Sangamon Sun

The Ball-Chatham Board of Education met Sept. 22 to determine how to reduce costs.

Here are the meeting's minutes, as provided by the board:

"The Ball-Chatham Board of Education consists of seven board members elected to serve, without compensation, for overlapping terms of four years each. The board elects a president, vice-president and secretary to serve for one-year terms."

FINANCE COMMITTEE MEETING SUMMARY OF MINUTES September 22, 2016

A Finance Committee meeting was held September 22, 2016. In attendance: committee members Susan Worley, Chair, and Greg Yurevich; guests Duane Sieren and Michael Dobbs; Superintendent Doug Wood; and Charlotte Montgomery, CFO.

A meeting was conducted with Aramark. The District entered into the agreement with Aramark in March 2013 for 5 years. A review of the invoices showed that prices increased as soon as June 2013 and every year thereafter. At first glance it appears that there is a breach since the pricing was not honored. However, a clause that had been lined out in previous contracts, was not in the March 2013 contract. The clause provides that prices can increase at 5% per year or by the CPI, whichever is greater. It goes on to say that they can increase prices at any other time with written notice by way of an invoice and we have 15 days to refuse the increase. In FY13 the District spent $91,896, in FY14 the total was $39,049, FY15 $43,020 and in FY16the total had increased to $63,768. Aramark was told that this is not a sustainable level for the District and the expense must be reduced. They are conducting reviews of inventories to make recommendations on reductions, as well as creating a new program with locked

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Meetings continue with R.K. Dixon on recommendations to reduce costs. Josh Mulvaney is working with school principals to turn off the automatic color settings on all but one dedicated machine. The dedicated machine, in most cases, will be in the principal's office. Our goal is not to restrict Color when it is necessary. Our goal is to provide an oversight level that can make a final determination if color is truly necessary. The principals have been very cooperative. R.K. Dixon has also presented a Strategy Worksheet with recommendations on removing machines that are low use and Combining locations to reduce the number of machines. Josh will continue to work with building principals to examine the Suggestions.

Food Service Profitability was briefly discussed. Recommendations on increasing food prices will be made in October after the ISBE audit of the program. Sysco is also looking at our ale Carte pricing to verify our prices are covering the direct food costs.

The TF Rebates for the last three years, totaling $27,142, has been completed. Sherry Dierking, CFO for the Village of Chatham, confirmed that they will apply the rebate to our electric bills.

The monthly Treasurer's Reports were discussed. The new revenue and expenditure reports are provided directly from Skyward, a recommendation of the external auditors. The bank and fund report, which is called the Treasurer's Report, is created in Excel using other reports, such as bank reconciliations. While this is not a Skyward report, the CFO feels it is critical information the Board needs on a monthly basis.

Mike Dobbs, Director of Facilities and Grounds, reported to the Finance Committee on the recent bidding for custodial supplies. A brief overview of the process was provided. The low bidder in all but 17

of the 99 items listed in the RFP was Masco, a company located in Springfield. The other bidder was Triad. It was noted that in a recent order, the District saved over $5,500 from what Triad would have charged. The estimated savings over the course of the three-year contract will be approximately $195,000. The main difference between the two companies is that Triad primarily uses 3M products, while Masco has generic products with the same chemical make-up as name brands. Head custodians are pushing back on the selection, given Triad has been with the District for 30 years, there is product loyalty. To ease their concerns with respect to product standards, Mike has placed language in the contract that gives us the right to cancel should Masco's products fail to meet our expectations.

A listing of over 850 technology items were presented to the committee with the recommendation from Josh Mulvaney that a resolution be made to surplus the items. The same language will be used for the resolution when Mike Dobbs presented his surplus property and presented at Monday night's board meeting.

The CFO called the committee's attention to a new law that requires travel expenses of school board members be approved by a roll call vote in an open meeting and documentation be received in writing. The law also requires school districts to adopt a policy to regulate travel, meal, and lodging expenses of officers and employees including: the types of official business for which the expenses are allowable, maximum allowable reimbursements and a standardized for submission of expenses. The district already addresses travel for school board members; however, it does not list specific maximum levels of reimbursements. The deadline for compliance is January 1, 2017.

The Build America Bonds (BABs), and the status of the IRS overpayments was discussed. Anne Noble had worked with Linda Given to assist with clearing our obligation to payback the overpayments. This was occurring when Anne thought the District should entertain the prospect of calling the BABs, and we cannot call while owing IRS overpayments. In more recent conversations, they are re-evaluating that recommendation because they said it was the only place in our portfolio where they could create wiggle room should we need it to stay within our debt service limit. The CFO will follow-up with Amalgamated to determine status of the overpayments.

An update was given on the payroll issues as they relate to the W-2 errors. The 2012 amended return was filed with IRS in April of this year and is just now being reviewed at IRS. The 2013 and 2014 amended returns were filed two weeks ago.

The field work for the audit was not completed in the one week as planned, which will delay the process. The audit firm has yet to provide the date when they will return to complete the work. They have been informed that the District does not want to repeat last year's timeline, when an extension was required for the mandatory filing with ISBE. it was noted that the Finance Committee again would like the external auditors to provide a presentation to the committee, prior to the formal report to the full Board.

Next meeting was scheduled for Thursday, October 20, 2016 at 5pm.