FINANCE COMMITTEE – PUBLIC SESSION
Town Hall – Conference Room 1
Minutes from the Meeting of Thursday, February 9, 2012
Committee Members Present: Member Absent: Also Present:
Christopher Avis, Chairman James Condon Joyce Mason, Town Manager
Charles Gasior, Vice Chairman Tom Mayo, Asst. Town Manager
Mark Davini, Clerk Ann Bradshaw, School Supt.
Oskar Klenert Kathy Stanley, School Comm. Chairman
Robert Chalker Scott McKay, School Committee
George Schmidt Mike Richardson, BOS Liaison
CALL TO ORDER
Chairman Christopher Avis called the meeting to order at 6:35 PM.
REVIEW OF MINUTES
Mark Davini made a motion that the minutes from the Finance Committee meeting of January 26, 2012 be approved as presented. Charles Gasior seconded the motion. The motion was unanimously approved.
NEW BUSINESS
- Transfers – None
- Appropriations Report – None
- Town Manager’s FY 2013 Budget Report – continued to next FinCom meeting on Feb. 23, 2010.
- School Superintendent Ann Bradshaw Presentation
Chairman Christopher Avis welcomed Ann Bradshaw to the meeting.
Preliminary remarks by Ms. Bradshaw included information on improved Mashpee graduating student SAT scores; increases in AP classes; Mashpee was named to the AP Achievement Honor Roll at the College Board, and to the High School Challenge List for the Washington Post. Ms. Bradshaw stated that the percentage of the Town’s total budget going to the schools is in line with those across the State, and in her opinion, the Mashpee taxpayers are getting a good return on their money. Mr. Schmidt and Mr. Davini did not concur and raised several issues where they felt the taxpayers of the town were not receiving value.
Ann Bradshaw stated that her preliminary budget proposal is a “Maintenance Budget” of $19,944,259.00 which represents a $1.38MM increase from the 2012 budget, and that her proposed budget is needed to maintain last year’s budget. Increases include:
$870,473 in salary increases
$234,557 for transportation
$278,805 for out of district tuition
Joyce Mason stated that the problem with the school committee’s practice of pre-payment of budget items from one year to the next is that instead of starting with the budget from zero and building it back up, the actual increase for transportation is only $34,000. The school has been prepaying for the last 5 years and Ms. Mason is certain that there is going to be another prepayment. The fact is that we increased last year’s level funded budget by $350,000; with prepayments of $500,000
between tuition and transportation, the school is already ahead by $850,000 from last year’s budget. Joyce Mason stated that at a budget review last year, the school committee was asked to take out the prepayment and show the real need, and added that the school committee numbers are false numbers, because of their prepayments. George Schmidt stated that the increases in salary are overstated by $300,000 as that amount was provided by a grant in prior years, and asked Ms. Bradshaw the reasons she might have to explain why all other departments could remain level funded and the School Department was unable to so do. Ms. Bradshaw had no comment.
Ann Bradshaw responded that her numbers are not false; they are real numbers as close as the School Board can get. The variables that the School Board is faced with are: Chapter 70 funds, State and Federal grants; school retirements, Town revenues; changes in medical benefits. Ms. Bradshaw stated that adjustments in salaries and expenses will need to be made within her preliminary budget.
Discussion of prepay ensued. Ann Bradshaw stated that the school committee does prepay some special education costs, out of district costs, transportation costs. Ms. Bradshaw stated that prepay is legal, it is a common practice in school districts, it is considered good financial management, and it saves teachers’ positions. Ms. Bradshaw’s position is that if the school committee prepays, they save staff; if they turn the excess funds back to the Town, the school cuts more staff.
Mark Davini proposed to Ms. Bradshaw that she approach her teaching staff to accept either no increase or a decrease in proposed salary raises in order to save jobs. Mark Davini also recommended that the remaining teachers on Master Medical Blue Cross Blue Shield change to a lesser cost plan and release resources that again will save jobs.
