Allenstown Budget Committee

Minutes – 9/19/2002

 

Members Present:  David Eaton, Jennifer Morin, Robin McAfee, Ben Fontaine, Carol Angowski, Lou Conley, Gabby Daneault, Don Bergevin, Henriette Girard, Karen Gendreau

 

Excused Absent: Gene Vallee, Colin Egan

 

Others Present:  David Jodoin, Mona McCready, and Carol Merrill

 

Dave Eaton called the meeting to order at 7:10 p.m.

 

Dave indicated that Carol Merrill and Mona McCready had expressed interest in joining the budget committee.  

 

Gabby made a motion to accept Carol and Mona on the committee, Carol seconded.  Ben asked what their interest is in joining the committee, Carol stated that other people need to get involved to see how we can help save the Town money.  Mona agreed, she stated that she had been a bookkeeper for 46 years and am now retired.  I can now devote time to other things. 

 

Ben then asked if they were coming to see how the committee works then drop or were they making a long-term commitment to the committee?  Mona stated that she was making a long-term commitment.  Ben stated that there are many instances when people join a committee, find out what it is like, then never come back. 

 

Carol stated that she has her own business and deals with alot of people and hears alot about this Town.  It is nice to come and work with it. 

 

Dave then reviewed the meeting cycle through January.  The committee will probably be meeting every other week until that time.  The committee usually meets with the School Board on a Saturday morning.  We made a change this year by creating subcommittees.  The subcommittee will either meet when the Selectmen review the budgets, or if there is a meeting that a certain board has to review their budget the subcommittee will attend this meeting just to observe.

 

Dave indicated that the Committee will probably be meeting two Thursdays in October, two in November, two or three in December and then a couple of times in January.  Then there will be public sessions and the deliberative sessions which we just watch.  The committee tries to finish the meetings by 10 p.m.  There must be a vote to extend the meeting beyond 10 p.m.

 

Ben noted that their terms would only be effective until they were voted in at the next election. 

 

The committee then voted on the nomination of Carol and Mona, the motion passed unanimously.  Dave indicated that they could not vote until the Town Clerk can swear them in as a member. 

 

Ben asked about not being able to abstain from a vote.  Dave indicated that he has researched this subject and found out that he does not have to ask for an abstaining vote.  He is not going to ask if there are any abstaining votes, but if someone wants to abstain from a vote they can.  This is then considered a non-vote. 

 

David then reviewed the Town expense report. 

 

Dave asked why the postage line was 172% in the hole.  David indicated that there has been postage increases and some of the department postage expenditures have not yet been charged to their departments.  This will still be over because the budget was figures on .34cents for first class postage and the rate has increased to .37 cents.  There has also been more lien letters.

 

Henriette asked about the Dues and Subscriptions line.  David indicated that this was for the dues for the Municipal Association where the Town can get free legal advice, questions answered, etc.  It is paid once a year, and this year the dues were approximately $2,300.  Last year it was budgeted under the supply line and this year the expense was placed under dues where it really belongs. 

 

Carol A. asked about the gas expense line.  David indicated that it is the same as the postage, all the usage through August are in but this needs to be posted to each department.

 

Henriette asked if the expenses for the last election were on this expense report.  David stated no. 

 

Don asked about the Group Health Insurance – would it be possible to know who is on the policy and how much they are paying?  David indicated that this information is indicated on the bill from the health insurance company.  It lists each employee, if they have a single, two person or family plan and how much is being paid.  Don asked if anyone with a family plan pays a certain amount or if the Town pays it.  David indicated that each person pays a certain percent of the premium.  The Town pays 70% and the employee pays 30%.  A part-time employee who works at least 25 hours per week or averages 100 hours per month, the Town pays the single rate for the single employees at the 70% - 30% split, but a 2 person or family plan is paying approximately $88 a month instead of $30. 

 

It was asked about the Retirement – David indicated that this was the NH Retirement System, it covers police and fire, town employees who work 40 hours or more are covered.

 

Firefighters and Police Officers have 9.3% of their gross wages deposited in the account.  The State mandates the amount that must be paid into the retirement system.

 

Dave asked if there were any lines that David thought would be a problem.  David indicated that Contract Assessing, this is for updates, tax appeals, abatements; court cases are all handled through this line.  Carol M. asked if they had just done Notre Dame Avenue, yes they double check on home evaluations.

