Fox Chapel Area School Board Combined Meeting & Committee of the Whole Meeting (4/7/26)

001that were provided during QRT time opposite of class meetings for our student body to complete. Uh we took a look at all of the data and those results from those surveys, analyzed those, shared them with the team who had initially um indicated that they were interested to determine our collective goals that I'll be sharing with you in just a moment. Our next steps at this point is that we will begin meeting to create uh our action plans that we will be implementing over the next 7 years, which sounds a little crazy. Uh the team from Middle States Association will be coming in November and they will be comprehensively reviewing all of those pillars. Uh some of you may be asked to be a part of that team, so please stay tuned for that. And then

002once that complete is done, we will meet with you again and share the results of the accreditation team. As far as our data analysis, I think are we out of order? It's okay. Um Our finalized goals. We had three finalized goals. Um the first one is to continue to develop a sense of community through the reciprocal communication pathways between high school leadership, teachers, and students by fostering better collaboration between leadership and staff and building a culture of mutual respect among the student body. What you'll see below that are some of the things that we've discussed among our team uh that we would like to work on. So we'd like to work on reciprocal communication uh with teachers and students. Um these are all based on the feedback that we got from our surveys that we

003had sent out to everyone. Uh teacher feedback to students was something that we saw on our surveys. I am pleased and and just want to take a a minute to to make a note on on these survey results. It's a we we created a Likert scale of one to five and in the past, I've been told previous to my being here, there was there were some areas of need for improvement that seemed to fall in a lower category, maybe a two or a three. Um I'm pleased to say that even our lowest categories in this year's survey were all above four. So they were 4.0 or higher, somewhere between 4.0 and five. Um so we were very pleased with that. Um and also things to consider for our first goal number one is the peer

004interactions between students because that is something that we have seen this year as an area of need and our students are seeing that as well. Our second goal is developing a comprehensive curriculum for artificial intelligence instruction for both students, teachers, and parents. Um this was noted by our students and our parents and community members as a need. Uh we're already a few steps ahead on that because we have taken undertaken the rail endorsement um which is an artificial intelligence endorsement through the Middle States Association. So we have a team working with us. We've gone through an online course and we have worked through a pretty comprehensive plan and we'll be working with the district on that initiative as well. Uh looking at the graduation project and the uh different learning series that we can offer

005to our families and our students and our teachers uh because it's growing rather rapidly as we all know. And finally, our last goal is refining grading, feedback, and student support practices. Uh we have had some staff members bring up the idea of looking at taking a closer look at how we grade assignments here in the district. That was brought up to our site-based team, so we thought this might be a nice goal to start to dive into a little bit deeper. We want to look into micro-credentialing and badging for our students. And also, we have found a need to to look a little bit into how we support our students with our support programs like IS, the LRC, and our SAP with the advanced tiers in the in the SAP program and how we schedule

006our interventions for our students. So those are the three big overarching goals that we're looking at. That's based on the survey results that we received from all of you and our staff members and students. Uh we have a team set to go and we are just about at the point where we're ready to dive into creating those action plans and what that's going to look like over the course of the next 7 years. So stay tuned. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. That concludes our lens on learning tonight. Okay, thank you. Stay tuned, there will be more for the Yes. uh Middle States in the future. Uh Mr. Jafri, is there a solicitor's report? No report. Okay. Could I have a motion to approve the minutes for the regular business meeting dated March 9th, 2026?

007So moved. Second. Thank you. Any questions, comments, corrections on the minutes? Okay. Mrs. Demuzio, will you please call the roll? Mrs. Cooper. Yes. Miss Dodd. Yes. Miss Finley. Yes. Mr. Frank. Yes. Mr. Good. >> Yes. Mr. Hamilton. Yes. Dr. Hassold-Corn. Yes. Miss Zedge. Yes. Motion carries. Thank you. It's time for our first public comment period and No, we do not have anyone signed up. All right. For old business, we have our committee reports. Mrs. Cooper, could you please give us the academic committee report? Yes. Uh the Board Academic Committee met on March 10th, uh 2026. The committee heard an update on the K through five English language arts pilot and agreed to recommend it for full adoption. The committee also received a district data update and discussed various data points. A version of this presentation

008will be provided at a full board meeting in the future. The committee again discussed a climate survey tool and recommended that tonight the board discuss the challenge success survey tool for future adoption. This tool includes surveys for elementary school students, middle school students, high school students, faculty staff, and parents/caregivers. The full suite of surveys would cost a discounted rate of $28,600 to implement during the 2026-2027 school year. The non-discounted rate is $33,600. And I do want to add that we added another uh meeting on April 20th this year that wasn't on there before since we don't have a meeting before then. I wanted to mention. So our discussion time would be now, right? Yes. >> [laughter] >> Uh does anyone have any questions about the survey or anything else Mrs. Cooper talked about? I asked

009if Eric Gwynette to speak on it a little bit because it was really >> fan of this one. He's a big fan, yeah. Yeah, I mean I'm happy to talk about it just for a minute. Um I um have been really uh a strong advocate for this and for the discussion in our academic committee. And um we during the course of the we've had multiple meetings where Dr. Rojek and administration brought um various examples of different surveys and I'd done a lot of homework on my own um uh to look into this. And there are a lot of examples of this. This is not something unique about to us by any means. This has been a a growing movement for quite a number of years. There are states, including Illinois, that mandate uh that every

010school has some sort of survey of this nature of and and this is a survey what we're talking about is some uh uh a survey of um academic and non-academic climate in the schools. So basically, when we talk about purpose, passion, care, and community, this is a way to formally um check in with our stakeholders about whether or not we are actually achieving those uh goals in their view, in their perception, and which is key because they are our stakeholders. They are our taxpayers, they are our customers, they're they're the people that we're here to serve. So um we looked at a lot of different examples. A lot of them have different emphasis. Um the uh the key things that I think are important are that um we look at we picked we picked our

011what what go with a survey instrument that's proven, that's evidence-based, that uh has versions for uh different grade for students at different grade levels, that's age-appropriate, but also um uh has a faculty and parent versions. Um parent versions notoriously are hard to get a great response rate, but students are really where I think the action is and what we um we talk about student voice, but uh other than the subjective and uh and test-based feedback we get, um we don't systematically ask the question are you being questions, are you being challenged, are you uh do you have people you can go to um do you have when you need support or help? Uh those are the types of things that these these surveys can get at. We can look at different subgroups within them. They're

012not individually identified, so there's not uh um uh a risk of individual identification. Um and but it does give us the way to say, are we are we improving over time? It's key that we do this repeatedly, not just once. And are are there certain areas we need to work on? When we're just looking at some of the uh information about Middle States, you know, how would we know if we're actually doing better in any of those areas if we're not asking system systematically and universally uh to to get at um where we have issues. We as individuals synthesize, get information uh on the board and in the in the in the schools and the administration, uh get information, and we kind of collate as best we can what we think is important. But how

013about the less noisy groups, uh the people who are not speaking up as much? This really gives a lot more uh agency and opportunity to give feedback to um groups, parents, students, uh faculty, who might not otherwise get heard. And um so there can be information that um we we just would wouldn't rise to the top or uh nuances that we wouldn't catch uh with certain subgroups if we if we don't ask systematically. So, um that's why I'm enthusiastic about it. The cost is in the scheme of things not that great given that we're talking about surveying thousands of of people in our community. Um and if we do it in the uh in the buildings uh for the populations that are in the buildings, we'll get a very good response rate cuz they'll all

014sit there and have nothing else to do for 15 minutes and answer the survey. So, uh it'll be very representative and that's how most uh places that have these especially when they're mandated to do it um is they they give set aside time to make sure the students have time to do it. Um and uh I believe kids will be honest and people will tell us what they think. Can I ask um I'm I'm really excited about this. It's a wonderful thing. Um and I think it's it's um really important. I'm glad we're doing it. Um can you speak a little bit about what the timeline or the rollout might look like when we might expect to see data if approved and then at what cadence you all had discussed doing surveys like this. Like

015I don't have a sense of how often this would happen. Different places do it at different cadences. Um the most of our design to be done up to twice a year. So, like early and the end of the year. They can be done once a year so that you can look just at year-over-year cadences. Um you there's a recommendation. I don't know what I don't know call if they have a recommendation on this one about when they expect it. >> They do. They recommend this in the spring to take action the following fall. I see. Uh and so um we would look at a spring uh We would we we need to get set up with them. So, it would likely be next spring. Uh I'm not sure if that's the only cadence. That was

016the cadence that they shared with us. They may I know I I agree with Mr. Hamilton. Some of them will do that in the fall, some will be in the spring. But they usually recommend that you've had some of the school year underway before you give it in this particular um survey. Yeah, and I think they have some this one uh they have some flexibility about which questions you ask. So, you'd probably want to go through a cycle of of education educating the community what it's about before you launch it and then also deciding if you really want to go with the whole thing. The whole thing is pretty long. Um so, not the we would not want to tinker with sections, but you might decide that there's some sections that are more important to

017you so you can keep it to a reasonable length. Okay. So, there's some a la carte responsiveness to our priorities. >> There is yeah. That would be something that maybe responsive to our strategic plan or to the multi-state. Okay. Great. Uh middle state, excuse me. And I I would agree with what Mr. Hamilton said, too. It usually you benefit from doing a lot of education and preview before you launch a survey. So, to to help explain what it you're looking for and to help people to understand how they can participate and how what they say will be used. Uh that usually adds to the success of it. Okay. Yeah, we did look at several different ones and what did stand out about this one is a lot of the questions were aligned with what we

