Annual state audit finds isolated mismanagement of money at Woodland High School in 2024-25 school year
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Over $500 was repaid to Woodland High School after mismanagement of some of the school’s money was discovered.
Some mismanagement of money was found to have taken place at Woodland High School during the 2024-25 school year, and Superintendent John Jacobs says the issue was isolated and has been fully addressed.
The Randolph County Board of Education at its meeting Thursday received its audit report from the Alabama Examiners of Public Accounts. The examiners office audits the school system on an annual basis.
The audit presented the board with three findings related to mismanagement of money. The report specifically referenced Woodland’s fundraisers, its sale of snacks and concessions, and money from ticketed events, and called out shortcomings in making timely and complete deposits.
The report specifies “purchases made by the former bookkeeper totaling $527.39 that were personal in nature and were made through a vendor account set up exclusively for the local school which exempted the purchases from sales tax.”
The unnamed former bookkeeper, who Jacobs said no longer works for the school, repaid that total to the school as restitution prior the release of the audit report.
While that dollar amount was able to be determined, that same information was not able to determined in other areas mentioned in the report.
“For the gate receipts and ticket sales tested, 15 deposits were not made timely and intact,” the report stated. “Several deposits were combined and deposited at later dates and were not always recorded correctly in the general ledger. We were unable to determine all amounts were properly deposited and recorded.”
In addition the report stated:
- “The school failed to maintain inventory records for items sold as concessions or perform a reconciliation between items purchased, sold or unsold, and amounts collected.”
- “Snack sales were not always receipted in the master receipt book, posted to the general ledger and deposited timely.”
- “The master receipt book for the period of October 24, 2024 through March 27, 2025 was not available for review.”
- “Change cash for ticketed events was not always deposited at the end of each event with up to 27 days observed between the original event and the deposit of the change cash.”
Jacobs said administrators were aware of many of these issues prior to the audit and self-reported some of them to make sure the Board and the school system were in compliance.
“We told them to go look for it, and we already had addressed it the best we could,” Jacobs said Friday.
Jacobs emphasized that the school system has procedures in place to avoid money slipping through the cracks, a fact that the audit also pointed out.
Referring to the board’s Accounting Procedures Manual, the audit report stated that the manual “provides guidance on the types of disbursements that are allowable from public local school funds….This manual also states that the use of school funds for the personal use of any member of the school staff is prohibited. Further, this manual prohibits school employees from using the school’s sales tax exemption for personal purchases.”
Per Jacobs, “The procedures are there, it’s just making sure people follow them.”
A full copy of the audit report from the examiners office can be found by clicking here.