Town Meeting Members Want Schools To Repay For Music Spending

BURLINGTON, MA -- Several Burlington Town Meeting members are considering filing a resolution for the town to be repaid by Burlington Public Schools for several thousands of dollars in music department spending they believe was spent on noneducational expenses. The spending includes lavish meals and a massage gift card from an unauthorized cash account overseen by Music Director John Middleton-Cox. While receipts totaling $4,800 covering a three year period were released last week under a public records request, thousands of dollars of spending remain unaccounted for.

The spending, which is believed to total $14,000, was uncovered in a review of the performing arts revolving fund and a subsequent analysis of that review. A review completed in February by Burlington Town Auditor Jim Powers said Middleton-Cox maintained an unauthorized account where he kept at least $14,000 in mostly undocumented revenue that should have been deposited with the town treasurer. Instead, Middleton-Cox kept the money in a separate safe that he and a secretary had access to, and no records were maintained to show where the cash came from or where it was spent.

Power said Middleton-Cox was only able to account for $6,000 of the $14,000 he spent from the account. The school system turned over receipts totaling $4,800 in response to a public records request for receipts. He did not disclose any of the spending for a review by an outside auditor last year.

During Tuesday night's school committee meeting, former Town Meeting Member Joan Kennedy Constant asked members why the district had not turned over receipts totaling $6,000. She also noted that the receipts do not conclusively prove Middleton-Cox did not reimburse himself for alcohol and pressed the committee on whether or not the music director had reimbursed himself for alcohol as part of late-night restaurant bills, some of which were for several hundreds of dollars and included as many as 20 alcoholic drinks, according to itemized receipts.

See more of the receipts released by Burlington Public Schools.

Middleton-Cox has said he never reimbursed himself for the alcohol included on those bills, and newly appointed Chair Kristin Russo and committee member Martha Simon reiterated those denials. Kennedy Constant said she planned to file a follow-up records request for the missing receipts and make the receipts available for residents to review at the Burlington Public Library. Even if those missing receipts are produced, however, there would remain roughly $8,000 of undocumented spending between 2014 and last year.

Adding another layer of controversy to the issue, Burlington Cable Access Television's broadcast of the public comment portion of the meeting was blacked out. The broadcast was available online via streaming video. A person who answered the telephone during the blackout said the station was experiencing technical difficulties. The broadcast resumed as Kennedy Constant was concluding her comments.

At a school committee meeting last month, Middleton-Cox acknowledged that two of the expenditures would raise questions. The first was for the July 28, 2017 Chopps bill -- which came to $460 after tip -- in which Middleton-Cox claimed he only reimbursed himself for food. The meal, Middleton-Cox said, was to celebrate the conclusion of the department's BEST summer musical program. The second was for a gift certificate for a massage (pictured above) that was given to as "a thank you gift for the hard work of a guest director."

Superintendent Eric Conti has not responded to requests from Burlington Patch for comment on the matter.

The massage receipt shows that Middleton-Cox used the performing arts fund to buy a $75 gift certificate with a $10 gratuity from Kim Adami, a massage therapist in North Andover. The gift certificate, however, was made out to Middleton-Cox, of North Andover, and not the guest director, who Middleton-Cox did not name at last month's meeting.

But other receipts released as part of the public records request have raised more questions since Middleton-Cox's comments at last month's meeting. Those include:

• A handwritten receipt for reimbursement for $300 spent at LaCacia's Deli and Bakery (pictured above).
• A receipt dated June 15, 2015 from the Macaroni Grill for a retirement party. A handwritten note on the receipt shows that $540 in cash was collected from teachers that attended the party, but the remaining $271.51 was put on a credit card and reimbursed.
• A $218.53 bill from Papa Razzi on June 19, 2014 that included three appetizers and three nonalcoholic drinks. The rest of the bill was for nine alcoholic drinks. A partially-legible, handwritten note on the receipts indicate it was related to the music department's production of "Cinderella" on July 25, 2014.
• A $100 gift card purchased at Uno Pizza on March 28, 2015. A handwritten note on that receipt reads "TECH CREW PAY FOR SERVICE."
• A receipt for $75.35 that was otherwise illegible. A handwritten note on that receipt read "Kim Cook, Cast Party." Cook is a teacher at the Francis Wyman Elementary School. Parents of students in the department's shows said their children typically go to Chili's on their own after performances and they pay for their own meals.
• Two receipts for pizza and soda totaling $127.92 on May 10, 2017. There were no rehearsals scheduled for that day as the spring musical had concluded rehearsals and performances in early April.
• Receipts for several other restaurants, including Chipotle, Noodles, Macaroni Grill, Fitzwiliams at the Burlington Marriot, Pizza Days, Papa Ginos, Burlington House of Pizza , Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts and Pizza Works.

The ongoing controversy has had some parents calling for Conti and Middleton-Cox to be fired. In his only public comments on the matter to date, Middleton-Cox told the school committee at its March 21 meeting that he had been following new finance rules implemented by the school district last fall.

"Recently my integrity has been called into question online and on social media, and I want to express my gratitude to the school committee for supporting me throughout this and two audits this year, and the conversations that followed," Middleton-Cox said. "I want to be clear first and foremost that I have always had the best interests of the students and the program in mind. I'm a music teacher and my priorities have always been my students and their experiences as they develop in our program."

Last year the school committee spent $3,000 on a review by Roselli, Clark & Associates after the performing arts account went from a $40,000 surplus to a $50,000 deficit over the course of three fiscal years. Roselli said it was unable to do a complete audit because it was not given a complete set of records, but still produced a report that raised questions about how the account was maintained and questioned the district's policies.

As a follow-up, Powers was asked to take a "deeper dive" into the music revolving account. That report found that there was no accounting for cash collected from students for field trips, money collected from students for parties, tee shirts and other small items; and for some of the advertisements in programs that had been paid for in cash.

During the course of that review, Middleton-Cox came forward and told Powers that his department has been maintaining and unauthorized cash fund. "This fund was not just a $200 cash box but instead was used to keep cash received that should have been deposited with the Town Treasurer and to make unauthorized disbursements. We discussed this matter with him and he knew this was not an allowable practice," the report said.

The five-member, elected school committee has been largely quiet on the subject. After Middleton-Cox made his statement in March, the committee moved onto the next order of business without comment. When Powers presented his report in February, Middleton-Cox was not mentioned by name.

At the time, then-Chairman Thomas Murphy said the committee had not had enough time to review the report but said that the committee was ultimately responsible.

"Clearly the blame lies up here, and the responsibility for the cure lies up here as well," Murphy said in February. "I just want it to be out there that we have new policies and procedures in place.....it doesn't excuse what has happened in the past, but I think we're righting the ship."

Simon and Russo reiterated that stance at Tuesday night's meeting, telling Kennedy Constant that the new policies which prevent similar problems in the future.

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Patch file photo of John Middleton-Cox.

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