School Board Deals With Financial Issues
The Garden City School District was faced with both good and bad financial news recently, announced Superintendent Dr. Robert Feirsen at the October 21st meeting of the Garden City Board of Education.
First, the good news: According to an independent external auditor, the Garden City School District has no material weaknesses in their financial statements.
Next, the not-so-good news: the district was one of 250 school districts in the state recently cited by the New York State Comptroller's Office for improperly establishing Employee Benefit Accrued Liability Reserve funds.
Dr. Feirsen expressed dismay at being named by the comptroller's office in its audit report of EBALR funds. The fund should be used to cover compensated absences only, and should not be used to cover post-employment benefits.
"They said there was no mismanagement, no malfeasance, no misuse of the money...but they did say that pocket that we created for this money is not the pocket that we should be putting it in," he said. "On the other hand, they don't have a pocket yet. There is no reserve fund entitled 'post-employment benefits.' So right now we are caught between a rock and a hard place."
The district has issued a press release, which can be found in this issue of the Garden City News, which goes into more detail about how and why the problem occurred.
Michael Nawrocki of Callaghan Nawrocki, LLP, the firm that conducts the independent external audit for the Garden City School District, recommends that the district "sit tight" when it comes to the EBALR issue. Nawrocki expects state legislators to pass legislation by the end of the year that will help rectify the situation.
His firm's audit is available for public review in the Administration Building in the district clerk's office or at the Garden City Public Library.
