Auditors: Reports clean, but district budget should be balanced
By Karen Mann Journal Correspondent

Auditors have recommended the North Middlesex Regional School Committee present a balanced budget in future years.

The fiscal year 2006 budget was not balanced, Frank Biron and Karen Snow of Melanson Heath & Company, PC., told the school committee at their Dec. 11 meeting.

“The revenues budgeted did not match expenditure appropriations,” said Snow. “That’s why there is a budget shortfall.”

According to Biron, in FY06, revenues outpaced expenditures by $325,000.

Some school committee members were concerned as to why the budget looked unbalanced.

“This connotes recklessness,” said member Frederick Wheeler, III. “We go to town meeting with an estimate of what we are going to get on our [state aid] Cherry Sheet. It is a best guess.”

Biron recommended the committee make it official when they do have a balanced budget by documenting it in the committee’s minutes.

Snow also explained to the committee how to handle an additional $33,000 left over from student activity funds.

Each year, the graduating class is given money for student activities and events. According to Snow, since 1995, the unused money has been put into a separate account. The committee has to decide what to do with the money. It must be used for student-related activities.

Snow said schools usually do one of two things: withdraw the money after 90 days, and give it to the class treasurer so it is no longer the school’s responsibility, or put the money in the next year’s class fund.

Because the amount the North Middlesex Regional School District has is so large, Snow suggested the committee decide what to do with that sum of money first, then put a policy in place for future years. Snow said the overall audit was clean.

In other news:

• The committee amended the policy for graduation requirements. The new requirements will reduce the number of credits needed for health/physical education and increase the number of credits needed for science, math and social studies.

They will also make completing a senior class project and earning credits for it a requirement.

The new graduation policy will start with the Class of 2011, students who are currently in the eighth grade.

• The committee accepted the retirement of Associate Superintendent Robert Dempsey. Dempsey has worked in the school district for the past eight years.

Members acknowledged the time and effort he put into working with the committee and said he would be sorely missed.

• Two teachers from Hawthorne Brook Middle School were recognized for honors they recently received.

Caryl Adamowitch-LaPorte was chosen as the 2006 Massachusetts Science Educator of the Year for Middlesex County.

Her colleague, David Boggio, was selected by one or more of his students to attend a Teacher Appreciation Luncheon at The Massachusetts Academy of Mathematics and Science.

• Superintendent Maureen Marshall informed the committee she is looking into online courses for students.

“Virtual high school offers multiple grade opportunities,” said Marshall.

According to Marshall, high school students could take college-level courses, while middle school students could take high-school level courses online.

She said she would investigate what is affordable and how to make the courses accessible to students, as well as how many students would be interested.

The committee is also looking into offering online courses for staff members through Walden University.

According to Marshall, the master’s degree programs are not recognized by the Department of Education but the doctoral programs are.

Marshall said she is still receiving information on the program, and no decisions have yet been made.