001[Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] You don't [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Hey. Hey. Hey. Oh, [Music] hey. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Hey. Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] Heat. Heat. N. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Yeah, here you are. Where? [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] I hope [Music] you [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Hey, hey, hey. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Hey, hey, hey. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Thank you. [Music] Hey. Hey. Hey. [Music] Hey. [Music] Hopefully that will help some of our folks in the YouTube realm uh a little bit more. Some key uh limitations to our enrollment outlook. Decreasing
002live births per year correlating with a decreasing population. That's actually not anything that does I don't think that that comes as much of a surprise for folks. uh when you look around that is a statewide trend as well as a national trend and quite frankly a global trend. A unique one is yield rates have decreased uh illustrating less students are being generated by the housing inventory of our community. I think that in its own right makes sense when you look around the community but it's a little bit it's it's obviously different than less birth rates. So what that what that means again not coming from me but their interpretation of your of the demographers is what you have is an aging community who's staying in their homes longer and so the same 100 homes across
003McFersonen that previously generated x amount of children during the 1990s or the 2000s or the 2010s now they no longer generate schoolaged children because they're elderly andor retired or whatever the case might be um high school uh grades are continue to be larger than the incoming uh elementary which is creating a trend of lo of of districtwide loss each year. That was something we saw firsthand in in a little bit when I talk about the financial that we see that happening and impacting us directly. um where we saw a really large cohort leave our system and we saw the smallest cohort that we've seen come in and then uh what does that mean then for moving forward I won't go over this just I'll name it briefly the the demographer focuses uh shows over here
004our our school district boundaries so it shows the whole place but the vast majority of our kiddos come from within the city limits. These are our elementary boundaries um across our system. So Washington, Roosevelt, Lincoln, and uh Eisenhower. And then they broke this down further as part of their methodology to look at u planning areas. So they had a a a multiple different planning areas that helped to uh that they could zoom in even more so knowing that those were the homes where uh we had students specifically attending schools in our district coming directly from those areas. Um they use the sophisticated forecast model methodology to help develop uh their their numbers and predict out where we may go. And then ultimately they they provide uh basically a simple breakdown of left uh on on
005the left here. If you have a minus these are things to to keep a very close eye on. These are not good and pluses over here that uh might give uh that you could see. So the example is if you're going to see the minus sign that's going to be you're showing decreasing live births. If it was a plus size, you might see increasing and then they map out their forward trajectory uh in this way. None of this is McFersonen specific. This is just the model example that they're providing for for us as they jump into it. And then this is what we jump into. So we see that in your live verse verse uh kindergarten students uh over the last 5 years. So bringing it forward to uh the the 2425 school year, we
006saw that there were 290 total live births from 2019. and we captured just right around 110 of those that came to our kindergarten. So these are 290 births in McFersonen County and we got 200 uh we got 110 of those. But it's worth noting that if you go back in time so your 2014 births they were 53 students higher at that time. There were 53 more live births that year. uh and we captured at that time we captured 185 of those that came into our kindergarten those years. So we're seeing a decline in those total numbers. Now interesting thing is the projection is actually uh it it hit kind of a low birth here in 2020 um and then it started to swell back up. So there there's some potential where you may see um
007some possibilities for seeing an increase in enrollment in your kindergartens potentially in the future. And what you map what they map here is you may be as low as 108 in terms of what you capture or you may be up as high as 143. Partially that's going to be determined upon where do those folks go home to when they leave the hospital here in person. Uh again, you see just the McFersonen County live births in the population under under 5 years of age. And that's worth noting that I mean back in 2014, you had 343 live births in about and you had 1,700 a little over 1,700 kiddos who were 5 years old within our community. And now you flash forward and you're just about you're about 60 less in terms of live births in
0082023 and you're down roughly 200 kiddos the age of five. So what does that mean then for for that? And so you see here for McFver public schools what we've continued to see is we have larger classes up at the high school. We have a lesser incoming and that ultimately results in less and less population total population over time. Um, I'm not going to dive into the cohort changes, but um, certainly we'll be wanting to take a look at this um, as we continue the uh, but here's where you get into what ultimately is kind of the predicted uh, kind of district average that we anticipate to see here as well as then the the early the elementary. So, and this stop line then is like where we're at as of last year. So, what
009we see is that our our demographers predict that we're going to see our our enrollment stabil get a little slightly less and stabilize over the next several years. While simultaneously, we'll see this little blue line right here is your middle school. It's actually going to have you have one of your largest fifth grade classes. Our elementary folks in the room know this. They just graduated up and moved to the sixth grade. So, there's going to be a swell here for the next few years that's going to come up for the middle school and then it's going to start to decline as these other classes come in and the high school is actually going to going to see them just a little bit later. So, what's going to happen is we're going to see the high
010school enrollment um can kind of come down, come down, come down until that cohort of of kiddos that are in the will be our sixth, seventh, and eth this year come back into the high school over the next few years. And so by 2829, you you may have actually seen a little bit of a of a valley in terms of what your enrollment does at the high school and then it come creeps back up. But districtwide, you're going to see again a decrease in students over the course of the upcoming years. Another uh uh item to note was three-year student migration trends. Um, and so really what this this kind of draws your attention to is um, and they have methodologies to to factor this, but um, generally speaking, systems are going to have a
