Good evening. Welcome to the Monday, June 22nd Board of Education meeting. If we can all rise for the pledge of allegiance. And we'll have a moment of silence, please. Thank you. Moving on to recommended actions. 2.01, approval of the proposed agenda. We'll take a motion. So moved. Support. Any changes? Okay. Ms. McDougall. Reichart? Yes. Yellen? Yes. Youngs? Yes. Fascianello? Yes. Lang? Yes. Nolan? Yes. Kish? Yes. 2.02, approval of the May 18th board meeting minutes. Madam Secretary. I have read through the May 18th board meeting minutes, and I make a motion to approve as written.
Support. Support. Any questions, changes? Ms. McDougall. Reichart? Yes. Yellen? Yes. Youngs? Yes. Fascianello? Yes. Lang? Yes. Nolan? Yes. Kish? Yes. 2.03, approval of the April and May financial and bills. Thank you, Madam President. The finance committee met prior to tonight's meeting to review the April and May financials and bills, and I'd like to make a motion to approve as presented. Support. We have motion and support. Any questions about the finances? Okay. Ms. McDougall. Reichart? Yes. Yellen? Yes. Youngs? Yes. Fascianello? Yes. Lang? Yes. Nolan? Yes. Kish? Yes. 2.04, student discipline, case number 12.
Yes. On Tuesday, June 2nd, the board's discipline subcommittee held a hearing for expulsion, and they make the following unanimous recommendation to the full board. Regarding student case number 12, the board's discipline subcommittee recommends expulsion through the end of first semester of the 26/27 school year with Bobcat Virtual Learning Services and a referral to Genesee Health Systems. Successful completion of core classes with special services support for consideration of readmittance. We'll take a motion. I'll make a motion. Support. Any questions? Ms. McDougall. Reichart? Yes.
Yellen? Yes. Youngs? Yes. Fascianello? Yes. Lang? Yes. Nolan? Yes. Kish? Yes. Yes, on Wednesday, June 10th, discipline subcommittee held a hearing for expulsion, and they make the following recommendation to the full board. Regarding student case number 13, the board's discipline subcommittee recommends expulsion for 180 school days with placement in Bobcat Virtual Learning with special education support, continuation of counseling services, and cessation programming. Application for readmission in March 2027 to allow for senior schedule considerations. Take a motion. So moved.
Support. Second? Support. I think Brian had. Okay. Any questions about that one? Okay, Ms. McDougall. Reichart? Yes. Yellen? Yes. Youngs? Yes. Fascianello? Yes. Lang? Yes. Nolan? Yes. Kish? Yes. Yes? On Monday, June 15th, we held a discipline subcommittee for expulsion, and the subcommittee makes the following recommendation to the full board. Regarding student case number 16, the board's discipline subcommittee recommends permanent expulsion effective 26/27 school year from Grand Blanc Community Schools. Take a motion. So moved. Is there a second? Support. Support. Any questions on that one? Just in general, we'd like to reiterate that
when we do these subcommittee meetings and we try to figure out not only what's best for the students that are there, how much time they might need to learn and grow and prepare themselves to be successful back in the classroom, but also for the students that are in the buildings. We have to consider them and the rights that they have to be educated and safe. And so it's a two-way street, and it's never an easy decision. We do try to make the best decision
possible. We do. This wasn't an easy decision for the subcommittee for us to make. We deliberated for 45 minutes on this case. But like Mrs. Young said, we have to consider the safety of all of our students, and we have to consider the well-being of every single student in our district. And so, as unfortunate as some decisions that we have to make, we do have to make those. But again, it's never an easy decision
being on the subcommittee. It's never an easy decision. And we want the kids to be successful regardless. Yeah. Wherever they are, it is important that they know that we care, and we want them to get their life back on the right track and to be successful. This is absolutely not us just forgetting about them. We want them to succeed. Ms. McDougall. Riekerdt? Yes. Yellen? Yes. Youngs? Yes. Fascianello? Yes. Lang? Yes. Nolan? Yes. Kish? Yes. 2.07 Readmittance Case Number 15. Yes. On March 24th, high school principal Mike Frey and I held a readmittance meeting for case number 15 from last school year
based on the student's limited progress toward meeting the conditions for readmittance. Principal Frey and I agreed that case number 15 remain enrolled in Bobcat Virtual during the '25, '26 academic year. Throughout the year, limited progress towards readmittance was made despite monthly check-ins and ongoing home-based support. It is my recommendation to the board that case number 15 be reinstated to the high school after working with the parents, retaining their current class status for the '26, '27 school year. So not advancing to the next grade, they would repeat that grade.
That is our recommendation. Make a motion? Make a motion to approve. Support. Any questions? Okay. Ms. McDougall. Riekerdt? Yes. Yellen? Yes. Youngs? Yes. Fascianello? Yes. Lang? Yes. Nolan? Yes. Kish? Yes. 2.08, Case Number 17 for Readmittance. Yep. On Thursday, June 18th, high school principal Mr. Frey and I held a readmittance meeting for case number 17 from the '24, '25 school year. Based on this student's actions and letters of support, it is recommended that the board readmit case number 17 with required summer school classes this summer and a behavior contract for the '26, '27 school year.
Make a motion? So moved. Support. Any questions? Okay. Ms. McDougall. Riekerdt? Yes. Yellen? Yes. Youngs? Yes. Fascianello? Yes. Lang? Yes. Nolan? Yes. Kish? Yes. Moving on to Section 3, Consent Agreement. We'll take one motion for everything under Section 3. So moved. Make a motion to approve everything under the consent agreement. Support. Okay. Any questions about organization request, extended day field trip, or the athletic regional and state final overnight trips? I just, again, really appreciate the sanction
forms being filled out well, and I know sometimes it requires an email to go back to them to get that information we need, but there are eyes on it, and it seems like people are getting more used to it, and it seems to be going well. So appreciate it. I do want to bring up that there is a request in there for the varsity pom squad for a fourth fundraiser. Reason being, they're a 10-and-a-half-month season. They have a very large operating budget because of that. So they had submitted an email request for a fourth external fundraiser. That's part of this motion. And there is wording to have that as an option, an exemption.
So it's not like they're not allowed. It's really okay. Thank you. Any other questions or clarifications? Thank you. Ms. McDougall. Riekerdt? Yes. Yellen? Yes. Youngs? Yes. Fascianello? Yes. Lang? Yes. Nolan? Yes. Kish? Yes. Thank you. Moving on to new business. Summer Fam Jam. Yeah. So hopefully, the board's had a chance to look at the proposal from Lee LaForest, the chamber president, in regards to a Father's Day event, Father's Day weekend in summer of '27. This is not the Fun Fest.
Jeff and I have had these meetings. We've met with Chief Lipe, Lieutenant Bayarsky. We're not interested in replacing the Fun Fest event. This is more of a family event, petting zoo, bounce houses, face painting. We're going to have a car show, vendor booths. It's going to run from 11:00 to 6:00 two days, Friday and Saturday. And then on Father's Day, it would run from 11:00 to 4:00. And Lee is well aware of our construction and the logistics on central campus over these next five or six years. So this would be housed at West High School in the parking lot, in the bus loop in front of the high school, potentially on Jewett
Trail, and then on the asphalt at Brendle and the playground at Brendle. So much more contained. I think that the Fun Fest got to a point where we were identifying young adults as primary demographic. This is much more 5 to 12-year-olds and families. So I think that our law enforcement would agree that this is a better package for the community for a community event, and we're recommending that we approve this. So Trevor, it listed Jewett Trail. So would it be closed? There's some talk about potentially closing it based on the size of the
car show. I think we suggested just using the bus loop, but if they got a lot, we could potentially close that portion and make it one way. Oh. So that's something that we'll work through. So where would parking be for the families? They would have to park in the upper and lower lot. And walk over. And walk, or at Brendle or at central office. Mm-hmm. Would this be a ticketed event or just sort of a come- The logistics for security, we're still working the details out, but with the Fun Fest, we had a single point of entry. We had our K-9 unit. I don't know if we necessarily need those
measures, especially considering it's during the daytime hours. I think the issues that we got tied up with at the Fun Fest was after the carnival was going at night. So we're not interested in bringing that back So to Ryan's point, so the families would buy tickets to go in the bounce houses? Yeah, I think there'd be- Okay ... potentially something like that. Okay. Or maybe there would be a wristband- Wristband type thing. Okay ... type of thing. Yeah. Those are two guys- So it's not a free event for anybody. No, and I asked her to put this together so the board could review it, and she's happy to come to a workshop with more details once we get it.
