BRISTOL — The Newfound Area School Board has approved the use of unspent money in its operating budget to install a modular classroom at Danbury Elementary School.
The board originally intended to take $200,000 from the Building Maintenance Expendable Trust Fund for the project, but after learning it would be illegal to use the money for that purpose, members asked Business Manager Robin Reinhold to check into the legality of dipping into unexpended funds, as long as there would be sufficient money to do so.
Reinhold reported back on April 9, estimating that $917,000 would be available after all anticipated expenses before the end of the fiscal year have been paid. Doing the calculations was not easy, she noted, because the district’s financial software has not recovered from a security breach last fall, and she is using consumer software to handle the district’s accounting.
Fran Wendelboe, the board member from New Hampton, suggested holding a special school district meeting to correct the board’s error in not placing the modular classroom on the 2024 warrant.
“My understanding is, in the past, we’ve always had a warrant article,” Wendelboe said. “In this case, we will not; it will be a board decision to use existing money that looks like, at the end of the year, will be there.”
Saying she thinks the district purposely circumvented normal procedures, she asked the board to petition the New Hampshire Department of Revenue Administration for permission to hold a special school district meeting so voters can decide whether to use money that otherwise would be returned to reduce taxation.
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