Apr. 9, 2025 - EC Committee Worksession

Summary

The MoCoCouncilMD held a work session discussing the Education and Culture Committee (ENC) and the upcoming FY26 budget for Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS). Key stakeholders, including council members, the superintendent, and board members, gathered to address the pressing needs of the school system. Topics ranged from budget allocations for special education and multilingual learning to school maintenance and staffing. The importance of pairing fiscal responsibility with adequate educational resources was emphasized, with stakeholders highlighting the necessity to meet the changing demographics and needs of the student population. Collaborative efforts between the council and school board were praised, especially in the face of economic challenges and upcoming budget decisions.

Highlights

• The Education and Culture Committee is focused on addressing the pressing needs of MCPS. 🎯
• A heavy emphasis was placed on resources for special education and multilingual learners. 🌍
• Community involvement and teacher support were key topics. 🧑‍🏫
• Budget transparency efforts were praised as beneficial for stakeholder trust. 📊
• Council members highlighted the importance of fiscal stewardship amidst economic challenges. 💼
• Collaboration with unions led to major healthcare concessions, showcasing strong partnerships. 🤝

Key Takeaways

• The council is dedicated to balancing fiscal responsibility with educational needs. 🎓
• Special education and multilingual resources are a top priority. 🏫
• Collaborative efforts with unions highlighted in healthcare concessions. 🤝
• Transparency in budget allocation is crucial for trust and progress. 🔍
• Economic challenges are influencing all budget decisions. 💰
• Community and council partnerships continue to be vital for success. 🔗

Overview

The Education and Culture (ENC) committee undertook a comprehensive review of the Montgomery County Public Schools' (MCPS) proposed budget for FY26, covering various elements from special education, multilingual programs, and school maintenance to overall staffing and economic stewardship. The meeting was characterized by an in-depth discussion on ensuring the education system meets the needs of a diverse and growing student body, while managing fiscal responsibilities in economically challenging times.

Discussions emphasized the necessity of transparency and collaboration in developing and executing the budget. Several community members and council members agreed that understanding the budget’s intricacies and maintaining clear communication builds trust among stakeholders. Additionally, the importance of supporting educators and ensuring schools have the resources needed for effective teaching and learning was highlighted.

The committee acknowledged economic hurdles, such as a potential recession, and underscored the collective efforts required to navigate these challenges. The spirit of partnership was applauded, especially in negotiations with unions that resulted in significant healthcare savings. The Council remains focused on ensuring that investments in education are wise and address both current and future needs.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 00:30: Introduction In the Introduction Chapter, we typically set the stage for the rest of the book. It likely outlines the main themes and objectives of the narrative or study, introduces key concepts, or presents the problem that will be addressed in subsequent chapters. Depending on the book's nature, it may also provide background information or context necessary for understanding the subsequent content.
• 00:30 - 01:30: Opening Remarks The chapter titled 'Opening Remarks' begins with a welcoming note, greeting everyone with 'good morning.' It sets a friendly and inviting tone for the session or event right from the start.
• 01:30 - 10:00: Budget Overview and Discussion In this chapter, the discussion focuses on the budget overview, particularly as it pertains to the education and culture committee.
• 10:00 - 15:00: Special Education and Staffing Needs The chapter discusses the intersection of special education requirements and the staffing needs associated with it. It explores how educational institutions manage resources, employ specialized staff, and address the unique challenges faced by students requiring special education services. The narrative includes insights from council members and other stakeholders involved in educational planning and policy development.
• 15:00 - 20:00: Financial Challenges and Solutions Chapter title: Financial Challenges and Solutions
• 20:00 - 21:30: Conclusion and Closing Remarks The chapter 'Conclusion and Closing Remarks' begins with the superintendent and the board.

Apr. 9, 2025 - EC Committee Worksession Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30
• 00:30 - 01:00 good morning everyone uh welcome uh to
• 01:00 - 01:30 the education and culture committee um
• 01:30 - 02:00 joined by my colleagues council members
• 02:00 - 02:30 Albernaz and Mink uh and great to have
• 02:30 - 03:00 the superintendent and the board
• 03:00 - 03:30 president and board member Laura Stewart
• 03:30 - 04:00 and MCPS staff uh and and our staff as
• 04:00 - 04:30 well um this is the first of four uh ENC
• 04:30 - 05:00 set work
• 05:00 - 05:30 sessions on the board of education's requested FY26 budget operating budget for MCPS uh we know uh and we were here late last night hearing from hundreds of educators
• 05:30 - 06:00 and parents and others uh about the importance of this these budget conversations the importance of uh our school system having what it needs to move forward uh and we also have had a lot of good sessions here in ENC uh over the last uh half of this year and going into last year on various items that are going to be in the budget um I want to thank Dr taylor and Dr williams who isn't here we're going to cover his budget another day for the budget
• 06:00 - 06:30 sessions that we did um those were very informative including the last one at Rockville which was high school which is very well attended um as I'm sure many of you have I know my colleagues uh we've been visiting a lot of schools i've been to dozens of schools this year um and it's very clear uh that when you talk to parents and educators and students they know what they need and that there are needs um I was uh reminiscing yesterday we heard from
• 06:30 - 07:00 uh the PTA either a mom or PTA president I can't remember from New Hampshire State Elementary where it was a PTA president my old neighborhood there in Long Branch and old schools there in Oak View and we were there at the first day of school along with a couple of others and the AC wasn't working and there's challenges there um and so everything from inside the physical building to making sure we have enough special educators and all the things we're going to talk about um this is an important conversation so uh
• 07:00 - 07:30 over the next several weeks uh we're going to go through as we did last year and I want to thank Miss McGuire for helping us over the last couple years set this model out um I'm really happy and thank Mr prrowy and Miss Cummings for picking the baton up and taking it to the next level we're going to go through systematically uh the the budget making sure we strike the right balance of what the fiscal reality is what the reality is on the ground and what our families are expecting for us to deliver for students um and so today uh we're
• 07:30 - 08:00 going to do an overview of the of the request um and look at key issues kind of that under touch on every on the following sessions on the 23rd of April we'll go into uh core academic and operational areas including special education curriculum priorities and multilingual learner uh work and then on the third session we'll look at school climate school safety and security and other student supports and then our final review will be on um April 30th where we will refine our recommendations
• 08:00 - 08:30 and submit an official recommendation of funding level to the full council so just wanted to So for the millions watching home as I like to say for everyone in the room that's that's where we're heading um and we will also have I have my good friend Council Member Alnos who's the chair of the Health and Human Services Committee we're going to have some overlapping uh joint committees on things that are in both jurisdiction um and then obviously there'll be some in uh PHP related to EBB and other things
• 08:30 - 09:00 that touch on schools as well uh so uh with that I'll see if my colleagues want to say anything i will but I not right now yeah not right now all right so I'll turn it over to staff to just tee us up and then I'm sure the board president would like to say a few words and superintendent and then we'll get into the presentation thank you um so in addition to looking over the agenda as well um just to note that in the packet there are a number of different sections which include a
• 09:00 - 09:30 summary of the budget with some information um both perspective and respective working backwards in terms of number of different items mr prrowy I'm not sure your mic is on are you to the left there we go there you go so start over start over thank you no problem good morning okay still learning some um I was I this Doug Prrowy sorry senior legislative analyst and uh in the packet in addition to the calendar we just looked at there's a number of different sections including a summary of the
• 09:30 - 10:00 recommended budget with charts looking both backwards and forwards in terms of spending uh maintenance of effort um a piece in terms of as council vice president Jando mentioned um looking at the sessions that the education and culture committee has conducted over the last several months about the school systems programs um and then pieces in terms of different parts of the school system budget and how that plays out with racial and social justice um we will talk later about a number of
• 10:00 - 10:30 different aspects in terms of the request um and then um as Council Vice President Joanna also indicated we will move forward with more detail in terms of a number of those areas and then finally sum up at the end of the month with a recommendation thank you thank you very much i'll turn it over to board president Julie Yang good to see you good morning good morning Chair Jawando U Councilman Albanas and Councilman Mink um thank you for the opportunity to speak today and um as the
• 10:30 - 11:00 president for the board of education I am a passionate advocate for the needs of our students i'm also a committed partner in addressing the issues we face in the community right this budget um for one it will keep our school system running i think that's important and for two it's addressing some uh longstanding issues that you have heard about in the past six months and the past years um
• 11:00 - 11:30 number one issue is uh special education and u multilingual a multi-emergent multilingual learners needs and this is one area we really need some improvement and strengthening second thing is reading and math uh fundamental skills to prepare our students for life um we have made some improvements in literacy area we still have a long way to go and
• 11:30 - 12:00 number third is addressing building needs like you mentioned we have buildings that maybe need a complete major capital improvement but the vast majority of buildings need maintenance when we address little things it prevent it to become really big issues in the long run is better financial investment uh lastly but not least pay our staff and pay our staff with a competitive
• 12:00 - 12:30 wage with the national teacher shortage and workforce shortage we need local strategies and we also live in a very high cost of living area and we don't want our staff to travel uh miles and and spend hours to get to where they have to work so that's the fourth area we addressed and uh the board understand that um we need to have uh physical uh
• 12:30 - 13:00 stewardship we need to be uh really careful with the taxpayers money and need to have financial sustainability we designed and proposed this budget with that in mind now we understand um as a community as a county we are really facing tough times economic t times political climates and so uh we are committed to be a partner in this process uh in this four uh sessions we
• 13:00 - 13:30 hope to work out a way that we can move forward so we can address the needs with every student that walk into our building thank you so much thank you Miss Yang dr taylor thank you uh uh Council Member uh Jando um and members of the ENC committee um we're thrilled to be here it's impossible to improve upon uh uh
• 13:30 - 14:00 President Yang's comments because they really wrap up the sentiments of where we stand as a school system wanting to be good partners uh with council in this work uh to make our community better uh I do want to take just a few moments uh to uh highlight some of the features of the budget at a very high level i I will say that uh this is really for your viewing audience because you all are actually very well acquainted uh with the things that we're going to talk about and that we've spent considerable
