DECATUR — Financial statements show the Decatur School District is about $400,000 ahead of where it was in September of 2008.

Decatur’s general fund balance was $468,526 on Sept. 30, compared with $69,059 in September of 2008. The general fund is the money over which the school has total control.

The district is really more than $400,000 ahead of where it was last year, Ortman said, because the 2008 balance includes an $170,000 operating loan which wasn’t paid back until November. Without the loan, the school would have been more than $100,000 in the red last September, he said.

The Sept. 30 financial statements show a negative $22,222 balance in their American Recovery and Reinvestment Act fund. The reason for the negative balance is that the school has to spend the stimulus money before it can be reimbursed, Ortman explained. The reimbursement was not received by Sept. 30, when the financial statement was last updated.

Inaccurate accounting over a period of several years got the district into financial trouble, and the district still has some of those problems hanging over its head, Ortman said.

The school has to pay about $20,000 to the Arkansas Teacher Retirement Program for unreported salaries dating back to the 1999-2000 school year, he said.

The district is finally “square” with the Internal Revenue Service, Ortman said. The school had to pay thousands of dollars in back taxes and fines because of the accounting problems.

“Hopefully we can get all of those things cleaned up. It’s something we have no control over; we just have to get it fixed,” Ortman said.

Ortman also reported the court date for former superintendent Dave Smith has been set back from November to February 26 and 27. Smith is suing the district for compensation for the remaining three years of his contract after he was suspended without pay in July of 2008. The Arkansas Department of Education instructed the school board to suspend Smith when the district was declared in fiscal distress and faced the possibility of annexation into a neighboring district.

News, Pages 1 on 10/28/2009