Finance Committee Meeting Minutes – 02.08.23

By Lake Country Classical Academy | February 8, 2023

Lake Country Classical Academy

Finance Committee Meeting Minutes

Wednesday February 8, 2023, at 12 PM

Call to Order

  • Finance Committee Chair Brian Hastings called the meeting to order at 12:06PM. 
  • Finance Committee member Lori Kaari [Controller] and Brian Hastings [Board Treasurer] were in attendance.  Dan Furhman [Board VP] was not in attendance.
  • Additional attendees included Margaret Daigneau [LCCA Head Principal] and Todd Gray [LCCA Advisor].

Approval of Agenda / Consent Agenda:

  • Proposed agenda for February 8, 2023 was confirmed.
  • Minutes from the January 11, 2023 meeting was approved and will be posted to the LCCA website.

Monthly Financial Report – by Lori Kaari

  • Lori presented the financial reports.  
  • Cash on hand ~$550,000.  Projecting cash at end of fiscal year ~$1.1MM.  This is inclusive of paying off remaining $250,000 of private notes that were extended by those note holders until the new authorizer was settled.  Have not yet drawn on the LOC and don’t expect we will need to.  Waukesha State Bank reached out indicating they were comfortable moving forward with the $400,000 term note with the LOI in place from Paul Farrow.  Will investigate the interest rate change and report to the Board in 2/15/2023 meeting.
  • The committee previously discussed some larger items where Skyward reports shows we are significantly under budget.  One of these items relates to wage/benefits as a portion of our staff has elected to be paid through mid-August vs. end of June.  The amount in this 6 week period is not accrued for in the YTD actuals reports.  If 7/12 of this is added to actual, we are still trending ~10-15% below budget.  We will continue to dig into actual vs. budget YTD performance and feed that into the revised budget that the Board will vote on in June.
  • Lori noted we are looking for ways to use volunteers in the business office.
  • Discussed the repayment of private notes once the term note is closed on with Waukesha Bank.  Private note holders had previously agreed to defer repayments due in December until after this occurred.

Old Business

  • GAAP financial reporting template update
    • Todd Gray continues to investigate with CESA 5 the ability of constructing a simple GAAP type formatted financial statement that can be presented on a quarterly basis.  
  • 5YR Projection Discussion
    • Good discussion with another bonding entity, this time an underwriter (vs. financial advisor).  They have financed $2B in charter schools, including a few Hillsdale Charter schools and another large independent charter school provider.  They indicated the best time of year to go to market is in January, which fits our anticipated timeline well.  Additionally, since bond rates have are tied to long term rates that have stabilized recently (short term rates are what have been on the rise), our initial thinking on interest rates was higher than what we are likely to see.  This improves the overall affordability of a bond.  Additionally, we learned that the first couple of years the principal payments can be deferred to lower total debt service until enrollment organically grows from re-enrollment of the younger grades.  E.g. 25-26 12th grade class is 30, but 12th grade will be 52 in 29-30 based on a larger 8th grade class in 25-26.
  • Accounting policies update
    • Redline has been circulated to committee members.  A separate meeting will be scheduled to discuss.  In particular, review of the budgeting calendar to better align with staff contract renewal timing.  As an example, the preliminary budget presentation for the following fiscal year may move up to January from February to give administration enough breathing room.

New Business 

  • 23-24 Prelim Budget to be presented to the Board in 2/15/23 meeting
    • Margaret/Lori refreshing the content that was reviewed in 1/6/23 offsite meeting.
    • Will need to summarize capital/opex cost tied to the facilities expansion so the bank can understand the justification. Will schedule a meeting with Waukesha State Bank to discuss once the details are finalized.

Confirmed the next meeting will be virtual via Microsoft Teams on Wednesday, March 8th.  All future meetings are expected to occur virtually on the 2nd Wed of the month 12-1PM unless otherwise noticed.

The finance committee meeting adjourned at 1:15PM.