Board presses for clearer school grant and capital reporting as AES faces projects
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Summary
Members urged AES and the Board of Education to provide clearer monthly revenue/expenditure presentation (including grant timing and midyear grants), produce a capital plan, and supply aggregate, nonidentifying payroll/benefits data; AES staff agreed to provide grant schedules and aggregate financials to inform budgeting.
Board members told school finance and administrators they need clearer, consistent monthly reports that show both expected revenues (grants, tuition, other income) and expenditures so the town can evaluate net operating needs. The concern surfaced during review of AES budget materials presented to the Board of Finance: members said they want a distinct revenue section that shows expected grant installments and notation for grants that arrive midyear and create obligations.
Jody, who joined the meeting to respond to finance questions, said some grants (for example, Title I and an early-start pre-K grant) are already netted out of the operating budget when AES is certain they will be received. Jody noted that the early-start pre-K award (about $66,000) arrives in installments and that when grants are expected they are used to offset operating items at budget time. She also said some grants are time-limited (Jody and others noted some ARPA-funded school-mental-health grants are set to expire in mid-2026) and that benefits and insurance remain a substantial share of school costs: a presenter said roughly 64% of expenditures are related to employee costs with approximately 16.5% for medical insurance in the budget summary provided to the board.
On capital planning, members reiterated requests for a multi-year plan (5–10 years) that explicitly lists projects, timing, and rough cost estimates so the Board of Finance can evaluate funding strategies (annual appropriations, notes, grant matches). Several participants said the AES superintendent and Board of Education have previously started a plan but it has not been completed; the Board of Finance asked the superintendent and Board of Education to finalize a capital plan and to work with the town’s Capital Improvement Program process.
Next steps: AES agreed to flag midyear grants, provide an aggregate (nonidentifying) summary of payroll and benefits by program to the Board of Finance, and deliver the June 30 final custom expenditure report to support reconciliation of transfers and spending.