That's >> all right. Thank you for all my wonderful technical support. All right. I don't have my Gavl, so I'll just hit um Let's see. Gavl, this meeting is
called to order. Roll call, please. >> Vice President Payne. Here. >> Director Trip here. >> Director Wilburn. >> Present. >> President Chandandy >> here. Director Wilburn will be leading
the pledge of allegiance this afternoon. >> Okay. This is all I've got, but it'll do in a pinch. I pledge allegiance >> pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America of America >> and to the republic for which it stands
it stands one nation under God indivisible indivisible with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you Director Wilburn. >> Mrs. Hatfielder are there any updates to the agenda? Yes. And the board has been made aware.
>> May we have a motion to approve the agenda? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Roll call, please. >> Vice President Payne. >> I. >> Director Trip. >> I.
>> Director Wilburn. >> I. >> President Chandandy. >> I. All right. I'm going to respectfully request all board directors to hold their questions and comments until the conclusion of each presentation. Uh, this will help ensure presenters can share their information fully and
efficiently before discussions begin. So, we're going to start with our 2026 2027 calendar updates. Superintendent Habber. >> Yes. um board of education. What uh some of the feedback that we got from staff uh both through the survey as well as
through the think tag tank is to really take a look at how can we create time uh especially for teachers uh to be able to have more time not only to collaborate but also to plan. So, we worked on it
together and uh Deputy Becky Allen is going to do the presentation supported by uh Becky Harris and Dr. Susan Field. >> Go ahead. Good evening everyone. Thank you so much for your time today. Um so,
board, as you know, this is a copy of the calendar that the board approved back in March. And what you've notice, you may notice is there are two red boxes.
Those are specifically the areas that we are proposing um a change to be considered. And obviously it's important that you have the opportunity to take a look at these proposals because the calendar, if this
is something we're going to proceed with, would go ahead and appear then again on the May 14th board agenda uh for your consideration uh for adoption. If you go to the next slide, oh, I have it here. Becky has to go to the next
slide. This is the new proposal. And again, we're not going to go over use this as our as our screen to have discussions, but I again just want to point out where are the areas that we are proposing a change. The first is at
the top left. You see a box there and that box is surrounding some bold text that says um it is that it's a one-year pilot with parent teacher conferences. So that's the overall topic of our
change and then those two red boxes go with October and March. It is really critical to point out that the material parts of this calendar in terms of the first day of school and the anticipated
last day of school, none of these things are changed from the calendar that was approved in March. This specifically has to do with a change uh to parent teacher conferences and uh the days of that week
of that cluster of days that make up parent teacher conferences. So let's zoom in. I thought it would be easy um easier to view the proposal if we zoomed in. This one is the October 2026. The board approved for March is on
the left. On the right of your screen is the new proposal. Um, in a moment I'll show another slide that will be March of 2027. The same type of visual. What's approved on the left? What are we proposing on the right? So, as
Superintendent Habberer mentioned, time is certainly a valuable commodity to our staff and board. you were very wise uh during this budget planning season to also be thinking about how can we
provide incentives? How can we provide things that our staff see as valuable? Not only ones that have a price tag, but ones that may not have a cost either. And that really prompted cabinet to look
and brainstorm and see are there any ways that we could find places in our calendar that could perhaps give some time back to our staff um as a way of of just valuing them even though it doesn't
have a price tag attached. So here is a plan that um we have discussed that we have discussed um and received feedback from principles at each level and so this is something that we'd like to propose for your consideration.
So on the left you see the traditional parent teacher conference uh calendar that we have and when you look to the right I'd like to explain what we are proposing. So when we look at uh the 13th of
October, when you look on the left, you'll see that that's parent teacher conferences and uh students attend school that day. And at night, there are evening conferences for elementary, middle, and high. About 4 hours worth of evening
conferences. Still in that left part of your screen, then we go to the next day, which is the Wednesday. And what you see on that day is a little different. Uh elementary and middle have no no students. They see
parents all day for conferences and then uh traditionally a high school attends and that night is another set of evening conferences for elementary, middle and high. So let's move over to the right.
So what we are proposing is to still have parent teacher conferences um obviously for our families. And when we look at Tuesday, we would have all students attend all day just as they did
in the approved version. But we are proposing that that evening we have elementary and middle school evening conferences only. And then when you go to the 14th, same thing. No school for elementary, no
school for middle school because conferences are happening during the day. But in the evening, we would have evening conferences for high school only. What that would do is that takes those staff who are attending those evening
conferences and it's it's about three and a half hours less than what they would do outside of the typical workday. And in exchange for that time whether you look if you look on the board approved on the left on the 15th we have
no students on that day. So although our staff would have worked about five four hours of evening conferences, they still get that full day off. You'll also notice on the left that the school offices were open until noon. That means
typically an administrator and some other staff, not the whole teaching staff, but typically some office staff would go into the school until noon. And in talking with with our principles, there's not much activity happening. So
if you look to the right for the 15th, we're saying, "Let's close schools." That gives any of those school-based staff that were going to go in that morning kind of to keep the doors open with very little activity say, "You know what? The return on investment really
isn't there. Let's just have you enjoy that day off." The other one, let's go back again on the left on the 16th. That is also a school closure. And it's important to note a school
closure. The district is not closed. So when you go to the right, we are proposing on the 16th that the district be closed. That is a way to say, you know what, we appreciate you in facilities. We appreciate you in
operations. We appreciate you in learning services, in human resources that day. Take that day. And again, that is basically getting some time off that you didn't have without losing money.
Some districts do what's called a furlow day. You work less and you get less money. We're trying to say you work a little less for the same pay. So that is the overview of October.
