LITTLE ROCK — The state needs more time to correct the financial problems of a school district it takes over, the state education commissioner told legislators Friday.
Education Commissioner Tom Kimbrell told the Legislative Joint Auditing Committee he plans to ask the Legislature next year to consider extending the current two-year limitation.
Also Friday, the panel approved a request to audit the embattled state Forestry Commission.
Kimbrell’s comments came during the committee’s review of an audit of the Helena-West Helena School District, which for the second time since 2005 is under state control because of fiscal distress.
“Hasn’t it only been a couple years since you all left the Helena-West Helena School District hopeful it was under good leadership?” asked Rep. Jane English R-North Little Rock. “I mean, it looks like everything has fallen apart in a few years.”
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
The state first took control of the district in 2005. At the time, then-Education Commissioner Ken James labeled the district as “totally dysfunctional” both fiscally and academically. The superintendent was replaced and the school board disbanded.
The state relinquished control of the district to a newly elected school board in 2007. The state appointed superintendent stayed on but quit later in a dispute with the board. The superintendent hired by the board was fired and the new board disbanded when the state retook control of the district in 2010, again because of money problems.
“When you get this all fixed, is there anything that is going to show us that maybe things are going to go all right and that you won’t be back there in two years,” English asked Kimbrell. “How does this continue to happen?”
Kimbrell said Helena-West Helena district’s fiscal problems were corrected and the appropriate procedures were put in place before the state left in 2008, but that under the local leadership the problems returned.
The education chief told the panel he believes the district’s fiscal distress can be corrected within the two-year period. Making sure the appropriate leadership team is in place and adequately trained “is a concern” and could take more time, he said.
“Two years doesn’t give us enough time to build capacity,” Kimbrell said. “Sometimes we get lucky … and we get the right leadership and things turn around.”
The audit of the school district, which covered fiscal year 2010-2011, which ended June 30, found the district did not have adequate financial oversight, which led to accounting errors and overspending of federal funds.
The audit also found school equipment was not accounted for and documentation of employee salaries was inadequate. The district failed to seek competitive bids for a $10,050 painting project, and the contractor was paid with two checks to avoid the $10,000 threshold for competitive bids, auditor told lawmakers.
Suzann McCommon, who was appointed by the state in June to serve as superintendent of the district, said all of the audit findings have been addressed and employees are being properly trained in the new procedures.
“The policies were in place for all these things to be done,” Kimbrell said. “They just weren’t followed.”
Paul McEachern, a state auditor, told the committee that the audit findings on possible violations of the state’s competitive bid law were turned over to the Phillips County prosecutor.
The committee’s approval of an audit of the state Forestry Commission comes after Commission Director John Shannon acknowledged to lawmakers during hearings last month that the agency used federal grant money to bolster its ongoing operations, an improper use of the funds.
Friday was the last day of work for 36 agency employees laid off because of a $4 million shortfall in the commission’s budget.
Gov. Mike Beebe has said he will ask the Legislature during next month’s fiscal session to approve $2.7 million in supplemental funding for the commission, though the infusion won’t save the jobs lost.
About $1.2 million would repay the federal government the grant money that was inappropriately used by the agency for ongoing expenses, and about $1.5 million would help fund the commission’s operations through the end of the fiscal year.
Beebe’s office also is investigating the funding shortfall to determine who is responsible. Lawmakers also plan to take up the issue during budget hearings that start this week in advance of the fiscal session.