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Keene Board of Education Finance Committee Meeting for Tuesday June 2, 2020 – 6:30 PM

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Meeting Location - Keene Board of Education Finance Committee members attended the meeting remotely. The closed captioning is not necessarily reflective of the true words spoken during this meeting.

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relax the finance committee I'm going to Chris Roberts who's out not able to attend today I need to do a roll call to make sure that everyone's okay with recording this meeting Scott and Spinelli I'm here I'm in the kitchen nobody here at this point is it okay to report thank you George Downing remote from my home and Keen as nobody in the space with me it's okay to record and I am sorry but who's who else is actually Anya is it just the three of us okay that's why I thought we also have Rebecca Lancaster and Peter Starkey kandui and Pembroke from Administration and for myself I guess it's okay to record and I'm in my home and no one's around and I can't minutes does anyone want to entertain a motion for the minutes give me the Georgia move to approve the minutes of May 5th 2020 can I get a second if that was the Scots second inning all in favor I'm sorry yes and myself yes every financial report mr. Roar last month so be a little you can see that our revenues are increasing one of the area's I think that's most important in that is in Medicaid recovery I was showing I was calling for about a $75,000 shortfall last month I think we'll get a minimum and maximum of $45,000 shortfall they really worked hard to close that Gap that's a testament to our special ed department and Ryan there but also it's still a really low compared to what we used to get so last year you would have seen over a half a million we budgeted 175 million because of the change and we're going to struggle to get to that we're going to be short 175,000 did I say million hundred seventy-five thousand and we usually get a half a million so change and downshift to local taxpayers of a source that used to help offset special at expenses on our other expense on our expenditures a regular instruction stay in about the same special instruction actually worsened a little bit out-of-district tuition took a fairly I took a job before hundred and $43,000 is what are projected to spend discounts on purchase orders all being maintained correctly and not closed not access money encumbered but purchased Services helping support that with over $100,000 Surplus Garten Services barely changed about shows of the change it's just a hundred hundreds of dollars Psychological Services very similar down through and tell you again Staffing curriculum and people are starting to spend their their money is for tuition reimbursement things like that so where I showed a big Surplus last Ma starting Windows so you can see that moved slightly closer to zero about $13,000 and I think that's the only big jumps building improve we'll see where negative about $13,000 when we were still in a small Surplus and that's because of asbestos found at a project that wasn't budgeted so we were all in all spent but we had a spare Kissimmee current media area that were changing dark that was not on our list we had to take it down to the plywood and put a new subfloor on and that's what that that's what that changes we're still going to have a healthy Surplus 2.5 million and could grow depending on what happens to the end of the year but we're in good Financial shape both this year's budget next year's operating budget because I already know drivers for next year's operating budget we have received a grant for about $500,000 impart will use to go to one-on-one one-to-one Chromebooks for every 8th grader through 12th grader so we'll have that fully-funded plus health insurance came in very strong energy costs are looking good and transportation cost right now look like they're coming in under budget so we should be in good Financial shape going into next year thank you Tim Scott you have a question how good the budget will be or that there will be a cost Savings in there what would it take for in school district to provide summer meals to the kids at risk I'm really concerned about them if there's a way that we could help support that I know it's probably complicated with the US yeah and other things but I've heard that other districts are are working on such actions yeah I see George hand up if you want to go first I can remember who somebody on the board referred a question to me anger refer to question to me from somebody else in the community on that exact topic and we talked to Rob about it and he has been working with that's been provided by the city for the last two years that same service so bright now he's focused on making sure the best still happens because a fairly complicated lifts for the district in San would probably know more of these than I do but there's it's more than just the meals are school lunch employees the majority of them are not full urine so we don't have summer school lunch employees at all it's not even a thing that we have in the district so we'd be creating either creating a new kind of employee or redefining the ones we have now basically we're not set up to run in the summer so it is so it's a pretty big lift so Rob is proactively going out and contacting the folks in the community who did it last year to make sure it's happening before he Tim and Linda Paris to let's here instead I think that would be a good thing to have this is any way to hear more about that at the school board meeting next week that's that is going on because of the sheer volume of unemployment and the additional support from the federal government thumbs-down hungry children are out there no matter what if we are able to provide support the city should be the the primary go to if that's the way it's happening before I so I think I can