October 14, 2025
Audit Committee Members Webster Central School District 119 South Avenue Webster New York, 14580 Dear Audit Committee Members, REVIEW OF THE DISTRICT POLICIES AND PROCEDURES The official policies issued by the District’s Board of Education help provide the basis for safeguarding the District’s financial and procedural interests. As the board is comprised of elected members from the community, the delegation of responsibility and oversight from the board to District management is ultimately to safeguard the taxpayers interests and further the District’s mission of providing a quality education to children within the District boundaries. While policies provide the basis of understanding for authorizations and work, it often falls on the business office and the executive team of the District to enact procedures that further the goals of the Board while providing a clear and transparent method of implementing those procedures. The purpose of this report is to review both the official Board policies as well as information obtained from our most recently completed risk assessment to develop an initial set of Standard Operating Procedures in the form of a comprehensive procedure manual outlining all of the key fiscal areas of concern within the District and how each position supports and safeguards the process. In addition, we provided key insights from our policy review and noted any potential gaps in delegation or oversight that were apparent. The scope of our review was the period from July 1, 2024, to June 30, 2025. Procedures Performed To gain an understanding of current District procedures related to the processes, we interviewed various District employees within the business office during our annual update to the risk assessment. We then reviewed the District’s publicly available board policies and procedures to assess the key areas pertaining to financial activities overseen by the business office. The areas we reviewed and developed our procedures manual for are as follows: 171 Sully’s Trail Pittsford, NY 14534 p (585) 381-1000 f (585) 381-3131 www.bonadio.com
Budget Development and Budget-to-Actual Review Bank Reconciliation Procedures Cash Receipts and Accounts Receivables Procurement Procedures Cash Disbursements Payroll and Employee On-Boarding/Off-Boarding Extraclassroom Activity Fund Management
ALBANY • BUFFALO • DALLAS • EAST AURORA • NEW YORK CITY • ROCHESTER • RUTLAND • SARASOTA • SYRACUSE • UTICA • VIRGINIA BEACH • WILMINGTON
Webster Central School District Page 2 Procedures Performed (Continued) In addition, we provided an appendix to the report detailing who within the District currently occupies all of the stated roles as noted in our manuals. The information was based on the District’s website and our most recent records on positions. This appendix is designed to be regularly updated as individuals change positions or new hires or resignations take effect. Recommendations NOTE- Pursuant to Commissioner’s Regulations 170.12_(e)(4)(i), we do not consider the below recommendations and/or suggestions to be a finding or require a corrective action plan.
Policies 5210 and 5220 detail the District’s polices regarding the handling of revenues from the perspective of investment safeguarding, however beyond noting the Treasurer, Deputy Treasurer, and Assistant Superintendent for Business as having the discretion to invest fund balances, it does not detail any requirement that incoming funds be collected by bonded employees, or noting any requirement on timeliness of deposits incoming to the District. The inclusion of such a policy would ensure timeliness and compliance often reviewed as part of the District’s External Audit and represent a best practice that should have a strong policy backing. Upon reviewing the District’s Purchasing Policies 5410, 5411, and 5412, it does not appear that there is an official board approved method of determining the required number of quotes or solicitations for services that fall below the standards as set forth in GML 104-b. The District should consider having the board approve and append to policy 5411 a dedicated listing of price thresholds in which certain numbers or types of quotes are required to be obtained by the requestor and reviewed by the Purchasing Official. Such amounts are able to be public and including them in board policy would provide clarity to vendors as to why quotes are being solicited in accordance with a specific policy and not just in accordance with a standard practice. Based on our review, there is currently no policy that explicitly delegates payroll or onboarding responsibility to the Payroll specialist or the Assistant Superintendent for HR. The District may want to consider developing a high-level personnel policy outlining their responsibilities and expectations with regards to handling employee finances and operations.
*
*
*
*
*
Bonadio & Co, LLP thanks the District for the opportunity to work with them. If any users of the report have any questions at any time, they are more than welcome to contact us. Very truly yours, BONADIO & CO., LLP
by: Timothy J. Doyle, CPA Partner