August 2025 board of education

00119, 2025 Colonial School Board Meeting to order. Uh, please rise as Dr. Demen Mender recites the pledge of allegiance. Algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Thank you, Dr. Mener. All right, with that being done, um are there any additions or corrections to the agenda? >> All right, no additions or corrections. Um looking at the uh approval of the agenda, do I hear a motion? >> I move that we approve the agenda as presented. >> All right. Do I hear a second? Second. All right. Um Motion moved by Mrs. Smith, second by Mr. Handy. Are there any questions or comments from the board? Motion to pull out of the information. I'd like to stop some of

002the increases that we had and I discussed over the last couple days. We will how about we add that to her preliminary budget conversation as okay. So we'll add that as a 6H topic I'll add it to the notaring specific I say was not So, we're going to just add to the preliminary budget conversation just a review of some of the bid uh pricings that were in the consent agenda. >> Not any concession or concern, I believe, with regards to the bids themselves, but just give some context to that. >> I apologize. >> Yeah. No, there's there's some out of 49 things were there. There's a couple there and I've been going back and forth last couple days on think it's information that should be shared. Cool. >> I can >> Okay. Yeah. There's items

003that are on the preliminary budget that I think need to be uh need to be brought out so that we can understand some of the rate increases and whatnot that we're seeing for some of our services that we've received from third parties. >> Noted. Okay. So then the motion to approve the agenda is still on the floor. >> All right. Uh how do I go about then with the >> No, there's no there's no modification of the motion now. As long as we're going and I will agree that as long as we adjust the the the budget review, it's all covered in there, fine, then I'm good with that. >> Okay. >> All right. So, the original motion is still in the board. With that being said, are there any other additional questions or comments

004from the board? >> No. No, no, no. Hold on one second. >> Do you want me to You wanted to I want to pull it out so we vote on it because we still vote on it as part of the consent agenda. If there's questions come up from the board and they don't agree with some of those, we want to be able to take action on it after it's been approved on the consent agenda. >> So, you want to discuss it before the consent agenda. >> I would accept that as well. >> I like that idea. >> Yeah, let's do that. >> So, then that would come right now. >> Um, no, it would come after public comment >> because we don't we typically have no public comment is before the board does any action

005or conversations. Remember they moved public comment this past year to be before. >> So still going to be still being considered change to the agenda. >> So then we will make it agenda item 5B for the record. Miss Larry 5B will be u a review of the business action items on the consent agenda. for outside for outside services. >> I just want to ask for a point of order. There are multiple bids that Mr. Laws is referring to. I think each one that he's questioning needs to be removed separately because the otherwise we've got to remove all bids and vote on them separately. >> Okay, good point. So then we don't have to if we do that then we can put it back in the agenda pull the se pull the ones you want to

006discuss off and then leave the ones that are okay on and just keep them in consent we can move forward. So if you have the ones you want to pull then put them as at the end during at >> well if we step if we step back and say we discuss them during the consent agenda if they ask for the details during there then we can discuss those once in particular my opinion is we can discuss those ones in particular as part of the consent agenda discussion you okay with that >> and then pull them if you want to pull them after that. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> All right. Okay. So we'll have a discussion and then if if the board so chooses to pull certain ones after the revert back. >> All right.

007So then that's I'm fine with that. >> So then the motion is going to be >> still still agenda >> approved agenda as presented with the addition. No, we're we're adding we have to add a discussion for consent conversation in Robert's rule. We should so that we are going to add a 5B consent agenda discussion. just to cover ourselves. >> Okay. The problem is 5A is where we move to approve all agenda items. >> Well, we don't approve it till we vote on. >> So, >> no, five. Oh, I'm sorry. Consent. I'm sorry. I was looking at the wrong Go. 4B. >> Okay. >> It's 4B in public comment. I apologize. You're right. I was looking at the wrong number. >> So, 4B will be added as consent review bid items. So that's the modified

008agenda up for approval. Now, >> so we I guess probably do ask for motion. >> All right. First, >> do we table the original motion, Ted? >> No. >> How does that >> doesn't pass? Just do a second motion. >> We just We're agenda with the revision. Approving the agenda as presented with themselves. Just go ahead. >> All right. With that being said, do I hear um sorry no questions or com are there any other additional questions or comments from the board members? All right, that being said, um all those who approve the motion with the recommended um agenda item, please state uh all those in favor, please state by saying, yay. >> I I Yeah, sorry. Hold it. Molly >> all those opposed neg. All right. But now you get a break. >> Yeah.

009I know. All right. Uh moving on to our favorite portion of the meeting. Uh we have public comment. All right. Just read disclosure on it. Maximum 3 minutes is allotted. Uh you'll be called up when it is your turn to speak. Uh members of the public are expected to remain in the designated area for speaking with the board. Failure to remain in the designated area may result uh in the member of the public forfeiting their time to speak with the board. This session allows community members to discuss their views on issues um and allows but doesn't obligate board members to respond within the threeminut time slot allotted to individual public comment. Administrative staff may be identified and asked to provide followup on specific questions after the meeting. Uh the responses from the individual board members

010do not necessarily reflect the Colonial School District Board of Education's official position. The opinions and views shared tonight are those of each individual member. If a member of the public has documents to share with the board, they should indicate as such and a member of the executive leadership team will collect the documents and disseminate them uh to the board. uh laws protecting the privacy rights of employees and students prohibit board members from engaging in a discussion of any employees performance or qualifications or confidential matters relating to a student. If a board member violates such statutory rights to privacy, such board member may be exposed to individual liability. Concerns regarding individuals will not be discussed in the open form. If you have a personal issue regarding your child or children, we will help you set up

011an appointment with the appropriate persons to address your needs. All right. First one we have is Mr. Carl Wit. >> You can stay. That's the designated spot today. You're the lone speaker and you're right. >> I'm the lone speaker >> today. You are. >> So, the reason I came tonight, >> I'll give you a one minute warning. Just a heads up. >> Pardon me. >> I'll give you a one minute warning. Just a heads up. >> Okay. Uh is I I'd like some more information on the 7% increase that was levied on top of the referendum increase. And I understand one of the factors that was taken into consideration was at the time that decision was made, you had not received your federal matching funds. So, have you received your matching funds? And if so,

012what impact is that going to have on re-evaluating that 7% increase? >> Thank you. So, great question. If you're able to stick around for the tax rate presentation, it's going to be your answer is going to be in that in that presentation. >> I figured I'd put the cart before the horse with that. >> But no, fair question and we would be glad to answer it tonight during the conversation. So, thank you. Thank you for being here by the way. >> Yes. >> All right. Thank you very much, Mr. Whit. And then >> let's see it. Moving on to 4B because usually we pause and let the all the students and staff go home but uh doesn't seem like they're here. So >> still >> Yeah. So we're going to move over to 4B which

013is the discussion of uh the bid proposals. >> Mr. Law, I think yours to start. >> Yeah, I'm loading up um loading up the email. There was there were some questions that I had with with Miss Falcon earlier this week in regards to some of the staffing information that we received for as part of the contracts. So, um I'm trying to open up the email so I can point to the ones specifically, but ones were from some temporary services that we had such as Kelly uh and just a couple that are here. uh door pass and print it and some of those increases that we got for for this new contract. So Emily, if you want to start off. >> Thank you, Mr. Law. Um >> so the renewals that Mr. Law is talking about

