001Well, good. Joe. Yeah. Welcome everybody to this June 25th regular school board meeting. Stand to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Is Michelle on? Yes, I am. Can you hear us? All right. Yeah, I can hear everything. Thank you. Does your voice hurt? No, I I uh I got to get uh sick on my vacation. So, yeah. Well, it sounds terrible, so I'm glad it doesn't hurt. That's good. All right. Well, can we get a motion to adopt the agenda? I'll make a motion to adopt the agenda. I'll second. All those in favor? I I Can I get a motion to adopt the consent agenda? I'll make a motion to adopt the consent agenda. I'll
002second it. All those in favor? I I All right. That was quick. Get in here real quick. We're running new business. send an email out. So this is the ECAP, correct? So um item A first review and we're asking for approval as well. So this is this is 202526. It's a a new contract with the opportunity council. You would have seen a 92page contract and then an additional document that talks about what opportunity council will do, what we will do along with um Nuke Valley because they're also doing a similar contract. This actually makes us a subcontractor to DCYF, which is the Department of Children and Families. This is um a new version for how we're serving our four-year-olds and some three-year-olds in our district. Um, if you remember for several years we've had a
003contract with opportunity council for both Head Start and ECAP where we had 17 slots and I think the last contract was 88 grand or 89 grand and they were in our building using their staff. In this version we actually will get the slots from DCYF. We will have 40 slots from them. So we're more than double. Um, and we receive $10,724 per student. and that goes into helping us fund and hire our own staff. We also have obligations we didn't have in the other contract. We provide transportation um and they provide some pieces. And so the other document you saw on there as well, right? Yeah. The other document you saw on there, the breakdown of who does what. And so we do know the funding piece for us right now pencils out to be
004about $100,000 that we add to this to be able to make sure that we have the fours that we need. We'll actually have five classrooms. So four will be a combination of TK and ECAP and then one will be all ECAP. So they'll be a three-year-old. But what those five classrooms will do is provide us some flexibility between students who are um typically developing and those who are not. And then uh flexibility for teachers to move students between groups uh and some capacity as we get students into the district. And so um we're pretty excited about the the partnership with them. And the reason we're asking for approval on it tonight is because those families are they're waiting. Uh we haven't been able to make this agreement with them until after we hear back from
005the state on what kind of allocation that we're going to get. Um and we certainly could wait although we don't have another meeting for three and a half weeks and it's our retreat. Um what it does is it puts our families in a bind not really knowing whether they need to get child care or if they're going to have their students um assigned. And so that's that's really where this request comes from. I do have a statement from he he's coming back from WSU so uh he didn't know if he'd be able to zoom in and he wasn't but I do have a statement from from Aaron he said this agreement will allow the Meridian school district to serve as a subcontract for the opportunity council to provide ECAP services to three and four-year-old students
006in our community in exchange for the district providing these services. the opportunity council will pass a portion of the ECAP allocation for each student onto the district for the purposes of hiring staff and developing programming. The agreement clearly delineates each organization's role as well as the financials required to provide the support to our community. So that's why when our early childhood education center built will these children then be served by that facility? No, they'll probably be in our kindergarten at that point because they'll be older. But I know what you're asking. The next step of that, I don't know that we will be the provider because, well, let me rephrase that. I don't know that we will have ECAP in our system if we have the early childhood center there because we are not going
007to run that center. We want to make sure that it is um extended hours and we wouldn't run an extended hours program with the contract agreements that we have. Right. our teachers only go to a certain amount of delay. And so when we've talked about conceptually how will this work out, we've talked to opportunity council, YMCA, Boys and Girls Club, they all run early childhood centers across the county. They want to contract and that's what that's what we're looking for is someone who will contract in the space. Now, we certainly can provide that as well, but it won't be extended hours. It would be an extension of what we have. So, I think we need to wait and see exactly how things are going to play out. We know we have a shortage of early
008child care support in these counties. So, I could see us doing both. Whether it will be 40 or we'll have more slots or we'll dial it back. We'll wait to see. But, we have lots of things that we'll be able to do along the way to determine what what kind of program we'll have. And like space at the is that is that a challenge or is that we good there? We're good there. We we ran six classrooms. I don't know if you remember, we started a TK classroom year and that was our third. And so we'll have our developing pre developmental preschool. We will continue that. And then these five coming in will give us the six early learning uh classrooms that we've had. And then like for the 40 kids, does that help kids
009that are like live in our district? 40. Okay. So it's not Okay. There may be students from other places if if opportunity council is closing or shifting their provider status in a different place in the county. they may offer but we will place our 40 to 8 first. Okay. Okay. And we have a cap of 44 TK students. So we will we had 17 with opportunity council and head start last year and 44 TK. We're increasing by almost 24 students in early learning and giving kids a great start. So, do do we have concerns about full days with three-year-olds? And also, you had mentioned that in Erin's statement, a portion of payment. Is there a plan down the road for this to receive full funding and be self- sustaining so that we aren't trying to
010come up with a $100,000 through other levy programs that we have to ask our community for? Yeah. So, I think the first part of that in terms of a full day program or not, um I would want to ask Aaron if we're running full day with 33 year olds. I think we're still doing our half day with developmental preschool. I do believe they are full day with the the three-year-olds and that was a concern that we had when TK came on the line and found that kids did a really nice they did well. They did fine. Um so no, we're not too concerned with that. And then um in terms of the portion, there is an allocation that DCYF gives to uh opportunity council and the pieces that they'll be providing they're using the funds
