The Tupper Lake Central School District’s Board Of Education meeting was held at the Middle-High School Library on Monday, Dec. 2. District officials reviewed the district’s annual audit. From left are TLCSD Business Manager Jessica Rivers, TLCSD Clerk Shauni Kavanaugh, TLCSD Superintendent Jaycee Welsh, Board President Jane Whitmore, Board Vice President Jason Rolley, Board Member Sabrina Shipman, Board Member Mary Ellen Chamberlain and L. P. Quinn Elementary School Principal Elizabeth Littlefield. (Enterprise photo — Chris Gaige)

TUPPER LAKE — The Tupper Lake Central School District received its audit report for the 2023-24 fiscal year — which ended on June 30 — on Nov. 6 and reviewed its findings at its Dec. 2 Board of Education meeting.

All school districts in this state are required to receive annual independent audits. Tupper Lake’s was conducted by Telling & Hillman, P.C., which operates out of Middlebury, Vermont.

TLCSD Superintendent Jaycee Welsh described it as “a full-fledged ‘a to z’ audit.”

Sandra Hillman, the firm’s audit manager, addressed the board and walked through her firm’s report. The conclusion was that TLCSD was in compliance with the laws that govern its use of funding.

“That’s a good opinion,” Hillman said. “An unmodified opinion, which is what you guys have, is the best one, so that’s good.”

Welsh — who was hired in July, after this audit’s scope — said she was pleased by its findings.

“Overarchingly, we are doing things in a fiscally sound manner, which is always what you want to hear from the auditors,” she said.

Welsh lauded TLCSD Business Manager Jessica Rivers for learning the ropes quickly, since she only began serving the position over the summer.

“I do have to commend Jess and her team,” Welsh said. “She wasn’t in charge of the audit last year, so finding documentation when you weren’t the one in charge of it (during the fiscal year being audited) was a little bit challenging and Jess and her team did a really, really good job getting everything together for the auditors.”

TLCSD Board President Jane Whitmore concurred, stating that she felt the process was “timely” and was pleased that the board was reviewing the findings by Dec. 2.

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Three issues identified

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The audit discovered three issues, none of which were considered to be a major compliance issue. The first was with payroll processing.

Each year, district employees are required to sign salary statements. These are different than contracts — which can cover multiple years with different pay steps each year — as salary statements just attest to how much the employee is to be paid that year.

Welsh said the issue was flagged when over half of the employee contracts the auditors sampled for cross-reference did not have corresponding salary statements that were supposed to be signed by the staff members.

She said it was a procedural issue and did not prevent or result in any erroneous payments. She added the district corrected the matter and has implemented policies to ensure the statements get signed.

“There’s only a few that we don’t have yet for this year because they’re substitutes and they haven’t worked yet,” Welsh said. “I would say that we’re at about 98% this year.”

The second issue was a glitch in WINCAP, the accounting software service the district uses.

The audit found that the error caused certain payroll entries to be posted in the general ledger payroll cash account rather than the consolidated checking cash account, but that the accuracy of monthly reconciliations, financial reports and any other related records were not impacted.

Welsh said that district officials had identified the problem and put in a request to the company to fix it, which they did.

“That was discovered by our shared business office pretty early on last fiscal year and had been fixed for a while,” she said. “The auditor was still required to mention it in their report but that had been corrected.”

Welsh added that it was an isolated software glitch, easy for WINCAP to fix on their end and not emblematic of any other or more widespread issues with the software program.

The third issue pertained to the district’s unassigned fund balance — money not earmarked for a specific purpose. State law requires school districts to keep the balance at or below 4% of the ensuing year’s appropriations. The TLCSD’s balance for the 2023-24 fiscal year was at 6.6%, according to the audit, which has been a repeat finding for the past several years.

Welsh said that despite the law, “the majority” of school districts in New York exceed the unassigned fund balance limit.

“We’re actually one of the lower districts in FEH Boces with unassigned fund balance, compared to some of our neighbors,” she said.

“It makes school districts nervous that if there’s ever an emergency — especially if you’re dealing with districts who house all of their own special education programs if you have a high-cost student that needs something that’s a significant amount of money and you don’t have a fund balance, you’re in a tough situation,” she said.

Welsh said despite the relief that comes from flexibility, the district is looking into ways to shift some of the funds into restricted accounts, including a capital reserve fund for future civic center repairs. That would require voter approval and Welsh said the district had not definitely committed to the proposal yet.