Council/School Board Work Session   1/28/2021

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Thank you.

Thank you.

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So Kim.

I believe I have the ability to share my screen, so I'll start doing that now.

Thank you for having us.

Thank you.

All right, share.

There you go.

Kim, may I ask a question?

What is the difference between the restrictiveness of these dollars for schools versus what it is for local governments?

Now there are timing limits to spend it out.

Thank you.

Okay, and Renee, if you could please unmute, I would like for you to speak to that, because I know you're, I think I know the answer, but I want to make sure we get it right.

The CARES 1 funding expires on September 30th of 2022, and the CARES 2 funding expires on September 30th, 2023.

So Dr. Atkins, at this point, I'll turn it back to you to discuss all the details.

And there is, in all likelihood, there would be additional requests above that 50%.

So now we head into the summary and next steps.

I'm just trying to understand when we look at all of these line items.

And the social workers slash behavior specialists, psychologists, however we write up that description would be an important part of that entire process.

But it seems like as you were talking through it, I was getting the impression that most of these things are things that the school system would want to continue with exception to just supplies and things that are very specific to COVID.

Thank you.

and any additional appropriation that the city can provide for FY22, if that were possible, would start the process of reducing the school's dependency on one-time funding.

Does that also include this estimated increase of the 1.5 million or more that you were just talking about?

And then we would have to ask for salary increases and the usual that comes each year with our staff.

Then there's a possibility that that need would happen sooner.

We would certainly try to develop a budget in which we're using all of the CARES dollars that remain in order to take care of FY23, pushing us to FY24 in order to reconcile the use of one-time dollars.

but even though we're seeing level funding, there is, what is that exact amount that if it wasn't for CARES dollars that the- It's the 3 million, 3.3 million that you see here.

And so that's what I'm trying to get my head around.

So that 3.2, that then becomes the base for future years, and then we are going to have to figure that out, and then whatever the additional request.

And that's the way the cycle of the budgets roll over each year.

shows like historically how that build has been happening.

The FY21 base funding.

Yes, and I'm just trying to make sure.

That's the city's appropriation for FY21.

So that's just something that we that council will have to, you know, consider too.

Okay, I didn't remember.

But it was all for non-discretionary contract increases.

So there were a number of cuts and we took out the salary increase adjustment for teachers and staff.

Okay.

It's hard to know what you all want to be looking at.

City Council appropriated to us funding to add an additional teacher for the gifted at our elementary schools.

I just wanted to make clear that it wasn't, see which was which there?

Yes.

It just moved it from being what was viewed as a supplemental appropriation to being part of the ongoing appropriation, but it wasn't an increase for that.

The chart that says Charlottesville is not paying as much as other cities are towards education.

So with the zero line is like average.

So the statewide average is more than 66% of their budget goes to education.

So maybe this, so the chart on this page right here is a graph of this column, percent of average.

Okay, but if 66% of our budget is going towards education, according to that pie chart,

And Charlottesville was at 34% for 2018.

This is different than you said the absolute dollars that we do allocate.

This is a relative comparison of the percentage of the available dollars that gets allocated into each government function.

Do you have a sense for where we stack up when we talk about absolute dollars?

Well, you could look here on a per capita or per citizen basis.

I'm sorry.

But again, the breadth and depth of the programs in Charlottesville, we're in the very top echelon of as far as how we operate providing services beyond the SOQ for students.

so one locality's percentage could be a little bit higher than what ours would be because it includes all of your school salaries and the full complement of the school budget so some you know while the overall intent of this report is really good sometimes it's important to you know get in the weeds a little bit on the percentages and so it's not always apples to apples.

I encourage anyone who has an interest in this to check out the link because it does have some value for sure.

Basically, so council can get a sense of how much money is needed to cover all the need there and fully make that intervention to try to reduce the achievement gap.

and our approach to provide for those needs.

the ability to include that in the budget and what specifically that $125,000 might be able to accomplish in order related to food security and improving nutrition within the school system in our community.

the feeding in the community?

It may be more a question for Cultivate Charlottesville.

I'm not 100% sure.

could be one avenue towards getting there, not just in terms of test scores, but in terms of just the ability to have strong literacy and numeracy in that opportunity, and just what dollar amount that may take, and just more generally, how much money is needed from the city towards what specific interventions that are gonna be able to have measurable positive impacts, because clearly in the past, despite our huge per pupil investment, we just haven't been able to get where we need to be yet.

with a phenomenal graduation rate.

And that's all I had at this moment.

Is that, is that?

So each year, it would be the $1.5, not $1.5, and then another $3 million the following year, but each year $1.5.

The $3 million versus where we are today.

Correct.

Correct.

So next year it would be asked as a $1.5 million increase to the budget.

Yes.

Okay.

So you would see that actually coming up as a negative number.

Okay, so it will be presented as a new ask, not as a hold from this year.

Yes.

Ms.

And if that moves forward, it could very well affect the request for FY23 and beyond.

Or is this on top of any additional real estate dollars of the 40% that we automatically send over?

But check me on last year, though, that this would be, is that accurate, Dr. Atkins?

The meals and lodging taxes have also played a big role in what the city has been able to do as far as funding education.

But was that something that we received last year?

I don't know if Chrissy or Ryan could comment on that if you all know off the top of your head what 40% property increase was last year.

I was looking for the chart while you guys were talking, hoping to be able to find it before it was asked, but I do believe it was above.

which would also include the CARES money next year as well.

Am I making sense, Ryan or Chrissy?

So it's one of the topics we did have for further discussion.

We'll see.

And speaking of revenue, again, if we find ourselves in a position that we're going to be taking a reduction in our budget, would you all just be going further into your CARES funding to make up those gaps?

So I'd certainly want to have that discussion with the board.

