$1.6 Million in TUSD Items Missing? You Read It Here First

by David Safier

In just one year, TUSD lost items that cost $1.6M. That’s the headline of a front page story in The Star by Rhonda Bodfield and Enrich Volante. I can guarantee this is the first time the story has appeared in a Tucson newspaper.

But if you read my May 16 post, Nearly $2 Million Worth of TUSD Fixed Assets Missing in One Year, you would have known about the story two months ago when I was the sole observer at a Tucson School Board’s Audit Committee meeting where this issue was raised.

Bodfield and Volante are a bit easier on TUSD than I was. They say, rightly, that no one knows if the items have been lost, stolen or simply moved from one place to another without the proper paperwork. But they don’t make enough of the fact that no one has looked into this problem over the past 17 years. When lots of items turn up missing, especially when most of them are electronics like cameras and computers that have a high appeal and potential resale value, someone in the District needs to take a hard look at what’s going on. If it’s just an inventory accounting problem, then tighten up the accounting, and everything’s fine. But if high cost items which need to be replaced with scarce TUSD funds are being stolen or hidden in some closet never to be seen again, the District needs to root out the problem and fix it.

Note: If I haven’t praised Bodfield for her excellent education reporting in The Star before now, the praise is long overdue. I read every one of her stories from beginning to end, and I learn more about the topic with each paragraph. They’re well researched and well written. Bodfield obviously puts out the effort to understand her topic before she starts writing. Other reporters need to learn a lesson from her, that it’s vital that you actually know what you’re writing about. It’s sounds obvious, and yet . . .