Las Montañas Charter School

“Audit shows Las Montañas Charter's repeat accounting problems.” Las Cruces Sun-News (NM), 2/8/2013

LAS CRUCES — Las Montañas Charter School again has accounting difficulties and faces revocation of its charter, a year after budget problems threatened to shut down the school.

Las Montañas overstated its capital asset balance — the value of its land, buildings, equipment and other assets — on is fiscal year 2011 report, according to final audit findings presented to the Las Cruces school board Tuesday...

"These audit findings are problematic," Superintendent Stan Rounds said.

Las Montañas was "not keeping good track of the assets they had purchased" and listed items as assets that it didn't buy, Las Cruces Public Schools Assistant Superintendent of Finance Terry Dean said...

To fix the overstatement, the school's listed net assets and capital assets were each decreased by $100,701.

The decrease does not alter the school's budget, merely corrects the value of the assets it owns.

Las Montañas also couldn't account for $83,207 in cash, according to the audit report...

This audit is not the first time financial issues at Las Montañas have come up.

The school has repeat problems with its internal control structure, cash control and bookkeeping, among others, according to the report...

Las Montañas has seen low enrollment and graduation rates...