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Ingram begins work on transportation deficit

Date: 1/27/2009

By G. Michael Dobbs

Managing Editor



SPRINGFIELD School Superintendent Dr. Alan Ingram told City Councilors on Thursday that some of the corrective action measures suggested by an outside audit of the school transportation operations will be implemented, while others require further evaluation.

Ingram also said he has asked the city's Law Department to take the steps necessary to legally force the city of Holyoke to pay Springfield for the busing of homeless students.

Ingram told Councilors Kateri Walsh, James Ferrera, Timothy Rooke, Patrick Markey and William Foley that his investigation into the reported nearly $7 million deficit in the school's transportation budget is "not to find fault or place blame, but to seek out the root causes." School Committee members Michael Rogers and Christopher Collins also attended the meeting.

T.J. Plante, the city's chief financial officer, described the more than $7 million in deficits as a "projected worst case [scenario]."

Ingram said that while a number of individuals still employed at the School Department are culpable for a role in the budget mess, he said he has found no one so far whose responsibility would warrant termination. He also declined to blame his predecessor, Dr. Joseph Burke.

The audit, performed free of charge to the city, was completed last month by the Massachusetts Association of School Business Officials. The audit notes that if no measures are taken to correct the current situation the deficit will be nearly $7.5 million by June 30.

The audit reported the primary causes of the defict included:

implementation of a new but somewhat flawed bid methodology for Special Education transportation;

a lack of cost-sharing agreements with other communities for the busing of homeless students a requirement for compensation under the federal McKinney-Vento Act;

the assignment, utilization and routing of the district's regular school buses;

the exclusion of costs such as salaries for transportation administrative staff and crossing guards, summer school transportation and more from the final FY09 school district budget;

turnover in the Finance Department of several key personnel with replacements lacking "the 'local' experience and knowledge to assure that accurate budgetary figures were obtained from the district's various cost centers;"

lack of a way for the Transportation Department to accurately track invoiced and purchase orders;

and lack of communication between the Finance Office and the transportation program staff.

According to Plante, that lack of communication prevented a plan to reduce the number of regular school buses operated by 40 from being implemented. This would have resulted in a savings of $2 million.

When asked by Rooke how this could have happened, Ingram attributed it to a lack of communication between the departments. Ingram added that there needs to be "internal tools to flag issues" such as this one.

Ingram said he saw internal memos "with varying dates" that discussed this issue but no action was taken.

"Communication did not take place in the past," Ingram said. "I can assure [you] that is not the case now."

Saying the audit was not "a silver bullet or a panacea," Ingram explained that some of the corrective measures it suggests cannot be implemented. He said he is currently evaluating all of the suggestions, but has not yet completed that task.

He did say the measure of using two buses to transport homeless students to Holyoke instead of 14 vans is underway. Changing the start time of the Renaissance School to coincide with the regular transportation of the city's other middle schools is another way to save money and should start Feb. 2, Ingram said.

The audit suggested decreasing the number of school bus monitors, a move Ingram rejected due to safety issues.

Plante said through a re-bidding process for the special education and homeless busing, the city would "save significant money."

Ingram said the School Department would verify that all of the students classified as homeless are accurately characterized.

After the meeting, Mayor Domenic Sarno told Reminder Publications legal action against Holyoke is "a last resort."

Citing a personal friendship with Holyoke mayor Michael Sullivan, Sarno said, "Holyoke is fighting for money like us."