Finance committee

I missed the start of the meeting

Susan Guthrie (SG) Diane diBonaventura (DD) Lisa Pliskin (LP) Gary Friedlander (GF) Jeffy Novick (JN) Chris McGinley (CM), Mike Kelly (MK) George Frazier (GFz) Victor Orlando (VO)

They are planning on act 1 budget exceptions to create the next budget
SG wants to see budget without exceptions
$1m in social security reimbursement going away
Transfer tax has been relatively good
Collection rate went up more then they expected
JN: does the "no program cut" still hold in the worst case scenario
VO: yes. the next thing to look at is retirement reform - especially if the exception goes away
JN: Rendel was trying to cut the exceptions for retirement

MK talks about special ed
LMSD has an obligation for child find- have to seek out kids that need services
MK says more people in private schools are asking for services
JN: wants to know if testing is done in house
MK: yes, also IUs have some obligation to do testing
Increase in autistic support teachers has been huge
This year there are a lot more kids coming into grade K with special Ed requirements
DD asks about how this effects classroom space
ADHD is also increasing, slid speech and language services, diabetes

GF: do any surrounding school districts have a comparable special ed program
MK: they do, but a little behind

MK: talks about caseload maximum, state regulation

Gladwyn has the full time autistic, Cynwyd has the diagnostic kindergarten
Students are supported on the buses, after school programs, job placement, etc

GF: how much increase is special Ed?
8% - about 2.4M, salary, benefits, out of district placement (costs of services goes up- we try to shrink number of kids there) 2 new aids

SG: unclear if the special ed aid is also able to help the classroom teacher, help with other kids, etc
MK: if it is a 1:1 aid, there is no extra time; other aids are assigned to the whole class
SG: are we capturing the downtime of aids?
MG: they are on a pretty full schedule

Technology - same budget as last year - $4M
35% hardware and software maintenance
50% 1-1 program - hardware
Minimal on new initiatives (new asset management program, delivering a virtual desktop, etc)
4% outsourced services
3% network costs
Salaries are not included in the $3.9m, another $1.3M in personnel +400k in benefits
More savings once the new paperless hr, finance software gets in - no more paper checks

3 years ago there were a lot more computers in the middle school - they are down lower now (1-1 in high school, 1.5-1 in middles school, 2-1 elementary school)

Each high school has loaners - this is where the 4 year computers go - not down to the elementary school

After 4 years old computers get recycled or sold on eBay (400 sold this year)

GF: wants to explore keeping computers longer. Wants to see what the savings will be
GFz will look into it. But laptops are refreshed annually - need to have reasonably up to date hardware to use the current refresh

475 teacher laptops at middle schools and elementary schools
about 3,000 at the high schools (2500 kids, 250 loaners, 250 teacher)


JN: How are we doing at shrinkage?
GF and CM: Seems to be getting better - total thefts are down
We don't have a theft tracking product right now. In general computers are locked up and secure. Most thefts were students leaving computers around

CM: we will save money as buses come back from rented parking lots. Also, We will get rid of union avenue, this will go into capital budget