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Clifton Larson Allen review finds personnel-supplement overstatements behind Easton Public Schools FY26 variance
Summary
A Clifton Larson Allen review presented June 25 to the Easton School Committee identified overstatements in the personnel supplement—vacant positions left in carry-forward budgets—as the primary driver of an FY26 budget variance and recommended recurring reconciliations, stronger position control, cross-training, and phased migration to Munis.
Clifton Larson Allen consultant Eric Mason told the Easton School Committee on June 25 that CLA’s operational review of the district’s FY26 and FY27 budgeting found the principal cause of an unexpected FY26 surplus was an overstated personnel supplement—the roster of budgeted positions and projected salaries—caused when vacant or reallocated positions were not removed from carry-forward budgets.
Mason said CLA had transactional access to the district’s enterprise resource planning system and reviewed budget iterations back to FY22, interviews with HR and finance, and a live walkthrough of the FY27 budget build. He said the overstatement occurred when prior, higher-paid positions were not rolled off the personnel supplement before new hires were added, producing an apparent increase in projected personnel costs that in aggregate created the variance.
"The driver of the unexpected variance was the FY26 personnel supplement was overstatement," Mason said, explaining that missing one or two position removals per year can accumulate into a multi-million-dollar difference. He recommended a formal, recurring reconciliation (monthly or quarterly), a 'clean-sheet' personnel-supplement process requiring justification of each rostered position, and stronger position-control functionality.
Mason and committee members pointed to two operational fixes already in motion: improved personnel-supplement validation for FY27 and the district’s planned migration to Munis, which consultants and administrators said will provide more robust position control and automation. Mason cautioned, however, that Munis is a multi-year implementation and that gains also require cross-training to reduce key-person dependency in finance.
Superintendent Dr. Cabraw and committee members praised the level of access CLA received and said many recommendations have already been implemented or are being operationalized. Administrators underscored that the FY27 corrections reflect accounting and personnel-document reconciliation rather than new recurring revenue; the district has committed to ongoing monitoring and to maintaining updated process documentation.
Next steps identified during the meeting included continued personnel-supplement reconciliations, documentation of the budget-build process, cross-training key finance and HR staff, and staged Munis deployment to strengthen position control and reporting.
