"Certainly in light of the Ross episode, one thinks, 'Gee, we need to have more stringent (checks),"' Burningham said. "We've felt we need to do additional auditing for some time."

The board has one auditor, whose workload is high, Burningham said. While its pleas for an additional auditor have gone unheeded, maybe this year's plea will be better received by lawmakers, he said.

"Sometimes, good things come out of bad things," Burningham said.

In other news, the State Office of Education, when alerted of the federal investigation about a year ago, did its own checking on John Ross' tenure as a state employee, Burningham said.

"(Harrington) assured me that they could see no outward indication there was any complicity going on," Burningham said.

John Ross worked for the State Office of Education from 1987 to 2000 as an educational coordinator over Title I, the office has reported. He likely would have provided districts with information about Title I standards and grant opportunities, but never had sole responsibility for funding, the office has said.

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Contributing: Tiffany Erickson

E-mail: jtcook@desnews.com