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Auditors give CCPS clean opinion but warn federal single‑audit and fund‑balance pressures could delay final reports
Summary
Auditors reported an unmodified (clean) opinion on CCPS' fiscal 2025 financial statements but warned that delays to the OMB compliance supplement could push the district's single‑audit timing and risk MSDE submission deadlines.
Independent auditors reported an unmodified opinion on Charles County Public Schools' fiscal 2025 financial statements at the board's Nov. 4 meeting, but urged vigilance over timing and reporting risks tied to the federal shutdown and state deadlines.
Bill Early of CliftonLarsonAllen (CLA), presenting the audit, said the district received a clean audit opinion — the highest level of assurance — and that the firm found no material weaknesses. The audit did note a past adjustment to compensated‑absence balances (an accrued payroll calculation error from a prior year) that was corrected without issuing a finding, and a management‑letter comment about a payroll accrual to be addressed in management's MSDE response.
Early and Chief Financial Officer Karen Acton said the district used a significant portion of its fund balance in FY25 (about $21.3 million used versus a budgeted draw), while food-service required roughly $2.5 million to cover operating costs. Early cautioned that repeatedly planning to use fund balance year after year could be unsustainable and urged the board to plan for longer‑range financial stability given fixed personnel costs and growing OPEB/pension liabilities.
A second concern centered on the federal single audit. CLA reported that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has not finalized this year's compliance supplement because of the federal shutdown; auditors said they will not issue the single‑audit report until the supplement is final. That delay could push the MSDE submission beyond the Dec. 31 date currently required for single audits and may require coordination with the state to request extensions.
Board members asked auditors about audit timing, internal‑control observations, and IT control testing performed by CLA's information‑technology specialists. Early said IT observations had been communicated verbally to district IT and that auditors include IT and payroll specialists in their work. The firm encouraged the district to press state officials for deadline flexibility given the national nature of the OMB delay.
The board took no formal vote on audit matters; staff will continue to provide updates to the board and ensure the MSDE responses and management letter replies are filed on schedule.
