Barton Community College’s Board of Trustees on Tuesday approved the Fiscal Year 2022 audit following a presentation by Danielle Hollingshead with Adams Brown Strategic Allies.
“We give the college an unmodified opinion, the highest you can receive,” she said. The audit was for the college and its foundation.
Vice President of Administration Mark Dean wrote the Overview of the Financial Statements and Financial Analysis page on the audit report. It notes that Barton’s total assets as of June 30, 2022, were $63.7 million, compared to $63.4 million on June 30, 2021.
“The College’s Total Net Position improved over last year. Our overall credit-hour production decreased this past year by 10.8%. Barton Online credit-hour production decreased by 12.2%. Fort Riley saw a reduction of 11.7%, Fort Leavenworth saw a reduction of approximately 1.4% and our Grandview (Plaza) operations increased credit hours by 12.4%. Overall, these changes in credit-hour production and operations can be attributed to the aftermath of the COVID pandemic, changes in the expectations of a post-COVID student, deployments and reductions in military training, and changes in our operations,” the report states.
Looking at assets, Hollingshead said overall cash was up almost $4.4 million. “You are paying down your liabilities,” she told the trustees.
“There were some new standards that went into effect this year,” Hollingshead said of governmental accounting requirements. This will become significant next year. She and Dean have already been working on the changes and some were implemented this year.
“We also look at compliance with Kansas statutes,” she said. “There were no violations.”
Federal programs
Because Barton receives more than $750,000 a year in federal aid, it is required to do what are called Single Audits, to review the college’s compliance in regard to managing and tracking major federal programs. The college received $11.9 million in federal aid last year.
This year, Adams Brown had an unmodified opinion on the Education Stabilization Fund, or the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund (HEERF). Hollingshead congratulated the college on complying with all of the federal accounting requirements.
The auditors did give a qualified opinion on Barton’s TRIO cluster, which includes Student Support Services, Educational Opportunity Centers and Upward Bound programs, after finding a deficiency. The college failed to comply with one of the requirements for reporting the use of funds.
Dean said the error had no financial impact on the program itself. “Basically the dates on the report were incorrect,” Dean said. He wrote an action plan on what happened and how they will fix it.
“It was more a data entry error than anything, and I don’t see it being a problem in the future,” Hollingshead said.
The audit report also notes that Barton received just over $3 million last year under the Federal Direct Student Loans program. The money is transferred to a bank account in the college’s name but the loan funds are designated for individual students.
Personnel
In other action Tuesday, the trustees approved three new employees, all on the Barton County campus:
• Dustin Wheeler – Coordinator of Printing Services
• Aaron Weber – Video Coordinator
• Tyler Schiffelbein – Instructor & Coordinator of Health, Physical Education and Recreation (contract position)
The board wrapped up the meeting with a 20-minute executive session for the discussion of an employee’s performance. No action was taken related to the closed session.
