Comptroller’s Office releases annual winners and losers list
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- December
- 28
ÂÂ ÂÂ Call it a list of the best of and worst of school-district management around the state. The Comptroller’s Office today released a summary ofÂÂ the high points and low points in theÂÂ 113 school district audits it performed in 2006. It has to submit such a report to the Legislature eachÂÂ year.ÂÂ Seven districts received high marks for their fiscal health, including Cincinnatus in Broome, Chenango and Cortland counties; Deposit in Delaware and Broome Counties; East Irondequoit in Monroe County; and Franklin in Delaware and Otsego counties.
ÂÂ ÂÂ At the other end of the spectrum were the sinners. Among them was the Yonkers City School District, which was found to have paid 162 employees $692,648 in excess of the board-established overtime caps and without sufficient detail to substantiate the hours worked during the 2004-05 fiscal year. The district paid five other employees for sick leave they were not entitled to while they were receiving workers compensation benefits.
ÂÂ ÂÂ “Our audits show that school districts overall are improving their fiscalo oversight and tightening up their controls over school funds,” said Mark Pattison, deputy comptroller for local government services and economic development.
ÂÂ ÂÂ The Comptroller’s Office stopped routine school audits in the late 1970s after school budget cuts and staff reductions. In 2005, after theft and other questionable actions in several Long Island districts, the agency received additional funding to begin regular audits. About 180 are underway currently, and the agency is scheduled to complete audits of all 832 school districts, boards of cooperative educational services and charter schools by March 2010. In 2005, New Yorkers spent about $46 billion on educating students in kindergarten through grade 12, according to the Comptroller’s Office.
ÂÂ ÂÂ “After two years of increased training and awareness, much has been accomplished but more still needs to be done to ensure that all school officials understand the breadth of their oversight responsibilities,” Pattison said.
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This entry was posted
on Thursday, December 28th, 2006 at 5:22 pm by Cara Matthews.
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Amicone has a real problem. He defended petrone until he was indicted-he put his deputy there to continue the cover-up and the ill practices of the board of ed and know another scandal.