Independent certified public accounting firm Daniel Jones & Associates presented a clean audit this year to the Mehlville School District.

By state law, public school districts must submit annual audit reports of all financial, transportation and attendance records to the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

Mehlville chooses to bring in an independent firm every year to audit the district’s books. Daniel Jones & Associates has been auditing school districts since 1976.

For the latest audit report, auditors examined the fiscal year ending June 30, 2022. The cost of the audit was about $17,000.

“Basically we as auditors, we look at the district and issue opinions as to whether or not the school district has presented fairly,” Daniel Jones auditor Desmond Kirchoff told the board Dec. 15.

The audit looked at three things: financial statements, state requirements and federal awards. An unmodified opinion, the highest mark a district can receive, was issued for the financial statements, which means it was clean without issues.

The audit also found the district to be compliant with state requirements relating to attendance, transportation and budgetary procedures.

Additionally, the district received an unmodified opinion for federal rewards. Because the district spent more than $750,000 in federal rewards in fiscal year 2022 it was subject to an audit.

There was one “minor” discrepancy that the audit found, Kirchoff said.

The district did have a minor finding regarding the use of separate bank accounts for all debt service funds. State statute requires that debt service money be maintained in a separate bank account. The district does maintain a separate account but there were funds in the general account that had not yet been transferred to the debt service account.

“Although this is something very minor, it is something that has to be reported,” Kirchoff said.