Just 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. Martin, both call group. Brandon Bowman? Present. Susan Graves? Present. Aaron Burke? Present. Michael Gordon? Present. Right. Lamica Graham. President. Ben Wakefield. I'm here. I'm sure everything was happening or all of us.
Thank you very much. Before you've been presented with a copy of the agenda for tonight's meeting, you have a motion and a second to adopt the agenda. I make a motion that we accept the agenda for the CME. Yes. Second. The motion and the second. Any comment or discussion? Hearing none, all in favor, say aye. Aye. We oppose. Agenda is approved. Thank you. Board reorganization. The election of the finance officers. Thank you, mister president. Mention of the board, due to a clerical error in our procedures during the board of finance meeting in our January working session, I'd like to bring to you today
the ask, for the board to retroactively approve our finance officer board positions. Our practice has been to mirror officers for our overall board leadership positions. And as a result, I'd like to recommend mister Brandon Bowman as the board of finance president and missus Sherry O'DeMarcotte as board of finance secretary. I welcome any questions that you have and respectfully ask approval of the board of finance officers as outlined. I move that we I move that we accept board of finance officers as outlined.
Second. I have a motion and a second. Any comment or discussion? Hearing none, all in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hi. Thank you, doctor Samuel, the board finance officer of the board. Thank you. Moving on to public comment, before we begin, a short statement. Public comments at school board meetings are reserved for individuals who maintain legal 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 two minute allotment to allow for an efficient meeting. Person person wishing to address the award 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 Wayne Township will be verified as a guardian in the district's student management system or present their valid employee identification. Business owners who wish to provide public comments must contact the superintendent in advance of
the school board meeting to provide verification of ownership and location. Request for public comments will be scheduled by the, excuse me, by the order in which they receive on the sign in sheet. At his rehearsal discretion, the the 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 sixty minutes, and all of the comments have to be allotted time and be submitted in writing to the superintendent. For review. Doctor Suggs, do we have anyone signed up for public comment this evening?
We do. We have two, people who have signed up for public comment tonight. First is Molly Lucas. Okay. I just get it here. Yes. That'd be great. Alright. Good evening. My name is Molly Lucas, and this is my twenty ninth year in Wayne Township currently at Bridgeport. I'm speaking regarding SEA one as we face upcoming cuts and difficult decisions. While we know our legislators could have done more for public education, we believe Wayne Township could also have done more. In twenty nine years of teaching, I can honestly say I've never seen lower morale
or more discussed within our township. Regardless of the grand financial forecast and decisions being made, I want to remind you there's so much that can be done for teachers that doesn't cost anything. When contract negotiations were happening, we could have been given personal days that don't require prior approval costing nothing. Instead of them hearing to an earlier memo memo sent to staff just two days prior, our new leadership abruptly changed the elearning day to an in person reporting requirement during a travel watch.
Furthermore, staff members who chose to stay home were told that they could use a personal day. This does not comply with our contract requiring seven days advanced approval for personal days or the 10% staff cap for any given day. Staff should not be punished for the budget preparation. Changing the requirement to reporting on synchronous or asynchronous days is also unnecessary and costs nothing to honor our previous policy. Also, reporting a time to move or a two hour delay isn't necessary. It costs nothing to allow teachers to arrive two hours later still ahead of students. Don't forget to During the vote on the contrary, teachers spoke about their struggles living
paycheck to paycheck and even even private to have the pay cut. While speaking of, they deserve to be looked at and also realize that giving yourselves a raise was insensitive at that time. Don't forget the teachers. I have too many teachers currently interviewed for new positions both in and out of education ready to leave due to our current climate. All of these items mentioned cost nothing but time, respect, trust of yourself, and a willingness to listen. Please don't forget the teachers.
Thank you. Thank you, And next, we have Kevin Goodman. Good evening, members of the board, administrators, and community members. Thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight. My name is Kevin Goodman, and I have been an educator for ten years, all of them in Wayne Township. I know this is a difficult moment. SCA one and our financial reality has placed you in a position where no decision feels good, and I appreciate the responsibility that you all carry. I'm here tonight not to ask for money, but to ask for care.
Last week, several of you visited my classroom shortly after our sixth grade team received a message recognizing our students' engagement and the planning and collaboration behind it. That message meant more than you may realize, not because it was lengthy or public, but because it was an honest and human. It reminded us that our work is seen. And for a brief moment, it lifted us. But I'll be very honest. Moments like that are becoming aware and teachers are tired. As we discussed cuts and deficits, I want to gently but urgently remind us that one of the most powerful resources in this district doesn't appear on a balance sheet,
teacher morale, trust, and professional dignity. Right now, those feel very fragile in our district. There are three meaningful ways to strengthen them even now. Clear and timely communication matters. When changes are coming, teachers don't need to sting. They need honesty and time. Rumors grow when communication doesn't. Presence matters. Business like the one we made last week, not to evaluate or to fix, but to listen, go further than you might imagine. Consistency matters. Explaining the why behind decisions helps teachers feel like partners, not afterthoughts. And respect matters.
Teachers are professionals who deeply care about their students. Acknowledging that, especially during hard times, costs nothing but sustains people. Tonight, as you make necessary and painful decisions, I ask, please do not overlook the human cost. Commit to communication, transparency, and respect. These are free choices, but they are powerful ones. Teachers want to stay. We want to believe. We just need to feel seen. Thank you for listening. Thank you for being here.
Thank you. Board as part of your board documents have been provided with minutes of our last board meetings. Do I have a motion to approve the minutes as per Medicines. Second. I have a motion and a second. Is there any comment or discussion? Hearing none, all in favor, say aye. Aye. No worries. Medicines are approved. Thank you. Moving on to the financial report, doctor Sandy. Thank you, mister president. Member of the board, included in your documents for tonight's meeting, you will find the claims docket totaling $18,964,236.97
for your review. A few items to note for this month. You can see those expenditures, in some instances, move from the operations fund to the referendum fund as we spend down cash balances in those areas. As always, I welcome any questions that you have and respectfully ask for approval of the financial report as presented. I move for approval of the financial report as presented. Second. Thank you. We have a motion and a second. Any comment or discussion? Hearing none, all in favor say aye? Aye. To vote.
Financials financial report is approved. Thank you, doctor Samuel. Thank you. Moving on to old business, bid for Rose and Romeo Insurance renovations. Thank you again, mister president, members of the board. We have two different bid approvals this evening. The first one is referencing renovations in the Roby and Rhodes front offices. As you know quick shot. Over the last four to five years, we have been able to tackle interior spaces within our schools across the district and especially our elementary schools.
