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NEISD internal audit reports multiple campus reviews and district cash‑count findings
Summary
At a NORTHEAST ISD board meeting, the internal audit director reported five completed audits, one advisory project and districtwide unannounced cash counts that highlighted late deposits, crowdsource‑fundraiser documentation gaps and scattered safe‑control issues; several personnel items were flagged for executive session.
At a meeting of the NORTHEAST ISD Board of Trustees, the district’s internal audit director, Ms. Shusmith, presented a quarterly update on audits and advisory work covering the past four and a half months, including five completed audits and one advisory project.
The update matters because it summarized districtwide financial‑control work that affects school bookkeepers, principals and central finance staff and identified recurring weaknesses the auditor said the district needs to address.
Ms. Shusmith told the board, “Over the past 4 and a half months, my team and I have completed 5 audits, as well as 1 advisory project.” She said the audit team completed campus visits intended to cover every campus: earlier in the presentation she reported “in the last 4 months, we did 49 campus visits,” and later noted broader unannounced work, saying, “we did 80 visits. So every campus, every magnet, received a visit.”
Major findings and discussion items included: crowdsource fundraising documentation, untimely deposits, and weak safe controls. The auditor said crowdsource fundraisers (online vendors similar to GoFundMe) are increasingly common at high schools and that required approvals and documentation for those fundraisers are often missing. On late deposits, she said multiple factors slow funds reaching the bank — from students delaying handing checks to bookkeepers or seasonal staffing gaps — and that district guidance expects teachers to prepare deposits promptly and bookkeepers to deposit within a week. The auditor described this as a recurring, multifaceted control issue rather than isolated misconduct.
Ms. Shusmith highlighted examples of unusual items found in campus safes, including foreign currency left over from International School of America (ISA) trips and small bags of foreign coin accumulated over years. She said there is not currently a written district policy for handling foreign currency and that she is working with Budget and Finance to document a process.
The auditor described follow‑up plans: monthly or end‑of‑year summary reports for principals, targeted spot checks tied to recurring findings, desk audits of financial records, and collaboration with Budget and Finance on retraining. She said some campuses receiving coaching have plans in place and that internal audit will conduct six‑month or annual follow‑ups depending on findings.
Work in progress listed in the presentation included the annual controlled‑assets inventory (computers and tagged equipment), an audit/advisory of the career and technical education (CTE) department, and the annual conflict‑of‑interest review, which the auditor said had reached a 74% response rate at the time of the meeting. She also said an adult and community education review was temporarily “paused” to allow higher‑priority fiscal year‑end work to finish; the auditor said she expects the paused work to resume and be completed before the fiscal year end in June.
The auditor said two hotline complaints were investigated with no substantive findings. She also noted that some campus audit items contained personnel‑sensitive matters that could require executive session for further discussion.
The board did not take formal votes on the several audit reports presented in open session; the auditor said she has provided individual memos to principals and will provide district summary materials on recurring issues.
Ending: Ms. Shusmith said she will deliver the remaining reports and a summary of the unannounced cash counts before the end of the fiscal year and continue targeted follow‑up work with Budget and Finance.
