001For the record, I want it noted that Loon read that off of a script and she just recently spoke to 5,000 people at the University of Delaware and spoke off the very be a very light-hearted meeting. Uh now with school year ending, a lot of relaxation in the as you can see. Um, with that moving on, uh, are there any additions or corrections to the, uh, board agenda? No, there are none. All right. If none, do I hear a motion? I move that we approve the agenda as presented. Do I hear a second? Second. All right. As moved by Dr. Dorsey, seconded by Mr. Handy. Are there any questions or comments from the board? All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. All those against nay. Motion carries. All right. Let's see here.
002Oh, and uh we'll start out with uh student recognition from Loon the last time this year. I see you gave up on the whole name. I'll take it. I'll take it. Um Hello everyone. Um going to be sober. I haven't really been at Penn for like three weeks now because I'm a senior. We left early. But I know that um the school year ended I think it was today and with their finals and I know the class 6 is very excited to be you know seniors next year. Everyone's giving up and I hope they have you know great summers. I know the parents are maybe not happy kids are going to be home every day but I know the teachers are excited to be done in a week from now. So yes been great. Um,
003Penn had their graduation uh last Friday and it was awesome. I got to speak so did um our style fluidian and our past president. They both gave amazing speeches. I think mine was okay too and um it was an amazing ceremony. Uh a lot of the quorum which I think our school takes a lot of pride in. Our students were very calm and it went out without a hitch. It was great. Beautiful ceremony and I know even though class is no longer you know students will still always be colonials and I think we'll always cherish our time here. So, it's been a great um three years here and I'm very excited to be able to say that I've been a pen student. So, yes. [Applause] Okay. Okay. Um, the one thing that we want to
004note is that back in 2020, uh, the board asked the district administration to find a way to get student representation on the board. And so in 2020, we established process and uh, William Penn High School for the last several years has been involved with identifying students to bring forward to represent the student body, speak on behalf of the student body, and share stories from William Penn. obviously. Um, but Leoon is, as she stated, graduating and has graduated. Yes. And is moving on and going to be attending college at Washington Lane. Yes. In Virginia, uh, majoring in political science. And she has been a, as you can tell, a breath of fresh air on the board. She's ex always energetic and exciting to also to listen to her speak. But we uh recently the board approved
005a new student to join us and she's with us here this evening just to kind of see how things go. It's Mia Castanita over there and we're excited to have Mia on board. Uh she's already been up meeting with the board members and interacting with the staff here getting comfortable. Um I think she's going to fall right into place and uh pick up where Leon has left off. I know that the board president is super happy that he can now he'll be able to say her name at least I think that there's a little bit of relief in that just a small bit. Okay. Um so and to Lun's point graduation the commencement ceremony at William Penn is always a special event. Uh and she's right the students do perform well. They represent the colonial
006community uh with pride and dignity. And uh we think that it was a a special event that went off without a hitch. So, uh, thank you, Luke, for calling it out and thank you for a great speech. She's being modest. Her speech is pretty awesome, too. Now to you, Mr. P. Yep. Uh, now we are going to turn the mic over to Colonial's public information officer, Miss Lauren Wilson, for a celebration of the E in the power of W. Miss Wilson, the floor is yours. Good evening, everyone. Tonight, we want to recognize students who participated in a tournament near and dear to Colonial Nation because our tournament is dedicated to the memory of a beloved teacher named Mike Snow. Math 24 is a unique mathematics teaching tool that kids love and has been proven to
007successfully engage students in grades one through nine from diverse economic and social backgrounds. Kids always know the answer is 24. And this allows students to think creatively about the numbers and the patterns. We ask the winners of Colonial's 2025 annual Mike Snow tournament to come forward when they're called. We have from Wilbur Maxwell Shelton. We have from Newcastle, Jean Oz Felix from Pleasantville, Elizabeth Dil [Applause] Jon from Mala. In grade six, we have Pedro Lez. [Applause] Agnes Ko, Omar Fernandez. [Applause] We have uh Darisha Deay and Nathan Parks. Alina Davis. We also have Peter Rocky Ruddoff and Priscilla Dome. Nathan Vickers from Gunning Bedford and Kyle Miller. We want to get a photo now. Yeah. Everybody else down. This way. This way. [Applause] Next, we would like to recognize Rowan Fernsler, an 11th grade student
008from William Penn. Rowan won first place in the region for his agra science fair project on integrating ASL into agriculture by teaching students safety around machinery during pen farm day. He competed at the Big E in Springfield, Massachusetts. Katherine Hawkins, William Penn, aggra science teacher and FFA adviser, will present highlights of other things that the chapter has done this past year. [Applause] You can come forward. Our president, Mr. Fernsler is going to present to you guys. I'm going to take this down so the board can go. I am Bran as you just saw. I am currently William FFA's uh president this year and I was the vice president last year. We have had a very busy and very successful school year from uh summer of last year to summer of this year and still ongoing.
