Coraggio Consulting
Manassas City School Board Budget Work Session - March 18, 2026

Date: Wednesday, March 18, 2026
Place: Manassas City Public Schools / School Board meeting, Virginia
Length: 2h 38m (video)
Official meeting video (YouTube): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_U-Q5V_WYM

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 2026-10-17. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:00:01] And to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

[00:00:34] Chair Clark, here. Vice Chair Dr. Jones, here. Mrs. Siebert, here. Stephen, here. Mrs. President, present. Ms. Brown, here.

[00:00:50] Ms. Miles, here. - Thank you. Madam Chair, we have a form. - Thank you. Dr. Newman, are there any additions in relation to our agenda? - Ma'am. - Is there a motion to approve this public meeting agenda? - Chair, I move that the school board of the City of Manassas approve the public meeting agenda as presented.

[00:01:08] - Second. - I move that the school board of the City of Manassas approve the public meeting agenda as presented. - Second. - I have a motion by Stephen, seconded by Michael Miles, that we approve the public meeting agenda. Is there any discussion? Any hearing none, all of you in favor, please, aye.

[00:01:24] - Aye. anyone we will now move to the agenda the first item is food services fund update I just need to address kind of a governance I thought about all syndicated that no more than two members can be are you talking about what happened right before the meeting there was a meeting of three board members before I was

[00:02:00] talking about the fact that i might have again i just wanted to clarify from the chair and that is what happened and we were not going to say because you you are right living there it wasn't an official meeting it was talking about personal

[00:02:25] we could maybe take a couple minutes

[00:02:48] I believe I had a question by Dr. Jones

[00:06:43] in the second session all in favor to introduce Marvin Ramirez can talk to us about our service fund and budget funds?

[00:07:03] Neither of us are Ms. Jackson. She is on a flight right now. She would have been here Monday, but she's not able to be here, so Mr. Ramirez is the Culinary Operations Specialist. He is Montoya's due deputy, so he's going to go through this with him, and I will assist as needed, but we're incapable of hand. Hello, folks. Once again, I'm

[00:07:36] Jackson. So for our financial reporting schedule, we are required to submit financial reports to VDOE on an annual basis. We report monthly, compiling information from revenue, expenditures, reimbursement, and inventory values.

[00:08:12] Annually, VDOE will analyze our financial standing. We can maintain no more than three months of operating expenses in order to comply as a non-profit organization. If we have more than that, we are required to submit a spending plan to utilize those funds. For FY25, we ended with a net profit of $798,000. BDOE has a set formula to calculate all these excess funds and the

[00:08:47] report is issued to us between February and March. The annual financial analysis showed 3.36 months worth of operating balance. The 0.36 is equivalent to $202,000. In anticipation for the spending plan, we already planned to replace the serving lines at Metz Middle School.

[00:09:15] This was the last serving line replacement of non-elementary schools following Osborne back in 2021, Mayfield in 2022. The METS project was completed over this winter break and the total cost was $470. The new serving lines consist of waterless wells, midnight blue exterior, we also added ice cream freezer and stainless steel milk coolers. We rolled out the ice cream

[00:09:51] sales back beginning of February. If you're not familiar with the METS middle school cafeteria, the green wall is the seventh grade side and the orange wall is the eighth grade side.

[00:10:06] Year-to-date, as of January 31st, our account is at a gross loss of $369,000 for fiscal year 20.6. This is largely attributed to the cost of the MEDS project. The spending plan, the spending was necessary in order to comply with our excess spending requirement. BDOE will once again assess our financial standing and we should um we expect to decrease stores break even

[00:10:40] amount as the school will progress bearing any major equipment replacement did you say it was due to the next why are we under those it's because of the um the met serving lines so we want to be year-to-date we want to be in a negative because our overall balance is positive um but we can't you cannot have a excess of three months balance in your food service fund and so we need to spend that down which is why year to date we are negative because the charge of the serving line has hit

[00:11:19] the expenditures but financially we are in good shape we are in the positive overall for the food services for the remainder of the year operation are expected to continue as normal we will continue to offer a variety of nutritious meals to all students free of charge. It is also important that we continue to assess the condition of all kitchen equipment and explore replacement or maintenance when necessary. As far as fiscal year 2027, it is expected that we will still

[00:11:57] continue the CEP program which is free breakfast and lunch division-wide. We will also continue to operate cacfp programs that provide free dinner and after school snacks option to enrichment program outside of normal school hours so cep that's the uh the federal government yes and they were speaking briefly about changing which schools qualify for that they decided not to or they did change it but we're still in we still do qualify are we in danger of losing cb we are not in danger

[00:12:37] so uh ms jackson has zero concerns about us being able to for next year to be able to offer free breakfast lunch and evening program for our students so dinner just different program that's awesome are there any other questions i'll take this opportunity to brag on mr ramirez here for a minute he um has helped uh the division start a catering program and so some of our professional

[00:13:14] development activities and um mr ramirez has has a catering background and has helped the division launched that so we're able to instead of paying for outside people we pay our own food service to provide some lunches and meals for snacks for our different things that have happening around the division but that includes delicious cookies that we may have had at the night and things like that And convocation, cookies at convocation, the group service has provided those to our kids.

[00:13:53] Have you also catered to the staff too, like for staff breakfasts or lunch? We've done a little bit of that for professional development activities. I don't think we have done anything for like large breakfasts for schools yet. Yeah, because I would be really able to do that for like the teacher appreciation.

[00:14:10] We need to do that. We need to pass it on as possible. Thanks. next up um yeah benefits and salary flash compensation kelly director finance miss mills benefits administrator will share information about health insurance rates benefits and compensation

[00:14:37] for the for the next one okay sorry there's another enough that's you're you're absolutely correct chair good evening chair fall vice chair jones school board members dr newman this first presentation is um in the area of um benefits particularly health insurance

[00:15:16] we have some exciting updates for you it's going to be a joint presentation i'm going to turn it over first to megan mills to talk about the actual plans and then we'll talk about the finances of it afterwards. So I'm going to turn it over to Wendy, there you go. That one goes right forward.

[00:15:34] Well, good evening. To start, I'm going to walk through our health insurance plans that we have for FY27. I'll cover plan options available to our employees and then I'm going to highlight some of the changes for the upcoming year. For FY27, employees continue to have a range of options through Anthem and Kaiser. Both key advantage plans and a high deductible which both have comprehensive and preventative services and we will

[00:16:14] continue to offer Kaiser. There are important updates that I'm gonna highlight. The first one is for all Anthem plans. The Employee Assistance Program is expanding which means that all employees even those not enrolled in the health plan and their household members will now have access to these services and this was a service that we were paying for so it's something that we're no longer going to have to pay for another

[00:16:52] change is that the glp1 medications will no longer be covered for a weight loss they'll continue to be covered for diabetes 2 or type 2 diabetes and then the impacted members are going to be notified by Anthem 90 days in advance which would be the beginning of April if they're going to be impacted and in that it's going to give them other options to get the GLP one. And then finally under state requirements the prostate cancer screenings must now be covered at no cost to employees both in-network and

[00:17:28] out-of-network with some exception to the high deductible plan. So in addition to that there are also updates related to the breast exam coverage under state requirement both standard and supplemental breast exams will now be covered with no cost starting and again both in network and out of network and

[00:18:07] then once a diagnosis is made the standard benefit plan would kick in so now we're going to look at some plan specific changes and there's a few updates for the key advantage plans they've added a deductible to tiers two three and four for medications and anthem will notify any of the members who were on a two three or four medication and give them a 90-day notice so that would be in the beginning of April so they will be notified by Anthem for the high deductible plan the in-network deductible is increasing

[00:18:44] slightly for both individual and family and on a positive note the virtual care through live health online will now be available at no cost to members and lastly there are no changes to Kaiser okay okay so now we're turning the dollars so these represent the full premiums that across employer and employees. So this is the monthly cost for all of the plans that Megan was describing. First column shows you employee only, then employee plus one and

[00:19:21] family. We're excited to say we're continuing this budget. The superintendent's budget includes continued investment in health insurance, increasing employer contribution, again to mitigate the impact of rate increases for employees. Each year we review our employer contributions in response to changes that come. This year was a great collaborative effort. I want to shout out the work that Megan and Katie did and the work that TAP did in finance to look at this and Tamika.

[00:19:48] And we were able to, you'll see on the next slide, the benefit of that. So in FY27, the employer contribution to health insurance is estimated to be approximately $12.5 million, which is an increase of just about $818,000 based on current plan enrollment. This increase was included in the existing budget. We didn't have the numbers when we made the budget, but the budget um is sufficient to cover to cover that increase and since fy25 meaning the last three budget cycles mcps has increased our employer contributions to health and treatment insurance

[00:20:21] premiums by approximately three million dollars so that is exciting news for our employees so what that means when you look again same plans you can see the changes the rate changes um for employees and you can see in many cases that the numbers in terms of increases are very small and in some cases you see negative numbers so that was the back and forth work to try to make this work and tailor our our support to make sure that we're impacting the most employees possible and so you can see what those monthly changes are and something exciting so in the last few years

[00:20:58] there have been requests for us to look at a discount for employees who are married to one another so HR did research surrounding jurisdictions many surrounding jurisdictions have variations on this depending on the types of plans that they have and so they did research and look to see what other jurisdictions do and then we look to see what we could do with our plan so the new discount that we applied in fy27 comes in two ways right so for two the new two employee plans right so married couples who previously would have each purchased their own employee only plan will receive a discount so their cost is less than the cost of them each

[00:21:32] subscribing to the plan as an individual so the discount for um most of the plans would be about thirty dollars monthly and the discount for the high deductible plan would be about fifteen dollars monthly and then the other option is for the people who have a family plan they would receive a discount again you can see forty dollars monthly or thirty dollars monthly depending on the type of the plan is there a difference in the deductible under the Mary plan so say if you have

[00:22:07] deductible to a hospital and ER? Yeah the deductible is either a single tier or a family tier so if it's you plus a spouse or plus one child you're considered family. Okay so the impacts of these investments on employees so again using this year's existing numbers of enrollment 276 employees currently on health insurance plans would see a decrease or see no increase to their monthly contributions in FY27 with another 161 seeing increases of no more than five dollars monthly in FY27. And then using information that we can guess because you can't ask people if they're

[00:22:45] married. Anyway, approximately 20 married couples would see savings of up to $40 a month on their health insurance premiums, depending on the plan, due to the married employee discount. Quick question, Dr. Cazada. What percentage of our employees who have insurance through us are covered on this slide because i calculated out to be like 477 employees the roughly what percentage of our total who who get into health insurance through the division what percentage

[00:23:20] does this 477 make up do you know approximately over half um i want to say we have and i don't know the exact number off the top of my head but yeah i was going to say i think we've got we can look that number up and get it for you like we think it's in the 800s and then you can do the math on that. In between things, we can get you that information.

[00:23:42] And then I'm going to turn it over to Ms. Fisher for the exciting forward-looking part of this discussion. Yeah, so the next step for us is we are working towards becoming self-funded for insurance that's been moving away from local choice for FY28.

