DOVER, Del. (AP/WBOC)- A state audit has found that the Laurel School District's former finance director fraudulently boosted his own pay by more than $151,000 over an 8-year period.
The audit follows the admission of former finance director William Hitch Jr., who resigned in December, that he had found a payroll system flaw allowing him to adjust his pay.
The audit released Tuesday also found shoddy record keeping and accounting practices. Auditors determined that six administrators were underpaid a total of about $41,000 for the 2009-2010 school year, and that employees who did not have sufficient sick leave accrued to cover their leaves of absence owe the district more than $39,000.
The allegations regarding Hitch have been referred to the attorney general's office.
Source-WBOC
11 comments:
Laurel residents go to vote on referendum tomorrow to raise taxes in order to demolish the four existing schools and rebuild two new huge schools as well as a 3.5 million dollar football stadium and track.
2.5 million dollars of this Taj Mahal of a football field is to be paid by the state of delaware. is delaware in such good shape that it can afford this?
anonymous 3:55, clearly DE is in better shape than MD. DE also prides itself in superb football teams and their fans are second to none, especially per capita. It is what it is.
but Joe, 3.5 MILLION DOLLARS?
Do you have any idea how quickly they'll make that back in consessions alone. I'm telling you, the place will be packed and I'd bet after 10 games they have their money back.
yeah, unfortunately its the taxpayers of delaware who will bare this burden for the next 20 years.
I understand that the district is pursuing civil charges against Bill Hitch to force restitution.
Does this mean that criminal charges will not be filed, or will the attorney general make that decision?
It sickens me that this man might get nothing more than a slap on the wrist.
Let's trust our governments to keep everything on the up and up...
Actually the referendum vote will raise property taxes for residents within the Laurel School District over a period of years. Laurel Schools are so out dated that you can not use up to date home computer software such and MS Word or current Powerpoint and transfer to the school system computers because they just will not read the updated verisons. They are also getting rid of two of the four schools which will save a ton of money in heating, electric, and other bills as most of the older schools use window unit A/C and have out dated electric and other out dated utilites. It is def time for this upgrade as all other schools around the area have been upgraded such as Delmar, Indian River, Milford, Cape, and Sussex Tech. With the oppurtunity in this area for parents to choose what school their child attends I believe it would only make sense for Laurel to be able to as good a school as the rest of them. Vote Yes today
We moved to Laurel last summer. We have yet to receive our new voter cards and we were not sent anything regarding this referendum.
As a new resident in the Laurel School District, I don't feel this is right.
IF I was able to vote on this referendum, I would vote NO.
Not because it would raise my taxes (they're actually very low) but because of missing money and abused money.
Straighten out your accounting and THEN ask the people to pay more money!
I can't believe they're even asking with all this going on AND in this economy!!!
Anon 10:04
I don't think you need a voter id card to vote in this referendum - I think photo id will be sufficient.
In your shoes, I'd call the board of education to verify this, then go vote!
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