THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, November 9, 1995 TAG: 9511090002
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 66 lines
Virginia Beach just witnessed two welcome steps forward in fixing its broke, and broken, school system.
First, on a 7-4 vote in its meeting Tuesday night, the Beach School Board approved a ``reconciliation agreement'' that lays out how schools will repay the $12.1 million they must get from the city to cover their deficit for 1994-95.
That deficit, according to the outside auditors' report, is the direct result of the school system's grossly overestimating revenue and grossly underbudgeting or just not budgeting some major expenses. Making the city's payment a loan to schools rather than a grant does three things: (1) It impresses the necessity of accountability and recognized methods of accounting upon a School Board and administration that need the reminder. (2) It helps keep the door open for potential prosecution of school officials on malfeasance charges. (3) It means that city taxpayers will not set the poor precedent of picking up whatever tab schools happen to run up in the name of ``the children.''
That's a precedent some School Board members would like set in cement. But the auditors indicate that '94-'95 was not the school system's first year to end in deficit and, without reform, won't be its last. And the city has the funds to cover the school deficit because City Hall, unlike the school system, has been frugal and professional. However frugal the city continues to be, it can't continue to cover an ineptly drawn school budget.
Sentiment strengthens on City Council for making consolidation of the city's and the schools' financial record-keeping - a check on schools' profligacy - a condition of covering this $12 million tab. Council should stick to that condition.
At Tuesday's meeting, a School Board member finally posed the unasked question: When, Tim Jackson asked, will Sidney Faucette be quizzed concerning this deficit incurred while he was school superintendent? On Wednesday, Commonwealth's Attorney Bob Humphreys took the week's second welcome step toward answering Mr. Jackson's ``who'' and other questions unanswered in the auditors' report: He requested that the Beach's Circuit Court judges empanel a special grand jury.
That panel is neither automatic nor a panacea. The court is not required to comply with Mr. Humphreys' request or, down the road, to make public all or any of the panel's report. Many of the schools' financial players, including Dr. Faucette, have left the area, and whether the special grand jury can compel them to appear here is unclear.
But judges and grand jurors can find it wise to heed public demand for public knowledge of individual accountability for public money and as precise as possible an accounting of public funds. Many of the players now outside Virginia Beach might appreciate the opportunity to set the record straight. And many of the players remain here, including School Board members who served during any and all of the Faucette years and Mordecai Smith, who was budget development director throughout Dr. Faucette's tenure and chief financial officer during preparation of the '94-'95 budget.
An investigative grand jury could find all the players. Its subpoena power, the possibility of immunity from prosecution in exchange for testimony, a penalty for perjury a thousand times stiffer than the penalty for malfeasance, its potential for setting the record straight - all would work toward full and truthful testimony. The sooner this special grand jury convenes, the better. by CNB