Winter Comes Early to the Vernon Education Budget

It was Director of Business and Finance Michael Purcaro - not Jack Frost - delivering the financial report to the Board of Education on Monday, but a spending freeze on items deemed anything but necessary has hardened the ground just a month into the fiscal year. 

Purcaro at Monday's meeting told the board that the prudent strategy in terms of spending within the $50,494,787 budget for the 2013-14 fiscal year would be to reinstate a policy that puts strict rules in place for, as Purcaro put it, "using the taxpayers money."

"No check will be cut unless there are funds in the account," he said. 

The policy puts limits on transferring money from one account to another. Purcaro himself can make minor transfers, like taking money from a high school account for science supplies and moving it to a high school art supplies account. 

But major transfers from dissimilar accounts - like taking money from an account for supplies at the central office and moving it to a salary account for the middle school - must have school board approval whether it is a dollar or $100,000.

"It all adds even more visibility and transparency to the budgeting process," Purcaro said. 

The new rules effectively set up a freeze that is aimed at curtailing expenditures until the big budget picture works itself out, Purcaro said. 

In terms of revenue, as of Aug. 1, $259,092 is being projected for agriculture-education tuition. That is down from the actual $319,680 from  a year ago. 

Ag-ed special education tuition is being projected a zero dollars as opposed to $46,604 from last year. 

Special education tuition is being projected to come in at $148,000 as opposed to $151,042 last year. 

The $407,092 in projected revenue is about $100,000 short of what the town estimated. 

All that could thaw out. As of Aug. 1, no out-of-district students had signed up for the new Vernon Elementary School special needs program at Rockville High School. If the students begin trickling into Vernon after it opens in September, it will offset the revenue deficit, Purcaro said. The school is hosting local students who were previously attending school in other towns.

In terms of expenditures, the $650,000 budgeted for magnet school tuition is $40,868 less than what is projected, Purcaro said. A total of 160 students are slated to attend magnet schools, he said. 

The special education deficit is projected to be $544,409, but that includes the $435,000 start-up costs for the new special education elementary school, Purcaro said. That amount could be offset dramatically by incoming tuition from the school and a state reimbursement rate that is budgeted at 65 percent but has been coming in at close to 75 percent in recent years, he said. 

The bottom line? Purcaro wants to take care of the bottom line. 

"The freeze is in place until we can see a return on the investment in the Vernon Elementary School," he said. "It is the responsible thing to do."