The Westhampton Beach School District has its financial house in order, according to an outside auditor who presented her annual report to the School Board on Monday evening.
The auditor, Marianne Van Duyne of the Islandia firm R.S. Abrams & Co. LLP, said she had only minor procedural recommendations for the school district to implement in the next year. Her firm gave the district an “unqualified opinion,” which represents a clean bill of financial health.
“I think they’re in good shape,” Ms. Van Duyne said in an interview on Tuesday. “I think, like I said last night, financially they’re moving in the right direction, and their internal controls are very strong.”
Ms. Van Duyne noted that the district was able to hold down its tax levy—or the amount of money it collects from taxpayers—by $1.6 million this year by tapping leftover funds from the 2009-10 budget.
The tax levy for the 2010-11 school year is $24.9 million, which will partially fund the $49 million 2010-11 budget that taxpayers approved in May, along with state aid, tuition payments from other districts, and other revenues.
Assistant Superintendent for Business Kathleen O’Hara said most of the surplus funds came from lower-than-expected spending last year. “It was a combination,” she said. “We did have a little bit of excess revenue, but most of it was due to not spending as much as we had budgeted.”
Ms. Van Duyne also noted that the district followed almost all of the bookkeeping suggestions her firm recommended last year. “They implemented virtually all of the recommendations from last year, and this year they only had five recommendations,” she said. “I believe they were computer control recommendations.”
Westhampton Beach Schools Superintendent Lynn Schwartz said on Tuesday that he was satisfied with the assessment, noting that the district usually gets high marks.
“These were very good results,” he said. “We got an ‘unqualified opinion,’ which is the strongest that the auditors can provide.”
Will James on Nov 3, 2010