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School district audited, shows transparency

North Okanagan-Shuswap school district given clean audit
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The North Okanagan- Shuswap School District has been given clean bill of health - financially.

In independent examination of the district’s financial statements was recently conducted by KPMG LLP.

“It went very smoothly and we are issuing a clean report,” said Murray Smith of KPMG, which audits many school districts throughout the province and does a comparative

analysis. “We found School District No. 83 was very comparable to similar sized districts on how money was spent and what overall expenses were.”

He added that although there are always differences, for instance in transportation depending on the size and population density of a district, there was still an overall consistency.

“It is good that you are back for a second year so that you can see the fruits of your labour and recommendations implemented,” trustee Mike McKay told Smith at Tuesday’s board meeting. “I also appreciate the references to comparable district. It is very valuable information.”

McKay agreed that although no two districts are identical, when you look at where the district is “in the mix it shows that we are in a comparable and responsible place.”

Local Capital Spending Plan

Staff recommended, and McKay approved, a spending plan for some of the local capital surplus funds including $400,000 for information technology, $190,000 for transportation, $20,000 for custodial, $50,000 for the works department, and $40,000 to be kept in the secretary-treasurer’s budget to deal with emerging items.

McKay also approved an additional $30,000 to be put towards laptop computers for the district’s itinerant teachers.

He noted this item was also on a long list of considerations of what the district’s surplus operating funds should be used for.

“Moving this to capital means we can do other things with the surplus.”

Speaking of the operating surplus, he stated the assignment of surplus funds must be transparent, and should and will be collaborative. He said the long list of requests vying for surplus funds are all legitimate requests.

“It’s a good healthy exercise. Transparency is very important. I know there were problems with that but I hope we are leaving those in the rear view mirror.”