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[5:45] Joint work session with Ken Epinus, the pro school district, and the Board of Education. And we've got the Clayton here and Zen here. And basically, I'm going to hand it to you guys at first to give us where are we at and
[6:04] can we do to help? What are the options? What's the situation? How can we help? And please introduce Jason and Lynn.
[6:20] Yes, I work
[6:25] session and members of the assembly and mayor
[6:39] and I want to just interject. We have a
[6:41] Superintendent Holland, Director of Finance, Liz Hayes, Director of Human Resources,
[6:46] Nate Crabtree, Assistant Superintendent Karen Dindra, also Vice President of the
[6:52] School Board, Mr. Corriano, and myself is Zinc Kelly, the President of the School Board.
[6:57] I was just operating apology to Mr. Hiver because we did not provide
[8:22] which just to
[8:23] note that is a $5 million reduction.
[8:30] So it's not even we talked about status
[8:31] school budgets. It's $0.5 million in the whole
[8:40] revenue side. I'll have a director
[8:43] Hayes. Do you want to pass out these scenarios?
[9:02] Speak to this but what we were
[9:05] tasked with as a finance committee was to come up and look at the three
[9:09] different revenue options. We proposed the zero increase to the BSA. We
[9:14] proposed a $340 either increase to the BSA or one time funding and that's what we
[9:21] got the equivalent of this year.
[9:23] So we were looking at, that's kind of our status quo column
[9:26] as far as revenue is concerned from the state.
[9:29] And then the third column is a $680 BSA increase.
[9:34] And that's a number that's been floated out
[9:36] either in Senate Bill 140.
[9:37] It's the current number in Senate Bill 392,
[9:40] which is the new vehicle for a BSA increase.
[9:43] This is in the house.
[9:45] Scenario one is no increase to the BSA.
[9:48] In
[9:51] the middle column,
[9:55] you can ask a question real quick.
[9:57] Why would you guys include...
[10:00] No BSA increase. I know usually we get some sort of funding, but why would we even include that for anybody who might listen? That was a great conversation yesterday during our meetings. And it's, it's basically, and I would agree, it's a recommendation from the administration from our Prime Minister Department. I agree with it, is if we, for some reason, do not see an increase in funding. We cannot, we don't have the savings account to make it up.
[10:29] The budget shortfall is too great that there's no way for us to cover that if it doesn't come through.
[10:36] And so, you know, timing is really the most difficult thing about this process,
[10:41] how we have to move forward before the legislature makes a decision,
[10:46] on what our funding will be for next year, and we have to make decisions now.
[10:51] And so, we put this forward as, right now, as it stands, this is all we can truly depend on.
[10:57] And this is what it looks like, so it actually tells a story to the public of what no additional funding within the BSA or one time funding.
[11:07] The effects that it has on our district, and I think that's an important story to tell.
[11:12] So, make sense, thank you.
[11:16] Go ahead Mr. Trion.
[11:23] So, the other element to look at, so there is a, you can see at the top there is an increase to people teacher ratio, which means we'll be hiring less teachers under that scenario.
[11:33] but it does leave it open for us to hire up to that point.
[11:37] And so the reason why it makes sense to have all those other cuts down low is we can
[11:41] start hiring process now which helps us get people, qualified people in the buildings
[11:46] as best we can, and then these other cuts are easier to add in later if there's an increase.
[11:51] So like Mr. Kelly had said, that shows the whole picture, but one of the reasons we're trying
[11:57] to keep the cuts out of the classroom as much as possible, and that scenario we can't avoid
[12:00] it.
[12:00] or just no way. But if we hired all the way up to that, then we got nowhere else to cut,
[12:05] because as you can see, we cut everything. We even added that's the entire curriculum budget
[12:09] that's cut on the bottom line to get there. So.
[12:18] Mr, you know, we had a question. Thank you. So,
[12:21] yesterday, whenever you guys were in finance committee, I saw kind of a lot of the conversation
[12:25] this stuff. I saw several times where it was kind of floated the idea of getting into the
[12:32] the the general fund and then also the assigned fund balance as well, which is if I understand
[12:40] correctly that's emergency funds that really those are not already spent money, but then
[12:46] also the other side of the question that I would have is when we start talking about
[12:51] the ten to thirteen million dollars that you see in that fund balance whenever I look
[12:59] budget I also look at you know those are there as a precaution in case we have any kind of a
[13:05] low dip something happens something you know an emergent type thing how long does 10 million
[13:12] dollars last for the school district. That's a great question I'll defer that one to Liz Hayes
[13:18] but I'll first address our fund balances. We have two accounts that we track our fund balance
[13:23] for savings in that the board has access to to be able to use to fill budget shortfalls.
[13:29] And that is our unallocated fund balance.
[13:31] Currently, that is the 5.8 million dollars.
[13:35] And typically or historically, we have used that in a stair step approach of taking a third
[13:42] of it up to a third of it every year so that we're not falling off a cliff, right?
[13:47] So that we're actually stair stepping down in our reduction process.
[13:51] We chose this board to use all of our unallocated fund balance next year, all of it, we're zeroing it out.
[13:58] Now we do have another part of money that is our committed fund balance, and that is the true emergency fund that we have.
[14:07] The board has access to it through a majority board of the board.
[14:11] We also within policy have to have a plan to pay it back, and that is a number that is based on 3% of subsequent year.
[14:19] expenditures. So it's a little bit of a moving target as our expenditures rise
[14:25] and fall but that is the emergency emergency and that was the discussion yesterday
[14:31] is do we access that and for me I'm pretty physically conservative and want to
[14:39] say that like no that's this is not the time to start relying on our
[14:44] emergency emergency money in order to fill little holes here and there. We may get
[14:49] there but I don't think this is the time I think just the fact that we're
[14:52] zeroing out all of our unallocated fund balance of $5.28 million is
[14:57] his testament to the position that we're in right now.
[15:02] I'm going to say the mayor has his hand up. I don't know. Do you have a follow-up there? Real quick. I'm just going to say that I agree with that. And what Juno did or is going through is sort of a highlights why we want to keep that where it's at. So if we miss on what our projected enrollment is, or something happens, something closes down and 100 families move out of the burrow, like we're trapped, like all of a sudden our revenue just plummets.
[15:32] and then we got to use that to make payroll.
[15:35] And so we don't want to be in that spot.
[15:36] Using that money to create a budget,
[15:38] in my opinion, is a huge mistake.
[15:41] So, the unassigned money, that's one thing,
[15:43] but going into that committed fund balance
[15:45] for a budget is bad news.
[15:48] Thank you, Jason.
[15:50] I'm gonna call in the mayor before, excuse me, I do it.
[15:53] I wanted to point out that representative
[15:54] refugees online, so possibly if we had a question
[15:58] for him, he might answer it.
