Duncanville ISD to repay $159,152.63 to TEA after ESSER 3 audit findings; board approves corrective action

Duncanville Independent School District trustees voted unanimously July 21 to repay $159,152.63 to the Texas Education Agency after an audit of ESSER 3 grant spending identified areas of noncompliance. The board approved the repayment and authorized the superintendent and staff to submit required corrective action documentation to TEA by the agency’s deadline, administration said. “We received correspondence that we were not in compliance with some of the spending of those ESSER funds,” Dr. Nix told the board. The district initially faced questioned costs of roughly $1,070,783; after documentation, corrective actions and follow‑up the total disallowed amount was reduced to $159,152.63, Dr. Suellen Washington, the district’s director of state and federal accountability, said. Washington identified two remaining issues that produced the final disallowed amount: a miscoded allowable purchase and missing time‑and‑effort documentation for ESSER‑funded positions. “Time and effort is a federal funded position needs to have a keeping of what they're doing and so we did not have that documentation,” she said. Board members asked who had oversight during the period covered by the audit. Dr. Goree said the findings date to the 2020–23 period and that several central office leaders, including finance and federal programs, had turnover; staff have committed to investigating which positions and processes were responsible and to implementing training and new checks and balances. Administration told the board that the district has submitted corrective documentation and a corrective action plan to TEA; the agency issued a noncompliance resolution on May 21, 2025 requiring repayment by July 28, 2025. Trustees approved repayment from state or local funds and directed staff to complete and submit the final corrective actions. The board’s action was a formal approval to meet TEA’s resolution; staff said new training and tighter documentation practices — including cooperation between human resources and business services — will be implemented to prevent similar findings for future federal or state grants.