Governance committee reviews district response to state audit; staff outline finance, HR and procurement fixes

The St. Louis Public Schools Governance Committee on Nov. 6 received a staff update on the districts formal response to a recent state audit and next steps to address recommendations in finance, human resources, travel and procurement.

Chair Foster opened the discussion by asking staff to summarize the districts progress on the audit recommendations. Interim Superintendent Myra Berry said staff have begun quarterly reviews of expenditures and revenues by funding code and building and plan to present a more detailed financial presentation to the board. She said the district expects to propose three budget adjustment amendments during the fiscal year: one in December, one in February and one in May to close out the year.

Berry said the district has an outline for a five-year strategic plan but has not yet developed the plans metrics and tasks; her team will work on completing those details in the near future.

On human resources, Berry and General Counsel Laura McLaughlin said audit work identified three main areas: (1) incentives and compliance with the Missouri Constitution (Article 39), (2) salary alignment with board-approved schedules and pre-approval processes for off-schedule pay, and (3) personnel-records housing and background-check documentation. McLaughlin said the district is not offering incentives at this time and is reviewing retroactive pay and salary placements to ensure alignment with approved schedules. She said background checks are in compliance but the physical storage and long-term security of records requires additional, costly infrastructure and staff are identifying secure storage solutions.

On travel policy, staff said the existing $500 airfare cap and baggage allowances are increasingly misaligned with current market costs. The district plans to propose an amendment to the travel policy and has added an accounts-payable travel analyst to centralize reviews and reduce accounting burdens.

Regarding disbursements and procurement, Berry reported the district has implemented corrective actions including an internal audit of the safe and vault, inventory of student-activity checkbooks, temporary evidence tape, clearer segregation of duties, signature controls and revised standard operating procedures to improve traceability for auditors.

Committee members pressed for clarity about which emails and community concerns should be routed to the superintendent and whether the chief of staff should be copied; staff agreed to discuss an operational recommendation and return to the committee with a proposed workflow.

No formal action was taken on the audit response itself; staff were directed to continue implementing the corrective-action plan and to present further updates to the board as the budget amendments and strategic plan work progress.

"We are monitoring those tasks and those deadlines," Berry said, summarizing staff plans to track implementation and report to the board.

Sources and provenance: Committee discussion and staff remarks beginning at the governance committee meeting Nov. 6 (see transcript entries at 00:01:59 and 00:07:23).