UNAPPROVED
ERCSD Budget Advisory Committee Meeting Minutes
October 4, 2007 – 7:00 PM
SAU Office
MEMBERS PRESENT: Bobby Aldrich, Simon Heslop, Mark Portu, Deborah Johnson,
Roy Morrisette, David Pendell,
MEMBERS ABSENT: Ed Berry, Melissa Brockelbank, Patty Lovejoy, Mark Poirier
ADMINISTRATION PRESENT: Nathan Lunney
The chair called the meeting to order at 7:08 PM with six members in attendance.
1. Opening and Review: Chair Aldrich welcomed members and reviewed absences. Bobby reminded the committee that, due to an acute family concern, Ed Berry has been unable to continue with the committee and plans to resign. School District Moderator Charlie Tucker will be asked to appoint his replacement. Nathan reported that the school board at its last meeting finalized appointment to the Finance Committee of the board. Three members (Kimberley Casey, Patty Lovejoy, Kris Magnusson) will join the Budget Advisory Committee during the budget process to offer insight and share in the review of budget information presented.
2. Approval of Minutes:
a. August 15, 2007 Meeting: On a motion by Roy Morrisette, seconded by David Pendell, the committee voted 6-0 to approve the minutes.
b. August 29, 2007 Meeting: On a motion by David Pendell, seconded by Mark Portu, the committee voted 6-0 to approve the minutes.
3. Presentation by District Administrators:
a. Cooperative Middle School – Tom O’Malley, Principal: Tom offered an overview of the student population, staffing schedule, administrative team, and instructional programs at CMS. The committee queried the principal about some of his staffing, asked for clarification of some of his related services, and discussed the size of the school. Tom briefed the committee about the reality of 12 teaching teams working in a building of 10 physical pods. He also described that the biggest space need is in the school’s cafeteria which serves the school in 6 lunch periods beginning at 10:10am. It was mentioned that recent conversation about space addition at CMS has largely been driven by the cafeteria need primarily and teaching space secondarily.
b. Facilities & Maintenance – Dick Wendell, Director of Operations: Dick opened his presentation by offering a comparison between the ERCSD maintenance and operations department costs and national average costs per square foot. He described the food services program that is managed by the operations office. Then he shared information about the automated work order system that helps drive the services of his department. Dick reviewed the staffing schedule of his department in custodial, maintenance, grounds, and administrative functions. He detailed for the committee the work that his department does in managing building use by internal and external groups. There were a number of questions about the scope of services provided by the department and Dick explained the relationship that the ERCSD operations team has in providing services to most of the elementary districts as well.
4. Budget Development:
a. Budget Summary: Nathan reviewed the Budget Summary document with the committee members and explained how this serves as the guiding document for discussion of the development of our budget.
b. Telephone Lease: Nathan explained to the committee this cost represents the annual lease payment and post-warranty maintenance fee for the telephone/voicemail system that is the telecomm base for the district. The budget has been the same for years and was a determining factor when the system was upgraded and the lease renewed in 2004.
c. Insurance: The committee reviewed the property and liability insurance schedule. Nathan described the municipal risk pool in which we participate through Primex of Concord. He explained all the elements that are included in the blanket coverage, including property, casualty, errors and omissions, automobile, nurse, treasurer, etc. He also reviewed the kind of items that are covered through the additional self insurance dollars noted. The proposed budget is the same as the previous year.
d. Debt Service: The debt service schedule notes the principal and interest payments due against the bonds sold by the district for the construction of the middle and high schools. Nathan explained the buyout of Exeter School District assets from the creation of the ERCSD and reminded the committee that last year was the final payment for that agreement. He also noted the State Building Aid calculations on the lower half of the document and drew the committee members’ attention to the net cost of our debt after the benefit of the state aid. The proposed budget is decreasing.
e. Food Services & Grants Gross Appropriations: Nathan first explained state statute and the requirement that school districts budget “grossly” which means that we must include in our budget amount the total of all anticipated district spending regardless of the source of funding. Essentially this means that we must “gross up” our budget to cover the total dollars that we may receive in federal funds or donations and we must gross up for the total “business volume” of the food services (hot lunch) program. There were questions and answers and measurable discussion about this subject. The proposed gross budget includes an increase for Food Services.
5. Other Business:
a. Board Goals: The requested ERCSD School Board and SAU 16 Joint Board goals for this year are included in the handouts provided this evening.
b. Meeting Schedule: The committee agreed to cancel the October 30th meeting since many of our communities will use that evening to celebrate Halloween. The next regular meeting following the site visit will be Thursday, November 15th at 7:00pm.
6. Next Meeting Date:
Site visits on Friday, October 19, 2007 from 10:00am to 2:00pm – gather at the SAU office to begin at 10:00am – Lunch will be provided at Exeter High School
The meeting was adjourned at approximately 9:35 PM.
Respectfully submitted,
Nathan Lunney, CFO