Auditors give Greater Johnstown SD a clean opinion, note two common findings and ESSER funding decline

Wessel and Company presented the district’s single-audit highlights to the Greater Johnstown School District board on Jan. 6 and issued an unmodified (clean) audit opinion for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2024.

Audit manager Brandon Myers told the board the district’s governmental fund balance increased to about $14 million in 2024 from about $11.2 million in 2023. The auditors attributed a major year-to-year net-position swing to expiring federal ESSER funds; government-wide net position improved in 2024 but remained negative, the auditors said.

The food-service (proprietary) fund’s net position was reported as roughly $9,920,000 for 2024 and was comparable to the prior year, the presentation said; auditors noted that some of those dollars are restricted to food-service uses.

Total federal expenditures tested in the single audit were “a little over $12,000,000” in 2024, down from about $22,000,000 in 2023, reflecting the wind-down of COVID-era ESSER grants. The auditors tested three major programs: the child nutrition cluster, the special education cluster and the 21st Century Community Learning program.

Wessel and Company reported two findings in the current year: material journal entries and financial-statement preparation. The auditors described those as common for governments with small accounting staffs and said the entries were needed to complete the financial statements. The auditors also recommended maintaining healthy fund balances and continuing controls and bookkeeping work with district staff.

Board members asked routine follow-up questions about debt, capital projects and pension costs; auditors recommended preserving fund balance levels and considering interest-bearing investments for surplus cash.

The auditors said they have uploaded the single-audit report to the Federal Audit Clearinghouse; no modifications to the opinion were reported.