SVVSD Board Meeting 5-27-2020

https://otter.ai/s/40J_fajMTS2DeXyQoZfUmA

0:01
Karen How was the meeting from?

0:05
WebEx It was great. It was fine.

0:12
They warned me

0:15
I do that so much. Yeah sure.

1:24
On your walking interview was

1:38
there’s a lot more

1:51
thank you for doing that.

2:12
I had the fun. The doctor

2:15
did a really nice job.

2:41
BB Can you hear us? Okay?

2:45
can hear you. Okay, how are you? I’m good. It’s nice to have you back at the meeting. So welcome. Welcome back far back.

2:54
Yeah, you’re in the HR conference room. I recognize that clock. Yeah, Mm hmm.

3:00
Lots of policies were reviewed here, weren’t they? Mm hmm.

3:03
They were Yes, they were. So see, we need to mention who’s participating electronically or just do the meeting as usual. And those people chime in when it’s time. We can let them chime in when it’s time. Okay, perfect. Sounds good. Thank you. Well, we’ll get started here as soon as Tim gives us the signal that I waited for at 530

3:26
that I didn’t need to wait for.

3:55
All right, everybody. Good.

3:59
Good evening. And welcome to the st. Green Valley School District Board of Education meeting. If you could please stand and join us in saying the Pledge of Allegiance.

4:10
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

4:28
Thanks, everyone. Are there any addendums or changes to the agenda this evening? Or not? Thank you. And if I’m correct, Barb, there was no audience participation submitted through our online link. All right, we don’t have any visitors this evening. What I would like to propose if the board is in agreement is our next agenda item is number five, which is the superintendence report. I’d like to ask Don to go ahead and do his Report, and then also do the COVID. update and then we’ll roll into the remainder of the reports. Is that okay with everyone?

5:07
Good. We’ll need to take roll.

5:10
We need to take roll.

5:13
I’m losing. I’m not used to you being here either. And so I told myself Don’t ask Karen to take roll but then I completely forgot to ask you to take roll. All right, why don’t you take roll BB, and then we’ll do the superintendent’s update and the cobit update. Okay, thank you. All right. Haha, john Aaron’s absent

5:34
Mr. Burkle here.

5:36
Mr. Garcia here.

5:39
Dr. martyr here as peers

5:44
here.

5:46
Mrs. Raglan here. And Miss siegrist here. Thanks, Bob. keeping me on track. All right. Okay, we took a detour, Don. But now we’re finally out the superintendence report.

6:00
Okay, I’m going to just take this offer so I can be heard. Okay, I’ll give you an update first from our weekly meetings with the Boulder County Health Department Task Force. They reported a total of 919 total Coronavirus cases in Boulder County. Total of 159 individuals hospitalized many of the individuals were from long term care facilities. And then they’re seeing a downward trend. The number of currently hospitalized individuals is 15, one five. And the number of cases on a five day average is down to 8.2, which is the lowest since March 25. And they’ve had one fatality in the last week from a long term care facility. And they’re seeing about 5% of all of the tests returned are positive which is lower than their Goal of seeing 10%. So overall, they were indicating a pretty good downward trend. And we’ll hope that that continues in Boulder County. The planning process that we’re using for the this thing, coming into June, we’re going to be sending out three letters. One will go out the first week of June, and it will come from the principal, the area system superintendent, and our deputy superintendent and then the superintendent. And it will first thank everybody for the great work that they’ve done in closing out the school year. And then it will also have some of the reopening information in the fall will will let them know that there’s a second communication that’ll be coming out in June 13 or 14th. And I’ll share that with you. It’s related to a business and corporate partnership publication that’s pretty extensive and pretty elaborate. So we’ve gotten a lot of support over the Including during this Coronavirus time. So we were going to recognize our business and corporate sector. And everyone will get that we printed about 2000 copies, and then we’ll send those out individually to businesses and corporations. And then we’ll send out about 40,000 communications through our email blast to our entire community, then they will be notified that on the last during the last week of June, they will get an extensive letter from me that outlines how we will reopen the school district in the fall. And that is going to be connected to with links, that they can connect to the specific areas that they are most interested in so that they don’t have to worry about this long, enormous document, some of which applies to them and some of which may not. But I’ll go through a little bit of what that will entail, and then give you an idea of how extensive the information will be.

8:58
We’ll start with an introduction thanking them for everything will reiterate that we are working with local and state health departments in the governor’s office. We’ve tried to make it clear to people that we are following directives and mandates. And I think sometimes people still confuse the issue as to what we as a school district have authority to decide. And so just we got to continue to tell people that we do not have the authority to override the governor’s orders, regardless of what we think, yes, no. indifferent, we have to follow their orders. And I think sometimes some of the communications from different entities confuse that issue, for example, chassis that came out recently and said, they’re not going to restrict anything after June 1. It’s it’s left up to the districts. But the other part of that is it’s left up to the districts after the orders are relaxed, not prior to the orders being relaxed. And so a lot of community members felt like okay, now we can go, but that’s not the case. And so we just have to keep communicating that piece. We’re also letting Now that we’ve had taskforce planning teams in operation since April, and they include teachers and they include principals and they include central office staff, and that these folks are putting together the nuts and bolts of what the reopening will look like. We identified the options that we would be looking at based on the county and state and health departments in the governor’s office, you know, maybe a full time return depending on what they say, with social distancing and precautions, maybe no return at all, except for online depending on if the Coronavirus spikes in July or August and then I in the middle there a combination, a blended model where they would be in school half the time in person and then they would be at home half the time. And the reason for that would be simply the capacity to bring all the kids in would not most likely be approved by county and state health departments. But those are the three most viable. And then we also will have some online options for people who with extenuating circumstances or exacerbated health issues, or things along those lines. And I’ll talk a little bit about that piece as well with our vert Florida Virtual and RS FOCA programs.

11:26
We will also provide guidance on

11:32
what these schedules would look like. So there’d be a link for elementary school students a link for middle school students and a link for high school students. They could see what the models look like. And then their principals would notify them specific to their student, whether they land on an a day or a B day. And those would be we’d have a days and B days and things along those lines if we went to that blended model, so that will be part of my letter. There will also be Information about attendance and grading policies. And we will let them know what that will look like and it will be as close to the norm as possible. We will also provide information around transportation procedures. We will list the health and safety precautions that we are taking, meaning temperature checks, sanitizing, hand washing, social distancing masks, stay at home when sick and those kinds of things. We will also be creating a video for all of our teachers and staff to observe online and document that they’ve observed it that they support it and that they commit to it hearing to it and understand that we will be providing information and all of these are separate links. Now that particular video will just go to the teachers and the classified staff that will not go to parents, the special needs and E Ll students. They will have a link. Career Development Center and Innovation Center students and procedures will have a link athletics and activities will have a link field trips overnight. Stay policies, volunteer policies for parents. We will have some information on the state’s funding cuts to public education. A supportive statement around the strength of our partnership will in large part determine the quality of our children’s experience. And then statement that we will continue to monitor the Coronavirus throughout as it spikes or doesn’t spike. And there may be changes in what we start out with because some schools and people are predicting that it will come back and you’ll have to go to an all online some are saying we may not see it. So all of that but either way we’ll be ready to move to whatever we need to move to or whatever we have the opportunity to move to or move towards relatively quickly. So those are the three communications that will be coming out in June. I have stayed in close contact as recently as today again with Steve Villareal and I’ve shared with him all of The things that we have been talking about. And he and I are on the same page, and very supportive of the process and making sure that a lot of people are involved. I think the, you know, the reality, much of this burden has fallen on Learning Services and on operations and maintenance, everybody is taking, you know, quite a bit of responsibility. Obviously, the finances are going to be critical. We have all of the building and facility preparation with Brian and his team, all of the curriculum and the instruction and the teaching and all of that with Jackie and Learning Services. And you know, you really just see, all the pieces of the puzzle come together, and you begin to look at all the nuances. So what would it look like if you were transporting kids on a bus and social distancing? What’s it going to look like when you’re eating lunch? What’s it going to look like in the classroom, you know, What are all of these things and that’s what this team has been working on. Now, I do want to say this. And again, I’ve shared this philosophy with Steve and with others.

