Questionable Money Movement in May 2019
The new Board Meeting Management software is providing more information about the details of how the Heyworth School District is run. As the public, we are able to see some of the details that our board members do for items on the meeting agenda. This is nice, as I no longer need to make FOIA requests and wait for many of these documents moving forward. If you are interested in seeing all the info that’s available, check out the link. Look through the agendas for the meetings and click on the documents linked in each agenda item.
Board Docs for Heyworth Community Unit School District 4
One of the items on the agenda this evening is the approval of the Treasurer’s Report. This document provides a pretty high level overview of how money is flowing through the district. Direct link toTreasurer’s Report – May 2019.pdf
My concern starts at the line “Trans invoices from (20) to (60)”. At the beginning of the meeting, I asked the board to take some time to discuss it, and help explain the details around this line when they reached that agenda item. The board didn’t break it out and approved it without any discussion. I find this action by the board very frustrating, as I’ve attended or listened to several other boards in which board members will publicly ask questions to help bring clarity to whats going on, not just for themselves, but also for the general public that’s observing.
I talked to Ms Taylor after the board meeting to get the following explanation. “Invoices from BLDD Architects that have been paid from the Building fund where moved to the Site and Const fund.” So in her words, they didn’t move the money, they moved the invoices.
State Law prohibits transfers between funds without a resolution of the board. The way this shows up on the Treasurers Report looks just like the fund loan repayment the board voted on earlier this year. This time they just use different words to describe it and act like it’s not subject to the same board scrutiny. At the end of the day, either way you word it, the effect is the same; money was moved from one fund to another.