Thursday, April 29, 2021

State Auditor Helps School District Save $$$$

 State Auditor Shadrick Blanc issued the following statement. 

A partnership with the State Auditor has helped the Starkville Oktibbeha School District (SOSD) identify ways it could spend more money inside its classrooms. A report released by the State Auditor’s office today shows the school district could save up to $5.3 million by eliminating ineffective annual spending.

“The Starkville Oktibbeha School District expressed interest in improving their spending and operations,” said Auditor White, “and I was excited to partner with them to tackle ineffective education spending in Oktibbeha County.”

The Mississippi Office of the State Auditor also partnered with the advanced data analytics firm GlimpseK12 for this performance audit.

GlimpseK12 used data provided by the district to compare SOSD expenditures to other school districts from across the region and country. Highlights from the report include:

·         Data showed some software programs are underutilized by students and teachers. These underutilized software licenses cost the district over $175,000 each year.

·         The custodial and maintenance costs per student are higher at SOSD than the average for other school districts in the Southeast. Bringing these costs in line with other similar schools in the region could lead to a cost savings of up to $1.8 million annually.

·         Auditors noted SOSD has an opportunity to improve the bidding and purchasing functions by implementing modern, data-driven standards like performance measures and competitive bidding.

"Our school district has identified operational effectiveness as an essential component of the district's path to excellence," said Supt. Eddie Peasant. "Partnering with the State Auditor, we were able to analyze and examine costs to determine how we can improve our efforts to maximize financial resources."

“This report shows the district has a great opportunity to shift additional dollars to where they matter the most: teachers' salaries and classroom-related costs,” said White.

This performance audit is the third of three district-level audits announced by Auditor White in June 2020. Previous reports from the Auditor’s office on outside-the-classroom spending showed ballooning outside-the-classroom spending around the state, a look at how Mississippi’s outside-the-classroom spending compares to other states, and a study of the priority given to administrative pay raises.

This new performance audit report can be found online at the Auditor’s website.

 

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Your tax$$$ at work-

Anonymous said...

It was said before - at this rate for each district, he's going to find well over half a BILLION in savings that are possible, but where none of the recommendations will even happen.

Shad Continues to Grand Stand said...

While I'm all in for every school district spending funds wisely, I'm not at all sure this is a function of the State Department of Audit.

It's no more Shad White's responsibility to teach budgeting than it is for school systems to provide three meals and snacks and weekend meals.

If this is an identified need, let the private sector get involved.

Anonymous said...

Shot across their bow.

Anonymous said...

4:04, how about the highest paid in the U.S. MS Superintendent of Education making sure these are implemented? In fact, she should have identified the savings in the first place. Who hired/can fire this person?

Anonymous said...

In most of the state each classroom get over 300,000 per year. Where does this much money go?

Anonymous said...

Again, why no mention of out-of-control administrative positions and costs.

That's 2 audits where admin received a pass.

Anonymous said...

The grandstanding of Shad White is an apt description. He apparently wants to remain popular, while not really having to hold anyone accountable.

Just another MS insider carefully campaigning for the next election cycle, while accomplishing nothing except being in the news for "doing" something with no actual results.

Once he's audited all 144 districts and identified the "opportunity" to save over $550 billion, he'll step back and say he did his part - and nothing will have changed. We're #50! We're #50! MS ain't thrifty! But racism's still nifty!

Unknown said...

Grandstanding or not, I would love to see how much financial waste he could find in the city of Jackson and JPS.

Anonymous said...

The “let the private sector do it” people are dumb. Have you never heard of Enron? Worldcomm? BP etc? They steal and screw up from time to time as well. And do you think they’d do it cheaper than the State Auditor WHO WE ARE ALREADY PAYING? Sometimes private sector works and sometimes govt works better.

Anonymous said...

Everybody:

Shad: Yippee! Yippee ki yay!! Shoot 'em up, y'all!

Everybody:

Anonymous said...

1:40 - Meanwhile, I'll ask that you provide your list of 'government working better' situations. I suggest you can't identify ONE situation in which government results exceed those of the private sector.

Take a break from calculating your wife's PERS benefits and accept my challenge.

Anonymous said...

It's not a State Auditor's job to hang around after an audit to advise and play the role of a paid consultant. His job is to perform investigations and run rabbit trails that lead to criminal charges. And if he can't find anything, tip his hat and leave. If the Department of Education wants to hire consultants and advisors, let them use a bit of the money that woman is blowing on contracts with her friends and associates for that purpose. This agency is more top heavy than any other and has plenty of money that could be used for this purpose.

Anonymous said...

“Ineffective annual spending” is also known as “theft”.


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If you get tired come relax at the Fox News Tent. To gain admittance to the VIP section, bring either your Republican Party ID card or a Rebel Flag. Bringing both will entitle you to free drinks.Get your tickets now. Since this is an event for trolls, no ID is required, just bring the hate. Bring the family, Trollfest '07 is for EVERYONE!!!

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