BY PATRICIA A. MILLER
Staff Writer
The results of an audit of the Brick school district’s troubled transportation system are in, and the news isn’t good.
“Unfortunately, the Brick Township transportation system appears to represent one of the most challenged systems that we have reviewed,” according to the audit conducted by Transportation Advisory Services, a Walworth, N.Y.-based company. The firm has reviewed more than 400 districts in 18 states over the past 20 years.
It’s not uncommon to find specific areas in a school district that need to be addressed, the TAS reviewers said in the March 24 report, which has not been publicly released yet.
“However, very rarely would we find a program where almost every area of the operation is deficient,” the report states. “We believe some hard decisions will be required.”
TAS recommended that the district consider outsourcing “some or all” of its bus services, because of the number of problems with the current system.
The transportation system needs aggressive, significant investments and directional changes that may be “difficult or impossible” to make with the current structure, according to the report.
“So many concerns and problems with the current transportation system and financial and operator changes that must be made are so onerous, that we do not believe the district will be able to achieve the changes that are necessary,” the report states.
But privatization of school bus services is not an option for Brick, said Melindo Persi, the interim school business administrator and board secretary.
“That’s always a consideration, but no one is interested in that,” he said. “We are looking at being more efficient than we are. We are looking at improving the system we have.”
The TAS report has not been released to board members yet, Persi said.
“It’s not a public document yet,” he said. “What I’m doing is going over the parts of it to see where we are. We are developing some kind of action plan based on the recommendation.”
The administration plans to meet with Board of Education board members about the report in a few weeks, he said.
“We’ve been living with this for a while,” Persi said.
The audit detailed problems with financial oversight, improper use of assets, unauthorized bus stops, drivers paid full-time wages for less than full-time hours, an understaffed bus maintenance department and a maintenance garage that is not properly ventilated.
Board of Education members hired TAS in November to conduct a full-scale audit of the department, after they received numerous complaints from parents at the start of the school year.
Parents complained about the lack of steady drivers, an unresponsive transportation department and buses that arrived late to school.
A project consultant was on site from Feb. 5 through Feb. 7 to review the key areas of operation.
One of the audit’s key findings was no structural financial controls for purchasing, with proper authorizations and bid/quotes. There were no internal audit functions for payroll, purchasing, paycheck dispersal and attendance.
“The department supervisor has approved time sheets which were inaccurate and potentially fraudulent,” TAS said.
The school district business office does the best it can from a remote location, TAS said in the report.
“It appears a disproportionate amount of time is spent by the business office in an attempt to oversee the department,” the report states.
School officials met with the consultant, then checked the draft report for accuracy before the final report was released, Persi said.
“When we saw things that might be glaring or things we were concerned about, we immediately jumped on them,” Persi said.
The district has already purchased bus routing software to make sure the bus routes operate more efficiently, Persi said.
The software utilizes global information system technology, he said.
“We’ve secured the maps from the town, laid out the school attendance zones and put the schools on the maps,” he said. We sent the maps back to the company to start work on the routes.”
Some bus drivers have put in unauthorized stops over the years, a practice which has resulted in children sometimes not being picked up, he said.
“What’s important is to be sure that everyone is treated fairly and equally in terms of bus stops,” he said.
Persi said he wasn’t that surprised by the results of the review.
“It wasn’t as dramatic to me as I thought,” he said. “I’ve been living with it for awhile. We had a number of problems. It just kind of heightened the facts we already know.”
Transportation Coordinator and Township Councilman Joseph Sangiovanni declined to comment on the report since he hadn’t reviewed the document yet. Sangiovanni’s first day on the job was May 1.
School officials said in February they planned to transfer transportation department Supervisor William Nardiello to another position, effective July 1.
They hired Sangiovanni for $85,000. Schools Superintendent Thomas L. Seidenberger said in April that Nardiello will be transferred to a position in the Maintenance Department, after a transition period with Sangiovanni.
TAS commended school district officials in the audit for their willingness to conduct a third-party review.
“There is an obvious awareness throughout the district that the transportation system is in need of a dramatic change of direction,” the audit states.