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Audit Objective

Determine whether the Belfast Central School District (District) Board of Education (Board) and District officials properly established and used reserve funds and maintained them at reasonable levels.

Key Findings

The Board and District officials properly established reserve funds. However, they did not properly use or maintain all reserve funds at appropriate levels. The Board and District officials:

• Did not adopt an adequate written reserve fund policy.
• Did not use the debt reserve, with a balance of $315,000, to fund debt service payments as required.
• Overfunded two reserves by $52,523 more than permitted by Board resolution.

Key Recommendations

• Adopt a more comprehensive written reserve fund policy.
• Develop a plan to use the funds in the debt reserve as required.
• Review all reserve balances to determine whether the amounts reserved are necessary and reasonable.

District officials generally agreed with our findings and recommendations and indicated they planned to take corrective action. Appendix B includes our comment on an issue raised in the District’s response.