>> good afternoon. Thank you for being here. I call to order this special meeting work session of
the battle ground school district board of directors for november 10th, 2025, at 4:00 p.m.
>> good afternoon, board. This afternoon, we've got about an hour and a half set aside,
and I want to thank you for your willingness to engage in this information and ask lots of questions.
at the end of our hour and a half, our hope is that we will have provided questions and you've asked
clarifying questions that will help guide us,
that you will give us some input around the levy amount, and when we might select an election date to look at a potential resolution.
we need this direction in order to put a resolution in front of you as well as to seek
a pro and cons committee and our plan is to have
that information for you at the next regular board meeting later this month.
today, we're hoping to provide enough information that you can have some dialogue and that we can get that clarification,
and I just want to thank you for that because I know that this is a difficult decision or will be
a difficult discussion for all of you to just make decisions that could impact our kids.
certainly, last time we heard about some of those impacts, and so I just want to acknowledge that this isn't always an easy decision to make.
just encourage you in that and appreciate your leadership. Carla, you want to get us turned on.
I know that you have these slides in front of you, but wanted to make sure that we
also had them for anybody who's watching that they can follow along as well.
our first slide is just a pretty basic one, one that I'm sure that you are aware of.
obviously, where does our school funding come from? It comes from a variety of places.
the only piece that is really stable right now is the state funding that we receive.
that comes through apportionment, essentially through the number of students that we have and then
through the funding formula in our prototypical school model.
we do have a capital levy right now. That's our local funding that we're taking in.
that was, of course, voter-approved several years ago, but can only be used for the capital projects that we outlined in the capital levy.
we cannot use it for operations. The ep&o levy can only be used in those general cases,
not the capital levy. We don't have a current bond, as you know.
when we had one, it fell off two years ago, and it was voter-approved and was over 20 years and that fell off.
we replaced that rather than a bond through the information
that we provided and gathered from our community, we decided to go for a capital levy instead of a bond.
we still do get federal dollars. Those federal dollars certainly have been adjusted in the last year or so,
and we're watching some of those. Some of those are grant dollars and some of those are
for things like special education or help for our lower-income families and students
for meals and a variety of other programs like that.
next. We wanted to paint a picture of
the last few years and give you an idea of where our revenues and our expenditures are coming from.
you can see from this slide here that the expenditures
continue to grow in a variety of different amounts based on the year.
some of that is we don't always know what all of our expenditures are going to be,
and of course, we budget, we plan for what we know and hope that we have
all the information that we need in order to maintain a balanced budget.
you can see in the gray here that we have all of the expenditure pieces in place,
the revenue in place, but the expenditures as I was talking about,
there's a difference in what we had been functioning at between last year and
this year because of the loss of levy dollars was a half of a year's collection because our current levy runs out in december of this year.
that's why the $20 million cut instead of a $40 million cut is because the budget is
coming two school years.
let me say that correctly. You can see here that we've tried to outline this information
because the only piece that is stable is the part that's in blue.
in 2022/'23, we had sr dollars as well,
and we also had those in '23/'24. We used the end of those dollars last year in the first half of the school year.
they ended at the end of the calendar year 2024.
you can also see in this example that we maintained a fund balance,
and you can see, it's a small amount on there that we have been using to pay our bills.
then you can see that we've also had the ep&o levy.
obviously, that falls off at the end of '25 so when we go into '26,
we won't have any money coming in in the spring. What else can I tell you about this.
michelle, anything you would add to this?
>> no. I think you covered it. >> okay. >> question quickly. I think there's no orange on '23/'24. No fund balance.
>> in '23/'24? >> yeah.
>> there is. It's just little. >> it's so small. >> it's so small we can't see it.
>> [laughter] will get to a slide that explains what's happening with our fund balance,
and we'll talk specifically about fund balance in a little bit further.
>> there's a little sliver in there. [overlapping] >> because we didn't use our fund balance.
>> oh, I see. This is the expenditures. >> revenue and expenditures.
the expenditures are in gray or that gray scale color,
and the colors are the types of funding that we use to pay those sources.
>> but just for clarification, so when we're looking at '24/'25,
that 30 million will be gone by the end of december this year?
>> correct. >> yeah. Going forward,
that yellow section will be gone. >> we'll have a bit of it in the '25/'26 school years.
as you can see, this is last year's budget, and that's how much we used of last year's budget, $30 million.
but that doesn't include the first part of this school year
because it's based on a calendar year, not a school year.
>> but when we look across there, that's a significant number.
>> it's our second-largest funding source that we used to pay our bills. Yes..
>> at the end of this year, december 31st, it will be gone. >> correct.
>> okay. >> yes. Good point. Really, what do you need to know?
these are some basics you probably are well aware of. 97% of washington schools have an ep&o levy in 2025.
it's really uncommon. Usually, the schools that don't have a levy are those schools that
are really tiny or those school districts that get tribal dollars.
oftentimes, the necessity is not there because of those extra funds they get in another means.
levees expire. You have a choice. You can run them for one year up to four years.
we typically since that change to allow for four years, we've typically run them for four years,
just because consistent stable funding is better for us,
and it costs significantly to run a campaign and well,
not a campaign for us, but to run a levee, it's not cheap.
we have quite a bit that we're paying for, and so we typically don't.
a rate change is we'll go over some information about rate changes,
but school districts can make different decisions and we'll do a look back
at some of the decisions that we've made in the past and talk a bit about why we've made those.
it is a simple majority 50% plus one. There is no voter turnout requirement like there is with a bond,
and there are exemptions for seniors or people with disabilities.
we're going to talk a little bit about survey results, and I'm going to let amanda take the lead on this.
>> board, as you know, earlier this fall, we worked with the research firm to conduct a survey of community perceptions.
what a survey like this helps us do is expand beyond input that you may hear from different individuals or small groups,
and really look at our community as a whole and also put some data to community perceptions.
that's why we go through something like this. The interviews were conducted in early september among 250 participants,
and the firm really tried to ensure there was an equal balance of different groups.
what I mean by that is they looked at things like age, race, gender,
whether or not people are current bgps parents and where they live within the district,
whether they're more north or central or south. The survey has a 95% confidence level and a plus or minus 6% margin of error.
that is pretty standard. What this means is that we can be 95% confident that
the survey results would represent the population of the district as a whole,
plus or minus 6%. I just to give you a comparison point.
there was a survey over the summer of washington state residents' perceptions about state government,
and to represent the entire state of roughly eight million washingtonians that survey reached out to 400 folks.
we're right in line with the industry standards. Any questions about methodology before we move on?
>> how was it given? >> it was given by telephone and also online. Good question.
one of the questions asked about people's perception of the district's funding level.
the question was, do you think bgps definitely needs additional funding,
probably needs additional funding, has enough, or some people said they weren't sure.
they asked this question twice. One was without providing a lot of context,
and then they shared some information about what levy funding pays for, and then they asked the question again.
the percentages you're seeing on screen represent the second time the question was asked.
