Most of Dora's audit findings addressed

DORA — Most of the findings of the state’s special audit last year on Dora schools have been addressed, though new leadership are still dealing with some residual effects.

An audit report released last month for the 2016-17 school year was accepted and approved at a board meeting Tuesday night, and many of its findings were related to or overlapped with a special audit completed last summer that identified over $100,000 in potentially mismanaged funds between 2013 and 2016.

Then-Superintendent Steve Barron was placed on administrative leave in early August, and his employment contract was bought out soon after. By late September, four of the school board’s original five members had resigned, but the board has been back at full capacity since November, said Superintendent Brandon Hays.

Tuesday's special school board meeting was held to discuss the audit report for the school year ending June 30, 2017. Hays said it was routine practice to hold an exit meeting for the normal school year audit, but more time was budgeted since this one was required by law to include findings from the special audit.

School board member Andrea King, one of the new members since the fall, said “it was a very good audit” and that almost all of the various findings highlighted in the report had already been addressed before the meeting.

Some of those findings included a conflict of interest with a contract being awarded to the district’s maintenance supervisor and improper use of a school account, both of which were resolved by action from the school’s business manager, according to the report.

“We already expected some of those findings. This is basically the same time period as when a lot of (the issues described in the special audit) were going on,” King said, noting there was “nothing that happened after the new school board” and superintendent were in effect.

“There was just a lot of things that never should have happened but it wasn’t by any of our current employees,” she added.

Some of the more standout issues identified in the school year audit pertained to the past superintendent Barron. Auditors took issue with the fact that his $184,000 buyout effective Aug. 31 was paid in a lump sum without taxes being withheld, meaning the school district “could now potentially be liable for both the employers portion and employees portion of the Federal taxes owed on this lump sum,” totaling up to $55,000.

King said Wednesday that Barron “will still be responsible” for his share of those taxes, and the district noted in its response to the audit finding that the issue “will be resolved by the end of the current fiscal year.”

Barron could not be reached for comment on Wednesday night.

Auditors also identified a “compliance matter” with Barron’s hiring of an outside consultant to provide responses to the special audit before it was made public, noting issues with the selection process and contract terms for the consultant.

The district said in its response to the audit finding that the issue “has already been resolved” and that the school’s business manager “was not included in the exit conference (with the state auditor) and therefore was unaware that a consultant was being used.”

Hays said he was not aware of any criminal charges having been filed in connection with the special audit, although there was talk of it some months back. Court records did not reflect any such charges as of this week.

He emphasized the new school leadership’s continued efforts to correct any lingering issues from the previous years.

“I just don’t want any frustration from them perceiving that we’ve had continued problems,” he said. “The action plans that were discussed in the fall would still cover any of these new findings.”

King said the meeting Tuesday lasted about two hours and also encouraged citizens to come to the board and superintendent with any concerns.

“If they have questions, open door,” she said. “They can get any answers they need.”

The 2016-17 school year audit is available online at: https://www.saonm.org/media/audits/7024_Dora_Consolidated_Schools_FY2017.pdf.