Western Heights Public Schools spent millions on misguided expenses, overpaid and underpaid employees, and committed a litany of other financial mistakes, according to a state audit released Thursday, four years after outraged district residents and state officials requested it.
The Oklahoma State Auditor and Inspector’s Office investigated the small southwest Oklahoma City district’s 2019-2022 finances. Former Superintendent Mannix Barnes was in charge for much of that period until he was suspended amid a 2021 state takeover of the district.
Barnes earned $1.13 million in total compensation from August 2019 through December 2022. State auditors deemed all of his earnings an improper expense because Western Heights’ school board failed to approve his employment contracts in open meetings.
Western Heights paid another $500,000 in legal fees to fight the state takeover and to defend Barnes in court.
“This half-million dollars represents a substantial use of public funds on matters that provided little to no direct benefit to students, staff, or schools,” State Auditor and Inspector Cindy Byrd said in a statement.
Barnes did not immediately return a request for comment. He resigned in December 2022 after more than a year of suspension. His separation agreement had him give up his superintendent certification and granted him $150,000.
Robert Everman, Western Heights’ school board president at the time, said he doesn’t believe any improper action took place. He said he doesn’t recall details of the meetings where Barnes’ contracts were approved and said he doesn’t have a clue how much money the district spent on legal costs.
Everman, who stepped down in November 2022, said Western Heights was well managed and he has no regrets.
“That’s a closed portion of my life,” Everman said. “I don’t even think about it much anymore.”
The Oklahoma State Board of Education suspended Barnes’ superintendent license and took control of district operations after he and the Western Heights board appeared to ignore complaints from their frustrated local community and from state officials. Staff and students left the district in droves during Barnes’ tenure from 2019-2021, a period marred by financial disarray and poor management, state officials said at the time.
Nine hundred residents of the Western Heights district signed a citizen petition in 2021 to request a state audit. The state Board of Education, led by then-state Superintendent Joy Hofmeister, soon followed with an audit request of its own.
District parent Amy Boone, who was part of the citizen petition effort, said the money spent on Barnes’ contract should be clawed back. Barnes and Everman should face prosecution for Open Meeting Act violations, she said.
“State statute allows for that money to be recouped and that must be pursued,” Boone said. “Our kids deserve nothing less.”
The state auditor’s office sent its findings to the Oklahoma County district attorney and the state Attorney General’s Office to review, Byrd said. Violations of the Oklahoma Open Meeting Act can be prosecuted as a misdemeanor.
Western Heights Superintendent Brayden Savage appeared to cast doubt on the idea of the district taking legal action of its own.
“At the end of the day, we have to do what’s best for the students and the district,” Savage told Oklahoma Voice. “Especially when we’ve had a history of a high rate of funds going out to legal counsel, we don’t want to continue that, either. We’re going to move forward with this, with the audit, and take a look at it carefully and make sure we make the best decision with the students in mind.”
Western Heights is still cleaning up its finances four years later and “will be glad to put this behind us,” she said.
Rather than accept the state takeover in 2021, Western Heights’ school board chose to extend Barnes’ contract, again without a public vote, after his superintendent license was suspended, state auditors noted. The school board then promoted an assistant superintendent to lead the district during Barnes’ suspension — directly contravening Hofmeister, who already had appointed an interim superintendent.
This led the district to pay three superintendent salaries at once, according to the audit. State auditors found Western Heights spent $1.12 million on superintendent compensation from July 2021 through December 2022.
The district also challenged the takeover and Barnes’ suspension in court, but the Oklahoma State Department of Education was victorious. An Oklahoma County district judge permitted the state intervention to proceed, calling the district “a mess, financially, operationally and in every other way I can think of.” The state Supreme Court upheld the ruling.
Western Heights ultimately spent just over $1 million on attorney fees from 2020-2022, according to the audit. About half of that cost stemmed from the district’s conflict with the state.
State auditors checked the compensation of 61 district employees and found 16 overpayments and underpayments of at least $1,000. The overpayments totaled $46,951, and underpayments amounted to $20,083, according to the report.
Fifteen of the employees lacked contracts with properly authorized signatures and one contract couldn’t be located, auditors reported.
The audit also found myriad instances of late payments, delays in depositing checks, untimely filed payroll tax reports and poor recordkeeping.
“School leaders have a responsibility to act in the best interests of students, families, and taxpayers,” Byrd stated. “Effective budget management goes beyond tracking expenditures. It also requires thoughtful, transparent decision-making that prioritizes student learning and academic success.”
State auditors began investigating the district once the state takeover began in July 2021. But over the past four years, the audit’s completion took a backseat to other, more urgent investigations in which state funds were being actively embezzled or government entities were facing insolvency, Byrd told Oklahoma Voice.
The state auditor’s office is “severely understaffed and severely underappropriated” but still puts out 350 audits per year, she said.
“The state Department of Education had already taken over, appointed a new superintendent and was righting the ship,” Byrd said. “It was for us to then only go back and document from the historical aspect of what had went wrong and how to go forward in a better manner. It wasn’t about the school in real time losing assets.”
Oklahoma Voice is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Oklahoma Voice maintains editorial independence.
