Call the April 29th, 2019 Finance
Committee meeting to order place and start with a roll call.
Just indicate your name
and whether you're a citizen advisor,
administrator, or school board member.
Start with your Regis.
Regis Borrowing. Administrator.
Kip Shore Board member.
AARP Vallejo Citizen Advisor.
Terry Singer.
Board Member.
Kathy Singer.
Board Member. Joe Macfarlane. Superintendent.
Mike French Business Manager OC.
Thank you. I did get a note
from Mr.
King. What's his death?
Yeah, King indicated that he was on travel wouldn't be able address
he would be late.
I can't remember when he's okay he wouldn't be here.
Todd I didn't hear from Norm.
Mr. Faisal so we may
one or both of them might come.
And Lindsay's coming, right? As far as I know. Yeah.
Okay.
Move on to the approval of summary.
Summary minutes, please.
And when I have a chance to read him any corrections
notations, If not, if I can, I have a motion to approve.
So most.
Second.
But I also have a question about the minutes
under unfinished business for a a
the first bullet point and I just might have missed this.
It says 750,000 increase in expenses
for personnel, including pizza's costs.
However, in reviewing the
the worksheet, the line item is we were given
it was 740,000 for salaries, but there was an additional line
for pizzas of 492,000.
I'm I think I'm missing something but
shouldn't at say $700,000
excluding pizzas cost cap.
Where are you again.
Looking to see the minutes I can it up there so for a
the first bullet point and it says 750,000 our increase
in expenses for personnel including pizzas cost however
the expenditures
are sheet we were given I think at the last meeting
there was this there was a it was 750,000 for salaries.
But a separate line for the Pacers is retirement
and that was 492,000 or did I am I missing something there Really.
No, I apologize.
I, I when I glossed over that when I read the minutes as well that it said included
this.
So you can either just change the.
You know it's about 1.1 million.
In personnel costs which increased to include the Pacers or.
Just note that is salary costs from there but
sorry about that Mike catching that first time through.
Okay so what should the the change be then instead of 700,000.
Just 1.1.
One point. 1 million.
Yeah. I think that's a fair representation of
it's a little more than that when you include everything.
But I think in rough figures, which was that was what I was trying to communicate.
Not exact dollars when talking about that.
Okay.
Kept Did you have any questions about it other than just.
Okay, okay. Thanks for pointing that out.
That's I obviously got that wrong.
So I apologize as well.
And the other comments are observations.
Okay, I will make that change and amend the minutes.
And with that noted, could I have a motion to could we?
I think you did second with the motion.
Yes. Yep.
So just voice
vote to approve the minutes then would that that change
on favor I opposed.
Okay.
Thank you.
Just know that.
Just that I'm here.
Yeah. It's lenses.
You're a school board member here.
Okay. Thank you, Lindsay.
All right, we're on to unfinished business, the 20 1920 budget. Mike
Thank you, Mr.
Singer.
So today is the
the final run through for the Committee
on Financial Information for 1920.
And so we have what would be the final update
or what I intend to be the final update for the budget information
from since last meeting.
The good news in terms of overall
increase in the budget,
every meeting so far we've been looking at
what a 2.3% tax increase
would do for us in balancing the budget and I'm kind of starting
at the back of the presentation to to come forward, but
just wanted to show this is the
the summary of our expenses and revenues
and what is reflected in there at
this point is a 1.4% tax increase.
So couple of factors
helped us work towards reducing that and we talked about that
a couple of times, that that was the administrative goal.
We knew what we had to start with, but if possible, to work back down from that.
So I'm just starting here to show you what a 1.4% tax increase
would do to the overall budget and essentially balances.
It leaves about $13,000
in revenue above expenditures.
But when you're talking about $65 million, $13,000
becomes a fairly minimal.
So what changed
to to bring us down to this level?
One of the largest changes was
was some of the information in our our revenue stream.
So I'll pull that up.
So overall the revenue number is actually as a whole
has decreased and that was a function of reducing the
the real estate tax level.
But one thing I do want to draw your attention to is
about the middle of the page here.
Interest on earnings.
Apologies I
this was some information that was provided a little later today.
So I also printed out everything that will be going over.
Thank you, Todd, for passing those out
to go over from here. But
this most
significant increase year to date earnings on investment,
this is a line item.
And historically for our district, we are our earnings
on investment are just in a savings account.
School code is really strict
in the amount of things that the district can invest in.
Basically, we can only do things that are backed by the full faith
and credit of the United States or our state.
There's some other things that are opened up.
It's really not worth we're talking about.
But because of the low rate environment that we had been operating in
for the past few at least five years, this revenue
line item is was well beneath $100,000 each year.
So looking at where we'll end the current
year, it'll just north of $200,000.
