##VIDEO ID:d3CRugLCvuA## The Independent School District 8:32 a regular board meeting on Monday December 16th at 7 pm please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance Al to the United States of to the stands naice roll call of attendance please director dolman director Payne director Regan here director Donna here director Peterson here director Stout looking for a motion to approve the agenda for this evening uh moved by director dolman is there a second second second by director Peterson any discussion about the agenda all those in favor say I I I uh we move the agenda uh next I'm looking for a motion to approve the consent agenda is there a motion director Peterson motion second second direct second by director do dolman any discussion about the consent agenda all those in favor say I I I next superintendent comments yes thank you and I'll be brief we're going to have a short meeting this evening but before we get started um there I do want to make a few comments about a few a couple of people who are leaving us in the consent agenda that you just approved um Nicole flesner who has been our HR director for the past 19 years is has uh accepted another position so today was her last day with the district and she is someone who you've gotten to know and um staff throughout the district know as well as somebody who makes um great connection and um we will definitely we will definitely miss her so I wanted to acknowledge Nicole um and then also Dr Lucy Payne is stepping off the board and so I want to also acknowledge her contribution to the district she's been on the school board for over 10 years she was appointed in 2014 she served as chair and vice chair numerous District Community uh committees she's she was active as a leader in the state um through msba and amsd um a real Champion for the Performing Arts in our district and in the community both through her work as a volunteer for uh the Performing Arts in um in in our district but also for the Wildwood artist series and um at Ashlin theater so she's she's been constantly present and engaged in um performing arts for our students both locally and in the area and so that's been been a real passion for her and and we're really thankful for her work there we are going to see her subbing some in the district she'll be back um but uh we do want to thank her for her years of service her dedication to our district her dedication to public education in general in our in our state as well so um she wasn't able to be here but I still wanted to make sure we had a chance to acknowledge her so thank you that's what I wanted to make sure I had a chance to do thank you Lucy and Nicole for your dedication and time for uh Independent School District 8:32 we are grateful for all of your work anybody else have any comments or questions about that superintendent duffan summed it up very well for both thank you that was my goal I do want to make it clear that I did ask the board to help me uh determine you know things they wanted to make sure I had I had acknowledged about her work and so um so that that thank you is on behalf of the school board and the district so thank you thank you uh next we're going to move on to action items um I'm looking for a motion to approve the donations and grants totaling 30,9 5577 do I have a motion so moved so moved by director Donna is there a second second second by director Dolen any discussion all donations and grants are greatly appreciated the use of these funds will be to further the mission of the school district and are used towards the wishes of the donor all those in favor say I I I I opposed motion carries uh next we are going to move on to action item B which is truth and Taxation presentation hearing by Tim Erikson uh prior to Tim's presentation do we have anyone in the audience that would like to provide public comments on the truth and Taxation are we going to do that after they do it there's a moment after Tim gives his uh presentation anyone who would like to have public comment this is the one time when public comment happens during the school board meetings is the only time and it's after Tim's presentation his truth and Taxation presentation which that makes a lot more sense to me but I saw it written otherwise so I just went with it y all right go ahead okay thank you so uh most of you are familiar with this I think all of you are familiar with this I know I've now been around a little over a year so I know you're everybody sitting here is familiar with this so this is for for your uh review and we review the the uh current budget that was also preliminarily approved by the board approved by the board as the preliminary budget uh for this current year that we're in as well um so the proposed Levy which was a taxes payable in 2025 funds the 2526 school year so just a a bit of information that can get kind of confusing when we get into a lot of different fiscal years um when we look at uh the final adopted Levy the certification deadlines here there are some things that the Board needs to do to make sure that uh we're able to file with the county and file with the state that the Department of Revenue Etc we have some timelines there and so essentially to sum this up um we file a truth and Taxation compliance certificate uh with the Department of Revenue and it's it's by dece by within five business days of December 20th which effectively is December 30th and then we also file with the home county auditor uh what the board certified for the taxes payable and uh so that's just to give you an idea of of the requirements there the next part is just to talk a little bit about um the different types of property taxes that uh school districts Levy and that mamidi levies and so we have the fir the first category would would be voter approved levies so things like an operating referendum which we have here a capital projects lby which we have here and building improvements and and that's to pay Bonds on bonded debt so which we have here so we have all three of those and that's uh those are the voter approved and then we have things that are called discretionary levies so uh those are expenditures which have Levy limits uh authorized in law for school districts um so we have one that I'm sure you know you've heard a lot about and we approve a 10-year plan for this every year is a long-term facilities maintenance and that is a that's a levy it's part Levy and part Aid and uh so that's that's one of our larger ones uh safe schools levy which is just what it says that is to we can use that for for things expenditures for Safety and Security and then the lease Levy which again is U things like facilities like if we uh if we rent a swimming pool or if we rent um you know we have actually have a lease on a new lease on tonight for the passages space those types of things so those are pieces that we we Levy for um as a regular part of our business and we do that every year the different things