Toltec Elementary School District Performance Audit Report Highlights

Az Auditor General

Informations

• Publié par: Phion
• Nombre de lectures: 38
• Langue: English

Extrait

Toltec Elementary
School District
REPORT
AdministrationHIGHLIGHTS
PERFORMANCE AUDIT
Subject Toltec ESD spent $928 per pupil on
administrative costs for FY 2007. This wasThe Toltec Elementary
School District similar to the $970 average of the
encompasses the cities comparable districts, but slightly higher
of Eloy, Arizona City, and than the $881 average for the State’s
a portion of Casa Grande.
medium-sized districts.In FY 2007, the District
had an elementary and
Failure to account for special Photo by Auditor General staff.middle school serving
1,189 students in pre- revenues—Because Toltec ESD failed • The District has boxes of student fileskindergarten through 8th to maintain separate accounts for special containing social security numbers,grade. revenues, the District was unable to addresses, and phone numbers in
Our Conclusion ensure that the monies were used as unsecured locations.
intended. For example: • The District’s bus transportation provider
Toltec ESD’s
needs only limited access to studentadministrative costs per • The District used extracurricular activities tax
information for planning bus routes, butpupil were similar to credit monies for school libraries and
had access to other information, such ascomparable districts and special education, rather than
social security numbers.the state average, and its extracurricular activities, as required by law.
• Nine former employees still had Internetplant operation and • Student activities monies—monies raised
maintenance costs were access to student information.by the students for special activities—were
lower. The District spent
spent on teacher classroom supplies.more per pupil on Other problems with information
transportation, primarily security—Several other problems existFailure to oversee credit cards—
because it transported a with the District’s information security.Toltec also failed to adequately overseelarger percentage of its The District:the use of six district credit cards and tostudent population.
require adequate documentation of • Has not secured its accounting system—Proposition 301 monies
have been used to former employees still have access to thepurchases.
supplant other monies. accounting system.
Dollars spent in the • Lacks policies to ensure compliance withFailure to secure student
classroom were below federal privacy laws.information—Toltec has failed tothe state average. Toltec • Does not require employees to regularlysecure hard-copy and electronic studentwill need to restructure its change their user passwords.files.English Language
• Does not provide adequate training toLearner’s Program to
employees on protecting the District’scomply with the state
Recommendations systems and data.model.
The District should:
• Maintain separate accounts for student activities, extracurricular activities fees
tax credits, and gifts.
• Enforce its credit card policies.2008 • Properly secure and limit access to confidential student information.
• Regularly review employee access to the accounting system and restrict access
to job duties.November • 2008
• Implement basic computer security training.Student Transportation
In FY 2007, Toltec spent a higher Failure to oversee contractor—
percentage of its budget, and more per The District owns its own buses, but
pupil, on transportation than the contracts with a private vendor to provide
comparable districts. However, the higher drivers and maintain the buses. However,
costs are likely due to the District it did not sufficiently oversee its bus
transporting 62 percent of its students, system contractor. For example, the
compared to 47 percent transported by District did not review bus files to ensure
the comparable districts. that the contractor performed
maintenance on the District’s buses.
Although the vendor claimed it performed
Transportao n Cost Per Pupil
the required preventative maintenance,
Fiscal Year 2007 there was no documentation of work on
any of the buses in FY 2007.$600
$496
$500
$364 $373 Oversight of billings was also lacking. In
$400
$296 FY 2007, the District overpaid the$300 $212 $214 $196
$200 contractor by about $14,000 for routes
$100 that were not run and for a double-billing.
$0 About 3 months into the school year, the
Wilson Pima Morenci Willcox Toltec Tanque Average District began tracking routes not run, and
ESD USD USD USD ESD Verde
requested and began receiving creditsUSD
from the contractor. However, the credits
were not sufficient to cover the