shed some light on this Scott there is a we can do a summer program we don't do a summer program national food service program and they made it pretty easy to do so from a red tape standpoint George is absolutely right we we don't have the employees scheduled to work but if they were going to if students were going to be fed I had that we will be pushing in that direction let me tell you why we're not but doesn't mean we can't and if that we can afford to do it but conval school district has been providing the national school lunch in the Summers for 20 years in the Keene area they usually distribute at foresight throughout key for SAU 29 students to get national school lunch program they are continuing to do that Dave they file the waiver have year-round employees and provide that they want the revenue and we we've never infringed on that Turf and that's still going to happen there contemplating three sites in Racine as well as Southwestern Community Action Program has five sites throughout team to deliver summer meals and I have a list of I don't know 10 other program in the area but the national food service program is provided for MTM for SAU 29 students and we will be Distributing those sites and information on how people can contact them but people Hardware plus there's a numerous other sites that we're going to that are part of that program better be out there so we don't provide it because it's not a whole that's that's basically why that helps thank you that's very helpful George I'll have broad speak to that just because he has a kbe just because he has been proactively looking at making sure that it is happening and he did give me a summary similar to what Tim just gave as well we probably have the capability there hasn't been a need yet in this region can jus that's a whole that we would be capable of feeling so much stuff Monadnock I have two questions on the the financial report as well did we get more placements after the pandemic restrictions kicked in we did have some placement changes happening at the time that's just when they kicked in for my financial report yes did you say we already got help estimates for next yes where did what you did over with budgets about 3% less than we budget we budgeted over I can't remember the exact numbers I want to say about three and a half percent it's coming in about weenie somewhere around there plus or minus 10% that's good news I was actually expecting a jump in that Basin what's going on across the country are down dramatically as you can imagine people going to the doctor first thing any more questions when I move on to the gifts to and we Sorry Julie yes we use way of emotion to informational God II any more questions call George Downey. Yes and myself gas motion passes through 0 Tim Hunter gifts so you have a gift we passed one last month the recommended one and this is for $548 from the Kingsbury fun to support wheel locks portable playground for The portable obstacle course start $548 there's a letter from Patty in there move to accept move to accept the gift from Kingsbury Corporation to Wheelock School in the amount of 548 bars to support an indoor obstacle course Scott can I get a second any questions no questions all right all in faith well can't do that I don't know why I want to do that today Scott and myself yes motion pack 300 aren't you budget transfers I didn't see any budget transfers in the packet next item is the meeting today yeah you might remember the meetings are kind of set by Finance facilities piggybacks with us and they skip their meetings in January and we have to Saturday meetings in January I want to point out that my assistant put this together for me and asked me about I say I put that on there for discussion but I have to check I don't think we can meet January 9th and 16th as the last day for petition war or I mean the last day for is the second Tuesday in January it seems we have to meet prior and decide prior to January 12th so. make it January 2nd which is why she wanted to avoid it and January 9th because it is the day after if I were there so that makes it difficult are there any other options for that but first meeting well the oh yes I mean we can do whatever we want but the problem with moving it earlier is that it's over a winter vacation and then we asked all the people to be there call center manager technically we can do it on a weeknight but you're talkin about a 5-hour meeting so you would be looking at a 5-hour meeting like from 5 to 10 on a Tuesday night so it's a edible but we don't usually do that for what it's worth I'm not going to be here on January 2nd I don't think but I'm not on this Committee in real time I'm just donuts tonight the better chip January 2nd is actually I mean it's it's not but it is still over break we won't go back to school until the 4th because obviously we'll have first off we could do January 3rd for example but you want sometime between the two meetings did remember you get a list of questions and we answer them all so I was going to say you could do the 9th and 10th but okay it would be impossible to do it justice I think we could do the 3rd and 10th if you're not concerned about holding one of these meetings on a Sunday more people will be back on the 3rd then we're back on the 2nd for sure since school will start up again on the 4th if we go anywhere is oh my God I can't imagine holding these meetings resume wow anyway don't we usually also have a finance meeting on one of those Tuesdays in January full board meeting okay cuz of the full board meeting following or not write this Tuesday the 12th on the 12th with the public hearing and you adopt a budget and then I had to post it right in and that's the night that the warrants have to be posted if you want me to turn any changes around 4 12th public hearing I'm not opposed to a Sunday I'm not sure other people how they would feel my concern is were asking and Ministry administrators to come in and speak on this