A blistering state audit was front and center Monday night during Lehighton Area School District’s first regular board meeting since the report’s release several weeks ago.

Director David Bradley, who came on the board in 2018, called the district a “financial train wreck” Monday. “We are in a severe financial crisis and there needs to be oversight of every penny spent.”

During the audit period, Lehighton’s general fund balance dropped from approximately $14.2 million as of June 30, 2015, to $874,439 as of June 30, 2019. Auditor General Eugene DePasquale said that was largely due to the district’s failure to budget for capital expenditures coupled with the costs of borrowing $62 million to consolidate and renovate school buildings.

“The district racked up a stunning $17.3 million tab for debt service during the audit period,” DePasquale said. “By the time the debt is scheduled to be paid off in 2044, district taxpayers will have paid over $43 million in interest on the loans.”

The audit also noted that the district entered into a supposed “no-cost” contract to create Science, Technology, Engineering and Math academies at the elementary, middle and high schools. In reality, the complex contract with the National Education Foundation ended up costing the district over $3 million.

In a response from the district to the audit, it said corrective steps had already been taken including having former Business Administrator Patricia Denicola provide fund balance training to the board, provide the board with a multiyear comparison of the district’s actual versus budgeted expenditures and revenues, develop 2019-20 and 2020-21 budgets based on actual expected costs, and addressed deficiencies within the business office related to invoicing of other school districts for Lehighton’s education of a student from another school district. A total of $1,102,147.74 was billed to other school districts for school years 2017-18 and prior.

Denicola, according to the audit, also ensured that the district’s requests for Plan Con reimbursements were brought up-to-date, Lehighton had a number of instances in which Plan Con reimbursements were not appropriately filed in prior fiscal years. Denicola addressed incomplete filings related to prior years totaling $1,777,049.82 in Plan Con reimbursements.

“We started providing the board with monthly bank statements,” Superintendent Jonathan Cleaver added Monday. “In the auditor general’s report, they indicate they are satisfied with the practices we have put in place. I think we’re making steps in the right direction.”

At multiple points during the meeting, Bradley expressed frustration over what he called a lack of amicable access to financial information for board members.

“As directors, we should not have to file countless Right To Know requests for financial information,” he said.

Bradley repeatedly called for the resignations of the three board members who have served the longest: Larry Stern, Wayne Wentz and Stephen Holland. Throughout Monday’s meeting, Bradley repeatedly referred to Stern and Wentz as “Lying Larry and Wicked Wayne.”

The board deadlocked 4-4, with Stern abstaining, on several motions dealing with access to financial information, one of which would have allowed the administration to schedule two hours per week when directors could look at any financial records kept by the district.

“I’m voting no because there will be no rules,” Spinelli said. “If we can get together and come up with a process, that would change my mind.”

Cleaver asked Bradley if he would be willing to identify the financial records he wants to review ahead of time so they could be pulled and placed in the conference room for inspection.

“No,” Bradley answered, “because I find this administration untrustworthy. In the past, when we have sought documents ahead of time, some of them have been lost.”

Stern said Bradley’s blanket requests for tens of thousands of documents “shuts down the office.”

“There is never any clarity or specificity to what he is asking for,” Stern added.

Bradley called for several motions Monday night, none of which passed, including:

• For the board to reprimand all parties that neglected their duty under the Pa. School Code as documented in the 2020 Auditor General report.

• For the board to reprimand all parties that continue to neglect the warning presented in the Auditor General reports.

• For the board, with the responsibility for oversight, to hold the subordinate administration accountable to the directives of the board, and

• For the board to follow the laws of the commonwealth as commonly written in plain English, only choosing to deviate from said common English language interpretation with a two-thirds majority vote of the board after the board first obtains and reviews the legal written opinion of the government’s solicitor, as a documented legal opinion with case law references.

During the public comment portion of the meeting, resident Fred Kemmerer suggested the board hold a special meeting to go over the audit and what can be done moving forward to help ensure the same issues don’t pop up again.

“I don’t care for people getting their heads chopped off without knowing all the facts,” Kemmerer said. “I empathize with both sides here. I think if there are parties involved with a reprimand it should be everyone on the board except for Nathan Foeller since he didn’t come on the board until after the audit period. Maybe that is what it would take for you guys to try and come together. The animosity has to stop.”