Dysart Unified School District

Dysart has been growing rapidly, experiencing a greater than 25 percent growth in its number of students each of the past 4 years.  To address the growth, the District has recently added several new schools.  In fiscal year 2003, the District’s administrative costs were 22 percent higher than the comparable districts’. This was due in part to having more higher-paying middle-management positions and fewer lower-paying administrative positions, and high costs of new accounting software and related training.  District management did not adequately oversee certain district operations.  The District did not establish adequate controls to safeguard its accounting system and cash, and did not appropriately select, procure, or test its new accounting software, which cost more than $516,000 and was replaced after 1 year.   The District’s food service program was self-sufficient and its cost per meal was similar to the comparable districts’, but its contract was poorly structured and district oversight was inadequate.  While the District’s transportation costs were 26 percent higher than comparable districts’ primarily because of excess charges for nondriving time, its plant costs were 23 percent lower primarily because of the District’s smaller amount of square footage per student.  Because the District was unable to provide complete detailed payroll records, auditors could not verify whether Proposition 301 monies were spent in compliance with statute and the District’s plan.  Dysart spent 55.8 percent of its dollars in the classroom, nearly 3 percentage points lower than both the comparable districts’ and state averages.