El Campo ISD trustees approve 2024 audit; auditor warns of rising cybersecurity risks

The El Campo ISD Board of Trustees on January 2025 voted to approve the district's annual financial audit for the year ended Aug. 31, 2024, after auditors issued unmodified opinions on the financial statements and federal single-audit requirements.

Auditor Robert Belt, a partner with CRO, told trustees the district received an "unmodified opinion on your financial statements," the highest level of assurance the firm can express. Belt said the district's general fund reported $38.2 million in revenues and $36.9 million in expenditures, producing a net increase in fund balance of roughly $1.4 million for the year. He said the general fund ended the year with a fund balance of about $9.9 million, equivalent to approximately 98 days of operating expenses.

Belt also highlighted a positive overall budget variance of about $2.4 million: roughly $1.9 million favorable on revenues and $491,000 favorable on expenditures compared with the district's modified budget. He told the board fund-level results were "routine and consistent with all other school districts in the state of Texas." The National School Breakfast Lunch Program Fund (listed in the report) reported about $2.3 million in revenues and $2.2 million in expenditures, producing a fund-balance increase of $151,000 and an ending balance of about $1.25 million.

Separately, Belt noted the district defeased approximately $2.7 million of bonded debt during the year, which resulted in a present-value savings of $438,000, and pointed the board to the footnote on that transaction for further detail.

While delivering the financial highlights, Belt singled out cybersecurity and fraud risks as the primary exposure that keeps him concerned. "Risk is what keeps me up at night," he said, adding that threats such as phishing, social engineering and new AI-enabled impersonation techniques increase the likelihood of fraudulent disbursements or operational disruptions. "That area is extremely high. It's getting higher," Belt said.

A trustee moved to approve the annual financial report and audit; Trustee David seconded the motion. The board voted in favor with no opposition, and the motion passed.

Board members publicly thanked Joyce, a district business operations staff member referred to during the meeting, for her work on budget and accounting tasks and for supporting the audit process. The auditor apologized to staff for the need to hold an additional meeting for the presentation and thanked district personnel for their cooperation during the audit.

The audit report, the auditor said, also included the required Uniform Guidance single-audit procedures and a separate report under Government Auditing Standards; all produced unmodified opinions. Trustees were directed to the audit report's notes (cited during the presentation) for transaction-level and footnote detail, including the debt defeasance entries and budget-to-actual schedules.

The meeting record does not specify a calendar date beyond "January 2025," and no formal abstentions or roll-call tallies by name were recorded in the transcript beyond the motion, second and the chair's declaration that the motion passed.

Trustees thanked the auditor and closed that agenda item; the auditor said he expected to see district staff at an upcoming midwinter conference.