I will note that the last time we did a survey like this was in 2023,
leading up to the capital levy, and at that time, 53% said that the district needs additional funding,
40% said sufficient or too much, and 7% were not sure.
over the two year span, there's been about a 10% shift.
one of the other questions that was asked was around tax sensitivity.
I would like to note that this is not around school taxes specifically,
but rather taxes for all public services.
we can't ask what rate or amount people would support,
but we can't ask about whether they think their taxes are too high or about right.
that 56% you see that says taxes are too high,
whether that's too or just a little bit, that is unchanged since 2023,
so no movement there.
then the survey asked about people's priorities for how levy funds would be used.
they were able to say whether something was a priority, and then the survey folks asked them to say,
what is your ultimate top priority number 1, recognizing that not everything can be the top priority.
then what emerged with safety and security is at the top of the list
followed by smaller class sizes with special education coming in third.
we also conducted a thought exchange, as you know, with a smaller group, certainly not the scale of this survey,
but safety and security also was at the top of the list in that exchange as well.
any questions about the survey?
>> you mentioned on the page about
perception of funding that there were two times that you asked them that question.
this is the second time after they had more information? >> correct. >> what was their initial response?
the cold call response? What's your perception? >> I think it was about four percentage points lower initially.
>> lower, so less. Thank you.
>> we're going to share some information about what we
believe are factors to consider additionally in our review,
rising costs, fund gaps, and the fund balance, because we believe those are
important components for you to have some background information. Please do stop us at any point or ask additional questions as we go.
I think this is the part that is really key to the discussion of the board this next piece.
some of the things that we are experiencing, I think, are important to note.
we have been talking about in the past about rising costs.
you certainly heard it when we discussed a levy last year. We talked about the risk insurance having gone up about
$100,000 and utilities over the several years going up a $0.5 million.
as we know, not unlike our own budgets at home,
costs are continuing to rise. Some of the upcoming things that we're hearing about after already being into
this new school year include a water rate increase of a little over 34% over the next two years.
a real surprise for us, you've probably heard that one of the things that the legislature passed was
a requirement for school districts that contract
their transportation services to provide health benefits to the employees.
the intention, we believe, was for it to be a pass-through; that they would send the money to the districts,
and we would pass it on through. We would write our rfps or our new contracts to basically say,
the money that's coming to you from the state is going to be passed directly to
the contractors in a similar way that it's done for our own employees currently.
unfortunately, they didn't build that into the budget. Next year in '26/'27,
it's a $2 million cost that we anticipate needing to pick up because the state didn't fund it.
they didn't build it in the budget, even though it's a state requirement. >> how much again? >> two million.
>> two million. >> two million dollars. >> that again is an increased cost that was unexpected for us,
and my hope is that they might fix that. But obviously not something we can count on,
and we will be required to make sure that those benefits get passed onto our contracted service,
whoever that may be. You'll see on the regular session that we have an rfp out for a new contract.
it only impacts districts when a new contract gets open,
but for us, that's hitting next year. Additionally, new sales tax requirement, we don't know.
it could be more than a quarter of 1 million, but we're doing some estimations based on last year's costs for some of these services.
any of those contracted services that we have, whether those be for professional services or services, for instance,
if we have to hire outside of our own staff for a nurse,
a special kind of nurse, or those kinds of things, there's an excise tax that we would be paying.
did I say that right, michelle? Sales tax on it.
that's a new piece that everybody across the state and it's not unique to us,
are all trying to grapple with. You probably have heard some of it happen with healthcare,
and they've said, oh, healthcare is exempt. They've exempted a handful of federal or state governments,
but we're not one of them at this point. That is a cost that we're still trying to get handle on.
healthcare rates those continue to increase, and obviously,
there are some costs that we can't determine until they come out and tell us what the new rates will be.
as you know, we are covered from the state when
it comes to any costs for people that are funded staff,
but any staff above the prototypical school model, the district typically is paying for that with levy dollar.
any questions? >> can you give an example of that?
what you just said about. >> healthcare cost. >> yeah.
>> we have staff, as you know, our class sizes, typically,
we have not run them at max across the board because sometimes we
wouldn't be able to offer courses like ap courses,
aspire courses, even some of our intervention courses.
we staff above what the state says we need. It could be in that area,
it could be nursing staff. We talked about programming for nurses last week;
it could be counselors. We employ more staff members in
some areas than the state says that we get in the prototypical school model.
in those cases, we don't get the health care coverage. We don't get the cost.
this year, it's 1078 per employee,
I believe, is the rate. >> [inaudible].
>> oh, is it that much now? >> $1,300. >> it went up 11% from last year. It increased.
we don't know with the healthcare benefits, what's on the horizon.
they haven't established those rates, but we feel like they may also increase significantly.
they won't necessarily be two or 3%. We expect that they'll go up greater than that.
>> that's annually. 01,300 annually. >> [overlapping] no, per month.
>> it's in that situation. >> got you. Well, that's why I asked. Big difference. [overlapping]
>> huge.
>> we used to say it was about when we first went to seb,
you could count on about $1000 a month per employee, and we had a number of employees that weren't covered,
and it was about a 200. No. I'm going to quote it wrong.
we had about 200 employees that were that were above the prototypical out of our 1,600 employees,
and so we were picking up the difference for that cost.
with rates, you just don't know how those are going to be impacted.
good questions. Anything else rising costs.
>> we don't have the option to not pay those because it's part of their contract.
>> no. In fact, even if an employee chooses to turn down.
this is one of the interesting things about this health care situation that we have.
even if they turn down the benefits, we still have to pay that amount.
>> why?
>> I didn't write the law. [laughter] I don't know.
there are things that don't make sense. That would be one of them.
good question. We wanted to give you a sense over
a four-year look of some areas where we continue to have funding gaps.
these are some big buckets. We could probably go into many more areas,
but these are some big buckets and we chose some of these things because you could
see that lower class sizes and safety and security were matters to our community,
and they told us that in those surveys. You can see what they cost over that time frame,
and you can also see how much state funding that we received. Costs of 238 million,
state funding of 203 million. For teaching 35 million,
35.5 million underfunded over the course of those years.
essentially, about 7 million per year, safety and security, almost 11.5 million shortfall.
substitute costs. This is one that impacts every single district across the state of washington.
we are funded for four substitute days per employee,
and we are required to allocate one sick day per month.
obviously, if people are using all of those sick days,
we have to cover the substitute costs, and there's no reimbursement for that.
that's just an underfunded cost for us that we have to pick up,
and we're required to by law. We don't have a choice in that. Athletics. Again, athletics,
the state does not send us funding for athletics.
athletic pieces come through a variety of different things.
levy support is a big piece of that. Obviously, user fees.
our students talked last time in our work session about the increased costs for them to play sports,
and so much of those have increased for our students to be able to even keep that.
but that's an area that's not funded at all.
>> this is a figure that is based on four years?
>> yeah, it's 21 through 25. >> twenty-seven million in four years for the first item, teaching.
the 27 million at the bottom says, we're underfunded by $27 million for four years.
