Welcome everybody to the study session of the side school board. Uh for information uh director will be doing this at some point remotely or 7 o'clock. Start then with the public forum. This
is a 15 minute period of time set aside for the board to receive citizen input. You keep your time to three minutes. That would be greatly appreciated. First speaker, you're up. Thank you so much for having me. My name is Mary Anne Van Devasi, born and raised
in Holland, Michigan amongst a lot of tulips and Dutch names. So, uh, that's the explanation for that last name. I'm come before you tonight because I'm very concerned about um, Prior Lake um, Savage Prior Lake. I live in Savage, so
I want to say Savage Prior Lake School System and your support online for um transgender and uh LGBTQ um students. I have seven grandchildren
and one of them is gay and the and another one is trans. And I worry about how they would feel if they went to school in the Savage Prior Lake School District. And I'm so encouraged by what your official policies say that I would
feel comfortable in having them go to school in in this school district. Uh, one of them, my my great gay granddaughter, is getting a her master's degree in education, and I wondered how I would feel if she applied for a
position to work in this school district. And I was somewhat concerned that not all schoolboard members seem to be um on board with the policies of the school board. So if I'm wrong about that, please let me know. But um I am
concerned about that and and how comfortable she would feel uh presenting herself as a teacher in this district. Do you have any questions of me or want to make any responses? Thank you so much for your time. All right. Thank
you. Uh, next speaker is Amber Fischer. Hi, my name's Amber Fischer. I've lived in Prior Lake six years now. I have a kiddo at Ola Delago. She'll be in first grade. Uh, I moved here specifically for the school districts. I pay a very large
amount of property taxes to live here because of the schools. We stayed because of the schools and I am really struggling to see on how we're going to keep our kids safe in first grade next year, much less teach them with 27 kids per class at Ola So, I'm trying to
better understand the plan. Uh, as I know, safety and education is a top priority. However, I've gotten zero uh zero insight into what that's going to look like. In fact, no one at the school has even made a public announcement about it. This is all secondhand information at this point. So, a get
ahead of it. Um, as someone who is a president of a business in this community, the fact this is not common knowledge at this point is concerning to me. But b, what's the plan? And I'm not asking for answers today, but soon would be great as I need to consider my child's safety and well-being as well as
her education living in Prior Lake. Thank you. Thank you. And our last speaker this evening is Dustin Smith. Uh good evening. Thank you for having me. Uh before I begin my public comment, I wanted to offer my congratulations and thank Dan Edwards
who I don't think has left us yet. um but is not here tonight. So, I'll be sure to do that at another point in time. Uh Dr. Thomas, Chair White, and directors of the board, my name is Dustin Smith, and I am a parent of two children entering kindergarten next year. Like many parents, I received the
email on May 12th notifying families that proposed changes for the district. As a former student of Westwood, there was a personal disappointment to seeing this school on the list. My personal feelings aside, the plan as proposed and to be discussed this
evening make a great deal of sense and addresses many of the financial challenges that have been discussed. Though I can appreciate the actions required at this time, I cannot help but find myself a little frustrated as to why we find ourselves in this
current state. While I could go through them one by one, I don't want to spend my precious three minutes going through each financial challenge. But the fact is the recommendations brought forth tonight will only result in nothing more than buying us a little
time. Instead, I would rather focus on our response to the situation. The financial hardships that we face are not going away. So, we can continue to cut and cut and keep cutting until there's nothing left. Or we can acknowledge, we can acknowledge that what we have on our
hands is not an expense problem. It is a revenue problem. I will concede that the situation is undeniably far more complex than my statement would have you believe. Declining enrollments, state funding issues, mandates, inflation. Okay, I did
go through them one by one. But these realities are not going to change overnight. No one is going to fix this for us. So the question must be, what are we going to do to offer our help and support? How do we respond as a community? like the situation itself,
the answer to it is just as nuanced. I believe that means voting for elected officials that take education seriously and advocating for our legislative agenda at the capital. But it also means asking ourselves, what do we value as a community? Our friends, our neighbors, and loved ones should be proud to be
part of this amazing community who value and support each other. I know that I was proud when I went to Westwood. I want my children to be proud to be part of this community as well. I'm hopeful that they will be, but we have to give them a reason to be proud. I believe in
order to achieve this, our children need to be assured that they are part of this community and that their priorities and needs are given them the opportunity to succeed. Thank you for your time this evening. Appreciate it. Thank you. All right, moving on to the purpose and
agenda. Dr. Thomas. Thank you, Chair White, board of uh directors. So, tonight uh we've we've got uh quite a a heavy agenda. Um we have a couple of uh superintendent reports. Uh one that was uh stayed over
from our last business meeting. Uh we will go over um some of uh recommendations around uh facility use fees, athletic fees, activities, etc. Um we will go through our preliminary budget review which we've been bringing
you all through um um to date and then um we will go over our monthly financials. And then this month you'll there are additional documents because of the timing of when we had cuts from the last business meeting. We didn't want to wait until June to take those. So we've added those together um to go
over those tonight um in your packet. and then uh we'll have an enrollment update and also uh the conversation around uh school closure con consolidation recommendations and then um uh you'll I'll talk a little bit
about the timeline of the link coming to you all for my end ofear evaluation and then we'll have a series of policies um to be discussed and then um close meeting for uh negotiation strategy. So quite a lot to try to accomplish
tonight. All right. Thank you. Then we'll move right into the superintendent's report. Dr. Thomas, thank you again. And so I'm going to just uh recognize Anfom tonight. Uh we recognized her last week or at our last business meeting, but unfortunately had
a conflict and was not able to be there that evening. And so we wanted to make sure that we have our proper way of acknowledging you in person and uh just let you know how much we appreciate your leadership perspective here on the board as well as other committees out in our community and being kind of that
representative for students at the high school and throughout as well. You've done an amazing job and uh we're very proud to have you and we are also very proud as you uh take on your next steps in life and going off to college and uh pursuing whatever is going to make you
happy. So, we're excited for that. So, we have um a an appreciation here for you and then also we have a certificate of appreciation as well. Um thanking you for your years of ser your year of service here with us. So, great job.
