I normally do not like to take full sections or articles and reproduce them here. In the case of the Lowell Sun, however, they remove their posts rather quickly from online. Because the information in this article raises eyebrows and points to School Department mismanagement, I have opted to reproduce the following. After reading it, I hope you will join with me during this election season and demand a full, forensic fiscal and plant property audit of the School Department to rule out mismanagement and the potential loss of significant tax dollars. Is this related to the mass exodus of high ranking members of the School Department? Are they seeing something we should see and act upon? We’ll never know unless the town is pressured to act and too closely examine the entire School Department, including their books.
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
As an after thought, the School Department receives federal funds as well as aid from the Commonwealth. If the town appears to be unresponsive, you can always write to the Department of Justice to request an investigation/federal audit.
I’d like to offer a thank you to Ms. Harring Laurendau for her openness, honesty and devotion to principle. You will always have my trust and endorsement. Hopefully, groups like the BTPA and BWG will join in and also demand a full forensic audit by an entity unassociated with the town or the Commonwealth. The key word is forensic.
BILLERICA — For more than four years, a school spending account existed without
School Committee oversight.
School Committee Chairman Maryann Harring Laurendau said the account, for
Middlesex Special Education Collaborative rent payments, contains ledger entries
since July 1, 2007.
On Wednesday, Superintendent of Schools Anthony Serio produced copies of the
ledger and disputed the notion that the account lacked oversight.
“Nothing gets paid out of this account unless it’s signed off,” he said. “All of
these receipts have to be turned in, signed off on and then the account is
audited.”
MSEC pays the Billerica School District about $16,000 each year to rent two
rooms at the Dutile Elementary School and the Marshall Middle School. Serio
added that $16,000 to $18,000 is withdrawn from the account each year to cover
state-mandated professional development expenses.
School Business Manager Paul Szymanski said he is closing the account.
“I’ve received my marching orders and there will be no more expenditures coming
out of this account,” he said last week. “Money from the account will be
transferred into the facilities management budget. Revenue will be transparent.”
Harring Laurendau said she discovered the account when School Committee member
Joanne Barry noticed that a $544 reimbursement check dated Nov. 30, 2010,
connected to an MSEC checking account.
“Since Joanne didn’t recognize the account, she alerted me,” said Harring
Laurendau. “The check came from a custodial account at MSEC. We investigated the
source of the account and learned it has existed for years and perhaps decades.”
The reimbursement stemmed from a Massachusetts Association of School Committees
conference on Cape Cod last fall.
Szymanski, who was hired last July, was first told about the account by Harring
Laurendau.
“There is nothing in that ledger that appears to be out-of-sort,” he said. “All
the spending was appropriate.”
Serio said school districts commonly draw money from custodial accounts to cover
school-related expenses.
“What’s happening with these custodial accounts across the state is that school
district want to have them back under their jurisdictions,” he said. “The
custodial accounts have existed in all of our collaboratives across the state.
And still do in some.”
Earlier this week Harring Laurendau said she spoke publicly about the ledger
because oversight did not include input from the School Committee or the town.
“For me as a chairman of the committee this information was public information,”
she said. “I wanted to make a statement about it. It’s information that should
be transparent.”
For those interested, the following is taken right from the U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts website:
Public Corruption and Special Prosecutions Unit
The Public Corruption and Special Prosecutions Unit handles the investigation and prosecution of federal offenses involving public corruption, whether such offenses occur at the federal, state, or local level. The unit also handles all civil rights prosecutions, and other cases of particular sensitivity, as assigned on an individual basis.
Letters and/or telephone calls requesting an investigation and/or a federal forensic audit of the school district, specifically, and the entire town, generally, can be sent to the following:
Boston
John Joseph Moakley
United States Federal Courthouse
1 Courthouse Way, Suite 9200
Boston, MA 02210
(617) 748-3100
TTY: (617) 748-3696
Worcester
Donohue Federal Building, Room #206
595 Main St.
Worcester, MA 01608
(508) 368-0100
Springfield
Federal Building and Courthouse
300 State Street, Suite 230
Springfield, MA 01105
(413) 785-0235
When you consider some of the articles I’ve posted where a result of auditing school districts uncovered billions lost due to waste, fraud, abuse or outright theft at a single school district, mentioning some of those articles may provide the incentive for someone at that office to look for a career case and accept the challenge. But, nothing will happen if everyone remains silent.
