001I'd like to call our January 8th, 2025 Reno County School Board work session to order. Madame clerk, will you please call the role? >> Here. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Mr. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Mr. >> Yes, ma'am. Item 2.0. 01 election of chair Dr. Ken Nicely. >> All right. Well, good afternoon members of the board. Want to officially welcome, of course, Dr. White to the board >> and uh look forward to working with all of you in uh 2026 in this new semester of our school year. Um at this time, we're going to begin by um holding the elections for school board chair. So, uh at this time, nominations are open for the election of the chair, and no second is required for these. And so, um, we we vote them on them once we
002get the nomination. So, balls in your court. >> Thank you, Dr. Nicely. Um, Miss Miss Clemens has demonstrated strong leadership skills, the ability to foster collaboration, and has shown a strong commitment to our mission, her ability to bring people together, work with the board of supervisors, and focus on the big picture makes her well suited to continue in this role. Therefore, I move to nominate Shelley Clemens for board chair in 2026. >> Second >> if you need it. >> No second required, but >> just said that. But >> that's okay. >> She just calls the role. Any other any other nominations? >> All right. Uh, Madame Clerk, if you'll call the role. >> Dr. White. >> Yes. >> Mr. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Mr. Green. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Mr. >> Yes, ma'am. >> I'll
003abstain. >> All right. And at this time, we'll open up nominations for the election of school board vice chair. >> Same process. >> Yep. Madame Chair, Dr. Nicely, I don't have a speech made so eloquent like David Linda, but I would like to nominate Brent Hudson to remain our vice chair for this year. >> Are there any other nominations? >> All right, Madam Clerk. >> Dr. White. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Mr. London. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Mr. Green. Yes, ma'am. >> Yes, ma'am. >> All right, let's turn it back over to the chair. >> Thank you. All right. Item 2.03, approval of the clerk. I recommend that ED York be appointed clerk of the school board. Do we have a motion to approve? >> So move. >> Second, >> Madame Clerk. >> Yes, ma'am. >>
004Mr. London. >> Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am. [laughter] [laughter] >> Yes, ma'am. >> Item 2.04, approval of deputy clerk. I recommend Dr. Jamie Sulttus be appointed to deputy clerk of the school board. Do we have a motion to approve? >> So moved. >> Second, >> Madame Clerk. >> Dr. White. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Mr. London. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Mr. Yes. Yes, ma'am. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Item 2.05, Establishment of meeting dates, places, and times. Dates and times for scheduled schoolboard meetings and work sessions are listed in board docs for adoption by the board. Is there a motion to adopt the dates and times as presented? >> So moved. Second, >> Madame Clerk. >> Dr. White. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Mr. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Mr. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Mr. Hudson. >> Yes, ma'am. Yes,
005ma'am. Item 2.06, appointments to committees. Schoolboard policy 2.08 lists various committees to which the board appoints individual members. The special ed advisory committee is a committee appointed by the school board and reports to the board. The Reno Valley Governor School Board is an independent board that provides oversight for the Reno Valley Governor School. The audit committee, CTE general advisory committee, and school health advisory board are superintendent committees that are that make recommendations to the superintendent and his staff. I nominate the following board members to serve on these [clears throat] various advisory committees and boards. The audit committee, Tim Greenway and David Lindon. Special education advisory committee, Brent Hudson. CTE general advisory committee, Tim Greenway and Shelley Clemens. School health advisory board Ryan White. Reno Valley Governor School Board, Shelley Clemens. Is there a motion to
006appoint these representatives as nominated? >> I'll make the motion. >> Second, >> Madame Clerk. >> Dr. White. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Mr. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Mr. Greenwood. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Mr. >> Yes, ma'am. >> All right. Item 3.01, major construction project updates. Mr. Todd Kaggels. Uh, Madam Chair, members of the board, Dr. Nicely, Dr. Sulttus. Uh, you might notice that the faces are a little bit different up here this week. Um, Wes Mitchell has taken another position with a different company. So, he is, uh, no longer with Skansa. So, uh, he has been replaced by Eric Burke Holder. Uh, he'll take over as the lead at the CTE center at RCCTC. Uh, effective immediately. He's already there. uh Jason Pac uh with Scansa who I'm sure you will will remember is going to
007uh do their presentation for them this evening and then we have Kamal Khalil who will do the uh presentation for the elementary schools once again. >> All right board members uh good afternoon. It's great to be back here with you. It's been a while since I've been here before you. So I'm excited to present the progress that we've made. I think it's uh it's been since November I believe since our last presentation with you. So, I'm just going to go through our past and current activities rather quickly. Uh, so at the CTE facility, uh, the site work, uh, we've got curb and gutter at the front parking lot. So, that's the the concrete elements that you see, uh, at the front parking lot. And then they've poured the rear course of asphalt there as well.
