Criticism of the School Board continued at the Hudson Budget Committee’s June 3 meeting after Board Liaison Dan Kilgour reported that May financial numbers were still unavailable.
“You can blame this on your system, but today is June 3. You should be able to quickly run the numbers on June 1 for May,” said Committee member Shawn Jasper. “Looking at numbers that are over a month old is not terribly helpful when we’re in a new month. I don’t know why they can’t run in a timely manner.”
Committee member Kevin Walsh added that even the April numbers, which were emailed to the Committee earlier in the day, appeared incomplete.
“We requested that all funds be supplied to us. What was supplied in the email today was just the general fund,” Walsh said, citing RSA 32:22, which allows local budget committees to request and review expenditures. “We don’t know the performance of the other funds that are there, for example, the food service. We know there’s a substantial shortfall there.”
Kilgour said Superintendent Daniel Moulis had attempted to attend the meeting but was unavailable.
“When we ask for somebody to be here, even when the person in charge isn’t here, I’m pretty sure there’s an assistant superintendent, a business administrator, it goes down the line. Somebody has to know this information,” said Committee member Robert Everett. “There is a succession thing somewhere. Somebody could’ve been here.”
Budget Committee Vice Chair Dave Morin called the lack of representation from the district a “slap in the face,” while Chair James Lawrence urged a more structured approach.
“The Town Administrator came to our last meeting and did a very thorough presentation for us. He unfortunately could not be here tonight, I knew he wasn’t going to be here, so I give him a pass,” Lawrence said. “The school, unfortunately, we actually requested somebody from the district come and present to us at this particular meeting, and they have declined to honor that request.”
At Lawrence’s request, the Committee unanimously voted to require a representative from the School District to present expenditure updates from the preceding month at the next regular meeting.
“It may be worthwhile to have alternating presentations from the school and the town,” said Committee member Bob Wherry. “Giving alternating presentations would give us the opportunity to ask, fairly contemporaneously, how the expenditures are going, what the concerns are, and that kind of thing.”
“We answer to the taxpayers, and the school has to understand that they answer to the taxpayers also,” added Committee member Rick Rice. “There’s no accountability anymore. That’s a huge problem.”
The next meeting of the Hudson Budget Committee is scheduled for Wednesday, July 22, at 7 p.m. in the Buxton Room at Town Hall.
