Flush bank account laid bare Montour School District's workings
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Donald E. Boyer, Montour superintendent -
John Weinstein, Allegheny County treasurer
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Last April, Montour School District officials started grappling with the kind of mystery most local governments would love to face. How, they asked themselves, did a district that had been struggling to control costs on a high school renovation end up with a more than healthy $28.7 million in the bank?
That discovery has sparked a year of revelations in the district that educates nearly 3,000 students in Robinson, Kennedy, Ingram, Thornburg and Pennsbury Village. Among revelations:
• A Democratic activist, John Wovchko, knew more about district finances than did board members.
• The district was paying for two overlapping sets of photocopiers, for a year, under leases set up by a politically involved firm.
• Allegheny County Treasurer John Weinstein's campaign supporters have won key service contracts.
PDF• A board member and the superintendent have been subjects of ethics probes exploring any overlap between business interests and governmental roles.
Now a forensic audit nears completion, and a dozen candidates jockey for six seats on the nine-member board in the May 17 primary.
Those events may or may not solve the Montour mystery. But this much is already clear: In Montour, more than most places, the school's business has been an education in politics.
Before they knew they had money, Montour officials argued about whether to recycle the brick when renovating the high school. When they learned they were flush, things got rough.
Board President Ronald Smith said he only learned that the district had $28.7 million when "the Democratic chair in Robinson blurted it out in [an informal] meeting" of civic leaders.
"We were talking about, we might have to raise taxes in the school district, and he said, 'You can't raise taxes! You've got $28 million you're sitting on!'"
That Robinson Democratic Committee chair, Mr. Wovchko, 66, is a retired Sto-Rox School District teacher and administrator.
Mr. Wovchko said it is ludicrous to think the board didn't know about its bank balance, since members voted on capital spending, including a multimillion dollar stadium project in 2009. "[And if] they didn't know about it?" he asked. "Shame."
Some board members said they weren't surprised at the bank balance. They had, after all, raised taxes in 2004. Others were insulted to find that they knew less about basic district finances than did Mr. Wovchko, whose only formal role in the district is to elect Democrats as board members.
"I doubt if there was anything he didn't have say over -- whether we replace a furnace or we do this or do that, who gets hired," said Mr. Smith. "If someone wasn't doing their job and was going to get in trouble, he'd step in.
"I couldn't say that he gained anything from it," he added.
First Published April 3, 2011 12:00 am
