REBECCA BURK ELLIS / L’Observateur / July 29, 1998

VACHERIE – Over $18,000 of general and restricted fund money spent by St. James Junior High Principal John Brass has been questioned by theschool board. Now the state legislative auditor is looking at the matter.The board decided on July 21 to send the six-year audit performed by internal auditor Clinton Rouyea to the legislative auditor for further investigation.

The request of the audit came up while John Boughton was superintendent and when former St. James Junior High secretary Patricia Adams accusedBrass of sexually harassing her.

“The audit came as a result of the charges the secretary made against Mr.

Brass,” current Superintendent Walter Landry said. “In the process ofdiscussing that she said there may be irregularities (in the general and restricted funds).”After a study that took him about a year, Rouyea found that over a six- year period Brass spent $2,846 from the general fund on food and refreshments for after-school functions and parties for faculty and staff.

He also found that Brass and other employees at the junior high school spent an extra $139 on beer and liquor for the parties.

When it came to dissecting records from the restricted fund, Rouyea was at a loss for the first two years of the six-year audit because the cash receipts and disbursements journal could not be found.

Grover Austin, first assistant to state Legislative Auditor Dan Kyle, said purchasing alcohol is an inappropriate thing to do with school money.

“I don’t think it’s the place of the school to spend money on alcohol,” he said. “The attorney general has ruled that public funds shouldn’t be usedon alcohol. And we’re talking about a junior high school here. It’s just notan appropriate expenditure.

“But even though it was a no-no,” he added, “the amount of money spent on alcohol was small.”The money that makes up the general fund at each school is usually generated through fund-raisers, Austin said. And as soon as that moneygoes into a school fund, it is considered public funds.

Austin said the amount of money spent on food isn’t fair because only one group of employees benefit from it – those who work at St. James JuniorHigh.

“These items (food for teacher parties) are good for the school but normally pointed at one group of individuals,” he said.

Out of the general fund, Brass also spent $303 on a microwave for the teacher’s lounge, $778 for floral arrangements and plants for funerals, $2,266 for gifts and $1,541 for lunch with the principal over six years.

Gifts came from places such as Structure, Maison Blanche, JC Penney, Dillard’s and Monogram Express. One of the gifts was a pair of $39slippers. The audit explains on some items that the gifts were forteachers.

During the 1994-95 year Brass took teachers and students to Western Sizzlin six times, spending $299 from the general fund. Two of those sixtimes were on the same day – Jan. 20, 1995.Other places besides Western Sizzlin that Brass took people to eat during the audited period were Tony’s, The Stockpile, Raeco and Spuddy’s Cajun Foods.

During the 1993-94 year, Brass bought a lawnmower for the school for $1,162.09 from Western Auto in Vacherie. The price of the lawn mowerwas originally $1,000.45, but finance charges and late fees of $39.33bumped the price up a bit.

Austin said he isn’t sure how the legislative auditor’s office will end up responding to the lawn mower expenditure and debt.

“That is an issue that will require some thought because the school board is supposed to supply for the general needs of the school,” he said.

Austin said the rule on spending money from the general fund is that it has to “help the student population.”Brass would not comment on the audit, however Austin feels that only guidance will be offered from state officials to prevent similar situations from happening at other schools in St. James Parish.”I assume that to a large extent we will give the school board some guidance to regulate activity funds,” Austin said. “I don’t look at theseissues as significant enough to bring criminal charges.”Landry said he is already on top of making rules for principals to follow when spending general fund money.

“As a result of this we are developing a policy manual,” he said. “We’vealready started a booklet of do’s and don’t’s for principals.”Landry said many ideas in the book came from the handbook in Calcasieu Parish.

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