001great welcome back everybody thank you sorry we were a little delayed uh do we have any board correspondence do not okay great then we're going to move right into uh the update of the budget presentation for 2526 uh Mr sty let you take it away Dr J you're gonna participate in that thank you Andy so we have uh a little bit of an update from the last time we spoke with the board which was that our last meeting or two meetings ago Tim can't even remember two meetings ago um so since then we have uh we have a lot more information for the coming year we've gotten state aid numbers um you know so we've gotten the the tax impact numbers so Mr sty will get into those details I'm just going to start very
002briefly by talking about um some of the new items that are included in our budget and we really do consider these essential um the on top we have all the academic and student related additions some of these are recurring items as you're aware we've been trying to update our classroom Furniture um which we've been doing slowly over the past uh number of years so this is year five of that obviously our Chromebooks for our one to one initiative a lot of the the new additions are related to technology um because obviously our all of our desktops and our laptops have a a useful life um that they come to the end of so you'll see there are new laptops um for our Administration um new desktops for some of our classrooms that actually the software
003requires a more powerful computer than just the um students um onetoone devices we are looking to upgrade our TV production studio um Mr Martins who is also the director of our upcoming spring musical has done a really great job um revitalizing our TV studio program and so now we're looking to get some equipment to go along with our uh revised and updated program uh and then some other additional uh technology equipment in terms of co-curricular additions uh some uh new needed marching band instruments and then uh we're always uh making security upgrades every year so some new phones and some new security cameras and then with regard to our Capital Improvements um we're always working on our HVAC system uh so we have some uh replacement for that and we do have some other security
004improvements as well um which you know again are essential to the infrastructure of the building we don't talk about those specifically in public for security reasons um but that's you know a good chunk of the budget every single year which the board has always been very supportive of and then in terms of Maintenance um we have some uh science lab repair repairs needed just on our fum Hood we have some fire door repairs needed we're always uh we have a lot of doors in this building so we are always either repairing or replacing them and then just uh replacing the AC in our data room uh for it which is very important to make sure the Equipment Works uh in terms of looking at our enrollment we have seen the downward Trend in recent years
005uh so we're going down a little bit next year but um it's actually more stable than it has been so we're only losing anticipating losing about um what is that about 20 actually not 16 students so about 16 students from there um you know that's not exact but that's what's anticipated so that is not a huge impact so now I'm going to turn it over to Mr sty where he's going to get into some uh more of the details with the specific numbers thanks Dr jitt thanks to the board um first thing that we found out a couple days ago the state aid numbers we did get more which was a good thing um the first three items on there they're the categorical AIDS that's the ones that we get from our state and it's
006it's formula based the two c the two categories special ed and security uh the governor had decided to increase the the um amount per pupil for both our numbers our student numbers didn't really drop too much as you saw so we ended up getting actually the security aid went up quite quite a bit um I was surprised that the percentage it went up overall dollar is not a lot because we don't get a lot of state aid but that that was actually I was kind of surprising I didn't I didn't see that one coming um special ed went up a little bit too we obviously that was something that the governor did speak about um the extraordinary Aid is something that I'll talk about later too and I put the aster there for reasons why
007I wouldn't forget to say it so extern Aid we actually more than that we have been getting more than that there's no guarantee you'll get that money every year um however since I've been here and since I've been in education we've always gotten it um if they take that away there would be catastrophic it would be catastrophic to most of the schools it what it basically is it's an application that you get some of the funds back you spend on uh special education um so to me that's very unlikely they would get rid of that but typically we get a lot more $700,000 more than what's there um I'm always conservative because I'm always afraid they're going to take it away one year and that's going to be the year that I put more in
008but I did increase it by $100,000 I got a little more aggressive with it and you'll see why later and then finally The Debt Service Aid which is about flat um but that's from an older referendum that's from the referendum and we're still getting that so that's good um and then I'm just going to go through there's like a few categories I just want to show you the things that I was talking about last meeting this is specifically just general Ed tuition with our send receive greenber and as the board knows the rate went up a little I think it was around 5% a little bit more than that maybe um but even with the increase in rate above you know significantly above 2% we dropped 25 kids so we lost from General Ed tuition