• 14:00 - 14:30 time talking about these issues not just in oneoff meetings but throughout really the entire year uh and I want to thank uh the members of the ENC committee for being so in touch with our our school community and some of the needs you uh respond to uh the same constituents that we respond to uh when they elevate issues and uh you'll see those present um and so I want to uh talk through just a before you get started i I just want to recognize Grace Rivera Evan who's
• 14:30 - 15:00 here i think I saw her come in and she I couldn't see you but I saw you when you walked in and to your point I just want to thank you guys for that i mean I think this is something on the transparency side of understanding what's in the budget i've never been you know I've been on this committee seven years i've never been more clear about what the ask is why you're making it now people can debate how you're going to use the money whether they think we can afford it all those things and we'll talk about them is it um but I think the the lack of transparency and clarity uh
• 15:00 - 15:30 that has come and especially in the last couple of years um and since you've come on board and with this board uh I think is going to really help us so people understand what need what's needed well uh thank you Mr chair and and I would say that um it's not complicated uh some elements of this may be unpleasant but it's not complicated and um the the challenges that we're facing uh they really are challenges that are shared
• 15:30 - 16:00 and uh they're also solutions that we're going to have to address by working together uh the this very short list is the the list of directives that the board of education uh gave me as the superintendent in putting together the budget in terms of things that they wanted to see reflected uh as priorities these align perfectly with things that we heard from our community in uh budget town halls at the start of the year things that I heard as a brand new superintendent coming to our community
• 16:00 - 16:30 through uh some entry plan meetings with with groups of stakeholders for sure and unfortunately it also uh elevates some things that we're not particularly proud of and it may be uncharacteristic for us to to elevate those things in this setting but we're going to talk about some things that are maybe even embarrassing for us as a school system and things that we're not proud of uh but if we don't elevate these things we can address them and we do need to
• 16:30 - 17:00 address them with sincerity so uh with that I I'll move right along and say that really what this budget is about and and um Mrs yang uh did a great job of uh giving you the finer points and many of which were on that list before but we wanted to make sure that we brought a budget that was um putting the classroom first uh that was focusing our resources uh in uh the studentf facing environment uh that we were getting back
• 17:00 - 17:30 to a strategy that was really focusing on our fundamentals um and that includes our fiscal management strategy uh that we were good stewards of our financial resources and that we were um communicating in a transparent way and we've made a lot of budget innovations this year i'm very proud of uh the budget summary page that folks can uh go to on our website and uh there are exhibits for each line in the budget
• 17:30 - 18:00 where folks can click down to a a number of origin uh and really see how the school system spends its uh money and it's in a very interactive uh way that folks can do it i love hopping onto that sheet because it's a Google document and I get to see complete strangers in that document um live at the same time that I'm in that document because uh it means that folks are interested and they they want to know just like uh uh we we want to know uh how we're we're using our resources a couple of issues that I want
• 18:00 - 18:30 to uh bring forward uh right out of the gate um we have relatively flat enrollment changes we do roughly 160,000 students that's not really changing um we're not projecting a ton more students we're projecting a few more students in elementary school and middle school and a few fewer students in high school next year and we're adjusting for that but overall our our enrollment trend is relatively flat right now but there is something that is changing the thing that is changing is some of the makeup
• 18:30 - 19:00 of our student population in terms of our students with disabilities our emergent multilingual uh making sure that our students have the resources that they need and these are groups of students that need more resources and need more support so one of the questions that we routinely get uh usually involves well if your enrollment is flat why on earth are you asking for more resources well the dynamics are changing even though the
• 19:00 - 19:30 enrollment may be staying the same and this is very reflective of the fact that our dynamics are in fact changing and the service needs of the population that we're servicing um are also changing and we need to respond to that and I'm going to be completely candid with you and tell you that we have not done a good job of adjusting for that in the last few years and so this is a little bit of catchup and this is a little bit of
• 19:30 - 20:00 trying to bring our service levels up to the areas in which we've previously communicated and say that they are but they aren't actually another big issue uh that we're facing as a community as a whole and and um I'm sad to say that given the uh economic landscape of our community that this is probably bound to to get worse uh that we've seen a substantial jump since the pandemic uh in terms of our students who are accessing the federal free lunch program
• 20:00 - 20:30 uh this is um a big jump and it we cannot be blind to the fact that this uh is reflective of a change in how we need to service our students the materials and supplies that we provide at the school level to make sure that everyone has an equitable access to a free and appropriate public education this is a big barrier for a lot of our our students and their families and it really is incumbent on us to adjust our strategy to accommodate for that and
• 20:30 - 21:00 we've got a couple of strategies that that we put in this budget to to meet that need another big issue and this is one that is really a crisis we are not performing as well as we would like to perform not all of our students are achieving at the level that we need them to achieve in order to be prepared for success in life with just over half of our students meeting state uh proficiency for literacy this is a real
• 21:00 - 21:30 problem and it's worse in mathematics that just a third of our students are meeting state proficiency in mathematics these are fundamental skills really foundational skills um in the academic space to help prepare our students to thrive and if we are really trying to invest in our community from an economic development standpoint we've got to invest in our kids in creating these foundational skills um making sure that
• 21:30 - 22:00 they have the adequate tools they have the adequate resources and that they have stability in the classroom uh by having having teachers that stay in the classroom and don't feel like they have to give up on education because they can't afford to live it makes a difference uh so these are issues that we have to confront and uh we think we've got good strategies on how we might be able to to reverse this trend and move in in a different direction but we do need help and and that that's why
• 22:00 - 22:30 we are coming to council now you you uh have the good fortune of being well acquainted with this idea that that uh this is a broccoli budget i would love to bring you a budget of cake uh that has lots of great ideas and lots of innovations and lots of clever strategies on on how we can make MCPS just this landmark wonderful best school system in America but the reality uh for this budget is that we have a lot of things that we need to correct and some of those things that we need to correct
• 22:30 - 23:00 are uh financial issues uh in the way that we've structured things in the past and we are hoping uh that this is really an opportunity to reset um and an opportunity for us to uh get the train back on the track so to speak and and uh and establish some financial stability um and to do it in a really transparent way and we are going to talk through some of those numbers today um this
• 23:00 - 23:30 first piece uh and and you have seen in our in our budget proposal uh that our budget is is really broken up into five sections the first section is revenue the second section is changes to our base budget uh the third section are nondiscretionary items uh that uh are either by law contract statute uh things that we don't really have a ton of say in um and then our uh next section is the blueprint for Maryland's future in our last section is discretionary items
• 23:30 - 24:00 and we're going to kind of go through uh our budget section by section and give you a highle view of some of the changes to our base budget uh from that lens first one is revenue Taylor just as you're going through this are you going to have you able to been able to get control of what's the the state what happened at the state level is that going to be yeah we're that's actually on the next slide so u uh th this uh is uh somewhat outdated um but uh it is reflective of what uh the board of
• 24:00 - 24:30 education adopted uh as their tenative adopted budget and it does reflect a request of um uh $284 million to to the county um and it does reflect uh the the governor's proposed budget um from from earlier in the year and it does reflect a change in federal revenue um we are expecting federal revenue to go down we were expecting federal revenue to go down even before the administration
• 24:30 - 25:00 uh came into play uh a lot of that is uh still in question and still up in the air as I'm sure we're all very concerned about uh the one advantage that that we work with with the federal government is that they're on a different fiscal cycle than we are they're on a calendar cycle versus uh the fiscal year uh that we operate which is uh July to June uh they're on a January to December fiscal year so we we do have somewhat of a six-month head start when we uh when
• 25:00 - 25:30 we're dealing with federal revenues so jumping ahead uh and taking a look at changes that have happened uh since um uh the governor's original proposed budget and some of the the shifts that have taken place uh one of the most substantial shifts uh that that has happened is uh that the state actually uh that the governor proposed an increase in in revenue that would have impacted uh Montgomery County public schools and then just as soon as that
• 25:30 - 26:00 was introduced it was also encumbered uh by the addition of 24 community schools um as part of uh that governor's proposal um there were some other technical adjustments in that space and uh the board of education uh from the superintendent's proposed budget also took out uh uh almost $1.2 million and we also adjusted our laps in turnover to
• 26:00 - 26:30 account for some of uh the changes so that we weren't asking for more money of council we actually are very committed uh to to making sure that uh our our budget numbers don't shift and that we are we are not uh asking uh council for more than what we originally proposed so some uh some changes uh and and I'm going to I'm going to hit some of the highlights off of this slide because uh we we have already talked a little bit about this in terms of some of the the
• 26:30 - 27:00 big pieces and puzzles in terms of numbers we are making a pretty significant shift in our central office and deploying our central services out to schools into 13 regional teams um to provide direct support to schools uh rather than having folks uh stationed at a central office we are we are deploying them into school environments uh more directly we are proposing uh a pretty substantial increase to special
• 27:00 - 27:30 education the pain point with this uh this increase to special education is this is actually staffing our special education at the levels in which we previously communicated that we staff but actually haven't been staffing so what I mean by that is that we publish guidelines for staffing ratios and we have actually not fulfilled those staffing ratios and this uh number actually brings us up to that staffing ratio it also uh within that 689 uh
• 27:30 - 28:00 special education positions 500 of which are paraprofessional positions the vast majority of which are are already um temporary part-time positions for critical staffing uh that we would be converting to full-time uh positions these are our highest turnover positions in the district um and uh they are high turnover because they are in our highest need classrooms and when these positions are vacated they are actually a huge