Really well done. Did you want to do a snap a quick Chair White, can I ask a question? You may. Dr. Thomas mentioned college. Can you share where you're going? Is it a big secret? I don't want to put you on the spot, but I'm curious. Okay, it's definitely not a secret. I'm going to
the U of M Twin Cities and I'll be studying um international relations. Yeah, I'm really excited. Um so yeah, can I move on to my student council report? Um actually, what is that? Okay. Slide there. Go ahead. Go for it. Okay.
Okay. I'll start with the school report. Of course, we just had our prom last Saturday. So, thank you to senior class committee. Everyone had a lot of fun and you did a great job. Um our student advisory group mural project is finally starting up and we're seeing it getting painted in the media center. So, if you have time, when that is done, go check
it out. Again, that's in the media center, and I'm really excited to see how that turns out. Um, it's another great year for spring sports. I'd like to highlight our girls track and field team for setting a new school record. And another big shout out to Speech, who just sent 11 students to nationals with everyone placing in at least one category. Um, and I'm also happy to
report that our NHS, Miles of Strength 5K, ended up raising just over $4,000 that will go to supporting families um suffering from childhood leukemia. So, yeah, we're finishing the year off strong at PHS. Um, in regards to student council, I'm happy to report that our spring events are up and running this
year. We brought back our paint wars event just last week and we had a lot of student participation, so that was really exciting. We also have a lot of events this week. Um, a new one that we're doing is mental um mental health awareness week or wellness week. And we're just doing a bunch of nice things for the student body such as bringing in
therapy dogs on Wednesday and doing a gift giveaway on Friday. All with the goal of better educating our school on the importance of mental health. So, all proceeds will be donated to Duckup Memorial, a local mental health awareness organization that's focused on opening up conversations, stopping the stigma, and basically preventing the
consequences of neglected mental health before they even happen. So, yeah. Um, we also just had our executive elections and general elections. So, we have a list for our new student council next year. I just want to congratulate the following students on their new positions. We have um Obio Suji as our
new president, Amelia Josewack as vice president, Tristan Bardic as treasurer, Natalie Mahold as secretary, Sophia Howser as historian, Haley Hafferman as delegate at large, and Justin Borg as our parliamentarian. So yeah, hopefully you'll be hearing more of those names in
the future. Um and lastly, I just want to thank everyone here, members of the board. Thank you for letting me observe and listen in on all your insights and see how you bring voices in the community into these conversations and decisions. Um administrative directors, thank you for all the work you do to
make sure everything runs smoothly and for giving me a taste of all the complicated numbers and figures that go into um running a district. Um and lastly, Dr. Thomas, I have you to thank most of all. Thank you for guiding me through everything schoolboard related and showing me what it is to be a great
leader. I truly admire all the work you do. Um, you truly do have the best students, the students best interest at heart and it shows in everything you do. And thank you to Miss Walls and everyone else at the district office. Um, this has been such an enlightening experience. I've learned so many things here that I would not get anywhere else.
And the things that I've been able to bring back to the high school and like student council, it bleeds everywhere. Um, so yeah, thank you again. And all year, you might have just seen me sitting here quietly staring into your souls as you talk. But trust me, I've gained a lot. And I know the school has
gained a lot from it, too. So, it has been wonderful serving as your student representative, and I'm excited to see what the student rep does next year with you guys. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Can I just say you may I just want to say thank you for all your
participation. Um student voices is very important and to have yours be part of the the board. Um it has been uh it has been wonderful having you sit on the board and engage um in conversation and share your reports um month after month.