018had been asking people through the um the comprehensive plan or the strategic plan. Those words are like the same in my head. Yeah. And I thought, well, that might be a lot more meaningful than although we did get a really good response to the small groups that the administration held, it certainly wasn't uh as large as a percentage and a lot of the questions really aligned with some of those things whereas some of the other ones we looked at, um some I found super intrusive to be honest. Some I found like, well, that's not really meaningful data. Like this one really aligned with what I think the administration has already sort of been rolling out. Um so, I thought it was a a good way to put those measurements in. Um and it just made

019the most sense out of the ones we looked at. I would say this to me this process really underlines how effective the committee process could be because we spent some substantial time just sort of hashing out the pros and cons of even doing a survey, why we would do it, what our goals would be, and then moved into really doing some in-depth vetting of the different options that are out there. And I think this one landed nicely in the middle. It wasn't Some of these surveys have more of a public health slant to them and and that puts a district doing this for the first time in a tricky position of what can we actually do about some of these things. So, I think this this to me felt like a really good starting point

020for us highlighting student voice um and making it not feel so obtrusive intrusive, I think, to our respondents. Um which you know, this there's there's been past survey experiences locally that have not gone well. So, I think I think the timing of how we're rolling this out makes sense. We have plenty of time to work with staff and families on um expectations. And I think the the other part that as a board we have to pay close attention to is what we will do with the results and how [clears throat] we will act upon them. And I think that alignment with our goals um is really key there. Otherwise, it's just a a nice to look at slideshow. So, I think we have to hold ourselves accountable to to make sure we make good use

021of this. I agree. Yes. Any other questions or comments? Oh, okay. When would we expect When are we expecting the um the new ELA curriculum presentation? Is that likely to happen in this school year or is that subsequently? You mentioned that it was coming back to the board. >> through five. Yeah. Um Well, which >> Actually, that is something I neglected to say during [clears throat] the superintendent's report. I I remembered it. I made myself a note. It was like, uh good question. When are we But uh I will say that the elementary K to five ELA curriculum process ended. Uh the pilot process was a success. Uh it was a unanimous decision from the uh curriculum team to move forward with Into Reading. So, in the superintendent's report in the back section of your

022agenda is actually the information for Into Reading. Um for any community member or somebody that wishes to see it, they are welcome to contact the district office. You can see any of those resources and we will be recommending that for approval uh from the board in its May meeting. May meeting. Okay. Great. Thank you for uh bringing it up a little early. And not to keep patting ourselves on the back, but I feel like we did a really good job with that, too. Um just I it's hard I think without being at those meetings the amount of time that went into that and especially on the part of of the admin staff. When I say that this was a perfectly executed um adoption process. Ashley runs a mean curriculum adoption process. Yes. And even getting

023[clears throat] feedback from students. I mean, that's just so unheard of in this kind of a a process to ask all the students what they think. They like I think it was really positive feedback we got and um really it seems like really engaging and interesting reading material that I think a lot of families will be excited about. It filled some gaps that we knew existed. It seems like a good program. I was a guest in that meeting and I I still think you're underselling the rigor of that process. That adoption process like absolutely my socks off. It was phenomenal. Um just just incredibly comprehensive. I look forward to hearing parents feedback about the quality of the literature being really elevated from what they've seen in the past. That was exciting to me. Yes, I

024think we heard about students' applause and everything else. >> [laughter] >> Okay. Anything [clears throat] else? Do you need a a formal motion or anything to move forward or is this part of the budget? >> from the board's discussion that this is something to consider, then we would put it on our future board agenda as a an action item then. All right. Thank you. And if there are questions that come up, ask us you know, in the meantime we'll do our best to get answers. >> voting on the curriculum adoption or that's just a vote? That's next month. Okay. Got it. Okay. I'm losing my spot. We leave it out for a feedback period, right? And so, that's what's going on now. Um Yes. Mhm. Okay. Thank you. Mr. Frank, could you please give us

025the governance committee report? >> Yes, thank you. The Board Governance Committee met on February 3rd, 2026. Excuse [clears throat] me. The committee joined by Mr. Good and Ms. Zich discussed advocating for a countywide and statewide property reassessment and steps that would have to be taken to prepare resolution for the board. The resolution is on tonight's board agenda for the board's vote. The committee then discussed ways to capture board culture and norms in the developing board handbook including a preface statement outlining outlining culture, norms, and an annual update of accomplishments, concerns, and future actions. The committee also discussed the policy update process and a request for future student representation at board meetings identifying additional information that would help them to consider that request. Thank you. Any questions or comments? I'm excited to vote on this resolution

026tonight to encourage Allegheny County to um come up with a reassessment site cycle for property taxes. Mhm. Here, here. I assume we'll discuss that at the Yes. Okay. That's great. Next up, Ms. Zich, projects and planning committee report. Yes, the Board Projects and Planning Committee met on March 24th, 2026. The committee was updated on the Hartwood HVAC project closeout. You'll see some of that in today's agenda. The Fairview window project including blinds, the high school field lighting and tennis court project including a shade and bench change order, and the playground projects at Hartwood and Fairview. The committee also reviewed the current 2026-2027 budget draft and millage options, which we'll hear about tonight. Um the committee ended the meeting by discussing the high school HVAC project and general information about future projects. Thank you. Any questions?

027Okay. Guess not. All moving on to new business. Um, let's see. Since Mrs. Lynch is not here, um Ms. Finley, would you read the facilities and transportation report? Certainly. Uh, I will be moving on the following things for Mrs. Lynch. Uh, number one, additional school bus drivers for the 25 26 26 school year. Ratify hiring the additional ABC Transit Inc. drivers from the attached list effective for the 25 26 school year. All required licensing, clearances, and other essential employment requirements for school bus operators under the laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania have been verified. Number two, a change order, Hartwood Elementary School HVAC project. Approved change order HC-0076 for a decrease of $3,899.22 as attached for the Hartwood Elementary School HVAC project. This change order was reviewed and recommended by the Fox Chapel Area School

028Authority. I so move. Second. Thank you. Any questions or comments? Okay. Mrs. Ziemkiewicz, will you please call the roll? Ms. Dad? Yes. Ms. Finley? Yes. Mr. Frank? >> Yes. Mr. Good? >> Yes. Mr. Hamilton? >> Yes. Dr. Hasselcorn? Yes. Ms. Sitch? >> Yes. Mrs. Cooper? Yes. Motion carries. Thank you. Mr. Hamilton, will you please read the finance items? Yes. Item one, finance report for February 2026, acknowledge and file for audit as attached. Item two, budget transfers for 2025 26 are approved as attached. Item three, award bids athletic and administration is authorized to award the following bids for the 2026 2027 school year. Athletic supply bids for the fall and winter. ESN Sports LLC for $14,378.88. Century Sports Incorporated, $16,463.87. Natali Sporting Goods, $18,233.95. Pyramid School Products, $145.99. Riddell, $2,081.15. I approve I I motion for

029approval of items one, two, and three. Thank you. Second. Thank you. Any questions or comments? Mrs. Ziemkiewicz, will you please call the roll? Ms. Finley? Yes. Mr. Frank? >> Yes. Mr. Good? >> Yes. Mr. Hamilton? Yes. Dr. Hasselcorn? >> Yes. Ms. Sitch? Yes. Mrs. Cooper? Yes. Ms. Dad? Yes. Motion carries. [clears throat] Thank you. Mr. Hamilton? Oh, we have one additional information item. Item four is the 2026 2027 Allegheny County School Health Insurance Consortium rate information. The Allegheny County uh, schools health insurance consortium consortium approved rates below effective July 1st, 2026 through June 30th, 2027. The Performance Blue PPO and EPO rates increase is 8.3%. The United Concordia Elite Prime increase is 3%, and then the Davis Vision increase is 0%. The rates are listed in the agenda. Thank you. I'll just make a note

030there. I know a lot of folks, um, ask questions about the sources of rising costs in school districts. This is a really significant one. This was a meaningful increase in the rate. It's important and critical that we provide health care, um, but this is an example of, um, one of the many sources of uncontrolled increases in our annual budget, um, which for our district we're what what we are well prepared for, but not all districts are. Yeah, I'll just point out that, uh, the family rate amounts to $30,000 a year for an employee who's covering their family. So, that's $30,000 on top of salaries, so an 8% increase on that is a significant amount for our hundreds of employees. Mhm, that's exactly right. And [snorts] I don't expect you to know this offhand, but can

031you contextualize that increase over the past few years? How does that fit in? Is this a spike or is it just Actually, Mr. Manzer is here and he probably knows that information, uh Put on the spot. >> more quickly than I do. >> been in that zone for a while. >> It has been. It's a little lower this year, but I don't know how to work the mic yet. Uh, long-term increases, they're at like 5 to 6% if you look at like 10, 15 years. Um, lately though, there's been double digit increases a couple years ago. Um, and then I believe last year was like eight, um, ish percent, 8 9%. So, um, this is pretty in line with, uh the most recent trends, and but this does beat the Highmark historical averages and regional

032averages, so they're at like 12%. Um, so the school district averages are are always a haircut below what the regional averages are. But it is a major cost year over year increase of 8% is remarkable against things like normal benchmarks like we think about inflation or interest rates, so, um, still significant to me. Yeah, thank you, Mr. Manzer. Any other questions? Okay, next up we have Mrs. Cooper reading the instruction items. Yep, I'll be moving on four items. Number one is to approve the agreement approve the agreement for education staffing services as attached between the school district and Zen Educate Inc. to provide paraprofessionals to the district effective April 7th, 2026. This is a new service. Number two is approve the behavioral health services agreement for Chill Pop-Up event and services as attached between the

