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District audit update: revenues above budget, fund-balance restatement expected
Summary
District staff reported preliminary audit results showing roughly $81.3 million in revenues—about $3.6 million over budget—driven by stop-loss payments, higher interest earnings and excess-cost aid; auditors recommended a $300,000-plus receivable reclassification that will require a fund-balance restatement and final adjustments will be presented publicly Sept. 3.
Unidentified Speaker (S4), a district staff member presenting the external audit update, told the Amherst Central School District board the audit is in its third week and the figures shown are preliminary but converging on final numbers. "We are in week 3 of our audit, and it's going very well," the presenter said.
The presenter gave a preliminary revenue figure of about $81,300,000, saying that was "about 3 and a half or $3,600,000 over budget." She named three main drivers of the variance: stop-loss payments ("about 1,000,000 dollars more than we had planned"), higher interest earnings (reported both as about $400,000 more and later described conversationally as "almost 800,000"), and excess-cost aid related to special-education spending.
The presenter described a recommended reclassification of long‑outstanding items in the special-aid fund. "When we were working with auditors, we had some expenses in our special aid fund which ... went back over 10 years," she said, adding that after review these totaled "over $300,000." The auditors advised classifying those as receivables on the balance sheet rather than sweeping them into current-year expenditures, which will restate prior-year fund-balance figures; the presenter called the change a transparency measure, not a red flag.
On projected year‑end balances, the presenter said the district would likely end with a projected fund balance of about $2,500,000 after revenues and expenditures are accounted for and after the restatement. She reviewed reserve targets, noting the district maintains an appropriated fund balance calculated as 4 percent of the budget and said the recommended changes keep the district compliant with that statutory requirement.
The presenter also outlined operational items: carryover encumbrances (purchase orders carried into the new fiscal year) were described as "just under 1000000 dollars," and she cited capital-project funding tied to previous voter commitments, saying, "we promised the voters 3,200,000.0, and we removed 3.5" (the transcript language is ambiguous on the second figure).
Next steps: the presenter said the audit committee will meet the week of the 28th and auditors will present the audit in a public session on September 3. No formal vote or action to adopt the audit was recorded in the excerpt.
The board thanked the presenter and the discussion moved on to other agenda items.
