kids and high school kids Chromebooks every single year. It really supports their learning. And my daughter is able to learn way better by the fact that she has the latest technology to support that. And then as a behavioral the as one of your behavioral therapists, I would love to make a little bit more money um dealing with the hardest of
044the hard children where I am literally putting my body on the line and getting injured on a very regular basis where a good day for me is a good day is a day where I'm not injured or had the possibility of being injured. Um, so that would be great if we could get a little bit more support on our end for um, our organization. That would be great. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Now, Christa Pippen. Thanks, President Chill and members of the board. Superintendent Robins and amazing business administrator, Mr. Will Cox. Thanks for giving us this time to get up and share our thoughts with you. I'm everybody knows at this point Christa Pippen. Um I am serving right now as the Canyon's Education Association president. Um and on behalf of our Canyon School District
045Licensed Educators, I want to thank the board for the effort you're making to continue to try and keep our salaries and benefits competitive. Um, this allows Canyon School District to continue to recruit and also retain the best teachers out there, the best of the best. And our Canyon students need and deserve that. Um, and it will help support and foster their growth, um, their achievements, their success. We not only want all of our students to come out college and career ready. We want them to have the skills uh to adapt to this rapid rapidly changing world we're all living in and hopefully be able to solve some of our most pressing um problems. So I thank you and commend you for making those hard decisions and for keeping our students and their success at the
046heart of everything that you're doing. So we really appreciate that. I just wanted to say thank you also to our fellow patron that was an ESP for many years. Um, a small shout out, we do have um the national ESP of the year in Canyon School District this year, Andrew Marcus, and he is being recognized. Um, he has done a lot for the ESP Bill of Rights, which is fighting for a livable wage for our ESPs. So, keep up the good fight and thanks again board. Okay, thank you. And I just want to thank um all of you guys for being here and being willing to comment and we do appreciate that. Now, I will turn the time back to Mr. Leon Wilcox. Um hopefully he can answer some of the questions brought up. Yeah,
047thank you, President Schill. Appreciate everybody who has made comments. I'll try to address most of those and please forgive me if I come see me if I don't answer afterwards. if I don't get it right. And please forgive me if I mispronounce anyone's name. Okay. Uh we'll start with Mr. Worer. Rob Worsher. Uh uh apologize for your name. Okay. Flesher. Okay. Again, apologize. Uh the J the Jordan district debt when we split, we always said it was 13 years. So I'm not sure where the four years got came from. It was always 13 years. We paid that off the final payment in 2022. So three years ago. Uh since we became Canyons, we have passed two of our bonds since then. And so that's where the tax is. We passed one in 2010 and one
048in 2017. So that's where that line is. There is no line on the Jordan debt anymore, but that is all Canyon's debt there. Okay. Why is it back on there and it's five times as much? It's always been can that is canyons. Okay. As I said, we've passed two bonds and we've always kept it level with the previous. Now again, I can't your home value used to be $81 and then it ended like you said and now it's $46 and it depends on how much the value of your home is. So, it's not elimination. It's It was $46 last year and it's $46 this year. And my brother in Cottonwood Heights, it's $56 because his house is worth more. So you're asking for2 million6 million and that alone times 30,000 houses is 13 million bucks.
