Board of Educatiton Finance Committee Meeting

June 11, 2009

ATTENDANCE: Jody Bishop-Pullan, Chair; Amy Jimenez, Glenn Iannaccone, Jack Chiaramonte

STAFF: Dr. Salvatore Corda, Superintendent of Schools

OTHERS: Rosa Murray, Board of Education Chair; Board Member Shirley Mosby, Board Member Susan Hamilton

CALL TO ORDER

Ms. Bishop-Pullan called the meeting to order at 7:42 p.m.

APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES OF MAY 14 (TABLED) AND MAY 28, 2009 – MINUTES ATTACHED

** MR. IANNACCONE MOVED THE MAY 14, 2009 MINUTES. ** MS. JIMENEZ SECONDED.

The following corrections were noted:

Page 4, paragraph 6, first sentence please change “the Committee that the buds for the portable” to “the Committee that the bids for the portable”

Page 5, 1st paragraph under Discussion of Operations Budget – Please change the following from “Ms. Bishop-Pullan asked about policy and support” to Ms. Bishop-Pullan asked about the CABE policy report.”

Page 6, paragraph 1, sentence 2 – please change “on the numerous _________ at the various schools” to on the numeracy coaches at the various schools.”

Page 7, paragraph 5, line: please change the following from “from full time to half time, what that retailed” to from full time to half time, what that entailed.”

** THE MOTION PASSED WITH THREE IN FAVOR (BISHOP-PULLAN, IANNACCONE, AND JIMENEZ) AND ONE ABSTENTION (CHIARAMONTE)

** MR. IANNACCONE MOVED THE MAY 28, 2009 MINUTES. ** MR. CHIARAMONTE SECONDED.

Page 6, paragraph 5, line 2: please change the following from “This has increased for the month by 22.” To “This has increased for the month by 22 hundred dollars.”

Page 11, paragraph 1, line 2: please change the following from “the students could be send to Brookside” to “the students could be sent to Brookside”

Page 13, paragraph 1, line 2: please delete the following line “Ms. Jimenez said that it would be important to call a meeting to review the positions

Page 13, paragraph 7, please replace the following from: “Mr. Chiaramonte then said that the Committee had discussed the fact that when there is a snow day, the Central Office does not need to come in and this costs the District $22,000 a day. These are twelve month employees, and sending them home with additional paid days off while the rest of the City employees show up for work. If these employees want the day off, it should be a personal day. Dr. Corda asked what the source was for the $22,000. Mr. Chiaramonte said that Dr. Cook had given him that number. Mr. Iannaccone said that he had originally requested the information from Dr. Cook. Dr. Corda said that it was an issue that was covered by contract and those staff that were in similar positions in other buildings.”

With: Mr. Iannaccone then said that the Committee had discussed the fact that when there is a snow day, the Central Office does not need to come in and this costs the District $22,000 a day. These are twelve month employees, and sending them home with additional paid days off while the rest of the City employees show up for work. If these employees want the day off, it should be a personal day. Dr. Corda asked what the source was for the $22,000. Mr. Iannaccone said that Dr. Cook had given him that number. Mr. Iannaccone said that he had originally requested the information from Dr. Cook. Dr. Corda said that it was an issue that was covered by contract and those staff that were in similar positions in other buildings.”

** THE MOTION TO APPROVE THE MINUTES OF MAY 28, 2009 AS CORRECTED PASSED UNANIMOUSLY.

REVIEW OF THE SCHOOL LUNCH PROGRAM – UPDATE ON LUNCH COLLECTIONS, RECOMMENDATIONS OF HS AND MS PROTOCOLS FOR SEPTEMBER 2009 (SEE ATTACHMENT) AND REVIEW OF AUTOMATED PAYMENT AND ACCOUNT BALANCE SYSTEM

Dr. Corda said that Dr. Cook was with the Planning and Zoning regarding the installation of the portables.

Mr. Giannitti said that the current balance was $44,255.14, which is an increase over last month, which was $43,000. Ms. Jimenez said that taking a basic cost of $2.00 per lunch for last month worked out to 13,000 free lunches or lunches that were not paid for. She said that the District was not moving in the right direction. Ms. Bishop-Pullan asked what was being done about this. Mr. Giannitti said that he was making as many calls as possible, but the parents were depositing just enough to cover one week, so he is making calls to the same households on a weekly basis. He then distributed copies of a document that details a system like the EZ-Pass. Mr. Giannitti said that having the plan which is outlined on the back page of the document would give the District the software to notify the parents in advance and allow the parents to deposit to their child’s account as much as they want and as frequently as they want. This will also allow them to monitor their child’s transactions.

