Wednesday, December 27, 2023

Chairman Haynie, Supervisors Brann, Long, Johnson, and Tomlin,

As a concerned citizen and the BoS appointee to the Joint Finance Committee, I am writing with several questions for consideration regarding the December 14, 2023 request from Northumberland County Public Schools to carryover cafeteria funding from fiscal year 2023 to fiscal year 2024.

Thank you for your recent vote to delay approval of the requested school cafeteria funds.  This delay to support further analysis should have zero impact on the daily nutrition needs of students as the school is seeking to carryover funds that were not used last year, they are not asking for new funds based on new needs.  This is a critical distinction as the main question should be why are these funds now available?  Did we neglect students last year or did the school neglect to ask for reimbursement in a timely manner?  Audits going back to 2016 identify financial risks with school funding with the same risks showing up each year and no information if the issues causing the problems have been resolved.  Are these funds showing up now the result of these same audit risks, are they a mistake, or are they truly available funds?

Timing: The letter submitted to the Board of Supervisors by the School Board does not clearly identify the availability of funds nor the original source.  December 2023 is mid-year through fiscal year 2024.  When did the school first identify excess funds in the cafeteria account?

Funds availability: During the oral presentation to the Board of Supervisors, the speaker identified that these funds could date back to 2021 or 2022.  This information is not in the letter provided to the BoS nor the School Board.   Are these funds still available and authorized for expenditure mid-way through fiscal year 2024?

Funding source: What is the source of these funds? Are they Title I Federal dollars intended for students?  How are they still available, why weren’t they used for school nutrition during the year awarded?  For the $275,000  requested to be used for food, is this in addition to the $654,681 appropriated for FY2024?  If so, will this new budget of nearly $930,000 result in wasted food?  How will a nearly 50% increase in spending be appropriately managed over the next six months to avoid waste in food or potential wasted dollars?

Overspending by school in cafeteria fund in past: The past several years of audits do not identify funds that could be returned to the County from the school system.  The FY2022 audit management letter (per information from the County Treasurer) does state that the school fund expenditures exceeded appropriations by $326,394 and if Title I and Title IV.B grant reimbursement had been requested in a timely manner, the appropriation would not have been exceeded.   During the June 22, 2023 Board of Supervisors meeting, you approved an additional appropriation to the schools out of County tax funds for this amount to make the school budget whole.  Is any portion of the $487,585.19 requested carryover due to late reimbursement?  In other words, did the school apply for and receive reimbursement after the fiscal year so some of these funds should be returned to the County?

Audit findings on school financial management Audit reports dating back to 2016 identify problems with school management of funds, to include payroll expenses. These include failures to reconcile in a timely manner (2016, 2017, 2019, 2022), failure to apply for reimbursements in a timely manner (2018, 2022),  “risk of misappropriation of assets (2023)”,  school expenditures not matching County Treasurer reports (2019, 2022), and problems with school board payroll and retirement reports (2016).    Are these carryover funds appropriately recorded and do they match the figures in the County Treasurer’s reports?  The speaker identified that the school received a letter from the Commonwealth regarding these dollars yet no such letter is included in the documents provided to the Board of Supervisor or the School Board.

Appropriate Uses of Funds: Neither the letter to the BoS nor the verbal information provided clearly identify how these funds can appropriately be used.  In fact, the speaker responded that the school would need to seek clarification from the Commonwealth on how the funds can be used  Are they available for the purposes indicated?  What are “non-food expenses”?

Thank you for your consideration of these questions and for getting more information and answers before considering approval of this request.

K. Pica, PhD