Selecting A New Superintendent: How You Can Get Involved, by Steve Hammond

The Superintendent is, arguably, the most important position in our region. This person is responsible for the welfare and education of our children — setting direction and driving improvement in the face of ever increasing budgetary pressures. The Superintendent leads the largest employer in the five towns and manages the largest budget.

Lots of children and lots of money drive people’s emotions, making the Superintendent a lightning rod for criticism. The Superintendent sets the tone of the region in the way he responds to that criticism. Finding the right person to lead our district is the most important task this committee will undertake.

We can’t make this decision alone, so we are asking for your help. Your input is the starting point for a great selection, smooth transition and tremendous achievement as we look ahead to the next several years.

Online Survey

The easiest way to get involved is to complete our online survey. This survey will help us understand priorities within the community. You can take it by going to https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/FPD72PQ. The survey will be open until February 18th.

Focus Groups

For people who want to participate more directly in the process, we are holding a series of focus groups. Some of these meetings are targeted at specific groups, like faculty and students. Several others are being held for community; including parents, seniors and elected officials. To encourage open discussion, these sessions are being moderated by a third party and school committee members will not be present. Please feel free to attend any of these sessions. We have tried to spread them around the district to make it as easy to participate as possible, given the time contraints and the number of sessions that have to be coordinated.

Thursday, January 31, 2013. 6pm-8pm. Wachusett Regional High School, Auditorium.

Monday, February 4, 2013. 6pm-8pm. Glenwood Elementary School, Rutland

Monday, February 11, 2013. 6pm-8pm. Chocksett Middle School, Sterling

Tuesday, February 12, 2013. 10am-12pm. Senior Center, Holden

Future Participation

We are accepting applications for the Superintendent’s position until March 1, after which will begin a whirlwind of reviews, interviews, site visits, etc. as we work to make the appointment by April 9.  The school committee is looking forward to providing opportunities for the community to meet with the top candidates and participate in the final selection. We have not figured out exactly how that is going to work yet, so watch this space for details.

To contact Steve Hammond, School Committee Representative, with questions/concerns about this particular bulletin posting, please send an email to: shammond@northpub.com.

Chapter 70 Funding Presentation, posted by Stacey Jackson

On Thursday, December 13 at 7pm at the Holden Senior Center, Holden Resident and Chief Financial and Operations Officer for Worcester Public Schools, Brian Allen, will be presenting a primer on Chapter 70 funding.  Members of the community are welcome to attend to learn more about how state funding is determined for school districts. 

To contact Stacey Jackson, School Committee Representative, with questions/concerns about this particular bulletin posting, please send an email to: StaceyLJackson@yahoo.com.

Thank you, Princeton! by Stacey Jackson

The Community Outreach Subcommittee would like to extend their thanks to all the parents and staff members who came out to the meeting at Thomas Prince on Wednesday, December 5.  It was a great discussion on a number of topics, and the subcommittee sincerely appreciated all of the input and feedback from parents and staff. 

The next Community Outreach Subcommittee meeting will be held on Wednesday, January 16 at Chocksett Middle School in Sterling.  We will continue to have meetings in each town to be able to answer questions and collect input from parents and staff members.  If you are unable to attend the meeting in your town, please feel free to attend one of our meetings in another town (all meetings will be posted on the District website at www.wrsd.net), or contact any of the School Committee representatives at your convenience.  The contact information for representatives can be found at www.wrsd.net/schoolcommitteemembers.cfm. 

To contact Stacey Jackson, School Committee Representative, with questions/concerns about this particular bulletin posting, please send an email to: StaceyLJackson@yahoo.com. 

School Committee Accepts Powers & Sullivan FY12 Audit Report

Any views expressed below represent those of Erik Scheinfeldt and may not necessarily be shared by the full Wachusett Regional District School Committee.

School Committee Accepts Powers & Sullivan FY12 Audit Report

By Erik D. Scheinfeldt, WRDSC Member (Holden)

November 19, 2012

This past October, the Certified Public Accounting firm of Powers & Sullivan, LLC performed its annual independent audit of WRSD funds, internal controls and financial statements for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2012.   Thereafter, on November 5, 2012, Powers & Sullivan presented its findings to a Joint Meeting of the district’s Audit Advisory Board and the WRSDC Business/Finance Subcommittee.  Many of these findings were summarized and memorialized in a series of letters and reports, which included a Management Letter, a Report on Examination of Basic Financial Statements, and other reports on Federal Award Programs for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2012.

On November 14, 2012, the Audit Advisory Board presented a recommendation to the WRSD School Committee to “Accept Management, Letter, Report on Examination of Basic Financial Statements, and Reports on Federal Award Programs for fiscal year ended June 30, 2012.”  After deliberation, the School Committee voted in favor of accepting the Powers & Sullivan Management Letter and related reports.

Notwithstanding the completion of the Powers & Sullivan audit, the School Committee and the school district administration remain committed to addressing any and all of the lingering questions, and will continue to work together towards implementing solutions and permanent safeguards to ensure that these serious financial errors do no occur again.  In the meantime, it is my belief that the findings of Power & Sullivan audit can serve to answer some of the questions that our residents, town officials and district employees have been asking.   To that end, given the recent (and justified) debate and public concern regarding the 2012 budget over-run, I am writing this bulletin for the purpose of sharing a few excerpts from the Powers & Sullivan “Management Letter.”   The “Management Letter” provides, in part, the following:

• “In closing out the FY2012 books it was discovered that information contained in a spread sheet that had been relied upon by the business manager to monitor expenditures and appropriation balances was incorrect.  Specifically, expenditures for debt services had been incorrectly reported on the spreadsheet and, as a result, the perceived available balance in this appropriation was transferred and used to fund other budget line items.  The error was discovered when the spreadsheet was reconciled to the year-end MUNIS balances.  The end result is that expenditures exceeded both this line item and the overall budget.”

