Board approves consent agendas, audit and two monitoring reports; payroll and gifts noted

The Eau Claire Area School Board approved multiple consent items, accepted the district’s annual financial audit, and approved two monitoring reports at its meeting.

In the superintendent’s consent agenda the board approved human resources employment actions; open enrollment for the 2025–26 school year; administrator contract renewals; referendum project bids; gifts in the amount of $90,739.41 for the period 11/01/2024–11/30/2024; payment of all bills in the amount of $7,696,113.09; and net payroll of $5,551,166.66 for the period 12/01/2024–12/31/2024. The board approved that consent agenda by voice and roll-call vote after a motion and second were recorded.

The board also approved its own consent agenda, which included minutes of closed session (01/06/2025), minutes of the regular meeting (01/06/2025), board summary statements for monitoring policies OE-9 (budget and financial planning) and OE-10 (financial administration), an administrator contract renewal, and ratification of the ECASD–ECAE master agreement. That consent agenda was approved by roll-call vote; the transcript records “Yes” votes for Commissioners Nordine, Zerr and Farrar and indicates the motion passed.

CliftonLarsonAllen representatives presented the annual financial audit. The auditors issued an unmodified (clean) opinion for the district’s financial statements and reported no material weaknesses or significant deficiencies. The auditors also reported no compliance findings in their federal and state funding testing. Key figures highlighted during the presentation included a decrease in general fund balance from about $41 million to about $33 million (a year-over-year decrease of about $7.3 million), an unassigned fund balance of about $31 million (21.5% of annual expenditures), and outstanding general obligation debt of about $120 million with district debt usage at roughly 10.8% of the statutory debt limit. The board moved to approve the audit as presented and recorded a unanimous voice/roll-call approval.

The board next considered monitoring reports. OE-11 (asset protection) was presented as “in compliance”; the superintendent and staff noted purchasing procedures, insurance, and other elements as consistent with prior years and recommended OE-11 move to consent in future cycles. OE-5 (student success) was presented as “in compliance”; staff described progress on guaranteed and viable curricula, program review, and ongoing work to build universal, tier 2 and tier 3 supports. The board discussed formatting improvements for monitoring reports (year-over-year compliance status and program updates) and endorsed keeping OE-5 on the regular agenda for future reporting. The board approved both OE-11 and OE-5 as presented.

All motions and formal approvals recorded in the transcript were adopted as indicated by the chair’s calls for the question and roll-call confirmations; when specific board member roll-call votes were recorded they matched the motions’ approvals. The board held no other recorded formal votes during the meeting.