THOMASVILLE- Thomasville City Schools Board of Education received an update from their new Chief Financial Officer Stella Smith during their meeting last week, where they were made aware of several mistakes in past audits, including $600,000 that was misreported.

Smith began by explaining to the BOE what she had done in her first month on the job and how the mistakes found in the first month would help in the long run.

“When I met with the Board to ask what were your priorities, Mrs. Butler (Board Chair) immediately said to get y’all off the high risk with the auditors,” Smith shared. “Before I even interviewed, I looked and the audit for FY21 was pretty rough and the FY22 audit was gearing up when I started.”

On just day two of the job, Smith was already on the phone with the lead auditor finding out what it would take to get TCS off the high-risk list.

“He said we had to have no federal findings for two years and have our audit completed- start to finish by March 31,” Smith told the BOE.

Smith began to work toward the goal immediately by reaching out to the Department of Audits to ask for their audit to be moved up this year in the audit cycle.

“The Department of Audits and the Department of Education are excited Dr. Rayfield and I are working together for the city to turn things around,” Smith said. “For the first few weeks, it’s going to be rough though.”

When speaking with the Department of Education, Smith was told the first deadline for the FY22 transmission was September 30.

As she began working toward the deadline, Smith was dismayed to see that not a single federal fund had been balanced or closed out.

“That was my top priority to get us off the high-risk audit,” she said. “I’m proud to tell you that we were in an email blast that went out and we were in the top 54 to sign off for federal funds closed out by Sept. 30.”

Smith did note that they received one warning. According to the Department of Education, the school nutrition numbers did not align with the finance department’s numbers.

“That is truly because the Finance Department had not been closing the funds on a timely basis,” Smith explained. “When I started on August 15, the last bank statement that had been reconciled was April 30, so I got all of the May bank statements reconciled.”

Since then, Smith has closed out and reconciled June, July and August and is excited to move forward on a timely track.

“For the first time in years, we are in the month that is the same month in genesis,” she said proudly.

Both the Department of Education and Department of Audits said they see this as quite an accomplishment and said they believe TCS is now beginning to take their finances and audits seriously.

However, the Department of Audits did have one difficult conversation with Smith, which she was required to share with the BOE.

Prior to Smith’s arrival, the TCS Financial Director had drawn down the Title II money and the Title IV money for FY 21 and FY22, but not made the entry in genesis.

“This federal unearned revenue we were going to have to pay back was to the tune of $600,000” she explained.

Upon realizing this, Smith fixed it for FY23 and received an exciting phone call from the auditors, stating it would not be reported because their auditor missed the mistake in FY21.

“That was quite the exciting and huge relief to not have to pay back $600,000 in federal money,” she said.

Unfortunately, if federal monitors from the Georgia Department of Education choose to audit the school, a different stance may be taken.

“I do want to put that disclaimer in there, but we did get a huge win with the Department of Audits,” she concluded.

Interim Superintendent Dr. Fred Rayfield thanked Smith for her diligent work and said the correct financial information she has provided has made things much easier for the Finance Department.

Smith thanked the BOE for their continued support as she works to help them get back on track.

Moving forward, she will provide monthly updates and ensure all statements are reconciled in the month they are filed.