001we share and questions answered online so that folks who can't join us during this um hour can still watch it later. Um so that's what the recording is about. Um okay. So let's do a little bit um just kind of where we're at. I think um if you were in board boot camp or were with us before you know that um sorry let me make this smaller so I can see my screen everyone. Thanks. Um so you'll you you know that these are the key six responsibilities that we highlight as the role of the board and today we're talking all about financial oversight. Last month we talked about mission, vision and goals which play a role in financial oversight and then um you'll see the next four sessions will be on those other uh the
002the remainder um of the the important board responsibilities. So ultimately um financial oversight is um the man your budget is basically the manifestation of your values and priorities as a district and led by the board. Um so you're legally responsible for approving the um budget for your district through a resolution. Um and it uh shows up in a format called the the one I 95 or the I95, I'm sorry. So, I'll show you all kind of what that looks like a little bit later, but let's take a step back and look across the board where funding comes from and introduce you to a few key words. Um, so the first is that um as of 2019 and it modifies a little bit and I want to name that every district is different, but ultimately um
003the majority of your funding is that purple piece of the pie chart and that is at the state level that state funding. Um the blue is going to be your local funding. So that is uh local taxes, levies, bonds if you've passed them. Um and then the the green is the federal funding and I'm going to outline what that looks like on the next slide. Um but a key word that is really useful is FTE. This is going to be that full-time equivalent. Um and this is based on student enrollment. And as we all know, this is variable every year and modifies changes throughout the year as well. But ultimately you have a projection of your enrollment and that's um the basis of the state funding that you um think you'll get right uh and
004that's a key part of the revenue of your budget. Um and it is what um the state uses to determine what your district is going to um receive in the state funding category. It's also just helpful to know that um uh that that all of these funding streams really matter. Um and even though federal is looks small when we lose part of our federal funding, right? Or when it's uh in, you know, you're not sure if you're getting it right, if you're not sure about a levy or not, all those things really impact the budgeting process, right? Um because it becomes a a key portion of what you've anticipated being able to spend in order to educate students in your district. Um so let's talk and then ultimately um a lot of keywords emerge a
005lot of um uh details about financial oversight and knowledge are really useful. So what we are going to share is um our finance glossery finance 100 glossery um and this uh is in the chat now and usually we give this as a part of our financial trainings but we thought we just want to share it now with y'all so that you have access to it. Um, so we're going to move along, but know that that is a resource for you to kind of demystify a process that can feel pretty complicated and it is really complicated. There are people in your district office who are in charge of knowing these things. Um, we're going to talk entirely about the oversight piece, right? At the governance and board level. Um, so let's talk a bit about the
006federal funds. Um, here we see uh state funding, local funding, and federal funding. The prototypical uh model is what um uses FTE to determine how much you get at the district level. Uh in addition to some other special programs um all those are gone into in depth at the training. We're not going to talk about them here. Um we know that property tax levies and bonds are at that local level. And then we get grants um and we get uh through different title title one, title two, u title 4 um IDA. These are different federal programs that is that are variable depending upon your makeup of your district and the the um groups of students you serve in your district. You are then qualify for certain federal funds or not. Um largely this flows through
007OSPI and then OSPI allocates. So um that f federal, local, state all of them are really really important in creating what the revenue stream for your district. Any questions at that point before I move us along? You probably already know that, but in case you don't, it's really important background. All right, so let's talk about what actual oversight looks like. And so here's a way that we talk about this. We start with these these um um sources of revenue. Uh state, local, federal, and other other is going to be uh again we talk about it in other trainings. I'm going to move us along from there. Um, your role there is advocacy. You are advocating and Logan's in the room and he would um, back me up on this. Advocacy is a year- round process.
