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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2022-01-24-SC-minLEXINGTON SCHOOL COMMITTEE MEETING Monday, January 24, 2022 Conducted by Remote Participation Meeting Minutes CALL TO ORDER AND WELCOME: 6:41 P.M. SCHOOL COMMITTEE MEMBERS PRESENT Kathleen Lenihan, Chairperson Eileen Jay, Vice -Chair Scott Bokun Deepika Sawhney Sara Cuthbertson, Clerk STUDENT REPRESENTATIVE Sara Mei SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS PRESENT Dr. Julie Hackett, Superintendent The minutes were taken by Julie Kaye, School Committee Meeting Recording Secretary. The School Committee convened via zoom and at the LPS Central Office. Members of the public can view and participate in the meeting webinar from their computer or tablet by clicking on the link provided with the meeting agenda. Please note that this meeting is being recorded, and that attendees are participating by video conference. This evening's meeting is being broadcast live and also taped by LexMedia for future on -demand viewing. All supporting materials that have been provided to members of this body are available on the Town's website unless otherwise noted. Lexington Public Schools Fiscal Year 2023 Budget - Public Hearing Dr. Hackett announced that this is the third presentation of the budget. She mentioned that since the last presentation, there have been some updates to address some of the Special Education concerns. Mr. Coelho, the Assistant Superintendent for Finance reviewed the Lexington Public Schools Fiscal Year -2223 -Budget slideshow. • Slide 1 introduces the presentation. LSC 1/24/22 - DRAFT JK • Slide 2 outlines the budget timeline process from beginning to end. Mr. Coelho explained that there are a lot of people involved and it takes a tremendous amount of time to complete. • Slide 3 shows the different summits in the revenue allocation process (Summit I, II, III, IV). • Slide 4 is a visual for how the numbers are actually calculated. The Town's projected revenue for FY 23 is $258,921,000. After taking out shared expenses and applying the revenue allocation model (LPS - 74.0%; Municipal - 26.0%), the total FY 2023 Allocation for LIPS is $128,254,447. • Slide 5 is the FY 23 budget overview. Mr. Coelho explained that 83% of our budget is spent on personnel. About $28,000,000 goes to supplies and contracting services, transportation, and Special Education tuition. • Slide 6 is a line graph that shows the allocations we have received over the past 7 years. Back in 2017 we received a 7.2% increase in our allocation, this year we are receiving 4.4%. • Mr. Coelho explains on slide 7 that every year we start off by building a model. The FY 23 budget was constructed with the following budget assumptions: continue with full in -school model; enrollment stabilized and projections are calculated; staffing levels return to normal, no new additions or enrollment impacts; and expected expense increases in transportation, tuition, and other special education services. There is a graph that shows enrollment trends. • Slide 8 is the bar graph of Kindergarten enrollment from 2000-2001 to 2021-2022. The highest number of enrollment was 448 in 2015-2016 and the lowest was in 2020-2021 at 309. • Slide 9 is a chart that shows where students go when they transfer out of Lexington (another in state public school, in state private school, out of state public or private, and home-school). The pandemic had a big impact on this data. • Slide 10 explains the history of FTE (full time equivalent) increases from FY 17. In the years from FY 17 to FY 20, annual increases in staffing were quite high (28-50 additional FTE). Recently, cost saving efforts have resulted in reductions in FTEs. In FY 22, there was a reduction of 6 FTEs compared to the previous year. In the proposed FY 23 budget, there is a decrease of 1.31 FTEs. • Slide 11 is another depiction of staffing salaries by job classification. This year our salary budget is going up 3.7%, we will be spending approximately $106,000,000 in salaries. • Slide 12 goes into the expense side of the budget. We are increasing by $1.58 million, 7.8% above FY 22. These are funds that are identified for mandated service requirements (Special Education tuition is going up to $630,000 and transportation to $560,000). Mr. Coelho says that they go through a process to make sure that we have allocated enough funding based upon enrollment projections and known inflation rates. We have added funds to the K-5 Curriculum and to update school safety. Approximately $21.8 million/38.5% is spent on regular ed expense items, the other 61.5% is spent on Special Education services such as tuition and transportation. LSC 1/24/22 - DRAFT JK • Slide 13 asks the question: How do we arrive at a net decrease of 1.3 FTEs? The FY 22 base is taken and then how many FTEs do we need to add or subtract is discussed (mandates, enrollment). Who the students we are serving and what their needs are are also taken into consideration. • Slide 14 is a breakdown of the programs and positions that are being impacted (special education, K-12 curriculum, finance & operations and system wide). • Slide 15 is enrollment driven, you see reductions and additions. Three unallocated teaching positions are being added across the K-12 curriculum. • Slide 16 goes over mandated FTEs. We have to manage all of the mandates that come from down from federal and state agencies. There is a position for a visual arts teacher at the High School. • Slide 17 gives you an idea of where our money comes from; tax levy, fees & charges, special education stabilization fund. The button part of the chart shows where the money is being spent; $106.4 million on salary and wages, $21.8 million on expenses for the total of $128,254,447. The employee increase is 4.38, the salary increase is 3.7 and 7.8 for the expanse side. • Slide 18 lists the lean year budget strategies in three phases, over time if it becomes necessary. Mr. Coelho explains that in Phase I for example, software programs are looked at to see if they are outdated or no longer work for us. Phase II addresses staffing needs and additional expenses and trying to figure out what is the most efficient way to provide the service at a high level. Phase III is for if "things get very tight" and we have to explore other potentials and to see what works for the district, students and parents. • Slide 19 reviews some risks and unknowns that we encounter: impact on local economy and Town revenues due to lingering pandemic issues; Chapter 70 State Aid - impact of State revenue and October 2021 Enrollment on Ch 70 Allocation funds; Federal 94-142 Grant Aid - Special Education allocations driven by enrollment and set -asides; and FY23 Enrollment rebounds and return to normal participation rates for Transportation, Athletics and Food Service programs and revenue generation. • Slide 20 continues to list budgetary risks and unknowns: continuing lingering Impact of COVID-19 and vaccine distribution and efficacy; continued impacts on student enrollment and staff; continued shortages in staffing and substitutes; CPI inflation adjustment on expense accounts and impact of higher costs for some materials due to supply chain disruptions; need to manage a leaner budget; and plan for future disruptions in staffing availability during and after school breaks;additional staffing and expenses for testing prior to school reopening dates. • Slide 21 displays the front and back cover artwork, all done by LPS students. • Slide 22 gives thanks Laura Reinholm, Assistant Director of Finance; Kathleen Kim, Financial Analyst; Adrian Leone, Executive Administrative Assistant; and LPS Finance & Operations Office Staff. The names of all the students who have artwork on the front and back cover are also listed here. COMMUNITY SPEAK LSC 1/24/22 - DRAFT JK None School Committee questions/comments: Ms. Sawhney thanked Mr. Coelho for the presentation and the library staff for answering her questions. • She asked Mr. Coelho about our food service contract. He responded that it is a five-year contract and it will be good until 2027. A bid went out and three vendors were interested. Tomorrow they will be visiting our cafeterias to see the operations and get a better idea of the types of equipment and the way things run. Presentations on those bids will be on February 8th and any other companies will present on February 10th. The remaining time in February will be to look at all of the information, to ask questions, and then to make a decision. There is a group of people to help go through this process (a parent included). Ms. Sawhney asked if we will have a decision by March and Mr. Coelho confirmed. • Ms. Sawhney asked if she could take a look at the stipend list for a previous year. • Finally she mentioned that teachers will be looking through their classrooms to see what needs to be replaced. Is there any way to take those materials and reuse them in Lexington? Mr. Coelho replied that there is a process, we check with other schools in Town, then the Town Offices and other local schools. Then we have a sort of silent auction, we put out a list of what we have and then we accept sealed bids. We also look into nonprofits such as the YMCA. We try not to throw anything away. Ms. Cuthbertson mentioned that our transportation participation has rebounded since last year. She is wondering if we saw a significant drop in athletic participation this year because we had to cap team sizes because of COVID restrictions. Mr. Coelho responded that there were a combination of things that resulted in lower athletic participation such as fewer kids trying out. COMMUNITY SPEAK Bronte Abraham, 22 Hudson Rd: Bronte has noticed that out -of -district aides are getting a pay increase of about 5% because their institutions are requesting them. She is aware that Unit C is currently negotiating. She would like to know if we are giving our staff raises comparable to what out -of -district aides are getting in order to help retain our staff. Mr. Coelho responded that we don't know what other districts are going to get, when they increase prices we don't always know if that is going directly to the individual. We have finished our negotiations for this year and our rate is very comparable. Bronte also noticed that in the staffing line items, the ETS for out of district is not considered a coordinator. Also, the position that Mike Law has used to be a full time transition specialist. It is now only a .5 transitioning coordinator because the rest of his time is taken up as an ETS. She states that this is not a long-term solution and that this position is underfunded. LSC 1/24/22 - DRAFT JK School Committee questions/comments: Ms. Lenihan encouraged people to read the section in the budget book about the K-12 library media program. There is a lot that goes into running a library that most people may not be aware of. Ms. Lenihan asked how our staffing compares to other districts in K-12 counseling. Dr. Hackett responded that she included an analysis of this in one of her previous updates. We have significantly higher numbers of staff in K-12 counseling than anywhere around us. She mentioned that the METCO program also comes with social workers and we also have social adjustment counselors in the schools as well as many other services. Dr. Hackett pointed out that some urban schools may only have one counselor for a school of 600 students. We are not looking at downsizing and we should be thankful for all of the people who help serve our children. Ms. Jay asked Mr. Coelho about the budget being based on enrollment. She would like to know: If there is a surprise and a lot of kids come back, do we have funds to support another FTE? Ms. Jay asked: If that scenario occurs, do we dip into reserve funds or do we work within the existing budget? Mr. Coelho explained that a lot of things would have to happen in order to go into a reserve fund. The process would be to try and solve the problem within and to use additional circuit breaker funding or shift funding from grants that would be used for other areas. Dr. Hackett added that we have built into the process every year a supplemental budget request process. We have moves that we can make for added staff, there are built-in safeguards in the budget process that makes sure that we are always meeting the needs of our students and staff. Ms. Jay then brought up the circuit breaker, those funds for the current fiscal year need to be utilized by the end of that year. Ms. Jay asked if the circuit breaker funds come with any restrictions on them. Mr. Coelho replied that they have to be used for any special education expense. We use the money specifically for tuitions, but now we can get reimbursed for transportation costs as well. They are adding flexibility to the circuit breaker program. Ms. Jay also stated that we must have seen a dip in revenue from the low enrollment from the pandemic but we still had to pay the bus company. How were we able to make up that deficit? Mr. Coelho replied that we were very fortunate because we were able to use additional federal funding and returned money from programs from the last couple of years. Dr. Hackett added that we negotiated certain pieces of the transportation contract during the pandemic. Ms. Cuthbertson made a motion to adjourn at 7.46 P.M.; Mr. Bokun seconded. Ms. Lenihan took a roll call vote (Approved 5-0). LSC 1/24/22 - DRAFT JK