Study Session Meeting

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[0] Nancy Thomas: you know, the budget says we're going to take $4 million. Why don't we have the $4 million figure into the fund 17 transfer? For next year? For 17-18.

[15] SPEAKER_29: We haven't used it yet.

[16] Nancy Thomas: Well, no, but it's projected. You can say projected. 17-18 is.

[21] SPEAKER_25: So maybe we should back up, because it looks like we're getting confused with this, and we're dying to. Like, if this was presented to us as community members, I would be glazed over. What the heck does this mean? So maybe we just take it out and what do we need to convey from this particular piece? And then maybe if it's not a graph we say that in words.

[41] SPEAKER_26: Maybe this slide should say more of there was a point in time when we were allowed to take money from proceeds of land and we've taken advantage of that twice. No longer can we do that. That might be enough to say for the purposes of what this exercise will be. I don't know if that's correct.

[57] Nancy Thomas: And it wasn't just land, it wasn't just that for a million, it was the one-time money that the state gave us that we used to kind of set up programs that are ongoing. Is that correct?

[70] SPEAKER_30: So that first row is all of the one-time, I mean, one-time money slash mandated cost money, the state calls it both. That's the big argument in Sacramento. That's what the first line is, that darker blue line. The transfers from Fund 17 to Fund 1 are on the second line. The reason there are question marks under 17-18 is because this slide came from the very first budget presentation.

[94] Nancy Thomas: So we can put the $4 million in there, right? We don't know. We don't know what the final budget will be. Well, we're predicting the one-time mandate. We should predict the final budget.

[105] SPEAKER_30: The one-time mandate is actually going to change.

[115] SPEAKER_25: So we say, I mean, it's a bullet point that says declining enrollment, another bullet point that says deficit spending, and then another bullet point that says use of one-time funds haven't been able to cover the deficit spending. And this is where we are now.

[129] Nancy Thomas: Exactly. Exactly. That's exactly what you do. Three bullets, make it simple. Did you catch that, Sharon? Simplify.

[136] SPEAKER_26: Simplify, three bullets.

[138] Nancy Thomas: Don't give them these figures. They would not.

[141] SPEAKER_29: Well, I think the chart, though, is important. because it shows, it gives you some data points.

[149] Elisa Martinez: Use it as an appendage.

[151] SPEAKER_25: I mean, like if you wanted to have a bunch of graphs, I think, I'm trying to think of what you said. Yeah, no, it's just. You presented this to people who have no understanding of what the hell Fund 17 is. It gets less boring soon.

[163] SPEAKER_26: The way I look at it.

[165] Nancy Thomas: Well, instead of Fund 17, you could say transfer from reserves. You said that the one-time mandate number changed? What is it, Brian? That's from the state. The 17-18 one-time mandate funding.

[185] SPEAKER_25: So because the question is, how did NUSD get into this situation? So we can say, again, how did we get here?

[195] SPEAKER_26: Let me go through a couple more slides and come back. I think I might capture it. We might have to re-sequence the slides. Okay, then maybe that's it. But I think that what I'm getting from this slide, we just need to simplify it. I kind of, what I was trying to do here is kind of what I've done here in writing, is kind of build on the story. Here's the California situation, here's the path of Oakley. But it's not flowing the way I really wanted it to, so that's really good feedback. So this needs to be simplified, but I think, like, for example, I don't know if you can see that. I can't really show it on the screen. I exited out of there, sorry.

[238] SPEAKER_31: So on this screen right here, about the increases. I don't know. The cost of STRS and PERS?

[247] SPEAKER_26: How do I hit present here? I did something wrong. Go ahead. Thank you. So that's kind of what I should, I think there's, it makes sense to make that slide with the bullets because that's what I talk about next. What went up exactly with STRS? What went up exactly with PERS? How did our enrollment decline? That's what's coming.

[272] SPEAKER_31: What were you saying, Tom? I'm sorry. Like, if you catch the very bottom row right there, where it says P plus S increase, of course it's 3.9. No, it's 2.5. I don't know what time. I think those four data points is all you need on this slide up here. How much we paid out in P and S, you know. The actual amount. Forget the other junk. Yeah, don't worry about.

[294] Nancy Thomas: Just those two bottom lines, STRS increase and FERS increase over the time.

[302] SPEAKER_29: That's together. That's together. They don't care which street. Everything is just the two bright blue lines.

[311] SPEAKER_25: So instead of total increase, total increase, bam, bam, bam, bam.

[317] SPEAKER_26: Period. Would you mark this up for me?

[328] SPEAKER_31: Mr. Richards, prior to, I would say go back to where it was 9% or so.

[332] SPEAKER_30: You mean add additional years prior to 16, 17? Yeah.

[350] SPEAKER_31: Right, so I would go back three years to when it really began, of how much we start, how much we were accustomed to paying at these stores.

[359] Nancy Thomas: and then show what we'll take now.

[361] SPEAKER_30: That's why, well that's why I did a, what the historical STRS rate on our current payroll would be at 8.25 versus the 12.58 and the historical HRS rate. Right, but that's very data dense.

[377] SPEAKER_31: Yeah, I understand.

[379] SPEAKER_27: So maybe a graph at the very bottom.

[381] SPEAKER_30: Maybe a line. All right. So just three more years of history going back. We can pull that.

[384] SPEAKER_31: Yeah. Yeah.

[385] SPEAKER_29: Whether it's how much we actually pay or... I think the increase, because if we stay at 8.5% as a district, we planned for that.

[395] SPEAKER_26: The percent's key, because that plays into what I'm doing later.

[397] SPEAKER_29: But, okay, then actual, if you have some place where it says the percent increase there, but you've got too much.

[405] Nancy Thomas: I agree. If we can go back farther when it was 8.25% and then the percentage as it goes. March it. March it.

[411] Cary Knoop: March it. March it. March it. March it. March it. March it. March it. March it. March it. March it. March it. March it. March it. March it. March it. March it.

[415] Nancy Thomas: March it.

[415] SPEAKER_27: March it. March it. March it.