[00:23:59] So we do have Greg Snell here. He is our representative from USI. We did ask for him to give a very quick, kind of really quick overview of what that means for us. We have invited him to the April 16th work session to talk more about this process. But this is something we are excited about because it does provide us several benefits, including really enhanced flexibility to be able to offer more plan options.

[00:24:23] We can customize a little bit more on what we're able to provide to our employees. It also increases our negotiating power as we're going directly to the insurance companies. We're not going through another entity. And so we're excited to have our partnership with USI as they have done this work with other school divisions, and they're very much guiding, have given us a lot of insight as we've been exploring this and will give us a lot of insight as we continue to move forward in this process.

[00:24:51] But as you see on the screen here, so ultimately the process will really kick off in September when we put the RFP out to the insurance companies. And again, that will be very much guided by our partnership with USI. And so we did ask Mr. Snow to join us today to just give a really brief overview of what that process means and what it can look like.

[00:25:10] And then again, we'll go into more detail in the work session. Mr. Snow, we'll turn it over to you. Hopefully you can hear us. I hope we can't hear you. Hold on one second.

[00:25:31] Can you click on mute?

[00:25:49] He's not muted.

[00:26:39] Can he get $5 a month? hear us can you hear us yeah he can hear us i know can you say something now can you hear me now yes okay all right thank you so much for joining us thank you and uh thank you for my chance uh good to see everybody else to see a new person in april um i don't know i was unmuted

[00:27:14] but you know technology is so um getting management assessment give this um a brief overview of you We know what we're looking for in the potential to possibly pull away from local choice and go into a partially self-funded plan.

[00:27:35] Technically, your plan is self-funded with local choice today, but it's a quasi-funding mechanism. We'll get into more of that detail as we move into the future and have really better information We went to RP and provided some new numbers back and overviews so we can help you make a well-informed decision for your next year.

[00:28:00] So just a couple of comments. I know that the GOP ones came up. That's kind of a pretty hot topic. Local Choice was covered for weight loss. Most all cell phone and clients do not cover it.

[00:28:16] Carriers, fully insured, do not cover it for weight loss. It is covered for diabetes, and it will continue, but if you look at weight loss there, and I'm assuming Anthem will give this information, there are alternatives in the direct-to-consumer pricing that came out for GLP-1s that you cannot get as an employer, even if you're self-funded.

[00:28:41] It's directly to the consumer. The costs run from $149 to about $400, depending on the drug and the dosage. The drugs cost anywhere from around $1,200 to $1,400 per script, so the direct-to-consumer pricing is significantly lower.

[00:29:04] But obviously, your folks will have some money out of the pocket that didn't have it before. But as I said, we're not recommending it for ourselves on the class, and most don't cover it. But just wanted to mention that. The other thing that we've talked through, you know, some of the reasons for pulling away from local choice.

[00:29:22] You know, you did see that, first of all, local choice is putting a deductible on a drug plan. You would have that option whether to continue that or not. You don't with local choice. Additionally, they have that fourth tier that can cost people up to $200 per script.

[00:29:43] And, you know, if somebody has three drugs, they're in that fourth tier and they're paying $600 a month. We've done analysis for other clients. And when you look at the cost to eliminate that, the cost that it would be to Monaco City Schools budget is a rounding.

[00:30:00] So we're actually trying to have clients pull that fourth tier out and just give folks a copay so that they're not really penalized because they have a high-cost drug. As I said, if they have several high-cost drugs, it can be very burdensome on folks, and it doesn't save you any money to eliminate that as a plan sponsor.

[00:30:23] So that's another advantage you would have in looking at a partially self-funded plan away from local choice. So some things about local choice. There's a lack of reporting. When I say lack of reporting, there's a big lack of reporting from local choice.

[00:30:40] We only get what they're willing to provide. We don't get any insight to prescription drug or dental claims, which we think is very important to look at. And then there's limited insight to other reporting.

[00:30:57] Additionally, you are forced to follow the local choice guidelines without exception. You have to follow all the requirements under the plan so you lose some flexibility there. Additionally, they have limited care contract programs to help improve the overall health of your employees and their family members and to help, I won't say drive down costs, I wish we could say we could drive down costs, but it's to help mitigate the overall trend increases.

[00:31:28] and you do have those options away from local choice they don't have the ability to offer an employee spouse tiers you know employees that have employees spouse coverage are considered family under local choice you would have an option to develop a four-tier main structure if you wanted to even a five-tier main structure if you wanted to so it gives you flexibility there there is a terminal liability potential from local choice if you do terminate them you don't know what that is until 90 days after the termination so just keep in mind we'll discuss this further down the road

[00:32:06] but you're going to be making a decision well in advance of your renewal date next year which is july 1. you won't know until 90 days after that you'll be making a decision way before that um and we're not even sure about the local choice renewal that's another thing they're very late in providing renewal information to you all which really handcuffs um you all and puts you in a the time comes to get put together in a very short time is when they're fantastic they have very limited time to get that done to you all but i would recommend that this would be next july

[00:32:45] would be fiscal year 28th correct july 27th fiscal 28th yes yes fiscal 28th so i would recommend in that when you're looking at budget and we can talk about you know what we think you ought to potentially be setting aside for a reserve in case you get a letter from local choice after you determine that you owe the money.

[00:33:11] We'll talk about that further, but we would recommend that we have some money set aside and hopefully we can budget for that. Also, when we look at wellness programs, local choice has no ability to track the wellness incentives for employee engagement, which we think that's very important to expand on wellness and the employee engagement and provide some of the service reports to do so you can't track that local choice uh in addition you don't participate in years of favorable claims experience

[00:33:44] with local choice um you know and i would say you know if you decide to go self-funded you do pay your way each month with whatever your claims expense are you know with local choice and your your premiums are set for the year and don't increase.

[00:34:02] But if you have a bad year, self-funded, obviously you're gonna be paying those claims. But if you have a bad year with local choice, even though your rates were basically guaranteed for the planned year, if you have a bad year, it just would get built into the next year.

[00:34:17] So I call it a pay me hour, pay me later. So I really don't worry about the fact that your rates are set for a given year, 'cause certainly local choice are carriers They're not in the business to have a bad year and not try to build it into the next year's renewal.

[00:34:35] You don't have any ability for and any insight into prescription drug to look at pricing. The rebates being provided, they've started to help manage that program. You get much better insight into prescription drug.

[00:34:50] Obviously, prescription drug is a pretty big portion of your overall cost. Magnicated mention, you don't negotiate a corporate choice. I think I'm probably the only one that's ever negotiated a renewal of local choice in their entire history. So they're very difficult to negotiate with. And obviously you have no flexibility in plan design choice. I think that was mentioned also. You have really pretty unlimited choice in flexibility of plan design. And when we're looking at all mental local

[00:35:25] choice, we know you do have a lot of folks in Kaiser. So we are certainly aware of that and your team is, and we would be looking to probably a dual-carrier approach and allow them to participate because you have, I think, 100 people, Maggie, probably.

[00:35:43] About that. 200. No. I would say maybe around 120. 120. Sorry. That's important. We'll make sure we address that. And then lastly, excuse me, the enrollment capabilities with local choice are subpar, to say the least.

[00:36:04] Megan might chuckle at that because the experience with local choices cardinal platform is very poor if you do decide to terminate local choice you'll have the ability to have an enrollment platform which would allow feeds into munis and other carriers that would really enhance that experience not only for your your own staff, but also you have the opportunity to provide education with

[00:36:44] all the counselors for their benefit choices. And if you do decide to move away from local choice, which we did for Williamsburg schools, there are going to be new plans, new choices, and employees will have a choice between the medical plan and the dental plan. So it takes education. We'll be able to have resources available with enrollment counselors that can be case-to-face with folks or on the phone to help guide them through all the benefit choices that they would have so that they can make more informed decisions that are in the best interest of themselves and their

[00:37:20] family. So you don't get that today. We think education on your plans and giving employees a better experience during open enrollment is, you know, important for you all and for the member experience so with that i will leave it at that i know in april i've been asked to provide an overview on funding so we'll we'll start that process on funding alternatives in april and i'm sure we'll just continue that discussion uh during the year and when we finally get an

[00:37:57] opportunity uh at some point i'm trying to think i can't remember when we you know we'll have a report ready for the marketing the rfp but we'll certainly have a presentation ready for you all with all the financials so that we can you know work with your team and procurement and the board to help make a well-informed decision whether to stay with local choice or whether you decide to determine local choice so could that any questions uh thank you for that my big question we've been

[00:38:36] on the local choice now for a while so there must have been some reason we were on local choice and we've been about a 1200 person organization for a while so why now and what we're there must have been some kind of benefit to being on the local choice that yes there are some benefits to local choice and we'll make sure that we have the advantages and disadvantages clearly out there for you and so that's for future for looking at our what we're currently considering I just want to kind of understand the origin of some of the changes that are coming for the key advantage plan so for example the EAP program expanding was

[00:39:16] that the local choice saying your EAP program is expanded or is that I'm any anthem so the GLP one medications for weight loss did we initiate that they just told us that that's what's happening and as he's saying we don't have the ability to negotiate that and then some of these things were look like they're coming out of the state legislature so that's fine and then all of the pharmacy to your changes and stuff like that we don't currently have any flexibility with how we do that once you make this change and so this is

[00:39:52] just what it is yes for this budget cycle but we make this choice we might have you know if we wanted to we can bring GLP ones back for example even I know he said that, most people don't. Most self-funded don't, but okay, I don't understand that.

[00:40:12] - Yes, so is there any other conditions for which GOP ones will be covered, say apnea, or is it just diabetes? - Just diabetes. - Just diabetes, but employees do have the choice of, is it the FSA card?

[00:40:32] And how much can they put yearly for medication costs or anything like that? I just increased it, I want to say it's $32,000, or not $32,000. $3,200.

[00:40:49] It could be a little bit more. They just raised it again for this year. All right, so that's pretty substantial because that will cover a year's worth of medication at a discounted rate for GLP-1. And that's one of the reasons for that 90 days to help let them figure out maybe what route they want to go and then figure out if they need to put money in the FSA that would benefit them in their life.

[00:41:12] All right, that's it, Rudy. Good. Yeah, just a little overview for you. The GLP-1s have really surprised everybody that nobody saw really that trend coming in the cost. And it's about the same percentage for diabetes and weight loss.

[00:41:30] It's running 3% to 4% for diabetes, 3% to 4% for weight loss of your total cost. So GLP-1s are running on average about 8% of our clients' total cost if they cover both.

[00:41:47] That's huge. So you can see why full-insured carriers are not covered. The other reason is many folks discontinue the GLP-1s within the first year. And once they disassociate, clients have spent a lot of money and they've gotten no results from it.

[00:42:06] I mean, certainly there could be some arguments made. Folks lose weight, they're healthier. But, you know, the marketplace really just isn't covering that. I don't know for folks. There's very few cell phone people that aren't covering it. And as I said, the carriers fully insured aren't covering it.

[00:42:24] And local authorities obviously made the decision this year that they wanted to reduce costs because of it. Any other questions? Thank you very much for that in-depth description.

