 Good evening and welcome I'm Diane Meyerhoff host for tonight's school budget presentation with y'all obang the superintendent of the Burlington School District tonight show is being aired live. We welcome your comments and questions Please join the conversation at 8 6 2 3 9 6 6. Thank you y'all so much for coming out tonight Thank you for having me happy to be here pleasure. It's a pleasure to have you So you're gonna tell us about the budget and what voters need to know for town meeting. Yes, absolutely I mean I've got a bit of a slide slide deck. I'm gonna pass to you and we've shared at the board Through the board process and it's also found on our website. So people want to go to a website They can go through that because I'll try to sort of expedite the process instead of spending 90 minutes Conversations in between so I'll do some highlights and get through some things and And tell us what is the website if folks want to look up the School district and do a search all right fantastic good. So tell us what we need to know. All right, so let me start by Talking about every year, you know our process and if you can see the slides here We we start with a input process consultation with our Community members and we had about four public Open forums and people came out and I bet they came out people do come out Yes, people do come out and they have lost to say lots of contribute good We do ask them some challenging questions as well because we just don't want the the wants We were also talking about the needs and some of the things that will push us forward But some of the things we did differently this year is we targeted some groups that we felt the voices weren't heard in the past So we looked at we had some sessions for a special ed in particular special ed parents and we looked at ELL groups Which you should say what that is EL English language learners, right? The new language is EL as opposed to ELL Okay, thank you And then of course we spend some time with our staff in our strategic plan with nine Priority teams and asked them what do they think is needed in their priority areas in order to move us forward And of course our principals and staff that we've had input from and also people can always go on to the website and Do an online submission if they haven't had an opportunity to attend one of those or go to their local school and just put something on Paper or or that sort to a little get back to you that all gets back and I'm going to talk a little bit about that So just quickly. I'm going to go through this slide quickly So one of the things we do is we synthesize some of the materials that we're hearing and you can see on this slide There's a number of themes that come through and some of these themes are pretty consistent Every year people talk about energy efficiency, which is which is a good thing They talk about increased supports for social services and some of our social needs and of course things that will help our Academic achievement, right? So that's pretty consistent in terms of some of the themes You can see a list of things that came through the conversations anything unusual or surprising for you Actually, nothing surprising to be honest with you. I think everything good Everything that we we heard that people would think of Pretty came through. Yeah, right. I think we can support pretty significant list Yeah, so and if my slide to the next list, you'll see we tried to whoops a little too far We tried to do a little bit of analysis on this To look at Based on the input that we have yeah, what people are saying, okay What would that cost us if we actually add all those things and it was over not six million dollars worth of What how much is the school budget to give us a sense of what the school budget is under 85 million over the entire budget Okay, and people get confused because there's two different sections There is the the education fund section, which taxpayers actually vote on and there's the school budget the entire budget When you see the entire budget, it's inclusive of grants and other things that we get so sometimes they see that Hey, your budget is going down. We're asking for more But what that just means is we're not be able to capture more grants So actually six million is not that bad on 85 million Six million on top of the the education side that we need to add That's quite significant. So last year we The it came up to about five actually really if you look at this It's probably a little bit more based on what staff said actually more than that last year with the request around five million And we're able to add one point five million and we still had a considerable tax increase So six million would make a huge huge. So we won't be doing all those things We will not be doing all those things But it's good for us to kind of reflect on that and understand that these are things that people are saying that Would help us contribute the thing that we have to consider when we go through this and we talk with our board and community members about is The budget pressures. So what's putting pressure on our on our budget for this current year? We have some capital infrastructure challenges and fortunately last year people supported a bond to look at all our schools But we still have some challenges at the high school and things that we have to look at of course salaries and benefits We have eight bargaining units, you know, people sort of often talk about the teachers But we have seven other units that we do that don't really get a lot of publicity around the actions, but all those contracts have to be integrated into The next year's budget in terms of the increases and then health care was a big big conversation this year So there was a challenge about health care where the state put in some legislation that took money away from us, right? So over about five hundred thousand dollars away from us, which we