009Last year during summer of 2024 we had I believe five people five different teams compete in an aggra science fair project and I was just one of those. I'll get I'll circle back to that later on. In fall of 2024, that is when we went up to regionals in Massachusetts and also nationals where we traveled to Indianapolis for a week out of school. At regionals, I got to compete in my aggra science fair project. Now, as a child of deaf adult Kota, who's been raised with American Sign Language, I've seen how impactful and beneficial can be to use for communicating with people when they can't hear you. Now, that applies both when they are hard of hearing, but also when you're working on an agricultural setting. So, you might be a hundred yards away from
010someone and unable to hear them. You might be working with someone who speaks Spanish or you might be working with loud machinery like tractors and lawnmowers. The way I went about researching its effectiveness was during the pen farm day uh the last year. Yes. In May, I got to work with some students and I played a game of red light green light. There was a twist to the game though where instead of just it being a normal game. I was standing at the finish line and I had a tractor running up next to me and a lawn mower on the other side. So I played two rounds with them. First one, normal game, red light, green light. And they struggled because again it's loud and it's a huge distance for them to hear. But then
011I played another round where I took a short uh recess. I taught them a couple basic signs. I taught them to start. I taught them to stop and we played again. And the success rates of those students more than doubled. So, it doesn't tie back perfectly into working on a farm, but it shows that especially for those basic commands, it's something that can be taught within minutes and double the effectiveness of your communication. So, circling away from myself and back to the chapter, winter of this year, we also did a lot as a chapter. We made lotion bars using beeswax that we sourced from Pen Farm. We made about 170 lotion bars and we gave those out to students to representatives from uh Delaware at Buff Association and every single person enrolled in an ad
012class got to take home a lotion bar made from beeswax from Pen Farm. In spring, another very busy season for us. We attended Delmer State uh FFA convention. We had 18 members compete uh compete and also do a day of service for community service. We had a few people placed within the top five. Uh and I'm very proud of everyone who was able to attend and compete. And more recently, we had our plant sale. I'm sure quite a few of you got to go to there because we price uh for our community. We want to incorporate and give back to our community. So, we have some of the lowest prices you would find for hanging baskets and for succulents. And we were able to raise about $10,000 to go back into our chapter and to
013pay for next year's program. And looking at this upcoming summer, we are still staying busy. This year, we have five hogs that are being raised and cared for by students, and they're going to be walking them and competing with them to try and hopefully earn some money and stay busy over the summer. For the students who aren't uh raising pigs and handling them, we also have almost 15 people working at Pen Farm over the summer, which is just another way we are able to give back to our community and keep our members being successful and moving forward. Thank you for that presentation. Finally, we are proud to announce that 438 seniors graduated last Friday from William Penn. While many of them are still deciding on their future journeys, we know that 170 have committed to
014attend college or trade school, 15 have decided to serve our country by enlisting in the military, and 50 have declared that they are going directly to the workforce. We are happy to say our grads received over $5.3 million in scholarships. Their pictures, which are really beautiful, are posted on William Penn's uh Facebook page. So, I encourage you to take a look at them. Moving on to our staff, we would like to recognize Colonial Educators who participated in a six-monthlong professional learning experience to deepen their own equity journey. Fourth dimensions equity practitioner program seeks to equip educators at every level of organization with the knowledge, skills, ability, and resources to successfully lead equity efforts at the school and community level. The educators who participated are Paige Patterson from Heisenberg, Gregory Napoleon from Wington Manor, Stephanie Kelly
015from Cowick, Aisha Dara Denny Bedford and Crystal Reagan from Bedford. They will come forward at this time. [Applause] Finally, we have also uh named all of our teachers of the year at the building level and our district teacher of the year who is Amanda Kaine. All of the teachers will be celebrated in the fall and I encourage you now to go to our website and you will see their names posted on the website. And that concludes our recognitions for this evening. Thank you. All right. Thank you very much, Miss Wilson. Uh next is the time of the board meeting for board members and the executive secretary to discuss items of information and topics from our participation in various professional organizations. Um specific updates and documents are listed in the agenda. Um are there any concerns,
016questions or points of interest board members would like to discuss at this time? Um with that you can consider that. I guess we'll start with the DSBA update. Hello. Okay, real quick. Just uh one two things that are really important. One is that the new uh new school board members boot camp will be July the 19th between 9 and 4 at the admin office uh boardroom Commerce Way in Dover. Also, the annual meeting will be for the DSDA and the legislative uh body. It will be on August the 9th and that'll be at the Serpent Turk in Milford, Delaware. And the last thing is um as far as funding, they're trying to establish a hybrid way of funding our schools with the current system using block grants and a weighted system. Thank you. All right.
017and the uh legislative committee today session we reviewed all the house and senate bills and continued our positions of support and then Dr. or CSA. Uh we had our uh monthly meeting last Thursday or sorry, June 5th. So yeah, last Thursday. It feels like a long time ago. Um we were fortunate that Secretary Martin uh joined us uh shared an update on what Mr. Hyd commission's path forward uh with respect to the uh the hybrid framework that they're seeking to to to adopt. Um, we also received an update on our opportunity funds as well as the status of Infinite Campus and um, we've been asked to share quite a bit um, back with the department around what's going on across the districts for summer learning. Um, they are interested in uh, supporting districts and strengthening
018the opportunities we uh, offer students to maintain uh, academic um, practice and turns during the summer. And then we did Unfortunately, the bulk of the time then talking about legislation that's in the queue right now as it relates to educa as it relates to education and the list is long and daunting uh as it is every year which uh can be tedious and you know difficult to keep track of but we did spend the bulk of our time talking about legislation. I have nothing really to report on that. The chiefs continue to be at the table as best they can to talk about what the impact is on various uh ideas and decisions on the local level that are potentially going to be mandated from the state level. I don't have any updates or positions
019to report. All right. Thank you, Dr. Mensor. Normally, this would be the time where I would say that uh we're going to pause for public comment to allow the uh families to get home. But uh apparently they've gotten used to our No, wait. We still have to pause for those who wait when prompted. Anybody who wants to leave we have a couple administrators that are going to stick around and enjoy the session. So uh I think with that I don't think there's much of a pulse needed. So we can move on public comment. Do we have any public comments? We have one here. Okay. Um, is the mic still up at the stand? It is. Okay. Real quick, while the U just checking on the mic. Uh, just to read over um disclosure as indicated
020on the public comment sheet that you have uh when your name is called, you will have three minutes to speak. You're expected to remain in the designated area for speaking with the board and failure to do so will result in your forfeiting your aotted time. Please note that board members are not obligated to respond to you within your three minute time slot. Administrative staff may be identified and asked to provide followup on specific questions or personnel issues regarding your child or children after the meeting. Um, Miss Janette Swain. [Music] Hello, my name is and I live in I am concerned about all children regards to learning curses. I think it's very useful when you sign and then signature. I don't know why it's not in the curriculum, but I think it's a very important skill.
