001of the school district of Jefferson Board of Education. We'll start off with the pledge of allegiance. The flag is in the back there. Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. If you'll please note that we are present. All right. Now that the school board meeting has been called to order, we can call to order the budget hearing. And as for the budget hearing, it's a meeting within a meeting. The purpose is a public hearing or the purpose of a public hearing is to provide district residents an opportunity to review the proposed budget for 202526 and to express their questions and opinions regarding the budget. So, Mr. band. Too fast. All right. Good
002evening. Uh thank you. Yes. So we are here uh meeting within a meeting uh budget hearing the annual uh opportunity obviously as you said uh president built here uh for the public but also just for the board to hear the original adoption of the budget before we uh kind of get to the next stages of our budget procedures with the public. Um so tonight kind of a culmination of a lot of things uh we will be really referencing a document um that is in public content. uh the budget document is along with what we posted for statute in the paperwork for August. Um all those pieces are represented there. So I'm going to use this presentation method just as a way to try and uh kind of articulate some of the big themes I put
003here, but feel free to interact or ask questions throughout the process. Um and so as we go through just this update, I think that as an opportunity for the board just to kind of review and deepen their knowledge on a few terms or ideas. Um and so depending on where you are in that spectrum of learning on school finance um right there's different financial terms that we use but but the the biggest push in the past few years as I maybe have mentioned you uh at recent meetings or in past meetings is the the push for state um just clarity and transparency through through state reporting uh and that's done through the wise wise data finance or wispip I can't remember the exact analogy right now uh but it's all about information sharing and transparency
004for both the public and for other techs uh individuals. And so we use uh Wisconsin governmental accounting, the Wisconsin uniform financial uh accounting requirements, woofer, woofer. It's a little bit of a tomato tomato thing. Um but that's really what governed how we do accounting in schools. And so as we go through the the high points of tonight is it's going to be a little bit of a focus on students first, right? how we how we cut kids, how we make projections for kids. What does that look like then and how does that translate to funding? Um both revenues and also I guess the expenditure side in the general fund. Um looking at some of the other funds, I'll call them the other ones. Um and then uh looking at what does that mean for the
005community as well as we we process all these various pieces. um and and fund accounting if for those of you maybe that are maybe just new to that um think of it as kind of buckets different segregated buckets for spending for for specific purposes. So if there's any questions about that um based on preliminary unodudited financials so uh again this is all based on what needs to get statutoily put in the paper in uh 15 days prior to the meeting. So it was I think August 8th is what the actual publication date was. Um our our end of the year fund balance as a percentage within board policy uh it's 15 to 25% of 2317%. Um as a reminder that was some of that action at that second meeting in July which uh we allocated
006some uh funds for future fun projects uh to try and help maintain not only get some state aid back on that but also to maintain within that fund balance. Uh just a reminder, just fund balance. Sometimes you think of it as cash in the bank. Uh but really think of it as your total equity, right? Maybe equity in a house, your total assets, what you still owe, what's left over. Think of that. So it's not strictly cash. So looking at the place that we probably can start with to try and really think about how we operate as an educational system is our students. And so we've been moving on this trajectory of declining enrollment for the past few years. Um, and in my tenure, we've been using the bar forecasting model. And so, uh, the
007the purpose of this slide is there's a lot of different ways we can count kids. Um, they're for for all of our educators, they're students, right? Their their face, their name, and they have story. Um, the way that the state counts them, it kind of depends a little bit as you can imagine, right? A 4K student uh, that might be here half the day isn't counted quite exactly the same as maybe a high school senior or something. uh just and then they use these these FP full-time equivalency. And so the the the summitative or the summary of these pieces is as we we gear up towards our third Friday in September, that's the date that we count the number of kids that we have. and um our our data team led by Miss Jodie Simson
008um really does a great job meeting our administrative assistants to try and filter down and make sure we correctly categorize kids um because it depends if they're resident kids if they open enroll if they um right however they might come to us in various ways that that changes the way that we might be funded for that person. Uh so using our bear forecasting right which we already know some of this is say not old data but is right based on statutory posting early August. Um we we know that these numbers will eb and flow as we get closer to that September third Friday. currently thinking though um that third bullet point is one of the pieces that I focus more on that revenue limit uh FTP membership which is really taking an average of our
009our past three year our current three years compared to our past three years and that's where that revenue limit is saying how much funds as a school district we can generate and that's between that local property tax and uh generally maybe pause for any questions real quick before I Okay. Um, open enrollment uh similar using these bar uh kind of quote work survival modeling. Uh, we do some rough estimates here and again this is I don't want to call it old news but it's it's using projections um that we take each grade and correct class level and we look at how kiddos typically come into our system where they come into our system at different grade pools. Right? Students might enter at a different rate that they do at first grade than they do maybe
