Alexandria Central School District – Financial Condition Management (2020M-109)

Issued Date
December 30, 2020

[read complete report - pdf]

Audit Objective

Determine whether the Board and officials adopted reasonable budgets and adequately managed the District’s financial condition.

Key Findings

District officials did not adopt reasonable budgets and adequately manage financial condition during our audit period.

  • The District’s budgeted appropriations from 2016-17 through 2018-19 exceeded actual expenditures by $844,261, or 6.4 percent and the District did not need to use most of the appropriated fund balance for operations.
  • The surplus fund balance in the general fund exceeded the 4 percent statutory limit for the past three fiscal years. As of June 30, 2019, surplus fund balance was $1.75 million, or 12.8 percent of the next year’s budget.
  • District officials have not developed a long-term financial plan or a comprehensive reserve fund policy.

Officials did not implement the recommendations in our audit report released in March 2016. This audit contains similar findings and recommendations.

Key Recommendations

  • Develop and adopt realistic budgets, a long-term financial plan and a comprehensive reserve fund policy.

District officials generally agreed with our recommendations and initiated or plan to initiate corrective action. Appendix B includes our comments on issues raised in the District’s response letter.