Monadnock Regional School District

School Board Finance Committee Meeting Minutes

March 4, 2008

Monad. Regional High School

Approved

Committee members present: Doug Lyman, Jane Fortson, Gene White, Sue Oerman, Jim Carnie, and Phyllis Peterson. Administrators Present: Katie Chambers, Business Manager, and Chris Boyle, Director of Technology.

Called the meeting to order at 6:04 pm.

1. Approval of Minutes: Motion to approve the February 19th minutes by S. Oerman, seconded by P. Peterson. One grammar change made. Motion passes: unanimous for those present.

2. Public Comments: None.

3. Old Business:

a. Debt Financing- Facilities Committee Request: K. Chambers informed the committee that depending on the financing plan we choose, there will be certain deadlines to be met for the applications. Motion to table to the next meeting by D. Lyman, seconded by P. Peterson. No opposition.

(PLEASE NOTE: FINANCE COMMITTEE MEMBERS SHOULD BRING THEIR FINANCING PACKAGES TO THE NEXT SCHEDULED MEETING OF THE FINANCE COMMITTEE)

b. SAU Withdrawals – Who pays for long-term liabilities of original district-should state legislation be proposed. The administration has not had time to proceed with putting together a separation package for the Surry withdrawal. This item is pending the administration preparing a separation agreement. J. Carnie stated that the Surry transition committee meeting went well with the exception of the SAU issues.

c. Unfunded Mandate Lawsuit: Pending. The bills are still in committee. Local Gov’t Center (LGC) puts out legislative bulletins, these can be found at www.nhlgc.org If anything new comes out they will post it here. D. Lyman stated that there is nothing we can do at this time regarding a recommendation to the board. D. Lyman will recommend what LGC recommends.

New business:

4a. Budget Transfer Request (handout) –Chris Boyle, Director of Technology, explained the budget transfer for the software purchase. The money will be transferred from the Technology teacher’s salary that will not be used in full this year as the employee was hired halfway through the year. J. Fortson asked if three bids were received? Chris Boyle stated yes. J. Fortson also asked if this was just Monadnock’s purchase amount? Chris again stated it was. J. Carnie asked how we happen to be able to transfer exactly the same amount from three different schools, but not from Gilsum and Sullivan. K. Chambers explained that the technology teacher’s position is spread equally between Mt. Caesar, Emerson and Troy. S. Oerman made the motion to recommend to the full board the proposed budget transfer resulting in a net of zero. Seconded by G. White. Discussion: D. Lyman asked how long the contract is for? Chris Boyle stated that this was a one-time purchase; we would then have a maintenance fee to pay after that with yearly renewals. Motion passes: Unanimous for all present.

b. State Adequate Education Aid – Legislative Proposal (handout – Doug): D. Lyman explained that the proposed funding plan that would have lessened the amount of aid to be received by Monadnock already had an amendment to it that would increase the amount of aid to be received from all MRSD towns except Gilsum, Roxbury and Fitzwilliam. D. Lyman did get to read his statement to the legislative body. D. Lyman stated he would be keeping the board and finance committee updated.

c. 2006/2007 and 07/08 Monthly Expenditure Summaries and Expense by Function worksheets – K. Chambers stated the committee should look the handouts over and decide what they would like to do with the reports.

d. Financial reports – Reports handed out. P. Peterson asked why the same schools seem to be perennially over budget and shouldn’t this be looked into? K. Chambers stated that the default budget causes the schools that may have been under budgeted to continue to be under budgeted each year. J. Fortson stated that the finance committee should take the lead on reviewing the budgets for the last few years and reallocating the monies to more appropriately line up with the true expenditures for the schools.

e. Legal Bills – Handout: S. Oerman asked if this coming month looks like it may be high? K. Chambers stated that the cutoff date for the billing was mid-month so we could most likely expect another month of large bills.

4f. Other: None.

5. Second Public Comments: None.

6. Next Meeting: none scheduled due to the upcoming election and the board seats yet undetermined.

7. Adjourn: Motion to adjourn by P. Peterson, at 6:59pm, seconded by D. Lyman. Motion passes: Unanimous for all present.

Respectfully submitted by Jane Fortson