GIRARD — The Board of Education at an emergency meeting Friday accepted the resignation of Mark Bello who had served since the 1990s as treasurer of the school district.

Bello’s resignation, approved by a 5-0 vote, comes after a recently released state audit showed he was paid $461,000 in one fiscal year after a retire-rehire contract. The board approved the contract last year, which gave him a 1% stipend of all district revenue.

Bello did not attend the meeting and was also not at the regular meeting in May.

Board President Diane Alejars said the board received Bello’s resignation before the meeting, and it was effective Thursday.

The board also approved a motion to have Stacy Foster, a treasurer with the Trumbull County Educational Service Center, serve as the interim treasurer as the board makes plans to seek a permanent treasurer.

An executive session is planned 5 p.m. June 25 for board members to discuss seeking a new treasurer.

“We will be discussing the procedure to follow going forward in finding and appointing a permanent treasurer,” Alejars said.

Alejars said Foster was hired immediately so there would be no break in the treasurer’s office and to ensure all financial matters are being addressed and bills being paid.

Alejars said the situation is unfortunate.

“We are not jumping for joy because this happened, but we have to deal with this,” she said. “We are concerned about the school system and want to move forward,” she said.

Alejars said the board was made aware of the situation earlier this year and hired an attorney.

Board member Joseph Datchuk told the 20 people at the emergency meeting there would be no public comments. Several of the people at the meeting were school employees.

Datchuk said the public will be able to comment at 4:30 p.m. June 27 at the regular monthly meeting. Each person will be given three minutes to speak.

Datchuk said 30 minutes will be provided at that meeting for public input.

He said more information will be available to the public at the meeting.

The board previously has indicated it plans to have outside legal counsel review any contracts between the board and district employees.

AUDIT FINDINGS

A state audit of the district for fiscal year 2023 in a section “noncompliance, waste and abuse” noted plans to accept the retirement and to rehire Bello in the same position at a public meeting June 23, 2022.

Bello’s new contract was effective Sept. 5, 2022, to June 30, 2024.

The audit states in the treasurer’s contract, the stipend was changed from 2.5% of all federal, state and local grants / CCIP / awards / private revenue of the district to 1% of all revenue of the district.

In fiscal year 2022, Bello was paid $188,683, of which $115,114 was his base salary and $58,932 was the 2.5% stipend.

In addition, the treasurer received a monthly car allowance of $400 per month and received a leave balance payout. In fiscal year 2023, Bello was paid a total of $461,187, of which $118,078 was his base salary and $325,918 was the 1% stipend. He also received a leave balance payout and his monthly car allowance increased to $500 per month starting in September 2022.

According to the audit, Bello got a pay bump of almost $326,000 for the fiscal year 2023, part of a retire / rehire agreement approved in 2022.

The audit states, “Inquiry with board members revealed that certain board members were aware of the percentage change in the contract but were not aware of the language change to ‘all revenue of the district’ and there was an expectation of reduced payment to the treasurer.”

The audit states the amount paid to the district treasurer “as a retire / rehire was excessive.”

The audit also states, “the increased stipend amount of 1% of all district revenue that the board approved in the treasurer’s new contract from fiscal year 2022 to fiscal year 2023 for the same treasurer service was excessive.

According to the auditor’s office, the board voted for the change unanimously but did not realize it would be a pay increase.

“The amount paid to the district treasurer as a retire / rehire employee represents an excessive and extravagant use of district resources and behavior a prudent person would not consider reasonable and necessary business practices, which we consider to be of a material nature. The board should also use due diligence in understanding all terms and conditions of a contract prior to approval,” the audit states.

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