Legislative audit reveals teacher policy violations

Gentry School Board hears issues raised and proposed corrective measures at its March meeting

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

GENTRY - Arkansas Legislative Auditing Committee reports for the Gentry School District revealed two cases in which teachers allegedly misappropriated funds by not depositing them into a school district bank account. Disciplinary action was taken against both teachers, the audit report states.

In the audit report and corrective action plan, included in items made available to the school board prior to its March 25 meeting, the following is stated:

“The District discovered, and we verified, Activity Fund T-shirt sale proceeds of $1,078 were not remitted nor deposited into the District bank account. Teacher Rachael Thrailkill stated to District officials these funds were deposited into her personal bank account. Thrailkill, who resigned November 2, 2012, authorized the District to withhold these funds from her salary.

“The District discovered, and we verified, Library book fair proceeds of $415 were not remitted nor deposited into the District bank account. Librarian Elizabeth Newlun stated to a Department of Education Investigator she misappropriated book fair proceeds for personal use. Newlun reimbursed the District $415 on November 1, 2012.

“Management Response and CAP (Corrective Action Plan): In both incidents, the employees violated established school board policy for handling school funds. The district, on discovery, acted to recover the misused funds and has done so. The district also has taken disciplinary action with both employees and written, cautionary action with the employees’ supervisor. The district reported both incidences to the Arkansas Professional Licensure Standards Board. The district finds the first incident, initiating from FY 12, to be resolved as a district concern and notes that additional district action is pending in the second case which originated in FY 13.”

According to Gentry School District superintendent Randy Barrett, Thrailkill resigned for unspecified reasons. He also said Newlun’s employment with the district was terminated and that she has requested a public hearing with the school board to appeal her termination.

A date for the public hearing had not yet been set at press time, but it was expected to be scheduled within the first few weeks of April.

The school district audit report also revealed an error in which an item was placed in the wrong line of the budget and again pointed out that the district did not have enough personnel overseeing the district’s funds and expenditures to provide adequate internal control - something included in many school district audits because they are not able to hire sufficient staff to provide all the safeguards recommended by the state.

News, Pages 1 on 04/03/2013