The state auditor general will not grant the request of Tucson's largest teachers union to perform a sweeping audit of the Tucson Unified School District, following a dispute about how $5.57 million was spent.
Instead, the state has asked TUSD's regularly contracted accounting firm to look into the spending and budget concerns raised by the Tucson Education Association. The move was met with skepticism by the union.
"The thing that jumps out is that the same people auditing TUSD over the last few years will do the audit," union President Rosalva Meza said. "Already, there's skepticism."
Three weeks ago, Meza sent a letter to Arizona's attorney general, auditor general and superintendent of public instruction asking for an investigation of how the district spent $5.57 million meant for teacher bonuses. Meza also asked for an audit of the district's desegregation funds, money for the district's smaller-class-size initiative, Medicare in public school funds and money from Indian gaming.
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On Nov. 2, Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne announced that he also was asking the auditor general to investigate how the $5.57 million was spent. The funds were part of a $100 million surplus the Legislature set aside for teachers and nonadministrative staff. TUSD's allotment was the second-largest in the state.
TUSD spokeswoman Chyrl Hill Lander repeatedly has said TUSD welcomes an audit. District officials do not believe the money was spent improperly when they used it to fund raises that already had been contractually promised to the teachers.
Sharron Walker, director of the auditor general's division of school audits, said her office had not replied to Horne's request. A response will be sent to Horne within 10 days, she said.
Walker said that Heinfeld, Meech & Co., the certified public accounting firm that has been awarded TUSD's contract bids in the past, will look closely into the matters raised by TEA.
Phone calls to the company's Tucson office were not returned Monday.
The firm's Web site says the company provides auditing services to five of the 10 largest municipalities in the state and more than 60 percent of Arizona school districts. "The school industry is our firm's major niche," it states.
When asked if it concerned the auditor general that the same firm would be reauditing its own work, Walker said that was not the case.
"In a district the size of TUSD, … an auditor is not auditing every single transaction that happened," she said, because of TUSD's size. "They may or may not have looked for these concerns in the past."
TEA said the issue of accounting for the money comes down to one of trust with TUSD.
"We would much rather prefer an audit from someone totally independent, preferably the auditor general or someone with no relationship whatsoever with TUSD," Meza said.
The firm likely will conduct its audit soon, Walker said, because the deadline for filing annual financial reports is in mid-October.
But that timeline also is of concern to TEA, Meza said, because the firm will be auditing the 2005-2006 budget, not the current 2006-2007, in which the $5.57 million was allocated.
"If they continue with this timeline, we won't get a report until 2008 and that's not satisfactory," Meza said.
TUSD's Governing Board will discuss an independent audit in closed session with an attorney during tonight's board meeting.
"The thing that jumps out is that the same people auditing TUSD over the last few years will do the audit."
Rosalva Meza
Tucson Education Association president
