Auditors tell Wachusett Regional School District to move money from credit unions to banks
By Sandy Meindersma CORRESPONDENT
HOLDEN — Julie Kelley, chairman of the Audit Committee of the Wachusett Regional School Committee, reported that the district needs to move its money from the credit unions it uses to FDIC-insured banks.
Ms. Kelley reported that along with several other audit findings from Lynch, Malloy and Marini, which audited the district's financial statements for fiscal 2014. The fiscal year ended June 30.
According to the October 2014 treasurer's report, the district had $18.1 million cash in hand, with $2 million on deposit with Leominster Credit Union.
Ms. Kelley said that no one on the audit committee was aware of the IRS regulation that prohibited the school district from using a non-FDIC-insured institution, and said that the audit team from Lynch, Malloy and Marini indicated that Wachusett was not the only school district in violation of the IRS regulation.
Business Manager Joseph Scanlon said he would develop a plan by Jan. 30 to move the money to an approved institution.
"We have some CDs, so we will have to wait until we can move without penalty," Mr. Scanlon said.
The auditors also urged the district to move away from using Excel spreadsheets for tracking money, something that is still being done for grants and revolving accounts, and advised the committee that payroll warrants were being processed without a sufficient number of signatures.
In other business, the school committee unanimously voted to request that Holden spend $28,700 for heating and ventilation work at Mayo School and Princeton spend $108,035 to replace the tile flooring at Thomas Prince School.
A town should think twice about going into debt with these large money institutions. Somebody once said " a borrower nor lender be." There is an interesting book out by the title They Own it All Including You. There are those that feel compulsory education has been a big fib and that we have actually dumbed down future generations with our style of schooling. A great place to start the dialog on this subject is the book The Underground History of American Education by John Taylor Gatto. Here is Mr. Gatto on this very subject Gatto It is difficult to think of a more interesting conversation than how our children are taught.
ReplyDelete