How School Districts are Audited

All school districts in NYS are required to contract for three separate, specific kinds of audits.

In addition, our audit committee includes not only the trustees but two community members as well. All meetings are held in public.

As a result, North Shore has a claims audit performed monthly at the transaction level. The claims auditor reports anything outside the normal process - say, an invoice over 30 days old or a copy of a receipt versus an original -  to the Board.

We also hire a firm for an annual external audit to review our finances overall. Those audits are posted here for public review.

The third required audit is internal audit. The internal auditors annual review all internal processes of the business office so that strong internal controls are in place to protect taxpayer and governmental funds. Each year, they can pick several areas to review more intensively. For example, they could review all of our processes around producing the payroll. Those audits are posted here for public review.

Additionally, the state can audit any aspect of our finances at any time and periodically does so. When the state last visited, after reviewing our finances, they decided to look at our processes around managing our fuel inventory. The comptroller posts all school district audits here.