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By Mark Guydish mguydish@timesleader.com
Education Reporter
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On Wednesday, Feb.25, 2009, Dallas High School guidance counselor and athletic director Jack Wolensky stood before a Luzerne County judge and admitted stealing more than $24,000 from a student activity fund and two fundraising organizations. It was a glaring public example of how the complex system of supplemental teacher pay – worth about $4 million in Luzerne County school districts in 2008-09 – can go wrong.

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Jack Wolensky admitted stealing more than $24,000 from a student fund and two fundraising organizations.

AIMEE DILGER file photo/THE TIMES LEADER

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Part of Wolensky’s crime was perpetrated directly on students. He had them pay for practice and real SATs when the testing company levied no such fees. But part of his offense involved bilking the district activity fund for costs he never incurred, including $1,500 for athletic meals and $1,585 in proceeds from the Dallas football team helmet sales. Wolensky repaid all the money.

Wolensky had misappropriated some of the money under the auspices of his “athletic director” cap, a job taken over by Jay Pope who, in 2008-09, was paid $6,925 for doing those duties, along with his regular teaching work that earned him $75,360. But Wolensky’s misdeeds did not involve his supplemental pay.

Still, District Business Manager Grant Palfey said it threw a red flag up on the whole system.

“He was forging signatures,” Palfey said. “I would have thought we had control over that.” Since then, the district took steps to prevent a recurrence or any other abuses of the system. “I think we’ve done a lot to prevent overpayments or double payments.”

Palfey cited the multiple safeguards built into his district’s supplemental budgeting process, which begins – as in all districts – with public approval of the expenditures by the board. Time sheets are signed by the educator and his or her supervisor. The business office salary and benefits coordinator keeps “a watchful eye” when data is entered into the computer. There are annual, state-mandated audits by an outside accountant hired by the school board, as well as biennial audits from the state’s Auditor General’s Office. On top of that, Palfey said, he sometimes drops in on programs to spot check. None of which, he concedes, makes it 100 percent error-proof.

There is no cost-effective way to completely verify every payment and the hours of work done to earn it. “There’s certainly a trust factor,” Palfey said. “Is it possible for something to slip through? Yes.” But there are enough safeguards in place for him to have a high level of confidence that, even if something does happen, it will be spotted and corrected.