“I only know what I am told about this. Don't email me.”
Board Member Beverly Schwab’s
emailed response
to a constituent’s concerns
May 16, 2011
What is the Fort Cherry School Board told?
Let’s take a look at the district’s purchase of SunGard (Pentamation) accounting software and compare what the board was told to what the documentation shows.
What the Board was told:
June 2008:
· The Board was told that the business office planned to purchase new accounting software.
· The Board was told that the cost of the software would be $65,000.
· The Board approved the purchase.
Shown below – "what the board was told" - key highlights and the items approved for purchase from the 2008-2009 budget:
What the documentation shows:
June 2007:
· One year before any funds should have been expended for SunGard software, the school solicitor reviewed the contract with SunGard and conferred with Sroka.
· Nine months before board approval, Sroka entered into a contract with SunGard. (To save space, only relevant pages are shown.)
· Initial cost of the software: $69,285
Shown below – itemized cost of the software implementation and data conversion:
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· Additional cost of the software: $1,200 per month
What the Board was told:
June 2008:
· The board was told the software would be purchased after July 1, 2008.
· Expenditures approved in a school district’s budget are board authorized for payment no earlier than July 1, the start of the district’s new fiscal year.
What the documentation shows:
December 2007:
· Seven months before the start of the new fiscal year, the district received its first invoice from SunGard.
January 2008:
· Six months before the start of the new fiscal year, the district issues a check payable to SunGard for $2,145.08. Board member Bruce Sharpnack’s signature is on the check as well as Paul Sroka’s.
February 2008:
· Five months before the start of the new fiscal year, every member of the board should have seen the details of the SunGard check recorded on the list of bills for board ratification which is included in the monthly board packet.
In February of 2008, while the district was still using the Munis software accounting system, every board member should have seen an entry for the $2,145.08 check written to SunGard Pentamation, a purchase they had not yet approved.
ü Did any one of the nine board members question it?
ü Did Sharpnack question it when he signed check #1026?
Claiming they “only know what they are told” does not excuse the board from its responsibility to the parents and taxpayers of the district.
Every member of the board is given a board packet each month.
It is the board’s responsibility to ask questions and demand answers.
In addition to the initial $2,145 check, the checks shown below were all endorsed before the board approved the software purchase at the end of June 2008. All would have appeared in the list of bills for ratification in the monthly board packets.
Check #1027 – signed by Sroka and Sharpnack.
Checks #1030, #1031, #1033 – signed by Sharpnack only.
So here we have district checks issued with only 1 or 2 signatures.
What does district policy say about that . . . ?
FC District Policy #616 reads:
All checks approved by the Board shall be signed by the President, Treasurer and Secretary.
District Policy No. 616
SECTION: FINANCES
TITLE: PAYMENT OF CLAIMS
ADOPTED: March 27, 1995
REVISED: April 26, 2010
http://www.fortcherry.org/170310597212240/lib/170310597212240/616-Payment_of_Claims.pdf
It appears that these checks violated district policy.
To review, back in 2007:
ü Sroka entered into a contract with SunGard nine months before board approval.
ü Checks were issued to SunGard six months before the start of the fiscal year.
ü Several checks were issued without required signatures, a violation of district policy.
It appears that the SunGard software was purchased prior to board approval and against district policy.
So here we are in 2011, and it appears that history is repeating itself. . .
In February 2011, the board approved the purchase of NEW accounting software.
Meeting roundup: Fort Cherry & Washington school boards
Fort Cherry School Board
• Date: Feb. 28
• Action: The board bought ProSoft, a business office software, for $50,000.
The board approved a three-year contract extension with Cypher & Cypher. The auditors will be paid roughly $16,000 a year.
The board hired Jessica Drylic as accounting coordinator at an annual salary of $45,000.
The board approved the Western Area Career and Technology proposed budget totaling $5,785,592.
The board approved the 2011-12 Intermediate Unit 1 budget of $2,047,662.
• Discussion: Eight people spoke about concerns about air quality at the school campus because of nearby gas well drilling. Superintendent Robert Dinnen said he would work with the PTA to create an ad hoc committee about the drilling. The committee will talk about what the district can and cannot do about the drilling based on township ordinances and state Department of Environmental Protection regulations.
• Next meeting: 7:30 p.m. March 21 in the elementary center library
What the Board was told:
During the May 2011 budget meetings, Sroka told the board that the money for the ProSoft software would come out of the 2011/2012 budget.
What the Documentation shows:
According to the Software Maintenance Agreement (the only document made available to the public), it appears the contract with ProSoft was entered into by March 31, 2011 and the following packages had been installed (full agreement at the end of this post):
If the software has been installed, has the district paid for the ProSoft software prior to the board approved date of July 1, 2011?
If the district is now under contract with ProSoft, when does the contract with SunGard expire?
