HomeMy WebLinkAbout1995-10-17-AC-MIN.pdf APPROPRIATION COMMITTEE MEETING
TUESDAY,OCTOBER 17, 1995
COMPTROLLER'S OFFICE, 7:30 PM
Present: P Lapointe, M Miley, R Leone, M Mairson, J Pagett, R Colwell, R Borghesani,
J Ryan
Absent: L Peck, M Hastings
* MOTION: Accept minutes of October 10, 1995, UNANIMOUS
* M Miley will attend ATFC Annual Meeting on October 28, 1995
* J Pagett & J Ryan requested that the AC give the Special Education Task Force
Committee a sense as to the areas that the AC would like the committee to review.
Some of the areas suggested for review were benchmarking other communities, what
constitutes special education, should there be a third party audit of costs, how much
inclusion, why is there such an apparent difference between what Lexington offers and
what other communities offer, what is the number of students as a % of the school
population by group (grade levels), cost to educate specific disabilities, what is the
METCO mix, do we need a special education contingency or can we over expend as we
are allowed to do with snow & ice, do all students go through a review process prior to
being assigned a tutor, does any one leave the program, establish trends over time,
number of students, categories, costs per child
Data being gathered is not necessarily consistent from town to town or within a
community. There are no clear cut guidelines established by DOE for the classification
of expenses and revenues. Too much discretion allowed in classifying expenses therefore
difficult to arrive at good comparisons.
* P Lapointe indicated that he had had a brief discussion with A Fredlich of the TMMA
Executive Board and they wish to pressure the BOS and SC to arrive at a budget figure
four weeks prior to the start of Town Meeting. No one can force the issue as it has
been attempted in the past without much success.
* P Lapointe will contact R White and J Young and reinforce the AC's recommendation
as they appear in the 1995 AC Report to Town Meeting.
* R Leone suggested that if the BOS and SC can't submit a budget perhaps the AC should.
* General discussion of long range planning. AC needs to draft a few scenarios with some
more realistic or at least different assumptions from those being made by the Town
Manager.
* R Leone stated that the planning should go out ten years vs five and collapse some of the
detail in an attempt to get all the projections on perhaps three pages. Need to show
revenue and expense, a balance sheet and the tax impact. Capital questions need to be
addressed and perhaps we should be depreciating our fixed assets in an attempt to be
in a better position to fund capital needs.
* P Lapointe will attempt a couple of scenarios for the next meeting.
* Next meeting scheduled for Wednesday, November 8, 1995
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