Illinois Valley Times

The Ottawa Elementary School District 141 board heard a report that gave it high marks on its fiscal year 2022 independent audit.

Auditor Bill Newkirk commended the district as he presented the report at the Nov. 15 board meeting. According to Newkirk, the district scored a perfect 4/4 in all but one area that involved outstanding, long-term debt, in which the district scored a 3. The overall score of 3.9 earned "top tier" recognition, Newkirk said. 

"Basically, you've got a good enough financial position to make it through next year without any issue at all," Newkirk said.

One area of concern was debt funding, which earned the district's only non-perfect score in the audit. The district has a variety of debt issuance to be paid off and a schedule to do so, he said.

Newkirk also took questions from the board, most of which dealt with grant funding that made the reports appear to have errors. Newkirk said there are occasionally disparities of reporting in an audit because of the way that school districts record their budgets. Still, he stressed the positive nature of the audit.

The federal part of the audit, involving the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) and other funds, typically is examined further, he said.

As one key suggestion, Newkirk said the district should employ someone in-house to handle as much as possible, especially in the case of the depreciation schedules of assets such as school buses and equipment.

"I think the bigger issue is how much reliance there is on auditors, especially on something like the depreciation schedules," Newkirk said. "I would say that would be the biggest step forward", for a district employee to track the depreciation schedule and related matters.

"That's something that you rely on 100% on the auditor to do that. And I think that would probably be the strongest first step," Newkirk said.

Ottawa is not alone in relying on an auditor for this. Of the 13 districts he audits, only one or two monitor their own depreciation schedules, he said.