MINUTES OF
BUDGET MEETING – MARCH 7, 2006
PRESENT: Chairperson Dori Zaleznik, Vice-Chairperson Marc Laredo, Gail Glick,
Susan Heyman, Anne Larner, Reenie Murphy, Claire Sokoloff, Jonathan Yeo, Mayor
David Cohen, Superintendent Jeffrey Young
Chairperson
Dori Zaleznik called the meeting to order at 7:05 p.m. She noted that in addition to the public
copies of the budget book available this evening, the budget will also be online
at www.newtonpublicschools.com, as will the schedule of the meetings.
The Committee encourages community communication on the budget through
letters, emails, phone calls, and during public comment period of the budget
process. Before they delve into the
budget items, she suggested the Committee have some conversation around some of
the broader issues and lay out some of the additional information desired, as
well as the questions that the administration can expect from the Committee
when they get to particular budget areas.
Anne
Larner stated that one specific area she would like to hear more about is the
allocation of teachers among the levels and how they determine that
balance. There has been concern
expressed by Committee members over the past couple of years of increasing class
sizes at the high schools, so they need to understand how they reached the
decisions that have been made and their comfort level with these
recommendations. The other area of
particular concern to her is utilities and mainly electricity, where costs are
skyrocketing. She wants to further
explore investments they may be able to make now that can pay off in the
long-run and what that means in terms of tradeoffs in other areas. She also has interest in the custodial cuts
and whether they are going too deep in this area given the feedback from within
the system, as well as from the management study around the deteriorating
cleanliness and upkeep of the buildings.
She would like to know what ideas they might have explored that could result
in better productivity in this area.
Susie
Heyman agreed with Anne regarding the custodial issue. She also is concerned about the fact that
they cannot bring in any new initiatives.
Two areas she would like to explore in small increments perhaps with
grant funding are math literacy at the elementary level and challenge. If there are any low or no cost strategies to
take steps forward in these areas she would like to explore those possibilities.
Marc
Laredo appreciated the Superintendent’s comments at the budget presentation
around the tradeoffs and choices that were made. He hopes they will expand upon these
preliminary discussions as they review the specifics of the budget. He shares the concerns around the custodians
and utilities and will be looking forward to hearing about the forthcoming
recommendations from the audits. He also
wants to know more about the implications of the changes in the lunch
program. Finally, he would like to hear
what strategies might be in place if the additional revenues they are hoping
for are not forthcoming.
Gail
Glick echoed the comments about further exploring the custodial area and seeing
what kind of strategies might be planned to address the diminishing resources
in this area. In terms of program, she
will be interested in hearing about the core vs. electives balance and how that
gets shaped.
Claire
Sokoloff is interested in hearing about all of the previously mentioned
topics. In addition, she would like to
know more about the Bigelow model that that they are planning to replicate in
other middle schools. She is also
interested in the thought process behind the reduction of SPED teachers replaced
with increased aides and what potential impact that might have on the
program.
Reenie
Murphy is particularly concerned about the custodial cuts having visited so
many schools and seeing firsthand the conditions of the building. She also wants to talk more about the
appearance that they are moving away from specialized services and more toward
the use of aides, particularly in terms of the needs of the children coming
into the system.
Mayor
Cohen is most concerned with the long-term prospects for collaborative efforts
between the city and the schools to bring sustainability to the budget.
Dori
Zaleznik was pleased to hear the beginning of conversation at the budget
presentation around how choices were made.
Fleshing out more of that as they go through this process will be very
helpful in getting people to better understand how the recommendations were
crafted. She was particularly intrigued
by the comments around cuts in physical education and the discussions about
taking that from program, electives, or increased class size vs. eliminating a
sport and would like to hear more of an explanation about this area. In terms of the per pupil allocation, she is
very concerned about the cut and would like to hear about the tradeoffs that
were discussed in these conversations.
In the program piece around core vs. electives, she would like to talk
about what it would look like if certain electives disappeared and whether
there would be other choices for students or if it means additional study halls
or increases in other class sizes.
At
this point the Committee took up the review of the budget by going through each
responsibility area scheduled for tonight’s meeting.
