Fiscal Rangers

Lake County School Board Approves $662-million budget

I have been attending all the School District budget workshops (now called "special meetings") for this coming budget, and yesterday, as the article below explains, the School Board approved a budget of $662 million for 2008 (which started LAST JULY) to June, 2009. So, it only took the administration and Board two months to decide the budget into the new spending year. Given the fact that School Supt. Anna Cowin's staff was unorganized, and rarely presented any factual data to support budget justifications (other than verbal, feel good statements), the Board did a good job reviewing many (not all) line item spending plans, and rolling some of them back. Chairman Larry Metz and board member Cindy Barrow were especially effective in ferreting out some unneeded spending. However, there were still BS statements from some managers and the Board had to approve some spending that I would have kicked back. One confusing factor is that the total budget lumps in capital spending, which is mostly school construction. So when reporter David Donald says the budget is "about $80 million less than last year's", he doesn't explain much or ALL of the reduction is from a drop in construction spending. So, it... Read more →

New Zealand Is a Parallel Universe to Lake County

If you read the news and this blog about the Lake County School District or witnessed Schools Supt. Anna Cowin constantly interrupting the School Board, then this 2007 article from New Zealand indicates there must be a parallel universe to LCSD on the other side of the world... (:-)) Just last week, I heard Anna complaining at a Board meeting about the Board being on a witch hunt, thus New Zealand's universe must be a year ahead of us. vj Angry Tizard objects to rival's 'broomstick' insult 5:00AM Wednesday June 27, 2007 By Audrey Young Cartoon by Rod Emmerson An angry Auckland Issues Minister, Judith Tizard, demanded an apology in Parliament yesterday after taking exception to being referred to indirectly as a witch. Nelson National MP Nick Smith suggested she get back on her "broomstick" after she interjected continuously during his speech on the Budget. Ms Tizard objected and sought an apology. But Deputy Speaker Anne Hartley refused to order Nick Smith to say sorry, saying it was a "robust debate". Ms Tizard, on the verge of tears, then explained why she took such strong exception to the comment. "A witch has been used as a term of insult to... Read more →

Good News About the Lake County School District

Ok, I tend to focus on School District drama, problems, fiscal mistakes and problems here, but occasionally, we need a balance. School District Board Member Cindy Barrow provides a good description of good news in her periodic email newsletter, so here it is... you might email her and get on her email list if you want more news. Like Barrow describes, the teaching side of the District seems to be working well, and they are improving FCAT and No Child Left Behind ratings. But it is my opinion that the management and non-instructional side of the District needs improvement by using more professional management reports, budget formats and methods to ensure spending decisions are based on businesslike analysis rather than emotional or "vague" data. vj This message is from Cindy Barrow, Lake County School Board Member, District 3. This message contains my thoughts and opinions. This is NOT an official message from the Lake County School Board. Your correspondence is welcome. Please e-mail me at: [email protected]. Your Lake County School District is an "A" rated district! Dear Citizens: Tonight, I am writing to tell you about the future of Lake County Schools! In 3 months, we will have a new... Read more →

Cowin Goes Berserk at School Board Meeting & Other LCSD News

Tavares, FL -Tuesday - August 12, 2008 - I set up this "starter" post so you know I am writing an extended article to insert here sometime later today. It will include additional details on these Lake County School District Issues and Events in the last week: - Last night's Board meeting when Anna Cowin got upset regarding the Board's acceptance of the RSM Audit on Position Control. She claimed the auditor didn't talk to her and her response should be included with the report. When Board Chairman Metz tried to assert control of the agenda, she became more upset, got up, paced the floor like a wounded leopard, tried to demand 3 minutes of talking time by filing a public input card, and strode menacingly towards Metz, who then called for a break. Someone pushed a button and two Sherriff deputies showed up and waited in the back of the room for the rest of the evening. I am not sure who has authority to have the Deputies evict someone - is it the Board Chair, or the Superintendent? We almost found out. I would watch or record the video tonight at 6pm on LSCC-TV on Comcast Channel 13... Read more →

California Fiscal Crisis & Management Assistance Team Concept Should be Used in Florida

California has a central FCMAT ( Fiscal Crisis & Management Assistance Team ) organization that acts like an on-call help center to aid California K-12 (actually K-14 in CA) schools fix fiscal and management problems. Maybe Florida needs a similar organization to help a County that has been mis-managed, and the leadership wants to correct and improve their systems. Their website is at: http://www.fcmat.org/ vj Read more →

Lake County School District Board Votes to Ask Governor to Remove Supt. Anna Cowin

Update: August 5 - I added articles below from the Daily Commercial and the Orlando Sentinel, plus memos and attachments from Board Member Cindy Barrow. I was just at a workshop for the Lake County School Board, and they reviewed the response from Anna Cowin to an audit report where she authorized spending $600,000 on salaries for a "TAP" program without Board authorization. Based upon the lack of coherence in the response, and the presentation of a third audit by RSM McGladrey about another situation where over $400,000 in unauthorized salaries were paid based upon staff being instructed to make changes in the computer, the Board went nuts. Following a proposal from Cindy Barrow, the Board voted unanimously to gather evidence of apparent wrongdoing by Supt. Cowin and send it to Florida Gov. Crist to determine if she should be removed from office. Now, it is only 90 days until her term expires, but Cowin's flippant response to the TAP audit and other issues (like calling a press conference in the middle of budget hearings to conflict with it) didn't win points, and the Board basically got fed up and decided to ask Crist. They instructed the District auditor to... Read more →

Cowin Answers TAP Audit Regarding Unauthorized Spending

About a month ago, the auditor for the Lake School District issued a report disclosing that the School Supt., Anna Cowin, had spent over $400,000 on a school teacher incentive program without authorization from the Board. Cowin thought the funds would be replaced by a grant, but that was not the case, and she bypassed the Board for the spending. This week, the board had a budget workshop on Monday, and that night, Cowin was to provide her answer to the audit report about how it happened and how the funds could be recovered or replaced. I was at the budget meeting which was from 2:30 to 4:30 pm. However, it seems Cowin arranged a press conference at 3pm, during the middle of the budget hearings. She got up and left, along with the reporters in the room, and they went into another conference room next door. However, the door between the two rooms is not sealed well, and half the audience could hear Cowin loudly explaining her side of the issue to the reporters, while the budget hearings continued. So, below is the most recent Sentinel article on Cowin's response, and the Board's responses. And the beat goes on...... Read more →

Lake County School District Overpaid Staff by $600,000 per Audit

The Audit Committee of the Lake County School District just had their meeting and the external auditor, RSM McGladrey, presented a new audit showing that "someone" manipulated the computerized payroll system to overpay some staff by $600,000. Either the situation was caused by mismanagement or purposely as part of fraud. It indicates a lack of professional accounting controls - there should be a running total of approved salary levels that is compared to check payments and reconciled to ensure non-approved changes are made to the payroll system. This is a criminal situation and should be investigated by the Sherrif's department. This is actual theft from taxpayer funds and needs to be investigated by criminal investigators. The article below doesn't say there was any such recommendation, but I will make it at next Monday's Board meeting. Note: As a former member of the audit committee, I can say that RSM tends to avoid conflict or specifics in their reports - they tend to never make recommendations related to individuals in writing. In former cases where I was auditing potential fraud, we had criminal investigators and the attorney involved before writing any report. vj ====================================== Who altered salaries at Lake's schools? Tanya... Read more →

An Overview of Lake School District Budgets

This document is a work in process - more to be added at the bottom of this document in a few days. vj - July 21, 2008 (Just attended another 3 hours District budget workshop). School District Budgets - The Lake County School District has a NEW website, and lots of new stuff is on it. If you look in the Finance Dept., they now have the current 2007-08 annual budget (a very brief 15 page summary), plus the long missing monthly budget summaries. Additionally, I attended a Board workshop yesterday which was one of a series reviewing revisions to the next year's budget. The School budget year starts in July, so they still are working on the budget that just started. Here are my comments about the budgets and the workshop...I have been putting this off because government "fund account" budgeting is a black magic system that results in brain strain on everyone. My opinion is that you can't blame elected officials for not understanding the budgets when degreed accountants can go blind trying to decipher them. I actually think there is a retirement home in Florida for old fund accountants who went senile after trying to explain fund... Read more →

Are We Picking on School Supt. Anna Cowin?

Anna Cowin - The lame duck elected Lake County School District Superintendent, Anna Cowin, gets lots of coverage in this blog. But if you think I am the only one, don't. If you go to this link on the Topix.net website, you can read over 20 comments in a forum for Astatula residents (not a major community in Lake County) about Anna regarding her recent statement that she would sue the School Board if they forced her to reinstate an Administrator. They aren't very flattering. Or, do a google search on her name - our blog doesn't appear until the end of the second page... read the other comments. It is time for Cowin to resign and go. vj Read more →

New Schools Supt. Moxley to Start Consulting This Week

For the record, here is some info related to the new Lake County Schools Superintendent, Susan Moxley, who is starting this week. I don't expect to see many changes even being discussed until November when Anna Cowin completes her term in office, so we probably won't know until then the level of research and priorities that Moxley will focus on. Moxley will even have an office in the separate old County Courthouse so visitors can enter without going through School District offices. Finally, at the bottom is an older article recapping the School Board's reluctant approval of Anna Cowin's school staffing plan - they basically had no legal basis to alter it, so approved it "under protest". However, this week, the new School FCAT grades came out and most Lake Schools improved their scores, so we might wonder whether Cowin's previous staff transfers helped or hindered the results. We can't really know because neither Cowin or the Board ever discussed any hard facts about each administrator (mostly Assistant Principals) transfer decision except for one or two of them. The trend was that Cowin clammed up and stood her ground without any logical facts to support her staffing plan, and the... Read more →

Buyout Proposal for Schools Supt. Anna Cowin is Dead

Well, Tanya's article below says it all. So we will suffer through several more months of Cowin Catastrophes. vj ======================================= from THIS OrlandoSentinel.com page Lake school superintendent buyout likely won't fly Tanya Caldwell | Sentinel Staff Writer June 28, 2008 The buyout buzz is starting to fade almost as fast as it bloomed. The Lake County School Board can't give Superintendent Anna Cowin money to leave office early, said Bill Montford, the chief executive officer of the Florida Association of District School Superintendents. "A School Board cannot arbitrarily go in, nor can she agree to, a buyout to a contract. There is no contract," Montford said. "She was elected by the people and she has an obligation to serve the people. The only person who can remove her is the governor, with just cause." Cowin doesn't even want to leave, said Montford, who said he spoke to her Thursday night. "She has no desire to leave anytime before her time," Montford said Friday. That may contradict what Cowin told School Board member Scott Strong, who said he thought Cowin was open to a buyout after speaking with her. He presented the idea to an overwhelmingly supportive School Board Thursday afternoon.... Read more →

Cowin Might Accept Buyout and Leave School District

Yesterday, the Lake County School Board (FL) had a special workshop to review deferred issues from Monday. But, back in one corner, Board member & pragmatic businessman Scott Strong lurked quietly with a secret idea, not even voicing a vote on some issues. The meeting went on about Supt. Anna Cowin (who was absent and in "the hospital"), and how upset the Board and more public comment speakers were about her plan to re-assign about 40 School administrators, mostly Assistant Principles. The Board members wound themselves tight into knots over the issue, and some said they wouldn't even vote on an alternative plan, just to show Cowin up, and defer the final vote until the following Monday's meeting. The Board was also upset about the lack of information from staff and the Supt. about a staffing plan for the "Title Services" department, and pending EEOC (discrimination) complaints form "disruptive" members of that staff. So, after lots of steam was vented, then Scott Strong blew the whistle, said he had info that the Supt. might accept a buyout offer, and the Board sat there dumbfounded, but Jimmy Conner was gleeful (see article below). So, most work was again deferred to Monday,... Read more →

Lake School District Superintendant Anna Cowin Blamed for $485,000 Loss

I haven't commented much on Lake County School District management issues recently, figuring nothing would change until Supt. Anna Cowin leaves office in November. However, I went to the Lake County School District Board meeting Tuesday night and it was a "hoot". I even stayed until it ended about midnight, because I have left early before and missed some squabble that was then reported in the papers. But, at 11pm, Supt. Anna Cowin rattled her keys, packed her laptop, and left without any reason, which frosted the Board. Several things happened before and after she left: - The Board spent 60+ minutes on Cowin's reassignment of some 40 school administrators, including many Assistant Principles, while parents and teachers filled the public comments barrage with comments about problems caused by all the re-assignments. However, it was clear to me in the first 10 minutes that all the talk was a waste because the Board Attorney said Cowin had the legal right to do what she did, and it would be very hard for the Board to modify her actions. They are going to follow up on the issue today, Thursday, in a special workshop. One Board member, Jimmy Conner, probably had... Read more →

