Lazaro Aleman
ECB Publishing, Inc.
School Superintendent Eydie Tricquet last week shared with the school board the findings of an operational audit conducted by the State of Florida Auditor General Office (AG) of the Jefferson County School District and Somerset School K-12.
The six findings, which covered fiscal year 2020-21, require that corrective action be taken within 180 days of receipt of the report. Findings generally convey how an agency’s operations measure up against established criteria, plus they recommend ways for correcting the cited issues.
The six findings on the audit relate to the areas of background screenings, mental health reports, bank account reconciliations, untimely distributions of funds, adult education class enrollments and tangible properties record keeping.
On Monday evening, Feb. 14, Tricquet read each of the findings, explained the reasons for each, and told what steps were being taken to address the cited issues.
Finding 1: Per Florida law, individuals who are hired or contracted to serve in an instructional or noninstructional capacity on school grounds must undergo a level 2 screening every five years at minimum. Additionally, personnel in charter schools must file a complete set of fingerprints with the district school board.
A random check of the records of 36 of the district’s 132 employees found that five had not been screened, going back as far as five to 13 years.
The AG recommendation was that the district conduct timely screenings going forth, and that it identify and screen all employees whose screenings had lapsed and act accordingly if any warranted dismissal.
Tricquet said a monthly schedule has now been implemented to submit background screenings and purge the list of inactive employees.
Finding 2: State law requires that districts designate a school safety specialist to ensure that all school personnel receive youth mental awareness and assistance training. For the provision of which services the district was allocated a combined total of $241,888 for fiscal years 2019-20 and 2020-21, according to the report.
The audit, however, found that certain required plans and reports had not been submitted timely or at all. It also found that “Somerset expended the entire 2019-20 fiscal year mental health care program allocation for staff salaries,” and that “although the district timely submitted the required mental health care report of outcomes and expenditures, no expenditures were reported for the 2019-20 fiscal years.”
Nor did the district or Somerset provide specified records and reports when requested to do so by the auditor general, according to the report.
The AG recommendation was that the district establish the appropriate procedures to ensure that all school personnel received youth mental health awareness training and that mental health plans and reports be accurately and timely submitted to the Florid Department of Education (FDOE).
Tricquet noted that Somerset was solely responsible for meeting the requirements, adding that she had now requested the documentation, including sign-in sheets and agendas. Faculty and staff, she said, had been provided the initial and updated annual training in mental health awareness in June 2021.
Finding 3: State law requires that school districts establish and maintain internal controls to detect fraud, ensure reliability of records and reports, and safeguard assets, among other things.
An examination of the district’s documentation and records showed that bank account reconciliations were not always timely completed and journal entries were not always promptly recorded. The report noted that absent effective procedures for timely preparation and review of bank account reconciliations and recording the journal entries could lead to increased risk of cash transaction errors or fraud.
The AG recommendation was that the district ensure that reconciliations of bank account balances to the general ledger account balances be timely performed on a routine basis and that inconsistencies be identified and promptly corrected.
Tricquet said the issue had been corrected by the timely submittal of the bank statements to the finance officer. She also reminded the board that, at present, the staff still consists of two individuals and the contracted finance officer.
Finding 4: Per its agreement with Somerset, the district must distribute to the charter school all state funds, applicable capital outlay and property tax revenues within five days of receipt of the funds. All told, the district distributed $6.5 million to Somerset from July 2020 through March 2021, according to the AG report.
An examination of the district’s records, however, showed nine late payments totaling $3.8 million, with the lateness ranging from four to 37 business days, effectively compromising the charter school’s ability to pay employees, vendors, etc.
The AG recommendation was simply that the district strengthen its procedures to ensure that funds were timely distributed.
Tricquet said the staff was currently working to make sure that deposits were made timely. Some delays, however, were due to the daily transfer limits of $600,000, which she said created problems if the limit was exceeded.
Finding 5: Per state definition, adult education is designed in part to improve the workforce’s employability. Thus, as part of the requirement for receipt of state funds for adult education, districts must report enrollment in accordance with FDOE procedures.
The report notes that the district did not maintain records to identify instructional contact hours or report those hours to the FDOE, on which hours the state funding is based.
The AG recommendation was that the district establish controls to ensure that instructional contact hours for adult general education classes be accurately reported to the FDOE. Additionally, the district was told to contact the FDOE about the unreported instructional contact hours for the Fall 2020 term and take whatever appropriate action the FDOE asked.
“This has been corrected by the addition of a full-time adult education coordinator who is responsible for the attendance and testing records,” Tricquet said. “Each semester beginning with January 2021, the district has met the reporting requirements.”
Finding 6: State law requires districts to maintain adequate records of tangible personal property and ensure that complete physical inventories of all properties are taken annually and that lost, stolen or damaged properties be reported.
The report notes that the district reported $279,134 worth of tangible personal property in June 2020. As of October 2021, however, an annual physical inventory had not been completed since January 2018.
The AG recommendation was that the district enhance its procedures to document that annual physical inventories of tangible personal properties were being performed timely and that thefts, losses, etc. were recorded and reported to the appropriate law-enforcement agencies.
This issue, Tricquet, was being addressed in conjunction with the contracted finance officer.