• 28:00 - 28:30 safety concern for the the educators in that room as well as for the students in that room and we're also not meeting federal guidelines to uh the uh to providing fair and appropriate public education so it's a it's a huge liability by not providing uh those positions in the classroom as well uh similar story with our emergent multilingual uh uh learners uh making sure that we're staffing to the level that we say we staff at and keeping pace with the growth of that population is is
• 28:30 - 29:00 absolutely going to be critical this is an issue that if we um if we don't stay on top of this this will get ahead of us very quickly and we will not be able to meet the the very diverse needs of those learners without uh adequate staffing in that space something that is not a requirement um and something that is not uh anything that anyone is telling us to do but we know that it is the right decision to do is to enhance our security footprint with additional uh
• 29:00 - 29:30 security staff members um we need to keep our schools safe i would love to tell you that uh instruction is our number one priority it's not uh campus safety for our students staff and visitors is really our top priority and we need to commit the resources necessary to make that happen we do have a couple of other enhancements we know that not all kids um uh are able to uh learn in the regular education setting uh for a variety of reasons many of
• 29:30 - 30:00 which are tied to uh health uh and expanding our online foot footprint is uh is a way that we can absolutely uh meet that need um and we also have students uh that we can equip uh with life ready skills and uh both uh in uh English language acquisition and uh uh industry certifications uh for our students who are about to age out of our our system or have recently aged out of our system and get get them that GED and
• 30:00 - 30:30 industry certification through our CREA program or our night school program so uh there are some additional pieces with blueprint and I'll touch on those in a minute so the the focus on fundamentals really uh has to do with a a few things that we're trying to do a little bit different um uh with the the launch of a new strategic plan that the board is set to adopt uh later this spring uh we really are trying to hone in on the strategies that are going to have the biggest impact we have already started
• 30:30 - 31:00 our work in the literacy space we have a lot of room for improvement in mathematics uh but we are also looking at things like our grading and reporting policy and to be um candid with you it it uh it hasn't gone well some of the changes that we've made over the last several years uh some of the relaxed uh policy positions that we've taken since the pandemic have not served our our students particularly well and they have also kind of removed the educator uh as
• 31:00 - 31:30 the center of making some of those decisions in the classroom and we're we're looking to restore some of those expectations and raise uh those expectations uh for our our classrooms um we also know that not all schools uh are created equal and uh that uh different schools need different things so we came up with a financial model to enhance the materials and supplies uh at each school site through a differentiation uh add-on of uh of
• 31:30 - 32:00 fiscal support for uh based on students with disabilities uh students who are accessing federal free lunch and uh for our emergent multilingual learners this is a great footprint um in terms of uh making sure that kids have what they need uh to be successful in schools um in the fiscal stewardship space uh there are a couple of issues that we're not particularly proud of one of the things that we're not particularly proud of is that uh over the last several years we've let our
• 32:00 - 32:30 health benefits fund uh slip into a state of insolveny i give a lot of credit to our uh associations uh MCAP MCBOa uh MCEA and SEIU because they all came to the table with an understanding that they needed to be participants in helping to solve this problem uh this has been something that uh the council has asked uh of the school system for several years that that uh the associations uh readress their benefits
• 32:30 - 33:00 mix and our associations did just that and so we have positioned ourselves better uh and put us on the path to solvency to correct this issue uh we have gotten to a place where we are stopping the bleeding and we are actually reversing uh the trend of uh losing money into the health benefits fund but we do need to close the gap and so there is an investment that is needed uh to to set this right and to continue uh with solveny uh another big issue
• 33:00 - 33:30 that we've had is that when we have fallen short financially we have needed to close the gap in order to meet federal and state requirements and one of the strategies that we've done is to use salary lapse and turnover in other areas where we know that we could have expended it that is a great short-term strategy is a terrible long-term strategy uh unfortunately it's not exciting it's it's not uh um uh not a great approach
• 33:30 - 34:00 that we can can sustain long term we actually have to go back and fill some of that hole um so that we are uh more fiscally responsible moving forward another big issue and this is one that Mrs yang illuminated is making sure that uh our facilities are well taken care of so that they don't end up in the CIP budget uh this has not been an investment that we've kept up with over the last several years and unfortunately um when we visit schools and and all of us have visited schools together we've
• 34:00 - 34:30 seen some things which are really disappointing and uh it's unfortunate where we have to connect dollars to repairs but we do and um when we when we have to say no to uh to fixing something it's usually an issue of capacity or it's an issue of actual physical dollars and when we get to the end of the fiscal year like we are right now and the weather starts to get warmer it is going to start to get warmer right at some point okay we hope so um that is going
• 34:30 - 35:00 to start taxing our HVAC systems it's going to start taxing our plumbing systems is going to start taxing other issues with our our building envelope and making sure that we can keep and maintain these buildings in a in a really reasonable and responsible way those things have a cost and it's not something that we've invested in historically in terms of ongoing maintenance as a matter of fact our maintenance team hasn't changed a whole lot in the last 20 years but the
• 35:00 - 35:30 footprint of MCPS has grown millions of square feet during that time so we quite literally are asking more of a group of people that are already stretched very very thin um transparency i've already touched on this i won't go into a ton more detail other than to say it's very important to us that we communicate clearly that we share uh our issues even the stuff that is not uh amazing uh and
• 35:30 - 36:00 the things that we're not proud of so that we can confront our our issues headon um that uh folks can have a good understanding of where we are both the good and the not so good um so that we can move forward and we're we're thrilled that we're able to provide documentation and uh and things that the the council has asked for for some time whether it be lists of contracts or whether it be um specific categories that we can drill down to uh the penny we're we're delighted that we we are in
• 36:00 - 36:30 a place where we can do that and we hope to continue that moving forward so um highlighting a few things for you uh the the big uh chunks of uh of our budget really uh and this is a a a summary um of our non-discretionary items the biggest part of our budget is our contract with our associations and um we're thrilled that our contracts have uh have come to conclusion and uh that
• 36:30 - 37:00 uh they they were accepted by our board of education uh and their request is a reasonable request and it's a request that mirrors that of county government employees uh their request of a three and a quarter percent uh increase at a time when quite candidly um the world is becoming more and more expensive by the day and their costs are are not to be overlooked uh they are the second
• 37:00 - 37:30 largest employee group in the county next to the federal government it is the school system 70% of our workforce lives in Montgomery County they spend their tax dollars in Montgomery County the uh the return on uh county invested dollars into the school system is is above uh $1 uh and40 cents for every dollar that's spent it gets returned to the county uh in terms of uh economic development
• 37:30 - 38:00 that's a that's a positive return on investment not something to be overlooked but it is expensive and uh making that commitment to our workforce really does help uh us with uh stability it does help us with teacher turnover it does help us to maintain safe classrooms uh you all have heard me say this before and it's worth saying again that the safest classrooms in Montgomery County are the ones that have a fully staffed uh teacher uh and uh our special
• 38:00 - 38:30 education classrooms that require a paraprofessional are the ones that have a fully staffed pair of professional in addition to a teacher um these things are known um this is not a mystery uh and and this is a a secret to how MCPS can continue to thrive is making sure that our very talented workforce that cares about kids is still with us um a couple other really significant pieces you see uh our special education and EML investment is there and you see our
• 38:30 - 39:00 investment in payo major maintenance or pay as you go major maintenance uh the way that we've committed these resources is a strategy that a lot of other large districts use where they create uh teams that go in and clear work orders you you put a uh a plumber a carpenter an HVAC guy an electrician in a truck uh you send them to a school to assess the work order situation uh they assess the work order situation and then they clear work
• 39:00 - 39:30 orders we have a tremendous work order backlog uh this is the way that we get uh schools that are on the bubble of uh landing on the CIP list off the CIP list uh for consideration and back in working order in a really meaningful way um the next big section that's a hot topic of uh of of the day is the blueprint uh this is something that Annapolis spends an awful lot of time with and so do we um the investments expected for uh early childhood are
• 39:30 - 40:00 substantial uh this is representative of 28 classrooms in terms of early childhood expansion uh and this is the minimum expectation uh for MCPS this year uh tied to the blueprint um there are other pieces in terms of uh investments in national board certified teachers and there are other investments in terms of uh making sure that we are uh paying for
• 40:00 - 40:30 uh assessments of students who are taking advanced uh coursework for college these are are tied directly to our blueprint expenditures this this is this is the blueprint and the impact to uh MCPS this year this is likely uh going to continue to be a bigger number over time um as we start talking about um other things like career ladder uh enhancements enhancements to uh planning
• 40:30 - 41:00 time uh these are all things that are going to have really significant price tags uh and there is going to be a large local share that's expected um based on on what has been agreed to in terms of the blueprint from Annapolis the last section is uh the uh um is our discretionary expenditures uh these are things that no one is telling us that we need to do these things but we know that these are great strategies and good
• 41:00 - 41:30 ideas uh that can enhance the environment in MCPS uh the leadoff strategy is uh differentiating our uh materials resources that we send to schools um it may surprise you to learn that uh less than $100 per per kid at the elementary level and a little bit over $100 per kid gets uh uh submitted at the secondary level for every student uh for the the school principal to effectively run their academic program at their school that number has not
• 41:30 - 42:00 changed in a very long time nearly 20 years uh in terms of uh of of how much money we give per student to schools uh in order to operate their school um but a lot has changed in the last 20 years in terms of inflation and and the value of those dollars and instead of just enhancing that bottom line we came up with a different financial model in which we can account for uh differences among schools a little bit more clearly
• 42:00 - 42:30 it is it is not an equality model but it is an equity model that does take into account uh differences in student population very proud of that um it may surprise you to learn that there is a law on the books in Maryland uh that does require um uh menstrual supplies uh be provided in all of our schools but there is no money attached to it and so we have a grant uh that that we have to support this but that grant doesn't go very far uh so what we are trying to do
