HomeMy WebLinkAbout2008-03-12 Finance Committee Minutesrv 4
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March 12, 20085'
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The meeting convened at 7:05 p.m. in the Conference Room of the Superintendents
Office, 82 Oakland Road, Reading, Massachusetts. Present were Chairman Andrew
Grimes, Vice Chairman Marsie West, Finance Committee members Tom White,
George Hines, David Greenfield, Hal Torman, Barry Berman and Matt Wilson.
Also present were, Superintendent of Schools Pat Schettini, Assistant Superintendent
John Doherty, Director of Finance and Human Resources Mary DeLai, School
Committee Chairman Lisa Gibbs and members Elaine Webb, David Michaud, Chuck
Robinson and Karen Janowski and Budget Parents Gary DeRusha, Priscilla Hollenbeck,
Sheila, Smith, Debbie Hattery and Paula Perry.
Andrew Grimes called the meeting to order at 7:10 P.M. Also at this time, Lisa Gibbs
called the School Committee meeting to order. Before the School Committee began their
presentation, George Hines asked to speak regarding a remark that was made at the
School Committee meeting. During the meeting it was said that they should adopt
additional money into the budget to send a message to other boards and committees. Mr.
Hines said when dealing with taxpayer's money it has to be done intelligently and with
concern how the taxpayers money is spent. David Michaud apologized to everyone who
took offense to his words. He explained to everyone it was a wrong choice,of words and
further clarified the meaning of his remark.
Chuck Robinson began the School Committee presentation reporting that there is an
increase of 3.7%. This is .1% higher than the FY08 Budget and 1.1% higher than the
baseline budget. The School Committee feels this is needed to move the School District
forward towards excellence. They submitted a formal statement which is included at the
end of these minutes. Chuck Robinson turned the meeting over to Pat Schettini.
Pat Schettini reviewed the many presentations and meetings they had in the past
regarding the Fiscal 09 Budget; he also reviewed the School's Mission Statement. A
handout was passed out regarding the Partnership for 21St Century Skills and everyone
viewed a video explaining this program. He spoke of the quandaries we have in
education today... preparing students for jobs that don't exist, to use technologies that
have not been invented yet and to solve problems that we do not even know are problems
yet.
A power point presentation was viewed regarding the changes to the Baseline. Budget
(ranked in order of priority).
Health-Wellness Teacher $ 50,000
.2 Technology Integration Specialist $ 12,000
Technology Support $ 35,000
.9 Middle School Reading Specialist $ 45,000
Elementary Academic Support $ 47,500
.9 Music/Drama Teacher (RMHS) $ 45,000
1.0 Science/Engineering/Math Teacher (RMHS) $ 50,000
Guidance Counselor (RMHS) $ 50,000
I 1.0 FTE Teacher K-12 for Class Size, Enrollment $ 50,000
$384,500
Mr. Schettini reviewed the reasoning of each of the changes with the Finance Committee..
At this time the meeting was turned over to Mary Delai to answer the questions the
Finance Committee sent over. (See attachment below).
At this time, questions and answering took place. A question was asked if there are any
big ticketed items for next year's budget. Mr. Schettini reported that he is not seeing any
particular large expenditure coming up. The only issue they have is technology... how do
they replace old technology. This needs to be looked at. Mr. Schettini discussed some
needs with the Finance Committee. John Doherty discussed the online Algebra program
that is going on in the middle schools and the changes they are working on for next year.
He explained the virtual high school program. The majority of these programs is being
paid for by state grants and has been very successful. Mary Delai explained the fund
balance in the Kindergarten budget. Mr. Doherty discussed how textbooks are purchased
and what is included with the purchase. Mr. Schettini followed up on the presentation of
the guidance councilors and reviewed the responsibilities of the position. Mary Delai
explained the 20% increase in Stipend line item. Overall it is not an increase it is just
shifting some things from other line items. Mary Delai explained the increase in Non
Instructional Technology; she explained the increase represents things that go to funding
the main office of each school and Munis implementation. Library/Media Technology is
allocating more resources towards technology than materials for the upcoming year.
Testing and Assessment has a 12% increase and is driven by additional tests that have
been added... an online testing program for middle school math.and a test data analysis
program used by teachers and administrators to helps look at our data for K-12. The
drop in Transportation is a result of combining several routes and the ability to use some
alternative vendors.
Moving on to the Metco program, a question was asked regarding the status of the
number of kids we have and the economics of the program. Mr. Schettini replied that this
is our second year the program enrollment has increased in the elementary level. The
budget has increased because we received more money from the state. The allotment per
pupil is $3,400 which is relatively low. There are currently 63 students that are in the
district. Lisa Gibbs reported to the board that she and Elaine Webb recently went in to
the state house to Metco Lobby Day. The concern is the per pupil funding. The
legislators are looking for a $1.5 mil increase. It is an increase but not enough.