These are two projects that we have pushed off a little bit further, from what we initially planned as I came on board here, but also our projects that leave certain buildings in the district in an inequitable position compared to their peers. I think the other the other factor here as we look at these projects is knowing that these are the first phases that our our students and families enter when they do come to our school buildings. So lots of different pieces that go into that. When we look at the bid documents, you can see that the work is limited
in scope to flooring, wall coverings, electrical, and then associated general trades. Second. There are two different, I'm sorry, four different bid packages then resulting from that. And as always, I will work through those one at a time for your action. The first package is for general trades. There were four bidders for this work. I'm happy to answer any questions that you have and do request approval of the base bid for package number one, general trades, at a total of $414,980 from SCS
Construction Services. Correct. I recommend approval for bid package one general trades. Okay, sir. I I have a motion and a second. Any comments or discussion? Here now, all in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Bid package one for general trades is approved. Thanks for doctor Sanders. Thank you, mister president. The second bid package, is for flooring and tile. We had five bidders for this work as you can see on tabulation. Similarly, I'm happy to answer any questions that you have on this bid and respectfully request approval of the base bid for flooring from Jack Lurie Group at a total
of $84,485 for package number two. How much? I will for approval of package two, Lauren and Tom. Second. We have a motion and a second for bid package two. Any comment or discussion? Hearing none, all in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Bid package two for flooring and tile is approved. Thank you, doctor Singh. Thank you again. The third bid package is for painting and wall covering. We only have one bidder for this portion of the work. Just as before, I'm happy to answer questions that you have and respectfully ask for
approval of the base bid for painting and wall covering from in line painting at a total of $119,485 for bid package number three. That we recommend, handing out the package in line three. Mhmm. Thank you. Second. We have a motion and a second for bid package three. Any comment or discussion? Bring that all up there. No worries. Aye. Any opposed? And in package three for Benny Walker. Thank you, doctor. Thank you. The fourth and final bid package for this project is for electrical.
We had three bidders for this work. And once again, I'm happy to answer any questions that you have. Respectfully ask approval of the base bid for electrical work from Miller Eads at a total cost of $33,190 for bid package number four. I move for approval. Bid package four electrical. Second. We have a motion and a second. We have a comment for discussion. Hearing none, all in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Good package for for electrical work is approved. Thank you, doctor Sam. Thank you. Moving on to, b, bid stop building Garden City, Jared Waller.
Thank you once again, mister president. Members of the board, included in your documents for this evening, you will also find the recommendation letter for our 2026 roofing and exterior wall improvement work at Stoutfield in Garden City. Similar to the the previous, there are two bid packages for your action this evening. And I would add, there will be a number of other, components within roofing, that will come our way. We're working with our our vendor, Etika, to finalize some of those and get them
out to vendors as we transition, as we've talked to a lot more of keeping students safe, warm, and dry as far as far as our capital projects focus rather than some of those lingering pieces to bring all of our schools in line with carpeting, wall coverings, etcetera. So appreciate your, consideration here. The first bid package will replace the entire roof at Stoutfield Elementary School. We were once again able to reduce cost on a roofing project by utilizing an
overlay method where we will apply the new roof directly over the current roof. That saves us money on the removal and, trash, basically, for for getting rid of the other roof as well as some labor costs. I'm happy to answer any questions on that project and respectfully ask approval of the base bid at a total of $768,178 from South Central Roofing for project number one, roof work at Stoutfield Elementary School.
I recommend approval for project one, roof work. Second. We have a motion and a second. Any comment or discussion? Hearing none, all in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? The bid package one for the Southfield Elementary Group. Thank you, doctor Sangler. Thank you, mister president. The second bid package addresses exterior wall maintenance improvements at Garden City Elementary. This work is related to final completion of ceiling and tuck pointing to ensure we prevent any future issues with environmental hazards like we experienced this summer at Garden City.
As you know, there were some significant costs involved in remediation of those issues. So we're optimistic, that this will prevent that in the future, and I think it really underscores the importance of maintenance of our facilities, and that and how that can reduce costs into the future. Happy to answer any questions that you have and respectfully request approval of the base bid for $215,490 from Blakely for project number two, wall work at Garden City Elementary.
I recommend approval for project two, wall work. Second. We have a motion and a second. Any comment or discussion? Hearing none, all in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Aye. And package number two for the exterior wall work at Garden City. It's approved. Thank you, doctor Stan. Thank you. Moving on to new business and human resources, mister Fessler. Thank you, mister president, members of the board. You've received in your board docs the human resources reports a one and a two. Addendum a one, addendum a two, and addendum a 2.1
have been made available for your review. Like to answer any questions you may have and respectfully ask that you approve human resources reports a one, a two, and addendums a one, a two, and a 2.1. Two. I move for approval of the personnel reports as presented to you. Second. I have a motion and a second to be encountered for discussion. Carry on. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? The human resources reports a one, a two, addendum a one, addendum a two, and
a 2.4 are approved. Thank you, mister president. Thank you, mister president. Members of the board, I'd also like to recognize one of the new teachers that you, just approved tonight. Brett Cooper is with us. Brett will be joining Ben Davis High School in the PE department. And, additionally, Brett will serve as the head varsity football coach at Ben Davis who's with us tonight. Moving on to donations. Mister president, members of the board, I have a long list of donations for your consideration this evening. For Robie Elementary, we have a donation of 150 pairs of headphones valued at $1,050
from the Claremont Lions Club. To Southfield Elementary, we have 50 Pacers tickets valued at $1,000 from the Indiana Pacers Sports and Entertainment Group. For Chapelwood, we have food valued at $800 for their sweetener's food bank. Also, from Fort Chapelwood, we have food bags for 50 students valued at $2,400 from Chi Chi Omega. For Chapelwood, we have 24 pairs of swim issues valued at $1,080 from Operation School Bell. For Chapelwood, we have a check in the amount of $2,000 from a community member
for supplemental pantry donation. For Chapelwood, we have 75 coats valued at $1,875 from American Charity Company. Also, for Chapelwood, food for the food pantry valued at $800 from Blenders Food Bank. 12 bears, 50 hats and 50 scarves valued at $250 from the Speedway Stitchers and Knitters to Chapelwood Elementary. Christmas gifts for a family valued at $200 from Prismian to Chapelwood. Christmas gifts for six families valued at $900 from Chapel Hill Lions Club to Chapelwood
Elementary. What's it? Christmas gifts for six students valued at $900 from the YMCA to Chapelwood. Christmas gifts for 16 students valued at $1,600 from the Chapelwood staff to Chapel Hill Elementary family. Gifts for 10 students, Secret Santa, $1,500 value from Ben Davis High School staff to Chapel Hill Elementary. Gifts for 10 students valued at $1,000 from Chapel Hill United Methodist Church to Chapel Hill Elementary. A check-in the amount of $2,000 from a community member for supplemental funding for the
food pantry to Chapel Hill. Gifts for two students valued at $400 from the eighty ks sorority to Chapelwood Elementary. Gift cards and green bags are $4,500 from Chapel Rock Christian Church to Chapelwood Elementary. Weekend meal power pack valued at $2,400 from Chi Chi Omega chip committee to Chapelwood Elementary. 225 homemade scarves valued at $1,125 from Church of the Master to Chapelwood. Boxes for 36 families valued at $900 from Lily via Cleaners to Chapelwood.