15:10
Some, you know, some districts are choosing to survey people to see what they want. I’m reluctant to do that, because it implies that we have the authority to do something different than what the governor’s office is directing us to do. And what we are identifying is all of the viable options that will be within our capacity to deliver and our first preference is full online or full in person instruction. That is our hope that is our preference. That’s what we are striving for. And if there’s a time as soon as that time comes, that’s what we will be pursuing. In the meantime, if conditions are such that we can’t come in person at all, that will not be a decision that we make, that will be a decision that the state makes. And if it’s somewhere in between, based on the limited number of Students that you can have in a building, it will be a blended model. And so what I don’t want to do is put out surveys get, you know, 33,000 different opinions, knowing that we are restricted to the opportunities and the options that are being presented to us by the health department. And we are definitely committed to the best interest of our children and our teachers and our staff and our community. The other thing I would say is we do have a lot of conversations with people. We have anecdotal conversations, we ask for feedback, we pay attention to what the colleges and the universities are doing, we pay attention to what the health departments are. So we are gathering feedback. It’s just important, I think, at this point, to be transparent. And that’s what our that’s what our letters will indicate, well, we’ll share with people in terms of what we’re, we’re planning to do, but, but when people say, you know, what are you thinking about? Well, my hope is that we at some point, sooner than later we’ll be able to come back full time in person, maybe having to implement some social distancing practices for a while. But that’s what we’re hoping for. And in the absence of being able to do that, we’ll bring students back in in person as much as we are able to do. So that’s our kind of like our driving values around this kind of thing. So let me just stop there because I’ve got a few other things in this update. But you know, I don’t want to get too far down the road. I want to make sure that there’s nothing that I left out and told you about Florida Virtual the letters. Oh, I know. There was one other thing, Greg and I continue to meet and each of those departments that I talked about, we are looking at about $16.4 million in revenue coming in one time that would have to be spent by December from the cares act, from esa s er, which is the elementary and secondary schools Emergency Relief Fund for about 2.4 million. And then from the cares Act and the allowable expenses that will be able it will generate Probably between those two, about 16.4 million because we’ve allocated about 10% for charter schools, and so that will be the split that we’re looking at. And so what we’re doing is we’re keeping a spreadsheet that indicates here are the things that we are spending money on, that we’ll come from that $16.4 million that are allowed by this, these relief funds. And then we’re also looking at ways in which we might be able to reduce our expenditures with a stressor that any reduction of costs will not be felt in the classroom. So there are things that we can do, through capital reserve through some of these other refresh policies to generate additional savings if necessary. And the reason I say if necessary, is because we’re waiting now for the state’s budget to come through. And the state’s budget if it were to be a 5% cut Greg Craig, I think it’s like $13 million. And if it’s a 7.5% cut, it would be closer to $19 million. And if it’s a 10% cut, it would be closer to $27 million. And then if it were to be 12%, something along those lines, you could just kind of do the math, because it seems to be going up, you know, somewhere in that six to 7 million with each two and a half percent. So that’s what we don’t know yet. And I hear things from 25% to 10% 15%, minus the best funds. So it’s kind of all over the board. And that’s why

19:38
we’ve got a contingency plan over here, that if it’s higher than we’re anticipating, then we can move to making these strategic adjustments. I don’t want to call them cuts because they’re not cuts. They’re just adjustments. And they’re adjustments that are far enough away from the classroom that if we didn’t tell people we were doing it, they probably wouldn’t feel it. There. important, but we’re able to postpone them and pause them. So that’s kind of where we are there. We also have tracked, you know, our fund balance that would indicate, you know, what we have that we can fall back on, if necessary. And so those are all the kinds of things that we’re working on. And our goal is to make sure that everybody in our community would have about six to seven weeks to adjust and prepare for whatever plan is going to be in place. And we think that that’s enough time, given the fact that we’ve gone through this in the spring, and people have had a chance to revisit some of the options available to them. We’re also thinking about things like community schools, and what we’ll be able to do with our preschool programming and some of the guidelines that are pretty restrictive. So we may end up having to absorb some losses in our preschool program in order to do what we want to do in accordance with the guidelines. But we wouldn’t generate Money for to be at breakeven. But we think it’s important enough to keep educating and keep working with our kids at a young age. So those are some of the things that that we’re thinking about. I know that there are also a number of really critical programs like our P tech program at Skyline and at Frederick, and you’re gonna hear a little bit about that from Jackie in just a second, that are just flourishing. at a level that’s incredible. So we want to continue to support those types of programs. You know, all of our curricular programs, we want to support our class size programs, all of our safety programs, all of our technology programs. We want all of these things to remain not only intact, but to keep moving forward. Because we want to get to the other side, whenever you’re dealing with a crisis situation. You want to make sure that your adjustments or whatever it is that you do to respond doesn’t create a problem for you as the crisis passes. You can’t create a solution that leaves you with a problem. After the crisis, that’s why, you know, I think about what I’m hearing for eight weeks what I’m hearing thinking about, it really makes me somewhat sad and disappointed because those are going to be hard decisions to recover from. And that’s why we’re not entertaining those conversations. So that’s a little bit about, you know, the update with the Coronavirus. I want to switch. Did you guys have any questions about any of that?

22:27
Okay, I appreciate

22:28
it. And if you ever do, just please pick up the phone and call us. We’re always in communication. And, you know, again, we’ll keep you posted with any changes, p tech, I’m going to turn it over to Jackie and she will share some information with you. Also, she’s also going to share with you kind of a cool thing that she’s doing with with our seniors. And by the way, you know, I know that this has been a really hard year on our seniors from so many standpoints on all of our children. But you know when you think about prom and postponing graduation, and all of those kinds of If you follow the social media, you will see that our seniors have been recognized in ways that are unprecedented. If you look at the yard signs that have been in their yards, they’re celebrated that are ways that are unprecedented, the masks that they’ll be receiving some of these fun things that they’re doing over there. You know, all of the things that the virtual choir performances that have been put out there, the awards nights that are put out there, all of these kinds of things. We really are doing everything we can to say to them that we’re sorry, you know, we’re sorry that this happened. But still, we’re trying to make it the very best experience that you can have. So with that, I’m going to turn it over to Jackie

23:43
here. So we do have some tea tech celebrations. At Frederick high school, they saw their first cohort starting as freshmen and we have some good data related to their successes. Our peace Tech students at Frederick finished, passed 98.4% of all their classes, and 99.2% of all of their core classes. Their cumulative GPA was 3.4. There, they had 13 out of 31 students who had a GPA of 4.0 or better, and 26 out of 31, who had a GPA of 3.1 or better. So, we really, really recruit students that we believe can use the support but also meet the high expectations of P tech. And these students at Frederick high school did really well in their in their first year at Skyline High School. Mariana Revis was selected to be one of two students speakers for the June 24 National virtual p tech graduation We had 14 seniors graduate in four years with their Associate’s Degree in May. And they accumulated 2500 over 2500 college credit hours. And then we have six seniors who are going through the summer, and they’re going to continue to work and should be graduating at the end of summer. And those six seniors also earned 600 300 in 360, college credits, and will also have an associate’s degree when they finish up in the summer. And then we have another 12 students who are very much on target in either a five year or a six year plan, which originally we believed with this course load that it would take students most of them five years. So to see the number of students graduating with that course load in four years is pretty amazing. We’re really, really proud of our P Tech students. And then The other is we are celebrations of seniors continue. If you know of a graduating senior have them submit their decorated caps to us next to the st brainstorm sign, and we will tweet that out for them. So it’s just a way to keep that energy going through the month of June and into July before graduation. We want them to know that we’re still thinking about them. And we’d like to continue to celebrate them until we can get them across the stage. So

26:28
Jackie, you guys are giving those neat little postcards to the, to the students when they come pick up their caps and gowns.

26:35
That’s right, when they get their caps and gowns, they get one of these and then the st brainstorm is on the on the back. So that’s what we’re up to. Yep. Good stuff going on.

26:49
Oh, go ahead. I was just gonna ask Could you share with us again, the demographics of our first few tech graduating class from skyline?

26:56
Yeah, I don’t have the demographics. So I would have to get that for Are you? I don’t have that off the top of my head.

27:04
Well, thank you. Yes. But I guess my my impression was that it was that there was a very robust representation of Hispanic students in that first class. And I think it’s, it’s an additional cause for celebration.

27:23
Yes. A lot of the students that are in our P tech program are those who perhaps will be the first generation graduates from either high school or college and so, but also incredibly hardworking students, and very dedicated and, you know, just a lot of persistence. So just really proud of them.

27:48
Yes, affirmation, and when we set the bars high, the students raise their performance to achieve that.

27:55
So,

27:55
Andy, it’s a wonderful affirmation of the foundational prints. upon which we established that program.

28:02
Yeah, it is. And you know, there’s a large number of our students that are graduating and that are in our P tech program. This is that are, you know, real evidence of when you create opportunities. They’re successful, you know, and and when you talk about now this board prioritizes equity at a very high level, as do do all of us. This is what real equity looks like when you’re graduating students with a two year associate degree, at no cost to the student. And then they go on in earnings throughout the rest of their life and their ability to make a great living is just enhanced significantly. And, you know, these are real, concrete, tangible takeaways with our children that

28:55
that I think are really powerful. So it’s just an incredible showing.

