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KENANSVILLE — The Duplin County Board of Education got good news about the 2023-24 audit at the board’s regular monthly meeting Thursday night, Nov. 7.
“The audit went as planned,” said Adam Shapiro with Anderson, Smith and White, who performed the audit. “We didn’t have any differences of opinion as to any of the financial information here. There were no uncorrected adjustments, nothing we disagreed upon. We were able to conduct all of our procedures.”
Shapiro reported that the total fund balance in the general fund as of June 30, 2024 was $6,387,000, an increase of $12,000 from last year. “With COVID, you received numerous grants and funds, which has allowed you to save money locally by using those funds to address the needs with COVID, the learning loss, even some capital purchases related to air quality,” he explained. “The fund balance of $6,387,000 is probably higher than it’s been in the last 10 years.”
However, it’s important to point out that much of the COVID funds will expire on Jan. 1, 2025, so the school board has had to plan accordingly, gradually increasing its fund balance to help pay for programs that have been funded by COVID funds the past few years.
Board Chairman Brent Davis explained, “We need to take into account, we ended the 2023-24 school year with a $500,000 increase from the county that year. Had we not had that, we would have had to dig into the fund balance. Because of that we came out even. Currently, we have about $1.3 million encumbered of that fund balance for this year. The only reason I say that is sometimes, when you get these fund balance numbers out there in the public, people kind of hinge on this big pot of money that you’re sitting on. But we’re actually going to start chipping into it.”
Other highlights of the audit report include:
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A fund balance of $3.5 million in the special revenue fund. This reflects a decrease of $1.1 million from the previous year.
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The individual school fund decreased $38,000 to $1.18 million, and the capital outlay fund balance increased $52,000 to $1,011,000.
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$6.9 million was collected in what Shapiro called the other special revenue fund. “Your schools generate nearly $2 million in income from athletics, fundraisers, trips,” he explained. “This year, there was almost $2 million received in the capital outlay fund.”
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The child nutrition fund’s cash on hand totals $6,151,000, an increase of $15,000 from last year, Shapiro said. Duplin County Schools are “breaking even” on child nutrition, Shapiro explained, due to a rise in food costs, as well as increasing salary and benefits costs.
Shapiro finished up his presentation by saying the school system is “in the best position possible going forward.”
Also at the Nov. 7 meeting, the school board recognized the winners of the Clean School Award, B.F. Grady Elementary and Duplin Early College High School.
Employee of the Quarter Bobby Mobley, director of transportation for DCS, was also honored.
Mobley joined DCS in 2013 as a fuel truck driver and served as a mechanic foreman before securing his current position as director of transportation. “One of Mr. Mobley’s most important responsibilities is managing safe and efficient transportation for students, developing bus routes, monitoring road conditions, recruiting and retaining drivers, which is of utmost importance in these times, staying abreast of vehicle service and repair techniques,” Davis said. “There is so much that goes on behind the scenes, and we cannot thank Mr. Mobley enough for his leadership and dedication. I just want to say that this is an essential part of schools that is sometimes overlooked. Everybody sees the buses going up and down the road, but behind the scenes of what it takes to keep those buses rolling and on the road is amazing.”
After an executive session, the board unanimously approved the 2024-25 school improvement plans. Board member Pam Edwards thanked all the school principals for their hard work on the plans.
Finally, the school board unanimously voted to move the January meeting to Jan. 14.