So wishing you all the best in what's next. Um, yeah. Thanks, Ann. Thank you very much. You're not leaving. [Laughter] You have to stay through the summer. Did they not tell you that?
Oops. Missed that memo. Okay, we'll move on to the major magnitude field trip report. Dr. Thomas. Thank you, Chair. White board of directors. Um this is just a report uh when we we did policy 610 last May. Um
one of the things that we caught um uh as part of the practice is to um share the report at the end of each school year. So I'm just sharing uh with you all the ma the major magnitude uh both international and domestic um for your awareness um per policy 610. And those
are typical trips that are 500 plus miles or and or have an overnight to them. So before you was just a list of the trips um and for the international ones we typically come back and do a report out on those. So that's all I was sharing more of as a report um per
policy 610. Okay, any questions? All right, moving on. We have no proclamations this evening. So we'll move on to oversight of operations. And first off, we have a facility use fee recommendation. Director Dah.
Thank you, Chair White, Dr. Thomas, and board directors. I also have Gina Fern with me, who's our facility use coordinator for the district. So, if you have any questions, she's going to be your go-to for the answers. Uh, in your board packet, you'll see um a document
with a cover as well as our current year um facility use fees and priorities. uh and our proposed facility use fees and priorities for the 2526 school year. This is an annual review of fees. Um
typically we only do an increase about every two to three years. So we don't raise them um annually. And the reason we try to do that about every two to three years is so that we can keep the increases slightly lower. If we waited longer than that, you're going to see a
larger increase, which clearly impacts those who utilize our district facilities. So, this year, we're proposing a 5% increase on all rental fees across the board. Uh the last increase like this was in the 2122
school year. Um last I think it was last year or two years ago that we increased the pool pool was last year. Last year. So, we had an increase just to our uh pool and turf rentals last year. Um the biggest reasons for that is uh the
additional costs that are involved in those facilities, chemicals, all of those things that go into the pool. So, we needed to make an adjustment for those. Um but we didn't touch any of the other fees since 2122. The reasons for uh raising fees is clearly increased cost and operations of
our facilities. Um, and it's typically recommended to do this as part of our budget review each year. In addition to the increase in fees, we also added a priority level, which is something we don't typically do every year. But um after reviewing our four
priorities, we made a decision to add a fifth priority level, which essentially just separates out forprofit and nonprofit um businesses, organizations that are out of district. So, if they're coming into our district to rent one of our
facilities, they used to be grouped into one priority level. Uh, and we're splitting that into two to separate out again our nonprofit from our for-profit businesses. So, with that, those are our proposed uh increases for this next
school year. Um, and then it typically you wouldn't see this again for another two years. You'll see the fees just as an annual review but not an ask for an increase unless something drastically changes. Questions for us? Are there any questions?
Director, excuse me. Um, a couple. Um, just for my benefit, um, the two gym uh, categories, if you will, or facilities, are the differences between those just a matter of size and capacity? Okay,
correct. Figured. Thank you. Um, and then I wondered if there was um kind of an example of a priority five since that is I know there's a description here which is very helpful, but if that do you have an sorry to put you on the spot, but since that's a new
priority. So priority five is typically u for-profit businesses. It can be anywhere from uh private dance companies to um say we have some business come in and want to do a um education or not an
education thing but they want to do something for their employees like a staff training. Um most of them that fall into that are going to be uh like I said more dance recital. We do have some martial arts that come in and use the facilities and those are for-profit
businesses. Nonprofit, the reason we kind of separated that out, we do have some interest from like special um special Olympics and different things. So, this would kind of keep those two a little more separate of what they are. Great.
