The Issaquah (Wash.) school district says it improperly paid for certain capital projects using bonds that voters had approved for other purposes.
The Seattle Times reports that some of the $533.5 million in bond funds that voters approved in 2016 were used on projects not specified in the bond proposal.
Issaquah Superintendent Heather Tow-Yick says the district had accounted for all the bond funds, and they were used on other expenses approved by the school board.
“We know that money is not missing," Tow-Yick says. "That is an important statement for our community. It was all used on capital projects that were approved over time.”
The $533.5 million bond issue included funds for construction of a new high school, a middle school and two elementary schools. The district serves roughly 18,500 students.
Ten of the 2016 bond projects have been completed and two are still in the works, according to the district website.
But some of those bond funds were used on capital projects the district declined to specify.
Officials in the district made the discovery while conducting an internal review of capital expenditures.
The district plans to put additional safeguards in place “to better track project funding and ensure this does not happen again,” Tow-Yick says.
