Town of Pittsfield, NH
2015 Budget Committee
Meeting Notes
12-17-14
Meeting called to order at: 6:00pm
Members Present: Chairman Louie Houle, Vice Chairman Robert Schiferle,
! Secretary Faith Whittier, School Board rep. Ray Ramsey, !! ! !
! Selectmen rep. Gerard LeDuc, Helen Schiff, Helen Schoppmeyer, ! !
! Mary Thorpe, Fred Hast, Mark Riel, Cedric Dustin, Jacob Kitson,
! Josh Roman
!
Guests/Presenters: Superintendent SAU 51, Dr. John Freeman
! ! ! District Administrator/ Grant Project Manager, Tobi Chassie
! ! ! School Board Chairman, Mike Wolfe
! ! ! Community Liaison, Ross Morse
! ! ! Dean of Instruction, Danielle Harvey
! ! ! Dean of Operations, Derek Hamilton
! ! ! Dean of College/Career Readiness, Sarah Rollins
! ! ! Director of Interventions, Kathy LeMay!
Reading & Motion to approve minutes of 12-10 -14:
! ! ! moved by Fred Hast
! ! ! seconded by Ray Ramsey
! ! ! minutes approved with one addition: $10,000.00 amount ! !
! ! ! added to section on generators
School Budget: Superintendent Freeman passed out the school budget, that
has been approved by the school board.! He presented an overview of the five
sections of the budget, which are; Summary, Revenues, Budget, Personnel,
and Grants.
Summary: bottom line budget $9,803,870.92 which is a 1.3% increase of
$124,425.92 This year?s increase follows last years budget of approximately a
2% decrease or a decrease of .7% over the last two approved budgets. Increase
in this year?s budget include: Health Insurance costs up 3.6%, Retirement
System Contributions up 3.7%, Salary Increases/Collective Bargaining
Agreement is in second year of agreement which includes varying increases for
employees, Salary Increases/Non-Collective Bargaining up 2%, and Staffing
Increases include one full time teacher, 20% district administrator, 50% community
liaison, 50% extended learning opportunities coordinator; the latter three
were formerly funded by grant money. The grant money we are to receive in
the extension is less than what was anticipated and has made it necessary to
fund these three positions with school district money. The school board is
working on the Warrant Articles and should have them drafted by our next
meeting. One warrant article they are considering is the potential of a Biomass
boiler system for heat and hot water for the schools. The elementary boiler is
at the end of its expected life span and the school board is exploring the best
options for all the schools at this time. The school has held and will hold more
public meetings to discuss the options they have looked at and to get public
feedback. Two handouts were passed out concerning a Biomass Central Heating
System and were discussed.
Revenues: In looking at the 2015-2016 Summary, it notes a budget decrease
in district assessment of $1,400,000.00 equaling an overall budget increase of
$612,655.00 or a tax increase of $2.30.
Budget (5 Basic Components):
! Instructional Programs (p. 2-5): School board cut $100,00.00 in supplies
& materials. An addition of a second grade teaching position due to increased
class size. Teachers now pay 8% of benefits and school pays 92%. We discussed
teacher turnover and there are a variety of factors including moving, the
low pay scale, leaving the profession, and retiring. This results in a lot of
coaching and training every year. Special education budget hard to anticipate
total costs because of changing needs and number of services needed especially
in the area of professional services (p.3). Vocational programs budget is
based on current tuition rate and number of students interested in participating.
Some of the programs available to juniors and seniors are: auto repair, technology,
theater, cosmetology, robotics, criminal justice, fire fighting, and child
care. Currently 12 students attend and the school would like to see more students
take advantage of these programs. Other instructional programs (p.5)
are focused around students interests and include increases in coaches? salaries
due to years of experience, slight decrease in athletic supplies, and anticipation
of outside funding ($10,000.00 from Nellie Mae Grant and $10,000.00
per year for 5 years from a benefactor) for new PMHS summer academy
! Student and Staff Services (p. 6-12): Guidance Services (p.6) increases
due to salaries and benefits. Health services (p.7) increases in health insurance
and retirement contributions. Psychological services (p.8) no specific discussion.
