Dear Editor:

In a letter to the editor last week,  Denise Griffin asserts that the School Committee has run deficit budgets for the last three years. This is untrue. Under Maine State Law, the School Committee must operate with a balanced budget: projected expenses must be matched by predicted income.

It is true that unexpected events can upset the best plans, and in FY 23 and 24 the schools were hit with the enormous unexpected costs of dealing with the flooding at BRES. The School Committee had to scramble to use unassigned funds to meet the costs of repair over and above what insurance covered. Unassigned funds occur when expenses are lower than income. State law covers how these funds can be used.

If and when State law is silent, then the School Committee uses “best accounting” practices to guide their actions.

The School Committee does not need”wannabe” accountants as members. It needs members who will support their words of support for kids’ education with the honest and informed projection of what it costs to provide that education, within the controls of state law, good financial planning, combined with a care for what the taxpayers in our two towns can afford.

Bruce MacDonald

Boothbay