These sound like trumped up names for expensive staff meetings and staff parties for the principals.

I was on the PTA board of an Elememtary School. When we attended Fairfax County PTA training (for PTA Presidents, treasurers etc) we were told you can not bring any $ forward to the next year. Or a very small amount (maybe $5000 for fall expeditures) So my guess is they had $19,000 in the fund and moved the money to various accounts or payments so they had a zero balance at the start of the next year. Then showed it as negative ...all used uomformtheir pet ...ie favorite uses. Our PTA paid for our principles to attend a leadership conference (Virginia Beach). It cost a lot of money in late June for those hotel rooms etc. I heard it is one big party on us the sucker parents. Our elementary principle is a carbon copy of the woman who was his mentor. He talks to the parents like they are in kindergarten! Drives ever crazy!

You took money raised by families and sent them to the beach? In June? You do realize they are making over $100,000 a year.

it sounds we are paying for a private club.why?

What's for lunch?

There will be a meeting regarding the new start times for all high school and middle school principals tonight at 4pm at Clyde's/Tyson's.

Citizens-there is a new revised local and non-local travel regulation.
Some things are similar, some different.

"Ensure that expenses are necessary and reasonable." Oh dear.
"Use sound judgment." Oh my.
"Provide a detailed justification.." I would hope so.
"Supporting documentation..." (Does that mean receipts that are legible, even three years later? I hope so.)

The same $11.50 or mileage for after-hours local meetings and work-related activities, unless receiving a stipend or salary supplement. No entitlement to that on Back to School Night is still in here. So, Chipotle and Subway instead of Artie's and Four Sisters unless you want to foot the bill for the extra.

***Page 4 B. 4. says employees who are required to attend an official (local) function representing FCPS will be allowed up to the prevailing GSA meal per diem. Don't know about this. This looks like a loophole. What is the clear difference between an after-hours meeting or work-related activity ($11.50) and a meal during the workday (which the employee should have to pay for) and an "official function representing FCPS"? This is grey. But, $75-$100 publicly funded dinners at Morton's or Capital Grille or Wildfire clearly don't meet any of these situations. I would hope this apparent per diem loophole will be closely monitored.

They are including mileage and registration fees for conferences, training, and seminars in the greater Washington metropolitan area under NONlocal travel. This is so that they are pre-approved, which non-local travel does not normally require. So, are they excluding a per diem meal at local conferences? I would hope so.

An FCPS PCard may not be used to purchase meals for nonlocal travel. How about the School Board going off per diem and going to The Court of Two Sisters in New Orleans and buying everything from appetizers to flaming bananas with public funds on the Chairman's PCard? Or Georges at the Cove, etc.? This was already also in the old regulation. Didn't do us a lot of good.

Page 6.B.2. Maybe they need to add WiFi fees and room service to the no reimbursement list, along with the movies, laundry, and mini-bar. Another thing to note is that a lot of hotels include breakfast with the room charge. Don't know how they work this on per diem. When you are dealing with thousands of employees, it all adds up. If you are offered a full hot breakfast buffet at the Hampton Inn that we are paying for, why should we be paying per diem for breakfast? They already exclude per diem for meals included with a function being attended.

The Big Question here is WHO IS GOING TO MONITOR WHAT WAS AN OUT-OF-CONTROL SITUATION? The people who were out-of-control? Am I going to have to pull more records??????????? Are there consequences, such as "your wages will be garnished for failure to comply"? I hope so.

Those property taxes and parking fees just never stop, do they?
Attachments:

I am a tax paying Fairfax County resident. I would like people to stop berating the school system over expenditures that happened years ago. Focus on the last six months particularly under the new regulations with the new superintendent. If things have changed and there's no more lunches at Morton's then we're headed in the right direction. And people can quit complaining. Your incessant needling into school finances can cease as school administrators are quite possibly doing what they're supposed to be doing with money. Spend your time looking at current practices and stop complaining about the old. Speaking of your time, how does any one person have the time to collect all of this information anyway? And even better yet who has such a boring meaningless life that this is the kind of thing that you spend your time doing?? But thanks for the entertainment!

the facts-West Potomac Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> We are just about wrapping up the restaurant tour.
> Indigo Landing for Admin Support, $35 per person.
> Mike's American Grill for the Admin Team at $28
> per person.
>
> I am sure you realize that the restaurant reports
> were merely skimming the surface of thousands of
> entries.


extra tip?