014are u contracts that we've put out for um competitive bid and there's a renewal process. Part of that renewal process is the vendor can ask for um increases to their cost basis over time because these are multi-year contracts that can be um you know renewed for up to sometimes five six years. Um so some of the vendors that are under contract and have received u a bid award in the past submitted rate increases. Um some of them were you know some of the numbers a 29% increase for all services. Um one vendor had a a range of increase between 3% and 82% um that we would you know that they were requesting uh another vendor had 2% to 11 a.5% um and Mr. Law was questioning those percentages. I did advise him that because of

015our uh staffing situation and you know the trouble that we've had keeping consistent contractors in place um we have kept a number of vendors on under contract without necessarily giving them any actual services. So they're under contract, meaning if we need to use them, we don't have to worry about a procurement threshold to go over a certain dollar amount, which, you know, we're we're obligated to to stay under these thresholds by law. Having them on this bid allows us to utilize their their contract for whatever services we might need without having to worry about that procurement threshold, but it doesn't guarantee that we're actually going to use their services. So some of the vendors that um that he mentioned we haven't actually used you know in the past. They're just sort of they stay on

016the books because we have run into situations where the vendors that we've utilized um in the last couple of years you know hey we we can't find anybody right now to fill that um psychology uh vacancy that you know you're looking for. Um, so we want to have as many options as possible for our schools to make sure that we can find qualified folks to get in um, you know, to get in and, uh, provide the services, but we're not necessarily utilizing the vendors that have those dramatic cost increases. >> So, are they on standby like supplemental vendors >> in case correct? They're basically they've they've been given an award under a competitive bid or they've been selected as a awarded vendor, but because it's a multi- vendor award, they're not necessarily guaranteed any work.

017So, we only utilize them kind of as a last resort. >> Yeah. because and and Emily and I asked her this morning and she gave it to me this afternoon is for some of these different increases that we had like she said range anywhere from 1.2 29% and the one that shocked me more than anything else was the 82% but everybody's telling me we we're not using those people. So, okay. But, u but yeah, we had those items that were on there and I just thought that those increases that we have on there was information that the board should know um and be aware of so we can be transparent with that with with the public as well too. Also too, um, one of our items that we'll see on the review earlier is our

018transportation cost. And I was surprised to find out that the transportation cost was not as a result of fuel cost. It was more of the items that Emily's telling me is some of the other runs that we have to do for that we're required to do by law. If you just touch on that real quick, those would >> Sure. Can I just ask for a clarification? Is that a bid in the consent? That's in the That's a preliminary budget, is it? >> It's actually part of the budget variance. >> Oh, the budget. We can talk. We can talk about that. The budget variance report. Okay. Yeah. Got it. So, we can talk that one there. Just forget. >> Got it. Okay. All right. So, thank you. I appreciate it. >> Sure. Did you want me

019to address the transportation? >> You can if you like to or if you want to do it during the budget report, you can do it then, which is easier. >> I'll just cover it now since it's not really part of my presentation. Um the the cost driver for transportation over the last couple years has been related to our homeless the the transportation of our homeless students. They have federal there's a federal uh guarantee that if you're a displaced student, you may you can stay at the school that you start the school year with um to maintain continuity. And I believe Mr. Stefen was here a couple months ago providing information about that population. Um So in many cases because of the kind of fluctuating nature of that population uh the costs can be you know

020significant and um unpredictable. So that has driven some of our transportation costs higher over time. Um but the state does provide 90% of our actual expenses for those services. So the even though the cost is increasing the majority of that is picked up by additional revenues that come in from the state. Emily, what's the furthest that some of our students that we have to provide transportation to come from? >> Sussex County, >> Steven. >> Yeah. I mean, I I believe as long as they're being educated or as long as they live somewhere in Delaware, we are obligated to bring them up here if that is determined to be in the best interest of the student for their educational >> contribution. And is that is that due to their home address? That's due to when when

021they became homeless, they were in a colonial school or they were they resided in Colonial. >> Mckin Vento. >> Yeah, it's under the Mckin Vento federal guidelines. >> But if and the definition of homeless, even if they're living with relatives, is they do they still fall underneath the definition of homeless? >> To be honest with you, I'm not an expert in that program, so I I don't want to which way either. >> Yeah, I don't want to speak um because I'm not >> deals with this on a regular basis and they're considered displaced doubled up >> with a relative or they are still in that population because they're not home. So yes, still considered. >> So for anyone online, uh Miss Moren Liry indicated that anyone who is considered doubled up or living with family

022that doesn't have their own home space is considered uh displaced or homeless under Mckin Vento. >> And that's and that's federal law. >> That is federal law. Correct. >> Just to be just make sure everybody's aware that that is the federal law. >> Thank you. It's good information. >> Was everything for you, Ted? Yeah. Thank you for bring I had it all, but I want to make sure everybody else had and I had lengthy conversations about it. >> Well, thank you very much. Um, thank you, Emily, for answering that. Um, all right. So, moving on from 4B, uh, moving over to item number five. So, the next agenda item is the consent agenda. Uh the items listed under the consent agenda have gone through board review including documentation concerning these items uh that have been

023provided to all board members and the public in advance. Items in the consent agenda generally include routine personnel and business office actions and updates as well as approval of previous meeting minutes and education related items such as choice and student placements. Uh with that being said, do I hear a motion? I move that we approve all consent items consent agenda items as presented. >> Do I hear a second? >> Second. >> All right. Um and as moved by Dr. Dorsey and seconded by Mrs. Breeding, are there any questions or comments from the board? All right. No questions or comments. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. >> I. All those opposed? Nay. >> Motion carries. All right. Next up on the agenda is updates and action items. pass over to Dr. Mensor. >>

024Uh the first uh item is 6A. We're asking the the board to approve the termination of employee 26-101 as discussed in executive session. >> All right. Do I hear a motion? >> So move. >> Could you do me a favor, Mr. Walls, and state just the whole thing for me? make a motion that we accept the or that we accept the recommendation of the administration on employee number 26101. >> All right. Thank you. Do I hear a second? >> Second. >> All right. As moved by Mr. Walls, seconded by Miss Smith. Uh, are there any questions or comments from the board? >> All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. >> All those opposed, nay. Commission Terry. >> Uh the next agenda item is just for the board and the community to review

025just where we are with the start of the school year. Um our buildings are ready. Last month the board received some updates on the building uh construction projects and renovations. Uh we are day one with staff was today. Um the uh schools were bustling with teachers. Um staff we are I'm going to knock would the HR gods are going to frown upon me when I say we are fairly solidly staffed right now. We have not a lot of vacancies that are uh we have less vacancies this year this time than we did last year this time. So and it's less we're down to single digits uh that are vacancies that are appearing as families. So people are last minute leaving and moving on to other places. Um, we still do have some hard to fill

026vacancies that are filled with long-term uh substitutes or long-term uh teacher residents that are are known quantities who've been with us for a while who have been doing that job and are in the process of getting their certification. So, we're really we're firm on that. But, we're feeling good about our staffing both in the PAR educator world, teacher world, transportation, nutrition services, and our custodial meeting staff. probably the biggest thing that this the community and the board should be aware of is the the new student information system. Uh Infinite Campus. Um it's basically the one-stop shop for families for everything they need to know about what their their child in school, their schedule, their grades, their health records, their discipline records, their attendance, you name it, it's in there. Uh it's a one-stop portal for

