Auditor gives Boyertown Area SD a clean opinion on 2023–24 financial statements

Boyertown Area School Districtauditors delivered a clean opinion on the districtfinancial statements for the year ended June 30, 2024, the districtauditor told the board at the Committee of the Whole meeting.

Auditor Jeff Kovalchuk said the audit work, which included on-site testing of internal controls and transactions, produced "a clean or an unmodified opinion on the financial statements." He added that the districtmet federal single-audit thresholds and the compliance testing for the major programs selected (IDEA special education funding and the child nutrition cluster) "identified no deficiency, no material weaknesses, significant deficiencies, or other reportable matters."

Kovalchuk summarized drivers of the yearend results: stronger-than-expected earnings on investments and higher-than-budgeted ‘‘other taxes’’ produced most of the increase to the general fund balance. He told the board the district added about $7,000,000 to its general fund balance for the year and ended June 30, 2024, with about $10,000,000 in unassigned general-fund balance. He cautioned that investment earnings are not a sustainable revenue source going forward as rates decline.

On the district's longer-term accounting, Kovalchuk noted the district's net pension-related liability remains large (he cited approximately $163,000,000 in net pension liability) and that on an entity-wide (full-accrual) basis the district ended the year with an overall net deficit of about $57,800,000, an improvement of roughly $40,000,000 from the prior year.

Board members asked about the auditor's risk-based process for selecting accounts and transactions for testing; Kovalchuk described interviews, analytical review, and statistical/haphazard sampling, and said some accounts (tax collector confirmations, state confirmations) are always tested.

The audit report and single-audit results were placed on the district’s board docs and are available to the public for review.