Board members seek details on purchases

What are Shawano School District employees using purchase cards for specifically?

That was a question key on the mind of members of the Shawano School Board when it came to paying the bills on Jan. 16. Normally a piece of business that takes 30 seconds to complete, the topic of the cards took on a life of its own when board members were concerned about approving high costs without specifically knowing what it’s being spent on.

Board member Samuel Sousek questioned whether paying the bills listed puts the district over or under its budget.

“How are we doing month-to-date and year-to-date?” said Sousek, who has a banking background.

Sousek noted that not having a full-time finance director at the moment, along with other vacancies, was good for the bottom line, but he wanted to know where the district stood on finances.

“We’ve been using some of those funds for other purposes, so where are we at?” Sousek said.

Board member Bobbi Lemerond expressed concern about specific spending. She said she asked two months ago for transaction descriptions to be included with the bills.

“Just the credit card transactions, we had $21,000 in transactions in the matter of a few weeks, and maybe five out of hundreds actually listed a description of what those transactions are for,” Lemerond said. “I’d like to know who gets to use each one of these cards — like ‘PS Clerical.’ What is ‘PS Clerical’? Who uses that card? What are the purchases for?”

Lemerond noted that the clerical card showed $3,800 in spending for the last month, while the district’s building and maintenance department only spent $1,400, which she found odd. She pointed out spending at Luigi’s and McDonald’s as questionable purchases.

“We need to watch the purse strings if we’re in a budget shortfall,” Lemerond said.

Superintendent Kurt Krizan pointed out that each school and department has a set budget they cannot go over, so the district office tightly monitors the spending.

“Once you take our salaries and benefits, there’s not a lot left there, so they’ve very cautious on the spending that’s there,” Krizan said.

Board member John Arens questioned why the amount of detail needed to be relayed to him and the other board members. He said he trusts Krizan and department leaders to work within their budget.

“At our level, we’re not in this for day-to-day operations,” Arens said. “We approved an amount (in the budget). Once we approve the budget, the only person we can control is Kurt. We hired him to make sure everything runs on the day-to-day stuff. I don’t want to sit in meetings for six to eight hours while we get bogged down on buying pencils.”

Board member Mart Grams pointed out that letting the superintendent supervise the budget unchecked was how the district found itself with a $2 million deficit last year.

“We’ve had problems, and we’ll continue to have problems,” Grams said. “I’ve heard that excuse for decades.”

lpulaski@newmedia-wi.com