Cairo School District No. 1Local Government

Criteria: Per the Illinois State Board of Education "TitleI, Part A is designed to provide all children significant opportunity to receive a fair, equitable, and high-quality education, and to close educational achievement gaps." Condition: The District paid $3,990 for pre-K playground equipment and $193 for mileage for sports game supervision with Title I: Grants to Local Education Agencies funds. These items are not allowable costs of the grant as they do not support the educational needs of students. Questioned Costs: $4,183 of known questioned costs and $5,938 of projected questioned costs. Context: Total grant expenditures for Title I: Grants to Local Educational Agencies were $776,402 for the year ended June 30, 2025. Effect: The District received reimbursement for expenditures that were not allowable under the grant agreement. Cause: The District recorded these expenditures as Title I expenditures in error. Recommendation: We recommend that the District only charge costs that are allowable under the grant agreement. We also recommend that the District contact ISBE to discuss if the District will need to return the funds reimbursed by the Illinois School Bopard of Education for these unallowed expenditures. Management's Response: The District will ensure that all costs charged to the Title I grant are allowable per the grant agreement going forward.

Criteria: For effective internal controls, the Superintendent should be reviewing supporting documentation for the grant expenditure reports submitted to the Illinois State Board of Education to ensure all costs charged to the grant are correctly reported. Condition: The District Did not report grant expenditures totaling $150,733. Questioned Costs: None. Context: Total grant expenditures for the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund were $2,105,124 for the year ended June 30, 2024. Effect: The District did not report $150,733 of expenditures charged to the grant that could lead to the District not receiving reimbursement. Cause: The Bookkeeper reported the month-to-date balance for certain expenditures instead of the year-to-date amount since the expenditure reports are cumulative. The Superintendent does not receive the supporting documentation when approving the expenditure reports to ensure all costs are correctly reported. Recommendation: We recommend that the Superintendent review all supporting documentation for the expenditure reports submitted to the Illinois State Board of Education to ensure all costs are correctly reported before he approves the reports. Management's Response: The Superintendent will review all supporting documentation for the expenditure reports before he approves the reports going forward. The District has contacted the Illinois State Board of Education to re-open the report for correction.

Criteria: Per Title 2 C.F.R.200.512(d), "the data collection form must be submitted within the earlier of 30 calendar days after receipt of the auditor's report, or nine months after the end of the audit period. Condition: The District did not file their Data Collection Form on time. The 2022 Data Collection Form was not filed until May 23, 2023. Questioned Costs: None. Context: The Data Collection Form must be submitted to the Federal Audit Clearinghouse in a timely manner. Effect: The District is not in compliane with the Single Audit Act of 1984 and Title 2 U.S. Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 200. Cause: The District requested assistance from teh auditing firm to upload the required form with oversight by the District. The submission was overlooked after the audit was completed. Recommendation: We recommend that all required filings be submitted timely according to the Single Audit Act of 1984 and Title 2 U.S. Code of Federal Regulations guidelines. Management's Response: The auditors discussed the issue with the District. A new checklist will be used with audit completion to ensure timely submission for the 2023 fiscal year.

Criteria: For internal controls, expenditures should be adequately authorized by the Superintendent or other appropriate individual independent of the check preparation process, and this authorization should be documented. Condition: The District did not have adequate documentation of approval for all expenditures. We tested 40 disbursements made from the Education Stabilization Fund grant program and found 12 disbursements missing the necessary documentation. Questioned Costs: None. Context: Total expenditures of the program were $2,737,716 for the year ended June 30, 2023. The 12 disbursements without documentation of an approval totaled $408,652. Effect: Increases the risk that inappropriate expenditures could be applied to the grant program resulting in overcharging the grant for costs incurred. Our test was a statistical sample of 40 expenditures and 12 did not have supervisory approval. Cause: The District was not aware that the approval by an authorized individual, such as the Superintendent, needed to be documented on the invoices before payment was made. Recommendation: We recommend the District provide proper documentation of approval by the Superintendent or other appropriate individual independent of the check preparation process, for payment of invoices. Management's Response: The Superintendent will begin initialing each invoice to document his approval going forward.