Felt very comfortable that we'll have the same amount of
revenue on hand in terms of those investments,
in terms of our cash flow, that's not going to change next year.
And so that was a line item that
that has a fairly significant increase from just the last time
I showed this information to you a month ago.
Some small changes to the state revenue,
mostly being the basic education budget.
This is the number
that is currently in or is recommended by the governor.
I don't hear a lot of talk or a lot of pushback like this is a budget
that is unrealistic, kind of like we've had in prior years.
So that's why I'm comfortable using what the state is noting is
our basic education increase for next year
in our line item information.
Just because it seems like we're not hearing
a lot of battling going on at the state, which leads me to believe this
year's budget process may be relatively more smooth than in past years.
And then no change in the federal
or other revenue line items to get down to that 65 million to 78.
So one of the other items that changed
for us to be able to reduce our tax rate
is the continued increase in our assessed value for Derry Township.
That is a moving target.
Property is for the most part for Derry Township.
Come on, are roles or increase in their value year after year.
And we had budgeted about a half a percent increase
in assessed value,
which you can see there was just a little over 2 billion.
73 million was essentially what we had been using up to
this point is our assessed value, looking at what the
the township tax bills
when they were processed at the beginning of of March, the assessed value
that was used for those tax bills was 2 billion, 80 million and change.
And so that represents a 2.6% increase over the prior year
and we would only anticipated a half a percent increase.
So it's minimal, but it moves in the positive direction.
Any time our assessed value increases the revenue
to the school district increases without us doing anything at all,
which is a huge bonus to the school district
and a reflection probably as you can see,
as you think about some of the things that have been going on in our township
over the last couple of years and plan for the future,
something that we can consider
to be a helpful item to us as well as we move forward.
So that was very good to see.
And like I said, when running it through the calculation part of that
was why we were able to reduce the tax rate
because the assessed value increase
and we were just looking to get back to that same revenue number,
not generate more.
So any
any questions just on the revenue side
of what we want over here, I'll go to the expenses.
If it's not.
A question for you about the small changes that you made
for the earnings from investment.
Is that where you just put our cash in hand in a more higher interest
checking account?
Not necessarily of my doing.
The the the rate environment that we're in continues to improve
and both of the banks that we have investments
with First National Bank, it was where most of our money is
and then we have a small deposit with Bryn Mawr Trust here across the street.
They have been increasing their interest rates,
usually on a quarterly basis when some of the information comes out.
They were already giving us very competitive rates to begin with.
And yes, they're continuing to increase
quarter after quarter for us.
And what I've done is not even note
as an increase in that if we stayed at the rate we are at today,
I'm confident that that we can earn those those earnings on our investments.
So if that continues to improve, that line item or that number
will be a great benefit to us because there's nothing better
than being able to get money for really doing nothing but having money.
Sit there for us.
But unfortunately, well, we're in that position where
this kind of affects us two ways, Kathy, because we go to the
we watch the interest rate when we're borrowing money, when we float bonds.
So it's nice to have a low rate when you're when you're borrowing money.
And it's nice to have a higher rate when you're when you're not
and when you're when you're sitting at around.
So I could I can talk both sides of that coin.
Honestly from from how it would benefit us.
But, you know, definitely the fund balance something.
We could look forward to in the next couple of years.
And I'm happy to hear that about the state.
I've sat here before and listened to you say, Well,
we don't even know if they're going to vote on a budget
and we might not get the money for six months into the budget when,
you know, for looking at the reserves that we had.
So if you're forecasting a positive vibe, then I feel good
about that.
Move on to expenditures.
And we just had a small short go ahead.
To ask you a question. Sure.
So on Assessed value, I know that the county only reassesses
from a property owners point of view every ten or whatever how many years it is.
So is this a number that
is this just because new properties came into use?
That's correct. Okay.
Or were updated or upgraded in one way or another.
So the reassessment
for normal properties will only occur if you
apply for a building permit.
That's the mechanism to get somebody else to come out.
So, yes, not only new construction, but if somebody was rehabbing or.
Redoing another home.
The changes we see here are mostly due to the increase
in some of the other businesses and some of those things.
I mean, people's homes are definitely a part of this,
but we don't have many homes that are valued
in the million dollars for assessed value to get some of.
Those increases there.
So the large jump in that or the attributable increase
above what we were expecting is more with the businesses.
And some of the other things going on in the township.
Thank you, Mike.
And I just wanted to note that one of our citizens advisors,
Todd Schafer, has arrived as well.
Mike, you and what Terry was
saying made me remember something I did want to hear at some point.
What is the new assessed value on the downtown property
now that they've finished it just
short something because that was we've talked about that so much
about three years ago that I always want to know that new number.