033school district and Allegheny Clinic to provide temporary short-term educational services to participants in the Summer Learning Academy effective July 9th uh, through July 20th, 2026 at a cost of $12,828.75. This is a new service and being funded by the 26 27 PCCD mental health and safety grant. Number three, approve the services agreement as attached between the district and the Day School for educational and related alternative education placement services effective July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2027. This is a renewal of services. Number four is to accept the price quotes as attached for Imagine Learning LLC for services from Ingenuity Inc. for a standards-aligned video-based curriculum for blended learning environments and credit recovery effective for the 26 27 school year at a cost of $51,778.74. This is an extension and renewal of services. I'll move on

034those four. Second. Thank you. Any questions or comments? Could we go over number two and what that looks like and what that's going to do to help the Allegheny Clinic behavioral health services, what that entails? Sure, uh, for our Summer Learning Academy, it's a new uh, idea that we're trying out this year. Uh, Allegheny uh, health uh, Allegheny health services has something called the Chill Project, and it's essentially some school-based mental health services. Um, this is going to be a pop-up meeting. It's just for the short-term in the summer, and so we'll have some, uh, people who will be at our Summer Learning Academy who will be providing students with either some, uh, mental well-being, uh, opportunities for decompression and those kinds of things. So, it's just an additional service, um, that is going to

035be covered by the PCCD or the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency Mental Health and Safety Grant. Um, part of that grant is allocated toward mental health supports, and we thought this would be a nice addition for our Summer Learning Academy. Yes, and I I want to thank, uh, it was a combination of Dr. Constantine and Dr. Mahoney who, uh, looked into this and helped to organize it, so. And we know it's been Has it been implemented in other districts before? It is. Many other districts use the Chill Project. We use some different services in our district, but do similar things. We've looked into it, however, we don't have those opportunities in the summer as much, and so this kind of fills a gap when we have a significant number of students in the district.

036Wonderful. Thank you. Is there a mechanism for handoff to our school counseling staff if there are incidents over summer? Yes, there is a mechanism to hand off. That's a uh a really important thing to consider whenever you're doing something like this. Great. Any other questions? Mrs. Ziemkiewicz, sorry. Are they sitting up? I I did read the agreement, but I forget. I know it's a DMS, I'm assuming, so that's where the summer learning's taking place. Are they inside the school or do they do do they bring outside pop-ups? >> I I believe it's a little of both. I know that they have a Chill Project van that comes, uh, and I'm not sure what we will get, if it's going to be the outside service where it it actually is a rolling kind of space that

037has a lot of supports for students in it, or if it will be also inside of the building. I'm not sure which and it may differ based on on uh the needs of the time, so. Yeah, great. Thanks. That program was in use at Bady. Oh, yes. Yes, it is used It's used in a lot of, uh, other northern area districts, uh, the Chill Project. We've looked into it for our own district. Um, they either didn't have availability or or it wasn't sustained for our district, um, and we had So, we filled those those needs in other ways in our district through some of the work that we've done, um, with our school supports uh, and tier three and and some of the additional work of the school psychologist and our school counselors [clears throat]

038and things like that. But this is just a nice thing for a summer when we don't have access to all of those things. So the cost includes mental health professionals plus sensory items and things [clears throat] like that. >> Yes, these aren't mental health providers, these are behavioral health providers. So there's there is a big difference in the licensing and so they will help with some of the staffing along with yeah. Not just Okay. Thank you. Mrs. Anusic, [clears throat] will you please call the roll? Mr. Frank Yes. Mr. Good Yes. Mr. Hamilton Yes. Dr. Hasselfeldt Yes. Ms. Zitch Yes. Mrs. Cooper Yes. Ms. Dad Yes. Ms. Finley Yes. Motion carries. Thank you. Mr. Frank, would you please read the legislation and policy items? I will move for the second reading and adoption of the

039following policies. Revised policies. 105.2 exemption from instruction, 204 attendance, 218.1 weapons, 247 hazing, 610 purchases subject to bid quotations, number 611 purchases budgeted, 626 federal fiscal compliance, 626 federal fiscal compliance attachment procurement, number 805.1 relations with law enforcement agencies, number 805.2 school security personnel. Thank you. Any questions or comments? We need a second. Oh, sorry. There's another there's another >> There's another. Continue, sorry. Resolution 2026.4 approve resolution 202.4 as attached urging the Allegheny County Council to mandate and implement a system of regular periodic property tax assessments. Another item as well. I'll second. Thank you. Uh any questions or comments? I just like to start by saying for the the resolution for this 2026 20 -4 resolution, I think it's um it's an it's in a large way a nod to our County Council for stepping

040up. Um they have a piece of proposed legislation that would mandate regular cyclic reassessments. For those of you listening at home, um a healthy county requires healthy taxes um and we have a very unhealthy tax system in Allegheny County. Our property tax system is archaic, it's outdated, it's unfair, and it's increasingly um more unfair every year. And the people who are punished are both taxpayers as well as our students. Um so this resolution is expressed in large part in solidarity with our County Council's current resolution that they're considering or piece of legislation they're considering. Um but it's also a plea to other districts in the county um to also advocate um at least uh consider passing similar resolutions for property tax reform in Allegheny County. Agree. Yes. Thank you for your work on this. I

041know you've put a lot of time to it yourself personally, Ariel, and looking forward to seeing other districts support it as well. I I just wanted to reiterate something you said about the unfairness. I mean it it's just um this isn't about raising taxes. Uh it's actually a better way to keep taxes the way they are because we have to raise them every time people start appealing them in the master amounts that they are now because they don't feel they're fair, which is maybe true. Uh and but it then puts the burden on individuals to appeal rather than to have an a fair assessment across the whole county uh periodically. Um and when things get a decade out of date or more, uh then none of the rates accurate anymore and the only way, you

042know, people appeal because then they feel that they theirs isn't accurate, which it could well be true, but then people don't appeal don't get the same benefits. So it's really putting a burden on the taxpayers, which is inherently un- unfair and unequal. So there is an anti-windfall provision if they reassess and rates go up, it that provision is in in state law that you when there's a reassessment you the the the net collected has to be approximately the same. So it's not about raising the taxes, it's about distributing them fairly based on property values um and um it's the only sensible way to to to end some of the madness that's going on right now. Mhm. Yeah, I think that windfall thing bears being said again and louder that that that there is a state

043protection in there. So people should not have the concern of their taxes going way up and not only is there a burden on the taxpayer, but also local municipalities and school boards to try to plan for very real and practical like facility needs and things with not having um a reasonable mathematic ability to figure out what what resources that we we have to steward. So this would allow for better planning and representation to people. And our state's really remarkable in that we don't mandate assessment regularly. That's remarkable as a county. >> In the worst yes, in the worst way. It's remarkable. Fewer than Fewer than eight states in the United States do this and so like um the that it's up to county policy makers and individual school boards to advocate for a fair and

044effective property tax system is absurd. Um and I think this is this is long overdue. I think the sense that it's long overdue is shared by many members both within our county and abroad you know, in counties across the state. Um but for right now, I'll take I'll take county level reform and I hope that County Council strongly considers what's been proposed. Thank you for your work on this, Ms. Zitch. We really appreciate it. >> It's my pleasure and thank you, Kathleen, for your responsive editing. Well, I think it's important for us to reach out to other board members we know in other districts to get some momentum with this because um I mean that's that's why it hasn't come to fruition yet because each board is different and when you group boards together and

045put pressure on the county then I think that's when you see a little bit of action. So Yes. Another item. >> be sending if it passes, we will be sending it to to the JOC at 80, which is board members from from all the districts it sent students. Yeah, that's that's an animal. Multiple other boards are considering a similar resolution at this time and I hope that many more connect to that. >> [snorts] >> Okay, any other questions or comments? Okay, Mrs. Anusic, will you please call the roll? Mr. Good Yes. Mr. Hamilton Yes. Dr. Hasselfeldt Yes. Ms. Zitch Yes. Mrs. Cooper Yes. Ms. Dad Yes. Ms. Finley Yes. Mr. Frank >> Yes. Motion carries. Thank you. Ms. Zitch, will you please read the personnel items? Yes, I'm moving on the following nine items. Item

046one, resignations custodial maintenance, the resignation of James R. Flexner, 12-month eight-hour per day maintenance employee for the Fox Chapel Area High School District due to retirement. For food services, the resignation of Sandra R. Strong, food services employee at Hartwood Elementary School due to personal reasons. Supplemental contracts athletic, the resignation of Joshua DePasquale, football high school seventh assistant due to personal reasons, the resignation of Bradley Lewis, golf girls JV head due to personal reasons, the resignation of Carlo Prati, soccer girls high school head due to personal reasons. Item two, appointments professional. Jonathan [clears throat] T. Strumpf is approved as a physics teacher at Fox Chapel Area High School pending the completion of a program requirements and certification testing available due to the retirement of Peter Scheiner. Item B, custodial maintenance. Joshua T. Gentile is approved as

047a 12-month eight-hour per day maintenance employee for the Fox Chapel Area School District for probationary period. Austin J. Ravins is approved as a 12-month eight-hour per day maintenance employee for the Fox Chapel Area School District for probationary period. Item three, leaves professional. Elizabeth R. Methvin, math teacher at Fox Chapel Area High School is approved for child rearing and adoption leave. Ashley L. Henney, elementary teacher at O'Hara Elementary School is approved for first semester educational sabbatical. Item four, homebound instruction teacher. Karen A. Campbell is ratified as a homebound instruction teacher for the 2025-2026 school year. For advanced placement exam proctors, the following individuals are approved as advanced placement exam proctors for Fox Chapel Area High School. Quincy Saona or Fan, excuse me, Martha Freeze, Alexandra [clears throat] Rogalski, and Isabella Velesik. Item six, summer programs 2006.

