By dave benjamin
Staff Writer
A comprehensive financial report for the Freehold Regional High School District has been presented to the Board of Education and the results indicate the district is in good shape.
"Last year when we presented the financial report we said that there was a whole new format and that in two years we had to implement it," said Business Administrator Dr. Joan Nesenkar Saylor. "We decided to implement the new accounting model a year early."
Saylor said administrators were encouraged by the district’s accounting firm Lipman Selznick and Witkowski, Edison, and two constituent districts, the Manalapan-Englishtown Regional School District and the Marlboro School District, to use the new accounting model earlier.
Saylor said some of the changes include capitalizing all assets and providing depreciation; new formats and financial statements; and a new section called management discussion and analysis, which is basically management of the school district, discussing financial changes, and the different aspects of the school district.
"Someone reading this would have a better understanding of what is going on in the district in terms of financial operation," she said.
Saylor said administrators are aiming to put the financial report on the district’s Internet Web site so that the public will be able to more easily access the information.
"This really was a team effort," said Walter J. Brasch, managing partner, Lipman Selznick and Witkowski. "We really blazed the trail. This project was no small undertaking."
Brasch explained that the new district-wide financial statement presents the 10,500-student school district as if it were a business. Noting that there are another 350 districts that will be required to use the new statement next year, he told the board, "We’re one year ahead of the curve on this."
According to Brasch, the goal of the project was to make the financial reports more user-friendly.
Reporting on the year’s financial highlights, Brasch said, "There were no reportable conditions found and no material weaknesses. There were two small items dealing with some housekeeping issues on a Title I audit, which was done by the federal auditors, and we were required to follow up on that audit which was done in a prior period. There were also some minor housekeeping issues on some student activity funds."
Brasch said that other than those areas there were no significant weaknesses found in the district’s 2002 audit.
Regarding the General Operating Fund, he said, "The district closed the year with a surplus of just under $3 million. That represents approximately 2.9 percent of the budget expenditures. My general rule is 3 to 5 percent and you’re right in that window."
Brasch noted that one figure which appears in the synopsis of the audit and was questioned prior to the meeting is not a $37 million deficit in the capital projects fund because those were borrowed funds which show up as revenue in prior years.
"That was a spending down of proceeds out of borrowed funds," he explained.
Brasch told the board the district spent well within the guidelines and commented, "You under spent your approved budget by $1.5 million."
Wasser noted that over the past five years the district is spending about $2,000 less than the state average per pupil.
"That says a lot based upon the fact that our test scores exceed the state and national averages, our SAT scores are up, and the number of students that received awards (National Merit Scholarship semifinalists and commended students) is up," the superintendent said.
Wasser reiterated that there are no major non-compliance issues in regard to the audit. He said the items that were red-flagged by the auditors will be addressed.
Students from Howell attend the six schools in the Freehold Regional High School District.