A Budget Parent spoke to the board about the drama/band program and how wonderful it
is for the students. She feels the increase in the guidance department goes hand in hand
with the Health/Wellness program. She hopes FINCOM will support the whole program.
Andrew Grimes thanked everyone for the presentations and thought it was great work.
The next meeting is Wednesday, March 29. Barry Berman asked to see if we can change
the meeting on March 27. This will be discussed at the next meeting.
At this time, 9:45 PM the School Committee voted 6-0-0 to adjourn.
On motion by George Hines seconded by Marsie West the meeting was adjourned at
9:45 PM on a vote of 5-0-0
School Committee Comments for FINCOM Meeting 3/12/08
• Tonight you will hear a presentation that will be both qualitative and
quantitative.
In the packets that were sent to you last week you had copies of presentations
of all of the wonderful things that are going on in our district including the
High School Restructuring, MCAS/Fitnessgrams, Technology Plan and the
School Improvement Process. Mr. Schettini will briefly go over these and
spend some time going over the positions we are requesting to keep these
programs and the district moving forward.
• Ms. DeLai will review the budget and the various questions that were
submitted.
• The budget you are being presented tonight is the School Committee Budget
which represents a 3.7% increase. To put this in perspective this is 1/1 0th of
a percent more than was received in 108 when the increase was 3.6%.
• However you will note that this is 1.1% higher than the Baseline Budget.
Based on all of the information we have received from the Administration
and the Community the School Committee feels that this is what is needed to
continue to move the district toward excellence. As mentioned earlier you
will hear from the Superintendent on the various initiatives as well as the
positions required to advance these initiatives.
e We do not come here tonight asking for this 1.1% over baseline without
accepting the responsibility to be a part of the solution. We plan to offer a
proposal that will contribute almost half of the 1.1% through an increase in
offsets and the utilization of savings achieved in the 108 Budget through
sound fiscal management. The latter is analogous to a business investing net
income back into their company. We are in the business of educating our
children and we are asking for these savings to be invested back into .
education.
• With respect to the remaining amount we have feedback from our State
Senator that the Governors' budget will go through which gives us enough to
make up the difference.
• What we are proposing here is a lesson we learned from our community in
that we are contributing to the financial solution of our request. Recently we
have seen this from many groups in town including the Hunt Park
playground committee and the Friends of Reading Tennis.
• We feel this is a responsible and thoughtful way to go about asking the
community to fund our 109 Budget. Thank you.
Questions & Answers regarding School Department Budgets
1. What is the correlation between changes in enrollment and changes in staffing -
i.e. how many students must be added/lost before we add/cut positions?
Answer: Mr. Schettini explained the issue of enrollment; it is not a particular
number. It depends on how many and where students were going to be reduced in
the enrollment.
2. The data you submitted shows some significant disparities in class size between
the elementary schools (Wood End is particularly low). Why do we have this
imbalance? Is there any way to reallocate existing teaches to maintain class size
rather than adding additional FTEs?
Answer: Mary Delai explained this is a classroom space issue. A question was
asked regarding enrollment size previous years were less. Mr. Schettini said he
put some information in the executive summary of the budget regarding the
impact of enrollment and the factor they must use. The impact of an enrollment
increase depends on where the increase happens. The schools constantly
reallocate positions where the needs are within our schools.
3. There seems to be a significant increase in requested funding for high school
related personnel, e.g. health/wellness, guidance counselor, technology, etc.
While it appears there is some need, are all of these positions designated as
critical/core and/or state/federal mandated? Might we be better off adding
position incrementally over the next 2-3 years at the high school rather than
attempting to fill so many in one year?
Answer: Regarding drama and music, Mr. Berman was surprised that there is
more staff in the middle schools than the high school and wanted to know if they
are able to shift positions rather than hire a new person. Mr. Schettini explained
that they are currently doing this now. Mr. Schettini feels that hiring teachers is
important to do now because that is one more class that will not have the
opportunity. Mr. Hines spoke about the priority order of the list and that last year
when he tried to get the money for the Health/Wellness he was opposed. Mr.
Schettini said he was for it. Mr. Hines further discussed why this position is
important and that we have been without a Health/Wellness teacher for the past
year. Andrew Grimes recollection of last year's Town Meeting was if we
allocated more money to the schools would there be a guarantee it would be used
for that position and there was no guarantee. Mr. Schettini discussed his position
on Mr. Hines motion last year and what they have been doing to address the issue
of a new Health/Wellness teacher. A question was asked if the numbers include
benefits. Mary Delai reported benefits would be on the Town side and a $6,000
average is used per year.
4. Please provide a brief summary of FTE's by cost center for the last 10 years and a
history of average salary per FTE for those years.
