Call the meeting to order. Your roll call, please. Park >> here. >> Here. Gordon >> here. >> Green Street >> here. I here. >> All right. Uh, we'll do approval of the
agenda. A motion to that. I move to approve the agenda. >> Second. >> Any comments or anything? >> Pardon me. >> I >> Gordon
>> I stream >> I motion passes passes. Uh first thing and really only thing we have on the agenda for this evening is the 2025 2026 revised budget and appropriation
resolution. Um so this is an action item. So um do we have a motion to for the resolution that has been put there. Yay. And then we can have a discussion.
It's in really tiny print there at the resolution says be it resolved by the Woodland Park education park school district located in Woodland Park School District RE2 and Teller County that the amount shown in the following schedule be appropriated for
each fund as specified in the revised adopted budget for the ensuing fiscal year beginning July 1, 2025 and ending in June 30th, 2026. I'll make a motion to
gosh approve the resolutions that you just read >> for the revised budget. >> Second question. I think I was going to ask initially if
um Mr. Kurtar could provide us with just a kind of a narrative overview from your perspective because obviously we've seen the numbers and uh I think maybe a handful of us could may have sent you some questions but I would just like to hear from your perspective like um where
where we were and kind of where we are now and add any kind of context or color to that. Okay. >> Where we were is in a year ago or >> uh I guess in terms of the more immediate revisions that we're reviewing
tonight and like the any other changes that correspond with the revisions from your perspective and maybe the >> okay context I brought something that might interest all of you. So what I did was I took kind of the major changes and uh created everyone loves
spreadsheets, right? >> They say you really find your sweet spot in a job when you're doing it and hours go by and you don't realize it. That's me and Excel.
Maybe I shouldn't be proud of that. given your profession, I think it's a >> So, one caveat, I know you're probably like when you hand out a contract, you guys are skipping to the back page, but uh the
this budget, I guess I give you an overview of it. So, we've got a new CFO. The budget was created by the former interim CFO. We've got a new software system. the budget numbers came out of
the old software system. So the codes changed and um so a lot of different changes. I will say after joining the district and kind of getting my arms around what the numbers look like because you always
want to build your budget off of a actual and u and was a interim CFO did not have much information to build the original budget off. So there are some big variances in here. I
I could write them off to that. So what our team is completing even as we speak is the very last of the final one bank account. I think they're in May. So May and June are left,
>> but there really was no revenue booked during the whole year, fiscal year 25 for the whole year. Bank wrecks, none of them were done. And um we did a lot a
lot of reclassifying. So for her to put a budget together, I'm kind of impressed. It proves to be somewhat accurate. So when I went through it, so that was her column on the the left column. I went through uh the revised budget uh in the middle
there and uh took kind of the yeartodate actuals and then analyzed those uh and determined like were they one time cost like insurance? We paid that
in July. it's over $300,000, not recurring in the second period. So, I left that alone. Some of the software that we buy or textbooks, they're frontloaded into the year. But if there's an expense that it's like, okay, we're going to repeat like salary first half of the year, second half of the
year. So, I just copied that as you would taking actuals and forecast. So, that's kind of how this was built. But if you flip you maybe to the second page, you're going to see a lot of blanks in either the original budget or
in the revised budget. And that is due to those updating the um code the CDE codes that we're using updating what had been in there. So there's some shifting in the budget. My first pass through I
made a tremendous number of changes and I went back and looked at the front of the budget like it doesn't look like it did anything because uh they were very very close. >> Could you just confirm the date on the original budget again real quick? Like when
>> uh that was voted in June of last year >> of 25. This is June 25. Okay. Thank you. When when did you start working for the district? Okay. >> After after Yeah. >> Well, you were here, but you weren't in
charge of doing the No, >> the budget at that point. I >> think it was within a week or two that >> the board voted on the budget. So, >> who did do it? Was it Courtney? >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Okay.
Um so that will provide you with with some of the things the there and I really wanted to focus on what were some of the major impacts. So um I think property tax after having recalculated the property tax. I think we will see a
bump in that this year which is good. Um, I think the expectation is that the state shares could get adjusted in the future based on on that, but I think this year we should be enjoying enjoying a little extra
there. So, some of the grants. So, Karen has done a great job since she got here working on the grants. So, she's been applying for more kind of fine-tuning what uh is available to us. And so you
can see the pluses and minuses in there. Probably the one maybe the two big things capital construction that actually flows through to Mar dollar for dollar. So that doesn't really impact it's we just
passed through 100%. But there was uh the CI $50,000 grant in the budget that does not exist. So I took that out. Was that just something that didn't
>> apply for the program? >> That's my understanding. >> Last year it was not applied for. This year it's not available. >> I mean I can't ask why we put it in the budget to begin with. >> Yeah.
