One of the findings that auditors pointed to related to students who move out of the district without requesting records or informing the school district that they have relocated, Farnsworth said.
“We encourage kids to check out and tell us where they’re going so we can contact them,” he said. “Now, through the legislature, it’s our responsibility to find out where they’re going.”
Grand County High School Principal Steve Hren said that the new accountability procedures have also affected the district’s graduation rate. “In years past it’s been 94 to 96 percent,” Hren said. “With this new requirement of tracking, it’s gone down to eighty-eight percent ... We are responsible to know where they went, and if we don’t, they’re considered a drop-out.”
The other finding was related to the budget. Auditors found that the district had under-budgeted for the food service fund and the debt service fund. Farnsworth explained that the $103,600 that was noted in relation to the debt service fund was a result of the district refinancing several bonds.
“There were some expenses there that we didn’t realize ... should have been on our books,” Farnsworth said.
He pointed out that the money was not actually paid out in a lump sum. Instead, it was built into the future payments to the bond. However, state accounting procedures required the district to record all those payments as an expense.
“We made that adjustment,” Farnsworth said.
The district’s expenditures for the food service fund were $5,939 more than officials had anticipated.
“We’ll work on that,” Farnsworth said.
Farnsworth presented the findings to the school board. Usually, a representative from the firm that performs the audit does the presentation, but the auditors did not feel it was necessary, Farnsworth said.
“They just didn’t feel it was worth the drive to explain the audit this year,” Farnsworth told the board.
“This is a very good audit,” Grand County School Superintendent Scott Crane said.