001under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right. Um, opening remarks from the president. Not a whole lot. We have a lot to go over today. So, um, this is, I think, more of aformational meeting, only one action item, which will be nice. And I've done a big tour of both Lincoln and Washington and the new new digs. So, um, let's jump into shining stars. >> All right. Okay, I'd like to welcome our wonderful principal from Washington School, Angie Bridto, who will present the Washington. Yeah, we can we can applaud Angie. >> I like the energy. >> There we go. Okay. Um, well, it's a pleasure to be here tonight. My name is Angie Bridto. I am the principal at Washington and I'm very proud to um honor two people this evening. Um,
002two shining stars. So, the first one I would like to uh present is Oh, there we are. I'm here. Okay. Hi. Um, the first one I would like to present is Charlie Nye. So, Charlie, if you could come up here. You get to sit right here next to me, okay? >> And I'm gonna say some nice things about you. Okay. All right. Okay. So, this is why we nominated Charlie as our shining star. Um, at Washington, every morning when we do our morning announcements, we end uh with a saying. Um, and it it goes, uh, have courage, be kind, and you be the reason someone smiles today. And when we were trying to think of someone that embodied those things, um, Charlie definitely came to mind for us. And these are some of the reasons
003why we are so grateful to have Charlie as a shining star at Washington. Um so what his teachers said um the first thing is that Charlie is delightful. That is what Miss Deleggy said when I said what how would you describe Charlie in a couple of words. Um that you're enthusiastic, warm, and genuinely happy. And you brighten the hallways and classrooms all throughout the day. Um you're very calm and levelheaded even when things are challenging. And you also have a great sense of humor. You are quickwitted and always ready to lift other people up when they are feeling down. Um, and above all, this is what all of your teachers said, Charlie is super kind to every single person he meets every day, all day, like regardless. So, that's pretty impressive. Um, and one thing
004that makes Charlie's character really inspiring is how he always steps up to be a helpful role model for others at Washington. Um, he's a member of our safety patrol and he just doesn't just wear his safety belt. Um, he demonstrates responsibility and respect and kindness in everything he does and definitely shows our younger kids how to follow the rules, how to get to the bus, all of those great things. So, we appreciate him. Um, and they look up to you, Charlie. Uh, they really do. Not just for what you do, but like how you do it. Um, you're a great example. Um, so we are just grateful. We have so many great kids at Washington, but we really felt like Charlie was worth um, highlighting this evening. So, congratulations, Charlie. You're our shining star. I
005want to present to you this award and congratulate you for just being amazing and being you. >> Good job, buddy. Okay. And our next shining star um I would like to recognize this evening is Julie Duren, our school psychologist. Julie, if you could come up. So, um there are people that in my time of being an administrator when you interview them and you know almost instantly that they are the perfect candidate, perfect person to fill a big hole that you have in your building. And Julie, you haven't you you you have filled those shoes um beyond what I would have ever expected. Um so Julie is so committed um to providing the best education for students. She works in the world of special education, but she also supports our MTSS processes and really has an
006eye for making sure that all of our kids get what they need and they deserve. Um she is such a supportive inclusive member of uh the team and to our staff, our teachers look to her for guidance on um everything from IEP guidance to intervention guidance to just general like guidance uh because she brings such warmth and um she has a really deep understanding of the work um and and how to support. Um Julie is one to take initiative. I never have to ask Julie to do anything. It's already done and it's done beyond like the level I would ever expect. Um she's been active not only in our school leadership teams but also on district committees and um really has taken the lead in bringing um her expertise to different um programs and helping
007to make things better. Um, and her empathy is so apparent. Um, not only with the kids she works with, but also in our IEP meetings. The way she connects with parents, um, brings such a calming presence that um, helps them feel safe in an IEP meeting. It it's really uh, such a it's a gift. Um, and she's quite good at it. Um, she definitely has the trust of our families. Um, and finally, she has a superpower of being organized. Julie Julie is the queen of the spreadsheet. Full of colors, lots of tabs, things that I don't even know how to do. Julie does it. And like it it it it makes things it keeps us on track. It keeps us organized. And um she also is our our unofficial candy fairy for all of meetings.
008So, she she brings some joy in that regard. So, um I just want to say Julie, you're amazing. Um not only for what you do, but how you do it. Um your compassion, your inclusion, and being a leader. So, um we're proud to have you as our shining star. >> Thanks so much. >> Y >> congratulations. >> Thank you so much. >> So, we'll do Lincoln. We'll have Mr. sweat up here to um talk about his people tonight for Shin Star and then we'll have everybody do a picture. >> Can I stand at this one? Is that okay? Perfect. Awesome. Well, I want to thank you for the opportunity to be able to uh share with you some of our uh shining stars here at tonight's meeting. Um more than anything, it's probably that I'm
009horrible at at remembering to thank those people that we need to on a on a regular basis. So, this keeps me honest with that. Uh, some of these thanks tonight. Uh, and these recognitions are long overdue. Uh, I do want to start with some of our student recognitions. Um, and in addition to remembering to say thank you, I'm also uh terrible at speaking off the cuff, so I'm going to read a little uh about some of our recognitions tonight. Uh, so tonight we're recognizing our eighth grade student web leaders. Web stands for where everybody belongs. Uh these are some of our eighth grade students who have applied um to become student leaders within our building uh to assist with not only the transition of our sixth grade students to middle school uh but also help
010out at a ton of different events uh whether those are student events like our sixth grade fall festival uh that was held a couple weeks ago to our curriculum open house and helping parents find their way around our school uh to just being great models throughout the course of their day. Um they uh volunteer for this time. they give up a lot of their um outside of school time. Um there are uh close to 80 students that are involved in this. We do have some representatives here tonight uh that we want to share, but we understand that not only are these students involved here at school, they've also got a million things going on outside of school. Um so, um you know, we're proud to recognize our eighth grade web leaders. Uh these dedicated students
011are instrumental in fostering a supportive and inclusive environment here at Lincoln. Uh not only do they do that for our sixth grade students, guiding them through their transition to middle school, uh but their commitment extends far beyond this initial welcome for these students. Throughout the year, they consistently volunteer at different events, giving their time. Uh they're skillfully running games, guiding parents, or simply offering a helping hand wherever they can. Their presence and contributions are ones that are invaluable uh to our culture here at Lincoln. Uh these young leaders are ones that exemplify the spirit of service and mentorship, positively impacting our school um and setting a wonderful example for all of our peers, whether it be their eighth grade peers or those sixth grade students that they work with more regularly. So, please help me
012in recognizing our eighth grade web leaders. If I also want to thank uh Miss Taylor Miller and Miss Alyssa Latrana who helped sponsor this uh group. Uh but again, I want to recognize you uh for all that you do. Your character, your commitment to our school uh really does go a long way. So, keep doing that. Um and continue to to shine bright. So, let's put a round of applause for our student web leaders and we will take a picture outside here in just a bit. Um, so in addition to being awful at at regularly saying thank you and and publicly speaking, I'm also terrible about following the guidelines that we're only supposed to recognize like, you know, single individuals and things like that. So, I pushed the envelope there. I apologize to all. Um,
013I want to also uh take this moment to acknowledge uh the incredible work of our front office uh secretaries. Um, for those of you who have ever worked in the service industry or worked in a restaurant, uh, you understand that quickly you should befriend the hostess who puts people in your seats and the cooks who make the food. Uh, while you might be the one running point on all of that, without those people, uh, your job is going to be pretty miserable. Um, I think at a school um, very much to those very important roles in other other areas, our front office truly runs this building. um from parents uh to the support they provide students uh to our staff uh and so much that happens before the school day starts and after the school
