Dear Editor: 

Another mechanism whereby the Edgecomb school board creates large surpluses is the over budgeting of expenses. The most obvious example is the over budgeting of contracted services for secondary students, that is, grades 9 to 12. This includes expenses for social work, psychology, speech, occupational therapy and physical therapy contract services.

For background, it is important to know that when an Edgecomb secondary student requires any of these services, Edgecomb pays a special education tuition to the receiving school to cover those extra expenses. Since FY2020 those special tuitions have totaled $403,589 to both public and private schools.  

During that same period, however, the Edgecomb school board budgeted another $174,668 for those same students for those same services. Exactly why those services were “double booked” is currently a mystery. Likewise, it is a mystery as to where $8,259 of those funds were actually spent. What we do know is that this over budgeting of expenses created an additional surplus of $166,409 in the general fund, destined to be spent without apparent tax payer knowledge or oversight. 

Looking closely, the budgeting for those services creates even more questions. For example, the total budget for psychology services for this and next year is $65,000 per year. Since the contracted rate for those services is $120 per hour, that budget represents 3.1 hours of psychology services every day of the school year! How is that possible for only 13 students? 

Realize this is just one of many examples of persistent over budgeting of expenses. Combined with the equally persistent under budgeting of revenue, this budgeting process creates a surplus of hundreds of thousands of dollars, destined to disappear into the general fund and be spent without further tax payer knowledge or oversight. Who reviews and approves these budgets? Demand the school board provide a clear explanation of how that surplus and the many “reserve” accounts (which we are now told have $0 (zero) balances) are being spent. The current process is unsustainable and unacceptable.  See https://edgecomb.me/ for more details. 

Kathryn Rohr MD 

Edgecomb