State Audit Blasts Fishers Island School District for Lack of Transparency

New York State Comptroller Thomas Dinapoli’s office issued an audit on June 9 that criticized the Fishers Island Union Free School District for its lack of transparency on its website.

District officials of Fishers Island School had not been posting required public information on their website, including board of education meeting minutes, tax rate details, budget details, public record request information or external audit reports and corrective action plans. Only two of 15 types of required documents were found on the website: board meeting agendas and information listing administration officials.

“District officials did not ensure the district’s website provided the public with transparent and comprehensive financial information,” Fishers Island School Superintendent and Principal Christian Arsenault wrote in a letter in response to the audit. “As a result, the community and other interested parties could not readily access and review information that could be used to make informed decisions.”

Arsenault explained that the district was “in the process of bringing [their] new website into compliance” and called the audit’s timing “unfortunate” since the district was in the process of replacing its websige

Fishers Island School has since made some of the information available but much was still missing as of June 2023.