008So, you it never really ends, right? And it's always evolving. Often in the board role, you're advocating for more revenue, right? More support, more money to support your students. that ends up being a big role that you play as an elected um uh member and representative of your community for public education. Um it's an important role. Um and Daniel has something to say. Do you want to say it or do you want to just write it? >> So I put it in the chat. Uh it's going back to the previous slide. Sorry. Sometimes a little bit of a slow typer. Um that's okay. So So things like state funding, state funding is pretty much automatic. You have students show up, they generate funding, everyone's happy. Federal funding, uh, you have to reapply for every year
009through a through the grants. You know, your district may get an allocation, but you have to apply for it every year to be able to access the funds. >> Nice. Thanks, Daniel. And that's labor intensive. Uh, thank you. Appreciate it. Um, so we move from kind of, okay, we have the the the money coming in. we're advocating to get as much as we can for our stu on behalf of our students um and our district and then we go into the budget development process. So you can see here that there's a balance between the expenditures, right? Like what we're going to spend and then the revenue that's coming in and we're making sure that we're making budgeting decisions um that enable that to be balanced. Uh and ultimately it's the board is playing a guidance
010role. Now the strategic plan plays a key role here. As I mentioned before, you're bringing to life the vision, mission, and goals through ensuring resource allocation um is going to those goals that your community and district and board have determined um are are necessary for your district or important for your district. Um what you so so it's really key, right? Sometimes this looks like budget priorities, right? Which some of you mentioned. Sometimes it's board guidance, board guidelines. It's named differently across districts, but there this is a normal practice that most boards engage in around this time, which a lot of you are engaged in now. Um, so that's great. And then the next is going to be the actual district budget. Your district staff does this. They take into account the guidelines or priorities from
011the from the board and they look at the expenditures, revenue, um look ahead at anticipated enrollment, look at you know other external factors that are playing a role of which there are many and offer a budget. Um and from there you adopt the budget, right? And then moni monitor it throughout the year through asking questions, through checking in, right? Um, in some cases, like Michael noted in Moses Lake, when there's been a concern, there's much more intervention, right, to make sure things are happening. Um, and what we do is adjust it every year, right? So, through the monitoring process, we see how things went and then we go through the process every year to determine what's coming in this year, what will that look like, what are our priorities, um, and how can we anticipate
012any other external pressures. Um so a lot of you are in this process but it's helpful to know that it's always sort of h happening. Um thanks Daniel for sharing. Um yeah so that resource the financial health um report was offered in our newsletter in May f on May 1st and then another resource we're going we're going to go over soon was also offered in that newsletter. So thanks for sharing it Daniel and checking it out in the newsletter. So from this what we're going to do is move on to what it actually looks like. the f the F195 so that you can see what the budget summary is. Um note that this is um consistent across the state. Okay. Every board um ultimately um files for this before August 1. That is by law.
013So it's helpful to know some of the different funds that um move into it. We are going to talk entirely about the general fund. that's where 80% of the expenses and revenues are are. Um and so that's where we're going to prioritize um talking, but note that um these other ones exist as well. So I'll just kind of name what they are. Um that general fund is going to be all the district functions, regular practice, you know, regular work that needs to happen and um you know, paying for staff, etc. Uh materials, all that. Um and then the ASB is going to be the student body activities. Um so any you know student leadership um sometimes PTO funds are through there. Um and then we get the debt service fund. So this is going to
014be principle and interest on long-term bonds. Okay. They have it it has its own budget area because you don't want it to um you don't want this kind of um influx or um not routinized uh amounts of money influencing your budgeting process if that makes sense. So the general fund is separate from these other ones that are more variable. Um capital project funds is going to be building buildings um uh huge modifications of buildings things like that. Um uh you know levies and bonds are here. And then the transportation vehicle fund is um buying new revising u modifying your um school buses basically. Um so each of these has their own fund balance their own kind of expenses and revenue report. We're gonna talk entirely about the general fund. Now, make sense? Now, I'm gonna
