Good evening. I called to order this. January 23rd, 2025, Loudoun County, FY 2026 operating budget school board work session. Um, we will go ahead and start with our disclosures and I will start As a member of the Loudoun County School Board. I make the following disclosure to the school board and to the general public in connection with the item on tonight's agenda regarding the budget and or health insurance and related benefits
and any other discussion that may include or affect benefits for LCPS employees. Specifically as a school board member, I'm ineligible to receive health insurance and related benefits as an LCPS employee. These benefits, however, affect thousands of employees while in excess of the statutory three employees who interest may also be affected, of which I am included, I can and will participate fairly objectively and in the public interest. This disclosure will be reflected in the public records of this clerk of the school board for five years.
Ms. Chandler? Thank you Madam Chair. As a member of the Loudoun County School Board, I make the following disclosure to the school board and to the general public in connection with the item on tonight's agenda regarding the budget and or health insurance and related benefits and any other discussion that may include or affect benefits for LCPS employees. Specifically, as a school board member, I am eligible to receive health insurance and related benefits as an LCPS employee. These benefits, however, affect thousands
of employees well in excess of the statutory three employees whose interests may also be affected, of which I am included, I can and will participate fairly objectively and in the public interest. This disclosure will be reflected in the public records of the clerk of the school board for five years. Thank you, Ms. Chandler. Mrs. Griff, Mrs. Griffiths. Thank you Madam Chair. Uh, as a member of the Loudoun County School Board, I make the following disclosure to the school board and to the general public in connection with the item on tonight's agenda regarding the budget and
or health insurance and related benefits in any other discussion that may include or affect benefits for LCPS employees. Specifically as a school board member, I am eligible to receive health insurance and related benefits as an L-C-L-C-P-S employee. These benefits, however, affect thousands of employees well in excess of the statutory three employees whose interests may also be affected, of which I am included, I can and will participate fairly objectively and in the public's interest.
This disclosure will be reflected in the public records of the clerk of the school board for five years. Thank you. Thank you, Mrs. Griffith. Mr. Refe. Thank you Madam Chair. As a member of the Loudoun County School Board, I make the following disclosure to the school board and to the general public in connection with the item on tonight's agenda regarding the budget and or health insurance and related benefits, and any other discussion that may include or affect benefits for LCPS employees. Specifically as a school board member, I'm eligible to receive health insurance and related benefits as an LCPS employee. These benefits, however, affect thousands
of employees well in excess of the statutory three employees whose interests may also be affected, of which I'm included, I can and will participate fairly objectively and in the public interest. This disclosure will be reflected in the public's records of the clerk of the school board for five years. Thank you, Mr. Stree. Um, Ms. LaBelle. Thank you Madam Chair. As a member of the Loudin County School Board, I make the following disclosure to the school board and to the general public in connection
with the item on tonight's agenda regarding the budget and or health insurance and related benefits and any other discussion they may include or affect benefits for LCPS employees. Specifically as a school board member, I am eligible to receive health insurance and related benefits as an LCPS employee. These benefits, however, affect thousands of employees well in excess of the statutory three employees whose interests may also be affected, of which I am included, I can
and will participate fairly objectively and in the public interest. This disclosure will be reflected in the public records of the clerk of the school board for five years. Thank you, Ms. LaBelle. Ms. Shernoff. Thank you Madam Chair. As a member of the Low County School Board, I make the following disclosure to the school board and to the general public in connection with the item on tonight's agenda regarding the budget and or health insurance and related benefits, and any other discussion that may include or affect benefits for LCPS employees. Specifically as a school board member, I'm eligible
to receive health insurance and related benefits as an LCPS employee. These benefits, however, affect thousands of employees well in the excess of the statutory three employees whose interests may also be affected, of which I am included, I can and will participate fairly objectively and in the public interest. This disclosure will be reflected in the public records of the clerk of the school board for five years. Thank you, Ms. Shernoff. And we'll now move on to item three, the public hearing. My understanding is that there is no public comment
for today, so we will move on to item four FY 26 operating budget work session 4.01, investing in our students, presented by Sharon Willoughby, chief Financial Officer, Ms. Willoughby.