009$150,000 that's a real Revenue number that's not there overall our tuition is about flat because we got more special at tuition but you could see that that has an impact on his budget for sure and the next couple years if I remember looking at their enrollment numbers next next couple years were also low for greenb then it kind of pumps up again um on the tax levy this was the calculation and this is actually the current one so last year's tax levy was just shy of 35 million the 2% allowable is $700,000 that's something I talked about at the last meeting so that brings us up to about 355 and then there's a couple waivers and I call them earned because we earned them um our health care if it goes above a certain percentage
010you get a waiver based on a formula our healthc care waiver is $400,000 and then we have Bank cap that's waivers that we had in from the past that we did not use and then a bank they sit there in the bank and you can use them when you actually need them this is that year we need them um so that would bring if we use those two waivers it brings the tax levy up to 4.1% obviously the 2% plus 2.1% added because of the healthcare and bank account and then something that Dr you talked about before we have a cap capital projects and maintenance projects one thing we can do um and you remember the Auditors came in and talked about our our surplus funds in reserves one of those being Capital which we
011had 5.7 million and another one was maintenance Reserve we had 1.2 so we are able to in a budget cycle use those toward projects I only like to use those for projects that have a one-year life I don't want to use it for recurring expenses because then you're relying on something that you you don't you know you're going to need it over and over again and you'll be depleting those funds you don't want to do that you want to keep as much as you can in these reserves however this is a year where you would want to take those reserves and use it for these projects because these projects you need to do we all need to do that we need to condensate uh tank when one of our boilers that has to be repaired
012I'm sorry replaced has to be replaced um and some of those maintenance projects as you saw at the last meeting we had our Architects here talking about building projects there are things we need to do um certain things are more important than others but like the fum hoods those are important um so we should go on with the projects however we should use those reserves to minimize the the tax levy impact and you can see it's zero um okay and on the expense side we start out with salary and benefits our largest lines um sou this is now this is I put the note on the bottom this includes the budget cuts that you'll see later to staff so salary with the budget cuts is at 1.75% health and dental benefits that's the number I
013was talking about and that's the one that's really tough to get past that's almost 12% here's the other thing that I and I have a two-year look at this because this is the one I looked at it my head almost explode so out of District tuition for our special education students and the transportation that goes with it so if you go back to 2324 we're at 4.2 million 2526 projected budget 5 3 so we're over a million dollars over where we were just two years ago think about that one 400 you know $500,000 a year so that that is really tough to get past it is and it those are those are tough numbers um so I just wanted to this this was like a just a pull out just a visual that so you
014guys could see it Bob uh Mr sty is is that the largest amount of money in our history that we've had allocated to special education it's the largest amount of money in my time here which is 18 years so that's the largest I've seen for sure and it's probably the largest then share of our budget as well that would be my gu that I've seen yeah well actually and and considering our enrollments dropping yeah think about that so yeah right we have fewer students but our special education number are increasing dramatically yeah and and it's and it's two pieces right it it's more kids um but the the um tuition rates hit the roof I mean and and I think I complained about it last year I saw more letters asking for a 10% increase
015I it got to the point where I was I kept getting this letter I said you know what just put all your names on the letter and just send it to us one time because everybody was ask for 10% and obviously there was inflationary issues and now that's why these private schools were asking but that doesn't help us we have a 2% cap so you know I don't I don't know what else to say Obviously the transportation goes hand inand with that and as you all know Transportation rates have gone up over the years so anyway so we did the initial cap calculation um started out with our tax L plus waivers add on your other revenue and that's our total revenues and then our total Appropriations were almost $2 million over where we need
016it to be so we cut new items and that brought us down to about 660 some of the new items like we had salary request uh stip in request those kind of things and also some equipment a lot of equipment requests which you've what you saw was what remains there were more there were more items on there uh we had to cut some capital projects we had to cut some other items uniforms and whatnot and it brought us down that to that $1.1 million that I showed you on the previous slide and then we talked about our additional Cuts how do we get down to cap with what we have and this is what we have so far this is how we got to at least the cap that you saw before the 4.1% that
