D-R School Officials Address Budget Discrepancy

Dighton-Rehoboth School officials dismissed a discrepancy in the FY’24 school budget as a “clerical error.”

At Monday’s Board of Selectmen meeting, Sue Pimental, Chief Compliance Officer for the Town of Rehoboth, said miscommunication between herself and outgoing District Business Administrator Robert Baxter resulted in the shortfall of $10, 494.

Pimental hoped there could be a placeholder article on the November town meeting warrant to address the situation.

“The discrepancies are clerical in nature and they’re easily resolved,” School Committee chairman Aaron Morse said Tuesday. “We will be taking care of this in October.”

“There was a warrant article that had the original assessment number and when that motion was on the floor it was amended, it was changed by roughly $10,000. So that was approved,” D-R Superintendent Bill Runey said, noting Baxter “inadvertently” looked at the warrant, he did not look at the meeting minutes  so he put the number that was preliminarily a part of the motion.”

“It was purely clerical. Mistakes happen. We’ve built a lot of credibility with the town of Rehoboth last year. I don’t see this as something that should diminish that. It was unfortunate that it was painted that way.”

The total education budget which was approved at the May town meeting was $21,233,677. That figure represents an increase of 4.4 percent over last year.

Runey explained the district is going through a “transition” in the business office due to the impending departure of Baxter, who announced his resignation in July.

“I’m thinking this is just a function of wires getting crossed in the process,” Runey said via e-mail. “We will work to clear this up.”

Selectman Michael Deignan said Monday that according to Massachusetts General Law, the town did not vote for a 2024 school budget because the assessment amount which had been requested by the school department was not approved. He thinks the state’s Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) may have to intervene. Deignan and Pimental are planning to consult with Town Counsel.
"We approved one assessment. Dighton approved a different number so legally there is no budget for DR," Deignan said.

“We didn’t have any issue at all,” Selectman George Solas told the school committee. “We knew it was a communications thing. We have all the belief and all the support for this administration and it went through without a problem.”