AUDIT PROMPTS CHANGES; OTHER SUGGESTIONS SHELVED

PATTON -- Opponents of Tom Waller, Meadow Heights superintendent, see a lack of action on recommendations from the state auditor as proof he should be ousted.

Waller said the school has made some of the recommended changes, is working on others and doesn't plan to make a change concerning tickets for admission to ball games.

In 1993, residents of the Meadow Heights School District requested a state audit.

The auditor found several areas that needed changes: Data on which student transportation aid is based didn't appear to be accurate. Pre-numbered tickets weren't issued for athletic events. Lunches purchased weren't reconciled to money deposited, and lunch money wasn't deposited intact. The school district didn't include all wages on the annual earnings statements, classified $737 of overtime pay as travel expenses, and paid almost $7,000 in travel allowances without documentation. The school district also didn't maintain property records.

In a letter from Waller in May, he outlined the changes he says have been made, those that aren't complete, and one change that won't be made.

He said the bus ridership and mileage is accurately calculated. Lunch money is being counted by one person and reconciled by another person. The person who reconciles the money also makes the bank deposit. Deposits remain intact, and the petty cash fund at the elementary school was raised from $25 to $200.

Not all the changes have been made on earning statements, but Waller said it is in the works.

The district has inventory of items according to the funding source that paid for the item. Waller said a master inventory hasn't been completed, but is in the works.

Waller said he checked and many other schools don't use pre-numbered tickets. Meadow Heights won't either.

He wrote: "We reconcile our money collection by the teacher counting the money and the event supervisor reconciling the money and both the teacher and the supervisor signing the form stating the amount of money collected."

Board member Millie Yates said she hasn't seen proof that anything has been done.

Unless criminal fraud is discovered, the results of a state audit are recommendations for improvements or changes. The school board chooses whether to implement the recommendations.

Frank Ybarra, spokesman for state Auditor Margaret Kelley, said the auditor has no enforcement powers.

"That's in the hands of the school district," he said.

The auditor's office doesn't routinely audit school districts. Residents must petition for an audit, which happened in the Meadow Heights district.

The auditor's office can't come back to check for three years after the first audit. Ybarra said if a second audit was conducted and found that none of the recommendations was instituted, the best the auditor's office could do is make the recommendations again.

The real power, he said, lies within the community. "The public votes the school board members in and out."

Copies of the state auditor's recommendations are forwarded to Missouri's Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, the agency which controls state funding to school districts.

Gerri Ogle, director of school finance for the education department, said the department has no enforcement authority to make them implement recommendations from the state auditor.

The department routinely reviews independent audits that school districts conduct to make sure basic figures add up and agree with information provided to the state.

Because a state audit is done at the request of community members, Ogle said, they have the power to make sure changes take place.

"They can place pressure on the board to make changes or accept the explanation of why changes haven't been made," she said.