049And I don't know how much the someone that owns a condo association is paying or someone who has a $10 million house on Wasach Boulevard. There's no amount. It's nothing. There's no amount that you can tell me that makes sense to the math. I can do it very well. Why did it start up again? And the amount that you're asking for right there is a third or a half or a quarter of what you're going to take in or have taken in last year and this year. Can you explain that to me and everybody here? Our debt payment is $45 million. So that is that is part of it right there. That's on that line. That's what we that generates $45 million on everybody's tax lines. You made it last year and now you're going
050to make it this year. Is that going to be on the thing next year? It will be on the Yes, it will be. It will be. Yes. Until we pay off these debts in 20 paid off in 2017. I want to emphasize that was the Jordan debt. It is not Canyon's debt. We've passed two bonds since then. That's the That's the difference there. I can talk with you afterwards on on that. It just the math doesn't sense. All right. I apologize there. Uh, Mr. Larry Milro, again if I mispronounced it, Mullenex. Okay, I apologize. On your question, on the principles, the cost is about $2.1 million to hire the 13. We reduced our class size or increased class sizes so we have fewer high school teachers. And we also got rid of a couple eliminated
051a couple coaching positions. So then for 900,000 so that's where we get the 1.2 million for that a net there. Thank you. And I would be remiss it is very tough times. Yeah. But I assure you Yes. And we we we try to Yes. We try to be uh Laura Gundry on school closing. That is something we're looking at boundaries and possible school closures that will be coming up at another meeting. Again, it's still try to capture the inflationary costs that we're experiencing now. Uh we are and you are right most of our elementary schools are are decreasing. That is something that we are trying to become more efficient and part of that could be consolidating or closing schools. Uh I missed the lady. Sorry I didn't get your name in the back. Uh none
052of our none of your taxes property taxes go to uh home school or to private schools. It should be noted that the state legislature two years ago allocated out $40 million on a voucher bill that would have came to us and hopefully helped offset some property taxes that they allocated that to for kids to go a voucher bills to help pay for private school or homeschooling tuition. That was money that you know we feel should have came to us but they it was some but they thought differently. Uh, and then we we appreciate uh Mrs. Ba and your service at our as an RBT at Albian and all our all our employees who work with our special ed kids. So, thank you. If I miss somebody, please come see me after the meeting and I
053could try and address it. I'll turn it back to you, President Shill. Okay. Thank you, board. Um now if we want to have discussion um we can have discussion now on this possible motion. Yeah after we make the it would be good to make the motion then we can have discussion before the vote. I move that we approve total tax rate of 0.005656 005656 or 6,633,200 in revenue increase above the certified tax rate. From the total amount, 4,782 will be used for operations and 2,555,000 for capital expenses. Okay, we have a motion. Is there a second to that? I'll second. Okay, thank you. So, we have a motion and a second. Now, is there any discussion to the motion? Mr. Mr. Edel, then Mrs. Nybar. So, uh, the assistant principles were brought up and I'd
054like to speak to that. That's one of the issues, uh, that I'm particularly passionate about. So, one of the issues we have in our elementary schools, which this has affected, is um, the principal is the loan administrator in the building. And over a number of years, the state continues to add requirement after requirement after requirement after requirement onto our schools. Um the district has worked to minimize that as much as possible, but ultimately the principles um just continue to get more tasking, especially bureaucratic tasking. Um and there's there's no relief in sight for them. So with the assistant principles, what that allows them to do is to not only help share that load, but it enables them to get into classrooms more. Um so can it help with behavioral issues? Yeah, we do have a
055lot of behavioral issues that continue to increase um as do we across the country that they have to deal with, but also they work with the teachers to help the teachers and and work with the teachers. And what had been happening in our schools that didn't have assistant principles because they had none none at all is that the teachers wouldn't have access to the assistant princip or to to a principal or to any kind of administrator. Um and so that's a disservice to our teachers. It's a disservice to our students. um it makes it so that they can't spend as much time focused on high learning outcomes. And so what this does is it allows our administrators to focus on our teachers to give them not only the support that they need, but the coaching
056that they need um and to help with better student outcomes. And uh th this is a really huge investment and I really believe that it'll pay dividends um for both our teachers and our students both. Okay. Thank you, Mrs. Nymar. Thank you. I wanted to address a little more what um actually Deborah Bark was talking about because I think this is really relevant um and Mr. Wilcox addressed it, but that that bill that was passed, the voucher bill does drastically impact us because those dollars used to come to us. And so, um, anyone else who's passionate about, you know, why are our taxes being going being taken from the public school system and moved over to private entities that actually don't play by the same rules as we do? They don't have the same measures
