 First order of business is public comment any members of the public want to Give comment on the Virtual Next order is the consent agenda motion to approve the consent agenda. I have a second All is in favor I Any opposed great New board member applicants we have two folks who applied to the board Lynn Turcott and Scott Lewin's I Just want to give some time if either one of you want to introduce yourself if you're not here I'm definitely happy to give an overview of your letter. I see Scott And hey, how are you? Whoever wants to go first go ahead and please just go up to the the seat and introduce yourself for the camera and Yeah, and again, thanks for to both of you for being interested Super and super important and we really appreciate the interest Well, I'm Lynn Turcott and I'm interested in filling the empty board position I Think you have all of you seen my letter of interest So you kind of know what my background is and I guess then what I want you to know besides that is that I really believe in Community service and that's why I thought about doing not filling this position I think it's important to be part of the community and be involved in what's going on I also have a couple of grandkids at the school a freshman and a junior and They like the school I've heard good things about the school I'm a retired person So after taking a year off and doing absolutely nothing other than Asking myself what I want to do when I get up in the morning. I'm ready to I'm finished with that now I'm ready to get going I looked at past Board meeting minutes and agendas and Was really interested in the kinds of issues that you're dealing with right now. I Think I could contribute to the conversation around those things. I'm I Believe I'm known as a collaborative person. I'm enthusiastic. I sometimes have a good sense of humor and I'm hard-working and Would be interested in filling the position Do you have questions for any questions for Lynn? What do you what expectation do you have for a amount of time you need to Need to fulfill the board the seat on the board or the the work that it takes Well, I've been on boards before and it varies from board to board So I'm assuming You know, there'd be several hours a month if I was on a committee or I mean I have time on my hands and If I take on a commitment I follow through on it. So Great, and then my second one is you had mentioned in your letter It felt like you were more up and this is not I'm more of a curiosity that I have you more were Offering to fill the vacancy until the election. Do you would you consider running? Yes, I would Tom meeting day if yeah. Yeah, I would consider running I think it actually it worked out great. I was actually thinking of running for the board And then I saw the notice on front porch forum and thought well that would be a really good way to get a sense of what the board's like and You know who the players are and whether I would fit in with that Particular group of people And if I I feel like I could contribute then I would consider running definitely Thank you Thank you My name is Scott Lewin's actually very similar to Lynn Other than the fact that I'm not retired and I don't have grandkids But but I do have kids in the in the district. I have also sat on boards before Before coming up to Montpelier. I was in Randolph. I was on the board At that point it was three separate boards of the high school the Supervisory Union and the tech center So I've got a little bit of experience with boards as well I Have a little bit less free time on my hands, but yeah, I'm looking to re-engage with my community a little bit more Now that my kids are Demanding a little bit less time of me Yeah, I also mentioned in my letter in my so I I'm an educator with UBM extension and Prior to that I've been in various classroom Positions as well as some administration Board experience, so I've kind of got a sense of the lived experience of a bunch of different folks And I couldn't help but mention that that I was a sub here a while back in the middle school Yeah, kind of have a taste of a lot of the different roles of folks in in a school setting And would love to be able to contribute Yeah, so happen to answer questions or get back to my my kids because they're by themselves right now I'm solo parenting for a little while so questions for Scott Same question curious to know what you what your expectation is for time commitment. Yeah, I mean Again having sat on the board in boards in Randolph. I Understand that well, I guess here it would just be one and not three so Divide that by three, but yeah, it depends on what time of year what committees But yeah, I understand what the commitment could look like And then would you consider running on time meeting day? Yeah. Yeah, it's not something that I was dead set on But ever since have it so I had to step down off of the Randolph board once I moved out of the district So it wasn't by choice And so I've wanted to get back into that type of service And now just seemed like a good time. So Thank you The process on this thank you as we recently learned is we actually have to make the appointment in 30 days of the resignation Tonight thank you, Anna Yes So we'll go into executive session later. I think it's the last thing on our Schedule you can have these stick around Scott sounds like you've got duties to attend to Otherwise we'll just get in touch with you after we meet but we'll make a decision tonight and I'll reach out and Thank both of you and let you know who We pick Yeah, and again, you know if we don't pick you we are you know, there is an election in the spring So we're always interested in candidates for that as well Thank you Here we go ready board members you ready for a budget season to begin I'm ready So I was telling Jill when she came in That I fixed my screen chair everybody. So that's a big plus. Yeah, I know that is a big win for me So last Thursday is the day that I always prepare the board packet with Anna on a Thursday And I wrote my superintendents report stating how it was a really hard budget season and these fine people who are here today The leadership team were told at multiple points. Yep. We got to get lower We got to get lower we got to get lower Christine And I met multiple times to figure out where we could what we could look at To get the tax rate down and I went to bed on Thursday with a 6.7% increase in the tax rate with what we knew at the time and then Friday afternoon after Anna had sent Most of the but the packet out to you all or it was pretty well set to be sent out to you all Christina received the letter for the dollar yield which increased by $2,000 Okay from the state and that Significantly changed our budget Budget amount our tax rate implications just from that one Dollar yield amount that we have zero control over so there's a surplus in the ed fund once again So the state's Approximate or they're thinking of course it doesn't get set into law until spring And I'm looking at Christina so she can correct me if I'm wrong in any of this The budget particular the state projection for the dollar yield is to increase it another $2,000 which Christina will talk about later and that significantly impacts our tax rate However, we did not change our budget for you despite the fact that we knew that on Friday Because there are still unknowns that have significant impact on our budget That we should know more on December 15th before the next budget presentation before the school board So I just want to put that out there first. Okay, so we recognize that right now from up here It's an 8% decrease and I believe for Roxbury is a 10% decrease and that's a big decrease and that's actually beautiful for the time we are in and our taxpayers and We had to prioritize quite a bit from the administrative perspective So we'll be looking at what we may be able to put back in once we know our equalized people number or at least the first draft of The equalized people number on December 15th. Okay, so I just wanted to put that out there All right So the draft budget of course this is a draft budget So the board is going to see this about four more times and by the time we're done You'll probably be sick of it and memorized it, but this is where we're going today the outline of the presentation We're going to start with some different district information and context Christina is going to go into some glossary of terms because education finance in Vermont is not easy to understand Talk about our unknowns the at a glance talk about enrollment a little bit our staffing The expenses and revenues it follows the same format as the board has seen in past years But we did pretty it or Anna. I should say pretty it up a little bit from Grant's former presentations So looking at district information this information is as of November 30th I believe for students And as rat pointed out in an email earlier It is different than the next slide because these are the students that actually are here in our buildings Like so that show up to school at our buildings Whereas this information is from our October 1st count Which is what we need to send into the state and our equalized pupil is based on our October 1st counts one of the major reasons for the difference particularly at rvs and ues is because rvs and uvs have a pre-k and we get the the kids who like live in Montpelier Who go to a private pre-k and take advantage of act 166 funding Still get counted like we'll show up on our roles here for October 1st So that's one of the major reasons why there's a difference But just so the the the board has some of our demographic information of course where it says less than 11 That means that it's just too small of a number to present publicly And so that number is anywhere from 0 to 11 All right But that that's for our free and reduced people who are eligible for free and reduced that we know of and our monthly lingual population as Well as race and ethnicity School or total between those three schools total between the three schools Yep, sorry, thanks for that All right So the themes for our budget this year is we still want to support our theory of growth Of course while being sensitive to the tax and tax implications to our community The state factors that dollar yield went up $2,000. So it's anticipated It says anticipated again because it's not written into law until spring, but there's an anticipated $15,479 yield that I've been told that that's due to a surplus in the ed fund And I believe they said 50% was going to be used towards the dollar yield and 50% was going to be used towards educational advancement and priorities of the agency of education The CLA common level of appraisal and equalized pupils. Those are still unknown at the time at this time Equalized pupils the first draft of that number should come to us December 15th. It's always the first draft There are always mistakes with that number every single year But with the next budget presentation will have a better idea of what our equalized pupils in are for this budget Christina just simply put the same number as last year But we expect that number to decrease which of course increases our taxes