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Town of Hingham
Advisory Committee
January 31, 2009 Meeting Minutes
Hingham Town Hall
Present: Committee Members Lauter, Seelen, Asher, Eldredge, Farrell, Friedman, Innis, Johnson, MacCune, Manning, Marwill, O’Meara
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1. Call to order
On behalf of Chair Irma Lauter, Education Subcommittee Chair, Amy Farrell, called the Advisory Committee meeting to order at 9:07 AM.
2. Benchmarking Results Summary
Superintendent of Schools, Dot Galo, and Director of Business and Support Services, David Killory, walked the Committee through a recently-completed school benchmarking study highlighting Hingham’s financial and economic position relative to 14 other comparably-sized suburban school districts.
Hingham was positioned at or about the middle of its benchmark cohort for most comparisons.
3. Operating Budget FY10 (and beyond)
Dot indicated that the School Department had presented to the School Committee for its consideration a revised FY10 operating budget in the amount of $35,368,835 reflecting proposed reductions totaling $1,538,777.
The proposed financial reduction represents funding for 29.4 Full-Time Equivalent positions and will occur regardless of the outcome of an operational override vote, which would be dedicated solely to opening all four elementary schools.
David observed that Special Education is the School Department’s equivalent to the Town’s Snow & Ice budget. Hingham currently serves 558 Pre-K to Age 22 special education students.
4. All-Day Kindergarten
Dot informed the Committee that the School Department’s $352.4K recommendation for Full-Day Kindergarten has been withdrawn for FY10. Dot reiterated the School Department’s position that Full-Day K implementation remains a department objective.
Committee members recommended that the School Committee emulate the School Department in communicating the fact that Full-Day K may not be implemented for several years contingent upon recovery from the deepening national, State, and local downturn negatively impacting State Aid, Local Receipts, and individual taxpayer finances.
5. Override/New School
The School Department is recommending to the School Committee an operational override of $1.6M to enable the operation of four comparable elementary schools.
Dot signaled that it is unlikely that four elementary schools could function without such an override—the School Department would have to “go back to the drawing-board” on its entire budget.
Several Committee members suggested that a communication plan be developed and implemented in order that taxpayers better understand the respective Town and School Department financial pressures and the ramifications of various School Department/Committee options.
6. Master Plan
Dot and David acknowledged that due to the likelihood of lengthy MSBA processing for Hingham’s Middle School renovation Statement of Interest—upwards of four years—a timely decision needs to be made and communicated regarding ongoing patching (in $50K increments) vs. total replacement (@ $1.5M) of the Middle School roof.
The School Department has submitted the Middle School roof replacement as a candidate for any Federal-funded financial stimulus package.
7. Enrollment
David presented a summary of student enrollments and housing highlighting peak and lowest enrollments compared to Hingham’s current K-12 in-district enrollment of 3883.
Dot affirmed that the School Department has been and will continue to be resourceful in addressing enrollment and housing needs for Hingham’s students.
8. Next Steps and Follow-up
The School Department and School Long-Range Planning group will meet with the Capital Outlay Committee on Thursday, February 5th to provide an update on the capital improvements at Plymouth River and Foster elementary schools and to prioritize the School Department’s FY10 capital request of $414.6K.
9. Adjourn
The meeting was adjourned at 12:15 PM.
Respectfully submitted,
Jonathan Asher, Secretary