[15:59] But anyway, thank you for being online representative
[16:02] of Refregion.
[16:03] I'm going to call on Mayor Michikki.
[16:05] Yeah, thank you.
[16:06] The 5.8 is only under scenario.
[16:09] Can you give me scenario, the BSA outlook on scenario 2 and 3?
[16:15] Please.
[16:15] Yes.
[16:16] Sure.
[16:16] So scenario 1 is, again, no BSA increase for our state of Alaska
[16:20] funding.
[16:21] And scenario 2 includes a $340 BSA increase equivalent.
[16:26] could be in one time funding or could be to the BSA if it was fully funded through the
[16:32] budget.
[16:33] Scenario 3 is a $680 BSA increase and the reason you see in our unassigned fund balance,
[16:42] it's using it 100% in Scenario 1, using it 100% in Scenario 2, but in Scenario 3, when
[16:50] we have $680 BSA increase from the state, we have been able to get rid of all of the
[16:56] We
[17:07] still,
[17:12] it's almost half,
[17:16] it still gets you.
[17:24] If you can clarify, Mr. President, if you don't mind,
[17:27] you said under the 680 scenario, even though the 680 number
[17:32] came from the KPBSD, thank you, our little district making,
[17:37] setting the standard for the state.
[17:39] But you're saying that you have to dip into your unallocated
[17:45] for no reductions at 680.
[17:48] That is true.
[17:49] So the 680 number came in last year and that was during that legislative session and so that number is that number for us to balance our budget without having to tap into savings would be.
[18:08] Thank you.
[18:11] Anyone else with a question? I don't see one.
[18:15] I'm good at turning to you guys to make more comments. I mean, I guess from my perspective, we have the state who's the big player here.
[18:24] and I know that Mr. Cox has been vocal in trying to help them find more funding.
[18:35] Other than that, we're going to have the opportunity to fund to the max of the cap.
[18:41] And I guess that cap floats a little bit, which affects our amount. Am I right about that Liz?
[18:47] But what are your thoughts on that? I mean, I would think I'm just speaking for myself.
[18:52] but I think the rest of the assembly is going to be pretty sympathetic towards you, but anyway,
[18:59] reflect on how our cap floats a little bit, would you please, Liz?
[19:04] And I think Director Hayes is the best one to answer that question.
[19:08] Yes, so depending on the full and true taxable value of the borough as determined,
[19:13] I believe between the assessing department and state of Alaska and the amount of funding
[19:19] that we were receiving from the state of Alaska for the
[19:23] base student, not the base student, the...
[19:26] I
[19:29] just drew a blank.
[19:30] I wish I had my finalized.
[19:31] Anyways, so there's two numbers that work through this formula.
[19:35] The first half is the required local amount,
[19:39] and that's based on 2.65 mills of the full and true taxable value.
[19:44] So FY25 budget is based on the 2023 full and true taxable value.
[19:50] So as that number changes, then that changes the formula.
[19:54] And the second half, which is the additional allowable, meaning
[19:57] that what you can bring to the max to the table.
[20:00] Could be one or two calculations, ones on basic need, plus quality schools funding, or on the full and true taxable value times two meals. And so that's how you get to those numbers. So when the full and true taxable value changes and our basic need changes, that number then that the burrow can provide does fluctuate, and that's how that works. Thank you, Mr. Cox. On that same is what is that number as of right now for this year?
[20:29] for FY 24 or for FY 25 for FY 25. What we'll be looking at when you guys come to us 58
[20:36] million one hundred and seventy thousand nine hundred and seventy four dollars. Can you say that
[20:42] one more time? 58 million one hundred and seventy thousand nine hundred and seventy four dollars.
[20:51] Thank you and if I recall I was watching one of your meetings and that is going off of two
[20:57] percent of value because I think you had mentioned it's one of the only times that you've seen that be higher than the other way to make the equation.
[21:05] That is correct. So the additional allowable this year for the first time is off the full taxable value times two mils.
[21:12] Thank you. Mayor Michiki.
[21:17] Yeah, just to clarify the minimum in the calculation is $35,151,200 and the max is the $5870.
[21:26] The required local is 33,151,200.
[21:34] Right.
[21:35] And then I thought you said 35, and I apologize.
[21:39] No.
[21:40] I don't think I did, but I may have.
[21:45] Okay.
[21:45] Thank you for those numbers.
[21:49] Okay.
[21:49] Mr. Thompson.
[21:51] Thank you, President Johnson.
[21:53] I just have a couple of questions, and maybe they're easily answered.
[21:58] I'm not sure.
[21:59] But when I look at it, so I guess the first question is when we're looking at this this all of these things highlighted in blue
[22:06] for
[22:07] Reductions are those like all of the things that are available to be reduced and
[22:14] Are there things that we're not seeing that you can't touch or cannot reduce that are not included here?
[22:20] And so I guess is that is that list?
[22:24] Exhaustive is my first question and if it is and you say
[22:29] I don't like the pools being closed.
[22:33] Is it something else on that specific list that I should be looking at
[22:39] cutting further to make up for that difference if that makes sense?
[22:44] Yeah, you're definitely on the right path there.
[22:46] First question, no, this list is not every single thing that could be cut.
[22:52] This list comes from the finance committee working with
[23:06] this list.
[23:07] That's
[23:10] the tool that we ask for a public input, and so there was a lot of work put in to drafting up.
[24:26] Ms. Eklon was concerned about my recommendation about cutting curriculum, and I can understand that.
[24:31] It's not sustainable. It's basically deferring that, so I understand that we can't cut curriculum to zero.
[24:39] We can't even really cut it that year.
[24:41] We're going to have to find some way to get consumables in there, but like we're not going to make big curriculum purchases.
[24:45] is thankfully we've had some grants to buy some things that's going to help us with
[24:49] that, but it's not long-term sustainable.
[24:51] So if we don't see an increase to the BSA ultimately, I mean, I feel like there's not
[24:57] not a lot of places outside of payroll that can be...
[25:01] And those are things we can try to look at again, but this is pretty much the list of things that are cutable, that aren't utilities or kind of fixed costs. And so there's not a whole lot left there other than payroll. So at some point, if we don't see an increase and we have to put curriculum back in or some portion of that back in, that's going to come out of teachers and support staff. Thank you, Mr. William. Thank you. I noticed in scenarios two and three, it looked like there was
[25:31] No increases to PTR, but then in scenario one, it did look like there were some increases
[25:37] to PTR.
[25:38] What kind of increase to PTR are we looking at there from just kind of across the board
[25:44] with our small, medium, and larger schools?
[26:01] Yeah, so generally the plus one PTR applied to all schools except for the small elementary
[26:10] So, at the large high schools, that's going to be a one, that's going to change it from a one to 30 PTR ratio to a one to 31.
