Town of Lyme
Budget Committee
January 7, 2004
7:00pm
Lyme Town Offices
APPROVED: JANUARY 14, 2004
Present at this meeting: Selectmen: Richard Jones, and Peter A. Bleyler. Budget Committee Members: Gibb Cornwell, Mike Smith, Wayne Tullar, Jeff Lehmann, Josh Kilham, Chairman Barney Brannen, Earl Strout, Judy Shelnutt-Brotman, Freda Swan, School Board representative Manton Copeland. School Board Chairman, Laszlo Bardos and Principal Gerry Clancy, Administrative Assistant Carole Bont, and Scribe Dina Cutting.
The meeting was called to order at 7:00pm by Chair Brannen.
School Budget
1) Chairman of the School Board, Laszlo Bardos, briefed the Budget Committee on the highlights of the proposed budget (see hand out). This involved a recap of the 2003-2004 budget. The School ended the year with a $77,000.00 surplus. This was added to the High School Tuition Trust Fund. The savings came from the following areas: High School Special Education, maintenance, instruction, and elementary special education. Mr. Bardos reported the outlook for the 2003-2004 budget was to finish the year slightly under budget. The major increase in the 2004-2005 budget is due to an increase in High School tuition. Both the number of students and the tuition for area
schools will increase. The School Board expects an overall increase in the number of high school students from last year of 13 students. Tuition is expected to increase 24% at Hanover High School, 8% at Thetford Academy and around 7% at the other area High Schools. The School Board is requesting that they be allowed to withdraw $198,000.00 from the High School Tuition Fund to help pay these costs.
a) The School administration will be increasing the teaching staff by ½ an FTE to provide for an unusually large 4th grade class. We have 20 more students in the Lyme School than we expected or budgeted for. The 4th grade has 5 of these new students. The administration will monitor this situation. With 27 total students in this class room this assumes the administration will be splitting the class into two classes next year. The half-time middle school position will be eliminated and a full-time 4th grade teaching position will be added for a net gain of ½ FTE.
b) Food services needs to be looked at closely. The program is expected to lose around $10,000.00 this year. Kids just are not buying lunch. The School Board will be trying to gather information on how we can increase the revenues and encourage kids and parents to use the lunch program. The administration will put the capital improvement project for the lunch services on hold until they can return the program to a break-even point.
c) The state adequacy grant is $95,000.00 more than budgeted. The impact of this was to lower this year’s tax bill. Consequently, it will make next year’s increase look artificially high.
d) Health Insurance will rise 15.5%, and dental insurance 9.3%.
e) The administration will eliminate a 0.6 FTE aide position. Teacher salaries will be lower next year because the administration will replace a retiring teacher who was high on the step-track grid.
2) The Budget Committee held a lengthy discussion concerning student count, high school tuition negotiations, how the School Board comes up with the numbers on who goes to which high school, and ideas on how to help the lunch program. It was noted the impact on taxes for the 2004 budget as proposed will be a 5.3% increase, $157,000.00. The sense of the Budget Committee was that the increase is too much. At the Budget meeting early on in the year the Budget Committee urged the School Board to shoot for a maximum increase of $50,000.00 or 1.6%increase to the tax rate. Followed was a discussion concerning the impact of new homes being built and how this
affects the school budget because of the rising student enrollment. The Budget Committee asked Mr. Cornwell to go back to Victoria Davis (Planning and Zoning Administrator) and look at the permits to see if the projections are correct. The Chair of the School Board, Laszlo Bardos, was asked if they needed to make cuts where would the School Board make them. They discussed cutting the ghost from high school tuition (2 student ghosts were added in case new families move into town), maintenance trust fund, cafeteria, and roof repairs. Followed was a discussion concerning making deeper cuts. Is it possible to cut staff, not to split the 4th grade, or to cut the special education fund? The sense of the Budget Committee is that the money that was put into younger special education issues has paid off. The student population in Special Education is declining (see attached analysis). The Budget Committee would like to get some feedback from Superintendent, Gordon
Schnare, on the issue of taking money from the High School Tuition Fund and Special Education Fund in order to lower the total budget proposal. It was noted the Budget Committee does not feel the school should be cutting from maintenance or academic programs to meet this decrease in the proposed budget. The feeling at this meeting was there are not many places in the school budget to take money from to lower this budget amount. The Budget Committee would like to hear from the SAU Administration at the next meeting. If Mr. Schnare cannot make the meeting and Mr. Bardos does not feel comfortable answering all questions we can set up a conference call. The following questions need answers;
a) FTE analysis
b) Special Education Trust Fund
c) $25,000.00 Bond money, where is it showing?
d) Revenues from Vo-tech, what are they?
e) Do we have any program that could be cut?
f) What cuts could you make in Administration?
3) Next week the Budget Committee will: Finish the school budget. Finish the Town budget (hear from Recreation Commission and parking lot issues). Have facilities update from the Public Works Facility Building Committee about the Highway Garage Project. It is best if the Budget Committee can get as much done as they can at the January 14th, 2004 meeting. If a substantive change is made at the January 21st public hearing the Budget Committee will have to have an additional meeting on January 28th, 2004. Ms. Shelnutt-Brotman thanked the school for the open communication and the comprehensive information within the note books
presenting the school budget.
4) A reminder to sign up for Town Offices: From January 21st, 2004 to January 30th, 2004.
5) Mr. Jones moved to adjourn at 8:40pm. Seconded by Ms. Shelnutt-Brotman, voted unanimously in favor.
Respectfully Submitted,
Dina Cutting
| 
