Castleberry ISD approves clean 2024-25 audit after auditors note GASB restatement
Summary
Board accepted the 2024-25 annual financial audit, which auditors issued with an unmodified (clean) opinion, disclosed a GASB accounting-principle restatement of about $1.7 million for carryforward compensated absences, and highlighted a roughly $7 million swing in net change in fund balance driven largely by a bond issuance.
The Castleberry Independent School District Board of Trustees voted unanimously to approve the district's 2024-25 annual financial audit, accepting an auditor's report that concluded the district's financial statements "present fairly in all material respects." Damon Cooper of audit firm Hagenes Eastup told the board the firm issued an unmodified opinion and reported no material weaknesses or findings.
Cooper said the audit includes a new GASB accounting-principle disclosure related to carryforward compensated absences required effective Dec. 15, 2023; that change led to a restatement of the prior-year net position of about $1,700,000. "In our opinion, the financial statements referred to above present fairly in all material respects," Cooper said.
The audit packet shows the district's total net position at about $57.7 million and the total governmental fund balance at roughly $97.2 million. Cooper said the district's general fund balance was approximately $9.2 million, reflecting about a $3.0 million increase from the prior year and an overall $7.0 million swing in net change in fund balance compared with the prior reporting period.
Cooper also described timing and administrative details for the district's single-audit submission to the Texas Education Agency (TEA). He said TEA has temporarily extended the upload window because of system upgrades and the federal compliance-supplement release; auditors expect no substantive changes to the report but noted the district may need to sign and upload the final documents later when TEA's system permits. "As of now, it is complete as is," Cooper said of the audit.
Board members asked clarifying questions about the $7 million swing and the relationship between bond proceeds and fund-balance changes; the board then voted to approve the audit, with the motion carrying 4-0. The board approved the audit at the meeting and will complete any required physical signing and TEA upload when the agency's systems are available.
