Internal Auditors, External Auditors, & Strategic Plans

QUESTIONS AND RESPONSES

• Question: How should we evaluate and manage our internal auditor?  -- Board Member in Ohio

• TESBM: First, in some states the internal auditor reports to the school board, in others to the superintendent, and in others it's a choice. As such, this response won't evenly apply to everyone. 

• Second, sometimes auditing is commissioned by the school board for governance purposes, and sometimes it is commissioned by the superintendent for management purposes. Auditing that is commissioned by the school board, whether internal or external, exists to provide independent risk mitigation oversight for the school board (governance) and actionable operations insights for the superintendent and their leadership team (management).

• Third, it's also important to note that auditing is entirely distinct from investigating; if you're using auditing for investigative purposes, you're diminishing the value of auditing and not receiving the value of investigating. 

• With those caveats in mind, if the internal auditor reports to the school board, the number one risk for the internal auditor to pay attention to is the organization failing to accomplish the board's adopted SMART Goals about student outcomes. There are many other types of risk that are worthy of mitigation, so the auditor's annual auditing plan will have to cover multiple areas including financial, legal, and ethical. But when an internal auditor reports to a school board, none of those should receive a higher priority than Goal risk. Unfortunately, auditors rarely prioritize this risk unless their annual evaluation from the school board incentivizes them to do so (largely because it's not the focus of Generally Accepted Government Auditing Standards). So as a board, ensure that your annual evaluation of your internal auditor is weighted toward a focus on Goal risk and that a plurality or majority of their audit plan is related to Goal risk.

• Question: What guidance do you have about external auditors?  -- Board Member in Florida

• TESBM: External auditors are a tool the board can commission to mitigate risk on behalf of the community (governance) and to surface actionable insights for the superintendent’s team (management). Here are some pro tips when considering whether or not to hire an external audit:

  • Start with a scope that is tied to your Goals & Guardrails. Have staff prepare a scope document that frames what you want examined in terms of risks to accomplishing the board’s Goals and honoring its Guardrails; this is what external auditors use to customize their plan. If boards don't push for a Goals/Guardrails orientation, external auditors are likely to just copy and paste from their existing playbook, which defeats the point.

  • Expect independence and collaboration. Auditors must be fully independent of management and any interference from management should be recorded in findings. At the same time, effective audits include meaningful collaboration with management, with management given a chance to respond before the report is released. 

  • Don’t treat auditors like investigators. Auditing looks at systems for compliance/quality; investigating looks at incidents to determine who/what was responsible. They are different disciplines with different standards and training. Using auditors to run investigations usually harms both functions. If you need investigations, commission that separately.

  • Remain focused on why school systems exist (ie: improving student outcomes). When external auditing is board-commissioned, its purpose is to reduce organizational risk to SMART student outcome Goals and to inform management’s next steps. If a proposed audit doesn’t clearly advance one of those purposes, question why you're doing it.

INTERESTING READS

• This report looks at the quality of school system strategic plans in New Jersey.
• Rick Maloney shares his thoughts about the school board's obligation toward long-term rather than short-term perspective taking.

BOARD MEETING ANALYSIS

A subscriber asked us to watch a board meeting in Illinois. Here are the highlights from the regular board meetings:

• Total Public Minutes: 127
  • Public Minutes Focused on Student Outcomes: 0 (0%)
  • Minutes Not Focused on Student Outcomes: work session discussion - 118
  • Key Topics: school improvement plan, long range facilities, special education, playground, budget
•  What Coach Celebrates: 

  • The CSIP conversation surfaced their intention to create a data dashboard and to review progress quarterly. This suggests that there is an awareness that they need to make monitoring a regular part of the board's agenda.

• What Coach Recommends:
  • Ensure the plan has SMART Goals about student outcomes, not just a list of actions the adults will take.
  • Differentiate time focused on the CSIP (the plan for inputs) from time focused on monitoring the SMART Goals about what students know and are able to do (the stated outcomes).

  • Make a plan to schedule Goal monitoring monthly rather than just quarterly.

UPCOMING OPPORTUNITIES

• Effective Guardrail Setting
  •  We are continuing the Policy Leadership series with a 30-minute webinar on how to adopt high quality Guardrail policies and what to look for in Interim Guardrails.

    • 11am central on Friday, November 14th, 2025

    • RSVP Here

• Did you miss last month's 30-minute webinar? Email Greg for a make-up session on any of our growing list of topics, including governance policy, delegation policy, effective budgeting, superintendent evaluation, professional services management, strategic planning, or consent agendas.

BONUS MATERIAL

For paid subscribers, here are links to additional resources (to gain access to the links below, please consider subscribing):

• Additional details about the analyzed meeting -- including a video link, time use evaluation, and more.

  • Board Meeting Video

  • Meeting Materials

  • Strategic Plan

  • Completed Time Use Evaluation

• A guidance document on effective auditing from a governance perspective.
• A guidance document on how boards handle external professional services such as auditing.
• A guidance document on effective strategic planning practices.

Thank you for reading The Effective School Board Member. You ask tough questions and twice per month we get nationally certified school board coaches to provide answers. We help school board members tell their stories and provide additional resources to help them be more effective.

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