West Bonner Schools – Kathy Nash For The Record
I want to address the Levy funds and the Revenue and Expenditure detail report, from July 2018 to June 2023. I mentioned at the Budget hearing this last June, the money budgeted for the levies items are not being spent on what they are supposed to be spent on. If anyone wants to get with me after this meeting I can show you the levy portion of those reports to prove what I said was accurate. The things found in these reports are alarming.
- Expenses being put in Revenue accounts.
- Revenues being added to expense accounts.
- Checks made out to West Bonner County Schools which are then deposited into other checking accounts showing up as Revenue instead of Transfers.
- Checks from those alternate checking accounts not being approved by the board, nor has the current board ever made known the accounts even exist.
- Expenses for Travel and Hotels being put into accounts like Supplies or Materials. Why?
- Money coming out of the payroll module made out to WBCSD which is then deposited into those alternate accounts for what use? One of the categories is for Workman’s comp but there is another Check being sent in that same batch directly to the State to cover the workman’s comp. Why 2 checks for the same thing?
- Journal Entries being made to move money from here to there without any supporting documents to show why it’s being done. One such journal entry moved 9.5k from the boiler & Hvac levy account to a 0 budget levy account and a general account, and wasn’t used at all for the levy purpose it was budgeted for. Applying invoices to Zero budget levy accounts has been a common practice with the previous business managers, as you can see by looking over these reports I brought with me tonight.
It’s a good scheme to use up the levy dollars on things not in the budget, resulting in money no longer available to spend on what it was originally intended for. I just wonder how long before 2018 this practice has been going on.
Note, this is where K. Nash’s 3 minute time limit ran out.
This is what she didn’t get to say:
The last point I want to make is several months back the district purchased some Flooring from Sheri’s Home interiors in Priest River for $22.3K. I remember Susan bringing up at the meeting why did we not see if we could have gotten it cheaper from someplace like Lowes or Home Depot. I remember Margie stating we like to purchase local and support our local venders, which I agree, if there isn’t much of a cost difference. But could we have purchased it for thousands less if we had done a better price search?
BTW the reason I bring this up is because the account this was charged to was a Zero Beginning balance LEVY budget Item, which took funds away from something else that was budgeted for in that levy year.
Keith, Susan and Troy, I want to thank you for all your time and due diligence to make our district more fiscally responsible.
Additional note: If anyone wants to connect with me to see the actual district reports I took these off of, just connect with me to let you see the “facts” of what I stated.
Related: Budget Draft Is Not Transparent
Related: Is Your Tax Money Improving the Education in West Bonner County Schools?