008Uh, they've got sanitary work along the east side that's tied into areas A and D. and I've got uh water service into the building. Um they're performing undercut and fill at area A and stockpiling rock from areas A and B. Uh they've also had the light pole installation in the east parking lot. For area D, uh they've got the mechanical yard screen wall up, their hanging grid, light fixtures, cord reels, and garage doors in the shop areas. and they've completed the uh canopy framing and installation of canopies. They're also priming and painting, first coats of paint. Uh they've got ceramic tiling uh installations ongoing. Uh in area A, uh they have the installation of the grand entrance curtain wall, which we've got a photo of a little later in the presentation. Uh completion of the
009exterior stack stone and brick in that area. installation of some of the kitchen equipment and again priming and painting of the drywall on the exposed ceilings. Um in areas B and C, uh they've got uh the slab on deck concrete pores complete. Uh still working on the exterior brick and stone and the interior CMU. Um they have the exterior metal framing and sheathing is ongoing. uh roof installation on both areas is complete. Um and then heavy mechanical, electrical, and plumbing operations continuing in both of those areas. Uh and then they've got sprinkler piping installed in both areas. Hanging and finishing uh gypsum wallboard in both areas and then priming and painting in area B as well. So, just to show you some photos here, uh we've got the light pole installation in the east lot
010on the left side there. and then installation of water lines to the building on the right side. Um at the we've got the overhead doors, the building uh trades garage doors there on the left side. And then um on the right side, the area B uh excuse me, area D canopy decking. And then here's that grand entrance uh curtain wall that I was uh talking to you earlier about on the left side. Um, if you're driving there in front, you can see this from the road now. It's pretty it's a pretty cool site. Um, and then we've got the kitchen hoods and walk-in on the right side. And then, uh, on the left side here, we've got area B and C, second floor slab on deck, um, after that was poured. And then area B
011and C, exterior framing and sheathing. And then on the left here, the drywall finishing inside the building uh at the near the entrance and then uh priming and painting in area A in those shop areas. And then again, we've got a lot of photos this time because again, we've, you know, we're uh catching up on a couple of months of reporting here. Uh but on the left, we've got the duct and wall insulation in area B. Uh you can see the guy on the ladder there. He's installing duct insulation. And then the guy near the window is installing the wall installation. And then we have uh installing uh exterior brick at uh area C as well. Um and with that I do want to say that you know Eric is coming off of a elementary
012school a multifased you know complex project in West Virginia and starting on this project for you. So he's got a lot of experience uh with school construction. So you've got a good guy on site for you. But with that, I'll uh hand it over to Kamal. Before you do that, Jason, >> one quick question. I'm sure all the board members are familiar with this vocabulary word, but it's a new one for me. I saw the picture where you said curtain wall, but I never heard that term before. What What does that refer to exactly? >> So, it's basically uh any of those uh framed those high framed um glass walls. That's you we refer to that as as curtain wall. >> Yep. >> Good afternoon. It's good to see all of you again. um on
013the schools um we are I mean we are lucky the job is going really well there's no ifs or buts there's no glitches uh on cond um as you know from past months before we handed we turned over like a few phases like 1 a 1B uh upper level and lower level uh and the admin and the kitchen and dining areas what we have is um 300 punch list items that we're going through. Some really small, some really big, but we're going through that for the whole job. Uh what's new and open now, it's phase 3A, and I I'll show you what I'm talking about. It's it's a typical of uh every every level that we start we start the demo as you know, and cut the floor with the the concrete saw cutting so
014we can install plumbing, piping, and stuff like that. Um and the electrical overhead it's also going on uh with wiring and uh HVAC installation uh overhead also copper piping like water uh cold water and hot water sprinklers also going on. And when we do that uh we kept the concrete for these uh trenches so we can install the framing. Um, we had a couple of foundations, she foundations with a brace, uh, columns. Um, we poured few concrete slabs on the outside. Uh, we have water line that we did over the Christmas holiday. We had to make sure that everybody's out, like no staff, no no kids. Uh, eventually uh Hubard just made the connection and tested it and we were fine. Uh now even like when I came today before I came here, we're doing
015pipe for the switch gear and the transformer outside the the where the loading docks at. Uh and we're doing really good on that. One thing I'll note before you continue on in case anybody's not familiar with what a punch list is. So, at the whenever you're turning over areas, you might find things like u areas of the wall that need touched up, the paint needs touched up or like a dirty ceiling tile or something like that that needs replaced, things of that nature, minor items that doesn't prevent you from from occupying the space, but you want to make a note of to the contractor so that they know to come back and fix those items. Uh the same thing is on Glen Cove just down below the street. Uh we hand we turned over like
