School Board gets clean audit
posted Wednesday, January 16th, 2013 @ 1:24 pm

The Concordia Parish School Board had net assets of $35.4 million for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2012, according to a recently released audit.

School Board Business Manager Tom O'Neal recapped the audit for board members during their regular meeting Thursday night.

The audit was prepared by accounting firm of Payne, Moore & Herrington of Alexandria.

O'Neal said the audit indicated the board was in good financial shape, noting that if a letter grade were given the board would receive an "A".

Financial highlights of the audit show that:

-- Assets exceeded liabilities by $35.4 million (net assets) for the year ended June 30, 2012. This compares to $36.2 million for the previous year.

-- Total net assets at June 30, 2012, consisted of the following:

Capital assets, net of related debt of $14.4 million, which consist of property and equipment, and net of accumulated depreciation.

Net assets of $10.5 million are restricted from outside sources, such as grantors, tax propositions approved by the voters, & etc.

Unrestricted net assets reflect $10.5 million for payment of continuing obligations to citizens and creditors.

-- The School Board's Governmental Funds reported fund balances of $32.4 million this year, as compared to $31.3 million for the previous year

-- At the end of the current fiscal year, the General Fund had a $21.7 million fund balance, an increase of approximately $800,000 over the previous year's fund balance.

O'Neal pointed out that the school system employs 273 teachers.

Of that total, he said 78 are nearing retirement after 25 or more years in the classroom.

He said 105 teaches have 20-plus years, while 19 teachers have one year or less experience.

"The teaching staff is getting older and there is a problem in finding replacements," O'Neal said.

The School Board operates 11 schools within the parish and had a total enrollment of 3,643 students for the year ended June 30, 2012, based on the October 2011 official Minimum Foundation Program student count.