017um we're looking to cut 3.2 existing positions that's salary and benefits $350,000 we're looking to cut supplies across the board about 36,000 we're looking to cut our equipment I mean our uniforms $35,000 we can push that out one more year I talked to the ad we had a a digital program which we really want um but we've lived with that for this long for our records so we can defer another year $24,000 that's the parchment program and then in transportation um we talked about I think it was a couple years ago we eliminated the late bus for two day down to three days a week and we're looking to eliminate that in its entirity so that would save us $880,000 um and then we have a red ction and we've been talking with our supervisors
018our athletic director and trying to consolidate trips to make it a little better in terms of more efficient uh and save a few dollars on those athletic trips and our field trips and cut $332,000 about 33 almost and then the thing I talked about before add that additional $100,000 to extraordinary Aid estimate to bring that up to 300 and that when we did those cuts that brought us us to the cap and I like I said before the cap at 4.1% using the waivers so with those items in the budget um that brings us to an overall operating budget at 3.7% uh what you don't see on this slide and the next slide is I don't put the grants in there and I am I am estimating a lower Federal Grant number um we're being
019told that but I think it's The Prudent thing to do now we don't get a lot of Federal Aid the only impact it has the only larger impact is Ida Grant which is a special education grant so I I budgeted 85% that's kind of what we're told um that particular Grant's the only one that actually has any impact because that that actually impacts the tuition because that's what we pay that's what we use for that particular GR at um so again overall the numbers 3.7% that's the operating budget the overall budget I believe including debt services at about 2.8% on the revenue side um obviously the state aid jumps out a little bit but it's a smaller percentage of our budget as you all know and again I have a tax levy down to 4.1%
020we're trying to keep s even with the Surplus usage um we're still relatively in good good shape with our reserves like to keep it that way um you need those when you have big projects coming along but also if some if a a rainy day issue comes up you want to you want to have those reserves um and I'm just going to go town by town I I'm not going to go through the next meeting I'll talk about how the allocation changed um I don't want to get into that yet because I'm not 100% comfortable if this is going to be our final numbers I I feel strongly but I'm not exactly perfectly there yet um so in in Warren uh the average home actually has gone up quite a bit um which is a
021good thing the tax rate actually drops and if I if you compare the 24 average home times the rate to the 25 average home times the proposed tax rate the increase is about $66 this is annually which is a little less than 2% and obviously it changes for town by town because of the allocation formula I'm in Wang burrow average home again jumped up $936,000 again good for folks in wat young uh the tax rate in our budget here drops from 3.66 eight to 3.51 four 4% drop and the tax on those average home to average home the difference is $148 a little less than 5% that is an allocation thing and in Lon Hill Township average home goes from 596 to 622 tax rate is almost flat and the regional tax goes from 243
0227 to 2541 about a $100 increase so those are annual numbers which is four and a quarter the next meeting I'll talk about the allocation how it changed it's it's a kind of a strange thing like the allocation in one year can change and this is a calendar year so the so the change that was made last year impacts half of this and the change this year impacts half of this that's what always makes it tricky I think that's uh that's all I have com it back then uh Mr sty just a quick question are any other districts cutting their late buses so the I I know that I think last year Bridgewood oraron cut cut their late buses I talked to them and they did do that I haven't talked to anybody else who's
023done it this year I know where I live in Hillsboro they haven't had it for years years um so those are the big two big ones I know I don't I I know hun and Centra was talking about it I don't know where they are with it um just want to comment on the budget first off thank you uh Tim and Liz for getting this presentation together it's a Herculean effort and I appreciate that very much um I think it it would be remiss of us not to highlight the fact that special education is up a million dollar it more than encompasses all the increases um on almost every other thing combined um so I not not to say that you know we just have to acknowledge that that increase is incredibly um hurtful to
024the rest of the operations and the rest of the budget it is not to say that there's anything to do other than it's a budgetary money issue um is there there's a question for you and I'm putting you on the spot a little bit do you think there's a way to reduce those expenses without reducing services with more effort put into say uh better bidding on Transportation or anything like that um I I know Bob want I the one thing um I think the district through the regionalization study is that if you're going to make gains that's one way you're going to make it because working with the k8s will help us um and if it's if there's something we I I don't want to say combined again whether it's combined and whether it's not