[26:18] At middle school, it'll go from one to 25 to one to 26. Elementary school, the large ones are broke down by grade level.
[26:25] So, kindergarten is at a one teacher for 20.5 students, is the calculation. Obviously, there's not a half a kid that gets split between classrooms.
[26:35] but that's the guidelines that we go on and you can go up or down from there.
[26:39] First through third is 22.5 and then 4 through 6 is one teacher for 24.5 so
[26:46] those were all increased by one accordingly. The small schools, those are one to 17.5
[26:55] and so those are a little bit different scenario just because of the grade
[26:59] and the number of students and where those students fall.
[27:03] So, one to 17.5 changed the one to 18.5.
[27:08] Okay, thank you.
[27:09] Thank you, Ms. Eckland.
[27:11] Thank you, President Johnson.
[27:15] On that size, I was in a sixth grade gym class of 31.
[27:21] I know it's not teaching math and science,
[27:24] but I don't want to sub in that class anymore,
[27:27] But I'd like to ask a question about the extracurricular transfer, pupil transportation.
[27:36] Transfer, are we expecting parents to bring their kids to schools?
[27:41] No, so currently I'll talk about the extracurricular transfer first.
[27:46] I don't know how many years ago it was decided that there were some unsafe practices happening
[27:51] with parents hauling students to events, sporting events.
[27:54] So, the complaint at that time was, it's just too expensive to get a bus.
[28:00] So, we, we meaning the district at that time decided that we would start putting money into
[28:05] extracurricular activities for transportation only. So, the $145,000 that we've been transferring to
[28:12] the extracurricular accounts for the schools is to address needs for transportation to
[28:18] sporting events and activities like that. So, we have a formula that's divided out,
[28:23] depending on how many teams the school has, how many away games, those types of things,
[28:27] and we provide that money each year for them to use to help offset those costs.
[28:33] So that's 145,000 that the district has been supporting that too.
[28:37] With that gone, that means the schools and the teams will have to raise more funds to cover the
[28:44] travel that that was previously covering. The $550,000 is money that we've been transferring to
[28:50] transportation just so they can meet their contract.
[28:54] It's not going to eliminate home to school routes, but it will change the dynamic of some
[29:00] of those home to school routes.
[29:02] And what I mean by that is some buses go into some neighborhoods, maybe they won't be
[29:07] able to go into those neighborhoods and the kids will have to come out to the highway to
[29:10] catch their bus.
[29:11] So we're going to have to consolidate and change routes to do that.
[29:15] But we're hoping for an increase from the state, $115 to the transportation budget gets me a little over $532,000.
[29:24] So it's close to closing that gap if that was to pass.
[29:29] Yes.
[29:32] Further down, the extra curricular salaries and
[29:36] benefits, coaches?
[29:39] Yes, so the only thing that the district pays besides the $145,000 for travel is the coaching
[29:45] stipends and benefits.
[29:46] We don't pay for uniforms, we don't pay for any extra travel, we don't pay for refs and
[29:52] none of that.
[29:52] We're just paying the coaches stipends.
[29:54] So, we are cutting that budget in half, and what that means is all assistant coaches are
[29:59] being cut.
[30:00] So we'll still have head coaches, but no assistant coaches. So teams will have to raise money to pay for their assistant coaches. All intramural stipends are gone. All academic stipends are gone. That's what that means.
[30:16] Mystery them. Thank you. I don't mean to bog out with the questions here, but I just see you've got a health care budget reduction of three quarters of a million dollars. I'm as curious how did you manage to cut your budget by three quarters of a million dollars when health care seems to be going on the rise?
[30:32] Great question. I get that one a lot. So when I was developing the budget for FY25, we historically have put a 5% increase in for health care.
[30:42] So we take whatever the actuaries have told me for the current year. So FY24, and I'm adding 5% to that number to put in the budget for the subsequent year.
[30:54] We won't get our actual actuaries until after we close the year just because they want to look at as much data as they can to get as close to the right projection.
[31:04] So as I was reviewing the costs that we are incurring this year and the amount of money that we have been taking in,
[31:10] I feel fairly confident that I can reduce by two and a half percent until we know we're finding from the state.
[31:16] The school district does have a healthcare reserve fund in an internal service fund that has
[31:22] enough that if I had to dip into that, that we could manage that I don't want to because
[31:27] that isn't another emergency area for claims in a self-funded plan, you never know when
[31:32] you're going to have those catastrophic claims or how many of them.
[31:36] So we felt pretty confident that we could use that as a buffer for now.
[31:43] Thank you vice president Cox. Yes, thank you. Going back to your revenue side, on the revenue side, we have
[31:54] appropriations from the KPB and then adjustment and then in kind for KPB. Does that equal, at this time is that equal, the 58 million and some change?
[32:05] Yes, it does. So when I first rolled out the budget, I picked up the wrong line on my mid-max calculation and that's what the additional 1.9 came from.
[32:14] And if I can follow up, go ahead. With that, so on the in-kind, what goes into in-kind? I know we've talked about it a little bit in years past, but what exactly is that? How does that work?
[32:27] That is, Brandi probably can answer a lot better than I can, but it's the maintenance department, it's audit, it's custodial for this building, it's utilities for this building.
[32:37] It's property and liability insurance, it's workers comp.
[32:42] I think those are the categories that are in that 14 million.
[32:46] one more family with that is does that if it gets if it doesn't get used this
[32:53] year does that stay does that go away how how does that work we are currently
[32:58] when we have less expenditures than revenues that are budgeted by this body
[33:06] then that goes into a fun balance so it is in committed I believe it's committed
[33:11] for facilities maintenance is what we've got it called but it's about 1.9
[33:15] sitting in that fund. Right now from years past. As of June 30th, I believe that was still sitting in there. I don't have it in front of me and I apologize.
[33:26] Roughly what's the most you've ever had to pull out of that?
[33:30] It has varied. Like last year was a year we dipped into it because of the heavy snowfall. I believe the maintenance department went over there budgeted for that.
[33:43] Several years ago we requested that we take a million dollars out of there for use and it was granted and so we reduced that fund balanced by a million dollars.
[33:55] Thank you,
[33:58] Mr. Ribbons.
[33:59] What are the thoughts about the $9.7 million federal government ledges that the state owes the bill?
[34:05] All right, thank you. So I actually received an email from Dean of Bishop this morning
[34:12] at a top degree yesterday. And the state is going to continue to negotiate or fight
[34:20] everyone to look at that with the federal government about that amount. They are maintaining
[34:24] that they spent it in the appropriate manner. And the federal government doesn't have the
[34:30] right to come in and say where it should have been spent. So that is the deed and you know
[34:36] the finance for the state of Alaska's position at this time. I believe the Senate is hearing,
[34:42] having a hearing tomorrow about this, the House of Labor had something as well. So I'm not sure if
[34:47] those bodies will push forward with getting that appropriated or not, but right now the state is
[34:53] saying they are not.
