Coraggio Consulting
Loudoun County School Board, Finance & Operations Committee Meeting, Tuesday, May 5, 2026

Date: Tuesday, May 5, 2026
Place: Loudoun County Public Schools / School Board meeting (see BoardDocs / LCPS-TV)
Length: 44m (video)
Official meeting video (Vimeo / LCPS-TV): https://player.vimeo.com/video/1189486080?rel=0
BoardDocs (School Board): https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/loudoun/Board.nsf/Public

Machine transcript (speech-to-text) produced by Coraggio Consulting. Not an official county record. Names and numbers may be misspelled; check the video at the timestamp before quoting.
Speech-to-text: whisper.cpp, model large-v3-turbo. Produced 2026-10-11. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:00:00] Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to the Finance and Operations Committee. My name is Dena Griffiths, and I am joined by my colleagues, Ms. Riccardi and Mr. Pepper. Do we have public comment today? No? No public comment. Okay. So with that, we will move on to the minutes. May I have a motion to approve the minutes of the April 21st, 2026 Finance and Operations Committee meeting?

[00:00:26] So moved. Second. Thank you. So moved by Ms. Riccardi and seconded by Mr. Pepper. If it has been moved, all those in favor, say aye. Aye. Aye. Thank you. And we will move on to the consent agenda.

[00:00:44] May I have a motion to approve the consent agenda? I move the consent agenda. Second. Thank you. That was moved by Mr. Pepper and seconded by Ms. Riccardi.

[00:01:01] All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Aye. Thank you. We don't have any action items today. We have just information items. So now we'll move on to our information items, starting with 5.01, Business and Financial Services IFB 126108 Toner and Ink Cartridges.

[00:01:21] And Ms. Phila will be presenting. Thank you. Good afternoon and thank you. I have before you this evening our contract for toner and ink cartridges. This is a contract we bring before you on a regular basis due to the anticipated spend being approximately $300,000, which is across the entire school system.

[00:01:44] Schools and administrative offices buy these toner cartridges, and we actually saw a 12% decrease in our unit prices for these toner cartridges, which is not something we typically see. This contract is actually for a shorter period than one year.

[00:02:00] The new contract is to start June 1, 2026 through November 30, 2026. And the reason we are doing that is HP routinely brings out their price adjustments in October for new prices to be effective January 1. And what we run into is vendors then can't resell to us at the same price because there's an adjustment in the HP costs.

[00:02:23] And since we have a lot of HP products on our contract, we did it for this period of time to allow for those price adjustments. So it is being brought before you to either be brought to your next meeting as an action or consent item and on the school board agenda on May 26, 2026, with the current contract expiring May 30, 2026.

[00:02:48] Thank you very much. Oh, we have a question. Mr. Pepper. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Ms. Villa. Would it not be advantageous to us to make the contract longer if HP is going to raise their prices in the new year? It is not. It is not always that they're going to raise their prices, and what happens is vendors then back out because they cannot honor their price. So then we have to go to the next slow bid and the next slow bid to see, or next bid to see if we can get a different

[00:03:22] vendor thank you any other discussion no i i find that interesting um i would hope it would go all the way to december and then we just start fresh but um thank you for that information i never would have uh known that um with no other discussion um this is an information item so i believe this can go on the next consent agenda um if everyone's okay with that we're all okay with that i don't know that we need to say aye no we don't okay thank you uh we will move on to the next item

[00:04:00] which is 5.02 business and financial services revision of policy 4310 purchasing authority on that will also be presented by you miss villa thank you thank you i have before you this evening policy 4310 which actually was originally brought as an information item on november 4th 2025 and recommended by the committee on December 9th 2025 to present as an information item to the school board on January 13th at the January 13th 2026 meeting a recommendation was approved to return the item to the Finance and Operations Committee for further review and that is what I have presented before

[00:04:39] you this evening in looking at the revisions to this agreement the revisions initially there was not many revisions down through B2 when you get to Section C and D, these are new sections for this policy, specifically related to threshold monitoring and notification, as well as related to quarterly reporting requirements.

