El Paso ISD audit committee reviews first-quarter audit plan, corrective-action progress

Myra Martinez, chief internal auditor for the El Paso Independent School District, told the district—s audit committee that the internal audit department completed one engagement in the first quarter (7% of the department—s 15-engagement 2025'1026 audit plan), has nine engagements in progress (60% of the plan) and has not started five engagements (33%).

The audit plan, approved by the board in April 2025, runs with the district fiscal year from July 1, 2025, through June 30, 2026. Martinez said the department rolled one engagement forward from the prior year (a Leavers/dropout data-integrity advisory) and started planning an inventory surplus audit. Staff are conducting fieldwork on audits of activity funds, special education and average daily attendance. Tony, the IT auditor, worked on and distributed a completed data-classification advisory intended to help IST develop a formal data-classification policy required under board policy CQ regulation.

Martinez emphasized the role of corrective action plans (CAPs) in turning audit findings into risk mitigation. She said internal audit uses Smartsheet as a centralized CAP-tracking tool to assign responsibility, monitor evidence uploads, trigger automated reminders and generate dashboards that notify cabinet-level owners. Martinez said the department has received 22 hotline reports so far this year; most are routed to management and one required an internal-audit follow-up.

Four CAPs remain open: maintenance, special education (SPED), dyslexia and the Leavers/dropout CAP. Martinez said SPED and dyslexia are progressing and that administration has submitted evidence the dyslexia CAP activities were implemented; audit staff completed retesting and are scheduling a meeting with SPED leadership to review the results. For the Leavers CAP, Martinez reported that Ms. Aguirre approved an extension for two CAP activities, moving those specific activities from August to Nov. 30; the overall CAP deadline was not changed. Audit staff said the extension covers establishing written procedures for certain code reviews and adding audit trails for tables that translate local to state codes in the district—s ERP so that future changes can be traced to a user or process.

Martinez said some later-year planned engagements — for example, a DDR student-tracking advisory — may require re-scoping because district leadership considers parts of that work to be a management duty. She asked trustees to remain engaged and noted the next audit committee meeting will be in January, when staff will begin the annual risk-assessment process.

The meeting record shows no formal votes on audit items at this session. Martinez closed by reiterating the department—s mission to provide assurance, insight and objectivity to support the district's stewardship of public resources.