working. Please rise for the pledge of allegiance to the United States of American Graves. Present Karen Burke present. >> Michael Gordon >> Graham present Ben Wfield >> not present day market. We are all
present. >> We've all been provided a copy of the agenda for tonight's meeting. We have a motion to adopt the agenda presented. >> Make a motion to adopt the agenda presented. Second motion and a second. All in favor say I. I. Any
>> oppose? The agenda is approved. Thank you board. Public comments at schoolboard meetings are reserved for individuals who maintain legal settlement settlement within the MSD of Wayne Township boundaries or a legal guardian of an
enrolled student or actively employed by the MSD of Wayne Township or own a business within the MSD of Wayne Township boundaries and are reserved to a twominute allotment to allow for an efficient meeting. Persons wishing to address the board on a scheduled public
agenda item shall sign in at the start of the meeting and present a driver's license or similar ID showing they reside within the MSD of Wayne Township or be verified as a guardian in the district's student management system or
present their valid employment identification deck. Business owners who wish to provide public comment must contact the superintendent in advance of the school board meeting. Provide verification of ownership and location. Requests for
public comments will be scheduled by the order in which they are received on the signin sheet. At his or heral discretion, board president may permit public comment on issues not listed as public agenda item.
Public comments will be accepted for up to a maximum of 60 minutes and all other comments after the allotted time may be submitted in writing for the superintendent for review. We'll move into public comment.
First on our list this evening, Alyssa Pie Allen. >> Good evening, Vice President. Thank you for your time and attention. I am Lisa Allen teachers association.
Now I'm speaking on behalf of the WT First, I want to acknowledge the tremendous responsibility before you. We recognize the decisions you are making at this moment are not easy. We understand the financial challenges our district continues to face if we prepare
for the future and we appreciate the careful consideration we are giving to the possibility of Brenda. As you weigh this decision and consider that what it what it will require for the entire way down to community, I ask that you also
consider the profound impact your choice will have on students and teachers who are committed to learning. Across our district, educators are facing um mounting challenges as the economic landscape continues to evolve. Many teachers are struggling to keep
pace with gradual cost of living. Increased insurance expenses, absence of meaningful salary growth and the ever expanding expectations have placed tremendous strain on our professionals. Dedicate their lives to educating our children.
Teacher morale is being tested in a way we have not experienced before. Every day our teachers are riding committed to meeting the academic, social, and emotional needs of our students. They do this because they believe in the mission of public education, because they care deeply
about the children sitting in the classrooms. Yet, many are increasingly faced with difficult reality and wondering how they continue to support their own families while continuing to serve others. The decision before you is not simply
about budgets, budgets, or financial projection with other people. It's about retaining the highly effective educators who have built relationships with students invested in our school and contributed to the success of function.
It's about ensuring that our students continue to have access to experienced dedicated professionals who can help them learn, grow, and thrive. The consequences of this decision will be felt far beyond the wall of this
boardroom. that will be felt in every single classroom by every teacher who chooses whether they are staying in our district or and by every student who depends on stable high quality instruction and support. When we lose
educators because they can no longer work towards retain remain in the profession or our district, our students go as well. Your consideration of the referendum that could strengthen the district's operating budget and support the
retention of quality staff is vitally important. This is an investment not only in teachers but in the future of every student and family that we serve. On behalf of the way in township classroom teachers association, I thank
you for your thoughtful consideration on this matter, we urge you to recognize the urgency of this moment and the lasting impact your decision forward with the referendum will have on not only our students but
the classroom. Thank you for your time and thank you. >> Next up we have Lisa Bentley. My name is Lisa Bley for West Street here in Wayne Township
and I have been and I am still involved currently in Wayne Township and in many capacities and I wanted to share why support a referendum for our community. My involvement has included executive director of the Council Education
Foundation from 1997 to 2003. We just retired in the summer of 2025, working the past 10 years as the executive director of Indie Gateway, where we have worked to help improve the quality of life for our residents and businesses through affordable housing
projects, junction with the area 31 trades students here. Um, quality trails and green spaces and many other community development projects here in Wayne Township. I pre previously served on the area 31 career center leadership council helping to connect local
businesses to the students of the many programs the career center offers. I am a wedding resident as I mentioned property owner and I am a taxpayer. My son-in-law is a math teacher at Ben Davis High School and my daughter was
just hired um and will begin working as an occupational therapist at Chaplain Elementary this fall. Um, not only are they working in Wayne Township, they also bought a hold of Wayne Township and I will have a grandson that will do very quickly the
first year really fast Wayne Township schools. So, there's a lot of reasons why I care about the future of Wayne Township. The bottom line is this. There's investing in our schools, investing in our community, as you all
know, whether or not you're you currently have a child in the district. Quality schools help attract quality families and more families and they feel supported here. We support um we support the students in many ways
funding them way they need to be funded. She spoke a lot of how it affects the teachers. I won't get into that. It also improves our property values attracts the skilled workforce and again ensures the children have the resources they need to learn.
