Stephens Co. BOE Gets Financial Update

Stephens County School Superintendent Bryan Dorsey updates the school board on some financial matters.

Dorsey provided that update at Thursday’s work session for the Stephens County Board of Education.

He said that the school system continues to wait on the Fiscal Year 2015 and 2016 audits from the state auditors.

According to Dorsey, the system was recently notified of further delays in that process.

“The lead auditor out of the Athens office, their director, accepted a new job and left as of January 31, which has pushed those audits back, most likely until May,” said Dorsey. “They say they are going to come and do them, even though the ’15 was practically over, they will not finish it until May. Then they are going to go right in to the ’16.”

Dorsey did say that the school system did receive some good financial news from the state.

“We did get contacted from the state department,” said Dorsey. “They have cleared us from completing the recovery plan for being in a deficit and the Board no longer has to sign those monthly statements about that and would just approve the financial report, so we have cleared that hurdle. That is another one of those we were looking forward to getting over and that acknowledgement that things are getting back where they needed to be.”

Meanwhile, Dorsey also updated the board on the Fiscal Year 2018 budget process.

He said that staff is putting together that budget now and his hope is to have a tentative Fiscal Year 2018 budget ready for the Board of Education to look at in March.

Dorsey said he feels good about the system’s position heading into that budget.

As for this fiscal year, Dorsey said the system appears to be in good shape.

“Our overall budget, we are certainly sitting under,” said Dorsey. “Even if you were to add accruals, I would say at this point we are probably, with accruals, at least six percent under budget so far currently for this fiscal year.”

According to the financial report provided by the school system, with 58.33 percent of the fiscal year complete, the school system has spent just 45 percent of its budgeted amount, with yearly expenditures sitting at just under $14.55 million.

Meanwhile, the school system has collected 61 percent of its revenues, or around $20 million, on the revenue side.