If we move to March, very similar except the week is just set a little differently because it only encompasses Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. What you can see on the left, this is what you've already approved. On the 17th,
students attend all day and in the evening, there's evening conferences at all level. On the 18th, there are no elementary and middle because there's daytime conferences, high school attends, and there's evening conferences. If we look over to the
right, our proposal is for the 17th, which is a Wednesday, to have um students attend all day and then in the evening evening conferences, elementary, middle, and high. The reason that we have um high school
in both scenarios having their conferences in the evening on a Wednesday is that aligns best with CHASSA activities. It's less impact on that so more coaches and folks can can attend the conferences. And on the 18th,
we are proposing that that is a no school day for elementary and middle conferences will occur and no high school evening conferences on that day. And the same type of difference on the 19th. When you look to the left for the
19th, there's no students, but the schools open till noon with not that return that that we feel that there's activities happening that are necessary. And so we're proposing that the 19th the schools would be closed fully. Notice
there's not another district closure. That district closure day happens one time and that's in October. Now when you look at this proposal um what is changing in terms of that could be looked at there's pros and cons
right to every decision and the pro of course is that our staff are having a little bit more time off um and yet not losing compensation for that. A con could be that there's or is
in some people's eyes would be well there's less opportunity for evening conferences right about three and a half hours of evening conferences have been removed in getting feedback from our principles
they they believe that they can make that work that you know conferences are not the only time that they are meeting with parents they're meeting with them in other venues as well including sometimes team meetings, MTSS meetings,
IEP meetings, etc. And certainly if there is a parent who could not make this conference schedule work, the principal would work with that parent and ensure that they find a time that would work so that they are
accommodated. So I just want you to know that cabinet has had that conversation with principles and principles are committed as they always would be. Um all of us who have been principles know that even when you offer the full plethora of evening conferences, you run
you run up against families who are out of town or their work schedule doesn't make it work. and we always make those work with our staff um to find an alternate to make sure we're having those conversations about students uh when it doesn't work with the
traditional schedule. Do you have any questions for us? Any questions? Uh, Director Trip, >> just really quickly, um, so March 18th, there are no um evening conferences. Is
that correct? At any level, that would be correct. Um, on for the March 18th, uh, prompted for that was just some feedback from each level that they felt again that Wednesday night was the most beneficial.
um some find as you start to push one is for the CHASSA events. The other piece is when you start to get into the 18th at elementary and middle and I'm going to say this anecdotally from what I observed as a middle school principal
and just what I've heard anecdotally for others. A lot of families consider that the first day of spring break because that's the first day off. So, you know, it just when we want when we want to do the evening conferences, we feel it's
most advantageous on the 17th because kids had school that day. You find a lot of families start their trips and traveling um on that first Thursday because in their minds that's truly when spring break starts for their students.
So, we felt best chance um to meet our family's needs on the 17th. I'm a fan of the schools closing and the district closing. I remain a little concerned about parent access, but I see Eddie has a question, so I'm going to
defer to him. >> And Miss Trip, >> Miss Trip, may I just Is it okay if I respond to that one? >> Yes, please. >> So, one of the things that has been important to us is that this is a pilot
and we have that noted at the top of the calendar. So, if we go through this year, this next year, if you were to approve it, and we found that the response it it it didn't work, it's it's not a commitment that we've made for
year after year. It's a one one-year try. >> Director Walder. >> Yeah, I think you've answered some of my questions as it was where uh I wonder about the feedback from the parents. I know myself as being a parent in the district, there's times I was like, uh,
there's more days off in this district than I ever had when I was growing up. Yeah. For Thanksgiving, we had Thursday and Friday off. Um, here we got kind of not only spring break off, but days before spring break. And for working parents like myself, a lot of times my wife would be, you know, military go place. Every time there's more time out
of the school, I was jumping through hoops trying to figure out how I'm going to be able to get the kid to a place, drop them off, get to work on time, and try to see if I find an after school program or some other parents to pick them up and drive them home. Uh, so if we're making these kinds of changes, I want to make sure that we've had at
least hopefully some feedback from the parents. I'm not sure uh if we have Dak or some other kind of accountability kind of meeting someplace where this has been presented so so we can contemplate it but also get kind of an idea of what our constituents are thinking about in terms of these things. I know for me the daytime hours have never worked out. So
if it wasn't if I did get lucky and get a Thursday I mean a Wednesday night for parent teacher conferences if it wasn't offered somewhere else if that filled up I'd be kind of out of luck and then try to scramble again. But I'm sure that's not easy for the teachers also to you know I know a lot of work goes into it
for teachers get ready for parent teacher conference and they got to kind of set all those things up deal with all the complaints feedbacks and subjects the parents kind of walk into the room with unexpectedly and to try to kind of taper that off for another day too to accommodate someone. So I'm just not
sure uh hopefully we got some feedback from some parents or we have a way of getting some feedback from some parents before we make that make that decision. Miss Allen, let me clarify if I may. This isn't any more days off, correct? These days are already off. You're just saying the district will be closed
instead of half open. >> Yeah. So, it's not like an extra day of school off. It's already off. >> That's right. It's all the only change on this calendar when you think about the district being open or closed is
that on um October 16th there's no school in session anyway. Um all of our schoolbased staff are off. We were just closing the district. Every other closure on here when students are not in session is the
same exact thing that has already been approved. So nothing has been added regarding any student contact time. It is the same as the calendar that was already approved by the board in March.
