Board of Education

‘They Did Not Find Anything’: Lunch Ladies Didn’t Steal from Charge Accounts, Analysis Concludes

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A months-long forensic audit of New Canaan Public Schools students’ charge accounts found no evidence that the lunch ladies charged last year with stealing cash from cafeterias also depleted those funds, district officials said Monday. An audit designed to match transactions in point-of-sale systems in the Saxe Middle School and New Canaan High School cafeterias to supporting documentation and “reconcile cash receipts received from parents electronically to the proper recording in the students’ accounts” turned up no non-valid transactions, according to Dr. Jo-Ann Keating, the district’s director of finance and operations. 

Quoting from a report from Joe Centofanti, a partner at PKF O’Connor Davies accounting and advisory firm, Keating told members of the Board of Education at their regular meeting, “ ‘It is important to note’—they always note this—‘that the testing done was performed on a sample basis and not all transactions were tested.’ Obviously, they sampled—they don’t do every single transaction. ‘However, based upon the results of the sampling, it was determined that it was not necessary to go and select additional transactions for testing.’ ”

“In other words, they did not find anything,” Keating said at the meeting, held in the Wagner Room at NCHS. “So we were very pleased with that.”

Performed at the request of the Audit Committee and with support from the district, the forensic study was launched months after two lunch ladies were accused of stealing nearly $500,000 in cash over a period of several years. The police investigation into sisters Joanne Pascarelli and Marie Wilson had started in the fall of 2017.

News

District: Quality of Food Offered at Saxe Middle School Has Improved Dramatically

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Widely seen as inferior to the high school’s, the quality of cafeteria food at Saxe Middle School has improved dramatically under the district’s new food services director, officials said last week. The menu at Saxe has changed “significantly” under Michelle Santelli, and the cafeteria now has a salad bar with “nice fresh options,” according to Dr. Jo-Ann Keating, director of finance and operations at New Canaan Public Schools. “We moved our cook from the high school over to Saxe last year,” Keating told members of the Board of Education during their Sept. 3 meeting, held in the Wagner Room at New Canaan High School. “And she is phenomenal, she does a great job and she has brought a lot of that authentic cooking.

Brendan Hayes

Solar Panels To Be Installed on South School Roof This Summer

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Officials are moving forward with the first phase of a plan to install solar panels on the roofs of New Canaan’s public schools. 

New Canaan Public Schools Director of Finance and Operations Dr. Jo-Ann Keating told the Board of Education at its regular meeting July 15 that a revised contract with the party providing the panels had been finalized. The revised contract is “about 73% less than our current rate that we pay per kilowatt hour,” Keating said at the meeting, held in the Wagner Room at New Canaan High School. “The panel system is going to cover about 80% of our demand requirement, so we’ll still be going out to the grid for about 20% of what we need,” she added. The revised contract follows months of progress in bringing the sustainable power source to New Canaan Public Schools. At the Board’s April 22 meeting, Keating said that solar panels are to be installed on the roof of South School this summer, with a plan for installation on East and West schools and Saxe Middle Schools over the next three years.

Amy Murphy Carroll

Board of Finance Approves Bonding for Estimated $2 Million Roof Replacement at South School

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The Board of Finance on Tuesday voted unanimously in support of nearly $2.2 in bonding for the replacement of the roof at South School—a project that’s expected to take place this summer and to be completed by the start of next academic year. As Superintendent of Schools Dr. Bryan Luizzi had outlined during the budget season just passed, the 20-year-old roof has reached the end of its useful life and has started to fail, with water coming in through the ceiling in places following heavy rain. The project, which is expected to come in at about $2 million, went out to bid in January and will be completed by North Haven-based Greenwood Industries Inc., New Canaan Public Schools Director of Finance and Operations Dr. Jo-Ann Keating said. The overall $2,046,000 figure is less than the nearly $2.2 million that town funding bodies approved in the capital budget for fiscal year 2020—it represents $1.6 million with a 20% contingency and $100,000 in soft costs, according to Keating. The town will only bond what is spent, officials said.

Audit Committee

Outside Accountant Investigating Whether Lunch Ladies Overcharged Parents, District Officials Confirm [UPDATED]

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District officials said Monday that they’re looking into whether parents’ charge accounts were depleted by the lunch ladies accused of stealing nearly $500,000 in cash over a period of several years from two public school cafeterias. Asked by members of the Audit Committee about the possible “double charging” of accounts by two sisters who had overseen the cafeterias at Saxe Middle School and New Canaan High School, Superintendent of Schools Dr. Bryan Luizzi said the district is “taking a cursory look at that, to really determine whether or not a need for a deeper dive into it is present.”

“We have lots of documentation and it is a process of going through that documentation,” Luizzi told Committee members during their regular meeting at Town Hall. “We are working with Joe as well to do that for us and just take a look, just to know if any there is any direction we should take next.”

He referred to Joe Centofanti, a partner at PFK O’Connor Davies LLP, an accounting firm. Asked about the accounting work by NewCanaanite.com, Luizzi said in a statement: “The auditor is reviewing the system to look for any inconsistencies that indicate a need to perform a deeper audit of the system. This individual has performed such investigations before, and is familiar with the system that we use. We have significant documentation as well, and he will also be reviewing this documentation as part of his research.” Asked about the timetable for the work, he said: “This work is just beginning, and at this point we do not have any anticipated conclusion date. It is important that we are thoughtful and careful in this work, and will continue to take the time required to be as accurate as possible in our assessments.”