Board forced to repay illegally used funds
BROWNSVILLE -Brownsville school board directors and administrators are being forced to return misappropriated funds that they claim were used without their knowledge.
Ed Yorke, the district’s business manager, said that back in 2006, $625,000 was removed from a $10 million construction bond the district had secured the year prior for a capital project. While no movement had been made for a major construction or renovations project, Yorke said he discovered in 2007 that a transfer of money had been taken from the fund to make payroll without permission from the board.
“After I was hired here, I found the missing money, and I brought it to the board’s attention immediately,” Yorke said.
Yorke said he was surprised to find that board members denied ever authorizing the transfer of the money from the construction fund.
Shortly after the discovery, Dr. Philip Savini, current superintendent, was hired and was made aware of the situation.
“We saw that the money had been borrowed and never returned to that account, so we started to try to pay it back. We wanted to make all the accounts balanced,” Savini said.
Yorke said the district then asked the state for an audit to determine if other funds were misappropriated.
Donald Boyer, who owns part of the Education Management Group LLC company, which performed the audit in Brownsville, said his findings included the transferring of money by the former superintendent and the former business manager without board approval.
“Only a board can transfer money. It’s very specific in a school code,” Boyer said.
Boyer said his findings indicated that more than the $625,000 was transferred from the construction fund at various times, but that other money that had been borrowed had been returned immediately.
“When we added up every transfer, we were looking in the seven-figure range,” Boyer said.
The former superintendent, Larry Golembiewski, said he and former business manager Michael Huth had addressed the board several times about the possibility that the district would get to a point when payroll would not be met.
He said the board refused to raise taxes, despite his pleas. He said in 2006, money wasn’t available to make payroll. He called it a “desperate move.”
“I informed them what I had to do. We couldn’t print money,” Golembiewski said. “Doesn’t take rocket science to realize that wages and health care go up every year.”
Golembiewski said he could not remember if a motion was passed by the board to authorize the transfer.
Huth did not return phone calls for comment.
Director Andy Dorsey said that Huth and Golembiewski did ask the board to consider the tax increase and the transfer of the money, but the board objected.
“I kept questioning them, asking where the money was going, and I was given various stories all the time,” Dorsey said. “But we did not authorize the transfer. We found out a couple years after the fact that it had been done.”
Savini said since the illegal transfer was discovered, the district has been able to pay back $125,000, leaving a balance of $500,000.
The district has a remaining balance of $7.5 million in the construction fund after deducting costs to bring the stadium up to compliance for the insurance company and paying an architect for preliminary work initially when the bond was obtained in addition to the money transferred to make payroll.
“We are making an effort in putting the money back now. Those payments vary at times depending on what we can do, but we’re trying,” Savini said.
“At some point, and I can’t give a deadline, but at some point it will be done.”
Both Dorsey and Savini said that there will be no ramifications for the district from the state as long as an effort continues to be made to return the money to the construction fund.
“Thankfully, with the way the state is working with us, it isn’t a huge pressure,” Dorsey said.