Why Missouri is scrutinizing this KC school district fighting for accreditation
The state of Missouri will conduct a performance audit into a south Kansas City school district fighting to gain back its accreditation, citing mismanagement of district funds and potential improper activity.
The Missouri State Auditor’s Office announced the audit into the Hickman Mills School District last week. It had previously announced in March that it would open an investigation into the district due to potential improper governmental activity.
The investigation stemmed from a whistleblower complaint about significant travel costs being expensed to district credit cards, according to Missouri State Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick. Along with that issue, the investigation looked at the cancellation of a technology contract that cost the district $1.4 million in termination fees.
The district, which recently came under new leadership, responded quickly to the forthcoming audit, pledging to undergo internal review and address budget deficits.
A series of audits
Hickman Mills was not the only school district under the state’s lens this summer. The state auditor’s office also announced the results of audits in the St. Louis and Independence school districts this month.
Independence Public Schools, which is fully accredited and navigating a transition to a four-day school week - and trio of staff arrests in the past several months - earned a grade of “good” from the audit.
Fitzpatrick and a team of auditors approved the current progress of a four-day school week but noted inconsistencies in the district’s systems for managing petty cash and recording electronic communications. They also chided the Independence School Board for using closed meetings to discuss topics designated as public under Missouri’s open records law.
In Hickman Mills, auditors’ initial complaints were more serious and extensive.
When announcing the performance audit, Fitzpatrick said that at least two international school-funded trips had caught auditors’ attention.
“School-funded trips to Ghana and China raised red flags for many parents and taxpayers in the Hickman Mills School District,” Fitzpatrick wrote. “I’m glad they brought these issues to our attention so we could start the process of holding the district accountable for its actions.”
The district was notified of the preliminary results of the audit about a week before they were publicly announced.
Troubled district
While under audit, the Hickman Mills school district continues to contend with additional difficulties.
The district recently underwent a leadership transition after former district Superintendent Yaw Obeng was fired abruptly in July.
As an interim replacement, the district brought back Dr. Dennis Carpenter, who was Hickman Mills superintendent from 2014 to 2017. Carpenter was then the first Black superintendent of the Lee’s Summit School District until 2019, when he took a substantial buyout amid controversy over his efforts to implement equity and inclusion training in the affluent, predominantly white district.
Along with the results of the audit, Carpenter inherited a multimillion dollar deficit in the school district budget. Hickman Mills schools currently face a $12.4 million shortage in the 2025-2026 operating budget, according to a financial management resource group for Missouri school districts known as MOCAAT.
The district is also still working to raise its test scores, as well as to become re-accredited after losing its state accreditation in 2012.
Hickman Mills met the requirements for accreditation in 2024. However, the Missouri State Board of Education typically looks at several years of scores before reinstating districts. The Board said in 2024 that Hickman Mills would not be eligible for re-accreditation until 2026 regardless of its current performance.
In 2023, students performed at or above average for growth in every subject area except for math, The Star reported.
“At a time when the school district is struggling to gain full accreditation, it’s best they use the hard-earned tax dollars of district residents on providing a foundational education that prepares students for the future,” Fitzpatrick said last week.
Next steps
The district is currently undergoing an internal forensic review alongside the audit, Carpenter said at a news conference last week, to learn more about what created and sustained the mismanagement of funds.
Carpenter said that the district immediately reduced the number of credit cards distributed to staff and faculty members, pulling back from about 50 district-issued cards to about 3.
Carpenter also told The Star in August that the district had recently lost at least five executive staff members to resignation or retirement, at a savings of about $150,000.
Previous reporting by Toriano Porter contributed to this coverage.
