The School District of Newberry lost $180,000 in state funding after a February audit by the State Department of Education found two special needs teachers without full certification to teach children with special needs.

“During the audit process, the auditors determined that there was an (Education Finance Act) over claim of approximately $180,000 due to the fact that there were two long-term substitutes without the proper certification for the classification of students they were teaching,” said Superintendent Bennie Bennett.

Without due certification, the teachers could only teach students grouped under another “weighting,” or a non-special needs label.

So some of Newberry County’s students with special needs were listed with a different weighting, allowing the under-qualified teachers permission to teach them.

The students’ new classification doesn’t cost as much money to support, so the district didn’t receive $180,000 from the state.

The “students were reclassified to a lower weighting,” said Len Richardson, director of finance for the state education department.

It cost “$180,000 for that particular offense, if you want to call it that,” he said. Richardson used to be the director of finance for Newberry County schools.

“It’s an audit refund,” said John Cooley, deputy superintendent, Division of Finance and Operations, at the state department of education.

At different times, the state audits school districts and it was just Newberry’s time, says Richardson.

“We audit every district in the state,” he says.

Along with Newberry, each of the 11 school districts the state audited from July 2007 to June 2008 also owed on over claims for varying reasons.

Board chairman Don Saylor says this is the first time in the eight years he’s been on the school board that he recalls the district having money withheld by the state after an audit.

“Every district gets audited, and it’s bad to lose $180,000...” said Saylor.

One of the two teachers is now fully certified through Project Create and is teaching a high school self-contained class.

The other teacher is in a support role in special services and the district anticipates her program completion this year, said Bennett.

Project Create was initially funded in 2003-2004 by the State Department of Education’s Office of Exceptional Children, with additional funding provided by the Division of Educator Quality and Leadership, Bennett said.

As far as when the district reported the over claim to board members, Bennett said it was after the district found out.

“We were notified on Aug. 4, and I notified the board members at the August meeting,” Bennett said. No mention of the fund shortage was made in the open session portion of that month’s meeting.