The Associated Press

FRANKFORT - Kentucky Auditor Crit Luallen's office has found “major weaknesses” in the attendance records for an Eastern Kentucky school district.

A report from Luallen's office Monday stressed that no evidence was found that Johnson County school district's attendance records had been manipulated.

But the report described as “very unusual” a practice in which attendance figures collected by teachers at two elementary schools were logged into a database by principals, instead of school support staff members, then discarded, leaving nothing to verify the figures.

The Johnson County district has more than 3,700 students.

Attendance data is used to determine how much money schools receive from the state. For the past four years, Johnson County's elementary schools and high school reported attendance above the state average of 94 percent.

Lisa Gross, a spokeswoman at the state Department of Education, said the findings are being reviewed and could affect the district's funding.

The U.S. Department of Education's Office of Inspector General received a complaint about the district's attendance and personnel practices and requested the investigation, which Luallen's office began in the spring.

According to the report, the investigation found several instances in which teachers' records did not match data entered by principals. For example, one teacher reported a student absent 24 days, but data kept by the school listed the student as being absent 12 days.

The investigation also found that the district's computer logging system was disabled “and therefore no tracking system exists to see if changes were made to the attendance data.”

In a letter to Luallen, Stephen Trimble, who was named superintendent in Johnson County last winter following the death of former superintendent Orville Hamilton, notes the district has recently undergone administration changes and is reviewing its management and operations. He said he directed the district's director of pupil personnel to ensure attendance records are kept according to state guidelines.

Trimble did not return calls seeking comment.