011to pay for that. So they do family outreach, they do um the nursing piece. You know, there are several in that 92page document and the other ancillary piece that Aaron provided. It breaks down who does what and that's what they hold back on their portion. What's nice is this year the state provided a 5% increase in the allocation to providers. And so we do anticipate because early learning is a big push in the state and there are some people who are lobbying for universal preschool, right? And I don't think we're going to see that anytime soon, but there's a chance that as they get increased allocations, we could receive more. We are going to evaluate whether we run it ourselves or not. It's just that there are obligations that the state requires for ECAP that
012are split between us and opportunity council. And we're I don't believe for the amount we'll receive for what remains in the allocation, I don't believe we could efficiently do the things that are required on our own to do all of it. So having the partnership now and getting a good sense of how that's going to work this next year, I'd like to see it, you know, evaluate after this year, probably two years, and then decide whether we want to move forward and become our own contractor in that case. I think the question Janna asked also has some bearing because I think um in a couple years we might be in a position to have an early learning center open as well. We have our funding now, so it's just a matter of getting architects in
013and doing the design and the planning. So, that'll be a factor as well. And Daniel, the extra $100,000 that we're going to have to come up with, that's in the budget. Yeah, we do have a budgeted and it is a balance budget. Um, one thing that James brought up today when uh, we were meeting earlier was what he mentioned also in this meeting is we were paying out 80ome,000 to um, head started cap. So, in some ways we're we're only adding, you know, 15 more or whatever. But just something to think about. But I um like that James spoke to that we're going to evaluate in the future because I would like to see the program be self sustaining as well. And um I think it's something to kind of keep an eye on. But
014it's I also feel like it's it's a good way to start it to to get our feet under us and see what the program is like and then we can kind of go from there through the budget process. But it'll definitely be something that we're evaluating each year in the budget process. I do also want to share that we may not be afforded the ability to do it ourselves because right now it's through providers like Boys and Girls Club Opportunity Council. Um they get slots from DCF. Berndale is running theirs through the ESD. We wanted to run it through the ESD. They didn't get any more slots this year. So we didn't we had to come back to the opportunity council. So that's also a piece we're not we're not clear about. I mean for
015me it's helping 40 families. So I think it's a good thing that we're able to do. So it's in the budget and we're helping 40 families. Great. That's great. Questions? No. I'll make Oh, I'm sorry. rehearsal. I was going to make a motion. I will ask for that. Okay. Sorry. Um, can I please get a motion to approve the 202526 opportunity council ECAP contract? I make a motion to approve the 202526 contract for the opportunity council of early childhood education and assistance. And I will second. All those in favor? I I I thank you. Moving on for review policy 2230 transition to kindergarten garden program. Good evening. Back in 2019, um Meridian School District developed with our legal council developed a early entry kindergarten um policy and we attached it to um policy 3110 I
016believe. Um, and so it was embedded in there. Um, later WASDNA came out with a its own policy for transition to kindergarten, um, transitional kindergarten. And so I'm bringing 2230 to you tonight for for first read. Uh, this is an essential policy. Um, it's new to the district. Um, and WADA created it to, um, stay in compliance with the legislature. Um, and like I said, we created one in 2019, so we're just adopting WASKA's policy. Questions on this one? Hardly any change. I was rather went to a that has to go forth for that, you know, diminish of the change. Yeah. And it and it before it was kind of our we we borrowed their policy from another district and worked with our legal council to embed it in one of our own policies. Um
017Wazda didn't have one at the time. So Wazda came out with one specific to this um based on the legislature. So we thought it'd be cleaner to have its own policy and then as Wazda updates things in the future, we'll also update it as we as we have been doing. I'm just going to share a little bit. I over the last couple years, you've heard me talk about going to Olympia to advocate for transitional kindergarten twice. Twice they've tried to eliminate it. The chair of the education department has been oppositional because it didn't come from the legislature. School districts took it on themselves to say, "Hey, we have funding." The RCW says, "We can actually use kindergarten funding to bring four-year-olds in and get them prepared." They didn't like that legislature. This particular person did
018not. So transitional kindergarten or early entry K or what's Bellingham's um they have it. Yeah. But no, the promise is their speech plan. But um every district who did that, this particular lawmaker perceived it as a a breach of contract with the legislature. It's got to be blessed by the legislature. So one of the effects is that transitional kindergarten is not basic education funding. So we don't get as much flexibility as we typically would. So it's got us so there are some kind of back office if you will changes but this gets us in alignment with the with the legislature and there are no guarantees that we'll have TK every year moving forward. Something we are continuing to watch but it's good for us to have alignment. Okay. Okay. And so going along with that,
019uh the next policy is 3110. Um Wazda has not updated this policy since 2011. Um Radian School District updated this policy in 2019. And so we are just striking the language that was related to early entry kindergarten from 3110 and reverting it back to its original status. questions. Makes sense. Thank you. All right. Thank you. All right. Moving on to old business. Second read approval of 2526 MSD school board plan and work schedule calendar. Can I get a motion to approve the calendar? I'll make a motion to approve the 202526 boarding school district school board plan of work calendar. I'll second. Okay. All those in favor? I Okay, thank you. Old business member. Uh second approval curriculum materials proposal. This is for food sciences um project leading way and science curriculum proposal. May I please
020get a motion to adopt this curriculum? I'll make a motion to adopt the curriculum materials for food services, food sciences, and all the other ones you just listed. I would second that. Okay. All those in favor? I I I Okay. Uh second review and approval. Panorama Partnership Agreement. I please get a motion to adopt. Uh I'll motion to adopt the Panorama Partnership Agreement as presented. I'll second. Yep. All those in favor? I I I All right. Moving on. Budget presentation. live here, right? Um, yeah, I'm excited to bring forward the budget presentation for next school year 25 26. Um, I think we have we have a very good and accurate budget. It went through six iterations. We started the work like started talking about it in October. We started doing work on it in December.
