Lunenburg County Public Schools.

School officials have spent the last few months promising transparency to area officials and school staff.

At the school board’s August meeting — the last meeting before the new school year starts on Monday — School Superintendent Charles Berkley Jr. reiterated that promise, asking school officials to let school board office administrators know when staff meetings will be held so questions can be answered and concerns addressed.

“My plan for this school year is to make sure myself or my designees will be attending school staff meetings on a quarterly basis to be more transparent to the needs of staff and students in Lunenburg County schools,” he said.

School officials also made the same promise of transparency to county supervisors when they discussed the school system’s budget deficit in July.

The school system ended up with a deficit of $317,000 owed in debt services for construction of the middle school. The county ended up paying the debt, and now the system will repay the system.

A major contributor to the system’s financial woes was when it fell 40 students short of projected enrollment for the 2015-16 academic year, causing an approximately $400,000 shortfall.

At the school board meeting, Berkley said he; James Abernathy, the recently-appointed assistant superintendent of finance and operation; and Sidney Long, director of personnel/federal programs/instruction, “are working diligently to reorganize and revamp our financial bookkeeping and record management systems to be more transparent for all governing bodies and to ensure all of our financial resources are used to their maximum potential to accomplish the vision, mission and goals of Lunenburg County School System.

“The three of us will continue to lead the development and implementation of multi-year fiscal plans, annual plans and sound budget accounting, and auditing procedures that practice good stewardship of all available funds.”