Board of Education’s CIP/Facilities/Finance (BOE CFF) Subcommittee discussed year-end itemized estimates and transfers, as well as facilities updates, at its Monday, August 11 meeting.

Before jumping into year-end numbers, Director of Business and Finance Tanja Gouveia first talked about the BOE’s activities for the month of June. She said the BOE spent $10,200,000 over the course of the month.

$8.7 million went towards salaries since the district’s accrued salaries are expensed during June, while $1.5 million went towards all other balances, which Gouveia said are within normal range.

The BOE’s year-to-date expenditures total $88,931,985 — 99.73 percent of the 2024-25 Education Budget. Gouveia said their remaining encumbrances total $240,849, primarily coming from purchase property services and supplies, which are mostly textbooks.

This leaves the BOE with a total ending balance of $236, 231, which is coincidentally the same number as last year, according to Gouveia.

She said it is recommended for these unexpended funds be transferred into the BOE’s non-lapsing account.

Funds in the non-lapsing account can be used to handle unexpected expenses as they appear, such as repairs to school infrastructure or equipment.

New legislation put in place last year changed how the non-lapsing account worked, according to Gouveia. These changes made it so local boards of education no longer require approval from a board of finance or legislative council to transfer unexpended funds into a non-lapsing account.

As such, the BOE unanimously voted to approve the funds be deposited in the non-lapsing account during its Tuesday, August 12 meeting.

BOE Chair Alison Plante said it made the most sense to not earmark those funds for anything specific and instead have maximum flexibility on how they are able to use them.

Itemized Estimate And Transfers Breakdown

Within the salaries category, Gouveia said the certified salaries line item ended in a deficit of $204,367.

She said the district had a few things happening this year that affected the number, namely an administrative transition at Reed Intermediate School and Middle Gate Elementary School.

Gouveia also said the district had less turnover than anticipated. This led them to fall short of their $500,000 turnover budget by about $141,000.

Another area where they fell short was in their substitute line. This line item includes daily substitutes, building substitutes, and interns. While the latter two categories were fine, the daily substitutes had quite a high overage, according to Gouveia.

Gouveia called non-certified salaries the driver of their positive balances. While Gouveia said she has been talking about it all year long, she reiterated that the district has had ongoing staffing shortages in paraeducators and behavior tech areas.

A couple areas that saw overages were in custodial overtime and civic activities.

Moving on to employee benefits, Gouveia said the district saw overall savings of just over $57,000. Savings in the FICA and Medicare line item are due to the vacant certified roles, while there is also a surplus in unemployment compensation.

Professional services saw a positive balance of just over $37,000. The category houses a lot of the district’s consultants and students and evaluations, and happened to be the area where they saw the savings.

Gouveia said they saw slight savings across the 65 accounts under the professional education services line item.

However, in the upcoming year, Gouveia said they are looking to create more of a centralized budget management approach to improve tracking, reduce redundancies, and optimize resource allocation in professional development and staff training.

“So, in other words, we’re going to move a lot of that to the central office,” Gouveia explained.

On to the purchased property services category, Gouveia said they ended with a year-end surprise of $139,744, with the majority coming from the building and ground contracted services.

Gouveia explained that the budget was kind of a rollover from the prior director of facilities Bob Gerber. She added that they negotiated a lot of contracts and that current Facilities Director John Barlow even brought some of the work in-house.

While the utilities and equipment repairs line items saw a small surplus, the building, site, and emergency services line item saw a small deficit.

Going on to other purchased services, Gouveia said the contracted services line item was a “very difficult place” in the budget.

This has to do with the district’s unfilled behavioral therapist positions. In turn, the district will have to bring in outside behavioral therapist services to provide for its students. Gouveia said they have a deficit of over $357,000 in this category, spent on contracted services.

While Gouveia noted they used their contingency account to cover some of these costs, she added that “obviously it’s not enough.”

“We’re looking to fill these positions, but I think what might help is the behavioral therapists are unionizing. So that might draw some progress,” Gouveia said.

Superintendent of Schools Anne Uberti said the district has other employees who could be trained to be behavioral therapists, but thinks they are reluctant to do so because it is not a unionized group.

The other factor that may attract more people to the role is the move of the Program for Adaptive Learning (PAL). Virtually all of these behavioral therapists work within the PAL program, providing one-to-one support for students with significant disabilities and communication challenges.

Uberti said the PAL program was originally located at Middle Gate, but was held in very close quarters that did not provide a great working environment for the adults or a great learning environment for the students.

The program was recently moved to Sandy Hook Elementary School. Upon visiting the program last week, Uberti said the students have considerably more space at their new location in the building.

“So I’m hoping that might also help with the retention of behavioral therapists, but it’s a challenge,” Uberti explained.

For the supplies category, Gouveia said the district faced a deficit of over $348,000. This was another number Gouveia said she has been talking about for awhile, specifically since November.

The final numbers show that the district’s increased demand costs — admitted by PURA without any notice — was over budget by almost 44 percent, according to Gouveia. She said their virtual net metering credits came in almost 44 percent below what their expectations were.

“But when the supply rate for the utility company and Eversource goes down, so does our virtual net delivering credits, so we got kind of a double whammy there,” Gouveia said.

She said the district luckily saw a $149,079 surplus in propane and natural gas. Gouveia said it was an all time low for cost, adding that they were down to about three cents per cubic feet.

Moving on to property, Gouveia said they exceeded their original budget by just over $25,000. The district spent around $8,500 for unanticipated Chromebook purchases, while the other equipment line item had $16,001 in expenditures for some security enhancements at the central office.

CIP Preview, Facilities Updates

Barlow presented his Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) preview for future projects in the district from 2026 through 2035.

Projects were organized by year, with dates subject to change as the years progress. However, the plan acts as a guideline for Barlow and his team moving forward.

Some of the projects set for next year include roof restoration for Head O’Meadow School, the replacement of the F-wing chiller at Newtown High School, and the addition of redundant boilers at Newtown Middle School.

The BOE’s first read of the CIP will be on September 3, with a second read and approval by the Board on September 16.

The CIP will later be presented to the Board of Finance (BOF) for review in October, and later presented by the BOF to the Legislative Council in November.

For a quick facilities update, Barlow clarified that only 50 classrooms in NMS need air conditioners. Barlow’s team originally looked to purchase air conditioners for 66 classrooms.

Upon further inspection, three rooms will need a different solution for cooling, while some of the remaining rooms already have air conditioning.

By the end of this week, Barlow said the entire second floor of the A-wing will be complete and have ACs installed.

Above all else, Barlow said he “cannot thank my team enough for the incredible job they do.”

He continued. “My maintenance staff, my custodians, they are incredible. They step up to the plate every single time and they get things done. It’s them, they’re the ones making this happen, so I would be remiss if I did not make sure they received the credit.”

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