$1.275 Million Surplus Funds Discussed At School Board

The school district has received $1,275,000 in surplus this year from School Care. And school officials have plenty of ideas as to how to spend that money.

School District Human Resources Director Suzy Swenson told the school board at its Tuesday, Aug. 5 meeting that the New Hampshire School Health Care Coalition, of which School Care is a part, is a partnership between management and labor and assists public entities address issues affecting health insurance quality, service and costs.

“When we do our bud-get we always estimate what the health care premiums are going to be as we gather the rates from health care providers,” School District Business Administrator Peter Curro said. “They use the enrollment data of Oct. 1 and we calculate what the cost of premiums will be for the district.”

Curro said the Bureau of Securities Regulation and School Care actuaries disagreed, with the regulators saying $1,275,000 needed to be returned.

Curro had a long list of ways to spend the money.

He said the returned money could be used for lights on the lacrosse field at a cost of $70,000, FY 16 equipment purchases at $160,000, a courtyard project at North School at $21,000, FY15 year-end surplus at $500,000 to fund the engineering and architectural costs of the proposed auditorium, curr-iculum needs acceleration at $200,000, maintenance projects at $250,000 and a FY 15 year-end deposit to the undesignated fund balance.

Board member Steve Young said, however, that he would be opposed to any spending and that the money should be set aside for future needs.

School Board Chairman Leitha Reilly asked if there were any restrictions on use of the money.

“No, this is money that has been deemed by the regulators as excess reserves,” Curro said. “What we’re suggesting is using this money – some of it goes to reserve and some of it is used.”

Reilly said she would be interested in some of the spending items he listed.

The board’s consensus was to table the issue until the Aug. 26 school board meeting.