• “The cause of the error appears to be due to the fact that the internal spreadsheet used by the business manager to monitor budgetary spending was not routinely compared and reconciled to the MUNIS system.  Had this occurred, the budget to actual results that were accurately reported in MUNIS would have detected the error in the spreadsheet.  Unfortunately this did not occur until after year-end and, as a result, management decisions were made regarding the utilization of available budget amounts based on incorrect data in the spreadsheet.”

In sum, Powers & Sullivan clearly attributes the FY12 over-run to “human error.”  Fortunately, Powers & Sullivan found absolutely no evidence of intentional wrong-doing or fraudulent activity.

Once again, the School Committee and administration are committed to implementing new initiatives and solutions to ensure that these types of errors do not happen again.  To that end, I believe that we have already taken three significant steps in the right direction:

First, at the November 14, 2012 meeting the School Committee voted to hire Joseph Scanlon as the new Director of Business & Finance for the school district (contingent upon successful contract negotiations).  Mr. Scanlon will begin this position on December 17, and will bring with him years of experience, as well as an extremely solid background with respect to school budgets and finances.

Second, this winter, the Business/Finance Subcommittee will be taking a much more substantial and pro-active role with respect to formulating next year’s budget.  Specifically, in January and February, the Business/Finance Subcommittee will be meeting every Thursday night for the purpose of reviewing and discussing the Budget Submissions of the various district principals.  These meetings will be open to the public. 

Third, the School Committee recently retained the Massachusetts Association of School Business Officials, Inc. (MASBO) to perform a “Financial Operations Review.” Accordingly, later this year, MASBO will perform a thorough assessment of the District’s current financial operations and procedures, and will provide recommendations regarding potential areas for improvement. 

Thank you for your time, and Happy Thanksgiving.

Regards,

Erik Scheinfeldt

To contact Erik Scheinfeldt, School Committee Representative, with questions/concerns about this particular bulletin posting, please send an email to escheinfeldt@gmail.com. 

The First Edition by Stacey Jackson

Welcome to the newly created Wachusett Regional District School Committee Online Bulletin!  The idea for this online bulletin was sparked last Spring during budget season when many School Committee representatives heard a lot of misinformation and incorrect rumors circulating in the community.  As we’ve moved through the issues that have plagued the District this Summer and Fall, we wanted a means to improve communication with the community of parents, staff members, and residents in our District. 

What can you expect to see in this online bulletin?  This bulletin will be different from a typical blog, in the sense that a blog usually has a connotation of containing the author’s opinion.  This online bulletin will remain as neutral as possible.  Any views expressed are those of the individual representative and do not necessarily reflect the views of the full School Committee.  The postings will include recaps of recent meetings, noteworthy happenings in the District, links to interesting articles, lists of important meetings in our District, and clarification of rumors circulating in the community.  Any School Committee representative may upload a post, and each post will be clearly noted with the author’s name.  There will not be a space for public comments on the online bulletin, but each post will contain the representative’s email address so that members of the community may ask questions, seek clarification, or provide input on a particular post.  The posts will not necessarily be done in regular intervals.  Instead, a post will be uploaded when a representative feels there is something noteworthy to share with the community. 

As I run into people in the schools and around the community, everyone asks me the same question, “what’s going on with the District now?”  I know most everyone has read at least some of the articles in the papers, but here’s a quick recap of recent news in case you missed something or wondered what was going on.  Superintendent Dr. Tom Pandiscio will be retiring on December 15.  Glenwood Principal Tony Gasbarro has been named as the Interim Superintendent, effective December 15.  Tony was planning to retire next August, so the Interim Superintendent position will be temporary.  Glenwood Elementary School will have a new principal named shortly.  School Committee Chairman Duncan Leith has appointed a Superintendent Search Committee, comprised of 10 members of the School Committee, representing all five towns.  The Search Committee will also include focus groups of parents, staff members, and community representatives to allow these groups input into the selection process.  Additionally, the Business and Finance Subcommittee is in the process of hiring a new Business Manager.  Numerous candidates have been screened and interviewed, but no candidate has been appointed yet as it is a very important position in our District and we need to make sure we have the best candidate for the job.

The District’s regular audit is currently wrapping up and we expect to have the report from our auditors in the next couple weeks.  A joint meeting with the Business & Finance Subcommittee and Audit Advisory Board will be scheduled soon to review the audit findings, and to discuss the next steps in light of the recent Department of Revenue notification that the transfers done with grants and revolving accounts after July 15 will not be allowed, leaving our FY12 close-out in a deficit.  The Request for Proposals for a phased forensic audit will also be discussed at that meeting.  FY13 will continue to be a very tight budget, and we are looking at cost saving measures including new print management options to lower our printing and copying costs.  All of our subcommittee and full meetings are open to the public, and meeting dates are posted at www.wrsd.net.

In light of all the issues that we have faced in the last few months, our schools are running smoothly due to the amazing staff, parents, and community that we have.  Our teaching staff has worked very hard to not allow our budget challenges to impact our students.  And the community has come together to support our students through library volunteers and classroom support.  We have a great community and a great school system, and we will get through our challenges and focus on providing an excellent education for our students.

To contact Stacey Jackson, School Committee Representative, with questions/concerns about this particular bulletin posting, please send an email to: StaceyLJackson@yahoo.com.   To contact any other School Committee Representatives, their contact information can be found at www.wrsd.net/schoolcommitteemembers.cfm.