(Radio Iowa) – An accounting firm hired to review sharing agreements between two northwest Iowa school districts has found delayed payments and incorrect calculations that date back to mid-2022, but no fraud. Murray Stanley, the C-P-A who briefed area residents Thursday night, says Ruthven-Ayrshire was overpaid and Graettinger-Terril is owed 134-thousand dollars.
Stanley said.”…No fraud, just inaccurate calculations and incomplete calculations.” Last month, the superintendent of the Graettinger-Terril (GREHT-in-jer TAIR-ull) and Ruthven-Ayrshire (AIR-sure) School Districts was placed on administrative leave last month, but no official reason for the move has been publicly announced.
Ten days ago, Jeff Dicks was hired to be the interim superintendent for the two districts. He’s promising to be transparent to the communities about the situation.
Dicks says his goal is to shield students from all the noise surrounding this investigation. Dicks retired in 2024 after serving as Newell-Fonda’s Superintendent for 19 years and he’s recently been interim superintendent at Estherville Lincoln Center. The C-P-A who provided Thursday night’s public briefing said the formal agreements outlining shared positions between the two districts could not be found for the past three years, so his firm had to use school board minutes, interviews with school district staff and paperwork from the just-concluded 2026 fiscal year to produce its analysis.
In 2011, the two school districts entered a “sports co-op” that united their athletic teams. Marshal Lewis — the superintendent for the two districts who is on administrative leave — was hired in 2020. Lewis is a graduate of Terril High School and had previously served as superintendent of the Belmond-Klemme School District.
