Editor:
Recently, Russell Fish, Paul Sharpless,
and Terry Scholle came before the school board with claims that the district
financial records are incorrect. Mr. Fish claims over $11 million dollars is
"in the checking account or in some fund which the school district is not
taking into account.'' Mr. Sharpless contends the district is missing four checks
totaling a "possible $500,000 in the checkbook unknown to the board."
Mr. Scholle claims there is about $400,000 in PLGIT funds unaccounted for that
"needs to be located.''
Jim Lyons, Certified Public Accountant
and President of the accounting firm Greenawalt and Company, verified, at a
cost to the taxpayers of $1,000, no funds are missing, all of their claims were
wrong, and the district books are correct. To sum up, all of the outrageous
claims were completely wrong. No monies were missing, and everything was properly
recorded.
Since I have been on the board,
there has been a small group of people who have constantly cost the taxpayers
money with baseless and false claims. The district has spent a lot of taxpayers'
monies on: three "wetland tests" to disprove claims by a small group
of people, two air quality tests at Rolling Acres to disprove claims by a small
group of people, many redundant legal opinions about the Sunshine Law and responses
to elected officials to disprove claims by the same small group of people, and
now monies with Greenawalt and Company to disprove elementary accounting errors.
Countless hours by the district's
professional staff have been wasted in pursuit of other non-existent claims.
In all cases the claims of this group were proven baseless, yet to this day,
in spite of the taxpayers' monies spent, they persist in disputing the facts.
These funds should have been used
to improve the education of our children, not wasted chasing after baseless
claims made by a small group of people. Most on the school board work hard to
do the right thing not only for the taxpayers of the district but also, and
most importantly, what is best for the children in our schools. The resources
of our district are not unlimited. Wasting them chasing after baseless claims
is hurting our schools. Please help the school board and administration stop
the "craziness''and work toward addressing the educational needs of our
schools.
John Warehime,
Littlestown Area
School Board