Health rates increased twelve point six percent So that is an equivalent of two two hundred ninety six thousand three thirty eight dollars To our budget, which is significant if you consider that Christina and I budget Approximately a hundred thousand dollars per teacher. So our health health insurance went up by two teachers plus Or two and a half teachers Or three teachers, sorry three charge teachers. Sorry Visbit is also our kind of liability and unemployment that kind of thing that they increased their prices 5.5 percent, which is significant as well and has significant monetary implications Our local factors is that we do have decreasing student enrollment particularly at Union Elementary School and that we are in contract negotiations with two of our unions MREA or the teachers and MRE SSA is the instructional assistant staff Okay, so we don't know how that contract negotiation will turn out because they've just started This slide the board will remember for those of you who were here last year You saw this work last time and it's from Fallon and Quinn's book coherence It's just a reminder of what we really want to focus in when we're talking about the drivers for growth in a school system Michael Fallon publishes a book about every week and he's really renowned in education circles so He's got some some knowledge behind this And the right drivers according to full and that we work on capacity building collaborative work the pedagogy of our Collaborate our teachers and System nests, which I'm not really sure is a word, but I'm going to go with full in there And then the wrong drivers would be accountability with no meaning behind it looking at individual teachers or individual leadership quality Focusing on technology for the sake of technology or fragmented strategies And the board should be pretty familiar with our theory growth at this point because you've seen it quite a bit. However There it is again. So our theory of growth and Um This it would be the basis of our continuous improvement plan, which Mia asked about earlier So we want to build limitless futures for every learner We're doing it through four pillars collective responsibility and collaborative practices Formalized essential learning a timely system to enrich intervene and remediate And high quality instruction in every classroom a little Uh description as to what those are This next slide breaks down. It's kind of like a preview of what's in the budget and so Each of these columns fits with our pillars and our theory of growth here and and We did this work last year and the board responded positively to to it as to not breaking it down like this So we we repeated it again in a slightly different format So in terms of resources for a budget there are two resources that i'm considering for a budget It's time because we pay people for their time, right as well as money Um And so in terms of staffing for collective responsibility and collaborative practices We're redistributing some staffing for student information and data system We had a resignation for central office assistance. We're redistributing that Um position to help mike a little bit more mike barrier director of curriculum and technology with all the work He's doing in data management And just give him give him some assistance because while he he does the job of many It's time to give him some support. So we're going to use a resignation to provide that support That's budget friendly, you know, it's it's neutral. However It is different types of staffing our guiding coalitions are a teacher leadership with our administrative team Each school has a guiding coalition They are paid for their work and their role is to work with the administration to move our theory of growth forward And then of course our plc's professional learning communities are the the cornerstone of our collective responsibility and collaborative practices Moving over for a formalized essential learning. We have teacher leadership On our curriculum teams mike runs those teams along with the support of the principals And they are paid for their work as well In that capacity timely system to enrich intervene and remediate We're actually put we've actually if anybody has searched us on school spring lately We have two positions for social emotional learning interventionists up on school spring now because we had available funding in our idea grant And so those two positions are actually part of idea and we're trying to hire for them this school year However, they will also be in place for next school year Again, it's not affecting our local budget because we're using a revenue source to do that But as the board has heard multiple times social emotional learning is as a place of Need for our district coming out of the pandemic. So we're working on getting those positions in now School counselor at msms It's definitely time to help jenna baracas out at msms for another school counselor It will make the model and the three montpellier schools equitable in terms of two counselors in each of the montpellier schools Based on the the needs at mainstream middle school as well as Just equity across the district in that realm with that many students We need another school counselor there also influences facilities a bit because andrew will be working on transforming a room on the basement floor of msms into a guidance suite for students and the and the school counselors And then also adding a district psychologist. This does have an impact on our local budget Peggy sue can answer any questions about the psychologist. This is really around evaluations for students Currently we have a special educator who does that work for us that person will still do that work However, she's pretty swamped with with the needs of the district. So Adding a different another psychologist will help there And then high quality instruction in every classroom It just just because we have no new staffing doesn't mean we're not working on it We're just not putting in any new staffing in that area for this budget round in terms of timer timer money For professional development. We're continued working on professional learning communities There's coaching each of our principals actually have a plc coach to help run the system of plcs Um They so they're going in to to really work with plcs and move them forward And differentiated based on where each plc is in the system and it's different across the entire District and then beth works with pretty much the whole school at one time And if it looks very different at rocksbury just because of the makeup In the size In terms of formalized essential learning with literacy We're really Mike will next year work with the groups on word study And continue the work with writing that they've been doing this year We're also continuing to work with teachers development group and math for mont pelier high school and main street middle school They work with adolescent teachers of adolescents in math around math practices and mindset Um, and julie is actually a math whiz on our administrative team So if anybody has any questions around math julie's would be a great person to answer those And then differentiated math practices with christian court of munch at union and rocksbury Working a lot with math menu and forma and Formative assessment in math. Um, the teachers love him. He's really moved our math Helped us move our math practices forward considerably at union and rock rocksbury. So we'll continue with christian That work with christian in terms of timely system to enrich intervene and remediate This year we're focusing in on targeted remediation in tier three And we'll continue to focus in on that because we want to increase the capacity of our intervention team We need them to be the experts when a kid is tangled And we're we're really making significant strides in this area this year because of the attention we're focusing on But that will continue as well And then an increased focus on first instruction in tier tier two intervention, which is again tied to the plc work That's happening and of course that's time And then high quality instruction again focus on writing Writing and word study continue with math as i've already said continue with the restorative practices work That's how we spend our half days is working on restorative practices And then we're also as a leadership team really studying this year engagement strategies for kids We were today just this morning. We were all together at main street middle school going into the sixth grade and Collab Coming to consensus about what engagement strategies we're looking for And fine, so it was a great way to start all of our day this morning over at main street middle school with their sixth graders And then moving down to leadership the coaching for instructional leadership to lead plc's We do that work with solution tree, which is a national organization. That's that's renowned in their work with professional learning communities and collaboration We want to ensure there's a collective understanding of our priority standards and the proficiency skills that are attached that That takes a lot of time with teachers so that they understand what the why and the how of doing that Um And then looking at our schedules to ensure that we're offering the time to intervene remediate and enrich make sure that's available and equitable Jason, I know it's doing a lot of work around that here at the high school We have it pretty pretty much in place in the other three buildings With some tweaks to make but there's still some work to do there Collective learning regarding effective goal setting and universal skills universal skills are what we're looking at at the tier three level Um, and so making sure that our teachers understand those that our intervention team our experts in providing Instruction around the universal skills Uh, and then really working within coaching or coaching our instructional leaders For for pedagogical change and Mike Peggy Sue Jess and Murray and I went to a central office leadership retreat in the fall And we really talked about what systems can we put in place to so that the four of us can better coach our instructional leaders and allow Take over some of the things that they're currently working on so that it allows for our Really smart um leadership team over there to be the instructional leaders that they all want to be So we I think we'll do questions at the end of that that's not good So I apologize for a lot of talking. I'm going to let Christina take over for the glossary of terms because I will mess them up Thank you for having me here Um, so the glossary of terms starting with the general fund because you're going to see these terms throughout this presentation So I just wanted to make sure um, you know, you are familiar with them So the general fund is the main operating fund of the school district Opposite of general fund would be all of our grants that Libby was just talking about our consolidated federal programs and IDEA The capital plan is a long term fund Fund for planned facility needs and that's warned as a separate article on your ballot And you're going to see that listed