015just introduce us to um the to the revenue. So, that's going to be the green box. All the money coming through. So, we saw where that can come from, right? From the state, from the federal um and from the local. All of that together is here. Now, it's useful to note in our deciphering district budgets training that every single line item that's coming in or going out or an expense comes with its own code. And the code list is offered in that deciphering district budget training. We're not going to offer it now just because it's a little bit overwhelming without more time, but note that every single dollar h is allocated and has a special code that tells you where it came from and then a different coding scheme to show where it's going. Um,
016>> oh, I think Daniel had his hand raised and was u might want to add something. >> Please, Daniel. Thanks. I can't see your hand. Awesome. Go for it. >> Sorry. Um, so it goes back to the timing. Um, so uh July 10th, it by by law, all districts have to publish a budget at least on their website and have a copy in their district office by July 10th. um class 2 districts. So that's anyone under 2,000 FTE, they must adopt theirs by August 31st. Sorry, by August 1st in the class one districts, those over 2,00 uh they have to adopt by August 31st. So those those are the three big time frames that that you have to deal with. Those are the deadlines that you need to meet. >> Thanks, Daniel. That's really really
017helpful. Um and it's helpful to know that it changes, right, depending upon the size of the district. Um, let's move to purple. This is going to be the expenses. Um, uh, total appropriations, expenditures, other financing uses. Each of these mean something different. Um, we're just going to take it all together and add it together as being our overall expenses, knowing that in the overall training, we go in more depth. Blue is going to be excess revenue, other financing sources, overunder expenditures, and other financing uses. is this fancy um OSPI language for just saying the difference between what you spent and what you brought in. Okay, so we're just subtracting. Um oh, it looks like I'm raising my hand, but I'm talking so that is not what I'm doing. Um I'm going to lower my hand.
018And then we have ultimately that that light that peach box. We're bringing our fund balance over from last year, right? So, whatever it is that we had left from our fund balance year-over-year, we bring that over in that summary and then we ultimately add these together to get our overall fund balance for this year. So, I'm going to just take us through the math. Let's do it. This is So, we got 29,276,550 in this pretty large district. Um, that's the fund balance that they're bringing over from the year prior. So, we start there. Then we look at okay this is what we need to figure out. We need to figure out what what we have left from this year and ultimately what we're adding to last year to get our overall fund balance for this
019year. Okay so we start with 330 million as our revenue. That's what we're bringing in at this hypothetical district. Okay. We expended we spent 324 uh million is our general expenditures and then these other two categories which are distinct um lead us to 324,65,000. Okay, 703. So that's going to be our total expenses. All we do is subtract these. Sometimes friends, this is a negative number. This district happens to have a positive number, right? So we have 6 million left over. we we brought in six million more than we spent. Okay, that's all that's determining. If we have a tough year, if we have a huge expense, if something big is happening, then that's going to be a negative number, which is not what we want ultimately. But year over year, you start to see
020um a story being told to the district and you can sometimes explain why, right? There's lower numbers or higher numbers. Um in this case, we have the positive and we add these together to get our overall fund balance for this year. So, we bring forward from last year, look at what we have this year, and that's what our number is. Um, we're going to stop there in terms of math, but note that our deciphering district budget training goes in in quite depth around where all these numbers come from and then what you do with them as well. Um, but it's useful to know what we mean by fund balance and how it's determined on that summary form. I'm going to stop there to make sure I'm not missing any chats or comments from anyone. We
021okay? >> You're good. >> Heather, please. >> Daniel might be able to help me out here, but I think >> as a any board member, but especially as a new board member, when you look at that general fund balance number, it's an important question to ask is how much of that is restricted, >> right? >> And I don't want to get too far down into Gazsby fund balance definitions in the interest of time and other reasons. >> Yeah. But essentially, a restricted fund balance is much less flexible than other fund balances. And what we're seeing now with a lot of districts, um, they're they have a total positive fund balance. So, they're avoiding state oversight, but they're doing so in a way where they have a positive restricted fund balance and a negative unrestricted fund
