The Harrisburg schools superintendent and business manager will meet with state Department of Education officials Wednesday to discuss the district’s finances, school district solicitor Sam Cooper said during a special school board meeting Monday.
Information about the meeting between state officials, Superintendent Sybil Knight-Burney and Business Manager Bilal Hasan was provided only after school board members Judd Pittman, Carrie Fowler and Brian Carter pushed for a public discussion on the status of an audit of the district being conducted by the education department. All three said they’ve been asking, unsuccessfully, for a special meeting specifically to talk about the school system’s finances.
The school board is also having an executive session tonight, President Danielle Robinson said.
"We just scheduled this today,” Robinson said at Monday’s special meeting.
“Where’s my email?” Fowler asked. “I didn’t get an email.”
“You’re killing me right now,” Robinson responded. “We’re going to move forward right now.”
The state Department of Education has said that the district is not providing access to the financial records that it needs to complete an audit of the district. Hasan maintains that the district is providing data requested, but he has refused to give the state access to the district’s electronic finance system.
The auditor general weighed in on the debate earlier this week.
"The continuing refusal of district leadership to work with the state’s auditors is unacceptable and sends the exact wrong message to students, parents and taxpayers,” Auditor General Eugene DePasquale said Monday in a news release. “Given the district’s past financial scandals and ongoing budgetary issues, board members should demonstrate a greater degree of transparency.”
The district has been under state-imposed financial recovery status since 2012, a process that is supposed to help get the district back on track.
A majority of school board members last week voted against a resolution to provide electronic access to the district’s financial system to the audit firm hired by the Department of Education.
Board members Pittman, Fowler, Carter and Joseph Brown voted to cooperate with state auditors while Robinson and board members Lola Lawson, Ellis Roy, Lionel Gonzalez and Patricia Whitehead-Myers voted against providing auditors what they had requested.
“Out of consideration for the work that’s been achieved to date, I hope school board members will wake up and cooperate,” DePasquale said.
Cooper explained Monday’s special meeting was scheduled specifically for the purpose of appointing an in-house solicitor. James Ellison was appointed 5 to 4, despite of the Harrisburg attorney’s controversial past.
Pittman made a motion to discuss the district’s finances, but it was denied. The board hasn’t even discussed the matter, Robinson said, which is the point Fowler, Carter and Pittman were trying to make.
“We haven’t had a chance to talk about it,” Carter said.
The Department of Education began a financial audit of the school district in October after a series of mishaps and scandals, including a transportation supervisor accused of embezzling $180,000, the over-hiring of 37 teachers for unbudgeted positions and the continuation of health care coverage for 54 employees who had resigned from the district in recent years. The department hired an outside firm, Wessel & Company, to conduct the audit.
The department also suspended a chunk of federal grants last month after questions arose over the spending of $700,000 annually on a high school program to help students at risk of not graduating. That inquiry is still ongoing.
The auditor general said his office has broad powers, including subpoena powers, which he will flex if necessary. He said he doesn’t understand why a cooperative agreement hasn’t been reached to address any concerns school board members may have at allowing an outside agency access to an electronic system. DePasquale said there are ways to mask personal information so that shouldn’t be an insurmountable hurdle.
The auditor general’s office typically conducts audits for state agencies, such as the department of education. But in this case, DePasquale said the department was looking for some very specific, technical things that his office typically doesn’t do. So that’s why he believed they hired an outside auditing firm to conduct the audit.
“This isn’t your traditional school district audit,” he said. “The fact that the school board is not cooperating is just bizarre.”
DePasquale’s last audit of the Harrisburg School District released in 2015 found the district was struggling with excessive debt, declining tax revenues and a sharp increase in payments to charter schools.
The final 10 minutes of Harrisburg school board’s special meeting Monday appeared to be a venting session for board members, Hasan, and residents, over the district’s audit and finances.
“It’s time we start addressing the real issues within the district,” Fowler said, who again requested a special meeting to discuss the district’s finances. “So, can we make a motion to call a special meeting for (Tuesday) night to vote on this?”
Several minutes passed before the dialogue picked back up again. During the lull, Fowler walked over to Cooper and Robinson to point to the agenda where it reads that other business brought forth can be discussed.
After consulting with Cooper, Robinson eventually explained there is “no need to call a special meeting to have a discussion with PDE, as we already have a meeting with PDE scheduled for Wednesday."
Harrisburg residents expressed their dissatisfaction, including booing Robinson.
“Can we please not have the yelling out from the audience?” she asked. “We can easily clear the room.”
Robinson continued, “again we’ve already scheduled a meeting with the department of education to discuss the issues the board is talking about. We also have an executive session scheduled for tomorrow, also. So there is no need to hold a special meeting to discuss this.”
Fowler’s frustration emerged.
“But, I’m reading the agenda and it says the purpose of the meeting is to appoint an in-house solicitor and consider other board business that comes before the board,” she said. “Judd made a motion for other business to come before the board.”
Cooper stepped in to stop board members from vacillating back-and-forth between points of view.
“We have been working with the department of education to schedule a meeting for Wednesday,” he said. “This will confirm that that meeting is being scheduled. We will sit down with their representatives and discuss the request from the district regarding the audit. I, myself, have made arrangements to make the meeting occur along with Mr. Hasan, and the superintendent, Dr. Burney, and we have every intention that that meeting will occur and we will be able to resolve the matter.”
Corky Goldstein, an attorney and a former school board member said he’s glad to hear there’s a meeting scheduled, but that doesn’t ease taxpayers’ concerns.
“This is not a private enterprise,” he said. “This is a public entity.”
Goldstein noted, “one of your members said they got legal advice and they don’t have to turn over anything.”
If there’s nothing to hide, then hand over information the state is seeking to review, and don’t hold back “things that might be embarrassing,” he said.
Hasan said the district is playing by the rules. He said he “dares anyone to ask the state and, or the auditors” to share what the district hasn’t let out of its eFinance system.
Goldstein grabbed the microphone. He said he watched an interview where Hasan said the state is not going to get the information they are requesting.
“Just because you talk loud and scream doesn’t mean it’s the truth,” Hasan said. “The truth is that we gave (the state department of education) the information. Ok, what they’re asking for is access to the database, not for the information that’s already been provided. There’s no staff member within the district that has not complied.”