Auditors praise William Floyd changes

The William Floyd School District has tightened its financial controls dramatically since a scathing 2006 audit blasted administrators for fiscal mismanagement, state auditors said Tuesday.

"The district has made significant progress in correcting the problems our auditors identified in our previous audit," Mark Johnson, spokesman for state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, said in a statement Tuesday. "Officials have fully or partially implemented 34 of 35 recommendations and that is a noteworthy achievement."

The 2006 audit, under then-Comptroller Alan Hevesi, reported that district officials ignored or circumvented financial controls, took actions that school board members often approved years later or during private sessions and violated state public-meeting laws. State auditors said then-Superintendent Richard Hawkins received pay raises, a gas card and reimbursement for doctoral studies, charitable and political donations without proper school board approval.

The audit came after four district officials pleaded guilty to charges, including official misconduct and grand larceny.

Auditors returned to the district in June 2009, interviewing personnel and reviewing documents. They found that the district had followed nearly all recommendations, including updating a code of ethics, developing an internal controls procedures manual, requiring public approval of employment contracts by the board and reviewing any changes to the superintendent's contract publicly.

On Tuesday, district officials said they went beyond implementing recommendations.

"We had to do something much deeper and that was to change the culture," said Paul Casciano, superintendent of William Floyd since 2006, when Hawkins resigned. Upon receiving the follow-up report, dated Feb. 18, "we were thrilled," he said. "It really is a testimony to all the hard work that was put into doing things right."

The only recommendation not implemented was requiring a daily record of hours worked. District officials said requiring sign-in sheets for managers is difficult to record because workdays often start on the road.

Hawkins, who worked in the district for more than 30 years, said Tuesday that district officials had strongly disputed Hevesi's 2006 report, but also that "we had some issues to work on and we certainly did so."

"Our response was well documented and in light of some of the events that occurred afterwards, I think we were validated," Hawkins said.

Hevesi pleaded guilty last year to a single felony count of accepting a reward for official misconduct.