TIMMONSVILLE, SC (WBTW) – The Florence School District Four board met Tuesday night, and gave an update on the district’s budget.
The board held a budget workshop in January when the board learned it was unclear how much money the district actually has.
The school district’s Certified Public Accountant (CPA), Larry Finney, addressed the board on Tuesday about the district’s current financial standings.
“I don’t think the 2017-2018 fiscal year is going to end up on a positive note,” Finney said. “There was some tax return information that hadn’t been completed, and needed to get done,” he continued. “There were a number of things that we were hoping were done, but weren’t, so we’re still in the process of finishing those up.”
Finney said he had hoped to give an update on the district’s budget sooner, but did not have enough information.
“There’s a lot more information for the 2017-2018 fiscal year that just had not been completed. It had not been updated, and had not been recorded in your general ledger” he said to the school board. “Even at the time that we were finishing up the 2017 audit.”
Finney said the task to find a qualified accounts payable clerk, and payroll clerk, was more time-consuming than expected.
“The accounts payable clerk is on board, and working now, but we’re still working on the payroll side of it,” he said.
Superintendent, Dr. Rechel Anderson, said the district is on fiscal caution, and is considered high-risk.
“This is not a one-year overhaul,” she said during the meeting. “This is something that we’ve been fiscally practicing that has now caught up with us.”
Finney said cuts will need to be made in order to keep the district’s budget on track.
“When you’re put on fiscal caution, and high-risk, the State Department of Education is looking forward to seeing some good progress,” said Finney. “I think where that’s going to start to take shape, is when we start talking about the 2018-2019 budget,” he continued. “Eighty to eighty-five percent of your budget is personnel and benefit. That’s definitely going to have to be looked at. I think there’s probably going to be some cuts that will need to be made cost-wise.”
Finney said he thinks the 2018-2019 school year will be better for the district, financially, than previous years.
“I think the bottom line is [in order] for us to make the progress that we need to make,” Finney explained. “Financially, as well as, in all the other ways that the state department is looking forward to, and the public’s looking forward to, there are going to have to be some significant cuts that are going to need to be made in costs.”
Dr. Anderson addressed the public about the budget for nearly an hour.
“At this point, the State Department is holding us accountable for making sure that we are using taxpayer money the proper way,” she said. “To make certain that we are educating our children to the highest level.”
The Superintendent said it’s important for the school district to be transparent with the public.
“One of the things that we did this year, and I’m going to put it on the table since we’re talking at this point,” she said. “We paid stipends. We did. We paid them, but it wasn’t budgeted,” she continued. “So at the end of the day, that money we paid, guess what? It has to come from somewhere. So the cuts that we’re talking about, all of that adds up so while we got what we wanted, we might lose what we had.”
Dr. Anderson agreed with Finney about cuts that will have to be made within the district.
“We have to make sure that we are employing, and keeping, qualified personnel to make certain that the jobs that they are hired to do, we are doing them with fidelity.”
The Superintendent promised that all paperwork for the 2017-2018 school year will be done by the due date in December.
“By state and federal guidelines, our financial audit must be done anually,” said Dr. Anderson. “And it should be posted and filed on, or before, December first. We missed that deadline, we did. We have [missed the deadline] for some time, but we will not miss it this year.”
Dr. Anderson declined comment with News13 after the meeting.
