Auditors give West Allis-West Milwaukee School District unmodified opinion; note one material weakness

At a board workshop, auditors from Baker Tilly told the West Allis-West Milwaukee School District Board of Education they issued an unmodified opinion on the district's 2023-24 financial statements and found one material weakness tied to the auditors preparing the financial statements.

The unmodified opinion means, the auditors said, that the financial statements "are free of any material misstatement" and include required disclosures and consistent accounting policies. Auditor Michelle Walter, senior manager at Baker Tilly, said, "we issued what is called an unmodified opinion," and that the single material weakness exists because Baker Tilly helped prepare the financial statements and related footnotes.

That material weakness did not translate into program-level compliance problems in the district's federal grant audit (the single audit). Walter and district staff reported the single-audit testing covered Medicaid, Title I and child nutrition programs and produced no compliance findings. As the auditors noted, the district's federal expenditures exceeded the single-audit threshold of $750,000, which triggered the compliance review.

Board and staff highlighted the district's stronger-than-expected general fund results. The district budgeted to add about $2.3 million to its general fund balance but instead added about $4.7 million.…