014day ends. Um a front office is truly the hub of the building. And so uh tonight I want to recognize uh Colleen Hogan and Shannon Wixs who are with us. Also Deb Noak who's not able to be with us tonight. Um the holy trinity of the Lincoln front office uh are amazing. Um, we're super grateful for you and I'll I'll read some comments here, but uh, again, truly the heart of our school. Uh, tirelessly working behind the scenes, often leading the way in ensuring that everything just runs smoothly. Um, daily operations, assisting students, parents, staff, uh, jams in the copier, uh, dedication and hard work to everything, uh, that's put in front of you is just felt by all of our our staff here. Um, you're often often the first point of contact for our
015parents. Uh, and the fact that there's always a welcoming, smiling, um, laid-back uh, tone to our office really does go set the scene for our culture here at Lincoln. Um, again, while I I might have the title, it's the two of you along with Deb that truly run the school. Um, so tonight we want to celebrate you, Colleen and Shannon and Deb, uh, we can't thank you enough for everything that you do to make Lincoln great. So, thank you for everything. And you can come on up. Deon Deon Shannon, if you want to come on up here, we'll do a >> All right, that's enough for rule breaking. I'll do my best to to stay on point for the remainder of the evening. >> All right, we're going to do a picture. Uh, Mr. Lily,
016where would you want us to go? Okay, we'll do a quick drill really quick in the hallway and recognitions. Um, this is principal appreciation month, the month of October, and all of our assistant principles and principles across all eight buildings work really hard to make sure that all of our staff and our students have what they need every day. And that it does include well into the evening into the night, sometimes in the middle of the night, sometimes on Saturdays, sometimes on Sunday, um, everywhere. And so, um, I just want to say, and I speak on behalf of I know many people when I say this, that, uh, for for our assistant principles and principles who are here tonight and all of your colleagues, we really do see and appreciate everything that you do. You
017have really impossible jobs. There's there's never a point at which you you know a decision that is brought to you is is simple and easy and sometimes um the ones that seem less complicated are actually uh you know more of a disguise of something that can be complex and uh you navigate it very well and um amidst a an education environment that is ever changing uh and where the the the circumstances by which you make the decisions are ever changing. um in a situation where you are improving what students and staff do every single day and we're seeing that. Um I had the pleasure this week to sit through um all of the schools and I actually saw Angie and Dave's meeting this week with their tier one teams, the stuff that Angie was actually
018talking about that Julie uh was helping with. Um and that's new work that we're doing uh doubling down on a lot of our behavior systems and getting those up to shape. It is remarkable like where that has come even just so recently. And it's really exciting to see the vision um that all of you hold with your schools and the relationships you have with staff. I mean sitting in uh the Washington meeting at what was it 8:30 in the morning and you guys had literally the entire aisle of jewels candy selection on tables um just in case anybody wanted to fail their biometric screening test. So uh it was just incredible to to see all that stuff take place. And that's just a microcosm of I know what you deal with every day. There's constantly
019times when people are asking things of you that are impossible. Uh times when you're trying to still do the impossible and times when um it seems impossible that you're you're making a difference. And I I am here to say on behalf of everybody, you absolutely are. And we just really thank and treasure everything that you do. Congratulations. All right. >> All right. Thank you. Um this is the point of the meeting where we welcome public comment. Each speaker is given three minutes to address the board. Comments may be made on almost any matter related to the operation of the schools, but we ask you refrain from making comments concerning individual students or staff members. The board uses time to listen to community questions and concerns. Will not respond immediately to request for information. Additionally, the
020board cannot take formal action on non-aggenda items. Contact the board president by email if you wish to discuss your topic further. Please come forward to the microphone and state your name and comfortable your address for the minutes. Anybody for public comments? All right, that looks like a no. All right, financial projections. Brian. All right. Thank you. As you can see, I'm not alone tonight. I'm here joined by um Rob Grossy. Um Rob Gce is from Illuminate and he has been working with our district now for a few years. Um he's going to be doing uh most of the speaking tonight as uh third party financial projections uh were done which is something that we like to do regularly here. Um we appreciate Rob and all that he's done for us uh and put together a
021great presentation for tonight. He's going to go over a little bit of the historical um history of of our finances here in the district and also look forward with some different scenarios. So without further ado, I'll hand it over to him. >> Good evening everybody. It's great to be back. So, um, tonight, uh, we're going to go through, um, kind of a summary of where I see the district's finances over the next this budget year and the next five years. Um, I think it's a really good best practice to have an outside entity uh, do do this exercise uh, because it's done without bias. I've worked with school districts where uh, sometimes they present an Armageddon situation on purpose to posture for collective bargaining. sometimes they present an overly optimistic because they want to overexaggerate
022their performance for for credit. Um, none of that exists in this in this projection. So, what you're going to see I've worked with school districts for a lot of decades and uh do this for a lot of school districts and and this is what I honestly assess your district as what you're going to see. I'm going to show some alternate scenarios at the end on some possible uh realistic worst case and best case scenarios that could happen. But the first projections you're going to see are where I think we stand right now. Now, I I think the future's is there's a lot of uncertainty probably more than ever in the future. So, I I think it's a good idea that we do do this every year. Things may change, but at this moment in time,
023this is how I see your district. Like you said, >> is it it's this right? >> Thank you very much everybody. Thank you. So to begin with historical financial summary of the school district. So this goes back to 2017. So the last nine years uh 2017 to 24 budgeted number or excuse me audited numbers and 25 is unuded. Um, but this is a this is a history of your revenues and expenditures excluding your major capital projects and capital activity in fund 60. And you could see that your revenues have grown at a rate of three and a half% a year on average and your expense is three and a 3.1%. That's a good thing. You want to you want to see your revenue growth higher than your expenditure growth. And that's the reason why that
024blue blue bars which are the revenues are higher than your uh red bars when you when schools start getting in trouble. uh it's it's when their expenses grow faster than the revenues. Uh comparing the revenues minus the expenses gives the district its annual surpluses or deficits. And you could see that the district has essentially run surpluses every year. Revenues over expenditures. 2022 was a drop, but 2022, 23, and 24 were anomaly years because of COVID, how it impacted expenses and how it impacted revenues and the timing of of of things was off. So that's that's not a good indication of the pattern, but essentially the district on a positive note has a has a nice structural surplus uh where you know your normal revenues are higher than your normal expenses. uh and and in over
025the last nine years uh in total your revenues have exceeded your expenses by 27.4 million. The other thing that impacts your fund balances is major capital expenditures. So the district since 2017 through 25 has invested $102.8 million into its facilities. 58.5 million was funded with bond proceeds and 44.3 million with fund balance reserves. So that 44.3 impacted fund balance reserves, the other came from bond proceeds. And then obviously your next major projects are going to be done with bond proceeds as well. So when you put together the surpluses and combine that that bring up fund balances and the debt and the capital investment which bring it down, this is the history of your fund balance reserves. Um and so your fund balances have stayed relatively stable. you know, they were around $50 million in 2017
