Another year, another poor audit for McHenry County education office
The latest financial audit of the McHenry County Regional Office of Education shows much of the same picture as previous years: poor internal processes and incomplete accounting statements.
The audit covers fiscal year 2021, the last full year Leslie Schermerhorn was at the helm of the office before the McHenry County Board unanimously voted to remove her in November 2021.
The report's release follows a federal lawsuit filed by Schermerhorn earlier this year alleging that the county fired her over testimony she gave before state lawmakers in September 2021, when she blamed the county board for the regional office's poor audits.
As was the case in previous years, the audit released Wednesday said the office did not have sufficient internal control over its financial processes, did not comply with grant requirements, did not have adequate procedures in dealing with cash and did not provide a complete financial statement by the required deadline.
All four issues also were listed in the previous year's audit. However, it is an improvement from two years ago, when the office also was flagged for not properly accounting for its grant funds.
County Board Chairman Mike Buehler said he had not yet seen the audit but wasn't surprised to hear there were issues.
"We expect this will be the last audit that has those items," he said. "We're working hard to address them."
Regional Superintendent Diana Hartmann, who took over the job in January, said her office has contracted with the Naperville firm Lauterbach and Amen LLP to help complete the office's accounting.
Earmarking transactions within the accounts to keep track of everything and eliminating the use of cash from the office are some of what is being done to strengthen internal processes and give a complete picture of the office's finances, Hartmann said.
"We have to get everything caught up," she said.
Schermerhorn, who was appointed to the position in May 2012, has said that the office's loss of its bookkeeper during the 2018 fiscal year was a key reason for the issues.
However, the poor audits date back to 2014. The audits throughout the past several years identify issues that include misclassifying almost $152,000 and allowing about $244,000 in transactions to go unreported. Another audit, conducted by McHenry County Auditor Shannon Teresi in July 2021, found 27 issues.
Schermerhorn on Thursday declined to comment, citing the pending litigation.
When Hartmann took office in January, she said there were "boxes and boxes of documents" that needed to be organized, and the office's document room hadn't been touched in decades.
"It pretty much appeared as really bad organization, for sure, and a lack of accounting principles," she said.
Hartmann said she is open to restructuring the office, adding that she would look at any proposal given and assess it.