Gifts and breakfast with Santa valued at $700 from the Wayne Township Trustees in Chapelwood. A check-in the amount of $500 from a community member to help holiday families for Chapelwood. Gifts, breakfast, and lunch valued at $300 from a community member for holiday meals and gifts to Chapelwood. A monetary donation of $500 for the robotics team at Ben Davis High School from a parent of a robotics team member. A $2,500 donation from the Indiana Bar Foundation for Bendemas High School to be used
for a mock trial. A Dodge Caravan valued at $4,500 from Tracy and Dave Vietch for the area 31 program. A 2012 Chevy Silverado valued at $1,500 from R and M Electric for the area 31 program. And 300 pairs of shoes valued at $22,500 from the Assistance League of Indianapolis for Wayne Township students pre k through grade five. Mister president, members of the board, respectfully request that we will do these donation.
We approve the donations as listed by doctor Pierce. No. We wish you to add a second. Any time for discussion? You said it's. All All favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Donations are approved. Thank you, doctor Peters. Thank you. We've gone to field trips. Well, I have a rather short list for you today on field trips, mister president, members of the board. We have a request for one field trip for Ben Davis University junior and senior national honor society members to travel to Queens Island in Ohio on May 14 to
attend the parks educational day. Oh. Request approval of this field trip. I move for approval of the field trip as definitive. Second. We have a motion and a second. No comment or discussion. Hearing none. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? No. The filter is presented. Thank you. Moving on to the 2025, 2026, and 2026, 2027 school calendar revisions. Thank you, mister president, members of the board. You received in your board docs the revisions for the calendars for '25, '26, and
2627. As a result of our collective bargaining agreement, we needed to add a section to the previously approved calendars that reads, if there is one snow day remaining spring break, its snow day will be used on the Friday before Memorial Day. I'd like to answer any questions you may have and respectfully ask for approval of for reapproval of the 02/2026 school calendar and 02/2027 school. Oh. Alright. Approval for the twenty twenty five to twenty six. What is that? Twenty six to twenty twenty seven school calendar.
Hold on. No motion. They have a second. Any comment or discussion? Hearing none, all in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? 2526 and 2627 school calendar revisions. Thank you, mister Preston. Moving on to the 02/2028 school calendar. Yeah. Mister president, members of the board, you received in your board docs the 02/2028 school calendar for your review. This year, we had 906 teachers vote, which is the highest we've ever had vote for the calendar, and 54% selected the calendar in front of you.
So this calendar has the first day for staffs being July 26 and students starting July 28. School year ends for students on May 31 and staff wraps up the school year the following day on June 1. Happy to answer any questions you may have and respectfully ask for approval of the 02/2028 school calendar. Make a motion to approve the calendar. I think that's 2027. Have a motion and a second. Can you comment or discussion? Hearing none, all in favor, say aye. Aye. The 02/2028 school calendar is approved.
Moving on to authorization to sign agreements for alternative services and private residential school placement. Yes, mister president. With the board, I am requesting approval from the board to authorize doctor Stuves to serve as the board's delegate. The signing authority for agreements related to alternative services and private residential placements. As needed for students who require what is called extraordinary educational need, which is for students who are identified as eligible for special education services and we need additional support
beyond the services provided through the office of special services. We actually request your approval of authorization of the alternative services and private residential school placement form. I move for approval of the authorization to sign agreements for alternative services and private residential school placements. Second. May I have a motion to add a second to the topic or discussion? Hearing none, all in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? And the authorization to sign agreements for alternative services and priorities and interest replacement for
improvement. Thank you, doctor. Moving on to the resolution to approve amendment and and restatement of the four fifty seven plan. Thank you, mister president. Manager of the board, including your documents for this evening, you will also find the resolution to approve amendment and restatement of the MSD Wayne Township four fifty seven b plan. This resolution gives us the power to make changes to the plan to keep us in compliance with new rules and regulations related to secure two point o.
In the most recent batch of those, it includes new catch up amounts and the addition of Roth IRAs as options within that plan. Happy to answer any questions that you may have and respectfully ask approval of the resolution to approve amendment and restatement of the MSD Wayne Township four fifty seven e plan. I'm looking for approval for the amendment and reinstatement of the MSD Wayne Township four fifty seven e plan. Second. I have a motion and a second. Any comments or discussion?
All in favor, say aye. Aye. And the resolution to approve amendment and restatement of the four fifty seven b plan is approved. Thank you, doctor Singh. Thank you. Moving on to the resolution of the MSC of Oneontownship School Board. Thank you again, mister president. Also, in your documents this evening, you'll find the resolution to approve deposits and investments in CDs. This is one of our annual resolutions. However, it does appear in a slightly different, format and wording this evening due to some changes in Indiana code in the last legislative session.
For our purposes, this resolution allows us to solicit bids and invest in certificates of deposit that are the most financially beneficial to the district and outlines the steps that we need to take to accomplish that. A lot of these rules revolve around financial institutions that have a footprint within the county where a school district resides. We're obviously very fortunate in Marion County that almost any financial institution we can think of does have a branch or footprint here. But there are now provisions that would allow us to use an entity outside of
the county if that ever became financially advantageous. I welcome any questions that you have and, again, respectfully ask approval for the resolution to approve deposits and investments in CVs. I move for approval of the resolution to approve deposits deposits and investments in CDs. Second. We have a motion and a second. Any comment or discussion? I understand. I think we could explain a little bit more what Michael purchase means. I can't I believe that's the is that the next agenda item? We skipped one. Yeah. We Oh, sorry.
My apologies. Okay. Well, let's go back. Let me talk about micro purchases then. We want the deck. That is accurate. Okay. So we're gonna back up to yeah. Any additional comment for this? All in favor, so you can call by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? Like you're saying, no. The resolution is approved. It's And the power is back. Agenda item h. My apologies, for, catching that.
Members of the board, to see maybe also in your packet is the micro purchase threshold. And so this is a new one. It is not something that we have previously addressed, and we've we've analyzed getting this in place. Our legal counsel advised bringing this resolution forward. Future steps include an upcoming proposal that would add language on this topic to a board policy, which would refer back to this resolution. So in short, it is a two step process, and the resolution that is before
you today is step number one. In regards to the definition of a micropurchase, I looked I couldn't find a specific definition in Indiana code, but, really, what it is referring to is, what steps a public entity, not just schools, would need to take in order to ensure we're gonna invest pricing and service from vendors. So, as time goes on, Indiana's general assembly gives us the ability to raise that threshold where we can just receive a quote from a vendor.
And as long as it is deemed in line with, the services we are expecting and the pricing that we deem to be appropriate, we can proceed. The alternate to that is the requirement that we get three different quotes from three separate vendors. And so, that is our practice, on on almost everything, to be perfectly honest. There are places within our operations where, you know, we we don't have three visitors
in the area that we can get pricing from. And so this gives us some flexibility there. This in particular exclusion provides or or it applies mostly at federal grant awards, honestly. And so it's even more, I think, wish than than you would typically see for the I apologize again on that error, and I am happy to answer any questions that you have, regarding micro purchases. Oh my god. How would you like that one? The opposed? Doctor Samuel, that resolution is approved. Thank you very much.
