001[Music] Heat. Hey. Hey. Hey. [Music] Heat. Heat. Hallelujah. [Music] How are you? [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Yeah, you [Music] Hallelujah. [Music] I'd like to call our May 12th, 2025 Reno County School Board budget sess work session to order. Madame clerk, will you please call the role? Mr. Greenway? Yes, ma'am. Mr. London? Yes, ma'am. Mr. Johnny? Yes, ma'am. Mr. Hudson? Yes, ma'am. Mr. Clemens? Yes, ma'am. Item 2.01, 2025 20226 budget work session number five, Miss Susan Peterson. Great. Good afternoon, Madam Chair, members of the board. Um, it's great to be here today. We have wonderful news from the state. We have a lot more money. Um, so this is uh I'm really excited to be here to be able to present this information to you. Um we are going to go
002over the 25 budget updates and then we'll switch gears and go into the 26 budget revision. Uh because we have already adopted a budget so we do want to revise the one that we have. So with the 25 budget revision um the we have taken the uh submitted March 31st average ADM uh on which our funds are typically uh based and we've run it through the March calculator tool from VDOE uh and it does look like our general fund is going to be short by $616,855 and that basically reflects the fact that we um are under our estimate for students by about 80. Uh you'll see in yellow I have the grant fund uh the 1.5 million that does include 1,514,496 that was included in the budget for 2025 uh by the the governor. Um,
003and this is a bonus for our our employees. If you recall back in April of 20, okay, my dates are wrong. Sorry. Um, a few work sessions ago, we did I did present the bonus options. Um, and the school board was in agreement at that time that we were not going to supplement. And so, what we'll do is we'll take that full bonus and we will divide it by the number of employees that is deemed eligible. Um, it is my understanding that the school board would like to make this bonus um, eligible for any employee who signs their contract by June 15th and are returning along with all retirees. Um, so that is my understanding of who would be eligible for this bonus. We'll take that total number of folks and divide them do the
004math out and that is how much bonus they will get. So, we will not supplement it at all. Um, since we're looking at the June 15th date, we will then be looking at a June 30th payout for uh these folks for their bonus. Um, going into uh kind of back on this page, I showed the general fund uh decrease there. We're below budget. Uh I have shared this slide with you many times throughout the year. Uh we do have our uh estimated payroll lapse of about 5 million. Uh the revenue deficit has been updated to show the negative 666 uh855. Uh we do have the maximum exposure for the PTO sick payouts of 713,000. Uh the maximum exposure for the electricity overr over overruns is still about 83,000. New to the uh list is estimated
005cost to implement the AED legislature. This is um a new Senate Bill 817 which does require um AEDs to be um available for all of our sports practices and games. Uh we have gone through uh Ms. veil. Uh our lead nurse has gone through and worked with all of our uh high school and middle school principles and our athletic directors and has come up with a game plan. Uh we would need to purchase uh approximately 46 more devices, 24 temperature control cabinets, uh 20 other cabinet, two other cabinets, um some signage around the the division. Um and this is only going to cost about 69,000. So, this is good news because it's a lot less than we were anticipating to begin with. Um, but that is an an amount that really is going to be
006a one-time figure for right now. I do think uh we have a little bit of cushion in the uh the the nursing budget to replace AEDs. We're probably going to want to add to that uh going forward in in future years. Obviously, not this year, but in future years, we're going to want to take a look at that so that we can ensure we can replace them in a timely manner. Um, and then the other item that's highlighted in yellow, uh, you have already approved and the board has already approved a transfer to the health fund of a million. Uh, we are looking at at hopefully trying to get another million transferred, uh, before year end uh, to just do everything we can to get these health reserves built up. Um, and this will leave
007us with a net remaining payroll lapse of uh 788,000. Now, keep in mind this is net payroll lapse only. It's about 78% of our budget. We do still have the spending freezing the departments and so year end surplus I expect to be slightly higher than this with the savings from the departments. Do the AEDs have expiration dates? If so, any idea how long? I I think they do, but I think um from what Charlene has heard from EMS folks is if it's still working, it's still working. So really, we just have to worry about the batteries of them and replacing the batteries when they come come expire. Any other questions? I know that we check ours like every month at work. So, I'm assuming she'll put a policy in place and just to make sure
