By James Lomuscio
Westport’s Board of Education tonight voted unanimously to establish a Health Insurance Fund Review Committee to determine the cause of a nearly $2 million current budget shortfall and to develop safeguards so it does not happen again.
Board of Education Chair Elaine Whitney explains the workings of the committee as Vice Chair Jeannie Smith listens. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com
The insurance shortfall in the school system’s current $104 million budget, attributed to former Assistant Superintendent of Business Nancy Harris and discovered over the past several months by her replacement Elio Longo, has been a major blow to the school board with ramifications affecting next year’s budget.
Schools Superintendent Elliott Landon noted that his proposed 2014-15 operating budget to be presented to the school board on Friday has a 6.5 percent increase due to the blunder instead of what should have been a 4.3 percent jump.
The review committee will made up of three school board members, Paul Block, Karen Kleine, and Brett Aronow, who will serve as chairwoman, as well as Longo and a citizen volunteer to be chosen by Elaine Whitney, school board chairwoman.
Whitney noted that the committee may engage the town’s external auditor for a cost of up to $10,000.
She stressed the committee is expected to issue its report no later Feb. 10, the last school board meeting before the Board of Education submits its 2014-15 proposed operating budget.
Whitney called getting to the root of the discrepancy “one of the board’s highest priorities” to assure “best accounting practices going forward.”
The committee’s charge, she said, would be to determine immediate remedial actions, whether to conduct an independent audit or to hire a consultant.
Landon said tonight that the shortfall was due to exorbitant insurance claims and a minimal reserve.
He said he is proposing cuts in the current operating budget’s instructional and non-instructional supplies, limiting conference attendance for teachers and administrators and relying heavily on natural gas instead of oil to address the shortfall.
“At this point in time, we feel we can contribute (via proposed cuts) $200,000 to reducing the shortfall,” Landon said.
For the rest, he said the board would have to go to the Board of Finance for an appropriation.
“For me and the board it’s an opportunity to improve,” board newcomer Block said about his appointment to the committee. “We certainly don’t want it to happen again.”
When Sheila Flynn, PTA co-president, asked how the member of the public would be picked for the committee, Whitney said it would not be a current elected official, but a member of the public who could bring expertise on such matters.
Flynn also asked whether the public could have input at the committee’s meetings since they would be held as work sessions, meetings at which the public normally does not comment. Whitney assured her that because of the need for transparency, the public could attend and comment at the committee’s discretion. She said written comments also were welcome.
Jack Klinge, a member of the Representative Town Meeting (RTM), questioned why the committee would include school board members to report back to the board.
“You’re investigating yourselves,” he said, equating it to a police department’s internal affairs office.
Whitney responded by saying there would be “external validation by our consultant.”
She also stressed urgency “to get accurate information and to get it quickly.”
“We need to roll up our sleeves,” Whitney said.
I’m currently editing and producing a documentary on the Texas Education system. We’ve discovered a lot of budget issues, but nothing specifically like this one in the town which I reside and send my kids to public school. As a Westport resident and citizen I would volunteer my services to the review committee so long as I could turn the cameras onto this investigation so every Westport citizen can learn exactly what happened and how the process to uncover the facts works.