001Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Oh [Music] yeah. Oh yeah. [Music] I'm a world. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] You yourself. [Music] I That's uh meeting of the board of education. It's a meeting of a committee as a whole uh which consists of all seven board members. So technically and legally we cannot even begin the meeting without a quorum since the committee consists of the the entire board. So as much as I love to start my meetings on time, um we're going to have to wait till a fourth board member shows up and we already know that Miss Hannah is not going to be here. Um, she had an encounter with a carpet shampooer and says she's not doing too well. And uh, Mr. Riddle, Mr. Riddle has bronchitis and he will not be here. So, we have
002one other just one other, right? No. Who else? Miss Lensing. We haven't heard from Miss Lensing. And Car, right? And Carolina's on her way down, but she's still about 20 minutes, half hour out. So, there's not a whole lot we can do until um fourth board member shows up. [Music] Let me [Music] get Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. N. [Music] I'm [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] You would like to call to order the FY26 budget workshop number two. Can we have a roll call, please? Miss Ramirez, yes. Mr. Riddle. Mr. McBride, here. Miss Hannah. Miss Lensing here. Miss Fabian. President Rodriguez, okay. Um, is she on phone? Yes. Asking to participate by phone. Okay. Present. Um, all right. We do have a quorum. And I just for the record, um,
003Miss Hannah will not be here tonight. and Mr. Riddle will not be here tonight for reasons of health. And Miss Fabian is asking to participate by phone and we're going to ask for a um vote to allow her to participate by phone. Can we have a motion, please? So move. Motion by Mr. McBride. Second. Second by Miss Ramirez. Uh roll call vote, please. Miss Ramirez, yes. Mr. Riddle. Mr. McBride. Yes. Miss Hannah. Miss Lensing. Yes. Miss Fabian, President Rodriguez. Yes. Motion carries. Okay. So, Miss Fabian is now participating by phone. And as I explained before, um this is not an official meeting of the board of education. But because we are a committee of the whole which consists of the entire board, we cannot even um begin the meeting until we have a quorum. So,
004uh let's see where are we? We had the roll call. Uh next item on the agenda is public comment. Do we have anybody here that signed up to address the board? Is there anybody here that wanted to address the board? Okay, moving on. Next item is the approval of the minutes of the meeting of May 12th, 2025. Um, I do have some corrections that I would like to recommend um before we have a motion. Uh, first of all, the meeting was called to order at 6 PM by me, by President Rodriguez. Uh, there is no mention of my name in the minutes. So, for some reason, my name was left out of everything. So, um, it needs to be added. Under the next item, two, roll call, the following responded present. My name needs to
005be added to that. And also, um, on the second page, um, there was a comment by Miss Hannah. She emphasized the need to streamline spending even with positive projections. We must stay cautious uncertain. It's two sentence that run together and put a be because in there and that makes it make perfect sense. And I'll give you my my corrected my notes so you can just take it from there. And then on page three comments by Miss Placencia, she's talking about our goal is to avoid riffs. And just so everybody understands, riffs, that is an acron acronym spelled RI if all capital, which stands for reduction in force. It's basically layoffs and it's spelled here as rifts. So I just want to make that correction. So we're talking about riffs, rifs, and uh other than that,
006I have nothing else. Does anybody else have any uh any corrections they'd like to make the minutes? No. Um I do. So, when I was asking about um the $750 grant in the minutes, it has DOC, but I believe it's DCEO and that's also in our presentation today. So, if we can get that component corrected, where is that? What page? What section? Um, let me find the exact section for you. under 4A Miss Lensing's comments. So if on when we're going to get the 750K from DCO DCO and it should be DCEO DCEO. Okay. Anything else? Anybody else? Okay. Um we need a motion to approve. I motion we approve as amended. Motion by Miss Lensing to approve the amended. Approve the minutes as amended. Do we have a second? Second. Second by Mr. Ramirez.
