The Westport Board of Education has been told that the 2006-07 school budget will not end in a deficit at the end of the fiscal year.
The board Monday night reviewed the quarterly financial report, which covers expenses through March, which shows a $135,225 deficit. School officials released a report Friday showing the deficit (See WestportNow April 6).
“We will manage the budget,” said Nancy Harris, assistant superintendent for business. “We won’t be in a deficit.”
Two uncertain areas of the budget is out-of-district tuition, she said, and the account covering substitutes and interns, which she said is the biggest unknown.
“Substitutes and their use is the biggest unknown,” she said. “(Schools Superintendent Elliott Landon) is looking at weekly attendance reports and assigning counseling where necessary.”
If there are areas where necessary, Harris said, long-term substitutes are assigned, which helps control the cost.
There is some uncertainty about the tuition costs, she said, but she believes those are more stable.
“We will have issues as youngsters are placed out right to the end of the year,” she said. “I’m not aware of any that will come back.”
Landon said school officials try to keep special needs students in the system as long as possible before they are sent out of district for educating.
“It’s the behavioral changes that happen,” he said of when school staff will determine when a student is sent to an out-of-district facility.