Lake School District Board Member Cindy Barrow on State Education Budget Issues

We mostly focus on fiscal management, but Lake County School District Board Member Cindy Barrow sent out an email about her trip to Tallahassee to get details on coming State Budget cuts that affect the school district. Cindy puts in a lot of hours on School District issues and has good credibility. From my point of fiscal management view, the practice of state legislators to mandate certain programs, or require "higher local effort" funding and not fund them is unethical, so remember that when you meet a State legislator - ask them why they play the games mentioned below. Perhaps the way to fix it is VOTE OUT ALL INCUMBENTS until they stop playing such games and implement regulations to prohibit mandated programs without funding them (i.e. like requiring added PE classes, but not paying for it). But, maybe School officials need to kick the problem back to parents like Orange County Schools did - reducing and combining bus routes, and eliminating non-instructional programs. Why subsidize parents who want free transportation for their kids - charge them actual cost or don't provide it. Read and weep... vj ============================================= Disclosure: Cindy Barrow, Lake County School Board Member is writing this update... Read more →

Lake County School District Staff Fails to Provide Budget Details

We all know Florida State is cutting back on budgets for School Districts and other government agencies. So what happens when you have a School District staff that apparently cannot provide budget details to the School District Board to evaluate how to fund needed positions? Well, the poor legacy of lame duck Lake County School District Anna Cowin continues - read this narrative from School Board member Cindy Barrow: From Cindy Barrow, Board Member: My pre-amble to this article is to give you one example of the budgeting frustration the board has encountered. There are two teaching positions in our district with different titles and different job responsibilities. They are: Potential Specialists who work specifically with our lowest quartile students to prevent drop-out and promote academic achievement, and our ILS positions that provide the needed assistance to our teachers to use the new technology that they are given to increases student success. The administration put this item on our agenda one time to decide how to fund these two positions; I put the item on a workshop agenda one time; and then I put the item on the last regular school board agenda. This is a total of three attempts... Read more →

School District Fails to Collect $275,000 in fees for Controversial Pre-K program

Imagine if you were a landlord of an apartment building and your site manager didn't collect rent from 38% of the tenants, AND you didn't have a report that told you that $235,000 was not collected from tenants. That is the way the School District is managing taxpayer programs like the Pre-K program in Lake County, FL. Over the past few weeks, the Lake County (FL) School District has been mired in a controversy about funding for a "Pre-K" or pre-kindergarten program. Rabid parents showed up at last night's Board meeting ready to plead for the program to continue based upon rumors the program would be cut. Not so, said the Chairman Larry Metz - the Board had a workshop earlier in the day to receive the details in a new audit report and decided no cuts were planned. However, the audit report resulted in the outing of another poor business practice at the District. Apparently they charge pre-K kids parents fees for the program, but 38% of them had not paid the fees. As the article below says, teachers focused on the kids, and not being businesslike in collecting the fees. The result is the program lost money due... Read more →

School's Lame Duck Super Quacks to Approve Public Records Requests

Anna Cowin, elected lame duck Superintendent of Lake County Schools is at it again. She has declared that public information requests for the $742-million District be run by her for approval because recent ones have cost a total of $8000 (out of the $742-million budget). Below is the Daily Commercial article on the issue and how two of the Board members have submitted requests and are encountering delays. It seems strange that an elected Board member must file a formal public records request to get info, but I agree, they shouldn't have to pay for it. vj ================================================== from: http://www.dailycommercial.com/main.asp?SectionID=31&SubSectionID=162&ArticleID=23573&TM=75384.7 Tuesday, April 22, 2008 Cowin, board squabble over records Lame-duck superintendent exerts control over who gets what information and when Tuesday, April 22, 2008 Like the press or the public, board members are subject to service charges for their requests unless it's approved by the board, according to Cowin's new policy. The Lake County School District has seen a flood of public records requests lately. "Recently, this office has had several, voluminous and time- consuming requests for documents and information from individual members of the school board, as well as the press and public," Cowin wrote in the memo. "I'm... Read more →

Lake County Allows Contracted Law Firms to Donate to Re-Election Campaigns

The article below discusses a practice in some counties, including Volusia County AND Lake County, where contracted Attorney's for School District Boards are allowed to donate to re-election campaigns of incumbent School Board members. The article mainly centered on a Daytona Beach attorney who is paid up to $285/hour by the Volusia County School Board and had donated $1500 to each of two elected Board members who are running for re-election. The article does say that some counties and law firms prohibit such donations, but Lake County's School District does allow it. They didn't have any details on whether the contracted law firm for the School District has made such donations, but here is a quote from one of the Board members: In Lake County, School Board member Cindy Barrow said she would not turn down such a campaign contribution. "Everyone in this country is free to donate to any candidate that they would like to donate money" to, she wrote via e-mail. The Lake County School District Board should prohibit such election donations from any vendor, not just attorney's, who do business with the School District. Or, there should be a clear, public disclosure of each such donation on... Read more →

Lake County School School District Super Anna Cowin Ignores Requiring Staff Performance Evaluations

Today, the Orlando Sentinel published a LONG front page article (see below) by Tanya Caldwell on how Lake School District's Superintendent, Anna Cowin, has not performed required written performance evaluations for her SIX top managers since her election in 2004, and only two of the six had old 2004 evaluations from an earlier superintendent in their personnel files. These are the same managers she has requested significant raises for, and apparently there is no written evidence to indicate any justification for the raises (which were turned down by the Board awhile back. There is a Board policy, like other Florida School Districts, that requires written performance evaluations for all staff, but Cowin has ignored it, and there are no sanctions that the Board can implement to enforce the policy. First, no current staff should get ANY raises in the future approved by the Board until written evaluations are professionally done, and the Board ALSO needs to monitor compliance with this and other policies to highlight what is not being done by Cowin. Otherwise, the Board is part of the problem by not highlighting the lack of compliance by Cowin. vj ======================================== orlandosentinel.com/news/local/orl-noevals1008feb10,0,1677486.story OrlandoSentinel.com SENTINEL EXCLUSIVE Cowin has not reviewed top... Read more →