28:58
Yeah, it is. I think it Also is a testament again to, you know how important it is to have the resources to create these kind of programs. These are, you know, they’re fairly robust programs. And they require that we sustain those resources over the course of many, many years. We can’t quit on the students midway. And so they are programs that we have to make sure that we can fund and that they’ll be sustainable so that we can deliver on that promise if they put in the hard work. And so, you know, again, it’s just a testament to the foundation that’s been built in St. Bryan and the resources that have been garnered that allow us to continue to grow these programs.

29:41
You know, the other thing too, that, you know, I know when the question came up with our Learning Services team, given the Financial Times and all of the cuts, should we recruit another class and there was no discussion. It was They just said, Yes. Jackie was it was a non negotiable? Absolutely. And it’s the same thing that you see with preschool, when we’re faced with these situations where, you know, we might not be able to bring in the revenue consistent with the expense because of the guidelines? The answer is absolutely, yes. And this is what we talk about, when there’s consistency in what you say you value and where you put your money. And so that’s, you know, something that really, really proud of this team, and everyone involved for, for really holding on tightly to those important things. Because again, this is, you know, this is when our children are going through, they didn’t ask for this and they didn’t cause it. But they are going to be affected by it unless we make those decisions today. That will not set them back tomorrow. And that’s what I’m talking about as people are looking at these decisions, they have to avoid making decisions that feel doable today, they have to consider what their decisions are going to result in for these children tomorrow. That’s really, really important.

31:14
You know, just to, to build on that a little bit, I suppose just words of support. If you were to cut a p tech program right now, because you thought that might save money. I don’t know how you would start that again, anytime in the near future. I mean, and I think that’s what you have to be careful of. And this is just I’m saying the same thing you said. But you can’t just bring those programs back.

31:39
Yeah, that’s right.

31:40
Yeah, not as simple as that.

31:42
And what you cut in two weeks takes three or four years to get that kind of momentum and success back again. Yeah. So I, I appreciate the long game, you know, in our decisions and in our conversations right now. We are really focused on the long game. There, those are tough decisions to make every day. But I do appreciate that we’re keeping our system intact. And we continued to deliver on the promises and the programs we’ve given to our kids.

32:11
I like having the setback project launch, because of the logistics and the space and the uncertainty. The very next step was Learning Services decided to do after school literacy programs during the fall. And continue with the algebra launch program and continue with the fifth to sixth grade and eighth to ninth grade transitions. And that’s where, you know, I think if you watch this team, with Jackie and Learning Services, and Greg and finance and Brian and operations, they’re just so zeroed in on making sure that the kids don’t suffer from this event. And that’s you’d be very I know you already are but you’d be very proud to watch the way they make their decisions. The other thing is is summer school. We’ve got 442 students enrolled at Silver Creek at Skyline at Thunder Valley because Frederick’s under construction with their new wing and an old Columbine, and we’ve got 62 seniors that are going into summer school that will cause them to graduate, which they may not have had that opportunity to graduate in the four year stretch, but for the fact that graduation, but the fact that 62 of them made that decision to go into summer school tells you how serious they are about graduating. And now that’s a pretty significant percentage of kids. So when you when you think about it, so very, very proud of our students in that capacity.

33:37
And, Don, just a question about that. So, I mean, that indicates to me that yes, this was done in response to the circumstances we find ourselves in, but in a normal year, it might be something that we’d want to consider providing for those students that are very close to finishing out and not quite because 62 out of

34:02
Whatever the number yeah

34:04
2000

34:07
You know, that’s on the order of three tenths of a percent or something.

34:12
Well, you know, you if you look at, like a school like Silver Creek, if they have 300, graduates 300, you know, kids in that class and you just get six of them, right, to move along, you know, you’re looking at a couple percent increase in their graduation. It’s, you know, those, those are significant numbers. Yeah.

34:30
You know what I mean? It’s, uh, so I think just looking forward to that. That’s something to put on our plate to be considered. Yeah,

34:37
yeah, no, absolutely.

34:38
So, Innovation Academy, we’ve got 58 students that will be participating in the virtual Innovation Academy program with IBM. And that’s another example of how, you know, people could throw their hands up in the air and say, we can’t do it. But you know, Patty, and that whole team really just kept moving forward, the Innovation Center We have 43 students in three of their courses offered this summer. There’s a lot of activity going on, and then a lot of a recovery. Just Just some great work. And so I’m going to stop there. Because I know we’ve got some other things on the agenda. But any questions that you guys have with any of the information, I sound Mazel does Sorry about that.

35:23
For some of you may like that.

35:30
Any questions? Go ahead. Deke.

35:34
talked a lot, but I just want to quickly I express my appreciation for the long view that you and the staff are taking and addressing the near term challenges, but from a perspective of who we are, and what we have committed to and what we intend to deliver over time. I think the longer long term view that you’ve embraced is exactly the right thing to do. And I wholeheartedly support it. And thank you for that. Thanks.

36:08
Anybody else?

36:10
And you know, Don, I’ve said this multiple times, and unfortunately, you’re probably have to listen to me say it again. Everyone makes it looks so simple and so easy. And I think as a board of education, we know that it’s incredibly complex and time consuming. So please pass along our appreciation to everyone. Thank you to everyone who’s at the meeting. For all of your hard work and you guys are amazing. You really do make it look easy.

36:38
Thank you.

36:40
Alright, agenda items. 6.1. I didn’t skip anything, right? No, Greg, district financial statements. Do you remember how we do this? Not only are we out of practice, but we’re not in our usual spots.

36:56
Exactly. Now. So we went through this at 530 The district financial statements and what I would say is that currently we are we are working really well within where our budgets were, where we are where, where we expect to be within our budgets. But there’s a couple three places where we’re continuing to monitor. One would be property tax revenues, and seeing how those come in and seeing kind of how the economy is going in terms of being able to make those property tax payments. The other one is our community schools programs, and our nutrition school services programs, which again, we’re, we’re not serving as many in community schools case, we’re not really serving students at this point, but we’ve made a commitment to our employees. And on the nutrition services side, we’re still providing meals but not to the degree that we were. And so we just want to keep monitoring those two funds to ensure that we’re making sure they’re fiscally stable

38:00
Thank you, Greg.

38:03
You’re also have agenda item 6.2, which is third quarter gifts to schools.

38:12
Thank you. So

38:14
as you can see, we’ve provided a list. The board policy kcd says for public gifts to schools is asking for the to provide the Board of Education with information related to those gifts. in the, in the third quarter of this year, we totaled 291,000. Last year’s gifts total 328,000. Again, we shut down schools March 13. And so that’s we would probably would have been on course or even a little bit ahead of last year. But just to mention a couple of three donations that we had on average cares gave us 70 $200 for the Innovation Center lab, the Optimist Club gave us $1,000 for forensics and Longmont Community Foundation gave us $20,000 for student support. So Well, those are just three examples of giving from our community.

39:17
Okay, questions,

39:18
questions, comments? No. All right, Greg, then would you like to roll into 6.3, which is the introduction of superintendents proposed fiscal year 21 budget.

39:29
Yes, I will turn this over to Tony.

39:32
Hi, Tony. Welcome. It’s nice to see you.

39:35
You too hope everyone’s doing well.