I do think we need to support the referendum so that we can attract and retain these teachers, keep our schools safe, and of course maintain basic operations. And I appreciate your time this evening. Next, we have Mark York. Good evening members of the board and
folks in the room. Um, I was first uh introduced to Wayne Township in 1969. and not from here, but I came here and I did my final commitment of my
educational certificate to do my student teaching at Fulton Junior High. I was here my wife Brenda and I moved into Wayne Township. And uh by the way, Brenda, many of you know, taught a
couple years in Sanders and and then when Chapel Glenn was constructed, she was asked to transfer and she completed her 53 years of teaching at Chapel Glenn. And oh, by the way, we're both retired. a little bit
the early 1990s and due to my uh career path, I soon realized the importance of foundation and at that time I led a group and was a
founder of the Wayne Township Tip Education Foundation which I remain on that board today after 35 years and I think you can all agree the importance of how that helps the educational opportunities for our children and for
our teachers as well. But that said, I hope you realize the commitment that the York family has in Wayne Township as well. And we have those children, grandchildren in the schools today. But it's not for our children. It's for
everyone's children. And and this opportunity to to uh to move ahead is is important not only for the children but it's important for the continued improvement of our lives in the
community and and the environment in which we live as so many other possibilities for us all. So our request is only meeting the need. I've said in some meetings, we're not
talking about wants, we're talking about need and our children have those needs as well. So with that said, we have we are Wayne has pulled this community together for years. I think it's time
to now move Wayne forward. Thank you. Next we have Joe and Griffin. >> Hello everybody. >> Good evening. Like I mentioned, I'm Joe Quinn Griffin and I'm a proud uh 2020 graduate David Davis High School. And uh during my time as a student, when he
provided me with a foundation that propelled me forward, whether that was through lessons in the show choir, uh student government, athletics, or support received um from the staff member. And today as a graduate of IU um both in Bloomington and Indianapolis and
current employee of the IU Foundation and as a member of the Winnie Township Education Foundation, I fully support the opportunity to move Wayne forward for the referendum as necessary. Not an option. When people ask me what makes Wayne special, I don't just talk
about the academics. I talk about the community that invested in me during pivotal times in my life. The challenges our students face today require real substantial support and a referendum is our opportunity to ensure that every student walking into the heart of Ben
Davis. Every other school has access to the same worldass resources that help me launch my career. With community support for a referendum, we are signaling that we believe in our students, our staff, and our community. Together we can build a legacy of
excellence and create a greater opportunity for the next generation of Wayne. So I say you all that's the magic of new beginnings and please thank you to our speakers. That concludes our public comment for this
evening. Moving on to new business and human resources. Mr. Bes, I'd like to ask him prop to come into the front of the room and Dr. Sex, please. Cameron Cross began her education career
in 2016, thinking third grade at Chapelwood Elementary School. 2021, she moved to an instructional coaching position within the district. During her time as instructional coach, Cameron served as a summer school principal and completed administrative internships at Chapel Glenn Elementary and Ben Davis
University High School. Miss Cross serves as a core member of the Chapel Glenn leadership team. He also served on Wayne's district equity team and curriculum adoption teams. Cameron designed and facilitated a new teacher mentor mentee program to support staff
on boarding and retention. In 2020, Miss Cross was selected as Chapelwood's teacher of the year. Also been a member of Wayne's women's leadership team and a new teacher mentor leadership team co-leader. Miss Cross holds a bachelor of science degree in elementary education from Ball State
University and a master's of arts degree in education administration and supervision also from Ball State. Please join me in welcoming the new assistant principal at Applewood Elementary. didn't see me rock my partner Chris and our son
best friends my coaching team over the day my new chap Take this. We're gonna give you your reading material that
very And is there anything like Next, I'd invite Miss Eric Bray to come to the front. Eric Bray began her education career in 2006 in the Spencer Owen Community School District. In 2009, she joined
Wayne Township teaching at Garden City Elementary. In 2020, Erica moved to the social and emotional coach position. She served in that coaching role until 2024 when she began teaching special education at Roads Elementary. During her career in Wayne, Erica served as a
summer school principal and completed administrative internships at Chapel Hill 7th grade center and Ben Davis 9th grade center. Miss Grace serves as a GCL instructor for new teachers. is a member of the Wayne Township human relations advisory committee and a leader on the
roads global connections committee. In 2019, Miss Gray was named the Garden City Teacher of the Year. She has twice been named a Ben Davis High School of Top 30 Educ. Miss Gray holds a bachelor of science degree in elementary education from Indiana University Bloomington and a master's of arts
degree in education leadership and supervision from Ball State University. Please welcome the principal of Roby Elementary, Derek Gray. My husband Greg is here. Uh my oldest daughter Amara. My youngest daughter Alexandria. My youngest son Greg. My
mother-in-law. Uh several friends here. And then uh my new Roie family. We love that you too. And I also want to say welcome to the team officially smile.
Anything you like to say? Thank you so much. to the space. I've been wanting for quite a while and certain different positions. So, I'm excited for next week my career and I excited about being rocket.
I would recogn Cross to serve at was Erica Gray as the new assistant principal of Hobie Elementary and Cameron Cross is the new assistant principal at Chapwood Elementary. >> Have a motion and a second. Any comment or discussion
hearing? None. All in favor say I. I. >> Any opposed and human resources report day three is approved. Thank you Mr. Pes. >> Moving on to school school board policies second readings. Mr. Pes.
>> Thank you president members of the board. The first policy we're reading tonight is A200, responsible use of technology and internet policy. As a reminder, this policy is updated based on House and RO act 4 to allow a parent to increase the strength of a filter to
block access of websites on school issued devices. There's a timeline of January 1st, 2027 to implement these additional technology measures. I'm happy to answer any questions you may have and directly ask for approval of revised school policy agent.
Approval for agent under responsible use of technology use policy. >> Second. >> Have a motion and a second. Any comment or discussion on schoolboard policy A 200? Hearing none. All in favor say I.
>> I. Thank you, Mr. Fesler. Board policy A2000 is approved. >> Thank you, Mr. President. Members of the board, the next policy for second reading is A225 wireless communications device, better known as cell phone
policy. As a reminder, this policy is updated to include provisions from Senate rule act 78 that prohibit the student from using wireless communication devices during the school day. Very limited exceptions. And the school day is defined as the entirety of the time a student's present
on school property or student instructional day. Like to answer any questions you may have after approval revised school policy A25. >> I move your approval. I move for approval of school board policy A225
wireless communication device policy. >> We have a motion to a second. Any comment or discussion? Hearing none. All in favor say I. I >> opposed. Thank you, Mr. Fesler. Board policy day 225 is approved.