010at nth grade. Um, and so it looks at the number of exiting seniors, both ones that are in our district that are attending Jefferson, but also those that are open enrolled elsewhere because that was an expense that we may have had last year. And so we're preliminary expecting still in the positive, but that gap is shrinking a little bit. Um, and I know just some um kind of incomplete data still. I know that recently we've actually had in the past couple weeks more open enrollment out applications. Um, I'll I'll call them for good reason. students that are um currently have been open enrolled in the past but now maybe I'm sorry I should be careful with that we have less open enrollment in students kids that have come into our district before but actually are
011becoming residents they move into the district and so uh that that number is maybe shifting and changing uh so as we get closer we we get down to the fall I'll provide a better update obviously of third Friday count where we're at with open enrollment but those kind of changes can happen all the time that really affect the bottom number um this was as the bubble kind of suggest an area of I guess strength in the uh recent state bianium. It was a a reinvestment uh in open enrollment and because we are positive we are net in uh we we benefit from that. Uh but again you know that that market and student population is becoming uh the next couple slides start transitioning into some of the financial pieces and I'm not going to necessarily
012talk about all of these elements. Um but really as we start thinking about those funding models as we transition from kids to how does that translate that revenue limit worksheet is really the main vehicle. um in my meeting in I think it's October the first one before we set the levy when we're getting closer to that finalized one. I've last year presented kind of a I tried to do kind of a brief walkthrough of it just to give you some understanding and I'll I'll do that same cadence this year and bring it back to you just to kind of further deepen that. Um but but really the short of it is I guess the the big narrative that we have between while we don't have a lot of new revenue limit authority for declining enrollment
013and we have $325 per student. Um the the big narrative for us this year is really the shift that under that revenue limit comes back towards double property tax. Um that's a culmination of factors from our enrollment to also um no I don't want to say no investment but no significant investment from the bianium from this current legislature in general equalization or tax credits anything like that and so that is going to be a narrative shift and I do have kind of maybe a couple other better graphics coming up in the next few slides to touch on that uh but but the the preliminary DPI estimates were about a $1.2 $2 million is just about 8% in shifting and there's a threshold at 10%. We just hit that but um right cognizant that we need
014to be careful of as we talk about property tax levy in this budget that I'm recommending for you tonight. It takes some of that into consideration. I'll touch on that um estimated mill rate. we'll get to um in just a moment here. But the uh the key we got an early estimates about a 5.3% increase to property value that hasn't been certified by municipalities but um again growing growing in this area. So when we take and look at our major source of revenue actually is that revenue limit. Um I presented this kind of similar bubble last year just to try and help kind of break down where our different revenues come from. Uh the big yellow one is our state sources. Uh red is local sources. And so this bubble kind of as it points
015out about 82% of our revenue comes from just that equalization aid and local property taxes that revenue limit which is why we talk about it so much. Um I did put for comparatively last year. So if you look it's it's actually split. is, you know, just under 42% for state aid, equalization aid and, you know, 40 and a half% for local. That shift has has changed quite a bit even from last year and you can see that reflected in the stats in the bottom left corner. Um, and a piece of that I did want to put some asterisks in there. There there's a couple elements that also impact that besides the change from local uh sorry, state equalization aid to local property tax. uh we had federal ESSER dollars that would have impacted that kind
016of distribution along with also um just shy of a million dollars of of property loss claims that also impact obviously how that that that total revenues is distributed out within our district. So I wanted to give that caveat before we just said it's been a complete shift over from one because that that changes it. Uh but but really as we we start seeing those federal revenues stabilizing right Esser that that piece of the pie is going to be much more we we hope consistent in the future. We we obviously are optimistically planning and moving forward with all the plans that uh Scrundle and the the the teaching and learning staff have created. Um but but that piece is more fixed now than it maybe ever has been where the last few years we've had uh
017it eb and flow with the different uh pandemic dollars. Okay. um these figures. So again, feel free if there's any questions. I'm going to try and only pick on a few of these. We really want to call out uh the full budgetary posting is in the back pages um of the budget booklet. Um the there's an abbreviated version we post in the paper and then for adoption tonight, the left pages is is more expanded. Um but a couple things that I would call out here is so as um previously mentioned um an unodudited financials anticipating a surplus um as we talked about referendum planning. was our our planned surplus um and I don't want to call it deficit but by design but we had a planned surplus plus a balanced budget projected for this year
018and then depending obviously on various factors and we'll revisit model future deficits the next few uh but surplus this year um represented here in these unodited financials a couple pieces as you look at this last column here it's kind of hard to see I know the numbers may be small the big shifts that I would like to point out is as we talked about the revenues and other financing sources the the the area that this is coming from, we have a large projected increase that it's not finalized till October, but this would be reflected in a property tax shift from the state sources from state to local. And again, that's really this dynamic that's happening within a revenue limit where those two pieces fill up the whole cup and depending on the level of one