Answer: At this time they do not have a HR/Finance software program to
provide this data. We will in the future. Mary Delai needs more time to gather
this information. Mary Delai reported that an average salary is $50,000. A
C discussion ensued regarding the steps for new teachers, veteran teachers and the
percentage of increase each year.
5. Identify changes in the demographic makeup of our employees' population and
analyze the past and future impact of these changes on salary expenses. That is,
to what extent have our salary costs been reduced by hiring new teachers at lower
salaries to replace retiring teachers near the top of the salary scale, and what will
be the impact of having more young teachers getting annual step and column
increases.
Answer: Regarding the demographic makeup up there was a substantial
difference about 5 years ago. We will see a much smaller number of retirees over
the next few years. 1/3 of our teachers have 3 - 5 years experience, 65% of the
teacher s have been hired in the past 10 years, and 35% are the more. veteran
teachers.
6. What is the history of base salary increases for the last 10 years?
Answer: Mary Delai needs more time to gather this information.
7. Do you believe that the spending reflected in this budget is sustainable going
forward?
Answer: Pat Schettini believes this is sustainable through next year.
8. How were school districts chosen for the comparison slide? How do we compare
to Lynnfield, North Reading, Wilmington and Andover?
Answer: Mary Delai was asked to stay away from this question due to
negotiation issues, but reported that they always use Middlesex League
communities and sometimes pick adjacent communities as well for comparison.
Pat Schettini reported that all the information is reported on the web. Also, the
Department of Revenue on the municipal side will furnish this information.
9. How does Reading's average teacher salary compare to comparable districts?
How has the comparison changed of the last 10 years?
Answer: See question 8.
10. What is our history regarding teacher retention for our best teachers? What are
the most common reasons given for leaving and where do they tend to go?
Answer: Mary Delai discussed earlier some common reasons given for
leaving... moving, children and money.
11. What is the ration of total FTEs per student in Reading and comparable towns?
How has this ratio changed over time, and what factors drive this change?
Answer: Mary Delai thinks our class sizes are very good compared to our
neighboring districts. Andrew Grimes will look this up.
12. When does the current gas contract end and what would the additional annual cost
be for energy at today's market rates?
Answer: The current contract ends in October of 2008 it was a 3 year contract but
has already signed a new contract for the 3 years commencing November of 2008
at a price that is 13% below the rate we are currently paying under contract. Hess
is the supplier.
13. What is driving an increase of almost 50% in school's electricity usage since
2005?
Answer: 22% is for consumption... new school, increased electricity requirements
due to codes. The remainder is due to the increase electricity rates. R1V LD
issued a rate design study on how rates would be impacted. Once the study is
( completed they would be able to tell us whether or not they can give us a special
school rate.
14. What changes drive the increase to Use of School Property and Full-Day
Kindergarten offsets?
Answer: There is a 3-tier fee schedule for rental fees for the use of school
property. Kindergarten has a high balance in the revolving fund, using the entire
amount they are allowed to use to, offset.
15. Are we staying current on the maintenance plan?
Answer: Yes they are, using an online web based tool to manage all of the
facilities work orders and preventive maintenance. There has been a high level
of satisfaction.
16. Please explain these two line items -
Tuition/Special Needs- The last fiscal year the offset was
originally budgeted at $65,000 but only took an offset of $35,000.
All Day Kindergarten -See question 14
17. Substitutes and Overtime seems to be chronically over budget. Is this corrected in
the current budget?
Answer: Mary Delai did a presentation previously that everyone received. There
is a 7.8% overall increase to bring the budget up to what they are using for
overtime and substitutes.
18. What is the $20K offset in administrative salaries?
Answer: Grants allow them to offset costs related to administrative assistants
who help process grants funds and tracking the budgets.
19. For guidance councilors, how much of the 23.1% increase is attributed to the
increased position and how much for salary increase?
Answer: There are 5 guidance councilors now the budget will bring it to 6. There
are a couple of guidance councilors who will go up on step.
20. Why are we spending significantly Jess in text books, library and media materials
and instructional technology than we did in FY 07?
Answer: In FY07 new curriculum initiatives were purchased, including a new
math curriculum for the middle schools and a social study curriculum at the high
school.
21. In a 2/6/08 memo from the Superintendent to the School Committee, changes to
the baseline budget voted by the School Committee were highlighted. These total
$384,500 of new spending. Did the School Committee or the Superintendent rank
these changes in order of importance?
Answer: This list is in priority order.
22. What changes would be recommended if additional spending were increased by:
$100,000, $150,000, $200,000, $250,000, $300,000(i.e. can you assign priorities
to the items on the add list?)
Answer: Depends on the level of funding that is received.
Respectfully submitted,
Secretary