[34:55] So it's curious, right?
[34:56] We saw the last letter I received and was marched.
[35:03] March 27, saying that was the final notice, and it put the state of Alaska in a high-risk, granteed, category, which jeopardizes about $400 million worth of grant funding to the state of Alaska. So I don't know where we are in this interplay, beyond what they've said. So at this point, we can't count on that. Right? That's what we're really hoping to get out of this, is can you tell us now so we can factor this into a scenario.
[35:28] So they don't have that for us.
[35:31] When I talked to Mr. Bishop, a week prior, she said, well,
[35:37] whatever happens, if you get any funding, it would come in January of FY25.
[35:42] So not to plan on being appropriated this year.
[35:45] I don't know if that's going to hold fast or not, but everyone.
[35:51] Thank you.
[35:52] Mr. William.
[35:53] So if I understand what you're saying, then it sounds like the state is acknowledging that they received the money from the feds,
[35:58] but the allocated to someone else or something else?
[36:02] So part of the American Rescue Plan, those funds,
[36:07] there was a clause in there that,
[36:09] to receive those funds as a state,
[36:13] they could not reduce the amount of contribution
[36:16] that they make for education.
[36:18] So the calculation that has been sent
[36:20] or reviewed by the federal government, my understanding is,
[36:24] they're showing that the district center listed
[36:27] on that letter did not get the appropriate amount of funding from the state of Alaska.
[36:32] And that was part of the stipulation for receiving the ARP funding.
[36:35] So it's not really the ARP funding we were shorted.
[36:38] It's the state funding portion.
[36:43] Mayor Michiggy.
[36:46] Yeah, thank you.
[36:47] And I, one thing I wanted to say just from earlier on is I absolutely agree with scenario
[36:51] one being included in the consideration.
[36:56] Perhaps you could have included what a hamburger costs in 2017 and what it costs today.
[37:01] It is just the reality and just from a business perspective running the business of education
[37:07] is significantly more expensive than it was seven years ago.
[37:11] That's what I've been focusing on with folks.
[37:13] And I hope the 680 plus doing my best to help a deal get across the finish line.
[37:22] I think we get there.
[37:24] But that's for now.
[37:26] We know what it's taking to get an adjustment to the BSA.
[37:30] I don't know if it will have a CPI increase
[37:32] that comes along with that this year,
[37:35] or hopefully in the next couple.
[37:37] But that struggle is probably going to be,
[37:43] it's probably going to continue.
[37:45] Right?
[37:46] I described it in a meeting at home or the other night.
[37:48] There's three kinds of people, the way they look at education.
[37:51] There's kind of people that say,
[37:52] give them all the money they ever want and everything will be better.
[37:55] there's the kind that say start of them out and somehow they'll magically get
[37:58] better and there's all the reasonable people in the middle that say the thief
[38:03] in the night called inflation is a real thing and we need to account for it we
[38:07] have it so with that being said knowing what that struggle looks like has any of
[38:13] this discussion on I'm just gonna say it because we can't avoid the discussion
[38:19] and where tens of thousands of square feet over built have we had the discussion about consolidation
[38:25] and what is that savings look like if we continue to have this struggle.
[38:34] All right, I'll jump in on this one. So this year we had not taught about consolidation.
[38:41] I do believe that as we go forward and the next year knowing that unless there's a CPI adjustment
[38:47] to a future change and we do need to start a more in-depth process of looking at
[38:53] and all of the schools and figure out where the potential is the savings to us
[39:00] and where it's allowable. I think that's the fact that we always have to consider
[39:03] our many of our further out schools or where we have more space. You know that's
[39:10] said we do have a few buildings that we could possibly transport to kids to
[39:14] another location. We'd have to be really tight on the process and the community
[39:18] explanation and our trends for that community. You know my prime example being
[39:22] that I don't know how many years ago now that we were looking at Chapman Elementary
[39:26] Nacre Point. Chapman is you know asking for portables now right there. The
[39:33] population blew up out there but we do have a you know another school in
[39:37] proximity that's very light on kids right now and we'll have to look at all
[39:42] So right now, late in the game, we didn't look at that
[39:45] to start the year, but I think looking into the future,
[39:48] we're gonna have to look at all space and allocation,
[39:52] and how we use all that my cautionary tale
[39:55] on that part of it is, if we do get the weight set up now,
[39:59] right?
[40:00] We get a hold harmless agreement for, I believe, three years. So right now we actually, by having
[40:10] more schools, you actually bring in more revenue to the district, even if you don't have the
[40:14] efficiency created from having more schools. It's kind of hard to explain. When you close
[40:19] the school now, there is a three year hold harmless where, okay, you'd still get that same
[40:24] revenue. And then there's a drop off of that. So three years out, then you actually are looking
[40:29] it possibly less revenue coming to the district because of your consolidation.
[40:33] So a lot of ways it doesn't make sense, you know, you try to be more efficient, you try
[40:36] to do things right, you can bring some programs together, you can have a one lunch program,
[40:40] you can solve these some specialized services or whatever it may be, but then you're penalized
[40:45] per the process set up by the state.
[40:48] So short-term gain, you know, you know, all these, when I look at Fairbanks and June or right
[40:53] now in a massive consolidation, short-term gain, they're in that position where they have
[40:58] to make drastic cuts but in the long run they're probably going to be at a deficit because of that.
[41:05] Thank you. I'm going to jump ahead of Vice President Cox with a question. So there's two terms
[41:14] that really offend me. Excuse me. One is people that say we throw money at education. You are going
[41:24] to make any difference if you just keep throwing money at education and the other
[41:28] term that really affects me is people that say you people that cook in the
[41:31] aquaculture you dump fish here or you dump fish there from the fishing
[41:37] perspective that you may not know when the aquaculture association has a hatchery
[41:42] and they carefully put blood, sweat, and tears into rays and fish and feed them and
[41:46] trying to make sure they're healthy and worrying at every little disease that
[41:50] come as up, they actually plant those fish in a careful location is how that
[41:55] handled. They don't dump them. And I feel the same way about this term of throwing
[41:59] money at education. But when I first got on the assembly which was 2010 I had
[42:06] heard the term way back then. And so I went online and I'm not brandy or
[42:12] list, but I see that there's many web information available about which state pays teachers the
[42:24] most and puts the most money in education, and then the results.
[42:27] And from what I was able to determine, it isn't a straight graph, but it certainly has
[42:35] a strong indication that the states that put more money into education pay their teachers
[42:41] better, have better results. Their kids have a higher score in SAT tests and those sort
[42:49] of things and have a higher graduation rate. I'm curious if this, if Liz or you guys
[42:54] that really know about numbers have ever looked at that and have something for the public
[43:00] that could say that, hey, here's how it really works.
