Scathing NJ report details Belleville schools’ missteps

The 23-page investigation report refers certain matters the state Division of Criminal Justice, but does not specify which ones.

A scathing state report released this week details the missteps of the Belleville School District from 2013 through 2016, centering on its $3.7 million deficit incurred in 2014 and referring some matters to the state Attorney General’s Office.

The long-awaited report from State Auditor Stephen M. Eells addresses the factors that prompted the state Department of Education to loan the district $4.2 million in 2014, monies to be repaid through 2024.

While the 23-page investigation report refers certain matters the state’s Division of Criminal Justice, it does not detail specifically what matters have been referred for criminal investigation, Eells said.

“That’s not something we are going to point out in a public audit report because it [could] hinder their investigation,” Eells said by phone on Thursday.

READ THE FULL REPORT HERE 

While school officials in interviews said many missteps have been rectified, the report details unusually high legal fees, over-billing by school district tutors and the district’s 2013 purchase of 2,000 flash drives, which it could not use.

“We’ve been waiting for nearly three years for that report to be produced,” said Board of Education trustee Michael Sheldon. “It confirms [some of] what we’ve known all along, but at least now it has reached some of the highest levels of government in Trenton.”

George Anne Polite, 56, a Belleville resident who follows school board politics closely, focused on a portion of the report dealing with student instruction for those not attending district schools while they are sick, suspended or otherwise unable to attend classes for a lengthy time.

The report found the district paid $82,400 in 2016 for home instruction of 48 special education students.

It paid $77,500 for 34 special education students’ instruction in that year, the report said.

And it had 81 billing conflicts totaling 43 overlapping hours amounting to the district’s losing $1,900.

“The examples of conflicts include the same student reported as being taught by multiple instructors during the same time-period or an instructor billing for multiple students during the same time-period,” the report said. “Billing conflicts ranged from one to 10 per instructor.”

According to the report, 15 students did not receive the amount of home instruction required by state law.

Taxpayers: Belleville voters OK $48.5 million bond referendum

Money: Belleville school board splits on spending plan

“Some of the damage that has been done cannot be recouped,” Polite said. The harm, she said, was done to “the children who did not get the proper education that they should have gotten.”

A trend Eells told NorthJersey.com he has seen across New Jersey school districts is the problems which continual changeover of personnel can cause in finance.

“It’s hard to build internal controls and a system and process when someone is there for a year and six months or a year-and-a-half,” Eells said. “When you have constant change in your government, it’s hard to establish controls.”

In Belleville, none of the trustees in 2014 remain on the board following school board elections, including last November‘s polling. There have also been significant staffing changes in the district’s administration.

Legal fees

The state report refers to a rise in district legal costs that “exceed 130 percent of the statewide average per public cost. Total fees the district paid for legal expenses in the years in question are as follows, according to the state report:

• $149,000 in the fiscal year 2013 
• $376,000 in the fiscal year 2014
• $665,000 in the fiscal year 2015
• $799,000 in the fiscal year 2016

New Jersey’s Taxpayer Guide to Education spending during the fiscal year 2016 shows legal expenses for a group of 103 comparable school districts ranged from $10 to $260 per student and averaged less than $45 per student, according to the report.

“Any time we see a school district on the higher end, we make it our purpose to look at what’s been involved, what they’ve been dealing with,” Eells said.

The district has since retained new legal counsel.

Among the cases the district handled in those years is a lawsuit now settled which claimed the school district was negligent in allowing a teacher’s aide to sexually abuse a student in 2013. The former teacher’s aide, Melissa Bradley, is serving a three-year prison term.

Jailed: Belleville BOE settles suit started after sex abuse claims

Crime: Biz owner from Belleville in trouble with N.J. Treasury

As for the legal costs, the Belleville School District is already witnessing a reduction, Sheldon said.

“We’re seeing already since Jon Busch and company have been our counsel, a reduction by 70 percent in our legal costs,” Sheldon said, referring to the district’s hiring of Attorney Jonathan M. Busch, of the Metuchen-based Busch Law Group LLC.

Schools Superintendent Richard Tomko, who started with the district in 2015, after leading the Elmwood Park district, pointed to the Belleville district’s improved QSAC scores.

Story continues after video

QSAC is the state Department of Education’s rating system for school districts, the Quality Single Accountability Continuum, and includes measures of governance, fiscal management and operation.

Education: Two years of Tomko yields change in Belleville schools

Belleville: New legal representation approved for schools

Following the Belleville School District’s $20,000 purchase of 2,000 custom-printed flash drives in 2013, which it could not use with its outdated computers, another incident detailed in the state auditor’s report, the Belleville schools had an uphill battle regaining the public’s trust.

“The main thing we had to do is we had to build relationships with everybody,” Tomko said. “We had to build the trust again with the community, with the stakeholders, with the teachers. You can always get better, but I think we’re finally there.”

Community: Belleville students seek to end dating violence

Local: Belleville School District no longer broke, audit says

Board of Education President Chris Lamparello, who began as a board member in 2016, pointed to a school district in transition.

“I feel like we’ve been nothing but transparent, our particular board,” Lamparello said. “For some people, the report gives justification to what we know was going on, at this point, we know what happened, and it’s been fixed or we’ve done our best to remedy the situation, and we need to move on.”

Email: kadosh@northjersey.com

 

Read or Share this story: https://njersy.co/2sVJJAT