• 42:30 - 43:00 here is we're ju trying to put a placeholder um uh in terms of uh some money in our budget so that we can enhance this over time uh one of the things that uh council has asked us to do and is represented in this budget is that we give you multi-year approaches to solving problems and that we not try to solve everything with one fell swoop uh and all of these budget items are really the first year of a multi-year uh
• 43:00 - 43:30 improvement that we could see uh so you'll see all of these budget lines again uh it will not be a surprise when they come back in the future uh because these will be things that we will need to continue to invest in uh to to build our foundation uh we did have a component in our budget uh for school renaming this is something that the board of education actually did pull back on uh the strategy that we are looking at is to incorporate uh future
• 43:30 - 44:00 school renamings uh and uh and future changes that that happen and coincide them with capital improvements fantastic strategy and it's a way that we could save some money for the county and request fewer dollars of uh county government um we do have a couple of things that I've already mentioned before about how we might expand our footprint to some of our other um uh educational programs and um and the
• 44:00 - 44:30 board of education did make some changes to that as well and made some reductions in that space uh and uh they had also made some uh some changes to some professional development that uh that we had asked for and reduced that dollar figure as well um so with that uh I concluded my budget presentation in December with a couple of uh zingers uh the first one um was a pretty big aspirational goal and I think that this is something that's particularly
• 44:30 - 45:00 important now keep in mind that there at Montgomery College there are not actual remedial classes per se but there are support classes that are offered at a cost uh at Montgomery College i think it's important that we stand behind our kids and we stand behind our diplomas and if our diplomas mean something then our kids need to graduate uh knowing that there is confidence behind that diploma and that our our students have the requisite skills that they need to be successful in life so with that um
• 45:00 - 45:30 within the next 10 years we would like to build up to the place where our diploma is the best in Maryland unquestioned uh throughout the state and uh and we think that we can accomplish this goal we think that this is an attainable goal and we think that uh we can be the undeniable best diploma for uh for kids in uh in the state of Maryland along with that um we think that in order to accomplish that goal um every child needs to walk into a top tier school we absolutely think that
• 45:30 - 46:00 this is an attainable goal too um our belief that uh four or more stars on the Maryland report card is uh something that all of our schools can attain and uh truthfully I think we're going to hit this long before 2035 and the minute that we hit four or more it's going to be five we're going to have that expectation because we think that uh every child is entitled to a five-star education in Montgomery County and that really does need to be the target that we're aiming at and uh um we know that
• 46:00 - 46:30 we can accomplish this it is going to take partnership it's going to take a lot of work and it's going to take uh a big investment in order for us to to make that happen but these investments and these results in 10 years really do begin now um if we want to see this in 2035 we need to we need to make uh the decisions today that are going to influence those outcomes and so that that's really where where we come today
• 46:30 - 47:00 and and we have a big request um but the things that need to be addressed are really big as well and and so we're committed to working with you um we're grateful for your partnership we're grateful uh for the support that we've received and uh we just thank you for the time today and an opportunity to talk about our needs and uh the resources that are are necessary to make these things happen thank you so much uh for the presentation um you'll be happy to know that uh the broccoli budget theme has
• 47:00 - 47:30 was repeated to us last night a few times so it's it has stuck um so good job with that um is there are you all do you need we go on to questions or do you all have anything else that you wanted to go through mr uh we were prepared to go through the packet and talk about all the additions but we No that would be great and then then we'll pause on each section that's fine why don't we do that sounds good great um so we actually have already been through the first section and I will pass along to Miss Cummings to talk about the summary of the recommended
• 47:30 - 48:00 budget thank you i think it's on mhm um so in the packet we've included a brief fiscal summary um for the county executive's recommendation um which would increase the county contribution by $250 million for uh the FY 26 budget year we also noted in the
• 48:00 - 48:30 packet that at the time we wrote the packet the general assembly had not quite settled yet so there will be updates anticipated from the executive the spending spending affordability um was approved by the Montgomery County Council in February of this year uh for $3,124.2 million for tax supported funds of MCPS um the board request of 3,414.2 million exceeds the SG guideline
• 48:30 - 49:00 by 290 million uh the county executive's recommendation is 256 million above the SAG guideline and we've also included on page three of the packet a few tables just to show the MCPS operating budget by revenue source um both the board of education request and the county executive recommendation for FY26 and um going back to FY24 some of the historical changes
• 49:00 - 49:30 there's also a summary of the county executive's proposed budget for MCPS included um on that same page we also noted the maintenance of effort um maintenance of effort being the minimum funding level for public education um so the executives uh recommended 250 million increase in the county if the executive's recommended 250 million increase in the county contribution is approved um the amount
• 49:30 - 50:00 per pupil would increase to $15,410 as the newe per people required funding level um going forward and should the board's request be approved it would result in a new per people amount of $15,361 um we did just briefly note um for public testimony we um have received some robust testimony over the last few days which we will uh incorporate into future packets i appreciate that i just kind of
• 50:00 - 50:30 an overarching question so you got 284 from that you requested 250 that the county executive requested obviously things changed yesterday or day before when this week uh with with Annapolis you you had the slide on the uh pension shift liability i just want to try to be as clear as possible as we can for the public about because even yesterday the folks were asking well what does the 284 mean versus the 250 and are we are we it's what's fully what does what is
• 50:30 - 51:00 fully funded mean now that we have all the pieces of information today and if that's if we're not 100% sure yet I just think I just think we need to get as close as we can so that that's a baseline understanding as we start and uh so I don't know yeah and Mr alonso would please introduce yourself and good morning ivan Alonso Windsor chief financial officer it's nice to be here today um so we're still analyzing you know the impact you know from Annapolis the decisions that have been made you
• 51:00 - 51:30 know the state pension shift is remaining that that move forward uh which is an impact to MCPS of about $20 million um the was not included in your It was all of it was included it was included so you did include that amount okay there was some question whether it could be higher or lower it was that level that was already incorporated as of right now yes that was incorporated in our in our request uh the other piece that was everything that that we knew what was coming we incorporated in our request uh the other piece uh that is
• 51:30 - 52:00 moving forward is the special education the reimbursement portion of nonpublic that currently they reimburse us for 70% of the expenses uh the governor uh recommended that that be decreased to a 60% reimbursement for FY26 they can't meet the needs of a special education student they go to another school private school transportation all that we pay for that just to be clear on what you're talking about so the what does that cost so that is uh $3.6 6 million
• 52:00 - 52:30 expected for FY26 but it's going to have an impact in FY27 as well because in FY27 U so from 25 to 26 it went from 70% to 60% from 26 to 27 it's going to go to 50% so we'll spend 50% they'll reimburse us for 50% and then they'll have about a 7.6 they're projecting million dollar uh impact to MCPS so this year it would be 3.6 six next year it' be 7.6 is that three um close 3 7.9 projected right now
• 52:30 - 53:00 when it goes to 50% when it goes to 50% again but this that doesn't account for inflation and all of that and you know on the cost of teachers so that could be a little bit more higher than you know what they're currently projecting because they're not anticipating inflation cost you know salary increases uh because remember due to the teacher parody act that was passed by anapapolis a few years ago um uh private schools have to provide the same salary to their
• 53:00 - 53:30 teachers that public schools do so that has increased our cost substantially over the last three or four years and so it's also not reflective of any growth that we may see in students with disability population so again our our enrollment growth is flat but our second fastest growing student population are students with disabilities then um the other PE go ahead sorry yeah just go finish your comment and then is this on you're moving on to a different
• 53:30 - 54:00 topic so yes council member go ahead um a little bit tangential but relevant i would say students who um were in virtual school before how many of them fall into this category they don't they don't fall into the category of non-public placements for special education yes okay okay so you were continuing on the things that changed so so we've got the 20 million shift which you accounted for the 3.6 from the 70 to six for
• 54:00 - 54:30 non-public placements you also accounted for in the budget so we knew about that that is correct please continue um there is a little light you know in in their um waiting for you to continue their changes so you know I left you know the positive on the towards the end so it was towards collaborative planning time so uh the governor's budget recommended a pause in collaborative planning time and a decrease in the funding that we would get from the state which was about $14.4 million what they're recommending is uh I mean the new budget uh we would
• 54:30 - 55:00 still pause on collaborative time in terms that there would be no expectations from the LEA for FY26 in terms of collaborative planning time although MCPS has been doing some of that for many years already um so that would be a restoration of $14.4 million in state aid um then money is unrestricted in the sense that you can use it for whatever correct okay then um their proposal does say we would pause in 27 and 28 on collaborative planning
• 55:00 - 55:30 time we would not get any additional funding it would stay at that $4.4 million level reduction correct and then once we get to FY29 we would assume resume collaborative planning time blueprint implementation uh as year two so this so the funding would increase quite a bit so from 163 per pupil to 334 per pupil for FY29 but keep in mind that funding we would have gotten in FY27 so again it
• 55:30 - 56:00 doesn't account for the inflation that was taking would take place between 27 and 29 and that those are so those are the changes that we know about right now community schools stay in uh the way the uh governor recommended there's no pause in that the only thing is that it's not an impact to MCPS but they are saying that you can use some of the funding for you know the systems initiatives um currently if you have more than 40
• 56:00 - 56:30 community schools uh you are in that place where some of the system strategies can be built into that which we already do and MCPS made that got you know we got a we were at 40 schools back in 2024 um we were in um sorry in 2024 was the first time that we had over 40 community schools correct so we've already been implementing some of those distract well on the 14.4 million that we thought we might lose but we have did you count that as lost
• 56:30 - 57:00 in the your budget already you did right so then so that means your request can be reduced to 270 ish yeah I know i'm know this is very loose on millions of dollars but and we're not enhancing our budget uh to to keep our ask high we we're reducing our ask to council so that uh so that Yes so that you'll formally once I just want to go through the process I just want to understand the process of when
