By Nick Buglione
In July, the governor signed into a law a five-point plan to increase accountability of school district finances and improve integrity, the latest step elected officials have taken following the revelation that officials in the Roslyn and William Floyd school districts had allegedly embezzled millions of taxpayer dollars.
³This school accountability law will provide our schools with stronger controls,² said state Sen. Kemp Hannon (R-Garden City). ³The small percentage of Long Island school districts that have had scandals related to the misappropriation of funds is too many.²
The law requires that school board members receive six hours of financial-oversight training, and establish an internal audit process within each school district. It also mandates a competitive bidding process for selecting auditing firms, which conduct independent school district audits annually, every five years. Each district will also have to establish audit committees to work with the auditors and school boards throughout the audit process.
A second bill passed in conjunction with that law requires that the state comptroller audit all school districts in the state at least once prior to 2010.
³As we have seen in the Roslyn and William Floyd school districts, there is always a risk of impropriety,² said state Sen. Charles Fuschillo (R-Merrick). ³We owe it to our residents to ensure that their school taxes are being spent to educate children.²
Local school officials agree, but feel there¹s a public perception that the scandals in Roslyn and William Floyd are the rule rather than the exception. ³From my perspective, there really isn¹t any issue in my mind that schools should be held accountable,² said Dominic Mucci, superintendent of the North Bellmore School District. ³The downside of all of this is that all school districts, all administrators, all employees are being painted with that same small brush of suspicion. That¹s unfortunate.²
Sheldon Dumain, superintendent of the neighboring Bellmore School District, echoed Mucci. ³People think if it happened there, it can happen anywhere,² he said. ³I do believe we are being targeted and being placed in the same pool. Is that fair? I don¹t think so.
³I think in New York state, 99.5 percent of all school districts do the right thing all the time,² Dumain continued.
And results from recent audits initiated by the state Comptroller Alan Hevesi prove that, according to Leon Campo, deputy superintendent of the East Meadow School District.
Hevesi announced in August 2004 that his office would be auditing five local school districts in-depth, and 16 others in a capacity that covered only administrative and board expenses. Findings from the reports released so far have been minor, including the one involving East Meadow, Campo said.
It marked the second time in as many years East Meadow was the focus of a state comptroller audit. Campo and Superintendent Dr. Robert Dillon have said the second audit was prompted by unfounded complaints from a few vindictive residents looking to use post-Rosyln and William Floyd hysteria to put East Meadow school officials in the hot seat.
While both audits cited internal control weaknesses and made suggestions for improvement, no evidence of criminal wrongdoing was found. ³We¹re probably the most audited school district in the state,² Campo said. ³[But] I think that only good can come of an audit. Sometimes when you have misuse of public funds, it provides an opportunity to reflect on overall school governance. We feel that the [new law] is progressive. We think it¹s positive.²
Still, the new accountability law represents yet another unfunded mandate from the state, which school officials don¹t like. It will take time and money to create audit committees and train school board members in financial oversight, they said. ³That will be another expense we have to absorb,² said David Feller, superintendent of the North Merrick School District. ³Once something is a law, there is no sense questioning it anymore, we just have to follow it.²
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