EPPING — The head of the school board says he feels selectmen would be “out of line” if they vote to have the town’s attorney review the school board’s spending of a school budget surplus of more than $200,000.

“The school board hasn’t done anything wrong. We’ve been very cautious of what we’ve done. We’ve checked on many occasions to make sure (the spending) was within the rules and it was well within the rules,” said school board Chairman David Mylott.

Mylott’s concern came in response to a push by Selectmen Chairman Karen Falcone and Selectman Dianne Gilbert to review the spending of the school surplus.

They have argued that the money — spent on school projects not included in the budget — should have been returned to taxpayers to lower the tax rate or only used in an emergency.

According to Martha Williamson, the school district’s business administrator, the surplus at the end of the school year totaled nearly $550,000 and that about $202,000 was spent on school building improvements, new books, phones, iPads and other items that had been proposed by the school board but weren’t budgeted.

Falcone has said the surplus was closer to $800,000. Williamson has insisted that’s not accurate.

Falcone says she plans to raise the spending issue at Monday’s selectmen’s meeting and hopes her board will vote to ask the town’s attorney to review the matter.

Mylott said he feels Falcone and Gilbert should pursue the issue as private citizens and not as elected board members.

“As citizens they have the right to do that, but they’re trying to get the town to fight against the town, which I think is completely unethical,” he said.

Falcone said her main goal is to get a legal interpretation of Senate Bill 373, approved this year, that allows a school district to retain “year-end unassigned general funds” for emergencies or to lower the tax rate.

Falcone said a legal opinion would give all boards a better understanding of what they can and can’t do with surplus funds.

Falcone said selectmen don’t use surplus money to fund projects that aren’t included in the budget.

The highway department saved money on sand and salt and those savings were used to fund a road project, but that situation was different, Falcone said.

She said the town budget included approved work on Main Street, but when the project cost more than expected, selectmen agreed to use sand and salt savings to cover the rest of the work.

“This was money in a line item for the highway department. The things (the school board) funded were never line items,” Falcone said.

jschreiber@newstote.com