Review of Revolving Accounts (30 minutes)

Transcript (~8 min @ 1:36:12)

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▶ 1:36:00 Jennifer McAndrew: or comments on this seeing none our next item is review of the revolving accounts and just for a bit of background in past months and weeks committee members have interested in seeing more information in the packet about revolving funds and what they are and making sure that the public understands them and that we have an opportunity to discuss it so that was sort of the impetus behind adding this agenda item as we did to FNF for this week I guess I'll turn it over

▶ 1:36:48 Speaker 4: to the superintendent and maybe miss Farrell we're going to report out on ten revolving accounts again reminding the school committee there's a difference between student activity accounts which can only be used for those activities that are directly tied to something the students are doing in revolving accounts which can roll over from year to year many of which of these revolving accounts quite frankly make money for the district and supplement the budget so with that I will give it to miss Farrell so as mr. Andrews had mentioned

▶ 1:37:18 Speaker 2: this is a conversation piece that comes up quite often especially during the budget season as to how we are able to support the budget for all those extra things beyond what the city can provide on the first page we talked a little bit about what is a revolving fund so we have a collection of funds that are brought into the city in a variety of ways as you can see some of this is from tuitions some of this is from state appropriations and they go into the fund they are able to be used from year to year and so that's what helps support us because with our budget come June 30 that's the end of where that money can be used so this does help support some of those things that linger from one year to the other and it's an ongoing stream of money I'm not saying it's an endless stream of money because it's very dependent on where the monies are coming from if it's state money you know that varies from year to year with what's available if it's tuitions and fees again that's all about participation so although it is varying from year to year we kind of look at trends as to the average amount that we can expect from year to year and kind of use that as our benchmark. On the front page, the list that you have really is just a copy of what you see in the actual budget document with a list of the accounts. A little more explanation about where the money comes from and how it's being used, what the account

▶ 1:38:57 Speaker 2: numbers are, etc. On the second page of your packet, there is, again, a little more detail to some of those accounts, again, telling you where the revenue is coming from, where it is going to support the program that, let's say it's for elementary instrumental lessons. That money is collected for those that participate in that program, and that helps to pay for the staffing that we need to hire to give the lessons. Athletic fees, same kind of an idea. To participate, there's a fee that is turned around to then pay for coaches, supplies, materials, buses, all the things that fall into that category. I think the third page of this packet is the one that is of most interest to people. It gives you a look at these accounts with three benchmarks. So usually the year closes on June 30, and so that's a number that we usually start from. So you can see your balances at the end of 18, 19, and then where we are currently this year. Big changes in these numbers. Some high numbers, some very low numbers, some negative numbers, and I'd like to speak to that piece. So if you want to look at the circuit breaker, for example, you'll notice that we're at a negative $112,000 on June 30. just a record of time the actual deposit from the state came on July 3rd so if you had done it a week later you would have had a different number if you look at the second to the bottom one it says negative seven thousand nine eighty six that's because we're already hitting that account to pay for a teacher's salary where this is money that we get from the cable company and they've just change the regulations on that so that that money is really only going to be coming in maybe once a year which is fine because we can put that money in later on if we feel a need to get some money earlier the city can ask for portions of that money but again that's why you're going to see some negative numbers because from time to time we have to use the account but that money hasn't been received as of yet in the end we're always going to be within our range of dollars that are provided to us but it does fluctuate extremely if you look at something like education stations now there's a million three in there it's the beginning of the year we've started collecting tuitions but we also have to start paying out custodial staffing supplies materials so again these numbers fluctuate every single day but I know that people really wanted to get a look at what the numbers look like so you have it here and I'm happy to answer any questions that you might have thank you are there any questions or

▶ 1:41:53 Speaker 3: comments from the committee mr. Selm hi and thank you

▶ 1:42:02 Speaker 6: miss Farrell I understand that the balances were given as of June 30th I'm I'm a little confused as to why the education stations balance at the end of the school year was so high. I thought that was a break even.

▶ 1:42:20 Speaker 2: No, over the course of years, that program has provided a lot of extra money, of which we've been able to, if you think about it, the last couple of years, we've been taking about $300,000 to $400,000 as an offset, because it has, over the years had that much money in it.

▶ 1:42:40 Speaker 6: But forgive me if I'm wrong, but the education stations runs throughout the school year, correct? Correct. And so the salaries and fees and building upkeep, maintenance, custodial services, et cetera, should all have been paid out by the end of the month of June.

▶ 1:43:06 Speaker 2: Right, that's new tuitions for the next school year that have already started to go into that account.

▶ 1:43:11 Speaker 4: Parents start paying ahead in April for the next year.

▶ 1:43:15 Speaker 6: Excellent, okay. Okay. That's a piece that was missing. Thank you very much.

▶ 1:43:19 Speaker 4: Okay, yeah, yeah. And the other thing is don't forget that we will take the $450,000 offset out of that as the year goes by. Sure. And that'll diminish it.

▶ 1:43:32 Speaker 3: Any other, okay. Mayor Infurna.

▶ 1:43:35 Gail Infurna: Thank you very much. Thank you, Mary Ann, for this. is really um very easy to read and pretty self-explanatory i just have a suggestion where you have the definitions of the different accounts and i can't remember if this was put into the budget or not but that sheet of paper would be nice to have in the budget i think because it really yes yeah with the with the definitions it's very easy to read to understand so i think it would be a nice page to have in the budget for next year sure

▶ 1:44:04 Speaker 4: i'll make sure the new person is i got it i know that folder too

▶ 1:44:11 Jennifer McAndrew: thank you any other questions or comments from the committee on this thank you i think this is very helpful and hopefully something we'll continue to do thank you um our next item is the disposition of surplus items and this does require um a vote um to declare certain