The Board of Education's Capital Improvement Plan (CIP)/Facilities/Finance (BOE CFF) Subcommittee discussed February's itemized estimates, along with radon updates, at its Monday, March 16 meeting.

Director of Business and Finance Tanja Gouveia opened with her financial report, stating the BOE has spent $56,126,927 year-to-date — expending 61.18% of its total budget. She added that $28,688,949 million is encumbered and $6,625,918 is allocated for anticipated obligations.

The BOE's balance did increase slightly over the prior month by $62,000, bringing the new projected year-end balance to $302,850 — expending 99.67% of its budget, according to Gouveia.

She said there were a couple of objects that contributed to the majority of this increase, which were found in their professional services account. They also saw an increase in other purchased services and supplies, along with a "rather large" decrease in the employee benefits account.

Taking a look at salaries, Gouveia said they made some adjustments to the teacher and certified substitutes accounts since they go hand in hand. She added that this time of year is spent recalculating for the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and other leaves.

This recalculation, Gouveia said, is probably going to happen every month.

Moving on to employee benefits, Gouveia noted that the business department recalculated FICA and Medicare benefits, as she mentioned they would at the last BOE CFF meeting on February 18.

They found some rather small changes throughout all the accounts, which Gouveia said amounted to a large change.

"This does happen every year. We do have to recalculate it because it's based on last year's numbers," Gouveia explained.

She said this was influenced by a lot of employee turnovers and unanticipated increases in negotiated union wages for security and behavioral therapists (BTs).

BOE Chair Alison Plante stated at the February 18 BOE CFF meeting they did not yet know the two groups planned to unionize when they made the budget last year. Since security and BTs each formed a union after the budget passed last year, these negotiations were unanticipated by the BOE.

These recalculations and variances increased the BOE's pension contribution, which now has a $20,000 deficit — resulting in a $49,680 reduction in the employee benefits category.

Gouveia then moved on to the professional services category. This time of year, she said, she also adjusts for the psychological services because they are not really sure which students will accept these services throughout the year.

"So we budget for an anticipated amount, and then if they don't come in, we start adjusting for that," Gouveia explained.

These adjustments increased the psychological services sub-account by $25,000.

Gouveia said the contracted services category saw a slight change due to increased nursing costs for a specific student.

The natural gas accounts saw some improvement over the past month, as Gouveia said the demand is starting to ease up a little bit. In other good news, the budget's electricity account gained $20,000.

"I'm not exactly sure as to what to attribute that to. It's not just one thing, in some cases we have lower kilowatts, lower usage ... so it's probably demand," Gouveia said.

With no changes to the purchased property services or miscellaneous accounts, Gouveia walked the subcommittee through a section on local revenue, featuring the BOE's fees and charges.

Tuition, for non-resident students, is usually budgeted at around $33,000 and goes over to the Town. While they typically anticipate around $33,000, Gouveia said they received around $27,000.

She then talked about the health grant, which they apply for each year for the non-public nurse stationed at St Rose of Lima School. The district did receive the grant this year.

Gouveia said they give a portion of Newtown High School's parking permit fees to the Town each year, allocated for $30,000.

There are also miscellaneous fees, such as stock or equipment that gets sold, usually budgeted around $6,000.

In other news, Gouveia said she is getting close to hiring someone to fill the open position in the business office.

This also marked the last meeting for business office coordinator Joanne Morris, who worked on and submitted the minutes for the BOE CFF's meetings. Morris had worked in the business office for almost 20 years.

Radon Updates

Facilities Director John Barlow gave a recap of Middle Gate Elementary School's radon situation and where the district currently stands.

Barlow said they had a meeting with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), and then Superintendent of Schools Anne Uberti organized an executive summary and timeline of events.

The superintendent first gave an update about the radon testing at Middle Gate at the BOE’s February 3 meeting. Newtown Public Schools recently tested all of its buildings for radon as part of the district's three year reevaluation.

