School Officials Say Audit Would Be Too Late to Affect 2014 Budget

Following the town council's recent decision to require a performance audit before releasing additional money to the school department, Smithfield Schools Supt. Robert O'Brien and School Committee Chairman Richard Iannitelli said the audit poses several problems.

First, the district would have to lay off six teachers without the additional funding, Iannitelli explained during a recent interview.

"We have to treat that $450,000 as money that's out there — that's equivalently six teachers," Iannitelli said. "They get to claim [unemployment] at the beginning of the summer [and] that will come to about $72,000 — $12,000 per teacher for six teachers — that's [enough to pay] another teacher, so seven people can't be recalled."

Iannitelli noted this is based on all six teachers collecting unemployment insurance for the total number of weeks allowed under Rhode Island law.

In addition, Iannitelli said, even the most favorable timeframe for completing the audit means that results won't be available until the start of the next school year.

To give the school district enough time to make staffing decisions, he explained, "they'd have to be done by Aug. 6 — I've looked at the specs, it's not going to be done by Aug. 6. It's not going to be done on Sept. 6. If it's done on Oct. 6, it'll be a miracle. I'm looking at Nov. 1 to have it back."

Comparing the planned school audit with the recent annual audit of the town's operations, Iannitelli said the town audit was begun last July and submitted to the school board in January.

"And that's just one year, and that's just the finances," Iannitelli noted. "This [proposed audit] is a minimum of three years, maybe four, and it's finances, comparisons on education, there are a lot of interviews that are going to have to be involved — the timeframe is a big problem."

O'Brien, in a separate interview, said he still sees some confusion over just what the audit will be looking at.

"We're still waiting for the minutes [of the May 7 council meeting where the audit was discussed] to see what the motion said," O'Brien explained.

[Under Rhode Island Open Meetings Laws, town council minutes are not official until they are approved at a subsequent session. The next council meeting is scheduled for June 4.]

A video of the May 14 Budget Hearing taken by Smithfield Patch shows Councilman Bernard A. Hawkins making a motion to place $450,000 in escrow that "will not be expended until a performance audit has been completed and evaluated by the Smithfield Town Council, and the funds may be expended under the direction of the town council."

The council approved the motion unanimously.

O'Brien said he's "not concerned" about the scrutiny that an audit will bring, but he echoed Iannitelli's comments that the time required — and the tying up of school funding — may cause more harm than good.

"If it would help us be more efficient, I'm all for it, and if it gives us guidance that won't harm the students, I'm all for it," O'Brien explained. "[But] I don't think anything's going to come out of an audit saying 'You need to do this immediately to save this money.'"

Among the top issues heading into the new school year in September, O'Brien added, is that "we can't schedule classes for students at the high school until we know what our staffing is going to be."

Last week, the school committee approved a resolution to ask the council to provide the $450,000 without requiring the performance audit, according to the Valley Breeze. The matter is expected to be added to the council's June 4 agenda.

Counting the possible increase in funding, the school department's fiscal 2014 spending plan stands at about $33 million, out of a total town budget of about $63.25 million.