021So this is like six plus months of work coming to fruition here. And um yeah, so we'll jump in and I'll just before we even start tell you that out of seven years, this is the most intentional that we've been around budgeting. We typically start February with budgeting, but because of how things have gotten so constricted and so difficult to navigate um financially, I mean, it's it's a good product for as much time has been spent on it. And um in the fall, we also worked to develop like the procedures on how we were going to have the budget process go. And we tried to develop a a process that would work in years where we're financially struggling where we're usually healthy. it seemed to this new process seems to be even just more streamlined
022and uh just provide a good product. Um this first slide is on the budget enrollment. The the column all the way to the right shows our annual average FTE for 2425. Um total total enrollment including our AL program running Running Start and Open Doors was $1869. Uh we are we're budgeting a total enrollment of 1877 uh with uh 1,582 in the core program, 215 in MP3, which we've we've been pretty solid at that 215 mark for for five years now. We have 60 in running start 20 and 20 in open doors. And this is this next slide is just an overview of the general fund. We do have a balanced budget uh revenues and expenditures at 37,536,000. Uh there's just a $20 rounding difference between our system and then when I exported everything into to
023the F195 and we're projecting to to have a ending fund balance of 2.5 million and again it's balanced so we should end at about that same amount. This is the fund balance breakdown. Um it's it's actually a fairly simple fund balance breakdown because there's not a lot of carryover that's going into the then the following year. Um we did a pretty good job of spending all of our allocations. Um there's 20,000 for mitted for compensated absences. That's that's like sick leave and and and those types of um employee costs. Then uh we have 350,000 assigned to contingencies for major equipment repair replacement. I added $50,000 in there last year was at 300,000. Um, I'd like to see us eventually get to half a million for that number. And it was kind of just a lesson
024learned when we had a year ago the septic issue and we had some potential issues with windows and just a bit of a scare of um how major equipment breakdown could could be a financial burden on the district if something like that came up. uh we have $60,000 in assigned fund balance and these are the various carryovers that that we allow within the district. For example, each of the building budgets they're allowed to carry over 5% of their prior year's allocation. That just makes it easier for them to target their spending at the end of the year. That way they can target that 5% number and they don't end up overspending their budget and allows them to and they they most schools will will try to carry over that 5%. Uh the 2,62,500 is our
025minimum fund balance policy. So our board policy says that we'll maintain a fund balance between four and five and a half%. And we've we've always been able to maintain that 5 and a half% mark. And then and then 7500 that's just the leftover. So that's unassigned fund balance. Any questions? This is the revenue summary. It doesn't have every revenue stream, but it has all the main revenue streams. uh our local property tax uh has an increase of 723,000. So we 2025 was the first year of our u increased levy amount and so we captured half of that increase. And so and then we'll capture the second half in this school year. And then also there's a $300,000 escalation each year um for our property taxes. So that's why we're seeing an increase there. Aortionment is
026up 748,000. Now most of that is the increased enrollment compared to where we budgeted. So we were up around 60 kids and at 10,000 a kid or a student. um that that really captures most of that. There wasn't um besides the special ed below we'll go over in a second, there wasn't really any new money or increase increases in allocations um during this legislative cycle. The special ed aortionment and was up 126,000 and the state special ed is uh up almost 160,000. We're still over a million dollars over spent in special education. So, you know, it helps, but it hasn't really solved the issue yet. Uh, federal special ed is right about level. Um, title one was down and it's showing down 52,000, but it's actually down further than that. So, one of the things
027that we did to help balance this budget, so we ended up doing it, um, taking advantage of a rule that says you can do transferability between title grants. And so, we took some funding from title title 2, which is professional development mostly, and then title four. and we moved some of the allocation from those two grants into title one to help us pay for staffing. And title one um is actually 100% staffing. Food service uh is down slightly but but not a whole lot. And so you you heard me talk about in the past how food service was um a pretty rich program. Now, now it's right about level with expenditures and revenues being close to equal. Expenditures actually are a bit higher than revenues in this budget cycle and that's really due to the
028increased cost of food. Uh the learning assistance program that district had quite a significant reduction there 226,000. So during 2425 uh we had funding for uh I spaced the name but um poverty lap high poverty and so that went away. So that was like a one-year boost in funding that actually helped us balance the budget in 2425. So that went away and we had to um kind of get creative in our shifting of staff that we'll talk about more in uh the expenditure side of things. Transportation um it it seems to be one of those allocations that is increasing a bit each year, but I it's the funding is not increasing, but our wrership has been increasing and we have very full buses right now. It's it's a it's a very efficient program. It's not
029quite um self- sustaining, but it's close and but we have we do have like when OSPI does our efficiency ratings, it's pretty highly rated efficient uh program. And then our technology levy um that's an increase of 158,000. And again those um technology levy expenditures flow through the general fund and then the the funds get accumulated into the capital products fund and at the end of the year we transfer them over. Sometimes we do a couple transfers a year for cash flow purposes. Any question on the revenue side of things? Um expenditures. Kurt and I are gonna kind of tag team this. And so a part of this pro like a very large part of this process was the shifting of staff. And Kurt's really good at the dayto-day and that and the juggle. So I'll
030let him speak to this. So some of the as as you heard Dr. Everett and Daniel mention um we started this process in October. Um and so it's it's really been a year-long process. Um, and so we have also changed it to a district-wide. We used to look at it very isolated building to building and we made that shift. I think we started that shift last year and so that's that's continued on. Um, this year because we didn't know what the funding was going to be, we planned for multiple contingencies. So we had a if they if we were a million dollars short, we had that plan. We had a $ 1.5 million plan and we had a $2 million plan. And then it was just kind of we went through um we created those
