Officials call for investigation into South Country School District's finances
"In all my years of public service, I have never seen such a dire and disastrous financial situation," said state Sen. Dean Murray on Facebook about the district.
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Lawmakers are calling for a criminal investigation into the South Country School District's finances.
"In all my years of public service, I have never seen such a dire and disastrous financial situation," said state Sen. Dean Murray on Facebook about the district.
In response to what he called a "disaster" financial situation, Murray is now requesting that the Suffolk County district attorney look into potential criminal malfeasance.
As News 12 has previously reported, the district recently approved an $18 million loan to close an $8.7 million gap in this year's budget, plus millions more projected for next year.
"Based on their current situation, the district was set to run out of money in the beginning of May," said Sen. Murray. "When I say 'run out of money' I mean that literally, not figuratively."
He wrote that he and Assemblyman Joe DeStefano were approached by school district officials in January. Murray says they told them they had overspent by about $3.4 million.
As the weeks passed, he said the numbers changed, increasing to an $8.7 million shortfall this year with a negative $1.8 million in reserves and a total of $10.5 million for the 2025-26 school year.
"This was not a bailout. This was a responsible, targeted rescue," DeStefano wrote online.
DeStefano is also looking to implement a plan including:
Quarterly financial reporting
Full transparency with state and local officials
Accountability measures to ensure this never happens again
Some parents are concerned that giving more money to the district doesn’t solve any problems, but they also want their kids to get a good education.
“If you're a parent and you're sending your children to this school, do you want programs cut? It's a tough choice to be made,” said Scott Schneider, of Bellport.
Antonio Santana, Superintendent of South Country Schools, responded to Senator Dean Murray with a statement.
“As I noted in my letter to the community this morning, we are extremely appreciative of the advocacy and efforts extended by both Senator Dean Murray and Assemblyman Joe DeStefano in securing the special act legislation loan and the advance on our state aid. The former provides us with a path forward in paying down our current year operating deficit as well as the prior year’s deficit with the least impact on our taxpayers. The advance on our state aid ensures we have the cash flow to cover our expenses through the end of this school year in June.
We understand Senator Murray’s frustration and anger. We share that with him. But as we have reviewed with our community on multiple occasions, what has been determined the root cause of our fiscal crisis were missteps that included poor expense projections, inefficient monitoring of expenses in real-time, a misalignment of state aid reimbursement with bond-related capital improvement debt obligations, and several years of tax levies that were actually below the district’s allowable tax cap. With the change in leadership of the district’s financial operations, and in consultation with representatives from the State Comptroller’s Office who have been working with us over the past several months, we have put in place the necessary protocols, financial guardrails, and monitoring systems necessary to ensure that what put us in this fiscal crisis can never happen again.
It was also the findings of our external auditors, the Comptroller’s Office and the review conducted by John Belmonte, an expert in school district finances who we brought on board as our acting assistant superintendent of business and management services, that there was no factual evidence of fraud or criminal activity of any kind involved with our current fiscal challenges.
Our goal now is to ensure all parts are in place to allow us to move forward, preserving the core programs and services that ensure a quality education for our students while putting the district back on solid financial footing.”