that cause this Levy to move and to change um are things like certainly enrollment causes that CA of that Levy to go up or down depending on what it what uh our enrollment is doing at the time a lot of our levies are are function of enrollment student enrollment so you'll see that um also when we're going through the year and we're wrapping up one year and going into another year um there are estimates um in the beginning that that and some of those things are estimates in the levy and then we actually go through at the end of the year and we get actual revenues and actual expenditures and those things will be those things things are updated and finalized with the Department of Education as we go through the the whole process and then um we also have the fiscal you know fiscal year is closed we have the independent audit uh which uh that gets submitted to the state as well and so all of those things play play a part in um driving the different numbers of the levy of the different levies in the in the payable Levy um this and this particular Levy includes the step up so that step up in the operating re uh operating operating referendum so that was going from 12295 per student uh to 1570 per student in this case so that step up is included in this Levy and you'll see when we get to this next page you can see that um we look at those different categories or different areas of the levy you can see the general fund the levy change there is 983 th000 primarily all driven by that step up Levy there's other little changes in there but primarily the 900,000 is generated by that step up Levy community service it has a very has a small increase going from 185 to 189 and then Debt Service uh that's just a what what we're paying what we're expecting to pay uh next year in our debt service so so going from 5 million you know pretty much level 5,694 to 5,75 so then you you can see the total change in the levy just under a million dollars and then when we look at taking these actual Levy dollars and for our district the me and when we looked at the uh when they some of the county data on changes in market value from 24 to 25 uh the median change was a 0.1% increase in Modi um if if I remember right the whole County went actually went down about 2.7% so we actually went up slightly so pretty much just held level for the most part so um that's not not certainly not bad news for for people who own a home here in the district um when we look at the estimated pay that that box on the left is what the impact this current Levy is that we're looking at right now the proposed Levy and the Box on the right is what happened and and actual pay for 2024 so you can see when we look at market value in the district uh the market the median market value in the district is $518,000 and then there are some gyration that this goes through there are some exclusions um there was a change in the Homestead market value exclusion and that is excluding the first $95,000 of market value and on a on a home and then that uh actually gets applied you can see how that's applied in that second column column e uh to each of those different pricing levels for a home and um if you go all the way across to column H in that box and just I'm just going to I'm going to stick with the median uh price level uh the the taxes would be estimated taxes would be 2,448 on that $518,000 home so then if you go across to the next box and then I'm going to jump over to column H so last year uh that those taxes were 2,296 so an increase of $152 on that uh Hess just just a little over a half million dollars and then you can see the tax impact on the other price levels 250 going up in $50,000 increments so any question just for those people listening it it's 2ou it's the taxes were not 2 million but two in the thousands I think I heard you say 2 million oh I'm did say 2 million I say no I'm sorry yes yes it's it's been a long day y so thank you for that correction so the difference is $152 from 24 to 25 on a median price homeone that's correct yeah on an annual basis so not monthly so not a million not not a million yes not a million you might have a lot more questions yes all right any any other questions on this page okay so as part of this process we're we also need to present the the budget the current Year's budget and so this won't be any news to you this is the one that you approved back in June uh so it's essentially the same now we'll come to you in February with budget revisions for this year so any larger changes we we'll include in that and then we'll have you review those and and approve those as well so you can kind of see the the different funds there and um so it's pretty pretty self probably some something that you're certainly familiar with uh we can see the unassigned fund balance uh beginning fund balance July 1st of 2024 um which was estimated at 11. 64% and then I then it's look's like here pictures covering the bottom I think it's eight looking at 8.94 thank you okay thank you perfect so um that's that any questions on that page is it fair to say then so um or fair to under to to indicate that the district is using a portion of the unassigned fund balance to mitigate um the overall impact to the budget yes yep exactly that is correct so this was the and this was the year that you know we talked about the previous year having we we actually had a small budget deficit projected uh this was a year where we kind of we kind of moved into those larger that larger deficit so um and I I believe we will probably see that come in a little less than what's presented here uh once we get uh get through the revisions and bring the revisions to you so thank you just as a matter of record and maybe this isn't the right time to bring it up but I think if anybody's listening at home um just at a high level like what's leading to us uh having the drop in the in the unassigned fund balance or like what's causing us to kind of run a deficit this year like what are the main items well we're we're on the people business so our our largest cost are our wages and benefits um we have you know if we look at things like Transportation uh Transportation when we brought on the the new bus company um there weren't any other takers when the district went out for those uh for those bids uh so Transportation cost took a jump up of about 20 25% uh um you know health insurance continues to be a challenge um when we look at health insurance um I'm you know it sounds funny to say but I'm I'm I was relieved that we came in with our health insurance at about just over 11% that's you know way above inflation but again it's what we've been seeing in the in the health insurance world you know we we start to we see those double digit increases um just overall inflationary costs inflationary pressures you know we hear it hear it time and again and and we're not immune uh and then when we look at uh and we're not alone when we look at other districts many other districts