Purpose of Audit

The purpose of our audit was determine if the District could achieve cost savings transportation operations and to evaluate the internal controls over cafeteria financial operations for the period July 1, 2012 through February 6, 2014.

Background

The Forestville Central School District (District) is located in several towns in Chautauqua and Cattaraugus Counties. The District is governed by an elected seven-member Board of Education. There are two schools in operation within the District, with 540 students and 107 employees. The District’s appropriations for the 2013-14 fiscal year total $11.5 million.

Key Finding

• District officials have not identified opportunities to reduce student transportation cost by performing appropriate analyses, such as an annual review of bus routes. By improving transportation efficiency, we estimate that the District could save approximately $460,500 over the next two years and $36,500 annually.
• The cafeteria fund’s financial condition has declined over the past five years as it experienced operating deficits, resulting in a $215,678 deficit fund balance as of June 30, 2013.

Key Recommendation

• Routinely analyze the number of students regularly using the bus to increase the use of available capacity and reduce the number of routes, explore sharing bus to locations outside the District with neighboring districts and reduce the number of spare buses in the District fleet to be in accordance with SED guidelines.
• Develop a plan to address the deteriorating financial condition of the cafeteria fund and establish a plan to repay the loan from the general fund or reduce this liability to an amount that can realistically be repaid.