Surplus funds discovered in Salisbury school budget

SALISBURY — Members of the Board of Education (BOE) got a pleasant surprise, discovering there was more money than they thought in the Salisbury Central School surplus.

The preliminary figure mentioned at the board meeting Monday, July 13, was $250,000. Chairman Roger Rawlings, in a subsequent interview, said he had just been at the school to sign a few checks from the 2008-09 budget.

“With these last few checks and some additional work-related invoices that will be paid in a week or two, the surplus is down to $182,000. This may go even lower as we are investigating our transportation line and our high school tuition line.�

Rawlings said the budget surplus is typically between $60,000 and $100,000 — a built-in contingency fund.

“For instance, it could be used if a teacher decides to switch to a family plan� for health insurance.

The extra money is the result of three factors, Rawlings said.

• Former board clerk Lori Tompkins, awaiting trial on charges she stole some $110,000 from school funds, was not paid wages or insurance for the second half a year.

• There is roughly $100,000 in funds somewhere in the budget that might have some connection with the pending trial.

• And there was a piece of good luck. “We did better on fuel than we thought,� Rawlings continued.

The prosecution in the Tompkins case has asked for a forensic accounting, and state auditors will be looking at the Board of Education books in the next few weeks. (Tompkins’ next scheduled court date is Sept. 9 in Litchfield.)

Rawlings said he is hopeful that the state audit will help the board to accurately assess the financial situation.   At the last meeting of the Board of Finance an agreement was reached: half of the surplus or $100,000, whichever is less, will go to the school’s capital fund, and the remainder will go back to the town.

In other BOE news, after two committees reviewed foreign language and physical education programs the board has been advised to add a Spanish teacher and possibly a new PE instuctor as well.

The recommendation of the committee chaired by Jennifer Weigel is to increase class time in the middle school and make world language part of the main curriculum instead of an elective.

“It was also suggested that we slightly increase the time our kindergarten-to-grade-five students spend in world language.�

The PE committee, headed by Kay Lindsay, found that “our PE program is one of the best in the region,� said Rawlings. Teacher Janice Fitch “is tireless when getting the kids to move around.�

But Rawlings said SCS is “short of the overall time suggested by the state� for PE.

“What we need is more time for the kids to have structured physical time and we need more room.

“With some changes to our class schedule we may be able to find more time for the kids in the gym, but adding staff is also an option.�

The soonest any changes in scheduling and staffing can be made is in the 2010-11 school year.

The most recent budget deliberations centered on class size and whether or not to replace a teacher in the elementary school. How townspeople react to the notion of hiring two new teachers after this year’s discussion “will be interesting,� Rawlings said.