The other questions on the revenue.
So this is the revenue or the sorry the expense information
that we had reviewed before
and really nothing the
I should say nothing a couple only one or two line items have changed,
the most significant being
curriculum and instruction.
This was in
when we reviewed this a month ago.
This budget was was north of $400,000
and was directly attributed to books
and some additional supplies.
We call them consumables
that are essentially books that the students can take a take home
with them, tear pages out and do things with
some of the programs that we thought
we were going to be able to implement or need the resources for next year.
We're just really put off a year there were some more time needed by
the curricular folks to do the research they need to to
make sure they're picking the best program for our students.
And when we were going through the budget
earlier in the year, they thought they had that taken care of.
As they got closer, found out that it probably would behoove everybody
if they took a little bit more time.
So all that's in the curriculum budget now,
there are some dollars essentially to pilot a couple of programs,
some things that they were not quite sure if they wanted to invest all the
dollars in.
But but take a little bit more time to work through them.
So there are some dollars in there of,
like I said, for what I call a pilot approach, just to test some of the things
that increase should
really be anticipated for the 2021 budget.
It didn't get pulled out of here or didn't go away like it's not needed.
They were just noting that it's it's not needed for next year
in terms of that reduction.
So beneficial for this year, but also some costs that we know will
will bear at some point in time
when when the need arises.
Another item just to point out in the
business office,
business office actually increased
and this was something that I missed on the first go around the
we have a internal printing department
that's operated here at the district teachers.
If they have large printing items, send them downstairs.
They get printed and sent back.
Kind of saves are smaller machines that are in the buildings,
some of that wear and tear, but also the time
for educators and everybody else to make the copies work.
So we employ somebody to do that.
The information is gathered through the technology department,
but it has always been reported
under the business office as a business office function.
And when I showed this information to you before, I had taken it
out of the technology department,
but I didn't put it in the business office department.
So as we were going through, again found that that had happened.
So that's the reason that the business Office expense account increased.
I think that's about $45,000.
That the
the. Printing program or the printing shop.
Costs us in.
Paper. Mostly that's.
What it is, is paper.
That's purchased, but also a little bit of upkeep for.
The the copier itself.
So that those changes bring us down to
a little bit.
I think what I showed you before was a 2.1% increase in expenses
from last year's budget to this year,
from this year's budget to next year's budget.
So that's now down to just 1.9%.
Any questions?
Just as a reminder as well, the salary information in there
does include or does account for salaries
for our
director of food service, which is a little bit different than in past years.
Normally that salary is accounted for in his budget.
This is the way that we have.
Proposing to handle the need that they have for additional revenue
is actually just to take
a large portion of the expenditures, not large portion expenditures,
large portion of the administrative expenditures out of his budget.
And put it in the general fund.
Mike,
what's going on with the graduate study
up for 39%?
I think a little bit of that
when if you'll remember when we did and this is district wide,
so it mostly is teachers, but also a does include 93 employees.
I think it's just a process of showing.
We made a little bit of a change where they could essentially pay
a little bit more money upfront before being cohorts where we might
pay more of those dollars upfront and then have them for
three or four years after that.
I think this is just a function of that now.
Instead of being a solid line item, we'll probably have this be going up
and down year by year because it was down around the $230,000 last year.
We just see more people taking classes in and providing for that.
We're also getting towards the end of a collective bargaining agreement.
So that doesn't surprise me to see as you get close to that and people
get a little nervous and want to take care of some things before,
you know, just in case, like not like that would.
But like I said, it's a it's a normal thing.
I think those two things together or why we see this spike,
but I don't see that as being
a year over year.
It probably is.
More of a roller coaster that'll be up and down year over year.
We have caps in the agreements right
at 93, and there's no caps for graduate studies.
Or amount caps not it will nine times the credit rate.
Correct. Okay. Yeah.
Or 18 times the credit rate for the doctorate level.
But it's not like a fixed dollar amount because it's established each year
what that credit rate is based on Penn State.
HARRIS Are the credits limited?
So many credits a semester.
It's not so many credits a semester.
It's the total cost per class, I believe.
So it's if you were taking five classes,
depending on what the credit value level is, it would be whatever
the established credit rate is, either nine times or eight times.
That credit amount would be what determines the overall amount.
And then depending on which level it's at, determines what the repayment
would be upon completion of the class.
Okay, thanks.
Well, we're going to be looking at all those agreements soon.
And you must have been reading early.
You're doing your homework early.
I'm not going to do mine for another month.
And just to bring your attention back to, well,
the group insurance, we're showing no increase
in insurance.
But part of that is because we are
we are transferring or we're proposing to transfer
some of the stabilization pieces, money,
about 1.5 million
of that over to medical insurance.
