Have we gotten a breakdown from the state on anything? No. >> I h I have a slide on it. Great news. All right. So, we are live now. >> Wonderful. >> We are live. So, if you'd like to >> I say welcome to the uh November 13th, 2025 finance meeting. If we could do roll call. >> Present. present. >> All right. Thank you. It's all yours, sir. >> All right. Um, so we will uh we will uh jump to the uh to the the agenda. Um I'm looking for approval of the agenda for today. >> Move. >> Second. >> Thank you. Um, and since we didn't have a quorum last uh month, we're looking to approve the September 11th uh committee meeting minutes. >> I will make that motion. >> Second. >> All right. Done. And I I'm assuming since we didn't have a quorum, we can approve >> I don't believe so. Meetings. Yeah, we have them in there. >> Strictlyformational forformational. I tried to identify it as such. Yes. >> Okay. Um, so it was uh it was great to wake up to yesterday's newspaper and see that that a budget was moving forward. I heard today that the the federal government uh question you went uh budget was approved last night and so uh as of uh as of the 13th November we are we are back open and doing business. Um, so I I inserted uh into the agenda uh a couple of updates relative to this. Uh we have a meeting at the IU tomorrow uh in which the executive director of Pasbo is going to be there and I'm hopeful that uh as this as the information gets out we'll get a better understanding and we'll look to include that in next week's update uh how it is impacting the district. >> Okay. Um, >> all right. You might want to add that as part of the superintendent's update as well for the general meeting on the whatever it is 25th. >> Yeah, that's a good good point. We'll do that. Give the summary. Uh, this is what is was included in the in the budget. uh $105 million increase to basic ed, $40 million increase to special education. Um the ready tolearn uh money seems to be what what it was in the earlier discussions. It's all really going to the adequacy. Uh there seems to be some additional money to the block grants. Our block grants 375 374,000. It's the same typically year-over-year. Um but it's good to see that in there. There's a couple other spots um for mental health uh for facilities. Um there was a little work done that the we also received cyber transition last year was about $100,000 um uh for us. Uh that was excluded this year. Uh although they did um down in the details they did begin to make some changes to uh to how uh how to account for and how to charge um charter schools and they've removed the number of expenses which should be good for us, right? It'll reduce our overall charter uh per student cost. >> So the amount of eight or 10,000 is is not even in the budget. >> Pardon me. >> The eight or 10,000 proposal that was >> No, no, >> it's not there. Right. No. So that that that that that seemed to go quickly, right? I thought there was for the first time uh there was sort of a unilateral uh buyin. Uh I forget the Republicans name that produced a report that talked about it. So I really thought we had a shot at it this year. Uh but there is no no utopia. Um and so they did make some minor changes uh to uh how charter schools operate and what they can do. uh and we'll we'll get more details on that, but they did change the the math for the uh charter enrollment fees that we pay. Um so that will get reconciled and we'll push those all the way through. with the um facilities improvement that's not bringing back plan con or anything that's just the additional right >> I do know that I mean we have been talking about it for over a decade about solar in schools >> and I do believe that when we built the schools that the infrastructure on the roofs were set up for some type of a solar to handle the weight of solar right so it is something that we might want to look at >> do you know if competitive metering was added to the solar as part of this budget or is it still single? >> I don't know. Okay. I I can certainly look into that >> because I I knew that it was kind of a monopoly by the exchange as to how much they paid for solar. There was no competitiveness to it like in Ohio or Virginia or whatever have you. >> So, okay. >> I know Jim has been looking into that, right? Uh looking to make sure the roofs are in good shape to put solar on top. uh we've discussed trying to put it on the ground uh in some locations, but we'll continue to to go through that process. >> Okay. >> Okay. So, while it's not a it's not a lot of information, it seems just based on the numbers that our numbers, you know, I'm hopeful that they hold uh their own uh but if you're adding, you know, $ 105 million to 500 school districts, um it will get whittleled away pretty quickly. Um, so but those are the numbers and as I said we have a a breakfast meeting tomorrow morning uh and we should uh we should learn more. Okay, >> great. >> Did we use any of these numbers at all when we did the budget back in when we did our >> we were flat we were flat on on each one of those. >> So we were not looking at any of that extra money. >> We were not. >> So anything we received >> should be gravy. >> We we are on the side of caution. Okay. Uh so for our financial update uh for uh revenue through um through October 31st, we've collected $93,255,000. Uh you know, the large piece of that is all local revenue. Um and the majority of that is all related to our tax collections. Also included it in that is EIT revenue that we will have picked up. Interest revenue is also a part of that $89,000. The state revenue that is shown is the homestead rebate uh that we received and uh some small federal dollars are coming through uh due to uh due to uh our our smaller grants. Okay. o uh through uh through those through October 31st we have 38,117,000 in expenses for a net change of positive $55 million. Um October is a odd month when we compare one month to another month. Uh this October was the three payroll October. Uh so when we compared it to uh last October, we saw a jump in expenses uh and certainly identified it as such. Other than that, the only differences were in timing uh payments made to MBIT, payments made to uh the intermediate unit accordingly. This just shows the detail of the revenue and you can see uh highlighted the the absence of state funding and other pieces that make that up. So you can see the taxes and the it the investment earnings. >> Are we starting to see a decrease in the uh liquid asset fund rates? Uh, a little bit. Yes, a little bit. Um, it seems to be slowing down. Um, but that's, you know, that's more recent uh than than long term, right? We were we were holding in uh in that low four, three and a half range for, you know, most of the first several months. I mean, this despite the fact that the state has not given us money that we'd be investing, we're still kind of like right on target for what was budgeted. So, >> Yep. >> hopefully once we get that revenue in, we'll have a little bump. >> Yep. Agreed. Agreed. >> Okay. Uh and then the details of our uh the $38 million in expenses as shown here uh by function code wasn't anything that really jumped out. Most of it seemed in line and and trending as we would have expected it to. >> How are we with um expected substitute expenditures versus actual at this point? Uh the substitutes are are running pretty close to the line. I'd like to have seen a little more space in there, >> but they seem to be tracking. We carried a number similar to last year's a million dollars. >> Uh and and they're sort of trending towards that. >> Okay. >> We're on budget. >> Consistent. >> Okay. >> Okay. This slide just shows the absence of the of the state. uh sort of put those together before I knew for sure it was signed. Uh uh and as you can see, you know, the shortfall really through October, you know, it was $10 million in the back of my head, but but that was really focusing on what we were losing, what we weren't getting revenue-wise for FY25, but it was important to see uh that we also didn't get our FY25 Paser subsidy payment, which is, you know, almost three and a half million dollars. So, we anticipate those that money rolling in uh and uh and then moving forward. Uh the budget discussion slides. Um Dr. Luca and Mr. Hartland and I have met several times um over the past uh four weeks uh to begin working through the budget, working through the questions uh and planning towards that December meeting uh which we were asked to develop an outline uh to to get ourselves balanced uh in the next three years. That may be a tall order. Uh we'll have to see how we can work through that. Uh but as we go through these details um we'll have you can you know stop me and we can ask some questions as we go along. The act one is three and a half% uh a single percentage worth percent is worth about $900,000 just over $900,000 to the district. Uh and the other news is the support as we know uh the support staff agreement ends um on uh June 30th. So, we'll need to be working on that as well. We attended a negotiations meeting uh myself, Dr. Luke, and some members of the HR team at DIU that proved, you know, some helpful insight into that. Um, but is that already set or is this still a moving target? >> 35 is set. That's set. Get set September 30th. >> Okay. Uh this slide just shows sort of our history and where we've been. Um and as we've talked about in last year's budget uh discussions, right? It projects the IFO is projecting a declining um act one number. Uh so at at three and a half, that's just that's worth just over $3 million, $3.1 million to the district. That number will continue to decrease. This just quickly is is where we uh ended. I shared this in the in the weekly update uh some weeks ago after misrepresenting it in in the board meeting. So my apologies again. Uh the 47 was the corrected number uh 4.7 after we reduced uh the uh the increase from 4% to 3.75%. uh that added another roughly $250,000 uh to the deficit and and shows where we are going out. So this hasn't changed. There's nothing been new to that uh just as a as a base point for the discussions. Um this slide just looks at uh the expenditures by subfunction uh instructions support uh non non-instructional capital debt service on the left and then sort of by object code salaries benefits purchases supplies and you can see the you know the overwhelming majority of our expenses 70% of them are tied to salaries and benefits right two two expense categories that we're going to be looking to manage. Um, you know, supplies is there's there are certainly supplies that's $5 million, right? Um, some of the