019versus the other, the local mess of it. Um, you'd also notice here, as I mentioned previously, kind of that caveat that asterisk, um, right? These other sources, there's a variety of things that can go in there from MAC payments and just various different things, but this million dollars is it should be kind of something that jumps out a little bit. And that again would be our claims that we had as a result of the east fire and the plastic flood. Um, for the majority of it, it has all been resolved. Uh, I should say, knock on wood. Um, has pretty much entirely been resolved. Sometimes insurance payments and us actually physically expending the dollar sometimes come at different times. They don't cleanly come all as much as I'd like before 6:30 2025. Um so there's
020some bleed over between those two, but again uh those claims are covered within our deductibles that we we our premiums that we paid for. Um and then expenditures, you know, as a result of of some of those additional incurred costs, right? You see a little blip up as as a result of expenditures. We had a million dollars in in loss. we had to also have these imagined. So, so this is maybe I I tried to pull some of the the resource that I had a little bit that might just explain some of the the at a very high level some of the different concepts we're talking about. And so this this uh picture from bear really discusses kind of that revenue limit authority that I'm articulating here and saying hey whatever our revenue limit is
021this is by statute what we can generate as far as revenue it is offset by a variety of different things equalization aid that primary aid metric or mechanism that the the legislature uses um that's down projected about a million dollars um personal property aid is another piece of that these are typically quite fixed but I had mentioned the state bienium personal property um in the past this was about $40,000 we this year had lost spendable $100,000 and it shifted underneath the revenue limit as property gain. So while that's a good thing right from local taxes that is something we think about it's no longer spendable dollars that we have at our disposal. Um and so what that means is if this pot of money in the middle here is less right because the equalization aid
022is decreased over last year that means naturally if we levy to that full authority that the allowable local tax levy would and that's kind of this little dichotomy that we have of one goes up the other goes down where if equalization a goes down the the local levy would as um I I detailed a lot of these pieces in uh in some of the uh update that I did for the board on July 28th just regarding the state benium. Um but there's other pieces that kind of are staying the same. Pupil per pupil aid um you know if we're anticipating decline. So interest rates have been great. They've still been very high. We uh utilize ADM. We try and make sure that we wire and transfer to high yield interest savings accounts whenever we can
023to continue to. Um, I keep increasing this optimistically because I know at some point the the floor has to fall, but I also don't want to budget for a deficit if there's other revenue on the table. So, it's kind of that balance that I play there and we watch the markets and I do get some good information from American Deposit Management on where they live. Um, so overall the decrease in fund revenues from last year's actual but again keep in mind that's me kind of pulling out the fire claims that are kind of um so that's the revenue side. know just expense and then we get some other funds before we talk about um just the other uh ways that that's going to impact community and some of the different uh pieces that you all
024consider as we think about all of our our stakeholders. Um so wages and and insurance we have already um worked with JA to settle that for this year um as well as support staff. Um the big question mark that we still have is kind of where our finalized projected health insurance premiums come in. We did have since our last meeting a meeting with US Insurance broker partners um in which they're they're optimistic about the future, but that doesn't mean that we still don't have some bump away. And so they're trying to help us navigate what does a plan design look like that we can make sure we we offer um levels of choice for our staff without just taking it out entirely and payable deductions. Uh because that's that's really cognizant of as we think
025about like how how those benefit changes also impact our staff. um won't commit to anything yet, but I think, you know, I guess I'm glad I didn't go down to 8%, but uh I'm I'm not sold that necessarily they're going to depending on their negotiation ability, what the benefits to them. Um we have other post-employment benefits, uh some bus routes to also reduction based on the board rate, some increase rate, but also the bus route reduction um are some things that uh are are some highlights of as we're continuing to manage our in a unique Jefferson budget. Um and then open enrollment, right? As I said, we're getting a little bit closer on that. So, our net is uh the in and out is expected to decrease a little bit. Um depending on how all
026of the students end up actually coming in and what students we actually got based off projection models. Um we'll provide more updates on this, but obviously we are we are anticipating to still be in the positive uh in the black for this year. Um and and voucher payments. Um that was also an area that I'll touch on at the very end. um it's anticipated to increase, right? Barrett uses projection models. That's something that we get very little data on um from the school district perspective. And so it's almost it's typically a October 15th pay, what's the number in there? Um but that does ultimately impact how much we levy because that is a non um not recurring exemption. So if we have a million dollars of voucher payments um that that is something that then
