HomeMy WebLinkAbout2007-04-11-SC-min
LEXINGTON SCHOOL COMMITTEE MEETING
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
School Administration Building, Conference Room
1557 Massachusetts Avenue
Present: Superintendent Paul Ash, School Committee Chair Tom Diaz, School
Committee Members Helen Cohen, Margaret Coppe, Tom Griffiths and Ravi
Sakhuja. Minutes taken by Leora Tec.
The meeting was convened at 5:07 pm.
I. Call to Order and Welcome (Tom Diaz)
Tom Diaz distributed a substitute motion under Article 23 related to senior tax
deferral. This one involved Town Meeting, not just the Selectmen.
II. Public Comment
Patrick Mehr: I sent an email regarding Article 42. It is logical to wrap up
FY07 before tackling FY08.
Tom Diaz: Let’s take it into consideration and discuss it at our next meeting.
III. Action items
A. Vote to Approve the Operation of Pelham Academy in Lexington
Paul Ash: Kathleen O’Brien is here representing Pelham Academy. The
School Committee has to approve that the curriculum of private schools
meets certain state standards. We believe that the curriculum meets state
curriculum standards.
There was a brief discussion of the type of population that Pelham academy
serves and the process of the School Committee granting approval of the
curriculum.
Motion to grant approval of the Operation of Pelham Academy in
Lexington(Griffiths, Cohen). The motion passed 5-0.
B. Vote to Accept $11,653 in Donations to the Lexington Children’s Place.
Motion to accept donations to Lexington Children’s Place with
gratitude $11,653 (Sakhuja, Griffiths). The motion passed assed 5-0.
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C. Vote to Request an appropriation from Town Meeting to pay FY06 Unpaid
Bills.
Motion to request an appropriation from Town Meeting to pay FY06
unpaid bills under Article 41 (Griffiths, Cohen). The motion passed 5-0.
Mary Ellen Dunn does intend to carry the $50K forward in the budget for
future occurrences of this sort.
IV. Discussion Item: Interim Report of the Financial Review Committee
Tom Griffiths: We formed the Financial Review Committee to look into the
operations of Lexington’s financial affairs, to look at how well things operate as
well as at financial communications. We decided to prepare an interim report.
We wanted to work on how to lower appropriations from prior years’
expenditures and how to make projections. We did not get very far on the
second topic.
Ravi Sakhuja: I had the privilege of working with this committee.
Tom Griffiths: The co-chairs are Jennifer Hewitt and Bob Boudreau. Members
are TomGriffiths, Ravi Sakhuja, Mary Ellen Dunn, Rob Addelson and non-
voting Appropriation Committee liaison David Kanter.
Bob Boudreau and Jennifer Hewitt gave a brief background on themselves.
The School Committee received a summary of the committee’s work to date as
well as a print-out of the Power Point Presentation.
Discussion above and beyond the Power Point:
In the town it is rare that there is an increase in an FTE if a person is hired but in
the school department the numbers can change, so implementing Munis’s
position control functionality is useful.
There was a discussion of the order of the School Committee signing warrants.
Perhaps the School Committee should sign after the comptroller’s office. We
need a more helpful warrant report for the School Committee. Mary Ellen Dunn
said that the system must ensure that there are checks and balances and that it
would be more helpful if the warrant document were a single document and
would give the total value of what the invoices are worth.
David Kanter: Mary Ellen Dunn’s approach is perfectly compatible with what
the committee believes should be happening. The problem is resources. The
path is an excellent path. We have not yet seen the minutiae. There needs to be a
positive payback to the workers. The goal is to internalize the new system.
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Educators’ primary duty is to be educators; there must be feedback that makes
sense to them.
There was a discussion of staffing in the business office and reducing the
number of vendors in the system.
V. Motion to go into Executive Session to discuss collective bargaining and
pending litigation not to return to public session.Cohen-aye; Coppe-aye;
Diaz-aye; Griffiths-aye; and Sakhuja-aye.
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