EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — The El Paso Independent School District school board will discuss accountability for findings related to a newly released audit.
Internal audit finds series of missteps contributed to EPISD budget crisis
The new report, presented to El Paso ISD Board of Trustees on Monday, July 13, details what led up to EPISD’s declaration of financial exigency. In response, district officials also announced that a real-time dashboard of its finances will soon be available for the public to see.
In an interview with KTSM 9 News, EPISD Board of Trustees Vice President Jack Loveridge said there was an intentional effort to keep vital information about the district’s finances from the school board and newly appointed Superintendent Brian Lusk.
“It was a major, almost a devastating, blow for El Paso Independent School District to find out that what had been projected as a $6 million deficit was actually closer to $53 million. That was discovered in the course of a few weeks. What this audit shows is that there was an effort within our finance team, mainly through the former interim superintendent and CFO, to delay notifying the superintendent and to delay notifying the board as to the severity of that crisis. It wasn’t just a crisis that appeared overnight. This really is the product of at least five years of expenditures exceeding the money that’s taken in by the school district,” Loveridge said…