Thank you. Those are my questions. Appreciate it. Mary, go ahead. Um, as I'm looking at this, I was wondering, do you have a percentage breakdown of where the revenue came from from the different priorities last last
time? So, the bulk of our user groups, probably 80% fall in that priority two, okay, which is our community. Our community is definitely the biggest user of our facilities. Um, we do have some
priority three and four based on the last, but the bulk of it is probably priority two. Okay. Thank you. Anyone else? Any idea a projected additional revenue based on typical use
or Did you put the projected in there? No. Um, I mean, ballpark. I was just curious. Well, right now, so we're projecting for this this um current fiscal year around
283,000. So I would say if you take 5% if you take about 80% of that times 5% that's about what you're looking at for an increase. Yep. Thank you. Any other questions, comments? Okay, this will be an action
item on June 9th. Thank you. Thank you. Next item is an act athletics and activities fee recommendation. Uh, Director Marshall. Hi. Good evening, Superintendent Dr. Tom. Good evening, Superintendent Dr. Thomas, board chair Whiten, and school board directors. I'm here to present to
you the activities department proposed budget adjustments for the 202526 school year to help with the current budget shortfall in the in the district. Um specifically if you in the board book um there should be some slides that you have access to. Uh currently after revenue um the district's general fund
uh contributes about $850,000 total to the entire activities and athletic department. Um given that that dollar amount, uh we're in a very unique situation, I think, where there's not a lot that we can cut, but we have the ability to to potentially generate additional revenue to be able to help
offset some of the budget shortfall that does exist. Um, before I get to that, the very first slide I just want to share, and this is really just an an FYI for all of you here. Um, there's a link in there that's a stipen uh breakdown that compares the stipens for the 10 different schools within the South
Suburban Conference. If you look closely at that, you'll notice that all of our stipens are well below the average of the South Suburban Conference currently. Um I know that there's some contract negotiations that are coming up and while it would be very very hard um for the current athletic and activities budget to be able to absorb any sort of
increase within those stipens um it is important to note that we are uh losing good candidates um losing current uh activity advisers and coaches to other districts. Um I it'd be very hard for them to come out and flat out say it is because of this, but I will tell you right now that this is certainly one of
the reasons why that is happening. So, um, again, to me, it's just an awareness for all of you to have in terms of where we're at in terms of the stipen piece. Um, at one point it was pulled out of, uh, the the the teacher contract, and it's done separately. Um, but in my four years here, we haven't seen an increase at all with that piece. So, again, just
an awareness, but, um, being able to switch over and chat a little bit about the revenue for the activities department, there's really two areas of focus on where this can can occur. The first area that I'm going to focus on is by increasing our participation fees. There are four
spreadsheets that are in there. Um they talk about registration numbers or reg or participation fees and registration numbers for activities fall sports, winter sports, and spring sports. And that's broken down for this current year. In each of those spreadsheets, you can see what the actual revenue was as well as what the current participation
fee is. And you can also see what I am proposing for the new participation fee, what the difference is between the proposal and the current, and how much additional revenue is anticipated to come in. Um, I think it's important to note that across the board, these increased participation rates that are being proposed will mirror what the
current highest rates are in the South Suburban Conference. Um, the current highest rates are pretty much between Lakeville and or Farmington uh in terms of participation rates. The one exception to that is in uh the world of hockey. I am not proposing a an increase
for boys and girls hockey because we are already currently $75 more than what any other district is charging within the South Suburban Conference. Most of our rates would increase between $20 and $80 per season. Uh, additionally, we would also look to eliminate our family maximum payment amounts as other
districts either don't have this or are currently moving away from it as well. By increasing these participation rates to those that we are proposing, we will see approximately $150,000 in increased revenue. Uh a couple things to to make sure that we do note uh with this. Uh we do scholarship students who are not able
to afford participation rates. Um typically we do ask our students to pay a minimum of $25 so that there's at least a certain amount of accountability that comes with being able to pay to be able to participate, but we will never and have never turned people away from participation in athletics and activities due to financial difficulty
at all. So that will certainly continue on as well too. Uh the other area of focus for increased revenue is with our gate or admission receipts. You can see in the next spreadsheet how much revenue we received from our gate receipts during the 2324 school year. I do want to point out that
this number fluctuates every year based on the number of home games we have for each sport, what the matchups are, the weather, the day of the week that the games are played on. There's so many factors that come into play when when we do look at this. Additionally, on the spreadsheet, you can see approximately how many tickets were sold for each one
of those events. We are proposing an average increase of $2 per ticket, which would generate an additional $75,000 approximately for the year. Currently, we charge $8 for adults and $6 for students and senior citizens. Uh we are proposing that we move this to
a flat rate of $9 for everyone. Um the reason for this, uh first of all, Farmington is is doing something very similar to this. um by moving over to an online ticketing system. The online ticketing system does not have the ability to distinguish when you're buying a ticket between who is an adult
and who is a student. Therefore, as you can imagine, by moving to an online platform, we've seen a rather large increase in students attending games when they come through the gates and that the adult ticket sales have gone down. Um so again, moving to a flat rate
is is already happening. Um, with a lot of our playoffs that are run run by the regions, it's a flat rate that that's out there. Um, region 2A is typically charging $10 as a flat rate at this point. We will continue to offer our student activity pass. That student activity pass is something that gets
students into all events throughout the school year, which does include hockey. That's a rarity because many districts where the cities own the ice arenas, they don't allow student passes to happen. But our relationship um with uh with Dakota Ice and Fitness allows us to be able to use those down there so
students can get in there as well too. Um so the other thing that we do offer for for everybody, adults included, is a punch pass. Uh the punch pass currently, uh we'd be looking at selling those for $75. So it'd be an average of $7.50 per ticket by continuing on with those punch
passes and uh which is an increase as well too. but we've been able to see um a number of those punch passes that are sold as well too to our families. So again, between the two uh pieces that we are proposing, it would come out to be about $225,000 in additional revenue for
the district. Any questions for Jeff? Go ahead. Uh thank you, Mr. Marshall. Um would the student activity pass? Is there is there an increase proposed for that? It is.
