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The Harlan Independent School District received the results of the district’s financial audit during the board’s January meeting. There were no issues found in the audit.

Superintendent C.D. Morton kicked off the meeting with a Zoom call with a representative from the accounting firm of White and Associates, who handled the district’s audit.

“First of all, we’d like to thank the board for letting us do the audit,” said the representative.

According to White and Associates, the district did very well in all areas of the audit.

“You all had a very excellent audit report,” stated the White and Associates rep. “No responses were needed…overall, excellent audit.”

Morton mentioned the audit process lasts several months.

“The folks that handle the financial part of what we do – it’s not glitz and glamour – are critical to the success that we have and the financial position that we have,” Morton said. “I appreciate (their) hard work…because we want to be good stewards of the finances and the resources that we have.”

Following the audit report, board chairman Dr. Matt Nunez moved on to other business, including approval of the audit, board meeting times, and the second reading of the upcoming school calendar.

The board also approved an adjustment to the funding for an athletic project.

“When we approved that project, we elected to use some…federal dollars,” Morton explained. “We were not fully aware how that would impact the total project. We had earmarked $500,000 of ESSER funds for that project. We later found out that…using federal funds causes the Davis Bacon Wage Scale to go into effect.”

Morton explained this would have driven up the cost of the project.

“We had other money that we could use,” Morton explained. “So, after looking at that, we need to pull that money out of that and move it.”

Morton noted that the revised budget would state that ESSER money would not be used for the project.

The board approved the revision with no objections.

In other board activity:

· The minutes of a previous meeting were approved;

· The board approved payment of bills;

· The attendance/enrollment report was approved;

· The FRYSC report was approved;

· The board approved the DLC Service Report.