Fellow Stoughton residents present at the League of Women Voters debate held on March 23, 2014, witnessed a heated discussion among the five school committee candidates. Mr. Dolinsky and Ms. Sovinee are currently on the school committee, and are hoping to get re-elected. Ms. Enokian, Mr. Soares and Mr. Yanoff are outsiders hoping to get elected in order to implement drastic changes to the culture of SPS Administration.
On a number of occasions, the debate returned to the case of the $780,000 Dr. Rizzi could not spend before the 2012/2013 fiscal year ended. Because it was not spent in time, the money had to be returned to the Town. Outside candidates argued that this unused money should have been used to correct important problems such as the recent demotion of Gibbons School to level 3, or to improve the West School.
Incumbent candidates toed the Rizzi line and alleged most of the $780,000 was the Special Education tuition contingency money, and therefore it could not have been used for other purposes.
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Unfortunately the Rizzi line is deceptive on multiple accounts.
First, the $780,000 Rizzi could not use in time was NOT mostly Special Education tuition contingency money. In fact, only $268,000 out of $780,000 was earmarked for special education. The remainder was not for contingencies. The table below (prepared by SPS administration on 10/8/13) shows the breakdown of the unused money:
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FY 2013 BUDGET BALANCES RETURNED TO TOWN
October 8, 2013
ADMINISTRATION
$51,855
INSTRUCTION
$207,493
OTHER SCHOOL SERVICES
$7,700
MAINTENANCE
$111,384
FIXED CHARGES
$80,600
SPECIAL EDUCATION
$268,000
TRANSPORTATION
$53,000
TOTAL FUNDS RETURNED TO TOWN
$780,032
Second, SPS administration and school committee have the authority to move money around within the school budget, and have been doing this multiple times every year.
In the short video clip below (from 2/21/13), you will observe Dr. Rizzi deny ever raiding the special education contingency fund in her 5 years in Stoughton:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ptcbAtfxCk
which I challenged.
A few days later (on 2/26/13), superintendent Rizzi corrected her false statement to the FinCom subcommittee:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7za78GTtLcg
Several months later, and before the 2012/2013 fiscal year, Dr. Rizzi and SC transferred (on 6/11/2013):
(a) $30,000 from Special Education Tuition Contingency to Legal Expenses
(b) $105,000 from Special Education Tuition Contingency to Transportation, and
(c) $15,000 from Special Education Tuition Contingency to Nursing
You can see the transfer request in the short video clip at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_IcTtkJl4c
which also discloses Dr. Rizzi’s intention to possibly do more transfers before the end of the fiscal year.
The election debate question and candidates’ answers can be found at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=rquiDTjlWoE#t=1664