separately as we go through this presentation Education spending that's the total budget all of our expenses Less non tax revenues, which can include federal and state grants that we just talked about and also locally generated revenues such as tuition when kids pay other school districts pay For their students to come here if they don't have a high school or elementary school We also have some privately paid Tuitions and our interest revenues Equalized pupils. Um, this is a very important term It's one of the main factors of where we end up with our tax rate So equalized pupils is a two-year average daily membership. Um, so that's enrollment Adjusted by several factors waiting factors for each level each grade level. So pre-k. They're weighted at point four six Secondary is weighted at one point one three. There's also a wait for poverty, which is one point two five So all those students are weighted differently and it gets us to our equalized pupils Um, now we've heard the waiting study. There's been a waiting study. So they're going to be changing that in the next budget cycle The waiting study doesn't influence this project A board member asked that question. Oh, okay So then it is multiplied by an equalizing ratio to bring the equalized pupils down to the average Down to the average daily membership The property dollar yield. This is another one of the major factors of our tax rate how we end up at our tax rate This is an estimated amount Districts have to spend per pupil to have an equalized tax rate tax rate of a dollar While generating enough money for the state's ed fund and we'll get into this a little bit more later So really it means if we have a good economy or if we have a surplus in the ed fund that We'll have a lower tax rate And this is set by law like liby said they do give us A preliminary number to work with in the december 1st letter But then it's set in may Typically, I should say historically it's only changed 100 to 200 dollars when it's set in may The common level of appraisal. This is the fourth factor that determines our tax rate and So this is the appraised value of property versus the market value As if we have a higher market value than the cla is Is under 100 we have to have we have to generate more tax revenues. So you have a higher tax rate Attempts to make tax bills fair across the state So the budget unknowns as of today The equalized pupil count we should be getting that within a couple of weeks The finance director at the agency did put out an email that he was calculating the first round of Equalized pupils this week The common level of appraisal. We should be getting that I believe around the 15th We have a resident professional that knows all about the cla On the revenue side, I'm still waiting for the triple e grant. So that's our Essential early education grant In our transportation aid, we haven't received that On the expense side our career center our six semester average hasn't come out yet. So that The state pays a portion of that tuition to the career center and we have to pay a small portion as well And as Libby said earlier, we're still under contract negotiations with two of our unions The next slide budget at a glance So as Libby mentioned, we did try to level fund the expenses the principles worked really hard to get A level funded expenditure Line for us There are costs that are out of our control Such as oil electricity health insurance contract negotiations So what this slide shows you It compares Three years the first line is the budget. So those are our expenditures The second line is the capital plan, which We've planned to add $10,000 to that just as inflation Continues to grow So those two together get to your total budget amount, which at this point our expenditures are $28,479,642 This represents a 4.7% increase The next Line is our non-tax revenues. So that's our tuition Some most of our grants and our interest, which is about four almost five million One Once you subtract our Non-tax revenues from the total budget you get your ed spending. So that's Then divided by your equalized pupils to get your ed spending per pupil And currently I'm using the equalized pupils from last year because I just don't know how much it's going to change at this point So our ed spending per equalized pupil right now is an increase of 4.279 So, um, ed spending is a little 18,809 On to the next slide is enrollment projections So you want to take this pretty chart here Our enrollment, um, the kindergarten Of course are For the years out in first, you know kids who aren't in our system yet. That's an estimate And Christina gives the city clerk a call and says What's the birth rate look like in Montpelier? In Roxbury and so these are pure estimates They're surprisingly not far off most years And they're as you can see there's a projected Deals pretty significant decline in birth rate for um, Montpelier families for so Incoming kindergarteners at union elementary, especially Is decreasing which of course will decrease over time We have the last of our bubble coming through main street middle school right now. Julie is the seventh grade the last of it Yeah So our seventh eighth grade are pretty big and so they they all they actually match what Our ninth and tenth grade look like now at Montpelier high school So Montpelier high school will continue pretty much with the same Same ish number of kids over the next few years and then the numbers at main street middle school will start to significantly decline over the next few years So we're looking at these enrollment projections as we're thinking about our budget And then the next slide here enrollment projections you can see The green is when we start really Butting up against the class size policy that the board has set for our district And it's also a policy that I monitored this week for the board. So those numbers can be fresh in your head And that number for 23 20 23 24 you can see I'm sorry between 22 and 23 if you look at grade three We are knocking we're suggesting to the board to do a reduction in fourths in our k6 education to match the enrollment production And that actually will help us in our budget for the school counseling position at msms to make that Equally, you know to just reappropriate the funds from a k6 educator to a school counselor The next is for Roxbury enrollment Um These are from the october 1st count correct christina Um, so rock Roxbury has a pretty steady like it's not Raising or lowering in any significant way what we were projecting anyway Um, so it's pretty much steady the way where it is and this is without the pre-k Which is important to note At Roxbury because actually our Roxbury pre-k is is big this year There are a few tuition paying students coming into our Roxbury pre-k with this year Just enrollment you can see it in a different format with the line graph here So you can see how the decline is happening with the top red line at the top or the projected decline So for staffing overview, these are staffing that we're suggesting to put into this year's budget for a district perspective Psychologist would be 1.0 fte Added to our staff at union elementary school. We're suggesting a social emotional learning interventionist again. We actually have Advert we have this advertisement out currently But that would be an ad for next year as well Um And then we're suggesting a reduction in force for k6 licensure so that we can Reappropriate that fund into a school counselor at main street middle school because of the low enrollment k3 At main street middle school. We're suggesting a school counselor addition at 1.0 fte Again a social emotional learning interventionist at 1.0 fte Again, that is advertised currently and then additionally adding a literacy interventionist at main street middle school Currently we have one literacy interventionist at main street middle school and we have a need for another So that will equal out more across For the needs of union elementary school having the most literacy intervention and math intervention Main street middle school having more of what they need as soon as we can hire a math interventionist that's open currently But currently we have an open math interventionist position at main street middle school One filled math interventionist one filled literacy interventionist And so we're suggesting to the board to add a literacy interventionist there You're on christina Slide is just to point out highlight what we're about to dive into all the expenditures So we'll be focusing on that 28 million dollar number right there The next slide is going to show you the school comparison the expenses by school This is budget by pupil. So this is a head count. It's not equalized pupils or adm It's just by the student head count And now we're going to dive into the expenses by program So we're going to look at general education separately from special education. So on and so forth I'm just going to walk down Each line. So general education is up right now about five percent And the common theme that you're going to hear me say throughout each of these programs is the health insurance increase Because we have staff in each one of these programs the health insurance increase Takes up a lot of of what you're going to see as the percentage increase So under general education, it's the health insurance premiums It's um contract negotiations and an added interventionist which is paid through Essar. So that's enough that that will have an offsetting revenue The special education budget is up 3.96. Again, that has a lot to do with health insurance in contract negotiations The tech center our career center tech tuition We're not anticipating much change in the fte as far as students that attend that program Co-curricular and athletics that is up eight percent Due to increase in the wage schedule and transportation We increased the racial justice alliance position. We added javies Boys jv volleyball a math club and affinity alliance. So we added a couple different clubs there Under student support, which includes nurse guidance social worker speech ot and pt This is the additional school counselor msms the health insurance, of course and the contract negotiations Under support staff, which includes the library Technology curriculum and professional development In this line item, I just want to highlight that we consolidated all of the Copier contracts and cell phones We used to show them in each program and we wanted to tie that all together. So it's under one expenditure line So that's what the biggest increase is there We also plan on doing some network increases that will have an offsetting revenue from e-ray Mike berry and I are working with our e-ray consultant to really maximize the revenue that we can generate from network upgrades And other hardware and software needs So we'll be seeing an increase on that revenue side This school board and slash superintendent line. There's an increase in our audit expenses We had to change audit firms this current year our previous auditors Didn't have enough time for us. So we do have an increase in our audit expenses The principal office and the special services admin. There's