OSDE says Mid-Del Schools misspent more than $500K in federal funds, demands money back

OKLAHOMA CITY (KOKH) — The Oklahoma State Department of Education (OSDE) has issued a warning to Mid-Del Public Schools, saying the district misspent federal funds.

The OSDE sent this letter to Mid-Del Public Schools today, telling them what they believe the district did wrong and demanding they return those funds.

On Wednesday, the OSDE sent Mid-Del Public Schools what they're calling a "Letter of Warning and Request for Remediation.

The agency says during the 2020-2022 school years, Mid-Del claimed $573,588.96 in emergency funds and spent it on "athletic lawn services."

The OSDE is telling Mid-Del to pay that money back, and submit a corrective action plan.

State Superintendent Ryan Walters shared the following statement about the situation:

Taxpayers expect and deserve that our schools will be good stewards of the hard-earned resources they devote to administering our schools. In this case, Mid-Del has broken the public trust and spent more than a half million dollars on a pet project rather than addressing the immediate academic needs of our students. Under my administration, OSDE has vigorously pursued the interest of parents and taxpayers to hold districts accountable for every dollar allocated to ensure they are spent properly. I trust that Mid-Del will come into compliance quickly, and we can get the district back on track toward focusing spending on academic excellence.

Mid-Del Public Schools reacted to the situation, sharing this statement with Fox 25:

Today, we received a letter from the Oklahoma State Department of Education detailing expenditures from prior school years that the staff of the current state superintendent has interpreted to be contrary to federal guidelines. We plan to prepare a full response to OSDE in a timely manner, but since this information was sent to the media at the same time we received it, we briefly want to address the issues raised in the letter.

During the 2020-21 and 2021-22 school years, the district used pandemic relief funds generally as described in the OSDE letter. Only after receiving guidance and approval from the OSDE at that time did we do this. The expenditures aligned with our understanding of the federal guidelines and those of OSDE staff. Paragraph 11 of the letter we received today states that the US Department of Education “explicitly prohibits the use of these funds for athletic facilities.” Footnote 3, at the bottom of the same page also states that this prohibition is found in guidance published December 7, 2022, which is almost six months after the last time we used federal funds on our athletics fields.

Since they do, however, we will abide by their request to return the funds and work with the Office of Title Services to re-allocate them in a manner that they feel is allowable. Following receipt of this letter, we will also review our purchasing policies and procedures. Incidentally, these were just reviewed during an on-site consolidated monitoring visit by the OSDE’s Office of Title Services on March 28. In a letter dated April 1 (received April 16), we were thanked for our cooperation and told that “no further action is required.”

In the meantime, as we work to prepare a full response, we would ask that the OSDE fulfill the Open Records Request we submitted January 26, 2024 (ORR #24-045).

We are requesting electronic copies of all emails between the Oklahoma State Department of Education and Mid-Del Public Schools related to Federal Programs. Additionally we are asking for any internal email communication among OSDE staff regarding Federal Programs and Mid-Del Public Schools.

A review of the internal deliberations that were had among OSDE staff between January 9, 2023 and January 25, 2024, as requested, could possibly prove useful in helping us develop the corrective plan requested in this letter.