Louisiana Voice

Even as the St. Tammany Parish School Board refuses to divulge when – or even if – it has requested background checks on personnel and even as the board exerts every effort at its disposal – legal and otherwise – to silence critics, an internal audit has revealed that of the 55 public schools in the parish, at least 44 (80 percent) are considered medium- to high-risks when it comes to sufficient oversight of $12.5 million in student activity funds.

The $12.5 million controlled by the 55 schools comes to an average of $227,272 per school, though five schools considered at high risk are sitting on student activity funds totaling more than $3.5 million – an average of $700,000 per school.

Those schools are Mandeville High School ($1.3 million), Covington High ($610,381), Pearl River High ($387,625), Salmen High ($396,545) and Slidell High ($817,111).

In all, 11 schools are classified as high risk by the board’s own internal auditor while another 33 are considered medium risks, according to the board’s Risk Assessment for the current school year obtained by LouisianaVoice.

The funds are generated through school fundraisers such as fees, field trip payments, food services, T-shirts, P.E. uniforms, parking finds, passes and other activities and are used to finance various student activities such as band, pep squads, athletic teams, etc.

An audit of Honey Island Elementary School, a high-risk school, noted that purchase request forms were either incomplete or did not contain the required prior approval needed for purchases. Moreover, it revealed that the principal’s travel expense form was paid without a supervisor’s approval or without supporting documentation.

Another high-risk school, Bayou Woods Elementary School showed areas of concern as well. A review of purchase request forms, for example, showed in one situation, the school principal initiated a disbursement request and had the assistant principal sign the “Principal Approval” to authorize the expense, meaning that the final expense approval was obtained from an employee who reports to the principal.

In another instance, school funds were used to purchase a $650 “unique item” without the completion of required purchase request forms to document the business purpose of the expense.

The risk assessment report and the 2007 RAPE of an elementary school student by a school custodian have combined to raise alarm with several St. Tammany Parish citizens over whether or not the board carries out its responsibility to conduct criminal background checks on employees in a timely manner.

And whenever the issue is raised with the board, critics are silenced as with the abrupt KILLING OF THE MICROPHONE of that rape victim at a January board meeting.

But the real kicker is the board’s ruling that one can only speak to a particular agenda item but requests to speak must be submitted in writing by noon the Friday before the next meeting – even though the agenda for the meeting has not yet been posted.

“How can someone possibly know what’s on the agenda before noon if it’s not posted?” asked Rebecca Bleker, the mother of the 2007 rape victim, Justin Bleker.

Cindy Rester, a frequent critic of the board, was a bit harsher in her assessment of the board and School Superintendent Frank Jabbia:

“I am appalled after reading your response! You may want to read [the] St. Tammany Parish School Board Policy, and I suggest that you read the LAW particularly La. Rev. Stat. Ann. §§17:81, 42:14, 42:15, 42:16, 42:2.

“Public Comments for Agenda Items is totally different and is a requirement set out in law.

“If you are going to be in charge and responding to things like this, I suggest you may want to take a class from Louisiana Legislative Auditor to LEARN about such things. I am attaching for your review the LLA FAQ on Open Meeting Laws you should find it very interesting.

“In fact, they have a whole section just for School Boards Louisiana Legislative Auditor.”

Below are the board Risk Assessment Report for the 2020-2021 school year and the internal audit reports on Bayou Woods Elementary and Honey Island Elementary schools.