purchases included in there are are uh MBIT is the IU charges. So, there's a lot of work that we need to do. I think this just shows you where the where the money's going today. Any questions? What have we gotten a first look yet for health insurance? >> Uh we expect a first look in in early to mid January, right? We worked with them over the past couple of years to to uh speed up their looks. We used to get a first look in in March. Uh and we said, you know, that may work if you're if you're a county or a municipality, but it certainly doesn't work for us school districts. >> I know my first look was ugly. So, um, yeah, we heard, you know, Rebecca, who oversees the IU's consortium, um, she threw out a number of 10% uh on Monday when we were there. Um, you know, I'm hopeful we're not there. Uh, we continue to see growth in uh prescription costs uh to the same tune. I think we talked about that several weeks ago. Uh, really to the same tune that we have been, right? We're seeing modest uh declines, but not what we were hoping for. We've seen increases in individual co-pays uh but no no relentance on the uh on the funding. >> How much have we seen in terms of change from these various different plans that now be with that new plan in place? >> I I think we I think we we certainly see savings from them, right? I think we certainly see savings from them and I think that's something again that we need to evaluate uh as part of uh as part of the the support staff contract as part of our budget planning uh looking at at sort of tightening that up right we've added different tiers of plans um and we've got to try to figure out how best to to manage that you know that's always always a question we have certainly increased the number of lives number number people who we provide benefits to u over the course of time. Um so you know I think those are positive things. Uh I think those are things that we need to be sort of cognizant and aware about when we get into the ultimately get into those discussions. We've had a fairly steady increases over the past several years. We've increased benefits to people that kind of can fall under the radar and and uh and be missed. Um so it will be interesting discussions uh for sure. >> Have we or is it too soon to put out a feeler as to um the number of retirements we're anticipating >> on the professional >> side? >> Uh it is it is I mean we typically uh those discussions are late January early February. >> Um and and I think as we've talked about um and and is one of our bullet points uh in a upcoming slide, right? Trying to find that opportunity to to create benefit for both. Um you know, I think we moved that number last year. Uh I think when we did that, we added, you know, two or three teachers to the pool of retirees and uh and that, you know, is paid for before October, right? Well, we do have a sizable group that could potentially retire. >> We do. We do. We do. We have, you know, as as has been shared, right? The majority of the CEA group on the grid is the bottom right hand corner, right? So, they are well tenured and and we benefit from that. >> Um, you know, to some extent, I think as Dr. pointed out a month or so ago in in a different discussion, right? It's also worrisome, right? Is if you had such an exodus, it would be it would be uh it would be difficult uh you know despite uh the benefits of of teaching here in at Centennial. If you ever had a mass exodus, that would you know because everyone retires together that would be a challenge. So I think it would serve us collectively if we can find a way to tease that out a little bit uh and and get some movement into the the top left. >> So yeah, certainly in the next five to seven years >> I mean it's we had a 30 years ago we had a a hiring boom. >> So you know it's just cycling through. >> Okay. Uh this slide just shows some some thoughts that we had been uh we've been working through. First, we sort of had the a goal of fis fiscal responsibility through this comprehensive examination of expenses um and really a focus uh that advances high quality student outcomes. Right? our compass uh as part of our uh our planning uh comprehensive planning uh they've they've come up with this comp compass and and sort of the north star of that being students students and student achievement um I think we want to make sure that we maintain that compass and maintain that focus uh as we have been uh but on on students and uh student outcomes uh some of the ideas that we have uh discussed uh is a review of the high school schedule. Uh a review of outofd district placements uh we place we have uh two classrooms that are run by the IU at Davis and staffed by the IU. Um if there's a way to be able to bring some of those things back inhouse uh elementary school staffing and and how we go about adding adding teachers to that um grants. We continue to look for and apply for grants. Um different opportunities around advertising, um around stadium advertising, our gymnasiums, uh advertising, um or is are in there. Uh planetarium, the planetarium, we've talked about that. I don't think there's a landslide of cash coming in from that, but it is good to see the planetarium is back up uh and uh and beginning to run. We're going to be utilizing that this year uh for the school year for our own students uh as