West Ada investigating $800 in Mountain View High School purchases

West Ada School District officials are scrutinizing about $800 in purchases at Mountain View High School made on the school’s purchase cards following a routine audit of the school’s finances.

West Ada’s finance department began investigating the purchases on cards called “P cards” last week, said Eric Exline, district spokesman. Officials are looking at purchases made during this fiscal year.

“I don’t have a conclusion that there is anything wrong here,” Exline said.

District financial officials are looking at two areas regarding use of Mountain View’s purchase cards.

P-card purchases require two signatures. One from the person making the purchase and a second from an administrator validating the purchase based on an invoice. Those are typically dated within a few days of each other, Exline said. In some of the Mountain View purchases, the signatures were dated weeks apart.

While looking into the questions of dates, finance officials also found they needed more clarification and details on some purchases.

District officials did a quick look at P-card purchases at other West Ada high schools and did not find the same concerns, Exline said.

Mountain View is West Ada’s second-largest largest high school, with about 2,300 students.

District purchase cards are like credit cards in which purchases are made and money withdrawn from an account. At West Ada School District’s five large high schools, Exline estimated there are 25 P cards.

Purchases came through accounts from income-producing operations at the school, not district dollars that pay for school education programs, Exline said. Officials declined to offer additional details and said it is too early in the investigation to determine which accounts were affected.

Exline declined to name any specific people who made the purchases in question because of the potential that the matter could become a personnel issue.

Aaron Maybon, Mountain View High School principal since the school opened in 2003, said he did not know exactly what the district was investigating. He said he did not know the dollar amount of purchases under investigation until he was informed by a Statesman reporter Friday.

Maybon said he was notified by the district following the audit and asked to come to the district office to answer questions as principal. He said he has a P card and several others are available for Mountain View administrators or teachers to check out.

This story was originally published April 21, 2017 at 4:33 PM with the headline "West Ada investigating $800 in Mountain View High School purchases."