That would be great. So we- But it wouldn't be in conflict with school. I know that our new assistant principal, she's been there two years now, Natalie Cooper, when she came to Grand Blanc to sign her contract, she's like, "You guys have a carnival while school's going on?" It's like, yeah, we just say, "Welcome. Let the circus come to town before school's out." So that always logistically was a little bit of an issue, so we definitely weren't interested in... And then all of the work that Jeff's going to be doing over the next couple of years, too, we want to make sure that it's moved away, back in an area that we can contain a little bit more.
The parking might be a little- Parking. People will have to walk a little further, yeah. Yep. So do you want to- I just would like the board's blessing to pursue this because I just think that it is something that we've heard a lot about over the years, and we want to support the chamber. We want to support the community. I think that we're much more comfortable with this, and Chief Lipe is as well, so- And I know Lee's worked hard- Lee's good ... to come up with- Lee's good. She knows that 18:00 time is 18:00, because she's good at trying to push things out sometimes, but she'll- She understands ... follow this plan, yeah. Okay. We'll take a motion to accept this proposal.
I'll make a motion. Support. Any other questions? Good. Ms. McDougle. Riecker? Yes. Yellen? Yes. Youngs? Yes. Fascianello? Yes. Lang? Yes. Nolan? Yes. Kish? Yes. Moving on to 4.02, the Neola policy updates. Mr. Yang, go ahead. All right. Buckle in because we have a lot. I don't know if Meredith had a fun nickname like Policypalooza or anything. Since it's summer, I will call this our Policy Luau. Instead of offering a spit-roasted rotisserie pig or wonderful music, I am offering you 16 policies that are
either revised, rescinded, or new. So I'll start with the rescinded policies. We are rescinding policies 3120.09 and 4120.09. Both deal with our volunteer process, so background checks, stuff like that. I know Yasmin, you had questions about that, as did Ryan. Those are actually involved with policy 8120.09, which we'll get to under the revised. Moving on to our new policies. Policy
This deals with staff ethics. It is very similar to policy 3210. So we're adding in, "Standards of integrity, ideas, professional competence, and relationships are set forth by the State Board of Education." So if you look at policy 1410, you'll see that there are new sections F through M. "Recognize basic dignities, represent accurately their qualifications, expect due care to protect," and so forth.
Policy 4210 is also one of our new policies dealing with staff ethics. Again, very similar to policy 3210, which we have in place. And again, if you look, new F through M, "Seek and apply the knowledge and skills appropriate to assigned responsibilities, keeping confidence legally, confidential information as they may secure," so forth and so on. Policy 5336 is our new policy with care of students
with diabetes. So what we did with this, and I know Dr. Albert can talk on it as well, we took what Neola was recommending, but we also took into consideration what our district nurse, Rachel Amaras, had recommended. So for instance, I believe in the Neola-recommended policy, it said that anyone who works in the school building that a child with diabetes is at needs to be trained for the proper care. So for instance, the lunch monitor, the janitor, the
secretaries, librarians, every single person who works in that building that a student who has been diagnosed with diabetes, they would need that proper training in case a student were to have some sort of, I guess, episode or anything like that. So what we did was we took serious consideration and rewrote the policy to fit better for our district. Am I missing anything or? No, I think you hit the nail on the head. This is basically how we practice now with our diabetic care
plans. So this is how our district nurses train our staff, work with the office staff. And the policy in Neola, and I don't know if it's just been a recent thing, but it seems like some of their policies are getting longer and longer and longer, which always makes me a little nervous, you know My predecessor always had a saying, "Less is more." And I think sometimes less is more. We're trying to be conscientious of not getting too far removed from what Neola's recommending, but then we're consulting with our own legal and with our own experts in the district.
So this is how we're functioning now. Moving on, we have policy 8402. It is dealing with our new emergency operations plan. So it is similar, I believe, to something that we've already had. But now we're actually just putting it in place, actually have something set in stone. We have policy 8655, specialized transportation for students with IEPs. So for this, I believe it was because the ISD,
we purchased a- Lift van ... a lift van for students who may need that lift or ramp so that they'd be able to ride with their friends. The ISD was no longer allowing us to use their vehicles for transporting students on field trips. It's not fair to make one kid sit by themself and not with their friends. So now we have that ability so they can ride with their friends. Moving on to the revised or the replacement policies. We have policy This is essentially just adding in the definition of a
WCD, or wireless communication device. It also changes Twitter to X, for anyone who really cared about that. But essentially, it adds the definition of what a wireless communication device is in our district. Policy 2370.01 is our online/blended learning program. Okay, so this is due to the State Aid Act, which eliminates the option of 15 days of online learning. Dr. Alward, if there's- You might recall that the state allowed for some leniency where we
would've had to adopt it during our calendar adoption, and we've never brought that to you. So you guys have never been brought that flexibility waiver, but they disbanded that. They don't do that any longer. But we've never taken- So for instance, instead of doing a snow day, we did an online day. I will let you talk to the teachers about that one. We have policy 5136. Okay. Yeah, this is the wireless communication devices. Essentially, it just, again, defines what we consider a wireless communication device in our district.
So for instance, "WCDs, including but not limited to those with cameras, may not be activated or utilized at any time in any school situation where a reasonable expectation of personal privacy exists." I had my policies out of order. Policy is our purchasing policy. We just specified language, I believe, for certain bidding requirements and the process of that. Policy deals with the procurement of federal grants and funds. Had to
raise the threshold. Yeah. Okay. Bidding. Yeah. Policy 7540.09, artificial intelligence. So, AI is a forever growing and continuously growing industry. So now we actually have something in our policy that defines AI. I know at both the county and our level, we have an AI task force. So it's nice now we actually have something set in stone. And then lastly, we have policy 8120, which is just our new volunteers
policy. So, Yasmin, hopefully that answered your question. Yeah, definitely. Sorry. Okay. All right. And that is our 16 policies. Well, let's take a motion, I think- It's the first reading. Yeah ... but we can do them all together, right? Mm-hmm. So one motion for the new, revised, and rescinded. We'll take the motion. So moved. Support. Any questions from the first reading? Next time it'll be a little bit shorter. We won't have to go through all that. Okay. Ms. McDougall? Riekerd? Yes. Yellen? Yes. Youngs? Yes. Fascionello? Yes. Lang? Yes. Nolan? Yes. Kish? Yes. Thank you very much, Ethan. That's a lot of work. It's Michelle Mayes show.