Dr. Cook joined the meeting at this time.

The software has been order and the basic installation is scheduled for July. Mr. Iannaccone said that this means that the District would be ending the school year with a debt. Mr. Giannitti said that unless all the families with outstanding debts pay them by the end of the school year, this was correct. Flyers informing families that they will not be able to participate if they have any outstanding obligations to the Food Service Department have been created. These flyers have been sent out with summer school registrations and notifications of other activities. Mr. Giannitti said notice has been sent out to the parents regarding the upcoming graduation ceremonies if there is an outstanding food service debt. Mr. Chiaramonte asked if the Board could forbid the underclassmen from participating in activities like school trips. Dr. Corda said that the District would check into this.

Ms. Bishop-Pullan said that she did not want families who did not have the funds to suffer. Mr. Giannitti said that 150 new students had been enrolled in the Free and Reduced Lunch Program. Mr. Iannaccone said that he was concerned about the fact that one school only had $150 in debt, but others had $4,000 in debt. Mr. Giannitti said that it was the level of category and that the one school was a pilot program. Mr. Giannitti said that this is not happening at all schools because it has not been the Board policy to support this across the board.

Dr. Cook said that in each of the scenarios for the middle schools and high schools, the administration was relying heavily on the principal to support the administration when the cafeteria manager would report to the principal that a student had an outstanding balance. Dr. Cook said that it would be critical to have the principal determine who on the staff should make the next step and call the family. Mr. Iannaccone then said that if the per pupil allocation was reduced by the amount owed to the Food Service, it would get the attention and the support of the principals.

Ms. Bishop-Pullan asked Dr. Corda for a recommendation and said that the recommendation in front of them was not really policy. Dr. Corda said that he did not believe it was not a policy but more of a procedure. He said that while this was not a policy, the administration does not want to implement a procedure without the Finance Committee being aware of how the problem will be handled. It is presented to the Finance Committee first before it goes to the Board.

Ms. Jimenez said that at the last meeting, the Committee had asked for some creative solutions from the staff. There are two issues, one regarding what should be done to reduce the debt for this current school year and the second was what should be done for next year. She said that she thought that she had said that the ideas for next year should have been put on the agenda for the Board during the summer because it was too busy right now with other issues. Ms. Bishop-Pullan said that the issue could come back to the Finance Committee one more time.

Dr. Corda said that it would be helpful to the administration if the draft policy that was currently in front of the Finance Committee could go before the full Board in first July meeting so that it could be included in the Student Handbook for the next year. This is not really a policy decision nor even an action item, but more of a discussion item to see if there are objections to the procedure or any fine tuning that needs to be done. He then outlined the process for the Committee. With the implementation of the software, Dr. Corda said it would give the parents an opportunity to front load their account and not rely on the students coming home with a note. Ms. Jimenez said that she hope to see the Board examining the job description of the cashiers and adding collections as part of their job description.

DISCUSSION OF THE 2009-2010 OPERATING BUDGET.

Ms. Bishop-Pullan said that Dr. Corda would be starting with a presentation to the Finance Committee and would be presenting this information to the full Board of Education on Tuesday night.

There is a greater sense of urgency in presenting this information to the Board on Tuesday because a proposal has been made to the bargaining groups about certain concessions that are being looked for by the Administration, Dr. Corda said. These would generate revenue and would raise the possibility of restoration of position He said that it was important to remember that the meeting that was held on Monday with the bargaining units was not a negotiation session, but an informational session. This could eventually result in negotiations, but that remains to be seen.

The Board of Education requested Budget for 2009-2010 was 153,364,310. The Approved Budget is $151,183,303. The required reductions to meet the Approved Budget totals $2,181,007. None of the reductions that were submitted to the Board were palatable. He then displayed an overhead transparency that listed the various figures on it.

r. Corda explained that the requested budget is not one that was a wish list, but an increase that would be needed in order to continue delivering the level of service that is currently being provided. He said that the Administration was working on finding ways to minimize the impact of the reductions, particular in the area of those who could potentially lose their jobs. The ultimate decision will be that of the Board and the bargaining units.

Dr. Corda then displayed another list on the overhead, which had numerous jobs and salaries on it. He then gave an over view of the various positions and the various impacts of the changes on the overall budget. These included reducing supply accounts and other areas of savings. He said that this was not an exhaustive list. The District looked at the total reconciliation amount had been reduced by 1.4 million by looking at the total reconciliation that was proposed and eliminated $767,000 from the items listed below the line on the overhead.

