Board of Ed, Council Agree to Plan to Plug Hole in School Budget

The $1.3 million deficit in the 2010-11 Board of Education budget has been filled, but the ramifications may linger during the next school year.

The school board ran the deficit because of overspending in the district's special education account. While it got a $1.9 million reimbursement from the state for those costs, that money went to the town, which needed the funds and included them in its own budget.

That's not unusual -- in recent years the school board has rarely had to ask the town for the special education overrun funds. But with both the town and the Board of Education struggling through the recession, that money became important to both sides of the equation.

On Thursday afternoon, during a special meeting of the school board at Albertus Magnus College, Mayor Scott Jackson and Legislative Council President Jim Pascarella met with the board to go over the agreement that calls for the board to find a total of $400,000 in its budget and the council transfer $300,000 to the district.

The remaining $600,000 will come from the federal jobs fund money the school board received last year and saved for this year's budget, leaving the current budget in the hole. But the council will transfer $600,000 to the board in the spring when it gets the first of next year's special education overrun payments, Pascarella said.

"The town has received approximately $1.9 million in each of the last three years, so I have to believe that the way the town is trending it will receive more than $600,000 this year," he said. "If the state pulls the rug out from under us, we will have to revisit where the $600,000 will come from."

State legislators have indicated that that funding won't be cut, he said.

The school board came up with an initial $100,000 Thursday by making cuts in the current school budget, including a $7,280 purchase of graphic calculators, $16,540 in sidewalk repairs at Helen Street School, $11,367 for air conditioning work at Shepard Glen School and $4,248 in work to the Hamden High School boilers.

The additional $300,000 in cuts will be discussed at the September board meeting, and could include a proposal to close the district's schools at either 5 p.m. or immediately when the school day ends.

"If this is something we are going to do, we should do it early so we can notify the organizations that use the schools and give them the opportunity to come up with a solution so they can carry on," school board chairman Michael D'Agostino said.

One solution would be to have organizations such as PTAs meet at Hamden High School, which would remain open later in the day, he said.

There also will likely be a freeze implemented immediately on discretionary spending and a freeze on hiring.

"It's easier to put your hands on something now than later in the year," said Pascarella, who served on the school board before being elected to the council.

The council will form a "super-committee" to address how the town and the board will address the problem going forward, Pascarella said, to assure this never happens again.

Both town and school officials spent countless hours developing a plan on how the $1.3 million deficit would be addressed, the mayor said.

"What we have is a problem that must be fixed," Jackson said, "and it is incredibly hard to fix a seven-figure problem with a fiscal year that has already closed."