In past years, Cleveland School officials inflated attendance numbers reported to the state. Whether or not that was intentional, there is an incentive to report higher numbers. The more students in school, the more money the district gets for education from the state. In the previous audit, state officials said the city inflated its numbers by 28.5%, but the district's math has improved. For the 2005-2006 school year Cleveland schools were off by only 2.5%.
Cleveland's new school CEO Eugene Sanders says even that error rate is unacceptable. He says there's no reason why the district shouldn't have a 0% error rate in attendance record keeping and he promises to institute procedures to achieve that in the current school year.
Eugene Sanders: This is something we ought to be able to do, the district should be able to do it correctly and the district will make every effort to document it correctly.
To improve record-keeping, Sanders and the School Board last month formed an independent audit committee to review financial documents before they're sent to the state auditor. Lisa Ann Pinkerton, 90.3.