Tomball ISD posts clean audit and narrows adopted deficit to about $1.1 million

CFO Zach Bowles told trustees Tomball ISD generated roughly $233.5 million in total revenues for the 2024–25 fiscal year, with local sources comprising about 53.5% and state sources about 45%; federal revenue was less than 1% and largely tied to indirect costs on grants. Bowles said the district adopted a $9 million deficit budget in June 2024 and ended the year with an approximate $1.1 million deficit after several offsets, including property-value-audit recoveries and higher-than-anticipated interest income.

Bowles highlighted several drivers: a teacher incentive allotment payout (about $3.9 million) that affects both revenues and expenditures for reporting purposes; property-value-audit recoveries of roughly $3.7 million from prior years; and interest income that exceeded expectations when rates stayed higher longer than anticipated. He also reviewed expenditure composition, noting about 64.4% of spending tied to instruction and roughly 87% of object-code expenditures went to payroll and employee-related costs.

Audit partner Greg Peterson of Weaver and Tidwell presented the auditor’s report, saying the firm rendered an unmodified (clean) opinion and identified no material weaknesses or significant deficiencies in internal controls in the areas tested. Peterson noted an emphasis-of-matter paragraph related to a new accounting standard for compensated absences. He said the single-audit report covering federal programs remained in draft pending release of federal compliance guidance, and that the firm performed testing against a draft supplement.

Trustees complimented the finance team for narrowing the deficit, and the district said it will provide a fuller fund-balance review in January. No formal board approvals on the audit were taken at the workshop; the administrative recommendation to approve the audit is scheduled for the Nov. 11 regular meeting pending final federal guidance.