##VIDEO ID:PHuludjm6LI## e e e e e e e e e e e e [Music] m [Music] good evening it is Thursday November 7th 2024 at 6 PM we are at the district service center in Cottage Grove Minnesota we would like to acknowledge that the land on which We Gather is the land of the maakan Dakota people mawakan means dweller of the Spirit Lake our first item on the agenda is 1.0 roll call Dana Ryan Clark I'm here Sharon vaner here Eric tesner here Pat Drisco here Melinda dolles here Simi pet here Katie Schwarz here uh 2.0 please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance okay 3.0 is approval of our agenda can I get a motion to approve move by sherff seconded by Melinda all those in favor any oppos motion carries on to 4.0 our Workshop items and we have one this evening 4.1 and that is nutrition update that will be introduced by Abby Baker Executive Director of Human Resources and operations good evening tonight we are pleased to have Wendy Peterson here um she is joining us as our director of nutrition services and I know you hear from Wendy and her team in the spring about the budget for the upcoming year and we wanted to provide an update about um numbers for this year um Wendy and her team have had to be so versatile in the last few years coming out of the pandemic adjusting to free meals and now they're just rocking it with free meals and they really have a focus this year on connecting with students again we're we're more fully staffed and we're able to bring the fund back into the cafeterias so I'll have Wendy talk about all the great things that they're doing good evening everyone thank you for allowing me the opportunity to come in and talk about all the wonderful things that are going on services so I would first like to start off with just a brief introduction of the team members that work out of the district service center um I know if you were here in the spring you were had the pleasure of meeting Bobby Joe and Carrie botan they're the other two administrators that work for the department but in addition we have two years ago we added Erica kety as a second dietitian on our team Bobby Joe is also a dietician but with the number of special diets and very complicated student meal patterns that we have to provide for a lot of these kiddos we did decide to add a second dietitian so Erica is new to the team but coming from a different District anding do just a wonderful job we have Mary rasmason Mary is responsible for a lot of our invoicing and payroll Jennifer keing who is our Tech Specialists and then Colleen Rymer who is our office coordinator in addition to these amazing women we also have about 155 team members um that provide over 18,000 meals a day and so we couldn't do it with all of them and they're just doing a fantastic job this year so in moving on I just wanted to provide a little bit of a timeline for context so that everyone is aware of what we have gone through the past handful of years so this year with the bill that was passed by Governor walls meals are free just like they were last year and then the prior year in 2023 this is when we had to charge meals based on eligibility and so at that time uh over 75% of our students were in the paid status so we were reimbursed on that fact and then our free and reduced students obviously were covered by either a by a combination of the state and federal government and then the year before that in the gold and all of this is going to be color coordinated moving forward I wanted to make a note of that um but in the gold meals were free coming out of CO as well those meals were primarily covered by um the federal government so in looking at reimbursement rates I wanted to put this up as well um and know that the reimbursement rates that we have on this chart are if everyone was at the free stat so even though 2023 is marked as $453 if students were charged for their um for their meals so the parents were paying for those meals that actual reimbursement came in at about 60 cents lower than that so it was a combination of the $453 and then approximately $3.90 for that year which was an uh a reduce in revenue of over a million dollars compared to what were being re being reimbursed at currently so just for context on that so when we look at what's going on overall this year again just to make note the blue is the current last school year is in the green and then the red was the last time that meals were charged based on eligibility so you can see a massive uptick in the amount of meals that we're servicing to students um when it comes to breakfast we had budgeted back in the spring for a daily average of about 3200 00 breakfast a day and our current average is close to 4,000 with many many days going over 42 43 4400 breakfast a day in looking at lunch participation you can see the same um kind of the same movement that we saw with breakfast again the blue is the current two months that we've been in session and then the red last time that meals were paid so a significant increase in um our overall participation when it comes to lunch projected 13,200 which was very similar to the average of last year um we had we had assumed that we had captured the majority of students that we that we were anticipating seeing at lunch however we are busy um but good busy and so they are pushing anywhere between 13, and 800 we had a goal this school year to reach 14,000 lunches one time and they have hit it seven times with today being the seventh day that they reached over that 14,000 Mark about 10 years ago Bobby and I remember could we hit 10,000 would there be a day that we would ever hit 10,000 so to hit 14,000 they're already pushing for that 15,000 marks so we'll see if that happens and then looking at our allart Revenue this is where we saw um some difficulty over the past handful of years um I was trying to look back and see when the last time was that our department was actually staffed we are guessing that it was maybe 8 years ago and so last year especially we were down 25 team members um and so when you have 23 sites that you're operating average of almost one a site um some of our high schools were down two or three employees on a daily basis that was without call-ins and so often what would happen is in every secondary we have a location that we offer all a cart sales and anytime that we were short staff those allart rooms would be closed that was the first thing to happen because we want to ensure that students are getting their meal and all of the extras are secondary and so those rooms would be closed and often were closed for extended period of time this year all of the rooms were open within the first two weeks of school and some of our buildings even open them on the first day of school and then just to remind everyone that allart doesn't just necessarily mean snacks and drinks anything that is outside of the reimbursable meal falls under our allart Revenue so if a student decides to have a second entree that's going to be captured in our allart sales and we are up um about $3,000 a day from last year uh and so we're just seeing massive amounts of purchases and I think from what we've been reported from some of the managers is students that never had money to buy a treat to buy a drink or buy a second entree because the meals are free their parents are still putting money into their account and allowing them to do so so um overall big increases with our oart Revenue as a whole as well and then when it comes to our fund balance um our actual fund balance for last year was over 3.8 million we had projected um a break even year for the most part this year but if our revenue and expense reports um hold true for the rest of the year of what we're seeing we'll have to do some serious adjustments to that because we should be able to to make some some significant improvements in this however we are running um at the end of last fiscal year at