Anna Cowin Mismanagement Issues Pile Up some More

Anna Cowin, elected Superintendent of the Lake County School District (FL) is having a bad month... We previously posted Lauren Ritchie's Orlando Sentinel article about the great improvements made by a Superintendent of another Florida School District, and some comparisons to Lake County and Cowin's actions. Then Ritchie followed up with two other articles expanding on the issue, and responses from Cowin on some questions, so they are included below for the record. Then, today, the Sentinel published a story by reporter Tanya Caldwell about Cowin's failure to complete any employee written evaluations for her senior staff in the last three years, with lots of details. So, the next post after this includes that article. Read and weep...and congrats to the Orlando Sentinel for spending the time to ferret this stuff out... vj ==================================================== Lauren Ritchie published her first column on the successes of the School Superintendent for Okaloosa County on Feb. 1, which we included in our Feb. 1 post on this blog at http://webworks.typepad.com/lakecountyfiscalrangers/2008/02/florida-school.html Below, in order, are two subsequent columns following up on the issue: ===================================================== This was the first follow up column on Feb. 3rd, 2008: orlandosentinel.com/news/local/lake/orl-lritchie0308feb03,0,5153355.column OrlandoSentinel.com COMMENTARY Lakefront Cowin claims she reformed schools -... Read more →

Florida School District Supt. Turns It Around Using Business Techniques

The main thrust of this blog is that taxpayers deserve the same quality of management and performance tracking with benchmarks from government agencies that businesses practice. And that includes the Lake County School District. Most of the articles we have posted here about School Districts have been about fiascos or missing management methods. But here is one about a District that practiced good management like businesses do on a daily basis. Columnist Lauren Ritchie from the Orlando Sentinel wrote a great overview today of the former School Superintendent of Florida's Okaloosa County, Don Gaetz, who used "lean, mean" management techniques to reduce District expenses and vastly improve the performance of all the schools in the district. Gaetz is now a freshman Florida State Senator. The Wall St. Journal, according to Ritchie, also wrote an article about the District's success in "incorporating disabled students into regular classrooms" while spending less per student than most other districts. Read the article below, then come back to these comments: Comments: 1) Gaetz basically implemented a "holding company" approach to School District management by reducing the central administration staff and pushing funding, decisions and performance tracking to school principals and school advisory committees. Coincidentally, today's... Read more →

New Fiscal Rangers Initiative - Productivity Management for School Districts

Announcing the Dashboard Management Initiative I have spent the last several months on the Audit Committee of the Lake County (FL) School District, and we now have a very competent, new Internal Audit Director. And, this blog contains many articles I have found describing huge frauds that have occurred at other School Districts. Now that the new Audit Director is onboard, I am starting a new focus for this blog related to the Lake County School District... improving the very weak management and financial reporting systems. My examination of publicly available reports indicates a sad lack of any management reports for the public, or for the School Board, that indicate performance benchmarks by activity group by month, and their attainment. It is my opinion that taxpayers for this $700-million plus organization would expect professional management systems be used on par with a $25-million business. Government agencies, including School Districts, are monopolies, and they tend to skip development and use of productivity management reporting systems. They only measure budget compliance, and whether the budget has been spent or not. That needs to improve. So, attached is a Powerpoint slideshow I gave to the School Board tonight that explains an overview of... Read more →

Today is County Commission Vote on School Impact Fees

Here is a Fiscal Ranger Hunting for Government waste... Results - The County Commission voted to use the lower of two increases - $9324 for single family homes (up from existing $7k). The commission was deadlocked 2 to 2 on the higher impact fee of $14k which included a component for interest charges on financing of new schools. I was at the meeting, and have recorded the 3 hours of hearings and will post some details from both sides (increase and no increase) in a few days. I also decided to establish a formal Fiscal Rangers group, and now have a website www.FiscalRangers.com - by late December I should have more info on it. I have also created a flyer seeking registered Republicans to sign up for email notices of a formation meeting in January. VJ Read more →

Salt Lake City School District loses millions in THREE Employee Embezzlements

Well, here we go with another school district being the victim of millions in not ONE, but THREE different employee embezzlements...one for $4.3-million, a second for $338,000 and a third for another $1-million... there is something drastically wrong nationally with management skills related to school districts... vj ================================================ from the CBS affiliate in Salt Lake City, Utah... http://www.kutv.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=a6f2d1b8-8630-47d4-b912-3f8f40f82b71 School Districts Addressing Problems Released In Audit Two school districts ( in the Salt Lake City, Utah area) that uncovered cases of employee embezzlement and fraud are addressing problems in their systems that allowed the fraud to take place, according to a legislative audit. The report also says that most school districts have controls that would prevent fraud from ever taking place. “We regret the fact that this did go on, but we have made a concerted effort and put into place the controls that are necessary to eliminate the chances of this going on in the future,” said Bruce Williams, business administrator for Davis School District. Nearly a year ago, a federal indictment accused the district’s former Title I director and her husband of defrauding the Davis District out of at least $4.3 million by selling unauthorized copies of books and... Read more →

Arizona School District Supt. is under Criminal Investigation (2006)

Below is an older, early 2006 article about a Maricopa County, AZ School Superintendent, Sandra Dowling, who was arrested for running up a $4-million deficit in some special schools for the homeless that she controlled. She put a son and daughter on the payroll by circumventing hiring procedures, etc. However, there are not enough details to indicate the true cause of the deficit and we could not find the final result of the investigation. This situation doesn't have any clear relationships to how local Lake County Schools are run, but again is an indicator that School Districts somehow seem to have a high degree of frauds and mismanagement vs other government agencies. This example may indicate the lack of informed accounting advisors and the Supt. ran operations of three schools for homeless children without much oversight. See also the second article dated 11 months later, indicating the issues still have not been resolved, but Dowling, the Superintendent, WAS "recently indicted on suspicion of 25 crimes including theft and misuse of more than $1.8 million from a fund she controlled as superintendent." vj ================================================== from: http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/story/57799 (Phoenix area) January 26, 2006 - 9:59AM Criminal inquiry targets head of county schools Gary... Read more →

