Marshfield Public School District's use of Certain ARRA Funds

This is a Massachusetts State Auditor report on how Marshfield Public School District used certain federal stimulus education funds.

“In accordance with Chapter 11, Section 12, of the General Laws, we have conducted an audit of certain activities of MPSD for the period August 10, 20101 through June 30, 2011.”

Auditors checked whether the federal money was spent for the right purposes and whether Marshfield met accounting and reporting rules.

“The objectives of our audit were to determine whether ARRA funds awarded to MPSD for RTT and Education Jobs awards to MPSD were used for their intended purposes and in compliance with program requirements and to evaluate whether MPSD complied with ARRA accounting and reporting requirements.”

The concern was not that auditors found stolen money, but that weak written controls could make loss, theft, misuse, or rule violations harder to prevent or catch.

“Without ARRA-specific internal controls that identify risks and ways to mitigate them, MPSD cannot ensure compliance with applicable laws and regulations or that ARRA funds are adequately protected from loss, theft, or misuse.”

For residents, this matters because the funds supported school jobs and education services, including reported creation or retention of staff positions.

“In addition to the uses of program funds, information reported to MRRO indicated that Education Jobs program expenditures allowed MPSD to create/retain 10.34 FTE personnel positions as of June 30, 2011.”

Marshfield needed to improve documentation of ARRA-specific internal controls and risk assessments.

“MPSD should develop ARRA-specific internal controls and risk assessments to address the objectives and risks that affect compliance with ARRA regulations, performance and reporting requirements, fraud detection and prevention, and safeguarding assets.”

The district and town said they were working on ARRA-specific controls and risk assessments.

“MPSD and the Town of Marshfield are developing internal controls and conducting risk assessments specific to ARRA; focusing on the objectives and risks that affect compliance with ARRA regulations, performance and reporting requirements, fraud detection and prevention, and safeguarding assets.”

ARRA was federal stimulus funding; RTT was Race to the Top, a federal education grant program; internal controls are the rules and checks meant to make sure money is handled properly.

“RTT is a four-year U.S. Department of Education (DOE) grant provided to certain states and used by local educational agencies, such as MPSD, committed to implementing a set of education reforms, including improving teacher and principal effectiveness based on performance, ensuring effective teachers and leaders in every school and classroom, using data to inform instruction, improving college and career readiness, developing and implementing a statewide teaching and learning system; and turning around the lowest-achieving schools.”