BOE To Take Up Budget Transfer Policy At Next Meeting

By Eliza Hallabeck

With no resolution by the end of her board’s last meeting, Board of Education Chair Debbie Leidlein said this week the board will again discuss its budget transfer policy it its scheduled Tuesday, April 3, meeting.

“We’re trying to gain more oversight and more accountability for the spending of money, and we just want to make sure that we have a policy that allows us to understand better how we are following the budget and how money is being used from one area to another,” said Ms Leidlein this week.

At the Tuesday, March 20, meeting, Ms Leidlein brought up different policies that had been looked into by the board’s policy subcommittee, and the transfer policy was one of them.

The school board’s transfer policy was last discussed and approved in November.

The policy, which governs budget procedures and major object code transfers, was last brought before the board a few months ago.

“There have been some occurrences that have made us want to look at this policy again,” said Ms Leidlein at the meeting.

The policy subcommittee, which Board of Education Vice Chair Laura Roche chairs with Ms Leidlein as a member, looked at the transfer policy again, Ms Leidlein explained, because the members wanted a better understanding of where money is being moved within the budget.

“A bit more control over our transfer policy will enable us to do that,” she said.

The way the suggested policy is written, school board member William Hart pointed out, would have the school board approving the hiring of part-time positions, like special education assistants. In some cases hiring special education assistants, he said, would need to be approved before the school board could convene.

Superintendent of Schools Janet Robinson said it takes roughly two days to hire a special education assistant following a Planning and Placement Team meeting and decision for a student.

Instead of approving a different transfer policy, school district Business Director Ronald Bienkowski suggested he could include internal transfers within his monthly financial reports.

“I think there is a number of unintended consequences that would take place as a result of this policy,” Mr Bienkowski said.

While clarifying changes in the policy, Ms Leidlein said the revision would have all transfers over $10,000 approved by the school board, and all transfer below $10,000 would be presented to the school board and announced.

“So over $10,000 needs board approval before it is spent,” said Ms Leidlein. “Under $10,000 needs to be presented to the board at the next meeting, but doesn’t require board approval before it is spent.”

Board member Richard Gaines pointed out that all transfers equaling exactly $10,000 would not be covered by the policy as suggested.

Ms Roche said the suggested policy was read by an auditor and approved.

After discussing the recommended policy, Mr Bienkowski said he would have liked to have been included in the discussion of reworking the policy.

“There is no problem with me attaching these internal transfer summaries when we do them,” said Mr Bienkowski. “There is no secret about it.”

Ms Leidlein explained she thinks it is important that the school board understand where money is being moved within major object codes.

Major object codes, Mr Hart said, need to be defined within the policy.

“If you want to have this control, I think you need to define what those buckets are that you want to see the transfers between,” said Mr Hart. “Then I would like to have [Mr Bienkowski] tell us how many of those he expects to bring us every year, and what it is going to cost him to bring us those items.”

Mr Hart also said he would support a revision to the transfer policy if it were fair.

“To say ‘within major object code transfers’ is vague at the very best,” Mr Gaines said, adding the policy as reworked would not lead to effective and efficient daily operations.

Following the meeting, Ms Leidlein said the policy subcommittee looked at transfer policies from other towns when researching the change. She also said the policy subcommittee members were concerned with making sure the transfer policy would meet town and state statutes. 

“I hope that we can come to a resolution with regard to this,” said Ms Leidlein.