an increase this mostly is just the health insurance premiums going up business services health insurance premiums Buildings and grounds They have an increase about three and a half percent and this is due to heating and electricity costs Those are costs that are completely out of our control And under the safety line We are increasing that budget Because we're replacing doors and locks throughout all the buildings So that just reflects what we've been doing in our plan It seems like you know 23 percent seems like a lot, but it's just it's 20 000. So We have a small decrease in transportation based on actuals And debt service there's a small change in the principal and interest payments And then we are still Budgeting for a fund transfer to our food service to because we're going to anticipate another deficit in that that program The next slide Just shows these expenses In a different way so you can see you know color coded How each program takes up our total budget And the next slide again is just another way to look at our year-to-year programs and the increases And now expenses by category. So now we're going to break it out instead of like general education special education That sort of thing we're going to look at salary and benefits contracted services I'll just walk through line by line salaries right now we're reflect We're showing about a three almost four percent increase This reflects our actual staffing which means Um, our current staff, but we do have open positions. So we have to budget we budget kind of midline for that I think that was one of the questions that mia asked, um, which i'll go over But here, uh, we do show some open positions and like I said, we budget kind of midline for that and also we'll budget You know a single health insurance plan or a two-person health insurance plan it's always A guessing game when we have open positions when we're budgeting So health insurance, um, this reflects the actual coverage of the of those employees that we have And we always budget 75 of our hra our health reimbursement account usage So the other benefits uh fica so federal Peril taxes dental vision life and disability. We're seeing about four and a half five percent increase there Professional services. This is up 8.68 percent and This current year and you'll hear it when I'm doing my financial reports for the current year We've had a major increase in our 504 requirements Um, so We're budgeting to keep all those in place for next year. So we're not caught off guard Like we are this current year And then this just normal year-to-year increases for services The purchase services this was building based decreases So this is one of the areas where the principals were able to look at and decrease some of their purchase services Contracted services. These are just normal year-to-year increases that we're expecting for Our contracts tuition There's a small increase of in out-of-district placement And that would be um for a special education Supplies technology and books. So this again is the network increases, but we're going to see a major increase in our offsetting revenue for this Utilities are up. That's oil and electricity Equipment we were able to decrease this again. That was the work of the principals. Um looking at their building based decreases dues and fees I looked at this closely. There's a lot of increases to our professional associations district-wide Many of the administrators we all belong to associations in in our field Principal and interest. This is our long-term principal and interest payments that you usually see on our financial reports The bonds that we have outstanding And then again the fund transfer, which is for food service The next slide again just shows you the pie chart so you can see the percentages of what makes up our budget And I like to I don't like to highlight, but I'll highlight that 75 percent of our budget is salary and benefits so Next slide again is just a year-to-year comparison of these different categories Now we'll talk about the revenues The first line on the revenues is the education spending grants So that is the taxes that are raised by our towns and the ed fund payments So that's kind of the last number that gets filled in once we fill in these rest of what we call local revenues or or grants The tech on behalf payment. This is based on the six semester average. So this is still unknown at this point The tech unenrolled the you can see an actual number there. We never really budget for this. It's um It's a required Revenue and expenditure entry from the agency of education. So we don't budget for that The small schools grant which we still receive that will remain level state transportation aid This is based on the fy 22 actuals The block grant the new special ed block grant. It's not the reimbursement formula anymore It's just a a flat dollar amount. So the aoe calculated that and we have an increase of 12 percent in that in our block grant The extraordinary costs. So this is Students that have services that cost over I'm gonna I might get the strong 65 thousand dollars. I think it is for next year We're reimbursed at a certain rate So that's increasing 13 percent based on our actual student needs The triple e-gram I Referenced earlier. I'm still waiting to hear on that. So I'm just using the same number as last year State placed currently we're not anticipating any state placed revenue for next year And drivers education. This is a very small dollar amount every it's dependent on students passing our drivers ed course And tech ed transportation this won't change much at all We still do the same amount of runs and that sort of thing High school completion is not anticipated. We sometimes get small revenues for that And then we move into our grants. So id eab and id eab preschool These two are special education grants. So they match the expense budget That cfp the consolidated federal programs title one title two and title four those all match our expenses dollar for dollar They're all reimbursable grants as they're Three we plan on using Next year and that matches Our expense budget same with medicaid and epsct or otherwise known as mac money Our tuition We're counting on the same amount of tuition for the local other local schools and Oh, i'm sorry Let me back up We're anticipating a decrease this current year. We've got a major increase, but they'll be moving on So we're going to see a decrease in our tuition And our interest earnings I did increase that based on actuals because of our large fund balance And the way interest rates are going are playing out right now. So I increased that just a tad facility Rentals I left that level funded I haven't seen much change in that And special ed excess costs reimbursement. This is a reimbursement Based on students that are either tuitioned or in the lottery or the agreement with u32 If they have any special education needs we can build back excess costs Miscellaneous, um You'll see a large increase here and this is where the e-rate money is going to come in So we're hoping to see an additional 27 to 30 thousand dollars there And that after school enrichment program, uh, we're still anticipating that to be level funded And in this draft of the budget before we knew what the property yield was We increased the fund balance Our use the use of the reserve fund So we went up to 400 000 dollars again because at the time as liby mentioned We're looking at a significant increase in tax rates And we can revisit that at the end of this presentation That would be something that we'll want to discuss if they want us to look at that or not The next slide is our capital plan So for fiscal year 24, we are recommending 270 000 dollars be Used for our capital plan We are starting the year fiscal year 24 with a balance of 208 000 so Working with andrew i've worked through The projects that we anticipate in completing for next year so you can just take a look at that And the next slide this this is what everybody's waiting for is the tax rates So there's four factors that affect our tax rates And you only you as the board only have control of one of them, which is the expenditures, which we just walked through So starting with the general budget And the capital plan so our total budget is 28 million that we're presenting today 28 million 479 And then we move into our non tax revenues, which I just went over most of those revenues It was that first line that it that generates the tax the revenue tax revenue And now we're using the equalized pupils from last year and this is something that That the board unfortunately does not have control over so we're still waiting for that number Once you take your education spending Divided by your equalized pupils you get your ed spending per equalized pupil And this is what's noted in your article that you warn every year So right now our ed spending per pupil is 18 809 We then divide that by The one known factor well the second known factor that we have right now Which is the property dollar yield and you'll see that it went up 2000 dollars now In the letter that they sent us on uh, december 1st there they say they have a 64 million dollar surplus in the reserves for and that's why they're increasing the yield so much And you'll notice the prior year they also increased it about 2000 dollars In my career of 17 years these are unprecedented increases in the yield You know usually the yield increases a couple hundred dollars. Maybe if we're lucky It has a major impact on your tax rate So Once okay, so property the property dollar yield is 15,479 that would give you an equalized residential tax rate of $1 and 21 cents 22 cents The next factor that we have no control over is the CLA Uh Currently I I did use a number for Montpelier, which was a decrease And I left Rocksbury the way that they are So those two numbers we have no control over and that's what gives you what ends up giving you your residential tax rate with the CLA So for currently with this budget It would be a dollar 54 for montpelier and a dollar 29 for rocksbury So with this with the current assumptions the tax rate would decrease by 8.03 percent for montpelier, which is 13 cents And for rocksbury it would decrease by 10.31 percent Which is about 14 cents and what that looks like for your tax bills on the next slide In montpelier If you're looking at a property value of a hundred thousand dollars Your current tax bill is about 1600 dollars For fy 24 with these assumptions it would decrease by 135 dollars Then you can see a two hundred thousand dollar house versus a three hundred thousand dollar house You can see the difference that they would all be decreases And the same is true for rocksbury the hundred thousand dollar house value would be 148 dollar decrease The impact on these um decreases Could change dramatically based on the unknown factors that i've talked about Also just a reminder these these assume taxes are based solely on property value But about two-thirds of ramon households receive an income sensitivity credit And that's something that our residents would fill out while they're doing their taxes every year And the next slide just shows you the history