Thank you. How will I Moving on to board reports, demographic statement. Mister president, member of the board, it's my pleasure to introduce to you this evening doctor Susan Brudwig. Doctor Brudwig has conducted demographic research for the MSD of Wayne township in the past, and we are pleased to have her here with us again to share her most recent findings. Please note that this report is included in your documents for this evening as a reference point. And welcome, doctor Brudwig.
I see that you have the presentation up and ready to go. Yes. I do. Can you hear me alright? We can. Thank you. Alright. Well, thank you very much for having me this evening. I have visited you before in person, but this is my first time presenting with you remote. So, I I'm just letting you know I have not the best eyes in the world. So if I do turn to my larger screen in front of me, it's just so I can see a little bit better. I wanted to present some data for you. This does include your k through 12 enrollment through fall, so I'll refer to that
as 2025. One thing I won't do today is I won't spend a lot of time reading some of the slides. My intention is really to go through the slides themselves. So like for instance this slide, slide four, I'll leave that for reading later but I'm going to focus more on the numbers and the graphics that tell this story. So I first do like to start with what does the population look like? Because it's school enrollment that we're largely interested in, I do pull from a variety
of sources that show enrollment, I should say population of children specific to Wayne Township and actually specific to the school district boundaries. So this is an example of data that is produced by the Census Bureau. It's an estimate, and what I mean by an estimate, it's not precise. It has a margin of error. It can go up and it can go down. What we're really looking at for here is trends over time.
It's based on a survey. And because it's based on a survey of basically a small area, when you think about The United States, a school district is a relatively small area. It's an average of five years. So I'm belaboring this point just a little bit for a reason. When we look at this data that you have in front of you, for instance if you look at 2021, that number is the number of children that are, resident population in MSD Wayne Township.
And you'd say, oh, that's 2021. Actually, that's an average of the last five years. So that average really is more like a midpoint, 2019. And I'll come back to this number, 2,019, the year 2019. It's the year in which a lot of demographic patterns started to change and shift, not just in population, but also in enrollment. And if you think about what happened the year after that, that was our COVID year. A lot of change has occurred since then, including enrollment declines in your school district
as well as others. I'm gonna go on to the next slide, which is the number of state funded students, and it says DOE, meaning this is data provided by the State Department of Education. So these are, children who are funded by the state of Indiana, to attend a school, and, these numbers show two things. The purple bar are those students who are residents and enrolled in your schools, and
then the yellow little tiny piece that grows a little bit over time are those students who, are residents of Wayne Township MSD but choose to attend another school, for instance, a public charter or, would have a choice scholarship. And we can see over time that, gold bar has slightly increased. And you may have seen that last number in 2025, 1720 '1 as being of
a number that we often think of as students who transfer out of the school district. Numbers not included here. Homeschool would be a very good example of a number that's not tracked by the Department of Education. A student who was privately funded to attend, private school, not, choice scholarship would not be included here either. The next slide I think is also another important slide and I will come back to this theme again later. This goes back again to that survey I mentioned from, the Census Bureau And again,
it's still an estimate, so it's not precise. It does have a margin of error, but it is a look over a ten year period of the estimate of the number of preschool aged children who are resident in your school district boundaries. So very clear downward trend over time, a ten year period minus over 20%. So again, I'll come back to this as being a theme of fewer numbers of preschool age children. And then one of the big pieces I have for you is, the number of
resident births. So this comes to us from the state department of health. It is countywide. We do not necessarily go are able to get data that is below the county level, but we do have a method in which to apportion it to your school district. So I am gonna point out here that there is no, zero on the y axis. So it does magnify the, the trend here. So I'm intentionally doing that to draw your attention to what's going on.
So one thing I really look at at this trend of births over time, this goes back to 2001. So it's like almost a twenty five year look back. I look at a graphic like this and I say, look. You know, it looks like, 14,500 is a really important number, and it is because that's the number in which from that point, births peaked in Marion County somewhere around the year 2007 2008.
That was the peak in terms of the number of births. That's very relevant because those children now are in high school or have graduated high school. And over time, they are being replaced by fewer and fewer numbers of students. So looking at nothing else, just on this basis alone, we would anticipate that enrollments would decline over time because larger graduating classes and smaller entering ones. We did have a considerable, though, change in pattern.
Again, we have that, COVID does a lot of things, 2020, and it changed some things, including birth patterns. We were at a low or a trough at that point in time, and then most recently, there's been a reversal in the birth numbers. So we're back to about fourteen, thousand five hundred ish in terms of the number of births that have occurred to residents of Marion County. So I will come back to this as well when we talk about your forecast.
So where did that bump or recent increase in the number of births come from? So here I have a quick look at Marion County births by what we call the natality of mom or the natality of mother. And where was she born? Was she a foreign born? Or was she born here in The United States? And the most recent increase of births did come from mothers who were foreign born. It's also accompanied by an increase in the number of people who live within Marion
County, also foreign born. So what would we do when we think about a forecast for births? One thing we're going to do is forecast the number of births out. I'll tell you that I do later on, I make an assumption about higher or lower births, but we do forecast the births out and account for them in our enrollment process. Another thing we do, because Marion County births, we're using those because they're total, we want to apportion them to the school district.
So what percentage of births are accounted for as, for instance, kindergartners. And this is data specifically for your school district. And on average, if you look back to about twenty o eight, about, oh, you know, eight to nine percent of births that were occurring in the county, those folks we could actually those children, we could actually we could reliably count upon as coming into Wayne township schools.
I noted, with Steve before that basically this number and this trend line is very, very telling. It is one of the tightest and most, I it's just very, tight trend line that very clearly gives us a direction in which it's going. We can see I look for lower lows. Right? So you can see the impact here, and I've pointed it out, of COVID. That's a lower percentage of students coming in. And that number was repeated two years later, lower.
And again, twenty twenty five fall, another lower low. These are very clear indications that the percentage of births is actually going down. What I mean by that is even even with an increase in Marion County births, your share of that increase is declining and is declining over time. So some of the things I look at when I look at birth patterns I mean, I'm sorry, enrollment patterns. I have a look back here about twenty years of your total enrollment.
This is fall enrollment, and it is tied to your ADM or your certified enrollment counts. So those things are tied to your funding. So I do rely on those numbers, and those are the numbers I'm gonna, show for you as well as forecast for you. Again, I'm looking at some data without that zero on the y axis, so I am magnifying the trend here to point it out. But, again, 2019, pre COVID, was your peak. That year year enrollment peaked at about 17,000 students and most recently was at about
15,000 students. So we clearly see it rising and then falling after COVID. Another thing I do is I want to break out that enrollment change, and I have two panels here. The top panel basically is year to year change, those numbers you saw previously. Are they growing or declining? And you can see where it actually starts declining post COVID. Every single year on year was a decline in the number of students enrolled in
the schools. And then the bottom panel is what we call replacement and retention. And so that those figures basically, indicate why numbers either increased or declined. So let me take that last number you see there. Last year, that top panel, your total enrollment declined by 626 students. The question is why? Why did that happen? Number one, it was due to negative replacement.