about a 27% fund balance um which is well over the school board goal of 9% for our department so before I move on are there any questions about the numbers I had one question about the breakfast do we know if a majority of the ones that were getting breakfast in at 23 year were they the ones that got it at the free and reduced or were we getting during school year during school year 23 yeah it was actually a mix so I think the the way it used to be with breakfast many many years ago was that the only students that ate breakfast were free and reduced students and we have seen a dramatic change in that two years ago was running about 50% free and reduced and 50% paid students at that time there was also coming out of covid um there was a time to where a lot of our classes the teachers were bringing the entire classrooms down at the elementary school and we've really gone away from that trying to serve a students um that truly need to eat and so if they do need to eat if they show up late we're going to take care of them but we don't want to have the food waste so often what was happening is students were showing up to us they've already eaten breakfast they might pick one thing and throw the rest in the trash so we really are trying to do a push towards let's feed the students who need it if they're hungry of course we want to take care of them um and so we are seeing a good mix of not only free and reduced students but full pay or students that are not on educational benefits as well perfect thank you um Wendy for the increase in breakfast participation this year um do you know what is driving it is it like specific like is it the high school level or is there just different no it's it's actually across it's actually across the board um we you know for instance ultman is serving 450 students in the morning um they used to do about 250 so over the past couple years they've captured a lot of students I think it's really parents taking advantage we all know that the economy is tough um inflation is hitting everybody's pocketbooks and so if they can come to school and eat um they they really want to take advantage of that and so we're able to see the the benefit from that as well Wendy iard just want to make sure this works can you remind me how the funding works from the state do do we do a re are they do they reimburse us yes so the majority of the money comes from the state because of the free meals so we do get a portion of that from federal government so what they're doing is the federal government um gives us a certain amount and then for any student that was not under educational benefits the state is covering the rest of that reimbursement so that captures everyone at let me go back real quick that captures everyone then coming in that we get that $4 64 you have a I don't know if you have this number but do you have the uh I guess maybe you have it for last year the total cost for the whole district for the for the meal program cost as far as our not not to the district but just the amount of money it cost to fund the meal program for the entire District like per year from the state yeah um I do have that number I unfortunately I I had two packets and I left that one on my desk so it's in the millions it's definitely in the millions um let me look real quick I can give you a guess at so lunch reimbursement for the state um I have that budgeted for this upcoming school year at about 6.3 million for lunch for lunch breakfast is half that probably about a third third yep okay perfect thanks yeah you're welcome um for the so can for the reimbursement so how do we ensure or how are we like I'm assuming that there are still free and reduced kids who's who are covered by the federal government correct and so um with this movement though I'm also assuming that fewer kids have filled out paperwork or not yes I mean it is more difficult because especially when it's educational benefits a lot of people call it free and reduced applications but we truly want people looking at as educational benefits because it goes well beyond um just the lunch program and so there's been a large push by the Communications Department to ensure that families are still filling out the educational benefits form now younger students they might be able to reap the benefit of community education programs but the older the students get the more benefits they receive from those forms and so it's been critical for us as a district to really try to get the word out that hey the each individual building benefits from this the the district benefits from you filling out these forms and thank you to Communications they've done a great job of ensuring that families still also get the forms in in conjunction with that year ago um at the beginning of last year I do believe it was the state also made Medicaid an automatic qualifier for benefits where that wasn't the case prior to that so there was a large uptick of families that now automatically qualified for benefits where two years ago they didn't and so that's helped and take has taken away the burden from some of these families of having to do the paperwork because we just get a file that we upload process them they get a letter from us saying they're approved and so that has helped also when it comes to our overall numbers and and the paperwork aspect can you good um so can you explain for the people that might not know what the other benefits are that the secondary older students get yeah there's a variety of benefits they can get reduced fees on um Sean you probably have a list we have they can get reduced fees on Athletics they get discounts on driver's education they get discounts on internet things like that um Community Education programs kids club um it's there's a there's a long list of benefits that people can can take advantage of if they choose to I think that's site based Chris do you but we do look at that yeah I think it's I think it's more location based but there are benefits with that as well um it used to be the protection on devices for computers I know that we're not doing that anymore this year but last year that was another thing that was covered under that they have discounted fees on that as well and then with the um with the increase of kids getting meals are we still see are we seeing like the number of kids who are eligible for educational benefits is that stay St basically the same or as far as the overall percentage Yeah we're seeing it be be very similar we're still in the I think it is mid 20s I haven't pulled that number recently but um we were averaging about 23% for years I think it's gone up to 27 I think was the last number yeah field trips is one of the things that's listed as well one more question since uh some of this stuff just made me curious there is is no real incentive though for a particular family to fill out the paperwork um to receive that Federal fun funding for the district every student gets not when it comes to meals cor correct yes because automatic qualifier so do you have any idea probably a hard question but do you have any idea about um the numbers previously before the bill or the law was passed uh as far as the numbers of of students that had submitted that paperwork as opposed to now it's really difficult to break that down because of that Medicaid Factor because we qualified roughly 5,000 more students on the automatic qualifier of Medicaid so that is also skewing the numbers so there's no real way to break that down because of that coming into play last year and so those were families that possibly the year before that were filling out the form that now no longer have to and so when you look at approximately a quarter of our students that are on that um and 5,000 roughly 5,000 of you know we've got 25% of them that are now on Medicaid now the difference between Medicaid is they don't have to accept the benefits whereas this