027you versus home access before was just grades. Now it's one stop and there's a lot of resources in infinite campus. Um we are in the wave two phase of this. There have been other schools that have done it last year and by all accounts the parents who utilized it and the students who utilize it love it. It's very accessible and it's a a intuitive tool for supporting students and families. The uh the back of the house side of that is not so glitzy and glamorous uh and easy. Um most most of the things that are connected to student information that people don't think about such as transportation routing um special education tagging ami multilingual multil- language learner status choice status homeless status all the things that run the back of the house to generate funding

028to generate schedules routes rosters that's not as clean in this new pro with the new system. So, there have been, you know, some fits and starts with uh that we do believe that since wave one was all of last school year, um the state is getting closer to resolving some of the issues specifically with the busology and the bus routes. I'm saying this because this is literally 12 hours old and it could be wrong right now, but as of last count, we had 400 students maybe in the district that were still struggling to get scheduled on the buses because of various k things are getting kicked out because something's not input correctly in the system or it's not reading appropriately. Um that was supposed to get resolved. I don't know when that when or if

029that did. Um, same thing's happening with some of our special ed students uh who's have coding issues according to the system that were not there prior to the roll over in the in the summer. Um, so we are working through those. We just ask the community's patience for gra with some grace and space as we work through it. Um, you know, there's not going to be we've been we've been very thoughtful and deliberate about the approach. We did open up the parent portal just to view slow walk into it. People can get into it so they don't feel like they're missing something. You know, you know, the last thing we wanted is someone to open it up and be texting their friends and saying, "Oh, I see my schedule. I see this teacher, that teacher."

030And then two houses down, the family can't get into their portal. They're freaking out. Their kids panicking, "Oh my god, I got to buy my books. I don't know what I'm the stress and strains of the start of the school year. We didn't want to exacerbate that." So, it's a slow walk open. portal opens, I believe, tomorrow afternoon, evening, or Thursday morning. Fingers crossed, we're going to flip a switch and schedules will appear potentially bus round one if it's there. And then Friday afternoon, another run bus information. So, the current bus information will be ready by the weekend. That is a a lofty expectation there. Even though it sounds like a simple statement, that actually happening will be interesting. Let's just leave it at that. Um the one other big thing with Infinite Campus that

031we learned from phase one wave 1 schools is now if you come to register to a school in Colonial you cannot register at the school. We have a centralized registration process that a you do it online. Application is online. All you got to do is go to the district website any social media page for any school. There's a link for a submission for an online application. It'll get reviewed and processed by our centralized registration office. Message will go to the school and then the school will reach out and take care of getting the student schedule and the bus information. Likewise, if you're unable to do it online, the district office now has a centralized registration office and center where families can go to get support with the registration process. The reason for that is because

032the new stu the student the new student information system has a is designed that you get a family profile when you register. If you go to register at two separate schools, it'll create two separate family profiles that will never talk and it won't the system will not connect and the kids it it just creates a mess because now you have one family potentially getting information here for this child, but they can't get it for this family because all the information is already in for another profile. So, we have one profile created at the centralized spot. They can have multiple schools and students registered under that profile. The other thing that the reason the centralized registration and address hub will be helpful is if Jeff Menser goes to school pen. My sister goes to school at

033Carrie Downey and my sister ended up going to live with my with another relative somewhere and they changed her address at Carrie Downey. They're changing my address to a William Penn and I drop off William Penn's roles and disappear because my address has changed because I'm now somewhere else or so this has to be centralized and done in one spot so that it only it happens correctly and then it gets communicated back out to the school. So we learn that is a painful process because now we have one or two people doing what 12 to 14 other individuals were doing all day long in the schools. So, we are working through some some growing pains there, but we're on track. We are definitely on track. Registrations are getting in, adders are getting changed, student information

034is is is logging correctly. So, if you hear families struggling with any of those topics, we know and we're working through it with them as best we can. Um, that's I mean, that's the biggest update I can give for the start of the school year. We are ready. Buses will be ready to roll. runs are are looking good. Again, working through some classman students and you know, they get in the building and I am told that schedules in the buildings are looking good. Like, in other words, they're not going to come in to a home room and get a blank schedule. Schedules are there. Everything's live. Everything looks good. That's a big relief. It's just getting them there and home in a timely manner, making sure they're on the right bus. and if they're a

035student who receives special services that they're tagged appropriately and in the right classes based on that tag. So, those are going to be some growing pains. >> Okay, >> I'll take any questions if anybody's hearing anything. I know if you have friends in education, I'm certain infinite campus is the equivalent of a four-letter word um in their lexicon. I mean, I know educators across the state are getting trained now and it's it's it's a it's to be expected when you bring a new information system in, you know, and it but at the end of the day, the experience will be will will be positive. So, that's it for the start of the school year. The next agenda item, you'll see you have an update from our safety and security department regarding some camera installations, um

036some secure uh buzzers in classrooms. Uh we continue to provide the public with a, you know, four times a year with an update on what's where the safety security money is going and we we receive from the state and it's from the local uh local tax dollars. Um, so that's there for the public. The next agenda item is we're asking the board, uh, it's board policy manual. It's a second read. Uh, as you know, we were only seeking at this point two action items. And so the second read really is for board policy 004, the development of board policy and number 0604 which is rescending 604 uh based on legal council's recommendation and the fact that it's uh duplicative of state code. So at this point uh we're seeking the board's uh consideration and action

037on that item. Do >> I hear a motion? I move that we approve policy number 004 development of board policy as presented. >> Do I hear a second? >> Second. >> All right. As moved by uh Miss Smith, second by Mr. Handy. Um are there any questions or comments from the board? All right. No questions or comments. All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. All those opposed, nay. All right, motion carries. And in regards to the other requests, do I hear a motion on that one? >> I move that we approve rescending policy number 604, liability coverage policy, as presented. Do I hear a second? >> Second. >> All right. As moved by Dr. Dorsey, seconded by Miss Breeding. Uh, are there any questions or comments? All right. All those in favor,

038please signify with saying I. I. >> All those opposed, nay. Motion carries. >> So the next one is actually another policy manual recommendation that we're see a motion in consideration of action. I'm sorry by the board. This was based on our July meeting when we were we have for several years now had Robert's rules of order as an action item in July that we approve it as our governing process. Uh Mr. Laws brought up Can't we just make that part of policy? Um, so we went and looked and yes, we can. Um, so as you saw, we uh added it to an existing policy. We didn't need a new one. It fit right in with policy 002, which is board of education meetings. So at this time, we're asking the board to do two things.

039one wave the first and second read process uh that we do for traditional policy manual changes but then also approve the new 002 policy as presented. So that's it's a double motion but it it goes uh hand in hand. >> Make a motion that we wave the first read second read for policy number 002. >> Keep going. >> Okay. And approve to to the board policy this board policy board of education meetings. >> All right. Do I hear a second? >> Second. >> All right. As moved by Mr. Laws, seconded by Mr. Handy. Are there any questions or comments from the board? >> All right. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. >> I. >> All those opposed, nay. Motion carries. Thank you, Mr. L. >> Okay. Uh, next agenda item is a

040board member resignation and filling board vacancy for district G. As we uh were aware during the last uh board meeting, Mr. Crossson uh announced that he was going to be submitting his resignation the following day. Uh we did receive that resignation. As such, uh we have three motions on the table for us to move forward with filling that vacancy. We're seeking uh the board needs to accept and approve the resignation. Then also approve the posting that will go out to the community. Uh it'll go out live on our social media and websites this afternoon or as soon as this is approved by you and then it'll be posted two consecutive weeks in the news journal as well as for two consecutive weeks outside of every school building and district facility. Um that's the what the

