District’s handling of student funds faulted

Yearbook sales, activities cards and theater tickets continue to create headaches for Spokane Public Schools officials, a recent state audit shows.

A report from the Washington State Auditor’s Office illustrates continued problems with the district’s handling of Associated Student Body funds at its high schools for the fifth time.

Problem areas include lack of documentation for fundraisers, like tickets sales for two productions at North Central High School.

“There’s a limit to what we can do with the huge amount of activities that are going on in our schools,” said Neil Sullivan, executive director of finance for the district. “You’re talking about 100,000 transactions or more in a district of this size … it’s impossible to make sure everything is perfect.”

The state first reported troubles with fundraising activities in a 1999 audit. Four consecutive years of problems followed, and in 2004 the state said it would allow the district one year without an audit to get things under control.

“I think we’ve learned some things,” said Mark Anderson, associate superintendent of school support services.

The district implemented training programs for teachers and increased monitoring of fundraisers, he said.

A major finding was not issued for the problems this year, but concerns were still noted in the report. The current audit examined records from September 2004 to August 2005.

“They are simply saying, ‘This is something you ought to watch and work on,’ ” Anderson said. “It’s not to the level of misused taxpayers’ dollars.”

Out of the district’s six high schools, Rogers High School was the only school to have a clean record, and the state urged officials to use Rogers as a model for what other schools should be doing to keep track of ASB monies.

“They have a business manager who runs a very tight ship,” Anderson said.

District officials said they are frustrated by the state’s focus on such a small piece of the budget pie. They need to spend more time worrying about the management of the district’s $256 million in public funds, not $2.6 million in student-generated money, officials said.

“I believe the state auditor has been distracted by the ASB audits,” Sullivan said.

In 2004 Superintendent Brian Benzel sent a letter to state officials criticizing the narrow focus on ASB during the audit, writing that it added pressure on the already daunting task of managing hundreds of student-run fundraisers.

The fundraisers and student clubs are generally run by teachers, and turnover in those posts is high.

“We are talking about teachers who came to work to be teachers, and not necessarily to be an accountant,” Sullivan said. “They get the job of advising the French club or the drama club, and it’s not their expertise to know the accounting controls.”

State Auditor Brian Sonntag agreed that the ASB funding is a small percentage of a district’s overall budget, but the funds are still public.

Sonntag said while problems with ASB funds is a common theme among school district audits, problems are usually fixed within the first two years. The Mead School District also had reportable issues with control over its ASB fundraisers this audit year and last.

“But it generally doesn’t take more than five years” to correct, Sonntag said. “The question becomes, how many years do we continue to point it out? How much time do we spend auditing it (ASB) if they are not going to fix it?”