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HOLDEN, Mass. — The Wachusett Regional School District continues to look for a way to get beyond the budget problems created by a recent $1.2 million overexpenditure, which might trigger help from a state control committee.
The district is awaiting its end-of-the-year report, which Superintendent Thomas Pandiscio said would be filed in two weeks.
Pandisicio said auditors Powers & Sullivan and the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education had "given their blessing to a mitigation plan" that involved reclassifying $997,816 in expenses and appropriating an additional transportation assessment to close the remaining $177,645 gap.
But the school committee had not taken the actions because the Department of Revenue would not recognize transactions after July 15, he said.
A conference call last week with auditors offered two options: "undo all of the reclassifications to our books and then make the same transactions in FY13" or "leave the books in their current state and submit our audited End-of-Year Report to DESE," Pandiscio said.
The second option was chosen, because the first would have resulted in a full $1.2 million deficit that would have to be rectified, he said.
"Our books are going to be fouled up for years if we do that," Pandiscio said.
Instead, "when we close out our books in FY13, $997,816 of the shortfall would come off our books, but we now have no funds to appropriate to cover the $177,645 gap because of our E&D problem," he said.
The Department of Revenue would still find the district in deficit for the entire $1.2 million on Dec. 1, Pandiscio said. School committee member Julie Kelley said she believed that would hit the trigger number for action by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.
According Kelley, previous discussions with Christine Lynch of the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education indicated that if the Department of Revenue certifies the district's account in a large deficiency that affects children, "then DESE and DOR will form a control committee, take over our finances, allow us to borrow the funds and maintain control of our finances."
Comments (10)
Maximus... How is this a witch hunt? It is all true!
Dear Deminimus,
If the "Scandal(s) of the Day" as YOU put it didn't keep happening we would not be having this discussion. It is time for Duncan Leith, Margaret Watson and Cindy Bazinet to admit their continued failures and resign.
Until Duncan, Margaret and Cindy do finally admit their continued mistakes and resign the credibility of their school committee will remain at ZERO!
What part of logic don't you understand Ms. Deminimus?
This is a witch hunt against three people Mr. Ed has demonized, smeared, attempted to sue, excoriated at the microphone and in print over issues big and small, harrassed, and blamed for everything but global warming (if he believes in it) for years
He has seized upon the "scandal" of the day to do them harm. Why? Because they are loud and proud about defending our successful school district that he and his Holden Associated Taxpayers want to starve. The record is clear in the pages of 15 years of Landmark articles.
Anyone who believes Mr. Ed is acting in the best interest of schools and students does not know his history. He is out to get three people. Witch hunt.
Once again the obvious has escaped the grasp of Ms. Deminimus Maximus.
Yes, Ms. Deminimus Business Manager Peter Brennan did make a number of very serious mistakes totaling more than $3 Million. In their failed attempt to avoid such serious, multi-million dollar, financial mistakes Mr. Brennan answered directly to Duncan Leith and his school committee NOT to Tom Pandiscio.
Duncan Leith, Margaret Watson and Cindy Bazinet are the senior members of the SC. They have been on the SC since the dark days of the Al Tutela regime. How did Duncan, Margaret and Cindy fail to catch these huge $3+ Million mistakes for so long? Weren’t they supposed to be in charge of spending our tax dollars wisely?
Over the years Duncan Leith, Margaret Watson and Cindy Bazinet have repeatedly failed to catch a number of very serious financial mistakes starting with their $139,000 spending fiasco uncovered by the MA Inspector General’s investigation through their latest failure to catch $3+ Million in mistakes made by their own ‘direct’ employee Peter Brennan.
It is time for accountability from the people responsible (or in this latest case – irresponsible) for the SC’s roughly $90 Million annual budget. It is time for Duncan Leith, Margaret Watson and Cindy Bazinet to finally admit their continued failures to manage our tax dollars wisely and to immediately resign. Until they resign the credibility of the SC will remain at ZERO!
It is time for newer members of the SC to step up and fix the latest $3+ Million mistakes which Duncan Leith, Margaret Watson and Cindy Bazinet have once again failed to catch.
To cstidsen:
You can write the most bloated, gasbag paragraph in the history of the planet, but it doesn't change the following:
1. What wrongdoing? Mistakes by the business manager to my knowledge so far.
2. What lack of accountability? The superintendent owned up as soon as he knew, bringing all entities into the process and beginning an investigation.
