BENTONVILLE -- School Board President Travis Riggs blasted fellow board member Wendi Cheatham this week for seeking a special state audit of the School District without telling other members and for repeatedly "crying wolf" about the district's finances.
Riggs also suggested Cheatham should consider resigning, calling her audit request her latest effort to attack Superintendent Michael Poore.
Next meeting
The Bentonville School Board’s next meeting is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. May 18. The site hasn’t been determined. Officials are working on arranging a venue larger than the usual meeting site at the Administration Building, board President Travis Riggs said. The district is expecting a large crowd interested in possible additions to the anti-discrimination policy, which has raised a controversy in the community.
Source: Staff report
Riggs made his comments during Monday's board meeting. Cheatham didn't attend that meeting.
"I was going to ask her to explain her actions tonight, but she's not here," Riggs said.
Cheatham, in response to questions from the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, wrote in an email Friday she has repeatedly raised concerns about a lack of transparency with district money.
"My goal is to ensure that the tax dollars approved by the voters for a specific purpose are used appropriately -- instead of being diverted to fund the day to day operations of the District," Cheatham wrote. "I have repeatedly asked for more detailed information about these and other issues, yet I haven't received it."
Riggs and Poore learned about Cheatham's request a few days before the meeting upon receiving a call from state Sen. Bart Hester, R-Cave Springs.
Hester followed up Monday afternoon with an email to Poore explaining he had been contacted a few weeks ago by an attorney working with a Bentonville School Board member regarding concerns about the district's financial stability. That board member was Cheatham.
"I was told there was a reasonable concern the Bentonville School District is using one-time funds to plug year-end deficiencies in operating funds," Hester wrote to Poore. "I was asked to consider requesting an audit of the Bentonville School District by the state legislative audit department."
Officials with the state Department of Education and Legislative Audit Department told Hester they recently met with Cheatham and, with the information provided to them, saw no reason for any review of the district, Hester said.
"As I consider asking legislative audit to spend scarce resources on a further audit, I would like to know if you have any concerns or information regarding one time funds plugging operations spending gaps," Hester wrote to Poore.
Cheatham explains
Cheatham said she sought the Arkansas Division of Legislative Audit's help in getting answers to her concerns about district finances.
An audit done by the state is much more detailed than the kind of audit the district has relied upon for more than a decade, Cheatham wrote. It's a service provided free to districts, she said.
A legislative audit not only ensures every tax dollar is properly accounted for but also examines policies and procedures to ensure the district is complying with state laws, Cheatham said.
"It is concerning to me that Bentonville has not had an independent review of District practices to ensure compliance with state law for over a decade (the type of review only offered by legislative audit) because Bentonville has chosen to hire a private auditor," she wrote.
Cheatham said she learned a member of the Legislature could request a narrow audit limited to her very specific concerns. That's when Cheatham's attorney contacted Hester to see if he'd be willing to meet with Cheatham and discuss the possibility of requesting a limited audit.
"At that point, I was still not sure what steps, if any, would be taken after meeting with Senator Hester," Cheatham wrote. "Upon determining what the next steps would be, I planned on informing the proper people within the District of my intentions."
Riggs, however, learned of the proposed meeting, "and, without calling me to discuss the matter, he chose to publically attack me personally and question my motives and my integrity," she said.
Larry Hunter, a deputy legislative auditor with the Division of Legislative Audit, confirmed division representatives met with Cheatham and tried to answer her questions. He declined to comment beyond that.
Riggs reacts
Riggs read Hester's letter at the board meeting. Riggs said he was concerned a board member would work with an attorney "behind the scenes" without notifying other board members about her actions.
"I think the fact an attorney was hired represents a personal agenda against the district," Riggs said. "It is an embarrassment and might even be considered a breach of a board member's duties.
"If she's that concerned about our financial stability and the things that are going on, I think she should resign as a board member. Then she won't be associated with it and she won't have to worry about it in the future," he said.
District officials have presented plenty of evidence to show finances are in fine shape, Riggs said. Several kinds of audits are performed on the district each year and the fund balance has been healthy for years, he said.
"When do we as a board say, 'Enough is enough?' You've screamed wolf three, four, five times, and it's not been true any time," Riggs said.
Cheatham, who served as board president for one year until last October, has expressed concerns about finances numerous times since she joined the board in 2012. Riggs often has disagreed with her.
At a board meeting in February, Cheatham was the lone member who voted against accepting the district's annual financial audit for the previous fiscal year. Among her concerns was revenue generated by the 2.9-mill tax increase for the second high school wasn't segregated from general revenue in the district's budget. That wasn't addressed in the audit, she said.
Riggs told Cheatham at the time it would have been better to submit audit-related questions privately to administrators before that meeting, as Riggs had requested board members do. He also suggested to Cheatham she be careful about the way she poses her questions.
"I think it's concerning to people in the community when things come across, even when they're not intended, in a way that ... gives doubt to what's happening in this district," Riggs said at the Feb. 2 meeting.
Poore responds
Poore sent a letter to Hester on Friday responding to Hester's request for information. Poore denied claims the district uses one-time funds to plug spending gaps.
"For the past two years we have had audits performed at a high level that includes a (Comprehensive Annual Financial Review), an audit which provides additional financial and statistical information to our School Board and to our community. I believe we are the only school district in the state to take this aggressive of an audit," Poore wrote.
The district also is held accountable by the Department of Education through reports submitted through the Arkansas Public School Computer Network. Tom Kimbrell, then the commissioner of education, addressed the board in January 2014 and said the district was in very good financial health, Poore said.
"It should be noted that we have a fund balance of approximately $25 million, have completed all construction projects on time and under budget, and work with our board to provide them monthly financial reviews as well as quarterly financial workshops," Poore wrote.
The district's budget for this school year is nearly $140 million. Board policy mandates the district maintain a fund balance of at least 15 percent of the annual operating budget.
Hester said Friday afternoon he'd received Poore's email but hadn't had time to read it.
It's a "big deal" to request a special audit, but he's happy to do so if there is a good reason for it, Hester said.
"I certainly have a lot of faith in the Bentonville School Board and Superintendent Poore, but dealing with state and public money, we all have to be open to scrutiny," Hester said.
He said he frequently receives requests to get audits performed but has requested a special audit only once since he took office in January 2013. Requests are sent to the Legislative Audit Executive Committee. A majority of that committee's members must agree in order for an audit to be commissioned, Hester said.
Hester lives in a part of the Bentonville School District represented by Cheatham on the board. He said he has a lot of respect for each board member.
"I hope when this washes out, it will be much ado about nothing," he said.
NW News on 05/09/2015