021Um, being an older person, I um I was in that sign as far as a home and even when I go to the doctors, they always ask you to print and then sign your name. Well, But the really crazy part is that if you can't write it, you also can't read it. A lot of older documents are in cursive. So what does a young person do if they're presented with something to read that's embarrassing? Um, my children can read and write and my grandchildren can read and I'm wondering why children in Delaware can't read. Why is that? Is that all this? Okay. Thank you very much. And then I believe uh we can have someone uh reach out to Miss Swain. Miss Swing, we'll have someone reach out to discuss further with you uh some
022of your thoughts. Okay, that sounds good. Thank you very much. We we do have uh just one more recognition. Uh would Jean I can't see Felix come on forward here to get his math 24 recognition. It's not the full house that we had a minute ago. Go ahead. congratulations. [Applause] All right. And now moving on uh from public comment. Thank you very much. And the next agenda item is the consent agenda. The items listed under the consent agenda have gone through board review, including documentation concerning these items uh that have been provided to all board members and the public in advance. Items in the consent agenda generally include routine personnel and business office action and updates as well as approval of previous meeting minutes and education related items such as choice and student placements. Uh
023with that being said, do I hear a motion? I move that we approve office and agenda items as presented. Do I hear a second? Second. As moved by Mr. Handy and quickly seconded by Miss Smith. Um, are there any questions or comments from the board? All right. With no questions or comments, all those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. All those opposed? Nay. All right. Motion carries. All right. Next up on the agenda is updates and action items. Dr. Menser. Yeah, we have a a series of uh items tonight, but we do want to start first with a a presentation from our chief operating financial officer, Miss Emily Falcon, as it relates to the upcoming tax rate conversation that we'll have in July. Um, so she's put together a presentation and there's a
024it's in board docs and the public can access this as well. Um, but she might pass around a couple of copies in case you want to write down notes. Um, as we know that this is a a hot question in the community, uh, what's going on and what they can expect with their taxes given the reassessment that's occurred recently in Newcastle County. That said, I'm going to turn the floor and the mic over to Miss Falcon. Good evening, Colonial Board members and Colonial Nation. Um, as Dr. mentioned, I I'm going to be walking through information related to the the process that we are going through in resetting the tax rate due to the referendum or excuse me the reassess. Joe, if you could advance slide for me. Uh so quick agenda. We're going to just
025go over the tax rate again for information and then a quick recap of reassessment, what that's about and then some information related to the process and finally some next steps. So if we look at our uh next slide, we go to the recap of the tax rate. This is a process that we normally do every single year in July. Um where we are setting with your approval. I recommend a rate you approve it. We've got four different components. Um operating which is basically our operating or current expense um for operating expenses. Debt service is how we pay off the construction projects um that have been bonded over time. Match tax or MCI is for matching state appropriated program funds like our minor capital improvement funds and other programmatic funds that the general assembly has um
026authorized. And then our tuition tax rate is uh basically set by the board based on my recommendation to help us cover the cost of educating our students with disabilities that have, you know, extra costs that come come along with with their educational needs. The last two are set by the board um annually. The first two can only be impacted by a referendum. The one exception is that when there is a reassessment, we have to undergo a reset process. That um that is what we're what we're embarking on right now. And The rate itself is charged per $100 of assessed value. So that's just information. Um so next slide we will look at recapping what reassessment is all about. Basically it's where the county goes through and reevaluates all of the properties countywide to make sure
027that they are um the value that they are being taxed at is a fair representation of of what their market value is. to ensure that taxation overall is fair and equitable across the county. Um, prior to this reassessment happening, no county in Delaware had reassessed property since the 1980s. So, there were concerns around that fair and equitable component. Um, a lawsuit was brought forward which I'm sure everyone is familiar with by now. It implicated uh the counties with reassessment but also state funding which is where the public education funding commission comes in. Um that lawsuit was successful and that started the reassessment process. Um K County's new values were actually effected last July. Newcastle and Sussex are going into effect this coming July 1. So what does this mean for school taxes? So law requires
028that when there is a reassessment, we reset our rate in a way that will generate no more at its maximum as and this that's a quote from the statute at its maximum would realize no more than a 10% increase in actual revenue from the previous year. The law also has a provision indicating that if a referendum was passed where revenue was approved by the voters but not yet collected, that revenue that projected or expected revenue can be calculated in as what is included in the the neutral or base number for resetting the tax rate. So I wanted to bring this This was a slide that we used during our referendum process um because we knew when we were going for the referendum uh that reassessment was on the horizon and it was going to you
029know potentially be a factor in how folks were thinking about how the ref referendum was going to you know impact everything. So this just basically recaps the fact that when your property values are smaller, we have to have a larger rate to generate a certain amount of money. After reassessment, the assumption is most properties are going to increase in value. That increase in value allows us to lower the tax rate to generate essentially the same amount of money. Right? So again, this is just a recap of a slide that we did make available and present during our referendum process. So, where are we with what we know right now? Um, last month, actually maybe late April, Newcastle County did provide a data file to myself and the other CFOs in Newcastle County that had the
030new final rates associated with it. Basically laid out what all of the final rates or final values were. the I have final in quotations because it did not include several adjustments um that are still yet to be made. One of those adjustments is the formal appeals process. So if there was an informal and a formal appeals process, if you went through the informal process, my understanding is any adjustments made during that informal process have been incorporated into that final data file that we received. The formal process is still ongoing. I believe the window for submitting an appeal has closed, but the county has not yet heard nearly if if any. I'm not sure that they've actually started hearing them yet, but I know that they are not completed, excuse me. Um, so because they are
031not completed, what we have been given is an atrisisk file. So the atrisisk file gives us all the information on the parcels that have submitted an appeal but there was no requirement to include with your appeal what you think your value should be. So roughly half of the uh data that we received indicated that the parcel had appealed value but there was no requested value included. So what they wanted the appeal to land on was unknown. Um so speaking with the county, speaking with my colleagues, we've we've all made some assumptions. Um of the appeals that did have a requested value associated with them. The parcel owner was asking for roughly a 34% reduction in the assessed value. So one of the assumptions that I am making going forward is that that 34% reduction should
