Members Present: Robin Pelletier, Mona McCready, Carol Merrill, Thomas Gilligan, Jennifer Morin, Henriette Girard, Gabby Daneault, William Barnett, Tom Irzyk and Ben Fontaine

Excused Absent: Robin McAfee and Brian Duchesne

Others Present: David Dzura, Assistant Superintendent of Schools

Jennifer called the meeting to order at 6:35 p.m.

Jennifer stated that the purpose for this meeting is to finish the school budget. The committee tabled the discussion at the end of last meeting. Tom I. stated that the motion was not to vote on the bottom line.

Jennifer stated that the Committee had voted to cut the budget initiatives as listed which came to $128,026, with the high school transportation moving to a warrant article.

Jennifer informed Tom I., since he was not at the December 18 meeting, that David Jodoin was checking with DRA, that since some of these items do not have their own line items the ones that do would be that since the vote went as the budget initiatives, if the only thing is modular, than that would not be able to be purchased.

Ben noted that David did check and the assumption is not correct. David found out that the School committee could take money from other areas to do what they want regardless of what was cut. According to the attorney, none of the items are specific. Gabby stated that he had spoken with David and he had indicated that if the School Board wants to buy computers, they can.

Tom I. stated that it helps explain that if the Committee makes cuts and do not specify what the cuts are, and then the School Budget Form is in force.

Henriette asked if the School Board had made the cuts of $128,026. Tom I. stated that when he went through the minutes of the last meeting and the statement made by Sandra to him was "What concessions would the School Board be willing to come up with and how can we work something as far as the cuts were made."

Tom I. stated that as Vice Chairman of the School Board he wasn’t prepared to do that each time. Tom I. stated that he would like to know what the consensus of the Budget Committee on how they feel and if we can come to some type of agreement. We did bring the high school transportation to a warrant, if the School Board brought the modular to a warrant article, would that suffice the Budget Committee to reinstate the cuts? Tom I. stated that the one cut that he does not understand is the miniscule thing of the defibrillator purchase when half of that is paid for by a grant, which saves us money on our insurance by having one at each school. He just can’t see the rational from cutting an $1,800 purchase.

Henriette stated that she wanted to cut all of the initiatives, whether it is $1,850 or $63,176. She just wanted to cut the initiatives. Tom I. stated that if they went back to the original presentation at the school, Henriette stated that we are not supposed to bring that up. We already voted on this.

Tom I. stated that he is asking for a simple discussion and consensus. He stated that Henriette had given them a direction, and he was trying to find out where the Board could go with the direction.

Henriette stated that she asked where the cuts were being made. Tom I. stated that the decision has not been made yet. If the Board feels that it is more imperative for certain programs to be run and things that are more imperative to be run or making the choice of cutting $125,000 or whatever it is that you want us to cut, if we feel that it is more imperative to the education of these children, we are making the decision based on the kids education, not on what you want me to do.

Henriette stated that as of the last meeting, we were not to discuss this again, we already voted on it. Henriette stated that she felt the Committee was ready to vote on the bottom line.

Tom I. stated that he wanted to share some figures with the Committee, due to people’s misconception about what a behavior program is and what we are trying to establish. Please have this conception that we don’t want to send kids to the office and that the principals are not going to handle discipline anymore. They are totally wrong on this issue. This is not to handle the kids that are disruptive during class, it is not to handle kids running in the hall, it is not to handle the kids fighting in the playground, it is not to handle the kids that are being disruptive in a classroom. The principal will always, always handle regular disciplinary actions.

The disciplinary/behavior program that the Board is trying to get to would, hopefully, be to correct the out of district placements that this Town has, which is a very high burden.

He went through some figures that are pretty scary when you look at the dollar figure that we are paying for some of these disruptive kids to be out of the school district. If you want to add those numbers together with what the behavior program that we are trying to start and see the difference, you will all be astonished.