of the tax rates Either with the clc la and without the cla Without the cla you can see that montpelier and rocksbury would have the same tax rate The next slide is the non-residential tax rate So there was a question about who this affects. So this is all the commercial properties including rentals second households That's the majority of it that is the end of The good stuff There's any questions So we're happy to answer any questions. Um and the board should discuss If they want us to consider based on Nones that continue to come in like equalized people If we still want to keep that four hundred thousand dollars from the fund balance the original plan was 200 thousand dollars for this next budget year Or if the board wants us to decrease that So it just would be something to discuss for you all to give us some direction on First off, uh, thank you the presentation was excellent as always and Welcome christine to your first budget presentation is Yeah, uh, no, uh, great job as always And like the continuation of of you know grant kind of began us with these great presentations and you guys have Have updated a little and given your own look. So we appreciate that as well. Um it kind of first question on the the The 400,000 dollars like how late can we move that because because it seems like equalized people is going to be the biggest Is the biggest number out there right now that we're going to get between now and the time we pass the budget that could change that could we Could we make a decision based on equalized people and you know move it back? Oh, yeah There's plenty of time to make that decision I mean just as long as we have it ready to go to print in january than middle of january. Yeah Yeah, you have at least two more board meetings to Figure that out once we know more knowns and do you have an off the top of your head? Like if we moved, you know 200,000 or 300,000 Yeah of that out and kind of replaced it with Just tax fund or like what would the impact on the tax rate? It would be um, roughly one to two cents if it was 200,000 you said which translates into what percentage was Oh as far as Well, it'd be deep. It would it continue to be a decrease, right? Yeah. Yeah Well, no, but I'm sorry if you're if you're decreasing the revenue then you have to increase what you're bringing in for taxes So it's going to increase your tax rate. It's going to increase the tax rate, but the tax rate would still be a decrease, right? currently, yes So somewhere between zero and eight Um questions for the city For the budget unknowns for the triple e-grant and transportation aid Is the amount unknown or is it unknown whether or not we're going to receive it? Oh, it's the amount is unknown Yeah, I should have made that theory Thank you. What the CLA is, but if everyone knows understands then that's fine. I'll just take your quiet Um, if it's helpful, so I might my day job, I'll do it It will move a little bit, but I think for the purposes of this conversation this this is close So, uh, and motpelier is currently undergoing a reappraisal. So once that is wrapped up this in 2023 so our All of our grand list values our property values will be equalized back to 100 So our CLA will look very different when that's done. Our property values will also be different Yeah, yeah, so the actual tax raised on a particular home won't change that much So the CLA the common level of appraisal is A statistical analysis that we do at the tax department to see what the real estate market is doing to get a better sense of What our property values truly are it's done over a three-year period of time So as you can imagine the last couple of years the housing market in vermont, which was already really strained has gotten really Really under pressure. Um, there's all there's far more demand than there is supply And so in a lot of communities The CLA is dropping a lot meaning that what they're what the houses are listed at on the grand list and on your property Tax bills is a lot less than what they're going for in the market So the CLA is a factor applied to your tax rate to try to sort of accommodate that so that your tax rate is still Raising about what the housing market in Montpelier or in Roxbury is supposed to bring so in a lot of Vermont communities around the state Even though it's done over a three-year window, so it's sort of softened these three years of covid real estate are really Really dropping CLA's in a lot of communities So while so the the education tax the the december 1 letter which the tax department put out Just wants to caution Folks, even though it sounds like all really good news that the CLA Especially in some of the towns whose grand lists are really out of date or whose real estate markets were really hot Is going to be significant. So To just sort of like temper that enthusiasm But these numbers are based on sort of like what hours have been up to now And they're within reason and like I said Montpelier is already reappraising. So I think for the purposes of our conversation This is numbers that we can use If that's helpful Yeah, a couple years So that would be less likely to change Yeah, Roxbury might end up being closer to 100 Because those values are actually more fresh Montpelier hasn't actually gone through reas appraisal since I think like 2011 10 years ago So they were already really stale Before covid Yeah People to re-appraise because they've been so busy I have a question the equalized pupil number You for this purpose or for this budget you've assumed or you put it at the same as last year, right? The year before it was about 12 points higher What's what's the general trend is it going down is Does it change for most all school districts equalized pupils are dropping They're dropping In the past four or five years in terms of one of I think two or three school districts in the state going up and now We're five point again starting to head south unfortunately Equalized pupils That's weighted at that one point one four and you have a small preschool class coming in at point four six As far as the weighting that can throw your equalized pupils off Um and really decrease them So it takes like three preschoolers to come in for every graduating senior It bumps up their your um per student spending, right? I'm sorry It bumps up your per student spending if that goes down, right? So that has a big impact So if we think it's it's do we think it's going to go down based on Based on yes, that means that it the eventual rate will go up. Yes, right Okay, but you haven't factored in the the The updated property dollar years, right? We have factored that in you have factored that Yeah, it's Friday. Yeah, so you have factored that in here. So so good news is factored in but the bad news is not It's still yellow. No, it's still yellow because it's traditionally if it's going down if you think it's going to go down That's I'm just trying to get a sense of if that's going to grow up that this I'll see you in a couple weeks Thanks And I had a question about um, and I know libya I think you shared this with us in an equity committee meeting recently But the um the special education audit and the timing of that and like if the results of that have a budget And maybe now that I kind of put two and two together a little bit more like there's a sped block grant Basically anything that would come out of that you basically work with that budget to respond to that Okay And we probably will get the results from the audit until april until so that won't impact this budget Yeah, it could potentially impact future budgets, but not not this one right now Yeah, I did wonder on slide 18 if the per pupil for rvs was based on I think you said it wasn't based on adm That if it was based on like the 48 students like our I think as of december 1 numbers versus the 39 Which is our october number This is the october 1st number. It's the current year So that would come down given if we were to factor in an actual Number of students because it's 48 that we currently have enrolled I don't know if the number has changed since since october 1st So yeah, I mean It could change It fluctuates all year long. Yes Okay And last question for now I just wondered if the the rfl numbers like I know lots of districts have kind of chronically have difficulty You know getting rfl numbers to be you know true true to life and accurate And I was wondering like how accurate do we think the rfl numbers are and if any like funding revenues Are contingent on our rfl numbers? Are reduced in free lunch free and reduced sorry fRL rfl is Roxbury free library FRL free and reduced So yeah, I was just wondering how accurate we think those are and if there's any you know revenue implications Good better otherwise. Yeah, so this current year. Well last year we had free meals for all students federally funded this year It's split between federal funds and state funds So all children are getting free and reduced meals or free meals. Sorry Um, what's going to happen next year? I'm not clear on I haven't heard anything so You work with this particular data probably the closest out of all of us Yeah Do you know if there's I think what you're asking is there is there a decrease in that number or has it stayed the same or Yeah, and do like does the district ever make a you know, I mean the paperwork goes out and you can't You know, you can't force anybody to Feel it out, but I know that those numbers also, you know, can have implications and whether or not you are Eligible for certain funding streams and I wonder Right a few different grants mike. What do you But yeah, we've seen a market decrease in paperwork coming in in the last two years across all settings and that And every time the state is having conversations around Universal meals or not that is the thing that we bring up That you need a different way then to calculate Grant funding And most Slide 19 the staff support line you Mentioned that you moved the copier contract and cell phone expenses into that right Your contracts and cell phone expenses to take budget So that's where they this is the line that we they came in is that Yeah, so we're just trying to consolidate on where we're expensing We have 1500 expense lines right now. So We're just trying to get it all under one. So when we're doing when you're seeing the trend or looking at other years Is that adjusted? So that 1.73 or Yeah 1.73 1148 that number Included the expenses that were in some other categories I'm sorry No, because I think in fy 22 Things like cell phone expenses were somewhere else I think that's what you're asking Right. Yeah, so they were somewhere else. And so they're not obviously we we're not showing that fy 22 that somewhere else line So that 1.731 includes those somewhere else lines now that's folded into that I was just I was trying to compare and so I saw the 1.731 148 number so if you moved the cell phone expenses into 1.944 number right because that's how they came in there. So 1.731 number also included the actual Cell phone expenses from other categories that were Previously they're in the building budgets correct and copiers So you might have some in special education for our