Negative replacement here is actually 470 students. So you lost 470 students because 470 students graduated, then entered in kindergarten. In a way, it's being a victim of your own success. We want our students to graduate. But because you have so many students going through the system, they're not being replaced by fewer and fewer entering kindergarten classes. And then you also had, you did lose some students who would have otherwise, you
know, not been retained. But I would say you have had years in which you haven't had a lot of loss. For instance, in 2024 or 2023. And the reason why was because you had students coming in that compensated through the the, negative replacement. So you had more students coming in or at least helping to compensate for the very large graduating classes. And one of the reasons is this slide. Now you may have seen different numbers, and I did mention that 1721 previously as
a number, but this is a little bit different take. I just looked at your public transfers. And so what we mean by public transfers is those students who leave, those students who choose to attend another public school or public charter. You, I would say, are winning at the transfer game when it comes to public enrollment. You're bringing in more students as in transfers than those who are attending another public
school or public, charter. So that actually helps contribute to, enrollment. And it's also another way to say without that, your total enrollment would actually be lower. Oops. Sorry about that. I I have a very loose mouse. So, I'm gonna talk a little bit about what I do with an enrollment forecast, and this is an enrollment forecast. One thing I'm looking at is I am, looking at kindergartners and tying those to the verse.
I vary the assumptions higher or lower. Another thing I'm looking at is I am looking at whether or not, how students progress from grade to grade. Obviously, students graduate, so we call this, progression or cohort progression. So it's a cohort progression model. There's not one best number, So there is a base forecast here, what I'd consider the most likely, for instance, a trend that tends to happen over time, but there's
variation around that trend. So some of the more favorable patterns for growth, those go into a high forecast, as well as some of the more unfavorable patterns for growth, those go into a low forecast. So I'm gonna basically focus right now on what we would call the base forecast, but I will show you the high and the low in a bit. So the the, this is divided into two, like, ten year sections. And on the left hand side, you see your last ten years.
Again, I'll point out that 2019 peak from which you started to decline. On the right hand side is a forecast of your enrollment. You were at about 17,000 students five years ago, about 15,000 today. And the forecast has you at about 14,000 in five years and about 13,000 in ten. I would say that's around a decline of about, on average, 200 students per year. So compared to what you recently experienced, which was, a loss of 600 plus students,
this forecast actually kind of is a balance and and says that's a bit of a one off. We don't I don't see the the patterns in the numbers that would suggest that would persist over time, that kind of loss that you experienced last year. And the second thing we look at or I look at is this notion of replacement. So replacement, again, is the size of your graduating class in relationship to your entering kindergarten class. And what this graphic shows you is basically why.
Why would we anticipate that in ten years, your enrollment would be about 13,000 students? And basically this graphic shows it's, again, I would call it, for lack of a better term, being a victim of your own success, having very large graduating classes go through, but unfortunately not being replaced by equal size in the entering, entering classes. So in general, for every two students, in this balance, you're just not compensating for
additional students coming in. I would say the forecast does assume you're gonna continue to bring students in. This forecast does assume you will continue to win at the transfer, the public transfer numbers that you would generally, bring more transfers in than actually trans public transfers going out. And what would we expect also by grade level? I would anticipate that your current, high school, which is over 4,000 students, would go
to about 3,500 in ten years. Ninth grade academy be below, 1,000 in ten years. Your intermediate middle school aged, children under 2,000 in ten years. And your element These go from about, 7,600 to under 7,000 in ten years. This is what is suggested in the numbers. And lastly, I did mention that there's no one perfect number. There is some evidence in your moment patterns that it's possible I wouldn't say it's
possible to gain students, but maybe possible to start stabilizing with more favorable patterns. But there's also a scenario in which your forecast or enrollments could be as low as 11,000, if something continued to happen in the environment. Let's just say last year wasn't a one off that was more indicative of a pattern that would continue. And so this is the presentation that I have for you this evening. Were there any questions for doctor Rebnick or doctor Sez? Anything like that?
No. We want to I don't wanna add anything. Just wanna thank, doctor Brevnick for her work, on this project for us. It's very timely, right now, and we were wanting to understand those patterns and so we could do some planning in the future. So this was very helpful for us. Nor do you have any clarifying questions? Great information, doctor. Thank you very much. Okay. Yeah. Thank you. Doctor Harvey, is it okay if I close out the Zoom on here? Numbers and then a little bit about what we're looking for and looking forward.
Okay? Things here this year, we're just over 2,200 staff, almost divided in half with a few more on the certified side than classified side. This breaks it down, more demographically, male and female, and then graph by race. And then just some, visuals that go along with those numbers. That's been pretty steady as we look back over the years. There's a few more, certified males this year, and then, demographically, we may have gotten
a little more letters year right here. But both, certified and classified staff. So here's some historical data of the number of hires. Now we had this year was 115, so up here about 10%. National average is nine. So we're right there at that national average for, you know, turnover. And then we talk about where did people go, who left us last year. So the highest numbers went to a different district for a different career, between two retirements, 12 besides the state owned, three locations outside of the state or country, a
nine for promotion, seven for performance, licensing, grad school, and, of course, we had a teacher passed away. Super. So right now, we have open each, Biden, only if you can see the numbers up here where we're openings are right now and our certified teachers. And then our classified positions Right. Where openings are. Okay. Mostly paraprofessionals. I know doctor Murph was I didn't update these numbers. Nine. Good habits. It's time. I'm not sure if you could take some of these are probably changed a little bit. And then the main question about those nouns, the fact that you solve for there.
K. That's a pretty typical state number for where we're at right now. So as we look at and talk about developing great people and pathways for all of our staff, certified to, if there's something that they're looking at to do differently. Some of those pathways are in special education through the ICL program and some other alternative licensing. We have our adult education partnership, who because, like, a little bit of a unique program, they are working with people who are foreign born but were teachers in their
country. They've come to United States. They've worked here, and they have a great program where they're working with them to get their transcripts reviewed and monitored to see what transfers over to, to a a an American transcript, what they needed to become a teacher. They're helping them with the practice test as well. And we actually just hired Bridgeport actually. We hired Victoria who came out of this program and taught in her native country,
the South Dakota Garden, Bridgeport. So they have a few more that are in the pipeline that are are gonna be ready real soon. Because I'm trans currently, we have 33 teachers in any transition to teaching program. So these are others for your people who decided education was with them. And that's all over the board in terms of what program they might they might be in, because there are a lot of those programs right now that you can do. We have one that we partnered with for quite a while, and that's the district based alternative certification through IU in Minneapolis. And that is a program for current employees, Typically, care professionals, we've had a couple
of secretaries build this up. But typically, they have a degree somewhere else, and they are going through that program and meets in person and virtually. We both see part of that program. I have a night, and we have night that we host. So the cohort has grown to not just be Wayne, but I have Decatur, Washington also have the program. One, we're excited about that program, but another one that we just talked to, I mean, I've got called adapt. And this is for people where we have a little bit more. We have we did have when we first started, the district based on certification, we
had a big cohort group. We had our own cohort. They met here. We saw 15 people. We hired a whole bunch of them out of that program. That numbers can saturate a little bit. Other programs became, maybe more friendly to folks who couldn't come in person. We needed to work at a different pace. And so that lost a little bit of steam, but we slow it up every year. Again, it's cohort in there. But there's a group of employees who have some college credits, but they haven't they don't have enough to graduate. And so that was an area we started to look at through American College, station,
through other programs, but IU India has just come up with the adapt program. So this is for people who have 30 credits or 69, somewhere in there to help those folks finish up and get their education degree while it's still work. And so we actually have a call out meeting for both. I mean, there's a for both of the programs. And our education foundation have been great with scholarships for our staff who are looking to be incorporating like that. We have our brand collaboration with IUMD in Mississippi Annapolis, for all of the high
school levels. You know, we have a class. We've talked about the class before at, Ben Davis High School. They call them the future influencers class. They thought I was in the cooler. I guess, the future teachers, but for future influencers class. And, we're gonna talk about and a little bit about some opportunities we're gonna do working with them to to help that. And then we learned from our stay interviews that leadership opportunity, a lot of our staff are looking for those opportunities to lead. They don't wanna they don't wanna change in this from teaching administration or, from their role to administration, but they're looking to find those opportunities.
And we talked about that. Just to research so the teachers when teachers have leadership role and decision making, they're, was actually achievement student achievement goes on. And so in schools where teachers are asked for input and and work collaboratively with administration, they see an increase in their student test scores. And when genuine teacher voice is included, report higher jobs satisfaction, more reporting work, which we know is tied to. So we really wanna work with school administrators to identify and what are those opportunities
to lead within the school or the district, and can we get those match those with those folks who are really interested. Mommy, you know Everyone continue to do our hours today interview. They were so good. And I'm looking around some folks out here participated in those interviews where we came around, locked up to people, 250 teachers were coming back. Right? Doctor Mark and I are coming back to to do it again. So maybe you'll be part of that group to come back and talk about important questions of why would people say, if you were thought about leaving, what would prompt that, what do you do with your job while reporting?
Those have been great. Selfishly, we've told you before, so I've been, I selfishly enjoyed sitting down and actually being able to be face to face with people for a little bit of time and have that conversation. We'll continue to be a visible presence in school to connect and then really look at our that PMRA month survey data to see what are we doing in terms of HR that is related to morale. I believe we have intentions that we can do to help, improve those things. Just some so the boring stuff we're gonna do for the HRs is a doubt subscription audit. We haven't done that in a while, and we need to do that to really match up. Jobs have changed.
Of course, the the work in those jobs have changed, and we need to get those to match so that when people go online to look out there, they it's a better reflection of what they're really gonna do. And then, of course, doctor Harvey's gonna tell us how AI can assist us and then all of this in our process of making more efficient as we serve on the AI committee. We wanna look at that and see what what can we do to be more efficient in our roles. We want new staff support. So we know in surveys that teachers are more likely to stay when they and and new teachers, early career teachers, and they still support it through mentor mentorship and
inductive programs. We need to look at our leadership pipeline succession plans to start mapping out, what our current leadership needs may be. And then we have an exit interview. So when people leave Wayne, they get mailed a actually, paper copy where they can fill out some information about their satisfaction. The return rate is not great. It's fallen in one or two camps. The person retired, so they're really happy to to tell us goodbye. Right? Well, our paper wasn't such a great way that we pardoned, and they're great to tell us how horrible, everybody, right, that they ran into.
So we don't get a lot of them involved with Justin. It was information. So we really need to look at that because I think we can be more efficient with it and get a better return rate than we'll give out some better information. And we know 71% of employees are less likely to leave their job. They're recognized more frequently. So we we have to do that. As far as recruitment of new teachers, just keep our contacts up. You know, doctors have all the contacts around the state. So I need to fill that void world that I can't begin to make those same contacts with our state, universities to data track them with student teachers.
Those are, supposed to lead to going on teacher lengths. They can come in the way, whether they'll go to the job, we see them work. They they they like the people they're working with. We wanna build that. We're gonna look at it increase our social media presence, and then work with that to that teaching class that we talked about a little bit. I really like, to look at a program where the students who leave that class, they really are enrolling in an education program to be matched with a current queen and teacher. Not to overload the work, but just as a person they can talk to, check ins here and there. Maybe people they come in in May, we do something where we get together.
They can establish that relationship so they have someone to go to, like an answer. They will probably pick the make sure the students will be able to pick several teachers they want to have and do that. And then we'll just have to convince those teachers to help us do that. That was great question. Very great. But do you have any questions like them? You mentioned the number, and that's why I missed it. The in the pipeline of foreign teachers coming in, what's that number look like? Any idea? Speaking of what or about half of those? I mean, half of that is yeah. I think we're still there.
Couple of them work for us at the right now. There are are some that aren't working here, that are in that. It's a little bit of a long it's a long process. It's the the it all has been great. They are paying for that review of the transcripts, which is a little bit of a waste of the time because, you know, you got people from them all over. But, you know, people who are already start their professionals during their frame, we know their work, we're really excited to let them finish, and then we'll be able to find a position. And we've got got people who are teaching chemistry.
In our country and see if we get caught up on those transcripts to be able to just have it here and start teaching. It's very early in the spring semester, but, do you have any feedback on our young talent student teachers in the pipeline with the spring hiring might reflect? We don't yes. We will have a time where we pass our student meetings where we might interview with our principals, so our principals give us some feedback. That typically happens late February, early March. Great. I do know our numbers are down in terms of student teachers. I think that's reflected with the program.
Mhmm. Right now, we're being told those numbers are still down. So, yeah, we don't have as many as we typically can. We already have a date for IU Purdue to go to their interview days. So we can hear from you and me, excuse me. IU and me in Boston. That's good. Great. Mister Busler, when you do the state interviews, what are some of the reasons why I'm interested? Typically, it is, two dates, the students and in college. The glad respect. It's not we didn't really hear, I love to see for action.
That's a good one. You know, we're based to yeah. I can't I can't I can't I can't I can't I can't I can't I can't I can't I can't I can't I can't I can't I can't I can't I can't I can't I can't connection with English teacher, and always ask them what their favorite quote to each other. But it was really one of the questions we say is, what are you looking forward to on your way into work? And that answer was 99% compared to my colleagues. I wanna see my friends at work, that they they wanna see. And, you know, that's that school, that very well, that department established that, that feeling.
Great information. Thank you so much. Jim. You're on the 2025, 2026 transfer data. Thank you, mister president. I do wanna tell mister president, I was optimistic that that this year, a little more dissertation titled factors that influence teacher retention that was put out into the. I think it might be cited, but I don't know. I have a subfolder stage. That that feels a lot of junk in there. I can't. Thank you again, members of the board. I'm gonna try to zoom in a little bit here. This should look relatively familiar.
