Published: October 22, 2009 02:33 pm      

Audit finds areas for district change

Lyndonville says district fared well, compared to others

LYNDONVILLE — Officials at the Lyndonville Central School District are happy with the results of an audit recently completed by the state comptroller’s office regarding internal controls over payroll.

“We are very pleased,” said Business Manager Barbara R. Williams. “This is a pretty mild report, compared to what other schools are getting.”

State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli announced Tuesday that his office completed an audit of the Lyndonville school district, as well as other districts throughout the state, from July 1, 2007, through March 6, 2009.

Among the findings of the audit, the time sheets for 11 bus drivers were reviewed, and it was found that during the 2007-08 and 2008-09 fiscal years, all nine of the full-time bus drivers worked less than the six hours a day used to calculate their base pay. In addition, there were four full-time bus drivers who received extra pay for bus runs that occurred during the regular six-hour work day.

The report states that the head bus driver/mechanic and senior payroll clerk were aware that certain drivers were working less than the required six hours each day, but that they “assumed the salary notices were binding contracts that could not be altered.”

In response to these findings, district Superintendent Barbara Deane-Williams and school board Vice President Thomas Klotzbach said in a letter to the comptroller’s office, “The net effect of this compensation system has been that drivers were paid a flat rate for a regular bus run, regardless of the actual hours worked. ... To the extent that the drivers assumed the responsibility for extra bus runs, they were paid extra compensation for those runs, as they were in addition to the work for which their base salary was paying them.”

The business manager explained that the district was already in the process of correcting the situation when the audit began.

“We were in the process of looking into that” when the audit came around, Williams said.

In addition, the comptroller’s office determined that the two physicians the district has employed for more than 10 years (father and son) were paid equally on a biweekly basis. “However, for at least the past seven years, only one of the physicians has been providing the majority of the services,” the report states.

The report claims that the superintendent, business manager and board members were aware of the situation, but said that the two physicians were priced as a unit.

School officials responded: “The district is confident that its procurement of the services of the physicians during the audit period has been in the best interests of the district and its taxpayers. Nonetheless, the board will examine the question of whether the form of the engagement of the physicians should be on an independent contractor rather than an employee basis.”

Williams later described it as a matter of the physicians filling out W2 forms as employee status, when they should have been filling out 10-99s as independent contractors.

“It is a very fine-tuned issue,” she said.

“My office’s audits of school districts and BOCES help schools improve their financial management practices,” DiNapoli said. “These audits are tools for schools to make sure proper policies and procedures are in place to protect taxpayer dollars and provide students with the best possible education.”

To view the full audit report and its findings, go to www.osc.state.ny.us/localgov/audits/schools/2009/lyndonville.pdf.

Contact editor Holly Toal at 798-1400, ext. 8225.