Missouri audit gives Independence schools ‘good’ grade, advises more transparency
A recent state audit of the Independence School District yielded mostly positive results while raising questions about the district’s transparency with the public.
Missouri State Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick announced last week that the district had earned a rating of “good” for the previous fiscal year, ending in June 2024. A rating of “fair” or below would have indicated that the state took issue with some or all of the district’s operations or policies.
Fitzpatrick also recently audited the St. Louis Public School District and is currently launching a full, more detailed audit of the Hickman Mills School District in south Kansas City following an initial investigation of district policies.
The Independence School District, which includes about 14,500 students and 2,600 staff members, is fully accredited - unlike some neighboring districts, including Hickman Mills - and seeking a new superintendent for this school year.
The district is also wrestling with ongoing hiring concerns. Three staff members this calendar year have been dismissed following charges related to child sex crimes, most recently a newly hired first-grade teacher who was arrested last week.
State audits focus mostly on issues that exist within a school district, including anything that could leave the district liable to legal challenges. Categories not mentioned in the audit are assumed to be running smoothly in the opinion of the state – which, for ISD, was largely the case.
“The audit results indicate this entity is well managed,” the first page of the audit reads. “The report contains few findings, and the entity has indicated most or all recommendations have already been, or will be, implemented.”
The Independence School District was unavailable Tuesday afternoon to comment on the results of the audit.
Closed meeting contents
According to the audit, ISD has some room to grow when it comes to public transparency.
The report chastised school board members for using closed meetings to discuss certain topics which should have been brought up publicly under the Sunshine Law, Missouri’s public records law.
According to the audit, the board used a meeting closed to the public to discuss the ongoing impact of the district’s four-day school week and the district’s operating tax levy, which will contribute to the 2025 tax rates paid by Independence residents starting in the fall.
“Discussion of unallowable topics in closed meetings reduces public transparency,” the audit reads. “The Superintendent indicated the Board discussed these topics before realizing the Sunshine Law did not allow these discussions in closed meetings.”
The district implemented a four-day school week during the 2023-2024 school year after a vote in 2022, making it the largest school district in Missouri to do so. However, a state law passed in 2024 requires an additional public vote in order to keep the shortened schedule in place.
The district filed a lawsuit against the state of Missouri and the state Department of Education last fall, seeking to overturn the new rule. Meanwhile, residents will vote November 4 on whether a four-day week should continue during the 2026-2027 school year and beyond.
Auditors did review the first year of a four-day week in general, interviewing various district staff members and learning about the way it was rolled out. They found it was running smoothly overall and did not have a significant negative impact on district operations.
Cash and communication
The audit also recommended that the Independence School Board create a policy for managing and saving electronic communication records, including texts and emails.
The state recommends that all government or public entities, including school districts, maintain a policy on electronic messaging that guides how communications sent between staff members will be recorded and where they will be saved for future reference.
ISD does have a policy for communication between parents and teachers, however, which takes place in both English and Spanish through the ParentSquare app. The district began rolling out the app, which can be used to send both text and phone messages and to sign forms, in Spring 2024 and fully implemented its use that summer.
Fitzpatrick also noted that some schools within the district don’t have a policy for how to handle cash deposits made on-site, with two schools failing to maintain a minimum amount of cash on hand for making change and some making deposits sporadically instead of daily.
The district currently requires staff to create “event sheets” for students to fill out when they hand in money for school activities, a practice which auditing staff did not see take place at two of the schools studied.
Since the audit’s results were published, the district has made some structural changes to its money management in response. Cashflow at ISD schools from sales or activity fees is now organized within the MySchoolBucks app, with cash lockboxes at school events where concessions or other items are sold.
