An annual audit was presented during the Newcastle Board of Education January 9 meeting, and then accepted by the board as presented.
The audit, by Angel, Johnston, and Blasingame, P.C., was conducted on Newcastle Public Schools for the 202223 year. The audit was considered a clean audit, but did have some minor corrective actions which were required.
Superintendent of Schools Dr. Cathy Walker said, “The audit firm was very complimentary of our finance team and their willingness to work with them on the audit. Findings were very minimal and did not raise any red flags.”
Walker said she was very proud of the finance team, administrators and teachers, for their diligence in following school finance law.
The audit had only five findings that needed corrective action taken, and auditors said steps have already been put into place to correct those findings.
Included were the following: • The cafeteria subaccount activity fund was not closed out at the end of the year to the General Fund. A check had been written to close out the account, but it was not deposited until the next school year.
End-of-year procedures now include the transferring of the account to the General Fund.
• A receipt book could not be found for the FFA Blue & Gold meat sales fundraiser.
The school created a new procedure for receipt books, providing for employees to sign out books and sign them back in before issuing another book. Also, professional development is now required for anyone responsible for a receipt book.
• During testing of gate reconciliations, auditors noted that 10 of 12 tested games did not have two signatures verifying the amount sold and received.
A new procedure was established for signature verification, which includes a third person checking and confirming the two signatures.
• During the auditor’s review of the Activity Fund Cash reconciliation, the cash balance per the bank and the balance of the subaccounts per the Custodian’s Summary of Revenue and Expenditures did not agree.
This will be corrected with the new end-of-year procedures for transferring the amount to the General Fund.
• Expenditures were understated in the General Fund by $642,763.21, the Building Fund by $9,632.90, and the Bond Fund by $12,061.88.
The June 30, 2022, audited financial statements were adjusted to reflect those changes, but the school district’s Oklahoma Cost Accounting System reporting was not. The District’s OCAS information could not be changed due to their data being locked by the State Department of Education.
The audit states that this is a continuation of findings from FY2022, and safeguards were implemented December 15, 2022.
Walker explained that the findings had been overstated in the previous year, resulting in an understating for this year.
“The reason for the overstated amount for the previous year was due to purchase orders not being closed out before our state reporting was due,” Walker said. “This occurred during the transition between the former chief financial officer, and our finance director.”
This was previously reported in the Newcastle Pacer.
Walker said the district has implemented new safeguards concerning the end-of-year procedures for processing purchase orders.
The school board also held an executive session (closed meeting) to discuss an annual superintendent evaluation, as well as other personnel matters. No action was taken by the board when they were back in open session.
Interim Board President Tiffany Elcyzyn told the Pacer, Dr. Walker has done an excellent job in her first half of the school year, and the board is anxious to see her continued progress.
Elcyzyn said, “Her staff and her students love her.”