048Uh the following individuals um at the elementary level are approved as substitute teachers for the Fox Chapel Area School District Elementary Summer Learning Academy. Taylor Trusardi and Aaron Warden. Item B, high school. The individuals listed below are approved as Western PA Learning Academy Specialty Workshop Facilitators Design and Host. Penny M. Capek, Leslie A. Cowls, Ed.D., Lisa R. Gibson, and Chad S. Morley. The following individuals are approved is approved as a high school transition program coordinator, Leslie A. Cowls, Ed.D. Following individuals are approved as summer high school faculty. Leslie A. Cowls, Jennifer L. Klein, Megan A. Meeban, Stephanie S. Riley, Deborah A. Welty. And following individuals are approved as summer high school FCA O credit recovery faculty. Mary E. Dickson, Lisa R. Gibson, Jennifer L. Klein, Stephanie S. Riley, and Heather S. M. Skillin. For STEAM

049Camp, the following individuals are approved as instructors for the STEAM Camp at Fairview Elementary School. Clara Barnes, Natalie Brock, Mary Cher, Adam Danielson, Sarah Dickson, Caitlin Dodd, Isabella Donaldson, Martha Freeze, Carly Keller, Jean Nikowski, Nikowski Nikowski, excuse me, Sarah Paddock, Tracy Plant, Sarah Pod Podnassic Basnic, excuse me, uh Alexandra Polnitz, and Gavin Smith. Jennifer S. Jones is approved as a nurse for the Steam Cat Camp at Fairview Elementary School. Item seven, substitute certified athletic trainer Joshua Miller is approved as a substitute certified athletic trainer. Purchase of service agreement item eight for the athletics operations coordinator. The services agreement for an athletic operations coordinator between the Fox Chapel Area School District and John J. McGee, PhD, is approved effective on or about August 1st, 2026, through June 30th, 2027, as presented. This is a renewal of

050services. Item nine, volunteer athletic. The following athletic volunteer is approved, Vincent Sikalski. I move on these nine items. Second. Thank you. Any questions or comments? Just a quick comment on the physics role. Mhm. >> I I've been stressing out about this one, but I wanted to highlight for everyone, this is a big deal because it's April, and we have secured one of the physics teachers who is being competed There I think there's something like a dozen that are certified every year, and the need is something like 70 to 100. So, this is no small feat. So, thank you to everyone who was involved in hiring this person, and I hope we welcome them with open arms. It's also a testament to our investment in our teaching staff that we are are competitive and are getting

051getting the the best of the best. And [snorts] we still need one more, right? >> Yes. Okay. Not to be too excited, but I would say it is a real accomplishment. You're absolutely right. Yeah. >> [clears throat] >> Is this test open ending? Any other questions or comments? I just I'm kidding. Mrs. Music, will you please call the roll? Mr. Hamilton. Yes. Dr. Hasselcorn. Yes. Miss Zitch. >> Yes. Mrs. Cooper. Yes. Miss Dad. Yes. Miss Finley. Yes. Mr. Frank. >> Yes. Mr. Good. >> Yes. Motion carries. Thank you. Mr. Good, could you please read the operations and cooperative services items? Yes, I have two items. The first is to approve the authorized official resolution as attached, requesting a public school facility improvement grant of $5 million from the Commonwealth Financing Authority to be used for

052the Fox Chapel Area High School Mechanical Project. Uh number two, accept the quote as attached from IncidentIQ to provide software for technology asset inventory, technology fees, damages, and the help desk desk ticketing system, effective July 1st, 2026, through June 30th, 2027, at a cost of $16,974.87. This is a renewal of services with a different company. I move on those two items. Second. Thank you. Any questions or comments on these items? I'm pleased to see that we're seeking a $5 million grant to support the mechanical project. >> [snorts] >> Thank you. This is the same grant that we looked that we applied for for Fairview Elementary, and we did receive a piece of that grant. We We also applied for $5 million for that grant. We received 500,000. >> Yes, I recall. >> But we will

053see if if this is successful in any way. More than zero. It's still important to ask. That's great. Some zeros, yeah. $5 million is the is the highest amount that you can apply for. Any other comments? Mrs. Music, will you please call the roll? Dr. Hasselcorn. Yes. Miss Zitch. Yes. Mrs. Cooper. Yes. [clears throat] Miss Dad. Yes. Miss Finley. Yes. Mr. Frank. >> Yes. Mr. Good. >> Yes. Mr. Hamilton. Yes. Motion carries. Thank you. It's time for our second public comment. We do not have anyone signed up. Fox Chapel Educators Association, Mrs. Mackin. Good evening. I apologize. I've lost my voice, but I'm I think it's still there. Uh we wanted to take on behalf of Fox Chapel Area Educators Association, just wanted to take a minute tonight when thinking about the pillars of community

054and care to express some gratitude. We had some very challenging winter months, and hopefully those are over. Uh but on behalf of the teachers, wanting to thank Dr. MacConnell for his communication with us and kind of keeping us abreast of the issues, whether buildings were without power or whether we were going to have to delay. Uh and a big thanks to Dan Breakrights and all of the ancillary services, as well as all of the custodians for all of the work that they did to make sure that we could welcome our students. Uh and we also want to really express appreciation that the district was so mindful of our safety. Typically, with the 2-hour delay, we are expected to arrive as soon as the roads were safe, and knowing just how challenging this past winter was,

055the fact that we were given that opportunity when the roads were particularly bad to take our time, that was really appreciated by much of the staff. So, thank you. Uh also wanting to take a moment to recognize all of the IAs and PCAs across the district. Paraprofessionals Week was celebrated over our spring break on April 1st, but it really takes a village, and the IAs and PCAs in all of our buildings work so hard to support our students, and they are an integral part of the our school community. And then, because we only have one meeting this month, um wanting to acknowledge our administrative professionals as they will be recognized later this month, as we all know, the secretaries and custodians essentially run our buildings, and we are so blessed in all of our buildings

056to have amazing individuals that greet our students, that help with attendance, and do everything in between. Uh so, um thank you all. Have a good night. I guess we'll have the budget meeting. Thank you. Okay, [clears throat] next up, board comments. I would just like to remind everyone, after anyone watching at home, after this meeting, we have a committee of the whole meeting to discuss the budget for the next school year. Mr. Good. No comment. Miss Zitch. No comment. Mrs. Cooper. Mr. Hamilton. >> No comment. Dr. Hasselcorn. Great job to those athletes. I thought it would be awkward if I did a standing ovation, but did we hear that there were state champions in our midst? That's amazing. Yeah. Freshman. Freshman. I I I know. Yeah. Yes. I'd like to point out two of the

057girls on the indoor track team. They In the relay, two of them were freshman. >> Yeah. Wow. Thank you. Miss Finley. Um I know my kids have already expressed, you know, PSSAs are coming at the end of April, and they will be online, so it's all computer-based. So, all the students, good luck. Congratulations to all of our athletes and our students for all their accomplishments over the last month. Um this is the home stretch, guys. This is like 6 weeks of no days off, conceivably. So, this is going to be hard for parents, so good luck to parents as we face 6 weeks of kids being like, "5 days, really?" And testing. So, good luck, everyone. Thank you. Mr. Frank. No applause for our winter sports athletes, and also our spring sports, which are which

058are well underway. Thank you. Okay, [clears throat] could I have a motion to adjourn? So moved. Second. All in favor? Aye. Meeting adjourned. Okay, [clears throat] we're going to do a quick 5-minute break. Everybody hurry. >> of the whole meeting to order. Mr. Manzer, take it away. Thank you. All right. of the whole meeting to order. Mr. Manzer, take it away. Thank you. All right, we're live. >> [laughter] >> Try that again. All right, there we Try this again. All right. Thank you very much. Um just wanted to start off by thanking I think some of the administrators and support staff that's involved with this budget process. Um I counted the number of budgets that are submitted and there's 37 of them and that takes a lot of work to be able to um detail

059everything that they do throughout the year, um organize it, submit it into budget codes, and submit it up through the business office. So, lots of people are involved with this budget. It's certainly not just me and my office. Um but certainly thanks to all those that are involved in it. Um some information just to date of where what we've done is um so the luckily for me our budgets were submitted early before I even arrived here in mid-December. So, most of this budget information was put together in October and November. And then it's been refined since. We have met with the products and planning committee twice and discussed budgeting information and then we've also met with the resource advisory committee and discussed information with them, too. This is the same exact information that was presented

060to both of those committees. Uh this is a no pressure presentation, so no decisions tonight need to be made. This is just informational to catch you up on where we're at. So, we'll start off with going through our revenue projections and assumptions. This is just a summary of what we'll be talking about tonight. So, move on to real estate taxes. What's assumed in the current budget is a 0% millage increase. There is a slide later on that will go over the millage options that you have in front of you. And then as well, too, it will show that the current assessed value increase is 289,000. I think that's a good number. That number was negative last year. Um so, it shows that we still do have some assessment growth happening within this within the district