Palm Beach County School District Auditor Reports four frauds

The article below is an early report on four separate frauds uncovered by the School District Auditor. Details on amounts lost were not disclosed, so we will follow up on this later to get the details. Again, this example indicates the importance of having an effective internal audit function in School Districts. vj ========================================== sun-sentinel.com/news/local/palmbeach/sfl-flpaudit1013psoct13,0,4953441.story South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com School district wants criminal charges against ex-bookkeeper By Rhonda J. Miller South Florida Sun-Sentinel October 13, 2007 Click here to find out more! The Palm Beach County School District is recommending criminal charges against a former bookkeeper at Loggers Run Middle School west of Boca Raton, School District spokeswoman Vickie Middlebrooks said Friday. The district referred the Loggers Run case to the State Attorney's Office, with a recommendation from School Police for charges related to grand theft and fraud, Middlebrooks said. It was one of four cases of possible financial wrongdoing the School District Audit Committee reviewed Friday. The charges in the Loggers Run case are based on an audit of school finances that ended in May, District Auditor Lung Chiu said. The district did not release details of the financial problems and names of the employees being investigated because the police... Read more →

Polk County School District secretary Cheated Schools of $75,000

Well, it has been over 7 months, and the local Lake County School District still doesn't have a new internal auditor due to the slowness of the recruiting process. I am on the audit committee, and we are soon interviewing a number of qualified candidates, however. Nearby Polk County DOES have an internal auditor, and she just found a school district secretary in Haines City who siphoned off over $75,000 in improper overtime payments plus she is the "prime suspect" related to another $13,000 of missing assets. I know School Districts are like big families full of friends "that wouldn't do that sort of thing", but my experience is EVERY organization has some people who will take advantage of weak business controls, so a sense of urgency is needed to approve a new District Auditor and future staff. vj ================================ from: http://www.theledger.com/article/20071009/NEWS/710090410/1039 Published: Tuesday, October 9, 2007 Report: Secretary Cheated Schools of $75,000 Auditor says Haines City assistant filed false overtime reports. By John Chambliss The Ledger HAINES CITY | Terri Beadle's name stood out when Polk school auditors did a routine report on overtime pay for school employees last school year. Beadle, the former principal's secretary at Daniel Jenkins... Read more →

Atlanta School District Couple Convicted of Bribery & Fraud

This article illustrates the downfall of two married Atlanta Public School District employees who took bribes from vendors to award purchase contracts. They will each have to repay over $300,000 and also spend 2-3 years in Federal Prison because the vendors were receiving federal E-Rate funds without competitive bidding. Purchasing fraud seems to be a big area for school districts and other local government agencies. All it takes is a willing vendor and a bribe (kickback) accepting administrator. vj =================================================== from an Atlanta area newspaper's website: http://www.thecitizen.com/~citizen0/node/21272 Couple sentenced in bribery, fraud case Mon, 10/08/2007 - 9:11am By: Ben Nelms A Tyrone couple has been sentenced on bribery and fraud charges involving the federal “E-Rate” program in the Atlanta public school system. Arthur Scott, 47, was sentenced in U.S. District Court Sept. 28 to three years and one month in federal prison, three years of supervised probation and ordered to pay $333,529 in restitution in connection with a bribery scheme in the E-Rate program, according to U.S. Attorney representative Patrick Crosby. Evelyn Meyer Scott, 42, was sentenced to two years in prison, three years of supervised probation and ordered to pay $333,529 in restitution for conspiring to commit fraud and... Read more →

California College man modified student grades in scheme

This article below tells about a California community college student who was one of NINETY people who had computer access to change student grades. He committed several felonies and sold grade changes for transcripts to more than 50 students before being caught. The college tried to hide the problem but the local paper reported the issue and now it is all in the open. Then, after they reduced the authorized changers list to 11 people, one of them changed her own grades and was caught, so now only 7 have change authority for grades in the central computer. Allowing grade modification in the college's central computer databases that are used for official transcripts without a formal approval process is a major control weakness. In corporations, the authority for changes of critical data is split between parties, and required at least two people involved in the process, plus a separate reconcilation control to compare changes to separately prepared and authorized documentation. We wonder how well the process is controlled in the Lake County School District and the Lake Sumter Community College. vj =========================================== from Contra Costa, CA Times http://www.mercurynews.com/crime/ci_7002854?nclick_check=1 Instigator in DVC plot pleads guilty # By accepting 15 felony counts... Read more →

Missouri School District loses Bond vote due to poor justification

We never see spending recommendation justification details in the paper or on the website. Recently, the Lake County, Florida School Board forwarded a "study" by a consultant to justify the raising of impact fee taxes on new homes to help fund schools. This study was not published on the website or easily available unless you filed a public records request. So why does the District think they can get spending support from voters when information is not "transparent" for easy review by voters. And, my senior level contact at the County Board said the consultant's study had a major math error in it, and the School District staff had not "vetted" or confirmed the accuracy of the study's calculations. As for the writer below, he says voters in his Missouri area School District voted down a school bond issue because inadequate details were supplied to justify the bonds. We all know math is not the strong suit of many teachers and students, but it may be a problem for the administrators as well, both in Missouri and in Florida. They need to not only have accurate, understandable quantified justification, but it needs to be "trasnparent" and published on the website... Read more →

Los Angeles School District Payroll System Screwup costs $37-million MORE

Ok, this is the School District that spent over $100-million on a new school without testing for Radon, and had to tear it all down (see earlier posts). Now LAUSD (Los Angeles Unified School District - which covers most of Los Angeles County) screwed up a new payroll system design that cost $95-million, and now it will cost another projected $37-million to fix it. During the last payday, there were over 4,000 paycheck errors. The system is based upon German developed SAP software, implemented by big 4 consulting firm Deloitte & Touche. Apparently the District has over 1100 payroll classifications and it was "too difficult" to modify the SAP system to handle them. This reminds me of a similar situation at ARCO Oil when they tried using a canned payroll system to pay union workers on the company owned tankers, and they had a massive quagmire of payroll classifications that wouldn't work with the standard ARCO corporate payroll system, so they hired a project manager, purchased an HP computer and developed a payroll system from scratch just for the unions. The lesson learned here is that you can't force a complex, union payroll system into a canned software package without... Read more →

