2016 Arkansas Code
Title 6 - Education
Subtitle 2 - Elementary and Secondary Education Generally
Chapter 13 - School Districts
Subchapter 16 - -- Public Education Reorganization Act
§ 6-13-1608. Audit required

(a) The Division of Legislative Audit shall conduct a comprehensive financial review of all the school district's financial matters for any school that is involved in administrative consolidation or administrative annexation or is otherwise reorganized by the State Board of Education.

(b) The comprehensive financial review shall begin no less than ten (10) days after the earliest of:

(1) The publication of the district's name on the consolidation and annexation list under § 6-13-1602;

(2) The filing of a petition for voluntary administrative consolidation or administrative annexation; or

(3) The adoption of a motion by the state board to consolidate, annex, or otherwise reorganize a school district designated as being in academic or fiscal distress.

(c) (1) Beginning on the date of publication of the consolidation list under § 6-13-1602 each year, the Department of Education shall have authority to oversee all fiscal and accounting-related matters of all school districts on the consolidation list and shall require those school districts to have accurate records necessary to close all books within sixty (60) days after the end of the fiscal year.

(2) No contract or other debt obligation incurred by a school district for which the department has oversight authority under this section shall be valid or enforceable against a resulting school district unless the contract or other debt obligation is preapproved in writing by the Commissioner of Education or his or her designee.

(d) Any school that is involved in an administrative consolidation or administrative annexation shall have an audit started within thirty (30) days of the completion of the closing of the books by the school district.

(e) The department and the division shall jointly develop the scope and details of the comprehensive fiscal review consistent with the requirements of this section.

(f) A school district may not incur debt without the prior written approval of the department if the school district is identified by the department under § 6-13-1602(1) as having fewer than three hundred fifty (350) students according to the school district average daily membership in the school year immediately preceding the current school year.