>> Fortunately, it's a small number >> for the the overall budget. salaries are probably I mean salaries make up the majority of the expenses and again you know she
I think used the best data that she had. I've increased base salaries um by 538,000. So I'm working off actuals which she didn't have. So I've got six months of actuals that I can compare. Some of the
questions have been, you know, why isn't payroll dropping, you know, if we've made cuts and there's a couple things going on there. Um, I would say stipens I went through and I
haven't talked to Courtney, but I think those may have been missed. And so there's a lot of stipens paid for a number of, you know, sports is a huge huge one. Co-curricular there's just a lot of stipens people that work in the summer stipen. It's a significant
number. So, I added that in. And then the other thing that may not have been accounted for u I'm not even sure you would have known about it, but with Bose's moving, we moved
probably 12 to 15 staff that were not on our payroll. They were on Bosey's payroll the year before. And then they came on to our payroll this year. >> That should have been unknown >> maybe. Yeah.
So anyway, I adjusted for that as well. So some of the cost of that should flow through u you know the IDA ECEA funding that most get should cover that. So
but they needed to be in there. Trying to think if there's any probably some of the professional service fees that went up, you know, 35,000 is in there. There's some movement. You
can see in the in those line items. So that the part of the tool just back up a minute. So this tool is in a CDE budget form. So this u is something that she built and
she knows very well and it's missing some codes that we use like location codes and program codes on this view. So, you know, it shows professional fees, four lines, while
there's four could be four locations, four programs, four trying to think of one, three other uh factors in there. But, um, but if you add them up, there's just kind of a rearrangement of the
codes more than a big jump professional. We can keep going through there. and see what else jumps at us. The accounting so we ended up I think the big risk to the
district is you know which not going to happen but the big risk is missing the March 1st state auditor filing of our audit and uh so we're tracking towards get getting that done. There is a contingency plan.
If we can't get the full annual audit done, which is the goal, I think everyone, me included, you the community, everyone wants the standard annual full audit. And the clock is ticking. So soon as we can wrap up our
bank for May and June and hopefully today or later tomorrow, but Holing is anticipated to be here uh next Wednesday. So, it's going to be very tight for them. So, they'll have four and a half weeks and they said that is
the fastest. They have done one in four and a half weeks. Um, but that was the fastest they've ever done the full audit. But, they are committed to us. Um, I've talked to Chris numerous times. I feel bad even when he's on vacation. I have talked to him, but he's like,
"We're going to do everything that we can do. We want to support you guys." They've been great to work with. So, >> and I just want just a point of clarification on that, David. The audit not being completed up to this point is
really based on the way that records were kept and not kept, bank statements not reconciled that you inherited. It's not a reflection of this team now who's been working overtime to accomplish what
should have happened during the last fiscal year. Is that >> correct? >> Fair and correct. Yeah. >> You know, I look back at the staffing levels and it seemed like when I got here, there was one, you know, just
AP clerk. That was it. I mean, how she hung on, I don't know. But, uh, I'm glad she did. So, we've rebuilt somewhat of the team and and not only have they been working on this year, but they actually
did almost all of last year. They either had to enter in the data or they had to fix it. Um, so >> I just want to clarify as well as it relates to what we're reviewing for the
revisions for this year's budget. Does any of that directly impact the progress of the audit right now or is that un like I say unrelated but maybe that's not the right question. >> Um I'm sorry. Could you
>> rephrase that? >> Yes. >> I'm running on fume. >> That's okay. I just want to clarify if anything related to the revisions that we're proposing to adopt this evening, afternoon, whatever we are in. Um is
that any part of that directly related to the necessary information or steps required to complete the audit that's currently in progress? This is past year, right? So >> the only thing that would the audit is last year,
>> right? >> Yeah. So I would say no that there really isn't. They look into January. I mean geez they look into July with a fine tooth comb which is this year. So
so we're wrapping up last fiscal year and we started working in January but we need to get all the bank wrecks done make sure everything's done in J in July. But we've got time. >> And so everything related to the audit is in staff's hands at this point,
right? Like you guys are just working through it. Is that >> accurate? Okay. >> Yeah, that's exactly right. >> Um, one of the the bigger kind of um adjustments I'm seeing here is with the state equalization
like that has come down. Is that the averaging? Is that what the >> Yeah, there's I think a couple things working there. The We're actually in the hold harmless, so uh we should be receiving similar dollars, but there's a
fixed pie in the district. And so as merit's grown and so they're they're um per pupil count funded hit 551
and a half up from 452. So if the pie's smaller and they've grown, then they get a bigger chunk of that. And I think the budget was built I know I mean the budget bill last year was on 4 I'm
pretty sure it was on 452. >> Okay. So So the state is still sending the same money but the portion coming to the dis the rest of the district schools is less because more of the students are at merit, >> right? I mean um yeah prepared here um so I've got that exact
number so Mary you know their revenue they added almost they added 99.5 students their state share which is the core operating it had been 5.1 million and uh now it is I know our flow through
7.1 million And um I don't think I actually have that in front of me. Anyway, whether your state share is so from page four of the board packet, but um I just
wanted to get caught up on the other purchased services because it was um double last year. So, I was curious if you know what is going into there >> as an expense this year.
