Greece Central School District

NYS Comptrollers Office

Mismanagement and a general lack of oversight by the board are among the issues a state comptroller's audit of the Greece Central School District reveals.

Comptroller Tom DiNapoli's report found former Greece School District officials did a disservice to taxpayers. He says they failed to monitor a $120 million capital improvement project and other financial activities.

The report found mismanagement and oversight under former superintendent Steven Walts. It led to the district overspending by $2.5 million on a capital improvement project that is three years overdue and still not finished.

The audit found that some expenditures were moved to the district's general fund.

"I don't believe that that's an uncommon practice, however in light of the audit it's not something that should be done under a project that's approved by the community with an expense limitation to it," said Superintendent Steve Achramovitch.

The question now is if any laws were broken. Greece school officials say they aren't sure.

The case has been turned over to the Monroe County District Attorney's office and the State Attorney General.

"The attorney general's office has come back to state that they've found nothing that they would pursue at this particular point in time,” Achramovitch explained. “The office of the D.A. in Monroe County was basically awaiting, I think, for further pursuit of this matter, if they do decide to do that, the final audit."

Achramovitch says every school in the district benefited from the capital improvement project, with the Athena Performing Arts Center the most prominent.

The underlying theme in the comptroller's report is lack of disclosure. Decisions on the projects made by the district were not being reported to the school board.

"We've purchased a new capital projects software to more effectively track the costs of those projects,” said Lou Alaimo, the district’s business administrator. “We'll be giving the Board of Education a listing of all the change orders so they'll see all the activity, they'll be involved in all the major decision points of that project, and just the community and the district will completely disclose all the financial activity of that. I think that's the easiest fix."

Greece residents can question the administration and school board on the audit at a special hearing next Thursday.

It’s scheduled for 7:00pm at the Arcadia Middle School cafeteria.

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