022balance. And that is a very precarious situation in which a district has to operate. So Daniel, if you want to give any quick examples or clean me up on any of that, feel free to jump in. >> No, I mean, you know, it it uh you know, restricted funds, it's money that you get for a specific thing that you can't spend anywhere else. For example, special ed, you can only spend on special ed students. Um, and if you have a positive there, it means that, you know, you didn't spend enough. If you have positive restricted there, it means you didn't spend as much in those programs, so you're carrying that over into the next year. But it can drive, you know, if it can drive the so-called unrestricted, the free money into the negative. Um,
023and that's that's the one that that's when you really have to start looking at, okay, you know, what's our total fund balance doing? >> Okay. Um, I will say that this is um the difference between restricted and unrestricted is unpacked in our tackling financial soundness training which talks all about the health indicators model um from OSPI. And so TJ, if that's helpful to know where that comes up and kind of how we use it um and and and where it's taught, but that feels really key as a question to pose for yourself uh and and of your district. Great. Um and um okay so in general we want to have more revenue than expenditures. That is not a surprise but that is uh an important thing to note. You want to make sure that you
024are um not in the negative year-over-year. Um if your expenditures so this is going to be the purple boxes right exceed your revenue the green box then your blue box will be negative and this means you're spending it more than you're taking in. Um, so this is where we get to the um, financial health indicators. Depending on a number of things. So we have cash flow, we have the amount you're under, your total fund balance, restricted, not restricted, um, and other factors. These can be a concerning sign and sort of a red flag that some difficult choices will need to be made. Um, certainly looking at the following budget um, uh, for that next year. Um, so red flags, right, are um, are a good way to think about this. Uh and another is uh
025your fund balance. So people disagree on not disagree a lot but it it depends on the size of your district what percentage of your overall budget you want to have in fund balance. It's generally recommended that 8 to 10% is going to be um enough to make sure that if there's any huge emergency right then your your district can handle it. those small districts that have just way less overall budget, they might need a higher percentage in their fund balance in order to accommodate large expenses like a new boiler or something else big that is unanticipated. Um, but that you need the financial resources to um, support in the moment. Um, so that's really what that unrestricted fund balance is. Um, and so you want to make sure that you have the right percentage. Um
026if you start to get really high in terms of fund balance, there's some questions there of um whether you should um be um spending more on your strategic plan or other goals, right, that are student facing that are supportive of um the learning in your in your schools and communities. There's not a lot of districts that are in that place in this moment because money is really uh financial hardship is just across the state happening to everyone. Daniel >> and so this this also goes into the uh the question in chat about you know percentage fund balance to aim for it's really based on district need um you know part of it is due to timing of state funds you know the state pays you nearly a quarter of your of your state funds in
027the last two months of the year um when you've only got you know 16% of your expenditure so you need fund balance to offset that you know but local levy dollars can help Um but it's really up to local district need um and anticipated needs. You know if you want to start saving up you know let's say say your district thinks okay we will need to replace you know our boiler we will need to replace you know all our curriculum in a couple years then you can start saving up for that but it's really based on need. Um, and you know, also what your what your unions are willing to negotiate you having. Um, because you know, fund balance, think of it as the balance in your checking account. You know, you want to have
028money left over at the end of every month. Um, so you know, how much of that is really, you know, it's it's how much money do you think you might need for certain upcoming unexpected expenses? It's hard to anticipate and there's a question there about the 5% um and the being under 5% is concerning. Do do either TJ or Daniel want to speak to that question in particular? >> Uh so you know one month of expenditures you know you know simple simple calculation is 8.33%. Um, so you know, so if you were to suddenly lose all all funding sources, you know, for a month, you know, do you have enough to make, you know, to pay everything for one month? That's 8.33. Um, but it, you know, lots of factors go into it, but once
