Representative Jess Edwards, R‑Rockingham, introduced HB116 after a request from Auburn Village School. The bill would extend the state’s existing school reporting requirement (RSA 198:4‑delta reporting) to include public academies such as Pinkerton Academy, making certain finance and enrollment reports publicly available to sending districts and taxpayers.

Edwards told the committee he filed the bill at Auburn’s request so sending districts could access consistent information while negotiating contracts with an academy. “If they can work it out to where the information exchange is done and that we maintain transparency appropriately, I'm happy with that,” Edwards said.

Auburn School Board chair Alan Villanueva and Chester's former school board chair Rael Richardson testified in favor, saying current reporting to sending towns is insufficient. Villanueva said Auburn’s budget sends roughly $4 million annually to the academy and that the town lacks a transparent line‑item accounting of how tuition dollars are spent. “We don't have any say on what's going on with that money,” Villanueva told the committee. Richardson said HB116 would “bring the financial reporting of public academies such as Pinkerton Academy in alignment with the financial reporting obligations of local school districts.”

Pinkerton Academy head of school Tim Powers (testifying for the academy) said the academy already provides audited financial reports, a September 30 financial statement, a budget narrative and an appendix itemizing program expenses for sending towns; those documents, he said, are available to sending districts and posted online. “From what I can see… the request in this bill is information that we've already been providing to our sending towns,” Powers said. He said differences stemmed from presentation and format rather than missing underlying data.

Committee members questioned whether standardizing the format would be a duplication of work or a helpful transparency measure. No vote or formal committee action was recorded at the hearing; testimony closed with staff directed to make copies of submitted materials available to members.