XENIA — The Xenia Community School District has received the Auditor of State Award with Distinction for its financial record-keeping in 2016.
While it previously received the Auditor of State Award for 2015, it’s the first time the honor comes “with distinction.” Receiving a clean audit report and filing a Comprehensive Annual Financial Report trigger the award with distinction.
“One thing is that obviously this is a very great and distinct award, but … there are a lot of folks that really go into the effort behind accomplishing something like this,” XCS Treasurer Eric Soltis said. “I’d like to thank a lot of the team members that are really involved within making that happen as well because it truly is a team effort.”
The Auditor of State’s Office audits nearly 6,000 entities and less than 5 percent are even eligible for the award, according to Joe Braden, Western Regional liaison for the auditor’s office.
“It’s important to note that this puts Xenia Community School District in a very unique group,” he said. “This award represents not only the community, but also represents all the school workers throughout the year that have done everything to make this happen. I especially want to recognize the board members and all that they’ve done in accounting for the finances for the district. And I especially want to recognize Eric Soltis for his commitment to financial integrity.”
In addition to the CAFR, the other criteria of a clean audit report include: no findings for recovery, material citations, material weaknesses, significant deficiencies, single audit findings or questioned costs; and the entity’s management letter contains no comments related to ethics referrals, questioned costs less than $10,000, lack of timely report submission, reconciliation, failure to obtain a timely single audit, findings for recovery less than $100, and public meetings or public records.
In addition to the award, the district received recognition from the the Ohio Senate.
