- A state auditor presented his findings to the Potterville School Board Monday night
- The auditor says the district overspent its budget by hundreds of thousands of dollars and failed to keep accurate records
- Video shows auditor explaining his findings and the board president's comments
The Potterville School District overspent hundreds of thousands of dollars and failed to keep an accurate track of expenditures according to findings from an auditor.
The audit, released last month, found that the school district's general funds were extremely lower than state requirements.
PSD's general funds are currently around $71,000 according to auditor Dave Nielsen. Nielsen was at the district's monthly school board meeting Monday night to present his findings.
Nielsen told the school board that the district anticipated spending around $94,000 for Fiscal Year 2024-2025. Nielsen said the district used up $743,000, exceeding the budget by nearly $646,000.
WATCH: POTTERVILLE SCHOOLS UNDER INVESTIGATION AFTER AUDIT REVEALS GENERAL FUND IS LOW
Nielsen says that the district overspent on the retirement budget by $160,000, wages by $141,000, benefits by $117,000 and supplies by $104,000 which included overspending $72,000 on electricity.
Nielsen said the board used 'aggressive assumptions' in its data to prepare the final budget and recommended that the board use more conservative budgeting procedures.
Nielsen also added that the district failed to keep and record cash receipts from events and recommended that two people each count and log the money.
"The district's balance is now below 5%," Nielsen said.
State law requires the general fund to be 5% of the school's budget.
School board president Stacy Sipes says the state treasury and board of education will work provide oversight for the school's finances when new board members are sworn in next month.
Sipes said a similar issue occurred in December 2023 when the board was notified of a $400,000 budget error attributed to double counting.
Sipes says the firm, The Raymond Group, is no longer working on the school's budget after doing so since 2019.
"It's especially frustrating to know that potentially we could've had some earlier warning about this and the board could've made some decisions and dig a little deeper," Sipes said.
Sipes says the district will provide an update on the general fund balance at the next school board meeting in January.
Want to see more local news? Visit the FOX47News Website.
For more news in your neighborhood, go to the In Your Neighborhood page on our website.
Stay in touch with us anytime, anywhere.
Sign up for newsletters emailed to your inbox.
Select from these options: Neighborhood News, Breaking News, Severe Weather, School Closings, Daily Headlines, and Daily Forecasts.