Non Instruction Areas
School Committee
Anne
Larner noted that the reason for the increase in this area is because of legal
fees for contract negotiations which will be commencing in FY07.
Marc
Laredo asked if it would be possible to break out the salaries and benefits to
see what the actual cost increases will be from this year to next.
Anne
Larner noted that in a contract year she would suggest this be done in a
confidential memorandum.
Dori
Zaleznik added that it is important to remember that whatever is put in for
FY07 will only be a guess, particular around the health insurance costs.
Sandy
Guryan noted that ever person in a union or contract that was negotiated in the
last round is accounted for and included on all salary lines. Under the School Committee account there is
one position that is non-union so consequently there is not contractual
increase other than what is set aside in reserve.
Dori
Zaleznik mentioned that the budget booklet that is going to the entire
community will be clearer and easier to read and breaks things down so that
people can see costs at various levels.
Sandy
Guryan added that pg. 24 provides a budget summary that differs from the
responsibility center and is similar to what the public will receive. It provides a fair amount of detail and
multiple year comparisons.
Dori
Zaleznik asked if the printing of the booklet to the community is covered in
the Committee’s printing line item.
Sandy
Guryan replied in the affirmative, which is why one sees the increase. She anticipates the mailing to cost less than
$10,000, which still leaves a small amount for any other public communications
they might wish to consider.
Reenie
Murphy asked if the FY06 budget numbers in this book are adjusted.
Sandy
Guryan explained that the negotiations settlement, which occurred after the
preparation of the budget, resulted in their moving these funds into all the
appropriate line items, so it could be considered an adjusted budget. What they are spending this year in the
detailed categories is what was voted last year, with the exception of
utilities.
Central Staff
Dori
Zaleznik mentioned that there will be a fuller discussion of this area once the
management studies become public. The
first will be the Study on Management Structure by Gibson Consulting Group next
Tuesday, 7:00 p.m., location to be announced.
The report will be on the website Friday so that people can read it in
advance.
Human Resources & Benefits
Marc
Laredo asked how they did in last year’s estimation around unemployment costs
and what factors contributed to their suggestion that there will be a decrease
this year.
Sandy
Guryan stated that they had over 62 claims this year covering all categories
and came close to estimation. In looking
at FY07, she reviewed the reductions in the specific categories that were made
last year to determine an amount for next year.
She will provide the Committee with a spreadsheet that may make this
easier to understand. The bottom line is
that the projection for next year is not much different than this year, but she
did some fine-tuning which resulted in $37,000 less.
Jonathan
Yeo asked about the Medicare reimbursement line item which shows a 16%
increase.
Sandy
Guryan explained that this is related to reimbursement for Medicare costs for
retirees and the allocation comes from the City. The City and schools work closely together on
a complex census of retiree data and they have been quite accurate in the
past. The increase is due to both the
number of people retiring, as well as a higher rate.
Dori
Zaleznik questioned whether if they had reduced instructional support staff
(ISS) they would have risked that money being needed for the substitute
account.
Paul
Stein, Assistant Superintendent for Human Resources, believes that the
substitute account would increase with a decrease in ISS and the cost of a
long-term substitute is significantly more than the per diem of ISS. Another important factor is that ISS staff
knows the students. When they did the
analysis it produces very little savings, particularly in the risk of not being
able to get people to fill in for specialized areas. He will be happy to provide the Committee
with the analysis.
Jonathan
Yeo commented on the advertising and recruitment line item, which at $70,000
seems very low.
Paul
Stein agreed. It costs $4,000-$5,000 to
place an ad in The Boston Globe. They also place print ads other publications,
such as The New York Times, Education Week, and Bay State Banner. They are
currently working on getting their applicant tracking system up and running so
that more of this can be done on-line.
The Education Collaborative (EDCO), of which
Anne
Larner stated that, as the School Committee representative to EDCO, she can
attest to that group’s effort to find cost efficiencies in many areas including
advertising, utilities, special education programs, etc.
Operations (Maintenance &
Environmental Management)
Anne
Larner asked about the audits and what might be forthcoming from those to help
them lower the utility costs.
