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Norwalk School Board To Discuss $2.4 Million Surplus Tuesday

NORWALK, Conn. – Norwalk’s school board will talk about what it will do with more than $2.4 million in unspent funding from its recently closed budget Tuesday night.

The Norwalk Board of Education,  will meet Tuesday at 7:45 p.m. at City Hall.

The Norwalk Board of Education, will meet Tuesday at 7:45 p.m. at City Hall.

Photo Credit: Daily Voice File

Norwalk Public Schools were budgeted to receive $156.38 million in town funding for the 2013 fiscal year, which ran from July 1, 2012 to June 30, 2013. As of the end of the fiscal year, the school board spent $153.93 million, leaving about $2.45 million unspent.

Chief Financial Officer Richard Rudl listed five factors behind the surplus in a memo to the Board of Education. The district used long-term substitutes to fill teacher vacancies throughout the year, saving money on salaries and benefits. Some teacher salaries were also covered by state grants, Rudl said.

Norwalk schools also saved money on utility payments through “increased review of staff usage and efficiencies and changing of vendors,” and saw lower-than-expected electricity bills over the last year, the memo says. The school district’s purchase-order freeze instituted in March 2013, which limited spending on supplies, books and other expenses, was also a factor.

About $982,000 of the $2.45 million is earmarked for “carry-over costs” incurred in the last fiscal year but not paid. These costs include retroactive payments for union contracts and grievances, making up the summer school program’s deficit and severance payments scheduled for January 2014.

Central Office staff also requested another $1.1 million in new items for the 2013-14 school year that they can now pay for with the surplus. The request includes seven staff members to help manage class sizes, including three reserve teachers and four aides.

One of the largest pieces of the surplus would go toward installing new portable classrooms at Jefferson Science Magnet School. The $678,000 proposal is scheduled for its own separate vote on Tuesday night’s agenda.

After the carry-overs and added spending, Rudl recommends shifting the remaining $359,000 of the surplus to the district’s insurance trust fund. The fund currently has a deficit of about $600,000, and the transfer could put it on track to have a surplus by the end of the 2014 fiscal year next June, “helping to alleviate the pressures expected in the [next] year,” he wrote in his memo.

The Board of Education is scheduled to vote on this proposal at its meeting Tuesday night. The meeting will start at 7:45 p.m. in the Common Council chambers of City Hall.

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