• 57:00 - 57:30 you will get when we will understand how that's changed and what the actual number is so to so we do have some more analysis to do internally just to be sure and particularly given some of the assumptions that were in the executive's budget and again obviously want to be sure we've we've captured everything correctly from the state once we do that we're happy to communicate that and typically the council would would roll that into its assumptions um that's not something that typically the board would take additional action on that's what I was think that's what And if I can just make uh um go back to when we talked
• 57:30 - 58:00 about community schools and make one clarification they are adding 24 additional community schools for FY26 that was included in our budget both the state side and the local match or the local uh uh state side to change all right so we got the first first big news from the first day we're going to you're going to we're going to it's going to be less than what you asked for initially which is which is good um okay do you want to continue sure and you
• 58:00 - 58:30 we'll just stop on each section uh so continue through the packet um again there is background in terms of the areas that the ENC committee has taken up over the last several months a number of these are going to be things that will be considered in the upcoming work sessions including the student well-being piece the interventions for highly impacted learners um attendance and engagement may come up in terms of the discussion of school safety and security as well um and then u moving along we're going to move through the
• 58:30 - 59:00 statements in terms of RSJ and move to page eight where we have budget discussion items um again a number of these uh have already been discussed today or will be coming up in the next little bit um we're going to talk about the base budget reductions next session when we talk about um the cross functional teams and the central office uh changes that have been initiated um I think it'd be spent interesting to spend some time today talking about the
• 59:00 - 59:30 non-discretionary requirements that will not necessarily be uh detailed in terms of the next several sessions uh in terms of general ed education staffing um 33.2 million additional um dollars and 133.8 additional FTEES for general education staffing um the committee might want to make some inquiries in terms of that uh in terms of curriculum will be tied into special education and um multilingual learners um but the
• 59:30 - 60:00 curriculum piece itself uh has not been um something that uh uh we've discussed yet um might want to talk about the um facility maintenance piece that's gone into a little bit detail there um through the presentation today um but we might want to uh ask some more questions in that regard and then u we just talked about the non-public placements so uh that may be a piece of what's followup in terms of special education and multilingual learners um those strike me as being the areas that we know um we
• 60:00 - 60:30 know may not come up um in terms of the details of the next several sessions might want to have some questions today great oh I I can start [Music] um so first thank you for the overview this has been help i've seen it multiple times i I learn I get something slightly a new little nugget every time i'm sure other folks can uh understand that um something that I've heard about a lot uh
• 60:30 - 61:00 and and is connected I think to your re you know your re is the central office restructuring um we've got a lot of questions i know you've got a lot of questions over the last weeks about what these cross functional teams will look like um how does that shift and to replacing those central staff standalone positions um how do you see it will actually tangibly improve support uh for principles and and and teachers at the school level and then how are we going
• 61:00 - 61:30 to measure what the success of of that well you're you're going to get a whole presentation on it from what it sounds like but I'll give you the 30,000 foot view um it it's predicated on on two beliefs and the measurement is really simple Um the first belief that it's predicated on is that where you are is where you're focused and if our staff is in the schools working with teachers and principles with one clear message which
• 61:30 - 62:00 is the other belief that if we are supporting uh folks we should be making teachers better that that is really the whole purpose is to make teachers better and uh picking just a handful of areas not everything um we we don't have targeted areas in social studies we don't have targeted areas in visual and performing arts we don't have targeted areas in health and uh physical education we do have targeted areas in special education emergent multilingual
• 62:00 - 62:30 learners mathematics and literacy those are our targeted areas and we're concentrating resources to uh geographical teams where they're going to be working with one or two clusters um and working across the cluster uh to making sure that uh that what's happening in the classroom is aligned to uh the district expectations and uh that there is the followrough that we expect and how we're going to measure that is by student academic performance great
• 62:30 - 63:00 it's just that simple i know we'll go into that in more deep deep detail in the next session about what they look like because we as you know we've just getting a lot it's anytime you change something like that you're gonna get a lot of questions people understand working um staff council staff mentioned the non-discretionary which obviously the biggest part is employee compensation um the 192.5 million for the agreements it was mentioned last night repetitively and I think it's important to lift it up that there was about $30 million in savings from the
• 63:00 - 63:30 health I uh that the health plans that is that is that the correct number that the through the negotiations that the benefits that force MCPS staff they took a $30 million that's going to save us $30 million is that right uh between 25 and 30 and we're going to see the full impact of that you know a couple of years you know in 28 we're going to start seeing the impact obviously in FY26 but we negotiate benefits in calendar year um so we're going to see a portion of that
• 63:30 - 64:00 in FY26 and then FY27 and then the final the total amount in FY28 but but yes a huge positive step in the right direction and uh and something that will return the employee benefits plan to solveny yeah and In addition to that you've also asked for 40 million to towards helping return solveny that's right and that would be a how many years long plan to get back to where we want to be we we can't be insolvent so we have to do this very quickly um and this
• 64:00 - 64:30 is uh uh within this year and the next fiscal year we're back to where we need to be back to where we need to be we'll realize some of the savings that from the negotiation y okay the uh reclassifications are 6.2 millions we we heard a lot last night from some very harrowing and and and passionate stories from PAR educators who would be the beneficiary of these reclassifications um uh you know I I think about these folks a lot you know I I I greet them on the
• 64:30 - 65:00 bus every day and you know the other day one of one I won't even say what happened but they're often tired uh from working the multiple jobs and it's just a really really tough job to be a bus driver to be a par educator uh to be uh in the SEIU 500 family of of of job classifications all of our jobs are tough but particularly the strain there and we heard about that yesterday in in in detail from you know around 10
• 65:00 - 65:30 o'clock at night from several folks um so I'm I think that's super important i'm glad that was negotiated i think it's it's a key item in the budget do you uh I just want to give you the opportunity to talk a little bit more about why you think that's so critical and how you think it ties into career ladder um you know retention you kind of mentioned it a little bit but like I feel like this is an area when you're
• 65:30 - 66:00 talking about this is a big part of the budget 692 500 of those are pair educators the TPT change i just want to let you to elaborate a little bit on that so every person in this room can be very proud of the fact that um equity is a value that we share in the county not just in the school system but in the county and one of the narratives of this budget is that we need to do a better job of differentiating for the sake of
• 66:00 - 66:30 equity and really have a watchful eye on how we distribute our resources in an equitable way one of the biggest gaps that we've noticed in one of our job classifications is in our pair of professionals where the the roles and responsibilities differ so wildly wide widely and wildly between uh what folks are asked to do uh there are paraprofessionals who have administrative roles and work in front
• 66:30 - 67:00 offices there are pair of professionals who provide literacy support and work in small groups and there are pair of professionals who are supporting students one-on-one with um high um uh needs in terms of academic supports and then there are also pair of professionals who are doing really really difficult chores in terms of managing student behaviors or perhaps toileting needs or even medical procedures in the form of working with
• 67:00 - 67:30 students that have feeding tubes so we have this wide range of responsibilities and when we look at it from an employment standpoint and when we did a reclassification study the job responsibilities are so different that they really do need to be reflected differently from a financial standpoint and so we we did that we completed that study the study definitely reflected that we needed to to have some uh different compensation for different
• 67:30 - 68:00 roles and truth be told this is also reflected in our churn data um when uh we have pair of professionals that are um uh returning to the workplace year after year they're in different roles than on our highest needs roles a lot of that is financial and uh that's what we have learned uh from this process and it it may pain you to know that in our highest needs classrooms that a lot of those pair of professionals are not even
• 68:00 - 68:30 full-time they're part-time and uh they're temporary because the situation is perceived as temporary but the reality is is that we have these students from year to year to year and so the need for their ongoing uh retained employment and to provide benefits really really is a is a pressing need for us so a large portion of our special education expenditures tied to that you mentioned 500 and over 300 of those 500 positions are those
• 68:30 - 69:00 part-time positions that really we need to convert to full-time because they're so high churn because they're in such a critical area and they really are at the top of the strata in terms of severity of responsibilities dealing with combative students dealing with medical issues dealing with toileting issues those are those are the things that we need to compensate differently i appreciate that um do you anticipate any other classification studies i know we talked about security guards uh just I think giving a preview for that is there
• 69:00 - 69:30 this that group is that's true there's other groups that absolutely situation um and what I think we're trying to do is we do a number of classification studies every year and we'll do a a number next year um we are we are trying not to overwhelm council um with the financial burden of the changes that we know we need to make we are trying to meter them out um please expect that things like our security assistance or
• 69:30 - 70:00 other roles and responsibilities that we've prioritized in the school system will try to bring back to you um and that we'll try to do it in a really intentional way and and the tough part for us right now is is trying to prioritize those employee groups and and really trying to bring you the employee groups that are going to have the the the most significant impact the quickest to the system and prioritizing them financially for you i appreciate that i think it's important to you can't do
• 70:00 - 70:30 everything at once but it's important to keep not keep lose sight of what the scope of what needs to happen uh Council Member Robin Uh good morning um it's good to see everybody so going to make a lot of general comments here but this is our first session so sort of want to set the tone context for where I'm going to be coming from and all of us are going to be coming from important but different angles so let me start with the great news um I have just been so impressed all of us have stated it we've all felt
• 70:30 - 71:00 it with the transparency the communication the responsiveness not just to this body but to key stakeholders across the county whether that's teachers whether that's our associations whether that's parents everybody is feeling since the beginning of this new school year this new level of accountability you all have stepped up we can see it we can feel it and this excellent presentation and the very straightforward and authentic way that