free meal program families cannot opt out the only way for us would be as an District to opt out of the entire National School breakfast and national school lunch program in which we' lose lose all of our funding and there's just no way to be financially solvent that way Federal funding lose all federal as well as state funding yep so individual families cannot just say I don't want to participate I want to pay on my own that is not an option with this program um there are a couple I do believe school districts that do not um participate in the national school and breakfast program but that's something I mean you're talking $12 million in funding um between Federal state that you would out of a $14 million budget that you would lose funding for and then the parents would have to absorb that cost okay you mentioned a little bit about uh I guess trying to um prompt families to fill out paperwork when applicable um I guess can you speak a little bit more about the methods that you're using to do that yeah a lot of it is coming from the district communication team team and sending out in the parent newsletter um to educate families on how it works um we so there's a lot of communication that's coming in that regard we've tried to do information pushes to direct sites so they can let families know so if we're seeing that um a particular school is having a low part uh participation when it comes to educational benefits we'll do direct communication to those families of a site as well yeah and that's through it's it's in our enrollment sessions it's you know we we have a poll campaign for it that we go and then we do R it down by schools so it's it's kind of a multifaceted approach to get there so we put it in our newsletters but then we have templates that our principes use um there's phone calls there's you know we try to put it out there of in as many ways that we can we also have um what's called carryover so anyone that had was um receiving benefits say last school year those benefits carry over for 30 days and so we're required to notify those families if they're going to lose eligibility so we'll send them emails we send them snail mail is that if that's what it's still called US Postal Service mail um and and send that out as well and notify him that way because we definitely don't want families losing their okay um is there a is there a way to to I guess because look I'd like to save as much money or take it from the Fed as we can so is there a way to track you know how we're doing with that from a year-to-year basis um I know that you said that the Medicaid thing kind of uh complicated matters or made things more difficult to track but since that's been in play uh is there is there a way to see how we're doing with families filling out that paperwork to maximize that benefit um you know I mean I get it as a parent you fill out endless forms nobody wants to do it and there isn't much of an incentive frankly well and there there are still qualifiers so it's not like if you do the paperwork you automatically qu because it is it's income based and so um so I think what we have seen is and again Medicaid is going to throw that off but we've seen an uptick and some of that is due to the changing of the income guidelines um but we have not seen a dramatic decline in that but yes we can we can pull histor data for that okay I'm just curious thanks yeah for sure anything else all right we'll move on to the other information that we have so our we came up with a dep Department Focus um for the school year and we are calling it food is fun um we to be completely transparent we're in survival mode for many many years and so this year we felt was a great year to try to bring bring bring back some fun and excitement into the cafeteria try to get more participation make students feel more comfortable in conjunction with that it was one of our primary focuses to also incorporate literacy into the cafeteria and so we are doing a lot of food trivia at the elementary level we have this adorable little cow named Maggie and every Wednesday Maggie has a joke for the students to come over and read and it's often it's either a joke or it's informational um nutrition education that we tie in with that piece and we do that all across grade levels as well so it's gr appropriate literacy information tied to nutrition we also have brought back our theme days is this is something that we did for years prior to covid um and since then it's just been really difficult to alter the menu and to be able to do anything above and beyond for our students um but we had a border battle for the Vikings and Packers game this is something that the students truly enjoy we change the menu we turn everything on the salad bar purple green yellow or white our team gets to dress up we got them football aprons um to wear this year they also got to dress up for national school lunch week um which was our school Pirates theme and then we have a variety of events scheduled um upcoming for the students so we have um we're tagging into the Veterans Day celebration next week that the um individual sites are doing and we are offering um they're called red white and boom pops for our students we're calling them our Veterans Day pops our veterans pops um and just a variety of different things that we're going to do um another one of our most popular events that we've done is we do a dead of winter luau and a citrus celebration where we bring in different Citrus items to the salad bar that students may not be accustomed to so it's a really fun day we bring in cumquats and the kids often have never heard the word before they have no idea how to eat them most adults don't know how to eat them um and then we're going to have a large event for Twins home opener changing the menu doing some fun baseball them themed items as well so just really trying to get the students um excited to be in the cafeteria and I shared this story at operations cabinet but we do a staff Spotlight for all of our employees so that we get to know people from other teams and one of the managers filled out the spotlight and she said her most memorable day was just this past um border battle day because at Liberty Ridge the kids did the school chant so many times that she lost her voice so it it's just a really really fun day for the students and then our overall District initiative that we're doing this year that we are so excited about is a partnership with basic needs food um market and so we have started a pilot program at five schools and that is at Eastridge ultman great Cloud Hillside and crust View and so the students are learning about how to recycle items that will go then to the food market which is in Cottage Grove so that families that are in need can come and pick up those produce or wrapped items and so because of the number we often get the question why aren't we allowing students to then take these items home we have significant food allergies in our district to where if students um came into contact with the wrong item they could go into anaphylactic shock which we have had happen and so our goal is to get the food to the food market and have families come there they are responsible for washing ensuring food safety and as well as educating the families on that and so we just started this program approximately three weeks ago going very very well and I'm happy to announce that they reached out to me a couple days ago we're going to be adding Woodburry Middle School to the list so we're going to be up to six and hopefully that will be starting if not next Monday the following Monday and then as basic needs has volunteers they will continue to let us know that their capacity has increased and then we'll add additional additional schools to the list so the students are learning a lot about food insecurity and food waste and it's just been a really good partnership so far