001We will have the director's report for this month, Mr. Carper. Chair, directors. We've got There we go. Super. Well, thank you for giving me an opportunity to to report this evening uh on all the wonderful things that are happening here at Scholars Academy. Uh if you can go to the next slide there, we have a couple topics that we're going to touch on tonight. Of course, um the first thing we're going to talk about are celebrations, and we've got multiple things to celebrate, and I'm probably not going to touch on all of them because there's so many, but uh a big shout out to our band and chorus who performed at Carowinds uh this past month. They did an amazing job. We're super proud of all of our scholars who performed there. Uh we had
002a new scholars day just the other day for our kindergarten students. You see a picture there of a student that was signing. Uh we had a signing portion of our uh new scholars day along with every new scholar got a their first official uh scholar gear. Uh they got a little t-shirt. Uh we got to speak to the parents uh while they uh did some exercises and some some games and things with our teachers. So it was just a great day for our new scholars uh program. And then uh we have uh the future problem solvers were invited to the 2025 international conference in June. Excited about that. We got 53 science Olympiad students are going to compete this weekend. Uh we got several of our robotics teams will compete in the Beex IQ World
003Championship in Dallas this coming summer. Uh and of course our eighth graders are going off to Washington DC tomorrow morning. So we're excited about that. We look forward to them having a wonderful time there and learning a lot. So, we're excited about all our celebrations. Uh our next slide is just uh uh an update. I just want to update you on there was a a document that needed to be signed uh by the executive director, my office for the title six certification. This was sent by the uh uh US Department of Education and basically this is just uh certifying that we are compliant uh to all title six um uh all the things that are needed to be compliant and that we're doing the things that we need to do. Uh and in that you
004see there uh title six of the civil rights act of 1964 states no person in the US may be excluded from participation in denied benefits or subjected to discrimination based on race, color, or national origin under any program activity receiving federal financial assistance. and educational institutions like ourselves and other uh recipients of federal funds are automatically bound by this non-discrimination requirement as a condition of receiving federal money and we uh did confirm that we abide by all those uh rules and regulations. So I just wanted to share that with you. I know we talked about that a little bit policy committee but uh that was done on uh April the 11th for our school. Just for reference to as Mr. Carper said we it came up it was sent via email it was discussed in
005initially in governance we did talk about in policy as well just so we were aware the turnaround time is very quick this was not a oh you need to do it in four weeks it was initially maybe about a week and then they did an extension so the here it's for disclosure with the rest of the board and the community at large. Okay. Uh and then we have a calendar revision uh that we'd like to bring before the board uh this evening. Uh and I would assume that you would probably want to do a vote on this. Uh but we're proposing a revision in our 2526 uh scholars academy calendar. Currently with the proposed 2526 calendar, we uh have no school on February the 23rd and uh and a teacher work date on February the
00624th. We'd like propose that those dates be moved to February the 16th and the 17th. Uh and this was an oversight by us, but February the 16th, just like this past year in February, that is a holiday, a federal holiday. Uh so February 16th is a holiday. And then the 17th uh would be a work date for us. So we'd like to move this so align with this year's calendar, this past year's calendar because it's the day we did this past year and also a local districts because uh sharp mech is out on the 16th as well. Uh and also it's a federal holiday. Uh and as you know the if we would if you would vote to approve that uh the 16th would be a federal holiday and then on the 17th is our
007conference our uh conference that we do every year our gifted students our gifted students conference. So uh that's why we would like to to make that move if possible. So uh I'll let you Yeah, we can. Yeah, that just makes sense. Uh we can vote once you and maybe this is the last is this the last slide? We get to the end. So, okay. Yeah, when we get to the end, we can Yeah, I think uh we've got important dates coming up and as you see uh we've got a ton of things going on and I just want to take this opportunity. We do have so many different events that are taking place uh in May. Uh, and if there's I know that our community, our PTO does a wonderful job. We're coming up on
008our staff appreciation week May the 5th through the 9th. Uh, I know our PTO does a wonderful job of sponsoring that and they do so many great things. And we have so many other events that are going on with field day and field trips and all these things. and just want to reach out and invite our parents if there's any way that they can help us out as far as volunteering for some of these events, I want to encourage you to do so. Uh we uh we're really stretched thin during this month. Uh we've got a lot of people that are uh doing multiple duties and so anytime that we can have any of our parents volunteer, that's a wonderful thing. So, uh we have the nine in the arts coming up on May the
0098th, which is huge. We'll have an early release uh that day. Uh and then night of arts uh it's 5:15 to 8:30 hopefully 8:30 and at Christ Lutheran Church. Uh then on May 9th we have no school for students as that's our staff community service day. Uh and then on May 13th 14th we have field day. Uh on the 13th it's 5th through 8th grade and on the 14th is K4. And then again you guys will be back on May 19th for your board of directors meeting. And then we have our new scholars day for first through 8th grade on May the 21st. Uh and then on May 23rd, we want to invite everyone out to the ballpark for our PTO Charlotte nights uh scholars night, spirit night, that night. Uh that'll be a lot
010of fun uh to be out there. So invite everyone out that. And then we have no school on Memorial Day which is May 26. So uh I think that is my last slide. Okay. So, have any questions for me? I'd love to hear about the um new scholars day. I think it was Friday. Yes. What was the participation like? We had, let's see, we've got 36 total uh students that would be uh coming uh to join us next year. We had nine that were missing. So whatever that just yeah it was uh we were very excited about it and uh so we're and just a wonderful group of students and parents we were very excited and did the um were there questions from the parents just anything where as we look towards the new year
011and new families coming in that we might try to be mindful of to help bring them into the community. And there may be none, but just asking if there was anything that was surprising with questions. Nothing really. Uh nothing that uh you know, we we were able to talk to him a little bit about all the safety measures that we have put in place and are going to be putting in place over the next u couple months. Uh we talked a little bit about that. Uh there were one or two questions about that, but uh uh really they were just really excited just to be here, you know. Uh, so it was it was great. It was great and they loved they loved the uh the pictures and the signing day and all that kind
012of thing and I think it was just a real good positive experience. So I think they're excited about uh getting to know their their classmates and so hopefully we'll be able to do some things over the summertime where we get those students together. Okay. What was the signing day like uh you know how you going to college? Yeah, high school. I think that's what that forum students do that this first year, right? This first year. Yeah. Yeah. We tried to kind of do it the beginning of last uh year school year, but we really didn't get the opportunity to do it the way we did it this year, which was big. You know, we had it all decorated. They had the big pencil and they signed. This is big time. That's foundation. No, I think
013that that'd be a great opportunity because parents are all gung. Yeah, was there was a there. Yeah, so it was it was a good good day. And PTO was there as well. Yeah, that's a good point. For the next new scholars day for 1st through 8th, we make trying to make sure that one of the trustees Yeah. and Tony potentially get those newspaper sticker magnets. Yeah. Yeah. We gave those out to Awesome. Tony's always on top of it. I got a shirt and a magnet. Awesome. Yeah. Question. I You know, you presented a very busy May coming off and we're also in budget season. Our budget is due the 1st, June 1st. When's our budget for next year? On it at the next meeting. So, we're going to look at the preliminary today. Okay. We
