The Saint Joseph Board of Education made it official Monday night, it has reviewed and approved the full report from the Missouri State Auditor.
St. Joseph School District Acting Superintendent Dr. Jake Long said the public is invited to keep track as the district complies with the audit recommendations.
“We’re going to update that at least on a weekly basis on the progress we make towards the state auditor’s recommendations,” said Long. “Every committee meeting we went back to the state auditor’s report and the recommendations that he put in and then I was able to update the board on what we’re doing and making progress towards that and so that action plan is online for people to follow and to see what we’re doing.”
Director of Communications Joey Austin said it makes it easy for people to check on.
“It is the first thing that you see when you go to the website and we will keep it there for quite awhile and so right when you get to the website it says view our audit report and you can see the board of education statement there, you can read our action steps, you can read the full audit report, all of that is there right when you click on our website,” said Austin.
In the statement of response Monday night, the Board apologized for turmoil in the district and pledged to remain committed to being good stewards of financial resources.
“We welcome the community to join us and to hold us accountable in that en-devour and the intentions of the board include complying with the audit findings and recommendations, the intention that our superintendent, administrators, and support staff all comply with the audit findings and recommendations, that outside professionals hired by the district to provide legal accounting, personnel or any other services comply with the findings and also that any outside vendors chosen by the district to provide products or services comply with the audit findings,” said Austin.
One of the audit recommendations is to conduct a comprehensive salary study. That has not started yet.
“Because it is going to be a fairly comprehensive study it’s going to be pricey and so with it being more than $15,000 we have to do a formal request RFP,” said Long. “That RFP is being drafted right now to be put out there for companies to bid on to provide this service for us.”
Long said it’s important that the study be done by an outside group.
“I think it’s a benefit to our community, to our tax payers and to our people that it is an outside firm,” said Long. “Obviously there is a lack of trust with the people of the school district and so that third party coming in and taking a look at the full scope and compensation I think is going to be a positive thing for the school district and the community.”
Long said turmoil in the district may also discourage some candidates from applying to be teachers and administrators to a point.
“I think we are able to look past some of that because St. Joe is home to a lot of people that we employ,” said Long. “I certainly think that it is an issue that we need to be aware of and to see how we can make sure that we continue to make sure that we not only hire the best people but retain the people that we have.”
The statement from the school board accepting the audit recommendations concluded with this, “We believe the district is on a continuous improvement path to strengthen the daily operational systems of the Saint Joseph School District. The good work that goes on in our classrooms will continue, and we pledge we will return pride to this school district.”