VOORHEESVILLE – The school district here is standing behind two administrators implicated in an audit released last week by the Office of the State Comptroller.
In its second audit of the district, the comptroller’s office, found that Sarita Winchell, assistant superintendent for business, was paid $8,425 for unused leave and $5,575 in tuition reimbursement; and Michael Goyer, transportation supervisor, was paid $2,105 for unused leave, and received an "improper gift" of an all-expenses-paid trip to Tulsa, Okla.
According to the office of Alan Hevesi, the state comptroller, Winchell was "inappropriately paid," and Goyer was paid money to which "he was not entitled."

School board president David Gibson responded to the comptroller on Sept. 12 that Goyer’s trip to Tulsa was in-service training and not a gift.

Gibson also wrote that Winchell took courses necessary for her post, supported by the board, and that she relied on approval from the former superintendent and board president for the vacation pay.

The board of education stands behind the two officials, and both will remain working for the school district, said Superintendent Linda Langevin.
"Sarita Winchell and Mike Goyer are very dedicated and loyal," said former board president Robert Baron. Baron served as board president from July, 2003 to June, 2005, the period covered by the recent audit.

Baron said that the school district and the board should stand behind the two administrators.

Winchell worked as the district’s treasurer from 1979 until 2002, she is now the assistant superintendent for business. Winchell says her job is multi-faceted and exciting. Goyer, the transportation, operations, and maintenance supervisor, says he tries to stay well educated on the design and safety features of school buses.
The former superintendent, Alan McCartney, was implicated in an earlier audit as well as the current audit. (See related story.) The current audit states that McCartney "was able to override or disregard internal controls and provide benefits to employees without proper authorization from the Board."

Goyer

Michael Goyer has been the transportation supervisor for the past 10 years. He supervises 56 staff members between two departments – transportation, and operations and maintenance.
In his position as supervisor, Goyer said, "It has been my pleasure to provide students and staff with the safest possible transportation and a clean, safe, and healthy environment."

Part of his job, he said, is to be well informed about school bus design and safety. He has visited multiple bus factories and distributor facilities in North Carolina, Ontario, Quebec, and Oklahoma.
"Trips to school bus manufacturing facilities are considered professional development and are accepted in school districts in the State of New York," Goyer told The Enterprise.
As is pointed out in the audit, the General Municipal Law for New York State "prohibits District officials from receiving gifts having a value of $75 or more whether in the form of money, service, loan, travel, entertainment, etc."

Goyer’s trip to an International School Bus manufacturing plant in Tulsa was an overnight trip in February sponsored by a regional sales vendor and distributor.

Goyer said that the plant had just opened in an old airplane factory.
"This was the first bus manufacturing facility where buses were constructed from beginning to end on the same manufacturing line," Goyer said.

There were several other transportation supervisors from other districts who traveled with Goyer to visit the plant, and meet with the vice president of International Bus, he said.
"This allowed us to voice our approvals and concerns over design changes and features we felt would make our nation’s school buses safer," Goyer said.
Goyer said he felt the trip was a learning experience allowing him to see if the new bus design "would provide the safest means of transportation for the children of our school district."
The auditor said that the trip as a guest of a vendor was "in direct violation of the law and good business practices."

Goyer told The Enterprise that he is aware of the law regarding the acceptance of gifts. "I do not consider a professional development experience that educates me on the construction of school buses a gift," he said.

Baron told The Enterprise that Goyer went to Tulsa on behalf of the school district to improve his education on new buses.
The school board agrees. In the board’s response to the auditor, President David Gibson wrote, " The Board takes exception to OSC’s finding that the trip to Tulsa, Oklahoma by the Supervisor was a gift to the District or its employees" The trip for the Supervisor was considered in-service education and training by the Board. It supported this initiative as furthering District purposes."

He also says, though, that in the future, such in-service training will be included in vendor contracts or the district will pay for such a trip to avoid the appearance of impropriety.

The comptroller’s office also notes that subsequent to Goyer’s trip, the district agreed to purchase buses from the Tulsa company that cost more than those available through state contract.

Gibson asserts that the board approved the bus purchases prior to the trip but the comptroller’s office responds that the board’s minutes do not contain any such approval.
"The March 17, 2003 minutes (more than a month after the supervisor’s trip) contain a resolution authorizing the purchase of school buses for $246,000, pending voter approval," writes the comptroller’s office.
"My role is to recommend buses to the district. We have purchased International Buses for many years" We annually choose International, which allows us to maintain a consistent, standardized fleet and bus parts program," Goyer told The Enterprise.

