Riverside Unified accepts 2024–25 audit, hears enrollment decline projections and first interim report
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Summary
Independent auditors issued an unmodified opinion on the district’s 2024–25 financials and reported a GASB adjustment for accrued compensated absences; King Consulting presented enrollment projections driven by lower local birth rates; board accepted the audit, a Measure O performance audit and approved the first interim financial report.
External auditors told the Riverside Unified School District board on Dec. 18 that they issued an unmodified (clean) opinion for the 2024–25 financial statements and reported no material weaknesses in the financial statements. The auditor noted a GASB-required retroactive adjustment for accrued compensated absences (reported in the presentation as approximately $33 million) and a small federal compliance finding related to procurement procedures that did not have a material financial effect.
Separately, the Measure O (bond) performance audit found sampled expenditures complied with voter-authorized uses; auditors reported no inappropriate Measure O expenditures in their sample. A public commenter raised a separate allegation about a prior-year loss; auditors and staff noted prior-year issues had been reported and corrected in subsequent audits.
The board also received a demographics briefing from King Consulting, which presented five-year enrollment projections driven primarily by local birth-rate declines. The consultant highlighted a downward trend in kindergarten cohorts tied to recent birth-rate data and recommended strategies to increase transitional-kindergarten enrollment and community outreach to mitigate the projected long-term enrollment decline.
District finance staff presented the first interim financial report, which showed updated revenue assumptions (including new one-time grants and TK enrollment increases) and planned uses of reserves with a multi-year outlook. The board approved the first interim report and accepted the audits as presented.
