Interest "to the tune of $168,000" will be added to Wiscasset School Department's fund balance, Superintendent of Schools Kim Andersson told the school committee Dec. 10. The move Andersson and Town Manager Dennis Simmons said will occur as a journal entry follows talks between municipal and school officials and consults with Maine Municipal Association and the town and school department's mutual auditor.

Simmons told Wiscasset Newspaper Dec. 12, the final figure was still to be confirmed. "After consulting with MMA Legal and Ron Smith, the town’s auditor, it has been determined that the interest earned on the school’s fund balance, which resides in the town’s general fund, is school funds," Simmons said. "Once Ron has confirmed the amount, a journal entry will reflect this. Unless instructed otherwise by the selectboard, the policy of transferring funds to the school on an as-needed basis will continue."

Fielding questions via email last month after she told the committee about the talks, Andersson told Wiscasset Newspaper the department, largely state and locally funded, gets equal monthly installments from the state, while "the town pays the school based on what the school needs on a monthly basis to cover accounts payable ... The town is sent our (accounts payable warrant) and then checks the school's bank account balance and then wires an amount to make the balance sufficient to pay the school's bills. At the end of the year, the budget money that the school did not spend to cover its expenses goes into ... the fund balance. The school's fund balance is a number on a financial statement. The actual cash that makes up that number sits within the town's general fund."

Andersson said the school department underspent in 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024. "Each year, the school department fund balance grows inside of the town's general fund. At budget time, the school department is able to spend down this fund to offset taxes and for reserve accounts for fuel, special education, capital improvements, and food service, but still, the school fund balance grows. It is a lot of money. (It) has fluctuated between $1 and $3 million over the past five years" and, as of June, was $2.6 million, she said.

"The town earns interest on its general fund including on the school's fund balance within it." Andersson said she sought to have the school fund balance be credited "with the portion of interest it earned within the town's general fund balance."

She said she, Simmons as town manager and treasurer, the school department's business manager Cathy Coffey, the town's finance and human resources director Kathy Onorato,  and the town and school department's mutual auditor, Ron Smith, met to "discuss a fair calculation for the portion of interest earned by the school fund balance within the town's general fund so that it could be added to the school's fund balance." More talks followed. Andersson told the committee Dec. 10, "It's interest that was earned on money that was raised for education ... and everyone agrees that the interest earned on that money should also go toward education. So I think that that's pretty awesome."

"Yeah, that's great," Chair Jason Putnam said.

Also Dec. 10, Transportation and Maintenance Director John Merry said the 10-year capital improvement plan he is working on will include a lot of "significant infrastructure," including with the heating plants he said are getting really old; some exterior walls need repointing as weakened mortar is the likely cause of some of the water intrusion, he said. He expects to recommend getting an engineering and mechanical plan in place next year. "We've got to start somewhere."

On another front, Merry said by having the floor and bleachers contractors together in a recent planning meeting for Stover Auditorium's renovation, "I think we eliminated a lot of roadblocks." Merry hopes work will start in June. And he said the contractors are confident it will be done by, or shortly after, the start of the 2025-26 school year. "So that's good news."

The try at a pre-K expansion grant was a miss, but pre-K recruiting will continue, Wiscasset Elementary School Principal Stacy Clements said. "And then if we end up with a number bigger than one classroom, we can get creative ...," she said.

The staff is helping three families for Christmas, Clements said. 

The committee discussed possibly exploring local needs for early intervention and how to address those needs, now that a bill that would have moved tasks from the state to schools has died. House District 47 Rep. Ed Polewarczyk said schools do not have enough trained, certified and licensed staff to serve the estimated 500 students statewide with "very special needs." Committee member Tracey Whitney said, "I'm all for the earliest intervention you can get. So I would love to see it happen. But it has to be done in a way that works for the community, the school, and especially, for the kids."

Reading from Food Service Director Lorie Johnson's update, Andersson said more WES students are eating chickpeas since taste-testing flavors began. Ranch and barbecue got mixed reviews; garlic and cinnamon-sugar would be next.