DRESDEN SCHOOL BOARD
BUDGET DELIBERATIONS
TUESDAY, JANUARY 15, 2008
7:30 P.M., HANOVER HIGH SCHOOL LIBRARY
Minutes
Present: Board members Asmus, Callaghan, Carpenter, Carter, Chamberlin, Fleischer, Gray, Rose, Sachsse, Vitt, Williams; Administrators Gersen, Aubin, Nourse, Gillespie, Jackson; and 23 members of the public. Recorded by R. Lohr
1. Call to order
Vice Chair Williams called the meeting to order at 7:05 PM.
2. Chair Report
Vice Chair Williams announced that the next regular Board meeting will be Tuesday, January 22 at 7:00 PM in the Hanover High School Library. This meeting is the third of three budget meetings in the month of January and it will be a regular Board meeting incorporating a public hearing on the budget and the budget adoption.
The Annual School District Meeting will be held on Thursday, February 28, 7:00 PM at the Hanover High School Gymnasium. This will be the discussion phase of the meeting and no voting will take place at the meeting. The voting phase of the meeting will take place on Tuesday, March 4, 7:00 AM to 7:00 PM at the Hanover High School Gymnasium for Hanover voters and Tracy Hall for Norwich voters.
The Dresden School District has filing dates from Tuesday, January 15 through 5:00 PM, Monday, February 4. Filing for School District Officers can be done with either the School District Clerk, Deborah Carter, or at the SAU Office located at 41 Lebanon Street, Suite 2 in Hanover. Positions open are: Moderator, Clerk, Treasurer, for one (1) year terms; two Auditor positions, one for a two (2) year term, and one for a three (3) year term.
Petitions for inclusion in Dresden School District Warrant must be received by 4:30 PM on Monday, February 4. The printing deadline for petition articles to appear in the Annual Report is Monday, January 28. Petitions may be presented to any member of the Dresden School Board, or delivered to at the SAU Office located at 41 Lebanon Street, Suite 2 in Hanover.
3. Business Requiring Discussion
2008-09 Proposed Budget
John Chamberlin moved and Linda Gray seconded the motion to defer budget discussion until after the consideration of the proposed tentative agreement with the HEA and the tentative agreement with the support staff.
John Aubin, Assistant Superintendent for Business reviewed the talking points regarding the settlements with the HEAand the support staff. He reported that the HEA ratified the contract earlier in the day. The contract settlements resulted in a Dresden budget of $21,422,108, which is 4.2 percent higher than last year. Mr. Aubin noted that the Dresden assessments and the district budgets in Hanover and Norwich yielded a tax rate under 1%. Mr. Aubin also stated that the fund balance would be about $400,000. Superintendent Gersen recognized and expressed appreciation to everyone involved in the negotiations. John Chamberlin of the Negotiations Committee commended the staff, HEA Team, and the Board members for their commitment and fairness in the negotiations, noting that the priorities of all the stakeholders were addressed with substantive changes to the contract. Chip Fleischer indicated that dialogue regarding alternative compensation will continue.
John Chamberlin made a motion that was seconded by Linda Gray that stated RESOLVED: the Dresden School Board hereby signifies its approval of the proposed tentative agreement reached between the Hanover Education Association and the Dresden and Hanover School Boards. The motion passed unanimously.
John Chamberlin made a motion that was seconded by Carey Callaghan that stated RESOLVED: the Dresden School Board hereby signifies its approval of the proposed tentative agreement reached between the Dresden Support Staff and the Dresden and Hanover School Boards. The motion passed unanimously.
John Aubin reviewed the Quarterly Report dated December 31 and noted that the expenses
were well below the budget. He estimated that the year end fund balance will be $517,259. With that forecast, Mr. Aubin felt it would be safe to use a$400,000 fund balance in calculating the 2008-09 budget. He also cited the food service operations, the construction project, and the athletic fields projects, noting that the field projects were $213,712 above budgeted costs.
