The Chicago Tribune reports that School District 135, based in Orland Park, Ill., forgot to cancel a service contract with a phone provider after switching to a new provider, costing taxpayers in the district about $81,000.
District officials reviewed the findings of an independent auditor, The SpyGlass Group, and discovered they were still paying for service from AT&T, the former provider, even a year after they had switched to a new provider, Call One.
The mix-up seems to have been the result of a paperwork-laden, multi-stage approval process and possibly a finance director who had just started working at the district and was unable to check the validity of every approval his office received.
“They get the approval of the principal, the district office, and then it comes to me,” the Tribune quoted the district’s new finance director, Carl Forn, as saying. “If I see all the approvals are all there, I cut the check. If there’s a change in providers, I have to hear about it.”
District 135 serves about 5,300 students in kindergarten through eighth grade in four primary schools, three intermediate schools, and three junior high schools.
The district’s expenditures come to about $14,544 per student. Estimate the district’s total annual spending and compare it to the amount they’ll save after fixing the mistake. See Common Core seventh-grade math standard EE.B.3 for more information.
