Board adds item to require school documentation for $127,468 HVAC transfer

The Andover Board of Finance voted to add an agenda item asking the Board of Education to produce documentation supporting a $127,468 transfer into the school repairs-and-maintenance HVAC account in the 2024–25 budget. The motion, made and seconded during the Jan. 20 meeting, passed by voice vote.

The motion asked the school to provide invoices and receipts for expenditures charged to account 43026102621, which the board was told had an adopted line of roughly $15,000 and received a transfer of about $112,468, bringing the line to $127,468. Board members said records show about $84,000 expended from that line, leaving roughly $43,000 unspent; the finance board requested a line-by-line breakdown of what vendors and services were billed against the account.

School finance staff Jody told the Board of Finance she has pulled the records and will present the details first to the Board of Education so members there — including two recently appointed members who did not serve last year — can review the material in context. After that internal review, Jody agreed to share a spreadsheet with the Board of Finance showing individual expenditures and vendor names and to provide the end-of-year (June 30) custom expenditure report used in AES’s accounting system.

Members said the more consistent, annotated budget-to-actual reports they discussed earlier in the meeting — including memo lines explaining unusual transactions and a revenue section listing expected grant receipts and midyear grants — would reduce the frequency of these ad hoc information requests. The board asked that the documents be circulated to the full Board of Finance once the Board of Education has discussed them.

Next steps: Jody will present the detailed HVAC expenditures to the Board of Education; she will then email the requested spreadsheet and the June 30 custom expenditure report to the Board of Finance.