Let’s take another look at the termination clause of the Sungard contract.
Sroka signed the SunGard contract on October 16, 2007. The contract automatically renews every year on that date.
· The district will be under contract with SunGard until October 16, 2011.
· SunGard’s monthly fee in 2007 was $1,200, but is up to at least $1,300 today.
As of today, the district is under contract with SunGard and ProSoft.
Sroka announced at the June 20th board meeting that ProSoft is being utilized by the business office, affirming that the monthly licensing fee with ProSoft has begun.
Taxpayers will be footing the bill for the both the SunGard software AND the Prosoft software until the SunGard contract expires in October.
· Cost to taxpayers for the DUPLICATION of accounting software services from now until October 2011 - $5200.
· Cost to taxpayers for the initial purchase and implementation of the Prosoft software $50,000 (as reported by the Observer, no actual documentation was given to the public).
· Cost to taxpayers for the Sungard software by the time the contract expires in October – roughly $110,000.
The Fort Cherry School Board approved doing away with the $110,000 investment in SunGard and approved investing $50,000 into new software even though the district already had accounting software in place and running.
WHY?
What the Board was told:
Sroka told the board that the SunGard software was “cumbersome” and “difficult to work with” and therefore must be replaced. He went on to say that only one other school district uses the software.
What the documentation shows:
According to his resume, Sroka has an MBA and he lists both SunGard Pentamation and the pre-2008 software (Munis) under his list of skills on his resume.
So Sroka, with a MBA degree, finds the SunGard software “difficult”?
What does it take to use SunGard software, a PHD?
Oh, that’s right, Trish Craig has a PHD and Dinnen has two. It seems that someone in the business office should have been capable of using the software.
When contacted, here’s what SunGard had to say about their customers in Pennsylvania, and the level of customer support they provide. A copy of the entire email was forwarded to several board members. (A full copy of the email located at the end of the post.)
“We currently have 73 customers in Pennsylvania on the SunGard K-12 Education products with 51 on the finance package that Fort Cherry purchased and implemented in 2007/2008.”
“Once a customer has implemented our software and gone ‘live’ with use of the application, support for all of our customers includes ongoing phone and email support through our Call Center and a dedicated Client Relationship Manager (CRM). Our CRM acts as a liaison with our customers to share information regarding SunGard’s direction as well as to understand any issues or concerns that a school district is experiencing and be their advocate internally.”
Michelle Reed * Senior Vice President, Marketing
SunGard Higher Education & SunGard K-12 Education
One MBA, three PHDs, one accounting coordinator, one accounts payable clerk, and a dedicated Client Relationship Manager and no one in the business office was able to use the software?
The only member of the board who asked significant questions concerning the reason for the software purchase was Chris Lauff, who also reminded the board of the need to be cost conscious.
The remaining board members, including Ray Miller, Bruce Sharpnack, and Beverly Schwab did not ask Sroka for any justification for the purchase.
In fact, Sharpnack ended all discussion on the issue when he “called the question”, which halts all discussion and forces a vote. (This tactic has been used consistently by Sharpnack.)
Something to consider:
The Tribune Review Right-to-Know appeal is presently sitting in Commonwealth Court.
If the Trib wins this appeal, Fort Cherry is obligated to provide the newspaper with five-years worth of financial data; data which may no longer be electronically available with the installation of the new accounting software.
In fact, when Lauff was questioning the software purchase at the meeting, Sroka stated that the district would not maintain a license with SunGard and that the financial information would be on his computer ONLY. No one else would have access to it.
Is it possible that the board’s approval of the new software has given district administrators the ability to keep the Trib, the taxpayers, and even the board members from seeing how public funds have been spent in the last five years?
The Fort Cherry School Board has consistently voted “yes” across the board, without question, to anything presented to them by Sroka or Dinnen.
With the exception of Lauff, this board voted “yes” to furloughing truthfully and legally certified teachers as presented in the budget prepared by Dinnen and Sroka without exploring other options (including alternative budget cuts proposed by Lauff and a pay freeze offered by the teachers’ union).
For the price of the new software ($50,000) and the duplication of accounting services ($5,200) Fort Cherry could have retained at least one of those teachers this year.
You may wonder why the public doesn’t question this expenditure at the next school board meeting.
The fact is, the public is prohibited from questioning the administration and the board during school board meetings.
Yes, the public is prohibited from questioning the board.
District policy 903, prohibits the public from asking questions at board meetings. In fact, the policy defines “question” and “comment” to avoid confusion.
It is the policy of the district that the public shall be permitted to speak at all special meetings of the Board, such comments being solely limited to those items listed on the special meeting agenda as special meetings are limited in scope and called for specific purposes.