um especially for families that have that food insecurity in the community you know and I think I just want to stress that when and we are staffed which I wanted to thank the board for approving um the wonderful raise that our team received um because that has allowed us to be staff this year we are seeing the happiness and joy coming back to our employees they're really finding um happiness and satisfaction out of their work again and they're loving being around the students and they're being able to give the quality customer service um we've always focused on quality food but I think when we were so short sta that the qu the customer service kind of went by the wayside because they were just in this constant moving and trying to get the students taken care of and so we're really seeing the love and the joy coming back into the cafeteria and our teams are just happy and enjoying coming to work every day and so it has been um a a 180 change from years past and I think we're in you know all of us in nutrition services are are very very happy and excited about what what you know the school year has to offer for the students and in the end then what we're able to do to our our cafeterias to our kitchens being able to recycle some of those funds increase our equipment um our capacity and just continue to serve so with the food rescue program um I know at one point it was where the fruits had to have skins on them and it's looking like apples on there now so with the um funded lunch program I know they have to have each item right cor to be funded is there is the box that you're providing for the rescue program like right as they check out with their pins so it doesn't go to their tray and get more contaminated and they can just drop it right away yeah we actually purchase these large C I'll call them more of a cart and so um then the students can put that in at any time and sometimes they're putting it in right away sometimes they're going because they don't know what they're going to eat and if they wind up getting full from their meal then they're taking those items back so it just kind of depends upon the situation with the students but yes they're readily available in the cafeteria um Wendy this may be a challenging question to answer because or to ask because I forgot to send it to you ahead of time but part of the free and reduced lunch or the sorry the free School meals from the state do we know I know that there were some number of families that were kind of on the cusp they did not make little enough to be eligible for educational benefits but they probably but the amount of school lunch was probably a hit to their pocketbook and so they were either going into debt to the school district or using the angel fund or something like that do we know how many of those kids um there were or there used to be I don't know if there's ever a way to know truly the percentage of students um because the only way for us to know would be if everyone filled out the educational benefit form we do know that we had to deny families that were $20 over threshold is what it is and if they were any amount over that we have no we leeway to approve them and so we do know that the year that 2023 when meals were paid um there were I I'm going to say roughly $30,000 that came from the angel fund and then I do believe it was about $20,000 that came from the general fund to cover that debt because it's legally those funds if the students go negative they can't come from our budget they have to come from general fund okay so they cover that and now we no longer have that debt you don't have students that have to worry about I mean we always fed students um and so it was a matter of you can't eat today because you don't have the money um but it's it's taken away that stigma um for students to have to worry about coming through the line and so you know we often get parents in the past that would say but how is my student going to know that they can eat and are other students going to know that they're free and we don't have any of that any longer so it's really helped with that overall stigma and and stress level for students being in the cafeteria and I think we're seeing that because we're seeing more and more students eating we have really good food so I have heard um and so one question I do have also is that because you have you've had such a dramatic increase in the number of students taking lunch every day what has that done to like the operation side of getting students through quickly right yeah it can it can be a challenge so certain um sites we've had to add an extra salad bar milk cooler cash register that sort of thing in order to get them through um you know last year I do believe Eastridge started off with eight employees this year they went 12 and so but the but the great news is is the revenue is surpassing the cost of the labor and we've seen that with our last two months of site reports and so we're able to service them because we can get the food out to them quicker make sure that the salad bars are stocked they're not waiting on milk because the milk cooler is empty um we're adding lines wherever possible but let's face it we I I can't stress how excited we are to get the additions of three high schools can we please open in a month um we are if you saw the size of some of our walk-in coolers and freezers you would wonder how we do this on a daily basis they are shoe boxes they are tiny and so they always joke that they play Jenga every day trying to put their trucks away um but they just do such a good job but yeah it's been operationally there have been challenges but coming out of covid I don't think anything can be worse than that so um you know we've heard pivot a million times these guys are pro pivoter and so they take every Challenge and and and busy is something that they can handle when they're staffed when you're not staffed and you're super super busy it's just nothing but stress but they love hearing the numbers and seeing the results and seeing the kids and just know that they're fed and they're nourished so that they can that's awesome thanks um my last question I guess is for maybe Julie um I know that we I know that like statistically they whoever they are have found that like free school lunch leads to better educational outcomes do we is there like a statistically valid way for us to track that in our district or is it just too hard to tease that out with the data yeah I think that uh Gathering that data will take a little time just knowing when we had the free meals but I think what we see is that um kids are fed and they have the opportunities to eat and we know that that is a good thing we know that learning is impacted when students come to school hungry I thought you were going to ask me what my favorite lunch was or something s I'm like this question is for Julie okay what's my favorite lunch um no my well and I mean like do we hear anecdotally from staff about like kids were kids are I don't know perkier in the afternoon or whatever that chm is or not really I don't know that I have I don't know that I have any data on that that's fine I was just I was just curious if we if we've seen any anything so far and I know it'll take a while to get data I'm not asking for there is National Data though on test scores overall Behavior things like that um that's directly tied to nutrition and and students eating but for sure yeah know I know that I was trying to see if we knew like in this District what the impact was but I know that those are also taken like longitudinally over and we've had one year of data right right we know that the cafeteras are wild and crazy and that's do the sheer volume of students in there but it's a fun place to be I would think it' be a little bit difficult too to trying of contribute is it because kids are eating more lunches all the time or because they're not