025it's working with the K to eights to start to set things up for parents and students so that when they get the eighth grade it's not already set in stone what they're going to do because we have that issue here we we certainly have that issue here the kids come here ninth grade they've been doing something for nine years or eight years or however it's been and they come here and we have zero chance other we go to court we lose it's it is what it is so if we can work more with the K to8 on that and I think that Regional study is pushing that if I remember right that would help tremendously I don't know what you can do about the bidding in terms of the transportation um that's it is what
026it is I mean the if gas rates diesel rates go down um maybe that would help too but yeah right now it's we competitively bid all of that stuff and it's still we're we're kind of behind the eightball on it unfortunately I appreciate that I know I put you on the spot so I didn't you know I want to make sure that no but I mean that to me again the regionalization study is the best if if that piece of it if we can get anything from that piece of it that would be tremendous I think so I think that um you know I think this issue is a blinking flashing red light for all of our districts um and that we have to take a look at how we can collaborate in whatever it
027is you know whether it's collaboration whether it's shared services whether it's regionalization whatever it happens to be there has to be a strategic approach for all of our districts on how we're going to uh address this particular issue because it is going to devastate all of our districts if we stay on this current path it is not sustainable and I think that based on the conversations that we've been having uh within the regionalization study and I think that this is certainly something that we will uh be able to talk about when we do the town hall for the community in April um that this is a I think this I think this is a priority area for everyone and I think that we're seeing that in the conversations that we're having um you know with
028the regionalization ation shared services study group so you know if you want to comment go ahead I want to get back to the late bus issue because it's an issue that's very important to me uh it's only $80,000 and it affects kids who have no other option um if there's no late bus they can't participate in after school activities and that breaks my heart we have a school filled with privileged kids who drive to school how much do we charge kids to park at the school yeah I don't know might be 50 or 100 50 or 100 and it was 50 or 100 when my son was here I don't know what it adds up to is there any way to consider increasing that doing other things so that we do not have to eliminate
029because I I cannot bear the thought of all these kids who have no other option and are not going to be able to participate if there's no late bus yeah that's entirely a board call I I think um our position is to eliminate it I and I understand your position but I mean that's kind of I'm not necessarily for eliminating the lpus but just to be clear because I see I'm here a lot picking up kids um the vast majority of after school programs uh are not either done or you know that I'm not sure that Co coincides with the after school programs in the late bus there's a lot of kids that don't make the late bus that are still very active in after school programs and no well for whatever reason it is
030I see I see everybody every day not well not every day but also and I used to see kids leave activities to zoom out so they can catch the late bus because they have no other option yeah there's about there I agree there's a a number of them that have that issue I wouldn't say it's massive it's not thousands it's not hundreds however many it is it's affecting the kids who have less privileges than the rest of our students and I feel like there's got to be something we can do to help this particular population yeah I just just want to bring it I I I also mentioned is to Greenbrook um I and again I don't want to put you on a spot but I know there's they're considering it as well I know
031they're talking about it so I don't know what the board's talking about I just know we talked about it up I spaced it out but I don't remember yeah I don't remember hearing that but I'm not saying that's not a part of it but we haven't we haven't gotten into the the details yet right uh Mr Stein on uh on a different topic um uh title two Federal funding um I know you said that idea was the bulk of the federal funding that we did what's our exposure on title two $10,000 oh okay yeah we don't what title one two and four we don't get a lot I mean because title title two is the one that's that they they've already zeroed out you know in future years so that's not a bit I mean
032I I mean title one I would be bothered by if they they removed it a little bit but it's like it's 30 some but that's have been going down two not a lot and even four you don't get it's Ida is the big one for us thank you just a thought about the uh the student um or should say waving of the special education transportation in exchange for compensation uh for parents to actually take the kids to school I know we've talked about that in the past but I don't know if we have an incen program for that so if we have if we have a situation where we can have a parental contract we do actively pursue those um we don't get a lot of takers because they have to have a million dollars
033in car insurance which isn't as bad as you think when you're and we pay them so it kind of covers that cost um but by and large most of the parents don't take it we do get a few when we but when we see them we if we see an opportunity we do try particularly in a situation where the the cost of the bus is is out of control um you have a student that has a one to1 Aid on top of the cost of the route and you only have one or two kids on that bus that's when we try we try it's just it's you know when we get them we can get them but we do it's it's a good question because we try that I I have a couple questions Tim
