MECHANIC FALLS – The school committee told Special Education Director Barbara Hasenfus on Tuesday night to cut a check to repay MaineCare for the Medicaid overpayment the school received early in 2005.
Hasenfus told the committee that the state finally has started withholding payments to recoup the overpayments made when the state changed computer systems last year.
In May, the state withheld a little more than $1,000 from Mechanic Falls’ payment which, Hasenfus said, leaves the School Department owing about $31,000.
The slowness of the drawdown made school committee Chairman Terri Arsenault nervous.
“I’d rather not have it hanging over our heads. You can’t trust the state. I don’t want to hear that the state figures it needs some money and decided to start charging us interest on what they overpaid us,” said Arsenault.
Elm Street School Principal Mary Martin assured the committee that, with a scant two weeks remaining in the fiscal year, she was confident sufficient money remained in the budget to repay the entire $31,000.
Noting that others had experienced difficulties trying to return their Medicaid overpayments, Hasenfus agreed to check with Maine state billing services to make sure that a payment in full would be accepted.
As the evening’s meeting was the first since May town meeting elections, the committee named Arsenault as chairman and Dave Griffiths as vice chairman for the coming year. After a brief executive session to discuss the attendance of Lena Schmitz, who was not present at the meeting, the committee agreed to send Schmitz a formal letter stating school committee policies on meeting attendance.
Director of Operations Gordon Murray told the committee that the solar roof project and the asbestos tile removal will begin before the end of June.
Martin noted that enrollment in next year’s kindergarten class is higher than anticipated and will require three kindergarten classes next year.
She also reported that a parent meeting to review the new report card format and the grading criteria provided excellent feedback. Martin noted that, as the new report cards evaluate work habits as well as academic performance, it will be possible to reward work efforts.
Assistant Principal Arthur Reed said he was reworking the policy on eligibility to participate in extracurricular activities, adjusting it to accommodate the new grading system. He said the school committee will be able to review the revised eligibility policy at its August meeting.
There will be no school committee meeting in July.
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