Middletown budget committee flags early-year transport, telephone and seasonal-salary variances

The Middletown Board of Education budget committee reviewed early fiscal-year financial reports Sept. 15 and identified several lines that require monitoring, including a deficit in special-education summer transport and a projected shortfall in communications. Chair Harold Panciera and Director of Finance Natalie Forbes said transfers and encumbrances so far have kept overall accounts balanced. Natalie Forbes, the board’s director of finance, told the committee the transportation line for extended school year (ESY) services showed a negative balance of $17,296.11 and that classified seasonal-salary spending for preparation of the Kegwin School had used $49,675.02 of its appropriation. Forbes said the communications telephone line (account code cited in the report) is early in the year but could show a small deficit and that the district currently has roughly…