New @mocoboe members Immediately Left Town for Miami Vacation with rest of BOE and @mcps Superintendent.

Newly elected Board of Education members Grace Rivera-Oven and Julie Yang were on the Montgomery County Board of Education for just 7 days when they left town for Miami with the rest of the Board of Education members. 

This December vacation for the Board of Education and Superintendent will be paid for out of the MCPS Operating Budget.  Remember all those teachers begging for school supplies?  Sorry, the Board of Education and Superintendent needed to get some Miami sun in December.  Buy your own supplies teachers.  

When does spending less really mean spending more?

Answer:  When your kids go back to school.

According to the New York Times, parents are spending less on certain school items - like clothing, because money is tight.  Sound familiar?  Its not just in our own Montgomery County Public School District.

However, one expense has increased - and that is school supplies.  When money is tight, schools try to do more with less, and often items we took for granted when we were in school - like scissors, paper, and glue - are in short supply, so parents are asked to chip in.

Montgomery County is not alone in facing more students who can't afford school supplies.  Is this a factor at your school?

The NYTimes notes:

 Of the more than one million K-12 students enrolled in New York City public schools last year, 74 percent came from “economically disadvantaged” households, meaning that they qualified for free or reduced-price lunches and other assistance programs, according to data from the education department.

About 84,000 homeless students attended school in New York City during the 2013 school year, up 25 percent since 2010, according to the Institute for Children, Poverty and Homelessness. A majority of those students do not live in shelters, which means they often miss the benefits of backpack drives and other fund-raisers aimed at low-income families, said Linda Bazerjian, a spokeswoman for the group.

. . . 

The gap between rich and poor, private school and public school, can be evident in lists for school supplies, and who comes prepared. Mr. Schulist says that one of his school lists requires students to bring 100 pencils, which helps compensate for children whose families can afford no pencils at all.

Underfunded schools are a problem nationwide.   Think about what your school provides, and whether all children are able to come to school prepared to learn.  And whether the gap just gets bigger instead of smaller with each new school year.

Schools Get Invoice for Fake School Supplies

When oversight of spending is not in place its easy to miss getting ripped off by vendors.  

The Better Business Bureau issued a warning about school systems getting invoices for fake school supplies.  

From the article:

September 11, 2014

Better Business Bureau is warning schools and school districts across the country about possible fake invoices for educational supplies. In the past few weeks, there has been a rush of complaints filed with BBB against “Scholastic School Supply,” which claim either a Nevada or New Jersey address that turn out to be mail drops.BBB Serving Southern Nevada received its first complaint against Scholastic School Supply on August 20, 2014, and since then has received nearly 70 complaints from schools across the country. The company’s online BBB Business Review has also received more than 3,000 inquiries; there is an Alert posted there so that visitors are able to confirm the suspicious nature of the invoice. The company maintains a mail drop in Sewell, New Jersey, as well as Las Vegas, and BBB New Jersey has received more than 20 complaints so far.The bogus invoices have been for $647.50 for the bulk purchase of “English-Language Arts Practice Books” or $388.50 for math workbooks (although the amounts and products could change at any time). Complainants say they cannot reach the company to inquire about the products or amounts allegedly owed, and all have denied ever doing business with the company previously. . . . 

So far, none of the complainants have sent money; however, BBB has no way of knowing if any schools have unknowingly paid the invoice, since they would not have filed a complaint.

The question for our lovely Montgomery County Board of Education is -

• Have we received one of these fake invoices?

A better question is

• Would our accounting systems be able to detect a fraudulent invoice?

I have my own thoughts on this, but I'd love to get an assurance from the MCPS Board of Education and its financial gurus that they are taking their responsibilities seriously and protecting precious and limited taxpayer dollars.

Care to comment, Phil?