[416] Nancy Thomas: March it. March it. March it.

[417] SPEAKER_27: March it. March it. March it. March it.

[418] SPEAKER_26: March it. March it. March it. March it. March it. March it. March it. March it. March it. March it. March it. March it. March it. March it. March it. March it. March it. March it. March it. March it. March it. March it. March it. March it. March it. March it. March it. March it. March it. March it. March it. March it. March it. March it. March it. March it. March it. March it

[434] Nancy Thomas: So we have our 1718 numbers. I've been wanting to get them, waiting to get them.

[439] SPEAKER_31: What is the preliminary?

[441] Nancy Thomas: Where are we right now? So this starts telling the story.

[457] SPEAKER_29: So more like that is a better way to tell the first year story.

[460] SPEAKER_25: It's boring instead. Okay, lost 1,300 people, 10 million. Oh crap, like that's a. Right.

[466] SPEAKER_31: I think the yellow line, the ADA line, I think may confuse it further. I would just keep the blue line. Okay. Because this slide's talking about enrollment, not necessarily percent attendance.

[479] SPEAKER_29: Yeah. So just do the blue. Good.

[482] SPEAKER_26: That's good. Thank you. All right, I got one close here. I like that.

[487] Nancy Thomas: Well, but the 8,765 is per ADA, so you've got to be careful. That has nothing to do with the chart, though. That's the number of students enrolled. Declined enrollment. That's your problem. So take away the ADA. Well, no. Don't say 8,765 per pupil. Say 8,765 per average daily attendance, because that's what our funding's based on. You can't talk about it for a moment without and then put that number in. average daily attendance. If someone asks, well, what is that compared to enrollment, then you can tell them, well, it's about 96%. Okay.

[525] SPEAKER_27: I think we can fix it if we beef up the text a little bit and answer that. Okay?

[533] SPEAKER_29: I don't know where I'm pointing this. You know, I think looking at this versus the one before, don't worry about complete sentences. Worry about Two ideas. Two messages. Idea, idea. Okay. Whether it's bullet point or not, so that it's, people shouldn't have to read sentences and figure it out.

[554] SPEAKER_25: This is a list of kind of. Loss of 1300 students equals loss of $10 million. Right, okay.

[564] SPEAKER_26: Yeah, real clean and clear. This is kind of, the slide talks about what we've done thus far. What we've identified thus far to try to impact the budget.

[576] Nancy Thomas: What's Tier 2 admin support?

[578] SPEAKER_31: Let's say when admins get their initial credentials. Before we used to pay to get the Tier 2 credits. So it's a course that they take to the Calgary University. So I guess now we're not paying for that anymore, pretty much. Okay.

[595] Nancy Thomas: Yeah, I would take that one out in the, I don't know, it's pretty small.

[602] SPEAKER_26: No, I want anything in there that says admin. Because they're going to want to cut the entire administrative office.

[610] SPEAKER_26: That's why I wanted it in there. I mean, I can take it out, but I think it should work.

[614] SPEAKER_29: Wait, where's the $100,000 for no funding of adult education?

[618] SPEAKER_27: I think it comes up in the upcoming session.

[634] SPEAKER_30: after all of those actions. Those are the actions from the May board meeting. Okay. 100,000 was done after the adoption of the budget. But we need to add that in.

[641] Nancy Thomas: We need to indicate. No, no, because that 100,000 wasn't spent last year, so it's not a cut.

[648] SPEAKER_29: If it's in the new budget, it is a cut. We're talking about cutting the budget back, not what we budgeted or spent last year. Right? Because we're $4 million in the whole of the budget that we have designed for the next year. So we need to cut that money out of the budget. whether or not it was cut last year or not.

[666] SPEAKER_27: Do you have any ideas about that?

[668] SPEAKER_26: Okay. So what are some agreements we've had to start closing the deficit, to non-route salary expenses, implement partial high increase, we've done that, and start working on additional cuts, reduce overtime and overages, utilize reserves to get us through the first year, but begin planning now for the full $4.34 million. What does that mean? So you want to explain that, Brian? Utilizing reserves to get through the first year of that bullet?

[701] SPEAKER_30: That's the direction the board gave during budget development. We're utilizing reserves this year, the money from fund 17, to balance things out so that the remainder of the cuts could be made for 18-19. That's how the budget was built this year.

[714] SPEAKER_25: I guess I'm trying to just get it. I'm reading this like I have no history of knowing what the board has done So I read this as we're using reserves to get us to the first year, but we're planning now to get the full 4.3 million, the full 4.3 million like additional revenue reserves. It refers to the prior slide of the average deficit of 4.34 million.

[742] SPEAKER_25: I guess we'll begin planning now to cut the 4.3 million for 2018.

[748] Ray Rodriguez: It sounds like we're going to cut 4.34 all in one year.

[752] Nancy Thomas: Yeah, that was what we asked staff to do.

[755] Ray Rodriguez: Because I thought we had said... We have already done some of it. Just do it in two years.

[760] SPEAKER_25: And the one point... No, no, no, because of the increase that we adopted, right? They put us even more in the whole estimate. So the cuts that we did, the 1.2 million were cuts, was, is already considered in the 4.34.

[779] SPEAKER_26: No.

[779] SPEAKER_30: But I see what you mean about 3.4 was prior to that. It's not.

[782] SPEAKER_29: So what? That number's from prior to the cut. To cut. I think cut rather than get.

[786] SPEAKER_25: So then we're at 3 point. You're telling me we're at 3.1? See, that's the piece where we don't. If we don't have clarity ourselves, how can we be on the message?

[799] SPEAKER_26: This, yeah, this needs to be easier to understand.

[803] SPEAKER_30: I think we may have to bridge from where we were prior to budget adoption. to where we are at budget adoption and then roll the new numbers forward. I think I would have to change my suggestion, Pat. I apologize. I should have thought of that at this point.

[817] SPEAKER_26: That's why we're here. I'd rather do it here.

[819] SPEAKER_29: I don't think they care what we've done. I think they want to see where we are now.