014are look Okay. I was just wondering I don't know if it's 1st or 30th. I think it's the end. It's the end. Okay. So, I was just wondering where you are in that process. Yep. I'm going to share with you tonight the uh personnel slate. Okay. That'll be our first step. Gotcha. And I'm going to share a prelim view of the budget tonight. Sounds good. Um and I had a question. Um how does it fly with the transition of the new director of academics? Outstanding. She's wonderful. She's doing a great job. She's uh she's actually going above and beyond. Uh she's already helping us right now with uh with some of the interviews that we've got because obviously Miss G is is leaving us. So we're already uh being very proactive and interviewing possible candidates
015to to uh to go into that position. So she's doing a wonderful job. Very very happy with her and what she's doing. All right. Um, uh, do we want to vote on the amendment to the calendar so that it can be published on the website? I know we had a question about that come up recently. We need to republish. So, I'll entertain a motion just so that we can vote on the new calendar. Do we need a vote for that policy, the title six? Nope. No. Um, so moved. Second. All those in favor say I. I. I. Thank you. Any opposed? Oh. Um. No. No. But Kim did have a question. Okay. Kim, did you want to ask a question? I apologize. I didn't. I was raising my hand to vote yes. Oh, okay. Thank
016you. Um, I'm sorry. I lost my place. So, all those in favor say I. Okay. Any opposed? All right. The motion is passed. Thank you, Mr. Harper. And we will discuss the um plate in closed. I'm not sure if it I'm just going to say it. So, um with respect to the the certification that was we were required to sign executive director, I believe there from our attorney's legal update. There was a preliminary injunction. Additional additional issues on agenda to address. Okay. Okay. I was just wasn't sure what was going to impact us. Okay. Thank you. Wait, but wait, there's more. Okay. Exactly. That's why I don't want to wrench you, but Yeah. No, no. And actually, Enrique in governance, you'll go over more on the DEI certification. Yeah. We just wanted to get it
017officially on on the agenda that we discussed it. Um, so Mr. Carper provided a good detail about it. Just for background, it's worth noting that it's our federal funding is about 85,000 a year. So, um, it's, you know, real money, but, uh, like, uh, earthshattering. But, um, what the certification is doing is, um, as Mr. Copper said certifying to the fact that we're not violating um knowingly knowingly violating any uh illegal uh dignity of anyone and we're not aware of us doing that. So um you know on with advice with outside counsel as well you know we reviewed it and and we signed it. If you didn't sign it um by the due date um you are at risk of losing that federal funding. So that's why as um Dominique mentioned it was a very
018quick turnaround. We didn't have time to you know address it with the whole board um you know it was one of those scenarios where outside council did not say they would recommend signing it and also didn't recommend not signing it. They said it was a board decision. um we just felt like it was the it was we weren't making any misrepresentations at the time um or still not making any misrepresentations. So felt like signing it made the most sense. Um so thank you for taking care of that, Mr. Popper. Um any questions on that? I policy has more on this later. Wait, there's more. Yeah, sure. I'll just add one little nuance details of that 85,000 in federal funding like 70,000 of that 85 is for it it comes from the IDA act so individual
019with disabilities education act um for children any any child that has an IEP would technically would fall into receiving some funding to help with that. So this is just my personal opinion. Now in the like rank order of like federal funding to be cut, that's the least likely probably. That sounds logical. It's purely based on logic. Yes. There's a lot of other f what I'm getting at is for public schools, there's a lot of other federal funding that we don't get. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Your point is that there we don't feel like this is at risk. Correct. Either way. Yeah. Yeah. So, um just wanted to give a quick recap here on the town hall. Um we had pretty good attendance. Um you know, out of all the registrations, you know, most people who registered
020actually so 46 people attended virtually. Um, three people attended in person, one person by phone. Um, and the attendance was um, active attendance too. We got lots of questions. People stayed for basically the whole time. Most most people stayed for the whole time. Um, and we got a lot of questions about various topics that some of them we we knew were going to be there. you know, the seventh grade class um management is uh we knew that was going to be there. That represented also the questions we got from the the B survey or or the form that where people could submit questions ahead of time. All three questions submitted in that form were about that. Um questions about the expansion, growth, and high school and modifications of the building. um handful of questions about
021bus and then some other topics that came up um uh like kindergarten class size, the calendar, um school needs for the counselor, um how we're dealing with sexual education, um and the impact of um federal funding. So, so uh all in all, I think it was a pretty good town hall. Um so thank you to all of those that attended and thank you to all the board members that could be there and the board members who were there in spirit. Um next thing I want to talk about this is for a vote is um to reopt in or I guess opt out potentially for the parental leave. Um, if you'll remember, started 2 years ago, the the state has started to offer um parental leave um financing basically. Um and charter schools could opt in
022to this. We have to opt in each year. Um, and so this vote would be for next year, next school year. Um, just think it makes sense to get it done now so that it can be part of the budget planning process and also give some continuity and and asurances to our staff. Um, since we're coming up on summer, you know, things can change and and they're looking for employment now. Um, you know, potentially. So we think it makes sense to go through this now. Um the governance committee is recommending opting in again. Um we see it as a huge benefit for teachers and and the cost seems worth it. Um anything else to add? So with opting in, we are required to opt in by October 1st, but you're recommending that we go ahead
023and do it now. So by October the 1st or the school year that you're you're an optin. So technically the school year could start and you have a couple months October 1st being that they're doing. So we're just doing it early in advance. In advance. Yeah. Mhm. What is the financial impact? Do we know? I mean it's an it's variable, right? Absolutely. But the estimate we had when we kicked this off a year ago was $12,000 a year. Totally worth it. And then we would be reimbured at. Is that the amount? No. No. That's the amount we're out which would be like substitute net is 12. You didn't I So there's some we pay out, there's some we get reimbured, but then we pay for a substitute interal. So Okay. We're reimbured for paying that
024teacher's leave, but we're not reimbursed for the substitute that sits in while they're out. All right. And that would that's where the variability comes in because it depends where what level you get those consuable taking is able to take advantage of it. I mean, I think that I've heard that teachers have taken advantage of it. So, I think that it's great. Obviously, you know, we need to consider the financial impact of everything or we would be doing our job. But overall, I think that I think this is, you know, well worth it. Yeah. All right. Um so we can put that to vote now. You want to just finish the last do that? Yeah, we can do that. So for um last item from governance is about board recruitment. Um so we we've trying to
025be thoughtful about what's going on for the future. Um so for third next year we'll have one opening and one potential opening uh for the board. Um and the following year we for sure have two openings and two potential openings uh for for the board as well. Um, so far, unfortunately, we've had zero applications, which is doesn't seem to be that unusual in this time of year, but we still need people to uh nominate themselves or suggestions. So, we asked for the whole community, teachers, families, parents, uh, kids to to nominate people um, who they think would be a good fit for the board. We really could use um any help, but in particular if you have um good financial acumen um that'd be uh finance acumen that'd be um appreciated. Um but yeah, we
026we look for any skill that um it's a very rewarding experience. Um and we need someone from the community to step in and help us out. And I'll just add to that, yes, it might be where you are listening in and participating and supporting the community in other ways. So if there is uncertainty on your part and feel free to reach out to boardcolacademy.org og so that we can arrange to connect one-on-one and address any of your concerns or learn a little bit more about um how we support the um scholars community on a monthly basis and overall how we provide our expertise or just overall just supporting the decision-m strategic um initiatives. So feel free to reach out if you see any of us in the wild. Just tap us on our shoulder. We're
