Tulsa Public School officials react to audit report findings

Tulsa Public School officials responded Wednesday afternoon to the state auditor's findings in her report.

TPS Superintendent Dr. Ebony Johnson said that the district knew a lot of the information that was released for quite some time, but did not know the entirety of the audit. She said the information that was released Wednesday was more than the information the state auditor provided to the district.

Dr. Johnson said TPS is the third largest employer in the City of Tulsa, which means there are a lot of team members that come and go.

The superintendent said she's welcome to change to look at the best practices in the state of Oklahoma to be better transparent.

Here are some things Dr. Johnson mentioned that she and the district are doing:

1. Purchased an AI program to detect fraud
2. Report to the board on a consistent basis with what's happening with the district's finances
3. An auditor has been hired within the district to have oversight on financial processes
4. Meet with new CFO on a consistent basis.

What was revealed in the audit?

Oklahoma Auditor Cyndi Byrd stated in a press conference at the State Capitol Wednesday that this was not a reflection of the quality of the district's work and instead looked into a small group of administrators at the district.

She said there were over 1,400 financial discrepancies that she found, and laws along with policies were routinely disregarded.

For more on what was revealed in those audit findings, click here

The release of these findings comes after attorneys for TPS invoked Oklahoma Statute Title 70, section 5-127.1, which allows for school districts to delay the release of audit findings for two weeks.

Interview with TPS Superintendent Dr. Ebony Johnson

News On 6 sat down with TPS Superintendent Dr. Ebony Johnson the day after the Feb. 11 news conference. Here's a link to that interview

Here's some of our past coverage on the TPS audit:

1. TPS audit results withheld: Why the public can’t see the findings yet
2. Tulsa Public Schools responds to delay in audit release
3. Audit of Tulsa Public Schools stalled—Here’s what led to the investigation