learning from home anymore you know that they're actually in school and test scores are improving from that too well and if we couple um food and meals with cell phones being out I mean kids may be a little bit more talkative because perhaps it's because they're not looking at their cell phones and so I think there probably are combination of factors but I think at the end of the day we know that making sure students have food to eat is a great thing absolutely and I would just uh duplicate what's been shared but we have some of the most incredible individuals in our schools um serving meals to our kids every day um they are fun they are engaged salad bars I remember 15 years ago and I used to give tours and that was always a point of Pride stopping and taking a look at that salad bar what you saw up on the picture is the way it looks every single day that bar is filled with healthy snacks and healthy parts of the meal every single day and so just um a real big thank you to our nutrition services staff they do a great job and the lines are long but they get kids through very very quickly can I ask one more question with with respect to Staffing with the increase in meals has it required more Staffing absolutely a year ago we were sitting at about 130 employees today we have about 155 um that are out in the kitchens and so and it's a constant email for me saying how are you doing how's the workload how's the stress level and as soon as they say we need another one I have a stack of applications on my desk from employees waiting to come on board and we don't have a place for them and it's been a very long time that I could say that okay and then and then I'm assuming that with the the funding from the state and federal combined that is that covers the to pay for the additional Staffing credit it is yep and so this was something something that we just did a coaching on at our manager meeting on Tuesday because of course they they're very well versed with their profit and loss statements and they've been chopping at the bit to see their numbers because they know with that significant raise we did a we did a quick um mathematical calculation with all of them in August of what was going to happen with their overall site reports in regards to their labor percent um and so they were very nervous and they know that we run each kitchen like its own little restaurant and they know they're responsible for that profit and loss statement and so we went through an entire um exercise around how do we we either have to increase revenue or we have to decrease costs well the only way to really decrease costs is to lower the quality of the food which we absolutely that's that's a deal breaker for us or you cut labor so we really focused on that Revenue enhancement side of things versus looking at the costs and so trying to get more students and so doing a lot of these programs has enabled them to increase their revenue enough to allow it to cover those additional expenses and so things right now are looking I'm shocked at the invoices I'm signing for food but it's it's due to the sheer volume um but I'm also shocked when I see the revenue numbers coming in because they are extreme they they're they're really really strong and so I don't I want to knock on wood and because you know things can change and they can the scale can get tipped the other way but right now things are looking really really strong you have any idea what percentage of each meal goes to Staffing costs yeah we our goal is 31% so 31% of that meal and it it depends you know each individual site we might have a site um like Newport that doesn't have you know a ton of kids coming through the door so they might run a 33 but we also might have a high school running a 24 and so I tell them do what you can to control it but we're not going to worry about that because some years certain sites might make a lot more than others um our goal you mean we're nonprofit status but we still have to ensure that we can replace our equipment and pay for raises and uniforms and all the things that are important to everybody and continue with the quality of food that's being offered to students and so um looking at the budget is something I'm a little bit obsessed over I do it often to ensure I know I feel like I'm part of the finance team um but we want to ensure we never want to rely on the general fund to cover our cost and so I went back and I looked at the numbers and in 2015 which is when I do believe I started as the Director we had a fund balance of $78,000 and we have almost $4 million and that is due to the hard work of every one of those employees in that building and their commitment to ensuring that we are going to be a financially stable Department appreciate it I could see you're obsessed with the uh very much so I am the daughter of an accountant I appreciate you brought a lot of knowledge here so thank you um Julie I think it might be prudent to to start some kind of an audit system for perkiness that's you're going to write that down I'll work on that data I'll get back to you on that Eric samples all right thank you all very muchy thanks Wendy okay on to 5.0 our information items and we do have three of those this evening so we'll start with 5.1 Financial update that will be presented by Chris Blackburn Director of Business Services oh man that's a tough to follow now um I do tell Wendy all the time that uh we used to have some competition between our departments a little bit too but um we haven't had those in a while but we might have to start those back up again along with their theme days so um it is very nice to sit next to them because we do occasionally get samples so this week I believe I didn't actually get to try it but they had cheese and something empanadas and they look delicious so I was like I could smell them I was like what's going on out here so um The Perks of being in finance but yes I will give a lot of props to Wendy by the way it's been a pleasure to work work with her um on the finance side of things and I do um just appreciate that mindset so Eric TS as far as that budget mindset even that they do operate that way but while always keeping our kids at heart so all right well tonight's Financial update um was kind of a hodg Podge I'll call it it's a little reflection on preliminary results from this past year um enrollment updates and kind of the where we're at right now for 2425 and as we look forward kind of what's coming next so for 324 um we are wrapping up the audit and so I always think that we tell people we have two seasons we have audit and budget and audit sometimes they're like weren't they just there and I'm like yeah they come in July and then they come back and then they come back again and come back again I feel like so um they have wrapped up their on-site fieldwork and so we're largely done with the predominance of the audit now we're wrapping up the things that go into this nice big book um that are non audited type items as well and so we want to just provide an update on the preliminary results because it's kind of exciting for us so revenues um the highlights is that we um are within 3.14% of budget right now and the good news is we're over budget so about 9.6 million which um I will tell you that often we don't like to come in quite that far over either sometimes we like to be a little closer in our numbers um there are about a thousand Revenue lines across all funds but the predominance of these revenues why that was higher um 1.1 million over in general education Aid and that is largely we had ended up with 98 more students than our revised budget number and so as we frequently talk I think um you'll see on a later slide how much a million dollars is you know now in current dollars um but that really accounts for that dollar um overage the 4 million over in state special education Aid we made a shift um in