Posted on 02/26/25
| News Source: FOX45
Baltimore, MD - Feb. 26, 2025 - New reports of negligence inside Baltimore City Public Schools. The district is now responding to a troubling financial audit released by the Maryland Department of Legislative Services, which details 17 findings against the District.
The audit found that City Schools failed to consistently “comply with procurement policies and maintain sufficient documentation related to disbursements.” Overall, according to the audit, seven issues were discovered concerning procurement and disbursements.
The audit also found the district failed to properly prescreen new hires who work with students.
Most of the findings were related to the school system's mishandling of expenditures, including contracts that appear to have been improperly awarded, totaling more than $5 million. According to the audit, City Schools failed to collect $1.5 million in salary costs from third parties. And the audit found the district did not always follow protocol when pre-approving City Schools Police overtime.
For the past few years, Project Baltimore has been investigating City Schools Police overtime.
In 2023, school police officer Lawrence Smith was indicted by the FBI. He’s accused of tax violations and fraudulently submitting overtime to obtain more than $215,000 taxpayer dollars. Fox45 also discovered that the district continued to pay Smith for nearly a year even after he was arrested.
Click here to view the PDF file.
The audit also found cybersecurity-related findings, which were redacted from the report as per state law.
The audit recommended City Schools, “Needs to improve internal controls and accountability in several areas, including transportation services, payroll processing, annual disclosure statements, and health care services.”