Speech/Language Services (p.9) increase of 2% for speech and language
assistants and speech therapist and increase in health insurance and
retirement. Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy, and Vision Services
(p.10) increases and decreases are due to changes in student enrollment and
needs. Improvement of Instruction (p.11) includes money for outside consultants
to improve instruction, summer work for curriculum development, and university
courses. The Nellie Mae Grant supports a lot of this training. Media
and Technology Services (p.12) includes increases in salaries, health insurance,
retirement, and changing staff patterns for technology services. Decrease
are planned in the purchase of equipment, including telephone system
replacement.
! Administrative Services (p.13-15): School Board Services (p.13) budget
contains Workman?s Comp. for the entire district and professional services,
such as, auditing and legal fees. SAU Administrative Services (p.14) includes
a salary increase of 2% for SAU employees, replacement of SAU server, and
cost of part time community liaison which was previously grant funded. Principal
?s Office (p.15) the biggest portion of the increase is the partial cost of a
part-time district administrator transferred from grant funded status. Other increases
are for 2% salary increases, part time secretarial to full time, and additional
data entry support position.
! Facilities and Transportation (p.16&17): Building Maintenance (p.16) include
salary increases of 2%, retirement, and personnel changes. Transportation
(p.17) is a 5 year contract with Marston Transportation. Increase of
$126,00.00 due to increased out of district Special Education placements.
Question was raised about fuel cost provisions in the contract. There is a provision
if fuel cost goes up and Dr. Freeman will check and see if there is a provision
if costs go down.
! Debt Service (p.18): No specific discussion except to note the bond for
renovating the middle high school will be paid in full in January of 2020.
Warrant Articles specifically the BioMass proposal was further discussed.
Some questions posed were; Are they considering hard or soft pellets? what
are the best options for off season heating of hot water? Will the underground
storage tanks need to be removed/how old are they? School Board rep. Ray
Ramsey said they have had to do some sealing work on them already.
After the guests had left our school board rep. shared some final thoughts. He
mentioned the lesser amount of grant money and the raises in salaries, benefits,
and retirement contributions. Discussion concerning the addition of a second
grade teaching position raised the following questions which Ray will get
answers to for our next meeting. This position is a floater between two second
grade classrooms this year, will this become position become a new 3rd grade
teacher position next year? A full time kindergarten position was added this
year, how will that impact next years first grade? One final question for the
school board was; When we started having other schools come in to see the
innovative work being done in the area of student based learning, it was anticipated
that we would have a pay scale and generate some revenue from our
visitors, is this being considered?
Other Business: We discussed the two emails, in response to questions from
our last meeting, about the Town Budget. The email from Chief Rob Martin
didn?t fully answer the question about the EMT?s night time calls, so Louie will
ask for more clarification. The second email concerned money being put back
into the operating budget that was originally supposed to be put in reserve for
big item purchases in the future.
Dr. Freeman invited back on Jan. 7, 2015 to answer any questions we have.
Louie mentioned the recent article in the Concord Monitor featuring pie charts
that showed what % of the whole pie each town spent on school, town, and
county. Even though Pittsfield spends more money for the school budget, it is
a smaller piece of the whole pie than most towns of similar size. We need to
analyze our town portion. He has seen a book that is available at the town office
to do these comparisons and will try to locate it and bring it to our next
meeting.
Louie will check on dates for the Public Budget Hearing and a snow date. We
will look at our schedule and if need be Monday would be the best additional
day to meet.
Change of meeting time was discussed and was voted to keep it at 6:00pm on
Wednesdays. Our next meeting will be Jan. 7, 2015 at 6:00pm to continue
discussion on the school budget.
Motion to Adjourn:! moved by Mark Riel
! ! ! seconded by Ray Ramsey
! ! ! ! meeting adjourned at 7:00pm
Respectfully submitted,
Faith Whittier, secretary