Finance Board Approves $478,000 School Bond Shift

Board of Finance · Meeting of June 15, 2026

Guilford's Board of Finance approved shifting $478,000 in unspent bond funds to cover an emergency pipe repair at Melissa Jones School. Finance Director Mary Jane said the repair bid came in above the original $975,000 estimate, so the board pulled savings from two other Melissa Jones projects that finished under budget. "We borrow what we've spent.

This money hasn't been spent yet," Mary Jane told members. The board also unanimously accepted a $5,709,602.41 May expenditure report from the Board of Education and a $2,945,544 town government report, and moved $101,162.89 in uncollectible 2023 taxes to suspense. Chairman Michael Ayles noted Guilford's town budget heads to a third referendum Tuesday, saying, "fingers crossed, third time's the charm."

In the full story:

• Who Was There
• Organizations And Documents Referenced
• The complete report — 2,363 words

Source: the Board of Finance meeting of June 15, 2026, reported from the official video recording and transcript.

Checked against the record: before publication this article was automatically compared with the meeting transcript.

The Full Article

Approval of Minutes

The board took up two sets of minutes with only editorial corrections, not substantive. On the May 18 regular meeting minutes, a member asked to change a verb tense in the committee-reports section ("has" to "had," describing a completed audit subcommittee meeting). The minutes were approved with one member abstaining because that member had not attended the May 18 meeting. On the May 26 special meeting minutes, members corrected a term from "A and B districts" to "A and B DRGs," short for district reference group, fixed a typo where a reference to additional permit technicians should have read "two" rather than an incomplete phrase, and corrected a line attributed to a member (rendered in the minutes as "Mr. Harmon," almost certainly Board of Finance member Robert Hartmann) that said the board would know by "next year" whether a budget approach was right; members agreed the correct meaning was "next month," tied to the referendum calendar. Both sets of minutes passed with one abstention each.

Correspondence: Standing Building Committee

David DeMayo, chairman of the Standing Building Committee, joined by phone to walk the board through three sets of committee minutes, from April 7, May 5 and June 2. He said a facility needs assessment originally scheduled for May 27 was postponed until after the town budget passes, and that a long-running police department facility study is "proceeding." Asked directly whether there was anything pressing, DeMayo raised two items. First, the town is pushing back on the design firm Silver Petrucelli over a cooling problem in the Baldwin Middle School gymnasium: cold air from the HVAC system is not reaching floor level, leaving warm, stagnant air in the space. "There's some stratification issues with the cool air not falling to the ground where the duct unit is," DeMayo said, adding that Silver Petrucelli has proposed a corrective design but the town is questioning "whether that should have been part of the original proposals in the original bid."

Second, DeMayo reported a test fit that morning for a new police station with Silver Petrucelli "went very well," and that the committee hopes the Board of Selectmen will invite the Board of Finance to a presentation in early July on the project's programming and initial architect budget. He noted some of that process may occur in executive session for security reasons before public programming sessions follow.

A board member asked DeMayo about a proposal raised earlier in the month by Kevin McGee to build a garage near the East River Preserve. DeMayo said it was one of McGee's "future projects," tied to relocating equipment currently stored at the town's public works facility, and contingent on a larger, unresolved question of whether the town eventually relocates its public works operation to a site near Long Hill and Route 80. A town official identified in the discussion only as the first selectman clarified that the garage proposal "has not yet met with any approval or any blessing from the Board of Selectmen" and would compete for attention against a long list of other capital projects.

Correspondence: Pension Committee

The board noted pension committee minutes and an investment report were on file with no issues raised; a member described the latest investment "snapshot" as "good." No discussion followed, and the item required no vote.

Board of Education Expenditure Report, May 2026

The Board of Education's business staff, Linda Trudeau and Jennifer Scroggins, presented the May report. Expenditures for the month totaled $5,709,602.41, or 84.42 percent of budget, essentially flat against 84.61 percent spent through the same point in the 2024-2025 fiscal year. Revenue for May was $278,971.61, drawn from non-resident tuition, Medicaid reimbursement and the state's excess cost grant; the excess cost grant reimbursement rate came in at 66.8 percent on a total grant of $834,505. The district's non-lapsing education account held a balance of $152,193.51 with $1,562.30 in interest earned to date. The monthly warrant submitted for board approval totaled $2,283,447.19.

