HSCSD reviews audit

Hot Springs County School District Business Manager Chauncy Johnson presented CPA Deborah Roget on Nov. 16 to discuss the district’s latest audit.

“Over the past couple of years, it’s been difficult for her to be here in person, because of different COVID-19 situations,” Johnson said of Roget, who had spoken with Hot Springs County School Board Clerk Nichole Weyer and Board Treasurer Joe Martinez, “as well as my office, the business office staff,” superintendent Dustin Hunt and bookkeeper Kathy Groh, earlier that same day.

According to Roget, “The audit is unmodified, there were no disagreements with management, and the books were in very good shape.”

Roget opined that “it’s nice to see an audit and a school district that is very financially conservative. You have good resources, you have good fund balances, and everything looks very good that way. I had hardly any journal entries to make. Their books were good. I didn’t have to go in and clean up or do anything like that.”

Roget explained that everything except for the general fund appears to have made money this year, which she believes would have broken even if not for two key transfers, and was still “pretty close” to doing so with them.

Roget deemed the $1,487 net change in fund balance “a minor loss,” while she noted the special revenue “went up considerably,” which she suggested had to do “with the federal money, and maybe spending less of the Wyoming Foundation money.”

Roget reported that food service “had a little loss, is all,” while the daycare fund actually made money, due to the transfer of all the equipment, the building and some supplies and equipment from the depreciation reserve, as well as the $100,000 from the general fund.“

Everything went fairly smoothly,” said Roget, who cited the segregation of duties as one of her findings for this year. “It would not be feasible for you to hire enough staff to cover everything, (but) you don’t want one person to have control over two separate areas.”

Roget elaborated that a budget violation in the special revenue fund stemmed from the district receiving so much COVID money during the year that “you spent a lot more out of the special revenue fund than you normally would, and it was never amended.”Roget placed that amount at roughly $500,000 more than usual, which she acknowledged was “quite a bit,” and with the pandemic still ongoing, she advised the district, “That’s just something you’ll have to watch going forward.”

As for the district’s capital assets, Roget classified them as “sort of a problem child,” before she specified, “There are a lot of items on there that don’t belong there. There are duplicate items. There are items put on this year that were put on three years ago, and they put it back on.”

As for the daycare fund, Roget pointed out how food service lists kitchen equipment on the trial balance, and asserted that “daycare is the same type of fund, so you need equipment and building improvements that are separated out just for that.”

While Weyer responded by thanking the district’s business office for doing “an amazing job of keeping us on budget, and making sure we are fiscally responsible,” Martinez credited Johnson with having already reviewed what the district is and will be doing to correct the discrepancies noted in this audit.