Bridgehampton Said to Lack Internal Control-Consultants find much to criticize at school

On Monday, the same day that the former superintendent of the Roslyn School District, Frank Tassone, was found guilty of embezzling millions of dollars, a pair of education and financial consultants recommended that the Bridgehampton School District tighten its own fiscal management and internal controls.

At a school board workshop that night, Betty Cure and Henry Binzer, partners in a consulting firm specializing in education finances, presented suggestions to run the school more efficiently and in compliance with New York State law. They ranged from cutting back on staff to maintaining school records to sharing financial statements and information about fund balances with the school board.

Jennifer Freeman, a spokeswoman for the state comptroller's office, said that deficiencies in these areas could trigger an audit by the state.

"Internal control in schools is a problem. Roslyn made it a bigger problem. It must be kept in mind all the time," said Mr. Binzer, a former adviser in school business management for the State Education Department.

Diane Youngblood, the superintendent of Bridgehampton School, said that she hired Ms. Cure, who has four decades of school business administration experience, and Mr. Binzer after she was promoted last fall from principal to her current position. Dr. Youngblood said that she was concerned by a lack of control over the finances in the school.

Ms. Cure and Mr. Binzer spent a year looking into finances of the Bridgehampton School District. They found that the flow of information between the business office at Bridgehampton and the school board was inadequate, Mr. Binzer said.

The school board had not approved budget transfers or pay raises that had been made. Board members had not received statements for Bridgehampton's capital project funds or updates on fund balances, some of which were running in the red, a violation of New York State law.

"We don't get any reports," said Elizabeth Kotz, a board member, at the meeting.

"You guys are the stewards of the public purse," said Mr. Binzer. "You should get the budget reports every month."

Michelle Romanosky, the district's acting business manager, said that she was receptive to "most of the internal control suggestions. I'd rather give more information to all of our board members," she said. "We're running a multimillion-dollar business, and they are our board of directors."

However, she disagreed with some of the criticisms, especially about the number of people on the school district payroll. Ms. Romanosky has been asking for help in the business office, which has a full-time business manager, an assistant business manager, and one part-time staff member.

"She felt that she had no time to properly do the job," said Mr. Binzer. "We do not agree that more help is needed."

Mr. Binzer and Ms. Cure found that several full-time positions, such as the two secretary positions and the guidance secretary, did not have workloads that required full-time employment. Part of the problem in assessing the workloads, however, is that Bridgehampton does not have job descriptions for these positions.

The school has also not formally evaluated its personnel, something the consultants suggest that it do every year.

Tamara George, a school board member, argued that more help was needed for the secretaries in the main office. Ms. Cure then clarified her assessment: "I didn't see enough at that job description to make it a full-time position. I was just apprehensive at what I saw."

The report also found errors and missing information in student records and the minutes of school board meetings, both of which are supposed to be accurate and kept in the school's files for several decades.

"We're finding that even though you have a good student database, it's not used to its full capacity," said Ms. Cure. "You have less than 200 students, but not all the students' records are in the database," she said. "I didn't see full report cards or student data from K through 12."

Ms. Cure said that schools are required to keep student records for at least 60 years; they can be used when applying for Social Security in lieu of a birth certificate.

The report also found that the district clerk, Joyce Crews-Manigo, had not been accurately recording the board meeting minutes.

"When I went through the minutes of the organizational board meeting, they didn't record the absentee board member nor the newly elected board members," said Ms. Cure. "There were a number of situations and places where the minutes were imprecise or not as accurate as recommended."

Dr. Youngblood said that Ms. Crews-Manigo will receive district clerk training in October.

Among the other recommendations was that the school calculate, write, and distribute its paychecks in-house. At present an outside contractor, Lydia Donahue, does the Bridgehampton payroll. There was also concern that the school did not make cash deposits as often as it should. Ms. Cure said that it should be done every day.

"I'm very encouraged by the recommendations that Betty and Hank brought to us," said Dr. Youngblood. "No one has taken advantage. We have not seen any abuse," she said, adding that the school had already implemented some of the suggestions to make sure that there is no abuse in the future.

A former Bridgehampton School District treasurer, Lyllis Topping, was charged in 1996 with a felony count in the misappropriation of $80,000, which was ultimately returned. At the time of the charge, her attorney said she herself had suggested tighter financial controls in the district.

On Monday the school board also debated the merits of setting a minimum grade point average and course of study for valedictorians and salutatorians at the Bridgehampton School. There have been no requirements except that the student attend the school for at least the junior and senior years. The new policy would require a grade point average of at least 90.

Ms. George said that level was unrealistic. "A 90, now that's something that's not achievable for a bunch of classes," she said. Potentially the new policy could deprive the student with the highest average of scholarship money, she said.

Other board members argued that the titles had lost prestige at Bridgehampton in recent years. It "requires a certain level of aptitude," said James Walker, who was one of them.

The title would be easier to achieve, said Jack Pryor, Bridgehampton's principal, by instituting a grade-weighting system. Such a system would give extra credit to students taking Regents, honors, or advanced placement courses.

The board also considered tightening its attendance policy. It now allows students to miss 15 percent of the school year, or about 30 days per year. Mr. Pryor recommended that it trim the number of days to 18, or 10 percent of the school year.