Actually they need to berated and reminded of the ridiculous expenditures that were as recent as the last six months to a year. The new regulations just came out in September or so. Unless somebody is paying attention and enforcing these, they mean nothing and will accomplish nothing.

Want me to start looking again? No problem. There is a long ways to go with this. This is just the initial three months or so. You don't fix these kinds of problems overnight.

I look at some of things people do with their spare time that accomplish very little to benefit society. I think monitoring and reining in wasteful government spending is a very worthy thing to do. I think the people doing the wasteful spending are the ones with boring meaningless lives. They were crying about no time and no money to educate the children, while they were dropping the county credit cards all over the county and country and throwing parties and stuff.

But, you can say whatever you want.

More problems up in Maryland with the credit cards held by the School Board members of PG County (Montgomery County also had a problem reported here).

The only School Board member in Fairfax County holding a county credit card is the Chairman. The one that went for appetizers and flaming bananas in New Orleans and that was also used to pay for meals for some spouses (we were reimbursed for those meals).

I personally love the idea of having people pay for personal stuff and then asking to be reimbursed. Makes you think twice when you stand the possibility of not getting paid back. I can think of a lot of people who need to do this. The FCPS policy is to use the pcards rather than make a habit of this, but if the things being purchased are not clearly something the county should pay for.....
Attachments:

Happy New Year taxpayers Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> More problems up in Maryland with the credit cards
> held by the School Board members of PG County
> (Montgomery County also had a problem reported
> here).
>
> The only School Board member in Fairfax County
> holding a county credit card is the Chairman. The
> one that went for appetizers and flaming bananas
> in New Orleans and that was also used to pay for
> meals for some spouses (we were reimbursed for
> those meals).
>
> I personally love the idea of having people pay
> for personal stuff and then asking to be
> reimbursed. Makes you think twice when you stand
> the possibility of not getting paid back. I can
> think of a lot of people who need to do this. The
> FCPS policy is to use the pcards rather than make
> a habit of this, but if the things being purchased
> are not clearly something the county should pay
> for.....


When u r running the joint of course you haven't done anything wrong. Love the article.

There will be a dinner meeting for all FCPS administrators at Sea Pearl Thursday evening, 1/8/15, at 5pm (just before the budget presentation). Use of the county credit cards is authorized for this special function.

^Is this why they want their salary doubled (b/c they no longer have the credit card)?

SB members did not have credit cards. Only the Chairman.^^^^^

Here are some more recent records on the Fun and Games/Slush Fund accounts. These are from this fall to present. There are still big luncheons, some admins, etc. etc. etc. Take a look and see if you think things are improved or not. Remember, under the new Financial Guidelines they can still do some of this stuff.

There are both ECA and Admin accounts here as the request was expanded to cover the accounts where monopole money and some other things are now going. Monopole money used to go into the ECA account. It now goes into an Admin account.

Let me put it this way-----ECA money can be used for supplemental Finance Tech support to help process student fees. They are using parent volunteers to do this right now because they say they don't have enough Finance Tech support. Should this money be used for what we are seeing here, or for more Finance Tech support so that volunteers don't have to take time away from their personal lives and maybe their real jobs and their families to do this kind of work?
Attachments:

Yawn.

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Yawn.


This thread has had over 30,000 views because it is boring.

Is this parking slush fund more or less money than the Boosterthon slush fund?

^^^More.

So I think what Facts is pointing out is that the school system not only says they don't have enough money, but they ask volunteers to do their work for them, then they send out for pizza, etc. using the money that they could use for extra people to do their work so the volunteers could work at their paid jobs and not pay for child care so they can help out, etc. because the new guidelines now condone sending out for pizza, etc.?

Okay........

right........... Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Yawn.
>
>
> This thread has had over 30,000 views because it
> is boring.


