A forensic audit of Kankakee School District 111’s spending of grant funds on its former Youth Empowerment Program found deficiencies in the district’s financial record-keeping procedures and policies.

The audit looked into spending on the Youth Empowerment Program, a youth employment and enrichment initiative started by the district’s previous superintendent, Genevra Walters.

The program, funded by a grant from the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority, ran from July 1, 2020, until June 30.

The District 111 board hired an auditing firm, Wipfli LLC, in September 2024 to conduct a forensic audit on the program’s spending.

The audit identified $984,748.32 of expenses available to be reclaimed from ICJIA, despite the grant deadlines having passed. The reimbursement request went to the state’s Court of Claims.

Harrison Neal, assistant superintendent of business services, said the district submitted the claim and received a judgment and stipulation earlier this year. The stipulation was for a higher amount than submitted – about $1.1 million.

“We should hopefully have that [reimbursement] sometime this summer, but we have to wait for legislative appropriation, and then for the comptroller to distribute it,” Neal said.

Marc Courey and Christina Solomon, directors of Wipfli’s forensic investigation services, reviewed the results at a Nov. 10 meeting.

Since the audit report, Walters has issued a statement responding to its findings. She said there was evidence of program oversight that was not covered in the scope of the audit, and that staffing issues with the ICJIA caused reimbursement delays.

Reviewing documents

To complete the audit, the firm accessed electronic documents recorded in Skyward, the district’s financial accounting system.

“Our work relied upon the financial information that the district had maintained,” Courey said.

The auditors reviewed 3,482 transactions related to the grant.

“In each and every one of those, we did or we attempted to review whatever supporting documentation existed on them,” Solomon said.

Courey said additional paper records might exist that weren’t uploaded or maintained in the electronic system.

In discussion with the district’s finance department, it was determined that any possible paper records would not have been maintained or organized in a way that would be easy for auditors to access.

“We did not endeavor to try to identify paper records that might have related to the YEP program,” Courey said. “The fact that they weren’t in Skyward doesn’t mean that those didn’t exist.”

Tracking down paper records would have required more time and resources from the audit, he said.

“It would have been, in essence, an Easter egg hunt to see what documentation might exist out of the paper records that relate back to that period of time,” Courey said.

Key findings

Solomon said the audit found “widespread documentation gaps,” including missing invoices or receipts and a lack of approval signatures.

“What I mean by that is that oftentimes what was being scanned and recorded in support for the information largely was not real robust,” Solomon said.

For instance, expenses would be recorded but not in itemized detail, or emails would state something had been approved and paid but not include the underlying invoice or receipt, the audit found.

Out of 3,482 transactions reviewed, auditors noted some level of deficiency on almost 98% of them, or 3,422 transactions.

Invoices often would include some documentation but not a review or signature confirming expenses were paid, and payroll items often were lacking timecards or logs, the audit found.

“In almost all instances, there were not timesheets,” Solomon said. “There were reports or spreadsheets that would summarize what was paid to the individual, but not an underlying premise of a timesheet or a log sheet or anything that tracked hours by day or activity.”

The audit also concluded that District 111’s policies are written in broad terms without specific definitions, procedures or assignment of enforcement responsibility.

The district’s policy manual does not clarify what constitutes “proper authorization and documentation,” nor provide guidance on how these requirements should be implemented or monitored, according to the report.

“We noted that the KSD policies and procedures listed in the policies manual are broad,” Solomon said. “They don’t really speak to, ‘Here’s how you dot I’s and cross T’s.’”

Going forward, District 111’s policy manual might be an area of discussion regarding what type of language is considered sufficient, Solomon said.

“While perfectly acceptable to say the school district expects things to be documented, [the manual] doesn’t necessarily provide the context and the detail of what that means,” she said.

‘Stolen’ funds?

Board member Tracy Verrett said some members of the public believed money had been “stolen” from the district. She asked if the audit found any instances where district funds were used outside of the purposes of the grant.

Courey said the auditors were unable to make those kinds of conclusions based upon the records available for them to review.

Financial records showed what was charged to the program, but supporting documentation was not sufficient to conclude, for instance, if an individual completed specific work on a specific date and time.

“We can see that the money was expended. We can see some different levels of support for that,” Courey said. “But can we say for certain what actually went on? The documentation just doesn’t allow us to; [it] is not sufficiently adequate to allow [us] to make some of those kinds of conclusions.”

Board President Chris Bohlen said he is unaware of anyone claiming that money had been “stolen” from the district.

“That’s not the point,” Bohlen said. “The point is, this grant, from what we’re hearing, was at least managed without documentation.”

Recouping funds

The ICJIA grant was submission-based, meaning the district had to spend its own funds first, then seek reimbursement.

Courey said he was unaware if ICJIA required expense reports to be submitted on a specific frequency, such as monthly or quarterly, but he would expect the district to monitor grant periods and ensure submissions are being made in a timely manner.

While it might make sense to wait to submit expenses until they reach a certain threshold, they still should be done on a consistent basis, Courey said.

“I think that’s the balancing act that should have been going on,” he said.

Bohlen said the state informed the board that no submission requests were made between January 2023 and June 2024.

If regular submissions had been made, the district would not have spent about $1 million of its own funds that now must be obtained through the Court of Claims.

“It wasn’t the state’s fault. It was our fault,” Bohlen said.

Walters responds

In a statement, Walters said the review of transactions in Skyward “does not reflect the full scope of supporting documentation available.”

“Much of the program’s documentation was maintained through a combination of paper records and digital tools, including Google Forms,” Walters said. “These forms were used to track student participation and were converted into timesheets, which were signed by multiple layers of supervision, including certified staff and administrators. This structure ensured accountability and oversight throughout the program.”

Walters also said that the ICJIA experienced high staff turnover during the grant period, which led to reimbursement delays.

“Frequent changes in budget managers disrupted communication, resulting in delays that impacted the timely submission of reimbursement requests,” Walters said.

She said the program was designed to support the district’s most vulnerable students, providing leadership development, career readiness, real-world learning experiences, mentoring, after-school activities and college visits.

“While rooted in equity, the program was open to all students and implemented with structured supervision to ensure safe and meaningful engagement,” Walters said.

Going forward

Superintendent Teresa Lance said that last year, during her first year as superintendent, she and her cabinet learned that the district had employees – including students and others – who were told they were being paid from a grant.

“When we looked, we learned that there were no more funds,” Lance said. “In other words, we were paying these employees out of district dollars.”

Lance then inquired with ICJIA about the status of the funding, and at that time, the agency informed her that the district had not submitted any recent claims. That’s when the ball got rolling on the audit, Lance said.

“No one has ever said that the former superintendent stole money,” she said. “That includes myself, that includes members of [the] cabinet, and that includes current board members and former board members.”

Bohlen said he suggests that going forward, any grants the district receives should be subject to audit on an annual basis.

“Hopefully, we as a district will have learned something from this process and from the information [the audit] found,” Bohlen said.