Brookhaven, NY: In response to back-to-back years of budget crises, parents, students, and community members from South Country are calling on New York State Comptroller DiNapoli’s office to conduct a full, independent audit of the district’s finances.
Signed by 158 individuals connected to the South Country school district, including 13 current students, the open letter was delivered to the Comptroller DiNapoli Office via email on Wednesday, October 15th. Calling for financial transparency, accountability, and technical expertise, the letter calls for New York State to conduct an audit of “our school district’s ability to meet the needs of our learners and families.”
In recent years, South Country schools have faced financial instability. In 2022, news broke of a district-wide structural budget deficit when the Board of Education was “unaware” of a ten-year “mismatch” between NYS building aid and bond payments. The district lacked the accounting practices to track its 20-year bond and 15-year state building aid payments, creating a fiscal cliff at the end of NYS building aid reimbursements. A transparent plan to address this deficit never materialized, although the Superintendent and Assistant Superintendent of Finance left the district, and the instructional budget was cut by $2.4 million.
Around this time, the South Country Shores Civic Association wrote to Comptroller DiNapoli requesting a state audit of the South Country School District.
In April 2025, the district announced a fiscal crisis due to “steep and unforeseen expenses in costs” on top of the known structural budget deficit, resulting in dozens of educator positions being eliminated. The Superintendent claimed that “every budget line” was “combed through” and the District “spared no expense in looking at every expenditure, looking at every contract, every consultant… before we looked at staffing cuts.” (South Country Central School District BOE Meeting 4/23/25).
Despite this rhetoric, a few months later, in September 2025, the community was presented with a new budget crisis - the board of education announced that the school district spent more money than it had budgeted in 2024-25. Without publicly disclosing the magnitude of overspending, the Board of Education hired another consulting firm (Investigative Management Group) to conduct a “forensic audit”. The Assistant Superintendent of Finance was replaced with an interim Assistant Superintendent of Finance, hired via a consulting contract with Belfor Property Management.
Now, parents, students and community members are publicly requesting a state audit to break the pattern of instability, lack of transparency, and reliance on short-term consultants that have characterized the school district’s financial planning in recent years. “Our children, educators, and community deserve no less,” signatories state.
Parent of two district children, Kerim Odekon: “Unfortunately, the district refuses to have an open and transparent conversation surrounding our financial future. Year after year we are confronted with budget crises where the solution is to cut teaching staff and reduce educational programs. All assessments - including those by NYS - show South Country students need more support, not less. As NYS’s chief fiscal watchdog, we are asking Comptroller DiNapoli to direct his staff to conduct a comprehensive audit of the South Country School District to identify areas of cost-saving and improvement to strengthen our education mission.”
Shannon Woods, a district parent: “Our district students and teachers are strong; the district needs the Comptroller’s independent oversight and technical assistance to continue to support our diverse student body and communities to help strengthen our community. Our schools are our future.”
Abena Asare, a district parent: Our BoE is relying on a “churn” of directors of finance and consultants who do not address the financial problems and leave when the problems persist or get worse. Now, the students have been told that field trips, excursions, and their beloved teachers are threatened and being cut. We are hoping the state can step in with steady technical expertise and support for our district.
Khadija Yanni, a district parent: “I truly believe our children and educators deserve better — full resources, real accountability, and honest transparency in our school district. When we commit to that, we’re not just improving education; we’re shaping a better nation.”