032be applied to any parcel that is appealing their assessed value. Now some might be more than that, some might be less than that. But if that's the average of about half of what was appealed, then that's the best number I can use to make the assumption of what folks might be looking for among those appeals that have not had a requested value. Was this the original timet that was presented to you or are they running behind? Um, that's a great question. I can't say that I had the original time locked in my brain. So, um, I do think, you know, my assumption is that the county would like to have a little bit more runway um, and have the appeals wrapped up before having to go live with the rates, but I I can't say
033for certain that that was part of the original timeline because I frankly don't remember. Um, so we, you know, I've made that assumption um in terms of what the appeals could how the appeals could impact that final base number. Um, the other factor that we've been made aware of is that are exemptions that are currently in county ordinance that set an exemption amount for senior citizens and um residents with disabilities. Those values have not been updated to reflect the new higher base number for all the properties. So the effect of that would be if the if the amount did not change the level of relief that seniors and folks with disabilities would see would be drastically reduced. Um, I should say that both of these exemptions have an income limitation. So, you have to be
034a low income resident in those categories to qualify for these exemptions. And uh we have worked with the county to basically figure out, you know, how we can estimate what those exemptions currently are. And we've been provided information that the state is in the process of allowing through legislation the county to update those exemption amounts to provide a similar level of relief going forward as exist currently. Um but again the data file that we've been given does not break that information out um succinctly. So we are having to make assumptions about which parcels have the exemptions. Um and the you know depending on parcels that might have been missed or misidentified um you know there is some potential variation in how those exemptions and be finalized once that process plays itself out. The other factor
035that's not even on the slide um is during this time period, the county has basically not been bringing new properties online. So since I believe it was July of 24, so a year ago, any properties that were issued certificates of occupancy have not been expected to pay taxes for FY25. Normally it is the case that you know if you have a new home that's completed or business or whatever um that you owe property taxes at that point. The county made the decision while this was being implemented to to go those payments. We in turn have have had to forego that revenue. Um so that's also a factor. Um and the growth between when the values were actually set which is 2024 and going forward we won't have the benefit of that growth amount which is
036normally averaging about a percent and a half or 2% annually. It's not a it's not a large amount, but it is something that we are used to seeing year over year and does help by slowly and methodically increasing our tax base. We're not going to have the benefit of that small growth rate. Um, right when when that new amount comes on board this this coming July. So none of these factors that I talked about well the growth rate is not going to be resolved because that was decision made by the county, but the exemption issue and the appeals issue will not be resolved by next month's board meeting when we have to put a tax rate forward. So that is what we know and I think I got ahead of myself on my slides because
037that's what all basically everything I just said here um is is already covered. Uh the delinquency rate that is another unknown thing that we're not Um the the changes that are coming forward could mean that you know with folks if they have an appeal pending they may choose not to pay the bill um pending you know the the resolution of that appeal process. So whether or not our collection percentage is going to be impacted by this is an unknown factor as well. Um, another piece that does enter into the equation here is the Newcastle County Tax School. Um, statutoily the tax pool's rate is set in code based on what the Newcastle County tax rate was at the time the districts were split apart. That rate has no way of being translated automatically into reset
038rate. So statutoily, no one has the authority, the Department of Education doesn't have the authority to set a new rate for the tax pool and no district individually has the authority to reset the rate for the tax pool. Um so there's been some conversations with legislators about how to move forward given that um conundrum that the legal authority sets us in. So um But as of right now, I don't know how those factors are going to play out. I've been in contact with the Department of Education. You know, they're watching the issue closely as well. Um, but we're not exactly sure how how that will play out. So, that is also kind of an unknown factor at this point. Um hopefully because if nothing happens before June 30th um legislatively speaking, you know, we'll have
039to be working with the Department of Ed to figure out how they're going to try to muddle through implementing the tax pool next year. Uh so we'll have a little bit more information next month, but as of right now, we're unsure. Do did they have a projected timeline of when they have an answer? June 30th right now is is kind of the drop dead date for legislative action. So um my my hope is that we will get some sort of action. Um you know either providing a clear path for how to administer the tax pool going forward or in some case you know in some uh estimations the easiest thing to do is actually dissolve the tax pool and let all four districts stand on their own. You were doing really good and then I
040got confused. So the tax so the tax so you said the rate was set when the districts were split. Correct. And the rate was on the assessed values of that time. Yes. And now we have 400% increases in values and no mechanism to cut the rate the tax pool rate in half because the legislators when they passed this legislation didn't think about it, forgot about it, didn't know it was there. All the above. It is never in my best interest. understand why a legislator does anything um especially 40 years ago, 40 plus years ago. Um but the statute does not speak to how the rate would be changed after reassessment. So I think a lot of folks can make some good assumptions and do what makes sense. Um but unfortunately common sense when four districts
041are sharing revenue any It's a zero sum game. So, you know, every district is looking out for their own uh their own interest in maintaining a solution that benefits them most financially. Um, which again makes it hard for everyone to come up with something that we all agree on when we're our interests are not aligned. So, um, but but I think you're you're saying that there is no proposed legislation this session to tackle this issue. What I am aware of is that there are some legislators working on a bill that would dissolve the tax pool entirely. Okay. Thank you. If the tax pool were dissolved, uh, essentially our taxing authority um, you know, becomes completely So our tax base, our tax rate equals revenue. No portion of our revenue would be part of that revenue
042sharing agreement or arrangement that the tax pool currently has. So it it is a small share of the revenue that we bring in. It only impacts our current operating dollars. It doesn't extend to the other three components. And I think um percentage wise the tax pool is only about 20 under 30% of our total overall operating rate. So it's it's not a gigantic uh influence on the overall revenue. All right. So some numbers. We're not going deep into numbers tonight, but um the tax base that I set the rate on was 3.51 no 3.159 billion for Colonial that was the collected value of all the property the file that Newcastle County sent me for FY26 15.7 round numbers 15.7 billion in property value so just under 400% increase over where we were last And as
043the slide says set another way, the the new base is 496% above the 25 base. That $15.7 billion number has not been adjusted for the appeals, the exemptions, or any of the other unknown factors that that I mentioned earlier. So, we're projecting it's going to go lower. Yes. All of the things that we've been talking about would bring that number down. Are we going to see that number later in the slides? I don't know what that number is yet. No, I mean your assumed number that you're So that's where we're that's where we're looking in terms of the overall um increase based on what we've gotten from from the county. How is this going to impact our taxpayers? So again I did you know in bringing up the the slide from last time one of
