Superintendent transition will nearly tap out SAU 6 fund balance

By PATRICK ADRIAN
Special to The Eagle Times
CLAREMONT– The transitional expenses to replace SAU 6 Superintendent Middleton McGoodwin will cost approximately $110,000 and leave the SAU 6 School Board with little if any reserves for the 2019-20 budget.

Last night Mike O’Neill, finance director for the SAU, told the SAU 6 board that his projected cost for superintendent transition expenditures includes $85,043.50 for the buyout of McGoodwin’s contract and $25,000 to cover search costs, such as consultant fees and advertising. The board met to plan its strategy to hire a new superintendent for the Claremont and Unity school districts, to replace the departing McGoodwin, who ends his six-year tenure as superintendent tomorrow.

The board plans to fund the transition costs, including the contract buyout, through the SAU fund balance. A fund balance is a reserve fund comprising unspent money from its prior budget cycle. While governing bodies must return all unspent budget money to taxpayers, New Hampshire law allows boards and councils to establish a fund balance in order to spread those returns across multiple budgets, in order to keep budgets more consistent from year to year.

O’Neill projected the fund balance to end June to be $140,887.96. However, the SAU already appropriated $55,000 of that money to offset budget costs in fiscal year 2019. The actual available balance is approximately, $85,887.96, O’Neill said.

Savings this summer will cover the remaining $24,155.54 in transition costs, O’Neill said. With Assistant Superintendent Cory LeClair filling in as acting superintendent this summer, O’Neill said the district will save $20,137 in salary and benefits for two months of the vacant assistant superintendent position. The district will also save $6,500 in salary and benefits from one month’s vacancy of the SAU administrative assistant position. The current assistant Brianna Connell tendered her resignation this month.

Though O’Neill said that additional revenues from grants and other sources could increase the fund balance, there will be little available to the board to offset unforeseen expenses in 2019-20.

“Moving forward we won’t have [much] flexibility,” new board Chair Marjorie Erikson said.

LeClair also told the board that replenishing the fund balance through grants is a multi-year process.

“[Without a long-term superintendent in place], pursuing new grants will not happen for a period of time,” LeClair said.

Two weeks ago the board asked LeClair about her interest to take the interim superintendent position, but LeClair declined, saying she felt it would not be in the best interest of the district. LeClair did agree to serve as acting superintendent through the summer. The board hopes to hire an interim superintendent by August 15. The board plans to create a search committee for the long-term superintendent by the end of September.