016if the last one we did is 2A a kindergarten uh the lower level uh like a week before the holidays they just start moving in the teachers. Um also we have a punch list going on with this school. And what's new is the 3A the first floor. I mean, we got a lot of work uh from demo to to cutting floors, installing, you know, installing foundations and columns and electrical overhead. Uh the only thing that we haven't done yet is the the framing. Like we did some of it, but uh we're just waiting on the concrete to be done for these trenches so we can do uh uh those framing walls. And in that you know that when we do the framing we start doing the um the drywalls and we start button up stuff
017so we can call this a room or bathroom or or stuff like that. Uh the library also upstairs uh we started the demolition like last week or the week before last and that's going well. I I got a couple of picture I'll show you. Um on the outside uh the parking lot work uh over the over the holiday also we did the uh the cooling tower and if you drive by the back of the school it's it's a big operation. It's not small operation. So that's being done as we speak. And uh the last thing is the the light poles for the footings on the all around the school for the parking lot. That's going to be done pretty soon in a couple of weeks, maybe over three weeks. >> So, you were asking Jamie
018earlier if I gave him time off. He did have to work over the holiday since the kids were out. [clears throat] And >> yeah, >> no, no, you [laughter] had to we had to cut one of the one of the steel pipes in the in the dining area and we wanted to make sure there's no kids in there. So, it worked out really good. Uh that's the logo for uh uh >> uh for uh cond and and look at like when we start just to show you the trenches for the for the plumbing. I mean it's a massive operation. And the one on the left that's the switch. I mean I'm sorry that's the water line that Hubard did uh also over the Christmas holiday. so we can uh shut off the water and make
019sure that it's tested and and ran perfectly. And that's when they moved in on the kindergarten section like a week before the holidays. Now they're occupying it. And the one on the left is for the switch gear all the way back. You'll see um there'll be like a big transformer like the one that's existing right there. It'll be like one just like it and three or four maybe cabinets with the switch gear for the whole school. The one on the right, it's a it's the same thing like sanitary, but they already installed the pipe and they they backfilled it. And all these trenches, they'll be covered with concrete. Uh the one on the left for for uh Glenov, the one down below, that cafeteria was turned over, but we had to do more work over
020the holidays just to make sure that everything's buttoned up and nobody's in there. And here like when they start moving to the kindergarten section of this school right here, you could see the cabinets, some of the equipments they were like cleaning up and it's going to be uh I mean it's it's already turned over to the school >> and come all that cafeteria is done now, right? And all tiles in it's all done. >> Everything's Yes, sir. >> Yeah. That's the last like on the on the I I put up pictures but the before and after you so you could see uh they were the kids were eating like that. So it's like kind of you look up and it's like a scary feeling but now the ceiling is is up and it it doesn't
021look the same but it looks much nicer. >> They probably found that pretty interesting while they were eating the [laughter] >> uh the one on the right is the demo that they started in the library section. What we do is we we cover this section with a with a drywall so we can separate the school in session with the with the actual work. Uh these are heat pumps in the in the um mechanical room and that's when they came in with that big uh on the left uh the the cooling tower installation. >> All right. So with that again, thank you uh for allowing us to come here and present this information to you and hopefully you enjoyed everything. >> I was actually at Kundiff this morning actually Glen yesterday, but uh Ms. Macau was
022just reiterating the preschool classrooms for the first time actually having you in the bathroom running the preschool classroom. It's just, >> you know, things we taken for granted at the other schools for a long time. So just good good to see all the progress. >> Amazing. We actually got a running water in there in that closet. It was about, you know, yay big [laughter] >> big James. >> Any questions for these guys? >> Looks good. >> Thank you, gentlemen. >> Thanks, everyone. >> Appreciate it. >> Thank you. >> It's nice to meet you all. >> See you, buddy. Take care. >> Item 3.02. 02 minor construction project updates. Mr. Todd Kaggels. >> Madam Chair, members of the board, Dr. Nicely, Dr. Sulttus. Uh we just have some uh updates on a few of the projects
023that we're currently working on uh out at Bonsack Elementary. This was funded was a minor capital project. We've been working on it uh really since the start of the school year uh because we had to do most of this work when the kids were out of um out of the building. So, we had to do that uh on weekends and in this case over winter break. But that project is complete now. Uh we carpeted the library and uh that's these photos are of the library and the new carpet and then the uh offices got the uh LBT flooring and again that is uh all complete now. So we'll take that off the list for the next meeting. Uh out at North Side High School we had some science classrooms out there that the school had
024requested to have converted to uh family and consumer sciences. uh board provided funding uh for that through minor capital and that is complete now. We completed that over uh winter breaks. They winter break they actually did a a fantastic job of taking the old uh science cabinetry and countertops uh cutting them up into new pieces, adding new uh you can see new appliances, new uh cabinetry and kind of reconfiguring the rooms. The stainless steel countertops, our guys uh did those as well. So those the the the school's thrilled with the result. I'm thrilled with the result once we um this summer they'll strip and wax the floors so the floors will look new at that point and uh the room just turned out great. Our guys did a fantastic job on that and that project
