CLAREMONT — The SAU 6 School Board learned last week that the administration failed to file for reimbursements for the food service program in the first half of each of the last two school years.
That oversight resulted in Claremont losing out on $150,700 for the 2017-18 school year and $188,300 for the current school year, SAU 6 Business and Finance Director Mike O’Neill told the board on Thursday.
Unity’s loss was about $12,000 in 2018 and $11,200 this year.
Acting Superintendent Cory LeClair told the board that filing for the National School Lunch program is supposed to be done before the start of the school year but in 2018 it was not submitted until Jan. 30.
“As a result, we lost out on reimbursement from the beginning of the school year until Jan. 30,” LeClair said at Thursday’s SAU 6 meeting.
This year the filing was not completed until early February.
O’Neill said the application is not a simple form but one with 22 attachments and completing it is not the responsibility of one person.
“Many things we thought were done were not done,” said O’Neill, who will make a presentation to the Claremont School Board on the issue this week.
LeClair said they have taken corrective action, including the hiring of a food service program assistant who will be solely responsible for preparing the application and filing it.
“So future reimbursements will be received as intended,” LeClair said.
The assistant is also handling the Claremont School District’s school lunch debt, which is around $20,000, the bulk of which is owed by 64 accounts. Another 1,800 accounts owe on average about $2.33, LeClair said.
