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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2024-10-04-SC-min (Finance Subcommittee) AGENDA FINANCE SUB COMMITTEE MEETING - LEXINGTON PUBLIC SCHOOLS PARTICIPANTS: LARRY FREEMAN, DEEPIKA SAWHNEY, DAVID COELHO, FINANCE PERSONNEL AS NEEDED LOCATION: CENTRAL OFFICE FINANCE DEPARTMENT, MR. COELHO'S OFFICE DATE: FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 20TH 2024 ( Rescheduled to October 4th, 2024) TIME: 2-3 PM AGENDA: 1. Discuss EOY for academic year 2023-24 2. Discuss any warrant related questions from previous warrants 3. Discuss any finance related questions from previous academic year 4. Discuss any finance related questions from previous SC meetings a. Charging of School meals specifically at what points does a student pay if they are not purchasing a la carte items like cookies Callled the meeting to order at 2.16 pm Minutes from Sept 6th meeting were unanimously approved The sub committee first discussed the process wherein which the town receives the EOY expenditure report from the schools. The budget ends on June 30th for every academic year. However, the town closes the books next week (October 8th onwards). The LPS fin dept have sent the town fin dept the year end already. As the two depts are on the same MUNIS platform they are able to see the same information on the account screens. As a yearend bookkeeping ( financial housekeeping), the schools finance dept close the previous year's expense lines and move the remaining funds to the respective revolving accounts. These journal entries have to be approved and posted by the town at the account level, for example: transportation in the expense account to the transportation the revolving account. Essentially this is an exercise to put the remaining funds from WHERE (i.e. the bucket) the fin dept does the work to WHERE, (again a different bucket), the finance dept needs the end results to reside. Revolving accounts have a ceiling or cap upto which LPS can spend upto. The personnel numbers were discussed next. The discrepancy between vacancies, end of the year, Supplementary personnel were hired through grants, circuit breaker funds. In previous years the return backs at the end of the year to the town was from surpluses in HR, K12 curriculum, finance and operations and superintendent budgets. However, given that for this year the target is to reduce expenses by over 10%, a number of discretionary expenditures have been reduced such as conference travel etc. The Finance sub committee team then discussed whether the district breaks even with the state reimbursement of free lunch and breakfast and the payments owed to Whitsons' by the district. LPS has banked some extra funds in the past from what the state reimburses and LPS costs. These funds have been used to update kitchen equipment etc. Funds are also used to invest in equipment updates and give personnel more compensation to get better service, or expand the menu. The money for the food is going to a revolving fund. The money is based on the number of meals served. The feds reimbursement pays for non fee/reduced lunch fee eligible students. The public schools only get compensated for meals served, not for how many eligible kids are in the system. DESE uses the free/low fee lunch numbers to figure out chapter 70. Forms are used to certify the kids who are eligible for the free lunch. Schools are supposed to audit 2% of the forms for DESE to make sure they are accurately being certified with the income levels etc. The forms help inform the financial aid which is in the school control. Our threshold for financial help is higher. So we can qualify children for free field trips and other forms of assistance by consulting these forms. A second helping is charged for a student, even if they did not take all the components of the original uncharged meal. This is so that the vendor can keep track of the sales and items etc. (in some schools the adult volunteers were setting aside untouched items like packaged applesauce for districution to food pantries etc. not sure that practice is still happening). The team then discussed personnel numbers: Definition of a vacancy - if an employee retires or leaves the district, their responsibility is going unfilled but the hiring of the replacement hasnt happened. The supplementary positions are hired for a new need that surfaces in the system. In say a different school. Existing vacancies are for existing needs whereas the supplementary positions are for new students coming in with new needs. Maybe what is needed is a reevaluation of vacancies across teh district to see which positions are no longer needed. Some ideas on how to manage the new needs for personnel 1) Building head looks at their needs and sees if there are internal reassignments 2) Across the district reassignments where personnel might need to travel during a day . 0.5 assignment here and 0.5 assignment there. Or do a complete reassignment if a person is needed in a new school and the old school doesnt need that person. There was additional discussion on how vacancies and substitutes are paid in teh system. $390 for a long term sub, taking over for someone who was earning $450 a day. A daily sub is $175 while the teacher is out sick. The funds paid out may be more expensive for a district if the sick employees wages and their substitutes wages are being paid at the same time. Its cheaper if the vacancy is being filled by a sub because the cost of a sub is less than that of a permanent employee. Sometimes a lesser expensive employee may be compensated for taking over a more highly compensated employee's job temporarily. The meeting was adjourned at 3.30 pm.