>> The board next policy is C700, student attendance, academic engagement, fluency prevention policy. This had one small edit and that was that this updates excused absences related to active duty service and certification
civil. Happy to answer any questions you may have. Respectfully ask for your approval. School board policy C. >> That we approve C700 students academic
engagement and currency vention policy. >> Have a motion and effect. Any comment or discussion? Hearing none. All in favor say I. >> I. >> Thank you Mr. Fesler. for policy C700
is approved. Mr. President, member of the board, the last policy for second reading is F225 purchasing procedures and capital assets. You've seen this one a lot back and forth and the addition to this policy prohibits automatic renewal
for contracts, goods and services. And just as another reminder, our business office has been removing those automatic rene uh recently as we've been renewing our recent contract. Happy to answer any questions that you may have about this policy and directly ask for approval for
the policy. >> 25 purchasing procedures. >> Second. >> Have a motion and a second. Any comment or discussion? Hearing none. All in favor say I. >> I thank you Mr. Professor. Board policy
F225 is approved. Moving on to a financial update. Dr. Samuel. >> Very much, Mr. President. >> If you wouldn't mind clicking on the screen. >> While we're setting up
um those of you who I know you like to go out and celebrate um tonight, just this is a great time. If you want to leave, you are more than welcome to do that. We do have a great presentation that's about emergency.
I'm Don't take it. Thank you. Really important information for both our board and um typically has looking kind of crown a
table. So, a little different setup, but we wanted to make sure we could accommodate all of our community or uh Steve and I are very excited to share some information, none of which is new, um I would say, but certainly will
help us understand why we come to you tonight to talk about moving way forward. This work didn't start tonight. It began in October of 25 when we brought together 300 staff, community,
parents, we had students involved and that was our sea one senate roll act one commission and talked about how this new law was going to impact us financially. At that time that group's mission was to
identify ways in which we begin our journey of costsaving measures that would be significant as we were dealing with some serious financial issues as it relates to not
only SCA1 that was coming but tax cap which we'll talk a lot more about that we dealt with for a very long Um after that we as you may recall we did a report to the board in February
about our finances um findings of the commission. We then did a video for all of our staff in May to talk about how we had saved money um through the school year and how we're going to continue to do that moving into
the 26 27 school year. And that leads up to weighing forward tonight. I'd like both the board and our community to know that in this presentation, it is not merely a Google form or Google
images. What you're going to see is our children, our staff, our buildings, everything that Wayne stands for is going to be represented in the images that you see in this presentation.
Our objectives tonight include providing context related to our financial pressures that have brought us to this conversation tonight. Um sharing um information on our financial history and provide information to the board in
consideration of a referendum. And so that leads us to school funding basics. Again, much of which is not new information. And so we'll start there. >> Thank you, Dr. Suds. >> Or and as Dr. Suds mentioned, this is
really the next chapter of the finances. And so a lot of this is not new. My goal this evening is to balance making sure the context is there while not belaboring these points. So if at
any point we get outside of those lines and you need to bring it back in with a question uh to provide a little bit more context. But this is the school funding basics in Indiana. We have the large column on the left, the education fund that really
supplies the revenue for almost everything that we do on as it says the education side. um salaries, benefits, supplies, all of those things for teachers or educational staff. On the far right, you can also see the
rainy day fund. As we've talked previously, this is not a revenue stream, but really a savings account where we can put money that we've been able to over time. In the middle is really where the conversation lies.
Let's see if you where there has historically been a great deal of pressure on financing with SD. These are all of our property tax funded revenue streams. Our referendum fund which um our most recent referendum
we'll talk more about was passed in 2019. But moving to our left we have the operations fund. that is what is uh provided as an opportunity in the state of Indiana to cover all the expenses that may don't fit into the education
fund that are day-to-day recurring expenses staff members that are not teachers or not instructional staff. And then we have our debt service fund that is exclusively for paying off debt. And it's always important when we think
about pool finance in Indiana to talk about debt service in the appropriate lens when we project like the renovation of the front of Ben Davis High School
safety at that facility. We use our debt service fund. However, it's key to remember that those funds can't be used for salary. They must be used on capital improvements throughout the district. And so it is always one of those things that that we we we try to revisit of
course with conversations with board but of course also in conversation with the community. So how do we spend our funds? Again this is not a new slide not a new image and without belaboring the point it really
speaks for itself. spend our money on people, spend our money on salary and benefits. That includes teachers, bus drivers, custodians, everyone who works for MSD Wayne Township. We have worked hard to become as efficient as we
possibly can with the other 15 and a half% 14.5% of our budget, but as you can imagine, there's just not that much there. almost all of what we pay. We have great people working with our children in supporting
the school. >> And that um leads us to our financial history that I alluded to. That's going to take us back to 2008, but will really provide the foundation as to what is leading us to this conf
conversation about referendum. >> So when we think about school finance, especially property tax funding in the state of Indiana. Over the next 30 to 40 minutes, you're going to hear terms like property tax caps and
circuit breaker and certified levy and net levy and assessed value terms that we all use on a daily basis like me. I got that. But uh I'm going to do my
best to ground those terms and definitions so that we know we're all working with the same thing. And this is really the first part of that. In 2008, the legislature passed property tax caps. In 2010, they the residents of Indiana in trying that as an amendment
to our constitution. What came with those with MSD Wayne Township were significant financial pressures in the form of circuit breaker. Circuit breaker is property taxes that are levied by a municipality
that are not collected by that that and we'll talk a little bit more about how that works and why that happens but it is key to understanding how those impact MSD and Wayne Township in Indiana. Those property tax cap for circuit breaker are
capped at 1% for residential homesteads, 2% for farmland and non-residential um homesteads, which would be rental homes, assisted living, apartments, those type of things, and then a 3% cap on business
and commercial property. And so if in any given municipality in the state, the property taxes that are levied by all of the units that have that authority go above that percentage of the assessed value of particular property,
those property taxes are not collected and then as a result not distributed to those municipalities or districts set up. So that's the primer on circuit break. 2015,
our community supported a referendum as tax caps became really impactful in how we were operating the district. And again in 2019, we were so grateful to our comm we are
grateful to our community um supporting a second referendum with a total of.7 cents with both referendums together um per $100 of assessed value.