025is also complete and we'll take that one off um for uh for next time. Uh out at uh Hidden Valley Middle School, remember we have an ongoing project to replace all of the ceilings and um countertops and cabinetry in the public spaces out there to improve the lighting uh and to get rid of the old ceiling tile that you can't source anymore. Uh they did the second they did the first phase back at um on election day. They did the second phase over uh winter break. They'll do the third phase over spring break. and then we'll finish up this summer. Uh this is the before shot. You can um kind of see these ceiling tiles here that don't match anymore because we actually have to like hand cut pieces to fit and try to kind
026of glue them in there and that kind of thing in the old ceiling. Uh you get an idea of the light levels. And then this is what it looks like after they've installed the new ceiling and the LED uh lighting. So again, we'll we'll finish that up uh over the remainder of the school year and then into the summer. or hopefully by the end of the summer it'll be completely finished. That was also a minor a minor capital project uh out at Fort Lewis. Um all the masonry work has been completed. The only thing we're waiting on is for the new sign to be delivered and that's supposed to come around the first part of February. You've seen the pictures of the uh completed masonry work. So I didn't I didn't put those back on
027this presentation. Uh so the only thing new is just just waiting on the sign to come from the sign shop. uh Glennber Elementary School, the staff restroom additions, uh also a minor capital project. Uh and looking at that with the school, that's going to have to be a summer project. So, it's I'm keeping it on our list just to remind us that we're doing that. We're going to maybe try to get started on some of the uh cutting up the concrete and doing the flooring uh out in the hallway over spring break. We haven't That's going to depend on our contractor whether he says he can do that in nine days or not. Otherwise, that's a that's a summer project. out at Kpring High School. The um uh on that snack bar out there, uh
028the interior demolition is complete. Uh the electrical service upgrade is complete. Uh remember that was one of the big reasons we had to do it was because um you know, they couldn't plug a hot dog warmer and a crockpot in at the same time without tripping the breakers. And we've taken care of of all that. Now, um that's just the new service panel right there. Uh they've got now a new 200 amp service. We raised the height of the service windows, cut out, of course, a block and raised the height of those. Uh, probably most of you guys haven't been inside the the snack bar over there, but because of the way it was reconfigured over the years when they had done various renovations, the the interior floor was too high relative to the window.
029So, you would have to actually lean down to be able to serve people through the window. So, we've taken care of that. Cut out of course the block, moving that whole thing up. They'll have uh they used to have these big heavy wooden doors that they had to lay down and then they were in the way on the inside is how that opening was closed off. Now they're going to have coiling doors uh stainless steel coiling doors, new countertops, all of that stuff in there. So, our guys are doing all the work for this. This is another minor capital project and they're making uh great progress on it. Uh out at Northside High School, we're doing those new stadium lights. Um, so over the break, all all the the pole bases are in, the concrete's
030in, and over the break they completed all of the directional boring. That's a big deal because that means the 13t deep holes for each pole plus all of the directional boring, which is um you have a drill bit that comes in, it goes down, and then it turns and goes parallel with the surface. And in this case, it goes all the way under the field and under the stadium to the other side where the the light poles are on the home side to get electricity to those lights. And that's all done without any incident. So that's a it's always a relief when that's complete because you never know what you're going to hit, you know, down that uh down that deep. So it's all done. The um new electrical service is scheduled for next week
031to come from a connect to this panel here. And once that's done, they'll come back in with a crane, set the light poles on top of these stubs, and we'll get close to being done. So, the plan is to still have that done before uh spring sports gets started. And then last, out at Hidden Valley High School, it's the biggest one in terms of uh the cost uh putting in the artificial turf field out there. You can see the progress they've made. They've removed all the top soil. They've got a subgrade established there. That's the dirt. They put the um the first layer of gravel down on the middle part of the field uh and installed the drainage line. That's along the left hand side there. They've installed the drainage line and they are um
032continuing the subgrade process with the stone. So the way this works, they'll put that fabric down. Well, well, you rake off all the grass, you dig a sort of shallow hole, get everything level. You come back, you put the fabric down, then you put uh a layer of coarse stone down, which has embedded in it uh the drainage system that brings the water over to this trench. Then you put a layer of fine stone over that. They'll come back and um do the fine grade with the with the real fine stone. And then they lay the carpet right over top of it. And they think that the um the artificial turf could actually be delivered on site as early as next week. So, uh, as you know, I was extremely hesitant to try to do