008that they all are functional. She is we we have a similar policy that currently all of ours are checked. I was thinking she said they were daily. Um might be and so they will all have to be checked. Uh training will have to be provided uh for coaches and uh she is working on a policy uh to bring forth surrounding this whole issue. Thank you. I would uh just want to point out and I know the board you would appreciate this. This is legislation that was passed by the general assembly requiring this. It's an unfunded mandate. They didn't give us any funds whatsoever to actually implement this. So, uh that's always, you know, challenging when that when that happens when those costs are just passed along to us at the local level. One question about
009the PTO6 payouts and that may be something Jim can is I'm assuming that's to put on the books for worst case scenario right that is the worst case scenario right so that we shouldn't expect that in future years to go up should we yeah it would not okay it it should be less and we also have budget built in this year to cover that right Okay. Yeah, it was just higher if I remember correctly because we were just initiating that program. It's the first year and um yeah, I think uh from what Mr. Bradshaw has reported previously, the the the good news out of this um you know idea has been that I think the schools have been planned had been able to plan a whole lot better for you know absences and so our
010fill rate has actually gone way up. That's because schools are actually planning for it versus somebody calling in at the last minute and then having to scramble to kind of cover classes. So, you know, so as far as like, you know, the continuity of education in the classrooms every day, it's just definitely been a, you know, positive thing. So I think once we get a couple years under our belt to kind of see the trend in terms of the cost, you know, and I just have one question for Susan that um the the money the the total number that you give us before was a was I think almost twice as much as the 69,000 for those AEDs. So how did you get the cost down? Did you buy it in bulk or do you
011have a grant or I just didn't No. Um Charlene just worked with them and they just reduced the numbers that they needed. Okay. Yeah. The initial news. Yeah. The initial 200,000 we were fearing, right? Um once they, you know, actually, you know, worked with the coaches, the ads to find out exactly the numbers because they have to be, you know, at uh tennis courts and uh golf, golf courses and cross country and all those places. And so, uh we were we were pleased to see it much lower than the 200,000. like away when you're away it's the responsibility of whoever you're at like whoever's district you're in right but but you have to also have it for practices well that's a I mean because isn't there like a time I mean there's obviously there's a
012time here you know a volatile time that it would need to be used and was it was it that in the bill too was it like three minutes or something like that that makes it hard yeah it's it's a definite challenge especially in cross country right so Miss Peters any anything else on this because I I'll summarize what they're what they have to decide. Right. Um I think that's it. So um so the decision point for the board um you know one recommendation would be the last thing in yellow about the transferring the additional million dollars into the health insurance reserve fund. That is her recommendation. So, um, so one item that we would bring, uh, if there's consensus for the May 22nd would be to approve that additional transfer, um, as well as appropriating
013the, you know, the onetime bonus that, um, that the state did give us, but do we not need to look at the totality with the with what you're going to share with us about payroll first to know about this piece as well? You mean I'm not following you. The 3% the Yeah, for next year's budget. Okay. So that's for I got This is all 25. This is going back. No, we're using the addition. I gota Yes, sir. Okay. I'm sorry. And I had a slide. Oh, okay. Yeah. But yes, those are those are the two decisions you have to make that. So if if there if there was agreement, this would go on as one item for May 22nd. Otherwise, we'd have an additional million69 to go between minor and major capital. Correct. Yeah. As
