Thursday, December 30, 2010

A bit on the travel funds

..per the article regarding the use of WPS funds for traveling, for those wondering.
The Focus on Results conference in Boston was funded from professional development funds. There is no specific budget line-item for PD--it's funded from a variety of grant sources, including the much-discussed Commissioner's district funds.
The recruiting trip cited to San Diego was funded through our federal Title I grant. Worcester receives (for FY11) about $11 million in federal funds for our low-income schools.
And, yes, I believe that more will be coming on this.
UPDATE: As expected, you'll find this on the City Council agenda for this week:

10f.
Request City Manager review the current policy for both in-state and out-of-state travel and revise or establish a new policy, inclusive of meal allowances and car rentals and mileage. Further, request that this policy be forwarded to the Superintendent and mirrored at the school department and include a review of the policy for payment or reimbursement for air, train, van and limousine travel, lodging, rental cars and add-ons, valet, meals, mileage, registrations, and other travel-related activities for all city employees. (Toomey, Germain, Rushton)

2 comments:

T-Traveler said...

this morning on WCRN, Gary and Gary discussed the travel expenses.

They did not think it mattered that travel is paid with grants, taxes or donations, it is the responsibility of the elected officials to set travel policies, stand by the adopted policies and hold the administartions accountable for variance with the adopted policies.

Tracy Novick said...

And I know both sides have them, T. I'm just not sure what they are. I know City-side hasn't been reviewed in some time, and I think, due to the lack of funding, it was perhaps being seen as more of a non-issue on the school side.
Obviously not, in reality.