In an interview Thursday with CBS 58, Gray said his review of what went wrong begins with the district’s use of financial reporting software that doesn’t fit with the system used by the state Department of Financial Instruction (DPI).
While other districts have transitioned to newer software that allows those districts to feed financial data directly to the DPI, Gray said MPS’ software requires financial staffers to plug numbers into a spreadsheet, then re-enter them into the DPI’s system.
“When information goes on a spreadsheet, all it takes is one calculation to throw the whole thing off,” Gray said.
Gray said one of his final suggestions for MPS will be updating its internal software to a system that better aligns with what the state uses. Even then, Gray said that transition could take two years to complete, and it’ll be especially arduous for MPS because those updates will affect the more than 100 schools across Wisconsin’s biggest district.
Beyond the reporting system, Gray said staffing is the other major challenge. MPS’ corrective action plan noted the district hopes to have another 12 staffers in its finance office than it currently has.
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