Dear Editor:

I listened closely to the March 24 joint Trustee/CSD school board budget meeting. Here are my takeaways:

The proposed FY26 school is up a whopping 9.2% excluding bond payments.  

Trustees started asking questions and the meeting got interesting.

Kudos to Trustees for hammering the administration for financial information. They have been seeking increased transparency, while the CSD board has remained silent.

Trustees were shocked to learn about a $215,000++ architect’s bill. Kahler said there was no money in the special building fund to pay for it.  Trustees had previously directed Kahler and the architect not to overspend that account.

Trustees have been asking for the FY24 final numbers for months, but the school administration has withheld the report. The Finance Director finally admitted for the first time that the school’s FY23 closed in the red, and FY24 ended with no fund balance. She said she may be able to send out an unaudited report. However, she hasn’t sent it yet!

Administrators also stated that the current FY25 budget was relying on $100,000 from the reserve fund which didn’t exist. It’s difficult to know without the FY24 final report. There is a spending freeze in place.

To summarize, FY23, FY24, FY25, and the building fund are all likely to be in the red.

Why was this information withheld for so long? This is unacceptable. 

School Board members need to support Trustees and start holding the school administration accountable.

Denise Griffin

Boothbay Harbor