041posting describes and it has like the area explains what the process is. And then the third thing for approval is we ask that the board approve the candidate interview process uh that we have provided for them for you to review. So it's three separate motions that'll allow us to move forward with that vacancy. >> Make a motion that we accept Mr. Cross's resignation from the clonial. >> Okay. Uh do I have a second? >> Second. >> All right. Um that being said, um as motioned by Mr. Laws, seconded by um Dr. Dorsey. Uh all those in favor, please or are there any questions or comments? With none. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. All those opposed, nay. Motion one carries. All right. Motion two. Do I hear a motion? >> I

042move that we approve the posting for the vacant board seat for district G as presented. >> Do I hear a second? >> Second. >> All right. Is moved by Mr. Handy, second by Mrs. Breeding. Any questions or comments in regards to this motion. All right. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. >> I. All those opposed? Nay. All right. Motion two is carried. Moving over to motion three. Do I hear a motion to approve the candidate interview process for district G vacancy as presented? >> I move that we approve the candidate interview process for district G as presented. >> Do I hear a second? >> Second. >> I was going to say go for it there. Second. U All right. As moved by Mrs. Smith and seconded by Mrs. Breedy. Are there

043any questions or comments? >> All right. >> Uh no. I'd make a real quick one that uh I actually uh went through this process three years ago and I I thought it was a very fair and organized process. Pass three vacancies I believe we've been using this one. So um where we're going to approve it for um all right any other questions or comments. All right. All those in favor please signify by saying I. >> I. All those opposed? Nay. Motion three carries. What's the next question? >> So, next up we have uh the FY26 tax rate discussion. As the board is aware and the community is aware, the legislature has opened the door and the opportunity for the district to um adjust and modify the the tax rate. Um, we're going to have Falcon,

044our chief operating officer, chief chief financial officer and operating COO, chief operations officer, uh, walk us through the, um, the new our new recommendation to the board. We're probably going to want to turn around to watch. This isn't necessarily ideal. The public's got a great view, but we're going to have to turn around in our seats and turn our backs to the public and then we can talk through it uh after the presentation. >> That's what the old boards used to do. >> Can everybody hear me? Is this picking up the mic? Okay. >> All right. So, yes, this is part three of our tax great process for the year. Normally, we get this done in one board meeting. Um, but because of the reassessment, we're now on month three. Um, next slide for me.

045So, I'm going to start the way I started last month. Uh, what we know now, the as Dr. Menser said, um, the general assembly met last week because of the outcry that we saw after the bills were generated uh by Newcastle County. Um the analysis of the assessment data, not just Colonials, but countywide, showed that there was a significant shift in the tax burden that was being borne by the residential side of the ledger versus the non-residential side of the ledger. Um, and I may switch back and forth between using the term non-residential and commercial. If I say commercial, I mean it as an all-encompassing reference to non-residential, just as a a point of reference. Um, So, Newcastle County, City of Newcastle, and the city of Wilmington were all able to implement split tax rates

046for the uh for this fiscal year to account for this shift. School districts, as it says, does not have the authority to implement the rate split. When when I brought this forward last month, so the general assembly convened the special session on August 12th, which was our normally scheduled board meeting. So, uh, we we bumped it back a week. Uh, next slide. So, what did they do? Uh, they passed seven different pieces of legislation. Um, three of them offer direct relief in some way to taxpayers. The other four, as it says there, are really looking to address more of the process and some of the um, you know, the technical questions around, you know, kind of how we got here, how this happened. Um, thing that was was very clear. I was in attendance for

047the entirety of Tuesday's session and it was very clear that lawmakers recognized that the action that they took on Tuesday was the start and a short-term solution to what needs more comprehensive and long-term reforms to really address the the underlying root causes of why, you know, why there was um this shift and how we can avoid it in in the future. So just going through really quickly the legislative action that was aimed at taxpayers. House Bill 40 242 is what allowed us to split the rates. House Bill 241 authorizes payment plans for any taxpayer who statewide um whose bill is increasing by more than $300. By entering into a payment plan, they can avoid late fees, interest, and penalties as long as they stay compliant with the payment plan. And then House Bill 240 allows

048residents who have an appeal pending and wind up overpaying because that appeal winds up being successful rather than having credit issued on their account. They if their uh funds overpaid is more than $50, they can request to have that money refunded by Newcastle County. Um and this applies to both county and school taxes. So those are the Those are the three bills that were really aimed at um taxpayer relief. I'm not going to summarize the other four process bills. Um they're available on the general assembly website if anybody's interested, but they're a little less germanine to our action this evening. So, if we look at splitting the rate, um as I mentioned, this shift between commercial and residential properties um moved the the needle by about 10%. Um in colonial that accounts for $1.6 billion

049of property value. And that 1.6 billion under the old tax rate was worth about $8.7 million in revenue to the district. So, in addition to the referendum increase and in addition to the 7% that the board approved last uh last month, an additional $8 million of the overall revenue that Colonial needs to generate was shifted to residential taxpayers um and you know commercial obviously commercial properties went down by by that amount. Um so the recommendation that I'm providing tonight tonight restores that t that burden balance. Um we are sticking as closely to the methodology and the uh kind of categorical breakdown that Newcastle County utilized. They included properties classified as farmland on the residential side of the split. So farmland and residential properties are considered residential and all of the other categories which includes apartments,

050industrial, utilities and commercial are all on the um commercial or non-residential side of of the ledger. So the recommendation is really to restore the 52.6% 6% uh revenue or or tax burden split to the residential side of the house. >> Just just to be clear, last year's split was 52.6%. That's correct. You recommended that? >> That is correct. I resto Yes, I'm recommending that we restore the previous year's balance. >> Uh okay. And one other note is that these calculations do account for kind of ating the outstanding appeals into the bucket that they that they land in. And as you can see, residential appeals only accounted for 19% of the total uh total value of appeals that we've got pending. >> So, Emily, set another way, 80% of the appeals are on commercial property. >>

051Correct. >> Yes. >> Thank you. >> Which is 1.6 billion. No, more than >> the appeals total is about $1.5 billion. >> Yeah. Yeah. The numbers line up in a way that's weird. I don't know if it's coincidential or coincidental, but um but yeah, so this is a big this is a lot to take in, but um you know, I got feedback from several folks that said it's going to be really important for us to show our work and really show kind of how these numbers came together. Um and so this is trying to account for my falling microphone here. Sorry. Um this walks you through the so the top three buckets basically show the FY25 values which was last year and then the middle the middle box is this year's uh values. It's kind

052of hard to see on the screen but um F and R are pinkish. So that kind of signifies what's landing in the residential bucket. EC and ER are categorized as um exempt commercial and exempt residential. Unfortunately, I was not able to get uh confirmation from the county as to why they were appearing in the parcel with or in the the database with a school taxable value associated with them when they're considered exempt. So, I've backed those out of the calculation um as I did last month. Um so, I broke those down into the 7.8 million um that's exempt on the residential side getting backed out and the corresponding value of exempt commercial properties getting backed out of the base on the commercial side. >> Can you define exempt commercial and exempt residential? Other than saying

053that the county indicates that it means that they are exempt from school taxes. No, I can't. >> You can't define why they fall underneath that classification. >> I No, I I don't have that information. So, so this basically just shows um if and the the shift in the text burden the the box all the way to the top right there really just shows by category how the shift occurred um from last year's values to this year's values. So you can see that um the tax base of our commercial properties when you look at that C category um which is the second from the the top there was 6 39 million worth of value removed from commercial properties around the district. And corresponding $1.5 billion of value was added to the to the residential side um

