Legislators
press school officials on travel costs
They want state's poorest
districts to cut back on out-of-state trips
Friday, May 06, 2005 • BY JOE DONOHUE AND DUNSTAN
MCNICHOL • Star-Ledger Staff
Lawmakers demanded yesterday that the
state Education Department crack down on out-of-state trips
that have whisked school officials from the state's poorest
districts to as far away as Disney World, Alaska and
Denmark.
"It seems like a mentality that they just
spend willy-nilly without any accountability," Assemblyman
Kevin O'Toole (R-Essex) told Department of Education
officials during an Assembly Budget Committee
hearing.
But officials from two major districts --
Trenton and Newark -- said travel costs paid with public
dollars are justifiable and other trips cited by lawmakers
were actually underwritten by private grants.
Assembly Republicans obtained travel
vouchers for scores of recent trips by officials from the 31
poorest school districts, which are under state
oversight.
They found, for example, a Newark
administrative staff member received $400 in reimbursement
for meals during a four-day trip to Disney World in 2003 to
give a presentation at a conference for the International
Reading Association. Among the meals: a Hawaiian Plate for
$28 and banana creme pie for $8.
Another Newark staff member was sent to
Anchorage, Alaska, for four days, also in 2003, at a cost of
$1,400, to attend the Council of the Great City Schools
meeting. And more than 10 staffers and school board members
from the Trenton district last year went to Copenhagen,
Denmark, at a cost of more than $10,000.
Lawmakers questioned whether the trips
were necessary and said that in many cases reimbursement was
made for alcoholic beverages, a violation of state
policy.
State Education Commissioner William
Librera said state officials review all travel budgets for
the 31 "Abbott" districts, and sometimes reject spending
requests. However, he acknowledged local officials sometime
spend the money anyway, forcing the state to dock the cost
of the trips from other state aid slated for the
districts.
O'Toole recommended suspending officials
who make trips in defiance of state edicts. Assemblyman
Louis Greenwald (D-Camden), the budget committee chairman,
agreed there should be "repercussions" when local officials
"thumb their noses."
Local officials, however, said the
hearing presented a distorted picture. Newark Schools
Superintendent Marion Bolden said her district caps expenses
at $50 a day, even if someone submits receipts for more than
that amount.
"This is about as political as it can
be," she said of lawmakers' charges at the hearing. "I'd
like to see where they stay when they travel."
Gene Wesley, spokeswoman for the Trenton
school district, said all trips cited in the Republican
report were financed through grants from the Reader's Digest
Foundation. "It sounds as though there's a misunderstanding
about grant money versus public money," she said.
Librera said state officials depend on
county superintendents to keep travel costs in check in the
587 non-Abbott districts.
© 2005 The Star-Ledger. Used by NJ.com with
permission.
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