Danbury finance committee recommends Sept. 30 financial statement after review of encumbrances, Alliance grant and audit timing

The Danbury School District finance committee voted to recommend the district's financial statement for the period ending Sept. 30, 2025, to the full board after a detailed review of year-to-date expenditures, encumbrances and open grant items.

The recommendation followed a staff presentation showing month-to-date general fund expenditures of about $13.6 million and fiscal-year-to-date spending near $19.1 million, with roughly $113.3 million encumbered and approximately $39 million unencumbered as of the September close. "We have a $113,000,000 encumbered," Mike said during his presentation.

The committee pressed staff on several recurring accounting issues. Members asked why some salary and program lines show large negative variances; staff said those are primarily classification or coding issues that will be corrected once the district finalizes a two-step process: Alliance grant tagging and the annual human-resources staffing report. "The Alliance grant ... got kicked back on a technicality dealing with how we tag certain initiatives," Mike said. He and grants staff plan to retag items and, after the human-resources staffing report locks positions, reclassify payroll and benefit charges between Alliance and the general fund.

Committee members said the negative balances make the monthly report harder to interpret. "The numbers here with all these variances ... don't really give a good picture," Rich Giannelli said, urging staff to finish the reclassifications quickly so the financials present a clearer picture to board and council members.

Staff described the expected cleanup timeline. "I would say probably ... within about 30 days," Mike said when asked how long reclassification and cleanup might take, but he cautioned staff did not want to rush corrections before the Alliance grant is fully approved.

The committee also discussed specific budget lines. Staff said an observed $1.2 million activity against a "district software and licenses" line likely reflects costs to be moved to an ARPA-funded grants account (about $7.7 million rolled forward into the current grants fund last year). On benefits, staff reported $2.6 million in claims in September and noted weekly electronic debits and monthly accounts-payable invoices for Cigna averaging about $289,000; staff cautioned utilization and specialty drugs could increase costs later in the year.

On grants, staff said the Alliance grant is the district's largest and that once the grant award number and staffing report are finalized they will refresh a detailed spreadsheet pulled from the state eGMS grants-management system to show planned charges by salary and benefit line. "Once that's completed, that's kind of step 1 of a 2 step process," Mike said about the grant and staffing reports.

The committee also received an update on the 2024 audit. Staff reported the audit remained in review and that auditors were on track to finish by the end of October; once the audit is certified staff said they will bring motions to transfer any designated surplus to the district's designated account. "When the amount is finalized, I bring that to the committee," Mike said, describing the planned approval and transfer steps.

Committee members proposed two standing goals for the finance committee: restoring credibility in published financial statements and increasing transparency to board and council members. Members suggested educational sessions early in the calendar year to explain how the budget and health benefits work and recommended quarterly briefings to legislative stakeholders so the district's financial position is better understood in advance of year-end reporting.

Action: the committee took one formal motion. A member moved and another seconded a recommendation that the Sept. 30, 2025 financial statement be forwarded to the full board; the motion was approved with the committee vocalizing three ayes. The committee agreed to defer a separate analysis of the impact of the city's funding allocation on educational programming to a future meeting when the appropriate staff (Tara) could attend.

Staff additions and next steps: Angela and Mike said they recently added Jessica Roke as a full-time secretary for the finance team. Staff reiterated they will (1) await Alliance award approval and the human-resources staffing report, (2) perform month-end reclassifications as part of the close process or return requisitions for correct coding, and (3) refresh grant-detail spreadsheets from eGMS once grant numbers are available.

The committee adjourned after the vote.