014far as like Yeah. If you didn't transfer the million dollars into health reserves, it stays as a part of that carryover. Okay. And that any any update on what that'll do for our insurance reserves to know at the end of the year? So we were with the previous million we were going to be at a we were going to be back to whole. Right. Right. I think this will leave us with about a million surplus. So that then going forward I think we were projecting to have four million in the future budget. We are. So now we'll end up having 5 million. That is the hope. Yes. So that we'll be so that if so then we can get out of the hold we've got on the other stuff certainly but it right if if
015it all panned out that certainly put us in a much better position. Okay. Okay. Good news. Can I can I make one clarification? Yes, sir. Sorry. I just want to make sure we we talk about the bonus and how it's going to get paid. Uh that bonus that we're recommending is for current contracted 2024 employees. that signed their contract to be under contract again for us for the 2526 school year. That's right. New retirees. I just want to make sure because we have a lot of new employees coming to us for next year. They're already under contract as of now because they've gone out. I just want to make sure that we specify that. So, it's just returning employees. Yes, sir. Correct. I just wanted to make sure that that we were clear on that
016as we move forward so there's no confusion if I get called. Thank you. Thank you. All right. And so then the next thing we'll do is we'll start looking at our uh 26 budget revision, excuse me. Um so what I've done on the most of the rest of these slides is show you what you have already adopted in March, what the final amount will be and what the change is. Uh this is the revenue and the summary of all the revenue changes. State revenue will go up 3.3 million. Reno County revenue sharing agreement will go up 597,284 and then the CSA portion that we get from the county and we give back goes up 250,000. Now that 250 is offset by a spending of 250 down below. Um and then the dual enrollment. Uh so
017we were ahead of ourselves on this one and we have removed the dual enrollment tuition uh from our uh budget going forward in expectation and hopes that the legislature would have taken that away. Uh parts of that have come back and so we've got to put parts of that back on the books. Uh so we'll be putting the tuition enrollment on and then also an relatable expenditure back on the books as well. starts to kind of flow through. Can I do you mind if I I don't want to uh belabor this point, but uh I'm not sure we've discussed this publicly what's going on with that. So, might be worth just really quickly saying that. So, you know, there was legislation passed uh after a JARK study was done saying that community colleges uh should
018not charge tuition for dual enrollment. Um and that's what we thought last fall was going to happen across the board. What has since happened because um the community colleges were expecting some more funding from the state um they've kind of gone to the the minimal starting point from what the law says and that is for students who are trying to earn what's called their um universal um certificate of general studies which is a prescribed list of of courses they can take as dual enrollment while they're in high school. uh those courses they can't charge for. They and we have to provide and they can't charge us for so nobody's charging. So everybody's on the same page with that. Uh but anything that's not on that prescribed list the community college can continue to charge tuition
019for and they they do charge a discounted rate. Students pay about $42 I think per credit hour. Um so but that also varies by community college. So some community colleges charge tuition, some do not. uh we're in the Virginia Western Service region, they do charge. So, what we expect to happen is moving forward uh again those students who are just taking the courses on that list for their um universal certificate of general studies will not have to pay tuition, but everybody else will. So, if you're in a CTE course, if you're an advanced math course, um anything not on that list, they'll continue to pay the tuition like as they have been. So, I just wanted to clarify what that's about. And as Susan's explaining, in terms of our budget, that's just money in, money
020out. That's not additional funds that we pay for. All right. Um, so then, uh, one of the biggest tickets that we wanted to look at was salary. The 1.6% is what we already built into the budget. That's already accounted for and paid for. Um, everyone who is below the top step will get a step. um of 1.6%. We also went back and recalculated um pushing the envelope as much as we could um a 3% scale shift along with a 3% provided to everyone who is on the top of the scale or higher. So all employees should get the 3%. If you're below the top of the scale, you will also get 1.6%. So anyone who is below the top of the scale should get a total of 4.6% this next year. If you are over
