HACKENSACK, New Jersey (WABC) — When $17 million from Hackensack’s school district budget suddenly vanished, outraged parents, students and teachers packed a board of education meeting on Wednesday.
The missing money could force the district to make major cuts.
“This is a catastrophic failure. We need to follow the money. I don’t trust any of you. And some people I think need to go to jail!” one of the teachers said at Wednesday’s meeting.
The school board appointed a new auditing firm and presented its findings at a meeting on Wednesday night.
He said there were more bookkeeping issues in the years before he took over than fit into a yearbook.
“There’s negative balances all over the place,” auditor Steven Wielkotz said.
It was revealed that more than $4 million in lost revenue when contracts expired, while the Board of Education staff grew by 20 percent.
“The business office had the board approve spending using unexpected capital project funds for maintenance, which is illegal. They were taking information off the bank statements as opposed to taking the information off the books. It’s kinda like accounting 101, reconciling the bank account. You don’t reconcile back to what the bank says. What you’re not supposed to do is be in a pandemic get all of this federal money and state money and use it to support the spending that reoccurs every year. It would be like putting your mortgage payment on your credit card,” Wielkotz said.
Officials are considering legal action against former leaders, accusing them of leaving current board members in the dark about years of improper practices.
“It is an injustice to set our schools back,” teacher and parent Fran Capollo said.
The board has been laying the blame on the previous administration.
The auditor agreed.
The acting superintendent said the district needs consider layoffs and a tax levy.
“All of us are going to be impacted by this. Some more than others,” acting superintendent Andrea Oates Parchment said
Before Wednesday night’s presentation, the district thought it was facing a $15 million shortfall.
So where did the additional $2 million come from?
Health care premiums increased by more than 30 percent on January 1st.
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