School and City Financial Merger

Problem

The financial software that the Board of Education uses in Middletown is outdated and inefficient, not allowing the school system to meet Connecticut’s state standards on financial reporting. Furthermore, the lack of coordination and transparency between city and school finances often leads to duplicative efforts and a lack of understanding how funds are being used each year. 

Solution

Mayor Dan Drew helped lead the merger of financial operations between Middletown’s city hall and school system in order to save millions, prevent future litigation, and enable more transparent public school expenditures. The integration will provide upgraded software that will help make financial reporting more efficient for both the city and schools. By using the same software, the city will be also able to remove duplicative efforts between the two parties and help provide a better understanding for how city and school finances are being spent. Mayor Drew also hopes that this plan will ameliorate some of the pressure from school funding on local regressive tax rates by improving communication between city and school finances.