Published: November 24, 2009 08:21 pm      

Audit of McDowell schools complete

WELCH — School officials in McDowell County should know by January if eight years of state intervention is over.

State officials have completed a week-long audit of all 13 schools in McDowell County. The findings of the latest audit will be presented to the state Board of Education on Jan. 13.

Dr. Kenna Seals, executive director of the state Office of Educational Performance Audits, said his team conducted a school-by-school inspection last week. The visit was the third audit of the McDowell County School System since 2001.

An original 2001 audit found 260 non-compliance violations. A follow-up 2006 audit found 17 non-compliance violations and 10 partial non-compliance violations.

“We visited each of the schools,” Seals said. “We were primarily looking at some of the issues that were there the last time we were there for a follow-up visit, and seeing whether those had been resolved. But we did visit all of the schools.”

Seals said he couldn’t comment on the findings of the report until it is presented to the state board on Jan. 13.

However, Seals said the school system has made significant progress in recent years.

“Well obviously with those 260 non-compliance (violations) we cited earlier — many of those have been resolved,” Seals said. “They are building schools down there now. There has been a lot of progress made in several areas if you look back at the original non-compliances. They have closed a lot of their facilities. Switchback is closed. Panther is closed. Gary is closed. And of course they’ve gotten money from the Army Corps of Engineers and the SBA (School Building Authority). So progress is being made.”

The findings of last week’s audit will be discussed in detail during an exit conference with school officials on Dec. 4, McDowell County School Superintendent Suzette Cook said.

Cook said Board of Education President Mike Mitchem, vice president Lynda Evans, school principals and other officials will participate in the exit conference.

“This is really the first full visit we’ve had since 2001,” Cook said. “When they were here in 2006, and did what was a follow-up, it wasn’t a full blown follow-up. So this was the first real full visit they’ve done since 2001.”

In addition to McDowell County, Mingo, Preston and Grant counties also remain under state control. The state also retains partial control of Lincoln County.

— Contact Charles Owens at cowens@bdtonline.com