39:39
So, tonight, I’ve got the privilege of introducing the superintendent’s proposed budget for St. Brain Valley schools for the 2021 fiscal year. As you know, this budget is the comprehensive spending plan tracking all resources and expenditures for authors used to educate our students and support the vision and mission of the district for the dates Spending July 1 2020, through June 30 2021. I want to first thank all the individuals who are involved in the development of this budget as it is truly a team effort and includes the cooperation of a large contingent of individuals, including the Finance and Audit Committee board members, and a broad swath of district staff including members of HR and finance department heads and their secretaries building principals and their secretaries and of course, Greg feet, our CFO and Dr. head at before I start with details, I want to emphasize that due to the pandemic, this proposed budget contains many very rough estimates due to uncertainty surrounding the state’s funding of public schools. The state legislature, as you know, paused their session back in March and only returned to business yesterday. We anticipate reductions in our total program formula funding, but do not have final numbers at this point as we would in a normal year. As a consequence of that. Compensation agreements have also not yet been finalized. So expenditures, salaries and benefits have not yet been adjusted in this budget to reflect such in in the general fund. Even in a normal year, the proposed budget is based on conservative and preliminary estimates available at the time, but the current uncertainty around both revenues and expenditures have exacerbated this fact. So due to this, I would more accurately characterize this document as a draft budget. However, per state statute, we are required to introduce a proposed budget by the end of May, beginning our public comment period. We are then scheduled to conduct a public hearing on the budget on June 10, and finally adopt the budget on June 24. In a normal year, there are very few if any adjustments from when the proposed budget is introduced, compared to when it gets adopted at the end of June. However, this year as we get more information over the next few weeks on state formula funding and are able to finalize compensation agreements, I will work with you The administration to incorporate those changes and bring forward revisions to the board in these subsequent meetings. Finally, in January of 2021, in the normal course of business, I will bring forward a mid year amended budget proposal that will contain adjustments to this budget based on actual changes to assessed valuation, state funding, student counts, and other revenues and expenditures. Now, I want to provide a few details surrounding next year’s proposed general fund budget changes compared to the current fiscal year 20 1920 budget. This current document contains a budgeted spend down of general fund fund balance of approximately $27 million. This compares to a budgeted surplus of $3.8 million in the current fy 20 budget. This change is a result of decreased revenues in excess of decreased expenditures. So compared to FYI, this fy 21 budget reflects a reduction of revenue in the amount of $34.1 million. This is mostly due to an estimated decrease of 10% that we used in total program funding revenue, which translates to a reduction of about $26 million compared to the current year. This is the largest revenue estimate in our budget, and the number we hope to get more clarity on in the coming weeks as the state legislature completes its work in passing the public school funding bill. Other large revenue decreases represent reversals of one time items from the prior year budget or the current year budget, such as the large abatement letting best grant awards and the full day kindergarten startup grant. Those revenues are going away. They were characterized last year as one time and so we’re pulling those off of the revenue list. Another large impact to our revenue is the expected reduction of interest income due to much smaller investment returns.

43:56
It is currently unknown whether or not we will see a decrease in assessed valuation this year, or whether it will materialize in the fy 22 year but we do expect to see a drop. Therefore this budget maintains assessed valuation flat for the time being. We should know more in August when preliminary AV certifications are due to come out. Finally, the budget does not contain any revenues for one time cares Act funds, which include as Don mentioned previously, the 15.75 million for Corona relief funds and 2.5 million for S or funds at this time, we’re waiting on guidance on what expenditures might qualify for those fourth use, which can determine which fund or funds it might get posted to, as well as to which fiscal year they would apply. We also know there’s guidance forthcoming on how to allocate a portion of those dollars to the charter schools. Also, this budget currently contains a decrease in expenditures of $3.2 million compared to the fy 20 expenditure budget. This is primarily result reductions of those one time expenditures related to the items I mentioned previously, such as the best grant and FDK. startup grant. There are actually some also some increases and expenditures here related to an increase in the employer payroll rate, we have to absorb an additional point 5% on the employer pair rate, which translates to about $175,000. We’d also have budgeted in this document and expected increase in employer paid health insurance premiums, which translates to about a million dollars. Other than that, however, as mentioned previously, compensation for teachers and staff have not been adjusted up or down in the general fund at this time. So these changes overall mean the district’s proposed budget reverses its previously budgeted increase of general fund fund balance by about $30.8 million, swinging it from a $3.8 million surplus and FYI, 20 to a $28 million spend down in FY 21. The currently budgeted ending fund balance for this year at point 20 is about $120.1 million. And our current projected actually outperformed this number by about 11.6. Bringing the projected ending fund balance to about 131 230 $2 million. This $27 million budgeted spend down would then bring that down to about maybe 3.1 million before any outperformance of budgeted numbers. We would like to make this document available on our website@svsd.org and a printed copy available for public inspection at the district offices, depending on any required health restrictions and doing so. The public input and comment period begins today. And we will have a public hearing and bring anticipated updates to the board at the next board meeting on June 10. Pending any further changes after that this budget will then be brought forward to the June 24 board meeting for formal adoption. It would be my pleasure to address any questions about the chair refund or any other fun budgets at this time.

47:06
questions comments for Tony?

47:10
Pretty straightforward, Paula.

47:13
Microphone. Hi, Tony. So I just want to clarify because there’s a lot of moving parts still, given that the legislature just came back, and we’re going to be finding out within the coming weeks, there’ll be some clarity around actual funding for next year. So we’re still okay, as we’re we’ll put this budget out there for public review now. But we can still you can still work on changes in the coming weeks so we can still finalize the budget before July 1, or do we have to start the clock all over again. The review period, though,

47:42
exactly, it won’t restart the clock. And in fact, we anticipate some changes in the budget due to the firming up of the state funding. But I did see in the public school finance act draft language that they may be extending the deadline for the final deadline. Have the budgets which may give me a give give us a little bit of wiggle room. But then it hasn’t been passed or anything like that. That’s, that’s only in draft language at this time. So under current statute, we would need to adopt a budget by the end of June. And but there’s nothing saying that any changes reset that clock, so we could go ahead and make changes. And if the board approves all the way up until the 24th, when we do adopt those changes can take effect.

48:30
Okay. Thank you.

48:31
Thanks, Greg.

48:33
So, Tony, I think you mentioned 130 $4 million, or 130 $2 million, and then you’re 27. But I think you said 93.5. And I was thinking that was like 104.5, or something. And

48:49
I was reading through that, and I paused because I was like, I don’t think the math is right. I might not have updated my notes correctly. So thank you for the correction, Greg. Okay. Thanks.

49:04
All right. Any other comments questions? deck.

49:10
So I’m assuming that the budget is similar, at least at the present time, we’re planning for a spend down in the reserve of approximately 27 million. And if we’re starting with a reserve, what ended up this year with a reserve of around 131? And I know this, this is a lot of assumptions but looking beyond this year, looking beyond the next year

49:51
are we planning for similar spin downs as ways to deal with to accommodate The likely continuation of severe economic constraints.

50:08
So what I would, what I would tell you is the economic forecasts that are out there from the state are 3.3, roughly 3.3 billion for this year. And then I think it’s an additional 1.8 or something at another 1.8. But it would come back up where we would see, we would still be at 1.8 billion below where we were projected to be for the following year. So we would see some relief from the state in terms of per pupil revenue, but that’s about the same time that assessed valuation may kick in. So you know, what I think our focus right now is we have a healthy fund balance. We want to continue the programming we’re doing, we will look for areas, areas to postpone delay, do whatever we need to have certain expenditures, to get us to that point where we’re comfortable eating A year. But you know, the hundred and 104.5 million that Tony was talking about is before any outperformance. It’s before some of that. And so this what we still need to wait and see what happens with per pupil revenue. We need to see what happens with our funded pupil count, need to see what happens with assessed valuation. But I would tell you that the goal would be to continue the programming that we have, as best we can and continue to monitor our fund balance. It’s not about keeping our fund balance at a certain level at this point.

51:39
You know, I was going to tell you to to Greg’s point, that also doesn’t include the $16.4 million that we were receiving this year in one time and then it also doesn’t include again, the outperformance of fiscal year 21 but this is what I was referencing earlier when I said we’ve identified a series of projects and things that we if if the cuts are Either this year or next year, then we have those two called fall back on. So that’s that piece is in place and continues as well, to your question.

52:10
Be able to see those. Sorry, when would we be able to see those?

52:13
See which part of

52:15
proposed cuts the proposed cuts

52:17
anytime you like I can share with you right now. I mean, it’s,

52:22
that’s okay. I think it’s a little early now.

52:27
But I just wanted to

52:30
talk about the iPad refresh. Yeah. So we have $3.3 million each year that we pay for the iPad leases for our students one to one initiative to go from a three year refresh to a three and a half year refresh. We we postpone that $3.3 million expenditure into the following year. So that that delays stuff out so that, that we can we can kind of work through things and see See where things happen. But that would be one of those things that, you know, for an iPad to go from a three year refresh to a three and a half year refresh, probably isn’t that significant of a deal in terms of in the classroom, but it definitely would be of savings to us for a year to get us by that.

53:23
Thank you. That’s helpful.

53:24
That’s just that little move is 3.3 million. And then there’s another three to 4 million in capital reserve projects. And then that, you know, there’s just things like that, again, that that’s it,

53:38
response to long term planning, if those things need to happen.

53:46
Yeah, I just wanted to affirm my support for looking at it well, including spending down the reserve, as if we need to as part of an overall solution. To move through the next two or three years and and sustain our programs are providing for our students the long term, strategic direction we’re going.

