St. Landry Parish School Board receives ‘good’ audit

The St. Landry Parish School Board’s audit was labeled as “good” by auditors from Kolder, Champagne, Slaven & Company, LLC, at a committee meeting Monday.
Auditor Casey Ardoin said the audit was an “unmodified opinion, which is a good opinion.”
The audit was for the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2015.
Ardoin and fellow auditor Victor Slaven were almost bypassed when Opelousas committee member Hazel Sias moved to table the presentation.
But the auditors were allowed to make a presentation before the committee, which had a new chairman, Albert Hayes Jr., of Eunice.
School Board member Milton Ambres originally requested that in the future board members receive the audit prior to the presentation by auditors. That apparently resulted in Sias’ motion to table the presentation. The Sais motion died for a lack of a second.
Tressa Miller, finance director, urged the committee to let the auditors proceed with a presentation “to let you know what you are reading.”
Slaven soon pointed out that the need for the auditors’ explanation.
“There are two sets of financial statements presented and one of them is on a full accrual basis and is of them is the modified accrual basis.”
The full accrual would scare the committee “to death because you absolutely bankrupt when you look at it because of the various accruals made for the pension liability and other things. When you look at the modified accrual basis, which is basically on a cash basis, which is what you really have cash on hand to spend, it shows your financial position is much stronger.”
While the auditors reported a clean audit, they did note a recurring problem with activity funds.
Miller said the school system is working with principals, for the most part, in tightening up procedures. The activity funds include student fees, fundraisers and athletic ticket sales.
The audit states there was a $1,756 problem over a poboy sale on Sept. 27, 2014. The money was brought home by a school employee and and returned the the school Monday morning. On Oct. 6, 2014, the money was missing. Opelousas police were contacted and investigation continues.
In 2013, $3,179 was misappropriated by a coach. The district attorney was notified as well as the Legislative Auditor and the state Department of Justice.
Neither school was named in the audit.
Hayes, who has been critical of the amount of money collected for activity funds, asked the accountants to prepare a report on the fees charged students.
The audit found the school system had $3.3 million cash available to spend on June 30, 2015, the end of the fiscal year.
The school system’s total revenues were $142.7 million. Revenue sources included $80.8 million , state; $22.4 million, federal; $13.3 million, property tax; $23.3 million, sales taxes; and $2.8 million, other parish sources.
Expenditures exceeded revenues by $686,927, but that was covered by transfers. The largest expense is instructional programs cost $54.7 million and special education programs at $16 million.
The audit states School Board members were paid $9,600 for the year, which cost the school system $125,400.
Superintendent Edward Brown’s salary was $120,437. In addition, Brown received $5,051 in insurance; $35,504 in retirement; $7,800 car allowance; $1,351 in reimbursements; $735 in registration fees; and $875 in conference travel for a total of package of $171,753.