Ohio School District Investigates Disability Claim Fraud

This School District had a school bus driver who filed a false disability claim and collected her full salary while not working. The District staff was tired of large increases in disability claims and started investigating whether the claimants were truly disabled. They took videos of the bus driver lifting heavy objects and jumping on and off a truck and fired her for filing an unjustified disability claim. Kudos to the staff for starting the investigation. We don't have any facts on the situation regarding disability claims at Florida's Lake County School District, but this is a good example of District Management initiating their own investigation in Springfield, Ohio. vj From Springfield Ohio News Sun http://www.springfieldnewssun.com/hp/content/oh/story/news/local/2007/08/13/sns081407collier.html District justifies firing of former driver By Lucas Sullivan Staff Writer Tuesday, August 14, 2007 Springfield City Schools officials say they did not target former bus driver Brenda Collier, as she has charged. Instead, they fired her because Collier attempted to take advantage of the district, which faced financial hardship in recent years, school officials said. Prior to her firing, the district investigated Collier for fraud after officials received a tip that she was performing duties that violated her disability claim. Her firing came... Read more →

$649,000 Charter School Fraud in DC area

In this case, a manager supervising a bunch of charter schools in Washington, DC funneled over $400,000 in no-bid contracts to friends plus stole another $203,000. Both articles below quote the prosecuting attorney... "Prosecutors say Belton's crimes grew more brazen as the Board of Education and public school system dozed". The Florida Lake County School District has 11 charter schools, and an audit being released tomorrow (Augu 13, 2007) reports various weaknesses in procedures related to 3 of the 11 charter schools. (The others seem ok, according to the CPA firm that did the audit.) vj District's Ex-Charter Schools Chief Admits Fraud By Carol D. Leonnig Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, August 10, 2007; A01 Brenda Belton had some gall, by her own admission. As charter school oversight chief for the D.C. Board of Education, she repeatedly stole from the school system, arranging about $649,000 in illegal school payments and sweetheart contracts to herself and her friends. Yesterday, she pleaded guilty to four felony counts of cheating the low-performing schools system over three years and trying to avoid taxes on her ill-gotten gains. The former schools executive revealed numerous instances of the system's supervisors failing to catch on to what... Read more →

College Cashier embezzles over $300,000 due to poor accounting controls.

Here is another example of an employee in a Salt Lake City, Utah College who embezzled $300,000 because the college had poor accounting controls. One upcoming audit from the Lake County School District (to be issued in late August, 2007) indicates that there are weaknesses in internal and cash controls over student cafeteria cash collections. vj Snow College School cashier sentenced to year in jail, probation The Salt Lake Tribune Article Last Updated: 08/09/2007 01:06:34 AM MDT A former Snow College cashier who embezzled more than $300,000 from the school over a 10-year period was sentenced Wednesday to probation and a year in jail. Vickie C. Murray, 57, of Ephraim, was charged in Manti's 6th District Court with 23 counts of communications fraud, all second-degree felonies which are punishable by up to 15 years in prison. She pleaded guilty to eight of the counts, and the rest were dismissed. Murray was employed by the college from April 1984 to April 6, 2007. Sanpete County Attorney Ross Blackham said Murray was the head cashier, but worked at the counter taking student payments and cashing checks in addition to supervising other cashiers. "She skimmed from what was coming in, a little at... Read more →

School District Super Cowin Irks Me AND a local columnist

I attended an evening workshop of the School Board this week. Their agenda was only two topics, 1) Approve the proposed millage rate for school district property taxes, and 2) Approve spending for Discretionary funds and specialist staff for School Principals . But it was better than one of those reality shows where teams are racing to climb a mountain to find a clue to treasure! During public comment that was allowed BEFORE the millage rate vote, I was the only one talking about the proposed millage rate and down below are the comments I submitted - notice that was before everything else I will tell you about. After I spoke, this is what happened: - Apparently the CFO's office of the School District published incorrect data in the required publishing of the budget and millage rates that were to be voted on. So at least two of the Board members and the CFO spent part of the day trying to find out if they had to republish the info. Fortunately, the key number that was wrong was higher, which meant the new number was lower and that was ok. If the ad had used a lower tax rate than... Read more →

Lake County School District Impact Fee controversy - our take

If you read the local newspapers, the County Commissioners and the Lake County School Board members are under attack by a group of construction related firms, including the management of the big Romac lumber yard. They have made emotional and personal attacks on members of the above boards about the proposed School District and Transportation Impact fees without many supporting facts. You might say it is a lobbying attempt by builders to stop impact fees on new houses to keep house building costs and resulting government fees for schools and roads below true costs ( assuming the impact fees were properly calculated, which I might question). So, now the Romac manager, who pays for the little "Sour Orange" advertorial in page two of the Daily Commercial, runs the related website www.sourorange.net, and now has a new attack dog website on impact fees at www.LakeCountygov.info needs some feedback on his assumptions. Although he runs a business, he seems to miss the fact that data from the School District Superintendent's staff may be the problem, not the board. So here is the email I sent to him, the School District Board and the two papers: Hey Sour Orange Editor and Lumber Yard... Read more →

Two Week Recap of Lake County School District Fiscal Fiascos

Today is the planned District workshop and Board meeting. So I thought I would write a recap of some of the District Fiscal Fiasco issues in the last two weeks. Two weeks ago, I attended a Board meeting of the Lake County (FL) School District. At the meeting, I submitted a white paper on what the board should do to finally take a stand to fix the financial mis-management by Supt. Anna Cowin. The paper is at "A", below. The next day, the Daily Commercial had a screaming headline saying that a community leader in a group called VOICE (I think they are Democrats, because their pictures are on the Lake County Democrat website) calling for Anna Cowin's OUSTER. That article is at "B", below. Her lack of management skills and stubborness for allowing transparency now are the subject of continuous letters to the editor and articles in local papers. During the recent period, there also erupted at least two articles and a response opinion letter where Anna Cowin was using a public records request demanding that Board member Cindy Barrow provide copies of all emails she sent out to supporters. Barrow is a Democrat and was involved with the... Read more →

