Michael Garcia, a partner in the Ford-Scott & Associates accounting firm, reported no negative findings in the audit for the school district.
By Donald Wittkowski
Underscoring its strong finances and management, the Ocean City school district received a “clean” audit report Wednesday for the 2016-2017 school year.
“We have a clean audit this year. No findings or recommendations,” said Michael Garcia, a partner with Ford-Scott & Associates LLC, an Ocean City accounting firm that conducted the financial review for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2017.
Garcia summarized the 100-page audit during a presentation to the Board of Education at its meeting Wednesday night. He noted that school district must comply with numerous rules and regulations imposed by the state and federal governments to achieve a clean audit.
Both Garcia and the school board commended the district’s business administrator, Timothy Kelley, and his staff for the results.
“It’s great to hear we have a clean audit,” Kelley said while thanking his support staff.
The audit showed that the district’s general fund ended the year with nearly $44.9 million in revenue, an increase of $871,000 over the previous year.
Most of the extra revenue resulted from an increase in tuition payments from the neighboring towns that send their students to Ocean City’s schools. Altogether, the sending districts paid Ocean City $13.3 million in tuition, an increase of about $700,000 compared to last year, Garcia told the board.
In an interview after his presentation, Garcia noted that there was higher enrollment from the sending districts, resulting in more tuition revenue for Ocean City. Sea Isle City, Upper Township, Longport and Corbin City send students to Ocean City.