It's something that we bring to you every year. And the DOE, after our account dates, publishes what they call these enrollment and transfer report. And then Okay. They just grab it and do a couple of, you know, quick little tweaks to take a look at this. So we're gonna start at 30,000 feet and then drill down to, you know, a much more granular level without taking up too much time here. So this one, though, I think tells a really important story. You can see what I grabbed as kind of a peer group around the area
on the West Side Of Annapolis or within Marion County. And I would point you to the number on the far right. That is the net public and choice scholarship transfers. So it is, as doctor Brudwig mentioned, you know, not uncommon for districts to have some in and out, and we are no different than that. But she did a great job of highlighting that, you know, people are choosing money. And what you see on this graph or this chart is you see that in
the numbers. And so we'll include that a little bit further. That minus two ninety four total migration is a little bit different than what doctor was talking about because that does include choice scholarships. So, that's what pushes that number into the negative from that positive number if we're only looking at public school choices within this market. Every district has a different story. Our purpose isn't to, to to talk about any of those this evening, but more merely to give as a frame of reference for what this is for Duane Township.
Any questions on this portion here? Alright. Let's look at, transfers int. We can't get to grade level data, but we can get to school district data. So where are students who come to Wayne Township coming from? So I don't need to necessarily read all of these to you, but you can see it's a pretty predictable list as you go down because of location, geographically, mostly. And then, of course, because of Achieve Virtual Education, as we scroll down, you're gonna
see start to see lots of one offs. You know? You have DeKalb County Eastern Community School District. I would I'd be going to bet they're not commuting every day Mhmm. To the West Side Of The Minneapolis, but certainly possible. And so that's, where the migration is coming from. Migration out where our students going, again, gives you this frame of reference. What I've broken down here, this would be all public schools. I'll scroll down, a little bit farther here in a moment and give you a
little frame of reference for some of the other choices that are out there. We know Union School Corporation, that's another, been in the news. If you follow the last legislative session, they have an online school also. And so you can see where that how that kind of reflects there. As we scroll down to the number shift over here to public transfers charter, and, again, just like it is labeled, where are students who have residents at MSD of Wayne Township attending school if they are attending a chart.
Yeah. Oh. Alright. Well, three of those. Pretty straightforward. And then on the far right, it does shift then to those nonpublic transfers with choice scholarships that those would be the unique ones that weren't captured with data that we provided, but we could see here what both that looks. Right. Very, very straightforward, but always important information for us to keep an eye on. We've we've, I think, in Wayne Township, embrace that environment for a long time, and that continues to bear that out.
We have great people working with our students, and as a result, we have families that wants their children in those classrooms for those. Any questions before I end it all? It's great information. Thank you, Sharon. Moving on to the overview of senate and rollback floor. Thank you, mister president, members of the board. I wanna thank you and our staff and for the few that are here tonight, not for just being here, which is amazing, that we share in this information, but for your patience as we have, along with our commission of 300 people, some of
you in this room participated, really took the time to help us dissect the ways in which we can become solvent financially, plan for the future, and protect the classroom. And so, tonight is an overview. So I won't get into the deep details of certain programs or but you will have a good idea of the direction that we're moving in, that I certainly hope will be helpful, tonight, but also moving forward.
And then we'll come back, at a later date in the very near future to give more detail, about how our districts will move forward. And so this really is about cost efficiency measures and how we optimize our resources. Do I need to point it? Down. Got it. What we've learned since the commission and we started that work back in October, having conversations, and now here we are in February. Doctor Samuel did a presentation just last school board meeting, to talk about, it was
the board of finance report, and talk about the projections and where we landed at the end of the fiscal year. It's important to understand, and and I know you do, we had our schools. And when the books and things open that our fiscal year is January 1 to December 31. It sometimes comes into conflict with the school year, right, which is July 1 to June 30. So, any school district, that is doing their budget is looking two years out because
of that overlap. Right? But at the 2025, when we first met, with the commission, with staff, we knew that, we were estimating a $15,000,000 deficit. What the actuals came back was a $10,000,000 deficit. And so what was the shift there? What happened, between the time that we did those projections and then the actuals at the December '25? We, looked back at some of the levers we were able to push, including efficiencies
in transportation, some overtime reductions, staffing adjustments, to reflect student enrollment. And as we've learned tonight, it's continuing to decline. And so we made those adjustments as we went along. We also realized a few more dollars in our, tax entities that we weren't expecting. It's not a a whole lot of dollars, but it contribute to, that $5,000,000 that we saw some reductions and Mhmm.
Landed us at the 2025 with a $1,010,000,000 dollar deficit. So that's good news in that we are doing some things actively, as a district to address, the shortfalls. K? That's just a visual. For some of them, I've learned over time. It's easier to understand than to see, that we projected 15,000,000 actually ended at at 10,000,000. And the reductions we were able to find over time represented about 33%, and had
an impact on that deficit. So we are excited about that. K? How so what were the goals of SEA one? Has we met as a commission? One, to balance the budget by 2027. That's pretty aggressive. And I'll show you why. Certainly, we would love to be able to balance. Balance, meaning we'd be solvent and not experiencing these sharp declines, in our, budget. Protect students and the classrooms as much as possible and preserve financial stability for staff
pay and future needs. So that's what we set off as our goals. What is SCA one? This is really quick because I know most everyone, in this room knows exactly what it is, but it is focused on property tax relief for all properties. Because SCA one is the legislation from this past session, not the current session, but the past session. And it affects homes, businesses, agriculture, so our farms, apartments, and and such entities. It impacts all cities, towns, counties, libraries, townships, schools, etcetera.
This is why Wayne Township is not the only school district that has had this conversation. This is statewide. It affects us all in different ways Wow. But, affects us all. K? So our financial deficit, projections over time, this is a really important slide. Beginning in 2021, we had an uptick. You'll see in '24, the decline in our cash flow, based on how we are funded by the state. And then how that's gonna continue to decline, over time through 2028 as a green
salt, senate, enrolled act slide. So, this is a great slide to help also illustrate our cash balance. This is the money that we have at the bank. K? Cool. And so at the height in 2024, you see there '58 we had fifty eight two, and it continues to to decline. The red, mark across the hash lines, our target cash balance that's based on, our
work with our consultants, to be solvent in case something happened. And so that lands right at 26,000,000. Is that what's right? That it said that we need to have it in the bank at any one time to cover several payrolls should something happen. As you can see, this year, 2026, we will start to hit below that. And that is because we are pulling from our cash balance to pay the bills.
And as SEA one is in active so each year, and I I don't wanna misspeak if you wanna explain this, doctor Samuels, our property taxes continue to go down, and it's from property taxes that we get dollars into this form. So and that's just the most simple way to explain it. So that's why you see the decline in terms of our cash balance. K? And this is based on us doing nothing, Okay? These projections.
So by 2020 this school year, we're gonna get really concerned about our cash balance, and really concerned as time goes on in '27 and '28. Alright? Declining enrollment, you've heard that several times tonight. So the red line is enrollment, student enrollment. As you heard, it looks like we're gonna sit at right at 15,000 here for the next couple years and then expect dip of 200 students from then on over time, and then the number of positions versus the enrollment.
