Free Cash Available for 2013 Mansfield Schools Budget

Mansfield schools director of finance and operations Edward Vozzella said on Tuesday that more funds will be available in the next fiscal year budget than previously expected.

Vozzella said that though there are many projects still in the preliminary phases, some teacher salaries and decreases in estimates for captial projects will result in leftover money that was budgeted for this year.

"Hopefully [the money] will find its way back to us in the form of free cash for next year," he said.

He said that exact numbers on teacher salaries are not in yet because teachers have the option of taking their summer stipend in the form of a lump sum or monthly pay, but that once everything's closed he'll have a full report.

Capital projects are also coming into play in saving money that was previously thought reserved for repairs. 

Vozzella said that the Mansfield High School gym repairs would be less than originally anticiapted. The gym wall on the far side currently has a crack, which could be extremely dangerous, but Vozzella said that Maguire Group, who did the renovations for the gym six years ago, analyzed the crack and found it to be only onthe outer wall and not the inner wall, bringing the estimate of repairs down from $500,000-$600,000 to about $300,000.

Vozzella said that town accountant John Stambrook is doing a lot of work to find extra funds that were not necessarily apparent before. 

"He's cleaning up old grants from prior years," he said. "It's all thanks to John, we're really glad to have him back."

Stambrook left Mansfield for nine months to work in Cohasset, but decided to come back in October of 2011.