NEWS

MCS financial officer resigns after 2 months

Emma Kate Fittes
efittes@muncie.gannett.com
Chief Financial Officer Bruce Perry (right) speaks during the Muncie Community School Board meeting on Feb. 28, 2017, at Southside Middle School.

MUNCIE, Ind. — Muncie Community Schools' chief financial officer resigned Tuesday morning, just shy of two months after he was hired.

MCS spokesperson Ana Pichardo said Bruce Perry resigned, effective immediately, in an email Tuesday morning. The email included a list of 17 problems standing in the district's way, said board Vice President Robert Warrner.

"Some of them were very minor accounting adjustments, and some of them were much larger," Warrner told The Star Press.

For example, Warrner said a minor change Perry suggested was restricting field trips for the rest of the year to save money. Larger concerns were about health insurance, the teachers contract and coming up with $9.3 million for building repairs. The Star Press was not able to see a copy of the email.

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A week ago in his first presentation during a public school board meeting, Perry revealed funds from the $9.3 million bond the district was supposed to spend on building repairs was not in the bank.

It was the first time a school official had blatantly said the cash isn't there, even though it is still accounted for on paper in the district's budget. Perry said the bond money had been put in the district's main bank account, and was used to pay for general operations, such as salaries and benefits, which also come out of that account.

"We should have it, but we don’t," Perry said to the board Feb. 28. "It’s not healthy to be running the way we’ve been running. We have a serious checkbook problem."

Perry didn't respond to an email request for comment on Tuesday, and was not in his office when The Star Press called.

"I was very very sad to see him go, but I’ve seen at least three CFOs, after they look at the books really well, they just give up," Warrner said. "Sometimes they have a hard time seeing a way to turn the program around... I talked to (Perry) a couple times, I knew it was weighing on him. I did not realize how heavy it was."

Board President Debbie Feick said the Feb. 28 meeting also seemed to weigh on Perry, as he sat with the board through almost two hours of public comment.

"He had all of the skills, he was just outstanding, but I think that he was very concerned about the cutbacks that would need to be made, and accessing community support," she said.

The CFO job opening was posted online Tuesday. Warrner said the board had reached out to the State Board of Education for help finding an interim, but said the state was pessimistic about the odds of finding someone to step in. He said former candidate pools will be revisited as the district looks for a permanent replacement.

The Star Press asked Feick and Warrner if the new concern about the bond money and lack of financial leadership could mean the district was in danger of having the state take over its finances.

"Some people say that should have happened already," Warrner said. But he warned state involvement could mean drastic changes, like closing multiple buildings. "They don’t see the history of the schools; they just see numbers."

Feick said financial takeover would be a more immediate concern if MCS had defaulted on debt payments or bills. On March 2, Perry said MCS currently has enough money to continue making payroll. Also, the district has until 2019 to spend the $9.3 million on repairs, and Perry previously said he was hopeful the district would be able to do around $2 million worth of work on Central High School and South View Elementary this summer.

"We’ll be able to move forward," Feick said. "For how long, I don’t know... At some juncture we probably will need to address that. At this point our whole objective is to keep everything on local control."

Perry was hired on Jan. 10, the same day former CFO Deborah Williams resigned. At the time, Superintendent Steven Baule said Perry's application was pulled from the pool of candidates who had applied when Williams was hired.

Williams had served in the position for a year and a half, coming in at the same time as Baule. When she was hired, the district's deficit was estimated at $3 million. By the end of the year, with help from a consultant, the deficit was estimated at $11.5 million. Williams cited "personal reasons" for resigning.

Previously, Perry was the director of finance for Baugo Community Schools in Elkhart for seven years. Baugo, which includes Jimtown High School, has an enrollment of 1,892 students in four buildings, according to state data.

Muncie Community Schools has recently seen a high rate of turnover for its CFO position. In 2014 Chip Mehaffey resigned after just six months, and former longtime CFO Mark Burkhart came out of retirement to cover until Williams was hired.

"It saddens me," Feick said of Perry's departure. "But I think it speaks to how difficult the job is."

Contact families & education reporter Emma Kate Fittes at 765-213-5845 and follow @EmmaKate_TSP