Shiner trying to meet demands
from Texas Education Agency
Friday, June 16, 2006
Barry Halvorson, Victoria Advocate Reporter
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SHINER - Shiner school district is already at work to come into compliance with
state recommendations from the result of an audit.
Earlier this year state board of education member Cynthia Thornton requested
the Texas Education Agency conduct an audit of the district after receiving
letters of concerns from residents.
The report, dated June 5 and presented to the school board Wednesday, required
district officials to receive training in the state's competitive procurement,
or bidding, laws and to comply with those laws.
Superintendent Trey Lawrence said he has scheduled a one-day training session
for the board during the week of July 17-22.
The district is also required to provide the TEA's division of financial audits
with a budget forecast for each of the next two fiscal years. Lawrence said
that because of the changes being proposed for school financing by the
legislature the first of those reports would not be ready until August.
The training session, Lawrence said, was in response to two of five concerns
listed in the audit report. The concerns are the district's financial loan
agreement to refinance a $2.2 million loan to finance the lease/purchase of the
materials to outfit the district's new campus; and the hiring of Ken Leach as
the district's consultant and Jim Singleton as the district's architect for the
project.
"The TEA's stance was that we should have gone out for competitive bids on the
lease-purchase agreement," Lawrence said. "But to make sure they said they will
be seeking an attorney general's ruling on the matter. It will not impact this
project but could impact how other districts do business in he future.
They also asked how Leach was hired, the superintendent added. "It was a
professional contract and under state law if you pay someone who isn't an
employee of the district more than $25,000 per year you have to go through a
bid process. In two years, we've paid Mr. Leach $34,000 so we have not actually
exceeded the state law. In the hiring of our architect, the state said they
would have liked to have seen us use a more formal request for qualifications
procedure. But we've already got a contract and by law we can't get out of it."
The other concerns included: the district's voting to enter into a lease-
purchase contract for the construction of the school; whether the procedures
used were in accordance with local government code requirements; and the impact
the construction of the new pre-kindergarten through 12th grade campus would
have on the district's finances.
According to the findings, a review of the district's records shows the
district has been able to "strengthen its financial position by increasing its
general fund balance over the past two years."
It does go on to express concern that because the district's tax rate for
maintenance and operations is at the state max, the district would have limited
options to increase revenues if the district faced substantial increases in
payroll or other costs, such as energy costs in the future.
"Actually I was very pleased with the outcome of the audit," Lawrence said. "In
discussing things with our attorneys, we probably could have gotten a couple of
those concerns tossed out because we are in compliance with the law but the
additional legal costs could not be justified."
Lawrence said the district has already spent about $12,000 to comply with the
audit and for legal representation.
"Hopefully, this is the end of it," the superintendent said. "The steel for the
first building is up and we are going forward with the project. The way we've
done things might be very unusual but has been successful and legal."
In another school construction matter, the board approved an interlocal
agreement with the city of Shiner to extend the water and wastewater lines to
the site. The city will contribute $70,500 to a construction account, while the
school district will contribute $195,863.
The city would also have to acquire any right of way necessary. Upon
completion, the lines will become the property of the city, while any money
remaining in the account will revert to the school district.
Barry Halvorson is a reporter for The Victoria Advocate.
Contact him at 361-798-3888, or by e-mail at
hvilladv@vicad.com.
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