Update 01: Got the management letter from a friend at bottom of post.  Am posting the item of interest.

Guess what?  The Sedro-Woolley School District decided to pull an accounting trick that the State Auditor's Office caught with a recent management letter.  The Skagit Valley Herald Newsroom did a stellar job in reporting last Friday that, "The terms of the $2 million 2003 bond issue from which the money came authorized the use of the proceeds for purchase of property and capital improvements but not for curriculum or payroll, according to the auditor’s letter.  Limited general obligation bonds are authorized by the Sedro-Woolley School Board and repaid out of district revenues."

A different kind of bond is being proposed and ballots are due at 2000 Hours/8 PM 24 April.  Not knowing this information, I voted yea.  You can go HERE for why - for one, we need to replace a middle school I was just in a few months ago returning a textbook from 1979 I had bought at a book sale.

Had I known the district's troubles, I'd have trusted not the Skagit Valley Herald Editorial Board with its condescending statement today saying in what was otherwise a good editorial, "In any event, the money was spent directly on education and ultimately the public’s trust was not abused."

Rather I would have trusted Chris Johnson of the State Auditor's Office and here's why, many thanks to the Skagit Valley Herald:

State audit manager Chris Johnson on Thursday characterized the problem as “an oversight.” He said though School Board members told auditors they intended for the bond proceeds to be used in part for curriculum and payroll, those purposes were not written into the formal “bond covenants” that govern how the money can be spent.

Johnson said his office asked the bond holders if they had concerns about the inconsistency. “They said they did not,” he said. …

“In working with Sedro-Woolley School District in the past, we’ve found that they’ve been very proactive in addressing issues,” he [Johnson] said.

I trust the nonpartisan auditor on issues like this and that's how I'll end this post (until an update becomes necessary).

Update 01: Here's the relevant part of the management letter (the rest of the letter is boilerplate):

1.)  Bond Proceeds In 2003, the District issued $2 million in Limited General Obligation Bonds for the purpose of acquiring property and making capital improvements to its facilities.  During the current audit, we reviewed the use of those proceeds and noted expenditures for curriculum and payroll totaling $203,471.  Payroll and curriculum were not identified as allowable expenditures in the bond covenants.   

We recommend the District ensure bond proceeds are used according to bond covenants.  

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