The Manhasset Board of Education was greatly dismayed to read a grossly inaccurate e-mail from a group that calls itself Manhasset Proponents for School Accountability (“MPSA”).
The inaccuracies start with the false headline, “Regulators confirms [sic] MPSA suspicion, Manhasset School finances were mismanaged.”
Nothing could be further from the truth.
Contrary to the MPSA e-mail, the entire Manhasset school district budget process is highly transparent. The district budget is annually built line by line, student by student, employee by employee, taking into account actual spending in the prior year.
The Citizens Advisory Committee for Finance, which is comprised of community members, participates in the process and provides input to the board on the budget and other financial matters.
Members of the public are invited not only to hear the budget discussions, but also to participate in those discussions at public board meetings. In addition, the district’s finances and internal controls are audited by two independent professional auditing firms on an on-going basis. These independent auditing firms present their findings and reports to the board as well as the district’s Audit Committee, which is also comprised of a majority of community members.
No evidence of mismanagement has been found by the auditors, state regulators, the Citizens Advisory Committee for Finance or the Audit Committee.
In fact, the district’s internal and external auditors consistently have been highly complementary with respect to the thoroughness, precision, professionalism and integrity with which the district’s financial processes and internal controls are maintained.
As a community we put a high value on our superb schools. We, the members of the board of education, are your neighbors. We are accountable to our community and available at any time.
As board members, we work hard to ensure that our schools remain widely respected and high performing. We are proud of the hard work and professionalism demonstrated by our district employees, in every area.
Thus, we are appalled and offended to read inflammatory and unfounded accusations of mismanagement by district officials. The fact that such false statements were spread via e-mail by a group which remains anonymous is, in our view, detrimental and destructive to our community.
As we move forward with this year’s annual budget process, we invite all members of the community work collaboratively with us to build a fiscally responsible and educationally sound budget for our school district.
Manhasset Board of Education
