City schools ponder special account

NL board revisiting idea to hold over unspent budget funds to cover unexpected expenses

New London — School board members are revisiting the idea of a special account to hold over unspent school budget funds to cover unexpected expenses.

The establishment of a nonlapsing fund would allow the school board to set aside a portion of unspent money at the end of each fiscal year.

Board of Education Vice President Jefferey Hart has been among the board’s biggest advocates of the idea and said members of the executive committee who met recently agreed the plan should be presented to the new City Council.

Any school district funds left unspent at the end of the fiscal year typically move to the city’s general fund. The plan expected to be presented to the City Council in the coming weeks would allow for the deposit of up to 1 percent of the city’s annual appropriation to the school board, if it is not spent, with a cap of 10 percent of the total appropriation.

The Board of Education passed a revised $72.4 million budget in August that includes a $43.6 million appropriation from the city. Under the proposed plan, the school district could conceivably capture more than $436,000 in unspent funds from the 2020 budget. The proposal follows state statute passed in 2011 that allows such an account.

“The nonlapsing account is not a silver bullet ... but would allow us

a certain amount of stability year-to-year and reward savings,” Hart said.

Hart said he envisions unforeseen construction and/or maintenance projects being funded from the account.

“We can put it into the facilities that the city no longer supports,” Hart said, a reference to the City Council cutting roughly $500,000 in school building maintenance fees from its own budget in 2017, during a particularly tight budget year.

That school maintenance funding has never been restored and Hart said the city set up a new capital improvement account without any mention of school-related projects.

School board President Regina Mosley said the nonlapsing fund would be an important benefit to the school district and the city, considering the most pressing and unpredictable needs are usually maintenance and repairs.

Mosley said one example is repairs to the Harbor School roof last year. Grant funds were available for the roof project but contingent on the district spending unbudgeted money to fix windows in the building first. The grant money was in jeopardy of being lost because the school did not have the funds to repair the windows, Mosley said.

Mosley said the school board plans to be fiscally responsible, tries to budget “to the penny” and does not typically anticipate excess funds in any given year.

“We want to put this in place as fail safe ... on things beneficial to the students and school district,” Mosely said.

The idea is not a new one; it was pitched to the City Council in 2013 and approved in 2014, though by that time the city already had spent the school district’s $398,174 surplus to help balance a budget deficit, The Day reported.

Mayor Michael Passero said he is not opposed to a special fund but wants to ensure a system is in place to verify expenditures from the nonlapsing fund. The city has no authority on how the school district spends the money in its budget.

“The administration is going to insist the City Council has appropriation powers over that money ... and what we’re spending money on. It’s a very reasonable check and balance,” Passero said.