External auditors give Rochester City School District an unmodified opinion, caution on future budgets
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Summary
Drescher & Lehi presented a clean (unmodified) opinion on the district’s 06/30/2025 financial statements, highlighted a five-year surplus trend and a $126M unrestricted fund balance, and warned that rising costs and uncertain state/federal aid could strain future budgets.
External auditors from Drescher and Lehi told the Audit Committee they issued an unmodified (clean) opinion on the Rochester City School District financial statements for the year ended June 30, 2025, and described both short-term strength and longer-term budgetary caution.
"We did move forward with what's referred to as an unmodified opinion. That is a clean opinion on the financial statements of the district," one auditor said, adding that the financial statements are "fairly stated" and reliable for management decisions. Auditors reported a five-year trend of surplus in each of the last five years but cautioned that revenues and expenditures are converging and that contractual salary/benefit costs and uncertain state and federal aid present risks for future budgets.
Auditors presented fund-balance details for 2025: an increase in fund balance of about $27 million compared with last year's $61 million; unrestricted fund balance reported at roughly $126 million, committed funds about $75 million, restricted funds about $14 million, and nonspendable items near $19.6 million. They also compared the district’s fund-balance ratios to similar-size districts (Buffalo, Syracuse, Yonkers) and reviewed special-aid, capital-projects and debt-service activity.
The auditors said federal single-audit guidance arrived late this year and that testing of major federal programs (child nutrition cluster, Title II) did not, under the earlier guidance, produce compliance findings; they plan to finish updated testing and bring a single-audit resolution to the board in January or February.
Board members asked whether the Oracle transition impeded audit work; auditors said it was "not significant" because most fiscal activity for 06/30/2025 was recorded in PeopleSoft and they were able to obtain the necessary reports and samples.
The audit committee voted to advance the 2025 financial reports (comprehensive financial report and student activity/extra-classroom report) to the board’s consent agenda for the Dec. 18 business meeting.
