WTOP: Audit of High School Shows Lots of Red Ink

Kate Ryan, WTOP Radio

POTOMAC, Md. -- Parents wondered why they had to pay for textbooks. Auditors warned that sloppy record-keeping was causing problems.
Now, after finding that Winston Churchill High School's activity funds are nearly a $250,000 in the hole, the school's finances are being sifted through by the Montgomery County School's Department of Reporting and Regulatory Accountability...full report here

...When asked about the audits -- which are conducted at each school annually -- Edwards explains that the auditors are currently "working with the school to rectify the situation."
Edwards says it was unusual, but "the audit did not show any evidence of malfeasance, the audit shows that there were some serious deficiencies in their record keeping practices."
But why is Churchill, a school in an affluent area in one of the country's wealthiest counties, charging parents for Advanced Placement textbooks?
"We're in the process of checking that out too, to find out what the situation is -- if parents were in the position of paying for textbooks there, if so why, because they should be provided," Edwards says.
COMAR, the Maryland annotated code, requires that schools provide textbooks free of charge to students.