News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
The Overton County Audit Committee reported that the county school system exceeded approved spending for 17 employee salaries in 2019.
Overton County Director of Schools Mark Winningham said employee turnover led to some salary differences. He said that caused the audit findings.
“Depending on qualifications and things like that, that salary may change,” Winningham said. “What happened in some of those cases was that person that came in to take someone’s place had a higher salary based on their qualifications.”
Winningham said the school system did not make the appropriate budget amendments to the county commission when replacing their employees. The salary differences ranged from $104 to $49,000 dollars. Winningham said the school system will not make the same mistake again when hiring faculty in the future.
The audit committee found over $115,000 in excessive spending in four of 23 major categories in the general fund.
“We will make sure that if we have changeover in positions, that we will make the right budget amendments at the right time and when we should,” Winningham said. “We certainly do not want audit findings. We will make sure to make the right changes, so it does not happen again.”
