About the state audit subpoenas...and why the school district didn't receive any

I have heard that spirits have dropped in at least some of the Joplin schools over the past couple of days since a Joplin Globe article revealed that state auditors looking into the city of Joplin have issued subpoenas, but none have been issued in connection with the state audit of the school district.

Teachers and staff members who have hoped that the auditors would uncover what under the mildest description could be called mismanagement and under the more likely description would be correctly labeled as corruption, were crestfallen when they took the Globe article to mean that the Huff Administration and the R-8 Board of Education were going to receive a clean bill of health.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

The subpoenas issued in the city audit went to people like Jane Cage of the Citizens Advisory Recovery Team and others who have made decisions that have influenced spending millions in taxpayer funds. They do not work for the city, therefore the subpoenas were necessary in order for the auditors to question them.

On the other hand, there are no such forces at play in the school system. Nearly everyone that the auditors might want to talk to is employed by the district and much information has come from those people as well as others who have willingly brought facts and documents to the auditors.

Whether the auditors slap the district down hard, as I am expecting, or simply give the Huff Administration and the board a slap on the wrist, is something we won't know for a few more weeks.

Who knows, there may end up being subpoenas issued in connection with the R-8 School District investigation, but the lack of subpoenas at this point. doesn't mean a thing.