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Ogdensburg school gets clean audit from local firm

Posted 10/20/18

By THOMAS LUCKIE III OGDENSBURG – The Ogdensburg City School District Board of Education accepted the 2017-18 school year audit completed by Pinto, Mucenski, Hooper, Van House, & Co., Certified …

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Ogdensburg school gets clean audit from local firm

Posted

By THOMAS LUCKIE III

OGDENSBURG – The Ogdensburg City School District Board of Education accepted the 2017-18 school year audit completed by Pinto, Mucenski, Hooper, Van House, & Co., Certified Public Accounts, P.C. at Monday’s meeting.

School districts are required to undergo local audits that are approved by school boards in accordance with New York State Education Law.

Board of Education Finance Committee member Michael Tooley noted that comments from the auditors were positive while providing an extensive breakdown of the reports to the board and administration.

“This is the best opinion an auditor can give to a financial statement report,” Tooley said.

Tooley credited district Business Manager Patricia Smithers and her team at BOCES as well as district administration and staff for the hard work resulting in the positive audit report.

The 2016-17 district audit was also met with positive comments from auditors last fall.

Tooley highlighted an increase in liabilities of over $70 million, but pointed out the overwhelming majority of the increase is due to new accounting standards that require the district to recognize 100 percent of estimated employee benefits, including healthcare costs.

“Prior to this year that total expense was being amortized over a 30-year period, so we were seeing incremental increases in this liability, a lot of this is just driven on paper and every municipality has to face this,” Tooley said.

The auditors also noted that the school district is using reasonable estimates when necessary and remains compliant with the Office of Management and Budget standards, which administers federal grant money.