044the things that we tried to impress upon folks was that we are resetting the rate on the aggregate change your tax bill is based on your individual property property wealth growth. So, the best way to determine if you are going to see an increase or or potentially a decrease or more of a a stable bill is where your property landed compared to that 396% number. So, if you look at and the county's website currently has your current assessed value and it has your projected or expected or estimated new value. So, you can go to the site and do you know do the calculation to figure out is my value going up more than that 396% or less. If it's more then your bill is more is essentially going up. If it is less than that
045396 it still may go up. The reason the statement still may go up is because we did have a referendum that passed. So our would have been going up regardless of reassessment. So the referendum ask was 10 cents this year at 25 to the 26 was 10 cents. It's not going to be 10 cents. It's going to be the value and and 10 cents was worth on the old base roughly 3.2 million in revenues. So I would be adding $3.2 million of revenue into the base number to reset the rate against. So the 10 cents is not worth 10 cents anymore. That 3.2 is what we're going to bring forward in into the process. And that 3.2 2 million increase in revenue. Um is why even if your property only only assessed at 396% or
046390% you still may see an increase in your bill. So I'm so I'm just making this number up but if 10 cents if 10 cents was 3.2 2 million on our current valuation. I'm just making this number up. So, it would really be like 4 cents would equal 3.2 million. Is that what you're saying? Yes. Okay. Yes. Math is not my strongest. And I'm not going to try to do the math in my head right now and give you an exact number. So, next slide. Um, this just gives you some examples of what you might be seeing if you go out to parcel search or look at the letter that you got from Tyler Technologies or the county. Um, there's our base numbers again on the left hand side. So, property A, their increased value
047is lower. our average lower than our number, right? So, property A is most likely going to see a decrease in the property taxes. Property B, property B is going to see an increase regardless of what we do. Whether we stay revenue neutral, whether we decide to utilize any of the 10% that the law allows, they are seeing an increase. Period. Property C. And of course, I obviously set that number to be exactly to what our average is. Uh, property C is yet undetermined. And though I I guess what's fair to say is the level of increase that property C is going to see is dependent on board action because some of the increase is a foreground conclusion because the referendum increase. So even even a home with 496 is going to see some increase because
048of that referendum um addition but how much of an increase is going to depend on the actual rate that we decide to set next month. So, next steps. Um, I I am, you know, thankful for the question so far and I do want to have a little bit more discussion about um what you want to see next month. Any other questions and discussion about, you know, what might be impacting our revenue collection and then next month I will bring forward recommendations either one or many um and then a vote will we will get that approved rate to Newcastle County to include in the property tax bills. So I welcome I open the floor for discussion, welcome any questions uh but ultimately I do uh I would like to get some ideas about how to proceed
049um and what what sort of options you would like me to bring forward for next month. Did you say we're going to vote next month? You're going to be voting Will we get like a type of read on? It'll be you'll get the So part of the reason for my presentation tonight was to help you understand the factors that have gone into what is involved in resetting the rate and what I'd like to do is have a discussion um basically around what type of information would you like me to bring forward next month? No, I I get that. So the direct answer to the question is seven days prior to the meeting we have to post the agenda information. So it would be the information is shared with the board the same way it is
050every so when the board docs goes live on Friday Saturday the public will see that's where the numbers will be shared with everybody to see what we're going to be bringing forward. Now what we bring forward is what Emily is asking now like what are the things you would like to see as as options or direction you would like the recommendation you have a little bit of influence right now kind of influence all Um, Ken, do you have any other questions or go down the line and then we'll open it up to anybody who has questions? No, I just would need to I mean for myself I would need to see like real numbers. Um, just need real numbers. Right now it's like you're not sure. So when you say real numbers, do you mean
051rates? Do you mean individual, you know, partial impacts? Just so just to make sure that I'm on the same page and giving you what you're everything you just said. Okay. Yep. everything. Well, I have a great follow question for that then. Um, so I'd love to know how much is at risk right now and where we're going to possibly see a roughly 34% dip in revenue because that's obviously going to have to be I'd love to that's that's a lot at risk um to know but obviously that that's going to have to be resolved by the time you present that to us. Incorrect. The appeals process is not going to be completed by the July meeting. This feels disgustingly unfair to the taxpayers. Not that it's on us, but it's on them. And it's that
052that feels so wrong. Make a decision not knowing the impact. So, I do want to remind you that no decision that you can make is going to mitigate the impact of every single parcel you regardless of what we do some people are going to see increases oh yeah whether they've appealed or not whether they have exemptions or not you know in Joe if you can go back to the example chart property B in this example with a 745% increase in value there is no way that that person is not paying a higher bill next year and that this board can do is going to eliminate that possibility. But it's more also how do we decide on what your rates going to be to make sure that we do end up at minimum net neutral and
053do we have an ability to adjust if we if it is a drastic number like if you decide to be conservative which our district pretty much has for a long time in a lot of our decision making financially if you you decide to make it only 3%. But then our at risk lowers our revenue down below 4%. What do we do from there? These are the questions that you need to grapple with as a board and which is where I want to know how much is currently at risk and if we could get some type of projections if everything went worst case scenario because I think we have to assume a worst case scenario because my job is this district and that's your job as well and I have to make those type of decisions
054and then when I make that I have to then decide hey maybe we'll have surplus in the future but I can't put us at a loss agreed that is the goal the goal that I'm trying to get to is uh to manage the risk as to thread the needle between being too conservative in our assumptions and winding up with less revenue than we expected, which would impact staffing. It would impact programming. It would have a negative impact on what we, you know, garnered all the community support for around the referendum. Um, it would kind of be going in the wrong direction, but too aggressive is is really the pleasure of the board. Um, I will, you know, give you the information. I can tell you that as of right now, the the appeals based on
055the way that I've made some of the assumptions and again because I don't have complete information right the the file that I have with the parcels that have appealed does not have complete information in terms of what the requested amount is and I don't have comprehensive understanding of if I walk into an appeal with Newcastle County and I have not identified requested value. I don't know how that decisioning goes in terms of what's decid you know if I'm successful how the amount that I get removed from my you know assessed value is determined. So I don't have complete information based on the assumption that I've made which is uh extrapolating the known requested value percentage the entire atrisisk file. It's about a half a billion dollars of assessed value that is at risk. And that's
056just with the appeals. That's not any of the other assumptions that we were talking about. Correct. So, if you're playing with a half% I prefer not to do math in my head. I'm going to go to Chris Smith and then go back down the line, but we'll go back to more questions if more come up to you guys. Okay, that was That was all very helpful. Am I working? There we go. That was very helpful. So, one of the things that we haven't talked about tonight is really our our charge in July is to fix our tax rate so that we are not bringing in literally a billion dollars of increased revenue because the property values went up by 11 billion dollars. So our our number one charge is to fix the tax rate so
057that that as we've said is is is revenue neutral. However, we also have a referendum increase coming into play. The third factor is that under the under the uh legislation, we can at our discretion at the board take up to 10% of the additional revenue generated by this reassessment. So that's that's our that's our charge in July is figuring out Can I just make one clarification? Yes. 10% of the 10% in additional revenue over what we what we collected last year, not over what's on the table for reassessment. Okay? Because I don't want people to think we can take 10% of that 11 bill 11 billion increase. Okay. Okay. Thank Thank you for that. So, so when we did the referendum, it was a two question referendum. Part of it was operating and part of
058it was uh capital expense, which is going to be the building improvements and things like that. Correct. When you set the ask for the for the tax rate for the operating portion of the referendum in general, how long, barring a major catastrophe, you know, along the line that would cost the district millions of dollars. Generally, how long did you anticipate that that additional revenue from the operating referendum would last? three years, five years, 10 years, all my assumption and and I believe this was said publicly was that we were looking at it to last us another 3 to 5 years. Um, if we were to if we if we were to vote in July for the additional 10%, how would that impact future referendum decisions? Does that bring our timeline out two more years, five
059more years, four more years to So I would be a little hesitant to put an exact time frame on it and any time frame comes with the caveats that you mentioned. You know, barring any major disruptions to other revenue streams such as federal uncertainty with our grants or, you know, state uh state funding changes uh that could impact how much we have coming in. ing any major shifts. I think it's safe to say that you know a 10 if we were if you were to utilize the 10% um option discretion that would add at least two to three years onto you know when we could expect to go back out to referend. Okay. So right. So from my my previous experience in red clay and the the business manager there gen generally it you know
060when we referendum cycles while many districts try to push them past three years and sometimes are successful in push you know with some real penny pinching. Um but generally between the cost of living uh and inflation and other factors, you know, at at some point your expenses uh you know, your income just isn't meeting your expenses. Can I'm sorry. Go ahead. The new formula that was just created, does that also play a role in that as well with that time? the new funding formula or framework. Um, my best guess is that the timeline for full implementation of that would coincide with probably when we would need to go back out for an operating. I I don't anticipate that that a new funding formula would be fully funded and operational for three to five years. One
061of the things I want any public out there that might be listening to this meeting to understand is under the law, in order for the district to increase their operating expenses, we must go to the people in the form of a referendum. Did the new legislation regarding property reassessment that must occur every five years in your is it fair to say that that takes some of the pressure off of the districts to have to constantly go to referendums or at least uh allows us to go for perhaps smaller referendums theoretically. Yes. Yes. The concern the the concern I would every five years. It's more likely that you could run into a boom and bust uh time frame where if we're doing a reassessment during an economic downturn, we could be hitting the low web of
062property values and maybe we don't get as much of an increase and the bump of 10% doesn't necessarily represent anything significant. Very interesting. Yeah. Thank you. Um, all right. Two more questions, then I'm done. So, when we set this tax rate in July, it's my understanding and and that we that we cannot change it for five years. Well, let me ask the question a different way. We can't we cannot vote to increase it until the next reassessment unless we do a referendum. Correct. But could we lower it in the next five years? That is a question that has been asked statewide by my colleagues and myself. Um and I think so I have not sought a legal opinion um on that question and I probably would you know say that that would be where we
063would want to get the official answer. Um I do however think that if If the u if an increase generated more than was anticipated, uh there are potentially other ways that we could mitate future tax increases rather than lowering our operating rate. Isn't that usually what we've done with I believe two years ago we cut back two years ago prior to we we have lowered um both our match rate and our tuition rate um over the last couple of years. Those those decreases were not necessarily um because we had excess operating funds quite the opposite which is why we went to referendum. Um, but there is nothing to say that we could not do something like that where our our operating rate is set, you know, by by referendum and by the authority that you'll
064utilize next month. We can look at potentially funding some of the programmatic expenses that would normally come out of match or tuition with any excess operating funds that might be generated. My final question is with a property reassessment that hadn't been done in 50 years and and an 11 billion change, is it fair to say that our schools, all districts in Delaware have been severely un underfunded over all this time? Rather than give you my opinion on that, I'm going to point to the adequacy study that was completed by AIR which state paid for as a result of the lawsuit. And the uh outcome of that study was that in order to get to a level of adequate funding, which you know adequacy basically means the educational goals that the state has put forward that
065we want our children to to achieve. Are we adequately funding our schools in order to achieve those goals? The delta 600 million to a billion dollars of Thank you. I'm finished. Y'all asked all the questions. Sorry. Um I I just trust and believe that before the July that you're going to come up with multiple options for us to study before we vote on this. I I know that you're going to do your due diligence for this community. What I'm hearing is that you so aggressive, moderate, conservative. I will give you a menu. If the mic comes back to me, I'm gonna request that. Yep. I'll just repeat what others said. We'll need more information before we vote. Understood. Understood. So, Emily, obviously, is that honestly a tool that we can use with what was suggested
066to lower our match or our tuition to compensate if we go aggressive on that which it feels like we almost have to risk like is that something we can actually use or is there going to be some type of red tape where the money's tied to different places and that could hurt us. So technically speaking there is nothing prevent us from spending our operating dollars on programmatic expenses that are related to programs the state is authorized to match for or programmatic expenses related to special education needs. So there's nothing prohibiting us from utilizing operating funds in those manners or in that way. Um, it has been my long-standing uh recommendation to this board that because of the restriction related to operating dollars and the need to bring that to a taxpayer vote, any expense that
067is appropriate for tuition should be funded for funded through tuition. and any expense that we can generate using a match tax, we should take advantage of of that ability. Um, so other than breaking with that practice, no, there's no technical or statuto red tape reason that we wouldn't be able to do that. I I I just truly believe we're one of the districts where we pride ourselves for going not taking maximum and reducing the rates when we can and we're proud of that. Are we still the lowest tax rate in the county? I believe so. I haven't checked appos recently so I'm not 100% sure but among the four in the tax pool we are. And then in 27 drop again debt service goes down. Is that correct? Our debt service is not going down
068anymore. You got those major cap projects, right? Well, no. I mean, there will be a drop off because we'll pay off. Nope. Thought that was like Well, that's going to keep going down, but we've approved new projects that are going to get added, right? So, the the decrease that was projected went away with the approved capital projects. It won't go up as high. Correct. It's not going to go up as much as it would have if we were not retiring debt. We were retiring debt. Yes. um conservative, moderate, aggressive. I I think we need to say because and I want to see some type of numbers too of this at risk numbers and say it's up to half break we can simplify down into some percentages somehow and see worst case scenarios because we have
069to go look at worst case scenarios. If that's what the county is giving us then we have to And I know that decision comes to us which you making clear and we have to make that decision. So I'm going to operate off what the county has provided and I want to see those numbers presented to us as worst case scenarios and then as a what we hope will actually happen. And you know Chris I'll just give it an anecdotal story. One of my neighbors was not happy with his assessment but of course went up and he he's filed a formal appeal. Um and he told me the other day that um he hasn't heard from the county or they said something like, "Yeah, we got it. You know, we'll get back to you." He's he's
070appealing his property value. He's using uh two specific items about his property and that is the derelic derelict condition of his fence and the paint. So, you know, those are the types of things that I think a lot of members of the public are going to try to use and I I I mean and I'm not a property tax appraiser and I didn't sleep at a Holiday in Express last night. I but I don't see those types of things flying, you know, in terms of winning major changes in their assessments. In fact, I I think what I'm trying to say is I'm feeling maybe a little more optimistic that those formal appeals aren't going to go through, but just based on what I'm hearing from my neighbors. So, the one other piece of information that
071I will share um that again as of right now today um several of the folks I've spoken to in Newcastle County um are planning to essentially back out everything that is at risk as you know potentially uncollectible. Um which would mean that you know if I were to take that action I would be taking a half a billion dollars off of that 15.7 bringing that down by the full assumed at risk number and because That's also an assumption, right? That's not a a hard and fast number. Um so so yeah, that that is something that you know some of my colleagues are choosing to do with the assumption that um there is risk in the unknown portion of you know all the properties that have no requested value associated with them. If the average there
072is 50% reduction instead of the 34% and those outperform the average. Well, then we've, you know, depending on how we handle the atrisisk number, we might have under uh calculated what's at risk. And I do appreciate that I haven't given you a lot of firm hard numbers to actually, you know, review and feel like you can make a uh decision tonight, which is why I wanted to have this discussion and get all this information out ahead of time so that next month we can actually look at some of the hard numbers and and focus more on that portion rather than some of the background and process information. So I completely the need for additional information. So another question, what happens with all the houses that have been given new occas? So my understanding is that
073how best to put this Yeah, the incre the file that Newcastes County has provided does not include those properties that essentially came online after July 1st of of last year. Um, so any revenue that will be received, because my understanding is they're all due to get a bill when the bills are produced and sent out and they will have, you know, their bill will be due on September 30th the way everybody else is. But as of right now, I don't have a way to calculate what the value of those properties is. So we we will potentially be getting revenue, not potentially, we will get revenue from those properties. But I have no way to really calculate what the other than saying historically it's been% and half 2% I could add that on um and make
074the assumption that that average will hold. That's another assumption because we choose 10% and then that comes in something. That's a good question. I I don't Well, I know the statute does not talk about um you know any consequences of a district bringing in more than 10% increase. Not that as a district I want to bring a statute make that clear too but is that counted against our what we should I don't have an answer. Um, I can possibly talk to our, you know, our attorney about whether or not he's aware of any provision that exists for what would happen. Um, keep in mind, no one has done this. I mean, we can check with K County uh because they did go through this process last year. I'm not aware that any of those districts
075utilize the full 10% though. So, um, can't put their districts through the same ringer that Newcastle is putting us through right now with the lack of unknown or with the multiple unknowns. I think it's safe to say that the process has been arduous for both districts and the county themselves, all three counties themselves, because they're struggling with the same uncertainty that we are facing as well because they they don't if they had better information to make their own decisions on, I'm sure they'd be providing it to us. But they have the same set of unknowns that we do. I'd love to hear maybe information about if they went through a similar scenario, what happened afterwards? Like I don't know. I'd love to hear more advice from them. I am not aware of any legal challenges
076that have been put forward by any taxpayers in K County. That's not to say there haven't been, but it has not been something that our, you know, my CFO colleagues down there have indicated they're aware of. None of the chiefs have mentioned anything about backlash from any tax rate setting last year from Kent that I've heard in any chief meetings all year. This topic hasn't even come up other than the Newcastle folks talking about. Does anyone from the board have any other questions? Emily, as you That's a difficult thing to present to us. We really appreciate you did a very good job for us. Thank you. Thank you for your uh robust discussion. It was appreciated. So now on to more exciting topics. Kidding Emily. Kidding. Paul nothing was more riveting. Um next up we
077have just for the board's information there's a information flyer in the board docs and shared with the public an update on the states of Delaware's phasing out of our current eschool information system and we're transitioning uh all school districts across the state to infinite campus and we are part of the wave two transition. Um, we just shared some highlights with the board of the things that this is more of a talking points, something for you to have as you uh as families may approach you in the coming days because the the transition is immediate. Um, in fact, you may hear uh families in the community saying that they weren't able to go online and do registrations uh in the system that we currently have. That's because it's no longer available and all registrations need to
078be done via paper and we have process for that in the schools uh right now. Um the one thing that I want to share long term that you're going to hear that's going to be different um that we can definitely attest to because we really haven't seen necessarily what this impact's going to be on the way we function and operate because we've been preparing to transfer the data from e school into infinite campus. Um, but we do know there is something that we have to take action on as a district and that is centralizing our registration process to one location. At least the first part of the registration must be done in one spot when you build a profile for a family when they register multiple students that are in multiple schools. Um so we
079will we are beginning to transition to create a centralized registration office at the district office. Um effective the we have a lofty goal of July 15th to August 1st to have this done. August 1 being a little bit later than we'd like because we anticipate starting to go live with these registrations when the new system switches over sometime late July. Um so you will hear about this conversion uh on uh Facebook, school websites, messengers, uh this document that you have in board docs, Gabe is going to be using to share information with families about some of the things that they can anticipate hearing about. Um I will say we anticipate the start of the school year. We we always want to have a super smart of the super smooth sp start to the school year.
080Say that 10 times fast. Um, but we know that judging from the experience wave one school districts had with Infinite Campus, that might not necessarily be the case. And we'll provide the board updates as it goes. Although the Department of Ed is getting a little bit more involved now at this stage um in this process and hopefully, you know, with their support, we will will generate a better outcome for the wave two districts. Um, does anybody have any questions specifically to that? I have a comment. Um, I've personally used both infinite campus and hack. I guess for the students fun thing this in my freshman year I live in Philly and everybody in Philly use some infinite campus and I think infinite campus is better than hack. At least for the students it's hard to
081get used to like the transition might be like difficult once you get used to it. Infinite campus is way better than hack. Like it's easier to tell your grades like you just see all your classes. It's a way better interface compared to hack then. So yeah, so I would say once you get used to it, it's awesome. Yeah, we we have heard that. In fact, I think Dr. Jones's uh has uses Infinite Campus now with her son in Votech and she has said the same thing. She actually really likes it. Um the the user side of it we're hear great things about it's the back of the house. technical side, drawing the data from the student information system to bus routing to IEP to health systems to the all the different things that are driven
082off of this to the unit count the to it is all more important than most people will probably realize and that's the stuff that when you when you hear us talking about it is the stuff we're really talking about. We're not talking about the user what you're talking about because we hear we do hear that that other side of it is better than hack. So thank you for affirming that. We really appreciate that. Yeah. I was I was also at school and we used it too and the integration and startup was a pain in the butt but eventually once it was rolling it so we're just this is the the first shot out to the colonial community that we are going to be what is the word painting. It's going to be a pain in
083the button for a little bit as we kind of get through. That's the technical educational term uh for the transition here. But we've been working about six months in earnest with Infinite Campus and DOE and a crack team of leaders from the district um to try to make sure our data is clean, make sure when the everything happens and the switch gets thrown, we're ready to look and see what is there and begin to troubleshoot and plan and prepare. Um so that's We now have a document out there for the board to use and reference. Next up, uh per Delaware code, the district administration is presenting uh four school discipline improvement plans for review and approval. Um this is a necessary step that's required for us to submit uh these plans to Department of Education
084by July 1st. And as you noticed in the plans that were submitted, we have all four of our secondary schools are have developed plans using the same model. The plans just look different in each school. Um at this time, I would take any questions other outside of I'd seek your uh a motion to approve. I move that we approve the school discipline improvement plans for George Reed Middle School, Gunning Bedford Middle School, McCulla Middle School, and William Penn High School as presented. Do we hear second? Second. As moved by Miss Smith, second by Mr. Crossen. Are there any questions or comments? No questions or comments. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. All those opposed? Nay. With that, the motion is carried. Next up, we have a uh we're excited to present
085with the to the board a collaborative bargaining um agreement for approval. Um the [Music] we are still waiting for the members to ratify this agreement but we are bringing this to the board pre- ratification for the members um and asking that they uh you approve it so once their members ratify it we can get it on and we can enact it. We've spoken to the members uh the the president of the union uh he has agreed that this doesn't need to be a fanfare signing event like he wants to you know move and execute as as smoothly and as expeditiously as expeditiously as possible. So be confident just want to wrap up. I'll defer to Emily and Holly for that since they were involved in the convers. Well, Emily and Drew, I don't see we're
086about to vote. I mean, is he confident it's going to ratify? But if it doesn't ratify, if if it's not ratified by the members, then it would go back to the negotiating table and you would have to approve the the next version. Your your approval is going to be contingent upon their ratification. If they don't ratify it, then whatever you voted on today is null and void. Yeah. How many times we going to do that? This is the first time. No, I mean like if they keep Well, we have we have we have no reason to believe that they're not going to ratify it. Um we we met on several different occasions and you know came came to a mutually agreeable place on you know on all major factors. Um the the need for the
087board approval prior to ratification is because of the compressed timeline. Um if we waited to the July board, it would put us in a retro pay situation where we would have to do retrop payments um because we wouldn't be able to get everything updated in the system for July 1st since these are 12 month employees. Um so in a in an attempt to try to get a smooth implementation for FY26, we're asking for approval prior to application. And if we don't if we do that sense. All right. Do you want to make a motion? I do. I move that we approve the collaborative bargaining agreement with AF AFS CME contingent upon ratification by the members. We'll hear a second. Second as moved by Dr. endorse the second by Mr. Handy. Are there any questions or
088comments? No questions or comments. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. All those opposed, nay. Motion carries. Uh next up, we need the board to approve uh the payment for your DSBA dues for 2526. I move that we approve the Delaware School Board Association uh dues for 2025 2026 as presented. Do I hear a second? Second. How much is it? Hold on one second. As moved by uh Mrs. Smith, second by Dr. Dorsey. Are there any questions or comments? Question from Mr. Carlson. 11,542. So about the same as last year, except last year when we did it in June, Mr. to uh kind of shorted us on the bill and then we had to go back and pay another couple hundred. So last June I think you guys it was like 11,200 and
089then we had to come back in July for an additional $300. So it is about the it's totally the same but not going to look the same as it did last June. There any other questions or comments from the board? With no other question or comments. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. I. All those opposed, nay. Motion carried. Uh, next up, we ask the board uh, as the board knows, uh, at the May May meeting, you approved us posting uh, public notice regarding our seeking a waiver for our utilization of the opportunity funds. Uh, we posted as prescribed and received no feedback uh, in writing or otherwise, even in email. Um, So, we are seeking a motion to uh for you to allow us to move forward with the waiver process.
090I hear a motion. I move that we approve the waiverss of the provision of title 14 Delaware Code section 1726 opportunity fund waiver as presented. Do I hear a second? Second as moved by Miss Smith. by Mr. Handy. Are there any questions or comments? All right, no question, comments. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. All those opposed? Nay. Motion carries. All right. And we continue on. We have one more. We have a second read of the student uh code of conduct in May. The board received the first read. Um we'll take at this time, we'll take any questions. If there are none, we would ask that the board approve the uh code of conduct revisions as presented. Do I hear a motion? I move that we approve the Colonial Student Code of
091Conduct Revisions as presented. Do I hear a second? Second. All right. As moved by Mr. Crossson, seconded by Dr. Dorsey. Uh are there any questions or comments? All right. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. All those opposed? Nay. Motion carried. That concludes updates and action items. Do we have any items removed from it consent agenda? All right. Um before we before we adjourn, I just want to make sure each board member takes their William Penn pennant that's in front of them in commemoration of our ceremony on Friday. And also on the uh pennet uh after they took their picture with their diploma uh down below um received this card that you have uh we will always believe in you and then reminding them to always believe in yourself. Just a little
092bit of a take of some of the key words from my u my message to them. So just know that those were out there. Um, and uh, you know, I think it's important that we we remind ourselves of that. We now have 438 individuals out there that we believe are going to bring great things to the world. Uh, and we just do need to remind them despite what's going on around them, they should believe in themselves and also believe in those around them and that can go a long way. So, I just would like to close with that. All right. And uh I would like to say congratulations to the class of 2025 and welcome to uh the community. Uh but with that before closing out would ask Miss Leon if uh she could please
093come on down over here. Yeah. Yeah. If you could sing for us have a seat right here. I'd like to actually have you close out the board meeting. Okay. You could take a seat. You run the gabble. Okay. All you have to do read exactly what you have there and wait for your motions. All right. Do I hear a motion to adjurnn? So moved. Um second as by Mrs. Smith. As moved by Mrs. Smith and second by Mr. Cross and second by Mr. Crossen. Um any questions or comments from the board? So In favor, all those in favor say I. I. All those against say nay. Meeting adjourned. [Applause]