029you start getting under 5%, you know, you just start having less and less of that cushion available. Um, you know, the more you start eating into it. Um and if you have a sudden, you know, increase in expenditures, you know, can will you be able to meet that sudden increase in expenditures? Um so it's it's not a hard and fast rule. It's a general guideline. Um that that is used uh you know, just when when they when they look at the financial health, you know, what's what's a good fund balance? Um, and yeah, anything under 5% you start getting into the the possibility of not, you know, not having that cushion for unexpected expenditures. >> And Carson contributed a note for Northshore, I see, um, uh, that you were working to um, kind of negatively
030impact students less by going under your 5% fund balance in order to make the cuts more slowly instead of suddenly. Does that sound right, Carson? Yeah, they did it about over three or four years of cuts and um now they're starting to slowly build back, >> right? And and yeah, you're a large district, right? So that there's a little bit more cushion there because the overall amount is so much higher. Yeah. >> Could I could I just ask a question here to you, >> please? So, we just came through our our two-year audit where they dug through everything and uh OSPI and one of their suggestions is that we really ought to have 60 days worth of cash on hand, >> which would be considerably higher than 10%. And we do. I mean, we're we're
031back to where we were almost uh two years ago. Um, our teachers union doesn't like that because they want some of that money. But I mean, if you start whittling away at this thing and then you have an issue like somebody just mentioned a moment ago, um, and you start having to let people go, that that creates a problem. And so they were talking to us a couple months ago that the the union was about, you know, all you really need is five or 6%. Why do you have this 15% requirement for this district? But I I don't know. I don't ever want us to be in a position again where we don't know how we're going to make payroll at the end of the month. Um and granted, there were some big factors that
032contributed that that should never come up again, but still. I mean, I don't know. What are your thoughts? uh it's really based on you know individual like we said individual circumstances individual district circumstances um you know and and those needs you know fund balance can pay for you know if you you budget XYZ students so you hire based on that and then all of a sudden the students don't show up well you're going to get less money from the state but but your teachers are still under contract so you're still going to have to pay them so hey there's there's a there's use for fund balance um >> and sometimes The public perception is a really high fund balance is oh you're not spending the money on the kids why don't you spend it on
033the kids and again it gets back to the example of you know savings account you know can you can you spend your more you know can you pay your monthly rent or monthly mortgage out out of a savings account yes you can for a while but you need to be able to start replenishing that. So, it's it's you know, you want to make sure you've got the you've got money on hand to meet those unexpected needs, you know, and rises and falls in state state and local funding, you know, since it's not flat throughout the year. Um, you know, and just sometimes you just need those, you know, those funds for, you know, you know, you know, you know, something just happened and we need, you know, $100,000 to replace, you know, you know, an
034HVAC unit. you know, in Seattle that's a rounding error. You know, in mccclary where I worked for a while, you know, that's a big chunk of money. Um, so it's really dependent on, you know, on district needs and, you know, uh, you know, the the 60 days is a GFOA general guideline. So, it's not specific for school districts. Um, but it's what the auditor's office um, uses and it's a general I think it's also a general one that OSPI has used in the past. It's part of the financial health indicators. >> Yeah, TJ, it looks like you were going to say >> Yeah, real quick. I Yes to everything Daniel said. And part of the reason why the agency has tried to put a statewide fund balance bill out there twice and has failed is
035because of these types of issues. It's really complex. It depends on district size. You know, if your district has a 3% fund balance, it's not healthy, but it's not, you know, why are you there? Do you have a plan? So, a lot of it is about like it's just one factor of a litmus check. So, if you're at 3% year-over-year, that's probably not the best place to be. And there are justifiable reasons why you're going to have to spend down your fund balance. I think the key is to get back to something Daniel just said is are you utilizing your fund balance to pay for ongoing expenditures? That's the red flag because then you're getting into situation in areas where your ongoing costs are exceeding your revenue. But if a boiler breaks or if you
036need to replace something unexpectedly, then that's exactly why we support and encourage a 8 to 10% fund balance. Thanks. >> Thanks everyone. Um, >> there's also a law this year that did not pass where they wanted to cap the fund balance. So like you couldn't have had 60 days because they would have said if that law had passed, you couldn't have had that high a percentage, >> right? >> Yes. That was also us. The same bill had a min and a max. So we were trying to create like this range that districts could retain funds in year-over-year. >> Yep. And you know, and one thing to to say is that if your district does spend more money in a year than it brought in, uh, you know, and so you dip into your fund balance,