• 71:00 - 71:30 you've laid out your budget requests is just another example of it so all of you are the right people at the right time and I would say you're the right people for any time um but especially right now so I just want to express my deepest appreciation and respect for you all professionally for what you are doing working on and because of that um I feel so much more confident because in the past as we all know the construct is a little awkward we write the check but we have no way of determining how it's
• 71:30 - 72:00 spent and there sadly have been evidence over the last several fiscal years prior to this new incredible leadership team that checks were written money was said to be committed to certain areas and it was not it was moved around it was very confusing it was difficult for us to follow it was difficult for the board to follow and so um this is just level setting things in a way that make me
• 72:00 - 72:30 feel more confident than I ever have on this body of where we're going so great job great job and and and that's obviously a fundamental thing that we have to start from i am as all of us are deeply concerned about what's coming because we know what's coming we will be in a recession it's not an if it's a when and it's a how bad we will get to doubledigit unemployment in this county before the
• 72:30 - 73:00 end of this calendar year and what that will mean and the cascading effect catastrophically on our budget is going to be something that we're going to have to wrestle with over the next several years not just this one last year as we were having these conversations I'm a glass half full kind of a person but I would sprinkle in these little comments every now and then gosh we got to be prepared if Trump wins if Trump wins well he won and it's infinitely worse
• 73:00 - 73:30 than we ever thought it could possibly be and so the conversations that we're having that are extremely difficult in this space multiply that by every single committee before this body within HHS we just found out recently that the Capital Area Food Bank and Mana Food not surprisingly have lost significant funding based on federal grants that's going to have a cascading impact to the organizations and nonprofits that they support in the county we know that our
• 73:30 - 74:00 primary care clinics because of the Medicaid reimbursements that are going to be significantly adjusted down we're already struggling and are going to struggle even more these are people that um take care of more than 68,000 patients in Montgomery County who are have no or very little insurance many of which are MCPS families and that of course doesn't even touch on the housing crisis that we continue to be in and
• 74:00 - 74:30 that will escalate moving forward so all of these things are happening at the same time as we're having these really difficult conversations and that's what's coming in the backdrop the salary and compensation packages that were negotiated are appropriate they are reasonable they acknowledge the reality that the cost of living is very high and we must remain competitive but two things can be true at the same time and that is that they are probably
• 74:30 - 75:00 not going to be sustainable in the environment that we are about to have happen to us this happened the exact same thing happened in fiscal years 2002 through 2005 when very generous and appropriate salary and compensation packages were negotiated nobody could have anticipated the recession that would follow and so what happened was a reduction in force at record levels on the county side and
• 75:00 - 75:30 the reductions that you are trying to make up for now but happened then and so more than a significant percentage of your request is based on salary and compensation and it's obviously set to what the county has negotiated but it puts us in a very difficult position to address the many other myriad of needs that we have we have to honor those very reasonably negotiated
• 75:30 - 76:00 contracts and we will but we have to acknowledge just upfront that that will make everything else much more difficult and that's just the reality so um with that in mind and I don't need answers now but what I would like from the team is for us to break down the all of them are important all of them are critical you can't argue against any of them but 622 positions what would it
• 76:00 - 76:30 look like to have I'm making this up i'm shooting from the hip 200 um and how many more schools could we serve um what would it look like to reduce the number of security professionals that we are requesting and just to have options on the table that are sobering and and and I would prefer not to even consider but something that we're going to have to talk through because we will need those options um I also think that we have to bear in
• 76:30 - 77:00 mind that whatever we pass now is going to be continued because we know that our colleagues in Annapolis will be reconvening in September to adjust to whatever it is that the federal government is going to be coming you know is going to be coming our way um so we have to take that into consideration and the other mitigating factor here is once again we've proposed a revenue
• 77:00 - 77:30 increase which on the surface I certainly understand and is justifiable but when you factor that into all of the other increases that our residents have been faced with not just this year but over the last four years you can't look at any of this in isolation and we've got a lot of folks on fixed incomes who are deeply concerned um about what's coming next and unemployment rates that I said are going to be hitting double digits in the very near future many of them federal employees for every one federal job the
• 77:30 - 78:00 Council of Governments has confirmed that that means three private sector jobs are lost as well one federal job that's lost equals three private sector jobs so that's four jobs that are lost in our region disproportionately impacting Maryland because we haven't done a great job of diversifying our workforce over the last 25 years so um that's the lens sadly that I will be looking at this from and but I I just
• 78:00 - 78:30 want to state once again and reinforce my appreciation to all of you and just the the partnership comment Miss Yang was so sage and so appropriate and I really thank you for that um and I know that this is one of these budgets where nobody will be happy by the end of it um but we're going to do our best as we always do and I do feel confident we will weather the storm we've had we've had storms before um it's just this one is just so it's even less predictable than the ones we've faced before and that's what feels so unsettling so
• 78:30 - 79:00 that's what I'm going to be looking for as we have these conversations and I just want to make those comments up front thank you i I appreciate uh the comments um before I turn to council member Mink uh you reminded me of something I wanted to mention so the when a student is uh if you see when when a student enrolls what what comes with with that student so the cost to
• 79:00 - 79:30 educate them obviously but uh explain to me so a student enrolls what funding do we get how does that how does that trigger support and cost of of a student enrolling can someone talk about that do you understand the question i I hope so um and I'm going to defer to uh um Miss Alfonso Windsor in a second but um it's difficult because no two students are the same and it's it's hard because
• 79:30 - 80:00 we're we quickly gravitate to things like average per pupil cost when I can assure you that no student ever is at the average per pupil cost they are either well above the average per pupil cost or well below uh depending and and so um we have a state portion a federal portion and a a uh local portion uh that that is tied to to every student um and
• 80:00 - 80:30 and it does change uh based on uh different uh ways that we're meeting and servicing that student's needs so I'll I'll let Avon add to that she's opening a book yeah she's it's getting serious it's all fun and games until she opens the book no and it's a it's a it's an interesting question but it's also difficult right because um all our funding is based on we're a year behind you know when it comes from the state you know we're
• 80:30 - 81:00 lagging behind we get uh funding for our enrollment as of uh September 30th for next year but we know that we enrolled students throughout the year we know that the needs of the students that we enrolled you know change you know um and it's different um our really our average cost per student right now I know what our per student is but our real average per student is about 21,500 uh that's the cost that we have right now um but when you look at that
• 81:00 - 81:30 that doesn't even take into consideration the overhead of our human resources department that we need them in order to hire hire teachers right uh it doesn't take into consideration our enterprise funds you know our food services all of those funds are not part of our cost per student um so when you look at everything that a student needs you know furniture breaks you know you have to replace that furniture the student desks you know so on the special education needs whether they're going to be in nonpublic or they're going to be
• 81:30 - 82:00 served at our schools all of that you know it's part of a cost per student um so although average is 21,000 is really understated because there's so many more needs that that are not calculated into that cost the funding sources to meet that break that down for me so the funding sources to meet that is our state funding the funding that is provided by the county council is very small federal you know as you can see it needs 3% and it keeps decreasing and
• 82:00 - 82:30 federal funding is also very targeted you know you have the title one allocations for for our students you know with uh economic you know challenges and you have a special education allocation which is doesn't even come close to what we need to serve a special education student we get about $40 million and that has decreased from year to year for special education students from federal our population keeps increasing yet the allocation decreases because they don't have the funding to support it um
• 82:30 - 83:00 so basically you know between the state and the local government the local B government is our our biggest fund you know fund sources you know that that's how we really provide the education for you know for our students and um and I did mention enterprise um luckily you know we've been able since the pandemic our enterprise fund especially the food fund has recovered because of in the pandemic it really suffered quite a bit uh but we're able to provide you know the meals to our students and you you
• 83:00 - 83:30 know we're able to you know meet some of those needs even when schools are closed you know for inclement weather and so on i I appreciate that i I just think and along along with um if there are other potential losses in revenue Council Member Alvin I mentioned the uh food area i know that has some impact potentially on your reimbursement and what what you're providing do you I'd love to us to have that as part of the conversation too of like where else
• 83:30 - 84:00 you're losing you're potentially going to lose money we need to understand that uh um we had talked about the Medicaid reimbursement like what we don't know yet on that but that's something I think we should like you did with the budget you should anticipate we now are at the point where the the House and the Senate have both taken votes on the tax pack on the big beautiful bill it's an ugly bill but that's what the president calls it um that puts in place the budget reconciliation process in the Senate and
• 84:00 - 84:30 it secured the votes and it basically affirms these deep Medicaid cuts so I think we should start projecting now what that's going to mean across everywhere and obviously there's an impact for you all as well um in addition to of course deep impacts for HHS um and and the other thing is you know we're going to have to look at this whole budget you know holistically i mean I think the uh you you talked about the broccoli
• 84:30 - 85:00 budget if we don't address these things now they're the problems are going to get worse the question is at what pace can we address them you know and I think that's uh we have to look at all of the financial pieces um I think the good I I I feel better than I did two days ago i hope about what came out of Annapolis you know um as far as it could have been a lot worse as far as the impact on the schools um and frankly the impact on the
• 85:00 - 85:30 county in general so um so I think that's a factor of how we're going to do this um so just want to throw that out there i'll have more to say but I want to turn to council member M rough times um I just wanted to note first and I know now we've talked about it a couple of times but the concessions that were made by the unions in regards to the healthcare that I just think that that needs to be included everywhere anytime
