Wonder what it feels like to so recklessly spend other's hard earned money; especially with zero accountability...all the while getting a new contract and a nice raise.

Superintendent Terri Bavis and the Waterloo School Board should be ashamed. Complete and utter ineptitude on both fronts.

As if the poor job performance supported by the facts uncovered in the audit wasn't enough to get Waterloo tax-payers livid, the follow up letter from Bavis and the Board to the state would make any politician proud.

"Auditors: Waterloo CSD 'did not ad...cessarily"

Report of Examination - Waterloo Central...ent - Oct. 2019

"Waterloo school chief gets 3.25 percent raise"

"State audit critical of Waterloo school district finances" - Finger Lakes Times

do you really think that someone who is actually qualified would come to Waterloo ?

The auditors are critical that the Waterloo school board saved too much, not that they spent too much.

I would say that the Board taxed too much.

at a time when most people can't even handle their own personal finances, you expect that board to manage a budget as big as that one ?
Besides an auditor will always find SOMETHING wrong.

DeReRustica - Not sure whom you are directing your comment to. Correct, they weren't found to have spent too much; they continually take too much.That kind of surplus should be given back to the tax payers.

My taxes went up this year. Yet the district is sitting on 9.6 million surplus? That doesn't seem right. I don't even have any kids. Like many in the community I scrape to get by; have to make sacrifices every tax season to do my part. At the absolute minimum the school board and superintendent should be overly transparent and very intentionally communicate to the community.

If I give a neighbor a loaf of bread. Later I discover said neighbor, whom continues to ask me for a new loaf of bread; has a garage full of untouched bread I'm going to be pissed off and feel taken advantage of.

If you're okay with this you are either very fortunate, or a much better person than I (Regretfully it wouldn't take much to be one, or the other, or both).

This Superintendent loves to spend money, (it should be a requirement for the superintendent to live in the district but that's another conversation...queue Mr "get off my lawn" to reply). That said the majority of the blame falls on the school board. They are to hold the superintendent accountable yet she has them in the palm of her hand.

I can't be the only one this rubs the wrong way but what do I know.

9.3 million is much more than SOMETHING

BUT THE MONEY IS STILL THERE AND CAN BE USED TO OFFSET NEXT YEARS TAXES, IT AIN'T LIKE IT WAS SPENT OR STOLEN.

That should be reflected in this year’s bills if that was the intent. Taxes for the school district are levied in July and billed in September. By law it is this year that the taxpayers are supposed to experience the relief.

Shout as loud as you want. Taxpayers in Waterloo deserve better.

OMG, someone should scrutinize you people in the same manner that you seem to inflict on everyone else. The school board is elected in the same fashion as our local officials, nothing more than a popularity contest where nobody is actually qualified. AND if they were actually qualified they wouldn't be living in Seneca County.

This is like Government Finance 101. So simple.

Your argument is that a government should be allowed to be flush with cash, in this case nearly 10 million, and still be allowed to get in to it’s citizens pockets. So much for balanced budgets and accountability on your end. Let them run wild.

NO, MY ARGUEMENT IS, when you elect your friends, or someone you like to a position of having to make business decisions purely on their personality you SHOULD EXPECT MISTAKES.

Exactly Chuck.

We need to stop electing people based on what they say they want and start electing people that have a plan. In the case of Waterloo, we need people that are willing to learn how to handle school money before they vote on what to do with it.

Like you mentioned, we don’t have a lot of choices in the voting booth. Nobody wants to do the job. We can’t expect a lot of government experience and forget education as a prerequisite. We need politicians that are willing to learn the job so they do it right.

Drive down Main Street in Waterloo and look at the signs. I would call it a popularity contest but some of them aren’t even popular. School board is no different.

That is also true on a national level. It used to be called, "picking the lesser of two evils ".

So what's your solution ? First of all most voters bitch and think they know what's going on, but the minute you start talking about the issues you realize they don't know a damn thing, about anything.

Send them to training when elected. If we already do, they aren’t paying attention.

The older I get the more I come to realize there is no fixing this.

When elected the person leaving office is supposed to help them and there is a town law manual but nobody reads it. Hell in Seneca Falls the supervisor is accused of violating peoples 1st amendment rights at board meetings by not letting them speak when State law says they have no right to speak at board meetings and Avery is the biggest complainer so he obviously never read the town law manual. Fixing the problem would take work, and most elected officials think you can fix something by talking about it but have no idea what to do about it and are too lazy anyway.

Tax cap will lower for school districts, adding pressure to budgeting - FingerLakes1.com

Hear that Superintendent Bevis & Waterloo School Board (Ellen Hughes, Coreen Lowry, Terri Reese, Michael Shores, Charles Bronson, Tiffany Folk, Melissa Nicolini, Renee Thomas, Erin Brown) ?!?!

YOU MUST DO A BETTER JOB OF MAKING AN ACTUAL BUDGET AND NOT PADDING IT YEAR AFTER YEAR! Welcome to the real world! Millions of private businesses annually are tasked with making an accurate foretasted budget with many future unknowns. Cut the fat out of the budget. Stop over hiring. You must do better. You must consider the stake holders and the community when making the decisions you do. We all want the best education for our youth but this board fails to walk that fine line between respecting the tax payers and providing a solid education for the kids of Waterloo.

A little reliable birdie told me this board could have cut $1 million off the budget but recently chose not to do so. I have no proof of this other than it coming from what I consider a very reliable source. Don't take my word for it do your own research.
Considering the following...
(1) this school board is made of of Bevis' hand picked peons (Bevis was even able to get the teachers union to endorse) Don't believe me? Watch how they vote...but don't count on their meeting minutes going up in the required time frame per NYS Open Meetings Law.
(2) The recent NYS audit findings that district tax payers have been over-taxed ever since Bevis took her position. (Must be nice living out of the district and not having any skin in the game).
(3) As if that wasn't enough check out the smug response letter drafted by Bevis and Board President Ellen Hughes; it lacks any sort of responsibility and accountability regarding the state's findings. A total disregard for the taxpayers of the Waterloo school district. How more people aren't up in arms is beyond me. We are over taxed as it is and with this Superintendent and board it's not going to get any better.

But let's keep approving their projects, budgets and while we're at it let's give Bevis a raise and new contact!

When you started using caps lock and insisted that the school was over staffed I can clearly tell you do not know what you are discussing.