I would like to rebut Mr. Keith Wilson’s implications that the Board of Education is responsible for the failed school budget. The seven School Board members were among the 2,000 people who voted yes. The budget failed because 2,100 people voted no for various reasons and the remaining 10,000 registered voters in our community chose not to come out to vote at all. Like it or not, now that the majority of voters have made this decision, it is the board’s responsibility to implement their wishes.

If Mr. Wilson had regularly attended budget meetings and coffee hours from January to May, he would have gotten correct information firsthand, and known that the budget was reduced twice before being put up on May 17th. The board put the same budget up to the voters a second time at the insistence of a large group of residents who attended the subsequent meeting. The public was afforded ample opportunity to ask questions or to give recommendations regarding the budget during the entire five month period. Aside from making themselves available countless evenings for meetings, board members were reachable by phone or via e-mail at any time to explain details about the budget to residents. Unfortunately, people chose to stay uninvolved in the process, therefore misinformation prevailed in the community.

Mr. Wilson also places blame on this School Board for high taxes, yet conveniently does not acknowledge his role in contributing to the tax burden we currently deal with. Let me remind Mr. Wilson of several of the short-sighted decisions he and his fellow board members made that the current board and Administration have inherited, and which have had far reaching effects into our current budget and will continue to affect future budgets.

Had previous boards during Mr. Wilson’s tenure not sold four of the district’s school buildings (which only affected the tax increase in the year they were sold), we would not have had to build extensions on our school buildings to accommodate the enrollment growth, and we would not be paying off a $53 million dollar bond as part of our school tax bill. (Plus we would have retained 4 more fields for our children to play on.) Had the Board under Mr. Wilson’s tenure taken the written legal advice of the school district attorneys and not entered into an insurance-based teacher retirement incentive plan, we would not still be obligated to pay premiums and benefits on these insurance policies which are included in our budget. To make matters worse, the Business Official under Mr. Wilson’s tenure, in an effort to balance the budget, took loans against these policies totaling $325,000.00 which were never repaid, leaving the policies under-funded and accrued interest to date of over $500,000.00 in addition to the principal. Had the current Board not uncovered this insurance fiasco and terminated this retirement incentive plan, the district would be facing a $9,000,000.00 debt. Let me also remind Mr. Wilson that in 1994, with the district facing a $3,000,000.00 budget deficit under his tenure, his board formed the Budget Advisory Team to make decisions on what programs and services to cut in order to balance the budget. This team continued the following year as the Citizen’s Advisory Committee on the budget. Some of the programs and services we provided to children then still have never come back.

To add insult to injury, while engaging in deficit spending, borrowing money to balance the budget, providing a cost-prohibitive retirement incentive and cutting programs for kids, board members under Mr. Wilson’s tenure helped themselves to taxpayer funds to pay for personal trips and hotel bills, local restaurant bills, huge personal cell phone bills, purchases at retail stores, car rentals, first class airfare, and cash advances. All of this was revealed in the forensic audit, which is a public document posted on the district webpage, (and which did not cost $70,000.00). The reason that many of these things were not detected as part of the Board’s process of approving the monthly warrants, is that these board members submitted their expense reimbursement requests after the close of the fiscal year, which avoided having to show them in the correct accounting codes. The forensic audit was a very important step, (in conjunction with the state audit), in assuring that all business office practices were evaluated, district policies were re-written, and new audit procedures established by the current board to protect the district from this type of mismanagement.

Since the District Attorney chose not to prosecute because the statute of limitations has expired, letters were sent to these former board members asking that they submit a check to properly reimburse the district taxpayers. If these monies were repaid, it could possibly mean salvaging a portion of children’s programs which unfortunately now have to be cut. However, to date there has been no response. It is beyond my comprehension, and quite frankly a disgrace, that Mr. Wilson views these audit findings as "nothing" and feels no shame that the Board under his tenure violated all codes of ethics and conduct in the misuse of taxpayer funds.

The school leadership over the past 5 years since Mr. Wilson et. al. were voted out of office has turned this district around. Not only have we seen incredible strides educationally with scores in the top ten and prestigious academic awards for both our teachers and students, but we have also eradicated the negative climate and culture within our schools that was so pervasive under Mr. Wilson’s tenure. Unlike Mr. Wilson, the residents of this community do not have a short memory – they will never allow anyone to take this school district back to those times, nor allow people without moral conscience to control district finances.

MaryAnn Karageorges

Plainedge School Board, 1996-2005