Auditor Sees Improvements in School Biz Office

Township school board members said they were pleased with the findings of an annual audit that made several housekeeping recommendations but did not find any major problems with the district's finances.

Audit manager Robert Haag said there is "definitely significant improvement" in the district's business operations over the last several years.

Haag, an auditor with the firm Lerch, Vinci & Higgins, which has been auditing Montville schools since 1992, said he weighs whether his findings are material weaknesses, significant deficiencies, or just "housekeeping stuff."

"All we found were of the minor type," he said.

It was welcome news for the district, which prior to the arrival in 2009 of its current business adminstrator, James Tevis. Officials said Tevis inherited a mess when he started, but business operations are being brought under control.

Among the things the business office has been working to accomplish is collecting $850,000 in state funds still owed the district for work done on the high school before Tevis arrived. Collecting the money has involved a slew of paperwork that had never been taken care of, Tevis said.

School board member Charles Grau, who also is the business administrator for East Hanover schools, said the Montville school district, which has a $69 million budget, constantly is improving.

"I'm very happy to report that the recommendations have been constantly going down since Mr. Tevis' arrival," he said at the Jan. 10 Board of Education meeting in his recap of the audit's findings.

He said the board reports the findings to the state and develops a plan to address any recommendations.

Among the points noted:

• Legal costs for the year—$285,373—were more than 130 percent of the state average, which must be noted under a new state law. The board will recoup $75,000 in costs associated with over a planned power line. Tevis said a significant amount of the district's legal costs go toward settling special education cases.
• Outstanding checks should be cleared.
• The ordering of supplemental custodial supplies needs additional review.
• Student activities funds must be deposited in a timely fashion.
• Transportation contracts need county superintendent approval, which didn't happen last year due to an oversight. That already has been addressed going forward, officials said.
• Grant money for old construction projects that's owed by the state needs to be collected.

Grau congratulated Tevis on the audit.

"I think the central office administration and business office has done an outstanding job and I would like to offer my congratulations to them," he said.

Board Vice President Dr. Matthew Kayne thanked Tevis, saying he managed to create order out of an "extreme mess."

"You inherited an extreme mess in the business office that began well before you were here," he said. "And every year these audit reports seem to get more compact, smaller and better."

Tevis credited his staff with helping make the improvements happen. In an interview, he said there's less chaos than there was before.

"Things are starting to quiet down and stabilize in the business office," Tevis said.