Background

The Cambridge Central School District (District) is located among eight different towns in Washington County. The District is governed by the Board of Education (Board), which comprises five elected members. The Board is responsible for the general management and control of the District’s financial and educational affairs. The Superintendent of Schools (Superintendent) is the chief executive officer of the District and is responsible, along with other administrative staff, for the day-to-day management of the District under the direction of the Board.

There is one school in operation within the District, with approximately 1,100 students and 200 employees. The District’s expenditures for the 2005-06 fiscal year totaled $15.4 million, funded primarily with State aid, real property taxes and grants.

Objective

The objective of our audit was to determine if controls over financial operations were appropriately designed and operating effectively. Our audit addressed the following related questions:

• Does the District have adequate written policies and procedures in place governing cash receipts and disbursements, payroll and information technology?
  
  
• Is the District following the provisions of its claims auditor policy?

Scope and Methodology

During this audit, we examined internal controls related to the District’s cash receipts and disbursements, payroll, information technology and claims processing for the period July 1, 2005 to August 14, 2006.

We conducted our audit in accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards (GAGAS). More information on such standards and the methodology used in performing this audit are included in Appendix B of this report.

Comments of District Officials and Corrective Action

The results of our audit and recommendations have been discussed with District officials and their comments, which appear in Appendix A, have been considered in preparing this report. District officials generally agreed with our recommendations and indicated they planned to initiate corrective action.

The Board has the responsibility to initiate corrective action. Pursuant to Section 35 of the General Municipal Law, Section 2116-a (3)(c) of the Education Law and Section 170.12 of the Regulations of the Commissioner of Education, the Board must approve a corrective action plan that addresses the findings in this report, forward the plan to our office within 90 days, forward a copy of the plan to the Commissioner of Education and make the plan available for public review in the District Clerk’s office. For guidance in preparing the plan of action, the Board should refer to applicable sections in the publication issued by the Office of the State Comptroller entitled Local Government Management Guide.