Barton Community College has received another “clean” or “unqualified” audit from Certified Public Accountants at Adams, Brown, Beran & Ball. College trustees approved the audit Tuesday after hearing from ABBB representatives Vicki Dreiling and Danielle Hollingshead.
A clean audit is “the highest form of opinion we can give a set of financial statements,” Dreiling said. She noted the college has $51.4 million in assets, which is a $5.5 million increase from 2014. Much of that is because of insurance reimbursements for the replacement of the dining hall at Camp Aldrich.
The college also saw a $778,000 decrease in liabilities. Overall, Dreiling said, Barton is in “a very positive financial position this year.”
She did note some errors in statutory compliance. All bank deposits must be fully secured, and there were $7,000 in uninsured deposits.
The college also failed to include the federally mandated nondiscriminatory clauses on two contracts. Dean of Administration Mark Dean acknowledged the error.
“There needs to be a statement on the contracts themselves,” Dean said. “These were both very small contracts. We’ll just make sure that (the clauses are) in all future contracts over $5,000.”
ABBB wrote two additional reports related to student financial aid compliance and internal controls. This was also a clean audit. The college receives more than $8 million a year in federal aid, and $6.4 million of that is for student financial aid.
ENDS changes
In other business, the board revised its ENDS policy on “Personal Enrichment,” combining it with another END, “Barton Experience.” It also changed the ENDS policy titled “Service Regions,” renaming it “Barton Services and Regional Location.”
The nine ENDS and their policy statements represent the goals by which the college is governed.
Barton President Dr. Carl Heilman said the revisions were discussed at length at the board’s last retreat.
They were approved, but not before trustee Leonard Bunselmeyer suggested one change. The new version of the “Barton Experience” END no longer contained the statement, “Individuals/students will experience various cultural activities.” The new version mentioned students throughout, but did not include “individuals.”
“I’m not wanting us to lose contact with the cultural aspects of the college,” Bunselmeyer said.
Trustee John Moshier agreed, noting “individuals” could include members of the community and the Silver Cougar Club.
On the topic of “Barton Services,” Heilman noted that the college is at many locations. The goals were not changed, except that the words “service regions” became “services and locations” throughout. For example: “Services and locations will minimize local tax reliance.”
Other business
The board also made plans to visit the Legislature on or about Jan. 14, 2015. The legislative session begins Jan. 11.
Two new employees were approved for the Barton County campus: Rose Smith will receive a faculty contract to become a part-time Certified Nursing Assistant instructor, and longtime Radio Shack employee Ron Keil was hired as a support specialist.