Michael
Cronin, Chief of Operations, stated that they are in the process of taking the
very extensive report and condensing the information. There are 13 recommendations that, if
implemented, would cost approximately $5,000,000 with a return on investment
(ROI) of two-three years. Unfortunately,
some of this has to do with replacing boilers, which is not something they have
the funds available to do at this time.
However, there are other things such as retro-commissioning at
Marc
Laredo suggested they consider spending money in this year’s budget on any
items that can have a quick ROI.
Mike
Cronin added that they are trying to include a funding source in their report,
but it might make sense to consider pulling some money from charter
maintenance, if possible, knowing they are going to get that investment back in
a short window of time.
Marc
Laredo said he would be willing to even look at the boilers if it meant an ROI
in two years.
Discussion
was had around utilities costs, which has been a very challenging area.
Sandy
Guryan stated that she has had many conversations with the City and they feel
what is in this budget for utilities is a reasonable rate increase. They are currently costing out on a
building-by-building basis this year’s charges and if these were to improve it
could have an impact on the FY07 projection.
Reenie
Murphy asked about rates vs. consumption in heating oil.
Mike
Cronin explained that the two are related.
The milder the weather the less usage, which increases supply, which
then tends to moderate the price.
Sandy
Guryan stated that she would not recommend adjusting to a lower than normal
year’s consumption in utilities even if there was a savings from FY06. It is only the rate factor that comes into
play.
Anne
Larner mentioned that as bad as the heating oil prices may seem, electricity is
the major driver. Anything they can learn
from the audits having to do with controlling or managing this area is what she
is most interested in seeing.
Dori
Zaleznik referred to the table in the budget book showing electricity use among
the buildings and noted the huge discrepancies.
Hopefully the audits might shed some light on this.
Mike
Cronin noted that
Marc
Laredo wondered if it might make sense to spend some money for more in-depth
audits in the rest of the buildings given the cost savings that seems to have
been found at Day by doing the more elaborate audit.
Mike
Cronin replied that five buildings have already been identified for more
extensive audits and that will be part of his report.
Anne
Larner added that the Use of School Buildings Fees Subcommittee is talking
about ways to encourage people to rent out the most efficient buildings.
Susie
Heyman did not see anything in this budget about hiring or training someone to
oversee the sophisticated HVAC system that is in place now at Newton South and
will be in the future at Newton North.
She asked if that will fall under the City’s auspices.
Mayor
Cohen stated that they need to have discussion about where this person will be
because whoever pays for it controls the position.
Susie
Heyman asked if they could get some information on the number of custodians in
the system over the past ten years and the added square footage in that same
timeframe.
Mike
Cronin noted that since FY02 alone they have brought on between 225,000 –
245,000 square feet and cut nine positions, as well as reducing three
craftsmen. Currently each man is doing approximately
28,200 square feet. With the additional
cuts, that will increase another 1,000 feet, which is a lot of square footage
for one person.
Susie
Heyman stated that this means certain things cannot get done on a daily basis. The buildings are showing it and it is
impacting on the morale of the custodians who take pride in their job.
Mike
Cronin agreed and noted that the custodians are caught in the middle with not
being able to keep up with the work because of less support. It is not something anyone is happy about.
Anne
Larner asked if there are any ways of switching shifts or personnel to gain any
cost efficiencies.
Mike
Cronin stated that they are pretty close to bare bones, but there are some
ideas that they want to discuss with the custodian association around
sacrificing some things in order to gain people. He is also open to suggestions from the
custodians who have been around a long time and know their buildings, so they
rely on their expertise.
Dori
Zaleznik asked about the shift to green supplies, which is admirable in
buildings where there are children, but she wondered about the costs associated
with these purchases.
Mike
Cronin stated that there is a dispensing system in each building so there is a
metered dosage amount of cleaning product, which makes for more efficiency and
less waste. There is constant debate
about whether the green products are as effective and whether they are costing
more or less. He will try to provide the
Committee with some additional information.
Jeff
Young reminded people that the reductions in this area did not come from Mike’s
initiative, but from his directive to all administrators that everyone has to
take a share of these cuts in order to close the $2.6 million gap. The only area in the entire budget that was
not touched was charter maintenance.
Transportation
Marc
Laredo asked if they could talk about the mandates in this area over which they
have no control.