054or the residential category, which again the 1.5 number kind of keeps popping up. Um but that is essentially the burden that our residential taxpayers absorbed um because of how the reassessment numbers broke out. And I will just remind everyone that the formulation of these values is not something that Colonial was involved in. That is something that um was administered by Newcastle County and conducted by Tyler Technologies. So the box sort of in the middle of the screen there just gives you some averages um and some information that drives the the rate calculations. >> The residential average that you have there is the value of the house. Correct. >> That's correct. The residential average basically takes the total value of the tax base divided by the number of parcels of residential property to give you um

055the average value of a colonial home. So when we isolate the residential tax base, we subtract out those exempt parcels. The appeals data, this is where, you know, I'm I'm landing the appeals in the appropriate bucket. So, we've got about $81.5 um million dollars worth of residential or farmland properties that have been appealed. If there was a value that the that was being requested, that entire requested value has been removed. If the property did not have a requested value associated with it, I used the percentage that was represented by the aart the parcels that had the no a known um value requested which for our district data. Um in total it was about 34%. Um the residential number wound up being a lot lower. On average, residential homeowners were only asking for about 22% relief

056of what their appeal was. Um, so those numbers float through. So your tax base for residential is basically $9.5 billion. Um, which is I don't have a cursor to to point, but the 9.5 billion that's in Joe's gonna help me out. Here we go. Nope. Down to the 9.5. Yep. So, after the adjustments are made for the exempt parcels and uh the assumptions that I've made about the um the appeals that we're still facing, we're looking at $9.5 billion of residential property. The $43.2 million number is essentially the res the revenue share at 52.6%. Right? So, we're taking that 52.6 of last year's burden. So residents last year contributed 52 I'm just going to say 52 for for sake of conversation. Uh 52% of our revenue came from re residents last year. 52% of the

057revenue that we've approved for next for this year is $43.2 million. So that's essentially the residential share at last year's burden. The rate that gets calculated when you take that revenue and that tax base is which is a decrease in the rate of roughly 10 cents. So the other numbers there really are just kind of to show some averages about how these numbers flow through on properties. um preassessment, pre-reassessment, excuse me, the average build so that you know and the the average uh assessed value on residential properties last year was about $58,800. That $58,800 valuation led to a tax bill that was about $1,300. the new the rate that was approved in July with the $336,000 average generated an $1,800 residential bill. By splitting the rate, we can bring that average down to $1,519 or

058$1,500 20. So there's about 334,000 or sorry $334 of savings on average that we are able to uh bring the residential bills down by by moving that tax burden back onto the commercial side and kind of resetting the residential rate where it was last year. So of that last percentage, the 61% is of the increases that colonial taxpayers saw on their July bills, splitting the rate will save 61% of that increase. So it will bring the number down on average by that number >> and then >> the increase that's not not the overall bill. >> Correct. That is just that is talking about just the in the amount of the increase that they see is coming down by about 61%. So the other side of the um of the bottom box is our non-residential calculations.

059Same exact process with the with the numbers on the the commercial side of the house. Um, as you can see, because we are pushing the pushing more of the revenue burden onto the commercial side of the house, their rate is going up. So, the rate that our commercial properties will face is 74294. Um, the increase there on average is going to be about 35% from what their bill was in July, not from last year. Now, that doesn't say that they're going to be paying 35% more than they were last year because, as you can see, you know, the way the numbers split out um for commercial, it was kind of hard. They were the numbers were a little bit more all all over the place. Um it seems on social media news articles that it

060was drastic underground of commercial properties. >> So, I'm not an assessor. I'm not going to use the word undervalue because I that, you know, I I can't make that statement. Um, but but in on average, yeah, the the average growth rate of our commercial properties was about 300% districtwide. The average growth rate on the residential side of the house was over 500%. The validity of those numbers are not for me to say. >> All right. So I think we can move on to the next slide. >> Um so nope. Mr. Lo question >> coming back with the with the um items that were dealt with in the special session. We are allowed to increase the split for non residential as you as you put it by more than 2% of the residential rates. Is that

061saying it correctly? >> The commercial rate could be no more than two times the residential rate. >> Where do we stand on that right now comparing our residential rate and the non-residential? >> Our um it's about 1.64% high. The commercial rate is about 1.64% higher than the residential rate. We can only go 2%. >> Correct. So this detail basically just breaks down um for information the fact that the 04523 and the 74 um pardon me if I don't go to all five decimal places. Uh but the new split rates the totals are what I mentioned on the previous slide. This is how the components of the tax rate break out in each category. So this is just basically to provide some information um you know for transparency that those uh split rates the 45 and

062the 74 are are total tax rates. >> Emily, did you adjust only the operating rate or did you touch tuition depth debt service and match that? So I all of them are adjusted. >> Okay. >> Yes, all of them are adjusted. >> Thank you. >> Because keeping them at the rate that they were at before would have if I didn't modify them, it would have generated a different amount of revenue and potentially more than was necessary, less than was necessary. So >> okay, >> it required that everything gets kind of redone. >> Okay. >> All right. So we going to move on to the next slide. So this is the slide that I've this is the third month I believe that this slide has been shown. I did add the district average uh just because

063in you know these properties AB and C were not actuals. So, um, the you can see how the split rate is in some cases bringing people from having an increase to now they're actually going to be receiving, you know, they're going to be on the decrease side of the house. And property B was was sort of the outlier property from last month that, you know, we we kind of discussed through that even even no action by the board, even with no referendum increase, because the value of the property was so much higher than the average that was being um seen district-wide, they were going to be seeing a higher bill regardless of of the um the action taken by the board. So, you can see that that number basically were able to eliminate almost half

064of the increase that that taxpayer saw. Again, they are still looking at an increase and Some of that is again due well most of it is due to the the assessed value that we really don't have that control over. But by doing the split we can kind of get away from that um the average problem where if 300 is the commercial growth, 500 is the residential growth. When you blend them together, the average growth rate is 400. If you're over 400% growth, your bill goes up. So by reset it by moving the split or moving the rates, we can reset and now you've got to be at 500 or above. So you really have to be above average for residential to see that to see your bill increase significantly without factoring in the referendum and

065the 7%. >> Yeah. I mean, first of all, thank you very much for putting this all together. I know you did a lot of work on this, but I believe that there should be a column D on here. And I'm going to talk more on the southern end of the district, which which I have. A lot of the homes down around the canal area, both below and above, I believe, are being affected by the growth that's going on in the school district and the value of those homes. I'll I'll just use one short chart that I showed you. The majority of the properties on that on that one road are average more $600,000 range. What they do with the 385 or 145 or 127. We have some properties north of the canal in some of

066the newer developments here that are even higher than that. I didn't I didn't do a a quick look at those. So, how could you take that into effect or did you take that paper into effect districtwide? So that's part of the um limitation of of the process that we undergo. I can't change assessed values. >> Understand that. I ask you to change that. But what I'm saying that average that goes up there is that were you able to capture that growth? >> The average is all residential parcels averaged together. So it accounts for the the southern end of the district where you know where you're talking about it accounts for the northern end of the district um you know where we've got an older housing stock all that stuff. It is basically taking the entirety

067of the residential tax base and dividing it by the number of residential properties that we have. >> Understand? Again, part of that is some of these homes that we're talking about down that area. Some of them are are over 40 years old and they're getting classified long coming into some of that break into some of those rates and a lot of those properties down there. No kidding. And I know it's part of the assessment. There's nothing we can do about it, but they don't get any county services like or public services like water or sew or anything like that. Everybody all those separate systems. So that's all part of the reassessment valuation correct that we don't have any control over understand that. But I just want to make sure that in your figures you've taken

