State auditor's letter recommends improvements to Evergreen Public Schools' supplemental contracts process
May 14-A recent state audit found Evergreen Public Schools lacked proper documentation and evidence for payments to the district's bargaining team during 2023 negotiations with the Evergreen Education Association.
Outrage over the payments resurfaced at recent school board meetings as the district cuts its budget.
The Washington State Auditor's Office on Tuesday released financial and accountability audits of the district covering the 2025 fiscal year that found no problems. However, the accountability audit also reviewed information pertaining to the district's supplemental contracts during a 2023 teachers strike, in which four administrators on the bargaining team received a combined $31,100 in supplemental pay for extra work during the final stretch of negotiations.
The state auditor sent a management letter to Evergreen district staff and school board members May 8 stating the agency tested two of those payments and "found the district did not have support to show these contracts were approved before the employees worked, nor documentation to demonstrate that the work performed exceeded original contract responsibilities."
The letter ultimately recommended that the district create supplemental contracts before members perform extra work, and confirm the work outlined in those contracts goes beyond the scope of the original terms.
The letter also recommended the district conduct legal review to determine if repayments are necessary or required by law.
"The district accepts those recommendations," Superintendent Christine Moloney said at Tuesday's school board meeting, "and is already implementing procedural refinements to ensure supplemental contracts are consistently documented and executed in advance of moving forward. Our staff are conducting a thorough review of those internal procedures and controls to ensure continued compliance with state guidance and best practices."
Though the letter wasn't included in the published audit, the state auditor's office did consider the issue during the process, said Kathleen Cooper, the agency's director of communications.
"We did not include the issue as a finding in our report, but we view (it) as important enough to warrant the attention of management and the governing body," Cooper said in an email to The Columbian.
The state auditor found no faults in the district's finances in its 2025 audit - which covered Sept. 1, 2023, through Aug. 31, 2024 - but the topic of supplemental contracts came up earlier this year during public comment periods at multiple school board meetings.
One of those speakers, Kendall Thiemann, a teacher at Evergreen High School, highlighted a $13,980 supplemental contract paid to Chief Operations Officer Jenae Gomes as lead negotiator during the 2023 teachers strike.
When Gomes led negotiations again during last year's strike that included paraeducators and other classified staff in the district, Thiemann submitted documents to the Vancouver Police Department in early September alleging Gomes falsified records to receive the extra payment. He only named Gomes, not three other administrators who also received supplemental payments for serving on the 2023 bargaining team.
Clark County Chief Criminal Deputy Prosecutor Anna Klein later told The Columbian that her office found no basis for criminal charges.
Thiemann and several other community members again questioned the legality of those supplemental contracts at Tuesday's meeting, as did board member Gary Wilson.
"Those things needed to be done prior to the work being performed, and they were not," Wilson said.
Moloney, who replaced John Boyd as superintendent in 2024, said earlier this year the supplemental contracts had already been reviewed as part of a previous state audit. Moloney clarified those comments in Tuesday's meeting.
"That understanding was based on language contained in the auditors' published report indicating that supplemental contracts for enrichment activities had been examined during the audit process," she said.
"During this year's audit process, the auditor's office clarified that the bargaining-related supplemental contracts from 2023 under a prior superintendent had not been closely reviewed at that time, and subsequently, conducted a more detailed review on both the contracts and district procedures."
Overall, Moloney said the district was pleased with the results of the latest audit.
"This continues a long-standing pattern of clean audits for Evergreen Public Schools, and reflects the professionalism, expertise and diligence of our business services team," she said.
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