HAMILTON, Mont. (AP) — A clerical error that caused an apparent $50,000 budget shortfall at Bitterroot College of the University of Montana has been cleared up and the funding restored in time for the spring semester.

The Associated Press reports the budget the two-year college received in August was $50,000 less than expected. School officials raised the $50,000 in the community, in part by asking residents to sponsor spring semester classes so they would not have to be canceled.

The college's executive director, Victoria Clark, made several efforts to figure out what happened, but the issue wasn't cleared up until Dec. 19 when concerned citizens met with UM President Royce Engstrom.

They learned clerical staff in the office of UM's provost made an error in the budgeting formula, causing the shortfall.

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