CLAREMONT — After weeks of uncertainty, the Claremont School District announced late Thursday that the district’s deficit now stands at just over $5 million, the highest end of the range officials gave residents last month when the schools’ financial disarray became public knowledge.
Cost-cutting already implemented by the School Board means the deficit will be “substantially lower” by the end of the current fiscal year on June 30.
But there will still be a red ink remaining next summer without further action, a news release from interim Superintendent Kerry Kennedy said. Though exactly how much will be left is unknown.
“I’m not prepared to share a number we can reduce it by,” said SAU 6 interim Business Administrator and Comptroller Matt Angell. “Factors to reduce the deficit change daily. We find savings that we can implement, sometimes by tightening controls and others by eliminating spending. But we are also discovering new, unpaid bills.”
The likelihood the schools faced a multi-million deficit was first announced at an Aug. 14 Claremont School Board meeting. Since then, officials have said going to taxpayers for more money was unrealistic and the school district’s path to solvency would be through cutting expenses this academic year and next.
Since the deficit announcement, the school district’s leadership team has been replaced. Angell was brought in to complete a review of the district’s finances and calculate the deficit amount.
The board has said it would seek a criminal investigation into the district’s finances to try to determine who was responsible for the debacle.
School officials already have identified $3 million in spending cuts for the current academic year as they worked to ensure schools would open as scheduled on Aug. 28.
Most recently, because of a special education staffing shortage, the board voted to close Bluff Elementary School and consolidate its K-5 students to the other two elementary schools beginning Oct. 20.
More details on the deficit and a plan to address it will be presented by Angell and Kennedy when the school board meets Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. at the Sugar River Valley Regional Technical Center. The meeting also will be streamed live on CCTV Channel 8.