Chief Financial Officer quits Lake County School District

I missed this earlier January article about the CFO for the Lake County School District quitting in January. Here it is: Cowin's 3rd finance leader resigns From Orlando Sentinel - January 11, 2007 TAVARES -- The school system's chief financial officer has resigned and will take a job elsewhere, Superintendent Anna Cowin announced Wednesday. Bonnie Penner was the third person to direct the finances since Cowin took office in late 2004. Penner, 39, started work for the Lake County School District in June 2005 as finance director. In August 2006, she moved up to chief financial officer, making $108,000 annually. Penner's resignation is effective Jan. 19. She said she will take a job as director of budget and finance at Florida Virtual School, an online school serving grades six through 12. "This is a wonderful opportunity for me because it is the development of a budget and finance department," she said. Penner declined to say how much she will be paid but acknowledged she will be taking a pay cut. Tommy Crosby, whom Penner replaced, resigned to take a job that paid $18,283 less than he made in Lake County. Martin E. Comas, Lauren Ritchie, Nin-Hai Tseng and Christine Dellert... Read more →

Anna Cowin Explodes Once Again in Florida

Lake County (FL) School District Superintendent Anna Cowin has exploded into another fit again. She started complaining about emails from one of the elected Board Members, and started a ruckus. See the articles below. Meanwhile, I thought why not do a Google on Anna Cowin to find what else was published on the net. Boom, I found plenty... This blog posted several articles about Cowin and you can find them by entering the following line in Google: "anna cowin" site:schlerplotti.typepad.com Then there are the pictures and info at the Lake County Democrats website about a 2005 rally against Cowin's removal of a locally respected school Principal - do one of the people in the pictures look like a new member of the School Board? http://www.lakedemocrats.com/Photo%20Pages/Sch_Bd_6-13-05.html The above two sources also had several references to a www.removecowin.com website initiated by Lake County Assessor Ed Havill, and said there were many articles about Cowin. But, the website has been totally removed now. Then there is this article in the St. Petersburg Times in 2005 about Anna Cowin hiring a Manager who had blundered at two other school districts... http://www.sptimes.com/2005/05/15/Hernando/Lake_County_controver.shtml Anna Cowin was previously a Florida State Senator, and apparently had a reputation.... Read more →

Lake County School District's Internal Auditor Resigns

Last week, the Internal Auditor for the Lake County, FL School District resigned from lack of support by the elected Superintendant, Anna Cowin, and the Board. This was documented in Feb. 21 articles in both the Daily Commercial and the Orlando Sentinel's Lauren Richie column. Both of those articles are inserted at the bottom of this post. This website was initially created in 2006 to describe continuous management problems at the School District when the District Auditor had problems with cooperation last year in 2006. Now Cowin's lack of support for the audit function has finally resulted in the Auditor leaving. For instance, they stuck the auditor in Dabney school, a mostly abandoned old school building with only 2-3 other people in it. They refused to give her a full time permanent secretary. Instead, she got temp workers who were paid so low, that three of them quit. There were constant problems with getting timely responses for documents needed for audits, and many old audit reports from the State have not been responded to by internal staff. There is no excuse for such behavior on the part of management of a public organization with $700,000 million in revenue and 5,000... Read more →

Merit Pay Study from UF and related issues

We have been reading about the Lake County, FL School District's filing of a STAR "awards plan" with the State of Florida to obtain an estimated $5-million for one shot financial awards to teachers who have improved student FCAT scores in the subjects of math, science, etc. Then there were the articles where Teacher Union leaders said that would be "unfair" and reduce cooperation between employees. They want to siphon off some of the FCAT incentives in STAR for teachers who don't teach those subjects. But, then why have organized sports where winners are announced, or give test exams where all students compete for higher grades, but not use incentives for teachers who help students improve FCAT scores that increase their survival skills in the real world? Some people might say the teachers just don't want to compete, or be measured, or that the union doesn't want variable merit pay which rewards the good performers over the less motivated. Here is what the UF study press release said (full text further down): Many teachers criticize these bonus plans, saying they raise questions about fairness and they destroy cooperation among teachers. ”It’s important to note that the form of performance pay... Read more →

New Jersey School District Construction Investigative Unit

Here is an interesting link to the New Jersey District Attorney's website section for the Office of Government Integrity (OGI) that investigates various New Jersey agencies, including School District construction programs. A friend of mine works there and investigated organized crime (the mafia). So, New Jersey centralizes invesigation and oversight of school construction, but Florida DOES not. Maybe that is why Florida lost over $100-million in the Miami-Dade School District construction program we reported earlier. For info only... http://www.nj.gov/oag/ogi/about.html Here is the text on what they do : Fiscal Integrity in School Construction (FISC) In July 2000, the Educational Facilities Construction and Financing Act (EFCFA) initiated the largest public works program in the State's history, authorizing the expenditure of up to $8.6 billion to build and renovate public school facilities in every school district in the State. Recognizing that "the State must also protect the interests of taxpayers who will bear the burden of this obligation," the Legislature created the Unit of Fiscal Integrity in School Construction (FISC Unit) and authorized it to "investigate, examine and inspect the activities" of the New Jersey Economic Development Authority [now the New Jersey Schools Construction Corporation (SCC)] and the more than 600 school... Read more →

Bill Gates Foundation funded report suggests k-12 Improvements

It seems Bill Gates's foundation for improving education is making more news. They sponsored a MAJOR new 202 page report "Tough Choices or Tough Times" on the effectiveness of the k-12 education system which was issued today. Today they suggested that State governments take over school districts because k-12 students are NOT being prepared for life or employment after graduation. He also says Texas school programs should be a model for other States. (and, Gates is in Washington State, which isn't doing the job...). Here are some news articles on the 202 page report - I will add more as I find them... you can see another trend for accountability in education, and Gates also supports merit pay for teaching. vj You can also find the executive summary of the 200 page book "Tough Choices or Tough Times" at: http://www.skillscommission.org/ The $19.95 book can be ordered from Amazon.com or from the publisher at: http://www.josseybass.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0787995983,descCd-description.html Here is a description of the book: Tough Choices or Tough Times: The Report of the New Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce National Center on Education and the Economy ISBN: 978-0-7879-9598-0 Paperback 208 pages December 2006 ========================================================= Bill Gates' education proposal: Be like... Read more →