[00:05:04] These particular requirements, we do currently have a process in place to confirm that our thresholds are not being compromised, that when we approach our threshold where at $250,000, We must have an awarded contract brought before you or a cooperative.

[00:05:21] We have a regular cadence we follow to confirm that we are following our procurement thresholds as per policy. Then, in addition, the notification process, both C and D bring with them, I did want to share a lot of manual work that we will have to do initially.

[00:05:42] We are hoping, with the implementation of the new ERP July 1, 2027, to have enhanced reporting that will allow us to better report on the criteria presented here in the policy this evening. At this time, I welcome any questions related to the additional items that we added to the policy.

[00:06:05] Thank you very much. Any questions? Any discussion? No. Ms. Riccardi. I really appreciate you guys taking this back and reworking both of these policies, so thank you for doing so. I just wanted to ask you just a couple of questions and make sure that we're linking back to the right items.

[00:06:32] I was working out of the red line version, and I think it was line 70, where it says identifying any pattern or purchase meeting the criteria in subsection D3 above.

[00:06:50] should that be c3 yes it should be b b as in boy no i think it should be c as in charlie c i thought she said b c yes sorry about that it's the allergy thing and then again on line 94 where it says section d in the red line i think that's supposed to say c as in charlie also that is correct and then on line 103 same thing it says section d i think it's supposed to be under c

[00:07:25] dot four it says cross-referencing things they just get get tricky but otherwise um you know i think this is a really good a really good move and i appreciate the changes to this and the thoughtful process around it thank you um i do recall this uh particular policy um my concern with it last time was the superintendent um can authorize 250 000 was that correct

[00:08:00] um it used to be i think we made the changes if you could just clarify for me that um the school board um will have to approve purchasing uh for 250 000 or the way the policy is written it's not this particular policy but in another in policy 4320 and also in one of your school board policies it is written that any solicitation awarded greater than 250 000 must come to the finance committee and then the school board committee. For example, toner cartridges was $300,000.

[00:08:35] Therefore, we bring it to you as an information action or consent, and then for school board consent. Thank you for that clarification. That was a concern I think I had last time we took a look at this policy, or it could have been 4320. We have a million policies I can't keep up. So thank you so much. Is there any other discussion? Go ahead, Mr. Pepper. Thank you, - Madam Chair, thank you for doing this policy.

[00:09:03] When I'm looking at section C3, when it's talking about notification to the Finance and Operations Committee when it's required to let us know about purchasing, it's not quite the threshold. It's 75% of 250, which is, I'm trying to do that in my head, but it's like 190, 180, 190.

[00:09:26] Is that when we get notified? Is that what it's saying? So, if you look at section C3 on line 57 through 59, and then again, all three of these sections, it says that the notification to this committee when any cumulative purchase is 75% of $250,000, why is the amount just not stated?

[00:09:55] Why is it reaching 75%? You mean instead of, oh, that's what you're saying about the 180. Yeah. yeah like why is it not just my question is why is it not just the dollar amount wouldn't that be easier than having to play around with math or is there a legal reason for it it it's the same i mean the 250 is the same but the 180 if you put here the 180 there may be something also that isn't going to get to 250 but you see what i'm saying so i think it's more for for for 3a and 3b it's rather than put a dollar amount and then having to

[00:10:35] someone remember well why was it 180 or whatever the math may be that it's referencing the the actual thresholds that are involved in other policies so you have that that policy driven threshold and then this kind of warning threshold of 75 percent or 90 percent depending on the type of activity and then following up on that um that's this is just notifications not approval is that correct correct okay what oversight the out of curiosity may not be in this policy

[00:11:12] what oversight does this committee have other than notification on purchases that exceed said thresholds on purchases that seek that exceed the $250,000 threshold on contracts that are awarded by Lowndes County Public Schools you're involved in the approval of the award like the toner cartridges yes yes so the 75 percent is more just an advisory we're getting close to the 250 okay did we are we aware of it okay so we don't have any say yes no any of that we don't approve any of

