The audit, performed by firm Weaver Tidwell, revealed the district overshot its spending for the fiscal year between 2024 and 2025, among other missteps. It advised FCPS to establish standardized accounting procedures, create a formal budget monitoring system, and review travel policies, in addition to dozens of other recommendations.
The draft action plan presented Thursday included enhanced reviews and oversight of the budget process.
Interim Chief Financial Officer Kyna Koch said the hope is to stick to a timeline for implementation, but cautioned that the district could hit snags along the way, and some of the recommendations are more involved than others.
"We're going to do our best with this," she said. "There are some... longer-term issues in here. There are some things that require additional financial resources that we just don't have right now."
One area where the district needs to fill gaps is in the budget office itself.
"It will take additional personnel in the budget office to fulfill the recommendations that we have here," she acknowledged.
In the meantime, Interim Superintendent Dr. Bill Bradford is creating his own improvement plan focused on district leadership. Among the to-do items on his list is a transparency dashboard, meant to provide a window into both the district's budget and progress on the corrective action plan.
The district will start the FY27 budget with a $5.5 million deficit — that's if it's able to sell off $8 million in property.