So that's something we really have to take a close look at. Question becomes, how does that happen? How do you have all of this staff, right, and we have declining enrollment? Well, several things happen, but but one of the biggest is that there are mandates that come from the state, things we have to do with school systems that cause us to do some hiring. Or they say these positions need to exist usually with support from the state financially, and then that support drops off over time.
But the mandate stays in place. Right? So we're we're facing some of those mandates in the upcoming school year. We're we're thinking through those, in terms of math, especially at the elementary level. And so we're gonna have to be creative to meet that demand and make sure students are getting the supports at that tier two and tier three. It's good to make note that we collect approximately 17,000,000, from our current referendum that will expire in 2027.
At that time, we asked for this referendum and our community supported it just so that we could make the budget. That was the hole that we needed to fill at the time. And so the $17,000,000 is not extra. That is part of our budget. K? Yeah. And how do we spend our dollars? That's the breakdown as you can see, and you probably would have guessed that the congruence of our budget goes to salary and benefits. The next largest piece is supplies. And then the one offs are fuel and utilities, which I might add are continuing
to go up, and then substitutes there outside safety. So the guiding principles. So here are these eight guiding principles, super important. Student centered decision making, equity and fairness, transparency and honesty, innovation and creativity, shared responsibility, evidence informed and data driven, long term sustainability, and respectful collaboration. What I will tell you, what took, a preponderance of our time as we went through the data, when you have 300 people that are giving information to you and
helping us problem solve and think through ways in which our district can do all of those things and protect the classroom, which is most important, that's a lot of data. And we analyzed every single piece to make sense of it, to catalog it, to put timelines to it, to understand who, you know, is gonna be affected because it is the people. You you said it well tonight. It is the people here who come every day and and give up their gifts
and talents to our students that make Wayne what it is. It's why people and our children and our families choose when. It's the folks that we have here every day. So being deliberate and taking the time to look through that data to understand what the impacts are gonna be were very, very important to this process. So for right now, here is where we land. We land here that there is no reduction in force, for twenty twenty six, twenty seven. Staff reductions, will occur through attrition.
So as people leave, all of those positions will be analyzed. Adjustments of programming. So roles and responsibilities will be adjusted for some positions to meet legislative mandates and meet student needs. So there will be some shifts. Okay. We can't say today exactly what those shifts are gonna be because once through attrition, we have to analyze the positions that are no longer with us, how does that fit into the scheme of things, and how we meet the needs of students. Restructure of curricular purchases, and we've done this in the past, in meeting the needs
where we stretch out some of those adoption years and look at curriculum materials and see where we can save dollars. Centralizing of processes and duties. So as you're aware, we did that this year with centralized enrollment. And so we're gonna continue to perfect, that process thanks to the team here and the leadership of doctor Harvey. We're gonna continue to to, get better at doing that and then look at other processes that we might be able to centralize, that is more efficient for our district.
And then the restructure of digital software applications. So really doing a deep dive into some of the applications we've had for years. It was great at one time. Now we're not using it as much, but we're still paying for those contracts to really clean those up, as well as printing frameworks. So we're gonna take a look at, how we're printing across the district, how we can become more digitized and save dollars in that way. So that's the plan moving forward. We need the opportunity to talk, as I mentioned earlier, to individuals who will be
impacted, before we share out exactly what these things might look like, for next school year and moving forward. But we'll share that data here in the very near future. Okay. Lauren, do you have any questions? And so, again, that's just a visual of that. The $10,000,000 that we still need to find inefficiencies. The things I just shared with you comes to approximately 11,000,000. It'd be great to be able to say problem solved. You only needed to find 10. But as I showed earlier, the decline continues.
We're just trying to keep up at this point, Right? With this. Doctor, so I'd say I have a question for you. The the decline that we talked about financially, did that take into account what we just saw within declining enrollment? The decline we just saw. The The declining enrollment. Mhmm. Is that also part of the mining that we know the brake climbing? Yes. Yes. It is. That's what it's been. It is. Not as far out as doctor Brudnick shared. You know, we we've gone out to 2031 and predicting that there will be some
decline. Those numbers could be at worst. Back to your question, those numbers could be at worst depending on enrollment. So it does feel like this thing we're chasing after. We're trying to catch up, but we're running as fast as we can at prompts, to make decisions that are gonna be impactful. Again, that will protect the classroom and and, as much as possible, protect the people that are here. Other questions? Yeah. Right here. The comments. Again, thank you to those of you who participated. We'll continue this work. You'll have other opportunities in the future to participate. Your input is gonna help us get us where we need to be financially.
Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Do you have any more information about this to see? Oh, I do have a few. Some I'm super excited about. Wanted to share that the general assembly is still moving right along. We're in February. As you know, they they're cutting this really short. It usually goes till mid March, and we're expecting that the session will end February 27. Just a couple of bills I want you to be aware of.
Senate bill seven seventy eight is our wireless, communications device policy to secure phones during school hours. So, really, the conversation is where. If you think of our secondary schools, and lockers, and a lot of our kids don't use the lockers. There are some of our schools that don't have a place to secure them. So that's really the discussion in that senate bill. So look, we can post it. And then there's senate bill, one fifty nine, school technology plans and policies that seeks
to give parents the ability to change access options on our school based devices to devices we send home. So we're analyzing that bill in terms of any financial, obligation that's gonna place our district in order to make that happen and give that access to parents. And I'll also it was included in Big Pack Minutes, the, link to watch those bills closely as they move through. But I'll send another email to all staff so everyone has access to those.
We are super excited to announce the launch of our Wayne Way volunteer award in which we recognize the great work of our volunteers throughout the community. So I'd like for you to think about those folks who come to your schools, help them in your classrooms, those big gestures for your schools so that you can, nominate them for this award, and we will recognize them in our regular school board meeting. So the criteria and nomination form, can be found on our website.
And then, finally, mister Ben Wakefield, happy birthday yesterday. You guys missed it. Sorry. We bought it. That's right. And it is our as is our, our tradition, we'd like to sing happy birthday to mister Wakefield. I know it's lost. But it's hard. It's hard. Alright. Congratulations. I will I will I will tell you that you lied if you repeat this. You sound much better than my shirt when they say you did. I understand the point. Thank you very much.
It's getting reported here. Thank you. Thank you. Board, I've got a couple of, goodies here for us. We've got a study in Indiana School Board Association certifying our membership this year. Sent to us some very nice packaging. We'll meet back with doctor Suggs, to maintain here with, you know, soon. And, also, this, maybe a note for doctor Samuel. I've got a very nice letter here from doctor Scott Bowling, the executive director of the Indiana Association of School of Business Officials.
He's writing to congratulate Claire Messmer for completing the required required courses for the Indiana Association of School Business Official Certification Program. She participated and completed sixty six hours of instruction, and her certification designation is business office specialist. So please share our congratulations with Claire. That'll be best. Very positive. Thank you. And, Ward, do we have anything else to say? Okay. Looking for a motion to adjourn. I'll make a motion to adjourn. Second. We have a motion and a second. All in favor, say aye.
Aye. The opposed. We're adjourned. Thank you very much.