The Warren County R-III Board of Education recently reviewed and approved their audit from F.E.W. CPAs. The district received a clean or unmodified audit, meaning the district’s financial statements are reasonably stated and not misstated. 

R-III did receive five management comments, which is feedback for improvement. Dr. Gregg Klinginsmith noted all five recommendations have either been fixed or are in the process of being fixed. 

The audit did reveal one finding, which is a step further from a management comment. The finding pertained to the district’s school breakfast program and national school lunch program. 

With the district’s switch last year to Infinite Campus rather than paper documentation for students with free or reduced lunches, it has allowed for a more secure process for sensitive information. However, Klinginsmith noted they were able to get reports and numbers to their auditors, but they were not able to verify those numbers through Infinite Campus since the software automatically gathers the information. 

The auditors wanted more detailed information, but the district was unable to produce it due to the security of the system. In addition, audit reports are due to the state by Jan. 1, which led to the district running out of time to correct the issue before the audit is filed. 

Despite the finding, Klinginsmith expressed his appreciation for the auditors digging deep and making it transparent for the community. 

“Things are going pretty well despite the finding and that’s really just a software issue. We’re always happy to have a clean audit,” Klinginsmith said. 

Klinginsmith noted they are not the only school district with this problem and they are working to solve it. 

“Our auditors might be doing things more in-depth than other districts, so just because they have Infinite Campus doesn’t necessarily mean that their auditors reported a finding on that. It just depends how in-depth our auditors want to go,” Klinginsmith said. “Our auditors do a great job of trying to find anything that could possibly be wrong.” 

The finding will lead to food service being audited again next year to make sure it has been corrected. Klinginsmith also noted there was no fraudulent activity. 

“There’s definitely from what we can see and know, no fraudulent activity at all. It’s just that we cannot produce a report that verifies exactly what they want,” Klinginsmith said.