February 8, 2023 at 7:30 AM - Budget Committee Meeting

Description:  The purpose of this agenda item is to review the projected end of the year balance. The 22-23 Fund 10 budget approved by the School Board in October was balanced and included a $100,000 contingency. As of the end of November, the special education teacher approved for Heritage will come from the contingency fund. The budget also includes the additional $1M approved through the operational referendum question. The school board has not approved expenditures related to the $1M at this time. Administration will bring this topic back to the March budget committee meeting. 

The budget committee expressed an interest in reviewing natural gas purchases.  The utility expenditures will likely exceed the utility budget  due to increases in the market rates for natural gas. See attached natural gas pricing chart. Attached you will find additional information about the natural gas market. Administration will be inviting our natural gas supplier to a future budget committee meeting.

Description:  The purpose of this agenda item is to discuss the draft of the 2023-2024 budget process. Attached please find the budget timeline. 

Description:  The purpose of this agenda item is to review a draft of the budget planning process.  Attached please find the budget planning process draft. 

As a reminder, administration is recommending a budget planning process utilizing the 5-year average for enrollment planning. The 5-year average is projecting an increase of 110 new students, which nets out to a +9 overall. Administration will share the estimates that are being used to plan for the 23-24 budget, the FTE projections for grades K-12, and the overall revenue/expenditure estimates. Based on feedback received from the school board, an additional first grade section at Prairie Elementary has been added. 

Attached also, please find a draft of the 3-Year Budget Planning Process. The administrative team has been working to update the budget requests for the next 3 years. Administration intends to provide an updated version at the March budget committee meeting. 

Please also find the middle school/high school data that has been prepared by Tim Schell. Tim will provide a high level overview of this data at the meeting. 

Description:  The purpose of this agenda item is to review the 2023-24 health insurance planning process. The insurance committee reviewed the results of the staff survey on Thursday, February 2nd. The plan that most closely aligns with the staff survey is Plan Y. Plan Y includes significant increases in both copays and the deductible. Please see the attachment which provides the details on Plan Y. 

Plan Y also includes an additional 3% district investment into the health insurance premium. This will be the first increase in health insurance premiums since the five-year agreement with Dean Health Plan. Plan Y introduces a new plan option called a high deductible health plan. Staff choice was a significant component of the staff survey. 

The 23-24 budget planning process includes a 3% increase in the district health insurance premium. Administration will be seeking feedback from the budget committee on this topic. 

Description:  Attached please find the DEI Ad Hoc recommendations that were assigned to the HR and Budget committee. Administration would like to review the recommendations and discuss a process of evaluation. The budget committee has three recommendations identified. Along with reviewing all DEI recommendations for 23-24 budget planning purposes. 

Description:  The purpose of this agenda item is to review the attached revised financial plan related to the November 8th referendum.The plan has been updated based on the school board approved January borrowing. Administration will review the next steps in the financial plan. 

In addition, Administration is requesting budget committee feedback on the investment strategy for the funds that have been borrowed to date. Brett Weeden from PMA will join the meeting via Zoom and will review the interest rate options available to the district. We will review the options through the One Community Bank, other local banks who express an interest, shorter term investment pools (LGIP & WISC), national banks, and federal government investments. Administration will be requesting school board approval of an investment strategy at the February 13th board meeting. 

We have also attached the November referendum report that we intend to provide to the board each month. Please feel free to let us know if you have any feedback.

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