they connect uh sort of the wit and wisdom programming uh to real life uh stargazing inside of the planetarium. >> Just for for everybody's information, we did, you know, promote the idea of creating a new course for the high school students yesterday. >> Okay. Um All right. Uh we have retirement uh looking at retirement incentives as as I mentioned uh sub expense and overtime reduction are all areas that we've been uh you know sort of putting out on the table and trying to figure out ways that we can use each one of those uh and evaluate that impact to the budget and to that budget over that threeyear window of time. Good. uh sort of on the challenges side and you know I think it's it's it's it's a tall it will be a tall order uh to go as we go through this. Uh so that the challenges lie ahead of us. Um this slide just shows sort of our contractual commitments uh over those three-year period of time, right? If just based on not including benefits, but just based on the the CA contract, the support staff contract um or the act yeah the support staff as well as the act 93. And for the support staff, I'm just plugging in the same percentages that the act 93 folks received. um shows you just over $3 million in uh increased compensation costs uh including uh that includes not just salaries but includes payroll tax uh and pasers uh albeit at 50% of that cost. So it's a a true $3 million uh that we're looking at there. Um and then you can kind of see as those years move through that planning window. Um it drops in 2829 for CA is I returned uh just hypothetically return the amount of money applied to their uh salary grid back to back one full percent. So instead of the 225 that is there now would be 125. But again it's just for planning and and discussion purposes. Without that, you know, it would it would sort of be similar to the prior two years. Okay. um challenges certainly within special education and and of out of district placements um is is for real. Our our special ed costs continue to escalate year-over-year. Um I think we are trending positively as we did last year. uh last year as you guys will recall and I think it came out of the finance committee to really just begin to to track numbers of students uh that we have in various outplacements uh whether that is at the IU or certified addition other school. Um so we are we are tracking that we are under that number by about 20 I think right now uh which is good. I think last year we were even a little bit higher and that generated certainly at the IU a significant refund >> at this time is you know the numbers number being less 20 less is that due to graduation or is it >> due to anybody coming back >> it's due it's just sort of the planning right the reality of what one has planned for and and what we experienced right so uh we anticipate uh as as we all do forward and trying to understand those expenses as we do evaluations of incoming students. Uh that becomes a part of that. Uh and um and so you know again I think we're just we're behind we we added some students just because we don't know right I mean it's never a science right when a student shows up at the door and they need special services we can't we can't opt out right we can't send them down the street. But I I think so those are some of the are what drive those numbers. Um the act one rate uh sort of continues to frighten me a little bit uh and the decline to the act one rate. Um and our ability to hit the act one rate or plan to go above the act one rate in in some sort of a a special ed exemption. uh we certainly qualify for it. Whether or not uh it goes away, whether or not we would have the stomach for that uh would be a question uh for the board. Um that was one thing they they talked about eliminating uh early, you know, about a month ago in the budget. They were going to eliminate all exemptions. Uh and uh and I I think having not seen all of the details or read through it all, I think that stayed in. So I think we still have that opportunity should uh should the board look at that. Uh but those are sort of realer numbers, right? And I think our challenge is every year that we show the forecast out. Uh what we've included is going to the act one. Uh and I don't think that's a new practice for Centennial. I think you know as I went back before I arrived that was sort of the the focus, right? This is what we're going to plan for. So if we hit that number, this is where we end up. When we below it, uh then we've got to deal with that that that impact. >> So this is Southampton question with the new construction that's going on at the old >> Bethama home. How many units are going in there? >> Uh 132, but they are all uh 55 and over. So there should be new students coming, >> right? But so we >> that's a little bit more money but are they working hard on that place? >> Yes. So I say is there any anticip? >> Yeah. >> Is there any anticipation as to when the first move in might be for that? >> That I do not know but I know they are setting the expecting the cost to be about 700 something you know a unit. >> Okay. Oh, we could see an unexpected bump between real estate transfer and tax revenue from those units. >> No, absolutely. >> That may, you know, that is something that definitely >> opportunity, >> but I would say they're at least a year out. >> I