Scroggins told the board the district's tuition line is now projected to finish $912,000 under budget, which, netted against an estimated $125,000 overage in contracted services, leaves roughly $786,000 available. She attributed the swing to ten students whose budgeted costs did not materialize this year, some having graduated early, moved out of town or returned to the district. "We've had a very unusual year of changes that really worked to our favor," Scroggins said. She added that the Board of Education is discussing, without a final decision, directing some year-end unexpended funds into the district's non-lapsing account and some into the town's medical trust fund to offset a declining balance there; she estimated the amounts involved could reach six figures, "easily... 300,000 to each," cautioning that two months of expenditures remain before the fiscal year closes June 30.

Other items flagged in the warrant and expenditure detail: an unbudgeted cost from a student trip to Italy, where travelers were delayed an extra week and had to be met by three different buses at two airports (two trips to Logan, one to JFK) after insurance and the district's credit card company both declined to cover the expense, which Scroggins called "an act of God" not covered by policy; a safety-and-sanitation account carrying roughly $580,000 in open encumbrances that a facilities supervisor referred to in the discussion as "Mr. Burnham" (also rendered "Garnham" elsewhere in the discussion) is expected to close out before year-end; declining electricity costs after a rate switch; athletic uniform replacement costs partly offset by the student activity fund; and a legal services line running slightly higher than last year but within budget, tied to Freedom of Information Act cases rather than ongoing litigation. A board member asked about a line item for "Navigate 360," listed under the safety and sanitation account; Scroggins clarified it was security-related site mapping for first responders, not a sanitation expense, and that the account name was simply where it had been charged. The board voted unanimously to accept the May report of expenditures in the amount of $5,709,602.41.

Town Government Expenditure Report, May 2026

Finance Director Mary Jane presented the town-side report. Revenue through May stood at 101.2 percent of budget, roughly $1.5 million ahead of plan. She highlighted the town clerk's office, at 86 percent of its revenue target but entering what she called one of its strongest months, having already brought in $40,000 in licensing fees in the first week and a half of June, dog-license renewal month. The golf course was tracking near 90 percent of its revenue goal. Mary Jane said golf revenue projections for fiscal year 2026-2027 will be lower because of a "make good" the town extended to season-ticket holders who could not play in September, October and part of November the prior year; a board member, Robert Hartmann, sought clarification on whether that shortfall had been fully resolved, and Mary Jane said the matter "has totally been taken care of" operationally, though the revenue effect carries into next year. Overall, she estimated the town will close the year with roughly $2 million in surplus revenue, better than the prior year.

On expenditures, the town side was 95 percent spent. Information systems is running over budget, with the shortfall to be covered by funds moved from a committed IT reserve once the year closes; the insurance line is expected to be made whole by year-end quarterly reimbursements from the library and the waste transfer station. Public works overtime is over budget by more than $100,000, which Mary Jane said the public works director is working to offset elsewhere in the department's budget. The Registrar of Voters' line is expected to finish with money left over, which the finance office already anticipated by reducing the fiscal 2027 budget for that office. The legal services line also is expected to finish with a surplus despite the cost of the town's three budget referendums this cycle; asked directly, Mary Jane confirmed there is "more than enough" in other line items to cover Tuesday's referendum cost.

On the town's self-insured medical fund, Mary Jane reported catastrophic claims at 71.4 percent, just above the 70 percent level the finance office watches closely. Thirty-eight plan members are now over half of the plan's $175,000 stop-loss threshold, and 14 are over the full threshold, five more members and one more over the top threshold than the comparable point last year. She said the fund is still projected to show a shortfall for the year but with a small positive balance remaining, which she estimated at approximately $866,000 in fund balance. "We're at least holding our own at the moment," she said.

The board voted unanimously to approve the town government report of expenditures for May 2026 in the amount of $2,945,544.

Tax Collector's Suspense List

Mary Jane explained that moving delinquent accounts to the "suspense" list does not end collection efforts; it simply reflects their age and removes them from the town's active collection-rate calculation, though the tax collector continues pursuing payment and occasionally recovers money from suspended accounts. The board voted unanimously to approve the tax collector's recommendation to move $101,162.89 in uncollectible 2023 grand list taxes to the suspense list, as detailed in the tax collector's memo dated May 22, 2026.

