Washington school district gets unexciting audit

WASHINGTON — A routine audit of the Washington Community School District released last month showed few issues at the schools, aside from a handful of infractions common in local governments, and a handful of clerical errors.

The report published by the Iowa Auditor’s Office was conducted by Nolte Cornman & Johnson P.C., a certified public accounting firm based in Newton. It covered school district spending and revenue from July 1, 2023 to June 30, 2024.

The report said Washington CSD brought in $485,776 more revenue than it had budgeted, after it received “more from local sources than originally anticipated.” The district also spent less than it had budgeted for the year, but the report said that was a result of the schools’ accounting practices, more so than specific spending decisions.

Schools in Washington had no issues of non-compliance with federal programs, according to the report, which also said auditors found no questionable expenditures by the schools. It did highlight $62,000 in business conducted with private businesses owned by WCSD staff or their family members, but concluded the transactions “(do) not appear to represent a conflict of interest.”

The report did, however, flag a few mundane issues at the schools.

First was a clerical error: school board members at one point spent money in excess of a fund’s budget, and amended the budget after the fact. State law requires that budget amendments pass before such spending can move forward.

The report also said the district lacked sufficient internal controls for staff to independently “prevent or detect and correct” issues like state and federal program non-compliance, or financial errors. The finding is a common refrain in audits of Iowa’s rural local governments and schools.

“We realize that with a limited number of office employees, segregation of duties is difficult,” the report said in one recommendation. “However, the District should review its control procedures to obtain the maximum internal control possible under the circumstances.”

Auditors also found errors in the schools’ enrollment data, saying Washington overstated its certified enrollment by 2 students in reports to the Department of Education, as well as its supplementary weighting data, by 0.069. In their official response, district officials said they would contact the state to clear up those issues.

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com