021the top of the scale, you will get the 3%. Uh we wanted to share uh there was a question about um a a teacher around $50,000 and they're on the family plan. So this scenario shows what would happen if and the lefth hand column shows kind of what the teacher is currently and uh on the right hand column shows uh an estimate of what the teacher may be moving towards. So we're looking at a sixth year teacher move into their six seventh year and you can see below the salary change for that will be 50,387 to 52704. So that will be an increase of 2317 for that employee. We're making the assumption that the this is a marriedu employee with a family plan who is participating in wellness and will thus be grandfathered into wellness
022uh next year. We are assuming that this person is on key 1000 and is choosing the the healthers 2000 just to as illustrative purposes, right? Uh so their cash out their premium that they pay in 25 for the the key 1000 is 10,421 in 26 moving to the healthers they will pay $9,8.98. So they will have savings of $523. So their net pay will go from 3966 to 42806. So that is an increase in their net pay of 2840. So that was just ill illustrative purposes of um of what happened to an employee under that situation. So So thank you for providing that. I think that's a great illustration for us to to share with our teachers and staff about what changes are are coming from this year to to next year because we've heard
023so much about our insurance increasing and uh insurance is going to continue to be a a a tough uh benefit we we've got to deal with and keep improving all the time. But I want to make sure cuz I' I have heard from some teachers that we've taken a step back, you know, based off the contracts they just received. want to make sure the message is understood that now we're adding if we approve it which I'm sure I hope we we will um that with that additional 3% that's going to change the contract that you've received going to change the numbers that you've been looking at and that you are going to be in a positive uh going forward next year and depending on which plan you choose uh if you stay with a thousand
024it it'll be a little less of a a positive uh increase to your pay. Uh but you could also if if you're fortunate enough not to have a lot of health issues to do the healthers uh 3,400 plan. Uh there's no cost to you for that that insurance, but for a front family that's probably not an option. So uh but I just want to make sure everybody understands that with a 4.6 six uh% increase uh coming next year. Uh that we're still working hard as a school board. We're still uh trying to make sure we give as much as we can to our teachers. We recognize your value. We know we couldn't do any of this without you. We're indebted to you for our in our communities. Um and this is just not public speak.
025This is the truth. Um, so hopefully you'll take a look at this illustration and uh, you know, hopefully this 4.6% that is being proposed and I appreciate staff Susan, Dr. Nicely, Dr. Sult, everybody that's worked on this, Ken, uh, Jim. I mean, uh, everybody that's worked on this. Thank you. Uh, just want to make sure that people realize we're we're moving forward. Um, it's not perfect, but it's a lot better than some divisions. And so we want to make sure we take care of our teachers. Thank you. So then the next slide, actually the next two pages, um, this is illustrative of our teacher scale compared to our neighbors. Um, I changed this from how I showed it previously. Uh, you have the three different columns. a first year teacher, a 15y year teacher, and
026a 30-year teacher. And you can see the amounts kind of go up across the I kept the same scale so you could see them increasing over the years. Um, and for the current year, we are, you know, dead center for a first year teacher and a 30-year teacher, and we're uh fifth when it comes to the 15th year teacher. uh doing my best to estimate how our 3% increase will impact us. Uh we went out and uh some of the school divisions had their scalies published for next year. Some of them we had to take estimates and so uh please know all these are estimates of what our neighbors are. They're not for sure numbers. uh but we do look to be uh in similar positioning for the first and 15th year but it looks
027like we have moved up to third place in the 30th year and so uh as folks are getting closer to retirement we are doing more for them at that point that's how the the money fell off. Uh so just illustrative purposes so everyone kind of see where we where we land. Um moving on into the department requests. So uh first you'll see human resources. This 3.7 million is the uh additional cost for the 3% scale shift including those who are above the scale. Uh that's the only change in HR. Uh moving into finance. So we had a couple of changes in uh this list. Uh we added to the technology replacement plan uh the student safe. This is an addon for Raptor. We're getting um an extremely great discount because we already use the product.