[823] SPEAKER_26: I think it's important for the community to see that the board has done what they can so And part of that we're feeling tonight in the public comment are probably going to feel it. It's not like you guys are sitting here just waiting for staff to just decide all of it for you. You guys took a stance of no, whatever. We can halt, install work right now if we want to stop. I think it's important to give credit for that.

[852] SPEAKER_25: I think that framing has to be given because we cut this because we saw that there was a $5 million down the pipeline.

[858] SPEAKER_26: And maybe it's a timeline. I'm thinking maybe there's a different graphic to represent. Here's what's happened in the timeline. I don't know. I'm wrestling with that. So let me, we're getting closer to the less boring slides, but I want to push forward.

[871] Nancy Thomas: And instead of fund 17, can we say reserves? Just say reserves.

[875] SPEAKER_25: Right. I would, you know, I'm trying not to make, if we've got mandatory reserves, because otherwise, in front of the public, I would say then use those one and a half million. Why don't you keep using them? I mean. We need to explain that. So I would just say mandatory reserve to remain at or above. No, that's not the mandatory reserve.

[892] Nancy Thomas: That's the additional reserves. Additional reserves to remain at or above.

[897] Vicenta Ditto: Right.

[898] Nancy Thomas: That's what's in Fund 17 is additional.

[900] SPEAKER_29: So this is above. Fund 1 has the 1.5.

[903] Nancy Thomas: It's above the 3%.

[904] SPEAKER_25: So then they're going to, some people say, well, why don't we use this?

[907] Ray Rodriguez: Why don't we use that?

[908] Nancy Thomas: We can't. because we need a cushion. It's illegal.

[914] SPEAKER_25: No. And that's what I'm asking.

[918] Nancy Thomas: The 1.5 is what the board has said we want to remain in fund 17. So is this above the 3%? Yes.

[927] SPEAKER_25: Yes.

[927] Nancy Thomas: We have said we want to keep 1.5 million in special reserve above the mandatory 3% as a cushion. Right.

[936] SPEAKER_29: And in parentheses you could put fund 17. So it's 4.5%. In small little funds. So people that know about funds that have been tuned in.

[945] Ray Rodriguez: So that's actually money that we could use, but we decided that we don't want to.

[949] SPEAKER_29: We said that we did not want to.

[952] SPEAKER_26: We have 1.5 little room, depending on where things land.

[955] SPEAKER_31: But doesn't our two-year budget call for pretty much the exhaustion?

[959] SPEAKER_25: Yeah, that's what I thought. That's my understanding. But that's going to go away.

[963] SPEAKER_30: Unless we cut. If we make the reductions to get to the full amount of the average over the three years, then we would no longer be pulling money from Fund 17 because that number was calculated prior to the transfers. So that is the goal to get to so that we don't have to transfer out of Fund 17. And that leaves the money in Fund 17.

[987] SPEAKER_25: As a practical matter, as a parent, you tell me, do you have 1.5 million, yes or no, to be able to cushion it even further?

[998] SPEAKER_25: Tell me earthquake. yes that's the decision you all have to make well we've already made that right right okay I'm gonna keep pushing forward so other things that we're looking at other options revenue enhancements trying to

[1025] SPEAKER_26: strategies on how to increase enrollment, considering what is there not that we're doing in parcel tax, that's got to be on the table. Expenditure reductions, strategic utilization of reserves.

[1040] SPEAKER_30: In answer to your question earlier, and since Pat just mentioned increasing enrollment, the answer is as of right this minute, 83 up from last year.

[1050] SPEAKER_25: What was the other question? Increasing enrollment just plus.

[1053] SPEAKER_24: Yeah. Kind of marketing or.

[1056] Nancy Thomas: Say increasing enrollment and take out expenditure reductions because that's what we're all about with the cuts.

[1062] SPEAKER_31: Right. Well, that's our options.

[1064] SPEAKER_26: But it's also, I was also thinking things like solar and some of those other types of savings. You know, spending less, not so much like, so I need to be clearer about that. So increasing enrollment instead of building.

[1090] SPEAKER_25: Only because we haven't. Yeah.

[1092] SPEAKER_31: It's just been. Maybe that's for them. Maybe that's what we need to consider is to tap into that 1.5% that we have.

[1098] Leonor Rebosura: We are.

[1099] SPEAKER_27: We're doing that this year. 1.5%. So we'll have to rework that slide.

[1104] SPEAKER_25: Maybe it's just utilization. I'm sorry. It's more of like we're not doing a strategic thing.

[1115] SPEAKER_26: So do we have to make them all the first year?

[1125] SPEAKER_29: So we're calling Fund 17 the special reserve, and that's what we should call it at the time.

[1130] SPEAKER_27: So we should stick to the same language.

[1131] SPEAKER_29: So if we're going to do it, and then in parentheses, put Fund 17. So wherever Fund 17 is, in special measure, in parentheses, Fund 17.

[1140] SPEAKER_26: Wherever it is, so there's not to shift it around.

[1142] SPEAKER_29: Find and replace that. OK. And Fund 17 is small.

[1145] SPEAKER_26: And small, so maybe 12 versus 16. Be consistent. Yeah. OK. Because if I have a full different PowerPoint, so it is mixed.

[1152] Ray Rodriguez: I've got a first grader, and I've been told that, The class size is going to go to 29 from 24, and yet you've got $1.5 million there that you don't have to do that. So this spells that out. So I like that point.

[1167] Michael Milliken: We'll clarify that.

[1176] SPEAKER_24: It won't be forever.

[1185] SPEAKER_29: That should be in the slide that we're talking about sources of revenue.

[1192] SPEAKER_31: Okay. No, that's one of the solutions. Increase revenue.

[1197] SPEAKER_26: So here's the next slide. Are we ready for that? I didn't mean to go that fast. Are we okay to go forward from there? So then here's the enrollment trend. So this shows that It's going to get better, but only modestly unless we do something significant to move beyond just the mild or projections based on what's traditionally gone over time.