007Any additional comments or questions or corrections? Roll call vote, please. Miss Ramirez, yes. Mr. Riddle. Mr. McBride. Yes. Miss Hannah. Miss Lensing. Yes. Miss Fabian. President Rodriguez. Yes. Motion carries. Minutes are approved. Okay. Um, moving on. Item five, reports and presentations. Um, who is going to be running the show tonight? I should have known. Board President, board members, superintendent, community, and colleagues. This is our budget workshop number two, and we're excited about uh being able to present this information to you tonight. In this presentation, the next slide, please. We included uh aspects of the district's destination 2028 including the pillars and also the focus areas because the budget as submitted is aligned with uh these aspect of the district's plan. And so I just give you a moment just to glance over these so you
008be familiarize yourself with uh those. Miss Pulk, can we just take a minute? I understand there is a committee member here that wanted to make uh wanted to address the board. So, uh could we just um have that person come forward and please state your name? Hello superintendent, president of the board as and members of the board as well as community members. My name is Max Grande. I am an incoming sophomore at Walking High School Brooks campus. I'm here to talk about the administration of the walking in schools and how they are discouraging students from taking academic rigorous classes in high school. At the end of 8th grade, I wasn't recommended to take the class of AP human geography. My counselor told my mom that she had to sign a paper saying that if I
009want to take the class, I want to be able to get out of it if and I took the class and I ended with an A in second semester and I learned a lot with the class. Even though I was not the person in the school that the school thought should take the class, I was clearly capable of showing based on the grade and how much I learned from this course. Multiple multiple of my peers were called and asked if they really wanted to take the class during the summer of our transition to freshman year. One of my classmates in specific was called. They were asked if they wanted to take the class and if they did, they told them that if they got a bad grade, their GPA would drop. This scared the student
010into not taking the class. The student was definitely capable of taking the class as they were a straight A student with a good pre SAT score. Personally, I don't know why students someone would ask them if they wanted to take the class to discourage them from taking it. This class would not only benefit the student with academic rigor on their college resume, but would also give her college credit with the AP exam. Not only did they do this, but throughout the year the some of the counselors discouraged the students from taking AP classes next year, such as psychology, which now psychology isn't offered at Brookside campus next year. The counselors told them that the class um not to take the class and to take a different one that was easier. This behavior is stopping students
011from trying out classes that would interest them and prepare them for college level challenges. Thank you. Thank you very much for your comments. Was there somebody else, superintendent? I assume we're going to have someone look into that. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. Just to to make it known. Thank you. Okay, Miss Poke, it'll be up real soon. Thank you. Good evening, Superintendent. Good evening, everyone. I want to say again what my students said. I think we should believe in the students of the high school. I believe as parents and if the administration don't believe in them, who is going to believe in them? I think I think the test results do not determine what the student is capable of. They made me sign a document saying that if my student failed, they were not going to
012be responsible for that. That was at Brookside. And now that I saw that my student in the first semester got a B and then in the other semester got an A, that's when I thought we have to believe in the students. We have to motivate them to take these classes because these are going to be credits for the college. We have to trust in them, the community, the administrators, the parents. We have to trust in the students. These are the students of the future of that was one of the things that I wanted to say. Now I want to say another thing. It's about the AP test that the students took on May. This email said that due to administrations They're asking the students to either take them or just leave him like that with
013those grades. But I want to focus in a test that it was about statistics, something that I didn't like. Washington during this test, Washington campus had an event to um cheer. Yeah. The the seniors so during the test they could hear the music of of the event. I think there shouldn't be any distractions during this time. The school should be more organized. Yes, we have to, you know, celebrate the students, but also focusing the other ones. I would like for this Washington campus to do better next year. Thank you. Thank you. Can we have your name for the record? Grand Okay. Okay. Um, Miss Pulk, you have the floor. our undivided attention. that we've uh provided copies of the destination 2028 pillars and also the focus areas so that uh you can review those at
014your leisure because the budget that we're presenting tonight and what we presented on the 12th of May align with that philosophy. We've also provided to you tonight if you would move forward to the budget philosophy that I am going to uh read because that's what we believe. Move forward please. Forward forward right there. Uh we believe that the budget is a creation of a budget development framework that supports the democratic plan of appropriate funding for the implementation of educational programs so that students may develop and learn from quality experiences based on educationally sound and fiscally prudent planning. Uh as you all know the district uh conducts a budget development committee uh meeting which incorporates the opinions of the community, students um administrators and uh families. We ensure that the district maintains a solid financial base
015that meets the responsibility of preparing our students for an increasingly competitive society. that is uh indicative of aspects of the destination 2028 and it has been um the goal of the superintendent as well as uh the administration to ensure that we're fiscally sound. The fourth thing is use a budget philosophy that is macro focus rather than micro focus as much more refined will be required and implemented in the future through the rigorous strategic budget development process. Um that's prioritization. We've spoken about that time and time again and uh the board has lauded uh that process. And finally ensure that solveny, compliance, transparency, inclusivity, equity based and needs-based strategies are emp emphasized throughout the budget process and postbudget adoption. Uh that's basically the philosophy that's also included in the destination 2028 and uh we want to
016assure you that the budget is constantly reviewed and refined to align with the priorities uh of the district. Next slide. This slide is is really uh a repeat of what we presented on May uh the 13th. We just presented it by local, state, uh federal and the total uh that we're projecting to end in FY25 and what we're projecting in FY26. Uh you see the variations or the variances there by dollar amount and percentages. In local we're projecting that we're going to go down about $977,000. For the state we're projecting that we're going to go up about $4.8 million and that's primarily evidence-based funding. Um just uh as I was coming here uh we didn't get uh at least the state didn't a lot as much as we thought we would get allotted for evidence-based.
