AUBURN — The School Committee approved transferring more than $1 million from the undesignated fund at its Nov. 15 meeting to several other funds to comply with state law.
Committee members agreed to transfer $500,000 to the new high school fund, $500,000 to the high school technology fund and $268,000 to the newly created Curriculum Development Reserve Fund, all from the undesignated fund.
According to state law, a school department is only allowed to have 9% of its operating budget in the undesignated fund, according to Mayor Jason Levesque. Transferring and spending this money into these funds will bring the undesignated fund back down to around 9% of the budgeted.
The funds for the high school will be used for dugouts, landscaping and other school infrastructure, Levesque said. It was not stated exactly what the funds for the high school technology will be used for.
At the meeting, committee members established the Curriculum Development Reserve Fund and agreed to transfer money into it. Levesque wants money to be added to the fund each year and hopes that it will not fall to the wayside as the school committee experiences turnover into the future, he said.
“This is just a jump start, if you will, to make sure we have that money there,” he said. “So, I just want to make sure that future School Committees remember that … they still have an obligation.”
In other business, School Committee members agreed to request a waiver for two instructional days while schools were canceled for two days during the shelter-in-place order after the Oct. 25 mass shooting. It ensures that everybody who was an employee or long-term substitute at that time will get paid, Superintendent Cornelia Brown said.
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