>> So just so to be clear >> so parents >> the impact for daycare and all that it there is no change because the the closure when kids are not at school is
exactly the same. The only Uh have we had any have we had any feedback from parents on this or just principles? >> We just t talked about this internally and we went ahead and talked with principles about it and they were able
to convey what they felt the impact would be on their conference attendance and again they did not think that it would be um something that would override not trying this concept. They felt that that um the needs of their
communities could be felt and in the rare cases that someone could not make it during the available times that they would go out of their way to find a time that would be it would be uh something that would be successful for the parents and the school.
>> Okay. Uh Director Payne, Vice President Payne, >> no thanks for all that information. Um, Becky, was this I know one of the questions we had um at a board meeting was to ask what think tank uh
information had been suggested in prior think takes. Was this something that had been suggested in those think tank efforts uh as part of a solution of benefit? >> And I just said, yeah, >> I'm gonna have I'm gonna have Cameron
answer because he led the think tank. >> Yeah. Not specifically this concept, but there's always feedback on more time. That is one of the things you're going to hear year after year, and we heard it again in the think tank this year as well as in our survey, that um
staff really feels like if they could have a little more time, it would ease the burden of what they're what they're working on and dealing with on a daily basis. And so this was one of the concepts to say, how can we provide a little extra time for our staff? um there's a lot that's put on their plate
every year and as you transition between um you know new curriculum, new things that we're working on, it add adds an additional burden uh burden to the staffs and this was one of the concepts that we came up with but it was based on the feedback that um any way to give
them additional time uh would be a benefit to them. So this is uh what we came up with. And then the next qu I had one more question that was why not on the 19th as well then if we're already closed
why not do it on that date if you're suggesting it in March because it seems like uh well no I'm sorry like the March to October because it seems like then you're giving them a little more time with their families in the spring and what about or
I'm sorry I'm backwards fall and then spring. I'm just wondering why what's the justification for doing one and not the other if we're already closed. >> Mrs. Payne, so just so that I understand your question, I think you're asking why didn't we make March 19th a district
closure? >> Okay, that that's Thank you. >> Yes. >> Right. Here was our thinking. We also want to be equitable with our with our staff. And when we think about it, let's think about school-based staff for a
moment. They gained figure about four hours in the fall and four hours in the spring. That's about eight hours. If we were to close the district on two days, the district level nonschoolbased
staff would have gained eight in the fall and eight in the spring. That's a 16-hour gain. We wanted it to be commensurate for all of our employee groups. >> Does that answer your question, Susan,
or do you have a follow-up? >> Sorry, Vice President P. >> It's still I guess I would just say, okay, so I wanted you wanted it to be commensurate, but either way, there's a 4hour difference, right? No, it when we if we um I if we take
what what school-based are gaining in the fall, it's four. >> Okay. >> Non schoolbased are gaining eight. Okay. So, four to eight in there. Now, let's go to the spring. Now, school-based are getting another four.
They're up to eight. And we just let the district staff hold non-school-based hold because they already are at eight. So at the end 4 + 4 for the both give the school-based eight. 8 + 0 gives 8
for our non-school-based. >> Okay. Then I'm just going to have a followup really quickly. So this was not a thinktake suggestion. It's something that you guys have come up with as a way to benefit them. >> Yeah. They didn't specifically say,
"Hey, can you look around parent teacher conferences and do this and that?" But again, it was the feedback is time is um something that they would value getting more of. And so as we looked at ways to carve out some time because again the calendar is very tight. there's very
little room uh to give additional time within the calendar again without impacting student contact days. Um this was one of the ways uh we looked at being able to do that. >> My last and with that I would say is there a way to get a summary of what
those think tanks asked for just to be clear on what their requests were. But I overall thank you for the clarity on that. I really appreciate it. I know real fast. Sorry. Go ahead, Mr. Cameron. >> No, we can work on that. It was more
general ideas, not specific necessarily specific things, but um there might have been a few, but again, it was more general ideas around things that would bring value to them, but we can work on that. >> I know that's a conversation that I've had with Superintendent Habber, too. How
can we find ways to um show our employees and our teachers and everything value um in ways where we don't since we don't have a budget to increase different things you know and I think this is an attempt to find you know a solution for that. So um director
um trip you had a follow-up question. >> I did I wanted to circle back just to parent contact time. Um it for me when I look at it, it seems like the elementary and middle schools have pretty good exposure in both
um scenarios for October and March, but I'm seeing high school has one night um for in both scenarios and parents have a lot more teachers to try to talk
to for their high schoolers than um elementary and middle. So, I'm wondering what the justification for that is and do you just find that high school parents don't show up or um what are we thinking there? Because it's to
Eddie's point, it's a lot more difficult for a parent to arrange with six or seven teachers um you know, if if they don't have a night that they can attend and they work during the day. So, just wondering how
we're how we're helping our high school parents in this scenario. >> Dr. Field. >> Yes. Hi, this is Suzanne Field. Um, I talked to principles today at our uh principal meeting about this and
our teachers are constantly talking to parents. We don't just talk to parents on parent teacher conference days. students that are struggling whether it's academically with attendance, behavior, we are working with those
parents all the time and the parent teacher conference night for high school since the pandemic since the pandemic has moved online. And so they would actually be able to each teacher would actually be able to uh meet with quite a
