March 23, 2023
Over two dozen Arkport residents showed up to the first (of three) Arkport Central School meetings, about the New York State Comptroller’s recent report which stated that Arkport Central is in moderate fiscal stress. The Arkport taxpayers present last night, asked questions about why and how it happened that Arkport Central got into that situation. School Superintendent Jesse Harper said there was overspending in the 2021-2022 school year. “These over expenditures were related to our faculty, staff and students,” Harper said, in response to a question from a parent. “These were overexpenditures related to the pandemic. When you look at the first one on that sheet (Harper pointed to a chart) that is BOCES. That overexpenditure led to $300,000 of more aid this year, we knew that was going to happen. But when you look at that computer system instruction, it’s hard to think, but this started, in July of 2021. So if we think of where we were in July 2021, we had no idea at that point, if we were going to be full (classes) in person, whether we were going to be on computers (online classes) for the rest of the year, so a lot of these expenditures were us getting ready for a year, in which we had no idea what to expect.”
AUDIO: SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENT HARPER TALKS ABOUT 2021’s ISSUES
“It was the amount (of money), and the varied things we had to support and purchase, through Covid, that led to that overspending,” Harper told WLEA News, at the end of the meeting.
The superintendent also told those present last night that the next two meetings, coming up next Monday and next Wednesday, will be a repeat, of last night’s meeting.