061that is offset you know, by some of the appeals, but overall there's a net increase to those assessments. So, that's a good sign. Um and then additionally as well, interim real estate taxes, that was the other significant change on here, a $50,000 increase um due to increased collections. And that was just an average over the last few years. And just to be clear, that 289 is the increase in assessed value or in the increase in anticipated revenue? Anticipated revenue. Perfect. Thank you. So, your Act 511 taxes, which are earned income taxes primarily. EIT was forecasted to grow at 3% from our 24-25 actuals. The caveat there is that our 24-25 actuals decreased. Um so, that is an overall decrease of $486,000 from the 25-26 budget. This is definitely an area that we're watching. So, uh

062will the results could be due to two things. One could be simply just timing, timing of payments that that come in. Um if there's a big payment that comes in just slightly after our cutoffs, uh we we accrue 2 months' worth of collections uh July and August into our previous year financial results. If a payment comes in after that, it's not included. So, there simply could be timing issues involved with that. Other things that we've seen potentially is that it could be just a few individuals that have had high incomes that are no longer um either in the district or have no longer had that high income for whatever reason in that year. So, it's happening within the Fox Chapel Fox Chapel Borough and just we've heard that they've had similar experience with with that

063decrease. Uh the other major change here is real estate transfer tax increase $100,000 from the 25-26 budget to be in line with the 24-25 actual collections. Your delinquent taxes, uh this is definitely a positive area within the budget, a $500,000 increase from the 25-26 budget. And really you've had 2 years of history collecting $2.5 million dollars of delinquent real estate taxes. So, I think that increases sustainable there. Um, you might run out of delinquent at some point in time if you're that successful, um, but those uh, those increases have have have really been tangible the last few years. And then the delinquent EIT increase of 50,000 dollars from the 25 26 budget, that is an average of the last 3 years is about 400,000 dollars. Other local income, um, this is uh, sort of we've

064taken a slight haircut from the 25 26 budget, um, just anticipating lower interest rates, uh, slowly declining. Um, and then other local income increase 75,000 from the 25 26, just to align with historical averages. And what's in that line item is like collection from students, rental income, those kind of miscellaneous items. State revenue subsidies, uh, no major breakthroughs to discuss here. Um, really same as the previous years that we've seen this governor's budget is that uh, most of the funding is going towards adequacy uh, supplements. And we are only eligible for the minimum supplement, which is a 50,000 dollar increase that occurred last year and it was proposed for this year as well that 50,000 dollars. It's better than nothing, um, but some districts are receiving millions of dollars in adequacy adequacy supplements. Um, either

065the um, tax equity or the ad or the adequacy supplement, um, we're eligible for either one of those. So, our basic education subsidy is increasing 1.7% and our special education subsidy is increasing 1.3% which I consider to be pretty minimal increases. There is uh, lobbying that occurs occurring through PASBO and other entities that are looking to increase both the base special education subsidy especially and then also to the the basic education funding. So, the money that's allocated within these amounts are the governor's proposals. Those are for us seem to be the minimum that we would receive throughout this budget process. We think it can only go up from here. Other state revenue, um, really the the big one on here is reimbursements. That's just a calculation, so it's 50% of our FICA and PSERS. And

066um, also our plan con reimbursements in that line item. The property tax reduction, uh, money that we get from the state. This year the word that we're receiving is that that's not anticipated to change. In the previous couple years there's been increases that which have uh, increased that per homestead allocation that that we've seen, but the word that we're receiving through uh, PASBO is that that's not anticipated to increase this year. And just to be sorry, can you explain um, what the property tax reduction is? Like what it what role it serves in the budget? Sure. So, it's really passed through dollars from the state. So, we [clears throat] get that money and it goes directly to the taxpayer. So, that is divided equally amongst all of the homesteads and farmsteads in in the district.

067And um, there's a flat dollar amount. I can show you later in the presentation how that calculates out, but there's a flat dollar amount per homestead or farmstead that's allocated directly to the taxpayer. Perfect. Thank you. Mhm. And then in that regular and block grant the there's a 50,000 dollar increase that's what I alluded to before that relates to that adequacy minimum adequacy supplement. Federal revenue, um, you know, no change proposed here in federal revenue. I suppose that uh, we're uh, thankful I guess for the no [snorts] no change. It could be worse. Um, we're we're in that position, but we've really heard nothing recently on this. It feels the the revenue is stable. Um, regular approvals are happening at the federal level that we're receiving this funding. It's been uh, stable with no disruptions.

068Uh, other revenues really the only line item in there is um, the sale of fixed assets. It decreased slightly by 10,000 dollars just to align with what we've historically received. Here's a nice little graph for you on revenues. If you add up your real estate taxes, your act 511 taxes, your EIT, uh, delinquent taxes and other local revenue, you're at 70% 78% local funded. Um, 21% state revenue funded and 1% federal. Uh, I'd say definitely for uh, this district you're definitely doing your fair share of local revenue. 78% is a pretty substantial number. Next we'll get into expenses. So, here's just your uh, few areas of expenses that we'll talk about. We get to personnel cost. Uh, personnel costs, wages increase 1.2%. I think that was the number that surprised me a little bit. Uh,

069our increases in our contractual increases are low this year. Um, there's projected retirements that are included in there. I'd say it's not your typical increase. So, you may want to plan ahead for those increases to go to a normal with 2 to 3% range in the future. Um, it may not happen this year, may not happen next year, but it it it has the potential to increase your budget significantly. So, 1.2% increase in this year is I'd say a pretty low favorable increase for this year. The benefit increase actually only calculated out to be an increase of uh, really 0.6% in the 25 26 budget. It's really being driven by the decrease in the PSERS rate. So, PSERS uh, decreased from 43 34% to 33.59%. Pretty unusual I would say. They've had favorable investment returns

070and um, statistically some of their other factors in that rate have come back favorable. So, the rate actually decreased. That rate will continue to increase slightly over time. Um, it is still forecast to go to 37 or 38% over time. Um, however, I will say there's only like an 8-year run out of that rate. Uh, in 2034 that rate is anticipated to drop off dramatically. Um, it'll go down as far as 8 7%. Um, so what the reason for that is the unfunded liability in 2010 was amortized over 24 years. So, it takes you to 2034. Um, just we'll get to later to a you I know you have a significant PSERS fund balance that you've accrued. And uh, you do have a limited window in which to to realistically use that in. Um, so,

071there is um, in 2034 that rate will actually start to decrease. It feels like it never will, um, but it actually will. For those of us on this board it has never gone Yeah. Yeah. And just to be clear like future market performance would potentially increase our liability to PSERS, right? So, there's a there's a scenario in which if we have a particularly bad economy, we have we may see a spike in our obligation to pay into that fund. >> Correct. The the there's really two things that it kind of flow through that rate is that that unfunded liability it was it was amortized over 24 years. So, that when that 24 year stops, then that's completed. Um, and the rate will dramatically drop after that is uh, amortized off. Mhm. So, but yes, you

072still have significant risk in the rate going up between then and now and even thereafter for I guess forever. Um, the market risk is significant and that rate could increase. And we've had favorable market uh, variances and that's why that rate has come down. So, it could definitely reverse itself. Yeah. I I would yeah. So, for those that don't know the history, Pennsylvania underpaid for over a decade into the state fund and then they had to decide to dig themselves out and they chose how to that's how they're doing it, but with this extremely high tax a 33% tax on our payroll. Um, basically what it is and then they reimburse us for half of that. The state reimburse us for half of that, but um, but that's what that really means and um, it's

073been for as long as I've been on the board between 33 32s and 37. I think it maybe got close to 37 36 37 at some point in the last couple of years. So, it's kind of pretty much been there, but yeah, if the market tanks and their their well, not the market, their investments, whatever they are in uh, tank, then they would have to make up the difference between now and the amortization period. So, that can it hasn't spiked recently, but yeah. >> But given world events, I wouldn't pick this year to be the year that we start to spend down our PEACER fund. So, like I I think my point is I at this time I'm still very risk-averse for a near term. To keep that in the Yeah. In reserves. I I

074don't quote me on this, but I think they still do amortize every year the gains and losses. So, you don't have to pay 100% of the market rate in the following year. It's uh I believe the losses are 10 years and the gains are 5 years. Okay. Is that I think how they're amortized, but There's some sort of Yeah, to avoid shock. Instant shock. >> Yes. Yeah. So, you mentioned the 24-year There's like you you'd mentioned the amortize There was an amortized 24-year Yep. That's the hole they're digging themselves out of. That's the After 24 After 20 30 34, you said? >> 2034. 2034. They will just be paying what the current the current the current the current dues, When did that start? That started 2010. Oh, 2010. Okay. Yeah, that was it's called the

075unfunded liability. I see. >> was the big accrual of what they underfunded over that 10-year period that Somewhere around 2000 2002, they were the state was earning a surplus and they decided not to put any money in. And then And then things like 2008 happened and Right. Yeah. Yeah. And I'm looking at my watch thinking every 15 years. Yeah. So, okay. Yep. Okay. Thanks. We'll move on to mandated costs. Uh So, professional services increased 703,000 um over the 25-26 budget primarily in the sub-staffing line item. And that's related to align with increased expenditures that we saw in the 24-25 school year and that will be sustained. Um student transportation increased to 196,000 over the 25-26 budget and that's due to a contractual increase. So, that's a 3.5% contractual increase. Uh tuition actually decreased 274,000 over

076the 25-26 budget due to forecasted enrollments. And um you have your normal utility increase uh $92,000 over the 25- 26 budget. Uh non-mandated cost, maintenance uh nearly flat funded from 25-26. Um that's an area that is in facilities is later as well as that um an area where we're able to work on the the budget to um get it in line where we need it to be. Uh transportation increased 164,000. That's like um uh so, special education costs and uh field trips. It's uh the things that are not the two and from school. Other non-mandated costs includes book supplies, equipment, software, and other costs. Increase of 670,000 from the 25-26 budget, which includes several technology replacements. One thing that's happening within our budget is that the uh COVID funding is no longer there that we

