Ross devising plan to address deficiencies

Churchill County School Superintendent Carolyn Ross said Monday she will have an action plan to address concerns raised in a recent audit by next month.

Ross said she still believes Jim Sustacha is the right person to head the office, but she also said an accountant should be added to the staff.

Sustacha was promoted to interim business manager in October when Barbara Smith suddenly resigned while an audit was being done. He will manage a $40 million budget.

"He needs to be in planning, development and oversight," Ross said about Sustacha. "The general ledger entry is what's lacking. Jim will have some learning curve but he has an educational background."

Sustacha took some accounting classes during his graduate studies but does not have a governmental accounting background.

Auditor Jim Johnson advised the school board to hire a certified public accountant or someone with extensive experience in governmental accounting to address deficiencies found during this year's audit.

Johnson, a CPA, said the district will have to pay between $60,000-$70,000 to get qualified help in the business office. If it tries to get by cheaper, he said, next year's audit could be worse than this year's.

While Johnson gave his audit report to the board last week, Sustacha agreed that he needs help in the business office to address problems.

In the past, assistant superintendent Don Lindeman supervised the business office while Terri Black, who had a governmental accounting degree, handled many of the duties.

Ross said the district needs someone with governmental accounting experience to replace Black, who left the district earlier this year. She will present an action plan to the board Jan. 12.

"We've been dealing with this. We took action immediately to make sure this doesn't happen again," Ross told the board.

Before moving to Fallon in 1978, Sustacha ran his family's cattle ranch in Lamoille near Elko. He was hired as an agriculture/mechanics instructor at Churchill County High School.

In the early 1990s, Sustacha was promoted to vice-principal at the high school.

He served as principal at West End for six weeks this fall before being named the interim business manager.

Marlene Garcia can be contacted at mgarcia@lahontanvalleynews.com