THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, September 12, 1996 TAG: 9609120334
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ALETA PAYNE, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: 55 lines
Several employees in the school district's central office were slated to receive raises this year that were never authorized by the superintendent or the School Board.
In addition, there was no money specifically earmarked for those raises in the 1996-97 budget approved by the board in May.
The raises were reported to the superintendent and board through an internal auditor's document in June. Superintendent Timothy R. Jenney rescinded the raises before they took effect.
Salary increases, totaling $68,000, had been allotted for 13 staff members, all of whom made lateral moves in the administration's reorganization or were reclassified, which means their titles may have changed but their incomes should not have.
Jenney would not identify who had made the changes nor discuss specifics of the incident, citing laws that shield personnel issues from public discussion.
However, based on information obtained by The Virginian-Pilot through the Freedom of Information Act, the only administrator besides the superintendent who could have made such adjustments on his own is Donald A. Peccia, now associate superintendent for budget, finance and technology.
Peccia, who played a key role in designing the financial plan that put the division back on sound financial footing in the past school year, was the primary architect of the 1996-97 budget.
All of the positions that were slated to receive unauthorized raises were in either the human resources or finance offices, which Peccia had supervised. He headed both departments simultaneously at the time the raises were put into play.
Peccia said Tuesday he could not discuss the internal auditor's report because he was not familiar with it.
The $68,000 involved is a small amount in the scope of the division's $387 million budget. But given the school system's recent financial history, Jenney has repeatedly spoken of checks and balances in his reorganization of the central office staff to prevent any unilateral action. While Peccia remains in charge of finance, someone else now heads up human resources.
``Any issue that may have surfaced has been resolved appropriately in my mind,'' the superintendent said. He would not discuss the matter further.
Several board members declined to comment beyond saying the matter had been handled to their satisfaction.
Many of the problems with the division's 1994-95 budget, which ended in a $12.1 million shortfall, have been attributed to former division administrators who acted without proper authority or who provided the School Board with inaccurate financial information. ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]
Donald A. Peccia
Timothy R. Jenney
KEYWORDS: SALARY VIRGINIA BEACH SCHOOL BOARD by CNB