School Board approves audit, preliminary levy

School board approved two financial moves during their meeting Monday, Sept. 26. One closed the books on the 2015-16 school year and the other is the first step in the budgeting process for 2017- 18.

The board approved the annual audit of its finances for the recently completed school year, then approved a preliminary levy for taxes payable in 2017. The board set the levy at the "Maximum" level allowed.

Audit

Sarah Crambritt of Clifton Larson Allen presented information on the recently completed audit, which closes the books on the 2015-16 fiscal year.

Crambritt presented an executive summary of the audit, which she called a clean opinion.

Crambritt said there were two minor deficiencies found under internal controls, One is related to oversight of the financial reporting process while the other is related to material audit adjustments.

"These deficiencies are considered to be material weaknesses," Crambritt stated, adding that they are also common findings in school district audits.

The audit included no compliance issues that were noted. She noted that an audit of the special education cluster found some weaknesses in relation to time and effort reporting, regarding differentiating between federal and non-federal program time.

The audit also noted that there were some weaknesses in reporting on student activity funds that are not under board control. She stated that a close eye needs to be kept on student fundraisers, and there was a controlled finding regarding such fundraisers.

The unassigned general fund balance as of June 30, 2016, was approximately $9.3 million, up from $9 million a year earlier.

Crambritt also went over various fund balances and found most were in good shape compared to past years. One concern was a negative balance in the health and safety fund, which she said was simply a matter of the district completing a project prior to receiving the funding from the state. She noted that the health and safety levy was being replaced by the state forfuture years.

The district’s debt service fund balance has dropped significantly over the past two years. That’s because the district used crossover funding payments, where they borrowed money at a low interest, held on to it for a year and then used the money to pay off high interest bonds that were coming due. Those money was borrowed in 2012, 13 and 14, to pay off bonds due in 2014, 15 and 16, resulting in a savings of interest payments for the district.

The audit also showed what the school is paying per student in such areas as administration, regular instruction, vocational instruction, special education, instructional support services, pupil support services, site, buildings and equipment, transportation, food service community service and debt service. In most areas, the per pupil cost was lower not only than the state average, but the state average for districts with a weighted average daily membership of 4,000 students or more. Most areas did see a slight increase from past years, but even with the increase, the district spends below average in each of those areas. with the exception of community service, which is slightly above the statewide average, but below the average for district with more than 4,000 students.

Levy

School finance director Sandy Linn asked board members to approve the 2016-17 levy at the "Maximum" level. She explained that the.....

To see more on this story pick up the September 29, 2016 print edition of The New Prague Times.