In attendance: Jonathan Goddard, Conrad Smith, Katie Winkeljohn, Tim Flynn

Also present: Bill Kimball, WCSU superintendent; Chuck Davin

Public Comment

Chuck Davin spoke about anonymity

Technology and Privacy Policy

The committee had a wide ranging discussion on technology and privacy.  Bill Kimball expressed his feelings that our current way of teaching and using the internet as a resource allow us to individualize our education in ways that we have never been able to do previously.  This is a very important resource as we are held accountable for all of our students meeting the standards.  We talked about the huge increase in opportunities that Google Docs has allowed in reference to peer collaboration and self reflection.  These are tools that are allowing teachers to do some things that they used to not be able to do.

We spoke of managed risk taking as being the underlying foundation of our discussion.  How much risk is too much for the benefits we are getting?  Is the use of Google docs too much risk?  Is the use of Infinite Campus too much risk if we don’t manage it in-house?

One idea that we spoke about was to look at what we do in our classes in regards to teaching about privacy on the internet.  Is this something we need to strengthen?

We also discussed the issue under the en loco parentis responsibilities that school have when students are in our care.

Next Meeting: Friday, May 31, 2013 8 am small conference room

1. Continue technology and privacy discussion.
2. Review current policies F27 and G11 which are related to technology in the school.

School Board members present: Kari Bradley, Conrad Smith

Administration present: Keith Gerritt, principal; Stephanie Taylor, assistant principal; Lori Bibeau, WCSU business manager

Meeting convened at 8:00 am.

Lori Bibeau focused on payroll expenses last month. Personnel costs are roughly 70% of overall budget. Leaves of absence can have positive or negative impacts on expenses against budget. Year end projections for payroll adjustments show a net savings. However Lori projects a deficit associated with unbudgeted/unplanned bussing expense for two students going to cosmetology program in Essex. The school may be reimbursed $14,844 by state which we should know within a month. The net adjustment for May is a deficit of approximately $2,000 and currently the fund balance projected to be $644,327.

We then discussed the Capital Fund. We are running surplus for the current year due to deferring the gym acoustics project. For next year, the expected capital fund budget proposal is $436,260, less than previously projected due to low bid on roof project. The Board will consider the capital budget at its next meeting.

We are expecting a loss of approximately $9,000 from the Food Services operations with some projected savings from a recent resignation. The State recently monitored Food Services operation for nutrition, menu, etc. and awarded an A+. The administration recommends not increasing meal prices at this time

Capital Fund Budgeting- The schools two bonds will be paid off in FY19-20 and FY21-22. The Bond Bank refund (refinance) put the savings in specific years (FY12-14, 17, 21). We are projecting roughly $500,000 for the annual capital budget (which is approximately depreciation expense). We posed several questions:

·         Is that the right amount for future years?

·         How will we fund capital budget in future?

·         How much to hold in reserve capital budget?

We identified six options for addressing capital budget

1. Draw down capital budget reserve
2. Budget and spend less for capital expenses
3. Increase allocation from annual budget
4. Lower the 4% fund balance threshold for end of year reserves and divert excess to capital budget
5. Borrow
6. Request public vote for special article

The school treasurer not authorized to write checks without board orders. With upcoming summer break for the board, the administration is asking for authorization to issue checks without prior approval. The board will approve orders at subsequent meeting. This is common practice throughout the state.

Next meeting: June 18, 2013

July: No Finance Committee meeting.  August 13, 2013 meeting: Lori will be out, Keith will lead

The Board may want to direct administration as to what to do with fund balance (ie: transfer funds above 4% to capital budget). This will be considered at the June board meeting. The committee should notify at next board meeting.

Submitted by Kari Bradley