037that in and of itself is not necessarily a huge red flag. It's when it happens at a large dollar amount, a large percentage of your fund balance or year over year over year, that's when it really um, you know, that's when you really need to pay attention. But if you know you you over spent, you know, if you spent $1,000 more than you brought in, you know, you know, slap on the wrist, bad, bad, don't do that again. You're spending more than you're bringing in. You know, if you spend, you know, 10% of your, you know, fund, you know, if you overspend by 10% of your revenues, then then you're really talking about, you know, needing to take a look at your situation. >> Okay. Um, great questions. Keep them coming if more emerge. I
038want to just highlight a few resources. So the first is um uh there is an article that talks all about um kind of financial hardship um and school districts financial trouble. It talks about what binding conditions means and what that process is and we've talked a few examples of some districts who have been close to that and gotten out or were in that and got out. Um and so it just gives an a lay of the land of what that is. It was written by Daniel actually. So that's a resource that can be helpful. Um the other resource I want to highlight is this financial health checklist. So the first is the financial health indicators model that was sent to in the newsletter um and is a few years old and that's really important. A
039lot of districts do that and we have a training that talks you through how to um what each of those are and then how to kind of figure them out for your district and what and how you can use them. Um the next one is a little more new. It's called the financial health checklist and it's using that superpower of boards which is asking a question. I feel like it's one of the most important governance things you can do and it sets you up with a few different questions. Thanks Ratsi for putting that in the chat. Um and it just offers a few a series of questions you can ask the the and TJ can speak more about this but if you are saying yes to three or more of these that might be concerning
040one on their own we're getting into kind of this is what our district needs. We have a plan. There's a reason, right? There's local reasons why we make sense of our budget in a way that that supports our district. But when we start to do two or three of them, we start to maybe get into financial hardship. Um, and so this is a set of questions that the board can use on the front end to help you um, guide your governance, right, and support you to ask good questions, um, and for the district to be held accountable for some of these practices that we might rely on to hit our budget, but that might not be sustainable long term. Um, so that is another resource we recommend using. those are embedded in our financial trainings
041as well so that you can use them a little bit more um in action. Any questions on that before I move forward and just any questions in general from from the topics we've explored so far? >> Um can I ask a question? Sorry, I was looking for raising my hand. Um >> the uh these trainings it's really hard to find them available. I mean, is there a plan to make them like, you know, accessible online so you don't have to It would be nice to have these things scheduled, you know, or or created so that you could just go in and and watch them and take them on your own time and rather than having to wait for it to show up as a presentation on the WASDA calendar and try and coordinate it so
042that you can get to one of those. >> Peggy, that's a great question. So, we are working on we're actually just um are developing our um uh LMS learning management system so that we can start to offer more asynchronous learning opportunities. Um so, the next stop I'm going to do a state funding one, a local funding one, and a federal funding one. And I the work the goal is to make all those asynchronous and to have a part of this deciphering district budgets one also available asynchronous. So, those are our long-term goals. right now they've been built as in-person trainings with like worksheets and kind of all together in person. So that's the materials we have available now but um uh I'm a year and a half into this role and so we have long-term
043plans of trying to make things more readily available as you note Peggy it does seem like a need of the of the of the state that we're working on addressing. Um right now board boot camp is the only asynchronous um training that was offers but to be continued with more. Thank you for the input. It's really important. In the meantime it's being offered in August deciphering district budgets in the Seattle in um Lacy where our headquarters are and then tackling financial soundness and deciphering district budgets will be offered in Spokane um in November. So, those are the in-person options and then in February they are offered virtually um every year as well. So, those are our three main um training calendar touch points and then we're adding a spring one somewhere else across the state.