Athletic Fee Increase
John Aubin and Athletic Director, Mike Jackson reviewed the Dresden athletic budget and the costs covered by the Athletic fee. He proposed that the participant athletic fee be increased $10 per sport to cover transportation costs. The Board discussed increasing this fee annually with the cost of living and also asked if the athletic department negotiates with the facility purveyors for annual use charges. There was also discussion about transporting teams to the various off campus sites and whether that will substantially increase the transportation budget when the Norwich fields came on line.
Warrant Article of NH Municipal Bond Bank Savings
John Aubin explained the $300,000 NH Municipal Bond Bank Savings that is expected in April and recommended it be applied to a capital expenditure such as the athletic fields deficit because such an action would apply a capital refund toward a capital project. He recently learned that this allocation would not require a warrant article or public vote. The consensus of the Board was that these funds not be applied to the fund balance or spent on operating expenses. The Board also considered where to apply the balance of the funds, which is expected to be about $87,000, after addressing the fields deficit. Mr. Aubin also indicated the balance of funds from the construction projects is projected to be $1.1 million and the Board will need to decide how to apply these funds once they become available.
Determination of Special Education Services Excess Costs
Superintendent Gersen explained how the special education excess costs are determined. The costs that are relevant to this surcharge include out-of-district placement and excess costs of specialists assigned to a student who would otherwise require out-of-district placement. If a special education student can be accommodated by services typically available within the school, the costs of that accommodation would not be the responsibility of the sending town.
Principal Nourse explained his school’s preparedness for the coming year with regard to the large number of incoming sixth grade students with special educational needs. He described his plan to assign an educational assistant in each sixth grade subject area. This is different from elementary schools where a one-on-one adult is often assigned to a particular special educational student. The intention of this staff deployment is to prepare the students for high school where they will interact with more adults daily. He assured that individual student needs as described in the student’s IEP (including the need for one-on one) will be addressed as required. He also indicated his staff planned an orientation and that the sixth grade program head has been getting to know the fifth graders, who will be entering Richmond Middle School next year.
Calculation of 6th Grade Tuition
John Aubin reviewed a document describing different ways the sixth grade tuition could be handled to minimize the annual volatility of this tuition and its influence on the school budgets. Kari Asmus suggested various goals for changing the calculation of the tuition. There was a suggestion to apply the same formula as the school applies to out-of-district regular education student tuition. A majority of Board members felt that it was too late in the budget process to make such a substantial change in the tuition amount. Norwich residents also felt that the tuition, which is for Hanover sixth grade students, would influence their tax situation due to the tuition’s influence on Dresden assessments on Norwich. John Aubin will use the suggestions to show the Board some options at a future meeting.
Add Backs
The school principals reviewed their respective school budgets in terms of cuts that were necessary and their desire for specific “add backs” in $10,000 increments. Kari Asmus stated that the Board should first consider reducing the budget by eliminating costs associated with athletic fields such as the irrigation system. Some of the Board felt that it was inappropriate to trade interdepartmental (such as middle school, high school, and facilities) budgetary items. Jonathan Brush will be invited to the next Board meeting to discuss the significance of his budgetary priorities for the facilities.
At the high school, Principal Gillespie submitted a priority list including an additional .2 guidance, $10,000 in school-wide technology, and funds for the Futuristics Survey, teaching supplies/materials, technology specifically for science and social studies, .2 for an elective position, and half of the textbooks. At Richmond School, Principal Nourse suggested the Board add back .1 FTE to the Elective Team, .5 FTE position in computer lab, another .1 FTE elective teacher, textbooks, .4 educational assistant for electives, staff development, .2 school nurse, and a second bus monitor.
The Board discussed various ways of implementing the “add backs” and whether the budget should increase so substantially (.68 percent for all the add backs). The influence of the add backs was applied to Hanover and Norwich tax rates to view the effects. It was suggested that the Board consider add backs in $10,000 increments to arrive at an acceptable amount. Once an amount is agreed upon, the principals would decide how to use that add back funding early next school year when they can consider their needs more effectively.
School District Warrant
Superintendent Gersen said that the only change to the warrant articles would be eliminating Article 4 about the Municipal Bond Savings.
4. Adjournment
A motion was made by Kari Asmus and seconded by Linda Gray to adjourn the meeting at 10:05 PM. The motion passed unanimously.
The meeting was adjourned at 10:05 PM.
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