[1224] Nancy Thomas: Yeah, and I think the key point here is that in the next seven years we will not get back to where we were five years ago. You're right, unless we do something significant. Unless we do something different, yeah. Right.

[1235] SPEAKER_26: And I think that's, but I think the good thing, I think what I'm trying to illustrate with this one is It's short term, it's going to stabilize, but we have a low spot right now. So now we're getting to some exercise. So I want your help and I'm going to put you through the exercise now. So these are the categories that we're talking about within the general fund.

[1264] SPEAKER_31: I don't think we should be commenting on this. I know you mentioned, let's go through the exercise because that may taint, people are watching this from home and whatnot, that may taint the input that you may get.

[1277] Nancy Thomas: We have to be careful, we're not supposed to be making any decisions here.

[1281] SPEAKER_27: Okay, right. I'll give it to you and explain what I plan to do tomorrow. There you go, thank you. Okay, that's fine.

[1288] SPEAKER_26: So what I'm going to do tomorrow, I'm going to go through this exercise that I'm going to share with you now. But these are the categories that were, of the general fund that we need to discuss. And these are the categories in which we will be making some recommendations to the county on reductions in the general fund. These are all general fund categories sorted by, is it called source code?

[1312] SPEAKER_26: Function code. Function code. That way when we're in the study session or the meeting with the public, the input meeting, Brian can pull up any of these in real time on this computer and go into detail if we need to. So he can pull it up by function code and we have the report.

[1334] SPEAKER_26: School-side instruction includes teachers, aides, campus monitors, special ed, instructional professional development.

[1343] Ray Rodriguez: Take a bite out of the apple.

[1347] SPEAKER_26: School site leadership and support, principals, APs, deans, department chairs, office staff, instructional library and media, and parent participation. District-wide, instructional support.

[1360] Nancy Thomas: Can you go back to that previous slide? Yes. It doesn't include MOT.

[1367] SPEAKER_30: Is MOT not in there? MOT has its own category. We haven't gotten to the eights yet. We're still in the twos right now. OK.

[1376] SPEAKER_26: So Districtwide Instructional Support, Ed Services, Curriculum, In-House PD, New Teacher Support. Pupil Services, Counseling, Psych Support, Attendance, Health, Speech, Testing, Transportation is in here. Ancillary Community and Enterprise, Co-Curricular, Athletics and Clubs, and Community Services. District office.

[1409] Nancy Thomas: Could I go back, though? Sure. Because when you brought that first site up, it was site-based. And now you've gone to district-based and ancillary. The site-based includes our maintenance and custodial.

[1428] SPEAKER_29: Our custodial is moved from one site to another.

[1430] SPEAKER_30: Nancy, these are not by site. These are by function code. So the only thing that we've divided within a range of function codes, the function codes are in groups of thousands. The 2100s in the 2000 section is educational services and certificated in-house staff development. The 24s and the 27s are all site-based because they're library media technology, parent participation, and school site administration. That group is the 24s and 27s. M&O, whether site-based or district, is all in the 8,000s of those functions we haven't gotten to yet, because ancillary community and enterprise are function codes 4,000 through 6,999. And we're supposed to know that. Know that? That's what these slides are for, is to explain what the functions are. Yeah, yeah.

[1484] SPEAKER_27: And we're going to talk about that in the annual report as well. No, I appreciate that. I have a- The buckets have been adjourned.

[1490] SPEAKER_29: No one's going to know or care about the bucket numbers that are watching this. It doesn't make any difference to them. So I think that we have to decide whether it seems a logical sequence for someone who is not going to think about numbers.

[1505] SPEAKER_26: Although, I would argue there's a large group of secondary that would love to comment on athletics and clubs and why it shouldn't be cut.

[1512] SPEAKER_29: Well, I don't think there's any doubt.

[1514] SPEAKER_26: I don't think, or why they should. Yeah, why they should be cut.

[1517] SPEAKER_29: Community services might be maybe need to be described a little more because I'm not sure what that would be. Maybe a little more detail. I don't know.

[1524] SPEAKER_30: What is it? I think the... It's summer swimming.

[1530] SPEAKER_31: This is... It makes money. So this data is from the functions, right, of our expenditures. But I think the one that may be more consumer funding for our audience is just three or four big pots, right? Certificate staff, classified staff, initiative support staff, and other supports and services. And then within those four huge categories from this, the type of positions. Let's say it's administrative, right? Site admin, district admin, et cetera. What's that look like? I think for the county, we just need to submit to them. This is the format we'll be submitting the reductions to the county. An X number of positions, input positions, or an X number of programs that we're cutting to.

[1578] SPEAKER_29: We also are saying we want input, and we can only be so long in terms of what we're giving them. And I don't know how long this is going to take. But we're going to lose people. They're going to want to talk, and they're going to want to say something. And so you want to make sure you set set up so that they have an easy, when they finish with this, they have a thought, yeah, this is something that I think we can cut. You need to have things, you need to help them go through the thought processes they need to make a determination what's important to them.

[1609] SPEAKER_26: Let me keep going through here. This is the one they're all going to want to cut.

[1615] SPEAKER_29: The slides look very nice. It's a very nice, it's very friendly, and it's a structure that we need for most of the slides, I think. Because it's a doable thing.

[1625] SPEAKER_26: So this is district office. IT.

[1638] SPEAKER_31: You may want to clarify the Board of Education because then maybe it waits and we can cut the Board of Education. Right. Like maybe to know that that's probably like for our budget or something like that.

[1658] Ray Rodriguez: It's a department. Get rid of the Board of Education.

[1663] SPEAKER_26: Right. So maybe just say District Office of Budgets.

[1666] Nancy Thomas: Yeah.

[1666] SPEAKER_26: Yeah.

[1667] Ray Rodriguez: That's what it is, right? Well, if an administrator complains, that's, in essence, what they do anyway.

[1671] SPEAKER_29: I have a question. What's the circle graph? What does that represent?

[1674] SPEAKER_26: Oh, I'm glad you saw my anticipation. What is that? It's coming. OK, that's good. As long as people think about it, that's good.

