Audit Shows Successful Year

December 16, 2009

The annual audit report was released at the Iron County School Board meeting Tuesday revealing a successful year for the school district despite budget cuts and a poor economy. Todd Hess, a representative of Hinton and Burdick auditing firm, told school board members about the highlights of his findings.
In response to management of the school district, the audit revealed a clean opinion for the year, which means there were no significant deficiencies, unlike previous years, Hess said.
"In the previous year there were three findings," he said. "This was an improvement, so that is great."
In regard to total revenue, revenues exceeded expenditures by $1.7 million during the school’s budget year from June 2008 to June 2009.
The close numbers are a good sign, Hess said.
"You want to be spending what you bring in because that is how you provide good services for the students," he said.
There was a decrease in spending within the school district by about $500,000, according to Hess’ report.
"That is great budgeting," he said.
Budget Director Kent Peterson said although it was difficult to adhere to the budget cuts , the district did its best.
"It’s painful," he said. "If you look at what happened between June of ’08 and June of ’09, it was horrendous, but we didn’t know that in June ’08."
Superintendent Jim Johnson said he is excited about the news regarding the audit’s clean opinion of the budget.
"To have a clean slate doesn’t happen very often," he said. "This is a very, very positive thing especially right now with the situation we are in."
Hess agreed it was a strong accomplishment for the district.
"We do about 100 audits a year," he said. "This is very rare to have no findings."