Westlake City Schools Awarded For Clean Financial Reporting

Westlake City Schools can add another financial reporting award to the list. For the fourth consecutive year, the district has received a clean audit report.

To recognize the district's efforts, Auditor of the State Dave Yost visited the and presented an Auditor of State Award with Distinction Friday morning.

“Clean financial books are vital to accountability in government,” Yost said. “The Westlake City School District is clearly committed to maintaining accurate records, and I am proud to present this award.”

Yost said Westlake’s financial report provides an honest look at the school district’s finances and “tells the whole story of the financial condition of the district.”

Pepera credited the award to the efforts of his staff to enforce fiscal policy and maintain a high level set of internal controls and financial reporting procedures. He also credits the schools and departments following those guidelines.

Under Pepera’s fiscal watch, the Westlake City School District has been nationally recognized for 12 consecutive years of excellence in financial reporting.

In just the last year, the district has earned Exemplary Saver status from the Ohio Schools Council, won the Ohio School Plan Best Practices award and earned the AA+ rating from Standard & Poor. Moody's Investors also reaffirmed the district's AA1 bond rating this year.

The Auditor of State Award with Distinction is presented to local school districts upon the completion of a financial audit. Districts that receive the award meet the following criteria of a “clean” audit report:

• The district must file timely financial reports with the Auditor of State’s office in the form of a Comprehensive Annual Financial Report
• The audit report does not contain any findings for recovery, material citations, material weaknesses, significant deficiencies, Single Audit findings or questioned costs
• 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, or public meetings or public records