3. Witch hunts have prevailed in our very recent past. During the McCarthy era individuals had their personal and private lives ruined. Not a fairy tale.
4. Duncan Leith, Margaret Watson, and Cynthia Bazinet have been singled out for months by Mr. Meyer as solely responsible for and solely to pay the price as school committee members, for the budget errors. He's not hunting out details. He's calling for resignations. He wants three people to resign in disgrace without a scintilla of evidence that makes them any more culpable than any other committee member.
You call that accountability?
As long as someone is conducting a witch hunt I will continue to call it a witch hunt.
Witch hunts prevail mostly in fairy tales of the past and oftentime relate to horrific events where persons who were thought to be evil are hunted and crucified in some form; but this ain't no fairy tale! And it certainly is not a witch hunt for if it were voters could expect that in the end someone would be held responsible, either financially or legally for this entire mess, but that also won't happen. In a real withc hunt taxpayers and voters might also expect in some way, shape or form the demons who allowed this to happen would be punished for this knowledgable wrong doing, or at least lose their pension benefits; but nope, we all know that is not going to happen either. So what is left is for everyone to simply examine or "hunt out" (because information was not shared openly) all details regarding how the future district budget process, administration of said budget and towns involvement in said processes will differ when compared to those from that of the past. Actually, if you read other MA town budgets experiencing similar problems with State intervention in both town government and school budget processes you may notice it is becoming the Nationally and State accepted norm, and practice by both Town and School officials to create budgets but then not to enforce the approved budget. This occurs mainly because after townspeople or member towns vote the approved annual fiscal operating budget town and district officials have the power, given them in State Staues and the power, given them through their respective official positions, to move funds between departments, without additional voter approval or even notification, as they see fit and without additional voter approval or tracking thereby causing the exact problem we have now with concerns as to when and where district money loss actually occured. No, this is no witch hunt for evil or incompetent people, that's a problem solved through the job applicantion, screening and contract negotiations process, this is just a hunt to find out how a budget process which was established by the district under guidelines from the State, overseen and expended solely by district and school committee members and prepared only by the district administrtion can acquire enough future credit or respect among town voters to be considered the voice of the district when they advocate for towns to continue funding a school district administration which has clearly chosen to ignore the voices of the townspeople who created it. Many persons speak of the district as some type of higher, more educated administration than that of member towns, but that is not true. However, in doing so the "district" has taken on a separate life, thus becoming an entity of itself without the requirement of answering to anyone, especially the towns, and that must be stopped. "The district" is not an equal or above any member town; the district was created by a membership of towns under guidelines set forth by the State which represents the combined effort of five towns to provide all children in Wachusett district with the same educational benefits, for a shared and presumable lower cost than if they were to do it alone. As member towns originally we all voted to follow the Stae guidelines regarding establishing a regional district and over the years some of those guidelines as originally presented may have changed or been amended, but two things did not change; the member towns are still five and their respective obligations to fund their childrens education through an annual town meeting approved budget is conditional to a majority vote. So, call it whatever you choose but in trying to subvert the focus of wrongdoing of certain administration employees by changing the subject matter to portray town taxpayers and voters of this district mess as demon hunters you have clearly demonstrated your inability to distinguish the basic principles between right and wrong, which by the way is a concept even most children can comphrehend!.
To: dwilliams:
If I were to have a t-shirt it would probably read:
"It's time for Duncan Leith, Margaret Watson and Cindy Bazinet to resign 'BEFORE' they make any more multi-million mistakes with our money!"
To Deminumus Maximus:
No witch hunt just accountability for Duncan, Margaret and Cindy Bazinet's continued multi-million mistakes.
Ed,
C'mon, admit it: you have a black t-shirt with that text written in fluorescent chartreuse, don't you?
How did the WRSD get into such a deep financial hole ($3.3 Million and counting)? Wasn't anyone watching the finances?
Why didn't the senior members of the school committee (Duncan Leith, Margaret Watson and Cindy Bazinet) catch even one of these mistakes?
Day after day, year after year dating all the way back to the Al Tutela regime these senior SC members have failed to catch one serious financial mistake after another.
It is time for Duncan Leith, Margaret Watson and Cindy Bazinet to resign and let the newer members of the committee step up to fix their mistakes.
He lives.
Time to renew the witch hunt.