Finance Committee Meeting Minutes

Community Room, Downstairs, Town Hall, 39 South Street, Hinsdale MA

​Posted at 9:30am on 4/18/2022

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Members                                   Absent                                      Other                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

Shaun Galliher                                                       Bob Graves, Town Administrator

Mary Rice                                                                Ray Bolduc, Select Board    

Russ Parks                                                               Dick Scialabba, Select Board Chair                                                                                        

Bonnie Conner                                                       Leslie Blake-Davis, Superintendent of Schools    

Chris Pike                                                                 Dr. Barbara Craft-Reiss, Chair School Committee

Jim Chivers                                                              Greg Boino, Director of Finance and Operations

Heather Brown                                                       Dick Peters and Dave Stuart, Hinsdale Reps. School Committee

                                                                                   Viv Mason, Bill Pike, Barth Collins, Monica Montferret

The meeting was opened at 6:30 pm.

A motion was made and seconded to accept the  minutes  of the following meetings as written.  The motion passed with one abstention for March 12, one abstention for March 24 and two abstentions for March 31, 2022.

Superintendent Leslie Blake-Davis and Greg Boino gave the Committee a background on the Budget process.  This year has been more about learning concerns due to Covid related issues.  There has been a greater need for intervention support in several areas and they have added several positions to address those issues. These positions are temporary and the plan is not to be long term. The intention is to support the emotional and social needs of our students.  These positions are paid for by grants and State assistance and do not impact our budget.

The Committee and the school representatives discussed many issues such as enrollment, pre-school numbers and costs, School Choice, Insurance for Staff, Staffing at all Schools and most important, the Seven Town Agreement.

This Agreement was not followed when the vote to build the new High School was taken, and that has cost our town dearly.  Four of the Seven Towns voted against the project, but because DESE (Department of Elementary and Secondary Education) said they can do it this way, it was done by majority vote.  After that vote, and because of the backlash from several of the Towns, the School Committee agreed to re-visit the original agreement and put it in writing that this will never happen again.  It has been several years now with little or no progress.  Dr. Craft-Reiss acknowledged the slow process but said MARS (Massachusetts Association of Regional Schools) will help move that along and do it correctly.

The Seven Town School Advisory Committee was re-instated to assure this is done, with no real progress, and a lot of frustration on the part of our Town Representatives, Bonnie Conner and Viv Mason.

Bob Graves and Shaun Galliher said they found it interesting that they didn't follow the agreement on the vote to build the school, but did follow it on how they assess each Town.  They both feel the process is unfair and slanted to favor Dalton. This is evident because we pay more per student than Dalton does and that is grossly unfair to small Towns. There will be a meeting on Wednesday, April 13, 2022 at 6:00 pm with an expert on this issue that will explain how it is done.  We are all welcome to attend but it will be recorded and we will have access to that recording.

We all feel that communications between the Towns and the School Department/Committee is terrible, and Leslie Blake-Davis stated that she is willing to attend more of our Finance Meetings help address that.

Bob and Shaun went over the budget items still pending such as;  IT including software to link all department with the same software. This would help anyone in the building be able to get answers for the public when nobody from a specific department is in Town Hall. This would also help the Water/Sewer department with the meter reader;  custodial service at Town buildings; heating/cooling Town buildings; Vocational transportation and tuition; Ashmere Sewer Loan; Plunkett Sewer Loan; Cemetery; Board of Health; Lake Management; Library Assistants; Health Insurance; Police Department; Highway equipment; Highway employees; John Murray, Superintendent salary account; Water/Sewer labor coverage; Transfer Station; Landfill capping; and the Fire Department Tanker.

A motion was made and seconded to adjourn at 8:35 pm. The motion passed unanimously  The next Budget meeting of this Committee is Thursday, April 14, 2022 at 6:30 pm in the downstairs Community room at Town Hall.  Bob will have more final figures for this meeting.

Respectfully submitted, Mary A. Rice, Secretary