057of accountability, nor do they have the same standards of which they need to um provide education the way we do because the legislature, you know, because of state law, there's so many things that we are asked to do that private schools aren't. So, so our tax dollars um come with strings attached of things that we need to do, whereas some of those private entities just don't have the same reporting or accountability. So, I wanted to point that out. Another thing that I wanted to point out is um um and I actually was just talking to uh one of our representatives at the state level about this, but with the Utah Affordable Housing Act, we have a lot of highdensity homes, right? a lot of highdensity housing available. But also with that is something called tiffs
058where the property tax is diverted and we aren't receiving um tax tax income for that. Um maybe 50 years ago or so maybe a lot of high density housing was populated by you know um single adults or things like that but that is not the case in today especially with inflationary costs with housing. And so a lot of the people that are populating the highdensity housing actually do have children that we are educating. And so that is something to consider too when we're looking at all these inflationary costs to educate our kids that there is other income sources that we're not able to receive at this time. So, um, also, uh, I am a big proponent of the assistant principles at the elementary school level. As we've seen the landscape for elementary school changed just
059a little bit. We have a lot more multil- language learners than we used to. We have uh a greater number of special education as well. And then on top of that, all the different requirements the state is asking for us. Some of those services include um special programs like um snack pantries to have kids um be able to go home with some food. There's um you know we do something called peer court which is amazing and the results of that are fantastic. We have great results. In fact um hats off to our department here that's headed by Shereice Hilton with that peer court. But but we actually in the national um schoolboard association we have some great dialogue with that. But basically what used to be like juvenile court and handled outside of the schools
060we are doing a lot of that now ourselves and it's something called peer court but that also there that's just a sample of some things but there's a lot of things. The school safety bill that was just passed that's a huge financial um component to that. Of course, we're all invested in keeping kids safe and at the same time, you know, I as a board member, I have some concerns about some of the things in that bill if it's really proven to keep kids safe um because there is a large financial burden for that as well. And then lastly, I just wanted to point out the fact that um when we look at capital improvements, we also have a lot of old and aging school buildings uh that we part of our capital improvements this
061last year was going to helping like leaking roofs and some um flooding that was occurring and things like that. So, we do have to maintain our school buildings and that is also why um the I forgot your name right there in the back. That was Yes, Lauren. think thank you. Uh the reason why we have to look at at boundary changes and school closures is because we do want to be financially responsible and accountable to all of you who have elected us to be here. And there is a certain cost associated with keeping all of these buildings open. So when we have, you know, um child birth rates going down, we have high uh valuable homes that maybe not new families can afford to buy right now. We definitely have seen a decrease in our
062younger population. And so because of that, our our elementary school population is going down. So, we want to be fiscally responsible and not keep schools open if we're just serving um you know, a lower number of kids because not only is that expensive, but then also we can't always provide all the services and programs we like to if the student population gets under a certain amount. So, those are some measures we're taking to try to be fiscally responsible that way as well. And lastly, I just wanted to thank everyone who's here. I love this process. This is exactly how it should be. In fact, I wish there were more people here. I think that the public weighing in and being part of this process is crucial and appreciate all the comments that have been shared.
063Thank you. Okay. Thank you, Mrs. Dolly. Thank you so much. Thank you for for being here. Um, we appreciate your being involved in the process. I think too many too many people, you know, sort of turn a blind eye to what government is doing and I we appreciate you for being involved and caring. We want you to know that we don't take this lightly. We spend a lot of time talking and discussing about this. I mean, the last thing we want to do is do a tax increase, but we're property taxes are not there's not any allocation for inflation. Even all the tax watchdog watchdog groups are support having periodic increases to keep up with inflation. Over the last seven years, our inflation has been 25%. Now, of our budget, um to give you a
064little bit of background, our budget, 40% of the budget for the school district comes from property tax. About 54% comes from the state. And the state has been cutting the money that they send us. Even this last year, they did a four 4% increase for the weighted pupil unit, but to get to that, they cut all these other programs. So, we actually ended up with less money. We didn't get an inflationary increase because they actually cut other programs to make that look like they gave us an increase, but it really wasn't the case. And so, when we're our money is being cut from the state, things have to be offset to help what to help cover that. Now, 90% of our budget goes to salaries and benefits. And so we need to pay livable wages.