068all the parcels in the district. >> Yes. >> The information you have. So that information is included in your average. >> It absolutely is. Yes. And I I will just qualify that by saying that I am using data that came from the county. So I my assumption is that that data is in the files that I received. >> As I told you previously, I know you're the bearer of the bad news, but >> does everybody get a sewer bill even if they don't have silver service? >> I don't know. Thank you. >> I don't know. I would assume no, but I don't know. >> Can you answer this for me though? just a >> we are a lower tax rate than Apple. Correct. >> I don't know. >> I believe we are, but I I

069assume >> in all due respect, >> I don't care what happened though and we shouldn't either. >> Well, the only thing I was going to say silver lining for any of these properties or dealing with any of that, then they're going to charge lower tax because all gets compared the same though. That's that's a problem. >> Yeah. Property wise tax rate. >> But go on. And I and I will just add you know as part of this discussion um if a property is overvalued then the entire point of reassessment was to ensure that the taxation up and down the state was fair and equitable and representative of fair market values at least on the residential side because we know the commercial side of the house there are other ways to value it and that's that

070is an entirely different conversation that really is not for us to delve into because I I can't speak with any expertise on it. But if your property, if you believe it to be overvalued, then and you have not yet appealed, I would suggest putting an appeal forward to Newcastle County because if your if your home is being taxed at a value that you don't believe is representative of what it's worth, you're not getting fair and equitable taxation, which was the entire point of reassessment. And I do believe that because of the uproar that has happened, rightfully so, I do believe that the number of appeals that we're going to see going into next year is going to be significantly um you know, probably on par with what we're seeing now or potentially even more. So

071Joe, if you want to go to the next slide for me. Okay. So walking through some other considerations here. Um Mr. laws mentioned the uh the shift and the fact that House Bill 242 allows us to go basically to a 2:1 ratio. The the maximum shift if we if under law we could move more of the burden to our commercial properties and lower the residential rate. However, as I as the first bullet under the last bullet on the slide says, um 10% of our tax base is still under appeal. So $1.5 billion of property value is is being appealed. 80% of that is commercial. The more the tax rate is on the commercial side, the more revenue is at stake when we when that uh when those values get taken off the books. So the

072number the number that I gave last month that was potential revenue for that 1.5 um billion dollars of valuation was about $8.5 million of revenue at the revenue neutral rate. Right? So just accounting for our referendum which was already taxpayer approved no 7% increase that 10% represents $8.5 million of revenue. If we maxed out our rate and maxed out that shift now we're looking at 11.6 million of revenue that's still potentially going to erode and never actually be collected because we don't know how those appeals are going to land. And what number percentage were you saying you're seeing commercial versus residential as far as appeals that numbers they're asking for? Was it like 40 something% that commercial's asking for where residential is asking about 22 or something? >> So part of the issue with with

073what what they're asking for um is that they weren't required to ask for a number >> and most of them were blank. Correct. >> Right. Over half of the parcels that requested an appeal for Colonial had no value listed. So, it's impossible to know what that owner is going into that appeal process asking for. Um, and even though I think it's likely that they're not going to ask, you know, they're not going to be wiped off the tax books entirely, it's it's impossible to un, you know, to know how much is at risk on any given parcel. So again, the methodology that I used to provide an estimate was of the parcels that did have an appeal value, it represented about 34% of the total value of the property. I applied that 34% number to

074all the parcels that didn't ask for anything and basically wiped that number off the books, assuming that every appeal was granted because it doesn't account for all of the risk. So, not only are we putting more revenue at risk by shifting the the tax rate and splitting the tax rate, I should say, and and you know, the recommendation I am comfortable restoring the tax burden even though that does um increase the revenue that's at risk with the commercial um appeals. But I think that goes into the conversation around the 7% because the risk factor for how much of that tax base is going to um erode away and how much that number is going to come down is is now not as much in our favor as it was last month. I do believe that

075it's a you know it's a subjective process. Um, and I think facing a higher tax burden or a higher tax rate, commercial properties are more likely to get more of what they're asking for. So, um, so again, the the risk that we are facing is still greater than the amount of revenue that the 7% represents. Next slide. Okay, so revenue adjustments. Again, we could bring the rate down for residential even further if we backed off on some of the 7%. Again, the $3.2 million um I'm sorry, the referendum increase was advertised at $3.2 million. the share of the represents that 3.2 million is now down to 1.8 cents. It was 2.2 in July. Now it's 1.8 of on the residential rate, right? And the 7% is 2.9 cents of the residential rate. So the 3.2

076the one the 3.2 million and that 1.8 cents is there for information only. That's part of what is considered revenue neutral. it was approved by the taxpayers and um there could be a legal argument made that we don't we can't actually go lower than that. Um the 7% adds about 5.3 million in expected revenue to our um expected revenue. Again, I'm going to say expected. >> That's that's additional revenue. Correct. >> That is additional revenue. But I'm going to remind everybody that the amount of money that we are risking in revenue on appeals >> 11.5. >> Well, it could have been 11.5 if we maxed out the rate. It's over $10 million. >> If if everything that's under appeal winds up getting wiped out, it's up to $10 million. So, um, my assumption takes about

077$3.5 million of the appeal value off of these calculations, but that leaves 7 to8 million of revenue that's at stake with those evaluate with those um, appeals. That depending on how they break and depending on whether or not my assumptions are accurate means revenue that we're not going to see. So if we take the number down, the appeals are still there, right? So the 3.2 million that we generated from the referendum could completely go away and we wind up being less than revenue control because the appeals would erode the tax base even further than than these calculations represent. So for us to stay at the quoteunquote revenue neutral that number needs to be what? >> The tax rate >> exact with the assumed possibility of flaws. Look, let's be honest. Governor put out there he

078expected everything to be revenue neutral. >> Okay? So that's what's out there. >> And you're Mr. Whit, you're seeing some of your answer right here. As you can see, there >> so if we if we went down to revenue neutral, which I'm defining as last year's revenue plus the referendum revenue that's taxpayer approved, our tax rate, total tax rate would go down to 42271. >> And where would that put us at the at risk? That would put us at what? instead of the 10 million that put us at risk for what value >> 10 I'm having trouble hearing >> I said what what would that amount be what we would be at at risk you're saying now it's wrong >> taking our tax rate down because of a revenue adjustment doesn't do anything for how

079much is at risk the other numbers higher >> okay it's just more >> it's just we're we're basically saying we're expecting to generate less revenue we're we're approving less revenue coming into the district, but the number the the amount that we are still risking not getting if the appeals are not hand you know if my assumptions are wrong essentially that stays the same. >> Stays the same. >> So now what we're looking at is risk is now higher >> by over$4 million. >> It's about said slightly oversh and this is all based off of a random number that you guys the CFOs have kind of came together and made a wild guess on based on information from the county which was extremely limited >> I would say it's random or wild I would say it

080was based off of based off of the pattern of information that was out there >> trying to calculate what the risk is to not calculate the risk would be fiscally silly for us to put the district in that kind of jeopardy in terms of losing revenue. Um, so you have to kind of I I mean I hear what Mr. Laws is saying about like going revenue neutral because the governor said it. I mean all the respective governor said a lot of things. I mean and so you know we have to we have to look out for the students in this district to make sure that we open doors, have buses running, get them fed, keep the buildings clean, get them instructed, you know. you know, provide them the services the community expects. And this is