>> I mean, and you're on page with the >> Oh. Okay. Yeah, let's tackle I think we set the groundwork for kind of >> Yeah, I'm jumping right in. >> Good. I like it. I know we're on hard
style. So, the um see what was >> um so in expenditures there's the other purchase services and >> um 25 the revised budget was 812,000 and
then our revised budget is now looking at doubling that. So I was just curious. >> Sure. Yeah. I I think increased it because we had uh a couple things going on. One was the um
you know the budget I'm not sure was accurate. Um we're working on that actually right now to to figure out what some of those expenses were the new it's a little bit difficult to get the new system to generate the
information that we want easily but I added in because literally we're we did two years of like accounting work in one year or in six months actually so we've engaged u Robert he associates
so they've provided someone that came on board in the fall and he's working full-time for us. The uh and really supporting the accounts payable is largely what he's been focused on. Uh he
also has worked with the schools and the student activities funds uh that each school manages. So, so he's done that. Um, and a lot of that was guess catchup for lack of a better term. Then we've
also the interim CFO and I'm not sure that made it into the budget before. And then we've also got Aspen comey. So as time was slipping away, we increased. Um I think Aspen came on board
um boy in the in the fall somewhere around the time that Robert Half but that expertise is at a higher level than hopefully Clint didn't hear me say that but Clint's he's doing a lot good work
but Aspen is at a much higher level. Um and they've worked really hard on some of the bank wrecks to get those through. So Most of those purchase services are actually helping get the finances correct >> straightened out.
>> The other one there just above it, the uh purchase property services was one I had also applied because that's a pretty decent increase from from what was budgeted for. I'm just curious what that actually >> Yeah, the um
>> and it really wasn't fully budgeted, but I think that the goal last June was to present a balance budget, which is normally your goal, but you know, having I think two boilers and HVC rooftop unit
blowout blew that out for bot. >> So, property services is like those repairs Right. >> Okay. >> So, I I think that's a good time just to speak to the board of the need. You guys
all know the deferred maintenance here and I'm shocked as I think Jason is that some of this equipment has been operating as long as it can. So, I'm concerned the CFO, this was
three. I forgot how many are like up on this roof. It's dozens. >> Yeah. >> And when you're paying 100 grand a pop, it >> quick. >> That's one building. So,
>> all right. Um, so the other thing still on this page that I think is worth discussing is the um the the change in ending fund balance.
>> Um, which you know looking at this it looks like from fiscal year 24 to 25 it decreased 1.8 8 plus million and then again in from 25 to 26 an additional 1.8
8 million plus um which you know when you're trying to make sure you've got sustainable >> right um you know if we continue at that current rate that that's about three years before we are in the red
>> um >> or fund balance >> correct I mean we've got taper it's a little under 800,000 that we by statute have to Mhm. >> And then the minimum like
from business or CDE has like 60 days. >> Yeah. >> It's like I'm uncomfortable with 60 days, especially knowing our deferred maintenance liability that's out there. But you're right
there. there. I've I've heard from people in the community that they don't necessarily want to see a big fund balance because they we're not in the business of saving money, but um what I was told was about four years ago when
we were at about 10 million in our fund balance that 2 million of that had been set aside for some of the maintenance because like a roof you have to save for a couple of years in order to get that done. exactly
>> um and some of the others, but you weren't here. To my knowledge, there's been no significant capital um um projects, maintenance projects completed in the last few years. >> And Carol, you're exactly right. I mean,
that's >> yeah, >> you know, those fund balances shouldn't just stay out there. They really shouldn't. And >> um they should be used for these one time expenses not to continually draw from to
operate for other, >> right? >> So it's somewhat fortunate we have some but that shouldn't be >> normal. So would you say that that nearly 2 million of the change in fund
balance is just cleaning up our finances and reacting to property maintenance issues and that? No, >> I don't think so. Well, depends on what you meant by just reacting. >> Um fixing broken things that is urgent.
