By:Scott Brinton
Reinhardt, who hadn't turned in receipts for seven of the past eight years, reimbursed the Central District nearly $7,000 and promptly resigned from the Central and North Bellmore boards in August. Howard Pollitt, who was elected to the North Bellmore Board of Education last spring, replaces Reinhardt on the Central board.
Central Superintendent Dr. Thomas Caramore said the district clerk had sent reminders to Reinhardt that he needed to turn in his conference receipts. But Caramore said those reminders "were not followed up on."
Now the Board of Education is hiring KMPG to perform a forensic audit that will examine conference receipts for all trustees, district administrators and teachers. A forensic audit is far more thorough and labor-intensive than a simple audit, for which receipts are spot-checked.
Board of Education members said the forensic audit would go back one year. If problems arise, the district could have additional years audited. But Caramore said he expects there will be no more surprises. He said he personally looked over the books for the past few years and found no irregularities among other Board of Education trustees.
He also said that administrators and teachers do not receive advances for conference expenses the way trustees and the superintendent do, so he wasn't concerned that receipts would turn up missing among district personnel. "I'm confident the problem can only be at the board level," he said.
Additionally, Caramore said, the amount that personnel receive is less than it is for Board of Education members. The district allots $3,600 annually for each trustee to attend conferences. For administrators, the amount is $3,500 per school and $1,800 per building for teachers.
Caramore said Board of Education members more often attend national conferences than educators do, so they need a higher amount. One national conference could cost upward of $2,000, including airfare, hotel and meals.
Teachers and administrators generally attend state and local conferences, which cost significantly less because they can be driven to. Once in a while, a teacher might attend a national conference, if he or she presents a paper. In that case, Caramore said, the district would find the money in its administrative conference budget.
Janet Goller, the Central District Board of Education president, said a forensic audit would help assure the public that the Central District board has been aboveboard. School districts across Long Island are scrambling to project an image of fiscal responsibility in the wake of the Roslyn School District scandal. In Roslyn, district officials allegedly cheated the schools out of at least $1 million, perhaps significantly more.
At last Wednesday's Board of Education meeting, the district's decision to conduct a forensic audit touched off a debate of sorts. Some residents wondered why the district was spending $25,000 to investigate a $7,000 discrepancy, which Reinhardt repaid. Some thought the money could be better spent on student programming.
Goller said, "We did agonize about the cost. We hated to spend the money." She also said KPMG would offer suggestions about how the district could improve its accounting practices and ensure that such an incident doesn't occur again. "We want to be sure we have all the right safeguards in place," she said.
Other residents questioned why the district was quick to bring in an outside firm to investigate the district's books when a problem arose, but refused to call for an independent investigation of the Mepham High School football hazing scandal last year.
Goller said the district had full confidence in Caramore to conduct an internal examination of the Mepham incident. She noted that he has been with the district for 27 years.
But John Davis, a Merrick Board of Education member, said the district was being "inconsistent," noting that Bellmore-Merrick has an experienced assistant superintendent for business who could have audited the district's books, but chose to hire an outside firm.
Mary Ramo, who ran unsuccessfully for the North Merrick Board of Education last spring, wondered why the Central District didn't call in the state comptroller's office to conduct the audit. A state examination, she said, would cost the district nothing.
Caramore said the state doesn't conduct limited audits such as the one the Board of Education is calling for. The comptroller's office, he said, audits all of a district's books. KPMG will examine only conference receipts.
Some wondered where the money for the forensic audit would come from. Caramore said there are always extra funds in the budget to cover emergencies.
Some asked whether board members and district employees receive credit cards, as they did in Roslyn. Caramore said the district uses credit cards for one purpose -- to gas up maintenance vehicles.
Others asked whether the Central District would continue offering conference advances for board members. The district is reviewing the policy, Caramore said. It might offer only partial advances in the future, but the district hadn't yet reached a decision.
Grace Cramsie, a North Bellmore PTA president, said she thought it was sad that Reinhardt, a respected member of the Board of Education who had volunteered in the district nine years, was "publicly humiliated in this town" over an accounting discrepancy.