Let's make sure I'm set up. No. Can you try putting it in present? Oh, there it goes. There we go. All right. Let me try to see the... All right, perfect. Okay. Good evening. Tonight we have the 25/26 final amendment and the 26/27 original budget hearing. And we will start with one year, pause for the hearing, talk about taxable rates, the millage proposal, and then go into the 26/27 discussion, and then talk about some things moving forward. I am very collaborative. I prefer you stop to ask me a
question. There's a lot of information we have to get through. Stop me on the slide. We'll stop, take a minute to discuss, and then move forward instead of waiting until the end, because there's a lot to get through today. And then tell me when we need to do an approval too. Will do. So we'll start with 25/26 final budget amendment for the general fund. As always, I always start with a recap of a slide taken directly from our first amended presentation. I don't ever go through this in detail. This is just a recap. I keep it here as just a review instead of having to flip through presentations. So these were all the big changes.
The First Amendment is always the biggest change between the original budget, and these were all the assumptions that we accounted for during the First Amendment, which was in February. Moving forward, I call this the fine-tuning budget. I already have a typo I see up there. It says original budget, so it should say final. Local revenue, I'm going to go through the high-level items, the biggest changes that we had from the First Amendment to the final budget. A small adjustment to interest revenue for the local revenue side. There's three buckets to revenue: local, state, and federal.
This is the highest revenue return in 15-plus years, so I added about $100,000 assumption of what we could expect to receive between now and the end of the year. We did have some property tax valuation adjustment. So anyone that pays property tax in our municipality is allowed to dispute those valuations. So we did have quite a few valuation adjustments, more so than normal. But because your foundation formula is split between two buckets, taxable values and foundation, it's always made up for on the state side.
So you'll see whatever loss we encountered on those valuations will be made up for on the state revenue side. And then just small adjustments for local grants, Summer Arts Academy, GHS, and other minor adjustments. The biggest changes to the budget are in the state revenue bucket. Because we had those evaluation adjustments, you'll see there's an increase on the foundation side. The categorical changes, we receive 147 revenues quarterly, trued up quarterly based on current payroll. So we don't know what those valuations are, so I'm estimating those to
be a little bit less than what I had guessed they were in the First Amendment. We did receive a very large chunk of state funding for the 35M literacy support funding, which is to support our new ELA required curriculum adoption to help with the new dyslexia bill. Dr. Walroth and her team have been very strategic in helping me, helping the district figure out how to best break out this purchase to best get the bang for our buck with the type of money that's available to us. So, in this year, $697,000 is a grant that we received to be able to
complete a portion of that purchase. It's important to note that amount is not the full purchase of the curriculum adoption. We did receive, along with every other district in the state, a reduction in the estimated transportation funding. This is a late adjustment by the state. They provided no explanation, but they did revise everyone's allocation down. Our allocation was $87,000. I honestly cannot provide you a reason. They just fine-tuned their numbers, and this is what they came back with, of what our estimate would be. And transportation funding is like buses? It's any general funded transportation cost.
So if you recall, before two years ago, there was never any funding received for general ed transportation. They did a statewide study. They came back with a formula on how they would provide funding for general fund transportation. So every year, that's revised annually. It's any cost for general fund transportation, not just buses. Okay. So we use that to help offset some of our-- It's just an easy wage. We put it against our wages. So it works like a grant. We receive a dollar amount. We receive it on the revenue side. We also receive it on the expenditure side.
Because the revenue side was reduced, the general fund expenditure portion increased by $87,000. Does that make sense? And then other minor adjustments in total for categorical line items, net change of a difference of 77,000. The other largest change is on the federal side. As you remember, we always receive our federal programming allocations very late in the year. We never receive them in time for the amendment. So the final budget includes the revised final allocations for all of our title programming, which is Title I, II, two separate III's, and
then a IV, and then our IDEA special education funding for an increase of 578,000. Increase on the revenue equal increase on the expense. So the overview of our revenue, we always go left to right. The amended budget was brought to you, I'm sorry, in February. We were at 106.5 million. The revised proposed amended budget is 107.7 million or a change of 1.2. As you can see, the biggest changes are the state side, 679,000 of that alone is the grant
purchase for the 35M K-8 ELA curriculum materials, and then roughly 575,000, 578,000 of that was for all the title allocation changes. For a net change or increase in revenue of 1.19 million or 1.1%. Any questions on the revenue side? As you can see, the big changes were all grants, which will also be not something we're receiving and just getting, we're also spending that equal amount. So going through expenditures, again, this is copy/paste from the
first amended budget. I won't go through all this in detail, but I leave it for you as a recap in case you want to review or go back to what were the changes we made back in February. I'll leave it up for just a few minutes and then I'll skip to the next slide. So the fine-tuning, again, that says original. Should say final. I apologize. I'll make sure that's revised prior to posting on the website. Finalization of all step and level changes and overage payments for our teaching staff. They're allowed to submit any education degree changes, or any overage payments for second semester is really the biggest changes here.
Adjustments for any unfilled vacancies or unpaid long-term leaves. We did have quite a few leave of absences that you can't really predict, whether it be sick leave, maternity leave, so on and so forth. So those adjustments are in here, as well as any wages that we have to cover to supplement those absences. Adjustments for hourly wages. We do our best to estimate where our hourly employees will work, so this is fine-tuning what those estimated hours will be through final pay. We did finalize, although it was included in the first amendment, we finalized the placement of the 27L
educator compensation payments, and what I mean by that is I had it plugged into one function category. Now that we know who got paid, I was able to spread it across the budget against all functional categories, whether it be instruction, supplemental programming, administration, so on and so forth. Every full-time equivalent employee working a full schedule will receive $968 based on their FTE status as a Grand Blanc employee, not including FICA and retirement. If you were half time, you received half of that.
Quarter time, you received a quarter of that. That also went to our food service employees, so a portion of that shifted into our food service fund, and then children's garden fund, so on and so forth. Any changes to health insurance and our ancillary benefit plan elections from open enrollment. Sometimes those happen later. Also, if you have marriages or changes, any qualifying events. Reduction of anticipated election cost. I had budgeted 58,000 in the general fund to cover the election cost of the bond, but because that can be covered under bond, I'm able to reduce that out, so that is a small reduction there.
I rounded up in this, but it's 670,000 as it was on the revenue side. The purchase of the K-8 ELA curriculum, so the money came in. This is the use of the grant funds on the expenditure side. Aligning of all expenditures to final estimates for purchased services, supplies, including anything unspent for custodial services, any security estimations, our contracted bus drivers, and new hours. So a significant portion of our employee base are contracted hourly staff, so we do the best we can to estimate what hours they will be
working through the third party through the final pay of the school year. Okay. As you know, we had incredibly high gas rates in the fourth quarter of this year. Our fourth quarter is March through June, and that's when prices were about over $5 a gallon, and that hit hard with the busing. So we did have to increase those budget estimations to get us through the end of the year. Overall increase to utilities. That should flip. Decrease in electricity, increase in gas. I promise I'll revise that as well. I apologize. Realignment of all grant expenditures, as I
discussed on the revenue side, including Title, IDEA, GSRP, and our 23G learning loss fund, which Dr. Walrath has been helping tremendously with. So overview by function, this is the category area I was mentioning before. So this just shows you the changes by those categories: instruction, support services, facilities, and so on. From left to right, our budget brought forward at the amendment 110.6 million. Net change at the final proposed amended is 110.99 or a change
of $395,000 overall. So lots of changes in between. Some increase, some decrease, so a net increase of 395,000. This is the same information but shown to you by object. In my opinion, this presents a little bit better and shows you what exactly are we spending our dollars on and what exactly were the adjustments made against. So as you can see in the supply line item, which included the K-8 materials and some of the other grant funding is one million just there. But because we also received the
revenue, it's only a net difference of 395,000. So big numbers in between, small net change overall. So we spent 3 million more than we brought in. If you look at revenue versus- Yeah, we're getting there. All right. Yeah. But yes, you are correct. I do think it's worth pointing out, though, you see the variances between the expenditures and revenues, and Michelle still is within 1% of the variances that she's projected, and that's just hard to believe with all the ups and downs from the budgeting process in Lansing this year. So we knew we were going to spend into fund balance, to your point-
Right ... based on our salary negotiations. But it's just really good work on her part. So this is the slide you like to see. So this is the overall, all those slides compressed into one. Top section of the slide is the revenue change. The middle section of the slide is the expenditure change. The bottom section of the slide shows you our net change. So we were projecting a $4 million deficit. I am presenting to you a revised budget of a deficit of 3.297, or an estimated ending fund balance of 27.10%. It's important to note, this was a planned spend
down. We will have to discuss that further as I go into the next year's conversation, but this is not something unanticipated, unexpected. This was planned and promised by the board. We gave significant salary increases. Dr. Alward has shared before, when we have the wealth, we share the wealth. And we're doing the best we can to spend that down, but responsibly. So I just want to take any questions at this time regarding the ending of '25, '26. So you said you projected 4 million in the fund balance to you, but it was a little less than that.
