School budget III: operations & maintenance
And now as I begin to analyze the third "major" category (of the school's six major categories), the numbers start to get more interesting.
First, notice the number highlighted in blue:
Then agree that to the "line item explanation":
but then agree the line item explanation to the detail:
huh?
Anyway, here's the detail for the third major category: operations and maintenance. Interesting to me is the detail for the "non-contract cleaning." See the green here:
I'd be interested to know why the non-contract cleaning jumped from $150 to $90,067... yet the BOE budgets haven't changed?
By the way, the "non-contract cleaning" has been of interest to me for a while. Here's an excerpt from a post (and similar letter I wrote to the Herald) in Feb '06:
The Board of Education abdicated its responsibility to the taxpayers when it voted to support the school budget without any substantive changes. It did nothing more than move one item from the operating budget to the capital budget and reduced a few numbers that are based on estimates.
The taxpayers deserve more from the Board, but never seem to get it. And it doesn’t matter if it’s a Republican or Democratic majority. No one ever seems to review the budget. If they had reviewed the budget, they would know that they could eliminate wasteful spending in a number of ways, such as...
REMOVING THE FLUFF - Line items could be removed from the budget. Some budget line items are never used, such as:
A/c 330 (Research & Development)
A/c 430 (non-contract cleaning)
A/c 590 (storage services / microfiche services)
A/c 610 (K-12 computers)
Tim White
16 comments:
Does the BOE have a yearly audit of its books? And if so, how in-depth is it?
Tim,
If you have done this analysis. show up to BOE meeting at Highland tonight. it will be the last time the public will be able to comment on the BOE budget.
There has to be a better job of oversight with regards to the BOE budget. Florio has a slush fund in the Medical Trust Fund and I feel if he gets this additional money for maintenance it will equate to just another slush fund. We should make all repairs to buildings a capital expenditure.
My question is why do I see some of our maintenance workers driving high priced trucks and cars? Are they doing side jobs using BOE supplies??Who is checking this?
Anon 6:07 I don't believe so since the BOE budget is one line item on the towns budget. They can move money around all they want once they get the money from the town. The biggest expense for the taxpayers doesn't get closely scrutinized. If you spent 60% to 70% of your budget on one item I think you would watch that expenditure more closely?
Well, the Boe's public budget meeting was tonight and one person got up and asked questions and the other person submitted their questions in writing.
Sort of sad that only 2 members from the public were there asking questions on a 60 million dollar budget!
Not everyone is able to attend every meeting. I had a business meeting today and did not get home until after 9 PM. And I do not think that I am unlike many other Cheshire working men and women.
Even if I had attended the meeting, the lack of access to any budget detail makes it near impossible to pose any intelligent questions or render any qualified opinions.
Why can't the complete detailed budget of bothe the Education Department (and the Town when it becomes available) be posted to the town's website?
This is the first budget season out of the last 10 or so that I haven't attended the budget hearings. Why? It's proven to be a complete waste of time. In the past, certain board members maintained that it's not their job to trim the superintendent's budget. Despite what they may say, the taxpayer's concerns are on the bottom of their list. They have succeeded in making anyone who asks for fiscal responsibility appear to be "anti-education". Until we get a return to conservative majorities on our town boards, the education budget will continue to soak up this town's tax dollars. But we ain't seen nothin' yet.... any tax revenue realized because of the mall (yeah, right!) will be sponged up even faster.
The yuppification of Cheshire due to the influx of pie-in-the-sky liberals, who are either apathetic, complacent or dreamy-eyed idealists, has changed this town for the worse. The last domino has fallen.
6:07 Does the BOE have a yearly audit of its books?
Yes.
And if so, how in-depth is it?
My understanding is that it is prescribed by state law... and IMO, state law is not remotely similar to anything I would call an audit. Again though, state law is supposed to rule. Of course... my story with that (going back three or four years) might make your head spin...
I was thinking of telling that story... but want to do it justice.
In the meantime, the quote that comes to mind...
"these are not the droids you're looking for. move along." - The 109th "no oversight is needed" Congress
The Jan 17th Boe business meeting is on air and in it the super presented the boe with an audit report. He didn't give much public detail (of course) but mentioned that two areas were pointed out by the auditors as needing improvement. They were the student activity accounts at two of the schools. Not sure what exactly was wrong and it's no surprise that he didn't elaborate or that no board member asked any questions.
11:11 I agree that it would be nice if the budget was on line. But had you been able to go to the budget meetings, you would have been able to get a copy of the budget. They have extra copies and hand them out at the meetings. I suppose you could still call the superintendent's office and request a copy. There is plenty of detail and information in there to read through and come up with intelligent questions.
It's 2008. Significant town (and school) documents should all be online. And televised meetings should be available on the web. Both would improve transparency and accountability.
Remember the former Congress' motto:
These are not the droids you're looking for. Move along.
Regarding auditing: Tickets are sold at a sports events correct? Who could possibly audit that? You need to count heads. Is that done? I'm getting petty here but audits are very detailed and sometimes the auditors that the accounting firm uses have just graduated from college. Do they know all the details and creative budgeting that goes on with each client. I think not. Look at the Arthur Anderson mess. They look at the big picture and could miss the small details.
Yes, tickets are sold at sporting events unless you're a school staff member - then you get in for free! Definitely difficult to watch the funds through ticket sales.
The "student activity" accounts, I believe, filter lots of money for a multitude of things. I can only imagine the difficulty trying to account for all that money. Makes you wonder what the auditors found when reviewing those accounts.
Any way, Tim, that you can post that part of the audit report that explains what the issue was with the student activity accounts since the superintendent didn't elaborate?
4:31 normally audits aren't intended to detect any little problem... rather they should detect "material" ones.
8:57 I have the town audit (should include the schools). However, government gets multiple audits (including for grants and such). So I'll try to figure it out, find something and post it here. Let me see what I can find.
While you are ckecking that out can you find how much money was spent on the Football field maintenance? According to Mary Fritz "The condition of the field has significantly deteriorated over time and the upkeep has become costly". This is surprising that she knows more about the condition of the field than our BOE. What the heck is wrong with this State and Town. Where do people think the money comes from? They are looking into the safety of synthetic turf and we are still considering it. What are we thinking?
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