017So we're hoping that we would get that 4.1% increase. But again that is just an estimate until we get the actual number. So the assumption that we're making in the presentation that we did on the 13 and as well as what we're we're doing tonight is that there is a 4.1% increase in evidence-based funding. Federal a reduction of the one approximately $1.6 million. Um some of that is because um we don't know what is going to happen with uh medic uh Medicaid. We don't know what is going to happen with some of our federal grants. And then also we have one of our grants that's uh ending that was from the Department of Education. So that's that's accounting for that reduction there. And so overall, we think across all nine of our funds, we're probably
018going to have about a $2.2 million increase in revenue. Next slide. Um, a number of years ago, we were asked where um, the majority of our money comes from, and that's where this slide really comes from. You'll see that the majority of our money comes from uh, the state, which is evidence-based funding and categorical aid. 10% uh, from federal. We don't get a lot of money from there directly from federal. Some of the money that's coming from the state is flow through. So, it is federal money, but it's through the state. And then, of course, uh local about 25% and that's primarily because we've not increased our property tax. I want to put a plug in again right there. Uh you saw the slide. Uh we we have left a lot of money on the
019table. We could never recoup that uh base. Never ever. And so I uh I with the superintendent support is really really uh hoping that the board would reconsider and at least allow us to go up. Even if later you decide you want us to abate, let us go up and then abate. I don't even want to abate because right now in the fiscal climate as as um right before I came here I was reading an article about the president's skinny budget. Uh you all have heard that on the news and so he's cutting billions from K to 12. Uh so we really don't know what is going to happen at the federal level as it relates to funding school districts. Um one of the questions that I asked when I was on um the call
020with the advocacy group is what does that mean for us in FY26? I said that it's unfair for a school district to plan, move forward, and then the rug be pulled from under them. And so, at this present time, we're we're we're moving very cautiously because we do not know what is going to happen with our federal and state money. Any questions so far? Oh, I got some. Um, can you help me and the community understand why we're projecting the local funds to go down by nearly a million dollars? Uh, and the local uh funds. Let me go back there. When our property taxes are level, we're also looking at like uh transportation reimbursements. We normally put that in our local uh area and uh according to the budget that I read and what I
021was projecting is that local uh regular transportation and also special ed transportation is going down. So I made some assumptions there. Uh I've said this over the many years that I've been here that we really really take uh a low-level uh approach in budgeting because at this time we don't know what is going to happen. We don't know what our allocations are in terms of grants. We don't know what evidence-based funding is going to be. We're just estimating. And so that would account for a reduction there. Maybe it's not, but right now that's really really the best approach. Yeah, I'd rather be more conservative, right? So not conservative in other areas, but this I I understand. Um and then with regard to the state because that is the the heavy lift of where our funds
022are coming from and you had highlighted the flow through and with the skinny budget that the president is proposing. Yes. My fear is that we could see that drastically decrease. And I just want to confirm that when you say you're closely monitoring, you're looking at that as well. And that there is potential very transparently that that state allocation because of the federal changes could also go down. Not because of Illinois, but because of the federal government. That is a possibility. And so, uh, I I I meet with the superintendent, the deputies, and the superintendent and I meet and we discuss the budget and what we found out regarding what's happening at the federal level and the state level. And we're we're all aware of it and we constantly say this, we use this uh phrase,
023we're poised to pivot. Yep. Okay. Because it is not our desire to deficit spend. Okay. Mhm. So uh next slide please. Next slide. Yes. So in every budget of course there are assumptions because we don't know right. So we have to move forward in creating a budget and so we're assuming that staffing levels will remain somewhat stable. We're assuming that hair health care costs will remain somewhat uh stable. no major increases in that. We're looking at TART and worker comp claims that they're they're not going to exceed what we've done uh in the current year. We're looking at uh CPPRT. Uh we've spoken about that over the last few years. We've gone from uh 2122 million down to 9 million. And so there's uncertainty there, but the assumption that we've used in in this budget
024that there's not going to be a significant uh reduction 26 the next one that we're going to at least keep the uh taxes level. We're not going to go down, but that is not our hope. Our hope is that the board would allow us to go up to the max again. Yes. What type of money would the average amount that we've been losing is about a million and that's compounded. We could never get that. So moving forward we would probably gain about a million. But Miss Poke to confirm right compounded over the years that we've been level. I believe you stated before that it's been a total of 35 million that we've lost in this period and never get it back. Well, and never get it back. Yes. And for me, I think the thing
025is is that we just need to show the community some level of assurance that we're going to be accountable with those funds. I think the community is like if you're getting our kids what they need and they're making the progress, we don't mind investing in our kids. That's the message that I'm hearing. Yes. I think that um I think that the the uh the administration has been forthright and in showing uh pictures of capital improvements uh that we've had. Uh we've done $80 million of capital improvements without even going out for a bond. We just recently went out for one. So we were using the existing fund balances to do all of those great things and putting air conditions in the building and just keep going on and on with the various things that we've