031plans and then we went through and we prioritized. Okay, what's our priorities? If if we receive more funding, what's our priorities? What are we bringing back? Um and so because we had multiple conversations about that, we were once we knew the final amount, we felt we were in a really good place and we knew what we knew what to do. So, um, but that was also the difficulty in in communication with our staff, in communication with our community was we didn't have the the full picture and so we were waiting on the legislature. So, we we continued to say we're working on the budget, we're waiting. Um, which doesn't make people feel very comfortable. So, um, the other thing we looked at is how do we utilize and we've been looking at this um how
032do we utilize existing staff to provide services for students? um how do we shift them? How do we transfer them? How do we adjust to what they're doing to to keep those services to students? Um the other thing that I will say is at the beginning of this in October sometime early on, Daniel made a prediction that he feels like we're going to be about a million dollars short. And so we had we had the up to two million. We had the one and a half and we had the one million, but it came in and it was was pretty close to 1 million. So Daniel's, again, kudos to Daniel and the job he does. Um, and then the other goal is, you've heard Daniel say, you've heard us say it before, is that when
033we hire, we hire for the long term. Um, when we hire a continuing position, whether that's classified or whether that's certificated or um, you know, our administrators, but we it's not a short-term thing. We're we're building a relationship with this person. So, it's really important for us to keep those permanent staff. So those are the goals. Uh the methods we used um are very similar to what we did last year. Um we used and the transfer and the shift is actual language from our teachers contract. Um and so transfer is shifting to a different building and a shift is changing within the same building. Uh the one we added this year was reduction uh because we either had to reduce the position and move the existing staff member to a different position or we had
034to remove the position altogether. Um and then the last bullet is as a team as a budget team and as the executive team we analyzed every vacancy. So, if we had a midyear request for leave of absence, we brought the team together and we discussed, can we do it? Do we need it or can we get by? And if we do get by, what's the impact of that going to be? Um, and so there is there is a tremendous amount of being intentional with each position that became vacant. Yeah, I just want to add there that I think part of why this budget process was so successful is that we held the line all year long and we did evaluate every request that came in and and and we didn't add a whole lot. We
035we we stayed within the revenues that we received um plus a little bit more under. So that was very helpful. Can you do it with the button again? I just broke it real quick. So firing it back up again. All right. Uh so we'll go through all of these. Um but changes in leadership um we had a we'll get to it later but I'll talk to it now. At the middle school we had a longtime music teacher retired. Um and through the MEA CBA it allows a MEA staff member who desires to transfer to put in a request by March 15 and if they are the most senior um they get that they get that transfer. So, music teacher at middle school retired. Music teacher Irene Ryther put in a request to transfer and so
036was awarded that transfer and then that left a vacancy at Irene. Our assistant principal had a music background and had a music endorsement and so we transferred that music that assistant principal into that music position. the the result of that is we won't replace that assistant principal. And so that was part of our budget savings. That was that move was 100% based on budget. So um and then the other thing is some of the key things is our administrators, our principles, um they agreed to just take a 3% increase versus what the 3% plus IPD. They said, "You know what? We understand. We'll just take the the 3%." Our exec team and directors are only receiving IPD. And these two groups last year, I just as a reminder, they they all agreed to take a
037three-day furlow. Um so just awareness there. Uh director changes. Um our athletic director is now going to supervise our custodial staff and they're aware of that. they have a plan and um they'll be supported by director of maintenance Jay Jagger and then the when when um our food director put in his made his announcement that he was going to retire that was another opportunity to analyze that position and that position when he was hired was shifted to a 260day contract but prior to that it was 215 days and so with we consulted with him and said, you know, can this be done? He seemed to think so. We talked about executive team and so we reposted it at a 215day contract. Um, so there'll be some budget savings there. Um, and it also aligns with
038with the work I think. I think the next slide talks about the transfers. Um, and we covered the music teacher. Um, at the high school we we we had a total of 1.4. We had a leave of absences and we just shifted some of that and so the high school was able to fill a need for a 6 PE but still retain that 1.4 overall leave number. And then at the district level, um this is one of those those positions where we kept the person, but we had to reduce the position. And so our mental health coordinator um is now going to be the counselor, Irene Ryther, instead of us hiring another one. And then um our director of special services, Aaron Jacobe, will take on some of those additional um jobs that that are
039vacated. Again the idea is if we reduce how do we maintain the program and the services to our students. Um and then the next slide, next slide is special education and and um we've talked about most of the things here, but one of the things that we did differently this year with special education is we we wanted to and jump in here, Daniel, but we wanted to budget for some anticipated dates. In previous years, we had budgeted for what we knew and and what we knew the students were and and those items. Um, this year we wanted to change it up. Not change it up. We wanted to be better prepared for next year. I feel like we made a conscious effort to be more realistic with what the actual special ed costs would end
040up being where in past years it was like, okay, well, how many how many one-on-one par educators do we have? Are any of those kids going away? Can we reduce the number of slots that we have? and we were budgeting leaner than we should have been in special ed. And this year we're like, okay, well, we need to be realistic because special ed is really what consumes most of our post-budget ads each year. So, let's be fair about budgeting what the true cost is going to be for special ed. And let's also add one unfilled pareducator position because there seems to always be some needs that come up. And it's a position that we won't hire, but we'll leave vacant until there's a need there. It gives us some flexibility with special epic funding to
