Schools financial outlook potentially worsens

NEW HAVEN — Keeping schools closed might cost the school district millions, according to New Haven school officials..

New Haven Public Schools Chief Financial Officer Phil Penn recently warned that whatever savings the district sees from lowered utility costs and paying fewer part-time employees would be offset bylower federal reimbursements for the district’s meals program and dropping enrollment. He said the cost to the district could be about $300,000 if those initial budget projections were to hold.

But Superintendent of Schools Iline Tracey said state officials now have threatened to pull roughly $2.6 million in funding because the district has not opened its schools.

Tracey said a $5.6 million grant from the state to assist school districts with operating school during a pandemic is at Gov. Ned Lamont’s discretion “to dole out as he sees fit depending on the model we move forward with” and is not an entitlement. Penn projected the week prior that about $1.2 million of that money might be withheld because of reduced transportation costs alone. But according to Penn, state officials have targeted further cuts to the funding targeted for city schools.

One of the conditions for the city opening its schools, according to some members of the Board of Education, would be bus monitors on every bus to enforce protocols and compliance while bus drivers watch the road. Tracey said the district projects it would cost $2 million to put bus monitors on every bus and “we do not have that in our coffers right now.”

Board member Darnell Goldson said it would not be fair for the district to lose funding.

“He can’t just make decisions like that and shortchange New Haven and not be held responsible for it,” he said. “We should be screaming from the hilltops, every single one of us, that it’s not equitable and it’s not right.”

He said it’s scandalous that Hartford, despite being roughly the same size as New Haven, has received millions more in funding from the state.

Tracey promised that there are behind-the-scenes meetings during which she and her team are advocating for more funding.

“I’m not a loud person, but I do carry a big stick,” she said. “We may not be fighting loudly — ‘ra-ra-ra’ loudly, but we’re working behind the scenes on finances that have been lost.”

That includes meetings with state officials as well as members of the state’s delegation.

Last year, the school district managed to mitigate a roughly $20 million deficit — aided largely by unexpected savings from closing schools because of the COVID-19 pandemic — into a small surplus of less than $1,000.

This year so far, the school board has accepted several proposals that were expected to mitigate a roughly $5.6 million deficit. These actions came before finance officials calculated the then-unknown fiscal implications of the pandemic and potentially rescinded state aid.