Annual Financial Report 'Favorable' for Lacey Township School District

The Lacey Township School District had a clean audit opinion and no recommendations or findings, according to Frank Holman, certified public accountant.

“This year we weren’t able to come up with any recommendations as hard as we tried,” he said.

Holman noted that the district’s rate of paying down bonds was “very good.”

The district was down $1.23 million in net assets, he said.

“The statement of revenues and expenses showed a negative number this year, which isn’t really alarming. You’re not in the business of earning a profit,” he said. “You still have a strong net asset position.”

The district is required by law to stay within the budget, he said, and there was a $3.6 million budget variance on a total budget of $65 billion. This is the most important compliance measure and the district showed a “favorable budget variance” of about 5 percent.

 — the treasury and board secretary reports were not reconciled to each other on a timely basis which caused the general ledger not to be fully adjusted, and there were weaknesses in the district’s internal control system regarding the student activities accounts. Both were addressed. 

Resident Regina Discenza questioned why the district increased the cost of school lunches when there is a net income from the Food Service Fund of $75,000.

“I just feel that tapping into the parents even in that small way with the surplus that the school district has, I just hope at this point you can stabilize the school lunches for a while because a lot of people cannot endure small increases because of taxes and other reasons,” she said.

Profit last year for the food service was $33,000, Savage said. This year, revenue is up to $75,000.

“We had to raise some of the prices because of cost of food has gone up tremendously, especially with the gas issues that we have,” he said.

Some companies have added a fee to cover fuel costs, and the district’s benefits and salaries have increased as well, he said. Savage estimated that school lunches have increased approximately 10 cents.

“Unfortunately, I can tell you I’m not an accountant but the bottom line is, we had no recommendations, no findings, which is very good. That I do know,” said Eric Schubiger, vice president of the Board of Education.

Final numbers provided by Holman are as follows:

• The district has assets from June 30, 2012, of about $62.52 billion;
• The district owes more than $50.5 million in liabilities;
• Net Asset of $12 million;
• The district will pay off about $3.37 million of those liabilities this year;
• There was a negative change in net assets of $1.23 million;
• The district has a net income from the Food Service Fund of $75,000;
• The district was $3.6 million under budget with a surplus position of $1.5 million;
• Total Expenditures: $67 million.