065We need to be able to be competitive, as Christa said, to pay our teachers so that we can recruit the best teachers here in Canyon's district and provide the best education for our public school children. And so inflation hits us all really hard, unfortunately. Um, I want to thank Leon. I mean, he's a he's a fantastic business administrator, and I can assure you that he watches all the costs very closely. We want to be wise stewards of the tax money that is given given to us um in this district and and really try to watch those expenses as close as we can um to to be to spend these dollars wisely. So, thank you. Okay. Thank you, Mrs. Person. Turn it on. Um, excellent things have been shared and I just wanted to add a
066little bit more to the conversations that that we have been having. Um, I know Susan Hardman was concerned about the expenses of break rooms and massage chairs. Those aren't paid for by the district. The school buys them themselves from their own budget. So, those are not universal. They're not in every single class, every single school. And those are, yes, we give them their budget, but I'm just saying that they're the ones that choose to use their money that particular way. It's not us saying, "Oh, everyone gets one." And fundraisers. You're right. There are then the dis the school fundraisers that they have during the year. Mental health for our employees, all of them, ESPs and teachers and principles, is so key. We are lucky enough not to have open class classrooms with no teachers as
067we're starting a new school year because we can attract uh an active and strong um workforce if we allow ourselves to and we're not it's not a race. are not trying to beat anyone, but we have to stay um competitive enough that people want to be here at at Canyons. And that if it means that a teacher can go in after they've had a very stressful day or during their lunch break or during the 15 minutes that they can go to the bathroom and get a drink, they may want to go and sit in a chair. You may not see them as an as a a public person walking through the building, but I assure you that teachers aren't the only ones using that kind of equipment. If they the school has decided they need
068a timeout space for the teachers, you know how when a teach a student's overwhelmed and just needs a moment to get it together. So, we put we give them fidget toys, we give them a place that they can go and and have a little timeout and then we bring them back into the classroom so that they're not missing education. adults need that too. So to help balance the the mental health that our employees were expressing and the stress that they were expressing expressing, some of those things have been um created by the schools in their schools and we support that. We feel like that's valuable. I don't know the cost of the massage chairs, guys. I really don't. But I do know that if that's what helps that staff feel competent and calm and happy
069and able to go on with the day, it's worth it. It's worth it. Otherwise, you're going to have grumpy teachers and angry people and students don't get the best education from teachers that are stressed. So, we're not pampering them, but we find it very, very important that they be able to do that. I also speaking along wellness, we do provide as a district, we also screen four or five times a year suicide prevention where parents that are concerned about the mental health of their student can go and get screened for warning signs and then we send them to the facilities, alternate places that they can get help. We provide many many many services that didn't used to happen in schools because the community has pushed responsibility for the whole child and now it's almost even
070the whole family onto districts. It's an expens expensive proposition. I wish we could just teach reading, math, and writing and art and do what we used to do when I was in school. But in the 41 years I was teaching, I've seen a huge change of the needs that our students need for support and that our communities need for support. I know as a teacher, I spent probably a good 40% of my day parenting parents that were frustrated and stressed. I was an elementary teacher, especially if you have a first grader or kindergartener. I had parents that didn't know quite what school's about and how do I handle my kid. They needed support as well. Schools are our communities. Schools are the place that you know your child's going to be loved and supported and
071that you too can be supported. You should be able to go into your schools and talk directly with a teacher, directly with any employee in the building and be able to get the questions and help you need. And if they don't can't provide it, they know who can. They know who can. We have safe UT program where if a student can anonymous anonymously call in for themselves or for their their friend if they're worried about a friend in a d being in a dangerous situation could be abuse could be drugs could be suicide whatever that dangerous situation is they can call this this line and when a student is identified through this process they call the principles directly this you say if UT calls the principles 24 hours a day. They are responsible on weekends.
