Education Matters US

District 158 finds more data errors

Tuesday, August 30, 2005

By Jeff Kolkey
Source: Northwest Herald

HUNTLEY – School District 158 Chief Financial Officer Stanley Hall said Monday that another costly mistake had been found in data sent to the state for education funding.

Hall said two District 158 schools submitted overstated attendance numbers to the state in May 2004 after a school calendar change. As a result, the district likely was overpaid general state aid.

How much money the district will have to repay in the form of reduced future state-aid payments is unknown, Hall said.

“We don’t have a valuation for it until we determine what the correct number of students should have been,” Hall said.

State aid payments are tied to enrollment and available local resources.

Because of a calendar change, two schools counted students for more days than they were supposed to, inflating the attendance figures sent to the state, Hall said.

Hall, who began working in the district in June, said a uniform number of days should have been used across the district.

“It’s within reason to believe someone reviewing the claim before it was filed would have seen the numbers were unusual,” Hall said.

He said measures had been implemented to stop the problem from happening again.

The error was discovered by district resident Tony Quagliano, a member of the district’s finance advisory committee.

Quagliano estimated that the state overpaid the district from $300,000 to $400,000 based on average attendance from other months in 2004.

Quagliano said the liability should be reflected in year-end financial data.

A similar mistake was found in a state audit for transportation reimbursement requests from 2002 and 2003. Bus depreciation had been overstated and expenses understated.

About $666,401 will be prorated from the state’s transportation grant payments to the district as a result.

Hall said he would inform the state about the attendance error before a routine state audit expected in October.

The audit will determine how much of an overpayment was made and how it could affect the district’s finances.

School board member Larry Snow is asking Hall to figure out how much of a hit the district’s budget likely will take in advance.

But Hall is busy with myriad other duties and might not have time to work on the project.

“How can you not calculate it for the purposes of determining where you are financially for a budget?” Snow asked. “It should be reflected in last year’s financials.”