026and they're about almost just under 45 million in 2025. And again, that's that's with using $44 million of that money for capital investment. So, that's that's really strong. Uh, in terms of days of fund balance reserve, I do want to spend a second talking about this. Your district has a board policy of of maintaining at a minimum 30 days worth of fund balance reserves. So 108 days worth of basically your your minimum is that we want 108 days worth of reserves so that if we get no money that we have we could pay for bills for the next 108 days essentially. Um however the state board of education their their fund balance policy reserves to get the highest profile highest rating on their financial profile score is 180 days. So, um, so your district every
027year, although you score well on the other parts of the rubric, the one of cash cash out of days on hand, you're always below the highest that they want to see. So, so it's it's important to note, and I'll we'll talk about in a minute why it's relevant that that even though you've had maintained healthy fund balances, having 161 days of fund balance reserves is below what the state would recommend to have the highest score. And anecdotally, I could tell you that it's at this moment in time, it's probably I would say probably in the 30th or 40th percentile for school districts. Most school districts right now because there were some good financial years from COVID getting a lot of COVID money and things are at 180 days or higher. So being below 180 days
028um is about the only knock on your history's fin your district's history. Keeping fund balance reserves steady positive. having a structural surplus positive but but that that fund balance that's steady is a little below probably where I would recommend it being. So the financial forecast so first of all there's really only one variable that impacts your your your revenues of any substance and that's real estate taxes. Real estate taxes grow at the rate of inflation. So part of the reason why the last couple years have been really strong is because the CPI that you were able to use was 5%. Two years in a row and then last year was 3.4%. So th So tax caps so you're a tax cap county. The most your real estate taxes can grow by is CPI. And those
029three numbers are three of the five highest CPIs since the mid1 1990s when this started. So your largest source of revenue has grown by its historically largest amount it could grow by. So that's helped as well because 83% of your revenues are real estate taxes. So another way to look at it is essentially your real estate tax your revenues grow at 83% of CPI. So when CPI is 5% your revenue grows well. But before COVID when CPI was in the 1% range, your revenues were not growing a lot. So your vulner your vulnerability on the revenue side is inflation. It's counterintuitive, but in inflation is good for your district financially. Our major projections on the revenues are that the real uh real estate tax revenue growth will be 2.9 in the 2025 levy, which means
030and and that's the actual number. That's the highest you're going to be able to increase your tax levy this December. Uh 2026 right now year-over-year it's tw it's trending 2.6%. And then we're projecting that it's going to go back to the historical average of 2.4%. Um within the projections is that the uptown tiff is is expected to expire. That's going to generate $2 million of new tax revenues but they were currently paying you $1.1 million of surplus tiff surplus. So, so once it expires, your net new revenues is going to be about $900,000. Um, also in terms of revenues is that we we we put into the projections that the district is going to lose $1.1 million in student fees as you phase out your kindergarten fees uh for for kindergarten programs. And then state
031and federal grants relatively flat. putting them all in a blender, uh, we're projecting revenue growth of 1.7% over the next projection period, six years, which is significantly lower than your historical average of over 3%. Uh, in terms of expenditures, uh, just like all school districts, the primary drivers of your expenditures are salaries and benefits. So roughly 76% to, you know, over three4s of your expenditures are salaries and benefits. So that's really the main driver of that of of your revenue of your expenditure growth. So obviously those things are are are the most relevant variables for that. Our projections are that salary expenses will change based on uh projected increases to base salaries. Uh we are anticipating 50 retirement teacher retirements during this projection period. So, that's going to help save money for the school district,
032help offset some of what we anticipate the races will be, and a modest decrease in staff size as the district is anticipating a slight decline in enrollment. Um, out of uh almost all school districts are seeing um higher than average increases in their health insurance premiums um for various reasons. Uh but when you blend that together with your other other benefits, we're projecting that to grow at 5.2% a year. um out of district special education. We're anticipating to decrease as the district uh brings more students back into the school district. Um we're we're anticipating that the district's going to spend an average, which is historical average, a million and a half dollars on like building maintenance and technology uh uh expenditures. Um, and then the district. We also have in here that after your capital
033projects are done, your main thing that that your capital list is much bigger than that. And then we're going to allocate $4 million a year uh in into beyond the referendum projects. So that's embedded in the projections as well. Uh, and then all other expenses to increase approximately 3%. Which is close to historical averages. So, putting that all together, uh, we're anticipating expenditures to grow at 2.6%. >> Yep. >> One thing I just want to point out with the salary expenses for the baseline projection, we just kept at what is currently in the teacher contract because we're obviously entering the negotiations, which is currently CPI. So, those salary increases for that base projection are CPI, just so you're aware. Um, so, uh, just as we we talked about I was good historically that your revenue
034growth was higher than your expenditure growth, we're expecting that to flip. And you're not the only most districts are expecting that as well. So, this is uh so the black uh circles represent what I showed you previously, revenues versus expenditures, and then the green is um what we what we're projecting. So, the good news is that we're anticipating that the district is going to continue to run surpluses, which is a positive. But certainly with expenses growing faster than revenues, we're anticipating the slope to start going down closer to zero. And this is just putting the the numbers together on the graph, but you could see that um even though we're we're anticipating uh committing $4 million uh towards capital investment, uh the aggregate surpluses exceed that slightly. So we are anticipating fund balances to grow
035from 43.7 million to 46.3 million despite you know the $20 million of additional capital investment. But in terms of days of fund balance reserve because your expenses are higher. So the day days of expenses is higher. Uh we're projecting your days of reserves to go down to about 145 days which again is about 35 days below what the state would recommend to get the highest score. And then this is just a graph of of uh of those numbers. And you could see that uh just just like historically fund balances were pretty steady between 40 and $50 million. We're anticipating that to continue uh above your fund balance target of 108 days but below 180 days. So alternate projection scenarios. Um so so what the emphasis of this part is the word realistic. there there's things
036that could happen that you know go beyond like you know on the negative side we could be talking about pension shifts and stuff like that that's not in the realistic worst case scenario at this moment in time um that now three years from now I might be talking to you and all of a sudden it becomes something that we have to contemplate because the state is having financial you know some significant financial challenges um that I don't know how it's going to manifest into school funding but um But for now, this is the the realistic best case scenario is that inflation stays at around 3%. It's going to be 2.9%. Um, so your largest source will go by 3% versus the 2.4% that's in our current projections. Um not and then we anticipate non- capital
037not anticipate our best case scenario is that all your non- capital expenditures will be a half of a percent lower to grow at half percent lower than what we projected on the realistic worst case scenario uh c we have CPI drop to 1.5%. which is definitely a possibility. Both are realistic possibilities. Um and salaries did uh increase by more than 1% versus our current forecast. And um that grant revenues, you get about $2 million a year in federal grants. So there a lot of school districts are contemplating what's going on in Washington DC and how that's going to impact schools. more than likely, that's why it's in my realistic scenario, that it seems like the intent in Washington is to cut out the administrative part of the US Department of Education, but still flow the
038grant money through the states. And then my assumption would be that the state is going to distribute the money similar to how it's being distributed now. So, I don't anticipate now um your title money and your special ed money to be cut. Um, however, it's enough of a possibility to fall into the realistic worst case scenario. I don't think it's the likely scenario, but but it could happen. So, that's built into this as well. So, this is this is what the three scenarios look like. So, the light blue line is what where the current projections are. And then you could see that if we do get a 3% CPI, all of a sudden your surpluses stay strong at $6 million. Uh, On the other side, if CPI goes down one and a half percent because
039that's the main driver of this, uh, we see a scenario where the district could actually start deficit spending starting in 2030. And again, we'll get more we'll get more of a handle on what inflation and again that's a huge uncertainty because um, you know, there's still debate on whether the tariffs are going to impact inflation rates and they haven't done it as much as that people thought. But then some people think it's going to be a drag and what's going to you know and what's the Federal Reserve going to do. So there's a lot that could come into that number. So every year this might change because of the forecast of what inflation's going to be. And then in terms of fund balances under the three scenarios um again the light blue is what we've
040anticipated. Uh and then you can see with the with a 3% CPI the district's in in solid shape even with the $4 million commitment approaching the 180 day reserve target and then on the uh if but if you do have a a one and a half% CPI the district would under this scenario bless you would breach its uh 108 day policy target fund balance policy target. So uh I guess the three primary recommendations um is that the district should um make major expenditure decisions with a goal of ensuring that annual expenditures plus funds allocated towards major capital doesn't exceed annual revenue. So basically annual revenues greater than annual expenditures and how much you commit to major capital investment. If you could honor that formula, you'll never run out of money. Mathematically, you'll never run out
041of money. Um the second again if if it could happen and you don't there's one side of the equation you don't really control and that's the revenue side. Uh the the second is that the district should consider establishing a goal of starting to grow those fund balance reserves uh towards 180 days uh as we anticipate escalating financial challenges for all schools in Illinois. And this is so this point just I want to pause on it for a second for something timely is that the the the reason why it's good to have these fund balance reserves is twofold. One is long-term you want to be able to absorb um things that you can't control and make sure that you don't have to make decisions that impact student learning. Um but se secondly is short-term and short-term
042is relevant pretty much only in Cook County because Cook County is the only place in the state where revenue receipts are generally uncertain and that's because Cook County taxes are uncertain and your district more than any district as much as any district relies on real estate taxes. So last year Cook County taxes were due August 1st. Um this year um there's not even a due date yet. uh it's likely it's going to be in mid to late December, but there's a software problem that still hasn't been resolved. Now, what what does that mean? That means in this district and a couple other districts I work with, because they don't have over 180 days of reserves, your district has a $7 million bond payment on December 1st, you spend about was it 8 million a month?
043Seven or eight million dollars a month. Um, and we were just doing a back of the envelope, Phoebe and Brian and I, and um, the district is in a spot where it's possible that they have to issue tax anticipation warrants, borrow money short term in order to make sure it can pay its bills. Um that's something that we're going to closely monitor. Um if it is likely that collections are going to be late and if everything's trending the way we think on the expenditures, um we may be going they may be going to the board next month and pass a resolution to get the process started so that if you do run out of money, you could flip flip a switch and and borrow money. Um there's three districts I work with right now that
044are contemplating Texas patient warrants. yours is one of them. Um and and and so that's that's that's one of the reasons especially in your district why I have that recommendation of if if you can start gravitating towards that 180day reserve to avoid those. Your district's getting ready to borrow money in January. Why is it relevant? Um they're they're marketing the bonds to the banks and the the trust companies and things like that. And as they look at your credit, because obvious just like personally, if your credit is strong, they're willing to lend you the money at a lower interest rate, you probably don't want the the the the black mark of saying that you had to borrow money to make payroll, for example. That that's that that's not a positive variable as analysts are determining
045what type of interest rate they're willing to lend you the money. So, potentially consequences to that. >> Sorry. Um, what would the payment date for tax revenue need to be? I don't know exactly how to ask the question. How um delayed would the property tax payments have to be for us to be in a position where we would have to activate plan B and borrow short term? >> So, it's a great question. So, so first of all, I've been working closely with the county. I do presentations with the people that are right on the inside. I truly don't believe that they know exactly when this is which is concerning to me. Usually they they kind of have an idea but they you know but I really believe they don't know because it's a software problem
046that's causing a delay and you know it's not you know how do you how could you predict when a software problem is going to be resolved? Um, I know that there's a huge effort to have the due date of the tax bills be be before the end of December so people pay their taxes and get credit for the taxes when they do their income taxes because a lot of the a lot of real estate taxes are paid on the very last day of the due date. That's what the because they have mortgages and the mortgage company waits to the very last day to make the payment. So, that's a huge objective that they have, but it doesn't guarantee that's going to happen. There was a year a few years back where the date was December
04730th, and that's the late or 31st. That's the latest it's ever been. So, that's a possibility. I would say again, probably would have to get to that type of date. It depend. We We have to see what what bills are. So you you have you have about 20 what $51 million in the bank. These aren't maybe exact numbers like$ 26 million is in the capital projects fund from bond proceeds. You can't use that. So so you have about let's just say you have 24 $25 million at the end of October. So if you think you have let's just say you have $8 million in bills in November$8 million of bills in December that's 16 million. You have $7 million bond payment December 1st. That's 20. That gets you really close to zero. So, so now
048you should get a little bit of money from the state and federal government. Emphasis on little because you don't get a lot. Um, so a late December, early January date makes you vote like like I would I would say certainly if you don't have the money before your first payroll in January, are you 24 pays or 26 pays? >> Okay. So, so I I would think just off the top of my head, I would say the the the first payroll in January would be the most vulnerable date. Um, but that's unofficial. I think Phoebe and Brian are going to be scratching the numbers harder just to kind of get an idea, be more precise, and report on it the next month. >> No, we're only 19 days off the 180day recommended reserve. Like, if we
049were at 180, would we still be awfully close to this problem anyway? Well, >> I agree. That's almost a month, but still. >> No, that's a that I mean, that's a great I mean, I guess every day is is is is, you know, pushes the day back a few days. Some a few days does not impact it. Um I I But the problem the problem with your district is many school districts get a lot of money from the state. So, they get evidence-based funding. They get they get two big payments every month. So they're getting some revenues to offset their district gets almost no no revenues. What's do you have the year? >> Do we get paid twice a year? >> Oh, it's on here >> by the by the county. >> Yeah. So this
050year So this year count if I took away the um capital expenditures you through October you spent $20.9 million. You brought in $3.4 million in revenues. So, so that that's that's the problem. So, right, the difference between 170 days, 180 days is is not significant. But >> I guess so part part of it is then like if if if we think that Cook County is going to continue to behave the way Cook County has um you know, is 180 days really a reasonable reserve or should we be looking at >> Oh, I see what you're saying. at at nine months or a year or >> well I was focusing more on the difference between 108 days which is your board policy and 180 >> as as a significant gap. Um, but I mean I mean
051generally I mean I mean really of all the districts that you have the combination of high dependency on Cook on taxes and you're in Cook County >> and and and and so that makes you as vulnerable and ironically one of the other districts that I'm working with >> I probably shouldn't is is another district in in your vicinity that has about four months worth of fund balance reserves. And so they're they're having the same conversation. They may not have to issue taxpipation warrants, but they're preparing for it. So that if if if they're running the numbers and say, "Hey, we got a we got a payroll coming and we're going to be short, you know, that that they could contact your municipal adviser and say, you know, pull the trigger." >> Now, another question on
052So, we we're sitting on a large balance of bond funds right now. Um and I understand and we all understand that, you know, bond funds can only be used for the capital projects that were raised for. There's no provision that allows us to borrow against that to make payroll and then pay it back the answer we get paid by the no >> even though we're sitting on 26 million we we'd have to go go borrow tenant. >> Yes. It's it's it's lock solid. There's there's there's so many covenants that you have to agree to all those bond documents that you signed. Right. >> There's so many covenants that you're agreeing to that that money is sacred. Like the people that I No, I know what you're saying. I I mean intuitively you would think that's
053the case, but I mean that's that's that's that's very >> Can it be used as collateral? Like could we go to a bank and borrow against it? >> No, because you can't even use it for collateral. Okay. >> No. Now you could use other fun you you could use you could use transportation. You know, you could you have other operating funds that you know, if you had to pay a bill out of the education fund, but you have enough money in the working cash fund or something like that, we can move stuff. the construction fund is almost as if it's a separate school district. You almost have to treat it. >> Uh Rob, one of the things that you've said uh that I think is probably good just to repeat it here is for a
054district with our type of tax profile >> and our type of EAV. How that you typically work with you would expect to probably see in your experience how many days cash on hand? It's probably well north of 180. But like just give us a kind of a rough estimate from your experience with our BAV where you where you typically I'm walking in the district. It looks like you're you're kind of you're usually at this point. >> So if you so if you asked me eight or 10 years ago where you're at right now is was was high relative to the market. But then two things happened. Evidence-based funding. So the the poor school districts have been getting a significant amount of money. They've been pumping in $300 million a year every year since 2018 minus
055one year. So, so, so those revenues have gone significant. So, those districts that were really struggling, they have very healthy fund balances. Most of those districts now have six months worth of reserves. And it's probably good that they do going into they're more vulnerable in some ways to what's going on at the state level and federal level. Um but right now at this moment in time because the 5% CPIs have helped school districts and and and the EVF evidence-based funding um I would say that probably the average I'm seeing is probably closer to seven to nine months. I'm going to a board meeting Monday night at a school district and they have 438 days worth of reserves. I'm not now that's too much. and your district at one point in time had some significant and
056you decided to commit $44 million to capital investment. You know, that's that's that's the luxury of having a fund balance reserve is that you could continue to make those decisions. So, you're wanting to commit $4 million a year to 2031. And I'm sure ideally you'd like to extend that beyond 2000. I'm sure I don't know, maybe you're done >> 30 years >> for 30 years, you know. So with that being said, you want to be able to run run nice surpluses and in the years you don't have surpluses, have enough fund balance reserve to cover that obligation. >> So we should be looking at a goal like nine months. Sorry. >> I mean >> yeah I mean I mean yeah I think I think framing it as a goal is relevant >> because you're not
057going to get through overnight. Um but that but then once it's in if so let's if if that's your board policy that that's our goal then in theory your decisions will be should be made going back to that first bullet point you should be making decisions that we're going to approve budgets and make decisions in a way that we're generating additional money every year. In other words, our surpluses would have to exceed your capital investment, right? To to grow fund balances. you have to have a $5 million surplus and commit $4 million to capital and then your fund balances grow by a million dollars. So, it's it's it'll be a challenge. Um, but it would definitely put you in a more secure spot for sure. >> I think looking back at like slide five about
058our major capital expenses, I guess I'm concerned that with budgeting only four million, we have not that four million even without referendums like even without the bond. >> Say that again. I'm sorry. I was >> so thinking about like what you just said about if we're thinking about you know and this is something we're trying to increase right our capital funds to four million every year instead of two. But when we look at our historical data of what we're spending out of fund 60, and I'm not even thinking about >> bonds that we have borrowed for kindergarten or referendum bonds like prior to 2022, >> it seems like it has always exceeded 4 million. I think we have to look I don't I think we would have to look to see what the expenditures were
059for because what we don't know is was it discretionary spend or was it maintenance spend which we don't need to spend anymore because we've replaced >> yes >> and renovated. So I I think it's a good point but >> well and that's where I just I worry about >> if because before right we were allocating two and always spending more than two >> you were also sometimes things would be categorized out of O and M. Yeah, >> I think that's like for this year's budget >> like the recate. >> So for this year budget like there's $4 million was the first year that it started but the way it was budgeted before we came in is it was there's part of that in O and M. Um and then part of that is in capital
060projects. Actually $2 million is in capital projects. Another two million is in O and M that's going towards certain construction management fees and things like that and they're all kind of tied to the referendum because the referendum is remember we we had to cut some things and make some some decisions there. So, it's still kind of supporting that in a way. Um, some of that is also asbestous abatement. >> Yeah. >> No, not not the current. I'm just thinking about like historically and I get that so much of that was deferred maintenance, but thinking about as we plan ahead if that is do we feel like given their past nonreferendum capital expenses? >> Well, the reason No, it's a great question. I think the reason why that we landed on the right number right now
061and it was a an estimate on on the four million amount was because we had deferred so much maintenance and we had had done so yeah we had done so much work on the house that we had so much work to do like those costs were rising rising rising because we're replacing systems that were well beyond their u their life cycle and then all coming due at times where we hadn't budgeted out and you know and we were spending so much money out of repair too that the referendum was kind of supposed to be we need to reset this. We need to hit the reset on that. And then there was there is a story here from 2017 to 2021 about some decisions that were made and some frankly that weren't about the direction that
062was going to go that that that was happening in the schools for how some of that stuff was allocated. So to me I think the with the referendum passage we are in a very different situation now than we than once all the work is complete than we would have been earlier because we had things that they just they were coming due they had to fix but there wasn't a long-term plan for that and it was starting to just make it challenging um you know to plan in other areas because you had to pull it and even then a all of that stuff from the 2017 2021 is it was deferred. So I I think one of the things that Brian, Mike, and I have talked about is taking the capital plan that was put together
063prior to the referendum, knowing that the ref we still had all the pricing and the bidding and we're still halfway through that. You'll see Mike's been working hard on that. That's that's going to be coming to all of you pretty soon here for like the next round of work sometime this school year saying, "All right, now that we Now that we know what's actually going in, um, we need to look back at that plan and, you know, basically measure it out and make sure that it is it was is correct. Uh, probably, you know, take the next version of it, make adjustments, and then bring it to all of you and say, "All right, now knowing that the work is going to be complete at the end of summer, here's our here's our way forward."