[00:42:42] And we look forward to hearing from you. Thank you. Thank you, Greg. Thank you. We look forward to seeing you all on the table. okay thank you now the real task kelly coming forward our director of finance will provide an

[00:42:58] update on state revenue on the fy 27 budget and the priorities associated with 27 so we'll get

[00:43:38] started here the topics that we will cover today budget updates priorities for additional revenue and then we will allow time to have a school board discussion regarding those priorities so i wish i had better uh things to say about the general assembly's budget but unfortunately as in previous years to date there has been no agreement on the budget this isn't new territory for us we've experienced this quite often and whenever there's a biennial budget a new biennial budget it tends to be a little longer than then so um we are hopeful that something

[00:44:15] will come in the near future the next section is scheduled for april 22nd and again i'm hopeful that they will come to some agreement at a particular point in time. I did see versions from the House and the Senate and their reconciliations and they provide some additional funding for K-12. Both of them did provide additional funding. One was much more than the other. One of them also had one-time funding as well that wouldn't carry forward to the next year and so I don't know where it's going to the lane but we are optimistic that we will get some

[00:44:47] additional funding in whatever budget that is approved and so for the budget update so proposed budget as Dr. Todd mentioned a little earlier this includes sufficient funding to help offset health insurance costs for staff and to include the addition of the new grades for married employees it is quite likely that some potential additional funding would come as I just mentioned and so that funding would likely be earmarked in certain instances there could be some earmarking for literacy which would help us with the implementation of the generic literacy act and continued use

[00:45:26] of lexia additionally there could be some funding in there for at risk and special ed which i'll talk a little more about here in a sec long-term sustainability of pathways i know in the initial budget presentation that was on our additional or future considerations we just want to make sure it's clear that for fy27 we have already folded in the cost related to pathways and so there was some additional or there was some fun balance that we brought in FY26 that we're going to carry forward because that number is very clear in the budget numbers that we provided to you in

[00:46:03] the budget book and so for FY27 there's no issue it's already budgeted that there's basically we're going to be thinking about future considerations beyond FY27 and what we need to do to fund that program. Now we'll get to some of the priorities. So special education, we do expect the special education review to include recommendations to add special education teachers on administrative assignment, similar to what was done at Metz middle school this year. This will be at the elementary and intermediate schools. Some additional funding from the state, again it looks like it's

[00:46:39] going to be earmarked for at-risk and for special education and so if that funding is is earmarked for that we want to utilize that fundy to help support uh these these additional recommendations the estimated cost options for that and these are for 11 month positions these are salaries and benefits so three teachers split across the elementary and intermediate schools will be floored in four thousand dollars or approximately four thousand dollars uh if we want to do four teachers which would be one in mayfield one in baldwin both elementary and intermediate and then two split across the remaining elementary schools will be about $539,000 and then six teachers one

[00:47:18] per building again this is just elementary and intermediate would be about $809,000 moving forward to central registration so central registration will allow us to will allow for our multi-lingual families to have one spot for registration and initial assessment of students that location is already available on the first floor of this building which is at 8700 cuneville road estimated costs which is mostly or primarily salaries and benefits so our registrar which is is about $76,000. Two teachers, 10-month employees, about $197,000. And then a family

[00:47:54] liaison for $91,000. So a total being $365,000, approximately $365,000. Continuing with priorities for information technology. So this funding is going to be necessary for contracted services to support enhanced information technology infrastructure and security. Right now, we're estimating that cost to be about $200,000. So with that, I'll leave time for any questions or discussions like to those priorities or anything else so central registration can you explain why two teachers I understand the family liaison I

[00:48:32] understand the position of what do we call it registrar but why the two teachers so the teachers will be a part of assessing students so our English language learners and so it would take the burden off of teachers in the building to do the via testing or the assessments of where kids for their placement or where their language language levels are and then they will be able to give all that new work to schools to then properly register them and replace them into classrooms and get them what they need so one of those teachers would be an el teacher yeah they would both do okay

[00:49:10] rush uh also on central registration so right now we have registrars in each of our school buildings they would state this would be an additional register and for the special education staffing recommendations that was so that's that would date thing right that would not change and then we're looking to give several options to potentially expand it at different costs uh but are we

[00:49:47] anticipating any staffing plans for recommendations out of this audit for osborne not for osborne the primary and talking we haven't gotten the final report yet for special education but in conversations with uh berkeley group um they had recommended uh one of the things that they when i was asking them knowing that we were not going to have the final report other things that we should be looking at in terms of budget consideration and one of their top recommendations was um actually the top recommendation was looking at particularly at the elementary intermediate levels because the high

[00:50:20] school has a department chair which is not a case manager and so thinking about having a lead special education teacher at the elementary intermediate level given the fact that we a lot of our novice teachers in the elementary are our special education teachers so be able to provide support making sure ieps are being implemented being able to sit in which on iep meetings which and also takes the ability for the assistant principal and principal, instead of sitting in a eligibility meeting as a designee, to be able to be in classrooms, focus on instruction via CLT meetings.

[00:50:59] So I think it's a broader scope. Also, from a parent perspective, to be able to have parents have one point of contact in buildings instead of having to talk to this, find out who they've got to talk to in terms of the case manager was a recommendation that came out of, that will come out of informal way out of Berkeley. And something Prince William County is going through as well. They used to not have something like a special teacher on assignment but now they're doing it and I think part of it is also because there's so many legal requirements. Correct. And I will tell you it has been very successful at the middle school. Well like that all sounds good. My concern was

[00:51:38] that nothing was mentioned about Osborne so that's what I would ask them about but doesn't sound like staffing a DHS day. And I'm just wondering if one register would be sufficient for how do we calculate that for enrollment yeah I think so you know when we think about you know starting the program we wanted to start and see how it goes and we could always consider adding additional positions but I think initially starting a central registration particularly with having a family liaison and having some additional staff and it would just fall

[00:52:17] on the one person because the teachers would also help with registration that that registrar would primarily be the one that's going to be entering stuff into our power school, but the other thing, the paperwork would be, they'd be handed a packet to go ahead and enter into it. And then also, in thinking about that, we'd also be able to, if we need additional support, we'd have the ability to draw on our school registrars to be able to support the central registration initially to see it as a way of starting.

[00:52:47] And if we have to go to add and path, do we have that in the budget? have contingency money just going back to special ed is your goal your wish if you have the money it's for the six teachers is that what the that's your that's your direction i mean ideally right it sounds like what we're saying in an ideal world but we wanted to cost out again we don't know these are all things that are not in the current proposed budget so depending on the the money we wanted to show you the tiers depending on how much money we might receive if you have to make those

[00:53:26] decision right so um the ideal would be one for building but we wanted to show you if we didn't get sufficient additional revenue what the options could be um i appreciate the options but also if part of what we're trying to accomplish is giving you one point of contact and then having somebody split across elementary schools like that doesn't like we're so i really hope that when this budget is finally completed they're actually able to do it i think we're going to do

[00:54:01] it we should actually do it you know wanted to make that point the other question I had what are the contracted services that we are getting for our enhanced information technology infrastructure to the contracted services would be to enhance our security posture and so we have increased our budget by in FY 27 already within we have put in place by seven hundred thousand dollars already in the budget this would be additional services that we would based on our review um that has not finalized yet that he's saying that we would

[00:54:38] want to consider some additional funding to help shore up even further enhance our security so contract services were paid yeah so it's similar to you know if you if you think about it it's it's if you hire one person you get one person's expertise if you have hire a company or a contractor who has different specialties all within that same umbrella, you can access multiple areas of a company's expertise for one cost. So in a way,

[00:55:14] it's increasing your footprint as a IT department, by one person you're getting multiple people because you need a little bit of this, a little bit of this a little bit of this all for one cost. Instead of expanding our IT department contracting.

[00:55:38] Which is cheaper in doing it that way because you don't have salary benefits but you still have the available of the expertise that they bring to the table and as we know with thinking about anything with IT you know the salaries that they command to try to attract them into a school system is very difficult thank you are there any other i really have a question i just i'm really

[00:56:12] concerned that our focus is central registration which i think is necessary i mean it's needed and obviously the special education teacher and administrative assignment has been successful and i think that it's great that we have this vision for six teachers but i feel like there are other it just makes me feel sad that the other priority we don't have is to make sure our schools have social workers. I just, I have to say that because, you know, like the special education teachers on administrative assignment are working specifically with students where social

[00:56:50] workers are. And so I think that if we're going to say six teachers per building, perhaps doing the three teachers and then we can add in those social workers who are specifically working with our students and making sure their needs are met. And then maybe the following year add those extra special education teachers but that's just my two cents on that we will discuss that right we're getting ready to discuss um we're going to move into that era of the evening yes okay are there

[00:57:29] any other questions so i guess this might actually be a rewind back to health insurance one so what's the last budget cycle we were talking about the percentage of the premiums that the other total premiums that we were covering and i forget what we got to like 78 or 77 or something like that so what i didn't see that in this presentation what percentage are we covering now so we the way that what's different what's different with how we were doing it for this year is instead of a premium

[00:58:01] averaging it's meaning it for employee only at least 80 of it and for employer employee family it's at least like 67 the average still the average for uh employee plus one in family is still the 74 percent we're still meeting the same thresholds we just increased in some areas um to make sure we were covering those areas where we had the most employees and um where the rates were going up the most so that's where you see some of those decreases so the eight was an 84

[00:58:36] the averaging required this 84 74 74 complex formula we moved away from that but we still need that plus we increased a couple of them up to 80 so the percent for employee only is like 85 now so we moved up to that so it will depend on your it always has depended on your plan before it was done on the average and now we made some adjustments to make sure that we were even better in some of the cases so a more targeted approach to benefit as much as possible mrs stevens um i wanted to

[00:59:10] touch on the smiles concern about school social workers um in looking through the questions that had been submitted so by virginia code slash virginia law um mcps is required by state law to have 22 full-time equivalent employees and we have 26 we have nine school nurses nine psychologists four social workers two board certified behavior analysts and two registered behavior technicians that work in our schools through contracted services um do we have a school

[00:59:49] psychologist in each building and are they full-time psychologists and they do they work directly with students and student families along with family liaison right and then and i we might be going off a little bit but what what is the difference in role between school psychologists and social worker in the school what what are what are their different role i mean i think that that those those roles get blurred um we have staff that are meeting the needs of kids whatever

[01:00:26] they may be um i will say that i think the family liaisons this is more of the role of a social worker maybe a psychologist they're involved with ecological testing for special education and that's that takes up they also work with small groups of kids for mental health um and so you know i think it's it's hard to define um but i do think that their their roles with all three of them get worded okay and then how are the social workers divided amongst our

[01:00:57] school so they're assigned um typically by um by need by size um that's done by mr mr masiac but obviously um but they have school assignments that are that they're assigned to they that they split their time amongst so they may be at one school for three days a week two days a week or vice versa as things pop up and needs pop up and they obviously adjust their schedules um and then if we can go back in time a few years we were we have nine schools and colleges now but we had a

[01:01:34] very difficult time getting tonight didn't we we really struggled to find those individuals because they're not there aren't a lot there aren't enough um did we ever when we went to four social workers did we have the same kind of struggles in getting social workers as we did with school psychologists yes we had a big incentive yeah because i remember the school psychologist issue was a large one but i i think it's great that we have nine school psychologists that are so we have one for each building and i think that can help offset some of that

[01:02:13] of miss miles concern about social workers because they are all very important roles and i i feel like and in my experiences with the schools and working with social workers and school psychologists and the family liaison that it's really very much so a team approach um and so when we have a student in need and correct me if i'm wrong when we have a student in need it's not just the job of one person to provide that student with the support and whatever it is they and their family need it's a full-team approach I mean because ideally I would like to have a

[01:02:52] school social worker in every building that would be an absolute perfect world unfortunately financially we don't function are there any other questions for this question question go into the discussion just know whenever you say you want something you can tell us what you want to take out something has to

[01:03:22] come out. Well, that's why I was mentioning this special, yeah, because like if you get three and three, that was just. So, should we have Mr. Kelly talk about an update on revenue, and then we can just do a discussion and he doesn't have to stay?