how we utilize our federal special special education Aid that actually resulted in more revenue on the state side and so um the state actually charges each district we tuition bill each other so like for example when we send students to 916 through State system they reduce our state aid by the tuition bill piece for them servicing our students and so by moving that tuition bill piece to the federal side it generated additional State dollars um due to the change in Formula a couple years ago 1.8 million over an interest income Dan and I um kind reference back to Dan as well we always try to stay conservative as well and so again we'd rather come in over than under um but we you know interest income is kind of hard to predict sometimes and so we try to really just be watching that be mindful of it um and again as we look forward it'll be kind of challenging so a lot of times we try to look back the past couple years and adjust as we know if interest rates are going up or down um but that's always nice to see that we're over um and then 1.3 million is just in other locals so fees and admissions our ma thirdparty billing Revenue was up again this year a little more thaned even and so those are really good things highlights on the expenditure side then um So within 36 of budget so unfortunately we were over budget which I hate to say I like to come in 36 under budget but about 1.1 million and with a you know the budget our size with 14,700 lines across all funds that we spent money in um it gets to be a little challenging sometimes on that so I'm always just very pleased at that um we came in that close the predominance of why we came in over um when I looked back through it and you'll notice that those numbers don't add up 1.1 million they actually come in higher but 1.5 million over in contracted substitutes and 1.4 million over in contracted Transportation those course were offset um we do with that many lines there's a variety of some that are a little over and some a little under and so um those variants again were just offset as we looked um across you know I tend to be under typically and um benefit some because you know we have pre-tax benefits and so we even just budgeting some things like that that often will come in a little so um kind of helps a little bit but those two were the biggest um drivers of that overage on the fund balance side there was an increase of $1.3 million in the net effect of those um I will also say again that doesn't quite add up and as you will call in June we um approved closing the internal service fund and moving that fund balance from the internal service fund and it came directly into fund balance so that accounts for that remainder um of that increase board policy as a reminder unrestricted fund balance our goal is 16.6% and that really allows it it's two months of um operating expenditures is what that number is and so it allows us to mitigate any current and future risks and ensures a stable cash flow for us so again as we can navigate when there's maybe a little highs or a little lows like when you said 78,000 a few years back um in hers that makes it a little challenging and so when we can have that money it helps us um kind of write out those es and flows a little in our funding um and so the really good news if you turn to the next slide it's a little bit hard to read here but if you'll notice the 23 24 fiscal year activity column so it's that kind of right about smack dab in the middle and our projection right now is about 16.89% fund balance which yes simy that is over 16.6 so yay um but again it's a lot of hard work across the district in just continuing to monitor those numbers and have sites and departments monitoring their budgets as well and keeping an eye on those so um additionally so there's a breakdown by salaries benefits Services supplies capital and you'll see the variance column as well um so that 36 as to what it was made up of um salaries came in about a million under benefits 3 million under and services was about 6 million over but that's where I'll point out that tuition bill that I just spoke of on that Federal special education we used to have some salaries and benefits that were charged there instead of that tuition bill piece that tuition bill piece ends up in that 300 Services category so of that 6 million 3 million was was that and then again when we look at that contracted subs and then Transportation accounts for the supplies um typically we come in a little under and that's um often we have the sites where we'll allow for carryover on some of their budgets and sometimes they don't always spend all of that and so uh fairly often we'll come in a little bit under there and then capital and other were pretty pretty close fund balance then this is just a slide of the past five years and kind of as we look to the next so you'll see that nice high number then in 23 24 and our um would anticipate will be at our highest fund balance that we've ever had which is really exciting 2425 I'll just kind of put a preliminary budget I saw budget got cut off on my slide so my apologies for that um but we did have that approved budget deficit of 5 million so we are anticipating projecting a drop in that um for that little decline 2425 enrollment updates again I just always like to keep the board apprised of where we are at and as of October 29th um and I actually think we dropped 14 students this past week but um when I put the slides together we were at 19,164 and at that point and again just a reminder enrollment is always a snapshot in time that would be put as 446 more than our original budget which is wonderful and then Al caveat by last year we were also over quite a lot and we ended up about 50% of that number as I looked back and told Julie I said I was kind of nerded out over the weekend and she's like kind of shook her head at me a little bit like what were we doing with enrollment over the weekend and um it is really hard I was hoping kind of that I could have a trend and I could see like oh look at the last six years it goes you know 50% every year of that approximately October number and there is no Rhyme or Reason to it um and some of that was certainly with the pandemic and issues with that we know that our class sizes now are getting a little lower in kindergarten or projected to be out um and that we're replacing those big some big classes graduating so um it's still really good news what I've shared with people but it's cautiously good news um so actual will come in lower than that because again fall is typically our highest enrollment but about a million dollars is 84 students and so at that even about 50% of that we'd be at about 2.6 million which really helps again knowing that we had that budget deficit so we'll keep our fingers crossed District were paid on average daily counts um and final counts again won't be calculated till next fall enrollment drives the budget as always and so this is just a slide showing again that reminder of where we've been at historical and just how flat our enrollment really has been over the years um we do have that kind of right now we're we would be the highest as of this fall um but again that green is the where we ended last year and then the blue is the kind of where we're at right now and I would anticipate that number will come down slightly and again the reason that's important is that drives so much of our Revenue so as we look to the current year 2425 things that were watching we know that we approved that budget um with the $5 million deficit um in last June and so we're continuing how do we um just kind of assess that and how do we make sure that that five million doesn't balloon over the course of following years and so we're continuing to watch that enrollment really wonderful news with that projected increase um and it will result in additional Revenue but we may also see increase