Agenda for Advisory Budget Committee (ABC)

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

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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

Superintendent Colter Announces He Has "No Interest" in Renewing His Contract

During tonight's (11/3/10) School Board meeting, Superintendent Howard Colter announced that he does not intend to seek a renewal of his contract when it expires next year. 

Mast Way Busing Policy Change - no riding to friend's houses

The new policy at Mast Way is that kids cannot ride a bus to a friend's house for a play date. 

Please share your thoughts or concerns!

Durham could see 28 cent tax increase - larger increases in 2012-2013

Here is the official word for next year's tax rate. However, it seems the next 3 years could see more increases. This is a note from Durham's Town Administrator in a letter to the council. The entire letter is found here - http://ci.durham.nh.us/generalpdfs/budget_summary_letter.pdf

"Given historical expenditure and revenue trends, an annual municipal tax rate increase of between 3% and 5% was projected as being necessary in order to maintain sound fiscal health for the municipality without loss of service or undesired one-time adjustments (spikes) in the rate. Instead, prompted in large part by the Great Recession, the Administrator and Council together have held the line on spending/tax increases on the municipal portion of the tax rate equation. Unless there is a structural change moving forward, an average increase of 6% or more over each of the next five years is projected (see attached 10-year General Fund fiscal forecast). FY 2012 actually projects an 8.32% increase followed by 8.68% in FY 2013."

From Fosters...

Thursday, October 28, 2010

DURHAM — The town's property tax rate is increasing slightly.

Town Administrator Todd Selig said the town was notified recently by the state Department of Revenue Administration, who gave him an unofficial 2010 property tax rate of $27.28 per $1,000 of assessed property value.

Selig noted that while the rate is unofficial, it rarely changes.

That's up 28 cents, or one percent, from last year's amount of $27 per $1,000 of assessed property value.

The breakdown of the tax rate is as follows:

The town's portion is $7.12, which is 26 percent of the rate.

The school district's portion is $17.62, which is 65 percent of the rate.

The county's portion is $2.54, which is 9 percent of the rate

Moharimet PTO Meeting: Tuesday Nov 9th...Guest Speaker to Talk About the Budget

Tuesday, Nov 9th at 6:45-8pm in the West Wing @ Moharimet

Agenda items:
- PTO business review
- Guest Speaker is ORSD Superintendent Howard Colter who will speak about the school district budget and answer questions.

ORCSD Public Forum--alternative start time

Public Forum

Alternative Start Time

Attend one of the three District sponsored Public Forums to join in on the discussion of an alternative start time for the Oyster River Cooperative School District.

We seek feedback, questions and suggestions.

WHEN: Tuesday, November 2nd 7:00 PM—8:30 PM

WHERE: Oyster River High School - Library, Durham, NH

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WHEN: Monday, November 8th 9:00 AM—10:30 AM

WHERE: Lee Public Safety Complex, Lee, NH

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WHEN: Thursday, November 18th 5:00 PM—6:30 PM

WHERE: Moharimet School - West Wing, Madbury, NH

More Info:

http://www.orcsd.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=349:start-time&catid=5:front-page-news-rotator&Itemid=77

HELP NEEDED: Please volunteer for the budget advisory committee

The deadline is tomorrow and our district needs the community's help and insight in making our budget process transparent and well understood.

If anyone is willing, please consider donating your time and talent to this committee.

The ORCSD Board of Education is seeking volunteers to fill up to seven positions on the board’s Advisory Budget Committee. Listed below is the charge of the committee. The volunteers are asked to attend as many of the board’s budget session as they can. The dates, 11/5/10, 11/10/10 and 12/8/10 are budget meeting attentively set. Other dates will be set in the near future. Please send an email or letter of interest and background information to the school board: orcsdsb@orcsd.org or 36 Coe Drive, Durham, NH 03824.

The volunteers will be selected at the Oct. 20th meeting. The members will have staggered terms up to three years in length.