[43:05] That's a great, that's a great, first of all, I'm going to say the hatchery analogy that was pretty good.
[43:14] Yeah, so I think what makes Alaska, you're very different, right?
[43:18] So I'll just reference even what's happening right now, and I hear some language used, I've heard it used both ways, right?
[43:22] So right now, Commissioner Bishop just used a record study, Rutgers University had a study to say that Alaska is providing the most funding,
[43:32] you know, the most equitable funding to all of the schools.
[43:35] On the same time, Rutgers and University Miami,
[43:37] both backed out into, we'll never publish anything
[43:39] about Alaska again because you're funding formula
[43:41] and how unique your state is,
[43:44] is not able, we're not able to really get accurate
[43:46] information the way that we should.
[43:50] So, where am I gonna go with your question here?
[43:52] I think in the state of Alaska is really hard to tell,
[43:56] right, we have huge number.
[43:57] If you look raw number, right, Alaska's at the very top.
[44:00] When you adjust it to the cost of your business Alaska, we drop under the national average, right?
[44:05] That's how they're at the bicester study from UAAs has shown that and even within that it's very different right going
[44:13] Using the hamburger analogy or maybe I use milk instead, right? We know what milk costs out in Dilling Amp if you're a fish Bristol Bay or
[44:21] Anywhere out there. It's it's three times as much as here
[44:25] All right, so Alaska is expensive as a whole and use up it everywhere, so it's really hard to get a I guess I'm going
[44:31] It's hard to get real good data on Alaska and the spending
[44:35] Compared outcomes, so I'm answering you or not actually. Yeah, yeah answer me and I was well aware that Alaska is different
[44:44] The burrow is different than the Anchorage School District. I mean, it's just
[44:48] It's very hard to make this comparison and yet overall
[44:52] The 626 include Alaska, and then look at how much money goes into education in various places, how well teachers are paid.
[45:00] And because I think, and I could be wrong, but I think that if you have a system that esteem's teachers, then you have kids in junior high and high school thinking, maybe I'm going to be a teacher. And then, if you have a society that looks up to teachers, kind of like I did when I was a kid, then there's just more people that want to be teachers and in that very competition that makes better teachers, it makes education better. That's kind of my concept of it.
[45:29] And, like I say, I looked at numbers, they have them available, and they be in the big internet people.
[45:38] And it looked to me like states that spend the most generally did better.
[45:42] And I realized that there are minorities in various states.
[45:47] California probably has a lot of people that don't speak English in their school district that might hurt them.
[45:54] Other states might have these things. Some states don't.
[45:56] I understand Alaska's really got a widespread area with cultural differences and small schools
[46:03] in expensive places, so I see all that.
[46:05] But again, I just would like the answer to the people that say, oh, you're just throwing
[46:10] money at education.
[46:11] It didn't work before.
[46:13] And using my fish analogy, I know for sure that we don't dump fish.
[46:17] We carefully plant them.
[46:18] Yeah.
[46:19] All right.
[46:19] Thank you.
[46:20] May I continue with a couple of things?
[46:22] Please?
[46:23] Yeah, I just want to be right for you, but who is listening in tonight and you all know this that we are
[46:27] We might hear that too. I think what do you think we're dumping this right? We're come scour our budgets come scour our buildings come
[46:36] Look and tell me where this
[46:39] As transparent I think as you can possibly be and I still even challenge what industry is being more transparent
[46:44] With their budget than what we are. I'm sure it's out there somewhere
[46:47] But I think everybody knows where we are and where everything's going or if you don't you can find it easily or come over
[46:53] meetings where it's talked about so I think that part of it is I think it's a
[46:56] lack of we through a budget one on one so this year trying to even make it
[47:00] more accessible throughout and then with the balancing act on software but you
[47:05] know we're not dumping money in some mystery place night or get online
[47:11] dumping at a district office or wherever it may be when I so go my head what
[47:15] other once again go to an industry I've got 42 schools over 1200 employees 8400
[47:22] kids, and I've got two directors who are trying to cover the whole thing. It's not sustainable.
[47:28] And you know, my friend's an oil patch, so it's 7-1, you know, a supervisor too. I don't
[47:34] know if that's accurate, but I was told that. 7-1, and then we're trying to do this with
[47:38] this phenomenal thing. So I go back to where is this dumping happen, and it, um, it just fired me
[47:45] up a bit too, and then I got to get two fired up, but that'll do it. I'll make, may I elaborate
[47:50] from on something else as well. So I know some other questions. I do want to say for a little bit
[47:58] about how this scenario won. One, this board tried to avoid some of these cuts all along, right? If
[48:05] you've been pulling along, we didn't want to get to a pool of theater scenario again. We didn't want
[48:08] people to say we're firing people up on purpose to just create a scenario kind of like out in the
[48:14] old days, it'd be said about sports, right? All you're doing is you're going to kind of hockey just get
[48:17] People ain't rich fired up or whatever it may be
[48:20] They have delayed this as far as possible and then when it comes to the actual zero scenario
[48:26] And it goes back to the BSA part of it part of the BSA desire to have an increase in that is that it makes it predictable
[48:33] Right, we've been getting one-time funding
[48:36] You know all these years, but when do we get that one-time funding?
[48:40] It's in May and June by time it goes through so we're trying to
[48:45] anticipate and we go through this you know we had a three-year question because of the COVID money
[48:51] You guys have seen this before we've been around right we get here and people are fired up and
[48:55] Trying to the cuts are on there right now or in hope that there will be one time funding or a BSA increase in May or June
[49:03] And none of this will happen right we want to actually have to close polls
[49:06] We want to actually do it so much other stuff with you know cutting days moving people
[49:15] You know, because we haven't told you in 30s just so you know to make actual cuts to people's you know
[49:19] Pull managers assignments are having a job or whatever it may be
[49:23] But the way they set up is it does allow us to move forward trying to hire teachers
[49:27] Okay, and that's the most critical thing right now is we don't have you paying that supply and demand three
[49:32] I'm one of those old school supply and demand guys to you right you there's no one there to hire
[49:37] It's hard right now. We get to May and June. There will be no one and
[49:40] and a very few and so this does allow us the way they set this one for us to move
[49:46] forward with there's 20 positions we can now open with a one PTR increase
[49:51] versus holding back until this whole scenario is done. So they set up this
[49:55] this budget with the hope that we don't have to close the pool and have to lose a
[49:59] Fingered.