Lake County (FL) School District could learn Professionalism from other Government agencies

What would be the criteria used by a government entity like the Lake County, FL School District to develop more efficient and economical management of operations? Maybe professionalism? So how do we define professionalism? Here are recent examples from other Florida government entities. When I mention Lake County, remember that is a SEPARATE government entity from the Lake County School District. 1) The County Sherrif's department recently announced they were in the final stages of becoming accredited by a state wide organization, the Commission for Florida Law Enforcement Accreditation Inc., that sets performance standards for law enforcement departments. They never had that certification before until the recently deceased Sherrif Daniels started the qualification process. 2) Today's Orlando Sentinel described in an AP article how the Florida Department of Children & Families failed to have adequate professionally certified staff for a $23-million federal grant for FEMA. The grant was to "help residents overcome mental-health problems caused by major disasters". The paper said that "three out of four Florida based supervisors" for the grant "do not meet federal educational and licensing guidelines." The study was done by the "South Florida Sun-Sentinel" and found that just ONE of 29 supervisors was a licensed... Read more →

Lake County PTO Fraud was NOT a School District Matter

Lake County PTO Fraud was NOT a School District Matter The Orlando Sentinel Published an article on Friday, Nov. 3rd that incorrectly implied a school checking account was hit by a fraud. It was not a school account and the headline writer should be chastised. I thought I was reading an article on poor internal controls and management of the Lake County (FL) School District, when BOOM - a Nov. 3rd Orlando Sentinel article headline seemed to indicate there was a District fraud, BUT it was NOT a school district bank account that was skimmed. So the headline saying a "deli owner cooked school's books" was not accurate. I haven't seen any info in the Daily Commercial. This fraud apparently occurred in the separate Parent-Teacher Organization (PTO), which is a volunteer group independent of District control. See my comments after the article. ========================================================== Cops say deli owner cooked school's books The ex-New Yorker is accused of embezzling $10,926 as PTO treasurer at her daughter's school. Erin Cox Sentinel Staff Writer November 3, 2006 TAVARES -- Police arrested a deli-shop owner Thursday on charges that she embezzled nearly $11,000 while serving as Parent-Teacher Organization treasurer at her daughter's school. According to... Read more →

Vote for an Appointed, NOT Elected school District Superintendant

Below are recently published OP Ed and Editorials on the Lake County (FL) voter's ballot issue of changing the Lake County School District regulations so that the School District Superintendant is "Hired" or "Appointed by the Board" instead of the current method of being an elected position: ========================================== OPINION MY WORD - Op Ed Column Appointed superintendent makes sense Pam Burtnett October 29, 2006 The purpose of the educational system outside the classroom is to support what happens inside the classroom. Public schools that excel have a shared vision and smooth operation. Everyone involved -- teachers, principals, School Board members, superintendents, support staff, parents and community members -- focuses on positive results. This shared understanding and common focus is difficult to achieve under a system that divides loyalties between elected policymakers such as the School Board and an elected administrator, the superintendent. Disagreements on issues of authority distract the educational community and consume the time needed for focused decision-making. Division and distraction are not good for students. Blaming the elected individuals perpetuates the problem. They unfortunately are caught in a political process. Imagine trying to fight a war with an elected general or trying to run a multimillion-dollar corporation with... Read more →

Comments about the Oct. 23rd Lake County School District Board Meeting

Well, I attended the meeting to see the latest exciting developments in how our $700-million budgeted school district is managed. Remember, this blog focuses on fiscal and management control issues, and not teaching or program issues. Here are some details: - Public Disclosure of Personnel Issues and Unpaid Leave - There was a separate Board "workshop" earlier in the day, where the hearing regarding an HR manager accused of harassment was postponed. You have probably read about it in the papers. My only comment on this process is that the Superintendant put the manager on upaid leave, which I think is the wrong message. Until the due process procedures are completed, the employee hasn't had a chance to provide their side of the story, and the accuser's statements and factual situations have not been explored, so his wages should have been continued. I think the person should have been put on paid leave. As it is, all employees get the message that someone can accuse you of something and managment could immediately terminate your wages without completion of the due process phase. That is not a positive morale builder. Also, it is amazing that the Superintendant and others told details... Read more →

Just When are the Lake County Audit Committee Meetings?

This posting contains two recommendations for the School District regarding Open Meeting Notices for the Audit Committee and other meetings. Florida has an open meetings law, which generally specifies that many meetings by government officials should be open to the public and a notice be posted. So, I have been trying to find where the public can learn about Lake County Audit Committee meetings. That is important because any delays in implementing an effective internal audit function should be known by the public and they should have an opportunity to hear about issues such as budget constraints, lack of facilities, inability to access school district records, etc. - The Audit committee meetings are not posted on the district's website. - They are sometimes included in a weekly press release from the District. But, the press releases are not posted on the website, and the Clerk of the Board will not add local citizens to the email list for them. - Meetings are sometimes (no one will take responsibility for this) posted in an ad in the legal sectio of the newspapers. (Did you know that is where open meeting notices are posted? I didn't.) Again, not on the website. Recommendation... Read more →

Fraud, Waste & Abuse Reporting Hotlines - An Overview

This is an overview of Fraud, Waste & Abuse Reporting Hotlines, how they are used, examples, and why the Lake County (FL) School District needs one. The District recently implemented an internal audit position which is one of several techniques used by organizations to prevent and detect fraud and mismanagement. Another common technique is to establish a Fraud, Waste & Abuse Reporting Hotline (phone and website) so that employees, vendors, citizens and others can report possible fraud and mismanagement issues with complete confidentiality. I was in Baghdad, Iraq during most of 2004 and all of 2005. I worked periodically with auditors in a special audit group. The US Congress established a Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction ( www.SIGIR.mil ) which had oversight over the $20-billion in reconstruction funds for Iraq. That group, like many Federal agencies, established a Fraud Reporting Hotline (and website) where they received many tips for investigation. Notice that they have a link to their Fraud, Waste & Abuse Hotline on the first page. Additionally, I worked as an advisor to an Iraqi anti-corruption agency called CPI. One of the 7 main initial tasks was to establish a country wide, publicized fraud reporting hotline, including phones... Read more →