| BOE Minutes | BOE Home Page | |
| Previous: 2006-12-11 || Special Meeting - Open Session || Next: 2007-01-16 | ||
| Madison Metropolitan School District Madison, Wisconsin Art Rainwater, Superintendent | ||
|---|---|---|
| BOARD OF EDUCATION Minutes for Special Meeting - Open Session December 18, 2006 |
Doyle Administration Building 545 West Dayton Street, Room 103 Madison, Wisconsin |
|
Special Meeting of the Board of Education was called to order by President Johnny Winston, Jr. at 8:14 p.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT: Carol Carstensen, Lawrie Kobza, Lucy Mathiak, Ruth Robarts, Arlene Silveira, Johnny Winston, Jr.
MEMBERS ABSENT: Shwaw Vang
STAFF PRESENT: Sue Abplanalp, Mary Gulbrandsen, Pam Nash, Roger Price, Art Rainwater, Candie Steffen, Ken Syke, Donna Williams, Barbara Lehman - Recording Secretary
OTHERS PRESENT: Renee Messing, CPA, Clifton Gunderson, LLP, Partner in Charge, et. al.
OPEN SESSION - Auditorium
Johnny Winston, Jr. noted that Mr. Vang would be absent for the rest of the evening due to a family emergency.
1. Approval of Minutes
It was moved by Lawrie Kobza and seconded by Lucy Mathiak to approve the minutes of the Special meeting in open session dated November 13, 2006 as distributed. Student Representative advisory vote was aye. Motion unanimously carried by those present.
2. Public Appearances
There were no public appearances.
3. Announcements
Mr. Winston read the following announcements:
Volunteer math tutors are needed for the Schools of Hope Project. The Urban League of Greater Madison and Centro Hispano of Dane County are working to eliminate the achievement gap for African-American, Latino and Southeast Asian students.
Schools of Hope volunteer tutors work one-on-one or with small groups of middle-school students in the Madison Metropolitan School District (MMSD) for at least one hour per week. Your time will help ensure that struggling students are adequately prepared for high school math courses. Volunteers work with kids during the regular school day and after school.
You don't have to be a math expert to make a difference! All you need is dedication, compassion and one hour each week for at least one semester.
If you're interested, please contact Daphne Brown at the Urban League at (608)251-8550 ext. 28.
4. 2005-06 Financial Audit Report of the MMSD
(Packets included a cover memorandum (12/11/06), the Audit Transmittal Letter (8/24/06), the Management Letter (8/24/06), and the Financial Statements for the MMSD prepared by Clifton Gunderson LLP (6/30/06). Copies are attached to the original of these minutes.)
Renee Messing introduced the rest of the Audit Team and gave a brief PowerPoint presentation on the 2006 audit results (a copy of the presentation is attached to the original of these minutes).
HIGHLIGHTS:
o Financial statements very lengthy and broken down into a number of components.
o Revenues are less than expenses.
o Financing of special education costs about $39.3 million of the district property tax levy and about $23.1 million is funded by the state and federal government. Vast majority is borne by district taxpayers.
o All the funds are designated or reserved for specific things.
o Documents can be relied upon to make decisions. There were no disagreements. Very good audit. Had the full cooperation from District staff during the process.
o Two recommendations were made relative to students fees (instituting a practice of reconciling and monitoring to ensure that all fees are collected, followed up on, or a waiver granted - that process has already begun to be implemented). There is a new software system for Food Service that sends information to the District's financial statements. Some revenue was being reported incorrectly but does not change the overall financial results, but it did result in recording on an incorrect line. The District has already started a reconciliation process from Food Service to the financial software.
o No findings of non-compliance.
o State program - specific licensure - not a new issue and the district is not alone. District has made great strides. Know it is being looked at on an ongoing basis.
o Transportation - periodically or at least once per year monitoring of the students who ride the buses. There was no physical count and also claimed some students are charged a fee and not eligible to be claimed. The district is looking at how to be compliant.
DISCUSSION:
o August 24 date is the last day the auditors were physically present. Reports just recently completed.
o Salary savings account - not common practice to even out costs for staff in various locations but acceptable for managing internal operations. Tracked by testing payroll records in a number of ways. Total is processed appropriately. Auditors would look at it if there were significant variance from expectation to prior year budget.
o Report reflects actual cash basis relative to equity changes and maintenance.
o Confirmed the $2 million less than expected revenue for special education.
o Why transportation materials are provided in a separate document - only distributed to state and federal agencies.
o Definition of student fees - any of those items collected on a district-wide basis, not at the building level. Decreasing due to collection problems and rising poverty level in the district.
