the January 26 28th, 2026 MSD Township Board of Education working session board finance meeting is called to order. Please rise for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the
republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Mrs. Bur, could you do the roll call, please? >> I'm terribly sorry.
>> Mrs. Day mark. >> Brandon Bowman >> present. >> Susan Grace present. >> Karen Burke >> present. Michael Gordon >> present. Ben Wakefield. We're all present.
>> Thank you. Got cameras on that on the computer. We start doing the the >> ledge and all of a sudden I hear this voice. >> Uh Dr. Suggs, we are at item two, the
board of finance reorganization to elect officers. Dr. Samuel, do you have any guidance? >> So we um are you don't need to elect officers. Now we made those decisions at 28 meeting in Jan our last meeting.
>> Okay. So no official action. >> No one for public comment. >> Board reports 2026 board of finance and doab fiscal indicators. There we go. All right. Well, thank you, Mr. President, and
members of the board. This is uh our annual January check-in on finance, but I hope and I I think this is more of an ongoing conversation for us. And this is really just another checkpoint and opportunity
to talk about what we have seen with actuals and expenditures and revenues and know kind of compared to what our projections were um and make sure that we're still in line with those pieces. So, as always, as we work through this,
you have questions, please, please chime in with those. This is a lot more about the conversation that is about here's here's all the data. first and general. So themes for 2025
as we work through this you will see and as we have had the conversation over the last 12 to 18 months we we were confident we were going to be spending through cash balance. So we're going to be we're going to have more expenditures than we than we did revenue. And you'll see that that has played out. um we'll
be able to do a little conversation about what that final number looks like versus what some of our projections were and and work through each of those pieces. One of the other things is our IRA dollars, the inflation reduction act dollars related to the battery projects
at seven of our school sites and the solar project here at the Ed Center. We were able to we received a check for just over $2 million from from the IRS and were able to use that money to fund the $1,000
stipen that staff members got without hitting the education fund or the operations fund for that. We are hopeful um as the way the tax season works to file uh again for new
transportation center. Those documents should be released any day now um as we head into February. So then we can work with our tax consultant and file for that facility as well. So we're we're optimistic as we did last time. We're not going to count on that money until
that check is sitting in our hands, but we're cautiously optimistic that we have a check for about the same amount that we should qualify for as long as everything goes as there. Certainly, we're happy to do that. Um the clear
picture after the expiration of ESERT, um you know, those stipens that we talked about, but that full year of the positions and and programs that we had funded through ESSER while we had those dollars now completely shifting back for
24 that was just the last couple months. Now we have that full year snapshot. And then that cash balance spending is really all about kind of projections and actuals. Um, and we'll again drill down in more detail at what that final number
was, how we got to that number, and how that compared with some of those projections that we had. So starting with investment results, and for consistency sake, we've kept some of these slides. This is a little bit challenging to unpack. Um, and so what
I'm going to do is flip over here to this slide. This basically these are all of our bank accounts. Um when you factor in each of these various investments occurring
uh on on different levels, you know, the money that we have with Trust Indiana, we we get a really good rate of return on. Uh we talked last year about how that the difference
between the large cash balance in Trust Indiana versus H who's your fund had flipped based on some some concerns we were having with the Hooser fund and access to state links and things like that. But you can see the rate that
we're getting there is highly competitive. That's why we maintain that high balance there. And of course, we have um some other um certificates of deposit that we're out uh kind of extending on to try to balance our our our where we're at in the market with
that. If interest rates continue to go down and we can already have some of those CDs invested a little further out, we can hopefully realize few more a little bit better percentage on those investments for slightly longer. So we're balancing that, lading those so we
can of course make some of those bond assistance with those dollars. >> Question. >> Yeah. >> So what is trust cleaning? >> Is that something that only governmental agencies can invest in? >> Yeah. So it's it's um for municipalities. Um, and again, they're
going to just take a different because of that volume that they get, they can take a little different approach to where they're putting their money after after we market and generate a little bit better. Good question. But yeah, that's that's really exactly what that what affect
large large municipalities. >> Is that the same with the who's your fund also? >> That's right. That's right. So all in all, where does that put us? We, you can see here, continue to do really well with our investments as we
talked about previously. You can see on this slide where that puts us in comparison uh to previous, you know, last year we're down slightly, which is to be expected. Interest rates have been down. Our cash balances are slightly less. But when we're when we're looking
at this, you got to remember it's two different pieces. This is some of our bond dollars. Once we sell those bonds before we have to pay those uh construction companies, we have those funds. So, we're investing those dollars while we're waiting to spend them to
kind of, you know, again, generate as much as we can. And then we also have our cash balance on the operations fund, refraing flood head side that we're rainy day fund that we're investing. So, you know, the we have significantly less
debt dollars to invest today than we did partially because the transportation center was from our 2022 months. We've been sitting on lots lots of money there waiting for that project to be ready to go and investing those over the years
and now we've expended those. 2022 was also one of our really big bonds where we had about $90 million in bonds. So um as we reduce them the amount of bonds we're asking for every year of course the amount we have to invest at that
interval but very pleased with this and of course in our projections for the operation fund and rainy day fund interest. We talked last year about how we're we're baking in the projection that this
is not going to go down. So that if it goes up, that's great news. If it stays static, that's great news. But knowing that the general environment is that interest rates are going to be decreasing, we're dialing back what we expect to take in revenue on interest.
