New Probe in School Audit Scandal

Just weeks after a report by New York State Comptroller Alan Hevesi charged three former officials of the Roslyn N.Y. School District with plundering more than $11 million over an eight-year period, a new investigation is examining the district budget, as well as the former supervisor for construction and repair projects. The probe by prosecutors for Nassau County, as well as Hevesi's office, centers on Thomas Galinski, who resigned last year after questions arose surrounding trips to Las Vegas and Atlantic City that were billed to the district. At issue is a $23.9 million bond issue approved five years ago to expand the district's middle school. However, district residents have labeled the work substandard, as evidenced by such things as leaking roofs. The former superintendent, Frank A. Tassone, assistant superintendent Pamela Gluckin and clerk Debra Rigano, who were alleged to have siphoned the money from district coffers, are currently awaiting indictment by the Nassau County Grand Jury. In addition, the state probe has implicated an additional 26 people involved in the audit scam. Meanwhile, the accounting firm that audited the district, Miller Lily & Pearce, which audited over 50 additional school districts and whose affiliate sold financial software to some 250 districts across New York state, recently shut its doors.