Auditors give Boyertown Area SD a clean opinion for year ended June 30, 2024

Jeff Hukwalcek, the district's external auditor, told the Boyertown Area School District Committee of the Whole on April 8 that the firm rendered a clean (unmodified) opinion on the financial statements for the year ended June 30, 2024. "Based on our testing, we found your financial statements to be, fairly presented, where you're showing what's called a clean or an unmodified opinion on the financial statements," Hukwalcek said.

The auditor said the district exceeded budget expectations in several revenue areas that boosted the general fund balance: about $7 million of additions to the general fund were driven largely by higher-than-expected earnings on investments and stronger collections of other taxes. Hukwalcek noted federal program testing under single-audit rules (required because the district expended more than $750,000 in federal funds) included IDEA special-education funding and the child nutrition cluster (National School Lunch and Breakfast programs). "Our compliance testing identified no deficiency, no material weaknesses, significant deficiencies, or other reportable matters," he said.

District leaders and the auditor discussed components that affected the entity-wide presentation, including net pension liability tied to PSERS (the Pennsylvania Public School Employees' Retirement System). Hukwalcek said the district's net pension-related liability remained large (he cited about $163 million as the district's proportionate share) and that the entity-wide net deficit improved by roughly $20 million from the prior year to about $57.8 million as of June 30, 2024.

Board members asked about the auditor's selection of accounts for detailed testing. Hukwalcek described a risk-based approach, interviews, analytical procedures and both haphazard and statistical sampling methodologies; he also said certain balances (tax and state balances) are routinely confirmed.

Why it matters: a clean financial opinion means the auditor found no material misstatements in the district's financial statements and no reportable compliance or internal control issues in the major federal programs tested. That result is typically required by lenders and grants and is material to budget planning and public trust.

The auditor's presentation and the audit report were available in the board's public materials; no formal vote was taken on the audit at the Committee of the Whole meeting. The auditor ended by offering to answer additional questions from board members.