And is it we can assume um and and this is true that in those years that we had higher bonds um this coincide with we were doing our bigger projects. >> So we had several elementaryaries we were doing at the same time the onset of
the high school >> 2022. Yeah. I had to go back 2022 was lots of projects. They were kind of all in process of finishing up as I took on uh this position, but a lot of projects building with campus
and a couple roofs. Yeah, lots of roofing, HBAC work, you know, lots of energy savings were in that that first 30 million or so that was kind of devoted to that. And also that >> was that because we had the er dollars
that were paying for some projects so we didn't have to touch a lot of our money. Is that right? um more related to balancing that debt bank. And so I'm have to go back and look specifically,
but what I what I anticipate I would find is there was some debt falling off leading into those years. And so, you know, the decision was, okay, we can maintain and not ask our community for more dollars, but if we want to keep
that rate where we're at, our levy where it's at, we're going to have to invest in our facilities. I think it coincided with I think a pretty good stretch where we had tried to be very frugal and our facilities were in need of roofs of HVAC
and we needed strategies to support our operations fund with some of that energy savings. >> The the funding mechanism, excuse me, the funding mechanism can get really messy in in some part we're required to
u allocate funds for debt service. So in a school corporation like this where we have facilities to maintain, it's not really the goal to get out of debt. The the idea is that we're in debt somewhat in perpetuity renewing bonds as
bonds are falling off. Uh and and that's what gives us the the avenue to take care of current and future projects just by reallocating new debt. >> Absolutely. Yeah. But also that investment opportunity is happening at
the same time. Yeah. Yeah. >> Very good. >> So, looking at 2026, you know, of course, we're going to continue to look at uh investment strategies, ladder those CDs to make sure we obviously pay our bills for for the construction projects. So, we're we're having
quarterly meetings with those partners. What does that draw schedule look like? how much do we think we're going to spend each month based on the progress that they're making so that we can make sure that those CDs are maturing at the appropriate times that that pay those would have helped us maintain our
facilities and of course the state budget will be coming up u you know a year from now that will be the big topic new legislation and then we've talked a lot about enrollment impact on it that continues to be a huge piece of of where we're
the upcoming slide will give us a a deeper dive into that. So the statute for due um the distress unit appeals board says basically in order to hopefully keep districts off of that list and out of
the interaction with DAB, we need to annually go through a set of financial indicators. It's a little bit vague on what those are. Uh but the next six slides will go through what we deem to be kind of the most important things that happen so that we are all on the
same page with where that sits. Enrollment. So 15 way five is is pretty good dip. You can see not our largest net change either way over this time horizon from 2013 to
today. that that increase we had from 1314 to 1415 was larger than this uh this decrease. But the largest decrease that we've seen in quite some time as we as we hit that pinnacle of 16,891
just before the pandemic. We know that each of those kids comes with comes with dollars. So, we talked a little bit about that previously, but that obviously impacts what we're talking about with regard to projections.
So, our annual deficit and surplus, the green obviously is really good. The yellow not as much. The good news is we had plenty of green before this year. And so, um,
this slide is is very straightforward. We spent $10 million more than what we took in in our operations referendum and education buttons this year. Remember during the SEA1 conversation, you know, we were really talking about
that being closing in on the $15 million range potentially with some of those projections. And so I want to take a moment now to talk about what happened between now and then. How how did we end up at 10? What were those mechanisms? So, one of them is occasionally
we collect more in property taxes than what our partners of policy analytics tell us we should expect. That can be for late payments. The number of things that that can come into that that happened to the tune of of almost $1.5
million here at the end of 2025. So, that that was a significant factor. We just talked a lot about interest. As we were digging into the interest this year, we identified that where we were receiving the interest was a little bit
skewed. We had been receiving too much of it with our debt dollars and not enough with our operations fund or rain fund dollars from those investments. So, we work with our financial analysts uh upstairs to go back and calculate that.
