Letter: Schools should improve inventory tracking system

The incredibly cavalier attitude of certain key members of our school district over the loss of millions of dollars entrusted to them by Clark County taxpayers is outrageous. To allow that attitude to stand unchallenged would be on par with the bungling of the funds they oversee.

At least $6 million worth of school district property yearly is missing, stolen, discarded without authorization or just plain lost. It is said this is a conservative estimate, and the same approximately losses occur every year.

Here is what some of the district officials have to say. Las Vegas High School Principal Barry Gunderson: "These buildings have a lot of doors." District Chief Financial Officer Ruffles: "Someone doesn't steal a copy machine; it just gets shipped off somewhere and the paperwork doesn't follow."

District Business Manager Donald Lee: "It's not like a bank environment. It's not absolute control." Six million or more dollars? You can open a new bank for less than that.

Sixteen laptop computers are missing from 10 school cafeterias since November, and Food Services Manager Barbara Leslie suspects everyone from disgruntled students to a construction worker. No mention of employees directly responsible for keeping track of the computers.

Ruffles goes on to say he estimates only less than half the missing equipment was stolen. "It's a paperwork issue more than anything else."

Reliable estimates place the cost of a scanner and bar code control system at about $500,000. All seven members of the school board (the people who oversee the district budget) tell us they can't spend the money to bring an end to this travesty. They can't spend $500,000 to save a minimum of three or more million dollars a year. No wonder Johnny can't read.

William Fitzgerald

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