HOW TO OBTAIN A COPY OF THE AUDIT REPORT

Had a call from a resident after he read the last posting. He wanted to know how he could obtain a copy of the referenced Audit Report so he could compare the report to the questions the "group" submitted to the School Board (listed in the last posting).

All School Board Audit Reports are public documents, as are any audit reports for any towns in the state, or any government or public entity. And any citizen or taxpayer has the right to request and be provided a copy of those audit reports. Likewise, any citizen or taxpayer has the legal right under the Freedom of Information Act to question any information in said document and to receive, within 30 days, answers to those questions.

When the Question document was first submitted to the SAD 63 Budget and Finance Committee (BFC) Chairman, the document was almost immediately given over to the SAD 63 Business Manager to provide the answers (as though no one on the BFC would know or be able to answer the questions???) and an expressed concern that it might be "confidential information" to provide an answer as to how much the district owed, at that time, to the attorney representing the Board in the lawsuit re: the terminated former superintendent. It was "the groups' opinion" that whatever was owned was not confidential. It may have been confidential as to how much of that bill was going to be paid by the insurance company, but not how much was owed.

Anyway, to answer anyone who might be wondering how to obtain any audit report, simply contact the SAD 63 Central Office and request a copy of the report. It is suggested that the request be in writing with a date on the request. That way, if there is an unreasonable delay in providing the report, the requester can document the time frame when contacting the Maine Attorney General which would certainly result in a timely response from someone.

The requester might also want to let the BDN know what is happening. Periodically they seem interested in the goings on of the SAD 63 Board and the Central Office. As to the 2008-2009 audit - that was reportedly begun sometime in November...for a fiscal year that ended June 30. Ask any other business, or school district for that matter, what the time lag would be between the end of their fiscal year and the beginning of their audit process. Usually it's no more than two months - one of the issues raised in the "Question Document."