couldn't capture But yet we still have to make up those costs. So that's you know challenges for us in terms of trying to find those pieces and then Lastly on this slide the legislative Environment due to this fifty million dollar fifty million deficit in the education fund for the whole state That has to be made up somehow and that usually means at the local level, right? How taxpayers have to find a way so we consider those things in terms of doing an analysis of What we can actually establish and I'll skip through some of this quickly but you know some of the other things around retirement funds and things we pay to the city for Propensions and universal preschool investments that have to come in and The other supports that we identified that we sort of must do And I think we hear this from at least from all the superintendents that come in and I've spoken with same very similar pressures Everyone has that same list. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. The challenge the thing for us in terms of some of the Social-emotional pieces is that we find that in Burlington We do have agencies that support some of these so we attract People who come here for services and therefore Students get into our systems and parents. So then we end up Picking up a lot of that and we we welcome that opportunity But we know initially always have the resources to to support them Here's a good example of What happens in in the grants because one of the things we're trying to do is explain the budget process to our community In terms of the differences for us as Burlington and differences for the rest of Vermont, right? So in special education, we do receive a special education block grant and if you look at this slide You can see BSD. We average 34 point five seven FTEs those are like teacher positions for special ed and the the wage that we pay the average wage is about 72,000 Now the average across the state for that same position is 63,000 So there's a difference for us of about $9,000 So when we pay our staff for those positions, we have a $9,000 cost to it But the state only gives us the average which is 63 So at the end of the day, you see we end up with a difference of 327,000 So we still have to make up that difference now some districts They may have a lower cost in terms of paying those staff So they could actually make some money on receiving those grants or break even but we don't break even Based on our wage calculations there. So those are some of the things sometimes people say well, we get grants for that Yeah, we do But doesn't cover everything sure right so Some of the things that when we start in the budget there are strategic priorities that we look at so Investing in our strategic goals and priorities. We spend a lot of time looking at what we need to focus on We can't do everything and do it well. We have to focus on a few things. We've established three main goals Inclusive sustainable finance and facilities equitable climate culture and inclusive teaching and learning are big big rocks We call them or things that we want to focus on We also invest on some of the strategic priorities around students staff and program and capital facilities things And of course sustaining the supports that we already have we want to sustain We don't want to go backwards. We want to be able to make sure we're a budget that sustains and then look Forward to move forward. We're using data to inform of some of our decisions, right? I think in the past sometimes we've just sort of like said, hey, that might be a good idea Let's just do that. Let's do this this so we're trying to use the data in the metrics to say this worked really well because A B and C so therefore we didn't need to invest in this and this we don't know if it worked Well, so maybe we should try something else or stop doing that and reallocate dollars and things that we know are effective And at the end of the day, we also want to use an equity lens around how we allocate staffing and things like that because we do have Some demographics there are different in different parts of the city and also in terms of the staff allocation We have to make sure that we do that So we've added what's called an equity index to reallocation to make sure that we give our schools what they need Not necessary an equal distribution, but an equity distribution And I'll skip this slide because it just just talks about our development one of the things I wanted I would do want to talk about though is the central office Reductions because often when we start the budget process and we ask people, okay, what do you think we can save dollars? Consistently everyone says Central office administration, that's pretty consistent. You know what I and to be fair, that's not just unique to Burlington I think that's everywhere. Yeah, every district I've been to they've always said cut the fat at the top, right and One of the things they know and I came here a couple years ago I think we we wanted to lead with that because we knew people would be wanted to see that and we started you can see that We had about 450,000 in reductions The first year and then the next year we went to 150,000 So so we've asked our central office staff to do the best they can in Houston And they're trying to manage with what they have But I think we have to set that example if we're gonna look at other areas in terms of reductions So I wanted to make sure that people knew that yes We we're aware that we need to look at that area as well as the other areas as well, too I'll glance through this slide because it just speaks to more around some of the things we're required to spend which adds pressure Sure on our on our budgets in terms of having to meet and then so we need to focus as to allocation of our budget and so we Decided on these areas in terms of allocation one we want to make sure that we meet the AOE equitable stand standards Quality