[50:00] We don't have to do all this stuff, cuts, coaches, stipends, if there's increased some funding that happens in May and June. But anyways, we want to make sure that was understood. The intent of the hope is that this doesn't happen. I believe there will be funding of some kind, but it'll just be late in the year. Thank you. Okay. I got Mr. Cox, then mayor Michik here after that. Yes, thank you. Going back to buildings and, you know, the idea of if we ever had to eliminate
[50:29] building from the school district just thought for everyone here is that doesn't just go away we have
[50:37] so not in a prep that we are still paying money on as a burrow it's just not in the school district
[50:41] anymore so I know that's not your half of it but for us that is still a big concern with that though
[50:47] that leads me into the the State House has SB 392 that they've been looking at and they've added
[50:53] some amendments to that and one of the amendments is state approved charters, which I have some questions on and one of the questions comes back to this idea of buildings and things. I know they're funding for theirs comes, they use it differently, so it goes to them as a building, but I guess my question comes back to you if we're already looking at some schools having low participation at those schools is what when you guys go to look at one, if you're the one in charge of approving a charter, is that something we look at?
[51:23] is that something that's considered so we're not having schools that are now running
[51:28] inefficiently because we've opened another school within the area.
[51:33] Yeah it's a great question.
[51:36] So when we're going through that process we are looking at impact on the neighborhood school.
[51:42] If there's like one school, what would that impact be? So it could be a negative impact, it depends.
[51:50] I think there's one community that's looked at and said, you know, you're effectively going to kill
[51:53] your other school if you do this, your upset with the staff and they get now, and a creation of one
[52:00] for this community would probably eliminate the other or make it suffer to a point that
[52:06] it's not successful and really comes down to I think people see if you look at our balancing act,
[52:11] you'll see charter school not touchable. It doesn't mean that they're not being impacted, right? It
[52:16] means we can't. So like, you know, an ABC, a classical part of it is, they will have the same financial
[52:22] impact to them it just comes through to them to make decisions on how it looks. I think that's
[52:27] what people sometimes don't understand it's not like they get everything the same and no harm.
[52:32] I think for us when it comes to the whole conversation about state charter oversight or
[52:37] district oversight one I want you to know that the state does do the final approval already right there's
[52:43] also an appeal process which when we this board just denied went to appeal and was upheld by D
[52:48] recently and now it's another appeal with the State School Board. We don't know
[52:53] that outcome yet. I think the key thing that we're would be concerned on is how
[52:58] do you is the state can have enough information to make the budgetary
[53:01] decisions. That was a big part of the issue with the last one is not having a
[53:04] budget that matched what they were wanting. Not knowing that you can do a title
[53:10] one school when you first started right you're not gonna get that funding.
[53:16] Not
[53:16] you're allocated, but this is not, this is what it cost. So that would be my
[53:21] thing as a stake and have a mechanism to actually know bad information. That
[53:25] would be, that would be my concern. I did like what they put in there before
[53:31] with a, they had a charter school, if you guys want to more on this, the charter
[53:35] school state coordinator, as far as somebody at the state level, hopefully
[53:41] somebody knows what they're doing, that, that would help charters develop their
[53:45] charter and bring them to the district in a form that's ready to use or at least have
[53:50] questions for the district or help with that because we spend a lot of time helping with
[53:55] that. And then they had an appeal process for if it's an existing charter and then the
[54:00] district wants to remove that charter that happened in acres last year there's an appeal for that.
[54:05] I think that's not a bad idea either. So you have a stop cap on both ends.
[54:12] taking away the whole thing from a local school board that would be
[54:15] concerned about the financial aspect of it. Do they actually understand the
[54:19] finances that go into that school, how the money happens, and does it cover the
[54:23] cost of what they plan to do? Like we have to tell people, hey you actually overstaffed
[54:28] what you're projecting, you wouldn't be able to forward to have all that. Or
[54:33] do you think about special education or do you think this? I don't know if I'm
[54:36] answer that.
[54:40] Yes, no, it's kind of on the same lines. I was thinking, hopefully, if the
[54:44] state does, if it passes that they do have that bypass situation that they do have some
[54:50] of that in place to where there's at least a recommendation asked specifically from whatever
[54:55] where that school district is.
[54:57] As far as the last part you were talking about.
[55:00] As having a coordinator and then an appeal process that's a little bit more expanded, I believe it was our representative reference who is listening today that put that in 140. So, hopefully, you know, he's hearing that and we can see that again. So thank you.
[55:17] I don't have. Oh, ma'am, cheeky. Yeah, I turned it off because the camera was on me and I wanted it to be on the superintendents. So just to be clear, Mr. President, I don't think you were talking about my comment on the wings of
[55:32] how people view education. I wasn't okay good but I think it's really important when we're
[55:40] trying to convince a group of legislators that the hamburger analogy is super important and
[55:47] there's a dear friend of mine that happens to be a local radio guy and I asked that I were given
[55:56] 2017 prices in its restaurant. He runs a restaurant and I don't think he's going to give me that deal but
[56:04] It's it's imperative that people understand that but I'm it it's also important that we focus on the fact this struggle is likely going to continue
[56:13] What we should recognize as a
[56:16] key 9 peninsula burrow assembly and administration is the shift to the local requirement, right so
[56:26] we funded to the cap last year. That cap is increasing dramatically much faster than our
[56:33] budgetary philosophy, which is remaining around CPI 2.5%. I mean, that's manageable over time.
[56:41] Think of all the 2.5% that are missing from the state and it's shifting to us.
[56:54] So
[56:54] 1.31 to the cap next here just projections 1.75 and looking a couple years down the road
[57:05] is 2.3 I believe tiny little numbers 2.1 so dramatic increase in the local contribution
[57:17] which makes it impossible for us to manage our borough at a responsible budgetary philosophy.
[57:23] If they don't participate, things will continue to go and you hear all kinds of stuff out there.
[57:30] You, when you talked about why Alaska is different, first of all, you look at our demographics.
[57:35] You look at the geographic distances, just the transportation costs of getting a bottle of water from the lower 48 to here.
[57:42] I mean, it's different in so many different ways.
[57:45] That doesn't bring the social issues into the problem.
[57:48] And I'm a pretty conservative guy.
[57:51] I think the family should be responsible.
[57:53] Unfortunately, a really high proportion of our families don't necessarily understand
[57:57] what that means.
[57:58] So that puts a difficult burden on the district that's not only teaching kids but raising
[58:05] and feeding kids at an unprecedented proportion to other places.
[58:11] So it's really challenging if the, I don't want to say the legislature because the legislature
[58:17] your past and adequate BSA improvement. We have to bring the parties together and in
[58:29] the unfortunate reality that politics is a team sport. I think 50 charter schools have
[58:36] been approved in the last five years. One was denied. We have to think about if that risk
[58:42] of sharing the approval responsibility is worth not having a BSA of 680 plus, because
[58:50] I hope if we don't get a CPI adjustment, we're going to be in this same place every year
[58:55] too. So in that team sport philosophy, folks need to think about what they can settle for
[59:04] and what's manageable because both sides have to get something. Let's just how it works.
