04/25/1991 FINANCE COMMITTEE Minutes

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Zolun of ffins4per P. O. BOX 1108 ��gca MASHPEE. MA 02649 MASHPEE FINANCE COMMITTEE Preliminary Report of Special Sub-Committee Examining FY91 School Surplus April 25, 199I Introduction This special sub-committee has been established to examine the FY91 School surplus. It must be made clear that this sub-committee and the full Finance Committee recognize the vital need for providing our children with sound and complete education and we also understand the inherent benefit to our communi - ty by doing so. Our criticism is not directed toward the instructional as- pects of our schools, nor should it be, as that is not our role. In fact, we feel that Lincoln DeMoura deserves much credit for his efforts in curriculum and instruction. Our concerns involve the business side of the schools. This is not the first time that we have raised questions. One of our members, John Ferriday, said at our last meeting that he felt that the School Committee had not bought into the Town's austerity program and further stated that whenever school spending was questioned a large guilt blanket was laid on us. The Finance Committee is not anti-education. Three members of the Finance Commit- tee, including myself, are retired school administrators and Carole Dunivan is a farmer teacher. Between -us we have close to 100 years. of involvement in public education. We want what is best for our children but we also need to have what is best for our Town. The Finance Committee, at its meeting of April 9th, voted to request the School Committee to provide the FINCOM with important budget and inventory information and to ask the School Committee to refund user fees collected from parents. We requested that the information be provided by April 24, 1991 . This sub-committee has reviewed a series of factors relative to the FY91 sur- plus. We examined the information available to us. Unfortunately, the infor- mation which we felt was most critical (that which we asked the School Commit- tee to provide to us) has either not been made available or our access to it has been made subject to difficult restrictions. However, this information we will present tonight is not based on hearsay and has been verified and docu- mented. Tonight we will present our preliminary findings and allow a short period for public input before determining a course of action to recommend to the full Finance Committee. Unhappily, our initial examination reveals a disturbing pattern of mis-information, apparent over-budgeting and an inordinate amount of FY91 funds being used to supplement the FY92 budget. 1