By David Meade
The Anderson School District One Board approved a property purchase, elected officers and heard the annual audit report during their regular monthly meeting Tuesday.
District One Finance Director Travis Thomas reported the Local Option Sales Tax funds for July had recently been received.
Total for the county amounted to $1,806,000. District One received $559,000. $111,900 is applied to debt service and $447,000 will be used for capital improvements.
A video of the Palmetto High Competition Cheerleaders practicing before the recent State Championship was shown. PHS won the State AAA Championship and are back to back State Champions.
Havird also recognized State Tech Innovative Challenge students from Spearman, Fine Arts American All State Chorus finalists from Hunt Meadows and SC Music Association All State Chorus members from Powdersville High School.
Assistant Superintendent Robbie Binnicker reported on the results of the State Report Card (recently reported in The Journal) and the Student Nutrition Program Report.
Binnicker said a highlight of the AD1 report card was a graduation rate of 91.9 percent, which he said “Is really just outstanding.”
Binnicker said that District One students scored above state average on SC Ready and compared very favorably to others in the State.
“We feel very good about our report card,” he said. “We have some scores to work on,” he added.
Binnicker said the Nutrition program showed a year to date profit of $188,000 for October, which was $174,000 more than last year. He also said that new menu items will be introduced at select schools soon.
Auditor Ken Meadows of Greene, Finney and Horton told the Board that Anderson District One received an Unmodified Opinion on their recent audit. The designation is “The best you can get,” he said.
The audit showed the General Fund Balance for the District increase by $1.7 million to $15.9 million since last year.
It also showed that the unassigned fund balance of $15.6 million is at 23.1 percent of expenditures. That number is higher than the recommended GFOA recommended mininum of 16.7 percent, or enough to cover about two months of expenditures.
The audit also reflected an increase in revenues, primarily from a tax rate millage increase.
Property taxes brought in an additional $824,000 and state government revenues increased by $3.9 million.
Expenditures also increased by $5.9 million, primarily $2.3 million for instruction salaries and benefits; $1.4 million in support salaries and benefits and $2.2 million on capital outlay projects.
The district came in $370,000 under budget, Meadows said.
There were no findings or material weaknesses noted other than a recommendation regarding school bookkeepers and the lack of segregation of duties.
Meadows said the recommendation is to make the Board and principals aware.
He said Anderson District One is “in very strong financial condition.”
The Board approved the purchase of a 0.234 parcel of property that will assist with the Roe Road access project. The property was purchased for $12,000.
At the beginning of the meeting, Nancy Upton was elected Board Chair, Dr. Doug Atkins was elected Vice-Chair and David Merritt was elected Secretary.
Mike Wilson was elected to continued to serve on the Alternative School Board.
Dr. Atkins and Upton will also continue to served on the Anderson School Districts 1 & 2 Career and Technology Center Board.
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