041or budget to do some problem solving. And then the other one that that we budgeted for is the fourth slot at W Discovery and that's about you see it up there, it's about 80,000. Every year we have a student who just needs a little bit more and needs some more support and that is that's the um they go to Watcom Discovery and so we're if we don't use it great ideally we won't need it um but it's in the budget if we do need it and we we're having indications that we would likely need it as part that's what triggered the conversation we need to add this and it's like okay the likelihood is we are going to need it so we should budget for it so it's not an $80,000 hit for something that
042we didn't budget for. Looking at the slide, it's already included in the 320. Correct. So, we won't be at an allin of 400. It's still at the 320. Thank you. Correct. And on this one, I feel like we've um Dr. Everett and Daniel spoke about this earlier. So, so I'm not going to I don't know that I'm going to spend a lot of time on this this slide, but this is the it's pretty exciting that we're able to offer in total six early learning classrooms um with the developmental prek four PK and ECAP split and one dedicated to three-year-olds. Um that's that's a lot of growth for for Bra. Okay. It's pretty awesome for our families. I guess the one piece that we didn't speak to is TK. And so TK is fully funded and
043um it's capped it's capped at this year's or the 2425 enrollment which for us is uh 44.6. And so anyway, we budgeted 44. We're going to try to keep those classrooms full so we can um you know serve the kids but also capture the the potential revenue there. And so what that amounts to or what has it has amounted to is three teachers and three para educators for three classrooms. But now that we're splitting it between four and we have to take the allocation of the TK students in the classroom and ECAP students in the classroom and that has provided a little bit of capacity and transitional kindergarten funding. And so we have about $57,000 that we will need to spend in TK somewhere else. And um so that's budgeted for and right now the
044first priority is to get those classrooms outfitted with furniture and the other needs that they have. We're going to wait and see what what needs come up in TK. And we also have the flexibility to carry over those funds if if the needs aren't there. And then we can kind of see where the early learning program ends up panning out over the next couple of years. So just real quick for clarification, the six classrooms will not increase headcount within the building. Say that last part. You had mentioned that there wasn't any concern about overcrowding in the building because these six classrooms already had students. So, we're not increasing headcount within the building. Correct. Well, we'll we'll increase a little bit because the third TK was not a full TK because we didn't have a full
045group. But, um, since we're combining ECAP and TK, these will be 17 students per. We'll have capacity to go up to 20. So headc count will increase a little bit but for space classroom wise we're not going to increase. Okay. So headcount is going up and we're removing one assistant principal to help manage that. Correct. We're replacing that assistant principal with a dean. Oh, okay. I that I didn't have that information. I'll probably speak to that in just a second, but Okay. Thank you. Yeah. And and so for this TKE ECAP model um we will need to hire two more certificated teachers and two more par educators and those are those four individuals are in the budget. Um and then this upper half. Um so over the past two years we've reduced 3 million 2
046million last year and 1 million. Yeah. We've reduced $3 million. Um we have reduced from a from a reduction standpoint. One classified staff member and we have used provisional certificated teachers um as part of their contract. their first couple years are provisional and we released two on provisional status this year and we've we released two last year. So we have really our goal has been to maintain our staff and when we've done that to the best of our ability hopefully next year we will be in the same situation that we'll be ready if it happens. U so for the Mox uh as you guys saw throughout the year when we go through the monthly budget report our expenditures are like right about there with um way that where they've been budgeted. So it's really important
047to budget realistically and um and account for inflation. And so one of the earlier steps that we had was to get input from all of the administrators and directors on what accounts were directly impacted by inflation. And so we made some adjustments for inflation for for accounts that um were going over budget. And so there are some increases for inflation. Um the other increase that we had on the MSOC side was athletics travel was significantly underbudgeted and so we increase that to a level that should support the actual travel that we end up having with our sports. Um and then as we got to the end of this budget process, we weren't we weren't balanced. And so so what I and I I do this a few times throughout the process. I had already gone
048through it probably twice, but I went through a third time look through each budget line and where we spent over the last few years. And if there was a budget line that had the capability to be reduced, I reduced those. And that's how we got probably the the final about 200 $200,000 um to get it to balance. So, it'll be it's it's going to be a tight budget, but we've been really cognizant about our planning and making sure we're capturing everything that we at least know about now. So we should have less unforeseen circumstances come up that we have to you know do problem solving at budget for out of the postbudget ads before you move on. Yeah. I I I think a lot of the staffing and the position pieces the one piece that
049I would share we're pretty proud of where we landed but I'll go back to the statement I made a few months ago. This is surviving. This is not thriving. This is we we have an elementary school that requires two APs and an principal, but we also have someone in a team that that's do a really nice job, but we're going to work back to trying to get an AP to join the rest of the admin team. Losing our mental health coordinator, some of those duties Aaron will take up. We'll probably tap her, but it's more critical to have two counselors at Irene right now. So, some people are going to be doing double duty. Same thing with our athletic director supervising custodians. There's So, we've got people doing multiple things to make this all work
050that they didn't ever sign up for, right? And so, um, we're pretty pleased right now, but I just I want to impress upon you that it's it's taxing and it's it gets old, um, after having done it a few years, but I also will say our staff have been great. they've been they've been willing you to tell us what we need we need us to do. So I was kind of how that would work because at what point you have conflict like uh you know wait hey my that wasn't my contract that's not what I signed up for. Oh so you're ask I'm this is all stuff I heard over 30 years so I'm just I'm imagining here too and and um you know okay now expect me to do more but I'm not getting
