Lorain Schools Superintendent remains concerned about audit

LORAIN — Lorain Schools Superintendent Jeff Graham remains concerned about the process of a performance audit mandated by the state. Graham said he has concerns with the time commitment needed for the review, required under Ohio House Bill 110, which gave Lorain, Youngstown and East Cleveland schools a pathway out of state control. Under the bill, each district is required to receive a performance audit from the state by June 30, 2025. In a presentation from the state audit team shared with The Chronicle-Telegram, the audit plans to "analyze implementation of the academic improvement plan" for the district — which are the steps it must take to return local control. Lorain's academic improvement plan outlines a series of benchmarks it must meet in the next three years to be fully released from state control. Graham said his understanding is the performance audit itself will take three years, and he is concerned with the commitment the district will need to provide to the audit team while also trying to meet its benchmarks and the needs of its students. He said the audit will look at the effectiveness and the efficiency of the improvement plan and how the district is implementing it — not previous spending or efficiencies under former school CEOs. The presentation from the auditor's office states Phase I of the audit will look at the district's background, its operations, its resource allocations and its academic improvement plan. Phase II will look at the plan's implementation and outcomes. Phase I is expected to be released in the summer of 2023. In an email, Press Secretary Marc Kovac said the auditor's office is still in the planning stages of the work to establish the scope of the audits. "These three performance audits will be more overarching and not just focused on the districts' plans to exit state control but also to provide analysis to the districts that would help them achieve that goal," he wrote, cautioning in drawing conclusions from the presentation, as the process is still ongoing. He said a final report is expected in fiscal year 2025 — between July 1, 2024, and June 30, 2025. Contact Carissa Woytach at (440) 329-7245 or cwoytach@chroniclet.com.