EM school district only has “material weakness” on financial audit
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By LeAnn R. Ralph
ELK MOUND — Only one “problem” showed up on the audit of the Elk Mound school district’s finances for the 2023-2024 school year, which was a “material weakness” related to segregation of duties.
Since the only issue pointed out on the audit was the material weakness related to segregation of duties, that was very good news for the school district’s audit, said Eric Wright, district administrator, during his superintendent’s report to the Elk Mound Board of Education at the December 16 meeting.
Segregation of duties refers to the number of employees available to complete all of the school district’s financial transactions.
The intent of segregation of duties is to reduce the risk of errors or fraud, and the school district would have to hire enough people so that there was one person to initiate transactions, one person to record the transactions, one person to authorize the transactions and one person to reconcile the transactions.
The Elk Mound school district is not fiscally able to hire enough people for the level of segregation of duties that the auditors would like to see, Wright said.
In fact, most school districts are not in a position to hire as many people as would be needed, and the same is true for most municipalities.
Even Dunn County routinely is informed that the county has a material weakness concerning segregation of duties because the county cannot hire enough people to separate the financial duties in the way that the auditors would prefer.
The Elk Mound school district had a revenue budget and an expense budget for Fund 10 of $14,309,879 for the 2023-2024 school year.
The total revenue and expenditures of $14,309,879 represented a 4.4 percent decrease, or a decrease of $656,689, over the 2022-2023 school year total expenditures of $14,966,568.
Property taxes collected by the school district increased from $1.59 million to $2.37 million for 2023-2024, representing an increase of nearly $786,000, for a total revenue from local sources of $2.48 million.
Other business
In other business, the Elk Mound Board of Education:
• Approved a list of short-range planning items that can be accomplished as the money becomes available.
• Received a template for the evaluation of the district administrator to use when the evaluation has been scheduled to be conducted in a closed session.
• Learned that after January 1, scheduling for high school students for the 2025-2026 school year will begin.
• Learned that after January 1, middle school boys’ and girls’ basketball will begin and that wrestling starts.
