Potterville Public Schools is grappling with a budget shortfall that’s caused the district to fall out of compliance with state standards.
The state requires school districts to have at least a 5% fund balance. A new audit released Monday shows the district has less than 1% saved due to poor budgeting, and raised questions about how officials handled cash and receipts.
School Board President Stacy Sipes calls the shortfall “devastating.”
She says the discrepancies started under former superintendent Kevin Robydek who left in June.
“The Board of Education had full faith and trust in the staff that were advising us on our budgetary matters and presenting information to the Board of Education for us to make educated decisions,” she said. “To learn that that wasn't necessarily happening in the way that it was being portrayed to the board, it was very disheartening.”
The audit found the district used "aggressive assumptions in the underlying data used to prepare the final budget amendment.” That led to district officials withdrawing eight times more money than they should have to maintain the 5% fund balance.
The district also didn’t have a log of money entering or leaving its central office state and didn’t collect enough details on deposits to be accurately classified in the general ledger.
“There were failures in internal controls, and beyond that, we're still digging into finding out exactly why and where things got off course,” Sipes said.
The auditors recommended the district budget more conservatively and that all cash should be counted by two people who will sign off on a log.
Sipes says the board plans to consider a budget amendment in January to begin building back up the district’s savings.
She says cuts to build back savings could come from buying fewer supplies or waiting on big purchases
“Education is of the utmost importance to us, so maintaining that high level of quality education and making sure that we are doing everything we possibly can to retain all of our staff,” she said.
The Eaton County Sheriff’s office is investigating the district’s financial troubles
Robydek is now the superintendent at DeWitt Public Schools.
In a statement sent to WLNS last month, he said he was proud of his fiscal record and would cooperate with the investigation.
He was unavailable to return messages from WKAR seeking comment.
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