And this really provides that stabilized option
should,
you know, even though we're not increasing the budget
for those expenses this year,
if we have an overrun, that's where we'll pull the dollars from.
And so that's why I'm very comfortable not increasing the budget about this year.
Part of that we also had in the five years that I've been here
last year was was one of our worst fiscal years from the payments standpoint.
And so this year is trending a little bit better than that.
So I don't think that we're we're we're on that steady decline,
if at all.
We're kind of hitting the plateau.
So those two things combined are the reason not to increase
any of the expenses for that that line item.
If we did not have this $2 million available
to us for that, I would definitely be.
Recommending an increase.
But having that safety net for us should things arise
that we can pull those dollars from.
Makes me comfortable
moving forward with not recommending an increase in that line item next year.
And make just to confirm that I understand it correctly,
the funds that were in the piece are stabilization account.
We don't have to do a separate authorization
to transfer that to the medical insurance.
It can all happen inside of the final budget.
There probably just to be 100% sure there'll be a separate line item
that as part of the final budget that that commitment gets switched.
It all happened at the yes yeah.
Mike, why do you say
you calculated a 1.9% but you're going to recommend a 1.4%.
Sure.
So the 1.9% was the increase in the revenue.
If we look at
if we look at our overall revenue and this does
include the tax increase, our revenue increased by 3%.
So because we had some other positive
areas like earned income tax, like
earnings on investments, those additional dollars,
we don't have to increase our tax rate by because they're coming in
now. That that's a very good question from the standpoint,
Kathy, those are all things those things that I just mentioned.
Earnings and tax earnings on investment
are parts of the process that are out of our control.
So if we have an immediate downturn in the economy,
that would be probably something that I would come back to you
and say we have to make up for that downturn in the economy
and we may have to raise taxes for nothing.
We've done on the expense side, but we've lost revenue for whatever reason.
I see no indicators that that's within the next couple of years,
but definitely a possibility given the last
ten years of of our up and down as an.
Economy as the United States.
And one other thing, I don't know
if we want to talk about this now, but we did a tax increase last year.
We knew we were going to have to do in this year
because we were looking with the four day kindergarten.
I'm hoping that means no tax increase next year.
Are you also thinking forward like that?
The way I'm thinking, because we don't increase taxes every year.
If you look back 20 years, it's every other year.
Every two years we kind of take a break.
So that's what I'm hoping.
And I know.
Well, part of that part of that history was just
that we were in the process of raising and not raising.
We were in a pattern.
What we've switched to over the last four years is what do we actually need?
And so the years we haven't raised taxes,
that's because we didn't need to raise taxes.
It wasn't because it wasn't our year or anything to that effect.
To that standpoint, as I look to next year,
if all of these things, the constant and I'll
say this
again, I'll probably always say this in terms of a tax increase.
If we're going to add people, we should assume we are raising taxes.
So if our staff stays stable, those
parts of the revenue that are dependent on our economy
being strong, if that stays stable, I would agree with you 100%.
I don't see the need for a tax increase next year.
However, I do reserve the right to bring that up
should any of these things change or specifically if we do, I know
we continue to talk about different areas of need
for personnel
and some of the things that we're doing to try to stave those off
or do without them or do other things
instead of adding personnel.
But should we get to that point where we need to add
a significant amount of people that's always going.
To to create the need for a tax increase?
Okay. Thank you.
I would just remind folks that the five year budget
projection model that we were given by PFM at the end of last year
expects a 2%
annual rate tax increase every year through 2024.
That was what we were given.
While we might be hopeful,
wishful thinking is generally not a good planning methodology.
And that provides the plan that we were looking at as we talked about.
If our revenue can grow at 2% a year
without us doing anything, then that meets our needs.
That, of course assumed takes
a lot of other things
and pushes, you know, is very conservative in the assessment.
So that's why it pushes it to the real estate tax.
But it's that same idea.
If our revenue is growing outside of or because the economy is growing
and other things, we don't need to increase taxes when that's happening.
But the realization of that may come if some of those things don't happen,
we're start. To turn the opposite way.
I feel really comfortable that we've had some detailed
discussions on staffing needs over the last three years with everything.
So obviously if something comes up
that we think is necessary, I'm not going to move against it.
But we've we did our safe schools analysis.
We've looked over all of our positions.
So but if it comes to that, I certainly wouldn't object to it. But
we'll have to
see what happens that and hope that we remain
that we've been thinking through this more than next year.
We've all the priorities.
We've had our building up to that.
And I hope I hope
that's one of the things that I
really like having these Finance Committee meetings.
But then other things are not certain.