027happy to engage and provide you with additional information. So it might seem overwhelming and somewhat scary, but it's not as bad as it may seem. I assure you if you are able to connect with us, we can give you additional insight. So looking forward to the nomination forms and then the interviews that will follow. Yeah, those that form is on our website under the board section. So if you have it's also been in the Eagle's Nest uh newsletter that goes out weekly on Fridays. Is it for governance? Right. Oh the we do need to do the vote though. Okay. Thank you. I will entertain a motion to vote on the recommendation for the parent to leave optin. So moved. Second. All those in favor say I. I. I. I. All three responded. Uh I can't
028tell. Any opposed? All right, the motion has passed. Thank you, Enrique, for the updates from the governance committee. I know that Danny is not feeling well, but um we do have an update from DEI. committee um over the implements the committee continues to discuss are necessary items of the new administration's receptive orders on DEI school's DEI mission and federal funding as previously stated earlier today it's been four governance so is DEI committee uh DEI committee being many that want to focus on these particular um subject line. One of the key reasons identifying [Music] um and we have that um is the school's equity. Uh so we're looking at them. We've included the equity statement um and the deformation plan on the agenda for board members to review and share consuming. So we have taken into
029account public then where they posted publicly then we have been attending excuse me um all dates um and then um then the main meeting Are there any additional recommendations regarding publicly facing them submitting what documents we will uh share um any thoughts or dates if there decisions made during the information bring that to the May board meeting thank you and those links are very helpful it's figuring ing out what's appropriate in terms of um committee names, publicly facing documents. This is certainly part of our fabric and who we are, but how do we ensure that we don't lose our essence, but perhaps update some language? So, more to follow on that, but just bringing it forward to everyone's um bring it to the forefront for everyone's awareness. So let me forget office. Um did you
030mention that the May meeting was a different day to our governors kind of? So we will Mr. Cooper ahead of the calendar as a reminder with the holiday in May, Memorial Day. Sometimes May has five Mondays. It does not this year. So our next board meeting is three weeks from today instead of four. So please mark your calendars community and the board as well that it's May 19th three weeks tonight. Great. Thank you Malik. And hopefully maybe take a couple sips of your tea so that you don't lose your voice completely since you have one more committee update to provide. um came across the policy committee. Uh we are looking at best practices. Um we're looking at um review our strategic plan. The um maybe is looking at um some internal processes to polishing. Um
031and um we presenting that side of the agenda through the website. So we're looking at what steps we should take and we finalize those steps just so that we have some consistency updating policies. Uh particularly like the fact that we've had to change a few policies recently um uh with with new administration changes and so forth. just want to be able to talk more about being consistent with making those changes so we we move quickly as need be. um uh Britney really to attention some changes the short case noted that there was maybe a short turnaround and there was an extension um and then after the illegion discipline of education uh which essentially prevents the DMV from enforcing the certification the schools required to sign this month. What does that mean? It means that the
032way cannot enforce uh that certification nor would they hold funds to public schools pursuant to a failing refusal or inability to sign uh the certification in a reasonable period of time. um and and with my attention. Um the other issue that council discussed regarding a false claims act and whether um the signing by a school entity signing that affidavit could potentially be in violation of the close claims act is an [Music] issue affidavit is also put on hold until the um injunction is addressed. Um so we're just wondering that you closely recently are business committees on this and it's so fluid because you have extensions you have a law that's going on a number of people opposing it you know just small business and you know we'll do what we need to do as soon
033as we need to do it but no change is this the certification that Mr. covering. This exact similar doc two is the same as doc one. Uh yeah, it we just attached it every time it showed up. Okay. Looking at it. Got it. I'm going to unattach it then from the because it it attaches to the very end. It's the same thing. I'm just And to be clear, it was submitted on time. I don't know if I said that. It was. Thank you, Malik. More to follow on this. DEI. We will continue to monitor and provide updates within the committees. there are multiple committees that are looking at how we are impacted and we will bring to the board any recommendation. So the certification is kind of that first that immediate action that was required
034and um sharing with the board broadly here but more to follow on that because we continue to monitor. It's always some new development at seeds and we'll keep the board a breast as we learn more. Okay, we can move on to the foundation. So the um pledge is a promise campaign has kicked off. So our parent ambassadors have been um have started to reach out to approximately 75 families who've who've pledged but have not donated just yet. Um, so this is a reminder to all of those that uh, pledge our pledge fulfillment due date is May 15th. Um, that those 75 families represent about $101,000. I'm missing a digit here. I apologize. Um, and pledges not fulfilled. Um, to date we've received about $314,000. Um, and there are about 39 families that have pledged uh,
035but with amounts still to be determined. So, you know, if if we get everyone in, we'll be probably just short of our goal. Um, that's assuming all the pledges come in. So, we really need um those 39 folks that um pledged without amounts to kind of fill in the the the gap there. Um, so families might be hearing from our parent ambassadors who I want to thank for doing helping out and volunteering their time to to reach out to everyone and answer questions they may have, which is what a lot of that process is, is just calling them and um, hearing what they have to say about the school and answering um, whatever questions they may have. So, it can be a pretty big time um donation if you will. Uh so, thank you to
036them. Any questions on the foundation? I have a comment. Um so, I pledged and I have not fulfilled. Right. Um call you out public. I'm about to fulfill soon. But one of the things that um I was wondering if there's a way that we might be able to improve the process next year by when someone pledges an amount either like sending them a receipt sort of that tells them the amount and or I don't know if you want to have the ambassadors be able to know the amounts but like since we pledged back in October I didn't remember and I and I this happened last year But I'm like and so then you know it just kind of gets lost and you're like I'll ask eventually anyway the ambassador called and I said well actually
037Chris talked to him I was across the I was like so I don't know if there's a way that there's probably some sensitivity on sharing that information publicly. You wouldn't want a fair like is there a way I don't know if there's a way to like put it in an email or like Yeah. provide some form of receipt like Okay. Or does it tell you the amount? It does. It does, Julie. Yes. Yeah. I had the same issue cuz I didn't want to like short change my donation or my pledge and I um went back and searched and there was an email when I pledged many moons ago that had the amount. Okay. Okay. The question isn't specifically my student from the foundation gather information reach back out to you. Yes. When that happened like
038Tony I think you're on the call. You were super fast. I mean it was like minutes. I feel like what happened? I just didn't know if there was like an easier way so that it it didn't have to kind of be that process. But if not, that's fine. If if that's something we know about I did. So I was in the same boat and I searched my email and I didn't find it. Not saying it does didn't exist. I would have paid personally much sooner if I had received an email saying you this amount. You know what I mean? And I don't know how sophisticated that is to do. I mean, if that's a lot of work, it's probably not worth it. But to Julie's point, I would have paid sooner if I had known