54:16
One thing I know, I’d say it’s just semantics. So I, Greg and I talk about this all the time. I know he uses the term spinning down. I said, we’re not spending down, they’re taking it away from us. We never get it in the first place. But I understand really, nobody’s to blame for any of this. It’s just it is what it is. But I just don’t want people to think we’re actually out there spending this money. It’s just being taken in the fact that we have reserves, were able to absorb it and keep moving forward. Paula,

54:49
I just want to suggest and I’m sure everybody you’ve you’ve already considered this but we have done every year probably around January timeframe with Tony and Greg. In fact, Financing audit. We do that five year planning spreadsheets. And then we bring into a study session here every year. I’m not sure we did it this year, because, you know, it’s been kind of each year we’ve been growing, we’ve been outperforming RSS values have gone up. It’s been pretty good news. We’ve had a ton of community support with passing mill levies and bonds since since 2012. It’s been a very, it’s been a good report. And it’s been we’ve been in a very solid five year projection place. Everything has changed. So that five year projection spreadsheet that Tony it’s it’s incredible that the amount of detail that he puts into that because he really dives into it. I know in Finance and Audit, he goes into every single tab around the inputs to that. At some point when we get over this, this legislative session, we you know, maybe even after the first of May of 21 we start looking at that in a whole lot more detail and, and these kind of things We’ll come out, you know, where we need if we need to be doing cuts where we need to be doing cuts, what were the inputs looking like? thank thank all of you that we have. We have the reserve, we have now to get us through this this budget. But it’s not. It’s one time money, so we can’t rest on that. So we do need to really more carefully look at those, that longer term planning and we know we already have the tools to do it. Don’t Tony is fully prepared to do it. So maybe, you know, January, February timeframe or where you get you tell us when’s a good time to do that. But I know the tools are there to look at that.

56:37
Absolutely. I mean, we’ve got a new school coming online, so we probably need to tech have a discussion about that. I mean, that figures into that whole thing. But yeah, there’s just a lot of unknowns right now. And so it’s very difficult to, to kind of piece that together because your assumptions are the same assumptions that you’re seeing in your budget right now, which is okay, we can say 10 percent but what is next year look like? And what is next year look like in terms of assessed valuation? I think, you know, we we talk a lot about the expenditure side of the house. And now I think we’re having to look at the other side of the house, which is the revenue and how that’s going to impact us. And

57:22
yeah, so certainly, that’s something we put on our radar to, to look at once we have to get through this, this next budget round first, and then see, you know, see how things lands and how the dust settles and where we where we stand.

57:35
Thanks. Thanks, Paula. Anyone else?

57:41
All right, Tony, thank you for all of your work on the budget. Greg, everyone else in finance? Be safe, and we’ll see you on June 10.

57:52
Have a good evening. Great. Thanks,

57:55
guys. I’m gonna pass these out. This is that publication, that’s going to be going out in the middle of June that I referenced about our corporate partnerships.

58:05
Oh, great. Thank you don see

58:06
that coming out of the community strong program. Thank you.

58:11
Yeah, you bet. 6.4 Greg is the Finance and Audit Committee update?

58:17
Yes. So thank you. This typically would come from Heather Parrish, who’s the CO chairperson. And I’m not going to go into as much detail as he does. What I would tell you is we, we love our Finance and Audit Committee, they help us tremendously and they they are very dedicated. And so you know, part of the work that they look at is our financial reporting process and internal controls. They review the budget and the annual audit with us. They look at charter school financial data, they have oversight of our internal auditor. And so those are the main ones. They we typically have people come in to present to them just so they have a better idea. Understanding it’s it’s a mini leadership, same rain, I guess you would call it in terms of, but we bring in, like Apex came in this year. And Jackie came and talked about project launch. We talked about data pipeline, and we get an update from the superintendent, we talked about open enrollment assessment update, all of this is kind of just to get them an understanding of District operations. But then once they have that understanding, they can be very much a part of, of where we go with that. So they also engage with our outside auditors. They look at the Kaffir we got a clean opinion from our auditors this past year, which is a good thing. And so, you know, I think those are the main items and I may have Heather come back in the fall and and talk to you guys so that you could have an opportunity to ask Questions and do those kinds of things, but we just

1:00:05
I think they do a great job, and I really appreciate them.

1:00:09
They do. And, you know, they fulfill not only an important oversight, you know, role for the Board of Education in the district and the community. But there’s certainly also a part of the district’s strong financial position right now and contributing to that, and being able to maintain programming and certainly recognize their role.

1:00:29
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, they’ve helped us, you know, one of our goals is to try to get cash out of schools and those kinds of things. If you look historically, they were the ones that worked as through rev track and Infinite Campus and those so that we could, you know, because that just eliminates the opportunity for fraud. We don’t want our employees to have those opportunities. We don’t want to put them in a bad position. So, you know, just by those types of things over the years, they’ve really helped us

1:00:58
Absolutely. You know, Greg, something that typically we talk about, and as a board, and you know that the Finance and Audit Committee reviews the proposed budget, but might be a good idea to mention that just for the public. Thank you.

1:01:16
Any comments or questions?

1:01:19
Please pass along our appreciation and we would love to see Heather, when things get a little bit more normal, hopefully. All right. That brings us to our consent items this evening. I want to confirm that board members do not want to pull any of our consent items, Correct. Correct.

1:01:40
Great, thank you. And Barb, I remember you’re going to call for the vote.

1:01:46
7.1 is approval of contract award for the new playground equipment at Eagle crest elementary school 7.2. Approval of amendment to the design build contract for the field lighting project. At nylon High School 7.3 approval of amendments to the design build contract for the field lighting project at Silver Creek High School 7.4 approval of amendments to the design build contract for the field lighting project at Skyline High School 7.5 approval of change order one two construction manager general contractor cmgc contract for the Erie middle school bond Project 7.6 approval first reading adoption board policies AC dash are reporting discrimination district response to discrimination complaints and AC dash E dash one non discrimination equal opportunities sample notice 7.7 first reading adoption board policies JK D JK II suspension expulsion of students and other disciplinary procedure procedures. JK D JK E dash r system vention expulsion of students hearing procedures and JK D JK E dash e grounds for suspension expulsion. 7.8 approval of 2020 2021 administrative employment contracts. I would entertain a motion for approval please.

1:03:18
so moved

1:03:20
by Jenna. And a second. Second.

1:03:25
Paula or Karen, take your your choice BB and BB. Can you please call for the vote? Mr. Arens absent? Mr. Burkle? Yes.

1:03:35
Mr. Garcia? Yes. Dr. martyr.

1:03:38
Yes.

1:03:40
Miss appears. Hi, Mrs. Ragland. I and the secret I thank you, Barb.

1:03:49
We have one action item this evening. It is 8.1. The approval of contracts for teachers non renewal notices for 2020 2021 academic Here, there are no questions then I would entertain a motion for approval please. so moved by Karen and a second second. by Jim, BB. Can you call for the vote please? Mr. Arens absent Mr. Bercow? Yes. Mr. Garcia? Yes. Dr. martyr?

1:04:20
Yes.

1:04:22
Miss Pierce. Aye. Mrs. Raglan. I am a secret. I.

1:04:29
Thank you, Barb.

1:04:32
All right. We have two discussion items this evening. 9.1 is the legislative proposal to repeal the Gallagher amendment. And I believe, Brandon, that you’re going to tee this up. Thanks for sending the email this afternoon or this morning with additional information. This is something I’m excited to learn more about. And Jason, welcome. It’s nice to see you.

1:04:55
Oh, yeah. I think Thank you. And thank you for having us here this evening. It’s great to see you. I feel like I haven’t seen you for a long time. So it’s nice to see you all in action. You know, Jason put this on my radar for a couple weeks ago, he noticed her way into the draft of a proposal that will suggest or put a vote up with Colorado to repeal that Gallagher amendment. And I thought this might be something that the district would be interested in supporting. And so I brought it to dawn to get his impressions on it. Dad does favorably inclined but also wanted me to discuss this with you all make sure that you’re comfortable with it. And you may see if you have any questions just in case, anything comes up, outside of you know, in our community outside of our little world here in the school district to make sure that that you’re comfortable with with With a position of taking a position on this, let me let me explain it just very quickly. I mean, the idea is pretty simple that is to repeal the Gallagher amendment. There’s nothing simple about the Gallagher amendment, unfortunately. But let me try to break it down in a way that that will tee up the conversation. The Gallagher method essentially does three things. First, it pegs non residential assessment rates at 29%. So anything that’s commercial, anything is agriculture, anything that is not residential is you know, by constitutional mandate, assessed at a rate of 29%. Second, it says that when you look at statewide valuation of real property in in the state, there has to be a 45% to 55% ratio between residential and non residential values. So They essentially, you know, this was passed in 1982. And they essentially just locked into the Constitution, the split between residential non residential that existed in 1982. The third thing the the Gallagher amendment does is it says that residential rate is going up or down in order to maintain that 4555 split. Okay. And we’re going to ask the legislature every two years to assess where that ratio is, and then make an adjustment to the residential rate in order to reestablish that 4555 ratio that’s that’s mandated in the constitution down. Well, since 1982, you would happen in your state is the population it has increased exponentially As that population has grown, the value of residential property has also increased exponentially. The net result is that in order to maintain the 4555 split, you’ve had to we’ve had the legislature has had to reduce the residential rate every two years or so, in order to reestablish the 45 to 55 split. To give you an example in 1982, when they first established this, the residential rate was 21%. That was the assessment rate for residential retired statewide. And today, it’s 7.15%. And what we’re looking at given the state of the economy given all the different factors that are weighing in on the valuation of our property, both non non residential and residential, we’re looking at another adjustment that would bring it down to 5.88%. If the legislature acts this year, so the proposals being, you know, put out there that look, this formula is just not working for us and

