A new report from Arlington Public Schools’ internal auditor is raising concerns about how the school system handles student and staff tech equipment.
Inventory control is “unsatisfactory and requires improvement,” the report, detailed to School Board members on Aug. 21, says.
The document relates to concerns about unsecured facilities for storing equipment, a lack of cross-training among staff and no “clear and consistent procedures” for distributing and collecting student devices.
“In addition to these poor management controls, there is a lack of departmental standards for documented standard operating procedures,” the report concludes.
A lack of standardized procedures — on issues ranging from staff overtime to procurement — has been a theme of recent reports by auditor Alice Blount-Fenney.
“It sort of is running through as a common thread,” School Board member Miranda Turner said. “I would encourage some thought to be given to how we might be able to get ahead of that issue.”
The report raised red flags about the safekeeping of technology both centrally and at individual schools.
“I did go out to several schools, and I noted the areas where the techs are maintaining equipment. Some of them are not secured,” Blount-Fenney told School Board members.
To address that, she recommended that the school system’s director of technology services, Terance Proctor, and appropriate staff visit each school and tour those areas with the school principal in tow.
The report also recorded a lack of “clear and consistent procedures” from APS leadership on how to distribute and collect laptops and other electronic devices from students.
“It was not something that was addressed uniformly throughout all the schools in the district,” she said.
During questioning from Board members, Andy Hawkins — the school system’s business officer — said efforts were being put in place to track every device that students receive.
“We know in total how many devices we have,” he said. “We just need to be sure to have the proper reconciliation process so we know what’s at every site and who has every one of them.”
Proctor and Rajesh Adusumilli, the assistant superintendent for information services, presented similar comments in a formal response to the audit’s findings.
They noted that the current inventory system has “limited functionality” in tracking assets, but a new inventory-management system being phased in “has demonstrated the ability to provide real-time reconciliation, generate detailed reports, and support district-wide and site-specific inventory visibility.”
As in past audits on other topics, the report sought more broad-based training of technology personnel, allowing them to handle a wider variety of roles.
“Cross-training is critical,” Blount-Fenney told School Board members. “If you don’t have adequate cross-training, you have a risk of losing business continuity.”
Board member Mary Kadera wanted to know if the relationship between school-based IT coordinators and the central-office technicians who support them has been working as planned. Not always, Blount-Fenney said.
“A few [schools] still have a lot of confusion,” the auditor said. “There’s still some areas where there’s a gray line, and there’s some where they pretty much say ‘this is my turf and you don’t cross the line.’ That’s something that still has to be addressed.”
Hawkins said school leadership was in the process of implementing standardized IT procedures for all schools.
“We’re working on that right now. It will be [done] by this school year,” he said.
As for security concerns related to central storage areas, the written response by Adusumilli and Proctor said cameras couldn’t be installed in areas designated as an employee’s primary work area.
“The area in question also serves as a workspace for staff,” they wrote. “To address this, we will first need to identify and secure alternative workspace locations within the building for the affected employees.”
Arlington Public Schools spent about $7.1 million during the 2024-25 school year on acquiring technology devices and about $200,000 on repair of existing devices. Equipment used includes:
- Dell laptops and desktops for APS staff and students
- MacBook laptops for staff and students
- iPads for students in pre-kindergarten through eighth grade and for some staff
- iPad cases, keyboards and and computer monitors
The information services audit was one of three that Blount-Fenney conducted during the school year. A fourth, focused on payroll, was postponed to allow for a new payroll system to get up and running.
School Board members are set to approve the auditor’s 2025-26 work plan later this month. Topics to be tackled include consulting contracts, emergency preparedness and whether the code of student conduct is applied uniformly.
There also will be several follow-ups conducted on past audits.