Right now we have budgeted for 2004-2005 $501,699 for out of district placement. This is for three students at AES, five at ARD and seven at PA. We also have $27,000 for two preschoolers for the TLC program and $415,000 for 21 students for PE skills and alternative school programs. These are the kinds of costs that the School Board is trying to get a handle on. We feel that we can do that by reaching these kids at an earlier age. Because their behavior problems don’t become our problems in the Town, they become the police departments’ problems and the prison systems problems.

These are the type of behavior problems that we are talking about. The person who we are looking to hire for that position is a person who has a degree in that behavior and knows how to get these kids in line and basically how to teach them the life skills to deal with other people that they don’t get at home. Those are some of the costs that we as a Board are trying to get under control.

That is where we feel we can best reach that goal. We have found that if we reach the kids at an earlier age, we prove that we have had some success because kids are staying in school, the kids are not dropping out of high school in leaps and bounds like they were. Allenstown had one of the highest dropout rates in PA. We are at a deficit in high school tuition now because we have managed to keep the kids in school, we are keeping them interested.

Another part of the program of keeping the kids interested, and the studies that have been done, and proven just by the Maine program that the Governor has initiated, and we were lucky enough to be a school that was granted the laptops for the seventh graders. Kids want to come to school, they want to learn. They have seen the scores skyrocket. And when we asked for the purchase of the laptops to try to continue that program on a shared basis for the 8^th grade, those are the types of things that as a School Board we are trying to improve.

Mona stated that it is not something by choice that we are doing, Allenstown is the second poorest Town in the State of New Hampshire. Mona stated that Tom I. sounded like the 7^th grade laptop program was something that the School Board were initiating. Tom I. stated that the grant was secured by the hard work of the Principal at ARD. It was a long process, it took weeks to prepare. David Dzura stated Allenstown was one of 24 districts that were invited to enter a bid for six awards and ended up getting one of the awards. The Governor did not pick six communities and give laptops to those communities. So 24 communities were told that if they were interested, to tell him how they would implement this program and write out a whole description of how it would work and all 24 did, but only six were chosen.

Tom I. stated that was what he meant, it was a long process and it took a long time and effort by the ARD principal to secure that grant. Then the Board was just looking to continue that, on a shared basis, it would not be the full-blown program that is running in the 7^th grade because all the 8^th graders would have to share this program. We knew the burden to the Town; we know what the costs are. That is why we went with just $30,000. The 8^th grade laptops would not be going home, the 7^th graders will be taking them home because as part of the grant, they have to take the laptops home, all their work has to be done on it. But the 8^th grade laptops would not be taken home.

Jennifer stated that basically where we stand, is what she said when she opened the meeting. It was voted on and approved to remove $128,000 from the budget. We don’t have to say where that comes from and what Tom I. is saying is that it will not necessarily come from here because the Board has priorities and some of these are priorities. She stated that she appreciated the discussion, but she did not know what the Committee can do and the Committee still has to vote on the bottom line.

Tom I. stated that he understood, but when he was asked by the Selectmen what concessions the Board could make or be willing to do, he would hope that if the School Board made concessions to the Budget Committee that they in turn, the Budget Committee would support the warrant articles. To make the demand to do this and have the people have a say in these issues, he can understand those arguments, but the problem he has as a School Board member, he was elected by this Town to do my best to run the School and we are trying to do that.

You give us a directive to remove things from their budget, and put them on a warrant article, he would then hope that the Committee would give the School Board the support if that is what you want to do. If we make the concessions and do it, he would hope that they would support and recommend the warrant article.

Robin P. stated that she did not feel that they have gotten that far yet. Tom I. stated that he just wanted to voice his opinion in saying that the concessions that the School Board is willing to make and even if we are willing to make the concessions and are willing to concede and not ask for the behavior program this year, we made the concessions for the high school transportation, if we make the concession to pull the modular and put that on a warrant article, is the feeling of the entire School Board that they would hope that the Budget Committee would then recommend those concessions.

