DINWIDDIE COUNTY, Va. (WTVR)—An audit revealed that Dinwiddie Schools accumulated a million dollar surplus for the 2012 school year.
The routine audit by an outside company says Dinwiddie Schools accumulated $1.5 million in the last school year.
School Administrators said they strive every year to end with a surplus, which in the past has ranged from $300,000 to $800,000 dollars.
The audit company notified the county late last week of the surplus for the 2012 school year.
"We knew that we were going to have savings, we did not anticipate the savings were going to be this high,” School Superintendent Dave Clark said.
Clark said there are several reasons this fortune happened. “We saw some increased monies come into our school system that we didn't anticipate as well as failure to really calculate a true carry over from the previous year."
That carry over and part of the confusion is for $753,000 dollars.
But most of the surplus comes from savings, a reduction of expenditures during the year, including $300,000 dollars from utilities, mainly fuel oil and electricity due to a mild winter.
Another $500,000 dollars in faculty and staff salaries was saved, as projected enrollment is down.
The surplus though, could not have any effect on the closing of the middle school at the end of the school year. The closing of the school is considered a long-term savings, since the building was only being used at half capacity.
The surplus also is already earmarked by state code, to go back to the county coffers.
The Board of Supervisors will determine what to do with the money.