standards, especially for class sizes and things. There's a lot of conversations around teacher ratios and class ratios from the state this year And we wanted to make sure we stay true to the standards that we have established in terms of our allocations Other areas are our increased social emotional supports So I know you've heard from other districts in terms of that's a huge challenge That's a challenge for us as well, too I mean you can't get to learning if you can't take of sort of the masses hierarchy of needs, right people's owns students Self self-belonging and their sense of wellness to start their learning One of the things we wanted to ensure we keep is the our multi-lingual asons so they're sort of our cultural ambassadors in our schools and The funding from for this actually comes from the federal level and there's been Evacuum from the federal grants in the last year So they've taken away dollars and these are dollars that we had and we need this resource So we can't get it so we decided that was a priority that we wanted to shift some dollars We can ensure that we maintain it and of course our Priority goals set by our our board is around closely achieving gap and reason the bar So we want to make sure we allocate resources to that and restorative practices and that goes with the achievement Got and sort of the sense of wellness for our students in terms of being at the problem solve and create environments that they're able to To inspire to you, right? I know I'm going quickly here, but I've got a 90-minute presentation. I'm trying to get it No, you're doing great. We're doing great when I when I start to look that quizzical you'll know that I'll do this quickly the one of the things I wanted to talk about this year was around enrollment, right numbers So lots of conversations people look at different data sets and they'll say well, we're increasing our numbers We should be getting more and this and that but Burlington. We actually haven't Increased soon. We haven't you see decrease slightly if you looked at a chart a graph of ours We'd be looked like this we go down up down up down up down up but kind of plateauing a little bit and slightly down But nothing huge, but we're not growing right as opposed to I know my counterparts in South Burlington They had a bit of a spike this year. They were doing like what we were doing But they had and we're new ski right so one of the things that Has cost us to go down a little bit is in the past. We've received Numbers of students from refugees and we haven't had the same influx And that and that was you know about 200 kids or so that was the difference from us always spiking up And what do you think that's about you have a sense that is it housing costs? No, we just haven't we just haven't been sent here Because of you know federal kind of you know, so they haven't been sent here Well, that's what's happened in the past Right, so we were always predictive of having that a certain amount of influx. It could come back Right, but you never know right so but we were kind of pretty much stayed the same if you look at this chart here an FY 17 We budgeted for 986 students at the high school, but we actually had 946 Right in the following year. We kept the budget at 986, but we actually had 937 Yeah, and then for next year with that number 986 we're at 964. So We're actually been under and you know, I know we've had some challenges from people saying that oh this I see a lot of kids But these are the numbers right these numbers and we've budgeted for more than we have so we should be able to accommodate more than Then we have there fortunately. We do have a Bubble in grade nine this year. We have a good cohort. So hopefully that trend continues Yeah, we'll be able to maintain at a higher level. So I'll skip the K to 8 stuff and And this was the equity index I was talking about this is a simplistic sort of view for people where they can see there's an example of Two schools, right both have projected enrollment at 414 or 450 pretty much the same Yeah, but at the end of the end of the day you can see at the last block there There's a share allocation of 39% and 61% and that's the factors are because of the number of IEP's The poverty count that we have and the EL count, right? So you can see the different numbers in there That gives you the share. So then we decide, okay, we need to add This many more resources to that school because they have a 60% share rather than 39% right? So it's not equal. It's not like everyone gets one right based on your needs because some some areas have more Things to challenge So that's a basic sort of look at that All right, so now we get to the good stuff this is the stuff I like Facilities well well not just facilities, but we do need facilities But because that it's going to have to learn as well too But these are our goals our big goals that we want to achieve So the first goal is round sustainable finance and fields that's one of the goals anyways And there's we have good rash now around there We know there's lots of literature that you know if you have good spaces then you have good learning, right? And we tend to have older schools. Is that fair? We have all our schools need work Yeah, and we publish a document last year you can find out on our site as well too in terms of some of the needs we have In our schools and you know what it's pretty much systemic across the country when Districts and boards are looking at saving money. They have to make a choice sometimes, right? It's between either people or you can not repair that ceiling Where they usually go to these you'd not repair the ceiling and then what happens to the ceiling? It opens across the people right and then eventually at some point you go Oh, we didn't put enough money to right and we have to go back and do some it's hard That's that's I think we all have that in our own homes. We have a situation Exactly