Party Leader Disdainful Of School Board’s ‘Secrecy’

By John Voket

A leader in Newtown’s Republican Party offered some strongly worded recommendations to members of the Board of Education regarding so-called personal attacks being exchanged between the finance board chairman and school board representatives.

Marie Sturdevant, town GOP nominating chair, told The Bee Wednesday she was dismayed by letters of rebuttal following a finance board meeting during which chairman John Kortze questioned accounting and financial practices at the school district.

“Politics aside, as a person who is interested in that amount due line of her tax bill, I would hope the [school] board will work more cooperatively with other boards and commissions,” Ms Sturdevant said.

Ms Sturdevant was critical of what she called a “shroud of secrecy” school board and staff members appear to employ over intricacies in their financial practices. She also expressed disdain about school officials sitting silent during finance board and Legislative Council budget sessions while parents and taxpayers railed against cuts in programs that were never included in final school board budget drafts.

“Why go under a shroud of secrecy,” Ms Sturdevant said. “It’s wrong for the board [of education] to withhold information.”

During the June 13 finance board meeting, Mr Kortze asked point blank why school officials failed to tell taxpayers who pleaded for programs not to be cut that many of those programs had been removed from the Board of Education budget months earlier.

“Maybe we like to see you squirm a little,” Mr Nanavaty replied with a smile. He explained in a subsequent letter to the editor in last week’s Bee that his comment was “meant to be humorous.”

Labeling the actions “political game playing,” the GOP official said she was tired of seeing parents manipulated into thinking that, “when you take away money from the Board of Education, the kids will suffer.”

She called for the school board, the finance board, and Legislative Council members to put aside their differences of opinion and get along for the good of the children and the community, and for the school board to be completely and immediately forthcoming with financial data when it is requested by other qualified town boards.

“We need to begin the process of change right now,” Ms Sturdevant said. “The Legislative Council and the Board of Finance want answers…need answers. Someone on the Board of Education needs to clarify budget procedures and stop this game playing.”

Finance Board Questioned Encumbrances

The skirmish erupted June 13 when school board member David Nanavaty, Superintendent Evan Pitkoff, and school finance director Ronald Bienkowski sat with finance board members to answer questions and clarify financial procedures specifically related to the widespread practice of encumbering funds from hundreds of different school board budget lines.

Mr Bienkowski insisted the procedures he uses are conventional, and ensure money is there when bills come due for anticipated and approved expenditures from the $50-plus million dollar school account.

A neighboring school district finance director and another neighboring community’s municipal finance manager both confirmed during a recent canvass that the use on encumbrances in large town or school budgets is a common and accepted practice. Both officials asked that their names be withheld and said they were offering their personal or professional opinions as a point of reference only.

The school finance official said that while encumbrances were necessary in some cases, the widespread or overuse of the practice could create many small “rainy day accounts” that could become problematic at the end of the fiscal year, if they result in a large surplus that suddenly has to be expended or lost.

Some Newtown finance board members suggested that encumbered funds in the local budget may be used to park certain sums of money that can be extracted or transferred late in the fiscal year and become surpluses.

Mr Kortze has repeatedly referenced a situation that developed in the final days of the 2003-2004 fiscal year, when school officials “found” hundreds of thousands of dollars that flowed into district coffers from grants, savings achieved from certain vendor contracts, and various budget line surpluses that suddenly had to be spent or returned to the town.

The finance department, with the endorsement of the superintendent and school board, applied the money to shore up shortages in pension fund accounts for about two dozen Board of Education employees instead of applying them to supplies, books, or reinstituting programs previously cut, Mr Kortze has contended.

Letters Critical               Of Comments

Following rebuttal letters in The Bee from school board member Thomas Gissen and Mr Nanavaty, as well as Board of Education account supervisor Darlene McKirdy, Mr Kortze sought to clarify his concerns when he and other finance board members pointedly questioned the school panel.

“Write this down: I firmly believe Mr Nanavaty is a great asset to this town,” Mr Kortze insisted. “His opinions are very thought-provoking and we don’t have to agree for me to still respect his opinions.”

Mr Kortze said he understood Mr Nanvaty’s comments were “tongue-in-cheek,” but it did not negate the fact that school officials had the habit of sitting silent while parents complained about cutting programs that were not even in the budget in the first place.

“That’s what I meant when I referred to the ‘complete travesty.’ Why do they just sit there when they can set the record straight?” Mr Kortze asked.

Referring to critical accusations in another published letter, the finance chair insisted he never personally attacked anybody.

“I don’t know [Ms McKirdy] but I welcome her input,” Mr Kortze said. “I see her comments as coming from a person who has extreme pride in her work. But she totally missed our point.”

Mr Kortze went on to say that his comments were borne of frustrations felt by his and other local boards and officials.

“I asked [school officials] ‘…can you tell me where you stand?’ and their answer was, ‘I don’t’ know,’” he said. “Mr Gissen points out [in his letter] that, ‘…the town deserves better,’ and it does, from the Board of Education.”

Mr Kortze did not understand how the letter writers could interpret his and other finance board members’ queries as personal attacks.

“This was not a personal attack. Our charge by the charter is to oversee the finances of our town,” Mr Kortze said. “We were told outright, on the record at a public meeting that the Board of Ed members don’t know where the budget stands on a month-to-month basis.”

He said the Board of Education only recently began reviewing monthly budget reports, in part, because the Board of Finance was asking for the information. Mr Kortze added that it took well over a year for the school finance office to start producing the requested reports, and that town officials were pressed into seeking a legal opinion to motivate the Board of Education to expedite delivery of the information.

“While school officials continuously ask for cooperation, we’ve been asking for financial reports for a year-and-a-half,” Mr Kortze said. “And they only agreed to provide them after a legal opinion was sought, and we were told the Board of Finance was legally entitled to [the reports.]”

Ms Sturdevant said Newtown’s Board of Finance and Legislative Council deserved a round of applause for their work at keeping the budget down, and suggested those panels be sent the first draft of the (proposed) school budget the moment it receives Board of Education approval.

“If everyone involved receives the proposed budget at the same time, everybody will have the time to study it,” Ms Sturdevant said. “I just think it would be very helpful in the future to have all three boards sit down and review their budget concerns and ideas together.”

Reached at home Wednesday evening, Republican council and Finance Committee member Richard Recht said he couldn’t agree more with Ms Sturdevant’s advice.

Referring to an ongoing school board rift in a neighboring community, Mr Recht said it was important that the budget process be transparent, no matter what department or how much money was to be allocated to its respective budget.

“I always felt a Board of Education, or any board for that matter, could practically have anything it wanted if it elicited the trust of the people,” Mr Recht said. “After all, every town department, board, and commission is ultimately there to serve all the people.”