special ed department. They have cell phones or copiers, you know In their department or you might see it in principles the principal office They had their own line item for copiers and cell phones So it's kind of spread out throughout all of these programs and we were trying to get it into where it belongs Really All of these programs The actual numbers for all of these programs that are in there have they gone down for the 22 because that line was moved Into the staff support Yeah, that's where you saw some of the decreases in the principal lines in the building baselines That's part of that decrease not the whole decrease, but it's part of that decrease. Yeah, that's one of the reasons why this is happening Yeah, all right Sorry for the confusion That's going to make everybody's life easier over here Curiosity on page 28 for tax rates. What is the actual significance of the income sensitivity credit on households? What is the actual impact? Yeah, like what is the significance of it if you if you know sure Well, I don't have a specific answer, but um, you can go on to the department of tax website And you can see by each town how many residents in that town qualify for income sensitivity So I didn't pull up my players, you know, or rocks berries individually Um, but there is a resource out there that you can see how many residents within your town qualify As long as they're filling out that paperwork When they're doing this. Yeah, the homestead declaration So basically if you If you qualify for it, then you don't have to pay the school budget, but the part that part of your taxes Well, you have to you may have to pay a portion of it. It depends on your income. So it's And your household value. So What happens is the state ends up paying a portion of what you owe for your homestead and a homestead is a house in two acres So anything over that? doesn't qualify for income sensitivity So they pay the taxes great to the town directly. So then the resident doesn't have to So also residents tax bill they actually see what their full Value and their full tax bill would be and then it has a reduced by a state payment Which was calculated at the tax department based on their home income and as christina said house plus two acres So then what you actually would have to write a check for and pay is reduced based on your income It's only the school budget portion of your taxes. That's reduced, right? Like it wouldn't be like what you're paying There's another layer for another level of income that can be sensitized further and a municipality could choose to do that but You also I think so Yeah So I was surprised to see because after I mean after I read your letter and I was sort of preparing myself for this insane increase And then to see a decrease In the tax rate. I'm just curious like what the philosophy was going into So in and I know that it could still go up a little bit once we get the actual numbers But you said only by two cents or so It depends on how much our equalized peoples drop if they drop 20 then you're going to see a huge increase And do you have a sense of what the spectrum is that we could potentially see in terms of the drop? And unfortunately we don't and we go through four different versions There's no way christina could give a guess to that because Just her example last year. We got the first version of equalized pupils in late december And we didn't get the final version of equalized pupils until I think march April maybe They're even been made they go through a lot of iterations The first round. Yes But I keep in mind that christina had put Thursday when I wrote my superintendents report She used the dollar yield from last year because we didn't know what it was With the with 13 000 whatever it was last year Montpelier was going to have a 6.7 percent increase in their tax rate That dollar yield only the dollar year that was the only the only factor that was changed Brought it to an eight percent decrease. This was like a 15 percent 15 percent swing You can ask this man because he he saw me right after I found out and I was like So like if the actual numbers come in is there an opportunity here to add something to the budget to because I just Am not sure if we have to Provide a decrease in the tax rate. Yes, that's a really good question We are already thinking we're waiting to see what the equalized pupils can do the first draft of it And we've already told the principals to prioritize the things on that last cut Like what was those things on those we want to look at one-time expenditures. We're not looking at additional fte Because that has yearly impact, right? But what we are looking at what are the one-time expenditures that didn't make that last Painful cut that we could add back in and we'll talk about that once we get the equalized pupil There's also things in this budget that I know the district needs that we that aren't included for instance the The permanent subs in each building that's not a part of this budget And for the buildings who have been able to hire that that's been a real savior on some days to have that extra person There so that would be one thing that we put back in because that has worked for us this year And we're not expecting the sub shortage to go away next year So we have a list The principals are already thinking in that way We'll give them a dollar amount that they can look at once we know a little bit more, especially jason will give him a dollar amount And uh And then they'll start looking at the their last prioritized cuts and and what can be put back in for one-time expenditures Absolutely. Yeah, and I mean I would love to hear. I know that we've invited them all here tonight I would love to hear some of those ideas I know that there's a little bit of a process involved in like how much information you want to provide Before we know that we have any extra money So I will honor that but I would love to hear like a couple of Ideas if you're willing to allow Another way to ask the question is what have you had to say no to there you go so far Julie, would you like to start? And why don't you all come up to the oh, yes, please hard to hear from No, you can see right where you are. That's there's two seats. Two seats. Yeah Sorry christina Hi everybody Yeah, so some of the things that we were looking at, you know, it was really some of the Similar to some of the things that libya talked about earlier with some of our priorities and some of our newer programs So one is this year is our first year with having an innovation space with you and like Rosenberg Heading that up and having a maker space So there's some equipment and things like that to bring that program up to where we were looking at So we made some cuts to that some of that was furniture and some of that was also equipment for different types of Programming and pieces there Other parts of it also was Some ways in which we were looking to hope to beef up our both our racial justice alliance as well as our BIPOC space And being able to provide some more resources for that So we had trimmed that down and Then there's also some additional electronic Wants or needs like with different types of tech devices with our seven and eight team Looking to try to increase some of their capacity With some different technologies that they could use like that would be for their classroom and their spaces in those rooms So those were some of the Initial pieces in there and there's some other some smaller kind of other items that we kind of pulled little Pieces and dollars here and there out of That'd be happy to to bring in but those are like the three things that like as i'm thinking about What would be the first things to look to push back into Yeah Jason we'll have you next I'm talking about the high school just want to make sure you know that i'm hearing everything you're saying You are being recorded. Yes. Hi everybody Similar to julie. We want to continue to support our BIPOC and racial justice alliance And so that might look at some more professional development not only for students, but for our staff training and education Also the person that works with our students were trying to we may lose a grant. We're not sure yet And so how do we counterbalance that to ensure that the person can work with us next year? and then to get to the Budget that you saw we Maybe put off some athletic big athletic expenditures Possibly possibly anyone listening replacing the two scoreboards And another outside bench Enclosed outside bench So those were probably the first things that we would put back Thanks Something professional development for staff. Okay under dbi. Oh, that was the first one, right? Oh, and that was and then we had Rachel you're talking about Rachel's statement. Yeah, so Rachel works with our BIPOC students as a Affinity space affinity space mentor mentor She works at a part-time basis now with both the middle school and the high school And we just want to continue that work and see how we can even expand Gotcha. Great. Thank you. Sure. Thanks And we do offer stipends to oh, yeah Oh, yeah, that's included Beth and Katie were interested. They were pretty much level funded or and Katie even really allocated funds that Had been in the UAS budget for many years, but never really used And so she actually came to us first go With a pretty level funded budget Um, and Beth was very similar with that as well at Roxbury. So It was more our adolescent principles who uh, Who had the big increases? That had to make some really hard prioritization Peggy sue and mike. Was there anything that you really looked at? From your programming For UES was the SEL interventionist, but we were able to It sounds like those expenses are are one-time expenses. So, you know What we add back in will be one-time expenses. Yes. So if we have A difficult situation with the The waiting next year It's not Kind of we're not putting ourselves in a corner. Yeah, we're not putting ourselves in a corner. Yeah All right I mean, I know we're kind of Oh Andrew come over to the microphone because Anna can't hear Andrew's like wait You weren't sitting with the team over there Well, it did in exactly that and I want to say this here because I want you folks to hear because When you folks are thinking about those programs We need to support those and make sure we have the money because when you look at the facilities line And it says a five percent increase. I would actually say that's a decrease In that our energy costs have gone up by 30 percent So I've actually cut the budget by about a hundred thousand dollars and that reflects counseling spaces and student teacher lounges and all of those things So I just wanted to make sure that that was clear and also not only that That percentage was based on a reduction. That was from the year before Right. So I'm already a hundred grand back And now we're we're not we didn't go back to the previous from the previous budget and now we've got energy cutting into that as well so um I just wanted to make that clear and I may actually have that ask you to put that as a note as well Let's just remind you guys that You won't let me forget That's it Well, I think that's