School finances: not exactly Fort Knox

Editorial
School finances: not exactly Fort Knox

THE most galling part of the state's recent audit of Seattle Public Schools is the portrait it paints of the district as a cash cow ripe for public milking.

A 14-page letter by state auditors to the School Board acknowledges the school system's struggle to improve its accounting after a $34 million debacle two years ago. However, the auditors found a system still mired in sloppy financial practices. For example: • The district paid an elementary-school principal $1,489 for meals including alcohol, and for a zoo membership. It isn't certain how drinks and a trip to the zoo improved the skills of this principal, but the more likely answer is that it didn't, and administrators simply failed to monitor expenses.

• A consultant was paid $32,775 without invoices that would have verified the work. In another case, the district violated its own policy by paying for travel and other expenses in multiple requests made by the same employee.

• Auditors were stymied by the district's shoddy record-keeping. A former Head Start program manager, who left the district after an audit found $5,627 in questionable expenses, produced a copy of an e-mail purportedly showing his supervisor approved some of the reimbursements. Auditors turned to the district for verification of the e-mail but found it doesn't keep e-mails for more than six weeks. Local governments are supposed to keep public records for six years.

These transgressions are ridiculous and unacceptable. Seattle Public Schools faces an $18 million deficit in the coming year. Its financial coffers ought to be protected better than Fort Knox.

Simple accounting mistakes cost money the city schools cannot afford to lose. A random audit of teachers' files found rampant errors, in reporting either credits for courses taken by teachers, or years of experience. These can alter the amount of state school funding.

The district also wrote off about $100,000 in uncollected debt. Its financial-management policies do not specify how delinquent accounts are to be monitored or who should authorize write-offs. The board should revise this policy quickly. Every penny counts.

None of the sums detailed in the audit are large enough to alter the district's precarious financial picture. But the audit pointed to a more worrisome issue of public trust. If the district cannot be counted on to manage a few thousand of the public's dollars properly, how can it be trusted to oversee a $443 million budget?