A new state audit softly raps Battle Ground Public Schools for underreporting the number of students enrolled in a state-authorized vocational course.
The “isolated clerical error” cost the cash-strapped district about $15,000 in per-pupil state payments owed in early 2008 — an amount the district will now receive, said Mary Beth Lynn, district finance director.
Battle Ground has pledged to more carefully check monthly enrollment counts for career and technical education programs against master class schedules.
The audit report was issued Monday by the Washington State Auditor’s office and posted at www.sao.wa.gov (see “reports,” then “annual reports”).
School districts that provide state-approved vocational courses to middle- and high-school students receive per-pupil state basic education funds plus “enhanced funding” — the latter worth about $993 per equivalent full-time student in 2008.
The audit found that in January 2008, 18 students taking an environmental science class at Battle Ground’s CASEE facility for three hours per day were instead recorded as attending two hours daily.
That meant a miscount of 2.6 full-time equivalent students eligible for $5,777.10 each in combined state funds, or $15,020 total, Lynn said.
Auditors found that Battle Ground met all other vocational education standards for the period under routine evaluation, September 2007 to August 2008.
