Grand Haven Area Public Schools had a major financial mismanagement of funds. In 2021, it was discovered that the Director of Technology/Assistant Superintendent Brian Wheeler had been embezzling money from GHAPS since 2014. This short article will compare and contrast how the GHAPS embezzlement was handled with how the Eagle Crest Charter School in Holland, MI, is currently dealing with a financial issue.
We will start with the obvious difference. GHAPS is a public school while Eagle Crest is a Charter Academy. Eagle Crest is partnered with the National Heritage Academy (NHA) which handles the financials for the school. GHAPS has a Board of Education who is in charge of the school district. Likewise, Eagle Crest has a Board of Education. While GHAPS has an administrative office to handle financials and the NHA handles Eagle Crest’s financials, it is a Board of Education in both cases that is ultimately responsible for ensuring financial accuracy and overseeing financial decisions.
According to the Michigan Public School Accounting Manual Section V Internal Controls, the Board of Education is responsible for ensuring that the administration fulfills its financial duties.
At its January 3, 2023 Board of Education meeting, the Eagle Crest Charter Academy discussed recent findings from a routine financial audit. The audit found no significant deficiencies, but did note a failure to submit an audit report on time, as well as monthly financial statements not being reconciled in a timely manner. Later in the meeting, the board discussed an unrelated failure by NHA to update financial information from October 2022. “The Board expressed extreme frustration and shared that this was unacceptable. The Board shared that it cannot do its job and provide financial oversight when financial reports are not received, and not timely, or are inaccurate.” As a resolution to ensure the timeliness and accuracy of future financial reporting that will enable the Board of Education to do its job, the board is now considering creating an Audit and Finance Committee “that would monitor the preparation and submission of budgets, financial statements, and the annual audit.” In other words, a few documents were turned in late, and now a committee is being put in place to oversee the financial operations of the school.
This is a vastly greater reaction to a much less significant problem than what happened in Grand Haven.
In Grand Haven, what did the Board of Education do upon the discovery of a major embezzlement? Doesn’t it seem that, rather than holding people accountable, they went into face saving mode? They seemed to do everything in their power to make the embezzlement situation go away. They seemed to want the case closed and out of the public eye. They seemed to lack a true curiosity of getting to the bottom of the problem and they were not transparent with the public.
The Board of Education are the stewards of our money. The purpose of an audit is to have an independent third party give an account of what happened. The board was right to hire an independent audit firm, but they also should have stepped aside. They only stepped aside in that they hired an audit firm, but rather than provide the results of the audit to the public, they interpreted the results for the public. Can we really trust their interpretation? Did they tell us everything that happened, or just enough to make the situation go away?
Here is the Tribune Article from August 17, 2022 with the Board of Education’s explanation of what happened.
I would really like to read that audit report for myself. As a taxpayer, I partially funded the audit and I do not feel like I can trust the people who failed as fiduciaries of GHAPS finances to give me a full and unbiased account of what happened.
If the public cannot see the audit, what was the point of hiring a third party? The board may as well have done the investigation themselves and presented the public with their findings. If the board cannot be trusted to ensure our money is handled properly, how can we trust them when they tell us the problem has been fixed? Why should we trust them with our money going forward?