School district Business Director Ron Bienkowski told the Board of Education at its meeting on Tuesday, April 19, the current financial situation is a "break even."

The school board later unanimously approved the financial report for the month of March, after hearing Mr Bienkowski explain details in the 2015-16 budget.

Mr Bienkowski said not much has changed since February, when he reported that the school district received word it would be receive $168,919 less than expected for special education cost reimbursement through the state's Excess Cost Grant.

As Mr Bienkowski told the school board in February, the tentative estimated reimbursement rate for special education costs in the 2015-16 school year was 80 percent, but the state informed the district the rate may also be between 73 to 75 percent depending on further data from the rest of the year.

This week Mr Bienkowski said the reimbursement rate is now expected to be 73 percent.

"They dropped it down to 73 percent this year, which is really the first time it has ever gone below 75 percent," said Mr Bienkowski this week. "So that was extremely concerning at this point."

Mr Bienkowski said the school district is still operating under a spending freeze.

The district had expected to be reimbursed for $1,526,920, but now it anticipates receiving $1,358,002 through the Excess Cost Grant, according to Mr Bienkowski.

"These are significant numbers this late in the year," said Mr Bienkowski, explaining how the $168,919 difference will effect areas of the 2015-16 budget.

Mr Bienkowski spoke to how the spending freeze is effecting the budget, and said areas have positive and negative anticipated bottom lines.

"The result of all the plusses and minuses basically bring us to a break-even situation at this point," Mr Bienkowski said, before adding that due to the break-even situation the district it is being "very careful."

Superintendent of Schools Joseph V. Erardi, Jr, suggested the school board should formally notify the Board of Finance and the Legislative Council about the current budget situation.

"What we don't control is the state reimbursement, and I don't want anyone to be surprised as we move through April, May, and June," said Dr Erardi. "With the progress we are making right now I think Mr Bienkowski showed a positive [balance of] $42. I just want to make sure everyone is aware of how hard we are working to make sure there are no surprises."

After Board of Education member Andrew Clure asked what other options the school district has, Dr Erardi said the situation maintains teaching and learning.

"What we have already done through some real innovation of the financial office, is we recognized this was going to be a problem months ago," said Dr Erardi.

The superintendent said the district told local leadership about the anticipated budget situation in October.

Dr Erardi also said "it's a real wild card what is happening in Hartford."

"It's not a spending problem: it is a funding problem," said Dr Erardi. "We can justify every expenditure we have in the budget. We'll scrub this down again. It is our fiduciary responsibility to bring in a budget in black ink when it reaches the last day of the budget in June."