Board of Education’s CIP/Facilities/Finance (CFF) Subcommittee discussed April’s financial report, as well as healthy food certification for the district, during its Tuesday, May 20 meeting.

Director of Business and Finance Tanja Gouveia said they currently have a year-end projected balance of $160,528 dollars — spending 99.82 percent of the district’s budget. This is an increase over the previous month by around $45,000.

There were a few changes over the prior month that Gouveia wanted to note. The first was what she called a “substantial change” of $192,514 in their salary accounts. Some of it was for transferred funds, while another large amount was in the district’s special education teaching department.

According to Gouveia, the district had to backfill one position at Newtown Middle School. Since the position was for a certified teacher, and also a long-term position with top step pay, she said it reduced the budget by over $20,000.

Among other changes such as an adjustment to anticipated obligations in substitute pay based on the district’s current run rate. While this category can ramp up a little around this time of year, Gouveia said it ramped up a “little bit higher” than she thought it would. In addition to another new building sub, the line item was reduced by $41,000.

“Some of the changes were somewhat higher than anticipated, but nothing that I’m alarmed about at this time,” Gouveia said.

In the non-certified category, Gouveia was happy to report that the district hired two behavioral therapists and two special education paraprofessionals.

She noted how they’re still seeing a large deficit in custodial overtime based on contractual obligations for custodians out on worker’s compensation and will be until year-end. Custodians who can cover work in their place are eligible for overtime, thus causing an increase in cost. Gouveia said they briefly discussed this last time, but added that she slightly adjusted it based on the current run rate.

Gouveia also pointed out that Parks and Recreation activities are “way over budget” this year. She said they budgeted $32,000 in that category, but have spent $41,203 from year-to-date.

“I just wanted to call that out that we are spending money on Parks and Rec activities, which isn’t a bad thing because we do help the town, although it’s bad we’re over budget,” Gouveia said.

Gouveia said she hopes they can open up a dialogue with Parks and Recreation and create a plan going forward.

The employee benefits category is “pretty stable” and has seen little changes from last month, according to Gouveia. She noted they will probably adjust for the “FICA & Medicare” and 401a categories one more time before the end of the year.

Professional services had its balance go up by almost $50,000 over the prior month. Gouveia said this is partially due to a transfer request to pull $14,750 from an account for homebound tutors due to a surplus for one-to-one nursing services and psychological testing services.

The purchased property services balance went up by $116,000 since last month, with the majority coming from the Building and Grounds contracted services. Gouveia said she went through the entire contracted services account with Director of Facilities John Barlow and found savings by implementing a new work order system, as well as in tree trimming and stage rigging.

The biggest area of savings was at Hawley Elementary School for its HVAC. Due to the new equipment, Gouveia said they were able to lower that contract.

Gouveia also noted a $37,000 balance in their building, site, and emergency repairs line item. She called it their contingent account and said it’s based on any emergencies that come up. Built into that account is $25,000 that Gouveia set aside “just in case anything comes up.”

Moving on to supplies, electric is still at a deficit of $345,000. She said to not expect relief on that line item, but the overall deficit in supplies has been reduced a little bit because of savings on natural gas.

Gouveia said she once again increased the balances in the district’s propane and natural gas estimate due to the low cost of natural gas and that the district has been using less of it. This sets propane and natural gas line item’s balance at $111,000, which Gouveia said will somewhat offset the electricity deficit.

Healthy Food Certification

Each year, Gouveia said the Newtown Public School district renews their Healthy Food Certification. She said this means that the district complies with Connecticut nutrition standards for food sales, including snacks and beverages served during school hours.

Gouveia explained that Connecticut nutrition standards focus on limitations of sugar and fat, so the chips students buy are baked and the cookies are whole wheat.

“We follow Connecticut nutrition standards anyway because we are on the national school lunch program, so it kind of makes sense that our snacks are just as healthy and nutritionally balanced,” Gouveia said.

The incentive to accept the certification in a motion, Gouveia said, is that they receive 10 cents for every reimbursable meal from the year before, which equates to around $30,000 annually.

There was an additional motion that will allow the district to serve food that does not adhere to the aforementioned nutritional stands at events held outside of school hours. Both motions passed at the BOE meeting that immediately followed the CFF Subcommittee’s convening.

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