Episode 1141

FM #1141 - Franklin (MA) School Cmte Budget Subcmte Mtg - 01/23/24

Published on: 24th January, 2024

This session shares the Franklin, MA School Committee Budget Subcommittee meeting held on Tuesday, Jan 23, 2024. The meeting was conducted in the 3rd floor training room. 

Chair Dave McNeill opened the meeting. School Committee members Dr Paul Griffith and KP Sompally participated. Superintendent Lucas Giguere and Business Manager Dr Bob Dutch, Asst Business Administrator Janaina Vasconcelos-Melotti also participated. 

Quick recap

  • Subcommittee meeting starts a few minutes late. Supt Giguere provides an overview of the capital budget process and then expands upon the preview we're about to see. There is a budget workshop on Friday with the school principals, another update planned for February. 
  • Dr Dutch walks through the details of the budget development process. Key slide provides a preliminary look at the various budget scenarios. Lots to digest within this slide. More info coming as the budget workshop (mentioned earlier) and further work through Feb leading to the view at the Feb 13 School Committee meeting

Four basic scenarios reviewed; 

  • (1) “less than level service” this would require cuts and reductions, exactly what will be fleshed out over the next weeks. 
  • (2) “level service” or survive mode, what would this be like? Feedback also asked “Ok if this is ‘survive,’ what happens next year? 
  • (3) “Level service plus” to stabilize the level service and partially restore programs previously cut (i.e. middle school activities and the late bus to support them), 
  • (4) “level service and programing thrive” this builds upon #3 restore more positions previously cut and create bandwidth to innovate.
  • Meeting ends with additional questions and discussion unasked as it was time to get downstairs for the full committee meeting opening at 7 PM (which actually started late due to this being late)

The show notes contain a link to the agenda and to my notes.

The recording runs about 52 minutes, so let’s listen to the Budget Subcommittee meeting of Jan 23, 2024.

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Budget Subcommittee agenda

https://www.franklinps.net/sites/g/files/vyhlif4431/f/agendas/1-23-24_agenda-budgetsubcom.pdf

The current operating budget or FY 2024 Budget information -> https://www.franklinps.net/fy24budget 

The FY 2025 budget info being developed with this set of meetings and a new link will be added here https://www.franklinps.net/district/school-district-budget 

Photos of the slides discussed -> https://photos.app.goo.gl/z7kg8bYxECezQ86v8 

My notes in this ThreadReader PDF -> 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1efrAyKeGBJSIck0d1wXRdnmg_w3bhdFq/view?usp=drive_link 

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If you have questions or comments you can reach me directly at shersteve @ gmail dot com

The music for the intro and exit was provided by Michael Clark and the group "East of Shirley". The piece is titled "Ernesto, manana"  c. Michael Clark & Tintype Tunes, 2008 and used with their permission.

I hope you enjoy!

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About the Podcast

Franklin Matters Radio
Information for the community because Franklin matters
What matters in Franklin MA - we follow the money sharing Town business meetings and interviews to enable an informed resident and voter

About your host

Profile picture for Stephen Sherlock

Stephen Sherlock

I volunteer as the Community Information Director for Franklin, MA (USA)*. I have been providing accurate and timely information about what matters in Franklin since 2007. Currently working in collaboration with Franklin.TV and Radio (wfpr.fm) since October 2019.

*They don't have one and couldn't afford me.