William brought up EOY expectations and looked at details that he's adjusted.

Salary: Trending high on teacher assistant (updated)

Contracted Food Services: Over budget, and he's updated expected spending based on current trend.

Asked if there are other capital improvement projects that are planned: 

Travis Gresham: FEMA funds for retention pond & other things are in place to correct those items.

William reemphasized we're in deficit position (2006k is capital improvement, which will be added back in) With that accounted for, at 220k expected deficit.

If we finish in deficit & fall short of coverage ratio, will be required to either need to hire a consultant or make the case that William is our consultant.

Coverage ratio: if fall below 1.0,  will be in technical default.

WE NEED TO BUDGET TO MEET THIS RATIO BY

Cory Draughon is here to give full support, reaffirming CSP's commitment to our success.

he reemphasized need for 2027 & 5-year budgeting.

Keep bondholders informed early. Let them know when we have a plan, not waiting for them to react to a coverage ratio fail.

Offered to give a dialed-back financial report for the board meeting & make sure we have a full report given to the board. CSP creates that report for us (doesn't include the forecast column).

These are public record.

Alyson Weimar emphasized the context is missed by the public b/c they don't come to board meetings.

Alyson Weimar has some questions:

Staff & teacher ratios as well as Salary & benefits: are these inflated due to the high school?

Cory: HS is > expensive and charters need to have larger classrooms to make it work.

Alyson: if we vote to close the HS, we may have the higher debt, but have taken action to address that...is that a decent strategy?

Cory: I believe so. The bondholders aren't interested in managing the school, but in their investment. 

Alyson: Are we expecting reimbursement for lunch program?

Travis: Not expected: She, ben & Brookley are meeting with Jennifer Brown to see next steps for getting lunch program setup, but not there yet. Historically, we've run ~100k deficit here to give free/reduced to needy students.

Travis emphasized salaries & bonuses are a piece we need to focus on.

Rob tasked Ben and his facilities committee to find financial impacts and plan should we

a. close Dellwood

b. keep Dellwood open (additional costs we've not already discussed)

Ben said will discuss what to do with buildings (sell to Lake J? on the market?)

Ben brought up: Salaries for custodial, which is under expenses. This is inaccurate, and should be between 110-115k (currently 60k)

Alyson Weimar: Budget must be made in CSP 

Are we able to see and compare past spending to make projections for future years?

Travis Gresham: Yes, the system is flexible and she is available to run whatever is needed.

Cory Draughon (CSP) shared Budget Template (w/5year), showing us how to access it.

Tabled until next meeting. 

Rob will reach out to Brook Buckelew, Barby Bowser and Augusta Adeleke to join the finance committee.

We did not meet due to inclement weather

William had final statement for today:

As Ben is receiving information on cost to wind down Dellwood, please pass onto William.

Alyson confirmed if we confirm keeping Sr class only will be at Russ campus, so can begin process of winding down Dellwood.

Based on prev 2 years' operations, if we continue as we have, we will be in danger of not meeting cash flow needs & expectations.

Alyson: We've been taking from savings, right? (William: yes) So did we need to pull during fiscal 23 or 24?

William: fiscal 23 we had loan that helped us.

fiscal 24, 

Alyson: Since the HS opened, each fiscal year, we've continued to not be able to meet budget?

William: Correct.

William: Class size must be sufficient to make it.

Alyson looked at previous board's planning for opening the HS, and they expected substantially higher enrollment by this time than has materialized.

Travis offered her services to pull any historical information that we would like.

Travis wants to schedule time with William and the finance committee to build the budget.