Yeah. Sorry. Um, is there anything else you know of that contributes to that? the I would say that these one-time things like fixing uh and repairing like the HVAC or the
boilers, I mean that should be as Carol's saying, you know, that 10 million that was out there should have been used all along to start repairing fees out of that fund, which you can realistically spend down.
60 days to me is just too tight. But you definitely shouldn't have uh you know 10 million would be six months. >> So somewhere in between there that money should have been spent on different maintenance. So that it is not impact it it is
slightly impacting the deficit but you know if we think about what Jason has spent on those I mean it's probably a half a million dollars for those items but we're looking at you know a deficit of 1.8 million so we still have well
over a million dollars of operating deficit that we need to fix. >> Did the cop payment come out of fund balance David? Um I guess technically yeah I mean it would come out of the fund 10 and uh so that was we paid the
majority of it which was uh 600 590,600 back in October. So we've got May is another 125,000 due. Yeah. So that was an a cost cash flow drain that wasn't there previously.
>> It wouldn't have been budgeted. >> Um should have been actually the loss that was the only factor at that time. >> Yeah. So, I guess a follow up on Carol's question as it relates to like the
current drain on the fund balance and if it's unrelated to capital projects or things like that, is it just been as a result of eating into the reserve because of operating costs or do we know of any other point of origination for why we've significantly drawn down our
reserves? >> It it is operating cost. >> Okay. So if right if if this continues at at the current rate right 1.8ish ish a year and in three years you know
that that is gone >> right >> can we operate at our current levels >> for three years >> well after those three years so right like if we if we end this year with four you know four almost four and a half million
>> and we're and we're depleting at a one a rate of 1.8 89 year. >> I mean, we need to find >> We can't We can't function as a correct district. >> No, there's definitely sunset operationally. >> Yeah. Can you from just these six months
you've been here, seven months, can you tell where like if there's any major overspending or like are we going to have to the four-letter word that I don't want to say, but like are we going to have to
cut back on things? >> That's a great point and and that's where I'd want to work with the board. um being here and walking and you know
management by walking around there is I I just don't see any material amount of waste it everyone I mean they come to me with the most minor expense can we do this every dollar we spend is actually
coming out of reserves and it you know shortens that time frame on how long we can operate so I would say I just am not seeing it. You can see some cost supplies dropping cost there, textbooks, travel. There's just been a lot of cuts.
Payroll down 10%. Our student uh teacher ratio is now I mean we're actually in jeopardy of losing title one funding because our student uh our teacher ratio is too
high. Um, so, >> so we can't like we can't even cut teachers even if we wanted to to try and spend save at this point. Not saying that I want to, but like if we were looking for something to cut like teachers aren't even an option anymore because we would lose even more funding
than where would you cut >> I don't see that. If you look at finance, I mean, we're going to save some money because we won't have some of the overhang of catching up. um and we paid for two software platforms for a year. So there's some smaller savings
but nothing really reaches the 1.8 billion if we cut. My preference is to grow the top line. So if we systematically and and logically went through next year with a high confidence that we're going to get alternative
funding. So if we the sales tax is one uh option that I like uh and that could go back and cover that cop payment. Um I think transportation has been talked about that uh that could cover that as well and it could. Um so that's one a
mill levy override. I mean the la the mill levy that we have is 1.1 million. 2004 when it was voted in 1.1 million. So, it's lost 41% of its buying power since then. >> It could have I mean, if the voters
voted, it could have a inflation rider. We could we could have a mill levy override, which we don't need, but could go up to 30% of our operating expenses. So, as opposed to sales tax, a mill levy override would be another option there. If we ever if we do that, please make
sure it is indexed for inflation. I think textbooks is one of the things that I would 70% has gone up from 2004 >> and mil levity has not gone up at all. So it had more of an impact back then
than it does now. Um, one other question I think related to is um I'm wondering if kind of on the on the two sides of the grant equation if we have any kind of exposure for operating expenses right now that are being funded by grants that are either
expiring or that we haven't satisfied requirements for. And on the flip side, if we expect moving forward because of some of the grants that we've applied for, whether it's for facilities or for programs um that we might be able to offset any of our existing expenses
because of grant revenue coming in, or if it would all be incrementally new in terms of programs or facilities improvements, that kind of thing. Um I probably the only funding I'm aware that we're at risk of losing would be the
title title one funding. >> Okay. >> So we need I know um Ginger we just heard from CD this week about that. >> So she's on top of it >> to work with them to make sure that doesn't happen. But >> we may have to spend a little more money
to make sure that we don't lose a big chunk of our funding. >> Yeah. So we may we may have to add a few more teachers um at Coline to make sure that they have a level playing field with um Merit and Summit.
