Kansas City, Kansas school board accepts audit, approves low bids and several policy changes; debates consultant evaluation, emergency-medication funding

The Kansas City, Kansas Board of Education on Feb. 11 accepted its fiscal 2024 audit, approved nearly $1 million in low bids for labor and moved multiple district policies forward while continuing discussions about a proposed consultant-evaluation threshold and funding for school emergency medications.

The board voted to accept the auditor—s report after a presentation by Jason Moses of AGH CPAs. Moses told the board the firm issued "an unmodified opinion under the regulatory basis of accounting," and summarized a single federal finding: a material weakness tied to procurement controls for the Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity (ELC) grant. He said the district has a corrective-action plan in place and auditors will retest the control next year.

Board members also approved two low bids for labor totaling $951,775 as recommended by district staff.

Why it matters: an unmodified audit opinion indicates the auditors found the district—s financial statements to fairly reflect its books under the stated basis of accounting. The federal finding touches grant compliance controls; because the district expended more than $750,000 in federal awards, it is subject to a single-audit review of grant expenditures.

Most consequential policy discussion at the meeting focused on Policy CJ, a proposed change tying contract renewals for outside consultants to a performance metric captured in a newly implemented contracts-evaluation tool. The draft policy language added a sentence saying contract renewals "shall be dependent on a minimum 90% performance based on the district evaluation tool." Several…