few parents because they do 10-minute uh parent teacher conferences and they're all online in the high school for the most part. Um I don't know each school does it a little bit differently like some of them do them from home some of them do them from their classroom
wherever but I can assure you that in high school you know we have a big focus on freshman success that we're working with parents well before a parent teacher conference day >> and um principles also know that they we
I talked with them this morning that if a parent did want to do an evening conference or during the conference time that principles would make arrangements with teachers to be available either in the days leading up to conferences or the days right after conferences because
we always want to connect with parents. >> All right, any other questions? >> Yeah, >> Director Wilburn. um not so much a question as a comment and I realize this isn't a decision item for us um tonight, but uh I like it. So,
if we can find ways to toss our staff and our teachers a bone without negatively impacting operations, which it strikes me like that's the case here. Uh why wouldn't we do that? We just had another email this afternoon from a constituent saying, "Please find a way to pay your teachers more money." Um I
mean, everybody wants to get teachers more money. So if if we I tr we have to trust the principles and the teachers. Now there there's never going to be a perfect solution for this type of stuff for everybody in the community, right? There's if you if you do it on Tuesday
nights, well, there are people who can't do Tuesday nights because I've got choir practice. If you do it on Thursday nights, there's going to be people who can't do Thursday night because I got to take Cameron to South Denver for hockey. What there's there's nothing perfect. Um but if the teachers and the and the principles are saying we can do this
without negatively impacting the touch to families to the parents um and we can we can do this for our teachers and give them back uh Mr. Belchure just calculated it something like 5% or whatever it was. Um
I I I think you guys have come up with a really brilliant solution and uh I congratulate you on thinking outside of that box. Okay, thank you. Um, look forward to emails from the public or uh public comment at our board meeting uh that
we'll have public comment before we have the decision items. So, we'll have a chance to get input there as well. And I know that Superintendent Habber and her team will be seeking input from other places as well in the next um in the next what two weeks before our meeting I
believe it is. So um superintendent do you have any uh followup on that or are you good to go move to the next item? >> I'm good to move to the next item. We are, you know, we've really fielded this to our principles. Uh, and we don't have
uh a a plan right now other than going through our principles and having them work with their community and their teachers as far as an outreach to get more feedback. So, I just wanted you to be aware of that approach with this. >> That sounds good. And I do feel
confident that the principles have a good feel, you know, and thumb on the pulse of their community for that. So I think we would rely heavily on that as well in making that a decision. But okay, moving on to 2627 budget updates.
Superintendent Habber. >> Yes, we've been uh looking hard at the budget and as you know uh it was fairly recently uh where uh the legislature made their decision uh around uh how they were going to fund schools. And it
was a a pleasant surprise uh that uh we weren't going to have to uh just, you know, stay flat as far as the budget. So, uh Becky and her team have worked really hard along with um collaborating
with me and with cabinet to say what would be the best plan moving forward uh as far as salaries are concerned for next year. So, Deputy Becky Allen, would you like to move forward? >> Yes. Thank you. Um, so let's just take a
moment here and uh I don't just for the viewers at home, can everybody see the bottom part of the slide? We have a big black box down there, but do other people see that one? It just helps me I'll know what to read or not. >> We see the little block. Okay, then
that's all right. There's something behind there, but I'll tell you what it is. Um so just to go through the process here it's been some ups and downs right with our budget back uh in mid January at the top you can see January 14th school finance act was introduced at the
state level inflation at 2.3% and district 20th getting about $315 more per student. Certainly nothing that we put in in a Sharpie somewhere because typically there are some changes along the way. But that's how we started our
planning. Then at towards the end of February, we got some news from Amy Atwood, our lobbyist, who she did a great job kind of overviewing uh the history of of the legislative session this year, and also from contacts at
CDE. And they said, "Look, there's a $1 billion shortfall coming for next year." Some reports were 1.2 billion, some 1.5 billion. And we were told, look, plan on nothing and really you should have a
plan if you get cut. Now, luckily, we had some foreshadowing because the long bill is the state budget bill. The long bill addresses education, it healthc care, uh, every
aspect of operations of the state. That's why that is finalized or or way down the track before you ever finalize the school finance act because you need to see where's the whole budget picture in the state. The good news is that it
was introduced on April 6th and now the long bill is at the governor's desk as of the 30th of April and K12 funding was not cut. It was protected. the ways in which the governor and and the legislature that they made this
work. They reduced their reserve from third from 15 to 13%. They cut Medicaid and they cut each department um within within the organization and that really was helped
them to make the cut they needed to. Why is that important what I just said? It's important that we know the nature of the cuts that got the b the state budget in a healthier place. Some of them are one
time in nature. And so it's always important just like we prepped ourselves for this year. It's important that we know the nature of how they balance the budget because as Amy Atwood mentioned at the April board meeting, we are
already knowing that there is a good chance that there could be a mid-year recision next year. What that means is we go into the year with our budget and when we get to December, January,
February time frame, we are hearing that the per pupil revenue that we counted on got cut. So we can't go crazy with the budget. You know, there's a reason and this is not not to be a put down. It's
just a reality. We all have read about other school districts in the state who are laying off people. We are not laying off people here now even when we had to perhaps face a a level budget or even a decrease because we are conservative and
we try to understand the budget process at the state level. So we don't overcommit to something that looks really good now, but in a year or two starts to come back and haunt us that we've we've overdone it.