• 85:30 - 86:00 anytime it's mentioned you know often I think the summary is like the compensation package exists it includes reclassification it should I think I really think it needs to say and it also includes these significant concessions could you talk a little bit about you know there's a there's a history to the this ask being made um of our partners in in labor and um you all I mean kudos to you all and kudos to them for coming to the table and working this and and managing to get this done now it's a huge deal with a major impact that is
• 86:00 - 86:30 making this viable um but I think it's relevant to every conversation to understand also why this was the moment when um you know how you were able to get them on board with that that that part of that is that they want the investment to go towards better working environments and better learning environments could you just talk a little bit about that i'll let uh Miss Alfonso Windsor illuminate some of the the details but I think that this is a reflection of our associations really
• 86:30 - 87:00 caring about the system um acknowledging the financial hardship that that really the the broader community is in and wanting to be a collaborative partner in being a problem solver um I I think that it's a reflection of just the deep care that our associations have for the kids and wanting to make sure that we are spending the money wisely and that we we are on firm footing moving forward
• 87:00 - 87:30 candidly when made aware of how bad the situation was to see them step up and take the initiative to wanting to step up it it wasn't a matter of us convincing anybody to do anything it was how do we collaborate together to solve a problem and um I I will say that that sometimes there's an image that gets projected you know from a media standpoint about some kind of adversarial relationship and whatnot and really this is just a a group of people
• 87:30 - 88:00 who care deeply about their community care deeply about kids and want to solve problems and um and working together to to get that done it's it's really refreshing and I think it's the things that we expect of our children and what we hope to teach our children and I just think it's great that they could model that for our community with this particular problem and I think that they're they're uh uh willing to to work with us on a whole host of things that are coming down the pipe whether it's
• 88:00 - 88:30 the blueprint or whether it's career ladder or whether it's some of the other uh things that we know that we're going to have to work on and problem solve together thank you sure and and I just want to say um you know I was part of those conversations with the union as we were negotiating and they came to the table ready to figure out how to resolve you know the problem that we you know is you know they laid we laid at their feet you know in terms of this and they tried to work with us to
• 88:30 - 89:00 make decisions that would not have uh variables in terms of the impact to their members that it was something that could be projected you know that their members could plan for uh as as we make these changes so uh the biggest thing I think that we've been working through you know have been asked of us and them you know for the last few years is the cost share the employee cost share so they have agreed to increase the employee cost share by 1% for next year and then an additional 1% you know for the following year um we also um talk
• 89:00 - 89:30 through uh plan management medical plan management because our plan did not include a lot of that and that can you know result in in big savings for the system and it and it would also help their members you know somes that are more that have more higher medical needs so you know they look through that as well as as we make those changes and then something that has come up over the last few years that the cost just keep increasing and increasing is those GLP1
• 89:30 - 90:00 you know drugs that are used for off label uh to make sure that there's a a utilization management it's not that they're going to be denied 100 it's just a utilization manager to management to make sure that you know those people that really need them you know can can you know can get them great thank you yeah i mean I was this is I just think that this is so important and um I'm so appreciative of our partners in labor coming to the table in this way when we know that they're under such severe stress um you know it's just as you all
• 90:00 - 90:30 have described it's difficult working conditions uh and they continue to find ways to show up for our kids and um and I was surprised to I think there were colleagues of mine who even as of a week ago were not aware of these concessions and I think it's just it's fundamental to this entire conversation because this is our workforce and um and they made these concessions again because they saw the benefit in making sure that the
• 90:30 - 91:00 funding was going towards having properly staffed buildings and ironically you know that entailed them making this concession so that we can have the reclass classification so that we can shift um you know TPTs to to full-time like all of these pieces and so um we can't we can't you know let them take that cut and then also not fund the things that they are intending for that funding to go towards which is having kind of the basic level of staffing and basic needs met um uh and
• 91:00 - 91:30 promises fulfilled to the public and also prevent like I would really rather not be spending money on um fighting lawsuits regarding special ed as opposed to investing in having the the staffing there so also important that we we find ways to incorporate that um you know there's an the opportunity cost or not even I mean this is like a real it's a real expenditure there you know and so we're making a choice it's not just it's not just dollars by itself right uh to
• 91:30 - 92:00 to not spend them on um making sure that we're staffing up our our special ed and we are going to be spending those dollars on lawsuits and now and I appreciate the transparency and I think that that's necessary there obviously has been a hesitancy to be transparent over the years because I'm sure that there is a concern about whether that invites lawsuits but the truth is that parents and families know it they know it they already know it whether we're saying it or or not um and that's why there already have been lawsuits and uh and so by being transparent now we can
• 92:00 - 92:30 acknowledge the problem and we but we must we have to address it uh legally we have to address that and for the benefit of our kids and it's a matter of of how we do that and again I appreciate the unions coming to the table to talk about that um one uh one other aspect that we haven't talked a lot about and uh I know is a sensitive subject um but maybe we can talk a little bit more about it at um one of our later April sessions is um the virtual school and um you know as we
• 92:30 - 93:00 look at how we are just going to make schooling and everything else to council's point affordable um you know there was more information more numbers more clarity that came out since decisions were made in in the previous year and um starting to have a you know a fuller conversation about that public publicly I think would be beneficial and understanding what that path could and and should look like and I know that there's a lot of variables there but there are um you know there
• 93:00 - 93:30 are cost savings to to be found there potentially there are also obviously relevant expenditures and there's um you know there but there are students for example who then who need a one-on-one aid right and if they're in the school building we have to provide that aid and if they are at home we do we do not because the person who's there with them is that one-on-one aid and um so when we're really balancing the checkbook there I think it's worth us digging into those details to really understand and
• 93:30 - 94:00 think through um what what makes sense there on the path forward and that and I will that is a this is an issue that I am continually hearing from parents about in in different areas and I I've heard from families who have pulled their children out of NCPS and um that's not what we want either so I think an important conversation that we we need to have a fullsome discussion about yeah and I think we'll be able to dig in i think this is good to highlight some things as we when we go into special education
• 94:00 - 94:30 uh in the sec whenever that I think it's the second next time yeah we can so if you we'll have the appropriate people here to dig into that just foreshadowing that if we can include that that would be good um and then also I'll just note again as we're kind of talking about cost benefit here that maintenance as you as you mentioned that's another one where if you don't spend if you don't spend on it now we're seeing the result of not spending on it now as you mentioned and so that's another one where it just it only becomes more expensive um I will note also for a
• 94:30 - 95:00 future conversation that I think that we need to um that there's some improvements that we can be ma that can be made and I know you've looked into this too on how we're constructing the buildings to start with that would make maintenance um cheaper down the line um it's a CIP conversation but um but we have to have the maintenance staff and what we are you know the parents who are coming and talking to us about these very longstanding issues are are demanding and we can't have children who are in these learning environments and again these issues only get more expensive so um I you know it's it's a
• 95:00 - 95:30 very tough situation because I we need we just we have to find savings in places but also you have given us such a broccoli budget that there's I I don't know where to find it because everything everything you cut becomes more expensive very quickly it it already is so um yeah I don't have anything helpful to say in that reg in that regard i don't know what the answer is i think that I do think that this is a place where because the number is big because
• 95:30 - 96:00 we haven't invested appropriately over the years that I mean that is where we are and there's there's not a lot of places to there's just not a lot of places to trim that aren't going to cost us here uh so I appreciate the transparency which with which you all have could really come to this difficult conversation um I I also I understand the points that council Albernaz is the making also we're in a very very tough position uh so I think if we're going to
• 96:00 - 96:30 if we're going to try to keep if we have to keep the funding in this space then I think we just have to continue to be very very clear about what the trade-offs are about not making those investments fiscally as well i'll thank you i appreciate the points from both my colleagues i I I wanted to also mention the 3.25% uh is actually we had a presentation yesterday it's kind of right in the middle actually of our our f our police
• 96:30 - 97:00 I think are a little higher police and fire might be a little higher government employees might be at three some little lower so you're kind of like right at the uh in the middle there or or on par um as you said very reasonable under the circumstance um money that stays in the community work that is is being done people that are already underpaid in the case of the uh parish and and work that will I you know we know the other thing we know is that
• 97:00 - 97:30 when this storm continues to brew people turn inward and and are more reliant on our our safe spaces like schools um and not less and uh and you know we saw that in the pandemic uh with uh and and you I think you saw that in the great recession so it's just uh good good news is there's been a willingness to partner there'll continue to be a willingness to partner there's already been some savings realized today we've
• 97:30 - 98:00 already talked about you know the 14.4 million from the state um I think it's important you know even though they're going to have to come back you know in in in closing their three the $3 billion state deficit they asked our wealthiest residents in the state to do more to a tune of over a billion dollars the governor did in the in the legislature they also cut things right so um that's we know that's going to be a part of and
• 98:00 - 98:30 we know the lagging indicator of the job uh you know that we already lost several thousand jobs here um that's going to have so many down it's almost impossible to talk about the downstream impacts of that uh how many there are you know what that means you know I've for our enrollment what that means for food service for rent people that need rent subsidy um and so it's just uh we've got a we've got challenging times ahead i think when you have those challenging
• 98:30 - 99:00 times the question is okay like we're going to have to turn inward we're going to be we're going to be forced to turn inward um and and and kind of take first principles of what we support and how we uh stay on track and not lose ground and that's kind of where we where we're going to be so um I do I I do I want to reiterate the thankfulness that we're in a situation with the budget where it's very clear you know what the choices are or aren't and who you what we can or what we what