A little less, yes. So keep in mind, I have to present a budget that's slightly over projection by law. By law, I cannot present you a budget that's the other way. I have to have numbers that have some give. I cannot be upside down. So a little bit. I am being incredibly close here. This is not as conservative as I normally would be. Okay? So could I just ask a question? Yes. For health insurance, does the district itself negotiate with the health insurance companies, or is it a group of districts?
So we are not part of a pool. That's a great question. We do belong with a third-party company. We are self-funded insurance, so we pay all of our claims ourselves. But we do have to go out to bid on those plans and what we offer. The district can only contribute 20% towards each employee's health insurance total. But we work with a third party... Sorry, 80%. They can contribute 20%. I wish it was 20. We work with a third-party provider that goes out to bid for our rates. So we're slightly different that we're not part of a fully insured
plan. We self-fund all of our benefits. But there are other options. There is a pool out there where other districts participate and bid on. You're absolutely correct, but we are not part of that pool. Have we looked at it? Would it be beneficial to us? We talk about this in our Benefits Council. So we have Benefits Council that's compromise... What's the word? Someone help me. Compromise. Compromise? Okay, thank you. I heard compromise and I was like, "Wait, that's not the right word." Of members in our district, constituents, so our GBEA, our paraprofessional staff, bargaining group members, if you will.
So we do work in hand with Gallagher Benefits, and they help go out to bid for all of our plan rates. Any other questions? Okay. All right, now we need to go into- Expenditure. Yes. Oh, not yet. Let me go through the other funds. I apologize. I'm going to go through the other funds, but there's really not a lot of changes, so I'm going to skim through these. Really a recap of the funds that we have, and just really going through where we think they'll end this year. Children's Garden is our tuition-based program that runs out of Perry Center. This includes preschool and Latschke, and they also offer a summer camp
program currently. So not a lot of changes between the amended budget and the final budget. So I'm going to ask you to pay attention to the last three columns of each of these slides. Middle column is where we brought to you the amended budget in February, final budget is what I'm proposing, and then just the variance slide. So not a lot of changes between the amended budget and the final budget projections. Food Service Fund, this is our restricted fund. As you know, we have fund balance minimums we have to maintain within this fund. So Mr. Cushman has been
working every year to make sure we meet that threshold and whether that includes new equipment purchases or renovations in each of our lunch rooms. You'll see that we do our best to try to spend what we need to to make sure we're maintaining the required fund balance percentages here. Again, these funds cannot be used for anything else but for their intended purpose. So we had some slight increases in spending, but that's just estimating what the equipment purchases would be. So no major changes here. Student Activities, this is, I'm going to call it the fundraising fund. This is the student programs.
I'm not doing any changes. They look to be receiving what they are spending as projected, so no changes for the Student Activities Fund. The debt retirement fund. This is a restricted fund, again, can only go to paying down our debt. The biggest changes here were for those taxable value adjustments that you'll see on the revenue side. No changes with our expected bond payments. Those are made May 1st and November 1st of every year, so those are known well in advance and just no big changes at the final budget here. Sinking fund overview. I will
touch on it a little bit more, but this is the final version of our post, pre-elected new sinking fund, if you will. We'll have to maintain two sinking funds because the one that just passed by the voters in May of '25 has more allowable uses. So on your resolution for next year, you'll see the passage of two sinking funds. Until this one is spent in full, we'll continue to have two, and then the new one will take over because it has allowability for more use. But we intend to spend this
down within the next year. I thought we weren't going to go out for a new sinking. We were just going to renew the sinking fund and not make it so that it goes to the more uses. It's still a renewal, but allows for additional uses. But I thought that if we use it for the additional uses, then we couldn't say that it was a renewal. You can say it's a renewal and expand the allowable use. What they classify as sinking fund. Yeah, it was technology and transportation, but I don't know if we intend on using the funds for that purpose.
It's just we have the flexibility to do it if we need to. Right. I know that he's- By law, I have to ... forecasting out the next five years on projects utilizing those funds. So you're still looking at the warm, safe, and dry roofs, parking lots, HVAC, those types of things. But if you reviewed the election verbiage, it's in there. So by law, we have to maintain the two funds until this one is spent. We can't mingle the two. It'll help us out in a pinch. I think it's great expanding verbiage, but- The expansion is great, but- Had a little issue, needed a bus or needed- Yeah ... just a little flexibility. I think that at one point-
At one point ... you're right. At one point, we were concerned about that, but this all went through our bond attorney. All of this was approved by legal. No, I'm sure that, but I thought that it was how then we would need to take it out to the community as not as a renewal, but as a new, even though it technically is going to be, and we've done it 50 years or however long it's been. But I did think that that was the reason why we kept it the same the last time. Mm-hmm. No, you're right, but I think that our bond attorney had a
different perspective on that when we came to this last election, so. So my understanding is a sinking fund is a sinking fund, so you can call it a renewal, but the state has broadened the definition of a sinking fund- Right. Correct ... if you pass it at a certain level. That is correct. At a certain date. That is correct. Okay. Thank you. Aquatic complex. Not a lot of changes here with the exception of the revenue side. We are able to market this out more and more families are using the facility, so you can see more revenue generation there. The intent is not to draw profit here, but to have use.
So there'll be increase in revenue, but there'll also be increase in expenditure side. So whether it's the aquatics programs or there's quite a few different programs running there at this time. So those are all just looped into pool rental. 2020 Bond Series 3. We still have Series 3 funds, as you saw the construction out there, which will be spent in this coming year. Sorry, can we go back? Yeah. So the pool rental, where is the income? Is that renting out the stadium as well? Everything's under pool rental? No, probably not, but... Well, it might be, actually. It might be. Just as a cat where it says there, yes, because I have one rental
account, but I put pool rental. Okay. But I can just take that out and just put rental. Okay. Thank you. Facility rental. I can change that. It's a good question. Can that also go into when our rents into Cromwell, like at Mom's or Dad's? No, that would be a separate building, so it wouldn't be part of there. Yep, this is strictly for that facility over there. Yes. That money would be looped into local revenue. It's one line item within huge scope. So yes, you're correct. Are we... Okay. So 2020 Bond Overview Series 3. We're at the final stretch of the spend of the Series 3 bond from 2020.
This will be spent up with the expansion of the tennis courts over there that you currently see. So although we have to adopt it for '25, '26, fully anticipating to spend it in the next fiscal year. And then the new fund is the 2026 bond, which we are scheduled to close on June 29th. So you have to adopt a new fund for this in this fiscal year. The bond proceeds and interest totaled 79.2, and bond issuance costs are about $684,000 for a net deposit into our account of $78 million.
