Sunapee schools set hearing on contingency fund use
Sunapee held a June 25 hearing on whether to tap a contingency fund nearing its cap, as window costs and other budget pressures sharpened the stakes.
Sunapee school leaders scheduled a public hearing for June 25 at Sunapee Middle High School before the district could access contingency-fund dollars.
Superintendent Holden told the board that a public hearing was required before the school board could use the fund. The immediate pressure was the planned installation of new front-entrance and second-floor windows at Sunapee Central Elementary School. Out-of-district costs could create overages and force the board to seek approval to move money from either the capital reserve or the contingency fund.
Sunapee’s fund-balance page lists a current balance of $649,732 and a cap of $700,000. It allows the district to retain 5% of the current fiscal year’s net assessment to cover unanticipated expenses. It also lists a full-time residential special-education student cost of $400,000 to $600,000 a year.
If the board approved use of the contingency fund, the district would have a way to cover overruns tied to the elementary school window project or other unplanned expenses without immediately cutting elsewhere. If the request was rejected, the board would have to find another place to absorb the cost, and the district would not be able to tap that money for the project.
Sunapee has already used that same budget tool before. In June 2024, Holden and Business Administrator Kelly Wessells told the board that special-education expenses had run over budget and that unexpended fund balance could be moved into the contingency fund and then used to cover unexpected costs.
The Sunapee School Building Capital Reserve has a current balance of $111,028 and a cap of $350,000. Up to $100,000 from that reserve is expected to be used this year to replace third-floor windows at SCES. The district’s Capital Improvements Committee is working on longer-term solutions for Sunapee Middle High School, Sunapee Central Elementary School and the athletic fields, while the school district has also been publishing budget information and short videos on the proposed 2026-2027 budget.
This article was produced by Prism’s automated news system from verified source data, official records, and press releases, then run through automated quality and moderation checks before publishing. The system is built and supervised by the people who set the standards it runs under. Read our full AI policy.
Did this article answer your question?
