Norwich — The sudden closure of schools in mid-March allowed the public school system to cut some expenses drastically, shrinking an anticipated year-end deficit from well over $1 million down to $750,000 by the June 30 close of the fiscal year.

Savings realized from several city departments will cover the final school deficit, City Manager John Salomone said, without need to deplete the city’s undesignated surplus fund. The City Council at its 7:30 p.m. meeting Tuesday will consider several budget transfers to cover the school budget deficit.

A year ago, long before COVID-19 changed nearly everything about education, school officials projected the 2019-20 school budget would have a $4.5 million budget deficit by the end of the year. A spending freeze and adjustments made throughout the budget helped to shrink the anticipated deficit to $1.4 million by March.

Then schools shut down. Gov. Ned Lamont’s executive orders aimed at protecting workers and businesses mandated that Norwich still pay for school buses not running and for teachers’ and support staff salaries before remote learning was initiated.

But school Business Administrator Athena Nagel said the district was able to save significant money because of the shutdown, including $900,000 in transportation costs, $580,000 in salaries of furloughed nonunion substitutes and temporary staff, $190,000 in heat and electricity and $200,000 in contracted health services, mostly in-school special education support staff for students.

Nagel said the school budget also had overruns, most notably about $1.08 million in health insurance costs.

Added costs for remote education and other things related to the pandemic were not covered with budgeted money, Nagel said. Once the school district learned it would receive state funding for COVID-19 costs, the city created a separate account to pay for the grant-funded costs.

On the city side, Salomone said the biggest savings were realized in the police budget, where overtime costs were $230,000 under budget, and Public Works, which turned back $220,000 in unspent budgeted funds, mainly because of the lack of snow last winter. Another $90,000 in the contingency account was not spent, and there were savings in several departments for positions not filled.

“So, we were able to cover their whole deficit without having to appropriate any money from the fund balance,” Salomone said, “which was something we were really worried about. The bad news is that there was a deficit we have to cover.”

c.bessette@theday.com