Thank you. So for this presentation, I'm going to address some of the other funds that you will be, um, adopting as part of the adoption process. Just to kind of close up some of the loose ends, there are three funds that I'm going to talk about this afternoon. Um, the three funds are our special revenue funds, and they begin on page 233 of the budget book. I will start with our grant fund. That, as you can see on this slide, shows a slight decrease in overall funding
In breaking the grants down. There are three funding sources. Our largest group is our federal grants, which represent about three quarters of the entire grant fund and our primarily title funds, such as our Title six B for special education support, federal grants are projected to to decrease as additional grant funding accrued during the pandemic has been fo fully spent. Two FTEs are also moving out of the operating,
or excuse me, moving out to the operating fund. Due to grant awards, ending state grants are expected to increase, recognizing the $250,000 grant for the recovery school with no, um, changes in FTEs. And then local grants are primarily the $1 million recurring Howard Hughes Foundation grant and a new award of about a hundred thousand for the GMU Access Academy. Here we have a 0.5 FD that is moving to the operating fund as the Go Virginia Grant is ending for the Access Academy
coordinator position for our lease purchase fund. This, as you see, is the same amount, and it's always gonna be the same amount because, um, this is capped at two $10 million. That's the maximum amount that we can, um, purchase under the lease. The 10 million is broken out with 7.2 going to digital innovation to fund computer technology replacement cycles
and the replacement of network electronics. And the balance of 2.8 million is for support services to support replacement and new purchases of fleet vehicles. And again, this can be found on page 2 33. The next fund is our school nutrition fund, which shows a 9.4% increase. The school nutrition operation is managed in its own separate special revenue fund. This operation is referred to
as the largest restaurant chain in the county. That not only follows the health code with each kitchen inspected twice a year, but must also meet stringent USDA nutritional operational, financial and program guidelines, such as the free and reduced program and summer feeding. The school nutrition operation must also manage a fine line between revenues and expenses. Net profit is capped to no more than three months of expenditures, and if that should occur, permission from the state on usage of the excess funds must be obtained.
On the other hand, this operation has been self-sufficient and does not require any local funds to subsidize its operations currently. All these highlight how sophisticated the school nutrition program is and, and the expertise our staff have to run it. This financial snapshot of the School Nutrition Fund provides an overview of projected revenues as shown on the top half
and expenditures on the bottom half, and along with the resulting reduction to the fund balance at the bottom. Historically, this fund has been self-sufficient generating its own revenues to support operations without requiring subsidies from local or operating funds. However, as you'll see, maintaining the self-sufficiency is becoming increasingly challenging, particularly when examining expenditures. Personnel costs was make up. The majority of expenditures pose significant challenges for managing the fund's financial health
as shown in this slide. Providing a ste a step increase, a cost of living adjustment and accommodating other benefit changes alone adds $2 million to the FY 26 budget. On top of this, inflationary impacts on operating costs contribute an additional two and a half million, bringing the total expense increase to four and a half million. So how are we addressing these new expenditures and how are we going to pay for this? The primary source of funding comes from cafeteria sales,
including additional revenue generated by a 20 cent price. Um, meal increase. Most of the growth in cafeteria sales is attributed to the popularity of our a la car items, which have been boosted by the resolution of supply chain issues and the strong demand for these offerings. I'd also like to highlight that the total projected revenues for FY 26 at 48.8 million compared to expenditures of 53.3 million, this results in a projected net loss.
Continuing the trend this fund has experienced since the pandemic, as I mentioned last year and during the quarterly financial reviews. We are drawing down the fund balance to cover the revenue shortfall as we work towards stabilizing the fund. But it may be that the school nutrition operations in the future may require a local subsidy. Regardless, we remain committed to addressing this challenge from both angles, increasing revenues and reducing expenditures to achieve a balanced budget in the coming fiscal years.
Starting with revenues, the FY 26 budget includes another 20 cent meal price increase. And this is not something we take likely recognizing we increase, um, the meals by 20 cents for this current year. However, it's important to remember that the last meal price adjustment before that was back in fiscal 18. In addition, we must comply with federal regulation, overseeing meal pricing to ensure paying students pay their fair share.
