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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2025-03-25 Finance Committee Minutes IN . di F11 ilnia,*', w)C le", C 0 m n'",,1,14't t e eil, I M W w "of it fir u vvaM e,P amwi Wwwm iM III i°Ili°Pull I 'd. i Call To Order: Ms. Allen called the meeting to order at 7:02PM. The open session meeting took place in the Select Board Meeting Room at Town Hall on 120 Main Street.. Presento,Vice Chair Christine Allen, Regina Kean, Nancy Sarro, Brianna Stetson, Keith Chaney, Dustin Silk, and Jeanne Irwin. Not Present: Chair Denevan O'Connell and Eva Pastor PUBLIC COMMENT Public comment via emails. PUBLIC HEARING MOTION: Ms. Kean motioned to open the Public Hearing on the Proposed FY26 Operating Budget and Capital Improvement Plan. Ms. Sarro seconded. Motion approved 7-0. Proposed FY26 Operating Budget and Capital Improvement Plan Shannon Gately of 40 Phillips Court discussed her involvement in the effort to fund North Andover schools properly. Mandi Imasogie of Methuen expressed her disappointment in the proposed budget and how it will affect the students and teachers. Jennifer Fraser of 25 Herrick Road discussed her involvement within the high school as a Spanish teacher and expressed the need for more money to be allocated to the schools. Alejandro Saravia of 65 High Street expressed the importance of providing a good education to their students and stated the schools need to be funded properly for this to happen. Kristine Jordan of Haverhill discussed how cutting positions and laying off teachers affects the relationships students have built. Victoria Lonardo of 191 Beach Road in Salisbury expressed how special it has been to be a teacher at North Andover Middle School. Matthew Routhier of 61 Brentwood Circle expressed his hope for the Finance Committee to reconsider the schools'budget. Erin Blanchard of 2001 Salem Street asked what could be done to tax more so that money can go to the schools. Ms. Blanchard asked if that was truly out of the hands of North Andover and at the state level. Ms. Blanchard stated that the Finance Committee needs to put the money where it will benefit the town. Ms. Blanchard expressed her concern for the long term with the poor choices that have been made. di "Fil in,43,*', w)C le", C 0 m n'",,1,14't t e el" cl M 11 w "of . I W it fir u vvaM e,P amwi Wwwm iM III i°Ili°Pull I 'd. i Rebecca Cesarski of 498 Osgood Street asked if they were going to get the benefits of cutting the numbers now as you will in a few years, and what is going to happen to the at-risk students. Ms. Cesarski expressed how the larger class sizes will affect students on IEPs. Mary Lacey of 16 Algonquin Road discussed how important every position is within a school and expressed her concern about the lack of funds going forward with costs increasing. Juliette Darman of 32 Clarendon Street discussed how the cuts will affect the schools, teachers, and students. Jeff Arciero of 93 Wintergreen Drive expressed his disappointment regarding some of the comments made at the last Finance Committee meeting. David Brady of Manchester, NH expressed that if they are not giving their students the tools to understand the world they are growing up in, they will grow to be adults who cannot understand the world. Deanna Dunn of 73 Brentwood Circle discussed the devastation that will occur due to the cuts being made. Alejandro Saravia of 65 High Street discussed how important it is to take school culture into consideration. MOTION: Ms. Kean motioned to close the Public Hearing on the Proposed FY26 Operating Budget and Capital Improvement Plan. Mr. Chaney seconded. Motion approved 7-0. Vote on FY26 Operating Budget and Capital Improvement Plan Ms. Kean responded to some of the questions that were presented during the Public Hearing. Ms. Kean stated she values the contributions of the teachers and understands the impact the cuts have on the students. Ms. Kean stated anyone can go on the North Andover town website and look at the digital budget book to see exactly where the dollars are going. Ms. Kean stated this money is not going into nonvalue added things. Ms. Irwin stated they are listening, and they are trying. Ms. Stetson stated they are trying to come up with a solution that meets all of the town's needs. Ms. Sarro stated taxes are going to be raised for everyone, but they are limited by Proposition 2%. Ms. Sarro stated the reason they can raise taxes is because they have not used the full tax levy. Ms. Kean stated using one-time revenue funds is how they got into this position in the first place. Ms. Kean stated if they use free cash, they will be in the same position next year when the free cash is gone, and they will be in a problem situation if there is an emergency. Ms. Allen stated the change in Royal Crest would have brought several million dollars a year specifically earmarked for the schools. Ms. Allen stated regarding transparency, there is no meeting that they cannot see if they choose to see it, and the Superintendent and Town Manager work hard to get