Good news is it meant there should be more money in our operations fund. So once we got that squared away again around a million dollars over the last four or five years that were not receding into the correct account. So that's not something we should expect in
future but it is something that impacts this cover here today. And then the other piece is we had four months to go when we were having those conversations. We really really had September, October, November, December. um we didn't have actuals. We hadn't really gone through
our cash flow yet. And I think the encouraging part there is that while we are still spending more than we take in on a monthly basis, we are starting to spend less than our projections. And so the brakes are being applied. Um
there's there's a handful of things that play into that. you know, when we have everybody being more conscientious of what they're what they're doing with those dollars, I think that certainly contributes to then um those balance of positions with enrollment, all of those
pieces that go with that. So, that's great. It doesn't mean the work is done, but it means that we we can say we're making progress here and we should be encouraged by that because you can't turn a ship like this around if you
don't stop moving the wrong direction, right? And that's kind of where we sit today. That means that we have a little bit more cash balance today than we thought we might if if that negative number was a little bit higher that 48,000 or sorry
48,250,000 there. Again, going back to those community conversations, a lot of what we talked about was what is the safe and responsible amount to keep in cash value? We want to invest in teachers. We want to invest in our programs, our
staff across the district, but we also have to make sure we have the money on hand to to pay the bills in case state does make a payment. There's a number of things that we know happens. I want to be ready for exactly. So that puts us at about um 26.2%
to our cash balance versus our total expenditure. So it means if everything stops we basically have about enough money to pay for a quarter of a year as it sits today that be all of our bills encompassing a little
we'll be able to keep this above that 18 to 20% range or in that range and I think we're on track to be able to achieve that but it's always one of the key indicators for DAB because of course as that number goes found their level of concern and that often goes way
up as far as what that means for our financial. >> Dr. Samville, I'm sorry to interrupt. Could you kind of explain this to me again? I I didn't really understand it when I was going through the course one either.
>> So, I had Nicholas trying to explain it to me, but waiting here. So, we think just think of a household. Um, the household, they know that they're going to spend we'll use nice round numbers. They're going to they're going to spend $100,000 next year.
And or they spent $100,000 last year, I guess, if you have an accurate. And what this slide is saying is that same household then has basically $26,200 in their savings account
>> left out of the 100,000. Yeah. So that the year's over, their bank account says 26,200 and they spent $100,000 last year. >> Okay. >> Does that help? >> Yeah, that helps. Thank you. >> It's it's a retrospective, not a not a
framework. >> Revenue. This is the main cost. You know, they're not not a surprise here. The other local revenue is that really tiny yellow sliver there. But basically, we're looking at property taxes. We're looking at the referendum
and we're looking at the education fund. That's the red the red's the education fund. That's where most of our money comes. Enrollment equals dollars. That's that's the big driver here. That of course that also includes the NESP grant, the special education grant, the
academic performance grant, but those all come from the state into that into that basic grant pot. I think the this thing to remember here if you look at that size of the green you can see when we had the support of the community for two
referendum and now and now what so that is obviously a part of the story of where we are today. I know that we went into that eyes wide open knowing what that meant but also knowing the responsible thing to do with regard to our
community. Got to see how we can make this work at this level of funding operating referendum as a percent of total revenue. This is an important one because of the nature of referendum when
it's possible that you're going to have that revenue one year and then uh potentially not have it the next year. Um depending on what the community and the voters um support do have and and us obviously as as a district want to make
sure what is that percent if we lost all of that funding what would that look like? would that mean to our budget? This is really just a reflection of that. From Drew's perspective and from our perspective, the higher this number, you're accepting a little bit more risk. The lower the number, accept a little
bit less risk. So, we're I think in a pretty good position here, both historically and with this is a slide. I apologize. I wanted to I wanted to make one other point here. So the yellow, green and red here um representing um
cash balances. I think the one thing the rain bay the purple is not red it's or pink is the shade but the yellow what do you notice about the yellow here? Got a lot smaller. What that reflects is
that negative $10 million that we are spending down the cash balance in the referendum fund at this point in time. Now once that's gone, we have to move expenses to other funds, mostly operations fund
with our current finances. But that is a key component here as you think about what what those what that cash balance is and what it is. happy to answer any questions that you have.