Robin P. stated that she felt that the problem that they had in past years is the Budget Committee does not want to see these in the budget. We do not feel that this is where it belongs or we can’t support it in the budget at that time, let the people decide. Doesn’t necessarily mean that we agree with the whole concept. Robin P. stated that, take the modular, when she was on the board before, the School Board assumed we would support a warrant article for it, but it was not their feeling. It was, if you want it to go through you have to present it to the people and let them decide, however, the Committee itself did not feel that it was something we wanted to support. But it is an alternative to just saying cut it out of the budget. The School Board has the option of putting it out as a warrant article, whether or not the Committee supports it that is a discussion for us to have. But she did not think that if we tell you to cut something, we have to support it.

Tom I. stated the cuts and the concessions that you have made, you have made clear that you want the people to decide. In his opinion, the people have decided that the school bus is what they want. Other than that, he did not know why the Town was putting together a master plan, because it is listed everywhere in the master plan to provide transportation for high school students. He has read it more than two dozen times in those questionnaires.

Robin P. stated that she did not know how many people got together and had input in that master plan. Jennifer stated that it was mailed to everyone and this was based on the survey. Tom I. stated that it is the only feedback they can go by. Robin P. asked how many people did not fill it out? Tom I. stated that it was people who were not concerned about the school.

Ben stated that there was a small percentage of people who did fill it out. This has come out many times about transportation and it has always been dumped. Carol stated that we have all brought our own kids to high school. Ben stated that he feels that we should provide the transportation, but it is an item that he has spoken on more than once, but it has always been defeated.

Tom I. stated that the State mandates that the Towns provide transportation from K-8, but he feels it should be a mandated transportation issues from K-12. While you are in the public school system, you should be provided transportation. Tom I. stated that he grow up in Allenstown, graduated from PA, many times he walked from Bi-Wise to PA. I think it is wrong, if you are mandated to supply something from K-8, it should be the entire time you are in the public school system. Ben stated that it would save parking at PA.

Robin P. asked Tom if the teacher negotiations had reached a consensus. David Dzura stated that they are pretty much in consensus and, unfortunately, Tom cannot say anything about it because it is bargaining in bad faith until both sides actually have ratification. The Board discussed it and they seem in consensus and the teachers bargaining unit has discussed it and they seem in consensus, they feel that the membership will vote for it. It is David Dzura’s understanding that they will have a teachers meeting either tomorrow or Friday and have ratification. The School Board may vote on it tomorrow night at their business meeting. So by the end of the week, we may have something.

Robin P. stated that they are being asked to vote on a bottom line that isn’t correct. Jennifer stated that the teacher’s contract is a warrant article. Robin P. stated that if the warrant article is approved, it will be in this budget. David Dzura stated that it is effective the following year. It would be just like the PA bus, it will be a separate warrant article and the voters will either approve or disapprove the collective bargaining agreement.

Tom I. stated that he was not sure if they realized, with the action that they took to cut the money from the budget, the default budget is now higher than the proposed budget. The default budget is $7,711,048. Ben stated that it is one way to make sure that the voters do not disapprove the budget. David Dzura stated that it is not the School Board’s budget, it is the Budget Committee’s budget because that is the law now in Senate Bill 2 Towns. It is the Budget Committee’s budget is the one that goes into the operative warrant article.

Henriette asked why it was higher. David Dzura stated that the things that causing the biggest increases in the budget that the School Board is proposing have to be, by law, part of the default budget. To get a default budget, the law stated that we must take last year’s budget and add to it any increases that you are contracted to have and subtract from it any one term things that have been paid off and don’t have to be funded again, subtract any contracted thing where there has been an actual increase. For one thing high school tuition, if you look at high school tuition in last year’s budget it was x number of dollars, there is a big increase for high school tuition for next year. That also goes into the default budget. So the things that are causing the biggest increase in the proposed budget, by law, are also in the default budget – high school tuition, special education. We are required by law to spend on special education whatever the cost of the fees are. Whatever the costs of special education are in the proposed budget, they will be exactly the same in the default budget.