If it's a drawback that we started out with, we were going to have to raise 2.3%
and here we are today at 1.4 because of the work
that we've all done to get there.
And I hope people can understand that that's that process, like
the budget process to me is a process that we go through those things
every year, whether we feel like we need to or not.
So that gets to the best end that we possibly can.
And hopefully that's what our taxpayers understand, is
we are going to work with the
state and work with the information to the best of our ability.
But even in years when we told everybody, hey, we're going to have 2%,
hopefully we people understand we didn't need that.
So we're not going to ask for it at this point.
And that's the way we would work every year.
Mike is there anything related
to the the township's
situation with with the recreation center
now that has any additional expense implications for us,
such as I don't know what the situation is,
whether a pool will be available or not,
And are we going to have to are there any expenses associated
with any change in the plans related to the recreation center?
As far as I know,
the plans have not changed in a way that will affect us to to incur any costs.
So we were aware that the pool would not be available from essentially this point
through next summer.
So that, you know.
Obviously the project probably is.
Delayed but still doesn't hamper or change anything from this time period to that.
Too. Did we incur an expense for
finding alternative facilities
for any of the athletic usage of it?
The swimming as a club, we make a donation to that club.
I don't know what.
Swim team.
That's it's a club.
It's not a it's but we said that's.
Certainly true the same way as hockey. Is.
Here so we don't we make a donation to the club.
They haven't asked for more of a donation.
I don't know how it's how this is affecting them.
Actually as a district
become involved in the access to their the facilities they use.
Not necessarily although this conversation and dealing with the
the community center and doing all that has kind of pushed
that to the forefront that we probably do need to make a clear delineation
because that was one of the difficult things going through.
This is what was
what was.
School district and what was the.
You know, the community part of the swimming program.
Are you just talking about the next high school swim season?
If we already the.
Next season that we were not going to, but since it looks like it's going to be
two seasons.
Yeah, because there's no way it's not going to be two
if we're being realistic because there's not an approved
bid, you know, process in place.
And so it's going to get delayed for construction purposes.
So I just didn't know if we had to anticipate.
Well, I'm I know Mister Government already set up their next season,
so he I'm sure he would have included that in his athletics budget.
Absolutely. Yeah.
But like I said, we don't we don't have a lot of cost associated with that.
And I don't know, Mr.
Governor,
no matter what conversation has happened for the the subsequent years since.
We've found out now that, you know, the project will be delayed
in one way or another.
So any
questions or any other questions on the
expense.
Portion of the budget.
Our debt service deficit?
It does.
Yeah. And that's part of the refinancing.
We did as part of the bonds we issued to make sure that that can stay at a level.
So we're not discussing that $200,000 increase at another.
Point in time and keeps us on that straight
and narrow for for those costs.
And that just to add on to it,
it was through the 2025, correct.
I think when we did that correct bond financing, we stabilized
the debt service over all of those years until we are
that free, debt free for that
so that there wouldn't be any fluctuation for future budgets.
Yeah.
So do you have everything correctly budgeted
for whatever we're going to do with safe and supportive schools this summer?
And tonight we're going to hear more about Grenada.
That's all planned into this budget.
From the standpoint of safe and supportive schools.
Much or all of those funds were going to come through the capital fund.
That's what we had planned to do.
And this does include a
a full time equivalent.
There's an additional there salary searching for the right words,
for an additional position to support the director of safe schools
that is is in in this budget.
None of the other things will affect this one.
They'll they'll come out of the capital portion
which we have more than enough funds to deal with there.
And those are some of the things I think with same with Grenada,
the money that we we borrowed a portion
obviously that we already have,
and that's the discussion we're going to have to have tonight
or we're going to start that discussion.
We have to reframe that budget.
Do we have to include more money in there?
If so, that can come from the capital plan as well?
Or and what part of that was just, you know, we
we didn't get a competitive and we didn't have enough companies
competitively bid to drive the price down through that process.
So I think those will be the two things
for me.
We need to get through that complete the planning of the safe and supportive
schools to to me, that's the first in line for those budget dollars, if you will.
We want to make sure we're taking care of everything that is needed in there.
And then when we find out what dollars are leftover, we can start to talk.
How will include any increases needed for.
This building as well?
Can we go over the capital plan, maybe at the next Finance Committee meeting,
the dollars in there, and how much you'll have allotted for that?
I could do it now.
Well, I know there's a spreadsheet associated with it.
And that'll be that'll be a good time
because that's we usually review those at the general service.
But the next meeting is so long.
I think just putting this on on our radar
for review that and no harm.
Obviously looking at it again.
Throughout there
will be getting proposals
from the architects the end of next week
for the safe schools.
In terms of what
what that's going to cost us from a planning perspective to take it
that, you know, keep that process moving.
