Municipal officials from throughout the region were caught off guard when Gov. Dannel P. Malloy announced this month that towns would be asked to pay one-third of their teachers' pension contributions.

Now towns that send their high school students to Norwich Free Academy have received a second surprise, learning they would also be billed for one-third of NFA teacher pension costs.

Calculations of the local one-third share of the state Teacher Retirement System listed in Malloy’s proposed two-year state budget Feb. 1 already include proportional shares of the $1.6 million in NFA teacher retirement pension payments divided among 10 towns that send students to the academy.

Norwich, with 1,538 students attending NFA, according to the state Department of Education, would pay the largest percentage by far, 67.4 percent, a total of $1.08 million in the 2017-18 fiscal year. Norwich would pay another $1.12 million in Malloy's 2018-19 proposed budget. All towns that send at least a dozen students to NFA would be charged a portion of the academy’s pension costs for 195 certified faculty and 11 administrators.

Preston has the second highest enrollment at NFA with 152 students and would pay $107,378 next year and $110,868 the following year. Lisbon, with 135 students, would pay $95,369 next year and $98,469 in 2018-19. Windham and Brooklyn, with just 12 students each attending NFA, would pay $8,477 next year.

State officials used the same formula for all regional schools and the state's other endowed academies. Charter schools and speciality programs, such as those run by LEARN, the southeastern Connecticut regional education agency, were not included in the cost allocations to towns, said Chris McClure, spokesman for the state Office of Policy and Management. Overall, the state was able to assign 94.8 percent of teacher retirement costs to the local cost share formula, McClure said.

Malloy’s plan to charge the towns one-third of state teacher pension payments became controversial immediately after his budget address on Feb. 1. Municipal leaders complained that the payments would add another major financial burden on already financially strapped cities and towns.

Preston First Selectman Robert Congdon told the town Board of Selectmen Thursday that he fears local pension shares would be “the resident state trooper program all over again.” The state has been increasing local cost shares in that program over the years, and Malloy's new proposed budget calls for towns to pay 100 percent of resident troopers' salaries, benefits and overtime costs.

“We had nothing to do with negotiating it,” Congdon said of the teacher pension plan, “and nothing to do with underfunding it the past 30 years.”

The communities that send students to NFA were initially unaware that NFA’s teacher pension costs were included in Malloy’s calculations of the new teacher pension costs assigned to cities and towns.

Norwich School Business Administrator Athena Nagel said she learned that the $3.3 million listed as Norwich's local share of pension costs next year and the $3.4 million in 2018-19 included NFA after asking a state official how NFA's teacher pension costs would be assigned.

She and Norwich Superintendent Abby Dolliver have been discussing the calculations with their counterparts in other towns as well.

Norwich's total tuition bill to NFA next year will be $21.7 million, plus another $2 million in special education and transportation costs not included in the tuition bill. Overall, Nagel said, NFA costs add up to a third of the total city school budget.

And now school officials learned, the NFA pension costs would comprise a third of Norwich's $3.3 million pension bill from the state.

While Norwich officials object to paying for one-third of pension costs on NFA teacher and administrator salaries they have no say in setting, Norwich still would come out in the black in Malloy's overall school grant allocations.

Nagel said with increases in special education reimbursements included in Malloy's proposed budget, along with other education grant totals, Norwich would could out with a $4 million increase in overall education aid from the state.

NFA officials too were surprised initially at the pension calculations, spokesman Geoff Serra said. Like the towns, Serra said, NFA has no “placeholder” in its budget just approved last Tuesday for the cost of the pensions.

“Presently, we are aware that legislation proposed by the governor seeks to offload to municipalities one-third of the state's contribution to the state teacher's pension fund,” Serra said in an email on the issue. “We are unsure at this time how this will impact NFA if the bill becomes law.”

Norwich Board of Education Chairman Aaron “Al” Daniels said even if the state sent the pension bill to NFA directly, the academy would pass along the costs back to the partner districts, if not this year, then retroactively in next year's budget – along with the second year of the calculation.

“We’re going to see it this year, or we’d see it next year,” Daniels said.

c.bessette@theday.com

Portions of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's proposed one-third municipal contribution of NFA teacher retirement pensions allocated to towns:

Bozrah, 93 students, 4.08 percent of district, $65,699 in 2017-18 and $67,834 in 2018-19.

Brooklyn, 12 students, 0.53 percent of district, $8,477 in 2017-18 and $8,753 in 2018-19.

Canterbury, 66 students, 2.89 percent of district, $46,625 in 2017-18 and $48,140 in 2018-19.

Franklin, 79 students, 3.46 percent of district, $55,809 in 2017-18 and $57,622 in 2018-19.

Lisbon, 135 students, 5.92 percent of district, $95,369 in 2017-18 and $98,469 in 2018-19.

Norwich, 1,538 students, 67.4 percent of district, $1,086,501 in 2017-18 and $1,121,812 in 2018-19.

Preston, 152 students, 6.66 percent of district, $107,378 in 2017-18 and $110,868 in 2018-19.

Sprague, 94 students, 4.12 percent of district, $66,405 in 2017-18 and $68,563 in 2018-19.

Voluntown, 68 students, 2.98 percent of district, $48,038 in 2017-18 and $49,599 in 2018-19.

Windham, 12 students, 0.53 percent of district, $8,477 in 2017-18 and $8,753 in 2018-19.

Unattributed, 33 students, 1.45 percent of district, $23,312 in 2017-18 and $24,070 in 2018-19.

Totals: 2,282 students. $1,612,090 in 2017-18 and $1,664,483 in 2-018-19.

Source: Connecticut Office of Policy and Management.