Beals repaid the school district in March, and the audit document says the finding “is considered repaid under audit. ... The district should establish and implement procedures to ensure severance payments are calculated correctly and properly compensate the employee for the actual number of days worked.”
School district Treasurer Jenna Ashbaugh confirmed with the News-Sun that, “The finding with Mr. Beals has been resolved and was paid back to the district in full.”
Within the audit document, the school district issued a statement that “we have a plan in place to prevent this from happening in the future.”
The second finding for recovery was that Northwestern Schools failed to withhold or remit appropriate contributions to school retirement systems for three substitute teachers and one teacher’s aide “due to lack of procedures in place.”
The audit document said the problem caused the substitute teaching employees to be overpaid by $2,377 and the teacher’s aide to be overpaid by $1,769.
Two of the employees have already repaid the amount in question, and the other two are paying in installments. The findings for recovery are considered resolved, according to the audit document.
Northwestern’s response in the audit document was: “The district is aware of the failure to withhold pension for a few employees and has implemented new procedures that should stop this from happening in the future.”
