Committee reviews June 30, 2024 treasurer’s report, flags budget-transfer line-item discrepancies and bond principal adjustments

The Audit and Financial Committee reviewed the treasurer’s report for the period ending June 30, 2024, on Feb. 11 and raised questions about several budget-transfer codes, line-by-line reporting, and recent bond principal activity.

A committee member identified what appeared to be a discrepancy on page 6 of the budget-transfer report involving legal-fees codes; the member said the code shown on the board-approved transfer differed from the code printed on the report. Staff responded that ledger codes may not appear on the line-by-line report if there were no transactions in that code until year-end and that some items had been adjusted by the external auditors as part of their adjusting entries.

The committee also discussed recent bond activity. A committee member asked whether a bond principal payment of $5,000,000 had been made; a staff speaker replied that in August the district paid down $15,000,000 of BAN (bond anticipation note) principal, reissued $10,000,000, and issued a new $25,000,000 issuance, resulting in an outstanding BAN/issue position for the year described in the meeting. Committee members asked staff to refer specific coding and transfer questions to the accounting consultants who prepared the reports and to obtain clarifications from the external auditors where appropriate.

After reviewing questions and staff responses, the committee agreed to recommend that the Board of Education approve the June 30, 2024 treasurer’s report (resolution language to be presented to the board). Committee members recorded no formal roll-call vote in the committee; staff said the recommended resolution will appear on the board agenda.

The committee deferred to accounting consultants and the external auditor for technical clarifications and expected those clarifications to be provided to the committee or board before final approval.