>> Can you explain that a little bit more? >> Sure. So Karen and I got to learn about comparables this week. Um, this is not something I believe that's happened in the past because it's never been on my radar before, but basically
what CDE let us know is that when they're looking at a title school, they have to compare it to a non-title school in your district. And then you have to have your um number of PE or students
um per teacher. So they look at that that equation and um Merritt and Summit were both 8 point something students per teacher. Coline was 11 I don't know that I don't have the numbers written down
perfectly. So they were 11.1 or something students per teacher and that has to be a level playing field before you add a title grant on top of it. And so Karen and I need to we get to go back
now and look at um and all the data is from CDE. So it's not anything that we're creating ourselves. It's um what our people would turn into like the data pipeline like our October count um teachers that they turn in and staff.
And so we need to go back and see if any teachers were missed that worked at Coline to equal out that equation. If they weren't, then we have to write an action plan. um and we have to make some adjustments. That was from last year's grant. And so
we've got to look at that data. And then we also have to look at this year's data because if we're off again um then we might need to do some midyear adjustments with teachers. And um basically
that was CDE letting us know that we overfunded one school and the other um one school that was a title school was not given that equal playing field if that makes sense. >> So does that mean that like CDE then is
always going to compare us the district to a charter school when it comes to our receiving grants? meaning we have to make sure that we have the same student toteer ratio as as merit does in order to maintain that.
>> So as long as Merritt is not a title school because they check that every year. Um and as long as Coline and Summit are title schools then Merritt will hold that bar for how many students per teacher. So we have to be comparable before we add title dollars on top of
that. Does that make sense? >> Yes. It feels wildly unfair to hold a public school who cannot turn students away in comparison to a charter school who can decide how many students are in a classroom. >> It was >> I know that's not you. I'm just speaking. >> It was it was new to us.
>> Yeah. >> Um what So you said teachers does like a parah count in that number because I'm just concerned about combine not having any more classrooms. Well, I think this would be support staff probably more of
supporting >> like not classified but teachers that support. >> Yeah. >> Like interventionists, behavior specialists. >> So grants might need too >> but but I don't know if we can count
them because they need to it has to be out of local dollars. So it has to be state and local dollars not other grants I believe. So, we need to do some more calculations, look at how many students there are and we just have we have to do some some background detailed work to
see if anything was missed too because it could have been missed. Um, but we need to do that that work. >> So, we're talking about one side, that's our side, but it to me as CFO and you guys all know I want to see a level playing field as far as operational
funding in the district, which right now it's not. um mainly due to the transportation and you know there's some other things there coop and admin fees stuff like that the as they're saying they're not paying as
merit's not contributing to transportation um and they've mentioned this initiative I've never heard of before >> um that somewhere in there there was an agreement that they don't pay until 2027.
I would love to see that because I don't I can't find it. Side note, but so as they're not paying, they have extra funds. So their student their uh uh student teacher ratio is 8.1.
