Let me take a stab at explaining the Arlington School budget.
1. Some people want to know if athletic fees went to pay for lawyers in the Levenson
disaster. (2007 / 2008 / 2009 / 2010) - Selectman Mahon was asking for a copy of the
School Budget for a long time - I dont think she ever got it.
2. The Former School Chief Financial Officer (CFO) (Mazarelli - ?sp) presented a doctored
audit to Town Meeting in either 2008 or 2009. She left her job soon after.
3. The new School CFO (Johnson) publicly stated at a School Committee Meeting (maybe in Spring 2010)
that she did not know how to reconstruct various School Dept accounts based on the
financial info available to her.
4. At the 2010 Town Meeting, the new School CFO could not find the school legal budget in
her documentation.
5. I asked various questions on the A-list about various parts of the School budget in
Winter 2009/2010. The numbers seemed very squishy. I asked if there were really 6 guidance
counselors at the High School as indicated in the budget. The replys seemed to indicate
that there were actually 5 or 4 guidance counselors at the High School. I got the
impression that the budget document was full of holes.
6. The School Dept supposedly changed their accounting / budgeting system recently.
7. Do you see how the budget might actually be $10 million out of wack? :-) Unless they
put every single check online, and get a notarized letter from every check recipient, how
will we ever know where the money really comes from or goes to?
8. Here is a link to all "Arlington Advocate" articles about the Levenson disaster -
<https://sites.google.com/site/arlingtonmassachusetts/Home/misc/bouris-coughlin/a