026done and those things are upfront. Right. So now we're at the at the place not because we've not been um we've not managed our monies wisely but rather we've gotten uh er money pulled from us right and we've had co that we've had to contend with a lot of things changed so the dynamics have changed not only in wa Keegan but those dynamics have changed across the country so many school districts uh in reading the articles they're they're talking about this COVID cliff, you know, what do we do now that we don't have this money and we we have all of these needs? Well, we have to, you know, do what we've been doing the whole time, and that is to prioritize. We can't do everything, but we have to do those things that we
027identify as the greatest need. So, and also that TRF's IMRF transfer, I kind of read something about that. That was good news that they're uh not going to do that. But the assumption in here that they were not going to do, I was very happy about that because had they done that, that would have been millions that the district would have had to absorb. And then of course um we're always looking at the 6% 6% penalty um for for those individuals who retire and in the last four four years, four or five years, if they get over that 6% there is a huge penalty for us. So, we're monitoring that as well. Mr. Losa is reviewing that and sending reports out. Okay. Also, we're hopeful that Medicaid is going to resume. Um, we did put
028in our uh revenue projections for 26 that $2 million that Dr. B forwarded us that that's possibly from 2223. So, we're hopeful that we're going to get that money, but we don't know. Okay. E- rate payments uh will not be affected by the presidential executive order because we have a lot of bills that we get uh reductions for, Dr. Quavvis. Um and so we would have to pay um about $2 million out of our local coffer if he rate was to go away. Am I right? Yes. Um grants, title grants, IDA, EL grants hopefully will not be affected. Those are a part of what was mentioned in the skinny bud budget. Those are our assumptions. We assume that they would not be impacted by executive orders. um DCO the 750 and ICA will uh give
029us our $800,000 that they owe us for the current year and then uh we will get future funding. I applaud the superintendent for sending a letter um asking for us to continue to receive that grant. Also, I applaud uh her for uh sending notice uh to try and get uh the evidence-based funding fully funded. So I don't want to get too much in the weeds and I know all of this is projected and assumptions and best it sounds horrible to say best guesses but we've seen although title funding idea all of that may not be affected as far as funding we know that the services there might be delay in payment right because if we're breaking down departments and there's less staffing to actually print those checks out and send them to us there's going
030to be delay in payment. Have we thought about that and if that funding doesn't come you know we don't get reimbursed in time are we covered? Yes. Um we always think about the budget but then we also think about cash because you can't spend what you don't have. And so that's the reason why we have uh a working cash fund that's like our bank account. Um, I don't I don't want to get any more into that, but yeah, we we we have about $40 million. How much do we have? About $40 million in the working cash fund, so we should be fine. Uh, but if not, we have a very good working relationship with Old National and, uh, we don't want to get into a line of credit, a line of credit, but if we
031have to, I believe that we would be able to. Any other questions? Summary of fund balances and the change. Um, we wanted to talk about the the reason why those areas are colored in green because our uh fiscal stability relies on the education fund, the ON&M fund, transportation fund, and the working cash fund. And so that's why we wanted to highlight those uh to show the importance of uh those funds. This is what we're projecting that we're going to end FY25 uh with 50 um 8 million in the ED fund, 9.6 million in ON&M, 6 million and uh transportation and the $41 million in working cash. You will note that uh there is a deficit in fund 60 of uh $12 million. But again uh remember the bond we had the $30 million bond of
032which we have a balance of approximately $18 million. That money is sitting in the uh working cash fund at 41 million. Okay. But also within that 11 uh9 or 12 million, we had a historical deficit of $4.6 million, which is mass in that number and and that predates me, right? So that's sitting in fund 60, fund 80, uh we we've had a historical deficit and the fund uh since we did the riskmanagement plan. If you remember some years ago, I think you were uh the president at that time when we got the risk management plan approved, we had money that was sitting in the in the fund that we couldn't do anything with. Yet we had um cost that was eligible to go into the the the fund. fund is a very complex uh fund
033and you can't just spend money out of that fund for anything, right? So it has to be mitigation of risk. And so we did the we got to approve the risk management plan and then we were able to spend uh the money that's in that fund. And so we never levy enough taxes to cover the cost that's in that fund, but we often uh transfer money from the education fund or from general state I call it general state aid or evidence-based funding to cover that. So I just wanted to show that. Okay. But all in all, we believe that we're going to end the year with 113 113.5 million less than what we've had uh in recent years because we've had upwards of 1181 120 right so this is less but uh Mr. Rodri, as
034you get a test, we used to end with 30 million across all of the notion. We're at 113. Any questions so far? Okay. So the next slide I I I wanted to include uh this slide and this is where we're monitoring we are monitoring we are monitoring expenditures that I needed to go ahead and include this slide in the presentation. Okay. So you will notice that the ending fund balance in the education fund fund 10 is at 24. Okay. And 8 and 20, 3.5 and 40. And again, you don't spend anything out of the working cash fund. You just loan out, right? So it's always going to be at the So the reason why uh that number went down as low as it did is because when we budget we have to assume that everything
035that we're budgeting we're going to spend. But the reason why this number is much lower is if you look at uh the beginning fund balance every requisition that is in the system we assume we're going to pay. Mhm. Is you know do we really believe that that is going to happen? No. One we're monitoring it to hopefully make sure we don't. But if we were to pay every requisition or PO that's in the system, then at the end of FY26, this is where we would be at $67.9 million from the 113. Okay. That's why it says with current. Any questions? Uh yeah, I just Excuse me. Can you help um help me understand why we wouldn't pay every PO in the system? Just to make sure that's really clear because we've not gotten all of
