TEA: Local Superintendent Investigated For Allegedly Using District Funds For Personal Purchases
The preliminary results of a Texas Education Agency audit found a local superintendent and his wife may have used their positions with the school district to benefit financially.
The preliminary results of the audit show Tornillo Independent School District Superintendent Paul Vranish used district funds to pay for his travel, cell phones and even repairs to his snowmobile, and according to the state agency, may have broken the law.
Paul Vranish has until March 27 to respond to the preliminary report. He referred questions by ABC-7 to his attorney.
“I’m dealing with taxpayers’ money and I certainly should be checked on,” Paul Vranish told ABC-7 in September. He said he must always turn in receipts from district purchases before he gets reimbursed by the district and said records are posted online.
The TEA report states Vranish and his wife, Marla Vranish, who is also a district employee, in fiscal year 2011, were reimbursed $117,394 by the district for purchases they claim were district related.
The audit found that in several reimbursements, receipts were not provided by Paul Vranish or his wife and purchase orders (which help the school district track its budget) were made only after the superintendent had already made the purchases.The report also states that in some cases, Paul Vranish’s granted requests for reimbursements “lacked documentation to support their validity as school expenses.”
According to the TEA’s preliminary results of the audit, there is a concern Paul Vranish “used his position with the district to obtain a personal benefit to which he was not entitled.”
Examples of the reimbursements the TEA finds questionable include Paul Vranish requesting and receiving reimbursement for the same trip twice and also getting reimbursed for a cellphone and cellphone accessories, though his contract states the district will only pay for cell phone service and not the cellphone or accessories. The audit also found Paul Vranish himself often approves his own requests for reimbursement.
“The superintendent benefited by using his position to approve the purchase of items that were not sanctioned by his contract,” the report states.
According to the TEA, in fiscal year 2011, Paul Vranish was reimbursed $682.85 for cell phone and cell accessories.
In another instance, according to the TEA’s report, Paul Vranish was reimbursed twice for the same trip. According to the audit, the Superintendent was reimbursed $309.69 for hotel, car rental and airfare for a school trip, when he only spent $118.40 for airfare.
Weeks later, he submitted and was granted another request for reimbursement for the same trip. The second time, Paul Vranish received $226 for car rental, and hotel expenses, according to the TEA.
The superintendent was also reimbursed for personal items, such as a monitor for his home computer, which he justified by saying he worked on school business from home and repairs to his snowmobile, according to the state agency.
Paul Vranish’s requests for reimbursements, states the report, are often “inadequate and fail to show the business purpose of the charges”
The TEA report also shows Paul Vranish and his wife often used their personal credit cards for purchases. The audit found Paul Vranish exchanged frequent flyer miles that he has earned in his personal credit card for airline tickets that are used for district travel.
He then would request reimbursement for the miles used by submitting documents that show what the flight would have cost, according to the audit. In essence, Vranish traded frequent flyer miles for cash, even though the miles should belong to the district because they were earned with district-related travel, states the TEA’s report.
According to the state agency, Marla Vranish, the superintendent’s wife, who is employed by the district and is in charge of secondary readiness initiatives, used her personal credit card to purchase supplies, possibly to earn points. Marla Vranish allegedly used her personal credit card, despite the district providing the cash for the supplies. Instead, she used her card, returned the cash and requested reimbursement, according to the audit.
The district provides the superintendent with a district credit card but Paul Vranish has said he uses his personal card for purchases because it has a higher credit limit than the school’s $10,000 credit card.
The TEA is requiring Tornillo to hire a forensic auditor to perform an audit on reimbursements to the superintendent and his wife for fiscal years 2006 through 2011.
The school board must also ensure that Paul Vranish reimburses the district for all questionable costs. Another order from the TEA is that the district should stop Paul Vranish from using his personal credit card for district business.
“Because the superintendent is charged with protecting the district’s assets and using them for the benefit of the district’s students, but instead used them in a reckless manner, he may be in violation of the Texas Penal Code,” the report states.
Last year, Paul Vranish addressed the issue of the TEA probe head-on during a meeting with parents.
“Does everybody understand that I use my personal credit card when I buy things?” Paul Vranish said in a video recording of the Aug. 23, 2011 parents’ meeting. “Does anyone here feel upset about that?”
On Saturday, Tornillo resident Ricardo Hernandez, who filed the complaint with the TEA that prompted the audit, said the superintendent is dividing the community.
“First of all, he is stealing money from our communities,” Hernandez said. “I’m a taxpayer and I pay money and the worst thing here is that he is dividing the community because the people don’t know the facts.”
An employee of the Tornillo district defended the superintendent.
“We have been the best in five consecutive years,” said the employee who did not wish to be identified. “We have the best in cost effectiveness,we spend less per student than any other district. They want to get rid of him and when I say ‘they’ it’s the corrupted politicians here in Tornillo.”
Paul Vranish’s Recent Evaluation by Tornillo ISD
Paul Vranish’s Bio Superintendent of Tornillo ISD since June 2, 2002 Five additional years of Superintendent experience in Buffalo and Lone Oak, Texas Three years? experience serving as High School Principal and one year as AssistantSuperintendent/HS Principal for Mathis, Texas Served five years as an Assistant Principal at the High School in Alvin, Texas Taught Marketing Education for six years in Huffman, Texas; one year at the West Central Vocational Cooperative in Madison, Minnesota; and two years in Apple Valley Minnesota Texas Association of School Boards Superintendent of the Year for Region 19; 2007 and 2009 Texas Education Agency / Communities in Schools Superintendent of the Year; 2007