033this and get it in before spring sports, but, uh, knock on wood, right now they, uh, are making fantastic progress and they're they're on schedule. So, um, you know, I'm holding my breath. But, you know, we've worked out contingency plans with the schools and those sort of things if it doesn't get finished. But, right now, they're they're doing great. So, that's just some additional pictures of of what the site looks like right now. Uh, that's all I have. Do we have any questions about anything we haven't covered? Okay. >> Thank you. >> Item 3.03, review of general budget development process. Dr. Ken Nicely and Miss Susan Peterson. >> All right. Well, uh, good afternoon. Uh our agenda was otherwise a pretty light uh today obviously. So we thought uh Miss Peterson kind of did uh
034word development overview I mean the budget development overview back uh in December but uh some time has passed here. We're getting ready to really uh go into full full gear with that whole process. And uh just with kicking off the new school year, we thought it'd be worthwhile just to do a brief uh review of that process. And again emphasis on brevity. We have no meat yet as far as you know revenue numbers, expense numbers, uh new requests and that kind of stuff. That process, as uh Miss Peterson will explain, will get kicked off um next week as far as meeting with department chairs and so forth. Uh but uh we did want to again just kind of review the process. So do you have uh if do we have slides to show we can
035go up there, Miss Peterson? You've got those right there. Okay. You also have a hard copy of of that. So, um, everything just kind of put everything in context. You know, the school division, we ask the schools to to to do the same thing. Uh, we'll move on to the next slide there, Miss Peterson. But everything that we do in terms of prioritizing and decision- making and so forth, all stems from what uh what we refer to as our C change framework, which was it's in your policy and schoolboard policy is the very first thing that we refer to in terms of our vision for our district. everything we do really needs to emanate from uh what we're about as a school division and it really helps to be reminded of those things um when
036it comes to having to make tough decisions and budget time always involves making tough decisions and so uh one of those things needs to be okay where does this fit into what we're about as a school district. So uh so our C change framework of course represents our comprehensive uh vision for our district. Um and it's all about preparing every single student every day, every classroom, every uh school to be opportunity ready. So at the heart of our cange framework, it's all about learning, right? Why are we why do we send kids to school every day? It's to learn, right? So we learn knowledge, we learn skills, we learn mindsets, we learn how to get along with one another. All kind of things we're learning. But when we talk about deeper learning, that's really this
037idea that we want learning that's engaging, learning that's purposeful, and that that should affect every single lesson in every single day in our schools. We've um obviously had lots to celebrate in terms of the results we've gotten from student outcomes. Uh focusing on that, not just on the knowledge when it comes to, you know, things tested by test scores and things of that sort. We uh are hitting way above our weight class on that front, you know, as compared to the 131 districts in Virginia. and very proud of all the work that our teachers and principles and students do every day. But it's more than that. It's about the skill development. That idea of being opportunity ready. We know that uh the CC change framework says that none of that happens in a vacuum. It's
038it takes everybody working together, working on climate, which means, you know, safety, security, uh having kids have that sense of belonging and making sure they're connected to what's happening in schools. Those are uh foundational principles that um that have to be in place. the learning culture, you know, uh that we get excited about learning. We have teachers who get excited about not just um whom they teach, but what they teach. And it's contagious when and kids know the difference, you know, when you're in a class when when everybody's excited about what we're learn. We can't wait to to learn about uh you know, whatever concept is uh going on today. I was at Glen Clove yesterday. I asked the fourth graders as they were exiting to the bus, what'd you learn today? Probability. Whoa, that's
039pretty impressive. You know, [laughter] and they also chimed in chimed in on the constitution. I thought we're doing pretty good. pretty good in fourth grade if they're learning uh some of those uh those concepts early on. So, but the learning is taking place and uh it's exciting when the kids are excited about what's happening. Of course, all the things that make that happen, support, that's where the budget, finances, our technology, all the resources that uh come together, the training, the professional growth, all of those things work in concert in very complex ways to make that happen. So, we can move on. So um we we of course make that very real in our district in terms of our opportunity ready graduate program our profile of graduates over there on the right. So all the things
040that we're doing to make that real for our students um and you go to the next slide. So when we think about being opportunity ready that of course we define that as um our students being equipped with the knowledge skills and dispositions necessary to you to thrive to be successful. Uh so we have some really tangible things going on right now through student le conferencing which is coming up soon in our elementary uh uh grades. That'll happen in April in the middle schools at the high school level that uh the senior defense that portfolio development that evidence of skills um that get kids are are graduating with and of course last year we graduated the very first 300 students with their opportunity ready um uh diploma seal and this year we expect to double and
