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Committee approves school-choice slots, policy-subcommittee authority and audit adjustments; budget transfers pass
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Summary
The committee approved 7 school-choice slots at AMS and 16 at AHS, granted its policy subcommittee authority to make minor editorial revisions, approved audit adjustments to AMS student activity accounts (one dissenting vote), and approved a package of budget transfers to correct negative lines.
At its April 8 meeting the Auburn School Committee approved a set of administrative and fiscal actions, including school-choice allocations, policy-subcommittee authority for minor editorial revisions, audit adjustments to middle-school student activity accounts and a list of budget transfers to balance FY26 lines.
School-choice: Following a presentation of projected enrollments and sibling protections, a motion to approve 7 school-choice slots at Auburn Middle School and 16 at Auburn High School for 2026–27 passed by voice vote.
Policy authority: The committee voted to grant the policy subcommittee the ability to make non-substantive editorial changes to district policies — for example, switching pronouns to gender-neutral language, standardizing terminology and correcting grammar — provided substantive meaning is not changed. The subcommittee will provide monthly updates summarizing revisions.
Audit adjustments: Business manager Jennifer Stanek presented audit corrections for Auburn Middle School student-activity subaccounts to fix carry-forward errors, missing deposits and duplicate entries; the committee approved the audit adjustments by voice vote with one member dissenting. Stanek recommended using inactive subaccounts and earned interest to reconcile a $3,953.95 discrepancy and to bring negative subaccounts (for example, ski club) to zero.
Budget transfers: The committee approved a list of budget transfers dated April 8, 2026, intended to correct negative individual lines (substitutes, tuition, contractual obligations). Stanek told the committee the available balance in the budget (as of March 25) was approximately $2,000,409.06 and that the transfers are intended to consolidate and manage adjustments more predictably.
Public comment: Resident Eric Richards used the public-comment period to urge the committee to secure outside audit work and raised concerns about multi-year variances and incomplete documentation in prior years.
Vote record summary (selected): - School-choice slots: motion approved (voice vote). - Policy subcommittee authority: motion approved (voice vote). - Audit adjustments for AMS subaccounts: motion approved; recorded 'No' from one member (speaker 14). - Budget transfers (04/08/2026): motion approved (voice vote).
Next steps: Staff will implement the audit adjustments as directed, provide the monthly policy-subcommittee update and continue enrollment and budget monitoring leading into town meeting.
