Durand school board hears audit Wednesday, 6 days before bond vote

Durand Area Schools' board of education sits down Wednesday night for its annual look at the district's books — six days before Durand voters decide whether to borrow $30.29 million for school buildings.

The agenda for the 7 p.m. Oct. 28 committee-of-the-whole meeting lists an audit presentation, board communication, a block titled "votes and resolutions," public comments and adjournment. That is the whole document. No auditor is named. No audit figures, no fund balance, no findings are attached. The "votes and resolutions" heading carries no items under it, so a resident reading the agenda in advance cannot tell what the board intends to vote on.

The timing is what gives the night its weight. The Current reported in September that the county clerk's unofficial Nov. 3 ballot list includes a Durand Area Schools building bond of $30.29 million — one of 15 Shiawassee County ballot questions. An audit presentation is the one meeting of the year where the district's financial condition is laid out by an outside firm, and this one lands in the final week of that campaign.

It also continues a pattern on this board's postings. The Current noted in October that the Oct. 12 agenda listed two donations and a first reading of board policies and said nothing about the bond question at all, and that the Sept. 14 agenda listed a salary schedule and two FFA travel items with no descriptions of any of them. Wednesday's agenda carries no attachments either.

One other thing the agenda does not say: where the meeting is. The two future meetings it lists — regular meetings on Nov. 9 and Dec. 14, both at 7 p.m. — are both set for the Performing Arts Center, the district venue the board normally uses. The Oct. 28 listing gives a time and nothing else.

A committee of the whole is the full board meeting as a committee, which is typically where discussion happens before formal action. This one has a votes-and-resolutions item on it, so action is possible.

What happens next: The board meets at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 28. Voters decide the bond on Tuesday, Nov. 3. The board's next regular meeting is Nov. 9 at 7 p.m. at the Performing Arts Center, with another Dec. 14. We will report what the auditor told the board, and what the unnamed resolutions turned out to be, once the district posts them.