District gets a clean audit

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

With three members absent, the USD 234 school board got some good news and bad news during Monday evening's meeting.

Terry Sercer, of Diehl Banwart Bolten CPAs, presented findings from his audit of the district's budget. After explaining the auditing process to the new board members, he announced that all the information was presented fairly. The only exception was that there was a receipt of money from the state in early July that was included, as required by the Kansas Department of Education, that was removed. However, the same money that was received from the state in early July 2010 that was removed from last year's audit was included in this year's audit. Sercer said that even though the district recorded it correctly according to the Kansas Department of Education, it needed to be removed under Kansas accounting statutes.

Sercer added that he found no violations of either Kansas or federal statues. He commended the district for a smooth transition during the audit process from former Business Manager Alan Drake to current Business Manager Tiffany Forester.

USD 234 Superintendent Rick Werling presented the results of the enrollment head count that was done on Sept. 20. Across the district, the total headcount was 1,888, a decrease of 58 students with Fort Scott Middle School being the only campus in the district to show an increase. Eugene Ware Elementary School had the largest decline with a drop of 43 students. As a result, the district's full-time equivalent (FTE) dropped 55.1 to an FTE of 1,812.5.

The findings that were presented by Werling were unofficial. Forester said an official audit of the numbers would be done next week.

The board went into a 20-minute executive session to discuss personnel matters for nonelected personnel. Following the closed meeting, the board approved the resignation of Briana Lee, a paraeducator at FSMS and the employment of Stephanie Bowling, Lee's replacement. The employment of William Stults, Kelly Toll, Stephanie George, Lori Nelsen, Lynn Barr, and Leah Carter as the 2011-2012 FSMS Team Leaders was approved and the board also approved the termination of high school paraeducator Kim Cannon.