034don't go anywhere uh I'd like to talk a little further about special you know education and not because it's not our responsibility to provide the education I think we are but more due to the burden and the shift of the economic burden from us to the state or the state to us as we've discussed on many occasions the state does contribute some the special ed and if it's not my mistake with regard to the added District placement if it's to a public school we're responsible for the first 40,000 then theoretically the state's then responsible and if it's to a private school um 55,000 something like that and then I imagine there's some with regard to special ed inside District if it goes above I guess that 40,000 you know if the kids and the students
035here so of that 3.8 million approximately what number are we what number in effect would be over that 40 or 55% cap and how much do you think we're getting back just so we can be transparent with respect to that increase in number and what would well what what's the shortfall basically that we're not getting from the state that by definition we're entitled to yeah so we get so so we we calcul last couple years we've been over a million in that extraordinary Aid calculation that you're talking about right and then they they have a percentage that they contribute toward whatever that number is so if we calculate a Million last couple about three or four years ago it was like 90 then it went down to 80 then 70 as these expenses went up
036they gave us less which is terrible but it is what it is right so it's fair to say that they're under fund the so unfunded Mandate of 3 400,000 the only reason why I keep bringing it up because the legislature keeps get in October we heard a panel of legislators saying oh they're going to help out the towns because we're all suffering from it and they keep talking about it and nothing happens well what what you saw in the state aid they went up slightly on the special ed per student that's that's what now for us that doesn't help us a lot because we don't get a lot of state aid right so some somebody these other districts it probably did help them probably some of your your former abbid schools they probably if you
037look at I looked at some of their numbers that special ed category they were helped out quite a bit our numbers are so low you know it's 10% on very little is not great it is what it is and then just to reiterate we get zero reimbursement with regard to special education transportation that is not part of the formula we also get that's the idea money which has been going down so we get about $300,000 in that that's the one where if the federal government cut that that that I would cry for that one literally cry but I mean that's that's a tough one I mean that that's the one I'm more nervous about than all the other fed days uh I just want to make a couple comments Susan I certainly appreciate your view
038with regard to keeping the uh uh the late buses I don't necessarily have a position it one way or another right now but I think it's important for the district and everyone to understand what we keep in the budget I mean every time Mr St you give us a budget presentation it's Doom and Gloom it's a lot of negative and and I had a conversation with you saying we really want to highlight some of the positive things we're doing and there was a slide in here with respect to that with some of the Capital Improvements and I've mentioned the infrastructure that we continually certainly invest in this school and again the number one priority is certainly the education of our children and I think we do a great job with respect to that but there
039were certainly a lot of other items that we haven't mentioned that one could argue are on the chopping block and we haven't discussed those because we're keeping them in but anyway it's important that even though there's certain things that are being cut there's so much more that's keeping him and at some point I really want a half full presentation versus a half empty presentation I know sounds odd but we we do so much good these aren't these are Doom and Gloom type because we're we are in a dire situation we have financial difficulties there caps put on us there's expenses that we have to have but we do so many great things I just want to make sure we don't lose that or lose the sense of how great you know we're able to do
040given this situation that's all I have right now to that point our our presentation that we're going to give next meeting is going to be the more full presentation and Dr JW usually goes through uh some of the successes some of the things that we do well here so that's probably which are a lot yeah so Tim includes me there's more good news sometimes so yeah good news Dr JW does all the good stuff and then I come up C back C okay um so that's that's pretty much how we're going to hand you know again to to your point there's a lot of things and again to make the budget cuts that we had to make these were not simple budget cuts there was many things on that list to cut um we we
041try to come up with a extensive list and then we obviously choose what's best things that we we can we can't live without B stay the things that we know we can maybe we can do without this one and they're tough ones and I don't I I don't take lightly the um eliminating a lay bus and those kind of things understanding because when I my kids were that age it was a pain they not go to the school all the time to take them up um but it is what it is you saw some of the numbers they're rough and we have to make brutal decisions that we have to make um but we don't take them lightly we we look at these things extensively and if we get are fortunate enough to get different
