POUGHKEEPSIE – The Poughkeepsie City School District paid 11 retirees a total of $27,440 in payments to which they were not eligible for not participating in the health insurance program, a state comptroller’s audit found.
The review, for the period of July 1, 2017 through December 31, 2018 also found five retirees received Medicare Part B reimbursements totaling $10,560 for which they were not eligible.
And four maintenance workers were paid a total of $26,088 for 168.5 days of accrued leave above the carryover limit without school board approval, the auditors found.
The audit also said the collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) are not comprehensive, and payroll and personnel policies are outdated.
Key recommendations from the state included that the district should review and update the different policies and collective bargaining agreements to ensure they are adequate and comprehensive and that employees are paid in accordance with them; that the district should develop and implement procedures to ensure that payroll payments are made in accordance with contracts and CBAs; and the district should implement and enforce procedures over leave accrual record maintenance.
Superintendent of Schools Dr. Eric Rosser, who joined the district earlier this year, responded to the audit saying that the board of education agrees with the findings.
“The district will develop a corrective action plan based upon the following recommendations provided in your report,” he wrote in a December 4, 2019 letter to the state.
