All right. I'd like to call meeting to order 7:30 p.m. This is a budget public hearing and regular session of the Boot Township Board of Education held for the purpose of transacting appropriate board business. In compliance with chapter 231, laws of 1975, the notice of this
meeting was advertised in the Mars County Daily Record. Copies of the agenda of this meeting were appropriately posted and made available to the public. >> Mrs. Borock >> here, >> Mr. Brander >> here, Mrs. Cabana, >> Mr. Chen >> here, >> Mr. Mr. Hinger >> here, >> Mr. Johnson >> here,
>> Mr. McBride >> here, >> Mr. Mills >> here, >> and Mr. Rosenberg >> here. >> Also present, Mr. Superintendent Principal. And I see our student representative Regina Brenner. We have a core. >> He stands for the United States of America and to the
stands one indivisible. Okay, >> we're going to start budget hearing Mr. Murray. >> You want to start? >> Oh, with Gina. >> I'm sorry. We're going to start with you late.
>> Um, uh, the, uh, language honor society induction and state testing. Thanks are all kicking off the work. And April began with our second annual wellness summit which was sponsored by
the HSA. Um the district also held a student survey on April 2nd to improve the school's experienced topics like school climate and sense of belonging um were also um they MLHs held an art expo that showcased student work which was on
display at the Cleveland April 3rd through April 11. DECA hosted a fundraiser at Curley's ice cream shop in Don on April 17th to raise money for student professional development and business marketing. And uh tonight is
the induction ceremony for the honor society. And um on Friday, May 1st is the national commitment day and the senior commitment breakfast. You can go to your homework.
>> All right. Thank you. >> So, we will move on to Mr. Murray for budget presentation. >> Just to let you know that uh the county superintendent has approved the budget and no changes. So, pretty much the presentation for the uh members of the
public out there that are the viewing audience. Um we'll go through briefly, but the slides are all the same. I've changed some of the dates, added a couple things in there, but basically the the budget's approved. Um so, you know, back on the timeline. So, March 10th, governor's message and then
county superintendent approved on April 20th. Uh today is the last opportunity for the board to approve the budget and then it's uh we'll do all the tax information, get to the township tomorrow, get them to sign. So again, budget is built on just goals,
budgetary goals and so forth. All those are factored in when discussing budgets and trying to put a budget together. Okay. considerations. Uh we've talked about our revenues, tax levy cap, we are at the the tax levy 2% cap, state aid
about 5.9% of the budget, tuition approximately.34 and then budget fund balance and so forth. So one of the major drivers in uh in the budget are obviously salaries and benefits, tuition for out of district placements as well as our center receive and some other
items, transportation costs that I'll get into a little bit further down the road and then all the other items which are a small much smaller piece of the budget. Uh some of the assumptions uh we have a slight increase that we're projecting
for RBS. Uh a little bit of a decrease on the Mount Link side. Uh state aid we did receive a little bit more which is a good thing. A lot of districts are in the process of uh making had to make cuts because of the loss of state aid. So we're in that area. And uh again 2%
cap which means an additional approximately $34,000 in new money from uh the taxpayer township. Uh in the benefits as we mentioned in previous meetings 23 and a half% a lot of districts are in the 30s.
The majority of them are probably in the 20s. So health care costs this year and going forward are going to be a problem and transportation cost and so forth. and we we will be in the uh the following year of our contract with the ETA.
Some of the cost containment measures over the years continue to look for new opportunities as well as reaping the benefits of savings through a lot of these measures, shared services and so forth. Okay, the enrollment projections are about 423
RBS. Happy to say that uh right now we're sitting about 47 registered for kindergarten, which is a good thing. I think we'll get a few more historically over the summer, five or six or so. So, you know, we're safe now as those bigger
classes continue to come in. You know, they'll be moving up. You see some of the smaller ones towards the seventh and eighth grade level. So, we'll be replaced with larger classes. Okay. uh just a a graphic form of u table form of the enrollments some of
the past history preschool uh some of our revenues for the prek program it's a great program and district placements as well staffing um maintaining the same amount of staff increasing or decreasing a lot of districts as they said are going
through major cuts in staffing because of loss of state aid so for now were pretty good shape. And again, we still have room for textbooks, Chromebooks, um, and as we'll see later, a roof replacement project this summer.
So, in the past, we've over the past number of years, we've done a number of roofs. The area that's highlighted there are the roofs that still need to be done. Um, we missed the 2024 summer because we had included in the fail referendum, but moving forward this
summer in the budget, we have the highlighted blue areas um for total of about 601,000 and actual construction cost. And you'll see the transfer from uh capital reserve to cover these costs plus the soft cost. But then you, as you
can see, there are only a few other areas that are included in in a proposed referendum. So that'll complete all of the rooms in the district. And the problem areas are the obviously induct right now the uh the rain has been
contained. We've had a number of roof repairs up there. So for now we're good, but I think it's we're just on borrow time. Uh again this is just a a showing a little bit about we're at the 2% cap and we do have the ability because of couple
of years of health care increases. We can bank cap and we have um concessions for that we can raise our cap for health care costs mainly that's it. So we could have gone up to 5.2 3%. Um, as you'll
see in the in the next slide, we've chosen over the last few years, even though we've had the ability to go up above the 2%. But we always try to keep the the budget within those parameters so that we're not uh having as much of a burden on the taxpayers.
