ATTICA — Many Attica residents are demanding answers after a state report revealed nearly $1 million in federal funds unaccounted for by Attica schools over a two-year period.
The State Board of Accounts (SBOA) recently released an audit of Attica Consolidated School Corp.'s finances from July 1, 2013, to June 30, 2015. The audit, which was finalized April 13, cited numerous flaws in the district's system of checks and balances that resulted in the large amount of money left unaccounted for, creating a discrepancy of more than $940,000 in its financial reports.
The audit noted that many deficits were caused by disbursements exceeding receipts, and reimbursements not being received by the end of the fiscal years.
Among the 11 errors listed in the report were a $95,959 shortage in the School Breakfast Program, $414,113 missing in the National School Lunch Program, and a $337,415 deficit of Title I Grants to Local Education Agencies, according to the state auditors' two-year analysis of federal expenditures.
Although it wasn't on the agenda, school board member Darrin Spragg spoke about the audit at Monday night's meeting, which was recorded as a live video and posted publicly on Facebook.
"That is a lot of money," Spragg said at the meeting. "It scares me to death. What if we lose funding over this? If we can't get this right, who is to say that the SBOA isn't going to come back in two months and say, 'You're done.'"