Henriette stated that it is very deceiving. David Dzura stated that many communities are coming out with the very same phenomena. They are at a point where the default budget is higher than the proposed budget. Tom I. stated that the default budget stays the same from the original warrant article. Tom stated that he printed out a copy of the article from the Concord Monitor from when Governor Benson was here on Monday handing out the computers if anyone would like to see it.

David Dzura stated that when the Committee cut the $128,000 from the budget those things were never in the default budget, they were initiatives and by law they could not be in the default budget. So the proposed budget was cut by $128,000 and this had no effect on the default budget.

Carol asked that the initiatives were not going to be in the default? Jennifer stated that they couldn’t be in the default.

David Dzura stated that it is what gives the voters the choice. There are things that can be in the proposed but by law, cannot be in the default.

Henriette stated that the Board has us one-way or the other. Bill asked how old the default budget was, is it from last year? David Dzura stated that you take the budget that the voters approved last year, then one of the things that was subtracted from the bottom line was the debt service, because the Town paid off the bond. So this had to be subtracted from the bottom line of last year’s budget and that made the default budget less, but then we looked at high school tuition and all of a sudden, we are going to have more kids at PA than we did last year and the tuition rate for each of those kids had to be added into the bottom line, because by law, we have to provide the high school education to any resident student who wants to have that high school education.

Bill stated that he was wondering where the numbers came from because it was nothing that the Committee comes up with as a group this year. David Dzura stated that in the packets that the Committee was given from the School Board there was a two-page handout on the default budget. The second page was the entire worksheet that showed exactly, item by item, how the default budget is calculated.

Tom I. stated that his question would be, it was brought up at the last meeting if everything was brought up that was open again for discussion, what would the compromise be? As a board, the compromise would be that the behavior program would be removed this year, and hope to get it next year if the Budget Committee could support it the warrant article for both the modular and the school bus.

Jennifer informed Ben that the issue of the compromise was brought up by Sandy at the last meeting and her question was if the Committee voted to discuss the initiatives again, what concessions would they be willing to make.

Ben stated that they could take the money from wherever they wanted to, the Committee could not give them any direction or tell them where they had to take the money out of, it was up to them.

David Dzura stated that the School Budget afterwards can deal with the budget in terms of moving dollars around. Ben stated that they should discuss this with him.

Jennifer stated that original motion was the initiatives, so that would be a starting point if the Board could go with how the vote went. David Dzura stated that the Board can do that if that is what the Committee wishes.

Henriette stated that the modular lease is a line item. David Dzura stated the Budget Committee puts together the MS27 and if you look at the MS27 and see the modular unit, you will see that the purpose is a lot of different things besides the School Boards line item budget.

Henriette stated that when you go to a meeting and someone wants to look at a line item, this is what we look at. David Dzura stated that the only thing that can be cut at a meeting is a purpose. If you read the municipal budget law, it uses that exact word. What is amended at an SB2 meeting is that, people can vote to amend upwards or downwards anyone of the purposes that is in the line. At the top of the MS27 form there is a label for the second column, purpose, and those are the different purposes that you can recommend as a Budget Committee whatever you wish for anyone of those purposes and that is what the voters will be considering at the deliberative session.

Tom G. asked what the purpose is for the lease. What purpose does it fall under. David Dzura asked what the line item is in the School Board’s itemized budget, 2620 – Operations Maintenance. David Dzura stated that if you look at the second page of the MS27 document and read down near the down and it says Operations of Maintenance and Planning, this is a purpose and it includes all the line items from 2600 through 2699. All of these are grouped by the DRA as a purpose and that is what the voters can vote to increase or decrease.

Henriette asked if you have to increase or decrease the whole amount? David Dzura stated that is correct. Henriette asked how this can be done? David Dzura stated that the voters decided that they do not want to spend anything on Operations and Maintenance next year, they could reduce this line to zero. And if they voted zero, then the School Board could not vote a dime on Operations and Maintenance. Once the voters decide to zero a purpose, then the School Board could not transfer money from another part of the budget.

