ST. LOUIS (KMOX) - The Francis Howell School District has received the lowest rating it could in an audit of the skyrocketing costs of their new high school.
Missouri Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick has completed his audit into the skyrocketing cost to construct the new Francis Howell North High School, citing communication and bias issues.
According to Firzpatrick's report, the project initially planned to cost over $86 million doubled by Nov. 2021.
While much of that was attributed to cost of materials rising due to COVID, Auditor Fitzpatrick says the district is not without blame, as district officials were not transparent with the Francis Howell school board or the public.
Fitzpatrick says the day before a board vote, district officials altered the project manager recommendation from the firm receiving the highest score to the one who received the lowest score.
The one that received the lowest score was owned by the brother of a former employee of the of the Francis Howell School District. The audit found district officials wanted that former employee to be the project manager.
He adds the board is not blameless, saying they failed to ensure cost updates on the project were provided. This led to the board approving bids costing tens of millions, while not knowing the updated total project cost.
In a statement, the Francis Howell School District says they were pleased this audit affirmed many of the findings of their internal Prop S review and there were no findings in relation to Prop S.