081a measured a measured approach to maintaining the district's function, but also recognizing the stress and strain that this has created for the community, specifically the residents in this first go round. >> And I and I was getting ready to add to that. I don't disagree with what you're saying, but we also owe it to the community where we reasonable be respective of their needs. I I can't I'm sorry I can't hear. >> I said we also I agree with Jeffrey, okay, about what we have and to the students and whatnot, but we also have to be reasonable and respectful of what the our community needs as well too. >> And I we agree 100%. >> Which is why I was asking that for the public that's here who maybe hasn't heard our discussions over the

082previous months and our other meetings. So >> do you have more? >> I do. just questions come up when we do it. >> Use the mic. >> Yeah. I'm great. >> So, so we've talked about the appeals. I'm not going to go through that again. Um you know, some of the other some of the other factors that are still out there and you know the the legislative impact um is really unknown. I'm sorry, the financial impact is unknown. These long-term reforms, right? The general assembly has indicated that they're not done. They just started. Right? Tuesday's action was the start of it, not the finish. So, some of the ideas, some of the reforms that could be put in place um going forward, you know, have the potential to have a negative impact on our re

083revenue stream. Um I do have I do have a lot of faith in our elected official our members of the general assembly um who were working closely with us in the districts to try to stay in lock step and understand the impact of the legislation that they were putting forward and I believe that that partnership and cooperation will continue but the reality is that um you know they can't always make everybody happy and some of the things that that could get put on the table may have uh an impact that we need to figure out how to manage in in the future. Um and the federal uncertainty to address the public comment that we got earlier, the grant funds that were part of the uh the picture that we were looking at last month, they

084have been released. So there was $1.3 million of grant funding that was sort of being held up. Um so that that is, you know, coming. We are expecting that. But I think it's fair to say that this administration has shown that uh you know they are more than willing to make cuts in the future and that is something that we also have to account for uh because the risk of losing federal funding again has has not been this high in my you know 12 year tenure here. Can I ask you to comment as well on not just future funds, but don't we continue to still have to uh demonstrate or provide documentation for funds previously expended and secured with our SR3 uh spend down in terms of we had uh I believe we we submitted

085a plan to pay for some recovery learning materials that were totaling somewhere around 1.3 million that the federal government is saying that now we are being told that that was not appropriate use of the money and that we that money is some staged jeopardy. It was the last I heard. >> So I want to clarify it wasn't that it was an inappropriate use of the money. Correct. The time frame that was associated with some of the purchase because it was a multi-year curriculum purchase. Um the feds flagged the fact that they felt like we extended you know the services or the m materials that we were going to be receiving too far in the future um to utilize these funds. >> That was kind of a misunderstanding that we provided documentation for um we've paid

086the vendor that $1.3 million. The feds have not yet reimbured Delaware for that expenditure. So, if the feds don't um and and I haven't heard back from DOE, so I'm hoping that, you know, they got a green light and they've gotten the money and they haven't let us know yet, but um it is possible that, you know, the feds could say, "No, we're not going to reimburse that." In which case, DOE would basically come to us and say, "You got to find another $1.3 million to pay us back because we fronted the federal money." So, um >> just is that is that our issue or is that the state's issue? >> The state will make it our issue. >> Yeah. Emily, I felt like you said something in an earlier conversation about colonial being unique

087in terms of something with the commercial value of the property as opposed to red clay Christina Brandandy. Um I I believe what you might be referencing is the magnitude of what the appeals look like in Colonial. >> Okay. >> Um so the the composition of the districts around the county is different. Um Christina and Colonial have the most similar footprint in terms of how the categories break down. Um Red Clay and Brandy Wine have similar breakdowns. They have more residential, less commercial and industrial properties. Um, but they're relatively similar. Aquinamic has almost no commercial or industrial properties. So, if you just look at the four northern districts, um, our appeals account for 10% of our tax base. Even the Newcastle County vote average is just over 4%. Brandy Wines is 2%. Christina's with a similar

088footprint as ours and just as much commercial and industrial as as our uh district, their appeal rate was only 2 and a half%. And Red Clays was I think 1% and change. So we have by far the most property that has been appealed in terms of the the aggregate value that it represents of our tax base. >> And it's safe to say that we also face the biggest monetary risk as opposed to those That's absolutely correct. >> I think I do have a couple more slides. I was just going to drag this out. >> Oh, no. Just the one. Okay. Uh, so I am asking obviously for uh board approval on the recommended rate split again. That is restoring the tax burden to where it was pre-re or pre-reassessment, excuse me. Um, once you know

089I have that approval goes to Newcastle County. Um, and Under House Bill 242, the deadline for tax payments is extended out to November 30th. Um, and then again, I do plan to work with Mr. Phillips to get a calculator tool up on our website for taxpayers to get more information um on how the new split rate will will impact their parcel or their uh tax bill directly so that they don't have to wait for you know a new bill to come through the county to get that that get that information. Um, we're also going to add information on the other, you know, letting folks know that you can get a payment plan if you still have a bill that's over 300. Um, you can get a refund or, you know, if you need to just

090to make sure that our our community is aware of all of the avenues of they have available to them. >> A homeowner will need to register for that payment plan. they do outside of >> I all of it's going to be pointing them to Newcastle County because they have to define that process. Um but it's just making sure that they're aware that these are even available because a lot of folks that we send out the new tax they send out the new tax bill probably have that information. >> Oh [Laughter] I won't hold my breath. Um, >> but what we also included in that will be some of the things that we heard on the calls from the community when we spoke to them, not knowing that there was a way to file an appeal,

091not knowing that there was this exemption or that exemption. Like trying to educate the community, providing a one-stop shop, driving them to the resources to help them understand what's at their disposal for the next website on the our website driving good hits. So, I believe that is it. I think I've got a question slide. >> That's it. >> Before we go through and ask for a motion, do we have any other questions or comments uh from the board? We'll start by going down the line. Mr. Handy, >> Mr. Brady, >> Miss Smith. >> Thank you, >> Mr. Walls. The only comments that I had I've had this conversation with Emily earlier this evening is I wish we' have been able to go as much more toward the toward the uh non-residential as she puts it

092because I think that there's an amount of risk that we have to do over overall. Um and I it's just that we're pushing that risk I feel personally feel pushing it more onto the residential side versus the non-residential. That's only my opinion. Um, no, um, questions, but I do want to make a statement. Uh, I prepared a statement um, that I like to share for public publicly and make sure I go on record stating this statement. Can everyone hear me? I guess it's good. >> All right. So, I'm going to I'm going to make a statement uh because I I feel as though I have a conflict of I may have a conflict of interest or feel a certain way. Um, so as a member of the Colonial School Board, um, I'm committed to upholding

093the highest standard of transparency and integrity. While I'm a resident, while I am a residential taxpayer who supports the motion before the board, I also own and operate a childare business within the Colonial School District on which I pay property taxes and where I'm currently able to provide reasonable prices for childcare services to Colonial families. Because of this unique circumstance, I want to ensure that there is no perception that my vote could be connected in any way to any personal monetary gain from my colonial families and their taxpayers. For this reason, I've made a decision that I'm going to abstain from this vote in order to preserve public trust and avoid appearance of conflict of interest or any possible personal gains while continue to fulfill fulf. >> Thank you, Dr. Dorsey. and for for myself

