Issued Date
September 03, 2021
Audit Objective
Determine whether the Mineola Union Free School District’s (District) Board of Education (Board) and District officials effectively manage the District’s financial condition.
Key Findings
The Board and District officials did not effectively manage the District’s financial condition. As a result, more taxes were levied than were needed to fund operations.
- A pattern of over budgeting developed because the Board did not adjust ensuing years’ budgets based on prior years’ actual results. Therefore, general fund appropriations were consistently overestimated from 2016-17 through 2019-20 by a total of $20.7 million.
- Over the four-year audit period, the Board consistently appropriated fund balance totaling $12.9 million that was not needed. When unused appropriated fund balance is added back, at June 30, 2020, unassigned fund balance increased to approximately 13 percent or about nine percentage points above the 4 percent legal limit.
Key Recommendations
- Develop budgets that include reasonable appropriation estimates, and only appropriate fund balance when needed.
- Comply with the statutory fund balance limit.
District officials agreed with our recommendations and indicated they are taking corrective action.