Purpose of Audit

The purpose of our audit was to review the District’s financial condition for the period July 1, 2011 through January 31, 2015.

Background

The Campbell-Savona Central School District is located in Steuben County within the Towns of Addison, Bath, Bradford, Cameron, Campbell, Erwin and Thurston and the Village of Savona. The District, which is governed by an elected seven-member Board of Education, operates two schools with approximately 890 students. Budgeted general fund appropriations for the 2014-15 fiscal year are $23.4 million.

Key Findings

• District officials continually underestimated revenues and overestimated appropriations when they prepared and adopted budgets for the last three fiscal years, even though this poor budgeting practice was brought to the District’s attention during OSC’s last two annual budget reviews.
• Because the Board adopted unrealistic budgets, appropriated fund balance and reserves were not needed to fund operations as planned.
• The District's fund balance has remained excessive.

Key Recommendations

• Adopt budgets that include the District’s actual needs, based on available current information and historical data and make appropriate adjustment to the tentative budgets based on recommendations included in the annual OSC budget review.
• Discontinue the practice of adopting budgets that result in the appropriation of unexpended surplus funds and reserve funds that will not be used.
• Develop a formal plan indicating how much money will be reserved, how each reserve will be funded and when the balance will be used.