Schools Budget Closes Year In Balance
In their continuing effort to control and audit the schools budget, the School Committee's Budget and Finance Subcommittee reorganized with Alison Manugian elected chairman.
Taking a proactive stance to monitoring and controlling the school systems finances, the Budget & Finance Subcommittee will meet once a month, usually right before a full school committee meetings, with the goal of providing the School Committee with the most up-to-date financial information. Jared Stanton, Director of Business & Finance, said that the FY15 budget would close in balance as anticipated. He continued, "The need to replenish our contingencies is ongoing, but the future looks bright."
In their session prior to the School committee meeting of June 24, the subcommittee reviewed FY15 end of year general fund budget numbers, FY15 end of year revenue budget numbers, and preliminary FY16 revenue figures. They also discussed Stanton's recommendation for the establishment of a new revolving account called the "Regional Transportation Reimbursement Fund," a fund recently approved by the state. The budget subcommittee voted to recommend moving forward with this initiative and the full School Committee approved.
In a related matter, Superintendent Rodriguez reported that she had attended a meeting of the Merrimack Valley Special Education Collaborative Board, discovering that a settlement had been reached with the auditing firm responsible for missing the financial irregularities that were eventually surfaced by the state inspector general a few years ago. The GDRS share of that settlement is $5,638.50 available for FY '16. The board voted to apply that money as a tuition credit against future tuition charges from MSEC.
Dr. Rodriguez asked the Committee to grant an additional stipend amount of $1,950.96 to Early Childhood Director Hoyt for the month of June. Hoyt who has been performing his assigned role as well as covering for the PPS Director who has "not been within the district this month" (no further explanation given).