036the goods or we've not received all of the services and so we have to assume that if we have not gotten those, we've not paid those. We made assumptions and that's what's going to be in the next uh slide. But if we were to receive all of the services, if we were to receive all of the goods, this is where we would be. But we're assessing all of those. We're sending reports out to everyone to review them and make sure that they're still needed, and we're going to make appropriate adjustments, but I needed to uh show you what it would be if they were paid. We do not believe that to be the case. It has never really been the case, but that is the worst case scenario. If you remember back then, we used
037to give you three scenarios. We would give you worst case, probable, unlikely. We, you know, we would give you three. We kind of moved away from that, but I'm kind of giving you that now. Yeah. Right. It's ask for everything and then at the end of the year, you may not use it all or need it all. to then kind of just hand it back within building level. So, so I understand that, right? But even with that projection, that's a big chunk of change out of the fund. Okay. Right. So, like the everything that's been requested, that's, you know, we're looking at $34 million that's been requested. And looking at the expenditures on the next slide, okay, we bump it up to 31. So a difference of seven, but that's that's like half of what's
038in there. So I guess my question is were those things truly needed to be asked for, especially if at the end like we're in this process now and we're asking like do we really need those? Like to me that should have been a question on the forefront. you unless I'm misunderstanding. So, feel free to You're you're right. And so, one thing that we um consistently reiterate with our principles um and all departments is to ask for what you really need. If we have to supplant more, we will do that. Um and I'm just going to speak from the principal lens of being a principal previously. Um, and I just know even with our budgets, you always feel there may not be that extra boost of money later. So, you ask for everything at the beginning.
039And you may have this great tutoring program that you want to institute. This could just be one of them. And teachers aren't signing up, so that money is going to fall. Or I may have wanted to buy um maybe do a lesson study with my staff and time in the year just didn't work out planned. So that money will drop. So what happens is if you don't spend that money, which you've already stated, you understand it tends to drop. So what we do see and and and I would still say we're seeing it is people asking for more in the sense I don't want to say hoarding but just to um insulate themselves like we may need this we may need that and then not use it in that time where the money will fall
040and we know that and that is why um I have directed finance to be looking at budgets quarterly so at quarter at each quarter you should know that you're spending 24% of your funds funds that you allocated. Where are you with that? Are you at 18? Are you at 25? You may be at 40 and catch up at the semester. So, we're constantly monitoring. So, we're we're trying to minimize um that insulation and the the need to feel that you need that for lack of a better statement. Um, but that is something that we're constantly monitoring and we're holding we're having those courageous conversations with not only departments but with schools, but we're also holding accountability when we're looking at our KPIs and saying, "Well, you said you needed this much money to do this
041and I see you're either a doing this without it, so did you really need it and should that drop to something else?" Or b you did use it, but we're not seeing the return on investment. So, there's a lot that goes in there. I'm just trying to give you the thought process of what that may look like when um either a department or a school is um creating a budget. Did you want to add to that? No, that's exactly what what it is. We've seen over the years even in previous administrations that typically the budget is much larger than what actually happens. So throughout the year um there are conversations about return on investments and progress monitoring to ensure that the money is going to the the right place you know the right priorities the
042adjusted needs because the plan is a living document I mean you know uh things change within the schools and within the the the uh district as a whole and so you have to make shifts right so sometimes um and I won't say sometimes time it has been historically. That's how we got the fund balance that we have. One of one of the things that the way the way that we're looking at it, we're we're um requiring each individual to justify why they need the money. Yeah. And the budgets that we're providing to you is a comprehensive list of all of the things that been requested. And that's what that is. And so uh it's the spending plan and the reason why we included uh destination 2028 was those were the focus areas and those were
043reviewed by the deputies and also the area superintendent. It's also it talks to the strategy of the leader in the school, right? So what is your strategy? Where are you putting money at? What are the levers that you're pulling? And then we have a cycle of of improvement where we're monitoring that. And so we've gotten so concise where we I would say previously, I don't want to speak for you, Gwen, but I would say probably monitor it, you know, every semester. Now we're like watching this constantly, 5 weeks, 10 weeks, just watching how schools are spending money and are they spending their money on time? Because what you will see not only in this district and other districts, schools will have hypothetically, this just a number, $50,000 at the end of the year and then
044they're rushing to spend it. They're just buying anything just to spend that money like your HSA funds. And so we're stopping that. We're saying, listen, if you needed this, because this was this year's school budget, not all things. You may need calculators, right? Um but if you needed this, it should have been utilized with intentionality. And I think that's really important. That's the word we're leaving out. strategy and intentionality throughout the year to ensure that your KPIs are being targeted and that cycle of improvement. Um, sorry, just because we had attended the same cube conference session, I I think one of my favorite things out of this discussion and even further in the slide is we're talking more about the return on investment, right? that one superintendent who was previously the the financial officer within