which means they eventually have to come back early for whatever plans they may have but I almost what like for them to weigh in on Saturday versus the Sunday to give them one more travel day I don't know you tell me any of these are going to be scheduled challenged but you could hold it like Monday the 4th and Tuesday the 5th realizing that you might even miss out on some committee members by doing it that way but you could cuz you could schedule because this these administrators come on this date in these administrators come on this date about that 10 I'm game for just about anything is if I wanted people's input I guess I would have dropped it on the standard which is been the first to 2 Saturday 4 and be willing to change it after you get feedback yeah that works too next. Makes sense to me maybe proactively I don't know I don't know about opening that can of worms is this a real problem back about 17 different suggestions for alternate suggestions it's been like this for 20 years doesn't hit that close to the holiday I would say we put it next Saturday the alternative would be either Sunday cuz I don't think doing it two nights in a row would be ideal I mean even for Tim that's a lot and then to turn around and do it on Saturday January is already crazy enough for him I would think we set it for Tuesday and you guys tell me what you think the alternative if there's pushback is to give them additional day and then we follow up the following Saturday you have any feelings on this it's going to be tough stores that I can guarantee that I'm going to be around it just depends on what's going on but that doesn't that's my personal life that doesn't affect I think it's them for in their work at the administration I mean I think the second or third would work and be tough for everybody but it always is the only problem is it that time of year the alternative is to go all the way back to the the 19th of December the holiday people do not like to have an all day Saturday meeting because they'll have all these obligations and press my losing everybody a lot of pressure to miss a Saturday the Saturday before a major holiday also jumps up your budget timeline by two weeks I didn't want to mention back cuz that's on me but I'm more worried like but it's not just on you know you know justification books it's the presentations that the the administrators bring in cuz they don't that first Saturday they don't just come in and say here's our book they have to put together a slide with you they put together a presentation explaining their books yeah that's a big leftover asking people I mean so it's a possibility for some reason completely and being unworkable it's a thing we could do but that's harder than trying to do like a Monday and Tuesday so I guess I wouldn't throw that out there is a possibility I just keep it in the back of our minds and something that we can do if we really have to I'm going to write it as a sec and put on here alternate 3rd that way the questions out there and it's limited and then you were the board can be talked into doing the Third Estate if that's what people want or you want Chris is typically the chair Betty but sitting in this world right now I think that's best of what we have to work with I'll make that sell and one of you will make a motion to recommend that to the pool can you can have a discussion right there sunroof do we do we normally scheduled or put for a session on the calendar at this time on the meeting schedule but first session will be between the first and second Saturday following the last Monday in January so last Monday in January 25th going to be the 6th and 13th and 13th where do they sell moved in anybody so second so many of us more questions George yes that you broke up there no questions just putting things in my calendar so yes yes recommend to the full board their schedule 320 what's next on our agenda Mac's tires which is difficult in the zoom format but one of the things I was a lot of policy that they forward it to us but one of them when I looked at the minute I included them cuz they're really were only two questions in the minutes about it shows up as a very it will be a big left if we're able to read decipher and why is all these policy but if you look at the last thing I put in there it's the minutes and I think the questions are only into policies which is daf it is repulsive subrecipient monitoring and yeah which Rob repeatedly I think in this and maybe even George talk about leaving those policy separate and not combining them are you looking at the last minute last document in the drive the last document I thought that would help guide our conversation at which one you want to start with first caf if I met because I was at policy recommend everybody's Frozen but you're Frozen to can you hear us yes I can hear you now can I recommend that we start with DJ see which is petty cash yeah reason I recommended that is because the only question from policy on DJ see which is our petty cash policy is does committee have any concerns on it djc is reference by one of the limit let me back up the daf policies are the policies that were in response to the audit from the state regarding expenditures of Grants necromancy. Federal money one of the da apps references djc petty cash this committee for the last two possibly longer years has been looking at djeasy because individual committee members had concerns with our petty cash policy nobody on the policy committee knows what those concerns were and it's not really reflected in the minutes from the finance committee meetings so the question is does this version of the finance committee have concerns or does Tim Roar have concerns with d JCPenney cash and if you don't we just take it back to policy as is and tell him to have fun with it I don't I do have a question for 10 they are passing their Petty cash for everyone who has petty cash is following this policy this is not our current policy I don't believe