Monday, November 8, 2010

Agenda for Advisory Budget Committee (ABC)

Here is the full agenda for our meeting this evening. 
Thanks,
Jenna Roberts, ABC Vice Chair

_______________________________________________________________________

Oyster River Cooperative School District Advisory Budget Committee (ORCSD ABC) Agenda

Monday, November 8, 2010, 7:00 PM,
OR High School, conference room C120
    0. Call To Order
  1. Approval of Minutes of 10/26/2010
  2. School Board and / or Business Office Updates
  3. Debrief the November 5 workshop and parcel out documents collected at the workshop or acquired for further study from Sue Caswell or Henry Brackett
  4. Determine what and how to provide feedback to the Budget Workshops on November 10 & December 8 @ 6:30 PM High School Room C124
  5. Discussing involvement w.r.t. SB Regular meeting Budget Discussions on November 17, & December 1, 15, and January 5
  6. Setting realistic goals for our first budget cycle
  7. Discuss methods and procedures for communication and information sharing
  8. Public Comment Opportunity
  9. Next ABC Meeting November 29 7 PM, (Place, Agenda Items)
  10. Adjournment
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6 comments:

  1. AnonymousNovember 9, 2010 at 5:08 PM

    Thank you for the update.
    Is there an update from last evening?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Jenna RobertsNovember 9, 2010 at 11:05 PM

    We discussed the preliminary budget that we received at the day-long budget workshop last Friday. There are areas that need additional questions. Some members of ABC will be at the meeting tomorrow night to ask some of these questions. Mostly we are gathering data to review.

    We now have a section on the website where we will post agendas and minutes. Minutes from last week are posted.
    http://www.orcsd.org/index.php?option=com_docman&task=cat_view&gid=103&Itemid=203


    Thanks for your interest! We have had members of the public at our meetings and it would be great to get feedback and suggestions from the public!

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousNovember 10, 2010 at 6:51 PM

    I work at night and can not attend meetings, but do want to ask some questions.
    1. How can we prevent cuts to programs and teachers, while it seems every time I look we have new smart boards.
    2. Why have we had huge surpluses for the last two years?
    3. Will they add back teachers that had been cut?
    4. Will they finally consider foreign language programs at the middle and elementary school?
    5. I see new buses this year, why are we spending money on this when my son is working out of broken down work books and his class seems to never have the proper supplies.
    6. Will they bring back field trips that have been cut before if they find they can afford it?

    I really look foward to the opportunity to have this committee find answers to questions that we never seemed to get from the board.

    ReplyDelete
  4. meganNovember 15, 2010 at 10:00 PM

    Anonymous - Your questions are excellent. I wonder why allocation of funds seems so confusing and ambiguous. I hope that the B.A.C. will examine the actual budgetary process including decision making.

    How are spending decisions made? and...What are these decisions measured against?

    What goals are in place to help our leadership spend where parents and taxpayers feel there is the greatest benefit?

    Again, I have always come back to the question...what are our district's priorities. Spending should reflect these priorities.

    ReplyDelete
  5. AnonymousNovember 17, 2010 at 4:36 PM

    It would be nice for SOMEONE to answer these questions!!!!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Jenna RobertsNovember 17, 2010 at 10:58 PM

    The ABC committee is working hard to get up to speed, examine the budget and make immediate recommendations to the Board. If you were able to watch the meeting this evening, Tom Merrick, on behalf of ABC, made a statement:

    “Our expectation of a level-funded budget would reflect savings on the bottom line such as:
    expired debt service $330K
    employee benefit insurance rate adjustment $1.25M
    unfilled transportation position $32K
    unfilled custodian position $40K
    Total $1.65M"

    These are not firm numbers but quick savings that we identified. An in-dept analysis is needed.

    In other words, surplus funds from the previous year are currently being added to the bottom line. Effectively instead of a level-funded budget, this becomes a budget increase. In the current proposed budget there are proposed staffing, tech and program increases.


    The ABC has extremely detailed minutes that we are posting and we are asking as many questions as we can that we can handle and the administration has time to respond to, as well.

    As a member of the public you can and should write to the District administration and/or Board to have your specific questions answered. Please come to an ABC meeting and school board meetings to express your concerns and priorities.

    Please feel free to contact me anytime. You can e-mail me at jennajroberts@yahoo.com

    Hope this info helps answer some of these questions!
    Jenna Roberts

    ReplyDelete

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