011healthy amount of out migration and a healthy amount of in migration. Communities of our size are going to have some amount of families are going to move in, some amount are going to move away. where are you capturing uh who's moving in and and those things. What we're seeing is that our in iniguation is um really netting a positive outcome. And so we had a negative net of transfer students from over the past two years. Out migration stayed fairly stable. So our our our out migration didn't increase. It stayed basically the same. but we've not been able to migrate into the district. Um, continuing to see new students. Now, an interesting reality, we had a a a higher amount of out of district applications for this year than we did last year. So, I don't
012know what that means in terms of of what how this will continue to to uh change over time, but it is something we want to make sure that we're aware of. This is just a review of our outlying districts. This is a heat map that shows where students reside and then here's their their life conclusions which I'll I'll come to as the key takeaways. So obviously live births decreasing is a limitation to student growth. We know that the district enrollment decreased last year and and it's projected to be decrease in the future with or specifically with your senior classes graduating out and fewer kindergarters coming in. um and that we have more students migrating out uh and le we have the same amount migrating out but we have fewer kids that are migrating in so
013we have a net loss uh through that time again I'm unintentionally giving a little bit too uh detailed of a run through but what you're seeing here then is um your population change so we see that the population McFersonen has changed over uh time briefly. Um make sure I'm presenting that appropriately. Yeah. Graphic provides benchmark data. Determine if there's correlation between population change, building activity, and school enrollment. As population has decreased and limiting new housing has been built, enrollment has decreased the past 10 years. This isn't directly uh noticeable there, but housing units uh in in this in this scenario, we've have seen our housing units grow over the course of of the past few years in McVerson, Kansas that are not though, but there as those housing units come online, our yield rates are
014less. So, in fact, the demographer pointed out that you would actually need to capture you would actually need to see double the amount of housing units um being built and even still you wouldn't be c your yield rate would still not be capturing uh new students for uh USD4. It would be it'd be better, but it wouldn't make up for that full yield rate decline. And here's where you can see then the yield rate from single family homes dating back to the 2015 16 school year uh multifamily units and then uh students perund uh I'm sorry then mobile home units and so you see dating back to 2015 16 you had uh you had 38 per 100 home you were capturing 38 students for every um for every 100 homes single family homes you're you're
015capturing five less than that which is a little over 10% less the same uh actually you cap you stayed the same in terms of what you captured for multi-family homes although it had grown in other times but you're also still capturing fewer uh even from your mobile home uh parks so again for the 23 24 school year and then oh my apologies it was even further are down then um for 24 25. So the yield rate for young school age children has declined over the course really by 10 by 12 kids over that whole time which is which is a substantial percentage. I'm not going to do this breakdown um just for the interest of time. this entire study will be there. Um this shows also the actual areas where we've seen those. We some
016key takeaways uh from this is we do have uh almost 550 units that have been identified for potential growth. So that's a positive for our community. There are areas that there's opportunities for development. Um and that is expected to occur within the next 10 or more years. Building uh activity has increased uh slightly over the last two which is also a positive. Uh so we're seeing that start that in the community merson we've seen that uptick. But again this is where that's echoed that your yield rate remains lower. So even as those come online, the likelihood uh that that'll have a positive influx or sign substantial impact to the to the school district um is not very favorable. Okay, so that was our enrollment study and again key key items on that are enrollment's decreasing
017live births are playing an impact in that the housing inventory across McFersonen Kansas as a community yields fewer school age children than in the past and that's all contributing to really a global perspective where we anticipate McFersonen in the next 5 years would see a slow stabilizing decline down from about 2200 20 a little over 20 just under 2200 down to about 2,000 and we'll talk about that here in a minute. Additionally, and I won't get into I'm going to get into a couple of key takeaways on functional uh building utilization, but how how the demographers frame this is uh they're really looking at first off, they're looking at a variety of metrics, standard class sizes, thinking appropriately about uh you know, they're not going to come in and say, "Well, the functional capacity of
018a classroom at McFersonen High School is 34 kids." because that's not the case, right? Um, but they're not also going to come in and say the functional capacity is 12 because in a lot of our classrooms they can handle more than 12. They just can't handle 34. So, you see these areas where kind of the general rule was was applied. And then they they went through on building tours and then they examined the space specifically while on their tours um and applied their class size, their space assignment and uh a variety of metrics to that in doing so. And I'm going to come down here to what they determined to be the functional capacity because that's really what was at the heart of it was that each site has a functional capacity. Um and then
019you see over here your functional capacity percentage as it relates to what it's what it would have the function the capacity for and then what you're actually meeting it. So you see at your elementary schools as of today you're right around 76 just under 76 I'm sorry just over 76% of your of of your utilization uh capacity 73.8 uh at the middle school and then you see that drop down to 63.2 then across the high school. And what that means is for the for audience as well as for the board's sake is the the ideal that you want is to be at 85 to 95 because you're fully leveraging your community's resources of the buildings that they've they've invested in. You can see here that as of right now those spaces are being underutilized. Um
020again you see here that uh my apologies I said 85 to 90 it was referenced at 1.95 is anything over 95 starts to be a concern and you see that anything under 85 is something to pay attention to. Um so 85 to 90 is what you're looking for for all of your prek12 districtwide building capacity. So your functional capacity, your what we have the space to to be able to support is 31 just over 3,100 students. That would be at your max capacity. And you can see that back in 2018-19 you were just just under 2500 students. And that were projected then um in the ne in the years ahead to see this kind of steady decline of 30 to 40 students uh down to down to kind of a stabilizing enrollment just just around
0212,000. That takeaway on that you're already underutilizing your space here. longterm there's nothing in the data that says that we will expect an influx or that that so so then there becomes a lot of opportunity for um how you might leverage spaces uh things like that elementary boundary map is just included again here's a breakdown of your prek5 building capacity so this is for all of our elementary ed you see back in 2018 1819 you were at 1185 and you see the future projection out to 2930. It has you sitting at just uh right right at 935 students during that time frame. Then it has our uh spaces uh highlighted for each building and then it shows that building. Uh so you see here then that some of our buildings are are projected to stay
