School Showdown Gets Top Billing At Burlington Town Meeting

BURLINGTON, MA -- The Burlington School Committee's decision to retain an outside accounting firm to offer consultation on its 2019 isn't stopping Burlington Town Meeting members from pushing forward with an article that would fund a complete review of school department finance for the year ended June 30, when the department overspent its budget by nearly $700,000. Article 21, which needs a two-thirds majority to pass, is expected to be one of the more hotly debated article on the warrant. Town Meeting begins Monday at 7:30 in the Burlington High School auditorium.

This week, town meeting members collected more than 400 signatures from residents on a petition urging Town Meeting to pass article 21. Another 211 had signed an online petition as of Friday afternoon.

Town Meeting will also consider Article 20, which transfers $699,926.24 from the town to cover the fiscal 2018 budget deficit. Town Meeting has little wiggle room as, legally, the unpaid bills from more than 300 vendors have to be paid. But article 21 is seen by its backers as a way to figure out what happened and prevent it from happening again.

"Hopefully town meeting will understand this is an unusual situation....that none of us on this committee ever want to see happen again," School Committee member Stephen A. Nelson said. "I'm very optimistic Town Meeting will support this request once they see the backup documentation."

Last month the School Committee Powers & Sullivan, the same firm that conducted reviews of revolving accounts in the school system. Those audits raised red flags which culminated with the disclosure of the budget deficit after the fiscal year had ended.

Earlier this year, a review of a music department account that went from a $40,000 surplus to a $5,000 deficit over the course of three years uncovered lavish spending at area restaurants. The report also found that there was no accounting for cash collected from students for field trips, money collected from students for parties, tee shirts other small items; and for some of the advertisements in programs that had been paid for in cash.

On Monday, Town Meeting will be asked to take money from the town's stabilization fund to cover the overspending. An August 8 memo from Burlington Town Accountant Paul Sagarino to the Burlington Town Meeting members and the ways and means committee laid out options for covering a deficit the Burlington Public School System disclosed last month.

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Dave Copeland can be reached at dave.copeland@patch.com or by calling 617-433-7851. Follow him on Twitter (@CopeWrites) and Facebook (/copewrites).