is it oh yeah no that's not just petty cash account not all cash right just petty cash meaning of on a monthly basis they if they spend have expenditures there for sending it along that company absolutely yes and this is what we would be held to a standard during an audit what's that no issue so go ahead and take that back to policy and say we don't even have to vote on that cuz it's an existing policy or not changing it so we just have to and if I put in my notes since I'm in the policy committee what did we just say TJC finance committee DJ and DJ e the daf policies reference those as two different things we don't have two different things we put all of our bidding requirements right in two policy DJ and I don't think we have a DJ is that sound right correct okay call you know we do it it says we have one says it was revised into 4 and that's bidding requirements yes and DJ is purchasing but has bidding requirements in it and that may have been the confusion we had a we had a DJ policy and they had to do je and they probably are in conflict that was my next question and then we almost passed another one for the feds right or we did so we probably have three different fitting requirement policy did we pass one in response to the audit I think you did Reese play he didn't come to finance but I believe it was passed as part of that package for becoming no we didn't pass the package best IDGAF things I have to look at the board minutes but I thought did the end of last year there's still a couple outstanding that's why there's one of them in your pocket right now so let me see I'm just going to read right back what I have my notes we have bidding written as part of DJ if we don't need no way it's the audit requires both policies then Finance needs to split them but they're already split we have a bidding gdje you can just name our existing policy that we've had for a long time DJ / DJ e right well if we have them both I'm not sure 17 minutes somebody contradict one another all right so that's the problem then and then robs recommendation is if the audit requires both policies that we should have both policies to Rob saying we can't eliminate DJ existing dje do they might want to join policy this is what we do every single month right it's keeping these letters straight in your head alright let me try this again so right now we have a DJ that also includes a bidding component and we have a DJ e which is just didn't correct the record Jason from the policy committee was since the audit is requiring those as separate policies we should go ahead and make them separate policies so then if there is a contradiction in the bidding portion of DJ with DJ e then that contradiction needs to be fixed if there's not a contradiction then again we're done when checking both that policy fiction DJ we updated in 2018 I'm kind of broke out how we want the wedding to happen we don't have that in dje Julia why don't you like give me a shot and I will put that in my bailiwick and I will take the bidding requirements not the dollar amounts and put them into dje and try to leave some of that stuff in there and bring them both back so that right someone's got to do that yes and I'll bring her back here in September to be moved on to the full Board of Health now you got to take it back to Boston or I can do that and kick it back and policy how about Julia how about I do that kick it back to you and then you decide whether to kick it on the policy or take it back here based on changes I think these have been floating around so long that if we could speed it up by sending its policy that's fine I just wanted to make sure there is no other things in here that anybody questions disagreements I need it to be adjusted other than the making sure the bidding requirements are the same in both so I'm looking at what's in our packet again we as a district do not have a d this is Santa or somebody robbed set the NHS be a sample policy for on the bottom 2004 which makes it look like it's our policy yeah but it was revised by the School Board Association has confusing our DJ and creating a DJ either based on that sample policy with you know our specifics or even something simpler that's just the bidding portion of DJ slapped into compliance we just needed to separate it out faces when might be a how to get away and then this would be a question for probably Rob we might be able to get away with creating a DJ e bidding that says refer to policy DJ for our bidding requirements this is why I came to finance play because you guys would know better than I would and would know better than Rob would you know is it him I almost would say why that's it easy weighted do it I think when we do that that's just kind of put someone in a circle you know it if it's in this case is very easy just to take that language and add it to the other one and I'd rather it be in two places can you go to one place and then have to go to a different policy there are complicated enough without having to be directed to another one I'll make that happen do you want to see it again in September you want me to send the policy probably by the time September rolls around just confirm it with Kris Kristofferson Hilton is likely to be comfortable with what we've decided here tonight but just run it by him just in case all right and then you'll like this part the two daf are in here where I'm at let me take a quick look at them thank they're going to either be really quick or nothing at all 11 with scroll all right page 3 number 7 and actually never 6h section 6 is oversight in section 7 is about project managers you see that highlighted in yellow policy committee doesn't know who this person should be in that space does it remain superintendent or Sydney or should it in fact be the CFO is catch up to that yet sort of the same thing called superintendent or designee that's that's 100% the question that's the only reason that doctors in here phone number I never age let her age