044So, it's going to be four times where you can get these trainings with the goal of having asynchronous options within the year um or sooner. We're doing our best. Great point, Peggy. Um Daniel, were you going to say something? Yeah, I just wanted to mention, you know, it um you know, we we've just really started the process of working with the with a new company for our learning management system. Um so, we're learning about how the system works and all that, you know, how to build the course content. So, it's going to be a couple of, you know, couple more months at least before, you know, we get it up and running. So, you know, um so, so, you know, don't don't expect it by May 1st. Not going to happen. Um but you know
045later this year and you know we I'm sure we will be announcing announcing it here there and everywhere when it's up and running. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> So please be patient. >> Yeah. The input is really really valuable. Um uh the board boot camp is the same. That's right. So there's one kind of fiveh hour board boot camp offering that talks about roles and responsibilities across the board and then there's two sets of trainings. One is equity and one is finance. And we've been talking entirely today about the finance trainings. I mentioned at least three of them. Vision aligned budgeting is all about those board guidelines. Deciphering district budget I just gave you a snippet of and it's talking all about um the codes and kind of where the revenue and expenditures are going
046and coming and how to name those. And then um tackling financial soundness is all about the financial health indicators model which we've also mentioned. Um so more soon. Great questions everyone and and really important feedback. appreciate it. Um, with that in mind here, oh, I should have just moved forward. These are all the trainings that I just named. Um, and it's that first bullet you see the state, local, and federal funding. Those are the first ones that we're going to work to have a um, asynchronous options for. So, you can learn more about those funding streams um, uh, affecting your district. Note that this work is really grounded in the Washington State Schoolboard standards. Um, creating the conditions districtwide for student and staff success. Making sure things are moving smoothly, the buildings are good, everything's
047hit, just that the that the resources are there that are needed in order to make your district run. That's one of the most important things you do. So, thank you for being here. Thank you for learning about this key responsibility. Um, it it really matters and we'll try and get as much info out to you as we can. Um, so we're at the closing mark. We did a great job. Any questions before we move on to um, next topics and other events to join. >> I want to make one comment. Um, you know, as you're looking at, you know, all the budget stuff and everything, you know, finance people speak their own language. Um, but you know, I I can say this from my experience, just about every business manager and business officer and finance
048person, budget officer out there, if you have a question, they will do their best to answer it, you know, and hopefully translate it from, you know, you know, Gazsby, you know, Gazsby OSPI accounting manual speak to plain English. Um, so, you know, so don't hesitate to ask the questions. they will do their best to answer them and help you understand and be a more effective schoolboard member. >> And note that normal roles and responsibilities fall here, too. So, you're moving with your superintendent to kind of ask questions, seek information. No questions dumb here, right? It's really good to kind of learn. Um, but we want to keep in mind that it's at the governance level and not at the operations level, right? Um, and it's important to keep that in mind. um that there are
049luckily experts hopefully in your district who know all about the budget is really complex. So um but asking those oversight governance questions are it can be really important. Um Renee asks a question. Do you have suggestions about how to have insight into the fiscal conversations that are part of the bargaining process? Um Daniel or TJ, do you want to field that question? Do you have any thoughts about oversight as it relates to bargaining? And I would note, oh, sorry, Daniel, um, one second, Ratsme, would you mind putting in the, um, there's a bargaining manual um, publication from WASDA. If you could throw that in the chat, that'd be really helpful. While Daniel answers, >> you know, so, you know, the bargaining process, you know, let's let's let's boil it down to, you know, your unions
050want, you know, want higher pay, and it's a question of what your district can afford. Um, so you know, so your your district office, you know, the finance and budget side are going to be looking at, okay, you know, they want XYZ dollars. Well, what does that mean going forward? Um, and, you know, some sometimes it can be really, you know, easy to manage like, okay, you know, hey, you know, we understand district's in trouble. We're just willing to go with, you know, state inflation every year. You know, great, wonderful. you know, they start saying, you know, well, we want, you know, 3% this year, then an extra 5% the next year, and so on and so on. Then it's really, okay, you know, how much is that going to cost? What does that look