If you could see what was under the the black box, it says April 29th and that is showing that the school finance act passed in the Senate and as of I put these slides together has been introduced in the House and it's stayed
firm. What you can see under that January 14th of an increase in per pupil revenue for district 20 of $3153 has held. So that is what you are going to see in the proposed budget that uh
you consider on May 14th. Now why do we focus um why is the focus of this discussion this evening on salaries? Two reasons. When we had a budget work session in March, you didn't really have a fair
chance to see what we would do with $315 because the whole conversation was around no increase at all. So, these are lastm minute developments and we wanted you to be able to see this prior to
considering the budget um when we get to May 14th. The other important piece is that on May 14th, you're going to have two pieces of the budget. One is you're going to consider accepting the proposed
budget, not approving it, just formally acknowledging district 20 presented the board with a proposed budget and you'll have a resolution for that. But you didn't approve the budget. That won't happen until June, June 11th, when you
consider actually approving the budget because we have a budget hearing in June where folks can come and look at that proposed budget and give you direct feedback. However, we can't wait that long on salaries. So each year there's a second
part to the to the budget package if you will for the May 14th or the May meeting is a resolution to accept the salary proposal because HR Cameron and his team needs to start preparing contracts and
all of those things that cannot wait. So it's important that you have a full picture of what this looks like before you are expected to render decisions next week where in a typical year our work session back in March would have
given you a typical look but it did not this year it took us till now to know really what we feel like is going to happen and so that is why we're coming together this evening. So this slide that you have in front of you and again I'm going to have to read
some of the pieces for you at the bottom what we are proposing is a salary and compos compensation that is just the wages the compensation it doesn't have to do with um with our actual health
premiums or anything like that is looking at about $10.5 million. What you see in the chart is a twopronged approach. Remember I talked about that we can see the landscape
ahead. There might be a mid-year recision. Some of the cuts made by the state are not are one-time cuts and that means they may not be able to sustain them over time. So what we are looking
at is twostep approach. You can see by employee group. First of all, recurring increases of 2.5%. Now, let's dig a little deeper to that. So, if you recall, this year staff part
of their compensation package for this year was a 1.5% onetime increase. This I shared with you at the board work session in March. We said, "Look, we've got to plug that hole
or our staff are going to have lower checks next year than what they have now." And that's a problem. We all recognize that is absolutely the last thing we want. So part of this 2.5% is filling that hole, but filling it
permanently. This is a recurring 1.5% that will plug that hole. in addition another 1%. So really it's kind of looking at a staff member's salary this year that
doesn't include the 1.5% one time that we gave them this year and on top of that there's 2.5%. It plugs the hole and another 1%.
The other piece that we're looking at is a nonrecurring a onetime again to make sure that we don't overextend. This would be a $1,400 one-time payment in November of 2026
only for returning staff. So, a new teacher next year will not get the $1,400. This $1,400 is basically saying, look, if you're employed starting on May 31st
of 2026 and you stay employed through October 31st of 2026, that means you stayed with us and you're getting this $1,400. Now, the reality of a onetime
flat dollar amount, notice it's not a percent. That was strategic. When you give a flat dollar amount to your employee groups, those who earn the lower salaries, it's a bigger impact.
Our classified staff, our teachers and SSPs, the 1,400 is going to have a bigger it's a bigger chunk of the pie than someone um who's making a $100,000 a year. So, it was strategic to say everyone's going to get this equal
amount, but instead of a percent, it's a flat dollar amount. And November 2026 is right before the holiday season kicks off a time for our returning staff to have that that chunk of money at that
time when perhaps it means the most. You can see off to the right the price tags of all of this. Um, so it totals uh, like I said, just under $10.5 million for those pieces.
Let's talk about a few other pieces here. What would this place our teacher base at? It would increase it. Our current teacher base for a first year teacher with just bachelor's degree is 52,20. We would be able to move that 1.5% up to
52,800. The other piece on that double star that you see there, we will prorrate the 1,400 depending on whether you're a full-time staff member or more. You get
1,400. If you're halftime or up to 0.99, you get three quarters of it. 1,50. And if you're 0.01 all the way up to 049, just below halfime, you get $700.
The next line that you see where it says extra pay increase because the base changes so do all all of our coaching stipens all of the you know you are the DECA sponsor those uh salaries those stipens go up as well so that's the
price tag for that and then what you cannot see is just a reminder that um our Kaiser Permanente monthly premiums went up by 4.23%.
That equates to just under $900,000. The district is picking up that entire price tag so that our staff pay the same premiums for health care next year as they do this year. If you saw the yellow box that maybe you
can see on the lower right hand part of your screen, this whole package is about 11.5 million. Now, as we think about this proposal, if I
were in your seat, I would say, "Okay, 11.5 million proposal, but how what does that look like overall? I can't just in isolation decide that this is good or bad. I need to see what's the state of
the entire budget. Is this going to keep us healthy by giving a 2.5% and the 1400? So let's look at that. Now and again I apologize some of it is cut off. What you see on the right part of
your screen is important. There's a purple box and at the bottom there is a red box and I think you can see the red box. So what I am showing you on this slide is in the purple box our total revenue
this doesn't account for our fund balances this is just the money coming in is 360 million but when you go down to the red box these are the expenditures the money
going out and you're going to say you messed up this is 367 7 million. You're telling us that we're going to have a budget that is upside down by 7 million. Typically each year, what I learned when
I became the CFO is that we typic typically target to have uh a budget that's upside down by 2 million. And we're confident in that because remember we our salaries everything's budgeted
for every position every minute. We we are very conservative in our budgeting to make sure that we stay fiscally sound. So having an upside down budget is not uncommon. We don't typically have it be 6.7 million upside down. So let's
dig deeper. in the blue box on the left. What I need you to to have confidence in of the 6.97 million upside down over 3 million of
that is the Doug Valley PSMI project. But I promise you, we have that the 3.32 is just not in the purple box. It's in a fund balance. I promise it's there. If I could change the the purple box to
reflect, it'd be 3.32 million higher. So those dollars, it looks like on paper, we have that money saved. We are good. So that really puts us at a 3.65 million upside down. Remember, our target is
typically 2 million. So why do we feel confident that we could push this all the way to 3.65 million more? Couple of reasons.
