September 27, 2019 at 7:30 AM - Budget Committee Meeting

Description:  The purpose of this agenda item is to review the fund balance allocations approved by the School Board at the September 9th meeting. Please recall that during the month of June, the School Board approved fund balance classifications to comply with national accounting standards. Attached please find an all Funds fund balance report and a fund balance report detailed the accounting of the Fund 10 937900 and 938900 fund balance accounts. 

The final 18-19 Fund 10 fund balance is $6,778,701.67 or 13.3% of the 19-20 Fund 10 expenditure budget approved in August by the School Board. The 13.3% compares to a number of 15.3% in 18-19. The Board policy on fund balance has a statement of working towards maintaining a 15% balance. Please note that the Fund 41 fund balance has increased to $1,313,442.12 as part of the three-year plan to decrease the Fund 10 fund balance while increasing the Fund 41 fund balance. Added together, these amounts represent 15.9% of the 19-20 Fund 10 expenditure budget approved in August by the School Board. 

The 18-19 fiscal year was the first year where funds are being set aside for the replacement of the turf field for Warrior Stadium. You can see the balance in the 937900 fund balance account. Please recall that School Board policy allows buildings/departments to carry over funds from one fiscal year to the next. You can see the balances in the 938900 fund balance account.

I would like to review the carryover balance for the District (Referendum) line within Fund 10. The ending balance is $520,686.37. The School Board has currently approved $401,425 in Capital Projects. I would like feedback from the Committee on increasing the 19-20 Capital Projects budget by $119,261.00 (the difference between the ending balance and the approved projects) so that these funds are available for review by the Facility Committee for consideration of work at Prairie Elementary School, the pool at the High School, and any other issues that arise this year.

Please contact Steve Summers at stevesummers@waunakee.k12.wi.us or 849-2012 if you have any questions. Thanks.

Description:  The purpose of this agenda item is to review the first required Annual Report for School Based Accounting. As a reminder, last fall I shared the budget version of this report with the School Board. I have attached the DPI version of the report (School Based Financial Report) as well as data from the ForeCast5 Analytics system (ESSA Report Actuals...). The ForeCast5 data allows for a "deeper dive" than the DPI version of the report. I will review these reports with the Committee.

If you have any questions, please contact me at stevesummers@waunakee.k12.wi.us or (608) 849-2000 ext 8012. Thank you.

Description:  The purpose of this agenda item is to review the remaining steps in the timeline for the 2019-20 Budget Process. 

Description:  The purpose of this agenda item is to review the topic of the Fund 39 tax levy for the 2019-20 school year. I have attached the following documents:

1. An explanation from our financial adviser on the 2 options available for consideration
2. An estimated 2019 equalized value increase for the School District (estimate from ForeCast5)
3. Wisconsin DOR equalized value reports for the Village of Waunakee and the Town of Westport

Because of the complexity of this issue, I would prefer to discuss each document, and what they mean, at the Committee meeting. After discussion, I would like feedback from the Committee on the topic of the Fund 39 tax levy. 

Please contact Steve Summers at stevesummers@waunakee.k12.wi.us or 849-2000 ext 8012 if you have any questions. Thanks.

Description:  The purpose of this agenda item is to continue the discussion on the financial plan for the Soccer Stadium fundraising project. The Facility Committee will meet again on September 30th to discuss the Soccer Stadium field project. I have attached information from our referendum bond attorney for your review.

There are two different topics to discuss regarding the financial plan for the Soccer Stadium. The first topic is a determination of the District's financial commitment to this project and how that will be funded. The second topic relates to the portion of the project paid for by the community fundraising group.

As background information, the Warrior Stadium fundraising financial plan included the use of pledges over time. The Warrior Stadium community fundraising group met with the Budget Committee (towards the end of the fundraising campaign), to discuss options for financing the project. The basic options were a private loan or a public loan through the school district. Private loans carry an above market interest rate due to the risks involved. A loan through the school district required an increase in the cash flow borrowing process that was completed in the fall. The loan through the school district was significantly less expensive overall compared to a private loan. The Budget Committee recommended providing a school district loan to the Warrior Stadium community fundraising group instead of a private loan. Attached please find the details on the amount calculated for this loan at the end of the 18-19 fiscal year. This information will be shared with the District's audit firm during the audit process.

The Soccer Stadium community fundraising group would like to discuss this topic on the front end of the fundraising campaign. Administration is requesting Budget Committee feedback on this topic. 

Please contact Steve Summers at stevesummers@waunakee.k12.wi.us or 608-849-2000 ext 8012 if you have any questions.

Description:  The purpose of this agenda item is to discuss accepting credit cards as a payment option for the Infinite Campus student management system.

Notes on this topic from the August 7th Committee Meeting
Infinite Campus will be updating their software in August to allow credit card transactions, with a convenience fee option for districts to select. The convenience fee option can either be a flat dollar amount per transaction or percentage based. Administration is recommending adding the credit card payment option with adding a percentage-based convenience fee to cover the costs associated with the credit card processing fee. District families have experienced this credit card processing fee with both the RevTrak and Classmunity electronic payment systems. Classmunity is used for fundraising and RevTrak is used for fees not collected through the student management system. I am seeking feedback from the committee on this topic.

Updated Notes on this Topic
The Budget Committee supported the concept on August 7th to allow credit card transactions, with charging the convenience fee to parents. Unfortunately there have been multiple technology glitches with the implementation of the credit card transactions. These glitches have not been apparent to our parents, but have been a time-consuming task for the Accounts Payable Specialist and District Registrar to work through.

The good news---parents have embraced the ability to make fee payments via credit/debit card transactions. I have attached a report from 8/28 to 9/17 indicating parents paid $161,432 in fees through e-checks from their checking accounts and $105,885 via credit and debit cards.

The challenges---there is a technology glitch that will not allow districts to charge a convenience fee on credit/debit cards and not e-checks. As soon as we discovered this glitch, we eliminated the convenience fee as parents were incorrectly being charged these fees when paying via e-check. I am seeking feedback from the Committee on the following three options at this point:

1. eliminate the credit/debit card option
2. charge the convenience fee to all payments, including e-checks
3. District absorbs the credit/debit card processing fees

There may be other options moving forward. These could include adjusting fees to reflect the credit/debit card processing costs and software upgrades that would allow the proper assignment of convenience fees.

Our District Registrar has done some background work on this process and has found the following:

1. Sun Prairie, Stoughton, DeForest, Middleton all absorb the credit card fee.
2. Kaukauna charges a flat $1.75 for any online payment

Administration is seeking Budget Committee feedback on this topic. Please contact Steve Summers at stevesummers@waunakee.k12.wi.us or 608-849-2000 ext 8012 if you have any questions.

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