Henriette asked what if you wanted to just remove the modular? David Dzura stated that it would be in Column 8, Budget Committee’s Appropriation for a certain fiscal year recommended, this amount will be $32,725 for the modular, it would be $33,000 less than the $270,794 that the School Board is recommending. Henriette stated that it can be removed. Yes.

Tom I. stated that it is not specifically in that line. Henriette stated that she did not have this page when she decided to cut. So how can I cut this, when we do not have it.

Tom G. asked if the committee can cut a purpose? David Dzura stated that you can cut a purpose all together or any part of one if you want. If you want to cut $33,000 out of the $270,000 you can do that. But if you leave any money in there, by law, as the School Board operates their budget, if they feel that money in another place would be better spent in this one on a modular unit, by law they can do that.

Jennifer asked if the Committee wants to tell the Board where to spread the $128,000 through the MS27 to make cuts or leave it up to them what to do.

David Dzura stated that the DRA allows it to go either way. The Budget Committee can say we want $128,000 cut from the whole budget and then the Business Administrator has to pick a purpose and cut the whole $128,000 from that one purpose.

Jennifer asked if the Committee stated that they want to group this correctly, the School Board will reflect it that way when it is presented at the hearing. Yes. Is that what we want?

We can take the initiatives, find where they are in the MS27 and mark it in column 8 so that at the hearing it shows this adds up to $128,000. Robin P. stated that this will not zero out any lines and they will still be able to do what they want regardless.

Jennifer stated that either the Committee can make these recommendations, and David is saying they will be presented on the Budget, or we can say, have the Business Administrative find $128,000 wherever.

Tom I. asked if the Board was giving the same presentation at the hearing on January 13 that was given to the Budget Committee or are we going to present the budget to the public the Budget Committee prepared. This is no longer the School Board’s budget, it is the Budget Committee’s budget.

Tom I. stated that they are willing to present the budget the same way it was presented to the Committee, and outline the cuts that the Budget Committee has made, but the Board will not present the Committee’s budget.

Jennifer stated that they have always given the presentation. Henriette stated that Dave Eaton presented it last year. Jennifer stated that he didn’t, because she covered for him last year and all she did was introduce Lou Conley.

Tom I. stated that last year they presented the same budget to the public that was presented to the Budget Committee.

Tom G. stated that it should be done that way, it is a matter of public record anyway. Why have the voters go through the minutes and try to guess, we should show how it was presented, this how the Budget voted.

Jennifer stated that she could outline the cuts. Tom I. stated that it is a better way for all of us at the public hearing to see what the outcry from the public is. People at the hearing could make a motion to add or decrease, no this can be done at the deliberative session.

Ben stated that at least year’s deliberative session; most of the people there represented the school.

Jennifer stated that she is comfortable with the Board presenting the budget that they presented to the Committee and then she can summarize what the budget committee did.

Tom I. stated that it is the chairperson’s job to set the direction for the Committee. Ben stated that it is her responsibility to make the presentation.

Jennifer stated that there is no other meeting scheduled for the Committee, they went over some of the warrant articles last week, but David still had a few more that the Selectmen had not reviewed yet. We would be going to do those prior to the meeting on the 13^th.

We would have to meet ½ hour earlier than the public hearing to finish up the warrant articles.

Tom I. stated that the committee can vote on the high school transportation warrant article, but the expendable trust may change or we may remove it if we are putting on more warrant articles.

Ben stated he would rather wait until they have all the warrant articles. Jennifer agreed.

Jennifer stated that she has not had time to read through the minutes that had just been received so they could vote on them at another meeting.

Tom I. asked if the Committee had accepted the minutes of the last minutes. Jennifer stated that they had just come out. Tom I. meant that first meeting, Jennifer stated yes they were approved.

Ben made a motion to recess, Robin P. second.

The meeting will meet again at 6:30 p.m. on January 13, 2004.