The average for charters and I'm going from memory here. So I think was 17 to1. So they're operating and that's great. I mean I wish every class could have that ratio. I really do. But it's one of the things of not
having that level playing field when when we're I guess subsidizing them by absorbing costs. It's enabling them to hire more which then puts us in jeopardy of losing title on funds. So
that's one of the things to consider there. So as we cut staff uh and they grew hund you know they grew 100 people. I know they need probably more staff for that but statistically they are running extraordinarily high in
that ratio like double the norm. And the other inequality that gets created by us underwriting them more than I think any district in the state is the uh disparity in in wages. So, uh, I think
in the state, if you're at a charter school, as a teacher, you're making 17,000 less than, uh, the district schools. And that's significant. and and that's
creating inequality of people are doing the same job in two buildings and one uh can make more creates a problem in a number of different ways. How we solve that I don't know but that's an issue that I
think you guys need to be aware of and we need to resolve that along with the student ratio student and teacher ratio. It is interesting because the total opportunity initiative was created so every student in the community could
receive excellent education. And so maybe that's something to discuss is like can we even the playing field with this initiative and not have the weight so on the district but so all students
have the same ratio of teachers and teachers are receiving an equivalent pay >> right yeah I I would love to see us get there I think the question is how do we do it >> and I would love to get to where merit's at with the
teacher ratio. I think >> that would be a wonderful thing for our community and our students. >> Um on on that note, I know we're saying about um you know having kind of pulling back some of the the money we the
district has been kind of fronting to to provide services for merit. Um what what is that dollar amount look like? like how much like if if they're paying for you know student proportionate amount of the transportation and um building
proportionate amount of the cop um how much is that putting back for us to be able to spend on our students education >> and that's a moving target because they're like they grew they grew 100 students so last year I think that they
I think it was 26% this year they're at 33% so if they keep growing, their percentage would grow, just to put it. So, we're looking at a moment in time. And you know, the coop is 725,000. So, if they covered a third of that, and
we cannot legally we cannot legally demand that they pay that. Um their website is is uh it just talks about virtues and civic responsibility and and um
terms like that that I think it's it's an appeal to fairness not by law because I keep hearing it's against the law. You know I got my letter from Gwen that had you know it's unlawful. It's not
unlawful if they have a civic um compulsion. I think it would be very phenomenal for their students to see we as merit as this family are going to
contribute to um a coop because we're third in the district and students and it's the right thing even though the law isn't requiring it. it's the right thing to do. And so that's my >> well and and from my perspective, even more than the number of students that
they represent, the fact that a third of the costs that that COP covered went to fixing the building they now solely occupy. >> Not just fixing it, but it went to expansion. And there's dis
maybe a disagreement on 2016. Where did the $10 million go? And I found the receipt. So there is over $3 million that went into that building in 2016 to expand it uh significantly. That's what
the district's paying a third of the 725,000 a year. A third of it is going to pay off the debt on that building. So >> um just to be clear, I don't think the expansion happened in 2016.
It would have been the coop the bond was retired in 2016, but I believe the building expansion happened around 2004, >> but I'll have to check then. If I'm wrong, I will >> I think I think that's correct. Yeah. >> So, I Yeah, I saw
>> Yeah, >> I'll have to go ahead and pull those records, but we we went through the construction draws and go back and double check. >> Okay. >> I think 2017 18 there was a roof
replacement at west the 500 East. >> Yeah. And that's still under warranty. So definitely >> Y. >> So I think Oh, sorry. >> Oh, I just had one other question. Good >> real quick. Student activity fund. >> Okay. >> Can you tell me what that makes up?
Because that is a large number and it's quite a bit more. There's more than what it was budgeted to be. That's one of the things that once we get this audit done, we could go back and revisit. So, student activities, say they're joining
hockey and they're going to pay whatever it is, hundreds of dollars goes into the student activities fund. So, when the expenses for the hockey program get covered, it should be coming out of the student activities fund. What I think and we're going to look into it is
because those funds you would think logically at the end of the year would be near zero and they are just continuing at a six figure level. Um so I know the district is paying uh out of the general fund some of the cost for say athletics.
>> Okay. And we if we can prove that we the general fund covered costs that should have been paid out of a student activities fund, we can recover those funds. And logically, it seems like that's what happened.
>> That's happened. >> So that's more of just a mislabeling. We're pulling funds from this balance when you should have been pulling from this balance. >> But it's gone on for years. If you go back and look at the the balances in those accounts.