064There might be a different number on that, but at least I think from a phil philosophical standpoint, it says we can advertise this out and it's probably somewhere around here if we were going to replace everything on this life cycle. But to be fair to Mike and his team, they're going to have to get back into those numbers knowing what we were able to accomplish. So, I'm just I I think it's I think that's that's probably the best way to kind of approach it and and I hope 4 million's in the right spot or somewhere around. Um, also taking into account what inflation would be, you know, in the long run and what contingency we've built in. But we'll have a better idea, I think, once we have more of an more exact numbers on
065where the bids are coming at in the next round of summer work because there might be some things that Oh, sweet. We can get that done now with the bond revenue that we were actually planning to do maybe the year prior or year after year after, excuse me, >> for sure. And I think the concern is just if then we're seeing an overall prediction of our fund balance dropping for those larger scale capital improvements that we don't want to come back to the community and ask for again. Is just making sure that when we had those surpluses before we could use them that we're not We're we're gonna have to make some decisions about expenses. There's no doubt about it. Um and we've already start to have those some initial conversations of just preliminary conversations
066about what we can do. And um some of that conversation was tied to the the upcoming loss of the the kindergarten tuition. You know, that's kind of where it started. But I think if you know ultimately as we've started to talk about the strategic plan too to to Ben's point earlier um you know part of that is that came up in that discussion is that we we re going to start talking about this fund balance policy again as part of that you know that's something that's going to be talked about as well. So we're going to have to make some difficult decisions and really start looking at it and Phoebe and I as we've been getting more familiar with everything it's you know we're starting to see things a little bit differently as we get
067more familiar. are excited about that in a way, but we're definitely going to have to collaborate and make some decisions. >> And and and then just the final bullet point that I had was that um as a recommendation is is that it's a good best practice to do this every year. So So when next year at this time, we'll know what one more CPI is. we might know what's going on in Springfield and and and that will help drive, you know, if if we come in next year and inflation's 1% then all of a sudden we're having different conversations. Um so so it's it's good to do this every year and uh I'm I'm really enjoying working with Brian and Phoebe and they're very impressive and I think we have a good synergy together. So
068I'm looking forward to continuing to work with you guys. Any other questions for finance friends? >> All right. Thank you. >> Thanks a lot, Rob. >> All right. Superintendent update. >> Okay. I've got a few things. Um let's Yeah, we'll start with the super exciting stuff. Our uh the first one is just recently our wonderful director of communications, Mr. Chris Lily, let me know that again, surprise. He's won awards. Uh Chris, could you just come up real quick and tell us um you're f the 10,000 awards you just won again? So >> yeah, thank you. Uh it was uh three awards from the uh Illinois uh Insp chapter. U one of them was for our digital ad campaign for the referendum which got like over a million impressions uh through our targeted ads which it
069was great. Um and then uh another one was our uh phase one Lincoln update. um that we got like excellent uh recognition and then our newsletters, our e newsletters as a collection as well. So very exciting to the recognition of you know all of our hard work because it's not just me, it's a collection of everyone and I just get to present it. So that's the fun part. But yeah, it was really cool. Thank you. >> Congratulations, Chris. Um, I sent you guys all a picture from the ISA conference, the it's the superintendent one where I was presenting on just showing examples of some of the work that has been happening with, uh, the principles and some of the things that we're starting to do with the other leaders. So, uh, Kristen Williams did, uh,
070kind of the as a principal, this is how we're doing it, uh, portion of that. She did a great job uh and got to you know take our exposure out to the uh the wonderful property of Springfield, Illinois. And then on Monday uh basically we'll be taking some of the same aspects uh and uh Courtney will be talking about that at the Illinois Principles Association conference. So, and then Courtney and Christa are also, I think I mentioned this last time, they're teaching in admin academy for leaders across the state about um the dynamic duo that they have. I think it's literally called that. So, um excited for the work that they're doing. Next month, they'll have a couple of other updates on some exciting stuff that other people are presenting. So, congratulations to everybody there.
071Uh also for the meeting next month, uh continuing the conversation about bonds, Liz and Tammy will be here as well. So Liz is our um underwriter for all of our bond work. She also has worked with the district for a long time. Actually to to your question, Rachel, she could speak to some of the stuff that I referenced that you're that you asked that really good question about about maybe some decisions. But if if that's something that you wanted to to hear, but um she just has so much historical knowledge about when a decision was made, what the after effects were and weren't um um with that. And then Tammy is our municipal advisor. So when we get into uh the bond process and start to go through that, she's she's basically on our on
072our side on our team saying, "Yes, that's the right time. That's the right price. Let's go." Um but they they work really well together. So they'll be talking through our debt profile, and I think it falls perfectly in line with some of the stuff here. So there might be some other things that they can talk about when some of our more long-term debt will roll off. uh just so everybody knows that and obviously figure out what's going on with the markets. Um I mentioned a little bit about the 2627 school calendar. I feel like October is the point of the year where I always call it the weight shift where you start shifting your weight already into next year. Um and amazingly enough by the time you get to winter break you're already at 5050.
073So, uh, one of the things that I think we're having to figure out, and I know Joel and his team and, um, some of our other, uh, leaders are going to have a conversation moving forward where, um, we need to figure out where the start of school is going to be for the 27 school year. So, because no matter what, it is going to be this kind of shift and impact to families, I think I'll just ask my question again. Do you want us to maybe re-engineer the calendar process? So what we would typically have done in the past is in the fall, right about this meeting, we would start the conversation or having recommendations of when we were starting uh the school year. And the big question is, do you align with the opening
074of the high school or do you go one week after the high school starts? That's usually it's usually been one of those two. Um last year we decided to do a two-year calendar which sounds like we got a lot of positive feedback for um I think any of any especially those families that are planning out their uh trips um and any of their things that they want to do obviously that helps. So what we could do because we are going to kind of have a snapback. So we could be sitting at this meeting next year saying the start of the 2027 school year is going to let's pretend be at the first day of the high school and all of a sudden families are going to have seven to eight weeks of summer. We are
075meeting with the park district team on the 30th to talk about uh their facility usage this summer, but we'll also parlay into what it'll look like if you know those those things are happening because a lot of our families and I am one of these families relies on daycare during the summer when the um when when the guardians might be working. So, if families don't have daycare, we're going to really have to figure something out as a community of what that means, but that is going to put some families in some really tough spots. Um, so one idea I had was and I'm just looking for direction was potentially coming up with some type of modified schedule of the counter committee getting together in this spring and saying and we'll have a better idea of
076what the the construction work will look like probably or sometime around let's say spring break for sure. Um, if we said we will bring a recommendation forward for the calendar for the 27th school year at the either April or May board meeting, that would certainly just give families more heads up for what it would look like. So, we could do that. Um, I don't know what everybody thinks about or feels about that. I would still try to do a two-year. I there's just such an advantage to that. It also really helps out our whole team and all the work that we have to do for everything.en seen a lot of nods. So, um, what does everybody think directionwise? >> Okay. >> Yeah, sounds good. >> Okay. So, we'll we'll look at working on that. Um,
