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HomeMy WebLinkAboutFCMeetingMinutes_03.25.15 1 TOWN OF NORTH ANDOVER FINANCE COMMITTEE Meeting Minutes Meeting Date March 25, 2015 Meeting Location: Police Department Community Room Bill Callahan, BC Chairman Susan Almono SA X X Marta Solof MS Timothy Tschirhart TT X X Karin Blake KB Liz Gerron LG X X Thomas Ringler TR X Chris Nobile CN X Donald Elliot DE Vice Chair Non FinCom Members in Attendance OTHERS: Lyne Savage, Jim Mealey, Kevin Hutchinson, Andrew Maylor, Stan Limpert Note: All FINCOM votes are subject to change upon receipt of new information. Note: Documents used in this meeting are listed in Document Table, herein. II. Previous Minutes Approved March 18, 2015 as amended 2 Agenda A Meet with School Department JM: gives an over view of all aspects of school budget. Funding Sources 1.General Fund: annual operating expenses funded through local taxes Governed by federal and state regulation , funds can be transferred between Budget line items during year 2.Revolving Accounts Individual accounts set up for specific programs, Funding from fees and donations, some are independent from general fund. 3.Grants supplement general funds, cannot transfer between lines, funded by Federal and state funds. Grants awarded annually by awarding entity. 4.Circuit Breaker Reimbursement for special education expenses. that comes directly to school department. Expenditures over 4 times the state per pupil cost for any one Student. Amount determined annually 5.Capital Projects funds used to build, replace or improve the facilities, grounds Primary source of funding is through local taxes. Included in the listing of indirect expenses. 6.Indirect Expenses annual expenses not included in the operating Budget. Primary source is through local taxes these include employee benefits insurances and functions performed by other departments. 7.Shared Expenses: expenses for consolidated departments both technology and Facilities are consolidated departments funded through local taxes. Total school budget General fund $43,612.479 Circuit breaker $1,423,157 (estimate) Grants 1,715,084 (title one Revolving accounts 3,199,489 (same as last year) Indirect cost $13, 220,733 Shared expenses went down slightly $810,6378 BC Question on Indirect expenditures, health insurance going down but insurance for retired school Employees is up is OPED affecting school? LS this is a redistribution, we used to get charged state assessment on retired teachers now we take full Burden of it because we are state insured now. JM FY 16 Projected increase is 3.50% going into budget focus was to retain teaching positions, reasonable class size, technology to support teaching and learning. Provide effective and efficient Special Education services and transition to Performance Based Budgeting. Projected funds over level services $312,688.31.We create a priority list based on initiatives and identify needs. And then prioritize them (pg23 fy16 budget to fincom) th LG To understand the process, can you explain how the 6 grade teacher was assigned top priority? th KH this has been neglected for years. Class size has been unfair for 6 grade. Allows us to be more consistent with teachers. JM Budget notes 2.25%salary increase Stabilization fund would allow $280K to be used for new initiatives New Administration building allow $92K in lease payment to be reallocated Enrollment projections continue to trend level growth. 3 begin with then added. .5% for other things ($210) plus money paid from lease plus money saved from ESCO then subtract out anticipated out of district cost. This gives you the $310K that you can spread around to other programs. BC Title one funds are up is that directly tied to social economic status? KH reported from the census of the previous year. Gone up from 5% to almost 15% JM also impacts revolving accounts higher the number less revenue for revolving accounts. CN: Would like to see a chart that shows the number of children that go from Middles School to High School. That figure would show how our district accommodates them. KH When we do budget presentation we categorize 1)Teaching positions and Class Size Impact of bubble classes (there may be a difference from one grade level to another of 70 students these are called bubble classes) School Committee goals (ideally would want smaller classes) Pressure Point (spotty redistricting) Affect on Level 1 status 2)Budgeting for performance initiatives Curriculum and instructional leadership (created 2 k-12 curriculum coordinators Eliminated all department chairs at high school dedicated fund to k-12 support) Literacy Model (Literacy coaches , response to intervention ) Focus on High Needs Technology for Teaching and Learning Special Education Programs JM shows staffing spreadsheet Gives FY 16 Highlights th 6 Grade Teacher $54K TOP Program $63K Special Education Program $69K HS Guidance and Textbooks $54K Technology $72,688 Special Education Stabilization $750K JM shows enrollment projection model. LG: question on utility savings? Right now we are in a consortium for energy savings what happens with the 280K in savings when we lose those nice rates. JM we just received our next 3 year rates. Committing to 3 years we got the lower rate. BC thanks Dr. Hutchinson for his years of service. 4 Agenda B Financial Reserve Policy AM forwarded to Bill the amended Financial Reserve Policy two amended were included 1)Language to talk about rules around a special education reserve fund. Within draft warrant there is an article to create a special education fund under chap 40 this is for dealing with unforeseen situations within special education need a financial reserve policy which describe what it for how it will be used and how it will be replenished. 2) OPEB Trust. Current article talks about a 500K transfer from health insurance trust fund to And OPEB trust. There seemed to be an interest from this committee to want to use trust and so I have recommended the transfer of 500k. next phase and get to minimum threshold allowed for those funds to be invested by state fund. As a trust fund, bond rating agencies counts that as our way of addressing OPEB liability. Agenda C New Business st BC Next meeting is the Public Hearing April 1 Open meeting with public comments and concerns. Need to start thinking about recommendations and letter. I will do a skeleton outline for our letter. Put Draft together for the 8th IV. Next Meetings April 1, 2015 V. Adjournment- Motion: KB Seconded: LG Time: TYPE FROM TO SUBJECT COMMENTS ITEM # 1 Budge book Town Manager 2 School department budget presentation 3 5 6 7 8