>> Yeah. >> Good question. Um, one of the questions I sent you, David, was related to the current gateway utilization and costs associated with that because in theory when we consolidated schools a few years ago, the effort there was to eliminate the
operating costs of gateway and the um deferred maintenance that was on it because it's I think it's our oldest building. >> It's actually in the best shape. >> It need >> it needed the least amount of repairs. >> Okay. Well, the question really is um
how do we know how much we're spending right now to operate Gateway and its current facility utilization status? Um and just I'm just curious about that. >> Good question. On Gateway, I would say that the expense reduction in that was
>> exactly you stole my salary. >> Yeah. Yeah. Okay. >> So that that is really where the big savings go. uh there the building is getting utilized. So the CTE program is in that building testing center. So but it isn't housed with a lot of teachers,
education, parents, all of that. >> Staffing is no longer with the district. >> But I'm curious like I mean do we we still have operating and overhead costs to keep the lights on in >> Yeah. any other building, but it's the
salaries operating that school that we don't have anymore is was the main savings. >> Okay. but perhaps at the cost of our title one. Okay. Um the other question I had in here was
just there's it was more just like um not a change but um you know all the funds have numbers um 43 uh doesn't really have any explanation to it. had the other ones say like 22
grant purposes 25 transportation it's just >> fund 43 I'm just curious what actually were in that fund capital expenditure so there was uh some equipment bleachers and a building improvement both of them
were about 44,000 some changed so it's came out to be that 89,000 I think is the number you're probably looking at So not a lot of activity goes through there. So if we were doing like defer, if we were working hard to replace, if
we had the funding, you'd see a lot more activity in this account. >> What is it? Does it have a name or is it not capital projects? >> Okay. Okay. So really, if you know, if we were trying to make sure we were utilizing
our reserve funds to do this, it would make sense to allocate funds from reserves into fund 43 so that it couldn't be spent on other things. >> But as we're in operating deficit, >> right? Yeah.
>> I think I have I had a couple more learning questions. through those another time or like meet with you because I really want to learn more. Um, but the one question
I think before we vote I'd like answered is just that total available funding or beginning fund balance plus revenue minus total expenditures. It's on the fourth page of I believe.
No. Oh, it's the last not of the specific. >> Yeah. So, it's that big lots of words, but it shall equal zero and it's instead equal to 1.
two million about >> right so that that is is what's happening with with the deficit in this is just the columns this you're looking at fund 10 so although we operationally
as a district are going to be out theoretically we're people are still tightening their belts but this is the deficit operating deficit for fund 10 so at the top I believe it has the beginning balance of fund 10, then is
showing the revenue and expenditures in and out of fund 10. And then because it's operating at a loss, that will be the ending balance for for this year, which then next year becomes the top one. So that is our open
balance for fiscal year 27. >> Okay. So >> to repeat that 1.2 2 million in the general fund column is basically what the deficit that the general fund will be seen >> for this year.
>> Yeah. >> 1.8 >> that's with every Yeah. >> Um the fund 22 also has has a difference. I mean it's $50,000 which is In the scheme
of the whole budget, not a whole lot. >> Not a whole lot. But that might be the bright spot because the grant is at X. The expenses are all there netting a negative 50. Uh but like title funding
if we're looking for I think we will be. But you can actually go 10% over what you've been awarded. So we're showing expenses more. We're gonna apply for 10% more than what we've
been told we're going to get. So, I anticipate actually receiving more more than it's it's like you said, it's not a huge number, but every number helps with the staff hearing. We talk about $100 items here. $50,000,
>> right? >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> So, >> um Yeah. And I guess the only other one highlighted there was that student that student activity. So the variance there was just because of was that the the mis um labeling of the of the funds or is
that an extra actual increase in expenses than what we thought we would spend on student activities. that that's an attempt to draw down, you know, what has aggregated that
should should not be there. >> Okay. So, it's not a change in the actual expenses, but just in where it was allocated to come from, >> right? Yeah, I would say that's so trying to move it out of general fund if appropriate and take it out student
activities if follow the money. money went in there, money should come out of that. >> And and that's something else that I think we need to look at in the next budget season because we'll pay coaches and stipens. Those are coming out of the
general fund. Um when they're part of a program, so we have to be may need to change some of how we're collecting fees to disclose that this fee is going for coaching. I mean, there's just some legal language that we
need to make sure we've got appropriately on on the forms and signup sheets and donation sheets. And we've talked about that. How can we >> Yeah. >> Yeah. If someone donate, they're raising money, they get 12 grand, they only needed 10, if we tell the community,
whoever's donating, if there's excess funding here, we're going to allocate it into maybe the general athletic fund or something. That's totally good if you disclose it properly. And that will help us give us a little bit more flexibility uh in in these uh supporting different
initiatives. >> You don't want one overfunded, one underfunded, but it'll happen if you don't uh disclo have proper disclosures on on your signup sheets and donation forms. Um, one other question I wanted to ask
um, David is as uh, we're predicting and forecasting our revenues like for the next several years and as it relates to our per people funding. Um, one of the things I think I asked about in the last meeting was related to like the that
delta right now between like the funded per pupil count and the actual per pupil count and the way in which we recognize that revenue and how we might like forecast against it because I think based on the way that the state's total program funding formula is changing in
the future is that in theory we're operating we're we're using those funds as a part of our operating like to offset our operating costs right now. But that's not a sustainable or predictable source of revenue moving forward because it's going to continue
to decrease as our enrollment decreases from how from what I understand. So I'm wondering if there's do you have any thoughts on the way that we recognize that because I think it's really important for us to keep that in mind as we go forward if the revenues like we're
making assumptions on that. um continuing burn rate, right, of our reserves based on both revenue and expenses. And if our expenses are relatively predictable, but our revenue is not, then that number is going to accelerate in terms of its burn rate over time.