027gets gets allows us to go beyond the revenue limit authority to generate that per blue. Um, I'm calling it balance budget. I I I like to try and uh I don't like to manipulate it too much, right, for this. So, it's representing at least in the documents, you have a $5,518 surplus. Um, but in a $28 million budget, right, that that can have it flow pretty quickly, a half percentage change. Um, and I did keep this on here because I think it's important, you know, even though we're we're presenting a balanced budget, um, we are continuing to work diligently, I think, as an entire administrative team, uh, led by Dr. earnest, right? As we continue to evaluate what is that what is the future uh school district in Jefferson and how do we maintain uh
028the quality pass that we have uh the other funds. So, we've spent a lot of time talking about 10 and I'm going to try and kind of move through some of these quickly, but I also want to make sure that I spend some time to to kind of give you an update on a few of them that are important. So, when we think about uh fund 10, that's really most of our operations. Uh so, as we think about these other funds, they they serve another unique or different purpose. So fund 27 special education. Um again this year we're we have actually uh adjusted some of with uh the support of uh Miss Nissan uh just continuing to look at and refine those those grant budgets and also what is local and um locally spent as
029well as aidable uh because as I mentioned at in our July 28th meeting there's a lot of moving ve uh vehicles right now with how we can get additional special education funding. um that was a of the focus in this state uh bianium. And so uh this year we're actually projecting a decreased transfer. So every year special education has to wash out uh match zero uh revenues and expenditures. And that's accomplished by a transfer from FUD 10. And so because of the support of uh the increase in state uh categorical aid, it's going to help reduce the amount that we are projecting to have to transfer as a result of that. Uh there's a couple tricky things we got to be careful with with what's called maintenance of effort. Um federal guidelines that we have
030to make sure that we're supporting consistent special education education, but a positive trend for special ed um operational debt fund 38 and 39. Those are a debt service. So we we have some WRS liability, but um the uh the I'm sorry, the WRS liability just completely matured this past March. We paid it off. uh that actually this debt falls under the the uh uh revenue limit authority and so it offsets operational revenue. So us paying off some of that debt gives us more operational flexibility. Um we still have the uh energy exemption refinancing. So back in 2020 we did a refinance on that and Miss PG wise taking advantage of uh some some some low interest rate environment to to repurpose that. Uh but that'll be on our books for for quite a while. I
031can't remember exact maturity date on that. It's a tough opportunity. And then our referendum funds. Um the the one piece I will try and kind of put a small plug in um I've been doing a lot of learning about you know right we want to be very cognizant of the impact that this budget is going to have on our local tax base. Um and in trying to give you information as a board on our opportunities that we have. Uh, but one of which, which I think is a a very clear opportunity that we take, and I actually included it in this budget hearing, um, is is just an underleving fund 39 of about a quarter of a million dollars. Uh, because of the interest rate environment we've been living in, when we borrow to pay
032back debt, we earn interest on that. And that interest is for the purpose of the taxpayers to pay back some of that debt, help further pay it back. Uh, so we we've generated some additional funds because of how we have to levy and pay expenditures out. We always maintain a fund balance in that account because uh actually in the next couple days here we have just shy of a million dollar payment we have to make. Um but one of my recommendations will be that we use some of that fund balance to be able to help lessen the levy and fund. It'll be a way that we can try and help diminish some of the impact of that shift. Um it also doesn't hamper us as a school district where underleving that term typically can have
033repercussions in the future. uh utilizing fund balance in this way format and then capital projects a lot of moving pieces that we're wrapping up here with this. I'm going to be able to bring back some recommendations for you in the future to be able to articulate in some project closeouts. Um but then uh that's the primary piece with fund 149 46 a healthy balance there. Um we know that we have a lot of projects still even after the referendum that we got to continue to maintain over the next 10 years. Um, and so this is a good way to start. So, any questions maybe before I food service? Uh, so fund 50 has to do with food service. Uh, this one, you know, as we've been talking about a lot over the past few years.
034So, this is definitely completed its spend down here. Um, over the past three or four years, we've been operating with an operational deficit within food service, right? but using those asser the the the reserve dollar solids that came through the federal government. Um between those being absent now and then also some additional pieces with reduced allocations for commodities the federal government has provided and we still get but just not the same level um they've fully spent this down and so um Dr. Ernest and myself are both working uh Mr. Greg all working together to really analyze uh food service for the future and how we continue to to try and make that uh a sustainable piece. uh he does have we'll be talking at our board report in detail on that on September 8th. Um
035and so happy to take questions on that one too, but uh this will be one that we'll be having some discussion on here in the next. And the last few are just a couple ones that are a little out there. We do have a trust that is for post-employment benefits. We have about over 40 employees that would still potentially qualify. And so um again, a strategic thing uh done in the past by the school district, we're able to get aid back on trust contributions. And so, um, that exists to be able to support, uh, retirement benefits for elig we levy an appropriate amount for that. Um, so that's middle school aged athletics, fifth grade aged basketball programming. Um, some lifeguards, uh, partnerships with Fort Healthcare, St. Kleta. So, so all those piece are really encompassing.
