BOE Wraps Budget—

 One-Third Of Surplus Returns To Taxpayers

By John Voket

For nearly five hours Tuesday night, the Board of Education pushed through an agenda of budget-related business, announcing a current-year surplus that will be use to save jobs and update needed computer hardware at the Reed Intermediate School. The school board, according to its chairman, also used “creative” steps to meet its projected budget of $67 million in the coming year.

Chairman Lillian Bittman told The Bee that by employing a combination of reductions and spending some of what she called an “unanticipated surplus” of more than $300,000 to immediately obtain computers originally budgeted for the coming year, her board was able to minimize personnel reductions, enhance technology in two other schools, fast track a key maintenance project, and hold the line on “pay to play” fees at Reed Intermediate and Newtown Middle Schools.

The $306,000 the school board calculated as its working surplus number for the purpose of closing out the current year’s budget came from a combination of sources.

Acting school business manager Diane Raymo said $73,566 for furniture for portable classrooms was transferred from the operating budget into the high school expansion bonding, and $15,000 was saved on concrete work at Reed School. She said another $34,000 was saved by fixing instead of replacing ventilation equipment at the high school pool, leaving another $122,566 that was budgeted for various other expenditures, but never spent.

An additional, $90,000 had been encumbered for a proposed paving project at the middle school, which was not included as a line item in the district’s maintenance budget.

Ms Raymo said that $90,000 was instead encumbered in an emergency repair fund, but the money was not specified as being earmarked for the driveway project.

The school board later voted to move the repaving of the middle school parking area into the 2010-11 budget.

Giving $100,000 Back

Perhaps the biggest news coming from the meeting, however, was the board’s unanimous vote to return up to $100,000 of the surplus to the town to offset increased taxation in the next fiscal cycle.

Ms Bittman acknowledged that the amount to be returned as surplus might be somewhat less after approved expenditures for Reed School computers, but the final number would be determined as the district’s business office closes out myriad accounts, purchase orders, and untapped encumbrances leading up to June 30 — the last day of the fiscal year.

In a separate motion, which was opposed by Vice Chair Katherine Fetchick, the school board voted to empower Superintendent Janet Robinson to spend up to $75,510 in 2009-10 surplus funds to purchase SmartBoard technology for the middle and high school. But that motion contained a caveat.

Those funds specifically for SmartBoard technology that were first requested and removed from the district’s original budget could only be spent if the money earmarked to return to the town as surplus was exceeded.

“If the surplus after we return money to the town is only enough to buy one SmartBoard, then the motion gives the superintendent the authorization to make the purchase,” Ms Bittman said. “And she has the discretion to spend up to the full amount authorized, as long as it is above and beyond what we are committed to returning to the town.”

But early on in the meeting, it was Ms Fetchick who first suggested the idea to use as much of the anticipated surplus as possible to keep the district on course with its plans to replace seven-year-old computers at the Reed School.

That issue generated more than a half-hour of deliberation later in the meeting, and resulted in the final approval to use $213,000 of the current year’s surplus for that previously requested technology upgrade, plus purchasing $40,000 for state-of-the-art monitors to replace the television-sized screens currently in use.

By fast-tracking the purchase of the Reed computers to this year, and deriving the funds to do so from the current surplus, the equivalent amount was removed from the long list of anticipated 2010-11 expenditures.

NHS Pay-To-Play Increases

In other action, the school board also acted to increase “pay-to-play” contributions at the high school by $100 per participant, with accommodations for families who have multiple children playing multiple sports. That motion was expected to generate $168,000 in additional revenue in the coming fiscal year.

At the same time, the board supported no increase in similar fees for Reed and middle school students. Dr Robinson also suggested the district create a scholarship fund to assist students who wish to play a sport, but who might not be financially equipped to afford the pay-to-play fees.

While the sometimes spirited budget discussion was detailed and complex, Ms Bittman always steered the focus back to striking a balance between preserving staff and maintaining technology. In the end, the final recommendation resulted in no further job cuts beyond the eight to ten positions identified in the original school board’s budget request dating back to the late winter.

Since those now months-old staff reductions, the only position added to the plan was a kindergarten teacher at Head O’ Meadow School, which Dr Robinson said was required because of a substantial anticipated enrollment increase there. That half-time position was identified this week as adding $35,022 to the bottom line.

Additional staff reductions coming out of the latest school board actions included primarily regular education assistants. Ms Bittman told The Bee specifically that the cuts would not impact special education assistants, most of which she said are required by law.

In addition, a full-time school psychologist will be compensated by an IDEA grant and removed from the payroll line, and a currently vacant technology department position along with an unfilled staff bus driver position will remain open.

In total, the board achieved an additional $195,383 in 2010-11 budget savings from the additional staff cuts. Board cuts to requested building and site projects are projected to save $92,000, although a Reed School gate replacement and a wall construction project to create a new classroom space at Head O’ Meadow School will remain in the plan.

Other adjustments to the coming year’s budget forecasted since June 1 include higher than first anticipated savings in all three utility lines — electricity, fuel, and heating oil — a reduction in the unemployment compensation line, and what Ms Bittman said was a significant level of savings as a result of the town and district switching to a self-insured health plan.