最新杏吧原创

State law requires school districts to be audited each year by third-party contractors. 最新杏吧原创 Public Schools submitted its fiscal 2023 audit on Wednesday to the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. Normandy Schools Collaborative and five smaller districts statewide have yet to file audits more than three months after the deadline, according to a department spokeswoman.

The state kept close to $3.7 million in state funding from SLPS and $5.7 million so far from Normandy while awaiting the audits. Both districts will also be docked 1% on annual performance reports that the state uses to determine accreditation levels.

The 2023 audit of the Normandy district was presented Tuesday to the school board by a representative from accounting firm KEB. School officials did not respond to questions about when the audit will be submitted to the state.

Leaders at SLPS and their accounting firm RubinBrown blamed the delay on staff vacancies in the district.

鈥淚鈥檝e been here 17 years and I don鈥檛 recall being late before,鈥� said Angie Banks, chief financial officer for SLPS, at a meeting Tuesday before the school board approved the audit. 鈥淎s you know, many Baby Boomers like myself have retired recently from the district that take a lot of historical knowledge with them and it鈥檚 very difficult replacing that knowledge.鈥�

Banks, who is retiring at the end of the school year, said the delay in receiving state funds has not had an impact on the district鈥檚 operations.

A compliance report from RubinBrown accompanying the SLPS audit notes several financial weaknesses in the district, including recordkeeping lapses and a failure to keep inventory on student computers and other resources, Banks said.

A team of four to six people from RubinBrown typically work on the SLPS audit each fall, the firm鈥檚 Renita Duncan told the SLPS audit committee at a meeting last month.

When the accounting team met with SLPS administrators last October, 鈥渢here just wasn鈥檛 the amount of work that was ready for us in order to keep our team busy,鈥� Duncan said. 鈥淪ome things were different this year. Primary cause in my opinion is turnover and some retirements of key individuals in the finance office and accounting.鈥�

The audit situation comes as SLPS faces several other major challenges under Superintendent Keisha Scarlett, who took over for long-term leader Kelvin Adams last year:

• A handful of officials have left the district in the last few months, including the directors of communication and human resources. The district is recruiting at least including a new chief financial officer.
• Two dozen reading specialists will be moved to classroom positions聽next fall because of a teacher shortage.
• The district is seeking a new bus transportation company for the 2024-2025 school year after Missouri Central聽backed out of the contract.
• Each day, around 20 bus routes are canceled because of an ongoing shortage of drivers. The district also聽聽this month for a new food service vendor.
• Leaders have yet to announce plans for spending聽$160 million in bonds聽approved by city voters in August 2022 to fund repairs and renovations across 63 buildings. More than half of the schools are under capacity as enrollment has fallen by 40% in the last decade to about 16,500 students this year.