expenditures so sometimes we um there perhaps could be where we have to add a section or a class um at the high school or other we may um just have additional textbooks or other supplies that are needed as well so sometimes that enrollment does come with at least some marginal cost interest income again we know that the Federal Reserve just cut interest rates again so as we project out for this current year um we had 3.6 million received last year we have 2.3 budgeted for this year so I think we'll be okay um but it is always for us to continue to monitor expenditures we'll we're continuing to monitor those and making adjustments wherever we can um trying just to see are there ways that we can just come up with savings are there things as we look and review are there maybe softwares that maybe aren't are underutilized that perhaps we could look at do we need to continue that in the future um you know other services and things like that particularly as a reminder salaries and benefits make up 78% of the general fund budgeted expenditures and so as we look at that number that's set in the spring prior to and so it's really challenging to adjust that any sort of midyear so it really is kind of a forward-looking is there anything we can do there too as we look to next year there position perhaps that we don't need to fill um are there ways we can just be a little more creative in some of that so on the next Slide the projected fund balance then so this is the kind of the bad news the good news was high enrollment we met our fund balance for the current year and then now we go down um but again this has a lot of assumptions built in and so I'll just remind everybody that um you know we have assumptions about a 2.5 Revenue increase because we know the state has that minimum of two and the maximum of three as we look forward now in statute uh it does have some we know there'll be some retirees um but typically we've seen fairly low retirees but we know there's some savings and cost to that and so there are some assumptions about that but we also know that we you know continue to see increases in certain costs as well so there's inflation factors built in on salaries and benefits contractual increases um and so we'll really the point of that is as we look forward is we know there's a bit of a structural imbalance between our revenues um as well as our expenditures and so just that reminder that as Administration continue to monitor that make adjustments where we can um and certainly want to try to you know have that not drop um continue to but just always reminder just a snapshot in time on where we're at today on that future dates so truth and Taxation hearing um I believe Dan used to call it the Super Bowl of our world but is December 12th the ne U December board me work business meeting only meeting I guess uh at that time too we'll also approve the final Levy audit presentation is typically done in January of 2025 um and we did push that to sometimes we've tried to meet that December meeting um but with having a late audit and just got to be really challenging with only the one meeting in December and so we thought it just a little more prudent just kind of shift that to January each time 25 26 budget planning we're already in fact I should put probably November we're already having conversations about that um 20 Staffing as well begins in January um and then we'll revise is the current year budget in March of 25 we'll bring that back to the board and then we'll approve the preliminary next June by June 30th we have to so with that any questions um Chris I had a question um so I'm very excited about the fund balance I know you are too um but you mentioned the internal service fund do you remember offand how many because if I remember correctly that internal service fund is part of the part of the general fund but it is sort of committed committed right and so do you remember how many how much money that was um I want to say we ended up with like 28 million roughly that we moved over and I can I can get that specific number for you we did of course there was some Seance paid out this year that we um did take out of that number and so I think at the time we projected that to last about somewhere between two and a half to three and a half years of separat payments that will come out of that dollar amount okay that's all I need to know thanks okay thankk you Chris okay on to 5.2 and that is calendar for 2025 26 and that will be presented by Julie neelson superintendent thank you and Johan are you running my the clicker thank you um you know I'm just amazed and I think it's as I get older but like time is flying and you know when you're in a meeting and you're already talking about January and the next person is talking about March or may um and so uh this evening I'm bringing forth our 252 family calendar it was our goal to make sure that it was approved by the end of November uh we had heard feedback from parents and family that they really like to know about the following year um before the new year ends so to start our overview um just a reminder that we are required to include 165 instructional days for students K2 of course with that there is a certain amount of instructional hours that by levels we need to make sure that we have included in the calendar and instructional days a day during which all students in a particular grade in School are attending and participating in school activities um days in which school is canceled entirely are not considered instructional or membership days and so that time wouldn't count and so we need to always make sure that we're over um so that we can factor that in and then finally um when we think about our teacher contract uh they are required 183 days so as we look at the first slide uh oh when drafting the calendar thank you Sean put these nice slides together so we just didn't have the calendar to show um again we need to meet the requirements in terms of days and hours uh the state refers to that as seat time um we know that the calendar has an impact on families I think what you're going to see from this year to our 2526 family calendar is there's really not a whole lot of ways that you can change things up in a district calendar and keep it between September and typically um early June um we of course look at the scheduling of spring break uh Dana takes occasional calls about calendars and why can't we have this spring break and sometimes everybody has their own little self-interest as it relates to our district calendar um of course we take into consideration holidays and longer weekends families have had given input whether it be Fridays off or Mondays off and then of course we also plan for our professional development for our staff so as we look at this year's calendar and um up on the slide you'll see our first six months um just to walk through it with the board in the month of September September looks um almost identical to this year in terms of um date and time I let me back up August is very similar in terms of what's what is occurring this year September uh re really mirrors um October is a mirror of uh what is being proposed for the 2526 November is very very similar as well December um we eliminated One professional development day currently this year de December 2nd is a professional development day and as you look at the month of December um students will be going to school 15 days so there will be three full weeks there as we get into January um January there is um I make sure um one less professional development day there so over the course of the entire calendar uh while we had um four professional development days we've reduced two of those um and that is one of um the dates January um third this year is a professional development day and you will see that staff come back um but on the 2nd but we don't have students return until January 