039the amount because it's just one more thing. I have to bother Tony. And I know Tony's gonna say it's not a bother, but you know, I've got to email her. You know, obviously we want to try to make it as easy as possible reminder. Yeah. Want to be too frequent. Yeah. At the beginning kind of before the ambassadors start to reach out, right? Is like to send that maybe in uh we have February. We have communication I think goes out in March email. I do remember the email. If there's a way that you can put the amount on that email, I bet you people would fulfill it faster. We can probably figure that out. Thank you. Okay, any other questions? That's it for foundation. Great. Thank you, Enrique. Um, Liliana, I think you have a
040quick update from educational excellence. Yes. So, we are working on the parent survey that was uh announced at the town hall and that will um be sent out this week. So, look look out for that. Perfect. And we'll we'll send that out. We're pulling in this is a survey that we do every other year. So, this is the year to do it. And as we are developing and refining and finalizing our strategic plan for the next five years, we're going to be putting some questions in there to get feedback from the community. So, we look forward to your participation and um the insights that your feedback will share to the board. And just as a reminder for everyone that was asking questions or making suggestions via uh the town hall, that's a good opportunity to
041reinforce those things that you were mentioning. Thank you. I believe Allison is on for the fast committee updates. Um yeah, not much. We had a little bit of an update on the town hall just about what's been done um uh with ongoing building maintenance as well as um safety. And I think what we're working through right now um uh with Alex and uh Chad are getting fencing installed over the summer. So Chad, I haven't had heard back from Alex. If you could follow up with him or if you need me to email him, but um yeah, that's about it. Sorry, kind of digressed. Um but that's that's all that's really um happening with FAST right now. All right, great. Thank you. Um they're looking forward to some of these things may seem small, but as
042we continue to make those investments into safety in particular, they really add up and overall it just shows our commitment to um improving our building and with safety in mind for our scholars. Thank you, Alison. All right. I think this is where we're going to spend some good time with Adam and the finance committee. Yep. We'll be sharing your screen. Eventually. Eventually. Yeah. Uh so finance committee met twice this month. Uh we had a budget working session uh early at the beginning of the month and then after that was before spring break and then we met we had our regular finance committee meeting last week um where we spent time on the non budget planning items for finance. Uh, so for you guys, we have our annual tax filing with the IRS. It's called the
043990 form. I sent it around to the board on Friday uh for your reading pleasure over the weekend. I'll be asking to vote and approve so that we can submit it with the IRS. As a reminder, you know, we are a public school. We do not pay taxes. This is just a filing of information with the IRS. There is no taxes paid or tax refunds. There's no exchange of money here. It's just a filing of information of our revenues and expenses. Um um we talked about challenges with the bus and there's been some exploration on private bus company uh that could provide drivers um we don't know if they would use our buses like I obviously we have our own buses right so like the perfect solution is almost like they provide the drivers, we
044provide the buses. We don't know if that's feasible yet, but these are just uh ideas we talked about. Um I I guess there's been some conversation with them, but I didn't have an answer on whether they could use our buses or not, which I think is a big deal. Yeah, it comes down to a Oh, yeah. This this private company. Okay. This effort research Uh, Miss Library Spring Lers work. What is the company called? Um, I have to check. I'm sorry. Top my head. Not sure if we want to. Do we want to see that anyway? I'm not even know anyway. But, um, I try to discuss this. This is just we're still Yeah. We want to see what they can offer. uh and what they can do for us. So we don't no negotiations
045or contracts or anything. We're just exploring the opportunity. Yeah. Yeah. That would be ideal is they provide the labor, we provide the equipment. Yeah. Because in the past before we owned a bunch of buses, we had a contract with ironically Eagle Bus Company. no affiliation with us being but um that was like parents paid directly. They weren't we had no contract with the school. The parents private paid and had them pick you know pick up kids and bring them back and forth. But um that was their own bus. Right now we have our own buses. Now we just have a staffing problem. So challenge. So how sorry uh this might be jumping ahead but how how would that work? cuz I remember there being discussion before about how we couldn't have people pay so like
046still we would be paying the school to be I this is my own words it's I view it as like a staffing agency it's just like we're going to them and saying we need employees to do this and they say sure we can give you employees to do that and it costs X dollars we say can we afford that yes okay then we don't need our own employees to drive buses we just pay they would go through that agency which would I have no idea if it operates that way. This is what we're trying to find out is does it really operate that way or are they more like the eagle bus where they're like no all in we have 30 buses we provide the bus the driver and you're going to pay for all
047that and then we would be like the name of the company is Care Cab kids transportation seeing their vehicles drive. Um then we just talked more about the budget and um we did receive for those been following along at home the bus accident that happened in December of 2023. Yeah, we finally got the insurance claim money that accident. So we got fully reimbursed for Great news. The bus repairs. Yeah. Should be fully reimbursed plus all the time to follow up plus the interest and time spent. Yes. Ultimately, they were trying to settle for less. Who was our insurance broker assisting? Was anything was helping the whole time? It was out of his control. Understood. Understood. But it's always good to have an advocate that, you know, has a little bit of more knowledge in the
048industry because it is a whole other um who is trying to pay less. The the insurance company. Yeah, the insurance company. I couldn't even tell you what company it is. I don't remember. Our insurance company. Yeah. Actually, I don't even know if that was ours or the person at the bus. The person because they were at fault. Okay. We were not Paul. Yeah. I think the person I mean everything is negotiable, right? So for some they would rather have the amount to offset whereas we're like now we're not in the wrong. They offered a settlement very early on like a lower amount. We said no. Yes. I I might have had um an incident as a young person and I feel like I don't know if this is still the law but I think that
049they can basically drag their feet for three years and then if they don't settle or they don't do what they're supposed to do then it then it they have to limitation statute is three years. Yeah. They have to you have to settle or you'd have to start. So we're happy that's behind us. Yes. Yeah, that's great news. Way to stay uh the course on that. Yeah. And it was also um All right. So, should we vote on the 990 now or should we talk about the budget? There are no budget amendments for this month for this school budget. Yeah, then we can do that because I suspect we will have questions and dialogue on them. Yeah, let's vote just because it's part of this Yeah. thing and then we'll move on to the How about
050that? Yeah. Okay. All right. I'd like to make a motion to approve the 990 tax filing for the 2023 2024 school year as recommended by the finance committee. Second. All those in favor say I. I. I. Any opposed? All right. The motions passed since the 2020 324. Oh, got it. Well, that ended last June 30th. Okay. And you will take next steps to get that completed. Yeah, I just let um our CPA uh who prepared it know and she will file electronically. Great. Thank you. Okay, now I will share screens so we can look at the preliminary budget. So, as a reminder, we will bring the final budget next month to the board meeting. This is just a preliminary uh to get the conversation started. Okay, I'll start with the bottom lines. So, um let
051me orient you to what you're looking at. This one off to the right, far right, this is our current budget as of March uh report. And this row here is our net surplus. This is what comes on the report from our accounting service provider. But that includes the fund balance, which is our $2.5 million of cash that we started the year with. Weird governmental accounting makes them included in the revenue line. So, we have to back that out. So, this 429 is what I would call the true like budget surplus, but that includes the full budgeted amount of the annual giving campaign, 455,000 um of which some portion of that will go to the foundation, right? Not really to the school. the school budgets it puts it in the budget as if the foundation is