[59:10] And you think you have the votes to override and you just don't.
[59:16] You just don't.
[59:17] Those little flyers start going out in the mail and people start panicking.
[59:21] Not everyone's as brave as this assembly is on doing the right thing.
[59:26] So it's really challenging.
[59:28] We've got to strike a deal.
[59:29] That results in outside doesn't help.
[59:33] That's just an every year battle that's got to be inside.
[59:36] I don't care what my conservative friends want to disagree with this.
[59:38] operating with ignorance and a stodgy philosophy that isn't based in reality doesn't work.
[59:46] Try to buy an apple for 2017 prices. Forget about the outcome. Let's talk about the business
[59:55] status quo. I absolutely want a better outcome. So do you.
[1:00:00] That's what you guys do every day, but starving out education does not deliver a better outcome.
[1:00:07] Neither does pouring the calls to it financially. There's two different discussions. One is adequately
[1:00:13] funding the business of education, and the other is, how do we get a better outcome? So it's
[1:00:21] a challenge, but I encourage you to educate, get the facts out the best you can in a way that
[1:00:30] people can understand. They're not. They're bright. We just get locked into their own little bubbles.
[1:00:36] However you go on this thing and whatever you choose to look at is what you're fed every day.
[1:00:42] Don't allow yourself to be programmed by your cell phone. Dig deeper and learn the facts.
[1:00:48] I think people will listen. We're willing to help share that message. We're
[1:00:54] absolutely, but we're partners every day. We're willing to help share that message of what that
[1:00:58] reality looks like. So hopefully you don't get the folks that just decide their
[1:01:04] bubbles telling them to vote now.
[1:01:08] It's just as dangerous as someone's bubble telling
[1:01:11] them to vote yes. They need to get out of their bubbles and do it's right and
[1:01:14] understand the issues which is where the gap lies I think.
[1:01:21] Mr. Hibber you've been
[1:01:22] quiet. Thank you Mr. Johnson. President Johnson. Guys I want to thank you for all
[1:01:27] showing up. I think this is my seventh budget that I've gone through with the
[1:01:31] the school district. And it's been tough. Every one of them has been tough. And I think
[1:01:38] that we've this this assembly in the future and past assemblies have funded most of
[1:01:44] the time to the cap. I think there was a couple times that we didn't. But this is the
[1:01:49] same scenario the last seven times as we're waiting for the state to to fund us. And you know
[1:01:55] if we could get some forward funding that would be real helpful. And so if we could figure
[1:01:59] out that, how could we get $12 million in today, have $12 million in our bank account?
[1:02:06] And I don't know, and I probably should know this, I don't know if we can all have so much
[1:02:10] in a design of fund balance, but if there was a way that we could do that, and I don't know
[1:02:16] how we change the legislators' minds on how to do this.
[1:02:21] Mike Clayton, you did say that you're looking into consolidations in this and a plan.
[1:02:26] And if this was a business, which it is a business,
[1:02:29] but we're waiting on government to try to fund this,
[1:02:34] but if this was a business, we would have a plan.
[1:02:37] We'd be looking out into the future,
[1:02:39] five years, 10 years out there.
[1:02:41] And what does this look like?
[1:02:43] And you said that you're looking at maybe consolidating
[1:02:47] than that, but then I think I heard you and I might be
[1:02:50] mistaken here, but because we don't know if we're gonna
[1:02:54] get a $680 BSA but even if we did I would encourage you to please continue to plan for
[1:03:04] that future out there that we have and how can maybe we make up at extra $12 million
[1:03:09] and having fund balance or something so we can forward fund it and we don't have to lay
[1:03:14] off teachers to balance the budget because we have the money in that so I encourage you
[1:03:19] to continue to look at a plan how we can go forward and have some money and I'm sure
[1:03:29] that this assembly will, I'm speaking for myself but I'm sure that I know I will
[1:03:36] vote for a fully funding you guys again and if there's something that you think this
[1:03:44] assembly can do. I would encourage you to ask.
[1:03:47] Thanks.
[1:03:50] Mr. Tonson.
[1:03:52] Thank you, President Johnson. I just want to echo what Mr.
[1:03:56] Herbert is saying and thank you guys for being here.
[1:03:59] And I also want to just maybe ask a couple silly questions and perhaps
[1:04:03] there for the mayor or perhaps there for you guys.
[1:04:06] But Clayton, you got me thinking of something when you mentioned hockey.
[1:04:10] And so one thing you don't see on here is like if you cut the
[1:04:15] pool, I'm assuming you're cutting swimming. And so what if we cut the hockey
[1:04:22] rings, except for we don't run the hockey rings, that's my understanding. And so
[1:04:27] there certainly must be an amount of money that gets sent to the city of
[1:04:32] Soldatno or sent to the city of Kienach for running those. And so let me
[1:04:37] and I love hockey. I play hockey all the time. So I don't want this to come on
[1:04:42] wrong but I guess a couple questions one. Has there ever been any discussion or
[1:04:46] looking at like a different way to manage our pools, our theaters and whether
[1:04:53] that should be in the hands of the city or the borough why it might make sense to
[1:04:59] and not do that.
[1:05:00] Is I guess my first question and then my second just comment is, me personally, I would like and I understand that a lot of what was done was to prioritize in classroom activities, right? And when I think about that as myself as a student or my kids that I have now in the schools, it's the theater or the pool or their extracurricular activities. A lot of times that keep them coming.
[1:05:30] to keep them motivated. So I personally think these things are like head trash to a budget sheet,
[1:05:37] and I would like to see them completely off of there. And I know that you guys would too.
[1:05:42] But however that works out, if it's additional days of staff, that however it works out,
[1:05:50] to me it's just untenable. We can't have a situation in a river community, in a fishing community,
[1:05:57] where we're deciding that we're not going to have a swimming pool that we're not going to have these areas where we teach our kids how to swim.
[1:06:07] And I look at that further and think of places like I just watched this huge slideshow on Iceland.
[1:06:13] And granted we're this very, very different, you know, dynamic of a country.
[1:06:19] But for 100,000 people in Reykjavik they have something like 70-some Olympic-sized swimming pools.
[1:06:26] And they're seeing the reduced rates in substance abuse, positive outcomes for their kids going through the roof.
[1:06:33] So, to me, really long-winded way of asking a question, but one, are there other options that we could look at that would keep these things open?
[1:06:44] And then two, how do we take these lightning rods kind of off the table? Because to me it's just not...
[1:06:51] I can't see it even as a reality, even if it was under scenario one, I just can't
[1:06:57] fathom a situation where the pools actually go away or don't exist.
[1:07:03] And so, again, long kind of winded way of obviously letting you know I don't want to
[1:07:08] see those things on there.