FOLLOW UP: Transportation report will be shared with the Board by the end of the week.
5. Preparation for the 2007-08 MMSD Budget
(Packets included 2007-08 budget discussion items (12/14/06); 2007-08 budget timeline, mandate information, and parameters used to build the 2007-08 budget forecast model (12/14/06). Copies are attached to the original of these minutes.)
Roger Price presented the 2007-08 budget preparation through a PowerPoint presentation (a copy is attached to the original of these minutes).
HIGHLIGHTS:
o Current estimate projects the revenue gap in 2007-08 will be between $9 and $12 million.
o Nothing should be cut.
o Almost every area will be affected in one way or another.
o Will be extremely difficult budget.
DISCUSSION:
· No actions tonight - hear the presentation - discuss where the Board goes from here.
· Long Range Planning Committee plans to take up issues of class size and consolidation of schools
· Discussion items should be taken up all at once.
· Extent to which items can be cut and still be viable.
· How equity policy was taken into account - options take into account percentage of low income in the schools.
· Support staff was also accounted for in the class size options.
· There will also be options for consolidating district functions.
· Changes in administrative positions based on the best way to run the organization, not because of who happens to retire and what positions become vacant. Central Office has been reduced by 25 percent but will be looked at again as always.
· Deadline for possible Board consideration of April referendum is February 1.
· Difficult to evaluate the list of discussion items. Good idea to have joint Long Range Planning and Finance and Operations meeting.
· Role of equity policy in educational and budget decisions. Do not want to frame the budget discussions in terms of programs being picked on but respecting educational needs while dealing with tremendous financial pressure. Hard to put into context. These are not recommendations or suggestions but an attempt to say these are the areas the administration believes it has to look. None of them have been explored fully.
· Much in need of feedback and discussion. No plans for $100 budget process again; do not think any more information would be gained than last year. Nothing to discuss at this point. Need to have something for people to react to. Best to develop a budget based on professional judgment and have reaction to that budget. Once the budget is out, can hold roundtable discussions with a facilitator across the district.
· Want to know people's educational values. Could come through the Communications Committee. Until the actual budget is there, people do not know what values to weigh against each other. Nothing can be reduced that is not valuable.
· Budget calendar has changed to move balanced budget up one month to April 1 to allow for more public dialogue.
· Citizen's Budget would be helpful for that overview. Provides a tool for communicating to the public about what is on the table (take that document and take these categories and say what is going to be cut) in order to get to the $9-$12 million. May provide a way to look at the difference between changes that are big scale and things that need educational rationale (e.g., consolidation of schools or supplemental staff). Also could allow for comparison of relative expenditures. Board Officers will explore these suggestions.
· Should begin discussion about some of the things proposed last year as budget amendments that need longer timelines, e.g., class size, SAGE, State Legislature state funding formula; some level of staffing "downtown" is necessary to function legally and efficiently and the Board must agree on that level.
· Missing the context of these numbers - would like demographic analysis of the district, what is needed to accomplish district goals, who it is we are affecting, needs of children coming in, how we are using our resources in order to assure that each of the schools are as strong as they can be, keep our strengths and shore up the weaknesses. That is the core of the issue for the Board. How to get this information. What is going to be useful.
· Something that goes beyond overall generalities. Range of conditions within the schools. What are "best guess scenarios" that have few low-income students and have affluent parents to the schools that have 60-80% low income. Which are doing better and which are struggling academically. Have a growing problem of poverty in this district. Have to look at who does what well and who does not need as much help and those schools that need more help before cutting the budget.
· Would like information on the schools as well. Do not really understand the full support that is provided to the schools; test scores, attendance, mobility, staffing, Title 1, etc., so that it is easily readable.
· Would like to hear from the Assistant Superintendents about some of their observations about areas that will make a difference for their schools. Do not know about priority of nurses vs. psychologists, etc.
FOLLOW UP: Administration will provide more information about what is provided to the schools based on this meeting's discussion.
6. Other Business
There was no other business.
Recessed at 9:55 p.m.
Reconvened to Room 103 at 10:05 p.m.
MEETING CONTINUED IN EXECUTIVE SESSION
Previous: 2006-12-11 || Special Meeting - Open Session || Next: 2007-01-16