Mr. Schmidt asked how many teachers have been hired in the past 5 years. Ms. Bradshaw stated that she would have to research that. Mr. Schmidt asked of the layoffs presented in her chart how many were teachers. Ms. Bradshaw responded that she did not know.
Kathy Stanley, Chairman of the School Committee, introduced herself to the Committee. Ms. Stanley stated that she has always looked at the practice of prepay as robbing Peter to pay Paul, but had nothing further to say at this time about prepay. Ms. Stanley expressed her appreciation to the Finance Committee for the effort that has been made to wrap their heads around the issue of prepay in order to settle the School Committee budget. Ms. Stanley stated further that she fully understands that municipalities do not have excess money.
Ms. Bradshaw indicated that she would find it difficult to cut her budget. Mr. Schmidt stated that the Town asked for a level funded budget and she had come in with a $1.3M increase and that that was not a cut to her budget.
Joyce Mason requested that the School Committee provide her with necessary details including teachers’ salary schedules, transportation costs including their bids, and the reasons behind the requests for increases, in order to justify the request for budget increases. All other departments have provided the Town Manager with these details, which are necessary in order to make a fair assessment of departmental needs. Ms. Bradshaw agreed to provide the Town Manager with all requested necessary details. Ann Bradshaw stated that she would be happy to meet further with the Finance Committee to answer any and all questions about the school budget. Mr. Schmidt concluded the questioning stating that while there have been some noteworthy achievements, there are some notable exceptions, including an increased
dropout rate, decreasing graduation rate and a rather poor performance on the latest MCAS exams.
OLD BUSINESS
School Committee - George Schmidt Report
- There was a presentation by one of the football coaches on getting Super Bowl rings for the Falcons football team as well as others who participated in the Super Bowl. In the process of doing that, a safety net was voted on by the School Committee in case the necessary funds could not be raised by outside donations.
- Mr. Ray gave an impassioned speech on what the teachers have been doing here. Mr. Ray was aghast that a School Committee member said that the Mashpee schools were failing the students ‘if we failed even one student’, which apparently we have, (many more than one if the numbers are accurate). Mr. Ray gave a critique on why the teachers were supporting the students.
- The committee voted not to vote on the school budget due to the need for more information.
- For the high school, it was reported that 40% to 50% of the high school students had used alcohol and/or marijuana in a 30-day period between Sept. and Oct., and 13% of the seniors during the same period were either drunk or high when in class. Mr. Schmidt expressed his surprised that there was no comment by the School Committee on this issue.
- Dress code for students was discussed at length.
Capital Improvement Committee – Charles Gasior Report
- Mr. Gasior distributed a Capital Improvement Budget Recommendation Report for FY 2013, and reviewed the estimated disbursements for the DPW, Fire, IT, Planning & Construction, Police, Recreation and School departments. The total estimated budget is $698,193.00. Funding sources include $493,143 from surplus cash receipts; $117,500 from ambulance receipts; $87,550 from cable funds.
- The Committee is recommending that in order to have a multipurpose building in place at South Cape Beach for the coming summer season, the Town Manager is going to create a separate warrant article that will be in the first Town Meeting that deals with FY 2012 funds and will ask for approval of those funds. No State DEP approval will be required, but Conservation Committee approval for construction of the multipurpose building at South Cape Beach will be necessary.
Mr. Gasior will provide background information to the Finance Committee regarding specifics of all the departmental requests.
NEXT MEETINGS
The following Finance Committee meetings were scheduled:
Thursday, February 23, 2012 – 6:30 PM, Mashpee Town Hall, Conf. Room 1
Thursday, March 8, 2012 – 6:30 PM, Mashpee Town Hall, Conf. Room 1
Monday, March 12, 2012 – 6:30 PM – Joint Meeting with Board of Selectmen
Thursday, March 22, 2012 – 6:30 PM – Mashpee Town Hall, Conf. Room 1
ADJOURNMENT
As there was no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 8:15 PM.
Respectfully submitted,
Ina G. Schlobohm
Recording Secretary
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