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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2006-03-01-SC-min LEXINGTON SCHOOL COMMITTEE MEETING st Wednesday, March 1 2006 Lexington High School Present: Superintendent Paul Ash; School Committee: Helen Cohen - Chair, Scott Burson, Tom Diaz, Tom Griffiths, and Olga Guttag; Minutes taken by Leora Tec The meeting was convened at 5:11 p.m. I. Call to Order and Welcome (Helen Cohen) II. Public Comment: none III. Superintendent’s Report: none IV. Members’ Reports / Members’ Concerns: none V. Discussion Items: none VI. Action Items A. Motion to Approve the Lexington Education Secretaries Association contract (Burson, Guttag). The motion passed 5-0. B. Motion to approve the technology contract (Burson, Diaz). The motion passed 5-0. C. Vote to Approve the FY07 Budget: Olga Guttag wanted to split voting the budget into several votes to show commonality among SC members in many respects but the committee decided to vote only on the soundness and the full budget. 1. Motion that the School Committee endorse the educational soundness of the Superintendent’s recommended budget (Guttag, Griffiths). The motion passed 5-0. A discussion ensued wherein Olga Guttag wanted to discuss specifics and vote the budget incrementally but Helen Cohen reminded her that the subject on the agenda was the total budget. Olga Guttag wanted to recommend a level-service budget of $64,080,462 instead of the Superintendent recommended $66,703,858. Dr. Ash stated that this number would not allow the District to make progress. 2. Motion to accept the Superintendent’s recommended budget of $66,703,858 (Burson, Griffiths). The motion passed 4-1 (Guttag). Olga Guttag did not want to have her dissenting vote misunderstood as failure to support an override. She felt the amount was inauspicious considering town sentiment and the state economy, that the current budget was funding too many SC meeting 3/1/06 Page # 1 initiatives, that some programs put on the override should have been protected, and that some cost reduction initiatives (e.g. early partial redistricting) had not been explored. Also discussed were the merits of multi-year overrides. VI. Motion to suspend the session until the summit meeting (Griffiths, Cohen). The motion passed unanimously. Meeting was suspended at 6:39 p.m. SC meeting 3/1/06 Page # 2