Stephens Co. School System Still Waiting on FY2014, FY2015 Audits

The Stephens County school system is still waiting on its audits for both Fiscal Years 2014 and 2015.

Tuesday, Stephens County School Superintendent Bryan Dorsey updated the Board of Education on the audit process.

State auditors originally told the school board the Fiscal Year 2014 audit would be ready in August, then pushed it back until November because of a backlog in the state Department of Audits.

Now, Dorsey said that they will not see the Fiscal Year 2014 audit until sometime next year when state auditors finally start on it.

“Once again, we do not have a finalized date except for being told it will be sometime in January when they begin the official audit process,” said Dorsey. “Then it usually takes a couple of months before you get back the finalized audit.”

After that, the school system will still need its Fiscal Year 2015 audit completed.

With that in mind and noting how far behind the state is, one board member is proposing at looking to go in a slightly different direction.

Board member Rod Moore proposed having Dorsey and school system staff look into how much it would cost to have an independent auditing firm conduct the Fiscal Year 2015 audit instead of the state auditors.

Moore said he feels it is important to get the school system caught back up with its audits as soon as possible.

“I think the board and the community would like to assess the financial state of the system and I think this would sort of bring us up to date to see the changes that we have made and the impact they have made,’ said Moore. “I think it would also provide some assurance to our community and taxpayers and provide some closure for the prior years. I think it would also help the board make important decisions.”

Dorsey said he could not find any other school systems of Stephens County’s size that use an independent firm, but acknowledged that he did not have much time to research it before Tuesday’s meeting.

Board of Education member David Fricks said that it is at least worth looking into.

“I cannot see paying a tremendous amount for that, but there is no harm in looking,” said Fricks.

Other board members agreed and Dorsey was instructed to look at the idea further and bring that information back to the school board.