By Jason Maresh and Dr. Theo Cramer

Guest columnists

 

The Isle of Wight County School (IWCS) division received its annual 2023-24 financial audit report for the prior school year at its January school board meeting. 

The accounting firm of Robinson, Cox and Farmer, which conducted the annual audit, reported that the school division had no findings, which means IWCS received a clean audit. The auditor’s representative said that this year was leaps and bounds the most prepared the school division has been for the audit since his firm has been auditing the school division. Additionally, the representative from the auditing firm stated that he has lots of great things to talk about this year, and Chief Financial Officer Liesl DeVary did a fantastic job of getting things turned around in the Finance Department.  

This is great news and an accomplishment for a few important reasons. First, it is always good news to have a successful audit for any organization. Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, it is great news given where the school division was with its budgetary and Finance Department personnel challenges just a few years ago. IWCS experienced significant personnel turnover and budgetary challenges in its Finance Department in recent years. 

We can dispense with attempting to assign blame to a single person or a single source. The reality is that some of these challenges were present when the current superintendent and School Board arrived, and some of these challenges persisted during the current administration as well. Those are the harsh facts.

But there is also a silver lining, and there are many people to thank for the current and much-improved financial state of affairs from that bleak past. We must first thank the students and staff who endured the cost-cutting measures taken with the corrective action plan implemented during the 2023-24 school year. Some of those measures consisted of freezing all department budgets, only approving essential projects, ceasing all nonessential contracted services and canceling all purchase orders that were not mandatory.  

Although those austere measures were temporarily painful, they led to an inevitable successful fiscal outcome. As a result, the school division was able to end the 2023-24 school year with successful corrective measures in place, made budgetary improvements, and made personnel upgrades in the Finance Department. These efforts were key in helping IWCS receive the successful audit report and putting the school division on a solid financial foundation for future years. 

There are many people to thank for these successes. During the midst of the personnel challenges, Dana Carr and Sandy Carr (not related) were unwavering in their dedication. We must also thank the two finance veterans, Dr. Jim Roberts and Steve Jenkins, who agreed to come on board last spring as consultants to end the 2023-24 school year with a surplus and develop a sound budget for the 2024-25 school year — which they accomplished. 

We are very grateful for the current CFO, Ms. DeVary, who comes with many years of successful CFO experience, and she is making tremendous strides in our Finance Department. She has also received well-deserved accolades from the IWCS School Board, IWCS staff, the auditing firm and officials in the Isle of Wight County government. As we take a moment to appreciate the collective work that occurred to get us to this point and as we continue to work to strengthen our Finance Department and our school division’s overall finances, we know that our ongoing vigilance and fiscal prudence are essential. We also know that there will always be staffing and budgetary challenges in any organization and IWCS is no different. However, we are confident that our ongoing fiscal diligence, transparency, and collaboration with all stakeholders will help to ensure that IWCS remains on solid financial ground for years to come.  

 

Jason Maresh is chairman of the Isle of Wight County School Board. He can be reached at jmaresh@iwcs.k12.va.us. Dr. Theo Cramer is superintendent of Isle of Wight County Schools. He can be reached at tcramer@iwcs.k12.va.us.