Houston ISD Superintendent Mike Miles spoke after it was discovered that purchases had been made without board approval within the district.
Miles spoke in a press conference Monday at 2:15 p.m. in the boardroom of the Hattie Mae White Educational Support Center in Houston.
Recommended Videos
Miles opened the press conference by reporting what he called a “good-faith error” in the district’s purchasing review process that was discovered in December. According to Miles, the team responsible for reviewing district projects made purchases without board approval, believing that such approval was not necessary for purchases affiliated with what Miles called “purchasing cooperatives.”
As a result, these purchases were not submitted to the board. Miles said no laws were broken, and an external auditor determined that the purchases were in-line with board approved budgeting amounts.
“I believe this was a good-faith error, but nevertheless it was an error, and it must be rectified,” Miles said.
To make sure this incident is not a recurring issue, Miles said the district will be adding an attorney to its legal services team to supervise future contract approvals. The district will also be conducting quarterly compliance audits.
Miles also addressed other areas of discussion for the upcoming spring semester, including the NWEA MAP testing that is scheduled to begin tomorrow and weapon detection systems that will be added to several high schools (starting with Lamar High School next week).