 

Due to the Statewide property tax the State mandated that Towns stay between 90 to 100% of the equalization ratio. 

 

Jennifer asked what GGB meant – General Government Building – or the Town Hall.

 

David indicated that the Town has not had to borrow any money yet, which is good.

 

Jennifer asked about the overtime line.  David indicated that the fire department has not had too many brush fires.  So will the 23% remaining be enough?  Dave indicated that the overtime is already over budget on the latest expense report. 

 

Carol A. asked about the Civil Defense Equipment Maintenance line, David indicated that this was for the generators.  This is the yearly maintenance agreement.

 

Dave then asked everyone to introduce themselves to Carol and Mona.  Karen Gendreau is the secretary.  Dave indicated that the meetings are recorded and his wife then transcribes the tapes.  He asked that Carol and Mona identify themselves for the tape for a while. 

 

Lou then discussed the end of the year School Board expense reports.  Lou indicated that without the auditors looking at the books as yet, they are projecting a $578,000 surplus.  This is as of the end of the close of the month of September. 

 

Lou handed out a sheet showing where all the surplus money is coming from.  There are surpluses of over $10,000 in teacher salaries, repairs/maintenance/ computers, tuition to other districts, special services, special ed appraisal, natural gas and special education transportation. 

 

Henriette asked what the appraisal was, Lou indicated that this how a child is determined how they are coded – this is input from the teachers, parents, sometimes welfare.  Henriette asked where the expense comes in.  Lou indicated that sometimes the child goes to a psychologist, some times the child is tested, or he/she may be sent to a certain facility for certain tests to be performed.

 

Why was the appraisal line in the red as of June 12, 2002.  Lou indicated that the board anticipates what types of expenses were going to be coming through to the end of July.  Appraisals are done throughout the entire budget season.  And sometimes during the summer, some people either did not come in for the appraisal or they did not have to be sent out and the money was not spent. 

 

On the teachers’ salaries, some teachers left and new ones were hired at a lesser salary.  The natural gas line was good due to a warm winter.

 

The biggest amount of the surplus came from high school tuition and special education – this amounted to 92.1%.  It is hard to anticipate these expenses.  It the high school tuition and special education is removed from the budget, the surplus is $46,000; this comes to about .7% of the budget.

 

If you look at the repairs/maintenance/computers it is $11,219 in surplus, but the replacement equipment line is over by  $15,554.  This is due to the fact that at times it was less expensive to buy a new computer instead of repairing old computers.  This report helps the school board plan for the next year, by looking where the surplus and the deficits are. 

 

Don asked about the computers that the Donation Depot had available.  Lou indicated that they got there too late, because what was left needed a lot of work.  Don stated that these computers were strictly for schools.  Lou stated that he would ask again about the computers.

 

Carol A. asked if line 2640-433 was maintenance services, yes.  Carol asked what other maintenance services were.  Lou indicated that this could be for the maintenance of the lawn, Henriette asked if this should be called grounds maintenance.  Lou will check this out.  Lou stated that it could be jobs that need to be done around the school that is too big for the janitorial staff.  There is a line for other maintenance services for each school.  Lou noted that while looking through the budget that the next to the last three digits stand for which school – 101 is AES and 102 is ARD.  Lou stated that Tom could answer these questions next time.  Dave asked if Lou could e-mail this answer to the committee in the next few days.  Yes, no problem.  2640-433 is used mainly for service agreements on copiers.  However, this past year the Board contracted to have asbestos studies done at both schools.  Approximate cost = $4K /building.

 

 

Carol A. asked about line 2900-211 – Health Insurance – Lou stated this is a deficit because we offered contracts.  It depends on who comes in and who goes out. 

 

Carol A. then asked about 4200-151 – Construction Building Improvement – Lou stated that this could be the work that was done to handicap accessorize the bathrooms at ARD and the ramp to make the playgrounds accessible to handicapped children.

 

Lou stated that the anticipated revenue was $6,055,049, they actually received $6,074,213 for a surplus of $19,164.  The school cannot spend this money.  Without the auditor looking at the books, the board now estimates that the school will return to the Town this year $597,300.  Note - the surplus is returned to offset the school district tax rate for 2002/03 school year.