052going to give it all to them. But that's a determination we make as a board and at foundation level what how much actually will go to the school. Uh some of those funds do get paid directly to the school. So not everyone donates to the foundation. Some donate to the school. So this 84,000 is an amount that has been paid directly to the school. Anyways, if you back out, if you take the less the fund balance in the annual giving campaign, uh this is the budget surplus we currently projected to end the year at. So 59,637 and this includes the staff bonuses that we approved to pay next month during teacher appreciation week of $115,000. Okay. Now this column next to it is our proposal for next year's budget. [Music] Um so what I should
053have done is shown a delta. Yes. Okay. Uh when you do the same thing for the next year and you back it out, you get a $30,000 surplus, but that does not include yet staff bonuses, which we historically have never put in the budget until we get to that point in time of the year when we see we have the budget capacity to do it. Um, so the reason why this looks much worse for the school is because we're assuming that none of the funds actually come to the school, right? This we have 85,000 coming to school this year. In the budget, we assume none. So, it's kind of an apples and orange view there. But you'll note that the annual giving campaign amount is lower. That's one of the recommendations from finance committee is
054to reduce the ask for the annual giving campaign next year. So is the idea then that the the ACG funds if this year well we never know right if there's some that are going to linger into the school but if say assuming nothing comes to the school then the annual giving then the foundation will just fund the year ends correct the the school then would go to the foundation it say we would request these fonts for this purpose and the foundation of course would grant it. So yeah, so let me quickly walk you through some of the key assumptions here. I will try to go quick because it's a lot of line items. But uh starting up in the revenue section, uh this middle column I put what growth rate is year-over-year. So what are
055we changing? If you see a zero there, then the number should be the same as current year. Uh so state revenue, we're assuming a 3% increase. Don't know if that will turn out to be 3%. It's been we've used 3% for last probably four or five years and it's been a pretty good barometer. It's co kind of influenced this to the upside. There were several years where we got north of 3%. Um I'm not as hopeful that it will be north of 3% this year. So I'd say the risk is to the downside, not the upside here. The risk is that it comes in at like 2% or something, but we'll see. Um, and we've pegged that same growth rate across many of our government funding. So, state and local revenue. You see where the
056yellow cells are? That this is all of our county funding. Cabaris County, Meckllinburg, Gardell, Union. Wherever the student resides, that's where we get that money from. So, we're just assuming a 3% growth rate across the board there. Um, when do you find out? whenever they pass the budget, which usually is sometime in the fall when we finally get what that will be. Does do the county the local uh growth rates follow federal? No, not state. State. Yeah. You mean do they follow the state? Sorry. Yeah. The the state. No, they are not directly linked. They're indirectly linked. like the state passes the budget first and then based on that the counties then know how much state funding they're getting and then they will determine their own. Gotcha. So, but they they kind of move together
057but they're not exactly the same number. This is just like a big, you know, blanket assumption across the board. The state funding is cut and it'll probably trickle it'll imple Okay. [Music] Um, I'm just going to hit the key points. So, annual giving campaign, we're putting at 425 next year instead of 455 like we have this year. And I think Tony's expecting this year to end somewhere close to 425. So, it's kind of in line more with where we're actually ending. Um yeah, those are talk about there. This is the federal funding I was talking about. So [Music] um this number is higher than usual because we have carryover from prior year 12,000. But if you look at what's not carryover, it's 70,000 for IDA and call it 14,000 for improving teacher quality. Those are
058really the two sources of federal funding. So those are the ones that could potentially go down when the Department of Education decides not to provide any funding for public schools then this is what's at risk. Fortunately for us it's not a huge amount but it's still significant. What is the percentage of the of um well here's the total revenue I would take this and minus the fund balance because the fund balance is not really revenue. Um, do you know if that funding from federal government is charter school specific or is it public school? Are all charter schools public? [Music] Yes. If not, then they're just a private school, not called a charter school. Yeah, there I think u you're confusing forage or schools versus they still tuition and burger schools are sometimes treated differently from
059um like the p the way certain government school districts school districts treat it example um the state treats them differently I I wasn't sure if the federal government does not not to My knowledge to my knowledge it's treated the same as public tools. Do you need any question for for the uh expense potential expenses due to tariffs and anything like that? Oh, I'll show you. We'll get to expenses. Um so so that's it for revenues. It's basically the punch line is 3% growth rate for funding and reducing annual giving campaign by 25,000. That's really all that's changed here. Um, for expenses, salaries and wages are sourced from the slate that we will look at enclosed, but that's from a employee level calculations and what the pay scale is from CMS based on years of experience
060and all that jazz. Um, and college degree. Um the other items there are certain things that are just um not detailed out in the employee level calcs. We just anchor them to the same growth rate as our funding. So typically they will move in sync. You know if um the state and county budget is higher they pass that along with in raises to the to uh teachers and such. Um, so that's everything in here is either sourced from the slate or just given a 3% growth rate. How come there's zero for the development director for the foundation for the budget that this year was 110 around 100? It's it's not going to be in the That's a good question. Not in the school budget next year. It's going to be in the foundation budget paid
061by the foundation. Oh, really? We have enough now for it to carry and sell books. What about like bene it's under the foundation's budget still employee of the school. Interesting. I don't get it, but I don't need to get it. That way, like pay the benefits of one buck, one bucketing, and then the salaries out of a different the the source of money, the source of revenue is it is irrelevant for this. Like if they're an employee of the school, um they get their that's how they get their benefits. Their paycheck comes from Metroina Regional Scholars Academy doesn't come from foundation. How internally we decide to budget on a spreadsheet between the school or the foundation doesn't matter because all the money for the foundation is only to support the school. So, so is it
062more so where we would ask or submit for and then it's reimbured at the school. So everything happens how it happens today. Yes. We would submit for that expense. Yes. Okay. So the numbers really don't change. Not really. There's a slight different process. Sort of a right pocket, left pocket. We traditionally haven't done it that way. Oh, okay. We've put it on the school's budget, right? That's um the it's just been paid by the school and if they need money, they ask the foundation for it, but they haven't had to. This is an abnormal year too because we have two employees at foundation. Next year there won't be one. So it won't be this this high. So nothing has changed. It's just the way you're recording it internally. Correct. We're not going to record it
063on the school's budget. We're going to record it on the foundation's budget. Whereas previously we didn't record that expense on the foundation. But that's how we should have been doing it from day one. We just we were starting from nothing and so we gota we didn't change it yet. We waited until the foundation built up big enough of its own bank account balance where it could sustain its own expenses. It's been able to sustain it through revenues. Technically the annual giving campaign could have paid it out but we were just being kind of extra cautious waiting till we had enough money in the bank. Now we can move it over. Um really all the expenses for the foundation are now going to be on the foundation's budget, not budget. The foundation now has policies pay
