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Wednesday, November 4, 2009

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Auditing firm praises district

Brainerd School Board committee

By JODIE TWEED

Staff Writer

When the Brainerd School District closed its books on June 30, it was about $2.1 million under budget, mostly obtained by keeping costs down.

It was a move that drew praise from the district's independent auditing firm Tuesday.

The Brainerd School Board Finance Committee met Tuesday with representatives from LarsonAllen who went over the audit for the 2008-09 school year.

Tom Koop of LarsonAllen told school board members that the audit report shows the district made some tough decisions.

"It's a very clean audit, we should emphasize that," said Koop. "There were a few small things but very small things."

One of those small deficiencies was that the district is now required to have an out-of-state travel policy for school board members, although Superintendent Steve Razidlo pointed out that board members do not travel out of state for district business or conferences. The committee recommended board approval of the first reading of this new policy.

The district has a $72 million budget and the district's unreserved fund balance grew to 10 percent of its annual expenditures, a significant accomplishment for the district, said Koop. The district adopted a policy this summer to maintain a minimum unreserved fund balance of 5-7 percent.

Board member Bob Nystrom credited district staff and administrators for keeping costs low and doing a good job managing the budget.

"A year ago it felt gloomy and here we are, we built the fund balance up," said Nystrom.

JODIE TWEED may be reached at jodie.tweed@brainerddispatch.com or 855-5858.

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