The 20 cent increase not only provides additional revenue, but ensures our compliance with the federal regulation. This adjustment still keeps us comparatively priced compared to our neighbors. For this year. FY 25, our neighbor's elementary lunches range from two 60 to three 50, and secondary lunches range from 2 75 to $4 and 25 cents
To increase student participation in the school nutrition services program. Several strategic actions have been implemented to enhance meal offerings, improve access, and engage students effectively. First, we have introduced a diverse range of menu items and accommodated various dietary preferences, including halal, kosher, and expanding vegetarian options, complimented
by monthly taste, taste test to foster inclusivity and encourage greater participation. Second, we have expanded free meal programs through the com community eligibility provision and Provision two through our Universal Free Breakfast program, ensuring equitable access and boosting participation districtwide. Third, the school nutrition program has funded upgrades to kitchen equipment and revamp dining areas with a scramble service model, enhancing mi
enhancing meal quality and overall dining experience, which in turn motivates student participation. Fourth school nutrition has engaged students by hosting a food show, conducting focus groups, and using point of sale data to personalize menus based on preferences leading to higher satisfaction in increased participation. Finally, the appointment of an assistant director this year, along with the executive chef's focus on staff training, has ensured the consistent delivery of high quality meals,
further supporting ongoing program participation. And as you also see on this slide, this is from the strategic plan and it shows, um, that for this fiscal year, the goal would to is to achieve 47%. And as of November, um, we were, As of November, our meal participation is at 45.9, and then you see that we ended last year at 44. So we are on the right trajectory,
and hopefully we'll be able to achieve that 47% this year Since the, excuse me, since the pandemic eras federal funding to provide universal free meals. LCPS, along with other school divisions across the country, have experienced increased meal debt. This slide also highlights the unfortunate trend that we are seeing. FY 24 saw an increase in our year over year meal debt. And then the last column shows
that we're already nearing these same levels and we're only halfway through the school year. We make all efforts to collect payment, and at the end of the school year, any unpaid debt is transferred to the school operating fund. Since the school nutrition fund cannot care, cannot carry or cover debt. I want to emphasize though that all students are provided lunch regardless of the ability to pay, and that it's also the same meal as provided to a paying student. Further, recognizing how important nutrition is
for students, LCPS continues to support legislative action to ensure meals are provided free for all students. As I mentioned, we are working from both angles to financially manage the school nutrition fund, and so I just shared some revenue information and so now I'd like to share some of the, um, actions we are taking. On the expenditure side, we have established KPIs or key key performance indicators to evaluate performance,
thus reducing, um, program expenditures. Newly developed. Automated KPI reports build on last year's changes, enhancing our ability to monitor and manage performance effectively. We understand that performance measurement is an essential managerial function, and these newly developed KPI reports are designed to expose the gaps between current and desired performance, while also providing evidence of, of progress in closing those gaps.
Some examples of the reports utilized includes meal count and participation reports, inventory turnover reports, and staff absenteeism. With these KPIs, we can make more informed decisions and continuously improve performance and efficiency across all key areas. Next is production-based school staffing. For this school year, we used this data alongside our staffing standards detailed on page 312 of the budget book
to ensure equitable and fair staffing across our schools by aligning workloads evenly based on the meals produced. Specifically, there are two staffing standards, one for elementary and one for secondary with the staffing allocation at the secondary school, slightly richer based on menu complexity, including a broader variety of menu items, larger portions, and a la carte choices to meet the, the diverse taste and caloric needs of adolescents, school nutrition,
school-based staff positions in the staffing standard include our cafeteria manager, one, two, and three our leads and our school nutrition workers. At a minimum, each school must have one serve safe certified manager due to food safety certification requirements. We received a budget inquiry regarding the number of schools with only one staff member assigned staffing assignments, which are based on volume aim to ensure fairness inefficiency.