At the end of the presentation, I do have a good news network slide, so we're not all doom and gloom, but we did have a very good bond sale, and it resulted in higher than projected estimates for construction planning and not just bond issuance and interest fees. So I'll go over that slide later. Any questions on the other funds? Now you need a motion. Okay. I'll make a motion to approve. Support. Any questions before we take a vote? Okay, Ms. McDougle. Rieckert? Yes. Yellen? Yes. Youngs? Yes. Fascianello? Yes. Lang? Yes. Nolan? Yes. Kish? Yes. Okay. Now official budget hearing. I don't know what you have to do.
Nothing? You never know. We need Marty for this. Brian, did you support that when we made a motion? No. Or it was Ethan? Okay, sorry. I didn't support it. I think we have to take public comment at this time for the '26-27 budget hearing. At this time, we will take any public comments about the budget hearing. Any public comments? Nobody? All right. So we start '26-27 planning with our property tax valuation. The process can't really start without having these numbers. We've received these numbers in late May.
The top section is all properties within our district boundaries, and the bottom is the non-principal residence. Non-principal residence would be your businesses, which is what we collect the 18 mills on. All properties would also include any homes within our community. So you can see the valuation changes from left to right. Overall, non-principal residence did have an increase of about $10 million, which is good for our community. Recap of the tax levy that will be going out to the municipalities that you will need to adopt at this hearing. 18 mills for non-homestead operating.
Good news is we do not have any rollbacks this year, which is very good news. The restatement or renewal of the 0.9915 mills for the sinking fund, again, no rollback, which is great, and the 6.3 mills for the debt retirement fund. And then the bottom points are just information about how tax rates work and a sample calculation. And this is the proposed tax rate request that will go out to the municipalities tomorrow for 100% summer tax collection, and this will need your approval as well.
If there are any questions, I can take them too. Great. Does that cover the tax rate request? Okay, so everything. So do you want to do one motion for everything? We need to do a motion for this, yes. For the tax rate? Yep. Okay. So we're doing a tax rate request approval, so we'll take a motion. So moved. Support. Any questions? Okay. Ms. McDougle. Rieckert? Yes. Yellen? Yes. Youngs? Yes. Fascianello? Yes. Lang? Yes. Nolan? Yes. Kish? Yes. Thank you. Okay, great. We'll need two signed copies, please. That has to go out tomorrow. Very good, right? Oh, maybe I got one in here. If you have one, I'll take the one. As long as I have one. If you sign that. Okay, perfect.
Going into the '26-27 original budget, we'll just go through it and then we'll talk about it. Budget assumptions. We still don't have a state aid budget, which is not a shocker. The only thing we do have, which is very different from the prior year, is that all three versions of the proposed budget include the same foundation allowance. That's just right now. That doesn't mean it won't change. So we went with the majority, and we did a $250 increase in foundation allowance from 10,050, which is our current year, to 10,300. There are various
proposals with potential changes to categorical funding, so we went with what we know and we held current with the information that we have. We did estimate a loss of 150 FTE, taking us to a blended enrollment of 7,130 or a loss of 1.5 million. On the good news side, we did have a decrease in the proposed retirement rates from the governor, both on the UAAL side and also the retirement rate, which I go over on the expenditure side. Assuming 98% collection of local taxes, which is the norm,
assuming interest rates will come down slightly for a decrease in investment revenues. And we did those one-time categorical line items that we do know about that will not be reoccurring, we took right off, and that is the 27L- , 27L educator compensation, which is that one-time payment that's both on the revenue and expense side. The MIPSers cost offset was strictly on the revenue side. And final carryover from 31aa was in '25-'26. That means the full security freight will be on the general fund in
'26-'27 if there are no changes to 31aa, which it kind of sounds like there might not be. But we will wait and see. Anything can happen, I guess. Reduction of the 35m for the ELA adoption of 670,000 and the 23G grant funds. No other changes to any other grants because we won't know our allocations for a really long time, and we'll make those adjustments when we know about them. Looking at our membership trend, this is a statewide trend. We do include this for you for transparency's sake. If we do lose 150 FTE, you can kind of see
the trend continues to go down, but hopefully will start to taper off very soon. And this is the general fund overview. So expecting about 15.7 in local funding. Majority of that is your property tax collection. State funding of 82.2, federal intermediate, which is your federal grants, Title and IDEA, and any fund modifications which are indirect costs that we receive from other funds. So, Children's Garden and Food Service pay us to manage their programs. We do not pay anything out to any other funds.
This is strictly revenue coming in to offset any indirect costs for running those programs. For a total revenue of 103.5 million. I said that like I was going to say something else. For a total revenue of 103.5 million . Any questions on revenue? We can go back too if you think of something. Okay, general fund expenditure assumptions. So we assumed, within this budget includes a planned spend down that we have been discussing at the board level for increased salary and benefits for all groups. There's an inherent increase in retirement and FICA costs if your salary is increasing. All manuals and CBAs are settled for this
year, as in '26-'27, with the exception at this time the transportation group, there was just some tweaking between changing their pay method from a run rate to an hourly rate, so I included an estimated percentage until we can finalize those numbers. Total payroll for the district, not including FICA and retirement, is $53 million across all employment groups, salary only. So this does not include your contract groups. This is the good news side. We did have a decrease in our overall MPSERS rate presented by the governor. The district average in '25-'26, because every single employee has a different rate,
was around 42% in the budget. I'm estimating for '26-'27 that our overall district payroll will be at 40%. We're using a weighted average formula here to get this as close as possible because it's been exceedingly difficult to nail this number. Assumes, we are hearing that we should probably anticipate an additional 10% increase on health insurance rates, which is in line across the state. Slight increases to our ancillary benefits, which include your dental and LTD because of increased wages. LTD is tied to wage increases, so we're estimating about a
5% increase there. That's your long-term disability plan. Continued increases in gas, electric, and bus fuel. If rates continue the way they did in the fourth quarter, we'll have to look at this again. We do have a continued increase for ACC curriculum adoptions, not including K-8 ELA. We are assuming in this budget that the K-8 ELA adoption will be fully grant funded. Hopefully, if 31 comes in, we can cover the intervention component, and we have an opportunity to go back out for a second part of 35m, because there was some debate at the state level with allowable vendors that
they're reopening this back up. So I did not include any added costs for K-8 in this budget, but I did include for the other pilots and other adoptions, an additional $300,000. So we typically budget around $570,000 for ACC. This includes $850,000 to $870,000 for ACC curriculum adoption. And the purchase of three buses. We placed that order last year. We knew they wouldn't come in, so we have to account for that in the budget this year, assuming they will be received by June 30th. Oh, there's more. Biggest change, actually, it's a very big change, is the minimum wage
increase will increase again, for the second half of the year from $13.73 to $15. This is causing a very big hit to our budget because all employment groups need to go with the increase. It's a 9.25% increase. We have to see increases across the board to be fair to the other groups. That's about a 25% increase in minimum wage over three years, if I'm not mistaken. Yes? No? Maybe. Addition of 1.0 special education teacher, reduction of approximately 5.3 FTE positions in overage just based on the staffing
method, not including any layoffs. This is strictly class sections, placing teachers, and being able to make reductions. Includes the removal of the 27L payment. We'll finalize staffing during the budget amendment. Many variables at play with projected FTE count, so it'll all play a part in how many students we receive and what offerings we're able to finalize. Increase in special education transportation. I discussed this with the finance committee, and I know Dr. Aylward has mentioned this before. We are piloting a new special education service
model for our secondary students that require transportation within our district boundaries. So there are certain tiers with the ISD that we currently contract with. The third tier transports our students within our district, and we are piloting a program for about 35 of our students with First Student and reducing footprint with the ISD. Now, doing this allows us to claim a 70% reimbursement of special ed transportation in the following year.
