A month later, Western Heights school board fails to acknowledge searing audit report

A scathing audit of Western Heights Public Schools hasn’t been formally acknowledged by the district’s school board almost a month after its completion.

The yearly audit found 19 significant deficiencies in the southwest Oklahoma City district’s finances from the 2020-21 school year.

The report detailed 10 overpaid employees, more than $1 million spent without abiding by purchasing policies and financial records so out of sorts auditors were unable to reconcile Western Heights’ bank accounts.

Despite efforts by the district's interim superintendent to release the audit, the Western Heights Board of Education hasn’t agreed to include it on a public meeting agenda.

A school board has 30 days after an annual district audit is completed to file it with the state, a procedure that typically involves a board vote to accept the report. Oklahoma law threatens loss of state funding for districts that don't comply.

The audit was leaked to media and posted on a community Facebook page after the school board and its attorney, Jerry Colclazier, pulled it from a June 13 meeting agenda.

The document, which The Oklahoman reviewed, shows auditor Kerry John Patten submitted the report May 31.

Western Heights' final board meeting of the 2022 fiscal year came and went Thursday, still without official recognition of the audit results.

President Robert Everman was the only board member to have early access to the report before it leaked to the public, interim Superintendent Brayden Savage previously told The Oklahoman.

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Savage said she asked to place the audit on the agenda for the board’s past two meetings, but members of the board and Colclazier asked for extra time to develop a response.

The board could take up the audit in its next meeting July 11, she said.

Colclazier declined to comment Thursday on the delay. Everman quickly left the meeting without speaking with reporters.

Two members of the Western Heights board say they want the report released. Briana Flatley and Darrin Dunkin said they aren’t involved in formulating a response to the findings.

“It’s kind of hard to make a response if we haven’t been presented with the audit,” Flatley said.

She said she has read a copy of the report posted on social media.

Dunkin said he doesn’t know what the board's response would be.

“To me, I feel like we need to get (the audit) out there, and we need to actually let people know we are working on it,” Dunkin said after Thursday’s meeting. “Because I don’t want the community to think we’re trying to hide anything. I would rather us get that out there, explain what we need to, and let the community know where we’re going and what we’re trying to take care of.”

A third board member, Robert Sharp, said he still hasn’t read the report.

“Don’t have anything to comment on that because we haven’t gotten any information on it,” Sharp said.

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Board member Linda Farley didn’t attend Thursday’s meeting.

Western Heights residents and state officials criticized the delay as an attempt to suppress the audit findings.

State schools Superintendent Joy Hofmeister urged Everman to resign as he “continues to obstruct reform and block information from public view.”

The postponement does nothing to stop district administrators from correcting deficiencies, Savage said.

The interim superintendent said Western Heights’ financial department already began adopting recommended changes.

The Oklahoma State Board of Education, which took over governance of the troubled school district last year, passed a resolution June 23 instructing the Western Heights board to hire an accountant to assist with the turnaround.

Savage told the state board she has struggled to find a qualified chief financial officer willing to work in the district. She said Thursday that Western Heights is still searching for accountants with whom to contract.

“We need some experts that know exactly what to do,” Savage said at a state board meeting last week. “We have a real culture issue going on in our district, and we’re trying to rebuild that and rebuild trust with our community. Not everyone comes out of the woodwork. I’m having a hard time finding a CFO that can take on something like this that would be willing to work for us right now.”

Reporter Nuria Martinez-Keel covers K-12 and higher education throughout the state of Oklahoma. Have a story idea for Nuria? She can be reached at nmartinez-keel@oklahoman.com or on Twitter at @NuriaMKeel. Support Nuria’s work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today at subscribe.oklahoman.com.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Western Heights school board fails to acknowledge searing audit report