Currently seven of our smaller schools have one full-time equivalent allocated. We also have an agreement with Hillsborough Charter for their school nutrition services that is also staffed and operated following our staffing standards as related with our small schools, these schools serve fewer than 200 meals per day on average with some serving as few as 50 meals daily. To support the uniqueness of our smaller school operations,
though we have implemented additional measures to enhance efficiency with one example being we allow the ordering of select precut fruits and vegetables at these schools. This purchase, while more costly is still a more cost effective solution compared to the expense of adding another FTE, which would cost a minimum of $52,000. On a related note, the leveling of manager positions detailed on page 266 of the um, budget book differs from staffing allocation
and accounts for varying levels of responsibility based on supervisory duties and menu complexity. Secondary school managers have larger staffs to manage and produce more diverse menus, featuring a broader range of entree selections and additional a la carte options as compared to elementary school managers who all prepare the same menu. However, some elementary managers operate independently with no supervisory responsibilities,
while others oversee at least one additional employee resulting in the different manager levels. Continuing on our expenditure reductions. Additionally, we have implemented an accountability matrix to maximize staff performance. We believe that providing employees with real data on their performance, not only empowers them, but also helps to reduce labor costs and boost morale. By offering clear objective insights into performance,
staff are equipped to identify areas for improvement and take proactive steps to enhance efficiency. With the introduction of intro internal financial audits last school year and an accountability matrix evaluation system this year, school nutrition staff will have access to data on their performance and USDA recognized comp competencies essential for effective program management. This approach not only supports cost reduction, but also gives employees greater control over their pro
professional growth and success. We have also focused on sustain sustainability and other initiatives to manage food costs. Starting with our supplier contracts, we re renegotiate supplier contracts annually to secure bulk discounts, better pricing, and more favorable delivery terms. Additionally, we regularly solicit bids from multiple vendors. However, it is very important to highlight and understand that LCPS operates in a region
with a limited pool of available food and supply vendors. We are a very large spread out operation and receive limited bidders able to meet our needs when we do put out solicitations related to vendor contracts and in support of sustainability initiatives. One recent example for this school year is our bulk milk pilot program at Riverside High School. This pro, excuse me, this program is aimed to increase milk consumption by high school students
while also reducing program expenditures. This program provides reusable cups for students to self-serve milk at a dispensing unit versus the traditional carton of milk. This pilot has seen positive results so far with increased milk consumption and reduce expenses by lowering the per unit cost of milk and minimizing waste associated with the individual cartons. We also continue a focus on reducing food waste from
monitoring the inventory turnover reports to ensure minimal spoilage to growing our food recovery program. The school nutrition team closely watches all aspects in this area. We are especially proud of our food recovery program by rescuing edible food and reallocating it to school inventories, pantries, and local food banks. This initiative has played a vital role in alleviating food insecurity, both within schools and in this surrounding community. Finally, the school nutrition team is optimizing menu
planning to simplify and standardize menus to reduce ingredient variety and minimize waste. By focusing on seasonal ingredients, we can lower costs and enhance food preparation efficiency. So those are some of the examples where efforts are focused to help reduce ex reduce expenditures with the overall financial objective to balance expenditures with available resources. And that concludes my presentation on those other remaining
funds, and I'd be happy to take any questions. Thank you, Ms. Willoughby. Um, board members, do you have any other questions? Yes, Ms. Shernoff. Thank you Madam Chair. Um, and thank you Ms. Willoughby and particularly, uh, answering the question about the reduced staff for our smaller schools. Um, I have had the pleasure of visiting I think most of our smaller elementary schools and, um, this is something that comes up every time I'm there, um, from administration
to teachers, to the actual nutrition staff that the managers that work there that my, my question and really my wondering is, um, when we reduce staff for these kinds of things based on how many meals, I understand that on paper that sounds really great, like it's efficient, we're being more equitable. Like those words sound good on paper, but when I see these workers in the school and I talk to them, it seems like it's not so much about
how many meals, but it's about how many jobs they have to do in terms of not only just getting the food out, and I do appreciate the, the thoughts around pre-cut food and things like that that have helped build that efficiency, but there's still a cleanup process. There's still timing that has to happen in terms of when the kids come through and when they can address those things. And without a second hand there, those things cannot be happening simultaneously. And many of these workers have reached out and talked to me about extra hours that they're putting in
and, um, just the stress and wanting to leave the job or leave a smaller school to find a school that is more supported. And so while I appreciate, especially I'm the one who's talked about, you know, make finding savings, so this is ironic, but I do think that, you know, we have to think about where we're finding those savings and, um, I would like to know what we could do to support, could it be an assistant, could it be someone hourly? Um, if that is the case, is that something that's hard to fill?
