Note 9. Employee Stock Ownership Plan

The Company sponsors a leveraged employee stock ownership plan (the "ESOP") that covers all nonunion employees who work 1,000 or more hours per year and are employed on June 30. The Company makes annual contributions to the ESOP equal to the ESOP's debt service less dividends on unallocated shares received by the ESOP. All dividends on unallocated shares received by the ESOP are used to pay debt service. Dividends on allocated ESOP shares are recorded as a reduction of retained earnings. As the debt is repaid, shares are released and allocated to active employees, based on the proportion of debt service paid in the year. The Company accounts for its ESOP in accordance with FASB ASC 718-40 “Compensation-Stock Compensation”. Accordingly, the shares purchased by the ESOP are reported as Unearned ESOP Shares in the statement of financial position. As shares are released or committed-to-be-released, the Company reports compensation expense equal to the current average market price of the shares, and the shares become outstanding for earnings-per-share (EPS) computations. The ESOP borrowed from the Corporation an amount equal to the purchase price. The loan will be repaid in fifteen (15) equal annual installments of principal commencing June 2021. The Board of Directors has fixed the interest rate and the unpaid balance will bear interest at a fixed rate of 3.00% per annum. ESOP compensation expense was $1,084,057 and $622,472 for the years ended June 30, 2026 and 2025, respectively.

The ESOP shares as of June 30, 2026 and 2025 were as follows:

The Company may at times be required to repurchase shares at the ESOP participants’ request at the fair market value. During the years ended June 30, 2026 and 2025, the Company did not repurchase shares previously held by the ESOP.

The ESOP allows for eligible participants to take whole share distributions from the plan on specific dates in accordance with the provision of the plan. Total share distributions from the ESOP during the year ended June 30, 2026 totaled 57,954, of which 31,011 were liquidated and 26,943 were transferred. Total share distributions from the ESOP during the year ended June 30, 2025 totaled 67,320, of which 23,393 were liquidated and 43,927 were transferred.