[01:03:50] He's good. Okay, so we'll do budget discussion, budget update. We don't have much of a revenue update. The first slide in the presentation was that the General Assembly has not reconciled their budget. Both versions look like they'll yield us more. We don't know what that more is yet, and we won't know until April.

[01:04:14] So right now, you have to make anything would be, or should we get more revenue, would be prioritizing what you would want, unless you're trying to say you want something now, and as Dr. Newman just said, then you would require taking something out. Okay, I got it. I think the confusion is, I think there might be a typo on our agenda because it says Mr. Sandskelly will discuss the fiscal point 25 year-end reconciliation carryover, which is what you did in January.

[01:04:39] That was in January, yes. So I think it was a typo. That's fine. I knew we talked about, I wasn't sure about carryover, but I guess we're, okay. Yes, that was done in January. So that can come off. Thank you for that, Mr. Sandskelly. I was paying attention. I just didn't know if there was more coming.

[01:04:56] Okay, so we are at our last alphabet letter here D Which is the budget discussion and so I'm going to try to go around the table I have everybody have their say and then We'll let everybody say their one thing Whatever they want to say first before we go back and given a person a chance

[01:05:30] So we can start if you'd like to go Miss Miles or if you prefer not. I mean it's fine. I will defer to the other side of the table. Okay, are you comfortable going first, Miss Brown? That's okay. I could start to go. Just in general? I mean, I think we're going to say if you have something you want to add, what is it and what do you propose to replace? What do you propose to take away?

[01:05:59] I personally don't have anything to add I just wanted to mention that I'm really pleased with the with the proposed budget we are focusing on instruction and let me look at all of my notes here and it is tied to our graduation rates and others eventually that everything that we say that

[01:06:32] we are about. We're putting money to it to equal outcomes. I do share the same concerns about the social workers but I also I'm on the fence because I'm also working in the school. I do see how it is a team approach. I don't know that our psychologists are really working directly with students because they pretty much assess and probably do a lot of intervention as far as fda's and and mental health um after the fact so although they are there i'm not sure how much

[01:07:10] they add to what a social worker will do but we do have a bunch of other support systems but i'm on the fence on that so i'll wait for it so i'll wait for the discussion to unfold there's a pre-k registration okay that's right i wanted to you know my biggest concern was the insurance and i

[01:07:45] wanted to make sure that that's new that there are ways if they want to secure their um that there There are ways that we can assist them and increasing the FSA to 3200, I think, will be pretty impactful for people who need those medications for something other than weight loss.

[01:08:08] Because there are a lot of people who need that medication for other reasons. Thank you, Ms. Brown. And again, we'll have a chance to go back around if we need to arise. Ms. Zeeber.

[01:08:26] I don't have any new proposals, but I would like to understand, not that I agree right now, but what would you remove from the budget to pay for the social workers? Not removing, but I know they gave us a different option, and so either the four teachers and then two social workers, so that way it would stay the same that you budgeted.

[01:08:47] That's probably the best, in my mind, because that would give you one at Mayfield, one at Baldwin, two split across from May, and then the two social workers. given a six as opposed to four um that could split responsibilities and i just and just to give you some why i'm i will say why i'm passionate about this um i i see the inner workings of an iup meeting every day because i have to go to them and just the different roles that they play we do have psychologists we have a social worker we have all the the psychologist does a lot of the

[01:09:23] screening and they are at different schools not just in our in our district that's the way it is but our social worker is very much like the family liaison however they work directly with students and dealing with student needs um and they also go to students homes and do evaluations that way as well which is something that not all um well psychologists typically do not do um and so they have they also can provide resources um but of course our family liaisons do that as well

[01:09:55] um it's just a different um and they also attend idp games because so family liaisons typically do not um unless they're a triplet which sometimes happens but um i think that it's just to give our social workers alleviate their caseload so that way they can maybe help even more students and that's just my thought and I understand that um but I don't think that these priorities for special education would have been asked for if it took priority

[01:10:30] over social workers so well in fact they gave us three options and so I think that I know that um it's not taking away one and not getting another so I am in favor of the priorities as far as special ed, I serve as a special ed teacher on special assignment or a teacher on special assignment. Working with special ed a long time ago, I

[01:11:08] was in Met, but also I know that that position about the other people not to have to come out of the classroom and also allow the administration to be able to go and be in classrooms and be in meetings. I've also served as an assistant principal and principal and been in meetings all day long that takes you away from instruction. So I think, and also I think special ed is something we definitely need to kind of like pump up. We need to be in there to see what the kids are doing, what teachers are doing, because we need our scores to rise for our special ed students.

[01:11:46] I think that that is something that is definitely a priority. I think it's something that we've been working on for many, many years, and if this can help in any way, I think it's definitely something that we should do. As far as social workers, I mean, I can see where they're needed, but first of all, you have to find them.

[01:12:02] And also, we didn't mention that our counselors are in our buildings, and I know all the elementary schools have two counselors and the school in the buildings that the counselors work a lot with students and families and also social workers were always only a call away I never had to wait I mean that same day maybe they're doing what you need them to do if you call them so it was never an issue when I was in the school building I think central registration is something that's is also good, and also information technologies.

[01:12:34] I'm fine with it, as stated. - Thank you, Dr. Jo. - A couple things, we do have a couple questions. One of the questions related to paid parental leave.

[01:12:54] Legislation that has been passed in the General Assembly and is moving towards the governor's desk for paid parental leave. One of the statements that was made, the state would be providing some of the funding, but localities and business would also be contributing.

[01:13:11] Can you explain what you mean by business would be contributing? - It meant that that's universal, it's not just for like government agencies, so it would be something that would be mandated for private business. We wouldn't, that was just for context, so localities and businesses, not businesses for us.

[01:13:26] That just meant it applied across the board. - Thank you, I was curious about that one. And then to go down to calculers, school calculers, have to figure out where um sorry okay so you know when we talk about and this is this is general this is counselors school psychologists social workers the state ratios in in my personal opinion are a little bit ridiculous because you want to build a relationship with your students and your families and it's it's difficult to do so when your case loads are so high um each of our elementary

[01:14:05] schools has two full-time counselors so each elementary school has has two counselors baldwin has one, Mayfield has four full-time counselors, Metz has four counselors plus a director of counseling. Osborne has nine counselors plus a director of counseling. Has there been discussion of increasing the number of counselors in different buildings? Because counselors oftentimes do something very similar. Once again, there's overlap between social workers, school psychologist, counselor, family liaison, and it tends to be a group effort. Has there been discussion

[01:14:41] at increasing the number of counselors if there was discussion what was the outcome and then at the high school level are they guidance counselors or more college and career counselors or are there both roles

[01:15:18] So, just all of the above. Okay. And to go back to the whole discussion on special ed, social workers, school counselors, psychologists, you know, I'm in my 11th year as a special education teacher.

[01:15:35] And the roles that different individuals play in some ways also depends upon that individual and the position. I've worked in buildings with school psychologists who are very involved with students who provide counseling services to students.

[01:15:51] I've worked in buildings with school counselors, not school counselors, excuse me, school psychologists who really just do the testing piece. So sometimes I think, and especially in the county, because county still tends to be very site-based, part of it depends upon the school you're in, and part of it depends upon the individual who is in that position.

[01:16:14] But we also have to remember we have this audit coming from Berkeley that found, that examined about 29 different areas within special education and their top recommendation was to have teacher on assignment on special assignment in each building and one of the things we kind of have to keep in mind in the back of our head is that when we have students with ieps we are required by federal law to follow those ieps to the teeth and if you look nationally at a national level And this isn't saying that having more social workers is not a good thing.

[01:16:53] I would love to have more social workers. I would love to have two in each building because our kids really need that. We live in a very stressful world. But when you look nationally and even at the state level, the highest amount of litigation in public education is related to special ed across the board.

[01:17:11] And that's something to keep in mind. And following IEPs, because it's an individualized education plan, it's going to be different for every student so what that student needs and what support those classroom teachers need is going to be very different for each student and you need someone whose sole role is to oversee that in each building to make sure it's getting done and i don't want to because i worked in schools where there was not a teacher on special assignment there was not a special ed department chair it was very very difficult and the time to cover iep meetings by administrators by

[01:17:50] assistant principals can be huge it can be huge and when they're sitting in IEP meetings they're not able to work with students they're not able to work with families other ways if there's a behavior issue they can't go to that behavior issue and address that behavior issue because they're sitting in an IEP meeting if there's a behavior issue that they're dealing with before they go into the IEP meeting that could set that IEP meeting back by half an hour to an hour

[01:18:18] And that's something you don't want to do. So it is a balancing act. And in a perfect world, we would have money for more social workers. And somehow, if the funding does come down, that we have those extra funds that we can add that in and we can look at that, absolutely.

[01:18:35] But I don't think it's wise to take away from special education because it's such an important part. And because when you look at the scores of our special education students in SOL testing, in many ways, they are so low.

[01:18:54] They are so far behind. And our job is to get those kids caught up by the time they graduate so they can be successful adults, so they can go to college, so they can be workforce ready. And if we can't devote the time they need for that, then that's a problem.

[01:19:12] And also here in the city, a huge number of our students who have disabilities are also English language learners, which adds an extra layer of need. So our kiddos need us, and they need more than they've got, and they need more than we can give them, no matter what the budget is that we get from the state.