>> or the powerpoint. [overlapping] >> we didn't get an update. [overlapping]. >> that was originally three years,
the one you must be looking for. >> this is four years. This is a four-year look.
>> but I'm looking at the one that's on our docks. >> oh, wil, you've got printed right there.
>> got you. I thought they were the same. I'm sorry. >> sorry. We made some minor tweaks even as late as today.
trying to get even better at giving you the information. >> thank you. That's appreciated. [laughter].
>> sorry. >> but that is a four-year value. >> this is a four-year value.
correct. Essentially 7 million per year,
if you just break it down, it doesn't out that way because the costs go up,
of course, every year. But essentially, you could take each one of those and divide them by four to see an annual amount.
going back to this slide,
I think terry hughes set this next piece up really nicely for us to talk a little bit about fund balance.
you can see that in 22, 23, 23 24,
and even 24, 25, we had federal sr dollars that we were using.
you can see those in green. The fund balance shrinks to almost nothing.
you can barely see that on the slide, and you can see that the ep and o levy is the second largest funding source for us.
what is critical to think about in
this next slide is that our fund balance has continued to go down over the last few years.
not only will next year in 2026, be without a levy,
our fund balance reliance is not something that we can continue to rely on moving forward.
those, as we've talked about many times, is our one-time monies.
it's our savings account. It's not going to renew itself,
and that's essentially what has been happening over the course of a number of years.
you can see a large amount of the fund balance in 21, 22.
you can see that used in the blue as assigned. One of the things that was a priority for us as we were coming out
of covid is looking at some of the curriculum that needed to be updated.
you know, we did a huge purchase when we did our ela, our k-8 ela purchases,
and we've been continually trying to update. In the last few years,
we've been doing lesser of updates, and you can see that reflected in the blue,
not as much money assigned. Most of that is curriculum and projects that we had set aside,
whether it be technology upgrades or curriculum pieces.
as you know, this year, we decided to put all curriculum updates on hold,
and we were not doing any of that this year. We really are only looking at the unassigned minimum fund balance in our policy 60,
22, that piece here. Michelle, anything you would to add on this slide?
anything? No. We just have become more and more reliant on the fund balance.
>> what would be slang or street talk for what the fund balance is?
>> your savings account. >> your savings account. >> yeah. >> now, when we say assigned,
we're talking about a savings account that I've set aside, and I'm going to spend a certain way.
>> exactly. It's like when you're at home and you say, I'm going to need a new roof in five years,
and so I start putting away some money to pay for that. That's essentially what the assigned balance is.
>> if I wanted to have a pool, I could say, well, you know what? What we said we would use that for the roof,
or we're going to use it for a pool instead. Now the roof doesn't have any money.
but the green is, in fact, what we set aside the rainy day.
we just don't know what it's for. >> I wouldn't even call that the rainy day fund because what
really that is is to take care of cash flow. What happens is our money comes in at different times throughout the year,
and when we do have a levy, you get a big amount at certain times of the year.
usually, once in the fall and once in the spring, you get a larger amount. In between those times,
you still have to make payroll. Sometimes you get very little, if any money, in certain months,
and you still have to have that money available in order to pay your bills each month.
the unassigned is really the rainy day or the unexpected.
that's the hole that you saw as you were coming in today, probably out front, which is a water leak.
that's really the unassigned fund balance. That's being used for emergency.
>> you just said something really important, I think we need to be sure we're clear on, and that is,
you have to have certain balances in the unassigned
because of the way the monies go from the state to the school,
in how monies are flowing through, and getting your payroll done and all that stuff.
you can't just have it at a zero. >> no. >> there as a matter of fact, some districts who
have and they ended up having to borrow money from banks to get their money ready for payroll or whatever.
that is not just money sitting there that's not being used, it is a pass-through thing that is very fluid.
we don't really have a rainy day fund that is sitting
somewhere that I can use for an emergency if I wanted to have my pool kind of a thing.
there's no money sitting anywhere any place. >> no, you can see here that the
unassigned that I would have said would have been the rainy day fund. No, it's not there anymore. We've used it.
>> I think the important part [overlapping]. >> I was just going to say I'll just remind the board that our policy 60,
22 does not cover one months of expenses. That is not even a rainy day fund by any stretch.
we reduced that policy from 6,000,000-46,000,00. >> 46%.
>> 46%.
thank you. [overlapping] our budget. >> when you say we reduced the policy.
>> we reduced the percentage required. Sorry, let me clarify.
we reduced percentage from 4-6% to cover as part of our policy.
that used to be at six. At the end of our fiscal year,
we have to have by policy that amount set aside.
again, the point being it won't cover one month's worth of expenses.
>> that is in the unassigned fund. >> that's in the unassigned to minimum fund balance.
that's policy 60 22. >> just trying to keep it in the same term so we can all understand.
>> I think the important part of this graph to is showing
that we are using all of the assigns money that was set aside for curriculum adoptions.
money that was set aside for potentially a capital need is
going to be depleted this year and part of next year,
because definitely there's not enough to cover the levy lows.
>> any other comments on this piece or questions?
we'd like to talk about two options, option a and option b.
option a would continue at current level of operation, but would not return all the student program support positions that were cut.
further cuts may need to be made based on rising costs because it feels
like every time we think we know exactly what we're going to have, there's a new cost that wasn't accounted for.
we go into option a with some hesitation on saying, yes,
we know we could have x, y, or z because that two million dollars surprise was a bit of a surprise to us.
we say that cautiously. Option b would return some programs and support positions.
we know that we would be looking more towards where we were last spring.
but again, I hesitate to say all.
that's why we didn't say that, and we say return some student programs and support positions because what we also
know about levies just historically and personally having lived here my whole life,
I know that there are some things you can never get back. We certainly made a good go of middle school sports,
this last levy when we returned middle school sports for the first time since the 1980s.
but what we know is that the starting of things is very difficult and we need to make sure that we have
enough money to sustain that rather than start and promise
our community that we could go back to a full middle school plan like we had.
I think that we probably could do some with option b, certainly,
but I don't know if we could do all and that just depends on what else might hit us between now and when we
have to budget plan again for our next school year and our next budget situation.
we wanted to give you a sense of where we were by calendar year and what has happened.
I think it's important to have the historical context of some of this information.
I think it's also important to understand why it is that we're asking for more money than we just had in the last levy.
there is very specific reasons beyond the gap. The gap is one reason.
but I think what people fail to know or really truly
understand is when we went out for the levy previously in 2022,
we didn't ask for as much levy dollars as we had in the previous levy,
partly because we had esser funds. We had enrollment stabilization funds,
we had transportation dollars. We had dollars coming from the federal government because of covid,
and so we did not ask for more than we needed.
we asked for what we needed based on that additional funding source.
if you look at this slide, you can see that in 2021, we were just over $40 million between our ep&o levy,
our local effort assistance program, which we no longer qualify for,
and our esser dollars, we were over 40. Even if we go out and we passed this levy,
we will not be above that amount that we were back in 2021,
if we ask for option a. Option b, we will only be slightly
above that and our costs have gone up significantly higher. I don't want anyone to assume that if we ask for that,
that we're going to go back to the same programming we had in 2021, because our costs have grown.
