Northern Essex Community College
Board of Trustees Audit and Finance Committee Meeting Minutes
Wednesday, December 11, 2024
Attendees: Trustees Jennifer Borislow, Lloyd Hamm, Jouel Gomez, Evan Silverio, Sally O’Rourke, President Lane Glenn, Michael McCarthy, Anthony DeGregorio, Allison Dolan-Wilson and Kathleen Teixeira and Christopher Sicuranza, Note-taker
Guests: Ben DeForest and Paul Cross from Withum.
Chairman Hamm called the meeting to order 3:36 pm. A motion to approve the meeting minutes for May 1st meeting were approved by Trustee Evan Silverio and seconded by Trustee Jouel with a unanimous decision of yes on the budget to move forward to full Board of Trustees.
Enrollment and Budget Update:
• FY24 YE Actual Tuition & Fees Revenue came in as projected at $21.6 million. This is an increase of $21 million or 10.8% over FY23.
• Based on YE 24 actual reported credits of 67,815 which is an increase of 15,839 credits over FY23.
• FY25 QT 1 reported credits totaled 7, 799 or an increase of 5.2% from the supplemental budget.
Other Business:
• None
The FY2024 Financial Statements were presented by Anthony DeGregorio:
Key Notes from FY2024 Financial Statement:
• FY24 actual salaries of$38.9 million includes annual salaries plus one year of catch-up salaries from previous increases for NUPs and Union staffs
• Government finally closed the supplemental income.
• New positions – some positions were reclassified – so added a few but some were removed.
• Other expenses: gas and electric went up; software licenses, management consultants, security and maintenance went down.
• Net Staffing – we are staffing up in areas that are affected by Mass Reconnect and Mass Educate like financial aid and advising services.
• Capital appreciation, net investment, state support and critical repairs from DCAMM – all result in supporting our positive net increase of $15.1 million in Net Position for FY24.
Anthony will provide midyear (Qt. 2) FY25 update for enrollment numbers and related revenues at the next meeting.
Draft FY2024 Audit – summary presented by Ben DeForest, Partner and Paul Cross from Withum the college’s external auditors.
• Withum thanked the BOT, Anthony’s Finance team, and Despina in financial aid for their assistance with the audit and report.
On a Motion to recommend approval of the financial statements and audit to the full Board of Trustees by Trustee Lloyd Hamm and seconded by Trustee Frank Cousins, the Board unanimously approved the FY2024 Audit Financials and Report.
With no further issues, the motion for the meeting to be adjourned by Trustee Evan Silverio at 4:20 pm.