So, the Mike O'Meara thread would be super exciting per your logic...you must spend most of your day looking at those non-yawn-worthy posts while your husband is at work, and you are sitting around trying to think of better ways to be a helicopter parent.

how about for this year

slush funds were illegal even for Congress in the USA, until Clinton democrats (hostile takeover)

you talk all you want

i remember it quite well

and i remember conservatives calling them criminals for unlocking the bank door

How do they have a negative balance?

Accounting question Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> How do they have a negative balance?


Good point. They basically lump a lot of the non-appropriated public funds into one big pool of money, then subdivide the money into different accounts to keep track of what it is being used for. So, my guess is it looks like they are "borrowing" against other supplies of money in anticipation of funds coming in. Scary to think about, particularly when they are buying donuts, pizza, and checking into Lansdowne, but technically in negative territory. They have fairly predictable large amounts come in year to year. Monopole rental, parking fees, etc. It might have already come in and been collected, but not transferred in yet. I don't know for sure, that is only a guess. I am certainly not an expert on this. The actual checking account has to have a positive balance, obviously. Anybody care to offer another opinion? They are all in negative territory. Maybe we should take a look at the end of the fiscal year, which closes out June 30.

Appropriated funds are kept in a separate dedicated checking account is what I read.

Accounting question Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> How do they have a negative balance?


The number in parentheses is actually a positive number, come to think of it. If you at it as a positive number and add on the credits and subtract out the debits, it works out. Bass awkwards of what you would usually think.

http://www.accountingcoach.com/blog/use-of-parentheses

I am used to a negative number having parentheses, but that is not always the case.

Last time I looked at the community use master budget, it was losing money.

Why then, do schools keep 15 percent of rentals of school property?

It seems ripe for fraud. I know at our hs they run private camps all the time and do not adhere to the fee schedulle for private groups.

The dsa is always trying to fill up gym rentals from various private camps.

It's the wild west for sure. So much for the new auditor. What a joke.

http://www.boarddocs.com/vsba/fairfax/Board.nsf/files/9KY3N66856D0/$file/N8420%20FY2015.pdf

The contracts are supposedly run through Central and they get the invoices from them and send the money there. The fees are set by this Notice, which is updated regularly. If you want to pull the contracts on the entries on these reports, go right ahead. Brandynn.Reaves@fcps.edu.

The major problem here seemed to be what the money was spent on. It has mostly been going for golf, massages, fancy dinners and other meals for staff, presents for staff, flowers for staff, covering for visiting clinicians who parked illegally on school grounds and got tickets, luxury administrative "retreats" at nice hotels in the surrounding area (meetings that could have been held in one of the hundreds of buildings we already own), "retreats" at professional baseball games during regular duty hours, ice cream and Whoopie pie and smoothie treats for the staff, clothing for staff, "working" lunches and dinners (come on), etc.

You don't need an accounting degree to see that there was a major problem here.

What is amazing is that the unsupervised spending continues and the Superintendent is once again crying that in 2016 the money budgeted for schools is not enough. No shame.

As pointed out earlier in the thread, they developed some new guidelines for use of the discretionary and administrative local school activity funds. They are still allowed to do some meals and things. It is supposedly curtailed. Flowers, massages, etc. have been nixed. From glancing at these reports it sounds like some major oversight is still needed on these. That is always a challenge. These went into effect in September of 2014.

Feel free to pore over these and request more records. That is why I put these out here. These are public funds. They are responsible to the public for how they are managed.

My personal feeling was that no meals or refreshments are indicated for the most part. The government does not have to be in the business of supplying snacks for meetings, working lunches, $100 dinners at Morton's for the high school principals, etc. This is the government. You need to make your own arrangements for these things unless you are working outside of regular hours, not on a supplemental salary, and can then collect mileage or the $11.50. They need to adapt their meetings to whatever public buildings are available and quit renting out fancy hotels. It isn't going to ruin the event if they take a break for "lunch on your own". Adjust. Create the new normal.

Please name some free community buildings where these people can meet. They need to be a place where confidential discussions can happen.

So are you telling me that the Westin Hotel or PJ Skidoo's or Artie's is more confidential than a meeting room at a county owned facility?

FCPS employee Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Please name some free community buildings where
> these people can meet. They need to be a place
> where confidential discussions can happen.
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

Gatehouse.

