LIVERMORE FALLS – By the end of the school year, the food service program should end with a balance of about $10,000, interim Superintendent David Wallace said Tuesday.

The district has been trying to pay down a debt to itself on paper that has ranged from $150,000 to $200,000 since 2004. The debt was accumulated over years.

Several things were done to try to eliminate the debt, including going with a new food service contractor.

Former Superintendent Terry Despres started tackling it in 2004 by asking voters to raise money each year for the specific purpose of reducing it.

Voters in Livermore and Livermore Falls approved raising the money each year for that effort.

However, Wallace told the SAD 36 Finance Committee on Feb. 12 that there was still a deficit of about $150,000 on the books.

After researching the issue with auditors last week, Wallace said Tuesday, it turned out that the $55,000 raised in each of 2006-07 and 2007-08 – $110,000 in total – had reverted to surplus instead of being applied to the food service deficit.

Wallace and auditors did journal entries last week and took the $110,000 out of the surplus fund balance and put it in the food service account.

With the $40,000 raised in this year’s budget to reduce the debt, when they close the books this year, there will be no more debt in the food service program, Wallace said.

There was no misappropriation of funds, Wallace said; the money was just left in fund balance.

He will advise the school board to also leave the estimated $10,000 balance in the food service account, instead of rolling it into surplus.

Food service is supposed to be self-sufficient, he said.