The Baboquivari Unified School District must improve its record keeping on capital assets and reporting student attendance, an audit by the state’s Auditor General shows.
A previous audit by the agency found that the district did not comply with the uniform system of financial records between fiscal years 2010 and 2014.
A misreporting of the student count led to the district being overfunded by about $50,000.
Since then, Baboquivari has made improvements and paid back the money, but the status review still found weaknesses, according to the report.
The district does not have a proper system to control and protect district property, which can include buildings and equipment, the report said. It was not able to “determine that all equipment that had been acquired, transferred or disposed of since the last inventory had been updated.”
That does not necessarily mean that things have gone missing or stolen, said Edna Morris, the superintendent. The weakness was identified based on the lack of a system, not malfeasance.
“Baboquivari Unified has certainly mobilized a very good team in the last year and a half to bring in people who can create new protocols, process and procedure to make sure we are compliant,” she said.
The misreporting of the student count happened because of mismatches in hand copies of records, what was in the student information system and what the Arizona Department of Education received.
Baboquivari is working on remedying the issues by developing new procedures for a capital equipment inventory and dedicating a staff member to train attendance personnel on how to accurately report the student count, Morris said.
“My hope for the future is that we would be in compliance every year, forever,” she said.