041triple that. So, in fact, I was talking with our SACE group last evening and and talking to the seniors about that, making sure everybody's on the same page, and it sounds like the the schools are well on their way with that. So, um, of course, all the things that's, uh, in terms of decision- making, Susan, go to next slide. um everything when in terms of decision- making, setting priorities, um you know, how to spend uh our funds, uh aligning all of our resources, how to determine staffing, all of that should be informed through the lens of this big comprehensive vision that we call our our seed change framework. Uh just a reminder of some some procedures, some practices, protocols, principles that we sort of live by in terms of the decision- making. We recognize when
042it comes to budget time, there are some variables we can control and there's some that we really don't. Things like um you know fixed uh utility increases and things of that sort. There are some things that are beyond our control. Even things that we feel like we don't have a lot of control of. We still need to have the mindset of negotiating, exploring alternatives, trying to economize, and of course making sure all of um our decisions align with that sea change framework. We we really strive for consistency across the division. That's that's important for a division our size with, you know, 27 schools and all the folks that and all the um the buildings that comprise that. But we also recognize their individual needs across the district. There are times when you know this school
043needs something different um you know compared to other schools and so we kind of keep all those things in mind. Gathering input from stakeholders is really important um throughout that process. Um ultimately you know adopting a board a budget is in the hands of you all as a school board. Uh but I know you all value hearing from you know what uh what the the schools need, what departments need, what uh you what students think about this and parents and everybody else. Of course um we can't do it all. We're going to have limited resources and so we have to at the end of the day through the budget process prioritize those are those are those tough decisions. Um we're always evaluating our spending. And just a reminder to the board, I mean, uh, for
044this current school year leading into FY26, uh, we did a lot of work last year in terms of reducing some department budget, some positions. I think we saved in the neighborhood of $900 and some thousand dollars last year in terms of some position reductions and so forth. One of the exercises we did last year to remind the board is, you know, looking especially at, you know, central administration positions. You know, how do we stack up compared to other divisions that are like us and similar size, similar uh, demographics? um similar, you know, uh material and financial resources. And uh so we we we actually sat down physically with uh two or three other divisions that are like us. And we found they they said, "Look, you you guys are getting a lot of bang for
045your buck because we really are are pretty pretty lean and and mean when it comes to uh you know, getting done we do compared to the number of positions that we had." So I know that comes up from time to time. I just want to reassure the board that is something that we're very mindful of. Um but truly when you compare us with other divisions our size, uh we have far fewer positions than those other districts and get get a lot done with it. Of course u at the end of the day we're trying to make student centered decisions meeting needs. Um and we can't do any of that with our human resources, our teachers, our our aids, our staff, everybody. And so continuing to keep that as a priority, recruiting, retaining high quality uh
046human resources of course is hugely important. And that's always uh important to keep in mind during the budget process because as we consider new spending requests and so forth. Everything that we do that's new of course um limits our ability to maximize um you know the salary increases. And so those are things uh we've been through and go through every year. Those are just reminders uh you know as we go through this process not only for us as a board but also anybody who's kind of observing this process. So, uh, Miss Peterson's going to quickly walk us through just what the steps are and, uh, we'll go from there. >> Thank you, Dr. Nicely. Um, and this is mostly what I presented in December. I just want to give you a refresher. Um, I do
047want to do a shout out, Dr. Me. I think that was a wonderful introduction and beginning of budget to bring us back to our core beliefs, our core values, our strategic plan. best budgeting practices is to always link what you're spending to your your your strategic plan. Um, and so I think that's a really great way to move forward. Uh, because it's it's always good to have that in the back of your mind. Um, and I do apologize for I think there's a ghost in the computer. Some of these slides were moving on their own and I was not even touching the the mouse at some of these points. Um, [laughter] Um so uh so Dr. Nicely has already given us a a lovely introduction. I'll review the budget process, talk about the uh budget
048adoption basis. There are two different bases we look at. Um an quick review of the 26 budget of revenues and expenditures just to remind everybody of of the numbers that we're talking about. Um the Virginia budget timeline is in here along with the counties and then our calendar and there are couple of changes to the calendar already that I'll emphasize. So first the budgeting process is a four-step process. Uh it begins with kind of this the next several months. It's it's the planning um going into the budgeting. We're establishing goals. We're linking them to our strategic plan. We have uh adopted a calendar um approved a calendar. We are going to forecast revenues going forward. We will identify priorities. We have already uh received a bunch of priority requests uh from the different uh departments
