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... in my opinion, Cowin reacts like a spoiled teenager and rants at the slightest provocation. We all are waiting for her term to end in November.
vj
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OrlandoSentinel.com
Lake School Board members criticize 'defiant' Cowin over audit report
Tanya Caldwell
Sentinel Staff Writer
July 31, 2008
TAVARES
Lake County School Board members are not satisfied with Superintendent Anna Cowin's response to an audit report that blamed her for using nearly half a million district dollars to advance a controversial teaching program.
School Board Chairman Larry Metz said he was hoping Cowin would "admit her mistakes, be contrite about them and attempt to move forward."
"Instead, she seems to be defiant about her mistake and attempts to say that the board was a partner to her mistake," Metz said.
The program, funded by a $20.5 million federal grant, aimed to retain and improve teachers through training and bonuses. Cowin added the program to three extra schools, using about $485,000 in school-district money to do it. Another roughly $133,000 in district funds was used to give teachers bonuses, officials said.
Teachers-union officials said the bonuses were never negotiated, as they should have been.
In a two-page letter to board members this week, Cowin denied any wrongdoing in accelerating the now-defunct merit-pay plan known as the Teacher Advancement Program -- or TAP. She said the School Board approved her actions when it approved the overall 2007-08 budget. That spending plan included line items about the program.
"As these expenditures were approved by the Board they were proper and legal," Cowin wrote. "Further, as the Board was made aware of the nature of the TAP program at its inception . . . there can be no excuse that the School Board was surprised by the budget amounts."
Board members said they knew the district was obligated to chip in for the program. But they asserted that Cowin advanced the program prematurely, and behind their backs. Had she waited to add the program to additional schools, the grant would have helped cover the costs.
"She did not have legal authority to expedite those expenditures," School Board member Jimmy Conner said.
Metz said Cowin's response added no information and displaced blame.
"It attempts to obfuscate what we already know to be the case. There is no doubt that over time, we would contribute to the program. But accelerating those three elementary schools . . . went over and beyond what the School Board would financially contribute in Year One, and that's the problem," Metz said. Conner said he had hoped Cowin would prove that she had legal authority to advance the program. He also wants to see her explain how the district's dollars would be reimbursed. Those issues were not mentioned in her written response.
Instead, Cowin accused board members of undermining her from the program's inception, ordering their auditor to review the program and calling for its eventual demise.
"This whole controversy is being presented to the public as if I tried to intentionally misappropriate funds to the detriment of the teachers and the system," Cowin told reporters before formally submitting her response this week. "Not one cent of this grant was personally used by me or my administration."
Board members have considered writing the governor to have Cowin removed from office over her involvement in the program.
The district's elected superintendent, however, only has until November before her term expires. She will be replaced by Susan Moxley, Lake's first appointed superintendent in about 30 years.
Some say there's not enough time for the governor to get involved, especially during an election year.
"It is not our job to manage the governor's agenda," said School Board member Cindy Barrow, who raised initial questions about Cowin's actions.
Board members will discuss Cowin's response and decide how to move forward during a special meeting Monday.
Barrow said she will recommend that Cowin and anyone else involved in wrongfully using district money for the program be held accountable, and that the board seek ways to get its money back.
"When we know something has happened . . . and it has to do with malfeasance or misfeasance," Barrow said, "it's our job to do what any elected board should do, which is to hold the person accountable."
Tanya Caldwell can be reached at [email protected] or 352-742-5928.