042funds or something else comes in we look at that list of what we cut and we can bring some of those things back that's where we try to keep that extensive list so we know okay we cut this maybe you we just got a windfall of x amount of dollars not that I'm expecting something but if we do we can bring that back um so to your point uh if there are things that come in in between that's something the board can certainly consider um certainly we we as ad administrators always do so yeah um speaking on the positive and um this goes to the budget um we have a big building here it uses a lot of electricity uh I think everyone just got an email that says our electric costs are going up
04320% um thankfully this board many years ago approved the solar panel array on the building which reduced our electric footprint massively and that just continues to pay dividends so we're talking about like positive things that was a positive thing that this board did many years ago that is you know reaping benefits today that literally creates uh lower tax burden for our taxpayers so just you know bringing up the positive and on part of that yeah thanks for bringing that up because that that's something that the finance committee uh I'm going to get a few more I'm going to get another month in but I want to show the finance committee the savings that we've had on the electric I think it's worth looking at okay thank you appreciate it okay committee reports uh Education First
044who's going to do that L Lisa anybody do I have a deputy all right go ahead want it oh thank you Susan the education committee met on February 25th at 3:30 in attendance Lisa dagio Carol pra Janine Potter Elizabeth jitt Nicole Caro Mary Ellen faen William laera and Jason Sabino um Miss car uh we discussed the comprehensive Equity plan Miss her advised the committee that the comprehensive Equity plan which is a three-year plan is required by the Department of Education and is due in June the plan will have required board action to appoint the affirmative action officer also approved every year in June approve the affirmative action team to conduct a needs assessment and to approve the C the comprehensive Equity plan when completed for submission to the Department of Education resolutions to appoint the
045affirmative action team and approval to conduct a needs assessment will be on the agenda in March I guess that would be the next March 18 the approval to submit the C will be in June Miss Caro explained the plan and cited examples of questions on the c summer reading Miss faen spoke to the committee on a proposed change in summer reading to appeal to a specific grade level and disci discipline disciple disciple I probably disciplined sorry um I I wondered about this when I read it earlier um Miss faen met with the supervisors of the science social studies and uh English English language arts departments to use the summer reading as a preparation by grade level for the research paper prior years we had a schoolwide read that was focused in the English Department and
046the choice was determined by a combination of student and teacher committees we are are recommending a new format where ninth grade reading will be a selection in biology 10th grade in US history and 11th grade in American lit this corresponds to the subject in which students write research paper in 9th through 11th grades um we also talked about artificial intelligence professional development uh as we discussed at the last education committee meeting we have been re researching additional vendors to continue AI training for the staff we wanted the next level of training to be on the productive promise and potential pitfalls of AI for Education Mr maluso has been proactive in leading the initiative with researching multiple models including chat GPT Claude Firefly co-pilot before settling on Gemini we'll be partnering with Ridge High School and
047ai ai for education to host AI training on March 26 2025 for teachers and administrators from both districts we believe the collaboration will enrich the discussion while sharing the cost uh the spring musical The Adams Family will be presented on March 13th 14th and 15th in the pack performances will be each night at 7 pm with an additional performance on Saturday at 2m Miss Bonnell our culinary arts teacher is organizing a cookies with the cookies event where children can decorate spooky cookies with cast members before the Saturday mat matina additionally all seats are free for our senior citizens at the matin school store learning Commons Cafe collaboration the school store soft opening is planned for this Thursday well last Thursday February 27th featuring a new Square Terminal in the learning Commons Cafe which will help
048students serve multiple customers in a short time it will be a place where students are able to purchase School gear drinks and a snack Miss bonell is is leading the culinary and school store clubs and managing the daily operations while m l Lis Lis it will support the effort by providing additional work experience for her lldd students who are ready to collaborate with peers in learning about customer service in the food industry and in retail operation the proceeds will go towards school students um sorry the proceeds will go towards student clubs and activities uh Dr laera informed the committee that the academic fair is scheduled for March 19th 2025 this will be a far more comprehensive Fair than the last event which involved only steam students the fair has been expanded to include science social