[01:19:33] Sometimes, and I'm being a negative Nancy at this exact second, but sometimes it's still not enough for all of our kiddos. So that's my two cents. Thank you, Ms. Russia. So I will do anything. I will go anywhere. I will support any initiative that I think would improve our student achievement. But we have to do that in a strategic and data-driven way. I just sat in a whole day of

[01:20:07] CLTs, so data mindset. And I mean, just think about what the data shows us. It shows us that our special education students have half of the state's student achievement half the half the and the state's student achievement for students with disabilities is 40 ours is 20 like that's the number that we're dealing with and so i i cannot see myself you're not supporting the top line

[01:20:43] recommendation out of this audit 20 low and half is a terrible ratio uh yeah if that's going to get it done but that's going to help us get to where we need to go and that's where i think we need to go and also keep in mind that half of our schools are a layer down in the performance framework because of their student difficulty performance so that and if the data was showing us that just so that social workers were the missing piece i'd be happy to support that but that

[01:21:18] i don't think that's where the data is uh i don't think that's where the data is taking us we also have to remember when we looked over our retreat at the characteristics of our most absent students students with disabilities led that list as well by a mile by a long shot and i think that if there is you know i i hear concerns about making sure our students are cared for and that we are creating that inclusive classroom you know in school experience that we all hope that our kids experience but there is a lot and it is a team approach at balton intermediate today i spent all

[01:21:56] day there there was a student who was experiencing a crisis and the person who worked with her was actually SRO Mangione yeah he doesn't even count on that you know list of official you know support for the wellness support personnel or whatever that is in the SOQ so and we also have to remember we added therapeutic day treatment right so that student can get access to direct mental health services in our school buildings free to them right reimbursed by Medicaid there's another one that we have is in Hazel Health. Right. So we have already augmented our direct

[01:22:35] mental health services that our student can get. Our family liaisons, and maybe this is different from what it is in the county, but our family liaisons can go to homes. Like they are empowered to do those home visits that is in their official duties if that becomes necessary. I don't know how much, you know, I'm sure it varies by building, by liaison, by student, but there is, I have confidence in our student wellness team what frankly I don't have a lot of confidence in is how our special education department is currently structured and we know that because that's what the data tells us that's not

[01:23:13] impersonal just what the data so I don't see myself budging from that recommendation at all now as terms of the other things with the IT upgrades we did just have a cyber attack that shut down our school division I have a hard time uh saying no to that or taking away from that and central registration it does impact our instruction we are those two teachers that are slated to be uh staffed there would be doing the work that teachers in our buildings are doing now and they're doing that work working with their

[01:23:51] student so i am i'm fine with the priorities as they're presented now and i'm going to be a very I wanted to look at the Special Education Operating Fund, and I guess this is a question for you.

[01:24:12] When we look at it, they show a director, a supervisor, two coordinators, three specialists. What page are you from? I'm on page 133. Three specialists, two teachers, and one administrative associate. So after they did the review, even looking at that, they asked or said or recommended that we have more than just the things that are here in this.

[01:24:40] Okay, I just wanted to make sure that's there. And those positions that they've been recommended are in school budgets. Gotcha. And these are central office budgets. Although some teachers that are there are adaptive PE, which is around multiple schools and things like that.

[01:24:58] but the additions would not show in the special ed department budget the additions would show in the individual school budget individual school budget okay so each teacher you would get a special education um administrative or administrative assignment in each building and those if you did six you would see each one of those if there was if we get money and you make that decision you'd see those as an additional fte at each of those six schools okay six buildings And so Baldwin, would you see a split between intermediate and elementary?

[01:25:26] Okay, great. I just wanted to clarify that. The other question I had was, and, you know, this is a very new process still for me, but when I looked at the ESOL budget that we had, and I know this doesn't include teachers that we have in each school, but it was, can you explain to me how this maps out?

[01:25:45] Because what I see is the total, $562,000, and I'm on page 135, if anyone wants to look, And I see $349,000 for salary. And then we have our benefits. And then our purchase services, what are the purchase services that that includes?

[01:26:06] Is that like $41,000 that you have for rent? So what does that include? I don't know exactly what all those items are. I know there is one large program that we do utilize. It would be things directed towards ESOL students, like professional development conferences, WIDA, we tend to teach us the WIDA conferences.

[01:26:32] Anything that the grant funding does not cover, it would be covered out of the local budget that has to do specifically to ESOL services. Okay, and I have a question, and this might be an ignorant question, but we do have, obviously, a significant number of ESOL students.

[01:26:50] Is there a reason why we only do that? Is it only because of Title III funding, which is taking care of everything? Or is it just we already have the money and we just don't need to do that? Well, most of the funding for ESOL is in those positions that are in the schools, right?

[01:27:06] The 80 through 80, 83 teaching positions that are in the schools. So that's the reason you see if you're comparing to special ed, those other positions are, you know, required by law for compliance and other things. And so you've got the positions in ESOL to support the 83 teachers in the schools, and some of which you get Title III funding helps for some of the costs, but most of the positions are in the operating fund across the schools. But again, those 83 teachers don't show in the ESOL department budget, they show in the individual school budget. Right. Okay. And every school gets an allocation for

[01:27:45] people to spend on students in their schools that would not they would be in each of the individual school budgets okay yeah because it's just it's very confusing to me because like when you look at the numbers it doesn't it doesn't add up to me so that's why i wanted to make sure that i asked the questions so that i understand um okay and i know i know it sounds like everyone is leaning towards having the six teachers um and i mean that that is what is the will of the board of course

[01:28:14] I just know, you know, just experience why, the reason why I was promoting it or encouraging it, because I just know the roles, the different roles are, because I see them every day. So it is different when you're in the midst of a school, because you understand how it works.

[01:28:35] But as far as everything else, everything looks good. I really like the central registration. I know how nice it is to have a Global Weapons Center in our district and how easy it is. When a new student comes, we don't have to test them.

[01:28:51] And I've worked in school districts where it's not like that. We're testing, we're screening. And then that just pulls you away from your job as an ESL teacher, because you have to do another layer of work. And also with the whole special education, teachers and administrative assignment, I understand that role, too, because I'm doing that as an ESOL teacher, and I don't have a caseload.

[01:29:14] And so it helps with other ESOL teachers that don't have to be pulled out. So, I mean, by all means, like, I don't want people to think that I'm not encouraging that. I just want to find a way to be able to, you know, meet other needs as well.

[01:29:30] And especially since we do have 45% of our kids are, you know, dealing with pain, okay? and we don't know what those things are, so it's just more of a heart strain for me. But if that's what the recommendation is, the will of the board, I'm okay with that because we definitely want to follow what the recommendations are because, of course, they're doing the data dig.

[01:29:55] We're not doing that. But I appreciate the thorough notebook that you guys gave us because that really helped. I think this was so much better than last year. Last year was very hard to understand. just it was like a whirlwind but this was I was able to actually look and see and thank you for answering all the questions that I had so okay so um at this point I just want to take my turn and then we can go back around the room if we want but I would like to say that just a quick addition you know of all of these priorities working out is going to mean somewhere in the neighborhood a

[01:30:32] little under 1.4 million and so you know we won't know for a while if we're to get that money and we do have a joint session coming up so i'd like to kind of open the floor just to go around at least once if there's any other housekeeping that you also want to add but we have got to address the joint session um and you know if we are i'd like to know um you know if we're setting the stage for next year there's not a lot of opportunity with them having set the tax rate already. There's not much wiggle room. I did have one budget question I wanted to

[01:31:10] ask real quick. I mean, do you want me to wait? Yeah. Okay. I just want to, you know, I want to let people know it's all budget, so we're good. But, you know, do we want to discuss, do we want to assume we're going to get most of this knocked out this year? Do we want to, you know, make a case in just a week for these items in case they're not funded, you know, we need to have a little bit of an idea how we're going to move forward with the joint session knowing

[01:31:46] that there's not a lot of money, you know, the two cents that they didn't leave on the table could have funded all of them. Is that something you discussed in your three-on-three? I mean, in previous years, they had said we have, you know, this extra money, do you want to do?

[01:32:07] can I address that please and then you can go to the real yeah I received a phone call from a council that said we are in a very tight budget is 3% do not ask for it yes and that was shared again doing three on three meeting where it

[01:32:42] was these are close to not to make it another phone call we've seen we can't

[01:32:47] three may have gone to two. So when they had a meeting, and I'm going to be quiet, when they had a meeting and it was stated that the superintendent got what he asked for, I never asked for anything because of a phone call that said, this is what we're getting. We don't have anything like in previous years where they said three and then they gave it 1.5 after that. So that was, I don't want to call anybody a liar, but the statement was

[01:33:24] not true they gave me what I asked but I didn't ask for anything because I was told we are getting this I think those communications because one council member told you but that but that is normal every year they have their meeting their retreat and I'll get a phone call saying this year you're

[01:34:00] getting now for seven straight years it's been three percent and i thought that was a city manager sometimes a city manager this time there was a council okay so there's a chance that we're going to get to we no no no they said during the three on three that conversation was because there's a tight budget or they thought it was a tight budget he didn't know if they were even going to get to

[01:34:29] three thought he was going to happen they didn't have to make that call so it was at three um if i may it was a a celebration you're going to get your three um i was afraid you wouldn't get your three but you're going to get your three and now you know there is a full day retreat that they had two fridays ago um where the video is still not released but there is um talk that you know it's

[01:35:06] said on the video that the superintendent got what he asked for and we you know some of some of us that have heard that we don't have the proof yet and we didn't we weren't there in person to see it but take exception to that because uh in the three-on-three there were definitely other things that were mentioned i try very hard and more not to speak for the board but many other ideas were tossed about so that it was very clear that there's no that you know three percent was the only ask there's no way that that could have been

[01:35:44] actually perceived okay so hold on one second so if I may I got a document that I've had for a very long time but the update is still in draft form but I I wanted to ask if I can have the scar to print that and then also the graph.

[01:36:08] And then there's an SUP that also came up in this most recent meeting that I honestly and truly did not know that the city expected, that the city believed that this SUP was still in play.

[01:36:24] Do you mean the resolution? A resolution, yeah. Okay. The resolution for old deans. That's correct. Okay. um so if you could print the resolution right so free to vote yes uh it's just an excerpt uh but that's the the item that came up during the meeting was the part that says um what what the what the outcome of jenny dean is to be um predetermined so to my way of thinking it's very

[01:37:01] good and i'm happy and appreciative that we have this document of priority and it would be very nice if we could fund all of that through state money but I'd like to ask what if what if we can't and what if you know we were given the opportunity to say well if we cannot really get any more money this year and we do have some unexpected possibilities here then I definitely would like to talk about

[01:37:36] setting the stage for next year so that this doesn't happen again because I want say that not only did we get and i won't use i try very hard not to be pejorative and say only three percent um but not only did we get three percent there are there are several other departments in the city that got nine percent for police and 21 for fire and rescue and so to me i just want to

[01:38:10] know when it's going to stop when it starts going to be our time so but before you know i go too far down that road i want to understand what the will of this board actually is because we can present the exact same thing that got presented tonight to our councils counselors and we can say thank you and have a nice day that is an option um before i let go back around i just want to say

[01:38:44] that up until the forty seven point oh maybe the forty seven point five I'll have to check all of these numbers have been run by the city finance person and approved it's just forty five point eight then draft a draft number we believe that I'm working with the right number but so the way that this chart reads is and this does not have to be something that we get all up in arms about it can be but it doesn't have to be but the blue line is what would have happened if we stuck with our revenue share agreement and the red line is what

[01:39:22] actually is happening to our share of the general fund for cities I'm sorry okay we can go around I apologize I know that we talked about the social workers but do you see a need for that because i do see a need i'm going to echo women's questions

[01:39:56] that for the specialist but do you see a need that is more prevalent to have more social workers in the building do you have any data that will support that well i don't but i also i think steven said it perfectly in a perfect world yes we would have had more social dealing with the funding that we have the top priority i just wanted to clarify that and then for my question

