School custodians have been unable to account for how they spent more than $8 million in public funds over the last 10 years, under a 19th-century system that allows them to keep some of the money they are given to clean and maintain New York City schools, auditors have found.
"Many parents view 'special education office' staff who attend I.E.P. meetings as being obstructionists and more interested in controlling costs for the district than making sure that children receive the supports they need in order to succeed in school," the auditors wrote in their final report.
During the last school year, auditors made inspections at six Burbank campuses to make sure the schools were following this rule as well as making sure campuses were following nutritional standards.
B3 School Auditor Admits Guilt Andrew Miller, the Roslyn schools' outside auditor, has admitted slipping into the district office one night, at the behest of the superintendent, and altering records to hide from investigators some of the $11 million stolen from taxpayer funds.
Meanwhile, Mr. Hart said, the school's outside auditors, using data from the new system, were unable to find as much as $4 million in assets for the 2003 fiscal year.
Now, as school officials, state auditors and Nassau Country prosecutors pore through the district's bills, it has become apparent that not only were the district's financial safeguards woefully insufficient, but its spending on items like limousines and restaurants was often out of bounds.
Mendelsohn claims in his suit that Strayer fired Dowel after he reported her to the school's internal auditors, but that he was then fired for having blown the whistle.
Based on interviews with auditors of school districts' telecommunications bills, including E-Rate recipients, it is clear that most schools were never informed of this option as most schools didn't get the free modem and service, much less the rest 'at cost.'.
There were discrepancies between what school officials told the auditors about how much physical education their students received and what appeared in the database that stores students' transcripts.
