What was supposed to be a regularly-scheduled state audit of St. Louis public schools next year will instead begin Tuesday.
“We’re going to officially begin our audit (at) the next school board meeting, which is on August 13th,” said Missouri Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick. “You have my commitment that we will do everything in our power to work as efficiently as we can.”
The audit comes on the heels of accusations of improper contracts and mismanagement of the school district’s budget, which resulted in Superintendent Keisha Scarlett being placed on leave. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports during Scarlett’s brief tenure, the district’s budget plunged from a surplus of $17 million to a projected deficit of $35 million.
Fitzpatrick is asking for whistleblowers to come forward and help his team’s investigation. During a press conference last week, he said that they should have come forward sooner.
“(The) fact that it has taken as long as it has for this information to become public, and it was only brought to our attention by becoming public as an example of if there was a whistleblower that could have come forward earlier, we could have gotten in before as much damage that has potentially been done was done and stopped some of that from occurring,” he said.
The scope of the audit will extend beyond the school’s reported financial issues.
“We intend to make curriculum a part of the audit, because a significant issue at the district here is financial in nature and budget related, procurement related,” Fitzpatrick said. “We’re going to prioritize those types of things.”
He said the audit is expected to take at least a year to complete but could be longer depending on the cooperation they receive and their findings. The audit was requested by St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones.
KMOX Radio in St. Louis contributed to this report.
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