March 21, 2005
1:00 p.m.
Members Absent: Gail
Enos, Edward Gage, Ruth Gilbert, Mark Leach, Tom Thurston, and Robert
Vetrick. (all excused)
School Committee members as follows:
Terese Nelson, Molly Purdue, Deb
Trovato, and Burt
Wolfman.
School District personnel as follows:
Anthony Teso and Betty White
The meeting was called to order at 1:18 p.m.
Betty White was the first person to speak in response to the data request she (and all of them) had received. The questions she had received had to do with total value of grants and their length of time as compared to the school department expenditures. The School Committee was worried about one particular grant that supplied them with a school nurse. This one will be lost in one more year. Betty continued saying that the professional development part of one of the grants will easily be expended. Ms. White then stated that she felt she had answered most of the questions raised.
The
revolving accounts were discussed next and Betty felt the titles of the
accounts rendered them self explanatory, i.e.,
1.
Early
Learning
2.
Athletic
(receipts from basketball games – spent on athletic equipment and needs.)
3.
Industrial
Arts (children pay for wood for projects so it’s a wash.)
4.
Lost
Book – (as the name implies – replacement books.)
5.
Vandalism
– (if the perpetrator is caught then restitution is made.)
6.
Custodial
– (Group needing the services will be billed for such.)
Betty
also informed the FinCom that the school lunch program lost $15K last year and,
as a result, the lunch cost has been raised to $1.75.
School
Choice has a projected income of $240K and of that $232K will be expended.
Betty concluded her presentation after this
information was imparted.
Matthew
Clark said he felt the Committee seemed to have all the information they needed
and the following motion was made:
Motion: Gary Delius made a motion to approve the budget of $4,152,958.43; Virginia Ross seconded the motion and it was approved 5-0-0.
Gary
Delius said it would be helpful if the FinCom could see the complete picture of
the entire school budget. He added that
if there are items paid out of other areas he would like to see one format for
presentation to the FinCom. Gary
promised that he will look at simplification of presenting the expenditures.
Burt
Wolfman said they can do a consolidated budget but he pointed out the problems
with it and how arduous the auditing of it would be.
Matthew
Clark said that the FinCom seemed to receive only partial pictures at a
time. All the other Town budgets are on
one system but the School Dept. is difficult to assess. Virginia Ross added that we have a mind-set
to review the budget - line by line – and that can’t seem to be done.
Walt
Winnowski noted that the question of enrollment trends was glossed over. He requested more specifics. Mr. Teso said that enrollment is down all
over the Cape and the general trend favors the aging population gaining ground
over the young families. He further
promised that he has all the information on trends and will put together a
package to be shared with the FinCom.
The
School Department also said they are currently looking into adult education as
a means of supplementing the dwindling school population.
Terese
Nelson said she regards regionalization talks as an uncomfortable subject
mainly because she doesn’t want her kid on a bus for hours every week. She further said, “Hopefully with a new
Superintendent coming on Board, we’ll have some answers.” Burt Wolfman, without being specific, said
they’re discussing day care and year round programs, “We’re trying to fully
utilize our physical plant.” Terese
said we are going to become “A Campus For All Ages.”
Betty
White said that regionalization has always been around. It is not a new concept.
Mr.
Clark said that, from the perspective of the FinCom, it is great to hear about
these new concepts, but that they need to be more than lip service. There needs to be a business plan to develop
adult education, for example, that would set clear goals. FinCom could then evaluate the School’s
progress against these goals in evaluating future budgets.
Virginia
Ross asked if the School Department could utilize the schools for colleges who
would like to use the plant for Saturday and Sunday classes?
Mr.
Teso said that he’s dealing with the future and the focus is always on the
child. It’s his #1 priority.
Mr.