051paid. I mean but you said everybody seemed to be receptive. We had people reach out and say what what do you need there are some pieces some pieces that were driven by contract and so um there were some directives that were also put forward right so it's it's a mixture um but I think as we continue to communicate what the budget is and where it lands we've been talking with our union groups they understand what pieces have gone on and so they've been partners and these are where we're moving this is what we're looking that and so they understand what we're doing as well. And um several times acknowledging our status compared to districts in the county. That's where um so there's a mixture, right? Yeah. I guess when we say we're pleased, we're pleased
052that we didn't have to let go a permit staff and that we have a budget that believe we can stay within. But it is it's a it's a very lean budget and just like cutting the $2 million last year made it lean and then when you're going in and cutting another million on top of that, you're just you're just super lean at that point. To your point, Marty, u last year we moved, we transferred quite a few bear educators from building to building. And when we checked in with them, when I checked in with them in the fall and mid year and towards the end, some of them were like, it's the best thing that's happened. Some of them were like, I don't want to, are you going to move me back? They didn't want
053to go back. And so, it's really a testament to our staff and the people we have here that they They weren't happy about it when I shared the information with them, but when they got in the system, they did what they needed to do and they ended up in many cases, they ended up appreciating it and taking that. Um, so I won't say that's across the board, but it was it was good to hear. Oh, absolutely. I mean, no reduction, of course, but I would had a couple employees that step two of the agreements process, you know, because nothing would make them happy. But I'm I'm glad to hear that. That's it. Uh this this next slide is here because it's legislatively required to be here. Um it was like I don't know maybe six
054years ago the legislature added a little bit of money to MSOCS and and they were kind of in the understanding that there was just going to be this like flow of funds and they wanted to make sure districts were spending it on Mox. So it's a comparison of how much you get funded for Mox and how much you pay for Mox. And we get funded for almost 2.5 million. We pay out almost 4.4. So, we're there's still a shortfall of 1.9 million. Any questions on the general fund before we move into the other funds? I do have a quick question. Yeah. So, we say we've cut $3 million off the budget the last two years. Like the the total number has gone up still and so I think what we're saying so if people ask
055me the if we had the same funding rules from two years ago, we're cutting $3 million off of those funding rules. Is that right? So, essentially what it is is you have to you you have contracts in place to pay your employees and those contracts were all made two years ago for three-year contracts and they were essentially before the like the budget crisis. So, you know, people are considering the climate that we're in, any of the people who are in the associations are getting pretty decent pay increases and but we're contractually obligated to pay those. Um, also you have the inflation that that comes and and so the costs just keep going. the the revenue isn't increasing as fast as the costs are increasing. So in order to balance the budget you have to reduce
056your costs and you have to reduce your cost by taking um any open positions and instead of filling those positions you're you're shifting people over into them. That's that's the main area that we've been able to have savings and you know it's I mean it has created some efficiencies to be very very lean but um it it comes at a cost. You have less you have less people serving kids. Okay. So we're climbing but our cost is climbing faster and that's where we're seeing a difference. Yeah. Yeah. Uh that's a good question. So ASB is I mean ASB is pretty straightforward. Uh kind of really the only thing that I wanted to point out here is a year ago the middle school ASB was struggling a bit and now um Robert Kretzik has come in
057and he's he's he's really taken ownership in that and has some plans to like turn that around to where it's it's not um bleeding funding where the last few years before that the fund balance was just getting used up and the expenditures were higher than revenues and so he's got a plan to have a more balanced budget there. So I'm appreciative of that. Um but the uh revenues exceed expenditures by 20,000 projected and our fund balance is ending around 2.5 million at the end of next year. Assuming all those revenues come in, we'll go up to 2.7 or 270,000. The debt service fund, the only thing that the debt service fund does is take in um levy proceeds to pay for our bonds. So, this is the only bond that we currently have is the
058$17 million bond that was passed in 2010. Um that along with that funding and the funding that we got from the states called scap funding uh was replacement for or the modernization of the high school. And so this is uh basically what we do is we we just levy the exact amount of money that we need to pay back our bonds. um the capital projects fund. Um it's it's really getting ready to gear up, but we have we have three projects right now. We have the Wakom Early Learning Center. It's $12 million project. Uh we we did take in some revenue, mostly the local donation revenue that we had during this year and we're expected to next year spend about $3 million and take in another 1.8 million. So once we start the work, that's
059when we So all of our federal and state money that we have related to those are are all reimbursement basis. So, we'll we'll kind of use some of that u local money that we had for cash flow and then we'll make some expenditures. And if you time everything correctly, you can actually pay out the bills and get paid by the state on the same day. And so, we're going to we're going to try to manage it very carefully so we don't have to do any short-term debt. The uh Wam County skill center is coming up. That's $60 million, but it's projected start of 20 2728. So there aren't any dollars in there for revenue or expenditures. The district office and um county skill center classrooms, that's a uh almost $3 million project. And basically we
060spent the whole year going through the environmental study and and we're just about finished with that and so we should be able to complete that work during this this next year. So that's going to keep Jagger pretty busy. Go ahead. Um the this the next bullet point capacity for district works projects. this this I mean it is what it sounds like it's capacity in case stuff comes up that we need to fix. So that's what that is there for. Um and then there's the technology levy. So the money comes in into this fund capital projects fund and then will get transferred out into the general fund where the expenditures will accumulate throughout the year. Um there's similar thing happening for project management. Pay out $8,000 for project management and then that gets paid out of