Tests are conducted in a random sampling of about ten percent of the buildings and are done twice: an initial round and a follow-up round several weeks later.

Uberti's executive summary states that Newtown Public Schools conducted a reevaluation of radon levels at Middle Gate in January 2026, which indicated four classrooms tested above the average radon level of 4 pCi/L (picocuries per liter).

The district notified Middle Gate staff and parents on January 28 over e-mail, informing them about the elevated levels in several rooms and that additional testing would be conducted in all frequently occupied spaces throughout the building.

This was followed by Uberti and Middle Gate Principal Jenna Connors holding a voluntary meeting to address Middle Gate staff’s questions and concerns on January 29.

The executive summary states that, in searching for historical testing results, the district became aware of previously transmitted radon testing results indicating elevated radon levels in some classrooms at Middle Gate.

Testing conducted in January 2023 had identified elevated radon levels in several rooms. However, the e-mail with these results was addressed only to the then-Director of Facilities Bob Gerbert and sent in March 2023, shortly before his departure from the district.

A review of district e-mail records indicates the message did not appear to have been opened prior to his departure.

"So that's an unfortunate circumstance that nobody really wanted," Barlow said.

Further Radon Updates

The executive summary notes the district is not aware of any additional historical radon testing records for Middle Gate.

Barlow said the district lacked historical data because, when the law was written in 2008, it only applied to buildings that were renovated or received additions from January 1, 2003 onward.

"So there was a lot of buildings that were exempt from the radon testing, and that's why there was no clear historical data for them," Barlow explained.

Barlow said this did not come to light until Uberti was looking for information and saw that, adding, "It was like a light bulb popped on, 'This is why the historical data didn't exist.'"

The State's radon laws changed in 2024 so that all school buildings, regardless of when they were built or renovated, needed an initial test. Barlow said Gerbert was engaged in having conversations about that and getting the district's buildings up to speed until his departure.

Barlow and Uberti discussed the issue and decided the best thing going forward was to go back to the initial test for the entire building and come up with those results.

Testing the building again in early February resulted in 14 classrooms showing elevated levels.

By February 10, they had already made the decision to the put the mitigation system in the four original classrooms with elevated levels. When the early February test results came back showing ten more problem rooms, Barlow said they expanded the mitigation system into the full 14 rooms.

The mitigation system was installed between February 13-17, and was online by February 19.

"We retested the building two weeks later, and ... the highest out of the 14 rooms was 1.1," Barlow said. "So everything is down where it belongs."

He added that the district completed its final test at Newtown Middle School, meaning every building in the district has now had a radon test and is fully compliant with radon requirements.

As far as OSHA is concerned, Barlow said they applauded the district for its fast reaction to the problem at hand and how they resolved it immediately.

Barlow shared that the district held a number of meetings with the affected staff to make sure they were fully transparent with the test and what they saw.

However, the OSHA representative noted the district will receive a citation, primarily because of the 2023 historic data that got lost in the e-mail dump and went unaddressed.

"But [the representative] did elude that, because of how we addressed this, that it would be looked favorably upon us and, more than likely, the fine would be minimal, if even a fine at all," Barlow explained.

Something else OSHA wanted the district to address is where the historical data lands. Barlow said they did include historical data in their system now, and it also lives in the Department of Public Health's records.

Both Uberti and Barlow are receiving e-mail correspondence for this as well.

Barlow said at their next cabinet meeting, they will discuss having more of a common e-mail system.

"So rather than it coming directly to me, if I were to change my role, there's still a place where it's going that people will be able to see it and view it," Barlow said.

Barlow said the cost for the total radon mitigation system was about $14,000. Now they have a time cycle and are aware of the budgeting process, the district can build this testing into its budget. The tests will be conducted every three years, with the exception of Middle Gate, which will fall on a yearly test "for a while," according to Barlow.

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