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External auditor gives Moreland district clean financial opinion, flags federal-program testing coverage
Summary
The districtreceived an unmodified opinion on its financial statements but the audit included federal-program compliance testing that prompted additional procedures; auditors reported no material weaknesses or significant deficiencies in financial or state-compliance testing.
The Moreland School District received a clean opinion on its audited financial statements for the year ended June 30, 2024, the district's external auditor told the Board of Trustees on Wednesday.
The opinion was read aloud by the auditor during the board meeting: "In our opinion, the financial statements referred to above present fairly no material respects... in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America," the auditor said.
The opinion covers the district's governmental activities, business-type activities, each major fund and the aggregate remaining fund information. The auditor told trustees the review included testing of internal controls for payroll, accounts payable, cash receipts and capital-assets processes, and that the district maintained a detailed work-in-progress listing for construction projects.
Why it matters: a clean, or unmodified, opinion indicates auditors did not find material misstatements in the financial statements. The board heard that the district's internal controls and state-compliance documents were sufficiently robust to avoid findings, an outcome the auditor said is difficult to achieve because state compliance involves multiple departments.
The auditor also explained the federal compliance portion of the audit. The audit team selected two major federal programs for compliance testing: the special-education cluster and the Education Stabilization and Emergency Relief (ESSER) discretionary grants. The auditor said federal programs are audited under separate compliance supplements and noted that federal testing requires additional procedures; the auditor reported no material weaknesses and no significant deficiencies in those tests.
The auditor summarized the capital-asset review and long-term-debt testing, including pension liabilities, and praised district staff for an "immaculate listing" of work in progress that made the capital-assets review smooth.
Board members asked how changes in district finance staff might appear in future audits; the auditor said the most likely change would be in internal-control testing because procedures and approval steps often shift when personnel change. The auditor said the firm repeats control testing when personnel turnover occurs.
The board received the auditor's report; trustees and staff expressed appreciation for the audit team's work and for district staff cooperation during the audit process.
Ending: The auditor left the meeting after the presentation; the audit was not an action item requiring board approval at the session.
