District 196 receives clean FY25 audit; board accepts the report

District 196's finance team and external auditors presented the fiscal year 2024–25 financial audit at the Nov. 10 school board meeting and the board voted to accept the audit.

Finance leadership introduced the audit materials and thanked staff across departments for their support. Jamie Faye, audit partner with Eide Bailly, presented an executive summary and said the district received a clean, unmodified opinion on the financial statements for FY25 (year ended 06/30/2025). She reported no material audit findings and no Minnesota legal compliance findings. Federal single-audit (federal awards) testing is not yet finalized because auditors are awaiting the final OMB compliance supplement; the audit team said they completed draft testing for Title I and child nutrition and expect an unmodified opinion for the federal portion once finalized.

Faye summarized key financial metrics from the executive summary: cash and investments of approximately $188,000,000 (district-wide, excluding construction-restricted cash); a general-fund student count reported near 28,536 and total net positive change in the general fund of about $7,000,000 leading to an ending fund balance of roughly $118,600,000 (with approximately $76,000,000 unassigned). She said revenues came in over budget by about $2,500,000 and expenditures were under budget by just under $3,000,000.

Board members expressed appreciation for the clean result. Robin moved (seconded by Leah) to approve the audit report and ACFR; the motion passed 5-0. The board accepted the audit with the understanding the federal awards report will be returned for approval when the final compliance supplement is issued and the single-audit testing completed.

The board packet includes the ACFR and executive summary; staff said they will return with the federal-awards report when available.