The first reason is that my team, Kathy Watts, who's the best in the business, has done a deep dive to see what do we really think the unspent funds from this year are going to be. She thinks we're
going to have about $7 million unspent. Now part of that is again unfilled positions some that are not not filled every day. It adds up. We also have
noticed a slowing in our expenditures the second part of the year in our purchase services our supplies and I really think that it's because our departments and our principles are probably being a little more
conservative in their spending. Oh, the black box is away. Um, more conservative in their spending because they know what they've been shared with along the way has been budget is tight. So, first of
all, we've got unspent funds. Second of all, we need to remember that a portion of our spending is one time. So, we know we can cover it. We know we can cover the 5.2ish twoish one-time
cost of that $1,400 because of these unspent funds. So, let's take a look at this slide. It's going to give us the best indicator of where we are with our budget. This box up at the top is showing you our
projected unassigned fund balance. It's going to show in the budget. It does not reflect unspent funds that we are thinking we are going to have. It's assuming that we spent our budget this
year just as it was on paper. And we know that's not the case. But even with that, if you look at the upper right box, you see in red are um the unassigned fund balance where we would
be ending 2627 is with 33.7 million. That percentage is about 9.63%. Remember, we're required by policy for
that blue box to have a number between 4 and 12%. Last year's adopted budget, if you go ahead and look under the context section, it was 8.67. Now, if you just kind of bear with me on
that third bullet, as I said, we're projected to have 7 million in unspent funds. I wish you could see what was behind that that black box, but I will have it in what I share with you next week in in the package that goes to the
board is let's pretend a minute. Take what's up top in red, the 33.7 million for kicks. Add the 7 million that we are confident in of having in unspent funds.
That would put the red box up top at 40.7 million and in the blue box you'd see 11.6. That's why we feel what we are giving in
terms of this is stretching us but in a way that we are not on some kind of dangerous footing. We're stretching what we can. We're ready if there's a recision next year. We're ready for those types of things. Yet, we're able
to have a package for staff that's 11.5 million and the vast vast majority of the spending, the new spending that is in this budget that we would be presenting in its entirety for you next uh next week.
Just a reminder of what's ahead of what what we would like to do. We our plan is um some type of budget memo this evening to staff letting them know um what was shared this evening.
Uh next Thursday would be the proposed budget and this week you would get the full proposed budget that you would be able to examine not this abbreviated highlight but all of our funds general funds and all the others as well. Um, on
June 11th, two things happen. A budget hearing and then budget adoption. Perhaps if the board said they don't you don't want to uh approve that budget on June 11th, then we'd have to rework whatever needs to be worked, but we need
to have something adopted by June 30th because the the day after July 1 is a new budget year. What questions do you have for us? Thank you for the way ahead there, Becky. Um, Miss Allen, that's very helpful. Uh, D, Vice President, um,
Payne. >> No, this was really helpful. Um, I guess my question, and I'm just wondering, you know, we did the facilitated discussion with Dak. Some of the things that we're constantly getting feedback on is
um and this might be a question for Cameron or you Becky, but when we look at teacher salaries and how we rank statewide, I think Cameron was trying to provide some clarification on the fact that there might be a couple teachers that are in that 10% but the majority
are down closer to 30%. And my question is with the numbers you're presenting here, is there a plan to look at shoring up teacher salaries? And is it my other question would be uh for other professions across the
district, is there an assessment of where we proportionally see them fitting? But I think specifically teachers right now, is there anything that we can do to get them to um that higher level um to be more
competitive with other districts? >> Yeah. First of all, so for BE for right now, we are in I think it's the top 16% in the state. If you look at just what our base salary is compared to all other
178 districts. If we look at the highest like for instance bachelors that column or that section that says hey just have a bachelor's degree don't have any additional units and we look at the max pay for someone in that column in our district we're in the top uh 10%. I
think it's 9% actually. And but if you go to the max like our max teacher pay for the highest teacher in our district they're in the top 9% as well. You look at average and this is even on the CD website. Um this is last year's data for
them. It's not current data. Um we were in the top I think it was around the 30% for average. Right now our average based on our numbers that we have for today our average salary is around $70,000 for a teacher. So I feel like we're still
very good. Obviously, yes, we'd like, you know, if you look at some of those districts that are, you know, uh starting in the 60,000 to $64,000 like the St. Marines, the the Boulder Valleys and those kind of folks, sure, we would love to be there, but they're in a different category as far as MLL funds
and things that they have. We just don't have access to those kind of funds that they have had over the years. Um, so yes, we've always liked to be better, but we are not we're not even in the lower half compared to other uh districts in the state for our teacher
pay. Doesn't mean we're always trying to improve what you can. I think you can look over the last 5 years. What we've done is try to continue to move the bar as much as we can based on the funding that we get. Um, and of course when you get less funding, we have to be creative. And I think that's what we're
trying to propose this year is how can we creatively provide as much as we can not only to the base but you know that that additional money for returning staff and one followup president Shandandy
with your permission. >> Yes please proceed. Um, no. I like the idea of being creative, Cameron, and obviously being fair and and one of those things is do you see like we have a lot of military people that come into this community that have been teachers elsewhere and
have been at a salary base in a different and I know that that applies to different professions as well. Are we fair with them of bringing them in at an equivalent pay scale or how do we manage that? Well, I tell you what we do now. This next year, people will honor up to
23 years of experience, which is a lot. >> We're one of the highest in not only the state probably, but in our region as far as number of years that we allow them to bring. A lot of districts are in the teens. Uh there are a few that are close to us, but very few uh give 23 years of
experience. So, um we will we continually add that each year. So, each year we add an additional year um of experience that we'll offer. So I think comparatively we're able to put them on the best step that we can based on the years of experience that they have in
the teaching profession. >> So just to clarify Mr. Smart like this year we we honor 22 years of experience. >> That is correct. >> Okay. >> So it's not like a new thing. >> No, we've been every year we've been adding for several years. So yeah, we
also started doing that for classifi as well. I think we're up to about 12 years of experience. uh kind of got flattened out when I got here. So, we now every year we add in an additional year for classified staff as well. >> The other thing that we've done is uh we are uh reviving our national board
certification program and encouraging uh teachers to apply for that. Uh I asked last year that we add a stipen for our current nationally board certified teachers and uh coming up soon this this month uh we are going to bring together
our nationally board certified teachers as well as host uh an information center to encourage other uh teachers across the district to become certified. uh because that is a stipen then that they would get every year as a result of
being certified for the life of the certificate. >> Very good. Thank you. >> Thank you >> uh board. Anybody else have questions? All right. Oh, of course. Okay. Um Director Waldrip.
