Key points: 

1. Auditors found no deficiencies and that district had corrected old ones 
2. Wahluke School District working on plans for the future

MATTAWA — After a few years of audits that identified deficiencies, Washington state auditors found that the Wahluke School District didn’t have any new deficiencies and corrected previously identified problems. District Superintendent Andy Harlow said the audit findings are a reflection of staff members who are committed to Wahluke, many of them WSD alumni. 

“Our assistant superintendent graduated from Wahluke. Our finance director graduated from Wahluke, our maintenance director graduated from Wahluke, our transportation director graduated from Wahluke,” Harlow said. “That’s been a nice thing. We’re all invested in trying to stay here and make this place better.” 

Previous audits determined that the district, in the opinion of the auditors, didn’t always track expenses effectively and in some cases failed to follow proper procedures. Harlow said district officials and staff have worked to address those problems. Staff members have been willing to do it, he said, but it hasn’t always been easy. 

“Over the last three, four years, we’ve had a lot of tough conversations that involve good people that just aren’t following the procedure,” he said. “The actual holding to those procedures has been the challenge.” 

The changes have taken a few years to implement. 

“It didn’t happen overnight,” Harlow said. “Last year, you could see signs that things were getting better, because we had a pretty good audit. And I think this year it’s just improved. I feel like we’re on our way.” 

District officials want to use the existing momentum to make additional improvements. 

“Continual commitment to stay focused on our procedures. If something breaks down, we don’t freak out – it's, ‘where did the system break down,’ and looking at the system to try to fix it,” Harlow said. “The second thing is, continued professional development.” 

Part of the initiative for continued development is coming from Wahluke staff members. Harlow cited Gabriela Chacon, the district’s finance director, as an example.  

“(Chacon) has gone through two years of labs at ESD 171, up in Wenatchee, two years with her team,” Harlow said. “It’s one thing to graduate from college with a finance degree; it’s another thing to learn how to be a finance director.” 

The accounting staff has asked for additional training, he said. 

“They (came) to me last summer and said, ‘Hey, we would like to send our payroll people to those labs up at ESD 171,’” he said.  

District officials are working on plans to ensure WSD stays current with the things it needs to provide students with the education they need, he said. 

“(Assistant superintendent) Amy Marlow has really led the way with the tech department. They have a 10-year plan for student tech, staff tech, and classroom tech,” Harlow said. “What we did this past spring was, we went through every facility, every playing field, every athletic field, and we are in the process of developing 10-year plans for every building. That will help as we start to make a 10-year plan that takes us into the next 20-30 years, because we haven’t had that. We’ve just kind of kicked the can down the road over the last 20 years. We built (Wahluke High School), and we kind of didn’t do anything else.” 

Part of that plan will be working to accommodate projected declining enrollment, a challenge which Wahluke has in common with school districts nationwide. Harlow is a 25-year veteran of the district and has seen enrollment increase from about 1,800 students to about 2,600, then start to decrease.  

“You’re looking at 25 to 50 kids reduction every year over the last four to five years, since (the coronavirus pandemic),” he said. 

Declining enrollment has led to declining staff, which has gone from about 350 people to 300 over the last few years, he said. There’s only been one layoff, Harlow said; other staff members have found new jobs.  

The reduction has meant remaining staff have had to assume new roles. 

“Everyone is learning to do other things, reshuffling people,” he said. “It’s been a challenge. It has not been all roses. It’s been a willingness, a commitment to really go through this process.” 

    The Wahluke School District received a positive audit with no identification of deficiencies.
  

    Aileen Avalos, Wahluke Junior High, takes on the challenge of the Amazing Shake competition in February. District Superintendent Andy Harlow said the hard work of district staff helped the district revise operations so that the district received a positive audit.