Lancaster County Schools was placed under a fiscal watch by State Superintendent Molly Spearman. The district has 60 days to submit a recovery plan to the state.
LANCASTER, S.C. — The Lancaster County School District has been placed on a fiscal watch and given 60 days to outline corrections taken to fix financial issues that led to the state’s monitoring of the situation.
In a letter dated Feb. 28, State Superintendent Molly Spearman notified Lancaster County Superintendent Jonathan Phipps that the fiscal watch declaration was pending on Feb. 9.
According to the South Carolina Department of Education, a fiscal watch may be declared for any of the following conditions:
- State officials determine a district’s financial practices occur outside of acceptable accounting standards
- A district submits an annual audit more than 60 days after the Dec. 1 deadline
- There is any type of ongoing, related investigation by any state or federal law enforcement agency or any other investigatory agency of the state
- An outside, independent auditing firm declares that a school district’s financial records are unauditable
- The state identifies significant deficiencies, material weaknesses, direct and material legal noncompliance, or management letter comments, which, in the opinion of the Department of Education, the aggregate effect of the reported issues has, or could have, a significant effect on the financial condition of the district
A fiscal watch is the lowest level of fiscal and budgetary concerns, according to the education department. There are two other levels of concern: Fiscal caution, and fiscal emergency, which is the highest level.
Spearman’s letter says the district has 60 days from the date of the declaration to send a recovery plan outlining corrections taken to fix the issues that led to the state’s fiscal watch declaration. Once the plan is received, state officials will submit a letter to the district stating whether the proposal is approved or denied. If denied, Lancaster County school officials will have to send an updated recovery plan to the state.
Details of the fiscal watch declaration haven’t been released. Lancaster County Schools have an executive session scheduled for 9 a.m. on Thursday, March 10.
Under state rules, a district placed on fiscal watch has 10 days to appeal to the State Board of Education and the SBE must hold a hearing on the appeal within 30 days after the appeal is filed, or at the next regularly scheduled SBE meeting, whichever is later.
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