Chariho audit returns clean opinion; fund balance, debt and reserves reviewed

The committee received its fiscal year 2024 audit and voted unanimously to accept the auditor's report, which contained no findings or recommendations.

Mary Sahadi, the district auditor, told the committee the district received a clean opinion on the financial statements and reiterated management's discussion and analysis is included in the report. The government-wide statements show the district's net investment in capital assets and recorded the district's share of pension and other post-employment benefit (OPEB) liabilities. Sahadi said the district lists approximately $22'$23 million in fixed assets and related debt of about $18 million, resulting in net assets of roughly $6.7 million. The pension liability reported for the district is about $35 million and the OPEB liability about $600,000.

On the fund statements, the auditor noted the general fund had about $4.5 million of unassigned fund balance, approximately 7.1% of the prior year's budget; when certain committed amounts are treated consistently, that ratio rises to about 9.4%. The bond debt sinking fund holds roughly $7.6 million to address coming debt payments, and the district had only a very small deficit in a capital project fund ($3,574) for the year.

Sahadi also described a one-time health insurance reimbursement to the district of approximately $779,000 that improved the year-end position; she noted that reimbursement is not expected to recur in FY25. The report includes required supplementary information (budget-to-actual), where the district showed a positive variance in revenues of about $334,000 and expenditures that trailed budget by about $622,000; the district had expected to use about $1.4 million of fund balance and actually used about $1.168 million.

The committee voted to accept the audit unanimously and the superintendent said the district would submit the audit to the state promptly.