The Camp Verde Unified School District has been working to fix problems identified in its most recent audit, and the staff has been making progress, Superintendent Dan Brown said.
The audit found more than 30 areas of concern with the way the district had been handling its finances, most dealing with oversight problems on how records were kept. For a long time, the district simply didn’t have the tools in place to accurately record what money was spent from where.
“It was mostly matters of checks and balances,” Brown said, pointing to issues with who was signing checks. Some of the problems stretched back as far as a decade.
Now the district has to prove to the Arizona auditor general it is working to get its house in order. The auditor general recently sent a letter giving the district some time to work out the issues.
Of 34 issues highlighted in the audit, 10 have already been fixed, Brown said, and work continues to fix the other 24.
Some of the problems already fixed were issues like making sure cash was deposited weekly and to ensure student clubs keep more accurate minutes at meetings where decisions are made to spend money, said Mary Hudson, secretary to the superintendent. There were also some issues with accurate attendance keeping, which is important financially because the average daily attendance at school helps determine how much funding the district gets from the state.
Brown said something that has always been an issue is no matter how accurately the district keeps enrollment records, the state is inevitably going to have different figures on its books.
Another problem was with the number of credit cards the district was using. That problem was fixed a long time ago, Brown said.
“We don’t even use credit cards now,” Brown said, “not since I’ve been here.”
Brown said Business Manager Janet Leuer, who works with the Yavapai County School Superintendent’s Office, was working to make sure the audit concerns are fixed for good.
Leuer was recently brought on board to help keep the understaffed district on track with the workload. The decision to bring on outside help split the school board 3-2, with board members Helen Freeman and Judy Gilbert arguing the district could find talent from within to solve the problem. At the time, Brown said if outside help wasn’t hired, something else would likely have to be cut or more money redirected from the budget so the district could devote the resources required to fix its financial issues.
“We’re getting these issues addressed,” Brown said. “And things continue to get better and better.”