045the district was saying, "You have to prove to me that this is going to be worth it." And I think the fact that we have a reading curriculum that we are tied to for 5 years, we're committed. We're not constantly changing curriculums, that's going to also reduce cost. So I think that's just something that I want to make sure is is clear for the entire board as we look to approve different things especially when it comes to programming and curriculum within the district to make sure that one we're using everything we have to the maximum potential and then two we're not duplicating and three it's giving us the intended results and if not to your point we need to pivot. So I think one thing that's missing that that we're not seeing and I only
046know because of my work previous in the district is the priority line. So every single budgeted item you're asked as an admin as a principal what priorities is one two three like on on a range of priorities. And one thing that Gwen often says even to the board is you put all of it because sometimes money does come. So when it does fall through, we don't have to scramble to put together grants or a summary. We have that. So admin already knows you may not get everything you ask for. We're going to give you everything, you know, that's priority one and aligns to the goals. Those level three, you may not get, but something like COVID happened and then all of a sudden we got all of this extra funding that we had to use
047in a limited time. That's when we can go back and look at those priority three standards. Um, and I think that needs to be stated, Gwen, because that is so ingenious because a lot of districts when money does fall, when all of a sudden a grant opens up, they don't have the time or the resources to put together, you know, that needs assessment of what can I get with this money and so the clock is ticking. You didn't sign up for that grant. whereas in Walkegan we have those lists of the things that weren't funded but we would like to be funded so we can pull from that. Um so I think that's another thing that you should be commended for that we do have that foresight of ask for everything prioritize and know that
048you may not get those bottom priorities filled. I I really want to uh commend uh ASAP and operations because um they're they're doing that and then they're having those courageous conversations and the spreadsheets that we've uh provided uh to uh you as the board and the community. It has two columns on there. one column is the uh the value that was requested and then we have several columns which uh denotes what was allocated and so that information uh exactly what you're saying uh Miss Fabian that information doesn't go away we retain that information so if we get an influx of money we can revisit um that and and then rep prioritize yeah so we used to do that uh very often in in operations we still do. And we would draw that line funded and
049unfunded so that uh the public would be aware as well as obviously uh the superintendent and board of education um what we could pay for and what we couldn't. And that's sort of kind of what we do in our own personal life. You know, we can't pay for everything, but those are still needs and we want to keep that in our back pocket in the event that we get additional money. So, we're doing that and I I really uh commend uh the administration for working hard on that because it's very difficult when you have a lot of needs. We're tier one district. Yeah. We're a tier one district and we don't get the millions that we're supposed to get, but we're expected to um you know perform exceptionally. So, any other questions? So, thank you
050for that. Next slide. Yes. Yes. Thank you. Um so what are the the funding considerations? That kind of speaks to what what you were talking about those things that we know that um we we have to do. Continued need for social and emotional supports. um the wraparound services. Uh even though uh we don't know whether we're going to get that $800,000, it is a priority for the superintendent. So, it is a consideration that that we have that even if we don't get the money, we have to pay for it. Uh unknowns, we don't know what's happening at the state level, at a federal level. We really don't know right now. Uh we don't know at this present time what the board is going to have us do with property taxes. And then of course um
051we're we're beginning to uh discuss Mr. Motton is spearheading the whips negotiation. So we don't know what is going to happen with that. So assumptions were made and those are budgetary uh considerations. uh the comparability uh to schools. That is still a requirement for title uh title one and we are title one schools and so regardless of uh what need exist in one school or needs ex exist in a school we have to uh give them equitable funding uh based upon their size whether that school needs it or not. uh compensation increases that we've given in recent years across all job categories has to be considered because every year it increases the bottom line. And then of course we always have to look at the 6% penalty because that's a lot of money associated with
052that. uh when we gave uh the raises to the teachers and uh whips uh that was above the 6%. So if any of them retire uh it might trigger uh a penalty even though that was the right thing to do it might trigger a penalty. Uh any questions there? Next slide. contra uh contractual obligations of of course negotiating contract salaries make up about 80% of our budget. So we have to uh definitely consider that we have to consider uh operation service contracts as well as academic service contracts. We've given uh some examples uh of that and then also we wanted to include like general operating things in operations like electricity, gas those are huge costs and so we have to consider uh those things. This next slide let's look at this very closely. Um, we
053see the teachers in 24 we negotiated a 20% increase. Um, that's admirable. Uh, oftentimes when I talk to my colleagues, they're like, "You did what?" Yes. We gave a 20.22% increase to uh the teachers. And then in 25 and 26, that contract is up at the end of 27. And so it's three and and four, right? So um professional support staff you'll see five and five and then it's negotiated here in the current year. Uh service employees five and four. They have a meto clause with uh non uh union personnel as well as cafeteria. You'll see what the sites are across. they're uh through and at the end of next year. The pair of professionals um they had uh step increases as indicated here and their sunset at the end of next year and the
054non-UN that is to be determined. That group does not have a negotiated contract and typically annually a request is submitted by the superintendent uh for that group of employees. Next slide please. So we wanted to give you again the detailed listing of uh contracts for ASAP and the detailed listing of contracts for um operations and support services. You'll see the associated values there and the total contractual obligations as requested from the two divisions is $45.3 million. So the only thing here is the difference between contractual obligations and contracted services because when I was looking through the spreadsheet I asked a specific question um because one department put an item under contractual obligations and another department under contracted services. Those are two very different things. Um and especially as a board if it could be highlighted
055what's a contract contractual obligation because that's what we have to provide when we're um working with our unions, right? Versus contracted services and and we're going out and bidding out and and asking for somebody to provide a service. So um if we can all be on the same page with the vocabulary and somehow denote uh when we do our our budgeting we do what kind of priority is this right high medium low um but we also have another checkbox is this mandated is this contractual so then we know that like don't even bother looking at that line item because you can't touch it you got to do it right and then you know everything else is like you you can get into the weeds with yes I get it. So, let me kind of explain
056what we do. Um, and that's intentional because you you could definitely have some contractual services that are a part of a goal. And so, what we request is that if you if it is a part of a goal, you do not include it on that contract page because it would be a duplicate, right? So, so we want to align all of the cost with every initiative or new initiative or old initiative. And so that's where that cost is on the uh goal sheet. Then on the contract sheet, those are contracts that are cyclical that are not linked to a specific initiative, but it's something that we have signed and have an agreement for. And then obviously the operational costs, which is just electricity, those type things, right? So we try to pull out those three
057uh areas uh very intentional and uh so that we can know like especially if there is an contractual agreement that is multi-year that we capture it and so we ask all of the you know respondents to give it to us that way. But that is a good good point and uh that's why we set it up the way we did. Uh any other questions? Next slide please. Okay. So again this is uh general operating expenses uh that each department each division um has and so we'll see ASAP has the 1.4 rounding and uh operations has the 3.4 four for a total of four $4 million overall in oper general operating expenses. Next slide. Uh we presented this at our last budget workshop, but we wanted to show you again uh how much you know we're
058giving uh to the to the schools. And I believe that in total this is uh over $10 million and that does not include salary and benefits or supplemental pay. So this is a lot of money that we're laying on the table. This is outside of what ASAP is supporting uh the schools with or what operations is supporting the schools. This is just based upon school initiatives. And some of this money the schools didn't even ask for it. Remember I said that is yeah what we have to do. Next slide. And I was I was trying to um combat this too uh uh speaking to uh some of my colleagues, some of them who go to Spring Springfield about this because I I feel that uh if we're talking about uh equity, equity is not equal,
059right? And so, but this makes us do it equal and the school may not even need it and another school needs it. And so we're forced this. And so it's one of those things I'm going to plug again that if a school is receiving funds that they don't need after the budget after the budget, right? That they are are supporting their their fellow schools that maybe have more needs. Yes. Because uh when Mr. Chin submits the Title One uh grant application, it has to Oh, yeah. After budget. But if you don't if you truly if we're really looking at equity, right? Because they're just looking at population to your point, that's equality. That's not diving into actually what is needed by location um or our student population itself. So that's just a a little gentle
060reminder. Thank you very much. I think what will give you some comfort is us reviewing those budgets like every five to 10 weeks to see their spending so we can see if they actually do need it or don't need it and if we need it someplace else that's when we're having those conversations. Beautiful. Right. Um, for this I'm I'm going to read it. Uh, but Miss Patty can come up if she wants to add uh to these. Uh for ASAP, the major initiatives that we uh pulled out from the request were was the high school transformation, middle school redesign, uh curriculum alignment and purchase, progress monitoring, return on investment, professional development, technology review and upgrades, and literacy uh program. Would you like to add some? Okay. I do want to state that these are not
061listed in any order of priority or importance. I would just like to as a board member get an update on timing expectations because I know we've talked about um previously before um the reorganization about trying to get back to something akin to the the houses within the high school. And I know we're move have moved away and the the language has been pathways, but the goal has always been smaller learning communities because when you have a community, it's easier to keep everyone engaged. Um, so I'm just hoping the board can get timing estimates on when these things are are going to come to fruition. Yes, Miss Lensing. Um, in upcoming board meetings, you will see presentations. Um, one will definitely be on the high school transformation program, um, etc. So those will be coming back
062to the board. Okay. Great. Thank So for operations, major initiatives that we pulled from the request was capital improvement projects, time and attendance system, electronic forms, tenure life safety inspections, safety review and upgrades, the wraparound uh services and recruitment and retention. Uh any additional comments? Any questions? Next slide. And I think this uh brings a smile upon uh everybody's face. Um right now there's no additional budget reductions that are needed and uh we do not believe at this present time that there is a requirement for a deficit reduction plan. There's a big asterisk on that. We're watching time. We're watching. I appreciate that. Yes. So, next slide. Um, what's next in the process? Well, budget workshop three, which we have scheduled for August the 5th. Uh, we're going to place a notice in the, uh,