072They are responsible on Sundays and Mondays and holidays and at their family dinner at the family reunion. If they get a call about their student, they have been called and are on top of it the very next day. We are not We are trying so hard not to let our students fall through the cracks and to be successful and to do the things we need. I wish everything was equal. like it it felt so much more equal when I was a child. You know, everybody seemed to be in sort of the same situation, but now we have lots of divorces. When I was growing up, a divorce was a rarity. Everyone was in double family homes and we're all the same pretty much the same income, race, you know, that kind of thing. And now
073we have all these bilingual kids who are coming out of trauma, coming into schools. We have kids who are at our homeless shelter. You do realize we instruct the students every day. We have buses that go to the homeless center in Midvil, pick them up and bring them to our schools, teach them during the day, and we send take them back. And then when they're back at the homeless shelter, they are provided that the family and the student is provided that support. We're doing far more than sometimes you think when you're looking at just the classroom. Well, unfortunately, those things cost money and we're trying we rearrange um personnel to be as efficient as possible. We put our strongest people where they be need to be um need to be at and yet we're trying
074very hard not to lose employees. We support jobs. So people change position but we don't say I can't use you anymore. We absorb them into another position if they're willing to do that. Yes, we have um works. We need to do more for our ESPs as far as finances go, but it takes time. It takes time. It took years and years and years before we finally got a decent wage for our teachers. I taught 41 years and they make only $10,000 less than I made when I retired at 41 years. Of course, my economics as I was teaching was far uh it wasn't as expensive to be around in those days, but it's equal. It still felt tight. It still was difficult for families. So, we just need to know that the best place your
075money can go is to our is to our community and that is to our schools. And I agree, it's public schools where we're accountable and we're available to help not just the student but the entire family if if the family seeks that kind of help. We make home visits. I mean, there's just so many things that the district provides that people just aren't totally aware of. in the peer court and you know pan food pantries and and all sorts of different things that we have provided. I know is it our job shouldn't be but that's where society's pushed it because our communities aren't picking it up and we don't want to let our our children suffer. So um unfortunately we have to do we have to raise taxes. The Jordan stuff was Jordan. Our stuff
076helped make safe buildings. We've got security vestibules. I mean, we've put that money into our older buildings to make them safe and secure and more teachable. Yes, that costs money and those are the bonds that we've passed in the past. And we're working to pay those off as I'm impressed at how fast they do come off. um they're often plotted out long term and we're able to pay it off three, four, five years earlier than than they had predicted which saves tons and tons of interest. So we are trying to be as frugal as we can and we appreciate you're being interested and supportive and I'm a retired person. I have the same situation as you do. This job doesn't have a paycheck. Okay. So, we get minimal amount for travel expenses. So, I know
077how those taxes feel when I have to pay those as well. My husband and I are both retired and we're in your basic average home in the district. I know how it feels, but I also know what we're getting for our money. I'd rather pay to a community a service that we know what we're going to be getting than to send it off to the state and you have no idea where they're going to take that money. I yes, we have to pay state taxes, but I don't know for sure. I can't guarantee what they're going to use that money for. So, we appreciate your involvement. It's not a perfect system, but this is the one we've got. Thank you. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Lewis. All right. Right. I just want to start by thanking
078everyone who came out tonight. Uh, one of the things I try to tell people whenever I they ask how how can I be more involved? How can I learn more about public education? It's to show up to these kinds of meetings. So, thank you for being here and taking the time out of your week night to learn about property taxes for your school district. That's that's that's we really appreciate that. I also want to thank our district administration for their fiscal prudence. Uh th this is a very well-run district. We are not asking for taxes because we are mismanaging our money. We are asking for an increase in taxes to capture inflation and the vast majority of this tax increase does go to operations. It goes to directly a 1.5% cost of living adjustment. So
079directly roughly h just over half of this tax increase goes directly into the salaries of our teachers. Um that is a very very major thing very important because teachers dealing with inflation too. They're living in the same economic uh problems that the rest of us are living in as well and they need a raise as well. They're the ones they're the ones that are producing the next generation. They should be not struggling as well, right? Um, I I I also really really want us to to uh focus on our continuing trends of academic improvement as grades continue to pass through us. We saw on the the uh the PowerPoint that the ACT uh our ACT scores are improving year after year and they're consistently above the state average. That is due to the well-run and
