By: Jessica Kossow
Arrowhead Union High school district spent just under $5,000 a month on expense-paid trips for faculty and staff in the past school year, including teacher organized lunches, catered meals, and consulting services.
According to the district’s business manager Steve Kopecky (read full interview here), the district which is allotted $65,000 to spend on school related conferences and expenditures only spent about $57,000 of that in the last school year.
In several documents about their spending habits, it has been uncovered that the school’s faculty attends 25 to 30 state conferences a year for academic, superintendent, and special education reasons. Several are paid directly by the school including the hotel or conference fees, reducing how often faculty members are ever reimbursed, according to Kopecky.
The conferences, which range from one day to weekend presentations, have all been in state. Kopecky said he “couldn’t remember the last time anyone was sent on a conference out of state.”
The reports showed the mathematics department had higher expenses than many of the other departments. The very same day interviewing Kopecky the entire math department, including 20 people were away at a conference.
“Such conferences are for instructional purposes; learning new ways to teach topics and improve lesson plans,” Kopecky said.
One conference titled the Wisconsin Association of School Business Officials attended by Kevin Lipscomb, director of buildings and grounds for Arrowhead. The conference, held at the Kalahari Water Resort and Convention Center, was just one of the many conventions he attended in the last school year.
Kopecky said Lipscomb is in charge of maintaining the 60 million in buildings Arrowhead has on its campus.
“It’s important he stay on top of things to keep them in shape,” he said.
Unlike other districts on southeastern Wisconsin, Arrowhead does not use credit cards as a form of payment for faculty. Mr. Kopecky said they are trying to prevent using them as long as possible, because he’s “seen other districts use them and they don’t’ want to go down a risky path” like others have.
Resident Tracy Sodolski (read her full interview here) applauds Arrowhead for refraining from credit card usage.
“Such things are more easily abused and people take more care when they’re reimbursed out of pocket,” she said.
The policy for travel expenses allows district employees $55 per night when staying the night and transportation is reimbursed the current IRS rate, which is currently at $.44 cents a mile. Staff members are given allotted a total of $30.00 daily for food expenses; $5 for breakfast, $10 for lunch and $15 for dinner. However, uncovering records of past conferences, the totals spend on hotel rooms alone exceeded the low rate for a room.
According to Kopecky and the district policy, reimbursement for approved travel in areas where the cost of longing and meals are inflated “may exceed the reasonable rate.”
Residents also felt it was a very low amount to look for when booking a hotel.
“It would depend on what location the conference is in—the cost would be different in Wausau than it is downtown in Milwaukee,” Koepke said. (read full interview here)
Kopecky said the totals may be something they look to in the future to adjust.
Lunches Welcome Teachers
The school also takes initiative in welcoming new teachers by holding school lunches, many of which are catered with Cousins Sub and Marriott, the school’s lunch company. According to Kopecky it’s also a way to keep the school’s productivity rolling throughout the school day.
“It may be worth more to pay for lunch and keep staff members on site—what happens when five or more take an hour and a half for lunch?” Kopecky said.
Other times Marriott will cater an in-service day when teachers are entertaining an in-school speaker or learning conference. The bill may as much as $1,000 but “it’s worth it,” Kopecky said.
However, local residents and taxpayers to the district find it acceptable for the school to show initiative for their faculty, “as long as there’s a reason for it,” said Sodolski.
Other residents like Laurie Koepke mentioned how competitive teaching positions can be.
“The working world can be very competitive, and to show their appreciation is important,” she said.
Arrowhead Activity Fund
The district is known for being a Division I school, and their excellent sports records are reflected in the numerous times teams compete at the state and sometimes national level. Arrowhead pools their funds for such activities into what’s called their Academic/Activity fund which contains 66 accounts that cover everything from boy’s football to girls track, the chess club, and even field hockey.
It’s an operational fund that rolls over into the school’s general balance fund; at the time of the interview the total in the account was $288,000 “in the black, which it good,” Kopecky said.
In the school’s reports, sports trips to state competitions drew large amounts of expenses:
• Varsity Boys Basketball State Tournament cost a total of $2,500.00
• Girls Swimming team and coaches spent $137.00
• Meal money for the Boys volleyball team spent $584.00.
Under the district policy, students are reimbursed $4 for breakfast, $6 for lunch, and $10 for dinner. Outside events, such as a trip outside the state to Minnesota are the responsibility of the student, according to Kopecky.
Other questionable expenses were uncovered, including several reimbursements to faculty members for work jeans and work clothing. At one point, an outside cleaning service was responsible for cleaning their clothes, but “they went away from that” said Kopecky. Through union contract, custodial employees are allotted $300 each for clothing for work.