Just when I thought school committee meetings could not be any more comical. It was amusing to hear Peter Caron, the CFO for the city of Lynn, state the city will meet or exceed net school spending for FY15. What he failed to mention (unless I missed it) was that meeting or exceeding the foundation budget is not the same as meeting or exceeding the net school spending requirement. The law states municipalities must meet 100% of the net school spending requirement, not 100% of the foundation budget. Lynn's FY15 net school spending requirement is $197,6 million. Mr. Caron clearly stated Lynn is expected to spend something like $181 million. I am not a mathematician, but I am pretty sure that figure is not 100% of the requirement. On another note, if a dollar was used to close the net school spending gap every time Kevin McHugh said he moved something to another line item or included something in with another line item, the gap would decrease significantly each meeting. That said, discovering that a line item for a few hundred thousand dollars was missing from the FY15 budget and no one seemed to know where it went or if it was ever there was definitely a new one for LPS.
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