Sandy
Guryan stated that there is a distance policy where children must be bused
grades K-6 who live two or more miles from school. They also must provide busing for students
who live in
Jeff
Young asked what the contract calls for in terms of next year’s increase.
Sandy
Guryan stated that they will be paying an additional $5.00 per day per bus.
Anne
Larner commented that she can recall times when there were a lot of problems in
transportation, but the administration has been managing this area very well over
the past several years. This cost
increase is relatively modest, as are their bus fees compared to other
communities.
Sandy
Guryan is very proud of the work that goes on in that office, which includes
both regular and special education transportation, including athletic and field
trips, as well as purchasing. Everyone
pitches in and is very responsive to whatever needs to be done.
Dori
Zaleznik asked how many people have taken advantage of the installment plan for
the bus fees.
Sandy
Guryan replied that there are quite a few who use the installment plan. They also offer waivers to those with
financial difficulties. There is a bit
of work in terms of collections of the payments and there have been a couple of
cases where they had to do several follow-ups, but this program is very helpful
to families and she would recommend its continuation.
Dori
Zaleznik asked about the parking revenues.
Sandy
Guryan responded that there are not enough spaces to designate student parking
at Newton North, so the fees basically come from Newton South and the revenue
has been fairly consistent. They are not
recommending an increase in this fee.
Business, Finance & Planning
Susie
Heyman commented on the tremendous amount and quality of work put forth by the
staff in this area.
Sandra
Guryan expressed pride in the analytical work and tools that her staff have
created to provide more in-depth and user-friendly information.
Dori
Zaleznik commented that she can attest to their level of detail when she was
asked to sign off on a $1.67 payroll adjustment.
Sandra
Guryan agreed that the Payroll Department is extremely thorough and the same
can be said of Human Resources, as the two departments work very closely
together.
Anne
Larner stated that the communication between these departments has improved
incredibly over the past 10-15.
Jonathan
Yeo asked if they might see increased revenues from grants if they were able to
increase FTEs in that area.
Sandy
Guryan stated that this would be something worth exploring and she will discuss
it with Susan Linn, Grants Coordinator, to see what her thoughts are around
this idea. Susan has been bringing a
great deal of funding into the system on her own and through her collaborations
and networking.
Dori
Zaleznik mentioned the President’s State of the Union address in which he spoke
about the need for more math and science instruction. She suggested that they research any grant
funding for these areas that might be forthcoming from the federal government.
Technology
Fran
Zilonis talked about the role of the technology specialists in working with
teachers and students to incorporate technology into the curriculum. Cuts have forced them to now also utilize
them for troubleshooting and repairing equipment. She recommends taking future cuts in the equipment
area vs. personnel because they have over 3,000 computers in the system and
teachers need to know how to use the equipment and know that it will be up and
running. Adding additional hardware is
not going to support that effort.
Technology specialists will also generate revenue as they work with PTOs
around technology acquisitions for the schools and will continue to assist in
grant-writing efforts with the librarians.
Dori
Zaleznik asked about leasing vs. purchasing of equipment.
Fran
Zilonis stated that they embarked upon leasing for the first time four years
ago with the laptops for Newton North.
While the City initially had a lot of reservations, the program worked
very well. At the request of the
Superintendent, she prepared another lease for next year that would allow them
to complete the plan of having every teacher equipped with a laptop and an LCD
projector in the classroom. It would
enable them to replace all the eight-year old computers in the middle schools
and begin the cycle of replacing the four-year old laptops at Newton South. Every classroom teacher currently has a
computer, although some may be quite old, but teachers in areas such as
physical education, art and music, etc. have to go the library, share with
another teacher, or use the school cart laptops. This proposal would assign a computer to all
staff.
Reenie
Murphy is a proponent of leasing but would prefer they continually lease rather
than purchasing the equipment at the end of the contract.
Fran
Zilonis responded that at North they leased to purchase because there were no
assurances that there would be money to renew once the lease was up, although
it would also be her preference to lease again.
However, this is a decision that needs to be made by the Committee
because it requires a financial commitment.
