e the Schoolboard meeting will begin in 1 minute please take your seats again the Schoolboard meeting will begin in 1 minute e [Music] good evening everyone the July 30th 2024 special school board meeting of the Marin County Schoolboard is called to order the purpose of the meeting is to hold a public hearing on the tenative millages and budget for the 2024 2025 fiscal year good evening board would you please call the role Allison Campbell Dr Alison Campbell district one Mrs Lorie Conrad District Two here Mr Eric Cummings District three here Mrs Nancy thrower District Four here Dr Sarah James District 5 here Dr Dian gullet superintendent here Mr Jeremy power Schoolboard attorney here thank you Miss Martinez and would you please provide the proof of publication for tonight's meeting the proof of publication for the special board meeting on July 30th 2024 was was published in the Ocala Gazette on July 19th 2024 proof of publication has been added to board dos thank you thank you and would everyone join me please for the pledge I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the rep for stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and right superintendent gullet good evening I understand you'd like to provide some opening remarks regarding the 2024 2025 fiscal year tentative millage rates and tenative budget which was received at the July 20 July 22nd 20124 special board meeting thank you Madame chair members of the board the tenative budget has not been abended since the board received it on July 22nd 2024 the proposed total m rate is greater than the rolled back rate by 3.80% the board has set work sessions to review the budget at 9 A.M as follows Thursday August 8th for the tentative budget which is the general budget general fund Thursday August 15th which would be all remaining funds and Thursday August 22nd as needed the final budget hearing is scheduled for September 10th 2024 and that is at 501 specifically p.m. and if you're ready I can go ahead and introduce Miss Boston Ellis if you're ready okay wonderful so I'm very pleased to have Miss Boston Ellis our Chief Financial Officer come forward and Miss Boston Ellis will be providing uh a PowerPoint presentation for tonight I will caution you board Miss Boston's voice is a little scratchy today so we'll bear with her and appreciate her being here and all the work she does for us thank you thank you good evening good evening if you can't hear me please let me know but it does my voice does go in and out but I'll get by with a Little Help from My Friends to the right so they are prepared to jump in um if needed um but just want to say thank you for this opportunity to begin this process of discussing the tentative budget for 2024 2025 um we are excited to be at this point point it always looks a little gets a little shaky the closer we get to this date and then you may well know that we receive uh most of our information from the Department of Education at the very last minute and then we really rushed to get um the budget together based on following our trim process that's the truth we work to align the budget budget with the initiatives of the Strategic plan as well as leveraging resources to maximize student learning and we do that with the help of our curriculum Department also we continue to support programs that were adversely impacted or affected during the recession and that's when the referendum uh was born but our objectives today due to the trimp uh rules our objec is first to adopt the tentative millage rates and also to adopt an overall tentative budget and I say that again this is the tenative budget as well as the tenative millage rates uh just a note that I share with you every year as well as our community the the millage rates uh can be decreased uh that's based on uh the board's prerogative and vote uh but if if we don't show them at the highest uh we cannot increase these millage rates by um the final budget also want to note that uh this budget is built on using all the millages that are available as well as the state funding again the important dates uh you voted to allow us to advertise in the newspaper um on we met with you on July 22nd and the um the ad in the star banner was run on the 26th uh there was legislation that allowed us just to do the ad on our web page but we've done it in both places until we get very clear directions we went to the conference in June and there was about half of the school districts that were going to to uh the conventional way in the newspaper um there were about a half that were going to just post the ad um on their web page and we have AED on the side of caution because that's just too much money to have to go back and start this process over hopefully next year everything will be completed and we will have really good directions from the Department of Revenue on how to post this on the web page so tonight we are here on the special board meeting to set our millage rates and adopt a tenative budget we will have three work sessions beginning August 8th which is uh the general fund and then on the 15th we will pick up with the remaining funds um and then also on the 22nd if there are anything things that anything that we have not addressed we will come back at that time uh as you usual if you have any questions uh you can email call and if we don't have the answers we're writing down your questions so that we can present them at the next work session and then finally on September 10th you will vote on the final budget for the 2425 year so we have quite a bit to do uh in the next few weeks we always like to start out this conversation talking about Community contributions and you may recall that in order for us to receive the state funding of 249 million uh we as a community we have to contribute and what is that contribution you may ask um it is the required local effort and that's on the very first line you may recall that the millages for the required local effort and the prior year required local effort adjustment they are set by our legislators the rest are considered as discretionary operating millages the 748 per uh or Mills that is uh also set by our legislators um if we we want to maximize the discretionary millage uh the caveat with that is if we Levy the full point 748 Ms we will receive additional State dollars to the tune of 14.2 U million so if we do not Levy the discretionary operating millage at the at the full amount we would not only lose the 27.9 million but we would also lose the state additional funding of 14.2 million the next um Mill is the additional voted millage and that's what we refer to as the one mill that