CFO: City schools spending on track
NORWALK — Despite the unusual nature of this school year, the district’s spending has been on track.
According to Norwalk Public Schools’ Chief Financial Officer Tom Hamilton, the district’s spending is where he expected it to be at this point, about halfway through the fiscal year and 40 percent of the way through the school year.
“Overall, we’re pretty much where we’d expect to be,” Hamilton said at Tuesday’s Board of Education meeting.
As of December, the district had spent about 41 percent of the $208 million in the 2020-2021 fiscal year
operating budget. Hamilton noted salaries, which make up the largest portion of the school budget, are where the district would expect them to be for this time of year, with about 41.3 percent of the budgeted funds spent.
Spending on employee benefits, which are also a significant budget driver, are also on par. Hamilton said the district has spent about 46 percent of their $31 million benefits budget.
“Overall, in the scheme of things, these counts are running overall where we’d expect them,” Hamilton said. “Everything is running more or less where we’d expect it to be at this point.”
When looking at a breakdown, Hamilton said, the district is overspending in certain areas mostly due to staffing issues prompted by COVID-19. They’ve spent 95 percent of their $185,346 long-term substitutes budget and have gone over on unemployment, spending $282,645 when they budgeted $204,4478.
The monthly spending report also shows the district has spent $43,379 on rentals when it budgeted $30,117.
However, Hamilton said these costs can be offset by savings in other areas. The district has been running below its supplies and materials budgets, particularly in area like instructional supplies. Spending in supplies and materials overall is at about 25 percent of the $8 million budget for the year. There has also been savings in special education and out-of-district tuition.
Hamilton said he would be proposing transfers from areas where there have been savings to other areas where spending has gone over budget, though added there should be a look into why some budgets are not being spent.
“We believe we have other areas in the budget to cover that high unemployment,” Hamilton said. “The unemployment is high because of COVID-related impacts and the way unemployment works for us in Connecticut.”