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Advisory Committee
December 5, 2009 Meeting Minutes

Town of Hingham
Advisory Committee
December 5, 2009 Meeting Minutes
Hingham Town Hall

Present: Committee Members Seelen, Asher, Dwyer, Eldredge, Ellison, Farrell, Friedman, Innis, Johnson, Lauter, MacCune, Marwill

1. Call to order

Chair Jerry Seelen called the Advisory Committee meeting to order at 8:13 AM preparatory to its joint meeting with the School Committee.

2. Joint Meeting of the School and Advisory Committees

School Committee Chairman Christine Smith noted that the School Department will present the first draft of the FY11 school budget on December 21st.

School Superintendent Dot Galo reviewed the budget-development process for FY11, highlighting that the FY11 Town budget forecast for the School Department at $34.6M is $1.93M less than the approved budget for FY10.

• The 5.28% reduction does not take into account approximately $1M comprised of $600K in anticipated contractual increases and a $400K projected shortfall in circuit-breaker reimbursement
  • As a result, ~$3M in budget cuts would actually be required to meet the FY11 Town budget forecast
• The State circuit-breaker reimbursement percentage has dropped from 72% to 40% of the excess over an amount equal to four times the Foundation Budget—the mandated minimum amount to provide an adequate educational program
  • Foundation Budget = (Enrollment) times (State aid per student)
• ~100 FTE’s are paid out of grants and revolving funds

For FY10, the Special Ed budget is $8.49M, representing 23% of the total school budget.

• This Special Ed budget figure does not include the cost of three nurses
• Roughly 90 paraprofessionals support Special Ed students—more than double from 1996
  • 265 special needs students have mandated Individualized Education Plans
    
    • 47 Special Ed students are Out-Of-District (OOD)
      • The total of the seven highest Special Ed tuitions is $1M
    • The State does not reimburse Town OOD transportation costs
• Pre-K exists for Special Ed
  • Children are eligible on their third birthday
  • 29 of the current 64 Pre-K students are Special Ed, with the remainder being ‘typical children’ enrolled to provide the required integrated balance
    • Typical children pay tuitions from $1500-$2000 based on the number of half-days/week attended
• Since most of the Special Ed budget is not, by law, subject to cutting, the actual percent reduction to the Regular education budget necessary to meet the FY11 Town budget forecast is ~10.5%
  • The Town is the Special Ed funding agency of last resort

The 2009-2010 K-12 school population is currently 3995.

• While the most recent enrollment study is three years old, the School Dept/Committee is refraining from commissioning a new enrollment study at this time due to uncertainty associated with growth from Blackrock, the Shipyard, as well as the Beal Street Housing Authority and Affordable Housing Trust projects
• 16% of classes at the elementary level have 24 students or higher
• At the high school level, the average enrollment/section is 20.9 in core subjects
  • 30% of the 256 sections in core subjects have enrollments of 25 or higher
• 43% of high school students take one or more Advanced Placement courses
• While the Middle School capacity, according to current MSBA standards, is 770 students, 895 are presently enrolled

3. Adjourn

The Committee meeting adjourned at 11:20 AM.

Respectfully submitted,
Jonathan R. Asher, Secretary