2025-02-11

February 11, 2025

The February general meeting was held on February 11, 2025.  It was held remotely due to the snowfall tonight.   There was nothing controversial discussed.

Agenda Item 11.02: Financial position report

Motion: Yes (carried: yes)

As discussed at the workshop last month, we will not need to go out for referendum in 2025.  This report explained the financial reasoning behind that decision.  The tl;dr is that we'll have enough money to get us through the July-October period where we don't receive any funds with about $3M in wiggle room.  In the event that our assumptions about the property reassessments are incorrect, we can revisit it later.

Agenda Item 11.03: FY2025 Final Budget

Motion: Yes (carried: yes)

The budget was mostly approved previously, but this was the final, official, for-real budget.  No surprises.

Agenda Item 11.04: Federal funding alternatives

Motion: Yes (carried: yes)

Given what we're seeing nationally with Trump and his goons gutting the federal government, I'm not optimistic about any federal funds being available for us next year.  And while I'd like to believe that the Delaware General Assembly would step in and fix things for us if that were to happen, this is the same General Assembly that makes its school districts go out and beg for money every few years, so I don't see them being all that enthusiastic to plug that funding gap.

There are two main concerns that I have, which both result in the same outcome:

1. The federal government stops providing funds to us because the Department of Education doesn't exist or is kneecapped or "cost savings" or some other excuse.

2. The federal government conditions our funding on something terrible, like giving up undocumented immigrants or terrorizing trans kids, and we don't play ball, so we don't get the money.

The motion:

I move that we direct the district to find alternative sources of funding, including designing a referendum if necessary, to cover the costs of anything currently paid for with federal funding in the event that such funding is not available next year, and present those alternatives to the board by the July 2025 board meeting.

Some other items of note:

1. Having the district give us  options might be useful ammo when fighting with our national representatives.

2. We already have 86% of our money for this year, and we believe that we will get everything.

3. Many of the other services/contractors/vendors we use might also receive federal funding.  If they don't get their money, then the services that they provide us might not be available in the future, so we would need to find replacement services for those, too (not just the things that we directly pay for with federal funds).

Agenda Item 11.05: Policy Review: 02.31 - Protection of Undocumented Students' Right to a Public Education: First reading

Motion: Yes (carried: yes)

As we discussed last meeting, the anti-ICE policy was kinda poorly worded, so the policy committee got a better version drafted.  It generally states the same things, but way, way clearer, and also gives some overall direction and rationale.

ICE can still fuck off, and next meeting, once the updated policy is approved on its second reading, they can fuck off in a clearer, more understandable manner.