what you had under facilities was a five percent increase But you were saying that's a 30,000 30,000 decrease or no, what's the number you followed that up? So what we did is we had our budget And yes, we've added five percent, but We've we've gonna we're gonna have probably a 30 increase in energy costs over last year's budget So we got hit this year We we were paying like two dollars a gallon for oil Last winter this winter we're paying a little over three dollars a gallon um so we've had to Put that money toward energy and take it out of building projects And again that the previous budget we had reduced it to to hit a limit so These buildings look great and I I want to make a little if you guys are here these Fans ramping up and ramping down. That's because of the new ddc control system we have in here It's reading the stale air and turning on fresh air in this building and that's because We funded it and let's want to keep that up Hear the fans go on or was that just interesting? Sorry, so you think it did show that like the Utilities cost was like the greatest increase. It was like a 16. So can we anticipate any um, you know decrease in that cost based on the installation of the new windows It's By the time we recognize that we're we're going to have to stagger those windows That's not good. We're not going to do a whole building all at once and we'll little it'll slowly Has there been any savings realized from the heat pump installation at rvs too early to tell? Uh, we're getting our oil receipts I suspect that we're we'll see if gillespie starts changing their delivery schedule But it's still and this warm weather has been just really tough But they're they're fired up and they're working and we've kind of got we've got them all set at 70 degrees and That's what's heating three of the classrooms and in the offices and we've got the approval your approval to do the Three more classrooms. So No with heat pumps you want to just keep them rolling You just keep them. Yeah, they're not good at sort of quick ramp up there. They're good at just percolating So that's my two cents And I apologize that I didn't call I know I haven't seen that man move that fast So Don't let me kind of the time and also kind of the process we're going to hear, you know a presentation a few times I mean, it sounds like there's some perhaps desire to Have some numbers maybe put back in at least in terms of We will see what that was and Just we're going to get the equalized people on december 15th. So you should know that by the 21st in case that throws it For a loop There was a good chance people have the CLA by then too. They're they're cranking ahead of schedule. Oh, wow, that would be that would be unprecedented And what about thoughts on the The money the other fund balance in terms of Yeah backing that out of the the budget and and putting that in in tax thoughts on thoughts on that do do want to see maybe Kind of just two or three scenarios with some some numbers thrown in to see where it's at Yeah, in my mind. I'm more interested in seeing us Spend the money and transfer money from our fund balance into the Ed fund To meet these needs then pull back on and and hold on to that money And only and only transfer a small amount of so I would You know, I know there's a lot of unknowns, but from where we sit right now. I would rather see us transfer $400 $400,000 and Meet some of these needs Then then drop it to transferring $200,000 Other thoughts I mean could we look at I mean we haven't like if the numbers hold they have an 8 to 7 decrease so Yeah, if If if we got to aim for like a no tax increase at all like how much could we do? Well, we can bring once we know more of the unknowns We can have christina do that math for us and have those numbers Like if we put this amount from the fund balance in the tax rate would be here According to what we know right now We put this amount the tax rate would be here like we can do that Math christina's got massive spreadsheets that she's a whiz on so she can do all that work Yeah, I think I agree with me it and it sounds like others on the board that I'm meeting meeting the needs as priority one and then Yeah, because we have some fund balance. That's right I mean I also agree, but I based on What I the way I think this works if the Equalized pupil pupils goes down by 100 The tax rate in Montpelier ends up the same as it was last year more or less and the tax rate in Roxbury is Is four cents lower? So I don't think it's going to go down by 100 equalized pupils, but That's the sort of the range So The CLA is going to impact it too. Yeah Right, so I didn't know if I was just like what happens if it goes down by 100 and that Was kind of where it goes right back to kind of where it was last year Won't go down by that much, but just a sort of a point of reference um, I also have These are sort of sort of seemingly small things When we were talking about The track process we all agreed it was not perfect But I wonder where there is room in this whole process for some of the sort of Longer term Priorities I think of it in two categories as one is things that you buy and one is Time and energy investments, you know educational sort of success and social emotional safety is sort of Time and energy investment takes time to make those things happen. You don't throw money at that and have it be solved There are things that break that need to be fixed like roofs and things that came up in investments and more energy efficient things and we didn't end up with We never went back to the community and put and found our list of 10 things and I wonder how we can Sort of have an eye to some of these 10 year out Things and have them in a priority list where we're thinking of like this is number one And I don't know what that looks like. Are you thinking in terms of facility projects? I'm not sure that's what I'm saying. There's one that you spend money and you get a thing And there's another one where you make you make investments in positions and the results Take time to come to fruition And all of those things are are important for us to keep our mind on because some folks were like Don't get a track. You have to make everybody be proficient at all their academics and which none of which was going to happen and I don't know how to create whether it's two categories or not How far out that list goes whether it's five years or 10 years And how the district decides what the priorities are in those lists But it might help us have a and I and this goes into the values in the vision's work the vision work that we're doing but These are sort of small things. What are the big visions that people have? Is there a place for that in the budget? The these are our pie in the sky things the things that get wiped right off the board on day one You know, is there a place for those in the in the budget? That's Here's the pie in the sky stuff that we're not actually That are not going into our budget, but does it help us think about where the roof fits in The next five to ten years. I don't know Because the roof fits in the capital plan like that's an answerable question That angers thinking about I would take like rewind budget presentations from the past four years or so And for members who have been part of the board for the pat for a significant amount of time and have seen budget presentations From probably our second one We have had a focus we knew that we needed to build our intervention system Right, we knew that from my second budget. The first budget was really transportation and busing And the second budget was starting to build our capacity For an intervention system that actually worked And every year for the past four years. We've added human capital to that effort And through the good work of Mike and our directors student services across the years they They collaborated to to working on how to make that more effective This year is probably the first year that we'll be able to point to information and evidence That the human resource capital investment that the board has agreed to over the past four years Is paying off in terms of starting to pay off in terms of Success for students, right? We couldn't put our beliefs around intervention in place until we had the people in place to do it Right and that really didn't start to happen until last year And this year with the last literacy interventionist at msms. I can't promise you'll never see another interventionist in a budget Because mhs still only has one for reading and math However, like we have the human capacity at ues now for instance at rvs. We have those positions in place And we have now we can talk about the system of Like let's collect evidence to see if what we're doing is working Um, and so we've done so much work over that so we have like we have seen that work now in terms of five to 10 years Down the down the road and pie in the sky dreaming. We do do that work internally It won't show up maybe here But we did do that work together and with a new leadership team It was kind of clunky this year And we'll continue to get better at that as a team And when we want to bring ideas forward, which you know, the first budget meeting is not always the best time to do that We should be talking about that prior to that So looking at the visioning from the community looking at where we want to move our schools We are thinking that way. It's just not going to show up in a budget presentation You know, but there are there is evidence that things like that have right We could never have given you tier three data until this year We just wouldn't have been any of you had said let me tell me how the success of your tier three system I couldn't have told you Until this school year So like building that's a building and a change process that takes time just like what you said Right and our social emotional learning system Is kind of following that same route Right the idea of adding into social emotional learning interventionist So that kids who are in the classroom and struggling in the classroom with behavior Executive functioning skills or any you know, those kind of things trying to find two professionals who are experts in that kind of skill level development For us and msms in particular this year. That's big, right? That's that's there aren't too many school districts who are thinking in that way so Um, we are we are trying to boost certain areas that are based in our theory of growth up Is it innovative? No, is it shiny pennies? Not at all Because we have to get some evidence for moving kids forward first Does that make sense I understand the sentiment that Brett is expressing around just sort of like tracking I think just sort of like tracking the Feedback that we receive from the community to not just you know, of course You're doing it with your with your awesome team Internally, but then also like is that reflective of the stuff that we're hearing from the community And I and I think kind of similar feedback to what you're giving Which is like in the last couple of years the board and liby have improved that type of information and data gathering A million fold. It's like having all of those listening