School District audit failed to disclose student death!

Every year Hillsborough County Schools’ audit report has the same 2 short sentences for their “Litigation” comment that reads:

The District is involved in several pending and threatened legal actions. In the opinion of District management, the range of potential loss from all such claims and actions should not materially affect the financial condition of the District.

The audit (link) is done through June 30 every year so that means that the 2012 audit failed to make any mention of the prospective financial liability of the pending litigation for the death of 7 year old student Isabella Herrera that would later cost the school board (and us taxpayers) $900,000. Now the auditors probably weren’t told about Isabella’s death any more than the school board was told about it as the School Administration managed to keep it covered up for 9 months ending in November of 2012.

But then you look at the 2013 audit and you still see the same stale Litigation paragraph and no mention of the administration’s previous year failure to disclose this financial information.

In the Auditors’ Management Letter at the very end of the audit report it says:

It is management’s responsibility to monitor the District’s financial condition and our financial condition assessment was based in part on representations made by management and the review of financial information provided by same.

Keep in mind that the Auditors’ Management Letter is addressed to the School Board so the Auditor is essentially telling the school board that the auditor has the same problem that the school board does- they are dependent on the representations made by the administration and the information provided by the administration. Virtually all the information that the school board receives is filtered through Superintendent Maryellen Elia. If she does not want them to know, they will probably never find out, that is… until they hear about it in the news.

So it is almost like the blind leading the blind.

The Auditors’ Management Letter goes on to say:

The Rules of the Auditor General Section 10.804(1)(f)(5) require that we address in a management letter noncompliance with provisions of contracts or grant agreements, or abuse, that have occurred, or are likely to have occurred, that have an effect on the financial statements that is less than material but warrants the attention of those charged with governance. In connection with our audit, we did not have any such findings.

Do you believe that in a school District the size of Hillsborough County, in the aftermath of the Herrera tragedy, there was not a single finding of abuse for the auditor to address that warrants the attention of those charged with governance?

Stacy White just voted against the School Board having its own independent auditor; an auditor that the board could expect to keep them informed and provide the information that was not provided by this audit. Stacy never bothered to ask the auditor why litigation is the same 2 sentences year after year and does not simply include significant litigation, or why the auditor did not find a single item that warrants the attention of those in charge. Stacy White appears to prefer a state of self-imposed ignorance. It keeps his responsibilities low and gives him more time to campaign.