022fairly all things considered based on who might feed into them. Uh either fairly uh stable or even in some cases see a slight bit of of an uptick. So uh you may see you see there 2019 uh is what or 219 is what we would predict to see there for this year. Again that fifth grade cohort left so you got fewer kids. Uh so even you see the same thing at those elementary level it might come back up to 227 but it's still down um looking ahead from where we were at just a few years ago. Lincoln probably just at 250 down to actually 178 kids by 2930. Roosevelt. Here's an interesting one. So you see continued growth in that neighborhood. Part of this is related to where the growth is occurring. So the feeder
023areas that lead to Roosevelt are the places where the development's occurring. So some of that continued growth occurs and they feed then future future looking as it currently stands. They feed then into Roosevelt if nothing were to be changed. And then at uh Washington you see then a very kind of stabilizing effort. and under here you see at the middle school this swell uh this kind of uptick and then down pick uh to where by 2930 is that swell of students has gone through they decreased then down to 441 um which is just about 100 kids less than where we were in the middle school and 18 back in school year actually and then final one here is our 912 building. That's worth noting this is a 5-year projection out. So that bubble that of
024kiddos then will be kind of entering and be be in the high school during this time. So that bubble will eventually flow back you know out and through uh there as well. But we didn't the the demographer doesn't predict out further than 5 years. So um you'll see you'll see you know 748 down over the course of that same time projected out to 2930 through 64. Um yeah again not to uh oversimplify um but just to capture it in a single slide. What you see here is your past enrollment back in 1516 was total was 2436 students that ticked up as high as 2477 in uh the school year. We are down to 2112 students as of last school year. And you see then that that that projected enrollment is can is is predicted to
025continue to decline and then stabilize over that that next few years. So that's really for our as a reminder for the board of of what we kind of what we reviewed and and our insights were um from the past or from this assessment. There's additional information on there too um that are that are considerations for moving forward um demographic data uh and some other items but just to capture and really then to open the conversation for here is I just would name just a couple of other items or a couple of items couple key takeaways enrollment decline uh we anticipate that by 2930 we'll have another 110 10 more students that will fewer students uh in the McFersonen public schools than today. Um we know that that's a factor of low births. This isn't a
026McFersonen thing. Um this is the best example is that tha uh public schools which is one of the largest public school districts in the state of Kansas has declining enrollment this year. people almost unheard of for suburban Kansas City to to have fewer students from one year to the next and yet they're they're in the same situation. So we know that that's influenced by low birth to a certain extent and it's everywhere low birth rates in another takeaway is is underutilized facilities. Um, I didn't share that, but the expected percent is actually to be under 70% utilized by the 2930 school year. So, we're not we're not transitioning. We're not moving in a in a in a from a utilization perspective, we're not moving closer towards our capacity. We're moving we anticipate we'll move further
027from it in the years ahead. The negative migration was shared. Um, the yield rate was a key takeaway. And then and then ultimately for this sake and our community sake and our school community's sake, this has a lot of strategic imple implications. Um we have ample capacity. We've got opportunities to think about doing some things potentially different. Um, but we'll have to be proactive in our work and and try to work to find the most efficient operation that we possibly can to make sure that we're moving our system into the future. Not just over the next 5 years as we experience a a decline that then stabilizes, but then the years ahead as we learn more. key takeaways or just general dialogue would be kind of my >> I I think that what was interesting
028is this I think confirmed what most of us have suspected. So having a professional study to show reasons I think is is helpful because we hear within our community well people are leaving mass but when we start seeing statistically why we're declining it kind of answers some of those things more directly. So I think it's been very helpful and also the timing which we knew would be good as we start into the facility study having this and then tying that in with insight we can I think really carefully analyze how do we use facilities and um we've got to look for efficiencies and so we have some time now to be able to really look at that if we were the other way which we were years ago uh where we were in modular units
029and those things, but we're not in that world anymore and we probably won't go there again. So, we have an opportunity to really look at what we can do efficiently for things. >> Something that was said and I meant to include it earlier in my comments about inside Design Studios, but the facility assessments, they'll be on CA on our campuses next week um already starting to to develop the facility assessments really for each of our uh facilities. So to to that point exactly Jeff that'll this along with that information will really be powerful for the board >> with the migration are do we have any way to gather the what's happening with those I know we get when there's they're coming in we get that information um but how are we so we can >>
030strategize or understand at least um because These are significant shifts now outside of um below birth right in the aging population. So people that are moving out what do we know? Do we get that data? >> Um the we don't get the data that says where well the short answer is yes. We have exit codes for all of our students. um each time that we've looked at that over the last couple of years. Um it's honestly that's I think one of the things that Rob Schwarz pointed out from the demographer was um you know a lot of it's we have a lot of folks that move in and out and move to other states. We have some interchange between kind of the local areas uh regional areas I might say. Um but yes, we can
031pull that and we can see where those uh students are. And again, in the past, um and this is this is true everywhere, but there were previous times in the past where an exit code may have shown that they left to a different they left to a school system in Andover, for example, but that was really the the the online school or the virtual school that they offered. So yes, we can pull some exit codes. The reality is um I think what I heard him say when we were talking about and I'd have to verify was um part of it is just simply the yield rate the ins and outs of who moves into our community and who moves out of it. So are people with children or as children graduate and then somebody moves
032into it are they are we taking a a home in Mcfersonen off the market that had previously been a three you know a three student own and they sold it retiring couple came in. So I'd want to ask that kind of distinguishing factor there too. >> Shiloh thanks for kind of laying this out. It's a lot of data. My first question is will this study be made available to the public after tonight? >> Yeah. So obviously we're having it here and it'll be posted there specifically. Now I think just to be clear, we're already thinking thoughtfully about how do we make sure we bring this this information to our district leadership team? How do we make sure we bring this to our staffs? How do we make sure we bring this to our communities? And
033that's not going to just be a hey we we have it posted online so we'll do communication related to that and certainly board will I know be working on that but I just really appreciate everyone's attendance tonight uh to hear this for the first time. I kind of want you to just share that really as an opportunity as you're talking with your colleagues to say this information will be shared more than just hey here it is and check it out. The something that kind of stood out the other day when uh the uh demographer, is that what you called him? A demographer. >> Demographer. Okay. When he was taking us through this, you know, the yield rate um a lot of our of our up and cominging families are waiting till they're older to have
034their children. >> So, they're not having as many children when they're buying three and fourbedroom homes. And the other thing is is that um he he mentioned that we don't have enough low-income housing. and he said, "Now, what do you consider low-income housing?" But it's hard for families or workingclass folks to come in and find housing here um and and bring their kids. And so because of >> it's actually the the term that I hear often and I hear it in all different walks of life and it's the term affordable housing. Yeah. >> But affordable housing never means the same for each of the different groups you're talking with. And that's a case in point what what you're saying is that's what was was abundantly clear with the report noted in a small like font
035in a couple spots. Um less than full size space in some of the buildings like there was some notes about. So I'm just curious. I don't need that today, but I wonder how many buildings have unfinished or incomplete and will that be looked at in our capacity? Um, and so if they're incomplete, >> let me actually use one cuz we got a couple of folks from the building today. So, let me actually show you one that was here um that I think is capturing what you're talking about, Dr. Vanderhook. Uh so Eisenhower Elementary School has functional capacity to within certain areas of the room even though some of the areas aren't have been finished. So you'll see that Eisenhower for example up here where you see 311 and 12 you see that that's being captured
036on this as um other programs nonsped as functional capacity but but those at Eisenhower know that that's currently being utilized as storage space but that could be utilized as as space for classrooms cuz that's what that was built for. Um and so that's there are some areas where you see that and that's where the facility study that our uh architects are going to be working on will be extremely valuable because they'll also take it take an in-depth look at that. But it is worth noting it's not currently being leveraged as a classroom but it is functional space. >> Right. I think that's just important in the bigger dialogue. what are we doing with all of the space, you know, across the district of what that's going to look like. So, I'm eager to see how
037we envision or leverage um the space for our learning. So >> the comments >> for me for me one of our challenges is to make this report >> readable and clear to our public and that's only one problem. We got the utilization report to come and we really do we really know what the long-term financial support we're going to have as a district. Lower enrollment means less state funds, doesn't it? >> It does. I'll go over that here in a moment. >> So, you got three issues in my mind that are all intertwined here. >> Sure. >> And I think we're going to need everybody's thinking, not only amongst us, but in our public, what's the best solution? Well, and because I do think it's it's an it's an opportunity to remind you you mentioned
038you mentioned funding. I'll show you the circumstances as it as it results to how we plan this year and in thinking about what decision-m is, but it's also worth noting that the state of Kansas has been funded essentially with the same funding formula since 1992 with some adjustments that were made over the course of that time. And that is is and will be um examined, reviewed, and adjusted. We anticipate we we uh know during the 26 27 school year with a different implement with an implementation of any new changes occurring in the 7 2728 school year. So there's at least some consideration to your point Mr. Grove that we can anticipate uh we we know where we're at now. We have we have to anticipate some additional cliffs potentially some changes that could be less
039than favorable. We don't know what those might be, but we have to be strategic as we move forward knowing that that is going to change in some fashion. Again, those will be updates we hear over the course of the next couple years. >> Perhaps that's a great transition to 7.3. Sure. >> Budget planning and process. if you could bring us up to speed on that. >> Yeah. So, let me give a couple of clarifying uh just timeline here and then I'll uh hold up. So just as a reminder for you as the board this uh the 20th so we'll later honestly the next day or so we will submit over to the county. We'll notify the county clerk seating the RNR. So what does that mean? Well revenue neutral rate is now something we've grown
040accustomed to to dealing with. this is some of your second time of dealing with it, but um in and we'll talk a lot more. You have a in Kansas you have a revenue neutral rate hearing uh and you will then hear uh then you have your budget hearing as well as uh then in our case on the 15th we'll also have our regular board meeting. So the it first really starts in July. We start to run our budget for what this next fiscal year is. Just as a reminder, um, by law, our general fund, we have to le by law, you levy 20 mills. Uh, in Kansas, by law, you can levy up to eight mills in your capital outlay. If you've had a have a community that has given that authority to you by
041a public vote, which we did, so that we exercise our authority on that. The same is true for 33% of the local option budget lo sometimes called supplemental general and that is up to 33% again all of this we'll go over in the next couple of months as well um but that requires a bond election sorry not a bond election that requires an election in order to be able to levy that amount in 2015 our community weighed in on that and gave the authority to the school district to levy that it was 2014 for Capital Outlet. Final ones then really your your primary and taxing um groups then are really essentially all to say those items that are set by law. You that you've been it requires your community to give authority. We have done
042so and we continue to do so and each year for McFersonen different than some other play um your revenue neutral rate is is you're almost always going to exceed it. It's a bad thing if you don't exceed it because that means assessed valuation went down. an example of how assessed valuation goes down and McFersonen is an entire company shuts down and goes away or bad storm happens and the whole place like those are the kinds of catastrophic things that um could occur. So in our case, we'll submit that on July by July 20th by the end of this week. We'll then publish um in uh August. Between then and August, we will have our budget reviewed by KSDE. Um and then we'll publish in the newspaper the notice. Uh we'll have our board meeting between
043then. You'll see the the draft of it at that point. And then you'll actually have your RNR hearing and your budget hearing on the 15th. Just a couple of other items really for this group's knowledge is that then by the September 20 date, uh, we have to submit all of our finalized budget documents over to KSDE and then before October 1st, we have to send our budget documents to the county clerk so that they can start to process then and ensure those items are there. So that's the timeline that we will be um working on over the course of the year. The segue that was was mentioned earlier, what does it mean to have decreasing enrollment in Kansas public schools? Well, one of the things that co coincided for McFersonson public schools as we planned
044as we planned for this year is that we knew we had a decrease in enrollment and we knew that we had um some expected um we we knew that that was going to result in uh less money coming in. So, one of the things that I would, I guess, point out is these two items right here, your general fund and then the impact that it has on your local general is directly related to your per pupil, the number of kids in your system, and it's filtered through your per pupil funding. So, we know in our general fund this year, the year 2526 school year, we will have $300,000 less funding than we did last year. We know that the impact that that will have on our general uh sorry our supplemental general will be about
045150,000. So we know coming in to the year that over the course of the year that we must find ways to work to absorb that impact. I uh this is a this is a unique one um I guess a unique data point. If you you look at the projections for Kansas school districts, there were actually only about four or five districts that had a negative inflow of money. We were one of them. Really, what again what I name that goes back to is you lost about 100 kids. So the same 110 kids that were expected to lose in the next 5 years, we lost all of those essentially in one year pretty much because you lost 96 students by your graduating senior class going out and your lesser kids coming in. So you had right
046around 100 kids. Um, so some things that we did over the course of the year and and and did over the course of the spring and and what that equates to is we took a look at salary potential uh what positions could be absorbed, what positions could uh we hold off on hiring, what what uh did their numbers tell us in terms of enrollment. And so you can achieve uh through a variety of different uh opport variety of different savings in that way. you can save, you know, in this case a little over right around 500,000. And then you have your operational savings, which is adjustments to budgets and things of that nature, right around 240. So savings coming in before we get the general NLO hit, we had right around $740,000 to prepare with
047and off the top of it comes $450,000. We know that one of our biggest cost factors that increases is uh is your property insurance. So, we have $130,000 uh ding. These three items combined equate to uh just under $600,000 right at $580,000 leaving your leaving a difference of $162,000. now shared with the board. Um, as we saw a law change over the course of last year, um, and the way that special ed funding, um, kind of how it flowed differently to school districts and our increasing cost of special education. Uh, as well as as kind of the funding cliff that's been talked about in terms of special education. uh we had to substantially increase our special education assessment for this year. So that that's an increased cost of just over right at $614,000. So, by
048the time you factor in all of your efforts to create some SA operational savings and operational um efforts, you end up with a total of $452,000 going into this school year. That is without any kinds of raises. That's without any kinds of conversations related to that. So you know that you're we know as a board as a system that we will have we are going into the year with deficit spending and that that's going to require an extreme amount of attention to making sure that we are putting some things into place to be in a better position as we start out next school. Let me just do a quick summary for the board's sake and and some of those too. um on document here um and this is what I also wanted to include there
049is there's a reason that over so actually let me name one thing and I shared this and I'll share it with our group out here mostly for them to hear is in my time as the superintendent uh we have I've never shared I have never talked to a board about starting to year out in a deficit. Uh it is an it's a it's a direct outcome of lower enrollment. It's a direct outcome of our of our uh funding mechanism will absolutely be able to handle it. It's not the first time in McFersonen public schools history that they've that we've had deficit spending. It's not the first time in anybody's history across Kansas that they've had to face these challenges. But it is us locally that'll have to to work to to overcome and address. Uh
050let me name one of the things that the board and and our community should be proud of over also the last several years is that we were able to take care of a lot of the things that our community needed. We were able to invest in in a lot of things that we need and we were in a position to be able to um take on things like unexpected costs of a flooded roundhouse to take on unexpected cost of of a of a special education increase that was a lot higher than what we would have otherwise all wanted to see. So your your income cash balance for fiscal for into end of fiscal 25. I just provide these here. I don't want any it is important that we leave here knowing that we've got an
051obligation as we go through the course of this year to really be thoughtful about what this means because your your costs only increase next year. We've got an obligation to be extremely diligent uh as taxpayer as fiduciaries for our taxpayer money. But it's is worth noting that we're in a position where our cash accounts have been able to grow over the last few years so that we can help uh to buffer this impact uh as we go through the fiscal year 26. Obviously, it's worth noting I include all of those just to be clear. We couldn't put, you know, that you can only code certain things out of these these areas, but these are your accounts where uh that that you'd be able to uh draw down over the course of the year as we're
052trying to manage that deficit. What questions can I answer? comments that I can receive. Well, I think the if there's a positive in this is we have a year really to invest time in determining how we're going to position ourselves well for the beginning of next year. So, it's tough. We've been through that before and uh we're going to have to look at everything in our budgets and our staffing and all of those things to just clearly develop plan. But we can be in school and we can provide a good education for our kids. >> Yeah, I agree. I mean again I want to be c I want it's important that we know this means we've got an obligation to take a diligent approach but we have the time to do so and I think
053I think it's fortunate that it it really highlights the urgency for being responsive to our data. >> Yeah. I think it's important for us to circle back around to our strategic plan as we look at this um and forecast as closely as possible um to meet what our responsibilities are concerning. say at least when money is looking like it is and knowing enrollment is shifted as it has and could continue to shift in that direction as that other study showed us. You know, I appreciate that uh a lot of work has been done uh by our system to build this uh kind of way that we can walk through this this next year. But I also really just want to know these are some big challenges that can be some big opportunities for us. Um