I think that's an important aspect of all of this to understand
is that we're continuing to be extremely frugal in our ass,
particularly at a time when we know that our community is struggling financially,
just like every other organization is with rising costs.
we're trying to be very thoughtful about it. I think it's also important to know that in 2026,
we will be leaving some local money on the table. You've heard about the dabbler timber money,
and only school districts or municipalities that have a levy can take in those dollars.
we will not be eligible to take in those timber monies in 2026 because we do not have an ep&o levy.
unfortunately, it will get spread out by other districts
around us and we will not have the advantage of taking in those extra dollars as well.
anything I'm forgetting on this, michelle?
>> can you explain the maximum allowed. Those numbers on the very right.
those are a little bit different numbers. >> we are allowed by law to request up to $2.50 per $100 of assessed value.
those would be the dollars that we would generate if we were asking for the max.
we are not asking for the max, but those would be the dollars that we would be taking in,
approximately 10 million more each year than what is on the slides here.
other questions? >> I'm trying to formulate it though,
so give me a second there. >> absolutely. >> anybody else?
>> last october, on our replacement projections,
we were projecting at $1.95,
which is irrelevant because it's really about the money we would bring in each year for 26,
which isn't an option, but for 27, 28, 29, it was 40 million,
42 million, and then almost 45 million.
I realized that even since last october, costs have skyrocketed.
we were talking, even in that, utilities had gone up 60%,
custodial supply 68%, insurance 84%, and it just continues to rise.
is that some of the basis for asking for these dollar
amounts now because these are higher so we're going to talk about that. [overlapping]
>> we felt like there were two things that were important, and you don't see that on this slide,
but you'll see the rates on the next slide. There were two things that we heard rumblings about.
there are things that we always hear rumblings about. One is when we go out for a levy and we don't pass at the first time,
there's a bit of an expectation that we'll lower the amount. We didn't do that last year,
and we didn't do that because we needed every single dollar.
we'd never asked for more than we needed. We felt like it was disingenuous to go
out and ask for that amount of money and then still make cuts.
we felt like we need to stay with what we have because we're going to make promises to our community
about our programs and how is it going to feel if we pass the levy and then we make cuts following that?
we felt like it was important to do. Since then, we've received some criticism and certainly
criticism makes this better or stronger or at least think about things a little bit more.
one of the things that you will see is we're putting out $1.90.
that doesn't mean that yes, it will generate more dollars,
but if we had passed the levy, we would be more than 41 million in 2026 because
our projection for that first year was 38.3,
and the next year was-. >> 40.4. >> 40.4, so not quite,
but a difference of about 500,000. What we know is that each year we're going to continue to get rising costs.
we're going to continue unless something significantly changes at the state level to get unfunded mandates.
we know that our costs are not going to stabilize and that we're not going to get some relief in that way.
we made the decision that we would put forth two options.
option a with a slightly lower millage rate and an option b,
which is $1.99, which again, is a little bit higher than what we went for in the spring,
but is exactly what we asked for last time. We asked for $1.99.
it didn't happen. By the time we paid our first bill as taxpayers,
it was down to $1.97, and then it continued to drop to where it is now, which is $1.87.
our thought was asking for $1.99 gives us
a little more confidence that we could go back to last spring and where we were last spring.
I do think that there's an expectation from some individuals
that we absolutely need to go back to last spring and where we were in staffing.
we felt like we needed to give you two options keeping in mind that
we also know that a lot of our community is struggling with taxes as well.
that's the balance of what we have in front of you.
the 2026 number of going down to absolutely no collection next year.
as I was saying earlier about middle school sports, that's also the year that they sold off,
ended up selling off buses in the school district, and we've been beholden to contracted services
ever since because once you go away from something, it's really hard to get it back.
we couldn't create a new fleet. I don't know that we have anything that we could sell off.
certainly, we're looking at any of the property that we have, any of those things as a potential,
but I personally don't feel overly comfortable with that because
property costs we eventually will need to build new schools.
we continue to grow. Many of our districts around us are shrinking in enrollment and we're not.
I don't think that's a great option either, but we're going to have to do something.
living without a levy is not sustainable as a district.
>> did you remember your question? >> well, I formulated it more, I think.
what you were just saying. My perception, just to say,
is that the state has built the need for the ep&o into the system.
that's the whole point of it. They have built it into the system.
in other words, they're not going to give us enough money. You see, the fact
that they build it into the system means they realize we need the money, which is what they're supposed to be giving us.
if we need it, they're supposed to be giving it to us, but they're not going to give us a little portion. We're going to have to ask for it ourselves.
fine, that's the way I see it but it's built into the system.
then how much do we need in all that stuff? That's what I'm formulating my question around trying to get it here.
on this page we're looking at,
one thing that I see then that I can say in words that I can understand is that in 2027,
if we were to get the orange our option a,
we would be receiving a little just about the same as we got in 2021.
am I seeing that correctly? Then you've got to say, well, yeah,
but all everything is six years more expensive today thing. That's just my point.
we'd be getting the same amount of money that we got in 2021,
and you're going to be paying six years later inflationary expenses,
which we all know is crazy. Now I'm going back to the next page,
which is where jackie went that I hadn't looked at yet so I'm looking at the second page now.
>> you want me to flip it? >> can I look at that now and ask because it's a continuing question?
>> sure, absolutely. [laughter] >> what we're saying is then that we're going to ask for $1.90 if we do the orange?
>> correct. >> the minimum. We're going to ask for $1.90 per thousand, right?
>> yes. >> that will give us, as you can see,
like in 2028, where we were at in 2020, 2021,
2022, we're going to be where we're going to be at in 2028,
which is much lower than all of those years. >> correct.
>> we're not going to be able to do as much with this money as we used to because there's not going to be as much.
>> yes. >> I got my mind around that. I'm going to continue thinking here now.
I just wanted to talk it in terms is easier to understand.
we're talking about getting by with a lot less money? >> yes, and I think that is one of the points is that we have been
doing as much as we can with less for quite some time because obviously,
if you go back to 2020, when we had both an expiring bond and the levy,
we passed it or we had passed before the state redid all of the funding model,
and part of your taxes go up to the state right now and they allocate it as they see fit across the state.
that's when they lowered the amount that you could ask locally.
that $2.50 that you see in 2021 was after we had approved a levy and I can't remember the total amount,
but it was like 3.66 [overlapping] that we had approved.
we had a levy approved back then for 3.66,
but when the state redid the levy,
the way money works, some of it going to the state and some of it staying locally,
that is when at that point, we went to 2.50 or we kept at 2.50 after it had dipped down to 1.50,
and the state said, that was a mistake. We didn't allow you to keep as much as you need so now you can go 2.50.
when we did that, we actually did some capital improvements. The board at that time,
made some decisions that we would go to 2.50, but we would use some of that money in a different way
than just the operations of the district.
you can see that since then, the amount that we have been using has continually dropped by tax rate.
when we intentionally used the colors orange and black,
it's not because we love ted and we wanted him to have the tigers.