 

Carol A. asked about the warrant articles asking to spend some money from surplus.  Lou stated that this money would need to be taken out (Note – the $9,000 was already taken out for the tax rate calculation.).  So $5,000 will be put into the Claremont Fund and $4,000 will be put into the Technology Fund, the rest will be returned to the Town.

 

So the actual surplus for the year ending 2001-2002 is just over a half a million dollars.  This is money that the Board could have gotten the voters to say yes to and then could have gotten some things accomplished if it had not been tied up in a budget and not been able to spend it.

 

Mona asked what the Board wanted to accomplish.  Lou stated that on last year’s ballot, there was a language program at ARD, a computer teacher, facility issues that need to be addressed.  They were either cut from the budget and we were voted the default budget.  We were looking for $200,000 from surplus to fund an architect. 

 

Carol A. stated that it is too bad that if the school had this much of a surplus at the end of the year, it seems there should be a better use of this money for the school instead of returning it to the Town.  Lou indicated by law the school board can spend the money, but if they do, how credible is it?  In the last five years, the school has returned over $1.5 million that the school has been forced to hold on to.  The unfortunate thing is that $597,000 is tied up and cannot be used anywhere else in the school budget.

 

Mona asked if the money goes back to the general fund, Lou stated no it offsets the taxes for the school portion of the bill. 

 

Lou then handed out a sheet showing the expenditures comparison for current and prior year.  The total expenditures from the 2000/01 school year to the 2001/02 school year has increased by $7,668 which is 1.3%.  High School Tuition went up $38,681 or 2.7%; K-8 Expenditures went up $38,897 or 0.9%.  So the majority of the money for kindergarten through 8th grade at ARD and AES only went up 0.9%.  Most of the money goes to high school tuition.  Special Education is pulled out of this because it also goes on at the high school level.  Special Education is pulled out of this because it also goes on at the high school level. Teacher’s salaries only went up 11.4%.  Note – SpEd expenditures were not removed from the K-8 expenditure figures.  Both the total expenditures figure and the K-8 expenditure figures included expenditures made on SpEd.  The high school tuition expenditure does not include SpEd expenditures, because each AREA district pays for its own SpEd expenses.

 

Lou then reviewed the graph showing the comparison of cost per pupil for the state.  Allenstown spends less than $7,000 per student.  But according to the Master Plan questionnaire, 45% of the respondents stated that they want to see more school spending.  So Allenstown spends $1,253 less than the NH average to educate each student. 

 

Allenstown Teacher/student ratio is the 7th highest in NH.  Statewide, the number of teachers having advanced degrees is 3 times higher than in Allenstown.

 

Dave asked if the school subsidized the education of the teachers, no.  Lou indicated that the school funds everything that is necessary for a teacher to maintain their certification.  Note – by the master agreement with the teachers, the district funds a certain dollar amount for course reimbursement and workshop reimbursement.  Once these sums run out in a budget year, teachers must fund courses and workshops on their own.  Teachers also pay their own re-certification fee to the state.

 

Lou stated that teachers must have a general education degree.  There are currently two teachers who are specialized.  One is the principal (and he does not count) but he is specialized in social studies and one other teacher is also certified in social studies. Note – all the district’s SpEd staff are appropriately credentialed.  Also your PE, Art (at AES only), Music Media Generalist, and Guidance are properly credentialed.

 

Lou then discussed the tax rate.  The Fund I operating budget number is higher than the number that was seen before because it includes the food service, and all other things.  Federal Projects, Chapters I and II, Food Services, etc.  Therefore the appropriation to be raised by taxes was grand total of $2,473,505.  This left a local tax rate of $15.23 and $5.28 for the State portion that was voted on rate of $20.51.  When the surplus is added in this will lower the tax rate to $18.20.  It took $597,000 to get it down that far.  It is expected that will all the evaluations that went on, it will raise the tax base and the rate will probably be lower when it is set in Concord.  Lou stated that the School can only raise through taxes $2,797,083, so if the assessment on your house does not change, the school can only charge a tax rate of $18.20.  Note – food service is Fund IV (not a part of Fund I)

 

Dave commented that this was really great.  Lou stated that is important that everyone understand what the surplus is, why it is there and what percentage of the budget it is.  There is really not anything that can be done about the surplus.  The kids are not being helped by having put this amount of money in the budget. 

