2005-10-20-AC-min - Laserfiche WebLink

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October 20, 2005 associated with things like the increase in benefits when an employee increased his or her hours from less than 20 hours/week to greater than 20 hours/week? It appears the answer is no. A concern was raised regarding whether or not Superintendent of Schools, Paul Ash, felt he would come up short in April if the schools received only an additional $620K. This leaves no extra for additional SPED costs or additional fuel costs. Should he change the program now, if he feels that might end up being too small an increase? Roof repairs estimated to be $30K were discussed. These will be treated as one would treat potholes and taken care of in the operating budget, not the capital budget. Paul A. is prepared to fund out of current operational budget. George B. noted that the patching needed to be done now. HVAC emergency repairs. The $66K cost of the consultant was paid for from funds originally earmarked for the facilities director positions which were empty. This does not include Estabrook or the old Harrington, or Clark which is on its own path. George said the CEC position is that this is not a capital item. Engineering study for next summer’s major roof repairs, $144K. If we wait until April Town Meeting, there is not enough time to get the work done in the summer when the buildings are empty. There were some discussions regarding how the school system arrived at the figure of $144K and whether this was a reasonable amount. In part the answer is that the job is complicated enough that past experience has shown it to be useful to have outside help in specifying the details of the job and in monitoring the work. George B. raised the point that making changes now in effect works around the capital policies adopted last April. Does it make sense to break policy mid-year? Tom G. noted that these problems are becoming critical, and agreed with George’s concerns about breaking policy mid-year, however this will allow the work to take place when the kids are out of school, making the job less disruptive. The work is important in the view of the CEC. Deborah B. noted that some parts of the capital request represent new information on things that were already voted for and some items are new to the program. A question was raised about putting off lower priority items in favor of the new items, and George responded that he only knew of one small project that might fit that bill. Tom G. noted that Clarke is coming in under budget and that the savings might pay for the $144K. He was asked if this was due a reduction in the scope of the Clarke work and he was not sure as this news was only hours old. With respect to the HVAC work, George B. the committee is not prepared to say go ahead on the whole program, but will likely be okay with some parts. In general, CEC supports maintenance. Dawn M. noted that there have been occurrences where the School Committee has authorized changes between line amounts of greater than $50K without the