[00:11:50] that we're just told hey these contracts are getting close if we have to renew them in a year or two they might bump up over the threshold okay i i appreciate that because i want to make sure like why that's in there and and you know what role we play as a committee so I appreciate that Mr. Cardi thank you Madam Chair I'm going to keep going on this because so let's say you have a contract and let's say it's $230,000 and you get to the set well for $250,000 threshold what happens if the cumulative purchases then go over the $250,000 threshold that's one of the things I'm

[00:12:30] here I'm trying to catch is that if we're doing a lot of cumulative purchases and we go over that 250,000 threshold on a contract that we wouldn't have approved anything for less than that. It's just that, you know, what happens when we get to that gate and then we haven't provided additional purchasing authorities?

[00:12:49] We have a regular report we run monthly that gives us the spend. It's a spend by vendor, like commodities and so on. As we approach our thresholds, we then have to make a determination. We reach out to the end users.

[00:13:06] What's the anticipated spend for the rest of the year? Because remember, this is based on estimate of what you plan to spend. Of course, if it's a fixed price contract, what we will do is most of these, we will go back and look at the prior year spend on that contract and say, it exceeded $250, we need to do a solicitation.

[00:13:24] That is a process we already have in place to monitor these thresholds. So if something is going to approach the 250, and if it's going to go over, we will either do a solicitation that we will bring before you as an LCPS solicitation, or we will utilize a cooperative agreement.

[00:13:44] A cooperative agreement is an agreement awarded by another jurisdiction or even nationally. It's gone through a competitive process. It's been awarded through a solicitation and been approved for usage. So it's gone through all the approvals that needs to happen for us per the Virginia Public Procurement Act.

[00:14:03] We can use those cooperatives. Right, and that's in the next policy that we're going to discuss, right? That is in part of the next policy, but it's also defined in policy 4320 under methods of procurement. Okay. I just want to make sure that we've got the proper oversight without having to get too in the weeds, But especially for contracts where there are a lot of spenders on an item, I just want to make sure that we're aware when it goes over.

[00:14:34] It's not that it necessarily is a big deal. It's just I think it's more for an awareness piece of it. So thank you. And then also the other thing that we have in policy also is in the next one as well is change orders. if a change order exceeds a percentage or a dollar amount we advise you of that through a quarterly report in your school board packet that you guys have on Fridays is there a dollar amount like if in perfect honesty if you guys go over a little bit I'm not sure I care so much but if it goes

[00:15:06] over by a certain percentage it's 25 of the contract price or $50,000 whichever is greater Okay. So on a purchase order, if the purchase order goes up 25% of the contract price or $50,000, whichever is greater, we report it to you in a quarterly report.

[00:15:30] And if it goes over more than that, we only hear about it quarterly. You would hear, yes, as per policy. Thank you. Mr. Pepper. I'm sorry.

[00:15:46] I just need a little more. This is so thick, and I just need a little more clarification on this. And this is kind of piggybacking off Mr. Cardi's question. If we get close and then go over, it's reporting to us. So we get reported to, and it's going to jump over.

[00:16:06] If it's over by 25% or 50K. If a change order is done. So is that the next policy that we're looking at? If the change order is done, to increase it above the contract. Most of our contracts are firm fixed price. Okay. So that is what we use for our contracts.

[00:16:23] Go ahead. I'm wondering if it's helpful. Again, a lot of the work, especially of the redlining, the processes and the work is already ongoing, as Ms. Belial has said, behind the scenes. It is really of just elevating in a more transparent way and advising the committee regarding whenever certain thresholds are about to be met.

[00:16:47] There is no additional action required from the committee at that time, as she has stated. It's purely advisory so that then you can just anticipate what next actions the procurement team would be doing. If it's needing to go out for solicitation or if there's questions about, you know, what drove a change order.