[laughter] although, go with that.
it's because orange is really close to red, and we're still worried about being in the red,
and the black is more where we feel more confident that we might be operating in the black.
>> I think that choice gives us the idea that what we're
trying to do is continue to do what's best for our community and our kids.
I'm proud of the fact that we have one of the lowest tax rates in the country,
and some people are always like, why don't you ask for more? You need more.
well, I think it's because we've heard from our community. I've heard it for decades.
I've lived here my entire life, and I've heard it over and over and over again. We are asking for absolutely what we need
in order to provide a good program for our kids.
that really is where we want to continue to be.
we believe there are other ways to get what we need on the state level.
I'll be speaking to legislators on friday about unfunded mandates and
doing some work about getting some of those things repealed and removed.
the state says we have no money. We want to listen to that, hear that,
and say there are other ways to help us in the schools, and that is repealing some of these things,
some of these unfunded mandates. If we can get help in those kinds of ways and those kinds of relief,
we don't have to continue to ask our taxpayers to be overburdened.
I think there are things that we can continue to do, but we can't survive without a levy.
the fact of the matter is, we are the only district around that's not got a levy.
other districts are borrowing to an earlier point.
they're borrowing to make their payroll. We're not in that case. We're being responsible with our funds and we're doing a good job.
our problem in '25 '26 this year and next year,
because this is a two year problem we're in, is that this is all self inflicted.
we're trying to make sure that that doesn't continue, that we can communicate what we need,
we can get people to understand what we need and really be able to move forward for our students.
other questions about the tax rate comparison.
>> well, just in terms of the tax burden, at the end of 2027,
the capital levy ends as well. >> yes. We'll have to decide at that point whether it's time for us to consider a bond,
whether we have projects that are desperate. We've been desperate around hvac systems,
the roofs, and then, of course, we asked our community for some help with some of with our trades program,
our culinary arts program, and our health science program, and they responded.
what's sad about all of that to me is that we're getting ready,
we're six months out to build a construction trades building.
if we don't pass a levee, we will not be able to put kids in
that building because we will be in a situation where we'll have to run our cte numbers as tight as we do other classes this year.
that would be an absolute travesty, particularly because we know that that is a high need in our area and in our community.
I think we heard last time from a variety of different people speaking to us,
but certainly, when derrick hugle was here as one of our cte partners.
that's a critical program for our community and our kids.
it's really sad to think, we got the capital levy and we're going to be
able to do some projects for health science, our culinary programs, our construction trades,
but if we can't run at a class size of 25,
then we're not going to be able to put kids in those facilities after we've built them.
that's ridiculous, frankly.
I think these next slides also paint a picture of the difference.
we wanted to give you an idea. If you start out with assessed value of 650,000,
people can figure out up or down from there where they're at.
but you can see that difference in estimated cost monthly for the difference between option a and option b.
this is assuming about a 3.5% assessed value increased on a property over the four years of the levy.
you can see how we would anticipate that might go up month to month.
this is always a hard piece to help people understand,
especially since some people they're paying through their escrow account.
they don't pay much attention to it. It happens once or twice a year if they're paying it as they own their property,
or they don't have something in escrow. Otherwise, it's a monthly cost.
this is the monthly example, if it was coming out of an escrow account, of what that amount might be.
any questions about this slide? >> right now, what am I paying out of my escrow account if I have a $650,000 house?
dick, is that something you could tell me? >> yeah. >> anybody? >> yes. We can in a second. Is it on one of those?
a $1.68 plus the $0.45.
>> that's 2.14. >> yeah, 2.14. [overlapping]
>> as you said, I didn't see that payment. Two hundred and fourteen dollars.
right now, I'm paying $214. >> $2.14.
>> $2.14. Well, how does that relate to the hundred three?
>> per $1,000 of assessed value. Whatever your house is assessed at?
$650,000. >> tell me how much I'm paying if it's 650,000 today.
this is what I'm paying that I'm not seeing.
>> [inaudible] >> thank you. I'm sorry to put you on the spot. I'm a math teacher. I'm supposed to be able to do this.
>> $115. [overlapping]
>> how much? >> 115. >> one hundred and fifteen. I just paid 115. I didn't know I paid it. I don't know, I pay it.
all I know is you're asking me to pay 103, and I'm thinking, I'm sorry.
I don't mean to be, but I'm not trying to insult anybody. I'm just saying that this is something that the
system that the state has built in on how schools are run. We've been paying this ever since I've been a homeowner.
we pay something. Property owners pay this stuff.
not the renters, the property owners. Okay, fine.
but right now I'm paying a 115, and we're asking everybody if we push this through this or whatever, maybe 108.
>> no. >> 108. >> well, plus the capital levy plus the capital levy.
>> somebody help me how much. It's going to be it's very similar.
it's very similar. >> correct.
>> you answered my question. What are you asking me?
you're just asking me to keep doing what I've been doing? >> correct. I think what's difficult
is that there are very few costs that a homeowner can control.
as you know, costs went up for emergency services last year.
there's an additional library tax. I think a lot of people thought that when we were running the levy last year,
that there were additional costs that we were asking for more.
we were asking to replace what we already had.
we were asking for a replacement, and it really wasn't an increased cost from what we approved.
we approved $1.99, and we were asking for $1.95.
it's just that people had gotten used to $1.60 something, $1.74, they'd gotten used to a lesser amount.
but that happens naturally. All of these, unfortunately, for us,
it changes the minute that we put it out there because the assessed values change every year.
>> thank you for clarifying. The amount that we're collecting doesn't change.
>> maybe it gets spread out more.
that's why the dollar amount drops 1.99-1.68. I apologize.
I was looking at last earlier this spring for the buck 67, but $1.68,
and so it's like that's the part that people don't understand is the collection,
the millions are still the same every year, and we don't collect more than that, and that's why the dollar rate goes down.
as more people come in as our schools grow as our district grows,
we all pay only the share up to the total for that year.
>> that's why on this slide we put it that way in millions is
because that's what the millage rate can change from one year to another,
but these amounts would not change. These for sure is where we would be,
so good point, jackie. >> your 115 could actually be 110.
>> right. >> I think we all get hung up on that dollar rate.
it's really hard because it changed even our last levy changed so drastically so quick.
we never hit $1.99. We hit $1.96, I think our first year,
and then it dropped from there even more. >> look at all the new developments going on right now. More houses.
which actually just so that the information's out there, the developer's cost, is that tax called, I forget.
>> impact fees. >> impact fees. Thank you. What bucket do those fall into?
[inaudible] no, I understand that.
