Audit report gets School Board OK
GREENSBURG — The St. Helena Parish School Board on Thursday unanimously adopted its 2010-11 audit report, which cites only a minor error in record-keeping at the campus level.
The smudge was discovered in the “School Activity Fund Procedures Manual,” a policy designated for tracking school expenses such as sporting events or field trips, and stemmed from receipts lacking documentation and checks not being signed by a school principal.
“The board had no control over the former principal signing checks,” Superintendent Kelli Joseph said. “It was at the school level.”
The board’s Budget and Finance Committee received the audit on Jan. 26 from Larry Jones, audit supervisor for the Bruno and Tervalon LLP accounting firm.
Jones said at the time that no other findings were documented in the audit and issued an “unqualified opinion” to the board, the highest remark possible.
“Any situation where we don’t have findings is good news,” Board President Edward Galmon had remarked to other board members upon receipt of Jones’ report.
Joseph said Thursday she is happy to have only one small finding after the firm spent two weeks reviewing multiple pages of financial documents.
“We’ve never had it to this point,” Joseph said, citing poor audit findings in the past. “Our goal for next year is to have zero.”
Other business coming before the board Thursday night included:
TOBACCO POLICIES: The board was recognized by Cheryl Klein, regional coordinator for the Louisiana Campaign for Tobacco Free Living, for adopting revised campus tobacco-use policies in October.
The board signed a Tobacco Free Living initiative to make the individual campuses under its control become total tobacco-free zones.
“This means no smoking or tobacco use on the grounds at all,” Joseph said, noting sporting events are included in the policy.
“It’s in the best interest of our students and their health,” Joseph said.
On Thursday, the board approved the revised policies to be included in the St. Helena Parish School Board Policy Manual.