077and then in the packet, I had a document that I've been working on with our coach from stutter on the plan for the strategic plan. and it shows uh basically the next level of work that we've been able to to get to just in a couple weeks of since we've had conversations. I've met with her three times so far. And um I think one of the big takeaways in my meetings with her and then also just a lot of the research that I'm doing. So there are four school districts right now in our area that are doing strategic planning this uh uh this moment. And so every time they have a board presentation, I am downloading their slide deck and just basically going through it and then potentially watching their meeting. Super exciting stuff um
078at night and uh just trying to figure out like what are the things that they're messaging on and and there's been some some good aspects to that. But uh especially some of the the work that I've done read pretty much everything that Roger Martin has written. He's kind of one of the um I would say that um prime examples of uh strategy critique, if you will. Uh and so I'm actually going to share some some stuff for all all of us to look at. I'm kind of coming up with the coach on um some some learning examples, articles, and some videos that we'll be working on with the leadership team, but then also for all of us, too. And there are kind of three stages to the process that everybody does. There's the first stage
079which is some type of environmental scan or some type of auditing process. And I think some school districts are going super deep into that work. However, I think the auditing usually occurs at more of the cultural level. So when they're doing the strategic plan and putting things together, they're doing a lot of cultural auditing. How do you feel about working here? um students, how do you feel about coming to school here? Those types of things. What's not necessarily present in the things that I'm looking at is the other type of auditing like stuff that we're just talking about now too. And so I don't see those necessarily as balanced or like your your operational auditing or things of that nature, too. So, um I just want to be cognizant of that as we go into
080that process so that we're really taking a complete holistic picture of of everything happening. And then at the same time um there's the strategy decisions and the prime example is exactly what what Brian just articulated here is the decision before us is do we want to reach a target of a fund balance and if we do then we can plan to that end right it creates a a vision for where we want to be um what I'm seeing a lot of is that's the weakest aspect aspect of the plans. People want to jump from the auditing to the plan because the planning feels very comfortable. And um to use that same example, if you said we want our fund balance to go up, we are going to set um a goal of trying to get
081to six months of cash on hand. Therefore, every year we're going to increase our cash on hand by five days. And then you get you get to that plan really quick. And what I worry about if we do that and jump the really intense conversation we need to have about are we doing this or not because it it limits the decisions you might make later on. And if we say we are trying to do all of these wonderful things for kids and all of these supports for staff so they can do these wonderful things for kids and we have and we want to do the fund balance there are going to be some things that come at odds very quickly. And I'm I'm even just now noticing that in some of the some of the
082things that I'm picking up on and some of my colleagues that I'm having conversations with and I'm like, how are you navigating this? You've got kind of conflicting things that are going to come up here and they're like, I didn't didn't think about that or haven't really thought that through or we our team wants to get to the plan really quick. So, I think initially I was thinking as I was I was going through this with our our coach that we would um have everything before you that you see. We would do all of the focus groups, all of the planning, be pulling lots of data, trying to isolate things across all of the district focus areas. Then we would get into the strategy sessions of what are we going to do? And then we
083would be getting to the plan. Now, I'm feeling like probably the better process is just to slow the conversation down a little bit and try to when we get to April where we're presenting the quoteunquote strategic plan. I don't think it's necessarily going to have some of the planning steps laid out in the same way that I think I would recommend yet. I think we can do great work if we get to the point where we say this the strategy decisions that we've made at each of the focus areas and some of to be to be frank some of it some of it's going to be pretty obvious from a planning standpoint some of it's going to be much more esoteric and hard to how the heck is that going to happen uh relate we
084would we would have a better knowledge and better understanding of what the vision is for these areas and what excellence looks like what's going to be true if that's actually happening and then what are the things that we're actually the decisions and like the game plan that we're um not the game plan, the um the the court that we're going to play on. Where's where what areas in instruction and what areas and potentially student behavior, what areas with the staff are we going to focus on and making decisions and like really wrestling with that so that once we actually build the plan, we're not trying to make things bigger than they than they can be and that there's not conflicting u pieces everywhere else. So, I think it's and I I know that's like kind
085of a larger thing that I'm presenting here without, you know, a nice slide deck or something else, but I just wanted to kind of share that thinking out loud and make it visible because I think it would mean that um when we get to the part that we do what we call the scorecarding and isolating those aspects, those will come definitely and I think some of them again will be very evident. But when we get to May and and April, the most important thing is that we feel really solid about what the direction and the strategies are going to be that we're focusing on. And so I don't I just don't want to skip the middle step. And I I'm seeing that a lot um and because of the the planning piece. So um go
086ahead. >> I was waiting. >> Yeah. Go ahead. Sorry, just kind of ranting. Yeah. >> Um I think that sounds right. I think I have two interests for April or May. Um that's not the detailed implementation plan. One is for whatever we say we want to do. Um that we have real clarity around the full set of things we have to do exceptionally well um to get there um the kind of theory of action. So I I'll pick academics because it feels particularly um relevant here. But if we say we want to ensure that every single student is growing by 70% by the end of five years or whatever the right goal is then I would want us to get really tight on what does that mean across the board in terms of our vision
087of excellence our instructional approach so forth and so on like the whole kitten kaboodleoodle. not every single detail but just kind of like what are the buckets that we are and I think you and I were saying the same thing just using different words and the part that I've seen um people not do um which I think is where you get into uh confusion and difficulty especially if you have constrained resources of time and people and money is what are you deprioritizing? Um, and you don't have to stop in April, but what you're saying is here's everything above the line, here's the line, here's everything below the line. So that if we push all four goals against each other and we only have one bucket of funds and one bucket of people resources, at some
088point we will run out. And so that means that at some point we will have to look below the line and stop doing or doing at the level of quality these things. And we need to have those conversations ahead of time versus um having independent folks throughout the entire system make them on their own because they will make them in the best way possible but it will be uncoordinated and unaligned and thus everybody will be swimming in opposite directions. So I think whatever is below the line or however we want to call it like I think that's doing that exercise I think will be also really critical. >> So okay >> the big question is for the steering group that's going to be meeting that they right now there are meetings that are during the
089day. There are the five evenings. Um, but we'll talk more about this in at the November board meeting because I'll have a, you know, just be more laid out with how everything will look. But is anybody uh available or wanting to be on that steering committee to have board representation um during the day? That's the that's the only problem is that it's during school hours. So, um you could if you guys want to just take a look at the dates and uh we can talk more about that in November, but I at least wanted to present that to all of you. >> Are these the December dates? >> It's the There's one in November uh November >> November 20th. >> November 28th. >> 28th 27th >> 28th. >> March 6. >> Yeah. So, and we
090and and some of this we can have people come in and out of. So, but at least just wanted to put it in front of you as a draft. Our coach will be coming in live. She lives in Florida, but she comes in for those. There's one date I think she can't make, but um just take a look and let me know and we'll kind of go from there. And then next month I'll have yet more information and flush this out a little bit more. Okay. So, thanks for listening to my disorganized thought process right now. Um, but I do think it's just something I want to put on everyone's radar to kind of watch out for as we start to get into this because I do what I'm seeing is even in board discussions
