NEW ROCHELLE, NY — In an exclusive interview Friday with Jeffrey T. White, the recently-hired New Rochelle Assistant Superintendent for Business and Administration told Talk of the Sound the District will need to borrow $50 million to repair long-neglected schools throughout the District. The news comes weeks after a ceiling-collapse at the Daniel Webster Elementary School, led to the closing of the school and relocation to the Holy Family School.
“The bulk of that money is for the High School,” said White, who went on to describe the District’s largest and most prominent building as badly in need of extensive repairs.
Talk of the Sound has reported for years on the waste, fraud and abuse which has been endemic to the New Rochelle School system, much of it related to large amounts of frivolous and fraudulent spending on capital construction projects and falsified payroll time sheets in the Buildings and Grounds.
White said his plan is to spend $50 million on what he called “triage” for the “building envelope” and then continue to invest one to three million in capital projects going forward.
In 2014, largely as the result of reporting by Talk of the Sound, interim Superintendent Dr. Jeffrey Korostoff hired outside consultant Michael Orifici, to inspect every building in the District. Orifici’s reports confirmed and extended reporting by Talk of the Sound. As the school board finally began to absorb the magnitude of what school official described as “deception” by White’s predecessor, John Quinn, support for Quinn evaporated and he was effectively fired by the board when they declined to renew his contract in 2014. Not only was Quinn replaced by White but the entire Aramark management team was replaced by Korostoff, again largely as the result of reporting by Talk of the Sound.
The District has repeatedly refused to turn over an extensive report prepared by Orifici under Freedom of Information requests. That report initially detailed $39.2 mm in “priority 1” and “priority 2” capital construction work that was required urgently to protect the health and safety of students and staff.
Talk of the Sound did obtain an itemezed list of the Priority 1 and Priority 2 required repair work prepared in early 2014 by Orifici. Is is this list of repairs that Osborne refused to act on when he was initially hired. Pressed to bond for the money immediately to repair schools last summer, as was recommended by his entire advisory team, incoming Superintendent Dr. Brian Osborne refused.
That amount has only grown with ceiling collapses at Webster as well as Barnard Childhood Center and boiler failures at Albert Leonard Middle School.
White acknowledged he had inherited a “mess” when he came on board 10 months ago.
“We’re going to clean it up,” said White.
White is well-qualified for the task.
White, a Certified Public Accountant, was hired by the City School District of New Rochelle after serving as Assistant Superintendent for Business, Purchasing Agent and District Clerk in the Monroe-Woodbury Central School District in Orange County, NY.
In a press release issued by New Rochelle at the time of his hire, the District noted “Prior to his position at Monroe-Woodbury, Mr. White was Fiscal Administrator, New York State Education Department and then appointed by the Commissioner of Education as financial administrator to oversee the first state takeover of a New York school district. In earlier roles, he held the same position in the Cold Spring Harbor Central School District as in Monroe-Woodbury and was School Business Administrator and Purchasing Agent in the Shoreham-Wading River Central School District. Mr. White is a candidate for a doctoral degree in Education from the University of Pennsylvania and holds an M.S.Ed. degree in school administration from Long Island University, as well as M.B.A. in accounting and B.S. in Finance degrees from St. John’s University.”
UPDATE: Chris Eberhart of the Journal News is reporting the exact amount of the bond is expected to be $49.5mm, a Building Condition Survey is expected to be completed next week, there will be a voter referendum in December, the plan calls for work to begin next summer and be completed over a three year period, ending in 2018, that this bonding plan will be discussed at the October 6th School Board meeting.