Independent audit: clean financial opinion, one internal-control finding tied to reconciliations

An external audit of Lee County Schools for the year ended June 30, 2024, produced a clean financial-statement opinion and identified one internal-control finding that the district has since addressed, the board heard on Monday.

Dale Smith of Anderson Smith & White told the board the audit's financial-statement opinion was clean and that cash and cash equivalents at June 30, 2024, were $7,417,138. He said the district's unassigned fund balance was $5,173,250, representing roughly 25% of general-fund expenditures, and that the fund balance declined by about $49,000 year over year.

On the school nutrition program, Smith said net change in fund balance for the year was $233,651 and noted the program had cash reserves of about $3.9 million at year end. Two of three compliance letters covering state and federal grant awards were clean/unmodified.

The auditor described one finding (finding 24-1) on pages 66-67 concerning account reconciliations and budgets not being updated timely in the general ledger; Smith said staffing turnover and a prior software conversion contributed to the delay. The reconciliations were provided to auditors, no budget violations were found, and management indicated corrective actions. Board members asked for assurance the issue would not recur; the auditor pointed to corrective-action language on page 68 where the board agreed to ensure management follows prescribed controls and procedures.

Board members discussed the need for a staffing and process plan to reduce the risk of similar delays and asked the finance team to bring a plan back to the board.