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Warren County Schools gets clean FY2024 audit but auditors flag timekeeping and purchasing controls
Summary
An independent audit for fiscal year 2024 gave Warren County Schools an unmodified opinion but identified a material weakness in hourly employee time‑sheet practices and recommended stronger purchase‑order discipline and timelier vendor payments, district and auditors said.
Shannon Denison, an audit partner with Anderson Smith, told the Warren County Schools Board that the district received an unmodified (clean) opinion on its fiscal‑year 2024 financial statements covering July 1, 2023, through June 30, 2024. "That's the best opinion that a district can receive on an audit," Denison said.
The audit presentation noted key fund balances and limited risks. Denison said the general fund ended the year with approximately $431,000 and that the capital outlay fund recovered from a prior deficit to about $62,000. The auditor also described other restricted special‑revenue balances at roughly $2.6 million as of June 30. Denison briefed the board on child‑nutrition activity, reporting roughly $334,000 spent from the Child Nutrition Fund in the year, leaving about $1.1 million in cash on hand.
Denison told the board the audit found one material weakness related to payroll and employee timekeeping: "Not all hourly employees were regularly maintaining time sheets," she said, which creates a risk that compensatory time or pay could be misrecorded. The auditor recommended that all non‑salaried employees maintain approved, reviewed time records to ensure accurate payroll accounting.
The audit team also raised several significant deficiencies and management‑letter items for improvement. Those included the district's inconsistent use and timing of purchase orders (purchase orders sometimes were created after invoices), timeliness of paying vendor invoices, and one instance in which child nutrition was charged more indirect cost than allowable; that last item was reversed and corrected in the statements. The auditors reported no findings on the district's stewardship of federal grant funds, including ESSER awards.
Board members and staff said they have begun implementing the recommendations. Dr. Montague Davis thanked finance staff and named several people who helped assemble required documentation; the board noted recent staffing changes in the finance office. The audit presentation closed with the auditor advising continued attention to purchase‑order discipline, payment timeliness and leave‑balance reconciliation when employees depart the district.
The board did not take a separate vote on the audit presentation; members asked clarifying questions and thanked the audit and finance teams for their work.
