A box of 72 Ticonderoga brand wood-cased No. 2 pencils runs about $16 on Amazon. There's a pool of money sitting untouched, held by the state treasurer for Waterbury Public Schools, for example, to buy 2,500 boxes of pencils.

It's Waterbury's money: Unclaimed funds being held by the state Treasury Department, a total of $39,043.21 made up by 27 individual assets. Some are small — 2 cents here, 50 cents there, $1.35 — but a few are far larger.

One asset is worth $15,582.71. Another is worth $14,420.65, both held by the state since 2011, and the Waterbury Public School District is not alone.

A CT Insider review of Connecticut's "Big List" of unclaimed property revealed many thousands of dollars, perhaps millions, that belong to public and private schools across the state.

There's an asset worth $13,059.74 being held by the state treasurer for New London Public Schools. There's another worth $11,645 held for Hartford Public Schools, two assets totaling more than $20,000 held for Middletown High School, and the list goes on.

The largest single sum is $241,352.06 being held by the state for a school called the Kolburne School in Wilton, which, according to state records, was incorporated in 1965 and was dissolved 20 years later.

"The list was a little more difficult in the past to navigate and to find," said state Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff, D-Norwalk. "But now that it's easier, thanks to the treasurer's office and pressure from the legislature, that money can go back in the districts' hands because as we do know, every dollar matters and every penny counts, especially when there's been shortages over the years."

The so-called "Big List" is a database of assets turned over to the state treasurer: money residents and organizations are owed that for whatever reason did not get deposited. To claim it, a person or organization must do so online and submit their claim and any supportive documentation proving their ownership. By law, that money is held by the state treasurer until it's claimed, perhaps indefinitely.

"Unclaimed assets include, but are not limited to: savings or checking accounts, un-cashed checks, matured certificates of deposit, stocks, bonds or mutual funds, travelers' checks or money orders, and proceeds from life insurance policies," according to the Treasury Department website. "These assets are held in the custody of the treasurer until claimants come forward to claim their property."

Tyler Van Buren, state Treasury Department spokesperson, said "it's their money. It's theirs to claim back," and people and agencies do, in fact, claim it.

"Already a billion dollars, over the course of the program, has been returned," he said. "There is property in there from almost a century ago."

Last year, the state treasury compiled all the properties that could be linked to a municipality and sent a list to local finance departments, and Van Buren said, "We'll continue to make similar outreach, especially at events where we can connect with many local officials at once, but we also really want to emphasize the importance of checking the Big List on a regular basis — at least once per year — to accelerate the process of getting these funds back to their rightful owners."

Waterbury's director of finance, Michael LeBlanc, said they review the list "from time to time" to "assess opportunities to recover unclaimed funds designated for the City of Waterbury, including Waterbury Public Schools."

"Treasury's last review was completed in August 2023 resulting in the successful recovery of $23,639.66 in unclaimed funds," LeBlanc said, though a city spokesperson did not know why an additional $40,000 went unclaimed.

Recently, state auditors uncovered unclaimed property owned by 18 technical high schools, 117 assets totaling $60,670 held as far back as 2006, as low as $1 and as high as $35,828.

A search for the term "school" on the unclaimed property list revealed more than 8,300 individual unclaimed assets held by the state, though that list includes not only public and private schools but also colleges, driving schools and more.

In total, unclaimed funds held by the state for organizations with the word "school" in their name amounted to more than $3.1 million.

Not all of the sums are significant. "Unclaimed property is one of those weird things. You never quite know," Van Buren said. "You could have 1,000 claims in there that are 10 cents each."

There are 16 individual assets held by the state for Bethel Public Schools, Bethel High School and Bethel Middle School, totaling $3,683.32. One is worth $1.04, another is worth $500, and so on.

"I just literally didn't know it existed," said Bethel Schools Superintendent Christine Carver, though she later learned that district finance staff had recently claimed $1,300, a sum that may not be included in the total $3,683.

When asked how she might use the money after it's claimed, Carver said she would send it back to the individual schools, where it should have gone in the first place.

"I would want the school to use it in an area that they felt was appropriate, related to their school improvement plan or any type of need that they have within the school that they wouldn't otherwise have funding for," she said.

Fran Rabinowitz, executive director of the Connecticut Association for Public School Superintendents, said "every dollar counts," but that it would have been nice to know the funds were there.

"I think that schools probably were not aware that they were even on this list," she said.

In the case of the $241,000 asset owned by the Kolburne School, there may not be an easy resolution, unless someone with a connection to the school emerges after 40 years and can prove their ownership.

"The state has an obligation to return all property that a rightful owner claims, with no time limit for them to do so," Van Buren said. "In this example, if there is an entity that exists with the legal authority to claim ownership of those funds, they would have to provide that documentation as part of the claims process. Given how long ago the funds were turned over to the state, it is possible — likely, even — that they will never be claimed."