School District's Business Head is Officially Out

It appears that the and the school district's business administrator Jason Lathrop have agreed to permanently part ways. Lathrop, whose contract would have been up on June 31, was put on leave sometime in January.

Although he would not comment on the reasons behind the departure — citing an ongoing personnel matter — Superintendent of Schools Anthony Serio did tell East Haven Patch Lathrop continued to be employed by the district even though he was no longer actively serving in his position.

'Separation Agreement'

That status, however, has apparently changed.

Following an executive session discussion at the end of Tuesday night's school board meeting, members unanimously voted to approve a "separation agreement" with the now former business administrator.

The terms of the school board's agreement with Lathrop are unknown at this time.

Board of Education Chairman Thomas Hennessey was not immediately available for comment as he was in a district-related meeting at the schools, central office staff told East Haven Patch.

'Liquidated' Purchase Orders

Although it continues to remain unclear at this time exactly why Lathrop has left, school board members have repeatedly stated there are significant problems in the business office that need to be immediately addressed.

In Lathrop's absence, finance manager Patricia Lewis has stepped up to serve as the acting head of the business department.

After telling school board members several bills "suddenly appeared" on her desk after Lathrop's departure, Lewis reported at Tuesday's finance subcommittee meeting she has discovered that several purchase orders for the 2010-11 budget year were "liquidated" prior to payment — with no record the cancellation action had been taken.

In addition, she said some of the cancelled purchase orders were then apparently resurrected and submitted for the 2011-12 school budget.

Creating a Paper Trail

James Farrell, the co-chair of the school board's finance subcommittee, said the district needs to improve its policies and procedures as far as its purchase order bookkeeping.

"We need to be accountable for every single purchase order, that it matches up with every single invoice," Farrell said.

Christine Maisano, who also co-chairs the finance subcommittee, asked Lewis to develop a hard copy paper trail of all purchase orders and cancellations, which would coincide with the district's electronic bookkeeping.

"It's just too easy on a computer to cancel it," Maisano said.

Lewis agreed, and stated she would be developing a written record, as well.

Outside Help

To help get the district's books get back in order, last month school board members hired Joseph Centofani of J.H. Cohen LLC to reconcile the district's books from July 1, 2011 to Jan. 31, 2012.

In addition, Centofani will be providing various policies, procedures and other best practices to not only maintain the administration's ledger, but also to ensure its budget is in sync with Town Hall's.

This will then allow the school board to take care of its own ledger from here on out, board members said.

The accounting firm is the same one that conducted the most recent , which cited the school district's bookkeeping for deficiencies — for the administration.