Hamilton school board appeals audit’s larger details
HAMILTON » The new superintendent of the Hamilton Township School District inherited a $145,000 problem, but Dr. Scott Rocco is defending his predecessors against allegations they improperly spent tens of thousands of dollars in federal funds.
Fiscal investigators at the New Jersey Department of Education reviewed Hamilton’s spending practices from July 2013 through June 2014 and determined the district’s leadership during that 12-month period made over $145,000 in unallowable expenditures using federal funds and ordered the district to refund the money back to the New Jersey treasury.
But Rocco, who became the district’s top administrator in May, says the district has proof to dispute the state’s findings.
“It is often difficult to compile information when an audit is conducted and none of the central administrators whowere responsible for the program are still in district. However, the current administration not only believes, but has documentation to show, that the Title I funds disbursed during the 20132014 school year for these expanded programs were appropriately used for our Title I students,” Rocco said last week in a press statement.
The Hamilton Township Board of Education on Oct. 18 voted to appeal the monetary findings of the state’s Title I Audit report. “We look forward to presenting our findings and discussing this audit with the New Jersey Department of Education,” Rocco said Oct. 26 in his press statement.
Title I funds are intended to benefit students from lowincome families and help ensure that all children meet challenging state academic standards, according to the U.S. Department of Education. The federal government gives Title I revenue to the states, and the states redistribute that money to local school districts such as Hamilton, which received about $1.77 million in Title I funds in fiscal year 2013-14.
The audit identified nine specific improprieties in Hamilton Township School District fiscal practices that existed during the 2013-14 schoolyear. Rocco’s administration agrees with much of the state’s findings but disputes the big-ticket items.
The district has already taken corrective action to prevent the fiscal mistakes of 2013-14 from recurring, so the district’s pending appeal before the state Department of Education is primarily about the district not wanting to refund $140,000 for spending practices that the district
“It is often difficult to compile information when an audit is conducted and none of the central administrators who were responsible for the program are still in district. However, the current administration not only believes, but has documentation to show, that the Title I funds disbursed during the 2013-2014 school year for these expanded programs were appropriately used for our Title I students.” — Dr. Scott Rocco, Hamilton Superintendent of Schools
says were above board.
According to the audit, the district improperly used over $110,000 in Title I funds to cover payroll costs for two teachers who worked at Title I schools during the 2013-14 fiscal year; the district improperly spent over $29,000 in Title I funds on general supplies — tables, chairs and toys — and bus transportation to University Heights and Yardville elementary schools despite those facilities being two non- Title I schools; and the district improperly spent nearly $4,200 of Title I funds in an unallowable fashion that supplanted state and local funds.
The district issued a press release last week indicating it has documentation, including an email exchange between former school district administrators and the New Jersey Department of Education, that confirms that “Title I funds could be expended at non-Title I schools due to space constraints. Only Title I students benefited from the expanded specialized kindergarten programs as the district transported those eligible students to the buildings which had the classroom space needed for the class.”
While the district disputes the top two findings of the state audit, Rocco didnot recommend the school board to appeal the remaining seven findings. The other findings not being appealed show the district in the 2013-14 fiscal year improperly charged$750 to the Title I, Part A program for payroll expenditures and improperly used over $700 in Title I funds to pay for board games, advertising costs and a belt flag system that “did not meet the intent and purpose of the Title I program.”
If the district successfully appeals the big-ticket Audit Findings 1-2 and is determined to have properly spent those Title I funds, then the district would only be on the hook for refunding nearly $1,500 back to the state for its admitted transgressions under Audit Findings 3-4.
But if the district loses its appeal, the Hamilton school board will have to write a check made payable to “Treasurer, State of New Jersey” in the amount of $145,507.84. Rocco, however, has expressed confidence the district will succeed on appeal and not have to write that big refund check to the state.
“The Hamilton Township School District believes that the Title I funds in question were used appropriately,” Rocco said in his press statement, “and it is our hope that this appeal will verify the evidence that we have to support our position.”