 

Lou stated that last year they were looking to put two teachers in, one for computer and one for language, $200,000 for surplus, $4,000 in the computer fund and $5,000 in the Claremont.  The school got Claremont and the computer fund.  The $200,000 was shot down, when the default budget was approved, the two new teachers were lost and the modular was lost; $110,000 was cut out of the budget.  Note - the Board was looking for $200K from surplus to hire an architect.

 

Lou asked the committee to set a date for the budget development.  Carol M. asked what happened to the money that is charged for babysitting in the morning.  Lou stated that this is a private day care and has nothing to do with the school.  Note – School Board approves use of facilities and charges a monthly usage fee.

 

The first deliberative session date has to be set between February 1 and before the second Saturday in February.  The school has set Thursday, February 6 to leave the Saturday open for the Town.  That way if it snows, you still have some time. 

 

The budget will be presented to the budget committee on the third Thursday of November, which is November 21.  Budget committee reviews the preliminary budget and prepares recommendations, November 21 to January 14.  Posting by the checklist supervisor date needs to be set.  Last date for budget hearings and bond issues is the 21st.  The date for the public hearing needs to be set. 

 

Dave indicated that the committee will discuss the date and make a decision at a future meeting.

 

Lou stated that the School Board has five goals this year.  One of the goals is communication both internally, between the School Board, Administration, Staff, Parents and Children.  The School Board feels that it is imperative that if someone does not have a copy of the goals, they can be found on the internet (www.SAU53.org – Allenstown), everything that you want to know about the school is there, including policies, minutes of board meetings, calendar for the school year.  You can even find out what teachers are giving for homework.  Note – not currently active

 

 

The School Board, administration and all teachers have e-mail addresses.  Lou’s e-mail address is lconley@sau53.org. 

 

The Board wants to establish a plan with every department in the Town.  The Board will be in contact with the Selectmen to invite a representative to the School Board to develop a plan on how they will communicate with each other.  We will talk with the Planning Board and Zoning Board.  Planning affects the schools.  When the town is building new homes, and the school does not know this, then they cannot plan for the increase in students.  Zoning is also important, because if they are planning a campground that will have kids during the early or late months of the year when the campground is open, that affects the enrollment.  Special Services will put families in a campground in the summer instead of a house. 

 

The Fire and Police Department will also have policies in place for communication. 

 

The School Board meetings accountability is through the School Board Chair, the SAU and the MBC subcommittee.  The school board chair finalizes the meeting agenda, SAU office prepares finalized agenda and posts meetings and if the agenda contains budget related topics, e-mails copies to the MBC subcommittee go out so they can attend. 

 

The School Board meeting minutes – the school board secretary is accountable so is the SAU and the school board.    The school board secretary will prepare the minutes and submit them to the SAU; SAU office places unapproved minutes on files and schedules school board approval.  Following school board approval, SAU places approved minutes in both office and on web.

 

Annual Board Goals – School Board, SAU and School Board liaison to the MBC.  Following school board approval, the SAU places the goals set for the new school year on file in the office and on the web.  The School Board liaison to the MBC presents goals to the MBC at meeting. 

 

Budget Reports – The SAU and School Board – three times a year – prior to budget year close, post election budget review in April and surplus/deficit review in May.  The SAU will prepare an itemized summary of the budget with projected year-end expenditures.  The summary will be reviewed by the School Board at a meeting and will also be presented to the subcommittee.

 

Budget Development Time Line – SAU, School Board and School Board liaison to the MBC and the MBC.  In August, SAU prepares a timeline to comply with the SB2 requirements.  Following SB2 selection of deliberative selection date, the school liaison to the MBC reviews the timeline at the MBC meeting.  Following the MBC setting of dates for hearings, SAU publicizes the final timeline. 

 

Budget Presentation – School Board, SAU and Building Administration – Prepare budget packages for MBC which will always include a draft of the budget, list of major proposed increases/decreases, list of budget initiatives, K-8 enrollment and staffing projections, K-12 enrollment and tuition projections, SB2 default budget summary and calculation of revenue projections and tax rate.  The package will be distributed to the MBC at the meeting on the third Thursday in November at which time the School Board and Building Administration will present an overview of budget proposal.  School Board and SAU will attend the next MBC meeting that will be devoted to the School district budget.