080academic rigor that is provided here at Canyons. that is only possible due to uh acquiring and attack attracting highquality teachers and we can only do that by ensuring that they are paid to live here right so I just want to thank everyone for their for being here I want to thank our teachers and our education support professionals as well as Leon Wilcox for your excellent presentation um and a thank you to our teachers for all that you do okay thank you um we have Mrs. oaks on Zoom. So you can go ahead. Amanda, we can't hear you if you're trying to talk. Can you hear me now? Yes, we can. Perfect. Okay. All right. Apologize about that. So, I just want to thank everyone for this evening's conversation. I think it's been really helpful and
081productive. Um, I want to thank my colleagues for their comments. There's so much that I resonate with. I appreciate what has been said about the certified tax rate. Um, this is something that as school districts, so each year we ask the state legislature to please consider building in an inflationary adjustment into the certified tax rate so we don't have to come back periodically and have this hurt so much. But in order for us to capture inflation, we really have no other option as is currently laid out by law. Also, I appreciate the questions regarding um money going to private and homeschooling. And as has been addressed by Miss Nyar and others, yes, the voucher bill that the state legislature has chosen to fund so heavily by many millions of dollars is doing just that. And
082we again have lobbied at the state legislature and requested that they not do that. But um that has been kind of a continuing issue and is something that we would encourage patrons to communicate with their their state legislators about. Um one thing I'd like to mention and the first patron tonight um talked about um funding for buildings um and the preference to have that go towards the classroom. One thing that I learned very quickly when coming onto the board is that those funding sources have to be kept totally separate. Um, we have pro, you know, joked in the past sometimes about how nice it would be to be able to take capital funds and put it towards teacher salaries or towards needs in the classroom. But unfortunately, that's not legal. And part of why you
083see things so clearly delineated in our paperwork is and and what you see on screen is that we have to make sure that those are kept very separate and clean. Um, but there are some significant issues we are facing as public education. And one thing I think is important to remember is that the state of Utah, if you include the District of Columbia, um, as a another state, so to speak, we fall dead last 51st in the nation for poor people spending. And yet, um, one of the major, uh, articles that came out this week ranking Utah's education system, I believe we were 11th or 12th and how well we're doing. We, we take a lot of pride in the fact that we do a lot with very little and each year we try and
084do more and more and more of that. Um, I joke sometimes that often I feel like we're in a situation we're trying to spin straw into gold. And in many ways, I think we've done a good job of that. Um, we're facing some heavy issues. Um, inflation, as everyone knows, has been a major challenge for everybody, um, including our teachers, as Mr. Lewis mentioned. Um, we are facing decreasing enrollment as was mentioned by one of the patrons. And it's important to note that when we have students that leave the schools or we have fewer students enrolled, we lose funding because the state gives us money based on the number of pupils we have. It's not a flat amount that can just be divided. Um, and so this is another complication with the voucher bill. When
085students are financially encouraged, so to speak, to attend other schools, we lose that funding. when they walk and go somewhere else. And so that that becomes problematic. School fees and the rules surrounding school fees have changed. We used to be able to actually charge certain things for fees and that has increasingly narrowed and we haven't been given subsequent funds to make up for that. and we're having to find it out of our own budget and and face really hard questions because parents really value the activities their kids are involved in. And some of these fees are actually even curricular in nature. So when we're looking at um making sure that we have adequate supplies in the classroom for kids to learn, we have that's something to be considered as well. Um Miss Nyber mentioned the
086school safety bill. This thing is no joke. It's um something I would encourage every patron to look at very closely. Again, like Miss Nyar said, we have as schools for many years been looking at ways to keep students safe and having an armed volunteer in every school is not necessarily backed up by research. In fact, not at all. We've been doing a lot of things of our own accord with our capital funds to make sure we have things like um safety vestibules and other safety measures to make sure that our schools are safe. And yet some of the things that we are are being instructed to do and pay for out of our own pocket in many ways is not going to be as helpful as we would hope. Um, we do have a teacher
