FINCOM 20200210 Minutes

Source page 1

Canton Finance Committee Minutes Voted on: 2/26/20 
Meeting Minutes Vote: 7-0-0 
February 10, 2020 
Finance Committee Members Present: Christos Arsondiadis, David Clough, Dan Cole, Emilio Mauro, Tim 
McKenna, Barbara Saint Andre, Cindy Thomas and Wai Wong. 
Finance Committee Members Absent: Rob Barker. 
Guests Present: 
Kristen Mirliani, Chair, Canton School Committee 
Jennifer Fischer -Mueller, Superintendent, Canton Public Schools 
Barry Nectow, Business Administrator, Canton Public Schools 
Randy Scollins, Finance Director 
Ellen Jones, Finance Committee Secretary 
Opening: Mr. McKenna called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. in the Salah Meeting Room of Town Hall. 
A. Approval of Agenda - Mr. McKenna reviewed the agenda. 
B. Announcements - There were no announcements. 
C. New Business 
Discussion with School Committee — FY21 School Operating Budget and various ATM Articles 
School Committee Chair, Kristen Mirliani, introduced Mr. Nectow and Ms. Fischer -Mueller as well as fellow School 
Committee members Kristian Merenda, Nichola Gallagher and Maureen Moran. The School Committee has been 
using the Strategic Framework to guide them in their budget decisions. 
Ms. Fischer -Mueller thanked the members of the Finance Committee for their years of service. Some of the 
highlights from the Superintendent's presentation included the following: 
• Canton's per pupil expenditure for FY18 and FY17 is $16,861 (according to the most recently audited data 
from the state). Canton is the fifth lowest in comparison to 12 other communities and the state's average 
per pupil expenditure of $16,465. Wellesley has the highest per pupil spending at $20,365 as compared 
to Milton with the lowest per pupil spending of $15,469. 
• Canton is approximately 10 FTEs (or approximately $1 million) short by what the state average per pupil 
spending is for administration and instructional leadership positions. The only administrator position 
request in the FY21 budget request is for a Humanities Coordinator with a requested salary of $102,000. 
• The Superintendent's budget request includes contractual obligations of $1,761,488, a reduction of 
$73,561 (1.0 FTE JFK 2nd Grade Teacher) and an increase of 14.4 FTE's totaling $917,739 plus $193,107 for 
supplies and services. The Superintendent's budget request for FY21 is $2,798,773 or a 6.34% increase for 
a total school budget request of $46,913,135. 
Mr. Nectow reviewed the FY21 school budget request summary. 
In response to questions from the Finance Committee the Superintendent offered the following comments: 
• MCAS scores can correlate directly to average housing or a mother's educational level, however, Ms. 
Fischer -Mueller would not state that high MCAS scores are directly related to higher per pupil spending. 
There are communities that have MCAS scores that are not aligned with the per pupil expenditure. In 
response to a member's question about the correlation of increasing the per pupil expenditure with an 
FINCOM 201200210 Minutes Page I of 4 2/16/2020