Budget Committee Meeting

                                                         Approved  Minutes

                                                               November 10, 2005

                                                Monadnock MS/HS, Swanzey NH

 

Members present: Terry Clark, Gary Bednarski, Robert Mitchell, Normand Dion, Dick Bauries, Chair Jane Fortson, Thomas Parker, Robert Smith, Neil Moriarty, Karen Cota and Nancy Johnson. Absent: Eric Stanley, Stephen Russell, Neal King and Don Arguin.

Administrators Present: K. Dassau, Superintendent, D. Hodgdon, Dir. of Curriculum and L. Biron, Business Manager.

Also present: J. Bischoff, Spec. Ed. Coordinator  

 

J. Fortson called the meeting to order at 7:08 PM.

 

1.      Approval of the October 25, 2005 Minutes: MOTION: G. Bednarski MOVED to accept the October 25, 2005 Minutes as presented. SECOND: T. Parker. VOTE: 9.69/0/1.11/5.20. Motion passes.

2.      Special Education Budget Presentation: K. Dassau introduced J. Bischoff who is filling in his position and a huge asset to the Spec. Ed. Dept. She has been Spec. Ed. Coordinator for 5 years. K. Dassau asked the pleasure of the Committee whether to go over the whole SPED budget or the large changes. J. Fortson asked if the middle column is revised or adopted. K. Dassau explained that it is revised. K. Dassau mentioned the ESL position, which is a Monadnock position. K. Dassau reported that there are about 11 students using the services. The ESL employee does contracted services with Winchester and Hinsdale. That is when you will see the revenue coming back. K. Dassau said that it is a full time position. The preschool aide position was turned back to the school. The SAU Spec. Ed. Services portion of K. Dassau’s office is now zero. Related Services is for out of district placement. J. Bischoff said that it could be for speech therapy or counseling. R. Bauries asked who makes the decisions on the placements. J. Bischoff said that a team makes the decisions. R. Bauries asked if the parents influence the decision. J. Bischoff explained that the parents are part of the decision. R. Bauries asked if the parents are adamant about a special place or certain care would that be enough to influence the decision. J. Bischoff said that is part of the decision. The team would review the whole piece. K. Dassau explained that for every placement there are about 40 state forms. The first step is to identify the student. The parent has to agree or disagree. The second step is defining the program and the related services. Again, the parents have to agree or disagree. The third step is placement. The parents have to agree or disagree. The parents have a due process from the beginning.  The evaluation line is for the services that we cannot provide locally. The summer program line is for the students whose IEP requires an extended year. Some students will attend a summer program for a week, and some students go for 60 days. The legal expense line is to consult with an attorney if needed. This was separated out from the School Board legal fees line. K. Cota asked why the telephone line was so high. K. Dassau said that it is probably his cell phone but would check on that for her.  K. Dassau explained that the big increase is in related services. The reason is that students move in and out of the district. He explained that when they set the private and public tuition they are calculating it 18 months out. K. Dassau said that he could walk down to his office and find out that he has more students who entered the district. He said that he would like to talk about a warrant article for situations like this. T. Parker asked about the $276,000.00 in extra spending. K. Dassau said that the amount was in the figures and it is adjusted in the 2005-2006 budget. The 1.2 million and the $276,000.00 make it 1.5 million paying for students in the 2005-2006 budget and adjusted back to where it should be. K. Dassau explained that it is required by law to educate these students. T. Parker suggests having a trust account in the amount of $250,000.00 to $300,000.00 for just this purpose and have the School Board as the trustees. K. Dassau said that he plans to draft a warrant for that purpose and it would need the support of the Budget Committee. T. Clark asked how much of a reimbursement comes from the government. N. Moriarty commented that they receive 18%. K. Dassau explained that percentage of the catastrophic aid reimbursement. One student could cost the district $500.00 and another could cost $120,000.00. L. Biron said that the annual report shows the breakdown. It is explained in the DOE 25. G. Bednarski commented on an article about KHS about their tuition costs. K. Dassau explained that the districts are charged in an area agreement to KHS. K. Dassau explained the court ordered placements to the Budget Committee. He said that he has 7 students placed by the courts. There are 35 students in private placement. R. Bauries asked about transportation. K. Dassau explained that they use a combination of Laidlaw and 2 private companies. J. Fortson asked about Account 2722 (sped transportation). L. Biron said that is based on who and where. J. Fortson asked if that amount would go up. J. Bischoff said that they re-bid the routes and will follow that again. L. Biron commented that the Negotiations Committee would need to negotiate the contract with Laidlaw. K. Dassau explained that the tutor they hired to teach students off campus or at home, her salary has been moved to the Spec. Ed. Grant. Psychological Services are 50% in the grant. Speech and language is Monadnock’s share. J. Bischoff commented that with the added occupational therapist it would cut the number of hours driving and each could do 2 schools instead of the 4 schools. This would give more time to the students. K. Cota asked about the new equipment. K. Dassau said that he will check but he feels that it is a computer replacement. N. Moriarty asked what would happen if we did not hire the additional occupational therapist. K. Dassau explained that they might not meet the 45-day legal requirements. G. Bednarski asked about the national average for spec. ed. students. He asked if we are at the peak and he asked about the aides. G. Bednarski asked that the Spec. Ed. Account is separated out. K. Dassau said that they could take the 1200 Account out and present separately. R. Bauries asked how they have 9 Spec. Ed. students at MC2 and no Spec. Ed. teachers. K. Dassau explained that they have a case management person and some students may have individual tutors.

