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Home My WebLink AboutFCMeetingMinutes_03.22.16 TOWN OF NORTH ANDOVER FINANCE COMMITTEE Meeting Minutes Meeting Date March 22, 2016 Meeting Location: Police Station Community Meeting Room Bill Callahan, Chairman BCXSusan Almono,SAX Donald Elliot, DE Vice Chair Timothy Tschirhart, TT X Karin Blake,KBLiz Gerron, LG X Thomas Ringler, TRXAngela Ciofolo, ACX Chris Nobile, CNX Jennifer Goldman, JGX Dr. Jennifer Price (Price), School Superintendent James Mealey (Mealey), Assistant School Superintendent 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. Calltoorder6:47 BC: We will go out of order from the agenda. BudgetPresentation NorthAndoverPublicSchools–Dr.JenniferPrice,Superintendent;Mr.JamesMealey, Assistant SuperintendentforFinanceandOperations Discussion starts on or about 6:48/00:00:30on video time (Reference handout from Jim Mealey, includesProposed FY17 Budgetwith charts and Power Point Presentation) Price: Asked the Board to read her Proposed Budget that was submitted at tonight's meeting and then she turnedit over to Mealey. Mealey:I will get into what goes into the school budget. Mealey: Spoke on the the School Department various funding Sources(Power Point 3) Mealey: Stated that Circuit Breaker is always an interesting one,this is a reimbursement for Special Education expenses from the previous year (Power Point 7). 1 March 22, 2016 Mealey: Spoke of the AnnualCircuit Breaker Reimbursement Graph (Power Point 10),stating theleft hand side represents the amount we receivedfor reimbursement andthe righthand sideis the amount we claimed. Mealey:Spokeof the various Grants (Power Point 13),the GrantTotal is $1,814,694 Mealey: Commented that the biggest expense in the School Budget (indirect) comes from insurance for active employees,for a total of $3,587,403 (Power point 15) Mealey: Stated that the TotalSchool Budget in Shared Expenses is over $810,678 (Power Point 16). Mealey: Went over the Total School Expenses both direct and indirect expenditures (Power Point 17). Discussion starts on or about 7:08/00:20:29 on video time(Price) Price: Spoke of theadditional 1.6 million dollars that has been allocated (Power point 18). Price: Spoke of the grades and class sizes(Power Point 20). Price: Went over the4 Critical areas for improvements that she identified in her Report (Power Point 21) Price:Commented thatshe presented the budget to the teachers first before she presentedit to the School Committee. Ifthis budget did not meet the teacher’s needs,then she was not doing the right thingwith this budget. Price:The budget wentover well with the teachers. Price: Budget is what we can do,not what we can’t do Price: Spoke of the Increased Library/Media Specialist and how they share the Library Media Specialist at the elementary level (Power Point 26). Price: Spoke how important it is to keep children in district. We don’t keep children in district to save money,we do it because it is in the best interest of the child, but it is not always the right answer to keep a child in district; every case is different (Power Point 2). Price: Also spokeof Clinical support for some of these Children, and also how stability for some of these kids is nota reality. Some of these kids have a very unstable home life. Price: spoke of the Related Arts Position in the Middle Schooland this gives the MiddleSchool Students the opportunity to be exposed to more than one language (Power Point 28). Price: We are putting back an additional .5 reading teacher, this is a move in the right direction (Power Point 29). Price: Spoke of Reserving Teachers each year, but use that fund for a onetime expense. The other thing Price is proposing is classroom furniture (onetime expense). Some of this furniture is falling a part and we are in desperate need of furniture (Power Point 30). Price:Directed everyone to the chart labeled “Per Pupil Expenditures FY10-FY15”. Price stated in FY15 we spent $12,069 per student. Our school age population has increased. North Andover is one of the lowest paying per student (according to the chart). Price: Stated that the average teacher’s salary is $74,000. We have quality teachers that have experience. Price:thequality of the faculty and staff goeswell above and beyond for our students. It is really important that we maintain that and to always attractgood teachers. Price: Stated that we need to increase our ELL Support (Power Point 32). 2 March 22, 2016 Price: Commented that she has been very concerned that the Human Resources side has not grown. We need a Human Resource Director to support our employees (Power Point 34). Price: Our plan is to open up next year with a $218,624 Special Education Contingency (Power Point 42). Mealeyand Price went over the remaining additionalPower Point slides BC:Schools are doing so much better underAndrew Maylor. BCThen commented that the schools are doing substantially better. It is plain as day that the town is workingmore cooperativelyand collaboratively tohelp our students. BC:Commented to Price,what you have done already has gonewell beyond what a first year superintendent would do.We have become a change sensitive community and that is a testament to you (Price), your intellect, interpersonal skills and emotional intelligence. Finance Committee: thank you very much MealsTaxRepealPresentation Discussion starts on or about8:49/02:00:48on video time On page 30 of the2016 Town Meeting Warrant (Draft) Article 15,Citizen’s Petition to the Town of North Andover to eliminate its local option meal tax BC:Wanted therecord to reflect that he invitedMr. Stan Novak, (petitioner of the warrant)totonight’s meeting BC:Stated that he triedvarious methods to contact Novak. BC: Commented that he tried to reach Novak byphone (twice), triedtoreachout to him on Social Media and even sent out registered mailto invite him to tonight's meeting to state his case. Mr. Novak was invited and he did not come to tonight’s meeting. This meal tax has been in place since FY13 and has added $500,000 in revenue. CN: This is one tax that those who do not live in Town have helped supportthis tax, just byeating at one of our Town's Restaurant's(or take outs). BC:Commented that next week isthe Public Hearing. BC: Also, we willbe voting on thisArticle15 andother articlesin The Town Warrant BC:Asked theCommittee to go to Page 13and 14 ofthe Town Warrant Book (Draft)to point out all of the articles in the Town Warrant that we will be voting onnext week. Approval of Minutes from March 15,2016 Discussion starts on or about 9:07/02:18:00 on video time JG: Made a motion to accept CN: Second the Motion All in favor Adjourn9:06 TT: Made a motion to adjourn JG: Second the motion All in favor 3 March 22, 2016 Document Table SUBJECT FROMTO *1. Local options meals Tax Repeal (E-mailed 17 March 2016) Fincom **2.Finance Committee Minutes March 15,2016 AC Fincom ***3. Linksfrom schools FY17 Budget(E-mailed 17 March 2016) MealeyFincom ***4.Superintendent's Executive Summary of the FY17 budget Mealey Fincom * 5.Draft 2016 Annual Town Meeting Warrant Maylor Fincom ****6.Superintendent proposed FY17 budget w/charts (Plus Power Point Presentation) Mealey Fincom --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *located in the DropBox ** All minutes located in the Town’s website under Finance Committee Website, under Minutes with the appropriatedate ***E-mail from BC ****passed out during start of meeting Note all videos of meetings can be reviewed on the Home page of the North Andover Website Directions: 1.Click on “NA CAM Cable Access Live Streaming” 2.Click on Check Schedule 3.Click on the appropriate date of meeting on the calendar 4.Click on Finance Committee ( in middle under calendar) 5.Click on Streaming Video (on right) 6.Video should appear 4 March 22, 2016