Clark, referring to the presentation of information stated that he applauds the
effort in the current budget to have the dollar value of the individual line
items reflect the School Committee’s expectation of how much will actually be
spent. Too often in the past,
communication between the School Committee and FinCom has been impeded by
dramatic increases and decreases in individual line items that turn out to be
nothing other than the fact that past budgets did not accurately reflect
projected spending. The discussions
regarding the increase in utility costs in this budget were a case in
point. He further noted that the
Schools had historically been able to cover large unexpected costs without
seeking additional funds. This fact has
led FinCom to wonder if there is implicit in the budget a shadow amount for
“contingencies?” And while it’s clear
that there are a lot of uncertainties in the operation of a district, it would
be easier from a budget review perspective to have any amount reserved for
contingencies clearly called out in the budget.
Betty
White said that you can’t do that and she cited the reasons why, i.e. teachers
suddenly retiring, teachers taking courses that move them up the salary ladder,
building maintenance, etc.
Mr.
Teso said this involves shifting priorities.
He never thinks about a de facto slush fund and/or a contingency
fund. He has no knowledge of any extra
money in this budget.
Wolfman
then changed the subject to borrowing as he began talking seriously about
2007. He said that the schools cannot
maintain the current level of debt service unless they cut personnel and
services. The initial $12M project was
approved by Town Meeting premised on a 10 year loan and the school wants a
clear dialogue that they cannot meet the payments unless they have the time
extended to a 20 year period.
Matthew
said the decision is not required until 2008.
Gary Delius felt it was a premature request.
Keith
Bergman said, “This is for budget
purposes. They need to know if it’s for
10 years or 20 years. It will make it
easier for us to move ahead.”
Mr.
Clark then asked why the Board of Selectmen did not join the School Committee
in recommending this? Keith replied the
reason was because the numbers were not solid.
Terese
Nelson said she was new on the School Committee when the 10 year repayment loan
was agreed to and she had been told at that time that 20 years was really
needed but it would never pass Town Meeting so a 10 year debt was
requested. She feels that since the
School Committee has made the decision to use the money from the sale of the
annex to make a down payment against the loan, they feel they are behaving
responsibly.
Gary
Delius said the state is changing its regulations so why not wait for these
changes in order to make a decision.
Matthew
Clark said while he would really like to poll the committee, he felt that given
that there were only five FinCom members present, and that he knew many of
those absent had strong feelings on the matter, he would prefer to defer a
final vote on the borrowing until a future meeting. Sue Buerkel agreed.
Terese
Nelson wondered if the School Committee would be invited? She was told that all the FinCom meetings
are public – so, yes, definitely they would be welcome to attend.
This portion of the meeting concluded at 2:45 p.m.
Public Hearing: Capital Improvements Program Articles for April 2005 Town Meeting
This portion of the
meeting opened at 2:46 p.m. and since there were no members of the public
present – this public hearing closed almost immediately.
Approval of March 14th minutes.
One sentence was
questioned: ATM 32 did not mention who
was speaking on it. It was followed by
a blank line and a question mark. It
was decided to just strike the entire sentence and ATM 32 would be decided at a
future meeting.
Motion: Matthew Clark made a motion to approve the minutes of the March 14th meeting with the one edit (mentioned above). Gary Delius seconded the motion and it was approved 4-0-1 abstention (W.W.)
Mr. Clark gave a proposed first draft of the “Message to Voters” to members of the FinCom. It was decided that members would take it home to read it fully and would discuss it at the meeting on this coming Thursday.
The next meeting is scheduled for Thursday, March 24th.
Sue Buerkel said that at that time we’ll finalize the schedule for the town meeting.
There was a brief discussion with Keith Bergman on a
number of issues on which FinCom had questions pending: the cost of the CEM sewer betterment
(Bergman confirmed the number in the Fiscal Policy Plan); the CEM sewer
connection charges (Bergman indicated these were to be paid out of the Waste
Water Enterprise Fund borrowing); historical CEM deficits; value of the land
for the Care Campus; and a number of other issues.
The meeting adjourned at 3:10 p.m.
Respectfully
submitted,
Evelyn Rogers Gaudiano
Approved by ____________________________on
______________, 2005
Sue Buerkel, Acting Chair