As part of that, I think we'll also get a very rough
ballpark of
what some of the costs were.
We still have to discuss a lot with the architects.
So I imagine that number will grow because I don't think we'll take things out.
We'll probably. Add some more. In there.
But that's that's where we're set.
Up and waiting for some of that information.
And we're going to apply for the gaming grant.
Yes, sir.
But and that would just be bonus if we got it.
Absolutely. Yeah.
Not planning on receiving any of those at this point,
but once again,
because the capital budget doesn't have that tax requirement,
we don't have to meet these deadlines that we do
for the for the general fund budget.
So any changes or anything we need, it's very easy, easily done
through the capital process.
And you typically I see there is a deficit here for this budget.
Is that are those
the numbers you're starting to see that we're going to end up that way.
That's the the next part of our presentation.
Okay.
So if anybody has any other
questions on the next year's budget.
Just on the the gaming grant, if you could you say just a few words about it
just for the for the record, for folks who might listen to the record.
Sure.
Money becomes available to the county through
the gambling.
Most some of that money obviously comes to the school district
that we get to reduce property taxes.
The county gets a portion of that money
and they provide it out on a competitive grant basis.
So they have a program for us to go through,
which will start here at the beginning of May as a prescreening process.
They'll prescreen us to make sure that we qualify for the grant.
And then after that, it's just putting on your presentation
to a committee.
That committee makes a recommendation to the county commissioners.
The county commissioners make the final decision, but historically
have always taken that committee's recommendation.
And the committee is made up not only of county commissioners, but
of other taxpayers throughout the Commonwealth
that make that decision on how those funds are spent.
We believe it has a cap of
$100,000.
In terms of the grant or.
No, we can.
I think the average that they gave out was like 65,000 each.
But we can we're going to ask for like up to 20,000.
Okay.
They're going to ask for it over the course of four years
because we even asked that we do the renovations to the buildings.
We can ask we can put in for the same thing, like if, let's say
we end up spending $1,000,000 on something
we can continue to ask for money toward that.
Thank you for noting as well, Kathy.
When we met with the county
about this grant, they said one of the biggest things that they like to see
is when the locality is making their own and essentially matching funds.
So we'll be able to show them that we are more than expanding the grant
and we're just looking for some help to offset
offset those costs.
But we are already committed to making those investments on our own,
which in their eyes is a very positive thing and leads toward hopefully.
You know, winning the grant.
Thanks, Mike.
So just a remaining timeline for next year's budget.
I would like before we leave this meeting for this,
the finance committee to approve what we've what I've presented.
We've presented up to this point essentially recommending
this budget to the full board.
We will convert the information that we have,
and we've already been doing that to the proper format, which is a PD 2028.
I don't like to use the form in presentations because I think
it only makes sense to Regis and I and probably nobody else in the room.
So it's not a very good communication tool,
but We're required to do that, which we will.
I will present that information along with what we have
in the similar format here to the board at the May 13th meeting
with the
request that they approve would be approving
the proposed final budget at the May 28th meeting.
That budget has to be advertised for 20 days and then can be acted
upon at the final June 24th meeting for a final budget.
So that's just the ring budget timeline moving forward from here.
And we'll be looking at
for next year.
So today, today's
silver.
Today you'd like the Finance Committee to recommend
to the full board that they approve
the preliminary budget.
I think
all I need is the that the budget that is presented
this committee approves or disapproves but I think I'll hear approval
and recommend
that we go through the final parts of the process with the board.
They'll obviously need to
to review this, as will the rest of you, to record those votes in there.
But if this committee can show their support, I think that
would hold
some weight for some of those board members
that look to the committee for that guidance in terms
of where it's moving from there.
So the full board would review it.
You said on May 13th. Correct.
And then final approval.
I had May 27th in my notes.
But you said the 28th. Yet 27 the holiday.
Okay.
So final approval of the preliminary budget would be May 28th.
And approval of the final budget would.
Be June 24th.
Yeah, June 30th.
And for some. Reasons, that's the deadline. Of.
Our meeting dates on the 24th.
So June 24th and May 28th.
Yeah. Okay.
Okay.
So for tonight, we would just in my report to the full board,
I would indicate the Finance Committee supports.
You want to have us vote. All right.
Yeah.
I think to to show that the support.
Okay.
All right, So.
So we want to make a motion.
I guess I.
I could make a motion that we, the Finance Committee,
show its support for the preliminary
20 1920 budget
as exists to date.
Some of.
Second.
Discussion just to note
that we're approving this with a 1.4 tax increase.
Okay.
How do we need a roll call or just.
I think this is fine. Okay.
All in favor.
I posed. Okay.
Thank you, Mike.
Thank you for your strong work on this.