are looking at uh budget deficits as well so um of course you see it we see it in the news and we see it in in the paper Etc all the time yeah thank you that's helpful it's just when it hits home I think it's good to reiterate why we're up against the challeng you bet yeah thank you and I guess the only piece I'll add really simplified to this is that it it's it was reassuring to see that we started with a healthy unassigned fund balance and the ability to be able to even do so and so it would have been very different if we weren't in that place so correct yes um I mean that you know just this the future is a little bit uncertain in the world and so we were in a good place because we had that yeah I I'll you know and I should mention too if if you remember we in in that budget we went through and we cut about $700,000 out of it um so and um really very little impact to student programs and that type of thing so um that that was it was good we were able to do that have very little impact and still still maintain that we're a little bit above uh the fund balance policy so okay so to sum up uh what What's required from the board tonight uh so final board approval of that Levy and subsequent to the hearing so we'll get to that next point in the agenda and uh then again we'll we'll submit the adopted final Levy to our home county auditor by the end of the month probably tomorrow if you approve it tonight um school districts to submit the certificate of compliance with the truth and Taxation and then uh the final so the final budget amount is uh 177 m215 51.82 that would be the amount of the levy that you're being asked to approve tonight that's that is all I have so any any additional questions so I guess with that we're going to move to the public public comment section if there's anyone that wishes to make public comments about the truth and Taxation presentation hearing none I'm looking for a motion to approve the certified pay Levy 2024 2025 I'll move that motion moveed by director Donna is there a second second by director Peterson any discussion all those in favor say I I I opposed motion carries thank you yeah thank you there y I'm not moving okay next we're moving to action item C approval of the passages lease agreement so this is this is really really good news um we as you know we've we've talked about this a little bit before but this is the culmination now we're ready to move into the lease agreement it's a it's a 5-year period of time it is for the passages transition program um we are getting a much better location for that program uh the space is better it's really it's really set up much better for them to to run their program um I can I can give an example in the current space that we've got now um they're they have a they have a program where they they like to work with the kids to you know do a school store that type of thing and they run it out of bins right now because they don't have enough room to to properly set it up so this space is going to allow that they'll be able to set that up they'll be able to run some additional programs um one of the things that we looked at was we didn't need all of the space that was available so we're actually getting uh getting a reduced rent because we're we're we're not renting the whole Space um we also have the right right to veto if a you know if a a business comes in or something comes in that were that might be objectionable we have the right to veto that so that's written in the lease agreement um it's for like I mentioned a fiveyear period of time which is just about the right amount of time as we go through some of the other changes that we might be talking about down the road in the future so um so that's a I'll stop talking and ask if you have any questions I don't have any questions I know we've talked about this a couple of different times so this isn't new information so yeah uh thank you for that you bet so with that um looking for an approval of the passages lease agreement do I have a motion uh move by director Dolan there second second second by director Donna any discussion I I'll just make a comment Madam chair um yeah the the space that they're at is less than ideal that is for sure so it's good to see they've been able to identify better space that's work more workable and is a better situation any other discussion I will just add that I know that we've heard about this multiple times and one of the questions we asked was how do the staff feel about this and the staff seem very excited about this as well so um any other discussion all those in favor say I I I opposed motion carries next we're going to move to discussion and information items and item a is the board member calendar um does anyone have any items on there that you would want to call out on the board member calendar yeah director Peterson there is a coffee and conversation Zoom tomorrow for all school board members from 8 to 9:00 am thank you other items I know that mine is not loading for whatever reason I'm not sure why but the January 13th I believe is on there is that right Leslie that January 13th is now a study session have the right sorry I have a gray screen it went gray so um so I just I I noticed that as an addition so I just want to make sure that everybody had that on their calendar um and I think that's an early start like 5:00 P pm thank you five o'clock at the black box so um that was the only thing I remember calling out and I'm not sure why mine won't load so yeah we just have an administrative meeting on the 6th the organization organizational meeting then we have the study session on the 13th at 5:00 pm. and then that's it for the okay thanks in correct correct that's correct but you're in Hong Kong he'll he'll be here for we'll yeah you're here on this thing okay other call outs on the calendar well with that I'm looking for a motion to adjourn can I no I just feel terrible that I didn't realize that Joan dears is also listened to retirement and um and I was quickly as you saw me going through my computer I was quickly trying to figure out how many years she's been with the district but she is um you know typically we have our retirements at the end of the year but she's retiring mid year so when also acknowledge Joan Ts for all her years of service because I know she's been with us for a very long time time so um I'm sorry about that 40 35 a very long either way she's well experienced and she we're gonna miss her yes we are she started when she was 15 yes she started when she was 12 absolutely okay sorry about that to interrupt but I I flipped the page and realized she was I forgot her sorry and I guess before we adjourn I just want to wish happy holidays to uh the board fellow board members and School District personnel and staff and and uh with that I'm looking for a motion to adjourn no move move by director Peterson is there a second second second by director doen all those in favor I I we are adjourned was aord