Vacation leave
Goyer was also cited in the audit for being "improperly paid $2,105 for unused vacation leave."

In the 1998-99 school year, Goyer asked the former superintendent, McCartney, to be allowed to carry 12 unused vacation days into the following year, which resulted in Goyer’s having seven more vacation days than authorized for the 1999-2000 year, the report says. Goyer then asked McCartney to cash out 10 vacation days.

McCartney approved all of Goyer’s requests, and Goyer was paid $2,105, the report says.
"Before June 13, 2005, the policy allowed MC employees to carry forward up to five vacation days from a prior fiscal year into the next one, but it did not allow them to receive payments for unused vacation days," the audit report says.
That policy was updated on June 13, 2005, and now states that: "Up to ten days may be carried forward into the following year." The policy does not mention payments for unused vacation days.

Goyer also took four vacation days in 1999; three were in May and one in October. The days were not deducted from his leave balances.
Goyer said that he went through the proper procedure at the time for his vacation days. "I submitted to the district a vacation leave request that was approved by my immediate supervisor, Dr. Anthony Marturano. A procedural error occurred and the daily attendance sheets that were sent to the district office for these days did not have my name on them as being on vacation," he said.

At the time, the payroll clerk was the only person who reviewed these records, Langevin told The Enterprise. She also indicated that the leave was for Goyer’s wedding.

Goyer said he now must fill out the vacation request form, and enter his leave time on a daily attendance sheet. He said he also maintains and submits a monthly Administrator Daily Leave and Conference Report to the Superintendent.

Winchell

Sarita Winchell took over the position of assistant superintendent for business after the retirement of Anthony Marturano in August of 2002.

Baron said that the school board accepted Marturano’s retirement in December of 1999. The board had nearly three years to find a replacement, he said.

Sarita Winchell, then treasurer, stepped up to fill Marturano’s post.

Everyone knew that she would need to take training courses to become an administrator, Baron said.

A master’s degree and 30 hours of education administration courses are required to be a certified school business administrator, Winchell told The Enterprise.

When she left her job as treasurer, she had the master’s degree, but needed to fulfill the additional course requirements, she said.
The audit report states that Winchell was paid $8,425 for unused vacation leave "to which she was not entitled." The board’s policy for those in managerial/confidential (MC) post, did not authorize covered employees to receive payments for unused leave. Winchell cashed in 46.5 days of unused vacation leave that she earned as treasurer.

It would be wrong to take away her vacation days because she got a new job, Baron said. The board cashed out her vacation days at her treasurer position rate of pay, he said.

The position of treasurer is classified as managerial/confidential; the school business official position is classified as administrative.

Managerial/Confidential employees accumulate vacation time at the end of the school year for use in the following year; administrative employees are credited with their vacation time at the beginning of the school year for use that year.

When Winchell was promoted, the district said in response to the audit, the board agreed to cash out the time that she earned as treasurer, at that rate of pay, and credit her with the appropriate vacation time for the administrative position.
"It was fair to the taxpayers and to Sarita Winchell," Baron said. You can’t even second-guess her honesty, he said.

The board is not seeking any reimbursements for unused vacation time cashed out to Winchell.

For the first year of her job as the assistant superintendent, Winchell did not have a formal employment agreement, and cashed out 10 vacation days per year, as she had done as treasurer. When the board came to an employment agreement, only five days were allowed to be cashed out for the year in which she did not have a contract.
Gibson said in his board response, "To ensure the proper retroactive contract implementation, the employee voluntarily has now relinquished the equivalent of five (5) days earned from accruals."
"I always wanted to do what is the right thing to do," Winchell told The Enterprise this week. "It was never a problem for me," she said.

Also, the report found that the board did not authorize tuition reimbursement for MC employees in any approved employment contract or policy, the former treasurer received $5,575 in tuition reimbursements for the classes she took to earn her school business administrator certificate.
Gibson, in his response from the board to the comptroller’s office said that, though the board did not properly document, through board resolution, its intent was "to direct the Treasurer to obtain the necessary graduate level courses to become a School Business Official and to pay for those courses on the same basis it paid other school administrators who took graduate level coursework."

The board is not seeking any reimbursement from Winchell for her tuition expenses.