Maria, this is excellent. The District seems to only wish to discuss things in abstract terms like Equity without regularly measuring and reporting how well they're actually serving Minority students Academically. For that matter, how well they're serving our children at large. The answer is not very well, especially given the vast resources they've been given to accomplish the task. Meanwhile they've been quite good at lavishing money on themselves (See Tom's handy links below) and their pet projects while misspending and miss accounting through poor practice. For crying out loud, on Monday's Board Meeting at 32:18
their Auditors flagged $575,845 that's gone missing from their bank accounts. Or as they euphemistically put it, "an unlocated difference of $575,845, where the financial statement balance exceeded the reconciled bank balance."
The empirical approach you propose is an excellent framework for focusing their efforts back on the Academic Outcomes and Financial Oversight this District needs in order to return to the levels it historically has been. My guess is they're going to fight you tooth and nail to not accept the rigor of these standards, which is exactly why they should be imposed. I wish you the best of luck in implementing this.
Wow Baker-Tilly did a real-ass audit this year instead of the formalities. Losing $575k is what happens when you don't have financial controls for decades
Unfortunately Tom, I wouldn't say they did do a thorough job, I suspect the $1.3M in Material Weaknesses were too big even for them to miss. This District needs a Forensic Audit, going back through the Horton years, in the worst way. Baker Tilly's been a bit too friendly and chummy with the board. Sleepily so, in fact.
In particular the Lease Certificate documents and their supporting evidentials need to be reviewed. They're in breach of almost every single debt covenant in those agreements. I think a Forensic Audit will reveal they're in breach of all of them. That takes some serious doing but that's exactly what we're dealing with here. I think the result of a Forensic Audit would look something like this:
So I actually talked to someone in the audit business at one point and we went through the Baker-Tilly audit reports. Their feedback was the audit reports were basically what you'd see for any district - they pull a few random records here and there, check it out, and also do some reconciliation work. But it general, it would not catch fraud, etc, it's more of a general check on the books. So to this end, I wouldn't say it's chummy but rather just ordinary business (which says a lot sadly, about the audit business)
But this year, they at least did a little bit more. Baby steps...
ThatтАЩs great insight Tom. I think for a well-run, squeaky clean district that would suffice.
Given how much weтАЩre outspending better academically better performing Districts it begs the question, where did all the money go. For an organization with a history of feather-bedding including nepotism, running wild with company credit cards, $100,000 luxury vehicles for senior staff, $575,000 missing from bank accounts and even the proverbial free lunch it may be, just might be, perhaps finally time for a closer look. A full Forensic Audit.
Or not, if we just want to normalize this and pretend itтАЩs all ok. Just go ahead with the next big tax hike and hold our nose at the ongoing mediocre academic results.
I 100% agree with you, a full forensic audit and then let's go after the person(s) that started this whole mess, after all, it's tax payers money and we can't just turn a blind eye to this. It's disgusting and flat out wrong.
Maria, this is excellent. The District seems to only wish to discuss things in abstract terms like Equity without regularly measuring and reporting how well they're actually serving Minority students Academically. For that matter, how well they're serving our children at large. The answer is not very well, especially given the vast resources they've been given to accomplish the task. Meanwhile they've been quite good at lavishing money on themselves (See Tom's handy links below) and their pet projects while misspending and miss accounting through poor practice. For crying out loud, on Monday's Board Meeting at 32:18
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDBg6CU2xw0&t=2168s
their Auditors flagged $575,845 that's gone missing from their bank accounts. Or as they euphemistically put it, "an unlocated difference of $575,845, where the financial statement balance exceeded the reconciled bank balance."
The empirical approach you propose is an excellent framework for focusing their efforts back on the Academic Outcomes and Financial Oversight this District needs in order to return to the levels it historically has been. My guess is they're going to fight you tooth and nail to not accept the rigor of these standards, which is exactly why they should be imposed. I wish you the best of luck in implementing this.
WOAH I DIDN'T EVEN CATCH THIS AUDIT ISSUE!! WHAT THE ...
Wow Baker-Tilly did a real-ass audit this year instead of the formalities. Losing $575k is what happens when you don't have financial controls for decades
IтАЩll add cash reconciliation to the list of metrics since it wasnтАЩt apparently there
Yeah, like what the hell - nobody was doing reconciliation? That's like Accounting Best Practices 101
Unfortunately Tom, I wouldn't say they did do a thorough job, I suspect the $1.3M in Material Weaknesses were too big even for them to miss. This District needs a Forensic Audit, going back through the Horton years, in the worst way. Baker Tilly's been a bit too friendly and chummy with the board. Sleepily so, in fact.
In particular the Lease Certificate documents and their supporting evidentials need to be reviewed. They're in breach of almost every single debt covenant in those agreements. I think a Forensic Audit will reveal they're in breach of all of them. That takes some serious doing but that's exactly what we're dealing with here. I think the result of a Forensic Audit would look something like this:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2022/03/16/texas-school-district-and-former-cfo-charged-with-fraud-from-20-million-bond-sale/
So I actually talked to someone in the audit business at one point and we went through the Baker-Tilly audit reports. Their feedback was the audit reports were basically what you'd see for any district - they pull a few random records here and there, check it out, and also do some reconciliation work. But it general, it would not catch fraud, etc, it's more of a general check on the books. So to this end, I wouldn't say it's chummy but rather just ordinary business (which says a lot sadly, about the audit business)
But this year, they at least did a little bit more. Baby steps...
ThatтАЩs great insight Tom. I think for a well-run, squeaky clean district that would suffice.
Given how much weтАЩre outspending better academically better performing Districts it begs the question, where did all the money go. For an organization with a history of feather-bedding including nepotism, running wild with company credit cards, $100,000 luxury vehicles for senior staff, $575,000 missing from bank accounts and even the proverbial free lunch it may be, just might be, perhaps finally time for a closer look. A full Forensic Audit.
Or not, if we just want to normalize this and pretend itтАЩs all ok. Just go ahead with the next big tax hike and hold our nose at the ongoing mediocre academic results.
I 100% agree with you, a full forensic audit and then let's go after the person(s) that started this whole mess, after all, it's tax payers money and we can't just turn a blind eye to this. It's disgusting and flat out wrong.