>> capital projects fund, and it can only be spent on projects in relationship to student enrollment growth.
frankly, those dollars have really saved us in a variety of ways to respond to increased enrollment.
without those, I'm not sure how we would be surviving as a district.
we're one of the largest takers of those funds statewide.
we build cam with those dollars. We're building bgva or battle ground virtual academy.
we will be building the futures program, our operations buildings.
they are being used for sure and have really saved us
from struggling with bonds and having to go right back out and ask for a bond again without those dollars.
I think we'd be in a little bit of trouble with our facilities as well.
this is the slide that I said I'm proud of this fact.
I mean, a lot of people look at me like I'm crazy. I think the first time I said that to denny,
he looked at me like, what are you talking about? I said, it just reminds me that we do really good work for our students with less money.
a lot of people say that we're not using our funds well,
and I push back on that and challenge that concept.
I think we do a lot with a little. This makes me really happy.
this slide, not so much. This scares me to death, frankly.
we know that this is a two year problem,
and if we can't get this next levy try across the finish line,
this will be a much longer problem for us, and we will be cutting more than $20 million as we go into this spring.
I said at the last work session that we've been trying to identify the cuts because
some of the feedback that we got after our spring fail in april was,
you need to tell us what the cuts are, you need to tell us before you run it. We've been working pretty hard this fall to identify those things that could be cut,
and I will tell you there's things on our list that I'm not sure that I can
guarantee safe and secure buildings and all of the things that I know our community expects from us,
and we're only up to 12 million right now. I'm very worried about our districts moving forward without passing a levy.
questions about either of these slides, this one or the next one,
I think it just hits home where we're at.
>> this hits home way too hard, and it's the saddest slide because I
know the battle ground community cares more about their schools than this.
when I look at this, that's what I see. What I would see as an outsider is,
they can't possibly not care about their skills.
>> I say that you will pay now or you will pay later.
you will pay now for your students and their success or you will pay later for them struggling.
I'd rather pay now, and it'll cost me less now than it will later. Question?
>> mistakenly, I thought we were having some time,
like last work session, for the possibility of community input.
there is very few community here. Are we in a place where we can't allow a few minutes of input,
if anybody like any of our upcoming board members that might want to share something or anything,
or it's not on the agenda? I'm sorry to even say that, madam chair. I'm sorry.
but I know that they're here, and I don't have any more questions myself,
but I just raised that question. >> I certainly serve at your recommendation.
I know that it is a board decision, but certainly if you hearing from the community,
we could certainly set aside a couple of minutes for each person. I'm not opposed to that.
>> was there any more presentation? >> no. Obviously, we need to make a decision about timeline,
and we need to make a decision about amount. Those are things that we need to have
some indication from you so that we can prepare a resolution for you,
and we need to go out for a pros and cons committee as well.
>> I feel like we need to finish up some business that we need to take care of?
>> yes. Absolutely. >> I certainly feel like [inaudible]. >> absolutely.
>> because we do still have some work to do if we look at the timeline.
>> the timeline is tight. As you know, we have to have the ballot resolution with the pros and cons by december 12.
our next board meeting is our last opportunity to pass a resolution and to move forward with that pros and cons committee.
we really just have that opportunity.
what questions, what conversation do you need to have?
>> this has been great presentation. >> it's been good.
>> I just want to say, I really appreciate taking the time
last time to talk about programs and just highlight some of the programs.
I mean, I know as board members, we've been in the schools and we've seen some of the programs, but just to have them come and give a presentation and be able to have that conversation.
I appreciate the fact that you queued to the previous meeting and told us that we were going to take some time to do this,
and this isn't just being done in one meeting. >> you're right. >> you've had a lot of time in between to think about it and to go over the information.
what other questions do we have as board members, ted, anything?
>> no. We've done this so many times already.
I feel like all the questions I would have had questions to, I could figure out just by looking at the information.
it's pretty intuitive at this point.
>> I think for me, I'm just concerned that our community and I think you and I've had
conversation about one and done instead of two has.
I see the need for it. I know that we need to pass something.
what the number is?
I'm not convinced that that we're going to get 199.
I wish I knew more of what the community was thinking and if what their wishes were,
and that was what I was hoping was to hear more from them.
I'm hoping that if anyone does have more questions that they will take the time
to call and speak to or email their thoughts about this.
because I think if we're going to take the time and energy and spend the money to put this together,
we want it to be successful. We wanted to go through this time.
it's very clear what is going to happen
if they decide that they don't want to agree to another levy pass.
I guess, for me, personally, like I had already said, I really would wish that we would just do it in april with a new board coming,
getting their feedback, and just hopefully getting
the community behind us so that it's going to successfully pass.
so that would be my only comment or thought right now.
>> that's what you meant by one and done because I was going to go back and ask you what you meant?
>> I really feel that I think given the new board an opportunity to take a look at this,
new eyes, fresh eyes, not to say that you guys' eyes are not great.
but I think that they're going to be the ones that whatever happens, they're going to be the ones that are going to be
governing and helping us govern and get through this period. So that would be my wish.
but obviously, if a decision is majority decides that they want to move forward for two,
then I will support the levy being presented.
>> I think we didn't go over this and you're bringing up a point, debbie, and I think it's important for me to loop back.
I want to make sure everyone understands. There are four opportunities in a year to run a levy.
there's february, april, august, and november.
so if we were to go out for a levy and not pass it,
say we run it in february and we don't pass it. We have a choice between three other times to pass it.
I want to be crystal clear that as your superintendent,
my recommendation would not be to turn around and run it in april.
it would be to wait until november and to make the cuts.
our community would be forced to understand the decision that they made.
I don't want that to happen because it's going to impact kids.
in all good conscience, I could not be in a place where I gave up the opportunity to run it again
without that understanding and impact our kids for yet another two years.
I couldn't do that. I would prefer to show
people what their decision led to and then let them decide that.
so that would be my recommendation to the board. If I were making that decision,
I would recommend february, and should it not pass, we wait until november.
obviously, three of our board members will be stepping aside and that will be a decision for the other,
the incoming board members. But I can't bear the thought of failing again.
all the time that I've been in this district, we've never more than double levy failed.
>> well, and that adds clarification, I think that might be helpful for us and for you,
debbie, because you need to run it in february.
if you're going to have to make cuts, you have to have that information in february.
you can't wait and run it in april, that's too late.
>> you can't wait until april because you would have already had to set up the rif. You would be doing a rif resolution to
lay off all the employees and get rid of all of the programs. The timing doesn't work out to wait until april,
you would have to still make all those cuts. >> so I understand what you were saying,
debbie, that's the glitch. >> I understand now. >> and statistically, the passage rates for
washington state levies have a higher passage rate in february than they do in april.
>> thank you. I was just going to ask. >> and the second highest is november. >> well, I think,
the kids that are listening to this, talk to your parents and tell your moms and dads to vote yes.
>> we can't say that.
>> I don't have anything to add. I think I asked my questions.
they were answered. But I will add for debbie's sake.