049studies English and math students are enthusiastic to participate and the fair will enhance peer collaboration and public speaking the ninth grade ambassadors are part of the transition program for incoming graders um whrhs students will visit our regional middle schools to speak with e uh to speak with 8th grade students to gather feedback on their needs for their transition into High School the meeting adjourned at 4:03 p.m any questions any other committee members have anything to add the Personnel committee met on February 26 at 3:30 via Zoom president was William meich Katherine lay Lisa dagio Heather tror Dr JWT Nicole Caro and Timothy sty we uh we also had discussed the comprehensive Equity plan uh but Susan kind of covered all that so it's the same exact thing we covered um and then also we had
050had uh Miss car updated the committee on the current openings within the district and lastly we did a preview of the C items uh for the upcoming board meeting uh the meeting adjourned at 3:55 p.m. anybody got anything to add the operations committee met on February 27 7 at 8:30 in attendance were Mr Gall Mr mayek Mr Morrison Miss pra myself Dr jitt and Mr sty uh we talked about Staffing and Mr sty informed us that the both open positions for the buildings and grounds were filled yay he said that uh Mark Mr Mark Snowden was approved uh as the Director of operations and Mr Michael Reynolds was now approved as maintenance worker on Knights and Mr Snowden visited the District uh that past week to meet the staff and tour the facilities already um
051and His official start date is March 24th Dr dritt did comment that both uh the two final candidates for the director's position were very qualified and were spoken highly of when she checked to the references Transportation Mr sty provided an update on the transportation he said we're currently in a shared services agreement with watching Burrows K through 8 for the transportation coordinator position Mr sty commented that the working relationship with the watch on k38 is going well and we have received positive feedback he also said that Miss Sheen has a meeting with the regionalization uh representative later that day on a construction update Mr sty reported that the construction is basically completed and all areas are occupied he said we'll be meeting with the contractors to discuss the punch list of items that still need
052to be completed um there's still some change orders that will be forthcoming for the old nurses Suite which is being changed to the sac the sack office approximately 400k is left in the construction budget with about 150 uh set aside for the sac offices and 100 set aside for the additional change orders point out some of the outstanding items include tying the HVAC into the building management system there's a working on some door ch repairs and some cosmetic changes for the district architect and the long range facility plan Mr sty explained the functionality of the long range facilities plan uh he summarized all the projects that need to be done within the district and that the capital reserves Max allowance is based on L lrfp commented the district uh can't do a project if it's
053not part of that plan and that the cost of the projects are are really an estimate and um up for that as well um and the meeting adjourned at 8:57 your microphone finance committee is next is anything additional on the finance that was not covered by Mr sty you like to share with us I believe Mr sty covered everything the only thing that I would add is um and and I think Dr jitt you know certainly hit on this I mean this is the most difficult budget that we've had in the 12 years that I've been on this board uh and I just want to U you know thank the administration Mr sty and his staff and superintendent and everyone that's been involved in this process um you know because our finances have been so
054well managed over the years that it you know that when these kind of challenges come up uh you know we find ourselves I think in a little bit better position because we've been smart with how we've been spending money uh particularly as it relates to facilities and to other things um it it is always disappointing when we have when we're in a situation where we have to make uh the kind of tough decisions that we're making but I think that uh the Administration has been thoughtful in the approach uh to try to minimize student impacted areas uh and really try to focus on those things that would um have minimal impact on on students for the most part um so I just want to thank the administration for the for the great work on that
055and Mr sty uh for the good work on that and and and while it's it's tough uh because the district has been so well managed this could have been significantly worse than where we are today Mr Morrison thank you I actually just want to add on to that since I am running out of meetings to talk about Tim um no I I actually really do just want to thank him because we would be in a much worse position um if it wasn't for Tim's planning in all of the years I've been here but even this year really trying to create ly look at how we can best manage this so I really appreciate that because um Tim always puts students first in terms of um figuring out the budget he's very responsible to taxpayers um
056but he is truly committed to providing exceptional programs for our students and there are a lot of good Bas in the state but I don't know that every superintendent can say that about their business administrator so I appreciate that and just real quick to uh you know just to amplify you know what you just said related to that I think the it has been you know I think besides having you know a great business administrator we have a strategic plan that we have been uh very focused on in uh implementing and managing and using the plan as the driver for the things that we prioritize and the things that we invest in uh and lacking a plan is when you see districts or businesses or any organization that doesn't have a strategic plan lurching from
