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Chief Finance Officer Linda Hannans: Belt-tightening time.
New Haven Public Schools has placed a halt on most spending requests through the end of the academic year to close a $4 million deficit.
NHPS Chief Finance Officer (CFO) Linda Hannans offered that update Monday evening during her monthly financial report to the Board of Ed’s Finance and Operations (F&O) Committee.
As of Feb. 29 the schools general fund deficit for this fiscal year is at $4,076,740. That’s down from December’s $5,876,740.
Hannans said the district is “only accepting purchase orders that are needed to get schools through the end of the year.”
Hannans described a rerun scenario from last year: The district used similar methods to close a $4.5 million deficit in the last quarter of fiscal year 2022 – 23. In addition to the purchase order limits, her team is reallocating unspent grant funds to cover other needs where applicable, closely reviewing hire requests to ensure “that the new hire is coming at a appropriate salary based on experience and looking at individual building needs,” surveying other similar districts to determine if NHPS tuition reimbursement rates are in line, and using remaining federal pandemic-relief money to cover Saturday academy, overtime custodians and security, and school programs.
NHPS officials previously predicted they would be dealing with a deficit similar to last year’s because of unmet budget request in recent years and inequitable state funding.
At Monday’s meeting Hannans said that a day earlier all school building orders were put on hold with the exception of field trips.
She later added in a Tuesday email to the Independent that “all departments had until March 15th to submit final orders to get them through the remainder of the school year. Now we are only accepting purchase orders for the remainder of the year for emergencies, field trips and graduation if budgeted.”
Hannans said she isn’t sure how much the paused department spending will save the district until all current orders are processed and encumbered.
In follow-up requests for information from the Independent, she and schools spokesman Justin Harmon declined to identify specific kinds of purchase orders that will be put on hold.
She said she hopes to have the savings number in the next financial report for F&O. That committee will meet April 1 at 4:30 p.m via Zoom.
On the grants side, NHPS is processing all orders that are received once vetted, Hannans said.