I'm just wondering what the challenges are because right now as it sits, I don't feel like they're being supported when only one person is there regardless of the size of their school. I I appreciate your observations. Um, we continue to work with our small schools to identify other ways that we can help, um, alleviate some of the burdens of what you described with the, the variety of the tasks. Um, and which is why I try to pull the,
the precut vegetables. I thought that could be something that, you know, could be helpful to kind of help identify, um, you know, having an efficiency and then obviously, you know, paying a little bit more for this versus a whole nother FTE. Um, the burden that we have as I shared earlier is that, you know, right now we are running, we are running on our fund balance to, you know, maintain the fiscal, um, stability of the fund without having to continue
to increase, you know, the meal prices. You know, so trying to be, you know, respectful of all the, the impacts we have talked about. Um, possibly adding maybe part-time support, but the challenge is that we're concerned that it would be such a minimal hour because it's such a small window of when the support would be needed that, you know, the challenge of trying to hire someone perhaps for, for two hours a day. Um, and so we have really tried this year
to focus on our other efficiencies, our other models. We've also looked at some of the smaller schools, um, 'cause not, you know, while I group them as smaller schools and there's seven and eight if you include Hillsborough. Um, we're hearing, we're hearing and seeing different performance with the schools. So we're trying to see, well, what's working over at this school. Maybe this is something we can duplicate at another school, um, be before we try to assign additional staff.
Um, and if we were, we would wanna start with, you know, part-time and then to see if that would be, if we're, if we're able to pull anyone. But as you, as you hit on any addition of expenses, just puts that additional burden on the fund and that without some dramatic, you know, changes, you know, in the forefront at some point it's probably gonna be likely that we would be seeking a transfer from the general fund, meaning also seeking additional funds from the county.
And then our fund is no longer self-sufficient. It will require a local subsidy. Thank you. Yes, Ms. LaBelle. It seems that Mrs. Shernoff and I are thinking along the same lines right here. Um, I know having talked to and worked with some of our smaller schools, the cafeteria manager, the one person that actually works in the kitchen, uh, has to come in at o dark 30, prep everything, uh,
set everything up, make the food, get it into individual dishes, then she has to get it on the shelves and have backup prepared somewhere in the kitchen that's safe food, safe counts. Then she has to run the register and if something spills or something runs out on the table, she has to stop what she's doing and go back. So yes, an extra pair of hands are essential. Now, last year I talked with Dr. Richardson about some
of our cast students who are looking for job experience and I believe that we got some of the small schools, some help through the CAST program. Some of the students were already on the LCPS employee docket and they're, they're already being paid. They're already, uh, to go, uh, could we put more of our cast students on there? They are students that are more than willing to work
for the two hours and then go back to their CAS program. Uh, the only thing that they would need would be transportation to these schools. And we have job coaches that will go with them to teach them and help them learn the job. I think the problem is, again, getting funding for them to work the two hours. They'd be very happy to do so, but I think we need to look at that as a possible solution. Perhaps you could talk with Dr. Richardson and see what we can arrange. Thank you.
Thank you Ms. LaBelle. Board members. Any other questions? Yes, Mrs. Griffis. Thank you Madam Chair. Um, I must say, uh, Ms. LaBelle, I like that idea of the cast students, um, helping out. That would be fantastic. Um, I, I did notice, and maybe you touched on this a little bit, uh, Ms. Willoughby, um, you're increasing the personnel budget for the cafeteria by 3 million,
but I think the number of cafeteria workers stays the same at four 19. Um, can you speak to that? Um, are we going to be hiring new people? So why is the budget going up? Again, I think you touched on it a little bit, but please give the detail again. Thank you. The number of staff remains the same. There are, I believe 419 of tes and the school nutrition fund. So there are no additional staff. The cost is to provide those 419
employees a step increase plus the 4% cost of living adjustment. So the, so the average six and a half pay increase on 419 employees and then also the um, the 12% increase for the health benefits for those employees as well as then once you apply that cost increase or the pay increase, then there's taxes, the other benefits, all of the compensation related to that, that is what is driving the increase in the personnel line.