say I know that they're moving on them, but that's what I'm wondering whether or not, you know, we'll start seeing them come online next fiscal year, >> right? I mean, that's a big community. I know my own community, we have a number of over 55 developments, right? That uh from a township and municipality, we don't they don't have students. >> Uh and and we don't uh the township doesn't dedicate the streets. So uh whereas most of the township services like trash pickup are paid for people in those developments, it is not. Okay. Uh we also look at uh the declining interest rates sort of investment income. Uh we had benefited benefited greatly uh over the past three or four years relative to uh the change in in those interest rates. Um you know uh four years ago the district's earnings was $70,000 right? A year later it was $2 million. Right? So they produced significant uh positive variances. Right. And you know, as as a planner, as we went through our budgeting process, we were able to put that push that money aside and and transfer it to our debt service fund and and be able to save it for a rainy day. Um, we're not expecting that to continue, right? We expect the interest rates to continue to be pushed down. Um, it's just a matter of timing and how far down they will go uh over this window. Um, >> we still earning less this year due to already tapping into some of the money that we had. >> Um, I think as Mr. Hartline asked, right? I think in in the first couple of months, we haven't seen a significant change, but we anticipate uh rates our rates to be going down. We've tried to push as much money in as we could uh to maximize uh you know in reality we almost have 100% of our funds invested in one way shape or form. Uh we sort of maintain a zero balance account for our uh expenses and money is sort of moved in and out of those uh in and out of those funds. We have a longer term plan setup, but we're we're getting interest above standard interest uh in all of our accounts working with PISB. So, they've been a good partner to us um as we've gone through that. Uh and I and I think, you know, last year to this year, I think we we experienced probably close to a million dollar difference from two years ago to FY25 that we're closing out now. uh and we forecasted it drop uh as well. I think the long term we were looking at, you know, between 250 and half a million dollars each year uh less than the preceding year >> with not receiving state funds that expediates the drop as well. >> Sure. Sure. Sort of on that delta $12 million, right? >> Right. Exactly. Exactly. you know, in all of those areas. I'm wondering where as if I can start withholding my income tax. Can I do that because, you know, I can't get to the airport now or whatever it is. Uh, a little crazy, but it's all behind us. So, we'll we'll look forward and smile. Uh, sort of inflationary pressures, I think, is is always a concern. Certainly, first and foremost in that are health care costs. And, uh, you know, we've been reaching out and working uh with Steve Fallon uh to to look at our plans, to assess our plans, and and how to keep them in place and how to maximize them uh for for our uh employees as well as for the district. Okay. And and last but never least, you know, the cost of special education, there's nothing new there. Uh costs for special education across across the Commonwealth and across the country have escalated and and good uh good things like DEA that had a lot of promise to it uh never never really fulfilled fulfilled its goal. Um you know the the couple million dollars that you get $3 million you get uh in special education funding again doesn't doesn't meet the need. Uh the number of students who are being identified is is skyrocketing as are the costs for those people who provide those services uh psychologists and the like. Any questions? >> Uh last and this is simply for uh for pictorial as we tried to frame how we want to try to get at uh and be able to present in December. Uh we had versions of this we look at uh as as the the plans or the things that we're targeting how they when they start and the savings they would produce sort of up top and then below uh the savings each year and then the the the deficit as it trails off. Those are sort of all the things that are going on here. Um at our last meeting we talked about color coding the bars. Uh so this is sort of the yellow having like a yellow period if you will is in the planning because a lot of these things will take uh considerable time to plan um and then a point of when we start hitting the savings right so we will look to uh to incorporate that uh into our planning but we are trying to uh trying to put together how how do we get all of this information into into a single deck uh and looking at this as as a possibility uh to do that right again just identifying those areas uh and then savings associated with it. Uh next steps uh I have a meeting uh scheduled with uh with the high school to begin reviewing just schedules um and just trying to understand uh what that's what's that worth and how we can go about thinking through those uh answers and those questions. um as well as uh working with our special ed team uh around the costs and and what we have going on there. A couple of ideas were thrown out. You know, IEP uh the comparison