In 2023, our 2015 referendum expired and we had the option to ask our community to continue that support. We chose not to. At that time,
our finances were in a really good place in that we had just come out of CO. We had ESSER dollars that helped us with our operations of the district and helped us finance the needs of our students who were coming out of COVID
and didn't have the supports that they were accustomed to when they were in the schoolhouse. And as a result of that, we were able to save dollars and we had um an account that allowed us to say to our community, we promised we would not ask
for more than what we need. and at this time we're not going to ask you to renew it. And so for that reason um we let the 2015 um referendum lapse and we continue the
community continued the support of the 2019 referendum. So since 2023 quite a bit needs to change and almost all of it is related to Senate enrollment act one. I want to talk about some of that and to leap into
the next part of this discussion. As you know, Cent World Act One was passed in 2024 and the impact then begins to roll on um in 2025 to 2031.
We've given lots of presentations about how that works. We'll talk just a little bit about that later on in the presentation as well. But for our purposes at this point, one of the other key components in Senate World Act one is it shifts when schools
can ask the community for support via a referendum. Prior to Senate enroll, schools could put a referendum question on the ballot in a spring or fall election. Schools could even pay to hold their own election uh and place a
referendum question on the ballot. Senate rule act one changed all of that. Schools are now only allowed to place a referendum question on the ballot in an even year 26 or 28 and on into the future in the general election. So in
November. So our ability to do that in the spring, which is what the MSD away township had done previously, was eliminated with enrolled act one, putting the district in a little bit of a precarious position with a referendum that was set to expire at the end of
2027. So they left the district uh as we think about our finances with engaging this conversation now in 2026 or deciding that we potentially wait until 2028. As we move into the conversation about
our financial impact and the need for a referendum, you're going to hear words like worst, last, negative impact. I want to be clear that we're speaking about the impacts and our
financial standards that does not reflect our community, which is the vet. And so we want to be clear that as we have this conversation for the next few minutes that we are talking about the
impact of both tax caps and SCA1 and how it's going to impact our finance community. So when we think about circuit breaker, we just looked at when that became a law in 2008 and the
constitution 2000. The impact of circuit breaker is not new to the MSD Wayne Township. But in order to really center this conversation, we want to begin looking at how the circuit breaker impacted operations fund in 2025.
And so you can see at the top in 2025 our operations funded certified levy was 25.4 million. That is how much we asked for from the state of Indiana the department of local government finance
in our budget. We levied for $25.4 million. When our 1782 comp came back from the DLGF due to circuit breaker, we had $21.3 million that were uncollected
receiving only $4.1 million as our net levy. So as we move through this conversation, net levy is always referring to the dollars that we did receive. certified levy is so for the MST away township we received
$4.1 million we did not receive 21.3 putting us in a very difficult position of trying to run a specific 15,000 students with just $4.1 million in our operations. So what are we expected to cover in our
operations fund? This is a long but not quite comprehensive but captured all the big rocks of what schools have pay for from their operation. We have to pay for transportation. Every bus driver, all of our mechanics, all of
our parts, all of all of our fuel paid for from our operations. We have to pay for student safety. all of our school police officers, our security systems um that keep our students safe on a daily basis,
our custodial services, the custodians that maintain our facilities and keep them ready for our students to learn, our maintenance team, our ground scheme, all the cleaning supplies that they utilize in order to keep those areas clean and safe for students. all of our
utilities, all of our technology, not only the people who support those devices, but the devices themselves, the infrastructure behind that, the servers, the internet, and then of course another big bucket is our property cash. So, I
don't think I need to spend a lot of time, but like I said, that that adds up to a lot more than $4.1 million. And that is what has driven the need for the MSD Wayne Township to ask the community for support via a referendum app.
So this is a really powerful slide that I will let everybody take in for just a moment here. But this represents the history of circuit breaker at the MSD and Wayne Township 2014 through 2025
in the interest of keeping it nice and visible on one one slide. We didn't we didn't go any deeper than this, but over the last 12 years, what you see on the screen here is $184.5 million that the MSD Wayne Township was not able
to collect support our students in the operation. That is a staggering amount of money that we have not been able to utilize and we are incredibly thankful for the support of our community. 2015 referendum and the 2019 referendum that
allowed us to ensure not only the the operation of our facilities but the opportunities for our students across our district. And also note that that that kind of uh fair step that you see going up from 2019
obviously that creates additional pressure when we go from 12.3 million which is a really big number to 21.3 million which is an even bigger So once again, a graph that I believe speaks for itself.
What this is showing is every school district in the state of Indiana has a bar on this graph. Far left, you can see a few districts up over $5,000 per student in their operations fund.
And if you squint and look really closely on the right, you can see the MSD of Wayne Township 289 out of 290 districts in the state of Indiana on a per student operations fund collection of $280 per student.
