South Windsor School Board Requests Town Council to Create Non-Lapsing Account

The South Windsor Town Council on Monday discussed a Board of Education request to create a non-lapsing account that would help with budgeting for special needs education.

In the past, school districts by law were not permitted to have accounts that rolled over from year to year. That led to one of two scenarios when districts had budget surpluses at the end of a fiscal year: either spend the money left over on items that might be needed in the future to get to a zero balance, or return the money to the town’s general fund.

In South Windsor, school board Chairman David Joy, appearing in lieu of Superintendent of Schools Dr. Kate Carter, said that surpluses in the past either went to the town’s health care fund or to the non-certified staff’s pension fund.

The state legislature in 2010 changed the law to enable school districts to carry over up to 1 percent of its operating budget into a non-lapsing account.

Joy said that special needs education, which accounts for about 20 percent of school spending in town, is the most volatile line item in the district’s budget because it is impossible to predict how many special needs students will move into South Windsor from year to year.

What’s more, Joy said that outplacement special needs students can cost upwards of $200,000 per pupil per year.

As such, Joy requested that the Town Council create an account that the school district would use to help mitigate the fluctuations that can occur and have a “devastating effect” on the budget.

Although the statute is silent on what the accounts could be used for, Joy said that the account that the South Windsor Town Council is considering would be used only for special education.

“It is not something that we would use to move things around,” Joy said.

Town Councilor Keith Yagaloff said that the account sounds like a good idea to buffer good years against bad years, but that checks and balances would need to be in place.

But, Joy said that it was not something that would have a lot of money carry over.

“I see it as one more tool in the tool belt,” Joy said. “I doubt anything will go into the account this year. Forget 1 percent, I’m talking about $1.”

Joy said that the school board is looking at operating at a deficit due to special education costs when the January budget report is released.

Yagaloff said, and Joy agreed, that South Windsor, which has an excellent special education program, is a victim of its own success. Families move to town specifically for its special needs programs.

Joy noted that instead of falling between the two extremes - either spend a surplus or return it to the town’s general fund - the school district is proposing a third option that falls right in the middle.

No action was taken on the item at Monday’s meeting.