Finance & Facility Committee Meeting

December 9, 2007

Minutes of the Meeting

 

Committee Members & Other Board Members Present:  Sally Oxnard, Ray Trueman, Lucy Cushman, Kim Casey, Patty Lovejoy, Townley Chisholm, Barbara Collins

 

Administration Present: Arthur Hanson, Dick Wendell, Walter Pierce, Nathan Lunney

 

Guests Present:  Jim Sojka, representing the CPA firm of Plodzik and Sanderson, PA, and Jim Gilman, the Clerk of the Works on the high school project

 

 

      The committee had a lengthy discussion concerning an audit of the new EHS project.  Pertinent Points:

 

·         Jim Sojka, representing the CPA firm of Plodzik and Sanderson, PA, and Jim Gilman, the Clerk of the Works on the high school project both felt that a complete audit was unnecessary

·         Their recommendations were to do a partial audit of the monthly requisitions and if anything out of the ordinary became evident, then the CPA firm would recommend to the board that a more detailed audit be authorized 

·         It was also explained that the project has been audited for the last four (4) years in district’s annual audit done by Plodzik and Sanderson, PA 

·         Mr. Trueman and Mr. Chisholm spoke in favor of having a complete audit performed in order to demonstrate to the public that proper accounting procedures were followed

·          Ms. Lovejoy explained that the audit would not accomplish what some members of the board desired and that is cost comparisons of various expenditures, i.e., light fixtures, ceiling tiles, etc.  What the audit would illustrate is financial and procedural compliance in project expenditures 

·         Discussion of the detailed book keeping that was done by Jim Gilman

·        It was noted that in the spring of 2006, the board voted to do an audit of the project with a price not to exceed $5,000 

 

A discussion of the SAU paying rent to ERCSD took place and the pertinent points are below:

 

·        Nathan explained the rent situation and what the SAU is occupying

·        A long discussion ensued regarding whether the SAU should pay rent to the ERCSD 

·        The ERCSD and SAU formulas were explained and Mr. Lunney stated that there is not an appreciable difference between the two formulas 

·        Ms. Lovejoy noted that by having the SAU pay rent, it would artificially inflate the ERCSD budget for 2008-09 

·        Mr. Trueman felt strongly that rent should be charged and noted that he believes that a school district cannot give free space to SAU’s for offices

 

Minutes taken by Arthur Hanson