They're currently $60 or the the proposal is to go to $100 for that. Chess. Um, hi Director Marshall. Thank you for this. Um, the one question I had with um, you said hockey is already the
highest in the conference. Um, how is is there such a thing as a cap or how are those created? Yeah. So the interesting piece having two sons who played hockey I will tell you right now that paying the participation fee to play hockey at high
school is far less than what you're paying when you're part of the prior league savage hockey association which again a big reason for that is because of the ice bills that do exist. So we utilize the lease levy to be able to pay ice bills you know within the district uh versus if you have a student who's playing hockey you're playing paying
monthly ICE bills as part of that. So to answer your question though, Director O, there's really not a cap that does exist at all. Um, you know, that that dollar amount this past year we raised everything by $20 heading into this year, you know, and and so previously that that amount uh was already the
highest versus some of the other school districts that are out there. Okay. Thank you. Anyone else? Dr. Mr. Russia, you're you're anticipating uh $225,000 in increased revenue. Um any guess as to what you'll
net because you'll have I'm assuming increased costs, you know, um to be honest with you, I don't necessarily foresee any significant increased costs. Um you know, in terms of any sort of rental, the only piece that we look at renting would be the ice arena, which
again is done through a lease levy. um but paying our workers um you know paying any sort of expenses that go along with the events there shouldn't really be an increase at all in in the additional expenses that come with that. Okay. And then the eliminating of the
family maximum um as a parent in long lost days in the past who had three at once in high school activities. Um, any idea what you're going to save by eliminating that? And I mean, can you
make a case for it being worth it? Um, that's just that's a tough nut when you got two or three. No. And I understand. And it's interesting when looking at the other districts. I mean, Burnsville does has never had something like that in place. Um, Lakeville's the family maximum is 3,000 right now. Um, which is
which is very high, I think. Um, very similar to to you there, Director White. I have, you know, a number of children who are who are in sports and uh, you know, I have reached my especially when you throw hockey in there. My family max has has been hit
even before I head into the spring season. Um, and I think I the part that I maybe struggle with a little bit the most on that is I understand that and by no means is my family, you know, financially well off. However, at the same token, I feel like we have the ability to continue to be able to pay at that point. Um, and again, knowing that
more and more districts are moving away from that family max. Um, I didn't figure out necessarily how much that would also be included in that increased revenue because it would also generate, you know, certainly an increased revenue piece. Um, I will say though, again, I'm going to go back to what I said before,
and that is if a family comes to me and says, you know, we need we need to be in spring sports and we cannot continue to afford to pay for this, we're going to work with that family to make sure that they can participate. All right. Appreciate that, Charles. Um, you you mentioned that the family
coming to you, a lot of them won't. Is there a way that you can send that out a little prior to because I understand a lot of people's pride is probably not going to Yep. do
that. So, um maybe just anticipating that. Um that would be one. too. Something I think um I think maybe you and I have discussed is going
away from paper products at games. Is that still on the discussion point? And if so, is that going to save some cost? Has a decision been made? Still in the process? Yep. I'll address the first piece as well too, just so um the the
registration system that we use automatically ties to uh Infinite Campus. And so, um any student who receives free and reduced lunches, it's actually automatically put into the system that they're already getting the scholarship piece that's there. Um that being said, you know, there are going to
be some families who maybe don't qualify for free and reduced lunch who may need that that assistance that's there as well, too. Um, we will be glad to certainly promote that piece, you know, to let people know that it's obviously done, you know, it's it's done in in privacy, you know, where that contact is
made to be able to reduce that fee. So, um, without a doubt, that's a piece that we can we can put out ahead of time. So, um, it's interesting because many many districts have moved strictly to I'm going to start with the ticketing piece, have moved strictly to online ticketing, and we still offer a cash option. Um the
number of people who come through the line and I know Martha can attest to this who appreciate the fact that we still offer the cash option um is is amazing and it is a lot of grandparents who come through who like that ability to to pay with cash. Um so very similar to the to the programs to the uh the
paper programs that we use. Um we're going to offer paper programs but not the not the number of paper programs that we've done before. So the idea is to slowly transition away from this. we'll have a QR code that people can scan that QR code to be able to bring up the program. Um, if you've been to any
of our theater performances, we're already doing that. You know, we've moved away from the paper for our theater ones. Um, so with athletic events, we're the idea is to slowly transition that out. Um, I don't think we can necessarily just quit cold turkey because we have a lot of people who would be very upset about that. So, but
yeah, the plan is to hopefully move start moving away from that next year. Excellent. Thank you. Okay, anyone else? Just one more. Um you mentioned the activity fee for free and reduced lunch students, but um what about like activity passes if they're unable to purchase for full price or they same
thing? Yep. We would we it's it's uh we use the same system when they go through and they sign up for that. Okay. So if they go through and buy that, it's actually already in the system as well. Thank you. Anyone else? All right. Thank you. Thank you. Again, this will be an
action item on June 9th. Next on the agenda is the 2526 preliminary budget review with Director Frederickson. Thank you, Chair White. Directors, um there are several
documents in your board packet of this study session. Um I think I will start with the cash flow report since that is um the one related to this current year. Um
there you look at the cash flow report that we provided you two months ago, you'll see that the uh year-end projected expenditures were exceeding the year-end projected revenues by about $1.5 million.
