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Auburn board reviews audit of student-activity accounts; administration says errors, not missing funds
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Summary
After public questions about accounting variances, the Auburn School Committee heard a multi-year reconciliation of student-activity subaccounts. The business manager said spreadsheet and transfer errors dating to 2019 explain variances; the committee will continue monthly reconciliations and advisers will meet to verify subaccount records.
At a Jan. 7 meeting, the Auburn School Committee received a detailed update on student-activity accounts after the district’s 2024 external audit flagged unreconciled records.
Business manager Jen Stanek told the committee the district has been auditing student-activity spreadsheets back to 2019 to reconcile deposits, withdrawals and Munis accounting entries. "We don't we don't believe there's any money missing," Stanek said in response to a question from the chair about whether funds were stolen. She described formula errors, duplicate entries and misplaced deposits that produced mismatches between school-held spreadsheets, Munis and town accounting.
The 2024 audit excerpt read to the committee showed the agency bank account balance on May 31, 2024, as $380,435.02 and the town general ledger balance as $143,894.14—a difference of $236,504.88. Stanek said $102,949.67 of that reflected expenses the town had paid and not yet transferred, which left an unidentified variance of $133,575.72 while town-level transfers were reconciled.
Stanek said the high-school student-activity spreadsheet alone showed a $21,170.65 variance identified in the 2024 audit. To prevent future problems, the district has - converted Google Sheets trackers to an Excel "checkbook" template on the auditor's recommendation; - instituted monthly meetings among building treasurers, principals and the business office to reconcile subaccounts to Munis; - scheduled annual internal audits by the business manager (with external audits on a three-year cycle; the next external audit is scheduled for 2027); and - set up annual training for advisers and student treasurers and a Google form to triage and approve fundraisers.
Stanek said the business office has made audit adjustments so the spreadsheets match the bank and Munis while the team meets individually with advisers to verify records and supporting receipts. She said the district will present completed subaccount reports to the committee one account at a time and will bring any accounts proposed for closure back to the committee for approval.
Committee members asked about buying accounting software; Stanek and the auditor told the board that software is only as accurate as the data entered and recommended strengthening reconciliation processes first. The committee agreed the item will remain on the agenda until members are satisfied with the reconciliations and adviser sign‑offs.
The district asked members and advisers to expect email scheduling for meetings to review individual subaccounts; Stanek said those meetings will include providing the adviser with transaction histories, and advisers will be asked to bring their records for verification. The superintendent said all donations since July 2024 have been recorded and brought to the committee for acceptance.
The committee did not announce any disciplinary findings at the meeting. Chair closed the discussion by thanking advisers and district staff for ongoing work and said the committee will receive further subaccount reports at future meetings.
