Ghana trip was reckless, but not the only spending problem in Hickman Mills | Opinion
An independent audit confirmed what was already widely known: a transatlantic trip to Ghana cost the Hickman Mills School District $61,959 last school year.
Good thing current Superintendent Dennis Carpenter and the Hickman Mills school board have put a pause on out-of-state travel for now, Carpenter told me in a recent email. Otherwise, I’d have serious questions about the steps the district has taken to correct the financial wrongs uncovered in its annual outside audit.
The recent findings by auditing firm Westbrook and Co. were announced in December and can be found on the district’s website.
“In direct response to the audit and our fiscal crisis, we have eliminated general out-of-state professional travel for this school term,” Carpenter wrote.
On the surface, an international trek to Africa could be considered a once-in-a lifetime event for the students who made the trip. However, only three of the eight people who went were schoolchildren, according to the audit’s findings. How is that discrepancy in the best interests of students? If you ask me, it’s not.
While I remain cautiously optimistic that the Hickman Mills School District will find its financial footing, I am concerned about the current state of affairs there.
Last summer, Missouri State+ Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick announced a full performance review of the district. A whistleblower’s allegation that the district misused funds to pay for the trip led to the inquiry. A preliminary look found district leaders spent more than $60,000 on the trip as part of the district’s Around the Globe learning initiative plan. A deeper dive into district spending and operations is ongoing, according to Trevor Fox, a spokesman for Fitzpatrick’s office
That the Ghana trip — paid for with government grants, according to the district — cost $7,745 per person in a school district strapped for funds shouldn’t be ignored. Hickman Mills is facing a $14 million deficit that led to a recent decision to close Truman Elementary School and a reduction in staffing and academic programs, among other important cuts. Because of that, it’s fair to question the validity of the trip to former Superintendent Yaw Obeng’s native country.
Attempts to reach Obeng for comment were unsuccessful.
Despite the travel moratorium, Carpenter said he still will attend the School Superintendents Association’s national conference next month in Nashville. Outside that, the district will not cover any more out-of-state travel expenses for him or anyone else, he wrote.
“We are implementing stricter, clearer district-wide travel policies to ensure every travel expenditure is instructionally essential and fiscally responsible,” Carpenter wrote.
Credit card abuse
The Westbrook audit also corroborated the district findings that staff used credit cards to pay for such outlandish items as parking tickets, alcoholic beverages and monthly subscriptions to the New York Times, YouTube TV, NFL Sunday Ticket, monthly car washes and Chat GPT Plus, among other questionable expenditures.
Also worth pointing out: The audit found credit card expenses for a basketball camp including the cost of a photographer, speaker, shirts, food, travel reimbursement and camp director totaled $24,527. Of the 123 camp attendees, 81 were district students and 42 were non-district students.
While I am a supporter of youth sports and activities to keep kids on the straight and narrow, and remain a fan of the Ruskin High School basketball program, we all must wonder if spending tens of thousands of dollars for a camp was a good use of district resources.
Via email, I asked Carpenter what had the district done to curtail such frivolous spending. He wrote: “To correct lax oversight, we overhauled our credit card system in August, cutting the number of cards from more than 40 to just four and implementing strict controls. This has already reduced spending by nearly 20% year-over-year, saving over $84,000 (year to date) and demonstrating immediate fiscal improvement.”
Other spending issues
There were other issues with district spending — the audit found the district did not document who received gift cards or have documentation to prove who received them — but the travel and credit card expenses really caught my attention. I find it encouraging that district leaders have addressed these issues head on, but it should not go unnoticed how we got here.
For the financial well-being of the district, Hickman Mills must consider each recommendation laid out by the Westbrook audit.
“The recent audit is a serious setback, but it is one we will overcome,” Carpenter wrote in email. “Having successfully navigated this before, I know what it takes to restore fiscal health in HMC-1, and we are actively taking those steps. Our team is acting now, and we will address every issue. Our community can trust that we are committed to one clear goal: Ensuring next year’s audit demonstrates responsible stewardship and marks a return to the fiscal excellence HMC-1 expects.”
The audit also found the district’s travel policy did not require receipts to be submitted for travel reimbursement. Employees were paid a daily meal per diem of $45 in Missouri and Kansas and $55 elsewhere, the audit noted.
“A detailed receipt should be submitted to the district so that it can be determined if the meal reimbursement is allowable,” auditors wrote. “Without having a receipt submitted to the district for the reimbursement, the district is unable to determine if the meal reimbursement was allowable.”
Hickman Mills School District appears to be making needed changes, but these are long-term issues that leave me concerned.
Anyone with skin in the game in the south Kansas City school district should be too.