concern there that definitely needs to be the superintendent for designee cuz you're talking about concerns about the process used to go up the ladder kind of a whistleblower thing number 7 invoice payments are all signed and approved by the purchasing agent going out and buying the things I don't know that they received for cases of blue paper so I you know our procedures are that whoever is buying the stuff the soup Kaiser in that area approves all invoices and we do the same thing with Federal purchasing cuz there's no it has to be to verify that they they got what they said they got in there an invoice for payment so I don't know why do with that one the same thing it's just doesn't me his or her designee you guys have designated someone to sign off that we received merchandise yeah I mean if you leave it at superintendent or designee the risk is you know if you guys are designating it that far down the ladder and mind you I'm not making injection your practice is obviously they're working but the further you remove it simply by saying designee the easier it would be to abused that system on the other hand superintendent or designee is recommended by the School Board Association and their lawyers say that it meets the requirements of this Federal audit or state on it I guess so if it is working it is something that the business office monitor is not on an individual purchase order basis put on you know you guys know what's going on in the district where money is going where it's coming from what I would I would personally be comfortable still leaving it superintendent or does he need I guess that was a really long when it's a way of saying you know we've we've hired people that we trust for these positions we trust that you guys are hiring people that you trust for the positions that you ever see that's all this is It's you know we we trust you guys to do job there is a level of oversight it doesn't need to be looking over your shoulder all day long oversight I agree with what you would say that's why we hired trustworthy people to do and they should do their job antenna there is that they say they go through the hole geoprocessing mechanisms in place to sort of prevent any any Bad Apple ID yeah they had to have a PO that's a yes approving right you're right the expenses has to be approved ahead of time and it goes through that process and is either approved you know if it's if it's significant if it's over $500 you know whatever superintendent approved that I approve it cost center manager approves it goes down the line but when the invoice comes in it's not a group in the same way it has a bird sort of it's been through that junket not the invoice right and that also would be audited a part of the audit process making sure that we're meeting those needs so I don't think it should be it could stay the way it is is only here so that you guys have the policy and hand that refers to DJ and DJ e free requires new action it's only in there for basically so you can look at it and say I'll look it does refer to two different policies so go ahead and look at it and say oh look it does refer to two policies and then we can ignore George one comment if if I can Julie it if you weren't here there's no way I could have walked them through that because all I had to go on was an email with a list of policies to put on in those minutes which didn't really get to the colonel of what we were supposed to do right so thank goodness you were here I will bring that back to policy committee somehow we've got two things that we're sending to other committees are there needs to be like a two-sentence explanation of why you got it what you looking at I'll bring that back to policy that we don't need to go. I think we're not making any changes. None of it at all the ones were sending back and then Tim's going to look at the DJ and the bidding and send that on to fall asleep well so now we don't have to go to anything unless policy sends it back and says hey load on it okay that works for me and I've lost my agenda you're on other and non-public do we have any other I do not George the other now just like usual admonition and I know Chris would have made this if he was here the and I'll be prepared that we're rolling into uncertain times I know it's the budget report had some positive news in that it's going to give us some wiggle room if things turn out really bad next year but we don't know where we're going we don't know we may have unexpected expenses we may have almost certainly will have unexpected Revenue drops and the community is likely to be in the top replace than in years past so we're just going to have to and I also say that it's our responsibility to to adjust to the community I mean we it's going to be tough for the community so we should be tightening our belt as it relates to finances and if if all possible that we save where we can not hurting our students and our learning that we should do it and that's an absolutely right there how do we how do we mitigate the painting for the community without compromising our students education I'm sure you guys have all seen reports from other states and even from within the state districts that have had to take really drastic measures that will absolutely be impacting the student education it's going to take some work from Tim and his people from all of our administrators as well as from the board to get creative and find ways to get through the next couple years without harming our students at the same time and I'll Echo we have faith and Tim he's always done a great job and working with the administrators whatever we ask him to do so we appreciate that do we do we have any no I would call this meeting with John at 7:30 to get job at good night ready thank you all good night

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Keene Board of Education Finance Committee Meeting for Tuesday June 2, 2020 – 6:30 PM

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