So again, each of those years, um, 2%. State a little bit of state aid history. You can see it's starting to creep back up again. um this year receiving a little over a million dollars and just kind of a pie chart formula formula where you see tax levy the bulk
of it state aid on the revenue side and we have some tuitions and then budgeted fund balance. So really the majority of of the funding coming for our budget and revenues is from tax living. Now on the expenditure side you see out of district placements all of the tuition costs regular instruction which includes all
of the salaries, employee benefits. That's really the majority of of our budget. That's where most district budgets go. Again just uh on the revenue side showing that just changes from year to year going up a little under under 1% of an increase year to year
and uh just on the expenditure side the same way less than less than a percent. And that also includes the um the capital reserve for the project. So again, a little bit of the operating budget history. You can see over the years where there there kind of a couple
of anomalies, but that's because the increase was data withdrawing for uh capital reserve for roof projects, but again, no no taxpayer impact because it's money that we already had in the bank. So over the years, we've uh had had
minimal increases, which is a testament to, you know, the district trying to keep our cost costs low. Uh you hear a lot about administrative costs. Um, we have to stay between the state requires them to stay below the regional limit and they are adjusted
limit for the current year and we're approximately 40040 below the uh regional limit and 578 below I'm sorry 578 below the regional 442 below the current years. So we're in
good shape with respect to that. And then you know finally the last uh you know based on all this we have textbooks we have infrastructure we have roofs being done um the estimated impact on the on the local taxpayer is about $179.
So with all that, maintaining our staff, maintaining our programs, excuse me, maintaining all of our class sizes and so forth, I think it's a testament to the board and maintaining peak taxes as low as possible and still provide the programming that we need here.
So I'll entertain any questions if you have them. Otherwise, uh thank you. any uh any word from the state on how they're planning to curtail benefit increases medical curious like peers?
>> Well, not from the state. You know, we we because we're at 23 and a half, we're in a private plan. Some of the districts that are in state health benefits or plans and they're in >> I meant more generic, not us. Just I didn't know if you earned anything. >> No, nothing. And I don't know how much control the state has and that's really
being driven by, you know, all the insurance company. But again, you have to go in front of the insurance boards to get these increases. So there has to be some reform down the trend to not represent. But yeah, that's just a personal opinion. >> Yeah.
>> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you. Y got it. Thanks. Thank you. >> All right. I have a motion for board business items one and two.
>> I'll second. >> Any questions, comments? Question is the adoption of board business one and two. All those in favor say I. >> All those opposed say no. Any abstensions? John Kelly.
Uh finance. So correspondence finance. May I have a motion for finance motions one and two? >> Is there a second? Any comments, questions, concerns? A question is on the adoption of finance motions one and
two. All those in favor say I. I'm sorry. Mr. Rolloff. >> Mrs. Borta. >> Yes. >> Mr. Brandon. >> Yes. >> Mr. Chen. >> Yes. >> Mr. Pittinger. >> Yes. >> Mr. Johnson? >> Yes. >> Mr. McCry? >> Yes. >> Mr. Mills? >> Yes. >> Mr. Rosener? >> Yes. >> Motion carries.
>> Okay. Personnel. That's usually a roll call too. Correct. >> It is. >> Okay. I may have a motion for personnel. Motion number one, please. >> Second. >> Second. >> All those in favor say I. >> I'm sorry. my brain. >> Mr. Bardock,
>> yes. >> Mr. Brander, >> yes. >> Mr. Chen, >> yes. >> Mr. Hinger, >> yes. Mr. Johnson, >> yes. >> Mr. McBride, >> yes. >> Mr. Mills, >> yes. >> Mr. Rosenberg, >> yes. >> Motion carries. >> Oh, hold on. Um
the part that we we missed we go back there is I don't see the call for audience for the public hearing portion of that >> and there's nobody in the audience for a public hearing. >> So there is >> so noted
>> and there's no topics for close session. Okay, open session again there's nobody here. So any other board action? >> Uh just a reminder for me to facilities committee meeting members then >> Monday right
>> Monday Mr. 5 >> 5:30 >> is it going to be virtual or >> Well, I was going to suggest virtual >> virtual
>> it's 5:00. Are you okay with that? >> Y >> okay and I did confirm with Mrs. that she is available to have one topic just to talk about public relations. Any other board action from
>> just have one just hang tipping off there. Just to give you an update real quick on speaking to the architect today just have the plans where they're going to go down electronically tomorrow. So they're waiting for them. We're ready to review the uh which is a good thing. So
we'll see what happens. And then the next step is the board waits for the PC letter and then you have some decisions to make after that. The only other thing I have heard back from one but school board's conference is anybody just let me know. I've already booked hotels. I'll cancel when you tell me that you know what dates you want to go. Just
shoot me an email. It's for October. >> It's for October. Yeah. >> I haven't written down. So just I'll shoot out an email to everybody reminder of the dates. If you're interested in going, let me know. If not, then I'll just cancel. >> Thank you.
And there's also an awards ceremony for Mars County next Thursday, I believe, at Westbend High School. >> I think it's I don't remember the exact date, but >> the next meeting. Yes, it'll be in an email from high school.
>> And I I know Christine Baptist, but she's being recognized for 15 years. Just saying. How about >> Yeah, you have to register for it, >> but the information. >> Yes, we got it this week. You want me to reforward it? I can.
>> No, >> that's good. All right, you have a motion to adjourn the meeting. I'll make that motion. >> I'll take it. All those >> records.