Saugus schools save on utilities

SAUGUS-Although Superintendent Richard Langlois issued a spending freeze in October, the School Department is gathering a nice little nest egg in utility savings.Financial Director Richard Weeks told the School Committee Thursday that he is predicting the heating oil account will end up $56,103 in the black while the heating gas account will be plus by $34,570.Weeks had budgeted $201,719 for oil and $450,308 for gas – up 18 percent over last year – because he was warned that prices which began climbing precariously last year would continue to rise. Instead, prices fell back to almost the levels of October and November 2007.Weeks said it also didn’t hurt that the department topped off the oil tanks in May, which lead to a reduction in need heading into fiscal 2009.”The Saugus Public Schools benefited from not having to pay for oil at its peak of $4.70 per gallon on August 4, 2008,” Weeks wrote in a memo to the School Committee.Weeks said while there is insufficient data to make an updated forecast for electricity and telephone, Weeks said he expected those bills to go down as well.On the flip side, when the School Committee voted to fund Week’s list of bills, he noted that the amount was down significantly. Suspecting there might be cuts coming from the state, Weeks said Langlois issued a spending freeze at the end of October.”Typically we would be spending more money at this time but we powered down the spending,” he said.Despite the spending freeze, the committee voted to transfer $24,420 to provide transportation for athletic groups that typically would have used the school’s van to get to games. Langlois said the van had to be taken out of service, which left a number of smaller teams and some clubs without a ride.Langlois said the $24,420 would cover bus trips for the teams for the remainder of the year. He said he wasn’t forgetting about the clubs that might need a lift to events as well, however he said those expenditures would be addressed as they arise.”This is just the first wave of transfers,” he said.Langlois said the funding was made up from a favorable balance in one of the special education accounts and would provide for 66 bus trips at a little over $300 apiece.