036Um, and then 199 is just a the very last one, right? If you get the out of the two digits, you get 99, you're kind of the catch catchall. Uh, it's the cooperative one. So, we're the fiscal agent for some some grants with Milton, um, with Fort Athens and Perkins. I think that's included here. And then also Cambridge, those pieces will fun. And so there is a lot of information that we just went through about really our entire $28 million budget and didn't really crack into entirely. Um, but on page uh I'm just going to try to get it here right on page 12 is the the two-page notice that would have gone in uh the uh the paper back in a early August. Um, and this is one that I think if if if
037you're trying to kind of see look for patterns, uh, look for what looks different or maybe ask questions why it looks different, um, that that would be the place I'd kind of push you as you want to start looking at those different funds. But hopefully that helps try and gather, um, just the the the all-encompassing nature of what it means to operate a school district. Uh, and so the last couple slides is really just trying to translate what does that mean for outside the district, the these walls of these buildings, the community, um, as well as our partners. Um, so as you mentioned, there's been talk years past and so this slide I just keep bringing back as far as just a reminder how we support also uh the the tax levy for our our
038private school partners. Um, I'm always careful to say because those kids still do count in different um different aid memberships like calculations. So it's not a straight million dollars exactly hit to the local tax levy. It's a little more complicated than that. Um but but it is one thing just for transparency that I I want to make sure the board and the community knows is that we also are responsible for levying this on their behalf. Um a projection of a million dollars again that's bured using the increase allocation and and trends within um but it'll be finalized in October as with many other things and then the all school district tax levy. So when we start taking all these pieces in, the the piece that often comes back to our community and what we think
039about is first of all, do we have the operational resources to to make to make ends meet and provide the program we want? Well, what does that mean for our local community and the state as a whole? I mean, we've uh you know, been experiencing some economic growth not only in Jefferson, but really all southern Wisconsin here over the last five years, four or five years. Um, so this projected increase, Whoops. This projected decrease. Uh, this projected increase represents that that uh preliminary 5.3% growth. Um but but here right a growth in the mill rate overall. Um and so that's 8.97 as a projected mill rate and and the big piece of that is again that shift that happens between equalization aid. Um I recently came across an article from the the legislative fiscal bureau.
040They kind of they sent out a memo to all the legislature after after the uh the passing of the budget at the end of July here July 31st and they're projecting just the changes and the impact that the 2527 state biium has. um on various different entities, municipalities, counties, um school districts, all of those. And and they project at least from uh this last fiscal year to this next fiscal year that statewide uh property tax increases, levies will change about 7.4%. Uh again, July 31st. Uh so, so it's really weighing, you know, how how do we continue to maintain that? And so really as a school district, the decisions that we have over the next uh coming months is really just continued knowledge and information around our options that we have. Things like under levying
041and fund 39 I think um is a is a very strong I would give you my strongest recommendation to do some of those pieces. Make sure that we have our funds to cover our debt, but try and find the ways that we can we can reduce that that levy um without hampering ourselves as a future district. Uh and so as we we kind of come to this funneling point, this one tonight is the original budget that we would adopt in October, I'll bring a long list of uh uh budget updates. Right? As you can imagine, we've changed a lot of staffing. Accounts change from from the end of July, early August. And so it's a long list, but it's just making sure that everything formally gets approved when we set the levy. Um and so
042we've got a couple key dates. September 19th, third Friday. That's when we'll get a little better picture of what our students uh where they're coming from, how many we have. Uh the department of revenue in October, right, they they finalized those numbers. Are we at 5.31? Uh it's different for each municipality. So if you look on website, um there there's different municipalities that we have to weigh the impact of that as well on that too. Um October 15th, our big kind of day in my my world. It's it's kind of like it's like a holiday. Uh so it's when the final revenue limit worksheet comes with pretty much all the variables filled in. Um and so then we will bring this back to you on October 27th for approval. Um so again, this meeting is
043is really the the one uh meeting at the time of the year where maybe I steal the show a little bit. Uh but it's it's trying to help give you some continued knowledge and and uh information as you're trying to make some important decisions for our current 2526 uh uh school district operations, but also how that's going to impact this the future. So with that, there's a lot of resources. Um if if you have questions now, I'm happy to take any of them and then eventually turn back to President Valia. Any questions from the board? I have a question on slide number seven. Um when you're looking at the bond 10 revenues 2025 26 y the 9.2% um wedge there of the of the circle. Yeah. Um other school districts within Wisconsin. Can you ex
044explain that a little bit? Yeah, great question. Uh so this primarily and if I even kick ahead here to I think it's about 2.5. This primarily happens to be open enrollment. So this is our open enrollment funds in that come from resulting kits that that come into our district. So, um, in general, right, this is going to be some relevant here, right? If we take our hopefully 180 and 50 kids that operate in, that would be those pieces. Yep. Okay. There's a couple other oddities. Um, I don't want to call them oddities. There's some other very nuanced things, but that source is almost exclusive open. And I thought I saw too somewhere on the budget something about outofstate districts. Yeah, there there is like there's other other school districts. We don't have any that we