064out and request the money. Great. So um so if it's a reimbursement for example. All right. benefits. [Music] Um just a 3% kind of moves with the salaries and wages up above social security and Medicare is like a percentage of your salaries. It's just a formula. So if your salaries and wages goes down, then your social security Medicare goes down. Um, health insurance, we don't really fully know yet, but we know it's going to go up. It's gone up like 10%. 10 to 12% the last couple years. It's been horrible. Um, trend is 8 to 10. So, that's a good number. Is it? You would know. Yes. I can't remember specifically how we landed on 11. Sabrina, it might be it's probably in line with she may I think she was given a verbal budget
065for something like 11%. I can't sadly um say based on historical increases. So maybe she did an average of last three, four, five years or something. Yeah, could be that's what I would have done. um some minor adjustments to educational supplies. Um we went a little over budget this year. We don't think that will continue. So we How come that didn't I did I didn't put the formula in there. No, what I mean is wouldn't um didn't the state make a suggestion for schools to increase cost but for budget purposes? Yeah. Um this is the line where I would have expected to increase. So this is one where we were told that the cost like the I know I say this correctly like the utilization of the stuff is going down. the cost of instructional
066supplies is going down as more and more stuff is digital. We're buying less stuff. So even if the cost So if anyone Yeah. Um the state said something to the effect of we should plan for I forgot what absurd number they said. 60%. Six. Yeah. Yeah. For certain items because of tariffs we should budget like a 60% increase in the cost of goods for certain things. And that we we have an idea down here in technology when we get to that. Um, it's not on these books and supplies where the cost would go up. Yeah, not currently. No. The only thing I could think maybe office supplies will go up like that's one where it could go up or health supplies. I think paper may go well. You know, just a little bit. I don't
067think which I think that falls under office supplies. Yeah. Um, one thing we have done a good job of this year is going back uh this anscriptions. We had some subscriptions that were overlapping in some certain different platforms and products that we use and she went back through and we cut a lot of those so that we wouldn't be you know spending so much money and we found out teachers were using them or not and if they were not we we cut them. So, no changes to contracted student services. Staff development actually went down a little bit. [Music] Um, like the gifted conference is going to be closer this year, so we don't have to pay as much. Workshop expenses are also local this year. their own Concord. Uh, so we can take more people,
068purchase more tickets, but because it's closer, I guess it's costs less money. I don't really know. The travel hotel. Okay. Makes a big difference. [Music] Um, oh, here's our accounting services. You and I were talking about this before the call. It's $42,000 a year for our new accountant. Um, accounting services provider. The previous fund was 38. So, that's an increase, but we think this is going to have a huge impact on the efficiency and time management for the finance manager. There's a lot of time spent on things that will go away with the new provider because they are in the 21st century and things are digital [Music] um technology services. So these are like the on-site technology support. They come. I couldn't even tell you how many days they come, but they're saying they think
069they could re h Oh, these are people that more like networky. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, so we have a 3% increase here, but they're talking about maybe switching to half days because they're saying that we don't need as much support as we're currently getting. So, this number could come down. What is the difference between human resources and human resources contracted? I know what contracted is. I don't know what this one is. Would it be legal fees or No, we have legal right below it. Yeah. Okay. Okay. What is um Can you go up? Uh advertising marketing for newspaper ads, radio ads, magnets. So is that does that have to do with um uh admissions too? Yeah, I mean it's it's just to raise awareness about school to try and get people to come out of I
070guess well we can talk more about this but like we were talking in our strategic plan about making some strategic changes to advertising and I don't know if that would cost more if we want to consider putting more money in that bucket. Okay, just yeah where we go. Um, oh yeah, insurance. We already talked, we already voted and approved the insurance contracts for next year. That was a big increase. Um, facilities. Uh, some of these are just growing with state and local revenue, but custodial services we know is going to go up. we've already been given. Well, building supplies and materials seems like you might want to tag that for tariffs, too, right? I guess building supplies and custodial supplies. So we provide the supplies, they provide the service. Custodian I don't know the difference
071between custodial supplies, materials and bill. I think would that not be I think it's like toilet paper, paper towels, soap, like whatever we put in the bathroom I think goes in here and then building supplies like everything else. It's not for cleaning and sanitation. I will say that I do think that we're going to have to and where we're going to get this money, I don't know. We're having a lot of problems with our air conditioning units right now. Talked to Alex. Those we got three units on top. I think they're 250,000 a piece. One of them's out right now. So, we've got a we've got a fix on that, but they're all 11 years old at least. And uh we already know about the individual class units boxes is what he was calling them
072that we're going to have to continuously you know update fix things but that's going to be a redig. How much did you say one unit? 250 250,000 we'll see. Has that been factored into the budget for next year? Has that been discussed? Is that something that would come from the foundation because it's such a massive potentially a capital expense? Yeah. Makes sense for the foundation to fund it. But that's an we we do have a fast meeting um this week, but this has not been discussed yet. That is that new HVAC is news to me. We talked about the classroom boxes and that was on a regular maintenance schedule, but um let's put that on the uh docket for uh I think we're meeting Thursday. Yeah. the tariff thing down to the custodial supplies and
073materials, too. And I I recognize that an HVAC unit for a commercial building will be several times the cost of a residential, but I don't know. It's 250 reasonable. That's that it actually lines I know someone that does that for commercial buildings like schools and that's about what he told me. And how long are you supposed to last? Do you know that? I don't know. But there's a huge lead time. So you got to plan for like a year out. Cuz they're all custom built. It's not like you call up your local right person. They just plug and play. So all those things are customd designed for your single use as part of Y. And Alison, oh Alice, do you have a sense of I know this is new that we're talking about. We we've
074known that we would have to address it, but excuse me. Are is our current setup of three units what's appropriate for this building or as we look at Was that not a me question. Um that would be I mean we would need to talk to um you like a HVAC equipment they usually do design build so they would come out identify that it's under or over designed and then um as Enrique mentioned create it and then install it. Okay. Do you have a guy? I always have a guy. Enrique has a guy. Oh you just said you do. Yeah. I would say we Yeah. I mean, obviously, we're going to need to get more than one quote, but lots of guys. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We're gonna need lots of guys or I should say we're
075going to need lots of people. Let's So, I guess fast committee once you discuss will come back to the board and let us know maybe if we need to put a placehold I mean, we're not going to have an exact number, but whether we should put a placeholder in next year's budget. Is that the plan? Because it's if it is a yearly time then yeah it's hit next year likely. Yeah. Just to prepare for it. It sounds like regardless we're going to have a repair cost because it's not working right now. Yeah. Yeah. We we do we have charged in here the repair cost. It's probably it's just one of the multiple repairs that we've had to do on the air conditioning recently. Uh so so and we at a point Mr. Harbor where our
076temporary fix won't work cuz if it's a several monthly then let's go best case where it's not a full year. Well, you're going to be down the one for multiple months or is there a quick fix and like what that cost? we've got this poop fixed right now and it was supposed to be a couple days and then they came back to us and said it could be four to six weeks and we were like oh but uh yeah and now they've said that the part is uh Friday they said it would be here Monday it was not here today so they said it would be here later this afternoon they' be able to put it in tomorrow so that that is something that if the tariffs hit Oh yeah, it's going to be massive.
