Ottumwa weekly courier. (Ottumwa, Wapello County, Iowa) 1872-1899, 1877-12-26
For Dc couriss.
mat scINoVl Fund Denclercv.

For NE Courier
That sonoel Fund Deficiency
EDITORS COURIEE:--I see in your
paper Of Dec. 18th. a. article from
the State Leader ut Des Moines. in
reference to the disclosure to be made
by the forthcoming report of State
|Supt Van COelln, of the discrepancy
in the reports of school district off,
GERS 10 County Supt. from the bepin.
ming Of lS73 to 1871, OF some S435.6OO.
Wapello being in deficit some $4,000,
the receipts being that much moro
than expenditures. You ask will
some one rise and explain? l have
waited one week hoping some one
would assume the task, and as NO one
has come forward, I will try and par
tally explain at least. The law re-
|quired the Secretary'of the board of
directors, prior to 1876, to make the
financial report; that since that time
has been made the duty of the school
district Treasurer, by act Of the last
Legislature. Now I will try and
make this as plain rs can, even At
the expense of minute details. When
the Co. Treasurer has money in his
hands belonging to the school dis
tricts, at certain periods, he is requir-
ed by law to notify the presidents Of
the boards of directors of the school
districts of the amount of funds in his
hands due each one of them, with A
blank order to be signed by the Pres
ident and countersigned by the Sec
rotary. The Secretary upon signing
this order charges the Treasurer with
the order and forwards it to him,
When the board meet at their Semi
annual or Annual meeting, the Sec.
rotary and Treasurer compare hooks
and if mo- mistakes occur Of course
they agree. This lie all very clear and
simple showing the funds going into
the Treasurers hands, and is so re-
ported. Well now comes the expen-
ditures. These funds are paid out
only upon orders drawn at the regu-
lar sessions of the board, in March
and Sept. AT these sessions many of
these orders are not paid for want of
fanus. Feobably IN q short time the
Treasurer makes draw from the 90.
Treasurer and pays off some or all of
these orders and holds them until the
meeting of the board in Sept, say Goth
or 2lst. The Secretary, under the
former law, was required to make
this financial report, between the 18th
and Goth OF Sept, and consequently
makes his report before the Septem-
Der session of the board. The Secre-
tary in making his report before that
session is not officially informed, if at
all, of the vouchers in the Treasurer's
hands covering the period or year of
bis report. So it can readily be seen
that all the expenditures are not re-
ported. 1t may be said that it may
be done the next year. This is not
what the law requires. But suppose
It is. here is this difficulty in our dis
trict at least, and we presume it is SO
In many others; the date of cancella-
ton Of orders (from want of proper
blank books with necessary caption
for date, or neglect or incompetency
of Secretaries) is neglected and hence
the Secretary is unable to go behind
his last report and discriminate be-
tween those reported and those unrc-
ported. So 1t can be seen that there
may be an apparent deficit and no
real one. And further, when the law
devolved this duty upon the Treasur-
err of reporting finances in some cases
at least, the last report of the Secre-
tary was not consulted to obtain bal
ances, and of course his report with
out this basis could not be entirely
reliable. Many interrogations are
propounded to the Secretary or Treas
urer in the blanks forwarded to them
by the Supt., on which to make q
financial report. For instance, GLOW
much has been expended for fuel
How much for repairs to school hous-
es - At the meeting of the board
probably one-half of the sub-direc-
tors have forgotten their itemized
bill. They have bought brooms, tin
cups. buckets, chalk, repaired black
board, hired q boy to make fires,
bought fuel, put in IL lights glass.
They remember that it ali amounted
to 1925. The Secretary is ordered
by the board to draw an order for the
amount. They further know that
they paid this out of their own mon
ey and waited until this meeting for
their pay, while the money was de-
posted in bank without interest,
the Bank having the1 free use of 1t.
This shows how difficult it is to make
q fully reliable report. VS.
/ l A SECRETARY