Board of Ed $489K In the Red

News from the state that the district will receive only 70 percent—80 if lucky—of anticipated Excess Cost Reimbursement funds has left Darien Public Schools $489,000 in the red.

Five months into the fiscal year, Tuesday evening's Board of Education meeting heard Director of Finance Richard Huot present his quarterly report on the District budget. He said where the rest of the budget, which reflects costs incurred by salaries, benefits, operating expenses and transportation shows a healthy surplus, the revenue section projects a substantial shortfall.

"Other than revenue, our budget is in an excellent state. It would be showing a very handsome couple thousand-dollar balance," said Huot. "Unfortunately we're about $489,000 in the red."

The deficit comes as the result of an unanticipated cut in Excess Cost Grant funding from the Sate, and it's news that Huot says will make balancing this year's budget—and drafting that of the next—further challenging.

For the most part, "excess costs" refer to the costs of providing special education and related services to children with disabilities. Excess costs are kept to what is necessary, as predicting just how much grant money the state will allocate is a guessing game; moreover, said Chairman Kimberly Westcott, the budget directly influences taxes. Still, as the demand for special education continues to climb, so does the cost of provision. At this point, if fully funded, Darien would receive over $3 million in funding from the state; any shortfall in reimbursement cuts deep into the District's budgetary balance.

The State is estimating it will fund only 70 percent of the Grant. While $225,000 in stimulus money will help close the gap slightly, Huot said Darien is looking at an approximate $489,000 shortfall. There's been speculation that the State will reimburse up to 80 percent, which would further reduce the deficit to $300,000.

"We're still in the hole," said Huot.

A recent light retrofit project and a change in the schools' electricity supplier might help, said Huot; but here are few other costs to cut. The board chopped spending by over $2 million when drafting the 2009-10 budget.

"There's little flexibility here, but we will continue to look and see if there are ways to close the budget gap," said Huot.

By law, the budget must balance.

Member Heather Shea said that an odd $2,000 surplus is quite an accomplishment, especially given this year's addition of nine new special education hires.

"We just didn't anticipate the kind of haircut the State would give us—after the fact," said Shea.

As the foundation for the 2010-11 budget, the haircut will last quite a while.

"It's a buzz cut, because it's going to affect the next two years," said Superintendent of Schools Donald Fiftal.

Huot reminded the board that it's still early in the budget season and said that he should have a better idea of what the state's haircut will look like at the start of the new year.