I'm a board member till I'm not,
so I'm not going to not do my job while I'm here. And this is part of my job as an elected official, and I agree.
I really want some input from everybody, so that's not it, but there's things that can't wait for the new board.
I don't want you to think we're trying to push something because we're on our way out.
>> not at all. >> so we have a job to do. >> I respect that. >> thanks.
>> anything, terry? >> I believe we got to get it passed.
I think we've talked about this. So my concern is that if we don't do
all the right things that it doesn't pass because we didn't do all the things we needed to do to set it up for success.
I'd love to hear, for example, see, so where we're at here. What we're talking about, am I not mistaken.
what we're saying is, give you a little bit more details so you
could finalize what it is we want to vote on at the next meeting. >> correct.
>> and the reason we can't run it in april, is, again,
could you explain because see, we ran it in february, then we ran it in april because april would still get the job done last year.
but now why is it not getting the job done this year? >> if you remember, we did a rif resolution on april 25th,
but we had to have that ready well before that, which means that we had to have all the conversations with all of
the programs and the staff and all of those things.
so if you're going to have all of the staff that are here tonight spending their time on that,
they're not going to be spending time on levy communications and work.
they're going to be spending time on what are the cuts? How are we going to do this?
communicating to those people, having all of those things, and we have to have the rif resolution ready before the april verification,
certification of that election would happen.
>> actually, before the voting, right? >> well, no, the voting is in april.
>> well, here is a thought. We'll be preparing all that stuff and could present that.
here's where we're going, folks, and now get ready to vote. I'm just the thought.
see, so my point is, I'd rather do all that preparation work and have it
pass than put it out to vote too soon.
I'm just suggesting that we don't have to do
a vote on the next meeting if we wait until april,
and I appreciate what you said, jackie, about who's voting on what.
but again, I feel like to set this thing up for success,
we would be in a much stronger position if we
start bringing the community in to talk with us at meetings.
here we've got a picture now. The community can see this and they can come and they
can comment on it and they can ask questions about you. Now, I know people don't come to our meetings. I understand that.
but interestingly enough, I asked someone about our meetings and they weren't here at our previous work session,
and they said, I didn't know that I could come.
so my point is that we don't necessarily communicate as well as we should about things,
and I think we can do better. I think we can get people to meetings.
I think we can get people to talk and ask questions. My only concern is that february 20th,
with the holidays and everything, it just seems like I'm not convinced it's
going to provide enough time to really get the word out and people understand.
we said last time it didn't. At least I heard people say, it didn't pass last time because of misinformation.
or maybe flat out not telling the truth. Didn't we hear that? It was misinformation, miscommunication.
if that's the case, whose fault is the miscommunication other than ours?
you say, well, people were saying things that weren't true. Who's going to say the truth?
us. So who's going to know the truth if we don't get the word out somehow?
maybe people did vote because of miscommunication. Maybe they did.
but that just means that we need to do a better job of getting the truth out,
the facts of this situation. And so february 20th is going to be here real soon.
>> well, what we have to remember, terry, is, we, as a board, and as staff,
are very limited on what we get to say because of the pdc guidelines.
so what we can go out and encourage
our community we can't tell them how to vote, what to vote.
we couldn't even ask the question in our survey that I think all of us would have liked to have asked,
which is would you support a levy? We can't ask that question.
we can ask about funding priorities. We can talk about tax sensitivity.
we can ask a variety of things. But when we talk about communication,
just remember that our hands are tied in many ways where we
cannot go out and be perceived as convincing,
be perceived as we can provide information in a very simple way.
amanda is our guru on pdc guidelines, and we certainly have a policy around what we can and can't say as well.
I wish maybe I had brought it with me or had pulled it up.
>> back to my concerns, if I may, then. So I hear what you're saying.
but again, it shouldn't depend on the staff to do the stuff.
you see if it's depending on the staff, then that's why we can't do it in april because the [inaudible] and all that.
it shouldn't depend on the staff. We've got to do something different.
and personally, I would love to see a unified.
if we make this decision prior to the new board being seated,
it's going to be a lot harder for them to own the vision with reality.
just suggesting that. I think we have a plan.
I think we need to go forward with a really firm,
enrolling the community and getting the community to talk and getting us into meetings with each other.
I believe that's the path forward, and if we just try the same things that we've been doing,
I think we're going to end up with the same results. >> if you were to ask that community,
I'm not sure who that community is. But if you were to ask that community,
what would your question be? >> I'd love to hear what terry's got to say about this plan.
I would love to hear what, terry, has to say about what were the decision we're trying to make before we make the decision.
that's what I would ask. Here's the plan. What do you think?
>> what you would all prefer is to have two minutes
a piece right now to allow people in the room to say what they think?
>> no. What I'm suggesting is we have many more months april to get this over the finish line.
that's all I'm suggesting. You're going to get my support, and I'm going to work as hard as I can,
as a matter of fact, I'm trying to think, when can we have, what can we do? When can we meet? How can we get the word out?
so we'll do that. If the board wants to do this by february 20th,
we will do as much as we can. I'm just suggesting from my experience,
it's a little rushed, and I'd love to have the rest of the board members on the board with us, moving together on it.
so that's just all I'm saying. I'm not saying the two minutes right now. I'm saying, terry and I got a lot of talking to do. That's what I'm saying.
>> that's all I'm saying. >> that's good input. I guess just from my perspective,
I feel like february is the only realistic option that we have.
I think we need to move forward, and we've had this same timeline.
yes, we can have many, many opportunities to talk to the community in
maybe some different ways and still being very careful because we cannot.
>> we have to be careful. >> we have to be careful. The other thing that I think is important from what you said,
we have to be careful how we're using our resources now. If we're going to use huge resources to plan a riff if we wait until april.
I am confident that when the community sees this number,
if they see this slide, I'm confident that the community will make a good decision about this.
I think that february for me is the time to do it.
also, because I know traditionally,
february is the time when most levies pass.
>> we have that? >> we have that, and we also have the fact that it will cost us much less to run it.
certainly, it went up from 180-240 in those months.
certainly, it will cost us less to run it in february as well.
there's a lot of work to do but I think I can trust
mr. Dotson to activate the minute that we give him the green light. [laughter]
>> that's true.
>> we have six minutes left. I would ask, what's the pleasure of the board?
would you like to hear from a community member or two?
>> we could ask if anybody would want to say anything. [overlapping]
>> we do have a person out here that would like to speak. >> just one or is there seven [overlapping]
>> I see one hand. I see two hands. >> two hands. >> going once, going twice. >> come on up.
>> I think we have time for two people. >> can we do a couple minutes a piece so you guys have time to talk about anything?
>> I could do it in one minute. >> perfect. >> mr. Rylander. >> how are you, mr. Rylander?
>> good evening. My name is richard, nicknamed dick rylander.
I'm known to many of you in good or bad ways.