Um, is this, uh, also to hire subs and overtime as well. They have a dedicated, um, sub pool that's already included in the budget and I don't believe we made any changes to that In terms of the overtime, I would take that down as a question. I believe we have an overtime budget. Actually I can probably look really quick
to see if there's any changes. So we did make an an, we did make an adjustment and this is included in the budget book. So what I'm pulling is available on page 240, um,
where we are seeing an increase in the budget for non FTE salary. So for, um, for overtime and, you know, part-time support as well as substitutes that we increase the budget to bring it in line with our FY 24 actuals. So our actuals in looking at page 239 in FY 24, we had spent, um, just under $1.1 million on those type of activities.
The budget for FY 25 was the only 600,000 and so the FY 26 budget was increased to 1.1 to bring it more in line with what we had been spending. Last question for you. Um, it looks like it might average around 7,200 per person, is that right? Well again, this is also, I would, let me break that down for you. I'll take that down as a written question so that I can provide you a more accurate of what that all um, com is composed of and I'll Also send that to you an email. Thank you.
Thank you. Any other questions? No seeing no more questions. I guess we will move, moving on to, um, the uh, 4.02, which is the actual process again presented by Ms. Willoughby. So the presentation I just gave is the last, um,
formal presentation on the budget itself that staff has as part of this process. And so we usually wrap up with, um, the short presentation of just what the next steps are to bring us through the adoption process. So we are scheduled on February 4th to have the school board adopt the budget. The most important date on here is to, you know, please submit, send any of your budget amendments to me
by noon or no later than noon, um, on Monday, February 3rd for costing and motion structure. Monday, January 3rd, January, sorry, Monday February 3rd is the day before the budget adoption meeting, which also leaves little time for extensive costing. So this really is, you know, again, I gotta emphasize please, we have, um, I think about like a week and a half between now and them. We want to support each of you through the adoption process and having motions in advance of the meeting helps you
to have an efficient and successful budget adoption. In terms of budget motions, there are three ways that um, we see budget motions being crafted. Staff's recomme recommendation is the first, um, bullet, which is to maintain a balanced budget. Any changes to increase the budget should have a corresponding change to decrease the budget and vice versa. Another option could be a motion to solely
increase the budget that would result in an increase in the county transfer requests unless another funding source is identified. Excuse me. And then the third option would be a motion which would solely decrease the budget, which would result in a decrease in the town county transfer request. Would also emphasize why this is really important to have these, um, motions in advance is that on the night
of February 4th it's you know, very difficult for the budget team to try to perform costing on the spot. So, you know, having this information in advance is helpful with that. And also it allows us to provide a list of all the, um, possible budget motions to share with the school board chair to help facilitate the meeting. I'll also mention this is where, um, the school board should begin to trans transition from budget questions to forming their budget amendment motions.
Any questions at this point should really be to help inform crafting their budget amendments. There is a, the question packet today, which was, um, the second packet I think was um, handed out to you here a few minutes ago. It's posted online on board docs. There are about 20 open questions that we are still working on. If we have the um, work session on January 30th, we'll have a packet then.
If not, we would have the final q and a packet on February 4th. Okay. Wanna also emphasize that February 4th is the one and only time for the school board to adopt the budget. So motions provided in advance again allows us to best support you through that process. I am also available to meet and discuss any ideas you may have to help craft your motions, discuss costing as well
as any potential unattended consequences. The night of February 4th, we will also have our second and final public hearing on the budget. And then we begin the budget adoption process, which would involve the steps the school board member would make the initial motion to adopt the FY 26 C on to begin the process. After that, school board members may then begin making their budget amendment motions again, just reiterate,
reiterating that to maintain a balanced budget any changes to increase should have a corresponding change to decrease and vice versa. And that we would utilize our to tote board to track our progress. An example of the tote board is here. This slide shows, this slide shows an example of the tote board that you may remember from last year. It will track key elements such as expenses, FTEs, the county's local transfer and total revenues as illustrated.
