Barre school maintenance fund replenished
Toolbox
By DAVID DELCORE STAFF WRITER - Published: November 27, 2009
BARRE – Who knew Bill Gates would play a pivotal role in resolving a simmering dispute involving a 15-year-old fund that was created to finance expensive repairs to the city's centralized elementary school?
That's exactly what happened earlier this week when school commissioners unanimously agreed to credit roughly $75,000 that the school district belatedly recovered through a class-action lawsuit against Gates-led Microsoft Corp. to a fund they recently discovered hasn't been accumulating the interest it should have.
Just when it appeared the board might request the sort of financial forensics that Chairman Shane LaFlower said would provide a "complete history" of the school's long-term maintenance fund, members rallied behind an alternative suggested by School Commissioner Ken Savoie.
Savoie said he seriously questioned whether the board could ever precisely determine how much interest is actually owed the fund and rather than take the time and trouble to try he suggested shifting the Microsoft money into the account and calling it a day.
Savoie's proposal came near the end of a dizzying discussion during which board members quibbled over many of the details contained in a brief report they'd requested in hopes of determining how much interest the fund is actually owed for the last four years.
Superintendent John Bacon said the results of that analysis revealed the fund was due nearly $34,000 in interest – an assertion that raised questions ranging from when money, which has been annually appropriated by voters since the fund was created in 1995, was actually credited to the account to what interest rate it should have earned.
In two of the four years that were reviewed the $25,000 approved by voters was credited to the long-term maintenance fund on the final day of the fiscal year – an arbitrary accounting decision that resulted in that new money earning interest for the fund for one day instead of a full year.
Those sorts of questions initially prompted LaFlower to suggest a full accounting of a fund that has been the subject of repeated discussions in recent months.
"I'd like a complete history of that money," he said, suggesting that would give the board the baseline information it needed to determine how much interest the fund should have accumulated over the years.
"Then we can decide how far back we go," he said.
However, Savoie questioned how that would be possible given all the "subtractions" that have occurred over the years. He suggested that adding the available Microsoft money to the account would represent a good faith attempt on the board's behalf to clear up an accounting glitch that ironically stems from the fact money for the maintenance fund is commingled with the school's general fund to maximize its investment potential.
In the interest of "wiping the slate clean" and moving on even LaFlower supported that proposal, which also includes the drafting of a policy that will dictate how the fund is managed in the future. Among other things it is expected to spell out when money appropriated for the fund is actually credited to the account for interest-earning purposes.
Prior to the board's action the balance of the long-term maintenance fund was just over $475,000. The addition of the Microsoft money will push that total to roughly $550,000.
Since its creation in 1995 voters have contributed $464,000 to the fund – $25,000 a year for each of the last 14 years and a one-time transfer of $114,000 in surplus money that was approved in 1999.
According to the analysis requested by the board, the fund was credited with interest – nearly $20,000 – in one of the last four fiscal years.
Although the fund, which was designed to finance major repairs to the school, has not been touched since 2008, the report showed nearly $140,000 was spent on an assortment of small projects between July 1, 2005 and June 30, 2008.
david.delcore@timesargus.com
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