077utilized to replace a bunch of technology equipment. And now the cycles are coming due and we have to locally fund those instead of using that COVID funding. Um so, that's hitting our local budget as well as the ELA curriculum adoption is in there. They Into Reading is in the next year's budget as well. And just to reiterate something that was said at that meeting, which is that that has a upfront cost that then is done for five six years. So, there's there's a bit of a bump there associated with that adoption, but that's not a perennial increase for that. Back a page to the um mandated costs uh tuition. Does that include um uh charter? Yes, that that line item would include cyber charter as well. Yeah. So, the net is still that that is

078a decrease. So, that's because of the change in the um >> [laughter] >> in the state law. >> Yeah, and that's one of the things I'm going to look at into further as well, looking at our forecasting there. I think that we could sharpen our pencil a little bit on that line item. Okay, that's what I was wondering. Um cuz I know there's offsetting then that would also include special education-related tuitions that we're paying for outplacements. So, that tends to go up. Yep. All right, thanks. >> [clears throat] >> Okay, we're at uh debt service. Debt service increased 660,000. That is solely due to the issuance of the 2025 bonds. And then uh prior year refunds we're decreasing that by 300,000. Um Looking at our past history plus our year-to-date performance, year-to-date performance is about

079uh $356,000 in refunds. We feel that the number is the $500,000 is a comfortable number. Um you know, if we get one, two, three, keep on accumulating those uh refunds, that number could be a risk, but based on past years and year-to-date, we feel like that number is a good number to be able to get to. That's Is that property tax refunds? Yes. On to facilities, uh facilities decreased 886,000 from our 25-26 budget to return spending to their levels of 23-24 and 24-25. This is something that we actually sort of challenged all of our administrators to look at is that based on their actual spending history, um how can we better align the budgets to their actual spending? And facilities was one of them that we uh looked at their budget and thought that potentially

080they're overbudgeting a little bit, so we decreased their budget to return them to more reflect their actual spending. And the capital reserve fund uh decreased 495,000. So, we're taking that from the $2 million in the previous year to $1.5 million. That's a return to historical uh spending in that line item line item as well. This line item is flexible. Um if there's a want to increase that line item, it can certainly happen. If that line item wants to be decreased, that can certainly happen as well. Um it's sort of a um an item that can be increased or decreased each year depending on the needs of the board. Presumably, that's going to be somewhat responsive to the scope of the project that we ultimately decide on for this next phase of capital improvements. Is that

081correct? Correct. Yeah. >> Well, not not really in my mind. This is a long-term play, right? Uh we really need to be thinking about what is the rate at which we need to be transferring funds in or be and what's the balance between our So, no not specific to any given year or any given project because you can't fund any significant project with just one year's money, right? So, it's a long-term debt versus payout of our current uh earnings. And what we really are doing is trying to bridge our current needs and the rate of our spend and balance that um to the point where we can get favorable cuz we know a lot of our capital funds are going to be paid through borrowing. But, we want to do that at the optimal time

082and we want to keep our total borrowing burden low, which we have a very low rate as a district. We would love to keep That was a gift from our previous boards and it's a gift we would like to keep paying forward. Um having under 5% uh debt burden is is just a great place to be. Um but so, that means the next major refinancing we're going to have is around 2030-31 one or something when we Well, we have a refi coming up next year. But, I mean a the pay out pay off of one of our um of our large um bonds is is a is a few years off. So, we need [snorts] to figure out how we're going to That would be the next good opportunity to then take on new debt,

083right? Finance some big projects. But, we have big projects that need to come before then. So, basically what we put in the bank now helps us bridge that and and get closer to that date when we can do another big refi, pay for another set of big projects, that kind of thing. So, we have a certain amount of money in the bank now. What do we need to get through the next few years? I think at this we know from previous planning that 1.5 is too low. We we can't keep up or even stay close to keeping up at 1.5. Um we really should be at three to four if we were trying to pay most out of pocket, but we don't really need to be at four because as we are going to finance

084some of it. And so, that could that comes out of our debt burden payments, right? That's what we had on a few pages back. Debt service, which is 5.6. Um which for long-term projects makes sense. But, remember we've talked all before we don't want to do debt service for things that don't last as long as the debt does. You want to do it only for things that last a long time. Um and that then you're spreading the the those costs out and actually makes sense to do that cuz because especially since we get have been able to get very good very favorable interest rates in the past. So, um then it really makes sense to build now and you get the benefit of that capital at a very low cost. Um anyway, so I I

085think we need to try to try to bump that number up. That's the bottom line. So, that we can keep in our reserves we're going to probably spend more than is in our reserves and we're spending that down, but that's so that our trajectory is to go down until the point when we can do a good uh refi, not increase our our uh total debt burden, but when we can do when we can turn over one of our older notes and replace it with a new note um and keep our debt proportional to our budget, but our wealth is the same. And that at 1.5 is not going to get us there unless we stop spending, which we can't do. So, I think I think yeah, the that's a good way to think about it

086sort of the capital reserves fund transfer and and and bond debt service are sort of two sides of the same coin. >> Yes, exactly. >> Yeah. One is sort of future looking and we get a it's our kind of we're we're it's cheaper for us to do it that way in the long term, but also there is benefit to having the debt cuz it yeah, it gives us some flexibility. Okay, yeah, the But there's also there's also terms on that debt that relate to how and when we spend that money, right? So, like I think I think more [clears throat] my point was that the pacing of these projects does have some influence, yes? Because we have a bond that we need to spend >> Only if we have the money. Well, yeah, that's true.

087Yeah, we do have to spend the money that's in the bond that from the bond, but we have a lot we have a lot in reserve that's not from the bond. >> Totally. But I guess that that that does have an influence over in any given year where where we're drawing from to balance the two sides of the coin to stretch all these analogies together. >> I think yeah, you see your point, yes. So, then we do need to think about how soon do we need this money? >> Right. But the fact is we're talking in a very narrow range. Like I said, we're talking between we're probably talking between 1.5, which is lower than I think is right, but it's probably as low as we'll ever go. I mean, one year, our first year,

088we we only moved 600,000 over. That was necessary at the time for all kinds of reasons, which we won't go into, but it was but we had we had to make that up. And so, we and we know the high end, you know, we're never going to probably really sit here and be talking about putting five, six million dollars in at one shot unless somehow we got some enormous windfall, but Yeah, we we pushed back we pushed back projects and increased risk in facility failures and we we we received some facility failures. We had to replace and in return we got some facility failures. >> [laughter] >> And we we were just at the edge and and that all kind of worked out. Um but that I think that was close. It made sense what

089we were doing. I think that's closer. I think it was more risk than we would like and we'd like to be a little even more ahead of that. Yeah, I mean, we have the money right now because of the bond and because of some of our savings to to pay for the next year's projects, right? And probably the following years. It's it's three years out. That that that's why I'm thinking about the, you know, whether we put a little bit more in now will help us out in and next year and the following year will help us out in three years when we start seeing that number really get get close. >> I'll note that right now that bond does not cover the full extent of the projects we have planned. >> It's not as

090much as we're going to have to go so, we're going to have to go into the reserves that we already use spending. We probably have a little to go beyond that. If we don't replenish now, we won't have we won't be able to come up with another >> smooth it out, but it's We want to smooth it out as well. I think the time frame you're talking about is like five to 10 years when we're talking about how the rate of what >> I mean, what you're saying is that we've been going through our capital reserves in the next couple years. >> It's sooner than five to 10. So, we need to be putting if we put in another 1.5, we we really should probably put that that's consistent with what I was thinking is

091we probably should be putting in three to four to keep up. And then you would have in in three years you would have another 10 million to say but three in each year. In three years you'd have 10 more million than what you have we have right now. And that would get us go through another year of big projects, right? >> So, preserve you're proposing doubling the revert the the fund transfer. >> just hypothesizing. >> Okay, yeah. I was I was going to say that's about the amount that we raised in millage last year. So, that's a big ask, right? No, no, no, no, no. I'm just But that's playing with numbers here. But I think that actually I mean, there is good sense to that though. Yeah. But that is a number that we

092discussed previously and we have in the last out of the last five years we probably we had one year where we had some more revenue than we anticipated so, we moved more over. We did go over three million. Mhm. Um but that was in mid-year. That wasn't I don't think in the original budget that year. But are you saying you think this number should be higher than >> It should be at least two, I think. I think we should be aiming for two and we should try to bump it up again next year and try to get to a a stable three We want to be we want to be putting three million >> 3% of our budget in capital is probably a minimum I think. And then you that on top of the 5%

093we have on debt service, that'd be an 8% facility on a on a what is our our cap our facilities I think are estimated at like 300 million dollars worth of facilities, you know, that's not that's not a lot of money There's some fraction, right? There's What's the kind of percentage we would Yeah, what what percentage would any business have to do to maintain its facilities and keep them up? >> Yeah, what is it like I don't know, five or five to 10% or something? Do we not have a recommendation for this number? I there's definitely statistics that we could what others are doing. >> Yeah, what others are doing. I don't know that there's a Most people have a lot more debt than we do. Or more recommendation, yeah. I'm not sure it's appropriate