home planning so you can see on the bottom here that we're still we're starting that you we're in year one of our Capital plan right of renewing the buildings and doing what so that's so that's a good thing and then we added some minor pieces here that fall under this goal around we need some bus drivers for special ed buses and Looking at developing an international program nice in Burlington Which is going to be great culturally in terms of bringing in immigrant students from other countries but these are students that actually might be a little different than the traditional we have because they come with the Different different sets different set of assets, right? So they'll be coming with families that kind of can maybe afford to send them away for a year and come back And looking to go into post-graduate here at the same time because of the cultural exchange is going to be great for our kids It's also revenue generator. So we'll be able to generate some dollars that we can put back into the system. So looking forward to expanding on that Initiative there. So it's just a minor investment there to get that and then the other big rock that we have is Equitable climate and culture and this is sort of the the belly the foundation that we talked about some around some of the real social emotional And behavioral challenges that we we have that we need to set our students up before They can actually be prepared for learning and you can see a list of some of the things and this is you know I wish we could add much more But you know, we have to balance between what we believe the public can afford and willing to support and What we what's critical in terms of our needs? And so we do quite a bit of analysis with our staff when we've got it And then we have to make some decisions and then finally to the board to say hey, this is what we can do with can we can we Can we add more? Yes, we would love to but you know, right that's be reasonable and you can see a range of things We talked about the multilingual is on special education supports We definitely that social workers in our schools and in light of some of the things that happened in Florida and things Like that that we need to the mental wellness for our kids and being able to identify and support students before they get into Tragic stages that we need to stay ahead of that curve The board has put forward an equity recruitment hiring initiative Want us to look at diversifying our workforce and of course we need strategies and resources to do that and number of the things around summer schools Keeping learning for students all year round when we hold our summer schools Which is an excellent program by the way where students get an opportunity to get some academics they get some recreational they get some arts base and It's all free, right? Yeah, and we have waiting lists every year So it's hard to accommodate everyone so this will allow us to accommodate more students and Resist that summer slide that happens, right? Although it sounds kind of good You know what if you ever would go to the summer kids the kids are having a good time The balance of fun and It's kind of neat to have that kind of program and then finally this is this is the big part This is a big part of our of our work in terms of the academic achievement piece right around inclusive teaching and learning so work with our curriculum departments and Looking at what we need to do in terms of improving achievement for our students And do you know we've sweet we've identified the achievement gap as a goal Closing the gap and raising the bar and I'll take a moment to talk about that just quickly Because one of the things that people sometimes will assume that if we're working on achievement gap that we're only focused on Certain cohort students who are under achieving but we're talking about closing the gap while raising the bar So that means that the students at the top we expect them to keep pushing up So the strategies we're looking for are universal strategies that help all students and then hopefully will have fewer students to do the intervention pieces and The literature out there and research out there and schools that have found success Can show in their data that they closed the gap and the kids at the top and continue to move up So we're hoping it's challenging. Oh, it's It's a national crisis really in terms of trying to manage that but we're up for the challenge And we've got a good team together and we're and we're making some good plans and and I'm looking forward to Gradual process this happens happen overnight, of course, but we're gonna put the wheels in motion so we can get there a Lot of other supports around ELL staffing middle schools. We have some challenges there Looking at professional development for our para educators. It's something that they've asked for they want to be included And we think they should be and so we have to find time and resources in order to support them to to be included So We've got about five minutes I want to make sure you get to the punch line. I'll get the punch line Well, let me just say that I showed you the slide previously around the reductions to central office. Yes, and this year We've actually Done it again done it again About close to about four and fifty forty thousand dollars Okay, we've been able to reduce to put into the pop because our central office had the things that we're going after and really important And they're willing to try to find ways to work differently in order to support our students So kudos to our staff because you know partly because they did it because I asked them to But you know a lot of them really believe in what we're doing Let me slide forward to the tax impact because that's I know what people would want to be voting on, right? Let me find a good slide for you Don't forget we love your calls. Do you have a couple of minutes eight six two three nine