Public schools get “sweet” report from their outside auditor

“The best opinion we can give you” is the way that Don Estep, Oconee School District’s outside auditor delivered his annual report at the county trustees’ meeting for December. Estep’s report covered revenues and expenses of the public schools for the government year 2017-18. In the language of certified public accounting, the trustees and district administrators received an unmodified opinion. Meaning there were no major weaknesses uncovered in how district administration handles and accounts for the millions of dollars that it takes to provide public education to the county’s children. There appears in the audit, however, an alarming-looking increasing deficit in the net position of the district. But the auditor chalks that off to “accounting pronouncements” that the state has laid on city and county governmental agencies to reflect their unfunded balances of what’s it’s going to take to meet health insurance premiums and to prop up the state’s pension system for retirees.