Absolutely. Well done. Absolutely. A great.
Thank you.
It's a huge team effort as well.
There's this.
All departments, everyone
puts a lot of time into this.
It's just Regis and.
I putting the finishing touches on it.
So it's a very good process to go through.
Also want to review the
where we're at
for the current year budget projections,
where we project we're going to be by the end of the fiscal year.
And Cathy, this gets back to your question of
for the 1819 school year we passed a budget.
The current year's budget had three quarter of $1,000,000 deficit
in which expenditures exceeded revenues.
And we talk a lot about,
you know,
I could manipulate the information to show that it's a somewhat balanced budget,
but don't like to do that, like to show the information the way that it sees it.
But there is a give and take
or a level of uncertainty in that that has come forth.
It usually comes through
that our budgets are a little bit better than than we had hoped.
And I think this year is is somewhat similar,
maybe not to the extent in prior years to the amount of money that we've
our expenditures have been under our revenue.
But I don't think we'll end this year with a deficit.
I think it'll be to the positive,
but fairly close to balanced.
And so while the first part,
it's a little easier to review or get a good handle on the projection
at this point is where it will be at the end of the year is the revenue
and put together on the
left hand side
where the revenue has been, where it was budgeted
at about 63 million, 63.2 million
and where our projects are believe it's going to be
just at about 63.7 million.
You could see about 300,000
of that is in local revenue.
And as we talked about, a lot of that has to do with earnings
on investment, better collection on our income tax rate of
little bit of an increase as well as the other revenue area.
And this really is just
most of that's dependent or the other revenue.
Most of that is the transfer from our our trust fund.
However, we also sell things like school busses.
We get that we're getting over the next couple of fiscal years
about a $60,000 payment from Harrisburg.
Some of that money is recorded in there
and that's the increase of the other revenue line item area.
So in total or about 400, almost $450,000
better than we thought we would be in the area of revenue,
salaries and expenses from the other side.
Our salaries are a little bit around $200,000 underwear.
They we believe they're going to be at the end of the year
and benefits,
while it's shown there
as being projected as less.
It's not by much.
So these are the two largest portions of our expenditures.
We'll have some more information at our next meeting
on the rest of the expenditures the district has.
And we impose every year we impose a purchasing deadline,
essentially telling the staff and all departments,
whatever you had budgeted in your current budget.
If you haven't ordered it now and you still need it, April 15th was the
deadline.
If you don't or by April 15th, then you're not going to get it.
We've cut off purchasing and not cut them off.
There's a lot of things that still happen with graduation field trips.
Those are still all getting paid.
This is really about the things that they order that are needed.
Since that cut off, which is April 15th,
We're still processing the last pieces of that information.
And as we get towards the end of May, we'll have a lot better understanding of
where the rest of the expenditures will will project out for the end of the year.
But once again, I don't anticipate that we're going
to to be in a deficit at that point.
I do believe that our revenues are going to exceed our expenditures,
although by probably not by the amount that.
We have seen in prior fiscal years.
So that's
that's the information so far on the projections for the current year
where we think we're going to be.
You typically take that money and we transfer to the capital fund, right?
That's correct.
Okay.
And last year, didn't we transfer a little over a million?
Was a little over a little over two,
but 600,000 of that was from the vo tech that one time.
Payment
they paid into.
Yeah.
It would be good to a look at that capital fund haven't really looked at it
for about a year so.
Definitely review that next finance committee will hear.
That sounds good
if if we're at our 8% max
what are the we can what are the other options for.
So that is just showing the general fund.
And that's one of the reasons we transfer what we transfer over to the capital
that does not have that same percentage requirement in there.
So when we take those dollars and transfer it out,
part of that calculation is getting us back down.
To the 8%.
And that would
if we're not spending it, it's in an account earning interest, correct?
Correct.
Truly are.
You no. Deals with all of our capital needs.
But those are also dollars that when hugely beneficial
to our operation that when a surprise or a true surprise
pops up, we know we have the ability to deal with it.
As quickly as we need to.
Okay.
Anything else, Mike?
No, that's all. Thank you.
So anybody have any questions for Mike?
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Thank you, Mike.
And next,
the next item on the agenda.
We have about 10 minutes.
So maybe we can talk a little bit about
the vendor fair.
We've talked about this
in very general terms and the discussion is still general.
There's an attachment
on that item
on the agenda that just provides a little more information.
But the idea of the vendor fair to date, as we've
discussed it, has been to provide
primarily
businesses in Derry Township
with an opportunity to learn more about how we do
business, the types of goods and services we produce,
and what they need to be paying attention to to
make sure that they are aware of
our purchasing
time frame and schedule and just just that they get in the position to compete
if they would like to and have the capability.
