State reviews audit notification process after YUHSD experience

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

The question of how incoming board members are apprised of ongoing performance audits has the auditor general’s office examining how it distributes information.

“We do have a notification process to let both the superintendent and the governing board know when we start an audit,” said Arizona Auditor General’s Division of School Audits Manager Mike Quinlan, who authored a good portion of the performance audit report on Yuma Union High School District released this summer.

After a discussion with a YUHSD board member, Quinlan said that the auditor general’s office would be considering re-informing boards, especially in election years and/or when a new member is appointed.

David Lara, who was seated on the board in January, confirmed that he had called Quinlan with his concerns that new board members were not informed that a significant audit was taking place.

“When I called the auditor, what I found amusing is that they remember me because of San Luis, you know, different cases,” said Lara, who has been a vocal watchdog of the Yuma and San Luis city councils. The school board seat is his first as an elected official.

Quinlan said YUHSD’s performance audit took over a year to complete, which would have encompassed the November 2016 election of three board members. Lara and Shelley Mellon were elected, while incumbent Bruce Gwynn retained his seat.

“Going forward I think we’re going to start considering when we’re aware that either because of November elections or because a board member resigns and a new board member comes on … We need to maybe take the extra step ourselves of resending out ... a standard letter that we send out that talks about the audit and things like that,” Quinlan said.

Quinlan said the issue had never come up before in his 16 years with the audit group.

“It’s the first time something like this had come to my attention, I was like, ‘OK.’ Going forward I think we’ll try to be a little bit more aware of that. At a minimum I think what I would do is just talk to the superintendent and be like, ‘Hey, I see you have a new board member. Have you

brought him up to speed that this audit is ongoing?’ Things like that.”

YUHSD Superintendent Toni Badone deferred comments on the issue to governing board President Phil Townsend.

Townsend, speaking on behalf of Badone and the district board, said it was notified of the performance audit, but that might have been prior to Lara and Mellon being seated. Mellon could not be reached for comment.

“As far as notice telling us what’s going on, there was a point, and I cannot recall now, if it was prior to David coming on the board or ...that we were having an audit by the Auditor General,” Townsend said.

Various types of audits are ongoing in school districts, whether they are internal or external, he said, and “there’s no reason for board members to be involved with them. That is strictly a function of staff, other than just knowing that we’re having an audit. That’s all, as a board member, we can do.”

Audit process pathway

The YUHSD audit didn’t start until the end of winter in 2016, Quinlan said, which would have been around February.

That is the timeline that many of the various audits conducted by the auditor general’s office follows, Quinlan said, as school districts’ fiscal years end on June 30 and they have until Oct. 15 to close out their accounting books. Then, state auditors collect data and verify it, which takes about three months.

“That’s what makes it seem like our reports are much more dated than they are,” Quinlan said. “I’m over six months into the following year before I actually have clean data for all the districts in order to be able to do a lot of what we do for our performance audits and our other work.”

Next, the AG’s office sends out a notification letter to superintendents and governing boards that an audit (the letter stipulates what type) is to take place.

“From our end that’s what we do. We do notify both the superintendent and the governing board

when we’re going to start the audit,” Quinlan said.

Board learning curve

The learning curve that comes with joining a school district’s governing board might better be described as a learning cliff.

Preparing for meetings might take hours, the Arizona School Boards Association (ASBA) writes on its website in information targeted at new school board members. Then there is terminology to conquer, issues to understand, funding factors locally and at the state and national levels that affect school districts, and more.

“I’m in my 12th year, I think, on the board,” Townsend said. “It takes you a couple years to get up to speed on everything. On any board.”

Board members do not handle the day-to-day functions of the operation of the district, he said. Those matters are left to district staff to manage.

“We set policy, we approve budgets, we approve hiring, but we don’t get involved in the day-to-day function of the district,” Townsend noted. “School

districts, especially ones the size of this, are very complicated, especially when it comes to the finances and the oversight.”

Lara said he just wants to know what’s going on.

“With schools, all the parents or most of the parents

want to know what’s happening. They want to know what’s happening. Even if they don’t do anything with the information, they just want to know,” he said. At the July board meeting, Lara asked the performance audit be discussed

at a future meeting, to which Badone agreed.

District Community Engagement and Communications Director Eric Patton said the item would be on the agenda during an upcoming regular board meeting.