WA State Audit Questions Spending by Touchet Schools
TOUCHET -- A state audit slams a local school district for mismanaging your money. KEPR Action News uncovers the details, finding this is the same district we told you about last year that had problems paying teachers on time.
"We knew this was coming," said Touchet Elementary teacher and Teacher Association President Cathy Plucker.
Touchet teachers knew this was coming because they were the ones who sounded the alarm. Seems like problems with paychecks in December were only the tip of the iceberg. According to the state audit just released,
the books from recent years just don't add up. It reads: the Touchet School District is simply not meeting financial obligations. One of the errors found a $68,000 mistake.
KEPR asked, "They say here that district's cash balance was overstated by $68,000. That stuck out to me." Cathy Plucker responded, "That's a concern and I hope they look at how to prevent that in the future."
With this state report, there is now a sense of optimism from teachers KEPR spoke with, and also some validation.
Touchet teacher Sonny Elsasser explained, "Community members and school board members and people that didn't believe us now realize the problem and find out what's going on."
"It will help cut down on the leg work. now board members have a better starting point," said Touchet teacher Donnetta Elsasser.
There is one big change already in place for the Touchet School District. A new superintendent started weeks ago. KEPR learned, in the past month his focus has been to get create a new budget. We wanted to hear what the new superintendent had to say about the state's report, but were told he's out of town. Even though, teachers we talked to say the new superintendent is already on the right track.
Sonny Elsasser, "He goes into districts and puts them back together and he's already asking the tough questions."
"I feel very hopeful I've already had meetings with him and he's open to solve problems. Because we got to do better," said Plucker
Anything better than this.
Five teachers were fired because of the budget shortfall. But again, there's still a question if that budget was even accurate. We're told by the teachers' union that some people could be getting their jobs back before school starts in September.
To read the report by the auditor on the financials, click here. For the finding on the financials, click here. To read the report by the auditor on accountability, click here. And to read the findings on that accountability, click here.