054and I hope that our community can come together and help us um as we really kind of figure out what is best. What does it look like for 5 years, 10 years down the road? And so that would be my my call is that sometimes these things can cause reactions in people and that's normal. But then how do we say okay, you know, how do we how do we position ourselves to be a strong community? um even stronger than we are now instead of kind of letting some of these things divide us as they have done in the past. So I hope that we can bring some folks together and really really listen for wisdom because some some big big decisions will have to be made. I mean that is you know but we need
055the community support on that and want that and I think this board craves that >> and I think you know one of the things you look at out there is we have been growing the number of houses >> as the data shows >> not putting as many kids in those houses >> so we have to increase even more our housing stock get more people into in the community that bring some kids with them. So that is an effort that our community is going to have to make. We know that we have big employers like Viega, like Fizer that a lot of their workers come in from out of the community. So the one of the task is how do we get some of those workers to come to the community without more housing, affordable housing,
056whatever that is. You know, it's not going to happen. And I think that there has been a lot of effort in our city um to have some of these big conversations, too. And and I would hope that we can be strategic about that cuz I I don't know if the school's job is to is to go out and find more families and get more kids, but we need to make sure that we're responsibly serving the kids that we have well and that we are being responsible with with the dollars that we are granted to do that. Um but yeah, I was super surprised by that too, Perry. It's like, oh, we think we're building more housing, but the yield on the amount of kids that are that are going into that housing and um and
057a lot of it is it's two $300,000 homes to start out with, which you know, there's a whole large part of the population that just that's not in the cards for them. Um so and I know that our you know some of our u mobile homes our mobile home park you know just from watching online things are just the cost is increasing to where I don't I don't know about young families being able to have that as a viable option either um when you just do the math and so yeah >> well for me I think information I'm going to need is the study shows that we have capacity to house 3,100 kids. Projection 5 years from now will be at 2,000. We got to deal with that. >> And that means we have too
058many buildings in my opinion. So I think we need to have a community discussion. Okay, how do we get there or do we repurpose them? Take a challenge, a new program or something that will draw people. But those are the kind of things we got to talk about. That's the bottom line for me. And the other question I have, are we still paying salaries on capital life fund? >> Yeah. Maintenance and facility maintenance and Yeah. >> So, would it be a way to to get those back into the general fund if we can make some savings somewhere else? >> Absolutely. >> And then our capital outlay funds can be used for what they were intended. Maybe that's too much in the weeds, but I I think it's a a a topic well named long there's
059a lot of the topic very well named for what the potential is as we as we consider all of these things. Um, >> and Chila, my understanding is that there was a time go, >> I don't remember when it was, um, Jeeoff, you might remember, where there were some some deep cuts that were happening in public education and many districts moved over and started using capital outlay to fund. What I was just about to add was that it would have been circumstances like this >> like this that and in fact that's what other district leaders and their boards are having to consider in that are in a similar vote. I mentioned that there's only about four or five that saw actual le negative inflow of money but there were a tremendous amount that had uh
060zero to to even 50,000. I granted 50,000 will impact a smaller district definitely. But um yeah, there's >> until >> up until a few of those years ago, like Rebecca said, you could not use capital outlay for salaries, but as the state made cuts, they said, "Okay, so you have some money to use to increase salaries. We'll allow you to pay not only some of your district-wide maintenance personnel, but custodial and other district personnel capital. Again, like you said, that was not the intent of capital. >> Is that during block grants, Perry? >> Yes. >> Yeah. What does a task force around this look like as a potential way to leverage um various stakeholders to really get in and and dive into it's not a demand asking what would that look like as a as
061a thought process um just to put it out there um might not be the direction we go but I just wonder what that could So there's no response right here for that. I'm just throwing out like seeing that and that's this is a big Yeah, we have the responsibility but to look at a very specific line by line all the different components and to have very focused attention on that might be something to look at. I like that. I also like the idea of having some some groups come together and dream, you know, so we stay out of some of the reactionary responses or what is possible, you know, um and who who would who would be willing to do that and um what demographics make sense and sizes around that. I personally not the
062kind of human being that wants to take through line like God bless you that do. Let's talk about, you know, how can we do something incredible? >> I agree. We certainly should look at efficiencies, but we've got to remember that 80% of our budget is people. So to assume that the remaining 20% is where we're going to find all kinds of money is not very realistic. So we we have to really consider that and that affects people's lives when we start looking at positions. So we need to be very careful of that. There is a lot of things we can do from the building levels though that we can cut back on. We spend freely, I'm going to use the term freely in my opinion, some may not agree on things that I don't think
063are necessary. So that to me is one place I would like to see us diving into as well is having our building principles and our admin staff really hone in necessities. Do we need to travel to all of these conferences? Do we need to take eight people? Can we take two people? Can we come back and have those staff do a professional development day, save that money, utilize our resources in a better way than we have been is kind of where I want to see us go. And that's what I want to ask our building admin and our building staff to help us do too. I mean, I I'll I don't have a specific number on this, but like my but just to give you a sense of like the gravity of it, you could
064probably have I could take the building budgets that they have and I could tell them you you get zero dollars this year to spend it all and you'll probably just it which is unreasonable and not expected and that might make up for half of this deficit. So the my point is if you're going to trim 20% off of their existing funding, that's going to have an impact. And I'm not saying don't hear me say there's a reason to not do that. Those are things that are already planned in terms of conversations with our with our team. But it's it's really being thoughtful as we dig into continue to dig in as a broader group of what what does it mean in 2930 for McFerson public schools to have potentially 2,000 students and what golden opportunities
