LAKEVILLE — The Lakeville Select Board wants to see an audit performed of the Freetown-Lakeville school budget in light of the nearly $800,000 shortfall.

At the Select Board’s meeting on Monday, June 3, members voted in favor of the recommendation made by the Freetown-Lakeville Regional Finance Subcommittee to conduct an audit of next year’s school budget. 

While the Select Board voted in favor of the recommendation that an audit be performed, the board agreed that a forensic audit wouldn’t be needed. 

A forensic audit is used in cases where fraud or corruption is suspected, said interim town administrator Robert Nunes. 

“I don’t think a forensic audit is the way to go,” said Nunes, who noted that an internal or external audit, which evaluates policies and procedures, would be more appropriate for the situation. 

The Freetown-Lakeville Regional Finance Subcommittee proposed at its May 28 meeting that an audit of the school’s budget be conducted in the aftermath of the Freetown-Lakeville School District confirming a nearly $800,000 deficit in the 2025 budget due to what school officials described as “clerical errors.”

During that meeting, Regional Finance Subcommittee members voted to request that the select boards of each town decide if a forensic audit would be necessary. The subcommittee is composed of finance committee members, school committee members and select board members from the two towns. 

Select Board Member Brynna Donahue agreed with Nunes that a forensic audit was not needed. “The forensic audit implies that we think they did something maliciously, and I don’t think it was a case of fraud,” she said.

Still, she specified that some kind of audit is necessary because the “budget is not sustainable, it’s not going to get voted [on], and it’s going to be big.”

The Select Board also voted to approve Lakeville’s school budget for 2025 of $17,061,325, which will appear at next week’s Town Meeting. 

During the budget discussion, board members reiterated concerns over how the school district’s proposals to make up for the $800,000 shortfall, which include using school choice and Chapter 70 funding, would impact the following year’s budget. 

“We know the district has made an error.  And I don’t want to own that error and have to force us into a general override,” said Select Board Member Lia Fabian.