[00:17:07] It's just more, again, advisory, not necessarily resulting in additional action. And this runs through the end of whatever contract we have with said vendor or selection of vendors. And then should we have gone over, then we would go through the traditional bid approval process.

[00:17:25] We base it on a fiscal year. Okay. It's a one-year period. The way the procurement policy is written, it's the aggregate spend for a period of one year for the purchase of like items. Appreciate that. Thank you very much. I want to thank my colleagues.

[00:17:43] Great questions on this particular policy. And I do remember vaguely, I guess, 4320 from last year. Are we going to have 4320 coming along as well anytime soon? No, 4320 was recently updated due to some changes with the Virginia Public Procurement Act.

[00:18:01] That is not on the schedule to be brought back. Was that done last year? Was that approved last year? I would have to look that up. Okay. Because I feel like they go hand in hand somewhat. I had questioned the $250,000 when I first got on the committee.

[00:18:20] So I just want to compare the two. Right. As you may recall, I previously gave a presentation. Ms. Ewing and I gave a presentation on the procurement process, and we talked about these thresholds. Okay. And about the one-page cheat sheet and the fact that other jurisdictions may have a different rate, an amount than the $250,000.

[00:18:39] Some could have a million. Some could have less, depending on the size. So that is, that $250,000 is established in the policy and also is spelled out in your policy. that anything over $250,000 come before the Finance Committee.

[00:18:54] Thank you. Thank you for the clarification, and thank you to my colleagues for those great questions. This particular policy is on the information items list. Do we want to review a little bit more before we send it to consent?

[00:19:09] Okay. We would like to review a little bit more before we send it to consent, so it won't be going to consent. I think it would come back for what, action? Action. Next time? Okay, I just wanted to clarify. Yeah. Yeah, we'll have it come back as action. Madam Chair, you actually have the option as chair of the committee to decide whether it comes back as information or action.

[00:19:27] So it is your decision? It's my decision for it to come back as action. Okay, thank you. I just want to make sense. Yep, yep, that's definitely my decision because I feel like we need to take a look at it a little bit more. So thank you both. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

[00:19:42] Real quick, I wanted to answer. The policy 4320 was adopted November 2024. I vaguely remember that, and I questioned it then. So if these two go hand in hand, I would like to take a look again. So thank you so much.

[00:19:59] We can move on now to 5.03, Business and Financial Services Revision of Policy 4370, School Board Contract Approval. And once again, Ms. Philaw, you will be presenting. Thank you. Policy 4370 relates to who has the authority for contract approval as well as signature authority.

[00:20:20] Signature authority is new in policy. We have not previously had this in the policy. You will also notice several changes relating to what the purchasing agent has authorized, the authorization of the chief operations officer, division counsel authorized to procure legal services, and then emergency procurements.

[00:20:39] And when those said emergency procurements exceed $250,000, they will be brought to the school board for ratification in its next regular meeting. Those emergencies can be anything from we have a fire at a school and we immediately needed to get somebody in and take action on that fire.

[00:20:55] It could easily exceed $250,000, but as the purchasing agent of authority to implement the emergency procurement and then advise you of that emergency procurement. In addition, you will notice Section C is new, and Section C relates to signature authority thresholds for contracts.

[00:21:14] These particular contracts, when you look at these, is it's putting into place that contracts that are less than $5,000 is the account manager or designee, and the account manager is someone who's officially appointed individual who directs and is responsible for a program's fiscal management.

[00:21:30] An example would be a principal. Then you have myself as the purchasing agent, $5,000 to $250,000, more than $250,000, the school board can be signed by the superintendent or a designated cabinet member, and then all legal services signed by division counsel or designated cabinet member.

