Lafayette Parish School System Could Lose $153 Million in State Funding After Auditors Say They Couldn’t Verify the Books

LAFAYETTE, La. (KPEL News) — The Lafayette Parish School System is now at risk of losing more than $150 million in state funding. Auditors said they couldn’t determine the financial condition of the district, and the school board missed the state’s deadline to submit its annual audit report.

The troubles began when Kolder, Slaven & Company, the firm that audited LPSS for more than three decades, issued a “disclaimer of opinion” for the district’s fiscal year 2025 audit. According to The Current, that conclusion likely means financial records were incomplete or couldn’t be verified.

What a ‘Disclaimer of Opinion’ Actually Means

To be clear about what that means: a disclaimer of opinion is not a finding or a bad grade. It means auditors could not complete the audit at all.

Judith Dettwiller, the Louisiana Legislative Auditor’s director of local government services, told The Current that a disclaimer “means basically that they were unable to audit.” She noted it is a rare outcome for a Louisiana public school system. After searching her office’s records, Dettwiller could identify only one instance in which a public school district in the state had received a disclaimer — Union Parish, in 2020 and 2021. Six charter schools received disclaimers between 2009 and 2014, but among traditional school systems, it’s essentially unheard of.

Once the Louisiana Legislative Auditor evaluates the reasons behind a disclaimer, the agency may place the school board on its noncompliance list, which would require LPSS to submit a corrective action plan to address the problems that led to the disclaimer, among other requirements.

Lafayette Schools Miss Audit Deadline, Lose Access to State Funds

The disclaimer was only part of the problem.

The school board’s fiscal year ends June 30, and all Louisiana school districts were given until March 31 to submit their annual audits. LPSS didn’t meet that deadline either. According to KATC, Chris Province, manager of the Louisiana Legislative Auditor’s local government services division, confirmed in an email Monday that as of that day, the school board’s 2025 audit report had not been received and no extension had been granted.

“As a result, the School Board will be placed on the noncompliance list, and state funds may be withheld until the report is submitted,” Province said.

The stakes there are significant. About $153 million of the district’s $362 million general fund comes from the state. That’s money for teachers, buses, buildings, and every basic function of a school system serving nearly 30,000 students.

That number lands differently when you remember what LPSS has been dealing with financially. The district has spent the better part of two years in a budget crisis driven largely by the migration of students to charter schools, which drew more than $62 million in state Minimum Foundation Program funds away from LPSS in the most recent fiscal year, according to the district’s own annual financial report. Losing state funding on top of that wouldn’t just be painful. It could be crippling.

Superintendent Touchet Pushes Back on Auditor’s Handling

Superintendent Francis Touchet issued a statement pushing back on how the situation has been characterized.

“We began sending the final draft of our audit to Kolder Slaven & Company, the independent auditor for LPSB, a month ago and have responded quickly and fully to every request since,” Touchet said. “We’ve done everything asked of us to move this process forward.”

Touchet pointed to the school board’s October 2025 decision to put auditing services out for bid as context for the tension with Kolder, Slaven. The district had been billed nearly $650,000 by the firm in the current fiscal year alone, he said. The Current’s review of Kolder’s records confirms the firm’s maximum fee for the most recently completed audit was $500,000. When the district sought bids, Kolder, Slaven did not submit a proposal. Competing firms came in at or under approximately $200,000. The board selected New York-based EisnerAmper, which operates from Lafayette offices.

The new contract isn’t as cheap as Touchet’s statement implies, though. The Current’s review of the EisnerAmper contract puts the total fee at $248,000, which includes roughly $90,000 in additional work required because of the disclaimer and the need to test the prior audit’s findings. The contract also includes contingencies: EisnerAmper’s pricing assumes the school board cooperates, delivers documents on time, and that the scope of work doesn’t change substantially.

Touchet suggested the prolonged back-and-forth with Kolder, Slaven raises questions about the firm’s objectivity.

“Given that, the continued back-and-forth raises real concerns about objectivity,” he said. “Still, we’ve met every requirement and will continue working to get the audit finalized and submitted to the Louisiana Legislative Auditor.”

Touchet also took a shot at coverage that has preceded the final official report from the LLA: “Any stories written prior to the release of the official report from the LLA does not present a complete or accurate picture to the public. Sharing partial information in this way is irresponsible.”

A Pattern of Audit Problems and Active Investigations

None of this is happening in isolation. The same Kolder, Slaven audit for fiscal year 2024 flagged public bid law violations tied to construction projects, findings LPSS leadership disputed at the time but that opened the door to far more serious scrutiny.

That scrutiny led to the indictment of former LPSS construction director Robert Gautreaux by a Lafayette Parish grand jury on 11 felony counts, including filing false public records, injuring public records, and obstruction of justice. Gautreaux, who was first arrested in August 2025 and pleaded not guilty, remains employed with the district in a teaching role. The Louisiana Attorney General’s Office reportedly has an active public corruption investigation into the school system, focused on construction contracting and potential conflicts of interest between school officials and vendors with social ties to district leadership.

The 2025 audit, whatever its final form, is expected to carry both repeat findings from the previous year and new negative findings given everything that has come to light since. “The prior audit and the disclaimer point to serious problems in the system,” George Lewis, a retired accountant and former auditor for the city of Lafayette, told The Current. “I’m anxious to see what the findings are and what action will be taken by the board to address them.”

LPSS spokeswoman Tracy Wirtz declined to comment on the audit and disclaimer of opinion.

What Happens Next

The path forward is straightforward, at least on paper. LPSS needs to get the audit finalized and submitted to the Louisiana Legislative Auditor. Once that happens, the noncompliance designation can be lifted and state funding access restored. Touchet says the district is working toward that.

The LLA will then evaluate the audit and the disclaimer, issue its own findings, and determine what corrective action is required. That report, when it comes, will give the public a much clearer picture of what has actually been happening inside Lafayette’s school system.

Until then, Lafayette Parish families, teachers, and taxpayers are left waiting for answers that only that report can provide.

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