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Date: 3/28/2022
LUDLOW – With fiscal year 2022 (FY22) coming to a close, the Ludlow School Committee received an update on the budget and discussed the final steps for the Harris Brook Elementary School Building Committee.
With committee Chair Michael Kelliher set to retire from his position after the election on March 28, he provided an update on the Harris Brook Elementary School Building Committee. Because of his retirement, another member of the School Committee would be required to take his seat on that committee.
“The Owner’s Project Manager [OPM] has been telling us that we are probably about a year and a half to two years in the closeout process. There is still work that needs to be done including landscaping that wasn’t able to be completed before the winter set in, that is kind of the last big thing we need to do,” he said. “Seeding that soccer field and the work that needs to be done on the softball field in the back should only take a short bit of time.”
Kelliher added the closeout and final audit are two key components of the project.
“This is kind of an important part because we have been getting reimbursed from MSBA [Massachusetts School Building Authority] from our grant as we submit bills, but MSBA is going to hold back the last 5 percent of our grant until we have the closeout done and the audit completed. It is important we get that done expeditiously because that is a good chunk of money the town is borrowing, we would not have to borrow anymore,” he said.
Going forward, Kelliher said the committee will dial back its meetings to about once a quarter instead of once a month because the committee will not be required to take action on items related to the school.
The committee unanimously agreed to name Sarah Bowler the School Committee’s representative to the building committee, replacing Kelliher, alongside new Town Administrator Marc Strange. Kelliher was appointed to serve as a civilian representative on the committee.
Following the Harris Brook Elementary discussion, Business Administrator Christopher Desjardins provided an update on the FY22 budget as the fiscal year enters the final stretch.
“We did some more cleanup of accounts that may have run over budget and we had some that had plenty of money in them. At this point in time, we are starting that transition into closing out the year, so we have gone through all the open purchase orders, made sure they were still necessary in the dollar amounts we had,” he said. “What you have here is a nice clean budget at this point in time.”
Overall, Desjardins said the district is in good shape to end the year. Using a report to keep track of the remaining funds for the year he said the district was likely to finish the year positive in the budget and would likely have a cushion in case of emergency.
Desjardins added that cushion comes in the form of a credit owed to the district from the Lower Pioneer Valley Education Collaborative (LPVEC) due to previous money spent on buses, set to be used against the payment to LPVEC in the fourth quarter of FY22.
After being asked about rising energy costs, he said the district was locked in on oil prices through the end of the current and upcoming school year so those prices would likely not increase for next year’s budget.
As it was the final meetings for Kelliher and Vice Chair Charles Mullin, each committee member thanked them for their service as both served 12 years on the committee. During the public comment section of the meeting, state Rep. Jacob Oliveira presented them with certificates celebrating their work on the committee and during her regular report, interim Superintendent Lisa Nemeth presented both of them with 12 deep pink roses, which she said represents gratitude and thankfulness, and 13 white roses to represent new beginnings, along with some chocolate.
The Ludlow School Committee next meets on April 5 and coverage of that meeting will appear in the April 12 edition of The Reminder.