[00:21:48] One of the things that we are looking into related to this process is how we can automate the flow of these contracts. We're working with DDI very closely on getting a tool that will allow us, because right now we're getting them in various ways. they go into a shared folder I pull them up I sign them with a pdf signer and then they go on so we are looking into a tool to help with that but that is one of the newer sections in this particular policy thank you so much for the for that great information um any discussion no um I

[00:22:24] just want to say with this one as well um you brought up a great example that if there was a fire, you need to come in and I guess fix damages. Which one would, and I think this came up last time, construction related, besides the example you gave, where approval would be given to go in under a certain amount, the 250, go in and make changes or update something. Which policy would we follow for that? Or maybe Mr. Lewis can answer. It's the same policies that we use. If it's under 250 they still have the same threshold it could be any any one of these three it could be any one

[00:23:03] but they with the virginia public procurement act there's a different section related to how you procure the construction but the dollar amounts would still apply that was that thank you for clarifying because now we're looking at you know we're discussing the three so i'm just trying to figure out there they seem very similar and i'm kind of maybe we i don't think we can combine them to make them one policy or because they're similar or what are your what are your thoughts on that? No? We tried previously. It didn't work out to combine them, the policy that you're referencing. Mr. Lewis, did you have anything you wanted to add to that? No, I mean,

[00:23:43] there's just a slight difference in, you know, purchasing authority or contract authority, and this one specifically speaks to the school board contract approval. So it's just, it was a separation to make sure it, even though it's in three different policies, it seemed to make it more clear to folks when we did this in the past. And at this point, I think it works well for us.

[00:24:00] I will add that this particular document, the documents that are referenced here, we have worked with legal counsel, Ms. Ewing, to create templates for each of these. So we have a standard template that we use for each one of these, and then if the vendor comes back and redlines anything, we work with Ms. Ewing because it's a change to the standard legally adopted template.

[00:24:22] With Mr. Lewis's construction, there's a lot more comprehensive information that the chair has to sign and related to those construction projects. That's what makes this unique. And I thank you for the clarification. Ms. Riccardi. Thank you, Madam Chair.

[00:24:39] I have just one more question. In the red line, I'm looking at line 17, which says, the purchasing agent may also approve contracts in any amount that result from previously competitive awarded cooperative agreements by other jurisdictions. So if I read that correctly, that says that when we've got a cooperative agreement that we the purchasing agent can sign off on any amount that is spelled out also in your organization resolution that you adopt in january of every

[00:25:15] year cooperatives are identified in there because as i had shared previously those cooperatives have gone through a formal solicitation process in order to be a cooperative they've gone through the competition a fair and open competition they've been awarded each of them may have a lead agency Many times we'll use, like Fairfax does a lot, lead agency on nationwide procurements.

[00:25:38] So based on that criteria and based on the organization resolution, that is where this is originated from. Okay, I have so many questions about this one, and I'm not going to do them all right now. But I would really like to see this go to action because that concerns me a bit.

[00:25:57] Is there any notification to us before the purchasing agent signs off on that? and can you give me a couple of examples of where we do this? First of all, per the org resolution, there's no notification that is given because these were awarded through a competitive process.

[00:26:16] As per the Virginia Public Procurement Act, we are allowed to use those cooperatives, which many times offer you greater competition in cost. We do a cost comparison to make sure we're getting a good price through the cooperative. Some examples of cooperatives could be art supplies, PE equipment.

[00:26:35] Sometimes we'll use them for that. Let's see, I'm trying to think off the top. Sometimes some custodial supplies, certain things like toilet paper. You can get a really good price when you use a cooperative because it includes across the country. So those are some examples of some cooperatives.

[00:26:53] They're primarily goods related. Do we do any of it with instructional materials or anything like that? We could do it with instructional materials if it is the instructional materials selected through the formal process for adoption of instructional materials.

[00:27:11] Textbooks, for example, we're doing on our own now. You know, we're doing solicitations. In the past, we used State of Virginia contract for textbooks or sole source because it came from the publisher. So I have out on our website, on our purchasing website, is a list of all the cooperatives we use and what we're buying off of those cooperatives.

[00:27:30] I shared that during my presentation as well as a report on all the sole sources we use. So that is a comprehensive list of the cooperatives that we use. And are sole sources in either one of these two? I mean, I didn't see it in the previous post. It's in the procurement methods, and that is also published on our website and is also backed with additional documentation on those sole sources.

