BY MATT HERSH

A request made by Budget Committee members has the Salem School Board rethinking a policy about access to information and perhaps charging for time spent on searching for it.

After the board provided the Budget Committee with its annual expenses audit, they received requests for additional information.

The requests prompted a discussion on the role of the Budget Committee and the amount of time dedicated by district employees to generate a response.

Committee members Stephen Campbell and Kathy Cote asked the district to look into finding missing receipts from a student-run account at Barron School. 

Campbell said the district’s audit revealed the missing receipts and a few other smaller problems. He said he raised the issue partially to encourage school officials to avoid these errors in the future.

“An audit certifies that your financial system is accurate,” he said.  “What happened isn’t stealing, but it’s a mistake. I just want to make the budget the best it can be.”

Campbell said the committee’s request falls within their duties and a policy change isn’t recommended.

Members of the School Board have tabled the discussion temporarily but may adopt a policy in the near future that would require monetary reimbursement for staff time used to fulfill these kinds of requests.

This type of policy was suggested by board member Peter Morgan, who said he felt the district fell behind on some of its work because staff members had to devote all of their time to answering the budget committee request.

“If Stephen (Campbell) wants us to spend five hours looking up things, then he should reimburse us for the time,” he said.

Though the Budget Committee receives both the town and the district audit annually for review, Morgan said their recent request goes beyond what the law requires them to do.

“Under the law, there’s a narrow scope of what they are supposed to do,” he said. “But the Budget Committee has the tendency to say anything to do with money is our business.”

Still, board member Bernard Campbell said he felt Morgan’s policy might be too harsh. Instead, he suggested another policy which gives the Budget Committee more flexibility.

Morgan said the board decided to table the discussion because member Patricia Corbett was not present at the meeting. 

Currently, he and other board members are working on drafting a policy that all members can agree on.

Should the board adopt a new policy, Morgan said he wanted to stress that he isn’t trying to restrict access to information. Rather, he wants to ensure the district’s time is spent appropriately.

“They can have any information they want,” he said. “I think they should have to pay for it.”

The board will take up the issue again at their June 12 meeting.