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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1999-01-11 School Committee MinutesREADING SCHOOL COMMITTEE Reading, Massachusetts Regular Session January 11, 1999 CALL TO ORDER Vice Chair Twomey called the meeting to order at 7:33 p.m. in the Superintendent's Conference Room. Present were School Committee members Cavicchi, Dahl, Stohlman, Twomey and Williams. Also present were Superintendent Harutunian, Associatc Superintendent Richards, Town Accountant Richard Foley and FinCom Member Kurker. FinCom member Keigley arrived at 7:45 p.m. BILLS & PAYROLL There were no bills and payroll for this meeting SUPERINTENDENT'S REPORT Dr. Harutunian advised that the administration, as directed by the Committee, had checked the balance of the tuition reimbursement account. He stated that as of this date, only $19,000 had been spent but that he expected that number to rise after the end of the first semester. Dr. Harutunian advised that he had checked, as directed by the Committee, and was informed that ATT had no flat rate available. Dr. Harutunian advised that the overtime for the high school secretaries totaled 390 hours. He stated that Marge Joyce had retired and that 70 of those hours were due to an overlap for Marge to be available to train the new secretary. Dr. Harutunian advised that he hoped to have the chart for the curriculum initiative ready for Thursday, hopefully with new yellow budget pages. Dr. Harutunian distributed a memorandum from Chris Redford showing the math programs used by the school districts scoring in the top ten for fourth grade math on the MCAS tests. He stated that of the top ten districts, six of the districts were using Chicago Math. Dr. Harutunian reminded the Committee and the audience that Wednesday's School Committee meeting would be to discuss the maintenance and food services budget and Thursday's meeting would be to discuss extracurricular, athletics and health. CITIZEN'S INPUT There was no citizen input. Regular Session -2- January 11, 1999 SPECIAL EDUCATION BUDGET Dr. Harutunian advised that in the Director's salary line the actual salary number was used but that in a five year calendar it is necessary to add one day's pay to each year. Mr. Dahl asked whether the Town accrued or not. Mr. Foley advised that the Town uses a cash basis and does not accrue. Dr. Harutunian advised that the decline in the teachers' line was due to the older teachers' leaving and being replaced with newer, lower paid teachers. Dr. Harutunian advised that as tutors leave the system new hires are designated as educational assistants rather than tutors. He also stated that there was an error in the lines and that educational assistant number should read 53.8 and tutors should read 2.5. Mr. Dahl and Vice Chair Twomey both asked for clarification on the educational assistants line. They stated that the dollar increase is greater than the FTE increase. Dr. Harutunian advised the Committee that in late September the school department had an opening and were having difficulty filling the position. He stated that the school department had been advised that they would have to absorb one SEEM teacher. He stated that the SEEM teacher was absorbed into the position that was difficult to fill and avoided a forced absorption. Dr. Harutunian advised that vision and deaf services had increased because two elementary students vision was greatly reduced and were both now considered legally blind. He stated that vision services are bid out and that the hourly rate has gone from $45 to $65 per hour. Ms. Cavicchi asked whether we use free lance or contracted services. Dr. Harutunian advised that services were contracted out through a Collaborative. He also stated that an increase of 15% was expected in deaf services and the hourly rate for deaf services had gone from $48 to $65 per hour. Ellen Mounteer asked whether therapists hired by the school appear with the regular teachers. Dr. Harutunian advised that the do appear with regular teachers. Dr. Harutunian advised that the increase in the adaptive equipment line is due to special equipment required for students. Regular Session -3- January 11, 1999 Dr. Harutunian advised that Committee that the state FY97 per pupil numbers arrived Friday. He stated that while reviewing the number, it was obvious there was a problem. The per pupil special education numbers had increased significantly and the regular education figure had dropped. He stated that the he and Richard Foley would be pulling the year end financial report and reviewing the numbers. Dr. Harutunian distributed FY95, FY96 and FY97 per pupil figures and comparisons to the nine towns we use as comparables. He also distributed a memorandum comparing FTE's to individual students enrolled in special education for the school years 1992/1993 through 1997/1998. Dr. Harutunian advised that Reading has had a significant increase, a total of nine to date, in unanticipated Special Needs students. Dr. Harutunian distributed a memorandum from Dr. Ardi regarding the tuition budget for 1998 -1999 and the projected tuition budget for 1999 -2000 and a memorandum regarding unanticipated tuition placements for 1995 -1996 through 1998 -1999. Dr. Harutunian distributed another two memorandums from Dr. Ardi regarding the out of district tuition budget showing a total shortfall of $135,262. Dr. Harutunian advised that he will be freezing 35 accounts to cover the shortfall. He advised that he would be giving the Committee a list of those accounts. He stated that if he could not make up the deficit he would have to use the 20% hold. Ms. Williams stated that last year she remembers talking to the Budget Council and Finance Committee about possibly going over in the SPED account and said the School Department may have to go back for additional funds. Dr. Harutunian advised that they did bring the matter up to the Finance Committee and Budget Council but they advised that it was premature to have that discussion. Vice Chair Twomey stated that in the past it was agreed to use a figure of 4 unanticipated SPED students for budget purposes but obviously the Committee would have to look at the number again. Dr. Harutunian advised that he would like to increase the number of unanticipated SPED students to six for the FY00 budget. Mr. Dahl stated that the Finance Committee needs to understand that the School Department is budgeting for unanticipated SPED students and that it is an only an estimate and it is impossible to know the number of students that will enter the system. Regular Session -4- January 11, 1999 Dr. Harutunian presented the SPED transportation budget. He stated that on page 62 on the transportation — public /private line the FY99 number should read $616,700 not $608,000. Vice Chair Twomey asked if the transportation budget includes the six unanticipated SPED students for FY00. Dr. Harutunian advised that the budget did include the six unanticipated students at an average of $6,000 per student. Ms. Cavicchi asked if parents who wanted to drive their children rather than have them transported were reimbursed by the Town. She also asked if the parents did not want to take the reimbursement from the Town were they required to do so. Dr. Harutunian advised that parents are reimbursed by the Town and he was unaware of anyone transporting their child out of the distrcit that is not receiving reimbursement. Vice Chair Twomey asked if we were required to reimburse parents for transportation if it was less expensive to have the student use one of the buses. Dr. Harutunian advised that he is unaware of any situation where it is less expensive for a student to use transportation than to have a parent transport the student. A citizen from the audience asked why there were different costs to transport students to the same school. Dr. Harutunian advised that the cost depends on the type of monitor a student may need. Vice Chair Twomey asked what the formula was for paying parents for transportation. He asked whether it was mileage only. Dr. Harutunian advised that many of the agreements for parent transportation were entered into before he arrived and the School Department is honoring those agreements. At 9:05 p.m. Mr. Keigley and Mr. Stohlman left the meeting. Dr. Harutunian advised that the increase in Collaboratives is due to SEEM's financial issues and the increase includes a surcharge of $12,500. Vice Chair Twomey asked how successful the School Department has been in mainstreaming SPED students. Regular Session -5- January 11, 1999 Dr. Harutunian advised that the RISE program and DLC program are both very successful. Ms. Williams stated that she would like to see students tracked from the beginning of the RISE program to see how long we are able to keep students in the system before they need to go to a tuitioned school. ADJOURN At 10:00 p.m. Ms. Williams made a motion to adjourn Ms Cavicchi seconded the motion. THe vote was 4 -0 Ms. Cavicchi Mr. Dahl Mr. Twomey and Ms Williams Respectfully subpagiled, Harr;1. Harutunian, Ph.D. Superintendent of Schools •