When Cynthia Bioteau began at Florida State College at Jacksonville nearly two months ago, she knew of the financial aid problems that plagued the school.
Grants that were inappropriately given, poor recordkeeping, misguided decisions.
She says she did as much research as she could before she began as president, but much of her first seven weeks on the job has been “consumed” by reviewing the deep-rooted compliance issues that led to millions of dollars in repayments and fines.
Additional training, interim disciplinary measures and upper- and mid-level leadership changes resulted from the misdoings before Bioteau arrived. She said Tuesday she now believes “bolder steps” are required to steady the college as the U.S. Department of Education continues its review that could mean millions more in paybacks and fines.
“These measures have, quite honestly, not been enough,” she said. “Additional changes are necessary.”
Those changes are coming.
Bioteau said Tuesday several functions of the school’s financial aid office relating to eligibility and verification will be outsourced. Twelve of the 39 positions in the department will be lost in a move Bioteau said will mean third-party verification of all financial aid activities.
The school has contracted Colorado-based Evans Consulting and Sarasota-based ProEducation Solutions for past work and the outsourcing would be an “add-on” with the hope that will be cost-neutral. The outsourced jobs directly deal with those eligibility and verification responsibilities.
Bioteau also put the rest of the school “on notice.” Supervisors who once were “held harmless” will no longer be so. There will be consequences for lax recordkeeping. Staff contracts may not be renewed, leading to more position cuts. No more “second chances.”
“I simply cannot allow this to go on any longer,” she said, adding that school officials cannot be focused on students when distracted by such deficiencies.
More problems have surfaced in recent months. Some students were automatically placed into programs of study and received more financial aid than they were eligible and “sloppy” attendance-taking in vocational programs also led to funding being granted that should not have been.
Bioteau said the school self-reported those issues and she will continue to work with the U.S. Department of Education as it conducts its review of the compliance issues.
She said she expects a decision to be “forthcoming” and that repayments and fines could be “substantial.”
She would not elaborate on what she thought “substantial” could be.
The school already has repaid more than $4 million in grants and more than $500,000 in fines.
With more on the way, Bioteau said the school is “scrubbing” every account and department to find money and it will review its surplus real estate assets for possible sale.
She said she’ll continue work with the federal department and will negotiate a “fair and reasonable” amount and payment plan when such a decision is made.
Next week, she will brief the school’s board of trustees of the ongoing situation.
She admitted the review and decisions were not the way she would have chosen to spend the first few weeks in Jacksonville.But, she said it was the course she believed necessary to put the “unfortunate and regrettable chapter” behind the school.
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