077Yeah, just so. So anyway, he's uh working on it right now. Uh Alex is we went out and bought additional fans for because it's only affecting the downstairs uh in those classrooms on this side and of course this room. It's affecting the whole building though because the two units have to be retired and so it's a little warmer everywhere. So, but then you you go in certain classrooms, you freeze it. So, yeah, it's the way it goes. But, um, it is something I think we ought to definitely budget for. Uh, I don't know the length of time. You know, you're looking at 11 years. Um, so I don't know if those units go 15, if they go 20. I'm not an expert. Well, yeah, maybe the people we the three people we talked to can
078have us a better idea. Idea and then we could start putting some money back. You know, obviously they're probably like light bulbs. You know, once one goes all the way. Are they all the same age? I would assume so. I don't know. That's real bad planning. Yeah. So, but maybe those numbers wouldn't be ready for the budget. Yeah. Better to have a number there, right? or should we the foundation be down here in capitalized equipment and building expenses which this year we have 110,000 that we're spending on security upgrades. We kept the same number in there for next year but we have nothing planned for next year. So is there so we could we have something here. Most years we don't spend it all or even close to it. This year we are, but uh
079it's usually not this high either. We made it this high for the security upgrades. I think in the past it was like 40,000 is what we would keep. Just you just keep that in there. Yeah. So we'll in as a placeholder. Okay. If it exceeds that we ask the foundation. Should we try to address that even then remove the security? Well, I know more information. And I think these suggestions from fast committee as well like do we do we need new air conditioners? Do we go get a quote for all three? Do we get a quote for one? What if or fixes? Tell us change of buildings. They should last 20 25 years. Well then 11 years I feel great. Let's go fix them all and spend well actually yes and no. But if they
080truly are the same age, I would recommend going ahead and placing one that we keep putting parts on so that we're spreading it out. So you place one and then three years later you replace the other and three years later or whatever so that you're not hit again with all three. Yeah. And is the the one that's down the one that's typically down or they take turns? No. I have not heard anything about those three units ever in. the boxes, which are the ones that we've been having problems with that are going out. Those kind of they basically control individual classrooms and sections and there's tons of those. Okay. But that's what I've been, you know, talking with the office this whole time. Well, maybe what we can do is have someone just do an
081overall building. We want a schematic assessment the building. There are three units that control zones A, B, and C. And then these classrooms 1 through 20 have an individual box unit. Yeah. What's the life of each one and the comments and that's that's what we need. Yeah. So we we'll talk about that. Alex knows this information. Yeah. He can go talk to the fast committee in the fast committee on Thursday. So we'll talk about that. this I mean again all these numbers are you know they're just they're subject to change and they change but I just still I if we can put a number that more accurately requests we're going to be spending right just so we know what's especially we know we have to get these boxes then that number should reflect those you
082know include those boxes Sabrina has not said anything to me about hey we got to spend a bunch of money AC is really salt. Yeah. Yeah. This is something that's just recently occurred. Yeah. That's why it's warm here. But one thing it is to me though, one thing that's serious about it is that this not like most schools. Most schools what we grew up in, if the AC didn't work, you just opened up the window and you got some air. But here, you don't open the window because they don't open. So you got a major problem if your AC's out. Um, so we do have to take care of you. That's why I lost a couple years of my life when I heard that it was going to be 46 weeks. That's very stressful. All
083right. Um, so I have some notes here to consider potentially tariff increases on impacting some of these expenses like our uh supplies and materials. Uh, utilities, we just have a 3% assumption. bus driver. [Music] Um just a nominal increase. Um which could potentially this could totally change depending on the discussions we have with this service provider. Um bus repair supplies, fuel, we just have 3%. I would venture to say as the buses are getting a little older now, this number could be higher. You may want to put a higher number. Question for you though, that 175 is that assuming all three are being gassed up cuz right now it's not the full capacity. So is that 17 assuming all three are running two routes per day, five days a week? It's a good question. Let's
084see what we have. Actuals, how would that impact next year? So, year to date, we've spent 8,000. So, yeah, this is all three buses running cuz we still have 9,000 remaining in the budget that we're not going to spend in the next two months. Yeah, but I think you should keep it in. I just wanted to make sure. Yes. Because right now it's not at full capacity, but what should be in the budget is full capacity. Yeah. And Adam, going back to the AC cost, you put that in the capital expenses line. Something capital. Yeah, it's below this. We're going to continue. I just wanted to put in my notes for Yeah. Um, okay. Technology. Um, some of these we just assume 3% cuz we don't know. Um, software we know some of it's going
085up, but like Mr. Carper said, they're going through and eliminating some subscriptions. So, this could uh change. This could come down. May not go up the full 11%. Um, seems awfully high. I don't remember the source of the 11. Sure. There's a reason usually Yeah. But usually it's usually between a science program stuff. I was going to ask Yeah. Where would that fit? Should we What's the difference between the top line and the one underneath? software instructional software instructional 258 two. So anywhere where you see a dash and some numbers it's tied to grant money coming from the state well state county whatever government source um this is games there is that what that is what's that is that the instructional software there 258 is that the game says yeah I don't know it says
086safety grant oh is that like a maybe it is for the surveillance. Maybe is there a soft word for that? There's a typo. Maybe she meant that games brand because yeah, there's that um plasma games. The amount of the plasma games. I thought it was around $50,000. That's the reason why I'm saying. Okay. So, maybe it's safety 50 or 80. I didn't remember. It sounds like Yes. Just there's something plasma up there. Plasma games grand. Oh, there it is. I was looking associated with it. 400. Sorry. Bouncing all around. Are you though? Oh, yeah. There it is. 54,000. Yeah. Well, it looks like they you added 3%. I don't know if that actually is going to go up 3%. I don't know if it's recurring, if the grant is uh one time, one time only
087or if it's an ongoing. You happen to know if it's We just got it for the first time this year. Yeah. school year. I don't know why she would put it in the March for next school year. We got trained this year, so it will be used next year. I think yeah, March carryover then. So, it's in this year's budget. It'll go unused and then it'll just roll into next year's both the revenue and the expense. It says March budget amendments, but that's just the amended budget as of our March vote. Okay, that's right. Wait. So maybe we had it in this year's budget, but we just didn't even get the grant until this year because we we just got this grant. Has any of that been spent? Well, some because it's not only the
088grant money in here. No. None. Who owns this grant? Is there a state? No. Internally. Is there an internal stakeholder that's using this grant money? Oh, at the school employee um like a teacher teacher Piper actually got the grant for it was through the state identified it and then teachers didn't want it our all our science teachers. So how do we how do teachers know they've been told they've been trained by whom we do we train you. Okay. So, how do how who's keeping track of what money we're sending and when we're sending it? Huh? Sabrina. I think this is one of if I remember things. I don't I think the the company is getting the monies directly. I don't know if exactly. Yeah. The you're saying the money may not actually come to the
