Walton Central School District - Fund Balance (2019M-209)

Issued Date
January 17, 2020

[read complete report - pdf]

Audit Objective

Determine whether the Board and District officials properly managed fund balance.

Key Findings

  • The Board appropriated over $1.9 million in fund balance from 2016-17 through 2018-19 and only used approximately $282,000.
  • As of June 30, 2019, surplus fund balance totaled over $1.4 million, exceeding the statutory limit by approximately $590,000 or 2.7 percentage points.
  • When unused appropriated fund balance was added back to the surplus fund balance, it totaled over $2.1 million, exceeding the statutory limit by approximately $1.3 million or 6 percentage points.

Key Recommendations

  • Adopt budgets that include reasonable estimates for appropriations and the amount of fund balance that will be used to fund operations.
  • Reduce surplus fund balance to comply with the statutory limit and use excess funds in a manner beneficial to taxpayers.

District officials generally agreed with our recommendations and indicated they planned to initiate corrective action.