Editor’s note: The Valley Indy asked the Ansonia school district for clarification after reading the first paragraph of a guest column submitted by the Ansonia Town Democratic Committee.
Interim Business Administer Frank Connolly sent the following response. Please note the Indy did not provide the district with town committee’s letter before it was published.
The BOE does not have a $1.6 million deficit.
In the written monthly financial reports I provide to the BOE and to the City, we show a single line item deficit of $1.6 million for Special Education expenditures. The bottom line of all the accounts in the BOE budget does not show a deficit.
The agreement that the BOE reached with the City a week ago is to help address this Special Education deficit.
The agreement is for the City to return the State reimbursement money back to the BOE to help offset the deficit.
This State reimbursement is called Excess Costs, and it is designed specifically to help reduce deficits that BOEs incur with the high costs of Special Education students. We are estimating the reimbursement to be about $1.4 million.
As we progress thru the fiscal year, we think there will be some savings in other accounts to help offset the remaining Special Education deficit.
The following is a Valley Indy podcast in which the school district’s administrators talk about the district’s finances at length.