I will note that I have paid close attention because as shelly knows,
I may have been the only one to comment on the budget from the public.
with fairly extensive comments and I spent a couple of minutes doing that so I have a feel for it,
so I appreciate all the information. I just want to say that there is one item I think that has not
been put on the table that is an 800 pound gorilla. That is next year in 2026,
I believe, your teachers' contract comes up. >> many of our contracts will be up this coming spring.
>> there's three. Evergreen, camas, and battle ground following the same cycle come up next year.
what I don't see in any of this is how you're planning to deal with
the potential contract demands from
the teachers given that your single biggest expense over 80 percent is personnel.
then the only place you have to control cost really is in the personnel side and
your personnel costs they're going to ask you to increase because they've had bills to pay, etc.
I'm just going to make that statement. I don't intend to any discussion. But that is my concern, the item,
and it is an 800 pound gorilla for me that you're not attending to,
and I have to run. Thank you. >> thank you. >> thank you.
>> see, lori, I thank you had your hand up. >> here we go. Thank you, lori.
[background]
>> sorry. I think we have to run it in february.
we've got a plan for next year. We've got to have the money in place as soon as we can start getting it.
I don't think if we wait until april, it's already a tax month.
people are paying their land taxes and whatever taxes that they owe the irs.
then you throw a levy on top and they're like, taxes, forget it,
so they'll vote no. I think february is our best bet to start getting the money
in and make plans if it fails,
but let's just try and make sure it doesn't fail. >> thank you. >> thank you.
>> thank you very much. >> thank you. >> good insights. Marshall.
>> yeah, sorry. [laughter] >> I didn't raise my hand.
>> [inaudible] raise your hand. >> hi, I'm marshall merritt.
I got involved years ago because of levy and questions.
I appreciate the concern that gets put into the levy discussion. I really do.
that being said, the slides all show that we have to have
a levy in order to be solvent and march forward.
I would propose that we do the levy, we put it towards the vote in february.
that way, we're not doing all the work in the background, as was stated.
we can plan things for good or for bad afterwards. Then if we need to do a secondary,
the fall is a great idea. I just learned about that option today earlier and I was
grateful to hear that it doesn't have to be one after the other, and it can give the community a chance to digest what the options are at that point.
I would propose february. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> thank you.
>> we will put together a resolution for february,
but I still could use some insights or direction from all of you around option a and option b.
didn't hear much conversation. >> [overlapping] convince easily. Option b. I don't see how you can not do the $8. Go.
>> I'm on the fence. I'm sorry. >> I'll come back.
>> option a or b?
>> I'm not sure either. [inaudible]
>> for me, of course, I'd prefer option b, just so that we can continue to cover concerns of increased costs,
but I'm also pragmatic enough to know that some is better than none,
and if running a lower number is a better chance of it passing,
then at least that's some funding that's going to cover the majority of it.
the risk then is that some of the other rising costs,
additional unfunded mandates, puts us right back in the same scenario, but at least we have some coverage,
and not laying off more people. Whereas if we try to go big,
which is relatively [laughter] but it's really big.
but then it just may come across as
a money grab to try to bring some programs back and then potentially risk failure.
again, I would lean towards option a because some is better than none.
>> I'm going to lean towards option b because just with the unknowns and with the rising costs,
I don't think option a will get us there. I really don't.
looking at the numbers on here in terms of the difference in tax,
I just feel the community will support option b.
>> I'm not seeing the total dollar that we're asking for on any of these slides.
>> it's right here. >> is it that orange seeing in the top right corner?
>> yeah. It's the number in the slide.
if you look at the orange, it's 41 million and 43 million in 2027.
>> this is 250. These are 199, 190.
this is 250. That's right. We're not doing this. >> this is projecting what we will bring in.
>> this is the math here. That if we were running it at $2.50,
this is 41 million. That's option a.
>> option a. >> forty three million. >> thank you. Forty one million.
it's a difference between asking for 41 million and 43 million? >> correct.
>> I don't think they will flock at that number. I mean, balk at that number either.
>> michelle do you have anything [overlapping] >> [inaudible] a chance to say a word and I'm sorry. Students.
>> thoughts? >> I'm curious to hear from michelle because she was integral in putting together
these recommendations with the fiscal cliff that we've been speaking about for several years too.
will you speak to the projection and the fiscal cliff that is here right now and recommendations here.
>> I think what has been discussed with the options is that there is
no guarantee that we'll be able to bring back as much as we cut for this year,
under the option a. Option b more likely we would be able to bring back more of it.
I don't think we're going to be fully restoring.
this is a very conservative ask from our community.
you can see from the levy rates. You can see that we're going to try to make it work.
we won't have reserves to have availability
to hold us if we might be able to do a little something for our emergency,
but it's going to be very difficult with either option.
>> it is 5:33. >> she needs to know whether we want a or b, right?
so we're going to have to vote on that? >> no, there's no vote.. >> we won't. It's not a vote. >> so if we just gave you our feedback, you're going to work with that?
>> I've got two undecideds, two for option b and one for option a. [laughter]
>> I don't know if I can work with that. >> help me out.
>> you guys have sat through this so quietly for hours.
what would you choose, option a or option b? >> especially in light of the students you've been talking to and
knowing what these programs highlighted. >> you mighty help us a little bit.
>> and knowing the funding gaps. >> just speaking as a student,
talking to the students, it seems like option b, because as a student, you always want more opportunities and bringing back some of those things.
I think I would go with option b. >> I think one thing I worry about too is-
>> thank you. >> -the lack of activities and options.
we have a increase of enrollment right now, but what would happen if we lost those opportunities for our students.
we're able to offer such a multitude of programs now, so I think that's a draw for enrollment.
>> it was certainly part of our discussion in the spring that when we talked about certain programs going away,
our fear was that would also lead to decrease in enrollment, which again,
is a snowball going down a hill, getting larger and larger because you lose enrollment, you lose funding,
you lose funding, you lose more programs, and it just keeps happening.
certainly something for us to consider if we're not able to provide c team sports, for instance,
or bring back any kind of middle school program in the out years.
obviously, we wouldn't be able to next year no matter what, but if we don't pass the next levy,
we wouldn't be able to bring it back the year after either in any form.
>> no. >> no. [inaudible] >> I'd honestly go with option b for the reasoning,
just looking at one school that me and toby have visited, the amount of responses we got for our middle school sports.
it wasn't just bringing back the sport, but it was the effects that the sport had on them,
whether it was enrollment, it was absences, it was grades. All these student programs affect so many things on
a student's life and perspective on school that even though we bring some,
they're still going to feel that heaviness of not having those programs and those opportunities to have at school.
again, why would they show up to school? Why would they stay in our district if they're still not having those opportunities,
even though they fought to pass the levy because a lot of students I've heard are going to fight for it.
they're going to fight because that's what they want. But if they're fighting for something that may not benefit them to the full 100 percent,
may not see those changes, they might not agree with it.
right now, our biggest voice is students. >> thank you.
>> I would go with option b. >> thank you. >> there's two more for b. [laughter]
>> we will adjourn this meeting at 5:37. >> thank you.
>> thank you. >> thank you.