Outside expert reassures Lancaster.
An "outsider" who has no particular ax to grind in Lancaster assures me via e-mail hat:
{Lancaster ISD has} " ... an Interim CFO who has been with the District and has good experience. "
and that the annually required (and overdue since 31 January)
" audit will be completed shortly"
and concludes
" at this point I do not see any issues with the rating agencies or future bond
programs. "
So any of us that worried that losing our top accountant, missing our statutory deadlines, and attempting to pretend that nothing was ever wrong might somehow lower our school systems credit rating were mistaken.
Thursday, February 15, 2007
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Missing audit reports from LISD.
Every year, (contrary to reports elsewhere) school districts have a financial audit.
LISD does it every year. It last year. happend the year before.
Happens every year. Nothing to be excited about.
What to get excited about is if it DOESN'T happen.
It didn't happen this year.
This is something districts do for themselves, either in-house or by hiring a team of outside accountants. It's not a symptom of criminal activity. It's just like Exxon or the Sierra Club or the Department of Agriculture -- all large organizations are supposed to tell the public where the money is coming from, going, and what internal controls are being used to track it all.
Lancaster ISD is no exception. The fiscal year closed on 31 August 2006. By December the audit is supposed to be complete. And public hearings on the audit hapen in January. And the report of audit itself is usually posted by the 31st of January.
As happened last year. Outside accountants from Judd, Thomas, Smith and Co. did the audit. It was published to the LancasterISD.ORG website and the Texas Education Agency's website at http://hancock.tea.state.tx.us/audit/PDFviewer.asp Last year's report was dated in December and was posted in January.
It didn't happen this year.
John Roberts at Region Ten is a little surprised to learn that. He says it could be, and I quote from our conversation, a "serious problem". He referred me to TEA itself.
Rita Chase, of the TEA audit division, says that by statute the reports are due 150 days after the close of the fiscal year. That would have been, this year, 31 January. But by tradition there is a 30 day "grace period" before the district is "in trouble." She tells me, by phone, the Lancaster ISD has not, so far, approached her with news of the CFO's sudden departure or any other problem that would require a waiver, an extention of deadlines, or other indulgence.
So, the district is two weeks away from "serious problems" and "trouble" in their audit and reporting processes.
As long at the report is produced for a public hearing, and is submitted to the approriate publishers by the end of the month, everything at LISD will continue to be just fine.
Co-incidentally, the filing deadline for LISD board of Trustee elections is only five days AFTER the deadline for filing financial reports.
Every year, (contrary to reports elsewhere) school districts have a financial audit.
LISD does it every year. It last year. happend the year before.
Happens every year. Nothing to be excited about.
What to get excited about is if it DOESN'T happen.
It didn't happen this year.
This is something districts do for themselves, either in-house or by hiring a team of outside accountants. It's not a symptom of criminal activity. It's just like Exxon or the Sierra Club or the Department of Agriculture -- all large organizations are supposed to tell the public where the money is coming from, going, and what internal controls are being used to track it all.
Lancaster ISD is no exception. The fiscal year closed on 31 August 2006. By December the audit is supposed to be complete. And public hearings on the audit hapen in January. And the report of audit itself is usually posted by the 31st of January.
As happened last year. Outside accountants from Judd, Thomas, Smith and Co. did the audit. It was published to the LancasterISD.ORG website and the Texas Education Agency's website at http://hancock.tea.state.tx.us/audit/PDFviewer.asp Last year's report was dated in December and was posted in January.
It didn't happen this year.
John Roberts at Region Ten is a little surprised to learn that. He says it could be, and I quote from our conversation, a "serious problem". He referred me to TEA itself.
Rita Chase, of the TEA audit division, says that by statute the reports are due 150 days after the close of the fiscal year. That would have been, this year, 31 January. But by tradition there is a 30 day "grace period" before the district is "in trouble." She tells me, by phone, the Lancaster ISD has not, so far, approached her with news of the CFO's sudden departure or any other problem that would require a waiver, an extention of deadlines, or other indulgence.
So, the district is two weeks away from "serious problems" and "trouble" in their audit and reporting processes.
As long at the report is produced for a public hearing, and is submitted to the approriate publishers by the end of the month, everything at LISD will continue to be just fine.
Co-incidentally, the filing deadline for LISD board of Trustee elections is only five days AFTER the deadline for filing financial reports.