You can see in the middle, or not quite the middle, this is skewed a little bit to the right, the state average of $1,923. So there are lots of communities in the state of Indiana who do collect enough money to support their operations of the district with their operations fund tax
lev. That's not the case with MSD appointing township. And this slide perhaps better than any other illustrates the need for a referendum going back through what we we did team and just how steep of a mountain we have
to climb in order to make this work and again so thankful for the support of our community our previous I'd also note we'll talk a little bit more about this later but just getting us to the state average a little over at
$2,000 per student represents $25.5 million would be. So yeah, as we move through this conversation, more to come on those pieces.
Just a little bit of additional context. This shows the operations fund collection per student, but it really drills down to the 20 largest school districts in the state of Indiana. not going to read all the names. You you can kind of uh parse your way through
that. It's all the all the districts that you would expect. Many are local peers and others are peers across the state of Indiana. But again, it outlines in this instance in a not so great way what makes Wayne different. And in this
instance, it is that we're we're climbing a mountain of funding imbalance that is really difficult. You know, this slide is interesting um because it says the top right in both percentage and total dollars. Really,
what this means is um we are in the top five school districts by percent of impact of our circuit breaker. We rank third worst in the state. And in terms of the dollars that we collect, second worst in the state. Um I think it's
important to point out board that we as a district have worked really hard despite circuit breaker where we rank is not new. that has been historically where you sit. And yet we have been able
to find ways to have cost savings, continue to support teacher, continue to support extracurriculars for our students and all the supports they need to be successful. And we haven't even begun to talk about what SEA1 will then
do. But important to know that fiscally we've worked really hard to make sure um that we're doing all we can to support the district and the work of our teachers and the learning of our students.
So you might be asking yourselves why the tax gaps in MSD of Wayne Township so hard. And without going into the depths of school finance, it really comes down to the property tax funding mechanism state
of Indiana simply don't work for our community of course every community is unique and in this instance what we're talking about really is tax base of a given community. One of the important factors is the
percentage of properties within a municipality that are residential or business or apartment rental property etc. As we looked at those property tax caps, when you have a highly residential
municipality, your tax cap is mostly set at 1%. Whereas if you have a higher percentage of 2% 3% properties, your ability to collect more taxes from those businesses for agricultural land rentals
raises that floor because you can tax those properties at two and 3%. In the MSD main township, we are almost exclusive, not almost exclusive, we are over 9% residential and 89% of those homes are at the cap.
Meaning because of the taxes that are levied across that that municipality, some from MSD Township, others from the city of Indianapolis, list goes on of overlapping taxing units. they reach that cap.
And another way that we can look at this is at the end of the day it comes down to a little bit of net assessed value bursting. We've talked previously and we'll go through the quick version here. Um net assessed value is important
for property tax. The equation for generating revenue from property taxes is tax rate times that assessed value equals a dollar amount. And so if you have less net assessed value perhaps, you have less ability to collect funds.
And this is not certainly not an indictment of any community. This it just is. We we are very proud of our community as are every other school on this district. But the reality on this slide, I should say. The reality is we
simply can't generate the same ballots to support our schools and our students that the other schools were left on this graph. Fortunately, our peers in Beach Grove were in a very similar situation. Blue community, mostly residential, low net
sense value. >> As mentioned earlier, we talked a lot about we dove into tax caps because even as we moved into the conversation about SEA1, tax caps don't go away. This is in addition to
>> so again not a new conversation and I don't want to beat a drum that we've already um played quite a bit but this brings us back to that conversation we just had about net assess and the easy way to think about sen one is it is
designed to decrease the net assessed value of homes businesses and agricultural apartments all the properties in Indiana and therefore reduce their property taxes. So that is certainly something that I think everyone supports, reduce property
taxes. This slide though represents what that means as far as net assessed value in MSD of Wayne Township. Projections with our partners at policy analytics indicate that we're going to be on a downward trend for the next five years
when it comes to net assessed value. And when we think about that equation we just talked about of tax rate times net assessed value equals property tax revenue, that means that that equation starts to have a downward trend. Less
values that are possible to collect. And so in order to really think about this um this slide helps us. Now I want to stress this is a hypothetical. This is using um the net assessed value
of MSD Wayne Township and looking at a referendum that is at a rate of 35 cent which just happens to be what our current referendum is but it serves the purpose of showing this downward trend that I just talked
about here. That's one of the important factors. Less real dollars being collected is of course a significant piece to our financial puzzle. We work really hard and Dr. Suggs alluded to this to project
out and plan our financial picture. And when we do that, we make projections and we make assumptions. We count on historical trends with net assessed value continuing. use our partners at policy analytics who are experts in that and and other partners to help us. But
this other line that does show an upward trend represents what we expected to happen before Senate and roll back one was a thing. You can see that not only obviously we have the downward trend less money but when you think of it in terms of what we
were planning for versus what we have then you get picture from why Senate enrollment one commission is so important and why beginning to find cost savings really critical. I hope this helps kind of explain what
the mechanisms are in Sen one how they really impact finances. I would note that this also plays out in our operations fund. It's also property tax funded. This downward trend is also
present in that fund as well along with uh the tax credits, the $300 tax credit impact getting that fund on top of all that about million $1.4 million.
