Putnam County schools outline corrective actions for 12 operational-audit findings, set May 3 evidence deadline

Miss Whitehurst, a district administrator, told the Putnam County School Board workshop that staff have completed or begun corrective actions addressing all 12 findings in Auditor General report 202638 and are prepared to submit 180-day evidence by the May 3, 2026 deadline.

She summarized the timeline for the audit: auditors provided preliminary findings Oct. 1, 2025; the district sent a response Oct. 28; the final audit issued Oct. 29; corrective-action initiation began Nov. 4. "The 180-day evidence of what we completed" is due May 3, 2026, Whitehurst said, and staff said they could file the evidence earlier if no further issues surfaced.

The district described changes in several operational areas. For district vehicles, staff said they now require daily mileage logs for assigned vehicles or weekly summaries for high-use maintenance vehicles, quarterly mileage and fuel reviews, semiannual vehicle inspections, an approved-driver list shared with HR and transportation, and updated board policy requiring superintendent and board approval for vehicle assignments. "We now have quarterly fuel mileage and usage reviews," Whitehurst said.

For tangible personal property, the district said it is conducting a full fixed-asset inventory using a new tracking system; the threshold for tagging is $1,000 and staff aim to complete the work by June 30. For vendor payments and late invoices, staff initiated monthly budget reviews and one-on-one training sessions for school-based bookkeepers and secretaries to reduce invoice delays.

The district also described automated HR-to-Finance notifications to cancel purchasing cards promptly after employee separation, the re-uploading and periodic verification of fiscal-transparency data on the public site, and plans to implement a digital "budget book" and a capital tracker for construction transparency.

On construction management, the district hired an executive director of construction management, began prepayment reviews for construction invoices, attends subcontractor bid openings to verify competitive bidding, and keeps executed subcontract files for audit trail purposes.

On recurring IT findings, staff said they have removed direct Skyward pathways that exposed student Social Security numbers and established a limited-access group for staff who need SSNs; that group will be reviewed monthly. Information-technology staff have been working with the district ata vendor to clean up security groups, remove unused groups and deploy a PowerBI tool to enumerate each user's pathways.

The workshop was a presentation and public briefing; no formal board action was taken there. The district said the corrective measures are a mix of completed items and ongoing processes and that staff will continue to report progress.

The presentation included documentation screenshots and examples of forms and logs staff say support the changes. The board requested follow-up materials and, in some cases, suggested bringing the Auditor General istrict director to explain methodology and evidence if the board seeks further clarification.