CEDAR FALLS - University of Northern Iowa President Benjamin Allen said today the school will attempt to recover the tuition and fees owed to them by parents who allegedly gave incorrect addresses to get their students into Malcolm Price Laboratory School for a discounted rate.

The state Auditor's Office said earlier this month the school was owed about $250,000 in tuition and fees from a total of 12 families, including the school's former director, David Smith, and Democratic lawmaker Kerry Burt. The audit investigated the time between July 1, 2006, and March 31, 2009, though in some instances investigators did look further back in the records.

Of the dozen families, nine used friends or family members addresses to pay a lower rate to attend the school. Elementary students living within the Price Lab zone, any Cedar Falls middle and high school student and students who open enroll into the school can attend for about $550. Cedar Falls elementary students and those denied open enrollment can tuition into the school for about $5,000.

In a prepared release, Allen said the university will "pursue the recommendation of the auditor and take all appropriate legal steps for recovering uncollected tuition and fees." Allen added that some recommendations include "complex financial and legal questions" that need to be put before their external counsel to ensure proper implementation.

Allen and Gloria Gibson, the university's new executive vice president and provost, are working with several UNI departments on the actions that need to be taken.

"While the legal rules governing MPLS are complex and the details of the transactions examined by the auditor are complicated, the principles of good practice that UNI needs to implement emerge clearly from both the internal and state audit reports," Allen said in the prepared release. "To achieve our aspirations of becoming the premier institution for undergraduate education in the state of Iowa and among the best in the United States for teacher education and educational research, we need to do better."