Appoquinimink board reviews auditor recommendations and FY26 amended preliminary budget; carryover and new reporting steps outlined

The Appoquinimink School District board on Nov. 18 heard a report on the district’s response to auditor recommendations and a presentation of the FY26 amended preliminary budget, with administrators outlining steps to tighten financial controls, improve transparency and standardize reporting.

Superintendent Dr. Burrows told the board the district now enrolls 13,097 students and is working through implementation of 35 recommendations from auditors and outside subject-matter experts. "We took the recommendations, and we talked about how we were implementing that recommendation," he said, adding the district will report out on finances monthly and provide staged slide presentations across upcoming meetings.

Finance staff presented a series of changes intended to strengthen internal control. The director of finance has implemented a policy requiring director-level approval for expenditures and will meet weekly with the superintendent to review financial requests. The district also plans targeted training for school secretaries who manage payroll and financial duties; those trainings began Nov. 10 and will continue until processes are fully documented, the presentation said.

Dr. Chuck Longfellow, called in to present details, explained the district has reclassified operating funds to separate discretionary and nondiscretionary state and local funds and provided an operating-only view the board can trace. He cited a projected discretionary operating fund carryover into FY27 of $4,800,000 and a projected tuition-fund carryover of $739,000. He also noted a Reading Middle School improvement grant of $103,000 included in updated revenue estimates.

Longfellow discussed efforts to reduce manual reconciliation and to work with the state on automated reporting in the First State Financial System (FSF). He said the district is vetting a budgeting system called "Aliview" (presenter’s spelling) with IT and the state for compatibility.

Board members pressed on timing and assumptions used in the presentation. The superintendent and finance presenters said the district built the recently paid $1,537,000 charge related to a prior "Christina" bill into current rate calculations, which temporarily boosts available revenue this year but should reduce next year’s expenditures by the same amount if special-education costs remain stable.

Trustees also discussed tax-receipt timing. Dr. Longfellow said receipt delays tied to escrow processing could force the district to accept the interest-free loan the state has offered to districts if receipts are not released promptly. "If they don't release the funds, we will have to take the interest-free loan to pay our first portion of the charter school bill," he said.

The presentation was brought to the board as a report for review; the finance advisory committee asked for more time to examine details and recommended bringing the amended preliminary budget back for approval in December. Several trustees asked that unresolved FAC questions and a salary-tracker report be provided to the full board in advance of votes so members can review answers before meeting votes.

The board also heard construction and personnel updates and approved a sequence of routine items during the meeting. The district’s finance team signaled ongoing monthly reporting and training as part of the audit-response timeline.

Provenance: The report and numbers above were presented by Dr. Burrows, Miss Stewart and Dr. Chuck Longfellow during the superintendent and budget segments of the Nov. 18 meeting (presentation and discussion segments).