New auditors for school district due to $250,000 error

  • 2015-05-30
The discovery that Rockville Centre school district paid $250,000 more than it should have has prompted the replacement of auditors, as well as policies changes regarding pay increases.

According to Superintendent William Johnson, the money is not lost, although it may take the district up to three years to get it all back. While some of the 44 overpaid teachers returned their overpayments in a lump sum, others have agreed to a three-year repayment plan. Most of the money has already found its way back into the school’s coffers.

The district hired the law firm of Ingerman Smith to investigate the overpayment situation and their forensic accountants found no malfeasance. Instead, it would appear that a misinterpretation of the teacher’s contracts was at the root of dozens of teachers being given double the percentage increase in pay as they should have received.

The services of brochure printers in a situation such as this one can lessen any bad publicity and inform the public of what happened, as well as how the issue has been resolved.

The interpretations of the contract and the consequential overpayments required a minimum of two signatures and no employees responsible for signing off on the payments benefited from the mistakes.

The problem was discovered by the school district’s business office when applying 2014-15 school year contract increases, and not by the internal or external auditors during those three years.