094to talk about benchmarking annual year-over-year facilities costs when we're really talking about our three major infrastructure projects with very specific start and end dates that have bid bid timelines, right? So, like it isn't in some ways I think that sort of that suggests that we're talking about like routine oil changes when we're really talking about is a full transmission repair. And I I think those are different things. Um and I you know, like yes, but for those listening at home, what we're really talking about is like do you save up a little bit of every paycheck to pay for a transmission you know is failing? Do you take out debt or put it on your credit card or do you do some combination of the two? And that's that's the debate we're having right now

095is how much do we put into our savings account every year? How much do we resolve we we we rely on credit cards or in this case a much better type of revolving debt called a bond, right? Um and and when do we pay each of those contributions betting on when we're going to have to replace the transmission of our car in this case the entire HVAC system of our high school plus electrical. So, like it is and I think for me I'm still hunting for a tighter resolution on what the true scope of that project is going to be. Um and I I know we've been asking for that and I know that Dan is working very hard on getting us that tighter resolution. Um but I wouldn't be comfortable with a strategy that

096says, no matter what, we're going to put X percentage of our paycheck into a savings account. Cuz I want to know how much >> budget every year. >> a floor there, but I don't want to hit the ceiling either. >> No, I you have to balance long term, short term and fairness to taxpayer, but I think And I want to have a really clear target of what we think the cost of a transmission is and when we think we're going to pay for it so that we can get we can bridge it Well, we know our buildings are always breaking. Sure. And we know our buildings are old. Sure. And that's why we have a budget. So, we know is going to break. Yes. And we're and we've been planning for that for a long

097time. 1.5 is not going to get it. If we stay at 1.5, we're going to 100% need a new bond before we can pay off one of the big 2013 2014 bond. What is that? It's 2013 is the one that will come due. Um uh next. Um and so, we know when that that date is. We know how many projects we have right now that you want to pay for and we have some of that money, not all of it. Um but we know there's going to be more. So, we even we even know that those projects aren't the end of the list. I mean, we have a lot that's the essential list, not the like likely to need list. So, maybe for the next meeting, what would be really neat to see would be

098those sort of year-by-year stepwise hypothesis for what that contribution might look like based on that schedule of a tentative schedule of spending. All of this is and I'm looking at Dr. Reldan cuz she likes to remind me that uncertainty is certain um in these budgets. It surely is. Um but I think that sort of stepwise horizon would be helpful for me um in resolving on a year-by-year basis what we have available in bond capacity and what we actually have bonded and also what say 1.5 versus a two versus a three would look like. So, we will do our best to get that, but it will be uncertain as of yet because we haven't even hired a firm for the high school yet. Yeah, that will be coming we hope in April or in May I'm

099sorry, in May or in June to the board. And so, you know, we're trying to get to that number as to or or understand what part of the project we need to do so that we could do an RFP for those or I mean, do a proposal for those. Um I will say that we have done that work over the every year. We have done a multi-phase capital projects plan and that is still a pretty decent look at at what we need. >> [clears throat] >> Um it's not perfect. We're adding to it. We're changing it. We're adjusting as we have every year. But I would say that that we're not starting from scratch with a new 10-year project. it it did account for 2.5 to 3 million dollars most years in best case scenario

100knowing that there were always you know, pushes and pulls in the system that you have to make decisions for. So, we will continue to do that. It is unlikely we will have that for the May 4th meeting in full step out here's what you can account for, but we will we can organize it as best we can going back on our our historical information. Right. And so, I think it would help just to have the um the totals I agree what we have in capital reserves and what we have kind of lined up as projects in the near future and then when is the next bond payoff payoff so we can kind of line up the the two things cuz it is a balance in short term and long. Sure. And we did have some

101of that information in the the that we provided to the board. We can we can revisit that with some updated information. So There is there is also a slight twist, which is some of the capital improvements will result in money savings due to efficiency gains. But we've been told those are going to be extremely minor because of the the nature of our utility relationship. So that that that way we realize that but it's it's it's more complicated than my understanding was it's more it's not just an immediate thing. You need to do some negotiation with the utilities, which is ongoing as far as I know, but it's not it's not instantaneous, right? Yeah. It is and there will be some savings. I think the the key thing is to how much savings to expect and

102whether that's a number that's demonstrative is how big of a project the the the board and the district can do because there certainly is a full-scale project that's unlikely to occur because it's a lot of capital outlay very quickly. That really exceeds our capacity. So we're going to have to do pieces of that project. So it may take a few years to realize some of the savings, but some savings will come immediately, which we are seeing at Heartwood already. It hasn't equated yet to dollar savings, but it likely will. However, I will say that when we have the the difficult winters that we've had, we run our facilities 24 hours a day 7 days a week during that time. It's to prevent other failures. So sometimes that savings can be masked at this time of

103year just because we're coming out of the cold season. Yeah. And and of course the other twist is the buildings are aging. So that's the other kind of weird calculus in there where it's like well if we if we push it out more, potentially things won't won't save you. There's there's all sorts of things. There's a lot of parts moving. And we have planned out long enough that it will be time to redo Kerr. So just just to give you perspective, Kerr is is is now on 7 years and most of those facility you know the the internal facility mechanisms will need to be replaced in 15 to 18 years. There's some seriously ironic smiles around the table at this time. You realize how long we've been on the board. >> [laughter] >> Can I

104ask since we knew going into this that in previous models we had we had expected a two to three million dollar transfer annually. Why is this one lower than two? Like why do we why are we asking here for 1.5? It's actually that's what we've always projected, but we've not done that in any of the years that we projected. Or even though we provided so you're okay. I was just I was just curious it wasn't responsive to a larger contract liability. No, it's it's based on what the board I think has asked to do in previous years. It's where we sort of shape things I guess. Okay. Yeah, I mean I think it I think increasingly maybe your mind should be should really be collectively tuned to that capital improvement plan if we're serious about

105it. But okay, great. Good discussion. Yeah, great discussion on a single line item. That's [laughter] all right. That's good. I appreciate it. There's a lot tied up in that. Thanks for bringing that up. Yep, it's good for me to know as well. So thank you for that. Budgetary reserve moving on. You've traditionally had a 1.5 million dollar budgetary budgetary reserve. Really you only use this if there's unexpected or unbudgeted costs. You traditionally have not used this in the past. Where does that go if we don't spend it? So traditionally you've been So I guess you're currently in a deficit position. So it doesn't really go anywhere. So you [clears throat] just don't spend that 1.5 million dollars. If you if you did spend it, you would take it out of fund balance. But now that

106you're not spending it, you just don't take that money out of fund balance. So I hope that answers your question, but this isn't We budget for it, but it's not new or It's it's really sort of a statutory trick is that if you're it shows up on the top line and the bottom line. It balances out. If you >> [laughter] >> if you need to spend it, you have the statutory authority to spend it. Um you don't have to spend it and if you don't spend it, then you just don't take it out of your fund balance. You don't because back in Does it go back for next year or essentially you just have it? Nobody ever done private sector accounting would ever see this and never understand. >> [laughter] >> That's why we all

107get confused by it. That's a good point. I think of it as shoe money. It's the money you leave in your shoe in case you get mugged and lose your wallet. That's I like your idea. I hadn't heard it explained that way. Basically you're authorized to spend it, but it's actually [laughter] not. We're getting to that past 9:00 p.m. Yes, that's right. The the best example is if you had some sort of mostly you're covered by insurance liabilities as well. So but something like catastrophic happens that you have to spend that money, you would have the authority to be able to spend it without going over your authorization. So moving on to just the summary of the expenses, you can see there really personnel takes up 70% a huge chunk of your budget. If you

108add in the mandated contractual costs plus your debt and facilities, you're at 85 to 91% depending on which numbers you include in there. So most of your budget is inflexible. You're really talking about that 7% is your non non-mandated costs. Oh, just one more comment on the reserve thing. If if you really want to walk out on this, the reason I sometimes ask questions about budget transfers is I'm always looking for the budget transfer line that says from reserve because if that's it, then it's something that we didn't budget for anticipate. It's not just shifting money around, which is what everybody is. But that's the one. So if they're significant that we'd want to ask questions about because that's is coming out of that 1.5. Good point. That's a good note. So when you're looking

109through our large packet and if you want to look for something and see if there's budget transfers from reserve. And just the other thing we discussed too is that your debt service is at 5% of your budget there, which is a very good number. I have a question about the debt service. I'm just curious here. I know that bonds are better than credit cards, but it doesn't behoove us to pay in advance. We just stay on there. I think you're allowed to pay back. I don't think we can. There's yeah, there's call dates on those. So if you have larger bonds, the call dates are like 10 years typically. The bank qualified bonds, the 10 million dollar bonds you did there 5 years. And typically when you can refinance those, you're refinancing at a lower

110rate and that's just because you're saving you the interest amount and everything. So you are technically saving, but it's on a controlled It's on a schedule. That's called a call date. So you can call early and pay it. Yeah. But we usually it's a roll over into a new one at a lower rate and that's what we're going to that we did that a year and a half years ago and we're going to do it possibly next year. We have another one coming up. The savings are modest in terms of the 100 millions of dollars we're talking at there, but there will be some savings. That one was at least six figures. It was like 220 or something. That that one was good. We'll probably do the same thing where we authorize it, right? And

111then and then if the market is good, then they'll do it. August was that was the timeline. But if rate if interest rates go way up, then we'll not want to do it. It looks efficient right now. Looks like we Right now we're in a good place. When Yeah, that that'll be well thought decision at the in August, September. Yeah, I think August was the first date that we I think it would be to authorize us to get started and then in September to to set the rate. And then if we never meet the parameters, we don't meet the parameters. It just drops out. Yeah. There is a cost to refine to refinancing. You have to make sure the rate's good enough to offset the cost. Yeah. Okay. Next slide. The overall summary without budgetary

