School Board To Spend $13K On Independent District Audit

By John Voket

A Newtown Board of Education member convinced his peers to spend $13,000 for an independent audit of district accounting, business practices, and procedures in the wake of two specific local incidents, as well as several other high profile regional incidents involving the theft or alleged theft of funds from school systems and municipalities.

Despite the fact that the school district has already budgeted almost $17,000 to another auditing firm already on retainer for both the district and the town, school board member Paul Mangiafico told The Bee Wednesday the district and Newtown taxpayers deserve a “second opinion,” from an “independent and unaffiliated source…to ensure that we are managing [school] financial practices in a responsible way.”

Last week, near the end of a three-hour meeting, Mr Mangiafico told Board of Education members that he and school board chairman Elaine McClure had recently visited the Waterbury-based CPA firm of Konowitz, Kahn and Company. According to the board’s minutes from that meeting, Mr Mangiafico and Ms McClure asked about engaging the firm to look at the district’s internal procedures and controls.

After brief discussion, during which Mr Mangiafico said the auditors’ would work closely with and report findings to district finance director Ronald Beinkowski, he moved that the board approve $13,000 to retain the independent firm. The board voted unanimously to endorse the audit, the $13,000 retainer, and any related expenses and mileage for the three-member team who are expected to report their initial findings in six to eight weeks.

Mr Mangiafico first introduced the idea of an independent audit earlier this year, but since he was referencing incidents involving former Newtown High School choral director Sabrina Post as part of the justification for the audit, the initial discussion of the proposal was conducted in closed session. Ms Post, was charged with several felonies and a misdemeanor in relation to alleged thefts and forgery.

According to Newtown police, Ms Post allegedly submitted bogus reimbursement forms to the school system to obtain $1,735 in funds to attend two Connecticut Drama Association workshops in New York City in January 2003 and February 2004, which police say never occurred.

Police also allege Ms Post also fraudulently obtained or sought to obtain reimbursements from the school system for various goods and services, including, generally, bus transportation, music equipment purchases, electronic equipment purchases, and private music lessons. The nature of the charges against her indicates the aggregate amount involved in those offenses was greater than $2,000.

Ms Post had been Newtown High School’s choral director, a senior class advisor, a Drama Club advisor, and had been the director of the NHS Drama Club’s production of Show Boat. More recently, Ms Post voluntarily agreed to resign her teaching post, retroactively to June 30, 2005, in exchange for district superintendent Evan Pitkoff agreeing to withdraw termination proceedings against her.

Ms Post subsequently agreed to make restitution to the school system in the amount of $11,194.04, within two weeks of the agreement’s approval. Last Friday Ms Post applied for accelerated rehabilitation as an alternative to going to trial on the charges (see related story).

According to Mr Mangiafico, he was justified in making the request for the audit because he believes to date, “policies regarding the submission of original receipts with [reimbursement] requests from special events and activity accounts are not being followed.”

Mr Mangiafico said he was not necessarily interested in utilizing the district’s auditing firm of Kostin, Ruffkess & Co., LLC that is already on retainer at $16,896. The independent firm, he said, has never worked for the town and, in fact, has never audited a school district before.

“We wanted a firm not connected with the town or school district to come in and take an unbiased look at our internal bookkeeping procedures, checks and balances to highlight any weaknesses, to ensure we have the proper controls in place, and that they are being implemented successfully,” Mr Mangiafico said. “We’re [the school board] spending 72 cents of every tax dollar and as a taxpayer, I want to be able to have a higher level of confidence that the system is working. It’s our fiduciary responsibility to every taxpayer.”

Mr Mangiafico, who is currently campaigning for his second term on the board, said he was motivated to seek an outside opinion after seeing that the school district as well as the town was vulnerable to people who might be seeking to misappropriate taxpayers’ money. He cited another recent incident where a former town Public Works Department employee was found guilty of diverting cash and checks from routine monetary transactions at the town’s transfer station.

Mr Mangiafico also pointed to more recent developments in two Long Island (N.Y.) school districts, where financial mismanagement is being alleged. According to widespread reports, the Suffolk County District Attorney is investigating both the Roslyn and Central Islip school districts for alleged financial improprieties and misconduct on the part of school administrators and school board members.

That investigation may reportedly expand to numerous other districts on Long Island.

“If it can happen in good districts like Roslyn, and even here in Newtown, don’t we owe the taxpayers the assurance that all the necessary practices and procedures are being followed to protect their financial investments in our schools?” Mr Mangiafico asked.

While he said he agrees with Mr Mangiafico’s request in theory, First Selectman Herb Rosenthal said this week that the district might be better served by utilizing the auditing firm that is already budgeted and on retainer for such purposes. Mr Rosenthal further stated that he recalled certain guidelines and procedures that had been suggested by the current auditing firm years ago related to the administration and oversight of school and municipal activity funds and disbursements.

“As far as I know those practices were never adopted formally by the school district’s former business manager,” Mr Rosenthal said. “They were made prior to Mr Bienkowski’s arrival.”

Mr Rosenthal said that he felt the unbudgeted $13,000 allocation could be better spent elsewhere if the district were to first engage the retained firm for advice on school district bookkeeping and procedural matters.

“It’s not a bad idea to do an audit, but this [action] creates the appearance of redundancy and is coming relatively early in a budget year where budget lines are already being cut or adjusted,” Mr Rosenthal said.

According to a spokesperson at Kostin, Ruffkess & Co., LLC, the firm audits about 30 municipalities and school districts annually. A request for the firm’s recommendations to the district on activity fund reimbursements was in the process of being located at press time.