04/25/1991 FINANCE COMMITTEE Minutes

Home Browse Search

School Department spent approximately $130,000 for utilities. In FY91, $207,000 was budgeted. This suggests that the savings is due more to over-budgeting than to the mild winter. S ep cial Education - 133 71S. . .the School Committee re- ports this savings "as a result of program changes, class- room modifications lessening the need for out-of-district placements and students with educational plans moving out of Mashpee. " While there is no way to determine the savings incurred as .a result of program changes, classroom modifications and students with educational plans moving out of Mashpee, the costs for special education non-public tuition and outside evaluation, therapy and tuitions can be examined. In FY90, approximately $202,000 was spent for these services. In FY91, the School Committee budget- ed approximately $418,000 for these services. As of the end of March, $113,742 has been expended. Even allowing for a contingency for unexpected out-of-district place- ments, this still suggests that the savings is due to over-budgeting. Teacher Sick Leave Buy-Back = 146 520. . .the FY91 budget provided enough funds to "buy-back" more than 3,000 sick days of teachers at masters maximum on the salary scale. To use this amount of money 30 teachers (more than 407. of the entire teaching staff) with I00 days of accumulated sick days each would have to resign or retire in this fiscal year. It must also be noted that the budget submitted for FY92 included enough . funds to "buy-back" more- than 4,200 sick days of teachers at mas- ters maximum. Thus, between the two years, the School Committee planned to budget enough funds for the entire teaching staff to resign and "buy-back" 100 days. The contract requires that a teacher have ten consecutive years of service before being eligible for sick leave "buy-back' and thus it would be impossible for all of these funds to be used for the purpose for which they were budgeted. This is a blatant example of over budgeting. A review of the FY91 budget and the FY92 budget process seems to suggest a pattern of mis-information. Please note the document titled FY 92 School Budget. . . This document contains information taken from documents submitted by the School Committee to the Finance Committee and/or Board of Selectmen. The first column presents information provided on December 17, 1990, which lists the cuts which the School Committee reported as necessary if the School Budget was $5,400,000. You will note that it indicates that no new teachers would be hired and a series of personnel and programs would be eliminated or reduced. 4