Independent auditors give Whitehall-Coplay School District a clean opinion; general fund drops $463,000

Chris Betley, auditor with Bucknell, Lysicki and Company, told the Whitehall-Coplay School District finance committee on Feb. 10 that the district’s basic financial statements received an unmodified (clean) opinion for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2024.

Betley said the audit includes three formal letters: the independent auditors’ report, the auditor’s report on internal control, and the single-audit report on federal programs. “In our opinion, the financial statements referred to above present fairly in all material respects,” Betley said, summarizing the independent auditors’ report.

On internal controls, Betley said the firm is required to obtain an understanding of controls and report deficiencies when found; the audit produced no management comment letter, which he said indicates the firm identified no significant deficiencies or material weaknesses in internal control.

The firm also completed a single audit of federal programs and tested the National School Lunch and Breakfast program as the district’s major program. Betley said the auditors found the district “complied in all material respects with the compliance requirements” for that program and did not identify internal-control deficiencies tied to it.

The audit’s financial highlights show the district’s enterprise (food service) fund recorded a change in net position of negative $179,000, dropping from a fund balance of $894,000 to $714,000. The general fund reported a net change in fund balance of negative $463,000.

Betley walked the committee through fund‑balance and government‑wide statements: governmental funds had combined fund balances of $21,800,000; the district reported total net position of negative $68,000,000 on government‑wide statements, driven primarily by pension and OPEB liabilities. Betley said that removing those actuarial pension/OPEB liabilities produces a positive net position of about $22,000,000.

District staff and the auditor discussed other budget items cited in the audit attachments. Highlights and clarifications included:

- Interest income exceeded budget by about $1,100,000 due to higher interest rates. (source: district finance staff) - The Ready to Learn grant brought an unexpected $500,000 in revenue that was not assumed in the 2023–24 budget. (source: district finance staff) - Federal program revenues recognized because of expenditures exceeded budget by about $451,000. (source: district finance staff) - Assigned fund balance used to balance the 2024–25 budget totaled $3,200,000; unassigned fund balance was roughly $7,200,000 at June 30, 2024. (source: district finance staff)

Betley said the audit work took roughly three weeks of on‑site activity and that the most time‑consuming item this year was the district’s switch to a new accounting system on July 1, 2024, which required extra testing to ensure balances rolled forward correctly.

At the meeting’s close, district staff said the audit report and attachments will be added to a future board agenda for formal acceptance and approval. Committee members were invited to direct questions to the auditor or finance staff before that agenda item.

Ending: The finance committee accepted the audit presentation and will place the audit report on a future full-board agenda for formal action; no vote was recorded during the committee meeting.