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APS board receives audit for 2017

News Photo by Julie Goldberg Mark Sandula, left, and Phil Straley of Straley, Lamp & Kraenzlien. P.C. present the 2017 audit to the Alpena Public Schools Board of Education on Monday.

ALPENA — The Alpena Public Schools Board of Education reviewed its 2017 audit for the fiscal year ending June 30 with auditors Phil Straley and Mark Sandula of Straley, Lamp & Kraenzlien P.C. on Monday.

“Alpena Public School is a big organization and that will be noticed across all funds,” Straley said. “The school district has revenues of over $37 million this year. Another observation is that it was a good year for the district overall and especially reflecting and looking back to maybe three or four years ago regarding where the district was at.”

The general fund balance sheet showed an increase in assets of almost $1 million and a decrease in liabilities.

The general fund balance of $2,373,712 is 6.36 percent, which is above the statewide benchmark of five percent that is established for an “early warning” trigger, but is below the board policy benchmark of 10 percent.

“This is a cooperative effort,” Straley said. “These are your financial statements and we offer opinions on your financial statements. Our responsibility is simply to express an opinion for the public and users of the financial statements.”

Sandula went over the individual fund statements with the board and said the school district did good with the statements.

“The individual fund statements are good news for the district,” Sandula said. “The statements reflect the fact that every single fund in Alpena Public Schools had an increase in the fund equity.”

In June 2013, APS ended the year with almost $1 million in deficit.

“Over the past four years, the school district went from $863,000 in the red to $2,373,000,” Sandula said. “The school district did this by budgeting and developing a deficit elimination plan. It’s hard enough to break even in these economic times, but APS did that.”

The Alpena Boosters Club donated $1,500 for the stadium scoreboard and lights and the D. Mark Upham Living Trust donated $1,000 to the robotics program at Ella White Elementary School.

Julie Goldberg can be reached via email at jgoldberg@thealpenanews.com or by phone at 358-5688.

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