So your first year, you would generally receive a cost. The next year, you'd be able to receive a reimbursement. However, lucky for us, tier one, which is the method the ISD offers for transporting our students to their center-based programming, they're offering that to us for free this year because they received a grant. So luckily, receiving that one year on tier one will help offset this added one-year cost for going out with First Student for special ed transportation. That was a mouthful. Please let me know if you need me to clarify.
Did they get a grant for Tier III by any chance? No. Okay. No. That was exponentially increased on our end, which is quite honestly forcing us to need to look outside. It's almost half. Well, it's over half. It's more than half the foundation for the cost per student. I just was thinking if they did get a grant this year, then we could still use that for this year. No, they got a grant for Tier I, not Tier III. Okay. And then just increases across the board. Looking at average cost increases for liability insurance, workers comp, software, so we included some small increases for those annual renewals. Okay.
Yes. Can I ask you the general trend as far as legal expenses? So fortunate for us, our legal expenses in '25-'26 went down because we had a very big legal case in '24-'25. Oh, okay. But overall, for us, if we didn't have a case like that, our legal expenses have remained flat for some time. I have seen districts where they fluctuated increasingly. We have not had that issue, but we did in '24-'25. Yeah. Do you have insurance against some kind of like a mega- We do, up to a certain point. Yes.
You do? Yes. So we do have retainer with an attorney that does our labor negotiations for us and any one-off situations that may arise, whether it be a parent complaint or parent dispute with a special education case or something like that. But we do have, as part of our liability insurance, for our large claimants, we do have insurance for those. But each of those have a deductible as well. Small in comparison to the amount of coverage that we have, but we are covered for those type of cases. We still have legal need and legal support for the one-offs every day. Good.
Okay. The general fund expenditure overview by function, for a total estimated expenditure or budget of $110.6 million. And looking at it by object, you can see the $53 million I had presented earlier on our salary cost. Our benefits include retirement, FICA, and health insurance, all ancillary benefits. Purchased services are third-party companies, and so on and so forth. Okay. This is the slide. So, this is the overall overview of we're projecting '26-'27 to
be. So with revenues at around $103 million and expenditures at $110 million, I am projecting a deficit of $7 million, or a fund balance of 20.78%. That went down 7%. That is correct. So as a reminder, the state recommends no less than 18% fund balance. I strongly recommend that as well. This will require future discussion and planning from administration and the board level. We will have to make some structural changes at this point.
We're at a structural deficit. Now, we did intentionally plan to spend down fund balance. You cannot spend down fund balance without having your expenditures be higher than your revenue. So we knew this was coming, but it's at a point where we, as a district, have to make some changes and some decisions. So, we're looking at having this be our budget. This is your proposal. Mm-hmm. But after 2026, 2027, then we're looking to have more of a balanced budget. We're going to have to have a deficit reduction plan going into
'27-'28. That is correct. Because we can't sustain this. Nope. And I think we all recognize that. So, we're going to be going back to the table with our labor groups. We're going to be looking at programs and people. We've been here before, but there's going to be some tough decisions that we're going to have to make come second semester, going into planning in the spring for the budget hearing for '27-'28. And I think cabinet knows that November's workshop will bring some of those proposals to you, and some thoughts, so that we can all be on the same page about how we
move throughout next year with this process going forward. So I've done an out-year budget you liked that word earlier, which we'll bring forward in November. Again, it's estimations. We don't have a state aid budget now, let alone to try to project a year forward, but we're assuming some knowns that we do know. And we'll bring that forward at the November workshop and move forward. So next slide, items looking forward, political landscape in Flushing, in Lansing. I say in Flushing. Oh, wow. Where I'm from. Okay. In Lansing.
Various budget proposals with caveats in place. 31a has been a heated debate. We're not sure what's happening there. So if we're able to receive any 31a funding to help with security costs, that'd be wonderful. Right now, our security costs are $1.2 million. So right now, that's all going to come out of the general fund. Continued increases for minimum wage. Presented budget does not include increases for contracted staff with exception of minimum wage. So although we've settled with all of our bargaining groups, there are no increases built in here for custodial staff, security staff, any of our
contracted hourly folks, with exception if they're at the minimum wage. Although we're intentionally spending into fund balance, we have to right-size our expenditures. The deficit will only continue to compound. So structural changes will need to occur, whether that be programs, staffing reductions, et cetera. And those discussions must occur between the cabinet level and the board level. Projected, as I mentioned, a high-level budget for '27, '28, and we'll present that at a future workshop. What we want to wait for is what the count will actually come in and what this year's state aid budget will be before revising those
numbers and bringing you doom and gloom. So we want to make sure we have some current information, at least on one side, whether that's student count, current foundation, and we can bring you that information in a future workshop for discussion. Staffing levels have to match the reduction of students. Currently, we are only reducing staff through attrition, and that's just through general retirements. And I had this last year, I kept it, evidence-based decision making, continue, reduce, or cut. So we've been here before,
but there's going to have to be some un-fun things that we have to do. However, not ending on a sour note, on the Good News Network, our bond sale, we received 12 bids for our bond, which I am told was one of the highest in the current market with very favorable rates. We had a ratings call, which is basically a credit rating call. They interview you and discuss the district's finances and financial management. We were rated double A minus. The full write-up I included for you as well. Winning bid went to Jefferies LLC. Not going to lie, don't know who they are, but I thank them very much for their
business. They offered a premium of $3 million, which basically means they gave us $3 million to buy our bonds, which is a very good offer. As a result of that and the reduced interest rates, we are expecting to deposit around 810 more to be used strictly for construction than what we estimated, which is very good. Our rates also came back so favorable that we'll be able to pay this bond back in a shorter timeframe than the 25 years that was written into the bond election. So overall, very good for our taxpayers.
It was a very good sale, and we're very pleased with the outcome of that. We will close, as I mentioned, on June 29th, and those funds will be in receipt, but because we won't be in the actual construction phase, I'll be moving directly to investment phase and working with Mr. Cushman and his department and the technology department on needs and spending those out on a cash flow basis. Okay. Looking at timelines. Hopefully, we'll have a budget from the state by October. This time last year in October, we did not have a budget, so that wasn't fun. So hopefully we'll have one. We'll continue with the audit
presentation and final numbers at the October board meeting, deficit reduction planning discussions through November through the coming year, budget planning at the start of the year, and then first budget amendment in February. And that's it. Okay, so let's take a motion for the 2026, '27 budget summary and resolution. Moved. Support. Questions for Michelle or Trevor? I just want to thank you for all the work that you've put in, and it's a lot. I would agree. You are welcome. I would agree. It's a lot of assumptions. It's incredibly difficult
to try and pinpoint exactly what's going on when you don't know numbers, and things are changing in what's going to be in, what's not going to be in. But one thing I think is important to remember is, as we look at this, as a board, we have to make decisions for the students and staff. We have to prepare for all the rumors and all the garbage that's going to potentially start circulating as to which programs might be in jeopardy. Not saying that's the case, but this is where people start to get this black cloud that's going to start to form. We don't know what's going to happen.
We just know that we have to make decisions on behalf of the district based on increasing costs. Energy costs are going up. We can't control that. She can't control that. Enrollment's going down. We're trying to do our best. So I think it's important for us to all sort of put on our battle caps to try and keep as positive a mark on this as we can as we start to make some of these tough calls. Because as you know, social media's going to be a nightmare, and this is where rumors start. So as I was listening to this for the second time tonight, I'm just thinking we have a tough job.
