A state audit completed this year on the Osceola County School District found seven discrepancies in the system’s operations, including more than $12,000 in accrued vacation overpayment for former employees and continued district computer network access for a terminated employee.

In a report from Florida’s Auditor General, several state laws were pinpointed as not being followed by the district and therefore caused issues within departments.

Because the district had not established procedures that reflected state law put in place in July 2001, limiting payment of accrued vacation time for terminated and retired employees to a 60-day maximum, the district overpaid four former employees $12,752 for 38 vacation days in excess of the 60-day limit. According to the official report, the excess days authorized to be paid out ranged from one to 23 days.

Additionally, as of the end of June, approximately 75 current district employees had more than 60 days of vacation time accrued, which, according to the Auditor General, could result in overpayments of more than $300,000.

The district disagreed with the Auditor General’s interpretation of the state law, according to the district’s response to the audit Nov. 29 written by Superintendent Michael Grego.

In Grego’s response, the district outlined several factors in its interpretation of the law including “a plain reading” of the statute, which states the 60-day limit does not apply to contracts established before July 1, 2001.

Grego also stated the law’s language was limited to sick leave and did not include vacation time, an analysis that was supported by a Florida Senate report dated March 2001.

“The district does not consider the amount identified to be overpayments,” Grego wrote.

The Auditor General’s response to Grego’s report cited a Nov. 4 letter from the district to Attorney General Bill McCollum’s office seeking interpretation of the law and recommends the School Board take the Attorney General’s interpretation into consideration once it’s received.

Internal network access discrepancies noted

Other findings of the audit included the management, security controls and access of the district’s internal technology systems in which a former substitute had the ability to access the network for 53 days after termination and the district’s limited controls in place to restrict access to areas certain employees should not have had.

Grego said all the discrepancies found in the audit were corrected and new procedures were installed.

“The causes were varied and were usually the result of unique cases that did not follow the normal procedures,” Grego wrote. “We have reviewed our procedures for processing access privileges to better handle these exceptions.”

Reviews lack

FCAT results

State laws outlining performance pay and evaluations for teachers and school-based administration were not followed by the district, according to other findings in the audit.

Florida law requires school districts to evaluate teachers and school administrators annually considering student performance and FCAT test scores, among other factors.

Grego stated in his letter that evaluations could not be completed because FCAT results were not available until June, which caused the district to miss the statute deadline for evaluations. The deadline is no later than six weeks before the end of the school year. School ended in Osceola County June 10.

“The district acted in good faith on the promise of the availability of the test scores,” Grego wrote. “In the absence of state assessment data, the district utilized local assessments, benchmarks, etc., to determine instructional effectiveness.”

Grego said for the district to delay the evaluations would have required it to both fail to comply with statutory requirements for timely notifications and enter into a collective bargaining agreement to change the school system’s timeline based upon the then unknown FCAT results delivery date.

The Auditor General still maintains the district should have evaluated teachers and administrators using the FCAT scores once they were received.

Due to the district’s winter break, Grego was unavailable for comment on the Auditor General’s response.

In terms of performance pay for teachers and administrators, the Auditor General determined the district had not formed formal policies and procedures for ensuring that a portion of each instructional employee’s salary be based on performance.

Grego stated he instructed the district’s negotiating team to develop a salary schedule in which employee annual evaluations, which determines employee performance, would be a factor in salary.

“However, because the salary schedule and specific methodology for incorporating performance measures must be determined through negotiations, these items cannot be determined in advance by (School) Board policy,” Grego wrote.

The Auditor General only audits the Osceola County School District once every three years; it is audited by privately contracted auditors in intervening years. The 2007 Auditor General report of the district noted 10 findings.

“Traditionally, audits performed by the Auditor General include much more extensive operational and compliance testing resulting in more recommendations than audits performed by private independent auditors,” Grego wrote in his report. “We recognize and commend the efforts and diligence of district staff that produced (the) improvement (from 2007 to 2010).”