[1680] SPEAKER_29: It's coming. I figured there was a reason for it.

[1682] Joy Lee: There is.

[1682] SPEAKER_29: It hasn't changed. Each slide's the same.

[1685] SPEAKER_26: I like that it's consistent. IT, that's, maybe that could fit under the category of central office. Everybody agrees with that, right?

[1695] Ray Rodriguez: So board, you've got a $50 million budget. Why don't you just cut everybody by 10% and we'll take care of the $5 million? Right, 5% across the board.

[1705] SPEAKER_26: 10% across the board. So here's MOT, they do have their own category. That's what an administrator would do.

[1712] SPEAKER_27: Right. So MOT, pop that over.

[1718] SPEAKER_30: M&O is here. T is not. T is 3,600. So it's in people's expenses.

[1722] SPEAKER_27: Go fix the T on that slide.

[1733] SPEAKER_26: Would you explain A or B? That doesn't mean anything. Interagency transfer.

[1736] SPEAKER_29: What does that mean, Brian?

[1737] Sean Abruzzi: That is the $969,000 at the base of the local control funding formula.

[1745] SPEAKER_30: that we contribute to ROP that's calculated based on the old ROP calculation factor from prior to the incurrence of the local control funding formula. The three districts that are part of our ROP, JPA, entered into an agreement when ROP applied for additional money from the state that we would maintain our funding level for all of the years of the grant.

[1766] SPEAKER_26: So we need to say that in... It's a pass-through. Is it not a pass-through?

[1775] Nancy Thomas: No, because we were not required.

[1776] SPEAKER_30: Well, it was passed through back in the day, but now it's part of the local control funding formula phase, but the three districts elected to continue funding ROP at the same time.

[1786] SPEAKER_25: I still think if we go back to Tom's kind of point in terms of maybe change the framework of the areas, if you do that, you could include the percentage and the amount. So for example, like cutting ROP would mean close to a million dollars, but it means cutting ROP.

[1806] SPEAKER_29: And actually, ROP, it's, well, because it's changed the funding. I'm sorry.

[1813] SPEAKER_31: I don't know if we'd get money. ROP gets the money.

[1816] Ray Rodriguez: It used to be a billion. I know, but it wouldn't come to us to give to them. So here's the exercise. You limited ROP.

[1826] SPEAKER_30: It's now part of the local control funding formula base. It used to be a category 40 years ago, but it was rolled into the base.

[1833] SPEAKER_25: As a community choice, the input that they provide, it's like, which of these pockets would you like?

[1839] SPEAKER_29: So, okay, is this what you have for the handout?

[1842] SPEAKER_26: Let's just bear with me. Let's look at the handout.

[1866] SPEAKER_27: But this is the exercise I'm going to ask people to do.

[1868] SPEAKER_26: Here's the rules of the game. This is your quiz. The first column that says prediction, I'd like you to take a minute individually and predict what do you think is the percentage that that encumbers of our budget. The only rule is it has to total 100% at the bottom.

[1886] SPEAKER_29: So they're trying to figure out where we're spending money right now.

[1890] SPEAKER_26: Where do you think it is? What would you guess that it is? Put a number in there and let them, I'm going to reveal what it is actually, but I want you to think about what would you predict it would be.

[1904] SPEAKER_30: Maybe there will be a prize for whoever's closest.

[1935] SPEAKER_26: This is a really this is a nice clean I Think it's very nice. That's what we like to the seven classes all the general categories. Yeah, I know you make more buckets Well, then I think that

[1958] SPEAKER_29: Okay, so is there going to be a place at which they can say what in that is where I'm really, for example, under school site leadership, I want to get rid of all the deans. So some way of saying deans are not that important if you want my input.

[1973] SPEAKER_31: Yeah. You're talking as hypothetical public member, right? Do what?

[1980] Ray Rodriguez: Yeah, absolutely. So I'm over 100%, that's why we're in the middle.

[1992] SPEAKER_29: I've got it. You want to take mine?

[1996] SPEAKER_26: So, the next step after that, and I'm not going to collect those back from the board, you guys can keep them.

[2012] SPEAKER_26: I'm not going to tell you now, because I'm not going to reveal the secret of the sauce. I'll give you a copy of it that you can take home. Oh, come on. What do you think? There's probably so popularly looked at, it'll reveal why. Sure, go ahead. I can share it with you. I have it up here. I'll show you. Here's the actual.

[2041] Nancy Thomas: I was right on.

[2042] SPEAKER_29: I was right on.

[2043] SPEAKER_26: There's another way to look at it.

[2069] SPEAKER_29: It's up there, here you go. So it's on here anyway. Okay.

[2073] SPEAKER_27: Percentages are there. So we go through that.

[2081] SPEAKER_26: So then we'll do a second round. Now that they know what they predicted, they'll know what the actual is that I want. I'm going to mix groups intentionally. When people walk in, I'm going to assign a number and a color. When we get to this portion, I'm going to ask people to mix groups just randomly so that they have different perspectives of the table, what kind of table exercise we'll do. Okay, now I'd like you to do a round two or round one with a different color sheet that says... I'll show you that.

[2130] Nancy Thomas: You're looking for percentages.

[2134] SPEAKER_26: Now I want them to kind of, this is kind of more of a recommendation. I'm collecting recommendations of what they think might be appropriate. Let me have, do you want to show these, Larry, too?

[2143] SPEAKER_31: I think we need to rephrase the second paragraph as to what we're actually submitting to the county. But if they're perhaps submitting their actual budget, just to support the county's expense.

[2158] Nancy Thomas: Recommended cuts are the general areas of cuts. General areas of cuts, something like that.

[2166] SPEAKER_26: Really, the category that we're going to reduce, the percentage, is what we need to have for the county.

[2173] SPEAKER_29: Now, what is this going to give us? What is this information going to give us? Well, I'm glad you asked.

[2180] SPEAKER_26: As I collect that, we'll talk about it. We'll have time to process. And then maybe do a second round. I think they'll do the first round maybe a small group or pairs. The second round will be at a table. We've done more of a lively discussion around what do you think, and let's kind of agree, what do you think would be a good recommendation. And then I'll take those with, then I'm also going to hand this out before they leave.

