White takes bite out of the budget

By Bill Donovan
Staff writer

GALLUP — The head of the county public school district received more than $10,000 during a 17-month period for meals.

According to documents obtained by the local teacher's union, Karen White received $10,447 for per diem expenses from July 1, 2003 through November of 2004.

School officials get reimbursed for meals they purchase while on trips for the school district. How much per diem they get depends on where they travel. Expensive cities such as Washington, D.C. and Santa Fe have higher per diems than cities like Albuquerque or Phoenix.

Tom Payton, information officer for the McKinley Federation of United School Employees, said this information was among the documents the union has been trying to get the district to release since last October.

It wasn't until the Gallup Independent filed its own request for the douments that they were released, he said.

White was by far the biggest receipent of per diem funds which isn't unexpected since she travels more than any other district official. More often than not, she is on travel for at least one day during the week.

Although per diem is given for travel expenses as well, Payton pointed out that officials usually travel in district vehicles; so there is no expense for them.

Payton said that one of the reasons why McFUSE was looking into these kinds of records was to make district officials accountable for their use of public funds.

"In short, we wanted to find out who was living high on the hog and who was more cost-conscious about taking taxpayer dollars," he said.

The figures released to McFUSE showed that for the school year 2003-2004, White received $4,762 in reimbusements for meals. For the first five months of the 2004-2005 school year, she received $4,352.

That later figure is more than all other school administrations received combined.