Jennifer Chambers of audit firm Plante Moran told the Chippewa Valley Schools Board of Education on Sept. 30 that the firm issued an unmodified ("clean") opinion on the district's financial statements for the year ended June 30, 2024, and on the Child Nutrition Cluster federal program.

Chambers said auditors also reviewed bond expenditure compliance and found no material compliance issues with how bond proceeds were spent against ballot language and state law. "We have issued an unmodified opinion," Chambers said, adding that the financial statements are "fairly presented." She congratulated the district finance staff for a smooth audit process.

On the Child Nutrition Cluster, Chambers said auditors identified one compliance observation tied to the accuracy of reimbursement reporting. The auditors reviewed monthly reimbursement requests and found inaccuracies in seven of 11 months; some months resulted in overclaims and others in underclaims. "At the end of the day it actually resulted in a net underclaim of about $2,000," Chamber said, and recommended stronger pre-submission review procedures to reduce errors going forward.

District finance officials — including Finance Director Scott Satterlund and Business Office staff — told the board the underlying practice is monthly reimbursement requests to the state and that the district has already begun steps to tighten review controls. Plante Moran said the observation was included in the federal awards supplemental information and characterized it as an observation rather than a finding that would change the overall compliance opinion on the program.

Hannah of Plante Moran presented broader financial results for the general fund: total revenue of $214 million and expenditures of $210 million for FY 2024. Unrestricted state aid accounted for the largest share of revenue (about 58%), property taxes were roughly 7–8%, and federal revenue about 3.2% (COVID-related funding fell to roughly 0.3% of revenue). Instruction accounted for about 73–74% of general fund expenditures.

The board learned that beginning fund balance was $36 million and ending fund balance was $40 million (an increase of $4 million), giving the district roughly 71 days of operating reserves. Auditors and board members noted this stability as an indicator of fiscal health while flagging that transfers to capital and student intervention funds contributed to spending patterns in 2024.

Chambers and Hannah told the board that Plante Moran's audit work is thorough (the firm estimated roughly 500'600 audit hours) and that the district's business office was particularly well-prepared, which supported a timely and clean audit.

The board and staff discussed the cafeteria (food service) fund balance: district staff noted federal rules limit allowable carryover (commonly three months of expenditures) and that excess cafeteria funds cannot be used for infrastructure but can be used for equipment. The district reported it has a spend-down plan and has discussed timing and allowable uses with MDE.

Next steps: the board received the formal deliverables (basic financial statements, federal programs audit, and the report to the board) and was advised to adopt tighter internal review controls for federal meal-reimbursement reporting; auditors will include the observation in the supplemental federal awards report.

Sources: Presentation and Q&A, Plante Moran audit presentation to Chippewa Valley Schools Board of Education, Sept. 30, 2024.