Money belonging to student groups seen as vulnerable

School district officials want to ensure funds belonging to student clubs and organizations are correctly documented.

The lack of a such process was discussed at a Tuesday night meeting of the Saugerties Board of Education. The district’s auditor, Alec Sobin, said students are not providing materials needed to support the amount of money they are turning into the district from extracurricular programs.

“It’s really the most vulnerable part,” Sobin said. “You’re more vulnerable for losing money there than anywhere in the business office.”

The 2017-18 district audit was not immediately available following Tuesday’s meeting, but Sobin said the report showed a total of $299,267 was handled by high school groups and $26,581 by junior high school groups. He did not provide information about any potential loss of funds.

School board member Krista Barringer raised the issue after noting the issue had been cited in previous audits.

“We’ve been talking about this for a few years now,” she said. “The extracurricular accounts are managed by our high school students and our junior high students, and sometimes down to our elementary schools. Treasurers are the ones who are counting the money and counting all the receipts.”

Sobin recommended having a central faculty auditor oversee the finances of all student groups.

“This person would ... see if they’re maintaining records properly, see if they’re providing backup,” he said.

The state Comptroller’s Office last year issued an audit critical of how the Saugerties school district handled money from extracurricular activities.

“District officials need to improve internal controls to help ensure that extra-classroom activity cash receipts and disbursements are properly accounted for,” the audit stated. “Although central treasurers deposited collections in a timely manner, student treasurers did not maintain adequate supporting documentation for cash receipts totaling $127,553. Student treasurers did not collect sales tax on all applicable sales, and faculty advisors were not aware that sales tax needed to be collected on certain sales.”

The audit found that 25 disbursements totaling $37,217 made by the central treasurers and 117 disbursements requested by student treasurers totaling $80,817 lacked the proper supporting documentation.

State also found that “clothing sold at the student store, food sold at home sporting events, and certain fundraising activities were taxable but sales tax was not collected on these sales.”

“This occurred because the faculty advisors were not aware of the requirement to collect sales tax,” the audit stated. “As a result, central treasurers did not file any annual sales tax returns with the state.”