>> So, I think we I think it's worth looking at a way that we can recognize that revenue and understand how it's being applied if it's subsidizing things that we otherwise would not be able to afford now. >> Right. And I think that's where some of the discussion around like the
origination of the total opportunity initiative that was referenced and I'm still doing a lot of learning about that currently. So um I just feel like that might be something that might offer clarification on the difference between the revenues that we would be receiving
for actual pupils versus funded pupils and how we account for that the use of those funds and how long we will have them or not. >> Right. How long we'll have them or not is a complete unknown. So relying on
them is not >> rightustainable. Right. >> Correct. Could be. It's just an unknown you need to manage against >> but um you know >> and I think it's a it's a because it's a rolling average and it's going from five
years to three and I think or even lower potential >> they're waiting it. So like last year will be weighted higher than the prior year which will be weighted higher than I think the third year back. So
>> yeah, >> we're going to we'll lo in essence we'll >> we'll have less money coming from the state next year even if we increase our student count. >> So there there there potential like I think one of our priorities should be
trying to draw in more students. Um, but even if we do, there's going to be kind of like a a weird dip where we, if we're successful in that initiative, we've brought in more students, which means our costs have gone up, but it's going to take time before the state recognizes
that funds appropriately. Yeah. Yeah. >> So, so we also need to account for that if that's a goal and we want to bring students in, which I think it should be, we're also going to need to make sure we account for that in future budgets so that we save that money to be able to provide services for more students when
we're not receiving that funding yet. >> Yeah. So, I think it's two parts. It's recognizing the gap that we have now and is there a way that we should be recognizing that in the budget so that we can then allocate those funds or not in certain areas where they're needed or
and or or predict that they're going to if they're going to go away like can we sustain whatever we're funding with that money or not. Um, and then I think the part the other part of it too is like can we forecast and look at if we're like using our best guess based on our
current trends, right, of enrollment movement or whatever um where we'll actually end up and apply the formula so that we can kind of see the next maybe two to three years because I think we need to be thinking about and making
decisions about our operations based on where we might be in two years and not just where we are right now because our our burn rate is going to change, right? Yeah. >> I've done a little bit of work analyzing our total pupil count per grade. And if
you compare first, second graders compared to the high school. Maybe you guys will look at that this weekend. >> Yeah, it's sobering. >> Yeah. Even even without people transferring out, we have more seniors graduating than first graders coming in.
Exactly. >> Right. Well, I think too we have to factor in if merit's going to continue their current growth trajectory too because there is a factor of that as well as far as the total funding. Um, but I just think we need clearer
I guess you know what I mean like clear visibility on like how that variable is going to impact us. And I think you're hitting on something that is a bigger, you know, if we go up to that 100,000, we do not have a strategic plan,
>> right, >> as a district. >> That would be a component of a strategic plan. That's right. >> And that should be top priority really for for you guys. And >> I've been through developing strategic
plans a lot and hopefully get to participate with you. on a on a three-year strategic plan and you know a one-year operational execution plan with along with that >> and I think we have to be able to articulate that really clearly to the
community especially if we hope to try to move that top line with other sources of revenue because if they don't understand the risk andor the urgency related to that then because of the way that that funding formula fluctuates and it's complex
>> um we're not going to be able to win people over to say, "Yeah, we understand the need here." Yeah. >> Right. >> Lots of conversations, but part of that will take place on Saturday when we start doing our planning session. So,
I'm glad we were able to get this meeting first. All right. Any other questions before we move forward? Roll call then on uh moving on forward to approve the resolution to adopt the
revised budget. >> I Gordon >> I >> Green Street >> I >> um that was the only item on our agenda. Need a motion to end the meeting.
>> I move to adjournment. >> Second call. >> Barkley. >> I >> thank you all. Meeting is >> so much said we were out of time. I know we didn't talk fast enough.
maybe um anything you feel like you'd still like us to know whether it's about you know current budget or or whatever we can add to conversation on are you there >> you know something that that might be helpful here I'm going to get out of the
way of Clever.