[2207] SPEAKER_27: And these two documents, I'll share these with the audience too.

[2216] Marie dela Cruz: Larry, just stay standing.

[2220] SPEAKER_26: When these are complete, this is kind of their exit ticket. If they want to leave with me, I'd like them to leave with me. I'm going to hand carry these to the advisory council meeting, and we're going to unpack those as an advisory council. So they're going to start helping to map the patterns and trends we're seeing in the feedback. Where are we hearing there's a lot of interest? What are some areas that there's agreement? Because the better, I think the power of this process is to collect these. This is really all the work is to get these documents back to people and start mapping what are the biggest patterns over time that we need to pay attention to.

[2256] SPEAKER_29: What do I do in this? Do I say get rid of the deans in the high school?

[2259] SPEAKER_26: Whatever you want to say. It doesn't matter. Where do I put that? Put it in an idea, in the idea column. Where's the idea column? Other ideas to consider in the by the way box. You can say whatever you want as an individual, or as a parent, or a union member, or city council, whatever you want to say.

[2279] SPEAKER_29: Why the plus, the delta, and the arrow? What's that? What does that mean? What worked in the process for you? No, no, I'm wondering why you chose these.

[2288] SPEAKER_26: Because those help me modulate how I run the next meeting. Some of it is to help me with the process of work flow. Some of it's to get ideas and things we might not have thought about. So we'll disaggregate this and group it with the advisory committee?

[2304] SPEAKER_29: You know, I came to this meeting and I wanted to tell you that I don't like what's happening at my elementary school because we don't have, you know, we have uneven classes and I think that we need to have three more monitors. But we can get rid of two teachers or whatever it might be. Where do I have information? Where do I have a place to get that now? So I'm not getting really frustrated.

[2332] SPEAKER_26: They can put it right in that.

[2335] SPEAKER_27: How long is it going to take me to get to a point where I can do that?

[2339] SPEAKER_26: Well, I can reverse the whole order of the presentation. I can start with prediction. I can start with letting them have a chance to vent on the front end. But at some point, if we give them predictions and they exercise on the front end without the context of the general fund, I worry that they're going to go to that micro level of what are we willing to cut? Because I think part of what the purpose of the meeting is to get recommendations on what categories should we reduce.

[2368] SPEAKER_29: But they want to give you specifics.

[2370] SPEAKER_26: They want to give you specifics probably on what not to cut. Perhaps. And the protocol is not going to be to spend any time on what not to cut. We're going to talk about what should we cut. So you're going to go through your whole song about I really think we need to cut, we need to add this, not cut that out and say we're not here to talk about it. We have to talk about reducing if we're going to be solving. So I think that now if you have ideas, I'd love to hear them. Put them on the other sheet. You can take that and I'll listen to all of it. We're going to collect all of it. We're going to categorize all of it. But we have to focus on making reductions. That's the purpose of the exercise.

[2411] SPEAKER_25: with a second to last slide about when you say the revenue and that piece that we talked about. It's just my thoughts would be if we created what would a parcel tax look like and what would that mean in terms of the cuts? So like because if that was something that we got buy-in right away from people that like you know what we have to cut this or to the parcel tax and people were like, you know what, if it's for that specific purpose, I would be okay. Like, we would, it would be good to get that input and that feedback. So I don't know if we had like, like, maybe I was in the second or third to last slide that said like, this is what other districts have. Fremont, Union City, Hayward, close by, right? And parcel tax similar to that. or whatever, kind of that presentation that we had. I'm trying to remember the numbers, but it was like this, it was like $5 a month, so $60 parcel tax per year is what this would mean to our district.

[2475] SPEAKER_29: I think we're out of our mind if we even talk about parcel tax. I ran the last one that didn't pass. Why would I give you more money? I think we're out of our mind.

[2487] SPEAKER_24: That's new income.

[2489] SPEAKER_29: I think that's maybe down the line, and that may come from people's suggestions.

[2493] SPEAKER_25: But I guess I would say to put on, so here's where I come with that. It's saying, you need to add 10 more teachers at my school. You know what I mean?

[2507] SPEAKER_25: Well, look, give us your input. If that's not even on the table, that's okay. But at least we gave you the presentation that incorporated. These are the options. It's either cut all of these things or potentially do some revenue things like a partial tax or do a blend of that. But that's what we want. We want your input. Your input could be like no, no, no more taxes. Just cut everything. That's good. That's your input. Somebody else might be like, you know what? If it comes down to like $5 a month and it's going to mean that everyone, the ratio is going to be 24 to 1 for my teachers. Like that is what I would be okay with, right? So that's just my thoughts.

[2548] SPEAKER_27: So we need to define input is what I'm thinking.

[2552] SPEAKER_26: We need to define what input is and what they really can do. The overall goal of this process, why we're having so many meetings and trying to get so many people is because what I'm looking for is where is the most agreement on areas that we should think about reducing? That's really what I'm after. So it's not going to be the one-off, I want to add 10 more football coaches because we've got to win a game and that will boost enrollment and it will be this obscure strategy. I want to know where is the bulk of the agreement in the community think that we need to make some reductions, and that's probably what we should look at and build recommendations around. So it's not about, you know, there's going to be some one-off ideas that might be okay, but I do think we have to define what the input is. I think we probably need to have a look at how we collect short-term, long-term solutions, because I think the parcel tax is really an issue that we need to talk about, but that's a longer-term solution, and we can't do that by October 3rd. I think that's something we need to talk about,

[2616] Nancy Thomas: There's another thing that's not by October 3rd and that is staff has given us a list of their suggested or potential or probable cuts. Nowhere has the board been able to add to that list or the, where's the board input? You're getting community input, we have staff input, I have ideas that I'd like to be brought forward and.

[2641] SPEAKER_26: Well I have a sheet for you just as a board member. Well but I think.

