{"id":55573,"date":"2014-05-12T13:00:32","date_gmt":"2014-05-12T17:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=55573"},"modified":"2014-05-11T15:55:00","modified_gmt":"2014-05-11T19:55:00","slug":"vote-no-on-brookfield-school-budget","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=55573","title":{"rendered":"Vote No on Brookfield School Budget"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"letterstotheeditor\"<\/a><\/p>\n

To the Editor:<\/p>\n

(Brookfield, NY – May 2014) Like many of Brookfield Central School taxpayers\u00a0who received the April 25\u00a0letter from BCS Superintendent and Business Manager Jim Plows, I was puzzled by\u00a0this terse message regarding an unnamed article in the OD and referencing\u00a0a negative fund balance at BCS.\u00a0 So, what was this all about?<\/p>\n

….was it the article that listed BCS as one of\u00a04 schools in all of CNY\u00a0on\u00a0the State Ed’s\u00a0“financially\u00a0stressed” list?<\/p>\n

…..or was it referring to the NY State Comptroller’s April audit report\u00a0criticizing\u00a0BCS’ financial management practices?<\/p>\n

…..or maybe\u00a0it was\u00a0referring to audits warning that the district was\u00a0spending\u00a0$500,000 more than\u00a0it received in the past six years?<\/p>\n

…..or their proposed and obscene 15 percent school tax hike?<\/p>\n

Like many of you, we only know about this from outside sources.\u00a0\u00a0This Board & Administration owe the taxpayers a clearer picture of the School District’s finances rather than these cryptic notes and outside news sources.<\/p>\n

This the same Board and Administration seeking to override the tax cap with a 15 percent increase!\u00a0BCS needs to get its house in order before asking taxpayers for any more money.\u00a0 We deserve to know the WHOLE STORY regarding BCS’s financial predicament. If you agree, I urge you to vote NO at the upcoming School Budget vote scheduled for\u00a0May\u00a020.\u00a0Here is an official\u00a0summary of the State Comptroller’s audit and findings.<\/p>\n

Key Findings<\/p>\n

*The District appropriated fund balance as a funding source in amounts that exceeded the fund balance actually available and spent almost $500,000 more than it received over the past three years.<\/p>\n

*The Board did not receive budget-to-actual or budget transfer reports.<\/p>\n

*The Board has not developed a multiyear financial plan.<\/p>\n

Key Recommendations<\/p>\n

*Budget for and maintain a reasonable amount of fund balance.<\/p>\n

*Provide the Board with monthly budget status reports.<\/p>\n

*Develop and regularly update a multiyear financial plan.<\/p>\n

The full audit can be found at http:\/\/www.osc.state.ny.us\/localgov\/audits\/schools\/2014\/brookfield.htm<\/a><\/p>\n

Honna Whelley-Bowen, Brookfield<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To the Editor: (Brookfield, NY – May 2014) Like many of Brookfield Central School taxpayers\u00a0who received the April 25\u00a0letter from BCS Superintendent and Business Manager Jim Plows, I was puzzled by\u00a0this terse message regarding an unnamed article in the OD and referencing\u00a0a negative fund balance at BCS.\u00a0 So, what was this all about? ….was it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-55573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=55573"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55573\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=55573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=55573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=55573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}