049here at central office. Uh and we will analyze those in department meetings that we will have next week with all of the departments. Um, we will have meetings with the the SACE, the RCCPO, uh, with the EAC, uh, with principles, uh, just to keep everybody up to date with, uh, the progress of the budget. Uh, we will have a public hearing, uh, next month. Uh, this is required by law and we do it every year. Um, and then communications. I always, uh, push out the budget blog and attach everything to the finance website. to anyone. We we attempt to be as transparent as possible and anyone can access the materials um whenever they need. Uh the adoption will occur in March when you adopt the budget and then uh through the county uh approving the
050ordinances appropriating the funds to us in May. uh the execution of the budget, it really begins July 1st when we load the budget and we operate and we buy stuff and and and spend our money down and we have employees working and we pay our payroll uh liabilities um and we report monthly to you. So that's really the execution and then the evaluation um are the results of our of the whole year that we have come to. It's our carryover balance. It's our annual audit. It's our acer. The really gigantic book in front of you that I expect you to pick up and read every night. Um it will be a good way to help you fall asleep. Uh some of that stuff is not necessarily uh riveting. Uh unless you know you are money
051dorky kind of like me and my team. No offense to my team back there in the in the corner. Um so then what I wanted to share with you uh kind of up front is we do adopt our budget in two different ways. Uh we present to the school board the budget based on funds. And if you think of a fund, you've heard me say this before. Think of it as a bucket of money. It is set up for a a specific purpose and it always balances. So your revenues and expenditures balance. Uh and the way that our relationship with the county is uh general fund has a specific way of how we carry over the money and where we allocate it after the close of the fiscal year, but all of our other funds
052are allowed to retain the money that's sitting in them. And this is really critical for us because it allows us to uh do long-term planning with transfers uh to smooth out uh any hiccups we see coming down the road. And so you can see on the screen, I won't read them all, but you can see um all of the funds. We've got governmental funds, proprietary funds, and a fiduciary fund. Um but I won't go into the details of them right now. Uh the second uh way that we adopt the budget is through the the board of supervisor ordinance. Um and they have chosen to adopt our budget based off of instructional category. These are the state code major classifications that they use. Um this is a challenge for us because uh unlike the county who
053operates based on function, we don't necessarily do that. And the biggest hiccup is the uh box down at the bottom technology. Every single one of our departments use technology. And so they all have to budget uh their software into that account so that we can report to the state correctly. And so that's a a a kind of harder thing for our departments to do because they don't necessarily know always how much they're going to spend on a computer or a mouse or uh telephones. All of that has to be coded to to the um technology. Now, the majority of instructional expenditures will be in instruction. Your elementary department will be in instruction majority, but you do have these other categories out there. Um so that that is the challenge, but that is what we um
054are required to do. And I do bring that forth uh for approval for by you and then the board of supervisors. Uh so just to do a quick review of the budgeting process, we have money coming in and the biggest pot is coming from the state. Uh a large chunk of it is coming from standards of quality. Uh this is usually based off of March 31st ADM. Um and it it is applied against the local composite index. It is the beginning of the new bienium. And at our work session at the end of the month, I will uh go into grave detail of of what our projected ADM uh budget will look like and what our local composite index um turned out to be for this next bianium. Um and I'll I'll let you know
055the local composite index was a little good news for us. Um but that's that's the only teaser I'll give you. Uh we also get categorical and lottery funds from the state. The other uh large chunk of money that we receive is from the county. This is local revenue and it is based off of revenue sharing agreement that is um adopted by the board of supervisors. The formula itself in the county's comprehensive financial um policies. And so uh I can share that with you if you want to see the the nuts and bolts of that. And uh typically we'll I may mention this again when we get to the calendar, but we'll know this around um February uh is when we typically get the revenue sharing agreement numbers from the county. And then our other uh
056source of money can be federal funds, other money, um these would include grants, um e-ate, Medicaid money. Uh so that's a much smaller amount. If you pay attention to these colors and remember the state, the county, and the other, this is what our general fund budget looks like for the current year. So, just to give you an idea, yes, the state is 54% of our pot, the local revenues are 45% and then all the other um money is much smaller. So, that's where our money comes from. Now, let's uh do a real brief of where it goes. So the largest chunk as you can imagine is our human resources. So these are compensation and benefits. So for this we look at staffing. That's how many positions do we have and where are they located. Um
057we also look at wages. We look at we have two salary scales. We have a teacher librarian and school counselor scale and we have a non-teer librarian and school counselor scale. Uh and they have a relationship to each other. And everywhere, every year we look at uh the scale to uh see how much of an increase we can give to everyone overall. Um in addition to providing everybody a one-step move up the scale. Uh so that on the teacher side, librarian and counselors that would equate to their years of of service, but for everyone else, it does not necessarily equate to the years of service. It's just them progressing along the scale. And then we also look at benefits and um you know the the the hot topic I'm sure you all recall from last
