Letter: Blame Game Will Not Bring $3.1M in State Aid Back to School

Losing 3.1 million dollars of state aid and potentially another 10 million going forward due to overlooked filings of paperwork is an absolute disgrace. Now the Smithtown school administration has found an unnamed fall guy (or gal). Are we to believe that the administrative system has only one person and no checks and balances in charge of filing paperwork that is so critical, it cost us over 3 million dollars? And are we supposed to believe that such a critical responsibility was given to a new employee not that familiar with the filings? Now this employee is no longer with the district, so everything is fixed? And the district had to pay an outside auditor to come in and figure this out.  

This seems to be another example where government is not held to the same standards as the private sector. This administration works for the public. If most of us in the private sector committed an error or omission that cost such phenomenal amounts of money, heads would roll all the way to the top and lawsuits would be filed to repay the damages. This is why most business and services carry errors and omissions insurance and malpractice insurance. The school administration? They get away with "whoops" and saying that "one employee" who was responsible for this debacle is no longer with us. How about the people responsible for not having a system in place to make sure "one employee's" mistake can not be so costly? They have no culpability? For all of those in the district losing any services or extracurricular activities or necessary construction, don't worry. That employee is gone (and probably being replaced by another employee who will be new to job and inexperienced with respect to necessary filings). Of course, all of that state aid is also gone.  

As far as New York State and Governor Cuomo, I can't help feeling that, while acting within the technical rules, there seems to be a bit of a "finders keepers, losers weepers" mentality that is hurting the innocent students of the affected districts. While the school district(s) committed the errors, the students suffer the punishment. Just a disgrace on so many levels.  

–Gary Schultz