Ms. Jimenez asked why there was a difference between the figure that Dr. Corda quoted of $767,000 and the amount that was listed on the overhead of $792,597. Dr. Corda said that the math would be checked. He added that the Administration had gone back to the overhead after it was originally done and adjusted the numbers but neglected to remove the $25,000 from the bottom line. He added that the math would be double checked to verify this.

There was a serious discussion regarding whether or not the District could defer filling the position of the Instructional Specialist in Mathematics. Dr. Corda said that there was a concern because the value of an instructional specialist in the work that needs to be done as a District to move forward is substantive and significant. He asked Mr. Keough, who is the retiring Instructional Specialist in Math, regarding if he would be willing to give the District 100 days of consultancy for 2009-2010 school year. Because of the nature of the work that the District must do is in the nature of the development of staff and the implementation of assessments. It was felt that 100 days of service over the course of the year at a consultancy rate would allow the District to move forward. This is a one year deal and not a perpetual scenario. Using this type of a model and subtracting the amount of the consultancy fee, the total amount that would be set aside for a replacement plus fringes would result in needed to find 2.6 million.

Dr. Corda said that if there could be an agreement to freeze the salaries of the staff with no increases, it would generate $2,795,490. The current gap would be 2.6 million and this would give the District almost 2.8 million. The Administration asked if there were other ways to obtain this type of savings such as rather than a flat out freeze, the Administration asking for furlough days. The per diem rate by bargaining group was then calculated.

The Administration then considered an increase of 1% contribution towards the health insurance rates over and above existing agreements or a 1% greater contribution for those contracts about to expire. This would generate over and above existing agreements $467,000 at 2%.

For those groups where a contract currently exists, instead of what was scheduled, the percentage along with 1.95% for the upcoming negotiation groups, it would generate about 1.9 million dollars.

Returning to the furlough days, Dr. Corda explained that for some of the bargaining groups like the NFEP, which includes clerks, aides and clerical staff, tacking on the additional increases of 1.95% in health premiums plus three days furloughs would generate a major financial hit. This is also true of the custodial staff and the nurses.

When this was presented to the bargaining groups, the response received was uniform. They said until the Board reconciled the budget and it was determined which positions would be impacted, the groups felt that they would not be in a position to give an answer. This creates a sense of urgency to reconcile the budget on June 16th. Once the Board makes a decision about the reconciliation, then the unions will process this and respond to the Administration. At that time, the Administration will know whether the reconciliation as the Board adopted it is implemented or whether there will be other discussions regarding creating other modifications.

Mr. Iannaccone asked if the Board approved the budget, how would it be adjusted afterwards. Dr. Corda said that the intent of the reconciliation is to identify the positions and the programs that will be implemented. The Board always has the right to revisit a budget if new information emerges. There had been occasions during the course of a year where the Administration has come to the Board and indicated that there was a program that the Administration would like to support and here are the costs involved. This involves transferring funds with the Board’s approval. This is the same principal. If 2.6 million dollars becomes available as a result of an agreement, it allows the Board to say the 2.6 million dollars will be used this way.

Mr. Chiaramonte asked if all the Bargaining groups would have to agree to the proposal. Dr. Corda said that this was an important point and that the largest group would be the teachers, but the plan would not work unless everyone contributed. He then reviewed the various savings that each group would generate but pointed out that it was one District and that the District needs to hang together now. If all of the groups but one decide to participate, then the Board will have to make a decision on what they are prepared to do.

Ms. Jimenez asked about the furlough days. Dr. Corda said that the teachers would not come to work and would not be paid. By taking away two professional development days and the convocation day, the teachers’ furloughs would not impact the students. The custodians and other support staff would take staggered days. It would not affect anyone’s pension and this has been put in writing from the Teacher’s Retirement Board. Regarding the City’s pension plan, the loss of those three days would affect employee’s pension, but a written agreement could be drafted and later approved by the Common Council so that it would not affect the salary calculation for the pension.

The discussion then moved to the overall budget and a review the Superintendent’s proposals. Ms. Jimenez suggested that there were a number of items she could support from the Superintendent’s recommended list dated May 7, 2009. Ms. Bishop-Pullan reminded everyone that the Finance Committee was discussing the various options and that whatever was agreed upon would be presented to the full Board of Education.

Ms. Jimenez that there were some easy reductions she could support, such as moving the Special Education District wide psychologist along with the benefits to ARRA funding, eliminating the Director of Financial Operations position along with the fringe benefits eliminating the $118,000 for the renegotiations with Xerox, and $500 from the Finance Department for non-instructional equipment. In Industrial Technology, she said there were four line items that could be eliminated, totaling $47,950. In Facility, eliminating the new maintenance position along with the benefits for a total of about $60,000 would be acceptable to her. She also could support an 8% reduction in electricity, which would have to be achieved by the District, along with a reduction in the fuel account. Dr. Corda asked if there were any objections from the rest of the Committee. This would amount to a reduction of $692,855.