We will begin with the FY 26 C on, which includes the budget of 1.9 billion, the 13463.5 FTEs and our county transfer of 1.3 billion a total and the total revenue equaling the total expenses. In the um, final column, you'll notice the green boxes indicating that the budget is currently balanced, meaning expenses match revenues. By the end of this process, our goal is to maintain these green balanced boxes.
The slide also includes an example of a budget amendment. Row One shows a motion to increase the budget by a hundred thousand while row two reflects a related motion to decrease the budget by the same amount. This ensures the budget remains balanced. As previously mentioned, school board members can propose increases to the budget, which would solely raise the budget and the county transfer requests or vice versa. On February 4th, we will begin
with a motion titled technical changes. Similar to last year. In an earlier presentation you may recall we discussed the accelerated reclassification of two student assistant specialists to coordinators during the current fiscal year. As a result, this request will be removed from the FY 26 C on and included in the technical changes starting motion. Finally new for FY 26,
we are including a budget resolution. So many times I am referencing that a certain activity is approved via the budget process, but it wasn't explicitly clear or, you know, spelled out or written out anywhere. This budget resolution aims to provide transparency and accountability in managing LCP S'S resources. And there's a draft of the resolution and board docs. This resolution you will see clearly identifies each fund's budgeted revenues and expenses.
Additionally, we are clearly specifying other approval actions the school board takes such as the authorized staffing levels, pay increases, health plan benefit changes, and setting meal prices. The draft budget resolution is included in board docs for your review and will be included as part of the budget adoption action on February 4th. That is our process. And the next direction is, um,
that we would want is whether or not we have the work session on January 30th, which I believe is Thursday of next week. I would just highlight again, staff would not have any presentations to make but would be available to answer any questions, um, that you may have. But also this work session could facilitate discussion amongst yourselves regarding the budget as well as perhaps discussion of any amendments you may be considering, um, for February 4th.
And with that, I will take any additional questions on the process. Thank you. Ms. Willoughby, would you like to give, should we give a a thumbs up at this point to figure out if we're going to go ahead and do, uh, January 30th board members? Would you like to meet on January 30th to, um, go ahead and do, as Ms. Willoughby said, it's a time to ask further questions if we want and everything else? Yes. Okay. It's unanimous type here,
so we'll go ahead and do that on the 30th. Well, the rest of us can still. Okay. Um, yeah, um, 'cause I think that's an important opportunity for us to be able to talk with each other as well as with you guys. Okay. Um, and we'll go on to 4.03 School, school board budget discussion. Again, we have Ms. Willoughby, we have a discussion here at 4.03
and basically I think this is just if you guys have any further questions that weren't in this packet that you guys wanna talk about or ask staff about at this point. Okay, Ms. Shernoff, Um, I have one question based off of, um, some feedback I got after we talked about Lexi the other day. So maybe Mr. Slevin can chime in. Um, some of the, uh, school-based reading specialists
that I spoke with said that some of the reasons that the in-person portion of the Alexia software usage for intervention is difficult is because the decodables that went with that program were not purchased alongside the digital platform. Is that true or were some purchased? Can we get some clarification on that? Sorry to put you on the spot. I can also just add it to the packet and you can answer later.
It could be in the packet and I can answer later. But I do know that, um, there were, there was a large purchase of decodables early in the process of preparing for the, the VLA. So it's possible that, um, choices were made in terms of what the full package was made. But I would need to confirm that with the elementary reading office. Um, but I could do that pretty quickly. Okay, that'd be great. Um, 'cause if that's a stumbling block to using the platform as intended, I think that's something we should consider before we approve the renewal.
Okay. Thank you. I would have to agree with Ms. Shernoff. I mean, if we're not, we need to keep with the, uh, program how it is written and not have to go and pick DECODABLES from other programs. Um, any other questions? No. Okay. There we go. Um, seeing as there's no more business, the January 23rd, 2025 Loudoun County School Board and FY 26 operating budget is now adjourned.
Please drive safely home.