Purpose of Audit

The purpose of our audit was to evaluate the District’s financial operations and use of fund balance for the period July 1, 2013 through August 31, 2014.

Background

The Plainview-Old Bethpage Central School District is located in the Town of Oyster Bay, Nassau County. The District, which is governed by an elected seven-member Board of Education, operates eight schools with approximately 5,200 students. Budgeted appropriations for the 2014-15 fiscal year totaled approximately $144 million.

Key Findings

• The District significantly overestimated expenditures in its adopted budgets, and, therefore, none of the appropriated fund balance was used to finance operations.
• Because of overestimated expenditures, the District experienced large operating surpluses.
• Officials did not include the funding of reserves in the annual budgets.

Key Recommendations

• Develop and adopt budgets that include realistic expenditure estimates based on contractual and historical data and discontinue appropriating fund balance that is not needed to fund operations.
• Develop a plan to use excess unexpended surplus funds in a manner that benefits District taxpayers.
• Ensure that budgets presented to voters for approval are transparent and include any intent to increase reserve funds.