Purpose of Audit

The purpose of our audit was to examine the District’s financial records and reports for the period July 1, 2013 through December 31, 2014.

Background

The Skaneateles Central School District is located in the Towns of Sennett, Niles and Owasco in Cayuga County and the Towns of Skaneateles, Marcellus and Spafford in Onondoga County. The District, which operates four schools with approximately 1,420 students, is governed by an elected seven-member Board of Education. Budgeted appropriations for the 2014-15 fiscal year were approximately $30 million.

Key Findings

• Business Office staff did not consistently provide monthly bank reconciliation reports to the Board and did not reconcile the records to the bank statements for the first 5 months of the 2014-15 fiscal year.
• The District routinely relied on transactions that have not been recorded by the bank or in the District’s books, known as reconciling items, to adjust bank or book balances.
• Approximately $4.1 million in receipts in the bank as of December 2014 had not been recorded as of March 2015.
• Officials did not ensure that interfund loans were repaid by the end of the fiscal year in which they were advanced.

Key Recommendations

• Reconcile all bank account cash balances to the general ledger cash account balances each month and provide reconciliation reports to the Board.
• Discontinue carrying cumulative reconciling items for unrecorded transactions.
• Ensure that all revenues are recorded when they are received and are promptly deposited.
• Develop a process to routinely evaluate and repay interfund loans when money becomes available or by fiscal year-end.