Jefferson County Public Schools was yet again a topic of discussion in Frankfort today.

The state auditor's examination revealed several problems, from misuse of millions of dollars to fear of retaliation from the district's leader.

Our Emily Prince was at today's committee meeting and has this report in tonight's legislative update.

Today, State Auditor Alison Ball discussed the findings of a special examination of Jefferson County Public Schools.

Last year, GPS had a $188 million budget deficit.

The previous year, it was nearly 300 million.

So how did they get to that point?

Otto said most of the issues stemmed from federal Covid relief money.

Those were One-Time dollars, which were then used for recurring expenses.

In many cases.

$500 million surplus caused a, I think, a sense of urgency, a rush to spend a lot of expenditures.

There wasn't a very clear plan for how do you make sure you use these dollars wisely now, so you're not digging yourself into a deeper hole?

Ball said some of the 500 million Covid dollars were spent on Chromebooks, many of which are now outdated and increasing administrator salaries.

The auditor pointed out that some of the financial troubles stemmed under the leadership of former GPS Superintendent Marty Polio.

The auditor said there were other concerns under his leadership besides financial mismanagement.

A lot of the people who worked at CPS in a variety of levels reported to us that they were afraid to provide information that's negative to Superintendent Polio.

The state auditors examination also looked at student outcomes.

Ball said she was troubled that there had been no clear and measurable strategy to address student success since 2020.

She also gave statistics on how students of different ethnicities were struggling academically.

36% of the enrolled students are American students.

They are the plurality.

It's the largest demographic at GPS.

When you looked at the third grade reading proficiency levels, they were 14 points below the average GPS student and 20 points below the average Kentucky students.

Those are deeply troubling.

Actually, they're heartbreaking numbers.

Following the auditor's report, leaders from Jefferson County Public Schools, including Superintendent Brian Yearwood, spoke to lawmakers about how they are addressing these issues.

We accept this responsibility and view this report as our roadmap forward.

Yearwood has been the head of GPS for just over a year, he said after the district received the auditor's report, they made plans to address all 192 recommendations.

So what has the district done?

Deerwood said they've expanded their school district's police department to address school safety.

They've restructured their senior staff and more financially.

We created real time general fund jet dashboards to give our board and the public complete reporting transparency, keyword transparency now.

On student outcomes, Yearwood said.

It's his vision to see every student achieve one full year of academic growth every school year.

We are tracking real time progress measures to catch learning gaps long before state test results arrive.

And when it comes to the culture and the previous fear of retaliation among staff members, a lawmaker asked how that's being addressed.

How are you?

Determine whether employees are actually feeling comfortable with that and sharing their concerns?

Ultimately, I will get involved with issues pertaining to forms of retaliation.

It has no place in education.

It has no place in GPS.

Superintendent Yearwood said by December, district leaders will have a draft of their five year strategic plan.

GPS will also have a newly elected school board come January.

In Frankfort for Kentucky edition I'm Emily Prince.