[00:27:53] Is it truly the only vendor you can buy it from? That information. And do we have, what's the threshold for sole source? Is there a? It's like cooperative. There's not a threshold. What policy is that?

[00:28:12] Policy 4320. And that's the one we just decided isn't up for another. And the other thing about sole source is sole source is written that when a sole source exceeds $30,000 for the Virginia Public Procurement Act, it must be posted on our website, we post all sole sources, no matter the dollar amount.

[00:28:35] So if it's a $5,000 sole source, it's posted on our website on that spreadsheet as a listed item. And who has authority to purchase sole source agreements? the purchasing agent. Through proper vetting, there's paperwork. Like I said, there's got a justification process from not only the vendor, but the end user that's requesting utilization of that sole source. There's a whole process we have in place for sole source.

[00:29:02] Yeah, that's the place where I see in large budgets. It's like the leaky valve because there's just anything, so many things can just kind of run right through that on any number. And I think it comes to my original question back in January where this kind of originated from right is if i can go and purchase five sole source contracts from the same vendor and just skirt the reporting process that's a little concerning to me and i'm not suggesting people are doing that intentionally but it's a loophole in the in in procurement if we get a request for a sole source the first thing we do is look to see if we can find a cooperative to use

[00:29:40] if that particular vendor is on a cooperative that lets me know they're not sole source because they won through an open fair competition process if we cannot find a cooperative then we implement additional steps to verify that it is in fact truly a sole source because there are truly things you can only buy from the manufacturer or directly from the provider of that piece of software they don't have a reseller they don't sell it on the market so there is a process that we go through for sole source i'm much less worried about product purchases that way as i am about services

[00:30:17] Services typically are not done as sole source. If you go out and look, you'll see a lot of it is goods-based. And also there is a policy that will be forthcoming later this year about some exemptions to that. But for example, there's things like advertising.

[00:30:35] Well, if you want to advertise locally, there's only a couple options for advertising locally. Are they sole source? Not technically, but they're who we do business with because they're our local provider. for advertising services.

[00:30:51] Right. Okay, thank you. Thank you so much. And this is a new committee. So just to go back, anything that was approved previously, we might want to scrutinize just a little bit.

[00:31:14] Your presentation that you're mentioning maybe would be helpful if you can send it. I'm sure it's on board docs, but if you could send it to us again so we can take a look at that, and that may help with our questions, rather than have you present again. Okay. Any other questions? I think with this particular policy, again, we will go to action and not to consent. Thank you so much. We will move on to 5.03, Business and Financial Services.

[00:31:50] Oh, we were just in that. I think we're just, that was 43.70. We'll move on to 5.04, the Support Services View Transition Academy Design Update, presented by Mr. Pasquarelli. Good afternoon.

[00:32:11] Yeah, we're here to present the update on the View Transition Academy. So we're at the point where we are completing schematic design, so we want to take the opportunity to just share an update with the committee. So you have this document, but I'm also projecting it. So just a little information about the project.

[00:32:29] So this is an existing 35,000-square-foot building that the county has purchased and will lease to us. In addition, we're adding a 28,000-square-foot addition off to the side for this program. There will be a dedicated bus loop here along the main road, as well as a dedicated drop-off for students with parking as well, and then staff parking in the back.

[00:32:56] There will be a walking track with some areas for outdoor activities as well. As far as the building itself is concerned, this is the existing building here, and you'll see that that is going to be occupied by classrooms, a new cafeteria, a multipurpose room.

[00:33:14] Here in the front of the building in orange, you'll see that's all the administrative offices that will be constructed. And here in the addition, in purple, is all of the labs for the various pathways that we have. So there's going to be 14 different pathways, and there's 14 separate lab spaces in here for that.

[00:33:35] Let's see. So at full capacity, this center will serve up to 500 students through on-site programs, as well as support and community-based experiences. The academy is anticipated to open in the fall of 28 for the 28-29 school year.

