ISBE: D-95 Audit Findings and Monitoring –

PARIS, Ill. (ECWd) –

The Illinois State Board of Education sent us the following documents in response to our questions on the FBI search of District 95 Superintendent Jeremy Larson’s home earlier this week.

These are part of the $3.24 million in questioned or disallowed expenditures that apparently gave rise to the FBI’s search of the home.

This article consists of the Audit Findings and the Agreed Monitoring documents.

The Agreed Monitoring (Preliminary) Document lists the questioned expenditures and also lists which ones were accepted and which ones must be repaid.

From the FY2021 Internal Controls Audit:

• Finding #1 – Contracts over $25,000 were not all presented to the board for approval as required under board policy, quotes from more than one vendor may not have been obtained or kept on file for contracts over $10,000
• Finding #2 – No property record lists adequately documenting purchased equipment – this is repeated from the 2019 audit
• Finding #3 – failure to perform physical inventory
• Finding #4 – all equipment purchases were not approved, listing equipment as supply items, and not obtaining prior to approval on purchases over $5000

From the FY2021 Block Grant Audit:

• Finding #1 – No adequate financial records
• Finding #2 – Salaries, wages, and benefits paid with grant funds were not approved or adequate. This included a $30k stipend to the Mayo School Principal with no documentation of the purpose of the payment, $33,897 in administrative compensation, $26,483 in salaries for summer professional development, and $10,000 paid to a staff member as a consultant on a reading program
• Finding #3 – Some staff who received grant fund payments did not hold the required certificates
• Finding #4 – $54,627 paid from wrong accounts, including a $11,990 payment to a transportation contractor which was claimed twice under separate accounts
• Finding #5 – failed to submit accurate required periodical expenditure reports. Some reports based on budgeted amounts, not amounts actually expended

From the FY2021 Early Childhood Block Grant:

• Finding #1 – failed to maintain adequate financial records
• Finding #2 – Salaries, wages, and benefits paid with grant funds were not approved or adequate
• Finding #3 – failed to submit accurate required periodical expenditure reports
• Other findings include payments to the Wenz School Principal with no supporting documentation for the purpose of the payment

From the FY2021 Low Income Grant and teacher quality grant:

• Similar findings as previous grants – with the addition of unauthorized purchases for the band, sports, arts, high school, music, and nurse supplies. Software subscriptions, school messenger subscriptions, etc…

All the other grant audits were similar to the above but also included items indicating large Amazon purchases by district staff other than grant staff at the end of the grant year where those items were not located at the building where the grant proceeds were reported to be used. Fees paid for movie production, and expenses for regular classroom instruction.

Read the report below: