Finances in good shape

As the School Board Chair, I have asked our committees to write short summaries of what is happening, in an effort to keep the public informed. I will start with the recent activities of the Finance Committee.

Fall is a busy time for this Committee because it is when we have our annual audit which is required by statute for all school districts.

This is a routine process that is rather lengthy and detailed. We work with an independent auditor — Hoffman and Brobst - to conduct our audit.

They send a team out to gather information from our Business Manager, Tegan Gillund. Tegan works with their team to get them a plethora of data and information.

Hoffman and Brobst goes through the books with a fine-tooth comb to review every dollar coming in and going out.

They then prepare a document which is compliant with state and federal regulations and present this to the Finance Committee. The Finance Committee meets with the head auditor from Hoffman and Brobst and we work through the approximately 70 pages of reports they have prepared.

We ask questions, get clarification and gain a thorough understanding of the school’s financial situation for the previous year. The good news is, once again, our audit resulted in an excellent report.

We are fortunate to have a business manager who does a great job with keeping our books in pristine order and a Superintendent who keeps us on budget.

In fact, this year, we not only met the board’s goal of maintaining a 25 percent fund balance, but we exceeded it, coming in at 28 percent. In addition, Superintendent Dan Deitte guided us to an increase in our fund balance on the year of almost $73,000. In short, the audit showed our school to be in very good financial shape.

The Hoffman and Brobst auditor also came to the November board meeting to present their findings to the entire board and answer questions.

The board unanimously approved the audit once again this year.

The audit, while a rather cumbersome process, is vital to ensuring the school’s finances are in proper order and statutes are followed.