061the general fund and then will get transferred over and that comes from the various revenues from those projects. And then there's investment earnings and se mitigation fee. Those that's that's the revenue side of things. So, um, with all of our funds, I keep them basically at like a revolving zero balance where all the money is is invested until we need it. So, for the capital projects fund, instead of zero balance, it's a $10,000 balance. So, we keep the the the cash account at $10,000 and everything else sits in investments. So, we can um capture some earnings on that. Um, so just back up to looking back up to that table, revenues are projected at 6,484,000 and expenditures are projected right about the same, 6,485,000. And then there's the the transfer out, that's the technology levy,
062that's 100 1,137,000. Um that also it's the technology levy and that $85,000 for the project management. Right now there's a typo here that should say 2526 beginning fund balance is projected to be 2.2 million and then we'll spend down about 1.1 million of that and end the year at about a million62,000. questions on capital projects fund the transportation vehicle fund. We we just received one bus in we're expecting to receive another bus before the end of August. Um but there's what I've done is I've budgeted just in case that bus comes in next year. So, there's $660,000 budgeted to transportation vehicle. Basically, what that does is it allows us to to buy buses as we need to. We have two more two more buses coming in in the fall. So, there's potential three buses and
063and but I budgeted for two of the two of our shorter buses and two of our full-size buses in case we end up because what we're going you you order and they take between like nine months and a year. So, that's that allows us if the that additional bus ends up coming in like next August or something that we can pay for all those without doing a budget extension. Um so the revenues and all the revenues that we we receive for the transportation vehicle fund are based on depreciation of the buses that we have fleet. So depending on um how many buses you have, they depreciate them and they give you your money back by the end of the bus's life. Um it pays for the bus. Um so revenues 365,000 expenditures potential for four
064buses 660,000 with expenditures exceeding revenues by 294,000. The ending fund the beginning fund balance for next year is projected to be 405,000. The change in fund balance is 294 with an ending fund balance of about 110,000. And this a few years back there was a legislative requirement to do four-year budgeting. So this is like an additional thing after we finish our one-year budgeting. I go in and I do four-year budgeting and do projections for revenues and expenditures. So pretty hard to see. There you go. So the this first column here 2526 all these figures match up with our F195 which we just went through. This is the general fund. um in 2627 um I projected revenues to so for all of the years I projected revenues to go up by 2.5% with federal revenues being
065flat. There is and there's a lot of rumors out there that federal revenues will go down um starting 2627. So that could be our next budget challenge. But we're uh we're not really speculating at this point. We're just we're going to problem solve as we get there. On the expense side, uh these projections have expenditures going up by 3%. If they go up further than that, that means we have to do more reductions to balance out the budget. Um and then for the third year 2728 that to balance the budget that with that those increases I just spoke about that shows a reduction of two certificated positions. Um and then in 2829 another one and a half. So, if there isn't, basically what this is saying is if there isn't any new money coming through,
066we're kind of looking like we'll probably have to keep doing some reductions for the foreseeable future. Um, another thing that's worth pointing out down here is the um so this the ending fund balance is is in this line here in the gray, the top line in the gray. And this is what it's projected to be for each year. It's pretty close to about 2.5 million. The minimum fund balance of that 5.5%. So that's 5 and a half% of your expenditures. So as your expenditures grow, that number also grows. And and then I have a target. it would I would like to have higher than 7 and a half% but this is kind of more of a a reasonable reasonably attainable target. So if we're able to you know if we get any additional enrollment we're
067able to save some of that funding without spending it that can go towards the fund balance. So that's one of our goals. One of our goals is to increase our fund balance. Um and these would be kind of our targets to get there. Any questions on the four-year budgeting for the general fund? So that forecast is why we spent time in Olympia talking about the need for funding because it is not sustainable. Yeah. There's a shortage. Yeah. And I mean costs are probably going to go up by more than 3% too. Oh yeah. um the ASB it I mean it's it's pretty simple. It's just taking the current budget and adding a little percentage for revenues and expenditures. Debt service fund. These are these are based on our our actual bond repayment schedule and where
068we would project to levy out the the revenue dollars to pay for those bonds. So, um, these are pretty real action u real projections and it kind of h it has our any fund balance hovering around $900,000 the capital projects fund. So, what I've done is worked with Jay to figure out for each of those projects what percentage of each of those projects we expect to spend in each of the the next four years. We've actually gone out further than four years, but um we don't the F195 form covers four years and see so these are actual projections of revenue that we perceive we will get for those projects and expenditures for those projects and it has our fund balance hovering right around enough dollars because once we once we get rolling in the projects
069they're all reimbursement bases. So essentially we spend the money and we get the money back. Transportation vehicle fund. Uh so as I talked about earlier I've given us capacity in that first year in case we need to in case worst case scenario happens and four buses get purchased in one year and then what it has more likely what we are trying to do is purchase two buses every year and we're trying to have a consistent replacement schedule two buses a year and that what that does it maximizes our depreciation revenue and it makes so you don't run into a situation where you have a lot of buses coming off at once and then you have to buy a whole lot of buses. And we're in a we're in a really good place with our depreciation
070schedule and our bus replacement schedule. Um but but it also has two in year two that's the value of two buses. In year three and four that's the value of one bus. But what will likely happen is we'll actually only get two buses in the first year and then we'll do two in each year. That makes sense. I don't know. Any questions? That was a great presentation. Thank you. Very very easy to follow. Appreciate it. When you've been living it for a long time, you kind you kind of just know it. Yeah. Not a whole lot of prep. I don't have any questions, but I just respect all the work that was put into this and all the hard effort. I mean, that's absolutely. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah, it was a team effort. Yeah, absolutely.