sessions um When I look at this now, I feel like I can confidently say that it aligns with what we've heard from our Community, which I don't think I was able to do the first time that I sat for a budget presentation Just because we weren't doing as much, um, you know pulling and listening sessions and stuff of the community Um, but how do we track all of that? Like we have some tracking devices that we've created with all the listening sessions But it could be more formalized and I think that's part of the visioning work of and then My other hope is that eventually we can circle back to people and say We heard this from you and now look it's in the budget You know that type of thing like circling back To promote the things that we're doing I mean a few years ago. I remember liby talking about a couple years ago. I remember you talking about how we're One of the highest funded districts for social emotional learning You know that we invest a lot of money in social emotional learning and now on page 16 I'm seeing a further investment in social emotional learning and I think that's um really attributed to sort of what's What you've learned about where students are at in the last couple of years and what you know and and the Values of our community and what we've heard from them So i'm excited about this budget and I feel like I'm hoping that it can go a little further Yeah, one thing that's just unrelated to what ret said sorry But I've also been active in the parents groups mostly at the middle school in the high school And we hear a lot of um funding requests to the boosters club and stuff And so some of those types of requests i'm kind of like why isn't this why couldn't this be part of the budget and some of them are How were mentioned? tonight too as the thing so you know I would appreciate not looking at it in terms of like how can we Drop the tax rate year to year, you know, but you know Maybe increase a couple of cents here and there to make sure that the needs are met That would be my hope I know we want to wrap this up Yeah, I just wanted to say I'm not going to ask all the questions I sent over email because some of them were already answered is one reason and then others I can hold till later, but I maybe it's more of a request liby that The the slide eight I think is very helpful to show The connection but I wonder if we could get even more concrete the next time you do a budget presentation not to say like Oh because Mike Barry is going to have more support. We'll be able to Show x y and z data like I don't want you to over promise something that isn't doesn't make sense but it might Help as we're thinking about the impact that what our spending has On the outcomes that we're looking for if we can see More of a connection between these are the goals that we set forth in our continuous improvement plan for example and here's how the The money that we're spending in A couple of areas will move us further toward those goals Does that does the question make sense? Yeah, I think it does that here, but I can talk to you more about how it doesn't do that or what what's missing We can talk more about that for the next presentation. Okay. Thank you Because I think the the theme that I'm getting from this recent part of the conversation is like We as a board as being accountable to the community need to be able to say We think by spending this money We're we're gonna get the outcomes that we're looking for and of course you that's what you're saying But it will help me to see a little bit more of a through line. We're working towards the outcomes moving toward Moving toward those outcomes Yeah, I know a lot of those investments are in here and particularly the social emotional learning is very evident And I think kind of getting to peak of those visions. I think it's great work to do in the spring Like, you know, what you're thinking about and you know, which which you've been doing and presenting some data I think we continue that so at the end of the budget season We're very aware So I think instructions is, you know, some of the great things you're about. Yeah, figure out some more knowns You know, put back in some of the great things we heard about tonight as good one-time expenses that I think we're all very supportive of And let's see what it looks like on the 21st Can I ask one question of the board? This might be a this might be a Bomb but um If the board were to see a percent increase, what would be an acceptable increase Oh, but instead of giving you this, why don't you put in your needs? Yeah, I don't know that I can say and I I really want to caution us Like there's this huge education fund surplus that we will not have next year So the yield won't look as nice and and this 12 percent insurance increase is literally hitting every district statewide So like overall Ed spending is up 9 percent, which means really we're like Below level funding at spending as a state because of this Assurance like there's this is not just influential at Montpellier Roxbury, but everybody's budget influences everybody else's Be reasonable, but I we we had a very flawed system in the past where we used to just 5 and that was how the budget was made I don't want to go there. I know I was I knew you're gonna say that You used to ask you that every year and you say the same thing. Yeah I mean it would just be interesting out of curiosity to know what the what the if all of the like sort of um Maybe not all of the items that were brought up tonight by the administrators But the top two of you know what I mean like what and even if it was just like that's for that number Like maybe it's not totally fleshed out um In the presentation, but just sort of like uh, here's the spectrum of what it could be and now What's the appetite of the board and what we feel the appetite of the community is Well, and I would want to I would want to make sure that we capture the buildings and because if Did you see how fast? If the fuel prices mean that we're not filling a custodial position, for example, that's a very direct impact That's not okay. So I would want to know what um, I would just like to see Two or more races and the ethnicity demographics Um, like my kids don't fit in any of these Categories and I feel like from the agency of education the data that's collected there Yeah, so Mike. Do you have anything about the demographics that's collected? Come forward so that you can speak in the mic This is from the the this slide the demographic slide Is from the agency of education data collection, correct? Correct And we don't have much influence over that but say say you ask your question and then Mike can tell us if we can get that data I would like to see two or more races as an option Oh two or more. Yeah, we we've provided feedback to the agency of education Actually, the federal government dictates the agency of education which categories we use So we've provided feedback often on that. We've heard that a couple times That data No, we we are Because of the way slds works. That's where our data is is put in it's it's one way And it's that dictates how our system captures the information It's a good point. Thank you. Can people not choose to Can't choose to I didn't realize that because I was looking at some of these numbers and it was like It was explained because it was the difference between the count on october 1st and But I was thinking that people could choose to that would make sense I would think I don't know I thought that you could policy monitor Policy monitoring. Yes. Thank you Yeah, thank you everyone Yeah, no the Bye guys see you tomorrow Yeah, approve the policy monitoring reports for policy g14 and d6 Do you have a second? Any discussion or questions? Yep, I see that Montpelier high school is 22.3 If you divide the students the number of students by the number of teachers But I'm wondering if you sort of like dug in the way that the policy is written is it's by Subject by content area and I'm wondering if you dug into those numbers and if you saw any Red flags or anything there Yeah, so it's Montpelier high school is always a hard thing to do for class sizes because of The departments and the number of teachers and all of that kind of thing If that we needed more fte in certain content areas you would have seen it in this budget So we have about the same number of eighth graders as we do ninth graders. So those will be moving into ninth grade So jason is confident that in the fte's that we have available for Next year. So we so in other words to answer your question According to jason and the and the counseling services here our fte is adequate for the Class sizes that we have here at Montpelier high school And we're not that close like dipping over In any of the cut because I was hearing about larger class like like 26 and stuff like that But is that not typical that is not typical Okay, and then I had a question just about in general because we talked about we've talked about this policy and policy committee And in the english composition in the policy It's you know, there's in all the other areas There's more of a broad like sort of scale of like minimum of 18 and high You know maximum of 25, but in english composition It's minimum of 18 students optimum of 20 maximum of 20, which is a two student range I'm just wondering what you think about that I'd have to give more thought to it. I'm not sure why we don't have a class called english composition So there's several questions I have about that particular one when the When the policy committee is ready to take a look at that then we'll get our high school folks Who are much more well versed in this area and what we actually offer In the room with you to to have conversations about this Great. Thank you. I think that actually came up last year a couple other a couple of years ago, too Oh, yeah, that's what that was. Yeah, I've heard it. I've heard it Uh I'm also glad to see just in the budget with the reduction in force That we would only be we wouldn't be anywhere near the maximum in that grade level It would still be like optimal size So that was really nice to see other questions or comments about G14 and do six do I have Yes, we have we're going to have a motion. Um, I was ever Any opposed great. Thank you Um policy reading. We have a second policy reading of the f2 dot discriminatory mascots in school branding And then just to note that you know, thank you everyone for the input and last week And I was in here and we got some email on a 23 or 24. We're going to discuss that on the 21st I believe But any comments or questions on The nondiscriminatory mascot and school branding policy and anything that needs noting or change No Great second reading noted and we'll pass it along for third and final reading Next meeting And a very kindly put the motion that we need to enter executive session for the purpose of Appointing a board member. Does anyone want to make that motion? And it's right there right there for the We enter executive session for the purpose of discussing new board member applicants because doing so in public session We'll clearly place the applicants at a substantial disadvantage Go to second