091at the strategic planning piece, people will present like the first round of audit and then all of a sudden the questions are, oh, so we're going to work on that next. And you're sitting there, no, no, we're not even there yet. Right? And it's like people wanted to they want to jump >> rightfully so because that's what feels normal to us, >> right? >> So, um Brian does have a brief transportation update. Just I know this is your favorite part, but we definitely want to make sure we're staying on the ball. >> I'm going to stand this time so I can get ready for the tour. >> Um so overall transportation, you know, just like last month, there's been some improvement since the beginning of the year, obviously. Um but I think the biggest challenge
092still remains staffing. And I I know that it's not necessarily just, you know, who we're working with. This is something that's kind of nationwide right now. I read an article recently about how it's impacting all over the place, but I do feel like that's been a big hurdle for us. Um, and I felt like we hit a groove where we we had a good few weeks there with staffing and then all of a sudden, um, you know, for example, now we're back to averaging three to four drivers that are subs. Um, and obviously they're not as familiar with the routes. So then that impacts times, arrival times, um, and things like that. And just to give you an idea of how much that can fluctuate, last Friday we were short eight drivers um of our
09320. So um ultimately when these situations happen, you know, we were able to get seven drivers for that, but ultimately it was after school um sometimes they'll call, you know, they're sick or whatever after school. Um they have to combine routes. So that impacts route times as well. Um when they have to combine, for example, middle school route and then go run an elementary school route right after, that can impact the pickup time there. Um we are continuing to work with uh Safeway. One of the biggest things that we ask of them is that when those situations do occur, when a route is behind, that they reach out to us and let us know. Um that has been one of our biggest challenges. Um is, you know, parents reaching out to us saying our bus
094is 30, 40 minutes behind. That's the first time we hear of it. Um they are supposed to reach out to us and let us know. And um I know that Dave was up here acknowledging the front office staff at Lincoln earlier, but the front off the the office staff of our buildings, I just want to give them a shout out because they are fantastic at sending out reminders and notifications to parents when they know that they're behind. Um like I said, the biggest thing is that gap and we don't know we can't send those notifications. So um just a shout out to all of them for helping. Um and also a shout out to uh Drew Sabers in our office as well um who handles our transportation. and she's been um you know navigating this
095every day and communicating in a timely manner the buildings the information that we know. So overall you know um we're still working with them and I know that for example we had one permanent driver that's no longer there um as of this week that we just found out. So those things are still challenges that we face. So right now we're kind of thinking about um starting to just think about planning for next year and if there's something we need to do and planning for next year. You know that action would have to take place probably uh December or January. um just thinking about, you know, what route we want to go with the future for our transportation here in our district. And Ben and I have had those conversations about what that's going to look
096like potentially. So >> I think we've talked in previous months that this would be the month that we would decide about pivoting, so to speak. Is that still on the table? Is that >> pivoting for this year? >> Yeah. >> Unfortunately, we have not had anyone that's been able to accommodate that. Um we did do some research in regards to like how much lead time would you need? um and planning for next year just to start get an idea for that and the consensus kind of was December January when we started kind of reaching out but right now we haven't had a company that's been able to come in and completely switch um and then with those adjustment periods too >> and so then the planning for next year this is I was not here
097last year so does that look like an RFP what what does that look like >> it would be we have for transportation you do have to go to a bid if you're going to do This is a sideways idea, so feel free to totally disregard it >> seconds after I finish >> saying it. Um, when I ran transportation for a school district in Texas, we had I mean, everybody has the same issues. Um, we ended up, we didn't run, we didn't run the we had a transportation company, but we ended up, uh, helping with recruitment of bus drivers from our parent and local communities >> and stitching together a part-time um, work essentially with the morning route, um, afternoon route, and a lunch um, duty. And it became a pretty nice like opportunity especially with
098lunch at the students um like their kids schools. >> Um and we just had to pay for the lunch portion. Um, and we were able to like maintain like those bus drivers ended up being long-term bus drivers who were steady, dependable, deep ties to um the community. And it took us about six months to implement because we had to help support them in getting recruited, hired, and um trained. Um but maybe something that we think about. >> Okay. No, thank you. And the possibility of the other bus company just being able to pick up some of those routes just >> we have not heard back from the one that we were working with that um you know recently there's not been communication we reached out a couple times but haven't had an update from them.
099So um but as as of a few weeks ago to be honest most of our routes were were covered. Um it just seems like the last couple weeks there's been I don't know what's what happened but um so Thanks. Thank you. >> I'm good. Thanks. >> All right. Board no board committee reports. Um we do have our uh big eye conference coming up and we do need to pick an assembly delegate and decide what we want to do with the one resolution. Um I need volunteers to be assembly delegate. The last person who did it who thoroughly enjoyed it has left the board. So we needed believe it's >> the Yeah, it's on the Saturday. Is it like 10:30? >> When do we need to pick the person? I think >> to pick the person
100I think soon. It's got to be this meeting. >> Yeah, >> we have to we have to send in the name and there's a whole thing. >> I can do it if it's on a Saturday. Uh if no one else wants to do it, I I will take one for the team. >> It's on the Saturday of the the Saturday of the conference. >> Yeah. Okay. >> Every Saturday I will show up. >> Where are you? >> I want to vote on buses. >> I will vote. I want buses. But I'm also happy for someone else who would want to do it. >> I think everybody's happy for you to do it and appreciate you volunteering. >> All right. Monica is our delegate. >> Should be fast at least with only like the bylaws and
101that one thing. And then the one thing that we should probably decide on the one thing next week if we wanted to, but did everybody read the one thing? Okay, that's everybody's thoughts on the one thing. >> It was safety, right? It was seat belts for buses. It was about funding. >> Yeah. Fingers um for them to advocate for funding with that legal change so that school districts can afford to be in compliance. >> Okay. >> I feel like anytime we can advocate for more funding for transportation is a good thing. >> All right. So, as a board we're okay with support with more money. And this isn't like Yeah. legislative. >> It's a legislative direction, so it will be roundly ignored at Springfield. I'm sure. Um, sorry. I weren't supposed to say that out
102loud. Um, all right. Everybody's good on our delegate and our position on the one consent agenda resolution. >> Do we have to like agree for Monica to vote for the bylaw updates, too, or is that just their voting by? >> I thought it was just their board. >> Just their board. And then because we have a delegate there, I think the delegate still issues it's like their their one general meeting of the year. >> We have to go like on the sheet if you go to page 23, it has like what we check off for Monica ring. >> I still think we issue a vote, but it's like it's only for their board. >> It's a recommendation that we say like whether we support or don't. >> Yeah, it's like their constitution of their board.
103>> I think Monica's still going to vote on those. So >> I did read through them. I thought they were all fine. >> I did too. >> Yeah. So, >> just so that you feel like you have >> universally good on guesses then >> that'd be fine. >> Well, you be like the shareholder when you share the shareholder votes in when you own stock just vote no on everything the board recommends. Just be you be the activist activist delegate. That could be fun. All right, so we're good. All right. Um, consent agenda. We get a motion on the consent agenda, please. One action item. >> I move that the board approve the consent agenda for October 16th, 2025 as presented. >> Second. >> All right. Andrea the um motion. Rachel had the second. Um any
104discussion. All right, let's take a vote. >> Milligan, >> yes. >> Ranken, yes. Kemple, >> yes. >> Klene, >> yes. George Aus, >> yes. >> Double Day, >> yes. >> All right. Construction update. >> All right. Well, let's get up and do a tour. So, Um, meeting was still going on until All right. We had a great tour of Lincoln and Washington. amazing progress and both in credit to the administrative team and the construction team and the teachers to make it for making it all work over the last several months and another nine months we're all done, right? >> All right. Um, with that, let's take a motion to adjourn. >> I move to adjourn. >> Second. >> You read the motion. Rachel the second. All in favor? >> I >> All right. Thank you.
105See you next month. >> Thanks everybody.