• 99:00 - 99:30 we will do or won't do um and the question is you know what must we do um I one of the things I want to flag and we don't if you want to make a general comment now or we can come back to it when we get to comp uh to uh this part of the uh I think it's on uh on the employ on the facts the folks that you're going to hire uh to councelor Albernaz's point just how we believe that some are just being shifted they're already the people exist so they're already shifting but how how confident you are that you know I I think I know the
• 99:30 - 100:00 answer to this but that you'll be able to hire hire all of those 600 people or convert and get those people in the classroom at the start of the school year uh we were staffed at 99 and a half uh% of special education positions um for our benefit MCPS is an attractive place to work and um to the detriment of the state of Maryland we are an attractive place to work because the majority of our special educators and
• 100:00 - 100:30 really teachers that we're hiring we're actually poaching from other districts so they are coming here because this is a great school system um so our our confidence in filling vacancies is strong um so I I hope that that answers that question it does i mean it's a it's a big part of the piece of like you know it's one thing to allocate for it but you got to make sure we could actually have have it have folks in those positions because they're needed um yes
• 100:30 - 101:00 Council Member thanks um speaking of shifting positions when we talk about the cross functional teams and some of this uh at the next session um if we could make sure that we include talking about that um we've talked a little bit about you know the restorative justice etc positions that folks who are moving if we could just get an update um uh or or just to make sure that that includes who's going to be who's going to be shifted where and what that there's a lot of concern we heard from quite a number of the folks who testified yesterday talked about wanting to see to make sure that
• 101:00 - 101:30 restorative practices were were increased and um concern about the positions and so I do think that there is there's not a lot of understanding there about kind of the plan um for shifting those positions and making sure that folks know that it's not going to be undervalued that you are finding ways to empower them and making sure that they are going to be in the schools and you know so if we can make sure that that is a focus we did hear from quite a number um more even than I expected last night of um uh students and adults for
• 101:30 - 102:00 whom that is a priority and um this is a conversation for another time but I will just note also that relevant into that question is the is the plans for the revamping of the um of the student code of conduct to to include much more um clearer directives around what um principles and administrations are expected to do first and second um not part of the budget conversation but I think relevant to those concerns and highlights your commitment directly relevant uh directly relevant and uh I
• 102:00 - 102:30 think you can see a through line between the things that we are important to us from a policy perspective and how that's implemented and the dollars that back them up uh so I think that that's a a great conversation and a great opportunity for us to illuminate where our values are and the things that are important to us and to bring clarity to that for folks great um and then similarly the um the ET the concern of the about the ETC's being being cut but
• 102:30 - 103:00 um and knowing that there's some languages going along with that we didn't we don't have a lot of people who speak some of these these languages and um knowing that that is because that was um you know some of the last hired folks or some of the folks who speak those languages though that are most pressing in terms of our need right now Poshto um uh Barci etc so um also I think part of that conversation will be important to understand where you see those folks being placed and how we're going to you
• 103:00 - 103:30 know given that they were assigned to a couple of different schools and then rotating through other schools um going through the schools that had those populations the most understanding how you all are thinking about and approaching making sure that folks who speak the right languages and are able to build build those cultural connections with our immigrant population that's growing um what that's going to look like and how you all are thinking about approaching that will also be key I think thank you council make uh council so
• 103:30 - 104:00 Debbie Downer today sorry guys um so um our nonprofit organizations are obviously taking on the chin too many of these nonprofit organizations provide important services and wraparound services to MCPS families so their loss of funding is going to have an impact on you all in a myriad of different ways too it's just another of too many to count examples of a cut here is going to mean an impact to you guys there we've already mentioned a couple of them but if we could add that to the mix looking
• 104:00 - 104:30 at nonprofit contractors that have contracts to provide programs in schools that are often funded by the county not by the schools would be an important thing to take a look at um HHS we are going to have joint sessions um but there are other cuts to other ancillary agencies that are going to have an impact on MCPS and vice versa what we did during the recession in 2007 is we formed these leadership teams we
• 104:30 - 105:00 essentially developed a war cabinet um and so we're going to re need to re recycle that so leadership from sister county agencies um worked collaboratively as we prepared the budget because what's going to be coming is a reduction so uh we will undoubtedly have a mid-year savings plan um and so that will so the we should be setting up the infrastructure in anticipation of that now so we minimize the impact because a cut here will mean
• 105:00 - 105:30 a cut over there and sometimes we forget what exactly that means so um that will come post this budget but something we should be thinking about and then conversely on the positive side um I know our incredible private philanthropy leaders are meeting and organizing around how they can strategically invest as they did during COVID and I give council chair Jando council vice president Jando a lot of credit um we
• 105:30 - 106:00 worked collaboratively but he took it to a different level um initially especially on connecting philanthropy to the food and security space we need to be that strategic again in figuring out where the where the most pressing holes are that county government can't fill on its own to target philanthropy to those areas they're asking we need to be able to provide them really clear answers so those are things we'll be you know discussing again during and post the budget process as well but thank you and
• 106:00 - 106:30 and lastly um I want to uplift and triple tap what Council Member Mink said in expressing our appreciation to the associations for being upfront and looking proactively for reductions within their own contracts that as as long as I've been around I haven't seen so which is a big deal a really big deal and it just goes to show that they want to be partners as well as they always are and yes we're going to get grumpy at each other we are through this budget
• 106:30 - 107:00 process because nobody's going to get everything that they're asking for or want um that spirit is so important especially right now and it's going to carry us through we can't point fingers at each other the way the federal government is we have to remain as united as we can even as uncomfortable as these conversations are going to be we can't take it personally thank you appreciate that i did I did want to mention the fund balance because we we've done some good work on that over the years uh and uh just since it's on the item list for today uh you know this
• 107:00 - 107:30 is something that historically has there's been some disagreement about how much was carried over but I think as it's presented in the packet I it's uh we're in a good place I just want to allow may miss C do you want to go over that and if there's any color you guys want to add to looks like you'll be uh you're projecting to be around 9 million which for a system this big is pretty pretty darn good I think but Yeah good or scary we don't but we're here for you we
• 107:30 - 108:00 just talked about how we're great partners thank you Chair Jando um just to add a little bit of information and context um starting where we left off last year in FY25 the beginning fund balance was um $18,893,57 with 7 million of that balance allocated for EB um leaving approximately $12 million um remaining
• 108:00 - 108:30 in unassigned funds ep meaning the benefits yes thank you um and when we're looking at the projected FY25 end of year unassigned fund balance um for this coming July we're looking um as you said at about $9 million uh we did just want to note also that this estimate has increased since we spoke a little bit about the fund balance in a previous work session regarding a $17 million special
• 108:30 - 109:00 education um supplemental appropriation um so even in that time you know we have seen growth which is always good to see um is there anything else thank you yeah I don't know we obviously did that appropriation to underscores the special education needs we had to transfer some fund balance money this year to uh to allow you to plug some holes but I don't know if there's anything you want to add on that um thank thank you Chair Jando and and I will say that um uh being
• 109:00 - 109:30 newly returned to the county and uh and and having uh served as a superintendent in a couple other districts uh keeping your eye uh through financial monitoring monthtomonth to month is critically important because you are looking at a couple of things one uh is to to figure out whether or not you're going to go to jail at the end of the year because you've over spent your your budget uh that is one of those things that I don't know about you but the folks sitting at the table don't look particularly good in orange it may be somebody else's
• 109:30 - 110:00 color but it's not mine and it's not any of these folks's color either um well we're we're going to pass on that uh and uh and and so it was very troubling uh that one of the notifications that I had to send to council and that I had to send to the executive was that we were projecting a deficit uh early on this year uh we did have to institute some internal controls and to rein in uh some um categorical
• 110:00 - 110:30 funding and uh excuse me categorical expenditures and we did that um we had uh some some tough internal conversations about how we we need to be a little bit more fiscally disciplined and uh I'm delighted that we've turned the ship around although that does introduce uh another challenge that we we carefully monitor and that we need to be attentive to is our cash flow and and making sure that we can pay our bills and that we can do things on time and so um I I appreciate the partnership we
• 110:30 - 111:00 need the partnership if we are going to run a tight fund balance like we are it is going to require us to have a good partnership and an understanding that when you're running a tenth of a point uh or 3/10en of a point uh in your fund balance that you that you do need a good partnership with your funding uh partners and so um it is it is absolutely appropriate that we have a fund balance it's important for people to know that it would be irresponsible
• 111:00 - 111:30 for us not to have a fund balance is just to make sure that that fund balance doesn't balloon and that we are spending uh money in the manner in which we communicate that we're spending money and that we are month-to-month managing our funds the way that we should and so far so good it's just it's a little harrowing a little white knuckle for us uh coming into the home stretch here we want to make sure that we're we're being good stewards we appreciate it and we appreciate the as we do on the committee the getting the financial reports and um
• 111:30 - 112:00 I just think this is an example of the partnership and of the progress you've made and the transparency so uh wanted to mention it since it was on the agenda for this this uh overview so I think we're I think we're we're done today we had a good overview we'll be back on um the 23rd of next week couple weeks two weeks uh after spring break which everyone needs um so my one of my kids was crying to get on the bus today i was just like "Two more days two more days
• 112:00 - 112:30 you just gota you just got to get on." Um so we wish everyone a a great spring break um and uh Passover and Easter for everyone who celebrates and and and we'll see you back in a couple of weeks thank you we are journ i'd want to be in downtown spring 3 2 1 and I just feel like the gym is a is a way to give back to the community