1:09:19
was the vast majority of the funding for local services, public education included, comes from those local property tax collections, that local residential property disclosure. So as you reduce that local rate, what you’re doing is slowly starving those local services. It’s not just k 12. It’s also your Parks and Recreation. It’s also your, your local transportation infrastructure. It’s also your library districts it, you know, so forth and so on. So the idea is that he looked This formula isn’t working for us. And in order to avoid or prevent us reduction further from 7.15 to 5.88, what we need to do is take the Gallagher amendment off the books and let voters decided are Tabor whether or not they want to increase their taxes or not that would still be in place and go from there. Let me let me just ask Jason. Jason, I miss anything. Is there anything you would add to that?

1:10:32
Given how complex Gallagher is? No, I don’t think I want to add anything more to it gets fair. I think it’s fair to say that the the ratcheting effect of having increased assessed values, taking down the assessment rate and then raising the commercial rate, you know, for that 4555 split is part of what’s driving it but the bigger part is the assumption going into To next, the next cycle, that we’re actually going to see a drop in assessed value because of COVID-19. So the state auditor, sorry, the state auditor, but the state tax administrator was in JBC, during the budget process last month, and presented a presented some information that was estimating somewhere around a $500 million reduction in local share on the school finance side from the state from the locals based on that drop in, in assessed value. So part of what this is attempting to do is to stop, constant shift and then that shift of money from the state to the local. It’s also attempting to Brandon’s point to stop the stuff that was really the bleeding of those local districts. If you’re a fire district or a special district or Look, government, your majority of your revenues is related to this. And you’re being ratcheted down and you’re not getting any backfill from the state to make up for it.

1:12:12
Give it you know, put some numbers to it. In 1989.

1:12:18
The local share of the school finance act 57% of that local share was, I’m sorry, yeah, 57% of local share, I’m sorry, the school finance Act, the total amount 50% of the total amount 57% of the total amount came from the local share in 43% came from the state as a backfill or equalization under the school finance act. In 2015. The local share only accounted for 31% of the total school finance that and 69% comes from the state, the backfill. So one of the things that you know, that’s been in play, especially in recent years is this You know, conversation about vocal control who really sets the agenda for the school districts? It’s a lot easier to say to the legislature, hey, look, we’re paying for it, we get to set our own agenda. Well, today that balance has shifted, and more than 50% 69% of the total funding for K 12 is coming from the state, not from the local property tax base. And that is made, you know, some of the conversations down there a little bit more difficult. So that’s, that’s the way we’ll tee up the conversation and just see if there any questions or you know, any any comments from you all any concerns?

1:13:42
Thanks, Brandon. Any look at we have a choice, Paula.

1:13:46
Okay, I’ll start. Thank you. Thank you, Brandon. Thank you, Jason. So, so I do understand how this fits together with Tabor laid on top of it and then amendment 23 on top of it. The school finance act and it’s a it’s a, it’s a constant downward ratcheting effect. And there’s no opportunity to come back, the seesaw is broken. It’s just always going down whether assessments go down whether the rates go down. So given that I would support repealing the Gallagher amendment, but my question is, if it’s gone, let’s say it goes on the ballot, and it’s approved. If I’m a voter and I and I’m gonna have the choice of voting for against this, I’m gonna want to know what what are we left with? So So part of the Gallagher amendment was having consistent assessment processes from county to county with those stay in place. I just want to make sure we’re protecting the voters against severe swings in property tax calculations, if all of this goes away how we calculate property taxes, then how do we calculate property taxes?

1:14:55
What can voters sorry

1:14:59
so essentially If it goes away, there’s really two steps here. One is you’re going to delay the the current reduction of the residential assessment rate by a year. So they’re going to pass a bill to delay the implementation down to 5.88%, which means we’ll stay at 7.15%. Okay. And then November we pass the repeal. And what that will do is that will set our residential system raise 7.15% going forward, and we’ll continue to calculate off of that going forward, unless and until there’s a statewide initiative to increase it, which would essentially increase property taxes. But that’s, that’s not gonna happen, right? So we essentially locked in the 7.15%. Now as that interplays with local values, if you’re local, you know the value of your property. Locally goes up means the multiplier is 7.15%. There are some who would be offended by that. They say, well, you might, my multiplier could have gone down to 5.8. Right, which would have been a lower real property or real property tax. That is, you know, that is the push and pull. Right. That’s, that’s where there there could be some friction. You’ll hear people saying, well, this is a property tax increase. Well, that really what we’re doing is we’re just keeping it the same. And using that multiplier against the increase in property values over time. And the net impact is that it will bring in more revenue for local services, including public, you know that the number I didn’t throw out there is that if we go down to 5.8 a, our best estimate at this time is that it would cost the district approximately $13.4 million a year. Going forward, because that multiplier would be less. And

1:17:07
the downside potentially was on the non residential payer side, where I will tell you that that I think the non residential payers are split as to what they, whether they like this or not, some would say, it’s great that we’re no longer going to get ratcheted up and staying at 29 is okay with me, and maybe I can get my local governmental entity to drop that. Something somewhat. The other side of that coin would say, Wait, were you locked in at 29 even though this is a year in which we might actually see a reduction in our taxes are already too high? A lot of it depends on the size of the business and and you know, where they are and kind of attack scheme, you know, the bigger the company, they seem to have let us concerned about that than say a lot of small businesses who are struggling with that tax burden that they have. If you talk to them. Brandon’s Brandon’s giving you the part of the positive side of that, as well, as you know, you’re no longer having that ratchet, you are locking in that rate. However the assessed values will, will affect that going forward in a way they didn’t. They don’t now, because we’ve always floated that, that residential property rates based on the assessed value.

1:18:28
So, so my understanding if we get rid of Gallagher essentially, you could argue that you’re actually adding stability and the factor the 7.15 will be will be set. Unless there’s a vote, you know, there’s there’s action taken to change it, but you’re actually bringing stability into the calculation of property taxes, and they’re going to float based on your assessed valuation, which is normally how it works. Right?

1:18:56
Yeah, I mean, I think

1:18:59
that’s right. I think That’s a good way of putting it as well.

1:19:03
There’s normally been an offset right so your assessment is your actual value goes up because your assessment residential assessment rate is coming down then your property taxes aren’t going up as quickly as they would if you stabilized it Alright.

1:19:20
Okay I mean I my as I said I would support this because I do understand the as I said this he says broken and Gallagher is spiraling down and down and down when it’s coupled with with Tabor, but I wanted just assurances that if we eliminate tape, Gallagher, that it’s not you know, a free for all that that counties or communities can’t come in and all of a sudden all the assessment rates are all over the place and there’s no predictability around it. But that is not the case. It’s actually in my mind actually adding stability to the the calculation of property taxes, and essentially stopping the bleeding in this time of COVID too. The tune of $500 million that we could at least count on that revenue this

1:20:04
year. Yeah, I mean, if you look back to the go back to the housing crash in 2008, the residential properties went through the floor, that should have been the time that we could have raised the assessment rate, the residential assessment rate in order to compensate because we were off to 5545. Historically, residential rates have always gone up. And so that’s what’s driven tape driven Gallagher down and the assessment rate down in this case it’s because the economy is is so horrible, it all of the assessed valuation for oil and gas for commercial they’re dropping and because they’re dropping now it’s saying oh, well then let’s intern drop the residential rate. And and that’s just causing a double whammy to the to the system.

1:20:57
Okay, thank thank you. I just wanted to understand kind of what What what the landscape looks like

1:21:02
after the bottom line is that there still be a vote to raise either the residential rate or the non residential rate.

