School district’s ‘sweep account’ report being used as ‘false alarmism’

At the Nov. 14 Manatee School Board meeting and later in a story in the Herald, Audit Committee chairperson Susan Agruso inaccurately compared the school district’s “sweep” bank account to a household checking account. It is a poor analogy, but it gave School Board member John Colon an excuse to engage in political posturing to state that he could not vote for anything involving money until monthly bank reconciliations were completed.

In fact, the district’s sweep account is an “in and out” account. Money goes in and out only as needed to meet current obligations. With or without monthly reconciliations, the district always knows exactly what has gone into the account and what has gone out. It is not like a household checking account that holds a regular balance over time to pay recurring bills such as a mortgage and car payment.

This unfortunate and inappropriate analogy gave people such as Mr. Colon, who seemingly will never support a millage increase no matter how badly it is needed, a “fake news” argument against the millage vote. Voters should not fall for this false alarmism.

Our school district is well-managed. None of the senior leadership that led the district astray in past years is here now. The Manatee School Board membership is completely new, with the most senior member having served only since the end of 2012, after the financial problems occurred.

Yes, all bank accounts should be reconciled promptly. But the computer glitch that delayed reconciliation of the sweep account was not resolved until Sept. 7. Staff has promptly worked on reconciliation since returning from the Irma closure. Reconciliations for the prior school year that ended in June will be done before Thanksgiving. The rest will be done by the end of the 2017. There is nothing to see here.

This story was originally published November 24, 2017 at 12:23 PM with the headline "School district’s ‘sweep account’ report being used as ‘false alarmism’."