071A lot of good work. Starting in October. Yeah. Yes. I swear I'm better at my own here. Logan, do you have any questions? No, I don't. Thank you for your work. Thank you. So the next I think the next step in the agenda is to open it up for the budget hearing and then from there then we'll u ask the board to adopt the resolution. Okay. I don't think there's any public comment for the budget. We don't have a sign up for that. Was one of those for sign up? I'm sorry. We do and there were no names. Okay. Okay. Uh Michelle, do you have any questions? No, I do not. Thank you. Okay. Well, um guess we can move on to budget adoption. Can I please get a motion to adopt resolution 0425? So,
072I'll make a motion to adopt the 2025 2026 district budget and approve resolution for 25 as presented. I will sec I'll second. All those in favor? I I I I thank you. I don't recommend Daniel. I think our executive group and also building administrators and our teachers because the last three years really it started three years ago and last year and this year things have been tight. People have had to take on extra things. So I think it's great. It's been it's good to see. I don't like people being put in that position but it's good to see collectively working together and trying to make things work for our kids. Yeah. Seems like the emer community and all the staff and all the administrators and everybody, you know, they know what what it takes to
073keep this show rolling. Thank you. I want to say thank you to the board. I appreciate your support and thanks for approving the budget. Yeah, absolutely. And Daniel, we trust. Okay. Well, uh, do we have any information from our student board representative? Um, not really. The last time we met was in May. We had a pretty successful meeting and we meant to meet again in June, but with like schedules and stuff and Kennedy graduating, we weren't able to make it happen. But, um, I connected with, you know, the administrators around our school and or around our district. And I know we had some changes, but I think we're ready to continue with our districtwide advisory group and I'm excited for next year. We get some pretty positive responses, too. I can tell you that administrators
074districtwide appreciate what you and Kennedy did to organize things and get us launched. So, I want to make sure you hear that. Thank you. Een join that join the board. Oh, yeah. She she's open right now. Yeah. Basketball camp at Western right at 10:30 sport. Very cool. All right. Um, do we have any information from board directors? We got a a golf tournament this Saturday. Yeah, that came up. So, um, qu So, Lawrence Johnson, he gave me a call. He saw that golf tournament come up. He's a from the a class of 88 alumni. He graduated you, didn't he, Bruce? Lawrence. So Lawrence, he has this large like towbehind pig roster. I mean, he's been doing it for years where he roast the whole pig. And so he's asking about the foundation of golf thing.
075I said, "Well, I think it's a Saturday." So I asked a little too soon, but he did say he'd like to do the alumni event that's going to come out in August. He'd come out and do that. And I brought out the the U September 27th football game for Bob A. You know, we talked about doing the barbecue and he said he'd be more than willing to uh pitch in. He said next year he'd do the golf thing for you guys if but um he would ask that we provide the meat. So I kind of I was going to give him some people to reach out to but next year. Yeah. Think about that. I think that draw crowds. There's also he's really good guy. There's also one that Bryant runs. It's like the third
076week of July, but I'm always out that week. But there's there's another one. There's like Yeah. So that's awesome. Very cool. Okay. Well, no presentation from Mr. James. Well, I spent a few days visiting my daughter and came back for a day and then I was out for surgery and so I didn't have a lot to report. I am happy to share, however, at the state uh summer conference for AWSP and WASA. our administrators shared the hiring process that we go through with Zoom screeners and then um I had about 20 people in the room uh talking about how when you hire someone that's one of the most important things that you do because they become part of your organization for a long time. That's your hope, right? And so oftentimes you're relegated to 20
077or 30 questions trying to get the the best performative understanding of what they can do. And uh as Tyler Dawkins says, teachers are up teaching 90% of the time. So why not see them do that while you're going through the hiring process? So they do the Zoom screeners, they have a few questions they do, and then based on that performance, they go in and and do classroom demos. And then from there, they have a coaching scenario that happens in there so that they understand what it is they're going to be engaging in and then make the decisions. And they actually they didn't just talk about it. Uh Adrian was with me as well. what they did is they took the the group through it and it's really positive team back and so um super proud
078of our administrative team both for doing that and also for the work that they're doing. We see a lot more collaboration up and down the district than we've seen in years past. So pretty excited. Great. the award that you got. That's right. It's cool. I just saw that. Yeah. I think more to come. All right. Well, there's nothing else. We will adjourn and sign some official documents. Thank you.