Up in Gilmanton, Elena is on the ball!
Here is how you put a school board on notice they are not following state statutes regarding the slippery issue of “surpluses.”
Elena has hit all the right notes. She asks the right questions and contacted her DRA representative. Either the Board has a legal explanation or they are on notice they have to follow the law. If you have to go to court to force a board to comply the best way to do it is to let all the cards on the table.
Here goes:
Dear Friends,
The Gilmanton School Board has been in the process, over the past 2 years, of installing a new heating system (and more) in the Gilmanton School. They have approved the use of surplus funds, and possibly other funds from the operating budget, for this project.
When the school needs money to update or install a new system or project for the school they need to come before the town with a Warrant Article requesting funding for the new project and to get approval from the town to move ahead with it. In this event, they have decided to leave the taxpayers out of the equation and go forward with the project, using our tax dollars but without our permission. This type of abuse has to be stopped and we must come forward in order for that to happen.
It is time for us to confront the School Board and demand an explanation for this abuse. Did you know that there has been a surplus budget year after year to the tune of 1/2 to 3/4 million dollars? How can that be if they have brought forward a budget which reflects only the needs of the children and a safe school for them?
It would seem as though they see our tax dollars as a blank check instead of a treasure to be used appropriately. This has got to stop but the only way that will happen is if we unite and make our School Board work for us instead our tax dollars working for them.
Would you please make time to attend the July 9th School Board meeting to be held @ Gilmanton School on Rt. 140 @ 6 PM ? We must stop the abusive use of our tax dollars and bring our tax rate down. Please call your neighbors and ask them to join you. There is power in numbers!
Please read the following letter to the Gilmanton School Board.
Subject: new heating system for Gilmanton School
Dear Chairman Hatch,
It has come to my attention that the Gilmanton School Board has voted and approved the expenditure of taxpayer funds from the Gilmanton School budget for the use of installing a new heating system for the Gilmanton School.
Last year when this same issue was brought up at a school board meeting a taxpayer questioned the use of “unexpended funds” for the purpose of installing this new system and I sent an email to then Chairman Kordas asking these questions:
1. What non-lapsing fund, approved by the voters, for this money, are you putting towards this project?
2. Are you having a meeting to allow the voters to approve of the spending?
3. Have you given the town at least 7 days notice of a meeting to discuss this expenditure?
4. Has the DRA approved your plan and can I have a copy of their letters?
I believe if you read the RSA 32 section of our State law and the contributing statutes you will be able to answer these questions and realize that the law does not permit the spending of tax dollars on projects that have not been approved by the taxpayers by using money that is now surplus to the budget.
At this time I am requesting that the Board members stop the project until all of the above have been satisfied. I have been in contact with Shelley Gerlarneau from the DRA who has satisfied this request by stating that money from an existing budget may be moved from an existing line item to another line item without notification to the public. However, when a NEW project is entertained by the Board, it must come before the town in the form of a Warrant Article for the town to discuss and then vote upon.
Also, in your last minutes there were two (2) motions made to “set aside” money for an upcoming installment of a new fuel tank; one for $22,000 and the other for $46,000. There is no RSA allowing school boards to use budget or surplus funds as a “set aside”. That is what Capitol Reserve Funds or Expendable Trust Funds are for. Therefore, I am requesting that $68,000 be returned to the unexpended funds from last year’s budget and a request/Warrant Article be made to set aside these funds or a request to add to an existing fund be made at the next Deliberative Session.
In the past, when I have sent communications to you it has been your policy to respond by email. At this time I would ask that you not continue this policy but, instead, present this and all communications to the School Board for discussion as is stated by RSA.
Sincerely,
Elena Ball
Appropriations Section 32:7
32:7 Lapse of Appropriations. – Annual meeting appropriations shall cover anticipated expenditures for one fiscal year. All appropriations shall lapse at the end of the fiscal year and any unexpended portion thereof shall not be expended without further appropriation, unless:
I. The amount has, prior to the end of that fiscal year, become encumbered by a legally-enforceable obligation, created by contract or otherwise, to any person for the expenditure of that amount; or
II. The amount is legally placed in any nonlapsing fund properly created pursuant to statute, including but not limited to a capital reserve fund under RSA 35, or a town-created trust fund under RSA 31:19-a; or
III. The amount is to be raised, in whole or in part, through the issuance of bonds or notes pursuant to RSA 33, in which case the appropriation, unless rescinded, shall not lapse until the fulfillment of the purpose or completion of the project being financed by the bonds or notes; or
IV. The amount is appropriated from moneys anticipated to be received from a state, federal or other governmental or private grant, in which case the appropriation shall remain nonlapsing for as long as the money remains available under the rules or practice of the granting entity; or
V. The amount is appropriated under a special warrant article, in which case the local governing body may, at any properly noticed meeting held prior to the end of the fiscal year for which the appropriation is made, vote to treat that appropriation as encumbered for a maximum of one additional fiscal year; or
VI. The amount is appropriated under a special warrant article and is explicitly designated in the article and by vote of the meeting as nonlapsing, in which case the meeting shall designate the time at which the appropriation shall lapse, which in no case shall be later than 5 years after the end of the fiscal year for which the appropriation is made.
Source. 1993, 332:1, eff. Aug. 28, 1993.