overpayments—a fact the District did not
realize and resolve until the following year.
The District’s superintendent
inappropriately allowed the contractor to
use the District’s buses to transport
students in other districts. Toltec operates
a 4-day school week and the contractor
used Toltec’s buses on Fridays for other
districts.
The District also did not establish or
monitor performance measures to
evaluate its transportation program.
Recommendations
The District should:
 Monitor its contract with the vendor.
 Review bus files to ensure DPS’ Minimum Standards are met.
 Establish and monitor performance measures.
page2Plant Operation and Maintenance
Toltec’s $702 per student plant operations
Plant Cost Per Studentand maintenance costs were 32 percent
lower than the average for comparable Fiscal Year 2007
districts and 19 percent lower than the
$1,600 $1,337
$1,400state-wide average for elementary $1,014 $1,030$1,200 $986 $916 $898 $863$1,000districts. In addition, the District’s cost per $702
$800
square foot was also lower. $600
$400
$200Toltec’s cost per square foot is lower in $0
large part because it pays its plant
employees less. For example, it pays
custodians $17,000, while the
comparable districts pay custodians an
average of $19,700.
Proposition 301 Monies
Proposition 301 increased the state-wide District supplanted monies—The
sales tax by 0.6 percent for 20 years District used $130,000 in Proposition 301
beginning in FY 2001. Proposition 301 monies to supplant—that is, replace—
designates the money for teachers’ base other monies. Such supplanting is a direct
pay increases, performance pay, and violation of A.R.S. §15-977.
certain menu options, such as reducing
In 2002 and 2003, the District increasedclassroom size.
its salaries by a total of $2,000. These
According to Toltec’s plan, eligible increases originally were funded by $934
employees could receive up to a total of in Proposition 301 monies and by $1,066
$3,844, consisting of: in other district monies. However, since
2003 the District has steadily used• $1,137 in base pay
Proposition 301 monies to replace the• $2,177 in performance pay
other monies funding the salary• $530 in menu pay
increases. In 2007, the Proposition 301
Ineligible employees received monies paid for $1,782 of the $2,000
increases—Toltec also provided salary increase.
increases using Proposition 301 monies
This supplanting actually reduced theto two deans who were not eligible to
amount of salary increases the teachersreceive raises using Proposition 301
should have received. Had the District notmonies. Deans are administrative
reduced the amount of other monies itemployees who manage teaching staff
used to pay for the previous salarybut do not teach regular classes.
increases, Proposition 301 monies could
have been used to provide additional
salary increases. This would be in keeping
with the intent of Proposition 301 monies,
which are intended to supplement, not
supplant, other monies.
Recommendations
The District should ensure that:
 Proposition 301 monies are not used to supplant other monies.
 Proposition 301 monies are used only for eligible employees.
page3Classroom Dollars
Toltec spends fewer dollars in the
FY 2007 per pupilclassroom than the comparable districts,
classroom expendituresand the state and national averages. It
spends fewer dollars in the classroom Toltec ESD $3,749
because: Comparable Districts $4,703
• Its percentage of dollars spent in the State $4,277
classroom is only 56.9 percent. By National $5,321
comparison, the state average is 57.9
percent and the national average is 61.2
Finally, the District did not consistentlypercent.
• Its total spending per pupil is about 11 classify its expenditures in accordance
percent below the state average. Compared with the Uniform Chart of Accounts for
to other districts, Toltec receives less federal School Districts.
funding and allocates more monies to
capital projects.
Recommendation
TTOO OOBBTTAAIINN
The District should classify all transactions according to the Uniform Chart of Accounts.MORE INFORMATION
A copy of the full report
can be obtained by calling
(602) 553-00333 English Language Learner (ELL) Programs
English language learners are students and writing. At the elementary school, a
whose native language is not English and teacher’s aide pulled students out of classor by visiting
who are not currently able to perform to work on reading comprehension forour Web site at:
ordinary classroom work in English. They about 30 minutes a day.www.azauditor.gov
are identified through a state-adopted
Toltec will have to substantially change itsContact person for test. About 10 percent (123) of Toltec