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Dysart has been growing rapidly, experiencing a greater than 25
percent growth in its number of students each of the past 4 years. To address
the growth, the District has recently added several new schools. In fiscal year
2003, the District’s administrative costs were 22 percent higher than the
comparable districts’. This was due in part to having more higher-paying
middle-management positions and fewer lower-paying administrative positions, and
high costs of new accounting software and related training. District management
did not adequately oversee certain district operations. The District did not
establish adequate controls to safeguard its accounting system and cash, and did
not appropriately select, procure, or test its new accounting software, which
cost more than $516,000 and was replaced after 1 year. The District’s food
service program was self-sufficient and its cost per meal was similar to the
comparable districts’, but its contract was poorly structured and district
oversight was inadequate. While the District’s transportation costs were 26
percent higher than comparable districts’ primarily because of excess charges
for nondriving time, its plant costs were 23 percent lower primarily because of
the District’s smaller amount of square footage per student. Because the
District was unable to provide complete detailed payroll records, auditors could
not verify whether Proposition 301 monies were spent in compliance with statute
and the District’s plan. Dysart spent 55.8 percent of its dollars in the
classroom, nearly 3 percentage points lower than both the comparable districts’
and state averages.
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