 

Lou stated that this is how the School Board would like to communicate with the MBC, what they would like to see is communication from the MBC to the School Board.  Would you like to communicate through the school board liaison, through the committee chairs, please let us know. 

 

The MBC meeting minutes – the MBC Chair – Minutes distributed via e-mail to members, school board chair and SAU.  Minutes on file at Town Hall.  Dave indicated that he would e-mail the minutes to Tom, Evelyn and Lou. 

 

After some discussion the wording was changed to School Board Committee instead of School Board Chair. 

 

Karen stated that she felt that this information was excellent and that the subcommittees were helping a lot.  It is great to be able to go to the school board meetings, we have also been able to interact with the board at the meetings. 

 

Goals

 

There are five goals for this year. 

 

  • Communication
  • Claremont lawsuit – continue to support.

 

Carol A. asked where this lawsuit stood at this time? Lou indicated that it is currently in limbo.  Gabby stated that it is not being talked about at this time in the legislature.

 

  • Facilities – commitment to the facilities, to continue to look and see how they have changed.  The Master Plan survey distributed to all departments asked what the needs were and what was expected. 
  • Drop Out Rate – We are taking a very close dropout rate at the high school.  Right now in the state, Franklin has a drop out rate of 16%  - which is the highest. (Note - Franklin is higher than this but I don’t remember the exact figure!)  But we do not look at the Towns that send to Pembroke.  Pembroke Academy’s drop out rate is substantially lower than 16%, but Allenstown’s drop out rate at PA as of last year was 33%.  These are not transfers, but students that stop going to school. 

 

Mona asked if the Board had any reason why the drop out rate is so high.  Lou stated that they are currently looking into this.  We have some theories, but do not want to go public yet.  Do they lose interest, are they forced out, do they have to get jobs?  You start to realize you have a drop out rate and start looking into it, there are any number of reasons, the students may not care, or are moving from grade to grade because of their age – you cannot have a 16 year old in 8th grade. 

 

You can have a 15-year-old coming from another district who is in 7th grade.  If you start school at age 6 in 1st grade and stay back once, it is not bad, if you stay back twice, you are driving to 8th grade.  Sometime what will happen is that a student from 8th grade to high school, they are not attending high school, they are still doing 8th grade work.  Sometimes, they lose interest and drop out. 

 

Mona stated that on the other hand, there are some students who are passed from grade to grade and they never learn to read.  Lou stated that if a student starts in Allenstown that does not happen.  There are Reading Specialists who work with the younger children that pick things up right away and really help the children with their reading problems.  Where we have a lot of problems, is with children that do not start in our school system.  There were over 200 children transferred into Allenstown schools last year and had a turn over rate of 200.  We gained 200 and lost 200.  Note – transferred into or out of Allenstown.

 

Henriette stated that reading is really the problem as it is writing and spelling correctly.  The spelling that they have in the high school is awful, they are not corrected.  They are more interested in how they write and not the spelling part of it.  Lou stated that when you are a sending district to an area high school you don’t have a whole lot of say in what happens.  You can make recommendations, but it is up to Pembroke what happens.

 

  • Curriculum – The school district began an aggressive curriculum last year and this has been revamped – kindergarten through 8th grade.  Through grants, Best School Initiative, and teachers time through the summer.  We have received all but one – Language Arts, which we should receive in November.   Math and Social Studies have been completed and everything is in line.  Part II is going to the next level – if you are learning something in Math here does it apply to the Science you are taking. 

 

Lou is writing a column in the Banner at least once a month, you will see something about the budget and surplus shortly.  The School Board will be informing the Town and the Budget Committee what is going on and why.  We should not leave things in a $7 million budget out in the open for people to make assumptions with.  They need to know what is going on. 

 

All teachers have e-mail addresses and websites to post homework.  Mom and Dad and Grandparents can go there and find out what the homework is.  They can also find out what is going on, baseball and basketball schedule and when report cards are coming out.

 

Ben stated that not everyone has e-mail or computers, they could be at a disadvantage, how could they get the same information.  Lou stated this would be looked into.  Currently the largest form of communication is to get this information on the web.  Teachers will still hand out the homework to the students. 

