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KENNEWICK -- A 19-month review of 2006 school district travel expenses found that tighter travel rules could save cash-strapped districts more than $1 million over the next five years.

Thirteen districts around the state -- including Pasco, Sunnyside and Walla Walla -- were examined in the performance audit released by state Auditor Brian Sonntag last week.

Few of the districts had a policy encouraging carpooling to conferences and retreats. None limited car rentals to economy cars. And while most of the districts required hotel costs to be reasonable, Sonntag said, there was "a large variance in the way 'reasonable' is interpreted."

Travel constitutes only a tiny slice -- less than a third of 1 percent -- of the more than $8 billion school districts spend each year in Washington. But reducing travel costs, the report notes, would free up more dollars to educate kids.

Also, "the public expects government agencies to spend their tax dollars in an economical and prudent manner, no matter the dollar value of the transaction," the report said.

Overall, auditors found, many of the districts are doing a good job of ensuring that staff travel is economical. The audit found no one flying first-class or even business class. Most meals and car rentals were economical. And some districts saved thousands of dollars by having staffers share hotel rooms.

Spokane Public Schools turned out to be one of the most economical districts studied. The district spent about $1.2 million on travel in 2006. Auditors scrutinized about $134,000 of that. Less than 9 percent, or $11,945, was "excess" cost, they said.

The district attributed some of that cost to a state contract quirk limiting its use of a special rate on Spokane airfares. It also said it would tell district employees to ask for the government rate when booking hotels.

In the Central Valley School District, which spent about $387,000 on travel that year, excess costs represented about 15 percent of the roughly $36,000 examined by auditors, the report says.

That was mainly because of hotel costs at conferences, said Jan Hutton, Central Valley's finance director. Conferences typically take place in big cities, she said, and offer valuable after-hours networking that makes it worthwhile to stay at conference hotels even if they're a bit more costly.

That also was behind most of Pasco School District's $10,549 in excess costs, according to the report. The district said in a response that staying in outlying areas with cheaper rates would have resulted in other expenses, such as rental cars.

There also were many times not pointed out in the audit where the district saved money by finding lower rates, the district said. Officials are amending the travel policy to include guidelines and justification for lodging costs above that rate, the district said.

Pasco was commended in the audit for saving $533 by having staffers share hotel rooms.

Walla Walla had about $15,400 in excess costs and Sunnyside had $54,587, according to the audit. But $49,000 of Sunnyside's total was incurred by the state superintendent's office, the report said.

Walla Walla's excess expenses were related mostly to lodging and a board retreat that was held out of the district, the audit said.

The audit identified thousands of dollars in questionable spending elsewhere in the state:

-- Lakewood's Clover Park School District spent more than $82,000 to have 165 district employees attend at least one of six retreats at a Hood Canal resort and spa. Although the federal lodging rate was $60 a night at the time, the district paid $48 to $215 a night more than that. The district has since retooled its policies, and this spring it canceled all overnight retreats.

-- Vancouver Public Schools spent nearly $19,000 to send nine people to a national conference in Chicago. Dinners consisted of $48 meals at a steakhouse one night, and $52 meals of lobster, crab cakes and bouillabaisse the next.

The district says costs were high because of a last-minute conference move from hurricane-battered New Orleans to Chicago. To save money, Vancouver officials said, they tightened travel limits and skipped the 2007 conference.

-- Seattle Public Schools spent $3,000 to send a principal to South Africa to visit schools and collect cultural information. But the district could provide little documentation breaking down the expenses, such as lodging. There was nothing to indicate the type of flights or hotels, the business purpose of the trip, or the necessary school board approval.

The district says it is retooling its travel rules to require more documentation justifying trips and detailing expenses.

-- One of the biggest questionable expenses listed in the state audit involved a 2005 statewide conference on educating migrant and bilingual children. The state Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction grossly overestimated attendance, contracting for large blocs of rooms at two hotels. But of the 970 "room-nights" reserved, 499 were unused. The cost of those vacant rooms: $49,166.

And the same thing had happened two years earlier. For the 2003 conference, OSPI had contracted for nearly $19,000 worth of hotel rooms that weren't needed.

"OSPI made a contract with the hotels and they did not cancel the rooms in time. It was up to OSPI to coordinate and contact the hotels and whatnot," said Lee Campos, director of the Sunnyside-based Migrant Student Data and Recruitment Office, which organized the conferences. He said the money was paid with the previous year's registration fees. The conference had not been held since.

"We did make a mistake with this one," confirmed Nathan Olson, an OSPI spokesman. He said the rules have been changed to avoid a repeat.

"We've learned our lesson," he said.