New School Board Asks for Comprehensive Audit to Ensure Resources are Directed to the Classrooms
We have asked the City Auditor to perform a comprehensive audit of RPS to ensure Central Office is directing our resources to where they'll be most effective: the classrooms.
Kim Gray and I have been appointed by our colleagues to take the lead on working with the City Auditor.
Here's the text of our letter:
Dear Mr. Dalal:
The newly elected
School Board agreed at our public meeting on January 7 to respectfully ask that
you consider performing a comprehensive audit of Richmond Public Schools.
Perhaps no issue is
more pressing than the upcoming 2013-2014 RPS budget. As you know, Richmond
Public Schools spends upwards of $320 million per year. Time is of the essence
for the school system to put forward a budget that ensures we are directing our
resources to where they will be most effective: the classrooms.
Non-instructional spending simply must be reined in because it is preventing us
from moving our schools forward. We must look at all expenditures outside of
the classroom and see where savings can be identified and ultimately actualized
to help our teachers and classroom-related funding first and foremost.
We are confident
that a comprehensive, baseline audit performed by your office will help us
ensure that RPS is spending every available dollar in the classrooms and that
the school system is being fiscally responsible and a wise steward of public
tax dollars. We are looking for you to recommend the structure of the audit.
Our expectation is that this audit is conducted in a manner that allows the
mutually beneficial recommendations to be implemented as early as the 2013-2014
school year.
The newly elected
School Board has appointed two members, Glen Sturtevant (1st District) and
Kimberly Gray (2nd District), to work closely with you in the performance of an
audit. We understand that there are many audit priorities for which your office
is responsible and that permission for this audit must ultimately come from
City Council. We hope that you and City Council will grant our request.
By copy of this
letter, we are also asking that Ms. Johns, the school system’s internal
auditor, provide to the School Board a written response by January 18 with
feedback on this request and a proposed plan and timeline for the
implementation of a comprehensive, baseline audit by the City Auditor’s Office
should our request be granted.
We are confident
that we can achieve great success in the next four years and beyond, and we
look forward to working together to find thoughtful and creative ways to ensure
we have a world-class public school system in Richmond.
