April 8, 2025 at 8:30 AM - Budget Committee Meeting

Description:  The purpose of this agenda item is to discuss the 25-26 budget timeline. As a reminder, we are entering into a new state budget cycle. As such, we will be following the process very closely and will recommend updates to the budget process as necessary. Allie Newton will review the next steps of the budget process. 

Description:  In January, the committee made a motion "to establish a fund 10 balance goal for 2024-25 of $0 and authorized administration to allocate expenditures across accounting funds to meet this goal." Administration has been working with HR to repost salaries and benefits to get an accurate snapshot of where we are at now compared to the last posting which was done in October. We have completed the initial process of reposting all salary and benefits for the 2024-25 school year. Several revisions were identified and we expect to have this process completed by the end of April.

We also wanted to make the committee aware of the post-employment benefit payments we have made for 24-25 which total $633,391.46. The current balance in our trust account is $722,294. Administration will begin the process of pulling the OPEB funds out of the trust to reimburse fund 10 for the payments made this year. The remaining balance will be less than $100,000 which confirms that the 25-26 budget planning process will need to include funding for OPEB payments. 

In addition to the HR data, administration has updated the nonsalary/benefit data such as legal fees, special education categorical aid revenues, etc. Next steps would include finalizing the reposting the HR data and then reallocate the necessary expenditures from fund 10 to fund 49. The end result of this process will be a budget revision presented in early May or June.

Description:  Attached please find a revised fund balance policy. This revised policy aligns with the discussiont that took place at the second board workshop. We are asking for review by the budget committee before sending to the policy committe for approval. 

Description:  The purpose of this discussion is to begin the process of planning for future debt service/referendum discussions. Attached please find example financial plans that build upon the recently completed $175 million referendum and provides an example of a future $75 million or $125 million additional borrowing. The school board has requested financial data on a range of options for the high school campus and administration also will be providing corresponding debt service financial plans. The purpose of this discussion is informational only and administration will be requesting feedback on any additional information that board members would like to see surrounding this topic. 

Description:  The purpose of this agenda item is to continue the discussion of technology updates for the 2025-26 school year related to bussing.  These updates include camera upgrades as well as app technologies. The committee expressed an interest in holding on these investments until the next request for proposal. Dr. Brown would prefer additional conversation around options to consider in 25-26. One opportunity could be the use of a parent app to track the bus, without the investment individual student tracking and security cameras. The options for moving forward include:
1) Limited technology improvements for 2025-26 & 2026-27, request for proposal for 2027-28 includes updated technology and cameras
2) District purchases the technologies directly and maintains ownership independently of bus contractor. These costs have been included on the facility committee projects list in case there is interest in this option. Please refer to the original letter from Lamers.
3) Lamers purchases the technologies directly and District is charged an additional fee per-bus-per-day. Please refer to the new letter from Lamers.

Administration appreciates the options presented by Lamers and seeks feedback from the budget committee regarding preferred approach to move forward. 

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