[00:33:55] So that's an analysis of a summary of that. So a little bit about how we got here. So we started programming work back in the fall of last year. And that was in partnership with various groups, CTE and other groups who are involved with this.

[00:34:16] Special Ed, of course, was part of this. several other groups as well so in addition to that in March our design team met with student representatives which are already receiving transition services to solicit feedback on the direction we're going and we thought that was a great exercise we got some great engagement and great feedback and the students voted on the career pathways really just to help affirm the direction that that was taken so that's really just a brief information item on this projects, so with that, I'll be happy to answer any questions you may have.

[00:34:52] Any discussion? No? I see Marwood. Refresh my memory. What location? I've seen the street before. It's in Aldi? Is that the older school? And this is your plan? Correct, yeah. It's a private school that's being purchased by the county. Well, I personally think it looks good.

[00:35:15] We haven't done anything yet, but this is the plan to... Yeah, so we're in schematic design. We just finished schematic design. We'll go to what we call design development, and then we'll continue. We expect construction would begin the beginning part of next year. So that's kind of the general timeline of where we are.

[00:35:32] We have a lot of work to do still. I'll have to check out that location. If there's no other questions, I think this can also go to consent. It's an information item. So if I may, Mrs. Griffith. Oh, yeah, go ahead. These are information only. When we bring the designs, it's one of the things we did.

[00:35:49] Oh, okay. We do this for every project. We did it for the new high school 14. So it's just here for information, and so it doesn't require a vote. Well, thank you so much, and I think it looks good. So I really appreciate that. Thank you. And I guess now we could just move on to new business, if anybody has new business.

[00:36:10] Ms. Riccardi. Thank you, Madam Chair. So I'd like to just, again, revisit our conversation about this CION budget and kind of where we are with all that. And I know we've been going back and forth a little bit on that, too. I haven't had a chance to check in on e-mail in the last couple of hours.

[00:36:29] So if you send me anything here, I haven't read it, so I apologize. So I have provided Ms. Willoughby and Dr. Spence and Dr. Bergen an outline of the proposed Sion revisions that I would love to see.

[00:36:47] And I would love that to be a conversation, I think, here, and I believe that the prevailing mindset, too, is to let the board have a crack at it as well. But I feel like it'd be really great to get your guys' opinions and thoughts on it first and maybe improve upon it.

[00:37:02] One of the things when I create some of this stuff is it's just really good to kind of get lots of people's input on it. And I'd love to get you guys to take a look before it goes to the board or the working session or wherever it goes next. So I believe that the budget presentation of the full school board is in, what's the date on that, Ms. Willoughby?

[00:37:22] Next week. Next week. May 12th is the first school board work session. So we've got one week, so I obviously would have to see the presentation first. So if you share it with us, I'm happy to, you know, take a look, make notes, see what's going on, but we don't have an opportunity in FNO to discuss it before the work session.

[00:37:42] that's okay i mean even if we discuss it after i know we have the board retreat in at the end of june or whenever we wind up having it but um and i get that next week is probably also an introduction again to the process i don't know what all you have planned for the for the meeting next week well as we had discussed um and i appreciate you you know sharing that information yesterday that was wanting to have an opportunity to review it to see where it could you know the feedback could be incorporated to get feedback from the full board because again as this committee is basically a subcommittee of the the full board this committee makes recommendations to the full

[00:38:22] school board and so as we had those conversations at the at I think at least two of our committee meetings was really anticipating continuing to proceed with the budget discussion and process with the full board with the May 12th meeting and so I'm not sure necessarily from an efficiency standpoint of having that discussion on May 12th with the full board and then coming back to the committee with a subset where really at this point to facilitate our budget development which is already in full swing for FY28 and that's what you're going to hear on Tuesday. I mean we the

[00:39:02] The budget team is, you know, all full steam ahead on the budget process. And so just wondering if there's a way of perhaps bridging the fact that that process is ongoing and getting feedback on your individual thoughts from the full board.