And we talked then that we were um watching all of the expenditures and we were making whatever reductions we could for um kind of stopping any spending that was unnecessary. So now two months later the cash flow report will show
that um we are down to three $364,000. Um so we've made significant progress in the last two months to reduce our expenditures to get closer to our um budgeted amount. And again, we still
have a couple months left of the year and we are still continuing to um watch our expenses. Um just a couple things on the report. You'll see in September there's an adjustment for $286,347.
That is actually an audit entry that's related to the 2324 OPB um entry that we had to do manually. It did not get in the U audit report. They will do a prior year adjustment at the end of the year this
year to reflect that. Uh so um it's again it's related for the 23 24 not 2425. Um the variance you'll see in kind of the bottom part of the report that we're
anticipating about 600,000 more in revenue than what our budget was um which is about a half a percent. And then we're looking at um or the annual forecast for
expenditures is coming in about 1.2 million over the budget. But there was also a $957,68 uh board approved use of fund balance. So again, the variance on that is going to be um about 0.5%
variance. So um there other questions I can certainly answer them about this report. Anyone have any qu Mary? Go ahead. Um, Director Frederickson, I know one of the things that uh you were working on was the
transportation that was causing uh much of the overages uh the projected overages coming into the end of the year. Uh, can you just give us an update on how that was resolved? I know that um it had to do with field trips and extra
like uh surplus charges for I believe um high traffic times and a few other things. I'm just not quite sure how we resolved that and if that is going to be a continued res, you know, process going into next year. Yes. Um the activities,
buses, um they transport kids to the events and then they um students have to find their way home from those events. So that was how we cut out some of those costs. Um we are looking at again ways to cut costs for next year. Um, I know
we've talked about the RFP that we were doing for transportation. Um, we cannot um enforce an RFP for next year because we still have a contract for one more year with the bus company, but we will have an RFP going out
um probably in the fall of this year to start for the 2526 school year. Um but we are anticipating some of the same issues for next year that we had this year. And again, we're just trying to adjust um those overages from the
transportation. We're looking at other ways to make reductions which so far we've been able to do um in other budgets. Um one additional question. And I assume that the reflection of the moving minaps to the high school also reflects a
reduction in transportation to and from the school to to Lakeville. There will be some savings there. Yes. All right. Any other questions in as far as the cash flow report goes? No, I think you answered all of them except just to confirm. So, I mean the
364K overage that we're forecasting right now, um obviously we still have cost cutting measures in place. Do we anticipate we're able to close that gap at all further over the next two months or we will certainly try, but again it's a half a percent variance, but we are making every effort we can to save
whatever dollars we can for the last couple months of the year. All right, moving on. Um the next one I think we'll talk about the um forecast comparison. I think this has caused some
um confusion um as we've gone through the process this year. So what I've shown you on the top is the original forecast that we did in October for 2024. Um and again this was a forecast.
So we were projecting what our revenue and expenses would look like. And you can see that our forecast for fiscal year 25 showed expenses of 122.8 million. Um the reality is if you look
at the expenses um our actual budget that was approved by this board, our expenses were 123.6. And according to the cash flow report that we just looked at, our actuals look like they're going to come
in at about 124.9. Um and then with the audit adjustment, we took that out. So there was about a million dollar uh difference. So if we were to look at redoing that forecast given what we know as
actuals, the revenue um for the forecast would be 121.1 million obviously with the expenses at 124.9 which is our actuals that we're projecting coming out um for this year and then build the
inflationary factor. In this case we're assuming 2 and a.5%. It varies between some of the payroll, some of the contracts, but if we increase that inflationary factor by 2 and a.5%, then our expenses actually would be 128
million, which is why we did a $4.1 million reduction in to next year's budget. I think we just had to adjust the starting point from the uh forecast that we had a year ago. So, I think
that's caused some confusion on um what our starting point was and how we got to um the projections that we have now. Are there questions about that? Was the inflation the numbers kind
of don't add up for me when I when I when I compared them, but was I mean was that 2.5% inflationary factor not in the in the forecast that you submitted last year? like there was an inflationary factor in the forecast but the original forecast was way under what the actuals
were. So if we go back and adjust the actual or the forecast to be what the actuals ended up being. So the forecast was under um projected. So if we increase it to what we know is going to be the actuals and then apply
that inflationary factor then uh that's where we get to the 128 million projected expenditures which is why we cut the 4.1 million for next year's budget. Anyone else? As far Okay, move on.