We have constituents that elected us, but we have to do what's best for the district going forward and fight the minutia that's to come. Which is why it's very important to explain why these things are necessary. We can't keep going down 7% every year and exponentially, like you said, that drop grows. So they have to know we are in this position because we knew we had funds. We wanted to spend them down. We're spending them down, but that can't last. So now we've got to try to figure it out.
But we need to be transparent and explain and not just hold onto the information as well. And I just want to remind all of us that we were elected to be on a board, and having a budget is one of the most important parts of our job. We set policy, we hire the superintendent, and we expel students. So this is going to need to be the focus, and we really appreciate all the data that you're bringing to us, but this is what we're elected to do, and figure out what's best for our district with the
money that we have. We're still in a good place. I think that you look at 21%, and it's not a bad place to be, but the compounding effect is something that we're going to have some ideas on And that's why we just want to make sure you're aware, bring you some options, have some continued discussion over the summer amongst our team, and then, in November when things are a little clearer for us with enrollment and the budget, we'll have a deeper conversation about what we're really getting our battle caps on for. I want to expound on that because that was brought up in finance committee.
The question was presented to me, which you may have sitting here, so I'm just going to present it. How do I know what we have or what we're spending it on? So we will work together as a cabinet, like Dr. Allen just said, reduction planning. So giving you a list of options. These are the things we have. This is what they cost. What does the board want to continue? What does the board feel that we can reduce? And with recommendations as well. Mm-hmm. So it's going to be a team effort and a collaborative approach, but you're not just guessing at what programs are we offering that we can cut. We'll provide you some information as well. And I know the question will come out. We just passed this big bond.
We've got a stadium. We're filling in performing arts. We're renovating the Perry Center. How can we be in this position? Well, we all know it's two different pieces of money. However, we spent a lot of money on keeping this building that we're sitting in right now. That is correct. So as we remodel and take out the anchor around us and keep the front of the building, I'm guessing that's going to save us a lot of utilities and a lot of costs there. So, passing the bond is giving us some great facilities, but it's also our general fund as well. Is that fair? So I think it's very important that you said the two are unrelated.
We have general fund operating, which operates the day-to-day operations, and you have a bond, which is for new replacement construction. Very two different things. You cannot supplement one with the other. The two cannot commingle. They are very separate pockets. You're right, it'll still be out there and it'll still be said, but it's very important to know one has nothing to do with the other, although the upgrades will help reduce the other. Yeah. That's what we need to focus on. Any other questions before we take a vote? Well, I heard you say that the state recommends 18%, and you
also said that too. Is 18% what we need to make it all prior to our first date? So I will have to re-cost based on all the salary changes. I will be honest, I don't have that information without including all the salary changes that we've just put into place. It used to be closer to 15%, but that's got to be crazy now. That is correct. When we had to borrow. Yeah. So everything is increased. The state requirement didn't used to be 18, it used to be a lot lower, but everything is costing so much more that now the requirement or the recommendation is higher, and I believe our
need is going to be higher as well. But we put in our knowledge base that we want 15%, because we used to be five, six. We were at, yeah, seven or eight. Even with all of that 15% wouldn't allow us to- It's not enough ... borrow. So we might have to adjust that. Yep. So I will be full transparency. I have not done that cash flow costing with all these changes, but that is the very next step as we're approaching that number. It's been lovely not having to worry about it, but it's time to go back to looking at monthly cash flow every single
month. And in your conversations, will it be just like if streamlining things, making things more efficient, not necessarily cutting, right? We're talking about potentially $3 to $5 million, and $3 to $5 million, if you remember, those of us that have been sitting at this table for a while, when the pandemic hit, we were told we were going to get cut $750 per pupil for one year. So we went in and cut $3 million in one year. And getting at $3 million, it's
not the low-hanging fruit. So I think we're talking programs and staffing. We're trying to do things through attrition to not disrupt, to your point, but I think we're going to be talking about some programs and staffing. I don't know if we're talking about layoffs. I know we haven't laid off, but we're 10 years removed from having a layoff. I remember my first year as deputy superintendent and recalling people from layoff. So we've been here before, but I hear you. I know we want to try to keep it as far away from the classroom as we can. We want to continue to offer all the programs that
we offer. But we're definitely going to be paying attention to enrollment numbers, section numbers. I know we've run some AP courses with 12 kids in it. Are we going to be able to continue to do that? I'm not so sure we are. So those are things that we have to consider. So you're going to bring some options to the board as you said? Yeah. Jeremy Chisholm's going to be here tomorrow, and we're actually going to start some of those conversations tomorrow. But we as a board should expect to hear things in the November workshop. November workshop we'll have some things. It will take some time to put together and provide you options, but the discussion does need to stay open between now and
November. Mm-hmm. Are other districts having similar- Yes, it's all over. Absolutely ... I'm just wondering, do school districts ever bring in consultants to look at handling difficult situations in terms of cuts? Well, our attorney, our legal team will help us with some of that work. He's in many different districts. So that's actually some of the strategies for deficit reduction he's worked with other districts on. He's actually presenting one to us tomorrow. So that's how we're getting the ball rolling is to look at how did they
address some of this in other districts with how they staff. So he's probably our closest thing to a consultant But yeah, again, we're in good shape. I don't want this to feel like we're having a funeral here by any means. We're in good shape. We'll be all right. We've been here before. But we don't want anyone surprised. No, we don't want anyone- Surprised. And again, I think that when we talk to our labor groups, and Michelle said it, we all benefit. And you've heard the term fiscal cliff since COVID came, since the pandemic, the fiscal cliff, the fiscal cliff.
Well, we avoided the fiscal cliff for long enough, and other districts haven't. Other districts are in that position now. I think our fiscal cliff is here in '27, '28, and it's going to be something that we have to address throughout the next 12 to 14 months. We knew it was coming at some point, but we also wanted to reward our employees through the increases that they got. Any other questions before we take a vote? Okay. Ms. McDougle? Rikert? Yes. Yellen? Yes. Youngs? Yes. Fascianello? Yes. Lang? Yes. Nolan? Yes. Kesh? Yes. Thank you. Moving on to information reports. Superintendent? Yes. Just thank you to Michelle. I know it's not easy.
I know showcasing a deficit budget is something she's never comfortable with doing, but the fact that we did that intentional spend down and we're still only at 1% variance on an over $100 million budget is something that there's not very many business managers in the state that can do that kind of work. So thank you to Michelle. And that face I see a lot. And I know I'm going to see it even more because we have some work to do. I know we have some work to do, and we'll get through it. So we'll just do it together, right? Better together. Yes. Better together. Welcome to Dr. Walroth, officially taking the torch from
Jody and Barb, so we're excited for her, and welcome to your new position. You do have 20-year pins. It's the 20-year anniversary of the opening of the middle schools. Mm-hmm. I didn't realize it until Melissa and Diana had these for us. The middle schools had those commissioned and are giving them out. So that's a cool way to honor the 20-year anniversary of us opening the middle schools. This is the last formal meeting of the 25/26 school year. So we've had retirement dinners and the last council and the checkouts for staff, and this is the last official order of
business to put a bow on last school year. So, I want to wish you all a happy 4th of July holiday. And in July, we do have a meeting on July 13th. That meeting is traditionally usually one of our shorter ones, but it is going to include my mid-year evaluation, and we are going to have some updated information on the scope of some of our Series 1 bond projects. So that's the big focus for July. That'll conclude my report. How did the senior job fair at checkout go? Good. Yeah, I don't know if Janet has numbers on how many kids actively became employed,
but we were over there, and I saw a number of kids coming through and talking. There were several businesses there. There were probably 15 to 20. So for a first year- Yeah ... yeah. That's great. Yep. All right. Thank you. Nolan, Baker, Scott, for board member reports. Yes. Well, I was at the graduation. I was thinking, many of these people, I shook their hands, they will be here the next century. And wonder how the world will be in the year 2100, but I was very impressed by everyone and the whole commencement. It's a good time. Yep. Ethan. Yeah, no, I don't really have too much to report on.