will generate $ 37.3 million and then last but not least our Capital outlay which supports uh our Capital funding that is the 1.5 mil and that will generate 56 million ion do the items that have the asteris uh they represent about 36% of our District's general fund Revenue again always keeping the focus on why we're here our Revenue highlights are as follows we've been saying this for a few years Esser came and Esser will conclude for the most part September 30th 2024 there are some caveats that allow us to carry over some of those dollars but for the most part that program ends um September 30th 2024 there were some increases in our state revenue we did uh we have budget excuse me we have budgeted and we have also included um increase and unweighted FTE uh projection to the tune of about 22 million uh 2200 students 2200 FTE about half of that 2200 is the uh family empowerment scholarship students the other half are traditional students there is an increase in the base student allocation of $191.25 uh you may recall that there are different components that were categorical dollars that have been rolled into that base student allocation but there is an increase in in that amount of 191 the base student allocation is what every student in the State of Florida that is their base funding um I think it's right at uh $5 53309 so it went from $ 5,139 73 to $ 5,330 198 so that is an increase uh for all students in the State of Florida there's also an increase in our teacher salary allocation for instructional Personnel student transportation our mental health assistance allocation and the safe schools initiatives some of these increases are due to the increase in the projected student count but I believe the the uh legislators did provide additional funds for safe schools as well as the mental health we have some decreases and items that are not uh funded and the DJJ supplement um was a small decrease uh the public education Capital outlay which we call the Pico dollars were not funded again for traditional schools so those funds have been going to the Charter Schools uh for several years also want to bring to your attention that portions of the 1.5 Capital outlay millage as well as referendum funds those are now being shared with our charter schools from the local aspect even though our required local effort uh was reduced by 116 because property values increased 11.70 percentage we did see an increase in our local funding this would allow a increase in our local funding uh as well as referend and capital funds to the tune of about 20 million our property values are right at uh $38 million uh Maring county has had much growth in the past few years and again that's attributed to the property values increasing um over last year so let's look at the total budget the total tentative budget um $1.3 billion this is the highest that it has ever been um in my 30 plus years here with Maran County um and it it goes to uh quite a few different items but but I think what I want to bring to your attention is uh last year it was a little uh over 900 million but the largest increase to this budget is based on the fact that you approved the uh borrowing of dollars so that we could build the two elementary schools the high school and some wings at various schools as well as the work that is being done at Oola and um Laker middle so although that is a large number the majority of that increase is due to not only the capital uh fund uh but also Debt Service has increased as well so we borrow the money but we have to start paying it back as well again the total budget is $11.3 billion and I just want to bring some things to your attention the general fund combined which includes the general fund operating the adult education and the referendum total $621 million and that is about 47% of the total budget um the next highest is the capital project at $444 million and that represents about 34% of the entire budget special Revenue fund food service at 5% represents $72 million special Revenue other is at 69.4 million uh you may recall last year this was well over 100 million but you will see the remaining funds uh associated with the Esser dollars uh going away the internal service fund which is where we have our self-funded health insurance plan as well as our general insurance is uh total 88.4 million and that represents 7% of the budget and The Debt Service fund which is about 2% of our budget is 27.7 million so we also want to look at this budget based on objects and that's really the goods and services this is what we're doing with those funds I would love to bring to your attention that it's salaries and employee benefits and this covers all funds total about 39% of this budget uh at 4 $59 million purchase Services which are all our contracts all those major contracts are 12.3 million and that's about 10% of the budget Energy Services 17 million materials and supplies five excuse me 53 million Capital outlay 36% excuse me so we move on to functions um oh excuse me thank you Capital outlay was 36% of the budget at 427 million and other expenditures are 9% at 106 million now we'll look at this from a functional perspective so instruction and instructional support are about 40% of this budget um the next cat category is school board and general administration at 1% and that's 13.7 million School administration 2.8 million uh the next largest is the facilities acquisition and construction uh 35% at 412 million so you can see the others are pretty small they range from 6% um all the way down to 1% of this budget but the predominant functions are the facilities acquisition and construction as well as the instructional and instructional support it's harder than I thought it's going to be so we'll move on to the general fund combined and that's where the majority of our funds are housed our Revenue as well as expenditures again I think I recall um sharing with you this includes the operating budget adult education and the referendum and these are our daily operational expenditures and range from Personnel salaries and benefits uh Transportation utilities and contracted services so the budget summary by fund um for this particular fund 62 1.6 million that includes the beginning fund balance and you can see that 90% of that is the general fund on the right side we're looking at expenditures salary and benefits or 70% of this budget come on okay hello some of our fiscal challenges that we're enduring this year are going to be enrollment uncertainties and that impact is be to be because of our choice our FES uh programs uh with private school and home school students um our use of unassigned fund