A federal investigation has found the Battle Ground Public Schools (BGPS) District in compliance with the use of federal grant money during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2023, the state said otherwise.
The school district purchased Chromebooks, a laptop computer, for students in the 2022 fiscal year utilizing money from the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Emergency Connectivity Fund (ECF). The ECF was a $7 billion program through the Federal Communications Commission intended to help with remote learning during the pandemic.
In part of the state auditor’s office’s routine audit of the school district released in June 2023, the office found that BGPS, “did not have adequate internal controls for ensuring compliance with allowable activities and costs and restricted purpose requirements.”
The 2023 audit covered BGPS’ financials between Sept. 1, 2021, and Aug. 31, 2022. In that time, the district spent about $968,000 in ECF funds to purchase Chromebooks and broadband services for students, according to previous reporting by The Reflector. Of that $968,000 total, about $824,000 of BGPS’ purchases were in question.
“As noted by State Auditor Pat McCarthy, the FCC’s guidance to schools lacked detailed descriptions of the type of records schools should maintain to document their compliance with the grant requirements,” a news release by the school district stated. “BGPS estimated student need for the devices at the time of its grant application, inventoried all Chromebooks and retained data on student use of the devices.”
The 2023 audit found BGPS’ internal controls weren’t effective for ensuring the funds used were going to students and staff fitting the unmet need criteria. Specifically, BGPS “did not maintain documentation showing it provided each Chromebook paid with program funds to a student with unmet need.”
The report stated district staff weren’t aware of that requirement for reimbursement through the ECF, previous reporting states. The district believed the estimate given when applying for the funding was sufficient.
In a response to the 2023 finding, BGPS pointed to the “unprecedented” nature of the pandemic and the need to have all students with learning devices and connectivity, previous reporting states. The district needed to expand its Chromebook device program by more than two-thirds to handle K-12 remote learning.
On Feb. 27 of this year, the FCC issued a final ruling in a letter to BGPS. The FCC determined the school district complied with ECF program rules as BGPS “calculated its actual unmet need,” the letter states. The letter added that the communications commission will not seek recovery funds and considers the matter resolved.
The latest routine state audits, spanning from Sept. 1, 2023 through Aug. 31, 2024, confirmed that BGPS followed state laws and district policies with no fraud, significant errors or misuse of funds, the district’s news release stated. The Washington state Auditor’s Office spent more than 340 hours reviewing Battle Ground Public Schools’ finances, the district added.
The findings in the most recent state audit mark the school district’s 14th consecutive clean accountability report since 2010 and the 21st consecutive clean financial statement audit for BGPS since 2005.
