The Carbon School District (CSD) hosted its first board meeting for the 2020 year on Wednesday evening. During this meeting, CSD Superintendent Lance Hatch took the opportunity to present the mid-year reading report for the elementary schools in the district.
Most of the elementary grades have risen from mid-year 2018-19. While kindergarten and first grades had a lower percentage, Hatch explained that they had made a massive shift to ensure that all students were mastering their phonics skills. He stated that they are excited about it and seeing great things, but due to that focus, there is not as much of a raise in the reading level as they work to improve the mechanics.
Supt. Hatch continued by informing the board that he believes they will witness a dramatic increase by the end of the year. Fifth grade in particular had an impressive jump from 26.67 percent to 49.47 percent.
Following this report, a representative of Smuin, Rich and Marsing presented the audit report for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2019 to the board. While many numbers were discussed during the report, the total revenues for the general fund increased to $31,645,150 in 2019 from $29,507,848 in 2018. This is an increase of 7.24 percent. Some decreases also occurred, such as the federal aid, property taxes and others.
Overall, there was an increase of $2,137,000. Total expenditures saw an increase of 7.38 percent. The representative explained that the district is required to stay within the parameters of their final approved budget. Due to some changes made, there was a higher-than-anticipated revenue. The district did not spend more money than what they had, but were not adjusted enough for what took place. What was budgeted was overspent, not what was actually available. This resulted in $329,003 in excess.
The representative stated they also noticed several situations where the supporting documentation for faculty and teacher reimbursements was inadequate. Upon discussion, it was suggested that the district establish a policy that states that the receipts turned in are those that have reimbursable expenses on them. It was also stated that not all of the school district’s governing boards were reported to have completed the annual training on requirements of open and public meetings.
The final concern from Smuin, Rich and Marsing was that the board needed to ensure that they are posting the minutes on the Utah Public Notice Website.
For the concern of going over on the budget, the school district said this in response: the school district will review internal controls covering the monitoring of expenditures compared to budgeted expenditures to make sure they are adequate. If necessary, the school district will adopt additional internal controls to assure the district stays in compliance.
Concluding the report, the representative informed the board that they must identify that the meeting took place that discussed the audit, making an extra two pages on the report.