New School of Florida audit exhibits monetary and authorized missteps
A state audit of New School of Florida discovered that officers overpaid staff and distributors and failed to gather greater than $160,000 in excellent pupil balances, The Tampa Bay Occasions reported.
The audit is essentially centered on monetary missteps between January and December 2022. Nevertheless it additionally discovered points in 2023, the yr Governor Ron DeSantis stocked the board with conservative trustees and tasked them with overhauling NCF. A few of NCF’s monetary practices ran afoul of state legislation, in response to the audit.
In 2022, beneath the management of the prior board and former president Patricia Okker, NCF overpaid a vendor by virtually $15,000, failed to gather on delinquent pupil accounts including as much as $163,626 and inadvertently paid some school members an extra paycheck, totaling $250,596, the audit discovered.
In July 2023, beneath the steerage of the brand new board and President Richard Corcoran, a former GOP lawmaker and DeSantis ally, NCF paid $96,267 to college members who had not acquired the additional paycheck in 2022 “to equalize these funds with the compensation” of different school members, the audit discovered. Doing so reportedly violated state legislation.
“Because the funds have been made after the staff had rendered providers, didn’t enhance the staff’ base price of pay, and didn’t meet the statutory necessities of a bonus, the funds signify additional compensation prohibited by State legislation,” in response to the audit report.
NCF additionally improperly paid Okker after the brand new board fired her and commenced to reshape New School. Okker, who started a 12-month sabbatical following her termination in early 2023, was paid $384,868 for the 2022–23 fiscal yr. A lot of her wage—$236,073—was paid out of state appropriations, violating a Florida legislation that caps state funding for administrative salaries at $200,000. One other administrator was reportedly paid $18,874 above that cap. Such funds ought to have been paid by the NCF basis, as is frequent elsewhere, the audit discovered.
NCF advised The Tampa Bay Occasions the faculty is taking corrective motion and establishing new protocols.