I want to wish everyone a happy summer and officially welcome Dr. Walroth as our new deputy superintendent. I had the great honor to speak at the Mason fifth grade recognition, where I was able to help honor the retiring principal, Sonja James, by presenting her with a bouquet of flowers. It was a wonderful event, and my message to her was the same message to the students. Even though you're leaving Mason Elementary next year, you'll always be a Mason Mountain Lion. You'll always be welcome back with open arms, and
everyone there just wants to see the wonderful things that you'll do in this next chapter of your life. So, to Sonja and to Tammy Snitko, who also retired, we're hoping that you both have a wonderful, enjoyable, relaxing retirement. I do want to say, just to make you feel all really old, I was two. I was two in 2006, so that's it for me. Yeah. Thanks, Ethan. My daughter was in eighth grade when the buildings opened, so that's how old I am. That's terrible. Well done, Ethan.
Nothing from me tonight except for graduation I thought was incredible. Not to nitpick, I just wish people would stay seated a little longer, to allow the folks at the end to hear their names, but I understand the pictures and all of that. I don't understand it. Need to just sit and- I would agree ... say your name. Yeah. People aren't on that because we changed that this year, but I think we need to let them know they're not getting down there. No. It's a race to get down there. Well, I think- We'll work with that ... and I think I told Sue, in the middle walkway, it just grows. Mm-hmm. But the weather was great. I thought it was phenomenal.
Speakers were amazing. Just an overall great opportunity. It's not that long. We go pretty quick. It's not, no. It's great. And I didn't lose my tassel this year, so. Happy summer. That's all I got. I was able to attend the author celebration at Anderson. The young fives, kindergartners, first graders are all authors. They're all wearing a shirt. They all show their books, and they read them to people as they come and go, and we can give them a sticker. That's all they're really interested in- ... is their stickers after they read us their story. But it's the second year that Anderson has done this with the
funds from the Grand Blanc Educational Foundation. So as chair of that, I'm really proud of this opportunity that they're giving the kids at Anderson, and it was great to see lots of family members there. The kids are just... I walk up and they're like, "I don't really want to read my story to you. Where's my mom or dad?" They're really excited to show their parents and their grandparents. And there was a little girl who was reading a story about why her dad is her hero to her dad, which was super sweet. So,
a nice event that they do there. There's been a couple of virtual classes from the MASB opportunities that they've had. So I just encourage you to continue to check the website, because they're free, and they're easy to sign up for. Some of them were CBA classes that you could take. I was able to go to Representative David Martin's coffee hours last week and talk to him over some of the budget concerns, getting that budget in. I know the MASB sends out call to action emails to us. Call the legislators. Let them know how important it is for
them to pass these budgets by July 1st, as the law indicates. There is no repercussions if they don't pass it, so they don't tend to pass it. But put some pressure on them, all of them, to let them know how not passing these responsible budgets affect us, how 31aa funds are affecting us. It's $1.2 million that we spend on security that we're not getting any money for because of that. So, let them hear from you, please. Let's see.
Summer Institute is August 8th. I think they're still taking reservations if that's something you'd like to do. I have a wedding that weekend, so I can't do that. But there's some good classes available. That's in Kalamazoo. I know Linda recently sent out an email about the annual leadership conference in October, so that is open for registration. The CBA classes that are available that weekend are not yet available, so it's-- Oh, they're on now. Yay. Thank you. So you can check those out and let Linda know as soon as possible.
Let's see. The duck race is on August 2nd. I want to commend the commencement, and Sue's got our tickets right here, right now, if you want to pay. The commencement was excellent. The students did do a great job speaking. Congratulations to our top 10. They are the highest GPAs by far. These kids, my daughter graduated last year, she said that the three of the top 10 from last year would have made the top 10 this year. They were incredibly high GPAs, incredibly involved and accomplished students.
And some of these kids have just been excelling in their classes, so they're taking AP and dual enrollment classes early, and they've really challenged themselves, and I love that we provide them with those opportunities. And very well-rounded, involved group. Not only are they taking AP Calc BC, whatever the heck it is, they're also in pickleball club and euchre club. It's a very well-balanced group. That's all for me. Thank you. I don't really have anything to report, but happy summer to all. I'm just starting my summer break today, so it feels good.
Yay. Amy? Yeah, I just want to wish everybody a happy summer. I want to congratulate the graduating seniors. It was a perfect day, and so good luck. Have a good summer. I know you're probably making plans already for your fall and going off to college or whatever your plans are. And I want to say, the last meeting, we had the Enginerds here, and they took us over into the gymnasium
and showed us their robot and everything it can do. And I just want to say, I was so incredibly impressed with that group of kids. They were so knowledgeable. It just knocked my socks off. I was very impressed. So I just wanted to give you guys a shout-out. Awesome. I agree At the end of the year, I was able to go over to West Middle School and see their eighth-grade recognition. I guess I haven't seen it since COVID. And they schedule 20 kids every 10, 15
minutes, and they said the parents love it, the kids love it. So, a little bit different than when my kids went through there. And then I got to go over last day to Reid Elementary and watch the clap out. And then my favorite is the buses as they leave and they circle and they beep and the kids are hanging out the windows. Safely, though. I was going to say. Safely. Got their hands out the window. It's just awesome. And then the staff member that's retiring, she's following the buses in a Bronco. So, it was a nice celebration. So, appreciate it. Okay. Anything from the county, Ethan, that we need to talk about?
I think no meetings until September, right? Yeah. Summer's done. Because I wasn't able to attend the last meeting. Was there anything? Yeah. So, they did do a presentation on the Michigan Leadership Institute, and some of that information was given out to us, and they presented some information on tweaking the... Not even tweaking, because they're not in the bylaws, but the process for re-evaluating or voting for new board members, executive team members moving forward. It's hard because January meeting,
people come in and there's a different representative from different districts, and then they're expected at that moment to vote for president, vice president, secretary, treasurer, of people that they might not even know because they hadn't been coming. So, I think the plan that they're hoping to do is send out little bio profiles on anyone interested in running for a position in November, because December is our holiday dinner. So, in the November meeting, those would be submitted, and then after that, they would send them out to the
districts, so that when they come in in January, they'll have a better idea of who they'd like to vote for. Makes sense. Yeah. There was probably a little bit more specifics. MLI actually does scholarships, a few student scholarships in Genesee County, and several board members said, "We've never heard of this." And that's a little disappointing because they are supposed to be supporting the county schools the most, they say. So, I think I'd like to see that information come from them next year. And so if you talk to anybody, check on that.
But, that's all I think that they said. So, if there's anything else, I'll email it out. Okay. Okay. Great. Yeah. And one last thing. I hope, Ms. Maya, you're taking a little time off here in the near future. Okay. You deserve it. Not that everybody else doesn't deserve it. But I deserve it. You deserve it. You know. You know. Okay. Public comments. We had one person sign up, but you did not want to speak. Okay. So that's good. Upcoming meeting is Monday, July 13th in the Perry Boardroom. And with that, the meeting is adjourned.