District Gets A Good Report Card From Auditors

The Babylon School District is getting a better-than-passing grade on its internal financial controls, and its fund balance reflects a prudent strategy, says an independent audit firm.

The draft audit report findings, provided by Vincent Cullen, of Coughlin Foundotos Cullen & Danowski, were presented to the school board and audience attending last night's monthly meeting held at Babylon Elementary School. 

The fund balance currently stands at $2.6 million, which is $741,000 less than last year's balance. Cullen said the figure represents prudent financial strategy on the district's part given all the variable funding issues that come into play during the school year.

Those issues include changes in state aid, state retirement costs and health insurance rates. The fund balance reflects the unencumbered and undesignated monies a district has for paying for such costs, explained Cullen.

A school district's remaining fund balance is a key element in budgeting for the next year and can impact a budget's tax rate.

"These are tenuous times in regard to state aid, as we all know, and all districts face unexpected cost increases so the balance reflects that the district is on top of managing its fund balance and has to continue to do that," Cullen told the board.

The report, which is expected to be formally adopted at next month's meeting and then made available to the public, also offers up a few suggestion on financial control changes.

"We have provided a few comments [in the report] on improving an already good system of controls and that's normal as improvements are always needed each year," Cullen said.