[01:40:31] is it fair to say that when one council member said that you got what you asked for did that be one council member misspeaking on the matter or is that council member speaking for the entire council in previous years i would either get it from that council member for the city manager after their i don't know if it's their retrieve or what they what they call

[01:41:03] it but they go over the budget and they say this is your amount and that has been the practice since my second year because my first year we went through those 13 meetings see if they were going to continue the funding 2.675 increase and they settled on three and then I get the same phone call it's a short phone call but this is the first time that it included there's no need to ask for

[01:41:41] anything else because the budget is and I respected them so it was very disappointing to hear something different i um i i guess for me i i still will consider it misspeak from one council member until i hear from everybody i think it's fair for us to say that i don't want to go into the rabbit hole as to why somebody got nine percent and 21 because needs in the department area in our city so it's not apples to apples however if in fact we do have an ask and the ask is if we

[01:42:21] do not get funded we certainly want to cover the sped teachers we certainly would like to do from my perspective the information information technology enhancements because we were attacked last year and we don't want you know an outcome that we could prevent if we were funded and then i guess unfortunately for me central registration would be the third priority if we do not get funded by the state i think as a board we can actually ask them i don't think anything will prevent us from asking them but i want to keep the focus on the collaborative relationship with

[01:42:59] council because they do have to work through very strict budget guidelines and i just don't want us to go into this again fighting for something comparing it to something else that does not related to whatever we our needs are if we just focus on our needs that's why i wanted to be very respectful of the request for phone call okay yeah all right i do have to run sorry but do you have

[01:43:32] to break that mean do you want to does anyone else want to take a break or then um your questions for this round at least are usually yeah i guess i just want to make a statement that we are required to ask for what we need and no parameters i get that you know they say work with around this but

[01:44:03] we are required for what we need and i think that's um thank you dr jones at this point if you'd like to weigh in on what you heard or if you have anything else to add um again i'm just i'm also kind of looking for and maybe we should wait till everyone's back but you know are we going to make

[01:44:38] the same presentation or are we going to you know literally ask for something else because these priorities are well stated and that's fine that's the direct the will of the board so i was also in the 308 and i was told there was a resist the other school board any additional funding and it will happen in five to ten years when the data center's up that is probably when we were we were holding and i kind of talked about revenue sharing i was with my doctorate degree that was the big paper now i thought it was great

[01:45:15] and it was kind of like so but i got the impression that the priority is not to give the schools any additional money that was what i got from the meeting and i think as they said that is not the majority of the city other people we met with to give the schools more money i think we should ask for what we need and this is what we need um and it it goes on record if nothing else we ask for it don't get into it you don't but we need it we're asking you for it so i think that's

[01:45:49] what we should um yeah i wanted to touch on the graph real quick when we look at the the orange line the percentage rate where we start at sixty one point six and we go down to forty five point eight that's total funding the remainder comes so like if you look at FY 2007 sixty one point six percent of our total budget came from the locality whereas the other thirty eight point four percent came from the

[01:46:22] state correct this is the city's general okay okay so it's of their of their actual budget okay yeah all right thank you for that um you know i believe we need to present our priorities because we present we create a budget of need and we're expected to present a budget of need and that's what needs to be presented um i think it's important that when we look at those priorities that currently right now based on the numbers we have are unfunded right they're unfunded budget

[01:47:00] priorities i think those need to be presented as well i our unfunded budget needs need to be presented we need my opinion is we need to have a rationale behind each one and an approximate cost because we can say well we need teachers on special assignment but to someone who's not in a building every day, who's not a teacher, who's not an administrator, may not understand the why. The importance of having those individuals or upping our security or central

[01:47:39] registration, if we just say we need staff for central registration, we kind of need to have that rationale behind it. Because if we don't have the rationale, then people might think, well, this is something we want. We've been able to get by without it. So why can't we continue to get by without and and we need to also frame it in that all of these things we want we need to have in our budget those serve that ultimate goal of teaching our students and preparing our students for the real world and that's our ultimate

[01:48:15] responsibility so I think when we present those the rationale is why not just why each one is important but the overall arching why and the dollar sign um so i i don't see any i i agree with you i agree with you i agree with a lot we are legally required to present an east-based budget and our currently unfunded asks our part of our assessed

[01:48:48] need as determined by the will award i don't see any harm in doing as we've done all the time which is this is the budget this is what it includes based on our current dollars this is what it It doesn't include, you know, a little star that maybe the state will come around and help us out with this.

[01:49:09] But making the city council aware of what's in our needs-based budget, I'm totally fine with doing that. I would recommend, however, leaving the chart at home because if I'm putting my council member hat on, the city's general fund has increased over the year.

[01:49:31] So our percentage can fall, but the dollars that we receive will go up. And we actually have in our own budget book on page 65 evidence that it has actually increased a lot by 8.5%. Like our dollars have increased by 8.5% over the past.

[01:49:52] And so I think that if I was a council member, I would, I would, I think it would. It's a moment in time. I don't think that with our 8.5% over the last five years, which, by the way, our enrollment being in the red for four out of those five years.

[01:50:18] So that is... We can also point to our poor people, you know, come out and spin a different story. Are we going to present that? I'm asking. I mean... We don't want a spin story. These are all true.

[01:50:36] All of these things are true at the same time. Has it been part of our – I know that that's something that Mr. Walsh has asked for before because he wanted us to lower our per-pupil funding. He did. It's still my talking time, everybody.

[01:50:56] Thank you. Our per-pupil funding has gone up. It is just relative to our peers that have changed. So it has increased over the years, multiple layers of things being true. So I don't think this chart is going to go anywhere. I think this is going to be a big, I think this is going to be a big boomerang back in our faces, so I would lose the chart.

[01:51:20] But I do think that we need to provide the rationale why these asks are being asked for, you know, with all the context that we were talking about just a moment ago. But I mean, we definitely shouldn't exclude any part of our needs-based budget, and if state funding comes through, we're going to fund those things, so we need to have it out there in the public record.

[01:51:45] um when i look at it it is i don't want to say confusing but a little bit because as when sarah mentioned the fact that you look at the operating fund and it's gone up this is their fund that the percentage they're giving us of their actual budget and it is a known fact that when they did a survey and asked everyone in the city whoever participated what their priorities were

[01:52:20] increasing our schools you know perception all of that better schools and funding and that that can't happen without funding and so i think that to me and i i would actually like to look and i know i know what miss brown said don't compare but if this is what the city is saying it honestly we need to compare because clearly they're not doing what what their constituents have asked and that is to make one traffic go away but that's a whole nother and to have better schools

[01:52:54] and funding i mean in order to increase our school's perception there's so many things obviously we need these things and i'm sure a lot of other things but to let you know to decrease our funding each year and that's what like our percentage our percentage our percentage each year it's just it makes me sad that that's what's happening um but i was looking at our schools in 2000 and just seeing you know were they different you know i don't know because that

[01:53:28] that was a while ago right um and that's something you know our needs are they increasing are they decreasing that's the other thing if we think about it they're increasing would you say that Dr. Newman that our needs are increasing and I think that definitely like Miss Cooper said we need to have a plan and have an ask and we should be asking this is specifically what we need so I guess we did this work or not premature but late I don't know like that that's what I'm a

[01:54:07] little confused about because isn't this something we should have probably present like when we get this, we present it to them, but they've already told us this slip that you're getting. So isn't that premature for them to be telling us what we're getting if you have not even presented what you need? It is very different here, the budget process.

[01:54:31] I'm not saying it's wrong, I'm just saying it's different. I've never had a funding body tell me this is your amount, but I can appreciate it when you're making the budget, so I'm not putting things in that you have to take out.

[01:54:50] So it is nice to know, but it is a different one. And $1.4 million is what you need in order to tech care be unfunded, correct? If you added all of the things together, it's like $1,373,5146.

[01:55:08] Okay, and that's over the budget. Correct, that is on top of the proposed budget. And there it is. We know what we need, we know how much it costs, and here it is. And I think as both of you stated, we need to give them the why, Because they aren't educators, they don't know how the schools work, maybe, maybe they know a little bit, but when it comes to specific, you know, roles, it'd be nice to give that explanation so they know why they're saying yes, you know.

[01:55:37] But you've done your homework, you base it on data, you're giving them the explanation, and all we can do is ask. I think Dr. Jones mentioned that. All we can do is ask, and it's on record, and we ask. This is a really good conversation to have, you know, for you to have the city council or for the three, however the meeting is, to discuss and bring back some feedback.

[01:56:05] We will definitely support this, but I think in regards to the budget, I think we need to stick with the required act. Okay. I mean, again, I don't want to jump the gun. I want to leave you guys in a position that, you know, is defensible. I just want to, you know, in a very aspirational way, I want to say, you know, there's not another city in the northern Virginia area that has two train stations, their own airport, their own hospital.

[01:56:35] You know, I mean, we have it going on. And the fact that, you know, the desire seems on some pieces of paper appears so lackluster is frustrating for me. It's frustrating for me, and it's moved me, you know, to make certain things priorities for myself, but for us.

[01:57:00] But I do not want to speak, and I don't want to get overly passionate, you know, without the board, the full board being behind it. And if this paper gets left behind, that's fine. I'm trying to offer you guys choices. I'm ready to go.

[01:57:17] I think the revenue share agreement is the one I would stand behind. got that was not well received at the three-on-three um you know we were told that you know they've already tried throwing money up and so they don't need to do that um are you done i think so are we going around again i mean i i would like to raise my hand okay we can go around we can go around as many times as you guys want it's not necessarily about the budget but you were saying this this

[01:57:57] actually this resolution came up again thanks for us to honor that are are we going to be discussing it at the joint meeting it will not be discussed at the joint meeting we were asked not to talk about it um we were asked not to talk about it a lot anymore um we were told that mr rc area is working on the plan and we'll be told what that plan is um and so we'll be we have it on uh 19th to discuss because we were you know we were going to honor the request not to bring it up at

[01:58:32] this upcoming budget works session the joint session um so we decided you know when you have a three-on-three that's another thing that's coming up whether or not you as a board want to continue them for me i think it was good because a lot of things became highlighted that we wouldn't have known about until the 25th of march but on by the same token you know we said that we were going to do our best to let people speak freely in that meeting so you know i we We don't have a lot of rules as far as what's happening.

[01:59:06] So one thing was not to discuss the Jenny Dean future at this upcoming joint session. So we decided not to do that. But I'd like you guys to review this because I really was, in all honesty, very surprised.

[01:59:24] I did not understand when we got my understanding of the situation, which I've been wrong before, multiple times, was that we got a call. Hey, guess what? you know, your Jenny Dean building is of historical significance, don't worry, put the brakes on your explanation of what you're going to do with the building because, you know, we've got new information.

[01:59:48] And I read that to mean, which I don't know if it was ever stated, but I interpreted that to mean this SUP is not happening anymore. So when we had the three-on-three and we were told but this SUP is still alive and well and they expect us to enact it I could have been blown over by a feather I really didn't know how to respond and I we've sat on it for a little while we tried to handle the best way and I think that you know discussing facts this this is a piece of paper that everybody is aware

[02:00:21] of on both body this is the first place to start we can go back around okay we we're going to finish our round around okay all right so okay so April 16th okay thank you I was sorry I was going to have to wait for it to go around again is that what does that have to do with the budget well you know I mean I think in in my perfect world we'd start discussions okay

[02:00:58] in the budget but do you want that exactly part of your presentation um i i think that we were told not to bring it up okay it's up okay all right so um i did ask about jimmy dean and i feel great um and i actually um hurt someone's feelings um but

[02:01:25] But I do think I'm not from Monassau City, but I do have a friend who is from Monassau City, and she's asking what is going to happen to Dean, and I'm like, I don't know. But I'm like, you as people, specifically the African-American community, you need to start talking.

[02:01:45] So I'm saying you need to start going to school board meetings, city council meetings, and talking and say what you want. but i got the impression that yes a part of it is historical i got the impression that they are researching to tell us what part that is but i also got the impression that they really want the building down and if some of it is historical uh how would you figure out what to keep up and who would pay for it all that was kind of like to me was kind of like the school would do it not so much us here city no school yet um so i just got the feeling and to me i said you cannot

[02:02:21] just knock that building down and not ask the community what they want. Now, whether you do what they want is one thing, but you just can't knock it down. And I made reference to, I was not here when the other buildings were knocked down. So, but I would say you need to see what people want and what their opinions are. And you just don't have a reconcute come up one day and just the building is gone. So that's not what you do. But I got the impression that they all want it down is what i got um not even trying to figure out what's historic what do you do with the historic part you know what would it look like um we've really been kind of talked about you know what

[02:02:58] did you do like this entropy is for 18 months so it's supposed to be putting robotics over there for a whole year it just sounds like what does it look like i mean you have 18 months but um my thing is i think i don't think they should tell us not to talk about it but i think they don't want us to talk about it because they want to knock it down uh and then to me that would be everybody would look at the school board like you know what you all do you knock the new thing down and it's the city council that's running trying to run this ship um as long as i've been on the school board over a year it's a month i've often felt like they they think they're the parent and

[02:03:37] we're the children and they tell us what to do that's that's my perception uh and i think that needs to change because we're all the elected officials and we're here for the for the school board and for our schools and i think we have to speak up for that but as far as jenny dean i do think we need to we just can't let them run the show we need to i don't know what's the guy's name he's researching so i think someone needs to be in contact with him and like what are you doing we need to see if we need to do something and then we also need to work on getting community input otherwise i think it's going to come back on the school board to knock the building down and i

[02:04:14] honestly think they want baseball fields on that school on that side i do think that's what they we don't think it did did you hear it did they say that well my kids played baseball way back when because my kids are but my kids played baseball way back then and 20 years ago they knew my crime was taking that land and it's always been where the baseball field's going and it's always been in the dean area but in that meeting it was baseball fields were stated that was the goal that was stated and it was it was also like this you can give it you can give us

[02:04:51] um you know jenny dean has been discussed in some ways ad nauseam um and i'm real quick i'm going to say what i personally would like to see i would like to see us have a set aside time just to discuss jenny d because we have to have something concrete to present to the city

[02:05:26] um because until we can present them with a concrete or multiple specific option we're going to keep going in circles like this we're not going to get anywhere until we say this is what we want to do a or we want to do b or what we want or we want to do c this is why this is how this is cost that's what they want to see from us and i know the last time we had a conversation about jenny dean at a um joint meeting there was frustration voiced on city council side because we weren't

[02:06:05] giving them a firm answer because we couldn't say this is what we're going to do or this is what we want to do specifically um there are members of city council who have always wanted old jenny dean torn down it was at one point i planned that the city would get the land and it would be turned into ball fields um in fact somewhere at home i still have the powerpoint from it that shows what um jenny dean would look like if it had not been done the way it was originally planned to be done

[02:06:40] but we could sit here till midnight tonight discussing this suv or this resolution whatever we prefer to call it but we really need to sit down and have a deep talk about what's going to happen with jenny d because 18 months from what august is going to come a lot faster than we think it's going to come and we don't want to be pushed into a situation where we don't have a plan where we have to knock it down because we do know it's a historical significance we do know that that

[02:07:16] historical part of jenny the jenny dean industrial school provided education for students who had no other way to get an education who had no other way to get an education to get meaningful job position and that's something we have to keep in mind is the historical significance that that building or parts of that building play to society in a time where an entire population of young people were not able to go to school um that's something i feel very strongly about i would be

[02:07:56] deeply saddened to see the whole thing torn down because there is a piece of it that's important and we are lucky when we had that last school board meeting there was a social studies presentation where it talked about how we have history right here in the city but all of that presentation none of it talked about the jenny dean memorial or the jenny dean industrial school imagine the educational experience our students would have if they could see a piece of an industrial school of something they've never experienced because that's a huge important

[02:08:34] piece of our history and I would be saddened if our kids couldn't get that experience they get Liberia house Liberia house is great my child went to Liberia house as a field trip and we've been back three times since then because she thinks it's so amazing and mind you that's just my child but nonetheless this is we have to have a plan and we have to convey that plan to city council Because if we are all talking about, well, we could use it for this, or we could use it for this, or we could use it for this, that's pine in the sky.

[02:09:07] We have to say, this is what we want to do. This is why. This is how. This is how much it's going to cost us. Or present the alternative. If we can't do that and you really want it, this is how much we'll sell it to you. And then we could get all those unfunded needs met for quite some time.

[02:09:27] So that's my two cents. I just, I respect what you mean. I don't remember the exact date, but there was a joint meeting where we asked specifically, should we present something to you as per this document?

[02:09:52] Because it's going to take a lot of work on staff. I know. And we were told directly there was no appetite for anything. But it's our land. I'm just going by what you said. I know, and I totally understand.

[02:10:09] Could I comment on this? Let's just finish this row and then we'll we can take questions. Are you at least are you done? I'm done. I'm sorry I have was on my soapbox. I stepped down. So the special the resolution allows us and says four times that we are able to go through the SUP amendment process that says it four times We are allowed as any private landowner is to amend the special use permit at any time

[02:10:42] Also, the only part of this legally questionable clause requiring us to demolish the building only requires us to proceed with the demolition of any non-historical portion. That's what it says.

[02:10:58] We are not actually required by the terms of this to demolish any other... We don't have to demolish the whole thing. And there is... Like, have they read this recently? That was their...

[02:11:14] I mean, they intend to keep what's tantamount to the smokestack. They talked about, you know, doing an outline of the rest of the building. You know, they're bringing us the cottage, you know. But no, the main thing they're building you a brand new school.

[02:11:30] Well, that's what they are, but this is. So there was talk to what you're saying. We're not off base. We're not actually required to demolish necessarily the whole thing. But what they want to keep sounded really small. And when I asked them, did they want to buy the land, can anyone tell them what happened?

[02:11:49] You can give it to them. They laughed when I said that we would want to be talking about sales. And they said. Right. Well, they, I mean, we are landowners the same as, you know, we can't, we can't put a, we can't build a school in Mark Wolfe's backyard and they can't put a baseball field in our backyard.

[02:12:09] Like, we are a private landowner separate from the city and have a respect. So I mean, they might have asked you to not bring this up, but I don't know, I don't recall anybody asking me not bring this up, because I do think we need the clarification of why they included this historical investigation to begin with.

[02:12:32] The intent was always to bring the whole thing down. They did not say the whole thing. They intend to say what they deemed historical enough. Is that fair to say? Why do you memorial? Yeah, I didn't necessarily think they said they would say it could be a whole building, some kind of a block or something.

[02:12:53] What was clear to me was they were telling us what was done. Yeah, well, this is, they proceed with this at their absolute peril, because I see no reason to cut the community out, the community that's actually impacted our, you know, cut them out of the dialogue prematurely.

[02:13:13] see no reason I mean even when this was going through we had a basis to challenge this we still have that I just want to make sure everybody's on the same page that's all and you know from my perspective I'm willing to wait to discuss this till the August 16th meeting April 16th I can only get one part right at a time you know but I do think we need to discuss it more in depth it doesn't have to be tonight you know if we're not going to discuss it on the 25th which

[02:13:48] is a gentleman's agreement we had um whenever are you i guess but i you know i want to talk about it so um i was going to say similar to what sarah said but i also noticed that it said it's they're asking for a compelling justification that clearly demonstrates the continued use of the building for public educational function in the public interest it is in the public interest but have we i know this is probably something we don't like to say, but have we talked to our lawyers about what's implications? Yeah, right, because

[02:14:25] we need to, so that they can comb through it and tell us what are our options because I think, one, them telling us we can't talk about something when the building is ours is not okay. Two, there's a lot of things in here that shows that we do have other options, you know, and I think that them only giving us one option is is not okay either so we had an attorney when all this was okay we can feel like yeah right it's been a long time right but we have gone down a path to try to tell them you know to try to make

[02:15:05] a compelling case two times at least that i know of and been told two times stop doing that because you know what first time they said you don't need it and the second time they said we're already doing it so you know there's just a lot of um i think as sarah said as well since we are private landowners i think they're blurring the lines because had this been someone else they would not be able to treat them the way they're treating that and so they need to we need to maybe remind them of that well the same thing that's happening to us it's happening to them within school and

[02:15:41] they don't like it either but you know it hasn't made them nicer on january 20th you guys we did speak a length about this and there were some commitments made then because I brought up the question of whether or not the SUP this was still legal and we were supposed to come back and reiterate it so two months later here we are exactly two months later we talked about that time that four million dollars will cover the cost of one building this we were using we were trying to talk

[02:16:15] about where and what programs we were going to use, but $18 million was going to be the cost to make anything happen at Jane Dean. That was the number that was given, $18 million.

[02:16:30] And at that time, we asked for the historical component because it wasn't good enough for them to say that maybe there were pieces that would be historical. We actually had to figure out if in fact it was and then apply for that historical labeling and we were supposed to ask who was going to get the from the the amount of money that it will take for us to get that label onto that building or to get the i don't know what the correct term is to deem it historical because

[02:17:09] we have to go through that process so right now it's not historical i doubt that in 18 months it will be if we're not willing to pay the money and we don't have the money but what is the process to make this don't know yes and we did honor our piece of trying to figure that out and then we were told that there was no need for us to continue doing anything because Matt was doing that so we stopped the process because Matt was doing it so it but Matt doesn't work for us he's the city counterparts. Do we know what he's doing? Yeah, he has a document though, right? He has all the

[02:17:47] documents. I mean, he found the documents. So my question then will be, are we going to let Matt decide this in time? We'll fly 18 months because again, it's $18 million if we want to do anything with Jenny Dean, even if they say 18 months from now, okay, because we also have a committee that we haven't even met because we decided to send this to committee. We haven't even met so are we are we in any foreseeable future going to have 18 million dollars to do

[02:18:20] anything at any dean at this point i think we need to have that in the back of our mind and i'm going to echo what you said i think legal representation would be really dire at this moment because we need to know exactly what options are with this 18 million dollars over us to do anything in there and the special zone permits that we have to get all of that stuff to make it do anything other than elementary school um do you have something do you want to go about back and forth just

[02:18:57] meet questions or do you want to go i got my question answered okay so i just wanted to speak to any attorney that we would get about this can't be sans anderson because they do some kind of work with the city which is why we had to go outside of yeah well we couldn't we couldn't use her we had to use a guy no no no i don't speak yes so it was not as simple yeah but i just wanted to say

[02:19:35] that okay i just have a question about um saying it's 18 million dollars to i guess is it to bring being at the code my question is we currently have students there so why is it once we move them out we make $2 million to put something else in the picture once you touch one brick it has to come to the current code I suppose you didn't touch a brick well we could open another elementary school

[02:20:01] all in there. It's zoned for elementary school. Okay, so if you zoned for something else, you have to do it. Yes, unless we wanted to play a hundred schools in there. Can you ask what we zone? I don't care. Maybe that would be easier than doing this. But do you not think it's best for us to see about what it would take to make that part that we know historical? I mean, would it be better for us to do it if we would allow Matt? Because we don't know what Matt's doing. Unless you bring Matt to the table, he tells us what he's doing.

