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District Officials Tweak Accounting Procedures To Track ‘Student Activity’ Funds More Closely
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Following an audit last year that unearthed some problems, district officials are changing the way they manage cash-heavy funds surrounding activities such as clubs, athletics, theater productions and yearbooks. Most of the $422,389 opening balance in “Student Activity Accounts” (see page 66 here) for this year resides at New Canaan High School, and the largest single portion of the money runs through 100-plus extracurricular clubs, according to Dr. Jo-Ann Keating, the district’s director of finance and operations. A 2015 audit turned up “significant deficiencies” in Student Activity funds, as well as in food services, and prompted the district to develop new accounting procedures, Keating told members of the Board of Education at their meeting Monday night. The auditors “said that the Board of Education has no processes in place to monitor Student Activity funds,” Keating said at the meeting, held in the Wagner Room at New Canaan High School. “Because there is not a separation of duties with cash receipts and revenue taken, the board should review the controls to make sure that proper procedures are in place so it can be monitored on a regular basis.