[00:39:21] And so I don't know if there could be, you know, loading this information into board docs and I can have during the presentation on Tuesday the work session, because it's not just a presentation. I mean, it's a work session. time at the end for the board to have a discussion about the SION and your questions that you had produced, and by being able to load that now and share that information, as you know, board tours are occurring this week, that that gives your fellow school board members some time to review

[00:39:58] the documents that you have prepared. Yeah, so I would say this, so, and I just, I want to make sure that everybody's super clear I don't want to change the process for how we go about building the budget or any of that kind of stuff this is just a how I would love to see it presented so it's an outline of a SION document that literally has all of the department budgets in it not some of them and not just the programs that we're looking at implementing but literally everything in one budget document so it's not a changing of the process although getting data into the

[00:40:36] new outline will probably the first time around will probably take some effort this is really just a new C on document and how the the information would be presented to us so it's just an outlet literally the document outline is what it is it's extensive because it includes everything but I think I just want to make sure that we're clear that we're not talking I continue to say I'm not talking about changing the timeline and process of how we go about doing what we're doing it's really just how the document is presented and this is just an outline of that. So if you feel like you want to share it with the board at this time, that's great. You guys will have a chance to do it. I'd be happy to chat with anybody

[00:41:14] about it specifically. I think the goal of this is to ensure really full transparency of the entire budget and all the departments and all of the programs in one document that we can digest and start digesting even hopefully in the fall before we get to the January pieces of this because clearly you all will have big chunks of the budget that you're thinking about hopefully ready to go. I know that there's data and information that comes from the state in December, and I know that's part of the reason why we get compressed. But I feel like if we actually had a document that had these different departments in it, there may be

[00:41:49] some of that data that we can actually start looking at, hopefully even before January. So we're just not in that five-, six-week compressed cycle, and we can really start diving in and understanding what we're being asked to do and understanding the numbers.

[00:42:05] So, again, it's just an outline of the Sion document and just reformatting the data that goes in it, not a complete overhaul of the whole entire budget process. So, yeah, so if you want to share it with the board, that's fine. I will coordinate and load your documents, and then I will make sure that there is space during the May 12th work session where I will essentially pretty much hand it over to you to explain your documents and then facilitate a conversation with your fellow board members.

[00:42:35] Great. That'll be great. So that'll be at the next school board meeting? Tuesday, yes. That'll be Tuesday. All right. That's fine. I'm ready. So that's good. All right. Thank you. I would like to see it, just to give it a quick look, but I'm okay with your choice to have the school board look at it.

[00:42:52] I'm fine with that, too. But I would like to give it a look. Well, and to be clear, I want to make sure we're very clear. This isn't my document. Oh, right. This is Mrs. Riccardi's document. Yeah, Mrs. Riccardi, you can send it to us. I am just helping to facilitate the discussion. Okay. Sure.

[00:43:07] and the most efficient way of managing school board members' time. No, I think this is fantastic. I just want to give it a quick look before it goes to the school board. And, I mean, it could still go to the school board. I just would like it, you know, just to see it. Thank you. I'd just say as well that the more time I have to digest something before the meeting would be appreciated, Mr. Carney.

[00:43:29] So, you know, the sooner you want to share it, the happier I'll be. I'll have to leave it to you to share it since I can't. I will have them loaded today, and I believe board packets are distributed tomorrow so that we can squeak it into the board packets that are distributed tomorrow.

[00:43:49] Okay, and then I'll work on putting together maybe an overview memo to go with it because I think that it needs some context. Will you distribute that directly to school board members, or is that something you would want loaded in the board docs as well?

[00:44:05] Again, recognizing we have like our internal deadlines to support board members for the board tours and the meetings, So maybe offline we can just kind of coordinate when you would have that memo ready and how you want to distribute that. Okay, I'll get back to you after the meeting.

[00:44:21] Thank you. Thank you so much for your work on that, Ms. Riccardi. And with that, I think we, unless there's no other new business, I think we're adjourned for today. Thank you.

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