The Board of Education’s CIP/Facilities/Finance (BOE CFF) Subcommittee reviewed March's itemized estimates report and discussed summer Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) projects at its Tuesday, April 21 meeting.

Director of Business and Finance Tanja Gouveia said this financial statement reflects activity through the period ending March 31, and that it also represents the close of the third quarter for the year.

Since it is a quarterly report, Gouveia said the report also has a coinciding written narrative that would provide some additional details and context.

The year-to-date expenditures totaled $62.3 million, expending 68% of their budget. Gouveia said they have about $23.6 million encumbered, and that those two total just over $86 million — equating to 93.76% of the budget.

They also have an additional $5.4 million sitting in anticipated obligations, which brings their anticipated year-end balance to $295,065, or .32%.

"So you can see we've anticipated to expending 99.68%," Gouveia explained.

She added that their anticipated balance has decreased by $7,700, and that it has decreased by $14,657 over the past three months.

While Gouveia called these "very small adjustments," she said there have been many changes throughout all of the major objects.

The certified salary accounts increased by $59,142. Gouveia said this included adjustments for homebound tutors, which increased by just under $15,000 — typical for this time of year, and their substitute staffing.

Non-certified accounts saw plenty of "little variances and changes," according to Gouveia. One was in special education services, which saw a reduction of nearly $30,000 due to hiring three new BTs. Gouveia said she did adjust the extra work again based on the time of the year and other activity that has been happening.

She added that she adjusted custodial overtime since they have three custodians out on the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). Facilities Director John Barlow said one came back for a short time, but is out again.

As such, Gouveia said they are required by their contract to not backfill the whole position, but clean the absent custodians’ areas. This accounts for three hours of overtime based on the contract, with the line item increasing by $17,000.

There were no changes in employee benefits, as Gouveia said they adjusted the category last month. She did say they will look at FICA/Medicare again in about a month or so and "tighten it" before they close it for year-end.

For professional services, Gouveia said they increased their anticipated obligations for attorney fees. This is because they continue to negotiate with their BTs, now moving into mediation.

Gouveia made some adjustments to their repair accounts, which falls under purchase property services. She said they had a negative balance last month.

"And again, it's based on the time of the year, and usually the repairs happen mostly in the beginning of the year. So I pretty much adjusted that so we would come in flat; there's probably going to still be some fluctuations there," Gouveia explained.

She said they are holding really strong in emergency site and building repairs.

Other purchase services remains a "wild card area," according to Gouveia. She said the contracted services balance decreased by $30,000 due to another encumbrance they put in for their contracted services. While they did hire three new BTs, Gouveia said they have to keep these contracted BTs on for a minimum of three months.

"Some are rolling off, some are part-time, it's kind of a moving target with these contracted personnel," Gouveia said.

Moving on to communications, Gouveia said they continue reducing the analog lines. This comes after Frontier's "huge spike" in the cost of these lines back in January. New information was brought forward after writing her initial published statement, which said this deficit is going to go away.

"So I just wanted to make you aware that that will probably become zero. It might become a small negative balance, but we are continuing to work on these lines and Frontier is continuing to increase their costs," Gouveia said.

As for supplies, Gouveia said they are continuing to face a deficit on their propane. Over the last month, the rates jumped by 32%.

"I've never seen this happen. This is really unprecedented for natural gas, at least since I've been here," Gouveia said.

The demand is still pretty high in natural gas. Thankfully, she said they do have a surplus in electricity and their virtual net metering credits continue to be strong.

Barlow then gave everyone an overview of the timeline for the summer's CIP projects. Barlow said he was working with Middle Gate Elementary School Principal Jenna Connors to start to develop the project for classroom millwork improvements. He said they will get teachers from the building to give their input on what will be the best steps for following through on the millwork to make the rooms function.

He also mentioned they have a quote through a consortium to do a pool restoration for Newtown High School. Barlow said the total expenditure they asked for was $640,000 and that the quote came in at $628,000, so "we're right where we need to be on that."

However, Barlow said they are anticipating they will do the full spend on the $628,000, as there might be a small issue with the bottom drains.

"But we'll deal with that when we expose them. There is no real drawing on what's underneath the pool until we open it up." Barlow explained.

Barlow said he has an estimate for the high school's fire intrusion alarm. He added that they are going out to Request for Proposal (RFP) on that because there is no state contractor or consortium to do that.

Other projects he mentioned included: an HVAC project for Newtown High School, paving for Head O'Meadow Elementary School, and renovations for Middle Gate's bathrooms, among others.

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Reporter Jenna Visca can be reached at jenna@thebee.com.