Crockett ISD Board of Trustees Approve Audit Report

CROCKETT - The Crockett Independent School District Board of Trustees met in a special meeting to discuss the 2010-11 Financial Audit Report this week.

Darla Dear, with the auditing firm of Belt, Harris, Pechacek, LLLP was present to provide the trustees with report. Dear thanked CISD Business Manger Gail Hanson and several other members of the CISD staff for their hard work, dedication and cooperation in helping to prepare the audit. She then highlighted the most important pages of the audit for the board members.

Referring to page seven, she said, “This is our opinion letter. You received an unqualified opinion, which is the highest level of (assurance) that you can receive. There are no material misstatements and all disclosures were made in the audit report.”

Moving on to page 27 of the report, Dear informed the trustees that the districts fund balance had been hit with a “…deficiency of $332,000. It looks like you had a beginning fund balance of $539,000. With the deficit, that leaves you with a little over $200,000 in the fund balance. I do want to point out that last year, the amount you hit the fund balance with was about $800,000. So this year, the $300,000 was much less than last year, You can see that your expenditures have come down a lot.”

Continuing on with report she said, “On page 53, this is your schedule where we’re comparing your revenues and expenditures with the amount that was actually budgeted.”

Dear explained while the revenues showed a negative variance of more than $500,000, the biggest part of that came from the shortfall in state revenue.

“That’s telling us that the state did not come through on their part for the amount that budgeted,” she said.

On the expenditure side, Dear said the district had a positive variance of over $200,000.

“When I’m looking at that, it’s telling me that the budget that you set forth, the goals that the board set forth when everyone approved the budget, that you were able to achieve the goals on your expenditures by keeping them out of that negative variance,” she said. “So you were able to control your expenditures, but what hurt y’all was that the revenues didn’t come in from the state.”

Dear said the district had done a very good job in managing their money, but the district’s fund balance was lower than the Texas Education Agency would like; and all available efforts should be made to achieve the recommended balance. After she clarified several questions from the board, the trustees unanimously approved the audit report.

After approving the audit report, the board retired into executive session. No action was taken after the session and the meeting was adjourned. Immediately after the adjournment, as part of their continuing education requirement, the board members were provided with a block of instruction regarding budgetary procedures, the evaluation of school superintendents, and the vision of a 21st century school.

Will Johnson may be reached via e-mail at wjohnson@messenger-news.com