058year is health insurance. Uh and so that I do imagine will be a another year of of grand information and what I keep hearing from other localities are they're seeing large increases in their insurance as well. So, I don't know if that's a they're catching up to us and we hit the bad year first or if we're going to continue down a bad year. Um, we do have um new insurance consultants that we are actually meeting with tomorrow so that we can start that that ball rolling. we will bring to you all of the compensation information at the the third at the second work session um in February so that you'll have all that. Uh we look at the current needs and so that's going to be what the departments and the schools uh need
059just for the the current year uh upcoming. Uh that's what most of our meetings next week are going to be about. And um we let the schools and the departments know if a if a school needs something, they should let whatever department that would be over that need know so that they can include it in their budget. Um that's the most streamlined way we have uh to address both needs. And then finally for long-term planning, I have a slide later on on this, so I won't go into much detail, but we this uh helps us for several years out identify which years are going to be high capital needs uh so that we can adjust transfers slowly so we don't have one big large hit going forward. It also we have a um financing arrangement
060with the county in regards to our CIP. And so it also allows us to plan specifically we know what years they are allocating us bond money and we can plan when our next uh three school big projects are going to be. I thought I get a chuckle out of that because you know everybody wants to do three schools at one time again. We asked the board of supervisors if they would give us the full amount of revenue sharing this year instead of [clears throat] keeping a couple million. >> Is that possible to have that conversation that they actually give us the full amount of the revenue sharing this year? >> We can speak with administration. >> Yeah. Instead of withholding a couple million. >> I mean that would go a long ways towards our health
061insurance too. >> Sure. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> Um so that expenditures. This is just from the general fund. Um I I think this is a a telling uh slide. 73% of the budget expenditures for the current year uh does go towards the general fund um for wages and and benefits. Uh so you can see how much we do spend. 114 million in wages. Uh almost 19 million for VRS benefits. 17.3 million uh for health. 8.7 for taxes. Um, and then it gets lower for dental and other uh for VRS. Uh, so Dr. Nicely, Dr. Sultess and I were at a conference uh early this week and heard from uh Miss Bishop who is with the VRS and I was really um intrigued to find out we're the Virginia VRS pension plan is the 15th
062largest pension plan in all of the United States. and teachers are the largest part of that plan. So, I thought that was really interesting to hear. We also have teachers are the longest folks in the plan and the oldest retirees in the plan. So, >> what's the taxes portion? >> FICA. >> Okay. So then with the long-term planning, I said we we'd have a slide on this. Uh in the general fund, we we use money a transfer line in the general fund and we put money into these other funds, the the fleet replacement fund, instructional resources, technology and capital fund so that we can buy buses, adopt textbooks and have materials in hand. uh replace technology, buy new technology, um build buildings. Um these are they the replacement plans vary in year. They're from five
063years up to like 20 years. And so we can look years out and know um what is going to be a hard year. And we actually we plan to cover that year using current money. And it keeps us from having one time very large chunks of money going into um like buses. We we have a certain amount that we always put in there for buses and we place a certain amount every year. So that's just a a strategic uh manner that's been set up for years and we're just continuing. Uh nutrition services fund also has their equipment plan. Um but they they fund their own uh using their own own money. So then the Virginia budget timeline, I won't bleer this because I did talk about this uh previously, but just um you know the
064next date that's really important on here is next Wednesday. The general assembly will convene um and that will start us open the gates and we'll start running towards the the finish line. [snorts] And then the Ronut County timeline was in here. Um this is pulled off of their uh budget calendar. Uh, so just to let you know kind of where we fit in with with their timeline and then this is an ugly it's okay in paper format but in the screen it's very small. I acknowledge that uh this is the the budget calendar that you approved at the last work session uh with a minor small minor change and I probably should have um marked this but I'll highlight it with a pen. Uh we had a these two dates is being uh the ending
065of the budget but we have moved the work session up to March 11th and then we put a budget hold on March 30th and we're going to adopt the budget on March 31st and so that's a little bit different um and and so since we're going to do ab adopt the budget on March 31st it is due to the county um by the end of that night and April 1st it is due So just the the remaining schedule is the same as before and that's it. So if you have any questions for the year end 2425 numbers to the board. >> Um so next Tuesday is the second reading of the ordinance by the board supervisor. She the first time in December, >> correct? >> And the second one will be the 13th. >> And
066then they adopted that. >> Yes. And then we we then we have our money. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> Does anyone have any questions? >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Is there anything else? All right. Meeting adjourned. >> [music]