The Louisiana Department of Education will appoint an independent monitor to oversee the New Orleans school system’s finances due to repeated accounting errors that have created “multiple years of financial uncertainty” for schools, the state’s top education official said Friday.
Over the next year, a “fiscal risk monitor” appointed by the state will review the district’s financial practices, ensure the district takes corrective steps and report back to the state on the changes and any “ongoing risks,” according to a March 27 letter from State Superintendent Cade Brumley to NOLA Public Schools Superintendent Fateama Fulmore.
Brumley said the financial monitoring — which former district officials said is the first such intervention by the state since the New Orleans school system was overhauled after Hurricane Katrina — is necessary due to “repeated accounting miscalculations” by the district. Unlike in the past, the state is not taking control of the district’s operations, but will hire an independent accountant to monitor its financial practices…