With the help of your commission, uh we identified $11 million in savings that we could reasonably implement right away leading into the 2016 school year. That included uh eliminating 108 positions and that includes
administrative, certified, and classified positions. We negotiated no raises for the 25 to 26 school year. And I just want to say publicly that we it was a hard road, but we appreciated
um CTA and the membership and all teachers working with us through that really hard process, but ultimately helping us move our district forward until we could find a solution. So again, thank you. And we renegotiated
vendor contracts. We implemented black and white printing, reduced and eliminated overtime, modified our trash pickup schedule, implemented energy savings, centralized some processes including enrollment and now our
treasury extended curricular material usage and then responded to enrollment decl. So this brings us to the total support that we've asked for from our community in the form of tax rates and what that has looked like over
the last 10 years. And so in the face of the circuit breaker and now Senate and Roll Act One, we've still been working hard behind the scenes to reduce our tax rate tax rate that we are asking our community and the homeowners to pay. So
you can see the first dip here from 22 to 23 is the 2015 referendum dropping off. And then you can see this orange the orange slides here or bars are representing what the tax rate would have been if that referendum continued.
Finally then from 25 to 26 we were able to realize about 20 more cents in reduction of our tax rate through uh a reduction in our debt service rate which is also we hope benefited tax rate. But we we focus on
this just to say within all of those other challenges we have been working hard to reduce these tax rates over time. >> In essence we're really asking, sorry, um the board to
support our continued programs and all that we have to offer our students. There's a reason they call us giants. 15,000 students, 22 schools and programs, one community. From Wayne
Township Preschool, Indiana's highest standard of early childhood education to our nation's top early college high school right here at Ben Davis University and Indiana's first public online school achieved virtual, a
pioneer since 2011. Wayne Township has a pack for every student. Millions in scholarships Thousands of dual credits earned and 99% of Ben Davis University seniors finish high school without a
degree in an 31 state championship awardwinning arts. JOTC, over 100 clubs, and a purple star district because we honor every family who served. Our giant food pantry,
parent liaison, Wayne Township Adult Education, the largest adult education program in the state because great schools show up for the whole community. Once a giant, always a giant. Our Ben Davis alumni
nation spans generations and they keep coming back to give back. More than a thousand volunteers, strong community partnership. This is what great looks like. I am. >> I am.
>> I want >> I am. >> I win. >> Wayne. >> I am way. You are way. We are women. Great school. Great.
Albert starting the video. Anybody know can tell me it's impossible. I'm convinced. >> So tonight um you go to the next slide and we are asking for you to consider tonight
a placement referendum. What I mean by that, our current referendum, our 2019 referendum will end in 2027. What we're asking for your consideration is replacing that. Did you approve a
resol a resolution tonight and our board support that referendum? Then we would drop the 2019 referendum that ends in 2027 and begin the new one. So that's what I mean by I want to read the question aloud
because this is really really important. This is what our community is going to see in the ballot box. out of the Metropolitan School District of Wayne Township. increased property taxes paid to the school district for no more than eight years for the purpose of funding
the way forward initially to sustain educational and operational stability in response to reductions in property tax revenue including recruiting and retaining classroom teachers. funding student safety and school security and maintaining daily educational operations
by imposing a property tax rate that does not exceed 70 and results in a maximum annual amount that does not exceed $41,19,552. If this referendum uh operating referendum public question is approved
by the voters for a median resident of $200,000, the property's annual property tax bill would increase by $65 per year. The most recent operating referendum public question proposed by
the school district was held in 2019 and passed. When I read those numbers out loud, you understand why it's really important to understand what that means. When someone sees my taxes are going to
increase by $65. So, we're going to give you some context to that. We're going to drill down into both the 70s, $65, and the 41 million.
So let's start with uh some more of the changes that senate rolled act one provided us and that is the requirement that both a rate and a maximum levy be included in ballot questions. So as you
saw on the previous slide referendum runs for eight years and so in essence what enrolled act one requires the school district to do is to make a projection eight years out. Think about multiple things. How much money are we
going to need? What is the net assessed value of our school district likely to be at that time? and what rate might generate the dollars based on that that net assessed value that will provide us what we need to educate our students and
run our I don't know about you but if I think back eight years it takes me about five minutes to orient myself what was going on lots of things change over eight years point being this is a really
difficult exercise to accomplish and I think what we leaned into with this is trying to be as transparent as we possibly can. And 41,19,553 really represents um what we believe.7 cents would
generate in the most positive economic climate in state and country over the next eight years. So we didn't want to pull any punches with our community. If if we have the greatest economy you can imagine for the next eight years, that's the most we could possibly ask and
exceed that. Over the next few slides, we're going to talk about um that being the max, but not necessarily what we think we need as a community for both in the short run and the long. You think?
>> No, you go ahead to the next slide. I just want to he's pretty much said everything on the slide. Just want to be clear that the state is requiring us to ask for whatever we think that max would be and we did that by working with
policy analytics, doing our projections and as you said hoping for the best economic situation that we could be in eight years from now. What I will also reiterate is that that's not necessarily what we would
ask. I'll just so um and just reiterate too from the the wonderful video that highlights the program that what we are talking about over the next year is identifying how we
can continue the program services that have served our community well and provide a pathways for success for all. All right. Right. So, we are headed to the most complex pieces of this presentation and um I want to give them
their due diligence and explanation. Long-term financial planning is grounded in inputs and assumptions. And so, we have to start with what are the assumptions built in to these long-term 8-year financial projections.
