Joint Committee (City Council Education/School Committee Finance and Operations): Budget update

You can find our (the SC side) agenda here.
updating once we're under way
Foley: updates on some discussions that we've had
Allen: current status relative to Net School Spending
you can find it here

Current deficit stands at $2.9 million
not in this report is FY15
for the year, city is over in the range of $1M; carryover is the under
If FY15 were to be a base, due to municipal revenue growth factor, then the carryover deficit will go away
Zidelis (agreeing with Foley): change DESE decision regarding what counts as NSS
working collectively to address that
Foley: working to close that gap and go above that minimum level
closer to zero and beyond zero as well
"can talk about the fluxiation and the change" of the calculation
Zidelis: cautious to give you an FY15 number right now; adjustments
when the City Manager comes out with the adjustments part of the recap
Economou: Do you see any adjustments coming from state?
Zidelis: auditor coming out with FY15 financial results, there are adjustments all of the time
at the end of the year, our state aid never totally matches
Economou: collaboration working, moving in a forward direction
Rosen: where are the greatest needs in the schools looking ahead to next year?
Foley: consistently top priorities have been class sizes in our classrooms
foundation budget underfunds special education (which is transferred from elsewhere)
guidance councilors, adjustment councilors, support staff
Ramirez: just at turnaround at Elm Park, class size comes up consistently
a lot of focus in the district around math and science and STEM areas
Novick:query about McKinney-Vento reimbursement? free cash?
Zidelis: Fy14 was augmented into the school department's base budget
believe that it came in under the city's estimation
Allen: however the city gets to net school spending is through general fund
one way of seeing that is through McK-V
Novick: statewide average is 17% over for FY14, due to under calculation of cost centers
behooves all of us--Council perhaps more than SC--to give united voice at state level
Toomey: underfunding of federal budget, as well
Foley: will include our update in the next meeting
Toomey: compare to other Gateway cities