087shortage nationwide and being able to compete for good teachers, especially when the teachers hope to live within the boundaries of our district, is becoming very difficult. I have a teacher that my a few of my own children have worked with. She's incredible and she drives up to our district every day from PAC, Utah. I thought that was far until this last year, I found out that another one of my children's teachers drives up every day from Ephraim. It's increasingly becoming difficult for teachers to be able to afford a home, not even just even within our district, but even right outside of our district. And that becomes a larger and larger concern. We have other unfunded mandates as as has been mentioned. And and also like Miss Patterson talked about, we do have increases in extreme
088student behaviors in part because the traditional family structure that has been in place to support students with um a lot of support at home is is starting to dismantle. A lot of those extreme behaviors increased significantly after COVID and has put a sign a major burden on the teachers and principles and for that reason I am also very supportive of having assistant principles in the elementary schools in order to create u better supports and structures especially when those kids are young and can receive better direction and correction earlier on. Um it's important to be aware that there is a fundamental shift of funding happening in the legislature. Um they are decreasing income taxes and also subsequently putting heavier burdens on public education much like Miss Dolly talked about and when our expenses increase so significantly
089without adequate funding really from the legislature there we have very few options. I agree with what has been said. This is not the ideal way to tax people from a funding perspective. I personally believe as a citizen that it makes more sense to tax those who are actively earning an income rather than those who are living on a fixed income, particularly in retirement. And I will continue to advocate for that at the legislature. that the chips that we've been handed consistently leave us with very few options. And so that is um the perspective that I have in going into this and and why I do support the tax increase. Um albeit understanding many of the concerns and understanding them from my perspective and even you know I have a an aging mother who is on
090a very fixed income. she struggles to be able to make her ends meet on um from month to month and this is this is a burda. It's difficult. Um but we also recognize the importance of public education and creating safe and stable societies. of all of the public funds that ever go into any source, whether it's you're looking at welfare or other support systems, it is my belief that public education is by far the best bang for your buck investment because it helps students to be able to rise up and pre and provide for their own families someday and be less of a burden on the state in the long run and also less of a burden on um law enforcement or other needs or supports in that way. So I again thank you for
091everyone that has participated. I I appreciate all my board members. I appreciate Mr. Wilcox and um Superintendent Robinson for all of your hard work. Okay, thank you. Um I just want to start by also thanking my fellow board members. they have um made some actually really good points and also um thanks administrator Leon Wilcox for all his work. Um I want to start by addressing the question of Mr. Flesher and he did leave but I I want to um explain Mr. Wilcox said we passed two bonds and I want I want to cl I'm not sure if you guys understand what that means. They were general obligation bonds and so they were bonds that taxpayers actually voted for. So the public actually voted to increase their taxes for those two bonds and that's the debt
092service line. Okay, on your property tax. Um so it it wasn't us that increased it. We did put it out for bond, but then we let the public decide. Um, I just want to echo that I I really feel the legislature has put us in this position. And I want you guys to pay attention to news articles because almost there's several districts across our state that is are raising taxes and they're actually raising them way more than we are. So, I mean, I do feel good about that our district is run well, but the legislature is cutting our money and basically forcing us to do this. I mean, they they would probably deny that, but um they are putting us in a really hard position. Either we have to cut services or we have to
093raise taxes. That's the position we're in. And of course, none of us we don't want to raise taxes. We really don't. But we're we're just at that point where something has to give. Um I do appreciate the comments about ESPs and every year we do discuss ESPs and I will keep that. We had a couple patrons talk about that. I will keep that in mind. Um, we know you guys have hard jobs and that your jobs are really important, too. Um, I do appreciate the comments about expenses and we need to look at that. That's a really good comment. Um, we are looking at possibly closing schools because that is a way for us to be accountable to taxpayers and be wise um wise people with our taxpayer money. Anyway, um also, um I think
094that's about all. I'm not I don't want to repeat stuff that other people have said. So anyway, I think if there's no other comments, we can talk to you after. Okay, thank you. Um is there any other discussion before we take a vote? Okay, seeing none, I will now call for a vote to approve um the approve the total tax rate of 0.005656. Um I won't repeat the whole motion but that is what we are doing tonight. Okay. So all in favor please say I I I. Any opposed? Okay. That motion passes unanimously. So I want to again thank everyone for being here and we really appreciate um people paying attention. It is important. So thank you and I will now call this meeting to a close.