Monday, April 29, 2024
The Gatesville Independent School District has received an audit from Lott, Vernon & Company of Temple that affirms that the district is in good financial standing and is complying with standard accounting principles.
The audit, which cost $27,500 to prepare, was presented by Dane Legg, a partner with the accounting firm, at the Dec. 12 school board meeting and covers the fiscal year that ended Aug. 31, 2022.
Legg said the GISD balance sheet as of Aug. 31 shows total assets of $17.6 million. That is down about $2.3 million from the previous fiscal year, "and the biggest decrease is that there was no COVID receivable (from the federal government) for the fiscal year.
While the fund balance was down about $2.5 million from the previous budget year, that was in large part due to the district paying for capital improvements (related to school campuses) from available reserves rather than incurring additional debt to cover those expenses.
The district's unrestricted fund balance is enough to cover about 4.5 months’ worth of operational expenses, Legg said.
The state requires a school district's fund balance to be able to cover at least two months’ worth of expenses, and the district's own policy requires that at least three months of expenses be covered "so you are in compliance with both," Legg said.
Revenues for GISD are $34.5 million, an increase of about .9% — or $300,000. Expenses were $35.7 million, the biggest of which — 17% were related to capital expenses.
"Overall, it is a balanced budget, but you had some capital projects which made it negative," Legg said.
He credited Darrell Frazier, the district's chief financial officer, for doing excellent work on behalf of GISD.
"Working with him has been great," Legg said. "It's been one of the better audits we have because of him."