six six Here we are. These are the variables that impact our taxes, right? So we have an education spending Right. So this is the education part that I talked about like there's two that the eighty four million But then there's a sixty one million But we're our budget is actually increasing less than 1% so that's really marginal and now equalize people Which is in the calculations is declining as I said, we're declining but not significantly So and then our homestead dollar rate that's the that's the yield that we get for each dollar that's spent Which is also declining. So all these numbers are working against us But the one that's really hitting us hard right now is our CLA which the common level appraisal, which is 79.2 when it's under 80 The city must kind of do a review and they've started to do that barely under it. Oh, we are under it Yeah, yeah, so they're doing a review, but I'll tell you I think Bronson's like 95 Yeah, and the new skis like 93 so they are the difference between it's been a long time since we've done that, right? Yeah, so that's a factor for us as well, too so if I think I can get to the Tax impact. Whoops. Sorry. So you can go on to the site. You can see we have an average home here What would that what that what would that mean? Yeah, that's people like those numbers. Can you just give us that one? Actually, sure. Yeah, let's do that one. I always do that That's one of my one of my things. So here it is. Here's the tax impact. Okay, so This is the tooth on a 250 homestead. Okay, and that's that's assessed value from the city. Yep, right So the difference Yeah, so it would be three hundred fifty eight dollars and if you're doing income Sensitivity it comes to about twenty four dollars. Oh, okay. Okay, so that's right depending on the income Yep, okay, all right. You can see that I'll go back to one slide because I think that's where it has some more of the tax So here are the numbers You can see the total budget the education spending and the spending we're actually going to be doing and the property tax impact is Seven seven point nine which is which is high considering it's only less than one percent But that's because of the variable numbers that I did I don't because of the the cum level appraisal We kind of got hit on that if we had the same we did the same increase we had the same numbers We had last year. Yeah, we would actually be looking at a tax decrease So that's what happens and So those numbers change the numbers will even change from now until June Wow, so even after people vote on the Yeah, if you look at the The trends from years past you've seen that some of the numbers have changed afterwards So people vote on one number and it's so that's one of the things that frustrates me around the Process we have in Vermont. It's like we start our budget in October, right? You vote on in March, but really by June is what you see what really happens Three-quarters of a year. Yeah, it's kind of awkward. Yeah, this is it But then people pay something different sometimes it could be less sometimes could be a little more hopefully this year It will be more especially with the CLA that changes a bit That's going to be less for taxpayers and we'll still be able to get the investments that we need That's a quick snapshot. I know I skipped through a lot But hopefully it gives people Analysis of how we've tried to balance our needs with taxpayers needs as well too and still supporting our students Wow, well, thank you. That was that was a lot of information But I guess I you know, this is kind of the takeaway at this point anyway What you're looking at in terms of and how it'll affect an individual homeowner And and really a big difference between those who pay help me out with the right words Who pay the full amount versus the income sense income sensitivity amount? I'm not sure if that's the right way to say it, but that's pretty dramatic I didn't realize it'd be that much of a difference. So that's a yeah, that's good I mean from 358 to 24 dollars. That's that's an annual number, too I was like trying to remind folks of that Sometimes people don't realize we pay them in quarters or something So and I think the some of the proposals out there around the state level is to look at Restructuring that in some way. Okay, so we'll see what happens. There's lots of conversations and lots of dialogue around What needs to happen, but at the same time, hope they come up with something that actually puts money into education just Right, there's there is sort of talk of moving the pie around a little bit I hope it's yeah, because I might just you might end up paying the same but in different ways Right well, which is a lot of what taxes do is sometimes I think but so the other day, you know We have to invest in education at some point So we're just gonna find the best way to do it Yeah, and it's also interesting because Burlington is sort of an outlier as opposed to many of the other communities and statewide at least and Burlington County probably So sometimes things affect us differently as you showed us then it does another and that's that's something that Happens along with that when they're mixing up that that's right that pot right and it's nothing wrong being different just in these can cases You don't want you wish you're gonna be different on the high side Yeah, absolutely well, thank you again y'all obeying superintendent of Burlington schools Thanks so much for coming out and remember the information is available on the website and All the budget information and where to vote and all those things are all available on and on town meeting Tuesday, March 6th, don't forget to vote you don't have to vote that day as I'm constantly reminded you can go down to City Hall and vote any Time with early voting, so we hope you'll take advantage of that and stay tuned to channel 17 for more town meeting coverage Thank you and good night