MARLBORO COUNTY — During Monday night’s Marlboro County School District board meeting, Interim Superintendent Michael Thorsland provided an up-to-date account of the district’s finances following an annual financial audit of the district’s budget conducted by the independent auditing firm Maudlin and Jenkins. A liaison for the South Carolina Department of Education, Thorsland stepped in as interim superintendent earlier this month.
The information provided by Thorsland stems from the district’s required yearly financial audit, which was previously submitted to the South Carolina Board of Education. As part of an annual process, the practice is followed by all school districts in the state.
According to Thorsland the state found no evidence funds were inappropriately handled and the audit was also conducted on time.
“I want to start with the best news that I could possibly give you. The audit was completed on time and submitted to the State Department on time,” said Thorsland, adding, “And even better than that is, the auditors had no findings to say that anything was being done inappropriately. So, I think our finance office needs to be applauded for that.”
Thorsland said the Inspector General’s preliminary findings revealed no signs of fraud — the district simply spent more money than it took in. As he has previously said, Thorsland again cited staffing issues as a potential source for the district’s overspending.
“I don’t know that there’s been any kind of fraud or anything in the school district. I think we’ve spent more than we brought in… but, I’m not saying that maybe somebody’s stolen it or misappropriated it. I just think we have too many employees, so we’ve spent more than what we brought in. So, I mean, maybe, maybe the IG is going to uncover some kind of fraud, but I certainly don’t have any evidence of that right now. I just think we have to trim our expenditures so that what we bring in tax revenue-wise is more than what we spend,” Thorsland explained, before moving on to touch on the numbers from the general fund balance since June of this year.
Thorsland said he was excited to share the good news with the board that the general fund balance was officially finalized on June 30, 2025. He explained that the finalization date is really the day the board can know how much money is truly in the district’s bank account.
“It was a little bit more than $4.9 million last couple of meetings. We’ve been throwing out the number $5.5 million. So, we were a little bit under that,” he said.
Despite the good news, Thorsland says he still believes the board should practice economic restraint, suggesting measures such as making mid-year cuts and refraining from overnight travel for the time being to further save.
Reminding the district they are “still in a financial crisis,” Thorsland said, “I do think it’s still in our best interest to be as thrifty as we can with our expenditures this school year.”
With their audit deemed “clean” by the state, and after a recent board-member attended workshop designed to cultivate teamwork and communication moving forward, the MCSD board is looking ahead to continuing to reach new educational heights for district students and their families.