For two days United South Central School District officials were hearing rumors regarding the district’s financial condition.

Generally, gossip or hearsay is based on groundless information.

So, it may have been difficult to take serious what was being said.

This time, however, School Board chairman Christie Wetzel was hoping all the talk was true.

At a special August meeting, USC’s certified public accountant confirmed the good news — the district no longer was in statutory operating debt.

“It’s huge. It’s like having the weight of the world being lifted off of your shoulders. You don’t know how relieved the board is,” Wetzel says with a gasp.

The district has gone from being $233,357 in the hole to having a positive balance of $297,287. The financial windfall was discovered when work was being done on the 2008-09 audit.

Apparently, school officials misunderstood a change to an education funding law in 2007-08. As a result, incorrect receivables entries for special education services put the district into statutory operating debt.

Superintendent Jerry Jensen, who was hired to work part time to save costs, called the turnaround tremendous and a pleasant surprise.

To read more of this story, see this week’s Register.