West Deptford School District Receives First Clean Audit in 14 Years

For the first time in 14 years, the West Deptford School District received a clean financial audit.

The audit, presented to the board by Michael Holt of Holman, Frenia and Allison Public Accountants, means Holt has no reservations concerning district financial statements for the period ending June 30, 2013.

“If this were a report card, it would be an ‘A’,” Holt told the school board at Monday night’s board meeting at the middle school.

"It's like not having a mortgage on your house," Business Administrator William Thompson said.

According to Holt, the school district has $4 million in assets against $700,000 in liabilities. It has about $13,000 in its capital reserve after having used about $300,000 of that in the past year.

Holt praised the district for being debt-free—at least for now, as the school district looks ahead to some expensive capital improvement projects—and for having $580,000 in unused sick and vacation pay, which he said was better than most districts have.

“Your debt-to-equity ratio looks very good,” Holt said.

In 2013, the district paid $1.015 million in debt service, and in 2012, it paid $1.4 million.

West Deptford schools still must file taxes with the federal government in January. The filing deadline was pushed back due to the 2013 government shutdown earlier this year.