Transfer of Unexpended Bond Funds, Melissa Jones School

This item arose because an emergency pipe repair at Melissa Jones School required the town to bond for the work before staff had time to fully engineer the project or obtain a precise cost. The resulting bid came in above the $975,000 estimate, which had been built on a 2012 facilities needs assessment plus an escalation factor. The board was asked to approve moving $478,000 in unexpended, already-authorized bond funds from two other Melissa Jones projects, an elevator upgrade and a window and door replacement, both of which finished under their authorized budgets, to cover the shortfall on the pipe project.

Mary Jane told the board the town's bond counsel generally allows informal reallocation between similar projects (a roof-to-roof shift, for instance) without a formal vote, but recommended a formal transfer here because the projects involved, pipe repair, an elevator and windows and doors, are different in kind. A member asked whether the underlying bond proceeds, some originally authorized in 2019 or 2020, were sitting in cash or had been raised in the bond market. "We haven't gone to market for it... we borrow what we've spent. This money hasn't been spent yet, so we have not borrowed against it," Mary Jane said, explaining that the town avoids borrowing ahead of need to steer clear of arbitrage restrictions on reinvesting bond proceeds at a higher rate than the borrowing rate. She said authorizations are typically kept open for years and reused for similar projects rather than closed out immediately, calling it a way to "get small projects done that we don't have to go back to the voters for."

The board voted unanimously to approve the $478,000 transfer, as outlined in the finance director's memo dated June 12, 2026.

Old Business

The chairman reported the town's planned medical insurance task force remains on hold until the budget passes, after which members will be appointed. He also noted that Guilford's town budget faces its third referendum vote Tuesday, June 16, from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. at all polling locations. "I think I can confidently say, fingers crossed, third time's the charm," the chairman said.

New Business and Public Forum

No items were raised under new business, and no one appeared for the closing public forum. The board adjourned after brief personal remarks from the chair, including a note about an upcoming July 4 holiday and a birthday acknowledgment to his son, both procedural asides not tied to town business.

WHO WAS THERE

Board of Finance members: Michael Ayles, functioning as chair in the recording (roster lists him as Chair as of the most recent snapshot; role not independently stated by title in this transcript but consistent with his running of the meeting and being addressed to sign town documents). Robert Hartmann participated in discussion, asking about golf course revenue and bond mechanics. Other current roster members, Meghan Scanlon, Amy Earls, Jeffrey Beatty and Elias Kabeche, were not individually named in the transcript; their attendance at this specific meeting is not confirmed in the available sources. Todd Fanciullo's roster term begins September 10, 2026, after this meeting, so he was not yet a seated member on June 15, 2026.

Staff and outside parties: Mary Jane, identified in the discussion as the town's finance official and author of the memos cited for the suspense-list and Melissa Jones bond transfer items (title of Finance Director inferred from context; surname not given in the transcript). Linda Trudeau and Jennifer Scroggins, Board of Education finance staff, presented the May expenditure report. David DeMayo, chairman of the Standing Building Committee, reported by phone. An unnamed town official referred to as "the first selectman" answered a question about Kevin McGee's garage proposal. Kevin McGee was referenced as the originator of a proposed public works garage near the East River Preserve; his title was not stated in the transcript.

No members of the public appeared during either public forum period.

ORGANIZATIONS AND DOCUMENTS REFERENCED

Silver Petrucelli — architecture firm cited in the Standing Building Committee update, both for the Baldwin Middle School gym cooling-system dispute and for a police station "test fit" design session.

Guilford Board of Education — source of the May 2026 expenditure and tuition reports presented by Trudeau and Scroggins.

Board of Selectmen — approved the Melissa Jones School emergency repair bid before it came to the Board of Finance; also the body expected to extend an invitation for a future police station presentation.

Finance director's memo, dated June 12, 2026 — cited as the authorizing document for the $478,000 Melissa Jones School bond fund transfer.

Tax collector's memo, dated May 22, 2026 — cited as the authorizing document for the $101,162.89 suspense list transfer for the 2023 grand list.

May 18, 2026 and May 26, 2026 Board of Finance minutes — both corrected and approved at this meeting.