045necessarily they might pull up you know some of the um the approved budget format might have specific uh uh I guess summaries for different functions and or different source codes but that doesn't necessarily there's there's really not about safe or anything. Yeah, good question. Uh, do you know I know you mentioned the fund balance shouldn't be thought of as cash, but yeah, I'm just curious what do you know what percentage of that 6.5 million actually is more cash to sell something in order to Yeah. utilize that. Yeah. So, it's a good question. So, um, all of our I shouldn't say all of our assets, uh, there there's, uh, our our assets, I guess, really are are primarily cash. Um, but they also could be like interest receivable. So, a good example would be, um, we
046have to record as an asset. Um, the the the revenue that we know we're going to get from fund 46 CDs that we had up in the next 60 days. There's different rules and things like that that that go into what make up of those buckets. Um, but a good question for like our liquidity rate. I don't have that on the top of my head here. Uh, I should have probably printed a balance sheet and I could tell you that in almost a heartbeat. Um, but but actually the one thing I might point you to is actually our board of education um in consent agenda. Uh, this claims and accounts, right? So, we use this as a kind of a tool for a lot of things, right? Board approval for various board checks. I know
047you can't necessarily see it here, the amounts for ADM, the amounts for board checks. Um, it also includes it includes our our account balances at the end of each month. The only ones that I will say um, you know, I do it for transparency here. There's certain accounts that we have like board checks that has in for July has a half $458,000. Those are funds that are already committed. They're not really on our books even though we hold the funds for them because the check maybe just haven't cleared. Wisconsin Retirement Courts, a $300,000 payment might be examples of that. So, and there's nothing in the policy of our liquidity, right? just the total percentage. Great question. Balances and percent of expenditures. There is cash flow in policy there. Um, typically for us, so the the
048pipe time always comes as as you may recall right before that December state payment we get. So it's really the end of end of November. Um, in in our specific district, um, we get our county tax rule. Um, so one of the assets that we have that's $3.9 million this year that wasn't cash, but we knew that we had a uh from Jefferson County a tax ro payment that was due here in August. So that $3.9 million is represented as an asset, but it's not liquid. It's it's a taxes receivable is where it sits. So uh it's a good question. It's really I think just making sure from policy from my recollection is making sure that it uh that we have sufficient funds to be able to maintain uh the programming and again November is
049a tight time frame for that and we're updating some of our cash pieces. We haven't needed to use uh that borrowing that line of credit with your bank. Um it's a balance between me wanting to bring it back because we we bring it back and it's nice to have it there and also not necessarily needing it. So we're working through some calculations on that right now for this company. And then my last one was just because I can't see it, so I could do the math, but I was just curious, do you know the percentage of federal in that circle on that? Yeah. Um from from last year, the the total budget in that circle, it's just black. You can't see the percentage here at this point. I could certainly send that. Sorry, I didn't
050keep it there. There is, you might not see it necessarily. There is like a tiny blue sliver here. Um and a tiny tiny tiny purple sliver. You can barely see it next to the gray. I can't right right here. Um those would be um the blue I I think is actually might be zero for here. The intermediate sources actually is like a $3,000 that comes from believe it is the rent from head start. Okay. Very middle. So CISA payments or things like that we might receive. Yeah. I apologize I don't know that off the top of my head there but this uh the to your question Mman the federal sources so for next year about $420,000 that's a optimistic that we can maintain that level in the future and it's a question of you know
051what what are the different priorities of the federal government going into the next couple years other questions from the board. So for um open enrollment, we know where they go to, we know where they come from because that comes in the form of money. Do we know why? It's a great question. Yeah. Um so we have actually and I I know I'm I'm going to look at our principles here too because we've been engaging them a lotment as well too. Uh so I'm going to give another shout out. I mentioned Miss Simson before who leads our data team. She also oversees open enrollment. every single kiddo that um requests in or out, she does an amazing job trying to really uh coordinate that effort. Um and there's a variety of approvals that have to happen,
052but within that application to answer your question, um every student we upload that PDF and we review that. Um and I know in the past maybe two weeks, I've talked to Miss Krauss, Mr. Howard, Mr. Madison all about kids that are choosing open enrollment out for their family needs and dynamics, but that they're calling and working with those families. I know uh Mr. Howard is nodding. He's he's got a phone call planned for a follow-up with families in a couple weeks that hey, is it how's it going? So, there's a variety of needs. Um I know I can pull some of those specific that the um the recent influx that I had mentioned before of open enrollments out have been for uh more virtual options. Um and do we know the ins like do we
053survey them when they're coming in as well? Yeah, it's a good question that we also have to take their application. Um, I ask less questions, I guess, maybe when they come in, but it's it's a valid question. Um, I I know that our principles know our families because they they're typically the ones that are showing them around and and and might be able to too, but um they they there's been situations I mentioned, you know, the open enrollments in um I guess I won't go any particular application, but one of the ones I just approved the other day was uh someone that they they moved to uh for open enrollment in they were a resident district, they moved to Lake Mills. um but they wanted to maintain that continuity for their experience. So um there's