The answer is------ Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> FCPS employee Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Please name some free community buildings where
> > these people can meet. They need to be a place
> > where confidential discussions can happen.
> <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
> <<<<<<<
>
> Gatehouse.


The Government Center.

I would love to know how much is spent on renting out he Waterford in Springfield.

I have been to fccpta meetings at gatehouse. Plenty of space. Every high school has an auditorium.

Duh.

No kidding Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I would love to know how much is spent on renting
> out he Waterford in Springfield.

>>>>>>>>>I looked up vendor payments and could only find a few thousand dollars each year for the Fair Oaks location. I don't know if this application is capturing credit card payments and payments out of the various local school activity funds. You can easily find out by asking the FOIA office.
>
> I have been to fccpta meetings at gatehouse.
> Plenty of space. Every high school has an
> auditorium.
>
> Duh.

>>>>>>>>>>>First of all, these confidential meetings are OPEN unless they meet the criteria for exemption under the public records act. You really need soundproof rooms with jammers, etc.? They don't have those at the Loews, the Hilton, Morton's, etc. Second, the taxpayers have bought the school system about 200 buildings, maybe more. There are dozens and dozens of beautiful, comfortable conference rooms, lecture halls, and auditoriums, and thousands of classrooms available. There is a whole department that schedules the use of them, we pay them to do that, and they are free. Yes, it is more fun to check into Lansdowne and gather in a $600 per night luxury suite, but when you say you are broke, you need to act like it. Use what we gave you. Third, we pay the administrators generous six figure salaries and the idea that we need to buy you breakfast, lunch, or dinner because it is "too disruptive" to take a meal break at a meeting and use your OWN credit card does not fly. You need taxpayer funded refreshments and meals at your meetings like I need another hole in my head.

Shall we talk again about the golf we have been paying for now? The High School Principals Association is a publicly funded association with Bylaws, etc., the funds are kept in a school bank account, school staff are keeping track of the money, all under the FCPS ID number. The dues, hotels, meals, and golf came out of public funds. Your meetings are OPEN unless they meet an exemption under the public records act, and then only that portion is closed. I want to know why we have been paying for golf, Morton's, etc. for these get togethers. If they want to have a private social club it needs to be privately funded. There is also an association for the middle school principals and probably the elementary principals as well.

They aren't kidding. I think they are serious. There is something wrong with the FCPS buildings.

WE NEED INFOMATION ON THE KOREA TRI[

NSAA Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> WE NEED INFOMATION ON THE KOREA TRI[


When was it? Who went? What was it for?

insider56 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The high school principals are indeed spending the
> parking pass money and other stuff on everything
> but stuff for education. Unless you consider 20
> boxes of donuts, etc. to be educational. Hundreds
> of thousands of dollars are being used for
> entertainment purposes. There aren't too many copy
> machines, textbooks, and extra staff being
> purchased with that money. the article is not
> accurate. but, you only know what you are told.
> some of it is going to student purposes, but not
> much.
>
> It is a basic unsupervised slush fund bilking
> taxpayers and diverting money away from kids.
> Party on! is right.
>
> contact your school board person and ask for an
> explanation.

Somehow, I think contacting my school board member to complain about 20 boxes of Dunkins isn't going to gain much traction on the hit list of "important educational concerns". Dude, get a life!

Hondo Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> insider56 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > The high school principals are indeed spending
> the
> > parking pass money and other stuff on
> everything
> > but stuff for education. Unless you consider 20
> > boxes of donuts, etc. to be educational.
> Hundreds
> > of thousands of dollars are being used for
> > entertainment purposes. There aren't too many
> copy
> > machines, textbooks, and extra staff being
> > purchased with that money. the article is not
> > accurate. but, you only know what you are told.
> > some of it is going to student purposes, but
> not
> > much.
> >
> > It is a basic unsupervised slush fund bilking
> > taxpayers and diverting money away from kids.
> > Party on! is right.
> >
> > contact your school board person and ask for an
> > explanation.
>
> Somehow, I think contacting my school board member
> to complain about 20 boxes of Dunkins isn't going
> to gain much traction on the hit list of
> "important educational concerns". Dude, get a
> life!