028Um this is going to allow us to uh do threat assessments within a a system uh that let me jump in. Yes, please. So, Student Safe is a is a onehouse system that we can do bully bullying assessments, threat assessments, any of those type things. And it it we upload our forms, but it notifies the next person in line, hey, this needs to be done. This needs to be done. So, instead of the folder system that we've created through Microsoft, this will actually send notifications to ensure nobody's dropping the ball along the way with all those different types of assessments we need to do. Um the CSA transfer, as I mentioned before, we have the revenue coming in and then uh this is just a transfer we give back to the county. Uh so it's
029an equal an offstanding amount. Um I'm going to jump to the last line because that's really good news. Uh the Senate Bill 1017, which required us to pay off all unpaid mill debt annually, uh was not did not make the pass. And so that didn't come to to be. We just have to do what we've always done and and fund those who are leaving the school division at the end of a year. So that would be your seniors and anyone who has transferred out. Um everyone else stays on the books with their unpaid meal debt because they're probably going to be funded in the fall when they come back in, right? And so that's uh good news for us. Uh so that's uh we're we're not we're reducing our expenses by 100,000 for that. Um
030we are adding a small amount in here for nutrition marketing. It has come to our attention that some of the marketing materials that we are providing um specifically decorations and prizes that uh we put out during like school lunch week, school breakfast week um and other kind of celebratory needs in our um our cafeterias. Uh these are not allowed to be purchased in the nutrition fund itself. And so we want to leave some money in there because this does the feedback that we get from our our managers is that this does um create excitement among our students and we do have more engagement among our students when we can can celebrate them and and have uh this additional information and and stuff out there for them. And so that's just a small amount uh that
031we did want to put out there to be used by the nutrition team in the general fund. Susan, this might be a sidebar question, but with some of the regulations that have come down regarding dyes and other things in our foods, additives, will that affect our bottom line at all? Um, I know that Mrs. Strada is already taking a look at menus and ensuring that we're in compliance. Okay. I think that's a good thing. She also on another side note um she's done a whole lot with the styrofoam. Styrofoam is not allowed to be used and we actually only found I think one school in which we had any left uh and that was going to be donated to the art department if they wanted it. Uh moving on uh to the next page under
032administration uh one of the first adbacks that we have wage another 50,000 going into athletic aotments. This will give each high school another $7,600 and each middle school another $2,400. So that was just one of the adbacks that we had listed. Moving to the next page under technology, um AI software for teachers and students. Uh so this is a a new uh relatively newer issue coming to pass and this software is what uh the division has been looking into. um it will be able be available to all students and all teachers and has all the correct data privacy agreements that we need to have in place to protect the privacy of our students. Um so this is the 81,000 that we would end up needing. This is an ongoing cost and so we are putting
033it in the general fund uh to be protect their data. Yes. So it has an extra layer built in before it goes out to chat GPT or claude or any of those. It's It's supposed to scrub all the personally identified information first. So, it's actually one of the few companies that would sign the Virginia Data Privacy Act. Okay, that's good. A AI is a reality. This allows us to use it in a safe way, right? Yeah. Perfect. And it's built on a platform for schools. Okay. Um, and then the next one in facilities and operations, our maintenance department, uh, would like to, uh, have a student apprentice come work with them. And so, we're going to build in some money for for that. This is the same basis of our student registered apprenticeships that businesses
034are participating in. And I want to encourage, you know, our folks to think along the same lines. And it's a great idea, right? Did you mention to chuck my idea? Yes. Okay. You like it, Chuck? Good idea. Okay, Chuck, the answer's yes. Um, moving on to the next page. Uh, one of the another adback that we had on the list was to add a school counselor floater to help with absences. Uh, so that is an adback and I did go ahead and and increase this from what we originally had as the adback number. I added the 3% um on top of this and then you'll see the dual enrollment tuition uh is added down below that does relate to the revenue we've already discussed. Uh so then if you go to the next page on
035page 18 uh the uh last thing on this is we were able to budget and have $26,412 left over. And so, um, I guess it would be my recommendation, uh, that we just throw that into the transfer to the health insurance fund, um, for lack of any other recommendations. Um, if you go to the last [Applause] page, kind of the next steps that I see in this process. Um, so if we could get decisions by May 19th from the school board on the 26 budget revisions and the 25 the bonus appropriation and the health insurance fund transfer, then we can get that information collated and put into the May 22nd uh school board meeting for approval. We would ask you to adopt both of those uh specific items at the May 22 meeting. Uh Dr.