I mean, I do still have several questions on like the differences in where the area the categorical expense additions is. I guess um I don't know if we're going to get to that, but um I guess you know when I just compared apples to apples, the forecast that was
submitted from November to now um in the expenses category specifically, um it looked like most of those expenses were in special ed, which was like a $2 million increase. Um and then I would say largely in the sites and buildings
and the fiscal in um fixed cost which is 2.5 million. Yeah. So if you wanted specifics on what those expenses are for. Sure. So if you want to look at the report in here that is um comparison by
program is one of the handouts in there. Um it's broken down by the different for preliminary 2526 budget. It shows the difference between the final approved budget from 2425 and you can see like for instance
the administration um increase by 2.3% and just let me remind you um in our budget document I believe it's on page 14. It defines what is included in each of those categories. So administration is defined as
principles um and some academic directors but it doesn't include like the business office, HR um some of those other directors. So it's specifically addressed for principles. Um so obviously their salaries were increased
um and that's that increase. All of the other ones with the exception of um special ed and the um sites and buildings um have decreased which is part of the
$4.1 million that was um reduced in our budget. The special ed increase um amounted to an 8 8.2% 2% increase and we didn't cut any position any teacher
positions in special education and there was only I believe 3.5 pair of professionals. So all of those staff received a salary increase according to the U negotiated contracts. So because you're not cutting staff in special ed,
they've all got a salary increase. It's obviously going to make the special ed um expenses increase over what it was for the 2425. And then the other one um the sites and buildings. So, one of the
things that we talked about last time was in the um detailed allocation, we are using restricted revenue that we've already received um and that included the LTFM and capital outlay. So
by taking those additional restricted revenues and putting them into the allocation for the LTFM and the capital which both fall under the sites and buildings, it's increasing um the amount of the um allocated budget from 2526
over 2425. So those were those increases. Um the fixed cost, the increase in that is actually the increase in our general liability insurance policies. Um includes general liability, workers comp, cyber security,
all of our um district insurance policies. So those were basically where all of the increases were just in those couple categories. Everything else was decreased with the 4.5 or $4.1 million reductions.
I I still don't think we're getting kind of the detail I'm looking for on the sites and buildings. So, you know, the October November forecast was like around 9 million. Um it's now 10.4 for that specifically. Um despite, you know, probably $500,000 or close to it in cuts
that we've made. So, I mean, we're we're increasing that budget by like $1.9 million. And I I'm just trying to understand like did we pull things out of LTFM or what are what are we trying to what did we prioritize there? Is it things that have to be done that we
didn't we weren't aware of or oh the LTFM the um the board approved that 10-year LTFM plan. There's still all of the um things that they put in for the projected um projects. And then there's
also a pay as you go that we're also allowed to use for LTFM. Um, and that typically has been around450 $500,000 for pay as you go. So those are things that you don't really um anticipate as a set project. They're
usually between a hundred,000 and um less than $2 million that things come up as you um may have to do something that you hadn't put in the 10-year plan. So, you do use pay as you go. And it's kind of the same that we've
been doing for the past several years. Everything in that LTFM is included in that 10-year plan with the exception of those pay as you go. Yeah, it's just not um explaining the the large difference, I guess, in the over the last five months, right? I
mean, $1.9 million. I I don't understand where that came from. So, we also last year um underspent some of those LTFM projects. We didn't do all of them that we thought we were going to do. um partly because we had some other issues
the year before when we had to the um road construction on um the road between the middle schools. So, we had to drain the pools and and we ended up doing some of that pool maintenance then um so then we had to make up for it the next year by not
spending quite as much um because you're allowed to pre-spend your LTFM dollars, but you have to make it up somewhere. So, as we reduced this current year by some of those that we over spent the year before, now we're putting back the
amount that LTF it's we get an allocation. It's um categorical funds. We're allowed to spend the allocation that we get and it's all formula based. So, what we built back into that budget is the um revenue that we're
anticipating getting plus the carryover that we had talked about um from the reserve restricted um revenue and is there a reason that isn't being considered to use for the pool still? So, the restricted revenue is one-time
money, right? Um once you spend it, it's gone. And if we had used it for the pool, it wouldn't have been sustainable because once you use it, it's gone. And we still have all of those um other expenses that we have to apply to the pool, all the chemicals,
all of the cleaning, everything that goes into the pool maintenance. It would not be sustainable into the future. Mary, um, just as a curiosity, when you talk about the pay as you go, I know we've heard that term, but we also heard
