School Audits: North Escambia Schools OK

December 28, 2009

Internal audits conducted at several North Escambia schools found that all of the audited accounts balanced. At some schools, the audits on internal accounts showed some minor paperwork problems.

Each year, the Escambia County School District conducts limited audits on the internal accounts at each school in the county, while a percentage of schools receive full audits on internal accounts. The internal accounts represent monies that are controlled and dispersed at the school level.

A full audit at Northview High School found no problems whatsoever with an internal account that had a balance of $129,775.28.

At Molino Park Elementary School, an audit of an account with a $22,017.01 balance was found to balance with no discrepancies. The audit did find that $2,987.9 was spent out of the account when the funds could have been spent out of school district money. The school is seeking reimbursement from the county and is working to ensure that they spend district budgeted funds prior to spending internal account funds, according to a letter from Principal Alice Woodward.

An audit on an account that was held by Carver/Century K-8 School prior to it’s closure found that the account balanced. But the audit did find that proper procedures were not followed regarding fund raising activities. A “Fundraising Request/Reconciliation Form” was not completed, according to the audit.

At Jim Allen Elementary School, an internal account with a balance of $4,496.18, was found to balance, but an procedural audit found minor mistakes being made by school staff related to school finances. Four of 12 disbursements tested revealed purchases were made prior to approval of the principal of designee, according to the audit report. The school reported the discrepancy was a paperwork error. The audit also found that proper wording was not used on school field trip letters; the letters were required to indicate that a child would still be able to participate if they were unable to pay. There was also a problem found with deposits that did not indicate if items were checks or cash. The school is working to correct the mistakes in the future.

At Ransom Middle School, an account with a  $94,173.68 balance was found to reconcile. Like Molino Park Elementary, it was found that Ransom spent $2,554.43 on expenses that should have been paid by the county school district. The school is working to seek reimbursement of the funds from the county.

Comments

2 Responses to “School Audits: North Escambia Schools OK”

  1. William on December 28th, 2009 4:25 pm

    interested reader — full audits were not conducted at Bratt or EWMS — just at the selected District 5schools listed in the story. They do not conduct a full audit at every school every year.

  2. interested reader on December 28th, 2009 4:21 pm

    What about Earnest Ward Middle and Bratt Elem?

Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under News