065have now emerged that we can leverage our community resources in a different way. facilities is one of those resources to help support some of the things that I know I've heard this group and and we know that there's groups working on the dream I think was the word you said like um so yes on all of those things in terms of and continuing to provide updates to you as a board is certainly and I think as our architects come in they plan to visit with all of our stakeholders and parents community and get a little bit of their dreams and visions, but also bring back to reality. Some things we have to look at try to, you know, get our community shifted to a positive look at the school bond issue versus a negative look
066at school issue. >> Yeah. while staying, you know, like keeping in mind our strategic plan and, you know, some of the opportunities here are for us to uh figure out some real serious responsibilities so that we can remain competitive in our wages. I mean, that is something that is in our strategic plan. That's something that's important to this board. And so, um, how do how do we do all of that? And I think there's a lot that's lining up. And and and admitting it, it also something that makes my stomach tight, too. It's like, oh, you know, but we can do this as a community. >> That's one thing I'm proud to this board for is I think we're all on the same page and there's not anyone fighting anybody else at this point for
067various reasons. >> I'll receive that as a compliment, Perry. >> You got that? Even though we still >> different certain times overall we come to consensus >> there's unity there is yeah which is important when we have challenges that we've got to navigate so and well done to your your team and to you for some of the ways that you have um predicted uh the need to save um and to our system as well because when we absorb positions I know that that can create its own challenge challenges on the ground. And so just a thanks to um all of our people for the way we function. So So we expect we'll continue this dialogue folks. This isn't a oneand done unfortunately. And so I would say bring those ideas and brainstorms and what you're
068hearing, what you're thinking so we can continue. Maybe we have some document that's created so we you know keep that somewhere sharing right that you have district leadership and community like whatever that looks like so we're not losing um some of these potential solutions um and some may not stick but we we still can say that we're looking at all of it um with due diligence >> and there's some next steps built into um this this group that helped us with this study. So, I remember seeing I don't remember what they were, but I know that there are some next steps that um where we start to bring people together and at least share the information and answer community questions by our demographer. >> Yeah. Yeah. Well, good. This has been a lot of work
069um to come forward and realize and understand and how do we I mean the the goal here isn't to be in panic state. However, it's urgency also, right? And so, how do we do that um in a way that's prudent and viable long term? Um, so our short-term plan and then the long term. So, that strategic plan will be really important with all the data and trusting professionals to give us guidance along the way. Good conversation. How's everybody doing? >> Number eight. >> Five minutes. You need more than >> five minutes. So 7 minutes 53. [Music] >> I was worried that [Music] Hey. [Music] Hey, hey, hey. Heat. Heat. [Music] I want to get rid of this bad. >> Okay, as we come back, we are at our routine items. Uh routine items start with
070disposition of minutes. Um unofficial minutes. I didn't hear anything. I hadn't yet received any questions about that. I assume those are in order. Cler report just as a reminder it's a it is a new fiscal year. This is kind of an always an interesting time of year where we still present um the start of this year, but with no for this, my my apologies. This is just as we end the year uh in June. Um and so we'll be transitioning now into the new fiscal year. Um, but I really just kind of as more uh just as a reminder to the board, um, it kind of goes back to what I was talking about earlier. The top two here, you flow those down to zero every year, right? So that's that's kind of this unique
071challenge of last year we had an increase in funds uh, that resulted in us spending that down that amount down. Uh, this year we had a decrease in funds. We'll still spend that amount down. And then your cash balances which I shared earlier are are what really get impacted then as you carry from one year to the next. In past years we've been able to incrementally build those up. This year we know going in uh that that'll be a different environment. You can see there um that we need the year where we needed to be. Um and then we'll just initiate this year treasury report similar and then payment of bills. Um the payment of bills I do not believe that this this document was on there but they have been reviewed. I didn't hear
072any questions from those again very uh order you know ordinary items really for end of the year um very very routine and again just to clarify this is how we manage the course of the year budget we have you know February we got to know how they're planning on spending items March spring break week no further authorization of spending so really your June spending is all is almost always oriented around just um just kind of final projects or final payments that are due. Aside from that, do you have anything else to add? We would just look for approval of reaching the items. >> Just to comment on the payment of bills, I think it was referenced earlier. The recognition shows up. >> Yes. So if there is, you know, 650,000 that you don't understand that
073it's we have no control of that money, but we pass it through. I do I can't It is this time of the year where those questions about the MRC will come up for board members more than any other time of the year. So you'll hear now and you'll hear then again in September as a budget as budgets are being uh finalized. So, thank you for for drawing the attention to that. You as a board don't you you are the pass through entity. There is that check gets written and it passes over to them. >> I have a question since I wasn't here. Well, I tried to be here in the last meeting. Thank you for your patience and I apologize for my technology not working. Um, since I wasn't present but we'll participate in all
074the other how can we record because I wouldn't want to approve the minutes. I wasn't, you know, to participate in that board meeting. >> Oh, how we I can look back. >> That's my question. >> What I hear you say is we ordinarily have the president sign off on evidence uh because Chelsea served in that capacity. We can either make that note or we can look at how we've historically done that. So what I have on the document for the minutes, I haven't noted that you were absent, that Chelsea moderated the meeting and actually have Chelsea's name just signed at the bottom of the document. >> I just wanted clarification. >> That's the way that that So when I when I sent the minutes out previously to you, it was not it showed your name
075on the bottom. I've edited that, but Chelsea did. So So tonight, Chelsea would sign that. So don't leave until we get your autograph. >> Okay. >> Right here. >> Just for that doesn't happen often necessarily whatever configuration but >> it's for transparency sake. We had talked about that. >> Okay. So we are looking for >> any other discussion not hearing any. I just have a really quick question and I may you >> Sherry did you >> may have said this. >> Go ahead. >> We have 1.8 million sitting in the capital alley. The the shortfall that we have can those funds can come out of that to help offset that deficit, right? I'm not like if we we need to we can pull out of that and that will help cover some of that. Correct.
