Joint Finance Committees Grill School District on $495,000 Deficit and Budget Overruns

FREETOWN — February 7, 2024 — Freetown and Lakeville finance committees pressed regional school district officials on a $495,000 budget deficit and a series of spending overruns at a joint meeting Wednesday. Interim Director of Finance Deidre Farrell Welch told the committees the deficit emerged from a Google Sheets-to-Excel conversion error discovered April 5, 2023, and was addressed by prepaying special education tuitions using leftover operating funds rather than rolling money into excess and deficiency. Freetown Town Administrator Deb Petty challenged the district on whether $176,000 drawn from excess and deficiency had been used for Chromebooks as promised, with Farrell Welch confirming the funds were redirected to cover operating needs including bus restoration at approximately $96,342. A contracted services line in building maintenance ran to roughly $41,000 against a $13,000 budget after an emergency cleanup of a burst pipe hidden beneath the gymnasium floor. The district confirmed FY25 budget binders will reach both town halls on February 15, though the committees flagged an unresolved conflict between DESE guidance pointing to a March 31 budget deadline and a school committee calendar showing an April 24 vote.