[1:07:09] I think you guys are probably in agreement there, but then also if you could maybe you know
[1:07:15] answer the question of are there other avenues that have been looked at that could possibly
[1:07:20] run those or manage those. Thank you. Thank you so this may be a shared
[1:07:24] shared question but starting with the hockey aspect of it they both municipalities
[1:07:30] believe give us a discount to the ice time and I believe we only contribute
[1:07:36] how much? 5,000 per team for ice time the rest is on them to the fundraise so the
[1:07:43] hockey answered that one though I do want on the record that you are recommending
[1:07:47] hockey. I'm just kidding. But hockey for the district is not a huge expense, but I get
[1:07:55] where you're leading that into other areas.
[1:07:58] It did come up last year, right? About how
[1:08:01] we could make it happen. But I believe what would have to happen, and I'm sure you could
[1:08:07] have to add on, but that the whole borough, or at least parts of the borough, would have to
[1:08:12] be a wreck area. We'd have to have that wreck area. Even the city of home, I believe,
[1:08:16] I gathered the municipality, had some interest in that, but they also have to become a wreck
[1:08:20] area. Even though they have a recreation department, it's not the same thing, and I don't fully
[1:08:24] understand that as an outs of that. So we'd take that, and then you're maybe a reversal
[1:08:31] of the current role where maybe we're renting when our teams use it, or P-classes use it,
[1:08:36] or whatever.
[1:08:38] Merced right now, it's the community comes in and we run them in the community and be
[1:08:43] friendly.
[1:08:43] The community uses our pools more than we do in most locations, but that's an
[1:08:48] intricate question, right?
[1:08:49] That also puts money, possibly back on the borough to do, I don't know if it's a wash or
[1:08:55] how that works or if a municipality or a tribe, that would be my hope that maybe a city like
[1:09:08] I think it would be a good time for me to weigh in.
[1:09:12] My advice was not to go there that advice is ignored.
[1:09:15] What the district is doing is choosing which kids are most important.
[1:09:19] And it's the wrong way to go.
[1:09:22] To some people, so here's what we can do.
[1:09:25] We can bro can take the fields, the tracks, the theaters.
[1:09:32] So I don't want to separate kids. They're all important.
[1:09:34] football players are more important than theater kids, hockey people are more
[1:09:39] important but we'll take it all back and then you'll see it in a different
[1:09:46] line you'll see it in the maintenance line because we have a maximum
[1:09:50] contribution to the district it's politics and I don't like dealing with ball I
[1:09:54] I don't do politics.
[1:09:56] Do kids or do roads?
[1:10:00] If someone's road is not more important than other people's road, football is not more important than theaters and pools. And it makes kids that are into theaters and pools feel less important. That should come off this list and I'm trying to help you. This does not help you if you think it does, it doesn't. And if we move in the other direction, it'll be less money in the classroom because it's going to go into a different part of the ledger on the local match.
[1:10:30] It's very risky to think about doing a burrow-wide rec service area that has, because I don't
[1:10:39] like we should stop there, we'll just take everything but the building.
[1:10:43] We'll take the fields and the tracks and the theaters and the pools and put in a service area
[1:10:50] and it ends up being a charge to the park.
[1:10:52] Let's do this together without separating people.
[1:10:55] That advice is best not ignored.
[1:10:59] It doesn't help.
[1:11:01] Let's get everybody together.
[1:11:03] Even pool of theater families to lean on the administration to pass an adequate.
[1:11:10] VSA adjustment with an adequate CPA correction over time and stop having this.
[1:11:16] You guys have both brought that up every year.
[1:11:19] It's got to stop.
[1:11:20] And I'm not asking for more money than education needs, adequate funding, adequate funding is what?
[1:11:29] Education needs, it's a state responsibility right there in that little blue book called the
[1:11:33] Constitution. And frankly, if local entities decide to get really tired of this and take the state
[1:11:42] to court on not adequately funding education. We win. I don't want that. I'm not a court
[1:11:50] guy. I'm not a litigation guy. I'm getting everybody together and duking it out until we're
[1:11:56] all equally unhappy kind of guy. But we're at that point. So let's all stay together. All families,
[1:12:04] no matter what their kids, no matter how their kids are motivated to succeed at school, let's get
[1:12:10] them all working on a solution.
[1:12:13] So yes, there are other ways that we can do that.
[1:12:17] It's not a better outcome for education.
[1:12:20] Man.
[1:12:21] Yeah, you can.
[1:12:23] And it's going to have to do a sort of brief Clayton.
[1:12:25] Because we were really actually going
[1:12:27] to stay on time with our agenda, and then the hockey player
[1:12:29] started.
[1:12:31] OK.
[1:12:32] But yeah, go ahead.
[1:12:33] I think I just wanted to point out we were answering a question.
[1:12:36] And as I said earlier, we're not
[1:12:39] trying to divide this community and this board has been trying to not do this
[1:12:43] through and it's going back to the sincere hope that with all of this, including
[1:12:48] Paul, that's why I keep saying it too, for anybody listening, is that we're not
[1:12:51] going to get there with the polls by May and June, and we haven't told June 30th
[1:12:55] to actually notify classified staff if they have jobs or not or what's
[1:13:00] happening, that by then we will have that funding. So we're not trying to
[1:13:05] to leverage us into anything, to cause the extension with our students, with our community.
[1:13:11] We're trying to do something that allows us to move forward with hiring some of those
[1:13:15] teachers that are vacant, and with the sincere desire that this doesn't happen.
[1:13:20] And I get just by putting it there, and I say, there are people on the, on that list
[1:13:24] are my friends, right?
[1:13:26] I don't like this.
[1:13:26] I have to say, sorry we're doing this again.
[1:13:28] It's terrible.
[1:13:30] I don't want those kids around drama to feel like we're talking, but they'll feel that way
[1:13:34] I get that. We're trying to do our best to avoid that and then move the business of
[1:13:39] education forward by being able to move in different areas. And so I just want to make
[1:13:44] sure that that's clear again. There's no intent in doing that. I get just going to imply
[1:13:51] intent because it's on that cut. But we really believe when it's all sent into the day, we're
[1:13:57] not going to be doing that. Thank you and thank this Board and Mayor Michicky for always
[1:14:03] your honest conversation and your questions. You know we're supposed to be put under the
[1:14:07] grill as part of this role so I thank you for what you do and your support through resolutions
[1:14:13] and your comments today. It's very much appreciated by all of us.
[1:14:19] Thanks a lot for coming Clayton and then and Mr. Crabtree and Liz and Jason is left
[1:14:27] and Ladon. Mr. Ribbons, can we have like maybe a five minute recess before we start your committee
[1:14:34] because it would be fun to chat with these folks before they leave? Is that possible? President Johnson,
[1:14:39] you always get whatever you want. I don't know about that, but thanks a lot. That's what we'll do. We're adjourned.