[02:20:33] You know, we were basically at the lawyer, and then we pulled it back because, you know, we took this conversation at face value. That's my understanding. We can keep going forward. You know, we really needed to regroup.

[02:20:49] None of this, I didn't expect to hear anything I heard in that meeting, you know. And I could say it was a bad meeting, but also it was good to hear what people were really thinking a little bit ahead of time. You know, I can't really imagine what would have happened if we went to the 25th of April or March, whatever, this month, next week, and started hearing some of these things.

[02:21:11] So, you know, overall, I do still see some value in it, but it was not, it was not fun. I guess productive is a pejorative word, but, you know, I was enlightening, but not in a happy way.

[02:21:33] So, yeah. Okay. Thanks, Rich. I just have a quick comment, which is to, first of all, we need to do a little touch base, our new attorneys on this.

[02:21:55] Second of all, I'm just going to put it out there, you brought up the $18 million. It's just very frustrating because I think that the most likely outcome is that the building comes down. right i think that's the most likely outcome and that they are it's going to where it's it's going to it would just be so much easier and faster if our authority in this matter was expected for us to go through a process of costing it out and engaging with the community ultimately we would i think ultimately we would likely get to where the council wants us to go with this anyway just

[02:22:30] be just by the dollar right the fact that it is that they're introduced they are introducing our spoken element is really unfortunate because the ultimate people who are going to lose are all the dollars we're going to have to spend uh untangling this so i really wish i don't know if anybody else is out there or somebody is listening it it would be much simpler if we just went through this process and probably most likely got to the same point i think i think it's just unfortunate that

[02:23:05] they have asked us not to ask the public because I think that maybe the public would also say the same thing that we need this and we need that but to not ask the public I think is just is not a good idea I don't understand why we have to march to their orders why can't we as a school board decide that we're going to make you know one of our town halls that we do or open it up like we did the budget and ask for anybody and if nobody comes at least we tried and at least we opened it up

[02:23:42] and then we can move forward because i feel like what miss brown said is so true we are kind of spinning our wheels and we need to get somewhere we need to figure this out sooner than later but this was an agreement that we got into right if the school board we cannot say that our authority was not respected because when we had this in front of us was this shoved to us this

[02:24:07] They say it's already active, you know, I was talking about the fact that we can't ask the public. That's what I was saying was, was what they're asking.

[02:24:24] Yeah, the problem is going to be divided. There's a greater need out there for parks and green spaces. So we may not. We can ask it. We can push for that. But my whole thing is if we are the owners of this and somebody shoved this to us, we were at liberty to hire our own counsel and put a rebuttal.

[02:24:52] And what happened? We hired them, obviously, but they didn't get us anyway. That was a part of approving UNIV. Oh, so we got to do this before we got approved. And obviously half of us were on this.

[02:25:08] it wasn't it was just you want this school this is what okay so we agreed so that's what it is our ability to contest this has not expired so that is part but if we wanted to let jenny dean on time and on budget yeah he has plausible to keep Jenny Dean on time and on budget we could do that and preserve our

[02:25:46] future ability to bring this up at a future time so we have this is now the future time the future time so it's not that we agreed we just didn't exercise our function at that time it's the grade that I you know I like to do clean business and if we agree to this to get Jenny Dean it doesn't sit well with me They say, now that we've got Denny Bean, now we're going to go fight about this.

[02:26:13] It links us in a really grayish kind of, I don't know. Would that delay our opening? Like what does Russia say? Russia say, would it delay? Like if we say, hey, we don't agree with this and we want to go back and amend it, would they, I mean, because all the funds are already gone, right?

[02:26:33] For that bill day. They didn't spend it all. they already gave us what we requested and now we are so lawyers so I may this entire SVP is in board docs in today's meeting as of now once we decided definitely to distribute this you know I just I think we can talk about this a later day we had some had some pretty good discussions I don't think that we're gonna bring it up unless you guys insist on the 25th but you know in my perfect world we have a plan where you know we can bring in some revenue generating

[02:27:10] programs to anything in which case we could do some rolling improvement you know I think we could put out 18 million dollar in a plan with programming in that building that is more or less self-sustaining though but you know we all have to get there and it's going to take time i had one more thing it just was an idea too because what you're saying i think that if we were to present one the sup to the public just as information

[02:27:48] like we do everything else and present our plan for that 18 month period it gives them that information and then if someone you know instead of like what they said it's in your docs now i mean right but and just watching this tonight so yes that's true but if we do an actual presentation just letting them know this is what we propose and then instead of doing what they've said not to do asking the public's attention but we're giving information because here's the thing a lot of people don't like is learning that information after the fact and i know from

[02:28:24] constituents i've spoken with letting you letting us tell them at least the information and what you propose or whatever would be better than not saying anything at all and yeah we need to put together a timeline we need to get put together some options we need to talk to you know legal in some manner of way and so i mean i think all those things will probably you know some of them will start happening leading up to the april 16th work session but um you know but then but then we'll we'll be able to hash some this out a little bit more and you know really start to put together a

[02:29:03] plan maybe miss brown's committee yeah i i don't think i'm sorry she brought up the committee i know it's three of us and three of us and i don't know who the chair i'm not the chair but i am not i am not agreeing to their request not to bring it up i think at the very least as you the chair representative you should make a statement that we are aware that the sup

[02:29:41] is here it was made i mean this this was this thing this was made in a significantly different contact and we're looking at a legal option i mean i think that's honest but i also think that we need to honor our commitments if we say we're going to do this in order to get that and we already got that then we have to stick by what we committed to do but yeah i think that by september 30th you you all supposed to come with school board current school was supposed to come up with past school was supposed to come with the plan they were told not to bother so they didn't get

[02:30:21] opportunity to come up with the planer because they were told not to worry about student yeah and perhaps part of our community can actually invite math to come where he's at with that process about the historical what is that for historical hrv identification label category um so when you're saying I mean are you suggesting that on the 25th that I say this or in a letter that I say this or how do you want the chair to represent you I just from as for

[02:31:01] me and part of this board I don't think that anyone is a little you tell us what we can elevate as an issue if we feel is important enough and so I do believe this is important enough so but I'm one voice I'm just saying they told us not to talk about it that's great thank you for your information and your input but I believe this is important enough to elevate it and we want to let you know that we are looking at legal options to see where we stand so again to clarify

[02:31:39] we did a lot of back and forth and at one point you know dr. Jones did say do mean talk about it never and then that was pretty clearly the intent but the reply was don't talk about it on the 25th so you know i feel confident in talking about it after that you said that they did not have that we have information available but making a statement you're just making a statement we're not talking about it you're just making a statement from where we're at i'm just asking if

[02:32:15] it can be done after the 25th or if you want it if the will of the board is to do it at this joint session um we're two elected bodies and um we have the right to say what we feel needs to be set um so if it is the will of the board to bring it up then it is the will of the board to bring it up it is not and it is not up to the city council to tell us what we can and cannot talk about

[02:32:53] because jenny dean is in our group and discussion in the future of jenny dean is in our group so we need to make sure it's on our agenda do we already post that agenda no it's going to get posted tomorrow can we just put statement though because are we going to cap discourse about it or are we just going to make the statement i mean that's what we're talking about i feel i can be pretty in there yeah there's no question as we learned with the ill-fated announcements section there's no such thing it's just one statement so if it's going so if we are going to talk about it

[02:33:32] it should go onto the agenda um and i am we need to talk about it do we talk about it wednesday we're not going to talk about it wednesday we better have the date when we are going to talk about it because what i do not want to happen is oh you well you didn't bring it up you know to be it did to be gaslit at some point in the future so if this is the this is the time and this is the window even if it's not to come to a conclusion because we are not going to be equipped to come to an inclusion at that point but just to lay it out and you know make it known that we are

[02:34:08] intending to exercise our constitutionally guaranteed sovereignty over the school-owned lands that we have and just to make that clear i'm supportive of doing that i don't want to miss I don't want to miss it.

[02:34:24] It's historical designation. So you're a director. An option could be, you can make an announcement that our Educational Support and Finance Committee will be meeting to discuss options for Jenny Dean. We invite Mr. Arcieri and a representative from your city council to join us.

[02:34:43] I think it's good, but it is open up. I was going to say, I kind of like what Mrs. Boer was saying. I don't know if I would invite a member to the council but my thing is I don't think I don't think I think mentioning is good but I don't think if we go in there next week we're not prepared we're not together really no we don't we're not prepared to make statements so I think we need to be prepared when we go in there so you may say at our next meeting April 60th and say we plan to we want we will be discussing Jimmy Dean will be on the agenda but I don't think you want any

[02:35:21] conversation as we were all over the place and we have to come together as one I mean that's what I just want to do one final show of hands because I personally will do whatever the will of the board is I'm uncomfortable doing it on the 25th but I can see I because I'm not because I'm uncomfortable doesn't necessarily mean it shouldn't happen so I like people okay so show of hands it happens in the form of an announcement about educational support on the 25th

[02:35:54] at a joint session. Show again. That's pretty real cool. Okay. I'll work on something wording. I liked that statement. Now, just to be clear, at my committee meeting we want to, do we want Mr. Arcieri there to go over the terms of the SUP? Okay. And do we want to set a date to meet with the community? Yes.

[02:36:22] Okay, what else do we want to determine? Don't say that date on the 25th though. The historical designation process. Okay. So we can determine what to do. Because we can't move forward unless we do that.

[02:36:38] Okay. Okay. I mean, this was very productive. You know, I don't know how things are going to be interpreted. So let's all just... It is what it is. We're one body. We came up with our decisions.

[02:36:56] um going forward let's conduct ourselves in such a way um not that we wouldn't i just thought that's a good reminder um what happens now uh do i have a motion share time with the school board meeting assurance i think the budget is good everybody i mean we agree on the priorities i guess the one question is you know if there aren't really any other changes are you

[02:37:32] comfortable just speaking up the explanations of some of the priorities yeah I have a vision for how you can share those priorities in the order like and and for the presentation the City Council okay and you're comfortable giving that presentation by and large you were gonna do it well I'm just okay thank you guys I'm sorry about the time chair would you like me to make the motion again I would like to entertain

[02:38:17] - Is there any conversation in favor? Any opinions, opinions adjourned?

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