GILFORD BUDGET COMMITTEE MINUTES
December 18, 2007
6:50 p.m.
Gilford High School
Members Present: John O’Brien, Bob Brent, Sue Greene, Dick Hickok, Bill Phillips,
Margo Weeks, Gus Benavides, Dale Dormody, Terry Stewart,
Phyllis Corrigan, Doug Lambert and Skip Murphy
Members Absent: None
Also in attendance was School Superintendent Dr. Paul DeMinico, Assistant Superintendent for Business Scott Isabelle and Recording Secretary Melinda Ferreira.
The following school staff members also spoke at the meeting: Buildings & Grounds Supervisor Tim Bartlett, School Board Chairperson Sue Allen, and Director of Student Services Esther Kennedy. Several other school staff was also present.
The Budget Committee recited the Pledge of Allegiance.
Chairman Hickok welcomed the Committee to the evening’s meeting to review the District Administration, Maintenance and Special Education portions of the School District Budget. These were portions to have been reviewed at the last scheduled meeting on December 13th which was cancelled due to inclement weather.
Chairman Hickok turned the meeting over to Skip Murphy who handed out his District Administration Subcommittee Review worksheets to Committee members. He and Doug Lambert had met with Superintendent DeMinico, Assistant Superintendent Isabelle and Buildings & Grounds Supervisor Bartlett to review discretionary and non-discretionary items. Most noted items discussed were staff personnel costs along with support staff health insurance costs and custodial supplies. Staff co-pays and employee contributions were increased showing a significant savings; while custodial supplies rose by 50% due to the higher costs of petroleum based products consumed, increase in public and in-house usage of the high school building, and increase in longer lasting floor tile area, which requires wax, due to continual replacement of old
carpeting.
Lengthy discussion ensued over staff contributions to health insurance vs. rates of pay and a decrease in the different types of insurance coverage now offered to fiscally conserve. The Budget Committee was pleased to see careful review of spending and hoped to see a concerted effort in future years as well. Discussion ensued over direct and in-direct labor cost ratios which Skip Murphy had asked Superintendent DeMinico about. Dr. DeMinico replied he was still looking into the matter as it was proving very difficult to find proper valid comparisons due to each District’s different methods of spreading costs. Further discussion ensued over the amount of administrative staff and the ever increasing governmental mandates imposed on the Schools which need to be kept on top of.
Phyllis Corrigan motioned to approve $8,231,165 for the total ‘10’ District Wide Budget. She was seconded by John O'Brien. Motion carried.
Bob Brent then motioned to approve the full amounts of the Operations & Maintenance of Facility Budgets for GES, GMS, GHS and the GMS/GHS ‘57’ joint accounts for a total of $1,437,050. He was seconded by Skip Murphy. Motion carried.
Moving on the Special Education portion of the Budget, Sue Greene explained to the Committee that her SPEDD Subcommittee met with Director of Student Services, Esther Kennedy on Monday. She distributed worksheets to the Committee and reviewed their findings. Sue Greene commended Esther Kennedy on obtaining over $700,000 in grants and aide for the School District and a very well managed SPEDD program. Discussion ensued over the cost savings of mainstreaming and integrating special needs students rather than sending them out of district for services as is the norm in many communities. 13.9% of students in Gilford are coded as needing services. After further discussion, Phyllis Corrigan motioned to approve the total of $2,935,935 for the Special Needs Budget and was seconded by Bob Brent. Motion carried.
The Gilford Middle School Budget was then brought up for discussion by Phyllis Corrigan whose GMS Subcommittee met with Middle School Principal, Jim Kemmerer on December 12th. Discussion ensued over the shared salaries of the two Computer Technology staff and the After School and Summer Programs. Overages and account transfers, due to turnover for instance, were discussed with Scott Isabelle. After further conversation and deliberations, Phyllis Corrigan motioned to approve the $2,519,620 GMS Budget (without SPEDD & Maintenance which was previously approved) and was seconded by John O'Brien. Motion carried.
Chairman Hickok then moved discussion over to the transferring of funds done throughout the year and inquired as to who on the Committee would like to attend these meetings. After some insight from Scott Isabelle as to why and how these transfers are done, such as when a GES student who needs services moves onto GMS in the middle of a budget year, Phyllis Corrigan, Terry Stewart and Bob Brent all expressed interest in attending the meetings. It was stated that unlike in the Town Budget, extra funds in the School Budget are shown as revenue in the following year’s School Budget. Short discussion ensued.
Selectman Benavides inquired as to the comparison of the boys and girls athletic budget amounts. Short discussion ensued.
The meeting was adjourned at 8:40 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Melinda N. Ferreira
Recording Secretary
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