So that's what we've been talking about today.
If anyone wants to take a look at that attachment and
we talk about we mentioned the outcomes
in the attachment, we're talking primarily
really enhanced community relations
with with with our businesses
that are in a position to
to, you know, compete.
It's just an opportunity for them
that maybe they wouldn't have known about unless we bring it to their attention.
So and, you know, hopefully a byproduct of
that is we get some bids and hopefully they're competitive.
So I don't know if anyone has anything else to
suggest or add about this.
I'm not even sure in the
final analysis that this should stay within the Finance Committee.
Maybe it should go over to General Services.
I'm not sure.
But if this is something we would like to consider doing,
obviously we're not going to do it this year would be
next year.
Mike, what from your perspective, what would be
is there any timing better than others to consider
doing something like this.
For us to probably we should be making this presentation
or doing this around the December January timeframe because most of our needs for
the most part are are are done during the summer. So
and once the school year starts, we're kind of underway and have all the things
that we've been looking for or would be looking for during that year,
at least sewn up or if not sewn up, we have the plan of how we're
we're going to attack it moving forward. So I think if
we get this
information to those that are interested in the community
in time for them to possibly do some business with us during.
The 2020,
2021 school year.
Probably.
Would be the the best case or the earliest
that that could occur.
Okay.
So if we were to think about doing something you said in the December-January
timeframe to get ready for the following school year,
which would be 2021,
is this something that we'd probably want to work
if we were to pursue this
work with our public
relations and communications people?
Dan and Company Yes, to get the word out and that type of thing.
What else would you like to see determined, Mike,
for this to, you know,
take enough shape that we can begin to put a little more meat on the bones and.
From my perspective, as we talk about for Jerry, it's
not something that we've done before, nor
in my career have I dealt with.
So I don't know what this will go through this process to figure out
what those expected outcomes are and and maybe some of the things that
we could do better or that the intent here would just be to invite all Derry
Township businesses to this meeting and talk to them about how we do business.
And, you know, if.
That end goal is always for me is that our costs don't increase.
And so of being more competitive or having business
go to actual Derry Township residents and still achieve that goal.
I think it's a great scenario to work through, but.
We'll have to see.
I don't know how some of it's going to be received or,
you know.
The turnout, but what the uptake would be. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
We have some of the things that we've committed.
Mr. McFarland has communicated with business leaders.
We did that through,
through looking at our tax records and just pulling
all the businesses and essentially inviting them.
I think my plan is to use something extremely similar to to get here
all the businesses and and we'll make them aware of that, obviously using Mr.
Tredinnick
to do most of the communications for us and help us with the best way to.
To communicate as well,
just using all the resources that we have here.
One of the things I had mentioned, I think when we talked about this
previously too, is just to look at the idea of
going beyond just that one date of,
you know, a vendor fair, because obviously
staffing changes at companies and new business coming in.
And I think it's something that we could even
look at away from the in-person
one on one one time event is,
you know, a lot of organizations or companies put together
kits that are used from like a media marketing collateral
that kind of goes through the process and outlines all of those things.
And since the procurement process on our end and what our needs are,
don't change frequently, I don't think it's something that would become
really outdated and can live online and be updated, you know, as necessary
and I think would be able to serve
the purpose further into the future, you know, than just the effort.
I mean, I'm always up for
things that engage individuals and have that one time thing.
But I think if we're looking to hit the nail on the head for something broader,
then we may want to look at that route.
Yes, I
remember you had brought that up previously and said, I think
I agree, it makes a lot of sense to have something living on the website
at some point that would provide the basic information for folks
to sort of understand how we do business
and time frames and things like that.
And the other comments are observations.
Do we know of other school districts that do vendor fairs
so we could learn from their experience?
I have noticed other school districts
just through Google searches online that have done vendor fairs.
Some have purchasing manuals.
I don't we don't have a purchasing one. Okay.
So some go into great detail
and some just have had vendor fairs.
So I you know, I've noticed
other districts out, but I can't speak to exactly how they did it.
The ones that I'm aware of, the vendor fairs that normally happen
to at the beginning the school year, but they're really for
bringing in
our insurance carriers.
They're the vendors and allowing people to ask
questions of their medical, dental vision.
I think we'll also bring in or have in the past brought in
people to talk about investments.
So I know that those occur very often, but that's an opposite side.
It's those vendor fairs are bringing vendors in so that we can become.
Aware of them. I think this is the opposite.
We're we're we're looking to make sure everybody is aware of us.
And not going to be afraid.
Okay, we've got
one minute left here.
So unless there's any other questions,
can I have a motion to
adjourn the meeting?
So moved and.
All in favor? I posed.
Thank you. Thank you all very much.