to neighboring districts as a percent of total enrollment I think is a very insightful uh dynamic, right? Uh so there's a number of those things that we will be certainly working on. Okay. Any other questions with regard to to the budget or to our planning? I think we've sort of jumped ahead a little further than we've done in the past. So, uh we're off and running around that. Uh theformational items we have are included are the the monthly November PISLAF report. They also had a a twice a year. They sort of give a market outlook. Uh so that's the second document that will be included and is included in board docs uh for the wintertime and it it shows us a number of factors a number of very interesting things that we should be taking into account uh as we make our own plans. So that was uh that proved useful. Uh and the only item up for approval is the budget timeline looking for adoption of that. last meeting we shared sort of the PDF version of that uh and we've typically come back and included a a more uh tailored uh centennial calendar. Right. So, I've tried to use uh scheduled board dates to to track when we'd have to have something approved at that meeting in order to sort of make sure the cards and and the dominoes all fall in place. Um just because it's jumping out at you. Yellow, right? Those yellow items are tasks that are needed should we look to uh exceed the act one, right? So, uh that date of January 27th um is is when that decision would be made at the January 2017. We either come back with a preliminary budget that we want to move forward um or uh we look at the uh the opt out resolution. Right? If we went the opt out route which says the district will not exceed uh the 3.5% act one and everything in yellow sort of goes away uh and and we return to a a little more condensed schedule. Um we are will be looking at and and I hadn't had the opportunity to talk with Dr. Luca. We have historically had uh one or two budget work sessions uh that is an extra meeting to the uh to the calendar and one that is just focused on the budget and budget discussion. So, uh, those are two lines in the middle there, uh, that if if we believe those were valuable and insightful or at all helpful, I I think they are. I think we've got a lot of things to be working through. So, u, I'm hopeful that we find a date to uh to be able to put those in. Uh and and just for uh you know fingers crossed this shows a a final budget at our June 9th board meeting. U and so the schedule is sort of tailored to that whether it's notices to uh to the public or steps that we need to do. Uh this is showing a June 9th fun final budget meeting final budget approved at our June 9th uh board meeting. Any questions relative to the schedule? >> I guess the the only real question is, you know, if we're not approving it on June 9th, there would be potentially one or two more meetings. >> Yep. We certainly have one more on the calendar. So June 9th, uh, as as we did last year, right, that was the first of the board tries at it. There's certainly a scheduled meeting following that >> already that we have on the calendar. So I I try to bring it up making sure for the first part that we really get some of the things that are sort of good housekeeping. We need to we need to publicize we need to advertise uh those things all come in with dates. So uh you know we got to back up from 20 days before that November or June 9th 20 days into May to make sure that we are have it publicly accessible. We need to be able to go through those steps if you will uh to get there. >> Okay. >> Motion to move that forward. >> Moving that forward. Second. >> All right. Uh and I think that is it. >> Have no meeting next month. >> Agenda. We have no meeting in December. Our next meeting is January 15th, >> right? >> 2026. Now there was some discussions about having a meeting in December. You know whether we talked about two months ago or is that going to be for the whole board? >> Uh we have another board we have the we have the organization meeting on the first. >> Yeah. But we were talking about creating a meeting to talk long range planning that we postponed >> that was going to be brought up at a board meeting. Well, that has to be brought up. >> That's that's part of what we were discussing. That would be brought up at a board meeting. >> The plan for the the three five year. >> No. Well, no, it's it's in the plans for December, but not right. But that's Yeah, the actual date it would be at a board meeting that it would be brought up. I believe the motion was originally supposed to be in October. Mr. Martin wanted to move it to December, so we did it at a December meeting, but it would be a part of the board meeting. >> That's the the budget discussion. Is that what you're referring to? Yes, that is that is set and we're moving towards that second meeting in uh in December which comes up uh pretty quickly. >> So we have about a month away >> about six weeks >> as as we look at it. Right. And it's at that meeting that I think we're going to try to put some numbers behind uh the pictures that you saw uh today and how we can get to where we need to be. >> Yep. All right. >> Okay. >> All right. Motion to adjurnn. >> Second. All righty. Thank you all very much. I say have a good holidays >> and we'll see you in January. Not sure if