Southampton school board hears preliminary September expenditure report and approves payment of bills

The Southampton County School board on Oct. 13 received a preliminary expenditure and revenue summary for September and approved the payment of the bill list for the month.

Joy Carr, the division’s director of finance, told the board the local operating budget for the fiscal year remains at approximately $35,000,008.77 and reported preliminary expenditures through Sept. 30. She said the division had spent about 13.18% of the operating budget to date and provided a revenue summary that included local, state and federal sources and food-service receipts.

The board pressed Carr for clarification on two items in the bill list. A board member asked about two vendor entries for “Inclusiveness Incorporated” (one for $49,148.74 and another for $20,000). Carr said that Inclusiveness is connected to the international teacher program. A second question asked whether out-of-area travel for staff to attend a PBIS conference was covered by grant funding; Carr confirmed the conference travel was funded through the PBIS grant.

After questions, a motion was made and seconded to approve payment of the bills as presented; the motion passed by voice vote.

Board members also asked when the FY25 audit and the division-level end-of-year report would be available. Carr said the county finance office expected to close the books the week of Oct. 27 and that the auditors were scheduled to be on site the week of Oct. 27 with an audit report normally available by December. She said the division would distribute the audit reports after the county closes its books.

The finance report and bill list were labeled preliminary during discussion; Carr and board members repeatedly described the figures as interim and subject to the final audit.

Ending: Board members had no further questions for the finance director and moved on to other agenda items.