Background

The Saranac Central School District (District) is located in the Towns of Beekmantown, Black Brook, Dannemora, Plattsburgh, Saranac, and Schuyler Falls, Clinton County. The District is governed by the Board of Education (Board), which comprises seven 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 four schools in operation within the District, with approximately 1,822 students and 371 employees. The District’s budgeted expenditures for the 2006-07 fiscal year are $27.1 million funded primarily with State aid, real property taxes and grants.

The District made approximately $68 million in online banking transactions during the period July 1, 2005 to December 31, 2006, including transfers between accounts at the same bank ($36.9 million) and transfers among accounts at different District banks or to non-District accounts ($31.1 million) to pay various District obligations, such as payroll withholdings and debt payments. During the same period, the District’s extra-classroom activity fund recorded a total of more than $619,000 in receipts and disbursements.

Objective

The objective of our audit was to determine if there were adequate controls in place to protect selected District cash assets. Our audit addressed the following related questions:

• Are there adequate controls in place over District online banking transactions?
  
  
• Are internal controls over the District’s extra-classroom activity fund adequate?

Scope and Methodology

During this audit we examined the District’s internal controls over selected cash assets, specifically, online banking transactions and the extra-classroom activity fund, at the Saranac Central School District for the period July 1, 2005 to December 31, 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 have initiated, or 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.

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Complete Audit in PDF