054nuggets that we could pull out of kudos for our staff and for our leadership team. But uh yeah, we do try and make sure and it's been kind of a new commit commitment this year to really look at every kiddo and hey, you know, what's going to work for you as a as a student hopefully here at the school district. I think it's helpful for myself. I don't know about for others, but just to what are we doing well? Like what do we need to improve on? I mean, I know this isn't just the only measurement obviously, but No, certainly. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, there there's um I I know Miss Peachy did and I know Miss Simmonson helped with this. She did a good job uh kind of going through some some charts of different
055ins and outs and which districts were we plus and minus against. Some of that can be very helpful and some of it I think tell it just it might not tell that complete picture but if there's um yeah ways that we can shout that out or try to provide some more page on that it's it's a good note. Any other questions from the board? Regarding the budget, there is also an opportunity that uh if anybody in the public has questions about the district's budget, now be a good time to step up. Not seeing anybody jumping forth. So, this is will be a um an item that we will address later in our meeting. But, Mr. B, thank you for all your work here and uh the efforts that you put into this. This will conclude
056the budget hearing. So I declare the budget hearing closed so that we may reconvene into regular board meeting. Our next regular board meeting item is the consent agenda. Consent agenda this month is going to be the minutes from our last meeting and employment of Diane myself. Um Luckily, bill resignations and then the presentation of claims and accounts. These could be separated out into different items for discussion or we can pass it all as one motion. Is there any questions or comments on this? Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented? So, second motion and a second. Any further discussion? All in favor of the motion say I. I. Any oppose say nay and the consent agenda passes. Now while we just had public comment for the budget hearing, we now have public
057for the board hearing or board feeding. Anybody have any public comments? See anybody jumping up for that one either? So then we'll move into reports. Dr. I know you have your superintendence report. Jason, can you put that on the screen? I'm just going to share it from my screen. Okay. Um so this evening, um I wanted to give an update of about the Jason, um update about the state of our start the 22 capital referendum and all the work that's happened uh so far with that. Uh so you can see the memo that I have there. The the big big thing I want to brag about uh and show this evening is the website that we have which is our framing our future facilities website. Uh and what I what I appreciate about it and
058I want to give kudos to the people that worked on this. Um you know Valerie created the new website for work with that. Uh but we've really done a nice job of of archiving the work that has been done. Uh here is a Google slide presentation for example uh that gives you all of the great work uh that was presented over over the years. Um looking at the gym right there. Um it's fun to look at the maintenance area right there. and you'll have a have a link to this. You know, how we made that decision uh to free up class space within the high school building and added that maintenance uh shop. I think that was a good idea and it was a cost-effective idea as well compared to some of the options that
059we had. Um you got the addition to the high school which has been showing dividends uh so far with our tech and our agriculture. uh you have um and that's that was 5,000 square feet and a lot of you have been able to tour that area or their open house last year that's uh just drove by there today and there's completed shed that's just outside and they built all that inside last year and during the summer um for an individual who's going to purchase that. So, great updates to the high school, uh the metals, the egg, the woods, the autos, uh even the middle school received some updates as far as our fire control system is concerned and some lighting. Um and also programming for HVAC. Um and so that will help them out even
060though they're the they're the youngest building. We can't forget that that building's approximately 25 years old. And then the west projects, uh, I was at a meeting the other day where some training was happening in the library. That library really is a nice space. Um, restrooms are ADA accessible and we're able to use uh additional funds from our investment income from our bond anticipation note ban uh to remove asbestous and do some other projects at west as well. So, uh, very happy about the 88 accessibility um, in all three of our buildings, all three of our elementary schools. Uh, now, so there was the West West gym floor, the West Library as we talked about, um, the restrooms, uh, and then, of course, um, we were able to update the gym floor as well at
061West Sullivan got a new secure entrance, which it had not had in the past. And then we were also be able to use um some of the because we're on time and under budget when it came to the referendum to do as best abatement in most of the buildings. There's still mast underneath our underneath our gym floor, but to re replace the uh the flooring at Sullivan as well. We also were able to uh update the fire system and their uh life support systems at Sullivan Elementary School as well with some of the technical cabling on there. Um new boilers and HVAC um Sullivan secure entrance as I mentioned as well. It really is um it's made a nice update to that that building. And then uh certainly East Elementary School, the new secure entrance
062at East Elementary School. Uh all the all the renovation that's been done there. Uh I feel for that staff and it was was nice seeing them excited about coming back to school last Wednesday and seeing their updated spaces. Um and we're looking forward to the open house for parents coming up and then an open house for the public in October. So heavy renovation to east way. You see the cafeteria. Uh cafeteria has a new floor. They had to live with a um a concrete floor for last year. Um a new generator there. The new space on the gymnasium. New floor in the gymnasium. Uh the main office which is uh relocated, reconfigured. Just a lot of it's it's fun to look at these pictures and and um remember some of the heartaches but then also
063some of the successes that have happened uh as a result. So just thinking back to the facility advisory committee back in 2021 and then the passage of the capital referendum in 2022 uh in November. Uh these classrooms look great. Some of them have uh the refinish hard floors. Other them others have the u the LBP which is the plank uh flooring there as well. And uh just just a lot to be happy with. And I wanted to show off that that website that we have there. um just archiving everything as well. So um back to just my memo, the things I wanted to talk about. Um it it is some a huge point of pride for us to make sure that we talk about how we were good stewards of that taxpayer money and um