balance for reoccurring items our technology Hardware which is our computer refresh um and costs associated with aging buildings vehicles and buses as we know we have a lot of schools that are quite um old and they cost a lot to Main maintain we've had a lot of um buses that need to be repaired and maintained in order to get our students to school on time um we also have costs assoiated with safe schools mandate our safe schools costs a lot of money and we are putting a lot of um infrastructure in place in order to keep our students safe we also have economic challenges due to inflation um and most important this year we have a funding clip of our federal dollars because our eser is ending as of September 30th 20 2024 so those are some of our fiscal challenges that we are occurring this year for our budget recap we just want to remind you that part law we need to balance our budget and that is going to be required by law and our total tenative budget for 2425 is 1.3 billion doll and reflecting an increase of 364.5 million and this is more than prior Year's adopted budget this increase in is mostly due to um an increase in capital projects fund which is 359.06 4.4 million increase our property values again increased by 11 .7% and our required local effort millage is16 Mills less than the prior year again our property values um have let let us to be able to get more money even though our millage is less we have limited financial resources and funding for Capital needs and um again we will discuss further details at our next budget sessions which is going to be August 8 for our general fund August 15th for Capital and other funds and August 22nd if uh additional information is needed if you have any questions or comments please let us know and we'll be able to help you as much as possible thank you so much I want to thank Miss Bellis the whole team um I I think it's important to go back and underscore why the budget is so much higher this year I don't want to get lost in translation and tex could you just summarize why the budget is higher again our budget is um 364.5 million more than prior Year's adopted budget and we want to um make sure everybody understands that capital projects because we received a bond last year it's our certificates of participation 2024 that has increased our budget by 359.06 those funds in order to build um elementary schools high schools and additional wings at uh various uh elementary schools so again we took out that that Bond um to build additional facilities for our students thank you for that you didn't know I was going to ask that so but thank you for the thorough explanation I just think it's important for not just the board but the public to understand that um thank you thank you chair thank you and Dr gullet do you have a recommendation for us I do I recommend adoption of the tentative millages and tentative budget for the 20 24 2025 fiscal year thank you thank you and board and the question occurs on the superintendent's recommendation to adopt the following tenative millages which are the required local effort millage at 3.61 Ms the required prior period funding adjustment millage at 0.0014 Mills the discretionary millage at 0.748 Mills the capital Improvement millage at 1.5 Mills the additional voted millage at 1 mil for a total of 6 323 Mills and to adopt a tenative budget in the amount of 1 Bill 323 m493 6765 may I have a motion to adopt the 2024 2025 tentative millages of 6323 Mills as set forth in the superintendent's recommendation motion Mo motion by board member James second by Vice chair Conrad I declare a public hearing is there anyone present who wishes to address the board concerning the proposed millages or rolled back rate hearing none any discussion from the board board member Cummings can you hear us okay I'm not sure he's on anymore but we do have a quorum is board member I'm here okay I'm here all right um any discussion or comments um board member Cummings no okay thank you we shall go ahead and vote all those in favor say I I I I those oppose nay motion passes unanimously 5 Z 4 4 Z my apology apologies may I have a motion to adopt the 2024 2025 tenative budget in the amount of 1 Bill 323 m493 765 so move move by board member Cummings second second by Vice chair Conrad I declare a public hearing is there anyone present who wishes to address the board concerning the tentative budget see none any discussion from the board hearing none we'll go ahead and vote all those in favor say I I I I motion passes unanimously four votes to zero not used to saying that thank you everyone and thank thank you um Teresa Boston Ellis and and your team you're an incredible CFO you're Valiant um coming up here to share such important um budget news to get us kicked off in the budget season not feeling well at all is a testament to your commitment to so many years in this District so it does not go unnoticed or unappreciated so thank you very much all of you all right uh we'll move on to some um board board meeting reminders the next administrative briefing and work session is scheduled for August 1st 2024 at 9:00 a.m. a special board meeting will be held on August 1st 2024 at 11:00 a.m. the following administrative briefing and work session is scheduled for August 8th 2024 at 9:00 a.m. is there any discussion board comments or concerns um before we wrap this up board member James okay okay Vice chair Conrad good all right um attorney Powers okay board member Cummings no ma'am thank you Miss Martinez no ma'am thank you thank you Dr gullet breaking the streak I'm sorry just I just have to do two very quick shoutouts to thank everyone back to school Community give back event was phenomenal on Saturday had locations I think we had eight and it was it brought such joy to have the community come together for our families and uh they were very appreciative it was it was a wonderful day and today we we have we kicked off Great Beginnings which welcomes all of our new um members to our Maring County Public Schools team it was a great honor to uh start to get to know them and engage them and welcome them and I told them they chose wisely so just looking forward to having them in our schools and in our departments and and serving our students thank you thank you Dr G it and yes we're rapidly approaching the first day of school and you can just feel the momentum accelerating um great stuff all right there being no further business may I have a motion to adjourn motion by Vice chair Conrad second by board member James all those in favor say I I I motion passes unanimously this meeting is adjourned at 6:02 pm thank you very much [Music]