094um just also to the public um you may not see a lot of questions asked by some of these board members um also because I'm so thankful for the team that we have where they have been in constant contact with us uh as things have going on and trying to simplify things and explanations to us over the three four months this has been discussed and especially with the special legislation uh legislative uh session that happened um in constant contact with Dr. Mensor, Emily, with everything that's going on. So, there's a lot of background that the public does not see and there's a lot of caring and requests for information as much as we possibly can to make sure we are representing the public that elected us. Um, so we just want to let you guys

095know that we live here as well. We know what's going on. This is tough situations and we thank you for your understanding. We're always here to answer your questions. Just like as you heard, the admin was answering back every single person who was calling into that office with requests and giving them all the answers that they possibly could get that they had the knowledge of. So, I just wanted to commend, you know, our our staff here and then the board of education as well for dealing with this situation that has a lot of unanswered questions that we still are forced to make decisions for. So, I I thank you guys for that. Um, Emily, thank you for your presentation. Um, with that being said, do I hear a motion? >> I move that we approve

096the split tax rate as presented for fiscal year beginning July 1, 2025 and grant authorization to the president, vice president, and executive secretary of the Colonial School Board of Education to issue a tax warrant to Newcastle County Department of Finance as determined by the board. >> Do I hear a second? >> I second. All right. As moved by Mrs. Smith, second by Mrs. Breeding. Uh, there any additional questions or comments from the board? I will ask for a vote by roll call regards to this motion. I'll start at the end of the table. Mr. Handy, >> Miss Smith, >> I >> Mr. Laws, >> no. >> Dr. Dorsey is abs. And for myself, I with a 4 to one vote. Motion carries. >> All right. And we have Miss Falcon again. It's all about >>

097one one comment. >> He thank you very much for all the work you put in put those numbers together. I know you >> Yeah, >> you struggled over that took a lot of heat >> from people. So, thank you. >> Uh, Mr. laws. I do I also too want to uh echo your your son Emily's work in this space um both at for the district and for the community but as well as with her colleagues and peers across the state and with the the legislators and the folks who are trying to make uh a difficult situation better for the community. uh she has spent a lot of her time uh and energy uh to try to do the right thing and that to me is not the always the easy thing to do but it

098is always the right thing to do. So we do appreciate what she's done and are very confident that you know the path forward for Colonial will continue to be positive will continue to be responsible to the community and when we're able to we will make sure that the community feels uh you know feels that as well. So I just want to say thank you. >> Thank you everyone. >> Thank you. >> And the burden is now on county's assessment versus our tax rates. Correct. >> All right. Give us your phone money presentation. >> Okay. Uh so this I have I have shortened this um anticipating that the prior presentation may be a little long. Uh so we're going to run through this pretty quickly. The premium budget is you know our basically this holds us

099over until our unit count uh information and funding is finalized by the state. Um we did review this document uh by at the citizens finance committee meeting on August 5th. Uh state funds we are looking at a 4.1% increase over last year. Um that is entirely in the restricted funding category. Um, as you can see, there was increased salary dollars allocated for implementing the PEC recommendations, uh, which is our the public education compensation committee to, uh, increased teacher salaries and other education salaries across the board, as well as, um, increased funding in transportation, as well as another year of enhanced minor cap dollars, um, that were allocated. Uh because of our stagnant and slightly declining enrollment projections, the discretionary funding that is associated with units um is projected to decrease slightly. Local funds obviously are

100are uh increasing due the referendum plus the 7% revenue um enhancement that was just reserved with the court vote as well as thankfully strong interest collections um that are adding to our our bottom line um federal receipts looking at a increase of just under 1% um but those numbers uh may fluctuate because the as of when this was presented the title funds had still been were still held so I didn't have those amounts to include um so there might be some slight fluctuation in the final budget on those numbers um as has been my practice for the last couple of years I have started out all of our discretionary budgets except for those that have uh you know known cost drivers associated with them at 75% % of last year's budget. This really because we

101don't set the final budget until almost halfway through the fiscal year, it really does give me the flexibility to manage things as I'm finalizing those numbers. Um, and it's a lot easier from a management standpoint or an administrative standpoint to be able to allocate more money in the middle of the year versus saying, I got to claw money back. You got too much. So, now I'm going to have to reduce halfway through the year. So, uh, keeping that construct in place as as a a good way to keep the budget numbers as manageable and and um flexible as possible. The restricted budgets um again, if I know, you know, have a reasonable projection as to where the numbers are going to land, I did set them um based on the allocations and and what the

102expected spending is. Um, so even with even with setting a lot of our discretionary budgets at 75%, we're looking at 1% budget growth because of of those areas that I mentioned on the revenue side where salaries are expecting to go up. Um, there's healthy increase in transportation and uh minor cap funding. I think that was a 70% increase over last year. So that's pulling that number up above one. Then some other items just uh as a as a note several of the budget lines within Leech are being collapsed. Um these were relatively small uh categorical lines that really had kind of not been um actively managed. They they were just sort of stagnant allocations that had um you know been there historically. Um it becomes cumbersome for the Leech administration and the principal to you

103know which budget to code things to. So, we've collapsed it into the general um the general funding line for Leech to make um to make, you know, things a little bit easier. Um and then obviously the details of our nutrition and transportation budgets, which do get broken out a little bit more um discreetly in the final budget, um need to wait for our enrollment and unit numbers to come in for that. And then there is also the property tax rates and expected receipts for um and and those will be added. They're not actually added in what was presented tonight uh because I unfortunately didn't have time to update that piece of the budget given um given the prep for the previous presentation. Um and it also includes a summary of our major cap funds uh

104as well. So, we are going to continue to um play things, you know, very safely and be very responsible and have a a belt tightening attitude um in how we're approaching our budget growth despite having uh you know, not even fully implemented the referendum that was that was passed uh last year. our enrollment and all of the uncertainty that was discussed previously this evening. Um mean that we really need to make sure that we are maximizing every dollar that we know we're going to get for efficiency and and making sure that what we are putting in front of our kids and our our staff is the most effective use of the resources that we that we do have to manage. And I would welcome any questions or motions. [Laughter] >> Now that we've confirmed that

105Emily can't read our minds, couldn't know that we were going to approve that tax rate. Um, go down the line real quick. Um, Mr. Handy, do you have any questions? >> No. >> Miss Brady. >> Miss Smith? >> No. >> Mr. Laws, we've already went over my questions. Dr. Dorsey, no questions. >> All right. I don't have any except uh everyone on the CFOC is good and they were good with it. So, >> correct. Yes, they do. They did um vote to recommend. >> We're very proud of our CFOC here to the public. So, we know they take it very seriously. So, we appreciate that. Um with that being said, do I hear a motion? I move that we approve the preliminary budget for the 2025 to 2026 school year presented. >> Do I hear

106a second? >> Second. All right. As moved by Miss Breeding, second by Dr. Dorsey. There any questions or comments from the board. >> All right. No question, comments. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. >> I. All those opposed? Nay. >> Question carried. >> Did your question get answered? >> I know. followup question. >> That's what I was going to say. Someone could reach out or we can try to answer. >> Catch us right after let's journ. We'll catch up. >> All right. Uh thank you very much to the public who did come. Um and then um come see us right afterwards uh because you missed public comment, but um we're happy to answer questions that you have right after the meeting. So sorry I was talking to the lady behind me. She

107had her hand raised. Sorry. Um do I hear a motion to adjurnn? Really? >> I move for adjournment. >> All right. Uh do I have a second? >> Second. >> All right. As moved by Miss Smith and seconded by Mr. Breeding. All those in favor, please uh please signify by saying I. I. All those oppos. Motion carries. Meeting journ. Thank you very much.