051like for the district, you know, and you know, at some point, okay, would we have to cut staff to meet that, you know, those higher pay rates, uh, you know, you know, so it's like, you know, you get a truck, you get a truck, you get a truck, and we're going to take yours away and give you a scooter. Um, so, you know, it's uh, yeah, it it really depends on what the union is asking for um, and what you've maybe given them in the past. Um, you know, and compare that to, you know, are you are you how how overstaffed are you? Because, you know, whether staff is state funded or local funded or federal funded, you know, they they'll all get the same increase. And so it's a question of, you know, okay,
052how much is this really going to cost us? How much can we afford? >> Um, thank you Daniel. And I want to note um two things. One is that there we do have a bargaining manual um that supports uh that um a budgeting and bargaining manual that can be helpful here. So you just sort of look at that publication and get a sense of the background um and what's recommended. And then Carson, I see you. I mean I would make use of the exempt um OPMA allows um closed meetings to talk about some of these things so that you are in a good position to um uh make recommendations um so that the board can work in line with the district in the bargaining process to figure that out um and so that you when
053uh you're able to vote uh you are uh aware of what's going on and can vote to support the contract. Um so yeah, OPMA allows for that. So really make use of that so that you can learn the background, the content and um how to weigh in. Thanks Carson and thank you Ratsumi and wonderful question. Um we can also answer more detailed questions about particular boards uh not on online and um any other questions surface for folks before we close out. I'll go ahead seeing none. move us along. Roi, do you want to go ahead and chat about this opportunity? >> Yes. Um, so there was um there'll be a link in the chat where you um can sign up for if you want to get the newsletter directly to your inbox, but also that
054same web page has all of the previous gathering recordings uh previous emails um that were sent out. So everyone has um is able to revisit and look at all the content. So, the next one that's coming out is May. Um, and that'll be in a couple weeks. So, if you're signed up um for the newsletter, you'll get that directly to your inbox. And also looking forward to May is our our monthly gathering uh topic on community engagement and advocacy for our very own Logan that's here in the call. So, then we'll be um looking forward to that um next month as well. Same time, same link, same channel. So feel um again use that sign up registration confirmation and add that to your calendar to make it easier for you to just join that link
055um um as well. >> And we're also going to >> we're also going to be joined by Lucisha um who um is the uh a leadership consultant and um was formerly the Ledge Rep um chair and um is a current board member in Federal Way. So she'll be there with Logan as well. >> Yes. look forward to having you all there as well. And um looking forward to today kicks off our regional meetings. And so feel free to look on the director area map. Which one is yours? Um and feel free to join and sign up for um for this great uh event. It comes with dinner, comes with a great conversation. Um and hope to see you all soon or across the state. Uh thanks for the chat there. And there's one tonight in
056um Evergreen. So, uh, hope to see most of you all there or any upcoming ones >> down in down at the bottom corner in directory 6. >> And there were some questions about um our upcoming trainings and and listing that. So, this is a a upcoming calendar for our summer um in-person academy uh Friday, August 21st and Saturday the 22nd. uh registration isn't um ready quite yet, but we are still getting that um confirming details and getting the the sign up link. So, feel free to make sure you keep an eye on our calendar, which will have the direct links to sign up. Um and again, the one of the offerings is deciphering the district budget and then um um advancing inclusion through belonging um and then serving as board chair and discovering educational disparities.
057So, keep a lookout for a web page and sign up um link soon. Um I don't think we have time for reflection unless we wanted to open it up, Heather, up to you. Otherwise, um we're going to close it out. Um again, if you there's any more questions, um feel free to put in the chat or reach out directly to us um at ldwaza.org. Um but if is there any uh major questions that you have time for us now? Thank you, Chad, for being here. Appreciate all your questions. Anybody else? >> We appreciate everyone's time. And we really appreciate um TJ for being here answering questions. Daniel for being here and answering questions um and Carson and Renee and Chad and Michael and others who just sort of contributed what's going on with your district.
058I know um I learn a lot from uh what y'all share and I know you're learning from one another, which is a key goal of the network. So, thank you so much for contributing and we look forward to see you. Um, thanks Rose. Uh, and we look forward to seeing you next month. >> Thank you. >> Hi, everyone. We'll stick around in case there's any questions. Okay. And TJ, if you would stick around for a second, that