Lake County School Board reins in travel expenses

Tanya Caldwel
Wednesday, April 30, 2008

School Board members said travel has gotten so out of control in Lake County schools that they passed a policy this week to help rein it in.

“I´ve had about all I could take about the travel in this district,” School Board member Jimmy Conner said Monday when Leesburg High officials asked to go to San Antonio.

The timing was coincidental, but board members unanimously passed a travel policy only moments after allowing five people from Leesburg High´s small learning community to visit a similar program in Texas next month.

The new policy will require board approval for all out-of-state travel and that the board know the cost of a trip, its purpose and other details before it is approved, according to the policy.

“I believe that we´ve got to get a handle on our travel,” said Conner, who proposed the travel policy. “I do believe there have been abuses of our generosity.”

Superintendent Anna Cowin said travel money is in the same budget that board members approved last year.

“All of this travel was approved by budgeting,” she said. “Nobody´s gone over their budget . . . so there are no abuses.”

Nearly $1.4 million is budgeted for travel this year. Of that, almost $415,000 is budgeted for traveling outside of Florida. Almost 41 percent of out-of-state travel money -- about $169,000 -- has been used so far. Travel dollars vary by department. Out-of-state travel budgets ranged from nothing for the transportation department to more than $103,600 for pre-kindergarten curriculum and instruction.

Board members said some departments or individuals might be traveling more than others. They hope the extra step of presenting their requests to the board will make frequent travelers more discerning.

“We´ve had incidents where some individuals have spent 70-plus days traveling,” School Board member Scott Strong said. “Somebody may be abusing it . . . and if we find that to be true, I have a problem with that.”

Cowin called Conner´s proposal a “relatively good policy” because it keeps another eye on travel. But she has denied some trips on her own, she said.

“I don´t think there´s one administrator where I haven´t denied travel,” Cowin said. “Some people, by virtue of their job, have to travel more. If they´re new to the state, they have to travel more to get to know the state of Florida. You have to take all these things into consideration.”

Some grant programs require travel, Cowin said.

The small-learning-community program at Leesburg High is an example, said the school´s principal, Nancy Velez. It separates the high school into career clusters, or smaller schools within the high school. Officials hope the smaller learning environment will increase student achievement and help students focus on their careers.

A grant for Leesburg´s program calls for school officials to visit other schools with the same program, Velez said.

“We are actually required to spend a certain amount on traveling,” Velez said. “Teachers seeing other teachers doing it is probably the best advantage for them.”

Just because some trips are covered by grants or don´t go over budget doesn´t mean that the School Board shouldn´t carefully monitor out-of-state trips, board members said.

“As we prepare for the budget this year, this is an area we need to scrutinize, and it´s obvious we don´t have to budget this much for travel,” Conner said.

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