[2646] Nancy Thomas: I think we need to agendize not just staff's recommendations, not just the community's recommendations, but the board's recommendations. And there has to be a way for us board members to communicate with each other about ideas.

[2662] SPEAKER_25: I agree. I feel like we have the platform. The fact that we're here, we have the platform. I mean, our input is always I know what you mean in terms of the detailed piece, but I guess from my perspective would be we need to gather the community input, and then that's how we do our input. It's based off that analysis. You guys have the final say. Let me just give you an example.

[2680] Nancy Thomas: You had a $15,000 cut on there.

[2680] SPEAKER_27: I might be able to come up with a $200,000 cut. It's not on the list.

[2682] SPEAKER_26: It's not.

[2682] Nancy Thomas: How do we bring our potential cuts forward?

[2697] SPEAKER_26: Well, two ways. I would say I have a master sheet for you all with actuals that's easy for you to understand. And if you want drill downs in an Excel spreadsheet in that category fund, for the board, you guys can look at it in all the categories within general fund. You don't need four buckets. You need all buckets as is that we're going to make to the county. And under that, you have an Excel spreadsheet that goes to here's the full, here's the full, amount that goes to that categorical for supplies of materials, and here's the FTE, position inventory, for staff. And what vacancies already occur, and is there anywhere to consolidate, that kind of detail you can look at and we can get that for you.

[2746] Nancy Thomas: But can we get it though?

[2747] SPEAKER_31: I mean... Yeah, we can get it. So I have a little bit of a different perspective than Member Thomas. I feel that as a board, you know, we hire qualified staff members to give us the recommendations and make those, to suggest those determinations of what to cut that would have the least impact on education for our district. And we as a board can then determine whether we agree with those recommendations or not. We're not, I don't think we are the ones to get down to the weeds and say.

[2775] Nancy Thomas: So we're not, we're not, we're not knowledgeable enough to recommend. But I never said that. Well, but that's kind of what the corollary is. We can say yes or no to what the staff recommends, but... Our role is to approve.

[2791] SPEAKER_25: Well, we don't have to approve it. We just say, like, here's the recommendation that we've got. I recommend that we cut in this place instead of this one, because this is my perspective, right? Unless we get a majority, then nothing will get approved. So I think in that way, I mean, the other process would be if we go to some of these meetings, we can just fill it out too, like, as part of the community.

[2816] Nancy Thomas: Well, but I think some of the areas I'm thinking about are areas where we need data from the district. So we need information from the district to, so I'll just give you one example, MCA, Media Communications Academy. That's a great program. is it operating within its budget? We're supposed to match what the state gives us, and we can throw in some Carl Perkins dollars. But if we're getting, if we have small class sizes, that's something we can count against our match. But the last time we looked at this cut, we were matching 50 or 100% more than we needed for that program. So what about looking at that program and saying, Is it operating within the parameters of the money we get and the requirements? Or is it just? That's true of all of them.

[2873] SPEAKER_31: It's not just NTA. I wouldn't necessarily identify a specific program like that. I would identify all special academies, programs to supply and see how they do. And then see whether we're over-conjugating. See whether we're over-conjugating. As far as, okay, these are the programs that are operating within our budget. These are the programs that have impact on our

[2893] Nancy Thomas: I mean what you know it's it's like overtime if we last time we cut positions in in classified positions and our overtime quadrupled in in just two years two or three years so you know it's how are we going to look at where we can cut in areas like that because the community's not going to know whether the program's operating at an optimal level or whether we are spending money.

[2927] SPEAKER_29: I think we have to be really careful about owning our own ideas when we come to making decisions. And you get too detailed. Giving the ideas out and giving the information because we've got a historical point of view is a wonderful thing to do. And that's letting Pat know what it is. But to own the ideas and to have that idea controlled completely, what we do with the budget is a negative thing. Our job is to guide. Sometimes we have to prove we're right when we make a vote.

[2954] Ray Rodriguez: Yes, but we have a responsibility. We do. To look where, how do you stop the bleeding? No, agreed.

[2960] SPEAKER_29: No, we do have it. And that should be given to staff. But there's a point at which we as a group have to decide on the final budget. And then it has to go. And we have to give up our ownership of, of something that we feel is really important.

[2975] Nancy Thomas: But we have to have the ability to discuss things that maybe staff hasn't brought to us because we have concerns in a certain area, for example. If we don't have that ability or that oversight, if I'm just going to say yes or no to whatever staff in the community state, I'm not doing my job of bringing... Your venue to do that is when we get the first initial budget

[2996] SPEAKER_31: proposal draft or whatnot. And then at that point, you can say, if you're discussing this with the board, they're going to identify recommended cuts here. But it doesn't have what I think should be cut. And you say, I'm going to vote no first, because it doesn't have what we think it should.

[3009] Nancy Thomas: So I can't vote, I can only vote no, I can't propose. Is that what you're saying? No.

[3015] SPEAKER_29: No one ever said you couldn't propose.

[3017] Nancy Thomas: OK, what's the venue for the board to propose?

[3020] Ray Rodriguez: When we discuss it. If we're discussing an item, you identify an item and then you get back to staff because you feel that this item is costing us money. Staff gives us the information. We discuss it as a board and then we act on it.

[3035] Nancy Thomas: So if I ask for data that from staff.

[3039] SPEAKER_31: If you ask for any type of data, whether it's budget related or not, whether it's academic data, you can do so at the board meeting on board request and say I would like to have this as soon as possible on whatever, whatever, whatever.

[3052] SPEAKER_25: So I know what you're saying in terms of our next board meeting is going to be the recommendation. So it's not the right time to do that. So maybe a suggestion would be kind of what Pat was training that. I mean, we already get the full budget anyways. I know if you want to really dive into it, we already have that information. No, we don't have that kind of information.

[3071] Nancy Thomas: We bring it up every year. No, but it doesn't have some of the detailed information about the cost of programs.

[3079] SPEAKER_25: Like in the book it says code 00579 and then it tells you the amount. So every single thing we spend, like it's on there. I know that maybe that kind of distinction that you need, you're asking for maybe some sort of code to kind of desegregate that maybe or understand that. But we get the whole full budget. It just really is to get into the weeds.

