I want to share with you that topics for this week's meeting have been moved to our regular Claremont school board meeting next week in order to (a) make sure that we can have accurate financial numbers based on the new information that has been unearthed, (b) ensure that everyone on the board is able to participate in full and that timing does not conflict with the regularly scheduled Town Council meeting, and (c) give you more information and context so that you have a better understanding of our school finances and what we are learning during this process.

With regards to the information we want to share, we feel it is incredibly important for you to have the information in context. Sharing it prematurely could, especially right now, lead to misunderstandings and potentially ill-informed decision-making. Right now, our interim business administrator Matt Angell has found several new accounting issues, but they need to be unraveled. The accounting of any SAU is complicated enough, and the mismanagement that has led us to this point has made Claremont's finances even more difficult to pin down. Mr. Angell, the business office, and the HR department have been working very closely together to fully understand what happened in this instance and its overall impact.

Having as many board members as possible present when this information is shared is critical to our future. Waiting a week will also give more community members an opportunity to attend and have their voices heard. We want you to hear accurate information directly from the board and from Mr. Angell so that we limit hearsay and misunderstandings.

I personally want to apologize that we will need to wait a week for this data. I've heard from families and community members that they want to know and want to help, and I'm confident that we need to have all of our ducks in a row before we present the latest update.

Thank you for your understanding and patience,