Where's the money?
From its beginnings the "Leaps and Bounds" after school program has been controversial at least.
Many felt it was an inappropriate use of tax money to provide a day care service. Some felt it was being poorly administrated, overly funded and under supervised. It has been the topic of much discussion on this blog and other places.
The question now is what happened that this program was shut down unexpectedly, putting people out of work and parents left scrambling for a place for their children to go after school?
At the recent school committee meeting amendments were made to the school budget that moved $16,400.00 and $12,700.00 from the school general funds into the Leaps budget. This was explained as the $16,000.00 was donations made to the Leaps program this year and the $12,000.00 was donations made to the program in previous years. Understand that these were clearly identified as donations not fees. Upon further investigation it was revealed that of the $16,000.00 donated this year $5,000.00 is "expected" to be an amount realized from a "future" fund raiser. How do you justify taking money from the school general funds for use by the Leaps program when the money doesn't yet exist?
Now we are told that the program is out of money and that is why they had to shut down early. In April eight of the "staff" went to a convention at a cost of over $7,000.00, if this program was in financial difficulty why was this trip taken and especially why did it include someone who was not planning to be part of the program next year?
Money has been given through the state lottery funds, fees from parents, donations, fund raisers and from the school general fund........ where has the money gone that the program was abruptly discontinued and teachers told they were no longer needed? Allen Barrett
Many felt it was an inappropriate use of tax money to provide a day care service. Some felt it was being poorly administrated, overly funded and under supervised. It has been the topic of much discussion on this blog and other places.
The question now is what happened that this program was shut down unexpectedly, putting people out of work and parents left scrambling for a place for their children to go after school?
At the recent school committee meeting amendments were made to the school budget that moved $16,400.00 and $12,700.00 from the school general funds into the Leaps budget. This was explained as the $16,000.00 was donations made to the Leaps program this year and the $12,000.00 was donations made to the program in previous years. Understand that these were clearly identified as donations not fees. Upon further investigation it was revealed that of the $16,000.00 donated this year $5,000.00 is "expected" to be an amount realized from a "future" fund raiser. How do you justify taking money from the school general funds for use by the Leaps program when the money doesn't yet exist?
Now we are told that the program is out of money and that is why they had to shut down early. In April eight of the "staff" went to a convention at a cost of over $7,000.00, if this program was in financial difficulty why was this trip taken and especially why did it include someone who was not planning to be part of the program next year?
Money has been given through the state lottery funds, fees from parents, donations, fund raisers and from the school general fund........ where has the money gone that the program was abruptly discontinued and teachers told they were no longer needed? Allen Barrett
posted by Allen Barrett | 10:28 AM
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