MANCHESTER, NH – Each year, the Manchester School District receives an audit of its previous year’s fiscal year budget and the latest audit came with a positive note.
Sheryl Pratt, a certified public accountant with the Concord-based Plodzik and Sanderson, presented highlights of the 97-page report in a special meeting of the Manchester Board of School Committee’s Committee on Finance and Facilities on Monday.
Pratt stated that the audit was presented with a “clean or unmodified opinion,” indicating that almost all information presented by the Manchester School District within the audit met generally accepted accounting principles. She added that in total, the audit took approximately 750 to 800 hours to complete.
There were concerns over the process for special education transportation funding, which had exceeded the approved budget by $2 million. Within the analysis of the audit, it was revealed that the Manchester School District did not maintain detailed student-level tracking of specialized transportation processes. Additionally, there were issues with billing oversight from certain vendors, with a process that was seen as lacking elements found in most invoices.
Following a question from Ward 7 Board of School Committee member Chris Potter, it was revealed that there would be no way to determine that the Manchester School District had been overbilled for special education transportation services during the previous fiscal year.
Manchester School District Transportation Training Coordinator Cortney Medeiros that recommendations from the audit to create a standardized spreadsheet to track invoices had progressed in recent months.
“We’re getting a better handle about what’s going on,” she said.
Another key recommendation for change within the audit came in creating a written methodology for allocation of Title I funds. In response within the audit’s appendix, district leaders indicated that historically there has been Title I allocation methodology. However, that methodology was not used during Fiscal Year 2025 although there were developed procedures to document the allocation process. In the appendix, it was indicated that the procedure will be updated with the past methodology to come into compliance with the Title I Supplement, Not Supplant requirement.
This audit is separate from the specialized audit of the Manchester School District, proposed by Manchester Mayor Jay Ruais and supported by the Manchester Board of School Committee and Manchester Board of Mayor and Aldermen.
The full audit can be found below.