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External auditors give South Orangetown school district a clean opinion and outline fund-balance gains
Summary
External auditors told the South Orangetown board they issued an unmodified (clean) opinion and summarized that stronger-than-expected revenues, voter-approved capital work (Tappan Zee boiler), tax-cert refunds, interest income and expenditure savings produced a net budgetary surplus and an increase in fund balance.
External auditors from PKF O'Connor Davies presented the district's independent audit and reported an unmodified opinion on the financial statements. "We have issued an unmodified opinion," engagement partner Melissa Zott said during her presentation.
The auditors explained the drivers of the district's fund-balance movement. The board had planned to use about $2.9 million of fund balance in the original budget; by the final budget that figure increased to about $6.5 million because of the voter-approved Tappan Zee High School boiler replacement (about $1.7 million) and a tax-certiorari refund draw on reserves (about $1.8 million). Despite those planned uses, actual results showed the district added roughly $2.6 million to fund balance, with stronger revenues (about $112 million, roughly 4.9% better than budget) and expenditure savings totaling about $3.7 million.
Auditors also described the district's fund-balance buckets: restricted reserves (about $26.4 million) for legally restricted purposes, assigned balances for purchases on order (about $505,000) and an unassigned fund balance of about $4.4 million (about 4% of next year's budget, the statutory cap). They noted two bonds totaling about $4.8 million outstanding and scheduled to be paid off by 06/30/2027.
On federal and state funding, auditors noted approximately $2.6 million of federal expenditures and a one-time emergency-connectivity grant (roughly $261,000) for iPads that will not recur. The auditors said there were no fraud findings, no disagreements with management and no uncorrected misstatements.
The board asked no substantive questions; Chair thanked auditors and district staff for the work.
The audit presentation will be included in the district's published audit documents and management letter, which contains any recommended improvements.
