State auditor says DPI’s COVID mismanagement puts children at risk
By Julie Havlak
Carolina Journal News Service
The State Auditor released the results of their performance audit at the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (DPI). The audit was of Coronavirus Relief Funds allocated to the DPI from the 2020 COVID-19 Recover Act. The objectives were to ensure that Coronavirus Relief Funds were spent in accordance with the 2020 COVID-19 Recovery Act and subsequent amendments as well as that the programs that received Coronavirus Relief Funds accomplished their intended purpose.
The first finding stated that $31 million of Coronavirus Relief Funds distributed for the Summer Learning Program without a method to ensure student ability was improved. The State Auditor’s office recommended that DPI should gather the information needed to determine how much or even whether student ability was improved by the Summer Learning Program. In the response from DPI, Superintendent Mark Johnson agreed with the finding.
“DPI agrees with the finding and the recommendation, but unfortunately, the tool to measure student ability was terminated by the NC Board of Education. Any effort to measure the impact now simply cannot be made based on quantifiable, verifiable information.”
The audit rebuts DPI’s reasoning and stated, “At no time during the audit did managers directly responsible for the Summer Learning Program ever once state that it had a tool that could have monitored student outcomes but was recently taken away.”
The next finding stated that $37 million of Coronavirus Relief Funds distributed for Nutritional Services without establishing a method to measure results. The recommendation was that DPI should gather the information needed to determine whether the intended results of its Recover Act spending were achieved. DPI disagreed with the finding.
“The School Nutrition Division established specific objectives to allocate and distribute Coronavirus Relief Funds to local Public School Units (PSU) to monitor their use and document the implementation strategies of each PSU as indicators of performance outcomes. To date, four of the five oversight objectives have been achieved and des audits are underway to examine the allowable use of funds and to access and document PSU implementation strategies,” Johnson explained in the response.
The State Auditor concluded that DPI’s plan for measuring results for the distribution of Nutrition Services were not sufficient and not timely.