There is a distinction, though, between public comment and questions of the Board. A comment is a note or remark of explanation or illustration expressing an opinion or attitude. A question is an act of asking for a response to a specific point at issue.
Public Comments - those wishing to comment must live in the school district and state their name and address prior to commencing with comments. Comments should be limited to three (3) minutes.
District Policy No. 903
SECTION: COMMUNITY
PUBLIC PARTICIPATION IN BOARD MEETINGS
ADOPTED: March 27, 1995
REVISED: June 22, 2009
The public would be better served if the district administration and school board would look up the definition of the word “transparency”.
Sadly, it’s possible that “transparency” has been redacted from every dictionary in the district.
By the way, at the June 27 meeting, when the board members were complaining about the layout of the documentation provided with the ProSoft software, Sroka said that he can easily make changes to the layout.
By the way, at the June 27 meeting, when the board members were complaining about the layout of the documentation provided with the ProSoft software, Sroka said that he can easily make changes to the layout.
Sroka’s words: “Any tweaks ProSoft makes are free.”
That’s what the board was told. . .
As shown below, the documentation from ProSoft states:
“support for system administrator functions. . . troubleshooting. . . are not included in the Agreement. However, ProSoft may, at its sole discretion provide such support at an additional fee.”
. . . and that’s what the documentation shows.
Email sent to board members regarding Sungard software:
Date: Mon, Mar 21, 2011 at 1:56 PM
Subject: Fwd: Fort Cherry Follow Up
Gentlemen,
I contacted Sungard and requested information regarding their customer support program and the number of districts under contract with them.
Contrary to the statement made at the meeting, Pine Richland is not the only district using Sungard software.
“We currently have 73 customers in Pennsylvania on the SunGard K-12 Education products with 51 on the finance package that Fort Cherry purchased and implemented in 2007/2008.”
From the publicly available information Sungard was permitted to give me, it appears they provide a high level of support to their customers.
Sungard offers support via phone and email, a dedicated Client Relationship Manager, and three options for ongoing training and professional development.
Before asking you to vote to spend $50,000 on new software, the board should have been given documentation as to exactly which options FC’s business office pursued when they asked for support, and why that support was ineffective.
One of you (or all of you) may want to contact Sungard.
The public trusts you to make every effort to ensure that our tax dollars are being spent wisely.
Thank you,
XXXXXXXXX
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Reed, Michelle <Michelle.Reed@sungardhe.com>
Date: Thu, Mar 17, 2011 at 5:56 PM
Subject: Fort Cherry Follow Up
Dear XXXXXXXXX,
We appreciate your continued interest in the success of the Fort Cherry District and would like to also take this opportunity to provide further answers to your questions. We appreciate your sensitivity to the fact that confidentiality restrictions allow us only to provide you with information that is otherwise publicly available.
We currently have 73 customers in Pennsylvania on the SunGard K-12 Education products with 51 on the finance package that Fort Cherry purchased and implemented in 2007/2008.
Our web site www.sungard.com/PLUS360 describes the professional services we offer both for new implementations of our software and services that are useful after implementation is complete. Consulting and training are available to cover more advanced topics, expand a school district’s use of the software or to bring new users up-to-date. We offer three options for ongoing training and professional development to our customers: on-site training that is implementation-related or topic-specific for individual districts, online training via WebEx that is also implementation-related or topic-specific for individual districts, and online training via WebEx that is topic-specific and available for multiple districts to participate in as a group. In addition, on this website you can see more details about the eFinancePLUS package currently in use, as well as the hosting services provided to Fort Cherry.
Once a customer has implemented our software and gone ‘live’ with use of the application, support for all of our customers includes ongoing phone and email support through our Call Center and a dedicated Client Relationship Manager (CRM). Our CRM acts as a liaison with our customers to share information regarding SunGard’s direction as well as to understand any issues or concerns that a school district is experiencing and be their advocate internally.
An additional level of support to bring to your attention would be that of our user community itself. Customers are invited to participate in annual user conferences held within PA or the close surrounding states to provide updates on best practices within the software and to collaborate with other users on the direction of the software. In addition, Pennsylvania has a very active SunGard K-12 user community that meets quarterly to focus on regulatory reporting and are instrumental is sharing their successful use of the software and identifying areas for enhancement.
We are committed to software solutions designed to help administrators, teachers, and parents support student achievement. To that end, we seek to enable our customers to realize the full benefits of their investment in our solutions. Thank you for your continued interest in SunGard K-12 Education.
Regards,
Michelle
Michelle Reed * Senior Vice President, Marketing * SunGard Higher Education & SunGard K-12 Education * 4 Country View Road Malvern, PA 19355 * Tel 610-578-7414 * Mobile 484-883-3654 * Fax 610-578-3414 * Michelle.Reed@sungard.com * http://www.sungard.com/
Agreement between Fort Cherry and ProSoft:
