Closures Have Saved Schools $650K

The initial tally is out: Covid-related closures will save New Haven schools around $650,000.

New Haven Public Schools CFO Phillip Penn delivered this news to the Board of Education Finance and Operations Committee on Monday evening over the videoconferencing tool Zoom.

“Everybody’s getting paid, and we made some good progress on the deficit as well,” Penn said.

The deficit — the amount the district is likely to spend above the amount of money the district has to work with — has decreased from $4.2 million to $2.9 million since schools closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Penn said. Around $650,000 of that drop are savings directly related to the school closures. (See Penn’s full report here.)

The savings came from utilities no longer needed in the empty buildings and certain kinds of teacher salaries, including pay for substitutes and the additional paycheck usually sent to full-time teachers who work part-time as well.

The school system is paying part-timers who do not have another school salary. The Board of Education made this decision in late March, before Gov. Ned Lamont ordered all districts to keep as much of their staffs on their payrolls as possible.

Overall, Penn expects schools to spend $1.8 million less on these items than he did before schools closed in early March. This is offset by around half a million in other new costs, including transportation bills from the previous year that the system is now processing.

Penn said that he expects to see another $1.5 million to $2 million drop if schools stay closed through the rest of the school year.

His current estimates also do not include any negotiations with the bus contractor, First Student. This could save NHPS in fuel, cleaning and legal costs that the contractor would spend if the buses are running. The board has focused on making sure bus drivers and cleaners continue to be paid.

Penn emphasized that the school system needs a permanent solution to the difference between its income and its spending. In particular, grants that pay for certain staff members’ salaries have dramatically decreased or phased out in recent years, Penn said.

“How do we prepare to transition some of these costs into our general fund in the future?” Penn asked.

Penn has often advocated for the board to hire a grant writer to find new sources of income, and he reiterated that idea. He estimated that a grant writer could find $250,000 in additional income next year.

Board member Larry Conaway said that he would like the board to hire a grant writer as soon as possible, given new dollars released at the federal and state level to combat the Covid-19 public health crisis. 

“I think we need to get a grant writer — and her team — working on this. Things have opened up a lot more since kids were last in school,” Conaway said.

This article was corrected on April 23. New Haven Public Schools CFO Phillip Penn clarified that only part of the deficit drop is related to Covid-related school closures.