Burlington School Finance Job Posting Favored Internal Candidate

BURLINGTON, MA -- When the Burlington Public School System sought to hire a new director of finance and operations last summer, the district didn't seek someone with a degree in finance, accounting or management. Instead, the only specific education requirement listed on the job posting was for a bachelor's degree in computer science, a caveat that seemed to favor Robert Cunha, the internal candidate and eventual hire for the position.

When he was promoted, Cunha was the head of the school system's director of information technology. Even though his new position requires him to supervise employees in the school system's finance department, as well as the business office, technology office, food service department and clerical union, the school department's job description did not require academic credentials in finance. The job description also called for 5-7 years of experience as a system's administrator in a "complex IT setting."

Cunha and Superintendent Eric Conti were not immediately available for comment Monday morning. Cunha was introduced by Conti as the new hire at the school committee's June 20 meeting. He replaced Craig Robinson, who retired after 20 years as Finance and Operations Director for the school system. When Cunha was named in June, the school system also named Nichole Coscia the department finance manager, a newly-created position. She had previously been the town's budget analyst.

The job posting did call for "experience of budget development and control" and "Knowledge of Municipal and School Finance Laws and Regulations," but did not call for specifics, the way the portion of the job description did when it cam to addressing technology experience.

A pair of outside reviews of school spending in revolving accounts raised questions about school system financial oversight. Those reviews, which were conducted in August and have been discussed at recent school committee meetings, prompted a group of town meeting members to call for a complete audit of the school system's finances. Town meeting will consider that proposal on January 22.

Last month, Conti backed off a previous statement that he suspected no theft or wrongdoing as a cause of a series of problems recently uncovered in school spending. At the school committee's last meeting of 2017, Conti would not definitively say there had been theft or wrongdoing when asked by a school committee member. Earlier in the month, in a post on his blog, Conti said he had said he did not suspect any wrongdoing.

Among the findings in the audit of the music program:

• Tickets that were sold for cash on the day of the show were listed as "comp," or free tickets. The price those tickets were sold for was not recorded. The audit was unclear on whether or not receipts from those ticket sales were deposited into the account. On Tuesday, Conti outlined the changes that he said would prevent this problem in the future.
• A cash box the department keeps to make change for tickets sold on the night of performances was not recorded on the town's general ledger, meaning "at some point in the past these funds were collected and not turned over to the Town Treasurer." Under new policies, the cash box needs to be returned to the business office each night.
• The auditors could not ascertain whether some money from fees charged to students was deposited back into the fund.
• The four-show Burlington Community Concert Series lost between $35,000 and $40,000 in fiscal year 2017. On average, the shows generated $6,000 in ticket sales while paying $10,000 in talent fees, on top of hotel, meal and transportation expenses. "These losses are one of the main drivers of the Revolving Fund deficit," the report concluded.
• The district should not have paid for the deficit incurred for the concert series out of the fund, which is only to be used for extracurricular educational programs.

The only action the school committee took on the issue Tuesday was to approve new oversight policies for the student activity accounts. Those were the subject of a separate review which also uncovered problems that were discussed by the school committee last month.
Among the findings in that report:

• There was no policy in place to handle how teachers collect cash from students to accounts, which numbered as many as 10 per school.
• In 20 years, many of the accounts had never been reconciled and the checking accounts had never been balanced.
• The school committee failed to turn over all of the information Roselli, Clark and Associates needed to complete a comprehensive audit.

More on this story:

• Burlington Can't Rule Out Wrongdoing In School Account Deficits (12/22/2017)
• Burlington Superintendent: No Doubts About Faculty Honesty(12/12/2017)
• Fresh Produce Fed Deficit In Burlington Schools Cafeteria Account(12/11/2017)
• Town Meeting Members Want Full Audit Of School Finances(12/8/2017)
• Superintendent Responds To Audits Critical Of School Spending(12/6/2017)
• Few Answers From Incomplete Audit Of Burlington Music Program(12/5/2017)
• Audit Of Burlington Schools Student Funds Uncovers Lax Oversight(12/4/2017)

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Patch file photo.

Dave Copeland can be reached at dave.copeland@patch.com or by calling 617-433-7851. Follow him on Twitter (@CopeWrites) and Facebook (/copewrites).