Financial expert cautions against unchecked spending

In a letter that was recently made public, an accountant who lives in our district shared some of her findings after digging into the West Bonner County School District financial statements. Everybody in the district should read that letter. It’s alarming.

Apparently, there may be book-keeping inconsistencies that go back years. There seems to be a clear lack of following both industry standard accounting policy and the actual school district policy. There may be missing checks that were manually written out, and at the very least the accounting for that spending isn’t being made public.

Even worse, it seems that both she and a few of the school board trustees have been trying to investigate the inconsistencies but a lack of co-operation from the school district administration has been frustrating their inquiry. That itself suggests that the public should demand a much deeper look into the finances of the school district by a private accounting firm before approving any additional taxation.

And to her credit, that’s what the accountant calls for. And I agree with her assessment. It’s the right thing to do for our families, for the school district employees, and for the children in the school system. Vote “no” on the WBCSD levy on May 16. 

FAITH BRENNEMAN

Spirit Lake