District is in compliance with auditing standards

Cloquet School Board members reviewed the district’s audit report during Monday night’s regular meeting.

Eikill and Schilling Ltd. conducted the audit and found the school district had no major problems in its reporting and was compliant with government auditing standards.

The auditors found that the fund balance went from more than $4.5 million to about $5.3 million from July 1, 2009, to June 30, 2010. The difference of more than $700,000 was partly accounted for after money in the building construction fund was misreported, creating a surplus in the account after auditors made the correct adjustment.

Jennifer Smith of Eikill and Schilling did have a suggestion for the district, however. During the auditing process, it was found that receipts were not being deposited as often as they should from the student activity accounts. Instead of being deposited weekly, at times staff members were only doing one deposit a month.

“We recommend deposits at least weekly to keep money safe,” Smith said.

This problem was mainly found in the high school and middle school activity accounts. High school principal Warren Peterson said he would talk to the person responsible for making deposits and try to make it a weekly occurrence. This problem has been reported by the accountants in years past.

“First and foremost, the findings haven’t shown discrepancies,” Peterson said. “As far as the timeliness, we can make that a better habit.”

During the working session, board member Ron Gittings asked if there was a method for parents to make payments to their children’s school lunch accounts. Teacher Representative Leanne Schmidt expressed that this service is something parents want.

“We’ve been looking at different options,” answered Business Manager Kim Josephson. “We already have online payment for the community education department. We’ll be looking into it again and spending more time on it this year to have something done for next year.”

In other business, Buildings and Grounds Supervisor Rob Carr reported the facilities crew will be installing automatic external defibrillators (AEDs) over the next week. AEDs are specialized medical devices designed to recognize and treat certain lethal heart rhythms in the setting of a cardiac arrest. AEDs deliver an electrical shock to persons in ventricular fibrillation or ventricular tachycardia.

The elementary schools will have one per school, the middle school will have two and the high school will have two. The final AED device will be a portable device to be used by the Activities Department.

Tags: daily updates, news, cloquet, education