Finance Committee Minutes – 12 June 2007 – Hapgood Room
Meeting called to order at 7:35 p.m.
Members present: Colwell, McKenna, Mead, Ricci, Russo, Sobalvarro
Administrators present: Bragan
I. Patty Wenger of the Bromfield School Council presented some questions the Council had regarding the school choice program. The primary focus was whether FinComm had any ideas for options available to the School Committee for obtaining revenue comparable to that generated by the school choice program. The 88 choice students generates approximately $450+k of revenue, yet this number of students is comparable to an entire grade within the Harvard Public Schools. FinComm members
stated that the option of accepting choice students was entirely the School Committee’s discretion, and that FinComm did not encourage the School Committee to increase the choice enrollment. No options were presented for maintaining (or substituting) choice dollars with any other form of revenue.
II. Election of FinComm Officers for FY08: Cindy nominated Debbie for position as Chair; unanimous vote. George nominated Cindy for position as Vice-Chair; unanimous vote. Terry was nominated by Debbie as secretary; unanimous vote.
III. Bruce Leicher of the Pond Committee presented a request for a $12k reserve fund transfer to cover the FY07 electric bill. Currently, the Committee had been using the dollars in a grant to pay the electric bill, so technically this is a request to reimburse the electric account. A motion to transfer $12k from the Reserve Fund to the account 01489-50724 for drawdown operating expenses passed unanimously.
IV. Updates:
FY07 and FY08 Budget: Tim Bragan
- A review of the likely deficit accounts for FY07 occurred, encompassing an expected $250k school department deficit, a $50k settlement, a $27k beach septic deficit, and other smaller accounts.
- Tim presented a request from Janet for $110 from the Reserve Fund to cover the increased cost of programming the new election machines. The motion passed unanimously. All other Reserve Fund transfers will be discussed at the July meeting. If all transfers were voted (inclusive of the Pond Committee and Election transfers voted this evening), the Reserve Fund balance at the close of FY07 would be $117k.
- The FY08 budget is likely under-budgeted by $5.8k for the Town Special Election slated to occur this fall.
Special Education Audit: Cindy Russo and George McKenna
Any suggestions regarding audit scope and questions one would like to see covered in the audit should be forwarded to Cindy.
School Committee Update: Steve Colwell
Steve presented the packet from the 6/11 School Committee meeting, highlighting the placeholder request the Committee recently submitted to the MA School Building Authority for a secondary school (priority four).
FinComm Study Committee: Representatives for this will be selected at the next meeting.
Other:
George suggested that FinComm meetings be tape-recorded. Terry will follow-up with Janet regarding the logistics of this (taping, tape-maintenance, and minute-detail).
The meeting adjourned at 9:17 p.m.
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