By Kevin Lavery, KWMU
St. Louis, MO – 
A state audit of the St. Louis Schools released Monday night says the budget the current school board passed was unbalanced to the point of being illegal, and the district must make more cuts or find more money.
But Auditor Claire McCaskill also said the $73 million shortfall that was projected by the private company running the district was more accurate than the $55 million shortfall then-superintendent Cleveland Hammonds predicted last June.
But the district also later said the deficit was reaching $90 million, but McCaskill says that was actually a cash flow projection, and not an operating deficit.
"And I don't think that was explained well," McCaskill said. "It looked as if we started out with a $55 million problem, how did we get to a $99 million problem? And this audit, I think, will clarify that the problem was in fact a $73 million problem."
McCaskill says the $99 million statement was an attempt by the management team to project its cash flow before property taxes were collected.
This was the first of two audits; a second performance audit will be released later this year.
Kevin Lavery prepared this report.