[3100] Nancy Thomas: There are things buried in the budget. We don't know the MCA program cost from the budget.

[3106] SPEAKER_31: The thing is what we don't want to fall into as board members and as a board in general is that we don't want to be connected to a pet project or against a non-pet project. What our task is to look at the big picture overall and make a decision, approve or not approve a recommendation that is the greater good of the entire district as a whole.

[3129] Nancy Thomas: Right. And benchmarking with other districts might be a way to do that. So we benchmark with other districts. We're spending this amount of money on this particular area. What are other districts spending?

[3142] SPEAKER_31: And this could be part of that exercise, right? Maybe we want to know the spending quiz on other districts. That's state data. We can pull it in time.

[3151] Ray Rodriguez: If we're asking some programs, like the cafeteria fund, for instance, to be solvent, then I think we have every right to ask all the programs.

[3163] SPEAKER_26: meant, here's what my understanding is, and if I'm wrong, Ryan, correct me. Our goal by October 3rd is to identify which categories do we plan to reduce, and by what percentage?

[3179] SPEAKER_30: At minimum, right? We have to identify $2.8 million in somewhere across the district.

[3186] SPEAKER_29: But we don't say what that money that's left is going to go for. It's a set amount in staff, it's a set amount in MUT, it's a set amount in maintenance, correct?

[3197] SPEAKER_26: So, just bear with me, because here's what I think, and if I'm wrong, maybe this won't work. So, if our goal is to identify, okay, this is where we're going to cut, and this is the approximate dollar amount, that allows staff time to be able to bring forward recommendations and do a deeper dive on the cuts and answer the questions like Nancy's asking about. Okay, I want to see the spreadsheet, I want to see the detail, I want to see, you know, every dollar, in an Excel spreadsheet so I can take a look at it. That's kind of what we're talking about. Is that true or do we have to identify a lot explicitly by the third?

[3230] SPEAKER_30: No. We have to identify the 2.8 million out of the 4.3 by the third, but the level of detail that the county is asking for is only at the fund object level. So it's the same level that we report our stacks to the county.

[3246] SPEAKER_25: And this 2.8 million is for this fiscal, this 17 year? No, it's more for next year.

[3251] Nancy Thomas: Next year. And that's another big issue too, because if we don't look at everything that gets us up to 4 million by March 15th when we have to give notice, for example, our... 2.8 million. No, it's not. It's not. According to what? The 2.8 we have to identify by October the 8th. The 4.3 we need for first interim by December

[3287] SPEAKER_25: But I guess that piece, because we're doing this robust community engagement process, then we're going to do the preliminary things October 3rd. What we need to do either at this meeting or at the next meeting is identify future budget sessions or more discussions in terms of from now or from October to December to do the other, the difference of the 2.3 to the 4.8, whatever.

[3309] Nancy Thomas: So yes, so we really wanted and we said we want to cut 4.3 next in 17-18, I mean 18-19. So we had several big ticket items that require negotiations. For example, going from 31 to 35. We had another big item which was 900,000 to consolidate schools. If we come up with a 2.8 and think we're done, we're really not. And those require March 15th notices, a lot of that.

[3343] SPEAKER_25: October 3rd is, and the reason we're getting the community input, is for the 2.8 by October 3rd for our purposes. And then we continue having meetings to map out the rest of the other two or two and a half.

[3357] Nancy Thomas: See, I never thought of the community input as just dealing with the 2.8 million. I thought the community input would be ongoing and that we would be looking at

[3371] SPEAKER_25: What I meant is to use the community input framework to do the 2.8. I mean, if the community told us, here's how to cut off 4.8, like, and that's what we decided to do, okay, then that's what we can do.

[3382] SPEAKER_31: All right, so the time out. We're at 6.23. Are we sufficiently satisfied with the process and the presentation that's presented? Because that was the whole point of this meeting, not to discuss nuances and priorities. It's to discuss, are we good with this? for the community.

[3404] Nancy Thomas: Okay, but in addition to that... No, are we good with this? Yes, yes. Okay. But I think what we're talking about is that we've got a much bigger issue going forward that has a March 15th deadline that we have to be dealing with.

[3419] SPEAKER_31: But that's another discussion on the next study session. And we can dive into that. But this was to approve this.

[3425] SPEAKER_29: I just want to make sure that after the five meetings that you're going to have enough information to know which buckets to cut. Right.

[3431] SPEAKER_26: So you're looking to cut a bucket, not a program. And I'm looking to give the board and staff enough patterns and themes that are generated from our interaction with the community so we have a pretty good idea of what they're interested in us reducing so that we can make informed decisions on that plus board input.

[3445] Nancy Thomas: Yeah, and I don't think most of the public is going to know what educational services, curriculum, in-house professional development, they're not going to know what that is. So I think we really need to rely on staff.

[3455] SPEAKER_29: We can't just rely on... I think the simpler the better, but I think that there has to be enough time for people to give input in their own way. Because they may not be able to use the structure. It may not mean anything to them, no matter what you do.

[3473] SPEAKER_25: I mean, maybe a suggestion, because I think that maybe this is kind of broad enough. Maybe you put a little asterisk on each of them that you can have an additional sheet that actually maps out, like you said, this is what that looks like. Which is exactly what we need. So that's nice. For the people who want to dive in, can dive in. For the people who are like, oh, this is cool. This is good enough for me. Then that way at least gives people options.

[3497] Nancy Thomas: Or maybe posters that in each of those categories, the things that are being funded on it.

[3503] SPEAKER_26: Let us rework it. Thank you for your input.

[3507] SPEAKER_29: I'm so glad you asked. I've wrestled with it.

[3511] SPEAKER_26: It's hard to write a short letter.

[3513] SPEAKER_29: It is hard to write a short letter, absolutely.

[3530] SPEAKER_29: No, we have to do

[3567] Guadalupe Lopez: And I love you too.

[3623] SPEAKER_24: Bye!

No minutes available.