Light at the end of tunnel for school budget

WINSTED — Winsted’s school system is still in the red this week, but Town Manager Wayne Dove offered some positive news to the Winchester Board of Selectmen Monday night, announcing that The Gilbert School has agreed to give $37,000 back to the town for the current fiscal year.

Town Finance Director Henry Centrella delivered the raw numbers at Monday’s regular meeting, placing the school budget deficit at $190,015.

That overspend is partially offset by the Gilbert contribution, resulting in a net deficit of $153,015.

Dove thanked Gilbert representatives for helping with the deficit. “To [Gilbert Superintendent] David Cressy and the rest of that board, I salute you,� he said.

Dove also said a $1,116,000 influx of federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funds has been fully accounted for this year. Financial assistants Mara Gieseking and Diane Gieseking (stepmother of Mara) have been poring over numbers during the past two weeks in an attempt to close out as much of the school district’s budget as they can by the end of the fiscal year.

“It appears to be an incredibly tedious procedure,� Dove said, noting that some of the numbers received by Centrella came through on a Sunday morning, suggesting the Gieseking duo has been working long overtime hours to reconcile accounts.

Staff members have been compiling numbers in the absence of the school system’s head accountant, Ed Evanouskas, since he was placed on an unpaid furlough earlier this month. His absence is expected to last at least through the end of the fiscal year, June 30.

Selectmen briefly discussed the possibility of subjecting the school system to an operation audit of the school budget, but tabled the issue pending the final numbers for the fiscal year.

Dove also noted that Salerno had presented him with an unofficial summary of the 2010-11 school budget of $19.04 million, which was presented at a school finance committee meeting Tuesday night.

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