FINCOM 20200325 Minutes

Source page 1

Canton Finance Committee Minutes Voted on: 7-30-20 
801 Washington Street Vote: 6-0-1 
to Canton, MA 02021 
Meeting Minutes 
March 25, 2020 
Finance Committee Members Present: Christos Arsoniadis, David Clough, Dan Cole, Emilio Mauro, Tim 
McKenna, Cindy Thomas and Wai Wong. 
Finance Committee Members Absent: Rob Barker and Barbara Saint Andre. 
Guests Present: 
Michelle Resendes, Business Manager, Blue Hills Regional Technical School 
Jill Rosetti, Superintendent -Director, Blue Hills Regional Technical School 
Randy Scollins, Finance Director 
Ellen Jones, Finance Committee Secretary 
Opening: Chair McKenna called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. via Zoom virtual meeting 
Approval of Agenda: Chair McKenna reviewed the agenda. 
New Business: 
Blue Hills Reaional Technical High School — Discussion with Jill Rosetti and Michelle Resendes 
(see two meeting documents) 
Ms. Rosetti opened up the discussion by explaining that both her and the Business Manager are new to their 
positions, however, Ms. Rosetti has been with the school for 25 years. Ms. Rosetti turned the discussion over to Ms 
Resendes. 
Instead of going through the Blue Hills budget books page by page, Ms. Resendes suggested opening up the 
discussion for questions from the Committee members. Blue Hills is requesting a 2% budget increase which 
represents a $29,615 increase to Canton's assessment. The following are highlights from the discussion: 
• Canton has 67 students as of October 2019 enrolled at Blue Hills which is the same number of students as 
last year. Canton's students represent approximately 8% of the total Blue Hills student population. Student 
enrollment has been relatively flat over the past five years. 
• The total assessment requested by Blue Hills for FY21 for Canton is $1,477,309. 
• Canton's portion of the Blue Hills budget for the renovation project is 7.4% based upon 4 -year enrollment. 
• Of the $1,477,309 total assessment the renovation portion for Canton is $126,141. As debt for the project is 
paid down $126,141 will decrease. 
• The School to Careers portion of the assessment is $27,368. 
A third document entitled "Municipal Assessment & Enrollment History Fact Sheet — Canton" was displayed on the 
screen and reviewed by Ms. Resendes. 
• With regard to enrollment the five-year averages for Canton are 42 applicants with 64% being accepted and 
40% actually enrolled. 
• There was a significant increase in Canton's assessment from $47,202 for FY19 to $239,906 for FY20. This 
was due to the renovation project. 
• With regard to the changes in per pupil cost, the district's average cost per pupil is $17,335 as compared to 
Canton's per pupil cost of $19,758. 
Ms. Resendes stated that Blue Hills is nearing completion on the renovation project. Because of the COVID virus 
and the concern for social distancing of workers and staff, Blue Hills' focus at the present time is on landscape work. 
The project is 96-98% complete. The goal is to have the project completed by June but Ms. Resendes is uncertain if 
this goal will be reached given the current situation. 
In response to Mr. Mauro's question as to whether the renovation project was running over budget and if additional 
funding sources would be needed, Ms. Resendes stated that they froze the budget and they have been able to cover 
some overages. Some expenses are being charged to the school's Food Services Fund because there was work 
that was done in the cafeteria and it was permissible to charge these costs to that Fund. There have been savings in 
FFNCOM 201200325 Minutes Page 1 of 5 5/31/2020