 

We are in the process of getting all student grades on the computer so that reports cards will be printed from the computer.  Carol A. stated that this is good for parents that are interested, but there is a flip side.  Lou stated that there were 32 people at the last deliberative session.  All of you will be there and your husbands and wives will be there, and everyone will vote on something that only 32 people really had explained to them. 

 

Dave told Lou that when the board figures on the number of students going to Pembroke next year to be sure to add one more for his daughter.  Lou stated that Allenstown takes a big hit on the students going to PA each year.  This year we dropped 18 from the rolls.  Currently the School Board knows how many students are at Pembroke Academy right now, we know how many seniors will graduate, and we know how many 8th graders that will be moving up.  There is no way of knowing how many students will be coming from private schools.  The Board will establish a budget in October; give it to the MBC in November so that it can be voted on in March.  The numbers stop somewhere – but the Board must determine how many special education students there are in October.  How many will go to high school in October – this is not even voted on and the number has changed. 

 

 With the high school – past history tells us that not all students that are at the high school now will stay there.  Last year 18 was deducted from the total number of students.  Six or seven years ago we made a big mistake.  Not only the number of students that were cut from the budget were in high school, but there were more students.

 

Dave stated that he sent out an e-mail on a Budget and Finance workshop on September 23.  There will be three people going to this, Karen, Colin and Tom, the budget committee will be paying for this workshop.  Karen, Tom and Colin will bring back all this information to the committee at its next meeting.

 

Subcommittees

 

The Budget Committee has set up subcommittees to meet with each department.

 

School – Karen, Henriette and Dave

 

Sewer – Gene Valley, Gabby and Dave

 

Fire Department – Gabby, Gene and Colin – also on new apparatus committee

 

Police Department – Jennifer, Robin, Don and Colin

 

Highway Department – Colin and Gabby

 

Parks and Recreation – Jennifer, Don and Carol A.

 

Municipal – Gene, Dave added himself because there needed to be a second person.  Basically the municipal subcommittee will be going to the meeting when the Selectmen review this budget.  Dave would like to volunteer Carol M. and Mona for this subcommittee.  This would mean that the Selectmen would have to let you know when they will review this. 

 

Ben stated that they already had the Police and Fire budgets.  Dave said that he would like to do the Police and Fire as soon as possible.  The Fire Department usually takes a while and Chief McGonigle usually does a very good job of presenting the Police budget to the Board. 

 

Carol M. and Mona agreed to be on the Municipal subcommittee. 

 

Schedule Reviews

 

October 3 and 17, November 7 and 21 will be the next scheduled meetings.  At the next meeting we will decide what will happen in December.  Dave is hoping to do Fire and Police early, Ben indicated that both department budgets are ready.  You do not want to wait until the last minute to begin reviews, because if there are questions you need answers. 

 

Dave indicated that each member will receive a sheet for each department showing the approved budget from last year, this year’s request, what the Selectmen have recommended and then the budget committee will be able to raise or lower any item.

 

Dave indicated that there were not enough members present who were also present at the June 6 meeting to approve the meeting minutes.  This will be discussed at the next meeting.  He will e-mail a copy of the June minutes to Carol M. and Mona.  He did not expect them to vote on the June minutes.  They will also receive an e-mail with the minutes from this meeting.  The committee is required by law to have the minutes out within seven days.  Henriette also stated that they could come to the Town Hall to look at the book with all the minutes from the past meetings.

 

Lou asked if the minutes could be added to the Town website?  Dave indicated that he e-mails the minutes to Don Coulsey and he adds them to the website.

 

Meeting notices are also sent to Don to add to the website.  The notices are also posted at the Library and the Town hall.  Dave stated that he would like to also post the notices at Bi-Wise.  The notices are also e-mailed to all members.

 

Master Plan Survey Results

 

The results are currently in David’s office.  Ben stated that they are being compiled by category and by department.  Ben and Henriette will check with David on this.

 

Lou asked Gabby what the situation is on the State Representative.  Gabby stated that there are 16 people running to fill 8 spots.  Hooksett has 5 republicans; Epsom has 1 republican and 4 democrats; Pittsfield has 1 republican and 3 democrats; Allenstown has just Gabby on both the republican and democrat side. 

 

Henriette made a motion to recess, Ben seconded.  The meeting was recessed at 9:02 p.m.

 

The next meeting will be October 3, 2002 at 7 p.m. at the Town hall.