about the replacement of the boiler, HVAC, and all that. Was that taken out of the pay as you go? Because I know those were pretty big expenses. Um, and we've got some that we know are going to have to be done. Um, are is that what you're referring to or is there other
pay as you go? And some of that money did go towards um Director France. Um members of the board, um some of that money did go towards things like the boiler replacement. Um some of it came out of the funds that were held back from last
year's spending. So it's it's a little bit of both. Okay. Yeah. Thank you. Any other questions? Charles. Yes. Um, Director Frederickson, can
you lead me to how you came up with the original forecast and how it was so far off? Um, it's I guess so far off is then that
might not be the correct verbiage. Yeah, I mean it's it's one and a half% difference um from what the original one was. And again, you're doing a forecast essentially at least two three years in advance. So you're looking at what you
know with the time. Um and because we're kind of work on, especially in the fall, we're working on three different years. We're kind of closing out one year. So you don't necessarily know what the final final numbers are going to be till that audit's complete. then you're um
looking at the current year and then trying to build the next year's budget plus a forecast moving forward. So it was um given the information that we had at the time, it was um a forecast that
was based on actuals given at that point which again are a year in advance. Okay, I appreciate it. Thank you. Any other questions regarding this? I have one question. Amy, go ahead. Um, Director Frederickson, you shared the it
was off 1.5%. Uh, what is the variance that what is an expected variance? So, there is a um organization called the Council of Great City Schools that has um the top I believe 100 largest school districts in
the country. Um we're obviously not one of those. Um but they do have every year they report a KPI report which is key performance indicators and one of their KPIs is variances of budget versus
actual and um if you are under two and a half% they consider that fairly um spoton. There are variances from a half a percent to 5%. Um, I think if you go
more than 5% then there probably needs to be an explanation. Anything else regarding this document? Um, the other report that basically is the same information just in a different format is the projection by object code.
Rather than have the uh programs like the administration district support, it just lists the it's the same dollar amounts. It's just um categorized it by salaries, purchase services, supplies, capital, miscellaneous, and then our debt service. So again, it's just a
different way if you want to see how much we spend in salaries versus um the amounts broken out by um program code. I just gave you another piece of information that you can kind of
compare. And then I've also included in there just a reminder of what the board approved budget reductions were, how we got to the 4.1 million. Um, and then as we look at that detailed allocation, that hasn't changed since the last one
that we had, it breaks out the um departments and the school allocations. You can see that we spend um $95 million in schools. Um there is this spreadsheet shows about
27 million in departments but that is including transportation the utilities at schools health service uh and I think Wolf fridge retreat um is in there too. So while they are listed under
department, it's supporting the schools. So on the 9th of June, um the budget that we'll be asking you to approve is a um revenue of 123.2 million and expenses of
123.2 million. Mary, um, Director Frederickson, considering that the, um, our state government hasn't yet decided on a final education bill, I I assume they're still pretty far apart, unless some brand new
news came through today, which I don't think it did. Today was the deadline, I believe. Um um I I assume you're putting in maybe a variance uh on or at least going to inform us of what you believe may be a
change after we do approve the uh 2526. Yeah. If there's any significant changes, then we will certainly do an amended budget at some point. Um I I really don't know how long it's going to take them to get through a special session. There are some issues they're
pretty far apart on, but we will certainly keep the board informed and if we need to make a um adjustment, we will certainly have a resolution to do that. Thank you. Any other questions regarding this
topic? Okay. Thank you, Director Frederickson. Moving on to the enrollment update. Well, the enrollment update. Um, oh, I should just also mention that the all of the
financial from April are just in here because it's been a while since um they weren't ready for the last board meeting, so we're adding them here. They will also show up on the next board meeting for in the consent agenda, and they'll be two months for you to approve then. Um, so just for your situation
awareness there, I did include all of the financial packet that you usually get. Um, the enrollment report as of the beginning of May, we were at for K12 enrollment about
8601. Um, which is 25 more than we had at the same time last year, but 18 fewer than we had on October 1st. So, it's been very consistent. Um, if you look at the
kindergarten enrollment as of May 9th, um, we have 499 students. Um, there were 103 of those are open enrolled. That was a question
that was asked and four of them are open open enrolled at Westwood. So we're um looking pretty consistent with the last five years. Um if we project it out, we're still a
little less than we had last year, but again, it's been pretty consistent with what we're seeing. questions around the enrollment update. Can you repeat the I'm sorry. Can you
repeat the open enroll numbers? There are 103 kindergarteners open enrolled of that 499 and four of them are open enrolled at Westwood. Anyone else? Okay, thank you,
director. Um, how about we take five before we move into the school closure discussion because that might take a little bit of time. So, why don't we reconvene at 7:05?