063newspaper on the 6th. uh we have a 30-day uh review period from the 6th to the 9th. Then the hearing and adoption of the proposed budget barring any changes is September the 9th. We always do it uh the 1st of September just case so that we meet that September 30th deadline. Any questions there? just real quick so it's clear for the community because our fiscal year ends June 30th and begins July 1st and so we're adopting the budget a after um the actual fiscal year begins. Um so how does that impact the work that you guys are doing um especially seeing that we have to have everything ready before these kids come in mid August? Yes. Um so one of one of the things that um from my former military life we we uh when
064I was working in finance right we we had to do continuing resolutions the federal government does it all the time and so we brought that here uh we've brought to the board over the years a continuing resolution authority it would be no new starts existing contracts so that you would know what we have to continue to pay until you you really approved the budget, right? And so, um, you should be getting that, uh, really soon. We also included, uh, the next slide, you we also included something else that I bring to the board and I have to get this done and that is um, resolution authorizing me to be able to transfer funds. That speaks to what you were saying, Miss Fabian, about having the ability to pay bills, right? So, we have to use
065money out of the the working cash uh fund to pay the bills. And so, you're giving me the the authority to be able to transfer that money to pay the bills. Without this, I I don't have authority to do it. So, this is going to come to the board for approval hopefully. Are there any questions regarding the budget? Um I have one final question. Um so in the proposed budget assumptions I don't know if we want to jump to it but it's slide nine um we have the staffing levels will remain stable. We've had a variety of conversations around staffing between you know going international to get supports so that we actually have con um employees instead of contracted services etc. I correct me if I'm wrong. I thought we were adding positions to the
066district staffing based on um the sitebased budgeting and the sips. So to me that's increasing the staffing but also our student enrollment is decreasing. So, I think Miss Hannah had asked about it during our last budget meeting, but I don't recall the answer. And she also asked me to raise that question tonight. Okay. Right. So, I was prepared to do that. Yeah. Miss Hannah had the question, why are we talking about adding more employees if the student enrollment has declined? She said she would be watching tonight, so she's she's tuned in. Oh, okay. So, uh, when we're doing the budget and we're projecting the salaries, we're using filled position, right? We're not using vacant positions. We're using filled positions. Okay? And we're asking that any vacancy that currently exists that they would request those positions.
067Right? So, they may have had a substitute that was in there. I'm not capturing uh subs. I'm only capturing full-time positions. I'm not capturing um the uh supplemental pays. So, you'll see that we're asking all of that stuff that was done the previous year, if it's not a full-time position, that they resubmitted so that it could be assessed and evaluated and prioritized. So, some of those positions may not be new new new, right? They may have been positions that are vacant. Also, we know that there's attrition, right, from year to year. So, some of those might be uh positions that they know that people might leave. They may maybe they're not gone at the current time and they maybe, you know, they know it and they're putting it in there. So, maybe there are new
068positions. Um um I I would defer to HR and and ASAP or whomever is asking for those positions to provide more clarity, but I could assure you that um during the budget process, I'm only looking at filled positions. Okay. So then when we have and this is just a refresh when we have our future meetings throughout the years and positions are coming up there is a line on board docs and whether or not it's budgeted or not. So if it says yes budgeted it means it's gone through this process. It's been included on this spreadsheet and it's something you're accounting for. If it says no, that signals this is a brand new position and the board needs to be unfortunately in this climate very critical on is this something that that we truly need. I
069know it's gone through review through up through the superintendent, but we are the the trustees of the district. So that's the clear indicator then of it being a new position. Yes. If it says it's not budgeted, it wasn't in the approved budget and it's a new request. Any any other questions? That's all we have for you tonight. Thank you very much. Okay. Thank you. Just want to ask if anybody Mr. Just getting to that can ask if anybody in the audience wanted to ask questions or make comments. I'd like to just compliment Gwen and her staff on uh the presentation and the information very detailed. Uh like to kind of piggyback on what Miss Lensing and Miss Hannah were talking about the enrollment. Uh it would be nice if we had some comparisons say over
070the last five years what enrollment has been because looking at what's projected it's under 14,000. Yeah. Like around 13. It's 136 if you add them all up what's projected and I really think you need to compare uh you're getting increased money from the state but how many students are we servicing and are there areas that we need to to look at as far as some scaling back on some services if if need be because I I agree you know you don't know what's going to happen in Washington and those fund balances may come in handy when you think that they were going to fund something or it's going to take six months of fighting and legal fees to get what's what's due. So that those fund balances are going to be necessary. But thank you,
071Mr. Witch. Anybody else? Okay. I just want to say we are very very fortunate to have Miss Pulk and her yes uh very competent, qualified, dedicated financial staff making sure that the district is safe. I always tell Miss Pulk when she walks in the room, I say, "Now that I see you now, I feel safe." Absolutely. I've been telling you that for years, haven't I? And uh we really are very fortunate to have them working for us. They always do an outstanding job. So thank you. Thank you very much on behalf of the board of education. Um, I also wanted to add into the record that uh and I I should have said earlier that Miss Fabian came into the meeting at 6:16. So, just can note that for the record. And is there anything
072else that anybody wanted to add? Okay. I'd like to ask for a motion to adjurnn. So moved. Second. Motion by Miss Lensing. Second by Miss Fabian. All in favor? I opposed. Motion carries. meeting is adjourned at 7:15 p.m.