HomeMy WebLinkAbout1996-09-26-AC-MIN.pdf APPROPRIATION COMMITTEE MEETING
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 1996
COMPTROLLER'S OFFICE, 7:30 PM
Present: P Lapointe, M Miley, R Borghesani, R Colwell, S Coit, R Leone, I Mroczkowski,
R Pawliczek, J Ryan
Absent: L Peck
* Suggested agenda distributed by P Lapointe
* Motion: To accept minutes of August 13, 1996 meeting. Unanimous
* Bulletin board of upcoming meetings:
Monday, September 30th, 8:00 am: Preparation for October 19th"budget kickoff' meeting
Tuesday, October 15th, 7:30 pm: MMRVHS pre budget division reports
Saturday, October 19th, TBA: "budget kickoff' meeting
Tuesday, October 22nd, 7:30 pm: SC @ Estabrook School, "policy discussion on class size'
Wednesday, October 23rd, 7:30 pm: AC meeting
Saturday, November 16th, 8:15 am: ATFC annual meeting, Boxborough Holiday Inn
* Reports: Preparation for October 19th. Nothing definitive planned at this point. Discussions
taking place as to the format and content of the meeting
* Municipal team: Need to concentrate on (1) items such as the Quinn Bill, (2) study long term
impact items such as privatization, regionalization, deregulation of electric utilities, (3) need to
look at overall picture not just either the municipal or the school side.
I Mroczkowski discussed her meeting with G Woodbury and his vision for the DPW in future
years. Topics included utilities, NESWC, regionalization, providing services for other towns.
* School team: (1) need to establish a base line year budget, (2)better understanding of the
educational goals, (3) items such as technology, special education and MMRVHS.
The SC will be discussing the space needs assessment currently being conducted in an attempt
to provide long range planning as to capital needs of the school system
* Lengthy discussion as to what should be the content and direction of the October 19th meeting.
Need to have leadership in long range planning.
AC may bring back the seven(7) criteria as they appear in the 1995 AC Report to Town Mtg.
Both the BOS and SC should be able to discuss where they think the Town will be in 2001.
Budget process currently generates a"program" dollar requirement as well as a" cap" dollar
requirement, neither of which are real. We ultimately arrive between the extremes.
Policy decisions must be made by both the BOS and SC.
Need to sharpen skills in making trade-offs.
Budget should be more policy and less numbers, identifying areas in which we have been
successful as well as those in which we have been less successful.
* P Lapointe, R Borghesani and R Leone will attempt to put together a presentation to be made
at the October 19th meeting.
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