064over that time as I mentioned uh on time under budget for things we were able to do a lot of extra um projects that fell within the scope of the kept referendum uh question as far as safety for our students uh and everything else. So uh it's not going to take care of everything. That's why we have a fun 46. Uh but we're uh in our facilities are in good and they're in good shape and our learning spaces are upgraded. Um just just to make sure that there have the comfort of having a HVAC system that actually works and then also the lighting and the opportunities and the the spaces for kids as well. Want to give you a quick quick uh update on that. I had this later on in the agenda to talk
065about October 27th, but um and I'll mention it there as well. We want to do an open house for our community on October 27th. That's a Monday. That's a board meeting. So, unless there are any objections, like to hold the board meeting in the east library. Sound like a plan. And then the final thing I put on my uh superintendent memo is a WSB uh video that was shared. It's just, you know, the I'm a I'm a proponent of education. So, you know, parent choice. You should be able to educate your child as as you wish. However, I'm a public school guy. Um that's why I have this job. That's why I've been in public education my whole life. Uh WSD put out a video. You can click on it. You can watch it on
066your own. But it's a good reminder that we are in this our roles to be part of public education and to support public education and all the good things that public education can do. Of course, we are paid for and by taxpayer money, which is our source of revenue, but the public education, what it can do and what it can provide, especially for a community like Jefferson and all that it can put back to the community. Of course, strong communities equals strong schools and vice versa. But all that we can do as a public school district and a public school, our five public schools in our district to support our community. So, um, I I appreciated the WSB video. Thank you for being part of the board and we're a proud member of the WSB
067to make sure that we can advocate for strong public schools in Wisconsin. That uh ties well with Mr. Vance report tonight with the budget. You have any questions, please ask. Great. Thank you. Next item on the agenda is going to be policy and community engagement topics. We have the Neola 34.2 update. This is a second reading. Um there was that added information for the questions last time. Any additional questions or comments on 34.2? I just had one uh quick question for page three policy 5530. I was just curious as to why that change was made to include lookalike substances. Uh the the the main reason for the summer Um, okay. So, nowadays, um, here's a silly example from my silly example from my own experience a long time ago. A, uh, yes, that happened in
068eighth grade. An eighth grader bought a bag of oregano to school and told a bunch of people it was marijuana. Um you ask me why but still you can imagine uh it wasn't really a controlled substance but they were passing it off as such and we want to make sure that even that is uh falls under our our rules and our updates. So this isn't our recommendation. This is the recommendation of the inola lawyers. And yeah, silly stuff happens sometimes. Curious. Yeah. More happens with pills than probably anything else. But as you can imagine, all the things that could happen. Any other questions or comments from the board? Is there a motion to approve the Neola 34.2 policy updates as presented? So moved. Second. With a motion and a second. Any further discussion? All in
069favor of the motion say I. I. I. Any oppose say nay. And motion passes. And now we return to the topic of the budget. So we have the presentation for the 202526 budget. Any further questions on this from Is there a motion to adopt the 202526 budget as presented? So move second. with motion and a second. Any further discussion? All in favor say I. I. I. Any oppose say nay. That motion passes. Then we get to our is it yearly or every other year? Every other year. I think it's this one. Regarding the WIA um cooperative agreement with gymnastics and swimming. Peterson's not here. Dr. did you want to have any comments on that one? Yeah, we've had these co-ops for a while. It is, in my opinion, a win-win situation uh because number one,
070it gives us enough um students to have team and then it provides an opportunity for our neighbor um in Cambridge so they can have the facilities. So, uh we really proactive with this one because you can see the dates. uh one is for 2627 and 2720. Make sure you can imagine the planning that goes into schedules and coaches. Is anything else? Questions or comments from the board? Is there a motion to approve the WIA cooperative agreement Cambridge School District for the 26 27th school year for gymnastics and swim by 27 and 28 school year? Additionally, 627. Yeah, all those for the gymnastics and swim as presented. So moved. Second. Motion to second. Any further discussion? All in favor say I. I. Any opposed say nay. And the agreement passes. Next up is going to be
071our future agenda topics. I'd like to call out um board member Nobling mention of open enrollment and and to have something on a future agenda that does kind of delve into for the board the wise of in and outs as a future agenda topic if that's possible especially since those numbers are shrinking just a little bit just to put our eyes back on. We s we we have it on the schedule for um October 13th. Is that okay? We'll then address the wildl. [Music] And in the past, we have had that chart that shows which districts that they're going to any other suggested future agenda topics. Then we jump into announcements. Um, I still plan to get that booth at the kite after the parade. So, if everybody was to hang out there, try to
072engage with the community, answer their questions, and hopefully drop a little more community engagement. Dr. Ern, do you have any announcements? So, with that, if you'd like to take part of the parade, there is the link out there. We we love to have you walk with us to the parade on September 14th. Uh, and then I already mentioned the October 27th schoolboard meeting. So, without objection, we will plan on opening that East Elementary School with a tour and a project completion at 5:00 a.m. Right. And with that, is there a motion to adjourn the meeting? Some moved. Second. Motion and a second. All in favor of adjournment say I. I. I. Any oppose? Say nay. We are adjourned.