By: Marc H. Zitomer, Esq. As Board Counsel to the Lakewood Board of Education, I have been asked by the Board President to clarify certain inaccuracies about professional development contained in the Scoop article written by Board Member Joel Schwartz on May 15, 2015 entitled, “BOE Member Joel Schwartz: “Hard Facts” about Professional Development Funds”. In that article, Mr. Schwartz asserts:
“In the year 2014 the Lakewood district underwent a Title audit for the fiscal year 2011, resulting in countless findings on the misuse of Title I and Title IIA professional development grant money, these findings resulted in the district owing back millions of dollars to the federal government.”
It is correct that the District underwent a Title I audit for the time period covering September 1, 2011 through August 31, 2012. It is also correct that, as a result of the audit, the District was required to repay approximately $3.9 million dollars to the Federal Government in Title I monies. The funds were returned for a variety of reasons including, but not limited to inadequate documentation to support the use of the funds and certain other expenditures being improperly charged to Title I. It is noteworthy that these funds were utilized both in the public and non-public schools. In fact, of the $3.9 million, approximately $2.7 million were considered public school expenditures and $1.2 million were considered non-public school expenditures.
However, it is simply not correct, as Mr. Schwartz asserts, that the audit found that millions of dollars of professional development money was “misuse[d]”. Rather, the audit found that approximately $80,000 of Title I non-public professional development money was disallowed. Of this amount, only $2,500 was determined to be a “misuse” of Title I money because at a curriculum development workshop, professional development money was used to “enhance the curriculum” of a non-public school when that money should have been used to address how teachers “can serve Title I students better”. There was no assertion in the audit that this money went to anything other than education. Moreover, the audit also found that $4,400 was spent on a workshop entitled “Dealing and Coping with Struggling Students” however, the documentation contained conflicting information about the number of participants at the workshop. Finally, $73,000 was spent on a conference for 200 non-public teachers over a two day period (registration for 140 people was charged to Title I). The audit found that inadequate documentation was provided to support that the money represented an allowable cost allocated to Title I, Part A. There was no finding in the audit that Title IIA money was spent improperly.
Simply put, “millions of dollars” in professional development money was not found to have been misused. Many members of the Board felt it was important for me to clarify this important point for the community. Mr. Schwartz was asked to clarify his article but, to date, he has not done so. Mr. Schwartz’s article was neither authorized, nor written on behalf of the Board.
Wow.
Thank you Mr. Zitomer.
The district needs an executive in chief that understands the needs of the kids and the dynamics of the community with the vision, creativity and courage to experiment and innovate. Instead, the BOE runs a $160 million organization by committee accountable only to their political bosses by flattering them and disparaging the true visionaries while the people follow the marching orders of those same bosses in November.
Interesting, So of the $3.2 million only $80k of the diss-allowed phones was from non public schools. Meaning the Public Schools misused or did not properly document $3.12 million. Seems like the Public Schools and those who run are not as efficient as the non public schools.
Y does everyone give the boe members such a hard time? They are working for the klal, doing a job that not too many ppl want to do… And all tht ppl have to say is disparaging, snide comments abt them! If you think they’re doing such an awful job, y don’t u run for the board? It’s not their fault tht they r powerless due to the state monitor vetoing everything they try to accomplish for the Lakewood klal!
so it seems like someone should be out of a job soon
JustWondering: Your conclusion may be incorrect. The audit covered only federal Title 1 funds. These funds are a small portion of the overall budget. To reach your conclusion, a forensic audit of all school funds should be conducted.