DES MOINES, Iowa — State Auditor Rob Sand is urging school districts to be more mindful of how they collect, handle and spend certain school funds.
Student activity funds are collected through student-related activities like admissions, fundraising or other co-curricular activities.
In the last decade, the Iowa Auditor of State has conducted special investigations on the use of these funds in 15 community school districts and found more than $268,000 that were not deposited or improperly deposited, collected or disbursed.
"We're kind of out here reminding people and trying to make sure that we're making it clear that this is an issue," said Sand. "And these funds need to be treated like public dollars because 15 reports in 10 years is kind of a lot for that."
Sand says only about $50,000 to 60,000 was likely stolen money, and the majority comes down to people being unaware of how to properly use these funds.
"A lot of this is just people who don't know what they're supposed to be doing with those dollars," Sand added. "Which is why we're trying to have this reminder. A lot of it just comes down to checks and balances. You want to make sure that you know what's happening with dollars so that people who are handling them understand that there aren't opportunities to be stealing them or aren't opportunities to be misspending them because someone's watching."