But as I'm thinking about our budgeting process that we will be going through in the next month or two, I wonder if you have any light that you can shed for us on capital expenditures, in particular, where you stand with decision making on the reconfiguration and that whole problem.

Mr. Snook, are you asking me?

All I know is I don't know.

Our board has taken action on the recommendation for the reconfiguration and now the discussion is with council on how to move that project forward or if that project will move forward.

Is that something that is lurking in the bowels of City Hall that has not been divulged to us?

Capital stuff in general or specifically reconfiguration?

That's the thing that as we look at the next five years of the city financial planning, that's the elephant in the room.

We've said that we want to commit that amount of money, knowing that regardless of reconfiguration, the city schools are going to need significant capital investment.

So if that's not a discussion to be having at the moment, we'll have to have it some other time.

And I don't know.

The bottom line for us in our budgeting discussions in the next two months is that those numbers will continue to be placeholders.

Yes.

Okay.

So then we're talking about whether to do the, you know, major projects or whether we're going to start just saying this is the amount of money and what do you see best, you know, as the best use for it.

I think we kind of backed into that number just understanding like our debt ceilings, like our capacity for taking out debt.

And even this major one with the schools that we all acknowledge that we need significant repairs to all of our schools.

But all of the specifics that Mr. Snook has identified are certainly questions that we get every day as well.

Yes, so the firm has been selected.

Okay, and so what is, have we contracted with them, and are we, and what is the timeline for that?

Mr. Blair, do you have an update there?

I know they were in negotiations, but I'm not certain if the contract has been executed yet.

Or would there be additional support needed from the city in order to cover some of that infrastructure just to handle basic updates related to the pandemic?

Kim, you want to give an explanation?

So that line is addressing the question you're asking, I believe.

Okay, so that would cover the ongoing.

So there's filters associated with that too.

And so those CARES dollars aren't reflective here because those were early on in the process, right, when you were applying them to these more mechanical needs.

Oh, so the purchase of that equipment has been born, was actually ended up being born out of a large portion of it is from the CARES money that the city received on that tight deadline to spend.

We had a section of that CARES money was going to school.

The only other slide we have in the deck, there's an appendix to this with supplemental information from Jim Reginball and our student enrollment projections and all that stuff's in the appendix, but just the last slide is just the upcoming dates so you can see how the process continues for the school board.

the Charlottesville City School Board will take action on the budget in February 18th and after they take action on the budget, then we will be presenting at your City Council meeting March 1st and giving you the opportunity then to weigh in and take action in April if you so desire.

But just speaking individually, I'd definitely be interested in pursuing that further.

So thank you for bringing that forward.

100%, and I would say I think I'm in the exact same place, just curious to know more and begin the conversation, but thank you.

If you need food or if your family needs food for breakfast and lunches, it's a pretty easy phone call every day to the distribution sites, and you can get your students some breakfast and lunch, so FYI.

I haven't read this proposal yet so I don't know exactly what they're asking and then during our budget meetings we need to have the discussion because I think we're in the second year of the increase in funding to match the grant that we, was it $150,000?

$5,000 per year, yes, that is correct.

So we are already participating in and supporting that program.

But I do have to read that myself to figure out what they are requesting.

First of all, by what number are we down in our enrollment this school year as opposed to last year at this time?

Submission to VDOE with our official end of last school year, 258.

Are they going to private schools or what's happening?

Of course, they're dealing with a much smaller population of students to serve.

We're seeing many of our families holding their student out at the kindergarten level.

I forgot, but that was talked about quite a bit in the phone.

And a number of homeschool students for this year.

So we would still expect to be down about 100 from, let's say, a year ago for the next year.

So we think we will be able to recover at least that 65% and perhaps more.

As if instead of 65%, 50% come back, what does that do to your budget?

We would again use those two open positions to hire or we would use those two open positions not to hire and to reduce the budget.

And for every student who does not come back, what does that cost you all?

I'm going to let Kim Powell.

Renee, do you have our per pupil from the state, our latest, I can't remember the last time I updated it.

Thank you.

That's all I got.

And if anybody else has questions, please.

I wasn't trying, I just, I was trying to wrap my head around what we might be expected the next couple of years and to think in this longevity of, you know, the impact of COVID on our budget is going to be impacting the next couple of years and just trying to balance that and trying to think forward what commitments we will have to maintain

Not for me, but for some people.

Are we ready to do that now, or does anybody else have any questions?

Yes, Mr. Wheeler.

We can, go ahead.

So thank you so much for all you're doing and I appreciate your time.

Thank you.

Jordan, can you hear us?

Thank you.

Beth, can you hear us?

Thank you, Mr. Wheeler.

Yeah, go ahead.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right, can you hear us?

Yes, can you hear me?

You've got three minutes.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Can you hear us?

Yes, thank you.

I see your mic is unmuted.

Sorry, I'm so sorry.

You just need to speak up a little bit.

I'm so sorry, I'm bad.

It looks like she disconnected there.

Rosie, you did a great job.

Thank you.

Hallie, can you hear us?

Yeah, I can hear you.

Yeah, go ahead.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Tamara, can you hear us?

And I'm sharing my time with my daughter.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Tamara, did you wanna continue?

Thank you.

Thank you.

Madam Chair, Madam Mayor, I don't see any additional hands.

Counselors, do you have any additional questions or comments for Dr. Atkins or the school board?

Board members, do you have any comments, questions?

And I know that you will give us.

Thank you.

Can we invite the Cultivate Charlottesville folks to an upcoming board meeting so that they could provide specifics to us and to the public as well?

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right.

Okay.

You want to call it?

All five members of council are present at this time and have been for the entire meeting.

And I will adjourn the meeting for Charlottesville City School Board.

And everyone,