JAMESTOWN – A recent audit by the state Comptroller’s office is shedding further light on the Jamestown School Districts financial problems.
The audit, which was released last Friday, covers the time period between July 1, 2011 through April 13, 2015. The report finds that the in order to balance the district’s 2015-16 budget, the school board appropriated approximately $800,000 of the district’s remaining reserve funds and also $1 million of its fund balance. As a result, the report said the district fund balance has been reduced to a dangerously low level.
The audit also found that the Board has not developed a multiyear financial plan.
As a result, the audit is recommending that the school board develop and adopt a budget in which recurring expenditures are funded by recurring revenues, thereby reducing the reliance on fund balance, reserves and other one-time financing sources.
It also says the district should develop and adopt a fund balance policy that establishes an adequate amount of unrestricted fund balance to be maintained, within the legal limit, to meet the District’s needs.
And the audit says the school board needs to develop and regularly update a multiyear financial plan for a three- to five-year period that is sustainable and includes information related to anticipated, significant changes in expenditures, and funding sources for operations and capital needs.
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