It's time for students to go back to school and for those residents of the Mineola School District, it's back to work on what should be a busy year for not only do students have to work hard to meet expectations but the district's board and administration have set goals to work toward.

At the first meeting of the Mineola Board of Education on Thursday for the new school year, the board adopted its goals for the 2005-2006 school year. The goals include improving student achievement, improving public confidence in district financial operations, improving school community relations and redesigning the five-year capital plan.

One of the major goals of the school district is to restore the public's trust following the arrest and indictment of the former assistant superintendent for business and operations. Besides forming a school-community communications bridging committee, district officials are also hoping to improve the public's trust in the district through financial oversight.

Superintendent of Schools Dr. Lorenzo Licopoli sent a letter to New York State Comptroller Alan Hevesi, requesting the state conduct an audit of the Mineola School District during the 2006-2007 school year. "Most districts in the state are not requesting an audit. We were," said the superintendent at Thursday's board meeting.

However, the state comptroller's office already had plans for auditing the Mineola School District and sent a letter to Dr. Licopoli informing him that the district would be audited sometime during the 2005-2006 school year.

Also, in order to improve the confidence in district so that the community knows the district is spending taxpayer money appropriately, the board of education approved a contract with Callaghan Nawrocki, LLP to conduct a forensic audit of the district at an estimated cost of between $23,000 and $25,000. According to Dr. Licopoli, the audit will look at the district's capital accounts first and then there will be a general review of the budget accounts to determine if further review is necessary.

Callaghan Nawrocki, the firm that was brought in to clean up the mess in the Roslyn School District, is also the Mineola School District's new external auditor.

Callaghan and Nawrocki's audit report of the 2004-2005 school year to the community should be given sometime in late October or early November, according to Dr. Licopoli.

"We want to be subjected to the highest auditing standards so that whatever further recommendations they make, we want to address so that we start next year with everything the way it is supposed to be in terms of the highest protocols that have come out of the comptroller's office as audited by Callaghan and Nawrocki," the superintendent said.

In addition to having a new external auditor, the school district also has a new internal auditor, Stuart Lang, who began in July.