Ms. Jimenez then said that regarding Human Resources Department, there were some supply accounts and attendance at meetings, which were in four different line items along with a duplicate line item entry. She estimated this would be about $100,000 in savings. Rita confirmed this would total savings of $100,625. This would bring the overall total to $793,480. Ms. Jimenez then outlined a few other line items reductions that would bring the reductions to $831,951.

Ms. Bishop-Pullan asked if the Administrative Operations had been review yet. Ms. Jimenez suggested several changes in the Administrative Operations Department. There was a brief discussion about the Director of Financial Operations budget along with the Fringe benefits costs.

Mr. Iannaccone said that he would like to leave in the reductions that are shown for the Public Affairs, Human Relations and Human Resources. Ms. Jimenez said that she could support some of them, but if the positions were reduced, the benefits would remain as a full benefits package. She said that this was pretty generous and not given to other staff members. This creates a disparity that she is not comfortable with. Mr. Iannaccone said that he agreed with Ms. Jimenez and that this is also done for half time teachers. Dr. Corda said that half time teachers receiving full time benefits was included in the teachers’ contract but not in the ESG contract. Ms. Jimenez said that the two positions that she could support were the Public Affairs officer and the Executive Assistant. Mr. Chiaramonte asked about the Human Relations officer. Ms. Jimenez said that she personally that a District the size of Norwalk should be without one. She said that she was not in favor of eliminating that position. Mr. Chiaramonte said that the City has a Human Relations officer and perhaps the Joint Study Group could investigate combining this.

Dr. Corda then asked if there was agreement about the Executive Assistant to the Superintendent and the Public Affairs Office. Ms. Bishop-Pullan said that the Committee was in agreement.

Mr. Iannaccone asked if the addition of the .4 nurse was absolutely needed. Dr. Corda said that according to the attorney, the position is needed. The position was filled this year with substitutes. Mr. Iannaccone asked what was done before this year. Dr. Corda said that there had been an increase the total number of nursing staff by one a few years ago. Ms. Bishop-Pullan asked if it was agreed to keep the addition of the .4 nurse.

Dr. Corda asked for clarification on the Human Relations Out Reach Worker and the Overtime. Ms. Bishop-Pullan said that these had been eliminated.

Mr. Iannaccone said that as far as the Superintendent’s area, he would agree to the suggested cuts, but asked about the dues of $20,500 for CABE. He then asked if there was a reduced membership rate and if the District could just be enrolled in the policy portion. Dr. Corda said that the office had called and that there was a lower fee just for the policy section. Ms. Bishop-Pullan said that there were several policy sections and they did not address specifically what the District needed but it would help. She said that it was still a bit unclear, but she would like to keep something in the budget for this because this is the primary reason for the Board’s existence. Mr. Iannaccone said that he would go along with all the items listed except the CABE dues. Dr. Corda said that the CES leadership enables the District to send new administrators to professional development. He said that in thinking about the vacancies that exist at the administrative level and what the Board decides about the APs, this would affect four positions. Dr. Corda said that if he had the choice of what to leave in, it would be CAPS and the Southern Fairfield group. A brief discussion about the implications of eliminating the various memberships followed. The Line items for Attendance at Board meetings, conference attendance and one other item were then eliminated.

The discussion then moved to the high school buildings. Mr. Iannaccone said that he would be willing to support the last two line items listed, one of which was a reduction of the per-pupil allocation. Dr. Corda said that he had been informed that an additional physical education teacher was not needed. He said that the school did not have to offer swimming as part of the curriculum even if the pool remained open. If there is a swim team, there will need to be a stipend for the coach, but the District did not need to offer swimming. The enrollment for those classes can be absorbed into the other Phy. Ed. classes. Ms. Jimenez said that she could support that.

Ms. Jimenez said that she could support the elimination of the athletic teams on the list or putting them on the reduction list for the time being, but would not be happy about it. She said that she believed that there could be some creative solutions regarding the pool between the City and the private groups that could move this forward. However, the school just can’t afford to support the teams because of the pressures that are being placed upon the District. She said that she was reluctant to support the cuts, but there was no other way.

