Health benefit savings from last year’s switch in health care providers is keeping the education budget afloat in what is proving to be a costly year in terms of special education, energy, and facilities costs.
Paul Hendrickson, the district’s business manager, presented his financial report for March at a board meeting Monday, highlighting “a significant underrun” in the benefits expense compared to budget and concluding that the schools would be $256,577 under budget at year-end.
“This is due to post-budget contract settlements — paraprofessionals and secretaries, changes in the retirees’ health plan, and plan enrollment,” he explained in a memo to the board.
He estimated the account to be $746,057 under budget at year-end.
Meanwhile, special education costs continue to be projected at $1.8 million over budget.
There is help coming though in the form of an excess cost reimbursement, a portion of which the town received in February.
“Ridgefield will receive $2,168,151 in excess cost reimbursement, which is $1,288,151 above budget,” he wrote. “When the ECR is netted against the special education expenses, special education is projected to be $515,192 over budget at year-end.”
He added that the health benefits’ underrun will offset this overage.
Special education wasn’t the only department suffering.
Fuel oil and electricity costs were high during a particularly long, cold winter.
Mr. Hendrickson expects both fuel oil and electricity to be above budget by 20% and 7%, respectively, resulting in a $229,410 overage.
“We’re going to have to transfer from the health care savings to take care of this overrun as well,” he said. “As we get to the end of the year, we’re going to transfer from overruns to underruns.”
As for facilities, the board argued about that part of the report for about 15 minutes, discussing the possible construction of ADA-compliant playgrounds at Branchville and Farmingville before eventually approving the financial report.
Board member John Palermo said the Board of Selectmen should be required to fix the playgrounds if there’s a health issue.
“I’d rather tell them we need to fix it now — our budget doesn’t do playgrounds; it’s town property so it’s the town’s responsibility,” he said. “If we get them to agree, they’ll get the money back from us anyway.”
“It’s not a have-to by any means, but we want to do whatever we can for the kids when it comes to playgrounds,” said Superintendent Deborah Low. “The only reason why I’m pushing this is because there are individual students in these schools who can be helped immediately.
“I get that it’s not an affordable year for capital projects,” she added.
The cost of the playgrounds, plus repair and maintenance of other items, will result in the facilities budget being over by $127,890, Mr. Hendrickson said.