1:21:11
As per as per table. That’s the

1:21:13
other piece of this is the interplay with Tabor, in trying to keep it simple. I tried to avoid that conversation when I made my initial presentation. But as those assessment rates, the residential assessment rates have gone down, we have not been allowed to readjust for a 4555 split by raising because of the Tabor amendment, because if you raise that assessment rate, that is that is a tax increase. a tax increase requires a statewide vote. So there was a period for example, in the late 1980s, where we were out of balance for the 4555 because we would have needed To increase residential rate, in order to do that, you would have to go to the ballot. They didn’t go to the ballot. So we were out of balance until residential caught back up with commercial.

1:22:14
Okay, thank you so much. Thanks, politic.

1:22:17
Thank you. I just had a quick question. Do we? Has the bill been introduced?

1:22:25
Has the bill been introduced?

1:22:28
It should be introduced in the next day or two.

1:22:31
And what does it look like in the senate?

1:22:35
Well, I don’t have a client yet who’s told me to go count votes for it. But what in and so I haven’t done that. But I have talked to Bill sponsors who believe they have the necessary votes in the Senate to get two thirds and refer in refer it. I know that kind of, you’ve got senator tape. It was a republican from Centennial on the bill with Senator Hansen was a Democrat, Senator Rankin, who’s also a Republican. is also a co sponsor of the bill. I know that Sandra Crowder and Senator Prioleau are both amenable that leaves them with one vote they would need to get I think, I think they’re likely to get that vote. I think the bigger question they may have is with some of the more progressive Democrats who are questioning whether this is a business tax break and some sort and punishing residential taxpayers. So what what is probably more interesting to me at least is that it’s the it’s the kind of far progressive members who are questioning the Bill Evans, there are no, but they’re questioning based on kind of an equity argument.

1:23:43
And one of the reasons I thought we might want to engage in this conversation is precisely because I think we may be able to shore up some of those votes, both on the Republican side and the democratic side. Jason Is is very good, especially on the Republican side and I happen to be fairly good on the Democratic side. So we’re working as a team, we may be may have the push to keep this thing together and get it out of the Senate.

1:24:17
Thank you.

1:24:19
Any other comments or questions by board members? Chico?

1:24:33
I’m wondering

1:24:35
if there are

1:24:38
certain types of districts that

1:24:41
would, you know, not maybe support this or wouldn’t be as favorable to this kind of move?

1:24:48
Or does it seem like

1:24:51
all districts would benefit from

1:24:54
from doing this?

1:24:58
I am not aware and I I would be very surprised by a school that’s contained in word and so they didn’t support that.

1:25:06
You know, the thing that has been a little bit troubling to me is most of the groups out there the Ks Caz B’s School District, they’ve they’ve really latched on to the initiative that will increase taxes. So that their push is, hey, we want new revenue. We want to, you know, get our petitions in we want to make sure this gets on the ballot, we want to campaign in favor of a bonafide tax increase. And they haven’t released the conference calls I’ve been on they haven’t focused on this as much. I see this as as good government you’re not only does this help the school district, not only does this help local governments, you know, maintain their their tax base. But you know, we’ve talked for a long time about I’m tying the gourd Gordian Right, getting rid of the Tabor amendment and the Gallagher amendment, the number 23. And this fiscal crisis that in everything that that goes along with all of those amendments in their interaction with each other, you know, this is a huge step, right? We get this thing out of the Constitution and in you you’ve as a third at least a third of the way there on time Gordian knot. So, the direct answer to your question, no, I don’t think that there are any districts out there going to oppose this. But I think there’s more to this. I think this is really good government. It will, it will go away in terms of helping Colorado move forward.

1:26:42
I think there’s some individual districts with more conservative boards that might choose to not weigh in. But I don’t like I know the folks in El Paso County and I don’t think that most of any of those districts will be willing to oppose it. I don’t think that alone Have them want to step into the fray. Now Paso County, for example. And I would assume that with some of the rural districts as well, although there’s a lot of them are begging for money, so they and also there’s some of them that may support to

1:27:13
one of the one of the unintended consequences and it’s a complicated math problems. So I’m not going to go into the logistics but the way this interplay works with the assessment rates and the calculations, there’s actually a much more severe impact on rural districts than on urban. Part of that is, you know, you’ve got a multiplier and then you have the value of the property value of the property is increased since you know that multiplier produces your local property tax collection. And, you know, property values in your urban areas are increasing faster than they are in your rural rural parts. So okay, maybe It doesn’t hurt as much to decrease that multiplier in an urban area because their valuations are increasing. But if you decrease that multiplier, and you take that out to a rural part of the state where their property values aren’t going up, they just really got hammered by that. Right. So the rural districts do see a disproportionate impact of the Gallagher amendment, new adjustments, and, you know, so politically, maybe you they don’t want to come out and be the champion of this. But, you know, the, the, you know, the local impacts are very real to them. And, and they get that.

1:28:38
Brandon and Jason, do you have any opinion if, like, the fact that they’re looking at a potential emergency tax under Tabor and the fact that they’re looking at a 271 progressive tax increase, and the fact that they’re looking at repealing Gallagher all three in the same November Do you think that will have any play on people’s lives? Opinions around this.

1:29:03
Hey, but let me get my living up by people who have read it does is?

1:29:10
Yes, I think I don’t think that the emergency tax, Tabor tax is going to see the floor of either chamber in the legislature because they simply don’t have two thirds for that. And so I don’t think they’re going to use their time, their 271 certainly will be a factor because I know that there’ll be a variety of different groups who are opposing that as well supporting it. I think the list does have potential ballot measures you need to include family on there, need to include a increased tobacco tax on there. That’s another potential refered measure that we’re going to see here in the legislature soon. And not to mention a variety of measures we’re going to see here in the next three weeks at the capital that either raise fees or some will call raise taxes. At the local level is a violation of or at the state level, whether you believe it’s a violation of Tabor or not, you’re gonna see a lot of those things as well happening in the capital. So they’re all there’s a long list of things that are going to be happening that are revenue enhancers or revenue increases depending on which way you want to, to spend those. I think they’re all gonna have an effect to the ballot and this is a The only good thing about this way of this the Gallagher thing is done as far as its prospects for the ballot, is that it because it is just a simple repeal, it only has to get 50% as opposed to 55.

1:30:39
Right. You know, this is a heavy lift, I don’t want anyone to to walk away from the conversation, thinking, hey, look, can we get this onto the ballot? You know, if the legislature approves a referred measure and it goes on about that it’s a done deal. I may try to do this in 2030 and The Pro repeal, you know, is the group trying to repeal the only at 22% of the vote. Right 22% ai, they are killed at that at the polls. I think we’re in a very different political environment. And I think that there has been a lot of education done. And I think there has been a lot of work done on messaging around public education funding, where more and more people out there are starting to get this to 71. I heard poll numbers are something like 69% of the people are, you know, when they run a poll and describe what 271 would do 69% of people out there say that they would support it. And, you know, I do think that there is a a general acknowledgement of the of the electric today that education in Colorado is underfunded. And teachers are paid too little. I think that’s what the general population out there thinks and whether or not they can message this the right way whether or not there will be a well funded campaign to actually move this forward. I don’t know. But if it doesn’t get on the ballot, we’ll never know. And I think that there is a wave moving in our direction here that hopefully we can take advantage of that if it if it makes ballot.

1:32:31
Comics skeptical because I’m still licking my wounds from CC.

1:32:38
Thank you.

1:32:40
Any other comments or questions? No. All right. Um, you know, Brandon and Jason, it’s certainly my opinion that the voters should have an opportunity, the public to weigh in on this by getting it onto the ballot. What What is your ask? This evening, I guess is my question so that we’re, we’re very clear.

1:33:06
Okay.

1:33:08
Do you have any concerns with me and Jason, lobbying in favor of this proposal? repeal of Gallagher, one? Two, do you have any problems with us representing San Fran Valley School District Courts, a repeal of the Gallagher?

1:33:30
Anybody on the board?

1:33:33
opposing? I mean, we we’re not going to do a formal vote. This is just opinion. No, everybody’s okay with Brandon. Don, any concerns? You’re comfortable as well? Yes.

1:33:47
Yeah, I guess I really appreciate the in depth briefing that Jason you and Brandon has given us this evening. My view is as I express it to dawn is that Don, as superintendent has the authority and to take positions like this on on legislation without a sense of the board or certainly without a formal resolution. So, one, I’m a supportive proceeding in this direction. And I would hope that if it as issues might arise, when there wasn’t time to consult with us, that you would use the, you know, authority discretion that you have to act on behalf of what’s best for the district.

1:34:35
I appreciate that. And one of the things and I absolutely appreciate the confidence, one of the things I had said, Brandon, and to Jason is, do we have the capacity to wait for the answer until Wednesday, so that we could have this conversation or do you feel like we will be left out of the loop so to speak, and they felt that we did have the opportunity and you know, because of the You know, the interaction that you all have with our community on a daily basis, I just wanted to make sure that there was no opportunity for you to run into somebody and have them ask you something. And but i’d absolutely appreciate the confidence, Dixon. And I do support this. I think it’s an important measure to support.

1:35:18
I do too. And I think it’s important too, that as a board and a superintendent and district we’re all on on the same page moving in the same direction. One person, you know, can make a big difference. So. So I believe Brandon and Jason not gives you the information that you need, that we as the board support you moving forward. I also read this morning yesterday last week. I don’t remember that Governor polis is in favor of repealing Gallagher as well. Now Is that still the word on the street?

1:35:54
Yes.

1:35:55
And, but it should be some complimentary things in the school finance Dealing with some other issues around mill levies that also be benefited by the Gallagher repeal that happens.

1:36:09
Okay. Right. And then I think Don or Brandon, just for the the board’s information only as we’re potentially speaking with the public, you say 13 million would be the decrease in St. Brain. That would be a mixture of mill levy money, correct. Okay.

1:36:43
Most likely,

1:36:47
but not if you’re looking at 580 million dollars statewide. That’s, you know, it would come back to us in some regard to it, but the state just still wouldn’t have enough money to fund this wave. But we can adjust our bond redemption mill levy to whatever we need to collect. So that’s not an impact. And the same with the abatements is we can set it to collect the revenue that we need to for those. But the other two are basically set and this reduction would have about 13.4 million.

1:37:19
Yeah. It’s really kind of the perfect storm of a whole bunch. A whole lot of different factors. Okay. All right. If there aren’t any other comments, then I think we’re ready to move on Jason and Brandon, thank you very much for your time, and all of your hard work and dedication down at the Capitol. We appreciate it. Thank you. Keep us posted on how the conversations go.

1:37:44
Thank you guys.

1:37:46
Thank you.

1:37:48
All right, Don. That brings us to our final agenda item which is 9.2. The economic stimulus funds.

1:37:54
Yeah, and I think

1:37:57
this is what we shared earlier. That was there about fork do we would net about 14,000,001 75 from the CRF on and then the SS er, which is that emergency secondary school elementary and secondary school about 2,000,250. So a total of about 16.4 to 5 million after we allocate a certain percentage to charters. And so some of the things that we are looking at, this is the question that this is the discussion item that you’re talking about, right?

1:38:34
I don’t know I don’t I this is

1:38:36
you’re talking about what we covered earlier

1:38:39
in the COVID-19.

1:38:40
It’s what we cover, but I what I have for you is some of the current expenditures that I could share with you that we’ve identified that will come out of that $16.4 million, if you like, that’d be great. Yeah, so when we initially deployed online learning, we spent about 901,901 622 At seven, and then we are planning to purchase fourth and fifth grade iPads consistent with what we do with sixth through 12th right now. And then that would afforded us the opportunity to move the iPads that we have in our fifth, fourth and fifth grade down into the third, second in first grade and so on to bolster their classroom sets from 10 to about 20. And then in January, we would revisit that to see if we want to go down to the third grade as well in purchasing and that’s about 2.9 million for the fourth and fifth grade. And then with operations and maintenance, looking at custodial, protective gear and sanitizer, about $31,642 and 81 cents, we’re still calculating the salary and benefits, the maintenance sanitizer and the district Resource Center about $16,981 and 42 cents in salary and benefits around 23,000. But we’re going to continue to work on We know we’re going to incur some costs and transportation. But we haven’t identified exactly how much we may need additional buses and bus drivers for some of the additional routes if we’re only able to get half the kids on a school bus at a time. And then somebody have a question. Oh,

1:40:21
oh, yeah, you know about that.

1:40:25
I started counting, you know, if you put them in every seat, yeah. And you only gonna get 12 kids on the bus? Yeah, yeah, we get you get 55 kids in for elementary run, you’re gonna have to either do four runs, or, you know, quadruple and you actually got to probably four times the number of buses. Yeah.

1:40:44
Yeah, we’ll probably be looking at, you know, if it’s a 76 seat bus, somewhere around 20 that we would be able to get on a bus. And we’re figuring if we are going the alternating days, it would cut the load at each stop by about half so we’ll be close in that ballpark. But we might need a few more buses, like you said, you know, and however many we need, but you’re absolutely correct, Jim. And then warehouse sanitizer and protective gear. We’re still working on that. But it’s been about 230,000. And then purchasing unlimited access to Florida Virtual K through 12. So that we could have students online full time and the curriculum would be available and the professional development that’s about 420,000 paper packets and thermometers, etc. $25,853 and 42 cents, the distribution center, about 270,000 still working on that. And then we’ve got some other areas pre school after school programming, and some other things that we will be looking at. But we’ll keep track of that, in relation to that 16.4 to 5 million total allocation for us, after we allocate to the charter portion

1:42:00
and you said it needs to be spent by December.

1:42:03
It needs to be encumbered by December. Yeah.

1:42:05
Yeah, any concern that you won’t be able to find places to spend it?

1:42:09
Now, you know, I think we definitely will. The, the key for us is we want to make sure that we spend it in ways that that really, you know, make an impact. And so we’re trying to be really thoughtful. And these are things that tie directly into that COVID-19, but will also support our system as a whole. So we’ll definitely be able to spend it. And we’ll definitely be able to, you know, spend it on things that are really, really important. So won’t be able to spend it on one time or on ongoing things. I know. You know, some people talk about salaries and benefits, it’s hard. You know, you can purchase a temporary custodial staff to increase the amount of sanitizing that happens during the week, but you can’t really do it for permanent salaries and benefits. And things like that is just wouldn’t it doesn’t make any sense. Greg or Jackie, did you guys either one of you have anything?

1:43:08
Yeah, I think we’re still really very early in terms of the uses. The guidelines are pretty, pretty broad. But I don’t know that that means when we get down to how we want to spend it, whether or not that’s going to be allowable through that, but we do have clear guidance in terms of PP and E sanitizer, online learning. All of those are okay to do. The question is, are there other other areas out there where we can use that money? And so if we could use it, and it’s part of our current expenditure plan, there’s no, there’s no supplant clause here as opposed to supplement. So if we could identify those, then that would potentially free up money to go to some of those other key programs. That we want to keep going, that aren’t covered by the cares, CRF or extra funds.

1:44:08
Like one of the things Greg and I were talking about today, as watching, and I don’t know how much accuracy there is the one of the school districts indicated that 10% of their student body indicated they would not be coming back to in person. This was a different did not our district, but this was a different district. And so you start to think about that, is that going to be a consistent sentiment? You know, around other districts? Who knows? I think a lot of it depends on, you know, a variety of things. But my point is, the question becomes then since we signed contracts for teachers and staff that we’re obligated to next year, and then let’s say you have a drop in enrollment, could this money be used to buffer the loss of enrollment under the class because one of the categories is class sizes, and the way that you stop class sizes from going up there. You make sure there are teachers in those buildings. So those are some of the questions that Greg and I have kind of been flipping around where that will, you know, we’ll get that clarification. But either way, we’ll We will definitely be able to use the money effectively. So

1:45:19
did you were you pointing okay? No, you good. Okay. It’s hard with the masks on breathing. Breathing. Yeah.

1:45:27
Well, a lot of the programs too, though, that, you know, Jackie will be doing around like the literacy after school and things along those lines that can fall under the category of, you know, slowing down the loss of learning and retention. And I there are several areas that you guys are going to be, you know, pushing the envelope on so. Okay. All right.

1:45:50
Any final questions or comments?

1:45:54
All right. And, Barb, thanks for joining us this evening. Appreciate it. Thanks, Julian. Tim, thank you for your assistance this evening as well. We’ll meet here again in the boardroom on Wednesday June June 10 at 6pm for a regular meeting. Thanks everyone for being here and congratulations on another successful school school year it regardless of how the year ended, it absolutely was a tremendous success. Congratulations to everyone. I would entertain a motion for adjournment please show moved by gem and a second. Second by Chico All in favor. Hi.

1:46:39
Thanks, everyone. Be safe.

1:46:50
BB Are you coming back in so I can just leave this here.

1:46:54
Okay, and I left a booklet in here for john. Okay, great parents. Yep, thank you very much.

1:47:11
Thanks everyone. Bit

1:47:46
out there. So that’s why I was with Julie. We figured we didn’t need both of us.

1:47:50
Thank you probably. No,

1:47:53
it’s okay. I wonder if this works.

1:47:59
Thank you

1:48:29
I was gonna say you

1:48:29
can’t see me smiling right now.

1:48:50
Two plugs in.

1:48:55
This has been good. I’m glad that we were

1:48:57
experimenting with it.