3.      Maintenance Budget Presentation-Mr. Biron: L. Biron explained that they level funded the salaries and benefits except for the increase in the health and dental. The sports staff agreement is in negotiations. The overtime is when the custodians work beyond 10:00 PM or at special functions. He explained that the insurance covers 3 districts and the SAU and there is over $1.4 million-dollars in prescriptions. The increase in the water testing is for the required VOC and SOC tests. L. Biron explained that it would be done this year and next year. The testing is required by law by the Dept. of Environmental Services. J. Fortson commented on the decrease in Repair and Maintenance. L. Biron will check on that number. He said that the Unanticipated Changes Account is new and it is for when things come up. Renovations are at $300,000.00 for capital improvement. He said that the Facilities Committee has not acted on this. L. Biron explained that they would be doing all the ceilings, lighting and firewalls. He said that there is big work needed to the High School building. N. Moriarty commented that the $10,000.00 should be in the $300,000.00. N. Dion commented that it was for administrative goodies. PSNH explained to L. Biron that there would be an increase in the electrical bills. He explained that Cheshire Oil Co. would be delivering the oil for the Monadnock School District. The price is $2.00 a gallon. L. Biron explained that he had a very hard time trying to get any company to bid on that. L. Biron said that they do not prepay and that they contacted 7 different companies. R. Mitchell asked if he contacted Weber Oil. L. Biron said yes and that they did not want to discuss it. R. Bauries asked if it was for all the schools and L. Biron said that it was. K. Cota asked if Mutual Aid costs the district. L. Biron answered yes. T. Parker asked if they are looking anywhere else for health care. L. Biron said that other school care plans would cost the individual more. He explained that it covers 750 people and a lot of the people are in the age of 45-55 years. N. Dion asked if it was ever put out to bid. L. Biron said that it is a non-profit company but if it was the will of the Board then he would have it go out for bids. K. Cota asked if at Cutler under Repairs and Maintenance do you have an actual list or is it just in case. L. Biron explained that it is just in case such as the flooding at Emerson. N. Moriarty commented that he thought that was the original intent of the $60,000.00. L. Biron said that was for boilers and big items. At the Surry School they cut back from a full time custodian. L. Biron explained that they still use the building and it does need to be cleaned. N. Dion would recommend to K. Cota that the $300,000.00 and the $10,000.00 should be on a separate warrant article. J. Fortson asked if the Facilities Director was in the proposed budget. L. Biron said yes. L. Biron commented that there is $20,000.00 for a new SAU roof. L. Biron explained that he received 3 quotes. K. Cota asked if it would go to Facilities because they have not seen it. L. Biron said that they have not seen the budget. He said that possibly it would be a metal roof. G. Bednarski questioned Surry School. L. Biron said that if there is a firm decision to close it things will change but it needs to be maintained. R. Mitchell asked about the floor in Gilsum. L. Biron explained that the company said that there is nothing better than their product and it was an installation problem. They said that we need to live with it. In exchange they did the floor in Troy. R. Mitchell would recommend that L. Biron take a serious look at this. He asked if he got back to the installer and L. Biron explained that they got a new floor out of it. L. Biron explained that they did not have a general contractor. Lounder was not the general contractor. R. Bauries asked if Winchester and Hinsdale pay part of the $20,000.00 for the roof. L. Biron said that Monadnock owns the building and Winchester and Hinsdale pay through their percentage.

4.      SAU Budget Presentation: K. Dassau explained that the budget is still under development. The SAU Board directed the administration to go back. K. Dassau explained that he had requested a pool of money to address the salary increases. He requested 3-˝% and the Board directed the administration to get it down to below 3% and the whole budget below 5%. They said to take the surplus to reduce the increase. He said that he does not have a budget to share. The Board will be meeting on Dec. 7, 2005 to discuss the budget once again. K. Dassau said that he would give a copy of the SAU budget to J. Fortson when complete.           

 

5.   Budget Committee Updates:

a.      Default Budget Subcommittee Report: J. Fortson reported that the committee has not met. The committee will be meeting on Nov. 17, 2005.

 

b.      School Board Facilities Committee Update: K. Cota reported that the Board met on Nov. 1, 2005. J. Butterfield gave an update on the Accreditation Process. A meeting will be held on Dec. 3, 2005 at 9:30 AM to discuss the matrix per pupil cost. The Board postponed discussion on the grants and grant writing until after the Dec. 3, 2005 meeting. A. Gross reported that the Board would be reviewing the CCC Regional Agreement. R. Thackston read a letter to the Board that he had written on behalf of the Board. He was asked by the Accreditation Team to write a letter on the progress of the District. The Facilities Committee met tonight. They did not have a quorum. H.L. Turner will meet with the Facilities Committee on Nov. 16, 2005 to discuss their findings and suggestions.

