Background

The Gates Chili Central School District (District) is located in the Towns of Gates and Chili in Monroe County. The District is governed by the Board of Education (Board) which comprises nine 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 are seven schools in operation within the District, with approximately 5,000 students and 900 employees. The District’s budgeted expenditures for the 2006-07 fiscal year were $71 million, which were funded primarily with State aid, sales tax, real property taxes, and grants.

The District provides meals and refreshments at various District functions. The District does not have a designated information technology (IT) director. Currently, the Assistant Superintendent of Business serves in this capacity.

Objective

The objective of our audit was to evaluate internal controls over IT and District expenditures for meals. Our audit addressed the following related questions:

• Has the District established internal controls over its IT systems to effectively protect electronic data?

• Are internal controls over the procurement of meals and refreshments for District functions appropriately designed and operating effectively to adequately safeguard district assets?

Scope and Methodology

During this audit we examined internal controls of the Gates Chili School District for the period July 1, 2005 to February 27, 2007.

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 that 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.