KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Tuesday was the day the Hickman Mills School District learned the result of an audit by the state treasurer, and the overall grade was fair.
Deputy state auditor Harry Otto went over the details of the audit in the auditorium of the Hickman Mills Junior High School on Tuesday. The audit contains a lot of information. It is a 40 page document that outlines several occasions the in which the Hickman Mills School Board did not follow its own policies or Missouri state law.
Several of the auditor`s findings had to do with former school board president, Breman Anderson.
The audit claims Anderson made several decisions without consulting the board, like hiring an auditing firm called People Wise two days before the board voted on it, notifying the district’s health insurance company they were changing carriers three days before the change, and approving invoices for the search firm, Gallagher, who was contracted to find a new superintendent. And even though school board policy is that any contracts over $5,000 must be sent out for bids, none of these examples were. The auditor also says these were among 28 closed meetings that violated the Sunshine Law.
The audit also revealed questionable transactions, like a $250 donation to the Alpha Kappa Alpha debutant fund raiser for a one page ad on behalf of the board secretary`s daughter, which was a decision directed by Anderson.
Debbie Aiman was a school board member from 2007 to 2010 and ran again last year.
“I was invited to a meeting where I was asked would I be able to support the President of the Board unconditionally without asking questions,” said Aiman.
Aiman says Anderson made it clear in that meeting that she should play ball. She said no.
“And then right before the election a campaign of character assassination took place,” she said.
She says phone calls and a mailer, with what she calls lies, were used to smear her, and she could never track down the organization called ‘Parents United to Save Our Children’ which supposedly paid for and distributed the flier.
Anderson was voted out of the board president position, but still is an active member of the Hickman Mills School Board. FOX 4’s Shannon O’Brian spoke to Anderson who said he would meet her on Tuesday for an interview about this subject at 5:00, but never showed up.
