TULPEHOCKEN AREA SCHOOL DISTRICT

CORRECTIVE ACTION PLAN U.S. Department of Agriculture: Tulpehocken Area School District respectfully submits the following corrective action plan for the year ended June 30, 2021. Name and address of independent public accounting firm: Herbein + Company, Inc., 2763 Century Boulevard, Reading, PA 19610 Audit Period: Year Ended June 30, 2021 Contact Person: Thomas Kowalonek, Chief Financial Officer The finding from the June 30, 2021 schedule of findings and questioned costs is discussed below. The finding is numbered consistently with the number assigned in the schedule. Section III - Federal Awards Findings and Questioned Costs 2021-001 ALLOWABLE ACTIVITIES - MATERIAL WEAKNESS Federal Program Child Nutrition Cluster COVID-19 - School Breakfast Program ALN 10.553; passed through the Pennsylvania Department of Education; Grant Period 7/1/20-6/30/21 COVID-19 - National School Lunch Program ALN 10.555; passed through the Pennsylvania Department of Education; Grant Period 7/1/20-6/30/21 Criteria To receive reimbursement payments for meals served under the School Breakfast and National School Lunch Programs, the District must submit claims for reimbursement to its administering agency. The claim reports include the number of reimbursable meals served by type (breakfast/lunch) during the period covered by the monthly claim report. All claim reports submitted must be supported by accurate meal counts and records indicating the number of meals served by type. Condition The claim reports filed for meals served during November 2020, January 2021, and May 2021 did not report the correct number of breakfast and lunch meals served. Cause The District used SSO Point of Service Meal Count Forms to track daily meal sales. A spreadsheet was then used to summarize the totals from each daily form to calculate the totals to claim for each month. There was an error in the spreadsheet formula that excluded some of the daily numbers from the calculated monthly total. This resulted in the total meals claimed on the monthly reports being less than the number of meals served. The District did not currently have a review process in place before the reports were submitted. Effect The errors in the calculated monthly totals resulted in the November 2020 report being submitted with 491 less breakfast and 1,105 less lunch meals claimed than served, the January 2021 report being submitted with 294 less breakfast and 115 less lunch meals claimed than served, and the May 2021 report being submitted with 72 less breakfast and 403 less lunch meals claimed than served. The understatement of meals submitted resulted in the District receiving underpayment for the federal subsidy. Questioned Costs None. Context Our audit included testing a sample of three monthly claim reports filed during the year. From the sample, we noted that all three reports had underreported meals due to the same spreadsheet calculation error. We reviewed a spreadsheet of underreporting errors on monthly reports for the entire year ended June 30, 2021 as compiled by the District. The total breakfast and lunch meals underreported for the year was approximately 2,800 and 5,300, respectively. This resulted in an estimated underpayment of $25,000 for the federal subsidy. Repeat Finding No. Recommendation We recommend that a second person review the spreadsheet used to calculate the total of meals served for the month to determine the total agrees to the totals from each daily SSO Point of Service Meal Count form. In addition, after the meals are entered into the monthly claim reimbursement reports, a second person should review the claim recap reports to determine the totals agree to the supporting documentation. The reviewer should sign off on the claim recap reports as evidence of the review process. This process will allow any errors made to be caught before submission. Management Response The District has implemented the following changes to the meal count process. At the high school, we no longer use the daily count sheets. Students are entering their unique pin number for breakfast and lunch. At the elementary level, we have continued to use the daily count sheet for breakfast. The Food Service Director reviews the daily count sheet and enters the total number of breakfasts into Primeroedge. A report is printed and attached to the daily count sheet. The Food Service Fiscal Director reviews the report to ensure the total entered into Primeroedge matches what is on the daily sheet. For lunch at the elementary buildings, students now enter their unique pin number (or they have a card that scans their unique pin) at lunch to allow the system to total the meals. At the end of the month, the Food Service Fiscal Director prints the reports from Primeroedge, which gives the grand total of breakfasts and lunches for each building. These numbers are entered into PEARS and a report is printed of the data entered. The Chief Financial Officer then compares the reports from Primeroedge with what has been entered in PEARS. If everything is entered correctly, the Food Service Fiscal Director then completes the submission in PEARS. Estimated Completion Date: 12/31/2021 Sincerely, Thomas Kowalonek Chief Financial Officer