YUHSD audit: Academic, access concerns

Report cites low AZMerit scores, poor computer, key controls

Editor’s Note: This story is the third in a series looking at the YUHSD performance audit that was released June 15.

The performance audit of Yuma Union High School District’s fiscal year 2015 also contained overall observations about the district’s academic performance and operational efficiency.

“There is good news in the report,” said YUHSD Superintendent Toni Badone. “That’s not generally what people are looking for. They want to know what needs to be improved. That’s what an audit’s all about, is to find the areas of vulnerability.”

A team from the Arizona Auditor General’s office spent over a year conducting the review, called a performance audit. This type of audit, mandated by the passage of Proposition 301 in 2001, will (or has) included each school district in the state.

Performance audits look for operational efficiency, not wrongdoing, said YUHSD Chief Financial Officer Dianne Cordery.

“This is very different than our regular audit. Our regular audit is about substance and they dig into the making sure everything is exactly right. This is about processes,” she said.

Badone also noted that the district’s “financial accounting data had no improper transactions, which is really pretty amazing actually, when you think about how many transactions there are in the course of a year and they pull a few, actually, quite a few.”

The auditor’s team found that the district‘s food service and plant operations “operated in a reasonably efficient manner.” There were also no issues iden-

tified with the district’s compliance with Prop 301 classroom site fund requirements, she said.

A LOOK AT AZMERIT

The report, released June 15, noted that YUHSD’s academic achievement was lower than its peer districts’. The report, using data from the then-brandnew AzMerit exam, noted that in 2015, “15 percent of the District’s students met or exceeded state standards in math, 20 percent in English language arts, and 16 percent in science.”

The AzMerit exam was approved by the Arizona Board of Education in November of 2014, and students took the exam for the first time that spring. Statewide, just 34 percent of all students passed the English Language Arts (ELA) test, while 35 percent passed the math exam, according to previous articles in the Yuma Sun.

A headline at the time, printed in the Arizona Republic, proclaimed that the majority of Arizona high school students “failed” the state’s exam that spring, with 71 percent of ninthgraders missing the mark in English Language Arts (69 percent of 10th graders and 70 percent of 11th graders “failed” the end-of-the course assessment).

“Actually, our scores are on par in English/Language Arts and with our peer districts,” Badone noted in her response to the Yuma Sun. She also pointed out that school letter grades were not based on that data because the test (at that time) was so new. Badone also said that the test’s validation is still in question. Schools are set to get letter grades late this summer, according to a timeline posted by the Arizona Department of Education.

One factor that the performance audit did not consider is that both Yuma Elementary and Crane School districts offer their students pathways to take either algebra, high school math, or college-level math as middle schoolers, said YESD Director of Curriculum and Instruction Duane Sheppard and Crane’s Superintendent Laurie Doering.

Crane offers algebra in the classroom, and has for at least the past five to 10 years, Doering said, while District 1 arranges for its advanced students to either attend a high school math or college course, whichever they qualify for, Sheppard said.

Badone pointed out that the high school district’s graduation rate of 87 percent is “higher by quite a bit than the state’s average of 78 percent,” and that the college attendance rate for 2015 is 68 percent.

ACCESS CONTROLS

The performance audit observed that the district had “inadequate computer controls” and “poor controls over building keys.” Under those sub-headings, the audit team noted that the district had “weak password requirements”; there was “broad access” to the district’s accounting system; too many workers had administrator-level access to the district’s network; the district’s computer servers were “not adequately protected”; there were “inadequate change management controls”; and that the district’s contingency plan was incomplete and there was a lack of backup testing.

The district responded to all of the recommendations in its response to the auditor’s report, Badone said, and that many of those observations have been corrected, or will be as soon as feasible.

For example, Badone said, “we have had recommendations for strong password requirements, but we are in the process of implementing controls around passwords.”

The controls around creating secure passwords are to be implemented this summer, she said, with the Yuma Technology Consortium director Dean Farrar already “on it.” As far as who can access certain accounts, Badone said that the district is auditing and working on seeing “who needs to have what” to eliminate unnecessary access and accounts.

As far as the server, Badone said, “right now, it is in a room that is very secure. There are no windows, there are doors to another office, but that’s the server team. So we were surprised at this one a little bit.”

YUHSD is in the process of building a new administrative office, which will house servers in a more secure setting, Badone said.

“It gives us a reason to make that building really good.”

For the contingency plan, Badone said the district sought guidance and a manual from the ADE on that, but that the state department “has no standard for the contingency plan.”

“We actually asked for it, are there general guidelines? Where’s the standard? And that was one they couldn’t answer,” Badone said. “So, we’ll continue to work on those.”

The auditor’s report also said the district “needs to review and strengthen its process for distributing and tracking keys for district buildings.”

Badone said that key controls are being tightened.

ALL IN ALL

Badone stressed that, in a number of the areas of recommendations, the Auditor General acknowledged that the district has “systems in place, but the recommendations addressed strengthening those systems, even if no evidence of non-compliance or improper transactions were identified.”

All of the consortium partners the high school district belongs to participated in assisting the auditor’s team, Badone said. Representatives met on numerous occasions over the course of the audit, which took over a year to complete.

“This type of audit is comprehensive, and is only done once in a decade, approximately,” Badone wrote to the Yuma Sun. “It is the first time Yuma Union has been audited by the Auditor General’s Office.”

The performance audit is above and beyond the financial audits that done twice yearly, Badone said, and that YUHSD contracts a third-party auditor go over those numbers, in addition to any other audits required by state and federal systems.

The Auditor General will visit or request follow-up reports on the two findings every six months for the next two years, Badone said.

Unlike its peer districts, Badone also stated that YUHSD does not have a budget override in place, nor does it receive federal Impact Aid, in which the government compensates districts for those students’ whose parents either work for or live on federal land. For example, YUHSD encompases the Cocopah tribal nation near Somerton and land controlled by the Bureau of Land Management, the Bureau of Reclamation, the U.S. Department of Defense (military base, proving ground)

“The problem is that, in order to qualify, you have to collect a piece of paper from every student,” Badone said. “Every student, not just every family, every student, and there’s a threshold where students are affected. We just keep missing it, but barely, so we’ll get there.”

Part IV will look at the issue of transparency surrounding the performance audit.