Schools

Finance Board OKs $475K for Special Ed Overruns

The Representative Town Meeting will have to weigh in on $210,000 of the total.

The Board of Finance signed off on $475,000 in additional funding Tuesday in Darien Public Schools' 2010-11 budget.

Board members took up the matter immediately after the Board of Education signed off on the appropriation, ultimately referring $210,000 of the request to the Representative Town Meeting.

Superintendent Stephen Falcone, who arrived straight from the board of ed's vote, told finance members that special education costs were exceeding projections by about $1.6 million for the year.

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That figure includes higher-than-expected tuition costs for students whose educational needs can't be met in district, as well as related expenses for transportation and specialists. State mandates for special education services give school districts limited flexibility with these costs.

Falcone said the administrators had been able to close over $500,000 of that gap by holding off on several planned hires, including a math coordinator, a technology specialist, and additional special education aides.

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"These are all approved hires, but we haven't filled the positions, because we knew stepping in in September that all of a sudden we were seeing an increase in tuition," said board of ed member Elizabeth Hagerty-Ross, who accompanied Falcone to the meeting.

On the revenue side, DPS received a $95,000 federal jobs grant and is expecting $174,000 more in excess cost grants from the state than originally projected, Falcone said. The district is also tracking about $100,000 ahead of last year's receipts from summer school registrations, he added.

Board of Finance members — though unanimously supportive of the $475,000 stopgap — debated at Tuesday's meeting how much of its $365,000 special education reserve to use for the purpose.

Vice chair Martha Banks advocated zeroing out the account, but board member Joe Duwan recommended leaving a portion of the reserve intact in case of a further overrun. The board could then approve a transfer up to the remaining balance without having to seek another appropriation from the RTM.

The board eventually voted 5-1 (with Banks opposed) to draw $265,000 from the fund, leaving $100,000 in reserve. 

The remaining $210,000 was unanimously approved as an appropriation from the town's general fund, which requires the approval of the RTM. The RTM's next meeting is set for Monday, May 9.

The $475,000 total does not necessarily reflect the amount the district will ultimately use. After the town approved a similar stopgap last year, the Board of Education .


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