Mr. Iannaccone said that with the reduction of the P.E. teacher, the amount was reduced to $209,000 and that he had some ideas to bring forward. He said that he knows the amount of money that was spent on refurbishing the pumps for the pool. Dr. Corda then said that there was an additional piece of information about the pool that may or may not influence the situation. Dr. Corda said that he had a conversation with a parent whose son is on the hockey team. The parent felt that if the Board was willing to fund the cost of the coach, that the families of the hockey team would raise the funds to support the rest of the hockey team function, which would be about $27,000. The parent said that he was speaking on behalf of the families who sons are on the hockey team. Dr. Corda said that he felt that Administration and the Board would need to get something firmer than a spoken agreement and have a deadline when the money would have to be in hand. There are many issues associated with this suggestion, such as “pay-for-play” and commercial aspects. Mr. Chiaramonte said that he could not support the hockey team, but understood that having sports teams in high school was very important. He said that if there was a creative way of the families finding funds, he would like to see that happen. Ms. Jimenez said that it may be that proposals such as Dr. Corda was relating is something that could be added back at a later date as a possibility. Sometimes solutions don’t come until someone’s back is against the wall and perhaps there had not been enough creative thinking going on about this issue yet. Ms. Bishop-Pullan asked if the $27,000 would be for one coach. Dr. Corda explained that it was about $35,000-$37,000 for running the program including coaches, rink time, transportation, supplies, equipment and whatever else was involved. The cost for a coach and an assistant coach would be about $10,000. The sentiment expressed by the parent was that if the sum to run the program was $27,000, then the families would take on the responsibility for raising that amount. The District’s commitment for coaches would be $10,000. Mr. Chiaramonte asked about the amount that the District paid for transportation. Dr. Corda said that he would have to check the actual figure. Ms. Jimenez asked for confirmation of $10,000. Dr. Corda said that the cost to the District for the coaches would be $10,000.

Ms. Jimenez asked about the swimming. Dr. Corda said that he did not have any sentiments expressed by the families of the swim team. Ms. Bishop-Pullan said that if the Board of Education isn’t really using the pool, it was a lot of money to spend. Mr. Iannaccone said that if the District could keep the pool open this year, it gives the District and the Board a year to fix the problem and generate revenue. If people are going to use the pool, then the fees should come to the Board of Education. Ms. Jimenez said that this would be $206,000 for something that the NHS students would not be benefiting from. There was a brief discussion about the actual line item costs for the pool. It was determined that the actual cost was $124,400. Ms. Jimenez said that she had added all the costs together for her figure. Dr. Corda said that this was an item on the “no consensus” list.

It was then announced by Rita that the total amount of the cuts came to $1,107,511.

The discussion then moved to the allocation of the middle schools. Ms. Jimenez suggested that the two additional middle school teachers be eliminated along with the fringes. Mr. Chiaramonte said that he could not support the reduction of the dance program. Mr. Daddona was asked about the strings teachers and said that there was a meeting scheduled for June 16th at the school.

Dr. Corda then said that the items on the list for no consensus to support the reductions were: pool costs; .5 AP at Ponus and West Rocks; the West Rock’s aide, string teacher, the AT teacher, another item. Ms. Bishop-Pullan said that it was important to note that it wasn’t really “no consensus” but that the Committee was not recommending these. The support was not unanimous.

Mr. Iannaccone said that there were five instructional specialists with secretaries. With the benefits, these five secretaries totals $348,137. He said that he could not see everyone having their own secretary. Dr. Corda explained that the secretaries serve multiple departments. Mr. Daddona said that no instructional aide had their own secretary and explained that Math, Science and a portion of AT was handled by one person. Language Arts, Testing and the Grants secretarial duties are handled by another secretary. World Languages, Music and the Arts secretarial duties are handled by a third secretary. Ms. Jimenez said that there are at least seven secretaries listed in the packet. Discussion then followed about where the information was located in the packet. The Committee then discussed how to reduce these costs.

Mr. Iannaccone said that there was a Grants Secretary and a Grants Secretary/Bookkeeper. Dr. Corda said that these two positions were related to Title One and all funded from Title One. None of those funds came from the Operating Budget.

Mr. Iannaccone then asked about the Human Resource Department where there was HR Assistant Non-certified, HR Assistant Non Certified listed. Dr. Corda said that these positions were not secretaries, but managers. Mr. Iannaccone asked if it was possible to combine the two. Dr. Corda replied that the personnel matters need to be taken care of. There are 1,500 plus employees to manage along with the substitutes. A Human Resources office cannot be run by one person.

Mr. Iannaccone then asked about the Finance/Student Activities clerk and the Insurance clerk and the Free/Reduced Lunch Clerk, which totals $199,000. Dr. Corda said that one payroll clerk had been eliminated in the first version of the budget. There will be one payroll supervisor and one payroll clerk.

Category: Committee Minutes