After extensive discussion Tuesday night, the selectmen agreed that a proposed special education audit will be conducted under the auspices of the School Committee. This audit will be one of two that voters will be asked to consider later this month. The other is a citizens’ petition requesting up to $25,000 for an independent audit of special education spending and charging the selectmen to choose the company that will conduct the audit
The Finance Committee started the discussion by presenting an article for the warrant requesting that a task force composed of two Finance Committee members, one School Committee member, one selectman, a citizen appointed by the selectmen, and a citizen appointed by School Committee “contract for and oversee an independent review of the operations and expenditures” of the special ed program, and report to a joint meeting of the selectmen, Finance Committee, and School Committee.
The School Committee offered another version that would authorize the current special ed task force to recommend the scope of the audit and the auditor to the School Committee, to manage the actual audit, and to report the results to the School Committee. The current task force is made up of the members listed above, plus the school superintendent, the director of special education, and the finance director.
In the midst of growing confusion about the differences between the two competing proposals, Finance Committee member Cindy Russo summarized her committee’s version, noting that it does not include school staff members on the task force and that it reports the results of the audit to the town, not the School Committee. In support of the School Committee’s version, School Committee Chairwoman Willie Wickman said, “At the end of the day the School Committee owns it.” She added, “We have been advised by legal counsel to not give up control of the audit.”
Addressing the Finance Committee proposal after the joint board meeting, the selectmen worked to find a compromise. Selectman Bob Eubank suggested adding the words “under the auspices of the School Committee” and allowing the School Committee to appoint both members of the public to the task force. With assurances from Wickman, who remained in the audience, that the task force would operate independently, Chairman Randy Dean accepted a motion for the amended language, and the proposal was approved by the board for the warrant. When contacted after the meeting, Russo, who drafted the language for the Finance Committee proposal and who is also a member of the special ed task force, had not yet seen the revised language and could not say whether the Finance Committee will vote to support it.
