March 4, 2019 - The Mariposa County Unified School District’s Citizen’s Bond Oversight Committee recently met to receive a mid-year update of expenditures and to receive the Independent Auditor’s 2017-2018 annual report on the use of Measure L Bond funds.
The Committee is writing to inform the general public of the findings.
First, the update from the Series A of bond dollars of $8.5 million reported that $3.49 million has been expended and/or encumbered to date. A vast majority funded projects such as re-roofing, HVAC, a new phone system, septic and plumbing repairs and handicap access. A complete report of the projects and their status of completion is updated monthly and can be found on BoardDocs listed monthly under Finance and Business. The District obtained an additional $9.5 million in a Series B bonds sale. Property owners will still not pay more than $49 per $100,000 of the assessed value, reflecting the ballot measure language. We were informed that the District pursued this second series of bond dollars due to proposed modernization needs at all school sites and in preparation for larger upcoming projects such as replacing seven very old portable classrooms with a new permanent classroom building at the high school. There is an ending fund balance of $14.5 million.
Second, the audit was conducted by an independent auditor, Kemper CPA Group. Their responsibility is to express an opinion on the financial statements and performance evaluation. The audit covers the last fiscal year July 1, 2017 - June 30, 2018 and represents only the bond funds. The audit was paid from the District’s General Fund. There are two parts to the audit: first the financial side to be sure the internal controls are done correctly. The second side is the performance evaluation to make sure the money is being spent on projects approved in the bond language. This audit also determined that no salary transactions were charged to the bond fund and no bond monies went toward District general administration or operations. In order to verify findings, the auditor reviewed 99.92% of $1,007,849 of expenditures and deemed contracts were in accordance with ballot Measure L. A complete copy of the Measure L Audit Report can be found on the District website Bond Audit.
The auditor reported there were no financial statements or performance evaluation findings.
During discussion, the committee was informed that they would be notified, if, in any future audit, a negative finding was discovered and how it was remedied.
At this time the Citizens’ Bond Oversight Committee consists of 6 members and there are 2 vacancies. The first vacancy is a Senior Citizens group representative, such as Mariposa Golden Agers, Alzheimer’s Assoc., AARP, Mariposa County Senior Citizens Coalition, or others. The second opening is a representative of a bona-fide taxpayers association. Please contact the District if you are interested at 742-0207. It is important that the public is fairly represented in these meetings. Please consider volunteering. Current members of the Committee are Kris Casto, Chairman, Christy Wall, Sue Overstreet, Nicole Little, Lisa Edelheit and Lloyd Sheetz.
Our next meeting is scheduled for Thursday, March 28, 2019. The public is welcomed.
Source: Kris Casto, Committee President