036Sulttus and I will go to the board of supervisor meeting on May 27th and present your res your revised budget. Um it's interesting because that's actually the second reading of our ordinance by the county and so they're going to read the revision as a revised original budget and so we're kind of getting in right underneath the the changes. Uh so they will adopt the ordinance that day as well. The next bit is a graduation day. So I'll be at graduations. And I'm the designated survivor, right? He's he's well, yeah, I won't say no. And then um due to the tight timelines, the county has requested any changes to the ordinance for 2025. We would present June 10th and it would have the second reading on June 24th. I'm personally good with it. Thank you for
037all your hard work that challenge. Definitely happy with the governor's budget. Y helped us out a lot. It really did. Do we have anything else? You know, I'm I'm good with it, too. I mean, it's nice to see 3.3 million coming from the state and 600,000 from local revenue. And you see in the paper where Reno City is looking at losing 6.7 million in in funding decrease and Bedford County only gets 33% of the revenue sharing agreement over there. I mean, I think we're in a a good spot. So, it's great that you've got such good news for us. Well, I think those Rono City kids should apply to Rono County schools and increase their ADM a little bit. Yeah. I would just We've got something really good here. Actually, also have the teacher of
038the year if there ever becomes Dr. Matt Neil. That's right. Yeah. It's good uh good time to say publicly like we we've got billboards all over town. I wanted to celebrate that for Bernardo County Schools, but also for Dr. Neil. So, it's uh you have to have a Virginia State Teacher of the Year. It's a Verno County. Um, something we can all be proud of. So, uh, I I would like just to mention, you know, that we are appreciative of what the state did just because that that is the first time they finally eliminated that artificial support cap that we've been lobbying against for quite a few years. And so, it really took, you know, both the general assembly as well as the governor to come to that agreement. So, we're very appreciative as well
039as our our local legislators supported that. So, we appreciate it. That's good. Yeah. Honestly, I would like to say Yncan has done everything that he said he was going to do for education. He values education, our teachers, and grateful to everything he's done. So what so uh we can do this one of two ways as far as May 22nd. Um you have two items. One would be the actions related to the current year budget, which is uh appropriating the bonus as well as the authorizing the health insurance transfer. That's one item. Second item is approving the revision to the 26 budget. Uh you can do this on consent agenda um on the 22nd. Uh if you prefer for it to go on action, you can. But you you can do it either way. I mean,
040I think if we're all in agreement, then we could put it on consent. Yeah. Right. The only and I'm good with that, but the only reason would we would we need any dis time for if somebody had wanted to discuss it, citizens or for any reason? I think they actually they speak before consent agenda, don't they? if it's an agenda topic. Well, I'm just thinking we won't have it separated as a line item, but it does. I'm good. I'm obviously good with it. Right. I just didn't know if we wanted to give if citizens wanted to say something, but it's still considered an agenda item, right? Oh, you're saying because it would go on consent. Yeah. Yeah. Because then you have time to to deliberate and to change it or you'd have to pull it
041from consent. I think we're all good is what I'm saying. But there may be one citizen out there. might be a hundred that want to say something for when people do public comment, Miss York, on agenda items. I'm trying to remember. Does that usually go before consent? We have can't remember. I think it does. I think it is before. Yeah, but let's say there was an uproar over it just for argument sake. You could have our chair would have to or somebody would have to pull it from consent to make it an action item. So, right. I I'm in I'm completely fine with just it's one extra line item to read and do it as an action item. That's fine with me instead of consent. That's what I'm thinking. Just that way it eliminates and
042then we have consent. Yeah, I think in a democratic system it should just be an action item that's fine with me. I'll do whatever the group wants to do though. Yeah, I'm the same. But I think it does if you just have that one line item, it lets people know and it's another opportunity to raise the fact that we're giving three. Right. Miss Peterson could in an abbreviated form just highlight the fact that you're given this amount in a raise that way. We're discussing it again. That sounds good in front of people. Yeah, we could do that. We do an abbreviated form version of this if that's okay. Yeah. Yeah. Just action then. Okay. And it's business so it's important business. Yep. Yeah. I think it's good to highlight it again. And same thing for
043the um the other piece. You want that on action as well or you want that on consent? The I think the bonus can be the bonus and the health insurance transfer. It's fine with me. Consent, I think. Yeah, I think that would be fine. That's fine. Okay. So, the we'll do that on consent and then the revised 26 budget which is an action item with the uh summary of those actions and yeah, it's a good time to highlight for the employees and public what we're doing on that. It's good news. Well, and that we were given more money than we had anticipated through the general. Thank you, Susan. Thank you. Do we have anything else? All right. Meeting adjourned. [Music]