School board accepts annual audit report

The St. Mary Parish School Board approved an audit report Thursday that found two areas of noncompliance by district management.
Chris Miller, certified public accountant with the Darnall, Sikes, Gardes & Frederick accounting firm in Lafayette, presented the report.
According to the report, the school board did not obtain an affidavit prior to accepting a bid and commencing construction for a public works contract.
Louisiana R.S. 38:2224 requires an entity letting a contract — the school board in this case — to acquire an affidavit attesting to the fact that a public contract was not secured through employment of or payment to a solicitor. The law applies to any person, corporation, firm, association or organization receiving value for services rendered in connection with a contract for the construction, alteration or demolition of a public building or project, according to Louisiana public bid law.
The school board failed to properly monitor the bidding process for a public works project that led to non-compliance.
The accounting firm recommended that all required bid documents, including affidavits and agreements, be included during the bidding and selection process for the execution of public works contracts.
The error resulted in the school board’s oversight in tracking the project’s progress.
The school board contracted with an engineering firm on the public works project in question. The firm was supposed to handle the bidding process.
It was the understanding of the board, noted in management’s corrective action plan, that all required procedures had been followed.
In order to prevent a re-occurrence of this incident, the school board will implement procedures to improve monitoring of the bidding process, whether it’s performed in-house or outsourced.
The St. Mary Parish School Board was also found to be non-compliant with the No Child Left Behind Act’s requirements for highly qualified teachers and paraprofessionals.
All St. Mary Parish public school teachers of core academic subjects were to be highly qualified by the end of the 2014-15 school year.
Paraprofessionals working in a program supported with Title I funds must meet specific qualification requirements.
Highly qualified means a teacher has completed a bachelor’s degree and passed all licensing exams, Miller said.
The board’s response says it’s aware of this issue and is continuing to strive in its effort to attract highly qualified teachers and paraprofessionals, as defined by the NCLB Title I grant requirements, to the school system, according to the management’s corrective action plan report.
Grant funds assist teachers and paraprofessionals fulfilling required highly qualified credentials.
The school board will continue to monitor the progress applicable to staff in order to comply within the most efficient manner possible.
Also mentioned, with correspondence from Louisiana Department of Education Title I grant personnel, total compliance of this requirement had not been accomplished by any school district in Louisiana. It was the same case for the previous school year, as well.
According to the management’s discussion and analysis section of the audit report, the school board completed the fiscal year ending June 30 with a combined fund balance of $46.1 million. The previous year’s combined fund balance was $31.9 million.
The accounting firm met Tuesday with the financial management team and Superintendent Leonard Armato to discuss the audit report in greater detail than in the school board meeting.
“I would like to point out the monthly financial statements that you’ve seen that’s been presented to you at each monthly board meeting, it’s been no changes to those,” Miller said. “We did not have any adjusting journal entries of any significance so the numbers that have been forwarded to you on an ongoing basis during that fiscal year were very accurate.”
The net position decreased by $8,830,607 for the fiscal year. The previous fiscal year decrease was $21,084,102.
Total assets increased $30,173,552 for the reported 2015 year as compared to last year’s increase of $11,584,004. The 2015 increase is attributed to an increase in cash and cash equivalents.