>> Questions. >> Um, our work with policy analytics has has been so valuable to our planning. Um, and as Dr. Understandable shared the good news is that um with some of the
levers we've been able to pull in the last four or five months understanding that our finances are looking differently and will continue to look different in the future. Um we have have gotten a little ahead of of
what some of that deficit could look like. We're really excited about that work but understand that it it's just right setting the ship. I I like the analogy, you know, putting us down the the path to continue our cost-saving
measures and um uh I've mentioned we've mentioned several times the work of the SCA1 commission which has just been the deeper we get into the data um it's just been phenomenal work. So super excited about uh bringing that report to you in
February. Um, you know, I' I've got questions as I've been out and about. Staff, they're really curious to know what our next steps are, as they should be. Um, I tend to see the glass half full. And while
this is really going to stretch us in many ways, our thinking, prioritizing what's important for our classrooms, for our district, um, you know, I just see the opportunity to to write sets some of things. And so,
um, it it'll be a good conversation. I think it'll be a hard conversation. Um, but I think it it'll also help us um truly refocus um and and use the the you know
information and input from our community to to make things better. So that work is ongoing. Just before we came to this meeting, we were working on the the SCA1 commission work. So we will continue with that and and bring that as soon as
we complete project. >> Dr. Suggs and Dr. Samuel. This is a fantastic report and thank you for the effort putting that together. Um the coming months this board will face some some big decisions and big discussions.
Um along with the work that policy analytics is engaged with. Um are we considering doing a demographic study or demographic forecast and would that be helpful in understanding what future funding might look like? >> Right.
>> Yes. So, we I have to thank the board for for pivoting changing our board meeting supposed to have been Monday and um we were going to have that demographic study for you. Um we'll have that at our February board meeting. So, yes,
>> I did not know that. >> And so, that information uh will be shared and yes, to your question, it it certainly is going to shape um what you know we do in the future and how we plan financially. Um, I I won't give it away,
but we haven't seen the preliminary report. Um, and and I think it's useful. I don't think it's necessarily negative. It just gives us really good information about how we can move forward. But saying that, I I would also say that
right now I've talked to uh when I send you the the weekly updates for the district, we're working really hard in terms of marketing and um doing our registrations earlier and letting our community know about the great things that are happening in Wayne. And so
those efforts um are ongoing as well. So there are lots of levers that are being pushed at this moment um to optimize our opportunity for students to come to Wayne and also to understand the data we need to understand to make really good
decisions. So all of that coming February meeting is going to be yeah packed with lots of good information. Thank you so much reminding me I don't know how much we shared about
the first floor and the open pieces that connect there. >> No, go right ahead. Go right ahead. >> Yeah. Talked about um when I came on there was a placeholder in our bond
projects for renovations at the fire headquarter building. um to prioritize that spending. We took those off um and really needed to I think assess facilities as a whole. Um with the sale of transportation and grounds team
moving to our operations center, we were getting pretty crowded there. So we could have we looked at a number of things. Could we find a new place for grounds? We also looked at can we find a new place for technology. While that was all happening, we also launched open
enrollment. And we needed a space that was centrally located that was going to be visible within the district, but also we felt like in a school maybe was going to be a little bit disruptive sometimes dayto day.
So those ideas come together and we have um a little smaller footprint for Wayne Township Fire. had an opportunity. Um Trusty Barton indicated they no longer needed the south side of the first floor. And so um we're getting ready to
go out to bid and um in March we'll hopefully bring those bids to you to renovate the first floor of the fire headquarter building on that just half of that first floor to house our open enrollment and then our technology team
on that side of the building. We would also be able to um I don't know if you've been in the restrooms there, but we're gonna we're able to scrge up enough dollars to make sure that the restrooms are going to get renovated, the flooring and that accommodated all.
So, we think Dr. S's point that first impression that families get when they come in the district um that's going to be a key part of that and Dr. Dr. Harvey's team has done a great job developing that program. But um admit admittedly from a physical standpoint um
it's a little bit challenging to come into that and this is going to improve that. >> So thank you. >> I did want to interject. I was not sure if this needed to be outside of the
regular board meeting we were having. >> So point of clarification, we will adjourn the board of finance meeting. >> Thank you. And then we will open a working session. >> Any other discussion for the board of finance meeting?