>> Yeah. So, uh uh first question is kind of us having a better budget. That's great news. I'm also thinking about if we if we ever want to consider something like merit-based pay, when would there be the flex kind of consider a model like that? Nothing that we bring in, but just to to see the pros and cons of what
that would look like. Um I'm not sure if a flex year we have more than we expected be a good time to consider or think about something like that. Um also I was wondering about the uh $7 million unspent funds. I wonder that's good for us to go into our coffers. I also think
about if there are any, you know, projects that might be important like, you know, yeah, one of the schools uh needs a new furnace kind of thing or something like that. If there's any kind of maintenance cost, things that that would fit into I know when you kind of first got brought on the board, we were
talked about how there's a staggered kind of process. What are the things that need the highest kind of highest priority and lowest cost and those kinds of things? there's any opportunities out of that $7 million in unspent funds to maybe uh you know accommodate a couple of those as well. So maybe instead of
seven million we have five million going the coffers if we could try to make up for some of those kind of uh maintenance kind of things. And then the last question I had was about the board certification you're just mentioning. Um I don't know if we could have a get some information about what that board certification kind of looks like. Um I
think it's >> we could put that on on study session maybe for May. >> Yeah. Just to see like who is the agency, what does that what does that entail because I know we have things like that in psychology obviously they have it in medicine they have it in different things but kind of who is the accrediting body what are their metrics you know what is it that we'd be paying
for or trying to use that as incentive as to make sure that it's kind of aligned. >> I appreciate that. Uh actually we can't we don't have the the study session for May because we uh got it already loaded with like the bridges graduation right uh but definitely I really am excited
that uh you suggested that director Waldrip I would love to do that and Eve if we can't fit it in I can certainly talk to you guys more about it in June uh I received and went through the national board certification process uh when I was a science teacher still the
best professional development I've ever gone come through because of the depth uh of uh knowledge that you gained through your own self-reflection. The they also did studies where they could tie nationally board certified teachers to increased
uh academic achievement. So would love to be able to do uh a presentation. We may have to wait till August, but absolutely we can we will put that on the calendar. President Chandandy, may I answer um the
previous question? >> Yes, please. >> So, Dr. Waldrip, great question about the 7 million. So the way it works is some of that 7 million is going to pay for the compensation package that we talked about, but also once we have our
audit complete um that we will bring that to you at the midyear budget and we do try to make a at the biggest investment that we can in our capital reserve. In fact, this past January, the midyear budget put um about $5 million
from and and some of that money comes from unspent funds, etc. So, you're right on with your thinking and uh and you will see that happen again in January. And I didn't know if you might be able to say anything about the merbbased pay kind of option when we can look at that
proposals, what's worked elsewhere if that can fit in any place. >> Yeah, we could talk about it. Um, we can share kind of what some other districts have done and and give you some ideas. >> Okay. Are you good, Director Walter?
Okay. Uh, Director Trip, >> thank you for the presentation. I appreciate it. Um, I had a couple things that I was noticing. We have listed as the inflation index's CPI at 2.3%. For 2025, but um, when I've been looking
at that, it's actually 2.7% and we're tracking, if we go year-over-year to March, we're up to 3%. And so when we look at um the proposal and you know it looks like we're doing a
great job because CPI is 2.3 and we're doing 2.5. Um, I just don't think that really reflects what's happening for our teachers and staff when
when according to the, you know, Department of Labor statistics 2025 was 2.7 and in reality they're only getting a 1% increase because they got the 1.5 last
year. And so so it's 2 point it's 1% of a 2.7 almost now 3% cost of living increase. So there's never enough money. I get it. But um when we are looking at having a
surplus of 11% or whatever, I mean is this I understand being conservative, but if we are not even keeping up with a third of inflation providing a 1% increase um for the year,
should we be pinning our percentage of unassigned fund balance so high and why should we be talking about drawing that down um you know maybe putting it more at 7%
or something to shake loose a few dollars to help with this cost of living increase that's happening around us. >> Miss Drip, is it okay if I respond? >> Yes, please. Okay. So, Director Tripa, it's a great
question on on inflation, and we experience the same thing, but the inflation that we're referring to is the inflation that the state uses to calculate our per pupil revenue. They use the Denver, Aurora, Lakewood CPI, >> and so that is the one that we that's
how our funding is created off of 2.3%. And so while there's different we agree with you we see other rates but this is how our funding mechanism works and we have to look to the state for the value that they are using because they selected and again they use Denver
Aurora Lakewood and it's 2.3%. But I absolutely hear your feedback and I sure wish that we could use some higher rates because then amendment 23 requires the state to increase our per pupil revenue by the rate of inflation and we would
love to see that number higher but the reality is they're using 2.3%. Um with respect to the salaries uh you're right about the 1% when you think about maintaining it. What I do want to point out though is the four I
don't want to discount the $1,400. I ran some numbers for perspective. So I took a salary of $30,000 and a lot of our paraprofessionals uh depending on positions have that
$1,400 is equal to a 4.7% uh increase. If you make $70,000,400 is a 2%. So I just I I do want to remind us that we have that that aspect of the
compensation package as well. Now once you get to a 100,000 you're starting to more you know it's 1% if you will depending but I just I don't want to discount the 1,400. And part of the
