School District Audit

The Rensselaer School District had a tough ride in a recent state audit. Check out this Times Union article: Audit faults $300G in school purchases. There's more detail on the auditors recommendations at EmpireStateNews.net: Rensselaer City SD financial controls weak, says state comptroller.

The next meeting of the Rensselaer City School District Board of Education is Wednesday, November 19, 2008 at 7pm in the LGI - Room 125. I don't have kids, so I don't have much curiosity about what the school board does. But a quick search for "audit" in the 2008 meeting minutes shows that they have already engaged a CPA firm for audits, as the state recommended.

I notice that the New York State School Boards Association is holding a conference in Albany next month called Fiscal Management in Hard Financial Times, which includes the following seminar - hope someone is going:

Monitoring Your District’s Finances: Hard financial times require that school boards be particularly scrupulous about their fiscal management responsibilities, including keeping expenditures within legally authorized budget appropriations, and protecting investments. Hear how your board and staff can effectively monitor your district’s financial condition to protect its fiscal health.