LIVERMORE FALLS – Each of the three towns in RSU 73 will have more than $300,000 previously raised by taxpayers applied to its share of the 2012-13 school budget. Voters will have to re-vote to spend that money at the district budget meeting this spring.

District Business Manager Stacie Field on Thursday gave an overview to the school board of the June 30, 2011, audits of the Jay School Department and RSU 36 in Livermore and Livermore Falls. The two school school systems consolidated on July 1, 2011.

The remaining money previously raised by taxpayers in each town for school budgets will go back into the school’s general fund and that allows the district to use it in a subsequent budget, Field said.

Since the 2011-12 budget was set prior to the audit being completed, leftover money is to be used in the next year to offset each town’s share of the budget, she said.

When the district holds its districtwide budget meeting in May or June, voters will be asked to re-vote on the money they approved for the 2010-11 budget to be spent on the 2012-13 budget, Field said.

“Because this is the first year of the new RSU, each town will be getting credits for funds previously raised,” Field said.

Livermore’s credit is $337,226 . Livermore Falls’ credit is $317,915 and Jay’s is $381,495, Field said.

The combined credit for the two RSU 36 towns was $655,181.38 and it was dispersed by valuation, the same way the towns share of the budget was assessed for taxes when they belonged to RSU 36. Livermore’s share is 51.48 percent and Livermore Falls’ share is 48.52 percent, she said.

Field told the board that the results of the June 30, 2011, audit showed that RSU 36 had overspent its federal Title 1 funds by $28,918 for that year. The program helps students in need of extra help in reading and math.

The overage was taken out of RSU 36’s general fund and the state and federal government were notified, she said.

In Jay’s case, though Field and Superintendent Robert Wall disputed it with auditors, Jay School Department’s food service line was overspent by $16,635, Field said.

When Wall first became superintendent of the Jay school system, he asked voters in 2003 to transfer $55,689 from the school’s $332,000 unexpended fund balance to eliminate a food service deficit. Voters approved the measure.

But auditors insisted the Jay school system still owed the town of Jay $16,635, Field said Thursday. The money was taken out of Jay school’s general fund and paid to balance the account, she said.

Field also reported to the board that school systems have a new reimbursement system for federal grants. A district first has to spend the money before the federal government reimburses it.

dperry@sunjournal.com

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