The Great Bend USD 428 Board of Education received a clean audit on its financial reports for 2014-2015, although there was a “non-compliance issue,” according to an auditor.
Vickie Dreiling, a Certified Public Accountant with Adams, Brown, Beran and Ball, spoke to the school board last week. She said the “clean” or “unqualified” audit is “the highest audit we can give.”
Unencumbered cash at the end of the period was $17.7 million, up $400,000 from the previous year. Most of that money is in the capital outlay fund.
The district had one statue violation, because it failed to get bids on an accounting software package that cost over $20,000. Dreiling described the action as an oversight. “It really needed to be bid out.”
The district paid $211,000 in interest on $5.8 million in debt. Dreiling said the amount of debt is low compared to other school districts in Kansas.
“I know a lot of districts which have a lot of debt,” she said. “Yours will be paid off in 2018.”
Dreiling said there were no instances of non-compliance concerning government standards, but there was a non-compliance issue concerning a special education grant. That grant was supposed to pay the salary of a special education instructor, but the teacher stopping working toward that credential.
“You did have another teacher that could have been paid with the funds,” Dreiling said. Therefore, the $44,000 in question won’t have to be paid back.
The school board approved the audit on Dec. 14.