Patrick Simmons, an audit partner with Whitley Penn LLP, told the Galena Park Independent School District board on Jan. 13 that the firm issued an unmodified opinion on the district's fiscal year 2024 financial statements and a federal single audit with no findings.

Simmons said, "an unmodified opinion is issued on the financial statements. So this is the highest level of assurance that we can provide, and this is a clean audit," and added there were "no findings related to compliance, no internal control findings related to financial reporting." He identified the district's major federal programs as Title I and ESSER and said neither produced audit findings this year.

The auditors provided several high-level figures during the presentation. Simmons reported total net position of $154,000,000 on the district's government-wide statements and said net investment in capital assets increased by $13,800,000. On governmental funds, he reported the general fund ended the year with a $221,900,000 fund balance and that the unassigned portion of fund balance was $64,200,000 (24.1 percent of expenditures), which he noted was above the district's 15 percent policy threshold.

Simmons described the audit approach in brief: interim field work during the summer, substantive testing after the district closed its books, walkthroughs with departments, and sampling to test controls. He said some misstatements were identified and corrected during the audit and characterized them as minor adjustments; he reported no disagreements with management and no difficulties performing the audit.

Board President Hernandez thanked Simmons and opened the floor to questions; Simmons said he would be happy to take any questions at the close of the presentation.

The audit presentation included district-level fund details the board may review in the full audit letter the firm said it will provide. Simmons noted the district's general fund transfers out were approximately $8,000,000 and that nonmajor governmental funds include grant-funded activity and child nutrition.

Simmons concluded by thanking district staff by name for their cooperation during the engagement and credited both continuity and rotation on the audit team for quality control.

The board took no formal action on the audit report during the portion of the meeting recorded in the transcript; the auditors' formal opinion and the single-audit results were reported to the board as presented.