5th other than that the month of January looks very much the same February is a mirror this year we have February 14th as a professional development day next year's proposal would be February 13th as we look at March March uh does include a professional development day um which is March 20th so there was a shift of of a professional development day and then what you see as March 6 as a teacher work day that just landed on the other side of spring break and for this proposal we're putting it on the front side um April uh we eliminated a professional development Day this year in our school calendar we have April 21st as a professional development day there is not a professional development day included in the month of April and then in the month of May our professional development day um lands earlier we wanted to take care of that before we get into some of our AP testing um and Etc in the schools and so with that we round out the school year um at or around the ex on the exact same day um a little bit different day but the same number dates so our last day for students on our proposed calendar is June 4th as we think about and a question I received is just around our asynchronous learning days for our inner our secondary students um that has remained the same and so there have been no changes um to the expectations around when we're testing um prea act MCA um testing at all so those remain the same uh with that I would just open up if there are any questions yeah Julie uh you had mentioned before about possible calendar changes with the construction um and this isn't showing that us now when when would families have an idea of if that would be an impacted yeah we had a discussion and we haven't gone back we're still looking at some of the planning and phasing for the projects but our hope would be that we would have a better idea by no later than the end of February so that second business or the business meeting in February if we needed to make adjustments to the calendar we would bring it back to the board knowing that the adjustments we make we more than likely going to keep our spring break and our winter break at the same time we would need to be flexible within there and I think we talked about four or five days I'm looking around at the people involved that it would be an adjustment of four or five days to get some additional time for construction um I think right now we're hoping uh that the phasing plans can align um with uh the school calendar and those days would be them getting out of school or a little early and then going back a little early correct uh no it would be starting later yeah and going longer is that correct team starting later I'm trying to think about which end yeah I think it was starting earlier oh start earlier that's right start before Labor Day and and earlier yes thank you that is what you said first um Julie I just had a random question so we've got spring break the second week and then kids come back for four days and then there's a PD day um is there any particular like in March sorry yeah any particular Rhyme or Reason for that it was about getting a professional development day that is the start of a new trimester and if I remember correctly ly we really wanted to avoid testing season which fell more into April with our MCAS and I'm looking around again anybody else on the calendar committee I think it had to do with some of our testing and having a professional development day at the start of a trimester um the calendar will come back for final approval at the next business meeting okay thank you Julie on to 5.3 and that's our first reading of proposed policy changes presented by Julie Nelson superintendent thank you I think Chris was busy with this one um Chris was busy cleaning up some of that those procedural language pieces uh bringing uh I bringing forward this evening for you eight 10 uh 10 policies starting with policy 620 credit for learning we had had an earlier conversation about the new legislative changes about either waiting um College in our schools and PSO grades are not waiting that was a legislative change that we either had to do it or not do it and so in the policy what you see coming forward after Christine Schaefer worked with our high school principals um our students and the staff uh we are moving forward with beginning with um next school year and now remember our students will be registering here December into January that beginning next school year um we would be unweighting College in our schools and PSO classes um and so in the short term so as not to pull out the rug from students who had already registered we opted to go the other direction and then based on the rigor of those classes um and conversations with administrators um staff and students we are going to unweight which puts us very much in align with other school districts uh policy 701 establishment of a School District budget there are some grammatical changes additional grammatical changes with policy 71.1 modification of the School District budget um 71.2 uh the fund balance we remove the procedural language and the policy was renumbered to 714 702 accounting grammatical changes and update to monthly reports 703 our annual audit just some grammatical changes 705 Investments some grammatical changes 706 we removed some procedural language or excuse me are recommending removal of some of the procedural language 7 21.2 competitive Foods I'm deleting that policy as there is no msba policy in place um and certainly not one that is required as we continue to make sure that our policies are strong um and align with msba policy 7:30 is our post issuance Deb debt compliance the policy was Rewritten and that was as per recommended by Ellers our financial institute and so with that I would take any questions and I'm sure Chris would be open to any around the finance policies okay seeing none thank you Julie oh I have to ask is there anybody signed okay nobody signed up okay 6.0 reports and comments and we'll start with superintendent Julie Nelson thank you um first off uh some of us enjoyed a really fun volleyball game um and I love volleyball I just forgot that even at the state tournament it wasn't quite as Rowdy not perky but Rowdy as um other sports it was very quiet we kind of sat in our seats we cheered when our girls had a good hit but it wasn't like our our students were not not going back and forth with the other team I don't know if it was just the venue or just the sport but our EAS idge volleyball team did lose today uh but they won yesterday just an incredibly strong team and so much fun to watch them play um and a lot of young players it's just amazing to watch some of these freshmen just hit the ball right down um so it was a lot of fun um we also just want to quickly acknowledge our swim and dive team from East Ridge who will also be competing in the state tournament next week um and with that uh plays are still going on still the opportunity and I said I would say it tonight you're in town is the name of the play Woodbury High School um super funny super funny um so I do recommend it this will be their last weekend and then Easter Ridge High School has their place starting I somehow go on opening nights has Alice at heart and that will start this weekend and run another weekend through the 16th I believe um and then finally um and last we will be honoring and recognizing our veterans on Monday um at our high schools and a number of our elementary schools okay any board members have any events coming up with their committees okay seeing none we will move on to 7.0 and that is our future meeting dates November 21st 2024 Schoolboard business meeting here at the district service center at 6 PM December 12 2024 Schoolboard business meeting um that is the only meeting in December and that is here at the district service center at 6 p.m. and with that 8.0 we are adjourned