A report from the Washington state Auditor’s Office late last month determined Battle Ground Public Schools did not keep proper records on its use of funds from a federal COVID-19 program.
As part of the auditor’s office’s routine audit of the school district released June 26, the office found BGPS, “did not have adequate internal controls for ensuring compliance with allowable activities and costs and restricted purpose requirements.”
The finding was on the district’s use of funding from the federal Emergency Connectivity Fund (ECF), a $7 billion program through the Federal Communications Commission intended to help with remote learning during
the pandemic.
The audit covered BGPS’ financials between Sept. 1, 2021, through 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 the report.
Funding received through the ECF was required to meet an “unmet need” of students or staff, the report stated. To apply for the funds, a school district only needed to estimate what that need was, but when it came time to get reimbursed for the purchases, a district needed documentation to prove the expenses went to fill that unmet need.
The 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. The district believed the estimate given when applying for the funding was sufficient.
“Given the nature of the program and circumstances, it is likely that at least some of the equipment the district charged to the award addressed unmet needs,” the report read. “However, the lack of a documented assessment of students’ actual unmet need means that most costs are unsupported. Since we do not have a reasonable basis for estimating how much of the district’s expenditures are allowable, we are questioning all unsupported costs.”
About $824,000 of BGPS’ purchases were in question. The district will be required to confirm it has met compliance with federal grant requirements, including supporting documentation, before seeking reimbursement, according to the auditor’s corrective action.
The finding regarding ECF funds was the only fault that the auditor’s office found against the district in their latest report.
In a response to the finding, BGPS pointed to the “unprecedented” nature of the pandemic and the need to have all students with learning devices and connectivity. The district had to expand its Chromebook device program by more than two-thirds to handle K-12 remote learning.
The district hired a consultant to help with the ECF opportunity, and relied heavily on their expertise for aspects like compliance, BGPS’ response stated. The district cited statements from the FCC about not imposing specific metrics on what is an unmet need and on eligibility for schools who have returned to in-person learning.
“The ‘lack of metrics’ and the ‘flexibility’ allowed by the FCC indicates we were following the guidelines,” BGPS’ response read.
The auditor’s office was sympathetic to BGPS’ challenges during the pandemic, the report stated. The office acknowledged governments across the state received pandemic-era funds without clear guidance on how to use them.
“However, when auditing federal programs of any kind, governments must provide documentation to substantiate that they met the grant requirements,” the report stated.
The auditor’s office will review BGPS’ efforts to correct what the office found noncompliant during their next audit, the report stated.
