Jim Thorpe school board members say an audit into the district’s business office shows the district can “do better” when it comes to accounting practices.

The school board’s finance committee recently discussed the findings from an accountant’s investigation into the business office. Committee Chairwoman Cindy Lesisko-Henning said it’s important for the board to understand the recommendations so the district’s new business manager can help put them in place.

“We need to give him what he needs to do this. These are things that involve theft, fraud and we can lose federal funding, state funding over these things.”

The report by EisnerAmper LLC said the business office lacked technical accounting expertise. They also recommended that accounting duties for athletics, the cafeteria, and the school bank be divided among more employees.

There were a total of nine findings and recommendations which came from EisnerAmper’s review of the business office’s activities over a 14-month period ending last September, when the report was authorized.

When the school board authorized the report, they also placed business manager Lauren Kovac on administrative leave. Kovac resigned in November.

EisnerAmper was hired to look at “potential neglect or other improper conduct” by the district business manager.

During its audit, EisnerAmper interviewed nine district personnel including the superintendent, interim business manager, school banker and four clerical employees in the district office.

In addition to the nine findings, the report included recommendations for how the district should handle paying vendors and handle cash received from sports and activities.

Board member Scott Pompa called the Eisner­Amper report scathing, but said the district is following its recommendations.

“We can do better, we will do better. We owe it to everyone,” he said.

Some of the recommendations in the report are already happening, board member Raneiro Marciante said.

Superintendent John Rushefski said he has already reviewed the report in detail with new business manager Ken Marx. Rushefski said the administration wants to do things better than they have in the past.

Rushefski, who took over in July 2019, said he’s proud of some of the accomplishments made by the district over the last year. He said he’s looking forward to Marx working with interim business manager Joseph Surridge to learn from the report.

“They’ll need to talk, take a look at the business office and the recommendations of EisnerAmper and take a good hard look at seriously implementing them going forward,” Rushefski said.

Board member Paul Montemuro said he felt the report has proved his belief that the business office was disorganized.

He said he was disturbed by the lack of oversight when it came to paying bills.

“There’s no checks and balances - the same person’s entering that’s writing a check. There’s nobody checking on any of this stuff.

Lesisko-Henning said that earlier this year she asked the board for permission to review the district’s bank accounts because she was concerned that the same person writing checks was the one reconciling the bank accounts. She encouraged the board to keep the audit findings in mind going forward.

“We need to keep this audit next to us and make sure these things are happening throughout the year and let our new business manager know that this is important to our taxpayers and our students,” she said.