Respectfully, the school corporation does not agree with several of the findings in regards to segregation of duties and purchases. First, the SBOA auditors' told the school corporation during the 2019 audit that operating the school lunch program through the extracurricular account was not legal. ...
Respectfully, the school corporation does not agree with several of the findings in regards to segregation of duties and purchases. First, the SBOA auditors' told the school corporation during the 2019 audit that operating the school lunch program through the extracurricular account was not legal. The school corporation was informed that this account must be transferred to Central Office and a Corrective Action Plan must be in place. This directive was incorrect and pointed out in the official response from November 5, 2019 under IC 20-26-5-4(a)(l l). Second, segregation of duties, oversight, and approval of functions existed in 2019 and are presently occurring daily, weekly, and monthly within the cafeteria program under the corporation accounts and supervision of Central Office. Cafeteria workers record and submit timesheets of duties performed during each payroll period. The Cafeteria Director verifies and signs timesheets to be submitted to the Treasurer and Deputy Treasurer for review and payment from the Cafeteria account. A payroll docket report is sent to the Superintendent prior to payment from the bank. Prior to the 2019 audit, the High School Treasurer spent approximately two hours per day counting cash received each day from school lunches purchased. She also receipted those funds it into the software system, made deposits to the bank, paid invoices for food expenses, and processed part of payroll. Tasks conducted by the High School Treasurer were segregated by a timesheet and supervised by the High School Principal. All those tasks were shifted to Central Office in 2020 and are now segregated to the Treasurer and Deputy Treasurer. The Treasurer documents hours spent on Cafeteria accounts on a timesheet for review and signature by the Superintendent. Financial reports of expenditures and revenues are provided for review and oversight to the Superintendent and School Board at monthly board meetings. Third, RSSC has a small Central Office consisting of a Superintendent, Treasurer, Deputy Treasurer, and Secretary. It has no Assistant Superintendents, Human Resources Director, or Business Manager. Each person in Central Office wears multiple hats and performs multiple duties each day. It was noted in the Audit Report filed from July 1, 2008 to June 30, 2010 that " ...Randolph Southern School Corporation is unable, due to financial limitations, to employ additional personnel to segregate duties in our receipts and cash and investment balances. This statement would apply to all of our internal controls. " The circumstances for RSSC have not changed in the audit periods from July 1, 2010 through June 30, 2022. Corrective Action Plan: The School Board had chosen not to add additional staffing due to costs. RSSC is still unable to segregate duties for financial transactions and reporting. Fourth, the Cafeteria Program only has one full-time staff member, the Cafeteria Director. Eight part-time cafeteria workers prepare and feed up to 300 students each day. This food service program is one of the best run programs in the State oflndiana. It has not had one food preparation or sanitation violation from IDOE or Department of Health in the last 12 years. Fifth, the Cafeteria Program is economically efficient and fiscally responsible. The account carries at least a 3-month cash balance at all times. This success is a direct result of oversight by the combination of the Superintendent, Treasurer, and Cafeteria Director. RSSC adopted board policy 6114 Cost Principles-Spending Federal Funds on May 9, 2016. RSSC has had an Indirect Cost Rate in place since 2013. The adopted policy allows the school corporation to apply Indirect Costs to all federal funds including the Cafeteria account. On December 5, 2019, email communications between the Dr. Donnie Bowsman, Superintendent and Tina Herzog, IDOE Assistant Director of Operations and Food Distributions clearly state the school corporation can apply the Indirect Cost Rate to the Cafeteria account. The email communication clearly states that the high cash balance was a result of not applying the Indirect Cost Rate to the Cafeteria account (See Exhibit 1 Emails). The Indirect Rate was approved by the IDOE Office of School Finance and existed prior to the audit years being referenced in the finding. Technically, the prospective portion (going forward for the next school year) as referenced on pages 24-25 of USDA Indirect Cost Guidance Manual pertains to the 2013 Fiscal Year. Moreover, the fact was reiterated by the IDOE School Nutrition Office with email communications on December 5, 2019, not 2021 or 2022 as referenced in the finding. RSSC has not charged or recouped the Cafeteria Account the Indirect Cost rate for many years and has subsidized this account which should be independent and self-sufficient. The School Corporation did not apply the Indirect Cost Rate in 2020 or 2021 because we were not sure how many students would be eating and how fiscally sound the account would be due to students not attending school because of COVID. Corrective Action Plan: The Indirect Cost Rate will be applied and collected in the future prior to June 30 of each current fiscal year. It should also be noted that in 2021, RSSC purchased a new cafeteria dishwasher utilizing ESSER II funds. This unit was 20+ years old and needed to be replaced in order to continue feeding children and to run the food service program. This expense could have been and should have been a direct cost of $58,189 to the Cafeteria account. However, due to the unknown circumstances of COVID, the RSSC could not take a chance. The ESSER II grant is still open and we are now questioning whether this expense could be charged directly to the Cafeteria account. Those ESSER II fund could be utilized for staffing to support student learning loss and remediation. Sixth, COVID caused this financial account to increase exponentially from 2020 to 2021. ESSER funds were provided by the federal government to provide free lunches to every child which paid the food operations expenses for two school years. Student participation of eating school lunches increased during these time periods. Additionally, staff members were receiving hazard pay incentives on top of their regular hourly rate. Further, the School Corporation and Cafeteria Program took on the enormous task of feeding children over the summers of 2020 and 2021 when COVID cases were at its peak. The cafeteria personnel fed 5286 and 5740 students respectfully during those summers. The number of meals served during the summer almost equaled the total amount of meals served during the entire school year for each respective academic year. These additional meals created additional unexpected revenues for the fiscal year. The school corporation did not charge mileage for satellite lunches being delivered or indirect costs.