Purpose of Audit

The purpose of our audit was to determine whether the Board and District officials effectively managed general fund balance for the period July 1, 2012 through June 30, 2017.

Background

The Quogue Union Free School District is located in the Town of Southampton in Suffolk County. The District, which is governed by a Board of Education, has approximately 110 students. Budgeted appropriations for the 2017-18 fiscal year total $8.1 million.

Key Findings

• Unrestricted fund balance increased to $2.9 million as of June 30, 2017, or 37 percent of the ensuing year’s budgeted appropriations, and has exceeded the statutory limit by 19 to 33 percentage points from 2012-13 through 2016-17.
• The District’s budgeting practices included appropriating fund balance not needed to fund operations and adopting budgets that overestimated appropriations by an average of about $874,000 (13 percent) from 2012-13 through 2016-17.
• The retirement contribution reserve may be overfunded.

Key Recommendations

• Develop a plan to reduce the amount of unrestricted fund balance to the legal limit.
• Adopt realistic annual budgets based on historical or other known trends.
• Review the retirement contribution reserve to determine whether the amount retained is necessary and reasonable.