Purpose of Audit

The purpose of our audit was to assess the District’s financial condition for the period July 1, 2013 through June 30, 2015.

Background

The Altmar-Parish-Williamstown Central School District is located in the Towns of Albion, Amboy, Hastings, Mexico, Orwell, Parish, Richland, West Monroe and Williamstown in Oswego County. The District, which operates two schools with approximately 1,300 students, is governed by an elected seven-member Board of Education. The District’s operating budget for the 2014-15 fiscal year was approximately $29.8 million.

Key Findings

• The Board and District officials did not develop reasonable budgets or effectively manage the District’s financial condition to ensure that the general fund’s unrestricted fund balance was within the statutory limit.
• The Board has not adopted a formal plan to reduce unrestricted fund balance to the statutory limit.

Key Recommendations

• Develop procedures to ensure the Board adopts more realistic budgets to avoid raising more real property taxes than necessary.
• Ensure that the amount of the District’s unrestricted fund balance is in compliance with the Real Property Tax Law statutory limits and develop a formal plan to reduce the amount of unrestricted fund balance in a manner that benefits District taxpayers.