reason that we do do a percent plus a flat is because on those lowest uh those lowest ear wage earners, you can see the impact that that type of payment has. Um
as for the question on reserve, certainly that's a decision that the board could make. My my my opinion is that we need to be cognizant of the fact that we may get a recision next year at the
midyear. uh to overextend. That's why we do part of the one time. And I know it might seem like we just discount the 1,400, but the reason we made it a flat dollar amount isn't because it's less than. It's actually, you know, has a
bigger impact on those who earn lower salaries in our district. >> Thank you. Do you want to talk about um I think another thing to think about is what was the increase in our benefits healthcare what did what was the
increase from Kaiser and we're absorbing that cost for employees talk about that a little bit >> it's 4.23% 23% that are Kaiser premiums. Um it's just under 900,000 and we are absorbing that so that it does not erode
um any of the salary increases whether it's the 1,400 that comes in a lump sum at the holiday season um or the the 2.5% which is as you indicated 1.5 is filling the gap and one 1% is going higher. um
it's not eroding any of those things despite the the price price going higher. >> Thank you. Director Trip, did you have a follow-up question? >> It's just something to chew on just and just awareness that, you know, we're not
matching what inflation actually is by any measure. The challenge with that is unfortunately our funding does not match either. >> Right. That's that's the conundrum. I'm with you. I I'd love to advocate for a
higher CPI. I agree with you. >> Thank you, Director Wilburn. Did you have question or comment? >> Uh, no, not really. Uh, I was already on the same page with Holly. She beat me to it. Um, we need a money tree is is what
it comes down to. and we don't have one. >> Okay. Vice President Payne, do you have any questions or comments? >> No, I just want to reiterate, I think it's really important to say that um with all our fear of what the legislature was going to do. I want to
honor our legislators that decided to not go after schools. Um, yeah, we need to better invest in our schools as an upstream approach to everything, but I do think it is nice that we got the news that the legislature wasn't going after
the dollars in schools in any way, shape, or form. And yet, we still need a we still have a story to tell and make sure that we're telling it correctly and accurately. So, um, hopefully more solutions in the future so that we can talk about um, one last thing. I did have a comment and I
had it written down. I just wanted to say that something Eddie said I do think it's important especially with the special meeting or the presentation by it last last month um about the additional 1.5 million for
student devices which we all supported. Are there other things that triage to the top to make sure that we understand what those things are across the district? Are there other um things that need to be accomplished with um the budget that you just shared?
>> When when you see the the full budget, you'll see um just like I do for the mid-year budget, there'll be a box and you can see every new expenditure. Now, what is what what I would say is
unique about this year is that it's been a very disciplined budget year. We thought we were going to be flat and there were things we needed to do and we made cuts to make a lot of them happen because we so that's what we stayed with
and then we just put as much as we possibly could um to to leave you know a nine nine and change uh unassigned fund balance should there be a recision um should there be a cut in funding or or a lower cut funding next year just in our
PPR. Um, and so while we accomplish things like the things with our district technology technicians or other things, we were able to make cuts during the same time because that's the mindset we had.
>> So you understand that. Let me correct the question. I I'm wondering if we could get a presentation on what are the things that we still need to invest in as a district that have fallen behind like what are the top triage propos like if you think of the biggest risks that
we need to spend dollars on what are they? I think our capital projects are are um it is without a doubt the things that suffer um are are deferred maintenance. As I've kind of joke, you know, talked about before
when you let a boiler go a few years beyond its useful life, nobody's really going to know. So, it's the things that people see. Um it's our salaries, our benefits, our our attracting and retaining staff that we put. So the vast
majority of our money in more than what we get in new money goes into that. That's why we're using some of our unassigned fund balance to make the budget balance. Um but that is without a doubt the top one. >> Well, I think we just would like to see
like a top 10 or something that's presented to the board so we're aware of what those things are. I think it's important in our conversations in the community and uh the meetings that we have to be able to identify those things. >> And um director or vice president pay
would you like the top 10 capital projects or you mean other things as well? >> I guess what comes to my mind is when Jinger and I were at a drill and we see the failing PA systems and the cost of that when we I mean when we are in schools and we're looking at getting rid of some of the portables. Yes. I think
it's across the board to make sure in all verticals if there's things that we need to be mindful of that we need to have money for. We need to make sure that we can have that conversation with the community we serve, especially if there's not a budget for it.
>> Thank you. >> All right, I think that that's all the questions for the budget update. Thank you again, Becky, for that information and the way forward so we know what's coming up. I want to just take a quick ch uh quick second
and um according you know going back to our new BSR 3.0 uh the board has the opportunity to call up administrative policies uh to review or whatever. So I would like to call up uh policy ACA for review for next uh the next board
meeting. Um we may end up adding a study session before bridges. I don't know. I'll discuss with Vice President Payne this week and we'll decide. But um if we need to do that otherwise it'll go right on the agenda. Um other than that I believe that's all the business we have
for tonight. Uh this meeting is adjourned. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Bye everybody. Good job. Y >> have a good evening. See you. >> Thank you.