Friday, December 15, 2006

Audit reveals chaos in school business office

BY PAT LITOWITZ
PLITOWITZ@NCNEWSONLINE.COM

Missed deadlines, withheld subsidy payments and improper fund transfers.

In its audit released Monday, the state Auditor General's office disclosed the shortcomings of the New Castle Area School District for the 2002-03 and 2003-04 school years. It also provided a glimpse into a district business office that was overworked and in disarray.

"When (the audit findings) took place, we were going through some very turbulent times," Superintendent George Gabriel said. "We had a superintendent who was ill. He was contemplating retirement. We had a business manager who was essentially dying."

The district witnessed a change in its top management during late 2002. Battling cancer, Joseph A. Martin Jr. announced his retirement in mid-October. Gabriel was promoted a month later. Business manager Marie Pisano left nine days after Gabriel was named to oversee the district. Pisano could no longer work.

"She was so weak," Gabriel said. "She could hardly walk, and she was trying to maintain the business office."

Assistant business manager Abbie D. Baxter agreed with Gabriel's assessment.

"She was not well. She had cancer. She was not herself." The hiring of Roger Havey (as business manager) was expected to create stability in the business office. It didn't. "He just didn't do a whole lot," Baxter said. "He kept me doing stupid things.

"The first thing he did was get every board member a credit card. I had to do all that paperwork. Only three of them ever used them."

Five months after his arrival, Havey was suspended. The reason? The district learned he had pleaded guilty to two counts of theft by failure to make required disposition of funds. A short time later he was to be fired.

As the district waited for a replacement, Baxter took over the finances. "(Havey) didn't do one thing on the budget," she said. "So I had two weeks to get a $30 million-plus budget done.

"I pretty much lived here to get my work done." Baxter and the business office found themselves battling to pay bills and focusing on priority projects. "We were going on a whole-new computer system," she said. "So that took my time.

"There were constant interruptions with this new high school. I just took care of what I could take care of and what I had to do."

That meant state reports were set aside. "You had a rookie superintendent," Gabriel said. "I depended on Abbie to run the district.

"We had to keep our head above water, essentially. We had to make sure the bills were getting paid for the high school project."

Nine months passed after Havey's suspension before the school board selected his replacement, Joseph Ambrosini.

"When Joe walked into the office on the very first day, I felt the weight of the world off my shoulders," Baxter said. "He just started dealing with the constant interruptions, and I could actually sit down and get something done."

Ambrosini said what he saw was disturbing.

"I was stepping into a financial picture that was very disorganized," he said. "There was a lot of disarray.

"There was a lot of paperwork daily that flows through that office. I don't know how Abbie stayed with it, to be honest with you."

Almost a year into Ambrosini's term, the district's business office returned to normalcy.

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