089school. It may go directly to the service. And exactly. Yeah. So, I mean, it's budget neutral. Like, we have 50,400 as a revenue and 50,400 as an expense. Yeah. Um, straight up till we service. No, I mean, that's great. I mean, the more grant money get the better. It's just that there needs to be somebody that's keeping track of these and that, you know, can say that where it's gone and who's using it. make me remember memory of additional things. It's Sabrina's job to track all revenue and expenses. Yeah. I mean, Sabrina doesn't know like what it's being used for, who's using it, like there needs to be like an internal stakeholder that's seeing that this money is being used properly and that we're getting all the receipt. So, she doesn't have to, right? Like
090for example, Miss Slaughtering, you mean? What's that? Who's monitoring? She's monitoring. Like for example, I know that Miss Z was like doing the safety grant. So she was she had seen that we we bought the equipment. you saw the the the uh what am I callis like I feel like you need to have an internal stakeholder because Sabrina can't she very I think when grants are allow you the flexibility to buy components of it and then tag it on to the grand ex uh revenue then definitely yes this something more operationally like ultimately I mean it's Mr. carper's job to make sure that whatever we've signed up to to get that we use and someone's responsible for seeing it across the goal line or seeing it with the buses when we got the grant for
091the buses and things like that. Somebody has to make sure that it's maybe this one is a little bit easier because I think it's like one program and that's it. like you buy it and it's not like components of it that people can like a teacher cannot willy-nilly go and buy something and then say to every oh I used the plasma money for this like it's like I give you an example it's like uh you remember Oregon Trail okay it's like a program like that that our science teachers can use to teach uh science concepts and topics I mean that's fine whatever you're using it for I'm sure that you know you guys know what's best I just want to make sure that the more the foundation identifies these which it sounds like it's part
092of your panel which is great. So what we're what we've established is two two kind of avenues. One is if someone comes to us with a thing would be a sponsor for something. So say a science teacher says oh we think this widget is a good thing to invest we and we can find a grant then it would be tied to them to match what you talked about with stable disc. The other scenario would be when we identify something as a foundations and then we would go back to the school and say hey who's going to be able to support this okay is this an activity we want as a school yay or nay. So in this scenario since it is net neutral. It costs nothing to opt in. It costs nothing to not participate.
093There's no like difficult process. There's also no money that's going to be advanced. You don't need to worry about the stakeholder risk that you're talking. There's no risk for understood misappropriations. Right. Right. Right. And there's no risk that we're not going to spend that if you don't use all of our hours or all of our users. It has no impact on the result. It means we just didn't care for you. We don't reapply. We do have that. We just don't think this is a very good example of work by staff. Currently, they're saying that laptops, computers, and cell phones are not going to be subject to terror. Were you going to say kudos? Oh, and you're trying to chime in, but your points like they said numbers like Yeah. Yeah. And I'm not, you know,
094I'm not worried about the accounting. I just I, you know, to Enrique, I was more concerned about, you know, we have this pot of money who's making, you know, it's coded. You know, Sabrina's doing her job. she's coding it, but who's making sure that it's being used for the appropriate things that the money is granted for? Because I mean, the more grant money we can have, the better. I think we don't want to we want also want to make sure that we're not running a follow of the grants terms and conditions. Yeah. In this case, it's not we didn't get money, we got access. Yeah, understood. Like you said, I think it was a bad example, but So, I think you were just alluding to the what I had highlighted in green here. Uh, so
095we have kind of a placeholder $25,000 a year to buy Chromebooks. Um, we've spent this year 20,700 so far with 4,200 left. And we typically try to spend this out before the end of the year. Um the the the idea came up, hey, if we think tariffs are going to kick in and we were thinking the cost of laptops, if they were going to go up 50 60%. Should we buy them now for next year in advance? So, not only spend out the 25,000 we have now, but spend next year's 25,000 now and buy them before the summer. um or and potentially ask the foundation to pay for new laptops for the school. It kind of where it comes from is not the important part. It's more about should we accelerate the purchases before tariffs
096kick in for things we absolutely know we're going to use. We're going to need Yeah, Mr. The president says that I was just whispering this to Adam that laptops and cell phones and computers and everything are not going to be subject for no, right? Yeah. [Music] Um, okay. That's really it for technology. Uh stuff's pretty small. We already talked about capitalized equipment. So we have a big takeaway uh Mr. Carper, I guess, to find out about AC units. Talk to Alex, talk to Sabrina, see what we can find out about the state of affairs and what's needed. What number would be an appropriate placeholder recognizing we may need additional funds? But yes, and if it's like, hey, RAC repair guy says we only need to spend $10,000 and we and we'll be good. Okay. But
097if it's, hey, he says we need to spend I'm making these numbers up, but something much more than that, then it's okay, let's go get a couple quotes and get an assessment done kind of as percentage of the new cost. So it's like 70% of a new cost at a minimum though. Less than that. Yeah. Yeah, whatever number you get comfortable in. At a minimum, we need to know how old the units are and how long their lifespan is. Regardless, and then make a plan. Yeah, make a plan. I agree. And if it's 20 years, that doesn't mean we plan for it in year 20, right? We should have the money in the budget. Well, and like I said, if they're all 20 years, we should probably replace one at 18. Yeah. You know, no.
098What was she got to do? [Music] You working for the price of the second one? No. Not when they're 250. You ain't getting the third. Um, okay. So, we're back to where we started. So, I mean, still a lot in flux. Obviously this is a very rough first pass. Um obviously depends the our biggest expense is salaries and wages, right? So like the slate is what matters the most and what the state and county budgets end up passing. Those are the two by far biggest variables that impact our budget. Any other questions for Adam? Thank you for taking the time to go through it because we looked at this. I appreciate you guys. I appreciate all the eyes on it and reflectance honestly cuz I will miss something you guys catch. So I appreciate it.
099You write down I said let me just tell you I said refer to the recording. Right. Um, thank you Anna. This is a second opportunity for community comments. Subject to um indicating that you would like to raise your hand to make comments. You will be subject to a threeminut limit. Has anyone indicated the desire to speak. Nope. Thank you. I will now entertain a motion to go into close session. So move. Is there a second? Second. All those in favor say I. Any opposed? The motion has passed. Thank you everyone. We are going into close session and we will be real We are returning from close session. Thank you for still being connected this evening. I will entertain a motion to amend the agenda. So moved or second. All those in favor say I. I.
100Any opposed? All right. The the Can you just I know this silly, but can you state the time so that I can have that in my record? Sure. We amended the We have amended the agenda at 10 p.m. Okay. All right. Now, this one. Okay. Thank you. I will entertain a motion to approve the slate as proposed in close session by the executive director for the 2025 to 2026 school year. So move. Second. Second. All those in favor say I. I. Anyone on the phone? I I I thank you. Any opposed? The motion is passed. I will now entertain a motion to adjourn the meeting. So moved. Second. All those in favor say I. I. I. I. And as a formality, any opposed? The meeting is adjourned at 10:01 p.m. Thank you everybody for your
101time this evening and we will see you in a few weeks. And then leaving it adjourned.