Every penny spent on this nonsense is money taken away from educating children.

FCPS employee Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Please name some free community buildings where
> these people can meet. They need to be a place
> where confidential discussions can happen.


While I don't agree with all the rants on "improper expenditure of funds", I can tell you that our local Government Centers that our house our local police stations do have large meeting rooms that can only be accessed behind locked doors. If you're looking for a space where confidential discussions could be held, this is an option. The meeting rooms are typically used for police briefings before the officers go out on patrol. Most of the time, these spaces are not in use.

Gee, I might be mistaken, but it seems to me that there are plenty of places within the school system that could be used. Most high schools have conference rooms, for example, that could be used. There are also classrooms that are not used after school that could be used.

Many libraries have appropriate spaces for speakers that could easily be secured: ex. Fairfax City, Chantilly.......
I would also think that there are plenty of spaces in Fairfax Government center. I do understand that they do not provide the same amenities as Landsdowne--which isn't even in Fairfax County.
Think about it, why are we paying a Loudoun County business for a facility that could be found in Fairfax. They could have at least used the Westfield Marriott if they want to spend money. I think the Chantilly IHOP has a meeting room.

The bottom line: FCPS should use its funds for activities that will directly affect the students. Does anyone really believe that sending leadership to Landsdowne is going to improve our system?

oooooooooooo Wrote:
> Every penny spent on this nonsense is money taken
> away from educating children.

Hey, could someone contact SNL and tell them we have a replacement for Dana Carvey's Church Lady?

Hondo Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> FCPS employee Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Please name some free community buildings where
> > these people can meet. They need to be a place
> > where confidential discussions can happen.
>
>
> While I don't agree with all the rants on
> "improper expenditure of funds", I can tell you
> that our local Government Centers that our house
> our local police stations do have large meeting
> rooms that can only be accessed behind locked
> doors. If you're looking for a space where
> confidential discussions could be held, this is an
> option. The meeting rooms are typically used for
> police briefings before the officers go out on
> patrol. Most of the time, these spaces are not in
> use.

Yup.

This school system has about 200 buildings at their disposal and almost every single one has conference rooms (with doors), lecture halls and auditoriums (with doors), classrooms(with doors) some of which are available after about 2pm, cafeterias, etc. There is a whole department that coordinates the use of these facilities, and the school system has first priority on their use. They are also available in the evening, so you can have a meeting after you go home for dinner with your mileage paid or get your $11.50 per diem for a meal, and be thankful for this, by the way.

I fail to see what is so "confidential" about having a meeting at Artie's or PJ Skidoo's. You shut the doors, put up a Do Not Disturb sign, and do your business. What exactly are you accomplishing while you are sleeping in your $600 a night suite down the road at Lansdowne? You all have beds. Sleep in them. Saves thousands and thousands of dollars.

Use what you have.

Fabio Zuluaga went to Korea.

Jay Pearson went to Denmark.

When FCPS brings in "neuroscience consultant" Eric Jensen from Hawaii, it costs about $9,000 a day. Jensen is not a neuroscientist. He is an English teacher with an online doctorate. He will also tell you that the quality of music is determined by the number of notes played.

Karen Garza gets $2,000 a month in housing allowance.

It all adds up.

Fabio Zuluaga went to Korea.

Always a classic on a Sunday morning.

"We are going to take football and music away from your kids and continue to take your parking pass money, etc. and use it on ourselves."

j;dages

Here are some recent printouts of the ECA and administrative accounts for a few schools. Still seeing parties, restaurants, clothing, and flowers. They unfortunately can still do some parties and restaurants and clothing, but no flowers, according to the new regulation. Some of these need to have more details pulled.
Attachments:

There will be a working brunch today at 11 am at the Ritz-Carlton/Tyson's for all FCPS admins. Use of the county credit card is authorized for this special function.

Check out the tens of thousands of dollars of yearbook commission, Giant rebates, monopole income, etc.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/principal-who-gambled-away-student-funds-gets-probation/ar-BBnFtal?li=BBnbcA1

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/crime-scene/fairfax/thomas-jefferson-hs-staffer-ad.html