Board of finance meeting is adjourned. Does anyone need a a quick recess or should we continue? >> Okay. >> Very >> very procedural. The uh January 28th, 2026 Metropolitan School District of
Wayne Township Board of Education working session is called to order. Please rise for the pledge of allegiance. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation
under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Mrs. Odus Gra >> present. Ben Wakefield >> still here. >> And I'm still here as well.
>> Thank you. >> Uh, no public comment this evening. >> No public comment. >> We move into new business. The non-renewal of a contract. Dr. to approve the agenda. >> Um, not typically on a working session
because typically we're not taking official action. >> Okay. Right. Okay. We are. Thank you. Yeah, that's a great question. >> Yes, this is a statutory um requirement and um I'll turn it over
to Mr. Fesler to kind of explain why we're bringing this item to you tonight. >> You Mr. President of the board tonight bringing a recommendation to approve the issuance of written preliminary notice of nonrenewal to administrators whose
contracts may not be renewed. This is a process we'll do yearly that our school districts meets statutory requirements of Indiana code 20-28-8-4 that provides timely compliance timelines and provides a fair and transparent process should we need to
move forward with the institution. question. Any questions? >> Is there any changes from the what we had before then? Any significant changes on the same timeline >> and this is not specific to a person.
This is just in case we need to offer a cancellation. So I recommend approval of issuance of written plundering notice of nonal administrators contracted. >> All right. On approval of preliminary notice consideration renewal
administrator. >> We have a motion and a second. Any comment for discussion? Hearing none. All in favor say I. I. >> Motion is approved. Thank you Mr. Fesler. Thank you. Dr. Sug, do you have any other board
information? >> Yes. Thank you. Uh, Mr. President, members of the board, we've had an interesting week, I would say. >> I'm I'm super popular with students. >> Yes. >> Right now. Uh, so for this to be week
four, that's kind of fun. Um and uh staff came back this week and um I'll be sending out a memo tonight to just address some questions about whether and staff returning, you know,
the students did didn't return just to clear up some confusion there. Um so you can look forward to that later tonight. Um but we did have a flood at Stout Field. We are so thankful for the quick response of our staff, our maintenance,
our custodians. Um, we had a pair of professional who showed up the building really early this morning and when we went to visit, she was standing at the front door. Hey, hey. And she had been there helping to clean. I mean, the staff were
phenomenal. Um, they were back in their classrooms. Carpet was a little soggy, but drying very quickly. um and they were just getting ready uh for whatever kind of school they were going to have for tomorrow. We're excited to bring
students back. So, um we did have uh a pipe issue at Westlake. The good news is that it was contained to the boiler room. Dr. Samuel, I'm assuming we got that taken care of. I didn't hear any more about it. especially context. So,
feel very >> very context of the truth. >> That's the truth. Um, and then we have a schoolboard visit tomorrow morning at Sanders School, not 8:00 a.m., but 900 a.m. They're a later start. So, we're
excited about that. That's always um a nice visit. And uh Dr. Rashard says she's ready. So, I'm I'm glad about that. She is. Yeah. Um I would be remiss if I didn't um mention again it is
schoolboard appreciation month. We're nearing the end of that month and we want to honor you as a school board. We're so grateful for your service and that you continue to serve.
Um and you have chosen to give back to our community. So we want to thank you. Um, we'll make sure you don't forget to grab your bag on the way out and enjoy the fun things there. Um, but you make
this work. Um, that at sometimes can be very challenging. Um, very heartfelt and we feel very very supported. So, thank you so much. Really appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. >> I I think the staff at Southfield is
amazing, but also maintenance for all our schools with this weather. It's just been a I know it's not been easy and I it's just incredible how much work they can get done all the snow and all the ice the weather. It's definitely our our unsung heroes for the week but often I
hope >> throughout the year they are so >> yeah special people >> they are special. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. I live next to one and he said I hope I can make it work. I said I'll shovel out the culdeac so I can get there soon.
So after but I said no you need to get to work. >> Do we have any additional board information comment? >> Motion to adjourn. >> Motion. Make a motion to adjourn. Motion
and a second. All in favor say I. >> I. >> We're adjourned. I got two quick pieces of information both about Dr. Buts. There was a small group I was talking about 75 Harvard earlier. >> I gave you all that information. I am
starting in April. That crazy man is finishing in April. He's doing it right now. >> Oh, >> and Dr. S, you joked about being very popular with students. You may not know uh Branson, my seventh grader, really really looks up to Jeff. I mean, he
holds him in high cloud. This morning he said, "Dr. Suggs is the greatest I love it. Bad weather up. Thank you for that. I didn't catch his emotion.