076>> So what I'll tell you is like for example, so the short answer is no. capital outlay can only be as mentioned earlier addressed towards items that are um the only salary that can come out of there would be custodial maintenance upkeep of buildings technology etc. The reason though that I would say that is let's say that you have an expenditure that could be ordinarily could go LOB in general you can use you can use general LO to pay for anything salaries computering project you can use general and lob for that where you can eventually leverage a a a fund like capital outlay is if in the past or over the course of the year we have projects that we would have nor ordinarily paid out of lo or paid out of general we could
077code those out of cap cuz they're cuz they if it's a carpeting project or a desk you could code those out of your capital outlay and that frees up the the expenditure. we do have some >> so there's some flexibility within how school funding operates to execute certain things but generally speaking yeah to that point um >> you it is important to know you wouldn't be able to just >> other than those so great question and I hope that >> okay we have a motion and a second so all in favor Say I. >> Any oppose? Same sign. You >> and future meeting suggestions. >> Future meeting suggested items. Uh strategic planning. Actually, that one uh that'll be as ongoing, but it'll start to become then scheduled updates and and information of that nature. So,
078I'll get that adjusted. Long range facility planning. We've talked about that. Uh, anytime we continue to talk about budget, you'll hear dis you'll see the district needs assessment on there and then your performance data and your ka update. Um, as soon as I have that information, we'll I'll work with Brandy and our team to provide an update and we'll schedule a time that makes sense within the within the board calendar and kind of looking at our officers on that. Um, but just as a reminder, as of today, when I'm talking to you, we do not we still do not know how state assessments uh went. Last year, there were changes with how the tests were run. There were changes with potential changes of cut scores is my understanding. And again, we've always known that it
079would be end of July, potentially August before we would know those. So, just keep that in mind. That's why you see those on there for future meeting items. And then as a reminder, August is right here. Uh regular meeting coming up. We have the professional development days and uh and then our first day of school with the 12:30 dismissal is on August 19th. So, um, we just like that, a flash in the flash in the pan and summer's gone. So, I the fall is my favorite season and I like cooler weather, so I'm fine. Literally August and September. That's it. >> Yes, sir. >> Yeah. Could uh at some point I'd like to as a representative Oh, sure. from the board. Give an update tell an update of some things that are happening on the
080recation if you haven't heard some of those and also some changes that are coming in at state high school activity association this coming year. Good board member um got to update those >> performance data. Can we look at culture and climate surveys that we currently have from the past year? You know, there's a lot that came into our strategic plan around that and I would love to see where our starting point is and become familiar with that as much as um some of the you know indicators of where students were achieving or not achieving. Yeah, that's actually what I would say is we would filter. I think the best way is to filter through the strategic plan >> what we actually when we do look the performance data that so yes one side note to
081all of that if we haven't had a chance to look at the social contract I put it up on the wall there for review and signature so then um it can be formulated and available for us to reference. And so you don't have to do it right now, but if you I mean you can we can um >> before we leave >> but before we leave if we can uh look at that just make sure we're where we said we are and where you thought we are. Another thought too is is that something that becomes part of because the worst thing you could do is create something like that and it stays on a wall. We all know about it but we don't really remember it. And is that you know something that we want
082to have as a part of the way we kick off meetings? >> I think it'd be great if we could use that and good things to kind of be a way to kick off. Yeah. Okay. Okay, we have an in executive session. Motion. All right. Motion to go in executive session to discuss proposals being considered in contract negotiations with teachers pursuant to the exception for employee employer negotiations under the Kansas Open Meetings Act. And the open meeting will resume in the boardroom at >> I'm gonna say 840 >> at 8:40. The executive session will include the board superintendent, assistant superintendent. >> Second. All in favor say I. I. Any opposing sign transition? [Music] Oh, [Music] hey. [Music] Hey. Hey. Hey. [Music] Heat. Hey, Heat. [Music] Oh, ah. [Music] Heat up [Music] [Applause] here. Heat. Heat.
083[Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Heat. [Music] [Applause] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. [Music] [Applause] Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] We got to stay with my I have to do it again. Okay. >> You fill up [Music] that motion. >> A motion to go back in to executive session. So, a motion to go back into executive session to discuss proposals being considered in contracts negotiations pursuant to the exception of the employer employee negotiations under the Kansas open meetings act and the meeting will resume at the board at 9:00. The executive session will include the board superintendent and assistant superintendent. All in favor say I. I. Any oppose? Same sign. Um, [Music]
084okay. [Music] Hey. [Music] Hey. Hey. Hey. [Music] Oh. [Music] Hey. Hey. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] [Applause] Hey, heat. Hey, heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat. N. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Yeah. >> Okay. Well, appreciate the good work and appreciate the extra time. Meeting a journal. >> Hey. >> Yes, sir. >> You just leave them there. [Music]