112reserve, you're at a 2.4 million dollar out of balance. And notice too this is without a tax increase. So and then additionally too possible adjustments, you could draw down a million dollars from assigned fund balance or more or less for capital projects. As what we talked a little bit about PEASERS, is this the right year or not to be able to draw that down? That's up for debate as well, but you could do a 250,000 dollar draw down. That was in traditionally was the number in the past few years of your budget to draw down for additional PEASERS costs. Your adjusted net change could be 1.2 million dollars. And then your millage options, I can slice and dice this any way you like. This is normally the way that I like to look at it

113is I give you the no change column. So if you just look at your first column is what we had last year. Second column is no change and that's exactly that number that you saw way back on the first slide that says your increase in just your assessments. So we just rolled over the assessments. It's a pretty current number as well to the county publicizes these numbers on their website really on a daily basis. And so that's a pretty current number. And then they give you [clears throat] the full index, half index and then you have your quarter index and three quarter index as well to try to give you some midpoints in there. >> [clears throat] >> I would say a couple notes on this is that you're definitely in a post COVID post

114CLR so common level ratio environment here and all school districts are looking at their millage rates and making adjustments to their millage rates. It's um just Allegheny County in general and is not seeing the increase in assessments to be able to sustain no tax increase method. Um so you have to look at some level of tax increase. So most districts are doing that. You're not alone in that. Um and then as well to the COVID dollars that maybe have suppressed your millage rate increases um over the years that we've been able to draw down those funds whether they're directly going towards things or not they were additional revenue to the district and they probably did offset some of the pressure on your millage rate. Um so you definitely have a lot of pressure on your

115millage rate I would say right now. And then as well your index is lower than what it's normally been. Um that's a function of the state calculation that calculates wages and available jobs. It's not necessarily something that's tied directly to inflation. So this number is decreasing and it's not going to decrease quickly but it will decrease some over the next few years. So um you're probably going between that 3 and 1/2% and probably somewhere above 3% is where they I've seen this forecast. The IFO is a state agency that does these forecastings and they're out there. Um and they're pretty accurate normally. So that's going to be the trend over the next few years is that your index is going to just decline slightly over time. And you're in a position as well where you

116do not get any sort of adjusted index. So you might see some other districts have higher capacity than what you have. They might have a 4 and 1/2% increase that they're able to go to. Um or higher. And those are the districts that are in a aid ratio position that is I want to make sure I get this right. I'm not going to probably not going to get it right. Above or below 50 that 50% mark. So the wealthier school districts actually can raise taxes less. The less wealthy districts can raise taxes more. It's just the way the formula works. Um so you're limited to that 3.5% that's the base index. So you will see if you're monitoring other school districts proposed tax rates you might see rates that are higher than 3 and 1/2%.

117So to make up the the net change on the previous slide it's basically the near the second to last increase. Yeah that three quarter index is >> that red line. >> looking to and then you know I would say to looking up towards the index at 3 and 1/2% is if you're looking to make changes to any of those line items for capital you're you're looking at that. Just as a reminder too I think two years ago um that the tax increase was 3.75% and that was because your index was at a much higher rate. I would probably can't quote it off what yours was but there was indexes that were 6% um as high as 6%. So you may have taken half the index or something you know in that in that range. And

118I'll I'll just preface that by saying that also that the the far right side of the table is assuming no fund drawdowns to offset Correct. >> Right. So that that is not assuming the adjusted net change scenario in which we draw down a million from the assigned fund balance. And that's this one, right? 250. Yeah, that's right. Okay. But the that's drawing down a million dollars from the assigned fund balance is just an accounting trick. It basically um say if it's put pushing it I mean just kicking the ball down. Yeah you're just yeah you're offsetting you're you're only going to want to do that to offset one time costs and so you look towards your capital contributions. But these capital contributions as we just said have to happen on annual basis as well so

119it is Yeah we we we we we we we what we just talked about. Yeah. Which in the which we have done mostly from PEASERS PEASERS is the only one that we should really be looking at because there is a finite date still for distant in the future still a lot of risk but there is a finite date and and you could put the board in a a future board in a difficult position if you have too much sitting there and they do it all in one year then they have to figure out where to put that. They probably could but I think buying H back system somewhere yeah that costs that costs easily 5 million >> [laughter] >> I know we can find where we can spend that. Right yeah. That's not the issue.

120>> But uh Yeah. There is some level >> Well the the thing what I was trying to get at though is that creates a phantom effect of like you feel like you you had have an easy budget year right? And when you in fact it didn't raise and you might be tempted not raise >> Well and that's what we had with the >> Cuz you had the surplus With all the COVID funds we had that right? So I think we're we're being advised to remember that. And there are other districts in our region that have made that mistake. They're in a really awful position right now and are They have a one time kind of windfall. They they under raised taxes and then they the next year that's money they didn't they don't have in

121their base. Yeah I think I think the point that you were making earlier was that the ceiling on that Act 1 index is likely falling not rising. So that will be we will be more constrained in future years than we are in this one in terms of how much we can raise in a given year. Absolutely. That might be helpful for the next meeting is to see the the past few budget years with that Act 1 index because I I like Amy I think oh well we only did half of it but it's different. lower number now. It was about 4.75 I can read back It's a helpful reminder to the community I think too. That it's an ever changing number it's not a constant. Oh yes it's very ever changing and for a while

122we were at like 1% 1 and 1/2% like quite conservative um so Here's your last few adjusted Act 1 index or I guess yours is just the Act 1 index so 4% was last year, 5.3% year before, 4.1%, 3.4% then it was actually quite lower is three 3% 2.6 2.3 the years prior to that so um and your tax increases >> [snorts] >> 2.3% last year, 3.75% the year before, 1.5 1.5. Pretty consistent. So you can just COVID years where we had the big COVID funding. It's that's the That was the 1.5. And I would say to your point it's like the it's the post COVID post CLR like the the CLR impact on this is probably even more than what the COVID impact was is that you you could have had millions of dollars

123that you were collecting before without changing your millage rate and now that is just not happening. There is an exception process in that one would does the CLR qualify in any way as an exception? The the special ed is probably the only exception that you'd have available and I'm not sure what it would be here but uh your hundreds of thousands of dollars is what you're talking it's not a million dollar exception. So not something that's very significant. >> So bad county assessment policy doesn't count in this. >> [laughter] >> Yeah. >> [clears throat] >> But again no pressure this is no pressure budget presentation so no decisions need to be made tonight on this. Jumping in in the middle of the year. Thank you very much for all the hard work in getting everything

124cut caught up to date. Absolutely no problem. Just a few few two more pieces of information. Here's your Allegheny County millage just something to keep in perspective about where everybody else is at in relation to where Fox Chapel is. We are 10th lowest on this list. Um many different reasons for different millage rates so you have the ratios of residential to commercial. If you have a very high commercial area your millage rate is typically going to be a little bit lower. Um you know your home values if you have really high home values your millage rate is typically going to be lower. If you have really low home values your millage rate is typically going to be higher. Um there's just a lot of factors that go into this and uh each district has its

125own little story that is told behind why their millage rate is what it is. Yes and I would also I would posit this is a slightly misleading for that reason exactly that it's a slightly misleading to compare ourselves against these other districts because you'll notice this like really extraordinary popery at the top of the list of some of districts that are radically different in terms of their student population, their housing values, the size of those districts. And so like if you consider embedded in this is a sort of hidden ratio between how much revenue is possible to collect and how much revenue you need to collect to teach children and the number of children you have. And so I think I would I would discourage many people from taking this ranking, this relative ranking of

126millage rate as a guide because it's it's just not reflective. In fact, part of what's so broken about our property tax system here is that there are very districts that do not have access to revenue because they have their housing values are plummeting, there's all of their commercial property is leaving. The only choice they have is to raise above the index and they have to do that consistently year over year. And so they'll have these these sky high millage rates without anything to show for it. And so I think be careful in interpreting this chart. That's all. Good morning, I would say. Yep. And then I always leave off with tax discount options. So homestead farmstead exclusion there's the website that you can go to for more information. We do a mailing to every every

127household that does not have a homestead or farmstead every year. So everybody is notified if they do not have a homestead and how to apply for the homestead. So that's a good process. We use the county's process to determine who receives a homestead and who does not. The property tax and rebate program as well for lower income individuals, older adults that and people with disabilities that are able to qualify for this program as well. So the income threshold is available for you right there and as well as the website and information to be able to go to. Couple big programs there. That's all I have for you tonight. When we look at this again next month, could we have a list of our fund balances, each category and how much we have in each one?

128You you presented a really high detail side by side that included year over year percent increases or decreases by budget category. I think that would be really helpful for the board to have as a part of or before our next discussion. I understand those those numbers probably have changed since you showed them to the projects and planning committee. But I think many of our board members have an appetite for that document. It was a one-pager. Yeah, there's all that information is has been provided and in in linked, but we can certainly do that again. >> That's in the in the meeting materials. >> Yes, all of it's in the meeting. It's also in your board budget update that you get every week. So it's in there. And there are some gems in there that I

129think are helpful to discuss in narrative and possibly as a collective or at least in side by sides because it it you know, some of those changes feel really radically large. But they're for small budget items and some of them truly are large changes. And so I think it's that's that's helpful. I would I would recommend that. Okay. Any other questions or comments? Thank you, Mr. Manzer. You're welcome. >> Thank you. Could I have a motion to adjourn? So moved. Second. All in favor? >> Aye. Meeting adjourned.