information out to the residents. Ms. Allen stated they are in this position because they received a lot of money due to COVID to remediate problems that had happened. Ms. Allen stated those were one-time funds that were used for continuing expenses. Ms. Allen stated this whole year has been to address that problem and to discover what the budgets really should have been. Ms. Allen stated her hope, if they can di F11 ilnia,*', w)C le", C 0 m n'",,1,14't t e eil, ect M 11 w "of . I W it fir u vvaM e,P amwi Wwwm iM III i°Ili°Pull I 'd. i get through this year and work hard to make things better, is that they will not find themselves in this position again next year. Ms. Kean stated she does not want to say no to the $68.2 million budget and instead advocate for a level services budget because they do not have the money. Ms. Kean stated she is not willing to suggest that they cut other department's budgets because they are already slim. Ms. Kean stated one of the comments was that there was support of an override if the money only went to the schools, but there may be other people in town who would probably be supportive of an override that went somewhere else. Ms. Kean stated it needs to be looked at for the entire community. Ms. Kean stated because they are using the excess levy capacity that they will have to ask citizens to vote for a debt exclusion for the Kittredge School renovation. Mr. Keohane stated the overall dollar amount for the budget is$136,325,652. Ms. Irwin asked if they vote in favor of the Town Manager's recommended budget, is that blocking in the figure for the schools at$68.2 million. Ms. Allen stated yes. MOTION: Ms. Kean motioned to approve for Favorable Action on the FY26 Operating Budget of $136,325,652. Mr. Chaney seconded. Motion approved 7-0. Ms. Allen asked if there were any changes within the Capital Improvement Plan. Mr. Keohane stated they changed a few things. Mr. Keohane stated they were moved from the operating budget into the capital budget. Mr. Keohane stated there is one change which relates to the funding for capital for the sewer and water enterprise funds. Mr. Keohane stated there are a handful of items that were previously a debt authorization and will now be utilized retained earnings from those funds. Mr. Keohane stated the change does not affect the amount for the Capital Plan, it just changed the proposed funding. Ms. Allen asked if it is$15.2 million. Mr. Keohane stated yes. MOTION:Ms. Kean motioned to approve for Favorable Action on the FY26 Capital Improvement Plan of $15,234, 998.61. Mr. Silk seconded. Motion approved 7-0. Discussion of the warrant letter Ms. Allen stated she created a draft outline for the warrant letter. Ms. Allen stated it talks about how they got here. Ms. Stetson stated it would be important to outline why they did not vote for favorable action on some of the other budgets that were proposed. Ms. Kean stated it would be worth it to discuss why they did not recommend a level services budget. Ms. Stetson stated it would be helpful to discuss what some of the key considerations were and the Finance Committee's thoughts on some of the other budgets. Ms. Kean suggested outlining it as how did they get here, what were the options, pros and cons, why are they recommending this budget, and how do they fund it. Mr. Chaney stated they need to stay disciplined and not get too deep or they will lose the audience. Ms. Kean suggested three reasons as to how they got here: one-time funds, teacher contracts not planned for, rising costs, and mismanagement. Ms. Sarro stated perhaps using a bar chart to show the budget and how much of it was covered by ESSER funds. Mr. Silk asked what other articles will they be writing about. Ms. Allen stated there are probably other areas that they want to touch on. Ms. Stetson stated it is also important to talk about the other pieces to the town budget. Ms. Sarro asked if they still want to go that route of including FAQs. Ms. Kean stated she does not believe they should get into all of the options proposed for the school budget. Ms. Kean stated everyone on the Committee should write down what key things they believe should be included in the letter. Ms. Kean suggested including what the implications are of using the full levy capacity instead of just IN . di "Fl,inia,*', w)C le", C 0 m ,I, t t e I M W w it fir u vvaM e,P amwi Wwwm iM III i°Ili°Pull I 'd. i a portion. Ms. Allen suggested adding a question as to why they cannot just do an override. Mr. Silk suggested including what was reduced in other departments. Ms. Stetson asked if they should put due dates around certain things. APPROVAL OF MINUTES FROM MARCH 18, 2025 MOTION:Mr. Silk motioned to approve the Open Session minutes of March 18, 2025. Ms. Irwin seconded. Motion approved 7-0. ADJOURNMENT MOTION: Ms. Kean made a MOTION, seconded by Ms. Sarro to adjourn the Finance Committee meeting at 8:51 PM. Motion approved 7-0. Respectfully submitted. Nicole Civitarese Executive Assistant Documents used at meeting FY26 Budget Book Minutes from March 18, 2025