Budget Advisory Committee Composition and Charge:

Purpose: The purpose of this committee is to become educated about the ORCSD budget and provide a budget recommendation to the School Board that meets the needs of the students and is fiscally responsible to taxpayers.

Charge:

1. May conduct an in-depth analysis on spending and best practices in specific areas such as technology, transportation, facilities maintenance/management, insurance etc. and make recommendations on cost savings.

2. May serve as a resource to the School Board on budget issues.

3. May recommend methods to improve financial reporting.

4. May recommend process to communicate the budget to the community.

Committee Composition:
• Minimum of five members and a maximum of seven members
Community members will be selected by the School Board, at least one each from Madbury, Lee and Durham respectively. Lists of possible interested candidates can be supplied by the selectmen or town councils of the three towns.
• Members should attend most budget deliberation meetings of the District and the School Board Meetings.
• Committee may meet as an entity on select occasions with the Superintendent and/or his designate to discuss expenditures in a specific section of the budget.
• A chair will be elected by the committee at the first meeting.
• All meetings are open to the public and will comply with current Right to Know Laws.

Follow Up on Central Office Communications

Tonight I sent an e-mail to our superintendent requesting a follow up on our discussion from earlier this summer on central office communication. Below is my e-mail. I hope to share the reply on the blog as well.

***

Hello Howard,

I am finally getting settled into the new school year and have some time to follow up on our conversation from earlier this summer.

Are there any new updates about central office communication? I know that the School Board has had a Communications Committee, but I am not sure how what we discussed has been integrated into this committee's work.

Also, I have received feedback from parents requesting central office level discussion on the following topics:

* Nutrition in our schools
* Full day kindergarten versus half day
* Budgetary process / allocation of district funds
* Heterogeneous classes versus tiered in the upper levels
* Foreign language education
* District follow-up on standardized test results
* Athletic facilities (e.g., running track, etc.)
* College placement and comparative/competitive high school curricula
* Special needs children / falling through the cracks

All these topics are quite monumental in scope and could consume hours (days) of discussion. Nevertheless, I recall our discussing regular meetings/brown bags and superintendent office newsletters to cover topics of interest. I hope that we can still move forward with these initiatives. Please let me know how I may be able to help. Indeed, these are issues that concern district parents.

On another note, I am very excited about the new school year. Moharimet continues to amaze me with the creative and exciting programs offered to enhance my child's learning!

Sincerely,


Megan Turnbull

cc: ORCSD School Board and Wendy DiFruscio

Volunteer for the ORCSD Advisory Budget Committee

The ORCSD is currently seeking interested community members to fill seven positions on the Advisory Budget Committee. Volunteers are asked to attend as many of the Boards budget sessions as they can. Currently, the following dates are set:

• • •

Friday, November 5th - 8:00 AM – 4:00 PM

Wednesday, November 10th- 6:30 PM

Wednesday, December 8th – 6:30 PM

* Additional dates will be set as needed

More detailed information can be found on the ORCSD web site under announcements with a link to the committee’s composition and charge.

If you are interested in one of the seven open slots, please send an email or letter of interest with your background information to wdifruscio@ orcsd.org.

Deadline for submission of letter of interest is Monday, October 18th 2010.

Volunteers will be chosen at the October 20th School Board Meeting.

New School Board Meeting Format

The public portion of the meeting will now start at 7:00pm and the first public comments section will be after the Reports and Committee Reports sections of the agenda, most likely starting at or after 7:30pm.

The logic behind the new agenda, as expressed at our meeting in September, was that the change was made to accomodate all involved, including the public. The two public comment sections start and end the discussion and action items of the agenda and we are looking for people to participate in public feedback at the start of the meeting and then again after the discussion and action items if they feel moved to do so. The hope is that it works better for school board members, staff, administation, and the public alike. Please see the website for the meeting agenda.