057one side to the other depending on you know who the board president is or who the new elected official is or however it happens to be so that that strategic plan provides us with the document uh and then it's up to us to have the discipline to follow it and every time we get a budget presentation and every time we have these conversations uh Tim is always talking about how what we are doing is directly connected to the goals and objectives that we have in the Strategic plan so you know again these are these are indicators of an organization that's being well-run and well managed and so in spite of the challenges that we have we're positioned to be able to address them um in a way that will have the least impact negative impact
058on our students as possible the uh strategic plan um the cons the actually it's on the street right now for the consultant so board members that are get ready get another round coming and it is important Mr Morrison is 100% right that does make my job a lot easier uh when with the the administration the board the community is kind of focused in on what you guys want for the district for the kids for the taxpayers the whole group it just makes life easy it just it just focuses everybody so guys get ready because you got a Five-Year Plan you got to come up and you got to create so thank you and just to emphasize the Strategic plan and just our Focus moving forward we're in the budget process now we approve it sometimes
059in sometime in April then there's a couple months off from the budget but then you start planning the budget again so it's really you know it just there maybe a three-month off season so to speak and then we're right back at it again so we'll certainly face some more challenges but for right now let's Tim's getting the 2627 budget done before he reti good we app we appreciate that okay uh Dan you have anything for negotiations we did uh meet with the uh principals Vice principals administrators and directors is that the well um it was productive uh it did not conclude other than that um no public details um Bill do you have anything end Mr President yes go ahead I'm sorry just real quick on on regionalization for the public um uh hold the
060date of Thursday October 10th for a public I'm sorry October listen to me uh yeah I won't be here uh uh April the 10th so Thursday April the 10th it's the Thursday just before spring break uh that's the tentative plan for um the shared services regionalization committee um public forum that will be held in person um here at the school time TBD and we'll get an official announcement out uh once we have the final details on that but just hold the date of October 10th uh for that particular meeting sorry April 10th I'm trying I'm trying to get to Thanksgiving as quickly as I can thank you Mr Morrison um are you thinking the pack just because we'll go ahead and reserve the space um I think we'll need to talk about how much space
061we think that we would need here if we wanted to so yeah I me I think we should you know in the meantime I'll just see if anything's already reserved for any of those spaces so we have any other options great thank you sorry thank you I was just inputting that date into my calendar okay great uh first opportunity for public comment the first public comment period will be limited to agenda items for this meeting only the second public comment period will be open to any topic all comments are limited to 5 minutes do we have anyone who like to make a public comment seeing none I will close public comments all right uh board discussion items future action items any discussion with regard to those I just had a question on d18 the the
062I thought we didn't do semi we do semi we do okay it's painful no I know firsthand it's there's so we used to we didn't have enough no we do last two years we've we've gone up and it's um yeah we do it and there's so and now the projected amount of Revenue is $356 and I still have to do it for that how much $356 yes dollars dollar wow and I have to do all that paperwork as does the special ed office uh and if you don't do it don't tell your successor don't want to scare anyone away good point any other items to discuss okay Mr President I'd like to move items A1 through A6 s any comments roll call Mr Gall yes Miss Lee mayor yes Mr Morrison yes over Potter yes
063rasa yes chour yes and Mr Burber yes motions carry Mr President I'd like to move items A8 through A10 second any comments roll call Mr Gall yes Lee mayor check yes Morrison yes obber yes CA yes trur yes and Mr bber yes motions carry Mr President i' like to move items C1 through C7 any comments roll call please Mr Gall yes Lee mayor yes Morrison yes sober yes Potter yes CA yes shour yes and Mr Burber yes motions carry uh Mr President I like to move items D1 through D5 second any comments just want to thank uh oh yeah sorry uh D3 the uh donation from aspiring kindness Foundation we certainly appreciate that thank you any additional comments roll call please Mr Gall yes M Lee Mr Meek yes Mr Morrison yes M obber yes
064M Potter yes pra yes tror yes Mr Burber yes motions carry all right we are at the second opportunity for public comment with any at this period you can talk about anything you want having to do with the school any comments okay seeing none we will close the second opportunity for public comment do we have any other business that people would like to discuss I guess we don't have anyone who wants to talk about anything else I will entertain a motion to adjourn all those in favor we are return thank you everybody