Fulton schools receive clean audit

Fulton Public Schools once again received a positive audit review.

Jim McGinnis with GK&C Accounting gave a report on the district's 2012-13 Audit during Wednesday night's regular school board meeting.

McGinnis started off by praising Superintendent Jacque Cowherd's management analysis.

"This year that was an excellent report in my view," McGinnis said.

Making note of the district's stable finances, he told the board his firm had "absolutely no findings" in its financial reporting.

"It doesn't get any cleaner than this," McGinnis said. "This is a perfect audit."

He was also complimentary of the district's accountability procedures.

"Every year for nine years we've talked to you about segregation of duties. We have removed that this year," McGinnis said. "We believe you have excellent transaction controls. We applaud the things this district has done over the past several years to improve accountability."

He concluded his report by telling the board that "the most important thing I can pass along to you tonight is your books are in excellent shape."

In other business, the board approved proposals for six new courses at the high school for the 2014-15 school year:

•Web Design for grades 9-12. The semester-long course deals with web programming languages, graphics applications and tools to design, edit, launch and maintain web sites and pages.

•There's an App for That for grades 9-12. The semester-long course will use computer technology skills to build apps by creating projects that need decision-making logic.

•Video Gaming for grades 9-12. A semester-long, cross-curriculum introduction to video game design applying principles of advanced mathematics and science, language arts, social sciences and applied technology.

•Engineering Research and Design Project for grades 10-12. A full-year course in which students will work in small teams to design a solution to a real-world problem, working on a designing and building a semester-long or year-long project, which will be presented to a group of professionals and appropriate businesses for feedback.

To help the tornado-stricken people of Dumas and surroundings, donations can be made to the Delta Area Disaster Relief Fund, care of the Delta Area Community Foundation, P.O. Box 894, Dumas, AR, 71639, or through the Arkansas Community Foundation, 700 S. Rock St., Little Rock, AR, 72202.