So you can see where we begin uh here in 2026. But what we're looking at is the ending cash flow projection meaning what is our cash balance at the conclusion of these calendar year. So let's start with
that. We can see um kind of what those numbers are. What we are factoring in for annual expenditure modifications is a 3% salary increase as our goal for our employees, but we're
also factoring in $70 million worth of reductions beginning for the 2627 school year as those cost savings measures that Dr. outlined uh just a few slides ago. The other thing that I would highlight
is this line that is zero. So, anything below that means we've ran out of money. We talked in the spring during the SC sea1 commission that our goal is to stay here at $30 million or above. That's
based on um both guidelines from the government finance officers association recommendation to have at least two months worth of expens expenses on hand and and our internal comfort whether we have a cushion in the case of economic
downturns or legislative changes similar to what we're navigating right now with rule act one. Steve, I want to insert something that is really really important at this point I think for to point out to the board and our community that as you look at these projections
and he's going to explain that if we got no renewal mean lined up. You can just see that without even seeing the numbers how quickly we get past the zero that we are audited every year. We go
for the standards and pores. They analyze how we spend our dollars. They go through all of our financial documents. And despite the fact that we've been dealing since 2008 with significant cuts to our operations, we
have a rating of A+. And I think that's important for everyone to understand and um feel confidence in our financial speech. So let's let's start to pick this apart. You can obviously see gaps beginning to
form in these lines, but I want to begin at the top. That represents a 70cent rate what we had when the community supported two separate referendums. When we look at that line, it's pretty clear. You can see an upward trend,
meaning we are building cash balance in that scenario. We're not here tonight to advocate that we should ask the community to help us build our cash balance as we talked about on the previous slide. Here tonight to talk about our community helping us sustain the programs and and
resources that our community uh expects and has enjoyed over the last 15 years. So then we switch to look at the bottom. As Dr. Sugs mentioned, this blue line is no referendum. That puts us running out of money
sometime in 2028. The line above there is a 35 cent referendum rate has us running out of money sometime in 2030. So neither of those scenarios are able
to meet our needs as a district that we as we think about them. Brings us to these two lines in the middle. They're connected here. the growth part and we'll talk more about why that is, but they represent a referendum rate of 60
cents and how that impacts our district as we move forward. The difference between the green line and the red line is a 4% levy increase. And without stealing any thunder from the rest of this slide, we're going to talk about that more.
But what we know is that the 60 the 60 cent rate allows us to live up to our commitment to the community to both only ask for what we need and provide the resources and programs that they've come to expect from us.
>> Steve, I want to also point out and say again and just reiterate this ask from our community is not just an ask. It also includes our continued work and additional $7 million in reductions at the same time.
>> So you can see we're still trending down. This this absolutely includes continued hard work to find efficiencies. In short, one way to think about this slide is that the decision to let the 2015 referendum expire was correct. It was sound financially and it was the
right move for our community. But coupled with the legislative changes from Senate and World Act 1, 35 cents is no longer enough to provide the school district in our community has come to expect. The result is our recommendation
to increase the referendum rate. This slide drills down into a little bit more detail, but it's important to baseline again what we are looking at. This is revenue. So this slide shows only the projected revenue from
referendum rates which is obviously a critical data point for understanding the impact of the referendum on our community and our school district as they represent the dollars that would be generated at a given rate.
These values are what drove the previous slide. So when you think about the cash balance growing at 70 cents that was from that top line. When you think about the cash balance declining at the bottom that is due to the revenue
highlighted in that orange line. One thing I also want to point out which is critical to the impact of set and roll back one is this downward trend on the line. That means like we talked about earlier,
net assessed value is going down. As a result, the collection and property impact is also declining. Again, like we looked at in that slide, what we're used to is this type of slope here. After 2031, the impact of send and
roll back one stops and we go back to what we would consider normal historic trends with regard to the growth of assessed value. is what we base most of our projections on until Senate World Act one hit. So this green line, let's talk a little
bit more. And both the both of these lines begin at 60 at $29 million. The green line grows slightly over four years and then eventually connects with the other line. That represents a growth
in the levy of 4%. So 4% growth on 29 million gets us to 30.1. 4% growth on 30.1 gets us to 31.3. 4% growth on 31.3 gets us to 32.1
where we then hit that max rate of 70 cents and it continues. And so we present that as another option. And we came up with 4% because that is what we've been operating under from Indiana law over the last few years. We cannot
increase our operations on more than 4% is capped at that 4% based on what is called the MLGQ maximum levy growth quotion again factors of how that is uh how that is calculated happy to sit down with
anybody who wants depth on that but that's where we have that what that does is it prevents rapid growth in the levy that we're asking our community for and it really allows us to predict at a much higher level what
that's going to look like. But again uh we have that clear gap in revenue here between 26 and 27 that obviously represents an increase and it is related to the impacts city roll act one on our projections the
continued impact of circuit breaker that has continued to climb. And then as we mentioned on the previous slide, finding the middle ground between previous referendum rate of 70 cents and what we need today in order to provide programs
and resources. All right, I think maybe our last graph of the day here, but probably the most important one because it is this is where the rubber hits the road. We are asking our community me.
This slide represents the impact to the median taxpayer in the MSB Wayne Township at the various rates. But draw your attention to that median homestead value being $200,000 for the purposes of our referendum ballot
question. Senate ruled act one also changed that. So, it used to be that you would pull the actual median home value in your district and there's a slight rounding. Then, Rolex one changed that to all
districts have to round to the nearest $50,000 up. Well, this means that our our med home value is somewhere between 150 and $200,000 causing us to round up 200,000 for that median impact.
The two important things to look at I would say beginning at the top are what that 70 cent rate that we used to have would have cost a median taxpayer at $65 or approximately 87 more than a 60 60
cent rate. Conversely, we know that the current rate our taxpayer um saw on their bills is this 35 cent rate 319. And we also can see very clearly that that represents an increase of $199
from tax 26 due tax. That's a great place to stop. We'll go back to the question that reads that $65 that your taxes will increase. We just heard Steve's explanation.
Currently, if your home is worth $200,000, that taxpayer is paying $319 and the increase above that is $199. They're not going to see that ballot
box. And so there in lies the work um of not only the board but of our community to help everyone understand what it really is to that. >> The next resource that we wanted to
highlight that really drills down to what Dr. Suggs mentioned there is a resource that our community would have access to if if the board chooses to move forward with a ballot question for a referendum and it is a referendum liability calculator.
