WAFF-TV: News, Weather and Sports for Huntsville, ALWhere'd the money go? Huntsville City Schools lose millions to bad business

They are problems that can happen in any school district in the state.

Thursday night, Huntsville City Schools exposed their own waste, inefficiencies, and fraud that have cost their district tens of millions of dollars.

It's a series of complicated events that can be summed up as bad business practices. Some are not so complicated, for instance purchasing light bulbs. A school district needs them and they may be buying for each one at the cost of an individual light bulb when they could get a better deal by buying the thousands they'll need - in other words, buying in bulk.

That's just one example of several bad practices shown Thursday night in front of the Board of Education and public. There were several examples given on a PowerPoint slide. Bad managing that's taken place for more than a decade costing the school district, and ultimately tax payers and students, tens of millions of dollars.

So how did school district leaders find all of this out?

Superintendent Dr. Casey Wardynski ordered a review of the business side of things in the school at the beginning of the school year. The disturbing information presented Thursday opened a lot of eyeballs in the room. Almost everyone in the room was seeing the findings for the first time. 

The superintendent was not surprised after following the money trail.

"There was a person buying parts from their wife at a high mark-up. That's not good. Then you go and look at the business and it's a home and it's not a business. We've got a lot of waste. We've got a lot of money left on the table. We probably have 33 million dollars this district could have had over the last 12 years in federal monies if people would have just filed for it," said Dr. Wardynski.

He said it's going to take a change of culture to change these types of practices and save money for a school district like so many across the state that has had its share of financial problems.

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