Record-keeping problems revealed following an audit earlier thisyear earned the Lincoln County School District an “advised” statusThursday from the state Commission on School Accreditation.

Superintendent Perry Miller said the move was not unexpectedafter a “no-opinion” audit was issued following a review of schoolrecords for the 1999-2000 school year. The disclaimer was issueddue to “inadequate and insufficient documentation to support”district financial activities, he said.

“We knew this was going to happen. This is what the law says,”Miller said, citing timing between the official release of theaudit results in the summer and Thursday’s meeting.

Miller said the district will remain on advised status until itreceives an opinion audit. State and local financial advisers havebeen working since April to address district deficiencies.

The superintendent reported good progress in those efforts.

“We feel like we’re on target to receive an opinion audit beforeChristmas of this year,” Miller said.

Audit officials have already conducted a review of personnelrecords, policies and procedures.

“No problems of significance have surfaced,” Miller said.

Miller said state officials are expected back in four to eightweeks to review the financial portion of district records. Hepredicted that past problems will be found to have beencorrected.

“We anticipate we will receive an opinion audit,” Millersaid.

The next Commission on School Accreditation meeting is scheduledfor Dec. 6-7. If the district receives a “clean bill of health”from audit officials, it could be moved from “advised” to”accredited” status, said Donna Boone, state director ofaccreditation.

“If they have documentation for us by then, we will revisit theissue,” Boone said.

If documentation is not available, the commission could act atits Feb. 7-8 meeting.

Lincoln County was one of four districts to receive the”advised” status Thursday. Others included the Wilkinson County,Carroll County and Quitman County school districts.

Following a new law passed in 2000, Boone said Thursday’s rulinghelped usher in a new standard for how school districts are judged.Instead of a five-point accreditation standard, districts are nowgraded as “accredited,” “advised” or “warned.”

The new system is also a departure from the formerlyall-inclusive five-point system where districts and school-levelfunctions were judged together. Now, Boone said, districts are heldaccountable for operational procedures while individual schools areheld accountable for student test scores and achievements.

In that regard, Miller said, the Lincoln County School Districtremains on solid ground. The district’s “advised” status has notimpacted accomplishments at district schools.

“It has absolutely nothing to do with academics,” Miller said ofthe audit findings.

He pointed out that district schools have the highest testscores in southwest Mississippi.

“It’s not because of deficit spending or inadequate resources,”Miller said. “Our no-opinion audit was because of inadequaterecords in the past.”

Miller said an investigation into missing funds discoveredduring the audit is continuing.

Despite the “advised” status, Miller was optimistic about thefuture.

“We feel like this no-opinion audit will have a positive effecton the district because it will bring closure to some of our oldproblems and allow us to start over again,” he said.