External auditors issue unmodified opinion for Harrison Central; district used $5 million of prior reserves for capital

PKF O'Connor Davies issued an unmodified ("clean") audit opinion on Harrison Central School District's financial statements for the 2024–25 fiscal year, and district officials said the books show higher-than-expected revenues and a planned transfer of $5 million from reserves into a capital projects reserve.

"We've issued a clean opinion or an unmodified opinion on the district's financial statements. That's the highest form of assurance that an auditor provides any client," Scott Olling, partner at PKF O'Connor Davies, told the Harrison Central School District Board of Education during the board's Oct. 22 meeting.

The auditors and district finance staff told the board that the district recognized approximately $140.5 million in total revenues for 2024–25, about $2.1 million more than budgeted. The district's real property tax levy for 2024–25 was roughly $121.8 million. On the spending side, instructional costs were about $77.4 million, and employee benefits increased about $3 million year over year, driven largely by higher health insurance and pension costs.

The district's general fund balance declined from a beginning balance of about $36.6 million to an ending balance of about $32.2 million as of June 30, 2025. Auditors and Tim Whipple of the business office said most of the reduction reflected a planned $5 million transfer into a future capital projects reserve tied to a voter-authorized capital program. Excluding that planned transfer, the district's operations generated roughly $900,000 in net positive results for the year, the auditors said.

Olling highlighted the district's reserves breakdown: roughly $23.9 million was shown as restricted fund balance for specific purposes (tax certiorari, accrued employee liabilities, ERS/TRS reserves, debt service and similar items), and about $5.8 million of unassigned fund balance remains — approximately 4% of the 2025–26 budget, which is the New York State statutory maximum for unassigned fund balance.

The audit presentation also noted a timing issue with the federal single-audit filing. PKF completed compliance work using the draft OMB Compliance Supplement but said it could not file the single-audit package with the Federal Audit Clearinghouse until the Office of Management and Budget issues a final compliance supplement. "We did the work...but we are prohibited from actually including it until the other...is final," Olling said. The firm indicated it will issue a separate, shorter single-audit booklet and then combine it with the audit report for filing when the compliance supplement is finalized.

Board members thanked the business office and auditors for the presentation. The audit team thanked the business office staff and the board audit committee for their cooperation during the examination.