Marc
Laredo suggested they flush out the proposal further for the next meeting and
look at what they would be committing to if they were to suggest leasing to
renew. Perhaps they could also include a
cost analysis of what savings they might generate by equipping everyone in the
system with electronic communication methods, which might result in less
paperwork.
Anne
Larner noted that the financing analysis of leasing in the public sector is
very different than in the private area because they do not share the same tax
advantages. She was very involved in the
last round of leasing and some City officials and Board of Aldermen expressed
reluctance to get involved and the process was quite complex, so she suggested
that an in-depth analysis and some pre-conversations with the appropriate
people would be in order.
Dori
Zaleznik asked if Fran is comfortable with the smaller of the two lease
proposals in terms of being able to get all the equipment that is needed and
whether there are differences in leasing PCs vs. Apples.
Fran
Zilonis responded that the smaller lease will be sufficient for their needs,
but she would like to continue to shop around some more for some other
quotes.
It
does not matter to the company what type of computers are purchased. The laptops on the list are Apples, but there
are some PCs as well. Contrary to what
some people may think, PCs are not appreciably cheaper.
Mayor
Cohen mentioned that this ties up a certain amount of funding for technology
for the next three years and would preclude other purchases.
Dori
Zaleznik mentioned that it does not preclude PTO fundraising efforts.
Susie
Heyman commended Fran on how she has been able to do so much with so
little. She expressed some concern
around their getting behind in administrative technology and wondered what the
future holds for this area.
Fran
Zilonis replied that they need to finish purchasing PCs for the
administration. They need to look at as
many things that can save time and money and allow for greater communication
and there are various pieces of software that could help in this regard. Planning for funding has been the issue. They have done well with the implementation
and upgrade of the student management system and Finance Plus, although there
are pieces of the latter of which they have yet to take full advantage. Adding the applicant tracking system is one
crucial piece. The move to School Dude
for tracking maintenance and repair orders (M&Rs) and creating reports to
analyze how resources are being spent has been successful. Doing more with the website could help with
communication, as will getting the Food Services payment program totally on
line. They can also offer online courses. However, all of these things require funding
and staff oversight.
Marc
Laredo wondered if it might be better to put some of the limited dollars toward
building up administrative capabilities.
Fran
Zilonis struggles with this balance but leans on the side of providing the
technology to the students because they only get one chance to learn it and if
they are not up to speed they cannot compete with their peers in other systems
where more funding is spent in this area.
She has been trying to keep the resources in the classrooms, while also
building up the infrastructure, albeit at a slower pace. For technology to be where it should
administratively it would cost a lot of money over several years and would
require additional staffing.
Marc
Laredo understands her reluctance to sacrifice services for students. However, he would like to throw this subject
into the mix of looking at areas where investments of funds upfront may help save
money in the long term.
Fran
Zilonis would be happy to put together some proposals for what they could do
with additional funds.
Marc
Laredo appreciates that effort because if the proposals can result in a short ROI,
similar to what they are reviewing in utilities, they may decide it is worth
investing some funds in this area.
Dori
Zaleznik requested that the administration provide information on how the last
lease was paid. She then asked about the
recommendation to purchase laptops vs. desktop computers, which are generally
cheaper.
Fran
Zilonis responded that desktop computers take up precious room in a classroom
and are stationary, which is not conducive to group instruction. Laptops can be easily stored in a cabinet and
can be used by students throughout the class without the need for additional
tables or space. They are also easy to
use with LCD projectors and to share among staff. Stationary computers are not used as often
and they can become an extra or something used as a reward rather than an
integral part of teaching and learning.
Desktop computers are appropriately used in the libraries because there
is sufficient space and enough of them for students to rotate, so they get
maximum usage in this location. The fact
that laptops can be used by so many makes up for the difference in cost because
they get maximum use and they have been very favorably received. They also have 647 Alpha Smarts throughout
the elementary schools, which are portable smart
keyboards for children that allow them to do word-processing and practice
keyboarding skills. These have been a
wonderful investment and quite cheap when bought in bulk. They rejected Palm Pilots because they are
expensive, would require a whole new set of software teachers would have to
learn, and the keyboards that accompany them are rather flimsy.
ADJOURNMENT
The
meeting was adjourned at 9:30 p.m.