           

            c.   Budget Oversight Subcommittee Report: The committee met on Nov. 3, 2005 and elected N. Moriarty as chair and J. Fortson as secretary. The committee was informed of the reduction in the cost of the new septic project. K. Dassau informed the committee of the increase in Spec. Ed. L. Biron reported on the assets and the heating oil account. The committee also discussed the flooding at Emerson. The next meeting is on Dec. 1, 2005 in the SAU building at 9:30 AM.

 

6.      Cost overrun explanation: L. Biron will email J. Fortson the information on the cost overrun.

G. Bednarski commented on rumors that he heard about the district having an $800,000.00 deficit. K. Dassau explained that it was $780,000.00 and is down to $588,000.00. R. Bauries commented that it could be more but if not for the fact that K. Dassau, L. Biron and D. Hodgdon have been working well together. J. Fortson commented that there is a deficit in the 2004-2005 school year not the 2005-2006 school year; she explained that the budget is being overspent, but a deficit has not yet occurred.

 

7.      Other discussion as desired: K. Cota asked the Budget Committee to extend their drop-dead date for warrant articles until Dec. 20, 2005. H.L. Turner will be meeting with the Facilities Committee on Nov. 16, 2005 and the Board will not meet until after the Nov. 28, 2005 date. MOTION: K. Cota MOVED to extend the deadline for warrant article to the Budget Committee from Nov. 28, 2005 until Dec. 20, 2005. SECOND: T. Clark. DISCUSSION: MOTION to amend. N. Moriarty MOVED to extend the deadline for warrant articles to the Budget Committee no later than Dec. 7, 2005. SECOND: ??????. DISCUSSION: N. Moriarty commented that the Board has had ample time to complete the task. J. Fortson commented that negotiations would be going to mediation on Dec. 12, 2005. J. Fortson also said that she does not feel as if they will have a default budget at that time. G. Bednarski asked K. Cota to move a little faster. K. Cota said that the Board is looking at the articles on Nov. 15, 2005 you will not get the warrants on Nov. 28, 2005. R. Bauries said that the Board knew of the drop-dead date and he would disagree with the motion 100%. R. Mitchell commented that the Budget Committee could work on what they have. K. Cota commented that the Board and the Budget Committee are meeting jointly on Dec. 13, 2005. J. Fortson said that she would agree with K. Cota’s motion. L. Biron said that they could draft the warrants without the money figures. J. Fortson commented that the support staff and teachers warrants would not be included at that time. R. Bauries commented that they want to hold the Budget Committee off for a building project. He said that it is wrong to wait for a building project that is not going to pass, we are in a deficit. VOTE on amendment: amendment passes. VOTE on amended motion: vote not done.

8.      Public Comment Period: Greg Johnson commented on the rumors, hearsay and credibility of the Budget Committee. He commented on the Budget Oversight Committee and the fact that R. Bauries and N. Moriarty who are charter members of the Monadnock Taxpayers Association are on that committee. He commented on a meeting on Oct. 12, 2005. He said that the meeting was not posted, no minutes were taken and the committee of J. Fortson, N. Moriarty and R. Bauries met behind closed doors. He also commented on the presence of D. Connell who is the Chair of the Monadnock Taxpayers Association in the Bauries’ house. J. Fortson stated that it was not a meeting of the oversight committee, and the 05-06 budget oversight committee had met on September 28th, at which time minutes were kept.  No further discussions of the 05-06 budget had taken place among the members of the budget oversight committee since that date. She said that D. Connell had a tuna sandwich and the contents of his discussions with R. Bauries were none of her business nor anyone else’s. G. Bednarski commented on emails from G. Johnson last year and whether those constituted a “meeting”. 

 

M. Imon started to discuss the Monadnock Taxpayers Association and J. Fortson said that it is not a Budget Committee issue. M. Imon commented on the fact that they need to get the building project communication out to the towns.

 

R. Mitchell commented that he understands G. Johnson’s frustrations. He said that a lot of work gets done and J. Fortson is one of the hardest working people that he knows and was upset at his attacking her integrity. 

 

C. Cardine commented about the last meeting when the placing of grants in the budget was discussed. He said if you do that it would become part of your default budget. T. Parker responded that he was absolutely correct.

 

The next meeting will be on Nov. 22, 2005.      

 

  8. Setting the Agenda:

1.  Budget Discussions of the ’06-07 proposed budget.

 

 

 MOTION: G. Bednarski MOVED to adjourn at 9:50 PM by unanimous consent. SECOND: N. Moriarty VOTE: Unanimous for those present. . Motion passes.  

 

Respectfully submitted, 

 

Laura L. Aivaliotis

MRSD Recording secretary