School Board Approves Adjusted Year-End Report

By Eliza Hallabeck

The Board of Education met February 15 and approved a FY 2009-10 Year-End Financial Report after deferring discussion of the audit report for a few weeks while it addressed the FY 2011-12 budget.

The firm Kostin, Ruffkess & Company, LLC, in its audit report took issue with the way the school district was executing budget transfers. At the school board’s January 6 meeting, Joseph Centofanti, a partner with Kostin, Ruffkess & Company, LLC, spoke about his firms recommendations with the board.

At that meeting, Mr Centofanti explained the last of three recommendations for the school board, which asked that the district’s accounting practices be modified to comply with state statutes and its own policies regarding budget transfers. As required by state statute, budget transfers, he said, require certain transfers to be approved by the board.

“This didn’t happen for three object levels last year,” he said at the time. “This recommendation is that transfers be approved in accordance with the [district’s] policy and the statutes.”

After the meeting, school board Secretary Andrew Buzzi pointed out money was approved in the June year-end report to purchase computers for Reed Intermediate School, which is also listed in the school board’s meeting minutes from June 15.

“Upon actual investigation of the issue, it appears that the board is not in violation of its policy,” said Mr Buzzi at the time.

As presented by Board of Education Director of Business Ronald Bienkowski on Tuesday night, the newly adjusted year-end report was submitted for reapproval by the board, “with the inclusion of ‘transfers’ to cover the three shortage areas appearing in the major objects summary.”

Items that had previously showed a negative balance were professional services, other purchased services, and property (the Reed Intermediate School computers).

“If you look at the report, all the transfers are reported here,” said Mr Bienkowski. “All the negative balances that were reported on the previous June 30 report are now much less on here.”

The school board unanimously approved Mr Bienkowski’s revised year-end report.

Mr Hart asked the school board’s policy subcommittee members to be prepared to discuss the school board’s policy on reporting budget transfers by March.

Assistant Superintendent of Schools Linda Gejda also presented a report to the school board on the different kinds of professional learning that teachers attend during the school year.

“We’ve all heard the comments,” Superintendent Janet Robinson said, adding she thought it would be a good idea for the school board to understand the full extent professional learning has on a teacher’s schedule.

Comments at Board of Education meetings over the last few months have included claims from parents that teachers are pulled out of the classroom to attend professional learning meetings.

Dr Gejda’s presentation tracked how often classroom teachers in the district are absent due to professional learning duties. Teachers in grades kindergarten through fourth showed being absent from the classroom two percent of the time, teachers in fifth through eighth grade showed a slightly higher average of 2.21 percent of the time, and teachers in grades nine through 12 showed being absent due to professional development an average of 1.95 percent of the time, as reported by Dr Gejda.

Professional learning duties include a wide range of obligations, according to the presentation, that can include participating in the state’s Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports program, training, and meeting with collogues for the state’s Teacher Education and Mentoring (TEAM) program.

“It appears our teachers are in our classes 98 percent of the time,” member Andrew Buzzi said after the presentation.