So it is programmed here with a 1% cap property. So residential property at that median value of 200,000 that is represented or would be represented potentially on a ballot question. So, if we click calculate estimated liability
to Dr. Sug's point, it goes into much more detail in helping a local taxpayer understand what this impact is and how it shifts from 27 and what that change is from 26 to 27. So these two boxes
here are representing the first full year, the annual amount at 60, $51,840 or $43.20 a month. On the right, we've highlighted with this calculator the
impact change from 26 to 27, $199.20 20 or $1660 per month for the median taxpayer in our township. Below here it gets into more detail showing um increased potential
liabilities into the future. It is it is factoring in a rise in home values so that we are as transparent as we can possibly be with our community. And then if you really want to nerd out on Senate enrolled act one, this is uh this is
really what's happening. The homestead deduction goes down to zero. The supplemental deduction in credits until it is 2/3 of the home value. And so it's again trying to provide the highest level of transparency in how
these calculations were made and taking into account Indiana law as it pertains to property tax. What we see here um another way of looking at this while the ballot question says 600 you're going to
increase by $65. this calculator really gives the true picture of what they're committing to um above the current referendum that our community is already supporting. And so you see that this calculator is going to
be key in helping everyone understand what the commit what the true commitment is because when you go to the ballot box, it's not going to read this way. The other thing is that this is based on 60 cents. The maximum that we ever can
go and we're asking our community to support is 70 cents. That red line we've been pointing out, we said that would stabilize us. It will help us keep programs in place. It will only ask for what we need and that's where we're
going to start at the 60. So that $19920 difference represents the rate at 60 25 cents above the 35 our community already support. Any questions about any
of that? >> Yes. Since we're talking to the community about that the difference between 60 cents and 70 cents. How do you see how do we communicate that that we can go up to 70 cents but trust us we're
going to do 60 cent I mean I don't know so it was based on projections right that there would be an increase 4% in levy every year we have a history of only asking from our community what we need I think we
superbly demonstrated that with the um did not come back to the community and we let 2015 referendum go away. The other piece of this is that every year there is a budget process and
board you are intimately involved in that process and decisions about what we will ask from our community and the the rationale behind that is a yearly activity. And so those decisions will be made
based on what we need um to run programs continue what we do because we can ask for 70 doesn't mean we will it'll be discovered through the budget. Did you want to add the budget process
and exactly where it was? So in closing for this uh this section here just when we think about that 60 cent rate we know that is an increase from 26 27 for uh taxpayers and homeowners in MSD main township. But I
do want to revisit even with that increase uh from 26 to 27 at that 60 cent rate, the projected tax rate, if we just apply that 60 cents onto what our debt service and operations rate are currently, still
allows us to have a 12.3% lower total tax rate than we did in 2022. Getting back to that slide, just talking about how we have worked hard to reduce that tax rate over the last five to six years. We we do uh obviously understand
that an increase year-over-year, but if we look at a little bit longer timeline, it does still represent reduction. And so I have been asked this question a lot that you know what would happen if we don't run a referendum for rent
referendum was not successful, we would be looking in the 2728 school year at reducing $20 million. That is a big number. And as you know, many of you participated in the SEA1 commission
work. There have there were things that were identified that would fundamentally change the way we deliver services in Wayne Township. It will hit every part of our district. I've also had people ask, well, does
that mean you'll close this school down? You'll stop this program. They want me to name it. And that's really hard to name because when I say 20 million is going to change what we do, it'll hit every part of our district. If we're to come to that, that means we would come
back together as a commission and we would make really hard decisions. As your superintendent and on behalf of the board, our work here is about teaching and learning. And despite what
we're talking about tonight, we want that to continue to be the focus. Okay? Even though we're talking about a referendum campaign and that will be really hard work, teaching and learning is what we do. What we don't want is
people scared that they're about to lose their job or the beloved program that we've had for many years is going away. We want to be able to provide focus and support during this difficult time that we're facing, but being very transparent
that it would be a really hard time if we could not pass. And um with the current referendum ending in 2027, our next opportunity to come back to our community will be in 2028.
And so decisions will still be within hard. We still would be looking at a $20 million deficit and then considering another fe tonight we're asking for your consideration to move Wayne forward to the programs
and services for our children pathways for success. Should you approve a resolution to move forward with the referendum, then the choice will lie with our we do not take lightly that our
community has supported us in the we don't take for granted that moving forward they will continue to do that in the same way. But what I will say is that we believe in our children and we do believe in our community.
So with that board that concludes our presentation and we'd be happy to answer your question. >> Thank you Dr. S. >> We will move on to new business item D. Dr. Samuel or Dr. Suggs to approve referendum tax le
So board, I would ask at this time that you consider approval of the res resolution before you to consider be voted on by our community. November 3rd. >> Do we have a motion and a second? Do we
have any comment or discussion? None. All in favor say I. >> Any opposed? >> Thank you, Dr. Sugs. The uh referendum tax levy resolution is approved.
>> Thank you. boards. Before we uh dismiss to uh the ed center to have our elementary and secondary presentations, reminder upon the final station, we do need to reconvene in the board meeting where some uh
closing statements and it is currently 7:59 to start first station at 8:05. just a minute um to make a couple of comments. I want to thank everyone
that's here tonight support of um our teachers that are here, our community engagement committee, Mr. President, those of you who spoke tonight so eloquently about our community, about the education we provide for our
students. We really appreciate your time, your efforts, and your support. I say that publicly. We are going to move into our annual presentation. Um, those of you who came tonight, we
appreciate it. You are welcome to leave.