Howard County Public School System Undergoes Audit This Week

HOWARD COUNTY, MD — This week, certified public accounting and business advisory firm SB & Company began a state-led audit of the Howard County Public School System. The Howard County Council unanimously voted to pass Howard County Executive Calvin Ball’s legislation calling for a state audit of HCPSS in July 2019.

“Despite a challenging fiscal outlook, we were able to provide significant funding to our schools this year, with a direct appropriation of $620.3 million. This is a $13.1 million increase (2.2 percent) over last year’s budget and exceeds maintenance of effort (MOE) levels by $2.7 million," said Howard County Executive Calvin Ball. "Every educator, student, parent and resident in Howard County deserve to know exactly how and where our money is being utilized. This audit will ensure that taxpayer dollars are being spent sensibly, to best serve our students and educators.”

The audit process provides an opportunity for Howard County to build more accountability and transparency for the school system, find ways to support all students and educators, and continue improvement of HCPSS. The focus will be on four key areas, established through cooperation with HCPSS:

1. health and dental fund

2. budgeting and actual expenditure variance

3. personnel cost development

4. procurement

“I appreciate the county’s continued partnership as we tackle the various budget pressures we have faced,” said Michael Martirano, HCPSS superintendent. “We welcome the audit as it will add another layer of transparency that HCPSS strives to achieve in how taxpayer dollars are spent and the critical need to avoid future adverse audit opinions by eliminating the historic Health Fund deficit.”