Missouri State Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick’s office launched an audit into the Independence School District’s finances and student performance this month.
It’s one of three ongoing school audits. His office started reviews of the Kingston School District in Washington County in February, and St. Charles County’s Francis Howell School District in April.
Fitzpatrick said the audits are part of his plan to review the state’s more than 500 school districts on a more regular basis. Previous administrators had on average produced one school district audit per year, according to the state auditor’s office.
“When I ran for state auditor, one of the things I articulated as one of my top priorities was using our resources to audit more school districts,” Fitzpatrick said in a video posted to social media. “Previous administrations had not been auditing any school districts unless they were petitioned to do so by citizens.”
Fitzpatrick’s office said he selected Independence because it's one of the state’s larger school districts and is located across the state from the other two ongoing audits.
He also cited the district’s four-day school week and annexation of several schools from the Kansas City School District in 2007.
“We want to go into this school, conduct this audit and look at how it's spending your tax money to educate these students and make sure that it's being spent in the best way possible,” Fitzpatrick said.
Dr. Dale Herl, the Independence School District’s superintendent, said the process has been typical of an audit. Fitzgerald’s office is examining payroll records, credit card receipts and vendor contracts.
Herl said the district wants to look at the audit as an opportunity to find new ways to improve.
“My staff does a phenomenal job, and all of our audits we've always had have been exceptionally clean,” Herl said. “I don't expect this to be any different just because it's coming from the State Auditor's Office.”
Herl said the auditor’s office also asked questions about the four-day school week.
He said he shared results from a recent survey of families, staff and students conducted by Missouri State University on the 4-day week.
The survey found 78% of the district's staff agreed or strongly agreed with continuing the four-day instructional week and 70% of families agreed that their child maintained or improved academically under the new schedule.
It also found 82% of students prefer the four-day week over the traditional five-day format.
Some students said the extra day off improved their mental health and gave them the opportunity to catch up on homework and missing assignments. Others shared that classes felt rushed and the longer school days are tiring.
Herl said the district won’t have the latest student assessment data until later this summer or early fall. A study from the state education department found the 4-day school week had “no statistically significant effect on either academic achievement or building growth.”
Though 30% of the state’s school districts ran on a four-day schedule this school year, Independence was by far the largest district in Missouri — most are small and in rural areas.
Missouri lawmakers passed a bill last month requiring certain school districts to ask voters before adopting or continuing a four-day school week beginning in the 2026-2027 school year. The affected districts are those located in cities with more than 30,000 population, or in Jackson, Clay, St. Louis, Jefferson and St. Charles counties.
A district spokesperson told KCUR the district intends to put the question before voters during the 2025-2026 school year, at a cost of about $145,000 if it’s the only ballot issue.
The state auditor’s office said the Independence School District audit was not prompted by citizen complaints.
The Francis Howell School District audit was in response to numerous concerns about the district’s fiscal management, according to the state auditor's office. The construction of a new high school sparked controversy when it cost nearly $80 million more than anticipated.
The office said 299 Kingston residents signed a petition requesting an audit of district operations and finances.
“No entity, whether it be school district or municipality, has been audited, at least anytime in recent recollection, where there's never been a complaint about the school district,” Herl said. “That makes this situation honestly very unusual.”
