2008-02-06-AC-min - Laserfiche WebLink

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February 6, 2008 There was extensive discussion of the revisions to the school budget that were proposed by the Superintendent on January 14; whether the inclusion of certain items from the Superintendent’s originally proposed supplemental budget that had been made possible by a combination of cost reductions and refinements in the analysis of the originally proposed budget were consistent with the presentation of a level-services budget; and whether it was appropriate to commit non-recurring funding sources to a budget that is not strictly a level-service budget. The school representatives explained in detail the rationale for making each of the substitutions, which they feel meet critical needs, and emphasized that the final proposed budget is consistent with their definition of a level- services budget, which would allow tradeoffs once the amount of a level-services budget has been established. Concerns were expressed by some Committee members that the proposed use of more than $800,000 in available funds that have been classified as “non-recurring” to balance the FY2009 school operating budget (the original $461,000 in Free Cash proposed at Budget Summit III and the additional $350,000 in Free Cash made available by “pre- funding a SPED reserve) could lead to significant risk in FY2010 by increasing a potential budget gap and raising the size of any override. The Committee agreed to meet in advance of the Budget Summit scheduled for Wednesday, February 13 to discuss the issues further and to finalize a position for presentation at the summit. Miscellaneous. 2. Budget Officer Michael Young announced that he had accepted a new position as Deputy Town Manager for the Town of Natick, and that he would be leaving at the end of February. Committee members congratulated Michael on his new post and expressed tremendous appreciation for the extraordinary service that he has provided to the Town of Lexington and to this Committee over the past five and a half years. The meeting was adjourned at 10:45 p.m. Respectfully submitted, John Bartenstein Approved February 21, 2008 - 2 -