ML school board asks for investigation into ‘financial concerns’
Moses Lake School Board members (left to right) Shannon Hintz, Susan Freeman, board president Vickey Melcher, and Elliott Goodrich, sit at desks and are joined on the phone by Alana DeGooyer, following Tuesday morning’s 90-minute long special board meeting, which was entirely an executive session devoted to discussing a personnel matter.
Charles H. Featherstone/Columbia Basin Herald
MOSES LAKE — The Moses Lake School Board decided at a special meeting Tuesday morning to ask the North Central Education Service District (NCESD) in Wenatchee to investigate unspecified “financial concerns” in the Moses Lake School District.
The board announced the decision following a 90-minute-long closed-door meeting held in executive session to discuss a personnel matter.
Under Washington law, a governing board can meet privately in executive session to discuss real estate deals, pending or current litigation or personnel matters, such as employee evaluations, complaints or charges brought against public employees or officers.
Aside from noting the meeting was in regard to district personnel, neither Melcher nor any other school board members gave other details about the nature of Tuesday’s meeting. It began at 9:30 a.m. and was originally scheduled to last only 30 minutes.
Board members Susan Freeman, Elliott Goodrich and Shannon Hintz were present at the morning meeting while newly appointed board member Alana DeGooyer joined by telephone.
Michelle Price, the superintendent of the NCESD and MLSD superintendent until 2017, said the education service district has a number of financial services it offers the 29 school districts it serves, including auditors who can evaluate a school district’s books.
“We have trained financial officers who can provide an external view, who can pull the data together so a district can review it,” she said.
However, Price added that in the four years she has been NCESD superintendent, this would be the first time the organization has been asked to investigate a school district’s finances.
She also said the ESD has not yet received a formal request from the MLSD.
“Not that I’m aware of,” Price said.
Under state law, it is the job of a local school board to review and approve curricula and teaching materials, assign both teachers and staff, determine the number of instructional hours needed for each student “to acquire a quality education,” and “establish performance criteria and an evaluation process for its superintendent, classified staff, certificated personnel, including administrative staff,” curricula and teaching materials.